Happy Sunday.

I broke down and got a flat screen TV.  It is GLORIOUS. 

***

My sister and nephew both have Swine Flu right now.  Oh noes!

***

SGU is reeling me in!  The trick is, as usual, to get me shipping.  Matt/Chloe doesn't do it for me, though I like Matt,  and will gladly ship him with that hot Lt. James.  ;)   Chloe is, so far, to me, an annoying character.  She's cream puff eye candy.  And given the set up for the character as "the Senator's Daughter", I don't know if she's recoverable.   I might, however, at some point, be able to ship her with Eli. 

The idea of Young/TJ however, is something I just might go for.  That surprised me.  They'd telegraphed that there was some kind of secret with TJ, but I didn't realize that was what it was.  Ditto the tension between Young and his wife.

Quite a number of these characters really are starting to grow on me.   Eli, Rush, Young, TJ, Vanessa, Matt, Greer.  My one complaint is that the show needs to beef up the female characters.  Starting with Vanessa James.

BTW - Rush is absolutely delicious.  ;)  Just saying.

***

FlashForward is also good, though I honestly don't know what to make of it.  It has a great concept, and some intriguing ideas, but I think the lead characters, Mark and Oivia, are kind of weak.  I did not like it that Janis Hawk was shot.

It's still on the DVR.

***

Eastwick.  It's REALLY GOOD. It has fabulous women characters, and male characters too.   Seriously.  But the action is driven by the women., and that is what I like about it.  Roxie, Kat, Joanna and Penny are all really fun characters.

And pssst.  I ship Kat/Will.  Does that make me a bad person?

***

I'm going to say a word about Supernatural.  I usually get in trouble when I bring it up.  But after this last episode - which was the funniest!thing!ever!  I've decided that Jared Padelecki needs his own sitcom some day.  :D  :::Goes back into lurking mode on all things SPN:::

***

Finally - Mad Men.

OMG.  That episode last week.  THAT.

Early this year, Matthew Weiner was very coy on how he would handle the Kennedy Assasination.   He said that it was such well trod ground that he didn't know if he even wanted to go there.  But...  how can you handle a drama telling the story of the 60's, set in 1963 with out dealing with it?  It was the event that literally changed the 60's from one thing (the 50's Mark II), into something else entirely.   (See fourthturning.com.)  This has been a show that's been basking in the glow of Camelot, and so how could they not shown the event that ended it.   Especially since they have been bringing up most of the big historical moments of '63.  (I liked how they highlighted MLK's Dream speech, and the 16th St. Baptist Church bombing as things that were really happening in their world - and how people are still so nonchalant about "that Vietnam thing".)   Obviously MW was just hiding his cards about how he would handle season 3.  ;)

I thought they handled this Earth-shattering event beautifully.  By doing it in the second to last ep rather than the season finale, he caught the audience by surprise, just as the people who were alive at the time, were caught by surprise and shock.  The way they framed the shot where the news was starting to break,  with Pete and Harry in Harry's office, with Harry's TV on because it's his job to monitor commercials, framed between them.  And the special alert appears on the TV, but Pete and Harry are talking, and they don't notice until the other office workers come in.  That *totally* reminded me of Sept. 11th.  Lots of things in this episode reminded me of my personal experiences on 9/11 and the days that followed.  The way the news broke in waves across the office.  The way everyone was glued to the TV.   The way people kept asking "What's going on!" just like Betty did, with the same fear.

One thing that I never really realized before - the Oswald murder was on live TV.  And millions of people were watching.  I don't know why that fact never registered with me even though I've seen the video tape of the event many times, as everyone has.   How horrible that such a thing was televised live.

Tonight is the season finale - what it brings, I have no idea.  The only thing I know I definetly want in terms of historical mentions, is some acknowledgement about the Beatles.  Beatlemania had, by Nov '63, already been raging in Britain for months.  And it would not have been unusual for there to already be awareness of it among people at an ad agency - especially one owned by a British company.  And though I would like them to save the Bealtes' arrival in NYC for the beginning of season 4, I'd like to see an acknowldgement of The Shape of Things to Come.

