(no subject)
I was browsing fabrics the other day for a project I've been tossing around for a while, and I stumbled across this completely unrelated but completely awesome offering, and was reminded of how much I have been super secretly hankering to do an Ashes to Ashes costume. My thought process while looking at that swatch was almost identical to how I felt when watching the show: "Oh my GODDDD this is so insanely tacky and overboard, good lord. It's kind of entertaining, though, in a hilariously crack-y way. ... Actually, now that I've been staring at it for a while, I'm starting to appreciate some intricacies in the design. I mean, it's such a predictable binary relationship dynamic but then suddenly it all gets flipped around and signifies something different -- and yet the borders stay intact, and its only our understanding of them that changes. And the checkered motif is taken in its most basic appearance to signify order, predictability, and control but then it starts to melt away in places and suddenly it branches out to encompass all these different themes. Is it indeed a game board, something ostensibly for fun and diversion that somehow develops into a larger struggle over strategy, profiling one's opponent, formulating actions based on past encounters? Or is it the color-bled harlequin, like something out of a Picasso, both pitiable and sinister, hiding something from both the audience and from him/herself? OR IS IT ALL OF THEM? OR HAVE I SECRETLY DISCOVERED THE MEANING OF LIFE??? Or have I just been contemplating a ridiculous TV program/fabric swatch for far too long?"
Also, in case there was any remaining doubt that I severely overthink television programming, this Robin Hood discussion post the other day reminded me of this xkcd comic which in turn reminded me of my recent revelation that I am in fact immune to TV Tropes. It seems like every time it's linked anywhere there's a general chorus of "auuugh why'd you do that, now I'm going to waste hours poking around here" but somehow I have never once done that. (Disclaimer: I do realize that there are in fact billions of people who have never wasted a significant portion of time on TV Tropes. Considering, however, that I am a certifiable internet addict and have been known to pitter away entire evenings browsing the websites for American Girl TV movies... well, it's something of an anomaly.) I'm afraid the only conclusion I can reach is that TV Tropes is just too darn close to how my brain operates on an everyday basis for it to hold any real novelty/fascination for me. This discovery is equal parts AWESOME and TERRIFYING (okay, lies; it's about 10% the former and 90% the latter, but for the sake of preserving my delicate sense of self-worth let's pretend that it's 50/50). On the one hand, how cool and TV-hip does it make me to scroll through that Robin Hood page and realize that I recognize/have previously pondered basically every single reference/connection, up to and including the Zelda animated TV series? On the other hand -- how beyond lame and laden-with-pointless-knowledge does it make me to scroll through that Robin Hood page and realize that I recognize/have previously pondered basically every single reference/connection, up to and including the Zelda animated TV series? GUYS. SERIOUSLY. WHY DOES THAT ZELDA CARTOON EVEN EXIST AS A MENTAL REFERENCE FOR ME, IT'S BASICALLY THE WORST THING IN THE HISTORY OF EVER. And yet it is an ever-present fixture in my brain! Siiigh. Well, at least I've discovered a hidden benefit to devoting countless hours to TV -- at least it spared me wasting an afternoon on TV Tropes, right? (And incidentally, the scrollover text on that xkcd comic mentions Cracked which, in fact, I AM NOT IMMUNE TO, and so of course the moment I finished celebrating that MY BRAIN DEFEATED TV TROPES I went and wasted hours reading lists of New Personality Disorders Caused by the Internet or Most Badass Things Ever Done By a Jungle Cat.)
Also, in case there was any remaining doubt that I severely overthink television programming, this Robin Hood discussion post the other day reminded me of this xkcd comic which in turn reminded me of my recent revelation that I am in fact immune to TV Tropes. It seems like every time it's linked anywhere there's a general chorus of "auuugh why'd you do that, now I'm going to waste hours poking around here" but somehow I have never once done that. (Disclaimer: I do realize that there are in fact billions of people who have never wasted a significant portion of time on TV Tropes. Considering, however, that I am a certifiable internet addict and have been known to pitter away entire evenings browsing the websites for American Girl TV movies... well, it's something of an anomaly.) I'm afraid the only conclusion I can reach is that TV Tropes is just too darn close to how my brain operates on an everyday basis for it to hold any real novelty/fascination for me. This discovery is equal parts AWESOME and TERRIFYING (okay, lies; it's about 10% the former and 90% the latter, but for the sake of preserving my delicate sense of self-worth let's pretend that it's 50/50). On the one hand, how cool and TV-hip does it make me to scroll through that Robin Hood page and realize that I recognize/have previously pondered basically every single reference/connection, up to and including the Zelda animated TV series? On the other hand -- how beyond lame and laden-with-pointless-knowledge does it make me to scroll through that Robin Hood page and realize that I recognize/have previously pondered basically every single reference/connection, up to and including the Zelda animated TV series? GUYS. SERIOUSLY. WHY DOES THAT ZELDA CARTOON EVEN EXIST AS A MENTAL REFERENCE FOR ME, IT'S BASICALLY THE WORST THING IN THE HISTORY OF EVER. And yet it is an ever-present fixture in my brain! Siiigh. Well, at least I've discovered a hidden benefit to devoting countless hours to TV -- at least it spared me wasting an afternoon on TV Tropes, right? (And incidentally, the scrollover text on that xkcd comic mentions Cracked which, in fact, I AM NOT IMMUNE TO, and so of course the moment I finished celebrating that MY BRAIN DEFEATED TV TROPES I went and wasted hours reading lists of New Personality Disorders Caused by the Internet or Most Badass Things Ever Done By a Jungle Cat.)