You truck along happily for almost 20 years dressing like a college student and suddenly, there is OH NOES FORTY looming in front of you and you turn into a fucking clotheshorse. WTF??
***
Link snurched from B.org: Dangerous Wands. I nearly swallowed my tongue laughing. Oh, Hermione Granger is TOTALLY that girl.
***
HUH. Y'know that new Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe movie, Men in Chainmail, I mean, Robin Hood? Who do you reckon is playing Sheriff of Nottingham? If you told me it was Matthew "Worst Spy Ever" Macfadyen, I would have laughed at your face, but it seems that's true. Seriously? Matthew Macfadyen?? As the manipulative, evil, sometimes hilariously campy (in some incarnations) Sheriff of Nottingham? I cannot picture it. Is the Sheriff gonna be all emo and broodtastic and piny after Marian?? 'Cause that would suck. Now Mark Strong, who they have playing Sir Godfrey (whoever he is) seems much more like the Sheriff of Nottingham material.
***
Good luck to those of you wrestling with the yuletide and bears and snowcalypse! I'm curled up with a cup of hot coco and some swell music, and maybe will attempt to catch up on Spooks later.
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sdwolfpup started this, and as SDW goes, so does my nation.One thing I've done this year is that I went to A LOT more concerts than previous years, culminating in my haring off to Seattle for the Sasquatch Festival all by myself, where I end up seeing half the bands featured in my favourite albums list. On retrospect, it was kinda crazy thing to do, but it's not an experience I'd forget anytime soon. Live music is awesome!! Who knew?
10 favourite albums of 2009
( under the cut )
( here, with download links )
Wow, that was... wordier than it needed to be. As usual, if you liked the songs, consider spending some $$ on the artists!
- Music:Kinetic Stereokids - Twisted Thoughts
( Spoilers suffer from Stockholm Syndrome )
Does anyone know how many episodes S8 is supposed to have? From what I hear, this may just be the last season. I wonder if they're going to do any type of character wrap-up at the end. I still haven't given up on that whole wishful dream of certain characters in a seaside cottage lined with books, with a dog and a cat and the a vegetable garden and everything. But knowing this show, we could just as easily end up with a Blake's 7.
I miss being fannish. I *am* vaguely enjoying this show and that this year, but it's not the same. I miss the singular passion of falling for a show head-over-heels and living and dreaming about it for days at end. I've been reading my LJ back entries on Life, Veronica Mars, and Sarah Connor Chronicles (as you do), and they make me sad more than anything. This may be the first TV season since I started this LJ in which I don't have a Major Fandom -- it's left me feeling rather listless.
***
There have now been a couple of feline deaths from H1N1 influenza. The cats almost certainly contracted the infection from their owners. From swine to birds to humans to cats and back to swine -- this one's turning out to be an intrepid bugger, a borderless, interspecies traveller. The CDC has the latest numbers: a mid-level estimate of 47 million infections in US thus far, and about 10,000 deaths, of which disproportionate numbers were children and young people less than 50 years of age. Which means around 15% of the population has been infected, already near the annual attack rate of seasonal influenza over an entire flu season.
CDC is about a month behind in their estimate. The general feeling is that the numbers of hospital admissions have declined in the last month, but still, nobody knows for certain how long this particular flu season is going to last. Vaccine distribution has been spotty at best, but my recommendation is to get it if it becomes available locally for you. Young asthmatics and morbidly obese adults seem to be faring particularly badly with this virus.
***
Every few months, I spend a couple of weeks binging on historical romances.
oracne can be trusted to give reliable write-ups on new writers, so off her recs, I tried a couple of Tessa Dare books (Goddess of the Hunt, and Surrender of a Siren), which were fairly typical as romances go but clipped around at a sprightly pace, with likable characters and fun dialog. The one I'm really sinking my teeth into though, is Meredith Duran. Her books have terrible nondescript titles (Bound by Your Touch, Written on Your Skin) and even worse beefcakey-hero covers, but her writing is pleasantly sharp and witty, and the characters have more depth than one usually gets from genre romance. I'm half-way into Bound by Your Touch, and it has a dissolute hero at odds with his noble father (a staple, but the reason for the strife is something fairly unusual) and a scholarly heroine who works semi-professionally with her archaeologist father, and their match of wits has a good deal of intellectual and emotional heft to it. Oracne said Duran reminded her of Judith Ivory, and I agree with her there, both in terms of the style and the complexity given to the characters. ***
Against better judgment, I bought these boots online yesterday. The cognac ones are lovely (I've seen them at DSW store before), but since I already have a pair of brown riding boots, I decided to go for the black.
