Kitchen Sink ramble....
Oct. 11th, 2010 06:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatNice four day weekend, but was admittedly at loose ends today, procrastinating just about everything - looking for flats, working on book, cleaning apt (although did do a bit of that on Friday and Sun), buying boots from lands-end (I'm not convinced I need them and I hate ordering stuff such as clothes online - I have delivery issues and the landlords are moving and renting out their bottom apt, so delivery issues are about to get much worse). I think it's because I know I have to work tomorrow and I'm dreading it, so just want to laze about and do nothing.
As a result I marathoned a lot of tv shows. Smallville (which is actually more interesting in their final seasons than in the first three - although admittedly the first three seasons had teenage drama cliche's I've grown weary of. Terriers - excellent drama and great acting. My attention does admittedly wander at times - it's not the fastest paced dramedy on the planet, but it's not supposed to be either - since it is a character piece. Particularly love the introduction of Donal's brilliant but schizophrenic sister, Stephanie. She reminds me a bit of my cousin. The characters in the series feel realistic to me and the actors are adorable. I can't decide who I love more Donal or Britt. Plus the women have chutzpah. They are not weaklings. And it's smart. How each case or rather how they get out of each bind is rather clever and amusing at the same time. Highly recommend, particularly if you are a fan of Angel, The Cohen Brothers films, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarachy, or Justified. It's bit like that in how it's plotted and written. Also watched Mad Men, which was depressing but entertaining. Rather adore this season of Mad Men. It is an excellent depiction of a man in the midst of an identity crisis - or the mid-life crisis, where you realize, fuck this is who I am and how the hell did I get here, and this is what I do? Is there any meaning to it? Can I get out of it? Do I just have to live with it? And where the heck do I go next? It's the existentialist crisis...totally identify. And here, it's rather multi-faceated, because it is also dealing with cultural change and upheaval - the 1960s were a time of flux in the US, it was the age of the feminist and sexual revolution, the creative revolution, and the beginning of the technological revolution. Lots of things in flux.
So you have Don Draper - the king of suave and cool, suddenly no longer cool, no longer with it,
and the people who used to hang with...no longer suave or cool or on top of their game. He's lagging behind. A great metaphor for mid-life crisis - where you feel as if the world is twenty steps ahead, and you poor sod are twenty steps behind. Mad Men is at times a tragic and humorous take on this dilemma. Then attempted to watch The Event - which is a bit too interested in the wacky conspiracy and not enough interested in the characters. The conspiracy in other words takes precedence over the individual characters. IT's plot as opposed to character driven, which is the kiss of death for this type of serial. The reason Lost took off and the Event, Flashforward and the like are lagging behind is LOST focused first on the characters and second on plot.
The plot came from its characters. It's hard to do. Most writers think plot first characters second. Or they come up with this great idea, then try to find a few characters to throw into it.
Fanfic is a good exercise because you are technically starting with characters and trying to come up with a plot to plug them into.
It's getting darker earlier, and the days are growing shorter. Yeah, fall, stupid, I know.
But I miss the lazy long days of summer. Also too warm today. Not that I mind, nice to have warm weather. But I got hot and had to put on the A/C. Would open up windows - but gnatty bugs and things I'm allergic too drift in.
Need to make dinner and lunch for tommorrow. Don't want to deal with either at the moment and not really hungry. But if I wait too long, won't sleep well tonight. Binging on sugar this weekend was not a good idea. Bought Halloween Bubblegum balls (the kiss of death), peeps (not that many but enough to do damage), and chocolat mousse (2) and two key lime mousses. Also gluten-free chocolat dipped donuts (evil). I didn't eat them all at once, but I ate enough to give myself an adrenaline high - not good. Anxiety prone people who get adrenaline rushes should not eat sugar or caffeine ever.
On book front? I'm over half-way through Storm of Swords now, and have to say the Jamie Lannister/Brienne Tarth relationship is amongst the most interesting and well-developed I've seen in a long while. It's not your typical romance, actually it's not a romance really at all, so much as a friendship of sorts. Also how the two characters are depicted and described is a subversion of so many stereotypes and tropes it's not even funny. I'm half in love with them both as characters because they are so complex. George RR Martin should be commended for managing to create complex male and female characters of various ages, sizes, etc - most fantasy writers can't do this. Can see why his books are so popular.