***
That is all.

Here's my 20 Fannish Fixes Meme.   Twenty shows/books/movies that I'm fannish about to whatever extent.

In no particular order:

1.  BSG   (Sam Anders)
2.  Mad Men  (Betty Draper)
3.  Star Trek 2009  (Kirk)
4.  Star Trek (TOS)  (Uhura?  McCoy?  Scotty?  I really kind of loved all of them at one time or another.  But my current answer is Kirk.)
5. Star Trek (TNG)  (Beverly Crusher)
6.  Harry Potter   (Ginny Weasley )
7.  Leverage  (Parker)
8.  My Boys  (PJ)
9.  Avatar:  The Last Airbender  (Katara)
10.  Stargate Universe  (I haven't formed a very strong attachement yet.  For the time being it's Matthew Scott.)
11.  Flash Forward  (Dimity)
12.  The 4400  (Shawn Farrell)
13.  True Blood  (Sam Trammell  - I haven't seen season 2 yet.)
14.  Warehouse 13  (Mika)
15.  Supernatural  (Sam.  There I confessed.  I'm a sucker for tall guys names Sam.  ;p )
16.  Buffy The Vampire Slayer  (At one point it was Cordelia, at another it was Spike.  Now it's Anya.)
17.  Roswell  (Liz Parker & Kyle Valenti.  And yes, I ship them.)
18.  White Collar (OK, so I've only seen the one episode, but still...)  (The cute guy.  What's his name?  I'll figure it out.)
19.  Dragonriders of Pern (Why hasn't there been a movie yet!!??)    (F'Nor)
20.  Lord of the Rings (Books and movies)  (Eowyn & Faramir)

So, I guess the objective is that you try and guess my favorite character from each.   But actually, I'd rather you tell me who yours is too, if you share any fannishness over it.  (Oh, and for the curious, the answers are there if you want to highlight to look.)

A couple of thoughts.

Last night I decided to try out an episode of Vampire Chronicles.  :::shrugs:::  It's better than Twilight, but not nearly as good as True Blood or Buffy.  But I do have to say that Ian Somerhalder is hilarious chewing the scenery as the evil brother, and I'm sure that Paul Wesley is oh-so-dreamy as the good brother.  :::resists snarking:::.  But what I really wanted to say is that Nina Dobrev could be Shiri Appleby's little sister.  That's the extent of my thoughts on this, and no, it's not going on the DVR.

Which brings me to the next topic - the announcement that Syfy is Americanizing Being Human.  :::shrugs again:::

I'm sure this is an attempt to get in on the hot, angsty vampire action.  I really don't care if they Americanize it or not.  (Unless the Brits are offended.)  However, this is one of those shows that I did check out when it started airing on BBC America, and found it very boring.  Can we please get over the "dreamy" vampires?  Please????  And why did the main female character have to be the only one that is noticably dis-empowered by her supernatural condition?   The two male characters got to run around outside, doing stuff.  She's tied to the house, and nobody can see her while she angsts over failed romance.  Meh.  I'll pass.  (But if Skiffy can improve this premise, and maybe add some humor to the situation, and empower the female character...  )

That.  Yes.

Things to love:

Betty taking it to Don.

Don crying in remorse and genuine grief.

Betty showing a modicum of compassion.  And an awesome backbone.

The Hobo and Gypsy (the episode title) turning out to be Sally and Bobby's Halloween costumes.

JOAN whacking her no-good loser husband with a vase!!!!!!!!!!!!

No-good loser husband... signs up for the army so that he can continue his medical career?  (I'd laugh, but, DUDE.  It's 1963, and that whole "Vietnam thing" ?)

The clock is ticking on to Nov. 22.   

Stuff I love less:

Suzanne.  Sorry, I'm just not into Don's latest mistress.  (I could probably ship her with Paul though.)

The prospect of Roger & Joan gravitating back together.  Well, maybe.  We'll see.

****

Clearly, I'm getting closer and closer to genuine fan-love for Mad Men.

