(no subject)

[rusty_halo]

After work yesterday I went to this vegan bakery in the West Village called Sacred Chow. They have very yummy food, and I was hoping for some sweets to cheer me up. So I ended up buying two chocolate chip brownies, a chocolate covered coconut bar, and a piece of vegan coffee cake (I haven't had coffee cake since I went vegan eight years ago, but wiseacress mentioned it the other day and I've been craving it ever since). Everything was very good. Oh, and I bought a vegan piña colada.

I love piña coladas. When I lived in Puerto Rico (for a year, when I was nine), they sold piña coladas everywhere. My mom used to take my brother and me to Pizza Hut after school, where I'd order a supreme pizza and a piña colada (sín rum). Then we'd play the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game, which was incredibly fun, because it's a four player game, and new people can join anytime. So you'd usually come in in the middle of a game, and meet new people, and work together with strangers. It was a neat bonding experience. I was always Donatello (if he wasn't already taken), because he was my favorite character: the quirky, creative, smart one. Leonardo was too bossy, and Michaelangelo was too silly, and Raphael was too mean. But Donatello was cool.

Anyway...

So I bought baked goods, and then I went home and caught the last part of "Tough Love" on FX. That episode has one of my all-time favorite Spike moments. Spike and Dawn are underground, hiding from Glory, and Dawn worries that she's evil and that it's her fault that people she loves are getting hurt. The look on Spike's face is so incredibly sympathetic; he's got tears in his eyes listening to her blame herself. And then he tries to minimize his pain (even though he's covered in bruises and limping pathetically) to make her feel better. And my favorite part: Spike reaches over to touch her hair, but when she looks up he quickly pulls away. I love that, Spike wants so much to connect and comfort her, but he's so uncomfortable with it at the same time.

And btw, this was not James Marsters "subverting the writer's intent"; it's in the shooting script:



After a moment, he tentatively reaches out a hand to pat her head.

SPIKE
(comfortingly)
Hey.

Just as she whirls at him, her eyes flashing:

DAWN
You want to know what I'm scared of, Spike?

In an instant, Spike withdraws his hand and makes like he was just planning on running it through his hair--cool-like.



My cat Lucifer is half dog (in spirit if not biology) and he can be terribly clumsy. He's always lying down on things, getting really relaxed, stretching out, and then rolling off and falling. Then he'll land, check if anyone saw him, and pretend that he meant to do that all along; he didn't really fall. That's like Spike here.

So, then I tried to go to sleep, because I'd only slept about three hours the night before, but my roommate came home and started watching Fox News at top volume. Everything on that channel makes me nauseated, so I turned on my TV to drown it out, and ended up watching "Lethal Weapon 3."

Now, that's an interesting film. On the surface, the whole thing seems to be one big affirmation of heterosexual masculinity; it's all action and guns and male bonding and tough guy posturing. The only women are sexual partners and daughters, except for the touchy feely psychologist who gets mocked relentlessly. Rene Russo proves her "worthiness" by being "one of the guys"; her sex scene with Mel Gibson comes after they remove most of their clothing comparing scars. And later he drools over her ability to kick ass in a fight.

But then, it also seems like all this hyper masculinity is kind of a cover, because this is one of the slashiest movies I've ever seen. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are constantly touching each other throughout the movie. There are more crying men in this film than there are crying women in a typical Lifetime Original Weepfest. The central aspect is the relationship between Glover and Gibson. We see over and over that they'd die for each other, that they can complete each other's sentences, etc. There's one scene where they get drunk together, and Gibson's character goes on about how Glover's character is his life, and has given his life meaning, and then they cry, and Glover confesses that he loves Gibson's character. Seriously!

And I kind of think they're trying to mask the slashiness by acknowledging it, because there are a number of jokes about those two. Like Joe Pesci walks in on the two of them wrestling, and they look up, clutching each other, and go "It's not what you think!" And after the drunken crying "I love you" scene, they fall into the water and the cops come by and shine the spotlight on the two of them in the water together. By acknowledging the subtext and making it a joke, it kind of takes the power away. And of course, at the end there's the obligatory affirmation of heterosexual love; Glover and his wife fall into the bath together, and Gibson goes off to see Rene Russo in the hospital.

Anyway ... these are just some random and not very deep thoughts after seeing the movie last night. It might make an interesting paper topic someday, maybe.

ETA:

Great post by rabid1st extolling the virtues of "Intervention":
http://www.livejournal.com/users/rabid1st/6542.html

Yummy Spike/Faith from db2305:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/db2305/18737.html

And wiseacress is still writing that wonderful, wonderful S/X H/C.

Comments

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

I guess there's always fanfic.

That's what I always say.

Yeah, the S/D friendship was wonderful. Now that the series is over, I'm just pretending that "Roundabout" and/or "Old Blood" were the real resolutions to that story.