kacee
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Post by kacee on Feb 16, 2018 12:38:07 GMT -5
Hi Hikari and Cav, Not sure if I've missed a thread about Victoria. Please watch if you can. Absolutely brilliant.
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hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
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Post by hikari on Feb 16, 2018 14:24:09 GMT -5
Cav,
A few more Morse connections for you from Game of Thrones:
Michelle Fairley (Lady Catelyn Stark) appeared, as a homicidal ingénue in my 2nd favorite episode of Morse--"The Way Through the Woods"
Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy)is the son of Keith Allen, who appeared in the very late Morse episode, "The Day of the Devil" as a psychotic master-of-all-disguises to rival Sherlock Holmes. Allen's performance swung for the fences but apart from him, there really wasn't much to recommend the episode. Except for this:
DS Lewis is dispatched by his guvnor to demand the customer lists from an occult bookstore whose merchandise has been linked to a ritualistic murder scene. The proprietor's name is St. John. Pronounced the upper-crust English way as 'SinJin'. Our Geordie sergeant enters and asks for 'Mr. Saint John'
Snotty proprietor: It's 'SinJin' (speaking very slowly and condescendingly) 'S-I-n-J-I-n.'
Lewis (whipping out warrant card and holding it up to guy's face) Detective Sergeant Lewis, Thames Valley Police. L-E-W-I-Sssssss."
Really, one of Robbie's top moments. Too bad the rest of the episode was lame.
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hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
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Post by hikari on Feb 16, 2018 14:45:41 GMT -5
Hikari What happened to the Sherlock forum? Now when I try to visit it, it says the page no longer exists! Oddly, the photo of the Sherlock cast that was there before is still at the top of this nonexistent page. Color me baffled. The Sherlock Forum is still there. It just got an upgrade last Sunday. The software was at its capacity. I was online last Saturday and it still looked as it ever had done, with the photo of Sherl and John at the top. When I logged in on Monday morning, everything had changed. I love the new cast photo . .they are all lined up and looking shady like suspects in a game of Cluedo. Based on Mrs. Hudson's sly expression, my answer is "It was the landlady in the library with a cup of tea!"
All the old threads are still there. They've added some additional bells and whistles but nothing absolutely necessary. We can now track our rankings by the month or the year or All Time, and compete for Gold, Silver, and Bronze, based on the number of up-votes we receive on our comments. For the 30 day period Jan. 15 - Feb. 15, I was #4 overall! Of course, that was only possible because of the very low level of chat. It's an even better-looking site than it was before, but even fewer people seem to have anything to say. Since the week of the upgrade, comments have been very, very scarce. I wonder if a lot of users assume the site is defunct. They are still working out some bugs. Ignore the 'Not Available' message and just log into your account as normal in the upper right-hand corner.
To be honest, now that I've spent 31/2 months with these people (at least the approximately 6 people that post the most frequently) I can say that I don't really like any of them, except for my pal 'Herlock Sholmes'. Like me, HS is a newbie member. He joined at the beginning of September and I came along on Halloween. The site was apparently very active for a few years, circa 2012 - 2014, and then dropped way off. It is now an insular, crabby little cyber-club with more or less closed ranks. New people can still join, but I've noticed that the handful of posters who are there constantly (all young women and one middle-aged female moderator who I place somewhere on the spectrum. Her behavior is incredibly Aspie), tend to clique together on their favorite threads that really have zilch to do with the show or anything Sherlock-related . .(Cute Animal Videos/the Introverts thread). Their knowledge of Canon or any literature is nearly nil; their knowledge of film and television projects about the same unless it falls under the categories: Marvel, Star Trek or Star Wars. They seem to ignore any posters who aren't in the Circle or else get argumentative with them.
Not a pleasant bunch, and despite being scattered all around the U.S. and the U.K., not diverse, either.
