TWoP House finale recaplet Human Error:
[patient of the week] Marina doesn't even get all three Cottages, as Chase is randomly fired when House tells him he's learned all he can from House and it's time for a change. I spend the rest of the episode waiting for House to change his mind. It doesn't happen. Wow.
..This leaves House open to apologize to Foreman and tell him what he needs to hear to stay at PPTH. He tries...but he can't quite make it without telling Foreman off for being more of a selfish bastard than House ever was. Foreman leaves. Wow.
That's two Cottages down, one to go.
Cameron starts liking Chase as soon as he seems to be moving on from her (well, of course), and they get back together and it's...sweet, okay? I admit it! I thought their kiss was sweet. Then she goes to House's office to hand him her post-coital resignation. Wow.
And though Wilson claims that House hates change, House seems relatively at peace with all three Cottages leaving him. Whether or not the audience will like change -- and whether that change is even going to happen -- remains to be seen. In the fall, goddammit.
huh. wow.
did not see this since was moving couch with rg & bonnie from out of brian's house.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Review: The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue | By genre | Guardian Unlimited Books: Once upon a time, quite recently, it seems, somewhere in the woods of New England there lived a small pack of shape-shifting goblins. Ageless, pitiless, feral, their purpose was to abduct, once in a great while, a suitably neglected, vulnerable young human: Henry Day, for example, seven-year-old son of a melancholic father and a preoccupied mother, big brother of twin baby nuisances. Stalking Henry Day to the hollow tree where he happened to be hiding one afternoon, these goblins trussed him up in yards of cobweb and vine and threw him in the river: a cruel baptismal ritual that turned him into a stunted metamorph just like them. Their chief, meanwhile, reconfigured as Henry's identical double, slipped inside the tree and curled up to wait for the search party. good statement of the facts, economically. 'reconfigured' right. 'for example' right. 'suitably' right. 'once in a great while' for sure.
Asking the Wrong Questions: Misfortune by Wesley Stace
... with great great comment thread about The Stolen Child, including Guardian rvwr (who handles conflict with the other commenters pretty gracefully I think) & author (sounding huffy I think, thereby not doing his book any favors)
..I landed on this via search stolen child donohue disappointing why die.. (dies is not important, just tht maybe I'd get sth about eg how it works that the changeling who has made the change back to human life eventually dies ... and does he age eventually without having to stretch and alter his visage?) the myth seemed not thought out, not complete. and ok, by the author's account here & on az page he was using this as a vehicle to have child & grown man both living & able to meet. but that seems sloppy to me in the first place. it's not one person. they are different. the one took the place of the other. he got his family, his face. but they are very much not the same person.
KindKit said... This is the best review of the novel I've seen anywhere--far more thoughtful and interesting than those in, for instance, the Washington Post, the Village Voice, and even the Guardian.
Colin Greenland said... Ooh. I wrote that Guardian review. I'm still quite pleased with it, and of course Abigail's is more than twice the length of mine, but I think kindkit is right. graceful.
"It isn't exactly a bad novel but more a bland one, and not so much underperforming as un-performing." Agree, absolutely. I found Stace's book thoroughly and puzzlingly unsatisfying, but it looks as if I concentrated on telling everyone what is actually in the book and the peculiar way it's made up, rather than anatomizing its deficiencies. (You have to like the title they gave my piece, tho: "Skirting the Issues". That's exactly right.) I hope what I said was discouraging. That was certainly how I felt. And I might have been less patient if it had been his fifth novel than his first. also graceful.
Abigail Nussbaum said...
Hm, I've been wondering about that book. On the surface of it, it seems like just my sort of thing, but I've been getting that Historian, Time Traveler's Wife vibe off it - that it's a genre book written by a genre outsider, for genre outsiders, with the deliberate intention of becoming a bestseller huh int (true story: I bought a copy of The Historian in Israel before it was even properly released in the States - Israeli bookstores being famously unfussy about that sort of thing - and the cover already had 'international bestseller' stamped on the front).
Colin Greenland said... It's not in today, apparently. The review, I mean, in the Guardian.
I know what you mean about the "Time Traveler's Wife vibe", Abigail, but I don't think it's anything to do with sales: more like someone getting something out of their system. I didn't know it was selling so well until I Googled it again just now. I'm bewildered, frankly.
Donohue's is a deeply depressive, introverted book. hmm. An obsessive private project, one might suspect, that cost him enormous time and anguish to write. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find that the reason it's set c1980 is that he wrote it then and has been revising it and/or trying to sell it ever since. And if so, maybe it's the current shift of favour towards pop lit of a fantastic tendency that's persuaded Random House to take a chance on it.
Again: I'm only guessing; tho Donohue's piece on amazon.com doesn't exactly contradict me. And interested as we'd all be to hear your opinion of his book, I truly can't expect it would be very favourable. Apart from the premise, and a continual icky creepiness about ancient creatures sneaking in from the woods, there's nothing in it for readers with genre tastes.
Anonymous said... re: Stolen Child. I'm eager to see the review in the Guardian. Can you post it here? Although evidence is not definitive, it appears that the precipitous success of this book may be due in large part to a surreptitious publicity campaign executed on behalf of the publisher (presumably for a fee) by Amazon.com. yep great I was wondering about thatAnyone know anything about this rumour? thx. blephen@yahoo.com
Anonymous said...
To Colin Greenwood --
I wrote The Stolen Child in 2001-02 and shopped it around for an agent before landing one in 2004. My first novel! So, no long personal anguish on my part, and certainly not designed to capitalize on the success of the other books you mentioned, of which I was not familiar.
It isn't intended as a "fantasy" novel or a genre piece but uses the changeling myth as a way of getting at questions of identity. The time period of the book is 1949-1978 to coincide with the rise of suburbia and the loss of a time when children could go out in the woods, wonder about, fill their imaginations. I used the changeling story as a way to introduce two narrators with a common identity. no no they don't. there is a way ok in which they do but you seem in the book to want them to be the same person at different ages. and that's not what they seem to be.
Love the other persons's comment about being a "deliberate" bestseller, as if such a thing were possible to pull off. oh pish posh you seal the deal here. I don't trust you. this sounds condescending, & in that, insecure. (at the least it seems uncareful, not respectful to say 'the other person' rather than notice the name, and that this is her blog, and that she seems intelligent.) on the defensive I guess.
Hope your Guardian review judges the book on its own terms. Keith Donohue July 01, 2006 2:35 AM
Abigail Nussbaum said... My pleasure, Colin. I actually read your review this morning and was planning to link to it here. I guess I'll have to give The Stolen Child a look at some point.
To Colin --
Read your review in the Guardian, and I take exception to your characterization of the novel as "an alienated vision of life as decay, bereft of meaning or hope." Both protagonists suffer in their search for identity, but at the end of the novel they act out of hope: Henry, realizing he must tell the truth to be accepted for who he is; Aniday, realizing he must take steps--literally--to find love and the way to growing up. True the book isn't tied up in a bow, but neither is life. oh dear this sounds amateurish & defensive (and see the defense that is the next paragraph). not graceful.
The book received favorable pre-publication reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Library Journal, Ottakar's and Waterstones. Very good reviews in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, People, newspapers in Detroit, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, National Public Radio, and was a Booksense Pick for May. It's selling well in independent bookstores and online in the United States, and it seems a bit disingenuous and unfair to cite publicity and marketing in the review. disingenuous? huh. well maybe I need to see what Colin 'cites' from the (az?) publicity. negative comments? wh is int - I saw negative rvws on az when I skimmed - where the 100 rvwrs allowed to post whatever they wanted, not just positive? surely, I am thinking, they would be? az cldnt/wldnt tell them what to post. Keith
and then Colin posts Goodness me. How could I be so wrong? which confuses me bcs unless I am missing sth he is being sarcastic. I guess: since all those rvws like yr bk, I must be wrong. (sing-song). which seems like a falling off from the grace.
anyway that's it. later in july a blog rdr posts a comment actually about the book rvwd in this post, & taking some issue w Colin. Colin responds fairly evenly
"For the Guardian reviewer, why are coincidences not allowed in the modern novel? That seems a bizarre pronoucement."
It does, William, doesn't it? hmm. this use of the first name. manuvuering into collegial position. but is it condescending? (probably. so, how much so?) It's certainly not one I'd make. In fact, I hope anything is allowed in the modern novel; and I rather think it is.
When you use any kind of plot device, you do have to consider the effect it will have. That was what I was saying.
As to the power to discourage, if I have it, yes, I suppose I do think it's nice. It must be the other side of the power to encourage people to read a book that has impressed me. I enjoy that. I think you do too, otherwise why post your opinion?
ok not graceless but I am also thinking now that he is awfully responsive to challenges is he watching the web for reference to himself & his rvws? and his grace may be a bit studied, the using of everyone's names. so ~. but whatever, that might be just attention and nice manners.
personality through writing.
grace in disagreement.
and this book that I now trust less bcs of the seeming personality of the author here.
time to read Colin's Guardian rvw......
... with great great comment thread about The Stolen Child, including Guardian rvwr (who handles conflict with the other commenters pretty gracefully I think) & author (sounding huffy I think, thereby not doing his book any favors)
..I landed on this via search stolen child donohue disappointing why die.. (dies is not important, just tht maybe I'd get sth about eg how it works that the changeling who has made the change back to human life eventually dies ... and does he age eventually without having to stretch and alter his visage?) the myth seemed not thought out, not complete. and ok, by the author's account here & on az page he was using this as a vehicle to have child & grown man both living & able to meet. but that seems sloppy to me in the first place. it's not one person. they are different. the one took the place of the other. he got his family, his face. but they are very much not the same person.
KindKit said... This is the best review of the novel I've seen anywhere--far more thoughtful and interesting than those in, for instance, the Washington Post, the Village Voice, and even the Guardian.
Colin Greenland said... Ooh. I wrote that Guardian review. I'm still quite pleased with it, and of course Abigail's is more than twice the length of mine, but I think kindkit is right. graceful.
"It isn't exactly a bad novel but more a bland one, and not so much underperforming as un-performing." Agree, absolutely. I found Stace's book thoroughly and puzzlingly unsatisfying, but it looks as if I concentrated on telling everyone what is actually in the book and the peculiar way it's made up, rather than anatomizing its deficiencies. (You have to like the title they gave my piece, tho: "Skirting the Issues". That's exactly right.) I hope what I said was discouraging. That was certainly how I felt. And I might have been less patient if it had been his fifth novel than his first. also graceful.
Abigail Nussbaum said...
Hm, I've been wondering about that book. On the surface of it, it seems like just my sort of thing, but I've been getting that Historian, Time Traveler's Wife vibe off it - that it's a genre book written by a genre outsider, for genre outsiders, with the deliberate intention of becoming a bestseller huh int (true story: I bought a copy of The Historian in Israel before it was even properly released in the States - Israeli bookstores being famously unfussy about that sort of thing - and the cover already had 'international bestseller' stamped on the front).
Colin Greenland said... It's not in today, apparently. The review, I mean, in the Guardian.
I know what you mean about the "Time Traveler's Wife vibe", Abigail, but I don't think it's anything to do with sales: more like someone getting something out of their system. I didn't know it was selling so well until I Googled it again just now. I'm bewildered, frankly.
Donohue's is a deeply depressive, introverted book. hmm. An obsessive private project, one might suspect, that cost him enormous time and anguish to write. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find that the reason it's set c1980 is that he wrote it then and has been revising it and/or trying to sell it ever since. And if so, maybe it's the current shift of favour towards pop lit of a fantastic tendency that's persuaded Random House to take a chance on it.
Again: I'm only guessing; tho Donohue's piece on amazon.com doesn't exactly contradict me. And interested as we'd all be to hear your opinion of his book, I truly can't expect it would be very favourable. Apart from the premise, and a continual icky creepiness about ancient creatures sneaking in from the woods, there's nothing in it for readers with genre tastes.
Anonymous said... re: Stolen Child. I'm eager to see the review in the Guardian. Can you post it here? Although evidence is not definitive, it appears that the precipitous success of this book may be due in large part to a surreptitious publicity campaign executed on behalf of the publisher (presumably for a fee) by Amazon.com. yep great I was wondering about thatAnyone know anything about this rumour? thx. blephen@yahoo.com
Anonymous said...
To Colin Greenwood --
I wrote The Stolen Child in 2001-02 and shopped it around for an agent before landing one in 2004. My first novel! So, no long personal anguish on my part, and certainly not designed to capitalize on the success of the other books you mentioned, of which I was not familiar.
It isn't intended as a "fantasy" novel or a genre piece but uses the changeling myth as a way of getting at questions of identity. The time period of the book is 1949-1978 to coincide with the rise of suburbia and the loss of a time when children could go out in the woods, wonder about, fill their imaginations. I used the changeling story as a way to introduce two narrators with a common identity. no no they don't. there is a way ok in which they do but you seem in the book to want them to be the same person at different ages. and that's not what they seem to be.
Love the other persons's comment about being a "deliberate" bestseller, as if such a thing were possible to pull off. oh pish posh you seal the deal here. I don't trust you. this sounds condescending, & in that, insecure. (at the least it seems uncareful, not respectful to say 'the other person' rather than notice the name, and that this is her blog, and that she seems intelligent.) on the defensive I guess.
Hope your Guardian review judges the book on its own terms. Keith Donohue July 01, 2006 2:35 AM
-
Hey, all my guesses were wrong. Well, I did say they were guesses. Good of Keith to let us know, and to confirm that it was not designed to be a genre book, or a bestseller! grace ful. I think it is possible to write deliberate bestsellers, incidentally, but it needs a very special talent, or attitudemight be a better word yes & glad you answered this . And of course it doesn't always work. of course. I'm with you. you are doing fine.
My review is in today's Guardian, apparently. My name, below, may not be quite as appropriate as Keith seems to think name? oh. Keith wrote 'to Colin Greenwood' wh -I guess Colin means?- wld be appropr to the book where the changelings live in the woods, but if you click on it you should be able to see the piece on their website.
There was much discussion, blephen, since you ask, about the words we should use to describe the part played by Amazon in helping publicize the book. Neither my editor nor I knew more than the rumour you mention, the "Early Buzz" on the Amazon page, and what we could glean from Google. yay his rvw will regard, if not inform me about, that push.
I always assumed the initiative came from Random House. right. at first I thought, huh az picked the book to push? like Borders 'first voices' or whatever, ok maybe. then I thought, oh no duh, the publisher probably is trying doing this kind of as top 100 rvwr push as a co-op marketing.My editor felt it might have been Amazon acting independently. The editor's decision was final. She was probably right, of course. I'm not good at guessing. graceful still incidentally.
