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So, part 3 of “Jane Austen City Limits”: Mansfield Park. I was looking forward to this one because of Billie Piper’s starring role as Fanny Price. Despite a good performance, Piper as Fanny wasn’t given too much of a focus for much of this adaptation. Gillian Anderson, in her setup of Mansfield, emphasized Mary Crawford (played admirably by Hayley Atwell) as one whose wit and charm could be compared to Austen’s. I don’t know what that meant, but clearly almost all of the other characters are more interesting than Fanny.

I somehow managed to avoid, while watching this, comparing Billie’s performance here to that as Rose Tyler in Doctor Who, although I was half-expecting Fanny to tell Edmund that the planet of the Slitheen revolves around such-and-such star. I think from that scene, on the night of her birthday, the evolving chemistry between Fanny and Edmund was handled well. At least in the end, there’s no hesitation in their first kiss, unlike what we’ve seen previously.

I did notice that Fanny was not returned to Portsmouth after one of Henry Crawford’s proposals, which is probably another casualty of the sub-90-minute time limit imposed by Masterpiece Theatre. I’m sure there are edits from the original UK airing that make the PBS-aired version a slightly stilted affair. The weird fades to black (as if going to a commercial break) did not help either. 6/10

Changing gears slightly, an avid Doctor Who fan like myself would notice Billie Piper wasn’t the only one who has appeared in both the new series and in a recent Jane Austen adaptation. To wit:

• I’ve already mentioned Carey Mulligan (Isabella Thorpe in Northanger and Sally Sparrow in “Blink”)
• Julia Joyce, who played Billie’s younger selves in Mansfield and “Father’s Day”
• Anthony Head (Mr Elliot in Persuasion and the schoolmaster in “School Reunion”
• Penelope Wilton (Mrs Gardiner in Pride and Prejudice [2005] and Prime Minister Harriet Jones)
• Mark Gatiss (John Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility and Lazarus in “The Lazarus Experiment”, not to mention writing two other episodes)

Now if I can get a copy of the Big Finish Companion Chronicle Frostfire, in which the 1st Doctor and his companions meet Miss Austen.

Overhead this on the radio last night, and found this article through Google news search:

Telegraph (UK): Why it’s a mistake not to wait lazily for the bus

Sod’s law dictates that if you set off walking, one or possibly two buses will zoom past within minutes.

Now scientists claim to have shown why it is a mistake to abandon your wait at a bus stop.

The dilemma of whether to walk or trust the bus timetable will be familiar to all those who use public transport over short distances.

Mathematicians, who have pondered the conundrum, say they have cracked the problem - and the solution is to be lazy and wait for the bus to arrive.

The article then continues with the multiple variables involved and how the wait-vs-walk conundrum can be readily solved if you just need to get to the next stop. I’m sure complex physics and/or calculus would be needed for additional bus stops.

I actually experienced this phenomenon today. I was at Burrard and Davie, intending to go to Robson. I was all ready to walk, but I felt the pang of laziness kicked in (or maybe I saw an eastbound bus on Davie instead). In any case, my original intended bus (going northbound Burrard) showed up, so problem solved. Most of the time I’m downtown and I need to go a few blocks, a good walk trumps the wait for the next bus.

The same principle (I think) can sometimes apply on Broadway or Granville, where the local trolley and a B-Line overlap service. If, for example, I’m going from Cambie to Commercial, and I just missed the 99 B-Line, but the 9 is right there, I’d just jump on the trolley. Chances are that there is little, if any, time gained in waiting for the B-Line to travel that distance, but some people are deluded into thinking that because the B-Line is limited-stop, it would get them to their destination faster, even though the trolley is right there, and the next B-Line is not for another 10 minutes. By the time it does arrive, that trolley would have arrived at your intended destination.

Today (Tuesday) happens to be the feast day for St Vincent of Saragossa (who is patron saint of wine makers), but I’m going to talk about the musician née Annie Clark.

