I don't know what was going on here, but this episode is definitely creepy and is supposedly cursed. Maybe it is tempting fate to feature a supposed Evil One in a story? Ick. What were they thinking? This is all coming from someone who's not even superstitious!
In 'The Boogieman', Sam leaps into a horror writer on Halloween, around whom really creepy things are happening and people are beginning to die. Finally, with spoilers about to pop, it is revealed that the oddly acting Al is really someone far more diabolical, who has been stopping the real Al from zeroing in on Sam's time and place. Yes, after much spookiness and a snake (yikes!) incident, it all gets really weird, before being half-retconned into a vision while Sam is unconscious after an accident. Or was it a vision? Was it really El Diablo, foreshadowing the Evil Leaper incidents in the fifth season? The jury is out, but the implications are clear.
'The Boogieman' is a middling episode, but it does happily end the terribly bad opening run to to the third season of 'Quantum Leap', which has only had rare moments of the series at its best. This episode was just too strange to be enjoyable, though, and forms yet another example of the Dean Stockwell paradox: Why is this actor, who is excellent in this series, so out of place in practically any other role as an adult actor? I take that back a little; he was pretty good in a 'Columbo' in the 1970s, in the episode on the cruise ship. Otherwise, he seems to be permanently miscast as the villain or creep on every occasion. Here, he gets to play the biggest creep at all, but ends up tilting his head and looking like a robot instead. Sigh. With a red light shining in the eyes.
Yes, this episode is supposed to be cursed, to have a higher incidence of broadcast error and video recording defects than any other episode. My 'Quantum Leap' experiences have mostly involved never watching this one, if it could be helped, so it's not clear if it's cursed or not. It certainly is an episode that sits strangely in the series as a whole, not fitting into any of the previous types or following types of show. It's just... strange. On the other hand, Valerie Mahaffey was great, one of my favourite lesser-seen actresses. She must have worked the stage a lot instead of television.
Ultimately, 'The Boogieman' is okay as a novelty or a curiosity, but doesn't quite work. Roll on, the next episode! Season three is finally about to start properly.
O.
Tuesday, 27 June 2017
Sunday, 25 June 2017
Pyjamas (Eight Hundred And Ninety Eight)
'Wayne's World' is a much better move than I expected. It actually seems to be well paced, which is bizarre for a comedy based on a sketch. Maybe it will fall apart in the second half? Predictably? Maybe the liking is just a symptom of the heat wave finally finishing? It has been succeeded by endlessly days of gusts and rain, and boundless goodwill. And rain. It's wonderful. We could almost pretend there is no such thing as summer! Is there summer? Is it a massive historical hoax and mass delusion? Is there air? We don't know! Oh, it's a good movie. I believe it.
It's a tough day, with the writing block well in evidence. Even now, a giant mental monkey is attempting to stop this feeble rivulet of words, but they will not prevail, for they do not have pyjamas on their side. The power of pyjamas is paramount, on every level. When do you feel most comfortable? In pyjamas. When are you most creative? In pyjamas. When does breakfast taste the best? In pyjamas. Pyjamas rule over all. It's ironic, as most of the time in pyjamas is spent unconscious, so why do we get so attached to them? When do you fold the best origami models of the Statue Of Liberty? In pyjamas? Really?
Thinking about it, the word 'pyjama' is interesting. Isn't it one of the imported words, from the Subcontinent? Let's pause for a moment, while the necessary research takes place. <muzak> Ah, interesting. Apparently 'pyjama' is from Urdu or Persian, and is related to loose fitting trousers, tightened by a waist drawstring. We, in vocabulary appropriation then adapted it to include the tops, and alternate fastenings. Of course, from our knowledge or Rip Van Winkle and Wee Willie Winkie, we know that sleeping predominantly involved nightshirts and nightgowns before the advent of the fabled pyjama. Perhaps there was a period of overlap when people wore them all at once? The Era of Maximal Sleepwear? That would have included the hats and portable mosquito netting?
Yes, an Era of Maximal Sleepwear. That can only mean that sleep deprivation is catching up, and that the writing block was defeated one more time. Let's hope that we all make it to the nine hundredth successfully.
O.
