Various Tidbits from a Long Weekend
Fave spam/virus subject line for today: "meet teen assholes tonight volvo".
I totally agree with TWoP's Strega on this point: Hamilton lectures Angel, "You cannot beat me. I am a part of them. The Wolf, Ram, and Hart. Their strength flows through my veins. My blood is filled with their ancient power." Can I just say once more how much I love how Adam Baldwin delivers these lines? He's so matter-of-fact about it instead of being all mwah-ha-ha. Also, he's extremely tall. And looks good in a suit. And where were we?
Architecture as weaponry
Much of Joss Whedon's work seems to have an architectural center. Sure, every story has to have a location, but when Joss goes through all that trouble to destroy each set when he's done with it, it makes me wonder. Even with "Firefly," it's all about the ship they live on. I think the movie's gonna be titled "Serenity," even, furthering the emphasis on the ship. Not just any firefly, their firefly.
Buffy gives Anne a chance to re-start her life with an apartment. When Buffy graduates high school, she blows up the campus. When Buffy's at an emotional low, her basement floods. Angel establishes a new 'family' for himself by buying a hotel with enough rooms for the whole cast to live together. When the First Evil returns to Sunnydale it is pretty much incarnated in the high school. When the
Buffy series is over, Sunnydale is swallowed up in a crater. When the
Angel series is over, the last scene is back at the alley behind their old hotel. I was expecting the Wolfram & Hart offices to get blown-up.
What really got me to thinking about the use of architecture in the Mutant Enemy universe have been all the complaints about throwing people into walls on
Angel this past season. Both the bad guys and the good guys were constantly getting beat down with the architecture on
Angel. Is it ME's way of letting the architecture get back at the people for blowing so much of it up? Or is it just to mirror the "good guys'" acquiescence to the corporate powers and their evil ways. If you can't beat 'em, use 'em as your own weapon.
I was really hoping that Illyria was going to blow up the WR&H building. She almost did even before the finale, but the good guys sucked her destructive power away. Maybe Joss feels impotent in his storytelling. Or maybe he's given up on bucking the quasi-network system and doesn't care to blow up sets anymore. Illyria was our hope, but she was cut short and sucked dry. So sad.
Movies I saw this weekend: Melvin Goes to Dinner, I Capture the Castle, Saved!, and Funny Lady.
Melvin included a great short film on the DVD about a one man film fest. Those guys are too funny. The actual feature was funny as well, had a better plot than I expected, and didn't squick me out as much as I'd expected, either. Highly recommended if you can handle comedy that isn't like a sitcom.
I'm glad I didn't see I Capture the Castle in the theatre, as I was debating when it came out and I was bored. It is a good romance, though. The cast can act, the plot's a bit predictable, and there're comedy and snazzy early 20th century fashions throughout. Recommended for those who feel guilty about having seen every romantic comedy starring Hugh Grant, Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts. It'll alleviate your guilt while appeasing your baser appetites.
Regarding Saved!: Coffee and Cigarettes was consistently funnier, and Mean Girls was less heavy-handed. Worth renting, unless you're in love with any of the lead actors, in which case see it a.s.a.p.
I only rented Funny Lady because I'm still on my Roddy McDowall kick. I've never seen Funny Girl and don't plan to. I'm just not a Barbara fan. So I spent most of the time fastforwarding through the music videos and predictable love interest dialogue. Mr. McDowall doesn't get nearly enough screen time, but when he's there I'm happy. He's believably funny and expressive. For die hard fans of the stars only.
Found is currently my very favorite magazine ever. It's a collection of found documents (letters, photos, lists, etc.) as well as a few articles on other found art. Trying to understand a document's context and working to fit it into a larger narrative whole is fascinating. I had the skip the section on spider bites, though, as I'm a squeamish wimp. I highly recommend Found magazine. I got issue #3 at Borders in Costa Mesa last week.
Many people at the office look extra pale today. I think they may have done the same thing with their extra day off that I did: nothing.
I finally finished reading Smallville: City by Devin Grayson. She writes well. I'm tempted to start reading "Nightwing" because of her, and I don't like that character at all. The HoYay! was all over the place, but it just had to end with Blahna. I suspect that was a contractual obligation. Anyways, the author did a great job of capturing the best parts of the tv show (aside from Blahna. Ick!) and translating them onto the page. I'm guessing she's a SV fan. Or, at the very least, a fan of pretty boys; and who isn't? I also enjoyed that she explained where the story fits in the show's chronology. Agent Green is a great one-shot character. It's not often that a one-shot baddie on Smallville gets to develop beyond sprouting gills or something. Lots of goodness for fans of the Clex.
I caught a little of Dead Man on IFC this weekend. I've always loved that movie, but hardly anyone I know has even heard of it. I noticed that it's directed by Jim Jarmusch, whose most recent release is Coffee and Cigarettes. I think it is safe to say that I am a JJ fan. That guy's so funny.
I just did something incredibly stupid. While listening to a voice mail message, I began to respond and was hurt to hear the person on the other end just hang up on me. Then I remembered it was a recorded message. Silly me!
Posted by rachelcrane
at 4:22 PM PDT
