Random thoughts

[avevale_intelligencer]

* I'm sure I'm not the only cispondian who sometimes finds him- or herself bemused by the use of the song "Amazing Grace" in American films and TV shows. It's a very beautiful song, and very devout and all that, but really. I watched an episode of Highlander recently in which one of the characters was named Grace, and sure enough there was that song in the background, sounding (despite its beauty and devoutitude and so on) unbelievably crass. Whenever somebody has a funeral, from Mr Spock right down to whoever the last person was who got buried on the screen, up it pops. Nobody could seriously maintain in these enlightened days that Americans don't have a sense of irony, and yet where this piece of music is concerned it seems to desert them. Odd.
* Gestern habe ich meinen ersten Ausgaben von "Professor Zamorra" gekriegt. Doch weiß ich wohl, daß es sich hier um kein große Literatur handelt, aber damit bin ich ganz bequem: ich habe endlich mit Robert Howard und Lin Carter, Doc Smith und Fanthorpe aufgewachsen. Hoffentlich wird sich meine Deutsch bald verbessern, mindestens wenn ich über Dämonen und Vampiren schreibe...
* Thanks to all who offered advice on how to stop my email posts from being cluttered up with extraneous flannel. Let's hope it works this time...
* When Kate Bush wrote "The Sensual World," according to a magazine interview I read at the time, her intention was to set to music a well-known speech from one of James Joyce's novels, and when the estate said no, she wrote a song that sounded as much like as possible, and conveyed the same emotional burden, without containing too many of the actual words (except, I believe, "yes," which is pretty much a prerequisite). So I was wondering if there are any other examples of this kind of thing...
* One of Highlander's producers described the show, at least in its second season and onward, as rather like "a Talmudic discussion, with ass-kicking." Nice phrase, and it indicates one of the reasons why that series stands out in my mind as being about the best thing on telly till Buffy came along, and why the spin-off series, which abandoned that format for straight action and comedy, lasted a season and then died. There was thought behind it. The plots were not just cardboard frames to hang a sword-fight or two on. The villains were more than just Bad Guy Of The Week, the hero and his companions were more than just good-looking ciphers with a few clip-on flaws. Why aren't more series written that way?