The Tudors

I suspected this would be the case but wasn’t sure it would happen. Finishing The Tudors has swept me up emotionally to great sadness mixed with a myriad of other emotions. Pride? Nostalgia? Sympathy? Joy? So unusual to feel these when I think about this show. Pride at monarchs that had nothing to do with me. Nostalgia for lives I have not lived, just witnessed fictional accounts. Sympathy for the hardship they all went through. Joy... that one is harder to explain. This story has culminated in positive feelings but they are so hard to identify or interpret. There is simply a feeling of grandness.

It does stem from having spent 4 seasons with this story and characters. I was reluctant to watch oftentimes, most of the characters are hardly likable, always so busy scheming to further their own ambitions and status. Although at times their machinations were simply a defensive act. I also have realized while watching Game of Thrones recently and comparing it to The Tudors, both shows seem to think lack of likable characters can be made up for by sexy scenes with beautiful people. And it doesn’t, it really doesn’t. Up until now I would’ve said Rome was one of the best shows I’ve watched. Primarily in terms of greatness of story, a story well-organized and well-presented. I felt that way because if I can feel sorrow at the end for one of the characters that was a conniving, manipulative bitch much of the time, then they have done a good job. And that same measure applies here. At the end I feel such sorrow for King Henry, who much of his life was angry and capricious. Executing and ruining whoever displeased him. Even to his own regret at times. A character who was often not loving nor sympathetic. Yet I still felt for him.

But inevitably you look back at what they all went through in their lifetimes and it is tremendous. And well shown by flashbacks during the last episode. But even before that I couldn’t help but remember Henry and Charles as young men in the beginning of Henry’s reign in the first season. And how much they changed. I think that is what strikes me at the end of some of these shows, how much the characters have grown and changed. Dollhouse I especially noticed that. And with The Tudors it was definitely the case as we covered their whole adult lives. How do you not change over that long a period, or in the case of Dollhouse, over such major events?!

Overall a very fantastic show and a good jumping point to learn more of the history of that period. Almost after every episode I found myself going online to read more about the people and events portrayed. The biggest negative of this series is perhaps its historical inaccuracy. But from whatever I’ve read of actual events, I personally find they were acceptable digressions from reality to make the story more interesting or easier to follow considering how long a time period they had to cover. As the creator Michael Hirst put it in one article, and I wholeheartedly agree, “Mr. Hirst decided that any confusion created by the changes is outweighed by the interest the series may inspire in the period and its figures.” Which is what I believe historical dramas should be: interest-inspiring first, accurate second. Because after watching them you still have learnt the essence of what happened but fleshed out with feelings and people.

Women, Agression & Boxing :)

As an actress hoping to perform fights in film/TV/stage, as an actress who boxes recreationally, and as an actress who grew up on fantasy books about female warriors, I feel this is a worthwhile topic to discuss here on this blog! :) Mainly triggered by a most awesome book I just finished written by Rene Denfeld and called Kill The Body The Head Will Fall. Self-described as “A closer look at women, violence, and aggression.” The writer started boxing just as women were finally allowed to compete at the amateur level in the U.S. in 1993. (I find it weird professional was allowed first?) As she boxed, she started to question her assumptions about women and violence, did a bunch of research, and out came this book!

In it Denfeld tackles a variety of topics related to this issue. She starts with examining whether women are actually weaker than men. She wrote that generally women are about 2/3 as strong as men, but that's mostly due to size difference and when comparing men and women of the same height and weight, the differences become substantially less. And with many differences being due to a lifetime of dissimilar activities. She mentioned one U.S. Army study that found with adequate training average women are totally capable of performing all the military tasks required of soldiers. So not only does training (or lack of it) affect women’s strength, but also psychological expectation plays a part as one study showed. The study used just one instance of suggestion, but can you imagine what a lifetime of being told you’re the weaker sex could do to you!?

As well Denfeld looks at aggression differences and of course has no easy conclusion. There are examples of both sexes having aggression, and then discussions ensue about biological vs. socialized differences which are almost impossible to unravel. Needless to say the author wholeheartedly believes women should be able to compete against men, and could one day compete on the professional level. Hmmm... boxing is an interesting sport... it’s one of the only ones where you’re matched by weight with your competitor. Making it possibly the first sport to feasibly introduce professional competition of men vs. women?

And to answer the strength issue, I’m reminded of a piece of information a female boxer at my gym mentioned, that Lucia Rijker (a pro female boxer), hits stronger than a male boxer of her own size! 900 lbs of force vs. 700 lbs.!! Substantially harder! So not wanting to share false information ;) I double-checked it and it was evaluated on a Discovery Channel show! Check it out here. Upon hearing that the first time, I thought about it and realized as women we know we don’t have the upper body strength, so our arms alone will never have much power. In knowing that I think we focus more on technique, and technique in any sport is where you get your power! :) I think the first time I was taught that was in dragonboat racing in high school. Use your back they said! Not your arms! Coz your back is way stronger than your arms. :) I am proud to say I try and make sure I use every ounce of strength I can gather from my pivoted foot, through my legs, through the twist of my hips and core, through my back and chest, and into my punch... WHAM!

Denfeld then looks at stereotypes of women’s anger, maternal instinct, and violence. She looks at stats and studies of women in crime, in military, and sports. I think the most important reason to fight the stereotype of women as non-aggressive, nonviolent people is for the sake of their victims. The author shows tons of stats about substantial number of child abuse, child murder and spousal abuse is done by women. When it’s reported, police doubt it and do nothing about it, leaving victims unaided.

The chapter that struck me the most was the one about fear. It really identified some of mine and how socialized these fears have been. Studies have evaluated what women are most scared of. And usually it was in proportion to the likelihood of it occurring. For example living in North America we’ll be more scared of getting mugged than let’s say getting shot by a sniper. The one that is completely out of proportion is rape. I’d wondered about this myself, I constantly think about how to avoid getting raped and worrying about it as I walk alone at night, yet no one I knew had ever been raped. Not to say it doesn’t happen but what were the actual chances of it happening?! And I think back and ever since I was a teenager I was told to be wary of getting raped, from parents, to articles in community papers or girls teen magazines, to stories in books and movies. It’s really great to make people aware and be careful but I can’t help but feel it was taken too far. I envision fighting a male, never a female coz of that fear. And not winning but hoping to at least to cause some damage. As Denfeld describes in the book, many women “find little comfort in being physically fit or being aware of their surroundings.” She writes that our media shows women when raped, fighting back pathetically, uselessly, and never shows a woman successfully defending herself. She suggests that maybe the reason rape is so scary because we are taught there is nothing we can do about it.

Denfeld also makes the great point that one self-defense course can’t make up for a lifetime of physical self-doubt. How true! She says self-defense requires proactive aggression. That since we can’t imagine or believe that we could fight back, we can’t. “What’s more, everyone else knows it.” she writes. That is the scariest thought to me.

A great example she has of this disproportionate fear is how parents check their kids Halloween candy for razor blades, etc. So parents end up conveying a distrust in the world based more on urban myth than real facts, leaving their kids fearful for no real reason.

And finally she writes how this fear will make women lash out and turn into angry, judgmental, aggressively afraid people. One example being KKK women actively sowing racism and bigotry. This isn’t good for anyone involved.

