sundries

[rm]

Of course, after Patty finishes her comps _then_ I wind up with a work weekend from hell. Today's goal -- no LJ after I post this. I want to be home, and I want to clean all the things (okay, one area of all the things), because I'm sick of letting it hover over me. Also, we have important things to do like seeing if Merlin still sucks.

Stranded is the magazine of the volcano. Put together on the fly during the Eyjafjallajökull-caused closing of European airspace, the magazine features stories by and about those stranded by the unprecedented situation. I'd actually been assigned a story and a photographer when we got a flight out, so I'm not a part of it, but I'm going to get a copy as an awesome souvenir of Patty and I's UK odyssey. Plus the $18.95 purchase price goes to benefit the International Rescue Committee.

New Yorkers: Tomorrow is primary day in our state. If you are eligible to vote in a primary please do so.

Gabourney Sidibe is one of 4 cover models for the new issue of Elle. Which seemed pretty awesome until jnanacandra pointed out in comments they they used photoshop to lighten her skin. Not cool, Elle, not cool. (We can also, I think, reasonably complain about the way we can't see her body. The shot is much closer than the other models).

Brutal, but still not Wolfram & Hart: The making and unmaking of partners at Goldman Sachs.

Kristof responds to the appalling recent piece in The New Republic about the value of Muslim lives to Muslims. If you missed the original item, he quotes the relevant bits.

From street vendor to shop owner.

Lady Gaga appeared at the MTV music video awards with an escort of four soldiers dismissed under DADT.

CNN has a bit of an oopsie with "Are gay characters bad for society?"

Interview with Baz Luhrmann from a while ago. It's 22 minutes long, and I don't think any of you care, but the thing where the reporter asks him a question while he's trying to pour tea and then he keeps gesturing with the Limoges teapot for a really long time is pretty lolzy.

The True Blood finale: I missed pretty much all of the season before, this, so I'm not engaged with it the way other people are, but I have some complaints:

1. Bill is a creepy asshole. He's also boring.
2. Not a complaint: Eric and Pam are the bomb.
3. Tara used to be the most awesome character. Now she's a bucketfull of kinda offensive cliches. The writers need to fix this.
4. Cement? For serious? It was lolzy on Torchwood and agonizing here.
5. Okay, the whole faerie plotline annoys the crap outta me.
6. Lafayette is awesome, so how about we don't turn him into another person with a crappy victim narrative?

I love heightened realities. But this show doesn't quite work for me. And yet, I still want to know what happens next.

Comments

[timelady.livejournal.com]

True Blood-

1. Completely in agreement. I say this after reading my way through all of the books and watching the entire series. Sorry, but Bill really doesn't have much in the way of personality, and he just randomly kills people without any conscience.

2. I adore both Eric and Pam in the books. Pam has just so much character it's ridiculous. And Eric...gods...I love his humor. Though the Eric and Pam in the TV series are lacking in comparison. Eric's missing his overtly sexual humor that I adore, and Pam is just not how I pictured her. But they are both worlds better than Bill.

3. Actually I didn't care much for Tara earlier and I still don't care for her now.

4. What can I say? You can blame the TV script writers for this one since it wasn't in the books. I'm just irritated at how much the TV series deviated from a good book. (Though I do really like Jessica. She's certainly grown as a character from irritating to fun to watch).

5. Unfortunately it's worse in the books. One of my friends is crazy about it. Me, personally, I could do without the whole fae plot line and don't care much for the last couple of books. Though I did think it was interesting that the TV series actually linked faeries with aliens. Hadn't considered that before (and certainly wasn't linked in the books).

6. Yeah, I'm glad they didn't kill him off in the second season (like they would have, had they stuck to the books). And I do like his relationship with Jesus. Though I'm really wondering if Jesus is actually going to be carried over to season 4 since I noticed he's co-starring in Terriers (though, granted, that's going to be a Fall season show, so it'll probably be in season break with lots of time for him to get back to filming True Blood).

In summary, I'm going to recomend reading the books (at least the beginning 6 or 7). Though things are a bit more naive and black and white in the series. But where we're sacrificing the neat dark issues, the books have more imagination and a lot more tongue-in-cheek humor.