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

After watching "Invictus," I got all teary and not because of the movie (though I did cry during "Princess and the Frog," but that's another story altogether).

It just so happens that the poem which inspired the title (and Mandela, apparently) was my mother's favorite poem. She told me when she was in high school, the teacher's made her memorize a poem, and she had picked "Invictus," though she said it held no particular emotional sway with her at the time. Perhaps she just thought it sounded cool. In any case, she memorized it and then late, when life indeed gave her more challenges than most... challenges of health problems that plagued her most of her adult life and which nearly killed her several times over, be it by stroke, heart attack and coma... which robbed her of her ability to walk without pain... .she said she was glad that she had memorized the thing way back when and that it did indeed come in handy.

At that time, I was about 14 or so, I was on a poetry kick and decided to memorize it too... and when in my life I'd come across serious adversity, maybe not as serious as the kind my mother had endured -- until dealing with her death a year and a half ago, that is -- I'd always thought it was a most remarkable string of words. Inspirational, strong, determined and steadfast.

"Invictus" was written by William Ernst Henley, a victim of tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later, while a teenager, the disease progressed in his foot and he had to have his foot amputated directly below the knee. In spite of this, in 1867 he successfully passed the Oxford local examination as a senior student. He wrote "Invictus" from a hospital bed in 1875. Despite his disability, he persevered with one foot intact, leading an active life, and died at the age of 53.

No poem could be more appropriate for my mother, who could barely walk, when she went back to school to get her Bachelor's of Science in her early 40's. She continued and got her Master's of Science in clinical psychology from Cal State University Northridge and went on to intern at Camarillo hospital, helping disturbed teens and then opened up a practice in Westport, CT where she also had her own talk psychology radio show. She specialized in women empowering themselves and gave assertiveness training sessions. She died not that much older than William Ernst Henley, finally succumbing to the diseases that tried to overcome her most of her life.

I wonder if she thought of "Invictus" when she lay in her hospital bed, at the moment she knew she would die.

After she passed, it was the first thing that came into my head.

Any movie called "Invictus," based on that particular poem -- is a winner to me.

By the way, here's the poem:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

christmastime for the jews

Oy, I can't believe I haven't blogged since the summer. I have to be the worst blogger, I know. But on the upside, I HAVE been writing actual projects. Hard at work on my supernatural sci fi novel, the graphic novel of Evermore, which is almost finished, another couple of outlines for new screenplays and a comic strip for my UC Berkeley alumni entertainment industry publication coming out soon.

I hope everyone's had a productive year and that next year, it's even more so for all of us... and I hope our nation's economy kicks out of the toilet already, and that we all get good healthcare... oh yeah, and we need world peace already... seriously!!!

And for my favorite holiday treat... here's a link I know I used last year, it's an oldie but a goodie, and if they can show A Christmas Story 24 hours a day today every year, then I can Post Christmastime For the Jews for y'all once more (and by the way, be careful out there, don't shoot yer eye out).

Anyway, I'm off to watch Avatar in Imax 3D, in the meantime... enjoy!

(PS.. update... Avatar in Imax 3D was awesome! What a great way to celebrate anything.)

Christmastime for the Jews