I thought about doing something like this when I was compiling Masha 1-10 last year. after all it really shouldn't be only the gd looking insightful Asian ojisan (XD) and his songs which deserve mentions here~ *giggle*
The Professor's Death Song by James Calvin Schaap
In this life one has many loves at first sight: people, books, dresses etc. This story was one. Like the many other LAFSs, I prob cannot explain why it was so, except that it was the right story for me at the right time. reading it any earlier, i may have been shocked, not coped, and unsympathetic, reading it any later, i may have developed a tolerance to such brokenness and it would have failed to stir much emotion in me.
but it came when it came, during one of the summer wkend cover shift mornings. i was alone in the student computer lab, expecting things to be quiet at least for the first couple of hours, listening to BENI's mou nido to.
In some mysterious ways, it managed to permanently change something for me and my Christian values.
The story was so beautifully written, even to this day I feel i am not able to describe the beauty of it. after all i really have not had enough experiences of life or even lived enough days to even vaguely identify with either the author or the subject matter.
...but end of the day, the weight of human brokenness, painted in full honesty in a sympathetic light- ...is universal, and all that is needed to stir the soul.
This, however, is not all the story about my appreciation for the professor's story. There is a sequel.
as I obsessively loved the professor story, i kept an eye out for the same author's books. Last year I found Honest to God: Psalms for Scribblers, Scrawlers, and Sketchers and read it with great relish.
The surprise came with the last chapter of the book. It was a different story, but the subject matter was the same--the professor.
also beautifully written, and sympathetic, but in it, the professor was not "the professor" but "the sex offender".
i thought much about the two different stories afterwards, about the nuances in difference, and how differently one felt towards the professor from the two different accounts written by the very same author.
it made me muse at the Lord's timing. I wondered if i read the story of the professor as "the sex offender" first, and then came across The Professor's Death Song, whether I really would be touched by the idea of brokenness to such an extent, realizing the subject matter was the same?
and would i have become a fan of my most fav Christian ojisan writer? if i read what he wrote, in the "right" order?
the musing also came at a most needed time. I have always been a slow warmer, but in recent years bits of my madness came out to play more under the sunlight.
I became scared of people, and there was an increasing sense of acopia, in socialization.
there is too much irony in this madness of mine, but the process of getting to know my fav writer's words and stories was probably the Lord's own comforting words whispering and intervening in this madness:
--that no matter how uncomfortable the cross-sectional can be, I should trust there is a longitudinal for everything, and try my best to stick around for the longitudinal to unfold...
--and more often than not, I would be pleasantly surprised.
There are many more good stories by Prof James Schaap at Stuff in the Basement. Every post is beautiful like a piece of red velvet cake. i know i have been consciously and/or subconsciously attempting to model after his writing style, but maybe its all a bit too much for my ESLness.
I can't be greedy and eat all the cakes, but staring at them behind the counters, is still awesome.
my fav christian ojisan writers... and a bit more
happy birthday Masha
i just realised that i never managed to remember Masha's birthday after internship.
...and am prob somewhat delusional that he's only 41 still. (not that young but still better than reality... he just turned 44...)
------
Its been many years, and its been so good to know that you are much more than mere good looking smart Prof Galileo.
i still relish your words... i remember they really gave me the courage to start working as an intern despite my anxiety and complete lack of enthusiasm for medicine.
and at this moment in time, they are still so relevant to me.
Even more so than 4 years ago.
To be able to pursue a career that you really like, is a very difficult thing.
but if you are strong & persistent,
there will be opportunities for you to find something you really like.
Even if you can't find it, it shouldn't be too far away.
And no matter what kind of job it is, no matter whether it is suitable for you or not,
You can always enjoy your work, and make discoveries in what you do.
i sometimes do wonder what did i do to deserve chancing upon you and realising you are not just a favourite star, but will also do as an awesome role model for me--
-- during a time I most needed such role models.
You know I thank God for all His blessings to me through you.
...and I still want to grow old being an honest and insightful person like you.
Happy birthday.
the here and now
Lord, it is a prayer...
that I could stop thinking
stop planning
stop speculating
stop imagining
stop wondering whether or not I will cope 5 hrs from now, 5 days from now, 5 wks from now
Lord, please give me the strength to concentrate on the here and now, and trust you for the next hr, the next day, the next wk, the next month.
