You're moving forward in a figure eight

[sovay]

Happy autumn! After some last-minute, early-morning runaround, I finally got to see a physical therapist about my back. In the evening, I baked things with apples in the toaster oven and watched several episodes of Mr. Palfrey of Westminster (1984–85) with my mother who has nostalgic feelings about the Thames ident with the river-mirrored skyline. The night is suddenly Arctic, full of the sharp colors of stars. I am hoping to have access to a telescope in time for Jupiter's closest approach since 1963, but if not, there's always binoculars. Have a couple of links.

1. I had not heard the contretemps about the origins of Betty Boop, but I appreciate PBS acknowledging that its failure to fact-check generated now-popular misinformation, which is of course harder to recall than the more complicated reality. "We could have thus avoided this teachable moment."

2. Courtesy of thisbluespirit: a gifset of Martin Jarvis in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), which I suspect I may end up watching just to have an opinion about what happens to him after the end of it, as the film apparently does not.

3. Courtesy of a friend who is not on DW: a manuscript scourge, which is exactly what it sounds like, except it sounded like something different to me.

I watched a bunch of movies in the spring before we had to move and intended to write about several of them and did not manage it in time and it is true that I do not have a ready means of rewatching any of them at the moment, but they still feel oddly, mentally inaccessible to me and I am trying to sort out why. It frustrates me to feel so wiped out.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

I very much hope the PT person can help! ♥

and watched several episodes of Mr. Palfrey of Westminster (1984–85)

!!! <3 ??

(And, aw, at your mother and the Thames ident! I have the opposite thing because I associate it with Rainbow and familiar as it is, and much as I must have seen it on so many other things, some part of me still goes, "Oh, God, not Rainbow again!")

Courtesy of [personal profile] thisbluespirit: a gifset of Martin Jarvis in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), which I suspect I may end up watching just to have an opinion about what happens to him after the end of it, as the film apparently does not.

Oh, dear, I apologise profusely! Everybody else hates Taste for good reason, but... the thing is my first Dracula was the 1968, which hit on a lot of aspects that I really love as well as being entirely full of old telly people I like (the arrival of Dracula revealing hidden desires etc), and after I'd read the book and seen the 1931, I found Hammer's version a real let down in those terms. In other terms, it had Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing being amazing, so you can't complain, and I learned to appreciate Hammer's Gothic thing that they were doing and enjoy it. But Taste (which was made quite soon after the 1968 and I think may well have been influenced by it in some ways) suddenly starts to ask some of the same questions! Alice kind of almost has agency! The whole story revolves round her in a way that works! And for a bonus it was full of other old telly people I like - Ralph Bates, Peter Sallis, John Carson, Isla Blair, Russell Hunter and Martin Jarvis (even if he isn't in it much! He's probably not in it enough to make watching it for him much of a prospect). So I feel really bad about liking it because everybody else's complaints are extremely valid ones indeed. It's a problematic mess and Christopher Lee only just turned up for it. But it just almost, almost also is Hammer doing exactly what I wanted for one film and I got excited before it went back to business as usual.

Mind you, I also like it because some of the plot is rubbish but the narrative reason for the plot being rubbish is basically explained by the fact that Ralph Bates is the most hopeless henchman ever, which I think is a perfectly legit reason for Dracula to have a bad day - ironically revenging himself on Ralph Bates's death until he's finally destroyed himself by Ralph Bates's incompetence, too. If he'd just realised he wasnt't worth avenging, none of this would have happened! Don't choose the 19thC English would-be aristocrat and occultist! They will just think an old church has the right vibe and forget you might at least want it properly deconsecrated first. And I think that's great so clearly I should not be allowed to have any sensible criticisms of anything, because my sense of humour sometimes gets far too out of line. XD

(But the Alice stuff is genuinely interesting, and the whole chain of revenge gets started not just because the three men are terrible and hypocritcal anyway, but because Alice's father is also abusive and that's what lets Dracula get a way in to do what he wants to do, whereas Peter Sallis and John Carson at least love their children.)

[ashlyme]

I've got fond memories of the Thames ident too (idents in general fascinate me; I still find them soothing). There was also a "night-time" Thames ident I tried to stay up and catch.

I hope you get to see Jupiter!

[gwynnega]

Taste the Blood of Dracula is mean-spirited but compelling.

[skygiants]

We just turned up in our archive some footage of Edward R. Murrow interviewing Betty Boop, which will probably soon be deaccessioned on account of how it does not belong to us, and I am extremely determined to watch it before it disappears.

[selkie]

The copier died today. I do not know how one would say copier in Latin, so I can't say Hic Iacet [Piece of Shit Son of a Whore Duplicating Machine with Razor-Sharp Edges] on its tombstone. My boss has now heard me shout "Piece of shit son of a whore" while snatching my crushed finger out of a machine, though. I should probably tithe to some sex workers in teshuva. They do honorable work and the copier does not.

All of which is to say, the fact that you are surviving at the level you are right now at all is really impressive, and I love the Thames logo thing. It came on the front of Dangermouse and Count Duckula, really fucking quality television in its time.

[asakiyume]

Yeah, "manuscript scourge" seems like something you punish a manuscript with--though I suppose turning a manuscript into a manuscript scourge is also a punishment? But now I need to know more about this whole concept.

The Betty Boop thing shows how even reputable news sources don't always fact-check thoroughly. Speaking as a nonfiction editor, it's amazing the things that people accidentally get wrong (when I edit, I check names and dates).

Hurray for the physical therapist! (And the telescope in your future.)