Hi…
I haven’t been on LJ or DreamWidth for about two months. Um, did I miss anything?
I’m not sure if I’m coming back. I was basically forced off because my computer broke, but my computer has been working for a month now and… yeah. I’m really enjoying the free time that comes with not spending hours on journaling sites every day. I also think that removing myself from the obsessive lunacy of fandom has done wonders for my own sanity. :P
I miss you guys, though. I’m thinking of maybe trimming my reading list to just real people and checking in a couple times per week.
Part of it was post-Writercon burnout. Part is that I’m just kind of… done… with mainstream television. Canceling my cable TV was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. I’m not even angry about the myriad ways TV sucks; I’m just not interested in spending time on it anymore.
I’ve been cooking every day, working on freelance projects, getting my finances in order, organizing my apartment, taking long walks around NYC, going to museums (the Neue Galerie is amazing), reading proper books (currently on The Power Broker about Robert Moses), and downloading lots of 1970s David Bowie goodies.
(Proof that I’ve drunk the Bowie Kool-Aid: the other day I found myself listening to the Young Americans album with unreserved adoration. I’ve also been watching a lot of interviews and was surprised to find that I really like David Bowie. When I got into his music, I really was not expecting to find him likable as a person. I respect his intelligence, hard work, self-awareness, and courage to take wild creative leaps.)
But part of the reason it’s foolish to post here is that you guys are not the appropriate audience for my thoughts on David Bowie. It is really starting to hit me that in my heart, I’m not a TV fan; I’m a music fan who happens to get into TV fandoms in the off periods when I can’t find music that engages me. I’m not sure what the appropriate venue is, though; music fandoms tend to center around message boards full of pedantic fanboys with whom I wouldn’t fit either. I think the best answer is probably just to go back to being a solitary fan.
cindergal, I am watching Farscape. I think the next one up is episode five of season three. I like the show; I'd rate it as above average but not extraordinary. Scorpius is by far my favorite character; every time he comes onscreen the show gets ten times better. Aeryn is one of the most fantastic female characters I've ever seen--she's three-dimensional and complex and totally defies stereotypes--but she's not onscreen nearly enough. I'm still kind of bored by John--I'm just utterly sick of everything revolving around straight white guys--but it's not really fair to blame him as he's a decent character, and he's definitely gotten a lot more interesting as the show has progressed.
The writing is pretty good but rarely great--it falls into some cliches and manages to subvert others. I think it's just the nature of television--with their limits of time and budget, even the greatest shows are full of episodes that merely tread water. I've gotten a lot more attached to short-run shows that commit to a story and tell it, rather than those that try to drag a story out into eternity and keep narrative options open forever.
I do like that it's often dark and twisted and rarely goes for easy solutions. The fact that all of its main characters are morally ambiguous and complex is the main reason I'm still watching. Well, that and Scorpius. The guy playing him just has so much charisma. :)
So... what have you all been up to?
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