Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?
Today has gotten off on an awful foot. Forgot I had class until literally the minute it started, discovered I have a 2010 estimated tax payment due that needs to be postmarked TODAY (I was so proud of getting my 2009 taxes done!), and the coffee at work was COLD. *pouts* It is, however, a gorgeous day outside (78 degrees and super sunny!) and I endeavored to rescue myself from a miserable day sitting in lab with no experiments to do by asking for a library day to work on my research presentation. I'm not being dishonest in any bad way - I really had no experiments to do, and I really plan on working on that presentation. However, I am at home instead of the library (om nom lunch!) so I can prepare my taxes and walk them to the post office.
There's no real reason you needed to know all of that. It's just the state of me!
OH, one hilarious thing - me and my roommates signed up for graduate student SPEED DATING. Lolz! We have all been moping about our lack of boys lately (and I really, really need to distract myself from Dave), so we figured why not? Should be fun! Anyone have any stories to share from speed dating, any advice?
Let's talk about Justified! The first five episodes, to be precise.
I'm really enjoying the show! I think that the pilot was really something special and beautifully set up a character and a world that I wanted to learn more about. Then it wandered a little bit, becoming too procedural for my tastes - I really think that the premise of the show allows for a lot more than the typical week-in-week-out crime solving of other law enforcement dramas, but they fell into that formulaic trap a bit too much. Not terribly, mind you! There was still definitely a unique flavor, and a really beautiful range of interesting characters (including many of the bad guys!). But I think that the strengths of the show lie in exploring Raylan Givens himself and the many complications in the people and life that he left behind in Kentucky. Raylan's give and take with Boyd Crowder in the first episode was legendary - I hope they come back to that kind of dynamic, come back to the people of Kentucky and the different paths they can walk down, and just how many of those lives Raylan is tangled up in. I want to explore how Raylan is the angriest man Winona's ever met, even though he seems so affable. I want to know more about Ava and the endless suffering she endured at the hands of her husband, until she blew him away with a shotgun. And I definitely want to see Boyd again, even though he's a despicable White Power piece of shit who likes to blow things up. That's a bit amazing, and I definitely tip my hat to Justified for accomplishing it.
So I got a little worried (though I was still enjoying the show), but episode 5 came back to exactly the themes I want to see take the forefront. Raylan was forced to come face to face with his father, as well as the woman who practically raised him, even though he won't call her Mom. The man who played Arlo, Raylan's father, was fantastic - so sweet and charming one minute, battering men with a baseball bat the next. Apparently I know the actor from a short stint on The X-files - definitely a memorable face. The father-son dynamic was so splintered and fraught, with Raylan's firm resignation to reject everything his father is, with Arlo's complicated scheme to make Raylan see him, with Raylan's reluctant wavering toward sympathy only to realize that his father had done even worse than he thought and promise to send him to jail. Just - ow! And wow. Timothy Olyphant sunk his teeth into this episode, and I really hope we get more of the same.
I like the supporting cast for the most part, but right now they're a little bit lacking in the depth. Of course there's JACOB PITTS!!!1!!!1!, who is beyond gorgeous and snarky and UNF COMPETENCE KINK. He's a sniper, are you KIDDING ME? Unfff. He and Booth need to get drunk together, please and thank you. But he's been criminally underutilized so far and I hope they fix that. The fact that so many of these actors are in the main credits but not getting face time yet - especially Winona, Raylan's ex - makes me hope that further into the season the storytelling will take a more character-based bent. I think they have a wonderful cast to work with, they just need to exploit it. I also really like the female cop, Rachel, though I was really distracted at first because that actress played the local nurse in the Firefly episode "Safe"! She ratted on the Tams for River being a witch! :O I have watched that episode so many trillions of times that hearing her voice in a different context was very jarring, but I have since gotten over it and I enjoy her a lot. And I actually do like Ava quite a bit - mostly for her very first scene, when she casually related her horrifying life story and matter-of-factly explained that she obviously needed to shoot her husband. I was pretty blown away by that. I think she has a lot of potential, and I actually quite like that she and Raylan are already acting on their attraction - it's a very refreshing change from all this eternally drawn out UST bullshit.
Oh and: "OH THE LITTLE GAY DUDE!" TIMOTHY OLYPHANT, YOU GOOF. <3333
In short: thumbs up! Definitely enjoying and will be watching every week. Because I totally needed more TV.
