Third time's a charm
I finally finished the release that has been dragging on for a year and a half, and in the middle of all of that my parents visited, and also there were some appliance-related shenanigans that involved multiple delivery attempts and the partial dismantling of a deck. But I'm coming up for air at last, and last week I was in LA for my third Farscape convention with 50mm, asta77, simplystars, and pdxscaper. I think we have discovered the key to the Creation convention experience, which is renting an SUV big enough to hold everyone, eating our way across LA, and then spending about 3 hours at the actual con in the cheap seats.
Friday, we spent most of the day at the Getty. It was a hot, bright day, and we didn't realize that the center offered free shade umbrellas, so we sweated it out as we explored the gardens. The restaurant there is an airy, uncluttered space with a gorgeous view and excellent food. I had a Pimm's Cup and crab cakes with an avocado relish spiked with tarragon and felt very elegant. The whole collection was impressive, but I particularly liked the Renaissance furniture and the medieval manuscripts. To finish the day, thevaliumsofalj ferried us to amazing Greek food at a sort of hole-in-the-wall place near our hotel called Aliki's Taverna (note to fellow travelers for future reference--they deliver to nearby hotels!!!!).
Saturday, zegeekgirl graciously played tour guide for us again and took us to the the Grove and the LA Farmer's Market (which seems to be an open-air market with permanent vendor stalls not occupied by farmers--it's a great spot, but I was a little puzzled by the "farmer's market" moniker) where I had delicious shrimp tacos. We eventually had dinner at a cute cafe on, I think, Beverley Avenue and then took in the Thrilling Adventure Hour. The Largo is a neat theater space, and the show was a lot of fun. Paget Brewster and Busy Phillips were in an extremely hilarious skit about ineffectual vampire masters.
Sunday, we actually went to the con. Madness! Creation was actually putting on three separate cons in the same space that weekend: Whedonverse, Stargate, and Farscape. The way the guest list and schedule fell out, the only panels we wanted to see were on Sunday, for Farscape and Whedonverse.
I saw Francesca Buller and Ben Browder's (separate) panels, but don't have a lot to report; they're lovely people, but it seems like the show has been talked to death, and the panels are much more about them nattering on than substantial stuff.
Ricky Manning did a panel and it was a lot of fun, in the sense that it confirmed everyone's longstanding belief that everyone who worked on the show was 100% insane. They're still trying to make the webisodes happen, but financing is still an issue, and Henson isn't willing to do them on the cheap and sacrifice the look of the show. "Won't Get Fooled Again" started out as the idea of putting D'Argo in a disco and grew from there. They never knew how they were going to resolve season-ending cliffhangers until they started working on the next season. A lot of things weren't planned; for example, the scene where Scorpius is talking to Braca while his assistant changes his cooling rods at the beginning of Season 2 was written as straight dialogue, and the production people added it as a visual element; from there, the cooling rods became a significant plot point.
The Whedonverse con included a panel by three writers, Jane Espenson, Drew Greenberg, and Andrew Chambliss. They talked a lot about different ways of getting into TV writing, and the importance of structure, and how on Joss's shows there was an emphasis on including an emotional thread in every plot line. Hilariously, Creation misspelled Drew "Dres" Greenberg and Andrew "Andres" Chambliss's names on their projected panel info thingie.
I also saw Morena Baccarin speak. I really like her! She's snarky as hell, definitely a lot sharper than I would have expected. Someone asked her about being credited as "Mornena" and "Monica" Baccarin on iMDB; the former was a misspelling in actual credits, and she didn't know the origins of the latter. She did have the experience at ComiCon of being approached for an autograph while waiting for an elevator, and while in a huge hurry to get to her room to change for a scheduled event; she tried to politely decline, and the guy said, "In the time it took you to say that, you could have signed the autograph. So she did, and said, "I hope you're happy." The next day, the guy apologized to her--and called her Monica, because apparently he didn't actually know who she was. She was laughing about the whole experience, and emphasized that she generally is really happy to interact with fans, but that she is a person with a life and sometimes she has things to take care of.
And that was it for the con. Sunday night, since asta77 and 50mm are watching Angel together, we tried to watch some episodes but couldn't get the portable DVD player to work with the hotel TV. So instead, we somehow got sucked into watching Avatar on HBO, and let me tell you, when that movie has to stand on its writing and acting and flat visuals on a TV screen, it is not pretty. In fact, it is really terrible--just an awful story, about shallow, wooden people, horribly executed, aside from its extremely problematic "white man saves the natives" issue. And it goes on forever! And it made a billion dollars, so there will be sequels. Yay?
* * * * *
Speaking of Angel, we just finished the penultimate episode of Season 2. I hadn't seen these episodes since around the beginning of Season 5.
