rusty_halo

NY Times article on George RR Martin. Neat!

10zlaine and I are going to see him at a convention at Harvard in January. Vericon.

It's freezing outside. My hair froze on the way to work this morning. Ugh. Coldest day so far. (And my apartment is also freezing. Poor kitties.)

I saw Depeche Mode again on Thursday night. I bought the ticket the day before--they must've released some reserved seats at the last minute--because I had an amazing view. Second row, elevated, to the left, right in front of the stage. Totally awesome--I'm so happy with it. And the show was really wonderful--they are such talented and charismatic performers. I think the only difference between shows was that Martin Gore sang "A Question of Lust" this time. Anyway--wonderful show, totally recommend seeing them.

I was sick all weekend, and alternated between working on various projects and huddling in front of the TV drinking hot tea and re-watching S1 of Veronica Mars.

Stuff I noticed in VM:

- Logan is SO COMPLETELY WONDERFUL. (Sorry. Had to say it.)

- "An Echolls Family Christmas" is my favorite episode. Every time the Echolls family comes onscreen, the show gets ten times better. And Logan/Weevil slashiness! Seriously, those two have awesome chemistry.

- Duncan had more facial expressions last year, didn't he? WTF is up with that? He really is a robot in S2.

- I really liked S1 Veronica. I totally, totally get the high school trauma thing, and the "covering your pain by being a badass" thing, and the rejection of a social group that you've realized is corrupt. I (*gasp*) identified with her, and liked her. I loved her anger, and the fact that she'd choose vengeance--she wasn't perfect, but was real.

But what's horrible is to realize that she didn't reject the '09ers because she realized that they are corrupt and not worth her time--she just rejected them because they rejected her first. Really, she was just pining to get back in with them. And now that she has the opportunity to do so, she's immediately given up all that "independent," "interesting" stuff and turned into just another '09er clone. Look at her HAIR for God's sake--last year it was all funky and neat, this year it's all pretty blonde princess. She's tolerating DICK and putting up with 100 times more bullshit from Duncan than she'd ever have tolerated from Logan. It's like she started out as Chloe, but she's turned into Buffy. (*shudders*)

And I've lost all respect for the character. And that SUCKS. I want to see her reject the '09ers, not because they were mean to her but because she realizes that she really isn't one of them and doesn't want to belong to their lame-ass social group anyway. Even if she could.

-Okay, another S1 thing--the MotW episodes kind of sucked then, too. I didn't realize it because I was watching so fast and most paying attention to the arc stuff, but if I'd been watching week by week I'd have been pretty frustrated. Seriously, plenty of those mysteries are predictable and lame.

In fact, I totally separate the arc stuff from the MotW stuff, and it's kind of startling to realize that those awesome scenes where Logan and Aaron are attending Lynn's funeral are actually spaced between some ridiculously dull plot of the week thing about a rap mogul's daughter. Who knew? "An Echolls Family Christmas" rocks because both the A and B plot are Echolls related. (Seriously, they should just make it "The Fucked-Up Echolls Family Show"--now that I'd love. Every time Logan or Aaron are onscreen, the show is ten times better.)

Anyway. Just some random thoughts.

As far as season two... last week's episode was ( VM 2xWhatever spoilers )

Oh yeah, and on Sunday I went with jaydk to this play reading thing, because it featured her latest fictional obsession, Tom Pelphrey, who plays Jonathan on Guiding Light. (I've never actually seen Guiding Light, but from having Jane as a friend, I know allll about Jonathan.) So the play was decent (a bit Breakfast-Club-esque) and the acting was quite good. So that was neat.

And other than that, I've just been madly busy. Website stuff, holiday stuff, eBay, etc.

( ebay worries )

I asked for VM fic recs the other day, and amerella totally went above and beyond. If anyone else is looking for non-LoVe Logan fic, check out the recs she posted for me. My favorite would be That's Amore by dark_roast (post 1x22). Well written, very disturbing, and totally Logan.

I've been so busy lately. Random life update:

Thanksgiving was fun. jaydk and her mom were really accomodating, and made the side dishes using vegan margarine and soy milk, so I could eat the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green beans. And her mom bought me some frozen dinner type things, so I had plenty. Oh, and she made a yummy vegan pumpkin pie, using my favorite recipe. (Plus, they have a Trader Joe's, so I was able to stock up for the rest of the weekend.)

We watched 18 episodes of Veronica Mars, and jaydk got into it and was totally a Logan fan, despite starting with a "I hate Logan, I'm so sick of everyone raving about him" attitude. Hee! And she shared my utter lack of patience with the boringness of Duncan.

We also saw Harry Potter again (it was better the second time, felt less rushed) and saw Rent (awful, but of course, it made me cry my eyes out anyway). And we took care of her mom's dogs (cute, but man, dogs are annoying) and visited Target (huge! and creepy! but I did get season three of Family Guy for $18, so not entirely bad).

It was good to get home, though. I missed my cats so much, and I could tell they missed me too. Lucifer still hasn't stopped following me everywhere I go, and he's been much more patient toward my whole "picking him up and hugging him" thing. (He totally loves being held, but he usually has to pretend to get sick of it after a few minutes, otherwise he loses his cat credibility or something).

What else? Oh yeah, Writercon! There will be another Writercon in 2006! Of all the Buffy-related conventions I've been to (and there are many), Writercon is by far my favorite. There's really a great community of people who run and attend that convention. And this year I'm helping out! So, please do consider going, if you haven't already decided. :)

I've barely been reading LJ. I know, I suck. Sorry.

I was channel surfing the other day and came across Logan Echolls. I haven't watched, or really even thought about, VM for a couple of weeks. So the level of my emotional reaction was surprising; it was close to the kind of affectionate happiness you get when you see an old friend after a long time apart. I've not felt that level of emotional investment in a fictional character since, oh... Spike.

I guess we'll see what happens when the new season starts. Thus far I haven't felt any need to write essays or participate in the fandom or any of that. And I've (hopefully) learned my lesson from BtVS: don't get your hopes up and never allow some TV show to influence your own personal happiness. So, emotional investment heavily checked. And I'm sure it helps immensely that I'm not a shipper, though I continue to hate the way that these shows are framed so that any character who is not important to the main character is supposed to be considered unimportant by the audience, too.

Part of what I love about "A Song of Ice and Fire" (to switch topics here a bit) is its true ensemble nature. There is no one hero around whom everything else revolves, and no one "truth" against which all opinions are judged. You can have characters on completely different sides who are each understandable and sympathetic despite their differences (and it's also nice that the series has many different factions, not a "one side vs the other side" binary).

( A bunch of babbling, mostly about moral ambiguity in A Song of Ice and Fire and more comparing Jaime Lannister with Logan and Spike )

( Bad Christian Bale movies: Newsies and Equilibrium )