The Joy Of Joining A New Community - Doctor Who Edition - Part 2

I love pop culture. I LOVE IT!

I don't have religion, I have the movies and tv. Sunday morning movies are the best. 10am popcorn? Yes please! Trailers that last for fifteen minutes before the movie? Why not twenty? I could watch two hours of trailers. And these days with Television? OMG don't get me started on the amazing stories being told out there.

NERD! Total Nerd

So I'm a Nerd. I always have been. Is it a birth-order thing? I don't feel like any of my siblings were nerds. Dor might have gotten close, she introduced me to Monty Python after all, but skewed more toward msuic. She was a Yes-head. Is that a musical nerd? (I don't know anything about music. It is the one part of pop-culture I'm pretty clueless about. As proof to this I will tell you that I've heard OF the song "All About The Bass" but I have not actually heard the song. But if you want to talk about Serial Podcast, I'M IN!)

Where was I? oh yes, Nerd. I love joining up with the Who Universe to feel connected, to be part of a larger group. I think I had a bit of disconnect from the "larger group" when I was a kid and am always looking for it. I was the youngest and my next oldest sibling was five years older. We did plenty of stuff together, but there was also lots of earlier bedtimes and "maybe when you are older."

And growing up haole in Hawaii creates an intense disconnect. It's challenging as I feel 100% connected to Hawaii, yet at the same time could never quite fit in. In my K-8 elementary school, I was one of about 15 haoles out of 650 students. I had friends, but they were just school friends as I got on a bus every day to go home. And on that bus I read.

Freak Flag

I was a reader from an early age and my mom indulged me with books all the time. (Yay Mom! I do and will continue to do the same with Harper.) Someone gave me the first two Little House books when I was eight and I got HOOKED. Here was a story about a girl my age and her family in a world that was totally alien to me. Prairie? Snow? Churning butter? I didn't know anyone else who had read these books. Or who was obsessed with the way I was.

I asked mom to make me a sunbonnet. And she did. AND I WORE IT! I didn't wear it on my head. No no. I wore it hanging down my back, as Laura had. Haven't you read the books?? (and yes, I still have it.) I was a community of one, and I let my freak flag fly, even though I'm sure 100% of the people who saw me were like "what is that thing around your neck?"

Side note: prairie fashions were IN in the early 80's. I wore an outfit regularly that was not dissimilar to this one, complete with the sunbonnet accessory. I loved my denim skirt. Mom also made me a petticoat to go with it. LOVED LOVED LOVED.

Where was I? Oh yes, dearth of Laura fans on Maui. Now you can connect with other Laura Fans, read more about her life, see pictures of her and even visit some of the little houses. Or you can have a Doctor Who ring tone on your phone (guilty!), or a tiny tardis necklace and people will nod and smile, knowingly. Or they'll argue with you about Russel T Davis vs. Steven Moffat. (or Tennant vs. Smith). It's wonderful to make those tiny yet meaningful connections in any group. We are a community!

I'm not a church goer but I made a pilgrimage in 1998 to worship at the Church of Laura. I have stood in line to receive the good word of Obi Wan Kenobi multiple times (before and after the re releases). I've gotten to live long enough to be obsessed with BOTH versions of Battlestar Galactica and have loved them equally.

Curiouser and Curiouser

Curiosity makes all the difference. Learning about new things, new ideas, new characters, history, art, language, that is all amazing to me. I've always loved reading and writing stories. If you are open to new things, willing to give something a try (not just one episode, come on!) then the world will always be rich and full. People might say pop-culture is just junk. But oh I disagree. There can be so much commentary, so much reflection on the bigger things in the world, all hidden within that "junk." When our BSG heroes landed on New Caprica, rebuilt their lives, then (spoilers) the Cylons came and took over, there was a lot of excellent commentary on the Iraq war. They made you really look at both sides of a conflict and sympathize with those you might think are the bad guys. Powerful stuff.

And when things are well written, well created, there can be such delightful surprises. You watch a show thinking, Oh this and that will happen and NOTHING CLOSE to it happens. The Good Wife is excellent at this. So is Justified. (OMG Justified, you guys, please watch that show it's amazeballs.) Did you read Gone Girl? That point in the middle where it all went in a TOTALLY different direction? Awesome. I aspire to write that well. I aspire every day and mostly fail, but dammit, I keep trying.

Why did I start this conversation? Because I'm a newly minted Whovian at age 47 and I'm wearing my fandom on my sleeve. I want a Tardis in my backyard. (Or in my house were the house big enough.) In a weird way I'm proud of myself for diving into something new and going whole hog. I always want to try new things. I hope I'm bingeing on something cool when I'm 87.

Oh and if I could afford a bespoke version of this I would totally wear it.

Or this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm a goner, people, do you understand? Done. I have fully succumbed to Doctor Who and can't wait to see where it goes from here.

You might have zero interest in pop-culture. Fine. But go out and be curious! Read, travel, explore, taste, try! And don't be afraid to let it show.