****

Also:  Yay Bengals.  (But, damn it's confusing when everyone else is rooting for the Bears, and my own emotions are mixed about it.   Liking multiple football teams is like multi-shipping.  Except sometimes the teams actually have to play each other head-to-head, and then, OUCH!)

So, here are some thoughts on shows I'm currently watching.  Some of them might even be... EPIC.  ;)


Eastwick is extremely entertaining.  It's light and fluffy and fun, and it's ratings so totally suck that everyone needs to go watch it now!  Trust me, you won't be sorry!  It's hot, sexy, fun & silly.  And kind of wicked.   There are hot girls and hot boy and soapy, witchy things going on.   Go watch Eastwick.  (I think I totally adore Roxie.  And Penny.)


Flash Forward is a cool concept that is so far a little weak in execution.  I thing the hero-as-alcoholic trope is just not working.  I *don't believe it* because it seems so tacked on to the lead character who is otherwise such a together guy and.    I just don't buy that the guys an alcoholic.   Then there's his wife who...  doesn't want to be unfaithful.  Sigh.  Couldn't they thought of something... better?   There have been flashes of something better that could unfold.  Suspect Zero at the baseball game.  Whatever is going on with the crows and Somalia.  Peter Coyote as the President.  And the mystery character played by Dominick Monaghan.  The best thing is John Cho's character, who's living with a death mark.  I also kind of like the story of the babysitter Nicole - mostly because I'm still so floored that she's the same actress who plays Jane on Mad Men.  I'm hoping that this will pan out better then it has to date, so I will stick with it.  But right now it's for the concept and John Cho.

Stargate Universe is a show I'm going to continue to reserve judgement on.  It's another one that I like the concept, so I'll stick with it for now to see if any of the characters will grab me.

Mad Men - OMG!  Betty found out!  OMG!    This season has been absolutely fantastic.  And now they are deep into the Fall of 1963, and Betty knows!  And there are three episodes left now And the world is really, really about to change.   I know it's too early to be thinking ahead to season 4, but... Its hard to imagine Mad Men in the post Camelot world.   So far, Mad Men has been all about life in Camelot, and that's all about to change.   As for Betty finding out her husband's secret, I'm totally shocked about that.  I thought surely that would not happen until deep in the decade.  What will she do with her new knowledge?  How will she hold it against Don?  And where the hell is JOAN!  And SAL! 

Dare I say it?  This show is EPIC.  ;)

You know, my greatest wish for The Plan was...


( Quick thoughts on The Plan... )

And don't worry.  I have my Amazon order in, and I'm looking forward to getting the disk.  :D  (But nope, still don't own a set of 4.5, and still no plans to.)

Here's a big icon post. (I've been on a bit of an Icon binge of late.) 

This post contains

Mad Men:  2 Betty, 1 Trudy, 12 Don/Betty


Samples:

   


( The Rest of the Mad Men Icons )


BSG:  11 Sam/Kara, 8 Sam


   



( The Rest of the BSG Icons... )

If you like 'em, take 'em. 

Lookee!  This is a Promo Pic for The Plan.  Its from the BSG DVD web page.



(If he wasn't going to be in it, I don't know how much I'd care.  ;)

So I've never been much of a Stargate fan.   Some shows grab you, some shows don't, and that one just never grabbed.  That being said, I think I have kind of enjoyed  Stargate Universe so far.   I guess that little bit of grit makes the difference for me?  And I'm a sucker for lost-in-space/explore the universe concepts.  

It seems that my advantage is that I don't know anything about whether or not this show betrays the originals.  (To me that's actually kind of good, since what went before failed to grab me.) 

I don't know anything about how the creators ruined the original or Atlantis.   (And I'm sure they did.  I know there are issues, and I know that there will be issues with this one too, that's the nature of the beast.  If it gets bad, I'll bail.  I've done it before, and I'll do it again.) 

I'll judge this show on it on it's merits as  it airs.  If something bad or offensive happens, I'll take my remote and turn it off.  Like I did with Lost for killing off female characters.  Like I did for Heroes for being all around stoopid as well as killing off too many female characters.  Like I did with Dollhouse for having such a horrific concept that I find it unwatchable even with Tahmoh.

