8 points in 4 mediums
1. PATRICK. I'm not sure I've ever loved a Fall Out Boy video more than I love the one for What a Catch, Donnie. I have to admit, the song wasn't my immediate favorites off the album, it's a little too pop-R&Bish for my natural tendencies. However, after seeing them do it in concert, after hearing Patrick sing it in concert, then I understood. It's amazing because he's amazing, and this video elaborates on that brilliantly. I am kind of all mrph about Pete going down with his ship, and also a little delighted by the huge hug Joe gives Brendon when he makes it onto the ship (I'm pretty sure I'm seeing that right, yes?) -- talk about your adorable rare pairings! Basically I love everything about this video. And Patrick. It's kind of painful just how much one of my types Patrick is.
2. I owe an apology to all fans of The Middleman, I should've watched this show weeks or months ago and I definitely should have voted for Wendy Watson over Faith in Home Team 2009: Round One (incidentally, Round Two is going until Monday -- some very close races in this one!). I mean, I love Faith, but she's no Wendy Watson! Even if they did spend an entire episode painfully mispronouncing Qin. A sheen is a type of surface, very pretty, but not the first Emperor of China and his dynasty. Incidentally, the actual Chinese actor had okay Mandarin (let us not speak of The Middleman's; not quite Firefly levels of cringeworthy, but close... otoh, it's really difficult to have consistently good Mandarin on screen -- hell, even Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had varying level of Mandarin from okay to kinda hilariously disastrous), but with a very South China accent, I would guess Taiwan-style. It's that lack of tongue curl on the sh vs s consonants, among other things.
3. How I Met Your Mother, you're supposed to be a comedy. Using "Here Comes a Regular" in the season 3 finale was a low blow. Me and my love of The Replacements will be over here, tearing up semi-inappropriately. (I love this show.)
4. I have started to re-read The Obnoxious Jerks by Stephen Manes, one of my favorite YA novels from when I was younger. I think I just might have to nominate it for Yuletide this year -- I'm thinking the obvious threesome, for anyone who's read the book. :) Possibly also The Middleman from point 2 above and The Umbrella Academy from point 5 below. I might also be tempted by some HIMYM (point 3 above -- I have an inexplicable craving for Lily/Marshall/Ted) and Heathers (point 7 below)... gah, too many choices!
5. Finally read The Umbrella Academy: Dallas. I meant to try to read it before Gerard's panel at Comic-con, but while I did manage to acquire the issues I was missing beforehand (and bought wayyyyyyyy too much at the Dark Horse booth, whee!), I forgot to bring the other ones, so in the end I had to wait. Someday, I'll be prepared enough to ask him the biting feminist question of why Vanya and Allison were the ones who lost the most at the end of the first series. I mean, Vanya was so weak as to become the ineffectual villian, and Allison lost her voice, the source of her power. And then in the second series, while Allison did do some excellent proactive things (and I kind of loved her writing in place of speech), Vanya spent the entire thing in a near-vegetable invalid state. I would note here that overall I think of Gerard Way as an unusually feminist celebrity, but even the most well-meaning people can't avoid being products of their environment sometimes. I genuinely believe Gerard was just trying to tell a good, dramatic story, and he did. I liked Dallas a lot, possibly even more than I liked the first series. I feel like we really got to know the characters and their relationships with each other in a little more depth, and I really like them, so flawed and so awesome. I'm looking forward to both series three and Killjoys.
6. My main thought about He's Just Not That Into You is that it was trying to be Love Actually and pretty much failed. I enjoyed it anyway in places, primarily because it has some actors in it I really like, including the guy from Kitchen Confidential and the guy from Entourage. I like the girl from Big Love, too, and while I have mixed feelings about Scarlett Johansson in general I have to admit she's hot. Also Drew Barrymore being adorable as usual (I'm not the only one who wants to see that movie Diablo Cody wrote about roller derby, right?) and Jennifer Connolly being vulnerable and Jennifer Aniston and what's his name, Chasing Amy guy, being actually cute and sympathetic. So yeah. Not what it could've been, but fun.
7. I made my housemate watch Heathers because she'd inexplicably never seen it. I always forget how fucking hot Christian Slater is in it until I see it again. And it's so '80s, but in this vicious, surreal way. I should really buy my own copy, because there's really nothing like Heathers. It amazes me that it even got made. I do wish they'd gone with the original, ultra-dark, Veronica snaps, everyone dies ending. It would've suited the whole arc and feel of the movie a lot better than the actual ending. Which I do like. But it always felt a little tacked-on to me, you know? Still. Heathers! <3
8. Eureka is not a perfect show by a long shot, but I do enjoy what I've seen so far. But man, when Zane showed up in season 2, he upped the hotness quotient by a good 30%. Adorable, life-loving, morally-neutral geniuses are hard to resist. (It's possible he's one of my other types... I have either several or none, it's not exactly clear which.) (I like Stark and Fargo and Jo and Allison, too. Eureka is full of super-hot and/or super-cute and/or super-snarky geniuses.)
