Spectacular Summaries Saturday :: top 10 gifts 2011 gave me

Unlike last year, where I was just getting started, all of these have been previously mentioned.  Some in the round-ups earlier this week.  So I’m linking to everything.  I’d originally started this blog as an experiment, a 365 blog, post something every day, but it’s become enough a part of me that I think it’s just… going to have to become a 730 blog, or something like that.  You’re stuck with me, world.

10. Sucker Punch
As evidenced by last night’s tl;dr.  I severely, severely adore this movie in all of its wtf-ery and stylized awesome. I love Jon Hamm’s random appearances.  I love Emily Browning’s giant eyes all over the place.  I love Jena Malone (well, that’s an always, but still).  I love that I arbitrarily decided that I was Amber (Jamie Chung), emotionally, at the film’s beginning, and by the end she’d racked up more of my “I’m this in fiction” B’s.  I love the killer soundtrack.  I love the steampunk Prussian zombie soldiers and the giant fighting bunny robot.  Etcetera, etcetera.

9. Portlandia
I’m not biased ’cause it’s, regionally speaking, one of “my places.”  I’m not biased because as much as I love the city, I also love making fun of it.  I just love this damn show.  It’s so ridiculous and yet so true and perfect and hilarious.  And I can’t wait for the next season (so soon!) because it will be just more amazing.

8. The King Is Dead, the Decemberists
I don’t know if I really have words for how deeply I love this damn album.

7. True Blood season 4
As if it weren’t obvious that this would be on here.  Especially given the almost-solid week of True Blood posts there.  I started the show before I read the books, so my loyalties did just sort of follow the show a bit more strongly; most of the changes that were made were made for good, in my opinion, and I enjoy most of them.  Some of them (Eric [Alexander Skarsgard] and Pam’s [Kristin Bauer van Straten] vampire breakup) make me cry inside, but some of them (Jessica [Deborah Ann Woll] existing) make me really happy.  It’s a give and take, but even though it’s gotten to the point where the only thing the books and show have in common are the character’s names and (usually) species, I enjoy it.

6. my first Comicon
I know that Comicons happen every year, in multiple locations and at multiple times, but 2011 marks my first time braving those waters.  I thought it would be scary and intimidating.  It wound up being the most friendly, amazing, perfect day of ever.  So there’s that.

5. Game of Thrones
If I haven’t also made this abundantly clear, I think Game of Thrones is brilliant.  I know the books date as far back as 1996, but I didn’t know about them.  And because of the show, I picked up the book, and the book is brilliant too.  But — I just fell in love with the show.  It’s a world of epic fantasy, and apparently one that’s very pseudo-period accurate, which is good.  It’s a world of epic characters. Of men who kick ass (oh Jon [Kit Harrington], rest in peace Ned [Sean Bean]) and women who kick just as much ass (among them Daenerys [Emilia Clarke] and Arya [Maisie Williams]; in her own evil way, Cersei [Lena Headey] has kicked some ass in a way, too).  It’s a world of epic epic.  I say again, BABY DRAGONS.  April 2012, baby.

4. The Civil Wars
Not just their album Barton Hollow.  Them as a whole.  They were introduced to me, and I’ve since been given so many live recordings and found so many single songs and listened to everything obsessively.  They’re too beautiful.

3. Dollhouse comics
The ends of anything in the Whedonverse have made my heart ache, and keep on doing so every time I rewatch.  (Which is admittedly a lot.)  But the end of Dollhouse hurt in a special way, because it’s the only one I’ve experienced in real time.  So the also real time arrival of Dollhouse comics in my life was very, very welcome.  I feel like if I was characterizing my July-to-November time, saying “that time that I was waiting with baited breath for the next Dollhouse comic” wouldn’t be an exaggeration.  They’re brilliant comics, in basically every way, and I adore them.  Did they help answer questions about the overarching continuity of the series?  Not really.  But they answered a lot of little character questions, especially about Alpha and the actuals.  And I do love the actuals.  It didn’t close up the hole in my heart, but it was a very satisfying bandaid.

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Part 1 was before, and I loved it dearly, but again I point out that Part 2 actually made me cry.  It’s a chapter of my life closing, but like the Comicon chapter opened this year, this one closed this year, so it’s noteworthy.  Also noteworthy, because I finally pulled a proper Ravenclaw outfit out of thin air for this last premiere like a boss.

1. The Valley, Eisley
And my first time seeing these kids in concert, that too.  I just can’t think of a way to express how brilliant I find them, I really can’t.  Theirs are really the only music videos I watch, with the exception of the one to “Remains” of course, and that too is lovely.  I just.  They’re so perfect and amazing and weird and different and not quite like anyone else.

–your fangirl heroine.

Film Friday :: 2011 in film (5 opinions, 3 predictable favorites, 3 adorable [pairs of] people, 3 awesome cameos, 2 kickass people)

Opinions
5. Christina Hendricks’ talents were wasted in Drive.
I still… don’t really know how I felt about this movie.  Apparently, the processing process is still in effect.  But I do know that my baby could have been given a lot more to do.  She is so capable of so so much.

4. Ian McShane’s talents were wasted in Pirates.
I mean, he was the best thing in the movie, by a long shot, but they still didn’t know what to do with him and his awesome.  Yeah.

3. Elle Fanning > Dakota Fanning.
I’m sure Dakota is a sweet girl.  I just… I don’t know, she was the only young girl in movies for a while, so it was annoying.  Overexposure.  Elle just strikes me as more genuine and likable.  I legitimately enjoyed her turn in Super 8.

2. I’m still a cynical bitch about romantic comedies.
Even the ones that I can logically say that I liked more than the rest, I don’t feel compelled to ever see again.  Crazy, Stupid, Love.: it was cute, and until the end, it didn’t suck, but just… no.  Once was enough.

1. Haters of Sucker Punch to the left.
I mean, I get why people don’t groove on it.  Like I get why people don’t groove on Repo or something.  But… see, the thing is, I actually don’t think it’s just some fetishy fanboy wet dream.  Yes, they’re young women kicking people’s asses. Yes, they’re doing so in a lot of tight, short clothing.  No, Lisa Schwartzbaum of Entertainment Weekly, they are not “psycho sluts.”  In the first reality, yes, it’s a mental hospital.  But that doesn’t automatically mean psycho.  They don’t really go around killing people for fun, they’re just setting themselves free.  And save the deleted scene between the High Roller (Jon Hamm) and Babydoll (Emily Browning), you don’t see any of them actually partaking in sexual behavior except dancing and that time that Rocket (Jena Malone) almost gets raped and Amber (Jamie Chung) sitting on that guy’s lap.  So, uhm… sluts?  How?  It’s not bad to partake in sexual behavior, far from, but it’s not really cool to judge someone in that fashion, or judge a movie in that fashion.  It’s a chicks-kicking-ass movie, and it’s stylized, and it’s weird, and… yeah, I get why it’s not for everyone.  But I have developed a strange protectiveness over it.

Predictable favorites
3. Hugo
Gorramit, this movie was adorable.  I do tend to like love letters to filmmaking, and I love period pieces, and it was stylistic, and there was a steampunk robot and Chloe Moretz.  A recipe for win.

2. X-Men: First Class
I’ve always liked the franchise, completely innocent to knowledge of the comics but.  And I always like the 1960s.  And I usually like, you know, most of the cast.  So it was just going to be a recipe for win.  Everyone liked it, but I just have to say that yes, I liked it too.  Loved it.

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
There was never any question about if I’d like this movie or not.  I mean, there are things I still wish were there, but… it made me cry.  Nothing makes me cry.  That’s magic in and of itself. 

Adorable (pairs of) people
3. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anna Kendrick (50/50)
Predictable, maybe (especially because I like both of them: Anna Kendrick is one of the only forgivable things about Twilight, Joseph Gord0n-Levitt is unquestionably endearing).  But true.

2. Amy Adams (The Muppets)
Again, true.

1. Kat Dennings (Thor)
Yeah, I get it.  Darcy was a brat, a little.  But she was just a damn precious brat.  With precious glasses.  And honestly, her reactions to all of the superhero stuff seemed silly because that’s not how a lot of people in movies act, but it’s how a lot of real people would probably act. 

Awesome cameos
3. Jon Hamm (Sucker Punch)
Because if you watch the deleted scene with the High Roller, it’s… kind of completely different than how it seemed in the theatrical release.  Baby’s just like… “oh okay, I guess I’ll have this intimate time with you now,” and it’s consensual, and it’s good.  It makes sense why the doctor then says that when he was lobotomizing her, it’s almost like she wanted him to do it.  And Jon Hamm is just… all kinds of good.

2. Jim Parsons (The Muppets)
Spoiler alert, finally.  I don’t think there could have been a better humanized nerdy Muppet man than Jim Parsons.

1. Nathan Fillion (Super)
Nathan Fillion anywhere would have been brilliant, but Nathan Fillion in a terrible wig and a cheap-ass super-suit?  In what just may have been the most effed-up movie of the year?  Priceless.

Kickass people
2. Matthew Lewis (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2)
Neville my darling.  My badass darling.  Coming into his own, being so heroic and amazing.

1. Hayley Atwell (Captain America)
Peggy Carter my darling.  Being so efficient, so adorable, kicking ass and taking names and everything.  She is perfection.

So yeah.  Brief synopses and one giant, giant, 24% of the overall post word-wise tl;dr.

–your fangirl heroine.

Theatre Thursday :: 5 currently-or-soon-to-be-running productions that are either awesome or disastrous

All opinions based, of course, on my knowledge of the material and the blurbs online. Since I’ve seen none of them.

5. Lysistrata Jones

“The Athens University basketball team hasn’t won a game in 30 years, but when spunky transfer student Lysistrata Jones dares the squad’s fed-up girlfriends to stop ‘giving it up’ until their boyfriends win a game, their legendary losing streak could be coming to an end. Lyssie J. and her girl-power posse give this Greek classic comedy a sexy, modern twist and take student activism to a whole new level.”

I… don’t even know what to say.  I feel like this could be hilarious.  It could be like the 10 Things I Hate About You but of Greek stuff.  But it could also be like the 10 Things TV show of Greek stuff.  When even Broadway.com has to tell you that it “occasionally veers into over-the-top campy territory,” it’s probably not the good kind of camp.  It’s probably the ridiculous kind of camp.

4. How I Learned to Drive
Which, as we know, I do love.  And Norbert Leo Butz playing Uncle Peck?  So wrong and yet so right.  I’m sure he’s doing splendidly.  That it’s at Second Stage also gives me hope.  But… snobby as it is, I’m skeptical of Elizabeth Reaser as Li’l Bit.  I mean, the mom from Twilight?  What’s she doing in a play about… sketchy uncles being sketchy?

3. Newsies
The movie is hilariously ridiculous.  It’s something that really does belong to my generation, I think.  I mean, I didn’t see it till I was thirteen, but it’s campy in the fun way and that still stands.  The stage show has apparently done the good thing and taken out the Ann-Margret character’s pointless musical number (I don’t know which, or both, hopefully, but still).  But the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade had the kids doing “King of New York,” and it was… underwhelming.  That, and they had Sarah sing in that song?  Why was she even there?  And, I’m sorry, but how can she be the King of New York?  Is she a newsie now, too?

