hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45 
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Post by hikari on Jun 26, 2017 11:38:15 GMT -5
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hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
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Post by hikari on Jun 26, 2017 11:46:14 GMT -5
Here we have two studies of the Bohemian consulting detective-about-town. More roustabout than elegant. Get a whiff of Gary Oldman's Drac in the second picture--mostly it's the Victorian eyewear that lends the impression. RDJ could likely do a fairly decent Fagin, and he wouldn't even have to change. Of course, in his youth, he was more the Artful Dodger type.
The first time through with his first movie, it was hard to discern what might be working about his Holmes, because I couldn't hear myself thinking over the internal screaming---"Nooo! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!" RDJ won me over eventually despite the very unconventional take. Having an impeccable Watson who hewed to tradition helped, though I daresay it's the first time in Holmesian history in any medium where Watson towered over his brainier friend.
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hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
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Post by hikari on Jun 26, 2017 11:49:31 GMT -5
I daresay I do not recall this particular scene in either of the two movies. This, apparently is how Holmes relaxed after surviving his plunge down the Reichenbach Falls.
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Post by William Smith on Jun 26, 2017 13:39:05 GMT -5
In re: the Oldman Dracula: the hair is very, very different.
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hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
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Post by hikari on Sept 12, 2017 11:31:41 GMT -5
Well, well, Where did the summer go, everyone? Life has gotten rather busy and taken me away from devoting as much time to our new room as I wanted to. I am back to report, with some giddiness, that I have just reached out in cyberspace to a real, live Sherlockian, and I don't mean an ordinary obscure civilian hobbyist Sherlockian like me, but a bona fide published author. David Marcum has published several Holmes pastiches and edited a number of well-received anthologies of new Holmes and Watson material, many of which I have collected. He is the first to say that he plays the Game with deadly seriousness and has worn a deerstalker as his only hat since the age of 10. I am not sure if he is a member of the BSIs but if a devotion to Sherlockian headgear counts for anything, he should be. Quite by accident, I stumbled into his blog, A Seventeen Step Program, and this entry, in which he discusses anomalies in the 1985 film 'Young Sherlock Holmes'. Mr. Marcum and I were both 20 when this movie came out, which was a bit outside the target age group, seeing as our schoolboy protagonists were presented as 16 and 14 respectively. I just saw this movie again in the past year and posted a comment. Now to see if Mr. Marcum responds. Thought this might be interesting to some. ------------------------------------------ 17stepprogram.blogspot.com/2017/03/actually-that-wasnt-watson-some-notes.html?showComment=1505232849221#c4740869153494693026 |
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hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
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Post by hikari on Sept 15, 2017 8:45:16 GMT -5
Still awaiting any acknowledgement from David Marcum about my comment on his blog, but I am prepared to wait quite a while since he hasn't posted a new entry since April. This professional Sherlockian is incredibly busy writing Holmes stories, editing massive collections of Holmesiana, taking the occasional jaunt to London for a launch party (where he was singled out on the pavement in Whitechapel by his Ripper tour guide who spotted the deerstalker rising out of the crowd) . . and in his day job, he's a civil engineer. Les Klinger, editor of the 'New Annotated Sherlock Holmes' is a lawyer. Apparently full-time Holmesian scholarship does not pay well. It's kinda like having T.S. Eliot toiling away at the bank, though, having these creative types chained to such dull occupations which diverge so wildly from their true avocation.
Mr. Marcum has made it his life's work to compile all the 'new' adventures of Sherlock Holmes, along with the Canon stuff, into one massive chronological timeline. This project requires constant monitoring and updating, of course, since any given month sees a dozen new Sherlock projects on the hob. He discards nothing (except for the second half of Michael Dibdin's 'Last Sherlock Holmes Story'), regardless of how silly or far-fetched it is. If Mr. Marcum ever responds to me I shall ask him how he assimilates the at-least two occasions in which SH had dealings with the Martian Ambassador.
In the article about 'Young Sherlock Holmes' which I responded to, he performs some rather contorted gymnastics to explain how a 16-year-old Sherlock Holmes at boarding school in London could meet a 14-year-old John Watson at school, JW just having transferred mid-term from a school in Northumbria. When JW walks into the dormitory, SH is on his third day of violin practice and is already a fair hand. Since, obviously, the St. Barts' meeting of some 11 years later had to be maintained sacrosanct, Mr. Marcum posits that this chubby, bespectacled schoolboy 'Watson' was actually Holmes's younger cousin, a lad called 'Verner', but going incognito here.
