http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2861

Stuff I’ve been up to (when not working on Writercon and SuperVegan and, y’know, work):

* Saw Common Rotation at the Living Room on the Lower East Side. Apparently it was a record release party, as it was packed, and Danny Strong and Amber Benson were there. (I said hi to Danny and bought the new CD from Amber.) It was an okay show, but … yeah, I’m really losing interest in these guys. Makes sense, as I’ve been going to see them since 2003 and still feel completely awkward and out-of-place at their shows. Folk music isn’t my thing, and while I enjoy their lyrics and vocal harmonies, I am deeply creeped out by the stalkery celebrity-worshiping type fans they attract and just really don’t feel comfortable being there. There’s not really anything they do in their live show that’s worth the trouble of going.

* Had a birthday. And a party. I made the coconut lime cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (heavenly) and two vegan pizzas, one broccoli-mushroom-green pepper-garlic and one artichoke-sundried tomato-olive-caper. A lot of my friends canceled (or didn’t bother canceling and just didn’t show up) but a good crowd came and we had a lot of fun. Somehow my parties always turn into a bunch of people sitting in a circle sharing a single conversation, which is actually fine because (if I don’t say so myself) my friends are interesting and the conversation is insightful. Plus the food is good. :)

( Read Whose Body?, the first in Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey mysteries )

( Watched the first two seasons of Dexter )

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2850

I made some revisions and updates to my Ziggy Stardust essay. If anyone out there reads it, I would love to get feedback.

I checked in at the Song of Ice and Fire forum yesterday and was excited to see that casting sides and a pilot script for the HBO series have already leaked. And apparently they’re … decent. I am cautiously optimistic. I know a lot will have to be cut in order to turn such epic novels into a television series, but I’m pleased that they seem to be remaining faithful to the spirit of the text. (Of course anything could happen between now and the final airing, if it even airs…!) *crosses fingers*

Last weekend was busy. Friday night I went to the Feministing fifth anniversary party with my friend Anne. It was cool to be in a room full of feminists, but the location was so disappointing. It was the middle of nowhere (46th between 11th and 12th, surrounded by warehouses and cheesy clubs with lines to get in), the drinks were obscenely expensive, and the sound was atrocious. I can’t imagine why they didn’t have it in the LES or the Village.

Saturday I dragged myself out of bed with enough time to go to the Guggenheim, basically because 1) I’ve lived in NYC for nine years and have never been there and 2) if I can’t afford to travel, the least I can do is take advantage of the fact that I live in New York City. The building is gorgeous, of course, and the main exhibition on Frank Lloyd Wright was interesting. Some of his buildings are amazing, but I’m annoyed that he didn’t like cities and thought everyone should have cars. My favorite thing was the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in the Thannhauser Collection. The museum is small enough that you can listen to every segment on the audio guide with time to spare, so I took full advantage of that.

Then I met up with jaydk and we headed back to my place (after a nightmare on the subway thanks to the stupid L shutdown on weekends) where I made her finish The Man Who Fell to Earth (she hated it, *sigh*) and she made me watch part of an anime series and then um a fan-subbed video of a live-action musical based on an anime about middle schoolers playing tennis. And she thinks I have weird taste? ;) Of course there was a lot of alcohol and food and it was fun even if our fannish interests are not quite converging at the moment. Oh! And we had a lot of fun watching Robin Hood episode nine hit cliche after cliche. It’s like that show is built for MST3K. And Richard Armitage is always there to look hot and provide a bit of actual entertainment value.

Then Sunday I went to see Moon followed by the Q&A by director Duncan Jones. I want to see it again before it goes out of theaters; it’s really such a good film.

Now I have to answer emails. I know, I’m horribly slow. Working on it now.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2812

I’m so out of it today. I was up until 3am last night watching The Man Who Fell to Earth, and before that I was at my friend Eva’s birthday party at V-Spot, where they had unlimited mimosas for $10. Me and my friend Anne’s boyfriend Nemo were competing who could get their per-mimosa cost lowest; I got to $2.50 (four drinks), he got to $1.66 (six drinks), but he cheated because he was sneakily sharing his with Anne. Then we went back to Anne and Nemo’s place to hang out in the back yard and eat cake and drink more mimosas. Basically there was a lot of drinking. And cake!

SuperVegan got linked from the NY Times City Blog. It’s always cool when that happens.

