Let’s Fold Scarves

Farewell 2006

It’s been a good year. Adam continues to be as lovable, funny, smart, sweet and gentle as ever and his achievement in passing his grade 2 piano exam with merit makes me especially proud. Andy and I have now been together for sixteen years since the Villiers House Christmas party…and, in a number of ways, I don’t think our relationship has been stronger. I like my work and I’m well paid for what I do. It’s not always inspirational but there aren’t many jobs like that that I am qualified to do (or can be bothered to do; effort and ambition not being my strong points). I have completed my sixth year of studying at the Open University and I could accept a degree if I wanted (BA/BSc Open degree). However, I think I would like to get a named degree but finding a course I want to do and finding time to do it in is getting harder. Here are some reasons that I have less inclination to study:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - although we finished season seven in January, the rest of the year has been taken up with rewatching it (and in the case of some episodes, rewatching and rewatching)
2. Firefly and Serenity - a Western in space is no way to sell a tv series but that’s what it is and it works very well indeed - the ensemble cast is perfect but I have a soft spot for Summer Glau who played River with serious mischievousness
3. message boards
4. blogs
5. fan fiction - if I had been asked a year and a half ago what fan fiction was I would have had no idea and when told I would have snorted and sniggered with derision - however, I have surprised myself spending a lot of time reading the stuff - I admit that a great deal of it is poor (most of it isn’t even edited for spelling and punctuation) - and far too much of it has far too much sex (considering its early 70s roots as romantic fiction that isn’t surprising) but some of it is stunning; Bread by Tulipp is one of the best things I have ever read. And it doesn’t hurt to mention it again but Jet Wolf’s The Chosen which is a continuation of BtVS is an amazing body of sustained writing which is as funny and moving as the “real” thing. Jet Wolf loves Tara and brought her back and that leads to…
6. Amber Benson - “In the end, I discovered that being the nice guy - when it’s really just a front for being a coward - eventually leads to you becoming the Spawn of Satan. It’s best just to be honest and forthright from the beginning - even if it means people call you names behind your back and don’t like you as much. Just ignore them. I do.” - I wish I was ever as insightful as that (and I am a coward).
7. comics - or graphic novels to make it sound grander
8. our ever expanding DVD collection - best films this year seen on DVD include Adaptation, Fight Club, Heathers, Twelve Monkeys, Doctor X, Serenity, and Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
9. television - Ugly Betty, Life on Mars and University Challenge
10. music - Audrey, Espers and Aimee Mann
11. books - I do have time to read them, most of them unmemorable except We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Night Watch, Case Histories, and A Darkling Plain
    
    
    

    Posted in Amber Benson, BtVS, Comics, Films, Firefly/Serenity, Music, Other people's written work, Television | 3 Comments »

Peonies nod in the breeze and while they wetly bow with hydrocephalitic listlessness ants mop up-a their brow

It is clear from my list of most listened to from 2006 that I like listening to female artists almost exclusively (although I do have Midlake, The Beatles, Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths and Sparklehorse hovering in my top forty). I don’t know why I feel like I’m apologising for this when I have been listening to BBC 6 Music for several weeks now waiting for more than two female artists to be played in a row. It was only today that Stuart Maconie managed to do this (the sequence was broken by the news but still counts). To my dismay one of the artists was that “annoying woman” (thanks for the moniker, Adam) Joanna Newsom. I am utterly mystified by the acclaim and popularity of Joanna. Andy is majorly smitten (which really surprises me, Mr my-music-taste-is impeccable-and-remorselessly-non-mainstream loves this darling of the media) and I just don’t get it. I think I should like her: I’m a fan of Bjork and the Sugarcubes so I don’t have a problem with a strange voice, the orchestration is lush and string based which I am partial to, she’s a woman so that should really help but it’s all so precious, irritating, meandering, and long. It’s bizarre - who next? Victoria Williams and Mary Margaret O’Hara?

Now that I’m on one, just what is so great about The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens and Cat Power? Metacritic’s Best of 2006 shows how out of step I am. However, thanks to that listing of lists I’m off to buy Leaves From Off The Tree.

Posted in Female thinking, Music | 6 Comments »

According to last.fm

my artists of the year are:

1. Aimee Mann 824
2. Audrey 588
3. Paula Frazer 530
4. Kate Bush 529
5. Tarnation 472
6. Espers 402
7. Nina Nastasia 315
8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer 312
9. Barbara Manning 304
10. Samara Lubelski 248
11. Tara Jane O’Neil 247
12. Sarah Harmer 244

Paula Frazer and Tarnation are synonymous so combined they would beat Aimee Mann into second.

my tracks of the year are:

• 1 Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Under Your Spell 62
• 2 Audrey – Leaving/letting go 58
• 2 Audrey – Mecklenburg 58
• 4 Audrey – Plain pieces 56
• 5 Audrey – Six Yields 55
• 5 Audrey – Vague 55
• 7 Audrey – The significance of being overt 52
• 8 Audrey – Traverse 50
• 9 Audrey – Treacherous Art 49
• 10 Aimee Mann – Red Vines 48
• 10 Audrey – Views 48
• 12 Tarnation – The Well 45
• 13 Amber Benson – Tom Dooley 44
• 13 Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Walk Through The Fire 44
• 15 Buffy the Vampire Slayer – I’ve Got A Theory, etc 42
• 16 Tracy Bonham – Something Beautiful 41
• 17 Aimee Mann – Ghost World 40
• 18 Aimee Mann – Save Me 39
• 19 Audrey – Triumphal arch 37
• 19 Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Overture, etc 37
• 21 Espers – Mansfield and Cyclops 36
• 22 Sarah Harmer – Almost 35
• 22 Tarnation – Little Black Egg 35
• 24 Tarnation – There’s Someone 34
• 24 Espers – Dead King 34
• 26 Espers – Tomorrow 33
• 27 Tarnation – Idly 31
• 28 k.d. lang – Anywhere but Here 30
• 28 Espers – Rosemary Lane 30
• 28 Paula Frazer – Taken 30
• 28 Dar Williams – Comfortably Numb 30
• 32 Tarnation – Wait 29
• 32 Tina Dico – Let’s Get Lost 29
• 34 Sarah Harmer – Silver Road 28
• 34 Paula Frazer – No Other 28
• 36 Sambassadeur – Between the Lines 27
• 36 The 6ths – San Diego Zoo 27
• 36 Espers – Black Is the Color 27
• 36 New Buffalo – Recovery 27
• 40 Halflight – Linen 26

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Comics update

I have just finished Strangers in Paradise Pocket Books 2 and 3. They sat on a shelf for several weeks until I was ready to read them and I devoured them in two days. They are utterly compelling if a teeny-tiny tad far-fetched. I find it interesting that people who love the books don’t mention the Big Six but just talk about the triangle between Katchoo, Francine and David because that is what matters and makes these books such exciting, exhilarating and funny page turners. If I must complain then Francine is Hollywood fat like Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Diary i.e. not.

I have also read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi which follows the mid-childhood of a girl at the time of the Iranian Revolution. The style is very simple but highly expressive which is not easy when nearly everyone is either dark-haired or wearing a head scarf. The final panel is heartbreaking.
Many reviews compare it with Maus which I think is a bit lazy because it implies that Maus is the only political graphic novel the reviewers have read (or heard of…) which is probably true because it is the only one I had read until Will Eisner’s The Plot. Anyway, here is one that doesn’t.

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You are Columbus, I am America, Discover me!

As the name of this blog suggests (other than what it literally suggests) one of my guilty pleasures is Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion which is not as daft and brainless as it first appears. Its miserable rating on IMDb versus its rating on Amazon.com shows…I dunno…that there are too many blokes on IMDb?

Plotwise, there isn’t much to it but it is propelled forward by the exceptional cast. Lisa Kudrow (BSc) and Mira Sorvino (magna cum laude) play dumb with great intelligence (not that getting a degree is a sign of intelligence - I have one). Janeane Garofalo slouches around swearing a lot; memorably summed up by Michele: “For me, it’s like I’ve just given birth to my own baby girl, except she’s like a big giant girl who smokes and says “shit” a lot. You know?”.

It is the mini-scenes that make it - any dance scene or exercise scene or Heather scene, or shop scene, or any scene when Romy and Michele are talking to each other, you know? (and the Ramon sex scene) are special.

Aside: Mia Cottet, one of Christy’s friends is also in Amber Benson’s Lovers, Liars and Lunatics (what an excuse for a link but turn off those lights, remove those frames and lower the price).

Finally, Mira is most definitely the Mary but only if you accept that Mary Tyler Moore is more attractive than Valerie Harper.

Moving away from sheer pleasure, may I take a moment to mention just how much I hated The Squid and the Whale (even more than The Royal Tenenbaums)? Both share angst filled middle class intellectual lives which are not worth spending two minutes contemplating, much less enduring the longest sub-80 minute film ever. And if Romy and Michele is superficial then what is there to say about the bloody awful scene with the school psychologist which is the definition of facile?

Posted in Amber Benson, Films | 1 Comment »

Everybody calls me “ma’am” these days

Fantastic news: an interview with Joss Whedon about the season eight of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in comic book form. Can it be as good as The Chosen? Only if he performs the miracle Jet Wolf worked on Kennedy. And only if Anya’s death is treated more respectfully than Tara’s (like having some people other than Willow actually miss her).

An update with some of the confirmed writers including the very funny Jane Espenson (a classic entry: “My parents got a new puppy this week. She’s a teeny baby Bichon Frise whom they have named Zia. Can you believe these are the same people who came up with “Jane”? I suspect I’d've had a different life if I was named Zia Espenson. Not better, but different.”).

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Round and pointy

The Scott Monument in Edinburgh.

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Buffy-whipped

Passion (Ty King)

Ty King wrote two episodes of BtVS, this and Some Assembly Required. At first thought, there doesn’t seem to be any connection between them, particularly in terms of quality but as I wrote the best thing about SAR was Jenny and Giles’ relationship and this has excellent interactions between the two. I have a lot of sympathy for Jenny – her loyalties must lie with her family and her betrayal of Buffy and Giles had to happen because of that.

I’ll say it again but I love how much fun David B is having as Angelus. His taunting of Spike is hilarious and Spike’s fury is building up nicely.

Clearly, Willow hadn’t bonded with her fish when she fed them despite them not being in the tank at all because they were in an envelope. The shot of the two girls on the bed surrounded by garlic with Willow looking nervous (“Although for the first time I’m glad my parents didn’t let me have a puppy”) is very funny.

I imagine the scene when students (one of whom is Jonathan) actually want to use the library is an acknowledgement of the unrealistic emptiness of the library (later reflected in the Scooby meetings at the Magic Box) where serious discussions about supernatural Sunnydale just couldn’t happen,

Xander’s indignation in the “Hey, how come Buffy doesn’t get a snotty “once again you boil it down to the simplest form” thing?” is not misplaced.

Willow is delighted to take Ms Calendar’s class (but how likely is that?) and I find her enthusiastic for potential punishment (“Will I have the power to assign detention?”) rather disturbing.

There is evil on the Summers’ driveway
and look there’s Angelus

Joyce’s denial can’t last much longer but I do like the conversations Buffy and she have when she’s right but so wrong at the same time. Despite knowing the outcome of Angelus’ conversation with Joyce I still feel very anxious for her as she fumbles with her keys and he tells her things about her daughter she isn’t ready to hear.

The inane gibberish of I Robot, You Jane didn’t bother me in the least but the gibberish in Passion does. That’s because it wasn’t important in a fun throwaway episode like IRYJ but here it is very important. I just don’t understand why programme makers are so inept at showing basic IT on screen, it’s not like they never use PCs, is it? Jenny saves to her floppy disk in no time at all, Angelus destroys the monitor and not the hard drive and, as we subsequently find out, Willow finds Jenny’s lesson plans on her computer (which also throws up the question of why not the translation too).

The problem with rewatching and recapping is the discovery of flaws and the subsequent nitpicking (which is one of the reasons I love Who Are You? so much is that despite the many many times I have watched it, I think it is practically perfect). Why does Jenny bother to ask Angelus how he got in? It’s a public building. Why did he lock the classroom door (or is it actually locked)? It opens quite easily when Jenny is thrown against it. Why is Jenny unable to open the fire escape doors? How does he get ahead of her? Anyway, none of that matters because HE BREAKS HER NECK LIKE SHE’S NOTHING.

It’s just unbelievable that it happens – it’s just not fair but we had better get used to that sort of thing happening in the Buffyverse.

The scene between Willow and Giles as he wonders whether he should intervene is sweet and funny and the juxtaposition of humour and horror just shouldn’t work but the fantastic thing about BtVS is that is does – often.

The sequence when Giles arrives to find Jenny’s body is heartrending and beautifully directed and edited. (Nitpick alert – just when was Angel invited into Giles’ apartment?)

And finally, this dialogue stops me from being angry at Buffy:

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t kill him for you…for her…when I had the chance…I wasn’t ready…but I think I finally am.”

Xander the Bear

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