This, that, and the other thing - your basic kitchen sink post

Chilly day. Reminds me of London oddly enough. Not that I was ever in London this time of year..
New tenant who is renting Landlord's apartment is from London. So are their friends who are visiting.
Although not this weekend, this weekend - according to landlord - I'll more or less be here by myself. Lovely. Not. I live on the top floor. And it's gotten chilly. Although landlord promises to turn on the head on Sunday and fix my windows - so they aren't quite so drafty. While he's off doing that, I'll be off looking at apartments to buy. (Which is a process that gives me a headache.)

It's overcast with sun. Looking out my window I see gray and beneath it bright orange.

Finished Aftermath by Jim Butcher - the short story in Side Jobs, that is told from Karrin Murphy's pov, immediately after the last chapter in Changes, the previous book. This short story is at the end of Side Jobs, all the other short stories take place prior to Changes and are told mainly from Harry Dresden's pov.

Rather liked this short story. Even if Murphy at times sounded a bit too much like Harry. Butcher hasn't quite acquired the skill to provide distinctive pov's. But give him time. He, unlike many best-selling writers in genre (mystery, thriller, fantasy, etc) - actually improves with each book he writes and doesn't sit on his laurels. That's my problem with a lot of prolific genre writers or bestselling ones (really) - they start to basically repeat themselves. To the point that you can no longer tell their books apart. I reached that point with Janet Evanovich - I honestly did not know which book I'd read. They were the same more or less. Same problem with Patricia Cornwall.
And many others. Butcher at least evolves his characters and his skill. His latter books are actually a lot better than his earlier ones.

There was one quote in the short story that caught my attention and stuck with me. Murphy describes what it is like being a woman in a male world. She says when one half of the population is stronger and faster than you are physically, not to mention bigger, and you are painfully aware that they will use that advantage to basically do to you whatever they damn well please - it means that you are always on your guard, you find ways to deal with them, and a part of you is always afraid. (Not in those words of course - I didn't memorize them - and I'd have to hunt through it to find them - which is hard to do on a kindle. If I had the actual book - I'd do it.
Which is why I actually prefer books to the Kindle over all. Always will. I suppose I could have highlighted and bookmarked it, but was too engrossed to think of it.) At any rate - when I read the quote, my first instinct was to argue with the writer - for being such a man. Then I thought about it, hard not to, and all the things I do each day to avoid situations that could end with me being raped, mugged, beaten up, or harrassed. Not to mention the apartments that look wonderful but I can't live in because they are in areas that are unsafe for a woman to walk alone in at night or during the day for that matter. Not a fun thing to think about.

Aftermath is a page turner. It grabs hold of you and doesn't let go. It's well-paced. And the characters interesting. It also has the same quirky wit as the other novels. Murphy is a different character than Harry - she doesn't have the same amount of power he does. Or much at all. But
she manages to make things work - which in some respects makes her very relateable.

Can't wait for the next novel which is fittingly entitled Ghost Story.

I wrote this review to avoid spoiling anyone who has yet to read the short story.

Spoilery Review/Commentary on Dresden Files

Yes, lots of smaller posts today. Sort of catching up. Hope it's not to much an issue.

( Spoilery review on Butcher's Aftermath, spoilers up to and including Changes and Aftermath. Oh and I compare Butcher's writing to Joss Whedon's Buffy comics along with Caprica, to examine a flaw that bugs me in both Whedon's Buffy comics and Caprica...I'm hoping it doesn't piss anyone off. Really don't want to get into a heated debate over this stuff. )

Okay off to get laundry, before it gets too dark or too late.

TV Slut round-up (and a bit on Caprica cancellation)

The DVD player finally died. Or at least I think it died. I tried playing two different netflix discs and got a Disc Error. Then put in two discs that I own and don't care about (Chicago and Bride and Prejudice) which also came up with disc error. This means new DVD player. Great. Just what I want to do. And getting it out from under the DVR box (which is huge) and plugging in a new one - nightmare. What I would give to have a techy friend and/or relative who lived nearby to help me with this. But my techy friends do not live within shooting distance of me. ME? Not techy. I think watching Big Love killed it. I'd blame Farscape - but I was able to watch quite a bit after Farscape, including all of Dexter. No, it was definitely Big Love. Oh well, it was close to eight years old - these things don't last long. Time was - we could fix them, now, not so much. Have to buy a new one. We live in a throw-away society. Nothing is built to last. Because people are busy making something cooler and less durable to take its place. I do have time to do it - am taking Monday off as a personal day, and I get election day off - to vote. I don't want to vote - for two reasons - a) don't like anyone. and b) every time I vote they call me for jury duty.

Although the governor race this year is certainly entertaining: we have "the rent is 2 damn high" party - with a guy running on it who doesn't have to pay any rent and has no idea how much his rent actually is, Kristen Davis - the madame who provided Eliot Spitzer - the former governor with his prostitutes (she decided that she knew more about running a business than Spitzer or his successor David Patterson did), Carl Palladino (the Tea Party Candidate - who is certifiable and literally pissed off everyone except well other people in the Tea Party, the Tea Party is starting to remind me of the John Birch Society), and Andrew Cumo who is running on two tickets, if he loses on one, he can always win on the other. There are others, but those are the highlights.

