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Jan. 4th, 2012 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. I should probably be more consistent about posting in both lj and dw, but I forget and post in lj only. Like yesterday.
2. Bitter cold. And the air is so dry...that my skin feels chalky. You know that feeling you get when you touch chalk? A weird edgy headache sensation? Or maybe that's just me? I think I may be allergic to chalk-dust or powder. Get the same feeling with powdered sugar and the powder on marshmellows. The cold air is so dry. And the heat inside is drier still. It suck the moisture out of your body.
Came home tonight to a note written in a red magic marker to the 2nd floor neighbor. It was in a child's hand, hidden amongst the pile of mail scattered on the floor. I was sorting through it and found it. Stated in red letters...unevenly, that the music was too loud in the morning, and this was a home not a disco. Now, I leave at 7am each morning, often before everyone else does, so I was oblivious. Also, I'm on the 3rd floor. And rarely play music loud or much of anything. I think people forget I'm here. I also don't complain - unless it's a major problem. But I've never heard any loud music emanating below. Very weird. Hope he doesn't think it was me. Doubt it. In any case I wouldn't write a note. I'd knock on his door and tell him. I find the whole note-writing bit to be unproductive and somewhat passive aggressive. Much smarter to confront head on.
Anyhow the weather must be turning, have the beginnings of a headache...
3. It struck me...not for the first time, mind you, while reading reactions to the whole Mark Watches Buffy bit, and reading the blog itself...that the creators of Buffy did a sort of bait and switch on both the network and the audience. See, here's what happened - Fox and the WB ordered a teen "monster of the week" tv series. Sort of a hip teen supernatural mystery show - focused on high school, with metaphors. Each week the lead character, a female slayer, would kill a monster with the aid of her friends. There'd be quippy dialogue. Etc. Also a mythology behind it. But no, not a serial. Never that! (See networks hate serials - they are really hard to sell for syndication and attract new audience members, also outside of a few exceptions, do horrible in the ratings). The audience could easily jump in and out, no cliff-hangers, all neatly wrapped up in one or two episodes at the most. We might have a season long arc - but nothing too elaborate. From what I've read - that's the pitch they sold the network and S1 of the series certainly fit that. EXCEPT for a few interesting things...one - there's a mislead in the first episode that the lead character, Xander's bud whose name I forget, who befriends Buffy and we think is really cool, gets grabbed. Of course he won't die, you think, and of course he not only dies but is turned into a vampire. Still...episodic shows do that, they mislead you...on occasion, so no, big deal. And that's true for about most of S1, Xander might turn evil in one episode - but it's only because he's possessed by a hyena, so he's off the hook. No one "important" dies. People are safe. This is also true for most of S2...up until the episode Innocence, when all of a sudden the show becomes a ...shock! gasp! a bleeding soap opera. Just like Dark Shadows, but with better dialogue. A Serial. MAJOR Characters turn evil. MAJOR Characters might even die. Not guest stars, not second run, but characters in the actual main cast. And the rules...not what you thought. Also not uplifting, and lots of nasty horrible things. And the main characters doing nasty horrible things to each other. Also everybody is either lusting after each other, or sleeping together. (Which is basically your standard soap opera. Very incestuous things soap operas...particularly when you have small ensemble casts. That's why Willow/Xander and Buffy never slept together - it would have become ridiculous. Can you imagine? If not? Go watch Dark Shadows on DVD.). This must have come as a shock to folks who don't watch soap operas. (Actually I know it did, I've been watching them freak out over it for ten years online with a considerable amount of restrained amusement). Which is what I loved most about Buffy - that bait and switch. To this day, I wonder if the network knew what the writers were up to.
Network: So this is going to be wrapped up each week, right? No cliff-hangers? Because the pilot has a cliff-hanger.
Whedon: That's a two-parter. Furtherest we'll go. Promise. And well there is a bad guy arc...that she has to figure out how to resolve. But that's all action. It will keep people coming back.
Network: Still, monster of the week format?
Whedon: Yep.
Network: No melodramatic relationship soap opera, because we already have Dawson's Creek.
Whedon: Not a soap opera, promise. We won't have the leads sleep together. No romance. Total action show. Lots of monsters that get killed. Vampires? Clearly evil. None of that Anne Rice stuff. And the monsters are all metaphors for high school. High school was evil, man.
