(no subject)

1. Okay, I know I shouldn't find this hilariously funny but I do:

A gusty Wind sends two Porta-Potties flying through the air in a Colorado Town.

(Don't let the fact that the Tampa Bay Times decided to talk about it, fool you. It happened in Colorado, Florida just chose to discuss it.)

2. Slept late, so my timing for the entire day is off. Ate breakfast around noon. And taking anti-boitics three times a day...so that's off a bit too. Ugh.

3. In college, one of my best pals adored Bon Jovi, she also liked Billy Idol. We used to tease her about her Bon Jovi fetish. My pal was four foot, and I'm six foot. My friends used to wonder if that's what they looked like walking next to me. She came to about my waist. My other friends were about five foot or five'four, so they didn't come much higher. (What can I say, it's that Viking blood. I'm 22-25% Viking).

Here's Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer which is my favorite of his songs.

Warning? Ear-worm song.

Also, love, You Give Love a Bad Name

Same pal got me addicted to X-men comic books...she did it by telling me the back-stories of all the characters and spending hours with me analyzing their motivations. She's also responsible for getting me hooked on Star Trek. I adored her. She was about two years older than me. Was an RA freshman year, graduated, took a job in the area, and I used to visit her apartment on weekends,etc. Her brother was 6'1.

She also turned me on to heavy metal music, punk, and glam rock - such as Bon Jovi, Van Helan, Billy Idol, Sex Pistols, Aerosmith, Queen, Heart, etc. Although my brother and some Junior high pals got a head start with Rush, Van Helan, and Led Zepplin.


And shifting over to Billy Idol White Wedding Part I

Apparently there's two parts? (Also, I know Spike was supposed to be Sid Vicious or Johnny Rotten or Nancy in the Sex Pistols, but apparently the makeup crew didn't get the memo, because he looks more like Billy Idol. And I'm thinking Joss Whedon and the writers confused him with Billy Idol.)

And.. Dancing with Myself.

Okay for comparison purposes...let's look at the Sex Pistols...eh they can't sing. Not that the song really requires it.

[Note the Sex Pistols isn't heavy metal like Bon Jovi, but Punk, and Billy Idol also falls more within the category of Punk than heavy metal. Queen and Heart are Glam Rock, which isn't really punk or heavy metal. There's sub-classifications.]

I'm starting to realize there's a lot of professional recording artists out there who...can't sing. So maybe I could have become a rock singer or country singer?

I prefer Billy Idol. Sorry. Sid Vicious hurts my ears.

As previously noted -- I'd discovered Rush first on my own...this is my favorite Rush Song - Tom Sawyer -- which a Junior High School friend played at a slumber party and I became obsessed with it for a while. I loved the lyrics and how they twisted on themselves.

(no subject)

1. So on my walk today to the grocery store ran into a political canvaser who asked if I was a registered Democrat. (I said no, I'm Green Party, because I don't like either party and think the Green Party is the only one who doesn't want to further their own ideological image and agenda. He said -- "They are the most honest." I said, "yep". And I agreed with their platform. The Democrats pissed me off in the last Governor race. We had a brief chat, ending with.."I can't talk about the other party (Republican) without getting really angry and I'm having a happy day." He said, "Okay, let's not mess that up. Nice speaking with you." )

I'm tired of politics. I feel as if I've been inundated with nothing but politics since 2016. Stop already. Doesn't help that I have a job in a state and federally funded industry and am inundated with state and local politics daily.

2. Discussed Patterson/Clinton book "The President is Missing" with my mother.

Me: So how's the book coming along?
Mother: It's not well written, but it is a page turner and interesting. Clinton should have gotten a better writer, maybe David Baldaccio, who is a much better writer than Patterson. There's a review in the NY Times that basically said the same thing. And I do think Patterson wrote this one, not a committee. Clinton's very knowledgable and he probably chose Patterson because a lot of people read him for some reason. The plot is about the president going missing --
Me: If only.
Mother: What?
Me: Every time I hear that title, I think if only it were true.
Mother: Except he hasn't really gone missing --
ME: Unfortunately.
Mother: No, I mean in the book -- he hasn't, the president in the book just goes undercover to get to the root of a leak in cybersecurity. (In short the President of US is the detective and hero. Probably because Clinton wants to make people care about the Presidency again? Good luck with that.)
It's okay. I'm 75% of the way through. I was getting bored of historical romance novels and needed a change of pace.

3. Riverdale

So I finished the second season of Riverdale finally. It's a lot better than the first season. They wisely moved away from Archie attempting a music career. Because the actor really isn't much of a singer. And focused on the dark doings of various parents, as the kids figure it out. It's become Archie Comics meets Twin Peaks, except the heroes are the kids.

The villain is Veronica's dad, played by Mark Conselous...the hubby of Kelly Ripa. He's a good choice. I know Marsters auditioned for it. On the fence as to which would be better -- eh, Mark Conselous. ( spoiler )

The other villian is Betty Cooper's dad. ( spoiler )

.

Basically Betty and Veronica have homicidial Daddy's. LOL!

While Jughead and Archie's dads are rather even-keel and upstanding.

This show is rather good. A bit slow in places and the dialogue could be better. But it's fun and has a great production value.

4. For the People

Finished watching this one, which is basically another Shondra Rhimes series, although less soapy than her others and a lot less fun. It takes itself a wee bit too seriously and is far too earnest for its own good. It got renewed. Don't know if it will survive for long though.