On Saturday I cooked enough to last (hopefully) the whole week: rice and beans, maple-cinnamon cream of wheat, scrambled tofu, vegetable uppama (an Indian dish from that weird Vegan Cooking for One book). I was going to make this really good Asian noodle dish with coconut milk, but I forgot to buy fresh ginger.

We had a long Writercon phone meeting on Saturday night, and then around 11pm I remembered that there was a new Doctor Who episode. Oh yeah, that.

( spoilers for this episode and spec for the future )

My mom has started Checkmate. I'm skimming along so that I can answer her questions as she goes. I'm really glad I got her the book of translations--I think Checkmate is the hardest to understand without them. I'm really excited that she's nearing the end and that we'll be able to discuss the entire series soon. I like Checkmate a lot better in retrospect, based on how excited I am to get to talk about all the passages that she's reading. Really the only book in the series that doesn't inspire joy is The Ringed Castle--it's definitely my least favorite overall. Although even it is growing on me over time, as they all seem to.

Oh yeah, and I watched The Man Who Fell to Earth last night. I liked it! Which is weird because I didn't expect to like it at all. It's strange and surreal and definitely has a lot of annoying aspects (the awful female characters for one) but it's also eerie and atmospheric and very interesting. And, okay, David Bowie is just so pretty to look at throughout. So, so, so pretty.

( embarrassing fangirlishness about David Bowie )

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2767

Wow. Apparently lots of stuff happens in the world when you spend two weeks devouring the Lymond Chronicles and ignoring everything else.

My boss told me that they’d announced the new Doctor as I walked into work today. My immediate thought was “I can’t wait to read Fandom Wank.” It’s not disappointing.

(I’m surprised, actually. I expected to have to grudgingly give Moffat his due for choosing Patterson Joseph. Instead I’m LOLing at him for choosing some random kid who looks like the mutated offspring of David Tennant and Robert Pattinson.)

I owe email and comment responses to people. I’m sorry. I really haven’t been at my computer for two weeks–I updated the last two times from Indiana via my magical phone.

Oh! And I have to say–THANK YOU kita0610 FOR THE LOVELY CARD AND DAVID TENNANT CALENDAR! And thank you netweight for the incredibly sweet card! My internet friends are the best. :)

Now I’m going to ramble more about the Lymond Chronicles, because that’s all I spent my winter vacation thinking about. I finished Pawn in Frankincense and The Ringed Castle and am now partway into Checkmate.

( spoilers for the Lymond Chronicles )

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2755

I’ve had the craziest week and have barely been online at all. I miss you guys! I’m getting on a plane to Indiana first thing in the morning (where I won’t have internet access), so I just wanted to wish you all a great holiday. :)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2752

* Um. There’s an Edward Cullen bedsheet set. This might be the most disturbing thing I have ever seen.

* I watched the two John Simm Netflix DVDs that have been lying around my house for the past six months. The first was a TV show called Cracker, in which adorable young Simm plays a deeply fucked up young killer who just wants to be loved. Awww. You kind of want to snuggle the poor darling… and then lock him up for life. It was fun to watch, but nothing new; pretty much the same thing he did in Chiller (which was more fun because of the gay subtext with his evil imaginary friend).

Then I watched Wonderland… or, I should say, the first half hour of Wonderland, before I couldn’t take it any more and had to fast forward to only the Simm parts. It’s apparently a movie about a bunch of incredibly boring, miserable people, who go about their boring lives being miserable. I guess it’s supposed to be “realistic,” but it was just pathetic. Admittedly I only got part way through… maybe it got better? Simm didn’t have much to do anyway; he played one of the many boring pathetic losers, basically Danny Kavanagh without the spark. I don’t understand why people make movies like this. Even if some peoples’ lives are this dull, who would want to watch a film about it?

Between Wonderland and The Devil’s Whore, I am beginning to doubt the conventional wisdom that John Simm has great taste in projects. At least we’ll always have Life on Mars and Doctor Who. And I still haven’t seen anything as bad as the crap I endured during my Sean Bean phase.

* I had a peculiar weekend.

