a hill of beans in this crazy world

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 05:28:43 GMT

I liked tonight's episode, and I'm not about to give up on this season yet. I'm a little surprised that there are people threatening to jump off the bandwagon already. I mean, "Lost" got much more leeway. Anyway,

- I'm glad the show is starting to bring more of the 'Heroes" together. Things are starting to pick up a little bit.

- I just noticed that Peter's emo-bangs have migrated to Nathan. No!

- Best line of the night: "I'm not a cargo jet!"

- Damn, Matt's dad is badass.

- I can't help it, but I like Peter's storyline. I wish he didn't speak in monotone all the time, though. And... I wasn't impressed by Kristen Bell. I liked her as Veronica Mars because for all her quippy smartassedness, we knew from the beginning that she was a marshmallow. Here she's just... smirky evil Veronica. Although it would totally be wild if Enrico Colantoni guest stars as "Daddy".

- I still like Micah's cousin. Liked their storyline if only because they had a happy moment, unlike all the other characters on the show.

- No Sylar and the WonderTwins, no Claire and creepy West, and minimal Jessica. WIN!

And one last thing...

GODDAMNIT, NBC, WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE SHOWN A SINGLE AD FOR "LIFE"? ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL THE SHOW??

damn, Sunday nights are quiet

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:05:30 GMT

I'm bored and too lazy to write and sad about the state of my TV shows and there's no new fanfic to read.

Look up on IMDB.com the taglines of 10 of your favorite movies. Post and have people guess the titles.

1. ~~He was the perfect weapon until he became the target.~~ (The Jason Bourne Series)

2. Power can be held in the smallest of things...

3. ~~Death Doesn't Take No For An Answer.~~ (Final Destination)

4. ~~A True Underdog Story~~ (Dodgeball)

5. Sometimes the last person on earth you want to be with is the one person you can't be without.

6. ~~Sex. Clothes. Popularity. Whatever.~~ (Clueless)

7. A Comedy About the Greatest Love Story Almost Never Told...

8. Trust a few. Fear the rest.

9. ~~The Longer You Wait, The Harder It Gets.~~ (The 40 Year Old Virgin)

10. ~~The Ultimate Love/Skate Relationship~~ (The Cutting Edge)

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 07:42:24 GMT

To the TPTB Prison Break:

Fuck you. I wish I could think of something more articulate, but I'm tired.

Maybe you should just shut the fuck up instead of pissing even MORE people off, hmmm?

I made the mistake of looking for more information... on the TwoP forums. Not a good idea. There was a snippet from a post by Nick something-or-another, the apparent brilliant writer responsible for tonight's episode:

"The writer/producers were eventually told ... "The actress that play Dr. Tancredi isn't coming back ... make it work." And we did. I think we worked the shit out of it! A head in a box is kick-ass! And in response to someone's comments that the writers shouldn't just write what they want, I say you couldn't be more wrong. An artist has to be true to their vision ... we write what we want ... we get note from our collaborators (studio and network), we make changes due to budget and scheduling restraints, but at the end of the day, we write what gets us excited. If killing characters is what we feel is best in a given situation, we're gonna kill the shit out of 'em. We're gonna stab 'em and shoot 'em and cut their heads off. If people don't like it and turn the show off, we have to deal with the consequences. But we all loved the Sara character and we are going to give her the respect she deserved because her memory will not be forgotten and her death will NOT GO UNAVENGED!!! (hint hint: WATCH EPISODE 6). (it would be silly to give up on a great show because one character is gone. But if you do, that is your right and your choice, and to those that leave the show now, all I can say is thank you for your support and you are making a mistake.)"

Respect?? Chopping her head off is a sign of respect?! I suppose it was meta when you wrote those lines for Sara's executioner, having her whine to Lincoln about "how difficult it was for her to do the deed and how she's just a soldier following orders" blah blah blah. Why, how clever of you. And then, in the same breath after talking about how much you loved the character so much you wrote an especially brutal death for, you try to pimp your next episode??!! Are you fucking kidding me?!

