Random Friday
Feb. 6th, 2004 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiWell, the iTunes Music store has added its second Billboard chart, this time the R&B charts, dating back to 1946.
Oh, and for those who wanted my full Angel gripes, here they are:
The good:
Most of the Cordy stuff. Shit, if she'd been this much fun even once over the last two years, I might have given a shit that she was in a coma. She was funny, energetic, and interesting. As always, Joss characters are at their best shortly before dying.
Harmony. She clicked on all cylinders as well, providing a nice contrast between a shallow Sunnydale girl who has grown tremendously, and one who remains shallow (and, well, evil).
Actually, all of the gang clicked pretty well.
But then there's the bad:
Specifically, Lindsay. Let me count the ways. First, he's set up this wonderfully elaborate thing with pretending to be Doyle and advising Spike. The clear purpose of this is that when Spike finally reveals who has been advising him, it fucks with the minds of Angel and everyone else. So then Lindsay goes and reveals that his hand was lopped off, and the effect is ruined in about ten seconds. Why?
Second, the removal of the tattoos was possibly the worst Deus Ex ever to appear on this show.
Third, the Partners have this mysterious Angel-killing beast (known as the McGuffin). And it takes about thirty minutes to emerge from its chamber? What the fuck? Maybe they've also got a mysterious Wesley-killing device. They activate it, and in fifty years he dies of old fucking age!
Forth, it can be stopped by just pulling out the rocks?
Fifth, it's guarded by ten zombies? Yeah, that's effective.
Sixth, once it's stopped, Lindsay loses all his ass-kicking abilities? He's that easily distracted?
Seventh, what was the point of having Spike rescue Angel from the beast that L had Eve put on him if the eventual goal was to kill Angel anyway?
Eighth, Eve caves in after getting smacked three times by Harmony? What the fuck? She's worked for the senior Partners, held dangerous creatures in her hands to place on sleeping vampires, sees demons every day, and she caves like this? I assumed she was setting them up.
Ninth, that's just bad storytelling. After building up the Lindsay thing for so long, we deserved more of a payoff. Even if he comes back again (and he needs to, if only to explain his motives), they needed two or three more eps before sending him off to the Partners.
Tenth, there's still a lot of unexplained stuff about Even. Not the least of which is that since she wasn't wearing tattoos, she should have been visible to the Partners (and even if she was protected when she was with L, what about when she was doing stuff on her own, like putting the great soul-sucking dream thingee on Angel?).
This one goes to Eleventh: My one Cordy gripe: Um, okay, so it was a ghost/whatever. So how does that explain the first call from the hospital? Someone had to have reported her as alive and awake. Assuming that was her body in the bed, why did she have a physical presence (complete with blood Spike could taste)? Unless they want to write off everything as a dream sequence, which I'm assuming is not the case. The only other option I can figure out is that she was somehow a pawn of the Senior Partners. That's an interesting path (one that reminds me a bit about the doubt sewed during Season 7 of Buffy, with Dawn's visit from her mom).
And finally, did anyone else feel that Cordy's cleavage was prominent enough to deserve billing in the credits?
Wow, that ran longer than I expected. And I probably could have kept on going. For what it's worth, I enjoyed most of the episode, in spite of the complaints. But that's way too many flaws.
Does anyone remember Tripping the Rift (the other really obscene animation that was circulatinga few years ago)? Well, it's becoming a series on Sci-Fi. Although Terry Ferrell has been replaced with Gina Gershon.
Today is Christopher Marlowe's birthday. Happy Birthday to the the one of my two possible dissertation subjects, had I taken the other path and gone to grad school. It's also the birthday of Ronald Reagan, who is increasingly remembered as sweet and nice and well-meaning and only for the Cold War, instead of for running an administration that was more corrupt than any in history (including that of Harding, with whom history will eventually lump The Gipper) and fucking the world for generations to come. And of Zsa Zsa Gabor, who, well, has done nothing and been famous for it forever. And of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
justanotherg33k, who, along with Marlowe, helps to balance the other two (until we realize that today is also Rick Astley's natal day).
RIght now, the lovely folks from Surplus here, packaging a bunch of old computers. This involves unwrapping the world's loudest roll of plastic wrap, making it actually impossible to concentrate for more than a second at a time, even with headphones blasting music. I've written this sentence between loud plastic shrieking sounds. And people wonder why I'd prefer to work from home.