Lord, grab hold firm of me. I am not OK, now.
at Etihad Stadium
the wedding reception was at Docklands, friend drove me out of the harbour, and I walked with a cripple on my heels to climb up to the Etihad Stadium, realising with horror that the gate I came out from is firm shut.
security was called, with me panicking on the phone:
"i thought your car park is open 24/7!"
"Go to Gate 4, Gate 4 is open 24/7."
"where is Gate 4?"
"you have to walk around, its almost right opposite Gate 8, either direction distance about the same."
@_@
so at 1115pm i embarked on this lone stroll to circle half of Etihad Stadium from Gate 8 to Gate 4. as i walked with even more of a cripple every step, i thought about Jill Meagher, i thought about the New Delhi bus, and I thought about much more. There is no sight in my brain of the much needed Psalm 23, instead, the evils of 2012 flashed across like a horror movie. The last part of that epic stroll right before I reached Gate 4, just adding to the sensationalism, had a strip of deserted construction site on one side of me, but by then i already got to thoughts of the eastern suburbs bus stop asian pervert and it almost became somewhat of a relief.
after taking the lift down I had to continue the stroll to make my way from Gate 4 back to Gate 8 for the car. I had security putting up all the lights for me and promising to keep an eye on me on his security monitors----but---
I soon realised I was not the only person on that level. As i stumbled ahead to find my car, i could hear loud clanging noises distantly across all the way along. As i approached my car the noise maker showed his face.
A young asian cleaner walked pass, took one nonchalant glance at this hunched dishevelled woman stumbling on heels, who probably looked at him with fear and agitation and whatever fight-or-flight expression on her face---
and in all his coolness turned away quietly to continue his job.
so, i finally made it to my car. Masha's voice singing Saiai rescued me... I felt I was at last safe, back home, and could have a satisfying cry.
the age old question of whether i prefer to be a man and not a woman if i had the choice and hence able to avoid my toilsome life still gets me in moments like this, despite years of conscious/unconscious effort making myself more comfortable with myself. end of the day, this debate is really in the same league of whether i would choose non-existence over existence if i had the choice--
and had nothing to do with identity issues and more to do with me desiring and wishing, more often then not, not to carry my own cross.
let me take a step back and admit that whats been stressing me out was not only night stroll around Etihad Stadium but other things including a recent crisis at work. for some time now i thought i have graduated from the work related emotional dysregulation of my early years, and that i've had enough awesome registrar examples inspiring me to push on for work regardless of internal/external adversities, and that i've gained enough wisdom and experience to prevent significant personal emotions significantly affecting work by intervening and seeking support before they begin to bother...
and i became shocked at the me who was so shaken and fearfully avoidant... and losing almost all my capacity to process and assess and decision make... at a seemingly minimally relevant issue which would make it quite ridiculous even if i recognized and nipped it in the bud and got the second oncall to take my place.
Mark Galli's words was very taken in by me since the start of last year and used with great personal relevance as i spoke proudly of my values and how much i did not care about peoples' praises---
--but only now, it hitted me with the full weight of it.
--and gosh it hurts.
"We are too often tempted to justify our existence on this planet by doing something "significant," by "making a difference in the world," so that we can go to bed at night feeling good about ourselves. But the Christian message is about a God who judges and loves us in our insignificance—that is, when our selfcenteredness has sabotaged our ability to make any fundamentally sound contribution to our lives or to others'. This God speaks to us the frank word that not only do we not make a difference in the world, day to day we threaten to make the world worse by our sin. But in Jesus Christ, he has judged and forgiven us through the Cross, and now he uses even our insignificant efforts to witness to his coming work in Jesus Christ."
Lord stay with me. I have a long way to go, and i don't think i will ever quite get there-
-which I think You know already.
Ikiteru Ikiteku 2013~
The most beautiful thing of 2012 was Ikiteru Ikiteku.
2013 now, still need you.
It's quite unbelievable
When you were a child, though you wished hard, you could not become an
adult
Now you are an adult, just with a flutter of your heart
You can become a child
again any time
Having lived this long, the answers I got so far
There are many more wrong ones than right
Along the way of making many mistakes
I become an adult
Such a life, full of its good and bad
Is probably helpful to the hard working genes 100 years later
For it to serve this purpose
I continue my life today
Till this day I clearly remembered
All the people I liked but hurted
"Conveying your feelings", "Understanding one another",
Are just as difficult as falling in love itself
My youthful scars and bittersweetness
Hoping they could give some courage
To the genes that would fall in love with others 100 years later
For this purpose, I continue my life today
I am learning to stay strong
Learning from failures and regrets
So I could win this battle against
All the inescapable pains and sadnesses
I once had a very big dream
A dream so absurd and
embarrassing
Then I didn't realise when or how
The smaller dreams in the midst of it
All
came true without me knowing
That's right, I didn't manage to do it on my own
I hope my genes from 100 or 1000
years ago
Would get praised.