It's a tough day, with the writing block well in evidence. Even now, a giant mental monkey is attempting to stop this feeble rivulet of words, but they will not prevail, for they do not have pyjamas on their side. The power of pyjamas is paramount, on every level. When do you feel most comfortable? In pyjamas. When are you most creative? In pyjamas. When does breakfast taste the best? In pyjamas. Pyjamas rule over all. It's ironic, as most of the time in pyjamas is spent unconscious, so why do we get so attached to them? When do you fold the best origami models of the Statue Of Liberty? In pyjamas? Really?
Thinking about it, the word 'pyjama' is interesting. Isn't it one of the imported words, from the Subcontinent? Let's pause for a moment, while the necessary research takes place. <muzak> Ah, interesting. Apparently 'pyjama' is from Urdu or Persian, and is related to loose fitting trousers, tightened by a waist drawstring. We, in vocabulary appropriation then adapted it to include the tops, and alternate fastenings. Of course, from our knowledge or Rip Van Winkle and Wee Willie Winkie, we know that sleeping predominantly involved nightshirts and nightgowns before the advent of the fabled pyjama. Perhaps there was a period of overlap when people wore them all at once? The Era of Maximal Sleepwear? That would have included the hats and portable mosquito netting?
Yes, an Era of Maximal Sleepwear. That can only mean that sleep deprivation is catching up, and that the writing block was defeated one more time. Let's hope that we all make it to the nine hundredth successfully.
O.
Friday, 23 June 2017
Story: 'Wordspace' Phase II, Part IX
( Part I , VIII , X )
What could possibly be lurking under the Wordspace, that would impress even the difficult to surprise Surprise? Dream looked upon the answer to that mystery now, and was perplexed.
"Boo." Said the ever chipper Surprise.
"What is it?"
"That, dear lady, is a mystery beyond my understanding. It seems to go on forever, stretching to the under-horizon and beyond."
"It's fantastic! It's beyond my wildest dreams! It's completely incomprehensible!" Dream was a little stunned.
"Yes. Exactly. We had Recursion working on what it might be for months now, but they're baffled and keep handing their calculations around in a circle. Finally, we had to take them off, when they began writing jokes in ever smaller boxes on the same piece of paper."
"Recursion?" Asked Dream.
"They were discovered after you vanished. We might bump into them later, several times. Try to not laugh at the hats."
"This could well be confused with complete gibberish, you know."
"Sometimes a spot of gibberish is necessary. Especially in times like these. Up above us, an Invader is causing chaos. It's a miracle that no-one has died."
"It all looked normal when I awoke." Observed the long absent dreamer.
Surprise looked concerned, wrinkling at the letters. "We don't know exactly what has happened. We got some odd fragments of message through Mysticism, but they didn't make much sense, except for the word 'cataclysm'."
A noise boomed around the massive space under the world. It sounded like a word. It sounded like 'infinity'.
"Infinity? What's that?" Wondered Dream.
Surprise looked into the distance, at the endless Thing that stretched underneath their world. "I wonder..."
More will follow...
What could possibly be lurking under the Wordspace, that would impress even the difficult to surprise Surprise? Dream looked upon the answer to that mystery now, and was perplexed.
"Boo." Said the ever chipper Surprise.
"What is it?"
"That, dear lady, is a mystery beyond my understanding. It seems to go on forever, stretching to the under-horizon and beyond."
"It's fantastic! It's beyond my wildest dreams! It's completely incomprehensible!" Dream was a little stunned.
"Yes. Exactly. We had Recursion working on what it might be for months now, but they're baffled and keep handing their calculations around in a circle. Finally, we had to take them off, when they began writing jokes in ever smaller boxes on the same piece of paper."
"Recursion?" Asked Dream.
"They were discovered after you vanished. We might bump into them later, several times. Try to not laugh at the hats."
"This could well be confused with complete gibberish, you know."
"Sometimes a spot of gibberish is necessary. Especially in times like these. Up above us, an Invader is causing chaos. It's a miracle that no-one has died."
"It all looked normal when I awoke." Observed the long absent dreamer.
Surprise looked concerned, wrinkling at the letters. "We don't know exactly what has happened. We got some odd fragments of message through Mysticism, but they didn't make much sense, except for the word 'cataclysm'."
