Agent Provocateur

Late Summer Doldrums

2009-08-24T02:35:02Z

So I'm in the vapid tv wasteland that is August. I've been spending the days doing a lot of yoga, playing with inversions, and turning to the tried and true make me laugh / make me cry tv seasons . . .

I rewatch the Dr Who from Nine. So much LOVE. Such amazing social commentary - especially when the overriding them is hope. Such a sad passing for Ten. Now that everyone including RT Davies has moved on - I am a bit skeptic. . . . and Ten really needs a companion. And Donna was cut way to short . . . .

And then I rewatched Veronica Mars, S1. Who knew that Blair Waldorf and Steve Newlin went to Neptune High! And oh the hot mess of Logan Echolls. . .

Can't wait for Fall tv. But in the meantime LOVE Eric. That is SO how you do a dream sequence. HOT!

Other than that, a bit counting the days. What will be the tipping point?

Delicious Blood

2009-06-16T03:41:40Z

True Blood is back!

- I knew Lafayette was too delicious a character to kill!

- Bill needs to grow some balls. When will we catch up to the books an learn that he is a tool?

- Jason Stackhouse reading SuperChristian books. Sans shirt. I can go with the fanatic right wing conversion I guess if we still get to see the abs.

- I know MaryAnn is the wicked witch, but Damn did she tell off Tara's mom.

- Love the Greek villa. Can we learn the Bacchanalian mysteries?

- Terry is such a fucked-up sweetheart.

- Where's the pervy nudity in this ep? Oh, there.

It's June

2009-06-10T00:40:25Z

- Red wine and dark chocolate goes together nicely.

- It's fun to have minions - an assistant and an intern. But sadly, I probably won't totally catch up until I can clone myself.

- I'm watching Criminal Minds from the beginning to stave off summer TV boredom.

- Can't wait until True Blood starts again

- BSG sapped the life out of me. It's hard to reengage in fandom. I need something shiny.

The Last Stand

2009-04-07T03:26:05Z

Well, I'm bawling. And sometimes it's healthy to have a good cry. I think my personal life has need one for a long time. Company reorganization. Breast cancer scare. Dad in the hospital. But really I am bawling over artifice.

Not artfice really, but BSG. When the last season premiered this January, I did the usually counting to see when the series would end. And much to my anguish, I realized that it would hit the day I would have to fly out for my annual Italy trip. So I distanced myself. I knew I couldn't be there for the end.

I had a great trip and then I gto back last Wednesday, and eventhough I was home, I waited. Denial? I had to come to terms. Well, tonight was the night. With copious wine and chocolate.

Not sure if anyone is still in the sandbox.

It's a bit JK Rowling. Almost everyone got their due.

Very basic distraught thoughts.

LOVED the beginning on Caprica. Especially the Kara / Zac /Lee fic writing itself.

Of course Baltar could not stay on the other side of the line. Where would the series be?

LOVED Cottle's emotional last stand and Roslin telling him to go smoke a cigarette.

Loved the moment the twins rendezvous-ed on the base ship.

Loved Romo Lampkin FOR PRESIDENT.

Loved Boomer oweing the Old Man One.

Amused by the strip club, especially since I had seen images in the early rememberance vids.

Totally right that Tyrol should break the cycle and shoot Tory.

Sam! Galactica's hybrid! Long time coming. Especially since a friend told me a year ago that he had a fic where Galactica was the last cylon. . .

But whoa is me. Kara.

Because it is Galactica, and sunsets are not so rosy, I had pictured Lee or Kara dying in the other's arms. BUT THIS?

*Bawling* SHE DISAPPEARS? No. NO. NOOOOO!

Damn. So she is a goddess? *damage control* I want my Kara to be a mother of the new land. She just DISAPPEARS? It's so a cheat. She was really dead? All this time? An angel? A mass hallucination? NOT FAIR. And her father. This was one I wanted spelled out. DANIEL. For the validation. She was supposed to be the first Hera. The first human to download.

