rusty_halo

I was going to ask my flist if I should watch Stonehenge Apocalypse, but I realized the more appropriate question is “How much alcohol do I need to drink before I try to watch Stonehenge Apocalypse?” *sigh* The things I lower myself to in pursuit of pretty…

I’m also trying to watch Smallville season four. However. I’m five episodes in and I think I’ve discovered the limit of how far I’ll go to drool over pretty boys–nothing can make this dreck worth watching. So far all Jensen’s gotten to do is make googly eyes and kissy faces at Lana. And it’s a good thing I live alone because I’m pretty sure a roommate would be weirded out by me yelling “SHUT UP AND DIE!!!!” every time a member of the Kent family appears onscreen.* Also, the plots are insipid and the characters are uniformly stupid and I’m way too be old to be watching people in their mid-twenties pretend to be high school students and if Michael Rosenbaum couldn’t save this I don’t know why I thought Jensen Ackles might be able to. Alas.

* I have a huge problem with way the show idealizes rural white middle-USA patriarchal culture while totally refusing to acknowledge the sexism, racism, and homophobia that prop up its “family values” mythology. But that’s too long to shout at my TV and “DIE!!!!” is way more cathartic.

jaydk and I went to see Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson two weekends ago. It’s … like the ads say, an emo rock musical about Andrew Jackson, which I think you kind of have to see to understand. It was quite fun–we were in the front row, our tickets came with a free drink, and the lead guy was incredibly hot. Seriously, if you want an excuse to stare at pretty men wearing lots of smeared black eyeliner, this is the play for you. The play was mostly goofy (the guy playing Martin Van Buren was hilarious) but it was a pretty sharp political satire, too.

( a bit more about the play )

Afterward jaydk and I wandered around the East Village and got really drunk, which I haven't done in a while and which was a lot of fun. And... possibly this was the alcohol, but she agreed to watch Supernatural with me as a birthday present. Clearly she is THE BEST FRIEND EVER. :) Now I am plotting which episodes to show... I'll have to choose the most sympathetic Dean-centric ones, of course, because I want her to see why he is so wonderful (and to stop looking at me like I've lost my mind).

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

Psst ...

Note to drujan: You must go read thedeadlyhook's LJ. You will love her perceptive commentary on the Buffyverse, particularly on Buffy. She's also the one who wrote those wonderful reviews at Just Stake Me.

Note to soulmate815: The wonderful Spike & Joyce story I was telling you about is DeNile by indri. (If anyone else out there hasn't read this one yet, go read it! It's one of my favorite stories ever.)

Yesterday I bought 20 postcards at a gift shop near me ($.35 each) and spent two hours writing notes on all of them, to various people at Fox, ME, UPN, TNT, and certain media outlets. Just need to get postcard stamps tomorrow and I'm set. Now, c'mon everyone, you too. Just pick up some postcards; you'll find addresses here among many other places.

I bought my ticket to the Creation Buffy/Angel con in Jersey in March. Looking forward to seeing rockgoddes and redeem147 and others there. :)

To do:
Figure out if I'm going to Toronto Trek or not
(If so) figure out Toronto Trek hotel room/roommate situation
(If so) get Toronto Trek plane tickets

Figure out how long I want to stay in Vegas
Reserve WriterCon hotel room
Find WriterCon roommates
Get WriterCon plane tickets

I think jaydk is going to handle our DragonCon hotel and airfare, but I must check with her about it.

I spent four hours tonight in the most boring class ever. We watched this movie that was so boring I couldn't *stand* it. I started braiding strands of my hair into little braids, and then braiding the little braids into bigger braids, because I couldn't sit still.

I forget the name of the movie; it was from 1969 and was about a psychologist who talks crazy women into having sex with him (or not) and films it all with a hidden camera. All you see is clips from the hidden camera. Mostly it's these weird women jumping around naked and screeching, and lots of really irritating pretentious selfish people talking about nothing.

Sudden change of topic...

