The OC Airport and John Wayne Field
We're in a world, here, where, thanks to a Fox TV show, John Wayne Airport in Orange County's considering renaming itself "The OC Airport." I ain't kidding.
Still, I keep myself entertained. Here's what I've been up to, spoiler-lite, proceed at your own risk, no lifeguard on duty! More to come as I remember what I've downloaded.
Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake
Far more subtle than Handmaid's Tale, but it keeps drawing comparisons because it's a similar kind of dystopian future. Except Oryx and Crake is positively contemporary and somehow both less preachy and more plausible than Handmaid. Plus the slashyness between Jimmy and Crake (the kind that's of a kind in recent years, I feel like -- the sort where the boys are best friends since childhood and one is vaguely in love with/obsessed with the other, who is both socially dysfunctional and fucking brilliant, see also Michael Chabon and a touch of Donna Tartt) is perverse and unavoidable.
This future is the one that came about as a result of genetically modified foods, low-carb diets, soy tofurkey, vitamin-enhanced Oatmeal for Women, cloning, reproductive therapy, and the gradual and unstoppable presence of pharmaceutical and produce-development companies as the seats of power. There's digs at everything from Atkins to Starbucks to reality TV to the cross-breeding of dogs for cuter household pets. And plus the story in the future is severiously creepy.
I had some problems with this book, most notably with Jimmy's increasing idiocy and Oryx's tendency to be a little too-too enigmatic, but overall, thumbs up. Rip-roaring cautionary tale! Woo!
Dog Soldiers
And then there's some really freaky British werewolves. I swear to god, I could only understand about a third of what the boys in this film were saying ("bloody quaffin' uncle, wot wot? Bowler arseing tea-party, blimey, cor!" -- I don't speak British very well), but who the fuck CARED because the boys were scruffy and sexy, and this movie was about WEREWOLVES stalking British special-ops soldiers! And there's a lovely broad in the film as well, and lots of profound glances and WEREWOLVES!
This was a creep flick, but totally satisfying and strangely...good, for all its B-movie-ness and unintelligible British slang. I mean, over the top, B-movie monster thingy, but GOOD, and almost SMART.
Man on Fire
Yeah, I downloaded this for Dakota Fanning, who is so damned cool. I watched all of that godforsaken Taken for her too, and she did not disappoint. Neither did Denzel, or Christopher Walken, for that matter (inexplicably playing a GOOD GUY, though, being Christopher Walken, I kept waiting for him to turn evil and am not, even now, convinced thoroughly that he DIDN'T).
This was Traffic meets The Pledge, and has among its appeal a similar overexposed flash-cut photography to Traffic, as well as also being set in Mexico. Denzel is a drunken bodyguard who's sworn himself to Radha Mitchell to protect her daughter Pita, played by the inimitable and tiny Dakota Fanning. Lots of running around Mexico and conspiracies within conspiracies and drugs and kidnapping rings and at least one really, really inventive murder where Denzel straps the guy to the trunk of the car and...yeah.
Once the movie's over you sort of realize it wasn't as good as it purported to be, and certainly wasn't the art-house genius Traffic was, despite the surface similarities. But still absolutely good, and worth watching.
Except that the end made NO SENSE. I appeal to those of you who have seen it: why did spoiler continue to spoiler when he could have just spoilered after she spoilered? No, really. WHY?
Andromeda, Season 4
I'm still not entirely clear on what happened to Tyr, and why he went back to the Nietzcheans -- I'm also not clear on the Route of Ages or whether or not the Abyss is actually a thing, but aside from that, Andromeda S4 is a wild ride. I'm only up to episode 14, but as far as I can tell, Trance is -- all the stars in the three galaxies? And Rhade is nowhere near as cool as I expected him to be, but Beka continues her ass-kicking and Harper still rules and Rommie gets cooler every day. Anyone willing to explain to me the current state of the Nietzchean advance, and what exactly the Abyss is, my ears are wide open.
Despite all that, I think S4's the best Andromeda yet, though I haven't seen the other seasons in their entirety. Still. Mytharc! Politics! Hunt betrays the Commonwealth! Good stuff, yo.
Crusade, through episode four.
It's taken me something like seven years to watch FOUR EPISODES of this goddamned show. And here's what I have to say: personal JMS-love aside (because who among us doesn't love Majel Barrett, too?), Crusade is a BETTER SHOW than Andromeda. I'm watching them side by side, and to me they're just Two New Space shows, and under that cool scrutiny I think it's safe to say that Crusade is better written, with more complicated politics and more multi-dimensional characters. Someone tell me why Crusade was cancelled and Andromeda's still on?
Norah Jones & Dolly Parton, "Creepin' In" [Creepin' In - .mp3]
This is the most knee-slappin' delightful song I've heard in a good long while. And thanks to lizlet for finding the .mp3 for me. Download. Enjoy.
