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shadowkatBecause LJ is annoying the hell out of me at the moment - I'm cross-posting from here and deleting my post on LJ.
ETA: ARRGH! I can't delete the LJ entry - it won't let me. Why I don't just stay on Dreamwidth and cross-post, I don't know. At any rate sorry for the duplicate, ignore the previous one if you are on LJ and read this one instead. Or neither as the case may be.
1. The bagger at the grocery story check out line was hilarious.
S'kat: I have my own bags.
Bagger: How environmentally conscientious of you.
S'Kat: Well that and I'm getting tired of plastic bags, they are starting pile up.
Bagger: I collect them...and junk mail.
S'Kat: You collect junk mail? What do you with it?
Bagger: I like to send it back to them - but to the opposing companies. You know, the McDonalds coupons to Burger King and the Burger King Coupons to McDonalds.
S'Kat: Now that's clever. They also sort of deserve it.
Bagger: I also like to talk to the telemarketers - I tell them my problems, I figure you know why not - they called me.
Wandering through the grocery store when you are on a restrictive diet is not easy. Nor for that matter is watching television commercials (I really wish we could remove them from DVR feeds but I suppose they have to find some way to pay for the tv series). I had mini-arguments with myself. Oh, there's a cookie mix with almond flour, coconut sugar, and chia seeds - that's healthy. No, it's sweet - don't get it. But it's healthy. No. But it doesn't have any of the bad stuff. Yes it does, it has coconut sugar. Or...one dark chocolate candy bar isn't a bad thing. It has sugar in it (because frankly chocolate is gross without sugar in it). So no. Plus caffeine. Double no. I know, the chia pod that's just coconut milk, chia seeds, and vanilla bean paste. (I admittedly lost that battle and gave in...it wasn't worth it. But hey, healthier than say Tapioca pudding.) Yesterday, I bought sushi at the fresh fish market - forgetting that I'm not supposed to be eating white rice or any soy (including the gluten-free variety of soy sauce).
At home, I lost the battle over fresh squeezed orange juice, bacon, and oh the multi-seed gluten free English Muffin which was calling to me for the last three days. Eat me. No. Eat me, I'm healthy. No. Eaaaat Meee. Oh. WTF. Okay. It's the last one, as long as I resist buying any more should be fine. On the plus side - I put almond butter on it, not butter and jam.
2. I'm rather impressed with Scandal but with one caveat, the last two episodes of S1 onwards. Scandal is sort of like Farscape, the first season is not very good, but after that it takes off like a bandit.
It also introduces the first lead Black Woman Anti-Hero that I've seen in the history of television. She's smart, sexy, savvy, and wealthy, fighting for power in DC. It's sort of a black female take on House of Cards, but the characters are wee bit more ambiguously drawn.
It's also misleading because it presents itself as a romantic serial. Yet, not.
Olivia Pope is DC's Fixer. Similar to the gal who fixed the Monica Lewinsky scandal (who was also female and black - in fact she's the inspiration for Pope). But back in the day, Pope along with four other people hired a nasty and ruthless oil tycoon too fix the election so that their candidate would win. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Pope in some respects is Walt White's counterpart and a far sexier and savvier, not to mention more likeable Glenn Close from Damages. No, it's not as smartly written as Breaking Bad, but in some respects it is a lot more fun and far more entertaining - particularly in how it satirizes, parodies and subverts various television and genre tropes in a sly and increasingly subtle ways.
3. Flashback to 1977
In the fall of 1977...more than twenty years ago today, I was about 10, 11 or 12 (don't really remember which nor do I feel like doing the math to figure it out). And awkward.
I was about 5'10 at that age...while everyone else was about 4'9 or 5'1 - it doesn't really matter, they were shorter, I was taller. We'd been going to the same elementary school for the past eleven years...but when we hit the fifth grade (which is actually an incredibly awkward and difficult grade all by itself - because hello puberty), the school system decided to redistrict or rezone. I have no idea why. It may have been desegration - it was the late 70s after all and yes, that was still an issue. Or money. Or politics. I was 11, all I knew was that I was changing school districts and leaving half the friends I'd made behind. Granted whether these were "friends" or not depended on your point of view and how you define friends. From my mother's perspective - I was better off. (ie. We were often fighting with each other or over who got to be whose friend. Little girls are no better than little boys in this regard - we just tend to be verbal as opposed to physical about it.) Unfortunately, my best pal, from the neighborhood, Debbie Dipeso, was coming along with me. We lived next door to each other - it stood to reason. But my mother was savvy...she made sure we weren't in the same class. I didn't know she did that - she told me years later. Debbie was competitive and ahem, not dyslexic or 5'10, she was 4'10 like most of the kids. When we were in the same class in the Third Grade, it was a nightmare.