Link of the day: Remember the Valerie Plame story, you know, the one that the Bush Administration wishes would go away, as it basically involves both Robert Novak and at least one administration official committing high treason? Well, it looks like some indictments may be coming down soon. If this turns out to have actually come from Cheney himself (something that would honestly surprise me, as I'd assumed that this was more of an Ashcroft type of thing -- it's not that Cheney has ethics in general, but news leaks have never been his style), and not just one of his aides, we'd have a VP who had committed a capital crime. Lovely (and as it stands, the aides should be looking at the death penalty themselves).
Oh, and for those who wanted my full Angel gripes, here they are:
The good:
Most of the Cordy stuff. Shit, if she'd been this much fun even once over the last two years, I might have given a shit that she was in a coma. She was funny, energetic, and interesting. As always, Joss characters are at their best shortly before dying.
Harmony. She clicked on all cylinders as well, providing a nice contrast between a shallow Sunnydale girl who has grown tremendously, and one who remains shallow (and, well, evil).
Actually, all of the gang clicked pretty well.
But then there's the bad:
Specifically, Lindsay. Let me count the ways. First, he's set up this wonderfully elaborate thing with pretending to be Doyle and advising Spike. The clear purpose of this is that when Spike finally reveals who has been advising him, it fucks with the minds of Angel and everyone else. So then Lindsay goes and reveals that his hand was lopped off, and the effect is ruined in about ten seconds. Why?
Second, the removal of the tattoos was possibly the worst Deus Ex ever to appear on this show.
Third, the Partners have this mysterious Angel-killing beast (known as the McGuffin). And it takes about thirty minutes to emerge from its chamber? What the fuck? Maybe they've also got a mysterious Wesley-killing device. They activate it, and in fifty years he dies of old fucking age!
Forth, it can be stopped by just pulling out the rocks?
Fifth, it's guarded by ten zombies? Yeah, that's effective.
Sixth, once it's stopped, Lindsay loses all his ass-kicking abilities? He's that easily distracted?
Seventh, what was the point of having Spike rescue Angel from the beast that L had Eve put on him if the eventual goal was to kill Angel anyway?
Eighth, Eve caves in after getting smacked three times by Harmony? What the fuck? She's worked for the senior Partners, held dangerous creatures in her hands to place on sleeping vampires, sees demons every day, and she caves like this? I assumed she was setting them up.
Ninth, that's just bad storytelling. After building up the Lindsay thing for so long, we deserved more of a payoff. Even if he comes back again (and he needs to, if only to explain his motives), they needed two or three more eps before sending him off to the Partners.
Tenth, there's still a lot of unexplained stuff about Even. Not the least of which is that since she wasn't wearing tattoos, she should have been visible to the Partners (and even if she was protected when she was with L, what about when she was doing stuff on her own, like putting the great soul-sucking dream thingee on Angel?).
This one goes to Eleventh: My one Cordy gripe: Um, okay, so it was a ghost/whatever. So how does that explain the first call from the hospital? Someone had to have reported her as alive and awake. Assuming that was her body in the bed, why did she have a physical presence (complete with blood Spike could taste)? Unless they want to write off everything as a dream sequence, which I'm assuming is not the case. The only other option I can figure out is that she was somehow a pawn of the Senior Partners. That's an interesting path (one that reminds me a bit about the doubt sewed during Season 7 of Buffy, with Dawn's visit from her mom).
And finally, did anyone else feel that Cordy's cleavage was prominent enough to deserve billing in the credits?
Wow, that ran longer than I expected. And I probably could have kept on going. For what it's worth, I enjoyed most of the episode, in spite of the complaints. But that's way too many flaws.
Does anyone remember Tripping the Rift (the other really obscene animation that was circulatinga few years ago)? Well, it's becoming a series on Sci-Fi. Although Terry Ferrell has been replaced with Gina Gershon.
Today is Christopher Marlowe's birthday. Happy Birthday to the the one of my two possible dissertation subjects, had I taken the other path and gone to grad school. It's also the birthday of Ronald Reagan, who is increasingly remembered as sweet and nice and well-meaning and only for the Cold War, instead of for running an administration that was more corrupt than any in history (including that of Harding, with whom history will eventually lump The Gipper) and fucking the world for generations to come. And of Zsa Zsa Gabor, who, well, has done nothing and been famous for it forever. And of
justanotherg33k, who, along with Marlowe, helps to balance the other two (until we realize that today is also Rick Astley's natal day).RIght now, the lovely folks from Surplus here, packaging a bunch of old computers. This involves unwrapping the world's loudest roll of plastic wrap, making it actually impossible to concentrate for more than a second at a time, even with headphones blasting music. I've written this sentence between loud plastic shrieking sounds. And people wonder why I'd prefer to work from home.
Link of the day: Remember the Valerie Plame story, you know, the one that the Bush Administration wishes would go away, as it basically involves both Robert Novak and at least one administration official committing high treason? Well, it looks like some indictments may be coming down soon. If this turns out to have actually come from Cheney himself (something that would honestly surprise me, as I'd assumed that this was more of an Ashcroft type of thing -- it's not that Cheney has ethics in general, but news leaks have never been his style), and not just one of his aides, we'd have a VP who had committed a capital crime. Lovely (and as it stands, the aides should be looking at the death penalty themselves).
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-06 07:51 am (UTC)Hello.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-06 07:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-06 08:08 am (UTC)I want to watch this movie (http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2002/03/02/shakespeare/), but can't find it on DVD. Boo.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-06 08:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-06 08:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-06 08:22 am (UTC)Treason is treason. The penalty for such is death or imprisonment of at least 5 years with a fine of at least $10,000. It's also a felony, if that matters.
I'm also curious about the "she was undercover" part of the leak -- all reports I've seen from credible sources say she was just an analyst. Of course, every employee of the CIA is just an analyst, so that may be a fish of a different color. :) Doesn't change the law, but does change the net effect.
Missed Angel for West Wing :/
Date: 2004-02-06 08:36 am (UTC)I remember a couple of years ago, something on NPR had on a guy who sounded like the essence of political-marketing person, who spoke with the fervor of a religious fanatic about putting Reagan's face on Mount Rushmore. I got the strong impression he didn't necessarily believe this would be done, or could be done, but was promoting a concept.
Honestly, where's this spin coming from?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-06 08:40 am (UTC)Cordy pulls the curtain in front of the woman in bed in the room (presumably the real her) before they can see her face.
My only gripe? (well, re this stuff). That shot they used in the teaser and commercials that showed Cordy opening her eyes while lying in bed. If they'd left that out, this would've worked better.
I've never cared about Lindsay so I guess that's why his storyline seeming to end so abruptly didn't bother me. I also assume there's more to all of this. Pity next week's episode looks so lame.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 08:47 am (UTC)As for the undercover thing, Newsday reported it back in July:
Intelligence officials confirmed to Newsday yesterday that Valerie Plame, wife of retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson, works at the agency on weapons of mass destruction issues in an undercover capacity - at least she was undercover until last week when she was named by columnist Robert Novak.
That said, the article isn't accessable for free online anymore.
I suspect we won't know exactly what she did for a while (it's not like the CIA is going to be inclined to give a breakdown of her operations, for obvious reasons).
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-06 08:48 am (UTC)Interesting that you link the story from Insight. It's a right-slanted rag, published by the Moonies under the same organization that puts out the Washington Times. Did you not see the story elsewhere?
You don't say whether Cordy's cleavage is "good" or a "gripe." I say the former.
terry farrell
Date: 2004-02-06 08:49 am (UTC)Re: Missed Angel for West Wing :/
Date: 2004-02-06 08:52 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 08:54 am (UTC)As for Cordy's cleavage, I'd say that the jury is still out, and they'll just have to show some more of it for me to judge. Or maybe send me on a field trip to see if the camera distorted anything.
Re: terry farrell
Date: 2004-02-06 09:27 am (UTC)And Nicole was fun in Cube!
Re: terry farrell
Date: 2004-02-06 09:31 am (UTC)Re: terry farrell
Date: 2004-02-06 09:42 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 09:45 am (UTC)Good point about the other possible meaning of the phone call. I did catch that Cordy pulled the curtain in front of her own body.
Yeah, next week looks miss-able. I mean, a historical period where Spike was evil and Angel was mopey and had a soul. We've had these flashbacks before.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 09:49 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 09:50 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 09:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-06 10:17 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 10:24 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 11:00 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 11:26 am (UTC)I'm not sure anyone can be levelheaded about Shakespeare's origins. There are so many factors -- class issues, etc -- and we're talking about the single most significant author in the English Language. It's hard for anyone to really step back.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-06 11:43 am (UTC)I think the creature in the sublevels was a contingency plan that was called into play because of Cordy's vision. The Spike plot was to undermine the Senior Partners' faith that Angel was the chosen one. I guess it's always been about revenge on Angel, but maybe Lindsey thought he could get to Angel more easily once the Senior Partners were convinced that Spike was the real vamp-with-a-soul that they were interested in.
