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shadowkat1. Finished watching first two discs of Fringe S2 - see post below. Still a bit like last season, but better. And the twist about the multiple parallel dimensions is admittedly intriguing me. Also, I like the characters quite a bit - all of them. There's Blair Brown's Nina Sharpe - corporate head-honcho, who is running Massive Dynamic for her missing in action husband, William Bell, portrayed in a couple of cameos by Leonard Nimoy (who is quite effective in the role, charming, creepy, and adorable all at the same time - he's John Noble's counter-part and you can totally see the two of them being best buds). Nina was a star athelet when she got cancer, and lost her left arm, which Bell through Massive Dynamic cured her of, and replaced the arm with a metal prosthetic.
Anna Torv who plays FBI agent, army brat, former Marine Special Crimes prosecutor and the protagonist of the piece - Olivia Dunham. Lance Reddick - who plays Agent Broyles, who reminds me a great deal of Lieut. Daniels in The Wire - actually he plays the role almost the same exact way.
With the same quiet intensity. Beautiful man Reddick. Difficult to take one's eyes off him when he is on screen. He's the head of the Fringe unit, Dunham's boss, and I'm still unclear what his relationship with Nina is. Walter Bishop - a scientist who did something horrible several years ago that landed him in a psychiatric institution, he's struggling for his own sanity, now that he has been released into his estranged son, ex-con man and general rogue, Peter Bishop's care. It's strongly hinted that whatever Walter did - it had something to do with saving Peter, or missing his son. Threaded within all of this is the threat of another dimension bleeding into and/or colliding into and eventually taking over our current one. An idea, Joss Whedon played with in the Buffy comics but failed miserably at getting across in a halfway coherent manner (ie. too much Marvel comic cliche, and not enough science fun.) I only mention it - because that's what the storyline sort of reminds me of. I've seen this whole bit done several times before, just not quite in the way Fringe is doing it - usually, the characters save the day at the last minute and nothing happens. Or we get a dream of what might have happened, but all is well. Fringe goes in the opposite direction. And let's face it, stories are at their best - what if scenarios.
2. Been thinking about individual tastes again, albeit briefly, since I got to go to bed in five minutes. On CBS Sunday Morning - they did a brief editorial on individual tastes...how people experience pleasure. What turns some of us on. Why we seek things out that logically would be perceived as painful, for pleasure. Such as horror movies, roller coasters, hot chilli peppers.
And the psychologist stated it is a brain over body thing. Or a body over brain thing. Our body is telling us to run, but our brain states we are safe - which creates an adrenaline rush, producing endorphins for some of us. Not all. You can't generalize about the human body.
Argued with a yoga enthusiast about this the other day. She was going on and on about the virtues of "heat" yoga (Bikayna Hikum something or other) and I kept saying, not for me. Yes, I know everyone and their mother goes on about how this is the best thing ever and so good for your body, yadda yadda yadda. But everyone's body is different. And you are five-foot one, thin, and tiny, I am six foot, big boned, and as far from tiny as one can get. When I do yoga, I hurt myself, doesn't matter who the teacher is. And its not a good type of hurt - it's the type of hurt that makes me race to the doctor and discuss physical therapy. My body is different. Not everyone can or should do a handstand. OR attempt to do one. Just as not everyone should eat whole wheat bread or drink a cup of coffee. OR enjoys taking a ski lift to the top of a mountain.
Peer pressure is as bad for adults as for kids. Our media, our friends, constantly push us to do things that our inner voice says - uh, no, better not to. Advertisers and marketing execs even hire psychologists to come up with new ways to sell products - ways to convince people to buy things they don't really need. "Buy this and it will transform your life, make you happier, make you prettier, more beautiful, feel loved...solve your problems." Blocking this information out,
resisting it can feel almost impossible, particularly since we aren't even aware of it. Sounds like Doctor Who episode actually...
Which brings me to individual tastes...friends online or television critics or family members saying "watch this show - it's the best ever!" and you do and think, there must be something wrong with me - because I really hate this tv show. What do they see in it? How can anyone in their right mind find this funny? Am I in bizarro land? Or eat this - it's amazing! And you think, bleargh. (always thought this with brussel sprouts, kale, and boiled/steam spinach - I just do not understand the appeal. My Aunt states I haven't properly trained my brain to prefer bitter over sweet. Because that is what Doctor OZ says and of course Doctor OZ is right. Doctor OZ generalizes a lot. )
Resisting the mob mentality - not the easiest thing in the world. Regardless of the mob.
