incidents and accidents, hints and allegations

Watched a couple things with Chad on Netflix this weekend:

Shadow and Bone, episodes 1-2. This is an adaptation of two Leigh Bardugo series which, I gather, do not originally cross plots. The first two episodes were … fine? It looked good, most of the cast was appealing, and I'm mildly interested how the show will resolve the genre clash of the high-fantasy Chosen One plot with the crime-underworld plot. But I am actively not interested in the apparently-incipient love triangle, and I'd probably be just as willing to read spoilers and go "huh" than to actively seek out more.

Space Sweepers, a Korean SF movie. As long as you're willing to roll with (a) the plot Macguffin being straight-up unashamed magic ("nanobots," mostly) and (b) a backstory of child death, I recommend it. The core characters—four misfits on a space-junk-collecting ship and the adorable child-in-peril who unites them into a found family—are all great; the effects look good; and there's a point at which I said to myself, "ugh, this is not a good plan, but it's the kind of plan we get in this kind of movie, so whatever," and it turned out to in fact be a better plan! Would have been good in theaters, but it is a smidge long, so our living room worked just fine too.

So I've started reading Journey to the West as translated by W.J.F. Jenner, thanks to the e-book files by Arachne Jericho, and I'm having a great deal of fun; but I'd definitely like some annotations and background information. And lo and behold, I see that Anthony C. Yu's translation has extensive annotations. But looking at the samples, I don't find that the prose flows as smoothly or is as, well, fun. I don't suppose anyone's read both and has suggestions? (Maybe a secondary reference source?)

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I was thinking about watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles the other day, and a rather belated realization struck me: I don't actually like time-travel stories. Rather, time-travel stuff—causation and multiple futures and crossing timelines and all that—I can't get my head around it and I don't really care.

So given that and the cancellation on what is apparently a cliffhanger season-ender, should I bother? I've watched about ten minutes of the first episode.

Edit: it's the combination of the time-travel and the lack of resolution that are particularly making me think I could skip this.

[Written Thursday night when Internet-less.]

So there I was, in a hotel room surfing TV channels for acceptable background noise, and there was an episode of Supernatural, the show which it seems like half my reading list watches. Heck, why not?

Of course I would land on an episode that required stupid legal stuff for its plot—and I assure you, it was very stupid. ( spoilers )

That said, I definitely noted some appealing bits about the show, though I doubt I'll watch, partly because I'm not much for spooky and partly because I just don't watch TV often. I really liked the shot of the pivoting cell doors when they first get into prison, and the actors playing the Winchester brothers are watchable (though it seemed to me that Dean stole this episode something awful). And I didn't foresee the twist about 3/4 through, though I lacked the context to know that there needed to be a twist, if that makes sense. I did catch some of the significant sibling interaction, thanks to skimming spoiler posts, which I suspect kept the episode from being just filler?

Anyway: didn't suck, not highly motivated to watch more (I'll be looking for people's spoiler posts about the next episode based on the preview, though).

The TV series based on Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series has started on the SciFi Channel. Harry Dresden is Chicago's only professional wizard; in the first episode, a kid seeks him out based on his ad in the Yellow Pages, saying that monsters are out to get him and his mom.

I've only read the first of the series, though I fully mean to get around to the rest. It was a fast and enjoyable first-person urban fantasy, and I recall thinking that the magic system had some nice touches.

The first episode was decent. I saw a comment that it had not been intended as the premiere, but I thought it was a reasonable introduction regardless, weaving together some of Harry's backstory with his present case. And even though I knew that Murphy the cop and Bob the spirit were recurring characters, I don't think that would have been hard to guess. I wasn't blown away, but I didn't roll my eyes much either. This isn't much my kind of thing on screen, but if it's yours, now you know it exists.

The episode is re-running throughout the week at various times, and at 8:00 this Sunday, with the next new episode to air at 9:00; you can also apparently watch it in full online. (At least one review I saw said that the second episode was much stronger, so we'll see.)

No spoilers for the books in comments, please.

Lost my temper over not one but two online discussions, which is the first time that's happened since I can remember. Only SHOUTED in one; I'm not sure if, in the other, it was apparent to anyone other than Chad that I was truly angry.

I did come up with a ten-second theory on the predominance of women in fanfic, which is that it's more socially acceptable for men to channel those impulses into gaming. Over at Chad's blog, a commentor offered the same explanation, so if it's loony, well, at least I'm not a lone loon.

In other news, a new restaurant in Schenectady, Cella Bistro, is seriously yummy. Chad had, as an appetizer, mussels with a huge heaping of french fries, and as dinner, duck done two ways; I had two appetizers for dinner, filo-wrapped baked brie with greens and pear-Chardonnay sauce, and jumbo crab claws. They also have a tapas menu, which I am going to have to try just for the apple & brie panini. Mmmm, melty brie and fruit.

