Recovery Girl is Recovering

[annathepiper]

I see I've picked up a couple new folks reading: hi there, mrgoodwraith and sar_anon. Things have been slow around here lately since I haven't had much brain for posting--or doing much of anything else, for that matter. However, things should soon be picking up.

Most of this past week has gone to various appointments (chiro, massage, talk therapy), as well as hanging out with the fantabulous mamishka--who's come over a couple of time and introduced me to the TV shows Moonlight and Pushing Daisies. Moonlight is better than I've expected, at least based on the first couple of episodes; it's got a few amusing moments of self-aware humor, and it makes me grin that it has the actress who played Reinette in "Girl in the Fireplace" in it. Pushing Daisies, on the other hand, is hilarious in a quirky, dark-humor kind of way.

As I feared, the replacement X-Files DVD set that Amazon sent me turned out to also be missing the season closer. To wit: argh. I shall have to find alternate means to acquire that season, I fear. But I also jumped ahead and watched the first X-Files movie, on the grounds that okay yeah fine I'm going to go see the new one and I want to be reminded of various plot points. At least the ones from when the show was still good. ;)

solarbird and I went and saw Speed Racer finally, which I liked way better than I thought I would--and I have to admit, the techno remix of the theme over the closing credits was awfully catchy, and I may have to buy it off of iTunes. Coming home to watch the two actual episodes of the old cartoon I have on laser made me doubly appreciate the movie. The cast really did do a good job nailing the various characters, and sure, it's cartoony, but hey, it's a movie based on a cartoon. Though I can see how, if you never were a fan of the cartoon, the movie wouldn't work for you.

spazzkat and Dara and I went to see Indy IV last night. And, after seeing it a second time, I've found that I've downgraded it to a nice enough coda to the original three movies. Dara has said that she feels that Indy as a character really belongs back in the 20's and 30's, because back then, so much of the world is still Unknown and Mysterious to Western culture--but after WWII, not so much. I think I find myself in agreement with her.

We've had one jam session, about which there will not be a Jam Report still because I haven't had the brain to write them. But it was fun to have folks over, and I hope to resume writing Jam Reports with our next session on the 29th. In related news, Dara has started busking at local farmers' markets--and has made quite a bit of pocket change, which is awesome. I hope to join her next week to help her out, and we're hoping to use the busking money to get us a couple of the new iPhones when they come out.

My energy levels are slowly returning to normal; I've been able to do some decent walking the last few days, going to the aforementioned appointments as well as running errands down to the shops. And my brain's coming back enough that I'm starting to feel a little guilty about not working on the writing (in fact, I finally had an idea occur to me about how to fix one of the skiffy novels I'm working on, about which I need to be taking notes).

I think that's everything for now. A few more days of zzzz and then I'll have to go back to work; in the meantime, though, I got more Nethacking to do!

Comments

So...

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

...have you Ascended as a Tourist yet? :)

Re: So...

[annathepiper]

Bwaha! No, actually; I don't play Tourists often. I focus on Rangers at the moment. I only jump over to play Tourists when I'm feeling either bored or adventuresome.

Oh, and about those movies...

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed Speed Racer. The fact that I got in free helped, but I thought it was really well done, though so different from everything else that I can see how it would put some folks off. But how can you not love watching John Goodman take out a ninnonja with wrestling moves?

As for Crystal Skull . . . well . . . I enjoyed it more on the first viewing than I did Temple of Doom. That's about the best I can say for it. I kept waiting for Boris Badenov to join his partner, the Kookie Kookson schtick was laid on a bit thick, the relationship stuff that shoulda been there wasn't, and OMGWTFBBQ the ending! Never mind the scene that gave us a whole new lexical item (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nuke+the+fridge)...

Re: Oh, and about those movies...

[annathepiper]

Har, yeah, John Goodman in that fight scene was one of the best things in the movie. :)

And HAR! I hadn't heard about "nuke the fridge". Bwahahaha!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I'd agree with Dara, too. There's also a far greater black and white division when you're dealing with Nazis than Soviets as a threat, and pulp is pretty black and white.

50s pulp was a different animal than 30s pulp; there's a reason "Forbidden Planet" is a classic example of 50s SF. To really capture the sense of difference and amazement present in earlier pulp, it was in a lot of ways necessary to leave this world, and, well, "Indiana Jones and the Visit to the Stars" just isn't a good idea. :)

I still liked Crystal Skull, mind you, but I wouldn't argue that it's about a character out of his era.

[annathepiper]

The way Dara put it was that Indy "belongs in the Age of Empires". And he really does. You're very right about how the Unknown and Mysterious, by the time you get to the 50's, has to be off-planet--or from off-planet, when you call on movies like oh, say, The Blob.

[sar-anon.livejournal.com]

Hi.
Dawn-Marie suggested I add you as I am working on the final edit of my novel.

[annathepiper]

Ah cool! Well, welcome. :)

FYI, when it comes to writing-related stuff, I post mostly very general things on this journal these days, such as when I'm sending out queries. I do all my regular (well, regular when I'm not recovering from major surgery) updates about my own writing on my annathewriter journal, which is Friends-locked; if you'd like to peek at that, I'd be happy to add you.

[sar-anon.livejournal.com]

Added. Thanks.

Dawn Marie suggested that I sit down and talk with you as well. I'm about a week or two from finishing my final edit and getting started on my own submission process.
Its a little daunting to consider and I was wondering if you had any suggestions or thoughts as someone who has looked into it already.

[annathepiper]

I'll get you added to the annathewriter Friends list tonight, cool. :)

Re: suggestions, I'd be happy to share with you what I know. If you'd like to meet to discuss it, that's doable! Otherwise I'd be happy to just send you some email.

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

Glad your brain is coming back online! Hope the recovery continues apace.

Cathy

[annathepiper]

Thanks! Beginning to feel practically normal at this point--and the writer brain is starting to wake up, too. :)

[filkermanque.livejournal.com]

Good to see that penultimate paragraph (about things returning to normal). We're keeping you in our thoughts.

--
Jeff

[annathepiper]

Thank you very much. :)

[mrgoodwraith.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the welcome! Read and enjoyed your comments on some of my existing friends' entries, then came over here and liked your own postings, so I friended you. Glad you're getting to feeling better!

I'll have my own post about Indy 4 soon, but my thoughts on the movie basically boil down to this:

The first three films are homages to the serials of the 30s. This film is intrinsically different: It's an homage to the B-movie SF of the 50s, with Jones shading away from the "gentleman adventurer" of the serials and toward the "manly scientist" protagonists of the Sputnik era. (Can the same character function in both roles? That's a question for further debate than I have time for.) Indy 4's no more unbelievable than the first three; it's just that where the first three are unbelievable in ways that are relatively easy to overlook, this film *pokes you in the eye* with its silliness, just as most of the SF of the 50s did. I don't have a problem with that, although I can easily see where other folks would. I'm just glad they didn't film this during the 1990s and feel obliged to give us an "homage" to the ridiculous actor-depleted, script-depleted, no-budget, propaganda-laden (and frequently racist) serials of the 1940s!