Complexities of the Busty Virgin

And the fans go wild!

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:11:07 GMT

So, Dollhouse will be starting mid-season (grumble grumble), paired with 24 (do people still watch that show?), and shown on Mondays at 8 (against Chuck).

And, oh, yeah,

Reposted from (locked) blank_dolls:

The headshot of Eliza looks to me like it was just recycled from a Tru Calling promo. XD

Tired Marion is tired.

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Thu, 15 May 2008 05:06:10 GMT

Friday started off the weekend of Mothers' Days for me -- Friday was spent with Mom, Saturday was spent with Grandma M (and Mom), and Sunday was spent with Grandma J (and Mom). Then we had back-to-back Angels games on Monday & Tuesday.

With people she doesn't know coming to & from the backyard pretty often, Lucy's gotten more nervous, and has started barking & whining again pretty much whenever she's outside. So I've been waking up early without being able to get back to sleep. Ugh.

Saw Forbidden Kingdom on Saturday, and it was a load of crap. But I want to slash Jackie/Jet now, wtf, stop it, brain!

Also caught Ushpizin on tv today. I recommend it!

Anyway, I have a link dump for y'all. :3

First of all -- gay rodeo!

They can keep telling me that Zachary Levi is a nerd all they want, but I'm not buying it.

5 minutes with Chiwetel Ejiofor. Mentions the possibility of him doing a TV series. WANT.

Lee Pace confirms Tarsem's story about asking if he had a penis -- ...he was like, “I just wanted to make sure that you had a penis.” I didn’t have to show it to him or anything.

Annoyingly written ('Fronds of dark-aubergine fringe stray across his deep-brown eyes...') but interesting Alan Cumming article.

Yes.

A few quick things:

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:49:49 GMT

If there is one good thing that came out of that misogynistic, statutory-raping, creepy-ass polygamist cult, it's that it gave Mo Rocca & Tim Gunn an excuse to have a fashion summit.

Two new Chiwetel Ejiofor interviews! I am getting spoiled! One long one (I tell people that [Redbelt is] - in that classic actor way - about a Jiu-Jitsu instructor... [laughs] Hamlet is about this soldier who works for Fortinbrass... ), and one short one (Kinky Boots remains the most dangerous project I've done - because of the four-inch heels, which are lethal... After doing (that) you tend to look at any project and think, 'OK, I can handle this.').

Indian bride rejects groom for poor math skills. I love the tone of the article. Poor woman still had to marry the dude's bro, though.

96 arrests in drug ring at San Diego State University. Dudes... didn't this happen on Veronica Mars?

Mix 'n' Match

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 06:54:08 GMT

On Friday night, Dad & I got Mom to watch her first Die Hard movie (she likes Justin Long), and I was so caught up in it that I missed Moonlight. Ha ha, oh well. So then, I read today that McG's Terminator 4 is going to be... guess what? PG-13, too! LOLZ! Fandom asplode! Seriously, guys, even my mom likes the Terminator franchise, R-rated though they may be... and that's saying a heckuva lot. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I doubt it's going to be done well.

Anyway, I caught up on Moonlight yesterday. Okay, the joke about Josef being Mick's step-sire? I AM ALL OVER THAT. NEED ICON NOW. Being a VM fan, I naturally love me some Jason Dohring, but I feel like Josef is really under-used in the series. And the one episode that was really about him, with his comatose girlfriend in NY? I did not enjoy. However, they've given him some awesome scenes these past couple weeks, with the (re!)turning of Mick, and being consulted by Beth about the problem paparazzo. The thing about Josef is, a lot of the time, they forget to play to the fact that he's older than everyone else. Because Mick has such a strong moral voice, and Josef is so morally grey, their relationship can seem as though Mick is Josef's mentor, while the reverse is supposedly true. And I really felt that from Sophia in the scene with Beth deferring to Josef in last week's episode. And then the writers took it one step further, and even had Beth quit her job based (at least partially) on Josef's advice. Interesting.

And, at last, they acknowledge that Mick/Beth is a bit creepy! "You've known me since I was four." "Okay, it's weird when you say it like that." I was disappointed Beth didn't tell Mick the truth about the blackmail (like, does she think he couldn't handle it on his own, or what?), but she did redeem herself a little bit by going to Josef. I think that she's struggling to really see herself as Mick's equal, despite their differing ages and abilities, so she justifies keeping the photos a secret from Mick as "protecting" him -- both to Josef and to herself. But this need to be seen as an equal isn't that surprising, considering that upon her discovery that Mick ~~stalked her~~ watched over her since she was a girl, Beth told him she had felt that she'd had a guardian watching over her. Now that Mick & Beth have decided to move forward with their relationship, the idea of a guardian angel is unrealistic and too romantic for the fully-grown, fully-capable woman that Beth has become.

