kaffy_r | Entries tagged with television

Joy to the World

We finally got to see "Joy to the World" last night, and I'm so glad we did. Some initial thoughts are all I can pull together right now.

1. For an atheist, The Moff sure writes as if he'd like to be a believer.
2. Once again, nobody dies. Or rather, those who die live again in an afterlife. Yep. Totally not spiritual. The important thing is that you believe it, Steven.
3. I started looking for kids and was a bit disappointed that I couldn't see them - until Joy exploded and told the Doctor about her own mother.
4. This has to be the first time a Who writer referenced COVID.
5. I wish Anita had gone with the Doctor. Serving at the Time Hotel is fine, I suppose, but it's a bit like kissing your sister. Damn, she was great.
6. Villengard! I started looking around for bananas ....
7. Oh my goodness, I love Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor. Bob, whose NuWho Doctor is 11, bless, said "This one is almost as much a favorite for me." I agree. He has an inner glow that I'm so happy to see. I've loved dark and darkish Doctors, like 9 and 12, but the ones that glow, like 13 before 15, are absolutely central to the Whoniverse.

(A completely-not-about-the-episode note: I'm getting really old and deaf. The various English accents, from actors saying their lines very, veerry fast, never seemed to throw me before. It increasingly does, and it's even more diffficult with the Moff, because his characters speak so damned fast, and generally talk over ach other. *grumbles like the old lady I am*)

Current Mood: tipsy
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: Stray Kids "Hop" being analyzed by Roscoe

Goodness, It's Hot

The headline really says it all, since we're hovering in the high 80s and low 90s in Chicago, but I suppose I can find a few other things to say. Or maybe just one?

BB and I watched the first episode of "Loki", and were pretty happily impressed.

It didn't shy from the fact that movie Loki, at least the one from 2012, was a charming but murderous asshole. heavy on the murderous part. In fact, it kind of rubs this Loki's face in it, thanks to the character of Mobius, played very well by Owen Wilson.

Age has given Wilson's physical presence a little gravitas, and I think that's allowed him to step ever so slightly out of the Owen Wilson box he's been in. He plays the character as unexpectedly tough, and very likeable. And what he does with Loki allows the writers to immediately address Loki's murderous past. They don't woobify Loki - at least not in the first episode - but they do hint that perhaps this version (the "variant" Loki from 2012 who hasn't gone on a voyage of self-discovery and at least some minimal conscience growth the the way our main timeline Loki has) might do a little self-discovery himself.

So yes, impressed, even if I laughed to see the 1960s-Madman-era feel of the TVA so closely resemble the headquarters of our villains from "The Umbrella Academy."

Right now, I'm going to sit down and watch some more anime. Thursdays are the days that my current fave anime, "Zombieland Saga Revenge" drops, and I hate the fact that there's probably only three more episodes in this cour. I loved the first cour, which dropped in 2018, but which BB and I only saw this year, and I'm hoping that they get another cour, and one that arrives a little more quickly than 2.5 years.

Why do I love Zombieland Saga? Maybe I'll talk about that in another post but for now I'll just say "Zombies! Japanese Idol Groups! Zombies who start an idol group!" and leave it there. God, I love it ....

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Beverly Glenn Copeland
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/581137.html

Bridgerton LOLs and More

On the last Monday of February, I should probably try to catch up. Bob's been under the weather; not ill, just under the weather, and his mood is fairly good, which is excellent, but it's been rather front and center over the last few days. This morning, however, I got up and decided to make the day work for me.

First - well, it's not productive, but it was odd fun to binge watch "Bridgerton" on Netflix over the weekend. I did it because images from it had been floating around on the web, including a YouTube video from a costume specialist who said the show's putatively Regency Era costumes were apparently horribly and anachronistically un-Regency, but still worked. Reader, I was intrigued. In addition, it had the old fanfic trope of "pretending to be in love For Reasons, and then really falling in love." That amused me as well, despite not being a romance reader, either of original romance fiction or similarly themed fanfic.

( More under here. )

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Secret Garden "The Voyage"
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/574203.html

Something That Is Not Bad

I love Mythbusters. The show was a healthy dose of fun done with science, and science done with fun, both in the service of using logic to prove or disprove myths, folk tales, and urban legends. It was a lovely mix of careful planning, goofy tech and giddy silliness, teamwork and things Blowing Up Real Good. I loved Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (Adam more than Jamie, I freely admit); I loved the junior host team of Kari Byron and Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara. So I was shocked and very saddened when Grant died unexpectedly this summer of a brain aneurysm.

