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-I'm very much ready for the weather to start acting like spring, mmkay. I had the totally awesome luck of dropping my car keys somewhere on campus yesterday and having to retrace my steps a few times in the freezing cold before resigning myself to the fact that I wasn't going to find them, and thank the lord for a man who knows where to find my spare keys even when I don't know where they are but for half the time Shep was on his way over to give them to me I was on the phone with him whimpering, "I'M NOT WARM." And I just got this nice new Swiss Army knife that was attached to the keys. Bahh.

-One of the many annoying oversimplifying attitudes I see directed at Wuthering Heights made me curious about what the initial critical response was to it, and some of the stuff quoted on Wikipedia is backwardly amusing to me:

"There is not in the entire dramatis persona, a single character which is not utterly hateful or thoroughly contemptible ... Even the female characters excite something of loathing and much of contempt. Beautiful and loveable in their childhood, they all, to use a vulgar expression, "turn out badly."
EVEN THE FEMALE CHARACTERS. You don't say?

"How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery. It is a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors."
WELL.

To be honest it has been a long time since I read Wuthering Heights and I would probably fail to back up anything I have to say about it but, while Emily may not have much on someone like Mary Shelley, I've always felt that from time periods in which female creativity was pretty much encouraged to be merely decorative, for women to write such unflinchingly dark characters/themes is just kind of badass, and to me there's something that feels relatively uncensored about WH that gives me a strong loyalty to it. And even if I don't know that I would ship the love story exactly, I've always been fascinated by the fundamentals of that kind of romance - if you can call it a romance - where the love may have once been good, in a vacuum of innocence, but when it's thwarted and denied the whole momentum of it becomes destructive to everyone around it and to the affection itself.

-Haven't been watching the Star Trek trailers that are rolling out so I'm going to be maybe a lot more surprised by this movie than other people. I've seen and probably will see a couple trailers in the theater but that's enough for me. I feel like there was an article that gave away the villain, even? I'm getting more and more annoyed with the gimme-gimme-spoilers culture of the internet, even though I don't treat it like it's the end of the world if I do get spoiled.

I don't know if anyone around here even cares, but holy crap, Skyfall. For the first third or so of the movie I was actually worried because the dialogue was a little uninspired and it felt kind of slow, but then right around when Javier Bardem comes in it starts to kick so much ass.



If I'm asked who my favorite Bond "girl" is, I will always snarkily reply that it's this BAMF. Can I just say that it makes me really really sad that we will probably never get a prequel spinoff that is all about M? Sure, she isn't exactly supposed to have been an agent who ever put a lot of time "in the field" but she's still a badass. There's a scene closing on the final action sequence in the new film when she and Bond have to make do with a limited supply of weapons, and I wasn't sure but it looked to me like she was supposed to be making Molotov cocktails out of light bulbs, among other things. Everything about Judi Dench's presence is every bit as formidable as Daniel Craig's, if not more; maybe it's that her arsenal is always a little more intangible and mysterious.

I've seen several of the older Bond films and my memory of her in Goldeneye is really vague, but the relationship between M and Bond has been one of my very favorite things about the new movies, and not just because the development of a character like Bond seems to usually be peppered with FATHER FIGURES EVERYWHERE and not a woman to be seen. So when the trailer rolled out and made it look basically like M would be by far the most important woman in this film, I was stoked, and it did not disappoint. We're invited to ponder her inner conflicts, probably more than we're wondering what's going on with Bond; she does some stuff she shouldn't do, she does some stuff she should do, sometimes it's about James and sometimes it's not.

As for Bardem's character, he was far (so very far) and away the most memorable and well played villain of this trilogy. Ben Whishaw was pretty enjoyable as Q (and he looks adorable in a pair of glasses). And since I'm forgetting to actually talk about James Bond regarding a James Bond movie, there's some fitting and poignant follow-up on his status as an orphan (which was only briefly mentioned in CR).

