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shadowkatTaking a four day weekend - since have President's Day off as a holiday, so taking tomorrow as a personal day. I need a breather from work. Want to go furniture shopping. Depending on weather.
1. Is it just me or is the LJ spam even worse than it was before? I get two a day now, and they are always weird drugs that I would never use in a million years. [Note to evil marketing people spamming my lj with pharmaceutical products? Stop wasting your time. No one sees them but me and I'm immune to marketing.]
2. Vampire Diaries rocked like nobody's business tonight. It was like a cliff-hanger every ten minutes, plus plot-twists galore. And oh...I was so right about that big death. Go me. Although, admittedly quite tragic. And I so did not see that final plot-twist. Vamp Diaries like Once Upon A Time never fails to surprise me, yet, weirdly makes sense and is not out of nowhere. In other words it surprises me in a way in which I think, damn, why didn't I think of that?
* And the selfless vampire award of the episode once again goes to...wait for it..that's right, kiddies, Damon Salvatore. Seriously, if this continues, Damon's going to lose his bad-boy cred. Apparently love can put anyone on the path to redemption, there's hope for Klaus yet...
Damon decides to stand back and let Stefan save Elena and share the cure with her...so they can go off and have a happy human life. Poor defeated Rebekkah (defeated by the other vampire hunter's (Caleb) gadget) is quite impressed. I'm less impressed - let's face it Damon was down for the count. Even Damon admits that - he says he's just accepting the fact that some things are beyond his control. Now if everyone else would too...
Now backing up a bit - Damon was taken captive by Vampire Hunter Caleb - who apparently planned on feeding Damon to Silas and killing Silas. But Damon got fiesty, so he changed his mind. That and Rebekkah showed up. While Damon and Caleb (who I rather liked actually) are mosing about the woods, they stumble upon a dead mercernary/witch that Shane had hired and given Silas' tombstone to. (Silas' tombstone is made of calcified blood and is considered in some witch circles to be worth more than the hope diamond - goes to show you, anything is valuable depending on who wants it.) Damon: did you kill him? Caleb: No, did you? Damon: No. Caleb: I reckon there's someone else on the island then. (Yes, someone with a hatchet wandering about, who for some reason decided to protect Jeremy from Shane's guy.) Neither seems that concerned though.
* Stefan, Stefan, Stefan...you hate being a vampire because why exactly? The guilt, the power, and the misery? What exactly did you think being human was like? You can still kill people as a human. Human's have power. Human's are miserable and have to make difficult choices. The only difference is you aren't immortal and you don't have a craving for blood, and well all those super-power skills. Stefan reminds me of Angel - he craves being human because he hates what he did as a vampire and thinks it is a get out of jail free card. [ETA: Actually, I need to give old Angel a bit more credit - he doesn't see it as a get-out-of-jail free card - unless he earns it via a shanshu, and even then, he's not so sure, because guilt, still there. Angel is a bit more realistic about this than Stefan, but Angel is also created by a far better writer.] Stefan so deserves what is coming. Because Jeremy was mainly Stefan's idea.
At least Elena regrets all of this...and thinks a lot of people are getting hurt for what - a cure? Because she can't handle being a vampire? How pathetic is that? [ETA: I actually really like what Elena states in this episode - she tells Stefan that regardless of what happens, it won't change anything. Once she died or drove off that bridge, everything changed, she changed. She can't go back and be who she was before. Even if she becomes human - she's different now. They are different now. Doesn't mean she doesn't want the cure, she does, she's just not sure she deserves it over everyone else.]
Immortality is so over-rated.
* While Rebekkah is perfectly willing to give the cure to Stefan, she's not perfectly willing to give it to Stefan so he can turn it over to Elena. Can't say I blame her. After all Rebekkah has been a vampire for a 1000 years, Elena was just turned 6 months ago. Granted that was Rebekkah's fault - but it's not like she had much choice - VampireKiller!Alaric was bent on killing Rebekkah and her entire family, Elena was the only way to get rid of VampireKIller!Alaric.
* Jeremy figures out that Silas has been pretending to be the dead people in the cavern to get people to do his bidding. Apparently Silas is just a really, really old vampire. (Someone has been reading Anne Rice - he looks just like the vampires in the Queen of the Damned, actually this story reminds me a lot of the mythology in Queen of the Damned - which isn't a bad thing, I loved the mythology in Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned.) These witches aren't that inventive - their way of granting immortality is turning people into vampires. I was sort of hoping for the mummy and maybe zombies. Am disappointed.
At any rate...Jeremy helps Bonnie and they realize the only way to get the cure is to feed Silas enough blood so he will let go of it - since Silas is a frozen vampire statue. They don't appear to know what Elena, Caroline, Tyler, Damon, Caleb, Stefan, Rebecca, and Klaus knows which is there is only one dose. Or they do and are planning on just giving it to Elena.
Caleb shows up stabs Bonnie. And fights Jeremy - after failing to convince Jeremy to help him wake up Silas so they can both kill him. That's when Elena appears to show up and take out Caleb - she tries to kill him but Jeremy reminds her of the vampire hunter's curse. So she knocks him out instead then tries to convince Jeremy to help her wake up Silas so she can get the cure. But Jeremy is busy with Bonnie.
Cut to commercial and then back to cave, where Stefan discovers a beaten and knocked out Elena. "She's here!" Screams a terrified and frustrated Elena. "Who?" asks Stefan.
Back to Jeremy and Elena 2 who apparently isn't Elena after all...but actually Katrina. (Guess we now know who was wandering about with the hatchet and who killed the mercernary. Unless of course there's yet another homicidal maniac running about - but seriously what are the odds?) Who tells Jeremy she's tired of playing nice, and proceeds to slice Jeremy's arm and feed his blood to Silas. She also bites him and feeds him to Silas, Silas grabs hold, Jeremy fights to break free and his neck is broken and well, he falls to the ground dead. (Guess he wasn't wearing that ring? Because he actually is dead this time.)
This is actually a wickedly cool plot-twist since it works on multiple levels. Katrina/Elena's doppleganger, is the one who kills Jeremy - metaphorically Elena killed him by putting her needs before his and before his life. Using him to find a cure for her own problems. Fitting it is her own Doppleganger who kills him, and fitting that Jeremy falls for it. Also that Bonnie is forced to watch - since Bonnie is the reason Jeremy came back.
It's all very karmic in a way. Well written plot-twist. I should have seen that coming, but frankly, I'd forgotten about Katrina. What would be interesting is if Katrina took to the cure and became human so she could have Stefan and Damon going after her. Or have the human life she missed out on. In short, Elena and Katrina literally trade places. Now that would be clever. And it never occurred to me. It should have - but like I said, I forgot about her as did the characters apparently (just not the writers), out of sight out of mind as they say.
That didn't play out at all the way I expected. Shane had relatively no role and was taken out early with a broken leg (which actually made sense). Damon and Rebekkah were rendered largely ineffectual. Klaus was too busy stuck and taunting Tyler and Caroline. Now Tyler is on the run, because he was too busy taunting Klaus - which was stupid. Klaus got out the moment Caleb stabbed poor Bonnie. Stefan and Elena also rendered ineffectual.
The tragedy was Jeremy's trust of Elena and willingness to do anything for his sister, without question. Oh Elena's here - all will be well. Not. And poor Bonnie...incapable of stopping it. Bonnie had power...but she couldn't use it.
Great episode. See, once we get past oppressive love triangle of doom, things really take off. Looking forward to seeing what Katrina decides to do with that cure. I don't think Silas will be much of a problem - he didn't get enough blood to actually wake up. But I could be wrong about that.
3. Fun workplace conversations about Game of Thrones.
Co-worker: Guess what CB is into science-fiction big time. Hard-core science fiction fan.
ME: Oh, what does she like?
Co-worker: Loves Jim Butcher's Dresden series and has read Game of Thrones, although she gave up after the third book like I did. They kill too many characters.
(First off- just so you know, I realize my co-worker's definition of hard-core science fiction fan is just slightly off. Hard-core science fiction fans don't tend to read Jim Butcher and GRR Martin any more than they read Lord of the Rings - that's hard-core "fantasy" fans. The hard-core sci-fi fan reads Issac Asimov's Foundation, Ursula Le Guinn's The Left Hand of Darkness, and a lot of Orson Scott Card, William Gibson, and Phillip K. Dick. I know my science-fiction geekdom. But I give co=worker benefit of the doubt...he thinks Star Gate is hard core sci-fi, along with the Syfy channel. Alrighty then.)
