tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-12-21:2133966
WOSSNAME
Newsletter of the KFL since the Century of the Fruitbat
wossname
2023-02-10T10:42:17Z
tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-12-21:2133966:84804
Wossname – February 2023 – Special Edition
2023-02-10T05:39:48Z
2023-02-10T10:42:17Z
public
0
<p><b><big>Wossname</big></b></p>
<p>Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion</p>
<p>Special Edition February 2023</p>
<hr />
<p>01) LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR: THE PLAY’S THE THING</p>
<p>Dear Readers, if you're still out there,</p>
<p>I was astonished to discover, upon digging out the last 2022 issue,
that it’s been almost ten months to the day since I put together that
might-be-final issue. I won’t take refuge in the traditional ‘where
did the time go?’ because I know exactly where it went: on working
part-time, reading and daydreaming and jogging and gardening and –
well, being past retirement age now, I finally retired last month and
am now happy just being a housewife and, er, the… other one. </p>
<p>I devoted something on the order of at least 8,000 hours to working
on Wossname since I was first asked to contribute some reviews and
essays to it. That’s a lot of hours for a duty I only took on as a
favour to a friend. But I also made a promise to another friend, who
happens to be one of the most important people in the career of Sir
Terry Pratchett mayherestinpeace, that I would continue to promote live
performances of Discworld plays once they started up again post-pandemic.
Which they now have. So here I am, starting to redeem that promise. I
should have done it earlier, as it’s been several months since I was
given the first lot of info on upcoming plays in 2023, but at least I’ve
managed to get this issue out with several weeks to spare before those
plays start their runs...</p>
<p>– Annie Mac</p>
<pre><code> @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
</code></pre>
<p>02) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS</p>
<p>There seem to be rather a lot of productions of Wyrd Sisters coming up – all but two of the productions listed below! Plenty of other brilliant Pratchett plays out there, most of them expertly rendered from novel to play by Stephen Briggs, but Wyrd Sisters does seem to have become a Pratchett go-to for amateur companies. Nothing wrong with that!</p>
<p><b>WYRD SISTERS IN HERTFORD (MARCH)</b></p>
<p>Presented by the Hertford Dramatic & Operatic Society</p>
<p>When: 8th to 11th March 2023</p>
<p>Venue: The Studio Theatre, Bentley House, Pegs Lane, Hertford SG13 8EG</p>
<p>Time: 7:45pm all evening shows; matinee Saturday 11th at 3pm</p>
<p>Tickets: £13, available online via https://bit.ly/3YlMNDK </p>
<p>https://www.hdos.org.uk/v9/production.php</p>
<p><b>...AND IN MIDDLESEX (MARCH)</b></p>
<p>Presented by the Richmond Shakespeare Society</p>
<p>When: 18th-25th March 2023</p>
<p>Venue: Mary Wallace Theatre, The Embankment, Twickenham, Middlesex, TW1 3DU</p>
<p>Time: 7.45pm all evening shows (if there are any matinee performances scheduled, they haven’t been announced yet)</p>
<p>Tickets: available online from Monday 20 February. Ring the Box Office (07484 927662) for further details</p>
<p>https://bit.ly/3jNYWSH</p>
<p><br /><img src="https://wossname.dreamwidth.org/file/60632.jpg" /></p>
<p><b>...AND IN SUFFOLK (MARCH)</b></p>
<p>Presented by the Stowmarket Operatic & Dramatic Society</p>
<p>When: 22nd-25th March 2023</p>
<p>Venue: The Regal Theatre, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 1AY</p>
<p>Time: 19.30 all shows, plus 14.00 matinee on Saturday 25th</p>
<p>Tickets: £14 adults, £12 concessions, available online via https://bit.ly/3GX065Y
or ring the Box Office: (01449 612825)</p>
<p>https://bit.ly/3DUJ5sB</p>
<p><br /><img src="https://wossname.dreamwidth.org/file/60703.jpg" /></p>
<p><b>...AND IN WARWICKSHIRE (MARCH-APRIL)</b></p>
<p>Presented by the Loft Theatre Company</p>
<p>When: 29th March to 8th April 2023</p>
<p>Venue: The Loft Theatre, Victoria Colonnade, Leamington Spa CV31 3AA</p>
<p>Time: 19.30 all shows except Sunday 2nd Apr at 17.00</p>
<p>Tickets: £17 (concessions £15, students £8), via https://bit.ly/3XH7zNh</p>
<p>https://lofttheatrecompany.com/performance/wyrd-sisters/</p>
<p><br /><img src="https://wossname.dreamwidth.org/file/61082.jpg" /></p>
<p><b>GUARDS! GUARDS! IN LLAMEDOS (MARCH)</b></p>
<p>Presented by the Rhyl Liberty Players </p>
<p>When: 30th March to 1st April 2023</p>
<p>Venue: Little Theatre Rhyl, Vale Road, Rhyl, Denbighshire LL18 2BS</p>
<p>Time: 7.30pm all shows</p>
<p>Tickets: £12 + £0.94 booking fee (10 for the price of 8 offer £108 + £8.42 booking fee), available online via https://bit.ly/3HEUjCk</p>
<p>https://www.libertyplayers.co.uk/</p>
<p><br /><img src="https://wossname.dreamwidth.org/file/61247.jpg" /></p>
<p><b>WYRD SISTERS IN BIRKENHEAD (APRIL)</b></p>
<p>Presented by the Carlton Players </p>
<p>When: 18-22 April 2023</p>
<p>Venue: The Little Theatre, Grange Road West, Birkenhead CH41 4BY (phone: 0151 6476593)</p>
<p>Time: 7.30pm all shows</p>
<p>Tickets: adults £10, children and OAPs £8, available online via https://bit.ly/3HNEDNc or in person at Health and Home Brew Centre, 34 Oxton Road, Birkenhead</p>
<p>https://www.datathistle.com/event/1998194-wyrd-sisters/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/561238457227913/</p>
<p><br /><img src="https://wossname.dreamwidth.org/file/61505.jpg" /></p>
<p><b>...AND IN RUTLAND (MAY)</b></p>
<p>Presented by RATS (Rutland Arts Theatre Society)</p>
<p>When: 18th to 20th May 2023</p>
<p>Venue: Rutland County Museum, Catmos Street, Oakham, Rutland LE15 6HW</p>
<p>Time: 7.30pm all shows</p>
<p>Tickets: £10, available online via wegottickets.com </p>
<p>https://www.facebook.com/ratsoakham</p>
<p><b>...AND IN MANCHESTER (MAY)</b></p>
<p>Presented by the Guide Bridge Theatre</p>
<p>When: 15th to 20th May 2023</p>
<p>Venue: Guide Bridge Theatre, Audenshaw Road, Audenshaw, Manchester M34 5HJ</p>
<p>Time: 7.30pm all evening shows; 2pm matinee on Saturday 20th</p>
<p>Tickets: £10 (members £9), available online via https://bit.ly/3YyHmkv</p>
<p>https://bit.ly/3lkzvZu</p>
<p><br /><img src="https://wossname.dreamwidth.org/file/61796.png" /></p>
<pre><code> @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
</code></pre>
<p>04) CLOSE</p>
<p>..and that’s it for now. Remember, if you know of a local Discworld
or other Pratchett play coming up, please let me know (ta Vikki for the
RATS heads-up, by the way). If there are updates available for the plays
above, I’ll post them on the Dreamwidth mirror site.</p>
<p>GNU Sir Pterry forever, and mind how you go...</p>
<p>– Annie Mac</p>
<p>The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: wossname-owner
(at) pearwood (dot) info!</p>
<p>© 2023 by Klatchian Foreign Legion</p>
<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=wossname&ditemid=84804" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments
tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-12-21:2133966:83856
Wossname – February 2022 - Special Edition
2022-03-11T05:41:21Z
2022-03-11T05:41:21Z
public
0
<b><big>Wossname</big><br />Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion<br />February 2022 (Volume 25, Issue 2, Post 1)</b><br /><br /><small>********************************************************************<br />WOSSNAME is a free publication offering news, reviews, and all the other stuff-that-fits pertaining to the works of Sir Terry Pratchett. Originally founded by the late, great Joe Schaumburger for members of the worldwide Klatchian Foreign Legion and its affiliates, including the North American Discworld Society and other continental groups, Wossname is now for Discworld and Pratchett fans everywhere in Roundworld.<br />********************************************************************</small><br /><br />01) LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR<br /><br />Apologies yet again, O Readers: February got away from me. But there's no way I could miss marking the anniversary of the day our favourite author left us forever.<br /><br />...except he hasn't left, really, has he? Because his name continues to be spoken around Roundworld, and his vast body of work will always be there to be savoured by his original fans and by generations to come. So in his honour, here be some of your Editor's favourite quotes from all the Discworld novels and all the YA novels and various other pieces of Sir Pterry's oeuvre.<br /><br />GNU Terry Pratchett. Forever.<br /><br />And now, on with the quotes... <br /><br />– Annie Mac, Editor <br /><br />%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br /><br />02) QUOTES OF THE MONTH<br /><br />"It was octarine, the colour of magic. It was alive and glowing and vibrant and it was the undisputed pigment of the imagination, because wherever it appeared it was a sign that mere matter was a servant of the powers of the magical mind. It was enchantment itself. But Rincewind always thought it looked a sort of greenish-purple." (The Colour of Magic)<br /><br />"It looked like the sort of book described in library catalogues as "slightly foxed", although it would be more honest to admit that it looked as though it had been badgered, wolved and possibly beared as well." (The Light Fantastic)<br /><br />"'They say there's dwarf mines under the Ramtops,' she said inconsequentially. 'My, but them little buggers is in for a surprise.' (Equal Rites)<br /><br />"When a man is tired of Ankh-Morpork, he is tired of ankle-deep slurry." (Mort)<br /><br />"The subject of wizards and sex is a complicated one, but as has already been indicated it does, in essence, boil down to this: when it comes to wine, women and song, wizards are allowed to get drunk and croon as much as they like." (Sourcery)<br /><br />"In fact, no gods anywhere play chess. They prefer simple, vicious games, where you Do Not Achieve Transcendence but Go Straight to Oblivion; a key to the understanding of all religion is that a god's idea of amusement is Snakes and Ladders with greased rungs." (Wyrd Sisters)<br /><br />"It was a great comfort knowing that the gods were there. It was knowing they were here that was the terrible part." (Pyramids)<br /><br />"The three rules of the Librarians of Time and Space are: 1) Silence; 2) Books must be returned no later than the date last shown; and 3) Do not interfere with the nature of causality." (Guards! Guards!)<br /><br />"Interestingly enough, the gods of the Disc have never bothered much about judging the souls of the dead, and so people only go to hell if that's where they deserve to go. Which they won't do if they don't know about it. This explains why it is important to shoot missionaries on sight." (Eric)<br /><br />"If you put butter and salt on it, it tastes like salty butter." (Moving Pictures)<br /><br />"'All it's doing is moving around slowly and eating things,' said the Dean. 'Put a pointy hat on it and it'd be a faculty member,' said the Archchancellor." (Reaper Man)<br /><br />"Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because – what with trolls and dwarfs and so on – speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green." (Witches Abroad)<br /><br />"You know, I used to think I was stupid, and then I met philosophers." (Small Gods)<br /><br />"It's not enough to be able to pick up a sword. You have to know which end to poke into the enemy." (Lords and Ladies)<br /><br />"The Librarian of Unseen University had unilaterally decided to aid comprehension by producing an Orangutan/Human Dictionary. He'd been working on it for three months. It wasn't easy. He'd got as far as 'Oook'." (Men At Arms)<br /><br />"The Patrician was a pragmatist. He never tried to fix things that worked. Things that didn't work, however, got broken." (Soul Music)<br /><br />"Many things went on at Unseen University and, regrettably, teaching had to be one of them. The faculty had long ago confronted this fact and had perfected various devices for avoiding it. But this was perfectly all right because, to be fair, so had the students." (Interesting Times)<br /><br />"Nanny had an unexpected gift for languages; she could be comprehensibly incompetent in a new one within an hour or two." (Maskerade)<br /><br />"I, after hearing evidence from a number of experts, including Mrs Slipdry the midwife, certify that the balance of probability is that the bearer of this document, C. W. St John Nobbs, is a human being. Signed, Lord Vetinari." (Feet of Clay)<br /><br />"Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on." (Hogfather)<br /><br />"It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things." (Jingo)<br /><br />"Ponder Stibbons was one of those unfortunate people cursed with the belief that if only he found out enough things about the universe it would all, somehow, make sense." (The Last Continent)<br /><br />"Lancre operated on the feudal system, which was to say, everyone feuded all the time and handed on the fight to their descendants." (Carpe Jugulum)<br /><br />"Humans don't like werewolves. Wolves don't like werewolves. People don't like wolves that can think like people, an' people don't like people who can act like wolves. Which just goes to show that people are the same everywhere." (The Fifth Elephant)<br /><br />"A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on." (The Truth)<br /><br />"It was hard to deal with people when a tiny part of you saw them as a temporary collection of atoms that would not be around in another few decades." (Thief of Time)<br /><br />"Lord Vetinari, despite his education, had a mind like an engineer. If you wished to open something, you found the appropriate spot and applied the minimum amount of force necessary to achieve your end. Possibly the spot was between a couple of ribs and the force was applied via a dagger, or between two warring countries and applied via an army, but the important thing was to find that one weak spot which would be the key to everything. " (The Last Hero)<br /><br />"A good plan isn't one where someone wins, it's where nobody thinks they've lost." (TAMAHER)<br /><br />"THERE IS NO MORE TIME, EVEN FOR CAKE. FOR YOU, THE CAKE IS OVER. YOU HAVE REACHED THE END OF CAKE." (Night Watch)<br /><br />" What they did was sell invisible things. And after they had sold what they had, they still had it. They sold what everyone needed but didn’t often want. They sold the key to the universe to people who didn’t know it was locked." (The Wee Free Men)<br /><br />"The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it." (Monstrous Regiment)<br /><br />"A Feegle liked to face enormous odds all by himself, because it meant you didn’t have to look where you were hitting." (A Hat Full of Sky)<br /><br />"What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter." (Going Postal)<br /><br />"'What would you do if I asked you an outright question, Vimes?’ ‘I’d tell you an outright lie, sir.’" (Thud!)<br /><br />"First Sight and Second Thoughts, that’s what a witch had to rely on: First Sight to see what’s really there, and Second Thoughts to watch the First Thoughts to check that they were thinking right." (Wintersmith)<br /><br />"The city bleeds, Mr Lipwig, and you are the clot I need." (Making Money)<br /><br />"'The female mind is certainly a devious one, my lord.' Vetinari looked at his secretary in surprise. 'Well, of course it is. It has to deal with the male one.'" (Unseen<br />Academicals)<br /><br />"People aren't just people, they are people surrounded by circumstances." (I Shall Wear Midnight)<br /><br />"He was a scallywag, a chancer, a ruthless fighter and a dangerous driver of bargains over the speed limit. Since it was a bit of a mouthful, he was referred to as a successful businessman, since that more or less amounted to the same thing." (Snuff)<br /><br />"The world is changing and it needs its shepherds and sometimes its butchers." (Raising Steam)<br /><br />"She was Tiffany Aching. Not Granny Weatherwax, but a witch in her own right. A witch who knew exactly who she was and how she wanted to do things. Her way." and "A witch is always on the edge, between the light and the dark, good and bad, making choices every day, judging all the time. It was what made her human." (The Shepherd's Crown)<br /><br />"It is known that knowledge is power, and power is energy, and energy is matter, and matter is mass, and therefore large accumulations of knowledge distort time and space." (The Science of Discworld)<br /><br />"Think critically about what you are told. Do not accept the word of authority unthinkingly. Science is not a belief system: no belief system instructs you to question the system itself. Science does. (There are many scientists, however, who treat it as a belief system. Be wary of them.)" (tSoD: The Globe)<br /><br />"'That’s young Darwin,’ said Ponder. ‘Very keen on collecting all sorts of wildlife.'" (tSoD: Darwin's Watch)<br /><br />"Every scientific statement is provisional. Politicians hate this. How can anyone trust scientists? If new evidence comes along, they change their minds." (tSod: Judgement Day)<br /><br />...and, of course:<br /><br />"So he said to young Sam: 'if you lose your cow you should report this to the Watch under Demonic & Farmyard Animals (Lost) Act of 1804. They will swing into action with keenness and speed. Your cow will be found. If it has been impersonating other animals, it may be arrested. If you are a stupid person, do not look for your cow yourself.'" (Where's My Cow?)<br /><br />And not forgetting...<br /><br />"Death was Nature's way of telling you to slow down." (Strata)<br /><br />"I don’t seem to be achieving anything, but I must keep trying, otherwise what is free will for?" (The Dark Side of the Sun)<br /><br />"For every mad scientist who's had a convenient thunderstorm just on the night his Great Work is complete and lying on the slab, there have been dozens who've sat around aimlessly under the peaceful stars while Igor clocks up the overtime." (Good Omens)<br /><br />...and all the marvellous YA and "for (even) younger readers" novels:<br /><br /> "Religion is not an exact science. Sometimes, of course, neither is science." (Nation)<br /><br />"There were two ways of looking at the world, but only one when you are starving." (Dodger)<br /><br />"Just because you've got a mind like a hammer doesn't mean you have to treat everyone else like a nail." (Only You Can Save Mankind)<br /><br />"Granddad was superstitious about books. He thought that if you had enough of them around, education leaked out, like radioactivity." (Johnny and the Dead)<br /><br />"This isn’t magic, is it?" (Johnny and the Bomb)<br /><br />"The Munrungs didn't have gods. Life was complicated enough as it was." (The Carpet People)<br /><br />"'It’s a well-known fact that women can’t read,' said Gurder. 'It’s not their fault, of course. Apparently their brains get too hot. With the strain, you know.'"<br />(Truckers)<br /><br />"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." (Diggers)<br /><br />"Beyond the top of the sky was the place the Thing had called the universe. It contained – according to the Thing – everything and nothing. And there was very little everything and more nothing than anyone could imagine." (Wings)<br /><br />[Editor's note: I haven't time to include any quotes from Sir Pterry's collections of children's short stories, or from Once More* With Footnotes or A Blink of the Screen or the Long earth series. Feel free to add your own...]<br /><br />%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br /><br />08) CLOSE<br /><br />...and that's it for the moment. Normal service will resume later this month. Mind how you go!<br /><br />– Annie Mac<br /><br />ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo<br /><br /><small>The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: wossname-owner (at) pearwood (dot) info<br /><br /><b>© 2022 by Wossname for the Klatchian Foreign Legion</b></small><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=wossname&ditemid=83856" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments
tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-12-21:2133966:71137
Wossname -- Good Omens Special Edition -- June 2019
2019-06-11T10:56:17Z
2019-06-11T10:56:17Z
public
0
<b><big>Wossname</big><br />Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion<br />Good Omens Special Edition<br />June 2019 (Volume 22, Issue 6, Post 1)</b><br /><br /><small>********************************************************************<br />WOSSNAME is a free publication offering news, reviews, and all the other stuff-that-fits pertaining to the works of Sir Terry Pratchett. Originally founded by the late, great Joe Schaumburger for members of the worldwide Klatchian Foreign Legion and its affiliates, including the North American Discworld Society and other continental groups, Wossname is now for Discworld and Pratchett fans everywhere in Roundworld.<br />********************************************************************<br /><br />Editor in Chief: Annie Mac<br />News Editor: Vera P<br />Newshounds: Mogg, Sir J of Croydon Below, the Shadow, Mss C, Alison not Aliss<br />Staff Writers: Asti, Pitt the Elder, Evil Steven Dread, Mrs Wynn-Jones<br />Staff Technomancer: Jason Parlevliet<br />Book Reviews: Annie Mac, Drusilla D'Afanguin, Your Name Here<br />Puzzle Editor: Tiff (still out there somewhere)<br />Bard in Residence: Weird Alice Lancrevic<br />Emergency Staff: Steven D'Aprano, Jason Parlevliet<br />World Membership Director: Steven D'Aprano (in his copious spare time)<br /><br />oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo</small><br /><br />INDEX:<br /><br />01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH<br />02) EDITOR'S LETTER<br />03) GOOD OMENS NEWS<br />04) ODDS AND SODS <br />05) IMAGES OF THE MONTH<br />06) CLOSE<br /><br />oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo<br /><br />01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH<br /><br />"I'd like to think Pratchett is smiling in some version of an afterlife at what his great friend and writing partner has wrought."<br />– web journalist Jennifer Ouelette<br /><br />"Throughout it all, I kept wishing that Terry Pratchett was there. Whenever I got stuck, I wanted to call Terry and say, 'What do I do now?' And whenever I did something clever, I wanted to call him and say, 'I did it, I figured it out!'"<br />– Neil Gaiman, speaking at the London red-carpet premiere of Good Omens<br /><br />"When people have lived with these characters and this story that means so much to them, you don’t want to be responsible for breaking it. I hope I don’t live to regret this, but I feel relatively comfortable that we’re on the right side of it."<br />– David Tennant, speaking to The Independent<br /><br />"While the plot doesn’t quite take a backseat to anything – it is Armageddon – Aziraphale and Crowley are the magic that made Good Omens such a beloved work of writing from two of the most loved to put word to page. Staying true to the source material, at least in this first episode, with the help of Tenant[sic] and Sheen, that magic is redirected on the small screen in a way that captures the spirit, if not the intent, of Gaiman and Pratchett"<br />– Darryl Jasper for ScienceFiction.com<br /><br />"Good Omens is a farce, a cheeky lark, as stylish as it is stylized, macabre and endlessly inventive. It moves like a demon in a burning car."<br />– web journalist Alex Saveliev<br /><br />"If these are the End Times, at least we’re going out in style."<br />– journalist Fiona Carr<br /><br />"That voice adds color and texture that somehow makes it fly."<br />– Neil Gaiman gives his rationale for the narration in the Good Omens miniseries, in an interview with Film Independent curator Elvis Mitchell<br /><br />"I knew this was a lot like Michelangelo phoning you up and saying, 'Do you want to do a ceiling this weekend?'"<br />– ... and recalls his reaction when Pterry first suggested they collaborate on what became Good Omens the novel<br /><br />%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br /><br />02) A LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR<br /><br />The BBC/Amazon Prime miniseries of Good Omens has certainly made its mark. There have been so many pre- and post-broadcast reviews, interviews and behind-the-scenes stories that Your Editor has been run ragged trying to collect and sort them all... and write her own... and the size of the resultant text mountain, even in cut-down form, is why there will be two issues of Wossname this month. Many thanks to the various Newshounds who have also sent in links – and hey, O Readers, if any of you want to write and share your own review, do feel free to send it along! As always, the address is wossname-owner@pearwood.info<br /><br />The series had its cinematic world premiere in London at the end of last month (28th May), featuring a big-budget-film-worthy red carpet and the presence of Neil Gaiman, director Douglas Mackinnon, and various cast members. Apart from the flash and fury of glam, glitter and glitz, there was a small poignant presence – one seat in the front row had been kept empty because it was reserved for the original novel's co-author. But it wasn't *quite* empty. Yes, Sir Pterry's seat was occupied by The Hat. And if that gives you a frisson of simultaneous delight and sadness, you're not alone.<br /><br />Department of Some People Just Don't Get It: "As religious experiences go, Good Omens reveals more about star power than sky piloting. Anyone who still refuses to believe in the ability of big-name actors to work miracles on screen will be instantly converted after even momentary exposure to this convoluted and plodding effort at a comedy of cosmic errors. Without the semblance of wit and charm provided by its luminous A-list cast, after all, the six-part series would be little more than a litany of tired biblical gags and theology school smart-aleckry – holy hokum at its corniest." – so said critic Liam Fay in The Times, thereby becoming a front runner for this month's Joe Queenan Missed The Point award. I understand that people's tastes vary, but when a critic is so divorced from even a modicum of critiquing savvy... nah. I'm sticking with "Dude, here's your award. Now go forth and bother us no more."<br /><br />And now, on with the show! <br /><br />– Annie Mac, Editor<br /><br />%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br /><br />03) GOOD OMENS REVIEWS<br /><br />3.1 SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL(S)... AND ONE ANGEL: A WOSSNAME REVIEW OF GOOD OMENS, THE MINISERIES<br /><br />By Annie Mac<br /><br />First, as to what Good Omens got right: nearly everything.<br /><br />Good Omens the miniseries is faithful to the book. Very faithful, apart from a few cultural updates (none of which feel forced) and a number of new parts that were either derived from the two authors' notes for a possible sequel or newly created (pretty much likewise) by Neil Gaiman while looking over his shoulder for the possible disapproving shake of a behatted ghostly head. Faithful beyond necessity in some instances? Perhaps, but after all the original novel's millions of fans had been waiting for more than a generation to see them translated from text to screen, so that faithfulness is well justified.<br /><br />The title sequence, half-animated in a style that owes much to Yellow Submarine and Monty Python, absolutely sparkles. I normally get frustrated by repeated viewings of a title sequence that's become familiar, but in the case of Good Omens I never itched to press a real-world fast forward button each time the opening credits rolled.<br /><br />The music, by veteran score composer David Arnold, is particularly noteworthy. Other reviewers, when they mention the music at all, seem to focus only on the Queen track extracts and references, without noticing that the theme and incidental music is simply marvellous. The main theme itself, a deliciously derivative confection stretching in its influences from Für Elise to The Teddy Bears' Picnic by way of Delilah and Chim Chim Cher-ee, is as earwormy as an earwormy thing. I've found that even after a week, it's still circling round in the back of my mind... and I've no complaints about that.<br /><br />The set design, costume design and general mise-en-scène: yep. No balls dropped there. All excellent.<br /><br />The acting... ah yes, the acting. Let me start by saying that David Tennant was always as close as a human actor could get to being "my" Crowley. Several years ago, when he co-starred in the rollicking remake of Fright Night, I even described his performance in it as "his audition for Good Omens if they ever make a film of it... and his audition for Greebo too, if they ever film Witches Abroad," so there was no way he was likely to disappoint, and oh how he so very, very did NOT disappoint. Michael Sheen *wasn't* "my" Aziraphale by a long chalk, but I have to say he won me over in a relatively short time. Much of that was down to the core of the series being about the relationship between Crowley and Aziraphale down through the millennia, and much of *that*, it has to be said, was down to Neil Gaiman's script, that beautifully defined and showed the depth of a love-hate/hate-love relationship that was only hinted at (and that only barely) in the book. Watching the two of them verbally sparring and dancing around their respective Issues(TM), watching them doing their best to hoodwink their respective line managers and Chief Holy (or Unholy) Officers as their earthly duties unfolded, watching them slowly come to realise that the only entity who had either back, ultimately, was the opposite number and supposed enemy – most poignantly of all, watching both of them begin to doubt the wisdom, ineffable or otherwise, of their very purposes... yes, it was easy to think "Apocalypse? What Apocalypse?" and almost resent the appearance of the rest of the characters.<br /><br />But that's not to say that the other characters weren't well played. Quite the opposite. Standouts for me in the rest of the cast were Michael McKean as Shadwell, bringing the old fool's dedication, passion, lunacy and rambling accent perfectly to life, and Miranda Richardson's ever so believable take on Madame Tracy. As for Jon Hamm's Gabriel, I know that everyone seems to be raving about his performance, but I found it merely quite good – if you want to see Hamm *really* acting a storm, see Baby Driver; still, quite good is well good enough. Adria Arjona's Anathema was given a creditable backstory: after all, in the course of more than three centuries of family that separated her from Agnes Nutter, it's quite reasonable to imagine that some of Agnes' "professional descendants" might have migrated to sunnier parts of the globe. I enjoyed Jack Whitehall as Newt, and The Them were perfectly adequate even though they didn't get as much screen time as the Crowley and Aziraphale Show. Sam Taylor Buck didn't look like I imagined Adam would from the book's description, but as several people I know have pointed out, he looked very much like a pre-teen Mick Jagger, so every time he was on screen as the story progressed, I was happy to add the Rolling Stones' classic Sympathy For the Devil to my mental soundtrack. Bill Paterson's RP Tyler was bang on the money – I wish we could have seen even more of him. And kudos to Nina Sosanya for making Sister Mary Loquacious a shining, sweet Satanist who made the early baby-swap segment and the later corporate-retreat segment shine.<br /><br />The flow of the story was smooth. The episodes each built nicely to a climax. Oh, and there's a positively toothsome twist at the end, but I'll not mention the details here apart from saying "well done, Team Omens!"<br /><br />So what, in my opinion, did Good Omens *not* get right? <br /><br />Well, very little. I have one major cavil and a few minor ones; the major cavil being the casting and direction of Frances McDormand as the Voice of God. That's a cavil of two halves – one, there was far too much superfluous narration, much of which could either have been dispensed with altogether or slotted in with minimal effort to the live action; and two, the narrator was, in my opinion, grievously miscast. I've admired McDormand for years as an *onscreen* actor of great ability, but as Good Omens' unseen Big Boss Godsplaining to the masses, I found her delivery so "whiny American mom exhausted by her bratty hyperactive kids" that it threw me right out of the flow on a fair few occasions. And no, I don't think this is a matter of my knowing Good Omens-the-novel so well. I remember going to see Fellowship of the Ring in a party of six, half of whom knew the source material and half of whom who didn't, and while the three of us who'd read Lord of the Rings found the opening narration a bit wearisome, the newbies all said they would have been lost without it. And of course there's the Book in the Hitchhiker's Guide, which in the audio and visual versions was utterly indispensable. <br /><br />Re McDormand, I was interested to see that more than a few reviewers agreed with me, although none of them offered any if-only alternatives. For what it's worth, my own if-only alternative suggestion would have been a less obtrusive narration by an African-sounding female analogue of James Earl Jones -- because the series got the Garden of Eden scene spot-on, and as the God of Good Omens created humankind in Her image, that kind of voice would have been appropriate. Ah well, we all can dream.<br /><br />Lesser cavils: the Horsemen seemed somewhat lacklustre to me, and I think casting a tall, catwalk-slim black woman as Dr Raven Sable (Famine) and sticking with a book-version sleazy late-teenage white male grunge punk as Pollution would have worked better. And Brian Cox, an actor who normally gives value for money, seemed pale – the wrong kind of pale! – as Death, especially when compared to Christopher Lee's definitive rendering of THE DEATH VOICE. Mireille Enos as War also felt a bit try-hard to me. Not a poor performance by any means, but not as vital and sensually dangerous as I hoped she would be. Also, I think Anna Maxwell Martin as Beelzebub and Doon Mackichan as the Archangel Michael were, sorry to say it, simply mediocre. But these cavils are small indeed, and I have to emphasise that Good Omens on the whole was an absolute triumph and I hope millions of viewers love it the way I do.<br /><br />I'll be counting the days until Good Omens comes out on DVD. Meanwhile, the magical theme music plays on in my head...<br /><br />.p.s. I'm moved to share a link to the opening credits, with the theme music: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsrPO8qslBE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsrPO8qslBE</a><br /><br />3.2 ...AND THE REST<br /><br />By Flora Carr for the Radio Times:<br /><br />"The true triumph is the casting. Michael Sheen shines (quite literally, in some scenes) as the angel Aziraphale, a celestial field agent who teams up with his opposite number, the stylish demon Crowley – played with a Bill Nighy-esque swagger by David Tennant – in order to prevent Armageddon. It’s this pairing that proves to be the beating heart of the series. Crowley and Aziraphale have been on Earth since the very beginning, and in their own ways they’ve both “gone native”. Aziraphale owns a Soho bookshop, and likes gravlax salmon with dill sauce. Crowley drives a pristine 1926 Bentley and listens to Queen. They’ve formed a professional agreement not to meddle in each other’s affairs, and in their spare time they’ve enjoyed a series of rather nice clandestine lunches. Every time either actor appears onscreen, you can almost hear the costume department’s (and fandom’s) squeals of joy. David Tennant in snakeskin boots! Michael Sheen with artfully tousled bleached hair! A tartan bow tie! Tennant also sports appropriately flame-red hair (not in the books, but worth it for Doctor Who fans’ realisation that the Tenth Doctor finally got his wish) that frequently changes style. In one particularly memorable moment during episode one, Crowley disguises himself as a bobbed-haired nanny, a Satanic crossover between Nanny McPhee and Mrs Doubtfire... Various sets are also new for the TV show: Heaven is now a vast corporate headquarters, while Hell resembles an overcrowded basement office. A rather gloomier version of The IT Crowd, if you will. Some of the show’s special effects can feel a bit hammy (think Russell T Davies-era Doctor Who with a couple of rubber frogs thrown in), but the scene depicting the entrances to both Heaven and Hell features a pretty cool bit of cinematography, including a mirror effect and an upside-down Tennant..