I will have to say that so far none of the characters has grabbed me.  I do however thing that Lt. Scott is pretty.  That's a start.  ;)  I'm perplexed that Lou Diamond Phillips is listed as a regular, since I didn't see his character come through the Stargate.  I was also a little disappointed that Ming Na's character has had almost nothing to do. 

So, I hope that SGU does grab me, and that I have a new show to enjoy for a few years.  I'd like that. 

Don and Betty Draper are hot.   They are also a very, very, very fucked up couple, no question about it.   She's a miserable housewife living the "dream" that everyone always told her she should want - only to finally be figuring out that she hates it.  And of course, Don isn't really Don.  And someday (hopefully sometime around 1969) Betty is going to find out the truth about her husband, and :::fireworks::: will surely ensue.  In the meantime, these two need to vacation in Rome as often as possible.  ;)

And also, I am shipping them.  HARD



Don't try to tell me she's not fabulous.


OMG She's FABULOUS.  And the hair!!  OMG the hair!!!


( The Rest of the Don and Betty are Hot Pic Spam  )


And... the aftermath. 

Now ::ahem:: about Pete.  Oh forget about Pete, he's kind of dead to me now.  But when did Trudy become so awesome?   Is she aware that she's married to a scum bag?   Yeesh.  (Run Trudy!  Run!)



Was Trudy actually always awesome, and nobody noticed because we were all supposed to shipping Pete/Peggy?  What with her being the other woman, AKA his WIFE?

I was actually won over back in the episode where Pete and Trudy did the Charleston.




Plus - MOST AWESOME HAT EVER!  :::giggles:::

I have to say that I'm rather proud of Mad Men fandom.  Betty is a woman who it might be very easy to hate.  She's often cold, and worse, she'd guilty of maybe the cardinal sin of women on TV - she's not a very good mother.  (Not an abusive mother, but she is quite emotionally distant from her kids.)

caps from burgundy_shoes

I'm afraid that I've not been much of a baseball fan this season.   Today was the last day of the season, and the Reds, Cubs and White Sox all tanked.  :::Is sad:::  To be perfectly honest, I haven't really been paying that much attention to baseball for most of the season.  It's just one of those years I guess.  But baseball is still in the blood, and it will be back next year.

Anyway, it so happened that we fell into some tickets for the game at Wrigley today, and so we ushered out the baseball season in person.  It was a lovely way to do it too.  Wrigley tickets are usually hard to come by, but with the Cubs disappointing results, we were able to get them.  Wrigley is fun.  It's old, and that makes it different.  It has quirks and imperfections that would never be allowed now, like the famous seats that are literally behind steel support beams.

True, the Cubs lost, but it didn't matter.  It made for a great Sunday afternoon.

***

Though Baseball bombed out, the Football season is looking very promising!  The Bears seem to be working out very well with the new QB, The Bengals have won three in a row, and the Colts are undefeated, with the season now one forth done.  We spent much of our time at the baseball game today checking football scores.  Hee!

Just a TV Show round up.

1.  Mad Men - I really heart this show.   The John Deere episode two weeks ago was truly awesome.   JOAN!!!  Could Joan be any more awesome?  No.  She could not be.   I read that the episode was set up as a foreshadowing of the Kennedy assassination.  Complete with the blood stains on Joan's dress afterwards.  It was totally brilliant.

One of the things about Mad Men that is great is that I pretty much ship nobody except for two married couples.  I ship Betty/Don and I ship Trudy/Pete.  (I know, Trudy/Pete - it was the Charleston that won me over.)   Joan is the really sad case in the shipping department.  I most decidedly do NOT ship her with Roger, and the way her husband Greg-the-failed-surgeon was introduced to the audience pretty much precludes me from ever shipping them as a couple.  So I ship Joan/Someone totally awesome who hasn't been introduced yet.  (Or femmeslash her with Peggy).   Speaking of Peggy... Oh, Peggy.  You can do better then Duck.