Anyhow...new school, East Bradford in West Chester, PA, was interesting. A bit experimental but definitely interesting. I actually loved it. We'd take field trips - to go create photographs, make cinammin donuts (crawlers), and apple cider. I tended to like school (loved to learn), but hated recess as a kid. Actually my least favorite period was lunch and recess. Mainly because - I either got relentlessly teased (kids are nasty creatures don't let anyone tell you otherwise) or, if I was lucky, ignored. Being long and lanky and uncoordinated - I did not get picked for teams or was often picked last. Spent most of my time on the sidelines telling myself adventure tales in my head. That is until I hit East Bradford, and met two black boys who were about my height and also stood out.
Big Mac and TJ ruled our class, and had their own in-group of outcasts. They befriended me immediately, TJ and Big Mac. When they discovered I was uncoordinated but into stories and plays, so they chose me to be a part of their current production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I got to play one of the dwarves. I admittedly argued that I was a wee bit tall for a dwarf, but Big Mac argued that it didn't matter, TJ was a dwarf and as tall as I was.
I had a wicked crush on Prince Charming, but I wasn't girly enough to play Snow White (ie. I was 5'10 and Prince Charming was 4'10, they went with a girl who was 4'9. Which admittedly doesn't make sense - considering I was playing a dwarf who happened to be taller than Prince Charming.). But it didn't matter - the dwarves had more fun. All Snow White did was lie there, most of time. And Prince Charming just popped up in the last ten minutes. We were after all only 12. In fact Charming didn't want to kiss Snow. He and Big Mac had a long argument over it. Finally, they agreed that he could snap his fingers and she could wake up. Only problem was Charming wasn't all that adept at snapping his fingers, so Big Mac suggested he whistle, which he wasn't that good at either. I think they compromised and had him pretend to snap his fingers and stamp his foot.
We rehearsed at recess, had costumes (I don't know where we got them) and did a little presentation in front of our class.
I loved those guys...for the brief six months we had school together. Because in February of 1978...my father got a promotion and a great job opportunity in Kansas City...so across the country we moved. And I never saw those guys again. And suffice it to say - Kansas City was nowhere near as much fun.
That same year, we saw Star Wars. Not only did we see it. We were the first people in our neighborhood and amongst our acquaintance who saw it - opening weekend no less. Now, you've got to understand this was a huge deal in 1977. Movies back then aren't like they are today. You don't get to see them on TV six months later. Or rent them. Or buy them. There were no DVDs or VHS, or DVR's or Cable. That didn't start to come about until five years later with HBO and the VCR - which I think was around 1982, can't remember. You also wanted to be the first to see the movie - or people would spoil you on the whole plot. And back then, in 1977, THIS was the movie to see according to my Dad (and shortly thereafter, EVERYONE who mattered). We drove all the way out on opening day to East Whiteland to see it - only to find out it was completely sold out (this was a three hour drive, I think we ended up going to a fancy restaurant to deal with the disappointment). So the next day, we drove all the way out to another movie theater in Exton, (albeit a much much closer one - say a one hour drive)...and saw it there.
My father was clearly desperate, which was odd, considering he was never that much into movies. And not particularly into sci-fi. Unlike my paternal grandfather, my father was not a horror fan. Possibly that's the reason? My grandfather adored science fiction films and horror - he read them and watched them voraciously.
Frankly, I remember being skeptical about the movie at the time, and somewhat resistant. My family had to talk me into going. Why? Because I identified "Science Fiction" with scary monsters. And I was born with an over-active imagination and a detailed visual memory bordering on photographic. I saw a scary monster in a movie or tv series - it stayed in my head, and at night when I was supposed to be sleeping, I became convinced it would get me. (My mother never understood this. She took my brother and me to Poltergiest when it first opened, and it never occurred to her that we might find it remotely scary. She didn't find it scary, just sort of silly and fun. It should be noted that my mother didn't think JAWS was remotely frightening and considers Sleepy Hollow boring. Horror doesn't make a lot of sense to my mother. She has a tendency to make fun of it.)
