five thingses
Hello, internets. Have two songs that are making me cry:
Dar Williams & Joan Baez - You're Aging Well
I'm so glad that you finally made it here / you thought nobody cared, but I did
Dar Williams - After All (live)
I am the daughter of a great romance / and they are the children of the war
tau_sigma asked for the top five times Martha Jones was AWESOME:
1. The end of Gridlock, when she sits there and says to the Doctor, basically, sit down. I'm not going anywhere, tell me who you are. It took a whole season for him to even mention Gallifrey before, but it's Martha's third episode and the Doctor sits there, quietly, and tells her about where he came from. I love the quietness of the moment.
2. In Human Nature and Family of Blood, she is generally awesome - but the bones of the hand! Oh, so much love.
3. It's a little thing, but I love how she tells the Doctor at the beginning of The Shakespeare Code - "I'm not exactly white, am I?" Because, of course, the Doctor is blind to it, and she's angry with him for it, and yes.
4. Okay, right, Last of the Time Lords, right? Martha Jones. Saves the world. By herself. Without the Doctor. Without anyone. Without complaint, without a pause, she gets up and gets dressed and she saves the world. She does it herself. How can you not love her, after that?
5. And after that, when the world's been saved, she tells the Doctor, you don't call me, I'll call you, and you'd better fucking come running. I love her.
deathbyshinies wanted the top five things that made you want to go to Hogwarts:
1. Firstly? Dude. Magic. I love JKR so very much, but mostly because of this: the way she can follow through to the logical conclusion of her ideas and put magic in every detail. So we get magically appearing feasts, living portraits, ghosts that play polo, giant squid living in the lake, centaurs in the forest, whole rooms that only appear when they're wanted, humbugs. I love the huge embrace of it.
2. Also, it's a boarding school in a castle in the Highlands. That is kind of awesome all by itself, now I come to think of it. I absolutely love how well the (later) films capture this - the whole epic landscape aspect of the setting.
3. I have just been re-reading Half Blood Prince, and there is a brief moment where Harry notices something that he has in common with Voldemort: that for both of them, Hogwarts is the first and only home they've ever known. What a thing to say about any school, really. How can you not want to go there, after that?
4. Quidditch.
5. This may sound silly, but the fact it is a boarding school with houses and dormitories and trunks and a Great Hall and all the rest of it - but it's not uniform white. Parvati and Padma always made me happy when I was younger because, wow, Indians can learn magic! And also, Cho Chang, Lee Jordan, Angelina, the others I'm forgetting.
And, a bonus reason why I wouldn't want to go:
1. There is a MOTHERFUCKING GIANT SNAKE LIVING BENEATH IT. My god. Why was Chamber of Secrets not followed by every ophidiophobic student suddenly opting for home schooling, I ask you? Seriously.
(I have never seen the Chamber of Secrets film. No points for guessing why.)
petronelle wanted my top five Darren Nichols productions:
1. Romeo and Juliet with the giant chess pieces;
2. That one-man version of The Taming of the Shrew, with mule;
3. A high-school production of Cats - in Poland;
4. The Plantagenets, naked with meat;
5. East Hastings.
fahye wanted my top five Geoffrey moments in Slings & Arrows:
Oh god. Where to even START. These are just some of the times Geoffrey is awesome.
1. The razor blades. I love how they're never actually mentioned in the script, so could just be Paul Gross making an acting choice - but aha, oh, Geoffrey, the way to convince people you are sane is NOT to sit in board meetings rolling razor blades around your tongue.
2. This is really Geoffrey and Ellen, but there's this moment where they're rolling around and are clearly about to fall into bed for the first time in a decade, and for a second it looks like the show is going to fall into cliche for the first time ever and it's just going to fade to black - and then there's this pause, where Ellen looks up and says something about how, it's been years, right, and he's scared he's going to be disappointed - and, omg, I love it, I love how they are a real couple with a real couple's gamut of insecurities to go with the theatrical romance. It's perfect.
3. In the first series finale, Jack is counting off his soliloquies, one by one. And Geoffrey is sitting backstage, in the dark, mouthing them along with him. It kills me.
4. Darren, Geoffrey, and the bottle of antidepressants. Darren and Geoffrey duelling. Basically Darren and Geoffrey on screen together. Oh dear.
