Random Media Stuff

December 1st, 2008 8:13pm by rusty-halo | 15 Comments »

I’ve been hibernating. Or, avoiding the internet, anyway. Moving servers turned out to be a huge pain in the ass and it still seems like a total crapshoot as to whether my websites will actually work on any given day. Kind of pointless to post an entry when I’m not sure if anyone will be able to see it or respond. I’m pissed at the server company, but sick of wasting time dealing with it.

So, here’s a post, which may or may not work. :P

A summary of my life in media over the past two weeks:

* I saw Twilight. My god. That’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back.

The good part was that I saw it opening night at Union Square, which always has a raucous crowd. This one was 98% female and initially squeeful, but they still had the good taste to start laughing hysterically and calling out insults about halfway through the movie, when it became apparent what an utter abomination it was. One or two people were shushing during the ~*~romantic~*~ parts, but for the most part, the crowd was content to entertain itself out loud, since the movie wasn’t doing much of a job.

It’s actually kind of painful for me to think back on that nightmare, but I will try to comment on the parts I found most horrifying. I mean, aside from the unbelievably cheesy special effects (the vampires zoooooomm through the forest!) and the mind-bogglingly dull pace and the whole nine-year-old girl fantasy aspect (what do nine-year-old girls love? GLITTER! So why not have the perfect boyfriend ~*~GLITTER~*~?!!!!!!) and oh yeah the WHOLESOME VAMPIRE FAMILY WHO PLAYS VAMPIRE BASEBALL BECAUSE WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE MORE ALL AMERICAN THAN BASEBALL AND OH MY GOD VAMPIRES ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO PLAY BASEBALL–

Sorry, where was I? Right. Aside from the cheese, this thing was so offensive. Hey little girls? You know that creepy older guy who treats you like shit but keeps lurking around and following you? YOU SHOULD TOTALLY GO OFF ALONE INTO THE FOREST AND CONFRONT HIM! And when he tells you that he’s barely restraining himself from tearing you apart, get close and TELL HIM HOW MUCH YOU TRUST HIM. Despite having, y’know, no reason except your absurdly naive little girl faith that he won’t hurt you. Because guys like him totally have hearts of gold and it’s TOTALLY SAFE TO GO OFF ALONE INTO THE FOREST WITH THEM, OMG.

AND. AND. AND. When he tells you that he’s been sneaking into your bedroom at night and staring at you while you sleep for months, you should giggle and tell him THAT IT’S COOL.

Seriously, I fear for the generation of girls raised with this movie. It made my soul hurt.

* I’m thinking about seeing Milk. It looks really good and historically interesting, but Sean Penn’s gigantic hulking ego makes me cringe. I’m not sure I can take it.

* I’m thinking about seeing Valkyrie. It looks historically interesting and I’m very fond of Bryan Singer (X2 is still my favorite superhero movie ever, with Iron Man a close second), but Tom Cruise’s ego and presumptuousness offend me even more than Sean Penn’s.

* I went to see the Cruxshadows on Thanksgiving Eve. I got there at 11:45pm and they didn’t go on for another hour. Damn Pyramid Club. Luckily my new phone has internet so I read marzipan until they came on.

The Cruxshadows may be ridiculously cheesy and overly sincere, but they sure put on a hell of a show. I was crying at the end. How often do you see a band playing to a packed crowd who invites their fans onstage at the end and stays up there afterward hugging every single person who wants a hug?

* I started listening to a bunch of old David Bowie albums while I was cooking for Thanksgiving, and, oh my god, you guys, why didn’t anyone tell me that David Bowie used to be this awesome??? I’ve had The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars on repeat all weekend. I mean, I was vaguely aware that Bowie had once been good, but all I knew was the guy with the bulge from Labyrinth and the skinny old guy who toured with NIN in the 90s. I didn’t realize he’d done something this passionate and creative and amazing. I can’t even articulate my response; I just want to listen to it again and again.

Although, one of the really interesting things is to pick out all the Bowie influences on the bands I grew up listening to. I can see Nirvana, and Alice in Chains, and, dude, Marilyn Manson should be paying this guy royalties. And it’s fascinating how it seems to straddle this boundary between 60s and 70s music and culture, idealism and disillusionment…

Anyway. Must listen more.

* I re-read The Disorderly Knights, the third book in Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles. I think it’s my second favorite, after the first, A Game of Kings.

I forgot that this book ends with Francis vowing not to fail his son. It made me start to sob, knowing what’s going to happen in the next book. The first time I read it I assumed, you know, that he’d rescue the kid! That’s what it seems to be building up to, with Philippa stopping Francis from killing Gabriel so as to protect the baby, and then Francis vowing to go rescue him. I love this series, but I’m not sure I can bring myself to re-read the next book. What’s the point of a quest narrative that’s doomed to fail? What’s the point of the baby as a character if his sole purpose is to break your heart with his suffering and then break Lymond as a character when he dies? I know, I know, it’s beautifully written and thoughtful about human nature and the meaning of life, but, omg, it hurts.

But anyway. I do love The Disorderly Knights. My feeling on this re-read was that it’s all about that parable Dragut Rais tells Lymond: look at his hands. IE, it’s not the surface appearance or the pious words that matter; it’s what you do that counts. And this is perfectly encapsulated in the two sets of contrasting characters that Dunnett sets up: Philippa and Joleta, and of course, Lymond and Gabriel.

Philippa is plain and rude and awkward; Joleta is beautiful and well-spoken and pious. And, of course, Philippa is good-hearted and brave and wonderful, whereas Joleta’s a vicious little sadist.

And Gabriel… I love him as a villain. Yes, okay, he’s a bit one dimensional as a character in his own right; a sociopath whose only goal is power and destruction. But as a foil for Lymond he’s perfect. He’s everything on the surface that Lymond isn’t: kind, gentle, idealistic, brave, selfless. Whereas Lymond on the surface is rude, snide, selfish, hedonistic, and only out for himself. And yet. On the inside, Lymond is all those good things that Gabriel appears to be, and Gabriel is all those bad things that Lymond appears to be. I really love that theme, that it’s what you do that matters, not how you appear on the surface. And that you can be a good person without constantly shoving your holiness down other peoples’ throats!

And Gabriel is just so well built up as a villain. He’s loathsome. Seriously, he makes me shudder. And this is before you find out all the actual evil stuff he’s done. It’s just his way of behaving, of constantly playing the martyr, of speaking down to everyone, of ridiculing Lymond in every way: calling him by his first name, professing to love him, praying for his soul, pretending to want to “save” him. On the surface, who could object? But it chafes: it’s so superior, so presumptive, so incredibly condescending. GAH. I was never happier than when I read it the first time and got to the part where I realized that, yes, I was supposed to hate him and he actually was that bad.

The other good bit in this is Philippa finally coming into her own. I’m still sort of sad that Kate doesn’t end up with Lymond, because Kate is awesome, but I get that Dunnett’s writing it as if Philippa is a little mini-Kate and then more. And Philippa is awesome, defying everyone to do what she thinks is right, and always standing up for what she believes in despite the dangers. She totally saves Lymond’s ass at St. Mary’s. (Although, in retrospect, it probably would’ve been better if she’d just let him kill Gabriel in the church. *sigh*) And I noticed lots of nifty little ways that Dunnett was setting up the Lymond/Philippa romance: Philippa making the comment about hate turning to love, Sybilla saying that Lymond needs a mistress (not a master) and the scene cutting to Philippa.

Oonagh is weird. I pity her, but I really can’t stand her as a character. She’s so miserable and humorless and fatalistic. Every time I read her scenes I just think “Why is she here? What’s the point of her?” IMO, the biggest crime a fictional character can commit is to be boring.

And Jerott. He’s one of the big weaknesses of the series for me, because he’s so dour and humorless and takes everything so damn seriously. In this book he replaces Will Scott as Lymond’s sidekick (*sniffle* Poor Will!) and he’s just not as fun. I mean, yeah, Will was a big doofus too, but at least he had a sense of humor. :P

Oh, and this book has my favorite Richard moment, when Francis makes his case against Gabriel and Richard is the first to stand up for him, despite earlier telling Lymond that he wished him dead. Go Richard! In annoys me that later in the series Francis and Richard fight again. Honestly, you’d think Richard would just get the hell over it already and accept that every ridiculous thing Francis does has a good reason underneath… *sigh*

So… yeah. I loved re-reading this and it reminded me why I love the Lymond Chronicles, but I’m not sure I want to keep re-reading. I don’t remember the rest of the series being as good as this. Doesn’t it kind of go downhill from here? I mean, the dead baby story is amazing but unbearably painful, and then the rest of the series Lymond spends having PTSD, pushing everyone who loves him away, vomiting from the pain of his blinding migraines, and trying to kill himself… until it suddenly turns into a cheesy romance at the end and he and Philippa live happily ever after. And there’s Jerott (boring) and Marthe (even more boring) and all this angst about Lymond’s parentage (who cares? and it turns out to be inexplicably weird and uninteresting anyway) and the machinations of the Dame de Doubtance (whatever) and … yeah … I don’t know. The first three are totally the best.