Cowboy boots, as I live and breathe. Dunno what I was thinking, but if the black ones look half as good as the cognac ones, I'll probably keep them.
***
Morbid curiosity compelled me to Netflix Twilight the movie, and I found myself v. confused by the singular lack of chemistry between Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. I expected the writing and the make-up to be dire, and they were, but I remember people going on about the blistering chemistry between the two leads in some magazine article or another. Clearly it was all a marketing ploy, for I could not recall a more tepid couple in a popular screen romance in my recent memory. The thing is, I thought Pattison was lovely as Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter movie, and I know Stewart got pretty good reviews for her performance in Adventureland. But here, they were both as charismatic as sticks of wood. Their "courtship", as it was, was just bizarre and off-putting.
Stuff I liked:
- Bella's friends in Forks high school were adorable. Awww, Michael Welch. Why don't people give that kid more work? He's so awesome. (LUKE'n'GRACE 4EVAH!!) And I wanted to know why that cute friend of Bella wanted to date that guy who was so obviously gay. (Er, is he gay in the books? Are Mormons anti-homosexuality? All I know of Mormons and gays, I learned from Angels in America.)
- The kid who played Jasper was cute as a button.
- Vampire baseball! Who doesn't love Muse?
I knew how out of this movie's demographic I was, when 30 minutes into the movie, I realized the character I'd found the hottest in the entire thing was Charlie, Bella's father. (And Victoria. With that awesome fur coat and her anime hair and so much more attitude in her pinky finger than all of Cullens combined.) Also, I am apparently a giant music snob, because I got very annoyed that they managed to get their grubby paws on Iron & Wine's "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" for that eye-rolltastic dance at the end. Well, hopefully the band got a nice tidy profit out of it?
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fannish5: Five moments of becoming a hardcore fan
1. Buffy: I started watching in season 5, while catching up on older season episodes through those limited "best of" box set commercial VHS tapes and through Eastlant tapes (oh man, remember Eastlant?) I think the moment it got me was Angelus snapping Jenny Calendar's neck in "Passion," which I was unspoiled for. Then Giles finding Jenny's body in his apartment. And Buffy rescuing him from a certain vengeful death, then breaking down in his arms, sobbing, "I can't do this without you." Holy shit.
2. Life: The end of 1x06, "Powerless." I have talked about this episode more often than any of you probably wanted to hear. *g* "Just make sure I don't fall." DANI REESE, HOW ARE YOU SO AWESOME??
3. Firefly: believe it or not, it was "Safe," which is one of the lesser episodes of its brief run. I was pretty much there with "Out of Gas," but River has always been and will be my favourite character on the show (I... kinda share Joss's weakness for damaged brunette waifs? Um) and as soon as River started dancing, I was a goner. Then there was the infamous berries scene. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the whole Crazy Space Incest thing, but boy, was that scene charged.
4. The Office: When Pam fell asleep on Jim's shoulder in the second episode. Shut up.
5. Deep Space Nine: "Necessary Evil" from season 2. Odo backstory! Young Kira in the resistance! The whole dystophic Terok Nor bits! I ate it up with a spoon.
Sadly, I can't remember when became fannish about my first fandom, X-Files, mostly because I watched the series in a jumbled order (started off in season 5 or 6, then jumped around in syndication). This is rather sad.
( wee spoilers )
( spoilers have wordless communication )
Off to watch the next! I always seem to be binging on this show, which is not good for my heart.
***
NPR has a nice tribute to Judy Davis, and in particular her first movie, My Brilliant Career, which is one of my favourite films of all time. Her Sybylla is the kind of a heroine who is difficult to like and impossible not to adore, and Judy Davis is absolutely glorious in it. It also contains two of the hottest scenes I've ever seen anywhere in my 30+ years of watching movies -- the outdoor pillow fight scene (OH MY GOD) and the one mentioned in the article, in which Sybylla whips Harry across the cheek with a riding crop, and which has no business being so hot, but it just is, and how! But the movie wouldn't be half as memorable if it had a conventional happy ending. Instead, what we were given was unquestionably right for the character -- Sybylla, with her wild dreams and a determination to march to her own drums, who was so fierce and full of life.
