Arcadia

I guess I'm either too dumb or too old, but I'm not offended by Moffat. He's a guy, with a big success and a big ego to match. Guys like that are all around me every day, I'm used to them. They love to bulls**t, they don't mean half of what they say. I don't take them seriously, and they respect me for that. In their own weird, dim-witted way.... :S I would prefer if the whole show became more careful with the terms "psychopath," "maniac," "sociopath". I assume they're meant to be droll synonyms for "idiosyncratic," and there was a time (now known as childhood :-) when that was not objectionable. But with so many true psychopaths popping up and popping off in schoolyards these days, I can see why some people aren't laughing.

(Is there a way to make these bigger?)

I think this one actually sorta happened .....

I thought the man himself came up with the best one ... "Cumber People". It's not gender specific!

Oh God yes.

2 versions are attributed to Mike Blake of Reuters, but the Reuters website doesn't list them. However, there's a third version from a slightly different angle on the Corbis wire service, attributed to Herbert Boest, so much to my amazement I'm inclined to think it's real... http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/42-56424652/86th-academy-awards?popup=1

Yes, I think that's the other side of what I was trying to say.

Just as a fun bit of trivia:

As do I, as do I! Art is a pretty broad term, it's not that it doesn't apply, it just occurred to me the way I was flinging the term around made it sound rather, erm, pompous, given the context. Yup yup. Abso-friggin-lutely... and I think they definitely enjoy driving us crazy....

ASiP - 10/10 (last one mostly a lucky guess, tho) TBB - 6/15 TGG - 5/10 SiB - 9/15 THoB - 3/10 :-( TRF - okay, did so bad on that one not even going to admit it :-) Yay! I now have the perfect excuse to watch them all again! Thanks!

I am going to add that all this talk of "art" is a pretty heavy load to put on Sherlock, which is, essentially, escapist fiction, and television to boot. Not that I don't think escapism and tv can't be artistic; just that they have contraints on them that limit what they can achieve (as all forms of expression do). The term "art" may imply a gravitas which I don't really intend. Sherlock is fun, the acting, dialogue and look of it are AMAZING, and it seems to make most of us think (yeh) -- but I have very little idea what it intends to say about the status of women, if anything. It's an adventure story, with two male leads, and there's only so much room in a 90 minute production to begin with. I'm happy they do as much with it as they do, frankly.

I don't feel particularly agitated about the remarks quoted - they are offensive but hardly unique, and we've all heard such nonsense many times before. It is, of course, possible he was misquoted or spoke ironically but, if it keeps happening, maybe he should take a bit more care to be quoted accurately. Maybe lay off the irony too... What do you mean, exactly, by the artist having very little responsibility to the audience? Agghh, you've sussed me out! I'm not very good at being "exact" (much more comfortable with shades of gray, sorry) but I'll give it a go. With qualifiers, tho, cuz I can't help myself. :-) Yes, I guess I do mean that. An artist may have a responsibility as a human being to promote "only that which is good," but as an artist ... I'm not so sure. If you produce only that which your audience finds acceptable, is it even art anymore? More specifically ... if Moffat is in fact, "misogynistic" (your word) ... well, too bad for him, but (according to him, see assorted interviews) he's created something he loves and has thrown it out there hoping enough of us will love it too, so that he can continue doing it. But when the audience then says "yeah, great, but you're doing it wrong, you should be doing such and such ......" No, I don't think he has a responsibility to listen to us. I would say that his responsiblity -- as a creator, mind -- is primarily to his own vision. Well, I might argue that most good fiction writing is subjective too ... but not right now. :-) I probably shouldn't have used Wagner as an example because I know next to nothing about him, I've just always heard him cited as an example of an artistic genius who was also a louse. But to answer your question ... do I think he should have altered his world view out of deference to an audience? As a person, probably yes. As a composer ... mmm, I have to say no. Apparently I think the artist is separate from the person. On one level I don't see how that's possible, but on another level I think it's true. Yes and no. (Did I mention I'm more comfortable with shades of gray? :-) Your work may reflect who you are ... but it's not a perfect mirror. I would say that quite a lot of hiding goes on. I think as an artist I project what I want people to see of me; which, quite frankly, in my case is not much. My work has often been described as "ambiguous", tho, so I appear to be projecting more than I intend. Oh dear.

I read the article ... I have to take it with a heaping grain of salt, it doesn't come across to me as very objective. Like Zain said; I don't know the context of any of those remarks. Some of them could be meant ironically, for all I know. And even if it's all true .... I don't really care. I've always heard Wagner was a jerk, that doesn't take anything away from the beauty of his music. I think we've had this discussion here before ... how much responsibility does the artist have to the audience? As an artist myself, I would argue ... very little. Sorry, this probably sounds a little arrogant, but ... I create to please myself. I like to think I have pretty high standards, and I'm over the moon when someone else likes what I do ... but I'm not going to change why/what/how I create to fit into someone else's notion of what is appropriate. And believe me, I DO get a lot of critcism from people who think I could do "better." Artists have to learn how to shrug this stuff off, or they can't function very well for very long. I think the role of women in fiction is a great subject to discuss, but I'm fairly uncomfortable attacking the artist for being who they are, or for doing what they do.

Yes, that's it! Thank you. I was really sorry it didn't make.

I don't know if production design is real either, I just assumed it sort of ... happened.

Okay, since I am the EMPRESS of Loving-Shows-That-End-Up-Dying-An-Early-Death, I'm going to throw in a few really obscure ones ... anyone else remember these? Earth 2 (so much promise...wah) Roar (Heath Ledger! Nuff said.) Max Headroom (which ended just in time, actually) SeaQuest was pretty good at first. and more recently there was something cool with Dominic Monaghan and John Cho in it, but I can't remember the name. (Yes, I remember obscure shows from 20 years ago but not one from last year....) Something about everyone missing a few minutes from their lives. Anyone? And of course the late, lamented Firefly.... I think the only shows I've ever liked that made it past 3 seasons were Buffy and B5. I'm not sure what that sez about me. And so happy to see another Reboot fan! Almost forgot that one, now I'm going to have to track it down. :-) And since I'm in animation territory now... the lovely Escaflowne, which Fox yanked after a half dozen episodes, thereby earning my eternal enmity.... (cemented by their "news" staff) and the amazing FullMetal Alchemist, which may be the only show I would choose over Sherlock if I were stuck on the proverbial desert island. Maybe.

Looks like someone's already beat us to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN_y0E9j8T8

Production design.

Oh no, you DIDN'T!!!!!!!!!!! "Benedict Cumberbatch photobombs U2 at the Oscars." http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2014/03/03/benedict-cumberbatch-photobombs-u2-at-oscars/5963729/

Welcome!

Alas, the "sightings" were all too brief and few, but there were some and our boy looked (and sounded) fantastic. :-) Anyone with a Twitter account, see if they posted the pic with him and Brad Pitt.

If memory serves, at the end of TRF they showed the sniper packing up his equipment. Which doesn't clear up anything, really, but I thought I'd mention it.

airplane

OMG that's so funny....