Does have a few bright spots here and there -- I rather like bisexual Kate Little John. Was surprised they chose to write out Leonard, although he may be back, who knows? And Jay, the Muslim Pakistani attorney is rather interesting. Everyone else is too earnest and I want to smack them.

On the legal side of things...it doesn't bug me as much as other shows do. Although the sets are far too nice for words. No way those characters have that nice an apartment on their salaries. An entry level Federal Prosecuting Attorney does not make a six-figure salary, a lot of them make the same amount as teachers if not less. They were kidding about this on NY1 recently, how all these television shows and movies always have people with much greater apartments than anyone making their salary in reality does.

A one bed-room apartment in that area costs at least $3500. Two bedroom? $4500. Glee was far more realistic, they had everyone living together in a loft space out in Bushwick.

5. Nashville

Eh, writers...this story is not working for me. Weirdly the Deacon storylines never work for me. I wish he'd sing more. This show works better when it focuses on the music industry and less when it focuses on romantic relationships. Also the women characters are being shoved to the background and have almost no voice in the series now -- when it started out as a female centric show, and the guys in the background.

I can see why they are cancelling it. But am annoyed. I liked aspects of it quite a bit. Also, they are replacing it with another vomit-worthy reality show aka unscripted highly edited tv. (Basically you hire a bunch of models with no talent, put them in a lot of crappy situations or fun ones, follow them about, orchestrate scenarios that will make them crazy enough to scream at each other and fight, edit it to make them all look like shallow jerks and sell it to an audience who likes that crap. I call them social psychology experiments with untalented models who are narcissists. Cheap to make and it appeals to the sadist voyeur in everyone.)

What's not working? They have a storyline where Deacon's 14 year old step-daughter is entering a reality show singing contest that is run by a man who hates her father and is an asshole. She knows he's an asshole. She's seen how he treats his own son. And her father, and her father's significant other. But she wants to make it big too and get on stage and sing her music. Which would make sense, except -- she has been at the Grand Old Oprey, and sang in various concerts with her sister and mother and step-father. Her step-father is running a record label and is more than happy to record her. He just thinks she might be a bit young. He is also willing to help her. She's being an idiot for no good reason, and after seeing her sister be an idiot, you'd think she'd know better? No.
I don't buy it. It's lazy writing and cliche. They can do better.

Then there's the hot pink haired female singer who joined Avery/Gunner and Will's group, only to flirt and sleep with Gunner, get bored with him and come on to Avery and sleep with him -- effectively breaking up the group. Then going off to sign a deal with the head of the rival label, aka the villain for a lot of money. And she doesn't even have to sing.

And I'm thinking...REALLY?

Ugh. Headdesk. Show...you have what, seven to eight episodes left? You can't do better than this? What happened to the amazing writing last year? Did you fire last year's writers???

(no subject)

I can't believe someone actually did THIS . Okay, not true. I can. But it's a lot of work. What did they do? They constructed a database of all of the answers James Marsters ever gave at interviews or Q&A's, because he keeps getting asked the same questions over and over again. And they thought they'd track the questions he's getting asked in order to come up with new ones to possibly stump the guy or not be repetitive. (Personally, I think someone should make Marsters aware of it -- so he can know what he said before and try not to repeat himself. OTOH, if I were Marsters? I'd stay off the internet and just do promotional stuff on Twitter and FB, which is what he does. Bright man. Actors get themselves into trouble on Twitter. Writers...get themselves into trouble everywhere on the internet. Mainly because the internet is like crack to a writer.]

I've been playing around with a story idea lately...entitled "Chasing Mr. Marsters"...which is about the people who basically go to all his Q&A's, cons, and shows and chase him as fans. Their relationships with each other and with him and what this does to both...the toxicity of fandom, but also the beauty of it. I like the dichotmy or the contradictions, the fact we can have both at the same time, be toxic but also be healthy. And how thin the line is between the two.

I'm fascinated by the groupie mentality. Had a boyfriend in college who went to every Grateful Dead Concert, he followed them around all summer, had bootleg tapes, and signed album covers. Wore the clothes and the hairstyle. Even lived the life. And played the music. For a long time I had an insane number of bootleg copies of Grateful Dead songs. And my cousin follows Oasis, been to a ton of concerts and when she visited London for a week, had to go to all their hangouts and sites. Also, I remember going to the marketing launch of two DVDs, one that I helped plan. And I did meet famous musicians in person -- people far more famous than Marsters, Oasis, or the Grateful Dead -- such as Roger Daltry of the Who, Davy Jones of the Monkees, Martin Landau, Lorraine Braco (Sopranos, and various big ticket films), the guitarist of Springsteen's E Street Band and a star in the Sopranos, Barbara Bach...and, they look smaller in person, and sort of weird. And no, I like the fourth wall firmly in tact, thanks. Also, it's weird to be talking to someone that you recognize, seen, and read a ton about and who has no idea who you are, didn't know you existed until now, doesn't really care that you do exist, and is wondering why the heck you are into them. I have social anxiety -- to me a fan convention is one of the many layers of hell.

So no. I don't share this passion really - mainly because the idea of meeting an actor or anyone I've seen on screen in person makes me shudder or cringe. I don't know how people do it. I have had many friends who have...they even invited me to a show of Marsters, and I found it cringe-inducing. Actors look better far away and on screen. I don't like breaking the fourth wall. I want it to stay up and fully intact. No interactive theater for me. I remember when I studied theater in London, we'd get to meet the cast after a show and ask them questions, and it ruined it for me. Same thing when I was a kid. It was like seeing how they do the magic trick. While I have no problem reading about how they do it, I don't want to see it up close and personal.