The piece extends its praise to several Australian actresses whom Davis inspired, which was nice but rather sad-making, because Judy Davis is only 54-years-old, and the article makes it sound like her career is over. She should be working a lot more than she is now (unless it's her own decision not to), being brilliant and brittle and strong on my screen for many more years to come, dammit.
Talking about another Australian actress: My TiVo grabbed a flick called The International, starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, over the weekend. This didn't stay in the theaters long enough for me to catch it despite the Clive factor (I know!) and I recall the reviews were lukewarm, but I liked it a lot. There were the usual thriller-plot rubbish (what I think of as "O RLY?" moments) and the notion of the banking industry being Eeeeevviiill was perhaps *too* on the nose, but it's stylishly shot, with tons of interesting locals and good action set pieces. The shoot-out in the Guggenheim in particular was spectacular, and it was good to see whassisname, the recovering alcoholic vet with the Daughter Issues from Flashforward, as the stone-cold assassin. He suggested a lot of backstory in just a few scenes. Interesting that Clive Owen himself portrayed just such an assassin in the first Bourne movie. The flick was awash in melancholy, with Owen playing a washed-up Interpol agent, Lou Salinger, with his face like a broken man right from the start, balanced by Naomi Watt's idealistic Manhattan DA (the why and wherefore of her involvement are never really clear -- not that I cared overmuch), and I loved the vibe between the two. Watt's character was happily married with an understanding husband and a son, yet there was this affinity between the two character, which was completely platonic yet the kind of platonic that levels you with all the thing simmering underneath; where he takes that irrevocable step to get justice, *any* form of justice, but also does it to prevent her from being dragged down the mire so that she could stay on and continue the fight. There was something almost courtly about that, which appealed to the old-fashioned side of me. And she touched him ever so briefly on the face before they parted (presumably for good) with such compassion, it made me want to read a story about these two long afterward, when Ella is a senator and Lou a ghost who's been off the grid for years. A chance encounter, or maybe not so much a chance.
A passionate platonic friendship born out of shared zeal for a common cause -- well, I did imprint on The X-Files early enough.
***
Twelfth day of Christmas meme, gacked from
yhlee:( under the cut )
... a bach in a buffy? Annnnnd my mind goes to the predictably pornish place. ACCK. Bad mental picture! Bad! Well, Bach did father 20 children...
(My icon is not amused.)
***
Went to see the PSO play Mozart's Requiem over the weekend, and they were fan-fucking-tastic. They only performed up to the parts Mozart composed, not the part whassisname finished afterward, so the music itself was relatively brief. But God, what tremendous music! Dies Irae in particular was just riveting, although I found their Confutatis a bit too leisurely. In between the pieces, there were readings (poetry, excerpts from the Book of Revelation, etc), performed by none other than John Lithgow. I didn't know he was going to be there, so that was a pleasant surprise. I gather he's doing a fantastic turn in this season of Dexter, which I haven't even started because I have not watched the S3 yet. (So many things to watch, so little time!) Anyway, Lithgow was fabulous, although I kept expecting him to start hamming it up, since I imprinted on his 3rd Rock from the Sun persona years ago.
I always forget how much I love choral music until I start listening to it again. I'd give eye teeth to see Bach's Mass in B minor performed live. The PSO is doing that old holiday staple, Handel's Messiah, again in the next week, but I'd rather they changed it up and played some other great sacred music during the season. Ah well.
***
Hosiery question: I have this cute new corduroy skirt, but not being lined, it rides up like crazy when worn over my thick brown woolen tights. Are pantyhose made of other material less prone to cause this embarrassing wardrobe malfunction? It's too bad, because the skirt is really cute and goes awesomely with winter boots.
