HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

It's a day to celebrate, but also to mourn the loss of Clarence Clemons last month.....

"DOCTOR WHO" ON JULY 4TH? PARRISH THE THOUGHT!

Happy Fourth of July! Happy Independence Day!

Or as they might say elsewhere in the world, Happy Monday!

As a Toobworld contribution to the Fourth of July theme, I'd like to offer this painting by my favorite artist, Maxfield Parrish:

"With Trumpet and Drum"

With big tin trumpet and

little red drum,

Marching like soldiers,

the children come!

The piece is entitled "With Trumpet And Drum" and it is dated from 1904. It was one of eight plates by Parrish to illustrate "Poems of Childhood" by the late Eugene Field. (He died nearly a decade earlier at the age of 45.)

As you can see in the picture, there was a clear influence for the main character in the painting:

The Gallifreyan Time Lord has met famous painters in the past, most notably Vincent Van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci, but also Michaelangelo and Gainesborough. So why not Maxfield Parrish?

I'm not offering up any splainins as to the circumstance leading to the meeting between Parrish and the Doctor. There are not enough "facts" available to make concrete connections within the reality of Toobworld.

This is more along the lines of fanficcer territory. So as a fanfic enabler, I will make a few suggestions... if you feel inspired to write about this encounter between the Doctor and Maxfield Parrish.

1]  Their adventure should take place in 1903, giving Parrish enough time to use the Eleventh Incarnation of the Doctor as the inspiration for the little drummer boy. And it should be something that might have borne a resemblance to the finished painting - only with a little boy rather than the boyish "young" Doctor.

2]  Parrish lived in New Hampshire, so the action should take place there. As with a lot of the wild areas in New England, the mountainous terrain and back country forests of New Hampshire are home to many myths, legends, and tall tales. Large lumbering giants and small devilish imp-folk can be found in the stories there. With either group, it should be easy to come up with an alien origin for their kind.

3]  Look into the actual history for New Hampshire at the turn of the 20th Century. There might be something that happened that could be given a 'Doctor Who' twist, which has always been a staple of the show.

4]  Was the event something that only the children of the area could deal with, because the adults had all been entranced by the alien adversary?

5]  And whether you use Amy Pond as his Companion, or some other young loverly who tagged along during that hiatus for the Amy & the Doctor team between "The Big Bang" and "The Impossible Astronaut", at some point in the story she should emulate at least one of the poses in other famous paintings by Maxfield Parrish.

Me, I'm partial to "Ecstasy" myself, but "Reverie" and "Hope" might also fit the bill.

If you do end up writing some 'Doctor Who' fanfic to go with this patriotic painting, please send a copy along to me. I'd love to read it!

Again, Happy Fourth of July!

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JOHN ADAMS

JOHN ADAMS

AS SEEN IN:
'You Are There' -
"Washington Crosses the Delaware"

AS PLAYED BY:
Howard Wendell

From Wikipedia:
On July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Adams died at his home in Quincy. Told that it was the Fourth, he answered clearly, "It is a great day. It is a good day."

His last words have been reported as "Thomas Jefferson survives". Only the first two words "Thomas Jefferson" were clearly intelligible, however.

Adams was unaware that Jefferson, his compatriot in their quest for independence, then great political rival, then later friend and correspondent, had died a few hours earlier on the very same day. Somewhat later, struggling for breath, he whispered to his granddaughter Susanna, "Help me, child! Help me!" then lapsed into a final silence.

At about 6:20, Adams was dead, leaving Charles Carroll of Carrollton as the last surviving signatory of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams died while his son John Quincy Adams was president.

BCnU!

SKED ALERT: SCENES FROM TONIGHT'S "TRUE BLOOD"!

'Game Of Thrones' is over, but HBO doesn't let you take a break from great TV. The following week after the fantasy series ended its first season, their horror block-buster 'True Blood' returned for a fourth season.

Here are three scenes from the second episode, which debuts tonight at 9 pm ET on HBO. (Check your times and listings.....)

BCnU!

"TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY" - COMING SOON!

Now that we're in July, it's time to start hyping the new 'Torchwood' mini-series, "Miracle Day". I was a little worried about the project at first, especially coming off the great "Children Of Earth" from two years ago. And because they changed it up with American production values (courtesy of Starz!) and a ton of American actors.

But I'm reassured by the fact that Entertainment Weekly gave it an A-.

Here's the simple premise: what if suddenly no one on Earth died?

BCnU!

COLLECTEEVEE SOUL

The Sunday commercial break......

While watching the AMC marathon of 'The Rifleman' off my DVR yesterday, I saw this commercial:

That song in the background was bothering me; that I knew it and remembered hearing it often, but I just couldn't place it.

Took me five minutes to find the answer online, and that was mostly taken up with just logging in!

Long ago I lost any sense of amazement at what I could find on the internet. That's been replaced by the shock at the things I can't find. (Like a picture of Joel Grey in the NBC production of "George M.!" back in the early 70's......)

BCnU!

TRASHIN' "TODDLERS & TIARAS"

I wonder if there's such a thing as Video Voodoo..... You alter a video like this and it damns the subject to turn out that way.......

Hopefully, there'll be more opportunities from 'Toddlers & Tiaras' to make videos like this!

BCnU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOOB!

Friday marked the 70th anniversary of commercial television (not of television itself).

Here are a few videos about the early days for the medium which made the creation of the fictional universe known as Toobworld possible:

BCnU!

ON THIS DATE: GETTYSBURG

Two more years and America will be remembering, honoring, and paying their respects during the first three days of July - the 150th anniversary of the Battle at Gettysburg.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: TOM CRUISE

Today is Tom Cruise's 49th birthday.....

TOM CRUISE

AS SEEN IN:
'South Park'

AS PLAYED BY:
Trey Parker

From Wikipedia:
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards.

Cruise first debuted in a major movie in Francis Ford Coppola's film The Outsiders, released in March 1983. His first leading role was in the film Risky Business, which was released in August 1983. After playing the role of a heroic naval pilot in the popular and financially successful 1986 film Top Gun, Cruise continued in this vein, playing a secret agent in a series of Mission: Impossible action films in the 1990s and 2000s. In addition to these heroic roles, he has starred in a variety of other successful films such as Days of Thunder (1990), Jerry Maguire (1996), Magnolia (1999), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004) and War of the Worlds (2005).

Since 2005, Cruise and Paula Wagner have been in charge of the United Artists film studio, with Cruise as producer and star and Wagner as the chief executive. Cruise is also known for his support of and adherence to the Church of Scientology.

During Cruise's marriage to Nicole Kidman, the couple endured public speculation about their sex life and rumors that Cruise was gay. In 1998, he successfully sued the Daily Express, a British tabloid which alleged that his marriage to Kidman was a sham designed to cover up his homosexuality. In May 2001 he filed a lawsuit against gay porn actor Chad Slater. Slater had allegedly told the celebrity magazine Actustar that he had had an affair with Cruise. Both Slater and Cruise denied this, and in August 2001 Slater was ordered to pay $10 million to Cruise in damages after Slater declared he could not afford to defend himself against the suit and would therefore default. Cruise also sued Michael Davis, publisher of Bold Magazine, who alleged but never confirmed that he had video that would prove Cruise was gay. The suit was dropped in exchange for a public statement by Davis that the video was not of Cruise, and that Cruise was heterosexual.

BCnU!