It's an odd location for an upscale restaurant, kitty-corner from a decaying strip mall, so, like Karavalli in the Quality Inn in Rotterdam (which I appear to have not written up: great and wide-ranging Indian menu, branch of a place in Latham that we really like, not near anything and almost always empty), we'll have to go there often to keep them open. Oh, the hardship.

Also, Animaniacs is brilliant, and I'm very glad that it's out on DVD now. Nevermind Tiny Toons, it's the true heir to Looney Tunes as far as I'm concerned.

Things I failed to do this weekend: write up the next chapter of Fellowship; booklog four books; draft the "you may not discuss copyright unless you can pass this test" list; read Inda; convince the dog that she need not bark before 7 a.m. on weekends, truly.

But I did get some work done, and now that I've dashed this off, as Yakko says—g'night, everybody!

I ripped the cast recording of Rent from my parents' CDs last weekend (I only have it on tape), and listening to it reminded me of Angels in America and the two posts I've been intending to write on it since forever, or at least since December 2003 when we got HBO just to see its adaptation. (They're both about New York and AIDS, they both are structured in two parts with the first part being considerably the better, and I saw them both performed while I was in college.)

In very brief, for context, Angels In America is a two-night play (the parts are Millennium Approaches and Perestroika) set in 1985 New York. I would argue that at its core, it's a two-couple story, or more accurately a two former-couples story: Louis leaves Prior because he can't deal with Prior's AIDS, and Joe leaves Harper because he finally admits that he's gay. The four of them interact in various ways, as do people they know (Belize, Prior's nurse and friend; Hannah, Joe's mother; and Roy Cohn, Joe's mentor), an Angel, and some ghosts.

The first post I've been meaning to write is about the HBO adaptation (released on DVD some time ago), which is star-studded and well-intentioned. ( stage versus screen )

While I generally prefer the stage, I think that overall the HBO version did a very good job; the majority of my negative reactions upon watching weren't to the production, but the content of the second part. That's the second and spoilery post I've been meaning to write, hopefully appearing tomorrow: the fundamental flaw of Angels in America.

Amazingly belated ETA: well, it only took me six years, but the promised post is finally up.

I finally steeled myself to double-check our New York State income tax returns tonight, being quite surprised to see that it was the 12th today (somehow I'd thought I had more time). I'd struggled through the damn things a few weeks ago, and thought we owed New York a fair amount of money, so I was in no hurry to write that check. Well, I will never again do our taxes without a paper copy of the instructions in front of me: in going back and forth between the PDF instructions, the PDF form, and the Excel file with my calculations, I somehow overlooked that the standard NY deduction is actually larger than our itemized deduction. We still owe New York money, mind, but I'd much rather owe four dollars than four hundred.

Suddenly I'm in a much better mood.

Last week I had emergency duty at work, meaning if anything came in with a short fuse, it was mine. Got off very lightly: there was one potential situation involving medical consent, which would have been very interesting in a messy kind of way, but fortunately it appears to have been resolved without the need for legal intervention. Otherwise I slogged through mounds of uninspiring paperwork and fought to stay awake. I hate the transition to Daylight Saving Time, even as I like the effect.

Being a blah week, we saw a silly movie and had dinner out Saturday night. Hellboy was pretty well what I expected, though somehow I missed that the menace was Lovecraftian in nature. Ugh. I have not dreamt of Cthulhus, however, so I suppose no harm was done. The ending doesn't hold up when thought about, but I enjoyed the characters a lot and didn't much object to the story while it was on the screen.

Trailers: Spider-Man 2 looks really good. I, Robot looks really, really dreadful. Something less Asimov-like I can hardly imagine; it's beyond me why they even bothered to keep the title.

We took a day trip down to Chad's parents yesterday for Easter. It's a little over four hours round-trip, meaning that if we leave the dog at home, we can spent just barely more time visiting than in transit. (We can't bring the dog with because she goes insane being in the same zip code as R.D., Chad's parents' Labrador Retriever.) It was a nice visit, but we were pretty well wiped from the travel, so last night we just loafed around watching Nero Wolfe episodes on DVD. ("Disguise for Murder"? Would have been much more interesting with a more straightforward motive.) It's really a pity that the role of Saul Panzer was miscast for the series proper; in the Golden Spiders movie, the role was played by the actor who plays Lon Cohen in the series, and he was a much better Saul. (Note to self: the second season remains discounted through the end of June. Order it later.)

In house news, we had some lawn-care companies come by and give estimates. It was cheaper than we'd expected, so we're going to have a local company do fertilizing and weed-killing and all that, and then in the fall have them aerate and seed the back, which is patchy and rock-hard when dry and a veritable swamp when damp. I love our backyard, so I'm really looking forward to getting it into a nice, low-maintenance, liveable state.

This week was largely taken up with my bench trial on Thursday, which did not, after all, only take one day, because the judge had to leave at 12:30. So this coming Friday, we'll put on the other half or so of our case, and the other side will put on their case; I think we can finish Friday, but it will probably take most of the day. It's a closed hearing, so unless it makes the papers (I hope not, because that would mostly likely mean that things went horribly wrong), no details will be appearing here—it concerns a person who pled not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect to a crime.

On Friday, I saw ( a noteworthy oral argument. )

Current events this week: Hurricane Isabel generated a little rain and some wind Friday, and that was it. And the dog was thrilled that Chad was home this weekend because his conference was rescheduled. Chad did heavy yard work, and I did, hmmm, not much of anything, really. Oh, I made cookies because the neighbors stopped by for dessert tonight (and the dog pulled three off the table where they were cooling and ate two. Apparently she doesn't know or care that chocolate chips are bad for her . . . ).

I'm also getting hit hard with the Swen virus, which is unusual for me; I'm not in any Outlook address books to speak of, so usually I don't get hit with Windows-based viruses. (Usenet addresses appear to be a source, so I think that's it.) I use MailWasher as a spam filter (free or pay, Windows, POP3 or Hotmail; I really like it), and it's catching them all with a pretty simple filter, which I offer here if you're having this problem too: if your program filters on body text, tell it to dump anything with "latest version of security update" and "September 2003 Cumulative Patch".

[ Edited to correct the filter: that's "September 2003, Cumulative Patch" (note comma), which by itself appears to be sufficient, actually. ]

Entertainment this week: watched DVD episodes from the first season of A&E's Nero Wolfe series, The Doorbell Rang and Champagne for One. The series isn't perfect (too much yelling, and no-one ever takes off their hats, which drives me nuts), but it captures the spirit very well, and it's too bad A&E canceled after the second season.

Things that amused me on my commute this week:

• A trailer truck with the logo "m.s.CARRIER", which I read as considerably less complimentary than they probably intended;
• A local heating company named "Appolo." I hope that's a family name . . .

Rotten news: another co-worker's parent died this week. This is the fourth in the last six weeks or so; I'm starting to wonder if our bureau's been hexed or something. Also, a co-worker's cousin-in-law was killed in an ambush in Iraq a couple of weeks ago.

The week:

Monday: had company in the afternoon and evening: Chad's parents, the medium-sized monster (a.k.a. their dog), Chad's sister, and Chad's sister's family. I hadn't met her family before, as they live on the other side of the country, so that was good.

Tuesday: Chad's summer students came over for dinner; I said hello and then retreated into my cool dark quiet bedroom with a migraine.

Wednesday: continuing legal education program that was an object lesson in why it is a good idea to tailor one's presentation to one's audience.

Thursday: birthday. Started out well: I actually woke up feeling human for once, and got a silly present. Became progressively sleepier as the day went on, and barely stayed conscious through "Jeeves Takes Charge" (Hugh Laurie is brilliant as Bertie Wooster, but I'd pictured Jeeves a little older and more deadpan in expression than Stephen Fry's portrayal). A considerable improvement over last year, when I was taking the bar exam (Multistate day). I really hope that stays the low point in birthdays.

Friday: call from the rescue group to say they had five young Labs available. When we showed up at the foster parent's home, a matter of hours later, all but one were already adopted; the one left was too headstrong and uninterested in people. Someone experienced with dogs could probably train him up a treat, but at nine months he was too strong for us to want to take on (he was pulling on the lead so hard that he was quite literally choking himself—you could hear him wheezing—and nothing we did seemed to make the connection for him that heeling = breathing). But it's good to know we're on their list for short-notice calls, and it turns out that last week's mishap was probably the result of a series of misunderstandings, so all is reasonably well on the dog search front.

Saturday: did our part to keep up durable goods purchases, by buying bedroom furniture and more paperback bookshelves (bigger ones, too, oooh), and deciding to buy a china cabinet/hutch (i.e., a thing with doors rather than all open shelves, for when pets arrive). Went out to dinner for my birthday, had unexpectedly spicy spaghetti with shrimp (lips-going-numb spicy) and ate too much. Watched The Princess Bride with the director's commentary on, because I wanted a comfort movie and didn't want to overdose on Jeeves and Wooster.

Sunday: woke up at 4:30 in the bleeding morning and stayed awake until about 7:00. I want an off switch (to go with this terrible pain in the diodes all down my left side, don't you know) . . . Dragged self out of bed at a reasonable hour on principle and then wasted the morning anyway, but spent the afternoon on refinishing the bookshelves, with excellent results: all that's left is a coat of gel stain, which will take about half an hour, and they're done done done. Chad made terrific grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, and now I'm going to bed.