It’s now 2010 and I started off the new year by watching Doctor Who. It was part 2 of The End of Time and also the end of David Tennant’s stint as the Time Lord and the show’s head writer, Russell T. Davies. Ever since Doctor Who returned to the airwaves in 2005, they have been coming out with the Christmas specials. The Christmas specials have become a tradition for myself because there’s not much happening on Christmas day. This one is very important because in 2009, there was no full series of Doctor Who because Tennant was off acting on stage. There were the four specials and the final two were David Tennant’s final adventure and swan song. Here’s an image I put up and it’s from the ending where he regenerates. It’s a sad scene watching the Doctor go into regeneration. Doctor Who fans like myself have been fond of Tennant, it’s just hard to see him leave the role. I’m going to miss the brown pinstripe suit (there’s also the blue pinstripe suit), the Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers (I will continue to wear them no matter what), the glasses he occasionally wore and the sonic screwdriver.

Overall, the 2nd part of The End of Time was excellent. As non-spoiler as I can be, the acting among the cast was superb. Seeing the emotions of Tennant as The Doctor clings to his death was just strong and emotional. It was touching to watch the companions of previous seasons mark their farewell as they won’t be coming back for future episodes. The words, I don’t want to go will probably linger on for awhile because it’s so heartbreaking and us fans will have to move on that Tennant is no longer the Doctor.
I can’t wait for the Spring when Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor) takes over for Doctor Who.
How could I not forget to mention that it’s wonderful to see another “iconic” British character (well, actor) appear in the show. I know Timothy Dalton did two James Bond movies. It was nice to see two famous British character sort of meet face to face. I know it’s silly of me to imagine James Bond meeting Doctor Who.
Since I wanted to embed the YouTube clip, here’s the link to the preview of Doctor Who Series 5.
It looked like the finale scored 10.4 million viewers in the UK. Thus ends the David Tennant years on Doctor Who.

The First Radio Show of 2010 – Another Themed Show to Wrapup the Holidays

Here is the first radio show of 2010 (on January 6). Started with Sadie Hell, played a new Basia Bulat song (album to be released on January 26, 2010), and almost ending with Doctor Who (again). I played the best of the 2000s. It was basically my picks throughout 2000 and I had to change my song choices due to the mainstream music that I’m not supposed to play regularly. In irony, I played several British hits from the 2000s and it seems like a few people are starting to remember S Club 7. I will resume the interviews for next Wednesday.
Playlist is up on CKCU’s website at this link.
Press play to listen

The Sadie Hell Concert at Club Saw on January 2, 2010


The first concert of 2010 to attend was the Sadie Hell concert at Club Saw on January 2, 2010. The opening acts were The Love Machine and Wuhan Lipfight. It was also a fundraiser for Sweat Free, a non-profit organization that assists sweatshop workers in third world nations form a strong union and giving awareness to wear clothing not made from the sweatshops. I know I have been covering Ben Welland and his band for the past entries in December because he has finally released a full length album. He’s been working on this album for quite awhile and it sure paid off.

The opening acts and the headliner were pretty good as I was feeling down from Doctor Who. Wuhan Lipfight started off the all-ages concert. I wasn’t sure what to expect of them but they performed a long set. It was almost psychedelic for about 15-20 mins. Smoke was billowing out several times and I was coughing several times.
The Love Machine were up next and they performed new songs for their upcoming full length debut album. Prior to their performance, there was a mishap when they spilled something. As usual with them, they were rocking out to the crowd and noticed fans were singing along to the new songs. It’s awesome to see this band full of energy.
Finally, Sadie Hell was on stage and it was a full band as I forgot the names of several people who played with Welland. I know new member, May-Jun recently join the band on what he referred as Sadie Hell 6.0. Overall, the band was totally rocking out with several songs. Different from the acoustic sets on the radio and at Bands Undone. I made a blunder when I tried to shoot the video on his song, Sadie Hell.

There was a unique surprise towards the end of Sadie Hell’s performance. Welland proposed to his girlfriend which was totally unexpected. I know his girlfriend because she went to high school I went to. Congratulations to the both of them. Although, Welland did tell my brother and I at Canteen at Bands Undone on Dec. 27, 2009 that he wanted us to stay till the end. That was worth the smiles and a nice surprise to start 2010. I gotta say thanks to Ben Welland for putting on a good show and having to stay till the end of the concert. A slight apology for having Doctor Who take over this entry on the comments.
Photos are up on Flickr by checking out on this link.
[vimeo=http://www.vimeo.com/8516983]

In case anyone forgot from the last entry, the review for Sadie Hell at Bands Undone is at this link.
Happy New Year!