A Lightkeeper's Log

First and foremost, my lovely author wrote this for me:

Title: Memories
Author: ariestess
Fandom: Babylon 5
Words: 1,200
Rating: Teen
Summary: "Five years ago today, Lyta Alexander came onto Babylon 5 with this big story about a Psi Corps mole on the station. Do you remember that?"
Notes: I love "Divided Loyalties" AUs so much. This fic has great Susan/Talia domestic touches, too.

( Ten other stories I liked )

My ASL class is going really well. The teacher is amazing. Annoyingly, it would have been accessible after all, as the interpretor left after the introduction and will not be seen again, but now it's too late for Nenya to sign up (and she often works when it's on). OH WELL. Maybe she can take it next year. I can currently count up to fifteen; sign all the letters (which I mostly already know), colours and articles of clothing; ask questions, and follow some instructions. I also know how to say "photocopier," which I feel will be super useful.

Saw the new Danny Boyle movie, Trance, with Vincent Cassel (Frank), Rosario Dawson (Elizabeth), James McBlueEyes (Simon), and randomly Tiger from Sinbad in like two scenes. It was a pretty entertaining thriller. Gorgeously shot. I'm pretty much always going to be on Team Dawson first, Team Cassel second, and McBlueEyes if there's no one shinier around. Which worked out well, considering ( spoilers )

I will say that I could have lived without the attempted rape, especially the racial dynamics around it. I don't think it added anything. Warning for attempted rape and other sexual violence, on screen torture, and a fair bit of gore. Pretty standard Danny Boyle.

We were going to go out to a dance tonight, the Homospun Prom, but it's alternating torrential rain with ice pellet showers, so I'm thinking maybe not. Too much time at bus stops in short skirts for this weather.

I tried to read Sailor Moon Vol. 2, but couldn't get into it either. The art's great, but the writing just isn't grabbing me. Back to the library it went.

Review c/ped from esteven's DW
I keep forgetting to mention that I'd seen Les Mis.

For context, I haven't read the book, or seen/heard the musical before, but have seen the 1998 movie a bunch of times.

I found the sung dialogue disconcerting at first. I'm used to musicals where everyone talks normally, then there's songs, not singing all the time. I got used to it pretty quickly though. The pacing suffered in the same way that the Neeson version did, where they had to really rush a couple sections, with show piece bits stuck in the middle. The story didn't really get started until Fontine's first scene, then rush rush rush after she died up to Paris and the students.

I can't say I was a huge fan of Jackman's singing, though he emoted well. It just sounded sharp or something? I didn't hate it, but his songs weren't my favourites. I thought Hathaway was spectacular, and I really liked the Tenardiers, especially Eponine. The parents were also a fun (if super cynical) break from all the doom and gloom. I still don't care about Marius (or Cosette, especially), but the rest of the students were well done. I really liked the "I Have Heard the People Sing" number, both at the funeral and in the final scene; it made me cry both times.

I loved Crowe. I thought his singing was great, and I don't know why people didn't like it. Some people commented that he seemed to be focusing more on hitting his notes than acting, but I thought a less emotive style suited the character. I had a difficult time rooting against Javert, because CAPTAIN JACK!!!!!! But I also thought that he was played tragically and sympathetically. I really liked the competing versions of Christianity between Javert and Valjean. That wasn't in the 1998 movie as much, and it really helped here, I think.

Overall, I probably prefer the Neeson version, but thought this was very good.

cruisedirector has been writing fun bits of J/V, notably Five Times Javert Failed To Commit Suicide and Ten Times It Was Not Javert's Fault, crack certainly but also lovely and really showing off what one can do with drabble form.

February is the wasteland of cinema. I really don't think there's anything else running that I want to see.

---

I also finished a couple books, that I've forgotten to mention.

The Hammer And The Cross: A New History Of The Vikings by Robert Ferguson
Going into this, I knew next to nothing about the Vikings, other than what most people do (793 And All That). For the most part, it was a fascinating read. I'd say I learned a lot, and the massive amount of information, names and dates was presented well enough for me to follow what was going on with one or two exceptions.

I liked how he broke down the history by region then by period, so you could follow one set of characters for a while without bringing 40 other people (inevitably named Herald or Olaf) into the picture. The chapters on the causes of the Viking Age, the Volga Vikings, the Settlement of Iceland, and the raids on Muslim Spain were especially interesting. I also liked the stories about individual Vikings and bits of poetry. There's a lot of quoted text here, often from sagas or chronicles.

I did find the chapters on Danelaw in England somewhat confusing. With so many related characters going back and forth over the same ground so many times, it really didn't hold my interest. Also, all his citations were in Norwegian (?), so it makes tracking down further reading difficult for an English speaker.

Would recommend to anyone who wants to learn Viking basics. It certainly made me interested to read some of the sagas quoted in the book.


Wilful Impropriety: 13 Tales of Society, Scandal and Romance edited by Ekaterina Sedia
Excellent collection of reasonably diverse stories. As with all themed collections, a couple of the stories didn't do much for me, but mostly I found the highly enjoyable and interesting. It had a nice mix of steampunk, Victorian-era stories, and historical urban fantasy.

I was pleased at how many queer characters, men and women, were in this collection. Probably an over-abundance of white characters but not entirely, and a mix of social classes though it did tend to upper class. It also tended to "getting married at 17 will solve everything," which was one way to go at the time, I guess, and the romances were often unconventional, but I found the book a little romance heavy.

Having said all that makes me sound like I did not like it, and I really did. There were cross-dressing adventures, and women solving things by being the smartest person in the room, and adorable gay girls falling in love, and friendship between women, sisters getting along, and strong feelings about loyalty, and The Secret Garden fan fiction (and I'm preeeetty sure Doctor Who fic with the serial numbers rubbed off).

I would recommend this collection if you like YA romance, steampunk or girl adventurers.


Beacon of Love by Ann Roberts
I have yet to finish this one, though I do kind of want to out of morbid curiosity. One of the other lightkeepers lent it to me, and I was all, a lighthouse-themed lesbian romance novel, what more could I want? Erm, yeah. So here's the thing, I don't know how old Ann Roberts is, but I strongly suspect she's of my parent's generation, which would be fine, if she were setting the book in 1983, but she's writing about a hip young lesbian in Seattle in 2009. She "twitters" to her followers. As of about half way through the book, no one had suggested that the woman who had left her husband, and had both male and female affairs might be bisexual, she had to be straight or gay. This is the same character who had really liberal and understanding parents, grew up in coastal Oregon in the '90s, and still insisted on having a heterosexual freakout ever three pages. Also there was a plot wherein one character had to become straight to inherit from her mother, which is... probably not legally binding? It just felt super dated and clunky. I do want to lay hands on that book again, just to see what happens.

I realise that I didn't ever do a post on the music festival. It was fantastic all around, I discovered a bunch of new bands, and saw some old favourites. The weather was too hot in the day and too cold at night (we were camping), but there was always swimming in the river and huddling together for warmth.

I've been thinking a lot about the k.d. lang show, and why it worked as well as it did. Part of it is, of course, that she has an absolutely heart-stopping voice and the ability to make it do exactly what she wants, but I think more than that is her stage presence, and what that means. Here is a woman who is something like middle aged, not especially good looking by conventional standards (which are fucked up), somewhat androgenous in dress and presentation, kind of a goofy dancer, singing music in a slightly dated style (she did a couple of Tony Bennett songs that fit right in with the show). There are so many things about her that should be your mum average, but it's not. She completely pwns, and it's not in denial of any of the above, it's completely accepting all of that and saying, Fuck you, societal norms; I'm awesome! And she is. She utterly is. She's out and gay and fabulous, and she wants everyone to know it but doesn't care what they think, and it's just... That's me, up on stage will a million-dollar smile, a voice to die for, and the audience eating out of the palm of my hand. She's so charming, it's alarming how charming I feel.

I'm up to Volume Six of Fullmetal Alchemist and loving it so far. I tried One Piece a while ago, and didn't really connect with it, but this is great. It's got a lovely blend of angst, humour, charm, social commentary and intrigue. I'm pretty much totally invested in all the characters, and what's going to happen next. I've been assured that Roy Mustang is the best, but I don't think I've gotten far enough in to tell. Onward.

Comics this week (ones I couldn't stand to wait to hit town for anyway): Daredevil #15 and Captain Marvel #1. Both, solid, emotionally resounding superhero comics that had angst and joy and humour all in one. They should be handed out and taught.
DD: My reactions on reading (based on what was happening to the character, not a reflection on the writing (though that and the art were amazing)): D: D: D: D: >:[ D: D: :'( :'( ((((MATT)))) -holds breath- .... .... :D :D :D \o/ \o/ \o/ I <3 U, Tony! :D Oh. Fuck. D:
When was the last time you did that reading a 22-page floppy?

CM: Generally I loved it. Carol was just such a badass, and not in a Strong Female Character kind of way, in a brash, vain, resilient, compassionate fighter jock kind of way. She felt like a real person with real friends, and real hear-aches, and I loved her mentor (a new character and you really should check out Kelly Sue DeConnick's literary and real life inspirations for this comic, and Legacies by twtd about said mentor). The monologue at the end may have made me tear up a bit. My only two quibbles were: Too much Spider-Man, they get time together in his comic, and it felt tacked on here, and the colouring was kind of... idk ghoulish? Not a good match with the rest of the art.

Sitting this week out on Master and Commander reread. I read the chapter, but didn't feel up to commenting. We'll see how I feel next week.

The last two weeks of Continuum (not today's episode, which I have not yet seen) have really picked up the show's game. It was great before, but now it feels like the plots starting to hurtle towards the season (series?) finale. The grey areas are growing, master plans are moving forward, and everyone is gearing up for... something. My only quibble is the way police discipline was treated last week. I tend to give cop shows a pass because they're only tangentially connected to reality at best, but somehow having it be the VPD hits me harder. I really don't want to see them being so casual about such things. They've got in enough shit for it in RL lately, that this makes me go :/ at the heroes rather than root for them. Hopefully they will clean up their act in future.

So I watched The Eagle and rather liked it. The plot was pretty light, there were a few too many battle scenes, and a bit too much running about, and the Iraq allegory near the start might have been slightly heavy handed? I guess it's as good a short hand for "empire" as any. Given all that, the story completely rests on the relationship between Marcus and Esca, and they totally sold it. I thought both actors were excellent, and I don't really know why CT gets ragged on so much, and man, all my kinks, right there. The trust issues, the Strong Feelings about Loyalty, the additional trust issues, the bonding, the clash of cultures, the betrayal, the love! Great movie from my fannish perspective (Dad: I'm glad it wasn't any longer).

So then I read the book, The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutclif, and I was... kind of underwhelmed? Like it had lots of great background information, and much greater historical accuracy, and an actual girl, and she was fierce and awesome, and a puppy, and a map (which was great, the first scene was in Cornwall, who knew?), and less battle scenes and gaps in logic. So that was great, but they kind of took out the part I actually liked. It just read a lot like a 1960s YA novel (which is is), where the conflict is almost entirely between Team Hero and an External Force. Marcus and Esca iron out their differences so quickly that all the lovely tension and trust issues just isn't there. Plus the original had the characters as rather more generic and likeable (which is why they got on so well so soon), and that was fine, they had fun adventures and I was entertained for a couple hours, but, but, but... that's not what I liked about them in the movie. I wanted to read about them growing into a relationship, and that mostly seemed to happen in the "As the months past" part. Kind of disappointing, really.

I have the next in the series from the library, and will try it but probably won't press on if things don't pick up.

Saw True Grit and liked it a bunch. On a meta level, I kind of want to read the book and see the older version of the film for the meta experience, but on the other hand, I can do about one western a year, and that was it.

Just rewatched Possession for the first time in probably eight years. I'd seen it a couple times before (and have read... some of the book? Not all I don't think) and remembered most of the plot, but was more struck than ever before by the fate of the lesbian character.

If you haven't seen the film, ( allow me to spoil the hell out of it for you. )

It probably bothered me a lot more this time because I'd recently watched The Jane Austen Book Club, wherein ( there's more spoilers )

And the sad thing is, I otherwise really liked both of those movies. I like the research romance history thing, there were some fantastic characters in the book club one (especially relating to women in science fiction). But...

It's just so frustrating. The second I see a queer woman in a film, I mentally kick into, "how am I going to be represented today?" and it's almost inevitably not a good thing. This is why I love D.E.B.S., But I'm a Cheerleader, Bound and Better than Chocolate forever.

I have no New Years plans of any kind. I'll probably stay up in that I'm usually up that late anyway. Mum and I are going to see Hugo this afternoon. We all went to Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows a couple days ago. I have no real comment past noting that that was an awful lot of fan service jammed into a two-hour film. RDJ is still not Holmes for me, but I like him and the rest of the cast did well. I <3 Law's young and dashing Watson.

Nenya's gone again, which means I have a sad, but here's a meme from her (and the rest of my circle)

( Fandom Year in Review )

Everyone was all, Oh! Daniel Crieg, we must go see the stupid cowboy movie! He's cute, but meh. It'll take more than that to get me to a Western.

Why am I just now finding out now that Adam Beach is in it? What is wrong with the information distribution system in my circle? Do any of you have any idea how much crappy TV I have watched for that man?

I'm in Victoria, should be packing to leave tomorrow, but eh.

I still have that god-damned cold. If it doesn't cause Nenya to murder me in our bed so she can get some sleep, it'll be by god's grace alone. Drugs help.

Nonetheless, I had a fun time visiting my aunt and uncle in North Vancouver. We went and did all the fun cultural things: Granville Island (where I spent money like a drunken sailor), the Art Gallery (where I was impressed by the Surrealist exhibit, right until we hit the mutilating women's bodies part, which I'm kind of not down with, even for art's sake; but disappointed to learn that the Emily Carr collection was off travelling somewhere, what the hell BC Art Gallery? You have now have no works the greatest west coast painter in Canadian history?), and saw a play by Sarah Ruhl called Eurydice (which went well with the previously mentioned Surrealists, but left me with mixed feelings).

Saw X-Men: First Class tonight, which I liked very much, though it really could have done without the race fail, I mean, seriously? Gender issues too, actually. Which combine to make me feel slightly bad about the pure sensual pleasure I gained from watching Erik and Charles stride about being badass and in love, and all the team building antics that I love so much. I have a great weakness for training montages. However, even the Russians got to be sympathetic, and I did love this Mystique. Also, Erik, sharp dressed man with actual facts decent reasons for angst. Stick it, Loki.

Home tomorrow.

So I ended up making Thor icons after all.