Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Kassi's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Friday, December 4th, 2009
4:44 pm	Things That Are Awesome for December 4th, 2009 "What do you read, my lord?" "Words, words, words." I collect them and share them like Fraggles do with smooth rocks, and was delighted to have my dad send me two honeys: Esurient: synonym for greed Cyllipygian: 'having well-shaped buttocks' (I'd heard this before but forgotten it. Doesn't it sound so much more sophisticated than 'nice bum on that one'? Sir Mix-a-Lot, I challenge you to pen a new soliloquy with this title! Or, even better, Jonathan Coulton. Bring hip-hop to the drawing room for brandy and plum cake, Sir JoCo!) I also discovered a third I find useful: Sybaritic: pertaining to or characteristic of a sybarite; characterized by or loving luxury or sensuous pleasure: to wallow in sybaritic splendor. It's like of the act of hedonism without the philosophy that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. I and others have probably been using 'hedonism' when we often mean some variation of 'sybaritic,' which is the seeking of pleasure for its own worth rather than as a school of thought. It's based on the opulent ancient Greek city of Sybaris and its luxury-loving rich residents, the Sybarites. Current Mood: sick Current Music: Dralion-Cirque du Soleil (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
12:59 am	Things That Are Awesome for December 1st, 2009 Alegria: I always forget how much I love Cirque du Soleil, even though my iTunes is packed full of their music and I've got the box set of their shows. I'm watching 'Alegria' for the eleventy-somethingth time. I really like how they blend myriad cultural moods into their shows, in ceremony and costume and behavior. 'Dralion' is my favorite and the most obvious example of this, but the fact that 'Alegria' is stylistically so different from that show and yet just as engrossing shows their creative team is really inventive. When I create a new setting for my stories I found I really love blending elements of cultures and styles together. My shiny wiki has a database of evocative graphics and lists of things and themes and movies and books and music that typify each 'cultural mood' to me. Because I'm working in fantasy, I can free-associate things that leap to mind when I think 'Russian' or 'Scottish' or 'mod' or 'art deco.' 'Wings of Avatars' started out with a blend of Indian and Celtic themes, but developed a lot of retrofuturism, medeival and early punk aspects through the course of developing that world. In the end I had a really unique place in my head I could visit. In fantasy and science fiction that I love best -- movies, television, books -- I can see tendrils of more than one style weaving together beautifully. It's why urban fantasy is such an endlessly inventive genre to me. It's not limited to the traditional or high fantasy milieu of medeival-mixed-with-magic. Urban fantasy is steampunk, it's Harry Potter, it's 'Howl's Moving Castle,' it's 'Pushing Daisies,' it's 'Neverwhere' and 'Labyrinth' and 'Stardust' and countless other multi-layered works that proliferate these days. With its magical realism storytelling and lush design, Cirque du Soleil falls into that broad category for me too. Mateus: Portugese rosés, while not as refined as the French ones I adore, tend to be mildly sparkling, have a more domestic bouquet and are dirt cheap but still tasty and not too dry or sweet. My parents used to drink this one, and when I got into rosé wines they were reminded of it, only to find it's still around. It's one of the few things that really alleviates the misery of my strep-turned-sinus-infection and helped me get a much-needed nap today. Another great one is Lancer's. Also, this year's popular Coteaux aux Provence import (my FAVORITE region of rosés, Côtes de Provence have a unique color and process that sets them apart) is experiencing an end-of-season sale. Yay! Diana Wynne Jones: Seriously, an awesome fantasy writer. Neil Gaiman loves her stuff, so don't just take my word for it. If you haven't picked up anything by her, I recommend either 'Howl's Moving Castle' or anything in the Chrestomanci series. I haven't disliked a single thing I've read by her, and that makes her unique among the authors I love. Even my favorite authors like Terry Pratchett, Tad Williams, T.H. White, Patricia McKillip and authors of my childhood classics don't have her perfect batting record with me. I haven't read them all, and many are out of print, but by Apollo's bear I'm gonna try. How I Met Your Mother: Earlier this journal, when this was first an awesome thing to me, Neil Patrick Harris was the only thing I liked about the show, and for my tastes it fell into way too many clichés of vapid sitcoms. Because I kept watching for Barney Stinson, eventually I warmed to the other characters and the series overall engrossed me. It edged away from throwaway lines and stupid laughs and became its own unique world. Yay! Also? 'The Daily Show' correspondents showing up unexpectedly as bizarre characters made me so happy. If only there was a way to catch up on Season Five, which is airing now, I'd be ecstatic. CBS kind of doesn't want people to watch episodes online if they're not the last two aired. Since stuff actually changes, episode to episode, I can't just jump in anywhere. Oh well. Dance of Descent: In July of 2005 I was doing 'JulNoWriMo,' a July-long version of NaNoWriMo to try to write another novel. Shortly into the month we found out the lymphoma had spread to Derek's internal organs and he would have to stop working and go into intensive chemotherapy. As my life fell apart, so did my attempts to write, and the book foundered and died. I kept poking it with my brain from time to time, but it was a rotting beached whale of hurt and aimlessness that did not stay out of my writing. Only through sheer bloody-minded determination and desire to escape hell did I finish NaNoWriMo later that year. I'm going to start over. It's a story I want to tell. I'm going to spend December re-developing it and write it all in January. Looking through my old files it's not as much a lost cause as I thought. I feel freed by dumping what I wrote so far. There's