(Via Twop ) : Heroes forced to set out stall across the street from Comic Con

As well as helpful info for anyone lucky enough to be going to Comic Con this year, this is just embarrassing all around. Presumably this is as a result of changing their minds so often about how much a presence if at all Heroes would be sending but man, they are setting up camp in the hotel across the street because they can't get in??? How bad does that look?
I don't believe for a second it's actually because no-one wants them any more, like when Norma Desmond showed up at Paramount and the world had moved on from her but jeeze, presentationally this is just AWFUL. I don't know how to feel about it all. I'm sad and darkly amused at the same time. How DO they get things so spectacularly and consistently wrong?

A small sketch that I really don't seem to have the heart to fully correct (or indeed fully finish).


( Sketch of Nathan )

There is (as there is in most versions of the Arthurian legend) a nice scene near the beginning of Excalibur where the Knights all gather, full of determination to yank the sword from the stone before giving up, sadly disappointed. Having bought a huge jar of Dill pickles that I am unable to pass by all day without taking yet another unsuccessful crack at trying to open the jar, I know just how those knights of old feel.

WAH!! My pickles are trapped forever :(

For the first time in an absolute age, I am excited about a new show. (Or new to me anyway - we get imports at a steady, gentle pace). Anyway, I'm really liking The Mentalist. Title is a bit unfortunate if you ever watched "I'm Alan Partridge", mind. It was what the titular hapless, socially maladjusted egotist he used to call those he believed to be mentally disadvantaged.
Still, unlucky connotations aside, this is pretty great.

Simon Baker in the lead role is as charismatic and charming as the role demands of someone who could have made a living faking psychic abilities to bilk money from rich clients, yet his eyes are sad enough to show the Great Tragedy that led him to see the error of his ways and use his mad cold reading skillz for fighting crime. Or to be more precise, throwing his lot in as an advisor to the police. Also, one of the characters is called Rigsby which leads to me and my flatemate doing Leonard Rossiter impressions whenever someone says his name, so when you add i the act the cast seems already to have a nice sense of rapport going, this show is the gift that keeps on giving.

It's all a bit House but with the police instead of doctors but given how long it has been since I had a show which made me think "oooh, X is on tomorrow night!", I'll happily take it. Anyway, we are about two thirds of the way through season one and I see it was renewed so yay, I can start watching season 2 with the rest of the world when it comes back in the autumn.

As promised, a little more about the J.W. Waterhouse exhibition at the Royal Academy that eryslash and I visited. JW has long been a favourite painter of mine ever since I used to go and visit the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. For those of you not familiar with this gallery, it is amongst other things one of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelite art anywhere, and has major works from all the usual suspects - Millais, Madox Ford, Leighton and of course Waterhouse. And this work "Echo and Narcissus" moved me as a child and impresses me still.



In fact, an A2 poster of this adorned my bedroom wall for much of my teenage years. It always struck me as so powerfully sad, the expression on Echo's face so full of yearning and the gloomy trees in the background always seemed to lend the picture a somewhat sinister air. I was pleased to see that Liverpool agreed to it being loaned as well as a couple of other of their treasures.

I would heartily recommend the exhibition if you are in London and have any interest in Pre-Raphaelite art. I would say that most of Waterhouse's major pieces have been assembled. I think there could have been a little more about the interesting politics of the day concerning this group of painters, especially as the Royal Academy itself was a crucial part of that, although it is touched on lightly. I think a little more about how the paintings were received at the time, and how Watehouse's popularity has waxed and waned (and now obviously very much waxed again!) would have been interesting. If only because I find it fascinating the way the painters rise and fall in their relevance. However, these are quibbles, really - the main thing is the paintings and these do not disappoint.

As to my favourite paintings of the exhibition, there was a lot to choose from and much as I'd have liked to have found a fresh (to me) favourite, I was if anything even more moved than usual by his magnificent painting of The Lady of Shalott, probably his best known work and again, a painting very familiar to me from having trudged around the Tate at Millbank many times. It has a very, very emotional quality to it - eryslash offered the same comment as me that it made her want to cry. And it does, without quite knowing why. As ever, the little picture here does no justice but if you are ever in London, go to the Tate on Millbank and have a look - you won't be sorry.

The words of my flatmate this evening: "oh, just to let you know, I rescued a mouse from Kitty in the living room this evening but now I've lost track of it in the house so keep an eye out"

So now there's a mouse loose about this house. Marvellous.

