Convergence schedule and meme day 9
Convergence starts tomorrow, yay! Here is where you can find me during the con:
Thursday
Apart from hanging posters for my official CD release show (you're coming, right?), I don't have much of anything planned. I'd like to go hear Voltaire at 11:30, and sample some of freeimprov's Pink Pirate drink, and find setharoo for some BSG - but I'm going to to mostly take it easy and say that whatever happens, happens.
Friday
The three panels I am on pretty well fill my day:
2 p.m. panel #1 - Putting The Story Into RPGs
5 p.m. panel #2 - Beginning Gamemastering
8:30 p.m. panel #3 - Social Contracts In Gaming
Of course, I will also be enjoying the parties that night, and trying to find a music circle if and when one breaks out.
Saturday
The day of shows and a much too busy schedule!
12:30 p.m. panel #4 - I'm Not The Token Wench: Strategies For Girls In Gaming Groups
2:30 p.m. - BETH KINDERMAN & THE PLAYER CHARACTERS CD RELEASE IN HARMONIC CONVERGENCE
3:30 p.m. - Possible Oscar, Harmonic Convergence
4:30 p.m. - Feng Shui Ninjas, Harmonic Convergence - I'll only be able to attend the first 15 minutes or so, unfortunately, due to the panel I'm on at 5.
5 p.m. panel #5 - Advanced Gamemastering & Storytelling
This will be followed by a musicians' dinner, parties, helping freeimprov run sound in Harmonic Convergence, checking out the Saturday music circle, and generally trying to enjoy my final night at the con.
Sunday
Check out, run around wildly, then two final panels:
2 p.m. panel #6 - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Dungeon
3:30 p.m. panel #7 - Conflict Without Villains: The Story of Babylon 5 (so excited for this, omg)
And then I go home and crash.
If there are other events or panels that you would recommend I attend, please let me know. And of course I will say hi to all of you when I see you at parties, shows, and just wandering around the con!
Now on to the meme. Content notes: The TV cut contains generalized spoilers for season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
[Best scene ever: Anya doesn't understand death, "The Body," season 5, episode 16 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The WB, 2001]
I thought that this question was going to be really difficult to answer considering how many TV shows I have watched and loved, but actually this scene sprang to mind right away and refused to be displaced. Overall, "The Body" is as close to a perfect episode of Buffy as there is - the only thing I don't like about it is the vampire showing up at the end, since I feel that it detracted from the episode's otherwise uncomfortably immediate realism of the Scooby gang confronting the sudden death of Buffy's mother, Joyce Summers. Season 5 is really all about Buffy learning the limits of her own power, and nothing underscores that idea more than the loss of one of her biggest supporters in life.
Although I felt that all of the actors really excelled in "The Body," nobody surprised me more than Emma Caulfield as Anya. In her early appearances, Anya's lack of experience with normal aspects of human life was often used only for comic relief; this became rather one-note for me after a while and so I was not always her biggest fan. But in "The Body," Anya's incomprehension of mortal things was played for tragedy to great effect. I actually could not find an easily postable YouTube clip of this scene, surprisingly enough, but I did find the script, though I don't know if this will actually translate well to text or not:
ANYA
Are they gonna cut the body open?
WILLOW
(appalled)
Oh my god will you shut your mouth? Just not open it please?
ANYA
What am I doing?
WILLOW
How can you act like that?
ANYA
Am I supposed to be changing my clothes a lot, is that the helpful thing to do --
XANDER
Guys...
WILLOW
The way you behave --
ANYA
Well nobody will tell me --
WILLOW
Because it's not okay for you to be asking these things!
ANYA
But I don't understand!
Something in her tone stops Will, and as she continues, she breaks down more and more...
ANYA (cont'd)
I don't understand how this all happens, how we go through this, I mean I knew her and then she's, there's just a body, I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead, it's stupid, it's mortal and stupid, Xander's crying and not talking and I was having fruit punch and I thought that Joyce would never have any more fruit punch and she'd never have eggs, or yawn, or brush her hair, not ever and no one will explain...
Suffice to say I found this scene to be incredibly powerful, mostly because it was so unexpected coming from that particular character. It was only one of many times that Buffy would surprise me, both for good and for ill - but more on that later in this very meme.
[A movie with the best soundtrack: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, dir. John Cameron Mitchell, 2001]
I know this is strange coming from a musician, but I honestly don't focus on movie soundtracks very much. A soundtrack has to be exceptionally good, exceptionally bad, or scored by a composer with a very distinctive style (John Williams, Danny Elfman, Bear McCreary to name a few whose work I always recognize) in order for me to notice it at all. Part of that, I think, is because instrumental music rarely holds my interest (with the exception of jazz) - I need lyrics in order to feel a real connection. So when I think of movies with good soundtracks, I usually think of movie musicals, of which Hedwig and the Angry Inch is definitely my favorite.
Back in my college days, peloria and tankmancr and I rented Hedwig and the Angry Inch on a whim. We were so enamored that in the two days before we had to return it to the video store, we watched it at least three times. Although the plot (which tells the story of Hedwig, a transgender East German rock singer who is trying to deal with being betrayed by her lovers, her band's lack of success, her botched sex reassignment surgery, and her anger and pain regarding her past) is very involving and uplifting, and John Cameron Mitchell's performance as Hedwig is bold and magnetic, the wonderful rock songs were really what kept us watching over and over. In particular, the song "The Origin of Love" is easily the best rock ballad based upon Plato's Symposium that you will ever hear (note: video is NSFW for animated nudity):
When the earth was still flat,
And the clouds made of fire,
And mountains stretched up to the sky,
Sometimes higher,
Folks roamed the earth
Like big rolling kegs.
They had two sets of arms.
They had two sets of legs.
They had two faces peering
Out of one giant head
So they could watch all around them
As they talked; while they read.
And they never knew nothing of love.
It was before the origin of love.
The origin of love
And there were three sexes then,
One that looked like two men
Glued up back to back,
Called the children of the sun.
And similar in shape and girth
Were the children of the earth.
They looked like two girls
Rolled up in one.
And the children of the moon
Were like a fork shoved on a spoon.
They were part sun, part earth
Part daughter, part son.
The origin of love
Now the gods grew quite scared
Of our strength and defiance
And Thor said,
"I'm gonna kill them all
With my hammer,
Like I killed the giants."
And Zeus said, "No,
You better let me
Use my lightening, like scissors,
Like I cut the legs off the whales
And dinosaurs into lizards."
Then he grabbed up some bolts
And he let out a laugh,
Said, "I'll split them right down the middle.
Gonna cut them right up in half."
And then storm clouds gathered above
Into great balls of fire
And then fire shot down
From the sky in bolts
Like shining blades
Of a knife.
And it ripped
Right through the flesh
Of the children of the sun
And the moon
And the earth.
And some Indian god
Sewed the wound up into a hole,
Pulled it round to our belly
To remind us of the price we pay.
And Osiris and the gods of the Nile
Gathered up a big storm
To blow a hurricane,
To scatter us away,
In a flood of wind and rain,
And a sea of tidal waves,
To wash us all away,
And if we don't behave
They'll cut us down again
And we'll be hopping round on one foot
And looking through one eye.
Last time I saw you
We had just split in two.
You were looking at me.
I was looking at you.
You had a way so familiar,
But I could not recognize,
Cause you had blood on your face;
I had blood in my eyes.
But I could swear by your expression
That the pain down in your soul
Was the same as the one down in mine.
That's the pain,
Cuts a straight line
Down through the heart;
We called it love.
So we wrapped our arms around each other,
Trying to shove ourselves back together.
We were making love,
Making love.
It was a cold dark evening,
Such a long time ago,
When by the mighty hand of Jove,
It was the sad story
How we became
Lonely two-legged creatures,
It's the story of
The origin of love.
That's the origin of love.
In a word: Wow. Other great songs in the movie include the opener "Tear Me Down" and the anthemic "Midnight Radio." I'm working on learning how to sing and play "The Origin of Love" right now, but I know I'll never do it the same justice that it gets in the movie. So go put it in your Netflix queue already!
