![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1) Watching the Emmy's and somewhat bored. It's fairly predictable so far, Modern Family has pretty much won everything in the comedy category, with the exception of Best Actor and Best Actress, which went to Jim Parsons and Melissa McCarthy respectfully. (I admittedly don't care about the comedy category, outside of Community, Raising Hope, Glee and Big Bang Theory, I don't actually watch any of them. Those are the only three that don't feel repetitive and redundant of other shows to me. I've tried Parks and Recreation, Modern Family (Arrested Development was more interesting), The Middle, Cougar Town, The Office, 30 Rock, Two and a Half Men (do not understand the appeal of this show at all), Episodes, and Entourage. The only one's that I sort of understand the appeal of are Parks, Modern Family, The Middle, the Office and 30 Rock.) But personally? I still think Community and Raising Hope were robbed.
It's admittedly difficult to take the Emmy's seriously for two reasons: 1) Gwynetth Paltrow already won for best featured actress or guest in Glee. (I didn't understand why she was nominated in the first place.) 2) the people voting work in tv but don't really watch much if any of it. (Would you watch tv if you spent 180 hours a week working in it? I don't think so.) Although they do clearly watch a lot of late night tv comedy series - since John Stewart won again. That's the problem with the emmy's - pretty much the same people and same shows win every year. This has always been the case. Alan Alda and Candice Bergen won 10 times in a row.
*So far, I like the Drama Series wins better. Friday Night Lights won best writing...which I'm on the fence about. But - yeah, Margo Martindale from Justified won! She so deserved it. Her role in Justified and performance blew me away. If she lost - I would have been annoyed. And of course they gave the Directing award to Martin Scorsese for Boardwalk Empire (which for some reason just bores me, I can't get through it - I'm not a fan of historical costume dramas, except of course for the one's that the BBC produces. Not sure why.
*Oh cool - Peter Dinklage just won best supporting for Game of Thrones. Seriously those were the only two categories I cared about. Best supporting actor and actress - Margo Martindale and Peter Dinklage, hands down the two best actors on TV this year. If you agree? Go rent Peter Dinklage's film The Station Agent, where I first fell in love with him as an actor.
*Julianna Marguiles won for The Good Wife - quite happy about that. If you want to see how to act subtlety and restrained - go watch her in The Good Wife. It was an amazing performance.
* YAY again! Kyle Chandler won for Friday Night Lights - he shows how to do restrained and subtle acting for the male end of the spectrum. His performance as Coach Taylor in FNL is pitch-perfect. I was secretly rooting for him. (I loved FNL - best non-criminal/non-violent/non-fantasy serial drama on TV. Shows you can do it without falling into melodrama or soap opera.) I thought Jon Hamm would win again...which did not want.
*As a side note - the music in the Emmy's sucks. Granted it's tv not the Grammy's, but does the music have to suck?
*Dowton Abbey won best writing. (why the insane antedotes? The announcer says that Julian Fellows is British (duh) and hasn't been knighted by the Queen.) I was rooting for either Dowton Abbey or Sherlock - Study in Pink (which got nominated in part because it won a Peabody, which is far more prestigious and I do take seriously.)
*Ah, Dame Maggie Smith won for Dowton Abbey. Which I'll agree with. Was worried about Mildred Pierce winning. I didn't like Mildred Pierce - felt it was a bit on the ponderous long side.
Really, why can't they do best drama now and do best mini-series or something later? Probably because they want us to watch all of it. They just gave a shout out to the vote counters? Really? Well, screw it. I'm going to bed. Will look it up tomorrow. I'm willing to bet Mad Men wins, although there's an outside chance for FNL or Game of Thrones. They already gave Boardwalk it's nod with Scorsese. And they may have given Game theirs with Dinklage. I'm on the fence, I'd probably pick either FNL or Game, those were the most re-watchable.
