Still Testing... Random
Aug. 24th, 2008 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thedeadlyhookI've been trying my damndest all week to get back into the habit of posting - something, anything - but it's just not coming. My ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
lynnevitational fic isn't coming, either - it's settled miserably into that zone of stories that've been written in my head for what feels like ever, but refuse to make the journey from head to fingers when needed. Some stopper is holding it, keeping it locked.
Which, on most occasions, I consider to be something of a good thing. I usually look at blocks as a warning sign, that something's missing or wrong in a story. In this case... damned if I can figure yet what it is, and still. Still. Nothing.
I keep hoping the fog will clear. I'm a week late as it is, and I've been afraid to read everyone else's stories for fear it'll make me feel even worse - ficathon-wise, this is the heavyweight round, and I'm not even making the weigh-in. Gah.
On to other news.
Olympiad 2008
The closing ceremonies of the Olympics is on tonight, so I'm watching with half an eye before we get new Venture Bros and Metalocalypse. (Yes, with the news that SciFi Channel is cancelling Stargate: Atlantis, cartoons are really about all Toys and I will be watching anymore, sad to say. Well... other than Fear Itself, which is by the same peeps who did Showtime's Masters of Horror, but that's about it.) I have to say, the athletes hamming it up for the camera are pretty darn adorable.
I've been enjoying the games in general, albeit in fits and starts (honestly, all due respect to Michael Phelps, how much swimming can one really watch?). The overtly Yay!America biased coverage and hideously heavy commercial load have been annoying enough to make our household skip whole days worth (although Grandma M, god rest her, would've sniffed that the Olympics are "Hitler's games" anyway), but in the meantime, I was compelled to check out some of my older Olympic memories on YouTube, which were interestingly educational. Go look for yourself at the '72 or '76 games - the old static TV cameras of the '70s gave event coverage a sort of breathless, unblinking quality that you just don't see anymore. Nowadays, with every media outlet obsessing over their nation's own individual athletes with Handicams, Paris Hilton-like, you don't get the old live-TV-esque whoever-happens-to-be-on-the-balance-beam -that-the-fixed-camera-is-pointed-at coverage. And I miss those days. It's a whole different quality of You Are There.
Wait - oh, Christ, what's with the embarrassing cliche-London-stereotype stage show? Eehk. And people complained about China putting on a Broadway act.
And now the bus has turned into, what, a piece of topiary? Good grief. And oi, that dress on the pop star, and the gryating dancers...
Oh, Jeezus, a white-haired Jimmy Page in some kind of boxing ring. And I love that song, but...
Moving on.
The Reading List
I've been trying to jump-start the old creative impulses by re-reading Modesty Blaise (novels and comics; I love 'em both) and gobbling up old '80s and early '90s comics I find in the comic-store bargain bins. I got a healthy stack of Namor and Strange Tales (yay, Doctor Strange!) at San Diego Con; that's been a fun read. Doctor Strange: The Oath was a recent graphic novel acquisition that was also great fun, but in terms of comics that are coming out now there's very little I've been keeping up on. My man![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
toysdream already covered how I felt about the most recent issues of Secret Invasion here, but otherwise, here's my short takes on what I'm reading:
Incredible Herc
Fun, fun, and fun. Brian Michael Bendis may have convinced me that the best feedback I could give him about Secret Invasion is a hard kick in the crotch with a high-heeled shoe, but Greg Pak continues to charm me with Hercules, the flawed hero who fights for humanity at the head of a team of other flawed demi-gods. Nicely done. Humorous. Action-packed. Great read. Also, points for actual thoughts about alien gods!
Patsy Walker: Hellcat
Man, this comic is cute. Looks cute, reads cute. It's like the early days of the Buffy show, when it was all about being spunky and a heroine and a spunky heroine. Mission accomplished. Plus, arctic monsters. Thumbs up.
Angel: After the Fall, Issue 11
Hellaciously uneven art aside, nice to see the plot returning after a few issues of filler (entertaining enough, but no still filler). Good explanation for Gunn's vamping and his motives thus far, and I like how it puts even Angel himself into question. That probably won't last, but it's nice for now. It's entirely possible I just have a weakness for characters who are man-with-a-plan-that's-so-crazy-it-sounds-sane, like half-Wraithed Ford on Stargate: Atlantis, who Gunn somewhat resembles here.
Spike: After the Fall, Issue 2
I've figured out why I liked this comic more than Angel: After the Fall, or, for that matter, the Buffy Season 8 comic (which I'd honestly forgotten even existed until I saw the new issue under discussion on my flist recently). It's two things: I love Lynch's take on Spike as someone who isn't stupid, or even that he makes bad plans, but just that he's not the main character, in that way that Angel and/or Buffy can be, with the special lucky protection of authorial fiat to bail them out. (Case in point: the end of the first arc in Angel: ATF, where Lorne completely contradicts where the character was when we last saw him on TV, and saves Angel's butt. Like that made sense. Not.) Which leads to point 2: this is a horror comic. It goes all the way. The cliffhanger at the end of issue 2 is a beautiful nightmare. Well done, Brian, well done.
Back to the Olympiad
The Chinese interpretive dancers are better at this than the English ones were. It's acrobatic and circuslike and human spectacle in a way that sums up the athletics on show. It feels ancient somehow, despite all the metallic fabric. The Greeks, I think, would've approved.
R.I.P, Grandma M. I can't watch these games anymore without thinking of you.
lynnevitational fic isn't coming, either - it's settled miserably into that zone of stories that've been written in my head for what feels like ever, but refuse to make the journey from head to fingers when needed. Some stopper is holding it, keeping it locked.Which, on most occasions, I consider to be something of a good thing. I usually look at blocks as a warning sign, that something's missing or wrong in a story. In this case... damned if I can figure yet what it is, and still. Still. Nothing.
I keep hoping the fog will clear. I'm a week late as it is, and I've been afraid to read everyone else's stories for fear it'll make me feel even worse - ficathon-wise, this is the heavyweight round, and I'm not even making the weigh-in. Gah.
On to other news.
Olympiad 2008
The closing ceremonies of the Olympics is on tonight, so I'm watching with half an eye before we get new Venture Bros and Metalocalypse. (Yes, with the news that SciFi Channel is cancelling Stargate: Atlantis, cartoons are really about all Toys and I will be watching anymore, sad to say. Well... other than Fear Itself, which is by the same peeps who did Showtime's Masters of Horror, but that's about it.) I have to say, the athletes hamming it up for the camera are pretty darn adorable.
I've been enjoying the games in general, albeit in fits and starts (honestly, all due respect to Michael Phelps, how much swimming can one really watch?). The overtly Yay!America biased coverage and hideously heavy commercial load have been annoying enough to make our household skip whole days worth (although Grandma M, god rest her, would've sniffed that the Olympics are "Hitler's games" anyway), but in the meantime, I was compelled to check out some of my older Olympic memories on YouTube, which were interestingly educational. Go look for yourself at the '72 or '76 games - the old static TV cameras of the '70s gave event coverage a sort of breathless, unblinking quality that you just don't see anymore. Nowadays, with every media outlet obsessing over their nation's own individual athletes with Handicams, Paris Hilton-like, you don't get the old live-TV-esque whoever-happens-to-be-on-the-balance-beam -that-the-fixed-camera-is-pointed-at coverage. And I miss those days. It's a whole different quality of You Are There.
Wait - oh, Christ, what's with the embarrassing cliche-London-stereotype stage show? Eehk. And people complained about China putting on a Broadway act.
And now the bus has turned into, what, a piece of topiary? Good grief. And oi, that dress on the pop star, and the gryating dancers...
Oh, Jeezus, a white-haired Jimmy Page in some kind of boxing ring. And I love that song, but...
Moving on.
The Reading List
I've been trying to jump-start the old creative impulses by re-reading Modesty Blaise (novels and comics; I love 'em both) and gobbling up old '80s and early '90s comics I find in the comic-store bargain bins. I got a healthy stack of Namor and Strange Tales (yay, Doctor Strange!) at San Diego Con; that's been a fun read. Doctor Strange: The Oath was a recent graphic novel acquisition that was also great fun, but in terms of comics that are coming out now there's very little I've been keeping up on. My man
toysdream already covered how I felt about the most recent issues of Secret Invasion here, but otherwise, here's my short takes on what I'm reading:Incredible Herc
Fun, fun, and fun. Brian Michael Bendis may have convinced me that the best feedback I could give him about Secret Invasion is a hard kick in the crotch with a high-heeled shoe, but Greg Pak continues to charm me with Hercules, the flawed hero who fights for humanity at the head of a team of other flawed demi-gods. Nicely done. Humorous. Action-packed. Great read. Also, points for actual thoughts about alien gods!
Patsy Walker: Hellcat
Man, this comic is cute. Looks cute, reads cute. It's like the early days of the Buffy show, when it was all about being spunky and a heroine and a spunky heroine. Mission accomplished. Plus, arctic monsters. Thumbs up.
Angel: After the Fall, Issue 11
Hellaciously uneven art aside, nice to see the plot returning after a few issues of filler (entertaining enough, but no still filler). Good explanation for Gunn's vamping and his motives thus far, and I like how it puts even Angel himself into question. That probably won't last, but it's nice for now. It's entirely possible I just have a weakness for characters who are man-with-a-plan-that's-so-crazy-it-sounds-sane, like half-Wraithed Ford on Stargate: Atlantis, who Gunn somewhat resembles here.
Spike: After the Fall, Issue 2
I've figured out why I liked this comic more than Angel: After the Fall, or, for that matter, the Buffy Season 8 comic (which I'd honestly forgotten even existed until I saw the new issue under discussion on my flist recently). It's two things: I love Lynch's take on Spike as someone who isn't stupid, or even that he makes bad plans, but just that he's not the main character, in that way that Angel and/or Buffy can be, with the special lucky protection of authorial fiat to bail them out. (Case in point: the end of the first arc in Angel: ATF, where Lorne completely contradicts where the character was when we last saw him on TV, and saves Angel's butt. Like that made sense. Not.) Which leads to point 2: this is a horror comic. It goes all the way. The cliffhanger at the end of issue 2 is a beautiful nightmare. Well done, Brian, well done.
Back to the Olympiad
The Chinese interpretive dancers are better at this than the English ones were. It's acrobatic and circuslike and human spectacle in a way that sums up the athletics on show. It feels ancient somehow, despite all the metallic fabric. The Greeks, I think, would've approved.
R.I.P, Grandma M. I can't watch these games anymore without thinking of you.