Interviews, Firefly, other assorted things

[shadowkat]

Well, today was my interview.

The first job interview of 2004. Good news? It went much better than the job interviews I had in 2003, which, I suppose, is a sign that I'm making progress and moving in the right direction. Helps that I like what the company does. Provides affordable health care. Job itself? Very interesting with lots of growth potential. Application was a headache, but I've learned how to deal with applications. Also learned how to handle interviews. Real plus if you know what you want to do and why. Apparently I do now. Money looks good too. Dang. I think I actually want this one. This worries me. Adjusting to devil-may-care persona now...will not think about interview outside of thank you letter. Interview roller-coaster ride begins anew.



Finished watching the Firefly DVDs Pumpkinpuss lent me. Already missing those characters. Damn, Fox.



I tried watching that show American Idol last night, but after 30 minutes had to switch it off. It was either that or throw things at the tv set or wish someone would just set Simon Fuller on fire.

I don't understand how a sane well-adjusted individual can watch this show. How can you stand to watch Simon Fuller berate people who get up the guts to sing in front of him? Watch these people humilate themselves in front of a greedy arrogant ass? How is this entertaining? And why do the people do it? Apparently that age old question - what would you do for a million bucks or 15 minutes of fame has been answered. Anything. Absolutely anything. I honestly think if they had a reality show that asked you to kill people for money - people would do it. Frightening.

What these reality tv shows say about our society and specifically the entertainment industry isn't something I want to spend too much time thinking about. Especially after I somewhat snarkily explained to a poster on a posting board that it is possible to care about others, make money, work to make the world a better place by helping others, and care about yourself at the same time. Just as it's possible to only care about yourself and gratify yourself and not give a damn, surrounding yourself with material goods, hurt others, and only care what the mirror says about you - a la Simon Fuller. Sorry, humilation humor enrages me. I wish someone would put the people who conceived, produced, and continue to permit these shows to air in a mirrored room for two months with nothing but the music of the past three American idol stars piped in.

Fox cancelled Firefly yet continues to allow crap like American Idol and other idiotic reality shows to air? Ugh..

Tonight I wisely passed on that horrid show and watched the far more entertaining Gilmore Girls. I think I'm in love with Loreli's new boy-friend, Jason. Also I'm really enjoying Danny Strong in his new role as the newspaper editor Doyle. Very different role from Jonathan. Much Sexier.


Back to Firefly, interesting collection of episodes. Works much better if you see them all in order as the creators meant them to be seen. Fox did set out to destroy that show. Anyone want to barrage Fox executives with angry email deriding them for greedy and inhumane programming choices? Nah. Too much effort. But I do wish I had a Neilsen box, so I could just boycott them.

Okay, I'm going to stop ranting at Fox now, I promise. They certainly could care less what I think.



Here's my ranking of Firefly episodes

1. Objects in Space
2. Out of Gas
3. Bushwacked
4. Trash
5. Ariel
6. Serenity
7. War Stories
8. Jaynestown
9. Shindig
10. The Train Job
11. The Message
12. Heart of Gold
13. Safe



What worked in Firefly was the characters. They were complex, interesting, and humorous. Their interaction felt believable and I geniunely cared what happened to them. That's hard to pull off on TV. I know because there's a lot of tv shows I can't watch because the characters either turn me off or just don't engage me. Joan of Arcadia has that going for it as well - great characters. I'm not sure the western aspect really worked. My favorite episodes tended to be more sci-fi based, the more Western themed episodes seemed a little silly to me. On the other hand, I love Westerns and even the weaker Firefly episodes are more enjoyable to me than most of the TV shows on right now. Don't really want to analyze Firefly or criticize it, just want to sit back and enjoy my memories of those episodes. Some shows you pull apart and analyze, others you just sit back and enjoy - Firefly was one of the ones I just sat back and thoroughly enjoyed, escaping into their world.

Moving on to Red Dwarf now. Heard so much about it from cjl, who loaned it to me, that I'm curious to see what it looks like on screen.

Oh things that made me smile:

This lovely quote from aliera99:

Or, as the psychologist D W Winnicott once put it, artists are continually torn between "the urgent need to communicate, and the still more urgent need not to be found.

--John Clute, A Turn Up for the Books quoting Stacey D’Erasmo who was writing about Paul Auster in the 30 November 2003 New York Times Book Review.

And this bit from whedonesque:

Apparently the same actor who plays the role of the big obnoxious fiance on that new reality series was the same actor who played the lurker demon who gave Spike back his soul in Villians to Grave. Heh! The rifs I could do off of that one....

Comments

Good luck!

[graffitiandsara.livejournal.com]

And don't get fixated on the interview - I've had many good interviews that led to nothing, and later when the job I wanted came around I was glad to be available for it. I just picked up the 2004 version of What Color is Your Parachute and I would highly recommend that you get it from the library if you haven't already looked at it. It looks at job hunting in a very analytical way and has a lot of common sense approaches that I would never have thought of. It also puts into words what I've experienced in my previous job hunts so I'm inclined to think it's accurate in the discussions of things I didn't know before.