***
Am behind on ahemed shows since my desktop seems to be dead (Woe! I think it's either the power supply or the video card, and I've got replacement parts being shipped to me right now), so I've been catching up on TiVo'd episodes of The Good Wife instead the past few days. And you know what? It's a surprisingly solid show. I am not quite fannish about it yet, but the characters are well-rounded and complicated, and the acting is excellent across the board. Yes, it's a case-of-the-week lawyer show, but there is a long-ranging story arc threading through weekly standalones, and I really enjoy the mix of cases + political conspiracy + domestic drama. And the best thing about the show is how many complex, interesting women it has. There is Juliana Margulies' Alicia, who is a pleasure to watch as she juggles the (ongoing) ruin of her marriage, her displaced children, and her new work-place stress, and learns to grow a backbone and excel at her job, but my favourite character is probably Archie Panjabi's Kalinda, who's a tough, bold, smart, cynical and altogether AWESOME investigator for the firm, who got kicked out of State Attorney's office for not toeing the line and who also happens to be a female character of colour (she's East Indian, I think, although I don't remember being given much background on her so far). Kalinda is starting to fill the Dani-Reese-shaped hole in my fannish heart, and I can't wait to learn more about her. She and Alicia pass the Bechdel test *every single episode* and the blossoming friendship between the two women is one of my favourite things about the show.
Also interesting: Diane, one of the senior partners of the firm, played by the always-terrific Christine Baranski, and even relatively minor characters like Jackie, Alicia's mother-in-law, and Alicia's teenaged daughter are well fleshed-out. The male characters take more of a backseat, but all of the men have interesting shades of gray. Chris Noth's Peter Florrick in particular -- Alicia's charismatic, disgraced politician husband very much in the mold of Bill Clinton -- brings just the right amount of ambiguity to the role.
One small reservation is that Alicia may be a bit *too* perfect as written -- she has immense strength of character and and an instinctive investigator and litigator despite not having practiced law regularly for 15 years -- but hey, we have male characters on TV who are instinctively awesome at their job *all the time*, so it's nice to see women do the same.
I doubt this show would get much fannish traction hereabout, but I recommend it all the same.
***
Woo-hoo! It's almost time for me to go home. *two days left to go until the long weekend YAY*
All in all, a terrific way to spend a gray Sunday afternoon. Apparently there is a talk of Mulligan being nominated for an Oscar for the role? For her sake, I hope she doesn't get *too* hyped. She's fantastic in this, and I'd like to see her doing more interesting small films instead of blockbusters.
Outfit today: Ann Taylor Loft's rib transfer cowl neck sweater in violet, these well-fitting GAP houndstooth trousers (both purchased when they were having mad sales a couple of weeks ago), with dark brown Clarks ankle boots. I love the purple sweater in particular. My wardrobe has been mostly in this crushingly dull spectrum of black - navy - gray - beige (mostly gray -- what with it being my favourite colour and all), but this season, I've been craving more colours, lavender and purple in particular. And hey, it turns out purple goes well with almost anything! Well, not so greatly with red or green, but gray-blue-black? Yeppers. And with certain shades of brown, and with cream and beige -- certainly. Embrace the colours, ladies!
***
Currently reading: Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked, which I am enjoying tons. I haven't read too much Hornby, but I thought he mostly wrote (amusingly) about young men in crises at the footstep of the middle age? This one has the distinction of having a female protagonist, and so far, I'm liking Annie a lot. I'm only about 1/5 way through, but it's already made me laugh aloud in quite a few places, especially when it comes to Hornby's descriptions of particularities of fannish obsessions.
***
A nice interview with John Cho from East-West, and a longer, more indepth interview from a while ago from Asia Pacific Arts. Right now, he's about 70% of the reason why I keep watching FlashForward and I'm not quite sure I'll keep on.
( spoilers for the last few eps of FF )
Castle continues to freakin' adorable, although I have no deep fannish feelings about it. Castle's relationship with Alexis is a highlight, and Esposito & Ryan making fun of Castle's overprotective papa-bear tendencies in the last episode made me laugh and laugh. It's my non brain-taxing, happy-place show. And I dig that, unlike in The Mentalist, the cases appear to be solved by leg-work and smarts of the detectives with occasional help from Castle's insights instead of the other way around. I mean, I'm still watching and (kinda) enjoying The Mentalist, but it's starting to really annoy me that Every. Single. Case. hinges on Jane being unorthodox and brilliant, which makes the rest of the team look like glorified babysitters. I mean, Simon Baker's charming, but he's not that charming, y'know?