Me: Yes, I can see that - Martin does tend to like to slaughter off characters...but name a character that you loved that she loved that he slaughtered, because to date he hasn't really killed any of my favorites.
Co-worker: he killed the dwarf.
Me: Tyrion? No he didn't. He was still alive at the end of Feast and I know he's alive in Dragon.
Co-worker: And he killed off Jon Snow.
Me: No, Snow is still alive. What books is she reading???
Co-worker 2 (DP): LA LA LA LA LA LA...don't spoil me!!!
Me: Uhm, are you into the books too?
DP: Yep, I'm reading Dance of Dragons and I don't want to be spoiled!
Me: We can't spoil you, we haven't made it that far. NA has only read up to book 3, and I've only read up to and including book 4. You can spoil us.
DP: Oh. I was worried because you were talking loudly about all these characters dying.
Me: Except they haven't died. At least not in the first four books at any rate.
DP now wants me to finish Book 5 so she can talk to me about it like she does JC. They talk about it all day. We could have fun with it. There's nothing I like more than to discuss books. And we're both analytical. Although she liked Ned Stark more than I did. Actually everyone likes Ned Stark more than I do. I don't know why that character annoyed me. I explained to her that I take long breaks between the books. I waited three years to read Storm, because I got horribly spoiled and figured if I waited long enough I'd forget most of it - and I did. The Red Wedding still didn't really shock me all that much. (Note - do not read the appendix in the back about who all the characters are - it contains spoilers). I figure if I wait long enough, GRR Martin will have book six completed and out by the time I finish Dance of Dragons. That's what happened with Feast of Crows - which I bought back in 2005/2006.
I may lend DP my S1 DVD's of Game of Thrones - she hasn't seen the tv series.
3. Day 03 – Your favorite series
And this continues to be the hardest meme on the planet. I don't know. I've read a lot of series and it depends on my mood which is my favorite also which year it is. Let's see...PD Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster? Nah. Lord of the Rings? No, I got bogged down in Return of the King, how people managed to read it and the Silmarrion, I'll never know - although I should talk, I loved and read James Joyce's Ulysess five times in undergrad and some people find that unreadable. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files? Eh...no. The Chronicles of Lymond by Dorothy Dunnett - now that is tempting, that was a fun series, even if Dunnett's writing style gets on my nerves - she could give the engineers at the Railroad and several contract lawyers I know a run for their money on being dense and indirect in her prose.
Harry Potter
I'm sorry, it may not be the best written or the most literary work on the planet. But it was fun and it took me out of my head and it dealt with some interesting themes. Specifically class issues in a wryly witty sort of way. Rowlings reminded me a great deal of Ronald Dahl, except less misanthropic. Sort of Ronald Dahl meets Charles Dickens by way of PD Wodehouse and CS Lewis. And her world was delightfully textured, witty, and satirical. A series that appealed to all ages, creeds, and nationalities. Rare thing that.
Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Day 07 – Most underrated book
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favorite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favorite writer
Day 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writer
Day 15 – Favorite male character
Day 16 – Favorite female character
Day 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favorite romance book
Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favorite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people have read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favorite book of all time
4.Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
The problem with favorite tv series is that you can't make up your mind which episode is your favorite. Actually that's why it is your favorite, generally speaking, 60-75% of the episodes fit into the category of - this is my favorite episode. And which takes precedence often has a lot to do with mood and what you did that day. Although I suspect this is true with most things.
Decisions, decisions...or rather eeny, meeny, miny, moe...I pick, eh...Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling - this week, mainly because I'm a sucker for musicals, it was an ingeuous take on a musical, and everybody in the cast was given something interesting to do that furthered their emotional journey and the plot at the same time. This was generally true of episodes Joss Whedon wrote, less so of episodes the other's wrote. Whedon played favorites less on Buffy than his other writers did. Oddly Buffy was the only show he worked on that he did not play favorites as much with - which I find decidedly odd.
At any rate - I remember a friend who was a bit critical of Buffy or didn't take it seriously, catching this episode, and commenting - "now that was interesting, they don't take themselves seriously and the whole time they were making fun of themselves and musicals, it was like a fun witty satire on filmed musicals."
So true. The magic, much like Rowlings Harry Potter series, was in the small details.
