Empty House

Emma left yesterday morning after more than two weeks of staying with us, and it was very sad to see her go. She is charming and lively. For those of you who don't know, she and Xopher are going together, or dating, or whatever it is that young people call it when they are cute and sappy together.

Emma spent quite a lot of time watching tv shows and then joining in spirited discussions of all the things wrong with them and who is sekritly gay. I quite like analysing and discussing shows. Fiona's good to meta with too, and she's caught up with House now.

Speaking of meta: has anyone else noticed the class messages in Doctor Who? It could be related to the fact that we watched Status Anxiety recently (Alain "Philosophy: a Guide to Happiness" de Botton's show about why we're rich and unhappy), but it seems to me that there's a thread of "the lower classes are happy with their place" in the first few episodes. Specifically, Rose's mum, the blue skinned plumber and the psychic maid from the first three shows are all quite aware of their status ("Oh, yes, Miss."), and happy with their lot.

I'm not sure how much weight to assign this class message as a "cultural sign" though; it's hard to say if the presence of these characters reflects current British culture. Doctor Who is more quirky and independent than most (American) tv shows, but the latest series is also more slick and produced which would imply that the opinion of executive producers (i.e. money monkeys) has more impact on its direction. However, since Russell T. Davies (a brilliant writer, responsible for the original Queer as Folk amongst other things) is also the EP, perhaps the low class message is just something that Russell has on his mind at the moment.

How much can tv shows be said to reflect their originating culture anyway? It's all very well to view each show as a beautiful and unique snowflake which should be appreciated solely for what it is, but clearly doesn't account for the fact that Captain Kirk wouldn't be written now, and House is far too misanthropic to be a good doctor on an eighties show. (Although, can you imagine Kirk and House? Bwahaha. "Well, it looks like you caught a disease from the green-skinned slut you slept with. I can't say I'm surprised, can you? Take two of these twice a day and try to keep it in your pants.")

However to say that each tv show is a clever piece of social engineering designed to change the behaviour of the general populace is also over-stating the case. I think some shows are genuinely a message from their creator to the viewer (aforementioned Queer as Folk) and some are ways of just making money (Survivor). In between are the vast majority of shows which try to be good entertainment but are also constrained by what "right thinking" people are willing to watch (and thus, how much money advertising for the show can make).

Sadly it seems that I often disagree with "right thinking" people. For instance: House <3 Wilson 4 Eva.

Lex rhymes with sex

Episode seventeen of season four of Smallville is one of the finest
pieces of televisual entertainment that ever made me screech with joy.
I think all the comic nerds who read this list (and let's face it,
that's almost all of you) need to see this episode.

Early Smallville writing was plagued with the kind of mushy high
school crap that I find very irritating. But as time goes on, the
writers are moving further away from love triangle shenanigans and
closer to pure comic book writing. And that's far from an insult. I
think that Clark Kent is wasted on stories where his powers serve as
nothing more than an easy way to save the day and an impetus for yet
another will-they-or-won't-they-work-it-out moment with his friends.
I'd much rather watch stories that are bigger than "Smallville High".

I've never collected superhero comics, but I do borrow other people's,
and what attracts me to these stories is the same thing that I find
fascinating about most science fiction: what would the world be like,
if this were possible? How would everything work if there were
superheroes? This same process of world building and conjecture is one
of the things I love about roleplaying games.

The reason that season one of Smallville failed for me is that it was
much more about "What would Superboy do if he went to high school?"
Lately the show has been much more about a world where super powers
exist and where money really does buy justice.

This episode is also a turning point in the Clark-Lex-Lionel
tug-of-war. For me, the central struggle in Smallville is not between
Lex and Clark, it's between Clark and Lionel, and they're struggling
over Lex's soul. I know that it should be obvious which side will win,
because we all know that Lex is Superman's arch-nemesis. But...!
Smallville is a long way from comics canon, and I'm determined to hold
on to the idea that no-one is beyond saving. Clark still has a chance
to show Lex that there is some good in the world despite all the abuse
Lex suffers from his father.

One of the nice ironies about Clark is that he lies to Lex, just as
Lionel does. A recurring theme when Lex discovers Clark's secret (as
he has done several times so far, but always loses his memory again
(yay, comics!)) is Lex's bewildered hurt. "You lied! I trusted you and
you lied!" Clark is the only person Lex believes in, and if Lex finds
out that Clark has lied to him all along (and that Clark is still
lying to him), then Lionel will win.

The only way for Clark to win is to trust Lex enough to reveal his
superpowers, and let Lex choose to support him. Clark, despite
being a Good Man, is still incapable of realising that this is the
right thing to do. I love a good tragedy.

Bouncing fool

Last night I had a very pleasant evening of renovation and pumpkin
soup with Fiona (and Dave, Jimbo and Simon). The renovations are now
up to the re-flooring of the front rooms and part of this is removing
the slate from the kitchen and hallway. This is mostly achieved by
application of great force, but underneath the skirting boards is
where tiny chunks of slate and excess spongy black glue hide, and this
needs to be removed carefully, one clingy piece at a time.

I previously volunteered the information that removing little bits
from under the skirting boards (a process I like to call "winkling")
was kind of fun and Fiona jumped on this statement like someone who'd
happily have someone else do it. But despite my blistered thumb (A
blister from physical labour! How outrageous!) I didn't get much done,
so I'm going to visit again tonight. The boys have set up a World of
Warcraft "play date" (as Dave called it) with Chris and Amanda, so
Fiona and I will entertain ourselves.

When I got home last night, I discovered that I'd been paid early.
Lawks, it's a lot of money. It seems rather unreal actually. Some part
of me wants to not spend any of it, in case it turns out to have been
a mistake and I have to give it all back. Holy shit, it's a lot of
money. And when you consider that it was from a month when I started
on the seventh and there were three public holidays... next month
should be considerably more. Yoinks.

Slug to human in three days

After three days of continual hormone-induced misery, I'm finally dragging myself up to somewhere towards human. Evolution is a strange and mysterious process -- what possible use is it to make half the population susceptible to such extremes of emotion...? I honestly have no idea. Maybe I wouldn't notice it if I were struggling every moment just to survive. As it is, I have time to sit around on my arse, watching tv, feeling like toasted crap and whining...

Mind you. House MD really is very good, even if none of you care enough to have asked for it. Surprisingly enough, it even keeps Xopher awake (for the most part). We have had a number of conversations (shocking, I know) about it. I wish someone else would watch 16 so that I can wave my little arms around and rant. Rant!!1!

I'm still also completely hoping that House and Wilson will start a relationship. It could happen! Stop looking at me like that! Wilson is unhappy in his marriage, and everyone knows that he's the only person that House can tolerate. House made a joke about them breaking up! It's right there. In my imagination, yes, fine, whatever. Just you wait, sooner or later someone is going to write a show where the main characters have a big gay romance and then we'll see who's imagining what.

And if it's not House, it might be Eyes, another new show which has just started in the US. It has private investigators. One of them is a guy. And then another one of them is a guy too. And the second guy is like, gay. So, like, there you go.

Defence rests.

The funniest thing I've heard in a pub for a while

We were discussing how much it sucks to have to sift through a huge pile of resumes to find people to hire. The funny bastard I work with said that there is one way to reduce the number of resumes you have to look at. Divide the pile in half and throw half of them away. This will eliminate people who are unlucky.