torchwood sadly isn't better than the sum of it's one part

Torchwood returned to BBC2 last week. For those who are in the dark about the show, it's a spinoff from the BBC's Doctor Who series by Russell T Davies. Only in it's second season, it had something of a rough first season. Davies has mentioned more than once his love for all things Buffy, Angel and Joss Whedon, despite such a strong pedigree, Torchwood plays out of something of a tawdry lovesong to those shows and the genre, which is quite ironic as Buffy is more or less an ode to the horror genre with a good dash of hipness and excellent character development thrown in.

The first season was something of an unmitigated disaster. Davies tried to make it edgy, which, to him, seemed to translate into a great deal of sex and self loathing, self loathing almost on par with BSG. The stories came off as derivative and juvenile, the show ran on BBC2 which gave it more latitude when it came to cursing. If the show demonstrated a glut of sex, coming in second would be swearing without any real context. The whole effort really looked very tawdry.

So, fast forward to season 2, Davies has imported the companion from the latest season of Doctor Who to join the cast. Freema Agyeman showed herself to be a fantastic actress in season 3 Doctor Who and can only help the show raise itself up. But, she did not figure in the first episode of the season, but a face familiar to scifi fans did none the less.

James Marsters returned to TV last week, and for the first time since Buffy, with his faux, but sounding always very real to life, London accent. Marsters, known for his recurring role in Buffy and Angel as the vampire Spike, as well as the Brainiac in Smallville, will guest star in Torchwood for three episodes. But the sad truth of it was that Marsters was flat out mesmerizing while the regulars were very much lacking in comparison. I'd forgotten what a treat he is as a mischievous troublemaker and he and star John Barrowman developed a great on screen rappore, including sharing a kiss or two on screen, but I dread that once the three episodes are up, the show will go back to being the sub par effort is was previously.

it's the week before christmas for us Appletards

Starting this monday, runing through til the end of the week Apple hosts it's annual Macworld conference and expo. Of course, all you people who have ever seen an ipod commercial know that no one hypes a product like apple computer. I mean, as far as I'm concerned the hype is completely delivered upon, it's the antithesis of public enemy's don't believe the hype, but still hype none the less. So, I thought I'd mention some of the items that are rumored to be introduced at Macworld. Keeping in mind that a year ago Steve Jobs introduced the iphone at Macworld, the expectations are quite high.

Apple is rumored to be introducing a 3G iphone sometime in the next year, as early as macworld. For all the buzz around the term, it just simply uses a wireless standard that allows for a greater amount of data to be transmitted wirelessly than 2G, or what we call 802.11g/n (ie WI-FI). The problem is that, as much as the current iphone is a niche product (ie who many ipod users need a device that plays music on top of being a planner, an internet brower and a phone, not to mention the cellular data costs), 3G is an even more expensive product at the unit level (ie mobile phone units) and 2G cellular networks would need to be upgraded to accommodate them. Needless to say, Canada does not have any 3G networks.

Although, this leads to the interesting "what if" of what if Apple were to expand it's business plan and become a cellular carrier? It's not so far fetched, I mean they build the software for machines they also build, the success of the ipod led to the itunes music store, and now the iphone is on its way in the US to eclipsing other wifi phones. Is buying a cellular array that far removed?

Apple has also been in talks with several major movie companies and it's also possible that Macworld will see the introduction of a much expanded selection of movies to the itunes store as well as a rental option which has not been offered until now. Also, if this is what will be offered next week, I would suspect they will also be introducing a new version of AppleTV. The last appleTV, which was introduced at Macworld last year as well, was pretty much a flop. It was a set top box from which you could stream your digital content from you Mac/PC to your TV, but formatting of the video was a problem, as well the box did not come with enough output options. Only HDTV out and component as well as only being able to display in widescreen, on your regular TV. The image looked compressed and awful, making it only really usable with widescreen HDTVs. In addition, the apple TVs only had a hard drive of 40gb (later expanded to 80), although you could stream content wirelessly, but only with 802.11N wireless could movies be streamed without lag of some kind. N, being a step above the usual standard for wireless networks.