Tarsem (director) gives an interview about 'The Fall' -- '...when I met Lee I said, "Let me just ask you one question. You were very convincing as a woman. Nothing else is required. If you have a penis, the part's yours." He said, "I have a penis," and I said, "The part's yours."'

Warner Bros announced the launch of thewb.com: "Users will now be able to take ownership of these cherished characters and relationships and bring them into their homes on their own terms, customizing, reordering, re-editing and reinterpreting these shows in a very personal way." As afterellen.com noted, this could be a slasher's (or any shipper's, really) dream come true.

Still time to play the guess my favorite characters meme!

The Torchwood S2 finale aired on the HD channel tonight. (Seriously, our BBC America reception = not great.)

I haaaaate being sick.

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:59:31 GMT

Seriously. My head is all stuffed up; not only with sinus pressure, but also, I just feel stupid.

Thusly, my only entry today is a meme:

Here is a list of 20 of my fandoms. See if you can guess my favorite character for each of them. [Some of these should be gimmes, & some are pretty hard. And, like, even I'm not really sure who my favorite Heroes character is, so a few of these will have an alternate answer.]

01. Buffy: the Vampire Slayer
02. Angel the Series
03. Firefly
04. Veronica Mars
05. Stargate: Atlantis
06. The Princess Bride
07. Die Hard (the series)
08. Tru Calling
09. Pushing Daisies
10. Heroes
11. Chuck
12. Grey's Anatomy
13. Dead Like Me
14. Torchwood
15. Psych
16. Roswell
17. Terminator (movies)
18. Sarah Connor Chronicles
19. Lord of the Rings
20. Highlander (tv)

I have a cold, and my head's all stuffed up.

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Sun, 04 May 2008 06:52:55 GMT

Wore my Indiana Jones shirt today (one of several -- this one is actually for the 10-year anniversary of the ride at Disneyland, and has an eye logo on the back that reminds me of Sauron), and the proprietor of the bookstore we went to asked if I was looking forward to the new movie. Um, let me think about that.... YES.

Rob Thomas' other series pilot got a lead (or, at least, one of the principals): Catherine O'Hara!

Chiwetel Ejiofor talks directors: Spielberg, Frears, Lee, Allen, Cuaron, & Mamet.

There's this whole subgenre of SGA fic where John & Rodney are gay penguins. I don't even know, you guys, but some of the fic is actually good. Anyway, I'm still hoping those writers never hear about this story. It could get ugly.

And in "sisters are doing it for themselves" news:
Currently, there's a woman going through S.W.A.T. training, and if she passes, she'll be the first female SWAT member, ever.

A 18-year-old medic earned a medal for her actions in Afghanistan, and then was pulled from the combat team by the higher-ups -- for being female.

Rar ar ar!

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:35:37 GMT

Ugh. This was posted in heroes_tv, but I didn't respond there for obvious reasons.

Niki Sanders was voted one of "TV's Top 10 Coolest Moms". I'm not impressed by most of the choices, to be honest, but placing Niki on that list absolutely horrifies me.

The rest of this rant is going under a cut, as I know a couple of people on my flist do like Niki.

First of all, the article has mis-information (aside from spelling Niki as "Nikki"): "Being a single parent with an identity disorder is even harder, especially when it results in superhuman strength that is sometimes too hard to control."

Niki's MPD is the result of her being unable to deal with her superhuman strength, not the other way around. Of course, the superhuman strength isn't the only psychological stressor that contributed to the MPD. The childhood trauma of her twin sister being murdered by her father (the same father that she allows to hang around with [and buy presents for] her son) is probably also a factor. And so is trying to kick a gambling addiction. And so is realizing the father of your son is part of a gang of thieves. And all of these are just the beginning of Niki's problems.

I'm not really "up" on MPD, and how the people who have it are affected. Niki & Jessica aren't really portrayed as different personalities, though. Jessica is basically Niki's id, doing all the things that she wants to do, but can't (the same with "Gina"). Jessica even refers to Micah being "our" son. The thing is, even aside from all the stupid and terrible things that Jessica & Gina do, Niki's an internet stripper who works from the same home that she raises her child in. That is NOT cool.

She consistently makes the wrong choice whenever she's presented with one, usually picking the option that's easiest for her, but bad for her son. When finding a school for her genius kid, she of course picks the one that cares about how much they're getting paid, rather than how smart her kid is. When loan sharks start to come around (and threaten her and her kid), she leaves him in the line of fire, instead of getting him as far away from her as possible. She drives her kid around in a car that has the brutalized corpses of two men stuffed in the trunk. These are just some of the things that happen in the first few episodes of the series. I could go on like this for paragraphs. So, so many paragraphs.

