A Recent Read Number 9

"When I woke up that morning, it didn't take me long to realize there were dogs in my nose."

Cruel Shoes by Steve Martin. Before becoming a big box office movie star Steve Martin rose to the top of the stand-up comic ranks. He was a frequent guest host for the original cast Saturday Night Live, often he would be the first host of a new season, which is why some people mistakenly think he was the first to ever host SNL. That honor my friends goes to George Carlin. Anyway it was during this time (late 1970s) that Steve wrote this book, which is just a hodge podge collection of strange, weird and often funny stories and ideas. Some of them are quick one-liners while others run a page or two very few are more than two pages long. Some of the bits, all of which have titles and are listed under the table of contents, get to the point of the joke right away, while some take sometime and make you scratch your head and wonder what the point is. Then there are the totally absurd bits like "How To Fold Soup".

It is a quick and easy read as there are only 120 some pages with many of those having black and white photos from Steve on stage doing his stand up. The humor ranges from slightly humorous and only worth a slight smile to outrageously hilarious. I took about a week to read this as I would read one or two bits and then put it down, but it can be read in a very short period of time depending on your reading speed and length of laugh breaks. Fun and very silly book.

Cruel Shoes by Steve Martin 1977 G.P. Putnam's Sons 128 pages - ****.5

TORCHWOOD Episode 2.10 "From Out Of The Rain"

Pearl (Camilla Power) and The Ghostmaker ( Julian Bleach)

TORCHWOOD

Episode 2.10
"From Out Of The Rain"

This episode started sort of slow, but was quite enjoyable. It wasn't as action packed as last weeks episode but it still held it's own. There was one bit that made me scratch my head thinking they will explain it later on in the episode but they didn't really, I guess I'll have to watch it again to try and find the answer I am seeking. Since I've procrastinated on this review, I peaked at a couple of other reviews of this episode, and found that others seem to be disappointed by this episode. Some call it the worst written episode of the entire series. They seem to do what many do with films and DVDs they take it too seriously. I'm not saying to turn your brain off, all I am saying is don't over-analyze it. I mean come on the whole concept of the series takes a major suspension of disbelief to begin with. The Torchwood team's headquarters is in an abandoned subway excuse me tube station that sits above a major rift in the "time/Space" continuum, and their leader is from some unknown future and is apparently immortal.

Without giving too much away this episode dealt with some beings of unknown origins, maybe alien, that literally take your breath away. They steal the last breath of their victims and keep them contained in a metal flask. Known as the "Night Travelers" from legends, these creatures came from out of an old film of a traveling side-show. A part of Capt. Jack's (John Barrowman) past was partly reviled, but not fully explained. Even thought the Night Travelers threat was stopped, the door was left wide open for them to return someday.

I found it interesting that Gwen (Eve Myles) was in this episode as she is supposed to be on her honeymoon. I guess the Gwen/Rhys homeymoon episodes come later in the series? OK so the series continity is slightly off, since Gwen appears prominently in next weeks episode.

Viewed on 29Mar2008 at 21:00 BBC America ***.5
Image by BBC via The Institute website http://torchwood.time-and-space.co.uk/v1/index.php

TORCHWOOD Episode 2.9 "Something Borrowed"

Eve Myles and John Barrowman

TORCHWOOD
Episode 2.9
"Something Borrowed"

WARNING! This review contains SPOILERS!

Wow! What an exciting episode. When I saw the "next Week" teaser previews for this episode I thought [sarcasm] OH! Great a vampire/shape-shifter episode that will really suck[/sarcasm] (pardon the pun), but I was pleasantly surprised (No Vampires). Even with the heavy concentration on the reoccurring plot element of Gwen and Rhys' relationship, which I'm not too thrilled about. Strange since Gwen is a hottie she would obviously have a relationship with someone, or not. At times their relationship bores me. It must be that I don't like the Rhys character, he's too normal.

The story concentrates on the wedding day of the happy couple of Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and Rhys Williams (Kai Owen). The day is anything but ordinary as they find out that Gwen is now pregnant with an alien egg, having been bitten by a shape-shifting alien on the night just before their wedding. This alien species hunts in pairs and mates for life. After fertilization the female passes the egg to the male who then bites a humanoid surrogate mother/victim transfers the egg to the victim and then the female hunts down the victim and when the egg is ready to hatch tears the host apart to free the egg. What fun. The Male is killed by Jack (John Barrowman) just after Gwen has been bitten. During the autopsy of the male the team discovers what type of alien they are dealing with and realize that the female "mom" would start tracking down Gwen. Gwen insists that no matter what, alien pregnancy or not she is going to marry Rhys and become Mrs. Williams, no more postponements, the job won't interfere with her wedding day. She made up her mind don't mess with her shape-shifting scumbags of the universe.