a famous writer I don't remember at the moment whose process was that he'd bang out the first draft in a rush, lock it away, and then some time later write a completely new second draft without looking at the first one. His idea was that whatever bits were the best were the ones he'd remember and put in the second version, and everything he forgot clearly wasn't gripping enough to belong. I'm not throwing out all the work I did on the world or the characters, but I'm doing it with the story. As I recall, there was a lot of nothing at all happening, like the seventeen years Frodo had the ring in Hobbiton and Sauron and the wraiths were like, 'eh,' and all of a sudden getting the ring to Mount Doom was an emergency. (Really? Way to maintain dramatic tension there.) ...Except that then he waited another several months to actually leave the Shire. On this dire emergency. Time it took in the movie: if you went to the bathroom when he got the ring, chances are when you go back there was a Ringwraith all up in his business. Thank you, Peter Jackson. Current Mood: sick Current Music: Alegria-Cirque du Soleil (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
4:47 pm	Things That Are Awesome for November 29th, 2009 Wings of Avatars: 126824 / 126824 So for the record, here's the total number of words I wrote for this year's National Novel Writing Month, midnight November 1st to 4:26 pm November 29th: 67021 / 50000 It's over. A year and two months of work and second-guessing, of false starts and restarts, of re-evaluation, of two mad thirty-day writing challenges one year apart, of feelings of failure and apprehension and hope and sickness and struggle. Now I rest, resist the urge to go back and read it in this vulnerable post-novel state, and in a while, the editing, the gentle reading, and the hope that when I'm done, it's enjoyable. I can't tell if I'm sadder about those characters who lost their lives over the last year, or that the journey is over and I'll no longer wake up knowing I have to find out what happens next to all these people I've grown to know, in whose shoes I've wandered. At least I finally finished a complete story, four years after the last one I completed, two weeks before Derek died. I thought I'd feel more accomplished and proud of myself. I guess it's time to write something else. That is, after I cry a bunch and do all the things I put off to finish this today, like dishes and laundry. Time to finish the prosecco and be productive in tangible ways. Current Mood: sad (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 27th, 2009
4:21 pm	"Almost there..." Wings of Avatars: 121326 / 127756 Other relevant numbers: 25.5 of 27 chapters done. 3 scenes remaining. 61,523 words since November 1st. 3 days left to finish. (Stay on target!) Current Mood: sick (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
8:36 pm	Things That Are Awesome for November 24th, 2009 Wings of Avatars, Part II: 48575 / 50000 Of the four events that comprise the climax of the book, the two (relatively) small ones have occurred, and the next scene will be a rather long treatment of the landscape-altering third that is more or less the entire point of the book, with the fourth (or hellish aftershock) occurring two scenes later. There will probably be four scenes in two chapters of resolution to tie up over 100,000 words of character arcs and world-altering events. ( Writing is a drug, and I'm jonesing. ) Edited to add: Oo-oo-oh, what a little tea and painkillers can do! 52067 / 50000 All right! Goal one of two reached! Here's the rest of the plan for National Novel Writing Month. Chapters: 24.5 / 27 Based on the average length of all the chapters so far, here's how I've estimated the total length of the finished book (both parts!) and how close I am: 111870 / 122645 After each successive chapter I finish I'll re-estimate the total length, so from now on this will be the bar you see until I have plonked down the last word and the two word counts match exactly. I know in the eyes of NaNoWriMo's computers I've won, but way more important to me than getting all the words is getting all the story. Three of four climactic events down! Next one happens next chapter! Current Mood: sick Current Music: Ombra (Ibizarre Remix)-Cirque du Soleil-Solarium / Delirium (3 Comments |Comment on this)
1:15 am	Any Les Mis fans out there that can help? The Confrontation: I've always liked this song. I saw OKGo perform it opening for TMBG a billion years ago, and that was the first time I heard it (shut up, yes, I still haven't seen the musical!). I've heard various snippets throughout the years and have concluded that this is by far the best: BUT... it's not the full thing and there's laughing which takes away from the dramatic 'oomph' of their performance. I want a really good powerful dramatic version of this, but there are so many versions and MP3s out there and all I can get are 30-second snippets so far. So, guys, I have a request! Any Les Mis fans out there have a favorite? The thirty seconds I get of the Original London Cast recording sounds pretty sweet, but the orchestra in the thirty second preview of the 10th Anniversary Concert is smoking. Yet I'm way more interested in the vocal performances, because I think they carry the most dramatic weight in this piece and define whether or not it blows me away. Help? Current Mood: geeky (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
2:47 am	Wings of Avatars, Part II: 43992 / 50000 The Third Man: I'd explain why this film noir classic is awesome, but I'm too out of words to do more than a list: acting, writing, Joseph Cotten, Orson Wells, zither, cinematography. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