No, it's not a mistake for me to give up the show now. The mistake was my starting to watch the show in the first place.

maybe I should watch less television

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 05:10:22 GMT

Wow.

I didn't expect to resume blogging with a "good-bye, cruel TV show!" post, but that's what I'm going to do. Bye, "Prison Break." Even the allure of ruggedly hot (with an accent!) Whistler isn't enough to keep me watching.

So I'm quitting two shows in one week, both for the same reason. (More about Stargate:Atlantis later.) Thank goodness for fanfic.

And then tonight's episode of "Heroes" had to be totally underwhelming and "WTF???" inducing. I have a headache.

PotC fic!

Tue, 29 May 2007 03:10:46 GMT

Last PotC post for a while (well, last any post for a while), to report the results of my treasure hunt of sorts for Will/Elizabeth fics. It's so difficult to find good ones I think I'm going to start doing fic recs more regularly when I get back.

Terrific ficlets:
Will and Elizabeth, 10 years later by carrielh (Post PotC 3)
As Vessels at Sea by toastandtea (Post PotC3)
How did Elizabeth become the kickass swordswoman in the 2nd and 3rd movies? by memlu (Post PotC 1)

(fanfiction.net links)

To Take Flight By ErinRua
A Will/Elizabeth vignette, post PotC1

Worthy of His Steel
by Honorat
Set in the middle of PotC 1, but it's mostly a flashback to Will's life on Port Royal. (Oh Will!!!)

Longer adventure stories involving everyone:
Pirates of the Caribbean: The African Star: by ErinRua
"An unscrupulous slave ship captain, a royal gem, and a perilous hunt that will span sea and storm"

The Spittin' Image: by Mojave Dragonfly
"The Black Pearl is raiding cruelly all over the Spanish Main. Is it Will's fault for having helped Jack escape? Elizabeth and Will try to unravel the mystery while Norrington hunts the pirates."

Mon, 28 May 2007 02:28:02 GMT

So instead of spending today getting ready to leave for 3 weeks, I looked for Will/Elizabeth fanfic. *sigh* There's not a whole lot out there, sadly. And what's worst, I had to delve into the fandom, which is no picnic for anyone that doesn't think Jack Sparrow is the hottest thing to ever grace film. (Johnny Depp is hot, yes. Jack Sparrow? Not so much.)

So glad I'm going on vacation and will get this out of my system.

edit: And now I'm on youtube looking for Jack Davenport (Norrington) clips. I'm tempted to buy an audiobook he narrated. He has such a lovely plummmy voice.

"I couldn't resist, mate."

Sun, 27 May 2007 01:26:14 GMT

I should be packing for my trip to Hong Kong, but instead, I'm still thinking about Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End because I'm listening to the soundtrack. Damn its catchy themes!

It took me two days, but I think I'm calm enough to coherently talk about it. And now that I'm calm, I have to say that I actually liked the movie, definitely more than Dead Man's Chest. There were parts that I hated, and even after rational thought, I still don't like the ending. I wouldn't go so far to say that I recommend it, but if you've already invested in the series, then go watch it for closure.

Things I liked:

- Overall, I liked the storyline. Considering that the screenplay was not even finished when they started shooting the 3rd movie, it managed to stay more coherent than whatever it was that happened in DMC.

- Geoffrey Rush's Barbossa was 10X more awesome than Jack Sparrow. Sure, he doesn't always make the best decisions, but it totally makes sense how he managed to convince the crew to mutiny against Jack-- twice!

- I loved that they managed to add that sound snippet lifted from the actual ride. I think I might have literally "squee!"ed.

- The appearance of the dog! And the explanation for its appearance: "Sea turtles, mate."

- I loved the swordfight wedding. That's what I pictured Will/Elizabeth doing in their future together, having adventures and fighting side-by-side as a team. An 18th century Mr. and Mrs. Smith, if you will. And to have Barbossa conducting the ceremony was great. He was, after all, the guy that indirectly forced them to admit their feeling for each other.

