rusty_halo

( DragonCon was awesome! )

I really don't have anything new to say regarding the hurricane... it's absolutely horrifying, and I can only hope that it'll be a wake-up call that this country seriously needs to change. Jon Stewart's monologue last night was perfect (you can watch it at this link), and this rant also rang very true to me.

Stuff that's going on with me:

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A FEAST FOR CROWS!!!

I'm incoherent with delight. It feels like I've been waiting forever for the announcement of this book's publication.

GRRM is going to split it into two novels by character and location. We'll end up with two complete stories, which I definitely prefer over him chopping it down the middle and giving us two halves of a story. Of course, my delight is probably mostly because Jaime will almost certainly be in the first one. More Jaime!! Squee!!

If you haven't read this series yet, seriously, catch up. Plenty of people are starting now; I just got drujan and 10zlaine to read them, too. :)

So yeah, aside from that, I had a pretty good weekend, actually. jaydk and I spent the day together on Sunday and did a double feature: Revenge of the Sith and Kingdom of Heaven. My obsession (Star Wars) and hers (Orlando!).

It was my third time seeing Revenge of the Sith--very cool to see it on the huge screen at Lincoln Square--and once again it made me cry. Luke and Leia's theme music, and Alderaan, and Luke's house, the twin suns, OMG.... *sob* And, also, it helped that I've been reading the novelization--it answers a lot of questions, so that you can more easily sink into the story. (Although the novel is terribly written and its intro to Padme is grotesquely offensive: being a senator doesn't matter at all, because she's all "completely defined by her husband," as if this is a GOOD, ROMANTIC thing, ugh, give up your identity for your husband, so obviously written by a man, and reason #54788514 why I will never get married, and seriously, let's get George Lucas some gender studies lessons, k?....)

Kingdom of Heaven was a lot better the second time. Plus, seeing it right after Revenge of the Sith definitely made me appreciate its sparseness and subtlety. It's beautifully filmed, and I love the minimalism of the dialogue. And I really thought Orlando Bloom did a good job portraying a character who is defined by his actions rather than by his words. (Although we had to run all over the city to see it, and ended up at a 10:20 showing, because the first one we tried was apparently the only sold out showing of that movie in the world.)

Um, and then on Monday I read Veronica Mars fanfic and played Dr. Mario on my NES Emulator. It was a holiday. :P

So tonight I'm going to try to see Chuck Palahniuk, because he's doing a talk at the Barnes & Noble at Union Square. And then on Friday I'm going to try to meet George R.R. Martin at Book Expo America. *crosses fingers*

drujan surprised me after work yesterday. Turns out she'd just remembered that she needed to pick up the Star Wars tickets she ordered a month ago for herself, me, and jaydk. (We're seeing it tonight at 8:15.) So she stopped by my office and gave me my ticket.

Then she dragged me off for "drinks." We ended up this Mexican place, each had a margarita, then ordered a gigantic pitcher of sangria. I can't believe I drank a margarita and half a pitcher of sangria on a Wednesday night.

So, this was supposed to be a brief drink, but when you're drunk off your ass sometimes it becomes pivotal that you see Attack of the Clones immediately, in preparation for Return of the Sith the next day. So we staggered over to Blockbuster, who were out of it, and we ended up hunting it down at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square.

We also got to pass by the huge line (it was only 9pm) of Jedis and Siths and Princess Leia stand-ups waiting for the midnight showing at the Union Square theater. Awesome.

So then suddenly my old friend Mike called me (he said he was on his way to Jeff's house), and asked if I wanted to see Revenge of the Sith with him. I said sure, but I was already seeing it with jaydk and drujan. So now I'm seeing it again, at midnight tonight, with Mike.

So anyway, drujan and I staggered back to my place, collapsed on my couch, and watched Attack of the Clones. I'd never seen the full movie before, and I can't believe I paid money for that crap. But I guess it was, er, educational. Also kind of funny because drujan kept falling asleep, and she snored through the whole wedding scene at the end.

So, tonight, Revenge of the Sith! Twice!

If you haven't seen it yet, check out chase820's latest: Night Fever (part 1 of 2). It's Queer as Folk fic, Brian/Michael, dark and angsty and delicious. It ties in with her wonderful QaF/AtS crossover The Man Who Wasn't There, but you don't need to read that to get this. I highly recommend it; no one writes Brian/Michael like Chase.

I saw "Kingdom of Heaven" last week with jaydk. I actually kind of liked it. Orlando was better than I expected, perfectly adequate, if not quite as charismatic as he could have been. Still, it was a quiet role and an introspective character, and he pulled that off.

The film itself wasn't great, too predictable and not very subtle, but I really enjoyed the fact that Ridley Scott somehow found a way to make a movie about the Crusades that ultimately endorsed pacifism and atheism. Modern sensibilities, sure, but every film is a product of its own cultural age. I thought it was nicely subversive for a mainstream film in this cultural era.

And I liked that it at least tried to grapple with big moral questions, and wasn't just about romance and action--that the romance and action actually were there to serve the plot, and not the other way around. jaydk really seriously needs to post, though, because she actually managed to attend the premiere--she walked down the red carpet and stood near Orlando and Liam Neeson and everything. (Pssst! jaydk! Post!)

I'm still dying with anticipation for the new Star Wars movie. (This is so sad, after I swore I wouldn't look forward to it. ) I was the 10-year-old girl who once actually managed to work herself into sobs over Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi, so I know this movie is going to affect me. It has to at least get to whatever bit of that 10-year-old is still left, right? And The Empire Strikes Back is, to this day, my all time favorite movie. And this new one is supposed to be just as dark! (!!!) I know the dialogue and digital effects will suck, but still, maybe the other aspects will redeem it.

Anyway, a couple of good articles I stumbled across while reading everything I could find on the topic:

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Jedi sex symbol
Darth Vader lives!

(I just liked these, and thought they were worth sharing.)

Yesterday I went to an opera, Alessandro Leardini's 1649 Psiche (Psyche), in Brooklyn. (Yes, I know there are three things in that sentence that don't go together very well, namely me, opera, and Brooklyn, but it happened.) It was pretty, though I know nothing about opera; I went because my coworker was singing in it. It was kind of fun to compare the English and Italian translations; I was surprised how much Italian I could figure out based on the bit of Spanish that I know.

I dragged jaydk with me, and we decided to surprise queenofthorns, since we were in her neighborhood, so we ended up sneaking up behind her and scaring the hell out of her as she was walking her dog. She forgave us, though, and it was cool to have a sort of impromptu meetup like that. :)

Musically, I'm listening to a lot of early Pig, and loving it. Note to self: another long post analyzing Raymond Watts' early work. And maybe another on his recurring lyrical themes. And maybe a third on the various stages of his work, their connections, differences, and changes over time. Must find time for this.

( meme; drujan is going to be jealous! )