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Wednesday is limping along and keeps dozing off in the process
Headache from hell seems to be lessening and I slept slightly better last night. Still wary of doing any floor or bed exercises even if I'm feeling less congested today than I did the last several days. (Note Aleve works better than Tynenol for this sort of thing.) So, I'll go back to work tomorrow. And from the emails, it's probably piled up. We'll see how much of it I get through, since my head still to some degree feels full of cotton.
Making tea now. I'd intended on doing laundry on Monday during the storm, but alas, was waylaid by the nauseous headache from hell. Haven't up to doing much of anything - outside of doing an urgent care appointment, getting my meds/groceries, and trying to sleep. Did do a few knee exercises.
The snow appears to be melting - from the view outside my windows. So it's not frozen solid like last time.
End of February Memage
22. What is your favourite writing implement – a fountain pen, ballpoint pen, pencil or something else?
Fountain Pen
23. Do you own many mirrors?
Yes, one - and it's turned to the wall in my bedroom and the back is broken off of it. The mirror itself is fine, it's just the siding and back covering that are coming off. I use it occasionally to see what to wear. Also a small bathroom mirror. I'm not a fan of mirrors - they tend to irritate me. I think it has something to do with how my brain processes information and flips things around, don't know.
24. What are you watching this month that you are enjoying?
I'm enjoying the soap opera (General Hospital) this month, more than most, Angel S5 rewatch, and The Pitt.
25. When was the last time the windows in your home were washed?
I don't have a house, and while I've washed the inside occasionally, I can't access the outside of the windows - so no clue.
***
Angel S5 Why We Fight and Smile Time - are kind of both about the same thing thematically speaking, just that Smile handles it better.
When Smile Time aired - way back in 2004, I was friends with a writer and her puppeteer husband, who were in turn close friends with the puppeteers on Smile Time. (The successful professional puppeteer world is a relatively small one - they all know each other. And most of them have worked on the Hensen projects.) They all make their own puppets, by the way. So the puppets are hand made for the most part. And they are insanely good at getting a good likeness. This group of puppeteers were the same ones responsible for doing the series - where they crank call businesses, record the call, create a puppet of the person they've cranked, and air it. They did this to a friend of mine - and damn, the puppet looked just like him. (To my knowledge he never met them. I met the puppeteer who did it, he didn't.) So talented folks? Very. With a bit of mean streak. (Possibly a potential side-effect of that type of career, god knows. It's not an easy career. One of those - you got to love it and not be cut out for literally anything else.)
Anyhow - long story short - they sent the folks who (were) my friends (we've since lost touch), an email detailing their time on Angel making Smile Time, and my friends sent me the email. It was a mixed bag. Apparently Acker and August Young did not like Boreanze very much (well at all), and barely got on with him. And were enjoying the reprieve of just working with the puppet version. Why? DB was a prankster. He apparently turned on the sprinkler system once as a prank - delaying production. (He also liked to wander about the set with his dick hanging out.) Marsters was easy to work with, always professional - and they had no issues with him. They did not miss Charisma. It was a tense set according to the puppeteers, and not everyone hit it off. The puppeteers had fun with it though. And the writers/stunt coordinators gave them free reign to play. I don't remember much else outside of that from the email.
A side effect of writing a lot of meta on the Buffyverse and posting it to fan forums, was meeting various fans with deep connections to the industry. One was best friends with David Greenwalt's production assistant. Other's with the puppeteers.
The episode "Smile Time" is among the best of the series. It basically encapsulates all the themes of the season and series with just a few images. Angel is too busy fighting himself to really get anywhere. And,
when he was starting to get somewhere with Doyle and Cordy, then Wes and Cordy - WRH found a way to manipulate him, Cordy and Wes. The noir theme in a nutshell - the hero always falls into the abyss - and more often than not it is of his own making.
