Don’t drop that banana!

Syd Barrett died last Friday, the end of a sad tale. Nick Mason’s recent book provides interesting insight into the era when Barrett was part of Pink Floyd. He commented that no one dared eat or drink anything at Syd’s apartment because it was all supposedly laced with drugs. On the way to a gig one night in their brake-less van, someone asked: Should we stop and pick up Syd? The consensus was that they shouldn’t. In that way Barrett “left” Pink Floyd.

Mason says he didn’t recognize Barrett when he showed up unannounced one day while they were recording Wish You Were Here. David Gilmour is of the opinion that Barrett’s drug use wasn’t necessarily the primary cause of his breakdown, that it might have happened anyway. We shall never know.

Did another editing pass on the current story this morning, and didn’t change very much, which tells me it’s time to send to my first reader. I still don’t have a good title for it yet, though. Strange. Titles usually spring into my mind, but there’s nothing happening for me with this one that fits with what the editor is looking for in general.

Finished the third disk of Doctor Who last night. “Father’s Day” had a lot going for it. I liked the way Rose’s ideal mental image of her parents’ life is dashed by the cold hard reality of their relationship. I don’t understand why the Doctor persisted in putting Rose in a position that would cause a paradox without warning her of the possible consequences of meddling with the time line. I also wonder why changing the circumstances of the accident—the driver remains behind and confesses, so clearly his life is substantially different than in the original timeline—was sufficient to restore harmony. I like the friction and reconciliation between the Doctor and Rose. A touching episode. One might even say “a very special episode.”

The next two-parter is creepy to the max. Are you my mummy? Whoa. This is one I’ll have to watch again to catch all the dialog because we laughed so hard at some of the interchanges between the Doctor and Jack that we stepped on their subsequent lines. Dancing as a metaphor for sex. Jack rides the bomb like in Dr. Strangelove. Clever writing in the way the alien elements alluded to in passing early in the episode become the crucial factor late in the game. This episode has a dozen hilarious lines, which I could quote at length, but won’t. The above subject line is just one of them. Jack responds: Why? The Doctor says: Good source of potassium. Lots of good fun about the sonic screwdriver and the sexual predilections of advanced humanity.