1:46 am	Things That Are Awesome for November 20th, 2009 Wings of Avatars, Part II: 37518 / 50000 Three-quarters of the way to the 50,000 word count (also known as goal one of two, number two being the end of the book). I have five and a half more chapters with a total of thirteen more scenes to write in the next ten days, and I can usually only manage a scene a day. I'm trying to keep my perspective just on what I'm writing next, keeping blinders on so I don't freak out about how much more I need to write. Usually when I get to the climax I get a burst of speed and the resolution comes really easily. There is a lot to resolve. This has been a two-year project, with part one being last year's NaNoWriMo. Five viewpoint characters and five secondary characters, and epic lore that's going to affect the whole ongoing world I've been working in for seventeen years. Here's the whole book's wordcount, with the minimum wordcount goal to hit 50,000 for part two: 97321 / 109803 It's reassuring to look at it like that, and to realize that however far I still have to go this month, I have come a long, long way already. I'll make it, right? Tea: I'm good at making up lots of words, maybe not necessarily good ones, and maybe too many. I'm also good at tea. I love doing it. I love sharing it. I love coming up with new ways to make each tea special and unique. This time for sandwiches I branched out from my usual cucumber, egg salad and croque monsieurs. The first two were there, but I added in grilled turkey and cheese, pastrami reubens with fontina, egg/tomato/chutney, bruschetta sandwiches (mozzarella, basil, tomato, balsamic vinegar and olive oil on toasted bread), and took what I learned from Peanut Butter & Co. about making gourmet peanut butter sandwiches. I want to share these with you since grocery stores have started carrying Peanut Butter & Co.'s eclectic PB flavors and you can probably duplicate these without having to order the PB from their website: 1. dark chocolate peanut butter and sliced strawberries (FOOD PORN) 2. white chocolate peanut butter and orange marmalade 3. cinnamon raisin peanut butter and apple butter 4. 'The Elvis' -- banana, honey and plain peanut butter I'd been wanting to do a peanut butter tea for a while with these specialty peanut butters. It worked out better than I'd hoped, although it seems the bruschetta sandwiches were the winner because they vanished almost instantly. Since I love sandwiches with a passion it's awesome to find new recipes and innovations between breadtangles and take those ideas to my teas. egbert826 came up with the brilliant idea of putting strawberries in the pink prosecco I got for this particular tea and it was amazing! The other ladies brought really interesting new teas I'd never had before and some homemade jam made out of a billion types of berry. By the time we got to the dessert course of truffles and cookies we were stuffed. Yum. Sometimes I like to dream that I own a tea room where I share everything I love about tea and sandwiches, and it's part of a store that sells velvet clothing and furnishings year-round that I cull from various retailers, secondhand shops and make myself. I seriously, seriously doubt I'd ever do it for a number of reasons, but the little imaginary haven of elegance can exist forever in my mind. I think I'll make my imaginary store a Holly Yashi retailer and also sell triskele jewelry. I think I'll call it Tea & Velvet. It does what it says on the tin. Imaginary customers who love tea or velvet or both would think, "Hey, really?" and the store would say, "Oh yes, really." Current Mood: tired (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
2:59 am	Things That Are Awesome for November 18th, 2009 Wings of Avatars, Part II: 35724 / 50000 1,000 Awesome Things: extemporangle posted this one, and it was too awesome not to share! It's an archive of awesome, simple pleasures. Amélie would approve, as do I. Wondermark: An anachronistic webcomic pitting nineteenth-century clipart against moderntimes subject material to the result of awesome. If you like clipart, the nineteenth century or steampunk (or if like me you answer [d] all of the above plus some other awesome stuff!), you'll enjoy it. A great place to start would be these classic strips. Do you also like behind-the-scenes material, time-lapse video or techno? (My answer: [d]! [d]! [d][d][d]!) Two Minutes to Wondermark #389 from David Malki ! on Vimeo. I wish I knew what that music was! It's supertastic. Real Genius soundtrack: Speaking of supertastic music, the soundtrack to 'Real Genius' was never released on CD but some helpful souls have made it available here. Sign in with username: realgeniusfan and password: password . Then you too can enjoy the song 'I'm Falling' by Comsat Angels -- the song that plays in the study montage culminating in Mitch finding himself the only human in a lecture hall of tape recorders. One night Joe was over with his black bass guitar, fingering while we watched, and picked out the bass line to play along. That is some sheer awesome right there, I tell you. Current Mood: sick (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
3:49 pm	Things That Are Awesome for November 17th, 2009 Wings of Avatars, Part II: 33418 / 50000 Which is good considering that I'm sick and busy. I'm more worried about finishing on time and sane. Mexican Food: I have no need to expound upon this. Either you know why it's awesome or you don't find it so, in which case no amount of pontificating on my part will change your mind (or tastebuds). (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
10:40 pm	Things That Are Awesome for November 11th, 2009 Wings of Avatars, Part II: 23720 / 50000 I'm getting that second-week 'Apollo's beard, how am I going to get the entire story finished by November 30th‽' feeling. I have no fear of reaching the word-count goal, I'm more worried about getting through all the rest of the stuff that has to happen before the story wraps up. I don't really feel like I've won unless the book is finished by November 30th. In December I kind of decompress and there's no longer that pressure of finishing by the deadline. I need that deadline, because finishing a story is by far the very hardest part of writing for me. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band & Rubber Soul: I just found out that both albums are going to be released in their entirety as playable for The Beatles Rock Band, joining Abbey Road. Singing 'Because' is about fifty percent of why I want the game, and this just made it even more desirable. Once those two are out, I hope, The White Album will be next. Happiness is a Warm Gun, honey, yeah! Neil Patrick Harris: Yeah, I know I already said he's awesome, but yesterday watching the special features for 'How I Met Your Mother: Season One' he made a GOBO FRAGGLE REFERENCE. If I hadn't built up a tolerance for awesome over the past few years via TMBG concerts, the strength of that awesomeness probably would have hurt. As would the next item, also encountered yesterday: Stephen Colbert: A perennial wellspring of awesome, of course. On Monday night's 'Colbert Report' he had as his guest the new director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The most awesome thing in the whole museum for me is the Temple of Dendur, so awesome it's incorporated into my favorite NYC walk through Central Park. It can be seen through the windows from the park, and sometimes I'll just stand there and bask. Last time I went I sat and stared at its majesty for two hours, and pretty much blew off the rest of the museum. I squealed like a deranged nerd when I saw it in 'Ghost Town.' For me, it's pretty much the reason for the museum. And in the context of asking the director if he'd ever licked anything in the museum, Mr. Colbert said, "I licked the Temple of Dendur." I had to pause the episode so I could flail properly at the awesome. Instant Gratification, Intertubes-style: Decompressing from my writing, I've been watching a bunch of random stuff, especially on Netflix's watch instantly feature. I finally got around to watching 'Lost' for the first time, something I could never have the patience to do by renting the DVDs. I started out liking the characterization, but then it turned into this incredibly slow-moving Spaceball-One sized morass of angst and soap opera style twists. The overly dramatic music grates, the way everyone overreacts and fights over stupid crap grates, and the fact that 90% of the NPCs use interchangeable dialogue makes me frelling nuts. Once every six episodes something interesting happens, but then it takes another six episodes to resolve, and the episodes are full of mental and emotional corn syrup. BUT! What's awesome is I could find this out and move on, and watch 30-Second Bunny Theatre to cleanse my brain, and then watch 'The Glenn Miller Story.' Aw, Jimmy Stewart and Harry Morgan. 'Doogie Howser' kind of hits that high-school melodrama button a lot, too. That button is for short bursts, dude. You're not supposed to press it and hold it down. I guess it's a good reminder to not do it in my own writing, since I want to write things I like to read. Fraggle Rock, The Final Season: It's MINE! HAHAHAHAHAAA! Every last speck of filmed Fraggly goodness now fills my cave. Happy happy happy. I've finally got 'The River of Life' and 'Gone, But Not Forgotten,' and the stupidly fun time travel episode 'Mokey, Then and Now' on endlessly-watchable DVD. Wembley: ...is actually the nickname of my Wii console. For a long time he couldn't hear the internets, because I implemented security on my network and couldn't reconcile AirPort (named The River of Life; my network is called Fraggle Rock. This is true) and Wii, but I finally sat down and troubleshooted the damn thing until connectivity was mine again. I hear rumors that my parental units are planning on blessing me with the afore-salivated-over The Beatles Rock Band & microphone for Fishmas, so now I will have the capability of getting 'Because' with it. Happy Fishmas, everyone! Remember: it can happen at any time. It has no rules except those we make up. It's the Calvinball of holidays. Current Mood: cold (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
12:32 am	Things That Are Awesome for November 8th, 2009 Wings of Avatars, Part II: 14506 / 50000 Yup. Barney Stinson: Okay, most of 'How I Met Your Mother' is of the incredibly lame flavor of dating sitcom. Even the near-constant New York City references don't rescue it for me and I am an NYC fiend. Television on the whole fails to woo me these days, except for 30 Rock. However, I felt that in my imaginary role as imaginary Neil Patrick Harris's imaginary fag-hag, I should at least watch an episode, because I figured it would be hard for him to fail to be awesome at something televisual. Hard? As far as I can tell it's impossible. He opens his mouth and awesome pours out, whether it's set to music or just lovingly teasing a Gene Wilder movie with Mike Nelson. I can't believe I'm still watching this show. When his character Barney's not on I go make myself a sandwich or clean or whatever, listening for his voice to scurry back into the room and enjoy the madness. His life is like a NaNoWriMo novel, because the character takes over and you never know what crazy damn thing he's going to say or do next. Also he's always saying 'awesome.' Which sets up his awesome video résumé (yes, a fictional character has posted a video résumé online). You can watch it in 'awesome resolution' -- I shit you not. You have to keep watching at least until you see the avalanche, then you will fully understand why this had to be posted here. The Beatles Rockband: It was every bit as awesome as I hoped and more: apparently downloadable content includes my favorite Beatles song of all time, 'Because.' I played for hours last night at a friend's house. I dreamed about it. It was so damned addictive. I have to get the game and a microphone and I'm set. Screw the guitars and drums, I love to sing! It feels so right. There's nothing I can sing that can't be sung. Love is old, love is new. Current Mood: tired (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
12:07 am	Things That Are Awesome for November 3rd, 2009 Wings of Avatars, Part II: 9022 / 50000 It was a sunny warm day, which did my psyche no end of good. Also I had a lot of fun with the writing today. Wii Fit Plus: I didn't think I'd like this as much as I do, because it sounded like it brought even more frustrating balance games into the mix and the custom routines don't let you pick aerobics (which is true, and a major fail). The best bits are the bits they never mention. In the bike exercise I can ride all over the island to my little heart's content. The one thing I dislike about Free Run is that you can't alter the path. Ever. Ever ever. And even in Basic Run you get a random path chosen for you. Dude, there are so many ways of covering that island! How hard would it be to program it so the player can pick out a route beforehand, or press the left or right arrow at a fork in the path to veer off? The Beatles Rockband: I really don't want all that bulky ridiculous Rockband equipment, but this game makes me seriously want to sing Rockband. It would be like... well, like every day in the shower, but with gorgeous visuals: The Beatles Rockband Intro from Stephane coedel on Vimeo. GUH. Gorgeous. I gasped in sheer delight when they transformed into Sgt. Pepper's dresspheres on the escalator. And the whole surreal bit at the end? God I love the Beatles. Love love love. Love love love. Love, love, love! Current Mood: artistic (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