I will be scaling back my involvement in any threads except the ones I start, and if I end up just talking to myself in there, it won't be much different from how it is elsewhere. So do please come back to the Tin Dispatch Box Lounge. I need some company!
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Post by cavaradossi on Feb 16, 2018 15:05:07 GMT -5
Hikari
I wanted to start watching Game of Thrones a bit ago, but the darned Blu-ray Disc froze 19 seconds after it began playing. After lunch, I'll try it on my other two BD players and we'll see what happens. These are Netflix discs and I have had some trouble with their BDs before. If it still doesn't work on them, I'll have to return it for a replacement while holding onto the other two. Of such tiny annoyances as these are amusing days fashioned.
I have two Midsomer Murders observations to make. We know the reason why, in recent seasons, more black characters have appeared on the show, but why are they always in racially mixed relationships? I have absolutely so problem with that whatsoever, but for the sake of realism is no other, why are there no black men with black women? I feel like I'm missing something there, some article about it I should have read, perhaps?
The other is that the thought has occurred to me from time to time "Where are the Indians and Pakistanis in MM, since they are important in English society?" Surely they should be represented also. I don't recall a single instance of them appearing in the show. George Gently has featured them, but could it be because GG is a sometimes a more urban centered show than Midsomer Murders?
I hope no one mistakes these questions for something other than what they are meant to be: observations about developments in recent seasons of MM, one of my absolute top favorite series of all time.
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Post by cavaradossi on Feb 16, 2018 15:38:57 GMT -5
Hikari
Your description of the Sherlock site could work quite well for the opera and classical music sites I have been investigating since Amazon's closing of their forums. One opera site that used to be exceedingly wide ranging and informative, not to mention endlessly entertaining, seems to have devolved into pretty much the sort of closed clubhouse you mention. Most of the topics discussed these days center around what's going on backstage at the Metropolitan Opera or the other smaller opera companies in NYC. Fascinating stuff, but since I don't live there and am not in the loop, so to speak, I feel I can have little to contribute to their in-house discussions. Other sites seem just too simple in their topics and discussions to hold my interest, I really do miss the old comradery of the Amazon forums, where we got to know each other and could discuss all sorts of things. The one almost exception I've found for opera and classical music discussions is "talkclassical.com". Yes, more than a few of the topics are uninteresting, but a fair number are, and some of them wade into deep waters. I'm thinking of joining up there one of these days.
Re the Sherlock site - I'm not sure that the password I believe I invented for them actually is the one I used. The thing is, I liked it so much that I've used it on another site or two. I may have to come up with another one for Sherlock.
It's really not surprising to me if the Sherlock site has slowed down; after all, the series is now officially over, and the show hasn't really been hot since the first three seasons. I think the producers miscalculated with that extra long break between season three and The Abominable Bride, and as for the latter, well, it WAS The Abominable Bride! And then came season four, which was even more Abominable!
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hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
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Post by hikari on Feb 16, 2018 16:14:45 GMT -5
Cav,
Compared to S4 of Sherlock, The Abominable Bride is pretty decent television. I did not like it much on first view, but I watched it a couple more times and it improved. Or my expectations became suitably adjusted, rather. The thing TAB has going for it, even though I don't care too much for the ghostie Gothic stuff, is that it is recognizably an homage to Conan Doyle. The Victorian parts that is. Had they just resolved to do the Case of Rigoletti and his Abominable Wife without any of the drug-fueled timeline jumping BS, it would have been much more peaceful for our frames of mind.
The new folks that are still wandering over to Sherlock Forum in trickles seem to be mostly foreigners who are still getting caught up on the episodes. For them it's all fresh and new. For me, discussing Sherlock epis gone by is so . . .2012/2014ish. Debating a Moffat travesty is not like having a rollicking discussion about classic opera, films or books. Sherlock BBC is dated now, but not in that 'classic, vintage' good way. It has become a piece of retro entertainment ephemera that stopped being relevant the instant the last painful frames of the god-awful Season 4 were broadcast. Unfortunately. It started out so wonderfully, and each new epi was an exciting discovery, even with the flaws. But, like a whirlwind love affair, the romance couldn't last. Sherlock BBC is now like a promising, thrilling new flame that fizzled out . . and now revisiting the memories of happier times when it was still fun, exciting and new leads to melancholy that it couldn't stay that way.