Good of you to give us the space to air all this stuff, Abigail; especially on a page that's supposed to be about another book entirely... and again.
Abigail Nussbaum said... My pleasure, Colin. I actually read your review this morning and was planning to link to it here. I guess I'll have to give The Stolen Child a look at some point.
To Colin --
Read your review in the Guardian, and I take exception to your characterization of the novel as "an alienated vision of life as decay, bereft of meaning or hope." Both protagonists suffer in their search for identity, but at the end of the novel they act out of hope: Henry, realizing he must tell the truth to be accepted for who he is; Aniday, realizing he must take steps--literally--to find love and the way to growing up. True the book isn't tied up in a bow, but neither is life. oh dear this sounds amateurish & defensive (and see the defense that is the next paragraph). not graceful.
The book received favorable pre-publication reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Library Journal, Ottakar's and Waterstones. Very good reviews in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, People, newspapers in Detroit, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, National Public Radio, and was a Booksense Pick for May. It's selling well in independent bookstores and online in the United States, and it seems a bit disingenuous and unfair to cite publicity and marketing in the review. disingenuous? huh. well maybe I need to see what Colin 'cites' from the (az?) publicity. negative comments? wh is int - I saw negative rvws on az when I skimmed - where the 100 rvwrs allowed to post whatever they wanted, not just positive? surely, I am thinking, they would be? az cldnt/wldnt tell them what to post. Keith
and then Colin posts Goodness me. How could I be so wrong? which confuses me bcs unless I am missing sth he is being sarcastic. I guess: since all those rvws like yr bk, I must be wrong. (sing-song). which seems like a falling off from the grace.
anyway that's it. later in july a blog rdr posts a comment actually about the book rvwd in this post, & taking some issue w Colin. Colin responds fairly evenly
"For the Guardian reviewer, why are coincidences not allowed in the modern novel? That seems a bizarre pronoucement."
It does, William, doesn't it? hmm. this use of the first name. manuvuering into collegial position. but is it condescending? (probably. so, how much so?) It's certainly not one I'd make. In fact, I hope anything is allowed in the modern novel; and I rather think it is.
When you use any kind of plot device, you do have to consider the effect it will have. That was what I was saying.
As to the power to discourage, if I have it, yes, I suppose I do think it's nice. It must be the other side of the power to encourage people to read a book that has impressed me. I enjoy that. I think you do too, otherwise why post your opinion?
ok not graceless but I am also thinking now that he is awfully responsive to challenges is he watching the web for reference to himself & his rvws? and his grace may be a bit studied, the using of everyone's names. so ~. but whatever, that might be just attention and nice manners.
personality through writing.
grace in disagreement.
and this book that I now trust less bcs of the seeming personality of the author here.
time to read Colin's Guardian rvw......
F. Scott Fitzgerald to His 11-Year-Old Daughter in Camp (ggl cache bcs I dislike logging in to nytimes)
via ahpollock dlcs network - jessamyn, w note: I have been looking for this since I saw it in the book of lists tagged: fscottfitzgerald advice worry
F. Scott Fitzgerald to His 11-Year-Old Daughter in Camp
By THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
AUGUST 8, 1933
LA PAIX RODGERS' FORGE
TOWSON, MATYLAND
DEAR PIE:
... I dislike the opening sentences. so. but this list that follows is a nice format for a letter for a child. as if you really know something and want to tell them. which I hope you do, I'm glad if you do. if you feel you know what is worth worrying about.
Things to worry about:
Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship...
via ahpollock dlcs network - jessamyn, w note: I have been looking for this since I saw it in the book of lists tagged: fscottfitzgerald advice worry
F. Scott Fitzgerald to His 11-Year-Old Daughter in Camp
By THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
AUGUST 8, 1933
LA PAIX RODGERS' FORGE
TOWSON, MATYLAND
DEAR PIE:
... I dislike the opening sentences. so. but this list that follows is a nice format for a letter for a child. as if you really know something and want to tell them. which I hope you do, I'm glad if you do. if you feel you know what is worth worrying about.
Things to worry about:
Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship...
Things not to worry about:
Don't worry about popular opinion
Don't worry about dolls
Don't worry about the past
Don't worry about the future
Don't worry about growing up
Don't worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don't worry about triumph
Don't worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don't worry about mosquitoes
Don't worry about flies
Don't worry about insects in general I dunno.
Don't worry about parents cool.
Don't worry about boys ok good.
Don't worry about disappointments
Don't worry about pleasures
Don't worry about satisfactions
Things to think about:
What am I really aiming at? ok good.
How good am I really in comparison hmm to my contemporaries in regard to:
(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful intrument or am I neglecting it?
With dearest love,
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
The Stolen Child - William Butler Yeats (Wkp):
Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed -
He'll hear no more the lowing -oh-
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest
For he comes the human child
To the waters and the wild
With a fairy, hand in hand
For this world's more full of weeping than he can understand
Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed -
He'll hear no more the lowing -oh-
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest
For he comes the human child
To the waters and the wild
With a fairy, hand in hand
For this world's more full of weeping than he can understand
Amazon.com: Reviews for The Stolen Child: Books: Keith Donohue
By drtamsin (Louisville) - See all my reviews:
"I was disappointed to never learn how the changling first came to be, because after all, there had to be a first one!"
right that's what I want to know.
the natural order - a fairy returns at the expense of another child becoming a fairy. so the first one? could just be a child who ran off.
I ask, what's the point? meaning:
seems sad. all the changelings long to go back to the world as children, but they have to wait a century, and they have to steal a child who will then endure the same wait. and, everybody longs for their own original life.
if at least they enjoyed being fairies -- or if it was a fate that only befell children who wanted to run away --
why does it matter that the child be sad, a daydreamer, etc?
I guess I will not be told a reason. it does not seem in this book that it really does matter.
I'd like a richer telling of the mythology of the changeling...
By drtamsin (Louisville) - See all my reviews:
"I was disappointed to never learn how the changling first came to be, because after all, there had to be a first one!"
right that's what I want to know.
the natural order - a fairy returns at the expense of another child becoming a fairy. so the first one? could just be a child who ran off.
I ask, what's the point? meaning:
seems sad. all the changelings long to go back to the world as children, but they have to wait a century, and they have to steal a child who will then endure the same wait. and, everybody longs for their own original life.
if at least they enjoyed being fairies -- or if it was a fate that only befell children who wanted to run away --
why does it matter that the child be sad, a daydreamer, etc?
I guess I will not be told a reason. it does not seem in this book that it really does matter.
I'd like a richer telling of the mythology of the changeling...
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Finale wrap-up: "Veronica Mars" | Salon Arts & Entertainment
By Stephanie Zacharek
Season 3 of this drama about a solidly middle-class teenage detective -- played by the wonderful Kristen Bell -- and her adventures and mishaps in the tony (fictional) Southern California enclave of Neptune wasn't the strongest of the series: It didn't have the melancholy noir brush strokes of Season 1, in which Veronica unraveled, as a way of dealing with her own grief, the murder of her best friend, Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried). And it didn't have the sustained dramatic texture of Season 2, which focused on the painful romantic travails of Veronica and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), and also plumbed the layers of trust -- and occasional mistrust -- between Veronica and her dad and business partner, Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni).
those links lead to finale write-ups (& review of whole season) also by Stephanie Z. whose writing I think I've admired prvsly..
re season 1-- Whodunit -- and much more:
In its first season "Veronica Mars," which its creator, Rob Thomas, originally envisioned as a series of noir novels for young adults, neither sentimentalized the high-school experience nor milked it for Janis Ian-style pathos. Instead, Thomas and his writers took the seemingly mundane matters that seem like life-or-death issues to a teenager (What does it say about me if I'm invited to eat at the rich kids' table? How do I feel about my old boyfriend going out with another girl?) and turned them into something more than just metaphors. huh that's int.
The show's heroine, Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), who helps out part-time with the private-investigation business run by her dad, Keith Mars (the wonderful Enrico Colantoni), is so well-adjusted and self-possessed (and so sharp with a one-liner) that she barely fits in with the adults around her, let alone the kids. Formerly part of the "in" crowd in the Richie-Rich town of Neptune, Calif., she and her dad are now financial and social outcasts. (He used to be the town sheriff, but lost his job when he refused to go along with the easy and, of course, incorrect assumption regarding the perpetrator of the town's most scandalous murder.) Veronica is the perfect gumshoe loner, like a much prettier Bogey in jeans and a hoodie, and on last night's season finale, she finally unlocked the secret to the mystery that has tortured her for the better part of the school year: She caught the murderer of her best friend, Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried), who, the year before, had been found near the family pool with her head bashed in.
Each successive episode only confirms Veronica's perceived invincibility -- which is why it's so devastating when we see her confused or afraid, or when she's overcome with missing her mother. And in some ways, I think the show's most shattering revelation occurred in last week's episode: Before Lilly's death, Veronica attended a party with her upscale friends, only to wake up in a strange bedroom the next morning, unable to remember what had happened to her. Her panties had been removed, and she knew she had been drugged and raped -- but she didn't know who was involved, or how many people were involved.
The sexual assault was never a key plot point in "Veronica Mars" -- it was more of a heavy specter hanging over the show from week to week, rarely mentioned but always present. And while Veronica was humiliated and hurt by the experience, she never allowed it to define her or to drag her down. But naturally, she did want to know what happened to her. She asks questions of her classmates and friends, and entertains numerous what-ifs before finding the answer: It turns out that her then-boyfriend, Duncan Kane (Teddy Dunn), Lilly's brother, who had also been drugged at the party, had discovered her zonked-out in a guest bedroom and, in his own impaired state, decided it would be romantic to make love to her. The revelation is significant because it deals, in a shatteringly adult way, with the gray areas of human sexuality.
Did Veronica have sexual intercourse without her knowledge, and thus against her will? Yes. But was it her boyfriend's intent to rape her? No. It's made clear that, in Veronica's out-of-it state, she was happy to see Duncan, and she sent out signals that he understandably misread. The revelation doesn't allow Veronica the comfort zone of claiming easy victimhood, of railing against an unknown aggressor who intended to do her harm, because in some ways, Duncan was a victim too. The incident was tragic for both of them, an unpleasant (and potentially controversial) reality that the show wasn't afraid to crack wide open. sounds impressive.
-
re season 2 Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Finale wrap-up: "Veronica Mars":
..the light-as-gossamer, tough-as-nails relationship Veronica has with her father.. Colantoni is a marvelous actor, and the rapport between him and Bell is one of the loveliest, most unsentimental parent-child relationships ever seen on television.
But just now, Beaver has told Veronica that the device he's holding in his hand is set to blow up the small plane that her father is traveling in. He gives her less than a minute to call Keith on her cellphone, but she can't summon him. Beaver responds with a nasty shrug. And then, beyond these two rooftop figures, we see a fireball in the sky, a ragged symbol for one of the roughest passages in life -- that of losing a parent, and, in Veronica's case, a colleague who sometimes seems to be the only true friend she's got.
[cut to commercial leaving viewers thinking about] the look on Kristen Bell's face as she watches that explosion in the sky, a perversion of teenage openness in which a young person, ostensibly with everything to look forward to, is instead looking out on a vast world of grief.
Long after that endless commercial break, we realize Keith Mars isn't dead. But for a time, we live with Veronica's loss, and we feel it as if it were our own. Even those of us who lost parents long ago, and under far less dramatic circumstances, are likely to have felt a pang. You're never too old to be an orphan.
back to the current finale wrap-up of season 3:
Season 3 did set up the intriguing and perfectly realistic possibility that "Veronica Mars" could not only survive but continue to find ways to reinvigorate itself. For one thing, Thomas managed, seamlessly and gracefully, the tricky feat of getting his characters out of high school and into college.
Tuesday night's finale... The last two hours of "Veronica Mars" showed us Veronica and Piz's relationship ramping up, just as the two are to be separated for the summer. (He's staying in Neptune to intern at a radio station; she's headed to Washington for an FBI internship, a dream setup for a possible spinoff that is, unfortunately, not likely to become a reality.) Veronica, still uncertain how much she feels for Piz, tentatively seduces him -- only to learn later that the whole thing has been caught on tape. Logan believes Piz made the tape surreptitiously, and in an act of misguided chivalry (one that suggests he's still in love with Veronica, although the two have suffered a harsh split), he beats the crap out of him. With Wallace's help, Veronica finds out that members of a secret Skull-and-Bones-type organization at Hearst College, the Castle, made and distributed the tape. To prove it, she needs to break into the super-ritzy home of Jake Kane, Lilly Kane's father. In doing so, she's caught on a surveillance camera; her father, who has become interim sheriff after the death of sheriff Don Lamb, erases the tape to protect her. The show's final minutes suggest that Veronica's actions have cost her father the sheriff's election. And they cement the dour reality, posited at the very beginning of the series, that the rich assholes -- the Jake Kane types -- are always going to be the ones in charge. To quote the ever-perceptive English pop star Jarvis Cocker, in a song that uses a bit of non-gender-specific British slang: Cunts are still running the world.
I don't see this final episode as being especially rancorous: "Veronica Mars" has always been a clear-eyed show, never been a bitter one. But the episode did feel truncated, unfinished. It gave us no clear signposts telling us where, exactly, these characters are headed next, where they'll end up. Thomas may have figured that the best way to end "Veronica Mars" was to not end it at all -- to leave the show as the unfinished business that it is, to allow his characters to go about their lives as if, somewhere, somehow, on some mythical TV network of the imagination, they would actually continue to lead them.
Letters: Finale wrap-up: "Veronica Mars" - Salon:
--What I've missed most this season has been the truly biting and difficult characterizations and moral quandaries of the first and second season, and all of that came back in spades last night.Veronica's truly furious wit, Logan's emotionally charged knuckles, Wallace's loyalty, even Weevil's casual criminal side--it all gelled again in ways it hadn't done fully for most of the season. In its way, it was the perfect noir finish--the detective, having suffered a personal affront, jumps into the heart of a storm in her quest for justice/revenge. In the end, her actions failed to up-end the criminal power structure--they only reminded the high muckety-mucks that there's one person they cannot mess with, ever--but the price of her work is that several people she cared about got hurt (Wallace, Logan, Piz, Parker, Keith).
And at the last, the detective, finally understanding the consequences, walks away in the rain.
