Random Acts of Observation

So, The turning of the year has come and gone. Our celebration was as always quiet, perhaps more so this year because we have had an annus horribilis which has only just barely begun, we hope, to improve.

So we sat in the living room and exchanged gifts and ordered a feast of Chinese food and watched the Doctor Who Christmas special, and the Murdoch Mysteries Christmas special, and had a lovely time.
My prezzies were wonderful.

A long list of ebooks:

Andrea ​Hairston, ​Lonely ​Stardust ​
Carter ​Scholz, ​Gypsy
Charles ​Saunders, ​Abengoni: ​First ​Calling
Charles ​Tan ​(ed), ​Lauriat: ​A ​Filipino-Chinese ​Speculative ​Fiction ​Anthology
Chinelo ​Okparanta, ​Under ​the ​Udala ​Trees
Craig ​Laurance ​Gidney, ​Skin ​Deep ​Magic
David ​Pilgrim, ​Understanding ​Jim ​Crow
Deborah ​J. ​Ross, ​The ​Heir ​of ​Khored
Deborah ​Wheeler, ​Collaborators
F.H. ​Batacan, ​Smaller ​and ​Smaller ​Circles
J.M. ​Frey, ​Hero ​is ​a ​Four ​Letter ​Word
Jackie ​Hatton, ​Flesh ​& ​Wires
Jeanne ​Theoharis, ​The ​Rebellious ​Life ​of ​Mrs. ​Rosa ​Parks
Johanna ​Sinisalo, ​The ​Blood ​of ​Angels
John Miller, Judi Dench: With a Crack in her Voice
Katharine ​Kerr, ​Dark ​Magicks
Marge ​Piercy, ​My ​Life, ​ ​My ​Body
Michelle ​Sagara, ​Cast ​in ​Honor
Minister ​Faust, ​The ​Alchemists ​of ​Kush
Rachel ​Pollack, ​Alqua ​Dreams
Sheree ​Renée ​Thomas, ​Shotgun ​Lullabies
Silvia ​Moreno-Garcia, ​Signal ​to ​Noise
Sumiko ​Saulson, ​Things ​That ​Go ​Bump ​In ​My ​Head

And the extended version DVDs of Hobbit II and Hobbit III

OK, this is only one of at least 50 rumours going around about actors who might be in the running to place the Eleventh Doctor, but the first mention in this totally speculative article actually caused me to loudly squee with untrammelled delight at the mere notion of its occurrence.

Chiwetel Ejiofor.

I've been mad about this actor ever since I saw him in Dirty Pretty Things. He was intense in Serenity, totally awesome in Kinky Boots, riveting in Children of Men... need I go on? (I'm still waiting to see some of his latest releases because they're not out on DVD yet.)

Chiwetel Ejiofor as the Doctor. It's a match made in heaven, if he wants the gig.

Yes, Bill Nighy would be fun, and Robert Carlyle would be hot and James Nesbitt would be dark and quirky and Sean Pertwee would be a sentimental favourite, Richard E. Grant or Hugh Grant could be endearing, and both Paterson Joseph and Colin Salmon have the chops for the job, and yes it would be cool to see a the Doctor as a woman, but...

Chiwetel Ejiofor. It's got to be the best casting rumour yet.

I've been watching a very interesting 4-part series on the American PBS channel for the last couple of weeks, called African-American Lives.

The set-up is that a group of about a dozen high-profile African-Americans, including Tina Turner, Don Cheadle, Chris Rock, Morgan Freeman, Maya Angelou and Jackie Joyner-Kersee (these being the people I was familiar with through the media) agreed to have their family histories searched, making use of every available methodology including genetic testing and comparisons with several different genetic databases.

As a Canadian, I didn't (and still don't) know much about the specific history of black people in the U.S., but watching this has taught me a lot more than I used to know. It'a also brought home to me once again how powerful is the emotional impact on a whole people who must, in order to examine where they came from, face the fact that their mothers and fathers were the property of others, and that for many there is no way to go through the loss of family connection to the past and to a place that has been an almost universal experience of the African diaspora.

Watching it has made me think again about a book I read a couple of years ago, Dionne Brand's A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging (my original review is here).

Even though my ancestors were driven from their homes, forcibly loaded into boats for a voyage across the Atlantic during which many died from the poor conditions and brutal treatment, only to disembark in a country they had never heard of before, at least I can trace my family names back to specific places in the outer islands of Scotland, and my family, when they arrived in Canada, were poor, but they were not property. I can imagine, but I can't understand in my heart and in my gut, and probably no one else who can say what I can say, can understand either, what it means to have those two facts overshadowing anything and everything one knows about one's past, one's family, one's history, one's roots.

Which is part of what makes certain moments of this TV show so powerful: watching the faces of these people as they are shown the records of family members identified in the slave schedules, or listed in wills ot bills of sale, as they visit a piece of land owned by a free ancestor, or find a marked grave, as DNA evidence links them to a particular African people and gives them a past that stretches beyond the darkness of the middle Passage.

Yes, I'm talking about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Two episodes in and I'm seeing a lot that could be very, very cool about this series.

What worries me is this.

Here is a list of the new TV shows that I've gotten excited about in the past couple of years:

The Dresden Files - cancelled
Painkiller Jane - cancelled
Blood Ties - taken off air, status highly uncertain
Heroes - season 2 went to the dogs

Maybe I should be trying to hate Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. That might increase its chances of success.

Of course, the new Doctor Who and Torchwood appear to be doing OK, but that's British TV, which is different somehow.

And speaking of both British TV and Girls who kick ass, I caught the hour-long premiere/Christmas special of The Sarah Jane Adventues on BBCKids the other night. Unfortunately, I see no sign of the half-hour regualr season episodes in their schedule as yet, so I'm oging to have to ::ahem:: the episodes, I fear.

Yes, they're for kids, but the first episode was fun.