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2X4M11m">https://bit.ly/2X4M11m</a><br /><br />By Lucy Mangan for The Guardian:<br /><br />"Both Sheen and (a miraculously non-manic, given the potential of his part) David Tennant as the demon Crowley are wonderful in the six-part adaptation by Neil Gaiman of the much-loved fantasy novel he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett in 1990. Their chemistry is a joy, even if the banter they are given is often stale or overegged... Off we go into a maelstrom of adventures, misunderstandings and tangles with witches and witchcraft, involving Gilliamesque levels of invention, puppetry stylings, disguises, pyrotechnics, extravagant costumes, CGI curlicues and a general sense that neither kit nor caboodle has been spared in the construction of this entertainment. It doesn’t quite work, because it doesn’t quite disguise the fact that beneath the razzle-dazzle, every character apart from the main two is tissue-paper thin... That sense isn’t helped by the perpetual signposting of gags, overly faithful reproductions of the original dialogue (what skips along when read becomes laborious when spoken) and the repetitive nature of many scenes..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2IDOdng">https://bit.ly/2IDOdng</a><br /><br />By Tristram Fane Saunders in The Telegraph:<br /><br />"Gaiman’s screenplay is utterly faithful to the novel. But is 'faithful' really the best thing for a blasphemous comedy to be? This reverential approach feels at odds with the book’s innate playfulness. The success of the book had less to do with its plot – a sprawling tangle of witchfinders and apocalyptic horsemen – than its rich comic prose, in a quintessentially English style that owed much to PG Wodehouse and Douglas Adams. In an attempt to translate that to the screen, the show falls back on voiceover narration (from Oscar-winner Frances McDormand). This technique is always a danger when an author is allowed to adapt his own work; it gives him an excuse to cram in all his favourite descriptive passages at the expense of visual storytelling. Here, it’s a distracting and unnecessary irritant... That screenwriting chestnut, ‘show, don’t tell', has rarely felt more apt. Combined with heavily signposted comic beats, that storybook narration has an unfortunate effect on the overall tone; it often plays like a children’s programme, though it’s not billed as one. Oddly, young Sam Taylor Buck, who pops up in the closing minutes as the Just William-esque antichrist, is virtually the only cast member who isn’t taking the stage school approach of broad-acting-for-kids. Salvation comes from the comic chemistry between the show's pair of scenery-chewing stars, David Tennant and Michael Sheen. They light up the screen as Crowley and Aziraphale..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2I62hH3">https://bit.ly/2I62hH3</a> (requires registration)<br /><br />By Nicholas Barber for BBC online:<br /><br />"Gaiman has made some shrewd changes to his and Pratchett’s original narrative. (Pratchett himself died in 2015.) He develops the unlikely bromance between Aziraphale and Crowley, so that these celestial beings’ friendship is more touching and, well, human, than it is on paper. Sheen is especially lovable as the anxious, bow-tied angel who would love to stick to God’s ineffable plan, but who can’t bear the thought of an eternity without Stephen Sondheim musicals and tea at the Ritz. Tennant’s louche, rock’n’roll demon may sometimes come across as a Bill Nighy impersonator, but anyone who warmed to his swaggering Doctor Who persona will relish seeing what that same persona would be like with the addition of a bottle of bourbon. Gaiman also bumps up the number of other angels and demons (most notably the archangel Gabriel, played by Hamm as a bumptious corporate boss) who pop into Aziraphale’s vintage bookshop and Crowley’s bachelor pad to keep them on their toes... The tangential structure won’t put off the book’s devotees, who adore it not for its plot but for its studenty jokes, its mischievous commentary on Christianity, and its leaps from continent to continent, and from century to century. But everybody else will be asking if it was strictly necessary for the series to ramble on like this for six hours..."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190521-tv-review-good-omens">http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190521-tv-review-good-omens</a><br /><br />By Sophie Gilbert for The Atlantic:<br /><br />"In Good Omens, Gaiman’s creativity seems almost entirely unfettered – by possibility, by structure, or by budgets... The dynamic between Tennant’s Crowley and Sheen’s Aziraphale is what makes Good Omens, which in its finest moments feels like a gay-ish, biblical When Harry Met Sally. The third episode’s pre-credits sequence, which runs a stonking 30 minutes long, details the encounters the pair have had over the years: an early run-in as Noah is constructing his ark, a meet-cute at the Crucifixion, a rendezvous during the French Revolution. It’s in foggy Arthurian England that they finally figure out why they’re always in the same place at the same time, each trying to shift the balance of good and evil on Earth during pivotal historic moments, and only canceling out each other’s efforts... It’s a kind of storytelling so maximal that the same 57-minute episode can contain a tangential alien invasion and a physics lesson explaining how angels and demons can shrink and grow in size (featuring multiple Sheens dancing the gavotte and multiple Tennants getting down to disco). The blessing of the streaming-TV era is that Gaiman seems to have been given the go-ahead to manifest literally anything; the curse is that the story itself is better suited to a two-hour movie than a meandering six-hour trip through time and space. It takes an awful lot to make Armageddon feel anticlimactic, and yet, after the travails everyone in Good Omens has endured through millennia, things conclude with what feels awfully like a whimper. Even the Four Horsemen, whose actors include Mireille Enos and Brian Cox, can’t live up to the hype that precedes them... What sets the series apart is the relationship between two polar opposites who end up realizing, as the best antagonists do, that they’re not that different after all. The funniest moments in their history – such as Crowley hopping over consecrated ground to save his friend like a person walking barefoot on hot sand—are also the most endearing..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2wNgYsk">https://bit.ly/2wNgYsk</a><br /><br />By Mike Hale for the New York Times:<br /><br />It’s taken a long time for “Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch,” Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s 1990 end-of-days fantasy novel, to reach the screen. Long enough for Gaiman, then a promising comics writer and Duran Duran biographer, to become an industry... And there have been other auspicious changes. When Gaiman and Pratchett made a Queen greatest-hits CD a leitmotif in their book – it’s the preferred driving music of one of the heroes, a demon named Crowley – it was a joke about the bombastic songs’ late-1980s inescapability. Now it gives the mini-series a soundtrack of pop classics. But what makes the diverting and mostly pleasurable “Good Omens” especially timely is something that hasn’t much changed: Armageddon seems as real a possibility now as it did three decades ago. The story’s hopeful universalism and ecological consciousness, which played well against the backdrop of the late Cold War and the ozone hole, feel just as necessary. A line like “your polar ice caps are below regulation size for a planet of this category” can go right from book to screenplay, and it has... The BBC Studios production is studded with piquant performances by veteran actors, mostly British. The great Bill Paterson is at his bemused best as Adam’s exasperated neighbor, and Michael McKean and Miranda Richardson are fun to watch as the aging witchfinder, Shadwell, and his accommodating landlady, Madame Tracy. Sanjeev Bhaskar of “Unforgotten” is pleasingly oily as the libidinous lawyer, Baddicombe, and Derek Jacobi, no less, has a cameo as God’s spokesman, Metatron. Gaiman’s tweaks to the plot, along with explanatory animations and an unfortunately obtrusive narration by Frances McDormand as God, make the story more straightforward and – take this as a description, not a judgment – more cartoony, less writerly..."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/arts/television/good-omens-review.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/arts/television/good-omens-review.html</a><br /><br />By Aja Romano for Vox:<br /><br />"Directed by veteran Doctor Who director Douglas Mackinnon, it’s a funny, warm treat that fans of the book will find familiar and endearing, from the strong ensemble cast – Michael Sheen in particular shines as the fusty, fastidious angel – to the slightly kitschy production design, which flits between a litany of pleasantly clichéd English aesthetics, from P.G. Wodehouse to Harry Potter. The loving craft and extended runtime aside, though, the miniseries ultimately feels less substantive than I had hoped. But if it also carries a few of the books’ flaws with it, such as a few pancake-flat characters and stagnant bits of pacing here and there – well, like Aziraphale, we’re good at forgiving small sins... As the black-clad, snake-eyed, Bentley-driving Crowley, David Tennant should own the show – but his performance is a bit erratic, and the weird litany of bad hairpieces and occasional strange CGI he’s dealt doesn’t help. We’re never quite sure if Crowley is supposed to be legitimately cool or if he simply believes he’s a badass. By contrast, Michael Sheen is near-perfect as the bookish, overeager, and gleefully queer Aziraphale. But if anything, he’s too good, in the holy sense: we never really get a glimpse of the Aziraphale that Crowley fondly describes as being a bit of a bastard. When they’re together, however, Tennant and Sheen’s chemistry shines, and the series twirls around their transition from an all-too-human complacence to a growing horror over the coming apocalypse – and the possible end of their long, star-crossed relationship... With Gaiman at the helm, and with an ample amount of time to do the book’s nuances justice, Good Omens succeeds much better than any recent Gaiman (or Pratchett) adaptation in memory. But we’re still ultimately left with a screenplay that faithfully emphasizes Good Omens’ plot rather than its profundities or literary flourishes. There’s no attempt, for example, to recreate the book’s famous footnotes, though the addition of Frances McDormand as the voice of God is a nice, if largely wasted, touch..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2F1ZDR4">https://bit.ly/2F1ZDR4</a><br /><br />By Ben Travers on Indiewire:<br /><br />"Though Neil Gaiman’s adaptation of his own 1990 novel (co-written with Terry Pratchett) would have fared better had it reached for the heavens (and cut its extraneous, tedious material) or sullied itself in the fires of hell (and embraced a more chaotic, subversive religious satire), the six-episode Amazon and BBC co-production is still a colorful, amusing piece of big-budgeted, middle-minded adventure-comedy that will likely please fans and even win over a few skeptics. Anyone willing to forgive its hodgepodge of plotting and dearth of dynamic characters will have a bit of fun with the two crackling leads; it’s just with such lofty potential, it’s hard not to be disappointed in the flawed results... It helps that Sheen and Tennant build chemistry to spare, with the “Masters of Sex” star going all wide-eyed and innocent while the former “Doctor (Who)” relishes the chance to shout, snarl, and snap at every other sentence. But they’re also given plenty to chew on; Gaiman (who wrote each episode) never excuses their innate disparity in order to make things easier on them or the audience. They fight, split up, and even work against each other, which only makes their will-they-won’t-they friendship all the more electric. These two carry “Good Omens” nicely when they’re around, but sadly the supporting characters fail by comparison. As difficult as it is to imagine, Michael McKean’s heavily accented witch-hunter becomes not just a one-note ninny, but a regular nuisance; Gaiman relies far too often on him, along with more mortals, to carry overly complicated exposition and run around with largely meaningless errands. (Related: Jon Hamm’s wry Gabriel, a character not in the book, isn’t given nearly enough to do.) Everything they do does connect with the angel and demon’s main story, but more by force of will than symbiotic necessity..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2Wt13xM">https://bit.ly/2Wt13xM</a><br /><br />By Tim Goodman for the Hollywood Reporter:<br /><br />"Good Omens was a labor of love that finally came about, Gaiman has said, because one of the last things Pratchett told him before his death in 2015 was to make sure a filmed version became reality. It finally has, with great world-building fantasy glee, as Gaiman wrote all six episodes and shepherded the complex (and funny) story to an end that works both as a full conclusion should he not want to write a second season (Gaiman has a lot of projects) and as a pause before a logical second season. The series was directed entirely by Douglas Mackinnon (Sherlock, Doctor Who, Line of Duty), giving it visual panache and, when the fantasy elements call for it, visual humor as well. The end result is a feel-good romp and creative triumph that is easily digestible and never flags in search of entertainment... It's a testament to Good Omens... that while all the madcap plot twists and eccentric cameos keep things humming right along, it's the performances of Tennant and Sheen that make every minute they are in it stand out. While Tennant gets the juicier role, exaggerating his walk to be half runway model, half rock god, with flowing redheaded locks and steam punk sunglasses, that only works as it does because of Sheen's delightfully worried, stammering sweetness (and Aziraphale's love of fine but staid clothing), constantly worried about the rules they are breaking to stave off the war of heaven and hell. These two actors are so emphatically into their roles that they make the hourlong episodes fly by and the absolute need for a second season apparent – if for nothing else than to watch further tales of this disparate duo meeting throughout history to enjoy each other's company..."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/good-omens-review-1214258">https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/good-omens-review-1214258</a><br /><br />By Karishma Upadhyay on Firstpost:<br /><br />"There’s sharp and witty dialogue, tons of cultural references and visuals that span six millennia of the world’s existence, starting from the Garden of Eden. They’ve splurged on the music with a highly catchy theme composed by David Arnold, the man who scored six Bond films and the 2012 Olympics. There’s an abundance of rock classics from Queen, The Beatles, CCR and AC DC amongst others. The cast is stellar with David Tennant, Michael Sheen and John Hamm among others, and of course, Frances McDormand essaying the voice of God... The banter between the two actors has charm in spades, and this is a brand of buddy dynamics that modern cinema (and television) seems to have lost. There’s a lovely scene where Aziraphale and Crowley discover that they both need to go to Scotland, one to perform a blessing, while the other a curse. So they flip a coin to see who would go and do both. Given the quality of the source material and the actors delivering the lines, this in itself is gold. Unfortunately, what is the show’s biggest draw is its only one. Had this just been a series of small shorts featuring Sheen and Tennant riffing off of each other, it might have made for more entertaining fare. Unfortunately, there’s a story unfolding as well, and that’s where things become a little tiring..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2XBBxnt">https://bit.ly/2XBBxnt</a><br /><br />By Clint Worthington on Consequence of Sound:<br /><br />"Neil Gaiman adaptations can be a bit of a mixed bag – hell, American Gods got considerably worse when Gaiman himself took the reins in its second season – so it’s understandable to go into Good Omens with a bit of trepidation. The source material, a collaboration between Gaiman and the late, great Terry Pratchett, is a lovely lark of Douglas Adams-tinged magical realism, complete with the flights of fancy and droll observations of the everyday you’d expect from both. It’s a tonal cocktail that’s hard to imagine translating to the screen: at worst, it would look cheap and deliberately confuse. It’s then a relief to learn that Amazon’s adaptation (written by Gaiman and directed by Sherlock and Doctor Who alum Douglas Mackinnon) largely manages to keep all of the novel’s many plates spinning... Occasionally, God’s voiceovers feel like over-exposition, or like they’re hammering home a particular bit of stiff-upper-lip British irony too ardently, but they also feel woven into the fabric of Gaiman’s inherent desire to keep the audience at a distance. There’s plenty of visual anarchy on display as well, from whizzing battles across telephone lines to Tennant cackling like mad inside a flaming Rolls..."