So. I'm bawling.

So, I guess now I can return to human consumption and read LJ again. I was in exile.

Dollhouse musings

2009-02-28T17:37:02Z

I'm watching DOLLHOUSE, hoping for a shiny new fandom and after 3 episodes, I like but haven't fallen. Here are my initial thoughts:

Echo = Lobotomized Sydney Bristow.

Advantage: no emo Sydney
Disadvantage: the series is missing a SpyDaddy and without the resonance of a father figure and acting chops of Victor Garber, it doesn't seem to have an anchor

Boyd = Dixon

It's a nice twist that Dixon is the one in the know this time

Tamoh = Nice abs

Great play to your strengths on the introduction. Obviously he hasn't had a chance to develop much, but he needs contact with Echo. Could they make him into a Vaughn-type love interest? I don't know if that is the right course, but I think without a ship, this show is going to have a hard time.

Alpha - Does he solve the love interest question?

Topher = Marshall's evil twin brother?

Sloane = plot hole & missing counterweight

Once again I am reminded of house ALIAS' pilot immediately invested you in all the charcters from Day 1.

BSG Rocks

2009-02-15T00:36:17Z

OMG! OMG! OMG!

Last week, after the badass action, I was lamenting that I would have to endure whiny Ellen in the next ep. I am so glad to be wrong!

Wow. It's amazing to see things come together.

Cavil - we finally have a motive! Such an elegant argument - we were created in the human's image, so we must kill the humans! He always protested too much about the final 5

Boomer - ah, a reason for her defection against her model - she saw the otherside. But dear Cavil, EIghts, don't always obey. Sometimes they take matters into their own hands and steal raptors.

Kara - "organic matter transfer", was it? I still think she is the first human to be downloaded. But Daniel in the lions den is an interesting tangent. And could connect back to the original series of how she was a he. We now know about the bullet. . . . Oh god, the agony of Sam. Doesn't she have enough guilt trips?

PC - Um, that would scares me that he is the neurologist.

Galactica - rotten through the bones. Gods it's hard to accept when those we love grow old.

Spies

2009-02-01T02:39:05Z

Your International Spy Name is Diva Sparks

Your Code Name: Checkmate

You Reside in: Venice

Why You're a Good Spy: You're sneaky

What's Your International Spy Name?

minutia

2008-12-10T04:20:56Z

- skipped yoga tonight. must go wed and thurs after work.

- my nose won't stop sniffling

- Chuck Bass is all kinds of hot mess!

- obsessesed with Sookie Stackhouse. Went back and read all the Charlaine Harris books and will now search out the short stories.

-haven't put up my suitcase from Thanksgiving and I will be going home next Wednesday, so not sure I will.

- cat is curled up next to me. if I get up, he looks at me and waits for me to sit back down so he can curl up again.

- have let my paid account expire, and I am not really jumping to re-up. hmm.

Ew Lauren

2008-11-15T20:58:49Z

Just caught up on this weeks Grey's Anatomy.

Loving Kevin Mckidd and very amused by Mary. I am wondering if she studied James Callus for lessons in idiot savant . . .'

BUT why oh why Melissa George? She just immediately me go ew - hate that bitch! Seems Lauren is still a very bad memory.

10 days til I am hope for Thankgiving!

Election 2008

2008-11-04T23:37:52Z

Ask the internets

2008-10-14T05:01:54Z

So, could someone point me software to convert avi to ipod format on a Mac?

X Files 2 Movie

I held off on seeing but was bored this weekend. And again, it's sad when you just can't let go. We got the Mulder speak intro. And Callum! who I learned was originally supposed to be Krycek. But otherwise, it just wasn't Monster of the Week enough for me. Creepy serial killer was not as memorable as Donnie Phaster or Luther Lee Bogs or John Lee Roche. And Scully really seemed to have lost her way.