- Cool kind of call-back to the first movie when Captain Barbossa bows and addresses Elizabeth as Mrs. Turner as she is leaving the Black Pearl for her "honeymoon". In the first movie, because of the mistaken identity issue, he called her Miss Turner.

Things I could've lived without:

- Beckett and Co. were such crummy bad guys. Not only were they all-out evil-- and you know they're all out evil when they kill children without blinking-- they're not at all interesting and they have the lamest reason ever: it's all for the money. Executing civilians, suspending the law, assassinating the governor, taking over a supernatural ship-- all because "It's just good business." Seriously? I hated Beckett so much I wish someone had managed to punch that smug smile off his face. And WTF was that whole slo-mo walking though the exploding ship thing? It would have been so much more satisfying to see the blow him up immediately after realizing he failed.

- Poor Norrington and Gov. Swann. I thought their deaths were unnecessary. I would've loved for Norrington to manage to redeem himself and eventually find a nice quiet girl to settle down with.

- The Keith Richards cameo was amusing, although a bit gratuitous. I don't quite understand what he was supposed to be-- the keeper of the Pirate Rule Book? And why was his face all.... melty?

- So, the whole movie was supposed to lead up to having the pirate conference and convincing them to join together and fight Beckett, right? And when the big naval fight happens... the only two ships that are battling it out are the Black Pearl and Beckett's flagship? While the entire East India Trading Company armada and the pirate fleet just sit back and watch? What??

- The Will/Elizabeth ending still makes me soooo sad, even after reading the screenwriters' explanation. Seriously, I'm listening to the soundtrack, and when track 12 ("One Day") comes up I get an angsty knot in my stomach. It's a beautiful piece of music, and it sucks that it's associate with such a sad scene. The fact is, 95% of the audience will just take the events at face value, which means that most people will think what I thought: the resolution of Will and Elizabeth romance will basically be one booty call every decade for the rest of her life. And she'll raise his kid all by herself, basically reliving what Will's mom went through after his dad "died." So damn depressing!

Here's what the screenwriters said on the message board they hang out on:
(Source post)

Lots of interesting and thought-provoking points. Fun to read.

But to clarify one point: Davy Jones, as Captain of the Flying Dutchman, is cursed to set foot on land only once every ten years ... unless he finds a love that is true to him. Hopefully that rule will be made more clear in the third film.

If the person Jones had been in love with had been true, and waited for him, and stayed in love with him for ten years, upon his return to land his curse would have been lifted. That's a big part of the reason why Jones is so bitter and cruel. He had a chance to lead a normal life ... but his lover was fickle.

Just thought I'd throw that out there, since most the arguing is over rules that are incorrect to the film.

Damn. The message board shut down just as I was digging up the post specifically referring to Will. Anyway, what this means is that since Elizabeth was shown waiting for Will in the after credits tag scene, Will is free from his obligation. I know there's a question about what happens to his heart, but LALALALA!! I don't care!! The only ending I'll accept is the one that somehow leads to the Turner family sailing off into the sunset for more exciting adventures TOGETHER

Oh, and the "Sparrabeth" fans are SO FUCKING ANNOYING. Did you know that the events of "Dead Man's Chest" clearly spelled out in neon letters that Jack+Elizabeth= Twu Wuv 4ever?? Yeah, neither did I.

Maybe I watch too much TV

Thu, 17 May 2007 17:59:35 GMT

Sorry for the lack of updates; I've been going through a bit of an existential crisis the last couple weeks, and if I had posted, they would be really emo posts. Or really bitchy.

So what's good for taking ones mind off of things? TV, of course. It's season finale
season, but more importantly, the big networks are presenting their new
fall schedules. Looking at the decisions so far, I'd say that it's a
pretty even mix of "Yay! It got renewed!/Aww... sorry to see it go",
with a couple of "OMG, I can't believe that crap is coming back/Thank
God that shit got cancelled." (FOX hasn't presented yet, but who cares
about them anyway?)

