this is the rhythm of the night
01. If you didn't fall in love with my beautiful prince, Bing Lee in the ten seconds you spent watching those gifs, I no longer want to associate myself with you. No but really, Bing Lee and the way he looks at Jane leaves me without words because it's so genuine and earnest. Sometimes I care more about Bing Lee/Jane making appearances more than the Darcy/Lizzie romance, oops.
Fun fact: I had a blissful dream where Bing Lee was my boyfriend and of course, it was adorably perfect. Be jealous.
02. + Bastille - Other People's Heartache (What Would You Do?)
+ Bastille - Other People's Heartache pt. 2 (No Angels (TLC Cover))
I had the TLC cover on repeat for a week before deciding to check out Bastille's other albums. These two are really great! They even cover Lana's Blue Jeans and it actually rivals the original for me now.
03. Haha, let's not talk about how I haven't updated since summer of last year. I spent the remaining days of summer doing the same thing I'm doing now, hermitting enjoying the hell out of it.
Next week I have to face going back to school and waking up in the mornings again but that's next week. Going from waking up at 1 pm to dragging myself up at 9:30 AM is going to be torture. Why do I destroy my sleeping schedule like this? I'm not looking forward to the return of school, homework, and shared living space but it'll be nice to be away from my family again.
Otherwise, real life has been pretty good. Content is the best word for how I'm feeling about my life right now. My new living situation in my dorm is so much better with no drama. I spent the first semester with relatively easy classes that I actually enjoyed a lot. I had to immense pleasure of studying, writing, and acing the essay about the love of my life, Generation Kill the series. This coming semester I have a shit ton more reading to do which I will probably get only halfway through. At least, I'll be reading Wright's book in class with the same great professor who discusses TV with me and called me the GK expert/champion.
I also had brief conversations with my soulmate, Simon Amstell and then my first random celebrity encounter, Michael Stahl-David. Both times I reasserted the fact that I am a super lameo when talking to celebs but whatever, it was nice being in their presence. Oh and I went to a Childish Gambino concert on campus as well but it sorta sucked so whatever.
04. Winter break has allowed me to watch a lot of movies in my recluse cave too so
I always make a point to try and watch most of the Oscar nominated movies even though to be honest, I don't enjoy the movies. I marvel at the great acting instead. That said, I can't bring myself to watch Amour. It seems way too boring. Feel free to tell me otherwise.
Enjoyable: Django Unchained, Silver Linings Playbook
Lawrence delivered the only notable performance of SLP but I've never understood the praise she gets acting and personality-wise.
Good but not remarkable: Beasts of Southern Wild, Zero Dark Thirty
I wish I liked the movies themselves more but the acting was excellent. Officially rooting for Chastain for Best Actress after being whatever about her for the longest time.
Disappointing: Lincoln, Anna Karenina, Cloud Atlas, Les Miserables, The Hobbit
Lincoln was such a chore to watch and according the DDL's superior standards, his acting is just okay. Still, if any one deserves Best Actor it's DDL. Cloud Atlas was racist and a complete waste of my time. Couldn't get emotionally invested in Les Miserables or The Hobbit. I watched the LOTR trilogy all in one go so perhaps I should have done to same with the Hobbit franchise to recieve the full effect. I couldn't even finish Les Mis and this is coming from someone who watched a movie about incest for Redmayne. I can't believe Hathway was nominated for 15 minutes in this movie. She was good but really? She was more impressive as Catwoman.
Great so go watch it: A Royal Affair, Celeste & Jesse Forever
C&J is superb! The BFFs fall in love trope is my favorite ever but I love how this movie deconstructs it. Rashida Jones proves she can be a great comedic as well as dramatic actress and Andy Samberg didn't annoy me.
I'm looking forward to watching Life of Pi later on.
05. Of course, we must discuss my crack called
Happy Endings: I'm SO disappointed in this show. HE was my favorite current sitcom. I still rewatching season 2 almost daily but this season has been getting worse with each episode.
I think the problem is that they're taking the character way too far. Dial back the crazy and wacky behavior. It lessens the more genuine moments, so much so that the show's heart is hard to notice now. I can deal with occasionally unbelievably crazy behavior, Kerkvoich Way is easily one of my favorite episodes, but one crazy episode after another is a bit much. Sometimes the characters come off as annoying and unlikeable to me now, especially Penny. With all this erratic behavior, I've hardly laughed.
Meanwhile, plot lines like that 'down low, too slow,' handshake and Brad/Dave's man contests are plain dumb and not funny. I don't find Brad/Jane nearly as amusing now but I continue to admire how the show portrays a good stable marriage with them.
I remember an article about how respectfully the show dealt with gender, sexuality, and race and how I agreed with it for the most part but now, the show is handling race so weirdly. Occasionally, race is brought up and I don't understand why or the humor in it. I side eyed when Alex and then Penny referred to white people as 'honkeys' to imitate Brad and Max felt the need to point out their Asian waiter in the egg nog joke.
Nevertheless, I've enjoyed the show enough in the past that I hope it doesn't get canceled. I can't help but root for a show that so effortlessly references HBO shows like Treme.
Elementary: My favorite new drama brings me so much joy weekly. The cases are severely lacking but all that becomes white noise when Joan/Sherlock's relationships enters the spotlight. I love love how delicately they're handling their relationship and Sherlock's darker elements.
Lucy Liu is nothing short of perfection as Watson with her flawless wardrobe but man, I've been so impressed with JLM lately. The multitude of expressions on his face during some scenes! Case in point:
©
I'm so much more emotionally invested in this show than I ever was with Sherlock. I can't wait to see how the rest of the season unfolds.
Looking at my scrapbook I'm tempted to give up on even more shows. Shows like The Good Wife, Lost Girl, Parks and Recreation, Suburgatory, Revenge, Young Justice, and Miranda seem to have gone stale and only hold my interest minimally now but there's always one little thing that keeps me watching. After my whirlwind summer romance with Teen Wolf I'm mostly ambivalent about the show coming back. All I care about is Scott and Allison now.
Still, there seems to be hope for new shows this year. I know it's blasphemous to say but I could never really invest myself in The Hour despite how pretty the show is so I've been without some good entertainment from across the pond other than Doctor Who. Ripper Street is pretty much Whitechapel, the not as great version, with MacFayden as serving as the loyal BBC husband instead of the sexier Rupert Penry Jones but I take what I can get and the show is interesting so far. My Mad Fat Diary is promising as well because even though they make me feel so old now, teenage dramas where the dorky girl (and she's plus sized this time!) gets the cute boy is so endearing to me. Checking out Utopia really soon as well.
I'm also looking forward to the airing of Being Human (UK), Game of Thrones, Hannibal, and Southland. I can't wait to reunite with my werewolf bb, Tom. I immediately went grabby hands at new HBO war miniseries too even though nothing will ever compare the BOB in Hanks/Spielberg's works.
06. Fuck me, I forgot how much effort writing up LJ posts was. There's so much rambling here too. A+ sticker if anyone read any of this. I'm probably not going to update again until the next school break but feel free to interact with me via twitter, tumblr, belated comments, email, whatever about anything at all. I miss talking to you guys.