General update

1. Well, I managed to fall back into Buffy. I'm reading the Season 10 comics now. Skipped over S9, because I despise George Jeanty's art and prefer Rebekka Issacs. All Jeanty's women characters look exactly the same, and as if they are eighteen years of age. I couldn't tell them apart. Also didn't like the Story in 8 or 9. I may go back and pick up 9 at some point if required, but it appears it's not required at the moment, since the first issue of 10 sort of summarizes a little what happened in 9. (They got magic back by creating a new seed. Went to the Deeper Well, etc. And all the slayers on the team went their separate ways after the fact. So we have a smaller group now. Which makes the story easier to follow.)

I'm not reading it as part of the fandom. Mainly because I've begun to realize that I do not have the tolerance for people in fandom fighting with me over characters I happen to dislike or love. Frigging hell. Let me dislike or love whatever fictional character I choose. It's just a fictional character, folks, it's not your relative, best friend, or enemy.

This tendency to fight over character likes/dislikes is not limited to one fandom either. It's all fandoms.

2. Good news, sinus headache from hell is gone. Finally. Bad news -- had to take an antihistimine to get rid of it. This does not bode well for the next five days, in which I have to be off them in order to get an accurate allergy check on Saturday. Ugh.

And next week is going to be tough. Have a site tour of tunnel hatchways. I'm not going down into those tunnels. I'll die. I'm highly allergic to mold. Also not just one, but three doctor appointments. Still debating cancelling one of them -- because she only sees folks on Fridays between 11 -4 pm. Which is not the best time frame.

3. Completed over 101,455 words on book -- well typed them in. I've actually written more than that in long-hand. I'm writing on my commute instead of reading. So I basically write about three hours a day. And yesterday wrote about six hours.

Have to cram it in with a full time job, plus life.

That's about 220 some pages to date. This thing looks like it might get to 400, which may not work, not certain. I'm liking the story. Whether I do anything with it is another issue. I'm not sure the publishers, etc would like it. It's highly subversive in some ways, and comments on various things. Also I make up stuff.

4. Watched four more television series yesterday and cancelled another one.

Did away with the Unsolved Mystery of Tupak and B.I.G. I have too many television series to watch and no time to watch most of them. And not a lot of interest in anything at the moment. Nothing's grabbing me.

I scrolled through movies last night -- and found nothing I really wanted to see. The Post, Molly's Game...didn't grab me. I may rent Justice League though.

Shows watched:

* Grey's Anatomy -- sigh, the writers are getting "issue" oriented. Each episode of this series and the episode arcs seem to be about some social issue that the writers want to explore from another angle. Shonda Rhimes is starting to resemble Aaron Sorkin, David E. Kelly and Joss Whedon now that she's gotten successful. Writers? The audience isn't interested in being preached to. Tell the story, don't get up on a soap box and preach.

That said, it's still mainly character driven, so it continues to hold my interest for the most part.
I'm just getting tired of the message of the week.

* Station 19 -- more character driven, less issue driven, thankfully. And I'm enjoying it for the most part. I can sort of see where they are going with it. The lead or main character is going to get raked through the coals for a bit.

* Rise -- eh, still struggling to find its footing. It's a bit preachy in places. And I'm having troubles really getting into any of the characters. Love the music though. Just doesn't have the same pull that FNL did for some reason. It may be me, I may just not be in the mood for this type of drama? I don't know. I like it well enough, just not feeling the love that I expected.

* Scandal -- series finale. It was okay. Looked for a while like it was going to throw all the characters off the proverbial cliff with only David Rosen coming out intact, instead did the exact opposite. ( spoilers )

I'd stopped watching about ten episodes back. I got tired of the show. And what is happening nationally made it difficult for me to watch it. I feel like I'm surrounded by government corruption on a state, local, and federal level. There's no escape. The last thing I want to do is watch a fictional television show or non-fictional one about it. This may explain why The Post and Molly's Game didn't grab me.

Review of Justice League

So, I finally saw Justice League via Optimum "On Demand" for $4.99 rental. (Which by the way is a heck of a lot cheaper than in the movie theater -- that's $15.99. It's not worth $15.99, but it is worth $4.99.)

It was better than I expected. I'd been told that of course by a couple of friends who saw it and are fans of the DC Verse. (Personally, I prefer the Marvel Verse, it's a tad less fascist and more character centric, also Stan Lee's a bit more subversive than his DC co-horts. In fact in many ways Marvel is a commentary on DC.)

Anyhow, that caveat aside, it wasn't a bad movie. And I could tell Joss Whedon wrote the teleplay, the story is Zack Snyder's. And the combination of the two is...a little jarring in places. Whedon is more subversive a writer than Snyder and likes to undercut things with a sardonic and self-deprecating humor. There's a long speech by Aquaman towards the end, right before they go into battle, where he's basically saying "we're all going to die" which is totally Whedon, but not quite something I see Aquaman stating. Momoa pulls it off though.

The two surprises in the film are Aquaman and The Flash -- the casting for both is spot-on, and the actors are compelling. I actually prefer the cinematic version of the Flash to the CW version. The actor is both better looking and more compelling than the television version. Also Aquaman surprised the heck out of me -- Jason Momoa, best known from the Game of Thrones television series, is a charismatic actor and well, I don't tend to go for the muscle bound heroes, but he's hot. You guys can have Henry Cavill's Superman, I want Momoa.

( Read more... )

Cinematography wise -- it's a beautiful film in places. DC's always been a notch above Marvel on the cinematography and fight sequences. Although Thor : Ragnarock had better fight sequences and I'd say was a touch above this film in plot, cinematography, characterization and writing. There's a reason both Thor and Black Panther beat Justice League's proverbial butt at the box office -- they are better films.

That said, it does do what it is supposed to do. I just wish it picked a more interesting villain, who had more to say besides -- I'm going to destroy the world first and then rule everyone. Alrighty then. The bits that did not focus on the villain were interesting.

Overall? About C+ or B-, it's worth seeing if you like this sort of thing. If not? Skip it.

Buffy Comics S10

So, I read Volume 1 of the Buffy Comics Season 10 by Chris Gage, Nicholas Brendan, and Rebekka Issacs -- this was the arc involving Dracula, reintroducing Giles, who apparently was resurrected by Angel and Faith but as an adolescent, and the idea that the Rules of Magic are being rewritten.

I found the story compelling enough to well...not only continue, but by some back issues to figure out how we got here. Sigh. Down the comic rabbit hole again. I can't focus right now, stressed out and frustrated, also exhausted due to lack of sleep, and beating myself up over it. There are people far worse off than I am, why can't I step up to the plate? I'm extremely good at beating myself up over shit. I have multiple trophies.

So, since I'm back on a Paeolo Diet, which is highly restrictive, and off sugar and chocolate for the most part. Along with dairy, soy, legumes, and grains. I need comfort food. Preferably food that requires little focus -- hence comics. I like Buffy. It's among the few franchises that I liked all the characters in. The only character I'm not crazy about is Andrew, but alas, he's there -- at least he's more tolerable in the comics -- mainly because I can apparently tolerate Andrew more than the actor who portrayed him. (I know there are people reading this that adore Andrew, and that's okay. I like characters you hate, such as Spike and Xander and Willow and Dawn.)

It's become character centric again -- even better, it's addressing unresolved issues from the television series. Which I need to be resolved, and fanfic wasn't doing it for me. Now I'm getting sucked in again -- this means I may actually read people's fanfic on Buffy/Spike/Angel etc again.

( somewhat spoilery review of Buffy Season 10 - Volume I )