I recently learned that Imahara's mother and his friends have created a foundation named after him, aimed at supporting underserved young people interested in STEAM education: science/technology/engineering/art/math.

I watched this video, and it made me feel even more sorry that he died so young and very glad that his loved ones are honoring him in this way. Also, it made me love him even more for being an SFF fan - watch all the way to the end, fellow Whovians, for a special joy.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: "Trying Times" Roberta Flack
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/568133.html

Good Things and Other Things

Let's get the "other" part out of the way. This story from NPR, about how the efficacy of recycling plastics has always been a lie, one that oil companies pushed even as they knew it was a lie, has almost caused me to despair. It's certainly plunged me into an environmental Slough of Despond, from which I cry disconsolately "Why the fuck should I even bother?" What do you think, after reading it?

I'll follow that up with something slightly more positive: the potential for at least considering the likelihood of life on or above Venus. (I made that sufficiently equivocal, I think.) The information in this Washington Post piece was intriguing, to say the least.

Further things: I've made applesauce this afternoon. The old apple peeler/corer/slicer that we picked up at either Goodwill or the Sally Ann didn't work this time, although it was really helpful the last time we used it. I'll have to investigate it, but I think the blades involved are now too blunted. Or maybe the apples were too soft ... *wanders off, muttering*

Also on the cooking menu is a cucumber-onion salad. Hmmm; food considerations remind me that I need to create the menu for the rest of this week, because I'm trying very hard to be organized about things like this.

I'm also going to try to get a little bit more writing done on my slow fanfic WIP. Go, me. And the music I'll be listening to as I try is CBC radio, which I was reminded I have access to online. It's been very soothing; lots of diverse music, with quiet chat between pieces, usually with really interesting information about pieces or composers.

Speaking of Canada, now I really have to start watching Schitt's Creek, which I've been aware of for a few years but which I haven't watched, because the idea of a family living in limbo, no matter how funny, pushes the same horrid buttons that Green Acres used to.* It swept all 7 Emmy comedy-connected awards last night, and now that the series is over, I can maybe get started on it.

* When I was a lilttle kid with little to no taste in television, "Green Acres" used to drive me spare; why couldn't they fix the damned house, why were they living where they had to climb a pole to answer the phone, why didn't they just start making their home neater. Why couldn't they control their surroundings? Worse, why didn't they seem to want to control their surroundings? This speaks more to me than it speaks to Green Acres ... amusingly enough, I watched a little of a Green Acres episode not long ago, and really enjoyed it, probably because I could digest its surrealism and enjoy it. A little like not being able to stand blue cheese or dulse as a youngster - not even being able to understand how anyone would like them - and discovering years later how much I liked one, and could enjoy the other.

Current Mood: anxious
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: "Early One Morning" Nana Mouskourinana
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/565424.html

Bits and Bobs and Tiny Tornadoes

I kept meaning to post, and check on others' posts, all last week. It didn't happen. But the old bicycle beckons and I'm a sucker for checking my balance on it.

ETA: I mentioned links, and didn't include them. Here they are.

( Yet another (brief) Hugo Awards comment )

( Books and Television )

( And now, weather )Tomorrow, very possibly a political post.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: the dining room
Current Music: MSNBC
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/563223.html

Good Omens, Part the First and a Half

Many thanks to

elisi for finding me so many links to read about both the book and the television series - I'm diving into one of owls' pieces now. I will be responding to your comments on my previous Good Omens post, but I need time and brain.

What I can tell you is the following:

a) I am impressed with the depth of intellectual diving being done by people, and with such obvious joy.
b) Who knew there was a Good Omens fan base in the 30 years prior to the series? (Oh, people who read the book prior to immediately before the series, and people who, unlike me, really fell in love with Pratchett's work.)
c) AND THIS IS IMPORTANT
...
...
...
( It's all under here, for various powers of )

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Location: the home office
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/533439.html

So. Good Omens. Finally.

This is not going to be a case of me highlighting "Good Omens" in the headline, and then going "Ha! Fooled You! Got Nothing to Say! Ha! And again I say Ha!"