By Stephanie Zacharek
Season 3 of this drama about a solidly middle-class teenage detective -- played by the wonderful Kristen Bell -- and her adventures and mishaps in the tony (fictional) Southern California enclave of Neptune wasn't the strongest of the series: It didn't have the melancholy noir brush strokes of Season 1, in which Veronica unraveled, as a way of dealing with her own grief, the murder of her best friend, Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried). And it didn't have the sustained dramatic texture of Season 2, which focused on the painful romantic travails of Veronica and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), and also plumbed the layers of trust -- and occasional mistrust -- between Veronica and her dad and business partner, Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni).
those links lead to finale write-ups (& review of whole season) also by Stephanie Z. whose writing I think I've admired prvsly..
re season 1-- Whodunit -- and much more:
In its first season "Veronica Mars," which its creator, Rob Thomas, originally envisioned as a series of noir novels for young adults, neither sentimentalized the high-school experience nor milked it for Janis Ian-style pathos. Instead, Thomas and his writers took the seemingly mundane matters that seem like life-or-death issues to a teenager (What does it say about me if I'm invited to eat at the rich kids' table? How do I feel about my old boyfriend going out with another girl?) and turned them into something more than just metaphors. huh that's int.
The show's heroine, Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), who helps out part-time with the private-investigation business run by her dad, Keith Mars (the wonderful Enrico Colantoni), is so well-adjusted and self-possessed (and so sharp with a one-liner) that she barely fits in with the adults around her, let alone the kids. Formerly part of the "in" crowd in the Richie-Rich town of Neptune, Calif., she and her dad are now financial and social outcasts. (He used to be the town sheriff, but lost his job when he refused to go along with the easy and, of course, incorrect assumption regarding the perpetrator of the town's most scandalous murder.) Veronica is the perfect gumshoe loner, like a much prettier Bogey in jeans and a hoodie, and on last night's season finale, she finally unlocked the secret to the mystery that has tortured her for the better part of the school year: She caught the murderer of her best friend, Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried), who, the year before, had been found near the family pool with her head bashed in.
Each successive episode only confirms Veronica's perceived invincibility -- which is why it's so devastating when we see her confused or afraid, or when she's overcome with missing her mother. And in some ways, I think the show's most shattering revelation occurred in last week's episode: Before Lilly's death, Veronica attended a party with her upscale friends, only to wake up in a strange bedroom the next morning, unable to remember what had happened to her. Her panties had been removed, and she knew she had been drugged and raped -- but she didn't know who was involved, or how many people were involved.
The sexual assault was never a key plot point in "Veronica Mars" -- it was more of a heavy specter hanging over the show from week to week, rarely mentioned but always present. And while Veronica was humiliated and hurt by the experience, she never allowed it to define her or to drag her down. But naturally, she did want to know what happened to her. She asks questions of her classmates and friends, and entertains numerous what-ifs before finding the answer: It turns out that her then-boyfriend, Duncan Kane (Teddy Dunn), Lilly's brother, who had also been drugged at the party, had discovered her zonked-out in a guest bedroom and, in his own impaired state, decided it would be romantic to make love to her. The revelation is significant because it deals, in a shatteringly adult way, with the gray areas of human sexuality.
Did Veronica have sexual intercourse without her knowledge, and thus against her will? Yes. But was it her boyfriend's intent to rape her? No. It's made clear that, in Veronica's out-of-it state, she was happy to see Duncan, and she sent out signals that he understandably misread. The revelation doesn't allow Veronica the comfort zone of claiming easy victimhood, of railing against an unknown aggressor who intended to do her harm, because in some ways, Duncan was a victim too. The incident was tragic for both of them, an unpleasant (and potentially controversial) reality that the show wasn't afraid to crack wide open. sounds impressive.
-
re season 2 Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Finale wrap-up: "Veronica Mars":
..the light-as-gossamer, tough-as-nails relationship Veronica has with her father.. Colantoni is a marvelous actor, and the rapport between him and Bell is one of the loveliest, most unsentimental parent-child relationships ever seen on television.
But just now, Beaver has told Veronica that the device he's holding in his hand is set to blow up the small plane that her father is traveling in. He gives her less than a minute to call Keith on her cellphone, but she can't summon him. Beaver responds with a nasty shrug. And then, beyond these two rooftop figures, we see a fireball in the sky, a ragged symbol for one of the roughest passages in life -- that of losing a parent, and, in Veronica's case, a colleague who sometimes seems to be the only true friend she's got.
[cut to commercial leaving viewers thinking about] the look on Kristen Bell's face as she watches that explosion in the sky, a perversion of teenage openness in which a young person, ostensibly with everything to look forward to, is instead looking out on a vast world of grief.
Long after that endless commercial break, we realize Keith Mars isn't dead. But for a time, we live with Veronica's loss, and we feel it as if it were our own. Even those of us who lost parents long ago, and under far less dramatic circumstances, are likely to have felt a pang. You're never too old to be an orphan.
back to the current finale wrap-up of season 3:
Season 3 did set up the intriguing and perfectly realistic possibility that "Veronica Mars" could not only survive but continue to find ways to reinvigorate itself. For one thing, Thomas managed, seamlessly and gracefully, the tricky feat of getting his characters out of high school and into college.
Tuesday night's finale... The last two hours of "Veronica Mars" showed us Veronica and Piz's relationship ramping up, just as the two are to be separated for the summer. (He's staying in Neptune to intern at a radio station; she's headed to Washington for an FBI internship, a dream setup for a possible spinoff that is, unfortunately, not likely to become a reality.) Veronica, still uncertain how much she feels for Piz, tentatively seduces him -- only to learn later that the whole thing has been caught on tape. Logan believes Piz made the tape surreptitiously, and in an act of misguided chivalry (one that suggests he's still in love with Veronica, although the two have suffered a harsh split), he beats the crap out of him. With Wallace's help, Veronica finds out that members of a secret Skull-and-Bones-type organization at Hearst College, the Castle, made and distributed the tape. To prove it, she needs to break into the super-ritzy home of Jake Kane, Lilly Kane's father. In doing so, she's caught on a surveillance camera; her father, who has become interim sheriff after the death of sheriff Don Lamb, erases the tape to protect her. The show's final minutes suggest that Veronica's actions have cost her father the sheriff's election. And they cement the dour reality, posited at the very beginning of the series, that the rich assholes -- the Jake Kane types -- are always going to be the ones in charge. To quote the ever-perceptive English pop star Jarvis Cocker, in a song that uses a bit of non-gender-specific British slang: Cunts are still running the world.
I don't see this final episode as being especially rancorous: "Veronica Mars" has always been a clear-eyed show, never been a bitter one. But the episode did feel truncated, unfinished. It gave us no clear signposts telling us where, exactly, these characters are headed next, where they'll end up. Thomas may have figured that the best way to end "Veronica Mars" was to not end it at all -- to leave the show as the unfinished business that it is, to allow his characters to go about their lives as if, somewhere, somehow, on some mythical TV network of the imagination, they would actually continue to lead them.
Letters: Finale wrap-up: "Veronica Mars" - Salon:
--What I've missed most this season has been the truly biting and difficult characterizations and moral quandaries of the first and second season, and all of that came back in spades last night.Veronica's truly furious wit, Logan's emotionally charged knuckles, Wallace's loyalty, even Weevil's casual criminal side--it all gelled again in ways it hadn't done fully for most of the season. In its way, it was the perfect noir finish--the detective, having suffered a personal affront, jumps into the heart of a storm in her quest for justice/revenge. In the end, her actions failed to up-end the criminal power structure--they only reminded the high muckety-mucks that there's one person they cannot mess with, ever--but the price of her work is that several people she cared about got hurt (Wallace, Logan, Piz, Parker, Keith).
And at the last, the detective, finally understanding the consequences, walks away in the rain.
Televisionary: "Rob Thomas is a Whore" and Other Things I'll Miss About "Veronica Mars"
...writers Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero managed to reset the clock on Veronica Mars, returning us to several situations and storylines that defined the series in its freshman season: the feud between the Mars and Kane clans, Veronica being a social pariah, Keith losing the position of sheriff all over again thanks to Jake Kane, another idiot takes over as sheriff, etc. Hell, even Lily and Duncan Kane showed up, even if it was only as gigantic paintings in Jake Kane's palatial mansion.
There was definitely a cyclical feeling to the ending of "The Bitch is Back," as Keith sacrifices everything--the election campaign, his job, his sterling reputation--in order to save his beloved Veronica, though his intervention was ultimately unnecessary, which made his downfall all the more tragic. At the heart of this series has always been a compelling and extraordinary relationship between a father and daughter: because of her shame and embarrassment at the non-sex sex tape, Veronica is unable to tell Keith why she broke into Jake Kane's house and stole the hard drive; because of his love for his daughter, Keith does everything--including break the law--to save her. Has a television parent-child relationship ever been this rich and complex?
The ending, in which Veronica sees that Keith is being charged with tampering with evidence and then goes and votes for her dad in the voting booth (even though he's doomed to fail), was a beautiful crystallization about everything Veronica Mars has stood for: hope in the face of adversity, despite all proof that truth and justice don't necessarily exist in a noir-styled town as corrupt as Neptune. No matter how much good Keith and Veronica do in their roles as private investigators (or in Keith's case as sheriff), they'll never truly fit in in Neptune society; they're rebels, outcasts, forever removed from the '09-ers and tainted by the fact that they don't live in that posh zip code. If that's not the perfect ending to a series about class warfare, I don't know what is; it was poignant and full of promise for a fourth season at the same time. Pity then that we won't get to see (whether that's Veronica as an FBI agent or a college student) what would have come next. see all posts here re Veronica Mars (when if I watch it) -
South Dakota Dark: "It takes someone awfully small to break in through a doggie door." Veronica Mars:
..Some things about the pilot were a little clunky (the show had yet to figure out how to do the whiplash changes in tone that so marked its run), but the character was there, and the idea was there, and Kristen Bell was on from day one. I had been waiting for Rob Thomas to make something good since the days of Cupid (a show I dearly loved), and I was glad to have him back again.
As the show grew into a genuine critical darling and media buzz sensation as it wound its way toward the end of its first season, it was easy to get caught up in the excitement. Here, we all felt, was the logical heir to Buffy. But the show was probably never as mainstream in its appeal as Buffy, which, after all, was about a teen girl learning how to be a great leader of men. I just don't like that actress I guess. I like kristen bell much better. Veronica Mars was always about a teenage girl learning just how little the world wanted to do with her and biting back. The two shows had a high school milieu and a strong female protagonist in common, but not a whole lot else. And as the show entered its second season, creating a deeply tangled and complex mystery and then unraveling it rather coincidentally, it was easy to see people turning on it for not matching that first year.
Me, I actually liked the second season a little better. But that's no matter now. The show got its third and fourth and fifth chances this year and squandered them all. Perhaps it was just one of those shows the audience avoids, perhaps because it doesn't know what's good for it.
...writers Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero managed to reset the clock on Veronica Mars, returning us to several situations and storylines that defined the series in its freshman season: the feud between the Mars and Kane clans, Veronica being a social pariah, Keith losing the position of sheriff all over again thanks to Jake Kane, another idiot takes over as sheriff, etc. Hell, even Lily and Duncan Kane showed up, even if it was only as gigantic paintings in Jake Kane's palatial mansion.
There was definitely a cyclical feeling to the ending of "The Bitch is Back," as Keith sacrifices everything--the election campaign, his job, his sterling reputation--in order to save his beloved Veronica, though his intervention was ultimately unnecessary, which made his downfall all the more tragic. At the heart of this series has always been a compelling and extraordinary relationship between a father and daughter: because of her shame and embarrassment at the non-sex sex tape, Veronica is unable to tell Keith why she broke into Jake Kane's house and stole the hard drive; because of his love for his daughter, Keith does everything--including break the law--to save her. Has a television parent-child relationship ever been this rich and complex?
The ending, in which Veronica sees that Keith is being charged with tampering with evidence and then goes and votes for her dad in the voting booth (even though he's doomed to fail), was a beautiful crystallization about everything Veronica Mars has stood for: hope in the face of adversity, despite all proof that truth and justice don't necessarily exist in a noir-styled town as corrupt as Neptune. No matter how much good Keith and Veronica do in their roles as private investigators (or in Keith's case as sheriff), they'll never truly fit in in Neptune society; they're rebels, outcasts, forever removed from the '09-ers and tainted by the fact that they don't live in that posh zip code. If that's not the perfect ending to a series about class warfare, I don't know what is; it was poignant and full of promise for a fourth season at the same time. Pity then that we won't get to see (whether that's Veronica as an FBI agent or a college student) what would have come next. see all posts here re Veronica Mars (when if I watch it) -
South Dakota Dark: "It takes someone awfully small to break in through a doggie door." Veronica Mars:
..Some things about the pilot were a little clunky (the show had yet to figure out how to do the whiplash changes in tone that so marked its run), but the character was there, and the idea was there, and Kristen Bell was on from day one. I had been waiting for Rob Thomas to make something good since the days of Cupid (a show I dearly loved), and I was glad to have him back again.
As the show grew into a genuine critical darling and media buzz sensation as it wound its way toward the end of its first season, it was easy to get caught up in the excitement. Here, we all felt, was the logical heir to Buffy. But the show was probably never as mainstream in its appeal as Buffy, which, after all, was about a teen girl learning how to be a great leader of men. I just don't like that actress I guess. I like kristen bell much better. Veronica Mars was always about a teenage girl learning just how little the world wanted to do with her and biting back. The two shows had a high school milieu and a strong female protagonist in common, but not a whole lot else. And as the show entered its second season, creating a deeply tangled and complex mystery and then unraveling it rather coincidentally, it was easy to see people turning on it for not matching that first year.
Me, I actually liked the second season a little better. But that's no matter now. The show got its third and fourth and fifth chances this year and squandered them all. Perhaps it was just one of those shows the audience avoids, perhaps because it doesn't know what's good for it.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
TWoP Veronica Mars recaplet The Bitch Is Back:
I know it wasn't meant to be a series finale, but as a two-part episode, or even a season finale? That pretty much rocked. Good night, sweet show.
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 20 | Aired on 2007.05.22
I know it wasn't meant to be a series finale, but as a two-part episode, or even a season finale? That pretty much rocked. Good night, sweet show.
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 20 | Aired on 2007.05.22
tvtattle.com:
Cancelation of "Veronica Mars" is a blessing in disguise [avclub]
Leaving behind a small but significant legacy, "Veronica" is going out before it gets into more trouble next season, says Noel Murray. "'Veronica Mars' -- like Arrested Development before it -- now gets to live on in near-pristine form on DVD, unmarred by creative bankruptcy and fan revolt. And it gets to be a martyr on behalf of all the 'good TV' -- as opposed to the merely 'TV-good' -- that got cancelled before it could go out on its own terms."
Veronica's relationship with her dad will be missed the most
= Chicago Tribune | The Watcher -- So long, 'Veronica Mars.' Thanks for three memorable years MAUREEN RYAN May 18, 2007 :
I still remember picking the “Mars” DVD off the giant pile of pilots for the fall 2004. I hadn’t heard much about the show, and watching the very first “Veronica Mars” episode, I had the reaction that is one of the best things about this job -- I felt like I’d seen something really special, and I couldn’t wait to tell the world.
I’m going to miss the distinctive banter that Veronica traded with her equally witty, acerbic friends. I’m going to miss watching a drama in which a young, intelligent woman uses her brains and her perceptive abilities to explore the darker corners of the human heart (including her own).
I think what I may miss most is Veronica’s relationship with her father, Keith Mars. Kristen Bell, who plays Veronica, has rightly received a truckload of glowing press notices for her work as the tightly wound, emotionally resilient young detective. Thanks to Bell’s compassionate, intelligent approach to the role, Veronica wasn’t as brittle or off-putting as she could have been (occasionally she was brittle, but at least she was brittle in a very witty way). But when Veronica was hurting, she often didn’t say a word. Thanks to Bell’s performance, she didn’t have to. You just knew.
As Keith, Enrico Colantoni was the unsung hero of the Keith-Veronica relationship. In his own understated way, Keith was funny, smart, wise and tough as nails. You knew that Keith would do anything for his daughter, and that he loved her ferociously. Even when she disappointed him, he never doubted her intelligence and the fact that, despite all her travails, she had a good, kind heart.
Truly, they had one of the best, if not the best, parent-child relationship on television. I’ll miss that. And I’ll miss Jason Dohring as Logan (more on him here); Logan and Veronica’s on-screen chemistry, even when the couple wasn’t together, was sizzling. huh. I shld rent the season one dvds for a marathon.
I thank creator Rob Thomas, the cast, crew and writers for three great seasons.
comments:
-the median age of the show audience was 27 years old huh.
-I wish Veronica had indeed been brought to another network (USA or CBS), but the show creators don't have control over the actual 'property' of the show after they sell it to a network.If the CW smartened up and at least tried to shop it around, maybe get it 13 episodes per season somewhere else, where it could actually make its own creative decisions, Veronica would flourish.
-interesting and hopeful information:
"On May 17, 2007, the CW officially cancelled Veronica Mars. However, creator Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell are currently in talks with The CW's Dawn Ostroff about a new series. It is unclear if this new series will be related to Mars or not.[3][4] It should also be noted that the CW continues to advertise the upcoming finale as the "season finale" as opposed to the "series finale." ...
... Veronica Mars' Boss: "Very, Very, Very Sad Day" - Ausiello Report | TVGuide.com: I forwarded Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas the comments Dawn Ostroff made at the CW upfront (read 'em in my live blog) regarding the show's fate, and below is the response he just sent me:
"No one has talked to me about a new, non-Veronica project. All my writers have been offered jobs elsewhere, and I believe they will now all accept these jobs. Very, very, very sad day around the VM offices. I assume that anything Dawn would be talking about in the realm of a Rob-Kristen project would involve a new from-scratch pilot as they don't have me in a deal, and they'll lose Kristen in a couple of weeks." Bottom line: It's over.
Blessed Cancellations | The A.V. Club by Noel Murray May 17, 2007:
Veronica Mars leaves behind a small but significant legacy. Its first season stands as one of the best examples of how to handle long-form serialized mysteries, as well as how to mix genres in ways that elevate every element. The second season, though over-ambitious, was trying for something noble, engaging with the kind of class issues that American TV rarely touches. And the multi-arc third season was pretty good too, encompassing breezy scenes of college life and a few genuinely compelling mysteries.
comments
-So what other good/great shows should end NOW? I think that The Office (U.S.) could stand as a great 3-season show ending with Thursday's finale. V. Mars? One of my fav's. Didn't want it to end, but I agree, best to have it live on as a great weekend marathon than a "remember when..." mess.
-Sure, the first season was the best (but remember, Rob took YEARS to write that, first as a YA novel, then as a spec script int - the other seasons had to be plotted and planned within months).
-i agree with everything noel murray had to say when he wrote it -- the show had definitely waned and it might have been best for it to go ... but man, the finale hurt to watch. it really hurt to watch. the finale (and more importantly, the final 8 minutes) were reminiscent of all the brilliant elements of the show: veronica's clumsy independence, keith's "do anything" problem solving (who else shows growing pains through crimes and misdemeanors??) jason dohring's brilliant acting calls, the salient noir references, the classy music calls and the heartbreaking cliffhangers... and it made it seem like Rob Thomas and the gang were wide awake and had another season in them that was going to top them all... and damn us for missing it. I had to say something because it was a brilliant finale even if unintended. 12:35 PM Wed May 23, 2007
Cancelation of "Veronica Mars" is a blessing in disguise [avclub]
Leaving behind a small but significant legacy, "Veronica" is going out before it gets into more trouble next season, says Noel Murray. "'Veronica Mars' -- like Arrested Development before it -- now gets to live on in near-pristine form on DVD, unmarred by creative bankruptcy and fan revolt. And it gets to be a martyr on behalf of all the 'good TV' -- as opposed to the merely 'TV-good' -- that got cancelled before it could go out on its own terms."Veronica's relationship with her dad will be missed the most= Chicago Tribune | The Watcher -- So long, 'Veronica Mars.' Thanks for three memorable years MAUREEN RYAN May 18, 2007 :
I still remember picking the “Mars” DVD off the giant pile of pilots for the fall 2004. I hadn’t heard much about the show, and watching the very first “Veronica Mars” episode, I had the reaction that is one of the best things about this job -- I felt like I’d seen something really special, and I couldn’t wait to tell the world.
I’m going to miss the distinctive banter that Veronica traded with her equally witty, acerbic friends. I’m going to miss watching a drama in which a young, intelligent woman uses her brains and her perceptive abilities to explore the darker corners of the human heart (including her own).
I think what I may miss most is Veronica’s relationship with her father, Keith Mars. Kristen Bell, who plays Veronica, has rightly received a truckload of glowing press notices for her work as the tightly wound, emotionally resilient young detective. Thanks to Bell’s compassionate, intelligent approach to the role, Veronica wasn’t as brittle or off-putting as she could have been (occasionally she was brittle, but at least she was brittle in a very witty way). But when Veronica was hurting, she often didn’t say a word. Thanks to Bell’s performance, she didn’t have to. You just knew.
As Keith, Enrico Colantoni was the unsung hero of the Keith-Veronica relationship. In his own understated way, Keith was funny, smart, wise and tough as nails. You knew that Keith would do anything for his daughter, and that he loved her ferociously. Even when she disappointed him, he never doubted her intelligence and the fact that, despite all her travails, she had a good, kind heart.
Truly, they had one of the best, if not the best, parent-child relationship on television. I’ll miss that. And I’ll miss Jason Dohring as Logan (more on him here); Logan and Veronica’s on-screen chemistry, even when the couple wasn’t together, was sizzling. huh. I shld rent the season one dvds for a marathon.
I thank creator Rob Thomas, the cast, crew and writers for three great seasons.
comments:
-the median age of the show audience was 27 years old huh.
-I wish Veronica had indeed been brought to another network (USA or CBS), but the show creators don't have control over the actual 'property' of the show after they sell it to a network.If the CW smartened up and at least tried to shop it around, maybe get it 13 episodes per season somewhere else, where it could actually make its own creative decisions, Veronica would flourish.
-interesting and hopeful information:
"On May 17, 2007, the CW officially cancelled Veronica Mars. However, creator Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell are currently in talks with The CW's Dawn Ostroff about a new series. It is unclear if this new series will be related to Mars or not.[3][4] It should also be noted that the CW continues to advertise the upcoming finale as the "season finale" as opposed to the "series finale." ...
... Veronica Mars' Boss: "Very, Very, Very Sad Day" - Ausiello Report | TVGuide.com: I forwarded Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas the comments Dawn Ostroff made at the CW upfront (read 'em in my live blog) regarding the show's fate, and below is the response he just sent me:
"No one has talked to me about a new, non-Veronica project. All my writers have been offered jobs elsewhere, and I believe they will now all accept these jobs. Very, very, very sad day around the VM offices. I assume that anything Dawn would be talking about in the realm of a Rob-Kristen project would involve a new from-scratch pilot as they don't have me in a deal, and they'll lose Kristen in a couple of weeks." Bottom line: It's over.
Blessed Cancellations | The A.V. Club by Noel Murray May 17, 2007:
Veronica Mars leaves behind a small but significant legacy. Its first season stands as one of the best examples of how to handle long-form serialized mysteries, as well as how to mix genres in ways that elevate every element. The second season, though over-ambitious, was trying for something noble, engaging with the kind of class issues that American TV rarely touches. And the multi-arc third season was pretty good too, encompassing breezy scenes of college life and a few genuinely compelling mysteries.
comments
-So what other good/great shows should end NOW? I think that The Office (U.S.) could stand as a great 3-season show ending with Thursday's finale. V. Mars? One of my fav's. Didn't want it to end, but I agree, best to have it live on as a great weekend marathon than a "remember when..." mess.
-Sure, the first season was the best (but remember, Rob took YEARS to write that, first as a YA novel, then as a spec script int - the other seasons had to be plotted and planned within months).
-i agree with everything noel murray had to say when he wrote it -- the show had definitely waned and it might have been best for it to go ... but man, the finale hurt to watch. it really hurt to watch. the finale (and more importantly, the final 8 minutes) were reminiscent of all the brilliant elements of the show: veronica's clumsy independence, keith's "do anything" problem solving (who else shows growing pains through crimes and misdemeanors??) jason dohring's brilliant acting calls, the salient noir references, the classy music calls and the heartbreaking cliffhangers... and it made it seem like Rob Thomas and the gang were wide awake and had another season in them that was going to top them all... and damn us for missing it. I had to say something because it was a brilliant finale even if unintended. 12:35 PM Wed May 23, 2007
Blessed Cancellations | The A.V. Club [same as in above post]
...Veronica Mars never had a huge audience, and the audience it did have consisted of the kind of fickle TV geeks who tend to take any creative stumble as an opportunity to jump on the internet and proclaim, “Worst. Episode. Ever.” (Aside: Who’d have thought, when that phrase was introduced on The Simpsons in a throwaway gag, that it would go on to become so pervasive? Weird.) huh: "worst. episode.ever." is a phrase? ggl... [Salon Entertainment | Worst episode ever Jan. 24, 2000 The most obvious dig at the fans came in a scene in the episode that first aired Feb. 9, 1997. It began with the still-unnamed Comic Book Guy saying: "Last night's 'Itchy & Scratchy' was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. ...]
comments
-the term "worst episode ever" originated on the alt.tv.simpsons newsgroup way back around 1994 or 95. Every new episode from about Season 5 on had at least one or two regular users proclaiming it to be the worst episode ever, usually using the term as the subject line for their reviews. Go check out the a.t.s. archives (if such a thing exists) or read through the increasingly detailed "episode capsules" at snpp.com and you'll see where the Simpsons writers got most of their material for the "Poochie" episode that brought the famous phrase into widespread use.
[ The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show - Wkp: This episode features the first mention of Comic Book Guy's soon-to-be catchphrase "Worst episode ever", which was taken from the alt.tv.simpsons message boards.[5] The first mention of "Worst episode ever" can be found in this post, which was about the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie". ]
...Veronica Mars never had a huge audience, and the audience it did have consisted of the kind of fickle TV geeks who tend to take any creative stumble as an opportunity to jump on the internet and proclaim, “Worst. Episode. Ever.” (Aside: Who’d have thought, when that phrase was introduced on The Simpsons in a throwaway gag, that it would go on to become so pervasive? Weird.) huh: "worst. episode.ever." is a phrase? ggl... [Salon Entertainment | Worst episode ever Jan. 24, 2000 The most obvious dig at the fans came in a scene in the episode that first aired Feb. 9, 1997. It began with the still-unnamed Comic Book Guy saying: "Last night's 'Itchy & Scratchy' was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. ...]
comments
-the term "worst episode ever" originated on the alt.tv.simpsons newsgroup way back around 1994 or 95. Every new episode from about Season 5 on had at least one or two regular users proclaiming it to be the worst episode ever, usually using the term as the subject line for their reviews. Go check out the a.t.s. archives (if such a thing exists) or read through the increasingly detailed "episode capsules" at snpp.com and you'll see where the Simpsons writers got most of their material for the "Poochie" episode that brought the famous phrase into widespread use.
[ The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show - Wkp: This episode features the first mention of Comic Book Guy's soon-to-be catchphrase "Worst episode ever", which was taken from the alt.tv.simpsons message boards.[5] The first mention of "Worst episode ever" can be found in this post, which was about the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie". ]
Sunday, May 20, 2007
showing rh -
YouTube - Dr. Wilson on Speeeeeed
yay - 7 min - I love it "sym-sym-symbolicating. what?" having a live conversation w themselves aloud. & House, when Wilson says *this* is why he is taking antidepressants - quick as a whip: "they're not antiannoyanceants"
YouTube - House. Wilson Dosed
2 min, v funny scene
YouTube - House, Hector and the Flame Cane
yay. the cane shop scene. and oh- the sweet dog.
YouTube - Dr. Wilson on Speeeeeed
yay - 7 min - I love it "sym-sym-symbolicating. what?" having a live conversation w themselves aloud. & House, when Wilson says *this* is why he is taking antidepressants - quick as a whip: "they're not antiannoyanceants"
YouTube - House. Wilson Dosed
2 min, v funny scene
YouTube - House, Hector and the Flame Cane
yay. the cane shop scene. and oh- the sweet dog.
CNN - 'Boys Don't Cry' filmmaker saw past violence to love - October 22, 1999
Says filmmaker Kimberly Peirce, "Here was a girl living in a trailer park, she didn't have much money, she didn't have any role models, and she successfully transformed herself into a fantasy of a boy. That was completely compelling and extraordinary to me -- the courage to carry it out and then the cleverness to keep the fantasy alive."