The stereotypical views of men and women’s aggression has led women to “end up fearing men as we diminish our own ability to defend ourselves from them. Our one-sided assumptions of aggression forget that women can – and need to be able to – fight back.”

This book was amazing to read. I motored through it devouring every page. Denfeld is an amazing writer and her descriptions of her scenes at the gym were beautiful and captivating to read!! The scene she describes on the last page of her book was so perfect and moving I even had tears in my eyes up while reading it! :) sigh. :) I loved this book coz it dealt with boxing which I love, which inevitably leads to discussion of aggression which I enjoy. Friends wondered why I would want to do something as aggressive as boxing, which made me realize many people have outlets for their aggression. For me it used to be spiking a volleyball for most of my life, then realizing I didn’t have to wait to hit things and could hit them all the time in boxing! :) So for me it’s hitting, for others it may be the jostling in a basketball game, or playing a video game. Then there are the less benign methods of letting it out in conversation and behaviour and picking verbal fights, or even trolling on the internet. Aggression is a part of us and can’t be ignored.

Defying Gravity

What a show. Really, really amazing. I am overwhelmed yet again by a finale and so am finding it hard to write. Sigh. And how appropriately commemorative that I write this on the day of the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight!!! :)

Now the worst motherfucking part is that this show like soooo many other great sci-fi shows got fucking canceled after the first season. Actually it got canceled mid-fucking season. Way to give it a fucking chance guys. Flashbacks of Firefly... grrrrr. Another great, felled before its time. Sigh. :( When will they realize the higher budget of sci-fi is worth it?!?! It provides so much more interesting and captivating story lines!! Nothing in our present day is going to feel as exciting as a manned crew touring our solar system! As exciting as having the first human walk on Venus! I didn’t live through humanity’s first walk on the Moon. But now I can begin to imagine how it captivated everyone on Earth. As well some stories, even emotional stories, need a different setting to be explored and told. They simply can’t happen in our world!

Spoiler alert! They’re coming up! :)

Right from the first couple of episodes I was intrigued. Story was interesting, acting was great, production value was high! :) The flashbacks to their training programs 5 years earlier served as really great juxtapositions to some climactic scenes! Sometimes flashbacks were too quick and short and felt waaaaayyy too much back and forth but oh well. Also I thought it would be more of a straight-shooting, near future, heavier on the science, type of show so was a bit disappointed when I found out about Beta and all the almost magical type stuff it could do. I groaned and thought ‘Oh god no! Please don’t muck about with that!’ ... Coz there’s various ways to do sci-fi. You could just assume science is advanced enough to fly us through space, give us better technology and leave it at that. The Star Trek’s mostly do it that way. But then ones like Deep Space Nine get more magicky/ supernaturally, and some books like Anne McCaffrey’s Rowan book series throw in telepathy and telekinesis as huge spaceship-moving-capable forces. I love fantasy more but still usually prefer my sci-fi to be more science-based. But I gotta admit often throwing in some magic-type elements can do wonders for storytelling. Lets you ignore reality to create a more interesting plot or world. ie. Think of Avatar without that magic bond/ connection thing that happened with the Tree of Souls and without the wildlife fighting back.

I found this show coz one of my favourite actresses Christina Cox was in it. I think I first noticed her as the female mercenary in Chronicles of Riddick... she was soooo kick-ass!! Then watched Better Than Chocolate which she was great in! And ever since have been kinda following her and watching her stuff whenever I can. I was thrilled to see her in an episode of Dexter too! She was perfect! I’ve mentioned this in a facebook post but I really feel a lot of the guests on that show do some of their best acting there! Then I watched a Mutant X and First Wave episodes she was in and recently the tv series Blood Ties which I hope to write a blog post about soon! Coz it was awesome! :)

And all the other actors were amazing too! Seeing Ron Livingston in such a serious role after only knowing him from Office Space was weird, but he was totally great! Actually the whole cast were!! Loved them all! And at least it was more multi-cultural than most shows with more visible minorities.

Anyway... just thinking about which other genre shows were great and got canceled prematurely? At the forefront Firefly comes to mind of course. That will be the biggest tragedy of television for a long time!! And Dollhouse. Legend of the Seeker. Rome. I haven’t watched The Cape, but saw parts of it while my boyfriend watched it and it looked quite good, definitely too good to be canceled after only 9 episodes?!?! Also Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was great and should’ve gone past 2 seasons too! Any others?!

Great original vampire short story!

i've just read a most awesome awesome short story!! loved it! it's called Though Smoke Shall Hide the Sun and you can check it out at tor.com a scifi/fantasy publisher that has made a most interesting and interacitve webspace!! :) i posted this comment at the story but wanted to share it here too! :)

"i have often avoided reading short stories over the years coz didnt feel enough of a world could be conveyed, nor could depth of story and characters, but you did it beautifully!!! :) and like everyone mentioned above... i too am heartily sick of vamp stories, and even *more* sick of human chick-male vamp combos, so this was nice and refreshing! and it made me realize why vamp (and supernatural) stories are getting infinitely boring is coz they're always set in our world. and i realized a big reason i read scifi/fantasy is for the interesting worlds and settings created! and the world you have here is incredibly intriguing!!! i would die to read more about these two and the world they inhabit!!! and funny part is i had a dream of a very similar world/character/situation that i thought would make a great story! guess so! :)

also like the others i loved the description of what dawn is like for vamps! also liked the idea of a supernatural being turned into a vamp! dont think i've read that before! :) and its not something that crossed my mind (i think coz i was too into the story :) but Lightbringer's comment above was a good point... why wouldnt she take over if she has that kind of power? but i'm assuming there must be limits to her power?

in any case thanks for the awesome read!!! :))))"

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

I think too much. And I feel too much. The latter is a problem when watching and reading stuff. As exemplified by my reaction to finishing Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC) tv show just now. I cried, but not out of sadness, just a profound overwhelmingness. (this is a word! I just looked it up!) I’m gonna discuss spoiler type stuff here, so be warned. I have to discuss spoilers coz I have to discuss it all! This show was amazing. Joss Whedon-level amazing. I felt the same overwhelmingness (my new favourite word ;) after finishing Dollhouse. And definitely did not feel it with Battlestar. God, when I compare Battlestar to these two amazing shows, holy fuck does it suck! It wasn’t bad, but so... hmm... messy is the first and only word coming to mind. Messy story that let go of you too often. Didn’t keep you in and involved. Got too mean-spirited in moments for you to stay captivated. I doubt I’d say it was more realistic coz of that, coz TSCC was also gritty, also had human-looking machines that also felt and loved, but... hmm... this time I’m gonna use the word cohesive... that TSCC had a much more cohesive story line. Maybe coz TSCC’s existence wasn’t so stop-and-go with threats of cancellation all the time. (they just got canceled, no threats. :((( which really fucking sucks) Maybe coz the Terminator story lines have so much time-travel, and so many movie installments, that you have to be much more careful with how you write the story? My god, the Terminator stories has sooooo captivated me!! There’s not a single other movie series where I find myself constantly thinking back and referencing the previous movies. Which means every new movie or tv show I watch from that world, I review, and even relive a bit, the previous ones!! That might simply be coz with all that time travel the story line gets complex and you’re just trying to figure it out. But I feel it’s more than that... just a truly great, great story!!! Thank god there’s been so many movies and this tv show to explore it as much as we have!!!! :)))))

