sundries

[rm]

I tend to flip out right before travel. Tonight, like clockwork -- flipping out. Not _about_ the traveling, just inspired by.

I bought a new cell phone today, so that I am reachable in Europe, since I will be there a lot over the next year. So now I have a Blackberry. I totally don't know how to use it at all, and I'm all like "I need my Torchwood logo background" again and "OMG, how do I download my ringtones again" and "I hope I set my alarm right." But you can call me when I'm in the UK now (but don't, unless it's an emergency because it's really expensive). Anyone got a rec for apps? Which Twitter app do you like?

I also had long, horrible battles with Parallels Desktop tonight, that have been vanquished for the moment.

All of which means some editing I needed to do has not yet been done. Bah! Tomorrow is another day.

Meanwhile, there is, more Angel 1.19 "Sanctuary" and Buffy 4.17 "Superstar" --

- Now that was an episode. Things have consequences the next day! Wesley's been tortured and he's fucked up about it. Cordelia is in physical pain and scared and covering. People care about each other. People are angry!

- Oh, those fucking Watchers. They're so an American cliche of what British thugs would be like or something. It's really rather ludicrous.

- Go Wesley for not going along with their plan.

- I just... yeah, I ADORE Wesley. It's funny. I don't identify with the character, and I don't respond to him from the standpoint of identifying with a different character, but the complexities of the character, which include a lot of shit traits I have (arrogance, superiority, fear, wrath, open emotional wounds), make me keep going "but this is a good man" and if he's okay, I'm okay. Or something. I don't know. It's been a rough night.

- Meanwhile, over on Buffy. IS THERE NOTHING RTD DIDN"T STEAL FROM THIS SHOW? It's like "Superstar" was spun in a centrifuge to get us "Adam" and "Random Shoes" on Torchwood. And you know, I liked this episode. I'm the person who hated, _hated_ "Adam" on Torchwood (I mean, other than Ianto in the hot coat and the leather gloves and the strangulation and the crying in the rain business). Of course, I also loved "Random Shoes," which like no one else did, but what can you do?

- Overall: I can't believe the casting they let Whedon get away with. These are all relatively normal looking people. Faith has a hot body, sure, but a pretty average face. Tara isn't tiny, and her face could be considered homely. They work hard to make Willow less cute than she is. And yeah, all these people are still "above average," but when I get told to lose weight to be in this business, I do find the casting in these shows to be notable. I also feel like it wouldn't happen today. I am a pessimist.

Comments

[reannon.livejournal.com]

I LOVED "Random Shoes."

ETA: Also, that's one thing I love about DW/Torchwood. Gwen is pretty but not a supermodel, and Donna is a normal-sized woman with a realistic figure and face. Bravo Brits!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I expect people on British shows to look like real people, but on American shows it surprises me.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Have you seen True Blood? The people on that show look like real people, even moreso I think than in Buffy. Also, where you do have people who look prettier than the norm, it's actually acknowledged that this takes WORK -- it's not something that happens magically. It's quite unique amonst the American television that I've seen in that way, and also in the way that it represents class (ie, people don't have houses unrealistically big and shiny for their income, and being working class is not a tragedy).

[rm.livejournal.com]

I have. Patty's a big fan, but I'm a season behind, because I've been so busy. I loooooove Lafayette.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, Lafayette is SPECTACULAR, and he keeps on that way. It's excellent, because he's a very minor character in the books, but Alan Ball has taken him and made him into someone brilliant and complex and wonderful in general. He is developed further in S2, and all indications suggest that in S3 he's going to get even more interesting.

(Also, how much do I want to write Jack/Eric fic? A LOT.)

[dragonsinger954.livejournal.com]

If you haven't used it, Crackberry.com is great

[enemyfrigate.livejournal.com]

Hey, now, I like "Random Shoes." I think it was very well done and really watchable - and all about how people can be such bastards without being evil.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

While I've never met her in person, I've been told Amber Benson (Tara) is pretty tiny IRL and the other women were just tinnier.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Patty keeps saying she's a size six. I'm a size six. I'm really tiny. It blows my mind that that's how we arrive at our size 00 culture.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Well, but saying somebody's a size 6 tells you less than you (that is, you generally, not you in particular) think. It doesn't say a thing about shape or proportions -- which would be why I can tell you that I'm a size 6, and that's at the top of my 6-pound-or-so weight range; often enough I'm a 4 or even a 2. And you're tinier around than I am: you're noticeably thin, while I'm just normal-sized.

That is, I think Amber Benson's probably just normal-sized, 6 or no 6. And yeah, normal looks startlingly large next to what's become the norm for television.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I have the smallest bones EVER.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

How are you and I both a size six?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Fuckery, industry fuckery!

Sometimes I'm a 4. And at stores for women my age, I'm a zero! It's so fucked. I think I'm like a 10 at Forever 21.

[abnormal-apathy.livejournal.com]

You're a size six? I would never have guessed that in a million years. Size zero. Yes. Maybe even perhaps a size two. See, I'm totally skewed here.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'6" and 110 lbs, and wear a 6 about 70% of the time now, which should tell you how batshit crazy everyone's desire to be a size 2 is. There's literally nothing I could do to be a smaller size even if I wanted to be. Hips, I have them. I am extremely small-boned (which is why I look so slim), and don't have a lot of flesh on me, but as others note, it's about, among other things, where the bones are.

[abnormal-apathy.livejournal.com]

That is absolutely insane. I would assume that at your height and weight, your clothing size would be smaller - however, this is coming from someone who hasn't worn a size six since I was that many years.

There is seriously some crazy shit happening with sizes. I'm plus-sized, but can wear somewhere between a L-XL. When I was looking for a dress for the rehearsal dinner, I came across a Calvin Klein XL that seriously wouldn't fit my thigh. What happened to standard sizing? Is that only a distant memory since vanity sizing came into existance?

My grandmother, who had an amazing figure when she was younger told me she was a size 4. There's no way those curves would fit into a 4 these days. I'm so lost.

[rm.livejournal.com]

My mother, who was built like me when I was a kid, wore an eight when I was growing up. And, an eight was really what you aspired to be. Now every store sizes differently (in sewing patterns I'm a 10/12, btw) to "flatter" their customers, but it's maddening.

And yeah, if I'm wearing separates, I wear more like a two in a top and a six in a bottom.

The whole thing is absurd. I've been in stores where I can't get a four more than six inches past my knees.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

So much has to do with the bones and how one carries weight. As someone who hasn't seen those sizes in 30 years, I'm very conscious of shape as playing a role. When I was in high school in the '70s and weighed 90 pounds, I wore a size seven jean. Even though I was thin, I had no hips and not that much waist definition. Whether I'm thin or heavy, those two factors have always been the determiner of which size I wear. I've always had to buy based on whether something fit me in the waist. I can fluctuate a size, even two, based on how given garments are cut in the waist.

[sethg]

Enforcing standards of weight and measure has been a generally-recognized role of the government ever since... ever since human beings had such a thing as “the government”. Why can’t NIST get a few million bucks to survey the actual range of variation in how women are sized and shaped and then lay down definitions with the force of law?

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

You're tiny. My ideal weight is 155 and I am pretty stunning at it. I can't imagine being a size six. I was a size five for like two weeks, and then my hips split the seams.

The size 0 culture is insane.

[ilovecsr.livejournal.com]

Amber is way smaller than a 6. I'm a 6 who's clothes are often a little too big, and I look like a giant next to Amber. The other women are just a whole lot tinier. Alyson, for example, is definitely no more than a 2, and a small 2 at that. On the day I met her, I felt like a whale.

Here from metafandom, btw. I just thought this was an interesting discussion.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Of course, I also loved "Random Shoes," which like no one else did, but what can you do?