Also, It is the European election day here in the UK and thus I've been out voting. My vote isn't that significant in itself as it is rarely a close run thing in this neck of the woods but as the whole thing tends to get turned into a popularity contest on the government of the day, I can't deny a degree of schadenfreude in seeing just what the recent crises caused by the Expenses scandal is going to bring. In any other nation, that kind of thing would have caused a peasants' revolt. In a way, shame it hasn't - if only for the future historians who would conclude that the UK democracy breakdown on 2009 was caused by fraudulent dovecotes and illicit moat clearance.

I just wish I felt a bit more enthused about any front bench of any of our major parties. I am naturally predisposed to be anti Conservative but in any case I can't abide David Cameron. My natural choice, the Liberal Democrats are currently run by an oily tosser called Nick Clegg. I am desperately hoping for a Vince Cable led coup and on that day, I will cast my vote with enthusiasm rather than a heavy sigh. It's all rather a shame - I have always rather liked Gordon Brown himself but loathe the rest of the cabinet like poison. Also, he must be the world's unluckiest man, timing wise. Hard to be hating on him when any day I expect him to have a piano drop on him or be struck by a meteorite.

I meant to post about Sleeveface ages ago but never got around to it. If you've failed to see it around the bazaars, it is the beautifully simple idea of picking up a record cover and posing with it so it look like it is part of your own face. I can't adequately express how much I love some of them. Of course I have favourite sub categories. There are those which go to beautiful levels of detail to get the ambiance just right and the forced perspective spot on. Like here:





This very recent example of the cover of McCartney is glorious - Paul's expression fits the moment of being startled whilst reading a book on himself so perfectly. and there are those that add a degree of the absurd, such the example from the front page with Nancy & Lee in the kids' playground. It fascinates me how the eye really does accept the illusion even whilst sending a signal to the brain that it isn't real, which is why I think so many in the archive tread a fine line between hilarity and being a touch disturbing. Anyway, if you time to kill, have fun plundering the archives.

Jack Coleman has been updating his blog again and, as usual, is his usual witty, diasarming self. I liked the bit about questioning why it is deemed shameful to be caught wearing the same outfit more than twice as this is something that I've occasionally pondered too. Presumably the person is supposed to say something like  "Ulp! It's a fair cop - I don't really just wear outfits once and then throw them away, I'm thus secretly really poor. Oh the shame, the shame of it all" Or something. I've never subscribed to it anyway - I find an item of clothing or shoes I love and then proceed to wear the poor things to death. But back to Jack - I love the little glimpses of him raising his children to be grounded individuals "I don't want my daughter thinking it's humiliating to be seen in the same outfit twice. Clothes are expensive. And unlike Hollywood relationships, clothes are not disposable. And, and... ah, hell, I'm busted. I have to get more jackets."
Hee :) He sounds so awesome.

As to the stuff about the show in which he makes points about answering some of the criticism of the finale? Well, I think if you were unconvinced by seeing the events unfold on screen then Jack's spirited attempts to make sense of it will not make things better. I admire him for fighting his corner and sticking up for the show but I'd love to know how much of it he believes. I do very much agree with him that Fugitives has some excellent episodes in it and thus it came in for a lot of criticism that wasn't always at all fair. BUT I think he's trying to prove too much here. His point about why they didn't try and use Claire's blood is just silly - if this worked like a regular transfusion, he'd have a better point but a) we saw Adam working this trick by using just a couple of DROPS of blood and b) from what we saw with Bennet's own recovery, there seems no indication that time is a complicating factor - Noah looks like he was brought back from death. all that sais, this? "Trauma triage: why Nathan died and HRG lived. And, of course, HRG is so badass, no puny Moe Green retinal scratch was gonna keep him down!" was really funny!

And in any case, as with his points about not killing Sylar, NONE of what he suggests was even hinted at onscreen. and if anything really goes against what we know of Noah as a character. I mean this?

"Which does he want more: Sylar dead or Nathan alive? If Sylar dies, so does Nathan. As a parent, HRG knows he would do anything to keep Claire alive and so his compassion for Angela and Nathan, Claire's biological father, wins out."

Awwww Jack, I don't know where to start! Firstly, Noah's altruistic concern for Angela and Nathan is stronger than the chance to keep his family safe from a vicious serial killer? Since when? But even allowing that this is the case, would anyone who wasn't crazed by shock and grief think this plan was in anyway delivering that for Angela? ( Small spoiler about Season Four opening episode )

You know, c/o Jezebel, I don't think I've ever seen a trailer for a movie that has made me want to just leap into my car and race to my local multiplex more in my life because that looks like the best film ever made. Sorry, Citizen Kane - maybe if you had only put wheels in YOUR movie, Orson...




