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shadowkatHave a bit of a scratchy sore throat this afternoon/evening - brought on, I suspect, by my archiving of old files today. I'm allergic to dust and mold spores - specifically the type that attach themselves to musty old files and books, hence the reason I currently avoide library books and used book stores like the plague. Methinks I may love the kindle, when I get around to affording it. Fall, also, not my best season.
Snuck on livejournal a bit to flirt with my favorite distraction discussing whether or not Spike will make an appearance in the Buffy comics (which if I'm honest is actually amongst the main reasons I'm reading the things - I have hope, it may be misguided and futile, but I have hope that Whedon will resolve the Spuffy relationship from Buffy's pov. My hope is spurned on by the fact that I'm positive I see a pattern that dictates he will show. Although from the spoiler I read regarding issue 31 being released in ahem, January, I'm guessing it may not happen until 2010. Sigh. Following serial stories can be mighty frustrating at times, granted when the pay-off comes it is amazing, but the getting there often feels like trudging through mud.) Oh well, at least Lynch continues to give me doses of my favorite character and there is fanfic.
Unpopular fandom opinions and livejournal skirmishes and getting one's post or rather my post linked to.
Okay, first off - I admit it, I get a certain thrill when people link to my posts. I love it! That said, I do not always love it when I get invaded by folks who want to tell me how I should write posts in my own livejournal - as if I'm their bitch and I should prove that it was worth their precious time to visit it. Also, as if their lj's are god's gift to the universe. This happened to me last year - when I had a Dollhouse review - one of my first ones, linked on whedonesque. The problem was I hadn't proofed or edited it at all. I just wrote it off the top of my head. I didn't look up character names. It was pure stream-of-consciousness posting. When the request to link came through, I said yes! At work. And did not re-read the post. Within the space of an hour or two my personal email was inundated with posts telling me that I'd misspelled so and so's name, that I got the names wrong, that squick was not a word and how dare I use it and it was their personal pet peeve. Then I made the huge mistake of going to whedonesque - where the posters basically tore apart my entry as if I'd posted it in academic critical review. It was rude, crude, and painful. It also made me incredibly self-conscious. I ended up deleted posts right and left, and thought about deleting the entry. I don't deal well with flamewars or perceived personal conflict online. I'm confrontational. I will scream at you if you piss me off or I perceive that you are attacking me personally. And if I think you are being hypocritical about something? I will tell you to your face. (as many on my flist are woe to report).
The problem with links. Is for some reason or other, I tend to get linked to whenever I write a controversial post. Not when I write a non-controversial one. The Dollhouse review was controversial - because I was both critiquing and analyzing the show, what I liked and disliked, as well as commenting on the issues others had with it. My other reviews of the show weren't controversial, just analytical. The other problem with links is I'm a frustrated writer who wants people to read her and interact with her, but at the same time, is a bit wary of it. So I want the link, but I fear the reaction. People never react the way I expect, they always surprise me. The internet is a wonderful experiment in social psychology, as long as one is not embroiled in the middle of it.
So I will often pick a controversial topic - just to get read. Crazy. Then I don't like the response. Sigh. Or I'll pick something I think people will respond to, and get no responses and think uhm, okay, what did I do wrong, here? And swear off internet posting for forever and a day. Be frigging easier on my emotional wellbeing to do it in locked private posts or in a journal off the internet. This whole interaction thing is for the birds. Less than a day later, I'm back again, like a frigging drug addict. This thing is like crack to a writer.
Particularly a writer like myself.
Regarding unpopular fandom memes. I can think of a lot of unpopular opinions that are well unpopular with half of my flist. Came up with 25, believe it or not.
1. I hate the tv show Bones, and am guessing I'm in the minority on that one. (although there are others I've met who dislike it, and to be fair, I also dislike most of the other procedurals on tv, with the possible exception of The Closer, House, Numbers (I like the math on that one), and...I can't think of another one.)
2. I loved the 4th Season of Angel, and loved the Connor storyline in S4. I also loved evil Cordy and Cordy/Connor/Angel. And...loved Fred that season.