So, let's review:

Action: Giles and Jenny start to get back together after a period of separation
Result: Jenny dies horribly

Action: Angel gets his soul back, reunites with Buffy, she tells him she loves him
Result: Angel dies horribly

Action: Joyce's romantic life starts to pick up, she gets flowers from a suitor
Result: Joyce dies

Action: Tara and Willow have a happy reunion after months of separation
Result: Tara dies horribly

Action: Buffy finally admits to Spike that she loves him
Result: Spike dies horribly

( AtS S5 spoilers )

As much as I admit that Joss Whedon's shows are some of the best on television, he's got his own formula and it's pretty damn predictable.

I also sort of wonder what this means. People start to get together romantically, and misery ensues. Is it a negative comment on romance? Sex = death?

Or is just a way to drive the knife in as deeply as possible, make it hurt extra when the person dies because we see how much promise their life had? Which is kind of disturbing on a couple of levels. First, the implication that a death isn't quite so meaningful if the person's life wasn't full of promise when the person died. Second that romantic love = your life's potential. Romance gives life meaning? Why does romance signify happiness/potential?

The only time I can remember significant death where this didn't happen was with Jonathan and Anya. (Though it's debatable whether the writers even considered Anya's death significant. And she does get back with Xander shortly before, but that's not her big poignant moment, which is her realization about humanity blah blah blah.) In their cases, we saw how much they'd grown as people, and that's what made their deaths hurt so much. I like that method better, though, because the poignance is emphasized by showing who they are and how they've grown as individuals, not just because they're romantically involved with someone.

Meh. I'm just babbling because I'm tired, and it's too much effort to go get ready for bed, and I really ought to update my website before I go to sleep ...

Speaking of which, visits to my site went *way* up this week. I guess it's the Angel cancellation publicity? *cries*

And speaking of that, there are big ads for "One Tree Hill" and "Smallville" all over my neighborhood, and all over the NYU area. No ads for "Angel," though. Gee, maybe the *lack of promotion* could have something to do with that show's comparitively smaller ratings?

And speaking of Smallville, could that show possibly be any more lame? I retract every nice thing I've said about it. The last few episodes have been like bad after school specials. I love Lex, and Lionel, but the minimal time they get is so not worth it.

Totally random topic change again...

Oh, hey, check it out. My dad sent me pictures of my babies cats. Aren't they wonderful? The white one is Vanilla, who is 18 years old and very bossy. The striped one is Angel (named before the TV character existed!) who my dad calls "Penny" and everyone else calls "The Devil Cat." She is insane. Lucifer, the youngest, isn't pictured, because he thinks he's dog and the others wouldn't deign to let him hang out with them.

( Angel and Vanilla )

We had a conversation at work the other day which reminded me what a freak I am. We're writing this book about our favorite vegan products (don't ask, it's not my idea) and we have to all write something about whatever products we like. I suggested that we all write down our ideas privately, in a database-like thing, and then we can reply to each other, sort of like LJ comments. Converse in writing. Everyone else said, no, let's just have a meeting, talk out loud, and someone can transcribe it.

That idea is horrible to me. I would do sooo much better writing on my own than talking in person. In person I'm quiet and inarticulate and totally unable to communicate well. In writing I'm so much more able to say what I mean. (Not that I'm great in writing, but much much better than in person.)

Which reminds me that my colloquium is coming up. Oh, god, panic. ( boring school stuff )

Now. Must find something to archive before bed.... Oh, I know! Doyle said I could archive her secret slasha fic. Okay ... off to archive.

The Cruxshadows were great last night, as expected. I got there around 8:45 and they didn't go on until around 11:30, which meant I stood around bored for a long time. Also, it was really hot; what's with this weather? The club was packed, but I did get to be in the very front, so that was cool. I always enjoy concerts much more when I can see the expressions on the lead singer's face. I'm very verbally oriented, so the lyrics and the emotion behind them are what matters most to me.

The whole thing was centered on Greek mythology; Rogue introduced most of the songs by telling a few lines about Troy, or Hector and Achilles, or Odysseus, or whatever, tying the story to the theme of the song. It was neat. He's got such a great voice for that kind of thing.