A noise boomed around the massive space under the world. It sounded like a word. It sounded like 'infinity'.
"Infinity? What's that?" Wondered Dream.
Surprise looked into the distance, at the endless Thing that stretched underneath their world. "I wonder..."
More will follow...
Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Eight Hundred And Ninety Six
We're counting down to the nine hundredth post, which may not quite make it on time. On the other hand, it may still happen. There are always ways! That's definitely something to keep in mind generally: 'There are always ways.' Sometimes we forget that, being locked up in the inflexible rules and regulations of whatever organisation we happen to inhabit as workers. It's rather strange to think that was how my work was once. It's much nicer to break away, and do things in your own perceived 'right' way instead of by some book handed down from above. Often times, that book may well be correct but it will also commonly be wrong. Context is important. This is an old argument. Please replace it with strawberries or a long diatribe on the perils of not making students read 'The Speckled Band'.
In a related item, the pilot film for 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' is awesome. Why is it related? It is a show about flying misfits led by a man completely disrespectful of the rules, set during World War Two. It's also a cast iron example of people going too far and throwing away every rule in the book, but that was how the history really worked out. Major Greg Boyington led one of the most successful fighter squadrons in the war, and it was filled entirely with 'Black Sheep' pilots. How have I never heard about this show? I only managed to discover it by following the Donald P Bellisario trail, and noticing that it overlapped with the John Larroquette trajectory. Hopefully, it will be excellent.
Eight hundred and ninety six posts seems like a lot. It actually is a lot, isn't it? The index or 'chatter' pages are beginning to bulk out remarkably, and the only thing that is really annoying the writer of all this fine nonsense is the lack of momentum in writing the stories. The stories seem like the things that might be remembered most fondly when this all grinds to its inevitable halt in the far future. Yes, the end of the Quirky Muffin, a symptom of a future dystopia. This blog will end up buried underneath a massive pile of draconian Internet regulations and interventions, and be lost forever. Eventually, it will form the basis for a particularly unhinged artificial intelligence called Larry.
In four posts time, we will hit nine hundred. That means there are eight days to finish editing and rewriting whatever the landmark post will be. We can only hope it ends up coherent and not written in Swahili.
O.
In a related item, the pilot film for 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' is awesome. Why is it related? It is a show about flying misfits led by a man completely disrespectful of the rules, set during World War Two. It's also a cast iron example of people going too far and throwing away every rule in the book, but that was how the history really worked out. Major Greg Boyington led one of the most successful fighter squadrons in the war, and it was filled entirely with 'Black Sheep' pilots. How have I never heard about this show? I only managed to discover it by following the Donald P Bellisario trail, and noticing that it overlapped with the John Larroquette trajectory. Hopefully, it will be excellent.
Eight hundred and ninety six posts seems like a lot. It actually is a lot, isn't it? The index or 'chatter' pages are beginning to bulk out remarkably, and the only thing that is really annoying the writer of all this fine nonsense is the lack of momentum in writing the stories. The stories seem like the things that might be remembered most fondly when this all grinds to its inevitable halt in the far future. Yes, the end of the Quirky Muffin, a symptom of a future dystopia. This blog will end up buried underneath a massive pile of draconian Internet regulations and interventions, and be lost forever. Eventually, it will form the basis for a particularly unhinged artificial intelligence called Larry.
In four posts time, we will hit nine hundred. That means there are eight days to finish editing and rewriting whatever the landmark post will be. We can only hope it ends up coherent and not written in Swahili.
O.
Monday, 19 June 2017
The Literary Reflection, IV
Every few months, we put up some mini-reviews of books read in the interim, usually as an alternating post with 'On The Book Piles'. Here we go again...
'Dragon' by Clive Cussler (1990)
It's rather derivative, has exposition so clunky that you could use it to dig mine tunnels, and has some of the most blatant fan service you can find in bestsellers. Despite all that, it sort of works, which is a galling thing to admit! Not recommended in any way, but kind of fun.