3 Was not thrilled by S1 True Blood. (But will try S2 once it comes out on DVD to see if it is better...)
4. I loved S7 Buffy, except for the last couple of episodes which I felt were a bit busy and crowded with characters. But episodes 1-15 were great, with exception of Showtime, (I think it was 15 - which was LTMP). Also loved Him, one of my favorite comedy episodes - it makes me laugh.
5. I am enjoying Dollhouse and love all the characters except for Echo, who I continue to be oddly ambivalent about. What? I like prickily and dark characters...as well as nice ones.
6. I did not enjoy Dr. Horrible
7. I prefer Angelus to Angel, he's more interesting.
8. I prefer Drusilla to Darla, she seems more complex to me, Darla always felt like the typical two dimensional femme fatal, albeit brilliantly portrayed by Julie Benze who kept blowing Boreanze out of the water with her acting chops.
9. I prefer Lilah to Cordelia - Lilah had more layers in my opinion and had a better actress in the role.
10. I liked the BSG finale, it wasn't spectacular but it worked with the plot and made sense to me. I don't know what people were expecting.
11 I don't like the original Star Trek - it's sexist and poorly acted, I tried to rewatch it recently and gave up.
12 I prefer Babylon 5 to DS9 which I found dull during its first two or three seasons and gave up on it.
13 I don't like the Star Gates - the mythology seemed silly to me (I minored in cultural anthropology and studied Egypt, Babylonian myths - which much of the Gates is based on, not my favorite mythos, although some of the African mythos, not the Egyptian branch - is rather fascinating), but did love Farscape and adored the muppetry.
14 I love Supernatural even though it is sexist and racist, I don't care. I love it. Noir brilliance. But find the fandom scarey.
15. I am still watching Smallville and prefer the later seasons to the early ones, the first four or five I found sort of unwatchable - The Kents, Lana Lang, and high school stories got on my nerves.
16. I loved all three seasons of Veronica Mars and wish it hadn't been cancelled, stupid network.
17. I gave up on Six Feet Under and Sopranoes in the third season, when I cancelled my subscription to Showtime and HBO. Both had begun to bore me at that point.
18. I didn't like Doctor Who until recently and I did not like old Who at all. It had scarey monsters and I didn't like scarey monsters, now I find the scarey monsters sort of silly, but Stephen Moffet's writing intriques me and blows me away and Blink and the bit about the air parasites in the library has got to be the best sci-fi I've seen in a while.
19. I preferred Torchwood to Doctor Who
20. I grew to love Wesely more than Angel, who I thought was more interesting and less predictable, strange since initially I could not stand Wes and loved Angel - proof we do change.
21. I loved Girl in Question on Angel S5- it also made me laugh a lot.
22. I was an Bangle or B/A shipper (1997-1999), a B/R shipper (1999-2000), and am currently a B/S shipper. Yes I have the distinction of loving each ship when it was up and running, hating it with a passion when and after it got resolved, and moving on happily to the next. I told someone on my flist this once in person, he blinked at me, then said - ah, you are the writer's dream - you go where they want you too. Well, if they are any good, I do. (As far as I know I'm the only person in fandom who was like that. I would probably move on from B/S if the stupid writers would get around to resolving it in an emotionally satisfying manner. Sorry her thinking he's dead and him letting her - isn't a resolution. That's sort of like having Angel never come back after Becoming, or Riley never return after Into the Woods. )
23. I prefer Urruh art to Georges Jeanty
24. I prefer the Brian Lynch comics to Whedon's Buffy comics - because Lynch's even though I do not consider them canon in the same way Whedon's may be are more emotionally satisfying.
25. My Spike is a bit of a pratt and won his soul. (ie. I am glad Spike got his soul and prefer the story being told that way. I am glad the writers went in that direction and yes, I think he needed a soul for the story to work on all levels. But no, I don't think he's redeemed, I agree with Whedon, redemption is an on-going process, it lasts until we die.)
Snuck on livejournal a bit to flirt with my favorite distraction discussing whether or not Spike will make an appearance in the Buffy comics (which if I'm honest is actually amongst the main reasons I'm reading the things - I have hope, it may be misguided and futile, but I have hope that Whedon will resolve the Spuffy relationship from Buffy's pov. My hope is spurned on by the fact that I'm positive I see a pattern that dictates he will show. Although from the spoiler I read regarding issue 31 being released in ahem, January, I'm guessing it may not happen until 2010. Sigh. Following serial stories can be mighty frustrating at times, granted when the pay-off comes it is amazing, but the getting there often feels like trudging through mud.) Oh well, at least Lynch continues to give me doses of my favorite character and there is fanfic.
Unpopular fandom opinions and livejournal skirmishes and getting one's post or rather my post linked to.
Okay, first off - I admit it, I get a certain thrill when people link to my posts. I love it! That said, I do not always love it when I get invaded by folks who want to tell me how I should write posts in my own livejournal - as if I'm their bitch and I should prove that it was worth their precious time to visit it. Also, as if their lj's are god's gift to the universe. This happened to me last year - when I had a Dollhouse review - one of my first ones, linked on whedonesque. The problem was I hadn't proofed or edited it at all. I just wrote it off the top of my head. I didn't look up character names. It was pure stream-of-consciousness posting. When the request to link came through, I said yes! At work. And did not re-read the post. Within the space of an hour or two my personal email was inundated with posts telling me that I'd misspelled so and so's name, that I got the names wrong, that squick was not a word and how dare I use it and it was their personal pet peeve. Then I made the huge mistake of going to whedonesque - where the posters basically tore apart my entry as if I'd posted it in academic critical review. It was rude, crude, and painful. It also made me incredibly self-conscious. I ended up deleted posts right and left, and thought about deleting the entry. I don't deal well with flamewars or perceived personal conflict online. I'm confrontational. I will scream at you if you piss me off or I perceive that you are attacking me personally. And if I think you are being hypocritical about something? I will tell you to your face. (as many on my flist are woe to report).
The problem with links. Is for some reason or other, I tend to get linked to whenever I write a controversial post. Not when I write a non-controversial one. The Dollhouse review was controversial - because I was both critiquing and analyzing the show, what I liked and disliked, as well as commenting on the issues others had with it. My other reviews of the show weren't controversial, just analytical. The other problem with links is I'm a frustrated writer who wants people to read her and interact with her, but at the same time, is a bit wary of it. So I want the link, but I fear the reaction. People never react the way I expect, they always surprise me. The internet is a wonderful experiment in social psychology, as long as one is not embroiled in the middle of it.
So I will often pick a controversial topic - just to get read. Crazy. Then I don't like the response. Sigh. Or I'll pick something I think people will respond to, and get no responses and think uhm, okay, what did I do wrong, here? And swear off internet posting for forever and a day. Be frigging easier on my emotional wellbeing to do it in locked private posts or in a journal off the internet. This whole interaction thing is for the birds. Less than a day later, I'm back again, like a frigging drug addict. This thing is like crack to a writer.
Particularly a writer like myself.
Regarding unpopular fandom memes. I can think of a lot of unpopular opinions that are well unpopular with half of my flist. Came up with 25, believe it or not.
1. I hate the tv show Bones, and am guessing I'm in the minority on that one. (although there are others I've met who dislike it, and to be fair, I also dislike most of the other procedurals on tv, with the possible exception of The Closer, House, Numbers (I like the math on that one), and...I can't think of another one.)
2. I loved the 4th Season of Angel, and loved the Connor storyline in S4. I also loved evil Cordy and Cordy/Connor/Angel. And...loved Fred that season.
3 Was not thrilled by S1 True Blood. (But will try S2 once it comes out on DVD to see if it is better...)
4. I loved S7 Buffy, except for the last couple of episodes which I felt were a bit busy and crowded with characters. But episodes 1-15 were great, with exception of Showtime, (I think it was 15 - which was LTMP). Also loved Him, one of my favorite comedy episodes - it makes me laugh.
5. I am enjoying Dollhouse and love all the characters except for Echo, who I continue to be oddly ambivalent about. What? I like prickily and dark characters...as well as nice ones.
6. I did not enjoy Dr. Horrible
7. I prefer Angelus to Angel, he's more interesting.
8. I prefer Drusilla to Darla, she seems more complex to me, Darla always felt like the typical two dimensional femme fatal, albeit brilliantly portrayed by Julie Benze who kept blowing Boreanze out of the water with her acting chops.
9. I prefer Lilah to Cordelia - Lilah had more layers in my opinion and had a better actress in the role.
10. I liked the BSG finale, it wasn't spectacular but it worked with the plot and made sense to me. I don't know what people were expecting.
11 I don't like the original Star Trek - it's sexist and poorly acted, I tried to rewatch it recently and gave up.
12 I prefer Babylon 5 to DS9 which I found dull during its first two or three seasons and gave up on it.
13 I don't like the Star Gates - the mythology seemed silly to me (I minored in cultural anthropology and studied Egypt, Babylonian myths - which much of the Gates is based on, not my favorite mythos, although some of the African mythos, not the Egyptian branch - is rather fascinating), but did love Farscape and adored the muppetry.
14 I love Supernatural even though it is sexist and racist, I don't care. I love it. Noir brilliance. But find the fandom scarey.
15. I am still watching Smallville and prefer the later seasons to the early ones, the first four or five I found sort of unwatchable - The Kents, Lana Lang, and high school stories got on my nerves.
16. I loved all three seasons of Veronica Mars and wish it hadn't been cancelled, stupid network.
17. I gave up on Six Feet Under and Sopranoes in the third season, when I cancelled my subscription to Showtime and HBO. Both had begun to bore me at that point.
18. I didn't like Doctor Who until recently and I did not like old Who at all. It had scarey monsters and I didn't like scarey monsters, now I find the scarey monsters sort of silly, but Stephen Moffet's writing intriques me and blows me away and Blink and the bit about the air parasites in the library has got to be the best sci-fi I've seen in a while.
19. I preferred Torchwood to Doctor Who
20. I grew to love Wesely more than Angel, who I thought was more interesting and less predictable, strange since initially I could not stand Wes and loved Angel - proof we do change.
21. I loved Girl in Question on Angel S5- it also made me laugh a lot.
22. I was an Bangle or B/A shipper (1997-1999), a B/R shipper (1999-2000), and am currently a B/S shipper. Yes I have the distinction of loving each ship when it was up and running, hating it with a passion when and after it got resolved, and moving on happily to the next. I told someone on my flist this once in person, he blinked at me, then said - ah, you are the writer's dream - you go where they want you too. Well, if they are any good, I do. (As far as I know I'm the only person in fandom who was like that. I would probably move on from B/S if the stupid writers would get around to resolving it in an emotionally satisfying manner. Sorry her thinking he's dead and him letting her - isn't a resolution. That's sort of like having Angel never come back after Becoming, or Riley never return after Into the Woods. )
23. I prefer Urruh art to Georges Jeanty
24. I prefer the Brian Lynch comics to Whedon's Buffy comics - because Lynch's even though I do not consider them canon in the same way Whedon's may be are more emotionally satisfying.
25. My Spike is a bit of a pratt and won his soul. (ie. I am glad Spike got his soul and prefer the story being told that way. I am glad the writers went in that direction and yes, I think he needed a soul for the story to work on all levels. But no, I don't think he's redeemed, I agree with Whedon, redemption is an on-going process, it lasts until we die.)
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 01:43 am (UTC)1. Liked Bones well enough until the debacle with Zack being the bad guy Gormagon's bitch or what have you. Can't stand it, now. Possibly because my Spuffy side has become too strong and I hold an unnecessary grudge against Boreanaz for that - you know you have a problem when you keep on accusing Agent Booth of killing Willow's fish.
4. Season 7 was stronger during the early parts, and I can appreciate Him - except for Andrew and Anya, what other comedy did we have during the big heavy?
5. I really, really want to like Echo. I really do. But Joss gives us such fascinating, conflicted side characters . . . Whiskey, Adelle . . . and Topher. After last week's brilliant Van Halen metaphor, I love Topher.
7. Angelus had an excuse to chew the scenery like a badass mofo.
8. Drusilla is a fascinating study on madness and the power the
women have in the Scourge of Europe - and she was played beautifully by Juliet Landau. I eagerly await Landau's version of "The Yellow Wallpaper" - more madness!