11:27 pm	Things That Are Awesome for November 2, 2009 Wings of Avatars, part II: The sequel to last year's NaNoWriMo win, and looking good so far. 4624 / 50000 Unlike last year's, this one is going to have an unhappy ending. I generally don't like to get surprised by unhappy endings, so I'm going ahead and spoiling it for you. What's important is what that ending accomplishes for those who are left behind. It doesn't make it better, but at least it gives them something to salvage something from the wreckage of punishing despair. Go ahead and have a nice day for me, will you? I think I ought to rescue my state of mind with wine, Zelda, Neil Patrick Harris and maybe even hookah. Then sleep. Current Mood: achy Current Music: Your Fault; Last Midnight-Chip Zien, Ben Wright, Danielle Ferland, Bernadette Peters, Kim Crosby-Into The Woods (Comment on this)
Monday, October 26th, 2009
10:32 pm	Things That Are Awesome for October 26th, 2009 I Know I'm Given to Superlatives, But...: Best $20 spent ever! (That I can recall.) To most of you this will be like a photo of 2004, that's how ridiculously late I'm getting into this, but I bought a mini-DVI to video cable that enabled me to use my TV as a second monitor for my computer. This means I can watch all that Netflix and Hulu.com streaming video on my TV whilst still having an entire computer screen to work on. Since I am a multitasking addict, this is awesome. I don't have to choose between working and watching Frank Capra's 'Lost Horizon,' I can have both. If I want to catch up on 'The Daily Show,' 'The Colbert Report,' '30 Rock,' or just see 'Doogie Howser, M.D.' for the first time whilst laying the groundwork for this year's NaNoWriMo, I can! Netflix's 'Watch Instantly' Feature: Every year I have to find ways of dealing with winter. I'm naturally predisposed to despair when Apollo leaves for the southern hemisphere for what feels like five to six months on business, since for me anything below 70 Farenheit degrees is cold. That is not an exaggeration. The fact that I wear velvet in the south in the summer is not just because I really love velvet. I love the heat, and humidity that holds in the heat. One year I joined Netflix on whatever was their maximum DVDs-at-a-time plan in order to watch all of Alfred Hitchcock's films one December, and since I still had a week left I watched all of Hayao Miyazaki's films and 'Grave of the Fireflies.' HOT TIP: if you're watching movies to avoid despair, FOR THE LOVE OF APOLLO SKIP THIS ONE. One year I spent December and most of January entirely out of my mind. Probably February too. I don't really remember. Last year I got epically ill for five and a half months, although not on purpose, but it put all my mind on just surviving physically. I'm still here, so I guess that worked? This year I think I'll immerse myself in work, hookah, and the minimum Netflix membership that allows me unlimited hours streaming video. It's amazing what is and isn't available! So many great classics I've been wanting to watch are up, including '1984,' which they still don't offer as a DVD rental. It's like dial-my-own-TCM for a TCM junkie (minus Robert Osborne, sigh). Plus 'All Creatures Great and Small,' a bunch of MST3K episodes I don't yet own, 'Little Britain,' (the real one, biotches), and the first three seasons of '30 Rock.' What they don't have that I'd love to watch: 'Doogie Howser, M.D.' (sometimes Hulu is the broke and the commercials, while short, are a drawback to someone used to DVD box sets) 'How I Met Your Mother' (can you tell I'd fag-hag for Neil Patrick Harris?), and 'Jeeves & Wooster.' Then again, I can rent these the normal, slow, one-DVD-at-a-time way. 30 Rock: If I hadn't seen it for the first time with Joe and Clint I don't think I would have completely fallen in love with it. The first six episodes in fact were among the last I watched, because trying to get into the series that way would be like trying to get into 30 Rock through the front door. If you're just starting out I highly recommend first season episode 'The Head and the Hair,' with the caveat that the show is not for everyone. Anti-PC humor is sort of coming back into vogue, as long as those doing it make fun of everyone equally, including themselves. '30 Rock' does that. It still can be hard to take. What I love about the show is that every single character, including walk-ons and innocent bystanders, have chronic Personal Information Logorrhea. You never know what disgusting new secret is going to be shared. Since that's pretty much every interaction I have with my best friend, I'm not just inured to it, I super-adore it. I also love that the whole NBC/MSNBC family keeps turning up to make fun of themselves. Brian Williams is a favorite, and seeing or hearing Keith Olbermann totally out of 'Countdown' character is a riot. 