shadowkat | General snarkiness

Current Mood: bitchy
Current Music: Billie Holiday - The Gold Collection

General snarkiness

The term waking up on the wrong side of the bed really applies to me today. Nerve endings on edge, spoiling for a fight. So wisely stayed far far away from posting boards.

Suffice it to say, I completely and utterly identified with Spike in last night's Angel episode. In every way imaginable. Yep, that's me right now, complete with snarky comments. Have nothing else to say about the episode right now. Was spoiled for it. Thought it was okay. Nothing special. But then I'm not a David Fury fan.

Apparently California has a new governor and it is Arnold Swazernegger. (The only plus sides I can see from this are: 1) Thank God I don't reside in California, 2.) He won't be doing any more movies.
3) He's apparently a whiz at finance and from all reports California needs it. Sorry so not an Arnold fan.) With Arnie in California, Pataki/Bloomberg here, and Bush in office, I'm wondering if my old idea of defecting to Canada is still possible? Plus sides of Canada: 1) National Healthcare ( ie. I don't have to bleeding pay $346 bucks a month for health insurance)
2) Possibly more jobs?? 3)Not at War with Iraq. 4)Gun control (no silly 2nd amendment), 5)Beautiful environment. Negative sides: 1) can't afford to move right now. 2) hard to get a job if not a Canadian, makes sense that, 3) Sars (not a good reason I know)
4) Cold. (Although the cooler summers is a plus).
Would I still get Angel up in Canada? From what I've seen online - it looks like it. Oh well, might as well stay in NYC for the moment. Although...if someone were to offer me a decent job in Canada, particularly Quebec or British Columbia? I would not turn it down.

Methinks I'm burnt on the whole analyzing television thing. Not surprising considering I wrote the equivalent of two books in 2001-2003 on BTVS. I think I analyzed every character, every metaphor, and every episode upside down and sideways. Now I look at an episode of Angel and all I can think of is well a few snarky comments reminscent of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and general impressions, hardly anything worth posting on. I tried to write an essay on impressions of BTVS writers but blanked sometime after doing David Greenwalt - that was just the first one. Yep, I'm burnt. Oh well.

Still reading Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, starting to get really good.

Listening to Billie Holiday.

Oh - good show to watch if you like Elmore Lenard, film noir or pulp mysteries: Karen Sisko - ABC, 10pm on Wed. Also - Smallville was surprisingly good this week and last week.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have been totally ruined from ever watching the Terminator movies again. I liked those movies. But now I don't think I'll be able to watch them without laughing all the way through them.

Except for that cool part at the end of T1 where Sarah presses the button in the factory and says, "You're terminated!"

I onced lived in Quebec for a year.... then they gave my job to a Canuck. *sigh*.

I suppose I could have once have moved to Canada if I wanted to. My mom said I had dual citizenship until I was 21. Or something.

Yep. The more the merrier. Maybe we can all high-tail it to Montreal?

The last time I considered moving to Canada was when Bush Sr. got elected. But I keep wimping out. Probably the whole difficulty about getting a job. A friend of mine turned down a marriage proposal once b/c her intended was moving to Canada and she wouldn't be able to get a job there. (Personally I think there was another reason, but she didn't disclose it).

Loved the first two Terminator movies - but then I must admit I only went for Linda - who played Sarah Connor. I loved her. Also Michael Beihn (sp?) and Edward Furlong.

That's where I live (http://www.livejournal.com/users/masqthephlsphr/43010.html) most of the time.

Sarah Connor rocked.
John Connor rocked.
Kyle Reese rocked.

Hey, yet another Holy Family for my fan-girl glee (besides A/D/C)

All I can think is, most of the rest of the world must be laughing their asses off at California today. "Is this a joke?!"

LOL! I called my mother this morning - she's in Hilton Head and far more of a news hound than I am. ( I tend to live in denial - ie. vaguely pay attention. Only reason I know as much about as I do is my internship last week with media and news junkie, Martin Lewis - who besides producing music documentaries, Monty Python films, marketing/promoting DVD's - also does political commentary for the BBC. So he had CNN on all the time.)

Anyways - our conversation:

Me:Can you believe they elected Arnold Schwezernegger? Are they insane?