The Good:

"Friday Night Lights": By far the show I was most concerned about
because I liked it so much, and it's been on the brink of cancellation
ever since it started airing. Critically adored, but ratings
challenged. Luckily, it's on NBC, who can afford to be generous thanks
to the success of "Heroes."

"How I Met Your Mother": I couldn't even believe it at first that CBS
was dumb enough to even consider cancelling it, but apparently it was
very close. They ended up making the right decision, thank goodness.
We'll get to see the rest of the Slap Bet!

Good Riddance: The Black Donnellys, Studio 60, and Jericho. Because
they sucked. And can we get a "Hallelujah" for 7th Heaven getting
cancelled for good? Staked through the heart, lit on fire, and salted
its grave.

Looks good:

"Big Shots": Michael Vartan back on TV? Yay!

"Chuck": More Adam Baldwin (Jayne from "Firefly") can only be a good
thing, but I hope this does better than "Jake 2.0" which had pretty
much the same premise.

"Life": OMG! It's Damian Lewis!!! (Captain Winters from "Band of
Brothers")

The Bad:

"Veronica Mars": I have mixed feelings about it getting cancelled,
since I gave up on the show midway through this season. On the one
hand, it hasn't been good enough to be appointment TV for a while now.
On the other hand, it was still better than anything else that was on
Tuesday nights, and now with "Gilmore Girls" retired, there's nothing
on Tuesday nights to watch.

"Close to Home": Sure, the storylines aren't particularly original, but it
was a decent, solid show with likeable lead characters that was winning
its timeslot and getting much better ratings than "Ghost Whisperer"
(which was renewed). Plus, it had some good eye candy and seemed on the
verge of introducing a new character, a hot detective, as the leading
lady's new love interest. So I'm sad it's not coming back.

Looks bad:

"Cavemen" A sitcom based on the Geico caveman commercials? Seriously??
"Moonlight": Didn't this show used to be called "Angel"? With a much
better looking leading guy? (And from even further back, "Forever Knight"?)

The Ugly:

"One Tree Hill": There was a saying that when Armageddon happens, the
only things left will be cockroaches and "7th Heaven". Since 7th Heaven
is over, I nominate OTH to replace it. Good Lord. This show has it all:
stupid storylines, bad acting, hateful characters, and two of the
biggest douchebags in show business, Chad Michael Murray and Mark
Schwann. Why is it still on the air??!! Ugh. UGH! I'm only being slightly hyperbolic when I say that I
threw up in my mouth a little at the news. Blechh!!

Good TV news

Thu, 10 May 2007 22:19:23 GMT

According to Michael Ausiello from TV Guide, Friday Night Lights got renewed! Woo-hoo!!

"Less thinking, more drinking!"

Tue, 08 May 2007 08:29:22 GMT

It's been a long long day. So I'm not even going to really polish up my thoughts on last night's "Heroes" episode:

- Peter and Claire still have inaprropriate chemistry. Although I think they've toned it down a little bit. I got more of a sibling-vibe from them tonight as opposed to previous episodes.

- Nuclear Ted looks kind of cute now, with floppy Jared Padelecki hair.

- Matt is so so stupid.

- Nikki/DL's storyline... still boring and irrelevant. Seriously, when are they going to get involved in the main storyline? There are only two episodes left!

- Oh Hiro. I love you, but if it turns out that Ando is killed because you didn't have the cojones to kill Sylar when you needed to, I don't think I could forgive you.

- God, Adrian Pasdar is so great. His pained grimace when his mom put on his coat was such a nice touch.

- Awww to the Claire and Mr. Bennet reunion.

- I'm sorry, but... a blood transfusion to cure a disease? Oh Mohinder. And yourself a scientist. I know they're not trying to be realistic, but they couldn't just have called it a bone marrow transplant?