Example: Marti Noxon and David Fury playing bit parts...where they sang about the difficulty of dry cleaning a shirt, or getting a parking ticket.
Whedon made fun of how people spontaneously burst out in song in the middle of the street for musicals. Or the out of nowhere dance number.
He also broke the fourth wall - which made Buffy not only existentialist but surreal theater - like Ionesco's Rhinerces or Pirendella's Six Characters in Search of an Author. The episode was the first time a writer did a meta-narrative on his own story. The characters actually were questioning what was happening here. Why am I bursting out in song all of sudden?
Giles: Is it a dancing demon? No something isn't right there (of course it is the dancing demon - making fun of the tv trope - where the culprit or resolution to the mystery is always the first thing you think of and casually dismiss as being too obvious.)
And when we discover Xander did it - the only lead character in the story without specials skill or the result of magic, Xander states he summoned the demon, not knowing anything bad would happen, it was just a musical - dancing and stuff...where people told the truth, he thought it would be fun - he wanted to reassured and comforted - which again addresses the audience - it's why we see musicals right? Watch people sweat and burn on stage and in film - to be entertained?
Nothing deep here. It's no coincidence that Xander in many ways was Whedon's stand-in, his avatar, in the story - and that it is Xander who summoned the musical demon. Whedon in a way through Xander apologizes to the cast and crew for putting them through the ringer for his desire to do a musical. No harm was done right? It was better in the long run?
Once More With Feeling went a step beyond Restless, The Body, HUSH, and Who Are You...other Whedon experiments in the series with narrative form, by using music to explore emotion - each character sings their emotions. Their emotional arc is expressed through their songs. And at the same time, the writer asks the audience and himself what is it about musicals that appeals or does not appeal. Are we ruled by our emotions? Do we have choices? OR is there anything here at all?
"Nothing to see, move it along" - Xander says to the audience at the end of his song, as does Whedon in a way...half teasing. Don't look at the man behind the curtain.
It's a weird episode, because it works both on the intellectual and the emotional levels. The characters question their fates. When Spike bursts into song, he grimaces and fights it, tries to push Buffy out...before it begins...and then finally succumbs. His war with his song...and finale surrender is a metaphor of sorts with his internal struggle with his feelings for the slayer, confused and twisted as they may be.
An episode that is fun to mock, because it mocks itself. But there's so much there. Most musicals, television and otherwise - only show the leads singing or focus on the main plot. Whedon has all sort of background numbers...little bits here and there that add meaning and texture. And he refers to the musical again in later episodes. It's an episode that much like HUSH, WHO ARE YOU, Innocence, Restless, and The Body...seems to echo throughout the series...if you skip over it, you will miss out on meanings elsewhere.
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death.
1. Is it just me or is the LJ spam even worse than it was before? I get two a day now, and they are always weird drugs that I would never use in a million years. [Note to evil marketing people spamming my lj with pharmaceutical products? Stop wasting your time. No one sees them but me and I'm immune to marketing.]
2. Vampire Diaries rocked like nobody's business tonight. It was like a cliff-hanger every ten minutes, plus plot-twists galore. And oh...I was so right about that big death. Go me. Although, admittedly quite tragic. And I so did not see that final plot-twist. Vamp Diaries like Once Upon A Time never fails to surprise me, yet, weirdly makes sense and is not out of nowhere. In other words it surprises me in a way in which I think, damn, why didn't I think of that?
* And the selfless vampire award of the episode once again goes to...wait for it..that's right, kiddies, Damon Salvatore. Seriously, if this continues, Damon's going to lose his bad-boy cred. Apparently love can put anyone on the path to redemption, there's hope for Klaus yet...
Damon decides to stand back and let Stefan save Elena and share the cure with her...so they can go off and have a happy human life. Poor defeated Rebekkah (defeated by the other vampire hunter's (Caleb) gadget) is quite impressed. I'm less impressed - let's face it Damon was down for the count. Even Damon admits that - he says he's just accepting the fact that some things are beyond his control. Now if everyone else would too...