They need to give Tim Kang more to do, but he manages to be quietly awesome in the few scenes they give him. ( wee spoiler for the last episode and promo for the next )
White Collar: cute and watchable, but probably not the second coming of slash fandom IMO. Mostly because it's PAINFULLY clear how much Peter Burke loves his wife, and a story in which Peter cheats on Elizabeth with Neal is no longer the Peter I'm interested in reading about. I'm actually liking Thiessen's portrayal of Elizabeth, although I have to say that they are seriously wasting Natalie Morales' talent by shoving her into this awkward "hot junior agent which whom Neal is supposed to have UST" mold.
That's it on the TV front. Better put the UK telly bits in a separate post for spoiler protection issues.
***
I was looking at the fandom list for
festivids and noted that the 1991 BBC (I think) adaptation of Clarissa was on the list, then spent a few horrified minutes contemplating how the fandom would have received the series if this aired now, instead of 20 years ago. I haven't watched the series in close to 15 years, and remember Sean Bean being *insanely* charismatic as Lovelace. Imagine the horde of Lovelace Redemptionistas, who's screech on and on about how if *only* Clarissa wasn't such a frigid bitch, Lovelace wouldn't have sunk into such depravity! And derision of Clarissa's integrity and how nobody would die just because they were raped, etc. Then my head spun around 360 degrees and exploded.I do remember how awesome Anna Rowe (portrayed by the young Hermione Norris with the trademark steeliness) was, and wanting to know more about her character. Maybe it's time for a rewatch.
On the other hand...
Who wouldn't want to look like that? Well, OK, there is the part where you need to have the face and figure of Christina Hendricks to carry that off, but that's beside the point.
(wahhh, want dress. I KNOW it's gonna look weird on me and my work environment isn't exactly conducive to flights of sartorial whimsy, but still. The heart wants what it wants, mes amies.)
***
Shoe rec (yet more spendy stuff!):
I bought these Josef Seibel Mary Janes on a splurge when I was visiting SF a couple of months ago, and took these to Peru with me. These were pricey, but worth the investment, IMO. They're cute (albeit not the height of fashion), comfy, give great support, and the best thing about them is that they let you stop worrying about the eternal "... black or brown??" question. I've been wearing them with everything from jeans to tailored work trousers and my feet do not hurt at all after running around like a crazy person all day. *thumbs up*
Note: the European sizing is wee bit funky. I'm usually size 6, and had to go down to size 36 (which the comparison chart says is 5-5.5) for a good fit.
***
Huh. Sarah Shahi has a new series in development for USA network, costarring Michael Trucco, who played Anders on BSG. I like Trucco, and USA folks generally do not appear to be as trigger-happy with cancelling their series as the Big Four, so yay for Sarah Shahi for getting a lead role in a series! But to be frank, I don't know how I'll feel about seeing Shahi on my TV and *not* have her be Dani Reese. I'm going to be the one forever muttering, "you might look like her and sound like her, but you, my friend, are no Dani Reese." Not that I have somewhat deranged character attachment issues or anything.
DAAAAANNNNIIII. *sigh*
( Oh, show! You are EVIL and also my favourite )
OK! Off to watch the second episode!
musesfool( under the cut )
***
A terrifc interview with Matthew Weiner re. the S3 finale of Mad Men. Spoilers through the finale, obviously.
( on the interview )
I really need a Mad Men icon.
The original was a big enough phenomenon that the show was imported to Korea. That was a freakin' big deal, back in the '80s. Well, the *other* major US telly available in Korea back then was Love Boat, so maybe the whole imported-to-Korea thing is not anything to brag about. (Another show I remember fairly well was this terribly soapy miniseries called Rich Man, Poor Man, with Peter Strauss and oh, God, young Nick Nolte, whom my 12-year-old self thought was the hottest thing under the sun. *facepalm*) Anyway, my teenaged self watched the entirety of the original (badly-dubbed) run of V religiously, and the alien baby-birthing scene scarred me for life. I'd forgotten most other details, except for Marc Singer looking constipated and whats-her-face's crazy 80's hair (I keep thinking it was Kirstie Alley for some reason.) Of course I was going to give the new version a try.