Watching Modern Family - which made me laugh - even though what happened was technically speaking cringeworthy in the embarrassment department. Taping Project Runway - which flist already spoiled me on. (Guys if you want to rant about a tv show, be careful of spoiling those of us who haven't seen it yet.) So as a result, am sort of ambivalent. I've been more or less ambivalent all season long because none of the designers strike me as remotely talented or worth
watching and clearly coached to play up the drama. (I liked Gretchen and Sarah for making fun of that aspect - Sarah- "this show is just about torturing designers." Gretchen - "all about the Drama". Sigh. Yes to both. What happened to the interesting art? This stuff looks like something I'd see out a home economics class.) This show lost its credibility three seasons ago. I probably won't watch it after this season. It's become more emotionally manipulative reality tv show and less artistic how-to contest, I prefer the latter, the former bores and grates on my nerves. And yes, people it is totally scripted and edited. (They have writers, they just don't pay them benefits.)

Television highlights this week, or rather tv shows that I actually watched and entertained me were: (it should be noted that I have not watched Supernatural, Caprica, Nikita, Terriers (which will probably join Caprica soon in the too brilliant for tv, thus canceled prematurely category),
Luther, and the Event yet.)

* Glee - ( spoilers )

* Raising Hope - still enjoying this odd little show, that has a lot of heart wrapped into a witty package. The cast is highly appealing.

*Grey's Anatomy - ( for spoilers and a bit regarding the writing out of the lesbian couples on tv shows )

* Vampire Diaries - say what you will about this show, it is definitely the fastest paced tv show on at the moment. It's bizarre. The show is written like Passions, dialogue lifted out of a bad Harlequin novel (which I've read - I don't critique things I haven't read myself), and soapy as all get out at times, but man, does it move. You are never bored ...okay maybe during Elena and Stefan's scenes, but they don't last that long...get up to go to the bathroom, come back, and you are back to the action. Also it is highly entertaining and fun. Like cotton candy or crack. (People were comparing True Blood to crack or cotton candy, uh, no, that's Vampire Diaries. You can't write meta on Vampire Diaries - okay, I take that back - yes you can, you can write meta on anything, but Vampire Diaries is unlikely to be discussed by critics and scholars...while True Blood already is. Don't believe me? I can find links. The Satire of the Christian Right alone is
fodder for a meta. But True Blood is on HBO - it can do that. Vampire Diaries is on the CW - it can't. Plus True Blood is aimed at the 25-45 audience, Vampire is aimed at the 12-25 year old audience, big difference. (I say this knowing full well that I am much older than the tween audience to which the show is aimed at.) That said? True Blood is poorly paced. At least the two seasons I watched were. Slow. I was very bored during some of those orgy scenes. Alan Ball could learn a thing or two from Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec regarding pacing. Just saying.

( very very vague spoilers )

*The Good Wife - the best political drama on tv. Actually I think it may well be the best drama on commericial tv at the moment. Top-notch cast. You can't get better than this cast for a network tv series. (Note I'm ignoring premium channel shows like HBO's Boardwalk Empire or Clash of Thrones.) And the layers upon layers, in depth character stories, and how each case reflects bits and pieces of those characters... brilliant. It also does a marvelous job of depicting what it is like to be female in this world and the games we have to play each day. Gender politics big time.

And topical in it's legal cases. It's not a procedural. The legal cases are mainly there for exploration of characters or defining characters - much like House. Except this show is better written than House. There's a lot more going on here. And the acting is so subtle, yet so..on target.

Love this show to pieces. But no brain power to analyze it or fully review it.

* Caprica Cancellation - which did not surprise me, but did annoy me.

I haven't watched Caprica yet, but part of me doesn't want to - now that I know it's being cancelled. Why torture myself? I'm not surprised it's being cancelled. I sort of thought it would most likely not make it last year - when it got abruptly pulled during the May Sweeps period.
It was an expensive series to make. You can tell that just by looking at it. Also, it was being marketed to a very small nitch audience. And the nitch audience doesn't tend to like well shows like Caprica. There's a reason why a category exists entitled "Brilliant But Cancelled" or "Too Brilliant for TV". That list contains a lot of quirky sci-fi shows - all with high production values, quality actors, and intelligent scripts. Here's a brief list: American Gothic, Now and Again, Earth 2, Space Above and Beyond, (that show about a Restaurant at the End of the Universe starring Robert Englund...which was anthology horror and serialized - sort of Rod Serling on steriods), Tru Calling, Firefly, Wonderfalls, (the one about the guy who lived in a card-board box and was a CEO and was really dark...with Adrian Psdar??), Dollhouse, and Farscape. They all got axed just as they were starting to get interesting. Always annoys me. What's the point in watching a tv show, investing in it, when you don't get to see the entire story? And the writers haven't been given time to show all of it? If you are going to cancel the thing - at least give them enough time to wrap it up appropriately. Will state that Dollhouse sort of got that opportunity.
Farscape like Firefly - got a two hour movie to conclude itself.

At any rate, it is annoying. And sort of makes me resent tv shows like Star Gate - which seem to go on forever...with interchangable characters and spin-offs. If Star Gate can have 10 seasons, why can't Farscape, Firefly, Caprica, Dollhouse, and American Gothic have at least five?
It's not fair!! (whines like a two year old and stomps off to bed.)