The ending... I was overwhelmed at seeing John reach the future, a point in the future before he’s the celebrated saviour of humanity. Where Derek and Kyle and Allison don’t know him yet, but he knows them. It especially felt overwhelming coz he lost them in his present... and god what a loss.... but here they are and he can be with them again. And it was overwhelming that Sarah chose to stay behind. But made sense. But how sad. :( And him jumping into the future to become the John Connor at age 16 makes a lot of sense. To lead, he has to be different, and this way one massive, huge way that he’s different is that he didn’t live through Judgment Day. And can retain hope and optimism and courage coz it wasn’t squashed by years of fighting and simply surviving. This obviously doesn't work with T3 but that movie can most gratefully ignored! ;) Although not a bad movie considering. Loved the female Terminator! The rest kinda sucked. And now I have to re-watch all of them and I’m looking forward to it!!! :))) I posted this on my Lady Knight Facebook page, but I’ll repeat it here, one of my most very fervent movie wishes is that if they make a 5th Terminator movie continuing the story of the 4th, that they pleeease not use Christian Bale for John Connor! When asked why I explained I am really sick of Christian Bale... he's just played his Psycho character in every role since! Emotionless and expressionless!!! More robot-like than the Terminator in the movie! And as a friend of mine put it: “Ya he's like Keanu Reeves without all the emotion.” !! Which cracked me up coz sooo accurate!! Hahahaha!! You know your acting sucks when it fails in a comparison to Keanu!! Haha!

So all round most amazing show!!! And I love all the actors and characters! Although I had misgivings about the tiny Summer Glau as a Terminator but she’s really good as an emotionless machine that is a bit more than the sum of its parts. And Lena Headey simply rocks and KICKS ASS!!!! And who would’ve thought someone from 90210 could act?! In a sci-fi no less?!?! Haha! Kudos to Brian Austin Green! :) And Shirley Manson!! Lead singer of Garbage was terrific!! Her first acting role and amazing! And wardrobe must’ve had her outfits designed! They were super unique and cool!

So this show was great, so was Dollhouse. One show I’d also say is objectively great was Rome. All three had cohesive, point-full, story lines which is what I think made them a million times better than something like Battlestar. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the show, but objectively don’t think it was as good as these. One thought is coz these three were all 2 seasons long only, and that it might be much harder to maintain a cohesive story line over more than 2 years? But no... Babylon 5 managed coz it had only J. Michael Straczynski writing it and he had a 5-season story arc in mind from the beginning which is a great way to do it. And Buffy and Angel stayed on track, although there were tons of filler episodes, but even those still advanced the characters which is as important. Signing off! Adios! :)

George R.R. Martin sucks

Haha! Yessss! I chose a dramatic title to this post!! :) Also just a warning, there’s a bit of spoilers! But I just can’t bitch enough about him and Kate Elliot. I think I’m very bitter about them. They’re like ex-boyfriends from relationships that ended badly. As a reader, I feel these two authors disappointed and betrayed me. And hence now, years after we ‘broke up’ ;) I still feel that bitterness and disappointment. :( For George R.R. Martin it happened in reading Feast of Crows (which was now 4 years ago and still no new books!). I think the final straw was the killing off of Brienne, the only character I could find to identify with and relate to, and the bringing back of Catelyn Stark as some kind of vengeful undead creature?! What the fuck!? But many straws went into breaking this camel’s back. Despite all my feelings for Martin and his series, I will admit I am ecstatic at the thought of the Game of Thrones TV series they’re making out of his books!!! Because, despite my disappointment, it is still absolutely fantastic fantasy!! Which is probably why I’m so bitter now... only great love can lead to great bitterness I suppose?! Haha! :)

So after completing Feast of Crows, I realized it was over between me and George R.R. Martin. *insert melodramatic music here* ;) And in my desolation, I wrote him an email at the time, which I’m including here.

From: Ida
Date: February 1, 2007 7:57:14 PM EST (CA)
To: georr@aol.com
Subject: devastated

Dear Mr. Martin,

Not sure if you actually read this email or not or whether this email is just for the Ring of Ice and Fire but I really feel a need to email and this was the only contact info I could find. I guess I will start with the fact that I absolutely love your series of A Song of Ice and Fire. Absolutely amazing series and one that is classic fantasy/medieval which seems to be rare these days as more and more authors add twists and interesting ideas to classic fantasy/medieval world which are great but not the same. The series is very captivating, enthralling, engaging and I find it hard to put the books down once I start! Great story-telling, great characterization, great setting.

But...... sigh..... I am nearing the end of Feast of Crows.... and I am simply devastated. I was seeing the trend of your books and I've come to the point where I give up. I cannot read any more, they are just becoming too disappointing. What I'm bothered by is the lack of a solid storyline. A good story has a beginning, a climax, an end. This is feeling like its becoming like a soap opera.... where the writer has no interest in concluding, just continuing the story for ever and ever. Characters are killed off, new characters introduced, the story is not advanced. Or if it is the overall storyline is advancing soooo slowly as all the minor ones are being advanced but those minor ones feel so pointless. They might not be but they feel it because as a reader I'm not understanding where they tie in. Or using a story/character for chapters and chapters just to add one point to the main storyline is sooo distracting. Granted its an immensely enjoyable distraction but it doesn't feel like its going anywhere. Now I could maybe ignore the lack of a main storyline if you weren't constantly killing off characters. I'm at the point where I don't want to read because your characterization is so good I care about the characters but what's the point when they're just going to be killed off?! The majority of the characters from the first book are dead, right there is a lack of cohesion through the books! So every book seems like an overlap of some new, some old characters, and it almost feels like the new ones are brought it in to replace the old ones!

I know this style of writing will make more money as readers get hooked into never-ending series and eagerly await the latest volume but it's not very fulfilling. And you lose buyers like me as I won't be buying or reading any more after I finish Feast of Crows. All the big fantasy authors are like this... Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind.... 1000+ pages/volume and they go to like 6-10 volume series, which means you need 6000-10000 pages to tell a story!?!? Well I give up, I want a story, not a TV show. I want to anticipate a climax and reach an end in a story. As of now you're planning for 3 more volumes? 3000+ pages!? What's the incentive to keep reading? Do you have a plan as to how you're gonna conclude this!? Any thought given to this at all? If you have a conclusion, do all the side stories and characters really further the story and help it reach that conclusion? Sigh.... it sucks.... I was willing to read your books endlessly, more so then any other long-winded author, coz they are absolutely amazing pieces of writing but lack of a main storyline is killing my enjoyment of them. I am now going to stick to series of max 3 volumes, or another great method that some authors do is trilogies where each volume is its own story with a conclusion, but the series is tied together by having the same characters and chronology. Just as good at hooking readers! You are the 2nd author I find myself giving up on that I absolutely loved and adored their first books. Ramblings that don't tie in are just a waste coz you can't care what happens to 20 characters.... you can only probably care for like 3-4 max.

Sigh..... sorry.... I had to rant. You have absolutely great books and great writing I'm just soooooooooo vastly disappointed that a plot tying all the books together is mostly ignored and for me that just ruins it.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

Your most devastated ex-fan,
Ida

Erikson, Starcraft, fight workshop!

