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Sep. 22nd, 2024 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatThe state of me - slept poorly, so was insanely lazy this morning and didn't accomplish half of what I'd planned. Saturday was the better day all around. Watched a few television shows, the best of the bunch or the ones worth mentioning are:
* The English Teacher - a sitcom on Hulu, about a homosexual thirty-something English Teacher in the suburbs of Austin, Texas. The second episode is a hoot. Also, the actor who played Veronica Mars father is in it as the Principal - and he delivers deadpan humor exceedingly well. My brother rec'd it to Mother, and she rec'd it to me. (My mother is rather progressive. And always has been. She just has foot in mouth disease, but honestly? Don't we all?)
* The Boy and the Heron - animated film that won last year's Oscar, via Max, and it's ...not as good as expected. I've admittedly seen a lot of these films? So may not be the best judge? I just felt that Grave of the Fireflies, Howl's Moving Castle, and Spirited Away were slightly better. This felt overly convoluted, and I got a bit bored and lost along the way. It's about a boy who lost his mother in the bombing of Tokyo during WWII. He flees Tokyo with his father, to the country, where his father runs a factory and has married and impregnated his mother's sister. A dead-ringer for his mother. [Yes, that bothered me too and kind of took me out of the story for about ten minutes thinking - frigging hell, what the fuck?] At his mother's and Aunt's family estate - he discovers a tower - through which his Aunt is magically summoned. And he follows a heron through it with a granny, Kiriko, and they discover a mystical world.
Like most anime of this genre - there's a heavy anti-war theme, anti-imperial theme, and anti-bomb theme. If you want to know how Japan dealt with the trauma of WWII - just watch their films. WWII seriously traumatized Japan. I do like the themes in the film, but I think it's overly long and a touch confusing in places. I'd have edited out the pirate for example.
* Agatha All the Way on Disney + - this was enjoyable. I saw the first two episodes that dropped, and was pleasantly surprised by it. I actually liked it better than WandVision - mainly because it moved quickly, and did a nice job of quickly and efficiently satirizing a different television trope.
***
Books...
*On the Edge - Book 1, almost done as an audio book. It's okay. A bit slow. Glad I did it as an audiobook. The narrator or reader is amazing. Audio Books basically are dependent on the person reading them. If you have a good narrator - it's a blast, a bad one? A snoozefest. And there are some really bad narrator's out there - most of them are author's who have decided for various reasons to read it themselves. (Seriously? Don't unless it is a memoir and you are a voice actor. Or can do voices. Otherwise, refrain.)
The Edge series unlike Illona Andrews Kate Daniels and Innkeeper Series, tend to be Stand Alones. I'd say they are similar to the Nevada series.
More urban fantasy/romances with heavy emphasis on romance. I like the other series better - it works better if the emphasis isn't on the romance in my opinion.
This one is interesting - because it kind of blends fairy tales with urban fantasy. Also tonally - it reminds me the most of T Kingfisher. The heroine is scrappy, poor, and intelligent. With her own power. In Andrews books the heroine and hero are always equals and she has her own agency.
But the powers of the heroine/hero are kind of boring? They just flash.
And the villain isn't that intriguing. But the kids are interesting, and made all the more so because they are featured as adults in the Innkeeper series. Here, they are nice and innocent little guys, about eight and ten, while in the Innkeeper series they are in their thirties, worldly, and dangerous killers and kind of ruthless. I'm curious to see how they got from innocent little boys to sociopathic killers. But I'm not sure the writers intend to tell me?
* Experimental Films - I've not given up, but I'm kind of bored with it. Most of the book is about raising her autistic son while trying to research the connection about a bunch of experimental film footage and a long dead woman who co-edited a book of Wendish fairy tale/horror stories.
At the same time - I'm admittedly curious enough to see where she goes with it - and can't let go of it quite yet. The Wendish Fairy Tale thing has pulled me in, also I like her family dynamic.