2. Sleep No More
This is apparently an effed-up 1920s noir version of Macbeth.

“Sleep No More is very different from most theatrical experiences in that the audience does not sit in a seat and watch the performance onstage. Five floors of the McKittrick Hotel have been converted into a giant performance space. Audience members enter wearing Venetian masks (to keep their identities a mystery to performers) and are free to investigate the dozens of rooms as they please. The many rooms are elaborately designed, and the various spaces include luxurious bedrooms, a fancy hotel bar, a psychiatric ward, a stable, a forest and more. The actors roam the hotel (sometimes individually and sometimes in groups) to perform different scenes. Audiences are encouraged to follow different actors and watch the scenes unfold in any order. Guides are available to help audience members if necessary.”

This could either be really, really cool, or trying way, way too hard.  I’d be curious to see it actually play out, since I’m having a hard time envisioning it, but I feel like it’s risky as all get-out.

1. Once
I love, love, love the movie.  I do.  So when I heard about this production existing, I was excited, with reservations.  Part of what made the movie was the brilliance of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova just being Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.  Neither of them have voices that are necessarily traditionally perfect, but together they’re so much more than perfect.  They’re painfully beautiful.  The movie was so intimate, so personal, so… understated.  Part of me thinks the stage show could be just as much that (though it is lacking the Glen-and-Marketa factor, of course) but part of me doesn’t think it could be recreated, no matter how hard they tried.

–your fangirl heroine.

Whedon Wednesday :: the perfection of Fireflyverse platonic friendships

Because I… probably spent a large portion of Christmas weekend watching Serenity and a Firefly marathon on television, I figured it was a good time to bring this up.  One of my many favorite things about the whole series-and-film-and-everything is the friendly relationships between the characters.  I mean, the romances and implied romances and fan-ships are nice and good, but friendships… I’m fond.  Some of them, like Mal and Zoe or Kaylee and Inara, are pretty overt.  Others of them are much more background and to be noticed and analyzed upon repeated viewings.  So.  Let’s analyze some friendships, with a healthy dose of headcanon, yes?  (And yes.  There is a reason that I have this tumblr tag: #actually kaylee is best friends with everyone.  Because she is.)

Mal (Nathan Fillion) + Zoe (Gina Torres)

These two are old war friends.  I assume they didn’t know each other before the war or anything (Mal grew up on a ranch, and the Firefly wiki says that Zoe was “born Vesselside”) but through their experiences in the trenches and all, they became close.  And though Zoe’s deference towards Mal is still pretty military, “sir” and all, their friendship is fairly equal.  He turns to her for advice.  And, despite what the others may infer and what Wash is fearful of, their relationship is strictly platonic and always has been.  That is possible.  They respect each other, they’d do just about anything for each other.

Mal + Kaylee (Jewel Staite)

Kaylee is the youngest on the crew before the Tams arrive, that’s pretty obvious.  And even if technically she wasn’t, the nature of her personality does make her sort of fall into the role of everyone’s mèimei, but it’s truest with her and Mal.  Their first real interaction in the first episode involves her ineffable cheer and Mal’s acknowledgement thereof; it’s lighthearted.  It’s sweet.  You can tell he’s sad when bad things happen to her, and she’s determined to make things work, in part for him.  Because even if he did meet her mid-her sex adventure, she’s a little sister to him, and she always will be.  In “Objects in Space,” when she’s explaining her gunfails in “War Stories,” Mal’s quick to assure her that he’s perfectly fine with her not actually shooting anyone.  He doesn’t want her to get any more caught up in the violence than she has to be.  Another cuteness, during “Our Mrs. Reynolds,” involves Kaylee being clearly cranky after having to fix up Saffron’s (Christina Hendricks) mess of the controls, and he makes a point of telling her, again, that it’s okay.  That she’s still doing the best she can, and her best is better than everyone else’s.

Mal + Shepherd Book (Ron Glass)

Theirs is a friendship that doesn’t make sense, quite.  They have differences because Mal is adamantly anti-faith, and Book is obviously pro-faith; Mal feels strange about his work in the eyes of a shepherd sometimes, Book is keeping secrets galore.  But they do respect each other, even when they argue and poke fun and are generally at odds.

Kaylee + Inara (Morena Baccarin)

What is discussed here.

Kaylee + Wash (Alan Tudyk)

We do get the occasional Kaylee and Wash interaction inseries, but I… have for sure built it up in my head.  The only romance possible is in that really theoretical “I’m your friend, so I can see how it would make sense, but no” way:

Kaylee: Everyone’s got somebody. Wash, tell me I’m pretty.
Wash: Were I unwed, I would take you in a manly fashion.
Kaylee: ‘Cause I’m pretty?
Wash: ‘Cause you’re pretty.

These two are just… best best friends.  It’s not really the same little sister thing that Kaylee has with the rest, it’s more my favorite thing of kindred spirits.  They’re closest to speaking each other’s language out of anyone on the crew, and I am convinced that I’d adore just listening to and watching them technobabble for hours (I tend to be a fan of that).  They’re friendly friends who can banter and snark and giggle and swap awesome thoughts and facts.

Kaylee + Jayne (Adam Baldwin)

I know that Kaylee and Jayne are a favorite fan-ship, and I don’t deny that there are moments that might imply that Jayne has a little crush on her.  Being a big, big supporter of the canonical Kaylee/Simon, I can’t really get on the other ship much, but I can speak for the Kaylee and Jayne friendship.  It’s that same sort of big brother/little sister feeling, but while Mal is the protective sweet-but-only-to-you big brother, Jayne is the protective yet always joking about every single thing big brother.  And Kaylee can take the teasing like a champ.  They’re pleasant with each other, I’m sure they’ve gotten drunk with each other more than once just for the hell of it, there’s more banter, it’s nice.

Kaylee + River (Summer Glau)

It’s really the only time that Kaylee gets to be big sister instead of little, and I’m sure she appreciates that, but – despite the fact that River freaks her out sometimes – she genuinely does like the other girl, I think.  Kaylee’s a see-the-good-in-everyone type, and even the being freaked out only lasts so long, because she’s determined to think the best of people.  She genuinely feels bad for River’s situation, and she genuinely does want to befriend her.  River, for her part, probably appreciates that Kaylee doesn’t always think she’s insane.  (That can for sure matter.)  She gives River a chance to actually be her age.

Inara + River

It’s like the sister who’s so much older and more worldly that she practically mothers the littler one, in a lot of ways.  Since Inara isn’t involved in a lot of the crew’s adventures directly, she often winds up taking care of River.  She can offer River a place to just relax, she can give as much comfort as she’s able.  And since Inara does know a bit about psychological things, she can try to understand River better than many of the others.  Not that she ever talks it through, but even the comforting could be construed, if you’re me and read too much into things, as being a bit more direct.

Inara + Simon (Sean Maher)

Inara and Simon are both, in their own ways, outsiders in this world.  They’re both from Core planets, ones more refined and structured; they’re both unused to the life of crime.  Neither of them quite fits in with the crew: they’re too fancy, too proper.  Inara’s got her Companion training, Simon has his medical training, they’re both running from things.  Because of these similarities, the two of them have a certain bond.  Simon appreciates that Inara has a way with River.  Inara, in her understanding-psychology-of-everyone-not-herself-or-Mal way, can try to understand what Simon’s going through much more than anyone else can.  They offer each other a certain manner of respect and camaraderie.

–your fangirl heroine.

Television Tuesday :: 2011 in television (3 finales, 3 characters, 3 moments of hilarity, 2 moments of shock)

Finales, all season, that were noteworthy.  Characters that elicited reactions from me.  Things that were awesome.  Things that made me make a good old fashioned :O face (one for a bad reason, one for a good reason).

Finales
3. Justified
The magic of the entire second season is how convoluted the relationships between the characters were while still maintaining a straightforward plot.  At the center of it is, of course, Timothy Olyphant’s Raylan, but he’s tangled up in the whole mess of Mags’ (Margo Martindale) family, the mess of the mining, the mess of Boyd (Walton Goggins) existing, the mess of Ava (Joelle Carter) getting tangled up with Boyd (it suits her more than being a lawman’s girl did), the mess of Winona (Natalie Zea) getting back with him and being pregnant and begging him to quit his job, the mess of Loretta (Kaitlyn Dever) in relation to the Bennett clan, all of it.  The finale episode managed to wrap it all up so nicely, but not neatly, not perfectly happy-ending, just… wrapped enough up to be satisfying, but still to leave room for more.  (Season three, January 17.)

2. Sons of Anarchy
I’d been expecting more death, but it surprisingly didn’t upset me that there wasn’t.  The thing about Sons is that it keeps you on such a highwire that you feel like at any moment something bad could happen.  Even if nothing bad does, it’s still tense enough to be interesting.  I’ll discuss the brilliance of Ray McKinnon in a moment, but even if rewriting the lyrics to “The House of the Rising Sun” to say “Charming town” instead of “New Orleans” was a little cheesy, the big images of the last montage are powerful.  The picture of JT and Gemma (Katey Sagal) back in the day, and then Gemma watching as Jax (Charlie Hunnam) hits the gavel and takes the club over as still-wounded and seriously craycray Tara (Maggie Siff) goes up behind him and mimics that picture perfectly.  This was a good year for Oedipal things to go on, to whatever extent, ’cause Gemma seriously does care too much about her son sometimes, but most importantly, craycray Tara.  I’ve always liked Tara, I have, but even though she is probably going off the deep end and is sinking deeper still into the life of crime, I think it’s kind of brilliant.  Not for Tara-the-person, but for Tara-the-character.  She kind of had crazy eyes the last few episodes of the season, perpetually, and it’s awesome.

1. True Blood
Yeah.

Characters
3. Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan, Once Upon a Time)
NOT because he was that important to me (though he did earn signs of my high praise: a nickname [Sheriff Vest] and a Buffy analogue [Angel, in the fairy tale scenes]).  But because, well, damn, ABC, you killed off an actual semi-main character right-quick.  You killed off a handsome male character at the hands of a manipulative lover woman.  Gutsy for you.  And you killed off a character that at least 1/5 of the threads I saw on the Once Upon a Time IMDB message board pertained to.  So someone that people liked.  Thank you.

2. Max Black (Kat Dennings, 2 Broke Girls)
Surprise, surprise.  I mean, I love Kat Dennings, I always love Kat Dennings, but I mostly give Max a pat on the back for getting to make really raunchy jokes on network TV and as a woman.  Usually women don’t get to make that many raunchy jokes, especially on network, and I’m pretty sure she’s referenced masturbation at least three times, which women never get to do (I make a mental note every time they do, because it’s that rare).  So, again, it’s a small thing, but she’s snarky as hell.  2 Broke Girls is really just a string of jokes for 22 minutes, but that Kat gets to make most of them and that most of the ones she makes are dirty… cool.

1. Lincoln Potter (Ray McKinnon, Sons of Anarchy)
Ray McKinnon is always quality.  He’s a member of the Deadwood mafia, and the good reverend was one of the most brilliant characters in that brilliant world, thanks in large part to him and his freaky awesome.  Lincoln Potter came to Charming as a U.S. Attorney hell-bent on getting the RIRA (real Irish Republican Army), the ROC (Russian organized crime), and the Sons.  But he’s just such a weirdo that everything he does, everything he says is brilliant.  In the finale, he bursts in on a city council meeting holding sex toys, including a pedophilic sex doll, to prove that Hale (Jeff Kober) is funding his development with really dirty sex money.  When asked why?  “I don’t like you.”  Just like that.  It’s the most perfect moment ever.

Moments of hilarity
3. Wheels only responding to Chinese swear words (United States of Tara)
It’s really unfortunate that Tara had to end, but though the entire season was great, the best moment of all was that which I’ve previously mentioned repeatedly: that Charmaine (Rosemarie Dewitt) and Neil’s (Patton Oswalt) baby only responds to “Wheels and Chinese swear words.”  Patton Oswalt (who’s guested on Dollhouse and wrote the Serenity comic “Float Out”) is such s raging Browncoat.  And it’s beautiful.

2. The simultaneously worst and best almost-sex of all time (on New Girl)
As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t think that Jess (Zooey Deschanel) is too precocious or weird or “quirky.”  She is weird, and she is awkward, but I… know people who would do any of the things that she’s done.  I don’t know that anyone I know would actually go through with the weird sex she attempted with Paul (Justin Long), but that’s what comedy is, right?  Exaggeration?  It’s ridiculous.  But it’s also a little amazing.  I mean, an old-fashioned newscaster spanking Jimmy Stewart?  That is all kinds of absurd brilliance, in a way that’s both cringeworthy and riotous.

1. Put a Bird On It (Portlandia)

Thank you, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein.

Moments of shock
2. JIMMY SCREWED HIS MOM (Boardwalk Empire)
We were a bit late in watching the last two episodes of Boardwalk this season, but maybe that’s good.  Now even just mentions of what we were eating for dinner the night we watched it make us cringe and go “JIMMY SCREWED HIS MOM.”  Luckily, we didn’t have to watch Jimmy (Michael Pitt) and Gillian (Gretchen Mol) actually go at it, but he was on top of her and it was weird and then he was waking up naked in her bed.  No Jimmy no bad bad BAD.  Like I said, it’s an Oedipal year, apparently.

1. BABY DRAGONS (Game of Thrones)

And this is all that needs to be said.  I mean, it’s rad that Boardwalk and True Blood and Game of Thrones killed off main characters, but it’s HBO.  That stuff happens on HBO.  Not every day brings you BABY DRAGONS as Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) is all badass.

–your fangirl heroine.

Music Monday :: 2011 in albums (6 favorite new releases and 4 favorite newish releases)

So, now that the year’s almost over, it’s time to rank the albums of the year.  In only a few words, sometimes.  New releases are albums from 2011, newish releases are albums from 2010 that I only discovered this year.

 

New releases
6. 21 (Adele)
And it’s a beautiful album.  I’m super-predictable and love “Rolling in the Deep” hard, but I love a lot of the rest of it, too.  Although it’s annoying when people use the songs incorrectly or overmuch.

5. The Browncoats Mixtape  (Adam WarRock and Mikal kHill)
So this doesn’t quite count 100%.  But it’s just… it’s beauty.  It’s pure, geeky beauty.  It’s two dudes rapping about Firefly, over samples from the score and the occasional soundbyte.  I don’t actually like rap.  Like, ever.  But these guys just… oh man.  I’m listening to this right now, and I’m incoherent.  I am not a crier, I have said this many times, but fandom can get me kind of mentally to the point of being choked up without being actually tearing or anything.  And both “River” and “Still Flyin’ (Kaylee’s Theme)” got me to that point.  Just… very ellipse-ridden, unexplainable awesome.

4. Codes and Keys (Death Cab for Cutie)
Oh, Death Cab.  Yeah, there’s something to be said for the fact that I’ve mentioned all of these albums (well, except the above Browncoat-y nerd paradise) before.  But it’s the end of the year.  This is what you do, right?  And I still can’t get enough.

3. Barton Hollow (The Civil Wars)
Whoops.  More previously mentioned.  More utter beauty.  I am afraid to know how many times I’ve actually played this album through.  It’s probably some exorbitant number.  Because it’s good for when you’re with some friends, when you’re alone, when you’re studying, when you’re creating, when you’re reading, when you’re passing out, when you’re… just sitting there and breathing.

2. The King is Dead (The Decemberists)
This… has been a year of albums that I am shamelessly ripping apart for fanmix purposes.  Albums of twang and gorgeousness.

1. The Valley (Eisley)
Because what else would top the list?  If Barton Hollow has exorbitant play count, this has… otherworldly play count.

 

Newish releases
4. Lights (Ellie Goulding)
This is just a little more techiepoppy than I usually go for, but I’m a sucker for those British accents, and it is cute, and it’s way less stupid than other stuff, and I have moments where I dig on things that are Wikipedia-classed as “electropop” or “synthpop” or “folktronica,” and she does have a song called “Guns and Horses.”  Which I groove on, hard.

3. The Narrative (The Narrative)
Yep.  Also previously mentioned.  These kids are just so delicious and delightful.

2. The Memory Machine (Julia Stone)
ALSO previously mentioned.  But, oh geez.  This album… this album is too perfect.  This album is pure morbid dark-folk beauty.

1. Catching a Tiger (Lissie)
At least… 6 plays a week for the last 6 weeks.  That’s like a minimum estimate.  I don’t know how I didn’t get this one sooner, but I love it way too much.

–your fangirl heroine.

