Various and sundry
Jul. 19th, 2010 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixie1. Bomb pops are, well, the bomb. Definitely the best inhabitant of popsicle land, with the possible exception of Purity's lemon pops.*
2. I found a great site full of old photos. I think this one of the Jersey Shore from 1905 is my favorite so far. The subjects of so many photos from prior to, oh, 1920 or so, are so stiff and distant due to long exposure times and the fact that photos were usually formal occasions. This one totally looks like a snapshot from today, except with weird clothes. (Stockings with bathing suits?!) The Harry Potteresque guy making the girl in the middle smile is my favorite part, but I find the girl on the left with the bonnet very intriguing as well. She kind of looks like a grown-up Wednesday Addams. The dark-haired girl about her age on the far right looks exactly like one of my former students would if she wore her hair like that. It's a little creepy, actually.
3. I watched Rizzoli & Isles, finding it a bit bland, but enjoying nerdy/quirky Isles and the fact that the show features two women as the leads. I'm going to stick with it for a bit, but don't anticipate getting really into it. Mostly I want it to become the new Xena insofar as femslash fic is concerned. (It strikes me as unlikely that it'll go beyond subtext on the show itself.)
Someone over in the thread for it at TWOP noted that it's not entirely dissimilar to a 2004 pilot that didn't get picked up, but which has been uploaded piecemeal on YouTube: Nikki & Nora. I would've been into it purely for the allusion in the title, but the pilot itself was actually a pretty entertaining mixture of So Bad It's Good** and Actually Good (And Even Funny). The premise is that the title characters are a sort of Odd Couple-y team of detectives who are hiding their personal relationship from their coworkers and, in Nora's case, family members. The two of them were adorable together. Yay canon femslash and all, but I think mostly what I appreciated was that it wasn't another iteration of Will They/Won't They; they already Did, and that was refreshing.
I was impressed that they appeared to have actually filmed on location--it's set in New Orleans--and they made the characters southern without exaggerating them into stereotypes. (Possibly this means it's all wrong for New Orleans, but hey, they used "y'all" correctly. That's more than I can say for other things.) Also, bonus Seamus Dever as a beat cop.
...Uhhh, basically I think I'm saying that I wish that pilot had been picked up way back when rather than R&I now, but anyway.
* Though after looking through their site for a link, now I'm craving a Nutty Buddy. My elementary school had them for desert at lunch, and I remember getting them there. Haven't had one in at least a decade, though.
** Case in point:
Suspect Nora just chased down: Did you get that outfit at Wal-Mart?
Nora: Yep. I got my bullets there too.
No, really, she actually said that. And yet it also tells us something about her character. Likewise, during the inevitable gratuitous bathtub scene, made all the weirder by the fact that the bathtub is apparently in their living room, the dialogue gives us character info on both of them in a way that shows rather than tells: Nora is sentimental because she bought Nikki a necklace for the anniversary of the start of their working relationship; Nikki can't remember these things, but is appreciative.
2. I found a great site full of old photos. I think this one of the Jersey Shore from 1905 is my favorite so far. The subjects of so many photos from prior to, oh, 1920 or so, are so stiff and distant due to long exposure times and the fact that photos were usually formal occasions. This one totally looks like a snapshot from today, except with weird clothes. (Stockings with bathing suits?!) The Harry Potteresque guy making the girl in the middle smile is my favorite part, but I find the girl on the left with the bonnet very intriguing as well. She kind of looks like a grown-up Wednesday Addams. The dark-haired girl about her age on the far right looks exactly like one of my former students would if she wore her hair like that. It's a little creepy, actually.
3. I watched Rizzoli & Isles, finding it a bit bland, but enjoying nerdy/quirky Isles and the fact that the show features two women as the leads. I'm going to stick with it for a bit, but don't anticipate getting really into it. Mostly I want it to become the new Xena insofar as femslash fic is concerned. (It strikes me as unlikely that it'll go beyond subtext on the show itself.)
Someone over in the thread for it at TWOP noted that it's not entirely dissimilar to a 2004 pilot that didn't get picked up, but which has been uploaded piecemeal on YouTube: Nikki & Nora. I would've been into it purely for the allusion in the title, but the pilot itself was actually a pretty entertaining mixture of So Bad It's Good** and Actually Good (And Even Funny). The premise is that the title characters are a sort of Odd Couple-y team of detectives who are hiding their personal relationship from their coworkers and, in Nora's case, family members. The two of them were adorable together. Yay canon femslash and all, but I think mostly what I appreciated was that it wasn't another iteration of Will They/Won't They; they already Did, and that was refreshing.
I was impressed that they appeared to have actually filmed on location--it's set in New Orleans--and they made the characters southern without exaggerating them into stereotypes. (Possibly this means it's all wrong for New Orleans, but hey, they used "y'all" correctly. That's more than I can say for other things.) Also, bonus Seamus Dever as a beat cop.
...Uhhh, basically I think I'm saying that I wish that pilot had been picked up way back when rather than R&I now, but anyway.
* Though after looking through their site for a link, now I'm craving a Nutty Buddy. My elementary school had them for desert at lunch, and I remember getting them there. Haven't had one in at least a decade, though.
** Case in point:
Suspect Nora just chased down: Did you get that outfit at Wal-Mart?
Nora: Yep. I got my bullets there too.
No, really, she actually said that. And yet it also tells us something about her character. Likewise, during the inevitable gratuitous bathtub scene, made all the weirder by the fact that the bathtub is apparently in their living room, the dialogue gives us character info on both of them in a way that shows rather than tells: Nora is sentimental because she bought Nikki a necklace for the anniversary of the start of their working relationship; Nikki can't remember these things, but is appreciative.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 10:00 pm (UTC)I picked up one of the Rizzoli & Ives books... and am now seriously hoping that the tv show will be to the books as Bones is to it's books. ACK. The show, I liked.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 10:49 pm (UTC)(And am now thinking: YULETIDE!)
Ooooooh.
There's apparently a crapload of fic here. I haven't read any of it yet, so I don't know if it's any good or not.
Are the R&I books that terrible? I haven't read them. Never read the Bones books either, but heard they were awful. (I liked S1 and S2. Then S3 and S4 sucked SO SO SO SO SO SO BADLY that I gave the hell up.)
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 10:58 pm (UTC)Isn't Yuletide awesome?
I... okay, this is going to sound weird, but I often don't like femslash written by femslash writers? IDEK. Still, I will go a' wading.
The R&I books, lets say there are Satantists, and good guys sleeping with priests, and worse abuse of the extracanoncial texts than Dan Brown could've imagined, and babies, and no femslashy vibe at all.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 11:39 pm (UTC)I... okay, this is going to sound weird, but I often don't like femslash written by femslash writers? IDEK.
Huh. Is there a particular stylistic tic they tend to have or something? (My only experience with it, I think, is Xena. The B5 and SG-1 femslash I've read has mostly been by people who write lots of different things.)
Still, I will go a' wading.
If you find anything good, let me know!
The R&I books, lets say there are Satantists, and good guys sleeping with priests, and worse abuse of the extracanoncial texts than Dan Brown could've imagined, and babies, and no femslashy vibe at all.
Sadness. :(
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 12:39 am (UTC)The femslash thing might just because I don't seem to ever have the same OTP as fandom. But it also seems like to me that there is a distinctive style, with purpler prose and happier endings than I tend to like.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 05:53 pm (UTC)I wonder if it's a whole big family together or a crowd of strangers? Would be an good image to use as a writing prompt.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 06:43 pm (UTC)http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SPEC/GAL-BW.htm
They have a lot of great ones there.. Not quite a lot with people, but still a lot with architecture and scenic shots.. great stuff to look through.
I didn't get into R&I, I really wanted to, but it just didn't hook me even hook me for a second ep, but I did really get into Memphis blues. I love the singing, the pace, and the hometown feel of it all. I think it was the first episode that really grabbed me most of all. *shrugs* Our network programing is coming up aces so far with original shows, got to give them props for that.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 09:01 pm (UTC)I feel like it's a crowd of strangers, with groups of two and three being related or being friends. Then again, it might have been a company picnic or something.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 09:05 pm (UTC)I'm only returning to R&I because I liked the concept rather than the execution. In general, I need my crime dramas to have a large helping of the absurd (due South, Moonlighting, Pushing Daisies) or at least an extra helping of wit and charm (Castle), or I'll drop them, so I don't imagine I'll get attached to this one. Though maybe the animals will make it funnier.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 03:39 pm (UTC)The AV Club has a pretty good writeup of the pilot. So far, it's one of those things where I approve of the concept so much that I'm willing to overlook the execution...for now. I do think that the rockiness was mainly due to it being the pilot, and Isles in particular has potential. We'll just have to see if they live up to it.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 03:53 pm (UTC)