<br /><br /><a href="https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/05/tv-review-good-omens/">https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/05/tv-review-good-omens/</a><br /><br />By Sara Wallis in The Mirror (UK), who explains nicely and accurately for people who aren't familiar with the source material (yes, the whole plot is described, but if any Wossname reader *isn't* already familiar with Good Omens, your Editor might be giving you Very Stern Looks across the aether):<br /><br />"Based on the 1990 novel co-written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, this is fantasy at its best. But it’s leading men David Tennant and Michael Sheen who steal the show – they are the comedy double act we never knew we needed. A match made in, er, heaven, Sheen plays angel Aziraphale while Tennant is demon Crowley. The pair have struck up an odd love-hate friendship over the course of 6,000 years serving on Earth, but the world is about to end so they need to stick together. The story starts at the beginning. The very, very beginning. The creation of the universe... As we prepare for the end-times, you will not want this to end. A hell of a lot of fun, it’s telly that’s good for the soul."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2WGSG2I">https://bit.ly/2WGSG2I</a><br /><br />A cluey review by Jef Rouner in the cluey San Francisco Chronicle:<br /><br />"The project was a labor of love for Gaiman, who promised a dying Pratchett he would finish it. Be glad he did, because it is marvelous. However, a lot has changed in the text between 1990 and 2019, mostly for the better. Primarily, the fact that the story’s two main characters are more clearly in love with each other than they are in the book. It’s an intriguing development, because these two men are the definition of polar opposites... But at the heart of “Good Omens” is the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley and what it says about good and evil. In the novel, this relationship is fairly sexless and fraternal. The show maintains that on paper. There are no “I love you” declarations in the script or other little touches of suggested intimacy. The problem is, well, David Tennant plays Crowley, and there is just nothing sexless or fraternal about David Tennant, ever. Especially not when he is sauntering around in black skinny jeans..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2WtCf4D">https://bit.ly/2WtCf4D</a><br /><br />By Norman Wilner for Now Toronto:<br /><br />Good Omens, the whimsical end-of-days novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, is to 90s fantasy nerds what Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy was to 80s sci-fi nerds: an irreverent goof on its chosen genre that conjures an absurd universe in a very specific voice that only works on the page... Frances McDormand reads large chunks of the novel as the voice of God. It works well enough, I suppose, though it also feels like padding for a show that’s longer than it needs to be: only the first half of the six-part series was made available for review, but that first episode could be condensed to a five-minute prologue. Still, I’m glad I stuck with it because the show does get better as it unfolds, once Michael Sheen and David Tennant move to the centre of the action... As frustrating an adaptation as it can be, Good Omens is also a frequently charming one, thanks to their marvellous double act: their endearing back-and-forth is the heart of the thing: Sheen’s wide-eyed fussiness and Tennant’s affected swagger create a perfect equilibrium..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2wNh2by">https://bit.ly/2wNh2by</a><br /><br />By Jennifer Ouelette for Ars Technica:<br /><br />"Confession: I am an uber-fan, having read the book multiple times over the last 19 years. I'll likely read it several more times before I kick off this mortal coil, so I'm very much in the target audience for the series... I suspect Gaiman loves the book as much, if not more, than its most ardent fans, and that love shines through every scene of the adaptation. There's a moment in Good Omens when Anathema Device (descended from a famous witch) tells Newton Pulsifer (descended from a famous witchfinder) about the town of lower Tadfield, where the Antichrist is prophesied to rise: "There isn't any evil here. There's just love. Something or someone loves this place. Loves every inch of it so powerfully that it shields and protects it. A deep-down huge, fierce love. How can anything bad start here?" The same goes for Gaiman's adaptation: it's his deep-down huge, fierce love driving everything, and that is ultimately what makes the series a sheer joy to watch (even though season two of American Gods may have suffered a bit from Gaiman's absence). The series almost slavishly follows the novel in many respects—right down to the soundtrack packed with the music of Queen, because a running gag is that any cassette tape (it was 1990, folks) left in the car for longer than a fortnight automatically turns into the band's Greatest Hits compilation. And that's just fine with me. Apart from a few minor quibbles, this is pretty much everything fans could hope for in a TV adaptation of Good Omens..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2R0DAPa">https://bit.ly/2R0DAPa</a><br /><br />By Danette Chavez on The AV Club:<br /><br />"Good Omens’ biggest thrill is found in the pitch-perfect pairing of David Tennant and Michael Sheen as a millennia-old odd couple who find themselves increasingly attached to our flawed selves – and each other. Gaiman’s even more hands-on with this adaptation than he was the second season of Starz’s American Gods, writing all six episodes and working with series director Douglas Mackinnon to make TV’s latest foray into the great beyond worth the jaunt. Good Omens is an undeniably faithful adaptation of its source material, porting over stretches of text to serve as dialogue, often in the form of exposition (to its own detriment at times)... As Crowley, Tennant affects a slithering strut that’s part rock star, part pied piper – it’s not hard to see why Aziraphale, let alone lesser beings, is ultimately so taken with his immortal enemy. Sheen’s Aziraphale, meanwhile, is fastidious, caring, and just a little self-centered, as even the best people are. Their relationship changes over the course of the show, as they influence each other to look beyond moral absolutism to see the many shades of gray in their existence as well as our own... Gaiman generally adheres to his and Pratchett’s original vision, which includes Anathema Device (Adria Arjona), the descendant of Agnes Nutter (Josie Lawrence), though she’s now a Latinx woman from California who makes her way to England to head off the end of the world. Anathema’s journey finds her wrestling with predetermined fate and how her own agency is undermined by foreknowledge, but it feels a bit undercooked compared to the other main storylines. The nipple-and-witch-obsessed Sergeant Shadwell (Michael McKean), the psychic Madame Tracy (Miranda Richardson), and Newton Pulsifer (Jack Whitehall), who seems the very opposite of another one of Gaiman’s creations, the Technical Boy, also find themselves embroiled in Adam and Anathema’s stories, though they bring little to the proceedings beyond comical squawking and hangdog expressions, respectively..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2R0WntI">https://bit.ly/2R0WntI</a><br /><br />By Amy Glynn for Paste Magazine:<br /><br />"The script is, unsurprisingly, annunciation-grade, luminously funny and strikingly poignant – and considering the principal characters include angels, demons and witches, (and a tween Antichrist) it’s as human as they come. The cinematic sensibility is something like… I don’t know, like if Terry Gilliam, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger all had a lovechild. There’s Powell-and-Pressburgerish, deeply saturated, slightly hyperreal color and exquisitely weird visual imagery; there’s Gilliam-saluting surreal, and sometimes hammy, oddball cheekiness side by side with an arrow-to-the-heart sort of emotional honesty. (Mackinnon noted at least one Gilliam-shout-out Easter egg; I’ll leave it to fans to find it.) There is excellent sound design and a thoroughly bitchin’ Queen-heavy soundtrack (you will have “I’m In Love With My Car” earworming you to the edge of insanity and you will relish every minute)... With the Final Battle successfully put off and the heroic/antiheroic odd couple breathing a sigh of relief and basking in the momentary peace, they raise champagne flutes and toast “To the world” and I swear, if you do not do that involuntary catch in the throat thing, I’d propose you might want to consult an otorhinolaryngologist to make sure your throat is in working order..."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/05/good-omens-review.html">https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/05/good-omens-review.html</a><br /><br />By Peter Rubin for Wired:<br /><br />"Over the years, adaptations were planned, then abandoned – but when Amazon announced that it would be working with Gaiman to create a limited series (at Pratchett's personal request, no less), Good Omens would finally get a chance to live up to its name. Yea verily, does it ever. The best kind of book-to-screen adaptation welcomes fans and newcomers alike, and Good Omens hosts an ecumenical congregation. Even if you're completely unfamiliar with the book, you won't have trouble keeping up... The heart of Good Omens beats in the relationship between Crowley and Aziraphale – in their Odd Couple foibles, in their growing dependence on each other, huddled together as their worldviews crumble around them – and Tennant and Sheen nurture that pulse expertly. Tennant oozes rockstar insouciance; Sheen, an aesthete's prissiness. The lesser known of the two, Sheen had the additional burden of playing a character who felt custom made for British comedy stalwarts like Martin Freeman or Simon Pegg, but he owns Aziraphale completely, making him a cuddlier, smilier, much older Niles Crane. (Watch the late-episode flashback scene in which Aziraphale dances the gavotte and tell me Sheen wasn't born for this role.) The special effects, it should be said, are terrible. Terrible! Laughingly, knowingly terrible. When Crowley takes off his ever-present sunglasses, his reptilian eyes look about three sizes too big for his head; explosions are big and boomy and defy you not to roll your eyes. That's the point. Stripped of its evangelical fear-mongering, the Book of Revelations is patently ridiculous, and leaning into that was exactly how Gaiman and Pratchett celebrated humans' godliest qualities – to give it form without schlock would be to disrespect the show's source..."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/good-omens-review/">https://www.wired.com/story/good-omens-review/</a><br /><br />By Barry Didcock in The Herald Scotland:<br /><br />"On paper, a collaboration between fantasy authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is so mouth-watering a prospect that it’s hard to believe it could ever have come about. But it did, in 1990 novel Good Omens, a comic tale about the coming of the Apocalypse written two-thirds by Pratchett (his estimate) and one third by Gaiman... in finally bringing it to the small screen Amazon Video have made two very sensible decisions. First, they’ve employed Gaiman to come up with the screenplay. Second, they’ve doubled the wow factor by putting another dream-team in front of the camera: David Tennant and Michael Sheen. Two of our most watchable actors, they bring a gleeful, Lemon-and-Matthau-in-The-Odd-Couple feel to this offbeat tale of angels and demons, directed by Scot Douglas Mackinnon... The show jumps around a lot, through time and celestial planes mostly, and by the end of episode two there was a dizzying number of other characters in play, among them young witch Anathema Device (Adria Arjona), who has a book of prophesies and is tasked with finding the Antichrist, and apprentice witch-hunter Newton Pulsifer (Jack Whitehall). But it’s never less than terrific fun and there’s a starry supporting cast to help things along.."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2WDYidN">https://bit.ly/2WDYidN</a><br /><br />By John Devore for The Pulse:<br /><br />"If you can’t tell, Good Omens is a comedy. It’s a very British comedy, in fact. The cast is excellent, featuring David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Jon Hamm, Frances McDormand, and Michael McKean, among others. It’s fairly faithful to the book and the decision to adapt the book into a miniseries rather than a multi-season show is a good one... Good Omens keeps the pace up and moves along from scene to scene, episode to episode, without ever being boring. The adaptation is so good, in fact, that it suffers from some of the same problems that the book had, namely that it jumps through the plot so quickly that the characters themselves feel a bit flat. This is forgivable, given the genre, but it leaves the audience wanting more, especially when it comes to understanding the systems that these characters operate in. But then, when dealing with matters of faith and the order of the universe, that’s largely true of our own reality as well... Overall, Good Omens is a satisfying experience for fans of the books, and likely a good one for those unfamiliar with the source material..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2IDOBlI">https://bit.ly/2IDOBlI</a><br /><br />By Richard Trenholme for CNET:<br /><br />"As the show romps through human history from the Garden of Eden to the swinging '60s, the former Doctor Who steals the show as slinky demon Crowley. A snake-hipped combination of Bill Nighy and Keith Richards, Tennant offers serpentine oomph whether he's sinking into the depths of demonic despair, engulfed by flame or dressing up as a Mary Poppins-style nanny – practically perfidious in every way. This louche Lucifer has adapted well to the modern world, crashing mobile networks and diverting motorways into the shape of demonic sigils, and he begins to think armageddon might not be such a great idea after all. Sheen's nervy angel Aziraphale shares Crowley's concerns: He loves sushi and rare books and can't understand why heaven is so keen to go to war. Sheen's Aziraphale is a less showy part than Tennant's Crowley, but the unfailingly decent angel is the gentle heart of the story. Sheen and Tennant have fun in a succession of divine period costumes... A love of language shines through the masterful writing of both Gaiman and Pratchett. Unfortunately, the TV adaptation clings to the book's text, translating it into a clunky and intrusive voiceover. Look, I've loved the novel and its delightful wordplay from the moment I first read it as a teenager. But television is a visual medium, and the wordplay-based jokes that can only be done in a voiceover, as amusing as they are, don't make up for the constant interruption by momentum-killing explanation... Apart from that, though, the cast is rounded out by familiar faces injecting energy into even the smallest parts. Michael McKean manages to find pathos under a wildly veering Scottish accent, Jon Hamm brings glossy-eyed cynicism to the blandly self-righteous angel Gabriel and Mireille Enos gleefully vamps it up as one of the four motorcyclists of the apocalypse. But most of all there are Sheen and Tennant, bouncing Pratchett and Gaiman's words off each other beautifully..."<br /><br /><a href="https://cnet.co/2WE9lUv">https://cnet.co/2WE9lUv</a><br /><br />By Raja Sen on Livemint:<br /><br />"As the book reminds: “The Devil has all the best tunes... But Heaven has the best choreographers." As shows go, this feels less choreographed and simultaneously more tuneful. It is a miniseries where the credits at the end of each episode feel like a cocoa-break between chapters, and the cast reads like a wish list: Michael Sheen and David Tennant as Aziraphale and Crowley, Jon Hamm as the Archangel Gabriel, Michael McKean as Witchfinder Shadwell, Miranda Richardson as Madame Tracy, Brian Cox voicing Death and Frances McDormand voicing God. It feels like an event. That event might, however, be a pantomime. Glorious goofiness steers this slapdash enterprise, and Good Omens isn’t the slickest or edgiest or most revolutionary thing you will see on television this season. Even as the plot thickens, it is forever playing catch-up with the bouncy sketch-comedy style, the spoofy absurdity, the intentionally daft visual effects... It’s a fiercely loyal adaptation, right down to the magnificent McDormand delivering the sharpest lines, but while some bits of the book don’t shine – the bicycling small-town children slow things down, for instance, till Things get truly Strange – new additions work. Jon Hamm is a riot as the Archangel Gabriel, a painfully by-the-book boss who loves The Sound Of Music, jogs wearing a cardigan with a winged logo, and is utterly awful at subterfuge. Who knew heaven would be home to the boss from hell..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2MTj6K7">https://bit.ly/2MTj6K7</a><br /><br />By Chelsea Steiner on the Mary Sue:<br /><br />"The series, which was adapted by Gaiman himself, struggles to winnow out the extraneous plot points when it should be leaning into Sheen and Tennant’s dynamic. It suffers from being overwritten, which is glaringly apparent in Frances McDormand’s narration as the voice of God. McDormand is one of the best actors of her generation, but she is woefully miscast as she churns through monologue after monologue, over-explaining everything to the audience. Given the essential Englishness of the series and the writing, the narration would have benefited from a British comedic voice like Stephen Fry or Emma Thompson. The series also suffers from some distractingly bad CGI and an overabundance of characters and side plots... But all those issues are easily forgotten when Sheen and Tennant take center stage. It isn’t until episode three that the series hits its stride, starting with a 30 minute cold open that follows Crowley and Aziraphale throughout the ages, as they discover that they are more alike than they realize. Eventually the duo reach an agreement when they realize that their earthly deeds essentially cancel each other out. The duo’s banter is delightful, but there is genuine heart and emotion at the core of their friendship. They may be working for opposite sides, but they are clearly kindred spirits who love each other deeply..