Words Words Words

1. I spent the theatre weekend--Monday and Tuesday--in NYC visiting friends, people watching in Central Park, galavanting around Times Square (OH GOD OVERSTIMULATION), visiting the Harry Potter exhibit at Discovery, and remembering that I don't like NYC. I've only visited the city twice before, and as much as I love the things it contains, I've left with a general feeling of ickyness. Maybe it's the lack of sky. Maybe it's the constant crush of crabby people. Maybe it's something else. I find DC, Toronto, and Chicago all delightful. Why does NYC make my skin crawl after a mere 24 hours?

2. The Harry Potter exhibit at Discovery (mostly props and costumes complimented by an audio tour with designer interviews) was a blast. I think I have Things To Say about Harry Potter and the final movie and the impact it's had on my life, but not now. The Discovery exhibit was particularly enjoyable because I got to hear lots of designers in my industry talk about their passion for the work.

There was one robe, though I can't remember which, held together with size 4 black snaps. They're the same snaps we use for most of our quick rigging, and I've EASILY sewn a hundred of them the last three+ months. I recognized them instantly (a feat I'm alternately proud of and embarrassed by) and physically recoiled (definitely not proud, as I elbowed a nice woman behind me) and made the gals I was with laugh.

Aside from the PTSD (Post-Tech Snap Disorder), I loved seeing the same work I've been doing on display as artistry. I mean, mostly I think of my job as a craft. To me, the stitching and painting and distressing I do is less Art and more craft that assists in the making of Art. But this, from the bleach-stained Invisibility Cloak (INFINITELY more impressive post-CGI) to Lupin's scuffed shoes to the distressing on the trio's Prisoner of Azkaban Shrieking Shack costumes, this was definitely Art. If you'll forgive a touch of melodrama, the exhibit was Work!life and fan!life combined in an unexpected and magnificent and inspiring way.

3. I've been playing around with Google+ the last week or so. It's definitely shiny! I haven't futzed or read enough to get a feel for the bad things, yet. I love the integration with other Google products. Not only will Plus notify me via the nav bar (or whatever that top menu for bouncing between Gmail and Docs and Calendar and such is actually called), it'll let me interact and post to Plus WITHOUT LEAVING GMAIL. Haven't used it yet, but the hangout via webcam feature seems particularly fun as well.

Anybody need or want an invite?

Bonus: Yup, VERY GLAD to be in not-NYC now. Sad to leave peeps and be away from theatre, but GAAA THAT CITY.

5 Thoughts about Smallville, Season 1 eps 1-4

Not behind a cut because we're 10 season in. I feel confident that I'm the only person left who might be concerned about nitty gritty spoilers.

1. Michael Rosenbaum, you're playing a character who hits all my I-don't-enjoy-watching-you buttons. WHY DO I LIKE YOU SO MUCH? From what I've seen so far, Lex isn't the kind of bad guy I'm drawn to (Logan on Veronica Mars notwithstanding). And yet, like Logan, you're interesting, engaging, and have me wanting more of you. (Though I'm confused about your lack of hair, 'cause Baby Lex in the Cornfield was apparently shaved by the meteors. Not a burn on his body, but no hair on his head? No sense. No sense at all.) Also, how old is Lex? Is he out of high school already, or just Above Schooling, thanks to Daddy's money? I got the sense he was pretty much the same age as Clark, but I'm not entirely sure.

2. Ahahah dated soundtrack is dated. I'm looking forward to seeing the show age (as I do with anything than spans many years of filming). I'm also interested to see where the show goes around season 5, as I'm guessing we've got a year of high school per season? Given how time seems to be passing in the first few eps, at least. ETA: Nevermind. Looked at Wikipedia to check the original air date and inadvertently read about the change of direction in season 5. BAH unexpected spoilers.

3. Kryptonite. Can I just state for the record how much I adore the first few presentations of the Kryptonite and Clark's reactions to it? From Chloe's "Statistical fact: Clark can't get within 5 feet of Lana" to ALL the other ridiculous and wonderful moments surrounding that stupid necklace. I love that the show is being thoroughly unsubtle about Clark's reaction to the Kryptonite (because if there's one thing the general public knows about the Superman mythos, it's kryptonite) and I LOVE that TPTB have allowed Clark to figure out why he's super weak RIGHT AWAY. No angsting, no aimless wondering, no looking past the obvious. Which brings me to:

4. Smart characters who talk about things! I don't love lie-based plots, so the fact that Clark has MULTIPLE honest and frank discussions with his parents about his powers in the first few eps makes me a happy girl. I don't need everyone to know everything all the time, but when the narrative is driven by a set of lies, I get annoyed. But that's not happening here! Clark has people with whom he can be honest (admittedly, he talks to different people about different things, but that's as it should be).

5. And because this post is lacking in shallow thoughts: WHOA PRETTY. Even knowing the actors are far older than their characters, I feel a leeeeeetle bit skeezy pointing out how pretty they are. But WHOA PRETTY. I expect that component of the show only to improve from here (to only improve? That's a split infinitive but it sounds better. English is hard).

I've been debating between watching Smallville or Stargate: Universe and I've seen enough of SG:U to know that the stuff they're doing with sex and body swaping is making me WAY uncomfortable. So. Smallville it is and though they'll both give me Michael Shanks eventually, I'm guessing it's a meatier role on Smallville--yays!

Blogging under pressure! Can I manage it? 17% battery power remaining! Will I post in time? Will I remember to send all the emails and download all the forms I need to before venturing back to my internet-less room? Will I actually write about any of the things I planned to write about?

Only time the next 15 minutes will tell.

Things! A short list of things about my weekend!

1. I watched a positively ridiculous amount of Doctor Who with a friend this weekend.
1a. No, really. We watched just over a season and a half, including 2 Christmas eps.
2. I'd forgotten, a little bit, the joy of sharing teevee show love with someone else. We flailed and giggled and shrieked and grabbed at each other, and by the time we got to mid season 3, we took mini breaks between each ep to process what we'd just watched.
3. A weekend (well, Friday night through Saturday) of Doctor Who is brilliant. A weekend of Who supplemented by many cups of tea, roasted veggies, omelets, and tasty bread is BEYOND brilliant.
4. I am slightly evil, and (knowing just how much "Blink" scared the snot out of my friend) wrote DON'T BLINK on the corner of her white board which led to a laughingly outraged message from her on my phone this morning, informing me of my evilness.
5. Watching the back half of s2 and knowing the end of the season with someone who doesn't know the end and really loves Rose is a little bit heartbreaking. In a good way, if that makes any sense.
6. In fact, rewatching the whole of New Who has been a fantastic way to rediscover my love for the show. I had wavered a bit 'round s4, and "Planet of the Dead" and "Waters of Mars" didn't to much to re-inspire my love. But rewatching has. Ooooh, has it ever.
6a. I don't even want to punch Captain Jack. And that's an impressive change.

At the moment, my life involves the following:
- work five 8-4(ish) days during the week
- knit or spin somewhat aimlessly
- watch amusing television
- help cook and clean
- pull together staged reading of All in the Timing with friends

You'll notice the lack of ANYTHING PRESSING in that list. For someone driven by stress and deadlines and expectations, this is v. unsettling. My life at the moment is this strange space of nothingness between two fairly sizable events (that would be university graduation last May and upcoming theatre internship in September). But instead of dwelling on my lack of purpose (which I can do perfectly well without blogging about it), I'm going to be positive! I'm positively resurrecting my 5 Happy Things!

1. Pandora- it keeps me in constant supply of boppy, fantastic music during the day. With such a varied soundtrack, work is never boring!
2. Mocha ice cream from Maple View. It's local made double chocolate ice cream with coffee added. SO MUCH NOM.
3. Reading ARCs. It's silly, I know, but the smug factor of knowing I'm reading a book months before the general public is impressively powerful.
4. Books that make me want to reach through the pages to hug the author. There have been a bunch in the last year, though most recently it's Libba Bray's Going Bovine and Holly Black/Cecil Castellucci's Geektastic for entirely different reasons.
5. The fact that Richard Castle has a Twitter account which he updates with regular sillyness. And the occasional visit from Alexis.

Have something happy or fun or amusing to share?