But nothing gold can stay, and that certainly describes this little joint.
So, in my opinion, 'SherlockForum' needs to morph into a different kind of Sherlock Central to justify its continued existence. That's why I started the literary rooms. The show is dead, but the core members don't seem to want to accept this, and continue to obsess over fan art and tiny nuances of dialogue like it's still . . six years ago. They have no interest in reading Conan Doyle and say as much, without apology. This is a very typical Millennial mindset, I find, seeing as I work with one. They are exceedingly knowledgeable in their limited spheres (usually technology and pop culture related), but they have very little contextual knowledge of anything much that occurred prior to the late 1990s, in any realm. When confronted with a lack in their knowledge banks, of which there are many, they shrug (or cyber equivalent) and say "So? Who cares about knowing *that* anyway? That's pointless."
No, not all creative endeavors or historical events or scientific discoveries made before the rise of digital technology are NOT 'pointless'. It's this breathtaking contentment with mediocrity that makes them really tough to converse with. They don't know anything except the very narrow parameters they have decided to know about and aren't interested in expanding them . .unless it's a new digital app. If it entails logging off the computer and leaving their cocoons, it's no deal.
Re. the color line in Midsomer . .
I guess you haven't made it as far as DS Charlie Nelson, Jonsie's successor? The pathologist who replaced the departing Dr. Kate is an East Asian woman named Kam. I saw a couple seasons with her and Nelson, but Gwylim Lee has decamped Midsomer already and she may have too. Dr. Kam was quite aggressively making her interest in DS Nelson known, and he seemed to be running a bit scared of her--because she pitched her woo by thrashing him in tennis and every other pursuit they tried.
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Post by cavaradossi on Feb 16, 2018 17:22:39 GMT -5
Hikari
Thank you; I hadn't made that connection re Dr. Kam, a really fun and interesting addition to the MM core family. I have seen the first few shows of the new DS, Jamie Winters, first season, and my memory is that Dr. Kam is still there. Good, since there seems to be a connection between he two.
BTW! For some oddball reason, Adorn decided to release the episodes of Season 19 ( the one in question) in two boxes, the second containing only two episodes. Sadly, Netflix has yet to acquire that second box.
You'll recall that I've always spoken of Midsomer Rhapsody as MM's worst ever episode. Well, I've finished it again and, to my vast surprise, it didn't bother me at all this go around. More than that, I actually enjoyed it, and was able to tolerate that MR tune that plays incessantly throughout it. Just like my upward re-evaluation of Bantling Boy, this new reaction to Midsomer Rhapsody means, for me at least, that MM has never had a bad episode. Who'd a thunk it?!
Does my head need examination?
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Post by cavaradossi on Mar 2, 2018 2:19:40 GMT -5
Hikari
How've you been? I tried finding you on the Sherlock forum, but I don't now remember which threads you started, and names of the creators don't seem to be visible now.
I'm in the second season of Game of Thrones, and it's pretty obvious by now that one needs to be ready for just about any bizarre turn of events. I'm having some difficulty taking any of it seriously, but it is diverting. Cruel, bizarre, and often ugly, it does have some amazing sights throughout, though it's too bad that none of the characters are ones I'm able to really care about. A continuing annoyance with it is that the Blu-ray dics continue to have problems in my BD players, freezing at most inopportune times. There seems to be an ongoing rule here that freezing is reserved for only the most crucial scenes, never anything minor. The little dragons are cute, though. It appears Netflix has the complete seven seasons of the show, so my intention is to barrel on through the entire thing. It's not a show I'm in any danger of purchasing though, as I doubt I'd ever want to watch it again. (Yeah, I've said that sort of thing before, and ended up buying the show Ior movie in question anyway! I've decided to not be too hard on myself if I end up doing the same thing with GoT.)