Seeing Star Wars changed my life in some respects. Up until then my idea of science fiction was scary monsters and scary diseases on shows like Doctor Who (which was basically one scary monster after another), Space 1999 (worse than Doctor Who - so I left the house when my family insisted on watching it - my parents loved it), Twilight Zone(ditto), Outer Limits (ditto), Night Gallery, Lost in Space, Japanese Monster Movies (they showed up every day at 3pm on UHF Channel and my best friend adored them) and Star Trek (which of the group was by far the least scary and easiest to watch). Star Wars showed me that Science Fiction didn't necessarily equal scary monsters. ( Keep in mind that I was only 11 or 12 at the time with an over-active imagination. And a masochistic love of scarey stories. I imagined things under my bed already - I didn't require help figuring out what they were or scaring myself silly.) Sci-Fi could equal cool adventure stories. I fell in love with it and the trope. We collected all the action figures. I remember that our cat, Simon, liked to dump the Princess Leia action figure into his water dish. I've no idea why.
Meanwhile, my best bud, Debbie and I used to argue over which movie was better and more likely to succeed. Her Dad was convinced it was going to be the King Kong remake with Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lang. (Which did have scary monsters - including a huge spider. I've no idea why they were convinced it was the better movie and would do better. Granted better cast, but it was also a remake.) My Dad was convinced it was going to be Star Wars and couldn't be bothered to see King Kong which he considered a horrible movie. (Before you go thinking that my Dad has amazing taste in film, it should be noted that he also thought the movie Hook (starring Robin Williams) was going to be classic like The Wizard of OZ. Also he's not a fan of monster movies. ) These fights went on forever...until the decision was ultimately taken out of our hands and popular opinion finally declared the winner. Debbie didn't speak to me for two days. Then we went back to arguing over which Monkeey was better and whether to watch "Lost in Space" or the afternoon movie (which may well have been "Beach Blanket Bingo", so Debbie probably had a point.)
ETA: ARRGH! I can't delete the LJ entry - it won't let me. Why I don't just stay on Dreamwidth and cross-post, I don't know. At any rate sorry for the duplicate, ignore the previous one if you are on LJ and read this one instead. Or neither as the case may be.
1. The bagger at the grocery story check out line was hilarious.
S'kat: I have my own bags.
Bagger: How environmentally conscientious of you.
S'Kat: Well that and I'm getting tired of plastic bags, they are starting pile up.
Bagger: I collect them...and junk mail.
S'Kat: You collect junk mail? What do you with it?
Bagger: I like to send it back to them - but to the opposing companies. You know, the McDonalds coupons to Burger King and the Burger King Coupons to McDonalds.
S'Kat: Now that's clever. They also sort of deserve it.
Bagger: I also like to talk to the telemarketers - I tell them my problems, I figure you know why not - they called me.
Wandering through the grocery store when you are on a restrictive diet is not easy. Nor for that matter is watching television commercials (I really wish we could remove them from DVR feeds but I suppose they have to find some way to pay for the tv series). I had mini-arguments with myself. Oh, there's a cookie mix with almond flour, coconut sugar, and chia seeds - that's healthy. No, it's sweet - don't get it. But it's healthy. No. But it doesn't have any of the bad stuff. Yes it does, it has coconut sugar. Or...one dark chocolate candy bar isn't a bad thing. It has sugar in it (because frankly chocolate is gross without sugar in it). So no. Plus caffeine. Double no. I know, the chia pod that's just coconut milk, chia seeds, and vanilla bean paste. (I admittedly lost that battle and gave in...it wasn't worth it. But hey, healthier than say Tapioca pudding.) Yesterday, I bought sushi at the fresh fish market - forgetting that I'm not supposed to be eating white rice or any soy (including the gluten-free variety of soy sauce).
At home, I lost the battle over fresh squeezed orange juice, bacon, and oh the multi-seed gluten free English Muffin which was calling to me for the last three days. Eat me. No. Eat me, I'm healthy. No. Eaaaat Meee. Oh. WTF. Okay. It's the last one, as long as I resist buying any more should be fine. On the plus side - I put almond butter on it, not butter and jam.
2. I'm rather impressed with Scandal but with one caveat, the last two episodes of S1 onwards. Scandal is sort of like Farscape, the first season is not very good, but after that it takes off like a bandit.
It also introduces the first lead Black Woman Anti-Hero that I've seen in the history of television. She's smart, sexy, savvy, and wealthy, fighting for power in DC. It's sort of a black female take on House of Cards, but the characters are wee bit more ambiguously drawn.
