Spontaneous Musings

Spent most of the afternoon apt/flat hunting. Didn't find an apartment, but did manage to inadvertently pick up a "buyer's" agent - who talked me into letting her help me find places.
She's from the Dominican Republic, lives in Manhattan, and is a real estate agent who helps people find places to buy. (ie. buyer's agent). Doesn't cost me a dime. Has a car. And knows more about the market than I do. She showed me two places today - nice places, bad locations. She said, afterwards, they were over-priced for the location and size. Has an architectural background and loves looking at apt's. So we shall see. Been all over Brooklyn today as a result. Am pooped.

As an aside - will be pleased when this election is over - I've been called by Carl Palladino, Gloria Steinman, Matt Damon, and Bill Blasio to date. They are all computer messages. I've hung up on everyone but Matt Damon so far - but that's only because Matt was first and caught me by surprise.

Came home and watched the season finale of Project Runway which alternately bored and annoyed me. Overall I agree with the results. I live in NYC folks. I know what is trendy and what isn't. I don't always agree with it, actually 85% of the time, I don't. ( spoilers for Project Runway )

Watching Project Runway in the background. Last week's made me cry, of course I was PMsing at the time so there's that. ( Project Runway spoilers )

Took today off for a well-needed four day vacation. Popster wanted to know what my plans were.
Besides going to a play and lunch on Sat, errands, church, relaxing, cleaning, working on novel so I can send it out to publishers again with yet another query, not all that much. That and making a dent in the huge number of tv shows saved to DVR. I have three weeks worth, possibly four of Terriers, Smallville, and Supernatural saved on the thing, on top of about five other shows.
Currently - from a purely objective and critical standpoint? I'd have to say Terriers and Mad Men are the best written, produced and directed of everything I've watched on TV. Tight plot. Tight characterization. Pitch-perfect dialogue.

Watched Vampire Diaries and Grey's Anatomy last night. I'll admit, I enjoyed Grey's a lot more. But I don't think anyone reading this watches Grey's so what's the point in writing about it? I could whine about your taste in tv shows, but then that would be giving you carte blanche rights to whine about mine...and honestly, I don't think my blood pressure is up to the challenge.

( Vampire Diaries, spoilers of course )

Regarding the Buffy comics, hard not to comment on this - when I see five to six reviews on my flist. ( cut for the snark which may or may not offend people, hard to tell. )

Hmmm...it's a beautiful, the sun is out, the sky is blue...don't worry, I'm not going to break out into song. Although the song Dear Prudence is bouncing about in my head at the moment. Hurricane? What Hurricane? Earl completely ignored us and went to visit Rhode Island instead, apparently. All that fuss and bother over nothing. Even the governor got in on the act. I swear sometimes I think NY State government is a comedy act.

Pondering whether I really want to venture out to the subway, take a 45-50 minute ride to the upper West Side, and meet up with 200 and some strangers having a picnic in Central Park. Got a message from meetup groups inviting me out to Central Park to frolic - bring rollerblades, skateboard, bike, or just good walking shoes. But the prospect of a crowded day in Central Park is not exactly enticing. Particularly after the difficult week I've had - negotiating with difficult people both inside and outside my company- enough to give me a complex. May just venture to the promenade...then again maybe not, sort of want a people free day. OR as people free as one can get living in a city.

Spent most of last night reading Buffy reviews. There's about ten on my flist alone. Which begs the question? If I stopped talking about Buffy would I lose half my readers? I'm guessing not, since I don't talk about it that much anymore.

After reading the reviews? I honestly don't know if I want to continue reading the comic books or not. The consensus, assuming there is one, appears to be that the comics are entertaining and interesting if you want to take the time to analyze the frigging daylights out of them and engage in the Whedon's favorite guessing game: what is the story exactly? And what does it all mean? Sort of similar to the tv series Lost - which liked to play a similar game.( grousing about the difficulty of focusing on plot twists as your main story bit, and how the focus on plot twists can hurt good stories...it's a ramble )

The best reviews are by local_max, aycheb, beergoodfoamy and 2maggie2 - go read both of maggie's, then contrast and compare. The first one demonstrates why the comics aren't working for most people, the second demonstrates why they are working for a select bunch. Which is why I'm on the fence about them.


In other news, I just watched this week's Project Runway -( rant about project runway which I'm really hating this year...thisclose to dropping it from the DVR. )

And apparently Jane Espenson is writing the 4th season of Torchwood? (according to flist - all my entertainment news these days comes from flist) That woman gets around, she was the show-runner on Caprica (which may or may not return according to flist?), and Warehouse 13 (also according to flist.). Busy lady. Lucky lady. What I want to know is - is Torchwood going to be on BBC America still or is it on Starz (where I can't get it?)

Loving Storm of Swords - this book is suspenseful and exceedingly detailed in all the right places. A pleasant surprise. Have to admit - when I see 1500 page books, I blanch in fear and foreboding. Few writers can do lengthy epics well. Too often they get bogged down in extraneous details that few people care about and does not pertain to the story. Also this novel seems to be more character driven and less about battles than the last book was. I remember getting bogged down in Clash of Kings.

Instead of doing the AGHAST - the Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour - Wales and I just wandered about, sat and watched folks in a small park and sat outside our local bar and drink a Margahrita. It was lovely out today, about 59 degrees, clear sky. And the places we went to were more or less deserted - because everyone was wandering about AGHAST.