Nor, however, will it be very long. I only have one observation thus far, other than that which I said initially, and that was that this is a well-made BBC mini-series, with very good writing, very, very good acting and pacing, and some sweet scenes - and one that has not captured my emotional attention in the least.*
( Some spoilers for both the book and the mini-series. So beware. )

*I'm sorry guys. I wish I could tell you something else. I think I'll go back now and read some of your conversations. They should be more accessible than the extraordinarily academic tome I ran across on AO3 today.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: the home office
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/532743.html

Monday Regrets

TFW you're sure that someone's written fic for Ingress: The Animation, because it's open-ended and has a three-sided relationship crying out for OT3 storytelling ... and there's nothing. Zip, zilch, nada.

Don't look at me. I have my hands full with Who, S&S, Vorkosiverse, MCU, and Goblin Emperor. And y'all know how slow I am.

Yes, I know I shouldn't bitch if I'm not willing to write it.

Yes, I know no one's been watching the anime.

I'll show myself out.

*slinks away, disappointed*

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Alt-J (they do the intro and outro songs for the anime
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/531345.html

Technology Television, and Books FTW

Bob and I got me an air-fryer (which Bob reminded me is just a fancy name for a small convection oven) as a birthday present, and we tried it out today, creating french fries without the deep fat frying that scares the living bejeezus out of me. I really am afraid of deep frying; a fear that wasn't helped at all by the first episode of Spooks, lo, these many years ago. So having fries that only needed to be tossed in oil? Yesssss!

My Donna & Thirteen & Shaun (oh my!) fic is growing, possibly to the point where I should turn it into a two chapter effort. Thus far, I'm pleased with it, and Bob has given it an approving WIP review. Go, me!

I wish I had something more monumental to talk about, but there you have it. Oh ... have yet to move beyond the first episode of Good Omens, but I will soon. I've also watched the first episode of Carnival Row, and although it's cliche-ridden, I'm enjoying it enough to continue watching. There - wow! Fannish TV.

Speaking of which, I bought the 20th anniversary edition of Textual Poachers: Television fans and Participatory Culture, by Henry Jenkins, and I'm gingerly dipping my brain into it. Academic tomes and I aren't the best of dance partners, but I live in hope.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: the home office
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/530513.html

As June Approaches

... I've been familiarizing myself with my new job, learning that there's another segment of the job I hadn't expected to take on, struggling to remain organized as I try to become a mobilizer, and in general adulting the fuck out of life. It's been a challenge, but one that seems, at least at this point, to agree with me.

I'm back on my back exercise kick. After my right hip and leg started giving me non-stop pain, I brought it up with my rheumatologist and she was blunt; exercise was really the only answer. And she's right, of course. I just hate exercise. Still, after only a couple of night's worth of minimal exercise, I'm not having nearly as much pain when I'm in bed, trying to sleep, and I'm pretty certain that it's not some sort of exercise placebo effect, so exercise I will, as long as my admittedly fragile self discipline holds out.

I've been thinking, off and on, about the end of Game of Thrones.

( Game of Thrones geekliness. Spoilers, y'all. )

Current Mood: geeky
Current Location: the home office
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/523133.html

Alive and Somewhat Cold

There are so many things I want to talk about. But I'm going to curl up on the couch, under my TARDIS blanket, and turn off my mind by watching one of the following:

a) What we technically call a shit-ton of anime.
b) One episode of the first season of Legion. Just one. One at a time is all I can take of this brilliant but intense series.
c) A couple of episode of The Umbrella Academy. It's brilliant without taking my brain and putting through a shredder, then trying to glue it back together.

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: the livingroom
Current Music: the furnace
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/514854.html

So yes, I did write some stories for

fandom_stocking , and now that I know their recipients have read them, I can post them.

Title: A Falcon at Stoke Field
Author:

kaffy_r
Fandom: Shadow of the Tower
Characters: Henry VII, Simnel the Pretender, two guards
Words: 926
Summary: One name had been left behind, the next was never his to begin with. In the aftermath of Stoke Field, Lambert Simnel chooses a new identity.
Author's note: This was written, with great affection, for

thisbluespirit for

fandom_stocking 2018. I thank her for luring me into yet another fandom, and with luck, this offering will be acceptable. My research is superficial at best, but the story's two central conceits lie in reports that the young pretender was called by the name he chose in some contemporary accounts (per Wikipedia at least) and that he eventually became a falconer.

Edited by: Unedited, but obsessively reread. Any mistakes are my own.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, particularly Henry VII or Lambert Simnel, and take no coin.
Read here, or at AO3.

*** *** ***
( Read more... )

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: the living room.
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/511724.html

We Escaped 2018

... and I loved the Dr. Who New Year special. It solidified my feelings about this season; I loved it, for reasons that might run counter to those of other folks.

I'm heading to bed right now, so I'll have to leave my explanation for another time. But I know what I liked, and I'll do my best to explain in another post.

Current Mood: excited
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/508731.html

Hey,

thisbluespirit !

I'm on Episode 3 of Shadow of the Tower.

Just thought you should know.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: At my desk
Current Music: Marshall Crenshaw
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/508609.html

"Rosa"

I approached this one with a certain amount of trepidation. It's U.S. history, about America's particular, and particularly virulent, racism (which is not to suggest that there isn't virulent racism of various flavors damned near everywhere, but yes, this is in my wheelhouse, so I was worried that it could have been mishandled.) It's written by Brits. The story could have gone very wrong. It didn't, in my opinion. Comments that follow are both Doylist and Watsonian and are under the cut because, while I tried to keep them fairly spoiler-free and I think I was successful, I don't want to take that for granted.

( Possibly spoiler-free, but I'm not sure. )

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: the living room.
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/503223.html

November Start

I haven't been very active online since my last Phil-oriented post. That's a combination of inertia and real life combining to make posting incredibly difficult to assay. I'll try to be more present this month, if not altogether voluble.

Just a few things to say (although I'm going to try to start collecting thoughts as they occur, for later posting.) And I'm going to try to comment on other peoples' posts as well. I can't continue to say that much of my social life is online, if I don't actually participate in that social life.

I honestly can't remember if I mentioned that I went to see "Bladerunner 2049" or not, but I did, and I urge anyone who can, to head out and view it now, before it disappears from theaters. Its ticket sales sputtered at the beginning of its run, so the powers that be may well take it out of the theaters early. I think it's pretty close to a masterpiece from all angles - acting, directing, pacing, plotting, thematic strength, everything. The one thing I can find to nitpick is the sound track, and then only the volume.

I've been slowly watching "Stranger Things 2" and I'm just as engrossed with it as I was with its first season.

( Condo blatherings )
And now I need to get to work, much as that is something I'd gladly avoid if I had the money to do so.

Current Mood: lethargic
Current Location: the livingroom
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/471155.html

I Just Finished the Second Season of Sense8 ...

... and I am already counting down to the wrap-up movie that Netflix has promised. The show really deserved a third season, but that cabbage has already been chewed too many times On the Internet, so I won't take it on.

But my guess is that they'll need significantly more than 2 hours to wrap the stories up properly.

I'll say it was very satisfying to see ( Spoilery things )

At least this finale is scheduled to show in 2018, so I won't have to wait until 2019, as I might have to do with Game of Thrones.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: the livingroom
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/462820.html

Doing It Via Game of Thrones

Because I have thoughts about the most recent season of Game of Thrones, which just ended Sunday, and because I've listened to too many vloggers talking about the episodes WITH WHOM I DISAGREE AND THEY ARE OBVIOUSLY WRONG ON THE INTERNET, and because it appears to be the one thing that can jolt me into writing.

Really.

By "writing" I mean disjointed thoughts presented in rather lazy and unpremeditated fashion, lacking the benefit of intellectual discipline or an editor.

And of course, I judge the season with my Watsonian goggles on, because I can't be trusted at all to be Doylist with books or live series that I love. More, I work with the faan's and fic-writer's eye for filling in plot holes. I love making sense of things that don't make sense, by figuring out how to make those things logical within the world I love. I love creating the necessary context to do so. I am, thus, a completely ridiculous and ultimately Cheap Date, when it comes to buying into the universes I love.

Also, I've read all the books (although I need to reread them over the next year), and have kept up obsessively with the show via recaps, reviews and YouTube clips until this season, so anything I say can be greeted with an extremely jaundiced eye.

Plus, since I've already used the word "also," I might not be grossed out by things other people are grossed out by. Make of it what you will.

So here we go:

( 'Ware! SPOILERS for all of Season 7 of Game of Thrones )

Well, that was satisfying. Thank you for your patience.

Current Mood: irritated
Current Location: the home office
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/462004.html

What Happens When a Drive Dies?

