November rain

[alexsarll]

Anyone else been on the new Overground trains yet? Nice and spacious and all, but what's with the weird handles on the windows? I spent a minute trying various methods of opening them before being told by another passenger that they didn't open - and I remain unsure whether she knew this from another source, or had just been defeated by them herself. If she was right, then why do they look like they open when they don't? Must we be taunted so?
Anyway, I was aboard for my second trip (this year/ever) to Kew Gardens, which has the advantage not only of being so massive that you'll never cover it all in one visit, but of changing with the seasons so that even the bits you did see and love in summer are beautiful in entirely different ways come autumn.

Up is, as everyone has said, heartbreakingly beautiful. The effect of the ascending house works on a primal level, and the first twenty minutes is not only terribly, terribly sad - it explains to children how old people happen, something which always puzzled me at that age. Plus, the moral in so far as there is one is pretty much terrifying - not only that 'life is what happens while you're making other plans' but that, even if you do complete those plans, the result won't satisfy you because humanity doesn't do satisfaction. So it's perhaps appropriate to note that this is not the perfect film I keep seeing it hailed as. In particular, there's an odd moment-by-moment indecision as to whether it operates by cartoon physics or real world (or at least, adventure film) physics, meaning I didn't always know what consequence to expect from an action, how seriously to take any given jeopardy.

Back in the day, Doctor Who had a bit of a tendency to spoiler itself with the episode titles; it's difficult to be excited by the end-of-episode-one reveal of the villain behind events when the story is called Attack of the Cybermen or Revelation of the Daleks. The Sarah Jane Adventures has now managed to get itself into a similar situation more obliquely, in that if the story title includes Sarah Jane Smith's full name, it always seems to indicate the same adversary. Still great to see him facing up to the Doctor last week, though.

Still recovering slightly from a nightlife-heavy weekend. Poptimism was down to core personnel, on top of which strangers came - and not ones who wanted to dance which would have been grand, but ones who just sat there looking like disgruntled darts players. Nonetheless, an enjoyable night. Prom Night, on the other hand, was swarming with people who were very much on the right wavelength - Jareth from Labyrinth and the disembowelled nerd were particularly impressive, but at ever turn there was another great costume. I felt almost underdressed, particularly since a year without practice meant it was midnight before I really remembered how to wear my cloak to best effect, but I still danced until my feet hurt, and then some.
Out on the streets, though, Hallowe'en falling on a Saturday seemed to mean amateur hour - I saw a few zombie/vampire/witch hybrids who seemed to have been taking tips from Alan Partridge, and some inexplicable blackface (but orc black not black person black, so far as one could tell. Are chimney sweeps spooky?). Also, a puzzling preponderance of Beetlejuices.
And on Sunday, the PopArt Bowie special. Nightbeast aka The Sex Tourists aka White Witches and Jonny Cola both did fine Bowie covers, Mr Solo didn't bother but hey, he's Mr Solo, he can do what the Hell he likes, even bring along an alter-Devant band with aliases of the Detective, the Czar and the Inquisition. The night ended with the PopArt Allstars doing a whole set of Bowie covers for which, on balance, you had to be there.

Comments

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

Yes I have been on one of those trains. I meant to blog about it. I was on it and it had aircon on even though it was quite cold anyway which meant I actually froze to death (Am now a train zombie) and the train alarm is hidden behind a seat which means no one could find it even if they tried.

Stupid trains.

They are nice and big though.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I was faintly worried at one point that one of the buttons on the pseudohandle might have been the hidden alarm and as such that I had activated it. I was there on a hot day and if the air-con was on, as I was told by the other passenger, then it should have been on more.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

Now I am wondering if they have an ejector seat. How awesome would that be?

I keep thinking about the goat looking after children. :/

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Maybe the button summons the childminding goat?

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

Nggh! Awesome!

[mooism.livejournal.com]

If they have aircon, I hope you can't open the windows. Although the aircon sounds about as useful as radiators on buses.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

This is what the other passenger told me. But then, why make the windows look like they open?