I thought "Random Shoes" was a great episode. It's not my favourite, but I still enjoyed it very much, and I think it was a necessary counterpoint to the darkness of "They Keep Killing Suzie". Then again, I'm one of the few people in TW fandom who thinks that S1 actually hangs together really well, at least from a thematic point of view. IMO, it's the best season of TW.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

BTVS, and even Angel to a degree, is full of normal looking people. It's really shocking.

Actually sitting down and watching the show, I finally see why people say I look like SMG. I don't see myself when I look at her, I see my sister. Seeing as SMG is what would happen if you put my coloring on my sister, that's not so surprising after all.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Doyle, other than the startling eyes, was super normal looking.

Oh Glenn Quinn! *sad*

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

For being a show about LA, I feel like the people we meet in Angel are SO normal looking. I keep trying to figure out how much of that is a Whedonverse thing, and how much of it is a pre-2000 thing.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

I live in L.A. And one of the things that endlessly frustrates me is how the entertainment industry convinces people not in L.A. that somehow all of us Angelenos are 6-feet tall, thin, tanned and with cosmetic surgery.

Note that I'm not frustrated with you, but the perception the industry puts out.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

That's why I'm so impressed when a show doesn't do that.

New York gets a similar trip laid on it. You've never seen such a white, undiverse New York than the one you see on TV and in movies. Unless it's a crime procedural, of course. :-/

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

IS THERE NOTHING RTD DIDN"T STEAL FROM THIS SHOW?
LOLOLOLOL! i can't wait until you get to the ____ with the ____ and that other ____ B/C OMG YOUR ANSWER IS NO!

i fucking LOVE 'random shoes'

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

YOU SAID IT SISTER.

AND I AM JOINING THE CHORUS OF RANDOM SHOES LOVERS (even though I love Adam too. I don't think there's an ep of TW I don't like...uhm. CJH maybe. No no the dumbassone about the Ghost Machine. No wait. Uhm. YEah.)

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

i actually don't mind the ghost machine one... i can barely remember what happened in it though
word on CJH
the only problems i had with adam was how they "resolved" it, b/c um... i don't think that worked and i actually DO NOT want to play with those possibilities, it's too freaky having your mind messed with like that

but lol in 'angel' when ____ does the thing and then in tw when ____ does the thing?! HAH! oh, rtd, you're like joss's lil brother who just magically appeared

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

You will have to specify the time you are referencing, since let's face it, there are several times when the _______ and the __________ and that thing where ___________ and RTD ganked it.

It's okay, I'm ganking Hush for my TW-BB.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

o i love HUSH! there are so many individual episodes in s4 that are so so good (not counting, like, the 1st 3 which i really can't stand)
i don't want to spoil it for rm, though

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

I think the mayor is my favorite big bad, tho. That and the one from Season 5.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

oh, the mayor, totally! i love the mayor
i think, for individual episodes, seasons 4 and 6 are my faves, and for overall story arcs seasons 3 and 5

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

LOLOLOLOL! i can't wait until you get to the ____ with the ____ and that other ____ B/C OMG YOUR ANSWER IS NO!

Yes! *g*

Also love "Random Shoes." I didn't hate "Adam," either, but Border Princes drove me up a wall. About the only excuse for its existence is if it was written before "Adam."

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

i thought "border princes" WAS written before "adam"
it was in the 1st set of books, wasn't it? i actually rather liked that one, but i only listened to the audio and eve did a good job reading b/c she wasn't trying to do the voices

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

Ah, see I didn't hear it until long after I'd watched both S1 and S2, and I wasn't sure when it had come out. Owen was still alive, but that just makes it pre-Reset.