It was Swank, whose previous work had included television experience, as well as feature films like "The Next Karate Kid" (1994) and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1992). Peirce, in allegiance to her obsession with the subject, hired Swank but demanded that she live as a guy for four weeks prior to filming -- go to the store, the restaurant, the bathroom, dressed and acting like a guy.
...also Sevigny:
"Chloë will never give you a false moment," says Peirce. "She is endlessly gifted.
Says filmmaker Kimberly Peirce, "Here was a girl living in a trailer park, she didn't have much money, she didn't have any role models, and she successfully transformed herself into a fantasy of a boy. That was completely compelling and extraordinary to me -- the courage to carry it out and then the cleverness to keep the fantasy alive."
"I was looking all over the country, but there was no girl who could play Brandon," says Peirce. Then a videotape arrived in the mail.
"Finally," she says, "we popped in the tape, and this beautiful, androgynous person just floated across the screen, cowboy hat on, big sock in his pants, gorgeous boy jaw, boy voice, boy ears, boy eyes, boy forehead. It was stunning."
It was Swank, whose previous work had included television experience, as well as feature films like "The Next Karate Kid" (1994) and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1992). Peirce, in allegiance to her obsession with the subject, hired Swank but demanded that she live as a guy for four weeks prior to filming -- go to the store, the restaurant, the bathroom, dressed and acting like a guy.
...also Sevigny:
"Chloë will never give you a false moment," says Peirce. "She is endlessly gifted.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
VI. How Plagiarism Is like Adolescent Sex
The poem below had two therapeutic purposes for me when I wrote it...
Poet and Audience [12]
I
The Argument:
You Wondered Why You Weren’t Published
It’s because the postman has opened
All your submissions and kept them,
Tucked your words, as it were,
Under his proverbial, federal wing.
And just so you know,
Your love poems work.
He reads them to his wife in bed
Before what has recently become
Most lyrical sex; he even adds
A few verbs here and there
For the sake of flow.
II
The Consolation
But you’ll be pleased to know
He generally leaves your
Enjambment alone,
And understands well
The way irony goes;
A fulcrum for your failure
And his formally elegiac evenings,
Which he now has the diction
And courage to call epiphanic.
His only regret
Is that you ain’t
More prolific.
___________________________________________________________
mmm that's great.
aidaily top of the righthand (essays & opinions) column today: “Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory is too good,” said Nietzsche. There can come a point in life when this begins to make sense... more»
VQR » The Accidental Plagiarist: The Trouble with Originality -- Erik Campbell
-this article looks great. appeals much more to me than whatshisname's article on same topic. Franzen. recent article by him, right? v plagiarism, how we are all quoting, much of the time. but those are my words not Franzen's or was it Lethem? plagiarism, influence, what's in the air. the water.
V. Confession the First: The Anxiety of Influence (the Author Accidentally Commits HP)
Hard Plagiarism (HP)—line-by-line copying without attribution
I wrote the lines of what would later become the last section of a poem entitled “Cat, Man, God.”
I sensed that I needed to better cinch up the theme of what we anthropomorphize and why. I then vaguely remembered something I had written about my cat and God, and so began thumbing through a blue notebook in which I jot down random thoughts. And there it was, the perfect ending, scrawled almost illegibly in the corner of a page (under the lines I had written “CONSIDER”):
And then, of course, I began to worry. Normally poems come to me very slowly. Unlike, say, Stephen Dobyns, I am the antithesis of prolificacy. “Cat, Man, God” came too quickly, and I knew that its composition was heavily expedited and inspired by the strength of its “found” last line. And that enigmatic “CONSIDER” had me concernedly considering.
So I went through my Stephen Dunn collection (the most likely source of my possible pilfering) wondering if I had and hoping I hadn’t lifted the line from his work. I spent all evening reading and found this, from Local Visitations (2003): “God knows nothing we don’t know. / We gave him every word he ever said.” And then this, from The Insistence of Beauty (2004): “It can’t, / alone, be fully what it is. I’ve / given it every one of its thoughts.”
-
The poem below had two therapeutic purposes for me when I wrote it...
Poet and Audience [12]
I
The Argument:
You Wondered Why You Weren’t Published
It’s because the postman has opened
All your submissions and kept them,
Tucked your words, as it were,
Under his proverbial, federal wing.
And just so you know,
Your love poems work.
He reads them to his wife in bed
Before what has recently become
Most lyrical sex; he even adds
A few verbs here and there
For the sake of flow.
II
The Consolation
But you’ll be pleased to know
He generally leaves your
Enjambment alone,
And understands well
The way irony goes;
A fulcrum for your failure
And his formally elegiac evenings,
Which he now has the diction
And courage to call epiphanic.
His only regret
Is that you ain’t
More prolific.
___________________________________________________________
mmm that's great.
aidaily top of the righthand (essays & opinions) column today: “Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory is too good,” said Nietzsche. There can come a point in life when this begins to make sense... more»
VQR » The Accidental Plagiarist: The Trouble with Originality -- Erik Campbell
-this article looks great. appeals much more to me than whatshisname's article on same topic. Franzen. recent article by him, right? v plagiarism, how we are all quoting, much of the time. but those are my words not Franzen's or was it Lethem? plagiarism, influence, what's in the air. the water.
V. Confession the First: The Anxiety of Influence (the Author Accidentally Commits HP)
Hard Plagiarism (HP)—line-by-line copying without attribution
Writer Nicholas Delbanco, in his essay “In Praise of Imitation,” explained the trouble with this medley of inspirations (using sexy diction and, I think well yes I think so, riffing off of T. S. Eliot’s “Ash Wednesday” in the first sentence quoted):
All writers are promiscuous; we fall in love repeatedly—desiring this one’s knowledge of the world, that one’s way with character. . . . [W]e study with practitioners we never get to meet. So what passes for originality—a voice the reader can identify and an inflection he can recognize—is likely to come from a chorus of the young writer’s influential because admired predecessors: borrowings too numerous to name.[7]As Auden told me first. (The Dyer's Hand -- in a school for poets, have them imitate.)
I wrote the lines of what would later become the last section of a poem entitled “Cat, Man, God.”
I sensed that I needed to better cinch up the theme of what we anthropomorphize and why. I then vaguely remembered something I had written about my cat and God, and so began thumbing through a blue notebook in which I jot down random thoughts. And there it was, the perfect ending, scrawled almost illegibly in the corner of a page (under the lines I had written “CONSIDER”):
Our cats like GodBrilliant, I thought. I’m so shamelessly brilliant.
Have never spoken
A word that wasn’t ours.
And then, of course, I began to worry. Normally poems come to me very slowly. Unlike, say, Stephen Dobyns, I am the antithesis of prolificacy. “Cat, Man, God” came too quickly, and I knew that its composition was heavily expedited and inspired by the strength of its “found” last line. And that enigmatic “CONSIDER” had me concernedly considering.
So I went through my Stephen Dunn collection (the most likely source of my possible pilfering) wondering if I had and hoping I hadn’t lifted the line from his work. I spent all evening reading and found this, from Local Visitations (2003): “God knows nothing we don’t know. / We gave him every word he ever said.” And then this, from The Insistence of Beauty (2004): “It can’t, / alone, be fully what it is. I’ve / given it every one of its thoughts.”
So I became convinced of two things: (1) that Dunn occasionally repeats himself, which is his right, and (2) that I was guilty of Influence, not Plagiarism. I had taken a sentiment and made it my own, “pure and complicated”;[10] it was no “My Sweet Lord.” At the most, I surmised, I was answerable to SP; I had obviously been colored by Dunn’s idea, but my rendering was a riffing, not a ripping off. I spent another few days on the poem and submitted it to several journals.
Two weeks after mailing out the poem, I had an essay accepted by a very good journal. I was feeling good about myself and decided to celebrate by rereading Dunn’s Loosestrife (1996).[11] Toward the end of the book I suddenly went cold. I suspect that, had my bladder been full, I would have wet myself, in which case (to paraphrase James Joyce) I would have gone warm, and then cold. In the poem “Parameters” I discovered this line, which I had somehow previously missed: “Our cats like God have never spoken / a word that wasn’t ours.” The only difference between “my” line and Dunn’s was the enjambment. I had decidedly, yet unknowingly, committed HP. I was too shocked to try to will myself dead.
earlier: Times such as these, I like to play a little existential game with myself, one that I think Nietzsche would appreciate. The idea is to see if I can “will myself dead,” to, say, conjure up a myocardial infarction or a brain aneurysm by an act of sheer concentrated will. It never works. Instead of unbecoming I usually end up nodding, renouncing articulation for gesticulation (my co-workers always accept the gracious indefiniteness of the nod). Soon the talk turns to women anyway (we’re usually in a bar), which amounts to the only esoteric art most of my colleagues are interested in pursuing.
-
this whole not-short essay seems great
-
enjambment - ggl: Enjambment (also spelled 'enjambement') is the breaking of a syntactic unit (a phrase, clause, or sentence) by the end of a line or between two verses. -wkp
(just reminding me)
(just reminding me)
Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl by Steven Bach - BOOK REVIEW - By Richard Schickel - Los Angeles Times - calendarlive.com (via aidaily):
With "Triumph of the Will" (about the Nazi party rally at Nuremberg in 1934 -- Albert Speer, Hitler's kept architect, was essentially her art director, the occasion was staged with her camera positions always in mind, and the film was financed entirely with government funds) and "Olympiad" (about the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games), Riefenstahl, it's not an exaggeration to say, created almost every significant visual image that we now retain of National Socialism in all its evil pomp. ..The former offers heroic shots of young Aryans larkishly bathing in their encampments before assembling into impressive masses, their individuality welded into anonymous yet strangely glamorous menace..
Later, when the Thousand-Year Reich turned out to have a rather shorter life span than its propagandists predicted and she lived rather longer than normal (she died at the age of 101 in 2003), she devoted most of her energy to litigious self-justification of her years as Hitler's willing executioner of imagery.
The daughter of a plumber, Riefenstahl began her public life as an "interpretive" dancer in the Modernist vein and then did a turn (which she later denied) dancing semi-nude in the film "Ways to Strength and Beauty." She achieved eminence first as a star, then as a director, of "mountain films," a popular, peculiarly Germanic genre in which wild, primitive people dare to scale beautiful yet menacing Alpine peaks, achieving death always? no... and transfiguration at the end of their exertions. Siegfried Kracauer (a mere critic at the time, not yet the eminent historian of German film he would become) saw in these films something "symptomatic of an antirationalism on which the Nazis could capitalize."
...beautiful and terrifying...
Bach is determined to present her coolly, ironically, without loss of his own moral vector. What emerges is a compulsively readable and scrupulously crafted work, not unlike Klaus Mann's "Mephisto," that devastating novel about the actor Gustav Gründgens, another of Hitler's several semiconscious cultural ornaments-apologists. I do not believe this fundamentally ignorant woman ever perceived cf Heidegger the inherent evil in Nazism. Her anti-Semitism was less virulent than reflexive — the common coin of many realms (including the United States) at the time. The disguise she wrapped around her ambition was that absurd, often unpleasant and peculiarly European one of the Grand Maestro, all art for art's sake — hysteria and narcissism mixed with contempt for her collaborators, grandiose graciousness to her groveling fans and patrons, and a talent that was all technique, no soul. huh- Why Riefenstahl's work would continue to impress critics — even Sontag, Riefenstahl's most implacable critical enemy, calls them the two greatest documentaries ever made — is a mystery, given the corruption of their origins and the fact that they are visibly not documentaries at all.
At the end of her life, Riefenstahl discovered a primitive African tribe, the Nubia, and found in them the noble savagery again cf Heidegger she had celebrated in the Alpine films. She published a beautiful, disturbing picture book about them which had a certain rehabilitative effect on her reputation — though not for Bach or this reader.
nicely written. Richard Schickel is a film critic for Time and the author of many books, including "Elia Kazan: A Biography" and "The Essential Chaplin."
With "Triumph of the Will" (about the Nazi party rally at Nuremberg in 1934 -- Albert Speer, Hitler's kept architect, was essentially her art director, the occasion was staged with her camera positions always in mind, and the film was financed entirely with government funds) and "Olympiad" (about the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games), Riefenstahl, it's not an exaggeration to say, created almost every significant visual image that we now retain of National Socialism in all its evil pomp. ..The former offers heroic shots of young Aryans larkishly bathing in their encampments before assembling into impressive masses, their individuality welded into anonymous yet strangely glamorous menace..
Later, when the Thousand-Year Reich turned out to have a rather shorter life span than its propagandists predicted and she lived rather longer than normal (she died at the age of 101 in 2003), she devoted most of her energy to litigious self-justification of her years as Hitler's willing executioner of imagery.
The daughter of a plumber, Riefenstahl began her public life as an "interpretive" dancer in the Modernist vein and then did a turn (which she later denied) dancing semi-nude in the film "Ways to Strength and Beauty." She achieved eminence first as a star, then as a director, of "mountain films," a popular, peculiarly Germanic genre in which wild, primitive people dare to scale beautiful yet menacing Alpine peaks, achieving death always? no... and transfiguration at the end of their exertions. Siegfried Kracauer (a mere critic at the time, not yet the eminent historian of German film he would become) saw in these films something "symptomatic of an antirationalism on which the Nazis could capitalize."
...beautiful and terrifying...
Bach is determined to present her coolly, ironically, without loss of his own moral vector. What emerges is a compulsively readable and scrupulously crafted work, not unlike Klaus Mann's "Mephisto," that devastating novel about the actor Gustav Gründgens, another of Hitler's several semiconscious cultural ornaments-apologists. I do not believe this fundamentally ignorant woman ever perceived cf Heidegger the inherent evil in Nazism. Her anti-Semitism was less virulent than reflexive — the common coin of many realms (including the United States) at the time. The disguise she wrapped around her ambition was that absurd, often unpleasant and peculiarly European one of the Grand Maestro, all art for art's sake — hysteria and narcissism mixed with contempt for her collaborators, grandiose graciousness to her groveling fans and patrons, and a talent that was all technique, no soul. huh- Why Riefenstahl's work would continue to impress critics — even Sontag, Riefenstahl's most implacable critical enemy, calls them the two greatest documentaries ever made — is a mystery, given the corruption of their origins and the fact that they are visibly not documentaries at all.
At the end of her life, Riefenstahl discovered a primitive African tribe, the Nubia, and found in them the noble savagery again cf Heidegger she had celebrated in the Alpine films. She published a beautiful, disturbing picture book about them which had a certain rehabilitative effect on her reputation — though not for Bach or this reader.
nicely written. Richard Schickel is a film critic for Time and the author of many books, including "Elia Kazan: A Biography" and "The Essential Chaplin."
Friday, May 18, 2007
tvtattle.com:
"The Office" finds love, without the "holy-crap factor"
Order has been restored to the Dunder-Mifflin universe.
Was that the "Bizarro Office"? || UK TV critic prefers American "Office"
Alan Sepinwall eh but lots cmmts, not read all:
-Pam/Jim as a couple can work because in a sense they've always been a couple -- the dynamic of their friendship is what made them so appealing from the start and has always flowed nicely into the rest of the show
-I thought the Jim/Pam ending was perfect...not an overblown proposal or declaration of love.
the above articles not pleasing writing. except the UK Guardian one, which is just a short bit with a few comments, but fine.
"The Office" finds love, without the "holy-crap factor"
Order has been restored to the Dunder-Mifflin universe.
Was that the "Bizarro Office"? || UK TV critic prefers American "Office" Alan Sepinwall eh but lots cmmts, not read all:-Pam/Jim as a couple can work because in a sense they've always been a couple -- the dynamic of their friendship is what made them so appealing from the start and has always flowed nicely into the rest of the show
-I thought the Jim/Pam ending was perfect...not an overblown proposal or declaration of love.
the above articles not pleasing writing. except the UK Guardian one, which is just a short bit with a few comments, but fine.
the Piper Perabo episode from last week that I d n see.
Folger's Crystals
Resignation - Wilson secretly replaces House's regular coffee with anti-depressants. House secretly replaces Wilson's regular coffee with speed. The patient of the week secretly replaces Tylenol gel caps with kitchen cleanser. A clinic patient secretly replaces soy tofu nut burgers with cheeseburgers. And Foreman secretly replaces the stuff I liked about his character with annoying self-righteousness.
-
twop recap Resignation p7: House dumps the amphetamines into a mortar and pestle and smashes them into little bits before dumping the powder into one of two cups of coffee on his desk. House stirs the coffee/speed mixture and puts the top on the cup just as Wilson enters the office. House quickly assumes the 'I wasn't doing anything!' position with accompanying adorably innocent facial expression and tells Wilson he got him an espresso to pay him back for all the coffees Wilson has bought for him in the last couple weeks. He offers Wilson the non-speed-injected cup, but Wilson is too suspicious of House's sudden unprecedented generosity to take it. He cleverly takes the cup that House wasn't offering -- the one filled with speed, for House is even more clever than Wilson. House shrugs and drinks the regular coffee while Wilson looks victorious at having outsmarted House.
p9
Chase wants to treat Addie for an autoimmune disorder, and they'll have to give her steroids RIGHT NOW for her to have any chance of surviving. House says that if it isn't an autoimmune disorder, the steroids will kill her. This little medical Mexican why Mexican? stand-off seems to happen, like, every single episode. It's getting a little tiresome, guys. ["Seriously, dude. I don't even watch this show, and even I was like, 'Again?'" -- Miss Alli] House reminds the group that treating someone for the wrong thing can kill her, citing Foreman as an example of this.
p10
Wilson is trying to put a label on a medical file while clearly suffering the effects of speed coffee. Foreman comes in, and Wilson starts in with the lecture that Foreman might be pissed at House, but quitting isn't the right thing to do, and it's going to be a pain in the ass to get another job. Except that he says it all five times faster than normal while making up words. It's, like, the best performance I've ever seen out of Robert Sean Leonard. Wilson gets a call and start rushing out of the office, saying he's late for a "breast thing."
Wonderfully, we follow Wilson to the breast thing. He speedily tells the patient, a hot young thing with what are probably calcium deposits in her boobs, that he's having trouble getting his gloves on. "It's weird!" he says. He manages to get one on, deems this enough, and gets to work feeling the patient up. "You sure talk fast," she says. "You should see me when I'm busy!" Wilson says.
p13
House keeps trying to tell her about it, and she keeps telling him she doesn't want to hear about it. Meanwhile, her parents sob in the corner. House can't believe this; his entire being is focused on figuring out what's wrong with people, and here the girl is flying in the face of all that. He won't accept that. While Addie's parents hug their daughter, House asks Addie how she can be uninterested in something that's killing her. Mommy asks House to leave. "What's the point of living without curiosity?" House asks. I don't know. Ask the cat. I wondered if this was an idiom -- no. ggl finds this & exactly one other instance, which involves a specific cat possessed of knowledge. so recapper Sara M means that cats are not curious. which seems witty, bcs cats lie around all day, with some playing & eating. so they seem to live without curiosity. only while typing this do I realize she probably had in mind the phrase about curiosity killing the.
3-22: "Resignation" 2007.05.08 - TWoP Forums p1:
-I've never laughed harder at the show than I did tonight with Wilson on speed.
-Oh gosh. I second that. HL was brilliant as always, but RSL was amazing. "Symbolicating!"
-Wilson high = awesome. RSL played the hell out of that opportunity.
Folger's Crystals
Resignation - Wilson secretly replaces House's regular coffee with anti-depressants. House secretly replaces Wilson's regular coffee with speed. The patient of the week secretly replaces Tylenol gel caps with kitchen cleanser. A clinic patient secretly replaces soy tofu nut burgers with cheeseburgers. And Foreman secretly replaces the stuff I liked about his character with annoying self-righteousness.
-
twop recap Resignation p7: House dumps the amphetamines into a mortar and pestle and smashes them into little bits before dumping the powder into one of two cups of coffee on his desk. House stirs the coffee/speed mixture and puts the top on the cup just as Wilson enters the office. House quickly assumes the 'I wasn't doing anything!' position with accompanying adorably innocent facial expression and tells Wilson he got him an espresso to pay him back for all the coffees Wilson has bought for him in the last couple weeks. He offers Wilson the non-speed-injected cup, but Wilson is too suspicious of House's sudden unprecedented generosity to take it. He cleverly takes the cup that House wasn't offering -- the one filled with speed, for House is even more clever than Wilson. House shrugs and drinks the regular coffee while Wilson looks victorious at having outsmarted House.
p9
Chase wants to treat Addie for an autoimmune disorder, and they'll have to give her steroids RIGHT NOW for her to have any chance of surviving. House says that if it isn't an autoimmune disorder, the steroids will kill her. This little medical Mexican why Mexican? stand-off seems to happen, like, every single episode. It's getting a little tiresome, guys. ["Seriously, dude. I don't even watch this show, and even I was like, 'Again?'" -- Miss Alli] House reminds the group that treating someone for the wrong thing can kill her, citing Foreman as an example of this.
p10
Wilson is trying to put a label on a medical file while clearly suffering the effects of speed coffee. Foreman comes in, and Wilson starts in with the lecture that Foreman might be pissed at House, but quitting isn't the right thing to do, and it's going to be a pain in the ass to get another job. Except that he says it all five times faster than normal while making up words. It's, like, the best performance I've ever seen out of Robert Sean Leonard. Wilson gets a call and start rushing out of the office, saying he's late for a "breast thing."
Wonderfully, we follow Wilson to the breast thing. He speedily tells the patient, a hot young thing with what are probably calcium deposits in her boobs, that he's having trouble getting his gloves on. "It's weird!" he says. He manages to get one on, deems this enough, and gets to work feeling the patient up. "You sure talk fast," she says. "You should see me when I'm busy!" Wilson says.
p13
House keeps trying to tell her about it, and she keeps telling him she doesn't want to hear about it. Meanwhile, her parents sob in the corner. House can't believe this; his entire being is focused on figuring out what's wrong with people, and here the girl is flying in the face of all that. He won't accept that. While Addie's parents hug their daughter, House asks Addie how she can be uninterested in something that's killing her. Mommy asks House to leave. "What's the point of living without curiosity?" House asks. I don't know. Ask the cat. I wondered if this was an idiom -- no. ggl finds this & exactly one other instance, which involves a specific cat possessed of knowledge. so recapper Sara M means that cats are not curious. which seems witty, bcs cats lie around all day, with some playing & eating. so they seem to live without curiosity. only while typing this do I realize she probably had in mind the phrase about curiosity killing the.
3-22: "Resignation" 2007.05.08 - TWoP Forums p1:
-I've never laughed harder at the show than I did tonight with Wilson on speed.
-Oh gosh. I second that. HL was brilliant as always, but RSL was amazing. "Symbolicating!"
-Wilson high = awesome. RSL played the hell out of that opportunity.
seems USA 39 'characters welcome' repeats on Friday night the episode not fr the most recent Tuesday but from the one before -and nb on Saturday night at same time 10pm USA 39 shows House fr season 2 = last yr)
ok so tonite at 10 the Piper Perabo episode from last week that I d n see.
I saw this week's - with chess boy - and Piper d n appear.
what's the deal with Fox 12 repeats? tonite Friday 7pm showing 2-16 "Safe"
but dsn't seem to be every weekday or even every Friday at this time
lots of great House statements in Safe:
Cameron: He loves her! He did everything he could to make sure she wouldn't get sick. House: What does that mean? Cameron: Love is an emotion certain people experience, similar to happiness...[smiles] You know, maybe I should give a more relatable example. House: Oh, snap!
House to patient's boyfriend, who is surprised that the penicillin he took could be communicated to his girlfriend through his semen: "There's this one woman here, when she gets sick she gives me the prescription." heh.
Wilson waits on steps outside bcs House has hung the stethoscope on his door, which he had said means he is having sex. ("I didn't say it had to be with another person.") Wilson comes in, sees the new issue of a journal of cardiology: "I can see why you were in the mood." House, quick as a whip: "Have you seen the centerfold? No way those valves are real!"
I missed this one. House: You wake up in the morning, your paint's peeling, your curtains are gone, and the water is boiling. Which problem do you deal with first? None of them! The building's on fire!
this was great:
Cuddy: Ticks aren't usually invisible.
House: They are until you FIND THEM! [holds up comb triumphantly] No, that's dandruff. Okay, well, that wasn't nearly as dramatic as I'd hoped. It just means that next time'll be even better.
and says "See, I told you it'd be even better" when he does find the tick, showing it to the dad who has come to attack him, bcs the elevator doors opened showing House looking btw the girl's legs.
ok so tonite at 10 the Piper Perabo episode from last week that I d n see.
I saw this week's - with chess boy - and Piper d n appear.
what's the deal with Fox 12 repeats? tonite Friday 7pm showing 2-16 "Safe"
but dsn't seem to be every weekday or even every Friday at this time
lots of great House statements in Safe:
Cameron: He loves her! He did everything he could to make sure she wouldn't get sick. House: What does that mean? Cameron: Love is an emotion certain people experience, similar to happiness...[smiles] You know, maybe I should give a more relatable example. House: Oh, snap!
House to patient's boyfriend, who is surprised that the penicillin he took could be communicated to his girlfriend through his semen: "There's this one woman here, when she gets sick she gives me the prescription." heh.
Wilson waits on steps outside bcs House has hung the stethoscope on his door, which he had said means he is having sex. ("I didn't say it had to be with another person.") Wilson comes in, sees the new issue of a journal of cardiology: "I can see why you were in the mood." House, quick as a whip: "Have you seen the centerfold? No way those valves are real!"
I missed this one. House: You wake up in the morning, your paint's peeling, your curtains are gone, and the water is boiling. Which problem do you deal with first? None of them! The building's on fire!
this was great:
Cuddy: Ticks aren't usually invisible.
House: They are until you FIND THEM! [holds up comb triumphantly] No, that's dandruff. Okay, well, that wasn't nearly as dramatic as I'd hoped. It just means that next time'll be even better.
and says "See, I told you it'd be even better" when he does find the tick, showing it to the dad who has come to attack him, bcs the elevator doors opened showing House looking btw the girl's legs.
favorite tv characters: Lorelai Gilmore. Alan Shore. Gregory House.
and those shows are good but not all through. Gilmore Girls is too quirky cartoonish at some times, Boston Legal sometimes bores me, on House I do not get that interested in the medicine. I am watching mainly just for my characters.
in contract, the most as-a-whole great show: Friday Night Lights - I like all the characters. esp Coach & Tami Taylor. and Tyra. and Landry.
another all around very good show: The Office - I delight in Michael Scott, so earnest and swee-hearted really, I think right. and Dwight. and they are balanced by the more real-relatable Jim and Pam...
the show I most personally feel engaged by, intimately involved in: Nip/Tuck - funny that the most dramatic, glamorous show is the one that feels the most like life to me. not so funny that it does when consider it is the saddest. and perhaps my most beloved character of all is Christian Troy.
Weeds pretty all through good. Mary Louise Parker (have I said before?) to me is rather exactly a mix of Lauren Graham & Mary Stuart Masterson.
The Riches has first rate acting, is great looking, and the premise seems promising. but the writing has been not good. too many constant one-off dramatic extremes -yes yes-, too little of a day-to-day world.
Loretta Lynn:
born Loretta Webb in Johnson County, Kentucky on April 14, 1934
---was married a few months before she turned 14. wow. Lynn moved to Washington, Kentucky with her husband at the age of 14. Shortly thereafter, in an effort to break free of the coal mining industry, the couple moved across the country to Custer, Washington. The Lynns had four children by the time Loretta was 17 and she was a grandmother at age 29. whoa. Lynn recounts how her husband cheated on her regularly and left her once while she was giving birth. Lynn and her husband also fought frequently, but "he never hit me one time that I didn’t hit him back twice," she said. ..He died in 1996. ---
is an American country singer and was one of the leading country female vocalists during the 1960s and 1970s.
Although Kitty Wells had become the first major female country vocalist during the 1950s, by the time Lynn recorded her first record, only three other women - Patsy Cline, Skeeter Davis, and Jean Shepard - had become top stars. Lynn credits Cline as her mentor and best friend during those early years, and as fate would have it, Lynn would follow her as the most popular country vocalist of the early 60s and, eventually, the 1970s.
Tammy Wynette:
born Virginia Wynette Pugh near Tremont, Mississippi on May 5, 1942
died April 6, 1998 in Nashville
---over the course of her life, had five husbands---
was a country singer and songwriter. She was known as the 'First Lady of Country Music' and one of her best-known songs, "Stand by Your Man", was one of the biggest selling hit singles by a woman in the history of the country music genre. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Wynette dominated the country charts. She had seventeen number one hits. Along with Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, and Lynn Anderson, she helped redefine the role and place of female country singers.
Dolly Parton:
born Dolly Rebecca Parton in Sevierville, Tennessee on January 19, 1946
---at the age of 20 married Carl Dean (whom she met on her first day in Nashville, aged 18, at the Wishy-Washy Laundromat). His very first words to her were: "You're gonna get sunburnt out there, little lady."[citation needed] Dean, who runs an asphalt-paving business in Nashville, has always shunned publicity and rarely accompanies her to any events. The couple have raised several of Dolly's younger siblings at their home in Nashville. huh so she has been married only once, and to a working man who dislikes publicity.---
is an American Grammy-winning and Academy Award-nominated country singer, songwriter, composer, author, actress and philanthropist.
In 1974, her song "I Will Always Love You" (written by her about her break from Wagoner) was released and went to #1 on the country charts. Around the same time, Elvis Presley indicated that he wanted to cover the song. Parton was interested until Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her that she would have to sign over half of the publishing rights if Elvis recorded the song (as was the standard procedure for songs Elvis recorded). Parton refused and that decision is credited with helping make her many millions of dollars in royalties from the song over the years. It was decisions like these, in fact, that caused her to be called "The Iron Butterfly" in showbiz circles. She also claims to have made over $6 million from Whitney Houston's cover version of this song.
also well-known for her large breasts and hair, all three of which were voted the most sexually stimulating celebrity body parts in a 1985 People magazine poll[citation needed] and are frequently a target of caricature and parody. ..When she crossed over into pop and became a media superstar in the late 1970s, she was significantly overweight, although her small frame and costuming made her appear average in size everywhere except the breasts, which were very large and quickly became the target of late-night talk show host jokes. At the time, whenever asked if her breasts were real, she said they were real. In the mid-1980s, she lost a considerable amount of weight. In 2002, she admitted for the first time that after the weight loss in the 1980s, she lost a great deal of breast size and subsequently obtained breast implants to bring them back to a similar size as she had prior to the weight loss. ..On a 2003 taping of Oprah, the talk show host asked what kind of cosmetic surgery Parton had ever undergone. Parton stated that she felt that cosmetic surgery was imperative in keeping with her famous image. Parton has joked about her physical image and surgeries, saying "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap."
Tanya Tucker:
born Tanya Denise Tucker in Seminole, Texas in 1958.
is an American Country Music Singer, who had her first hit, 'Delta Dawn' at the age of 13 in 1972.
born Loretta Webb in Johnson County, Kentucky on April 14, 1934
---was married a few months before she turned 14. wow. Lynn moved to Washington, Kentucky with her husband at the age of 14. Shortly thereafter, in an effort to break free of the coal mining industry, the couple moved across the country to Custer, Washington. The Lynns had four children by the time Loretta was 17 and she was a grandmother at age 29. whoa. Lynn recounts how her husband cheated on her regularly and left her once while she was giving birth. Lynn and her husband also fought frequently, but "he never hit me one time that I didn’t hit him back twice," she said. ..He died in 1996. ---
is an American country singer and was one of the leading country female vocalists during the 1960s and 1970s.
Although Kitty Wells had become the first major female country vocalist during the 1950s, by the time Lynn recorded her first record, only three other women - Patsy Cline, Skeeter Davis, and Jean Shepard - had become top stars. Lynn credits Cline as her mentor and best friend during those early years, and as fate would have it, Lynn would follow her as the most popular country vocalist of the early 60s and, eventually, the 1970s.
Tammy Wynette:
born Virginia Wynette Pugh near Tremont, Mississippi on May 5, 1942
died April 6, 1998 in Nashville
---over the course of her life, had five husbands---
was a country singer and songwriter. She was known as the 'First Lady of Country Music' and one of her best-known songs, "Stand by Your Man", was one of the biggest selling hit singles by a woman in the history of the country music genre. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Wynette dominated the country charts. She had seventeen number one hits. Along with Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, and Lynn Anderson, she helped redefine the role and place of female country singers.
Dolly Parton:
born Dolly Rebecca Parton in Sevierville, Tennessee on January 19, 1946
---at the age of 20 married Carl Dean (whom she met on her first day in Nashville, aged 18, at the Wishy-Washy Laundromat). His very first words to her were: "You're gonna get sunburnt out there, little lady."[citation needed] Dean, who runs an asphalt-paving business in Nashville, has always shunned publicity and rarely accompanies her to any events. The couple have raised several of Dolly's younger siblings at their home in Nashville. huh so she has been married only once, and to a working man who dislikes publicity.---
is an American Grammy-winning and Academy Award-nominated country singer, songwriter, composer, author, actress and philanthropist.
In 1974, her song "I Will Always Love You" (written by her about her break from Wagoner) was released and went to #1 on the country charts. Around the same time, Elvis Presley indicated that he wanted to cover the song. Parton was interested until Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her that she would have to sign over half of the publishing rights if Elvis recorded the song (as was the standard procedure for songs Elvis recorded). Parton refused and that decision is credited with helping make her many millions of dollars in royalties from the song over the years. It was decisions like these, in fact, that caused her to be called "The Iron Butterfly" in showbiz circles. She also claims to have made over $6 million from Whitney Houston's cover version of this song.
also well-known for her large breasts and hair, all three of which were voted the most sexually stimulating celebrity body parts in a 1985 People magazine poll[citation needed] and are frequently a target of caricature and parody. ..When she crossed over into pop and became a media superstar in the late 1970s, she was significantly overweight, although her small frame and costuming made her appear average in size everywhere except the breasts, which were very large and quickly became the target of late-night talk show host jokes. At the time, whenever asked if her breasts were real, she said they were real. In the mid-1980s, she lost a considerable amount of weight. In 2002, she admitted for the first time that after the weight loss in the 1980s, she lost a great deal of breast size and subsequently obtained breast implants to bring them back to a similar size as she had prior to the weight loss. ..On a 2003 taping of Oprah, the talk show host asked what kind of cosmetic surgery Parton had ever undergone. Parton stated that she felt that cosmetic surgery was imperative in keeping with her famous image. Parton has joked about her physical image and surgeries, saying "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap."
Tanya Tucker:
born Tanya Denise Tucker in Seminole, Texas in 1958.
is an American Country Music Singer, who had her first hit, 'Delta Dawn' at the age of 13 in 1972.
femal country singers: when rpj plays a song by a woman, I like to try to guess who it is - bcs seems a small set of possibilities: THE BIG THREE: Dolly Parton -pretty instantly recognizable, not sure if he ever plays her, well he's played Jolene on request Loretta Lynn -I'd like to think I know her voice but seems I don't - maybe sort of more feminine-delicate sounding than the other two? Tammy Wynette ~strong sounding "Stand By Your Man" 1968
...then there's... Tanya Tucker -if I think of Dolly Parton, but it's not obviously her - "California Cotton Fields", "What's Your Mama's Name, Child?"
& I thought Wanda Jackson was the voice beind "Jackson ain't a very big town" (wh rpj plays more than once & I like it a lot -& really it's by 'Norma Jean') - last couple times I've listened, I've misidentified songs actually by Wanda Jackson, thinking that if it sounds older ~ earlier ~50s tinkly then it's Kitty Wells
Kitty Wells - Wkp: born Ellen Muriel Deason in Nashville, Tennessee in 1919
Her 1952 hit recording "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" made her the most popular female country singer for a decade and led to numerous other women becoming stars in the male-dominated Country Music field. Kitty Wells' success in the 1950s and 1960s was so enormous that she still ranks as the sixth most successful female vocalist in the history of the Billboard country charts according to historian Joel Whitburn's book "The Top 40 Country Hits", behind Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, and Tanya Tucker.
no Patsy Cline in that list?
Patsy Cline - Wkp: born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia in 1932
(diedMarch 5, 1963) was a American Country Music Singer, who enjoyed Pop music cross-over success during the era of the Nashville Sound in the early 1960s. Since her death at the age of 30 in a 1963 plane crash ah that's why she's not got as many Billboard hits? during the height of her career, she has been considered one of the most influential and successful female vocalists of the 20th century. Cline was best known for her emotionally expressive voice, which has been cited and praised as an inspiration by many female vocalists since her death. Her signature songs include "Crazy", "I Fall to Pieces", "She's Got You", "So Wrong" and "Walkin' After Midnight". She has sold millions of albums over the past 50 years, which has given her an iconic fan status, similar to that of country music legends Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.
need to add to my set: Jean Shepherd - as another who sounds old~early-ish to me.I keep guessing one of the above & it turns out to be her hmm she's not in wkp? so, ggl hits: Norma Jean's Cowboy Church & Grand Ladies Show [Archive] - 1Branson.com: "The Grand Ladies Show has Norma Jean from the Porter Waggoner Show, Jean Shepperd from the Grand Ole Opry, Margo Smith, Jody Miller, Wanda Jackson and Leona Williams in it. It has classic country music and these women are wonderful!!!" The Storm [Archive] - Planet Garth Forums: "I know it wasn't Patsy Cline, but I do think it may be Jean Shepperd."
ah I found it, spelled ShepArd
Jean Shepard: born Ollie Imogene Shepard on November 21, 1933 in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, is an American Country Music Singer and Songwriter. Jean Shepard was one of Country Music's earliest female innovators, developing a standard in Country Music for other singers, proving that indeed women could sell records. In the 1950s, she was one of Country Music's best-selling artists.
Norma Jean (singer): born Norma Jean Beasler January 30, 1938 in Wellston, Oklahoma, recorded and sang professionally simply as 'Norma Jean'. She is also well-known by the nickname 'Pretty Miss Norma Jean', her regular introduction by Porter Wagoner on his television series, on which she was a regular from 1961-67. Norma Jean had her own radio show in Oklahoma as a teenager (as did lifelong best friend Wanda Jackson) huh. and all from Oklahoma.
Wanda Jackson: born Wanda Jean Jackson October 20, 1937, in Maud, Oklahoma is sometimes called the first female Rock and Roll singer. She switched over to Country Music in the 1960s, racking up a few hits there as well. She has often been hailed as the "Queen of Rockabilly."
...then there's... Tanya Tucker -if I think of Dolly Parton, but it's not obviously her - "California Cotton Fields", "What's Your Mama's Name, Child?"
& I thought Wanda Jackson was the voice beind "Jackson ain't a very big town" (wh rpj plays more than once & I like it a lot -& really it's by 'Norma Jean') - last couple times I've listened, I've misidentified songs actually by Wanda Jackson, thinking that if it sounds older ~ earlier ~50s tinkly then it's Kitty Wells
Kitty Wells - Wkp: born Ellen Muriel Deason in Nashville, Tennessee in 1919
Her 1952 hit recording "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" made her the most popular female country singer for a decade and led to numerous other women becoming stars in the male-dominated Country Music field. Kitty Wells' success in the 1950s and 1960s was so enormous that she still ranks as the sixth most successful female vocalist in the history of the Billboard country charts according to historian Joel Whitburn's book "The Top 40 Country Hits", behind Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, and Tanya Tucker.
no Patsy Cline in that list?
Patsy Cline - Wkp: born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia in 1932
(diedMarch 5, 1963) was a American Country Music Singer, who enjoyed Pop music cross-over success during the era of the Nashville Sound in the early 1960s. Since her death at the age of 30 in a 1963 plane crash ah that's why she's not got as many Billboard hits? during the height of her career, she has been considered one of the most influential and successful female vocalists of the 20th century. Cline was best known for her emotionally expressive voice, which has been cited and praised as an inspiration by many female vocalists since her death. Her signature songs include "Crazy", "I Fall to Pieces", "She's Got You", "So Wrong" and "Walkin' After Midnight". She has sold millions of albums over the past 50 years, which has given her an iconic fan status, similar to that of country music legends Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.
need to add to my set: Jean Shepherd - as another who sounds old~early-ish to me.I keep guessing one of the above & it turns out to be her hmm she's not in wkp? so, ggl hits: Norma Jean's Cowboy Church & Grand Ladies Show [Archive] - 1Branson.com: "The Grand Ladies Show has Norma Jean from the Porter Waggoner Show, Jean Shepperd from the Grand Ole Opry, Margo Smith, Jody Miller, Wanda Jackson and Leona Williams in it. It has classic country music and these women are wonderful!!!" The Storm [Archive] - Planet Garth Forums: "I know it wasn't Patsy Cline, but I do think it may be Jean Shepperd."
ah I found it, spelled ShepArd
Jean Shepard: born Ollie Imogene Shepard on November 21, 1933 in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, is an American Country Music Singer and Songwriter. Jean Shepard was one of Country Music's earliest female innovators, developing a standard in Country Music for other singers, proving that indeed women could sell records. In the 1950s, she was one of Country Music's best-selling artists.
Norma Jean (singer): born Norma Jean Beasler January 30, 1938 in Wellston, Oklahoma, recorded and sang professionally simply as 'Norma Jean'. She is also well-known by the nickname 'Pretty Miss Norma Jean', her regular introduction by Porter Wagoner on his television series, on which she was a regular from 1961-67. Norma Jean had her own radio show in Oklahoma as a teenager (as did lifelong best friend Wanda Jackson) huh. and all from Oklahoma.
Wanda Jackson: born Wanda Jean Jackson October 20, 1937, in Maud, Oklahoma is sometimes called the first female Rock and Roll singer. She switched over to Country Music in the 1960s, racking up a few hits there as well. She has often been hailed as the "Queen of Rockabilly."
Thursday, May 17, 2007
The Office 3-23: "The Job" 2007.05.17 - TWoP Forums:
Dwight, on interviewing for his #2:
"My ideal choice? Jack Bauer. But he's unavailable .. fictional .. and overqualified."
-I've been no fan of Karen since the move to Scranton and I am thrilled beyond belief that she and Jim are presumably no more. But I don't really think she was portrayed as a monster in this episode. Yes, calling Pam a bitch was...aggressive and unkind, but I felt like she was reacting out of shock that Pam wasn't taking back what she said. I think she was taken aback and did not like Pam basically admitting to her face that she wants her boyfriend. I think Karen had every right to feel put-off by that (not that I don't think Pam had every right to what she did either). And I didn't think her behavior in NY was so over-the-top pushy. I think she was just being who she is: very into the corporate ladder, very into life in the big city, very assertive in addressing issues with her boyfriend and asking him point-blank what his intentions are, and very non-empathetic to people she doesn't consider friends (like Jan). That's a far cry from being a monster. She's nothing like me, so I don't relate to her much (I pretty much am Pam) and she's nothing like most of my friends, but it doesn't make her a horrible person.
-The writing of Karen has been really all-over-the-map all season long, and in fact is probably the biggest problem with the season as a whole. I think almost every common complaint about S3 is connected in some way to the oft-changing Karen character. It was no exception in this one. She basically appeared in all her forms: the insecure woman desperate to cling to her relationship, the awesome and easy-going girlfriend, the ambitious woman with a 5-year-plan, and the somber, snarky woman who sees the writing on the wall for her flawed relationship. Meh. I know a lot of people think the Jan stuff is a massive assassination, but I find it much more believable than the Karen jazz. I think there were signs of her instability in S2, and being in a relationship with Michael Scott has only magnified them. Even though it might be taken a notch too far at times, I can buy into the general idea they're going for.
Creed's blog was simply AWESOME. Creed must be the guy who said he had put the whole Pam beachday personal confession in his blog. and -this is one of my favorite parts- Ryan says that when Creed asked him hot to make a blog, he opened a Word document & typed a www... at the top. to protect the world. and "I've read some of it, and even for the internet, it's pretty shocking." The Motel in Hell thing with Jim/Dwight was AWESOME. is Creed's blog available on TheOffice website or sth, is that what they are talking about? Pam/Dwight was incredible. "The Origins of Paper" was a little less awesome, but still pretty good. And, although he seemingly took a constant back seat to Jim/Pam/Karen/Jan/Dwight in this episode, I really liked Michael throughout this episode. I loved his reactions to all the things going on around him. They seemed very Michael. yeah yeah. I laughed at his "I didn't tell her" to David more than I've laughed at almost anything else this season.
-I was worried about Jim and Pam. I really thought they weren't going to go there, I thought they would leave it as a friendship just to screw with our heads. But they didn't. Oh joy! They are going on a date. A date! That is all sorts of awesomeness. So wonderful and normal. I love it.
-How many times have I rewound my TiVo to see "So.. it's a date?" With the hand tapping and the head tilt and the half-smile? Oh.
-Can I say how much I enjoyed Pam and Dwight this season. They had a very sweet little arc.
-On another note, I really, really like the David Wallace character and hope he's around more next season. the interviewer at Coporate. yeah, he seemed like a good, smart guy.
-I'm so happy that this series wasn't even considered "on the bubble" as far as renewal is concerned, but does anyone else think this episode would have made a great series finale? I'm looking forward to season four (and can you believe it, season FOUR, already?) as much as the next guy, but, damn, we got Pam and Jim FINALLY acknowledging their relationship, Michael coming "back" (Kevin Nealon oh is it a Nealon scene that Michael is enacting when he says "I'm back" in a voice?) to the job he's perfect for, forever, and the temp becoming the boss.
Dwight, on interviewing for his #2:
"My ideal choice? Jack Bauer. But he's unavailable .. fictional .. and overqualified."
-I've been no fan of Karen since the move to Scranton and I am thrilled beyond belief that she and Jim are presumably no more. But I don't really think she was portrayed as a monster in this episode. Yes, calling Pam a bitch was...aggressive and unkind, but I felt like she was reacting out of shock that Pam wasn't taking back what she said. I think she was taken aback and did not like Pam basically admitting to her face that she wants her boyfriend. I think Karen had every right to feel put-off by that (not that I don't think Pam had every right to what she did either). And I didn't think her behavior in NY was so over-the-top pushy. I think she was just being who she is: very into the corporate ladder, very into life in the big city, very assertive in addressing issues with her boyfriend and asking him point-blank what his intentions are, and very non-empathetic to people she doesn't consider friends (like Jan). That's a far cry from being a monster. She's nothing like me, so I don't relate to her much (I pretty much am Pam) and she's nothing like most of my friends, but it doesn't make her a horrible person.
-The writing of Karen has been really all-over-the-map all season long, and in fact is probably the biggest problem with the season as a whole. I think almost every common complaint about S3 is connected in some way to the oft-changing Karen character. It was no exception in this one. She basically appeared in all her forms: the insecure woman desperate to cling to her relationship, the awesome and easy-going girlfriend, the ambitious woman with a 5-year-plan, and the somber, snarky woman who sees the writing on the wall for her flawed relationship. Meh. I know a lot of people think the Jan stuff is a massive assassination, but I find it much more believable than the Karen jazz. I think there were signs of her instability in S2, and being in a relationship with Michael Scott has only magnified them. Even though it might be taken a notch too far at times, I can buy into the general idea they're going for.
Creed's blog was simply AWESOME. Creed must be the guy who said he had put the whole Pam beachday personal confession in his blog. and -this is one of my favorite parts- Ryan says that when Creed asked him hot to make a blog, he opened a Word document & typed a www... at the top. to protect the world. and "I've read some of it, and even for the internet, it's pretty shocking." The Motel in Hell thing with Jim/Dwight was AWESOME. is Creed's blog available on TheOffice website or sth, is that what they are talking about? Pam/Dwight was incredible. "The Origins of Paper" was a little less awesome, but still pretty good. And, although he seemingly took a constant back seat to Jim/Pam/Karen/Jan/Dwight in this episode, I really liked Michael throughout this episode. I loved his reactions to all the things going on around him. They seemed very Michael. yeah yeah. I laughed at his "I didn't tell her" to David more than I've laughed at almost anything else this season.
-I was worried about Jim and Pam. I really thought they weren't going to go there, I thought they would leave it as a friendship just to screw with our heads. But they didn't. Oh joy! They are going on a date. A date! That is all sorts of awesomeness. So wonderful and normal. I love it.
-How many times have I rewound my TiVo to see "So.. it's a date?" With the hand tapping and the head tilt and the half-smile? Oh.
-Can I say how much I enjoyed Pam and Dwight this season. They had a very sweet little arc.
-On another note, I really, really like the David Wallace character and hope he's around more next season. the interviewer at Coporate. yeah, he seemed like a good, smart guy.
-I'm so happy that this series wasn't even considered "on the bubble" as far as renewal is concerned, but does anyone else think this episode would have made a great series finale? I'm looking forward to season four (and can you believe it, season FOUR, already?) as much as the next guy, but, damn, we got Pam and Jim FINALLY acknowledging their relationship, Michael coming "back" (Kevin Nealon oh is it a Nealon scene that Michael is enacting when he says "I'm back" in a voice?) to the job he's perfect for, forever, and the temp becoming the boss.
03-25: "Didn't We Almost Have It All" 2007.05.17 - TWoP Forums
p2
-I'm such an easy mark. McDreamy is McDreamy again and I felt bad for George when I swore neither would be true anymore. When Christina said "I'm free" I really thought she was about to start laughing and be happy. I am Sandra Oh's bitch. She was awesome. And WTF to Bailey not getting Chief Resident? I like Callie, but I just don't understand that one. yeah really that's not believable, Bailey seems to be the only one in charge of the interns
-Speaking of 'why' I would really like to know why Bailey didn't get chief resident. Either she's still paying for Denny Duquette, or Chief Choose Love is mommy-tracking her so she doesn't lose her family. heh.
Props to Sandra Oh for Cristina's breakdown. Nicely acted.yes. But honestly I would be just as happy not to have Burke come back. And I really can't see how they can paint themselves out of th George/Izzie corner at this point. Somebody has to leave.
hmm. lot of very negative reactions, saying how far the show has fallen, huh. ~ makes me feel maybe it's not so odd that I liked it ~ bcs usually I don't, and usually these folks love it? ~ I don't know if I really liked it. wldnt watch it a second time. but I was surprised.
p3 -Am I the only one that thought Meredeth was going to marry Derrick as she was walking down the aisle? no. I suppose that was also a positive surprise for me, that they didn't have her do that.
p4 - In the fall, The Office will be on at the same time as GA. Both season finales were tonight. Let's see:
The Office resolved the entire season's biggest fan plotline by having Jim ask Pam to dinner at the end? that was nice. he just came in & asked her out. and she was so happy, threw in several fanservice moments fanservice? which moments? Michael was great and he's a sweetheart, once he'd "withdrawn" himself from consideration he pointed to Karen & Jim and said they were both fine candidates what a sweetie - als when he convenes the girls at the office to advise him on his relationship with Jan and made me simultaneously howl with laughter and squee in fandom. Oh, on top of that, they ended the season with plenty of questions for next season too.
Grey's Anatomy fed Shonda a vial of crack and made her write the episode. Remember season 2? Remember those characters? Remember when it was actually a dramedy and less of a soap opera written by 12-year-olds? hrmm. it may have been less of a soap the first few episodes. always had this youngish flippantish sense of humor though. glib. and I think there was less of that tonite. I guess bcs sad things were happening.
I wonder which one I'll be watching in the fall? well The Office is far & away a better show. it's fantastic really. the writing, the acting & they're so likeable. Dwight thanking Pam for her dignified service as secret assistant to the regional manager. and her saluting him, and him her.
p2
-I'm such an easy mark. McDreamy is McDreamy again and I felt bad for George when I swore neither would be true anymore. When Christina said "I'm free" I really thought she was about to start laughing and be happy. I am Sandra Oh's bitch. She was awesome. And WTF to Bailey not getting Chief Resident? I like Callie, but I just don't understand that one. yeah really that's not believable, Bailey seems to be the only one in charge of the interns
-Speaking of 'why' I would really like to know why Bailey didn't get chief resident. Either she's still paying for Denny Duquette, or Chief Choose Love is mommy-tracking her so she doesn't lose her family. heh.
Props to Sandra Oh for Cristina's breakdown. Nicely acted.yes. But honestly I would be just as happy not to have Burke come back. And I really can't see how they can paint themselves out of th George/Izzie corner at this point. Somebody has to leave.
hmm. lot of very negative reactions, saying how far the show has fallen, huh. ~ makes me feel maybe it's not so odd that I liked it ~ bcs usually I don't, and usually these folks love it? ~ I don't know if I really liked it. wldnt watch it a second time. but I was surprised.
p3 -Am I the only one that thought Meredeth was going to marry Derrick as she was walking down the aisle? no. I suppose that was also a positive surprise for me, that they didn't have her do that.
p4 - In the fall, The Office will be on at the same time as GA. Both season finales were tonight. Let's see:
The Office resolved the entire season's biggest fan plotline by having Jim ask Pam to dinner at the end? that was nice. he just came in & asked her out. and she was so happy, threw in several fanservice moments fanservice? which moments? Michael was great and he's a sweetheart, once he'd "withdrawn" himself from consideration he pointed to Karen & Jim and said they were both fine candidates what a sweetie - als when he convenes the girls at the office to advise him on his relationship with Jan and made me simultaneously howl with laughter and squee in fandom. Oh, on top of that, they ended the season with plenty of questions for next season too.
Grey's Anatomy fed Shonda a vial of crack and made her write the episode. Remember season 2? Remember those characters? Remember when it was actually a dramedy and less of a soap opera written by 12-year-olds? hrmm. it may have been less of a soap the first few episodes. always had this youngish flippantish sense of humor though. glib. and I think there was less of that tonite. I guess bcs sad things were happening.
I wonder which one I'll be watching in the fall? well The Office is far & away a better show. it's fantastic really. the writing, the acting & they're so likeable. Dwight thanking Pam for her dignified service as secret assistant to the regional manager. and her saluting him, and him her.
well, Grey's moved & surprised me.
surprised:
that it kept going after the hour ended and I thought maybe just going over by afew minutes but kept going so I had no idea how much longer (ended at 9:15, and I just saw on tv guide that this was the finale - I had wondered if it was but tht I wld have heard hype about it on the radio at work or sth)
that Burke backed out, they did not get married
that George failed (is that believable?)
that Lexi Grey appeared as one of new interns at end, prompting the qstn: is next year going to follow a new class? no, they must be going to continue these characters - but with George no longer a doctor?
moved:
most by Bailey, voice breaking when she asked George if she failed him
but also by Cristina breaking down "I'm free. damn it. damn it!"
that actress is good.
& Meredith getting her necklace & dress off as she panics, their friendship is moving
& maybe a bit, just a bit, by Derek telling the chief "you're the best man for the job. if you had the chance to do it all again, you'd do it differently. so do it."
I'm glad Adelle & the Chief seem to be back together.
but so shouldn't he retire & be with her?
and I think I'd like Alex & Ava.
I like Alex the most I suppose. I sometimes like Cristina & Meredith. George's predicament interests me.
Izzie bombs with me, the character & the portrayal exemplify what is annoying about this show
so, open ends to bring us back:
Alex went back but Ava was gone (will he find her or is that it for her character?)
Lexi Grey - where is the show going to go next year?
what will George do now?
Burke's off the show?
I don't much care about whether Meredith stays with Derek, what response Izzie gets from George (I guess I'd rather he stay with Callie)
the song at the end was nice, helped with it being moving. "All I can do is keep breathing." by Ingrid Michaelson - and there was a notice that she would be on GoodMorningAmer or sth tomorrow ~ who sang the last song on tonite's GreysA, hear her unique story ~
surprised:
that it kept going after the hour ended and I thought maybe just going over by afew minutes but kept going so I had no idea how much longer (ended at 9:15, and I just saw on tv guide that this was the finale - I had wondered if it was but tht I wld have heard hype about it on the radio at work or sth)
that Burke backed out, they did not get married
that George failed (is that believable?)
that Lexi Grey appeared as one of new interns at end, prompting the qstn: is next year going to follow a new class? no, they must be going to continue these characters - but with George no longer a doctor?
moved:
most by Bailey, voice breaking when she asked George if she failed him
but also by Cristina breaking down "I'm free. damn it. damn it!"
that actress is good.
& Meredith getting her necklace & dress off as she panics, their friendship is moving
& maybe a bit, just a bit, by Derek telling the chief "you're the best man for the job. if you had the chance to do it all again, you'd do it differently. so do it."
I'm glad Adelle & the Chief seem to be back together.
but so shouldn't he retire & be with her?
and I think I'd like Alex & Ava.
I like Alex the most I suppose. I sometimes like Cristina & Meredith. George's predicament interests me.
Izzie bombs with me, the character & the portrayal exemplify what is annoying about this show
so, open ends to bring us back:
Alex went back but Ava was gone (will he find her or is that it for her character?)
Lexi Grey - where is the show going to go next year?
what will George do now?
Burke's off the show?
I don't much care about whether Meredith stays with Derek, what response Izzie gets from George (I guess I'd rather he stay with Callie)
the song at the end was nice, helped with it being moving. "All I can do is keep breathing." by Ingrid Michaelson - and there was a notice that she would be on GoodMorningAmer or sth tomorrow ~ who sang the last song on tonite's GreysA, hear her unique story ~
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
she seems intelligent also. (along with Guardian writer Colin).