January 7, 2026...
Jan. 7th, 2026 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatQuestion a Day Meme - January:
6. In 1709 The Great Frost began during the night, a sudden cold snap that remains Europe's coldest ever winter. What temperature will it reach today where you live?
It's actually warmer this week? So it reached 45 degrees, and is supposed to reach 51 on Friday. Also supposed to rain. But hopefully not when I'm off to see the doctor on Friday.
7. In 1803, Henri Herz, an Austrian pianist and composer, was born in Vienna, Austria. Have you ever learned the piano? If not, would you like to?
Yes. When I was 13, my mother and I took lessons separately, but from the same teacher. I sucked at it - dysgraphia/dyslexia and piano don't mix well. I could play with one hand, but both? And use the pedals? And read the music? Uh, not without a great deal of difficulty.
The teacher went to my mother and told her - that I'd never be able to learn to play the piano and to not waste any more time on it.
My family can draw, paint, write - but we are not musically inclined. We love music, we just can't sing or play an instrument to save our lives.
***
Buffy S6 Rewatch.
I like S5 and S4 better? Even though S6 is much riskier. The production design is slightly off in S6 - hair, makeup, etc. Also Gellar and Marsters apparently decided they had to lose fifty pounds for all those sex scenes.
(Sigh.) They are TOO thin. So is Emma Caulfield. Meanwhile Xander keeps gaining weight. Weirdly, wardrobe has decided to play with Spike's wardrobe - he's gotten a wardrobe upgrade. Actually, Buffy, Spike, and possibly Willow have the best wardrobe.
The writers are having a lot of fun implying sex - without really showing anything? And they seem to be hunting about every way to do it, available.
Also, the sex gets rather kinky in S6, even though it's all implied. Noticed this in Gone, Doublemeat Palace and Dead Things. Buffy and Spike have sex pretty much everywhere - against the wall of the Doublemeat Palace, fully clothed, at the Bronze (fully clothed), and in Gone (not fully clothed) in Spike's crypt against the wall, on the bed, everywhere.
The actors are very good at implying sex or sex scenes. It looks like they are actually having sex. Considering they had to move against each other, look into it, and look like they were having an orgasm, and moaning for about twenty takes - I applaud them. (It wasn't fun. Actors as a general rule - despise sex scenes. Very few like them. It's basically like doing a fight scene or dance - choreographed, and you have to have a good rapport with your partner. Marsters preferred doing it with Juliet Landau - Gellar, he struggled with, because they had different acting styles and came at the material differently. Knowing all this - makes it kind of odd to watch? Particularly since I know they did so many takes.) They earned their pay and they didn't make nearly as much as the kids on Stranger Things who didn't have to do nearly as much nor for as long.
At one point in Dead Things - Spike (Marsters) appears to be seducing the door. Although I adore that scene, and loved the song by BUSH so much - I bought the CD back in the day (don't have it now), but it was downloaded to my computer. There's some hot scenes in there - Spike/Buffy in the Bronze is well shot (they act that one well), as is the one in which they are both under the rug, chatting. (Damn rug burns.) Also Spike/Door/Buffy. And Spike making love to Buffy in her bed (in her dream sequence). I can see why Gellar felt there was too much sex in the show - she's been doing sex scenes with Spike since Smashed. Dead Things by far - has the most. It must have been exhausting on the actors. Also Marsters does a very good job of playing a vampire in love with a slayer - Spike is an evil blood sucking fiend - but he's in love with the hero. And the hero has become insanely attracted to him, and wants him and possibly is even in love with him but doesn't dare admit it to herself. Because she knows that would destroy her.
Angel at least had some moral compass, Spike really doesn't. She has no idea what he's up to when she's not around. He's a 156 year old vampire, who paled around with Darla, Drusilla and Angelus for years, and killed two slayers. He's manipulative, opportunistic, and seductive. But damn, he's also hot as hell - and all of that makes him kind of interesting from my perspective as a love interest - because it breaks the rules and it is impossible. Impossible love stories fascinate me.
What Warren, Jonathan and Andrew do to Katerina feels like a trail run for Dollhouse - and is reminiscent of Dollhouse. It's about abusing power, sex as a drug or sex as power, and references ruthies - which were a date rape drug in the 1990s and early 00s (may still be) - and often administered at bars in the woman's drink. Often by someone she never met, or someone would buy her a drink, and administer it when she looked away. Disoriented, she goes home with the guy and basically has sex with him, but no memory of it - except of course for the impact on her body. It's actually something Veronica Mars and Buffy have in common - both show the ruthie/date rape drug in action. Except with Veronica - Veronica is the one raped. (Buffy is never raped.)
W/J&A - are as Katerina describes - boys playing at being men. They see life as their playground. And only care about themselves. (As an aside? Adam Bush, the actor playing Warren, is a cool guy and has a really good voice. I saw him sing in person. He also dated Amber Benson during that period of time.) Katerina is a toy to them. Buffy an obstacle. It's why I had issues with Andrew being brought back in S7. I liked Jonathan better.
And that's saying something.
Dead Things is an interesting episode - it's rather well written and directed considering. Much darker than the previous episodes. I've not finished re-watching it. Gone was a lot more fun than I remembered. And Doublemeat Palace was hilarious.
Another takeaway? Willow keeps saving Buffy this season. Buffy's often the damsel, and someone has to save her. In fact it shifts from Dawn to Buffy in a few episodes. Once it's made clear in All the Way - that Dawn can save herself. Buffy is the one in need of saving in Bargaining, Afterlife, Life Serial, Flooded, Once More with Feeling, Gone, Doublemeat Palace, and Dead Things. The person doing the saving shifts, but for the most part it is Willow, and occasionally Spike (OMWF, Flooded, and Dead Things - although the last two are somewhat debatable).