Now backing up a bit - Damon was taken captive by Vampire Hunter Caleb - who apparently planned on feeding Damon to Silas and killing Silas. But Damon got fiesty, so he changed his mind. That and Rebekkah showed up. While Damon and Caleb (who I rather liked actually) are mosing about the woods, they stumble upon a dead mercernary/witch that Shane had hired and given Silas' tombstone to. (Silas' tombstone is made of calcified blood and is considered in some witch circles to be worth more than the hope diamond - goes to show you, anything is valuable depending on who wants it.) Damon: did you kill him? Caleb: No, did you? Damon: No. Caleb: I reckon there's someone else on the island then. (Yes, someone with a hatchet wandering about, who for some reason decided to protect Jeremy from Shane's guy.) Neither seems that concerned though.
* Stefan, Stefan, Stefan...you hate being a vampire because why exactly? The guilt, the power, and the misery? What exactly did you think being human was like? You can still kill people as a human. Human's have power. Human's are miserable and have to make difficult choices. The only difference is you aren't immortal and you don't have a craving for blood, and well all those super-power skills. Stefan reminds me of Angel - he craves being human because he hates what he did as a vampire and thinks it is a get out of jail free card. [ETA: Actually, I need to give old Angel a bit more credit - he doesn't see it as a get-out-of-jail free card - unless he earns it via a shanshu, and even then, he's not so sure, because guilt, still there. Angel is a bit more realistic about this than Stefan, but Angel is also created by a far better writer.] Stefan so deserves what is coming. Because Jeremy was mainly Stefan's idea.
At least Elena regrets all of this...and thinks a lot of people are getting hurt for what - a cure? Because she can't handle being a vampire? How pathetic is that? [ETA: I actually really like what Elena states in this episode - she tells Stefan that regardless of what happens, it won't change anything. Once she died or drove off that bridge, everything changed, she changed. She can't go back and be who she was before. Even if she becomes human - she's different now. They are different now. Doesn't mean she doesn't want the cure, she does, she's just not sure she deserves it over everyone else.]
Immortality is so over-rated.
* While Rebekkah is perfectly willing to give the cure to Stefan, she's not perfectly willing to give it to Stefan so he can turn it over to Elena. Can't say I blame her. After all Rebekkah has been a vampire for a 1000 years, Elena was just turned 6 months ago. Granted that was Rebekkah's fault - but it's not like she had much choice - VampireKiller!Alaric was bent on killing Rebekkah and her entire family, Elena was the only way to get rid of VampireKIller!Alaric.
* Jeremy figures out that Silas has been pretending to be the dead people in the cavern to get people to do his bidding. Apparently Silas is just a really, really old vampire. (Someone has been reading Anne Rice - he looks just like the vampires in the Queen of the Damned, actually this story reminds me a lot of the mythology in Queen of the Damned - which isn't a bad thing, I loved the mythology in Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned.) These witches aren't that inventive - their way of granting immortality is turning people into vampires. I was sort of hoping for the mummy and maybe zombies. Am disappointed.
At any rate...Jeremy helps Bonnie and they realize the only way to get the cure is to feed Silas enough blood so he will let go of it - since Silas is a frozen vampire statue. They don't appear to know what Elena, Caroline, Tyler, Damon, Caleb, Stefan, Rebecca, and Klaus knows which is there is only one dose. Or they do and are planning on just giving it to Elena.
Caleb shows up stabs Bonnie. And fights Jeremy - after failing to convince Jeremy to help him wake up Silas so they can both kill him. That's when Elena appears to show up and take out Caleb - she tries to kill him but Jeremy reminds her of the vampire hunter's curse. So she knocks him out instead then tries to convince Jeremy to help her wake up Silas so she can get the cure. But Jeremy is busy with Bonnie.
Cut to commercial and then back to cave, where Stefan discovers a beaten and knocked out Elena. "She's here!" Screams a terrified and frustrated Elena. "Who?" asks Stefan.
Back to Jeremy and Elena 2 who apparently isn't Elena after all...but actually Katrina. (Guess we now know who was wandering about with the hatchet and who killed the mercernary. Unless of course there's yet another homicidal maniac running about - but seriously what are the odds?) Who tells Jeremy she's tired of playing nice, and proceeds to slice Jeremy's arm and feed his blood to Silas. She also bites him and feeds him to Silas, Silas grabs hold, Jeremy fights to break free and his neck is broken and well, he falls to the ground dead. (Guess he wasn't wearing that ring? Because he actually is dead this time.)