2)Today flirted with The Brooklyn Book Festival - but just reading through the events gave me a headache. Too much information. It was crowded. And huge. I remember when it was just five or six booths, and about ten panels and speakers. This year, there's about 100 speakers, and 1000 booths. I was overwhelmed. Every book or type of book imaginable. Comic books, young adult, graphic novels, non-fiction, poetry, literary journals, and Housing Works as well as the NY League Against Censorship had booths. The latter was doing taped readings of banned books and had a waiting list. Speakers? Larry McMurtry and Susan Ossana were discussing Brokeback Mountain and adapting books for film and television, Wallace Shaw discussed anxiety in 21st Century, and Walter Mosely was talking about something. Jumpathri Lumpar - was the featured author of the festival. But the line to hear these folks was about a block long. [I admittedly felt guilty for not partaking of it and going home to watch Fringe instead (bad me), but it was a migraine headache - which increased when I tried to focus...so really not the day for it. Combo of things - barometric pressure shift, low blood sugar, allergies, and tension from neck and shoulder. So took aleve, a little chocolat, and something to eat...felt much better.)
I stopped by a booth offering "writer's getaways" - the lady behind the booth asked if I was a writer...I didn't answer (because I am a frustrated writer - which means have written prolifically but outside of business writing and a short story, never been paid for it), and she said - "Oh we have great getaways for people who do not have time to write or can't find the mental space for it - our campus is now in Atlantic City, we also have a week or two week summer retreat in Wales." I honestly don't know why I flirt with these things - I don't have the vacation time to take part - all my vacation time right now is devoted to seeing family.
But if you were worried about "print" being dead? It's not. If anything there's too many books being published in various ways, lots of small presses and self-publishing efforts - the Brooklyn Book Festival unlike the Manhattan Book Festival is all about the indies, the small presses, and and independent publishers and book stores. No Simon and Schuster or Scholastic. Instead you have The Paris Review, Graystone Press, and smaller shops. Books have gone the way of the music, film, and television industry - various platforms and distribution outlets. You and I can record a song, film a movie, do a tv series and publish a novel on our own, handle all the marketing and promotion, via the internet. The internet is the wild west for information and culture. We can cut out the middle man. There's pluses and minuses to this of course. We have too much to choose from.
There's too much competition. And it can be hard to be seen admist all the nitty-gritty. But - allowing people to cut out the middle man - provides people with the ability to be creative and free. No marketing folks changing your story to fit some nitch demo, no cookie-cutter stories, just brash honesty. The problem with the "mainstream" publishing industry much like the top three broadcast networks and Hollywood machine - is they are too worried about the big bucks, catering to the mass audience who let's face it has the attention span and intelligence of a ten year old. (Nothing against 10 year olds.) Or at least that's how mainstream marketing industry which runs these businesses sees it. So...I sort of like the fact that they are being forced to compete with people who can kick the middle man to the curb. And that the prolific and somewhat comfortable authors...are having to kick it up a notch to compete with the self-published writer and independent presses. Plus - the indies promote foreign writers, minority writers, women writers - I noticed this at the Book Festival - lots of presses that represented minority interests, and politics. We shouldn't censor these people. And we should applaud their contributions to the party. Yet at the same time, there has to be a little weeding out - the vast array of choices can be overwhelming. I was overwhelmed, to the point that I ...wandered away without buying anything.
There was one book that caught my attention - a YA romance called Kane Richards Must Die. LOL! It's about a new girl who is warned to stay away from a playboy in her high-school, who has ripped every girl's heart out (metaphorically not literally), and she decides to try and see what he's like for herself. Who is he? Does he exist at all? (I flipped through it - but no, the writing is bit clumsy and amateurish. But nice idea.)
And I have to say...wandering through the Book Festival reminded me of why I love where I live and love NYC. You do not find these things in Kansas City and the midwest. For a culture junkie...this is heaven. But I wish I had the head-space this weekend to take advantage of it. Sinus/tension head-ache made it impossible.
Considering getting another massage this week to take care of the neck pain that keeps radiating down my right arm. Except they are bloody expensive and do not always work. If done wrong - they can make the situation worse instead of better.
I blame the lap-top. May take a sabbatical from lj and writing on the lap for a bit...and see if neck gets better. So if I'm not posting in lj this week or next - that's why. Chronic neck pain - it's this tight muscle pinching a nerve on the right side of the back of my neck.