- OK, so I was totally thrown when I saw Nathan talking to Gray Haired Guy because I totally forgot that it was revealed 2 episodes ago that Linderman was the Big Boss of "Pimatech Paper Company". So I guess it makes sense that Gray Haired Guy is also working with Mama Petrelli. So does this mean that he knew where Claire was the whole time? So Mr. Bennet's whole plan of getting shot and memory wiped was pointless? And was this all just an elaborate set up to get Bennet, Nuclear Ted, and Matt to New York to meet up with Peter? (I knew that escape seemed a little bit too easy.)

Only 2 more episodes left. Man, if the season finale isn't a huge payoff, I'm going to be pissed. None of that "opening the hatch and then fading to black" "Lost" crap, thanks.

Heroes, 1.20 "Five Years Gone"

Tue, 01 May 2007 07:16:18 GMT

There is an appalling lack of Mr. Bennet icons which is unacceptable because he is awesome and I think he's hot, in an older man, authority figure sort of way. Especially when he has more stylish glasses in the future.

So... didn't like this episode. Partially because I don't like time traveling into the future storylines because they're always horribly depressing futures. And partially because everyone was acting so stupidly I spent most of the episode yelling at the screen.

So 5 years later, NYC is still a mess, Constitutional Rights have been suspended, and lots of characters are dead. And yet the ones that are still alive have not changed at all. Nikki is still boring, whiny, and useless. Peter is still the reluctant hero. Matt is still a stupid, selfish jerk that can't see the big picture. Mohinder is still just plain stupid. Claire is still under the delusion that she can hide out and live a normal life. Mr. Bennet is still making deals with the devil to protect her. The Haitian still doesn't talk.

And fucking Syler is still all powerful and the boogieman behind all the mayhem, who has either usurped any useful hero's power, or duped them into helping him keep all the others on the run. Bleccchh.

I think I'd almost prefer it if it had been Nathan that was responsible for how screwed up the future was, because then it would have been interesting, how he had been corrupted by power and turns against people like himself. Instead, the villain was again the crazy evil guy.

Random observations:
- So I guess it wasn't just Simone's fault that there wasn't any chemistry in pairing her with Peter; I though his make-out scenes with Nikki were really bad too. I really do think that Milo/Peter has the best chemistry with Hayden/Claire and Adrian/Nathan. Which is unfortunate, unless their familial bonds are not what we think they are.

- I've always loved the Mr. Bennet/Claire relationship, so I think their scene in the diner was the best part of the episode. I liked that she still called him dad, and when she told him she was getting married the expression on his face was the jumbled mix of emotions that I imagine is universal on the faces of all dads when they hear that news. Hayden P. and Jack Coleman are such a great father/daughter pair, on par with Jennifer Garner and Victor Garber on "Alias."

- Ando was all sorts of cute in the episode. And I'm glad that he realizes that he plays an important role, even though he is just an un-powered sidekick. Although I got annoyed at the end when present day Hiro was all, "I can't I can't [timetravel back]" I know it was just to set up the line from Ando about believing in him, but dude. You have an army on the other side of that door, your future self just got shot trying to save you, you're in this horrible fucked up world. Suck it up, save yourself and your best friend.

The closer we get to the finale, the more nervous I get about the fate of some of the characters. And the more I can't wait for them to finally kill of Silar and move on to something else, because he's got to be the most evil, uninteresting bad guy I've every seen.

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:36:08 GMT

The VisualDNA meme that's going around:

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

I feel bored and lazy

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 03:26:09 GMT

Found this on my flist; let's play:

Go to IMDB.com and look up 10 of your favorite movies. Post three official IMDB "Plot Keywords" for these 10 picks. Have your friends guess the movie titles.

1. librarian, biblical plagues, Egyptian curse The Mummy
2. royal romance, reporter, Vespa Roman Holiday
3. diamond, bare knuckle fighting, unintelligible Snatch
4. public transportation, bomb squad, Los Angeles Speed
5. ballroom dancing, rose, spell Beauty and the Beast
6. abominable snowman, little girl, parallel world Monsters Inc
7. swordfight, true love, gentle giant Princess Bride
8. time travel, moonwalk dancing, flying train Back to the Future 3 (the one in the Wild West)
9. chased by dog, baseball, coming of age The Sandlot
10. family saga, galactic war, bounty hunter Star Wars I had The Empire Strikes Back in mind, but I guess these can cover Return of the Jedi and two of the prequels (which I don't even think of when I think Star Wars)

Cookies to peanutbutterer, cinamaroll, and miniorr!