( Stupid drive.... )

Current Mood: morose
Current Location: the livingroom
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/456184.html

I Am Binge-Watching "Stranger Things"

Is this a good thing? I mean, I think it is, and now I'm trying to convince BB to watch it so that we can talk about it. But I'd love to hear from any of you who have seen it (I'm on the 7th episode and will probably just go through and watch the 8th today before I do ... you know ... housework or sewing or stuff *cough*).

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: the livingroom
Current Music: "Stranger "Things"
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/448461.html

Gintama Is Weirdly Addictive When It Turns Serious

I'll just leave that out there.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Going to bed
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/442436.html

Starting Out Hopeful

I got up and into working condition really early today. I managed to write the letter we'll be sending to our condo unit owners, announcing a 3 percent assessment fee increase, and I'm actually posting this before I start to work on my business laptop. In my books, that counts as getting out of the starting blocks rather well.

And to keep this post from being completely self-referential, is anyone out there on my f'list watching The Expanse? If so, do you want to geek out about it? I"m finding it to be destination viewing, and some of the best science fiction I've seen on television since Battlestar Galactica.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: the livingroom
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/441495.html

Things I Have Done Lately

1. Obsessed over every episode of Game of Thrones, without ever watching a single episode. Yes, I've watched every scene on YouTube that YouTubers can offer me, loads of reviews and responses. No, I don't have HBO, and ... it's stupid of me. But I'm going to be so upset at the end of the season next Sunday.

2. Thrown out all the Marion Zimmer Bradley books I've had on my shelf for years. I'd thought I'd keep a couple of books of hers that were important to me because of how they shaped my love for SF&F, and for the sense of wonder they engendered in me. In the end, I couldn't keep any of them. It was a decision a long time in coming, and it was the first time in my life I have ever thrown books out. I don't believe I shall ever do it again. But for me it was the right thing to do. I couldn't stomach giving them to a second-hand store.

3. Picked up the partly empty drink cup a well-made up gym rat had left on her seat as she headed out the L train door to get to a Cubs game, handed it to her (or her friend, the even more made-up gym rat) and "asked" her to throw it away in a garbage can once she got onto the platform, since "I believe it belongs to you." She did. I am ashamed of being petty about their looks. I should not be that way, since I support anyone's right to decorate their body in the way they see fit. I can only point to my upbringing and say it's hard to escape the attitudes I grew up experiencing when it comes to make-up. On the other hand, I am very glad I told her pick up her damn trash. Politely.

4. Became an employee of tronc. Yes, tronc. tronc. tronc. Mother of fucking god.

5. Wrote a little more of "Hearts & Moons." Go, me.

Current Mood: morose
Current Location: the livingroom
Current Music: a thunderstorm
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/413474.html

Just A Thought on Fights on Film or Television

It seems to me that almost any fight, particularly comic-book fights, superhero fights, action film fights, would be shorter, less flashy, and more successful for whoever undertook the final move, if the person determined to win focused almost solely upon kneeing their opponent, hard, in the groin.

(I am reliably informed by those whose business it would be to be in the know that even wearing a cup is not necessarily proof against such a move, given that kicking, punching, or otherwise banging a cup hard enough would cause painful repercussions inside the cup.)

This might not work as well against a female opponent, I'll grant you. However, having landed on the cross-bar of what was once called a boy's bike more than once myself, and having experienced the breath-stopping impact of that, I'm willing to bet it mightn't be as ineffective against women as all that.

As you can imagine, this has lessened my appreciation of even the most gloriously choreographed fights I've witnessed on the big or small screen lately.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: the home office
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/410361.html

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Grasping at Grace (and Growth)

Transformation is Inescapable

Entries tagged with television

Dept, of Woo-Who

Dept. of My Loki Feelings, Let Me Show You Them

Dept. of Mondays

Dept. of Good Things

Dept. of Monday Sunshine

Dept. of Monday Again

Dept. of Yearning

Dept. of Not A

Dept. of Anime Superficiality

Dept. of Hump Day

Dept, of Hello Again

Dept. of I'm Alive

Shadow of the Tower fic: A Falcon at Stoke Field

Dept. of Happy New Year

Dept. of Classic Television

Dept. of Awesome Thirteen

Dept. of Monday

Dept. of Television Series Interrupus

Dept. of Back Up On the Bicycle Yada-Yada

Dept. of Pick Yourself Up, Dust Yourself Off

Dept. of Questions

Dept. of Friday