Oddly, I liked the other one Eve read better (In the Shadows, I think?), partly because she did the voices. Though I also thought the pacing of Border Princes really dragged, either in the writing or in her reading of it. I just kept getting bored, losing track of what was going on, and then going back to it just to finish.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

i'm pretty sure "BP" takes place mid-series 1, but i listened a loooooong time ago (def before series 2 aired), so i can't recall - i just remember that it was SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING than "another life" which, sorry barrowman, BORED ME TO TEARS (actually bored me to SLEEP while i was driving to and from work)
i didn't like eve doing the voices b/c her "jack" attempt is AWFUL! (though the story was better)
burn gorman was the best reader out of all of them

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

I've always loved that Tara wasn't a perfect size 0-6. Maybe because she's pretty much the kind of woman I'm attracted to, physically, and maybe because it feels reaffirming and validating to see someone else who is portrayed as a beautiful character who's likely a size 12 or higher. Or both.

I don't know about Eliza Dushku having an average face though. Those lips are seriously...um...well, I won't get into it. ::wink:: And making Willow out to be less cute? I only saw that in the first few seasons when they were all in high school, but seriously, college onward? Major blossoming.

All that aside, I definitely see what you're saying and agree that the Buffy cast was atypical. I wish Hollywood would allow directors to take that even further.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

When Whedon cast Jewel Staite in the role of Kaylee for Firefly, he told her to actually put on a few pounds because Kaylee should be a girl who "looks like she enjoys a cheeseburger once in a while."

Make of that what you will.

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

Yes! I loved Kaylee in the show and was so disappointed when she was so thin in the movie, though I understand that Staite had had to lose the weight for other roles.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I loved Random shoes. just saying.

[elisi]

I loved Random Shoes too! As lefaym said, it was a lovely counterpoint to the darkness of They Keep Killing Suzie.

I also loved Adam, which was the ep that finally pushed my meta button. (And Rhys the Rant! How can you not *adore* that?)

Anyway...

Now that was an episode. Things have consequences the next day! Wesley's been tortured and he's fucked up about it. Cordelia is in physical pain and scared and covering. People care about each other. People are angry!
*nods* Oh the show is on a roll now! *hugs it* And Wesley... yes to everything you said.

[ekatarina.livejournal.com]

There is a thing I read ages ago about Amber reading the fan blogs and getting sick of the "fat" comments about Tara.

So she replied. And she laid into everyone who made such hurtful attacks on Tara, on her size, and especially those who made it about attacking *Amber*.

http://www.ivyweb.net/btvs/board/archives/characters/tara.html

Cheers,

Ekatarina

[alterjess.livejournal.com]

Oh Superstar! Ep that confused the shit out of me because I'd just started watching the show 1 or 2 eps before. I only figured out it was AU a scene or two before the characters did. (And still had no real idea at that point who Jonathan was. Good times!)

5x5/Sanctuary is still one of the strongest mini-arcs Angel ever did. (And I'm saying that as a die-hard S4 fan.)

[fleur.livejournal.com]

Parallels ... ugh.

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

Have a good and safe trip!

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Amber Benson is actually tiny in real life, which makes me think SMG and the others must be incredibly small. I do remember reading somewhere that Whedon specifically cast small actors originally because he wanted them to look more realistically like high school students. I assume that Amber stands out because she's slightly more adult sized than the rest of the cast.

I'm always startled when I see her IRL and realize how tiny she actually is. (She's dating Adam Busch, who played Warren on BtVS [you haven't met him yet], and is often at his band's shows in NYC.)

[paulshandy.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize how tall everyone on "Star Trek: Next Gen" must be until I found out Patrick Stewart stands at 2 meters, and he's one of the short guys.

And I heard that the actors playing Wesley and Willow are married now (to each other, of course, otherwise why bring it up?).

I teach in China, and I always warn my students going abroad that if they are a "M" in China, they are an "S" in America. Some of my college students would end up shopping in the children's department. I have to add an extra "X" to my clothing size, and I've given up buying pants outside the States. But now that Chinese are buying more cars, TV, and fast food, their average weight is arisin'.

A lot of the changes in Willow had nothing to do with her actual figure. She became more confident and dressed "cool." It actually started annoying me that key characters seemed to becoming less like my friends and more like the people who wouldn't bother being my friend, especially in season six, but I shall say no more.