The writer is good, when she doesn't get bogged down in downloading all of her research on my head. I can tell she's an academic and researcher - because she seems to prefer that?
* The English Teacher - a sitcom on Hulu, about a homosexual thirty-something English Teacher in the suburbs of Austin, Texas. The second episode is a hoot. Also, the actor who played Veronica Mars father is in it as the Principal - and he delivers deadpan humor exceedingly well. My brother rec'd it to Mother, and she rec'd it to me. (My mother is rather progressive. And always has been. She just has foot in mouth disease, but honestly? Don't we all?)
* The Boy and the Heron - animated film that won last year's Oscar, via Max, and it's ...not as good as expected. I've admittedly seen a lot of these films? So may not be the best judge? I just felt that Grave of the Fireflies, Howl's Moving Castle, and Spirited Away were slightly better. This felt overly convoluted, and I got a bit bored and lost along the way. It's about a boy who lost his mother in the bombing of Tokyo during WWII. He flees Tokyo with his father, to the country, where his father runs a factory and has married and impregnated his mother's sister. A dead-ringer for his mother. [Yes, that bothered me too and kind of took me out of the story for about ten minutes thinking - frigging hell, what the fuck?] At his mother's and Aunt's family estate - he discovers a tower - through which his Aunt is magically summoned. And he follows a heron through it with a granny, Kiriko, and they discover a mystical world.
Like most anime of this genre - there's a heavy anti-war theme, anti-imperial theme, and anti-bomb theme. If you want to know how Japan dealt with the trauma of WWII - just watch their films. WWII seriously traumatized Japan. I do like the themes in the film, but I think it's overly long and a touch confusing in places. I'd have edited out the pirate for example.
* Agatha All the Way on Disney + - this was enjoyable. I saw the first two episodes that dropped, and was pleasantly surprised by it. I actually liked it better than WandVision - mainly because it moved quickly, and did a nice job of quickly and efficiently satirizing a different television trope.
***
Books...
*On the Edge - Book 1, almost done as an audio book. It's okay. A bit slow. Glad I did it as an audiobook. The narrator or reader is amazing. Audio Books basically are dependent on the person reading them. If you have a good narrator - it's a blast, a bad one? A snoozefest. And there are some really bad narrator's out there - most of them are author's who have decided for various reasons to read it themselves. (Seriously? Don't unless it is a memoir and you are a voice actor. Or can do voices. Otherwise, refrain.)
The Edge series unlike Illona Andrews Kate Daniels and Innkeeper Series, tend to be Stand Alones. I'd say they are similar to the Nevada series.
More urban fantasy/romances with heavy emphasis on romance. I like the other series better - it works better if the emphasis isn't on the romance in my opinion.
This one is interesting - because it kind of blends fairy tales with urban fantasy. Also tonally - it reminds me the most of T Kingfisher. The heroine is scrappy, poor, and intelligent. With her own power. In Andrews books the heroine and hero are always equals and she has her own agency.
But the powers of the heroine/hero are kind of boring? They just flash.
And the villain isn't that intriguing. But the kids are interesting, and made all the more so because they are featured as adults in the Innkeeper series. Here, they are nice and innocent little guys, about eight and ten, while in the Innkeeper series they are in their thirties, worldly, and dangerous killers and kind of ruthless. I'm curious to see how they got from innocent little boys to sociopathic killers. But I'm not sure the writers intend to tell me?
* Experimental Films - I've not given up, but I'm kind of bored with it. Most of the book is about raising her autistic son while trying to research the connection about a bunch of experimental film footage and a long dead woman who co-edited a book of Wendish fairy tale/horror stories.
At the same time - I'm admittedly curious enough to see where she goes with it - and can't let go of it quite yet. The Wendish Fairy Tale thing has pulled me in, also I like her family dynamic.
The writer is good, when she doesn't get bogged down in downloading all of her research on my head. I can tell she's an academic and researcher - because she seems to prefer that?