Today is September 11th, 2011.
Yesterday was the 10th, or, as Americans also write it, 9/10/11. It doesn't entirely make sense as to why we in America put the date as month/day/year; I'm sure there's some fascinating (to me, anyway) story about why we do it this way but it's still not logical. I think that in Europe they go from smallest to largest (day/month/year) and I can't speak for Asia as a whole but in Korea the date is listed by the year first, then the month, and finally with the day.
Nine, ten, eleven. Most of the world uses base 10 in counting, and makes a big deal about anniversary years that are multiples of 5 and 10. But we all start with one.
1: the beginning. Everyone wants to be number 1. Number one also refers to urination (why?)
2: can refer to defecation (again, why?). Silver medalist, not bad at all.
3: good things come in threes? Bronze medalist, just made it to the podium.
4: in Chinese this number is bad luck because it sounds like the word for "death". 4-1-1 refers to info.
5: halfway to ten! Number of fingers on a hand, toes on a foot (usually).
6: Sixth is "sexto" in Spanish. From Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss, the toughest tongue twister: the sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick"
7: Lucky number in American/Western lore.
8: Homophone of "ate".
9: Almost at ten. Why do the digits 9-1-1 refer to emergencies? Why these three digits? I wonder what the number for emergencies is in other countries. Which reminds me of this silly little clip from another one of my beloved BBC/Channel 4 sitcoms...
10: Back to seriousness. The big one-zero, the first of the double digits if we go by Arabic numerals. A decathalon is ten events, a decade is ten years, December is the...twelfth month. Again, things don't always make sense.
Again, it's hard to make sense of this world. But there's still hope...
Showing posts with label bbc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bbc. Show all posts
Sunday, September 11
Tuesday, September 6
On a 9/11 musical, sort of.
In an earlier post I professed my love for the UK television program "Skins". I've only seen the first two of three seasons; the last season features an almost entirely different cast. Anyway, the second episode of the second season features a 9/11 musical, with the cast occupying various roles on and off stage.
I think there was an off- Broadway or off off-Broadway musical on the same topic, titled "Clear Blue Tuesday" or something of the sort. I believe that the musical in this show is called "Osama: The Musical!" (or, again, something of the sort). Oh, the show is available to view on Hulu. I haven't the time or energy to rewatch it but I clearly remember how incredibly tasteless it was...and that was sort of the point. In the show, the school's director wrote the musical himself, and though he is British he claims that he's a New Yorker at heart. Yeah, right. One of the lines from the main song is "Then came the day Osama blew us away/oh yes he blew us away", and in the opening number "hey girl" is made to rhyme with "bagel" (it works better if you try on a British-ish accent). Like I said it's incredibly tasteless, tactless, and therefore hilarious in a sort of twisted way. Don't get me wrong, I find little humor in the events of that day, it was devastating to say the least. The musical as produced in this show is deliberately cartoonish and exhibits the worst of all the cliches and hallmarks of cheesy jazz-hands Broadway musicals, and that is what makes it darkly, bitingly funny. It's nevertheless haunting, though, to remember the events of that day, even in this setting.
I bring this up because September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday in the second full week of the month, just like today. But today was mostly overcast.
I think there was an off- Broadway or off off-Broadway musical on the same topic, titled "Clear Blue Tuesday" or something of the sort. I believe that the musical in this show is called "Osama: The Musical!" (or, again, something of the sort). Oh, the show is available to view on Hulu. I haven't the time or energy to rewatch it but I clearly remember how incredibly tasteless it was...and that was sort of the point. In the show, the school's director wrote the musical himself, and though he is British he claims that he's a New Yorker at heart. Yeah, right. One of the lines from the main song is "Then came the day Osama blew us away/oh yes he blew us away", and in the opening number "hey girl" is made to rhyme with "bagel" (it works better if you try on a British-ish accent). Like I said it's incredibly tasteless, tactless, and therefore hilarious in a sort of twisted way. Don't get me wrong, I find little humor in the events of that day, it was devastating to say the least. The musical as produced in this show is deliberately cartoonish and exhibits the worst of all the cliches and hallmarks of cheesy jazz-hands Broadway musicals, and that is what makes it darkly, bitingly funny. It's nevertheless haunting, though, to remember the events of that day, even in this setting.
I bring this up because September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday in the second full week of the month, just like today. But today was mostly overcast.
Sunday, March 27
Stream of consciousness/ free-writing/ word association and...GO
Catalyst: Second series of the BBC drama Skins
This show is SOO GOOD. Yeah it has lots of teenagers having sex, doing drugs, cutting each other with words and generally making bad decisions, but all of them are so complex and three dimensional that it's hard not to emphathize with them, to have a visceral reaction to the way they blunder through their life, striving toward acting more like Responsible Adults.
This show is SOO GOOD. Yeah it has lots of teenagers having sex, doing drugs, cutting each other with words and generally making bad decisions, but all of them are so complex and three dimensional that it's hard not to emphathize with them, to have a visceral reaction to the way they blunder through their life, striving toward acting more like Responsible Adults.