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2IBB5z2">https://bit.ly/2IBB5z2</a><br /><br />By Kate O'Hare on religion-and-philosophy discussion site Patheos:<br /><br />"Dare I say it, but Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Good Omens is fun, witty, clever, entertaining and just plain, well, good. Based on the apparently beloved novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (all episodes are currently available) is a bit like what might happen if one threw The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Monty Python, Harry Potter, Doctor Who and The Omen into a blender and hit puree... Despite the Biblical underpinnings, it doesn’t ask to be taken seriously as history or theology and doesn’t set out to insult believers, but it still manages to be occasionally heartfelt and profound. At the heart of it are Aziraphale and Crowley, whose best-mates relationship has been labeled by at least one TV critic as a chaste gay one – but that is likely because representations of true, platonic friendship are so rare these days,.."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2EZEZkw">https://bit.ly/2EZEZkw</a><br /><br />By James White for Empire Online:<br /><br />"Gaiman has cannily trimmed the expansive plot down to what really works on screen. Sheen and Tennant are fine casting for the central pair, a nervy gourmand-turned-bookseller and a swaggering louche boasting an unexpected way with plants (a shouty, fear-driven way). It's a partnership that sparks with real warmth and joy, even as this seemingly mismatched duo bond over the centuries. Yet while they're the focus, the rest of the series has some excellent performances, including Jon Hamm (as the Angel Gabriel), Michael McKean (as the pugnacious Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell) and Frances McDormand keeping the tome's asides alive as God, narrating the background and filling in the basics. If there's a weak link, it's the kids playing the antichrist and his friends, who while they're not disastrous, are broader brushstrokes than some of the other characters, feeling less inspired by the likes of Just William and more ripped from those pages. And, while it's well shot, there are one or two moments that are a little more in the style of cheaper '70s sci-fi telly, though that in its way adds to the charm..."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.empireonline.com/tv/good-omens/">https://www.empireonline.com/tv/good-omens/</a><br /><br />By Michael Russell in the West Highland Free Press:<br /><br />In ‘Good Omens’, the Amazon Prime debut of Skye-born director Douglas Mackinnon, two key elements stand out – simply because they are outstanding. They are David Tennant and Michael Sheen. Every time these actors are on screen together this six-episode novel adaptation is a joy to watch. Tennant’s louche demon Crowley and Sheen’s prim, fussy angel Aziraphale form a touching dysfunctional relationship that is the emotional heart of this comedy-horror-fantasy... <br />If the word ‘antichrist’ immediately conjures images of impaled priests and decapitated photographers, ‘Good Omens’ majors on lightness, not creeping unease. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse wear leather jackets and ride motorbikes; the King of Atlantis wins a competition on board the cruise ship that rescues him. We are firmly in Certificate 12 territory here, and it is never seriously tested... Subplots abound, and there are pacing issues at times, but all the various strands eventually converge for a spectacular finale. If the M25 is hell to drive on at the best of the times, the Day of Judgment gives it a little extra sizzle..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2MHmuHI">https://bit.ly/2MHmuHI</a><br /><br />By Isaac Butler, who described the title as "Adorkalypse Now", for Slate:<br /><br />"Pratchett, the now-late author of dozens of novels set on a planet called Discworld – which sits atop the backs of four elephants who themselves stand on top of a giant turtle swimming through space – might be the dork novelist par excellence. If that description of the setting of the Discworld novels makes you cringe, please know Good Omens is not for you. It has, remarkably, made the transition to the screen with its dorkiness fully intact, thank God – or perhaps, given the subject matter, the Devil. Good Omens, whose six-episode first season is now streaming on Amazon, is a very silly and very English comedy... As in many dork comedies, the story of Good Omens is somewhat beside the point anyway. Like a rapidly deflating balloon, the narrative is meant to zoom miraculously in unexpected directions, until coming to land just so in the perfect spot. The template here is Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and its 1981 BBC adaptation. Like that series, Good Omens pairs absurd situations with an stiff upper lip, employs frequent deadpan voice over narration (here courtesy of Frances McDormand), and has special effects so unconvincing they become their own form of amusement..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2WzQiL5">https://bit.ly/2WzQiL5</a><br /><br />By Omar Gallaga for Book and Film Globe:<br /><br />"It’s a funny idea from a very funny book that Gaiman decided to adapt himself, writing all six of the TV episodes after Pratchett’s 2015 death. Gaiman has said in interviews that Pratchett was foremost on his mind as he made decisions as showrunner for the miniseries, giving him motivation to push harder on creative decisions than he might have otherwise. It shows. While fans of the book will quibble with lines omitted and some of the casting choices, such as Frances McDormand as Narrator and God, Good Omens is tremendously generous. With Amazon’s deep pockets, the production quality goes above and beyond, with a big cast, convincing locations, and lots of animation and visual asides that incorporate jokes and footnotes from the book. What feels in the novel like a series of overly plotted Douglas Adams-style riffs on God, the Universe and Everything, becomes visually expansive on screen with surprisingly good special effects. It’s not enough to mention, in passing, that Atlantis has risen. Good Omens shows the city, and it’s glorious..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bookandfilmglobe.com/television/tv-review-good-omens/">https://bookandfilmglobe.com/television/tv-review-good-omens/</a><br /><br />By Kathryn VanArendonk on Vulture:<br /><br />"In the case of Good Omens, a new Amazon miniseries based on the Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett book of the same name, one of the trickiest elements of adaptation works astonishingly well. The experience of reading Good Omens, maybe first and most intensely, is the sense of its voice. A chipper, breezy, insouciant, and simultaneously dire sense of humor carries through the book’s silly story about the apocalypse, and the combination of lightness and darkness in its tone is an impressively fitting match for a book about an angel and a demon who become friends. It’s a narrator’s voice, a very self-consciously booky voice, full of self-satisfied vocabulary and jokes about the nature of text. Good Omens is a book about books – specifically, about the Bible and a goofy, made-up prophetical text called The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch – and the story, which is ostensibly about good and evil and humanity and the end of the world, is more specifically about the way we interpret and fail to interpret texts... Much of the original dialogue has been transplanted into the script, and the series’ brisk, snappy editing style – specifically its whooshing transitions from one scene to the next – go a long way toward replicating and re-creating the book’s wry tone. It is self-consciously constructed as a silly, constructed thing. When you watch the series, which premieres on Friday, you get a visual version of the book’s gleeful wordiness. That’s no small feat..."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.vulture.com/2019/05/good-omens-amazon-review.html">https://www.vulture.com/2019/05/good-omens-amazon-review.html</a><br /><br />By Glen Weldon for NPR:<br /><br />"Most of the cleverest, funniest bits in Amazon's six-episode series Good Omens, which debuts on May 31, come straight from the 1990 novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, as you might expect. Most – but, happily, not all... the thing that sets Good Omens – book and show – apart from the fire hose of grim apocalyptic fare we're getting doused with on a daily basis is its thorough, inveterate, consummate Britishness. (I was going to add "unapologetic," there, but "unapologetically British" feels like a contradiction in terms, surely.) You're unlikely to find an Armageddon as warm and cozy as the one outlined in the novel; think Mad Max: Fury Road, if the Charlize Theron role had instead gone to Miss Marple – that's the all-important vibe the show has to nail, and it does. I mentioned above that most of the cleverest bits in the Amazon series come straight from the book, but the series does stake out its own patches of humorous real estate. The angel Gabriel rates only a mention or two in the novel; here, as played with a kind of tetchily impatient smarm by Jon Hamm, he's the ultimate slick, condescending corporate boss – which is to say: As seen through the eyes of a Brit, he's everything that is quintessentially American. Largely though, the series makes the novel come alive through its (mostly) unerring casting choices, which double down on that crucial Britishness. Brief cameos by Derek Jacobi (as the Metatron), Josie Lawrence (as a witch whose prophecies figure largely in the plot), Miranda Richardson (as a psychic who doesn't get much to do until the final episode), Brian Cox (as the voice of Death) and Benedict Freaking Cumberbatch (as never mind who, it's a surprise) make the whole thing go down like a fresh cup of inordinately milky tea. But it's Tennant and Sheen in the two lead roles who really dig in and unearth the foundational Britishness the story requires, by planting their feet at either end of the spectrum of national identities popularly associated with the United Kingdom..."<br /><br /><a href="https://n.pr/2Ka7Qqt">https://n.pr/2Ka7Qqt</a><br /><br />By Wenlei Ma for News.com.au:<br /><br />"Good Omens is wickedly funny and often gives off Life of Brian vibes. It’s also clear all the actors are having an absolute ball in their roles, and that kind of fun is infectious and leaps off the screen, enveloping you so that you’re completely lost in the story... Good Omens takes irreverence to the next level — and if you’re not going to do that with a TV show about the apocalypse, then when are you going to?"<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2IBBcKY">https://bit.ly/2IBBcKY</a><br /><br />By Allison Shoemaker on the Roger Ebert website:<br /><br />'Maybe it’s part of the “ineffable” great plan of the creator. Maybe it’s just chemistry. Whatever it is, it looks like fun, and watching it ain’t half bad either... It’s entertaining writing, lively and often surprising... The problem with a story that both wanders and is predicated on a ticking time bomb and race against the clock, is that to spend time on one can weaken the other. The plot moseys alone at a slow but steady pace, bursts of energy often undermined by the same action taking place again an episode or two later, or by filmmaking (from Douglas Mackinnon) more concerned with quirk than with questions. (Get ready for endless conversations about whether or not Aziraphale and Crowley’s coworkers can trust them, all painted with the same broad brush and without escalation.) More damaging is the fact that the narrative comes with the built-in contrivance that, while the forces of light and darkness bustle about in bureaucratic fervor, the real action is happening in a suburb none of them has ever even heard of—but that action, centering on Adam and his friends, is rarely anywhere near as compelling as what’s happening elsewhere. Both the series and the young actors involved don’t seem to be much interested in what’s going on (at least, until the final installment); somehow, a secret suburban Antichrist comes off deadly dull. Then again, some of that might be due to comparison (a fate befalling, though to a lesser extent, actors as gifted as Michael McKean, Miranda Richardson, Anna Maxwell Martin, Nick Offerman, and others). Sheen and Tennant are so good, individually and especially together, that it’s possible any disinterest in the other corners of this series may in fact be generated by eagerness to return to wherever Aziraphale and Crowley might be... Together, it’s like watching two musicians at the top of their game play a duet; they positively sing. In those moments, the vibrancy and energy of Gaiman and Pratchett’s book shoots to the surface, and is even deepened and enriched by the artists interpreting it..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/31o57z1">https://bit.ly/31o57z1</a><br /><br />By David Griffin for IGN:<br /><br />"Apart from Sheen and Tennant, Good Omens is enriched with a brilliant supporting cast. Jon Hamm, who plays the Archangel Gabriel, is pitch-perfect in the "everyone's boss you love to hate" role. Hamm is smarmy in all the right ways - he's basically playing a goofier version of Donald Draper from Mad Men. Other impressive veteran actors include Better Call Saul's Michael McKean as Witchfinder Shadwell, and his promiscuous neighbor Madame Tracy, provocatively portrayed by Harry Potter alumna Miranda Richardson. There's also Brian Cox (X-Men 2), Nick Offerman (Parks & Rec), and yes, even Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange) as Satan. If we haven't made it clear already, Good Omens is not lacking in the impressive-actor-resume department. Good Omens also has an impressive visual style, thanks to director Douglas Mackinnon (Line of Duty), who helms all six episodes. Mackinnon's effective work behind the camera is bolstered by excellent production and set design that's a key part of the world building. Hell does indeed seem like the worst place ever – it kind of looks like everyone is stuck at the post office for all of eternity. Heaven resembles an Apple store, minus the cool electronics. In a way, Heaven's minimalistic decor is almost as eerie as Hell's. Either way, many of the locations you'll visit in Good Omens are delightful places to spend your time..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2KbLDbx">https://bit.ly/2KbLDbx</a><br /><br />By Brian Lowry on CNN:<br /><br />"Beyond the perfectly matched leads, "Good Omens" is populated by an impressive cast, including Jon Hamm as the Angel Gabriel (a typically officious boss), Miranda Richardson and Michael McKean as two mortals in way over their heads, Mireille Enos as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Frances McDormand as the voice of the Almighty. Benedict Cumberbatch and Brian Cox also drop in, unrecognizably, as Satan and Death, respectively. The high stakes notwithstanding, the story unfolds with a sense of unhurried whimsy. While it risks being too precious at first, the show gets better as the hours proceed... "Good Omens" would benefit from a bit more forward momentum during its midsection, but its underlying appeal relies upon making even the biggest issues somehow mundane. The fire and brimstone notwithstanding, the show is really about friendship, however inconvenient it might be..."<br /><br /><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/30/entertainment/good-omens-review/">https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/30/entertainment/good-omens-review/</a><br /><br />By Adam Starkey for Metro (UK):<br /><br />"While a countdown to the end of the world might scream urgency, Good Omens is lethargic and playful in tone. There’s an unconventional rhythm to the show as it jumps back and forth through time, delivering comedy sketch-like scenarios one minute and chasing down the antichrist the next. It’s not always successful, with some of the tangents feeling unnecessary or bloated, but the pacing is more rewarding the further you roll around in, and embrace, its obscurities. That’s because there’s always an excellent cameo or surprise appearance lurking behind every corner... Holding this all together is the binding, hysterical glue of Michael Sheen and David Tennant, who form one of the most enjoyable on-screen partnerships you’ll find all year... this miniseries is a refreshingly whimsical concoction of British humour, infectious imagination, and old fashioned charms. With so much of fantasy on television embracing the darkness, Good Omens is a delectable counterweight bursting with a lust for life."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2R26QFs">https://bit.ly/2R26QFs</a><br /><br />By the apparently humourless and openly fantasy-detesting Rachel Cooke for New Statesman:<br /><br />"I do not love Good Omens. The first episode, I will grudgingly admit, was mildly entertaining, largely because Tennant and Michael Sheen (who plays an angel called Aziraphale; expect to hear this name being called in a playground near you some time soon) are so good together. But once the novelty of their double act had worn off – Tennant channels a thin-as-a-streak-of-bacon rock star vibe; Sheen looks and sounds like the very kind and camp bastard child of Boris Johnson and Billy Bunter – weariness soon set in. Such archness. Such ostentatious charm and so-called wit. It made me feel like I wanted to suck the sugar from my teeth – and that’s even before the children had appeared... It’s all terribly, tweely English, a bit like those Children’s Film Foundation productions some of us used to watch on telly in the school holidays in the early Eighties...