Obscure Alternatives

I managed to get a referral for physical therapy finally - but couldn't schedule an appointment until December 4. It's about ten-fifteen minutes (walk, train, walk) from work. So not too bad. Assuming there are no delays, in which case, I'm screwed.

After raining most of the night, it cleared by mid-morning and was a windy blustery day with bulbous white clouds latter in the day. So blustery - that I put my hood up, and I felt the wind cut through my wind breaker during my walk at lunch time along the pier.



It's cool in the apartment tonight, around 68. Which means the wind and chill have carried into evening. And the chill and damp may be aggravating the arthritis in the spine and knees. I don't know.

Because of where I work - I get more on the political front than most? For example? There's a huge Freight Rail Merger - which the Doofus was fond of supporting, but now all the manufacturers, specifically the chemically manufacturers, have pleaded with him not to support it - because it will create a monopoly in regards to rail transportation - and raise their costs.

My brother went to a No Kings Demonstration in upstate NY over the weekend, and informed mother that most of the protesters were Baby Boomers, the one's she saw seemed much younger. He also keeps seeing Sam Waterson (Law and Order, among others) in passing. I wouldn't have recognized him. If I see someone out of context, and don't interact with them daily - I have no idea who they are. I barely recognized a minister at my church on the subway.

Mememage

17. Have you ever bought something via the Internet and regretted it?

Yes, more times than I care to think about. Usually bags or clothing, also knitting supplies. I keep thinking I can knit, and keep forgetting you kind have to be able to count in order to knit, and I can't count without skipping over numbers. Also I suck at threading needles.

18. The definition of an antique is something that is 100 years old – do you own anything that old?

No. At least I don't think so? No.

19. Are you wearing any finger rings today?

No. I don't wear jewelry. No rings, no necklaces, not even earrings any longer. The appeal of rings is completely lost on me? They get in my way and having anything on my fingers irritates me. Good thing I don't have to wear them.

20. When was the last time it rained where you live? Has it been drier than normal for this time of year?

Last night. Not really, although we've had dry spells this year. And it threatens drought, but then it rains. I live on islands? And we just had a Nor'Easter.

21. Do you own a wine rack? What do you keep in it?

No. I no longer drink alcohol and I have no space for it.

22. What size is the smallest decorative ornament in your home?

I have no idea. I can't measure to save my life. If I had to guess? An inch? I got a wooden Russian shell doll from Moscow Mentee some time ago, and it has a tiny little doll, and I think that's the smallest. So whatever size that is?

Spent most of my vacation attempting to quell various aches and pains, brought on by various factors, some known, some guessed at, some not?
( Read more... )

***

The UU Church has a Devotional Poetry Writing Group. I flirted with it. But I'm wary of anything regarding the writing and sharing of poetry. ( Read more... )

UU Church is also featuring a singer/song-writer for tomorrow's service, who is (apparently) popular? I hadn't heard of them before the Church newsletter told me about him - but I'm also not really into religious music? While I have, as you've no doubt figured out by now, widely diverse taste in music, there are few genres I rarely listen to? They are "traditional classical opera", "electronica" (depending on the electronica), "religious music", "gospel", "choral music", "rap" (depending on the rap), and heavy metal (depending on the heavy metal). So, as result, I hadn't come across this person, who I think is trans, and is creating queer religious music and going across the country with it.

Anyhow...I checked them out last night, and their song, entitled Ploushare Prayer by Spencer LaJoye.

Folks, they made me cry? It really moved me. I was surprised.
( Ploushare Prayer Video )
But not sure I can deal with the crowd that will converge on the church tomorrow to hear them play for free. I'll do it on Facebook or Zoom instead. No steps. Sleep in. And better acoustics, not to mention I can see more.

***

Pain and fear of large crowds kept me from participating in the No Kings Day. I hope it went well. More to the point? I hope it accomplishes something?

Ah, it's getting darker earlier now. Sunset was at 6:30. My heart goes out to my brother - whose heating and cooling system has failed him. He's tried to get it fixed multiple times. The first time, they came out, he paid them, they claimed that they fixed it. They didn't. They came out again, claimed to fix it, they didn't. Then they got bought by someone else. Who kept claiming they didn't get my brother's calls or emails, and came out, and then well up and disappeared. So he found a new company - and the whole system has to be replaced. He has a wood burning stove - but it's not going to heat the entire house, and his bedroom is one floor below it, and heat rises? And it gets cold up there? And my brother gets cold easily. [I'm so glad I rent. Let all of that be somebody else's problem. We've had hitting issues - but they tend to get resolved quickly - since there's about 100 people affected.)

****

Television

1. Weirdly I'm enjoying Angel the Series better now than I did way back when I first watched it in the late 1990s. If I was to hazard a guess - I think it would be lowered expectations, and no longer wanting Angel and Buffy to be together - or being disappointed that they aren't? I wasn't in the fandom until roughly 2002 - or midway through S6. ( Read more... ) At any rate - I'm enjoying Angel more now. Partly, because I like Angel, Wes, and Cordelia better now than I did twenty five years ago. I find them a bit more relatable and comforting. They are all a tad lost, and doing the best they can to make things work, while flailing miserably most of the time. The writers dig down into classic noir tropes.

And, I like how most of the writers veer away from the classical hero trope. For all the times, Angel succeeds, he also fails miserably. In the Scourge? The seventh or eighth episode, he attempts to sacrifice himself heroically - but his speeches to Doyle about why he sacrificed his humanity and a life with his one true love to pursue the cause, backfires on him in a huge way. ( Read more... )

Moving on to Parting Gifts - which I didn't like the first time I saw it, twenty five years ago, I do now. It's a great study in characters and contrasts. Also demonstrates how Wes, Cordy and Angel work slightly better than Doyle, Angel and Cordy did. For one thing - they get it across pretty quickly - that there are 0 romantic feelings between Angel/Cordy or Cordy/Wes. ( Read more... ). They also set up each character's skill sets. ( Read more... ) But mainly, within a short period of time - they set up the problem, the on-going villain (WRH law firm in the shadows), and the relationship dynamic between Angel, Cordy, Wes. And I realized while watching that I like all three, and all three actors in spite of myself?

I prefer watching this outside of a fandom superimposing its views onto me?
I can find it comforting and enjoyable on my own. Also, no longer caring who ends up with who, or romantic ships - makes the show more interesting?
I was never much into romantic relationships on television shows? I much prefer the platonic friendships - they are more interesting to watch, and less frustrating - particularly within the noir/horror genre.

2. The Diplomat S3 - this is fun. Want sparkling funny witty dialogue - this is it. Good actors. And excellent political satire. Also, even though the President in this series was responsible for an act of terrorism? I still prefer Allison Janey as President to the one we currently have. I'd rather live in the world of the Diplomat? Sad I know. But here we are. And, sigh, Rufus Sewell is hot. This show just makes me laugh. I'm not binging it this go around - I'm letting it last. Then I may rewatch from the beginning.

[I'm still watching Poker Face and Rain Maker on Peacock, just slowly.]

Diddy-dallying prior to taking off for massage. Also, spent time revising novel. Making some progress?

Friday Five...(I'd say I'm happy it's Friday? But I wish I had five more days of vacation now that the sciatica is getting better, and I can walk without too much pain?)

1. How long ago did you join LJ (or DW)?

I joined Lj in August of 2003 then DW about eight years later - when a Russian firm bought LJ, and it began posting ads and making it like FB...and kind of went downhill from there? So both combined? 22 years.

2. How did you find out about LJ (or DW)?

Through the ATPO_BTVS & ATS Board or Buffy fandom Voy boards.

3. If someone introduced you to LJ (or DW), is s/he still on your friends list?

Sadly, not any more. She was on FB for a while, but disappeared from it shortly after the pandemic or during it. (Social media friends much like real life ones - can at times feel like a revolving door? Or folks you meet on a hike - but eventually part ways with - because, well, everyone has to do their own hike?)

4. Have you introduced anyone to LJ (or DW)?

Yep. Quite a few actually. I had a bunch follow me from LJ over to DW.

5. Is your LJ (or DW) public or friends only, and why?

If it's about my workplace, or really personal - about family or personal friendships - it's usually locked. Everything else is public - I've made a few new friends on both sites because they've seen my unlocked posts.

Buffy S4 and Angel S1 rewatch. Every time I watch Bachelor Party (Angel S1 ep. 6), Pangs (Buffy S4 Ep 8), I Will Always Remember You (Angel S1 Ep.7), and Something Blue (Buffy S4 Ep. 9) - I wonder the same thing - how in the bloody hell could anyone still ship Buffy and Angel together after watching those episodes? Are they metaphor blind? Blind to subtext? I felt the writers hammered me over the head with why Buffy and Angel could never work - to the point in which I wanted to say, enough already, can we please move on? I get it. But alas, I know people still shipped them, thought IWARY was terribly romantic, and basically everything about why they didn't work flew over these folks heads. My niece didn't get it. My brother didn't get it. Various online friends didn't get it. Very disconcerting. They are smart people too. Oh well. Not everyone thinks the same way.

Watched them again - curious to see if I'd change my mind. I didn't.

It's been a while since I'd seen them, and I forgot a few things? ( Read more... )

2. I managed to clean out my kitchen cabinets above the sink - so I know there are no bugs hiding in them. Also, I have too much food and don't need to go grocery shopping for a long time.

There's a lot of things I need to get rid of. And a lot of bean salads, chili, and bean soaps in my future.

Already managed to clear out the cans of tuna fish and salmon.

3. Sciatica is still plaguing me. I bought an "Aleve Topical Cream Rub" to see if that helps.

It helped a little. Couldn't walk that far, made it about ten blocks to and from the pharmacy, and gave up. Did that twice today actually. Also doing leg exercises.

Good news? The calves aren't tight any longer, and I can walk. Which means reducing the antihistmines helped, and increasing the water. Probably was caused by dehydration. Now, if I can just fix the sciatica - hopefully tomorrow's massage.

1. After much contemplation - I finally bit the bullet and booked a "Thai" massage for Friday.

My plans - such as they were - have kind of fallen through as a result of a combination of things - weather, sleep/exhaustion and mobility issues. Does anyone know how to heal tightened sore calve muscles? I've tried everything - yoga, stretching exercises, leg exercises, drinking lots of water, cutting back on antihistamines. Hopefully one will work. Also massage - to stretch out and re-align, because not sure how much of the pain is due to alignment. [I'm leaving calling the doctor again as a last resort - I already asked them for help, and they told me: 1) dehydration (drink more water, and limit the anithistamines) and 2) do exercises, and 3) lose weight.)

But that's okay, I'm doing other stuff - and at least I'm away from work and my body is hopefully healing - getting more sleep, and more exercise?

2. PSA: Ao3 finally posted something about how to protect yourself from scammers - probably because they'd gotten a barrage of complaints about them - if you've been posting fic, meta, any type of writing for more than a year, and have followers, on social media platforms - you've probably run across the scammers.

They pop up on live-journal and dream-width too, by the way. I've not really seen that many on WordPress or Facebook (mainly because my FB page is friends/family only and private). They are a nuisance.

3. Buffy S4 - continues to be good, and an improvement over previous seasons. The one flaw - is well - the Initiative Story-Arc, which basically just underlines how little the writers know about the military outside of watching cheesy 1960s science fiction serials. Oh well, at least they have Spike to poke fun at it - and he does.

Sunday's hippie Vampire Frat Boy: Don't drink that it's drugged.
Spike: Ugh. And you might be?
SHVFB: A rat like all the other lab rats. We're here to die. They starve us until we bite our own arm off, then feed us drugged blood ...
Spike: And they might be who exactly? The government, Nazis, a major cosmetics company?
Lab Rat: It was all fine until the slayer came in and broke up our group - we had a great thing going until she arrived.
Spike: the Slayer! I always wondered what would happen if she got some good funding behind her...

He clearly thinks more of the Slayer as a threat that well the government.

S4 Episode 7 - The Initiative - makes me wonder about the writers again.

Juliet Landau brings this up in her rewatch - so it's not just me, apparently. The writers seem to like to show the male characters in the worst light, and often emphasize their misogynistic and chauvinistic traits. ( Read more... )

It's a good episode for several stand out scenes: ( Read more... )

Pangs - I've less to say about, but I loved this episode. It has some of the best lines and banter in the entire series. Also the bantering debate between Willow, Giles, Xander, Spike, Buffy and Anya about the Native Americans and Thanksgiving is hilarious, and informative...and realistic. It reminds me of why I liked the later seasons - I really loved the addition of Anya and Spike - I liked those two characters (and actors) far better than Angel and Cordelia - they were less mopey? Whiny? And more witty. (It does depend on one's sense of humor? Angel's didn't work for me, Buffy's did.)

"And they say Romance is dead, or maybe we just wish it were?" - Buffy

"You made a Bear!" - Spike
"I didn't mean to." - Buffy
"Undo it! Undo it!" - Spike

"It's a sham, with yams. It's a yam sham!"
"You won't be able to jokingly rhyme your way out of this one!"

[Actually, it just occurred to me? Buffy and Spike hit it off - because they are both poets and sardonic quips. They like to make fun of things.]

Pangs is proof that Buffy succeeded because the writers could write dialogue. According to the Juliette Landau rewatch - when she interviewed Charles Martin Smith one of the Buffy directors - Whedon had a tendency to write pages of dialogue, no set direction, no camera direction, no action - just dialogue. And from what I've read - he was the go-to guy for good dialogue. And came from Roseanne - which had great comedic dialogue and one liners. Say what you will about Whedon - he was a good script writer. Might have been a horrific boss that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy - but he could churn out a good script, and tended to find other writers who could.

4. Finished another S1 episode of Poker Face- this is the Rian Johnson series that stars Natasha Lyon as a kind of Columbo style detective, in a stealth anthology series. The only on-going link in the series is Lyon's Charlie, who is a former card counter/gambling security checker on the run from the Mob (and any law enforcement associated with it). She takes odd jobs here and there, and cleverly solves mysteries along the way. The odd jobs range from sweeping up hair in a barber shop to assisting a special effects film director. She drives a ratty old 1970s era Cad, that looks like it was picked off the lot of Starsky and Hutch. And each episode features older rather famous actors (much as Columbo and Murder She Wrote did back in the day). The episode I just watched had Nick Nolte, Cherry Jones, and Luz Guzman.

Like all stealth anthology series - some episodes are better than others. It's not really binge material. I watch it sporadically. It does require some attention or focus though, and it has commercials - although they aren't intrusive.

If you like Rian Johnson (who is admittedly an acquired taste), Natasha Lyonn (also an acquired taste and the female version of Peter Falk), and Columbo/Alfred Hitchcock/Agatha Christie style mysteries - this is for you.

This episode was written and directed by Natasha Lyon. I'm impressed by Nolte who is still acting at 84, and doing a great job of it. (Nolte is another one of my actor crushes.)

1. Uhm, they actually did a graphic novel of the life of Ed Gein and scans daily scanned all of it. At work, one of the guys that sits near me (but works for another agency/department within my agency), was talking about the Ryan Murphy television series loosely based on Gein's life - entitled Monster : the Ed Gein Story - it turned his stomach, but he couldn't look away or stop watching it. The two people who did the graphic novel - didn't like the television series - which they felt took liberties with the story and exaggerated bits that didn't require exaggeration. ( more on the Ed Gein: Monster miniseries currently airing on Netflix )

2. Buffy S4 rewatch. I just finished watching "Wild at Heart" - the episode that marks the return of Spike to the series post-Angel, and the beginning of Spike's redemption arc. And the exit of OZ from the series, although he does briefly return later. Spike's entrance is brief and at the very beginning of the episode. And it's interesting that Spike collides with the Initiative (the actual big bad of the season) in the same episode that Buffy collides with them, although she does it later. And it's Buffy that brings them to Giles' attention as a potential threat - they'd delayed her in her pursuit of OZ (ironically I think they were also pursuing OZ). We also have "boy scout" Riley pop up and save Willow from being hit by a car - slowly building on his relationship with Buffy. He's kind of the Anti-Angel? Much like Angel, he is in the background. But not exactly lurking? Also he's trying to fight demons on his own - but is oblivious to Buffy as she is of him. The Initiative and Riley - is the writers expanding on the world and answering a vital question - which is, is anyone else fighting demons besides Buffy? Wouldn't the military or others be aware of them? They aren't exactly hidden?
( Read more... )

Marsters demonstrates his comedic chops in the entry of the episode...when Buffy laminates the lack of an appreciative audience for her puns and quips, Spike announces she shouldn't tempt the Universe - because here he is to answer that demand - when the Initiative soldiers come up behind him and taze him. ( Read more... )

I was certain there was a line about Willow's shirt by Veruca, and an exchange between Buffy and Willow about it. But I didn't see it in the episode, so maybe I misremembered it? It's possible?

I wish I can say I'll miss OZ. But no. ( Read more... )

I like Riley at the moment. I always did. I did not share the fandom's dislike for the character, and was more ambivalent. I didn't see him as being with Buffy for long - they came from different worlds, and wanted different things. He was a lot like Angel - and I think she may well have realized, being with him, why long-term with Angel wouldn't have worked.
Two Alpha characters or leaders don't work. ( Read more... )

I'm enjoying watching this again without having to argue with insane shippers. I was constantly biting my tongue. And not always very well.

3. Also watching mindless comfort shows such as : Great British Baking Show S13, Grey's Anatomy S22 (dear god, that show has actually been on 22 years, and Bailey looks exactly the same), 911 Nashville (it stars Chris O'Donnell - who makes me feel old, since he's a Dad with a grown son in the show, Jessica Capshaw, married to O'Donnell with a grown son) - but kind of like the others. I like Lone Star and the original better. This one is kind of soapy, which I'm not sure works with the trope? And "Call the Midwife" - S6. Of the comfort shows, the British ones are the best, hardly surprising, that. I just wish they were on better streaming services - Netflix is making me crazy.