( Saturday I got way too drunk at my friend Livi's holiday party )

Sunday I had to drag myself out of bed to go to the Museum of Modern Art, because I'd bought a ticket in advance. I got there at 3pm and it closes at 5:30pm; the world is just not made for night people. Or hungover people. >:( But thanks to coffee and tylenol, I managed to enjoy the Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night exhibit. I know it's a cliche, but it really is so much more incredible to see an actual painting in person. They had both of my favorites, Starry Night Over the Rhone and The Starry Night. Which I also know is also a cliche, but... they're really popular because they're really amazing! It's stunning how beautiful they are, and how vivid the colors are when you see them in person. The exhibit was actually pretty small--something like 40 paintings--with a focus on how Van Gogh captured the light and the "spiritual qualities" of night. It was definitely worth seeing; I'm glad I finally made it there. (If you're going, buy your museum ticket online in advance and you're guaranteed entrance to the Van Gogh exhibit; otherwise you have to get a timed entry ticket, which they might sell out of before you arrive.)

Then I went to the Looking at Music exhibit, which honestly just seemed to be a bunch of stuff from the 60s and 70s randomly thrown together based on what had been donated to MOMA. However, they did have Bowie's "Space Oddity" video running on constant repeat, and I watched it through a couple times because I couldn't get over the novelty of watching a music video I like at a big fancy art museum. I wish I had thought to the use the "It's ART!" justification when trying to convince my parents to let me watch MTV as a kid. :P Oh, and I rather optimistically bought two tickets for the Bowie music video screening on Friday night. I don't know what I was thinking; now I have to find someone to take the second ticket. But I'm really glad I got one for me. Even though it's just music videos, it's music videos on a big screen! At a museum! Sorry, I just find it really amusing, in a good way. :)

* I'm trying not to panic about the holidays. Trying being the operative word. There is nowhere in the world I'd less rather go than Southern Indiana, but I owe my parents for helping me move, so I'm going. Wasting time and money I really can't spare to go be miserable out in the middle of nowhere, while my cats are left alone with a catsitter I can't afford and I have nothing to do and no one to talk to and nothing to eat and... just... oh my god I don't want to go. *sigh*

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2733

That was just… incredible. It was like New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July times ten.

( Read more... )

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2646

I had the most awesome Saturday. jaydk and I went to Philadelphia for Projekt Revolution.

( Good friends, yummy food, street fairs, Chris Cornell, and Linkin Park )

What else I've been up to:

( I liked The Dark Knight, but I didn't *love* it )

( I've been catching up on Due South )

( My Doctor Who fannish experience has been very Doctor/Master centric lately )

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2640

Tonight I got to see one of my favorite bands with two of my favorite people in the universe.

chenanceou and jaydk met up with me at Pukk, the yummy vegetarian Thai restaurant. Then we headed to The Living Room to see Common Rotation.

It was a good show, although way too short. The band members were in good moods; the stage banter was adorable and the songs were all entertaining. But it felt incomplete, because they didn’t play a single one of the staples I’ve gotten used to at Common Rotation shows; no “Everything Under the Sun” or “Gone Dyin’” or “Clear Channel” or “Party People” or “Indie Rockin.” Just, good, but I wanted another hour. Remember those living room shows, when they’d play and play? I got so spoiled back then…

I made chenanceou get their autographs afterward, because, dude, she’d come halfway across the world and timed her trip to see them. She was all adorable and shy. And of course the band was nice, as they always are. Adam Busch is the nicest “celebrity” I met in the entirety of Buffy fandom.

Amber Benson was there, and it always freaks me out to see her, because she is tiny. Like, ethereal. And when you remember that people complained about her being “fat” when she was on BtVS, you realize that Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan must be, like, doll-sized, to look small next to her. It also made me feel like some kind of hulking giant. But anyway. She is also nice.

And tomorrow I’m going to Asbury Park. I’m going to lay on the beach and breathe salty air and read something light (maybe Harry Potter) and just be glad to be out of NYC. I can’t believe I haven’t gone anywhere in eight months. I’m not made to stay in one place for so long!

(Is it really annoying to choose three mood icons? I can’t decide if I’m more drunk, tired, or happy.)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2578

Home from work. I know everyone’s thinking this, but thank god it’s Friday.

It’s dreary and horrible outside, but I braved the weather in order to pick up important Doctor Who watching supplies. Namely beer and coffee. I wanted Abita Strawberry Ale, but didn’t feel like waiting in line for a half-hour at Whole Foods, so I went with Magic Hat #9 from the deli. And the coffee is freshly ground pumpkin spice.

I see that people are angsting about the upcoming Doctor Who episode, but I’m unspoiled and willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Spoilers always give you a distorted and out of context picture, anyway. I can’t tell you how many things I freaked out about in Buffy fandom that turned out to be minuscule in retrospect. Of course, the episode could totally suck, but I want to see it first before I judge anything. I’ve been happy with this season so far, so I’d be surprised if it wasn’t good.

