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ealgyldenSo, yeah, I was indeed talking to myself in public last night. I couldn't see my babble test until today, though apparently others could. Go figure. Not much else has been working, either. You know, I miss paper. And pens. Those were nice. And they didn't require the whimsical goodwill of some technodweeb to work correctly with any consistency. But at this point I'm getting all philosophical about it; my computer's just on Mediterranean time. "Oh, you want email? Certainly! Right after I have a little nap. LJ comments? Of course, of course, any time. Well, soon. Well, maybe after lunch..."
Haven't been watching the Olympics, since the events I would be interested in either aren't really televised or won't be for a while yet, but I thought the opening ceremonies were neat. They were a bit "Cirque du Soleil meets great lashes of the local liquor," as usual, but the history-on-parade thing was very, very snazzy, and I got a kick out of Brian Williams's "Art History 101" narration. Thank you, CBC, for showing it twice, so I could tape that part (though not the Parade of Nations, which, while cool, took for-freaking-ever. You guys are athletes; walk faster!). And the fabulous costumes led to Geekgasm Number One, since I'd just finished reading Women's Work, which had a long section on that Minoan fresco of the saffron gatherers. And then poof!, there it was, in fabulous Technicolor! Very cool. Geekgasm Number Two came as the parade-thingie moved past the Olympian gods and on to the caryatids, because the music? Was Xena music. Well, okay, it was actually probably originally some traditional melody from northern Greece or Bulgaria or some such that Joe LoDuca nicked because Xena was Thracian (hence the fierce Bulgarian ladies singing her theme song, natch. He did that a lot), but it still gave me a thrill. Dunno if anyone but me was geeky enough to tape it (or care about the music), but it's at the end of the Classical gods bit, the little descending run on some wind instrument of the sort I collectively and lazily label "Romanian shepherd's pipes"- compare it to the very beginning of track 13, "Burying the Past" on the first Xena album. Cool, no? Just smile and nod, it's not like I'll know the difference. Heh.
I still have seasons 3 and 4 of Xena sitting here, pining to be watched (What, your DVDs don't pine? Tsk, tsk). I've watched "The Bitter Suite" several times, but that's it so far. I just can't quite dive in yet, even though, in my opinion, Season Three is probably the strongest, writing-wise, and doesn't fall victim to the show's standard wrenching drama/wacky hijinks whiplash quite as often as usual. Then again, it's all betrayal, disappointment, defeat, death, angst angst angst woe! all season long, so I suppose that adds a unifying element or two. I really like Season Three, but it's not exactly cheerful, so I'm kind of hesitating to take the plunge again.
And Season Four, well. Definitely uneven in my book. It gets off to a great start with "Adventures in the Sin Trade," which I love (Borias! Cyane! Alti! Shamaness!Xena and X/G love love love [and angst, alas]!), the India episodes look gorgeous, there's the most Autolycus screentime of any season (and then he leaves forever, wah!), and the Caesar plotline winds up very nicely. But there are also things like... the return of Tara. Ugh. The introduction of Eli. Blech. Amarice. Meh. And worst of all, Najara. Fie upon her name! It took me most of the season to stop twitching when I saw Kathryn Morris on Cold Case, I hated Najara so much. Uneven season indeed. Still, both seasons still tip the scales toward "eee! Love this show!", so I should just watch them already. The worst they can do is depress me, and that's hardly new for television, right? Of course, right.
Meanwhile, I've been rewatching the first three seasons of SG-1 by drawing episode titles out of a hat. Sometimes it works really well, like when I got a line-up of "1969" (I still wish they'd mentioned whatever happened to Michael and Jenny), "The Fifth Race," and "One False Step" (I have mad love for that ep. It has Interplanetary Janet and every mime in BC! Irresistible). And sometimes I get "kill me now" combos like "Bane," "Rules of Engagement," and "Demons." Honestly, I chickened out and redrew on that one, because no way, no how. I'm not that strong. Ugh, just "Demons" alone, even. I hate it so. I love Daniel dearly, but keep the boy away from the Middle Ages, because apparently they make his brains fall out. In fact, never ever let SG-1 or any of their chums near the Middle Ages ever again ("Red Sky" is as close as they're allowed. I mean it). "Dark Ages," I'll give you "Dark Ages" right in the eye, buster! Feh. At least "Emancipation" had "the show just started" as an excuse. What can we blame "Demons" on? I'm going with Satan, or maybe crack. All it need is a guest appearance by Najara to be complete.