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:10:57 GMT

I was browsing around NBC's FNL page and found a transcript of the live blog that Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton were doing during the season finale. Chandler's comment about his hair:

K: Yeah, I use a special pomade called "motivation".

Hee!

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:33:26 GMT

OMG! I'm kind of flailing right now because I had tickets to the symphony tonight, so I had to go, but I forgot to set the VCR to tape "Friday Night Lights" (because I'm the last person on Earth that doesn't have some sort of TiVo) and now I have to wait until at least tomorrow to watch tonight's episode!! And being the spoiler whore that I am, I've already gone through everyone's comments about how perfect the episode was and HOW CAN I WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW??

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 05:52:45 GMT

Maybe it was the weekend away with no Internet access for 3 days, but the snowboarding trip last weekend seemed to have dampened all my fannish obsession the last week.

Until tonight's Prison Break finale, anyway.

All I can say is: Oh Michael! Oh Sara! (And all right, I'll finally admit that Kellerman was quite hot. When the hell did he get hot?)

The quality sucks, but better than nothing for now:

"She's very pretty... not the boat, senor."

"I'm going to do whatever I can to help you."

More thoughts later. Not terribly coherent at the moment.

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 07:19:15 GMT

Ahh, Tuesday. Now known as my night off from network TV. I did keep PBS in the background (a feature about Amelia Earhart, a Frontline episode about the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, and a documentary about a famous museum robbery), though.

There isn't too much to be gleeful about lately, although I'm hoping that will change after a new episode of "Friday Night Lights" tomorrow and I might even watch CSI:NY again now that Lindsay is back. Since last night's "Prison Break" had no Kellerman appearance I basically tuned out after the Michael/Sara scene. I'm at least grateful they put it at the beginning so I could pretty much fast forward through the rest.

So that just leaves me still clinging to "North & South" (and Richard Armitage) to satisfy my fannish needs. I spent time making clips!

A little background: Margaret Hale's father is a former pastor that quit his job and moved his wife and daughter from the countryside in southern England to live in an industrial town, Milton, in northern England. Mr. Thornton is the owner of the cotton mill factory that pretty much employs most of the town. Margaret doesn't like him too much because the first time she saw him he was beating up a worker that was smoking inside the mill. But as fate would have it, their paths cross again:

Their animosity lessens a little here, as Margaret tries to better understand the mill workers and Mr. Thornton tries to explain how things work up in the north (but I think he's also trying to figure her out at the same time-- see his cute head tilt?):

The Thorntons throw a dinner party at their house. Observe the most lingering handshake between two people who insist that they aren't interested in each other.

So after all those long looks and especially after she kind of saves his life during a riot (she stands between him and the angry workers, and a flying rock) you can't really blame Mr. Thornton for getting the wrong idea (the volume is a little low in this clip):

And believe it or not, the series only gets more interesting in the second half.

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:09:33 GMT

I think it's safe to say that when I'm still interested in something at week 2, it's officially a full fledged fannish obsession. (I apologize if I seem single-minded lately.) More picspam, because I wanted to look at something nice to close out a rather mediocre weekend. I'll admit right now that Mr. Thornton has knocked Colin Firth's Darcy out of first place of my TV-adaptation-of-literature boyfriends. (Book version of Mr. Darcy remains #1, of course.)

He's damn good looking especially when he's grim:

And he's cute when he smiles:

But after some research, it seems like Richard Armitage is handsome no matter which era he's in:

As Guy of Gisbourn on the new BBC "Robon Hood" series, he likes to glower and wear leather:

And sport stubble very attractively:

He looks good in modern times too:

Hmm... another leather coat

As a doctor! (He reminds me of Goran What's-his-face on ER in this pic)

He reads stories on a BBC children's program, which I think is adorable, like this screencap!

