Friends

 I swear this really should have been a single post. *kicks LJ* 

Okay...Part two under the cut

Current Location: Chair of Solitude
Current Mood: confused
Current Music: X-Files on Television

Current Location: Chair of Solitude
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: X-Files on Television

I'm a tad behind on the movies in theaters front...but IRON MAN was really fun.

Mother's Day fic sucks wind... I can't post or I'd have to turn in my writing quill forever. Hopefully it will be fixable.

I hope all the moms, godmoms, petmoms, grandmoms... had a wonderful day.

I'm looking for Kara/Lee/Anders fic of ANY kind. Any links would be very very appreciated!!

Thank you!!

Whoa.  How bout this week's LOST & BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, eh?  My head is spinning. 

I have some basic thoughts - and a bunch of questions -  on BSG posted in the comments section over here if you're interested.  I have only watched it once and plan to rewatch, read everyone else's thoughts, and then maybe have a bit more to say.  But...wow.

Meanwhile, can I get a HUZZAH for the first HEROES season 3 promo spot?  Three friggin' hours?! W00t.



Also forgot to mention earlier in the week, that I watched the PBS movie CRANFORD last Sunday night based on Mo Ryan's review.  And for any of you Jane Austen/Brit period piece drama fans out there -- see it!  Excellent, witty, and surprisingly matriarchal.  Great acting...and a welcome respite from the intensely romantic nature of many of those BBC films.  This has all the usual romantic entanglements and all that -- but also much more of THE REST OF LIFE.  You can still catch part 1 (of 3) on PBS's site, and part 2 is coming tomorrow.

Current Mood: confused but satisfied

It's not something I post about often here, where I mainly post good fluff that makes me happy.  But today it's really bugging me:

THE INTERNETS: GOOD, OR EVIL?


*pondering the concept of FREE*

One of my co-workers (she manages the front desk) doesn't like to read. Really. She can read, she's quite verbally articulate, and is currently working on a graduate degree in counseling. She just doesn't like to.

She moved last month (quite suddenly, after her old landlord raised the rent an outrageous amount) and we've been comparing notes about the process. So when she greeted me this morning by asking me how it was going, I said, "pretty well -- I'm not actually moving until June 16th, so I've got a lot of time to sort through stuff..." Then, knowing the reaction I'd get, I added, "...such as fifteen hundred books or so."

Her jaw dropped. Her eyes went moon-sized and glazed over. "Fifteen *hundred*? Books? You've got fifteen hundred *books*?"

( My job here is done, I said... )

Current Mood: amused

Oh man, this is important!  Hurry up!

More details as soon as I can find them!

Who's getting excited?



*proud to be part of the LEGION OF OBSSESSED FANS, heh*

So, while everything is simmering elsewhere.... I played a bit with the Beta set...

Here is 1-13... I'm attempting something a little different, to ficlet all of them and create a complete arc/story with all 50...

( the beginning.... )

Current Mood: tired

I'm working from home today, per my usual schedule, and made chicken soup for lunch. Also as usual, I made enough for two meals.

I carefully ladled the leftovers into a plastic container...which then slipped out of my hand and dumped soup all over (and into, unfortunately) the front right burner on the stove.

I cleaned it up, but now the burner won't light.

Sigh.

Current Mood: annoyed

I'm really just a big kid.

Yesterday, my wife and I went out to a movie; it was my birthday, and so I got to pick. Going to the movies is a rare treat, as anyone with young children can tell you. The choice was in front of me: Go for substance, something deep and probing of the human condition, or go for fun. I went for fun. I chose Iron Man, sentimental fan of super heroes that I am. And I had a very good time.

      Iron Man is a comic-book movie, which requires a certain tolerance for stretching the limits of plausibility in a number of ways, as well as a forgiveness of broad emotional strokes. I will go on the record and say that I think most comic-book movies are pretty bad, succumbing to formulaic plots, ham-fisted emotional/psychological elements, bad acting, and just sheer silliness. These characters are most at home on the page of a comic book or in a cartoon--the journey into live action usually results in an embarrassing trainwreck. There are exceptions, of course, like Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (not an original example, I know) or the Wachowski brothers' V for Vendetta, but they can hardly erase our memory of the way the last Batman franchise, say, went down in ridiculous flames.

The good things you've probably heard or read about Iron Man hold true, I think. Robert Downey's performance as Tony Stark really is charming and engaging. Even when the character is a war-mongering playboy in the early part of the movie, it's hard not to like him. When he turns himself around and disavows his past as a weapons merchant, I believed it. The formulaic super-hero elements are applied with a lighter touch than usual. The cast does a great job across the board, some overwrought moments not withstanding. And the movie handles the issues of the distribution of war materials and U.S. involvement in the Middle East more sensitively than I expected. The bad guys in the film come in the form of a greedy and ruthless U.S. corporation with deep ties to the military and brutal warlords in Afghanistan; the people stuck in between are U.S. military personnel and the Afghan civilian population. This is the ethical framework of the film, and given events in recent history, it's not a formulation without any basis in reality.

The special effects are spectacular. This is not a saving grace for a bad movie, but in an enjoyable film like Iron Man, this strength can be appreciated. The CGI effects are shiny and metallic, and so they never look fake or cartoonish. 

The movie is genuinely funny in many moments; heart-wrenching (yes, heart-wrenching) in a few others. Spoiler alert: During a scene in a small Afghan village where the warlord's group are starting to commit the kinds of atrocities the human race is infamous for, Iron Man sets down in the middle of everything and stops a group of them from stomping a man while his child screams from the sidelines. (Iron Man then unleashes his own hell on these less-than-sympathetic types--did I mention this might not be a good film for the little ones?) I couldn't help but think of all the children who have seen their fathers brutalized without help from above in a gleaming hero wielding god-like powers. An escapist fantasy that leaves quite a fall to reality, for sure.

But setting these heavier considerations aside, Iron Man is a lot of fun. It has its flaws, of course--not the least of which is an important plot element that just doesn't make sense in terms of character motivation. And it's a comic book movie, so wonky pseudoscience and bombast abound. I would say that it has more to recommend it than to hold against it, and that if you like super hero movies at all, you should give it a shot. I would suggest giving it a shot even if you don't have much affection for super heroes. Who knows? You might enjoy it anyway. My wife did.

Happy Birthday to restunwritten

The cast and crew of the upcoming "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" were just a few weeks into filming in Vancouver when Frank Spotnitz, the co-writer and co-producer with creator-director Chris Carter, called star David Duchovny over to a laptop computer to watch a fan-made video on YouTube. It was a montage of scenes from the old "X-Files" show set to Sarah McLachlan's forlorn "When She Loved Me."

"It was intensely romantic and it almost brought tears to my eyes," Duchovny recalled. "It really did. And it reminded me that we have at the core of 'The X-Files' this very powerful relationship. We have to honor that and not shy away from the sentimentality of the fans or of the relationship itself. When we were doing the show, Gillian [Anderson] and I had got tired of it. And we wanted to be ourselves outside of it. I remember struggling. But now I think, 'God, what a great love affair.' "

Los Angeles Times, 5/4/08

...this by heliotitans...

Looks like Hanami, the viewing time for cherry blossom trees in bloom, is peaking and starting its delightful rain-of-blossoms period here in New York.

The Brooklyn Botanical Garden boasts a delightful collection of trees, which their blossom map currently lists as mostly IN PEAK as of this past Friday. So hurry up if you're gonna go sit under the rain of petals.

They even posted this lovely timelapse video of the bloom this season...[downloadable version here]


*long happy sigh of memory*