home alone

[ciroccoj]

So tired. Long distance is not conducive to marital harmony during times of stress.

On to happier news. My mom's friend Shirley is visiting her today, so I'm staying at home and . Hopefully, I'll do some betaing, ficreading, work on my remix fic, answer some long-delayed e-mails, clean up the mess I made last night and the dining room and living room, figure out some stuff re. my SCA garb, and work on my printed journal. Might even try to transfer some stuff from my old computer to the new one.

If I have time, I'll write some of what I think about my own ADR experience, and see if it's anything I might be able to use for a paper for ADR class. [::snicker:: - when I typed this the first time, I wrote "might be able to sue". I love Freudian typos.]

Oh and I might finish watching Terminator 3.

Speaking of T3, I've actually watched quite a few good movies/shows lately. For example: Pirates of the Caribbean!! Woo-hoo!

Yes, I finally saw it. Although I couldn't really do it justice, because we got it on two-day rental, right when we were getting Chris ready to go to Calgary. It's hard for us to watch a movie in two days in the best of times; we were exhausted, and I kind of lost track of exactly what was going on near the end. We'll have to rent it again when it's on 7-day.

Best moment for me: when Will Turner finds out that Jack Sparrow was marooned on a deserted island, and asks "Oh, is that why he..." and makes a couple of Sparrow-like gestures and faces, dead-on Sparrow's manner. Hilarious.

And Orlando Bloom? Soo adorable. And Johnny Depp? Amazing. I love how he sounds slightly drunk all the time, until you start to think, He can't possibly be drunk all the time - so what is with him?

Unfortunately almost every time I saw them on screen together, I remembered "Johnny Depp is the greatest actor on Earth! And Orlando Bloom, too!" Yup, Johnny Depp is the greatest actor on Orlando Bloom. Thanks so much, bear, for that lovely image ;)

I've also been watching my Season 3 H:LOTS DVDs. Man, that show is amazing. I'm falling in love with it all over again. Yesterday I watched the Kay Howard episode (she goes back home to get away from Homicide, and ends up working a homicide). She's such an amazing character.

I'm somewhat disturbed that there aren't more female characters that look like her, though. She's the only character I can think of off the top of my head that's been allowed to be 'natural' on screen. No makeup, comfortable clothing, energetic and not terribly feminine body language... and most of all, not young.

I think she's supposed to be somewhere between 30-50. And she actually looks 30-50, instead of 25, the age most women look like on TV. Her face has the kinds of characteristics and lines I see on my own face, and those of my age-mates. I'm in my early thirties, and my features are no longer totally smooth. My hair has quite a few grey strands in there. And yet when I look at women on TV who are supposed to be my age or older, I look positively ancient in comparison. It's like there's something unseemly about a female face on TV showing any kind of character and experience through its lines - we must cover it up, smooth it out, and deny it.

I'd like to know how it was that Homicide happened to get a female character who was allowed to be both "not-young" and attractive. Of course, they eventually turfed her and replaced her with much more conventionally "pretty" and smooth looking females, but still. I wonder how Kay came about, and how she stayed as long as she did.

I also really wonder how she was allowed to look like that despite the fact that the actress who plays Kay Howard, Melissa Leo, is extremely attractive. She was in the L&O ep "Sweeps" in 1993, at the same as she was on Homicide, and with "proper" makeup, her hair swept up in a chignon, and business attire, she looked quite stunning and glamorous. And yet you look at her on H:LOTS... she's not glamorous. She's a cop. A real cop, not an actress playing a cop.

Another reason why I love HLOTS: the soundtrack. On the Kay Howard ep, it was Counting Crows, It's Raining in Baltimore, which I adore (and I thought of you when it came on, senza;). The soundtrack so often fits so beautifully with the action, somehow not kitchy or overbearing or trite. ::sigh::

I love this show. I'm so glad my boys got it for me. I'm also so glad that apparently they were very happy to buy it. They'd each gotten a gift card for Chapters, and Chris took them out to spend their cards. While they were there, he saw the DVD on sale and had a little talk with them. He asked them if they wanted to use part of their card money to buy me a present (a "boring grownup show that Mama really likes"), and they were apparently quite thrilled at the idea. They're such good kids.

Anyway. Now I'm off to actually do some of the stuff I said I was going to do.

Comments

[bast2.livejournal.com]

i don't know if you ever watch The Division (a really crappy soap operaish type of show--the type of show i usually avoid like the plague), but bonnie bedelia is in it as a squad captain. bonnie bedlia--one of the finest actresses in america--appeared the first few years with little or no make up, was filmed slouching in her chair chewing on a toothpick while interrogating a suspect, always had dark pockets under her eyes, always seemed tired, and spoke with little inflection. This was her idea of how a middle-aged, divorced with a teenager, female police captain would appear. in other words, realistic. but it was in such contrast to the young romantically involved women in designer jeans that she supervised, the execs insisted she change her image. they started trowling on the eye makeup, updated her wardrobe, and began to give her "love interests". in other words--they succeeded in ruining the ENTIRE show instead of just the previous 99%. bonnie has a contract--bet when it's up she's gone.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

This was her idea of how a middle-aged, divorced with a teenager, female police captain would appear. in other words, realistic.

Yeah, no kidding. Who has time to fluff up their hair every morning when they have a life?

in other words--they succeeded in ruining the ENTIRE show

No kidding. It's so... insulting, that regular women should be deemed unacceptable to TV audiences. Look at the male characters - yes, you have a higher than normal proportion of good-looking men, but you also get guys like Ned Beatty and Fred Thompson and Richard Beltzer, none of whom is exactly eye-candy. Nobody makes them pretty up.

[hallucinateme.livejournal.com]

I'm somewhat disturbed that there aren't more female characters that look like her, though. She's the only character I can think of off the top of my head that's been allowed to be 'natural' on screen. No makeup, comfortable clothing, energetic and not terribly feminine body language... and most of all, not young.

I heard that she had to fight for that. (I remember seeing an interview with her a long time ago about it.) She talked about how they wanted to put her in dresses and makeup and her point was -- a woman who wants to be taken seriously working with all of these men would want to be considered one of them. I do remember in season one, they tried to pretty her up (or was it two??). But soon, she was back to her baggy pants and tucked in button-down shirts.

I love Kay.

I will say that I love Olivia more than I did before on L&O:SVU. She had to grow on me, but she did, eventually. I love her now and I love her style.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

a woman who wants to be taken seriously working with all of these men would want to be considered one of them.

Yeah, no kidding. And good for her.

I took Computing Science in undergrad. The last thing on my mind was dressing up to impress the guys - if I wanted anybody to take me seriously and share notes or study with me, I had to be one of them. Most guys don't seem to be able to get anything done when their hormones are acting up.

I will say that I love Olivia more than I did before on L&O:SVU

I haven't followed SVU before this year, but I've heard she's more girly now. ?

[hallucinateme.livejournal.com]

More girly? I can't speak on that. She's attractive, but that's just her. But she's not wearing high heels with low skirts. She wears nice slacks and sweaters and blazers and such. She does wear makeup, but there's nothing wrong with that. The weird thing is, I didin't like her before, but I like the way that she's been presenting herself, so it changed my view on the character. Hard to explain. *g*

I've become a huge fan of the Eliott | Olivia dynamic, and I'm not even talking in the romantic sense. I just like those two together a lot more than I did in the beginning.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

I've become a huge fan of the Eliott | Olivia dynamic, and I'm not even talking in the romantic sense.

Yeah, that's another thing I've heard about a lot. That the partnership is very good and interesting to watch.

I've only watched about 3 full eps so far, and I think they've all been mostly non-partnership eps. Elliot going to Prague, Olivia in the hostage situation, and one other I can't remember. Hope to see one where they actually share the screen for more than five minutes ;)

[misstexan9821.livejournal.com]

I've become a huge fan of the Eliott | Olivia dynamic, and I'm not even talking in the romantic sense. I just like those two together a lot more than I did in the beginning.
ME TOO! They play off each other so well and have such a great character-relationship. They're so interesting to watch in SVU because of the way they are able to communicate without words, read each others faces, etc.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

They're so interesting to watch in SVU because of the way they are able to communicate without words, read each others faces, etc.

Looking forward to seeing this. I resisted the pull of a new fandom for over a year... but now I feel myself getting ssssssucked in to SVU :)

[misstexan9821.livejournal.com]

HAH!
It did the same to me...I was just watching the original and then after a series of replies to a question (where everyone seemed to like SVU)I decided to start watching it! And I'm glad--it's so good! Hey, at least it's a worthwhile show that you're getting sucked into, right? And Munch's trenchcoat is a statement all by itself!!!
:-D:-D:-D

[kalio-plaid.livejournal.com]

Piiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattteeesssssssssssssssssssssssssss!

[kalio-plaid.livejournal.com]

Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattteesssssss!

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

ROFL!!

Should've known that one was coming :D :D

And hey - I can fully appreciate your icon now!