2. I owe an apology to all fans of The Middleman, I should've watched this show weeks or months ago and I definitely should have voted for Wendy Watson over Faith in Home Team 2009: Round One (incidentally, Round Two is going until Monday -- some very close races in this one!). I mean, I love Faith, but she's no Wendy Watson! Even if they did spend an entire episode painfully mispronouncing Qin. A sheen is a type of surface, very pretty, but not the first Emperor of China and his dynasty. Incidentally, the actual Chinese actor had okay Mandarin (let us not speak of The Middleman's; not quite Firefly levels of cringeworthy, but close... otoh, it's really difficult to have consistently good Mandarin on screen -- hell, even Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had varying level of Mandarin from okay to kinda hilariously disastrous), but with a very South China accent, I would guess Taiwan-style. It's that lack of tongue curl on the sh vs s consonants, among other things.
3. How I Met Your Mother, you're supposed to be a comedy. Using "Here Comes a Regular" in the season 3 finale was a low blow. Me and my love of The Replacements will be over here, tearing up semi-inappropriately. (I love this show.)
4. I have started to re-read The Obnoxious Jerks by Stephen Manes, one of my favorite YA novels from when I was younger. I think I just might have to nominate it for Yuletide this year -- I'm thinking the obvious threesome, for anyone who's read the book. :) Possibly also The Middleman from point 2 above and The Umbrella Academy from point 5 below. I might also be tempted by some HIMYM (point 3 above -- I have an inexplicable craving for Lily/Marshall/Ted) and Heathers (point 7 below)... gah, too many choices!
5. Finally read The Umbrella Academy: Dallas. I meant to try to read it before Gerard's panel at Comic-con, but while I did manage to acquire the issues I was missing beforehand (and bought wayyyyyyyy too much at the Dark Horse booth, whee!), I forgot to bring the other ones, so in the end I had to wait. Someday, I'll be prepared enough to ask him the biting feminist question of why Vanya and Allison were the ones who lost the most at the end of the first series. I mean, Vanya was so weak as to become the ineffectual villian, and Allison lost her voice, the source of her power. And then in the second series, while Allison did do some excellent proactive things (and I kind of loved her writing in place of speech), Vanya spent the entire thing in a near-vegetable invalid state. I would note here that overall I think of Gerard Way as an unusually feminist celebrity, but even the most well-meaning people can't avoid being products of their environment sometimes. I genuinely believe Gerard was just trying to tell a good, dramatic story, and he did. I liked Dallas a lot, possibly even more than I liked the first series. I feel like we really got to know the characters and their relationships with each other in a little more depth, and I really like them, so flawed and so awesome. I'm looking forward to both series three and Killjoys.
6. My main thought about He's Just Not That Into You is that it was trying to be Love Actually and pretty much failed. I enjoyed it anyway in places, primarily because it has some actors in it I really like, including the guy from Kitchen Confidential and the guy from Entourage. I like the girl from Big Love, too, and while I have mixed feelings about Scarlett Johansson in general I have to admit she's hot. Also Drew Barrymore being adorable as usual (I'm not the only one who wants to see that movie Diablo Cody wrote about roller derby, right?) and Jennifer Connolly being vulnerable and Jennifer Aniston and what's his name, Chasing Amy guy, being actually cute and sympathetic. So yeah. Not what it could've been, but fun.
7. I made my housemate watch Heathers because she'd inexplicably never seen it. I always forget how fucking hot Christian Slater is in it until I see it again. And it's so '80s, but in this vicious, surreal way. I should really buy my own copy, because there's really nothing like Heathers. It amazes me that it even got made. I do wish they'd gone with the original, ultra-dark, Veronica snaps, everyone dies ending. It would've suited the whole arc and feel of the movie a lot better than the actual ending. Which I do like. But it always felt a little tacked-on to me, you know? Still. Heathers! <3
8. Eureka is not a perfect show by a long shot, but I do enjoy what I've seen so far. But man, when Zane showed up in season 2, he upped the hotness quotient by a good 30%. Adorable, life-loving, morally-neutral geniuses are hard to resist. (It's possible he's one of my other types... I have either several or none, it's not exactly clear which.) (I like Stark and Fargo and Jo and Allison, too. Eureka is full of super-hot and/or super-cute and/or super-snarky geniuses.)