'Star Trek: Ishmael' by Barbara Hambly (1985)
One of my favourite 'Star Trek' novels is actually a cross-over with a 1960s sitcom and I didn't know it for decades. Decades! Yes, for all that time that I thought it was a quaint and wittily written time travel story that embedded Spock in the early days of Seattle, I was ever so slightly in the dark. It's still one of the best minor 'Star Trek' novels that I've read, and gets a strong recommendation. It also has stealth mathematics, and excellent use of teaspoons. No-one said this blog ever had to make sense! It was a cross-over with 'Here Come The Brides', which still boggles the mind. That show featured Mark 'Sarek' Lenard!
'The Complete Father Brown' by GK Chesterton (1911-1935)
In many ways this deserves a post all its own, but in others it becomes unclear what to write. There are such clear parallels between the relationship between Chesterton and Brown with that between Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, that it could overwhelm the whole point of writing. The 'Father Brown' stories are excellent, truly excellent. Much as with Holmes, the last few sets become a lot more inconsistent, partly due to frustration on the writers' parts, but they're always a step above the average of mystery stories. Very good. We never do learn much about Father Brown himself, though, and his capacity for being on the scene when crimes take place rivals even that of the infamous Jessica Fletcher from 'Murder, She Wrote'. In the last set of stories, Chesterton crosses the line and lectures much more than previously, but at least it's good material to push, and is very relevant to today.
Assorted 'Star Trek' adaptations by James Blish (1967-1977)
Blish had a knack for taking those episodes of the classic show, and writing prose versions of exactly the right length and quality. He fixed most of the third season with his versions. This time up, there was 'Bread and Circuses', a hybrid version of 'The City On The Edge Of Forever', with elements of the Harlan Ellison story added in, and 'By Any Other Name'. That last one is an unlikely touch stone, isn't it, but somehow it always pops up.
O.
'Dragon' by Clive Cussler (1990)
It's rather derivative, has exposition so clunky that you could use it to dig mine tunnels, and has some of the most blatant fan service you can find in bestsellers. Despite all that, it sort of works, which is a galling thing to admit! Not recommended in any way, but kind of fun.
'Star Trek: Ishmael' by Barbara Hambly (1985)
One of my favourite 'Star Trek' novels is actually a cross-over with a 1960s sitcom and I didn't know it for decades. Decades! Yes, for all that time that I thought it was a quaint and wittily written time travel story that embedded Spock in the early days of Seattle, I was ever so slightly in the dark. It's still one of the best minor 'Star Trek' novels that I've read, and gets a strong recommendation. It also has stealth mathematics, and excellent use of teaspoons. No-one said this blog ever had to make sense! It was a cross-over with 'Here Come The Brides', which still boggles the mind. That show featured Mark 'Sarek' Lenard!
'The Complete Father Brown' by GK Chesterton (1911-1935)
In many ways this deserves a post all its own, but in others it becomes unclear what to write. There are such clear parallels between the relationship between Chesterton and Brown with that between Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, that it could overwhelm the whole point of writing. The 'Father Brown' stories are excellent, truly excellent. Much as with Holmes, the last few sets become a lot more inconsistent, partly due to frustration on the writers' parts, but they're always a step above the average of mystery stories. Very good. We never do learn much about Father Brown himself, though, and his capacity for being on the scene when crimes take place rivals even that of the infamous Jessica Fletcher from 'Murder, She Wrote'. In the last set of stories, Chesterton crosses the line and lectures much more than previously, but at least it's good material to push, and is very relevant to today.
Assorted 'Star Trek' adaptations by James Blish (1967-1977)
Blish had a knack for taking those episodes of the classic show, and writing prose versions of exactly the right length and quality. He fixed most of the third season with his versions. This time up, there was 'Bread and Circuses', a hybrid version of 'The City On The Edge Of Forever', with elements of the Harlan Ellison story added in, and 'By Any Other Name'. That last one is an unlikely touch stone, isn't it, but somehow it always pops up.
O.
Saturday, 17 June 2017
Completion
It is the season of completion, as GCSE students finish, Open University modules conclude and summer holidays come roaring towards us all over the temporal horizon. It's confusing when students finish, because they almost inevitably all become friends to varying degree. The work concludes, the exams are sat, and then you never see them again. This model may have to be changed... The only thing to take away at the tutoring end, hopefully, is a sense that you've done some good and sent someone more peacefully on their path in life.