Network: All right, sounds good.
The fact that he was able to continue to fool the network with pitches for Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse after this, makes me ponder their intelligence. (And yes, according to interviews he more or less gave the same sort of pitch. Yes, yes, episodic, issue of the week, no big serial arc, no melodramatic relationships, or soap opera stuff...promise! Lots of action.)
4. Speaking of blogging - read an article in Metro about it. I don't blog the way you are supposed to. "Mark Reads/Watches" blogs the way you are supposed to blog. Which is basically stick to a format, a topic, stay consistent in voice, and cater to your readership - within a set group of rules. I treat blogging like an insane correspondence club or discussion board of interlocking unrelated posts. No rules really. No consistency. And I really don't care if I annoy people half the time. The other half I do (or I wouldn't delete the posts in which I didn't). In short, I probably shouldn't give up my day job and become a professional blogger any time soon...I don't do it right.
5. Just watched Parenthood - which is a serial but not a soap opera. How can you tell? Well, no one dies just to further a plot or provide a plot twist. No characters go evil to do the same thing. It's not based on big emotional arcs. Nor do characters do really bizarre things. No spoilers required - you can more or less figure out where it is going - no big surprises. It's a family drama - more realistic. And focused entirely on the theme of Parenthood - everything surrounds it. All the stories. I call it my happy show. No thinking required. Once again had this discussion with co-worker. I said, now that my job had become mentally intense, I no longer wanted to be intellectually stimulated by my entertainment/pleasure pursuits. Emotionally stimulated - yes. But not necessarily intellectually stimulated. In short, I want to turn off my brain not turn it on. Parenthood is a nice compromise. It's about a healthy family struggling with parenting issues through four generations. This episode had the family doing a road trip to visit their father's estranged 86 year old mother on her 86 year old birthday. It's not dysfunctional - so no real melodrama. But it did tug at the emotional heartstrings. Very touching.
Off to read. Would take a shower, but I'm afraid my skin will crinkle up. I really need a humidifier. Or a good rain storm.
2. Bitter cold. And the air is so dry...that my skin feels chalky. You know that feeling you get when you touch chalk? A weird edgy headache sensation? Or maybe that's just me? I think I may be allergic to chalk-dust or powder. Get the same feeling with powdered sugar and the powder on marshmellows. The cold air is so dry. And the heat inside is drier still. It suck the moisture out of your body.
Came home tonight to a note written in a red magic marker to the 2nd floor neighbor. It was in a child's hand, hidden amongst the pile of mail scattered on the floor. I was sorting through it and found it. Stated in red letters...unevenly, that the music was too loud in the morning, and this was a home not a disco. Now, I leave at 7am each morning, often before everyone else does, so I was oblivious. Also, I'm on the 3rd floor. And rarely play music loud or much of anything. I think people forget I'm here. I also don't complain - unless it's a major problem. But I've never heard any loud music emanating below. Very weird. Hope he doesn't think it was me. Doubt it. In any case I wouldn't write a note. I'd knock on his door and tell him. I find the whole note-writing bit to be unproductive and somewhat passive aggressive. Much smarter to confront head on.
Anyhow the weather must be turning, have the beginnings of a headache...
3. It struck me...not for the first time, mind you, while reading reactions to the whole Mark Watches Buffy bit, and reading the blog itself...that the creators of Buffy did a sort of bait and switch on both the network and the audience. See, here's what happened - Fox and the WB ordered a teen "monster of the week" tv series. Sort of a hip teen supernatural mystery show - focused on high school, with metaphors. Each week the lead character, a female slayer, would kill a monster with the aid of her friends. There'd be quippy dialogue. Etc. Also a mythology behind it. But no, not a serial. Never that! (See networks hate serials - they are really hard to sell for syndication and attract new audience members, also outside of a few exceptions, do horrible in the ratings). The audience could easily jump in and out, no cliff-hangers, all neatly wrapped up in one or two episodes at the most. We might have a season long arc - but nothing too elaborate. From what I've read - that's the pitch they sold the network and S1 of the series certainly fit that. EXCEPT for a few interesting things...one - there's a mislead in the first episode that the lead character, Xander's bud whose name I forget, who befriends Buffy and we think is really cool, gets grabbed. Of course he won't die, you think, and of course he not only dies but is turned into a vampire. Still...episodic shows do that, they mislead you...on occasion, so no, big deal. And that's true for about most of S1, Xander might turn evil in one episode - but it's only because he's possessed by a hyena, so he's off the hook. No one "important" dies. People are safe. This is also true for most of S2...up until the episode Innocence, when all of a sudden the show becomes a ...shock! gasp! a bleeding soap opera. Just like Dark Shadows, but with better dialogue. A Serial. MAJOR Characters turn evil. MAJOR Characters might even die. Not guest stars, not second run, but characters in the actual main cast. And the rules...not what you thought. Also not uplifting, and lots of nasty horrible things. And the main characters doing nasty horrible things to each other. Also everybody is either lusting after each other, or sleeping together. (Which is basically your standard soap opera. Very incestuous things soap operas...particularly when you have small ensemble casts. That's why Willow/Xander and Buffy never slept together - it would have become ridiculous. Can you imagine? If not? Go watch Dark Shadows on DVD.). This must have come as a shock to folks who don't watch soap operas. (Actually I know it did, I've been watching them freak out over it for ten years online with a considerable amount of restrained amusement). Which is what I loved most about Buffy - that bait and switch. To this day, I wonder if the network knew what the writers were up to.
Network: So this is going to be wrapped up each week, right? No cliff-hangers? Because the pilot has a cliff-hanger.
Whedon: That's a two-parter. Furtherest we'll go. Promise. And well there is a bad guy arc...that she has to figure out how to resolve. But that's all action. It will keep people coming back.
Network: Still, monster of the week format?
Whedon: Yep.
Network: No melodramatic relationship soap opera, because we already have Dawson's Creek.
Whedon: Not a soap opera, promise. We won't have the leads sleep together. No romance. Total action show. Lots of monsters that get killed. Vampires? Clearly evil. None of that Anne Rice stuff. And the monsters are all metaphors for high school. High school was evil, man.
Network: All right, sounds good.
The fact that he was able to continue to fool the network with pitches for Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse after this, makes me ponder their intelligence. (And yes, according to interviews he more or less gave the same sort of pitch. Yes, yes, episodic, issue of the week, no big serial arc, no melodramatic relationships, or soap opera stuff...promise! Lots of action.)
4. Speaking of blogging - read an article in Metro about it. I don't blog the way you are supposed to. "Mark Reads/Watches" blogs the way you are supposed to blog. Which is basically stick to a format, a topic, stay consistent in voice, and cater to your readership - within a set group of rules. I treat blogging like an insane correspondence club or discussion board of interlocking unrelated posts. No rules really. No consistency. And I really don't care if I annoy people half the time. The other half I do (or I wouldn't delete the posts in which I didn't). In short, I probably shouldn't give up my day job and become a professional blogger any time soon...I don't do it right.
5. Just watched Parenthood - which is a serial but not a soap opera. How can you tell? Well, no one dies just to further a plot or provide a plot twist. No characters go evil to do the same thing. It's not based on big emotional arcs. Nor do characters do really bizarre things. No spoilers required - you can more or less figure out where it is going - no big surprises. It's a family drama - more realistic. And focused entirely on the theme of Parenthood - everything surrounds it. All the stories. I call it my happy show. No thinking required. Once again had this discussion with co-worker. I said, now that my job had become mentally intense, I no longer wanted to be intellectually stimulated by my entertainment/pleasure pursuits. Emotionally stimulated - yes. But not necessarily intellectually stimulated. In short, I want to turn off my brain not turn it on. Parenthood is a nice compromise. It's about a healthy family struggling with parenting issues through four generations. This episode had the family doing a road trip to visit their father's estranged 86 year old mother on her 86 year old birthday. It's not dysfunctional - so no real melodrama. But it did tug at the emotional heartstrings. Very touching.
Off to read. Would take a shower, but I'm afraid my skin will crinkle up. I really need a humidifier. Or a good rain storm.
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 01:16 pm (UTC)Supernatural...or Grimm or Merlin.
I can sort of see why - the first season of Buffy, and the first half of season 2...really do fit that model. Heck, half the audience was under that delusion. I honestly think Whedon was fighting the network on the whole episodic mystery bit.. pretty much up until the 6th season, when he jumped over to UPN and he could do whatever he wanted. Same with Angel. And the other series.