Corporate Hell
Mar. 6th, 2006 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
itsallovernowNot the job, which is fine, although my boss - the guy who hired me - is leaving which makes me sad. Nope, it's the office environment, the literal environment. I haven't worked in a big building for a long time, and have forgotten how pervasive the whole cold/flu thing is in a place with recycled air and tons of people and all sorts of places that many people touch. Which is a long winded way of saying that I appear to have a cold again, which is annoying beyond the telling of it. Grrr.
Crack!Fic! participants - if'n you haven't read the completed story, you totally should:) It turned out well, I think. More importantly, go HERE to read all the nice things people are saying about the fic. (And someone please, please stop me from ficcing my own fic, because I really think the crack fic needs a smutty epilogue. But really, it doesn't).
The CBC piece aired on Sunday, and while there doesn't appear to be an archived version, I did not sound like a dork ( I don't think), and they used appropriate pieces of the interview, the other people interviewed were really interesting (although they interviewed the guy who'd created DaVinci's Inquest, which I totally want to see, along with Life on Mars, but that's a separate post= anyway, the creator was quite bitter and snotty towards CSI, which I get because I understand his show is sort of the anti=thesis of it, but I guess I expect people to be better behaved about the competition, to say, yeah, not so much my thing, but it's good at what it does. And he was mostly just... snotty. Although I understand his new show just got canceled so finding out that the show you loathe that is your competition is the #1 show in the country might grate just a bit). They also interviewed Kathy Reichs which made me giggle at the big loop of fannish connection (she's the forensic anthropologist who writes the novels that Bones is based on).
The show was really a case study for and against CSI, and while I agree with a lot of the criticsim, I think that some of the initial assumptions are false. I don't think there's a higher rate of exploiting women as victims/bodies than anywhere else, nor do I find that proportionally they are victims more often. I do agree that the deaths tend to be outlandish and outrageous, but dude, that's called TV. I found it interesting to see all of the discussion processed through a largely Canadian perspective as well, something I've learned to appreciate:)
What it really made want to do is expand the character as archetype essay - the way we layer our personal heroics into shows that leave a lot of room for interpretation of the character.
I also saw Brokeback Mountain yesterday right before the Oscars. Yes, I'm behind the curve. I thought it was beautifully done, incredibly affecting without being sentimental and I bawled through the last 15 minutes. Just sobbed for everything they'd given up, and lost and left undone and unsaid. The section where Ennis goes to visit Jack's parents just killed me, as did the moment when he agreed to come to his daughter's wedding.
I think, no I know, that so much of this resonated for me because I grew up around these kind of people. Cowboys and roughnecks and people who'd retired from that life, who were totally shaped by it. And filmed in Alberta or not, they did a remarkable job of showing the contrast between the absolutely stunning scenery of the mountains, and the desolation of small towns (all towns in Wyoming are small towns, and very few of them are picturesque. The town my grandfather lives in is the excpetion to the rule.) Life out there is anything but easy, and everything felt right. The pacing, the silences, the interaction, the fears, the pickups. All of it felt like something I'd been in, seen, felt, walked through. And I was so very struck not only by the fact that Jack and Ennis had denied themselves the love and comfort they craved, but by the very many things that Ennis had lost out on because of who he was, because of his fears, and his perspective, and the fact that he was always more comfortable in still, spare silence then among people.
Yes it was a love story, but more than anything it was about longing, and fear, and the ways in which we simply can't change who we are and what we love and more often than not, that's not enough. We get lost in our own lives and realize so much later down the road that we haven't moved forward, that fear has trapped us far more than society ever could.
As for the Oscars, I'm with the crowd. George Clooney looked fabulous and articulated himself beautifully. The penguin guys were adorable. Charlize Theron (normally very well dressed) was clearly on crack when she picked that dress. Jennifer Garner is adorable. I'm happy for Rachel Weisz, and Ang Lee, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman all of whom deserved their awards. Crash? It's the one movie I haven't seen, so I've got no opinion, but I was waiting for something exciting to happen, and I guess that was it.
Crack!Fic! participants - if'n you haven't read the completed story, you totally should:) It turned out well, I think. More importantly, go HERE to read all the nice things people are saying about the fic. (And someone please, please stop me from ficcing my own fic, because I really think the crack fic needs a smutty epilogue. But really, it doesn't).
The CBC piece aired on Sunday, and while there doesn't appear to be an archived version, I did not sound like a dork ( I don't think), and they used appropriate pieces of the interview, the other people interviewed were really interesting (although they interviewed the guy who'd created DaVinci's Inquest, which I totally want to see, along with Life on Mars, but that's a separate post= anyway, the creator was quite bitter and snotty towards CSI, which I get because I understand his show is sort of the anti=thesis of it, but I guess I expect people to be better behaved about the competition, to say, yeah, not so much my thing, but it's good at what it does. And he was mostly just... snotty. Although I understand his new show just got canceled so finding out that the show you loathe that is your competition is the #1 show in the country might grate just a bit). They also interviewed Kathy Reichs which made me giggle at the big loop of fannish connection (she's the forensic anthropologist who writes the novels that Bones is based on).
The show was really a case study for and against CSI, and while I agree with a lot of the criticsim, I think that some of the initial assumptions are false. I don't think there's a higher rate of exploiting women as victims/bodies than anywhere else, nor do I find that proportionally they are victims more often. I do agree that the deaths tend to be outlandish and outrageous, but dude, that's called TV. I found it interesting to see all of the discussion processed through a largely Canadian perspective as well, something I've learned to appreciate:)
What it really made want to do is expand the character as archetype essay - the way we layer our personal heroics into shows that leave a lot of room for interpretation of the character.
I also saw Brokeback Mountain yesterday right before the Oscars. Yes, I'm behind the curve. I thought it was beautifully done, incredibly affecting without being sentimental and I bawled through the last 15 minutes. Just sobbed for everything they'd given up, and lost and left undone and unsaid. The section where Ennis goes to visit Jack's parents just killed me, as did the moment when he agreed to come to his daughter's wedding.
I think, no I know, that so much of this resonated for me because I grew up around these kind of people. Cowboys and roughnecks and people who'd retired from that life, who were totally shaped by it. And filmed in Alberta or not, they did a remarkable job of showing the contrast between the absolutely stunning scenery of the mountains, and the desolation of small towns (all towns in Wyoming are small towns, and very few of them are picturesque. The town my grandfather lives in is the excpetion to the rule.) Life out there is anything but easy, and everything felt right. The pacing, the silences, the interaction, the fears, the pickups. All of it felt like something I'd been in, seen, felt, walked through. And I was so very struck not only by the fact that Jack and Ennis had denied themselves the love and comfort they craved, but by the very many things that Ennis had lost out on because of who he was, because of his fears, and his perspective, and the fact that he was always more comfortable in still, spare silence then among people.
Yes it was a love story, but more than anything it was about longing, and fear, and the ways in which we simply can't change who we are and what we love and more often than not, that's not enough. We get lost in our own lives and realize so much later down the road that we haven't moved forward, that fear has trapped us far more than society ever could.
As for the Oscars, I'm with the crowd. George Clooney looked fabulous and articulated himself beautifully. The penguin guys were adorable. Charlize Theron (normally very well dressed) was clearly on crack when she picked that dress. Jennifer Garner is adorable. I'm happy for Rachel Weisz, and Ang Lee, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman all of whom deserved their awards. Crash? It's the one movie I haven't seen, so I've got no opinion, but I was waiting for something exciting to happen, and I guess that was it.
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 09:54 pm (UTC)BUT: the CBC usually sells copies of shows it airs, iffn it doesn't archive em...
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Date: 2006-03-06 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 10:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 09:57 pm (UTC)see, that's Alberta, too. The mountains are just. so. Then you get to the small towns, and go huh what?
no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 10:06 pm (UTC)What it really made want to do is expand the character as archetype essay - the way we layer our personal heroics into shows that leave a lot of room for interpretation of the character.
I am very keenly interested in this.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 10:18 pm (UTC)And the town where my dad grew up in Wyoming totally suits it's surroundings. As does Jackson Hole. But other than that, small Wyoming towns are universally barren.
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Date: 2006-03-06 10:10 pm (UTC)I admit that not a huge CSI fan. It's nice candy every now and then--something to turn on and enjoy for an hour and not really have to be invested in--but for that particular sort of candy, I usually prefer Law and Order. And I think what sort of turns me off about it is not the violence or any inaccuracies in the science or any of that, but it's what the host sort of concluded at the end of the broadcast: I don't see a lot of humanity in the show. Maybe I haven't watched enough to appreciate the nuances of the characters, but they tend to strike me as a little flat (though exceedingly pretty). Plus, as a great lover of ambiguity and unknowability, I just bristle a little bit at the idea that everything can be Figured Out if we only know how to interpret the clues. But it is enjoyable TV candy, and I'd definitely agree with you that I'd watch it any day over reality TV!
I'm interested in this High Definition show, as well. It may have to become one that I make an effort to listen to. Love the CBC!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 10:16 pm (UTC)And yeah, CSI is not one of those shows that inspire fannish love for me, but I enjoy it. I like the characters on the original, and feel that they do have some depth. I don't feel the same way about the other franchisees. But it's a show I watch as a one off (and I often get tired of the L&O formula of "You thought we'd solved the case, but look it's not what you thought and it's very, very bad and now here's the credits." But then, I find the orignial Law and Order boring, but am a fan of SVU, although I kinda od'd and had to take a break).
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Date: 2006-03-06 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 11:23 pm (UTC)(as in: I want the hear it in this here place ;).
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Date: 2006-03-07 05:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 11:22 pm (UTC)As the show seems both fairly new and limited-run, I guess they haven't bothered to give it its own website or archive. Rats. I'm used to CBC being all over the web archive thing.
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Date: 2006-03-06 11:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 11:48 pm (UTC)and yay for the cbc piece coming out well. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-03-07 12:28 am (UTC)I plan on watching BBM and Crash sometime soon so I can make my own judgement about them. I've heard positive and negative reviews for both films.