sundries

[rm]

Despite Patty's hatred of Costco, I've lured her into going with me today. YAY. This mitigates, slightly, the pouring rain factor.

Last night I said to myself, "don't forget to post about ANZAC Day tomorrow," and then, of course, forgot. wcg reminds us all.

Don't be fooled by this article. While plastic surgery may be out for actors, impossible beauty standards still reign. So if you didn't win the genetic lottery, you can forget about going into the business, at least on screen, in the United States. Also? the ratio of period films for which natural breasts are a must have to everything else? Yeah, not so much.

I told you the UK was a very drinky country. Because, holy crap, Cardiff! I can't believe this is where Patty's going to be for 10 - 12 weeks.

Last night on Buffy we watched "Shadow" and "Listening to Fear".

- OMG, Riley, REALLY? You're patronizing vampire hookers so you can be dark enough for your girlfriend? This is the most fucked up plot ever, and, quite frankly, sort of a stupid one. But I've always thought Riley was such a dumb lug, that I'm not riveted by this complete absurdity Wheedon has visited upon us.

- Aliens! There are canonical aliens! Man, that thing, that whole ep, was TERRIFYING. Except, you know, the part where Riley was being distracted because he wanted to go visit some more whores.

- Willow was AMAZING in "Listening to Fear"

- This whole arc in which Joyce eventually bites it (yes, I have that spoiler and the Tara spoiler) is going to be really hard for me to watch. I have an acute medical phobia that manifests in weird ways -- it's not about the gore, it's about the lack of control, medicine as punishment and my own probably not so awesome genetic odds. And this is punching those buttons hard.

- I really don't like Glory. She's just not a bad guy I find interesting and I think I really dislike the actresses performance, although it's clear she's just following directions. I am, however, really curious about Ben and the whole cosmology around her now.

- And I forgot to mention about "Fool for Love" the other day that hey RTD, you really liked SPike's little "you're connected to people and that keeps you alive" speech, didn't you? Well, good to know that Torchwood isn't _just_ about the Angel/Wesley Jack/Ianto loving. Wow, now if only Torchwood fandom could remember that. *snerk*

Royalty in New York. Really.

Sainsbury's gluten-free cherry bakewell tarts? AWESOME.

We think Cricket's squeakiness may be cat sonar.

Comments

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD - you haven't watched these episodes before? I'd been assuming that this was a rewatch, but - crikey! And, yes, it's blatant that RTD is a Whedon fanboy, and fond of Spike/Angel as well as Angel/Wesley.

And, heh, yes, we really are a very drinky country. Those Brits who were anti-drink all got on the Mayflower, leaving the rest of us to drink their drinks.

Having just lost my father two weeks ago (er, in a permanent way, rather than a down-the-back-of-the-sofa way...'lost' is a bit of a crap euphemism, really), I found myself thinking a lot about this narrative arc. I do think Whedon handles it, and the suddenness of loss, and the flailing sense of how-is-one-supposed-to-behave??!! and all that weird emptiness very well. I always did, of course, but now it's particularly resonant.

I agree that Glory is a far from compelling villain. I like the notion of Buffy versus a deity, because by this point it's difficult thinking of a villain who Buffy WOULDN'T outclass, but the whole ditzy evil ubercheerleader thing is just not that funny to start with, and her performance is pretty flimsy. Part of that is the writing - it's so very rooted in the here-and-now, rather than trying to portray her as a shallow, venal, TIMELESS kind of monster - she comes across as a petulant teenager, a sort of lazy CordeliaLite.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about your dad. I think I caught the edge of it before he passed in your journal and then we went into volcano mode.

And yeah, Patty's a Buffy and Angel fan from way back and I started watching it both as a way to connect to her (and apologize for her life adjacent to the Whoniverse -- for someone who hates Doctor Who, she knows waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much about it thanks to me), and then sort of got really into it. And that whole "ecstasy of grief" voiceover from Angelus is now taking a pretty central place in the paper I'm doing about mourning for fictional characters.