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.

Fringe continued its strong streak so far. ( Fringe Spoilers )

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NYRB Classics and Oxford World Classics. I love lists and growing to-be-read piles so I'm going to tackle these two over an extended period of time.

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Piece discussing the need for female music critics. Slowly I've been reading on criticism and fleshing out my thoughts on it. Someday I'll make a post on it all, but for now I'll share the link.

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So excited for the code push on Sunday! Definitely changing the layout and playing with the new features.

Still testing out new shows and seeing what my older ones come out with, unfortunately today was the return of the migraine so I spent most of my day in a dark room cursing my body. Positive though: managed to watch Sunset Boulevard it is quite a meta, fantastic movie. I really enjoyed it. I wish something similar could be made now.

Other movie I watched today: Manic with JGL. This is not fully motivated by my Inception fandom fixation, I've always wanted to see this movie and then I managed to catch it this morning. The anger issues really came through and I liked how none of the issues were sensationalized. I had already figured out what happened with Kenny before it came out but I have intense creeper senses when it comes to media. I would definitely watch that movie again.

( Undercovers and Criminal Minds talk )

Lonestar will be back next week. Nice. This post feels long but I've been thinking more about this and there's been this post brewing about multiple tv choices, network vs cable, etc but I feel half dazed and still groggy from earlier so later. Also, I will have more icons and I miss them.

I still haven't settled into this Fall's TV schedule. Right now Glee, Mad Men, It's Always Sunny, Community are definite. Criminal Minds is on my maybe list because of the cast shakeups and how poor the spinoff episode was; also there's the issue that I think the show has given me everything it can now and I'm not feeling as attached. I'm definitely giving Undercovers a chance too but I'd be very surprised if I became fic fannish about it.

What are some thoughts on the new Fox show 'Lone Star'? When I first saw the clip, I was impressed but I mentioned how it felt more like a movie than a show that would have seasons behind it. So the show looks good but I wonder how many people are going to stay committed to a show about a con man. I'm going to give it a shot though unless it interferes with the other shows.

I just wrapped up Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld and I enjoyed it. Nice YA steampunk with strong male and female characters. I'll talk more about it later but Alek did seem younger than his age. But later, I have a host of books to mention and I'm too tired to go into detail.

Have I mentioned that I've been keeping up with soccer (more on those exploits later) but I've fallen for Arsenal with a soft spot for Liverpool. This happened after watching a number of last season's matches and just reading different blogs and watching the current season. It was not a quick decision. After some time watching games, I'm ready to make predictions--

Arsenal v Sunderland - I think they can pull out a win here, hopefully they can keep a clean sheet too but I won't exactly bank on it. //crossing fingers// (Yes, I'm still riding a 6-0 high. Let me swim in that for a bit)

Liverpool v Manchester United - Hmmm, last week I was distressed about this b/c I didn't want to see a massacre on the field but after the Europa match (4-1 !) now I have hope for more of a fight. Still, I think United may win this one but I hope Liverpool prove me wrong.

Those are the ones I've thought about but I do like Blackpool--every time they play they make me smile, maybe it's the tangerine.

Hopefully I can catch some Serie A and La Liga this weekend.

Why are all the rumors for upcoming tv stuff making me quell rage? Criminal Minds, you are pissing me off--and I'm getting the vibe that this is more the hand of CBS (which I have problems with)--but it is still angry making and it's not something I'm going to get over. (ETA: there is word that a new woman will take JJ's place so at least the balance will be slightly maintained. Still Emily better stick around & the cast continues to be stellar people)

But now I'm hearing the rumor that in the USA Skins remake the character of Maxxie may be replaced with a lesbian. Right. Why would they do that? Why does the media seem to live by the highlander method of casting gay characters? There can be both a gay and a lesbian kid (please let that be the case). This remake is feeling like MTV wants to coast on the Skins name but stripping the remake of its essence. Still, I'm holding back complete judgement until I see the final product.

Every so often I have a great day when it comes to reading stuff through google reader and I like to share:

Ethical Criticism of Genre Fiction: parts 1 & 2
I ignored this at first because I wasn't in a mood for it but I stumbled across part 2 today and had to read the first part. The comments are good too.

Or (2) you know quite well that there is a lot of stuff you wouldn’t endorse in a romance novel, some of it apparently endorsed by the (implied — more on that later) author, but either (a) you don’t read those books, or (b) if you do, you don’t “learn anything” from them, because you filter the bad stuff out. Ok, but then, you aren’t “learning” anything from romance novels. Rather, you are applying a moral framework you already possess to your selection of texts, or to your reading of texts, only letting what you have already decided are “good” messages in. In that case, it would be more accurate to say that your reading of romance novels reinforces or deepens or lends specification to moral beliefs you already hold. I think that is much closer to what is really happening, personally. But if it is, then we have to accept that if a reader holds pernicious moral beliefs, she can find some warrant, some deepening, reinforcing or specifying, of those bad moral beliefs in romance novels, too.

ASK RACIALICIOUS: HOW TO READ AND RESPOND TO LITERATURE OF COLOUR
I didn't realize the protagonist in Ash was supposed to be of mixed heritage or Asian. There's a lot in the post to get through and the comments are worth the read.

Sometimes I hear music or see a growing trend and I grab my cane and wave it while yelling 'damn kids, get off my lawn!' all while penning diatribes in my mind about how things used to be so much better: the funny thing about this is that I'm not even twenty-five yet and I've been having 'I'm getting too old for this shit' moments for years. I am an old, cranky soul.

But I really enjoyed this by a music critic.

So, at least in my case, I think it's a question of age rather than being a critic. Part of me suspects I would love them if I were 15, even if I felt embarrassed by it later. Their music evokes the hormonal fug of a teenage boy's bedroom; a certain overfamiliarity with the art of the first-person shooter.

I still think Pendulum are joyless, witless and grindingly dull, but the more I think about them the more I find something almost perfect in their ability to annoy me and the people I know. They prove that the generation gap is not dead, that we are not all trotting hand-in-hand through the fields of Latitude to see Fleet Foxes, and that's reassuring.

I've never warmed to the kind of music fan who hits a certain age and prides themselves on not knowing who is No 1, as if pop's future were beneath them and only its past worthy of their attention. I want to be excited by the new and the popular, and I frequently am. But Pendulum have defeated me. For that, in a strange way, I salute them.

One day I'll talk about how I view criticism but I'm very tired and I'm edging towards near incoherency.

Oh, and here are some pictures of birds affected by the oil spill.

I can't say I completely agree with everything I linked to but I did enjoy reading them.

Criticism and how it's changing is something that interests me. I've got so many posts running around in my head, but here are some links to articles that I've saved recently.

'We Are Not Consumer Guides': Talking About Talking About Culture

If you don't know at the time you start writing about television -- or movies, or books -- that many, many smart people will have diametrically opposed opinions to yours, and will express them eloquently and forcefully, then you will learn it almost immediately. I could rattle off ten things I love that are or undoubtedly would be totally despised by any critic you want to name whose stuff I love reading. I promise you that every single person I deeply respect who regularly reads what I write has, at least once, said to himself or herself, "I have absolutely no idea what she is on about; she has lost her mind." And then they come back the next day, I hope, and conclude that I have regained my lost grip. The idea that all smart and thoughtful people would, if asked, come up with an identical set of Good Movies and Bad Movies is just ... ridiculous. Beyond ridiculous.

That Kevin Smith Thing

It’s not personal. At least it shouldn’t be. It’s about the movies, which could just be entertainments released without comment for a public that can choose to go see them or not and then wait for a new round of movies next week. But movies are more than just those images that flicker for a couple of distracting hours then disappear. Critics are, or should be, those who think movies mean something more than that, that they don’t end when the lights go up. Loving movies means, of course, loving the movies themselves but also the conversations—in print, online, or in person—around them and the discussions of what they mean to us, whether they’re A Serious Man or Hot Tub Time Machine. (Or Jersey Girl. or Cop Out.)

These are focused on movies but this applies to all forms of criticism to me (books, music, etc). If I wasn't so tired I would talk more about how I view criticism but I am tired, so perhaps later.

In regards to yesterday's hugging post:

Meredith Viera issued an apology proving once again why I have always liked her; even when she was on The View. She's a classy person.