Arguing over Semantics

I feel a long, weird, introspective entry coming on....

When it comes to television I am drawn to the dark side. I'm a fairly upbeat person. Even my tastes in books and movies tend to be on the lighter side. I devoured The Lovely Bones but had to supplement it with a steady diet of Louise Rennison and Marian Keyes. I'm of the opinion that given all the pain, suffering and general suckdom of life, light and fluffiness is utterly important.

But, that said, I loooove dark television. I've developed a taste for it that seems to have come out of nowhere, but at the same time makes perfect sense to me. Case in point: high school shows. Everyone, but everyone, on this planet is a diehard fan of Glee. I get it, but as teen shows go I'm in love with Skins.

I don't know. It could be the utter britishness of it all. At my house we happen to have the entire collection of 'Allo 'Allo, Faulty Towers and Are You Being Served.

But it's a lot more than that. It's the fabulous casting of young actors with no right to be so bloody talented. Or the essential vibe of 'this-is-what-it-was-like-to-be-a-young-adult, so-fun-and-awful." Most of all though, it's the fact that the writers are not afraid to go there, and yet they go there with style and grace. Skins is a very dark, complicated show to watch, and yet I can't take my eyes off it. Maybe it's because television allows us to examine a dark world without being transported into it in quite the same way as with movies and books.

In any case, dark story-telling (when it's done well and doesn't cheapen or dehumanize the characters) inevitably brings out a raw and real reaction. The best paper I ever wrote in University was on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, a bloodbath vigilante play I despised. But it forced me to think and write meaningfully. Maybe that's why my television tastes veer a bit into dark and, at times, depressing. Ce la Vie!

All this to say: watched 206 (Tony) tonight: wheeeeeeeeeeeeee! So, so safe, to quote Abigail. So many excellent character moments, and....I need to get my hands on all of the music from that episode!

Current Mood: contemplative

Well, it was a great Christmas holiday - not completely without family drama but I guess that's to be expected at certain times of the year. Isn't it weird that Christmas, which is supposed to be this happy, cheerful time, brings on so much depression?

As for me, I'm sort of in between when it comes to Christmas cheer. I don't hate the holidays (far from it) but I'm not a fanatic. I think I was a little more into it this year because we've been having so much snow. This is NOT a usual thing for us here in the Lower Mainland! We're the freaks who are always having a green Christmas. So we've been reveling in it. Seriously. It sucks as far as transportation goes since no-one has snow tires, but there's something about looking out your window and seeing flakes that makes you feel like you're living in a snow-globe! And you can't beat the sight of snow on trees! I love it.

Current Mood: bored

I had a million things I need to do today, but I still caught Canada's armistice anniversary on CBC with my fam. Today, on the the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, we remember all those who were lost in the war, as well as the troops now in Afghanistan (and for those Americans on my flist, the soldiers in Iraq were on our minds too).

Both of my parents' grandfathers served in the first world war. Fortunately, neither died in combat. My mom's papa survived Vimy Ridge, which was basically a blood bath for Canadians, and lived into old age but my dad's grandpa died later on of complications from mustard gas poisoning, leaving my grandpa to take care of the family when he was only a teenager. I have a great-uncle who served in WWII as well.

We can never forget the price that so many paid for us. I think our generation is only beginning to understand the horrors that the vetrans and their families lived through. Days like these reinforce the need for peace in our time.

Sorry for the grave post today! I'll update later in a more cheerful mood, I promise!

Current Mood: morose

Have you ever had that feeling where it has been absolutely SO long since you posted that you start to dread posting because you feel you need to start off any post you make with an apology/explanation about why you've been such a jerk about posting? 

So, yeah, sorry I've been such a jerk (for the 2.5 people that read this;))! I should also apologize for the lack of comma's in the above sentence (possibly?). I'm not a comma queen. it's one of those things that never quite caught on in primary school....among other things. Yeah, trying that online version of "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader" is very bad for my self-esteem. I even forgot measurements! So, so sad. 

Anyway, I've just been really, really busy on account of school and everything. I took a playwriting course that was both incredibly fun and incredibly terrifyling. It was also one of those classes where you have to apply yourself to a certain degree, and what's more you WANT to because people would read  scenes in class and then comment on them and paralyzing fear is a great motivator, it seems. So yeah, sorry for that. I have been lurking and reading everyone's posts so I do feel somewhat in the loop. And, now, I'll have all the time in the world to post because I am DONE! Hallejulah! And more big news... I'm leaving on a travel study for three weeks to GUATEMALA in a week from today! It's incredibly surreal. I'm excited, but very, very nervous right now! I need to start doing some major research and packing so I anticipate being a lot more excited as the week goes by. The best part is my brother's coming home from the states wednesday for my dad's birthday so I'll get to spend a few days with him before I'm off!

So, yeah, this also means that I'll be going on another hiatus for 3 weeks....Oh LJ, how I neglect you....

Anybody else done  for the summer yet?

Current Location: room
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: none

Anybody trying out the No Facebook Day thing tommorow, or should I say today? the sad thing is I won't even need to; #1) I'm going to be monumentally busy and #2) I've gone on maybe twice since setting up an account. LJ will always be my top procrastinating tool!

Current Music: Nada
Current Mood: mellow

Cut for girly emoness....

Current Mood: aggravated

So this one's a bit of a race against the clock but HAPPY MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY! Even though I'm....not exactly American.

Hope you all had a a great weekend!

Current Mood: bored

It's been chaos around here lately, what with the crazy weather and everyone being so ill-prepared for snow and ice. B.C. typically has such mild weather that people are barricading themselves indoors since it started snowing! Still, even though it's terrifying to drive in and it messes with all our plans and schedules I CANNOT contain my excitement. It's snowing!!! What else do we have to look forward to in January? 

I'LL TELL YOU WHAT! New episodes of favorite shows, THAT is what. (I've been settiling back into school. I needed to take a load of , so I went on a tv binge tonight.)

Yeah, funny thing happened over the holidays...other than, you know, rl stuff....I got bitten by the Supernatural bug. I know there are plenty of SPN enthusiasts on my flist who've been loving on this show and I like to be where the action is so I gave it a try. You guys were so right all along! At first I was just watching for the cute boys and because it seemed so fun and full of crack, but I was surprised to find how emotionally involved I got towards the end and especially during the second season. Sure I thought it had it's weak points but I actually think that the show has come a long way since it's beginning.

Current Mood: bouncy

So, I'm back from my unintended LJ hiatus!  Just a few matters to attend to in this post:

A) A belated Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah etc. It's been great catching up on everyone's Christmas posts and memes. I don't remember this kind of buzz around LJ since the fall shows started. With circumstances being as they were this year (going away for Christmas and all), I wasn't living under the most festive conditions during advent so I have LJ to thank for getting me in the mood (so to speak).

Now for even more f-list love: Thanks ladydisdain225 for the card and the thoughtful words! The picture was beautiful and it got me into the real-meaning-of Christmas spirit! 

And thank you sarah_p for the shiny, pretty card with the tiny Christmas trees! Sounds like we both didn't get a legitimate tree this year, but your card nearly made up for it. Your note gave me a lift, and I WILL make a point of posting much more often.

 Karma points to both of you classy ladies!

B) A little RL for whoever’s interested:

 In short, I saw a lot of hockey, saw way too many movies in theatres, at Ben’s place and so on (I know we’re all real party animals, you wanna make a case out of it?), and had a healthy amount of Dunkin’ Donuts to last me till next year…Provided Ben isn’t transferred somewhere warm and tropical.

Current Music: The Cranberries - Dreams
Current Mood: cheerful

There is supposed to be a power outage happening around my place in less than a minute, so I'll try to keep this post brief (yeah right!). 

I just read an online interview, linked from sarah dessen's journal, with Amy Sherman-Palladino (sp?), and it got me thinking about gilmore girls again. I know this is a sore spot for many. Personally, I'm more of a casual fan. I've been tuning in here and there this season, mostly due to VM, and I've had a sort of epiphany tonight

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Home