Archives for 2010
HaikWho – 2010, volume 4
And now, the final Doctor Who haiku. I’ve been a bit of a smartarse here and tried to add some kind of repeating loop into the haiku to match the time-travel-confusingness of the episode. Does this work? You decide.
And spoilers, yes, spoilers, as usual.
The Big Bang
travel circles, the
story goes, from stone box to
wedding in quick time
And that’ll be all, for now at least. Maybe I’ll try and haiku some other TV shows in the future, I’ve quite enjoyed this. My longer Doctor Who reviews for Dork Adore are here, although the newest one isn’t up yet. But I have written it, so it should appear.
And, of course, the first, second and third volumes of Doctor Who haiku remain available.
HaikWho – 2010, volume 3
This third segment brings us up to date in the endeavour of haiku-ing (not a word) the entire of the 2010 Doctor Who series. This includes the penultimate, exciting, climactic episode, and I’ve basically spoilt the whole thing. You have been warned.
If you’ve not been following these, the first volume and second volume cover the opening nine episodes.
Vincent And The Doctor
Van Gogh battles a
big chicken and his inner
demons, then we cry.
The Lodger
Cooks with burger sauce,
talks to cat, wears a bow tie.
Just a normal bloke.
The Pandorica Opens
The Pandorica
is empty, the Romans are
fake, so what is truth?
And that brings us up to date. I imagine I will post a rather feeble “volume 4” on Sunday or so, giving a haiku for Saturday’s “The Big Bang”. In fact, here it is.
HaikWho – 2010, volume 2
In which I watch the 2010 series of Doctor Who and write a haiku about each episode. More intro text and first five poems here.
And now, the next four. Poetic spoiler warning still applies.
Vampires Of Venice
Alien fish beat
Twilight any day, Rory
over Pattinson!
Amy’s Choice
Locked in a dream,
our heroes face the threat of
deadly hay fever.
The Hungry Earth
The lizards drill up,
the humans drill down, the two
never seem to meet.
Cold Blood
Shit, does all this seem
a bit pointless? Better kill
someone just in case.
And that’s volume two. Once again, longer reviews of most episodes available on Dorkadore. Next three to follow, either Friday evening or Saturday morning, depending on whether I end up in a pub tomorrow night.
In fact, here’s a link to the next lot which I have edited in!
HaikWho – 2010, volume 1
In anticipation of Saturday’s much-anticipated Doctor Who series finale, I have begun re-watching the episodes to date and, in order to provide some creative purpose to this exercise, I’ll be writing a haiku about each after I’ve seen it. As you do.
Anyway, here are the first five… (Warning: Possible vague poetic spoilers.)
The Eleventh Hour
Nerds, take a deep breath.
The Doctor is still quirky,
his hair still massive.
The Beast Below
Challenging ethics,
covered in vomit and the
Queeny From The Block.
Victory Of The Daleks
Winston Churchill big,
New Daleks pretty massive,
Pond’s skirt much smaller.
The Time Of Angels
Angels are scary,
but more harrowing is the
prospect of marriage.
Flesh And Stone
The crack swallows all,
leaving only a sense of
mild arousal.
On the off-chance you want longer, more rambling reviews, I’ve already done some for Dork Adore, which you can see here. And, yes, I’ll be off to watch more episodes shortly and the next volume of HaikWho is now available here!
A short review of The Divine Comedy’s "Bang Goes The Knighthood"
I have a free half hour at lunchtime, so I may as well do a few words on Bang Goes The Knighthood, the new album by The Divine Comedy. I always feel a bit awkward reviewing music, because I don’t know anything about it. Books/films/TV shows have stories, and I’ve got much more experience with those. Music, not so much.
Still, clearly I’m going to have a crack anyway; it just might not be as long as it could’ve been. If you have Spotify and want to listen along as you read, you can hear the album by clicking this link. More Spotify links are sprayed liberally throughout the piece.
Anyway, since I am a fan, I quite like it. It’s not Neil Hannon’s best work ever (I still prefer Fin De Siecle) nor does it contain his best song (which, obviously, is this one). Still, there are some great tracks. The Complete Banker is sniping at a rather obvious target in its lyrics, but almost makes up for that by being such a fun, straightforward song. And I desperately hope I Like becomes a single, because it’s by far the most immediate thing here.
Aside from those two, other tracks are less obvious and jaunty (so may not appeal as much to people who only listen because they liked National Express), but there’s a pleasant mix of thoughtfulness and breezy music, as well as the usual clever lyrics. See the title track for an example. Oh, and Down In The Street Below is an excellent example of a Divine Comedy ballad.
Like most Divine Comedy albums, it includes at least one song which I find a bit annoying, namely Can You Stand On One Leg. As a b-side, it’d have been kinda fun, perhaps. But making it penultimate track just diminishes the aftertaste of the whole album.
Anyway, that’s probably enough. If you like The Divine Comedy, this is another solid album. If you want a pleasant, hummable record to start the summer off, you could do a lot worse. And yes, I did write all of that in half an hour.