As a result I marathoned a lot of tv shows. Smallville (which is actually more interesting in their final seasons than in the first three - although admittedly the first three seasons had teenage drama cliche's I've grown weary of. Terriers - excellent drama and great acting. My attention does admittedly wander at times - it's not the fastest paced dramedy on the planet, but it's not supposed to be either - since it is a character piece. Particularly love the introduction of Donal's brilliant but schizophrenic sister, Stephanie. She reminds me a bit of my cousin. The characters in the series feel realistic to me and the actors are adorable. I can't decide who I love more Donal or Britt. Plus the women have chutzpah. They are not weaklings. And it's smart. How each case or rather how they get out of each bind is rather clever and amusing at the same time. Highly recommend, particularly if you are a fan of Angel, The Cohen Brothers films, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarachy, or Justified. It's bit like that in how it's plotted and written. Also watched Mad Men, which was depressing but entertaining. Rather adore this season of Mad Men. It is an excellent depiction of a man in the midst of an identity crisis - or the mid-life crisis, where you realize, fuck this is who I am and how the hell did I get here, and this is what I do? Is there any meaning to it? Can I get out of it? Do I just have to live with it? And where the heck do I go next? It's the existentialist crisis...totally identify. And here, it's rather multi-faceated, because it is also dealing with cultural change and upheaval - the 1960s were a time of flux in the US, it was the age of the feminist and sexual revolution, the creative revolution, and the beginning of the technological revolution. Lots of things in flux.
So you have Don Draper - the king of suave and cool, suddenly no longer cool, no longer with it,
and the people who used to hang with...no longer suave or cool or on top of their game. He's lagging behind. A great metaphor for mid-life crisis - where you feel as if the world is twenty steps ahead, and you poor sod are twenty steps behind. Mad Men is at times a tragic and humorous take on this dilemma. Then attempted to watch The Event - which is a bit too interested in the wacky conspiracy and not enough interested in the characters. The conspiracy in other words takes precedence over the individual characters. IT's plot as opposed to character driven, which is the kiss of death for this type of serial. The reason Lost took off and the Event, Flashforward and the like are lagging behind is LOST focused first on the characters and second on plot.
The plot came from its characters. It's hard to do. Most writers think plot first characters second. Or they come up with this great idea, then try to find a few characters to throw into it.
Fanfic is a good exercise because you are technically starting with characters and trying to come up with a plot to plug them into.
It's getting darker earlier, and the days are growing shorter. Yeah, fall, stupid, I know.
But I miss the lazy long days of summer. Also too warm today. Not that I mind, nice to have warm weather. But I got hot and had to put on the A/C. Would open up windows - but gnatty bugs and things I'm allergic too drift in.
Need to make dinner and lunch for tommorrow. Don't want to deal with either at the moment and not really hungry. But if I wait too long, won't sleep well tonight. Binging on sugar this weekend was not a good idea. Bought Halloween Bubblegum balls (the kiss of death), peeps (not that many but enough to do damage), and chocolat mousse (2) and two key lime mousses. Also gluten-free chocolat dipped donuts (evil). I didn't eat them all at once, but I ate enough to give myself an adrenaline high - not good. Anxiety prone people who get adrenaline rushes should not eat sugar or caffeine ever.
On book front? I'm over half-way through Storm of Swords now, and have to say the Jamie Lannister/Brienne Tarth relationship is amongst the most interesting and well-developed I've seen in a long while. It's not your typical romance, actually it's not a romance really at all, so much as a friendship of sorts. Also how the two characters are depicted and described is a subversion of so many stereotypes and tropes it's not even funny. I'm half in love with them both as characters because they are so complex. George RR Martin should be commended for managing to create complex male and female characters of various ages, sizes, etc - most fantasy writers can't do this. Can see why his books are so popular.
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-12 08:05 am (UTC)I'll be watching your comments on the series.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-12 09:51 pm (UTC)There's apparently supposed to be two more books - Dance of Dragons, and to Run with Wolves.
I can't be too upset with him. It's taken me five years to write my book and apparently even longer to get it published, if I ever do. Some people churn out books very quickly, others take a long time. I think it took Tolkien 20 years to write the Lord of the Rings. Have to say the ones that take longer to write seem to be more rewarding from a reader perspective. You can tell how fast the writer wrote it.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-13 03:32 am (UTC)