5. Sloane punching Geoffrey in the car park, and their subsequent manly bonding. It's so silly, and sweet, and somehow poignant. I love it.
gamesiplay wanted my top five fannish characters:
1. Remus Lupin (Harry Potter). For anyone who hasn't known me for more than a couple of months or so: hi, my name is Raven and this is my decade-long crush. Remus is a scruffy teenage-later-adult werewolf, he is wry and sharp and funny and bitter and a good person and an awful idiot. I love him with a love that is epic and undying and true. That is all.
2. Geoffrey Tennant (Slings & Arrows). It seems a cheat, when he got five moments of his own up above, but he is just that amazing. He really is. Not only is he tortured and mad and talented, he's likeable, he's prosaic, he's wry, and he's played by the one and only Paul Gross. What more do you want from anyone.
3. The Doctor (Doctor Who). He ran away from home in a stolen time capsule and never went back. And he's not a hero, but he makes other people into heroes.
4. Hawkeye Pierce (M*A*S*H). Ah, Hawkeye. Having said a lot about him previously, I can merely now sit back and say, ah, Hawkeye. And, also, since I first fell for him, I have tried to read The Last of the Mohicans and it's a truly dreadful book.
(And, this is getting increasingly tangential, I was very happy to discover that no less esteemed a personage than Mark Twain agreed with me on this point in 1895.)
5. Daniel Jackson (Stargate SG-1). It's like taking an enormous step back in time, but as he was originally written, I loved him - because he was a constantly-sneezing geeky archaeologist, and he got to save the world. I don't think I had come across the notion of geeks saving the world before.
(I am actually quite upset that these characters are all male. Someone please remind me to make a post at some point about the wonders that are Hermione Granger (although she's below), Tara Maclay, Martha Jones (and she's above), and Tonks.)
brewsternorth wanted my top five fictional lawyers:
1. Atticus Finch. I doubt any list of fictional lawyers is complete without him, and although I had the shine taken off him by having To Kill a Mockingbird as a set text, nevertheless, he's the defining instance of the genre. Of course, he loses - that's what stays with me. He does what he does knowing he's going to lose.
2. Sam Seaborn. This is possibily cheating, but Sam is a lawyer, isn't he? And he's still working as a lawyer when Josh comes to fetch him to work for Bartlett. Sam is, in a lot of ways, my hero - he's eloquent and principled and he stands up and shouts when shouting is required, and he's kind of a dork. I do love him.
3. Lionel Tribbey, the West Wing's White House counsel. I quote the following to detail his awesome:
[From "And It's Surely To Their Credit"]
TRIBBEY
Well, forgive me, sir, but when you have a few moments, I would like to discuss the hiring of a blonde and leggy fascist whose knowledge does not include the proper order of the alphabet for positions of the White House Counsel's office.
BARTLET
And we will, Lionel, but right now I don't know if you noticed but there are thirty or forty other people in the room, many of whom have donated significant amounts of money to the Democratic Party, so perhaps you could put a tighter grip on your horses and we will talk about it later.
TRIBBEY
Yes. Well. [swings the bat on his shoulder again] Good morning, everyone! Thank
you, Mr. President.
BARTLET
Well, obviously, Lionel Tribbey is a brilliant lawyer whom we cannot live without, or there would be very little reason not to put him in prison. Let's try again.
4. ....er. Let me go and try watching Boston Legal, I'll get back to you.
And, finally, for amchau, my top five four feminists (real or fictional):
1. Hermione Granger. I love Hermione, full stop, I think. I love that she is strong, and capable, but that her strength comes from her insecurities, and that she is frightened she will never be good enough, because she's a woman, because she's Muggle-born. It rings so true for me.
2. Cheery Littlebottom. Her beard has plaits and her boots have raised heels and she isn't sure what this being female thing is all about yet, but she's going to try.
3. Ainsley Hayes. No, please don't throw things at me. From "17 People":
"Because [the ERA] is humiliating! A new amendment that we vote on, declaring that I am equal under the law to a man. I am mortified to discover there’s reason to believe I wasn’t before. I am a citizen of this country. I am not a special subset in need of your protection. I do not have to have to have my rights handed down to me by a bunch of old, white men. The same Article 14 that protects you, protects me. And I went to law school just to make sure. And with that, I’m going back down to the mess, because I thought I may have seen, there, a peach."
I don't agree with her, but I don't doubt she's a feminist in her own special way. Also she speaks in iambic pentameter.
4. Bill Bailey.
...that took a lot longer than expected. I think I ought to go bed, at some point, maybe. Today has been a do-nothing day.
