Stinque Up

Me and flippin’ eck about 3 beers in at my favorite watering hole:

73 Comments

What I want to know is who took the picture?

@blogenfreude: Didn’t the Vikings bring the red hair gene to Northern Europe? They need to cut loose for more looting and pillaging. Couldn’t hurt, the way things are going.

Aw, thanks guys! It was fun times to meet up with Bloggie today.

@blogenfreude: My ginger ain’t going nowhere so long as they keep producing L’Oreal.

@flippin eck: Exactly! For me it’s body art henna bringing out my childhood ginger. And it’s not like genes don’t mutate, such as. A world without gingers is a world without sunshine. There will always be gingers!

What a cute picture. I wish we all could be there. I think flippin holds the record for having met most of us IRL.

@¡Andrew!: Flippin in the only Stinquer I’ve met. I suck.

@¡Andrew!: I think SFL has me beat, actually. Remember, she’s met the elusive FCS!

@blogenfreude: I’m totally going to work on bringing HF with me on the next NY trip, so that would get your total up to two.

@blogenfreude:

Flippin was instrumental in helping to get us Northwesterners together.

I’d love to come visit you in NYC. Right now, my travel is all school-related, so hopefully I’ll have a big boy travel budget again after graduation (June, 2013, if you’d like to mark your calendar–wooo Class of ’13).

@flippin eck:

I’d love to visit you and General HF as well, and meet CB. I’m always on the lookout for a way to schedule a trip to Chi-town.

@blogenfreude: I was the one who had to cancel on you because of work, otherwise it would have been two.

@flippin eck: As I said after a few beers – get him here, and I will cook for the four of us … something julia and serious.
@Mistress Cynica: and baked had to cancel because of illness, so my record here is not too good. I will make amends.

I’ve met Dodger and Catt, who joined the RMLs at a pub in Santa Monica for dinner and beers. The roadie from Hamster Central was too brutal for Nojo. Mrs RML is in love with Catt, btw. I’ve talked to JNOV, Bloggie and Monk on the phone.

I’d try to get there for an NYC meet. Can’t leave the house right now. The staff has hidden the car keys. But perhaps when things are… calmer.

Note to noje, if you’re pressed for time and can’t manage the whole 21 episodes, #s 20 and 21 are particularly good. 20 is positively Shavian.

@redmanlaw: yeah – remember when I was going to come to NM and you were going to teach me to fly fish? Then reality set in and smacked me back into work and cat care. Maybe one day ….

The only one I’ve met in person in Nojo.

@ManchuCandidate: Come down from the permafrost, dude. Like, for good.

I’d come up to NYC. Definitely.

@ nojo:

I’ve been meaning to tell you about this for weeks. I went to the Battlestar Galactica exhibition at the EMP, and I saw the actual full-size versions of two Colonial Vipers and a Cylon Raider, plus lots of costumes and props–like the Arrow of Apollo–which I’m sure you remember when Starbuck risked it all in a stolen Raider to retrieve it from the Delphi Museum on Caprica.

Jealous yet?

Most intriguing though, they had the incredibly intricately detailed original Book of Pythia, which you’ll recall President Roslin burned in a crisis-of-faith-induced fit of anger–I KNEW SHE BURNED A FAKE!

Anyhoo, it’s a traveling exhibit, so maybe it’ll come to SD?

@redmanlaw: I’ve been through NM five times — too bad I hadn’t found you guys yet. I’m hoping, hoping, hoping to hit Austin and ABQ this summer. ::fingers crossed::

@JNOV: When going east, take the left hand toin at Albakoikee.

@JNOV: Come – I will buy you lunch. And cook you dinner.

@blogenfreude: Oh, yay! Thank you! In the new year? When things calm down?

These are some humorous post-Thanksgiving observations:

The most important part of Thanksgiving is the food! Every year, all families traditionally eat:

Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Alcohol
Pain Killers
Alcohol
Fuck off Gary I’m not the one with the problem here you know I can walk out that door at any time

@Mistress Cynica:

I’m sure we’ll be down your way again this spring when the weather warms up. Would you and Mr. Cyn be up for meeting somewhere like Astoria or Cannon Beach?

@¡Andrew!: Absolutely!! Keep me posted on dates. I still have a gift certificate for one of the inns in Cannon Beach.

@Benedick: Made it through all 21, but I’m not going to be able to devour Yes, Prime Minister before the Beeb pulls the plug on Netflix streaming.