Spoiler Alert Sunday :: my thoughts on War Horse

Welcome to I Don’t Know What To Really Say That’s Creative Or Insightful, So I’ll List Facts And Random Opinions:

• I’m already tired of that trailer for John Carter.  I just looked it up, and the cast is fairly legitimate (three cast members of Rome even without clicking the “full cast and crew” link) but it just looks painful.  Also, whenever heavily made up Lynn Collins appears, I think for a split second that she’s Moon Bloodgood from Terminator: Salvation because of the ridiculous make-up (they really don’t look that much alike, but the makeup is so absurd) and then I go “oh wait.”  And speaking of Terminator, every time anyone says “John Carter” in the trailer I think they’re saying “John Connor.”  Lynn Collins with her weird voice going “You’re John Carter from Earth” especially.  And that just throws me so hard.
• Jeremy Irvine, who played Albert, looked like a baby Anton Yelchin with a teensy tiny bit of baby lighter-haired Sean Maher in there.
• Matt Milne, who played Andrew the friend, looked like a cross between Caleb Landry Jones who played Banshee in X-Men: First Class and blond-times Evan Peters.  Sometimes.
• David Thewlis made a good d-bag here.
• The fact that Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch were the first soldiers kind of just made me get distracted imagining Loki and Sherlock Holmes attempting conversation and failing.  And then I just sat there going “Benedict Cumberbatch” over and over in an absurd British lower-class slangy accent in my head.  Yeah.
• The cinematography was very nice. The aesthetic value was high.
• It was a very sweet, very moving, very tear-inducing story.  I think part of why I’m finding it hard to say original things is that I just… I don’t know what to do with sentimental animal movies.  I never have.  I’ve never been a crier, so while everyone else is crying, I’m just sitting there going “oh, I understand why this is inspirational/touching/sad/etc.” but not actually shedding tears.  And then I feel a little awkward.  But I remind myself that at least I have good robot company.
• I’m fully aware that I spent too much of the film thinking about which actor mash-ups the actors looked like.
• And that Emily Watson is only 44 but is really good at looking older.
• This could be because, while it was a very moving story, and I understood that it was serious and touching, I have a hard time relating to characters that aren’t that developed.  Maybe it’s better in the book.  But they all seemed pretty one-dimensional.  Which, for a story like this, is okay.  You don’t need ridiculously intricate people, technically, to tell an inspirational movie about horses and wars.  But I just… I kind of need ridiculously intricate people to care on a personal level.
• It’s a good film, though.  Implausible, maybe, but a sweet little horses and wars fairytale.
• BUT I think the thing that got me crankiest was the fact that they just had to go and kill the little girl, Emilie (Celine Buckens).  I mean, she was sick, yeah.  With that mysterious vague feebleness that a lot of fictional children seem to have, and that didn’t affect her outwardly ever except for needing to take medicine that looked like absinthe.  But I’m just getting tired of “kill and/or enfeeble the little girl” syndrome.  (Something I can actually blame HBO for.)
• Much like with Mockingjay, I think I really would have only been satisfied if Albert or the horse died.  I mean… it wouldn’t have been an inspirational story then.  But I’m just a morbid weirdo.

–your fangirl heroine.

Sarcastic Saturday :: the worst Christmas gift Frank Loesser accidentally gave the world.

From Wikipedia, with hotlinks removed:

“‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ is a pop standard with words and music by Frank Loesser. Originally, it was never intended to be a Christmas song. In its early years it was played year round. In recent years, however, it was recorded by numerous Adult Contemporary artists and began being played as a Christmas Song.” [sic - because Song isn't a proper noun, but that's how it was typed there]

Frank Loesser is a legitimate fellow.  He’s responsible for dozens of songs, including the scores to Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  Classics.  Maybe not my taste, always, but I respect him.  But he also wrote the now-Christmas “classic” tune “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” and for that… I don’t know if I ever can forgive him.  Not even my Zooey and my M. Ward can make it completely better on the Very She & Him Christmas album.  (Closer, because I can imagine that they’re just friends messing around with each other, but it’s still icky.)

Part of my aversion to the song is just that I’ve heard it too many times, by contemporary singers trying to be cute or by old singers being cute.  Most of my aversion to the song is stemmed from the fact that, as my friend pointed out recently, it’s basically about date rape.  Or it really could be.  Wikipedia also says that the parts in the song are written as “mouse” and “wolf” in the scores, and that the mouse is often (not always) sung by a woman and the wolf by a man.  This has been reversed sometimes, in the 1949 film Neptune’s Daughter, for example, and actually by Zooey and M. Ward (which adds to the playful thing I can imagine with them, which is not to say that a female-on-male date rape is impossible, but the way they sing it, it does seem less creepy somehow — or maybe they just weren’t thinking about it and singing a bunch of Christmas standards, which, okay, think about it kids, but I guess I’ll forgive you this one mistake).

Before I continue, I’d like to say that I’m not trying to make light of date rape or anything.  It’s serious business, and it’s not cool.  Which is why the song bothers me.  If you have the wrong people singing it, it just sounds really sketchy and perpetuates a “no means yes” culture, and that’s seriously bad.  It’s stupid that “no means yes” is still accepted as truth, even though a lot of times that it’s advocated, it’s done in a joking matter.  But that’s not cool either.

For evidence, I will dissect it.  The lyrics, with the “wolf” bolded, interspersed with analysis:

I really can’t stay
But baby, it’s cold outside
I’ve got to go away
But baby, it’s cold outside
This evening has been
Been hoping that you’d drop in
So very nice
I’ll hold your hands, they’re just like ice

It starts out pretty innocently.  It’s cold outside, don’t leave, you don’t want to get stuck in the storm.  Maybe that hand-holding is unwanted physical attention, but it’s easy to tell someone to stop holding your hands, right?

