Appearances or otherwise.

Just like last week, I'm back with very little to offer. Lots of memes, all from king_duncan, and far too few movie updates. AFI 100 in February is just not happening, folks. I'm too busy a little bee. It is my cross to bear.

Memes first!

TV meme:
Choose five series (no peeking before you choose them), list them, and then answer the questions behind the cut.

1. Sports Night
2. Veronica Mars
3. Doctor Who
4. Wonderfalls
5. Torchwood

( Questions and answers! )

And similar music meme:
Pick your top 10 bands and answer the questions.

1. The Old 97s
2. Spoon
3. Paul Simon
4. Iggy Pop
5. Neko Case
6. Liz Phair
7. The Pretenders
8. The Rolling Stones
9. The Beatles
10. Elvis Costello

( And away we go! )

23

AFI movie reviews... um... later. I need a cup of tea like wow.

You're not even getting those. Basically, all I've got for you are movie updates and memes. Because I'm exhausted.

2. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) - I liked it, but not nearly as much as Meet John Doe. That was just a better movie all around. This is a little too sappy, too self-consciously sweet, too naive. Did an America ever actually exist where this was at all possible? I can't believe people were ever this trusting and simple and singular, even in 1939. It's all too black and white. And I get that Capra never really went for realism and everything to him was one huge allegory and he always had a very idealized view of the world, but I guess this one just didn't work for me. Watch Meet John Doe instead. I know I've said that before, but it bears repeating. That's how good it is.

3. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - Not so much about war, as it is human nature and obsession. And men. Whoo boy, y'know so-called "chick flicks?" This is the exact opposite. There are a grand total of five women in this movie. Two are there solely to gaze longingly at William Holden, one to gaze longingly at the young kid on the mission with him, and the other two just carry the guns. It's good, and I love David Lean more with every movie I see by him, but I don't see myself watching this over and over again. It's all about power plays and stubborn priciples and other things I'm not fond of. And building a bridge. Maybe the end would have meant more to me if I hadn't already seen it hundreds of times in various GREAT FILMS MONTAGES, but oh well.

4. The Last Picture Show (1971) - Wow, there's a lot of sex and nudity in this movie. Not much goes on, so my brain had plenty of time to think that throughout this. Y'know how Hitchcock made "Psycho" in B&W on purpose to undercut the gore and make it not quite so graphic? I really think that's why this was in B&W, too, cause I don't know if they would have gotten away with all this in color back then. It's good, but sloooooooooooooooow. Not much happens, but you get to know the characters well. Goodness knows you're given more than enough time for that. This movie is a total downer. There is no comic relief, there aren't really any sympathetic characters, and it's a dreadfully dismal view of smalltown life. Make sure you've got a comedy to watch after this.

Man, I hope I start liking these movies more. I've got 13 left and only nine days in the month. I really don't think I'm going to make it, but I'll give it the old college try.

( 80s meme from king_duncan: )

( Meme of Four from King_duncan: )

There was an Oscars meme from mondaysabitch but I cut it cause I realized I've only seen one or two movies in each category if that. I'm not even planning on watching them. I'll be at Disneyland. I'm a bad moviegoer this year.

I thought scheduling the ever-loving life out of the next two weeks would snap me out of this funk. It did well enough for the weekend but today is grey, blue, and various shades of ugh.

Friday-- Dinner at Pitfire and four one-act plays by Noel Coward: Well, dinner was kind of the highlight of the evening. The plays were alright, actually kind of reminded me of Roald Dahl's surprisingly dark short stories. Some humor in the dim bits of life, but mostly lots of unhappiness. Yay? The Unintentionally Hilarious award goes to the waltz sung in the last play. Anybody seen All That Jazz? Remember that awful sexy sex airplane sex musical number with the song "Take off with us/ Take off with us...?" The first two lines of the waltz had exactly that beat, tone, count, everything but the words. It was all I could do to not giggle.

Saturday-- SoCal Games Day! Arrived a bit late, but played lots of fun stuff and stuck to my no fried foods pledge despite the delicious onion rings at Everest. Met up with playmayt for the all-star cast of the year: Eddie Izzard, Tim Curry, Billy Connolly, Emily Mortimer, Jane Leeves, Tracey Ullman, Jim Piddock, and Eric Idle in Idle's new play, "What About Dick?" How did all those names fit in one little paragraph, much less on the same stage? It was a staged reading of Idle's "film for radio," presented as a radio program with actors sitting at the back of the stage when quiet and sharing three microphones to speak their parts. It was funny, it was filthy, and Tim Curry's voice is the single most beautiful sound I have ever heard in my life, but the play itself wasn't that good. It felt very disconnected and patched together and the extended EM Forster/Howard's End/films of Emma Thompson & Anthony Hopkins parody just didn't work for me. The people watching was fun, though. Lots of Brits, movers & shakers and stars and such, and I'm pretty certain I saw Jeff Lynne striding up the aisle wearing sunglasses during intermission (really? 9.30pm inside the theatre and really? O... K...) Billy Connolly was the hit of the night with an incomprehensible Scottish detective, and Eddie Izzard was very cute while dropping things and being silly, and, well, everyone was excellent, but. It's no Spamalot.

Sunday-- Din Tai Fung! More Games! Agricola, which is unbelievably amazing. But I was hitting my MustHaveProtein wall so bailed, only to find that I'd left my lights on and my car was dead. Chris was very kind and as he put it, jumped me outside. Made it home safe, toasted up a little dinner and happily watched Torchwood.

Monday, today-- Awful migraine kept me home this morning and I've felt sick all day, but cannot stay home tonight as I have Spoon tickets. Any other band... any less money spent... and it would be me and my jammies and the Doctor Who S2 disc 6 of special features, fer sure. As it is, I will rally. I must. "Anything You Want" demands it.
( Rest of the schedule for this week and next back here: )

OMG Torchwood. OMG Jack. OMG Yanno. Dude, guys! Who here is watching Torchwood? Bria, did I see this over in your neck of the woods a while back? Somebody's got to want to talk about this. Oh, I love this show.

Also, Doctor Who? I did not know I still had it in me to love yet another show this much. Feel free to scold me for showing up very late to this party.

Seriously. TiVo has it in for me. Somehow, even though I set up the account, my email address is registered on the account, and it's my debit card that gets hit automatically every month for the service, I am not the billing contact and therefore cannot update the card info on the account. Which is a problem as my debit card expires this month (already got and activated the new one) and updating the billing info so that TiVo keeps behaving is probably the surest way to keep the peace in my house.

Also, there are no TiVo deals right now. Which is bad. As I have realized that I desperately want a TiVo of my own before the new season starts. Last year my roommate and I conveniently agreed that Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls were essential to life (well, for the first few weeks of the season at least,) but this season, I am afraid our tastes have diverged. I've recently fallen for Torchwood and would like to start watching Graham Norton again, and while I'm happy to watch the ABC stuff I'm looking forward to at work, I will need to at least try Moonlight, and I will need FNL like I need air. I'd also like to check out Back to You, Reaper, Gossip Girl, Chuck, and Bionic Woman, and keep up with The Office and 30 Rock.

So I will call TiVo tonight. I'd like to do it right now, but since part of my job is to answer the phones, that might not go over so well. I will get this billing issue straightened out once and for all (have dealt with it before and am a bit peeved that it was not fixed then) and see what deals TiVo is willing to offer me to get another box and give them even more money. You'd think they'd want the money at least.

Oh yes. The meme. From stepliana:

Comment here and I will reply to you and tell you what icon of yours I associate with you. Once I reply, please repost this in your own journal, because I want to know what icon you associate with me.