I love that Rogue is so interactive with the audience. He sang at least half the show offstage. He's got a microphone attached to a headset, so his hands are free. He just comes down and walks through the crowd singing to people. Downtime has a cool layout, too, with a balcony with stairs open to the audience. So he climbed up to the top of the stairs and sang a lot from up there, and from the balcony. During Go Away, he went to the bar and got a stool, then carried it into the middle of the crowd and stood on top, singing to the people around him, rotating so he'd get everyone. Then at one point he got annoyed that the people on the balcony weren't dancing, so he climbed up there and hung on the outside of the balcony, over the crowd, and sang directly to them. Then he turned around and hung over the main audience, singing to us.

I also love their dancers. jaydk seemed offended by them at DragonCon, but I think they're awesome. They're not shaking their booty, bodies sexualized kind of dancers. They're very beautiful modern dancers, all of their movements choreographed to match the music and lyrics. There's nothing exploitative about it, it's just really cool and adds another artistic element to the mix.

I also love their violin player, Rachel. How cool is it to have a violin as the central musical element in a rock show? And I love that half the band is female.

They played a few songs from their new album Ethernaut, but most were older songs that I knew. They didn't play Resist/R, though, which was disappointing. But they played almost everything else I would've wanted to hear-Tears, Binary, Go Away, Return (Coming Home), Deception, The Seraphs, Winter Born. The new songs all sounded good; I bought the new record and am listening to it now. They closed with Marilyn, My Bitterness, which kind of annoyed me, actually. I know it's their biggest hit and all, but they've been playing it, like, forever. But it's a good encore since everyone knows it and gets all excited. Unfortunately, since I was in the front, I got pulled up onstage at the end when Rogue was pulling people from the crowd to dance onstage. I hate that. I don't dance. I know no one's looking at me anyway, but I really hate being on a stage in front of hundreds of people. So I hid behind this big guy, and jumped off as soon as it was over. Afterwards I got Rogue to sign my CD; he's so cute. *girly sigh*

Now I'm horribly depressed. I guess it's post-concert letdown. I've been looking forward to this show for the past two weeks--it got me through all the paper-writing and midterms and work stress--and now it's over. I hate being in this frame of mind ... it's like my defenses are down. Everything's upsetting me more than I want it to. Like, I went alone to the concert, and felt so ugly and boring compared to everyone else, and so lonely looking at all the couples. (Even though I don't want to date anyway). Now I'm trying to catch up with my friends list, and all these little things that normally wouldn't bother me are upsetting me greatly. And also, devilpiglet left LJ, and I miss her.

I haven't read LJ since Tuesday; I feel so behind. I'm trying to catch up. Since I haven't posted, here's a quick run-down of what I would have posted about if I'd had time.

( AtS 5x05, Kill Bill, Halloween, etc )

It's late, I'm tired, I don't have time to proofread this entry. I apologize in advance for any glaring typos, grammatical errors, etc.

Saturday I spent the night at Jane's. We had a sleepover and watched a lot of TV. She just got her XF S2 DVDs, so we watched two episodes ("3" and "Humbug"). Season 2 was when I was *really* into XF, so it was cool to see those episodes again. We also watched some Smallville, which I'm really not too fond of. (Lana needs to die. Now.) But I very much appreciated the Clark/Lex subtext. That show gets about a million times better every time Lex comes onscreen. We also watched two Highlander episodes ("Comes a Horseman" and "Revelation 6:8") I made Jane watch them, because I love Highlander and those are my favorite episodes; they're Methos-centric and so well done. I think she liked them well enough. We didn't go to sleep until 7am; then the next day we ran errands and I helped her set up this cool wireless internet thing for her laptop. I also showed her how to use her livejournal (so now she has no excuse not to post).

So, now I'm catching up with fic and posts. Updated 3 works in progess, which you'll find on the homepage (anniesj's Waking the Dead, ginmar's Tabula Obscura, and nashvillain615's Crisis Management). Yay, good fic!

Also, read the finale spoilers (sorry Jane! I couldn't resist). ( Cutting for the vaguest hints of spoilers, but there really aren't any here )

Also, I filled out that Buffy Survey Meme Thing (copied from rachelanton73).

( buffy meme survey thing )

Last week I filled out that Spike survey that is here (the one that the professor of popular culture is doing for a Buffy project). So I decided to post some of my responses here.

( Read more... )