rusty_halo

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2794

I haven’t been posting much, because I’ve been stressed out and busy and tired, and who wants to hear about that?

I have, however, accumulated a couple of mildly interesting (I hope) things to post about.

( the Watchmen movie )

* Then the next night, jaydk and I saw Coraline. Proof that you don't need to be "edgy" to make a good movie: it was far better than Watchmen. Smart, funny, well-written, beautifully filmed--the 3D was absolutely lovely. The story was creative and intriguing and eerie, and the lead character was clever and brave. Why do childrens' stories do such a superior job of portraying three-dimensional female characters? Is it just that we've been culturally conditioned to be unable to fathom a post-pubescent female in a way that doesn't put her sexuality front and center?

* I'm seeing a lot of talk about Doctor Who finale casting spoilers. As far as I can tell, they're from a tabloid that regularly makes shit up, so why is anyone taking them seriously? Am I missing something? (This is a genuine question. Is there any reason to believe them? I don't want to get excited about something that's completely fabricated.)

* I'm reading Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Lincoln and his cabinet. It's really interesting and I'm enjoying it, but I wish she'd stop spelling out what the reader is "supposed" to think. I can make up my own mind about what these guys did and why they did it; I don't need the author inserting her own explanation that so-and-so was arrogant and ambitious on every page. Still, it's mostly good. After being so absorbed in the 2008 election, it's fascinating to see how American politics worked 150 years ago.

* And I'm still in the middle of The Disorderly Knights. I'm going to finish it and then take a break from the Lymond series, since it's been less than six months since I re-read Pawn in Frankincense. Speaking of which, my mom just finished it and is in awe. In retrospect, I think Pawn is the best written and most moving book of the series.

( the Moonlight TV series )

Also, maybe it's just that I don't watch modern American TV anymore, but ... what is with the women? As in, they are all exactly the same: tiny, emaciated, sharp-featured, and young. No matter what character they're playing--boss, geek girl, random vampire--they are all pulled from such an incredibly narrow archetype of "woman" that it's just completely absurd. Watching a show like this, you'd never even imagine that women exist on planet Earth larger than a size four, older than thirty-five, and without those sharp facial angles that Hollywood defines as "beautiful." At least the men are allowed to have some diversity of age, size, and facial features, depending on the character they're playing, but every single woman first has to fit into this absurdly narrow definition of "attractive" before anything else is taken into account.

This is why I can barely watch American TV anymore. Once you step away from it for a while, you come back and suddenly it's like being hit over the head by how ridiculous it is. This narrow bunch of nearly-identical Hollywood model types plays pretty much every female character and the majority of male characters. Sure, an occasional talent pops through, but it's painfully obvious that these people are cast almost entirely for their looks with no regard for skill. You end up with a bunch of interchangeable Barbies and Kens running around posing as every variety of adult human being. How am I supposed to take any of it seriously?

* But speaking of American TV that doesn't suck, I have become completely addicted to The Rachel Maddow Show. It passes the Bechdel Test every night! Real women talk to each other about real issues! With none of the insipid concessions to what "women" are supposed to care about--no celebrity gossip, no plastic surgery, no cooking and baking, no fashion bullshit, just women as real individual human beings, with their own perspectives, who care about the world around them. (This shouldn't be such a shock and a rarity!) And Rachel is brilliant, witty, funny, sweet, and adorable beyond words. I know she's not perfect and I do disagree with her sometimes, but I always love watching her. She makes me wish Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert would do less joking and more news--after I watch her show, I feel like I'm not getting enough content from them. (Don't worry, I still love them. Jon Stewart's smackdown of Jim Cramer was a thing of beauty.)