It's a Sam Mendes movie therefore Thomas Newman did the score, and I'll have to give it another listen, but my first impression is that the soundtrack had some pretty good moments. And the last act of the film, due to location as well as cinematography, looks gorgeous. I JUST LIKED IT A LOT, I REALLY DID.

I feel like it's becoming a trend in book covers to have photographs of models (not sure what else to call them) rather than more traditional art. Like this. I don't know if I like it, though in the realm of fantasy a lot of the cover art is rarely that attractive to begin with :/ (I am of course really picky about book covers, though. It makes me cringe when the only edition I can get is one that I don't like.)

Sooo I'm about eight episodes into Teen Wolf because half of Tumblr is really into it and IDK IDK. ( Read more... )

And I watched a couple movies, starting with one called Three.

( 3 )

Also watched The Man Who Wasn't There, a neo-noir by the Coen Brothers. Very noir, very Coen Brothers. I could go on and on about my mixed feelings about the noir tropes and how impatient I can be with them sometimes, but this is one that definitely worked for me because there was such a sense that you were supposed to find it a little ridiculous and funny how deep of a hole the main character gets dug into, without it quite being a comedy.

I've already seen The Dark Knight Rises twice. It might actually be my personal favorite of the Nolan trilogy and I was not expecting that.
I do sort of wish I could be totally eating crow about Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. I think she's a good actress and did a good job; she just didn't blow me away. On the other hand, I kept forgetting Marion Cotillard was even going to be in this movie and I think I was under the impression Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in a pretty small role, and they both ended up being these awesome characters. But basically the last fifteen minutes or so just steamrolled me through SO MANY FEELINGS and it felt as definitive as a last installment should.


That movie meme: ( Look at all the important movies I haven't seen... )

Soo, time to talk about how much I liked Avengers!

( Love is for children. )


-I only recently realized that "SMH" is supposed to stand for Shaking My Head, not So Much Hate. I did think people had the tendency to use it a bit over-dramatically...

-I think I need to read up more on Prometheus, though it may be futile cause the writers/cast are so tight-lipped they've only barely admitted that it's, yes, a prequel to the Alien series (sort of, yes, no, yes). But for some reason I was so excited to learn that Fassbender's character is a robot. Like, stupidly thrilled about it.

Soooo haven't updated in forever.

1. As you all know, I went on a CRUUUIISE. It was the first time my sheltered midwestern ass had ever been outside the US, so it was pretty exciting. My favorite was Cozumel even though all we really did there was drive around in an open-top Jeep avoiding hitting these huge iguanas and feeling like we were in Jurassic Park or something. And we went on a tequila tour and drank really good really expensive tequila. It was so beautiful there and urgh, I got sunburned SO BAD despite putting on sunscreen that morning and that had to be the night we had the formal dinner back on the ship so I was supposed to look all nice and was very...pink :/

LOL, days before I left there were all these news stories about stuff like E. coli break-outs happening on these cruise ships and one or two them was actually the cruise line we were on so people kept going "Oh, uh-oh" when I told them I was going on a cruise. Well, I know how to wash a hand and apparently so did everyone else cause as far as I know nobody got sick.

Also, we were in New Orleans for a day and got to hang out at one of the Mardi Gras parades when we got back (It is decidedly G-rated in the daytime). So we screamed for free shit (they were throwing everything from cups to bags of potato chips, it was kind of funny) and then ate at an amazing seafood restaurant.

Bluh, so there may be pictures from this trip later, I don't know. I never take pictures but Shep's mama is trying to get to me a disc full of pictures she took.

2. Uuum, I watched the first season of Hell On Wheels. Is anyone watching this show? It didn't blow my face off, but it's good. Colm Meaney, if you've never seen him play an asshole before, makes a very good asshole with a sorta complicated vulnerable side. One of the big highlights for me is that Christopher Heyerdahl (Alistair 2.0 in SPN!) is a semi-regular as the seedy security officer. And there's plenty of eye candy - the main character reminds me a bit of Viggo Mortensen (yum?) and I'm really starting to ship him with the predictable love interest of one of the lead females (the inclusion of female characters really isn't bad, considering the setting). The downside is that there are definitely a couple mostly bland characters, though one of the two I find really boring I do start to warm up to a lot at the end of S1.