The X-Files like story keeps flowing and is fast paced action and drama. This is one of those episodes that I wouldn't have minded if they made it a two-parter, but would be slightly annoyed at having to wait the the conclusion. Good thing it was contained in one action packed episode. In the end the crisis is aborted, as is the alien pregnancy, and the love birds get on with their I Do's.

This episode as I said concentrated on the action and the X-Files-ness of the series. The homo-erotic tones were quiet with the exception of one moment, which actually gave me a good laugh.

Viewed on 22Mar2008 at 21:00 BBC America ****

TORCHWOOD Episode 2.8 "A Day In The Death"

Burn Gorman as Dr. Owen Harper

TORCHWOOD
Episode 2.8
"A Day In The Death"

---SPOILERS------SPOILERS------SPOILERS------------SPOILERS-----------
This review contains plot spoilers for this episode and somewhat the two previous episodes.

This episode was rather enjoyable, although seeing the two previous episodes help keep you up with what has been going on. I suppose this is why some fans are thinking Torchwood is turning into a soap opera. Anyway if you don't like spoilers, there is no avoiding some of them with this episode. If you haven't seen the two previous episodes, then you may want to skip this mini-review.

OK so to bring you up to speed, Owen was shot two episodes ago and died. He was brought back last episode by Jack using a second resurrection glove, similar to the one used in the pilot episode. As Ianto plainly said "They often come in pairs". I am not a big fan of the style of story telling in this episode, you come in with a character (Owen in this case) telling another character (a young lady who is about to jump off a rooftop for the aniversary of her husband's death, who died in a car accident on their wedding day) recent events that have led them to this particular moment in time. In small ways this episode was similar to the Bill Murray movie Ground Hog Day. Since Owen is dead, he can do somethings he normally wouldn't since the fear of death originally would keep him from doing them. The rest of the Torchwood team adjusts their roles slightly and since Martha Jones is around she takes his duties as the team's doctor/medical staff, at least until the end of this episode, when she goes back to U.N.I.T. In the long run I think the whole kill a main character, bring them back and keep them undead can get very tiring. They are kind of stuck now, unless they find a way to bring Owen back to life, for good, or kill him off for good. I don't think Burn Gorman (the actor who plays Owen Harper) would like the latter. So that will leave the series more or less with two characters that can't be killed, one (Jack) will just get resurrected, and the other (Owen) will just keep coming at you since he's already dead. I fear that after a while the producers and writers will conveniently forget about Owen being Undead, I hope I am wrong about that though.

Doctor Who Spin-Off # 2: The Sarah Jane Adventures

Can I get a big WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH WWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOO!

The second successful BBC Doctor Who Spin-Off Series The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007) is coming to America but on Sci-Fi channel. (Sarah Jane Adventures on Sci-Fi) Starting April 11 this year. Yeah buddy. I'm psyched for this series only not too much because I have heard mixed things about it, and also have a few mixed feelings about it. For one I almost feel it was about 20-25 years too late, wait BBC did try a Doctor Who Spin-off series with Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elizabeth Sladen) back in 1981 that resulted in K9 and Company. I hear tell of a second season starting up soon (of SJA) if it hasn't already. On the downside I feel I won't really like episodes two and three, they deal with one of my least favorite aliens from the new Doctor Who series the Slitheen. Oh Well . I'm not sure of all the details of this new series, but with the publicity pics I found googliing around she hangs with a group of kids and gets caught up in adventures. I'm guessing from some descriptions I've read the neighbor kids. They still seem to keep Doctor Who a children's show over there in the UK this new show seems to be made for the CBBC (Children's British Broadcasting Corporation). I'll find out in about a month or so. Cool.

Flashback News: 1968? Or 2008?

In a celeb news story that sounds like it belongs back in 1968. From the AP actress Dawn Wells, who gained fame by portraying the sweet and innocent lovable Mary Ann on Gilligan's sland (1964-1967), was busted for possession of 'Mary Jane'.

Reminds me of the out-takes from some commercials with Florence Henderson I think in the 1980s for Wesson Oil where she goes up on her line and cusses like a sailor and then makes a remark that kids will be saying "Mrs. Brady Swears!"

But this "pot in the car" story sounds a little fishy, she may have initially been unaware that the pot was in her car, and the swerving she was doing that the arresting police officer noticed was her trying to find the heater controls for her new car.

For the full story, and a not so flattering mugshot (they never are flattering) follow this link ap.google.com/article/... In that mugshot she looks like that little old lady that gets caught stealing an apple from the grocery story or hitting someone in the behind with a broom.

BTW I got the photo from a google search from a blog devoted to Miss Wells. (dawn-wells.blogspot.com/)

Torchwood Episode 2.7 "Dead Man Walking"

Episode 2.7
"Dead Man Walking"

OK this latest episode of Torchwood was a slightly above middlin episode. It continues from where the last episode left off so you need to have seen that one, or at least the end of the last one to be a little up to speed as to the condition of one of the team members (Heck I don't want to give too many spoilers here) Overall I found it to be an exciting episode, but there was one bit near the end concerning Martha Jones that didn't explain itself well. All in all season two has been much improved over season one in my opinion. The characters are better developed, well D'uh that will happen given time, and a good cast with good writing. The stories are getting more interesting for the most part. I am glad that they are not overusing the weevils (the weird looking aliens that live underground and feed on human flesh.)

Oh and in this episode the team dealt with the manifestation of death, The Grim Reaper if you will, it was a CGI character but it was pretty cool looking. It was mostly a cloud of black smoke that walked around. The smoke (which was shaped sort of like the classical robes of the Grim Reaper) would swirl around a bit and in and underneath the swirling smoke was a skeletal figure. Pretty cool effects.

What Part Of NEVER Married Don't They Get?

One of the things I occasionally do on the internet as a form of entertainment and also that last desperate grasp at that final straw is to visit an online "Dating/Rating" site (you may have heard about it) HotorNot.com well I got a chuckle when one of these banner ads showed up (the site uses ads to help keep the website free):

The Banner ad for a dating site called NEVERMARRIED.NET reads:

NEVERMARRIED.NET
Life is too short to wait... Meet your match. It's FREE!
For all SINGLES Including Divorced

Another ad for the same site:

NEVERMARRIED.NET
Singles
Totally Free, unlimited email, chat, divorced welcome

Notice the name of the website "NEVERMarried.net" and divorced welcome? ?HUH? Doesn't Divorced mean NO LONGER Married? Not Never Married. Looks like someone needs to change the name of their website.

Social Community Internet Networks

Internet social networks like MySpace and Facebook are extremely popular. I have mixed opinions on them. Sure they are fun to use, and sure they help one build a social network, but what good do they actually do? Sigh! should I even continue with this train of thought? Should I even publish this post?

I opened up a MySpace account mostly so I could see the pictures that some friends and acquaintances have put up there. I may one day make a Facebook account since I know of at least one person who has an account there, but how often does she use it and update? That is one point to ponder with these things. Is it worth going through the motions of opening up an account if you are only going to use it every once in a while? One of my friends with a MySpace account (a friend I had before Myspace, not someone I met there) doesn't do much updating. He was last on about 2 weeks before I opened up my account so he probably hasn't seen the friend request I sent if it went through. It was the first friend request I sent so I'm not sure if it was recorded or not. Well maybe I'll see in a few weeks as he has been in a show. Should I keep this last bit or do some delete/editing? Nah I'll Keep it I guess.

Torchwood Episode 2.6 "Reset"

TORCHWOOD
Episode 2.6
"RESET"

Cast of Torchwood Pictured:
Naoki Mori, Gareth David-Lloyd, John Barrowman, Freema Agyeman, Eve Myles, Burn Groman

Wow, what an episode. Doctor Who fans will love the appearance of Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) who appears in 3 episodes (this one plus the next two), and then makes a brief return appearance in Doctor Who season 4. Anywho, this episode had a little CSI flavor to it as in one scene, actually a montage type of scene, Martha helps Owen (Burn Groman) in the med-lab figure out what is behind some recent unexplained deaths. Of course an alien, or rather an alien species is involved, and a bio-medical hi-tech research company headed by a shady character with a low set of ethical morales. Last week's episode "Adam" was in my opinion a weak one interesting but weak, where this episode was extremely intense and exciting making it very strong. Maybe it's just my lusting for Freema and Eve Myles. Then again maybe the sophomore season of this series is getting in high-gear and kicking-arse! The teaser for the next episode looks good too, but then again the previews for the "Adam" Episode made that one look more exciting than it actually was, I will just have to wait until next week to see if episode 7 is as good as it's teaser looked.