Understanding others tastes, particularly tastes I can't share, remains a puzzle, like a rubick's cube, convinced if you just keep playing with it long enough you will figure it out. Like why do people like raunchy, crude, humiliation style comedy? (New Girl, Two and Half Men, Bridesmaids, The Hangover all fall in this category). I'm sure they don't get my sense of humor either - which tends to be sharp, biting wit or snark - sarcasm. (examples? Seinfield, South Park, Big Bang Theory, As Time Goes By, Coupling, Damon's one liners on Vamp Diaries, Satire). For many, snark is cruel, while to me physical humiliation comedy is sadism personified. It pushes my buttons. What makes us each laugh can...be divisive at times. Same with books...I'll never understand the appeal of certain books, while others I guiltily devour. Or music...especially music, can someone explain why people love that high-pitched soprano aria? Or that bit of gansta rap - filled with angry rhythm, or the feedback heavy heavy metal throttle of Van Helan? Yet oddly, I have no problem with Nine Inch Nails.
It can be frustrating when a tv show I find unwatchable, survives for what seems like forever, while one I love dies quickly and fades from memory. Why oh why did Bones survive, yet Sarah Connor Chronicles and Firefly die quick deaths? Why is American Idol, Wrestling, and Survivor in their upteenth seasons while the far more interesting series such as Caprica barely get off the starting blocks? And how is it that Two and a Half Men will not die? That show feels like a cockroach. Yet, Community is hanging on by a thread. It's enough to make one wonder if one is caught in that endless dance routine, where everyone else is hopping on their left foot, while you are hopping on your right. My taste seldom clicks with mainstream. I liked American Gothic, Now and Again, and Profit, while everyone else was chewing on X-Files. I hung on to Homicide Life on the Streets as it hung onto it's time slot by a thread. Books? Always reading the ones few have heard of. The ones you comb the back shelves, upstairs right hand corner of the bookstores to find.
Not the best-sellers up front and center. The Kindle is lovely because I don't have to do that any longer.
Left of Center off the track...that is where you'll find me...Suzanne Vega drones in her off-kilter vocals. My theme song. Vega predates Amanda Palmer as the queen of the uneven vocal rhythm, spoken more than song, like a rat-tat-tat-tat beat.
And when it comes to understanding taste others and my own, I often feel like the girl stranded inside that Suzanne Vega song, trapped in a dumb John Hughes movie, who doesn't want to wear pink, yet is pretty in it anyhow.
Anna Torv who plays FBI agent, army brat, former Marine Special Crimes prosecutor and the protagonist of the piece - Olivia Dunham. Lance Reddick - who plays Agent Broyles, who reminds me a great deal of Lieut. Daniels in The Wire - actually he plays the role almost the same exact way.
With the same quiet intensity. Beautiful man Reddick. Difficult to take one's eyes off him when he is on screen. He's the head of the Fringe unit, Dunham's boss, and I'm still unclear what his relationship with Nina is. Walter Bishop - a scientist who did something horrible several years ago that landed him in a psychiatric institution, he's struggling for his own sanity, now that he has been released into his estranged son, ex-con man and general rogue, Peter Bishop's care. It's strongly hinted that whatever Walter did - it had something to do with saving Peter, or missing his son. Threaded within all of this is the threat of another dimension bleeding into and/or colliding into and eventually taking over our current one. An idea, Joss Whedon played with in the Buffy comics but failed miserably at getting across in a halfway coherent manner (ie. too much Marvel comic cliche, and not enough science fun.) I only mention it - because that's what the storyline sort of reminds me of. I've seen this whole bit done several times before, just not quite in the way Fringe is doing it - usually, the characters save the day at the last minute and nothing happens. Or we get a dream of what might have happened, but all is well. Fringe goes in the opposite direction. And let's face it, stories are at their best - what if scenarios.
2. Been thinking about individual tastes again, albeit briefly, since I got to go to bed in five minutes. On CBS Sunday Morning - they did a brief editorial on individual tastes...how people experience pleasure. What turns some of us on. Why we seek things out that logically would be perceived as painful, for pleasure. Such as horror movies, roller coasters, hot chilli peppers.
And the psychologist stated it is a brain over body thing. Or a body over brain thing. Our body is telling us to run, but our brain states we are safe - which creates an adrenaline rush, producing endorphins for some of us. Not all. You can't generalize about the human body.
