Buffy and The Doctor

Being out here in Cleveland, I haven't really felt a creative spark for a while. Blog posts are down, the short story hasn't been worked on for a while, and music? Ha! Even my language studies have fallen off severely. I've been doing a lot of reading and a lot of watching.

Reading has been the usual Sci Fi fare: My favorites (Alastair Reynolds, Iain M Banks, Charles Stross) are between works, so I've been exploring other authors. One I'm having a little trouble with is Vernor Vinge: I've tried two books - The Peace War and Fire on the Deep. These are tough books for me. They have all of the elements I love - good ideas, believable tech, snappy pacing. I would even say its well written, tightly plotted... but something about his "voice" is hard for me to read. It's the literary equivalent of a nasally voice - the cadence is just off to my eye/ear, and it makes getting through his books a chore... To compare, Joe Haldeman has all of the same basic attributes above, but his writing cadence is very pleasant for me, and I chew through his books in days.

I remember being a little confused about this back in Russian Literature: There were two editions of the same book, but with different translators. One was more technically accurate but drier to read. The other had a way of writing that drew you in. The stories, plots, characters, pacing, everything was the same, but a choice of word, a turn of phrase made all the difference in readable versus unreadable.

As to watching: I've decided to finally see what that whole "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" thing was all about. It made the mighty Joss Whedon our king, but I'd never seen an episode. So I've started. I'm just over half way through Season 1, and while there is some mightily dated 1990s slang and couture, it is quite enjoyable. Not sure I'm at the "recommending it" stage yet, but I hear things really take off in Season 2.

There's a new show I'm watching - the new Doctor Who on BBC: We're in Season 5 of the new series, and there's a new actor playing the doctor (the doctor periodically dies and "regenerates" - this is his 11th). It is classic Doctor Who - I was a fan back in the Tom Baker and Peter Davidson days... For a guy obsessed with continuity good science like I am, this is pure horror - it's comic fantasy: Horrible CGI aliens stand off in the distance, baring teeth and not moving while our heroes flee. The Doctor faces down a robot nemesis (Dalek!) by pretending a jam cookie is a self destruct button that will kill them all.

But what makes it watchable is that it is self aware - the doctor is crazy, and he does things that make no sense. Lots of open mouthed reaction shots. The monsters are menacing, but nobody gets really hurt. Last minute ideas save the day. It's a fun fantasy I could let Bella watch in a couple of years. So I love it.

Finally, around to Bella: We went on a date this weekend to see "How to Train Your Dragon" in 3D: We had reserved seats, perfect position at the Showplace Icon near out house. We split a bag of popcorn and a bottle of water and had a great time. The movie was very fun, and we LOVED the dragons. See the movie for the dragons. SEE THE MOVIE FOR THE DRAGONS. The vikings were also fun... but the hero had a bit of a sardonic internal monologue that got a little annoying, maybe because it's the sort of voice that Bella has been experimenting with. World weariness just doesn't work coming out of a 7 year old's mouth. Fortunately there are also a lot of giggles coming out these days too.

I'll be missing my ladies this weekend: They're road tripping down to Iowa for a Synchro meet. And yes, they are getting back in the evening of Mother's Day. It'll just be the boys in the house: Isaac, Daddo, and Zinsser. PARTY.