This is actually a wickedly cool plot-twist since it works on multiple levels. Katrina/Elena's doppleganger, is the one who kills Jeremy - metaphorically Elena killed him by putting her needs before his and before his life. Using him to find a cure for her own problems. Fitting it is her own Doppleganger who kills him, and fitting that Jeremy falls for it. Also that Bonnie is forced to watch - since Bonnie is the reason Jeremy came back.
It's all very karmic in a way. Well written plot-twist. I should have seen that coming, but frankly, I'd forgotten about Katrina. What would be interesting is if Katrina took to the cure and became human so she could have Stefan and Damon going after her. Or have the human life she missed out on. In short, Elena and Katrina literally trade places. Now that would be clever. And it never occurred to me. It should have - but like I said, I forgot about her as did the characters apparently (just not the writers), out of sight out of mind as they say.
That didn't play out at all the way I expected. Shane had relatively no role and was taken out early with a broken leg (which actually made sense). Damon and Rebekkah were rendered largely ineffectual. Klaus was too busy stuck and taunting Tyler and Caroline. Now Tyler is on the run, because he was too busy taunting Klaus - which was stupid. Klaus got out the moment Caleb stabbed poor Bonnie. Stefan and Elena also rendered ineffectual.
The tragedy was Jeremy's trust of Elena and willingness to do anything for his sister, without question. Oh Elena's here - all will be well. Not. And poor Bonnie...incapable of stopping it. Bonnie had power...but she couldn't use it.
Great episode. See, once we get past oppressive love triangle of doom, things really take off. Looking forward to seeing what Katrina decides to do with that cure. I don't think Silas will be much of a problem - he didn't get enough blood to actually wake up. But I could be wrong about that.
3. Fun workplace conversations about Game of Thrones.
Co-worker: Guess what CB is into science-fiction big time. Hard-core science fiction fan.
ME: Oh, what does she like?
Co-worker: Loves Jim Butcher's Dresden series and has read Game of Thrones, although she gave up after the third book like I did. They kill too many characters.
(First off- just so you know, I realize my co-worker's definition of hard-core science fiction fan is just slightly off. Hard-core science fiction fans don't tend to read Jim Butcher and GRR Martin any more than they read Lord of the Rings - that's hard-core "fantasy" fans. The hard-core sci-fi fan reads Issac Asimov's Foundation, Ursula Le Guinn's The Left Hand of Darkness, and a lot of Orson Scott Card, William Gibson, and Phillip K. Dick. I know my science-fiction geekdom. But I give co=worker benefit of the doubt...he thinks Star Gate is hard core sci-fi, along with the Syfy channel. Alrighty then.)
Me: Yes, I can see that - Martin does tend to like to slaughter off characters...but name a character that you loved that she loved that he slaughtered, because to date he hasn't really killed any of my favorites.
Co-worker: he killed the dwarf.
Me: Tyrion? No he didn't. He was still alive at the end of Feast and I know he's alive in Dragon.
Co-worker: And he killed off Jon Snow.
Me: No, Snow is still alive. What books is she reading???
Co-worker 2 (DP): LA LA LA LA LA LA...don't spoil me!!!
Me: Uhm, are you into the books too?
DP: Yep, I'm reading Dance of Dragons and I don't want to be spoiled!
Me: We can't spoil you, we haven't made it that far. NA has only read up to book 3, and I've only read up to and including book 4. You can spoil us.
DP: Oh. I was worried because you were talking loudly about all these characters dying.
Me: Except they haven't died. At least not in the first four books at any rate.
DP now wants me to finish Book 5 so she can talk to me about it like she does JC. They talk about it all day. We could have fun with it. There's nothing I like more than to discuss books. And we're both analytical. Although she liked Ned Stark more than I did. Actually everyone likes Ned Stark more than I do. I don't know why that character annoyed me. I explained to her that I take long breaks between the books. I waited three years to read Storm, because I got horribly spoiled and figured if I waited long enough I'd forget most of it - and I did. The Red Wedding still didn't really shock me all that much. (Note - do not read the appendix in the back about who all the characters are - it contains spoilers). I figure if I wait long enough, GRR Martin will have book six completed and out by the time I finish Dance of Dragons. That's what happened with Feast of Crows - which I bought back in 2005/2006.
I may lend DP my S1 DVD's of Game of Thrones - she hasn't seen the tv series.