Thus far, it's a mixed bag. The pilot had a serious case of pilotitis, the pacing was all over the place, and it totally vomited the plot twists worth the entire season all over itself. There was still clunkiness in the second episode, but it kind of won me over when ( spoiler for the ep tonight )
So far, it's entertaining enough. I give it a provisional season pass.
I mainlined half the season 3 yesterday, then just finished watching the finale. I don't talk about this show very much, because I don't quite know how to talk about it, but it consistently blows my mind. And there was this finale.
( brief spoilers )
On a related note: I have never watched any ep of the original Prisoner (other than through vids) but the new adaptation looks awesome. I mean, it has Sir Ian! How could it fail to be? And there's also that Jesus dude, and Ruth Wilson from Jane Eyre with those lips of hers! The clips they showed during the ad breaks were fantastic. *sets TiVo season pass*
Nicely done, AMC. NICELY DONE.
1. First off: Spooks season 8 is coming back at 9 PM GMT tomorrow. Wooo-hooo!
Here are some season 8 promos and episode stills posted at
spooky_doings. Beware the post has some casting spoilers for the season. [/is a model of restraint]2. From The Guardian: A few clips from the next Doctor Who special, The Waters of Mars, set to air on Nov. 15th. If you have adblock enabled, you need to disable that first or the clips won't play.
( about those clips )
On that note, ( some David Tennant news )
3. Trailer for the American remake of Edge of Darkness, starring Mel Gibson. Um. Has
infinitemonkeys stormed the Warner Brothers Studio and taken hostages yet?( Heavy on the Swedes and the Brits for some reason )
As usual, if you've enjoyed the songs, consider spending some $$ on the artists!
- Music:JJ - Things Will Never Be The Same Again
infinitemonkeys!***
I'm been like a slug since I came back from the holidays, and decided to go trail-hiking in a park a little out of the way from the city on Saturday, just to get myself motivated. It was an overcast day with occasional drizzles, but the scenery was still breathtaking. I love autumn. Afterward, we drove to a farmstead about 45 minutes away, where they were selling fresh-made jelly and home-made sweet-and-hot mustard and gobs of delicious pies. I bought enough to feed half a dozen people, which was probably not a smart thing for a single-person household but who cares? PIES!
( A few photos )
***
On the TeeVee front, I went ahead and deleted the Dollhouse and SGU eps on my TiVo unwatched because the main reactions from my Flist on these show seemed to run between "bored" to "enraged". I still want somebody to write me some wrong-yet-hot Adelle/Dominic full of mindgames, in which they both realize how fucked-up this is and still do it, fully aware of the inevitable betrayal to come. Or some tender and sad Saunders/Boyd. If only I could summon a fraction of such interest for Echo and Agent Helo (who bores me so much that I can't even remember his name). Ah, well. *deletes the season pass*
FlashForward keeps making me *facepalm* with its ridiculous use of music, but I need to find out what the hell is happening next so I'm going to keep watching. STUPID SHOW! ( wee spoiler )
I also watched the pilot of White Collar and it charmed my socks off.
***
During the weekend, I went to see Bright Star (the story of a brief love affair between John Keats and Fanny Brawne, his landlady's daughter) *and* just happened to catch the recent remake of Brideshead Revisited, and now am convinced that Ben Whishaw must play all tragically delicate young geniuses. Like, someone should totally remake Impromptu so that he could play Chopin! As much as I adored Judy Davis in that movie, Hugh Grant was just wrong for the role.
The Brideshead remake was so-so, except for Emma Thompson's fantastic performance as Lady Marchmain and Ben Whishaw's Sebastian completely breaking my heart. Bright Star was *gorgeous*. There is this scene with Fanny (the heroine played by Abby Cornish with great verve and emotion, and how much do I love that the movie is about *her* rather than him and his tragic genius?) in the field of blue flowers that was so breathtaking, I nearly wept from the beauty of it.
