Monday, August 22, 2011

TV Watching Hours 10; Pages Written 2



It was a fairly decent catch for the TV watching tour de force this week. Best things were:
--Breaking Bad - Some stellar acting and writing, as always. Was I the only one who had flashbacks, when Jesse went in to deal with the meth heads to that episode a couple of seasons ago, "Peekabo," where he entertained the little boy while his insane, meth addicted parents killed each other with an ATM machine? That had to be one of my favorite episodes. This one wasn't quite as emotionally charged, but it was still nice to see Jesse being the reluctant hero, yet again. I think he surprised the heck out of the jaded Guss, who seems to be taking a shine to him as an actual protege or something. Walt definitely seems jealous of losing Jesse and tried his best to get him and keep him for himself. And what about Walter, going all Heisenberg with his "I'm the bad guy, they fear me, not the other way around" BS. Skylar should have known not to call him a nice guy. Nothing will piss a guy off more than calling him "nice" (loved her last line btw, "Someone's gotta save this family from the guy who's saving this family.") Walt, not being able to admit that he's scared and in over his head, instead came back swinging with his braggadocio hangin' out. Even though Skylar was right about pretty much everything, it was cool to see Walt back on the offensive. Nice comeback, and nice tush too Apparently, good ol' Heisenberg's been working out while waiting for the meth to turn blue.

--Torchwood-- I haven't always been so sure about this newfangled American approach to Torchwood. It's been a little too straightforward and not the usual kinky, wacky, British alien thing that I'd grown to love about the series and somehow, Jack Harkness, with his American accent, Tom Cruise smirk, and Kirk Douglass chin always stood out as from another country, surrounded by all the Brit and cockeny accents; now he's mortal, in LA, just another handsome, aging gay dude in a military coat he could've gotten off the rack at a vintage shop on Melrose, on his way to his next acting gig. But low and behold, things get a lot more fun and freaky, in this episode, written by the fabulous Jane Espenson, my Cal alumni sister in sci-fi fantasticness. Aside from an salaciously hot flashback, with Jack once again wooing a sexy foreign guy, fresh off the boat, in need of a shower, with his otherworldly charms, we get some insight into how this whole "undead" thing started and you know aliens have to be involved, FINALLY... and the two are tied together, in a blast from the past that leads to Jack being the cause of this whole thing in some way. Okay, that works for me. I'll take some more of that, thank you very much. Can't wait until next week.

--True Blood - I've been enjoying this season a lot more than last. Maybe it's because putting Sookie with Eric and making Bill the king who still pines after the love he let go away appeals to the romantic in me and nothing boots up a love story like unrequited vamp love, I guess. Then again, maybe I just prefer witches with serious sorcery to hedonistic undefinable devil worshipers as an antagonist. Call me crazy. I thought the whole dream sequence with Sookie, Bill and Eric was a lot of fun and nice way to tie both hunky vampire dudes into the situation. They ended the episode on a note of true suspense, although you know Bill's going to make it out okay in the end, so is Eric, for that matter. And Sookie, well, she might as well be immortal. As for the subplots, they've wrapped up the weird ghost with the Aunt Jemima headwrap taking over Lafayette's body to kidnap Darlene's devil spawn thankfully. First Lafayette is a vdealer, then a v slave, now he's a medium... uh, gee can't the poor guy get a break. All in all though, it's still one of my favorite guilty pleasures and I'll miss it when the season's over. Thankfully, they've been picked up for another one.

Ah, better get back to work. Boo hiss.
Bluesy

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Rolling in the Deep






Come on, you know you'd rather watch Adele sing "Rolling in the Deep" and "Rumor Has It" in her cool, artsy, angst ridden video than write anything. I know I would.

The more I listen to Adele's new album, the more I like it, and I bought it first day it came out. She's just amazing. Perhaps her first album was more solid, in that every single song was a keeper. But there's so much great stuff on 21. And it's got that retro sound that also is so contemporary. Really, there's no one like her.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Hello, Again, Hello

So you're probably wondering what the heck happened to me. I haven't posted in ages. Well, simple answer, I've been -- gasp -- writing. Yes, I know, it's so unlike me. After all, this is a blog about procrastinating from writing, so I don't want to sound hypocritical or anything. I like to practice what I preach. And don't get me wrong, I'm still a practicing procrastinator... why look at me right now. Besides, there's been TV to watch in between the beads of blood pouring from my forehead and fingertips... and you know how much I like my TV shows. Breaking Bad's been as amazing as ever. I don't know how they consistently can churn out such well written scripts, but they're doing it. Watching Walter White's transmogrification is always a trip. I've also been enjoying True Blood. Kind of like a guilty pleasure. Well, not exactly kinda. And there's a steady stream of junkfood teen paranormal and sci fi TV shows that are usually on in between taking breaks from... gasp... work. You know which they are, I don't need to mention them here. (okay, so I'll mention a few: The Nine Lives of Chloe, Teen Wolf (yay, Vlaming), Switched at Birth, Alphas, Torchwood, Game of Thrones repeats,) You know you like them too, don't give me those looks.

As far as reading goes, I always have two or three books going at a time while I'm "indisposed." Right now, I'm enjoying the hell out of The Borrower, and crazy loving Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad.. Goon Squad is definitely my favorite book of the year. It's one of those books I love so much, I am savoring it and reading it super slow because I don't want it to end

I read a whole ton of YA recently, but unfortunately, much of it's kind of wasn't really great enough to stand out. Only a few really knocked my socks off. Like Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me and Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why. The latest dystopic, futuristic offerings (my favorite genre) have to be Lauren Oliver's Delirium and Before I Fall (I loved Delirium so much, it made me get her earlier book, Before I Fall, which I liked even more. Also, had another look at the classic, The Giver so, so good. So see, just when you think you won't find another book you love as much as The Hunger Games trilogy, you do.

I've been thinking about going to the gym quite a bit lately. I do realize that my penchant for procrastinating about writing has now moved to that of going to the gym, as my growing ass and hips will attest. I rather like my gym though. It's got a fabulous pool, even more fabulous jacuzzi, one of those cardio theatres, which, let's face it, were designed for media junkies like me -- sure they always play movies I've seen already, but it doesn't matter. I'll stay on a recumbent bike or treadmill for 2 hours just to watch the end of Salt again, (which I liked more second time around), or Oceans 11, 12 and 13 (I think they're up to 13, who knows, they're all kinda like the same movie but who's going to walk away from George Clooney... not I certainly. The person who programs these movies for my gym has great insight into the female psyche, that's for sure). In any case, these days I'm spending more time reminiscing about the gym rather than pumping up. Blame it on the damned writing. Blasted. Too bad you can't lose weight just by thinking about working out. I'm not talking about just thinking about it for a second or two; I mean, really putting yourself out there. But NOOOOO, you actually have to do the exercise for it to have any affect. Pffft!

Anyway, until next time.

Bluesy

PS.. you know I spent at least an hour playing with the new blogger template designer with all its cool customization settings. I mean, it's hard to pick one background from all the cool offerings and then it has to be something easy on the eyes so you can read the actual post and not be distracted by all the eye candy (I mean, you wouldn't find me putting George Clooney in the background, because while I'd probably get a much higher readership, no one would actually read anything I had to say... not that I'd blame them).

All this to say, don't tell me I haven't done my job in giving you many ways to avoid writing in this post, reading all these books, watching all these cool TV shows, movies... of you could go to the gym for me, I wouldn't mind.