* Oh, and I'm still listening to David Bowie. Ziggy Stardust remains my favorite, but I've added Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane, and Diamond Dogs to the lineup and am enjoying them all. I tried to listen to Scary Monsters on the advice of my friend Jason, but aside from "Ashes to Ashes" it just totally didn't work for me. I don't understand what happened to Bowie in the 80s. It's like he went from brilliant and hot and amazing to ... just ... so boring and annoying and straight. Maybe I'll understand it better if I take each album chronologically. Or it could just be the Bowie draws from the zeitgeist of the decade, and the 80s was ... well, the 80s.

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Tonight’s Daily Show kind of made me ship Jon Stewart/Fareed Zakaria. Hmm.

(I know, I should be thinking about their political discussion. It’s these slash goggles, they won’t come off!)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

versaphile is finally posting the Doctor/Master epic she's been teasing about for ages. Chapter one is here.

And if you didn't see it: she also made a Doctor/Master archive! My plan for the weekend is to scour that place for fic I haven't read yet. >:)

(How much do I love that the show canonically gives us the set up of the Master keeping the Doctor prisoner for a year? And gives us the set up of the Doctor "settling down and caring for" the Master? No wonder there's such good fic about those two.)

Today sucks. Evil web clients are being even more evil than usual. Nothing is more annoying than building a beautiful website only to be ordered to deface it hideously by a client with no aesthetic sense. I WANNA GO HOME. *is happy it's Friday*

The neighborhood cat just showed up to sprawl on my desk and drool on everything. Right now he is the only thing I like about this job.

I've concluded that it's time for a vacation. I'm thinking... warm air, sunlight, beach. Maybe Florida? Unfortunately, Spring Break is coming up and I'm sure everyone is thinking the same. I suppose it could be fun to go anyway; just take a three day weekend, find some slightly falling apart but adequate hotel on a beach somewhere, and sprawl in the sun with a book for three days. It could work.

I finally caught up with all of the Daily Show and Colbert Report episodes since January. You know how I said I was over Jon Stewart? That fit of insanity has passed. I do read the news in, y'know, newspapers and everything, but somehow none of it feels real until I see Stewart and Colbert mock it.

(What was with Howard Dean's flirty goodbye to Stephen the other night? I laughed for five minutes straight.)

Doctor Who series four spoilers keep coming out, with all the associated wank. It's hard to bring myself to care; I'm already pretty sure I'm going to get what I want, which is ( not really spoilery, but just in case )

It's time for a new order of BPAL imps, and I've found eight that I really want. I need to narrow it down to six. Anyone have any advice (recs or anti-recs) on any of these?

( I'm in a vanilla mood: Belle Epoque, Eclipse, Golden Priapus, Antique Lace, Peitho, Mouse's Long And Sad Tale, Lyonesse, and Tamora )

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]

Last night I went to Night of Too Many Stars. This was super fun, for several reasons:

* I had a great view. First balcony, second row, center-right, three seats from an aisle. If you have a huge high resolution TV screen, you can probably see me in the audience shots. ;)

* Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, together and in the same room as me!

* Getting to see everyone scurrying around during the commercial breaks and discussing what comes next.

* Jon *completely* cracking up during one of the bits--I think it was Will Ferrell's--did they show his reactions on TV? He was laughing so hard he was jumping up and down, and then he fell to the floor, but he still managed to speak all his lines with a semi-straight face.

* Jon chatting with us beforehand and during the commercial breaks and telling us what a great audience we were. (He's so sweet!)

* Jimmy Fallon, who was apparently not content merely answering phones, and so spontaneously stood up and (yelling without a microphone) got whole audience to do the wave repeatedly during a commercial break. (They showed just a snippet of this on the broadcast.)

* Pretty boys making out! I'm apparently way out of touch with modern television, because I had no idea who they were, but they made out a lot longer than aired on the broadcast.

* Getting to see the whole Elvis Costello performance (which was cut off by a commercial during the broadcast).

* I got to see the guy behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. (Not that I really cared, but still, nifty.)

* I'm embarrassed that Moby is the apparent representative of veganism in popular culture, but at the same time glad that he is at least spreading awareness of its existence.