This is just gonna be a quicky post coz just not finding the time to write much but wanted to mention these things! :) Just finished Steven Erikson's Memories of Ice book!! Super fantastic awesome!!! Book 3 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. I've read the 1st book, but skipped the 2nd coz the story line didn't follow most of the characters from the 1st so I knew I wanted to read about these guys first. :) And the book was definitely amazing. He is almost Guy Gavriel Kay level of greatness!! Intricate storylines, every event crucial to the unfolding of the plot, unforeseen directions... simply superb storytelling!! Only thing he doesn't do as well as Kay is characterization I'd say. Or I can name many other books with better characterization. And I think part of the problem is simply too many characters. So they're not very deep, or we're told what they're like rather than seeing it as we spend time with the character. But it is a fucking captivating book, so much so that despite my disgust at multi-volume series of a 1000 page volumes, I am loving this series and it sounds like it won't disappoint! :) Oh, also gotta mention another aspect that makes Erikson's books amazing, like Kay, he really creates these absolute dramatic moments! So much so that we had a whole discussion of the saddest moments in the book on this Malazan forum! (total spoilers though!)

In other news I have been avidly playing Starcraft II!!! Finally bought it in October but have only played it in spurts so finally just finished the game yesterday!! Can't wait to start playing multiplayer! Memories of 1st year in university playing all night in the engineering science PC lab!! And crawling out of the windowless room to find it was daylight again and the subway running so we could get home. Ahhhh... those were the days!!! Haha! I think best part about playing with friends or people in one room is the trash talking!! Hahaha!! :P Warcraft 3 didn't get to me like Starcraft has. Maybe it was too different to be able to just jump in even though I hadn't been gaming in years. Maybe the hero concept sucked. Maybe I simply didn't have time since I was working full time when it came out. Oh well. Yay to Starcraft instead!!! Even though I am more of a fantasy fan than sci-fi! :)

And finally just gonna mention I'm attending a fight workshop over New Year's!! People from all over the world converge to this event where stage combat, martial arts, and stunts are all practiced and studied!!! Loads and loads of fun!!! The only NYE party that I'm willing to skip my annual NYE boycott for! Haha! :) Check it out it's the Paddy Crean Workshop!!!

Kushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline Carey

This is a book by one of my favourite authors!!! And as I started reading it all I could do was sigh happily at the familiar awesomeness of her writing. It just caused such a feeling of contentment and comfort and enjoyment! :) This is the 2nd book of the Imriel trilogy which is part of the Kushiel’s Legacy series. Imriel was the adopted son of Phèdre the main character of the previous trilogy in the series. I find the movie Dangerous Beauty (see post below) gives a small sense of what Phèdre’s world might be like! :) So all the books in this series are truly awesome! And I love the way Carey writes self-contained novels that although part of a bigger story complete their individual stories with satisfying conclusions. This is sweet, welcome relief in comparison to unending series writers like George R.R. Martin, Kate Elliott, and Robert Jordan (who even died before he finished).

Buuut... and I really say this reluctantly... I must admit I found the story lines getting boring even around the 2nd and 3rd books of the Phèdre trilogy which has led to less excitement reading each of the Imriel books. Which after the 1st and 2nd I’m still not excited. Maybe when you try to wrap thing up each time causes problems finding interesting ways to do so without finishing the plot overlying the trilogy? Not sure. I just found it felt like each novel of the Phèdre trilogy just had to find a bigger, badder enemy for Phèdre to overcome. But despite the change in enemies, the story line went the same route. And this Imriel trilogy doesn’t have a single enemy to overcome each time, but can maybe be described as stages in Imriel’s growth, emotionally and physically? Which is totally cool (especially with how Berlik’s end came to be), but isn’t terribly captivating somehow. Hmmm... Carey’s recommended Guy Gavriel Kay books to her readers coz he also writes ‘historical fantasy’ for want of a better word. And I think I would say he is actually the best author I’ve read (ie. has the highest percentage of his books that are masterpieces to me) so I’m trying to compare his to Carey to see what I find different. Maybe Kay produces a bigger plot climax with more complex weaving of how you get there? I think I might say Carey’s plot climaxes are attained by following a more linear path, while Kay has many paths combining into a striking climax?

Wow this was gonna be short but here I am going on and on! I also wanted to mention that I love the world Carey created in Terre d’Ange and I love their precept “Love as thou wilt”. What a great thing to remember! I also love the principle exemplified by Phèdre that to yield is not to surrender!! Another great thing to remember! But I must admit I’m not a big fan of reading so much about Judeo-Christianity (or is just Judaism?) partly coz I’m an atheist, partly coz those religions are well represented in our world and if anything I would love to learn more about all the pagan religions that existed before. As well although there are new cultures and lands explored in every book, they are discussed from the perspective of our main character who is simply the visitor so it doesn’t suck you into the world of these cultures and give you a different experience like you have if a character actually lives there or is from there. Although we do get a great taste of Alba in this book! :)

So all in all it was still a thoroughly enjoyable book!! Although I find myself being more excited by her books in other worlds: Santa Olivia (semi-scifi who’s main character is a female boxer! which is cool coz i box and love it!) and The Sundering duology coz that was such a great, innovative take on the classic epic fantasy (à la Lord of the Rings) from the viewpoint of the so-called ‘bad guys’! She is truly an amazing amazing writer!!!

Dangerous Beauty (film)

Just rewatched this movie and wanna highly, highly recommend it!! I loved it the first time of course but love it even more this 2nd time!! It’s a historical film about Veronica Franco, a Venetian courtesan in the 16th century. Based on the non-fiction book called Honest Courtesan, which I think would’ve been a way better movie title than Dangerous Beauty! It is a beautiful story about love that is extraordinarily written and magnificently shot. And unlike many historical tales, it doesn’t end in tragedy! In fact she lived a long life (relatively speaking) and helped many in her later years! :)

Joss Whedon's Dollhouse (spoilers)

So I hate how long it’s taken to write this post. A post in praise of the amazingness of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse series. I think I finished it in July and here it is October that I’m finally writing this post. Booo. But I wanted to write about it so badly even though the initial reactions to it are long gone. But I knew that without access to some of those reactions I had at that time, I couldn’t do justice to Dollhouse’s amazingness. So I’ve just reviewed some of the episodes and listened to some of the music and I’ve relived some of the feelings I experienced the first time round. And all I gotta say is ‘whoa’. :) sigh. and wow. and sigh. and :))))). Plus emotional geek that I am I took notes after finishing the last episode of some of the thoughts and feelings I had during and right after! :) So many things to say and where to start? Hmmmm... maybe characters?

Joss’ characters are truly amazing, so multidimensional, so interesting, so realistic. And the actors did amazing work portraying them and probably adding to whatever Joss had in mind. Eliza Dushku rocked. She’s a true ‘tough chick’ character, has been ever since Buffy. Buffy/Sarah Michelle Gellar was just never a ‘tough chick’ for me. She seemed to confuse being bitchy and bossy with being tough. And don’t get me started on using such a skinny, wussy actress to portray a fighter! (as well the slayer wannabes were the biggest collection of wussy girls ever! couldn’t even one of them have been an athlete?!) ... back to Eliza... I read somewhere Dollhouse came out of a talk her and Joss had about Eliza’s wussy character in Tru Calling and what Eliza should do next. Well the awesome Joss had a great answer for her which we’re all grateful for I’m sure! Dollhouse! :))) And she’s great as tough, as smart, as gorgeous, fun, etc! Some of the actors had real challenges of actually playing a ton of characters in just 2 seasons. Which brings me to Enver Gjokaj and Dichen Lachman, the other main character ‘dolls’ in the show. Both did great jobs, great characters! And Enver is an totally fantastic mimicker!! Coz when he played Topher it aaaaabsolutely killed me!!! He got the mannerisms and tone and personality down pat!!! Soooo perfectly!! And sooo hilarious to watch!!! hahaahaa!!