On the tummy front? It's better. Definitely food poisoning from glutens - in this case, generic ibuprofin (which can contain "starch" from wheat as a binder).
It's admittedly difficult to take the Emmy's seriously for two reasons: 1) Gwynetth Paltrow already won for best featured actress or guest in Glee. (I didn't understand why she was nominated in the first place.) 2) the people voting work in tv but don't really watch much if any of it. (Would you watch tv if you spent 180 hours a week working in it? I don't think so.) Although they do clearly watch a lot of late night tv comedy series - since John Stewart won again. That's the problem with the emmy's - pretty much the same people and same shows win every year. This has always been the case. Alan Alda and Candice Bergen won 10 times in a row.
*So far, I like the Drama Series wins better. Friday Night Lights won best writing...which I'm on the fence about. But - yeah, Margo Martindale from Justified won! She so deserved it. Her role in Justified and performance blew me away. If she lost - I would have been annoyed. And of course they gave the Directing award to Martin Scorsese for Boardwalk Empire (which for some reason just bores me, I can't get through it - I'm not a fan of historical costume dramas, except of course for the one's that the BBC produces. Not sure why.
*Oh cool - Peter Dinklage just won best supporting for Game of Thrones. Seriously those were the only two categories I cared about. Best supporting actor and actress - Margo Martindale and Peter Dinklage, hands down the two best actors on TV this year. If you agree? Go rent Peter Dinklage's film The Station Agent, where I first fell in love with him as an actor.
*Julianna Marguiles won for The Good Wife - quite happy about that. If you want to see how to act subtlety and restrained - go watch her in The Good Wife. It was an amazing performance.
* YAY again! Kyle Chandler won for Friday Night Lights - he shows how to do restrained and subtle acting for the male end of the spectrum. His performance as Coach Taylor in FNL is pitch-perfect. I was secretly rooting for him. (I loved FNL - best non-criminal/non-violent/non-fantasy serial drama on TV. Shows you can do it without falling into melodrama or soap opera.) I thought Jon Hamm would win again...which did not want.
*As a side note - the music in the Emmy's sucks. Granted it's tv not the Grammy's, but does the music have to suck?
*Dowton Abbey won best writing. (why the insane antedotes? The announcer says that Julian Fellows is British (duh) and hasn't been knighted by the Queen.) I was rooting for either Dowton Abbey or Sherlock - Study in Pink (which got nominated in part because it won a Peabody, which is far more prestigious and I do take seriously.)
*Ah, Dame Maggie Smith won for Dowton Abbey. Which I'll agree with. Was worried about Mildred Pierce winning. I didn't like Mildred Pierce - felt it was a bit on the ponderous long side.
Really, why can't they do best drama now and do best mini-series or something later? Probably because they want us to watch all of it. They just gave a shout out to the vote counters? Really? Well, screw it. I'm going to bed. Will look it up tomorrow. I'm willing to bet Mad Men wins, although there's an outside chance for FNL or Game of Thrones. They already gave Boardwalk it's nod with Scorsese. And they may have given Game theirs with Dinklage. I'm on the fence, I'd probably pick either FNL or Game, those were the most re-watchable.
2)Today flirted with The Brooklyn Book Festival - but just reading through the events gave me a headache. Too much information. It was crowded. And huge. I remember when it was just five or six booths, and about ten panels and speakers. This year, there's about 100 speakers, and 1000 booths. I was overwhelmed. Every book or type of book imaginable. Comic books, young adult, graphic novels, non-fiction, poetry, literary journals, and Housing Works as well as the NY League Against Censorship had booths. The latter was doing taped readings of banned books and had a waiting list. Speakers? Larry McMurtry and Susan Ossana were discussing Brokeback Mountain and adapting books for film and television, Wallace Shaw discussed anxiety in 21st Century, and Walter Mosely was talking about something. Jumpathri Lumpar - was the featured author of the festival. But the line to hear these folks was about a block long. [I admittedly felt guilty for not partaking of it and going home to watch Fringe instead (bad me), but it was a migraine headache - which increased when I tried to focus...so really not the day for it. Combo of things - barometric pressure shift, low blood sugar, allergies, and tension from neck and shoulder. So took aleve, a little chocolat, and something to eat...felt much better.)