This entry was originally posted at http://gamerchick.dreamwidth.org/560062.html. You can comment on either journal. Number of comments on Dreamwidth:
Thursday
Apart from hanging posters for my official CD release show (you're coming, right?), I don't have much of anything planned. I'd like to go hear Voltaire at 11:30, and sample some of freeimprov's Pink Pirate drink, and find setharoo for some BSG - but I'm going to to mostly take it easy and say that whatever happens, happens.
Friday
The three panels I am on pretty well fill my day:
2 p.m. panel #1 - Putting The Story Into RPGs
5 p.m. panel #2 - Beginning Gamemastering
8:30 p.m. panel #3 - Social Contracts In Gaming
Of course, I will also be enjoying the parties that night, and trying to find a music circle if and when one breaks out.
Saturday
The day of shows and a much too busy schedule!
12:30 p.m. panel #4 - I'm Not The Token Wench: Strategies For Girls In Gaming Groups
2:30 p.m. - BETH KINDERMAN & THE PLAYER CHARACTERS CD RELEASE IN HARMONIC CONVERGENCE
3:30 p.m. - Possible Oscar, Harmonic Convergence
4:30 p.m. - Feng Shui Ninjas, Harmonic Convergence - I'll only be able to attend the first 15 minutes or so, unfortunately, due to the panel I'm on at 5.
5 p.m. panel #5 - Advanced Gamemastering & Storytelling
This will be followed by a musicians' dinner, parties, helping freeimprov run sound in Harmonic Convergence, checking out the Saturday music circle, and generally trying to enjoy my final night at the con.
Sunday
Check out, run around wildly, then two final panels:
2 p.m. panel #6 - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Dungeon
3:30 p.m. panel #7 - Conflict Without Villains: The Story of Babylon 5 (so excited for this, omg)
And then I go home and crash.
If there are other events or panels that you would recommend I attend, please let me know. And of course I will say hi to all of you when I see you at parties, shows, and just wandering around the con!
Now on to the meme. Content notes: The TV cut contains generalized spoilers for season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
[Best scene ever: Anya doesn't understand death, "The Body," season 5, episode 16 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The WB, 2001]
I thought that this question was going to be really difficult to answer considering how many TV shows I have watched and loved, but actually this scene sprang to mind right away and refused to be displaced. Overall, "The Body" is as close to a perfect episode of Buffy as there is - the only thing I don't like about it is the vampire showing up at the end, since I feel that it detracted from the episode's otherwise uncomfortably immediate realism of the Scooby gang confronting the sudden death of Buffy's mother, Joyce Summers. Season 5 is really all about Buffy learning the limits of her own power, and nothing underscores that idea more than the loss of one of her biggest supporters in life.
Although I felt that all of the actors really excelled in "The Body," nobody surprised me more than Emma Caulfield as Anya. In her early appearances, Anya's lack of experience with normal aspects of human life was often used only for comic relief; this became rather one-note for me after a while and so I was not always her biggest fan. But in "The Body," Anya's incomprehension of mortal things was played for tragedy to great effect. I actually could not find an easily postable YouTube clip of this scene, surprisingly enough, but I did find the script, though I don't know if this will actually translate well to text or not:
ANYA
Are they gonna cut the body open?
WILLOW
(appalled)
Oh my god will you shut your mouth? Just not open it please?
ANYA
What am I doing?
WILLOW
How can you act like that?
ANYA
Am I supposed to be changing my clothes a lot, is that the helpful thing to do --
XANDER
Guys...
WILLOW
The way you behave --
ANYA
Well nobody will tell me --
WILLOW
Because it's not okay for you to be asking these things!
ANYA
But I don't understand!
Something in her tone stops Will, and as she continues, she breaks down more and more...
ANYA (cont'd)
I don't understand how this all happens, how we go through this, I mean I knew her and then she's, there's just a body, I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead, it's stupid, it's mortal and stupid, Xander's crying and not talking and I was having fruit punch and I thought that Joyce would never have any more fruit punch and she'd never have eggs, or yawn, or brush her hair, not ever and no one will explain...
Suffice to say I found this scene to be incredibly powerful, mostly because it was so unexpected coming from that particular character. It was only one of many times that Buffy would surprise me, both for good and for ill - but more on that later in this very meme.