It's also misleading because it presents itself as a romantic serial. Yet, not.
Olivia Pope is DC's Fixer. Similar to the gal who fixed the Monica Lewinsky scandal (who was also female and black - in fact she's the inspiration for Pope). But back in the day, Pope along with four other people hired a nasty and ruthless oil tycoon too fix the election so that their candidate would win. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Pope in some respects is Walt White's counterpart and a far sexier and savvier, not to mention more likeable Glenn Close from Damages. No, it's not as smartly written as Breaking Bad, but in some respects it is a lot more fun and far more entertaining - particularly in how it satirizes, parodies and subverts various television and genre tropes in a sly and increasingly subtle ways.
3. Flashback to 1977
In the fall of 1977...more than twenty years ago today, I was about 10, 11 or 12 (don't really remember which nor do I feel like doing the math to figure it out). And awkward.
I was about 5'10 at that age...while everyone else was about 4'9 or 5'1 - it doesn't really matter, they were shorter, I was taller. We'd been going to the same elementary school for the past eleven years...but when we hit the fifth grade (which is actually an incredibly awkward and difficult grade all by itself - because hello puberty), the school system decided to redistrict or rezone. I have no idea why. It may have been desegration - it was the late 70s after all and yes, that was still an issue. Or money. Or politics. I was 11, all I knew was that I was changing school districts and leaving half the friends I'd made behind. Granted whether these were "friends" or not depended on your point of view and how you define friends. From my mother's perspective - I was better off. (ie. We were often fighting with each other or over who got to be whose friend. Little girls are no better than little boys in this regard - we just tend to be verbal as opposed to physical about it.) Unfortunately, my best pal, from the neighborhood, Debbie Dipeso, was coming along with me. We lived next door to each other - it stood to reason. But my mother was savvy...she made sure we weren't in the same class. I didn't know she did that - she told me years later. Debbie was competitive and ahem, not dyslexic or 5'10, she was 4'10 like most of the kids. When we were in the same class in the Third Grade, it was a nightmare.
Anyhow...new school, East Bradford in West Chester, PA, was interesting. A bit experimental but definitely interesting. I actually loved it. We'd take field trips - to go create photographs, make cinammin donuts (crawlers), and apple cider. I tended to like school (loved to learn), but hated recess as a kid. Actually my least favorite period was lunch and recess. Mainly because - I either got relentlessly teased (kids are nasty creatures don't let anyone tell you otherwise) or, if I was lucky, ignored. Being long and lanky and uncoordinated - I did not get picked for teams or was often picked last. Spent most of my time on the sidelines telling myself adventure tales in my head. That is until I hit East Bradford, and met two black boys who were about my height and also stood out.
Big Mac and TJ ruled our class, and had their own in-group of outcasts. They befriended me immediately, TJ and Big Mac. When they discovered I was uncoordinated but into stories and plays, so they chose me to be a part of their current production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I got to play one of the dwarves. I admittedly argued that I was a wee bit tall for a dwarf, but Big Mac argued that it didn't matter, TJ was a dwarf and as tall as I was.
I had a wicked crush on Prince Charming, but I wasn't girly enough to play Snow White (ie. I was 5'10 and Prince Charming was 4'10, they went with a girl who was 4'9. Which admittedly doesn't make sense - considering I was playing a dwarf who happened to be taller than Prince Charming.). But it didn't matter - the dwarves had more fun. All Snow White did was lie there, most of time. And Prince Charming just popped up in the last ten minutes. We were after all only 12. In fact Charming didn't want to kiss Snow. He and Big Mac had a long argument over it. Finally, they agreed that he could snap his fingers and she could wake up. Only problem was Charming wasn't all that adept at snapping his fingers, so Big Mac suggested he whistle, which he wasn't that good at either. I think they compromised and had him pretend to snap his fingers and stamp his foot.
We rehearsed at recess, had costumes (I don't know where we got them) and did a little presentation in front of our class.
I loved those guys...for the brief six months we had school together. Because in February of 1978...my father got a promotion and a great job opportunity in Kansas City...so across the country we moved. And I never saw those guys again. And suffice it to say - Kansas City was nowhere near as much fun.