Timeline wise, they've reached late July 1963 with six episodes to go.  The I Have A Dream Speech was in August of '63, so I personally am hoping for a reference from Kinsey about that.  They have also escalated the number of references to Vietnam lately.  The Shape of Things to Come.   And Betty has still not been handed a copy of The Feminine Mystique which came out in Feb of '63..  (Which she so desperately needs to read!)  There has now been two major foreshadowings of the Kennedy assassination:  the date for Roger's daughter's upcoming wedding, and the blood on Joan's dress.  I guess we'll see if we make it there in six episodes.

2.  Flash Forward - I really enjoyed the pilot.  I know there are not enough female characters, and that is a problem.  I am heartened that several actresses are known to have important upcoming roles.  Genevieve Cortese will be appearing as the telephone technician's daughter ( the missing soldier in Afghanistan).   And Gabrielle Union will be coming on board as a lawyer who is John Cho's finance.  Hopefully this will begin to even things out.  And that is good because this is a concept that I can totally immerse myself in.  This one is pretty much at the top of my DVR list right now.

3.  Eastwick - Was fun and full of females interacting.  Yay!  I liked it. 

Have you seen the 2 year old new BSG promos that were posted by crazyvictoria? Squeeeeeeeee!

Now, I admit that I have a very strange love/hate relationship going on with BSG.  I really disliked most of season 4.5.  Strongly.   Really, really didn't care for most of it.  And I'm not talking just about that last half hour, which I have this whole totally separate love/hate relationship with.   I love the way most of the relationships played out, and pretty much hate everything else... (And speaking of which I really need to do a whole post about how Hera can't be Mito-Eve.  Because she totally couldn't be, and I totally could pick that whole thing apart in it's entirety.)  ( Major Mitochondrial Eve Digression... Warning Warning... )

:::whew - got that out of my system.  Have I mentioned that I am the daughter of a Chemistry professor and a librarian?:::

So Squeeeee! at the pretty. (Because my love for the BSG cast remains firm.  :D )

      


Go to crazyvictoriafor the lovely full sized versions.

(And I think that Tory/Gauis/Head Six pose is hilarious!)

I wish I could take credit for these con pics - but credit where credit is due, these were posted by own_the_sky over on battlestar_blog . She's also posted these, plus hundreds more, on her flicker.  So if you use these photo's in anything, be sure to credit her and her fantastic camera work.

These pics are fantastic, and I can't stop drooling. And since it's been a looooooong time since I pic spammed...

PIC SPAM!!!!

[These are thumbnails click to enlarge them to their full glory]


Heeellooooooo  (And just what the hell is Hogan doing down there?)
 



( Cut for shameless drooling and general fangirling of the BSG Cast )


Yay!

I'm home safe and sound in Chicago. I had a wonderful time this weekend at DC.

The real highlight of the weekend was hanging out with folks I've already met and meeting new ones. It's so lovely to be able to have faces to match to screen names. :D I think I had more fun playing the BSG board game on Saturday night until 4AM than I ever would have had at the Colonial Fleet Party, (which was apparently both over crowded and over flowing.)

So some highlights - Mostly Trucco overload below.


*** From the panels (And I went to four of them, so I'm just combining my observations as I recall them.)

Trucco!!!!!!!!! ...............thunk................

At one point Trucco was asked about why Sam put up with Kara, with the way she treated him. I'm going from memory, but hopefully his answer will turn up on You Tube, because it was squee worthy. He said that it was about his last line to her, "I'll see you on the other side". He said that line was all about the extreme connection between Kara and Sam, and said that he believed it was true, and that some time, and some place, they would meet again. ......thunk............

Also, in answer to what Sam would say to her if he could have when she told him she loved him. "Get me a towel." And, "Get me the Hell out of here." Hehehehehe. LOVE IT!

AJ thinks his character's coolest moment was trying to take over the Fleet. Trucco thinks that the coolest moment for his character was flying the Galactica into the Sun.

AJ made a joke about losing his leg and accusing MT about doing it. MT joked back that he actually missed his target. He was aiming higher. LOL.

The panels were all lovely. The cast is GORGEOUS and they obviously really have a lot of affection for each other.

I think every panel included some joke between Trucco and Kandyse about how there really should have been a Dee/Sam hookup. At the first panel, (which admittedly I missed) the two of them actually did some fake making out. At another one, the cast was asked about what they would have liked for their characters to do that they never got to do. Trucco said he thought his character should have fooled around more. Kandyse said she thought Dee should have fooled around with Sam, and then all the actors said they would have wanted there characters to fool around more. Except for Kate Vernon, who said her character had already done that, so she would have wanted to have a friendship with Laura.

At one point Mary made a point of talking about how all the women characters on the show were so isolated from one another. Thank you Mary for noticing that! Kate Vernon also agreed.

Mary also said a couple of times that she thought there had been a lot of chemistry between Laura and Zarek.

Aaron crashed one of the panels. He said he thought the coolest thing the Chief did was strangle Tory. He got big applause from the audience over that. :( But I'm told, and I'm hoping that You Tube will post that panel to back this up... But apparently Mary and Kate didn't look pleased over that comment. Thank you again, Mary and Kate.

Actually, to elaborate on this story a bit more... Aaron said that originally Tory was just going to back up and accidentally fall over the railing to her death. But Aaron insisted that the Chief should strangle her instead. (Which in my opinion, makes Aaron look even worse.)

I think that Kandyse is being *extremely* diplomatic when she talks about Dee's suicide. She also said in the last panel that she had been really upset over Paul Campbell's decision to leave early on, because she enjoyed that storyline and missed him a lot when he left.

At one point, Trucco also said that there he wishes that Sam and Lee had had a knock down drag out fight. (YES! Me too! Because that would have been hot!). He called the confrontation on the Algae Planet a "spat".

So if I remember anything else, I'll post it.

**** Other stuff that's kind of related

I brought a Longshot action figure, for Trucco to autograph. (Those are very hard to find, though the word is that they know they didn't make enough, and that more are on the way.) Michael had apparently not seen one of these yet and he said a couple of interesting things - First, he commented on the name LONGSHOT on the box, about which he said, "I guess it's official." So... I guess he wasn't 100% sure that the call sign was really, really Longshot. He also seemed to like that Longshot came with accessories. (At which point I really, really wanted to tell him about the porn boots*, but managed to hold my tongue...) So, I thought that was really cool.

Later, when I was back for Mary's autograph, while she was signing, I looked up and saw Trucco hugging Kandyse one booth over... You have no idea how much I wish I could have gotten a picture because that was the sweetest thing ever. And it was also really cute in light of all the Dee/Sam jokes going on at the panels.

***

I had a really great time, and I'll stop rambling now.

*The Longshot action figure comes with a pair of boots - not for wearing - but for leaving outside locked doors. ;) PORN BOOTS.

Hi!  This is a totally random post that exists only because I wanted to post something pre-DC.

This is my first DC.  And I'm looking forward to seeing everyone.  :D  I will, however, be arriving fashionably late.  (Friday evening.)

***

Leverage   :::hearts::: 

Mad Men  :::hearts::: 

I am enjoying Summer TV a lot.  (Even though Summer kinda/sorta feels like it's over.  And Fall shows will be starting soon.)

I can't wait until the True Blood season 2 DVD's come out.  It's a show I totally would be watching, if I had any desire whatsoever to pay even more for cable than I already am.  HBO?  Too expensive!

***

Speaking of Fall Shows...

I usually sample every new show that has a supernatural element.  (Because I'm a geek that way.)  I can honestly say, that by far the one I'm most looking forward to is Flash Forward.  But I'm also interested in Stargate Universe, (Not a popular opinion, I take it.  I guess there was a kerfluffel?)  Day One also sounds really, really good.  (If they can pull it off.)  Then there's V - the idea of which is making me laugh.  I can't help but see cheesy 80's when I think of it.   Eastwick, I can take or leave.

I've already written about my reaction to Caprica.  They do have a great cast, (or at least the adult cast.)  And I keep noticing new casting announcements adding new actors from old shows that had fandoms.  Peter Wingfield.  James Marsters, etc.  Methinks they're trying very, very hard to hook in non-BSG people.   Dollhouse is doing the same thing.

Meanwhile, Warehouse 13 has twice as many people watching it each week as BSG.  Go figure.  (And I've actually gotten more and more fond of Warehouse 13 each week.)

***

Baseball?  Is breaking my heart.  Just as it is supposed to.  :D  Except for those rare times when it doesn't.

***

29 Days from today we'll learn if Chicago gets the 2016 Olympics.  My fingers are crossed.  It would be a great thing for our fair Duchy of Daley City.

The Best thing about Sunday is that they aren't Monday.  :D    I've had a lot of really busy weekends lately.  Typical Summer.  Typical August.  (Been to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, The Renaissance Faire in Wisconsin, and my parent's anniversary party in Indiana over the last few weekend.  I also went to horse races for the first time in my life over at Arlington Park...  (Not my cup of tea, but now I can say I've experienced it.)

***

Speaking of Indiana, it was the first time I've driven down I-65 since last Winter.  Since then several actual honest to god WINDMILL FARMS have sprung up alongside the highway.  Just like something you'd see in California.  WINDMILL FARMS.  In Indiana.  Yay!

***

DVR UPDATE:

Mad Men is back!  Yay.   It's a great show, with great characters.  Love Joan, Love Peggy, Love Betty.  Love Don, Love Sal, Love Kent, Love Harry.  The 60's are a really fascinating decade, and they haven't even gotten to the good part yet.  The first season, set in 1960, basically covered the run up to the Kennedy election.  The second covered 1962 and the run-up to the Cuban Missle Crisis.  Now they've begun season 3 in the Spring of '63, which would seem to indicate they are running up to the assasination, although Matthew Weiner had indicated he didn't want to do the Kennedy assasination since it is such well trod ground...  though I don't see how he can set his story so prominently during this particular era and avoid it.  This show has been milking the hell out of the Camelot era, but all of these characters are about to be hit with such an avalanche of change.  Some of them, (Peggy!) *are* the change.  Others (Betty!) *need* the change.   I love to picture this series ending in 1969 with Don smoking pot at Woodstock, and Peggy moving into the corner office.  Heeee!

Warehouse 13 is very entertaining.  And really popular.  (Lots more viewers than BSG, for example.)  I'm enjoying it despite the fact that I don't find either lead that engaging.  But sometimes if I stick with a show, it eventually grabs me, so this one might, which is why I'm sticking with it.

Leverage continues to be highly enjoyable, adorable and endearing.   Great characters, great stories.   Five fantastic characters.   Even though this isn't a superhero story... it's a superhero story.  Love it!

Beyond that, I um, actually like some shows that would probably qualify as "reality crap"..  I love HGTV's Design Star, for example.  I don't apologize.

I also like History channel documentary shows.  The Universe just began it's fourth season.   I highly recommend it.  It's like the old PBS series from Carl Sagan called Cosmo.  Cosmos was probably a better show as it had Carl's gravitas anchoring it.  But The Universe has lots of updated effects, and access to data from Hubble, Chandra, Swift and our other new fancy telescopes.  So it's good.  I recommend it.

***

Last subject is CAPRICA.  Which I finally broke down and bought. 

My overall impression was that it was a little dull.  I thought that some of the teenagers in particular were badly cast.  (The little boy playing young William, for example, did not strike me as the future Bill Adama...And the girl playing Zoe Graystone looked nothing like either of her parents, which is something I find extremely annoying.)   

I think the Tauron mob stuff is totally uninteresting. 

I thought it was a cool touch that the Graystone's live in Gaius Baltar's future house.

But you want to know what moment really made me feel like this story is AU?  When they show the C-Bucs wearing bright blue and green uniforms.  Because, we all know the C-Bus wear black, red and yellow.  I know, silly.  ;)  

But at the end, I got depressed because I realized that the One-God terrorist who blew up the train and killed all those people was ultimately going to be validated by the show, since in the BSG Universe, the One God ultimately killed everyone.  Meh.  (I know, applying any thought to the post-finale BSG universe is very depressing in general.  And I should refrain.)   Perhaps if I picture this story as AU, as exemplified by the blue and green clad C-bucs,  then I could cling to the hope that the One God terrorist will NOT ultimately be validated... by God.  But alas, I'd probably be wasting my hope. 

***

GC.  I will have flight info today.  I promise.

So, my new job?  Yeah.  Same as the old job.  Except without the benefits.  Remember that part where I was supposed to get brought on as a regular employee after three months?  It didn't happen.  I'm not sure it's going to.  It appears that I'll be contracting for awhile.   To make things even more LOL-worthy, early this week I got a call from my contracting agent that my company hadn't sent them a PO for my services for this month.  Pablo fixed it, but that was fucking scary.

Oh, and my old boss, John?  This week he got hired on here.  LOL.  Telecom is a small, small world.
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One of the most annoying things about this place?  It's impossible to read an LJ Flist behind their firewall.  It's one of the few things that's blocked.  Though obviously I can read LJ journals, and even post here. (Though I'm usually too busy).  But Flist?  Nope.
**

Yesterday EJO and Luciana Carro did a panel at Wizard World, so here is my report on what they had to say (though, frankly, EJO did by far the bulk of the talking.) Michael Hogan was supposed to attend, but wasn't there, I believe because he's filming a Dollhouse episode.  I would say the room was 3/4 full and had a capacity of about 500.  For what it's worth, the room was at capacity for the prior panel which was about an upcoming film called Kick Ass. 

First thing, the only piece of breaking news was about Luciana being cast in some capacity in Caprica.  Nothing was specified about her role in the spin off series, Eddie said specifically that she'd be the only member of the orignal cast that would appear in Caprica.  Take that for what you will.

There was very little about The Plan, and no trailer.  :(   However, Eddie repeated his recent mantra that if they can sell a half a million copies, then more movies can be made.  (And Eddie is clearly very enthusiastic about that idea.)  But he also included some pretty major caveats, namely that is would take an "act of God" for Ron Moore to be involved, and that it would be very difficult since the sets have been struck and the props sold off.  So my overall impression was that it isn't very likely.

Eddie is the biggest fanboy of all Battlestar Galactica fanboys.  He repeatedly called BSG the highlight of his career.  And spoke at length about what a high quality project it was writing, production values and acting.  He said that the younger cast members would not understand what it meant to be a part of this project until they were his age.

The UN was brought up, and Eddie is quite clearly very impressed that BSG got to do that panel.  Fortunately, he did not repeat the claim that BSG was responsible for changing the UN Charter.  He did repeat his assertion that there is no such thing as racism or races, (using the example that he defines "racial discrimination" being if a bug were to discriminate against you.)  Take that also for what you will.

Other than that, he talked at length about directing Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down, and had a good laugh over the fact that they had scheduled to film the Baltar/Head Six scene in which he basically does her from behind in his lab on the same day that Tricia's husband was visiting the set.  

About acting, he said that he generally only filmed the difficult emotional scenes once, because of how hard they were.  He cited the one where Kara tell Adama about how Zak died.  He said that the grief on screen over certain character deaths was real because of how sad everyone was because the cast member was leaving.  He cite Dee in particular.  And he told the story about filming the big "So say we all" scene for the Mini-series, which was the first scene he ever filmed as Adama.  He says that scene set the tone for the entire series.  He also said he'd be perfectly happy to play the Admiral for the next 20 years.

I tried to take notes, and this is what I most remember from the panel.

***

More critical necessities I purchased...  A autographed Dee trading card, and a Chief costume card.  Cha-ching.  The various vendors I spoke with said that BSG mechandise is selling very well.

Anyone going to be there this weekend?

I went today and spent a whole bunch of money on such critical necessities as a print of the Last Supper picture and an autographed Katee Sackhoff trading card.  :D

Tomorrow EJO and Michael Hogan will be making an appearance, and I can't wait to hear what Eddie has to say.  Should be fun.