Dar Williams & Joan Baez - You're Aging Well
I'm so glad that you finally made it here / you thought nobody cared, but I did
Dar Williams - After All (live)
I am the daughter of a great romance / and they are the children of the war
tau_sigma asked for the top five times Martha Jones was AWESOME:
1. The end of Gridlock, when she sits there and says to the Doctor, basically, sit down. I'm not going anywhere, tell me who you are. It took a whole season for him to even mention Gallifrey before, but it's Martha's third episode and the Doctor sits there, quietly, and tells her about where he came from. I love the quietness of the moment.
2. In Human Nature and Family of Blood, she is generally awesome - but the bones of the hand! Oh, so much love.
3. It's a little thing, but I love how she tells the Doctor at the beginning of The Shakespeare Code - "I'm not exactly white, am I?" Because, of course, the Doctor is blind to it, and she's angry with him for it, and yes.
4. Okay, right, Last of the Time Lords, right? Martha Jones. Saves the world. By herself. Without the Doctor. Without anyone. Without complaint, without a pause, she gets up and gets dressed and she saves the world. She does it herself. How can you not love her, after that?
5. And after that, when the world's been saved, she tells the Doctor, you don't call me, I'll call you, and you'd better fucking come running. I love her.
deathbyshinies wanted the top five things that made you want to go to Hogwarts:
1. Firstly? Dude. Magic. I love JKR so very much, but mostly because of this: the way she can follow through to the logical conclusion of her ideas and put magic in every detail. So we get magically appearing feasts, living portraits, ghosts that play polo, giant squid living in the lake, centaurs in the forest, whole rooms that only appear when they're wanted, humbugs. I love the huge embrace of it.
2. Also, it's a boarding school in a castle in the Highlands. That is kind of awesome all by itself, now I come to think of it. I absolutely love how well the (later) films capture this - the whole epic landscape aspect of the setting.
3. I have just been re-reading Half Blood Prince, and there is a brief moment where Harry notices something that he has in common with Voldemort: that for both of them, Hogwarts is the first and only home they've ever known. What a thing to say about any school, really. How can you not want to go there, after that?
4. Quidditch.
5. This may sound silly, but the fact it is a boarding school with houses and dormitories and trunks and a Great Hall and all the rest of it - but it's not uniform white. Parvati and Padma always made me happy when I was younger because, wow, Indians can learn magic! And also, Cho Chang, Lee Jordan, Angelina, the others I'm forgetting.
And, a bonus reason why I wouldn't want to go:
1. There is a MOTHERFUCKING GIANT SNAKE LIVING BENEATH IT. My god. Why was Chamber of Secrets not followed by every ophidiophobic student suddenly opting for home schooling, I ask you? Seriously.
(I have never seen the Chamber of Secrets film. No points for guessing why.)
petronelle wanted my top five Darren Nichols productions:
1. Romeo and Juliet with the giant chess pieces;
2. That one-man version of The Taming of the Shrew, with mule;
3. A high-school production of Cats - in Poland;
4. The Plantagenets, naked with meat;
5. East Hastings.
fahye wanted my top five Geoffrey moments in Slings & Arrows:
Oh god. Where to even START. These are just some of the times Geoffrey is awesome.
1. The razor blades. I love how they're never actually mentioned in the script, so could just be Paul Gross making an acting choice - but aha, oh, Geoffrey, the way to convince people you are sane is NOT to sit in board meetings rolling razor blades around your tongue.
2. This is really Geoffrey and Ellen, but there's this moment where they're rolling around and are clearly about to fall into bed for the first time in a decade, and for a second it looks like the show is going to fall into cliche for the first time ever and it's just going to fade to black - and then there's this pause, where Ellen looks up and says something about how, it's been years, right, and he's scared he's going to be disappointed - and, omg, I love it, I love how they are a real couple with a real couple's gamut of insecurities to go with the theatrical romance. It's perfect.
3. In the first series finale, Jack is counting off his soliloquies, one by one. And Geoffrey is sitting backstage, in the dark, mouthing them along with him. It kills me.
4. Darren, Geoffrey, and the bottle of antidepressants. Darren and Geoffrey duelling. Basically Darren and Geoffrey on screen together. Oh dear.