So not in the mood to deal with people today, was feeling rather brittle after a difficult and exhausting work week in which very little went the way I wanted it to. My patience was more or less gone by the end of it. So a nice worry-free, relaxing, do-nothing but wander aimlessly with a friend was in offing. We did lunch first - which was a couple of scrawny mussels in great garlic wine sauce, and lots of french fries. Then bought gelatos and brazailan nuts coated in chocolat.

Afterwards, I came home, made supper, and watched the film version - Sex in the City - which I adored more than I expected. Didn't realize until halfway through how much Carrie reminds me of my pal Wales, Sam is a dead ringer for CW, well a white version of CW. And Charlott..ah, known so many Charlott's and Miranda's. I'm not like any of them but I know them all. Also the fact that we more or less did the bars, the clubs, the chatter, and well, not the men (if only) and certainly not the clothes (are you kidding me?) - had a sort of nostalgia. I'm Carrie's age in the film - 40. Although SJP is actually closer to 45. So there's that as well. And it is comforting in a way, fluffy, a fairy tale for adults or the adult version of Cinderella without all the stupid housework. At any rate, I cried at the end and laughed in the middle and smiled. Highly recommend to all my 40-something gal pals.
(Guys? I think should skip this one, definitely a woman's movie.)

After reading my flist, the newspapers, seeing the outtakes, and discussing with friends - have come to the conclusion that skipping the last Presidential Debate was an inspired idea on my part. Project Runway was much better, so was Pushing Daisies for that matter.

( Discussing Project Runway, because discussing Politics is too frustrating and makes me want to do and say nasty things )

Ack, February...it is showing its true colors finally. Cold winds, blustery weather, and weird temperature ranges. Not my favorite month of the year. Even without the annoying Hallmark holidays, one of which I've sucessfully boycotted since college. We won't speak of it, except to hint that it takes place this week. ;-) Oh well, least I get two days off work -one this week and one next. Gotta love the Presidents days. Also got a shitload accomplished this weekend - taxes filed, cleaned house, food shopping, movie, and contacted a few people that needed contacting. Yay me!

Watched a lot of tv, yet less than usual because of lovey DVR device, which tapes things for later viewage. From what I've been reading this is turning out to be an interesting tv viewage year - we actually have not one but three suspenseful presidential races - the Republicans, the Democrats, and of course the Finale. I've no clue who's going to win this round. The frustrated poli-sci major in me is having a blast watching it all unfold.

On the fictional tv front - the WGA strike appears to finally be drawing to a close. With any luck they will be back to work on Wed. Which, according to the tv press, we'll get more episodes of Lost, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, the Office, Supernatural, Brothers & Sisters, Mad Men (which already brokered a deal) and Smallville. No word yet on 30 Rock, House or BSG. Dirty Sexy Money, Heroes, Life, Chuck, Friday Night Lights and Pushing Daisies won't be back until next season. If I didn't list your favorite - it's because I don't watch it. Doctor Who and Torchwood are BBC so not affected. Very happy about the ones I'll get additional episodes on.

Loved Lost the last two weeks. It reminds me a great deal of a lot of the quirky sci-fantasy tv shows I watched in the 70s and 80s, with people stranded in weird locals trying to figure out which reality they were in. Course I'm a fan of psychological horror and mystery. So this helps. I think while watching Lost - you have to keep in mind this is a horror series a la Stephen King and Rod Serling. As such? It is unlikely to end on a happy note. The writers seem to enjoy tragic irony.

( Lost spoilers )

Other's I've enjoyed are Smallville (if you gave up on it two or three seasons ago, you have no idea what you are missing. It has gotten a lot more interesting. This actually may be the best season I've seen. I gave up on it after season 2, found the season with Zhod almost unwatchable, then out of curiousity tuned into last season over the summer and became intrigued. Somewhere along the way they hired good writers and the actors got a little better. ( spoilers )

Supernatural - haven't seen this week's episode yet. Loved last week's - in which Dean finds out that demons, all demons, were once humans - their humanity has been stripped from them by the rigors of hell. Interesting and very dark, almost Lovecraftian mythology with touches of Stephen King and urban legend mixed in. I don't find scary any more so much as intriguing.

I tried to watch Cashmere Mafia and Lipstick Jungle - but both lack the humor of Sex and The City. They also lack something else Sex had - in Sex & the City - the gals were mostly single.
They weren't into committment, almost afraid of it. Just wanted to have fun. The men had code names or nicknames - we never really knew the real ones for some of them. Mr. Big was well Mr. Big - meaning of course the size of well, you know. Everything had a sexual conotation. It made fun of the dating scene. Fun of the glamorous image of NYC. And the women were far from successful at anything. They were clutzes. Sarah Jessica Parker's character was always screwing up in some way. She was a freelance columnist for a mag with a cool apt. Totally unrealistic, total fantasy, yet her dialogue and quips - were right out of my girlfriends mouths at the time. Lipstick - has no one I can identify with. I don't know these women and this is not my city. Same deal with Cashmere. I don't like the women. I don't like their outfits. And I don't recognize their talk. I give Lipstick points over Cashmere for having better looking and more charismatic male leads - Paul Blackthorn and Andrew McCarthy. But outside of that? It isn't worth the time.

Still adoring Project Runway. Much fun. And I like the designers/designs better than last years. They are better designers, just not as melodramatic and bitchy. So the focus is more on the challenges.

Okay off to make dinner and relax before work tomorrow. Busy day.