My mother will start worry
Beautiful whats your hurry
My father will be pacing the floor
Listen to the fireplace roar
So really I’d better scurry
Beautiful please don’t hurry
But maybe just a half a drink more
Put some records on while I pour

So never mind the parental panic that may ensue, the “wolf” is trying to get the “mouse” to stay in.  Please?  Maybe it’s just safer not to travel in the bad weather.  Maybe it’s a storm.  And it would seem like the “mouse” initiates the drink.

The neighbors might faint
Baby, it’s bad out there
Say, what’s in this drink
No cabs to be had out there
I wish I knew how
Your eyes are like starlight now
To break this spell
I’ll take your hat, your hair looks swell

The neighbors aren’t going to think well of their staying over together, even if the storm is really bad.  Which leads me to believe that either the storm isn’t that bad and the “wolf” is just talking out their ass, or the neighbors are giant prudes.  But then… nope, BAD.  “What’s in this drink”?  Even if the “mouse” did suggest the drink, did the “wolf” put something in it?  At the very least, give the “mouse” something stronger than they wanted?  That’s not good.  And as the “wolf” is full of flattery and the prelude to undressing (a hat isn’t really getting naked, but it’s one less thing) the “mouse” is going, basically, “WTF is going on and HTF (?) do I leave??”

I ought to say “no, no, no sir”
Mind if I move in closer
At least I’m gonna say that I tried
What’s the sense in hurtin’ my pride
I really can’t stay
Oh baby don’t hold out

Yep.  Straight-up no from the “mouse,” even as the “wolf” refuses to listen to it.  The “mouse” tried to resist the “wolf,” but when they’ve been drinking and they’re with someone who seems nice, maybe it’s gonna be okay, right?  Wrong.  If the “mouse” wants to leave, the “mouse” should leave.  Even if it does make the “wolf” cranky.  If the “mouse” needs to call the cops, the “mouse” should.

Baby it’s cold outside

I simply must go
But baby, it’s cold outside
The answer is no
But baby, it’s cold outside
Your welcome has been
How lucky that you dropped in
So nice and warm
Look out the window at that storm

Now it’s the “wolf” making a last-ditch effort as the “mouse” is saying no more firmly.

My sister will be suspicious
Gosh your lips look delicious
My brother will be there at the door
Waves upon the tropical shore
My maiden aunt’s mind is vicious
Gosh your lips are delicous
But maybe just a cigarette more
Never such a blizzard before

More valid reasons the “mouse” wants to get home, even if dropping that maiden aunt in could be a sign that the “mouse” is just screwing around.  This could be a completely consensual bit of banter.  I acknowledge that.  If it’s done correctly, it could be fine.  But so many people have that smirky, predatory lech thing going when they sing it, and that… just isn’t all right.

I’ve gotta get home
But baby, you’d freeze out there
Say, lend me a coat
It’s up to your knees out there
You’ve really been grand
I thrill when you touch my hand

How many more ways can the “mouse” say no?  How many more ways can the “wolf” try to be persuasive?

But don’t you see?
How can you do this thing to me?
There’s bound to be talk tomorrow
Think of my lifelong sorrow
At least there will be plenty implied
If you got pneumonia and died
I really can’t stay
Get over that old out

The “mouse” is reputation-conscious, yes, but it’s also a consciousness of what might happen and what they don’t want to happen.  The “wolf” is almost refusing to hear it.  “Get over that old out?”  That’s basically just saying “you’re lying, you’re just being a tease, let me in, let me in.”

Baby, it’s cold
Baby, it’s cold outside

So.  Yeah.  I will again say that I’m sure that many and most of the people who have recorded this song over the years have not considered this.  I’m sure Frank Loesser didn’t write it that way.  But it still sounds… very, very, very creepy, and it’s a throwback to a time with different values.  But even then, no didn’t mean yes.  And nowadays, no doesn’t mean yes.  So no, I’ll never pretend to sing this song at a crummy Christmas party.  Never ever.  Even if subconsciously, it’s allowing an attitude that isn’t acceptable to continue.

–your fangirl heroine.

Fictional Friday :: 5 women I’d love to invent an alternate canon for

5. Alice Cullen (Ashley Greene, Twilight)
I’ll admit to enjoying Alice.  I think that’s just because I’ve had alt-canon for Alice since I made myself sit down and read Twilight back when, so much so that when my cousins asked me Team Edward or Team Jacob, I had a long-winded explanation that I called Team Jasper for their innocent minds but was really Team Jasper and Alice Befriend Spike And Dru And Have Wacky Morbid Adventures.  That’s the life I want for Alice.  I mean, I love her, because she’s the only one not mired in a compulsion to marry and procreate, and because she’s got that whole wacky seer thing going for her, but I’d want more for her.  (Maybe I also like Alice ’cause Ashley Greene models for Stop Staring!  That could be part of it.)

4. Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays, Glee)
In part because she gets, you know, three-or-less minutes of screen time per episode and that’s a shame, and in part because she really hasn’t gotten to do much this season but have crappy parents and be Will’s lady friend.  I mean, I’m happy that so far they’re letting her be Will’s lady friend consistently and not trying to fudge it up with some stupid plot diversion, but.  I think the only time I really like Will any more is when he’s with Emma, and even then sometimes I feel like he needs to just think before acting.  He’s gotten better, I’ll allow.  But still.  I want a world where Emma gets to actually say more than a line or two per episode and not a line or two that’s directly encouraging or discouraging the actions of another character.  I want those adorable cardigans-tea-and-neurosis parties with Bennett Halverson that I mentioned way back when.  Or cardigans-tea-and-neurosis parties with anyone.  I just want more people around Emma who really like Emma and understand Emma, I guess.

3. Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz, Glee)
Really, I had a hard time with narrowing it down to two Glee women, because I think that Quinn, Santana, and Brittany probably also deserve a world that’s better for them, but I love Tina and Emma the most sincerely, which we already know, so I’m sticking with them.  I don’t know what I want for Tina, but I want something.  I want her to get to be the star of her own life, with her awesome style; apparently, she’s really morbid (she’s claimed that she is) but we never really get to hear it because we rarely get to hear her say anything more significant than “yeah, that’s right!” or a synonym for that.  I want her to get to live in a world where someone doesn’t make reference to her Asianness every day.

2. Knives Chau (Ellen Wong, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World)
I think Knives is adorable, I really do.  Maybe she and Tina could go be stop-talking-about-my-Asianness buddies in some super-alt-canon.  I also think that Knives would be way less crazy if she had a different life situation than she does: if her first boyfriend wasn’t quite so, you know, Scott-ish, I think she’d be less apt to go craycray on him.  And she’s a total badass, I want her to get to go be a badass somewhere.  She deserves that chance.  And she somewhat gets to be awesomer by the end of the comics, but there just wasn’t the time in the film continuity, and I understand.  So film!Knives, I want to magick up an alt-canon for.

1. Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner, Game of Thrones)
I don’t know what fate has in store for her in the books — I’m still finishing the first one.  But Sansa, I’ve always wanted to have a completely different life.  I feel like all of the hate that she gets is because of her reactions to situations in her life, and her not knowing how the hell to handle them.  And I think that if she had a different life, she’d learn how better to handle them, and there would be different situations altogether.  I mean, she’s betrothed to the d-bag whose mother had her father killed, and society is consumed with getting her to be proper and ladylike, no wonder she can act like a twit.  She doesn’t know better.  Let’s take her to a completely different world, like, I don’t know, Hogwarts (Founders’ Era, to keep it period, or modern, to completely AU the hell out of it) or something else with magic and let that shape her instead.  Yeah.

–your fangirl heroine.

Things in Print Thursday :: okay, so, Mockingjay.

I read the first 40-some pages a few days ago, but I slammed through the rest this afternoon.  And honestly, even the parts that were this afternoon at the beginning, I don’t really remember.  I don’t know.  This is just me being super-picky, probably, because I’m a picky bitch about narrative structure, but unlike the first two books, which got to the point, this one took a while to really build to anything other than “internal musing about politics and the lives of people around me” and then just rushed through actual plot points and dramatic things.

And it wasn’t like someone was saying HEY YOU HAVE TO FINISH THIS IN HALF A SEASON WITHOUT MUCH WARNING WHEN CLEARLY IT COULD HAVE LASTED AT LEAST FOUR MORE SO WRAP IT UP QUICK AND EXCITING KIDDO.  …yeah.

Suzanne Collins had one book to wrap up the happenings of three books, and they were three books she should have planned out roughly beforehand.  Honestly, though I enjoyed Catching Fire, I think that The Hunger Games could have stood alone if it really wanted to.  But once she opened the doors of rebellion, she had to finish it off with a third.

But… I just wanted more from it.  I wanted more background characters, more interactions, more thoughts that weren’t belonging to Katniss.  I mean, when it finally got exciting, you had Peeta being all brainwashed (“hijacked”) and trying to kill her.  As I’m sure you’ve figured, I love few things more than brainwashing or brain-anything in fiction, and there was such outrageously minimal detail that I was sad.  I wanted to know every single thing about how it worked, who’d done it, how long it took, especially considering it triggered him pretty extremely.  But nope, we just got a conversation with Delly Cartwright, some speculation, Prim going “oh hey let’s try reversing it ourselves,” but really, would that be effective?  It wore off, of course it did (it’s predictable that way), but… hm.

And speaking of Prim… well, that was an unceremonious Anya death.  That wasn’t even poignant or anything.  Just, whoops, boom, see you later.  On one hand, I’m all right with that; it means that we didn’t have to dwell on sappy (which would have been mildly out of character, even if it would be more likely there than with other people in Katniss’ life).  But it just seemed a waste.  I think I decided I loved Prim hard when she said she was learning to be a doctor, because that makes her the brainy one and the nice one into it.  And that’s how I roll.

My Johanna Mason-is-Faith feelings were intensified.

“…It’s everybody’s job to keep you alive.”
“Is that why you hate me?” I ask.
“Partly,” she admits. “Jealousy is certainly involved. I also think you’re a little hard to swallow. With your tacky romantic drama and your defender-of-the-helpless act. Only it isn’t an act, which makes you more unbearable. Please feel free to take this personally.”
“You should have been the Mockingjay. No one would’ve had to feed you lines,” I say.
“True. But no one likes me,” she tells me.

Replace “Mockingjay” with “Slayer” and, yeah, this is a straight-up Faith and Buffy conversation.  I wanted more Johanna, too, obviously; she’s just ridiculous and entertaining.  The unapologetic bitchy ones always are.

As I predicted, I did get a little Annie, but not nearly enough.  And it’s sweet that she’ll have a forever piece of Finnick, but… that was kind of unnecessary.  We had to kill off important people, yes, I get it.  But seriously.  Prim was a lazy kill, Finnick was a lazy kill.  I wouldn’t have been happy unless one of the love triangle boys bit it, because I’m just morbid as hell in that way.

…yeah.  I’m sure if you’re not me, there would be nothing wrong with this conclusion.  And the fifteen years later, is that just how every young adult/teen/whatever adventure-y book has to end now since the Harry Potter epilogue?

–your fangirl heroine.