5. Sloane punching Geoffrey in the car park, and their subsequent manly bonding. It's so silly, and sweet, and somehow poignant. I love it.
gamesiplay wanted my top five fannish characters:
1. Remus Lupin (Harry Potter). For anyone who hasn't known me for more than a couple of months or so: hi, my name is Raven and this is my decade-long crush. Remus is a scruffy teenage-later-adult werewolf, he is wry and sharp and funny and bitter and a good person and an awful idiot. I love him with a love that is epic and undying and true. That is all.
2. Geoffrey Tennant (Slings & Arrows). It seems a cheat, when he got five moments of his own up above, but he is just that amazing. He really is. Not only is he tortured and mad and talented, he's likeable, he's prosaic, he's wry, and he's played by the one and only Paul Gross. What more do you want from anyone.
3. The Doctor (Doctor Who). He ran away from home in a stolen time capsule and never went back. And he's not a hero, but he makes other people into heroes.
4. Hawkeye Pierce (M*A*S*H). Ah, Hawkeye. Having said a lot about him previously, I can merely now sit back and say, ah, Hawkeye. And, also, since I first fell for him, I have tried to read The Last of the Mohicans and it's a truly dreadful book.
(And, this is getting increasingly tangential, I was very happy to discover that no less esteemed a personage than Mark Twain agreed with me on this point in 1895.)
5. Daniel Jackson (Stargate SG-1). It's like taking an enormous step back in time, but as he was originally written, I loved him - because he was a constantly-sneezing geeky archaeologist, and he got to save the world. I don't think I had come across the notion of geeks saving the world before.
(I am actually quite upset that these characters are all male. Someone please remind me to make a post at some point about the wonders that are Hermione Granger (although she's below), Tara Maclay, Martha Jones (and she's above), and Tonks.)
brewsternorth wanted my top five fictional lawyers:
1. Atticus Finch. I doubt any list of fictional lawyers is complete without him, and although I had the shine taken off him by having To Kill a Mockingbird as a set text, nevertheless, he's the defining instance of the genre. Of course, he loses - that's what stays with me. He does what he does knowing he's going to lose.
2. Sam Seaborn. This is possibily cheating, but Sam is a lawyer, isn't he? And he's still working as a lawyer when Josh comes to fetch him to work for Bartlett. Sam is, in a lot of ways, my hero - he's eloquent and principled and he stands up and shouts when shouting is required, and he's kind of a dork. I do love him.
3. Lionel Tribbey, the West Wing's White House counsel. I quote the following to detail his awesome:
[From "And It's Surely To Their Credit"]
TRIBBEY
Well, forgive me, sir, but when you have a few moments, I would like to discuss the hiring of a blonde and leggy fascist whose knowledge does not include the proper order of the alphabet for positions of the White House Counsel's office.
BARTLET
And we will, Lionel, but right now I don't know if you noticed but there are thirty or forty other people in the room, many of whom have donated significant amounts of money to the Democratic Party, so perhaps you could put a tighter grip on your horses and we will talk about it later.
TRIBBEY
Yes. Well. [swings the bat on his shoulder again] Good morning, everyone! Thank
you, Mr. President.
BARTLET
Well, obviously, Lionel Tribbey is a brilliant lawyer whom we cannot live without, or there would be very little reason not to put him in prison. Let's try again.
4. ....er. Let me go and try watching Boston Legal, I'll get back to you.
And, finally, for amchau, my top five four feminists (real or fictional):
1. Hermione Granger. I love Hermione, full stop, I think. I love that she is strong, and capable, but that her strength comes from her insecurities, and that she is frightened she will never be good enough, because she's a woman, because she's Muggle-born. It rings so true for me.
2. Cheery Littlebottom. Her beard has plaits and her boots have raised heels and she isn't sure what this being female thing is all about yet, but she's going to try.
3. Ainsley Hayes. No, please don't throw things at me. From "17 People":
"Because [the ERA] is humiliating! A new amendment that we vote on, declaring that I am equal under the law to a man. I am mortified to discover there’s reason to believe I wasn’t before. I am a citizen of this country. I am not a special subset in need of your protection. I do not have to have to have my rights handed down to me by a bunch of old, white men. The same Article 14 that protects you, protects me. And I went to law school just to make sure. And with that, I’m going back down to the mess, because I thought I may have seen, there, a peach."
I don't agree with her, but I don't doubt she's a feminist in her own special way. Also she speaks in iambic pentameter.
4. Bill Bailey.
...that took a lot longer than expected. I think I ought to go bed, at some point, maybe. Today has been a do-nothing day.