Sorry to hear the Sherlock forum, even in its new guise, isn't going too well these days. You mention that some of the posters still seem to obsess over the show the way we did when it was new. The thought occurs to me that perhaps some of these posters are newbies to the series, and are having the same reactions we older fans had. Could that be some of it? Do they ever discuss Elementary.? I'm thinking of checking that one out with Netflix if they have it. I've only seen the first season of it, actually not quite all of it, so there is plenty that will be new to me.
Speaking of new... My viewing of Game of Thrones on Netflix BDs revealed to me that I had only gotten to season one, episode four in three previous tries at the show. That surprised me, because I had thought all along that I had seen more of season one than it turns out I did. Funny how the memory works. Another oddity: many of HBO's GoT discs have only two episodes on them, and this for a show that seems to have only ten episodes per season. Obviously, HBO is intent on getting as much money as possible out of the show's fans, as the series isn't cheap. This is unlike, say, HBO's almost as big a hit, True Blood, which typically has four episodes per BD disc. ( I think the DVD versions are the same number, but don't quote me on that.)
I've had a few cats appear in my dreams lately. I wonder what that's all about?! They make for pleasant moments, though.
I hope things have been fine with you these days. Have you heard anything from William, who seems to be MIA for quit a while from his own forum here. Considering his health problems as mentioned by him on here, I'm concerned.
Are you any closer to resolving your TV problem?
We're having a decidedly cold winter here in Utah, though there have been worse ones before. We have another winter storm heading our way this weekend, oh joy! I love snow, except when I have to walk in it. Sometimes I'm not too steady on my legs these days, but at least with snow there's something soft to fall on. The problem is getting up, though.
BTW, who knew that a black wraith could physically murder a human by stabbing him in the back? Game of Thrones has just such an important murder in season two. I thought, "Hang on a minute, that doesn't even make sense!" Funnily enough, the show paid no attention to me. Downright rude of the series if you ask me!
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Post by cavaradossi on Mar 7, 2018 2:45:35 GMT -5
Hikari
I'm not having any luck finding your Tin Dispatch Box Lounge on the Sherlock forum. Where is it hiding?
I'm getting seriously concerned about William now. Have you had any news of him?
I've been thinking about MM's The Fisher King again. There are several puzzles in that story, but one of the oddest for me concerns the four adult children of the late, and apparently not much lamented, Roger Hellman. Of the four, two of each sex, only one of them, the show's first murder victim was legitimately born. The other son, a later murder victim in the story, is his son by his sister-in-law. One of the women, clearly the second oldest of the four offspring, was the result of Hellman's rape of a teenaged nanny to his legitimate son. The mystery concerns the second girl. She is the one married to the second victim, the "fisher king". Neither she nor her husband knew they were half siblings when they met and married while studying at Harvard. The puzzle lies in the fact that her mother is never identified, or referred to in anyway. I'd like to have known who she was and what the circumstances were of her conception. There's never any suggestion that she, unlike the other three, was conceived anywhere than in the same village the others were. Thus, I find it somewhat hard to believe they didn't know each other in England, or of their true relationship.
Another of the oddities in the story is that Hellman's widow did not know that the young nanny, now middle-aged like herself, had returned to the village some years before the story, and that she never recognized her before they meet at the solstice festival late in the story.. The same thing goes for her then boyfriend, who somehow wasn't aware that she and her daughter have been living in the village for some years. Nor does the former nanny seem to have laid on her former boyfriend since she returned to the villlage until late in the show. To make things odder, the former nanny has worked in the village library since her return. Maybe the former boyfriend doesn't read much. Their rerunion is touching, but I'm left puzzled.
I wonder if writers are aware of the potential puzzlement for viewers of story holes like these they leave behind.