Watching with 50mm has been interesting, because she has not seen Buffy, and only knows about some aspects of the show through fannish osmosis. So it was very evident, by how much background we had to fill her in on, that Season 1 of the show doesn't really stand on its own without Buffy. Since it's a spinoff and was airing directly after Buffy, that makes a certain amount of sense; and, indeed, in Season 2 the show has developed its own characters and mythology to the extent that it stands on its own. Season 1 is terribly uneven, and coasts a lot on my fondness for the characters--a fondness that, again, originated in Buffy. But part of the fun of the season is watching Angel and Cordelia and Wesley flourish as main characters.
Season 2, on the other hand, holds up really well. The Darla arc is one of those plots that gets even better the second time around, when you know what's coming. The demon karaoke bar is just absurd enough to work, a central spot on the alternative map of night-time and underworld Los Angeles that the show develops. The Wolfram & Hart metaphor of lawyers on the end point of a known spectrum comes into its own, and is especially highlighted by the way we come to know Lindsey and Lilah and even Holland Manners as people with family and ambition and occasional quivers of conscience that they have to actively work to suppress. There is an EVIL HAND! And then all of that glorious momentum goes screeching sideways into a detour into the WTF with the Pylea arc. The first time I saw it, I was having such a hard time processing that it was actually happening that I didn't fully appreciate its awfulness. I'm sure that to someone, somewhere, it seemed like a good idea, but that someone was possibly either on drugs or dealing with the lasting effects of a serious head injury. There are a few bright moments--meeting Lorne's family and learning about his background, mostly--but they're overwhelmed by the middling production values, Ye Olde Ren Faire aesthetics, excessive overuse of the 'c' word, Fred's twitching, and Cordelia's mirrored bikinis. Fortunately, it really is a detour; the show literally returns from the alternate dimension.
I am also unable to suppress my trepidation, as Cordelia's hair gets lighter, and the 'c' word starts getting bruited about more frequently, and Angel and Cordelia start making awkward and forced eyes at each other. Anyway, I'm still looking forward to Season 3.
* * * * *
How about some gratuitous dog pictures? Wait! Where are you going?
Here is Murphy taking himself for a walk, because someone has to step up to the plate:
His back legs are still a little off kilter, and always will be, but I'd say he's recovered 90-95% of his motion since the injury. He certainly can't tell the difference, since he can run and play, but he's a little stiff getting up and lying down. Anyway, I'm incredibly grateful and amazed at how well he's recovered.
Here he is demonstrating that despite his substantial profile, he's only about 7 inches wide:
I think he's very handsome.
* * * * *
This deconstruction of the first 6 scenes of every episode of Castle is sadly accurate. It wouldn't kill the writers to mix it up a little. Then again, maybe they know that most of us are not watching for the plot.
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/151258.html (
comments). Comment at either site.
Friday, we spent most of the day at the Getty. It was a hot, bright day, and we didn't realize that the center offered free shade umbrellas, so we sweated it out as we explored the gardens. The restaurant there is an airy, uncluttered space with a gorgeous view and excellent food. I had a Pimm's Cup and crab cakes with an avocado relish spiked with tarragon and felt very elegant. The whole collection was impressive, but I particularly liked the Renaissance furniture and the medieval manuscripts. To finish the day, thevaliumsofalj ferried us to amazing Greek food at a sort of hole-in-the-wall place near our hotel called Aliki's Taverna (note to fellow travelers for future reference--they deliver to nearby hotels!!!!).
Saturday, zegeekgirl graciously played tour guide for us again and took us to the the Grove and the LA Farmer's Market (which seems to be an open-air market with permanent vendor stalls not occupied by farmers--it's a great spot, but I was a little puzzled by the "farmer's market" moniker) where I had delicious shrimp tacos. We eventually had dinner at a cute cafe on, I think, Beverley Avenue and then took in the Thrilling Adventure Hour. The Largo is a neat theater space, and the show was a lot of fun. Paget Brewster and Busy Phillips were in an extremely hilarious skit about ineffectual vampire masters.
Sunday, we actually went to the con. Madness! Creation was actually putting on three separate cons in the same space that weekend: Whedonverse, Stargate, and Farscape. The way the guest list and schedule fell out, the only panels we wanted to see were on Sunday, for Farscape and Whedonverse.
I saw Francesca Buller and Ben Browder's (separate) panels, but don't have a lot to report; they're lovely people, but it seems like the show has been talked to death, and the panels are much more about them nattering on than substantial stuff.
Ricky Manning did a panel and it was a lot of fun, in the sense that it confirmed everyone's longstanding belief that everyone who worked on the show was 100% insane. They're still trying to make the webisodes happen, but financing is still an issue, and Henson isn't willing to do them on the cheap and sacrifice the look of the show. "Won't Get Fooled Again" started out as the idea of putting D'Argo in a disco and grew from there. They never knew how they were going to resolve season-ending cliffhangers until they started working on the next season. A lot of things weren't planned; for example, the scene where Scorpius is talking to Braca while his assistant changes his cooling rods at the beginning of Season 2 was written as straight dialogue, and the production people added it as a visual element; from there, the cooling rods became a significant plot point.
