Monthly Archive

Slightly late posting this, but it was substantially complete when I drafted it 2 weeks ago.

BBC News: Doctor Who heads to the BBC Proms

Doctor Who Prom program

The front page of the BBC Proms site describes it as “the world’s greatest classical music festival”. (For anyone who hasn’t a clue about the Proms, the site has an About page with a history of the festival and photo gallery from last year. Other bloggers’ reactions to combining the Daleks with Debussy, the Sontarans with Saint-Saëns, aren’t very glowing. A lot of it has to do with the continued dumbing-down of the Proms to make it more accessible to the masses. (There is actually one cheeky comment that decries Doctor Who’s dumbing-down by being part of the Proms.) I can’t say anymore about the dumbing-down allegations; before reading about this, I’ve never heard of the BBC Proms.

Wait a minute - that sounds familiar. Oh wait, we Canadians have our own dumb-down row with the changes to CBC Radio 2 and the disbanding of the CBC Radio Orchestra. After my post describing the final phase of the Radio 2 revamp, I’ve been absorbing a lot of reaction in other blogs and in the MSM. While I can understand the CBC’s viewpoint of broadening the network’s programming in order to make Radio 2 more relevant to more Canadians, I just don’t like how the approach to do so was taken. Or maybe my judgment’s being clouded because I’m still smarting that they took away Brave New Waves and Radio 3.

But back to Doctor Who at the Proms. Let me point out that Murray Gold’s compositions for the three completed series so far are very good. “The Cybermen” and “All the Strange Strange Creatures” in particular give that cinematic epic feel to the Doctor Who experience. Some pieces can also stand out quite well on their own, apart from the Doctor Who context. If anything, I think that Gold’s music (especially on the two CD soundtracks for Doctor Who) can be a gateway for listeners to discover other classical music.

I guess one’s dumbing-down is another’s opportunity to expand musical horizons. And it’s not just the supposed hoity-toity who only listen to classical. There is definitely that kind of sensibility among indie hipsters (and you know who you are) who shun anything mainstream. Case in point: Leslie Feist’s indie cred, already given a beating with last year’s iPod ads, is likely considered non-existent after her multiple Juno wins earlier this month. I guess the lesson here is: just cut through the bullshit and listen to whatever moves you.

Gillis is Canucks’ new GM: The one thing that crept into my mind when this was reported Tuesday night is whether Mike Gillis is still Markus Naslund’s agent, and if he still is, the inevitable conflict that will result. Can you imagine Gillis as a one-man negotiation team, crossing the table multiple times as he plays his dual roles? I’m probably in the wait-and-see camp: will he just tinker, or will Gillis go Extreme Makeover: Canucks edition?

Lull between rounds one and two: Before the quarterfinal series started, I did my usual predictions, and I went 6-2. Philadelphia and Dallas managed to win instead. I matched McKenzie’s predictions (he also chose Washington and Anaheim), and beat Maggie’s 5-3. For the semifinals, I’m going with Montreal, Pittsburgh, Detroit and San Jose (and McKenzie copied me here too).

Road hockey: My company holds an annual tournament wherein part of the parking lot is blocked off and two teams face off over the lunch hour. Our department decided to form one team, and we recently played an exhibition match. Most of us are new, and so the others aren’t sure what to make of us. After this game, I’m sure all the other teams know we can be the league doormat, but we just recruited a ringer who has guaranteed us that we will win it all…

Masterpiece Theatre’s Jane Austen run has finished with the 2007 BBC adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Andrew Davies gives us this version, and from that standpoint, works pretty well. The slightly longer allotted time (about 2.5 hours) for this adaptation gives it a better sense of pacing, at least relative to the other recent offerings in the Austen season.

Going through both parts within the same day (last week’s part 1 via the PVR and this week’s part 2 “live” on PBS’ HD channel - yeah it probably wasn’t HD, but far better quality nonetheless), I really liked the establishing shots of the Devon coastline. And in my mind, I kept thinking of the Ang Lee-directed adaptation from the mid-1990s, or at least in terms of how Margaret and Marianne Dashwood, and to a lesser extent, Edward Ferrars, looked similar in both versions. And I admit not even having watched all of that film.

Sense and Sensibility is probably the Austen novel I had the most trouble getting into. It might be because it was a novel that wasn’t covered in a course’s synopsis, and as such, was the last of Austen’s six novels to be read. But in terms of the plot, I think Davies covered it well for this adaptation. At least, I followed the story and figured out who was “sense” and who was “sensibility”, which could speak well toward Davies’ attempt to write an adaptation that can placate the Janeites yet remain accessible to the casual viewer. 8/10

Did I miss something? That’s what I get when I watch something on the PVR a week after it aired. The PVR’s description for last week’s jPod episode had a prom and the departure of Carol, but that obviously was not the episode I watched. I remember the CBC not airing jPod two weeks ago (March 21), replacing it with figure skating (?), but with NHL playoffs fast approaching, I’m guessing the prom episode never aired. Of course I watched tonight’s finale. Clearly, jPod was meant to continue beyond its initial run. There wasn’t even an attempt (I’m not sure it would have been possible) to re-shoot a coda to tie up the loose ends neatly. Needless to say, with that cliffhanger ending, I am optimistic that there can be an attempt to resurrect jPod for a second season. Any takers?