3. Day 03 – Your favorite series
And this continues to be the hardest meme on the planet. I don't know. I've read a lot of series and it depends on my mood which is my favorite also which year it is. Let's see...PD Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster? Nah. Lord of the Rings? No, I got bogged down in Return of the King, how people managed to read it and the Silmarrion, I'll never know - although I should talk, I loved and read James Joyce's Ulysess five times in undergrad and some people find that unreadable. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files? Eh...no. The Chronicles of Lymond by Dorothy Dunnett - now that is tempting, that was a fun series, even if Dunnett's writing style gets on my nerves - she could give the engineers at the Railroad and several contract lawyers I know a run for their money on being dense and indirect in her prose.
Harry Potter
I'm sorry, it may not be the best written or the most literary work on the planet. But it was fun and it took me out of my head and it dealt with some interesting themes. Specifically class issues in a wryly witty sort of way. Rowlings reminded me a great deal of Ronald Dahl, except less misanthropic. Sort of Ronald Dahl meets Charles Dickens by way of PD Wodehouse and CS Lewis. And her world was delightfully textured, witty, and satirical. A series that appealed to all ages, creeds, and nationalities. Rare thing that.
Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Day 07 – Most underrated book
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favorite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favorite writer
Day 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writer
Day 15 – Favorite male character
Day 16 – Favorite female character
Day 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favorite romance book
Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favorite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people have read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favorite book of all time
4.Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
The problem with favorite tv series is that you can't make up your mind which episode is your favorite. Actually that's why it is your favorite, generally speaking, 60-75% of the episodes fit into the category of - this is my favorite episode. And which takes precedence often has a lot to do with mood and what you did that day. Although I suspect this is true with most things.
Decisions, decisions...or rather eeny, meeny, miny, moe...I pick, eh...Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling - this week, mainly because I'm a sucker for musicals, it was an ingeuous take on a musical, and everybody in the cast was given something interesting to do that furthered their emotional journey and the plot at the same time. This was generally true of episodes Joss Whedon wrote, less so of episodes the other's wrote. Whedon played favorites less on Buffy than his other writers did. Oddly Buffy was the only show he worked on that he did not play favorites as much with - which I find decidedly odd.
At any rate - I remember a friend who was a bit critical of Buffy or didn't take it seriously, catching this episode, and commenting - "now that was interesting, they don't take themselves seriously and the whole time they were making fun of themselves and musicals, it was like a fun witty satire on filmed musicals."
So true. The magic, much like Rowlings Harry Potter series, was in the small details.
Example: Marti Noxon and David Fury playing bit parts...where they sang about the difficulty of dry cleaning a shirt, or getting a parking ticket.
Whedon made fun of how people spontaneously burst out in song in the middle of the street for musicals. Or the out of nowhere dance number.
He also broke the fourth wall - which made Buffy not only existentialist but surreal theater - like Ionesco's Rhinerces or Pirendella's Six Characters in Search of an Author. The episode was the first time a writer did a meta-narrative on his own story. The characters actually were questioning what was happening here. Why am I bursting out in song all of sudden?
Giles: Is it a dancing demon? No something isn't right there (of course it is the dancing demon - making fun of the tv trope - where the culprit or resolution to the mystery is always the first thing you think of and casually dismiss as being too obvious.)
And when we discover Xander did it - the only lead character in the story without specials skill or the result of magic, Xander states he summoned the demon, not knowing anything bad would happen, it was just a musical - dancing and stuff...where people told the truth, he thought it would be fun - he wanted to reassured and comforted - which again addresses the audience - it's why we see musicals right? Watch people sweat and burn on stage and in film - to be entertained?
Nothing deep here. It's no coincidence that Xander in many ways was Whedon's stand-in, his avatar, in the story - and that it is Xander who summoned the musical demon. Whedon in a way through Xander apologizes to the cast and crew for putting them through the ringer for his desire to do a musical. No harm was done right? It was better in the long run?
Once More With Feeling went a step beyond Restless, The Body, HUSH, and Who Are You...other Whedon experiments in the series with narrative form, by using music to explore emotion - each character sings their emotions. Their emotional arc is expressed through their songs. And at the same time, the writer asks the audience and himself what is it about musicals that appeals or does not appeal. Are we ruled by our emotions? Do we have choices? OR is there anything here at all?