Off to walk to the post-office in the exquisite sunshine! I think it's funny how some people either don't check the weather or haven't quite adjusted to the fact that it's SUMMER outside today, so they're in jeans and sweatshirts. Oops! I myself am in capris, tshirt and flip-flops. :D
Before I go, a music rec: Airplanes by B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams. I'm not a rap fan by any means, but this is a really beautiful song with a catchy melodic riff, and the choruses by Hayley are exquisite. Her part has been stuck in my head for a whole day. I'm finally getting to see Paramore on the HCT in August with angel726 and I'm SO excited! :D
There's no real reason you needed to know all of that. It's just the state of me!
OH, one hilarious thing - me and my roommates signed up for graduate student SPEED DATING. Lolz! We have all been moping about our lack of boys lately (and I really, really need to distract myself from Dave), so we figured why not? Should be fun! Anyone have any stories to share from speed dating, any advice?
Let's talk about Justified! The first five episodes, to be precise.
I'm really enjoying the show! I think that the pilot was really something special and beautifully set up a character and a world that I wanted to learn more about. Then it wandered a little bit, becoming too procedural for my tastes - I really think that the premise of the show allows for a lot more than the typical week-in-week-out crime solving of other law enforcement dramas, but they fell into that formulaic trap a bit too much. Not terribly, mind you! There was still definitely a unique flavor, and a really beautiful range of interesting characters (including many of the bad guys!). But I think that the strengths of the show lie in exploring Raylan Givens himself and the many complications in the people and life that he left behind in Kentucky. Raylan's give and take with Boyd Crowder in the first episode was legendary - I hope they come back to that kind of dynamic, come back to the people of Kentucky and the different paths they can walk down, and just how many of those lives Raylan is tangled up in. I want to explore how Raylan is the angriest man Winona's ever met, even though he seems so affable. I want to know more about Ava and the endless suffering she endured at the hands of her husband, until she blew him away with a shotgun. And I definitely want to see Boyd again, even though he's a despicable White Power piece of shit who likes to blow things up. That's a bit amazing, and I definitely tip my hat to Justified for accomplishing it.
So I got a little worried (though I was still enjoying the show), but episode 5 came back to exactly the themes I want to see take the forefront. Raylan was forced to come face to face with his father, as well as the woman who practically raised him, even though he won't call her Mom. The man who played Arlo, Raylan's father, was fantastic - so sweet and charming one minute, battering men with a baseball bat the next. Apparently I know the actor from a short stint on The X-files - definitely a memorable face. The father-son dynamic was so splintered and fraught, with Raylan's firm resignation to reject everything his father is, with Arlo's complicated scheme to make Raylan see him, with Raylan's reluctant wavering toward sympathy only to realize that his father had done even worse than he thought and promise to send him to jail. Just - ow! And wow. Timothy Olyphant sunk his teeth into this episode, and I really hope we get more of the same.
I like the supporting cast for the most part, but right now they're a little bit lacking in the depth. Of course there's JACOB PITTS!!!1!!!1!, who is beyond gorgeous and snarky and UNF COMPETENCE KINK. He's a sniper, are you KIDDING ME? Unfff. He and Booth need to get drunk together, please and thank you. But he's been criminally underutilized so far and I hope they fix that. The fact that so many of these actors are in the main credits but not getting face time yet - especially Winona, Raylan's ex - makes me hope that further into the season the storytelling will take a more character-based bent. I think they have a wonderful cast to work with, they just need to exploit it. I also really like the female cop, Rachel, though I was really distracted at first because that actress played the local nurse in the Firefly episode "Safe"! She ratted on the Tams for River being a witch! :O I have watched that episode so many trillions of times that hearing her voice in a different context was very jarring, but I have since gotten over it and I enjoy her a lot. And I actually do like Ava quite a bit - mostly for her very first scene, when she casually related her horrifying life story and matter-of-factly explained that she obviously needed to shoot her husband. I was pretty blown away by that. I think she has a lot of potential, and I actually quite like that she and Raylan are already acting on their attraction - it's a very refreshing change from all this eternally drawn out UST bullshit.
Oh and: "OH THE LITTLE GAY DUDE!" TIMOTHY OLYPHANT, YOU GOOF. <3333
In short: thumbs up! Definitely enjoying and will be watching every week. Because I totally needed more TV.
Off to walk to the post-office in the exquisite sunshine! I think it's funny how some people either don't check the weather or haven't quite adjusted to the fact that it's SUMMER outside today, so they're in jeans and sweatshirts. Oops! I myself am in capris, tshirt and flip-flops. :D
Before I go, a music rec: Airplanes by B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams. I'm not a rap fan by any means, but this is a really beautiful song with a catchy melodic riff, and the choruses by Hayley are exquisite. Her part has been stuck in my head for a whole day. I'm finally getting to see Paramore on the HCT in August with angel726 and I'm SO excited! :D