I stopped by a booth offering "writer's getaways" - the lady behind the booth asked if I was a writer...I didn't answer (because I am a frustrated writer - which means have written prolifically but outside of business writing and a short story, never been paid for it), and she said - "Oh we have great getaways for people who do not have time to write or can't find the mental space for it - our campus is now in Atlantic City, we also have a week or two week summer retreat in Wales." I honestly don't know why I flirt with these things - I don't have the vacation time to take part - all my vacation time right now is devoted to seeing family.
But if you were worried about "print" being dead? It's not. If anything there's too many books being published in various ways, lots of small presses and self-publishing efforts - the Brooklyn Book Festival unlike the Manhattan Book Festival is all about the indies, the small presses, and and independent publishers and book stores. No Simon and Schuster or Scholastic. Instead you have The Paris Review, Graystone Press, and smaller shops. Books have gone the way of the music, film, and television industry - various platforms and distribution outlets. You and I can record a song, film a movie, do a tv series and publish a novel on our own, handle all the marketing and promotion, via the internet. The internet is the wild west for information and culture. We can cut out the middle man. There's pluses and minuses to this of course. We have too much to choose from.
There's too much competition. And it can be hard to be seen admist all the nitty-gritty. But - allowing people to cut out the middle man - provides people with the ability to be creative and free. No marketing folks changing your story to fit some nitch demo, no cookie-cutter stories, just brash honesty. The problem with the "mainstream" publishing industry much like the top three broadcast networks and Hollywood machine - is they are too worried about the big bucks, catering to the mass audience who let's face it has the attention span and intelligence of a ten year old. (Nothing against 10 year olds.) Or at least that's how mainstream marketing industry which runs these businesses sees it. So...I sort of like the fact that they are being forced to compete with people who can kick the middle man to the curb. And that the prolific and somewhat comfortable authors...are having to kick it up a notch to compete with the self-published writer and independent presses. Plus - the indies promote foreign writers, minority writers, women writers - I noticed this at the Book Festival - lots of presses that represented minority interests, and politics. We shouldn't censor these people. And we should applaud their contributions to the party. Yet at the same time, there has to be a little weeding out - the vast array of choices can be overwhelming. I was overwhelmed, to the point that I ...wandered away without buying anything.
There was one book that caught my attention - a YA romance called Kane Richards Must Die. LOL! It's about a new girl who is warned to stay away from a playboy in her high-school, who has ripped every girl's heart out (metaphorically not literally), and she decides to try and see what he's like for herself. Who is he? Does he exist at all? (I flipped through it - but no, the writing is bit clumsy and amateurish. But nice idea.)
And I have to say...wandering through the Book Festival reminded me of why I love where I live and love NYC. You do not find these things in Kansas City and the midwest. For a culture junkie...this is heaven. But I wish I had the head-space this weekend to take advantage of it. Sinus/tension head-ache made it impossible.
Considering getting another massage this week to take care of the neck pain that keeps radiating down my right arm. Except they are bloody expensive and do not always work. If done wrong - they can make the situation worse instead of better.
I blame the lap-top. May take a sabbatical from lj and writing on the lap for a bit...and see if neck gets better. So if I'm not posting in lj this week or next - that's why. Chronic neck pain - it's this tight muscle pinching a nerve on the right side of the back of my neck.
On the tummy front? It's better. Definitely food poisoning from glutens - in this case, generic ibuprofin (which can contain "starch" from wheat as a binder).
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-09-19 07:12 pm (UTC)They rarely do, since I watch a lot of cult stuff. Cult tv shows never get nominated. And outside of Game of Thrones and Lost (both on major networks) rarely fantasy or sci-fi, most likely due to the cheese/camp factor (ie. low production value) which is often associated with the genre.