[A movie with the best soundtrack: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, dir. John Cameron Mitchell, 2001]
I know this is strange coming from a musician, but I honestly don't focus on movie soundtracks very much. A soundtrack has to be exceptionally good, exceptionally bad, or scored by a composer with a very distinctive style (John Williams, Danny Elfman, Bear McCreary to name a few whose work I always recognize) in order for me to notice it at all. Part of that, I think, is because instrumental music rarely holds my interest (with the exception of jazz) - I need lyrics in order to feel a real connection. So when I think of movies with good soundtracks, I usually think of movie musicals, of which Hedwig and the Angry Inch is definitely my favorite.
Back in my college days, peloria and tankmancr and I rented Hedwig and the Angry Inch on a whim. We were so enamored that in the two days before we had to return it to the video store, we watched it at least three times. Although the plot (which tells the story of Hedwig, a transgender East German rock singer who is trying to deal with being betrayed by her lovers, her band's lack of success, her botched sex reassignment surgery, and her anger and pain regarding her past) is very involving and uplifting, and John Cameron Mitchell's performance as Hedwig is bold and magnetic, the wonderful rock songs were really what kept us watching over and over. In particular, the song "The Origin of Love" is easily the best rock ballad based upon Plato's Symposium that you will ever hear (note: video is NSFW for animated nudity):
Click to viewWhen the earth was still flat,
And the clouds made of fire,
And mountains stretched up to the sky,
Sometimes higher,
Folks roamed the earth
Like big rolling kegs.
They had two sets of arms.
They had two sets of legs.
They had two faces peering
Out of one giant head
So they could watch all around them
As they talked; while they read.
And they never knew nothing of love.
It was before the origin of love.
The origin of love
And there were three sexes then,
One that looked like two men
Glued up back to back,
Called the children of the sun.
And similar in shape and girth
Were the children of the earth.
They looked like two girls
Rolled up in one.
And the children of the moon
Were like a fork shoved on a spoon.
They were part sun, part earth
Part daughter, part son.
The origin of love
Now the gods grew quite scared
Of our strength and defiance
And Thor said,
"I'm gonna kill them all
With my hammer,
Like I killed the giants."
And Zeus said, "No,
You better let me
Use my lightening, like scissors,
Like I cut the legs off the whales
And dinosaurs into lizards."
Then he grabbed up some bolts
And he let out a laugh,
Said, "I'll split them right down the middle.
Gonna cut them right up in half."
And then storm clouds gathered above
Into great balls of fire
And then fire shot down
From the sky in bolts
Like shining blades
Of a knife.
And it ripped
Right through the flesh
Of the children of the sun
And the moon
And the earth.
And some Indian god
Sewed the wound up into a hole,
Pulled it round to our belly
To remind us of the price we pay.
And Osiris and the gods of the Nile
Gathered up a big storm
To blow a hurricane,
To scatter us away,
In a flood of wind and rain,
And a sea of tidal waves,
To wash us all away,
And if we don't behave
They'll cut us down again
And we'll be hopping round on one foot
And looking through one eye.
Last time I saw you
We had just split in two.
You were looking at me.
I was looking at you.
You had a way so familiar,
But I could not recognize,
Cause you had blood on your face;
I had blood in my eyes.
But I could swear by your expression
That the pain down in your soul
Was the same as the one down in mine.
That's the pain,
Cuts a straight line
Down through the heart;
We called it love.
So we wrapped our arms around each other,
Trying to shove ourselves back together.
We were making love,
Making love.
It was a cold dark evening,
Such a long time ago,
When by the mighty hand of Jove,
It was the sad story
How we became
Lonely two-legged creatures,
It's the story of
The origin of love.
That's the origin of love.
In a word: Wow. Other great songs in the movie include the opener "Tear Me Down" and the anthemic "Midnight Radio." I'm working on learning how to sing and play "The Origin of Love" right now, but I know I'll never do it the same justice that it gets in the movie. So go put it in your Netflix queue already!
This entry was originally posted at http://gamerchick.dreamwidth.org/560062.html. You can comment on either journal. Number of comments on Dreamwidth: