The 200

Happy Thursday! Today is, in fact, the 200th post to this Thursday-exclusive blog. So Happy 200th Thursday Day!

This week should appropriately be my DEADWOOD review week. Seeing as I've burned through the first two seasons in a little over a week (not that much of a feat, running 12-episode seasons (and I also fastforward through plotty bits)), it's something that I have analytical opinions about by this point.

DEADWOOD is, for those of you who don't know, an HBO western that ran three seasons at some point in the recent past. It's set in the mining camp of Deadwood in the Dakota hills, at a time where laws didn't reach that far and saloon owners did a lot of conniving. I only picked it up because it's one of Megan's favorites and we happen to be writing a western these days.

Strictly speaking, DEADWOOD is not one of my favorite shows. Specifically, there's only three or four reasons I watch it, all of those reasons being characters, some of whom are dead now. And it took me a great deal of investment just to build up an investment; i.e., I slogged through the first five episodes just because I had them, not necessarily because I wanted to.

Like the town, the show was not initially very welcoming. Characters had their bubbles and they stuck to 'em, lonely little satellite communities revolving Ian McShane's character who only just recently warmed up at all. His character pulls the majority of the strings and can rightly be considered the main character in this ensemble play. But (until recently), he was not presented in a sympathetic manner and you couldn't relate to him. He just was who he was (he still is, but now you're used to him). So I fast forwarded through him and whenever plot was happening, because it invariably involved him.

Then people started intermingling, and by the second season it had really become a town, a whole community. And if you want to learn about the art of the character-driven storyline, here's the place to study. There's almost not one thing that simply happens to a person--these people take action and they take it often. The drawback of this (to my sensibilities) is that it becomes almost "slice of life" in its temperament; very naturalistic and paced in relation to who feels like doing what. So sometimes ripping along but more often just plodding. In the first season there really was no overarching theme or tribulation that encapsulated those episodes. Not epic. And I like my things epic.

The second season focuses on a camp-wide danger (muffled and distorted and exaggerated by various parties for their own agendas), and ties more than one season-long arcs off at the end, which I appreciated. And it's not like they don't know how to pull a heartstring. But I still fast forwarded through the talky plotty parts because I only needed the gist--the show is about the characters and I only needed to watch the ones I cared about.

Still, most anybody I've brought it up with will swear by the show. It's very popular. And I'm not at all saying I don't like it; I'm picking up the last season tomorrow. But if there's one thing I've learned from my dabbling into cable shows (DEXTER, WEEDS, etc) it's that I don't want my show to be so down-to-earth gritty. I don't need the language and the harsh situations. I'd prefer to present something more stylized and refined. Like BSG was gritty and harsh, but I could still watch it with my parents. It had scope that I find absent in DEADWOOD (and WEEDS).

My regular shows are starting come come back on, like flowers emerging delicately from the snow. The OFFICE is off an running, steady as usual. HIMYM made me giddy with happiness, and HEROES was just as bad as I would have thought. DOLLHOUSE tomorrow, and I'm sure there was something else that premiered that I missed and will be sad about when I remember.

FLASH FORWARD, today, was interesting. I kinda wasn't into it very much, until something completely unexpected and irrationally creepifying happened and creeped me out real bad. AND on the imdb boards there's a whole thread dedicated to people saying how it creeped them out. If you saw it, you'll know the moment. My question is: how on earth was that so creepy? I don't know why it creeped me out. But I feel that if I knew the answer, if I could learn to wield that power, I would be unstoppable.

In more fishy news, one of the fish had babies, although by now only one as not been eaten. I'm gonna try and section off the tank for it tomorrow. If it's still there in the morning.

I also got (helped get) my dad Beatles Rock Band for his birthday, so we've been jammin'. Fascinatingly, both my household and Carolyn's separately constructed mic stands out of tripods and cardboard tubes. The universal subconscious at work.

Here's the most bizarre thing that happened to me all week:
Me and Brian are standing around at work, nothing to do. We start up about these dumb little energy drinks that never sell. He says he bought one once. I say that must be why there's one missing. No more than fifteen seconds later, a guy walks in, grabs two, and goes to check out. "I only came in here for these," he says.

Inexplicable.

-Stephanie

Fireball

Happy Thursday! I'm so tired but it's great. I got up at 9! Oh my gosh, early, haha. It's still been great and warm, so I'm a happy kitten. My irregular cat Donnie was staring at the sky meowing at the crows today. He's so irregular.

Um, last night Megan drove up and spent the night. We fangirled over BSG and other things, and I showed her the first episode of DUE SOUTH, which I think she liked (who wouldn't?!), and we stayed up late hanging out.

Today we had a Ventura tour, hung out downtown and at the boardwalk and discussed television and our futures within it. We are now going to write a show called FIREBALL, the space western I may or may not have mentioned. We have so many great characters in need of names!