BTW, Roger Hellman's legitimate son, the first murder victim, is one of those baddies who richly deserves his untimely demise. It could even be argued that it doesn't come soon enough! Even with all this, The Fisher King remains one of my very favorite Midsomer Murders episodes.
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hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
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Post by hikari on Mar 15, 2018 10:49:55 GMT -5
Hi, Cav,
I thought I'd come hunt you up here so we could chat about people and topics dear to us that the habitués of the SherlockForum would deem off-topic, as it doesn't relate directly to the object of their obsession, BBC Sherlock. You haven't been around there long enough to know, probably, but for as impressive/expensive as that site looks, it has very few active posters anymore. There are a handful of regulars (I'd say 6-8 posters, max) and apart from a couple of guys . . you being the third, it seems to be exclusively run by female Cumberfans. The majority of whom aren't quite as young as I first assumed. I thought the Millennials would rule the roost over there; turns out they are the vastly minority age group. The 50 - 70 year olds rule . .at least the ones who answered the poll!
There is a private message feature on SF; the drawback is it does not have much memory storage, only holding about 50 messages. Perhaps we could think about exchanging email addresses via that feature, when we aren't chatting here. I have Wm's email addy and I should hail him and see how he's doing.
We lost Stephen Hawking yesterday; I'm sure he'd be interested in talking about that extraordinary man.
Due to eye surgery and various other bills, my plan to purchase a new flatscreen TV has been put on the backburner for now. Hopefully by the fall I might be able to get something sorted. One upside: all my DVDs will feel fresh to me again, since I haven't seen any of them for over a year.
P.S. Owing to a massive computer hack of our email system a few weeks ago, in which some 7,000 emails from our server were sent to China, our ISP address here is on a number of Internet watch lists, apparently. Every time I try logging in here, I get a message that they are wary of me because I may be engaged in suspicious activity. I am getting tired of having to prove that I am not a malicious robot. Haven't had this issue with any other site I regularly visit but I am going to stay away from here for a while until we get this email mess sorted out. |
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Post by William Smith on Mar 25, 2018 13:22:11 GMT -5
I too am sorry that the the Holmes forum isn't working out. As I told you, a book dealer in Chicago who is a friend of mine invited me to a meeting of Hugo's Companions, the BSI group in Chicago, and it was quite delightful. But by definition they were serious students of the Canon.
I'm too much of a student of medieval history (I just reread Runciman's three volume history of the Crusades, and for that matter I'm reading a three-volume selection of Vasari's Lives) to get sucked into Game of Thrones.
Hawking was a remarkable man. I find it interesting that in recent years he was getting quite exercised about the dangers of artificial intelligence. I would love to have heard any conversations between him and Roger Penrose, his colleague, about the subject. Penrose is a decided skeptic about the ability of any Turing machine (which means any computer) to achieve any kind of consciousness and thus autonomous intelligence. It's of interest to see that the first fatality involving a driverless car just occured.
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Post by cavaradossi on Mar 29, 2018 19:44:24 GMT -5
William
It's great to see you're still among the living. I was getting worried, and I'm sure Hikari was too.
I've always been nervous about even the concept of driverless cars, and the news about the first fatality involving one does nothing to allay my concerns. While living drivers aren't infallible, neither are machines, perhaps even less so. You won't catch me using one of those cars.
Yes, after a slow start, I'm really enjoying Game of Thrones. As recently as even the second season I would not have believed that would ever be possible. I have two episodes of season four remaining and the discs can't arrive in the mail fast enough for me!
One puzzle I have, though... Considering how immensely popular the show is, I find it striking that none of these Blu-rays of GoT have ever been put on the wait list, nor do I see any flags ahead on the remaining discs to the end of season seven. Maybe it might be a different story if I were getting Netflix's DVDs of the show instead. From all I read, the older format is still the champion in the home, whether purchased or rented.
Anyone for 4K?
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