I don't have to stretch that hard. I dismiss this schoolboy meeting as an appealing alternative scenario that *might* have gone that way had Holmes and Watson met a decade earlier, but since they didn't, it couldn't have happened thusly. Still, as an entertainment to pass the time as a Christmas movie for kids, one could do worse. I embrace it as more authentic to Conan Doyle's Holmes than having him meeting with the Martian Ambassador.
The '17 Steps' in the blog title refers to the number of steps up to 221B Baker Street. That should have been obvious but I confess I had to think about it for a second.
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stevign
New Member
Well hello there......
Posts: 25
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Post by stevign on Oct 9, 2017 6:38:51 GMT -5
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hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
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Post by hikari on Oct 10, 2017 12:40:31 GMT -5
Hi, stev,
If I haven't officially welcomed you to our lounge, Welcome!
I set up the Upper Room myself, and I see you have already opened a room too, so jolly good show. I hope more of our Amazon friends will join us here. I don't have personal contact info for the likes of Cavardossi or Baron Sardy. If I've 'spoken' to them for the last time, I am going to be Officially Bummed.
Keep my seat warm; I'll be back next week.
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Post by William Smith on Oct 12, 2017 23:08:22 GMT -5
You may be able to contact anyone from the old Amazon forum through their screen name on Amazon.
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Post by cavaradossi on Oct 27, 2017 0:58:59 GMT -5
Hikari
I made it here, but haven't had too much to say yet. I am getting puzzled about the Sherlock season five situation. Our local PBS affiliate has been airing the previous seasons for the last two months. I'm wondering when the new season will be beginning. Have you heard?
I hope this thread is still open to Midsomer Murders posts as I will have some remarks on The Fisher King, Sgt. Scott's second outing on the show, shortly. I need another go around with the episode to get my thoughts and wonderings about this convoluted tale in order before I set sail on those troublesome waters. There are so many oddities about it, not all having to do with the story itself (though, as I'm sure you remember, it's loaded with them!)
Things have started to get chilly here in Utah lately, and it's a time of the year I don't particularly enjoy the weather as it gets very unruly and unreliable. I suppose it's similar in your neck of the woods, and I wonder what it's like in Atlanta where William lives.
Did you get your TV reception back? My cable box has died the death, but I won't be seeing a serviceman till next Wednesday. I have so much video content of my own in the house that I'm scarcely aware that the signal is gone. Umm, I should maybe take that lesson to heart and become one of the "unplugged" generation.
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hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
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Post by hikari on Oct 28, 2017 10:26:47 GMT -5
Cav!
It's a pleasure to hear from you. I see that your post has a time stamp of 1:58am, which, even allowing for Utah time means you were up pretty late posting.
I was on vacation and offline when the Amazon forums went dark and I didn't realize until I came back to what passes for my 'normal' routine how very much of a gaping hole their absence was going to leave in my life. Since 2010, the Movie Lounge had been my first and last stop of the day, with multiple visits in between if it were a particularly uninvolving day in the work trenches. Back when my old laptop was still operational, I spent many, many happy hours at Starbucks on the weekends contending with various people (TAS, mostly) about cinematic and/or life stuff. Now Amazon is dead to me, and my two e-mail accounts are very, very quiet, too. All I get any more in my primary account is shopping spam and e-bill reminders. My newer account, which I set up this past summer (mostly to have a respite from the spam) has two correspondents only--Wm. and author David Marcum who (yes!) has thoughtfully responded a couple of times to my fan mail. It's been a few weeks now, but he has a full-time job in addition to his time-consuming avocation, so I'm waiting until Christmas before I write again. Don't want to come off as a stalker; I just am very interested in delving into the mind of someone who is *that* dedicated to Sherlock Holmes. His wife must be a tolerant sort.
I just celebrated a birthday earlier this month, but so far it's been a very mournful start to my new year. Last week I had to put my favorite little orange-and-white kitty to sleep. She was old and suffering renal failure, but I wasn't ready for this. I'm still very low but I'm gutting my way through my days because I have no choice but to. We working class folk do not have the luxury of being prostrate with grief and have to keep our (stuff) nailed together. The two cats that remain are not coping well with the loss of their housemate seeing as both have refused to come out of the kitchen for a week. They are eating well, but want nothing to do with me whatsoever. So it rather feels like I have lost all three of my cats at once. Being at home is not fun.