I totally agree with you about the characters in both Firefly and Joan of Arcadia which I currently love. Characters are the be all and end all of why I watch a show, which is why I was so disappointed in S7 of Buffy. It felt like the writers just threw most of their amazing and long standing characterizations away to advance the plot. Boo! Hiss! Ah, well, rant over...

Thank you

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

A little skeptical about What Color is Your Parachute -
but that's only because I'd read the 1996 and the 1989 versions. Also have three books on job searching already ;-) - The Ultimate Job Book, What to do with a Law Degree, and something about sending more than a resume. But I appreciate the recommendation.

I totally agree with you about the characters in both Firefly and Joan of Arcadia which I currently love. Characters are the be all and end all of why I watch a show, which is why I was so disappointed in S7 of Buffy. It felt like the writers just threw most of their amazing and long standing characterizations away to advance the plot. Boo! Hiss! Ah, well, rant over

Yep, completely agree. Reason I'm enjoying Angel, last year and this year, is that I love the characters. Season 7 BTVS? Heh. They threw every single character but Spike (and possibly Andrew) away. So Boo Hiss is right. Honestly? I tend to agree with my kid brother on this one, he told over the phone recently that he felt the writers and some of the actors were just going through the motions in S7, just grinding it out. I think that may have come across on the screen. Meanwhile the people on Firefly were energized and just getting started.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Aww..thanks; glad you liked it.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Red Dwarf is hilarious. My best RL friend, Justin, hooked me on the show about a year and a half ago. Although the first few seasons are extremely low-budget, it actually adds to the charm of the show, which parodies just about every sci-fi chestnut you can think of. If you get too hung up on the actual logic or science of the series, it won't work. Think "Hitchhiker's Guide" rather than "Star Trek". (Yeah, I know "Star Trek" wasn't always scientifically accurate either, but they reeeeeeeeally cared about sounding like their treknobabble made sense.) The punchline or gag is always more important than the science. But luckilly the characters are more important than the punchlines. The friendship between the two main characters is quite fascinating and complex, since neither of them can admit to the other (or himself) that he likes him. And beneath the barbs and jibes, they really only have each other. The show, particularly in the early seasons, gives a sense of the emptiness and loneliness of space very effectively. At the same time, it's almost always a laugh riot. You do have to be a fan of British humor, though. Which you are, so that works in your favor. Justin actually was a sci-fi fan but did not enjoy British humor, until this show which he loved for the sci-fi parodies, which then eventually got him to like British humor in general. Anyway, I think you'll enjoy.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

P.S. Once you hear the theme song once, it will never leave your head. Might be the catchiest and bounciest theme song (about the weirdest subject matter!) ever.

"It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere...."

[(Anonymous)]

'Kat:

Oops. Sorry. Read Rob's post, and I immediately started humming the Red Dwarf theme song....

A warning on the Red Dwarf I DVD: I'm tempted to ask you to skip over the first episode, "The End" (yes, it's that kind of TV series) and start off with "Future Echoes." While "The End" more than adquately sets the tone for the entire series to come (establishing the key characters of Dave Lister and Arnold Rimmer), it's almost by necessity a bit exposition-heavy and it's just not as funny as some of the prime episode of Series (this is British TV, y'know) One.

"Future Echoes" is where the true genius of Red Dwarf kicks in, mixing brilliant characterizations, slapstick humor and time-distortion paradoxes in a tight, half-hour plot. (OK, the voices in my head are telling me to leave you alone and stop trying to influence your viewing experience. But before I go, favorite episodes of the first two seasons: Future Echoes, Me2, Stasis Leak, Better than Life, Parallel Universe. I'm stopping now....]

Fingers crossed about the interview.

Don't get me started about American Idol. Never mind about Simon Cowell's theater of cruelty. The contestants know what they're in for when they sign up. Never mind that Cowell, like some modern-day Col. Tom Parker, pockets anywhere up to 30% of everything with the American Idol name attached. What turned me off about American Idol from beginning is that with all this hubbub about the search for "talent," there's not an ounce of creativity on display anywhere. Granted, Clay Aiken and Ruben Stoddard and the rest can sing well enough, but nobody seems to be interested in good SONGS. Even the "best" of American Idol is just bland, pre-packaged, soul-less entertainment. Isn't anybody interested in finding the next Paul Simon or Kate Bush, Aimee Mann or Rufus Wainwright, Tom Waits or Stevie Wonder? Guess not.

End of rant.


CJL

Re: "It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere...."

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

LOL! I still want to start with Episode One, more out of curiousity than anything else. Also I don't mind exposition that much. ;-)

Oh correction on American Idol - it is Simon Fuller not Cowell (apparently Cowell is an English Actor, Fuller just an untalented agent guy - KdS corrected me on this one ages ago...yet I still had it in my head until I actually watched 30 minutes of an episode.)

Yep prepackaged is right. There are no future stars found on this show, just more pre-packaged pop singers whose songs sound like the ones piped in over the pharmacy's radio system or your elevator. I can't stand this show. The spin-off - Fame was more tolerable, but equally quilty of the lack of creativity involved.