WRFH studied them, then used their flaws to manipulate them - until they became WRH's puppets via the Shanshu Prophecy - which I think Lindsey finally figured out. Lilah also did, but didn't care to share. Lindsey cared - because he was being used to manipulate Angel et al into buying it. (What's confusing in the series - is I'm not sure if the writer's ever made up their mind between whether the Shanshu was real or not real? I think some of the writer's like the plot twist that it's real after all. So, as a result - the writing often contradicts itself? In S5 -I think they'd decided it wasn't real.). Smile Time though isn't about that - so much as how Angel is everyone's puppet - and busy trying to please all these external forces to prove he's worth saving and redeemable. He needs their approval. And that's kind of been his journey since the beginning - searching for an external source of approval. And being easily manipulated by that source.
In Smile Time - they make the metaphor kind of literal - and turn him into a puppet - with hilarious and entertaining results. It's also a clever satiric commentary on the money-making franchise that Children's Television has become or maybe always was? Has some nice digs in there as well, Self-Esteem is for Everybody, "I'm writing a number about telling the difference between a metaphor and an analogy", and David Fury (the meanest of the writers - portraying Franken, the Smile Time creator, who gets turned into a meat puppet by his demonic possessed creations.
Why We Fight is rather clunky in comparison. It's the precursor of what the folks do in The Initiative to Spike with the chip. Here, the Germans have captured a bunch of horrific vampires with the sole intention of turning them into their personal soliders. It's not that far from what Professor Walsh wanted to do in Buffy S4, and they even reference it (rather slyly.) Angel helps the military get the sub, but then takes off and hides for the remainder of the WAR. The episode clarifies two things - Spike knew Angel with and without a soul prior to Season 2 Buffy, and didn't see a whole lot of difference, and Angel wasn't laying about in sewars eating rats in the 20th Century (although we already knew that from prior episodes). He also kills and sires someone with soul. The theme of it - is what is the purpose or reason behind fighting, why not give up. And it's not as easily answered. I think it is meant as a negative counter-point to the Angel S2 Episode Epiphany. But doesn't work as well. I'd say this is the clunkiest episode of the season. Angel S5 is among the few seasons in both series where the last five to six episodes are better than the rest. The best part of Angel S5 is Episodes 15-22.
Making tea now. I'd intended on doing laundry on Monday during the storm, but alas, was waylaid by the nauseous headache from hell. Haven't up to doing much of anything - outside of doing an urgent care appointment, getting my meds/groceries, and trying to sleep. Did do a few knee exercises.
The snow appears to be melting - from the view outside my windows. So it's not frozen solid like last time.
End of February Memage
22. What is your favourite writing implement – a fountain pen, ballpoint pen, pencil or something else?
Fountain Pen
23. Do you own many mirrors?
Yes, one - and it's turned to the wall in my bedroom and the back is broken off of it. The mirror itself is fine, it's just the siding and back covering that are coming off. I use it occasionally to see what to wear. Also a small bathroom mirror. I'm not a fan of mirrors - they tend to irritate me. I think it has something to do with how my brain processes information and flips things around, don't know.
24. What are you watching this month that you are enjoying?
I'm enjoying the soap opera (General Hospital) this month, more than most, Angel S5 rewatch, and The Pitt.
25. When was the last time the windows in your home were washed?
I don't have a house, and while I've washed the inside occasionally, I can't access the outside of the windows - so no clue.
***
Angel S5 Why We Fight and Smile Time - are kind of both about the same thing thematically speaking, just that Smile handles it better.
When Smile Time aired - way back in 2004, I was friends with a writer and her puppeteer husband, who were in turn close friends with the puppeteers on Smile Time. (The successful professional puppeteer world is a relatively small one - they all know each other. And most of them have worked on the Hensen projects.) They all make their own puppets, by the way. So the puppets are hand made for the most part. And they are insanely good at getting a good likeness. This group of puppeteers were the same ones responsible for doing the series - where they crank call businesses, record the call, create a puppet of the person they've cranked, and air it. They did this to a friend of mine - and damn, the puppet looked just like him. (To my knowledge he never met them. I met the puppeteer who did it, he didn't.) So talented folks? Very. With a bit of mean streak. (Possibly a potential side-effect of that type of career, god knows. It's not an easy career. One of those - you got to love it and not be cut out for literally anything else.)