Mom: yes. (her tone implying of course they are insane, they are Californians, does this surprise you? I have several uncles living in San Francisco area. One of which is charming, but a little nutty - he just keeps building on to his Marine County house.) (Then she informs me that the ballot was ten pages long and how Arnold made a joke about his name being the longest one on it and therefore easy to find. )

Ah yes, I completely disagree with you on the Spike. But I completely agree with you on Connor. (Odd that, how we can completely differ on one aspect and completely agree on another...or maybe not so odd? (shrug) I give up on trying to understand the nature and fluctuations of taste. Everytime I try, I get thrown a curve ball.) I loved Connor and Darla. Actually I love the Fanged four plus Connor and am annoyed I could never see Dru and Spike deal with Connor's existence. Damn ME for being short-sighted on this.

I'm wondering why you disagreed with my entire bit of Spike stuff, because I said some actually nice things about him in my recent review (not that I often say mean stuff. I just usually don't comment at all, 'cause I don't care).

Oh, and don't even get me started on what ME did to Connor. He had such potential back in Season 3 as an interesting on-going character. Until they ran him over with a plot-driven mack truck.

Ugh! I wrote this huge thing out and the computer lost it.
Okay abbreviated version.

I didn't disagree with everything, just the first paragraph.
(Or the mean things;-) )The odd thing is -what you said about Spike is how I view Angel. I see Angel as a self-righteous prick who tends to think a little too highly of himself. That said, I oddly enough like Angel and unlike your feelings for Spike, actually do care about Angel (or I wouldn't bother taping the show), but I struggle with the fact that Angel often appears to me to be a spoiled frat boy who is upset that he got cursed with conscience and Daddy isn't more impressed with his good deeds. Also he can be awfully patronizing. I keep wanting to slap him upside the head. Spike and Connor often said many of the things I wanted to say to Angel. It's the reason I loved Connor. And it is one of the reasons I love Spike. They both made fun of Angel's "self-importance" and "hero complex".

I loved Connor for some of the same reasons I loved Spike.
The two characters remind me of each other. And it annoys me to no end that ME chose to not have them meet. Damn.

I agreed with the rest of your review. Except I can't see Spike becoming evil in anyway. I can however see Angel becoming evil for the reasons stated above. Angel to me is always on the verge of going to hell and Spike is the metaphor for that. Until Angel figures out that Angelus is a part of him and they aren't separate entities, he is always in danger of becoming Angelus. What I love about Spike and Angel is their differences - Angel's story is about integration, dealing with your dark side, rising above your baser instincts and temptations. Spike's story is about a boy struggling to become a man, or a demon (the boy) struggling to become human (man).

I agreed with your take on Fred and Spike - it was my favorite scene as well. I also agree with your hopes for the Angel/Spike relationship. The only thing I disagreed with was the first portion of it. Not sure that made sense.

PS: (understand not caring about characters - I don't care about Cordy and Harmony...I keep trying to care, but just can't for some reason. There's just something about those two characters that I can't connect too. I don't hate them, I just don't care about them. Same with Gunn, can't get myself to care too much to comment on him either.)

Well, the interesting thing about both ME shows is how much the text of the shows and the characters themselves are open to interpretation. This is what gives the characters their complexity and realism (that all interpretations are at the same time true of the characters and at the same time all overgeneralizations), and this is what makes the show so fascinating and frustrating to debate over on the board(s).

And it's what makes people on the board get uncomfortable and snippety with posters like Claudia who want to back up their arguments with, "Well almost everyone I talked to believed X or saw it as Y". Perception is everything on shows like this, and perception (interpretation) occurs through the lens of our own personal experience with things.

Perception is everything on shows like this, and perception (interpretation) occurs through the lens of our own personal experience with things.

Very true!

I completely agree with you on Claudia and on the need to tolerate more than one interpretation. It's why I love reading your impressions as well as Randoms,TCH, Rook's, D'H's, Rahael's, yabby, KdS's even though I know you often have very different takes on the show than I do. As you should, since we all come from different backgrounds and different perceptions. It's what I love about the online fandom and the shows in general. It would be really boring if everyone agreed with us all the time. And what's the point of discussion - if you don't have a little disagreement??

I believe the writers have done an excellent job of creating extremly convulted characters with multiple layers and interpretations. It's what makes Angel the Series one of the more gripping and entertaining series on TV. I like prickly/edgy characters. For example - I still watch ER b/c I love the characters of Romano and Carrie - two of the most prickly characters on TV.