6. In 1709 The Great Frost began during the night, a sudden cold snap that remains Europe's coldest ever winter. What temperature will it reach today where you live?
It's actually warmer this week? So it reached 45 degrees, and is supposed to reach 51 on Friday. Also supposed to rain. But hopefully not when I'm off to see the doctor on Friday.
7. In 1803, Henri Herz, an Austrian pianist and composer, was born in Vienna, Austria. Have you ever learned the piano? If not, would you like to?
Yes. When I was 13, my mother and I took lessons separately, but from the same teacher. I sucked at it - dysgraphia/dyslexia and piano don't mix well. I could play with one hand, but both? And use the pedals? And read the music? Uh, not without a great deal of difficulty.
The teacher went to my mother and told her - that I'd never be able to learn to play the piano and to not waste any more time on it.
My family can draw, paint, write - but we are not musically inclined. We love music, we just can't sing or play an instrument to save our lives.
***
Buffy S6 Rewatch.
I like S5 and S4 better? Even though S6 is much riskier. The production design is slightly off in S6 - hair, makeup, etc. Also Gellar and Marsters apparently decided they had to lose fifty pounds for all those sex scenes.
(Sigh.) They are TOO thin. So is Emma Caulfield. Meanwhile Xander keeps gaining weight. Weirdly, wardrobe has decided to play with Spike's wardrobe - he's gotten a wardrobe upgrade. Actually, Buffy, Spike, and possibly Willow have the best wardrobe.
The writers are having a lot of fun implying sex - without really showing anything? And they seem to be hunting about every way to do it, available.
Also, the sex gets rather kinky in S6, even though it's all implied. Noticed this in Gone, Doublemeat Palace and Dead Things. Buffy and Spike have sex pretty much everywhere - against the wall of the Doublemeat Palace, fully clothed, at the Bronze (fully clothed), and in Gone (not fully clothed) in Spike's crypt against the wall, on the bed, everywhere.
The actors are very good at implying sex or sex scenes. It looks like they are actually having sex. Considering they had to move against each other, look into it, and look like they were having an orgasm, and moaning for about twenty takes - I applaud them. (It wasn't fun. Actors as a general rule - despise sex scenes. Very few like them. It's basically like doing a fight scene or dance - choreographed, and you have to have a good rapport with your partner. Marsters preferred doing it with Juliet Landau - Gellar, he struggled with, because they had different acting styles and came at the material differently. Knowing all this - makes it kind of odd to watch? Particularly since I know they did so many takes.) They earned their pay and they didn't make nearly as much as the kids on Stranger Things who didn't have to do nearly as much nor for as long.
At one point in Dead Things - Spike (Marsters) appears to be seducing the door. Although I adore that scene, and loved the song by BUSH so much - I bought the CD back in the day (don't have it now), but it was downloaded to my computer. There's some hot scenes in there - Spike/Buffy in the Bronze is well shot (they act that one well), as is the one in which they are both under the rug, chatting. (Damn rug burns.) Also Spike/Door/Buffy. And Spike making love to Buffy in her bed (in her dream sequence). I can see why Gellar felt there was too much sex in the show - she's been doing sex scenes with Spike since Smashed. Dead Things by far - has the most. It must have been exhausting on the actors. Also Marsters does a very good job of playing a vampire in love with a slayer - Spike is an evil blood sucking fiend - but he's in love with the hero. And the hero has become insanely attracted to him, and wants him and possibly is even in love with him but doesn't dare admit it to herself. Because she knows that would destroy her.
Angel at least had some moral compass, Spike really doesn't. She has no idea what he's up to when she's not around. He's a 156 year old vampire, who paled around with Darla, Drusilla and Angelus for years, and killed two slayers. He's manipulative, opportunistic, and seductive. But damn, he's also hot as hell - and all of that makes him kind of interesting from my perspective as a love interest - because it breaks the rules and it is impossible. Impossible love stories fascinate me.
What Warren, Jonathan and Andrew do to Katerina feels like a trail run for Dollhouse - and is reminiscent of Dollhouse. It's about abusing power, sex as a drug or sex as power, and references ruthies - which were a date rape drug in the 1990s and early 00s (may still be) - and often administered at bars in the woman's drink. Often by someone she never met, or someone would buy her a drink, and administer it when she looked away. Disoriented, she goes home with the guy and basically has sex with him, but no memory of it - except of course for the impact on her body. It's actually something Veronica Mars and Buffy have in common - both show the ruthie/date rape drug in action. Except with Veronica - Veronica is the one raped. (Buffy is never raped.)
W/J&A - are as Katerina describes - boys playing at being men. They see life as their playground. And only care about themselves. (As an aside? Adam Bush, the actor playing Warren, is a cool guy and has a really good voice. I saw him sing in person. He also dated Amber Benson during that period of time.) Katerina is a toy to them. Buffy an obstacle. It's why I had issues with Andrew being brought back in S7. I liked Jonathan better.
And that's saying something.
Dead Things is an interesting episode - it's rather well written and directed considering. Much darker than the previous episodes. I've not finished re-watching it. Gone was a lot more fun than I remembered. And Doublemeat Palace was hilarious.
Another takeaway? Willow keeps saving Buffy this season. Buffy's often the damsel, and someone has to save her. In fact it shifts from Dawn to Buffy in a few episodes. Once it's made clear in All the Way - that Dawn can save herself. Buffy is the one in need of saving in Bargaining, Afterlife, Life Serial, Flooded, Once More with Feeling, Gone, Doublemeat Palace, and Dead Things. The person doing the saving shifts, but for the most part it is Willow, and occasionally Spike (OMWF, Flooded, and Dead Things - although the last two are somewhat debatable).