Things that are slightly scary

[charloween]

Something particularly terrifying (first – that I watch tv with a laptop open so I can toss in whatever bits of whatever I think of in case there's a post in it... hello, geek much?) is that I actually care about the characters in Torchwood. It's not a particularly good show (I could write lengths about how very bad the first half-dozen episodes are) but at least it's better than Andromeda. But like in Andromeda the characters are for whatever reason people I've come to care for, even if they're fairly inconsistently written. And both shows have a character named Harper who broods, is prone to fits of bravado and is a romantic at heart, gets needlessly wounded whenever it's convenient to the plot and is a totally self-involved adorable prat. (So, really, what's not to love?)

Despite the show's (many, considerable, angry-making) flaws, I kept watching Torchwood. And then I fell for the quirky co-production, even in the midst of complaining about it. (The standard line I give is: “Well, I have to love it because my tax dollars have gone to fund it.”) I've just watched the second-to-last episode again for the second time, and man: maybe I'm just a romantic (and maybe I spent an uncomfortably long time in Best Buy wondering if I should buy the first season of Dante's Cove before running home and downloading it, but that's neither here nor there) but all I can say is that rarely do you see such a convincing, touching illuminating backstory pulled out of a show's collective ass in the eleventh of twelve episodes.

You can tell me they had it planned all along, I'll point you to the rest of the season and ask you what would make me think to expect it. At least as the season progresses they cut down on those distractingly useless filler shots of the Cardiff skyline. It's like the extra beat they throw in to the end of every single scene in both Stargate series that leaves me absolutely incensed. If you have an extra 10, 15, 35, 60 seconds in the show to throw away on useless padding and flashy transitions, why don't you jettison the fat and toss in a few lines of dialogue or moments to develop your characters? Rather than the mouthpieces for exposition and bodies to interact with CG, let the talented people you've hired as actors just get in there and act!

The best part about this episode? There're fewer dumb overhead shots of Cardiff. They actually kept them to a bearable minimum of establishing shots. And even though Tosh is still either frantic, distracted or flustered (or a combination thereof, which got old when we met her), the others get to play a fair bit and do what they're trained to do (ie: “to act”). Which is sometimes different that what they're paid to do, which is stand around and look pretty.

Okay, I lied. The best part of the episode was the way Barrowman's non-verbal choices told us so much more about Captain Jack than the lines he delivered. piratefanatic: it's your kind of acting crack. (Also, way to have a part one of a two-parter that's not a cliffhanger!)

Also slightly terrifying is something that amyisyellow brought up the other day while we were on a potpourri hunt: that once the weight of my hair is gone, it might be all wavy. I'm so used to my stick-straight hair that it'll take weeks to adjust. As I like telling people, it's been over ten years since I was at a salon. I think it was July, 1997. Definitely summer 1997, any rate. My hair is long, straight and comfortably boring. It's also heavy, a bit of a bitch to maintain sometimes and is causing serious neck problems (see also: how it's really, really heavy). I have until September/October to fret, worry, come to terms with and then second-guess this decision. But I'm not backing out. I just don't know what to do with what's left once it's been chopped. And if I can blow dry it wavy....? I don't even know how to use a blowdryer properly but I'm really good at getting my hair all caught in the machine and burning it!

Also unnerving to the highest degree is that I heard back from the guy teaching both Screenwriting for Production and Writing for Television next year. He's letting me into the Writing for Television class and said that even though the Screenwriting for Production class is full, he can squeeze me in. (Credit where credit is due: I distracted piratefanatic while she was at work and made her read over my email to the prof, begging my way into the courses). Thing is, I also have this irrational dread of a creative writing class. So in the interests of challenging myself and trying something new, I'm signing up for subjects that scare me. I'm a much better editor and critic than I am a creator: all my ficcish leanings are towards crossovers and my original characters tend to be bland and British (when they're not based on my father, like with that fake mockumentary project in Introductory Screenwriting, which was both a fake documentary but also a faked-fake documentary: we were to make up a documentary proposal, but mine was an entire work of fiction that I passed off as real interviews, real people...). I digress, again and again.

Problem is, the course that's full is I think at the same time as the Avant-Guard Music class... and everything else I want to take conflicts with at least one of every section of the French I wanted to take. So at the end of the day, I still only have about half of the credits I want to take; one of those courses I'm in is a night class about how the Irish saved the world or some such thing. My schedule confuses even me.

I have the classes that sound interesting: Shakespeare in Performance (read 4 plays, study the ways they've been adapted, performed and envisioned), that one about the Irish, Islamic Gunpowder Empires 1500-1800 (3 Islamic empires, 3 centuries), the thesis and the independent study (reality tropes and fanvids and maybe something about Cronenberg, all with an eye to publishing) aaaand now also the two screenwriting classes. A little theatre, a little history, three or four 30 page papers... and some terrifying creative writing!

But I'll still need another three credits on top of that to graduate. Maybe a second-year communications course?

Comments

[dapikkel.livejournal.com]

Join a jazz choir!

Or not? Well I'm trying. And kudos on cutting off hair! Short haired girls are cute, and have stress-free necks.

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

Might do, might do...

I'm looking forward to The Hair Chop so very much.

[dapikkel.livejournal.com]

Why be'st The Chopping Event so very long and far away?

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

'Cause I've sold my soul to a multinational corporation and am helping them launch a hair-for-cancer-wigs program in Canada. The big PR event is is a few months. Have to have the cameras there, you know.

Short answer: 'cause my sister asked me to.

Reed's getting a trim, too.

[dapikkel.livejournal.com]

Neat. Reed's getting a haircut?

...you have a sister?

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Shocking, eh?

...Pa has 4 kids, y'know.

[dapikkel.livejournal.com]

I did not know!

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

Ja, ja. Reed's the baby.