I also like seeing more than one interpretation, as long as the interpretations are polite and tolerant of others views. My friend cjl and I have great discussions on the characters and we don't always agree. His take on Angel is sometimes very different than mine, yet I oddly enough agree with it. Claudia gets on my nerves - I can't read her, just like I can't read Diana and a couple of others. Doesn't matter who they post on - I find the tone of their posts off-putting and difficult to read, so I do myself a favor and just skip them. I don't mind a different take, what I mind is the condescending tone or confrontational that some people have - ie. "you're 'wrong' b/c I know more than you (ie. look how bright I am!)" or "so and so says so" or "the majority says this so it must be true" as opposed to "it's odd but I see this differently, just my personal take, your mileage may vary". Of course, I admit I've been guilty of using writers' comments as a short cut to back myself up, dirty pool...I know. ;-) The confrontational posts just bring out the troll in me now, so I've learned to avoid the posters who post them. I guess I had more energy and/or tolerance for it last year, now? 0 tolerance for some reason. So I've been posting more in my live journal and less and less on the boards.

The confrontational posts just bring out the troll in me now, so I've learned to avoid the posters who post them.

This has always been my strategy. I wish more people could learn to do this. You see a hot-button person posting, don't read their post. It seems simple enough, but some people just love to jump into a vat of acid. I donno.

So I've been posting more in my live journal and less and less on the boards.

You and many other ATPoers. Used to be, back earlier this year, only a couple of ATPoers were over here. Now there are quite a few of us. It has sort of become the "safe place" we can say what we want without getting jumped on by people who feel differently but aren't tolerant of other points of view.

I'm not trying to get down on my own board, but it is a fairly public forum with a free speech policy, and that means people get to speak their minds, even if they're the Claudias of the world. I still think the board is a fun invigorating place to go.

But there are people over here now in LJ land that have learned the hard way that you can get bit on the butt for posting your feelings/opinions on things on a public board. I personally don't post much of any of my opinions over there (mostly OT posts, if I post at all) because I'm trying to remain a neutral figure on the board.

But over here, I say pretty much what I want, what I believe. If someone trolls me over it, I can delete their post without the guilt I'd feel over at ATPo (incidentally, I don't think I've ever deleted a post for anything other than spam content).

If someone trolls me over it, I can delete their post without the guilt I'd feel over at ATPo (incidentally, I don't think I've ever deleted a post for anything other than spam content).

I do applaud you for how you've handled that board. And I don't blame you for any of the posters there - since it's a public board. One of the things I like about ATPO is the free speech element. That we can say pretty much whatever we want without the fear of getting deleted. All the other boards delete you pretty quickly. The ironic thing? Buffy Cross and Stake which deletes - has more troll posts than ATPO ever does and far more screaming matches. So maybe permitting open discourse and informing the participants it's up to them to police things (ie. treating them like adults) results in a far more adult response?

I did post something fairly personal on Atpo this morning, that I may regret later on...god, I hope not. But I felt the need to share the feeling of loss of control. The nice thing is - sooner or later it will get archived and I can forget about it.

If you pick Montreal I'm game.

And I know this won't make you feel any better but I'm in the same place vis a vis the show. Maybe we can just have great fun snarking our way through the season!

Montreal sounds nice.

And it does make me feel a bit better actually... I've decided to just watch and enjoy, not analyze too much for now. I'm a little spoiled - so I know that the season really starts to take off around episode 4.

You probably remember I really enjoyed M last fall. I'm the same with the show altho' it may change as my free time expands. But, for now I'm just trying not to TTM. Glad you're posting here so I can keep up with your life.

I'll marry you all so you can have citizenship and then we can smoke marijuana and watch TV! It's what we do. ;)

(it's been such a long day...)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

General snarkiness

Can I move to Canada with you?

Re: Can I move to Canada with you?

Don't live in Canda, live in denial

Re: Don't live in Canda, live in denial

Re: Don't live in Canda, live in denial

Re: Don't live in Canda, live in denial

Re: Don't live in Canda, live in denial

Re: Don't live in Canda, live in denial

Re: Don't live in Canda, live in denial

Re: Don't live in Canda, live in denial

no subject

LOL!

Re: LOL!

Come to Canada!