I won't even talk about the events of "Four Months Ago", when Niki is Gina, because they just piss me off too damn much. Besides, the people who wrote the article clearly weren't thinking about Four Months Ago when they wrote, "It isn’t easy to distance yourself from the one thing in the world that keeps you living." All I have to say to that is: HA!

Basically, the article commends Niki for getting the psycological help she needs. But, the way I see it, she does way too little about her issues (which are not, by any means, limited to MPD), and she does it far, far too late -- to the point that her subverted psychological problems manifest themselves as this whole other personality. And even excluding the actions she performs as "Jessica" and "Gina", she still does all sorts of reprehensible things, setting a bad example for Micah. She selfishly struggles to keep him with her, when he'd be better off away from her.

We've now seen, canonically, that Micah has no qualms about using his powers to steal cash or services (like toll phones or pay-per-view tv). His gift with technonology combined with his intellect have started to give him a superiority complex, I think, fostered by the complete lawlessness of both of his parents. Someone steal something from you? Bah! Don't bother notifying the police! Just steal it right back!

When does Dr. Horrible get here?

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:07:03 GMT

Karl Urban in 3D. I AM SO THERE.

You know what's cool? Those "limited edition" Indiana Jones Dr. Pepper cans. Just sayin'.

Want to see more of me? - a slideshow/pseudo-article of 6 black British actors, and the dearth of roles for them. Including Chiwetel Ejiofor & Naomie Harris.

Oh, Gary Dourdan, no!

Keith R. A. DeCandido (aka kradical, author of several Star Trek novels as well as the novelization of Serenity, and contributor to Finding Serenity) weighs in on the Star Trek movie here. "I think Zachary Quinto is perfect for Spock, and Karl Urban can pretty much play anything." :D

Another fic round-up

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:36:18 GMT

This comes up because medie is holding a female-centric Drabble-a-thon called Because We're Awesome in her LJ. There're lotsa prompts from lotsa fandoms (mostly scifi tv, though)! So far, I've written 3: Trilemma (SGA), Key Personnel (SGA/VM), & Per Diem (Eureka). Someone even wrote my girl!Lyle Bennet prompt!

January:
For obvious reasons, I'm not very good at writing porny bits, so I worked on 3 practice ficlets in oxoniensis's Porn Battle V.
Easy Way Out - Die Hard 4, Matt/John, "safe", slash, NC-17
You Know My Name - SGA/Psych, Rodney/Shawn, "spirits", slash, NC-17
Beating Heart - Firefly/BtVS, Faith/Kaylee, "repairs", femmeslash, NC-17

February:
I didn't do an exchange in btvs_santa this year, but I had signed up as a back-up santa, so I ended up writing this:
Balance of Power - BtVS, Faith/Giles, NC-17
For a multi-fandom "leap year" challenge:
Spirit of Gravity - SGA, S2 team genfic, PG

April:
These are both for the Team Teyla AU fest:
A Big Delight in Every Bite - SGA, AU team genfic, G
Remember Me When - SGA/VM fusion, AU team genfic, PG-13

I also have some comment fic from various places to post:

Untitled BSC ficlet written for mizzmarvel:
Janine was all excited about moving into her first apartment, and seemed determined to have a decorating scheme based on one of her weird outer space shows. Whatever. Normally Claudia couldn't care less, but it was the chance to design three whole rooms, and Janine was paying her in Chocodiles, which were next to impossible to find in stores anymore.

Claudia's secret weapon was the internet, her ace-in-the-hole a website that listed special terms which the characters frequently used on the show. Janine was going to flip when she found out that Claudia had used her own ingenuity for once!

G-O-R-R-A-M. Claudia raked her teeth over her bottom lip in consternation. That couldn't be right. But that was what the paper printout (slightly smudged -- it wasn't like she could eat Doritos with a fork) that she held in her hand read.

Claudia began to trace the letter 'G' in pencil about one-and-a-half feet high on the wall that faced the front entrance to the apartment. She decided that the purple glitter paint she'd bought would be the perfect finishing touch. It seemed like a really expressive word. Maybe she'd even add an exclamation mark.

And a couple of ficlets that did not get me kicked off the latest round of joss_las (yet). The theme of this round is post-Chosen or post-NFA.
At First I Was Afraid, Harmony, "survivor", gen, PG
Walking away from Wolfram & Hart was one of the hardest things Harmony had ever done. Especially since it meant taking a shortcut through the low-rent district. In her eagerness to pass one particularly squalid block of buildings, she’d snapped off the sexy kitten heel of one of her shoes.