Bus radiators are something I never notice in cold weather, only in hot weather when they've clearly been turned on in the garage at 5am and now the driver can't turn them off and AAAAARGH.

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

Well, you know a lot of tube trains have open/close doors buttons which don't work. Isn't it always amusing judging the morons who press them when the train pulls into the station? (Though to be fair, I've stood longer than I've needed to in front of a DLR door waiting for it to open automatically.)

I've noticed people struggling with the new Overground trains' windows, but haven't wished to try them myself for fear of looking like an idiot.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Didn't those open/close buttons work back in the day, though? And while, yes, that is amusing, is it really amusing enough to design in redundant buttons from scratch?

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure to what extent the trains were designed from scratch. I assume that different customers want different things from the trains, or maybe it doesn't hurt to have it there available in case there's strong public demand to be able to open the windows or something? Ach who knows the thinking behind it.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it did feel a bit like it might be locked rather than totally ineffective, so perhaps there's an override from the driver which can be tripped if the air con breaks down? Though, if the air con breaks down mightn't the override too? Still, at least theoretically plausible.

[wardytron.livejournal.com]

Barrington, do you realise that you're quoting John Winston Lennon? "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" is a line from his song Beautiful Boy, which was of course written about me, me being a boy, and beautiful. Hang on, it was about Sean Lennon, not me.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, Beatles are like chimpanzees with typewriters, aren't they? They will occasionally come out with something profound by pure chance. But the rest of the time they stink the place up something chronic.

[angelv.livejournal.com]

You've been sniffing the wrong chimpanzees, Sarll.

[wardytron.livejournal.com]

So you're saying that occasionally a chimpanzee with a typewriter will come out with something profound, by pure chance. I see no evidence of this having yet happened. Also, why are they not being given laptops? Nobody uses typewriters anymore. It seems quite unfair to me. And just think of all that wasted paper.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, exactly. Nobody's using all the old typewriters so rather than send them to landfill, we might as well give them to chimpanzees. Apart from anything else, they can't look at p0rn on a typewriter. Well, unless they write it first.

[angelv.livejournal.com]

Anyway, I got distracted by chimps. What I wanted to say was, I haven't been on the new trains but was wondering whether the new spaciousness is at the cost of seating?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I think it might be, bendy bus-style, but I was there off-peak so got a seat fine and couldn't be entirely sure on that point.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

I think it is, they are set out like tube trains with much larger gangways so I think you are meant to go in the middle.

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

Yep, much less seating, just along the edge of the train in a row like tube trains.

[duck-advocate.livejournal.com]

The best/worst Doctor Who spoiler for me was Colony in Space. Admittedly discovering that the Master was responsible for the mischief was never going to be a huge shock during the 1971 season but having the Timelords announce he was responsible at the start of episode one made sure there was no dramatic tension.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I think that may have been a sensible scripting decision after a few too many stories where we were meant to act surprised by the reveal that a man with a name like Master was in fact...the Master! Better to admit it straight off.
(David Macintee managed two brilliant twists on this in his books, one of which featured a guy called LeMaitre who was just a guy called Lemaitre, it's a name - and the other had the Master trading under a name which was an alias for Master in an alien language readers won't decipher)

A more recent example: there would surely have been enough trailer material in 'Bad Wolf' just from the reality TV with robot celebs that giving away the Dalek involvement in the teaser too was just baffling.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been on said trains, on the ultra glam Highbury & Islington to Homerton route.

As I wrote somewhere at the time, they are a big improvement - they don't give you the feeling you're about to be raped or on a cattle truck to Auschwitz - but, sadly, the other passengers are much the same. In summary - a good start but work to do - get rid of the peons, and then increase the frequency of the trains to something actually useful in the 21st Century.

Oh and the orange and brown colours on the seats are bit sickly, no?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

One of the seats already looked bizarrely faded on the one I took.

I realise that on paper the trains are pretty infrequent, but lately whenever I arrive at H&I I seem to find one about to arrive, even if this means it has been delayed from when it should have arrived. So, sorry other passengers, but this service clearly has its priorities straight.