3. I am no longer living with my parents. I don't think I could stand it anymore if I was.

4. As it seems to come up in half of the articles/rhetoric against gay marriage that I come across, I am forever perplexed at the "What's next? LEGALIZED GROUP MARRIAGE??!?!?!!? OMG" idea spouted by people who clearly believe it is this fool-proof weapon of argument that will shock all of us into clutching our pearls. Like, LOL, you must not have heard me correctly when I said that I really do not care what other people do with their sex/love lives as long as it's negotiated and desired between consenting adults.

5. Oh, and I saw This Means War. Both positive and negative opinions about the movie seem unanimous in stating that the real love story is between the main dudes (Ebert actually said, "Clearly they are gay.") This is fact.
Now, I don't think Chris is a terrible actor, but in a movie where he has many scenes with Tom Hardy he is out-acted, to the point that it was almost distracting. I'm not much of a fangirl of Tom but I am a fan (as much as I can be while only having seen him in a few things).( spoilers )

I am so so so excited to get drunk and celebrate my birthday with my best friends this week because I've decided we're going to watch this movie WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT.



I don't remember very much about it but I know I thought it was the coolest thing ever when I was like five. I had to ask my sister to tell me the name of it because for years I've just been remembering it as "that movie with the hot dude who catches a bullet with his teeth."



( that Shows as Relationships meme )

-Pennsylvania Trip was fun. We did a lot of four-wheeling in the woods (LOL, no, we're not really the hiking type) while we were at camp, and the last day we were there we drove through New York to go see Niagara Falls (I'd never been. It was fun, but I wished we could have crossed into Canada. Fuck passports.) And on the way back we stopped into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum, which was actually way cooler than I expected.

-Finally saw X-Men First Class, and oh my god. OH MY GOD. ( somewhat spoilery stuff... )




AND NOW THIS MEME.

Comment with "Come at me, bro!"
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

( Q's and A's )

I have a visit to the doctor and a job interview in the same 24 hours. Do not want :(

Holy crap, I haven't updated in forever. I have lots of random shit to talk about.

1. I want more fandom for Tron: Legacy. Specifically, lots more Sam Flynn/Ed Dillinger Jr. I'm not usually into the five-minute characters (okay, that might be a big lie), but he's the board member played by Cillian Murphy who seems pretty unconcerned about the software leak, which is made all the more interesting when you realize he's the son of the company antagonist from the first Tron film.

2. Saw True Grit. I really liked it, though it's one of those good movies that in hindsight feels more like a series of awesome scenes than like, an overall masterpiece that moves nicely from beginning to end. Ebert compared it to how Iggy Pop can do a good version of "My Funny Valentine"; it's like the Coen brothers wanted to take a holiday from their thing and do something more for fun. Though I don't agree with him completely because the humor in it felt very Coen brothers.
Jeff Bridges was awesome, but what else is new. Hailee Steinfeld is amazing and would not be over-hyped if they handed her an Oscar. And I enjoyed Matt Damon, and I have weird issues with Matt Damon, so he must have done a pretty good job.

3. Saw Black Swan, holy jaysus. ( Read more... )

4. Okay, so I'm caught up on all Supernatural, and I'm still being nudged to do some kind of proper reaction post, so ( seasons 5 and 6? )

I don't know why it bothers me so much that people keep saying they want Kristen Bell to play Christine Chapel in the Star Trek franchise.

There are some who genuinely really like Kristen Bell as an actress, and they want a version of Chapel with quite a bit more spark this time around. That's completely fine by me.

What bothers me is that nine times out of ten, I feel like this suggestion comes up either because:

A) She's the first stereotypically attractive blond actress who pops into somebody's head, or even worse:

B) She has chemistry with Zachary Quinto, and "Chapel was always a love interest for Spock."

( No. )


SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS.

WHERE IS THE RED FIC?



I can't be the only person who thought this movie was fun. If there's a friggin' Losers fandom there should be a Red fandom. Right? *wibbles*