Um, yes. Anyway. But generally it's been lots of fun; it had been a good long while since I'd really watched some of these episodes, and I'd forgotten how cute and young and team-y SG-1 used to be. Awww. Like when Daniel and Sam are girl-bonding over Graham Simmons' crush in "Message in a Bottle" and he pipes up all blushingly and it's all so very junior high, heeeeeee. *g* Seriously, that scene was just goofy, but oh, so cute. I miss Sam and Daniel as the Terrible Two. They were probably my favorite relationship on the show for, gosh, quite a while. Seems a bit odd, now. Jack/Daniel can be a wonderful thing and I love 'em, but they were often so... fraught. All the better for the sex, no doubt. Jack-Teal'c was good and reliable and Daniel-Teal'c had all sorts of interesting subtexts, and I rather liked Jack-Sam before it became Jack/Sam, but Sam-Daniel was one of those deep, warm, and reliably platonic friendships between men and women that I'm always looking for in shows and rarely finding. Plus, they were demonically cute, and drove Jack batty, mwa ha ha. I miss those early days. sigh. I should probably sleep before I start getting maudlin about, oh, the Cimmerians or something (dude, happy Viking people, how could I not love them? Darn Thor anyway for having a spaceship and giving us no more excuses to visit Cimmeria. Hmph).
Besides, my computer probably wants some wine and meze by now, with wild times at the Compaq Discotheque to follow. For it, the night's just getting started.
Haven't been watching the Olympics, since the events I would be interested in either aren't really televised or won't be for a while yet, but I thought the opening ceremonies were neat. They were a bit "Cirque du Soleil meets great lashes of the local liquor," as usual, but the history-on-parade thing was very, very snazzy, and I got a kick out of Brian Williams's "Art History 101" narration. Thank you, CBC, for showing it twice, so I could tape that part (though not the Parade of Nations, which, while cool, took for-freaking-ever. You guys are athletes; walk faster!). And the fabulous costumes led to Geekgasm Number One, since I'd just finished reading Women's Work, which had a long section on that Minoan fresco of the saffron gatherers. And then poof!, there it was, in fabulous Technicolor! Very cool. Geekgasm Number Two came as the parade-thingie moved past the Olympian gods and on to the caryatids, because the music? Was Xena music. Well, okay, it was actually probably originally some traditional melody from northern Greece or Bulgaria or some such that Joe LoDuca nicked because Xena was Thracian (hence the fierce Bulgarian ladies singing her theme song, natch. He did that a lot), but it still gave me a thrill. Dunno if anyone but me was geeky enough to tape it (or care about the music), but it's at the end of the Classical gods bit, the little descending run on some wind instrument of the sort I collectively and lazily label "Romanian shepherd's pipes"- compare it to the very beginning of track 13, "Burying the Past" on the first Xena album. Cool, no? Just smile and nod, it's not like I'll know the difference. Heh.
I still have seasons 3 and 4 of Xena sitting here, pining to be watched (What, your DVDs don't pine? Tsk, tsk). I've watched "The Bitter Suite" several times, but that's it so far. I just can't quite dive in yet, even though, in my opinion, Season Three is probably the strongest, writing-wise, and doesn't fall victim to the show's standard wrenching drama/wacky hijinks whiplash quite as often as usual. Then again, it's all betrayal, disappointment, defeat, death, angst angst angst woe! all season long, so I suppose that adds a unifying element or two. I really like Season Three, but it's not exactly cheerful, so I'm kind of hesitating to take the plunge again.