Olivia Williams as Adelle DeWitt was also awesome! She was so perfectly everything. Perfectly uptight Brit, perfectly ruthless leader, etc! But the apparent mercilessness wasn’t the complete picture and the heart in her showed up later in how she helped save everyone by her plan for Echo to enter The Attic and how caring she was for Topher when he went crazy. And Fran Kranz as Topher... also perfect!! Perfect depiction of how scientists get caught up in discovering and don’t take time to have a look at the big picture and what their discoveries could mean. His mannerisms and attitude made him such a character!!! And there was the scene between him and Summer Glau telling Adelle and the other boss about their solution and they’re totally googly-eyed at each other and geeking out at the same time which was done so perfectly by them, and was counter-pointed even more awesomely by Adelle’s eye roll!! hahaha! The others actors were also great but didn’t strike me as much. Tahmoh Penikett who I loved in Battlestar Galactica felt a bit off for me in Dollhouse. I can’t put my finger on what exactly I didn’t like.... hmmm... maybe I find him a bit inexpressive which suited his Battlestar character but his Dollhouse one needed more? .... Oh! Also was great to see so many guest appearances by Battlestar folks!! :)))

I feel the characters were all done so well, coz all of them changed, but changed so accurately considering their experiences? All their edges were worn down in some ways. Adelle comes to mind. She’s still her but the edges are worn. Topher. Poor Topher. He showed the emotions perfectly when looking around in the office before the blast in the last episode. He plays crazy perfectly. Sadly crazy. The worst kind. So sad.

As well the distance that you see between Pria and Victor there in the last episode seems accurate too. That even couples that love each other face at times, insurmountable differences. :( So again these characters too changed in such believable ways!!

Gosh! So much more to say! :) Ok here’s thoughts I had right after watching the final episode. When at the very end, Caroline/Echo loads Paul’s backup into her mind, all I could think was, “Holy shit. So sad. Such relief that he’s not lost. But this isn’t good enough. But it’s something. And it is good. But.” And then how she gets back into her bed, kind of at peace, kind of almost content, was intriguing. The thought that despite it having been a prison for her for so many years, there is that comfort in familiarity of being back in that bed. *sad small smile* Poor Echo. And when she spazzed at Pria was so perfect too. Coz soooo accurate of what would happen in real life... you get mad at someone being retarded, and yes you’re mad at them, but really it’s coz in her case, she didn’t deal with the emotions of seeing Paul die. Coz practicality had to be paramount to survive. Couldn’t let emotions out then coz you might get killed yourself. So you squash them and keep going. Until your friend obsessively smashing tech after not being with her soul mate for so long, makes you crack. ;) How it starts with Echo being mad at Pria but then the emotions and the distress underneath overwhelm and come out and dominate. And oh my god it was soooo sad and devastating a moment when Echo collapsed on the floor in utter and complete despair. Utter despair. Poor girl. :((((

And I gotta say Joss Whedon’s shows remind me of Guy Gabriel Kay’s books. Even though there’s success and a happy ending and they kinda win, it’s so tinged with sadness. It seems everything comes at great costs. Even wins. Sigh. I guess that is true of life too.

Oh quick mention of a negative about Dollhouse, and this one’s likely coz they knew they were getting canceled after just 2 seasons, but having Boyd turn out to be the head honcho bad guy felt a bit far-fetched. More like they had to pick someone we didn’t suspect and that was their best bet but to me not a good one. Kinda like the last 4 secret Cylons. Blech. Trying too hard for a twist at the end. A twist for the sake of a twist instead of a well-planned satisfying one! :)

I will end this with mentioning one of the final scenes of the first season episode Needs (Ep. #8). The scene where Echo leads all the dolls out into the light. So momentous an occasion, so hopeful, and soooo perfectly accented by the haunting song in the background. That scene also killed me along with so many others. Whoa. And the song by O+S called Lonely Ghosts that they used was perfect in so many ways. (ps. I have used the word ‘perfect’ like crazy in this blog post! ;) The song was perfect coz of the haunting, ethereal quality of Orenda Fink’s vocals and of course coz of the lyrics that are perfect for Dollhouse, which I will leave with you here. *sad small smile*

The devil that you know
Is better
Than the one you don't
And so it goes

Like lonely ghosts
At a roadside cross
We stay because
We don't know where else to go

FanExpo in Toronto!!

[ack! started this the Sat, Aug 28 of FanExpo and then the weekend and weeks after got busy so here i am finishing it ages later. :( please note time references are a bit screwed up coz of that.]

Wow there are soooo many amazing guests this year!!! Drool-worthy: Tahmoh Penikett, James Marsters, & Sendhil Ramamurthy!! Other cool ones: Leslie Nielsen, Dean Stockwell, Stan Lee(!), Michelle Forbes, Felicia Day, David Cronenberg, Summer Glau, William Shatner, Michael Dorn (one of my favourite ST-TNG-ers!) And parked outside... the DeLorean from Back to the Future!! How cool is that!!! :P

So yesterday I missed Leslie Nielsen coz got there late. (Although later I realized that was a good thing! Lineups were crazy earlier!) But I did manage to catch Dean Stockwell who was fun to hear, although he did seem a bit tired/out of it. Interesting tidbit is that many of Al’s (from Quantum Leap) habits he brought to the character, such as his love of cigars and women! :)

Also met She-Hulk in line ;) who was also an aspiring actor like me and was awesome to chat geek with! And as soon as I got in I found Evelina, the girl who’s organizing the first-ever WHEDON FEST in Toronto!!! We chatted a million miles a minute yet again!! :) It’s the first weekend in October and guests include: Amy Acker, Nicholas Brendon, Christian Kane, Dichen Lachman, and Yan and Rafael Feldman!!! GONNA BE AWESOME!! Can’t wait!

One of the problems with this year’s FanExpo was that so many guests I was interested in overlapped time-wise so you had to pick and choose. :( But I am primarily a sci-fi/fantasy geek so my choices were obvious but still sucked coz I decided not to see Stan Lee, David Cronenberg and Michelle Forbes, although her I don’t regret. I heard that in the past she whined about having to talk about Ensign Ro Laren. Not cool Michelle! >:-( Especially when I compare her attitude to Linda Hamilton’s who I heard last year: Linda LOVES that Sarah Connor is such an icon and is thrilled to talk about her experiences with the Terminator movies soooo many years later!!

So today I saw Tahmoh Penikett, Felicia Day, James Marsters and Summer Glau!! All soooo awesome to hear!! For various different reasons! I actually took my blogging seriously and took notes today! Lotsa notes! But writing this sentence today (Sept 10) I realized I’ll never post this if I try to incorporate all my notes. :( So here is just an overview! :)

First, Tahmoh is just soooo damn hot!! Every once in a while when he was talking I would have to nudge my friend and just sigh at how cute he is! haha! ;) My friend also described him as so typically Canadian and I would totally agree! He’s hilarious in a self-deprecating manner that is just soooo funny! His stories of trials and tribulations in the acting world were awesome to hear!

Felicia Day was amazing coz she is just sooooo awesomely geeky about games!! Questions like what’s her all-time favourite game or where did the name Codex come from got her started on an excited chatter about the tons of games she’s played!! :) And I didn’t realize how many people would come see her, i.e. almost a full big room of The Guild fans!! That show got popular!! I checked out a few episodes and it looks hilarious! When I finish it I’ll let you guys know how it was!! :P

James was cool as shit of course!! And hot! Even without the peroxide blond hair which I must admit I did miss!! haha! ;) He’s fun to listen to coz he’s just so into the acting gigs he’s done, he’s into being there and talking with us, and into his music! He even sang an an a cappella version of one of his songs for us!! An original song he wrote based on his character in the scifi/western TV movie High Plains Invaders. Totally awesome!

Summer Glau was totally cool. I must admit I don’t get why people love her so much, coz I’m not a big fan, but she is sooooo painfully shy and a bit insecure that it did endear me to her. :) I think my main problem with her and it’s nothing to do with her, is that she’s this tiny thing playing characters that kick ass, in both Firefly and the Terminator TV show. I realize they wanted someone who kicked ass but didn’t look like they could, but to go so far?! Sigh. Coz I am kinda tired from Buffy onwards of actresses who don’t look like they could punch a fly, playing ass-kicking chicks! I want someone like Lucy Lawless who is believable and normally proportioned!!

Now on Sunday I didn’t stay long coz I also wanted to go the pit bull rally to support getting rid of the stupid Ontario legislation that kills pit bull-looking dogs :( . More info at the website Stop K9 Profiling if you’re curious. Which was good coz otherwise I wouldn’t have seen the gorgeous weekend we were having outside!! haha! “Girl trapped inside FanExpo convention withers into pale dust at lack of sun exposure” !! haha! But Sunday I did manage to get Tahmoh’s autograph!! It was a toss up between him and James Marsters coz I couldn’t afford both, and I realized Tahmoh was my current fave hottie so there it was! :) But what was with Summer Glau’s line being super long and neither of theirs was!?!? They’re similar levels of famousness I would say?!?! Hmmm... I think it’s partly coz guys like Summer, girls like Tahmoh or James, BUT guys aren’t as big fans of male stars while girls are as big fans of female stars? Ack who knows. Stupid.

And Sunday I also saw Sendhil Ramamurthy who is a total cutie and was super fun to listen to! He told us although it’s extremely unlikely to be any kind of TV special/movie follow-up to Heroes coz all the cast are so busy, he says the creators did write the story-line so it may come out as a graphic novel. He talked a lot about the acting life, and I was especially interested to hear about his transition from studying to be a doctor and switching away from it to go into acting! Mainly coz I did the switch from engineering! And the sentence that reminded me the most of my feelings was he said that medicine was hard and a lot of work and he just didn’t like it enough for that. Which is totally what I kept facing whenever I thought about engineering!

A couple of 80's Fantasy movies

I seem to be on an 80's fantasy movie kick lately! I recently re-watched Legend and watched Dragonslayer for the first time. I've actually never heard of Dragonslayer til I stumbled on it on one of Zip.ca recommendations and decided as a fantasy enthusiast I cannot go on til I’ve watched it!! haha! Legend we all know... Tom Cruise is usually annoying but tolerable that early in his career! ;) But Tim Curry, man... that guy stole the show!! What a character Darkness was! (I wanna call him Lord Darkness.. Darkness sounds too simple for what he was!) Scary, creepy, yet somehow seductive and sexual!! A red-skinned, horned being with hooves is being described as “seductive” ... you KNOW he did a great performance!! :)



And then there’s Dragonslayer... surprisingly decent? I probably would’ve loved it if I was a kid... as an adult in the 2010’s (what are we gonna call this decade?!?!?) ... not so exciting. Actually even a bit boring. But fun to watch, and the effects didn’t make me cringe 30 years later (wow! 30!? they’re holding up pretty well then!). But what did make me cringe was the MUSIC!!! Oh gawd it’s horrible!! It sounds like orchestra type music, but instrument and melody choices were soooooo 80’s!!! Bad 80’s, bad 80’s! No more soundtracks for you 80’s! haha! And the dragon was quite cool and most classically perfectly dragon-like!! They did a great job building it up coz first half of the movie you just see a leg or tail or the character looking up, waaaayy up. So yeah... fun movie! :)


In blog news... stay tuned for a Dollhouse post coz just finished the series this past weekend! Soooo good!! Also the horror flick I was in was just released and it rocks so you gotta check it out!! It’s called Lurking Under Life... click here or on the logo to go to the website and have a look! :) As well I wanted to comment that I’ll be more punctuation-aware in blog posts as I’ve started in this one. I love a casual tone but hate seeing language skills go down the shitter so I will try not to be part of that. Sometimes! ;)

Polaris 24

i went to the Polaris sci-fi/fantasy convention last night and met some great peeps!! these are postings i made on my facebook page so they are a bit disjointed but i wanted to add them here too!

first... I found out and already bought a ticket for Whedon Fest Toronto !!! first whedon fest here!! i met Evelina one of the co-owners running it, today at Polaris 24 and we had such a great chat!! i'm sooo glad she's doing this!! its gonna be awesome! and i'm in the midst of Dollhouse right now so its super great timing!! AND the fest is OCT 1-3 and guess when dollhouse season 2 is coming out on dvd!?! OCT 12!!

i also enjoyed the pamphlets I got from Timothy Carter today about his books!!! totally fun and hilarious!!! i'm sure the books are too! gonna have to check them out! awesome covers!!!

oh! also wanted to mention i had a great chat with Erik Buchanan at Polaris too!! we've been facebook friends for a while but finally had a chance to meet! and we've both done stage combat at Rapier Wit so had a ton of friends in common!! he's got 2 books out that i'm looking forward to reading in the near future!!

as well i had a blast at the Buffy panel too!! ... i gotta admit most of us Buffy fans are not fans of Twilight!! ;) why would you go for Bella when you can get Buffy!?!? :) ... BUT i must admit i am damn tired of human chick-male vamp combos (the ultimate 'older guy' .. ugh!), and mentioned that today, and Alyxandra Harvey, one of the author panellists, let us know her series, The Drake Chronicles finally has the reverse situation!!! YAYYY!!! cant wait to check them out!

and speaking of Buffy vs. Twilight... this is a hilarious yet accurate graph of the situation!!! hahhahah!! :




and on hilarious graphs topic... this is a hilarious explanation of why Firefly didnt make it!! :( and i got it from this site which claims another reason was that the opening credits werent good enough and they made a 'better' version!! haha! check it out here.