'Countdown' jumped the shark for me, for obvious reasons. Please please please have Rachel Maddow in season four, please! I've been relatively good this year, Tina Fey Santa! Also Tina Fey is hot, but that goes without saying. Know who else is hot? Alison Lohman. I don't care whether she can act or not. I can't even tell; she's that smoking. I own 'Where the Truth Lies' just because Colin Firth, in one of his gayer roles, slipes her a 'lude and gets her to romp with a girl dressed as 'Alice in Wonderland.' I can't tell which of those girls I'd rather be! Mm, Personal Information Logorrhea. Edward Everett Horton: 'Lost Horizon' is the third movie I've seen with him actually in it. Since I grew up knowing him as the voice of 'Fractured Fairy Tales' on 'The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle,' it's entertaining to actually put a face to the voice. He's awesome in 'Lost Horizon.' Fag-Hagging it Up: Here's a tiny list of awesome flicks for fag hags and fruit flies: 'Love and Other Disasters,' 'Victor/Victoria' (if you're a fag hag and haven't seen it, please do!), and 'Breakfast at Tiffany's.' In the original Truman Capote novel, Paul is gay, which makes the movie all the more awesome in retrospect. Also, Mr. Capote wrote the role of Holly Golightly for Marilyn Monroe. I love Ms. Monroe, but my feelings for Audrey Hepburn can't be contained even with words like 'adore' and 'idolize.' Here's a tiny list of famous guys I'd fag-hag for: Stephen Fry, Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Lane, David Hyde Pierce, David Ogden Stiers, George Takei, Simon Amstell, Mark Gatiss, Graham Chapman (yes, I know he's dead, but the odds of me actually fag-hagging for any of these guys are about the same as me laying my hands on a working TARDIS and filling it with splendid & fluffy gay guys), Ian McKellen, John Barrowman, and while we're at it, Oscar Wilde. I'd probably fag-hag for Matthew Waterhouse, too, but only so I could introduce him to Joe. I am fiendish! That would be one fabulous TARDIS, don't you imagine? I leave you with the words of W.H. Auden: "The world is love. Surely one fearless kiss would cure the million fevers." Current Mood: cold Current Music: Lost Horizon! (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 16th, 2009
9:28 pm	Things That Are Awesome for October 16th, 2009 Howard Hill: When looking for a birthday present for my father I came across a double-disc special edition DVD of Errol Flynn's 1938 'The Aventures of Robin Hood' that kicks serious ass. My dad showed me this when I was little because his great-uncle Howard Hill did all the archery stunts, was the archery instructor and played the captain of the guard in it. Howard Hill was the consummate archer of Hollywood's Golden Age. He was famous for archery stunts and instruction in adventure films of that era, such as Elizabeth & Essex, They Died with Their Boots On, Dodge City, Virginia City, Buffalo Bill, and Bandits of Sherwood Forest. My grandmother had fond memories of his huge house in Los Angeles, its floors all marble specially chosen and imported from Italy. She remembered her aunt Elizabeth, his wife, a tiny petite woman of perhaps ninety pounds who was the first white woman in America to kill a wild boar with a bow and arrow. Howard himself is a legend. He produced twenty-three short films for Warner Brothers, including 'Cavalcade on Archery' which is included on the box set. He won 196 field archery tournaments in a row. He was the first white man to kill an elephant with bow and arrow. He set a an archery record of 391 yds., 1 ft., 11 in. in 1928. In Grants Park, Chicago, in 1941, he drew 35,000 spectators who tore the shirt off his back, and took his arrows, bow and quiver as souvenirs. He shot exhibitions in three World's Fairs. As a child my father also showed me a letter Howard had written to his family that showed me the character of a kind man whose admiration for Native American traditions and spirituality drifted off every line. The man was a motherfrelling superhero with a bow and arrow, with the soul of a giant and the admiration of archers everywhere. Howard Hill Archery continues to honor him long after his death with their line of longbows and custom bows. Uncomfortable Plot Summaries: Off-the-wall and often non-PC summaries of movies, television shows, stories and books I had no end of amusement at. My favorites: ALIEN: Ship Fails to deliver caro, crew don't get bonus. ALIENS: An unplanned pregnancy leads to complications. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: Peasant girl develops Stockholm Syndrome. BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S: Pretty redneck girl fools socialites, flirts with gay gigolo. (This is from the book, not the movie. Yes, Paul was gay in the book, and Holly was a fag-hag!) BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: Teenage serial killer destroys town in fit of semi-religious fervor. GHOSTBUSTERS: Unemployed college professors destroy hotel with nuclear weapons. DEEP THROAT: Medical anomaly earns woman new friends. DRACULA: Immigrant clashes with locals. FALLING DOWN: Life is difficult for white men. FIREFLY: In an analogue of the post-Civil War west, a white man on the losing side bosses around a black woman. DOCTOR FAUSTUS: Scholar leans nuances of contract law. GROUNDHOG DAY: Misanthropic creep exploits space/time anomaly to stalk coworker. HARRY POTTER: Celebrity Jock thinks rules don’t apply to him, is right. LORD OF THE RINGS: Midget destroys stolen property. MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL: British comedy troupe inadvertently creates language lab for nerds. ROSEMARY’S BABY: An unplanned pregnancy leads to complications. STAR TREK IV: Interplanetary fugitives poach wildlife from a past age to cover up an act of genocide. STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE: Religious extremist terrorists destroy government installation, killing thousands. STAR WARS: EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Boy is abused by midget, kisses sister, attempts patricide. TERMINATOR: An unplanned pregnancy leads to complications. THE GOONIES:  Physically abused, retarded man finds love with overweight preteen. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS: Dangerous insurgent invades neighboring country. TORCHWOOD: Bisexual is inefficient manager. I also love the Neil Gaiman summaries, but I won't spoil them for you. The winner, for me? DOCTOR WHO: Elderly man serially abducts young women. Yase plz! Current Mood: cold Current Music: Because-Company-Across the Universe (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