The Whedonverse con included a panel by three writers, Jane Espenson, Drew Greenberg, and Andrew Chambliss. They talked a lot about different ways of getting into TV writing, and the importance of structure, and how on Joss's shows there was an emphasis on including an emotional thread in every plot line. Hilariously, Creation misspelled Drew "Dres" Greenberg and Andrew "Andres" Chambliss's names on their projected panel info thingie.
I also saw Morena Baccarin speak. I really like her! She's snarky as hell, definitely a lot sharper than I would have expected. Someone asked her about being credited as "Mornena" and "Monica" Baccarin on iMDB; the former was a misspelling in actual credits, and she didn't know the origins of the latter. She did have the experience at ComiCon of being approached for an autograph while waiting for an elevator, and while in a huge hurry to get to her room to change for a scheduled event; she tried to politely decline, and the guy said, "In the time it took you to say that, you could have signed the autograph. So she did, and said, "I hope you're happy." The next day, the guy apologized to her--and called her Monica, because apparently he didn't actually know who she was. She was laughing about the whole experience, and emphasized that she generally is really happy to interact with fans, but that she is a person with a life and sometimes she has things to take care of.
And that was it for the con. Sunday night, since asta77 and 50mm are watching Angel together, we tried to watch some episodes but couldn't get the portable DVD player to work with the hotel TV. So instead, we somehow got sucked into watching Avatar on HBO, and let me tell you, when that movie has to stand on its writing and acting and flat visuals on a TV screen, it is not pretty. In fact, it is really terrible--just an awful story, about shallow, wooden people, horribly executed, aside from its extremely problematic "white man saves the natives" issue. And it goes on forever! And it made a billion dollars, so there will be sequels. Yay?
* * * * *
Speaking of Angel, we just finished the penultimate episode of Season 2. I hadn't seen these episodes since around the beginning of Season 5.
Watching with 50mm has been interesting, because she has not seen Buffy, and only knows about some aspects of the show through fannish osmosis. So it was very evident, by how much background we had to fill her in on, that Season 1 of the show doesn't really stand on its own without Buffy. Since it's a spinoff and was airing directly after Buffy, that makes a certain amount of sense; and, indeed, in Season 2 the show has developed its own characters and mythology to the extent that it stands on its own. Season 1 is terribly uneven, and coasts a lot on my fondness for the characters--a fondness that, again, originated in Buffy. But part of the fun of the season is watching Angel and Cordelia and Wesley flourish as main characters.
Season 2, on the other hand, holds up really well. The Darla arc is one of those plots that gets even better the second time around, when you know what's coming. The demon karaoke bar is just absurd enough to work, a central spot on the alternative map of night-time and underworld Los Angeles that the show develops. The Wolfram & Hart metaphor of lawyers on the end point of a known spectrum comes into its own, and is especially highlighted by the way we come to know Lindsey and Lilah and even Holland Manners as people with family and ambition and occasional quivers of conscience that they have to actively work to suppress. There is an EVIL HAND! And then all of that glorious momentum goes screeching sideways into a detour into the WTF with the Pylea arc. The first time I saw it, I was having such a hard time processing that it was actually happening that I didn't fully appreciate its awfulness. I'm sure that to someone, somewhere, it seemed like a good idea, but that someone was possibly either on drugs or dealing with the lasting effects of a serious head injury. There are a few bright moments--meeting Lorne's family and learning about his background, mostly--but they're overwhelmed by the middling production values, Ye Olde Ren Faire aesthetics, excessive overuse of the 'c' word, Fred's twitching, and Cordelia's mirrored bikinis. Fortunately, it really is a detour; the show literally returns from the alternate dimension.
I am also unable to suppress my trepidation, as Cordelia's hair gets lighter, and the 'c' word starts getting bruited about more frequently, and Angel and Cordelia start making awkward and forced eyes at each other. Anyway, I'm still looking forward to Season 3.
* * * * *
How about some gratuitous dog pictures? Wait! Where are you going?
Here is Murphy taking himself for a walk, because someone has to step up to the plate:
His back legs are still a little off kilter, and always will be, but I'd say he's recovered 90-95% of his motion since the injury. He certainly can't tell the difference, since he can run and play, but he's a little stiff getting up and lying down. Anyway, I'm incredibly grateful and amazed at how well he's recovered.
Here he is demonstrating that despite his substantial profile, he's only about 7 inches wide:
I think he's very handsome.
* * * * *
This deconstruction of the first 6 scenes of every episode of Castle is sadly accurate. It wouldn't kill the writers to mix it up a little. Then again, maybe they know that most of us are not watching for the plot.
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/151258.html (
comments). Comment at either site.