Amongst other gems, features a very young Patrick Swayze at about 1.25 looking rather like Jared Padalecki. And the guy with glitter in his beard.

On a vaguely serious note, I always yearned to be able to ice skate or roller skate and just can't do it. So there's a bit at me which is watching this in the deep envy I always train on those who have mastered the art of being able to balance on little wheels.

Finally got around to seeing Star Trek and by this stage I doubt there's much to be added by me throwing my review on the heap but what the hell - when has that ever stopped me before?
I thought it was great. Rebooting a franchise is always tough. Be too reverent of your material and you miss the chance to say anything worthwhile or different. But be too radical and you risk not only alienating the fans but also risk losing the essence of what made your franchise great in the first place. I thought this struck a near perfect balance of being true to the history and a boldness to take new directions.

I thought the direction was great. Everything zipped along efficiently but without doing so at the expense of getting to know the characters. The action scenes were suitably nailbiting and the plot was both bold and yet not too overwhelming in allowing the film to set out its own stall for a possible new vision of the franchise. I was struck by an underlying message to the film about ignoring policy and just cracking on with stuff. This tension has always existed in Star Trek of course, usually between doing whatever the Prime Directive requires and whatever the Captain on the ground thinks is best, with the inference being that decisions are best left to visionary leaders. This is interesting to me because throughout the TNG era, I think the underlying message was, through the spirit of Picard, that rules and policy are developed through collective wisdom and experience and that a lot of harm could be caused by individuals thinking they personally knew better. A lot of TNG eps ended with, in effect Picard sending one of his officers to their room to Think About What They'd Done.

This film seemed to me to reflect a wish to escape some of these structures and to return to characters who are more personally empowered. I suspect in a meta fashion it also represents a wish to escape some of the weight of the history and tradition of the franchise. Even Spock who traditionally represented the eternal voice of Star Fleet regs here uses this ambiguously. When he ostensibly acts in his Policy type role, the strong suggestion is that he is using them as justifcation for his personal frustrations with Kirk's actions. It's tempting to wonder if the filmaker's are trying to reflect a message of taking control of one's life back or at least reflecting a waish to escape from constant advice and policy. Maybe its just me. But I was very struck by the sense of infinite possibility when the Enterprise suddenly found itself being commandered by that fledgling crew. It felt so fresh and exciting.

I was very impressed with the cast. Zachary Quinto was indeed pretty great as Spock, I thought. Capturing the essence of the character whilst adding something of his own voice. I thought Chris Pine was decent enough but I admit I never got a sense of this being a truly Kirk like character. In fact it only made me surer than I had been going in that William Shatner never really got the credit he deserved for the charisma, charm and swagger he brought to that role. However, saying that I thought his scenes with Spock were suitably intense and that is the main thing. Because no matter on what level you choose to read it, if you've got a Spock and Kirk wihtout chemistry, you've got NOTHING.

Amusing to see that Simon Pegg is continuing the noble tradition of having Scotty having an totally unconvincing Scottish accent do full marks. And also I thought his performance was amusing and engaging. And I thought the new Dr McCoy was FANTASTIC. Again, I thought he really conveyed the soul of the original character without delivering anything so crass as straight up impersonation. He's one of the characters I am very much looking forward to seeing more of in the next movie. Obviously I approve of Uhura moving away from the role which, as pointedly satirised in Galaxy Quest as more or less repeating what the computer just said and instead conveying a sense of a character who is intelligent and independent. Again, I hope to see more.

Hopefully they will make a new movie and soon because seriously, that rocked. And if the new movie is heavily focussed on Spock and thus requires tons and tons of Zachary Quinto's time? Well that would be gravy.

The very lovely Rosy at accidentalsexiness.com has posted the second part of the interview that she carried out with Adrian Pasdar as part of the promotion work for the forthcoming Band From TV Gig at the Shore Club, Miami Beach on May 16th. Spoilers for the finale and vague speculation for vol 5 within.

As ever, he gives answers throughout that are appealing and thought provoking. Such as

I feel that this year we have a chance, we have a shot. There is no irony that this season is called, “Redemption.” For some of the fans who might have gotten frustrated, for some of the writers who may have gotten frustrated, this is our chance to come back strong. It would be foolish to mess this opportunity up.