12:37 am	Things That Are Awesome for October 7th, 2009 I Give Myself Some Very Good Advice... But I Very Seldom Follow it: Important life lessons! (1) If using a hookah outdoors in a windy place, always always always have a windscreen. I also strongly advise using quick light charcoals instead of real coals. Yes, I know they taste like dren, but safety first, people. (2) Also, Three Kings Hookah Charcoal has been lauded as having very little taste and not malfunctioning when you light them (i.e. lighting partway and then stopping, necessitating further application of fire to get it started again), but both these are lies. Lies! Hookah Bliss likes to stock them but they have a lot of problems. They disintegrate as you're lighting them and leave a lot of mess. They take a lot longer to light than the sturdier, more reliable and non-malfunctioning Starlites. (3) Snozzberry shisha (hookah tobacco) tastes like snozzberries! (4) When you will be spending a lengthy amount of time with a bunch of geeks and you're requested to bring movies, bring all the ones you quote incessantly. This list probably includes (but is not limited to): the Monty Python films, the Mel Brooks catalogue, Ghostbusters, Labyrinth, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Fight Club, Star Wars/The Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi, The Fifth Element, Airplane!, The Princess Bride, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Matrix. These are assumed prerequisites. They will come up wherever you get more than six geeks together. It's like we all teethed on the same silliness. For extra credit: Real Genius, Clue, Tron, GalaxyQuest, Dr. Tran, Finding Nemo, WarGames, Better off Dead, Boondock Saints, So I Married an Axe Murderer. Plus any Futurama and Monty Python's Flying Circus you care to tote is never a bad idea. Someone didn't pack well, and much ridicule and sighing occurred. Learn from my mistake if you dare. Be smart! Be S-Mart! ...Wait, that... doesn't make sense. (5) You can never have too much bacon, booze, or cowbell on such an occasion. Nope. Never. Om nom nommmmmm. (Why does everything taste like 'Don't Fear the Reaper' now?) (6) I strongly recommend having such occasions often and loudly, ill-packed or not! Current Mood: chillin' Current Music: Sara's a sleepy puppy! (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
12:17 am	Things That Are Awesome for September 23, 2009 Girls Are Waiting to Meet You: They finally put out their album on iTunes and Amazon! This is Joe's band in China. The album is missing my favorite, 'Zombie Girl,' but here's the music video for your edification (be warned, it's zombie-tastic, gross, hilarious and campy): Inflatable Boy Clams: If you've spent any amount of time allowing Joe to introduce you to his music you'll know the sound of the bizarre "two little skeletons dancing on the waaaaall!" song, by the long-defunct and obscure Inflatable Boy Clams. It turns out there's a tribute page where you can download that and other songs. New York City: I went there for my birthday and had a blast. I made a lot of new friends at Alice's Tea Cup Chapter III, especially the irreplaceable and awesome Barbara. Even though I was staying in Central Park West I hiked across the park nearly every day to enjoy hearty decadence and chat over there. They're going to put out a cookbook soon with any luck, which I'm really excited about because I may learn the secret of infusing chicken with lapsang souchong. Other highlights: the Jacques Marchand Museum of Tibetan Art on Long Island, which leolapyre recommended to me; the Bronx Zoo; squid vs. whale in the American Museum of Natural History; the ever-fun Rose Center planetarium within same museum; MoMA as always -- the Indestructible Object (yes!) 'The Persistance of Memory,' which I had tacked to my ceiling forever as a child, and an amazing display of stuff that had been hoarded by a survivor of China's harsh rationing who went deep into grief after her husband died and cathartically went through it; Nintendo World; an all-night block party; the Rama Café hookah bar on the Lower East Side; a packed midnight showing of 'Ghostbusters' with a ton of New Yorkers all glorying in their city. On my actual birthday, there were birthday celebrations everywhere I went, and I sort of got subsumed into each and every one for free drinks and cake and a lot of happiness and hugs from nice strangers. autumnraina: She and her beautiful Toby came to vist and we saw They Might Be Giants at the NC Museum of Art last Saturday. The visit was awesome! I went back to the Durham Museum of Life & Science for the first time since being a child. It's even bigger and more magical than I remember. I also took them to this huge kids' museum downtown in Raleigh and found my favorite Italian place down there, Vic's, is still around five years later. Derek and I used to go there a lot on his lunch breaks since it was within walking distance of his work. Also we went to Hookah Bliss and I introduced her to the delights of shishah. There's a bubble tea joint open late down on Franklin Street and a decadent bakery/gelato shop were we indulged in blood orange and Mexican chocolate gelato. Good times! Toby's really into My Little Ponies, too, which I encouraged in her while she was here. I showed them 'Fraggle Rock' for the first time. They Might Be Giants: (are they ever not awesome?!) The concerts on Saturday -- whoo! The second one was a powerhouse of the best of TMBG. I danced like crazy and remembered that intense high that made me follow them around on tour for a while. It's so invigorating. Danny and Iggy remembered me! It was so strange not having to go anywhere to see them, having them in my hometown, driving my own car to shows for the first time, sleeping in my own bed afterward. It was great to see anacoluthon, listener, and kirinn, and my eternal gratitude goes to happier_end for giving autumnraina a massage that helped her migraine and enabled her to enjoy the second show. film2edit came in from out of town and we went out to Gypsy's Shiny Diner in Cary, where the tableside jukeboxes were working and I got to groove to 'Sleepwalk' and 'Mr. Sandman' over a butterscotch milkshake with autumnraina. Tea: Right now I'm really into Assam, bubble tea and Thai Iced Tea (the latter thanks to demonicsymphony). ...I've been kind of busy lately, as you can see, and I'm obsessing over my writing lately as well as being caught up real-life stuff. Some is good, some is bad, some is awesome. I'm sorry I haven't been sharing all the awesome. Also, I really can't stand FaceBook. As a social network it's really pedantic, almost vapid in the way everything is about quizzes, games, and Tweet-length entries that amount to a lot of nearly-empty interaction