rhymeswithlungs

Today, I wandered through the Urban Farm at the foot of Manhattan, in Battery Park. I also sat in the park on a chair on the grass beneath the trees, watching children play. It was a beautiful day, with a slight haze, most likely from the Canadian Wild Fires in the North.




It was a frustrating day, so I needed a break from it. As tempting as it is to regale you all with the details? I'll refrain.

Some bad news? Dochawk, you may or may not remember him from the ATPO_BTVS and ATS Fan Discussion Board? His two female cousins were victims of the flame-thrower attack in Boulder, Colorado. ( Read more... )

I'm trying to ignore the news for the most part - but keep stumbling upon it, whether I want to or not. Thank you, information age.

Been comforting myself by watching and listening to James Marsters Q&A's on youtube. I have a serious crush on that actor. I have crushes on several actors. Cillian Murphy is another one, so too is Hugh Jackman, Robert Downy Jr, David Tennant, Claudia Black, also Juliet Landau, Helen Mirren, Emma Thompson, Viola Davis, Angela Basset, Jonathon Groff....I am notorious for actor crushes.

Marsters said something interesting in regards to a question about Whedon and separating art from the artist. ( Read more... )

Been rewatching Buffy as a comfort show - and it still holds up, and rather well at that. I just saw I Only Have Eyes for You - it's an episode that airs late in S2. I'd forgotten most of it. And forgot how good it is. The first few times I'd seen it - I hadn't thought much of it, but now, it resonates in a different way? The writers are commenting on multiple things - and it subverts various tropes. It's actually surprising the network let them do it - back in the 90s.
( spoilers for those who never saw it, is there anyone? )

***

I didn't sleep well last night. Ached. And I ache now. Digestive issues, I think? Although did many things in the hopes of counter-acting them. My failing was giving in and having ice cream (Malawi Coffee and Rose Almond both Indian flavors and locally made). I did everything else right - baked salmon with zuccini and summer squash, and lots of water.

Oh well, it is what it is. Hopefully I can get the restless legs to calm down enough to sleep.

Here's a nice photo to round out this long rambling post.

Haven't accomplished much this weekend. It's been cool, and mostly overcast anyhow. I did spend a lot of time looking out on the treetops outside my living room window, and listening to actor podcasts.

The news, sigh. I don't know about you? But it is depressing me. And kind of makes me route for a sizable meteor, a tornado, or a green dragon to take out Washington, DC. Never felt that way before. I'm actually terrified of reading the news. Is it just me or has the world just gotten scarier since technology took off? Bad techies. Life would have been so much better if we paid techies and marketing folks fifty cents an hour or very little at all, and sanitation workers, tree planters, forest rangers, and climate change scientist more.

Reviews

1. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler : I finished this on Friday. It took me forever, and I'm not sure I'd recommend reading it now? It's a science fiction novel about the consequences of climate change, with the federal government selling off lands to corporations resulting in societal collapse in the year 2025. A group of hardy and diverse souls decide to walk north to find land, jobs, or a place to live and pick up people along the way. Butler focuses on community building and kindness of strangers. While there is violence earlier in the novel, towards the end, it is less so.

The novel ends in the year 2027, and the next one Parable of the Talents begins in 2032, with flashbacks.

There's a romance, between the 18 year old heroine and a fifty-seven year old man in the novel that I found kind of odd, considering I'm fifty-eight.
Also the novel was published in 1992, and takes place in 2025-2027, so...

Some of the things in the novel she gets right about the future - we do have the beginnings of climate change. California is suffering from heat waves and wild fires. We do have an insane federal government that is trying to cater to corporations. What we don't quite have yet is slave labor, keep in mind this is Octavia Butler - and most of her novels tended to focus on slave labor, mainly because she was an African-American Female Science Fiction Writer in the 20th Century. Also, Butler doesn't quite understand state government. So, she gets an alarming amount right, but also quite a bit wrong, which gives me hope at least, if only a smattering.

It's a scarier book now than I think it was when it was originally published. And perhaps a more timely one. I recommend but with the caveat that it is unnerving, and disturbing in spots. I have the sequel, but am taking a break from it. It was slow going. I may like it once the current administration in DC is gone. Not sure I can read more of it now - hits a little too close to home and I'm terrified enough by the news.

2. Murderbot - started watching on Apple + and it's better than expected. It seems to follow the novels rather closely and Alexander Starsgaard is pitch perfect casting for the Murderbot. It's funny in places and charming in others, just like the novellas were. Murderbot is adapted from the novella All Systems Collapse along with the other novellas in the Murderbot series by Martha Wells, which were initially published as e-books and audio books several years ago.

It has a widely diverse cast, and focuses on a group of hippie research scientists/geologists who purchase a cheap refurbished security protocol bot to take with them to a planet for a research expedition. The Corporations who control the rim planets they are visiting, require that they take a bot with them, so they take the cheapest available, Murderbot.

Murderbot - which is what the Bot calls itself, the government name is security unit, has hacked into its own system and basically watches television most of the time, when it doesn't save the stupid humans. We see most everything from its perspective. It has a rather funny running commentary, and we get parodies of space operas as the television shows it's become invested in.