And Season Four, well. Definitely uneven in my book. It gets off to a great start with "Adventures in the Sin Trade," which I love (Borias! Cyane! Alti! Shamaness!Xena and X/G love love love [and angst, alas]!), the India episodes look gorgeous, there's the most Autolycus screentime of any season (and then he leaves forever, wah!), and the Caesar plotline winds up very nicely. But there are also things like... the return of Tara. Ugh. The introduction of Eli. Blech. Amarice. Meh. And worst of all, Najara. Fie upon her name! It took me most of the season to stop twitching when I saw Kathryn Morris on Cold Case, I hated Najara so much. Uneven season indeed. Still, both seasons still tip the scales toward "eee! Love this show!", so I should just watch them already. The worst they can do is depress me, and that's hardly new for television, right? Of course, right.
Meanwhile, I've been rewatching the first three seasons of SG-1 by drawing episode titles out of a hat. Sometimes it works really well, like when I got a line-up of "1969" (I still wish they'd mentioned whatever happened to Michael and Jenny), "The Fifth Race," and "One False Step" (I have mad love for that ep. It has Interplanetary Janet and every mime in BC! Irresistible). And sometimes I get "kill me now" combos like "Bane," "Rules of Engagement," and "Demons." Honestly, I chickened out and redrew on that one, because no way, no how. I'm not that strong. Ugh, just "Demons" alone, even. I hate it so. I love Daniel dearly, but keep the boy away from the Middle Ages, because apparently they make his brains fall out. In fact, never ever let SG-1 or any of their chums near the Middle Ages ever again ("Red Sky" is as close as they're allowed. I mean it). "Dark Ages," I'll give you "Dark Ages" right in the eye, buster! Feh. At least "Emancipation" had "the show just started" as an excuse. What can we blame "Demons" on? I'm going with Satan, or maybe crack. All it need is a guest appearance by Najara to be complete.
Um, yes. Anyway. But generally it's been lots of fun; it had been a good long while since I'd really watched some of these episodes, and I'd forgotten how cute and young and team-y SG-1 used to be. Awww. Like when Daniel and Sam are girl-bonding over Graham Simmons' crush in "Message in a Bottle" and he pipes up all blushingly and it's all so very junior high, heeeeeee. *g* Seriously, that scene was just goofy, but oh, so cute. I miss Sam and Daniel as the Terrible Two. They were probably my favorite relationship on the show for, gosh, quite a while. Seems a bit odd, now. Jack/Daniel can be a wonderful thing and I love 'em, but they were often so... fraught. All the better for the sex, no doubt. Jack-Teal'c was good and reliable and Daniel-Teal'c had all sorts of interesting subtexts, and I rather liked Jack-Sam before it became Jack/Sam, but Sam-Daniel was one of those deep, warm, and reliably platonic friendships between men and women that I'm always looking for in shows and rarely finding. Plus, they were demonically cute, and drove Jack batty, mwa ha ha. I miss those early days. sigh. I should probably sleep before I start getting maudlin about, oh, the Cimmerians or something (dude, happy Viking people, how could I not love them? Darn Thor anyway for having a spaceship and giving us no more excuses to visit Cimmeria. Hmph).
Besides, my computer probably wants some wine and meze by now, with wild times at the Compaq Discotheque to follow. For it, the night's just getting started.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-16 12:18 am (UTC)I ADORE the second season of that show. With one exception, they were all fantastic; I'd watch each VCD thinking, "Jeez! That was the best one they've done yet!" And the SCORE -- oh, the score for these two especially ... *heavy sigh* They should have gotten an Emmy so bad for the score for the second season. I've never encountered a TV series with such perfect music as SG-1's second season.
And it's got "Touchstone," which I like, and ... "A Matter of Time."
Oh, that episode. I still get wibbly over it. I've never in my LIFE seen general relativity treated so well on television SF.
And yes ... Simmons. :-) I wish they'd kept him around. He was just the cutest little butterbar.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-17 01:48 pm (UTC)Hee, butterbar! Excellent term! Yes indeedy. *g*
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-16 08:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-17 01:34 pm (UTC)