If there was one new artist whose music I adored during 2007, it would have to be St Vincent. Marry Me, I’ve once read, can be an album that hipsters and their grandparents can listen to, and I think that can be an apt description. From the cabaret sounds of “Paris Is Burning” and “What Me Worry?” to the guitar thrash at the end of “Now Now”, this album covers plenty of ground. This can be problematic for some debuts, but St Vincent manages to pull it off, and then some. The little touches, if you listen for them, are another indication of how good this album is. Sleigh bells (?) in “Jesus Saves, I Spend” and the title track, and the ting! at the very end of “What Me Worry?” are just two examples.

This picture was taken when she performed at Bumbershoot in Seattle. Mind you, I had purchased the CD the day before and still hadn’t had a chance to listen to it when I saw her perform. But I was impressed when she came up to the stage by herself and played the songs as a one-woman band. I was shocked that she was only there for 30 minutes when the program listed her going for 60. No matter, because I was hooked.

Personal favourites: “Now Now”, “Paris Is Burning”, “All My Stars Aligned”

St Vincent

myspace

Like last week, soon after the end of The Amazing Race, I changed channels to PBS for Northanger Abbey, the second of seven films in Masterpiece Theatre’s Complete Jane Austen.

When it opened with Catherine Morland and her siblings playing baseball, I thought it would be one of these post-modern adaptations akin to Rozema’s Mansfield Park, but this being an Andrew Davies script, it becomes a more traditional version. (Was there baseball in late-18th-century England?)

I thought Felicity Jones carried the role of Catherine well. She expressed Catherine’s innocence and naiveté, particularly when she was allowed to be swayed by the Thorpes and her brother that the Tilneys had left without her. I was surprised to see Carey Mulligan as Isabella Thorpe; Carey carried the Doctor Who episode “Blink”, in which the Doctor figures little in the plot. But I digress.

I titled the post as a thumbs-up to the fantasy sequences Catherine dreams up after reading trashy Gothic novels by candlelight. I somehow thought of Family Guy’s cutaway sequences, but clearly Northanger’s aren’t as derivative. (Or maybe it’s an excuse to combine two clearly divergent works in a post.) Nevertheless, they worked rather well, particularly if one reads Northanger as a satire on the same novels Catherine was reading.

Like Persuasion the week before, the ending seemed forced and rushed, and I didn’t quite buy Henry Tilney’s proclamation of love to Catherine (and another hesitant kissing session that results!). I must confess that it’s been a long time since I’ve read any of Austen’s novels, but I remember enough of the plot and main characters that bits of the story do come back to me as I watched. Unfortunately in both films so far, I forget what has happened to the other characters in the end beyond the heroine getting married, if Austen wrote those at all. Another reason to pick up those books… 8/10

I’m typing this now as I’m watching the second leg of Jane Austen City Limits, Northanger Abbey, about which I’ll post tomorrow.

But what a finish to the 12th Amazing Race! Despite only 30,000 miles and 4 continents, the quality of this race far exceeds the quantities of length of previous races. From the multiple censored expletives (from Don, Nic, and Christina) to the final roadblock that proved to be the great equalizer, this leg was the culmination of a race that seemed to get better with each passing leg.

Going in tonight, I had no favourites among the final three, but somehow I found myself rooting for Ron and Chris, and although I felt of twinge of negativity toward TK and Rachel on the way to the final mat, but it was just a twinge. I gave a mental cheer for them, for Ron’s maturation of his relationship with Chris, and for Don showing that this race is not just for the youth movement.

I’m saddened to see this race come to an end, but hopefully it won’t be long for the next race. And whenever the producers allow Canadians to run the race, I’ll be first in line to sign up!

I’m a hypocrite. No sooner did I mention that a Vancouver runner goes out in all conditions, that I did not go out for my scheduled training run on Saturday. I got up a little late this morning, and it was a snowy mess when I looked outside. It’s the first week of my DIY training for the BMO Half, so I can afford to be a little slack. And to make it up to myself, I’m scheduled to go tomorrow morning. The conditions should be clear but crisp. I’ll continue to post regular updates on my training progress.