For this purpose, I am living now
With this life, I live everyday
And I live for today as well.
OD matters
This is littered with so much Odoru Daisousasen goodness it almost made me cry in surprised happiness during the first episode. It is just so OD! and only OD fans will get it. seriously they really know how to address fans' loss and grief issues now that "The Final" is out. very ghost in the shell as well... but the OD bits added all the colour and connection and warmth. i've lost faith in anime for years, but now... happy that OD will live on even in anime... hanging out for that one episode per week...
watching MV version 4 made me go sniffling.
1997-2012... all the memory, all the love.
THANK YOU.
the bits of this week
waited for the translation of Beautiful Life lyrics for a while...
another pleasant surprise.
was a bit disappointed about the uneventful PV, but the meaningful lyrics made up for everything.
First few lines:
I have not yet learnt the ways of forgiveness
harbouring hate towards people in my heart
"if others could hate me the same as how I regard them,
then that's quite all right."
that was how I tried to be cool and dismissed it.
Masha... revealing such thoughts and writing them into a beautiful song...
...is really really really cool. ^__^
love your blunt insights, humbled and learnt my good lessons again.
~
this other song has been played over and over again these couple of days.
MISIA - DEEPNESS from alternakinakinana on Vimeo.
Shot in Mongolia, and strangely, so beautifully suited for Oh-Oku.
~
missed the 2 last episodes of Arang and the Magistrate last month.
gd ending apparently.
and saw a pic of Shin Minah smiling so sweetly at the end!!!
now saving them as a treat to enjoy after i finish my mpm essay.... ^__^
also a delightful chance discovery this wk:
Lee Junki reads Orhan Pamuk.
didnt expect that... but hmm... impressed.
this has added to me slowly beginning to think:
if Masha ever dies of old age...(nooooo......) at least I may still have you to sustain me for a bit longer... :D
LOLz
your smile more beautiful than the spring breeze
*HEART* Lee Junki X Shin Minah
my first time watching Shin Minah. Her smiles are truly addictive.
and Lee Junki is from pre-Masha days. I wonder if Tiff still remembers being traumatised by a long hair gay MVof his which I forced her to watch... XD gd old days.
then he did some not very exciting dramas... had elevated BMI and a fatty face... and i didn't like him anymore.
now he's back from the army, older and uglier but no more elevated BMI!
yep, back on board now. will follow your dramas(do a few more with Shin Minah if you can). ^__^
On call for life
I got woken up from my stupor at 0450 this morning, by my persistently ringing home phone.
... though not in time to pick up the call.
in an attempt not to be melodramatic and harrassing potential callers at 5am in the morning, the next hr as i lie in bed in suboptimal consciousness, i prepared myself for the worst.
parents acutely ill? parents robbed and hacked down and police called? the state of no subsequent calls and their switched off mobiles suggested otherwise. oversea relatives acutely ill? oversea relatives dead? more plausible. my mum still holding everything together? my mum not holding everything together and having a meltdown? the fact that she attempted to call at 0450, makes a meltdown more likely. and not hard to imagine my dad trying to give a spill of his insights and ineffectually convincing her in her meltdown why she should not be melting down.
end of the day, my ability to plan despite not fully alert and oriented surprised even myself. by 6am i had it all worked out, including what do i say to my clinical director over the phone requesting urgent non-paid leave, which travel agency to go to first for tickets, and how do i manage my own psychogenic polydipisia while grieving and distressed for the upcoming 11hr plane trip.
then i called parents.
dad awake.
me calmly: "what's up?"
dad: " huh? i didn't call you!"
PHEW.
now i am drained. and overcooked my oats in the microwave which splattered everywhere and needed cleaning. an upcoming day without endorphins to subacutely sort out subacute people's subacute problems.
it came to me, that i am oncall 24/7, whether oncall for work or not, and subconsciously i've accepted it ages ago. i am certain many others in a similar situation are not as neurotic and live on thoughts of the best not the worst. but maybe, like that occasional brainless colleague who did not realise he/she were on call and got caught in a shock but still ended up working a reasonable shift, oncall mode, at the end of the day, probably doesn't really have any great deal of benefits.
but it is impossible to undo the realisation, once you became aware of the oncall status.
but at least for now, not need to call the clinical director, and psychogenic polydipisia not resurfacing.
not yet.