Consumption: the go-to disease for all the doomed young heroes/heroines! It's too bad that I cannot turn off my brain whenever I see the young lovers clutching together when one of them is wasting away from the disease -- I keep being distracted by how tuberculosis is most contagious just before a patient kicks the bucket and OMG STOP BEING IN THE SAME ROOM WITH THE END-STAGE TB PATIENT AND HAVE HIM COUGH ON YOUR FACE. Because I have no romance in my soul. (But it's because TB is not romantic! And don't let all the stupid operas tell you any different!)
I'd said that Tim had been looking annoyed/bored with this season of PR, and obviously I'm not the only one who'd thought so.
"Designers, I'm leaving now to go to a bar where I will attempt to wash away the memories of these horrible dresses with at least a gallon of expensive vodka. I'll see you tomorrow. And I better see some Mackie-ass dresses when I get back."
I think that might have been the best thing to come out of this sorry-ass season of Project Runway.
***
( Top Chef: Restaurant Wars )
***
( Castle 2x05, When the Bough Breaks )
DUUUUDE. This preview from next week's Halloween-themed episode makes it look like ( wardrobe spoiler, in case there are people who are delicate enough to care about that sort of thing )
I was tagged by
rilina so you get to see why I never write anything by long hand anymore because sometimes I can't even decipher my own handwriting.The meme instructions (yes, the questions are a bit... erm.):
1. Write your username.
2. Write your 2 favorite bands/groups of the moment.
3. Write something you love, aka lemme see your heart.
4. Write the name of your favorite person of all time.
5. Write the name of your recent favorite person.
6. Tag 6 people to do this meme.
( image behind the cut )
***
Link of the day: The CDC H1N1 Flu Vaccine Info page. The nasal spray forms are here for the youngsters, but we're still waiting on the inactivated injection vaccines in my neck of the woods. *is impatient* I may be professionally biased, but I have zero patience for vaccine-naysayers. I think vaccination is the single greatest achievement in the history of medicine. If I had my way and if there was an infinite supply of the H1N1 vaccine available, I'd vaccinate EVERYONE. I mean, here you have this novel flu virus, and we're facing an uncertain and potentially scary upcoming flu season. While the strain of the flu is new, the vaccines are manufactured the same way as your usual seasonal influenza vaccine. Some folks are going, "maybe because this is the new strain of influenza, the vaccine would have more side effects!" While there are uncertainties, I think this is highly unlikely because like I said, same manufacturing process as the regular flu vaccines! As to the people who are all, "well, I refuse to take the vaccine for me / my kids because it has not yet been properly tested!", with all due respect, I think that's a load of bollocks. We are racing against the clock. The vaccine researchers have done the best vaccine studies they could have -- we have evidence that suggests the vaccine is safe and immunogenic. Of course we don't have huge randomized clinical trials clearly showing the % efficacy of the vaccine in reducing the documented H1N1 cases YET because, hello, we've only known about this bug for 6 months and the clinical efficacy trials come after the safety and immunogenicity trials, and the flu season is HERE and we ran out of time. In medicine, everything is about risk/benefit ratio, and I think the scale tips significantly to "benefits" side in this scenario.
Of course, then there is the issue of availability. Right now, vaccine priority is given to the ones most likely to develop complications from the flu (children, pregnant women, college kids, those with chronic medical conditions that put them at high risk for complications), people who have < 6 mo-old infants at home, and people working in the health care field. But once those frailer and more at-risk than us have been taken care of, and there is vaccine availability after that? HELL YEAH, I'd get the vaccine.
In short, Vaccination: Better than Sliced Bread! And all those crazy people who refuse to give their children basic medical care like MMR vaccine can SUCK IT. Your kids would be in so much trouble if it weren't for herd immunity, IJS.
***
More TV catch-up! (I'm on a roll)
( The Mentalist )
( FlashForward )
Note to self: do not be making half-assed crack about coca tea to Customs agents in US airports because they have NO sense of humour about the stuff.
I am so incredibly behind in everything including TV, it's gonna be a while before I catch up (if at all.) I'm burning through fluffy non brain-taxing shows first, which means that I am not going to catch up on Mad Men or Dexter for a while. Stuff watched in the last couple of days:
( Top Chef )
Overall, it's been a very fun season to watch, with interesting challenges. Which is more than I can say about...