It also amuses me that I suspect he's going way off message here. I would be really surprised if TPTB go about suggesting that the title for volume 5, "Redemption" also some meta meaning in terms of the show itself atoning for past screw ups. If nothing else, it risks becoming a proud tradition to always be beginning each new batch of episodes by apologising for the previous ones sucking. Besides, Season three is very much a game of two halves to me - I loathed Villains but there's a lot of great episodes in "Fugitives". Be a shame if this does turn out to be the party line because there's a lot of work to be proud of there, in my opinion. Also ....for some of the writers who may have gotten frustrated...?? Interesting. Again, thereby hangs a tale, I'm guessing.

Cor! The second season of Ashes To Ashes continues the massive improvement shown on Season one and it will be interesting to see where they go next because I really didn't see the ending coming this week. Everything is better - they've toned Gene back down so he still dominates the show but he is no longer overwhelming everyone else. In turn, Keeley Hawes is  way more assured as Alex. Ray & Chris are just faultless and the structure feels a lot more solid. Last season they really ran up close to the precipice that said "so what?" re the whole premise but the underling sense of a vast conspiracy is giving this arc a lot of menace. Also, hats off to Roger Allam who is indeed every bit as good as I hoped he would be.

With its film spin off "In The Loop" still playing here in the UK,  this seems as good a point as any to draw attention to "The Thick Of It", the wonderful British tv show that led up to it. It is always tempting to see THOI as a darker, more vicious version of the classic '80s political sitcom Yes, Minister. And the parallels are striking - the competing agendas of the civil service who are generally presented then as now as cynical non-boat rockers, gazing with weary disdain at their political master. And then as now, said political master is presented as a basically well meaning idiot, albeit one who is self obsessed and neurotic (episode one sees him nervously asking for his driver to be fired for smiling at him. ("Smiling... Inappropriate smiling ...And smirking! Smiling and smirking! I don't wanna see that smile or smirk ever again, ok?") The Minister in fact bears a distinct resemblance to Larry from the much missed (by me) The Larry Sanders Show.
( Read more...contains strong swearing in some quotes from the show. )

Part one of a very short interview here with Adrian Pasdar for a Miami website.


They wanted questions for him so I submitted one but annoyingly I suspect mine missed the deadline. Either way, Part 2 (to be posted by the website tomorrow  eta:early next week) promises Milo-affection anecdotes. I love that there always *are* some of those in every single interview!
I think he could be booked to talk about particle physics and yet somehow still work the subject around to how great Milo is <3

Comment to me from my brother out in Perth re the Heroes finale, via email:
( spoiler for heroes season 3 finale )


Heh. More like the Monkey's Paw but I accept the basic point.

eryslash got me the most beautiful present at Christmas in the form of a gorgeous calendar that she has made for me of Adrian, Milo or both. Every month I wonder if I'm going to get to a picture where Charles, my landlord of nearly a decade will have to stop pretending he doesn't know that his tenant doesn't find the closeness of these actors deeply appealing. This might be the month, Ery!



(Also, I didn't paint the walls that lovely blancmange pink. Just for the record). At work, the calendar gods are smiling at me this month. After a month of having to be looking at an unflattering picture of Mohinder giving an injection to Monica shot in such a way as to look like he's shooting up, I now get to look at S2 Peter Petrelli barely contained by a tight, white tank top, looking like something that Michaelangelo might have carved in his downtime. Yay! Also, I got a great staff report for the year, today and it is a bank holiday weekend so no work for me on Monday! woohoo!

Also, like a lot of other people I got a dreamwidth account. (http://promethea.dreamwidth.org/ ) I'm Promethea over there. It's my usual choice of name and in fact one of the main reasons I got the new account is to bag the name. Certainly, I've no immediate plans to move but we'll see. Good weekends to everyone!

Ah, jeez Adrian -why do you have to be all enthusiastic about the latest in a long run of shitty Heroes plot twists? On the one hand, you are so lovely and caring to basically cheer up the sad fans but this just makes me torn between being optimistic and just me being sad that on top of everything else, the show will break YOUR heart again as well as mine.



( spoilers for vol 4, vague speculation on vol 5 from utterly adorable actor )

Well I guess in a strange way there's some symmetry in( spoilers )

I generally don't get drawn into flame wars on message boards because I get too wound up. Thus it is therefore somewhat embarrassing that the subject that has prompted me to set aside my meekness and dive in with all guns blazing is not abortion. Or circumcision. It's not even tipping. No, the ridiculous (and now getting pretty vicious) row I've allowed myself to get sucked into is basically defending Disco as being worthy of musical merit. *sigh*

New season started last night and I thought the first episode was pretty good. I still don't think it's as good as Life On Mars but once you accept that, there's a lot of fun to be had from Ashes to Ashes. I have high hopes of this season because it looks like we might get a decent ongoing arc in the 80's world too with ( Spoilers for episode )