I’ve started a 16-week training program toward my fourth half-marathon. This time it will be the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon. The challenge to being training in the cold, the rain, and sometimes the snow and ice is nothing new. Last year, on the first day of the Sun Run group training, everyone went out in really icy conditions. You haven’t been running in Vancouver unless you go out in truly horrible weather. Believe me, I’ve done the last two-thirds of 2007’s Scotia Half Marathon in a downpour.

I’ll now be entering my third year as a regular runner, and while it can be a struggle to lace up the shoes when you’d rather do something, anything else, I find it a time where I can de-stress, turn off my brain, and focus on the pounding of my feet against the pavement. I know trying to keep my schedule over the next 16 weeks will be a challenge, but I can manage. I’ll leave you with something that really struck me as I was reading The Time Traveler’s Wife this fall. I’m sure all runners can relate to this quotation:

Running is many things to me: survival, calmness, euphoria, solitude. It is proof of my corporeal existence, my ability to control my movement through space if not time, and the obedience, however temporary, of my body to my will.

CBC: Campbell unveils $14B transit upgrade for B.C.

Provincial Government plan site (and accompanying PDF)

Yes, it’s ambitious, it’s much needed, but it’s still vague and in need of funding. I would definitely like to see the whole thing come to fruition, as it can provide Greater Vancouver with a vastly expanded rapid transit network supported with a bus fleet (most of which will run on alternative fuels) that is almost twice as large as it is now.

However, I find that the vagueness of the thing can derail this plan almost as soon as it’s started. If you look at the maps, the proposed Expo extension to Fleetwood, Millennium extension to UBC, and the Evergreen Line are still described as “conceptual alignments”. The Evergreen Line’s routing and technology is frustratingly unknown. On the other hand, these alignments can be guided through public input, which, for the Expo Line extension, could bring it to Guildford or Newton instead.

The bus rapid transit announcements for Hastings and West 41st are confusing; will these replace the already-announced B-Lines for these arterials, or are they the same thing? Nevertheless, I think the whole plan is a big positive step in providing much-needed transit improvements to the region.

Oh how this season of The Amazing Race gets better. The goths are gone, but now, so are the most grating team this side of Jonathan & Victoria. After the debacle of the all-star season (the last few episodes I have yet to watch), this has got to be a great improvement, and it definitely is. Although the first few legs were hit-and-miss, the episodes are presented in such a way that you really are hanging on to your seat, figuring out, more often than not, who is eliminated.

Take this most recent leg (spoilers if you haven’t seen it yet): three teams are scrambling after the Detour, all within minutes of each other, to avoid being Philiminated. The editing around Nic & Don’s, TK & Rachel’s, and Nate & Jen’s jockeying for position is well-done. I believe that this episode, or the one with involving the goths’ Philimination, should be the one presented to Emmy judges.

As soon as I was relieved with Nate and Jen’s elimination, I hopped over to PBS for the first week of its Jane Austen film festival. Persuasion started it off. Strange as it was to have the most sombre of Austen’s six novels to kick off the series, and to be compressed in under 90 minutes, I thought it managed to convey that atmosphere. The incidental music, mostly sparse piano, evoked Anne Elliot’s anguish over seeing Captain Wentworth again.

I also seemed to catch bits of self-pity, as expressed by Anne-as-diarist. That probably wasn’t in the novel text, but I suppose this makes the viewer more sympathetic to Anne’s situation. I did cringe with the penultimate scene - are they or aren’t they going to kiss? Whatever. Overall, I thought this Persuasion was an OK adaptation - 6/10 if it must be rated numerically.

It seems kind of strange that the Canucks would play back-to-back, home-and-away games (both of which they lost, badly), until I saw today’s schedule. The only late game today, and it’s the second half of this week’s Hockey Night in Canada, involves the Leafs in San Jose. None of the western teams is playing; Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver all played last night. Toronto, like its counterparts in the Northeast Division, must head west this year to play in the Pacific Division. But to reserve the second half of HNIC, which almost always involves at least one team from Western Canada, exclusively for a Toronto match smacks of preferential treatment.