That same year, we saw Star Wars. Not only did we see it. We were the first people in our neighborhood and amongst our acquaintance who saw it - opening weekend no less. Now, you've got to understand this was a huge deal in 1977. Movies back then aren't like they are today. You don't get to see them on TV six months later. Or rent them. Or buy them. There were no DVDs or VHS, or DVR's or Cable. That didn't start to come about until five years later with HBO and the VCR - which I think was around 1982, can't remember. You also wanted to be the first to see the movie - or people would spoil you on the whole plot. And back then, in 1977, THIS was the movie to see according to my Dad (and shortly thereafter, EVERYONE who mattered). We drove all the way out on opening day to East Whiteland to see it - only to find out it was completely sold out (this was a three hour drive, I think we ended up going to a fancy restaurant to deal with the disappointment). So the next day, we drove all the way out to another movie theater in Exton, (albeit a much much closer one - say a one hour drive)...and saw it there.
My father was clearly desperate, which was odd, considering he was never that much into movies. And not particularly into sci-fi. Unlike my paternal grandfather, my father was not a horror fan. Possibly that's the reason? My grandfather adored science fiction films and horror - he read them and watched them voraciously.
Frankly, I remember being skeptical about the movie at the time, and somewhat resistant. My family had to talk me into going. Why? Because I identified "Science Fiction" with scary monsters. And I was born with an over-active imagination and a detailed visual memory bordering on photographic. I saw a scary monster in a movie or tv series - it stayed in my head, and at night when I was supposed to be sleeping, I became convinced it would get me. (My mother never understood this. She took my brother and me to Poltergiest when it first opened, and it never occurred to her that we might find it remotely scary. She didn't find it scary, just sort of silly and fun. It should be noted that my mother didn't think JAWS was remotely frightening and considers Sleepy Hollow boring. Horror doesn't make a lot of sense to my mother. She has a tendency to make fun of it.)
Seeing Star Wars changed my life in some respects. Up until then my idea of science fiction was scary monsters and scary diseases on shows like Doctor Who (which was basically one scary monster after another), Space 1999 (worse than Doctor Who - so I left the house when my family insisted on watching it - my parents loved it), Twilight Zone(ditto), Outer Limits (ditto), Night Gallery, Lost in Space, Japanese Monster Movies (they showed up every day at 3pm on UHF Channel and my best friend adored them) and Star Trek (which of the group was by far the least scary and easiest to watch). Star Wars showed me that Science Fiction didn't necessarily equal scary monsters. ( Keep in mind that I was only 11 or 12 at the time with an over-active imagination. And a masochistic love of scarey stories. I imagined things under my bed already - I didn't require help figuring out what they were or scaring myself silly.) Sci-Fi could equal cool adventure stories. I fell in love with it and the trope. We collected all the action figures. I remember that our cat, Simon, liked to dump the Princess Leia action figure into his water dish. I've no idea why.
Meanwhile, my best bud, Debbie and I used to argue over which movie was better and more likely to succeed. Her Dad was convinced it was going to be the King Kong remake with Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lang. (Which did have scary monsters - including a huge spider. I've no idea why they were convinced it was the better movie and would do better. Granted better cast, but it was also a remake.) My Dad was convinced it was going to be Star Wars and couldn't be bothered to see King Kong which he considered a horrible movie. (Before you go thinking that my Dad has amazing taste in film, it should be noted that he also thought the movie Hook (starring Robin Williams) was going to be classic like The Wizard of OZ. Also he's not a fan of monster movies. ) These fights went on forever...until the decision was ultimately taken out of our hands and popular opinion finally declared the winner. Debbie didn't speak to me for two days. Then we went back to arguing over which Monkeey was better and whether to watch "Lost in Space" or the afternoon movie (which may well have been "Beach Blanket Bingo", so Debbie probably had a point.)
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Date: 2013-10-07 01:37 am (UTC)I saw it at the very first showing at my local theater, and I swear there were moments in the movie I've never seen again. It was across the street from Ohio State where I was a grad student and TA. Looking around the crowd before the show started I saw many people knew. I also need to add that I hadn't heard one word about Star Wars in the media. I saw the posters for it while walking by the theater a few weeks in advance. It looked cool though I didn't mention it to anyone else.
Because of my schedule I figured the earliest showing that day was my best choice. There were no midnight movie openings in those days. The early show was 1:00 or 1:30 pm. I was surprised how fast the theater filled. I remember coming out of the theater and all the people lined up to get in, all asking us if it was good. By dinner time I was telling everyone who'd listen to go see it.