Dollhouse (interim post)

holy shit!!! i am being swept up by the 2nd season of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse!!! OMG!!! holy shit! just watched episode 6.... right away after 5 coz 5 was killer cliffhanger and oh my god i cant get over the directions the story is going!! GOD i dont even know where its going but the hints are tantalizing!!!!! blog post when i'm done the series!! joss you are simply amazing! and cool! ie. he has some awesome feminist commentary here!! :)

so i needed to share about dollhouse and shared the above on fb but need to share more stuff coz i just watched the pair of episodes where they go to the DC dollhouse and Summer Glau is topher's counterpart there. and there were some fucking hilarious, hilarious moments!!! primarily throughout was the actor who plays victor playing topher SO FUCKING PERFECTLY DEAD ON!!!!!!!!! hahahahhahahah!!! it was sooooo hilariously perfect!!! topher has soooo many unique mannerisms and he imitated them perfectly!!! that actor is amazing!!! i wonder if they picked him for his mimicking ability!!!?!? the other hilarious moment was when topher and bennet (summer glau) are up in the head office talking to adele and the other guy, and topher and bennett are geeking out and giggling and making googly eyes at each other and adele rolls her eyes soooo perfectly!!! a perfect comment on their behaviour!! the comment you were thinking as the audience!!! hahahahah!

Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley

so i picked up this book cheap at a used bookstore coz Robin McKinley has written my favourite books of all time!! The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword!! to hear more about those 2 books, check out the Ode to Robin McKinley link above! :)

but. sigh. coz shes written my 2 favourite books, over the years i’ve picked up many of her other books but have never been overly impressed. (actually Paula Volsky also comes to mind... Illusion is an absolute favourite, but the couple of others of hers that i’ve read were definitely not impressive) and i hate to say it but Dragonhaven’s not super impressive either. sigh. :(

awesome concept, fascinating setting and ideas, but the writing style killed me!! the premise is that in our world some years in the future we’ve discovered dragons living on this earth. but they’re very reclusive animals and are almost exterminated. a few are saved and set up in this national park in the US and the story is from the point of view of a boy who lives there, the son of the head of the institute. its interesting coz it soooo discusses the realities! that there wouldnt be enough funding, that the place would be crawling with tourists, that some groups of people would jump at any excuse to have all of the dragons destroyed etc. and the story begins on his first overnight trip alone into the park and he encounters a dying dragon who’s given birth and one of her babies is still alive. the story goes on from there and it was absolutely fascinating to discover more and more about these creatures. :)

so Robin McKinley writes for young adults mostly. but they’re usually well-written, enjoyable books so a person of any age can read them and like them! except this one. sigh. its written in 2007 and is written how many of us write our emails and online posts these days. SLOPPY!! and i know i’m totally guilty of it. see the way i dont punctuate here? see how i ramble?! and my rambling gets even worse when writing an email to a close friend. almost just a stream of consciousness put down on paper. well i’ve realized i dont mind reading that style of writing in an email or website where it may only last a page or so. BUT reading 338 pages of that style of writing gave me headaches!!!! i tried to read faster and faster, and skim more and more, in the hopes the ramblings and musings of the main character wouldnt drive me as nuts. didnt work. i was dying to find out what was gonna happen, but yet still had to force myself to read it. and i couldnt read a lot at a time either before i’d go crazy! but maybe a younger audience having grown up with sloppy writing (which is truly a shame how bad people are getting) might enjoy this book all the more coz of the writing style. maybe she’d reach kids that normally wouldnt read novels. and thats always a good thing. :)

political post

an unrelated random post. mainly coz ive had a few drinks and that always makes me rambly. usually resulting in retarded, yet hilarious, drunken emails. and i had commented that thank god facebook wasnt around during my drunken years coz i'd be inundated with drunken fb notes! haha! and now i must comment that thank god i also didnt have a blog during my drunken years or i'd also be inundated with drunken blog posts!!! haha! altho i gotta admit this is far from from a drunken post, more of a buzzed post!! haha!

what to say? i had an awesome fundraiser for a friend running for city councillor Mary Fragedakis which awesomely included drinks with your ticket price!! well i just had to take advantage of that!! haha! and it was worth coz it led to great conversations with my fellow NDP-ers about shit we'd never gotten to during our many meetings! please note meetings are not good for getting to know people!! too much business to take care of! and coz of a recent training some of them had, we've realized its important in a political movement to hear each others stories! it reminds us of why we're there!! and bonds us!! and its the best way to reach out to the community!! so coz of that i was asked about my story and i've thought about it and am still a bit baffled as to how i came to be an NDP-er?! ive been voting that way since i could vote. so it was something in my upbringing and my friendships that brought that out. upbringing... i am the daughter of parents raised in communist yugoslavia. i was also born there, but lived here in toronto since i was 4. now my parents are soooo a-typical of any group you may pick to associate them with its unbelievable. they are both engineers, but not typical, they are former-yugoslavians but not typical, they are croatians but not typical. god knows what else. but they are smart and intelligent and maybe they realized and instilled what was good about communism into me and my brother? coz not all of it was good, but to say there was nothing good isnt accurate either. and friends. friends must've had a huge influence too. coz guess what?! most are left-wing minded!! and even if not as far as NDP in their politics, in their everyday lives they are caring and generous and compassionate. as are my parents. maybe thats what influenced me most. being surrounded by people who are generous and compassionate to everyone they know and I, and maybe they, have taken that further to include people beyond our immediate circle of family and friends, to include others in our world. yes... OUR world. it belongs to all of us at the same time, we all affect it, and are all affected by it. lets acknowledge that and maybe we'll all shift our thinking!! :)))

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

wow. wow. wow. wow. Kay does not disappoint. well he has. in the past. but definitely not this time. wow. not this time at all. i just finished Under Heaven a few minutes ago. wow. he is back in fine form! fine form indeed!! sigh :))))) ..... sooo good!!

he is such an amazing writer! simply fucking amazing!!! i find myself rereading sentences. catching my breath as i read them the first time, a spike of emotion felt inside. some sentences are simply beautiful, or shocking, or even acutely insightful. and you feel floored. by their beauty, by their revelation, by their insight. wow.

and then the story. the great, intricately spun story he creates. spun. yes spun. i’ve heard that word used in conjunction with story writing and have dismissed it as literary affectation. but he truly spins and weaves (his website is accurately named! brightweavings.com!) the most elaborate and detailed, and yes, even delicate of stories. so many interconnections, so many pleasant surprises, so many nuances.

and since he bases his stories on key historical periods, he performs massive amounts of research prior to writing. and i’ve noticed in this book especially, but also in the Sarantine Mosaic, he has formed some opinions and understanding of how history is recorded, which he oh-so-cleverly discusses within his novels as beautiful asides.

this time it was 8th century Tang Dynasty China, “shifted a quarter-turn to become [Kay’s] Kitai” to quote a Globe and Mail reviewer who so accurately described Kay’s way of creating settings. you can read more about the plot there. i’m not here to summarize but to fawn over Kay’s gloriousness!!! hahaha! :))))))

i wasn’t sure how keen and excited i was about his new book. Ysabel was great, but not Kay-level great. The Last Light of the Sun was also a bit disappointing. neither were like Tigana, The Lions of Al-Rassan, The Sarantine Mosaic or A Song for Arbonne. those are simply masterpieces. god that word is not enough to describe them!! they are the equivalent of the seven wonders of the world when it comes to books!! they have the beauty and complexity of humanity’s most treasured creations!!!