}"<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2R4VOis">https://bit.ly/2R4VOis</a><br /><br />By Alex Saveliev on Film Threat:<br /><br />"From the get-go, Good Omens establishes its tongue-in-cheek tone, instantly rejecting all of our established theories regarding the specific time of the Universe’s creation... none of this would gel without the formidable leads. Michael Sheen, one of our most versatile actors, conveys Aziraphale’s reticence and benevolence, but with a penchant for mischief – as well as sushi, magic acts, bowties, and a certain kind of dancing that’s too uproarious to reveal here. Tennant does a splendid job as Crowley, a live-wire that brings to mind Sam Rockwell at his best; he dances on the screen (often quite literally, to his favorite Queen), flaring his cat-like eyes, and you can’t take your eyes off him. Together, they anchor the show, grounding each of its wild turns with warmth, poignancy, and wit. Director Douglas Mackinnon, who’s had his experience in directing TV shows including Doctor Who, helms all six episodes with the assured hand of a veteran, working symbiotically with his writer. Which leads me to Gaiman’s elegant script, elevating the show above the rest with its spellbinding passages, boundless imagination and quotable lines... But it’s not just the dialogue that soars; Gaiman devises unexpected, charming surprises in almost every scene..."<br /><br /><a href="http://filmthreat.com/reviews/good-omens/">http://filmthreat.com/reviews/good-omens/</a><br /><br />By Janaki Viswanathan for the Pune Mirror in Mumbai:<br /><br />"It's a pleasure to watch Michael Sheen play the self-righteous but also self-and-Goddoubting kindly angel Aziraphale, especially when he tries to hide his affection for Crowley whom he's known since forever. David Tennant in quite a shift from the gaunt police detective he played in Broadchurch, seems to be enjoying himself immensely as Crowley – a somewhat cliched flamboyant minion of Satan who drives too fast and, when bored watching humans paintball fighting, turns the guns into real ones. There's also the descendant of a witch, a witch-hunter's great-great-great grandchild and what is possibly the funniest hospital baby exchange that belongs in a Manmohan Desai film. Actually, the whole plot and its many story tracks would fit right into a potboiler. We mean that as a compliment. Good Omens is funny, entertaining, but best of all, it's weird, bizarre and originally so..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2WCaCv0">https://bit.ly/2WCaCv0</a><br /><br />This was a "spoiler-free" pre-review by Britt on Nerds and Beyond, but it's cogent and well-expressed, so I'm including it here:<br /><br />"Particular standouts are, of course, Tennant and Sheen as our demon and angel. Forced into an unlikely alliance (being the only Earth-side representatives from each side) that becomes a friendship, Tennant and Sheen have a sweet and undeniable chemistry. Tennant has always excelled at playing the rakish and charming, well, devil. But Sheen is the perfect foil for him as the fussy and nervous Aziraphale. The ease at which their banter flows really does make it seem as if they have been friends since the dawn of time. My other favorite performances include Nina Sosanya as Sister Mary Loquacious, Josie Lawrence as the prophet Agnes Nutter, and Amma Ris as the sole female member of the Antichrist’s “gang,” Pepper. The ladies killed it, y’all. Special attention must also be given to Jon Hamm as the Archangel Gabriel. My favorite Hamm is a comedic Hamm, and he really nails the tone of the arrogant angel here. (And he is also a huge fan of the original book!) But also, honestly, with a cast that includes the likes of Michael McKean (as Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell), Miranda Richardson (as Madame Tracy), Benedict Cumberbatch (as Satan), and even a cameo by Nick Offerman, you just really can’t go wrong. They are all stellar... I will say, though, that one exclusion left me bummed. One of my favorite bits from the book were the Hell’s Angels, a.k.a. the “other” four bikers of the apocalypse, a.k.a. “Grievous Bodily Harm,” “Cruelty to Animals,” “Really Cool People,” and “Treading In Dogsh*t” (formerly “All Foreigners Especially The French,” formerly “Things Not Working Properly Even After You’ve Given Them A Good Thumping,” never actually “No Alcohol Lager,” briefly “Embarrassing Personal Problems,” and finally “People Covered in Fish”). (Dear Mr. Gaiman and the ghost of Terry Pratchett please forgive me/do not haunt me if I left out any of their names.) They were hilarious, especially their explosively fishy end. (The book came out in 1990, so I don’t feel bad about spoilers here.) I was sad to not have them as a counterpoint to the real Horsemen. However, if the biggest complaint I can make is that one gag from an otherwise gag-filled book didn’t make it in the final cut, then I think that speaks to how successful this adaptation was..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2K8zjJ2">https://bit.ly/2K8zjJ2</a><br /><br />...and a review of the first episode by Darryl Jasper on ScienceFiction.com, that beautifully sums up early on:<br /><br />"David Tenant[sic] and Michael Sheen are the backbone of Good Omens, bringing to life two of fiction’s most outrageously entertaining characters... While there is fun to be had in the humor portrayed in the narrative,to put it bluntly, without Crowley and Aziraphale, Good Omens is nothing more than a cheeky tale that, though entertaining, would be lacking the spirit that has made it an indelible work of literary fiction. As in the book, the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley makes this story. Thus, it was imperative to find two actors that had not just the acting chops but the chemistry necessary to truly deliver the witty banter and charming interactions between these two peculiar representatives of Heaven and Hell. While only one episode in, David Tenant and Michael Sheen are masterful, their chemistry and timing spicing up the generic tale of the Antichrist leading the world Armageddon and making it something truly special. There may be other actors that could have done these roles justice but like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans have made it so that I can never see anyone take on the mantles of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, respectively, so too will Tenant and Sheen forever be my Crowley (not to be mistaken with Mark Sheppard’s wondrous Supernatural character) and Aziraphale. Not to be left out, the remaining cast makes its own powerful impressions. Frances McDormand takes the reigns[sic] as the narrator/God. Her even yet witty narration gives life to those aspects of “In the Beginning” that are imagery heavy (using metaphors to drive a point home) or in need of an extra bit of panache to keep the ball rolling while Jon Hamm represents Heaven as the stuffy and condescendingly friendly Gabriel. Both take a backseat to Tenant and Sheen but bring their own stamp that adds even more sauce to the story..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2R3lso1">https://bit.ly/2R3lso1</a><br /><br />...and finally, a review of the last episode that sums up the summing-up, by William Hughes on the A.V. Club:<br /><br />"Does any of this feel-good philosophizing make for effective TV? The first half of “The Very Last Day Of The Rest Of Their Lives” unfortunately argues that it pretty much doesn’t, offering up a series of showdowns that mostly boil down to people staring meaningfully at each other until a bad guy suddenly explodes. There are moments of grace – as when Adam’s two celestial “godfathers” stop time to give him a brief pep talk before facing down Satan himself, or when the would-be Antichrist calmly stares down Beelzebub and Gabriel (Anna Maxwell Martin and Jon Hamm, the latter of whom is transcendent in this episode) as they try to bluster him into ending the world. But the Four Horseman, especially, go out as they lived, ostensibly good ideas that just didn’t work as TV. Even the confrontation with The Big Man himself – voiced for two whole lines by Benedict Cumberbatch, and powered by CGI that did not, for once, look like absolute dogshit – is an anti-climax, pretty much by design... It’s lucky, then, that author and screenwriter Neil Gaiman clearly grasps that the end of the world is the least interesting part of this apocalyptic finale, which is why his script spends so much time on the question of what comes after, instead. (Or, to put it in the words of Agnes Nutter, witch: “Ye saga continuef.”) Mostly, this plays out in a series of happy endings, largely romantic, for our various heroes,.. But we end, of course, with the three characters we started this whole cosmically incompetent mess with: The renegade angel Aziraphale, the rogue demon Crowley, and that infernal little bundle of joy, Adam Young... A good ending – and you could comfortably argue that this is a very good ending, emotionally satisfying without being too terribly cloying – can go a long way toward salvaging a troubled show. Good Omens was a frequently troubled show, often feeling like a collage of the book’s best bits, randomly assembled into some semblance of a story more-or-less at random. Gaiman seemed to gain more confidence in the material, and the strengths of the medium, as the series went on, though, relying less on his and Pratchett’s narration, and inserting more stylistic flourishes like the Aziraphale-Crowley friendship sequence that powered episode 3. The series was always messy, but in its best moments, it was gloriously messy..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2MB3J8F">https://bit.ly/2MB3J8F</a><br /><br />%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br /><br />04) GOOD OMENS ODDS AND SODS<br /><br />4.1 SURPRISES GALORE AT AZIRAPHALE'S REAL-LIFE BOOKSHOP<br /><br />As mentioned in items 3.1 and 3.4 in last month's issue! By Brian Silliman for SyFywire:<br /><br />"One of the more fantastic locations that we go to in the novel (and will go to in the series) is the bookshop owned and run by the angel Aziraphale, played by Michael Sheen. A full reproduction of the shop, A.Z. Fell and Co, can now be visited at 19 Greek Street in London... On the outside, the shop looks even better than it does in our dreams. On the inside, though, there's more magic to be found. The place has been turned into a giant space dedicated to the new series, with one of the highlights being a Good Omens-themed escape room. As a special treat for some lucky fans (as tweeted by Amazon's Good Omens account), series stars David Tennant (Crowley) and Sheen both ended up as the surprise that fans were greeted with when escaping the room. Tennant appears with copies of the book itself, too, and we have never been so jealous. An escape room based on the book (and show) is great; one that ends with meeting Crowley and Aziraphale in person? Yeah, that's even better..."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/good-omens-david-tennant-michael-sheen">https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/good-omens-david-tennant-michael-sheen</a><br /><br />A reminder: tickets can be booked via <a href="https://az-fell-and-co-bookshop666.eventbrite.com/_">https://az-fell-and-co-bookshop666.eventbrite.com/_</a><br /><br />Another reminder: there will be a free screening of the entirety of Good Omens on 29th June at the Edinburgh Film Festival!<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2WtrGOT">https://bit.ly/2WtrGOT</a> and <a href="https://bit.ly/2KdpKIO">https://bit.ly/2KdpKIO</a><br /><br />4.2 THE FAITHFUL REPRODUCTION OF SHADWELL'S ACCENT<br /><br />By Huw Fullerton in the Radio Times:<br /><br />"'There are a lot of Scotsmen on the set who are helping me out, Tennant of course and Douglas MacKinnon, who’s our director,” McKean told RadioTimes.com on set. “They’re keeping me honest, you know, and every now and then I have to just run it by them.” Despite this, Shadwell’s delivery is not quite like any Scottish accent we’ve heard before – but perhaps that’s the point. You see, while it’s easy to assume Shadwell’s unusual manner of speaking is due to American actor McKean struggling with an impersonation, in fact the character’s “roaming dialect” is a key part of the original 1990 novel, with Shadwell’s voice in the book randomly shifting between all sorts of different accents from around Britain during the story. Some have speculated that the character was (rather ironically) intended as a riposte to American actors who tried and failed to master specific UK dialects, or as a parody of sitcom character Alf Garnett, as played by Warren Mitchell in Till Death Do Us Part and In Sickness and In Health. But whatever the truth, Good Omens showrunner Neil Gaiman (who co-wrote the novel with the late Pratchett) was more than happy with what McKean delivered..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2I9gEuv">https://bit.ly/2I9gEuv</a><br /><br />4.3 ABOUT SOME OF THE CAMEOS<br /><br />A guide to some blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos, by Eleanor Bley Griffiths in the Radio Times:<br /><br />"In adapting the novel he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, showrunner Neil Gaiman has introduced some subtle guest appearances – from a famous Blue Peter presenter to the host of Newsnight... The host of Pam & Sam is… Konnie Huq... The TV news presenter is… Kirsty Wark... The voice on Crowley’s radio is… Nicholas Parsons..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2KH6Fy2">https://bit.ly/2KH6Fy2</a><br /><br />4.4 ...AND SOME OF THE CASTINGS<br /><br />At New York Comic Con 2019, well before the Good Omens release, Neil Gaiman and director Douglas MacKinnon explained some unexpected casting choices. Here be an article by Rose Moore on ScreenRant:<br /><br />"Gaiman: Well in terms of gender diversity, angels and demons, as stated in the book, have no gender... Archangel Uriel and Archangel Michael are both played by women, Sandalfon and Gabriel are both played by men. I love that one of those women is black, Gloria, who is just this amazing actress. And doing the same in Hell, we had male demons in Hastur, and I love the idea that Beelzebub would be Anna Maxwell Martin, Aegon would be Elizabeth Berrington, I think that it gave us a nice kind of balance.<br /><br />"MacKinnon: I think that the thing we were doing all the way through the casting process in these terms was to question the assumptions and see if there was a different answer that just felt right.<br /><br />"Gaiman: The one I received the most s**t for, was Pepper. Who is played by a fantastic young actress named Amma Ris, who is a person of color. Who is a small girl of color. And who also happened to be the best and the feistiest person who turned up at any of the auditions. What’s interesting is that there are almost no physical descriptions of anybody in the book, but Pepper is described as having red hair and a face that was basically one giant freckle, and so people are like ‘oh my god, that has to be white’, and… no she doesn’t..."<br /><br /><a href="https://screenrant.com/good-omens-tv-show-book-changes-nycc/">https://screenrant.com/good-omens-tv-show-book-changes-nycc/</a><br /><br />4.5 THE CAST AND CREW REFLECTS...<br /><br />Here be a 16-minute video interview from Digital Spy with Tennant, Sheen, Gaiman, Rob Wilkins, Miranda Richardson, Jon Hamm and Adria Arjona, link ported by NADWCON 2019:<br /><br /><a href="https://youtu.be/nche6PwDBjQ">https://youtu.be/nche6PwDBjQ</a><br /><br />4.6 ...AND SO DOES THE SET DESIGNER:<br /><br />By Rachel Wallace for – wait for it – Architectural Digest:<br /><br />"To bring the show to life, production designer Michael Ralph had to tackle a lot of big ideas. A few of the various settings depicted through flashbacks over the six-episode series include the Garden of Eden, heaven, hell, the crucifixion of Jesus, William Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and more. Ralph hadn’t read the book, and “there was nothing in the script that told you what it looked like,” he says. “Thank God I read some of the Bible.” Those biblical scenes were mostly filmed in South Africa, but for the show’s ambiguously present-day London, the team filmed at Wolverhampton Airport, near the English village of Bobbington. 'It’s] in the middle of nowhere on a flat piece of tarmac. I really only wanted the tarmac because it had a bitumen [asphalt] road. At least I’d have a bitumen road to begin with. And then I built the whole thing out there. We built a whole city block,” says Ralph. Indeed, they brought London’s Soho neighborhood to life from the ground up, the center of the action being a book store owned by the angel Aziraphale. Filling it with books was as large of a task as building it... to source around 7,000 throwaway books from across Europe, Ralph had a set decorator he could count on – his wife, Bronwyn Franklin. “She is sort of the unsung hero,” he says. “To find books that we could burn that weren’t necessarily damaging some fantastic literal tome, we had to really find a whole lot of books we could disguise and make look like antique books. She found some other beautiful items for the shop, like the antique cash register. My God did she get some beautiful things. And then we set fire to things...'<br /><br />"Ralph’s attention to detail is evident, and it actually goes even deeper than it seems. “There are a lot of secrets in the design – a lot of buried subliminal stuff,” he reveals, noting that he hopes an eagle-eyed fan will find all the Easter eggs in Good Omens. For now, he’s willing to share just one. “I put Aziraphale’s bookshop on a crossroads of a four-road intersection because of the four horseman of the apocalypse and the four corners of the earth,” he says. “Then I based his bookshop entirely on the design of a compass. And therefore if you look up at the oculus or the skylight on the roof of Aziraphale’s bookshop, it actually is the face of a compass..