Lord have mercy. and be on site for me.
9, 10. 11/10
9. Saiai
theme song for Yogisha X no Kenshin. I guess I don't have to say much more.
...and Masha sang this in SH as his first performance out of japan. ^__^
though...comparing to the Masha-only version (with him kissing a caucasian obasan in the MV...囧), I like the KOH+ version more....
kou-chan struggled with it, but i still prefer to hear her voice singing this song.
10. Tokyo
again, one of my old favourites... that didn't make it to masha's best collection album last year.
just really liked it, maybe its the MV. although a lot more new and good ones followed, it never failed to stir something in me.
really hope Masha can sing it more often during live concerts.
11. Lets be a family
comparing to the other 10, not particular excited about this song but... I really want to give it a mention because of what Masha said about his journey of writing the song:
"trust" does not equate "understanding". i personally believe, when I trust someone else, the responsibility entirely rests with me. It is I who wanted to trust you--you carry no responsibility. To me there is no such thing as "being betrayed", because I myself wanted and was willing to trust another person. When one starts to think one understands another, the thoughts of "being betrayed" would often arise. The presumption of "I understand you" is often the most frightening, whether it be between friends, colleagues, bf/gf, or family members...
it was eye-opening, and immensely humbling. i am so thankful that i came across these words before formally starting the trade.
a trade with the ever present temptation to believe, that as i advance in it i would somehow hold the power of superior understanding and knowledge of others.
these words slapped in the face, and kept my feet firmly to the ground.
...and i love Masha for such anchoring insights.
more from the SH film festival~
beautiful Masato-sama was in SH too~
so unprofessional. seriously if you don't have the capacity to hold an international film festival... don't hold one.
my life just took a busy turn recently, with Masha recently joining both FB and weibo.
...after he came bk from the SH film festival realising how popular he was even outside of Japan.
...and his FB updates are now bilingual...
*faint in happiness*
so now a large part of my day is spent...checking updates and liking and commenting~
so distracting, i hope i can still go back to work alright.
and Masha says...about SHnese girls:
The weather was really good in SH. I saw lots of girls wearing mini skirts exposing their thighs. very good skin, and long legs. I wish i can come back and visit SH more often.
~not making this up~
~you sleazy ojisan~
lol.
and absolutely heart this photo:
7-8
Masha...
first time I heard you speaking English. you are not bad AT ALL. despite the limited vocab and the hesitancy, you spoke accurately in a very natural way, and without much of an accent.
and..."I need to concentrate." you still get anxious before your shows... even if it's just one song... in china.
and your new song for SK-II was awesome.
and you are on facebook now...
and you are on weibo too... you are really going international.
and i hope you had a nice time in SH. I just realised i shop for tea at the same place in SH as you(joyous!).
and I will drink more pu'er tea like you now. ^__^
7. Phantom
Zankyou is prob my fav Masha album. just the title itself stirs so much emotion in me, and there are a lot of songs from Zankyou i really like (incl Keshin).
Out of this big collection of likes, phantom is prob the most unforgettable.
the lyrics were not uplifting. similar time as Keshin so i do wonder if he could be mildly depressed during that period of time.
but then... watching Phantom at Mt Inasa 09...
it was breathtaking, and to me, the very highlight of my fav Masha concert.
8. Good Luck
i've been playing the same CD in my car for half a yr now, and have grown so used to listening to Good Luck--
--on my way to the hospital in the early hrs of a morning during oncalls.
a nice simple old song, that quietens the heart.
it descalates me quickly.
so that i then have the capacity to go and descalate someone else.
now time for withdrawal...
soon after i voiced my faithlessness in korean dramas...
the whole last week, i fell in love with Queen InHyun's Man.
once in a blue moon one finds a korean drama with characters of normal intelligence,
once in a blue moon one finds a korean drama not insightlessly schizophrenic,
once in a blue moon one finds a korean drama that despite a strong love line, all efforts have been made to tell a good story.
i still remember how i abandoned it after 1st episode, thinking its mere palace politics + modern day messy love triangle.
.... none of that. i am so glad i watched it.
and now seriously withdrawing.
it ended well too... i was preparing for the worst...
and the amount of gossip about the actors after that last episode~~*faint in joy*
then i clicked open this MV...
