williamisstuff

My Unorganized Thoughts on Dan Harmon’s Removal From Community

So it has been announced that Dan Harmon, the creator, the mind and the heart behind Community has been removed as the showrunner for Season 4, this is saddening news for Human Beings everywhere, these are just some personal thoughts on why.

The most effective metaphors I could come up with is that this is like bringing back Firefly without Joss Whedon, or Invader Zim without Jhonen Vasquez, it just makes no sense, you are removing the head and destroying the brain of the show, as it were. Even just as fans you get the sense that the show, while being made by hundreds of other talented and extremely capable people, is the singular vision of one crazy person who just happens know exactly what to make their vision seen and to be loved by people.

Now onto more personal reasons, 

Anyone who knows me, or happens to have spoken to me for more than twenty minutes is undoubtedly aware of my deep, obsessive love for Community. I am, I would say, the Community equivalent of someone who gets married in full Starfleet Command garb, what I’m saying is my love goes deep.

There are several reasons for this, one of which I have rarely shared with people, it is the primary reason this show means so much to me and why I love and care about it so much. Community makes me happy. 

That may not seem like much but allow me to give you a bit of backstory, I have struggled with depression for much of my life and there have been precious few escapes from that throughout all the years. And two years ago, I found one in Community.

I love pop-culture, music, television, movies, books the lot of it, but many things, which I deeply enjoy can still exacerbate my depressive episodes. Community has never done this, it may delve into “darkness” at times but they always poke so much fun at the darkness that they poke holes in it until the light shines through. It has achieved hilarity without cynicism which is something I appreciate, especially since it seems as though being cynical has become the new way to score a cheap laugh, something Community has never tried for and something that hopefully will not change. 

As soon as Community begins mocking people, as soon as they begin relying on sex jokes and cheap gags, the show is dead, even more dead than it already is without the mad-genius of Dan Harmon.

Community has been a refuge for me, an escape from whatever problems, real or imaginary, that I see in my life. Greendale has been a place that accepts everyone, sickness and all, and I cannot help but feel like the sick may begin to be quarantined and that would be a sad day, the first truly sad day within Greendale’s halls.

The Better Oxford & Other Tales

I would like to start off with an apology, the Internet in my hotel is unreliable so I’m having a hard time posting things.

Now then, what have we missed.. a couple days ago I went out to Camden, which is the hipster/punk/bohemian neighborhood of London. Its pretty awesome, there are all sorts of open markets in which you can barter with the shopkeepers for their fine wears including Banksy tshirts and top hats. While there we visited the Hawley Arms, the pub that Amy Winehouse frequented during her life.

We spent much of the morning that day in the National Gallery looking at all sorts of fantastic artwork including several by my favorites Monet and Van Goth.

Today, we went to Oxford. It was fantastic, it is a beautiful little town (much more beautiful than the Oxford I live in) I visited several sites associated with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien including having lunch at the Eagle and Child Pub where the Inklings met for over 20 years.

Also, what I might (sadly) be most excited about are the 3 books I bought at the massive local bookstore (it holds the Guiness world.record for being the largest room of books for sale) Blackwell. There I purchased two Welsh textbooks and a Cymraeg-Saesneg dictionary (Welsh-English).

I suppose I could give you a heads up as to what I will be (hopefully) doing tomorrow, I am planning to go out to the Notting Hill and Hyde park area along with Knightsbridge to do some shopping. And on Sunday I wake up at 5 to begin what will no doubt be a hellish and thouroughly exhausting day.

And that’s it, hwyl!

First Few Nights

I’ve been in England for a few days now, this is the first time I’ve had wifi for any substantial amount of time. Sadly, I cannot post pictures as I have none that I can put up through my Kindle, which is what I’m writing this from.

I can tell you what what its been like sans photos. The plane ride over was pretty awful, I was stuck in the dead vented of the plane and did not sleep for more than ten ot fifteen minutes. Technically, I did not sleep for near 36 hours from waking up Friday morning.

I didn’t mind it so much as I wasn’t planning on sleeping at all my first day in Alnwick. We’re staying in the “hunter’s block” wing, which is predominately used by St. Cloud State University, whom our contact was with. Since I cant post any photos of Alnwick Castle just go to tootle images, I’ll wait.

Our second day in Alnwick we did a swift walking tour of the town, which is lovely, imagine the town from Hot Fuzz and you have some idea. It’s exactly what you would want a quaint, rural, English town to be. We also frequented a few of the public houses that the town of Alneick had to offer, some were lovely, one however was more akin to a raucous bar in Oxford complete with flashing lights and loud music. Also it had a stripped pole on the second floor, no one was using it though.

Today, we made our way up to Edinburgh which is an amazing city. We went on a three hour, guided walking of the city showcasing both the city itself and the literary history it possessed. It is impossible for me to describe how fantastic the city was, everything about it was absolutely gorgeous, and amazing, and Scottish. My only regret is that due to our tour and a few other scheduled things we had very little time to actually spend time doing things in the city on our own. I’ve taken photos of most of the places have been, but none actually do them any justice, it’s disappointing that I canny bring back what I actually see for those of you who have not seen it instead of a cheap, poorly framed and poorly lit photograph that hardly serves to show the beauty that the UK has to offer.

My Incurable Case of Anglophilia

I am leaving tomorrow for England, I am outrageously excited for this. This will be my second time to journey to this magical, mystical, land and I will be there for about a week longer than last time.

It is important to note that I’m a pretty big anglophile, in a really weird way. Though its not just England, I guess you could say I’m an anglophile and a…hm…welshophile? Cymraegiphile? Anyway, my interest in these nations is not confined to things like pop-culture, (though that is a significant part)

No, largely my interest in the UK is academic. I am studying linguistics with a particular interest in the Celtic languages, specifically the Brythonic Celtic tongues of Welsh, Cornish and Breton. And of course I am also studying literature and thus have an interest in it for that reason, as well as having an expressed interest in history.

And of course being a massive soccer(football) fan doesn’t hurt it.

But I have said all this to say that I will be blotting my nest ten days pretty intensively… probably…maybe…hopefully, I hope you enjoy, I know I will.