Re. Sherlock 5--I wouldn't hold my breath for a new season. Season 4 pretty much felt like a goodbye to me. They left us with a glimmer of hope, I guess. Not for a reunion as such but that the double act resumed after the death of Mary, with John back in Baker Street with his baby daughter and both guys smiling. Uncle Sherly even looking like a dab hand at holding the baby. 221b doesn't seem very conducive to raising a baby in, what with Uncle Sherly's test tubes and various dangerous implements laying about. Definitely not child-proofed, and only two bedrooms . . On the other hand, Mrs. Hudson is just downstairs for baby-sitting duties. We are left with the impression that Watson has, if not moved back full-time into Baker Street, at least resumed his friendship/partnership with Sherlock and been reconciled to him. We know that Holmes & Watson had many adventures after the death of Mary Morstan, but I am very doubtful that Mofftiss will depict any of them. Nobody's definitely said 'This is over', because they are hedging their bets--Sherlock is a huge moneymaker for all concerned--but the actors are increasingly hard to nail down for availability and the showrunners seem to have tired of their little project. I think the best we could hope for at this juncture would be another holiday one-off like "The Abominable Bride". (which in light of Season 4 seems a whole lot better than I'd originally thought it.)
The show already did 'Hounds of Baskerville' in S2, but it'd be quite a lot of fun if our BBC pair would do it in Victorian guise as a two-hour movie. With the proviso that Martin Freeman's Watsonian mustache would have to be revisited, or perhaps foregone completely. Martin doesn't have the features to carry off facial hair. Jude Law's Watson mustache was more organic-looking to his face.
Re. "Fisher King"--definitely one of the whoo-whoo outings of Sgt. Scott. Was that the one directly after JH's first episode?
FYI: If you go 'round again with one of Hopkins's better ones, "The Maid in Splendour", keep you eyes peeled for the fetching barmaid around whom so much of the action transpires--that is a 25, 26-year-old Sophie Hunter, better known these days as Mrs. Benedict Cumberbatch. This episode of MM was one of Soph's very few acting credits (her first, I believe) before she segued into the directing side of the business. I don't believe the spouses had met at the time of this episode (circa 2004), and BC was with another woman at the time (incidentally, his former inamorata of 10+ years, Olivia Poulet, has a small but pivotal role in "The Blind Banker" episode of "Sherlock" in the first season when those two were still a couple)--but once you see Sophie here, it's a little uncanny how much Mr. and Mrs. physically resemble one another. Benedict has married a woman who shares his coloring and body type. They could be siblings, really. Or at least cousins.
I'm still without a working TV so my massive DVD collection is sitting dormant. Not having a DVD portal has not prevented me from buying a few DVDs--notably, the "Doctor Blake" mysteries--but I don't know when I'll get around to buying a new TV. I have to do something about this before Christmas, or what the heck am I going to do with myself for Christmas viewing?
Hope things are well with you. Better than here at any rate.
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Post by William Smith on Oct 28, 2017 13:45:22 GMT -5
I'd add it here--it's very rough having to say goodbye to anyone, and cats are no exception. We lost our senior kitty Delling at 17 and our Siamese / Tabby cross Gregory at 13 earlier this year. I don't know what we would have done if two new members of the family--Artemus and Victoria--hadn't wandered in--quite literally. It's some consolation to think of them waiting for us in Cat Heaven.
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Post by epicgordan on Oct 28, 2017 13:57:44 GMT -5
I'd add it here--it's very rough having to say goodbye to anyone, and cats are no exception. We lost our senior kitty Delling at 17 and our Siamese / Tabby cross Gregory at 13 earlier this year. I don't know what we would have done if two new members of the family--Artemus and Victoria--hadn't wandered in--quite literally. It's some consolation to think of them waiting for us in Cat Heaven. My sincerest condolences. Cleo is currently 18--soon to be 19. It's gonna be harder and harder to say goodbye to her when the time comes.
Though to be fair, she still strikes fear into my other cats. Even Roger the Ocelot is afraid of her (btw, he's not a REAL Ocelot; he simply has a similar fur coat, but I still like to think of him as one) is afraid of her.
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Post by William Smith on Oct 28, 2017 21:57:18 GMT -5
Gordo: Do you have pictures of your cats? I'd love to see Roger The Ocelot.
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Post by cavaradossi on Oct 30, 2017 14:36:00 GMT -5
My neighborhood used to be overrun with cats - it was wonderful. For some years now, though, I haven't seen any. Apparently everyone who had them didn't replace them when they died. It doesn't feel right somehow, like something in the universe has tilted in a wrong way. One neighbor, though, has bunnies which seem to get out every day. The little guys like to make a beeline for my backyard, I guess because there's not a lot going on back there. They happily forage around until their humans, most of them under the age of twelve it appears, come looking for them. Then a grand chase ensues, vastly entertaining me.
The bunnies are all of the brown variety. I know nothing about the critters, other than that they're cute as, well, bunnies. Clearly, they don't like being penned up, but I'm not totally sure they don't enjoy the chase.
I just realized it's been years since I last dreamed of any of my cats, which is sad really.
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