(It kind of sucks not being able to participate in a lot of the discussion, though. Alas, the curse of the spoiler-free.)

I guess we’ll also watch the last Sarah Jane Adventures two-parter. (Did I mention I loved “Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?” So good. It made me cry.) And maybe “The War Games.” It’s first on this list, and jaydk loves the Second Doctor, so hopefully she’ll want to watch it with me.

Note to self: get web work done this weekend. And go apartment-hunting if the weather clears up. (There. I wrote it down; now I have to do it.)

Did you guys see Stephen Colbert talking to the astronaut last night? I thought he was going to explode from glee. So, so cute.

Since this entry is pretty boring, I’ve added an icon of John Simm looking gorgeous to brighten it up. Isn’t he adorable? :)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2568

In which jaydk came over and we:

* Watched The Sarah Jane Adventures “Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?” - by far the best SJA yet, so good it made me cry.

* Drank ridiculously good Vinho Verde.

* Watched “The Poison Sky” and were so pleased that it didn’t suck. Helen Raynor redeemed, yay! So good I’ll have to wait until tomorrow and post a proper review instead of a drunken rant.

* Drank a ridiculously good South African shiraz… super rich and chocolatey. I know it would help if I remembered the brands, but it’s 4am, sorry.

* Went to the 1am showing of Iron Man in digital projection at Union Square and it was fucking AWESOME, yay! I ::heart:: Robert Downey, Jr. so much.

* And snuck really good beer in–Blue Moon Summer Ale.

Proper reviews tomorrow or Monday… I’m totally going to pass out now. G’night!

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2257

jaydk is on her way over. She’s bringing champagne. We’re ordering brunch and drinking mimosas to celebrate the premiere of Doctor Who. I think we’re probably the biggest dorks in NYC and I DON’T CARE AT ALL.

OMG IT’S ALMOST TIME.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2210

I had a busy week.

( Macbeth with Patrick Stewart )

( The Quatermass Experiment )

( Common Rotation )

( the David Tennant/Phil Collinson/Helen Raynor drunken commentary on The Five Doctors )

( Love and Monsters )

( Fear Her )

( Afro-Cuban Jazz at Birdland )

I had a busy week.

( Macbeth with Patrick Stewart )

( The Quatermass Experiment )

( Common Rotation )

( the David Tennant/Phil Collinson/Helen Raynor drunken commentary on The Five Doctors )

( Love and Monsters )

( Fear Her )

( Afro-Cuban Jazz at Birdland )

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal with a way cuter icon]

jaydk is the greatest friend in the history of the universe. I know this because she came over to my house last night with a huge DVD folder full of just about every publicly available thing in the history of David Tennant's career.

So we ordered take-out, drank raspberry beer, watched three episodes of Doctor Who (we're doing a rewatch), and then stayed up until 5am giggling over the cuteness of David Tennant. Interviews, various states of insane gravity-defying hair, award shows, cooking shows (!!!! if you're a DT fan and you haven't seen him and his dad on "Ready Steady Cook" you are totally missing out), some incredibly awful sitcom about cops on boats in which the only redeeming feature is a super young David Tennant... oh and then we watched the full Doctor Who Confidentials from the end of season three. The official DVDs leave so much out! You get multiple angles and takes of David sobbing over John Simm! And a whole retrospective about the Master! And did I mention all the footage of John Simm? Good lord, the two of them.

And then jaydk left and I checked my FL before going to bed, and there was a new chapter of versaphile's latest and OMG HOTNESS OVERLOAD.

***

The Veganomicon potluck on Saturday night was awesome, too. My friend Eva hosted it at her place in Brooklyn, and it was the perfect amount of people for a party, where you can all gather around and basically have one conversation, split into separate digressions, and then come together again as one throughout the night. And I knew everyone, all good people who I like seeing, and can somehow manage to carry on conversation with even though it's not about Doctor Who. Plus Eva's got great musical taste; lots and lots of the 1980s, with Depeche Mode recurring throughout the night.

We all cooked, so we had tons of good food--this artichoke garlic pesto pasta; baked pumpkin ziti; greens with cranberries and pine nuts; roasted eggplant, tomato, and red pepper stew with chickpeas; and awesome desserts: chocolate chip banana bread pudding (mine, it got devoured!), chocolate chocolate chip cookies, pecan rum cookies, banana wheat germ muffins.... And lots and lots of wine. Red wine, white wine, sparkling wine, dessert wine.... we all sprawled around in a circle around this little table, stuffing ourselves with food and drinking and talking until 2am.

***

And now: what better way to kill time on a holiday afternoon than sprawled out in front of your computer, cat snuggled in your lap, watching one of the worst shows in the history of television?

( Torchwood 1x05 - the best episode so far? )

Some kind of ridiculous combination of cold medicine and coffee caused me to stay up until 2pm on Saturday night. Like I was awake all Saturday night and Sunday morning before finally crashing at 2pm Sunday afternoon. All the while thinking "this is not a very wise thing to be doing when I am sick." And reading Life on Mars fanfic.

jaydk was over until 5am. We watched Voyage of the Damned and reveled in the mutual squee. I'm so glad that we both loved it. That one scene, where the Doctor snaps his fingers and the angels carry him up, god, I just love it so much. I haven't felt that kind of pure fannish adoration in a long time.

We also watched some of the old series, which is the first I've ever seen of it. I'm not sure what the episodes were called, but it had some kind of mix of vampires/zombies/whatever that thing is in Creature From the Black Lagoon. Also Russians and Nazis and Vikings. And, um, it looked a lot like something a second-year high school Media Arts class would've come up with. Although I did really like Ace. After just one episode she was already more interesting than Martha in her entire series run.

Oh! And then we watched David Tennant in Casanova. It was probably some combination of DayQuil and lack of sleep, but Casanova just totally ripped my heart out and stomped all over it. David Tennant is so emotive, with that expressive face and those huge eyes, and every time he looks sad or hurt I just ACHE FOR HIM. Ack. I hate crying during movies.

I think I've completely lost my ability to judge fanfic objectively, but here are a few Life on Mars stories that stood out:

We Could Steal Time by dorcas_gustine has really hot kitchen!sex. And good characterization. Although the author has some weird issues with commas. Sam/Gene, NC-17.

All These Editions of You by dorcas_gustine is in three parts, the first of which is told from an excellent Gene POV. The author keeps him in-character while showing how much he cares about Sam underneath, as much as he'd never admit it even to himself. Sam/Gene, NC-17.

Say Hello to the Id by maestro1123 has a slashy ultra-sexually-charged fight scene that is just beyond hot. Plus fucked-up masochistic Sam. Some Sam/Annie but mostly Sam/Gene. This is more violence porn than sex porn, so technically not NC-17.

It’s Jus’ Magic by mikes_grrl is just fantastically cracked-out nonsense of the best sort. Sam/Chris, NC-17.

There are a bunch of stories that try to explain a gay Gene within canon. I thought Undercover by mikes_grrl was one of the better ones. Sam/Gene, NC-17.

Just got tickets for Marilyn Manson at Hammerstein Ballroom on January 30. My friend April (who I haven't seen since she OMG HAD A BABY!) is coming with me. Anyone else going?

I know Manson sucks now, but it's a nostalgia thing; I can't help it. Antichrist Superstar was good. And I have strangely happy memories of waiting in line huddled in a sleeping bag in the freezing cold for eight hours just to get a front row spot when I was eighteen, so it would just feel lame to not go at all when he's back in my neighborhood.

Also got tickets for Macbeth starring Patrick Stewart at BAM for March 11. Good seats, too. After the awesomeness of King Lear with Ian McKellen last year, I'm really looking forward to this.

I am also so excited that I'm going to see David Tennant in Hamlet this year. So totally beyond excited. That and the fact that I get to spend time in London again. It's the thing I'm most looking forward to in 2008.

Oh, and in case you haven't seen this: YEARS worth of RPF fantasy material.

10zlaine came to visit this weekend. ( my fun but exhausting weekend, seeing Chemlab, watching Doctor Who, and hanging out with fandom friends )

( photo: I'm such a dork )

In other news, jaydk and I had a (new) Doctor Who marathon on Saturday night. We started at 7pm and continued until 9:30am. That's fourteen hours of Doctor Who! (There was some food, alcohol, and conversation involved, too.) We watched all of season two (minus a couple of episodes that jaydk said were lame) and the final three episodes of season three. And really, I just have one thought:

David Tennant is so hot!!

I know I should have deep thoughts about themes and characters and moral issues and the loneliness of outliving your friends and the question of what makes us human and the arrogance of assuming godlike powers over others...

but, sorry, I'm still stuck on "David Tennant is so hot!!" and it's going to take me a while to absorb that before my brain can fit any deeper thoughts. Just, his character is a giant geek! So full of manic energy! And he uses it to cover up his deep inner pain!! He's so lonely! Yet so full of enthusiasm about new experiences and adventures!! I love it!