"Nothing to see, move it along" - Xander says to the audience at the end of his song, as does Whedon in a way...half teasing. Don't look at the man behind the curtain.
It's a weird episode, because it works both on the intellectual and the emotional levels. The characters question their fates. When Spike bursts into song, he grimaces and fights it, tries to push Buffy out...before it begins...and then finally succumbs. His war with his song...and finale surrender is a metaphor of sorts with his internal struggle with his feelings for the slayer, confused and twisted as they may be.
An episode that is fun to mock, because it mocks itself. But there's so much there. Most musicals, television and otherwise - only show the leads singing or focus on the main plot. Whedon has all sort of background numbers...little bits here and there that add meaning and texture. And he refers to the musical again in later episodes. It's an episode that much like HUSH, WHO ARE YOU, Innocence, Restless, and The Body...seems to echo throughout the series...if you skip over it, you will miss out on meanings elsewhere.
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death.
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no subject
Date: 2013-02-15 08:02 am (UTC)See, once we get past oppressive love triangle of doom, things really take off. Looking forward to seeing what Katrina decides to do with that cure. I don't think Silas will be much of a problem - he didn't get enough blood to actually wake up. But I could be wrong about that.
Yes, certainly didn't even give a thought to what Katherine might be doing these days - so kudos to the sneaky writers. And let's hope that Silas is a big problem because after all that misery and death he better be a Big Bad.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-15 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-15 03:58 pm (UTC)Although, that was originally Rebekkah's intent until it was discovered that there's only one dose. Not sure if Katrina knows that or not, assume she does.
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Date: 2013-02-15 03:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-15 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-15 05:00 pm (UTC)GRR Martin requires a specific mood. Or you just plod through.
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Date: 2013-02-15 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-15 05:32 pm (UTC)"So when are you starting it?"
Sigh.
I tried to explain I have a method to my madness...I try to put off reading the last book for as long as possible, so that by the time I finish it - the next one in the series will be out.
There is quite a bit in book 4. That's the problem with Martin. You can't skim, no matter how incredibly tempting it is. You skim and then you hit a plot twist and think, wait a minute! What did I miss? And you have to go back and figure out what just happened. Oh...there it was, buried 200 pages ago.
This is why you can't buy Martin only on Kindle, it's harder to flip back and see what plot point or clue that you missed. I had to go back to Clash of Kings to figure out something that happened in Storm of Swords. (that whole murder mystery regarding who sent the assassin to kill Bran? That's buried in a discussion in Clash and a brief one in Game.) It's not that books aren't well plotted, they are, Martin just likes to bury his plot point in masses of description. The man needs a better editor!
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Date: 2013-02-15 05:37 pm (UTC)If he'd just put aside his obsession with describing the food at feasts, that alone would be major progress.
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Date: 2013-02-16 02:50 am (UTC)If he'd just put aside his obsession with describing the food at feasts, that alone would be major progress.
Agreed. What is it with fantasy and historical writers and food? I really don't need to know what the characters are eating. Or in that detail.
He also has a thing about clothing.
More dialogue Martin, less intricate descriptive passages...please.
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Date: 2013-02-15 05:57 pm (UTC)I do struggle with the Xander thing sometimes -- because while Xander has significant flaws, and I do believe that he would summon the demon, I don't believe that he would hide it once people start burning up, and especially once it becomes clear that Dawn is going to be taken to the underworld (!). I don't think his tendencies to avoid responsibility are *that* strong, and I can't quite handle it if I take it literally. But then, I don't think Xander's summoning the demon is meant to be taken entirely seriously -- it's a bit of a "it's just a show" moment, as well as one that is about the idea of (as you say) the everyman and audience rep and creator rep wanting the musical to happen. And of course -- the spell turns the show into a musical, and ultimately the musical can't end prematurely: the audience needs the emotional catharsis, no matter how painful. And so of course the summoner can't, under the spell, admit to it until the end. It reveals something about Xander, and about the narrative, and about the artificiality of the narrative, and it's funny and a little sick all at once.
I can't find a good still right now, but when Xander raises his hand to indicate that he summoned the demon, the picture behind him at the Bronze is a picture of a cartoon spaceman raising its hand. lol!
no subject
Date: 2013-02-16 02:46 am (UTC)