Sometimes I shouldn't use words

This weekend I did ALL the laundry AND signed up for festivids (fan_eunice explains what and why) AND realised that the UK rights for the LXD dancing/superhero/web series had come through and I could download it from iTunes. Yay!

LXD thoughts: (  Like dolphins can swim )

Summer’s over and Glee is back. Confession. I don’t watch that much TV. Even when there was more time I’d have one or two things I’d watch religiously and ignore pretty much anything else (movies are different). This summer was pretty much a TV desert apart from Luther (disapointing) and then Sherlock (entertaining but problematic). I still wish they’d cast Idris Elba as Sherlock. It would have forced it to become a very different show and Watson might have struggled to make much impression but Stringer Bell as Sherlock? Think about it. Anyway Glee…

( I’m more talented than all of you. I see that now. )

The only thing I’m really watching on TV right now is Glee, which remains the show some one made just for me. The singing and the dancing and the way they tell the story, the big brassy emotions laced with delicious bile and, this week, the occasional thoughtfulness and moments of self awareness. Musicals are always about dreams, about “Maybe Sometimes.” Musical dreams are important even when they break people and “Rose’s Turn” becomes their epitaph, which made this week’s Dream On interesting ( read more )

Other than Glee, watching the detective with the new Idris Elba series “Luther” on the BBC. It seemed promising at first, great acting, fabulous credits, interesting cinematic references definitely vidable but the stories kind of stunk. I just don’t believe in genius serial killers or not when they’re supposed to be part of my city. It was one of the attractions at first, London noir, but I think that kind of not real only works in a foreign setting where the setting becomes part of the show. It’s like the way medieval thinkers were supposed to see the world around them as one big message from God, the shape of a fern not a thing in itself but a symbol, a sign, a representation of the chain of being. Fictional worlds are medieval, they talk to us in ways real places don’t, they can compensate for other unrealities in the story. London can’t do that for me so all I’m left with is sketchy writing and stock characters however well acted.

Finally, comics. I thought I’d try something by a female writer, bought the first two issues of the new Black Widow book by Majorie M Liu and quite liked them. It’s pretty straight female protagonist noir, the covers are off-puttingly cheesecakey, all catsuits and cleavage but the interior art avoids that and has a cool red and black chiracuso thing going on. ( read more )

I didn’t discover fandom until about ¾ the way through Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s first run. Before Buffy my main fandom was old Hollywood movies, especially musicals and before that it was books. Say you like musicals and often the first thing people seem to think of are stage shows but when I say it I’m really just talking old school film musicals, the ones with happy endings however ridiculous the plots. With virtuoso tap dancing and songs that were already hits back in the day. Those movies are like family, I could sit stone-faced through the greatest performance of Wicked or Les Miz but find the good in the crappiest RKO or MGM non-classic.

( Read more )