30 December 2008: Parade

Got to see the Doctor Who Christmas special on Boxing Day down in Louisiana.

Some kind soul had recorded it the previous day in the UK and was uploading it in seven parts, about one per hour, to YouTube. With several hundred people, including myself, hanging on each new upload, he got as far as number six before YouTube noticed what was going on and suspended his account. Happily, some other kind soul had uploaded the last five minutes separately so I got to see almost the whole thing.

And what to make of it? The first twenty minutes or so had to rate among some of the best stuff that RTD has written for David Tennant. There were several parallel plot threads unwinding nicely in tune with each other, an underlying mystery of 'who is this other Doctor and why doesn't he remember David Tennant's doctor', and this was nicely tested out with a few suggestions as to what was going on... the first 'pocket watch moment' was particularly tense, the outcome just adding to the intrigue.

But then, rather like Saints, it went vastly normal in the second half. The question was resolved, the 'Doctor' was revealed not only to not be the Doctor, but actually had almost all his questions answered with 30 minutes still left in the show. And then the episode climaxed by the city being attacked by a giant robot machine, which was defeated by the Doctor wielding a powerful ray-gun. Sheesh. No cliches there, then. At least Ghostbusters had a little humour as it did almost the same thing a quarter of a century ago (can you believe it?).

Still, better to have seen it than not.

Meantime, a new CD or two came my way for Christmas. A Hillsong compilation from the last few years was joined by a long-overdue collection item: "Join The Parade" by Marc Cohn.

For whatever reason, I always end up getting Cohn's albums about a year to eighteen months after they are released and this is no exception. And, as usual, I wish I'd got it before. Highlights include the 'radio single' "Listening to Levon", mixing Cohn's soulful sound with a little humour, and "Live Out The String", which covers his car-jacking incident from a few years ago.

Best track for me, though, is "Let Me Be Your Witness", again a soulful easy-listener which crescendos with a descending bassline that I find seriously reminiscent of the final part of Annie Lennox's song "Why". If I were doing this song live, I'd be adding her lines in there too.

But enough from me. Happy New Year to all, and no, I don't plan to add anything else to my YouTube channel. Still, 1500 hits in about a week isn't bad considering I just put it on this blog and only told three people about it.

Just hope Bill doesn't mind the extra publicity...