with people I care about so much more deeply than that. It gives off this air of being the end-all of social networking, but it's really just Twitter with some fancy jewelry. I've always preferred reading your blog entries, knowing what the people I love going through rather than getting what amounts to a news ticker. The reducto ad nauseum makes me sad. FaceBook is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. I miss meaningful interaction when I go there. I know it has its place, like Twitter, but it's not what I'm after when I want to know how my friends are. In some cases, though, it's all I have. I don't want to end on a downer, so here's one last thing that's awesome: Rhinestone Armadillo: This blog humbles my meager collection of stuff that's awesome. It's so chock-full of off-the-wall gifts culled from all corners of the internet, a backlog of awesome stuff that promises at least a smile or two. If you need a little awesome in your life, this is the emporium to visit! Current Mood: working Current Music: The Millionth Verse-Girls Are Waiting To Meet You-Gawtmy (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 24th, 2009
3:17 pm	Things That Are Awesome for August 24th, 2009 poutinstereo: I'm visiting her in Pittsburgh this week in her shiny new abode. She had WiiFit and a spare sports bra (which of course I didn't think to pack) so I could keep up the Free Run, woo! I had to go through and unlock all the running stuff again, but at least I'm still exercising. I love Free Run best, but I also really like it in Distance (Island Lap) when, if I quickly outdistance the trainer then I get to follow this adorable cartoon doggie all over the island. ...I miss Sara already and I've been away less than 48 hours. Someday I want to take her with me to New York. I'd just have trouble getting her around because she's not a service puppy. Unless you count my heart! Abulafia Random Generators: I probably posted about this place before, but I'm really enjoying looking through their tables for ideas. Some of the generators aren't great, but they have lists I can evenutally incorporate into this super-awesome character generator egbert826 is building for me in JavaScript. New York: I'm so excited about going to New York in less than a week. This will be the first time I've had an out-of-town birthday since sweet sixteen in L.A. I'm going to the Russian Tea Room for the first time, a long-overdue appointment with elegance. I'm planning on haunting familiar haunts and finding new ones to haunt. There's just so much to see! leolapyre recommended the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art on Staten Island a long time ago, mostly in the context of it being the reason for a tourist to visit there. I'd get to ride the ferry, too. I'm thinking of finishing up the song 'New York City' that They Might Be Giants covers -- the only locations listed I haven't hit are Staten Island Ferry, the Statue of Liberty and Co-op City. ...I have no interest in seeing the Statue of Liberty! I'm missing some essential tourist gene that would make me want to see major landmarks around the world. Except Big Ben. It's both pretty and functional! I only went to see Tour Eiffel because my mom wanted one of those paperweights and also they filmed part of my favorite classic 'Doctor Who' episode there. The Statue of Liberty seems like it would be a huge hassle for no good reason. It's on a tiny little island way far away from the fun stuff. ...I'm going to the U.N. building instead. ...And maybe the Bronx Zoo? Alice's Tea Cup Chapter II: Oh my stars and garters, by always going to Chapter I, I missed out on the fact that Chapter II has alcoholic tea cocktails! Like Chai Alexander -- chai, brandy, amaretto & cream; Stoli Vanil, kahlua, frangelica, mauritius tea and milk; lapsang souchong with black label; peach tea with flowers, champagne and simple syrup; lavender Earl Grey with Bombay Sapphire (I think I just had a foodgasm)... mm! egbert826, we are SO going there! We must have special tea! Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Opening-Yasunori Mitsuda-Chrono Cross (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
7:30 pm	Things That Are Awesome for August 11th, 2009 Fraggle Rock Season Four: On its lonesome at long last, no longer screwing over early adopters of the series who bought each season as it came out and would have been forced to buy the complete series in a shitty box that often damaged the DVDs. All the same bonus features are included. Also it contains my very favorite episode, 'The River of Life,' and a host of others I have been missing so dearly I almost caved and bought the whole box set. After all these years I get to see an interview with the two men whose hundred-plus songs shaped my young life and musical tastes, Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee, composers of every song on the show. I predict I shall bawl like a baby at the excerpts from the last day of shooting and the wrap party. It bears repeating that this is my favorite show for many reasons. I wish I could be a fraggle, or failing that meet one. The show's portrayals of respectful friendships are something I hold dear to my heart. The participants care so much about each other, just as they are, faults and all, so much that they struggle to overcome their problems rather than allowing rifts to drive them apart. If people (silly creatures) were fraggles, perhaps it would be that easy. Instead I fill my life with many fragglish people that I love just as they are and for whom I'd crawl to hell over molten glass. Those friendships make life worthwhile. Nothing fills me with joy like having someone answer the phone, "Well, if it isn't my favorite person in the whole wide world," and realizing I reciprocate entirely. I know how rare and valuable that is, like 'The Perfect Blue Rollie' in the episode of the same name in season four. And like said rollie, it is its nature be shared. Another reason this is my favorite show is that it is alone among all television series I've seen in that I love every episode. There is no other show where there isn't at least one episode I dislike, no matter how short its run. Current Mood: ebullient Current Music: Pass it On-Fraggle Rock (in my head) (Comment on this)