Argued with a yoga enthusiast about this the other day. She was going on and on about the virtues of "heat" yoga (Bikayna Hikum something or other) and I kept saying, not for me. Yes, I know everyone and their mother goes on about how this is the best thing ever and so good for your body, yadda yadda yadda. But everyone's body is different. And you are five-foot one, thin, and tiny, I am six foot, big boned, and as far from tiny as one can get. When I do yoga, I hurt myself, doesn't matter who the teacher is. And its not a good type of hurt - it's the type of hurt that makes me race to the doctor and discuss physical therapy. My body is different. Not everyone can or should do a handstand. OR attempt to do one. Just as not everyone should eat whole wheat bread or drink a cup of coffee. OR enjoys taking a ski lift to the top of a mountain.
Peer pressure is as bad for adults as for kids. Our media, our friends, constantly push us to do things that our inner voice says - uh, no, better not to. Advertisers and marketing execs even hire psychologists to come up with new ways to sell products - ways to convince people to buy things they don't really need. "Buy this and it will transform your life, make you happier, make you prettier, more beautiful, feel loved...solve your problems." Blocking this information out,
resisting it can feel almost impossible, particularly since we aren't even aware of it. Sounds like Doctor Who episode actually...
Which brings me to individual tastes...friends online or television critics or family members saying "watch this show - it's the best ever!" and you do and think, there must be something wrong with me - because I really hate this tv show. What do they see in it? How can anyone in their right mind find this funny? Am I in bizarro land? Or eat this - it's amazing! And you think, bleargh. (always thought this with brussel sprouts, kale, and boiled/steam spinach - I just do not understand the appeal. My Aunt states I haven't properly trained my brain to prefer bitter over sweet. Because that is what Doctor OZ says and of course Doctor OZ is right. Doctor OZ generalizes a lot. )
Resisting the mob mentality - not the easiest thing in the world. Regardless of the mob.
Understanding others tastes, particularly tastes I can't share, remains a puzzle, like a rubick's cube, convinced if you just keep playing with it long enough you will figure it out. Like why do people like raunchy, crude, humiliation style comedy? (New Girl, Two and Half Men, Bridesmaids, The Hangover all fall in this category). I'm sure they don't get my sense of humor either - which tends to be sharp, biting wit or snark - sarcasm. (examples? Seinfield, South Park, Big Bang Theory, As Time Goes By, Coupling, Damon's one liners on Vamp Diaries, Satire). For many, snark is cruel, while to me physical humiliation comedy is sadism personified. It pushes my buttons. What makes us each laugh can...be divisive at times. Same with books...I'll never understand the appeal of certain books, while others I guiltily devour. Or music...especially music, can someone explain why people love that high-pitched soprano aria? Or that bit of gansta rap - filled with angry rhythm, or the feedback heavy heavy metal throttle of Van Helan? Yet oddly, I have no problem with Nine Inch Nails.
It can be frustrating when a tv show I find unwatchable, survives for what seems like forever, while one I love dies quickly and fades from memory. Why oh why did Bones survive, yet Sarah Connor Chronicles and Firefly die quick deaths? Why is American Idol, Wrestling, and Survivor in their upteenth seasons while the far more interesting series such as Caprica barely get off the starting blocks? And how is it that Two and a Half Men will not die? That show feels like a cockroach. Yet, Community is hanging on by a thread. It's enough to make one wonder if one is caught in that endless dance routine, where everyone else is hopping on their left foot, while you are hopping on your right. My taste seldom clicks with mainstream. I liked American Gothic, Now and Again, and Profit, while everyone else was chewing on X-Files. I hung on to Homicide Life on the Streets as it hung onto it's time slot by a thread. Books? Always reading the ones few have heard of. The ones you comb the back shelves, upstairs right hand corner of the bookstores to find.
Not the best-sellers up front and center. The Kindle is lovely because I don't have to do that any longer.
Left of Center off the track...that is where you'll find me...Suzanne Vega drones in her off-kilter vocals. My theme song. Vega predates Amanda Palmer as the queen of the uneven vocal rhythm, spoken more than song, like a rat-tat-tat-tat beat.
And when it comes to understanding taste others and my own, I often feel like the girl stranded inside that Suzanne Vega song, trapped in a dumb John Hughes movie, who doesn't want to wear pink, yet is pretty in it anyhow.