so i approached this book with some wariness, but after talking with a friend and fellow Kay fanatic we both agreed pretty soon into the book that this was IT. this one was back to greatness! greatness!!! yay!! sigh. :))))))

ach. what else is there to say. i find myself gazing at the book with fondness as it sits here beside me. absently stroking it with my finger tips. yeah it is THAT good!!!

something else i realized as i was reading this book. i am absolutely, positively fascinated by the complexities of human interactions that occur in court intrigue!! i dont know if we have anything equivalent today in our governments, but i think not. historical courts had a subtlety we are lacking today, maybe for the better that we do. but i am completely fascinated by that and love reading about it!!! Kay offers it up beautifully but so does Jacqueline Carey in her Kushiel series, and so does one of my favourite books, Illusion by Paula Volsky. oh... also just watched a great movie that shows that intricacy as well. it’s called Curse of the Golden Flower and it’s a chinese/hong kong production with Chow Yun-fat in it, and is inspired by Tang Dynasty China (yea... i watched it coz of Under Heaven!! haha!) altho from what i read, not quite historical, more fictional. but it totally portrayed the complexities and secrets of court life!! Gong Li as the empress was fantastic!!

i guess the final, most specific thing i’ll say, which almost all his books have.... that climactic, utterly heart-wrenching moment. a truly, truly heart-wrenching moment. he does this so well. something tragic happens to a character you know, respect, maybe even love. and you are of course devastated. but its not simple sadness you’re feeling? its... hmmm... world-changing. you can’t help but see what this means for that world. what it means to you as part of that world oh-so-temporarily. the impacts that tragedy will have, both negative and positive. and yet the inevitability of it as well in some ways. and even the acceptance of it at times. and so it all comes into this embroiled mess of emotions you feel, the profound sadness, the shock, the realization of what it means, and of how it came to be. and you are sad yet calm somehow. and sit there in simple awe.

[ ps. i’m gonna add a link on the top there to some of my past Guy Gavriel Kay raves!! :))) ]

Guy Gavriel Kay reading!!!

this was a while ago but i’m gonna post an entry about his book so thought this deserved a separate entry! on Thurs, April 15 i went to go see Guy Gavriel Kay, one of the greatest authors ever, do a reading at the Toronto Reference Library!! lemme expand on his title of ‘one of the greatest authors ever’ ;) .... out of all the tons of novels i’ve read, and out of all the ones i’ve loved, objectively speaking he is one of the best!! coz there’s other books i’ve loved as much as his, and maybe more, but there was often a personal reason that the book spoke to me loudly and made me love it. or it was a very specific genre or type of story i know doesnt appeal to everyone. but Kay’s great books i feel are soooo objectively good, they are just simply amazing pieces of writing that have to be revered no matter who you are and what type of stories you like!! in my humble opinion of course!! haha! (ps. i am not using IMHO!! that is just toooo annoying an acronym!!)

so we got there, and i came with some fellow Kay fans. and one of my friends friend was there with another couple of Kay fans... and can i just say i was in heaven!! babbling and babbling about this and that about his books etc!!! haha! soooo fun to talk “shop” with fellow fanatics!! hahaha! about one of my favourite topics!!! hahahha! soooo awesome!!

and here’s a pic from him doing the reading. he thankfully reads from early parts of the book so there arent any spoilers! :) and i gotta say i had so-so lukewarm feelings about the reading but loved the interview after!!! loved to hear some of his thoughts about writing!! and he brought up how he liked the globe & mail reviewer’s description of his setting... a historical period shifted a quarter-turn to become Kay’s fictional world. and one thing he said that really struck me... he said that he doesnt like outlining his whole book before he starts. that he just likes to sit down and just start writing. and that struck me coz i sometimes feel he almost “engineers” his plots!??! like soooo many details, and so many tiny ones, come together at the end?!?! it feels like that can only happen with careful planning?!?! so i asked him about it when i got his autograph and mentioned i was surprised to hear that. and he said what happens is he just writes and writes until about 2/3 of the way into the book, then at that point sits down to figure out how to tie up the plot. interesting!! and goddamn he does it SO well!!!!

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

well i just watched New Moon, and i must admit i sat down to watch it with some reluctance. i had watched the first Twilight and thought it was ok then watched the youtube video edit of Buffy kicking Edward’s ass (check it out here) and realized how much i enjoyed seeing Edward get his ass handed to him. and realize actually he is fucking creepy and stalkery and frankly not attractive!! and Bella seemed kinda wussy, kinda whiny, kinda depressed. and i realized i was tired of the standard human girl, vampire guy scenario. a scenario of the ultimate “older guy”. so all in all i was not enthused about this second one. but i knew i had to watch it coz i love the genre and knew it would be a decently done movie.

and now i must also admit.... frankly i’m impressed and fairly in love with the movie!!!! haha! who would’ve known! 1.... its really well done i think. the acting’s quite good, the shots are beautiful, the story’s well written and well told. 2.... Taylor Lautner (Jake) is quite a cutie!! at times his smile reminded me of matt damon’s! :) but i was hard-pressed to decide whether he looked better with short or long hair! haha! 3.... the music!! beautiful!!! i just read that they got original and exclusive tracks for the soundtrack. and they are some of my favourite bands! (Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke, Killers, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, OK Go, Editors!) the two best tracks are Thom Yorke’s Hearing Damage played during the scene where Victoria escapes the wolf pack. god it was perfect for the scene!! and the sound really reminds me of Radiohead’s Kid A album which is my favourite of theirs! and the other perfect song was Slow Life by Grizzly Bear feat. Victoria Legrand when Bella is underwater after jumping off the cliff. so haunting!!! then there were a million other times where i thought this song’s great!!

so i’ve also now realized why i dislike Edward so much. he’s just gross. thats it. haha ok theres more. he’s gross coz of his overly red lips. he’s gross coz of his half-lidded eyes that he never seems to open. he’s gross coz he’s so inexpressive, at best he does a mild smirk to show love, amusement, anger, everything! but good thing Jake and the half-clothed werewolf boys made up for it with some yummy eye candy!! haha! Taylor supposedly gained 30 lbs of muscle after the first movie. it shows! ;)

and also... man does this series TOTALLY parallel Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake book series!! human chick (with some powers of her own) loves a vamp AND a werewolf. altho at least Anita Blake can kick some serious ass and actually gets to sleep with her hotties! altho the guilt-ridden prudishness of the Anita Blake character drove me nuts!! the later books became “i dont believe in sleeping with more than one guy, but coz of some supernatural phenomena the only way to save the day is to sleep with yet another hottie. oh no. woe is me.” ... that used to drive me nuts... fucking scrap the guilt for heavens sake!!

oh and Kristen Stewart is one of the first actresses i’ve seen that can actually run in a movie!!! instead of looking like a complete uncoordinated doofus, arms flailing!! (ie. Elaine and George in the Airport episode of Seinfeld! haha!) ... and i gotta say the part of the story when they visit the Volturi was pretty cool. i was quite intrigued and wanted to find out more! so i gueeeesssss i’ll be looking forward to the next movie! :)

Call for seasons/sequels that "dont exist"

you know those seasons of tv shows that shouldn't have been made? those movie sequels you'd rather forget existed? here's a call for suggestions! which seasons or sequels just "dont exist" for you?! ... "what 4th movie?" ... "no no, there were only 4 seasons." ;)