Developing a television show is hard work. Even if you have an idea you're toying with, you have to explain it to someone else. And then, if that person is going to help you, they have to come up with ideas of your own and then you all have to figure out what everyone is talking about. It's sort of exhausting. But super fun. I look forward to the dynamic of a writer's room where everybody throws ideas off everybody else, and the best ones make it in. That way your first and maybe not so good ideas get swapped out for something better, and then you stay in business.

Also, please do not to be confused with the Sci Fi channel original movie of the same name. :<

My last gold fish died. So I got new babies lol! Four neon tetras by the names of Freddie, Mercury, Figaro and Galileo. Toronto doesn't care that they're there, and Holland likes to sit next to them and harass them. The Bohemians school together and dart around in a nervous pack. Maybe tomorrow they'll feel more at home.

It was actually pretty cool to hang out with all my aunts and uncles over the weekend. They're a rather eclectic bunch. I sorted through grandma's fabric with a couple of my aunts, and now I have a jackpot of things to sew. Look out for those pictures.

Sorry about last week's crazed message. Didn't want it to be the unluckiest week. DID YOU KNOW that next week's will be the 200th blog post? That's because I've been emailing for four and a half years, and maybe three or so of those are documented at this blog. Well actually according to math it has to be 3.8 years, so there you go.

Michelle flew away to Seattle on Monday so we had an exciting airport excursion. The only cool place to go is the international terminal, so we hung out there for a bit before she had to go. How are you up there?!

Mm okay now I'm going to go research names and/or read a Batman comic. Good night all!

-Steph

The System is Down

Happy Thursday! The internet is broke and I'm using my sister's itty bitty laptop to steal a nearby internet that isn't really working either! So this will be quick.

I got a 10 gallon tank in which to house tropical fish. Did you know that you cannot put tropical fish with goldfish? I did not. Now I do.

Setting up the tank is like a fun chemistry game. I get to play with test tubes and pH strips and stuff. And you can only put in a few fish at a time, so I just got two - a red wag platy named Toronto and a sunburst wag platy called Holland. They're very pretty. Next week I will add neon tetras.

Um I'm so excited for television to start up again.

Beth came and visited yesterday or the day before. We drove around and looked at downtown and went on errands. School's back on for APU town, which is sad and cute. Good luck, everyone!

Tomorrow I'm waking up super early and driving away to my grandma's funeral. :< I'll see you all later.

-Steph

Lazy

Happy Thursday! This week sorta just oozed along, didn't it? It's that fine summer weather that (now that September is here) is slowing everything down. I love it. We went to the beach today and I got a lovely knee-top burn.

My sister is back from Taiwan, hanging out here for another week before she's off again to the real world in Seattle. Fun sisterly activities include sleeping off jet lag, shopping, and watching DEXTER. And the beach. And once we went to Lowe's. Pretty exciting.

Also, you'd better believe it when they tell you that season two of DEXTER is better than season one.

We just watched 17 AGAIN again, and while I thought the beginning was pretty laggy, I still found many of the jokes hilarious. Actually, to be honest, it's carried mostly on the Efron's facial expressions and exasperated delivery of lines. There was also a trailer at the start of something I've never heard of - Orson Welles and Me? Looks like the Zef is here to stay.

On my own, I've managed to catch up in Naruto, which I've been behind in for like a year. Would you believe that I've been watching it for four years, and when I started there were like sixty episodes already? I'm on 126 of the second part, and I don't know how many there were in the first, but it has to be over a hundred, maybe two. Geesh. Don't start Naruto, kids.

Also jumped back into Hetalia, a short five-minute show based on the manga about the countries of the world...here, I'll let the internet explain: "Based on a popular web-released manga series by Hidekazu Himaruya, this has been described as a "cynical gag" story set in Europe in the years between WW1 and WW2 (1915-1939), using exaggerated caricatures of the different nationalities as portrayed by a gaggle of bishōnen (pretty boys). For example, the Italia Veneziano character is into pasta and women. The Deutsche (German) bishi loves potatoes and sausages, and Nippon is an otaku (geek/fan) boy. Installments of the manga have jumped back and forth in setting from the ancient times to modern-day geopolitics. The manga's title comes the Japanese words for "useless" (hetare) and Italy (Italia)."

The first episode can be found here. It's hilarious and educational!

I don't know if I mentioned last time, but I'm also watching the old Batman show on Youtube. It's like, my most favorite thing ever. It's exactly the kind of show I want to watch, and I don't care who knows it! "FanOfBats" has a lot of the episodes, but you can also search the whole place by title and find the ones he's missing.

I guess I have an answer for those people at work who ask me why I haven't seen any of their crappy new movies. I'm too busy watching all this other stuff!

In other news, my grandma, my dad's mom, isn't doing great...so there's that. Dunno what else to say, just thought I'd mention it. My dad just got back from seeing her.

Welp, all I can say is maybe something thrilling will happen this week so that next week's blog will be more entertaining. Til then!

-Steph