14. Supernatural noir brilliance is what I'm currently staying up all hours to watch - gotta get caught up!
15. Veronica Mars had the best example of an upper middle class California high school I've ever seen. I know, because I went to one. We did have our Logan Echolls (my sister is currently a sophomore and tells me horror stories about how entitled Clint Eastwood's kid is), but we also had more grounded lower middle class kids who had to work (me) to even it out. And let's face it - Joss failed at the race thing, while the racial mix at Neptune High is exactly what it should be.
20. Once again, Spuffy loyalty may be clouding my view, but even on his own show, I found Angel to be boring. There's only so much you can do with a character who is so sucked into his guild-ridden brooding before it gets old. I liked Buffy and Mal, they were complicated, flawed people who were solid characters to build an ensemble show around. Angel and Echo? Not so much. I felt too much time was spent making sure that no matter what he did, Angel still had to come out smelling like roses because of the soul=get out of jail free card metaphor, and that bored me. I may have been disgusted with Buffy's behavior in S6, but we weren't told to tolerate it because she's a tortured being trying to atone. We were allowed to be disgusted, and then allowed to feel her pain as she slowly realized how low she had fallen in her depression. With Angel, no matter how low he got,
we were still forced to think he just had a "thing" going on, and would snap out of it eventually, because he's on the road to redemption. So I like Wes. Wes wasn't excused his bad choices, he manned up to them. He was a leading man without ever being allowed to be the leading man.
23. Don't really like Jeanty's art. Aside from the sudden massive boobage.
24. Brian Lynch has written some of my all-time favorite tweets. Does that count?
Sorry, didn't plan to write a book. Take it as a compliment that I enjoyed your post so much I had a lot to respond to.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 02:24 am (UTC)Also this bit : "you know you have a problem when you keep accusing Agent Booth of killing Willow's fish"
made me laugh out loud. Still am. Brilliant.
(sigh, probably because... in small little voice...uh, me too?? well sometimes at any rate.)
I actually sort of liked Zach, in fact Zach, Ryan O'Neil and Stephen Fry were the only bits I liked in the series and that's not a good thing.
Juliet Landau is doing The Yellow Wallpaper??? Squee!!
Okay, when? And how do I see it?
Regarding 15 - Agreed, Whedon's shows do not handle race well at all. But, knowing what I know about the tv industry - I don't think Whedon had a choice. Bianca Lawson was originally slated to play Cordelia but left for another pilot. And he didn't have full casting control - Gail Berman and the Kuzui's had a lot of say in the proceedings. Rob Thomas had a better deal with Veronica Mars - the UPN wanted the nitch African American and Hispanic audience - so more or less ordered shows that demonstrated that mix. Buffy had to add several minority actors to meet UPN's quota in its last season (which is scarily obvious). If you look at the later shows Whedon did - there's more of a multi-racial mix, so I'm thinking we should blame WB and Fox for that one, not Whedon.
So, Clint's kid is another Logan Echolls? Interesting...not suprising, but interesting. (Sigh, I liked Logan, even if he was an ass. Something tells me I would not like him in reality. TV show asses are so much more appealing - maybe because they stay on the tv screen?)
Oh, I adore Topher too. That actor is brilliant in the role. Also I think he's copying Joss Whedon's mannerisms, which amuses me greatly.
Highly entertaining response! Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 02:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 02:41 am (UTC)but wow, I'm surprised, we agree on a lot more than I would have thought:
1. I hate the tv show Bones,
I really don't like the show either and only watch it because nothing else is on...
(I wish they would move some of the Monday shows I love to either Tuesdays or Thursdays)
4. I loved S7 Buffy, except for the last couple of episodes which I felt were a bit busy and crowded with characters. But episodes 1-15 were great, with exception of Showtime, (I think it was 15 - which was LTMP). Also loved Him, one of my favorite comedy episodes - it makes me laugh.
I totally agree (well I like the last episodes more than you, basically I like the whole season except for 'Showtime')
5. I am enjoying Dollhouse and love all the characters except for Echo, who I continue to be oddly ambivalent about. What? I like prickily and dark characters...as well as nice ones.