Friday, February 25
Coupling (BBC)
When I was in grade school I had ten channels to chose from when I wanted to watch TV. My family subscribed to the most basic of basic cable packages, and somehow we ended up with 3 different PBS channels. I know, I know, poor deprived me, I didn't have any MTV to watch and glean the necessary information on how to act like a proper teenager. But don't you worry, I managed to go through my adolescent years without it. Actually, I really like the programming on PBS and without it I would never have been exposed BBC shows, like the sitcom "Coupling".
This show is like the best of Seinfeld, Sex and the City and Friends, all rolled into one and set in the UK. It features six thirtysomethings and their relationship with each other and their struggles to find and/or maintain happy love lives. Most of the time the show features the three men talking amongst themselves in a pub and the three women at a bar splitting a bottle of wine and they talk about the same topic but express different points of view. This is sort of the crux of the show, the "men are from Mars, women are from Venus" concept: men and women have different approaches to situations. Therein lies the comedy. I don't feel that I can succinctly describe how much I enjoy this show so I'll clumsily segue into some quotes:
Jeff Murdock, on arses:
This show is like the best of Seinfeld, Sex and the City and Friends, all rolled into one and set in the UK. It features six thirtysomethings and their relationship with each other and their struggles to find and/or maintain happy love lives. Most of the time the show features the three men talking amongst themselves in a pub and the three women at a bar splitting a bottle of wine and they talk about the same topic but express different points of view. This is sort of the crux of the show, the "men are from Mars, women are from Venus" concept: men and women have different approaches to situations. Therein lies the comedy. I don't feel that I can succinctly describe how much I enjoy this show so I'll clumsily segue into some quotes:
Jeff Murdock, on arses:
Do you know what arses are, Patrick? Arses are the human races favourite thing. We like them on each other. We like them on magazine covers. We even like them on babies. When we're alonge we like to scratch them; when there's a fire, we like to warm them; and who among us hasn't, in a lonenly moment, reached back for a discreet fondle? We love our arses. When God gave us our arses eh had to stick them around the back just so that we wouldn't sit and stare at them all day. 'Cos when God made the arse he didn't say, "Hey, it's just your basic hinge, let's knock off early." He Said, "Behold ye angels, I have created the arse! Throughout the ages men and women shall grab hold of these and shout my name."
Sally Harper, on the same subject:
You never understood about bottoms, Jane. Having a bottom is like living with the enemy. Not only do they spend their whole lives slowly inflating, they flirt with men while we're looking the other way... I'm sure mine's back there secretly snacking.
Mind you, these are two of the more neurotic characters. Everyone has his or her own neuroses that lead to various Seinfeldian situations. Jeff is sort of the Joey equivalent in that he's The Goofy Guy but he's terrible with women and has the best (read: most awkward and hilarious) lines of all the characters, for all the crazy situations he gets into and his comportment in those situations. Sally is...not as easy to categorize. She runs a beauty salon and constantly voices concern about the way she looks, always analyzing her skin, her body, etc. She's half of a will-they-or-won't-they-end-up-together couple. She's a ginger. She's my favorite of the women, despite all the indications that she portrays a stereotypically insecure woman in search of a man to complete her.
What sets this sitcome apart is that it has heart, and despite all the wackiness around the characters there's something that I connect to, and satisfaction in having men and women talk frankly amongst themselves and to each other. This show gets better the more I watch it, and I never get tired of hearing the same jokes. I know someone else who's seen this series and has lukewarm feelings toward it, which I can understand, but there's just something that I just can't articulate about this show that makes it so appealing to me, and it's easily one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I might have to do reviews of my favorite episodes to point out what it is that makes me love this series so much...
image source
What sets this sitcome apart is that it has heart, and despite all the wackiness around the characters there's something that I connect to, and satisfaction in having men and women talk frankly amongst themselves and to each other. This show gets better the more I watch it, and I never get tired of hearing the same jokes. I know someone else who's seen this series and has lukewarm feelings toward it, which I can understand, but there's just something that I just can't articulate about this show that makes it so appealing to me, and it's easily one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I might have to do reviews of my favorite episodes to point out what it is that makes me love this series so much...
image source
Friday, February 18
Epitome of British humor?
Maybe "epitome" isn't the right word, but in any case I think this video aptly demonstrates British humor: deadpan, ironic, and self-deprecating. I like a number of BBC series and hope to write a decent post about each of them, but at the late I'm going I seem to make a lot of these "I hope..." statements without fulfilling any. Hm. I have to work on that.
Some BBC series I like: Coupling, Skins, The IT Crowd, The Mighty Boosh. I've seen bits of Doctor Who, A Bit of Frye and Laurie and Prime Suspect but haven't gotten suckered into them as much as the five aforementioned series.
Some BBC series I like: Coupling, Skins, The IT Crowd, The Mighty Boosh. I've seen bits of Doctor Who, A Bit of Frye and Laurie and Prime Suspect but haven't gotten suckered into them as much as the five aforementioned series.
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