Anyway, jaydk is laughing her ass off at me, because after she left (and I slept for ten hours) I woke up and downloaded all of season three, and caught up so that I've seen every episode with the Tenth Doctor minus the ones we skipped from season two. (I haven't seen any of the first season or any of the old series and I'm still totally clueless about the canon of the show.) I can't help it. I'm a giant geek at heart, too. Plus, that guy is really hot.

I don't know what it is with the geek thing lately. Between him and Stephen Colbert (you have no idea how huge my crush is on Stephen Colbert) my perceptions of hotness are really changing. It used to be all scruff and black leather; now I'm squeeing over skinny dorks!

(And this is why I love fandom and don't want real life people reading my LJ. Because even if you fannish people are laughing at me, you totally know where I'm coming from. Real life people just get that blank-confused-don't-get-it stare, and you have to explain, and they still don't get it, and then you just stop talking about it because it's pointless... whereas here, even if you don't share my squee over this particular thing, you've all experienced fannish squee over something, and know exactly what I'm talking about.)

Oh, and last night I saw the new final cut of "Blade Runner" at the Ziegfeld with a bunch of friends. (The Ziegfeld is a beautiful theater with a HUGE screen.) It was an amazing experience--if you ever have a chance to see "Blade Runner" on a big screen, do. The new version was particularly stunning, so clear and gorgeous that it could've been made this year. I got all teary-eyed watching it; it's almost like a silent film, the way the dialogue is so minimal and so much of the emotion comes from visuals: the cinematography, the set design, and the faces of the actors. Rutger Hauer, in that final scene... just awe-inspiring.

( some random thoughts on the Lymond series )

What else? I haven't been posting much. Let's see...

I went to Las Vegas and ate vegan donuts. That was fun. Details and pictures are here.

And then there was this... which I don't even want to write about so I'm going to copy and paste from an email I wrote to 10zlaine:

I was kind of just going with it... enjoying the pool while ignoring the massively overpriced bad food and the leers of drunken frat boys... and my front row seat was perfect... the show was amazing... AIC played "No Excuses," which I hadn't heard yet... I cheered like an idiot when they announced Sean Kinney's name--he's the drummer, and my favorite member of any band ever, and I've adored him since I was 11 years old due to his combination of ass-kicking musical ability and genuinely funny and good-natured personality... and at the end, he came over and HANDED ME A DRUM STICK... I was in heaven... already imagining how I'd frame it in glass and make it the center-piece of my apartment... I carried it around with me for 40 minutes while waiting in line for a drink... I went back to my seat... put the drumstick in my bag, put my bag on the floor between my feet and the barrier... and SOME ASSHOLE REACHED INTO MY BAG AND STOLE THE DRUM STICK.

No matter how much I tell myself that it's just a THING, and the cool moment was when Sean handed it to me... I am so fucking pissed off and I seriously wish I could flay alive the person who stole it from me... and that pretty much ruined the vacation, and killed my ability to ignore the disgusting exploitative sleaze of Vegas...

So yeah. This time when I say "I am never going back to Las Vegas," I mean it.

At least the donuts were good.

On Tuesday I saw Ian McKellen in "King Lear" at BAM. It was SO GOOD. I am not a theater person at all, so I can't really comment technically, I can just say that I was completely riveted every time McKellen was speaking, and completely riveted during the entire last act. The seats were incredibly uncomfortable and the view was weird (so steep that we were nearly looking at the top of the actors' heads) but I didn't even notice for the last hour or so. I'd never seen or read "King Lear" so I was really into the story, too. (I know, stop laughing at my ignorance.) I'm SO glad that I got to see it. If you ever have a chance to see Ian McKellen in anything, definitely go.

Then last night jaydk and I saw her favorite soap opera actor, Tom Pelphrey from Guiding Light, in a play in this weird little office-building theater that seated about 40 people. We were literally sitting on the stage. Pelphrey was good, but the play was pretentious and terrible. Alas. I'm sure it also suffered in comparison to Lear! I did make jaydk stick around and get Pelphrey's autograph, though--it was totally worth it to see her happy fangirl expression. ;)

And this weekend I'm going to Austin to see Alice in Chains unplugged. Honestly I'd rather just stay home and sleep, but, plane tickets already booked....

*is exhausted*