Am watching Mad Men - am appalled by the boys club, but loving the overall themes and intelligence.

Getting a bit wispy over the old Alias. I think it might actually be time to rewatch - in the next year . . . Tonight, I thought - hmmm - Chuck must have stolen Alias' old set dresser with that faux foreign locale flair. . . and then they ended up at the Train Station! And then Sark walks up to the bar in Heroes and it's total deja vu!

Debates

2008-10-03T01:59:34Z

Honey, the word is NUCLEAR. NOT nucular. What are you, George Bush?

Odds and Ends

2008-09-17T02:01:13Z

Facebook still baffles me. In the last week, I have been friended by:

- a classmate's older sister who I was in a singing group with, but I won't say we were friends

- former church youth group director

- a girl in my class who was a bitch to me when I went to visit friends in the bandhall

- friend of a friend who lives in NYC, but has never tried to be friends with me in the city

Fringe

I think the odd combo of part Alias, part X Files may be growing on me. It really is a hodgepodge of known plotlines. Blond chick in black undies mindlinking with dying lover was totally a Sydney moment. The father is channeling David Cronenberg. Where is the horrified Jack Bristow face when offered a hug?

Even weirder, I almost have a hankering to watch S1 Alias.

Gossip Girl

Poor, poor Chuck . . .

Serious Frog in my Throat

2008-09-11T00:07:06Z

- I keep struggling to find the drive to post.

- Thank god for the new TV season!

- Gossip Girl - Blair! Chuck! I so missed your decadent prickly mating dance on my morning ipod subway ride!

- Prison Break - Really glad to see the writers eat crow with Sara, but, um, not really using her affectively in bringing her back. And PLEASE do NOT go all soap and give Michael a terminal disease.

- Bones - Glad you are back, but as much as I like London, you could have done better than a Booth-driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road joke. The scenery deserved better.

- In other news, I have gone yoga crazy. Joined a studio. Going at 4 times week. I'm doing handstands!

- Also joined facebook. I find it very weird that people from my high school that I have not seen or heard a peep from since I graduated are friending me.

- Watched all of Friday Night Lights S1 last weekend as a welcome home to football season.

Fun With Pics: Volume Thursday (Belated)

2008-07-04T16:30:37Z

Window shopping and major damage at Cole Haan today. Unfortunatley they didn't have my size in store, so they will ship them.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

9:31 - Daily Fix

16:11 - St. Patrick's Cathedral

16:16 - Atlas

16:28 - The Classic

17:01 - The Trendy

17:04 - The Patriotic

17:06 - The Trendsetter

Big Read List

2008-06-27T02:38:07Z

I feel like I have forgotten how to post.

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac** couldn't finish
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

On my bookshelf to be read:

The Host by Stephanie Meyer
The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

Egads

2008-06-01T18:08:19Z

Fresh Direct accidentally gifted me with a branzino. A whole fish.

Um, I've never cooked fish before, let alone a whole fish. I'm both mortified and intrigued.

General Cylon Ponderance

2008-04-24T02:00:36Z

Rewatching . . .

Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down

Doral: It bothers you doesn't it?

Six: We'll get them in the end.

Doral: No, it bothers you that you have never experienced it.

Six: You saw the way Helo was when he took her away? He was pathetic.

Doral: I can't help wondering what it would feel like to feel that - intensely. Even in his anguish, he seemed. . . so alive.

Six chokes back tears of denial. Doral has a small look of longing on his face.

Hypothesis: The original skin jobs must betray themselves, become "human" to "feel".

Proof:
Sharon staying with Helo
Caprica going back to Galactica
D'Anna pursuing the Five
Leoben shepherding Kara?

Does this apply to the Final Five?

Side Note: WHY is Gossip Girl not on itunes yet?

BSG Catch Up

2008-04-20T18:38:04Z

So I am avidly watching the last season of BSG, but still feeling a bit lost on catching up with the fandom. So here are some thoughts on 1- 3, heavy on 3.

Cylons:

I never truly thought the cylons were worth the time away from the Starbuck & Apollo Show, until we got to the Final Five, Leoben being the execption. Now I find them 100 times more twisty and interesting with all the implications that go along with the Five.

Birth Order:

I'm really glad that this has finally been identified. And what's really intriguing - we know 1-6 and 8. So I think that brings up some really twisty questions as to 7. Is 7 the final member of the five yet to be revealed or is 7 one of the four we already know?

I'm leaning towards the latter as I think that 7 & 8 may be the most conflicted of the cylons. Look as Sharon. At our weekly watching party schunard1 said that Sharon is Judas which really started me thinking. There is Athena, who has turned her back on the traditional cylons, and then there is Boomer who betrayed Galactica by shooting the Admiral and now she's the one cylon to go against her model and vote with the Cavil's & Crew.

Sharon was identified in Season 1 as being a "weak model" by her fellow cylons, and I wonder if they were referring to the fact that she was created after the first of the Final Five. And it is possible that her ability to conceive is related to the fact that she was created after they identified the technology for the five. And the only other cylon known to conceive is Tyrol, who is probably a 9 - 12.

Which brings me back to 7. Theorizing that 8 shares more in common with the Five, then 7 might share more with the traditional models. And that makes me wonder if Tory is 7, because if there is a final Five who doesn't seem to be sold on their unity, it is Tory. Tory also has a history of being maybe not Judas per se but definitely colder and closer to 6. Her loyalties have been gray - she tampered with the presidential vote, she has used her sexuality to play with Baltar, and now she is not afraid to remove Cally when she became a direct threat.

Cylon Civil War:

I've read a lot of fan theories that say there will be a cylon civil war between the traditional and the Final Five, but I think it fascinating that it is currently playing out with the traditional models. I am convinced that Cavil has a god-complex being 1 and may even think that he is the creator as he often switched between shepard and agnostic heretic. I also think it is interesting that he is most adamant that the others not think of the Final Five, probably due to his god-complex. So when he tricks 6 and crew, who will escape?

It could be very interesting if the only ones who survive are elsewhere - Caprica, Athena, and Boomer. But then that would leave Leoben in the dust, and I think Kara still needs her spiratual guide to get her to earth. Which leads me to Kara.

Kara:

Persephone:

Back when I learned early that Kara would die, I did some fic therapy. I decided that I would craft Kara as Persephone, so she could go into the dark cylon netherworld and then be reborn so she could come back to Galactica. My theory was that she was not a creature of Hades (cylons) but still fully human, as she would return to the surface (fleet). But to accomplish this she must eat the pomegrante seeds (die) and experience a transformation. So in sum my fic theory was that she would be the first human to be downloaded. Being downloaded would not make her a cylon, but would give her new links to them and put her on the quest to Earth. Plus, I also just loved the imagery of Kara coming back to the fleet in a brand new body and no tattoos or scars.

Now the reality of the show has echoed on this. It's her viper that is completely new, but not her body. She has returned with an overidding purpose - to return to earth, and being taken off task has had seriously damaging affects to her sanity, almost as if something won't compute unless she finds earth. It is further born through in The Ties That Bind as she feels distanced from herself - and even says that her body is an alien thing that her mind is still attached too. I don't know where it is all going, but I love the implications.

Kara vs. Roslin:

If I had gotten around to posting after He That Believeth in Me, I would have commented on how forced it seemed that Roslin absolutely refused to acknoweledge that Kara could be a messenger from the Gods. I'm glad that it was addressed in Six of One, but I am still concerned that they continue to write Roslin so flatly. But the confrontation scene was brilliant.

The Good Ship Starbuck:

All I can say is that her crew is perfection! Poor, poor Gaeta. Thought I still think that in Six of One, when he was sniping at Starbuck over star charts - the question isn't just where, but where and when.

Captain Apollo:

The advantage of Flat! Roslin is of course her constant understimation of Captain Apollo. When is she going to remember not to ask question but say thank you for saving our collective asses! I do love that Lee has finally found his purpose. And it been so obvoious since the start that Lee gets more interesting when he has a cause - Bastille Day and then the trial. And hopefully now we have finally found a way to bring back Zarek and make Roslin more accountable.

Addicitons

2008-04-15T03:06:26Z

Trying to remember where to start.

When Italians do things right, they do them very, very right:

Oh Lost!

2008-03-14T02:21:48Z

*crawling out of the black hole*

I've been loving this seaon of Lost. But I just realized that I have been totally duped by tonight's ep.

At the end of tonight's ep I was bawling - poor Sun, and then 15 minutes later when I went to wash my face, I just realized something. . .

I just succumbed to one of the worst fic cliches - pregnant woman / woman with baby talking to dead daddy's grave! Ack!

Dear Superbowl

2008-02-04T03:13:37Z

You are not cool.

Damn those Giants who knocked Dallas out.

Um, Dell? So not cool. Want to know how to run an advertising campaign? See Macbook Air.

I hung on for the commericals but really should have just watch the Bourne Ultimatum.

Except for Angelina. Because spies are cool.

Is House on yet? (this is desperation because I don't like Hugh, but I appreciate the procedural method in this vast wasteland.)

The one where Brad Pitt got away

2008-01-28T13:16:14Z

So I was having a sex dream this morning. And it was Brad Pitt! Here we are in a hotel, naked, getting down to business, and we are about to do it, and then I stop him and ask for a condom. So he goes to find one. And my alarm goes off!

Argh! It's fantasy actor sex and my dream conscience has to ask for a condom?

So wrong.

Bonus Round

2008-01-25T02:03:04Z

Can I just say - I love Chuck!

I've always admired it's classic referential style - playing with the Indiana Jones and Jason Bourne themes.

But -

"Mom, Ive got my headgear on!"

Takes the cake!

Meme Lemming

2007-12-29T00:58:30Z

Gakked from nytel

1. Do you like blue cheese? In moderation and paired with good wine.

2. Have you ever eaten smoked herring? No it kinda squicks me. (I changed the question cause smoking heroin is ridiculous)

3. Do you own a gun? No, but I am due to inherit around 15 hunting rifles so I should learn one of these days.

4. Your favorite song? Anything by U2, but especially Bad, All I Need Is You, Running to Stand Still, and Exit.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? I think I get annoyed, and with allergy shots, impatient cause I want the juice for the allergy relief.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? Icky

7. Favorite Christmas song? I Want an Alien for Christmas or The Hallelujah Chorus

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Grande Almond Latte

9. Can you do push ups? I do some yoga pushups.

10. Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Yes, how very Bible Belt of this questionnarie. Even better, my homecoming date my junior year asked me this during a slow dance.

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? Silver hammered hoops from James Avery that are very universal and go with almost everything.

12. Favorite hobby? Fandoms

Where is #13? someone ate number 13 Or maybe we are in a hotel.

14. Do you have A.D.D.? When surfing the net or reading my email.

15. What one trait do you hate about yourself? Very stubborn

16. What is your middle name? Lee

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment...

(1) Had a kick-ass shopping day - finally found a pair of jeans as Lucky Brand is having a sale!
(2) Bought some sparkly things for New Years
(3) Have to stop spending money and on a post-Christmas sale binge

18. What were you at 18? General Studies, sorority girl, big state school.

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Lattes, coke, iced tea.

20. Current worry right now? Guilt stress from parents

21. Current hate right now? Guilt stress from parents

22. Favorite place to be? Italy, Austin, driving, eating Freebirds, with good friends.

23. How will you bring in the New Year? With a good kiss.

24. Where would you like to go? Italy South - Capri, Naples, Amalfi