solitary_summer: (Default)
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...
.
.
.
.
.
Half an hour later. Um. Note to self. Don't start watching animal videos on YouTube.

solitary_summer: (spiral)

It's one of these spells when I don't much feel like writing -- lj-entries specifically. Maybe it's laziness. But somehow, this time it feels as if the reason for the lack of motivation to update is that I might actually have become a little calmer and more secure in myself, no longer afraid that my life, or any 'progress' (mentally, emotionally) made will immediately become insubstantial and slip away from me, unless I record every tiniest step.


I never really realised (and probably wouldn't have cared, because not caring was a good thing) to what an extent I did it, but I think I must have shut myself down so completely at one point that it takes time and effort to expand again, to open up to emotions, positive emotions, especially considering that I've never been the most open person in any respect. It's almost like I'm very slowly learning to feel a wider spectrum of emotions again, to feel more fully, to see a world I've been blind to (made myself blind to, haven't dared look at) for a very long time. Learn that I can be a person, not just some object or puppet, more or less helplessly flung around, only reacting, but never acting; that I can have influence over my own life, that if I chose to I can determine how I see the world, and how I see myself in relation to it, positive or negative. And maybe enjoying looking at art as intensely as I do at the moment is a step upward, forward, and perhaps I should complain less, when there are good things in my life, but instead realise that changes, if they are to be true changes, and not just rebellions where you're flying blindly from one thing and often end up in a very similar place only decked out somewhat differently, take time.


And then I look at my pictures which are always ... Not exactly cold, not exactly lifeless, not exactly sterile, but very close to either; almost empty of life, the static, quiet moments, incongruously picked in places often bustling with people, and wonder what they say about me.




Watched Serenity earlier this evening, and is it just me or are all the characters ever so slightly off compared to their Firefly counterparts? It isn't so much noticeable with the 'minor' characters, except that they seem somehow less, less interesting, less well-rounded, less lovable. If I only knew movie!Zoe, Wash, Kaylee, Jayne, Simon and Inara, these people would not particularly interest me and I certainly wouldn't have fallen in love like I did. Super!Buffy River I can accept if I must, but Mal ... It's not as if he isn't messed up in the series, but in the movie there's an even harder edge to his character, occasionally bordering on the faintly unpleasant. Now, there's very little JW hasn't been able to convince me of, given enough time and build-up, but the jump is a little too sudden, like moving from the AtS S1 to the end of S3, cutting out all the intermediate character development. Generally speaking, the humour is lacking, and a certain warmth that balanced the brutality and general gruesomeness of the Firefly-verse. Instead we have redemptive heroism and Mal exchanging platitudes about how love keeps the ship flying with River ... In my opinion JW tells his stories better when he has more time at his disposal and can focus on the character's development rather than the plot's -- he isn't a bad story-teller by a long way, but they are certainly his greatest strength and (again, IMO) more often than not the driving force behind his plot developments and twists.


::sigh:: So much for not updating. Also, ::adds picture, because she can::



solitary_summer: (irina cowgirl)

Saw X-Men 3 today, and I don't know what everyone is (or, at any rate, so many people seem to be) complaining about. Sure, it's not the most profound thing ever, and I don't have any knowledge of comic-verse canon to compare it against, and yeah, big explosions & melodrama & such, but it was plenty entertaining and has enough ethical complexities/complications to keep me interested. And I loved the final scene, Eric playing chess with Charles like at the end of the first movie, but this time one of them is dead and the other is a normal human being. It's beautiful and fitting, in a way...

[ETA: I didn't see the scene after the credits; knew there was one, but didn't remember... I think I'd prefer finality, and people who died to remain dead.]


And I'm about to watch the last episode of Firefly [::tiny sob::] I knew I'd fall in love and then be frustrated that there's only half a season, which is why I put off buying/watching it for so long, and here I am, very much in love, wanting more & very frustrated indeed. Although I must say I'm not really surprised it got cancelled. Not because it is bad, obviously, which it certainly isn't, but (and this kind of hit me watching Jaynestown, especially at the end of the episode) if ever there was a tv show that was wholly and in every respect contrary to the official ideology/zeitgeist of the country that produced it, it's Firefly


Quite a good day, despite getting caught in a downpour-ish rain on my way to work and arriving with soaking wet and uncomfortably clinging trousers. Thank god we have a hair-dryer there. Got to leave at 13:30, lingered a bit at the Blasmusikfestival on my way home -- not the kind of music I ordinarily listen to, but it was a beautiful sunny, warm afternoon (after a couple of weeks of more or less constantly crappy weather) and all those groups in their colourful traditional clothing, Dirndls and whatnot, or colourful pseudo-uniforms, were very picturesque and even the music fit the mood. A cute group from a school in Tokio wearing black glittery cowboy hats with glittery gold hat-bands/scarves wrapped around, everyone took pictures of, and had pictures taken with, them. A tall, young, smiling Austrian military officer with a red beret as I was watching; surrounded by small Japanese girls. Two women in Dirndl from one of the Austrian groups taking a picture of a middle aged man in Trachtenanzug, also from their group, with two of the pink and white dressed, short-skirted and booted majorettes from the Slowakian group, admonishing him to hold the ceremonial flag he was carrying straight. Then, young guys who might have been from the French group, with their uniform trousers only, boots with spurs, t-shirts and suspenders down, also taking pictures with the majorettes.

And there must have been a society wedding or something like that, because in the midst of all this there passed a group of very posh dressed and be-hatted people. Later, they were standing on the infamous balcony, looking over the Heldenplatz.


And I'd been thinking of taking the camera along this morning. ::sigh::

Profile

solitary_summer: (Default)
solitary_summer

March 2013

M T W T F S S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
1819202122 2324
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 4th, 2025 01:16 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios