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I had every intention of watching the Golden Globes last night but I knocked out around 7:43 pm and woke up at 1 am and had to catch up via twitter, which was a good thing because live award shows bore me unless there are performances interspersed throughout. I did catch up on all the cute moments via gif or video thanks to tumblr and I saw the list of winners and I don't feel that moved about it. I predicted most of them correctly but that's only because I follow enough film blogs now to catch the general trends, and I've invested enough years of watching the Oscars and Golden Globes to get a sense of what to expect. Usually I followed for tv awards and ignored film, this time the film had more of my attention because Comedy didn't even recognize for a nomination Parks and Rec so that pretty much invalidated the tv section for me.

TV Thoughts:

Though I have not seen Homeland yet, I have heard good things and I mostly like Claire Danes as an actress and the rest of the cast (hey Damian Lewis, not!Gideon, and Inara) so I'm glad for their wins. Modern Family is a juggernaut and I'm not even mad. So pleased for Jessica Lange (she looked so good too), no matter my thoughts on AHS, I have always loved her performance; and another yay for PBS for winning an award for a drama.

Film Thoughts:

This awards season does not interest me as much because the films I really loved aren't really being recognized, as opposed to last year where most of the films I had interest in were in the conversation (Black Swan won something! Winters Bone was around, etc) but every year can't please me and this is that year. Not that I Haven't enjoyed films this year (Young Adult, Drive, Bridesmaids, etc) but those aren't really in the conversation and I have yet to see Descendants, The Artist, My Week With Marilyn, Hugo, and I don't plan to until they come on DVD. My mom has seen The Help and she really enjoyed it and thinks Viola Davis and Spencer deserve awards, and this older woman I had an Oscar conversation with in the used bookstore said the same thing.

I have plans to skim through others Yuletide recs and I applaud everyone who diligently compiled their recs and posted them to the comm. I know I am not going to get around to linking up all the stories I liked probably until months, so here is a link to my recs on AO3 which mostly do the same thing.

Awkward Sex Meme! This is something that interests me.

I received my prompt for poetry_fiction and the story is due in the first week of Feb.

Film

I did not go to the theatre that often when compared to everything I wanted to see, but I did go more than I went in 2010--even managed to see more than ten, enabling me to make a Top Ten List. (Before I go into this: ranking stuff is hard. Past a certain point I just wanted to put multiples on the same level and add a note that on another day the order may change.)

( Thor, X-men: First Class, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and 50/50 )

These are the rest of the books I've finished in 2011:

The Blood Chamber - fairy tale retellings with a gothic, feminist bent. This book is short but the language is lush and thick in some parts, making it feel longer than it is. I did not love every story in it but the ones I did, really were some of my favorite things read this year.

The Pushcart Book of Poetry - I find that reading anthologies of poetry help me find new authors/poets to read. It was from this book that I found Adrienne Rich and Szymborska.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Magical realism, protagonist I liked following, the idea was followed through well enough though towards the end the brother stuff made me pause and squint. I do want to read this one again though.

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - I really didn't like this book though I appreciated how it was written.

Ender's Game - I need to make a post about this one later. Short one: I can see why it is a classic, and I did buy the sequel.

Among Others - I need to read this one again too to solidify my feelings on it.

The Dream of a Common Language - Loved it. Made me go out and find her other works (to my disappointment). Definitely plan to read again.

Delirium & Before I Fall - both of these are by the same author and I liked them both enough to follow her on goodreads and look for the rest of her work. I remember when reading her I thought these are books made to be movies, but that wasn't backhanded praise, just I could easily see things visually while reading them.

( a list of the others to return to later )

Today I upgraded my account for a month mostly for the icons, though the extra 3 points were nice but ineffective. With my new icon space I deleted some (there are still more I need to get rid of) and added some, changed my default--love it though that was the opposite expression I wore with Misfits' latest finale.

Right now I'm trying to resist starting this WIP update because the author is not done posting and I'm already tired and it's better if I wait and just speed through it in the morning instead of F5ing a ridiculous number of times.

My new layout has all CAPS in certain parts, is there a way to changed that? Also to add some space between the journal title and recent entries or reading page within the header?

Current Mood: curious

39) Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan. Fresh in a standard way I'm used to with these two; that sounds like backhanded praise but what I mean is that if you've read their other collaborations you will understand the tone set out in this novel. I still contend that the two of them are essentially writing the same story just with minor differences but I do enjoy reading this story so that is not a complaint.

38) Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth by Adrienne Rich. Poetry collection I picked up because I was in love with the author's previous work, I probably should have just left it alone. There are some good poems in here but nothing that moved me the way The Dream of a Common Language

37) view with a grain of sand by Wislawa Szymborska (There's an accent mark missing here but I can't figure out how to insert it without pasting from elsewhere). This is probably one of my favorite books ever. I definitely plan on buying a physical copy of this one: Szymoborska just contains so many layers and weaves together these grand details...ugh, I still have to post some to the poetry comm.

36) Nemesis by Phillip Roth. Okay, I picked this up on a whim and on its small size. It was okay, the protagonist felt so distant and I pressed on because I was interested in the scenario surrounding the story but then there was this narrative switch at the end that felt like a copout that I can't get over. But I do plan to read something this author is noted for to get a better feel.

35) Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar. Pleasant book, real clean prose that just moved along without notice; but this book hit on my issue of the double standard of Older women sleeping with teenage boys vs Older men sleeping with teenage girls. His stepmother was, I think, twelve years older than him and closer to his age than she was to his dead father, but still.

34) Tonight No Poetry Will Serve by Adrienne Rich. Paste what I said about #38.

33) Goliath by Scott Westerfeld. Nice cap to a rather good trilogy though I wish the romance part hadn't happened.

32) Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda. Lovely collection.

31) The Magician King by Lev Grossman. I did enjoy this one more than the first, mostly because the crew managed to mature a bit though I still couldn't stand the protagonist and I'm glad he sacrificed something for someone instead of the other way around, though I was hoping Alice would turn out alive. I am more interested in the third after reading the second than I was for the second after reading the first.

30) Crush by Richard Siken. After seeing parts of this poem all over my flist, lj, and on tumblr I had to track down the full thing and I wasn't disappointed. It's not often I can use visceral and not feel cheap.

So I just finished reading all the yuletide stories I wanted and in the upcoming week I'll check out some rec posts for any works that I skipped that look good. I'm always amazed at how fast others get through it and start posting recs when I don't think I finished last year's collection.

I'm still massively behind on going through the Reading in 2011 Posts and I do want to post about movies and television this year as well, but some of that will probably bleed into 2012.

Someone besides me posted in

itstartswith the community I created but never promoted or mentioned. Yeah. I am going to do something about that: like start posting and promote it on some comms. I even made an icon for it that still doesn't look too shabby.

Besides

inkingitout I signed up for

poetry_fiction for 2012; it doesn't look like much but if I do this on time it will be a first for me in writing something in a timely manner for a challenge.

I need to find it within to subscribe to some other people, especially new journals. I remember what that was like.

Right. Skipped two days because I have a pattern of inconsistency to uphold, but on with going through the books of 2011:

44)The Marbury Lens. This book. One of my lowest rated ones of the year because it held such promise but really went nowhere and had some features that were awkward. ( sometimes the journey just ends up taking you no where )

43) The School Among the Ruins. Backtracking, early on I read The Dream of a Common Language and loved it so I thought why not pick up the rest of this poet's work, that didn't work out so well. This is the third collection I've read this year and it was better than the second but didn't really touch the first experience. Something I noted was the poems felt more distant from the subject and more energy seemed to be placed on spacing than creating standouts.

42) The Theory of Clouds I could create a stretched analogy comparing this book to the very nature of its subject but I'm way too tired. TToC follows people throughout time studying clouds. I like stories that follow different people with a loose theme connecting them so I did enjoy this. I'm reaching for an adjective to describe the feeling of realizing that it seems that the small sample of French literature I've read has employed much longer paragraphs than most American literary fiction I've read; but the flow is not harmed by that.

41) Arkham Asylum Madness Quick graphic novel featuring Arkham through the eyes of night nurse. Has an appearance by the Joker, Harley, and Ivy, and the Scarecrow but the story isn't that long or deep.

40) ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound. If Pound were writing today he'd probably be on Tumblr utilizing italics and CAPS to make his point about current literature needing to be news and calling people dumb in very long sentences and accusing them of bringing down the nation's conscience. Though this book was about poetry, and Pound favors a style of poetry that I don't, it was fun to read his ideas about reading and writing; the book contains a lot of truths and I saved a fair amount of quotes.

I just signed up for inkingitout on DW with a goal of 100,000 words. Ugh, I approach these with a certain level of trepidation though I can only look at myself for consistently failing these sort of things.

Moving to an attained goal for 2011, I did say I wanted to do some wrap up posts so here are my thoughts on books 45-50:

50) The Stranger by Albert Camus. This was a reread and I took it in better this time around than when I was in high school and just burning through books because they were classics, no it did not make me want to go through my existentialist phase again but I could appreciate the sparseness of the prose and how clean everything was. No drama was around really any part of it until the protagonist was shaken out of himself by his predicament.

49) Ariel by Sylvia Plath. Another reread but, wow, did I actually feel everything more this time when I'm in my midtwenties and am dealing with depression and just life. I'm just thinking about how I read so much Plath when I was younger because the darkness of it attracted me and her life story was like some sort of magnet for my teenage self but now with some years between my first reading, this second one made me feel so different. She'll cut her throat at ten if she's mad at two.

48) Indian Ink by Tom Stoppard. Just fine. Quick play to read. I already own it and this reading didn't make me want to give it away but it didn't make me want to keep it either.

47) Mule: a novel of moving weight by Tony D'Souza. Very enjoyable fast read about a dude falling into drug trafficking (marijuana) when the recession hits. Varied characters, the protagonist was one of the weaker characters but his situation was intriguing enough for me to speed through the novel. I could definitely see this being a film

46) Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan. I saw this twist coming early on but that's not much to brag about considering this book's intended audience; but while this was a quick read and the idea was interesting, I am not continuing with the series because I really didn't care about the main character at all. Now I just need to see the film.

45) The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard. Lovely. Hurtful. Makes a point without beating me over the face with it. I've owned this book for years (bought it during a phase I wasn't exactly proud of but did end up with me owning some great books so it wasn't all that bad). Unrequited love blows. I couldn't even work up a righteous fury because Mo wasn't even that horrible, just obtuse, and considering the time period very good about it all. Housman restricting himself and his views of Wilde made me sad too. It was this book that made me pick up Indian Ink because I figured if I loved TIOL I'd love his other play, not so much. I really have to stop picking up an author's work I loved because it has most often led to disappointment.

And in the middle of the last month of the year, I finally completed my goal of finishing 50 books. Unfortunately I really fell off on posting here about what I was reading and adding interesting quotes like I did in 2010 for perhaps half of the books I read; but I do plan to do a rundown before this year ends (so that's in 16 days). My last book was Camus' The Stranger this was a reread for me that proved beneficial because I did feel my impression of it increased the second time around.

Tomorrow the plan is to watch Young Adult and that will be the last theatrical release I catch this year because Shame will never come too close to me and the rest I'll wait until they show up on DVD. Speaking of movies, I bought a copy of Bridesmaids today and am contemplating picking up Netflix for about two months, between that and my library account I could go through a fair amount of DVDs.

Also in these next days I'd like to do a wrapup of television for me this year.

Magical Realism bookclub via tumblr. I have never actually participated in an online bookclub before, though I did go through two books with a local one that finally made me read David Sedaris and introduced me to Water for Elephants; but I am a fan of magical realism so I may give this a shot.

I have watched the finale of SOA and I have thoughts but not right now, maybe later. Quickly though: there has been many valid complaints about this season and the finale but, while last night was many things, it was not an actual reset--it may have just felt like one. Also, someone with more time and dedication needs to do a Hamlet meets SOA tumblr or something.

Speaking of needing time to digest something, Glee sectionals aired and I did a new thing of skipping majority of the show attempting plot, tuned in for some musical numbers, caught the last ten minutes and just followed reaction via tumblr and reviews and everything felt better. Right now the chances of me going through next week's Christmas episode are very low.

I'm terribly behind in fanfction reading (damn you delicious) but maybe I'll get some things read tonight during my 30 minute block after Happy Endings and before American Horror Story.

The United States, the rising world power (...), seemed the least harmonious culture of all. He could already sense that what would triumph in the world was a civilization---rigid, formidably efficient, spiritually demented, militaristic, and mercantile---which had extracted analogies to the Universe from two thousand years of thought, in order to select those laws that would prove useful for making nature subservient, and for serving Progress.

-Stéphane Audeguy

So this is from my phone. Let's see how it shows up. Reading is difficult with a cluttered screen and endless scrolling, granted I am not using the latest in mobile tech.

The Switch

Ugh, I really need to refresh my barely existent html skills if I'm going to stay on the beta update page.

I have this entire post discussing the new Fall TV schedule but then suddenly new shows just started airing and now I'm massively behind. So let's clean up my Reading List:

Cinema Links
Sometime last year I started following some entertainment blogs, narrowing it down to a few film blogs that managed to discuss film with layers and actually managed the elusive trick of having pretty worthy comment sections.

The Red Carpet Campaign: Inside the singular hysteria of the Academy Awards race.
One of the best writings on the nature of the Oscar Race. I've always said that good writing can make me interested in things I don't even really care about and illuminate a process that seems shrouded in mystery. The only way this could have been better is if it had broken down last year's race where The King's Speech came up to claim nearly all the awards and cause rage in most of the corners of the internet I followed.

It would be fun to report that the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards, which were announced February 2, were the result of brilliant maneuvering or diabolically clever stratagems, of masterstrokes and counterthrusts carefully planned in studio war rooms. But despite often justifiable skepticism about the process, Oscar nominations—one of which, of course, went to Bridges—can’t be bought. Not exactly, anyway.

Current Guessing of The Best Actor Race from Awards Daily
I like reading these even though I usually respond best to movies going in with a blank slate--hype tends to turn me off and if something is proclaimed as awful I spend a lot of time trying to see if I agree or not. Out of the movies listed I'm only interested in The Descendants, The Artist, The Ides of March (but not in theaters, no matter how much I love Gosling), Moneyball, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Shame. The last is rated nc-17 so I'm not sure I will be able to see that besides in my room.

Not Oscar Stuff
Here Are The Top Grossing Lesbian Films I'm not sure if this is worldwide or just North American box office...

Misc
The Day Rap Grew Up: Jay-Z's 'The Blueprint,' 10 Years Later
Ever since reading The History of the Business of Hip Hop I've been on the lookout for extended pieces on the genre.

By 2001 this paradox was collapsing on Jay-Z: How does a burgeoning mogul and darling of the mainstream—one who would turn 32 years old that year—maintain a persona dependent on poverty and youthful transgression? Or, to put it more simply: how do you grow up when all anyone wants you to do is keep talking about when you were a kid?

Good piece on the the latest version of Amanda Waller. Okay, I'm not that familiar with the character inside of comics but I have seen the character in cartoons.

Super good icons of female drummers

YULETIDE is coming! I'm still too afraid to actually write but I do like seeing what nominations are popping up. Someone suggest Sucker Punch, Bridesmaids, Up All Night, Warehouse 13, Alphas, Awkward, Teen Wolf, Blue Exorcist, Oglaf, Gaga music videos especially if they cross over with Beyonce

It's been almost two months since I posted. Wow. Let's get back into it with a meme I've seen around:

|Fandom as relationships:|

( ramblings on different fandoms )

Apparently this meme is longer but I'm now tired. Any questions or ones I left off that you want me to answer, leave them in the comments.

It's been forever since I've posted. Still not dead. Just been lurking on tumblr and dealing with other issues.

Posts that exist in my head but not actually online (yet):

+ Bridesmaids is a fantastic movie; not without flaws but I haven't enjoyed a movie so fully in a very long time. Don't let the advertised grossout humor detour you, this movie hits the emotional beats hard and rises above what lesser movies would probably have done.

+ X-men: First Class. There's a lot I love about this movie and a lot that I didn't. There's been so much written that I could probably compose a post fully of others' words but I'm too tired right now. But there will be posts on the film because I've grown up on X-men and I've seen every movie from the franchise.

Glee hired six writers, two of which are women. Rejoice? This news inspires me with cautious optimism.

How have you guys been?

( spoiler in my wish )

Ladies' Big Bang is back for round two! This is one of my favorite fests and maybe this time I'll submit something or maybe at least do a complement mix or something.

I have so many bingos to post for amnesty it's ridiculous.

Yesterday I saw Bridesmaids and I really enjoyed it. More on that later.

For reasons that are difficult to understand, I have a soft spot for NBC as a network (in brief: I really loved Friends and Season one Heroes a lot and the lesser known American Dreams and so many other NBC shows. They actually hit the perfect mix for me when they get it right. Of course they own my Thursday comedy night) so I checked out their new season offerings.

Up All Night stars Christina Applegate and Will Arnett, two funny people that just don't really make shows starring themselves that I'm interested in; even with Maya Rudolph the preview didn't make me want to watch it.

Free Agents looked funnier than I thought it would after reading others' descriptions of it. I've liked the lead actress since she was on Crossing Jordan and Hank Azaria crying after sex actually made me chuckle a bit. I don't see myself dropping any of my current shows for it but I do want to see it.

Blame my Fables fixation for being open to all of these fairy tale themed shows coming up in the Fall. Grimm has me intrigued but its timeslot tells me not to get attached; also, I like a touch of whimsy things like this, even with the more gritty approach.

The Playboy Club. I will check it out but it's going to get compared to Mad Men and it's going to fall short. Eddie Cibrian (?) just seems like attractive cardboard that smirks in a slightly douche manner and the leading blonde seemed stiff as well. This could just be pilot jitters and they could settle into a better flow as the show progresses--I sure hope so; and maybe the focus isn't solely on those two and the other women could get a chance to tell their stories as well.

Prime Suspect looks like a rather good detective show and if I weren't so tired of the genre I'd be more excited about it; but I've had my fill of detective shows so I'll probably give this one a chance but I don't see myself being devoted to it.

So I've been flaky with this meme so it's best that I just go ahead and answer the rest of the questions.

12. What do you consider the five most "telling" interests from the list on your profile? Why? // What do you consider the 10 most "telling" interests from the list on your profile? Why? || 13. Do you have any unique interests on your user profile? What are they? How'd they get there?

I haven't edited my changes since I created this journal May 2009; so my interests are a snapshot of where I was then, or more like how I was when I was really into having my interests represent what I'm into. But looking at what I currently have:

Five Most Unique (I Guess)

being ridiculous on the internet is still something I'm highly into. One of my primary objectives is fun fun and I consider a day worthwhile whenever something flashes across my screen that makes me grin. Sometimes it's a game, a cool fic, a vid, an artwork, a surprising post.

cheap books I will never have enough books. I will always hunt through stacks in thrift stores, used book stores, and library sales. Some of my favorite purchases: The Things They Carried (looked for that one for years), What I Loved, The Book Thief (soft and hard cover), Catch-22, others.

fics of random fandoms On random nights I find myself reading fics for fandoms I have no knowledge of, it doesn't have to be AUs either (though I have yet to find a mafia AU I won't at least check out). I started reading SPN way before I had even seen an episode, same with Harry Potter, Gossip Girl, Yuletide forever. Usually I scan some rec lists and if someone sells it hard enough then I'll give it a go.

finding all petes Fascination. Begrudgingly charmed. Frustration. These are things I often feel for Petes in all my fandoms. RPF and FPF. (Bandom, Mad Men, Fringe)

screwing up html always and forever

Telling: I used to be really into bandom. Now, not as much.

( questions 14-20 )

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vastness once thought small

Recent Entries

how can surprise still surprise

an omen is neither blessing nor curse

What I took in: 2011 Film 10-5

Reading in 2011: the list and a rest

do not try and predict trends

Reading in 2011: the thirties

Not the thing I meant but

Reading Overview: we close out the forties

(no subject)

Just one now

let's just ease into things again

For Prosperity: The Theory of Clouds

Test

Read this Story. For as long as you need to.

each press is an effort

for a minute there I lost myself

Whether flying or crawling, time always moves

tonight's Glee has me wishing for

Ladies' Big Bang + NBC Fall 2011 Preview

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: it comes together in preparation