And, finally, they're rumored to be putting forth a flashbased notebook. I think this one is more internet buzz than actual fact. A flashbased notebook is a neat idea. It would allow for longer battery life, faster accessing speed and a lighter overall product. I, myself have taken an old G3 ibook and swapped out the internal hard drive for an 8GB CF card and was well pleased with the performance and weight difference but, my experiment left my ibook with an 8gb hard drive. While affordable and of adequate size for taking notes and surfing the web, it's hardly the size apple would be looking to sell. Flash memory is very expensive and bringing a laptop upto the 100GB range in flash memory would price the notebook out of availability for most people.

Myself, I think we'll see a revamp of appleTV and the movies that go with it.

I leave you with a macworld bingo card, superimposed onto an old macintosh newton

you know, there's bad judgement and then there's bad judgement

I was speaking to a friend of mine as we were discussing the New Hampshire primaries, and she suggested to me that although Obama lost he had gotten the support of a democratic bigwig, but she couldn't remember who it was exactly. Turns out it was John "was that the best we could do in 2004" Kerry.

Describing this as the kiss of death is in no way hyperbolic dear readers. Last election ticket, with Bush and Kerry, was something of a dumb and dumberer deal. Now, it looks like Karry, not content to languish in the almost president boat, is finding solace in dragging mr Obama down underwater with him.

All I can say, is that depending on how fast Barrack sinks, we may get a little more attention to a candidate who deserves some airtime, Mr. Kucinich. A candidate who actually has a platform of progressive substance; the repeal of the patriot act, universal healthcare, getting on board with Kyoto, strengthening gun control, decriminalizing marijuana possession, legalizing samesex marriage....I could go on, but suffice to say, here's a democrat with a message that should be heard. But because of the elements of his platform he's been shut out of most of the televised debates. In Iowa, home to major pharmaceutical industry, he's been shutout of any of the primary debates for his stance on a public health care system.

Be nice if this little Obama faux pas let Denis get the exposure he is entitled to, just like any of the other candidates.

but, I suspect this is how America views him...

Peter Hinton's Macbeth has yet to have it's opening night, but last night the viewing public were given the opportunity to observe the play's first dress rehearsal. Hinton has a reputation for being some what avant-garde when it comes to his theatre productions, and we got a taste of that last night.

The play was set in 1930's, wartime Britain, drawing on the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936. It's hardly a novel idea to take a Shakespearean play and set in a modern setting, but the ever present danger in doing this is that the new setting is too jarring and disrupts the true essence of the play. This is what was observed last night. Guns, air raid sirens and microphones with echoed distortion. It was more a kin to watching my favorite soliloquies in the midst of a WWII movie.

The truth is that Shakespeare didn't really concern himself too closely with plot of historical accuracy, he was more interested in telling a story of the human condition and the tragic flaws associated with it. When you get absorbed in adding a new setting for the play, you're just getting bogged down in the minor details.

Aside from the set, the play also suffers from more traditional problems associated with the production of Macbeth. The play is notoriously difficult to stage, not the least of which is because in addition to being a play about ambition it even more so a play about madness. The ghost of Banquo during the banquet scene is the most dramatic and one of the most important scenes of the play. The question becomes, does the director stage an actual physical manifestation of the ghost? how does one dress this ghost who was so brutally murdered, a dozen stabs to the head as one of the murderers proclaims. Macbeth characterizes the ghost as having "gory locks". But yet, Hinton gives us a ghost who looks like he just showered in dust, who just drags himself up and down from underneath the table. I, playing armchair artistic director for a moment, would never stage the ghost. Imagine if you will, seeing Macbeth ranting and raving at an empty chair, as we the audience share the experience of the horror of the other table guests. This is a huge gamble, as, if the actor cast as Macbeth is weak, the empty chair will be just that. But, with a solid actor, it is far more terrifying than anything makeup could produce.

The play, like all great Shakespearean tragedies, is judged on the strength of the soliloquies, and Macbeth has them in spades. The two leads make the soliloquies their own, stirring me deeply, forgetting for a moment the massive shortcomings of the staging. But in the end, isn't that what we really came to see?

when is a blog post not a blog post

when it's a door?

working on a proper bloggo oh loyal readers, but for the moment shake your head at this interesting pic. A hypothetical prize to the one who submits the best caption!

what's easier than real blogging?

posting a youtube video of course.

Radiohead have posted a youtube video called Scotch Mist, it's about 60 minutes worth of watching the band play the album in studio with interesting linking vignettes between the songs.

Even if you've heard the album already, it's well worth watching.