I did like the quick humor of Harmony... "I'm still evil, so I can do this, right?" and Angel/Spike "I'm not risking anyone that I care about." "I'll go." "Fine."
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-06 12:48 pm (UTC)Specifically, Lindsay. Let me count the ways... So then Lindsay goes and reveals that his hand was lopped off, and the effect is ruined in about ten seconds. Why?
Lindsay was building a rapport with Spike. I don't think he expected Spike to have this fact so fresh in his mind once Lindsay's hand was tipped.
Second, the removal of the tattoos was possibly the worst Deus Ex ever to appear on this show.
How so? It seems no less freakish than many other endings.
Third, the Partners have this mysterious Angel-killing beast (known as the McGuffin). And it takes about thirty minutes to emerge from its chamber? What the fuck?
Maybe it's heavy. Obviously it was done for dramtic/cinematic effect, but they were suggesting that it was also hard to contain. Lifting the containtment chamber with large industrial hydraulics doesn't seem too unfathomable. And if it was in some sort of suspension, there's nothing saying it is an instant process to wake it up.
My only issue with the Angel Failsafe Monster Plan is that if they can suck Lindsay up into the ether, why couldn't they do the same to Angel if they decided to stop waiting to see whose side he'd choose?
Forth, it can be stopped by just pulling out the rocks?
Undo the key, chamber goes back in the ground. What's the problem?
Fifth, it's guarded by ten zombies? Yeah, that's effective.
And the rest of Wolfram and Hart above the basement.
Sixth, once it's stopped, Lindsay loses all his ass-kicking abilities? He's that easily distracted?
It seemed that Angel and he were pretty evenly matched execept for drive. Once Angel got his act together and Lindsay had his cocky self shaken a bit, the turn in battle didn't seem too forced to me.
Seventh, what was the point of having Spike rescue Angel from the beast that L had Eve put on him if the eventual goal was to kill Angel anyway?
The Spike thing was to confuse the Senior partners and shake Angel's confidence, so once Lindsay offs Angel, the Senior partners take no retribution.
And its fun.
Eighth, Eve caves in after getting smacked three times by Harmony? What the fuck? ... I assumed she was setting them up.
We don't know she still isn't. That and if you know they are going to torture you until you give it up, and that even if you do hold out that the Angelkiller in the basment is prolly goint to eat your head too, why resist?
Ninth, that's just bad storytelling. After building up the Lindsay thing for so long, we deserved more of a payoff....
I was suprised, but that was a bit of payoff in itself. Joss has done the same thing on both Angel and Buffy before (remember the Chosen One kid from first season Buffy that Spike offs?)
Tenth, there's still a lot of unexplained stuff about Eve....
When called a young girl, she reminds them that she might not be either. And it's mid season. I wouldn't be suprised if Eve turns out to be the big bad and a lot more than we've seen.
Trust Joss. Joss does not fail us.
This one goes to Eleventh: My one Cordy gripe: Um, okay, so it was a ghost/whatever. So how does that explain the first call from the hospital?...
She got a second body. The call could have come from people seening Cordy II walking and talking. This allowed her to do the things she needed too while her other, failing body, did what it was going to do.
And finally, did anyone else feel that Cordy's cleavage was prominent enough to deserve billing in the credits?
Yes. I agree. I fail to see why this is in the 'bad stuff' section though.
Peace.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 01:59 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-07 07:02 am (UTC)Tara.
It's a divisive issue, and cause for doubt among many fans.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-07 01:47 pm (UTC)Thanks though! I'll look into it in more depth at my friendly neighborhood library.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-07 03:03 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-07 03:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-09 07:06 am (UTC)LOL! Yes! I agree with you totally!
Re:
Date: 2004-02-09 10:27 am (UTC)In a nutshell, like so many others, I really liked that character. You can say failure, or you can say otherwise. That was less the issue I was trying to make than the faith part. The trusting Joss part. As stated, Joss is willing to make any character suffer. Or perhaps even die. Given that, we could be in for a huge dissappointment at any time.
Mind you it's only a TV show, but part of "trust" for me is the expectation that I won't have my feelings of attachment brutalized. There's no such garauntee here. Now that means there's a possibility of genuine suspense. That can be a good thing. But it also means there's legitimate cause for concern when fans see clouds on the horizon.