( Project Runway )
Of the scripted shows, Castle is the only one I have caught up with so far, and I have ridiculous fluffy bunny feelings (but not in an Anya way) about the show. The cases of the week are preposterous and are probably driving detail-oriented, procedural sticklers to drinks, but I don't care too much about that, so hey. The characters are adorable and it makes me laugh, which is all that matters.
( Spoilers for Castle up to 2x04 or whichever one aired this week )
I have no major investment in the Castle/Beckett 'ship, although I think the actors spark off each other quite well and are great fun to watch together. I need a bit more angst for my ships, personally. But it's kind of refreshing that they are not coy about letting their UST flag fly. Overall, this is turning out to be my happy-place show for the year. I'm not really fannish about it, but it I enjoy it thoroughly, rather like the way I enjoyed Chuck last season (who knows when Chuck is coming back.)
Next one to catch up: prolly The Mentalist (CHO!) and then Flash Forward (the other CHO!). A veritable plethora of hot Korean dudes spilled across my small screen! Well, there are only two, but it seems like A LOT. Three, even, if Jin's still alive on Lost, although it seems nobody really knows for sure? Or something.
And I hear ( The Office spoiler everyone knows about ) MUST CATCH UP ON THE OFFICE (I'm about a season behind.)
What else do I have on the plate? Oh, I'm giving Fringe another shot based on the recs of several people who told me that the S1 got much better near the end. I have several episodes of Good Wife TiVO'd, although that can wait until I have nothing else to watch. I was gonna DL Three Rivers for MSTK3 purposes, but really, who has the time or the energy? (I hear it is TERRIBLE.)
And my darling SPOOOOOOOOKS coming back later this month! And what is this I hear about Beebs putting out yet another version of Emma? Is it any good? Seriously, what would they have done without Jane Austen? I wish they'd try out some other folks than Austen and Dickens for their adaptations, because they can't just keep remaking the same thing over and over again, can they? I guess E.M. Foster is not frothy enough (although they did take his frothiest confection and gave it a stupidly downbeat ending a couple of years ago). Let's see -- they did a bunch of George Elliots a while back, some Brontes, some Elizabeth Gaskells, and Thomas Hardys (UGH). Some Henry James, maybe? He's got one foot on British soil, kinda -- no? Or maybe they can go back and tackle Samuel Richardson! (HAHAHA, I kid. I kid.) I have not read a single thing by Anthony Trollope but he's written loads of stuff, if I recall.
Erm. When is Doctor Who coming back? Not that I lack for fresh material to watch or anything.
ETA: Oh, I meant to include this but had forgotten: the list of all the actors (with photos) cast so far for the Song of Ice and Fire series.
Funniest comment on the page (which I haven't slogged through because helloooo, it's ondt.): They're missing the most important and awesome Stark of all: Tony. HEE!
Also: Happy Birthday,
sophia_helix, who's one of my earliest LJ reading buddies! May your coming year be full of awesome, darlin'.- Mood:
dorky
denyeverything1! ***
1. I have my hiking boots! They are Keen Targhee II and thank Jebus for Zappos, because I had to go up a full size for a comfortable fit. (I have never owned a pair of hiking boots before! It's very exciting!) I walked in them to work (about 35 mins walk) this morning with my hiking and liner socks in place, and they were v. comfortable out of the box. *coos at the boots*
2. From
queenofthorns: HBO just cast Lena Heady as Queen Cersei in the upcoming adaptation of GMMR's Song of Ice and Fire series. DUUUUDE. Lena Heady! Of course I'd much prefer having several more seasons of Sarah Connor Chronicles but I am glad she signed on (what looks like) a prestige project, and am keen on seeing whether Heady would give Cersei more complexity than is afforded her character in the books so far. Plus, the series already has Sean Bean and Jennifer Ehle and Peter Dinklage! And Nicolaj whathisname from New Amsterdam (boy, that show was dire, but NCW was eeeeeeasy on the eyes, that's for sure) as Jaime!You know what? I bet they cast Polly Walker as Melisande. I can't think of anyone better for the role. Plus, she's a known entity as HBO has worked with her before.
(I'm in the middle of Book 3 -- and seriously, one of the main reasons I want to rush through the books is that I want to play the casting game in full without having to worry about being spoiled. This adaptation is going to be AWSEOME, unless they get total hacks for writing and directing.)