Still, I keep myself entertained. Here's what I've been up to, spoiler-lite, proceed at your own risk, no lifeguard on duty! More to come as I remember what I've downloaded.
Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake
Far more subtle than Handmaid's Tale, but it keeps drawing comparisons because it's a similar kind of dystopian future. Except Oryx and Crake is positively contemporary and somehow both less preachy and more plausible than Handmaid. Plus the slashyness between Jimmy and Crake (the kind that's of a kind in recent years, I feel like -- the sort where the boys are best friends since childhood and one is vaguely in love with/obsessed with the other, who is both socially dysfunctional and fucking brilliant, see also Michael Chabon and a touch of Donna Tartt) is perverse and unavoidable.
This future is the one that came about as a result of genetically modified foods, low-carb diets, soy tofurkey, vitamin-enhanced Oatmeal for Women, cloning, reproductive therapy, and the gradual and unstoppable presence of pharmaceutical and produce-development companies as the seats of power. There's digs at everything from Atkins to Starbucks to reality TV to the cross-breeding of dogs for cuter household pets. And plus the story in the future is severiously creepy.
I had some problems with this book, most notably with Jimmy's increasing idiocy and Oryx's tendency to be a little too-too enigmatic, but overall, thumbs up. Rip-roaring cautionary tale! Woo!
Dog Soldiers
And then there's some really freaky British werewolves. I swear to god, I could only understand about a third of what the boys in this film were saying ("bloody quaffin' uncle, wot wot? Bowler arseing tea-party, blimey, cor!" -- I don't speak British very well), but who the fuck CARED because the boys were scruffy and sexy, and this movie was about WEREWOLVES stalking British special-ops soldiers! And there's a lovely broad in the film as well, and lots of profound glances and WEREWOLVES!
This was a creep flick, but totally satisfying and strangely...good, for all its B-movie-ness and unintelligible British slang. I mean, over the top, B-movie monster thingy, but GOOD, and almost SMART.
Man on Fire
Yeah, I downloaded this for Dakota Fanning, who is so damned cool. I watched all of that godforsaken Taken for her too, and she did not disappoint. Neither did Denzel, or Christopher Walken, for that matter (inexplicably playing a GOOD GUY, though, being Christopher Walken, I kept waiting for him to turn evil and am not, even now, convinced thoroughly that he DIDN'T).
This was Traffic meets The Pledge, and has among its appeal a similar overexposed flash-cut photography to Traffic, as well as also being set in Mexico. Denzel is a drunken bodyguard who's sworn himself to Radha Mitchell to protect her daughter Pita, played by the inimitable and tiny Dakota Fanning. Lots of running around Mexico and conspiracies within conspiracies and drugs and kidnapping rings and at least one really, really inventive murder where Denzel straps the guy to the trunk of the car and...yeah.
Once the movie's over you sort of realize it wasn't as good as it purported to be, and certainly wasn't the art-house genius Traffic was, despite the surface similarities. But still absolutely good, and worth watching.
Except that the end made NO SENSE. I appeal to those of you who have seen it: why did spoiler continue to spoiler when he could have just spoilered after she spoilered? No, really. WHY?
Andromeda, Season 4
I'm still not entirely clear on what happened to Tyr, and why he went back to the Nietzcheans -- I'm also not clear on the Route of Ages or whether or not the Abyss is actually a thing, but aside from that, Andromeda S4 is a wild ride. I'm only up to episode 14, but as far as I can tell, Trance is -- all the stars in the three galaxies? And Rhade is nowhere near as cool as I expected him to be, but Beka continues her ass-kicking and Harper still rules and Rommie gets cooler every day. Anyone willing to explain to me the current state of the Nietzchean advance, and what exactly the Abyss is, my ears are wide open.
Despite all that, I think S4's the best Andromeda yet, though I haven't seen the other seasons in their entirety. Still. Mytharc! Politics! Hunt betrays the Commonwealth! Good stuff, yo.
Crusade, through episode four.
It's taken me something like seven years to watch FOUR EPISODES of this goddamned show. And here's what I have to say: personal JMS-love aside (because who among us doesn't love Majel Barrett, too?), Crusade is a BETTER SHOW than Andromeda. I'm watching them side by side, and to me they're just Two New Space shows, and under that cool scrutiny I think it's safe to say that Crusade is better written, with more complicated politics and more multi-dimensional characters. Someone tell me why Crusade was cancelled and Andromeda's still on?
Norah Jones & Dolly Parton, "Creepin' In" [Creepin' In - .mp3]
This is the most knee-slappin' delightful song I've heard in a good long while. And thanks to lizlet for finding the .mp3 for me. Download. Enjoy.