As Harmony wobbled down the street, she heard the engine of a sports car pull up to a stop beside her.

“Ugh, domestic,” Harmony said to herself.

“Excuse me, Miss, are you in need of assistance?” the driver asked.

Harmony turned to sneer at him, because yeah, right, like she was about to climb into a Ford, but the candy-apple red color of the paint job called out to her vampire senses even in the dark, and her nostrils caught the scent of genuine leather mixed with the musk of a healthy human male.

“Oh, thank God you came along!” Harmony exclaimed, turning on the waterworks. “This has been the worst day of my life! My boyfriend broke up with me, and then I got fired from my job, and my favorite pair of shoes just fell apart as I was walking down the street, but that doesn’t even matter, since I don’t have any place to go!” she sobbed.

“Aw, don’t worry, babe! It’ll be okay, I promise,” the driver said, leaning over to pop open the passenger door. “I’ll take real good care of you.” The last was said with a predatory smile; Harmony recognized the white flash of teeth in the dark.

“I’m sure you will,” Harmony said as she slid into the car.

At the city limits, she suggested that he pull over, sighing up at him and batting her lashes. When he did, she broke his neck and pushed him out of the car, after partaking in a few pints to shore up her strength.

She had a long way to go before dawn.

Like Morning Dew, Dawn-centric, "dawn", gen, PG
The clerk realizes her mistake when Andrew tosses down his platinum, no-limit card onto the counter, but she doesn’t flinch, or try to overcompensate for her previous disdain by oozing charm.

Anyway, Dawn’s impressed by her poise.

“The Presidential suite, Andrew?” Buffy asks incredulously as they return to the bus to gather up the walking wounded.

“We needed a suite with a large, central room so that we could put all the injured people in one place to keep an eye on them.” Andrew fidgets.

‘Triage,’ Dawn thinks. It’s not a word with which most teenage girls would be familiar. But she is.

“Well, yes, good thinking,” Buffy concedes, “but what I actually meant was, ‘When did you become Mr. Moneybags?’”

“Supervillain, remember?” Andrew says smugly. “Turns out crime actually does pay.”

Buffy just stares at him.

“And, um, it may have helped that I took some of Anya’s investment advice,” he finally adds. “Smart cookie, that girl.”

It doesn’t take that long to get everyone situated in the hotel room. Those with critical injuries had been dropped off at the local hospital. Rona had parted ways there, too, without so much as a ‘good bye’ or ‘good luck’. It was only then that Dawn had realized that Amanda had not made it out of Sunnydale. She’d been hit by a wave of guilt -- for not noticing, for passing the flagpole to Amanda in the first place, for her earlier feeling, as she pressed her hands against the glass of the back window of the bus: that she would trade every single one of them if only Buffy made it out alive.

This guilt is the thing that’s still driving her as she moves to check the bandages of each of the girls scattered about the luxurious room.

After fighting in the battle of their lives, and then being cooped up on a bus for several hours, Kennedy, Vi, and a handful of the other newly-minted slayers are growing restless in the hotel room.

“I’m just saying, we might as well be out there, kicking some ass!” Kennedy punctuates her statement by cracking her neck.

Buffy looks at Giles, who just shrugs exhaustedly.

“Fine,” Buffy says, and begins to move toward the door, before meeting eyes with Dawn.

Dawn doesn’t say anything, just holds her gaze silently. Buffy takes a deep breath, then looks away, and Dawn feels her hope sink down into her stomach.

But it turns out that Buffy’s not looking away, she’s just looking around. “Faith,” she says, once she’s located the other experienced slayer, “will you take the girls out?”

Faith looks at Buffy’s tired face, sees the hand still pressed lightly against the wound in Buffy’s abdomen, and nods. She rounds up everyone who wants to patrol, and Dawn notes with surprise that Xander is among them. They head out without saying another word.

Dawn sits down on one unoccupied chaise, and when Buffy joins her, Dawn curls herself around her sister, resting her head on her shoulder.

“Dawnie,” Buffy sighs, reaching up to stroke Dawn’s hair, just like she’d always done. When their parents got into a shouting match. When they moved to Sunnydale, and the first friend Dawn had made dumped her within two weeks. When their mom got sick.

She stays until Buffy falls asleep, gets up to check on all the other girls, then returns to her spot on the chaise. She doesn’t sleep at all, but waits, watches, and counts as the group that went on patrol comes back in staggered groups of two or three.

Faith and Kennedy are the last two to return, sniggering and high-fiving, just as the first light is creeping through the window.

Dawn closes her eyes at last.

Lolz, oh, Moonlight!

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:50:48 GMT

Dear CBS PTB: I know that you are having trouble finding a steady showrunner for Moonlight, but you'd better get on that right away. And maaaaaaybe you can find someone who will make sure that the show's Big Romantic Gesture won't be overshadowed by using the same song from another cult vampire show's (okay, the other cult vampire show's) iconic romantic moment.

Wii brings Strong Bad to your game console.

A Talk with Chiwetel Ejiofor -- 'But it’s not like friends of mine are like, “Yeah, the thing about him is that he has this internal moral code, and honor, and decency that he exudes.”' (To which the interviewer responds, 'But they totally do.')

It's like an episode of Wonderfalls. Baby saver!

Robotic toys. Cool & creepy.

My favorite band, c. 1990.

Je suis pas allée au ciné.

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:18:21 GMT

A Chorus Line - Dad was visiting his parents for the evening, so I dug through Mom's DVDs and found about 4 chick flicks/movies Dad wouldn't be interested in for her to pick from. She chose this one. I found basically all the songs to be stupid & annoying. Shut up & dance, dammit! I mostly wanted to see it for Terrence Mann, who, of course, was great. And, naturally, they have a big finish, which was enjoyable but weird, and I didn't exactly understand it.

Alpha Dog - It lacked a little in narrative thread, which I can only presume is due to the fact that events were still occuring as the movie was being made. Ben Foster totes stole the movie, in my opinion, but his character disappeared completely about halfway through. (Like, one minute he's threatening the main villain with typical I'm-gonna-hunt-you-down-and-kill-you fare, and then you never see him again.) They tried to ugly up Bruce Willis, and Vincent Kartheiser reminded me of Lady LovelyLocks. In short, I was not impressed.

Eyes of Laura Mars - Faye Dunaway is a fashion photographer targeted by a stalker who kills the people she works with. She receives psychic visions through the eyes of the killer of the murders as they are happening, and flails around blindly. Whatever. The real draw of the movie for me was young Tommy Lee Jones, the police detective investigating the case. And it included bonus sides of character actors Rene Auberjonois and Brad Dourif. The best parts were A) the cracktastic ending, which I will not reveal, B) TLJ teaching Faye Dunaway how to use a gun ('When he comes at you, hold it as far away from your face as you can, and pull the trigger. Then he'll go away.'), & C) Rene Auberjonois disguising himself as Faye Dunaway's character so she can give her police protection the slip, and then being confronted about it by one of the policemen ('It's my birthday, and I'll wear whatever I want to!').

Wedding Daze - The romcom written & directed by Michael Ian Black! It was kind of boring, actually, despite a pretty good cast (Joey Pants! As a badass convict!), and Isla Fisher was super-cute in it. I think this mostly got buried because it came out around the same time as that Ben Stiller movie, which had a similar plotline -- people who are more or less strangers decide to get married.

In short, I wouldn't particularly recommend any of these, except Eyes of Laura Mars, if you want to watch a good bad movie.

A Country for Old Men

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:48:11 GMT

So, I had this link to a quote from Tommy Lee Jones that I'd e-mailed to myself as a reminder to post it, but it got buried in my inbox. Re: building a fence on the US-Mexico border. Now, I don't exactly agree with everything he says, but I love him to death for saying it.

TLJ has long been one of my age-inappropriate crushes, so in his honor, here's a picspam of my top 5 age-inappropriate crushes (in no particular order).

TLJ, obvsly.

Ian McKellen. I know, guys. But I can't help it that he's so awesome.

Bruce Willis. Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs!

Scott Bakula. There is nothing he can't do.

Ron Perlman. He just has this aura of badassitude. I dig.

Couplet in the lj-cut is from the totes unrelated poem To one that asked me why I lov'd JG.

Crazy Movie Casting

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:55:42 GMT

Moon Bloodgood is in talks to star in T4. I should probably stop paying attention to the development of anything to do with the Terminator franchise. It gives me such emotional whiplash. Christian Bale being cast as John Connor was cause for cautious optimism, which was viciously crushed out when the news appeared that ~~Chekov~~ Anton Yelchin was "in talks" to play Kyle Reese. And now Moon Bloodgood's name comes up to star as the female lead, and all I can say to that is, CLOSE THE DEAL, McG!!! This is the best franchise-related news I have heard since Summer was cast as a Terminatrix.

Aaaaand, Bai Ling is going to be in the Crank sequel. A) Have the writers seen their own movie? How can there be a sequel? B) In spite of having pretty awesome actors, they continue to cast tiny, plastic, fake women. (Amy Smart was in the original, and is going to be in this one, too.) Sometimes I hate showbiz so hard. C) This is a franchise that could also be helped by Moon Bloodgood, D) Though not as a HOOKER, jesus, aren't people sick of [inevitably female] sex workers in EVERY SINGLE action flick yet? E) The seedy, grittiness of the first movie helped give it some grounding in spite of its surrealism; it seems, though, that the sequel will be pure raunch.

Stars when you shine, you know how I feel

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:45:01 GMT

Feeling Good was the song-of-the-week for season finale of Eli Stone. George Michael + Loretta Devine + Victor Garber = Surprisingly high levels of WIN.

I hope this is available for download at some point, because I WANT IT.

In the meantime, I'll be re-playing Nina Simone - Feeling Good.

Also, it was guest-starring Rick Worthy! More WIN.

If the roof's on fire, let the motherfucker burn.

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:58:00 GMT

My favorite starlet has a new, absolutely terrible-sounding horror flick coming out.

The Hollywood Reporter posted 'dialogues' (i.e. - very brief interviews) with some of the lead network honchos. Kevin Reilly for Fox (sigh -- it sounds like the Sarah Connor Chronicles will be back); Dawn Ostroff for CW (they want "loud" comedy); Stephen McPherson for ABC (ABC is for girls, apparently); & Nina Tassler for CBS (wishy-washy on the status of Moonlight).

RT has taken a backseat on the 90210 spin-off, to focus on his 2 ABC shows.

And, the US Supreme Court is going to review the case of a man who was sentenced with capital punishment after being found guilty of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter.

Ahaha, what?

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:58:04 GMT

So, back in North Carolina, everyone used to call my grandpa, Joseph Benson, "Junior", even though he technically wasn't, since the name of his father (who died when he was 14) was Joseph Benjamin. Or so he always thought. Supposedly, when he joined the Marines, they even had him listed as a Jr., but he had them take it off; he's gone by "Joe Ben" for forever (and, yes, he had a Mercedes with the vanity plate "JOEBENZ").

And, like, it's been part of the family mythology for so long. If any of my sisters or I had been born a boy, we would've been named Josiah Benjamin. One of our first family pets was a little white bunny rabbit named Benjamin. (It's on home video, guys!)

Today, my dad joined ancestry.com, and started looking things up. In the 1920 census, my great-grandfather is listed as J. Ben, with wife Ruby, and son J. Ben Jr. Then Dad what "Whaaaa?" and flipped out & stuff & called Grammy, saying that it had Grandpa listed as "Jr." And then I got on and found the birth records for Polk County, and they indeed list Joseph Benson as the son of Joseph Benson.

MY LIFE IS, LIEK, A LIE. ;)

Flickr Meme

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:12:36 GMT

From green_queen.

1. Go to www.flickr.com
2. Type in your answer to the question in the "search" box
3. Use only the first page
4. Copy the html and paste for the answer.

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Who is your favorite Disney princess?

7. What is your favorite drink?

8. What is your dream vacation?

9. What is your favorite dessert?

10. What do you want to be when you grow up?

11. What in life do you love most?

12. What's one word to describe you?

13. What do you dream about?

14. What is your favorite book?

15. What is your favorite movie?
& & & ... I could go on for a while like this....

Not enough questions. I'm bored again.

Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a baritone!

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:23:22 GMT

On Friday, I went to the Getty with my parents to see Iris DeMent in concert again. They've clearly been conserving water; the long path that leads over a man-made waterfall down to (or up from) the garden didn't even have water in it, and the lawns were quite brown. Still, there were some gorgeous colors.

On Saturday, I went with Mom & her parents to see the 2008: A Space Oddity, a concert by the Orange Empire Chorus (basically, a bunch of older retired men who do barbershop-style singing). If you click the link, there's a drawing of a fake-Enterprise that they actually had as a large set piece, which was pretty cool. Mostly, it was regular barbershop songs, either set up with a skit to put them in a 'sci fi' context, or having fiddled-with lyrics to give them a sci fi edge. Since it was mostly older men, the sci fi references that were made were pretty old-school and quaint. As in, "Mork & Mindy" old-school. The performance also featured a set by The Perfect Gentlemen, which was basically straight-up barbershop. The director of the Orange Empire Chorus is part of a barbershop quartet called Hi-Fidelity, and they have a whole Star-Trek themed show, where they dress up as Kirk, Spock, Scotty, & Bones, and are generally awesome. Yeah. And they had CD's for sale. So, of course I got one. (Like, literally, they were in the lobby during intermission. I bought a CD from SPOCK, guys. You can, too.)

Enterprise/Sulu Medley - Hi-Fidelity
Before you get all offended on behalf of George Takei (or John Cho!), please keep in mind that this is based on a traditional barbershop song called "Don't Take Lulu".

Star Trek Girls Medley - Hi-Fidelity
'Lovely shape/ Custom built/ Squeeze her wrong/ And she says, "TILT"/ Has anybody seen my gal?'

Wish upon a Star/Impossible Dream Medley - Hi-Fidelity
Okay, the thing is, NSYNC did an a capella version of Wish upon a Star, and it's pretty great, and I'm not that keen on that song in the first place, BUT, I kind of have a thing for Don Quixote (& Man of La Mancha), so I totally dig the second half of this song. Also, the opening prologue, about never stop dreaming, is done by "Spock" -- an FYI since you can't see it -- which gives me a small chuckle of mirth.

On Thursday night, I realized that I have pretty much fallen head over heels for the show Eli Stone, and I hope it retained a large chunk of the Desperate Housewives audience tonight, because it really needs to get picked up for another season. Tonight's episode guest-starred John Billingsley (and, hey, going back to the Star Trek theme of this post), which gave me glee. Really consistent casting is one of the amazing things about this show. Like, I don't remember ever thinking an actor/actress didn't fit in a role, which happens to me all the time. And it keeps casting "unknown" people who I do recognize; a couple episodes ago, they had both Wallace's Hot Professor from VM and Chief Vick from Psych. They even had Carlos Jacott on Thursday's ep. THERE IS NO BAD THERE. The only negative thing I can say about the show is that I wish it would be a little edgier, a little darker. Joss, Rob Thomas, & Bryan Fuller have totally ruined me for mainstream TV.

Anyway, all this makes me realize that I NEED a Bones icon. C'mon, Paramount, release some promo photos already! The world wants to see Zock!

Whee!

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:49:36 GMT

Even though it's not her birthday anymore where she is, and she probably won't even see this for like a week or two, I'm making a Yellow(ish)! Spam for wendyjoe555's birthday!

(Dudes, there has got to be yellow in there SOMEWHERE.)

And, of course:

And a few quick links:
Gay character on Pushing Daisies -- "he has a little crush on Emerson." Well, who wouldn't?!

Moar Cupid news: the pilot will be directed by (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day director) Bharat Nalluri.

Kristen Bell interview which talks about VM, Sarah Marshall, Elle, Gossip Girl, Serious Moonlight, etc.

Come on and do the Humpty Hump

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 05:18:07 GMT

Went to our first baseball game of the season last night! That Torii Hunter guy might prove to be actually be worth all the salt he's getting; last night he had a home run, a grand slam, and stole a base (seriously, I think we had like 4 stolen bases last night). Anyway, we usually get THE MOST obnoxious people possible sitting behind us, but last night there was a family with a mop-haired, about 10-years-old boy, who was polite and knew the lyrics to Blitzkrieg Bop. And, mizzmarvel, I heard him say "You're killing me, Smalls!" to his parents or sibling or something during the game, and I had to try really hard not to LOL, 'cause it totes made me think of you.

Bobby Cannavale has been cast as Cupid in the re-make. The only thing I've seen him in is one episode of Will & Grace (the Kristin Davis episode), when I was really bored & desperate for something to watch. He seemed okay. It reminded me of Rob Thomas' website description of what he originally wanted the character of Cupid to be: 'Jeff [then-president of Sony Entertainment] saw a completely magical creature played by Dean Cain. I envisioned Wallace Shawn playing a certifiable lunatic. We ended up with Jeremy Piven playing a character that split the difference.' (Which, by the way, I think is a pretty accurate description of Jeremy Piven.) Cannavale clearly falls nearer to the Dean Cain end of the spectrum.

First Summer Glau, now Kristen Bell.

Also, Sugarshock is being printed! Since it's $20 for a book that includes two other comics I won't read (Gerard Way, wtf?!), I won't be rushing out to buy it, as I print-screened it from MySpace.

Joyce & I were channel surfing on TV today. First we watched the MTV-flashback thingy that showcases old rap songs. She did not recognize The Humpty Dance, which made me both sad & grateful. Then I saw that This Is Spinal Tap was on the "Music in HD" channel (which generally has sucky stuff on), and neither of us had seen it before, so we watched (I tried to coax her into watching it by saying "Count Rugen is in it!"). Yeah, ♥. \m/

Hey, I'm not wearing underwear!

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:37:02 GMT

::sigh:: Apparently Chiwetel Ejiofor does not like being called "Chewie". This makes me sad, but I guess I can understand why. :[

Alex O'Loughlin interview -- "I eat real food so Mick doesn't have to."

Justin Chambers photoshoot -- good stuff!

Kristen Bell interview -- "Is it just me, or do you actually begin to look more and more like a Fraggle after the age of 70?"

2008 Asian Excellence Awards Nominees. Sponsored by JC Penney! This is a really odd mix of people & genres, guys.

Anna Nicole Smith: The Opera -- Apparently this is being done by the same guy who did the Jerry Springer opera (which I've only heard one song from, but I like it!). I don't know how I feel about it. I mean, it's true, her life really was a modern American tragedy, but this could easily go from being a tribute (or cautionary tale) into a sensationalist spectacle capitalizing on her death.

Gender Inequalities in Whoville -- "And while we're at it, how come a girl doesn't get to blow up the Death Star! Or send ET home? Or defeat Captain Hook! Or Destroy the Ring of Power!"

Mom & I watched Once More with Feeling tonight, so I could point out Marti Noxon to her. She likes Amber Benson's voice, but I'm pretty sure Anya is her favorite. (My girlcrush on Marti Noxon got bigger after she revealed at Paleyfest that she & Joss snuck into a sing-along of OMwF, and she was so thrilled that people threw panties at her character when she appeared onscreen.)

More fannish stuff. (Surprise!)

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:07:12 GMT

Finished Cupid (including the final two unfilmed scripts -- JFlan was going to come back! ::cries::). I can see the remake potential of the show; even as I was watching it, it felt so 90's. But of course I have doubts about trying to replace Jeremy Piven. (No, seriously, WHO could?)

Prodution-design-type photos from the Star Trek set.

Dudes. Maybe I should learn to knit.

Anecdotes from the set of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

The latest haps on Fanboys. I'm still confounded as to why they would do such a thing as cut out the whole meaning of a movie.

Video from the premiere of Superhero Movie, asking un-brilliant questions, and getting okay answers. Interviewees include Drake Bell, Ryan Hansen, and Jimmy Jean-Louis (who gets the win, IMO, smacking down the annoying reporter).

LEE PACE stills from The Fall:
BANDIDO!

Christina Hendricks at Paley Fest (for Mad Men):

And just in case EVERYONE on EARTH hasn't heard yet, they've announced 4 Dollhouse cast members (besides Eliza Dushku).

Ugh.

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:28:20 GMT

So on the heels of wank about misogyny in the SGA fandom (which had a few legitimate points), there has been some shit stirred up about the portrayal of men & women in Firefly/Serenity (which I believe has no validity whatsoever).

It has me so tired, guys. Yeah, the inflammatory accusations of misogyny make me angry, and the dumbass opinions of the person who wrote it (and the people who replied favorably, and the people who replied negatively) make me laugh, but mostly I'm just really, really bone-deep tired that people still have to fight about this sort of thing.

At least the SGA wank had a positive backlash of fans posting the things they loved about the female characters they loved (and even about female characters they didn't particularly care for). I can only hope something good comes out of this.

Above all, don't be afraid to call yourself a feminist, and never, ever confuse feminism with misandry. /PSA

His taut & tortured v-neck just screams, ‘Treat me like the tart that I am!’

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:42:08 GMT

In anticipation of the re-invention of Rob Thomas's Cupid, I have been watching the original. So that's where all my fandoms were before they became my fandoms! Judging from his guest performance on the show, Harry Groener totes should have been in OMwF.

Meme: Tell me a character from one of my fandoms and I will upload a random song from his/her hypothetical iPod.

Buncha links:
Simon Pegg talking about Scotty.

This news story makes me want to vomit.

Mpreg for real, kinda.

NY Yankees visit Virginia Tech... but n00b Jose Molina has to work!

More about the other TV show Rob Thomas is developing. (Persian! Yay minorities!)

And, apparently this is old news, but I hadn't heard about it, so maybe you haven't, either: they're doing an American version of the TV show Spaced. But without the input (or consent, even) of its British creators. Edgar Wright blogged with the reactions of the two stars-slash-writers.

~~Big(gest?)~~ Oldest sis is coming down from Sacramento with her husband tonight!

Picspam

Qwilleran1@aol.com — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:30:28 GMT

I copy-and-pasted my spam from men_daily for y'all.

Oh, & more of Summer Glau in the skinny-suspenders ensemble! I guess the outfit was so different from what she usually wears because it was doing double duty. Not only to meet fans at a convention, but also to attend a couture fragrance launch. (It makes me laugh that she switched bags. Budding fashionista!) We even get a shot of the cute suspenders from the back! (Too bad her handler didn't get her to tuck in her tag.)