I actually like everyone on Dollhouse, I'm finding it layered and intensely interesting.
8. I prefer Drusilla to Darla, she seems more complex to me,
definitely!
9. I prefer Lilah to Cordelia - Lilah had more layers in my opinion and had a better actress in the role.
totally... of course Lilah was also given more interesting things to do... I found Cordy's 'growth' to be lame, and Charisma couldn't pull it off.
10. I liked the BSG finale, it wasn't spectacular but it worked with the plot and made sense to me. I don't know what people were expecting.
I thought it was well done too, and I'm excited about 'Caprica'.
11 I don't like the original Star Trek - it's sexist and poorly acted, I tried to rewatch it recently and gave up.
Yeah, it is too bad. I had loved it back when, but it is unwatchable now.
13 I don't like the Star Gates -
I really did try to get into these, but I really really can't like any of it.
" but did love Farscape and adored the muppetry."
oh yes, me too!
16. I loved all three seasons of Veronica Mars and wish it hadn't been cancelled, stupid network.
I'm glad to hear it, I hadn't known you loved this show... it is a huge favorite of mine!
17. I gave up on Six Feet Under and Sopranoes in the third season,
I never even gave Sopranoes a chance (I don't like gangsters as much as most people seem to), but I had loved Six Feet Under at first, and then it changed too much and I lost interest.
20. I grew to love Wesely more than Angel, who I thought was more interesting and less predictable, strange since initially I could not stand Wes and loved Angel - proof we do change.
Well I always loved Wesley: I loved him as the inept cowardly egotist w/a huge stick up his ass, and I loved his growth into bad ass Wes who was still enough of an egotist to steal Angel's baby... and then loved him the most as the poor conflicted/borderline psycho catering to Illyria....
Anyway there is more I agree w/you on than I would have guessed.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 04:28 am (UTC)Is she brilliant at her craft? No, of course not, but what pisses me off is this attitude (especially in the U.S., I would posit) that you're either brilliant or worthless, a winner or a loser.
What about all of us-- and I really think I personally identify here, and that may be the root cause of my crankiness-- who are pretty good at whatever it is that we do, definitely better than average, but still fall a bit short of being in the upper 10 percent or so?
I give Dushku credit for trying to get better at her craft, and I would cite later episodes of Dollhouse as proof that she is succeeding, at least if the critics would shut up complaining about her long enough to watch her work.
Please, no comments from those who point out her co-stars are better than she is. Yes, some of them are. Some of them are not. And none of them are any better than the writers and directors allow them to be.
Lastly, I seem to be nearly alone in identifying with the Echo character. I have to wonder if people "can't" identify with her, or are scared shitless that they might actually be her?
no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 02:18 pm (UTC)Eleanor Penn (whoever Echo was imprinted with) had committed suicide because she could never move on from her childhood trauma, but Echo had found it possible to overcome her trauma and save the day.... I thought there was something in Eliza's performance (not just in the writing, but in her acting) that allowed me to see Echo's underlying strength and will to live.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 10:21 am (UTC)I don't handle conflict well myself and my instinct is to flock rather than not. Lately, I've been making open posts more often and the trolling incident has made me wonder whether that was the right decision.
Re: your unpopular opinions, I actually agree with an awful lot of them, though cannot comment on most of the shows you mention because I haven't seen them at all. Did see the first ep of Tru Blood last night. It was okay, but I got a little bored towards the end. We'll see how that goes.
Agree entirely with your 1) and parts of your 2 (I don't like Cordy/Connor but I love Fred, and should have included preferring Fred to Illyria as one of my unpopular fannish opinions).
I love both Darla and Dru and couldn't choose between them. I love season 7 of BtVS, and I definitely prefer Urru to Jeanty. Re: Lynch's Spike - I do have some quibbles with him, but generally, I think Lynch writes Spike very well. I also love Wesley more than Angel, though I'm fond of Angel, and as you know am really liking Dollhouse.
When I've watched all of season 1, I will make a point of coming back and reading your meta.
Should have added, yay! for the BSG finale and for B5 over DS9.