(Murderbot reminds me uncomfortably of AI, to be honest. ( Read more... )

3. Andor S2 - I've seen one episode. It was good. Took a little while to get into, but well paced. It kind of throws you into the heart of the action without much lead in. And much like the previous season, there is a lot of hoping about between story threads and characters. Took me a little while to figure out where the characters were and what was going on.

It's a series about the beginning of the Rebellion against the evil Corporate Empire, and I'm not certain it's the best series to watch now?
Hits a little close to home in spots. Such as the bad guys discussing how they need to get a mining planet that specializes in silk clothing, to provide them with it's rick minerals for energy and fusion. The trick is to get the people to rebel, and they can invade and take over. And I'm thinking, this reminds me a lot of what is currently happening in the US government at the moment. I think I would have enjoyed this episode more if Kamala Harris had won or Obama was still President, just saying. As it is, it was giving me the heebie jeebies.

I do like the series, however, so will continue with it.

***

Currently reading:

* Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, which is about an old cleaning lady at an aquarium who befriends a giant Pacific Octopus. I was told this was a happy book, or comfortable and funny read by folks online. They asked to rec happy or funny or comfort reads, and a lot of folks rec'd this one.

( Read more... )

On the Kindle.

* The Fair Folk by Su Bristow

"It’s 1959. To eight-year-old Felicity—who lives on a dying farm in England—the fairies in the woods have much more to offer than the people in her everyday life. As she becomes more rooted in their world, she learns that their magic is far from safe. Their queen, Elfrida, offers Felicity a gift. But fairy bargains are never what they seem. As an adult, Felicity leaves for university. Unfortunately, books are not her only company at Elfrida and Hobb—the queen’s constant companions—wield the ability to appear at any time, causing havoc in her new friendships and love life. Desperate, Felicity finally begins to explore the true nature of the Fair Folk and their magic. Her ally, the folklorist Professor Edgerley, asks, “What do they want from you?” The answer lies in the distant past, and in the secrets of her own family. As the consequences of the “gift” play out, Felicity must draw on her courage to confront Elfrida, and make the right choice. Interwoven with traditional stories and striking characters, The Fair Folk poses questions about how we care for our children, our land, and our love-hate relationship with what we desire most."

Reading in large paperback. Well-written and deliciously creepy in places.

*. And almost done with the audio book version of Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, the sequel to The Six of Crows.
( Read more... )

Heavily references Slavic and Eastern European Myths and Folklore, which I find nicely innovative, most things are Western European Folklore.

Half watching the West End Revival of Kiss Me Kate on Great Performances, and it's not very good. The one on National Theater Streaming is far better. Although the singer performing Lois Lane/Bianca is wonderful. And I like the intergrated casting. The difficulty with Kiss Me Kate is the misogynistic source material, and some of the Cole Porter songs do not date well, while others work quite well. Although the performances are quite good in places. And the guy who did the dance sequence for Too Darn Hot was a showstopper.

Yes, I am theater geek or a theater buff. Ask me about theater, and I can go on and on and on at length, with an almost encyclopedic knowledge. Same is true about television and film.

I fell in love with the theater in the fifth grade - when two tall black boys in a mostly white grade school in the 1970s put together a play as an alternative to playing baseball at recess. It was cold, and we had access to the gym. The play was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (actually twelve dwarves, we had a lot of folks involved). I was cast as one of the dwarves. I was a tall dwarf, but not that tall - since I was after all only eleven or twelve at the time. My first theater role was a dwarf. To understand how amusing that is? You need to know I was taller than everyone but the two kids directing the play. I think one of their names was DJ or TJ, can't remember. They were wonderful. Kind, smart, and a nice barrier against bullying. No one dared bully or tease me when they were present.

( Read more... )

Sorry for the tangent. Long way of explaining why I enjoy listening to actor podcasts.

Speaking of?

Schmactors is back - basically it's two character actors (James Marsters and his buddy, Mark Devine) from theater, television, voice, and film discussing you guessed it, theater, film, television and everything in between.

I have a fondness for character actors, I seldom love the leads. It's a problem, since it's hard to find anything that they are in. I think the reason is - that I was a character actor. I'm always crushing on actors that seem to only get a few roles, and everything else is hard to find.
I started watching Buffy because of Anthony Head, who I followed there from his previous role on VR5. I'd fallen in love with him - in the stage musical Chess, when he briefly took over his brother's role in the London run of the musical way back in 1988. I'd seen him perform it live - three rows from the stage, or maybe four rows. He blew me away when he sang Pity the Child in that run, and I was in love. (I took a course in London for two months - where we read plays, wrote reviews on the stage productions that we saw performed, and discussed them in detail.)

At any rate, it's getting late...so here's a picture that I painted of people I've seen on the subway, from memory, proof that the subway is perfectly safe. They are. Don't believe the idiots who say otherwise, they clearly don't live in New York.

[Note it won't last forever, because FB is quirky about its links.]