@¡Andrew!: Anyhoo, it’s a traveling exhibit, so maybe it’ll come to SD?

I’ve seen the original Batmobile. All else pales.

@nojo: I’ve seen Joe Stalin’s Cadillac this, but they don’t allow pictures.

I’ve met Lefty, Prom and MellBell, but Donald Fagen proved elusive. If he and I meet, it’ll probably be over caipirinha’s in a muggy colonial hotel bar in Siam or Rangoon, with at least one of us wearing a linen suit.

/shakes fist at jet lag/

@Benedick: The Dirk Bogarde movie Victim, which you recommended, finally showed up atop my Netflix queue and I watched it last night. 20 years ahead of its time by US standards (apparently it was banned here when released in 1961), fine acting job by Bogarde, fascinating settings in late-1950s London, but the soundtrack music was a bit over the top. The DVD included a filmed interview with Bogarde which you can see here: http://www.dirkbogarde.co.uk/archive/victim-interview/index.php.

@Dodgerblue: It’s a fine film. And was instrumental in getting the law changed. Came out before the Wolfenden Report. And as I noted, Bogard was still very much publicly in the closet although people in the business knew and he was very open for the time. Much more open, for instance, than Lawrence Harvey. I don’t remember the music. Perhaps its over-the-topness was to signify melodrama so that the film shouldn’t be perceived as being ‘sympathetic’, to make clear that it was about a ‘scandalous’ subject. The villain is also rather over-the-top and not very good. He wasn’t a very good actor and it’s hard to imagine now a world in which he could ever have been considered hot. The London is amazing, long since gone. I also thought its observations on class, and of the way the gay subculture cut through it, very interesting. The writers and director were, I think, straight but on the whole they got a lot of things right. It reminds me of Brokeback Mountain in that respect but I think is rather better done. The way the two men in that movie related to each other in public and indeed the sex scenes were so far-fetched that it seemed clear to me that no gay men could have been involved in its making. I don’t think that’s so true of Victim. And as you say, very ahead of its time.

Fun fact: the actor who played Sylvia Sims homophobic brother was gay and made no bones about it. As someone once remarked to me: They’re everywhere.

@Benedick: That is funny re the rather creepy brother.

I had forgotten that Bogarde was in the Visconti Death In Venice until I went to his imdb.com entry. It’s now in the queue.

@flippin eck: Yeah, I think I may win the IRL contest here, thanks in no small part to work travel and the fact that I live in a city people like to visit. I’ve met and drank with probably around 10 or 15 current or former Stinquers.

@flippin eck: @SanFranLefty: I’m coming up with 13, plus two Stinque spouses. HF, flippin, OA and Mr OA were at my wedding party, which was very cool.
Two of the worst hangovers I’ve had in the last decade came after Stinque Ups. Good times.

@Benedick: “streaming available until 12/1/2010”. This also applies to a recent Doctor Who series.

@Mistress Cynica: OMG, I think the second or third worse hangover of my entire life was after my first Chicago Stinque-Up…

Let’s see, I’m counting that I’ve met (and in most cases, drank with) 22 plus 3 spouses (in no particular order except perhaps geographic or chronological): JNOV, JNOV Jr., Mommy 1.0, HF, flippin, CB, BeRightBack, you, Mr. Cynica, Dodger, Cubbie, Libertarian Tool, MellBell, Nabisco, Prom and Ms. Prom, the elusive Chainsaw, Benedick, Ewalda, TommCatt, Cassandra, Nojo, Pedonator, and WalkingStill and Ms. Walking Still. Baked and I missed each other in the Miami airport last year by about five hours. If I go to Seattle next year I’ll be able to add our Northwest crew to the list.

@nojo: See and I went there and I found that. One more reason to despise the English. Doctor How? Not so much.

@SanFranLefty: You get around. BTW I’m celebrating Touchdown Jesus’ win over USC last night.

@SanFranLefty: Yes, be on the lookout for Seattle dates. I’d love to join the exalted ranks of those who’ve met you.

@Benedick: Well, I had to check out Who sooner or later, and streaming’s an easy way to sample without committing.

And now that I’ve sampled, I have no plans to commit. Certain college friends will despise me for that.

@Dodgerblue: That’s such a tough game in terms of who to cheer for. My grandma the Bruin could never decide which team she hated more, ND or U$C.
@IanJ: Heh, it’s some sort of club, not sure if it’s “exalted” though…
@nojo: I never got Dr. Who. A bunch of the theater guys from high school were in to it, I didn’t get it.

@SanFranLefty: Yeah, it’s tough because Notre Dame ended our 88-game basketball win streak in 1974. But after 36 years I have to admit that they earned that one. We couldn’t handle Adrian Dantley when it counted.

@Dodgerblue: I thought the Ducks did that. But apparently we were an afterthought a few weeks later.

Register-Guard banner headline the next day: “WHO’S #1 IN THE NATION NOW?”

Hey, you enjoy ’em when you can.

@nojo: The Ducks game was the following month — and that’s one we really should have won. I mean, who did the Ducks have? Greg Ballard?

@Dodgerblue: Well, Ballard, Ernie Kent, Ronnie Lee, maybe Drozdiak (unless he already graduated), ten thousand rabid fans, and a swinging scoreboard at Mac Court.

Oh, and no shot clock. Harter’s four-corner offense was a devious and effective way to run out the time, especially against manifestly more powerful teams. Me, I thought it made basketball interesting.

Or was Harter later? I’m doing this all from memory.

@nojo: You’re right, Harter was there in ’74. You can imagine my feelings about the four-corner offense. They tore down Mac Court, didn’t they?

@Dodgerblue: It’s still there, and still in use. Phil Knight’s latest Generous Gift to the University won’t complete construction until next spring. At which time Certain Paymasters of My Acquaintance will move into a new companion building next door.

@SanFranLefty & nojo: I can only speak for myself, but to me the enduring appeal of Doctor Who is that some exciting stranger can show up out of the clear blue sky and whisk one away from one’s boring, humdrum life, and off to adventures through time and space–the ultimate deus ex machina.

I missed the original series when it aired, but I saw it as a child in reruns, and what it lacked in budget it made up for in creative stories and English charm. The plots were often quite abstract, moderately paced and cerebral (probably due to the low budget), but were usually exciting and mysterious. The producers and writers were also much more meticulous about the show’s story bible, so that they didn’t contradict themselves and piss off the fans too much.

The new series launched in 2004(?) has all of the big budget special effects, but it mostly lacks that distinctiveness and character of the original. It’s very actiony focused, with everyone constantly yelling, running around, and emoting all over the place, which I guess is what they call “acting” these days. While the show certainly has the slickly produced look and feel of a modern sci-fi adventure, the results are a lot more uneven and somewhat of a quality rollercoaster.

A really cool thing they’ve done with the new series is to weave all of the characters together through long plot points that pop up over the entire series. I should also add that the actor playing the current Doctor is far too young for the part (he looks about freakin’ 17), which makes wonder if we’ll be watching Doctor Who Babies in the not-to-distant future. My favorite episode of the new series is “Turn Left” (Season 4, Episode 11), which doesn’t even feature the Doctor at all and is one of the finest in the show’s near 50 year history.

@nojo: So long as you’re getting paid, it’s all good. Tradition be damned. UCLA is going to tear down Pauley Pavilion soon; I don’t see any reason for this except to screw more ticket revenue out of the alums.

@blogenfreude:

So I see.

Purely in terms of character development though, my favorite (quite shockingly) is Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. Donna starts out as just so shrill and unlikable, but over the course of the series her character’s journey from childish runaway bride to (SPOILER ALERT) her heartbreaking sacrifice during the events at the end of “Turn Left” reflected some very sophisticated and impressive acting and writing for a pop sci-fi drama.

@¡Andrew!: The GF made me get her all the episodes of “The Catherine Tate Show” – and that necessitated the purchase of a Region 2 DVD player so we could watch them. Tate is talented in ways I can’t even begin to talk about. She is Patricia Routledge talented.

But Billie Piper is still teh hawt.

@¡Andrew!: I remember it first as a half-hour show made for children in black and white. It was when the Daleks arrived that it started to take off. For as long as I was working in London it was reckoned to be a step or two beneath temp office work to be in it. Then it reappeared as a gay-boy thing and was featured in the Brit Queer as Folk which was, of course, done by the guy who revised the venerable doctor.

I had no idea that’s where Billie Piper came from but I figured she must be known for something. There is a short series made for, I think, the Beeb with her as a Victorian adventuress/detective/bint. It’s extremely lavish and sort of well done. The Sally Lockhart Mysteries. I find murder mysteries sort of tiresome, the denouement is almost inevitably a let-down, but if you like them/her you might check it out.