What I would like to have the CBC do whenever it splits the feed for hockey is to have individual regions vote for the game they would most like to see. I would much prefer to watch Montreal or Ottawa instead of the Leafs, but unless you have a digital package that gives you multiple CBC feeds, you’re more likely stuck watching Toronto. I’m sure there are many throughout the country who are just tired of watching the same team again and again every week.

If I’m forced to watch this game tonight (not sure if the birthday party I’m going to has a TV), you can bet that I’ll be rooting for the Sharks. Anyone with me?

(photo credit: HabsBlog)

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The title of the post has been in my head for a while, and now I can finally use it. On Sunday, PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre begins its Complete Jane Austen series, which comprises six dramatizations of Austen’s complete novels, four of which are new productions, as well as an original biopic, Miss Austen Regrets.

PBS’ preview:

I’m no Janeite, but I could be called an Austen aficionado: I have copies of all six novels (mid-1990s editions of Penguin Classics). I remember reading Pride and Prejudice in high school, Coles Notes on standby. I then had to read it again… for a history course. The novelty of that led me to another course devoted to Austen and Walter Scott, which I enjoyed immensely.

I’m particularly looking forward to Mansfield Park (Jan 27), with Billie Piper as Fanny Price, and the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (Feb 10-24). I’ve never seen it in its entirety (at least in a linear fashion), so finally it’s on my calendar.

Via Outpost Gallifrey’s news page:

William Hartnell, the actor who originated the role of the Doctor in the 1960s, playing the first incarnation of the character for BBC Television from 1963 to 1966, was born exactly 100 years ago today. For many of the original Doctor Who fans who were children in the 1960s, he remains the definitive Doctor.

I may not have grown up in 1960s Britain, but Hartnell is my Doctor, as I started watching his episodes around 10 years ago. For anyone who started watching Doctor Who with Eccleston and Tennant and decided to go back to the very beginning, it can be a rough jolt, and not just in the obvious colour-vs-black-and-white way. 1960s serials are drawn out over 4-8 episodes of 25 minutes each, and can move very slowly when compared to the fast 45 minutes that one episode of the 9th or 10th Doctor can cover.

Part of the reason I caught on with Hartnell is that some of his stories took place in the past. I was completing my undergrad in history, and it was nice to see the Doctor and his companions encounter Aztecs, Romans, and the Old West. Not to discount his multiple encounters with the Daleks, but the historical stories (TV, novel, and audio) are among my favourites in the Doctor Who canon.

Here’s to Billy Hartnell and his great contributions to Doctor Who.

I’m looking forward to the premiere of JPod on CBC TV. There’s a site with cast and crew bios, links to sites for the book, the book’s wiki, and Douglas Coupland, and other fun things related to the program.

I’ve been a big fan of Coupland’s since reading Microserfs, and while I prefer this book over JPod, even though the settings are similar, it’s still fun to see something of Coupland’s realized on screen.

This isn’t the first, however. Everything’s Gone Green is a 2006 film with an original screenplay by Coupland. I really enjoyed it when I saw it at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

In a nutshell, JPod is about Ethan and his coworkers (all of whose names have a “J” in it), his parents, and the various hijinks that ensue. If it’s anything like the book, the 13 episodes of JPod the series is going to be fun!

I took this photo in September 2005 from UBC’s Rose Garden. I guess it was getting close to sunset, given the shadows. At the time, I was experimenting with black-and-white film that can be processed as if it were in colour.

Taken at last month’s Transit Camp.

The bullseye B-Line logo works very well in button format. Too bad TransLink dropped that in favour of a more homogenized logo that can be applied to all B-Lines.

Here’s another contribution to the flotsam and jetsam of the blogosphere. I figured it’s time to take the plunge in actually posting entries. I’ve actually enrolled in a class to learn how to blog, and my instructor has asked us to post link to her blog.

Thanks for reading!

UPDATED 01-07-2008, 22:30 PST: I probably can’t post to her blog, but I can certainly provide a link to it…