Photocredits for all but one: the good folks at the C19 message board (http://c19.proboards53.com/)

OK, I'll stop now. Um... new "Prison Break" episode tonight! And new "Friday Night Lights" this Wednesday! Yay!!

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:32:09 GMT

Some observations from my quest to collect pictures for the panfandom Victorian hand!porn picspam:

1. Apparently, for most of my fandoms, handholding = true love. Because with the exception of "Alias" (which... I'm actually not sure that there was any handholding. Just lots of angsting and then getting separated for one reason or another) and Coach/Tami from "Friday Night Lights", none of the couples that I'm covering even slept together during the course of the show. Handholding and eye fucking and maybe a makeout scene or two were pretty much all that we got to see. I choose my OTPs like I chose my sports teams-- always getting to the playoffs, but never winning the championship.

2. This screencapping is going to take a while, because I keep getting distracted. I mean it's perfectly reasonable that since I've got the Firefly DVDs out to get Simon/Kaylee caps, that I watch the episode too, right? Oh, and maybe I should cap some scenes on another episode on the disc, even though it's not handholding, but who knows, maybe I'll need that particular cute scene for iconmaking later on...

3. Err.. this is taking up much more time and effort than I thought. And at the moment, what I really want to do is watch "North and South" once more, so I'm going to settle with making a Mr. Thornton (Richard Armitage) picspam instead (not too spoilery)

Honestly, the pictures don't even do him justice. You have to hear the voice as well, but I'm still working on making clips. The ones on Youtube are great, but may be a bit spoilery. And long. Anyway.

Here he is, observing out heroine, Margaret. He can't quite figure her out, because she is from the South and thumbs her nose at his rough Northern way of doing things.

But he's intrigued and totally smitten.

She doesn't make it easy for him, though.

Aaand... this one doesn't really fit with the impromptu narrative, but I liked it. It's his skeptical look:

This one doesn't fit either, but I liked the smile:

Anyway, you can guess how it ends, because what else Margaret do when he looks at her like that?:

Oh, and speaking of British dramas, apparently ITV (a British broadcast channel) has made/redone several Austen novels into television miniseries. They're going to start airing over there next weekend and although we don't officially get them here in the US until Masterpiece Theater airs them in its next season (sometime in November, according to IMDB) I'm going to be on the lookout. Really looking forward to Northanger Abbey, which was practically the only Austen novel that didn't get produced in the 90's.

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:11:46 GMT

So I have been a little giddy the last couple days obsessing about "North & South" (the BBC production, not the American miniseries) and it made me think about how I suddenly fall headlong into these "OMG, I have to watch it a million times and look up everything that's associated with it!" -things, and... I still haven't figured out why. BUT! I did find a common thread among all of the obessession thingies, and that is: handporn. So when I get home from work, I will make a handporn picspam.

Now I'm off to catch the bus.

Now if only their stuff weren't so damn overpriced...

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 19:25:11 GMT

After taking public transportation so often and for so long, I tend to ignore all the peripheral stuff that's associated with taking the bus-- other passengers, advertisements, everything. Which was why I almost gave myself whiplash when I saw the new GAP ads on the side of another bus yesterday.

It was indeed Wenthworth Miller gazing from the side of the 5 Fulton bus, along with Daniel Dae Kim of Lost and Chris O'Donnell from Grey's Anatomy (and lots of movies I bet he wishes he wasn't associated with.)

So khaki is "in" again? It's better than the skinny black pants, I guess.

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 06:58:39 GMT

Yay!! It's late Tuesday night which means that "Friday Night Lights" is on... Tomorrow. Even still!

Friday Night Lights fanfic rec! Five times Matt and Julie get caught in a compromising position by honey_wheeler is cute, hot, and very true to the show fic that's Matt/Julie-centric but also has a lot of Coach Taylor and Tammi Taylor.