@Benedick:

It’s mostly cotton candy for the mind, all sugar and no nutrients, but occasionally they do have episodes that draw parallels to historical and contemporary problems in the best traditions of sci-fi. Personally, I found the more dark and complex stories from the 70s–paranoia, corporate conspiracies, a deep distrust yet simultaneous embrace of bureaucracy, invasions, out-of-control technology, and ecological disasters were recurring themes–to be the show’s creative peak, but the new series does have a lot to offer, especially for those that like to watch stuff ‘splode.

It amuses me to think that for English actors appearing on Doctor Who in the 60s, 70s & 80s, it would be like it was for US actors appearing on the various Law & Orders in the 90s and 00s. Time to watch Patti LuPone pay the mortgage. The irony being of course that there were and are legions of fans that would saw off a pinky for the privilege.

i’m insanely jealous…i was scheduled for a bloggie stinque-up last month but when he called he found me howling in new york hospital’s ER. you should have met me in the hospital- that would have been a hoot!
i’ve only met JNOV. have webcammed it with JNOV, bloggie, prommie. phoned it with lefty, cynica, monk. i’m hoping noge lifts the restraining order soon. benedick and blog —i will be back in nyc early january!

upon reflection on what i just wrote, i’m afraid the “only” met JNOV sounds dismissive. hardly. she is my sister from another mother.
and i’m lucky enough to have daily conversations over a scrabble board with lefty and dodger. and ALL of you are in my scope. ALL of you.

@¡Andrew!: Like Laura Norder? I don’t think so. Like doing infomercials for no money. It was something you did but didn’t tell your friends. TV was nothing like it is now. For one thing, in the UK, you rehearsed. I was in a 7 part mini series and each episode rehearsed for three weeks then went into the studio for two days to shoot an hour. I think I got 80 quid per episode and I was one of the leads. Dr W probably did an episode in a week. The first docs were quite elderly. They got their first ‘name’ with the 3rd doc who was Tom – something – who was going to be a movie star and then wasn’t. They revamped the show and gave it a more stylish, less children’s TV look.

@baked: Jan. God help us all.

@Benedick:

OMG OMG OMG, was your miniseries ever released on DVD? It’ll go to the top of my list.

Where did you film? One of the most exciting things (for me, anyway, as a teevee junkie) that I’ve ever done was touring the BBC Television Centre studios in Shepard’s Bush (?), the huge complex that’s shaped like question mark, and I got to see where about 90% of my Brit teevee shows where/are filmed. Maybe we walked the same boards!

I think the ‘merikin shows are produced much faster, with one table read, a blocking session, and then BOOM! An hour of teevee is produced by everyone working eighteen hours a day for week.

It makes me sad that DW didn’t pay at the time, but then again you could tell they were on a shoestring budget and sure didn’t blow it on the production values. I’ve read about the history of the show, and everyone fighting with each other and the Beeb over the paltry budget was a central theme since the show started.

@SanFranLefty:
it wasn’t 5 hours…we missed each other by 20 MINUTES. yes, i remember it well! DAYUM!
5 a.m. —to the scrabble board! nice tight game this round. i’m battling to hold my streak with 3 O’s, an E and yes, sport fans…i have the useless at this point, Q.
is it wrong that i cheered when rat’s beloved iggles lost?
i cannot cheer for vick.

@¡Andrew!: It was before all that happened. I was playing a schoolboy (I think I was 20). So it’s a long time ago. I did that for Granada in Manchester, which was the Warner Bros of the TV studios specializing in grittier, more contemporary stories than the Beeb. I did shoot a couple of pilots for BBC but they were done at the satellite studios in Acton. (For one of them I was part of a comical Scottish regiment (!) and for a memorable location we were taken to Carlisle Castle to be taught by great hulking scotsmen how to march in a kilt. Hint. It’s all about the ass) In those days everything was shot with three cameras using tape with film used only for exteriors. Everything was rehearsed, even the soaps. Coronation Street (done by Granada), for example, was broadcast twice weekly in two 20 min shows with commercials. They rehearsed it for a week as if it was a one hour show, shot them together then split them. It was, as they say, a different world.

@flippin eck: I was a hair’s breadth away from meeting FCS on one of his last trips to DC. Better luck next time perhaps.

@mellbell: Lefty and I have met FCS. He is a real person.

@Dodgerblue: I saw him in person again a couple of weeks ago, matter of fact.

@baked: No, no — not dismissive at all. No worries, mah sistah. :-) So many of you feel like family even though most of us have never met. You’re the family I should have had.

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