1st impression: gosh the song is awfully familiar.
but...took me more than 5 secs to realise it is a remake of Masha's "sunflower".
i should be ashamed of myself... i will go and self-examine in remorse.
but... can't stop watching(and listening) now ^__^
the randoms
haven't found many gd jap dramas to follow this season, so after years of not watching korean drama, I ended up following two recently.
...confirm for me again that korean dramas are overall insightless and do nothing but encourage avoidance of one's own responsibilities.
...and the ones that try to be deep and meaningful are more intolerable than the brainless romantic ones.
the King 2 Hearts so easily grabbed my attention at the start, to the point i thought korean drama was finally having a breakthrough with this one. sadly, storytelling just spiralled straight down the atrocious end... i still find ha jiwon & lee seungki really brilliant actors, and the chemistry between them was amazing(when they are actually 9 yrs apart) such a waste of gd acting...
Rooftop Prince on the other hand is typical silly korean romance from the start, but because its overtly silly, my expectation was not high. music was nice, costume was pretty, suspense was kept, and there was a nice wrap-up in the last episode, that made some basis sense.
my expectations of dramas these days are so low... as long as something exhibits some sort of commonsense i will label it a gd drama.
now both are finished for over a week. there is no withdrawal symptoms, I don't miss them at all.
so, bk to jap, still following Legal High. Masato-sama (who usually play meek and mild ojisans) is so different and brilliant this time. love the pressured speech.
lunch today is prob the best lunch i've had in a while. new bubble tea place in chaddy called "Bubble Cup Signature" (how lame). but 40% off this wkend, and 50% sugar tasted 50% sugar. owner was a 40+ anxious fob obasan who looked so overtly stressed out about everything during the brief period i observed her.
i like her, i think thats easily me in 20 yrs time.
then found food in the food court. spicy fish with tofu... it came in a giant bowl and though not too authentic, was full of chilli and peppery goodness and thoroughly warmed up my GI system.
shop owner was a 60+ ugly fob ojisan who dressed young, but for some reason his glasses and his long puffy messy hair and the way he moved around reminded me A LOT of Masha.
so, satisfaction on all fronts. XD i am so going bk to that place to eat next time i am in chaddy.
(if anyone finds it grossly disturbing that i check out random sexagenerians in shopping centres... im sorry.)
4-6
4. YOU
There are songs you listen to... a hundred times over...
...it then goes on replay in the car and gets completely ignored... for a thousand times more...
but the one day you again pay attention to it...
it is as beautiful, as the first time you listened.
my very first Masha song.
5. The Hill of Promise
The first time I watched a live performance video of Masha's was "Heaven".
It was an eye-opening experience for me (who back then was still meek and mild lol). to cut a long story short, I was very scarred.
but fortunately by then i was already won over by his insightful interviews....
so at least he didnt get blacklisted as a silly sleazy ojisan.
and then the warmth of this video cured my PTSD.
i initially thought his look for that concert was horrid: silly puffy hair... and those red pants... 囧 but after watching him sing this song, it instantly became one of my favourites.
and the horrid look became endearing too.
Masha sang the same song at Mt Inasa twice... once for his 30th and the next for his 40th.
The brilliance of the 40th performance, and the complete lack of deliberate efforts to impress--
simply made me feel...
growing old and ugly, is really not such a bad thing.
6. Hotaru
this song kind of grew on me over time.
I always found it nice... along the same line of "Hatsukoi" and "Let's be a family", simple... love songs... nice, but nothing really stood out for a while...
then i can't even remember why or when... it made its way to the favourite list...
maybe its the music...
maybe its Yoriko Yoshitaka's smiles in the MV... she's a bit of a bad girl among that grp of mediocre upright young actresses... but i was always fond of her... even before seeing her in that MV.
maybe its the lyrics...
Where were you before you found me?
What kind of world were you living in?
Who did you love before?
Were you hurt by someone?
Have you been crying for a long time?
...strangely steadfast and settling.
3/10
Ikiteru Ikiteku
This song made it to my top 3 straight after it came out...
brilliantly honest lyrics, plus cute happy song and MV for the doraemon movie...
I really dont have an immune system to this combination.
now let me just take a break from the song itself and admit to my own pathology-- that i believe in this world there are two categories of people, for one of which, the pull of non-existence will always be stronger than existence.
...regardless of the amount of worldly gains (or as we christians much prefer to call it... blessings.)
i hopelessly belong to that category, and hopelessly hope, that such a category do exist.