* Did I mention how adorably sincere Jon Stewart is?

What was weird:

* They didn't show us the David Letterman thing at all; that just seemed to be an extra-long commercial break.

* Being surrounded by such disturbingly rich people was just weird. Before the show started, they had a couple of auctions, including one for a walk-on part on Saturday Night Live which went for $20,000. I know, good cause, I just can't fathom those amounts of money.

* Also, it needed more Stephen Colbert. :P

I saw the Sisters of Mercy last night. It took major effort to leave my apartment and walk the two blocks to Webster Hall for a band I've never seen and barely heard, but I'd bought the ticket months ago and it was expensive. This is part of my whole recent "if the opportunity to do something interesting arises, do it, because life is short and you're more likely to regret the things you didn't do" thing.

The show was okay. Bad sound, too much fog, hard to see anything. But I was standing right in front of what may well be the hottest guitar player ever--seriously, I have no clue who this guy was, but he was pure sex. Stunningly gorgeous, and an excellent musician as well. I spent the entire show watching him (I couldn't see anyone else through the fog anyway).

I also had the great misfortune to watch the Oscars on Sunday night. What a bunch of lame, pretentious, clueless... oh, whatever, they're not even worth the rant. I watched for Jon Stewart, and found myself cringing at the mediocrity of his monologue (though the Bjork joke was funny). I'm glad that he seemed to relax and get into the swing of things later. His cynical asides were much more entertaining that his scripted not-too-offensive Hollywood jokes, of course. And I had a total SQUEE moment hearing Stephen Colbert's voiceover on those fake attack ads (which were very funny).

I'm going to see Nine Inch Nails in Atlantic City on Saturday. Still have to figure out how to get there. (I'm sure there's a bus, just need to do the research.) Ironically, my mom is driving there the same day, but she and her friends will be smoking in the car the whole way, so there's no way I'd put myself through that. I should be more excited... NIN, small venue, spiral entrance... but I guess I'm just worrying about the logistics. Traveling alone is so tedious; time flies when you have someone to talk with, but it just drags on forever when you're by yourself. *makes note to bring a book*

And then next week, I'm going to San Francisco to see Chemlab. I can't believe this is coming up so soon; it still feels completely theoretical. I feel somewhat insane for planning such a thing.

Oh yeah, just a note: the WriterCon site was down for a while yesterday, but it's back today. Not our fault; the host screwed up while moving us to a different server.

This is a good article.

This is fucking creepy.

Did you guys see the Daily Show last night? It was brilliant; I haven't laughed so much in a long time. I love that Jon cracked up and couldn't even look at Stephen Colbert once he said his name was really "Ted Hitler." Heee. Plus, it managed to be hilarious and, simultaneously, have more relevant and insightful commentary than anything else you're going to see on mainstream TV.

I've been eating a lot of blood oranges lately. They both fascinate and repulse me. There is something just wrong about eating such a sweet happy fruit as an orange and finding it to be this hideous raw blood color inside.

I've been listening to two records, Pig's "Praise the Lard" and "Sinsation." Both brilliant.

( more rambling about pig and about finding something to obsess over )

So this weekend I was watching some old tapes of the Jon Stewart Show ... the original UPN Jon Stewart show that aired during the 94-95 season and was then cancelled.

I watched this show religiously that year, not so much because it was a great show but because I really loved Jon Stewart. (Plus I didn't have cable, thus no MTV, and Jon had the best musical guests.)

I was 12, and I had to either stay up until 1am on school nights, or set the VCR and watch it after school every day. And I was the only person I knew who did.

Yesterday I was watching the final week--Jon all depressed, various guests reassuring him that he'll have some kind of come-back, the final clip of the show which is Jon in makeup looking like an old man in a bar, rambling on about how he had a TV show for a year back in the day....

And now ... 'Daily Show' book named Book of Year by Publishers Weekly.

*sniffle*

I am so proud.