Post Olympics: reading, writing, watching, thinking.

The Olympics is over: I have three extra hours a day. Too bad another heat wave makes those hours heavy with assisted breathing and diminished capacity.

I was glad that Oscar Pistorius was able to be in the 400 semi-finals and the 4X400 finals. I was sad that the IAAF kept his case in limbo in 2008 to stop him from being in the 4X4000 in the 2008 Olympics.

I’ve been able to send out 16 postcards over two weeks. Reaching out to friends is important. In Japan, they send postcards at New Years (a hello and chance to win prizes, as the post office puts numbers on the post cards) and at the end of Summer in order to ask how people are doing. Not a bad tradition.

I’ve been watching Nordic Noir like Those who Kill and The Bridge and reading Welsh anthro books and Japanese ‘light novels’ series like Keili and ‘Book Girl and the…’ by Mizuki Nomura. The 'book girl' series is about a high school 16 year old boy Inoue, who joins the ‘literature club’ with 18 year old avid reader ‘book girl’ Tohko. Nanese, a girl from Inoue’s class who secretly loves him makes the third arm of the triangle. Each person has a secret, and each book is based and progresses along the lines of a book; which is also explored along with the author and inspiration of the work. Book Girl and the Corrupted Angelis based on Phantom of the Opera, as a friend of Nanese, who goes to Music school, has disappeared. She asks Inoue to help her, but the only clues are that the girl suddenly got better at music and refers to her secret teacher as her ‘Angel of Music.’

This series is about the creation, inspiration, interpretation and effect of literature, as well as a generally overall good mystery, with the human mess that goes with finding out secrets. Our point of view narrator, Inoue, had a best friend Mui in what would be Junior High. Her dream was to be a writer, and win a literature contest. She was working on a novel, but unknown to her, so was her ‘best friend and fan’ Inoue. He submitted it and it was HIS novel, with the convincing junior high school girl’s point of view which was unanimously selected and his pen name, Mui, was touted as a 14 year old genius. People still ask, ‘Where is she?’ but don’t realize that his friend Mui leapt off the top of the school while looking at his face, and saying one sentence which has paralyzed him since. He writes only because Tohko, president of the club, EATS the stories he writes, and demands that he must write for her as she is hungry. Is she a wacko, a demon or a bit of both? A definite recommend for book lovers, or goths.

BBC America, which usually shows BBC UK shows has created one of their own called Copper. It is about a detective in 1880’s New York, a ‘copper’ in the down and dirty section of New York, the ‘five points.’ It looks a bit like Murdock Mysteries (cancelled after four seasons by the independent producer, but picked up for a fifth season by CBC with ITV) as Copper has the protagonist as outside, allied with a minority doctor/pathologist. But as it is a US cable show, down and dirty politics, racism, lots of hetero sex and illegal violence occur. Odd how Murdock Mysteries is the mirror of the uptight, ‘is this best for all’, white male voice of Canada while Copper is the mirror of the ‘tame the wild’, independent spirit with an overt need for sex American. The premier is on August 18th, check out the trailer HERE, but don’t expect this copper to be giving cautions for littering or needing a bottle of Absinthe in order to kiss a girl (Murdock Mystery references).

Over in the UK, the band Mumford and Sons are releasing a new album next month, and have put out a new song and video titled 'I will wait' for you to listen and watch. Thankfully the folk core of Mumford remains, and anticipating the new album. Have a listen HERE.

Russell T. Davies, a welsh lad from Swansea is known as the producer and writer for Doctor Who, Torchwood and before that Queer as Folk. He left Doctor Who in 2010 and I have been watching some Doctor Who series and episodes, both the ones by Davies and the ones by Steven Moffat, who wrote some of the better shows in the Doctor Who series, like BLINK, which featured the weeping angels. Moffat is now the writer and producer of Doctor Who, the sixth and seventh season. As I am writing, which is why I am reading and watching things widely, I was trying to work out why I find season six and seven and the new Doctor completely un-watchable: my ‘bad writing/acting’ detector going at full alarm. Why?

Someone wrote that for Davies, the Doctor Who story isn’t science fiction but a Monster/Horror show that children/the whole family can watch, and it went ‘Bing!’ with a ‘Why didn’t I say that?’ While to my observation Steven Moffat has turned Doctor Who into a sitcom, something on par with later seasons of Big Bang, with the ‘quirky genius’ showing off in an over the top annoying way combined with keeping secrets because no one can understand. The rest of the core cast remain, even if that means they die, or end up in a rift in time to never have existed at all. Like any good sitcom, there is always a ‘Presto!’ Greek drama style ending where God/Doctor arrives and sets all to right, even if one character has to end up as a machine, or someone 3000 years in the future ends up the older adult child of parents from 2011. Do you care? Well, I am sure Sheldon would be happy to know he is Doctor Who, but other than that, no, I care more for the guilt ridden boy Inoue who can’t speak his shame of being this missing genius 14 female writer than this.

What the ‘new’ S.M. Doctor Who lacks is the mess which comes with people (or empathy). In the original reboot of Doctor Who, Rose takes off for a few trips then comes back, only a few hours later, according to the Doctor. Only when he sees the posters for her missing does the Doctor realize he got the date wrong by 12 months, and ends up with a wallop round the face from Rose’s mother (who after living on an estate, doesn't take any guff). Messy. But then, that’s why the old Doctor, a PTSD survivor of a war, who feared becoming the emotionally distant and uncaring lords he grew up with, has a human female along. The asexual Doctor Who needs to be reminded of the emotions he has had seared away which is why he apologizes, “Sorry, I’m so sorry…” The new doctor is too busy flirting or treating women companions like china dolls to care who lives or dies. Sure, Davies tended toward the maudlin, and had over the top lines and shows a plenty. But his companions come back to minimum wage jobs or welfare, or unresolved family issues just like the rest of us.

Russell Davies stopped making Doctor Who because his partner Andrew Smith was diagnosed with brain cancer, and he had the financial means to be with him. So the Omnisexual Capt Jack Harkness of Torchwood is put on hold so Davies can be the supporting cast for the unknown hero, who after an operation, 30 days of radiation and six months of chemo may be facing it all over again or dying.

As a writer, I would rather risk big, write big, and include the mess, which makes people cry, or turn away in embarrassment, than use a formula that makes good plots but ‘same old’ stories.