I've liked masha for this many years now... and still i've underestimated him. He who's so comfortably authentic, so successful and well respected, so certain of his purposes in life... I have not actually imagined him to also be someone who sees "existence" itself as some form of overwhelming hardship regardless of its many associated gains...
...and somewhat desperately hanging on to an external purpose to justify carrying on such hardship.
That's right, I am not only living for myself
I live so that the genes from hundreds and thousands years back could be praised
With this life, I will live now. Today we should live on.
i am in tears watching him singing those lyrics in such positivity.
ganbatte to myself too...
2/10
Beautiful Day
This has been my fav masha song for years, until takenover by Keshin. initially i was in love with just the song... until i watched the adorable MV and became more in love with that... then a bit later found the lyrics translation... then this song became perfect.
although for some strange reason, the pessimistic inappropriateness of Keshin grabbed me just that tiny bit more... XD
it really gave me the strength to survive internship that year:
the thongs you bought on your way
didn't look great but maybe just right
things that embarrassed you, things that you could do nothing about
today is the day to accept them all
tomorrow we should live on
though lonely, but we are not alone
everything happened today seemed "just right"
maybe a miracle
Beautiful day.
It is one of Masha's "non-popular" songs, prob didnt do well in the charts. i was not very happy with masha (and decided i wont even like him so much anymore) for at least 7-8/12 when i realised with horror he didnt include Beautiful Day in his 20yr best collection album... >_<
...but then he cut his hair and composed a nice new song and did a beautiful therapeutic mv
and all else no longer mattered... XD
i like masha who did Keshin, and i like masha who did Beautiful Day, but i adore masha who did both Keshin and Beautiful Day.
1 out of 10
ok time to release some tension.
havent gotten around to find a violent shooting/killing computer game yet. (am i so degraded that i need a violent computer game? @_@ noooooo... )hence, still in denial, but now, this will do.
have been wanting to compile a masha fav 10 list for some time.i think it was really just waiting for 生きてる 生きてく to come out and complete the picture~ XD
i will start. 1/10: the top masha song for me is Keshin. It has a somewhat socially and culturally inappropriate MV that I often shy away from admitting it is my favourite masha song. (2 unfortunate friends danielle and ning are still very scarred... from being forced to watch it by me...) its been a few years, i still love the song, and the mv too. maybe the mv even a bit more than the song itself. for a few years now i have been obsessed with getting clothes in that shade of blue. (the lastest addition to the wardrobe being a cardigan in that colour 2 mths ago) dreamed of having a bookshelf in that colour too. so, quite far from getting sick of it.and, i just discovered its actually a reasonable tension releaser for me.
if interested, can check out the rabbit head and the squatting toilet.Sherlock
i've been having lots of vivid dreams lately... quite a few nightmares included. apart from stating the obvious that i am having more REM sleep... i do wonder if this is in some disturbing way, PTSD by proxy.
my patients these days are largely balls of anxiety, somewhat in my own league.
the worst of those nightmares occurred 2 nights ago.
i dreamt...
--that sherlock was doing evil things.
what was worse...
--that sherlock was BL.
lol
to salvage my fav childhood hero from the danger of being permanently ruined, i am finding solace in the original canon and gd old granada sherlock with JB and his manic depression...
that dose of old fashioned eccentric decency really did its trick.
and thank goodness, and thank goodness again, there were... no gay jokes.
even without sherlock... 5mins with an old-fashioned kind-hearted grandpa-like watson sensei just warms the heart. ^__^
i still cant make up my mind which of david burke and edward hardwicke was the better watson for JB... the styles were really different, but they really seemed to have morphed into each other so well.
but maybe i am just biased, about both of them.
when i first started this blog 7 years ago i then just discovered the poem "221B":
Coin of ours can never ransom
Years now prisoner to Time:
Roars the bus, where once the hansom
Trotted on the trial of crime.
No more now a Stradivarius
Played by fingers long and fleet
Sounds the dirge of plans nefarious
Foiled by him of Baker Street.
Could we, with an eye clairvoyant,
Find the dear remembered door,
Which, with trembling, many a client
(Fair or famous) stood before?
Here it was that Roylott forced an
Entry, like some savage bear;
Here, bright eyes of Mary Morstan
Fell to Watson's ardent stare.
Were a time-restoring charter
Granted by the grace of Heaven,
Who would not this tired age barter
For a night of 'eighty-seven,
When, as fog through pane and curtain
Softly grey comes creeping in,
Wise-immortal-strange and certain-
Sherlock plays his violin.
*hearts* then, and *hearts* still now.