Yes, completion is in the air, and for every end there is a matching beginning. What will come next? There will be more people to help, more uncertainty and oddities in scheduling, and more crazy problems than you would ever expect. Every person is unique, and problem solved is one that can't be anticipated or duplicated. There is no magic solution, just an endless round of approximating to each individual, and hoping that it will work out okay.
Of course, it's different for longer-term students, at primary school or the beginnings of secondary, as then you have you have much more time to prepare and work with them, and the eventual completion is something which ensues naturally. Ironically, tutoring is as much about deprogramming as it is teaching. Sometimes, people have the weirdest ideas about maths, themselves, and how everything works. You wouldn't think that so much rubbish would still be inculcated and indoctrinated in the modern world, but then until very recently it wasn't obvious quite how much of what we read about the world in the news services is other than wholly accurate...
A sense of completion is upon us. What's next?
O.
Yes, completion is in the air, and for every end there is a matching beginning. What will come next? There will be more people to help, more uncertainty and oddities in scheduling, and more crazy problems than you would ever expect. Every person is unique, and problem solved is one that can't be anticipated or duplicated. There is no magic solution, just an endless round of approximating to each individual, and hoping that it will work out okay.
Of course, it's different for longer-term students, at primary school or the beginnings of secondary, as then you have you have much more time to prepare and work with them, and the eventual completion is something which ensues naturally. Ironically, tutoring is as much about deprogramming as it is teaching. Sometimes, people have the weirdest ideas about maths, themselves, and how everything works. You wouldn't think that so much rubbish would still be inculcated and indoctrinated in the modern world, but then until very recently it wasn't obvious quite how much of what we read about the world in the news services is other than wholly accurate...
A sense of completion is upon us. What's next?
O.
Thursday, 15 June 2017
Television: 'Supergirl: Human For A Day' (2015) (Episode 1x07)
This is what probably counts as a Very Important Episode, but it's also one of the stories that seems to occur in most iterations of DC superheroes on film. It's the episode where the hero loses their powers and has to learn what it's like to be human. However, on this occasion, we get something slightly better. We get an episode where the hero learns what it's like to be a hero, which is rather special. (Watch out for the twisted clone episode. It will have to pop up sometime!)
'Supergirl', the one season wonder, pulls off something very special here. It makes every character, except the super boring adopted sister Alex, have something interesting to do while keeping the emphasis where it should be, on Kara Danvers. Or should that be Kara Danvers, potentially the person formerly known as Supergirl? No, of course she recovered! They always do!
It would only take a moment to lose perspective with Melissa Benoist's Kara Danvers and fall madly in love. She is absolutely perfect, and absolutely adorable. It's a phenomenal piece of casting, and one which would have made or broken the whole show. It's incredibly important to cast someone precisely when they have to wear idiotic superhero costumes, because if they don't work then you have a cape and a short-ish skirt to explain each week. Benoist really pulls off both sides of the equation in this show: She is wonderfully vulnerable as Kara, and clearly pushing out previously unknown confidence as her costumed alter ego. Especially in this one, where she has to show the suffering of not being able to help people, and not being able to be close to her love James 'Jimmy' Olsen.
It's not all good in 'Human For A Day', though, as we have the obligatory shake DEO storyline with the aforementioned Alex Danvers and Hank Henshaw taking down an escaped telepathic alien, with sprays of bullets everywhere. The revelation of Hank's true identity is pretty nice, though. He's really... No, I won't reveal it this time, but it will be pivotal, and possibly ruin the whole series. You see, there's a line of unreality that gets crossed if you have too many preternatural or fantastical regular characters, and if you cross that line then there's trouble in store. Normally, that line is marked clearly by the number one. Also, we get a second cliffhanger ending in a row, which is a bit frustrating. Please, not a cliffhanger every week! It would get very annoying!
However, with the DEO nitpick put aside, it's a great episode. Melissa Benoist, Mehcad Brooks, Jeremy Jordan and Calista Flockhart all work well, and the writing and direction is great. Well done, 'Supergirl', you could end up as the greatest season of a superhero show in the crates.
O.
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