You know, I'm really glad that in my quest to convince friends to watch "Friday Night Lights," they decided that the characters they liked the most were the ones I liked too. I imagine it would be difficult for me to be so eager to make, say, clips of Tim Riggins scenes. So without further ado, here's the Landry series (links to youtube clips):

Landry Clark is Matt Saracen's offbeat, non-football playing best friend (pilot) who fronts a Christian speed metal band named Crucifictorious (1.11) and often dispenses misguided advice to poor Matt about fashion and first dates (1.09) and how to pacify an angry girlfriend (1.15). You'd think that Matt would realize by now not to listen to Landry, given how often he gets shot down by women-- Julie (1.01) and Tyra (1.16) for example-- but he's a good friend to the Dillion Panthers' newly minted QB1.

4 chillin' on a Lazy Sunday morning songs, and 1 to wake you up

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 20:57:12 GMT

A good idea in theory: Hungover and groggy, I thought I'd get some fresh air and go for a nice long walk along the Marina. And it really was a nice walk; lots of people there with their cute babies and doggies. Too bad I had forgotten to wear a beanie or hat or something and now I've got the sniffles and cold headache. Oh well. It's a nice day to stay in bed anyway.

Music:

1. I Melt with You - Nouvelle Vague
*Used in a commercial for... mattresses? Or sleep medication, I'm not sure which. Anyway, it's a lounge-y, breezy cover of the 80's song.

2. I Will Follow You Into the Dark- Death Cab for Cutie
* I don't listen to the radio much anymore, so maybe everyone has this song already/it's been played to death, I don't know. Simple vocals and acoustic guitar.

3. Eyes - Rogue Wave
* aka "the Song that NBC is trying to pimp the hell out of" (It was used in 2 "Heroes" episodes and on "Friday Night Lights" last week). Lots of strummy guitar and.. a tambourine? It's just... nice.

4. Your Hand in Mine (with strings) - Explosions in the Sky
* Whenever this song comes up, I think back to driving on long stretches of the countryside, where it's just fields and blue sky going on forever. A strummy electric guitar with background violins.

5. Black Betty - Ram Jam
* And for variety, a metal rock song. Goes very well with workouts and sports montages like this one:

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 07:06:28 GMT

Hee! To commemorate browbeating cinamaroll into watching and liking "Friday Night Lights", I made some clips-- several Matt-centric, and one Coach/Julie scene-- but I'm working on compiling some of the awesome Coach/Tammi/family scenes.

Coach Taylor sums up the nature of teenaged boys to Julie over a ping pong game:

Oh Matt... it's probably not a good idea to date your Coach's daughter in his own house. While he's in the other room. He just might glare you out of the house.

A in-game scene, so Coach is shouty and tense... but he goes with Matt's judgement on an important play anyway. (Sidenote: I liked that Matt did that finger-licking thing that I've always seen quarterbacks do during games. Nice detail.)

And just when I don't think Matt/Julie can get any cuter, they have a scene like this one:

OMGWTFBBQ!

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 15:24:12 GMT

Believe it or not, I meant to post more often this year. And you better believe that it takes quite a lot to make my lazy butt to post, so next two clips? I'll admit that I screeched when I saw them.

First off, I don't watch Grey's Anatomy much anymore. Probably around midseason last year, everyone started to become really unlikeable. And they had this unfortunate habit of killing off its really really cute guest stars. But then I was just minding my own business last night when the message boards exploded with what happened in the last minute of Grey's and for once, I don't blame them:

They cut Meredith off before she could finish her sentence, but HOLY SHIT!!! How could two guys possibly be so smouldering hot with only two lines? Kyle Chandler I've always loved ("Hey." indeed. Damn. He completely owns the soulful eyes half smile one liner), but I never really got the appeal of Denny (Jeffery Dean Morgan, I think?) until that "Damn right you are". I'm flailing. Flailing.

And if that wasn't enough, I found out this morning that there's a preview clip floating around of a scene from the upcoming episode of Prison Break.

The smiles! She fake sternly calls him "Scofield"! The thumb stroking! Whoo! Guh!

And now I have to get to work, but just... Damn.