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2KLmRi1">https://bit.ly/2KLmRi1</a><br /><br />4.7 DAVID TENNANT INTERVIEW<br /><br />By Alexandra Pollard in The Independent:<br /><br />"Tennant is clearly having a ball playing a demon – “a delicious part”, he says, practically smacking his lips – channelling the enjoyably obnoxious swagger of Bill Nighy. But alongside all the strut and the camp chaos, the show asks some deep questions about the nature of good and evil, with lines that are practically delivered with a wink to camera. “As if Armageddon was a cinematic show you wanted to sell in as many countries as possible,” says Frances McDormand’s narrator at one point. Tennant, who on screen and in person looks about a decade away from his 48 years, agrees that the show is “perhaps going to seem prescient in a way that it might not have done 10 years ago … but that doesn’t mean there might not have been other subtleties that we’d have picked up on then, because of circumstances…” He thinks again. “Yes, maybe it’s time to tell this story.” The thing about Crowley and Aziraphale, he says, is that “they’re representatives of these two fundamentalist viewpoints, and actually by living among these humans they’ve been knocked off course, both of them. They’re sort of meeting in the middle. Maybe that’s where we all need to meet for there to be some hope.” It’s difficult, I say, if someone’s viewpoint is diametrically opposed to your own, to meet them in the middle sometimes. “Absolutely, oh it’s very tricky,” he nods. “Nobody said it was gonna be easy, saving the world! But when everything gets so tribal, then there can be no solution, there can be no moving forward. It’s like with our own parliament at the moment. If everyone just says no to everything, then what will actually happen next? We all have to, at some point, accept that we don’t exist as an island.'..."<br /><br /><a href="https://ind.pn/2Xlpk5Y">https://ind.pn/2Xlpk5Y</a><br /><br />4.8 DOUGLAS MACKINNON INTERVIEW<br /><br />The Good Omens director was interviewed by "HM/JB" for AFP Relaxnews, posted in Philippines-based Inquirer.net:<br /><br />"In an interview with AFP Relaxnews, the Scottish director revealed how the unique series based on the work by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett took shape and why the small screen version of the story that moves from the Garden of Eden to Roman Britain and 1960s Soho should not be called an “adaptation.”... 'I first got the script for “Good Omens” on my son’s 18th birthday in the evening. I knew about the project, it was huge. I immediately said, “Well it is my son’s 18th birthday so I cannot read it tonight.” The executive producer said, “Could you read the first ten pages or something just to give us an indication,” and so reluctantly I started reading. An hour later, I was finishing the script and emailing her, “This is mine, everybody stand back. Please let me do it.”... I think Terry Pratchett for me, has always been present in spirit, which is interesting for somebody who was an atheist. He did not believe in heaven and hell, neither do I and yet we felt Terry there all the time. After I read the script properly and got to know the book better than Neil Gaiman, at times when we were filming, I would reread the relevant part of the book and there would be a certain line or a moment. I would say to Neil, “You have not put it in the script” and he went, “Would you like that?” and I said “I really love that part so can we put it back in again?” So in a way I became Terry Pratchett’s representative, protecting the book. That is not saying that Neil was not (protecting the book) as well, but it was just a conversational process that we had. Neil said that one of the things he felt all the way through was Terry on his shoulder all the time, slightly moaning, slightly complaining. This might sound odd but for me, I feel like I had a collaboration with Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman because the book was beside my monitors every day. We wanted to please this man somehow...'..."<br /><br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2KH7aYW">https://bit.ly/2KH7aYW</a><br /><br />%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br /><br />05) IMAGES OF THE MONTH<br /><br />Crowley, Aziraphale and THAT car take a break on set. Photo by Chris Raphael for Architectural Digest:<br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2MFvj4L">https://bit.ly/2MFvj4L</a><br /><br />The Hat and The Scarf at the Good Omens London premiere, as tweeted by journalist Flora Carr:<br /><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7rBAnBX4AAsfEs.jpg">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7rBAnBX4AAsfEs.jpg</a><br /><br />...and in the small ads in Good Omens, when Newt is job-hunting:<br /><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7_dEo1XkAI7oLH.jpg">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7_dEo1XkAI7oLH.jpg</a><br /><br />The blink-and-you'll-miss-it Pratchett reference in the cafe when the Horsemen are assembling:<br /><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7_drWFXsAA80iY.jpg">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7_drWFXsAA80iY.jpg</a><br /><br />(The above two photos were posted by Twitter user <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=karlfelippe'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=karlfelippe'><b>karlfelippe</b></a></span>)<br /><br />A nicely book-faithful rendering of the Horsemen, set against the background of telly-version Crowley and Aziraphale. :<br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2wA1sjw">https://bit.ly/2wA1sjw</a><br /><br />(No credit for the above image was given, but the original is on Screenrant.com)<br /><br />The Hellhound that became Dog, by Paul Kidby:<br /><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7zzNMQWwAI15of.jpg">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7zzNMQWwAI15of.jpg</a><br /><br />%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br /><br />06) CLOSE<br /><br />Here be a sweet little listing of Agnes Nutter's predictions as used in the Good Omens miniseries, by Danny Salemme on Screen Rant:<br /><a href="https://bit.ly/2XGnjSi">https://bit.ly/2XGnjSi</a><br /><br />EDITOR'S WARNING: if you've not yet seen the series, and also have managed to avoid learning about the not-in-the-original-book twist at the end of the final episode, DO NOT read all the way to the end of the list! <br /><br />And that's it for the Good Omens Special Edition. We'll see you very soon with the rest of the news and regular features for June!<br /><br />– Annie Mac<br /><br /><small>ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo<br /><br />The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: wossname-owner (at) pearwood (dot) info<br /><br />Copyright (c) 2019 by Klatchian Foreign Legion</small><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=wossname&ditemid=71137" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments
tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-12-21:2133966:62083
AS LONG AS HIS NAME IS SPOKEN...
2018-03-12T07:21:26Z
2018-03-12T07:30:50Z
public
0
<b>Wossname<br />Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion<br />March 2018 (Volume 21, Issue 3, Post 1)</b><br /><br />ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo<br /><br /><br /> Today should have been just another part of the run-up to Sir Terry Pratchett's 70th birthday: a day of great celebration. But instead, today is a day of quiet remembrance, because this day when, three years ago, Sir Pterry died.<br /><br /> He left behind him a vast and masterful body of work, millions of fans, and characters – and a certain world – that will live far beyond his mortal time. He achieved the relatively rare state known as Being A Successful Author In His Own Lifetime. He was the cause of great gusts of mirth, oceans of tears, and more than a few marriages (mine, for one). He managed to commit literature without being pretentious and to commit popular prose without dumbing down. He gave the world characters who lived and breathed and, in some cases, served as role models for a generation (and will do so for the next, and the next...). Above all, he appreciated and respected and gave back to the people who spread his work around the world: you, O Readers.<br /><br /> Oh, there will be some celebrations next month on what would have been Sir Pterry's 70th birthday, particularly around performances of various Discworld plays, but it won't be quite the same.<br /><br /> But he lives on, in his books, and in the novel-writing and scholarship awards he founded, and in the classes he taught at Trinity College Dublin, and in the research into dementia that he sponsored and helped to promote, and in his advocacy for death with dignity, and in the films and plays and – soon, soon – television series based on his work, and in that small corner of Roundworld known as Wincanton that will forever be a piece of Ankh-Morpork...<br /><br /> ...and in our hearts.<br /><br /> Raise your glasses on this his deathday, and again next month on his would-have-been birthday. Remember him. Send him along to your children and grandchildren. For as long as his name is spoken, the memory of him will not leave our world.<br /><br />– <i>Annie Mac, Editor</i><br /><br /><br /><b>Terence David John Pratchett<br /><br />Creator of universes, maker of true magic, activist who mattered<br /><br />28th April 1948–12th March 2015<br /><br />May he ride the Overhead forever<br /><br />GNU</b><br /><br /><br />ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo<br /><br /><small>Copyright (c) 2018 by Klatchian Foreign Legion</small><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://wossname.dreamwidth.org/file/47071.png" /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=wossname&ditemid=62083" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments
tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-12-21:2133966:31759
Wossname -- Special anniversary issue -- 12th March 2016
2016-03-11T21:50:32Z
2016-03-11T21:50:32Z
public
0
Wossname<br />Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion<br />March 2016 (Volume 19, Issue 3, Post 1)<br /><br /><small>********************************************************************<br />WOSSNAME is a free publication offering news, reviews, and all the other stuff-that-fits pertaining to the works of Sir Terry Pratchett. Originally founded by the late, great Joe Schaumburger for members of the worldwide Klatchian Foreign Legion and its affiliates, including the North American Discworld Society and other continental groups, Wossname is now for Discworld and Pratchett fans everywhere in Roundworld.<br />********************************************************************</small><br /><br />oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo<br /><br />INDEX:<br /><br />01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH<br />02) EDITOR'S LETTER<br />03) A FEW TIME-DEPENDENT THINGS<br />04) CLOSE<br /><br />oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo<br /><br />01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH<br /><br />"It is hard to look at a future without Terry, his humour, wicked bubble-pricking comments, his amazing inventiveness, his style, the deftness of his puns, and the deep moral sense that pervaded all of the books, without being obtrusive. Time and again readers of his books have told me how their lives had been shaped by them. And every time I finished reading a new book, I did so with a sense of immense satisfaction at having read yet another work by a master, at the tremendous sense of superb craftsmanship he had brought to the book, this amazing skill that produced books that can be read again and again over the years without ever feeling a loss of admiration, and discovering some historical or literary reference or joke that had passed me by on earlier readings. AS Byatt said in her tribute that 'No writer in my lifetime has given me as much pleasure and happiness'. I wholeheartedly endorse that."<br /><br /> – Colin Smythe, in his tribute in the Irish Times, 2015<br /><br />"Anyone who has read one of Terry's novels will know how he could spin the most beautiful sentences and make his craft look effortless – it was what made him such a huge success. Now he was using that talent not for another piece of fiction, not for his own benefit at all, but to deal with a very real issue that we are all, at some point in our futures, going to have to face."<br /><br /> – Rob Wilkins, in his introduction to the published transcript of Shaking Hands with Death<br /><br />%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br /><br />02) LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR: REMEMBER HIS NAME<br /><br /> Today marks the first anniversary of the day Sir Terry Pratchett died.<br /><br /> Some months ago, I said in an editorial here that I refused to mourn his passing, preferring to only celebrate his life and work. That remains true to this day, but I have to admit that in an ideal world I would have wished for a different outcome. I would have wished, in an ideal world, that PCA had never taken my favourite author's brain in its horrible grip. I would have wished, in an ideal world, that he live to a grand old age, a productive old age, such as the ninety-three years achieved by PG Wodehouse, that luminous yet far lesser talent to whom Sir Terry's writing was often compared. I would rather he'd had the opportunity to lead us at a more relaxed pace through the social and technological changes of the Discworld, without the ever-growing spectre of memory and processing loss looming over his shoulder. In an ideal world, he would still be with us, still entertaining and educating us with the magical-in-all-ways worlds he created. But our world is not ideal, and that's not the way it happened.<br /><br /> It is customary in many parts of our world to mark certain anniversaries with a minute or two of silence, in order to pay respects. For Terry Pratchett, I suggest we show our respect doing the opposite, in ways of which he would have heartily approved. Make two minutes, not of silence, but of joyful noise. Read a Tiffany Aching book aloud in your best Nac Mac Feegle accent. Torment your nearest and dearest with ridiculous pun(n)(e)s***. Consider the wisdom of Granny Weatherwax, Pastor Oats, Lord Vetinari, Solomon Cohen, or Mau of the Nation. Turn a workmate or neighbour on to the works of Pratchett. And most of all, remember that Terence David John Pratchett, like so many of his creations, left the world a better place than he found it.<br /><br />– Annie Mac, Editor<br /><br /><small>*** e.g. "What do you call it when two Fools divorce but can't decide who gets the children? A custardy battle!"</small><br /><br />%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br /><br />03) A FEW TIME-DEPENDENT THINGS<br /><br />3.0 PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE WANTS YOUR TRIBUTES<br /><br />...for a new video:<br /><br /> "We are collecting fan tributes to create a video celebrating what Terry meant to his readers. If you’d like to be included, simply film a short clip of yourself (landscape) holding up, on a piece of plain paper, one or two words that sum up what Terry Pratchett and the Discworld means to you, whilst saying that word or phrase out loud. Send your clips in to discworld@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk by 18th March."<br /><br /><br />3.1 DISCWORLD PLAYS ON STAGE THIS WEEK<br /><br />MASKERADE IN SOUTHEND<br /><br />When: 15th - 19th March 2016<br />Venue: Dixon Studio, Palace Theatre, 430 London Road, Southend, Essex, SS0 9LA (phone 01702 351135)<br />Time: all evening shows 7.30pm. Matinees on Thursday 17th and Saturday 19th March 2.30pm<br />Tickets: £11.50 and £12.50. A £1.50 per ticket booking fee applies capped at six per order. To purchase online, go to <a href="http://bit.ly/1nxQ6p8">http://bit.ly/1nxQ6p8</a> and click on the Buy button for your chosen date.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.eastessexplayers.co.uk/">http://www.eastessexplayers.co.uk/</a><br /><a href="http://www.sosac.co.uk/c/?776">http://www.sosac.co.uk/c/?776</a><br /><br />MORT IN CHELMSFORD<br /><br />When: NOW through 19th March 2016 (daily performances from Wednesdays to Saturdays)<br />Venue: The Old Court Theatre, 233 Springfield Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 (phone 01245 606505)<br />Email boxoffice@chelmsfordbc.gov.uk<br />Website www.ctw.org.uk<br />Time: 7.45pm all shows<br />Tickets: £10.00 (£9.00 for over-60s, Under-16s or Students). A £1.50 fee is applicable per transaction, except for cash and debit card payments made in person and by telephone (01245 606505). To purchase tickets online, go to <a href="http://bit.ly/1XiRW9i">http://bit.ly/1XiRW9i</a> and click the Buy Tickets button for your desired date. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.chelmsford.gov.uk/mort">http://www.chelmsford.gov.uk/mort</a><br /><br />MASKERADE IN WITHAM, ESSEX<br /><br />When: Wed. 16th to Sat. 19th of March 2016 <br />Venue: Witham Public Hall, Collingwood Road, Witham, Essex, CM8 2DY<br />Time: 7.45 pm all shows<br />Tickets: £10 advance, £12 on the door (for senior citizens and U16s, £8 in advance but £10 on the door; this discount is not available for the Friday and Saturday shows), available by phone (01621 892404), by emailing Contact@WithamDramatic.co.uk, or online at <a href="http://www.withamdramatic.co.uk/boxoffice.html">http://www.withamdramatic.co.uk/boxoffice.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.withamdramatic.co.uk/production.html#inprod">http://www.withamdramatic.co.uk/production.html#inprod</a><br /><br /><br />3.2 NAMING THE NEW WINCANTON BRIDGE<br /><br />From the Western Gazette:<br /><br /> "Wincanton residents are to be given the opportunity to name a new bridge in the town. The bridge will provide access to a new play area in Cale Park, as a project to regenerate the recreation ground moves forward with its first phase. So far some of the suggestions have been inspired by the town's literary connections and its voluntary organisations, with possible names such as the Terry Pratchett memorial bridge or the C.A.T.C.H bridge being put forward. Other monikers being touted include the Queen Elizabeth II bridge, the Gateway bridge or the Troll bridge... A public consultation will be held on Friday, April 8 at the David Sharp Centre to encourage residents to learn more about the plans for the park and to submit their name ideas for the bridge. The consultation will also ask people what they wish the next phase of development at the park to focus on. Anyone interested in joining the Friends of Cale Park group or submitting a suggested name for the new bridge should contact town council clerk Sam Atherton on 01963 31693 or wincantontownclerk@hotmail.co.uk."<br /><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/1SGPt9w">http://bit.ly/1SGPt9w</a><br /><br />%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<br /><br />04) CLOSE<br /><br /> The shortlist of eight books for this year's Carnegie prize has now been announced, and The Shepherd's Crown is on it. This is an appropriate remembrance, but the book deserves to be there anyway for its brilliance.<br /><br /> You can still apply for a ticket to attend the Terry Pratchett Memorial in April. Go to <a href="http://bit.ly/ticket-application">http://bit.ly/ticket-application</a> any time until 14th March. "You may request a single ticket or a pair. Tickets will be chosen at random and successful applicants will be contacted as soon as possible after the ballot closes. Hope to see you there.<br /><br /> See you later this month, with the regular March issue. And now and always, GNU Terry Pratchett!<br /><br />– Annie Mac<br /><br />ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo<br /><br /><small>The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: wossname-owner (at) pearwood (dot) info<br /><br />Copyright (c) 2016 by Klatchian Foreign Legion</small><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=wossname&ditemid=31759" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments
tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-12-21:2133966:9626
A special tickets offer from Unseen Theatre for SMALL GODS
2015-03-30T10:00:44Z
2015-03-30T10:00:44Z
public
0
Oh, poot! Not ten hours after posting out the last March issue, I've received an email from the marvellous Pamela Munt of Unseen Theatre, Australia's premier Discworld plays company:<br /><br /><b>Earlybird tickets for "Small Gods" at the ridiculous price of only $12 each. (Only for bookings made by April 13)</b><br /><br />To buy tickets, go to <a href="http://www.trybooking.com/129353">http://www.trybooking.com/129353</a><br /><br />...and here is the text of Unseen's latest announcement about their next production, which opens in May:<br /><br /><i>Unseen Theatre Company presents<br /><br />Sir Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods"<br /><br />Adapted for the stage, and Directed by Pamela Munt</i><br /><br />It's a God-eat-God world, which makes life a bit tricky when you are manifesting as a tortoise, because everyone knows that there's good eating on one of those things. Brutha, is a simple novice who only wants to tend his melon patch. Until one day he hears the voice of a god calling his name. A small god, to be sure, but bossy as hell.<br /><br />In what has been described as one of the 20th century’s finest satires, "the gods are pompous, the worshippers cowed, and the priests violently closed-minded. Yet the tale is never heavy-handed, thanks to some deftly comical plot twists, as well as all the levity that comes from picturing an angry god trapped in the body of a tortoise." (Australian author Jack Heath)<br /><br />The main target of Pratchett's perceptive, satirical wit in Small Gods is religion and intolerance. Funnily enough, according to his fan mail, both believers and non-believers have praised the book for supporting their position! Philosophical and theological arguments aside, it is still epic storytelling (with one foot of silliness stuck in the door), a comedic character piece, an awfully big adventure, and, as always, it examines the never ending conflict between good and evil. So you could say that it pretty much covers everything! (including the number 42).<br /><br />This is also one of Terry's works that is most often accused of being literature. However Terry himself preferred to put his views in a simpler fashion:-<br /><br /><i>Take it from me, whenever you see a bunch of buggers puttering around talking about truth and beauty and the best way of attacking Ethics, you can bet your sandals it's all because dozens of other poor buggers are doing all the real work around the place.</i><br /><br />Although this production was planned quite some time before Terry’s passing, some may see it as fate, others as simply co-incidence, that we decided on this particular one of his works that is concerned with theological and philosophical issues. Whatever your beliefs, we hope that it is a fitting tribute to him.<br /><br />Small Gods has all the usual comedy, action, and drama that we have come to expect from one of the most insightful minds of our era. It will also make you think about...well...everything, long after you have left the theatre!<br /> <br />RIP Sir Terry. We hope you are giving our favourite character a good run for his money! We at Unseen Theatre Company will be sure to keep your work alive on stage.<br /> <br />WHERE: Bakehouse Theatre, 255 Angas Street, Adelaide<br />WHEN: Preview Fri. May 15. Opening Night Sat. May 16. Season continues Wed to Sat until May 30. All shows at 8pm.<br />TICKETS: Adults $20; Concession $18; TREv $16; Groups (10+) $16; Preview all tix $15; Companion Card accepted.<br />BOOKINGS: www.bakehousetheatre.com and at the door on the night (subject to availability)<br /><br /><small>Copyright © 2015 Unseen Theatre Company, All rights reserved.</small> <br /><br /><br />To view this announcement on the web, go to <a href="http://bit.ly/1bIBCgy">http://bit.ly/1bIBCgy</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=wossname&ditemid=9626" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments
tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-12-21:2133966:8400
A Wossname special tribute
2015-03-14T05:33:23Z
2015-06-04T20:53:17Z
public
0
THE LOVE SONG OF TDJ PRATCHETT<br /><br />Let us go then, you and I,<br />When the Rimfall is spread out against the sky<br />Like a victim on Quetzovercoatl's altar<br />Let us go, through certain dark Ankh-Morpork streets,<br />As Cumbling Michael bleats<br />Of restless nights in Elm Street's cheap bedsits<br />And Harga's restaurant with greasy chips<br />Streets that follow like a Fools' Guild argument<br />Of a humorous intent<br />To lead you to an overt wealth of... footnotes!<br />Oh, do not play Greek Chorus<br />Let us go and dance Dark Morris.<br /><br />In the room the wizards come, unseen<br />Talking of thaumic octarine.<br /><br />The Morpork smog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,<br />The river-fug that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,<br />Licked its tongue into the corners of the Bucket,<br />Lingered upon the gargoyles guarding drains,<br />Let fall upon its back the black of lithe Assassins,<br />Slipped by the terrace, writhed round Sator Square,<br />And seeing that it was a soft Sektober night,<br />Curled once around the Tump, and fell asleep.<br /><br />And indeed there will be crime<br />Under Ankh-born fumes that slide down Easy Street,<br />Rubbing grey-black upon the window-panes; Disc-ing itself<br />There will be crime, and barely time<br />To prepare a voucher for the Thieves that you may meet;<br />There will be time to say the number Eight,<br />And time for all Devices wrought by dwarfs<br />That lift this brawling City toward its fate;<br />Time for Schleppel, time for Reg,<br />And time yet for an Igor's deft incisions,<br />And for a Sweeper's history revisions,<br />Before the taking of meat and two veg.<br /><br />In the room the wizards come, unseen<br />Making a joke about the Dean.<br /><br />And indeed there will be time<br />To wonder, 'Do I dare? Will Vimes go spare?'<br />Time to turn back Time and deeds repair,<br />With P.L.T. making horrors of my hair—<br />[They will say: 'How she stoops, to wear the tin!']<br />My armoured breasts, my collar fastened firmly 'neath my chin,<br />My pedigree's the oddest, but blue-blooded via lupine kin—<br />[They will say: 'But she's a vegetarian!']<br />Do I dare<br />Disturb the multiverse?<br />In a minute there is time<br />For decisions and revisions which the Moon will soon reverse.<br /><br />For I have known the grags already, known them all—<br />Have known the meetings, mineshafts, Ankhian ruins,<br />I have squandered all my gold in greasy spoons;<br />I know the old life's dying, like an axe's fall<br />Beneath the bustle under cellar rooms.<br />So should I mention Koom?<br /><br />And I have known the toffs already, known them all—<br />The eyes that damn you with a far too inbred phrase,<br />And when I am relegated, tossed like Mr Pin,<br />When I am told 'No comment!' by Lord Rust,<br />Then how should I begin<br />To spit out all Spike's butt-ends from the Golem Trust?<br />And how should I presume?<br /><br />And I have known the 'girls' already, known them all—<br />Arms of that painted Guild, pale, white and calm<br />(But in the lamplight, best of Mrs Palm's!)<br />Is it scumble from a dish<br />That makesh me shpeak like thish?<br />Arms that twine around a client, or cap a maiden's fall.<br />And should I rent a room?<br />How soon should I dig in?<br /><br />. . . . .<br /><br />Shall I say, I have lurked at dusk in Morpork's streets<br />And watched the Clacks that clatter from the roofs<br />Midst lonely geeks with code-books, changing shifts in towers? . . .<br /><br />I should have been a cruel wild banshee's claws<br />Scuttling between the Trouserlegs of Time.<br /><br />. . . . .<br /> <br />And 'til well past noon, Young Sam will sleep so peacefully!<br />Smooth is his breathing,<br />Asleep . . . tired . . . or merely teething<br />Safe in his bed, here beside you and me.<br />Should I, after teetotal libations,<br />Have the strength to foil yet more assassinations?<br />But though I have cursed and shouted, growled and coughed,<br />Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] fetch ever higher prices<br />I am no genius — but I'm cool in crisis; <br />I have seen the sternest of my Watchmen flicker,<br />And I have seen the eternal Death of Rats go SNH, and snicker,<br />And in short, I was pissed off.<br /><br />And would it have been worth it all, and sweet, <br />After millennium hand and shrimp for tea,<br />Among the Faculty, among some talk of Sourcery,<br />Would it have been worth while<br />To endure Ridcully's hassling with a smile, <br />To have squeezed the universe's rubber sheet<br />To roll it toward some thaumic insurrection,<br />To say: 'We are wizardry's future, come have fun<br />'Come HEX me up a treat, H.E.M. is neat!'<br />If one, scoffing a sausage inna bun,<br />Should say: 'That is not what I meant to eat. <br />'That is not real named meat.'<br /><br />And would it have been worth it, after all,<br />Would it have been worth while,<br />After the battles and the broadswords and the trampled thrones,<br />After the sagas, after the horse cheese, after the skirts I chased<br />from Rim to Hub—<br />And dine-chewers for my grub?—<br />It is 'barbarian' to say just what I mean!<br />But seen by a magic lantern through a silken Agatean screen:<br />Would it have been worth while<br />If one, scuttling a Dark Lord or storming Io's gate<br />To turn larks into legends, should say:<br />'That's not a hero's fate,<br />'That's not a deathless hero's fate.'<br /><br />No! I am not King Verence, nor was meant to be;<br />I'm just a tender Tomjon, one who'll do<br />To thrill the punters, steal a scene or two<br />Advise the prince; he jingles, but he's cool,<br />Deferential to the senior Ogg<br />Mildly thick, gracious, and fond of his wife;<br />Full of high purpose, but a bit agog;<br />At times, indeed, a cliche brought to life—<br />Almost a perfect Fool.<br /><br />I grow old . . . I grow old . . .<br />I shall yet wear midnight when the nights are cold.<br /><br />Shall I shout 'Io's not blind!'? Do I dare to speak of Klatch?<br />I shall wear black pointy headgear, and fly on brooms of thatch<br />I have heard the Beggars, canting to the Watch.<br /><br />I do not think that they will beg from me.<br /><br />We have seen young vampires gliding past the Moon<br />Combing the land for humans to attack <br />Venting their blood-lust stylishly in black.<br /><br />We have lingered on the shambling Circumfence<br />By sea-trolls wreathed with foam against the sky<br />Till Great A'Tuin takes us, and we fly.<br /><br /><br /><br /><small>(by Weird Alice Lancrevic, with abject apologies to Thomas Stearns Eliot)<br /><br />[Editor's note: this was originally published in an issue of Wossname several years ago. I can think of no better time to share it with you again.]</small><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=wossname&ditemid=8400" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments
tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-12-21:2133966:7976
Terry Pratchett 1948-2015: a magical life, ended far too soon
2015-03-12T23:06:45Z
2015-03-12T23:06:45Z
public
0
Wossname<br />Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion<br />March 2015 (Volume 18, Issue 3, Post 1)<br /><br /><small>********************************************************************<br />WOSSNAME is a free publication offering news, reviews, and all the other stuff-that-fits pertaining to the works and activities of Sir Terry Pratchett. Originally founded by the late, great Joe Schaumburger for members of the worldwide Klatchian Foreign Legion and its affiliates, including the North American Discworld Society and other continental groups, Wossname is now for Discworld and Pratchett fans everywhere in Roundworld.<br />********************************************************************</small><br /><br /><b>HE ATE'NT DEAD IN OUR HEARTS: RIP TERRY PRATCHETT, 1948-2015</b><br /><br />Dear Readers,<br /><br /> The Author has left us. But the magic he brought to the world will never leave. Let us mourn his passing, but celebrate his life and works.<br /><br /> Wossname will continue, as it has always been even more about the words of a master wordsmith than about the life of the wordsmith himself. There will be our own loving obituary to add to the vast outpouring of tributes to the man who brought satire and real wisdom to the fantasy genre, but for now, here is the official announcement as posted on PJSM Prints:<br /><br /><b>"It is with immeasurable sadness that we announce that author Sir Terry Pratchett has died at the age of 66.<br /><br />"Larry Finlay, MD at Transworld Publishers:<br /><br />"'I was deeply saddened to learn that Sir Terry Pratchett has died. The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds. In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him. As all who read him know, Discworld was his vehicle to satirize this world: he did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humour and constant invention. Terry faced his Alzheimer's disease (an 'embuggerance', as he called it) publicly and bravely. Over the last few years, it was his writing that sustained him. His legacy will endure for decades to come. My sympathies go out to Terry's wife Lyn, their daughter Rhianna, to his close friend Rob Wilkins, and to all closest to him.'<br /><br />"Terry passed away in his home, with his cat sleeping on his bed surrounded by his family on 12th March 2015. Diagnosed with PCA1 in 2007, he battled the progressive disease with his trademark determination and creativity, and continued to write. He completed his last book, a new Discworld novel, in the summer of 2014, before succumbing to the final stages of the disease.<br /><br />"We ask that the family are left undisturbed at this distressing time."</b><br /><br />To read this message on the web, go to <a href="http://www.pjsmprints.com/">http://www.pjsmprints.com/</a><br /><br /><br /> I'm off to raise a glass of scumble to The Author. See you soon.<br /><br />– Annie Mac, Editor<br /><br />oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo<br /><br /><br />The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: <br />wossname-owner (at) pearwood (dot) info<br /><br />Copyright (c) 2015 by Wossname for the Klatchian Foreign Legion<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=wossname&ditemid=7976" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments
tag:dreamwidth.org,2013-12-21:2133966:5220
WOSSNAME: it's moving time!
2014-09-20T12:22:52Z
2014-09-20T12:22:52Z
public
0
Wossname<br />Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion<br />September 2014 (Volume 17, Issue 9, Post 2)<br /><br />* * * STOP THE PRESSES * * *<br /><br />After many years of receiving faithful (if not always competent) service from Yahoo, Wossname is moving to a new mailing list:<br /><br />wossname at pearwood.info<br /><br />Provided we manage to avoid any +++OUT OF CHEESE+++ errors on Hex over the next 24 hours, you will receive a welcome message from the new mailing list, which will include instructions for going onto "No Mail" or unsubscribing, followed shortly thereafter by the first genuine, honest-to-goodness new Wossname editorial from our new home. Wheee!<br /><br />If you haven't received anything by then, please check your spam folder, or drop us a line at wossname-owner at pearwood.info <br /><br />The historical archives of old WOSSNAME editions will remain open at <br /><br /><a href="https://groups.yahoo.com/group/WOSSNAME/">https://groups.yahoo.com/group/WOSSNAME/</a> <a href="https://groups.yahoo.com/group/WOSSNAME/">https://groups.yahoo.com/group/WOSSNAME/</a> <br /><br />but no new editions will go there, apart from a monthly alert when the new edition comes out. Future newsletters instead will be found archived at two places:<br /><br /><a href="http://wossname.dreamwidth.org/">http://wossname.dreamwidth.org/</a> <a href="http://wossname.dreamwidth.org/">http://wossname.dreamwidth.org/</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.pearwood.info/pipermail/wossname/">http://www.pearwood.info/pipermail/wossname/</a> <a href="http://www.pearwood.info/pipermail/wossname/">http://www.pearwood.info/pipermail/wossname/</a><br /><br /><br />-- Steven, assistant editor and trainee technomancer<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=wossname&ditemid=5220" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments