solitary_summer | Entries tagged with andromeda

Another quote from RTD's book —

To be honest, I have trouble with 'escapism' full stop. It's usually a derogatory term. Or condescending. At best, cute. [...] It makes the pastime, whether it's a hobby or a job, seem tiny and silly, when it's a vital part of your life. [...] Writing is actually my way of engaging with the world, not escaping from it.

Now admittedly unlike him I'm not making a living out of my (not-)escapism, so maybe I have something less of an argument there, but I do agree with this on several levels.

( Reality (or not), art, writing; TV, storytelling and metaphysics; Andromeda, Smallville, Firefly and Bush-ite America. Broadly generalising and meandering without really going anywhere. )

Also... The Surinam toad and its reproductive habits. The things you learn on the internetz...
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Half an hour later. Um. Note to self. Don't start watching animal videos on YouTube.

Current Mood: cold
Current Music: тату, 200 По встречной

Sunny and warm, beautiful day, slightly tainted by the faint melancholy of Sundays. Did this breakfast & movie thing with some people from work, we saw Fatih Akin's Crossing the Bridge, which is a truly amazing, wonderful film about the music of Istanbul and the power and impact of music, regardless of genre - everything from rap to the music of the Roma, Kurdish music, traditional Turkish music... Very powerful; beautiful shots, too.

I think I'll have to check out Gegen die Wand now. And buy the soundtrack, although I really should re-reconsider buying not really necessary stuff in view of the possible computer situation... ::le sigh::

)o(

Trying to unclutter notepad. Still. Again. Never ending ~~story~~ rambling. The 10? 12? 20? (can't quite remember) favourite emotional tv moments meme, picked up a long time ago somewhere in the wastes of lj-land.

Jossverse-centric, because that's what I've been watching recently, and while I would love to give a comprehensive and conclusive review of

solitary_summer's most favourite tv moments evar, re-watching five season of B5 (or any other tv show I was ever fond of) just isn't happening at the moment. And really, I don't want to consider what it says about my psychic make-up that I even consider this an issue ~~and would this be a good place to confess that I shuffled my interests around quite a bit for the 10 interests meme?~~

Sorted chronologically and by fandom, not squee factor.

( 17 (16) favourite emotional tv moments )

The cat and I will definitely have to work on our relationship... Yesterday night she jumped me in best Hobbes-style when I came home, vehemently insisted on coming inside, and after a while fell asleep beneath my desk. Then we went through the same spiel again; I put her outside, but was already too wide awake & spent the next one and a half hours or so reading before there was any possibility of going back to sleep.

So I'm finally up at almost 11, a good part of the day gone; with half a headache and feeling anything but rested.

It wouldn't be so bad, but there's my father's birthday, and family dinner, and I only came home just before midnight yesterday after making yet another cake (Apfelschnitte)...

Damn autumn birthdays. One cake per weekend, it seems...

( Andromeda: Harper/Delete )

( Smallville: Slumber )

Greek lawyers are going to sue, because Oliver Stone portrayed Alexander as bisexual? Oh please. I honestly can't imagine there's a court that wouldn't laugh in their collective face. The man's been dead for 2300something years, as likely as not was bisexual, though neither can be conclusively proved... In whose name are they going to sue, anyway? I'm aware this ties into the whole modern political conflict about Northern Greece/Macedonia, but from a historical point of view this embracing of Alexander while at the same time celebrating ancient Greece as the birthplace of democracy and whatnot is something of a tour de force and really rather ridiculous, because (regardless of whether or not Alexander spoke Greek), um, Chaironeia? Thebes? Antipatros, Demetrios Poliorketes, Greece occupied by Macedonian garrisons? de facto end of Greek democracy and end of the independence and political importance of the Greek city states? That's Alexander, too. A Macedonian king on the Achaemenid throne to whom the squabbles of the Greek city-states would have been a very minor problem, and probably of equally little interest, had he lived longer.

On second thoughts, by all means, go ahead. It might be fun to see a bunch of homophobic asshats without even a smattering of historical knowledge make fools of themselves in public.

[ETA: On the other hand... when I said I dreaded Alexcander becoming a fandom? This is what I meant. Gah. Fangirls with slash-coloured googles, as little historical knowledge as abovementioned lawyers and no concept of cultural differences. ::headdesk::]

Current Mood: grumpy

[Damn. The cat apparently has adopted me. Willnotbuycatfoodwillnotbuycatfood...]

Slept in, read, wrote a little, soaked in the tub, made a birthday cake for M. (chocolate, almonds & nuts from the new Jamie Oliver cookbook, hopefully edible) and watched two weeks' worth of taped tv shows in between.

Andromeda, never the best show to begin with, has obviously deteriorated to new depths. I missed the first episode of S4, but the next two were atrocious. I'd heard it was bad, but this... gah. With Tyr/KHC gone as Dylan's nemesis, friend, foil and dark mirror image, all the life, interest and tension, psychology and philosophy, not to mention the greatest part of the acting talent ~~and eye candy~~ are gone and what's left is flat, trite and boring. The rest of the cast fumble their way through a bad script and worse dialogue in a decidedly half-assed way that makes it impossible to maintain any interest in the characters left. Pieces of Eight I could still amuse myself imagining that Dylan must miss Tyr at least as much as I did - he seemed terribly alone at times. There's an early episode of Angel, just after Doyle died and Wesley turned up, when Cordelia & Wesley start to bicker and Angel tells them to shut up, calling Wesley Doyle, followed by a moment of painful silence. I could just picture this, Dylan out of habit calling for Tyr to cover his ass on whatever semi-suicidal mission they're up to, and the long moment of awkward silence... Waking the Tyrant's Device I was merely watching with a detached sense of WTF, mostly trying to decide whether to put a chocolate glazing on the cake, and if yes, what kind.

Smallville was rather more interesting - no, scratch that, after Andromeda it was positively brilliant; Exile and Phoenix were intriguing enough and full of the ethical ambiguities and grey shades Andromeda apparently has decided to give up; evil!Clark is pretty, even though Tom Welling is not really my type. Lex at once harder and more rawly emotional, very inscrutable (I rather doubt all the filial affection is genuine, just because this once it wasn't his father who tried to kill him) and just slightly crazy (telling Helen to go ahead and shoot him); Clark slightly more grown up and responsible, finally thrown off his moral high horse, less ready to simply blame everything on the red kryptonite. For the first time ever in this show Lex and Clark share a moment of complete understanding. Interesting, too, to compare the three hugs in this episode.

John Glover and Rutger Hauer apparently were having a great time, not to mention a hell of chemistry. Are there still awards for the gayest look of the episode? Because if yes, it goes to them.

Extinction is mostly back to boring, with a dash of X-Men (mutants - good or evil?) and what may or may not be a veiled metaphor for homosexuality running through the episode.

[Cat is still here, asleep on the sofa. I don't want to throw her out, the weather is disgusting, but do I let her stay overnight? What if she wants out in the middle of the night, and obviously I don't have a litter box...]

Current Mood: geeky

Interesting. I was unaware that Dylan's "I am become Death, Destroyer of Worlds." in 'Angel Dark, Demon Bright' is quoting J.Oppenheimer quoting the Bhagavad-gita (capter 10.34: "I am all-devouring death, and I am the generator of all things yet to be.")

Given Rev's talk about the nature of the Divine and his belief that Dylan (and indeed every living being) is its tool and ultimately part of it, I think in this instance the writers may even have gone back to the original context of the quote, which is Krsna revealing his all-encompassing nature.

I find this episode intriguing; it's Andromeda at its best, raising some fundamental philosophical and theological issues and resolving them in what I think is a rather unexpected way, in that the solution is contrary to central believes and values of the Western world. Dylan refusing to acknowledge the possible existence of fate or the easy excuse that his actions may be fulfilling the will of God; I think that's what almost every western viewer's gut reaction would have been in a similar situation. Most certainly everyone raised on the values stemming from the Age of Enlightenment, but even to a Christian acknowledging the possibility that we are and, in some instances, are meant to be the tiger of Blake's poem probably wouldn't come easy; while even in christian theology in some instances evil is a necessary part of the world - Judas as a means to fulfilling Christ's fate - the concepts of conscience and choice are too deeply rooted.

I'm not really up for a theological debate, but this acceptance of fate, submission to the will of god and acceptance of the dark sides of creation and the Divine itself is, I think, vaguely put, more of an Eastern concept. It might be interesting to compare the reactions of viewers of different cultures and religious faiths to this episode. "You ask me how this could be God's will. My answer is this: How can it not be? The Divine lives in all places (...)" Faced with this question the Western reaction more often than not has been to entirely discard god, or at the very least religion.

Personally speaking, while I'm intrigued I'm also a little uncomfortable with this episode and its message, because when it comes down to it, it's about the submission of man to god, or fate, if you will; Dylan objections and doubts are ultimately irrelevant and he's forced to accept Rev's view of things, and Trance, a more directly meddling goddess, manipulates Tyr into doing what she wants him to do. They're left to face the consequences and make what sense they can of the choices they weren't allowed to make...

Fics I really wish someone would write...

~~... because, whichever way I look at it, fiction writing and I don't mix. At all.~~

( Tyr/Harper that isn't the happy pairing of fluffy cuteness... )

( The Things We Cannot Change )

( *When the universe collapses and dies...* )

To sum up, and for the sake of saying anything at all, pretty shitty week, in a mostly uneventful way. Hot, sultry, work is boring. Not tired at night, unable to get out of bed in the mornings. Ch. is on a one week holiday, meaning I had to check on the horse four times, ending up wanting very much to kill her twice. A slight change of schedule and a few mosquitoes are not sufficient reason to totally freak out and practically drag me home - yesterday I was literally dripping sweat after a bare 20 mins walk. It's too easy to forget what kind of power there is in five hundred kilo horse, if she decides to be truly obnoxious. My fault, really, for being too lazy to put a saddle and bridle on her for a ~~stupid, boring~~ 30 - 45 mins exercise walk. Rectified that today, obviously.

Am now rather good at changing bandages, too. And pulling cut-off tennis socks over hooves. Don't ask.

In a bout of (heat induced?) ~~insanity~~ extravagance ordered the S2 Andromeda DVDs. :: head. desk :: It's still... uneven, to say the least. I still can't resist the combination of dreadlocks & shakespearean acting, especially now that I can listen to it in the English OV. I'm still fascinated by the utterly insane battle of egos that is the psychotic love-hate relationship between Dylan and Tyr. Episodes like Exit Strategies, Una Salus Victus or Immaculate Perception... so delightfully fucked up.

Current Music: rem, disappear; grasshoppers in the yard

( post season 3 AU scenario... )

"I'm given to understand that your genetic material has become the foundation for an
entire race of warrior priests? I'm intrigued. And, perhaps, a bit jealous."

(Tyr to Rev in 'The Devil Take the Hindmost')

The existence of the Magog must be incredibly disconcerting for any Nietzschean, because in some ways they're their mirror image; an ugly distorted one, but a mirror image nevertheless. They're better and more efficient at everything the Nietzscheans value most: survival, procreation.

Western culture has always used concepts central to its self-definition -- thought, language, consciousness, feeling -- to draw (rightly or wrongly) a line between humans and animals, but if you toss all these aside, and chose to define yourself as the best and most efficient animal first and foremost? It works as long as you're on the top of the food chain (literally speaking in this instance), but must raise major issues of self-definition when this position is threatened, beyond the average human reaction in similar cases. Defeating the Magog (or not being defeated by them) isn't only a matter of survival for the Nietzscheans, I think it'd be a more viscerally felt matter of ego and self-worth, in the ‘oops, the sun is not rotating around the earth, after all’ way.

There’s another thing that struck me about the Magog in the Amdromeda-verse: whoever or whatever the 'Spirit of the Abyss' who apparently created them is, the concept is very, very human, in its equal monstrosity and pettiness. (Now of course the Andromeda writers themselves are only human, but let’s look at this from inside the story for a moment.)

( And then this plot bunny was hatched... )

Once again started to read Nietzsche's 'Also sprach Zarathustra' (the third or fourth try, I believe), and hopefully, with the pressure of

50bookchallenge I'll even finish it this time. [Strange book. Curiously poetic; some things I find rather to the point, others... well, I need to finish it first.]

Now I have only little faith in the Andromeda writers or producers ever having picked up one of Nietzsche's works and read it cover to cover. KHC, who appears to have done so, finds Nietzsche too incoherently rambling. KS? no idea. So perhaps it's more a testimony of Nietzsche's perception of things than the result of any efforts on the part of the Andromeda crew that the chapter 'Vom Freunde' ('The Friend') describes the Dylan/Tyr relationship so precisely. The friendship and enmity, respect and resentment so close together, the distance and unquestioning trust. The betrayal, even. It's tempting to believe that at least this chapter went into the conception of the characters, the similarities are almost too much to be entirely coincidental.

( quotes: german/english )

And again I wish I were a better writer, or indeed any kind of writer. This really ought to be further explored in a story...

Slowly making my way through the first season Babylon 5 DVDs..

Repeatedly quoted in episodes 18 & 19 (A Voice in the Wilderness 1/2), but really a leitmotif of B5:

Draal: " The third principle of sentient life is the capacity for self-sacrifice - the conscious ability to override evolution and self-preservation for a cause, a friend, a loved one."

Would make for an interesting B5/Andromeda crossover. Not that I'm ever going to write it, but still...

I only have to show up at work at noon tomorrow, which is why I'm still here, up at past 2 am, procrastinating, sipping tea with orange & rum...

Felt sick today, tired, stressed and annoyed enough to decide not to be polite this year, but ditch the company Christmas party. If they show as little consideration as to schedule it on the 23rd, it's not exactly my problem if no one turns up.

( 'Shadows Cast by a Final Salute': thoughts on the Andromeda Season 3 finale )

( And this is slashy... why? )

[:: headdesk :: It's glaringly obvious really that I got 1. no life & 2. a lot of ex-academic brain capacity doing the hamster-in-the-wheel thing.... Decided to sign up for

50bookchallenge next year, so that at least I maybe won't analyse crappy tv shows to death...]

ETA: :: exasperated sigh :: Here I am, trying to keep my mind out of the slashy gutter at least for the greater part of this post and then KHC puts this on his website.

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Der Mann von La Mancha (Essen 1994/95)

Strange dream I had this morning between the alarm going off and me actually waking up an hour later...

( ... )

Woke up and the room was actually light for once, after days and days of dense fogs and gloom; a clear morning, storm shaking the bare trees in the yard, chasing the clouds over the sky, glimpses of blue and sun. During the day it clouded over with a slight rain, but it was a cold and clear night when I came home, moon and stars out.

Andromeda season 3 finale. Just. Wow. I have no words. Or rather, I actually have quite a lot of words but won't be able to turn them into a comprehensive and coherent post tonight and still get up in time for a whole day of Christmas cookie baking tomorrow. Need to sleep, badly.

Suffice it to say that it almost - almost - reconciled me with a lot of the 3rd season crap, but really, would it have hurt them (other than KS's ego that is - presumably) to let KHC bring out the Shakespeare like that more often... it would have vastly improved the series.

Prepared one of tomorrow's cookies, then got stuck in front of the tv watching 'Billy Elliott', which was really quite good and not too cliched; some very touching moments and the kid who played Billy was amazing.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: tori amos, from the choirgirl hotel

Quite a nice day, relaxing, sort of productive even, in the sense that I didn't spend it glued to the computer.

Got to see Orientalische Reise. Malerei und Exotik im späten 19. Jahrhundert (exhibition on late 19th century Austrian orientalist painting).

Had a two hour walk through the Lainzer Tiergarten before, quite a dense mist that didn't clear up all day, especially further up on the hills, but very beautiful despite (or rather because of) that. The beech woods are glorious, both trees and ground a deep russet; the oak trees a muted grey-brown, blurred shapes fading into the mist. Carpet of leaves, shades of green, yellow and brown, colours brilliant from the moistness.

The exhibition was not big, but very much worth seeing, informative and well organised; some very beautiful landscapes and portraits, interesting not only for their exotic subject-matter. With orientalist paintings (even the less clicheed ones) there's always the danger that they're to a greater or lesser extent western projections and fantasies (mostly of the sexual kind), but most pictures chosen for this exhibition seemed not too bad in this respect, thankfully mostly lacking in harem scenes full of gratuitous nudity. If some of the portraits are erotic, it's done rather subtly and tastefully.

I've no idea how authentic the paintings by Leopold Carl Müller (which I especially liked) really are, but they don't seem too cliched and are strangely appealing for all their often detailed naturalism.

Leopold Carl Müller, Ein Sphinxgesicht von Heute; Figurenstudie einer gefässtragenden Araberin; Kamelmarkt in Kairo; Brunstbild eines jungen Arabers; Die Karawane; Volksschule in Oberägypten; Das Dorf Matarije

Tony (Anton) Binder, Tor zum Chons-Tempel in Karnak, Schwimmende Kinder an der Küste bei Alexandria
Carl Rudolf Huber, Wüstenmahlzeit; Sachmetstatuen im Mut-Tempel zu Karnak
Johann Victor Krämer, Motiv aus Tanger
Alphons Leopold Mielich, Das Schloss Qusair Amra; Bei den Mamelukengräbern von Kairo; Schule in Benassa
Alois Schönn, Haschim, der Assuaner; Geschmückte Mohrin

The Hermesvilla itself is a veritable orgy of historistic kitsch, but so over the top that it's almost charming (or else I'm in a very charitable mood today)...

( Smallville: Red )

( Andromeda: Deep Midnight’s Voice )

Current Mood: content
Current Music: sweet charity

Slept from 6 am to 12 am, not doing much ever since. And certainly nothing that required me to actually get my brain into gear. Not even first gear.

Like watching Andromeda, Vault of the Heavens

:: groans ::

One of these day I'm going to come up with a lengthy essay-ish post explaining why (*) I still watch this mostly-but-sadly-not-quite-always piece of garbage, but this episode was craptastic in ways I hadn't quite believed possible even for this show.

(*) And no, despite appearances to the contrary, KHC in all his dreadlocked glory is not the only reason.

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: rem, she just wants to be / disappear

ah, summer. meet the local wildlife. threw out a spider crawling across my desk a few minutes ago and just now a tiny green grasshopper. and there's this beautiful butterfly sitting just below the ceiling, which is really too large for me to capture in my hands without damaging its wings.... sad.

it appears nin.com has been sort of updated while i was away. so it can only be years now...

lethargic. post-vacation depression, i think. god. right now it's back to woe is me, my life is pointless. i still feel torn between an irrational (?) wish to change major things about my life and the almost certain knowledge i won't be able to pull it through, because i haven't even a clear idea what to change or where to begin and probably should rather just come to terms with what i have.

washed my bike, which was long overdue anyway. go me.

watched a lot of rather pointless tv & really feel stupid talking about it - not so much because i'm trying to uphold some kind of pseudo-intellectual image here (a lost cause, anyway), but because for the greater part of the world 'Buffy' is already history. makes me feel anachronistic. still, its funny and often touching. 'Angel' i find somewhat annoying at the moment, what with the baby, and i still resent that they had Darla stake herself so that the baby could be born & the rest play happy family. 'Andromeda' (3rd season, finally) is my very guilty pleasure, but well. look at the cast. er, and there are moments of interesting character development & interaction (esp. Dylan & Tyr :: fans self :: :: smirk ::), even if it isn't always consistent.

and really, i'd rather watch those than the shows where the main focus is on who's sleeping with whom / not sleeping with whom / angsting over their relationship or lack-of-relationship & such. (anything from ally mcbeal to sex in the city) my patience with watching pretty, anorexic people go over their neuroses is rather limited. maybe this is just me being alone and waxing cynical, but sometimes i catch myself thinking this is all such a waste of time and energy...

Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: bizet, carmen

(the fanish stuff will go in this journal, too.)

there are any number of reasons why i probably should avoid writing fanfiction at all cost. language. inability to put myself in another person's place even in real life, which doesn't bode well for fiction. language (as in, i wouldn't be writing in my first language). sex. language. lack of writing experience. language.

but. there's this andromeda plot bunny that won't go away. :: facepalm :: dylan/tyr, and it just might be interesting. and i don't see anyone writing it for me.

butbutbut. total lack of prose writing experience, academic thesis apart. also, this isn't going to be just a drabble.

every other fandom, i never felt even the remotest need to write myself, because it's already been written, and better than i ever could ever dream of doing. but between the leather, uniforms, chain mail and uneven (to say the least) quality of the show, the andromeda fandom seems to attract bad prose and kinky sex; character analysis and subtlty, not so much. scroll down a bit, and chances are someone will be either beaten up, tied up, or both. :: rolleyes :: yes, evil nietzscheans, cruel universe, we get it. but so cliché it's beyond boring. also, bdsm isn't really my kink. (there's one thing worse, though, and that's gushing protestations of love five paragraphs into a story. personally i don't see *any* of the andromeda characters, male or female, outright admitting to being in love except under torture, or after a at least 400kb build-up...)

pity, because andromeda to me the slashiest show ever. i've been reading a lot of ships i don't necessarily see in the original show / book, but here? everyone/everyone, slash, het, whatever. excluding rev bem.

to try or not to try...

grammar, which i never give much of a thought to. would need to research philosophy. damn. :: cries ::

Current Mood: tired

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solitary_summer

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life without a plot

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