Anyhow - long story short - they sent the folks who (were) my friends (we've since lost touch), an email detailing their time on Angel making Smile Time, and my friends sent me the email. It was a mixed bag. Apparently Acker and August Young did not like Boreanze very much (well at all), and barely got on with him. And were enjoying the reprieve of just working with the puppet version. Why? DB was a prankster. He apparently turned on the sprinkler system once as a prank - delaying production. (He also liked to wander about the set with his dick hanging out.) Marsters was easy to work with, always professional - and they had no issues with him. They did not miss Charisma. It was a tense set according to the puppeteers, and not everyone hit it off. The puppeteers had fun with it though. And the writers/stunt coordinators gave them free reign to play. I don't remember much else outside of that from the email.
A side effect of writing a lot of meta on the Buffyverse and posting it to fan forums, was meeting various fans with deep connections to the industry. One was best friends with David Greenwalt's production assistant. Other's with the puppeteers.
The episode "Smile Time" is among the best of the series. It basically encapsulates all the themes of the season and series with just a few images. Angel is too busy fighting himself to really get anywhere. And,
when he was starting to get somewhere with Doyle and Cordy, then Wes and Cordy - WRH found a way to manipulate him, Cordy and Wes. The noir theme in a nutshell - the hero always falls into the abyss - and more often than not it is of his own making.
WRFH studied them, then used their flaws to manipulate them - until they became WRH's puppets via the Shanshu Prophecy - which I think Lindsey finally figured out. Lilah also did, but didn't care to share. Lindsey cared - because he was being used to manipulate Angel et al into buying it. (What's confusing in the series - is I'm not sure if the writer's ever made up their mind between whether the Shanshu was real or not real? I think some of the writer's like the plot twist that it's real after all. So, as a result - the writing often contradicts itself? In S5 -I think they'd decided it wasn't real.). Smile Time though isn't about that - so much as how Angel is everyone's puppet - and busy trying to please all these external forces to prove he's worth saving and redeemable. He needs their approval. And that's kind of been his journey since the beginning - searching for an external source of approval. And being easily manipulated by that source.
In Smile Time - they make the metaphor kind of literal - and turn him into a puppet - with hilarious and entertaining results. It's also a clever satiric commentary on the money-making franchise that Children's Television has become or maybe always was? Has some nice digs in there as well, Self-Esteem is for Everybody, "I'm writing a number about telling the difference between a metaphor and an analogy", and David Fury (the meanest of the writers - portraying Franken, the Smile Time creator, who gets turned into a meat puppet by his demonic possessed creations.
Why We Fight is rather clunky in comparison. It's the precursor of what the folks do in The Initiative to Spike with the chip. Here, the Germans have captured a bunch of horrific vampires with the sole intention of turning them into their personal soliders. It's not that far from what Professor Walsh wanted to do in Buffy S4, and they even reference it (rather slyly.) Angel helps the military get the sub, but then takes off and hides for the remainder of the WAR. The episode clarifies two things - Spike knew Angel with and without a soul prior to Season 2 Buffy, and didn't see a whole lot of difference, and Angel wasn't laying about in sewars eating rats in the 20th Century (although we already knew that from prior episodes). He also kills and sires someone with soul. The theme of it - is what is the purpose or reason behind fighting, why not give up. And it's not as easily answered. I think it is meant as a negative counter-point to the Angel S2 Episode Epiphany. But doesn't work as well. I'd say this is the clunkiest episode of the season. Angel S5 is among the few seasons in both series where the last five to six episodes are better than the rest. The best part of Angel S5 is Episodes 15-22.