Category: Television

Burn Notice Minific

When you’re a spy, you don’t have many friends, and the friends you have are not likely to help you out on a lonely Saturday night. You won’t likely be partying with high priced callgirls either, even if you weren’t suspicious they are trying to steal classified intelligence documents while demonstrating reverse cowgirl. Anyone you have sex with can be turned against you, and the honeypot is the oldest trick in the book. Humans are social creatures, and it’s hard not to get fond of someone you’re sleeping with. It’s best not to have sexual entanglements at all.

So …you are going to be masturbating.

The trick is to do it like an op; be quick, clean and quiet, and leave no evidence.

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Couldn’t sleep for the rat in my room last night. Buster did not get it. Sigh.

I’m watching a new BBC show called The Last Kingdom.  It fits in very neatly with my previous readings and interests; the Adventure of English documentary, King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett, and of course it’s wonderful to see the extent to which they’ve made the clothing very accurate, including the pale dyes and the use of fur and frogs for fasteners. Also, lead player super hot.

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Found a couple of new shows, Bosch, which is a police procedural set in LA starring Titus Welliver and a whole slew of other grads from good shows, and The Expanse, which takes gritty in-system space opera to new and interesting heights, also, depths. My tax dollars at work, yay!

 

Deadwood of the Caribbean

Higher body count and more cannons but you get the general idea. That’s Black Sails, which I heart so much only the prospect of there being two more seasons is preventing me from panicking about there only being 2 or 3 more episodes from season 2 before it runs out.  I honestly want to go straight to Jeff’s door, bang on it and say IT IS MY BIRTHDAY I want to BINGE WATCH THE REST RIGHT NOW. He’d probably agree though, and then what? We have nothing awesome in prospect right now except mopping up on seasons 6 and 7 of The West Wing.

Current word count 4379. Things are a little smoother after a rocky start. Glykeria has arrived at Raven’s door.

I have applied for ISBN numbers for my ebook editions of the novels.  Two weeks to wait.

Getting irritable over no Alex except for two seconds when I went to meet his momma at London Drugs and he was asleep.

Weather here is damp and nasty.

Margot got her Sunday dinner last night (I wait right until 6 pm to give it to her) and she SANG FOR HER SUPPER which was three anxious little merps – she can’t actually mew since she had the surgery. Then she stuffed her face in the dish and ate like she had no expectation of ever receiving food again from anyone.  Every time she slowed down, she’d back away with that funny little caterpiggle in reverse movement, pause, and then she’d jam her little face in like a front end loader and scarf again until she ran out of breath.  I watched her eat, it was a tender combination of hilarious and sad.

So many of my friends are having pets die and animals put down right now the Rainbow Bridge is getting crowded. Love your people critters and your fur critters as hard as you can!

Black Sails

Black Sails Season 1 overview (no spoilers).

1. Like other historical and pseudohistorical shows, dialogue is a blend of the high-toned and the many bad swearz low-brow. Both have their charms.
2. Costumes are not 100 % but close enough that you won’t want to kill the designer. Guys look good with open shirts and neckerchiefs, okay?
3. Anne Bonney is played by a tiny little woman with a deep, deep voice (Clara Paget). Heart. Who has a BDSM relationship with her partner. Yeah.
4. SO TIRED OF THE MAGICAL NEGRO CHARACTER. I mean no disparagement to Hakeem Kae-Kazim, classically trained Old Vic actor, but it’s a one note character so far (must repay the woman who taught him to read even if her plots etc etc) although they do manage to subvert the ‘I will suck up anything as your faithful family retainer’ meme a teeny bit.
5. SO TIRED OF THE MAGICAL WHORE CHARACTER. But DAMN she is hot, and Canadian. So. She ain’t Inara but she’s mesmerizing.
6. Despite this show being Long John Silver’s backstory (yup!) there are long stretches when he doesn’t appear. When he does appear, he prods the plot along like Satan himself. And he’s played by a fresh faced Australian lad who’s also quite cute.
7. They save it until later episodes, but there is peen.
8. Don’t even try to predict what will happen next.
9. Scenes of pirates putting in their false crazy teeth before a fight heart heart heart.
10. REALLY REALLY AMAZING FIGHTING SAIL SCENES. Like the best ever shown in a tv show. If you like Patrick O’Brian you may enjoy the show just for that.
11. Guns misfire. BWA HA HA HA HA !
12. Ship’s kitty! d’awwww
13. Ew, 17th century medical procedures.
14. As previously mentioned, somewhat period instruments orchestrated by Bear McCreary for your musical pleasure.
15. And otherwise, very evocative and clever sound design.
16. If you can go longer than 15 seconds without thinking that Hannah New playing Elinor Guthrie (previously she was the Princess from Maleficent) is actually a smarter and nicer version of Cersei Lannister, you’re a better person than I am.

 

Also 310 words yesterday.  Something very weird happened and now I am wrassling with my characters for control.

RIP Christopher Lee and Ron Moody

I know he was knighted, but I no longer acknowledge the right of the so-called Queen of England to bestow honours.  Yes, I know she’s been a benevolent spirit during my life, but only for me.  Seeing what she represents in terms of the people whose land got stolen opened my eyes.

Here’s an obit.

Ron Moody has likewise made his last exit, stage left.

418 words yesterday, mostly infill.

No bead curtain.

MOTIVE HAS THREE SEASONS? Yes.  And we are watching them.  I adore how it twists one aspect of the police procedural so that the tension is evenly balanced throughout the show, and I adore even harder how instead of making three or four episodes a season arc-heavy, it spreads the arc out like breadcrumbs throughout the season. No GARBARCAGE here.

It’s kinda cool to be watching a show starring Canadian actors without constantly thinking how awful they are. (quite the reverse…) Kristen Lehman was born in New West, after all, and Louis Ferreira was born in the Azores and moved to Toronto when he was a tad.  The guest stars are usually pretty good as well, including Molly Parker and Charles Martin Smith, who also directed.  Actors from SG1 pop up with amusing regularity, sometimes causing Jeff and I to pause the show to try and figure it out, before we give up and go to imdb.

 

Grr

Here’s the list of shows and what’s happening.

BAD NEWS – Battle Creek is likely not going to make it, which cheeses me off because it was extremely entertaining and full of loveable characters.

WORSE NEWS – POI MAY not make it.  It could go either way; they say it will probably be renewed.

No surprise Big Bang Theory has been renewed for 3 frikkin seasons, but at least the best married couple on tv is still alive in the form of Madam Secretary.  Good Wife made it for one more season… without Kalinda that’s just as well! Castle got one more season.  The Simpsons got two more seasons.

Bob’s Burgers and Brooklyn 99 are coming back, probably to brO’s relief.

Marvel’s Agent Carter and Agents of Shield made it; candidly I’m much happier about Carter than Shield, which has lovely characters slopping around in a poorly constructed universe.

If I ever start to watch Supernatural, it just got another season, what is that 11 or 12 now?

CSI should be cancelled – it is old and venerable and not being particularly creative. But it may limp across another season.

NCIS and NCIS Body Count will be renewed.  I keep threatening to stop watching Body Count but I really like the characters.  It’s painful.

 

Oh, look what London looks like if you’re coloured.

52 words and 1.0 hour.  CT scan at 8 tonight.

Beautiful day

It’s not even 8 am and I’ve made word count already.  I think I’ll go make some breakfast and coffee.

1.8 hours last night.  I cleaned the tube on the machine so I’m feeling much better about it.

Someone I used to work with got the job I really wanted.  I am very happy for him, and even happier for me, because I am writing, and I don’t want to stop.  And I would probably stop or slow down if I was working full time.

Yesterday Paul and Mike and Keith took me out to dinner at the Indian Bistro on 6th.  It was absolutely lovely, and the okra dish WAS PHENOMENAL.  So glad Paul ordered it.

Tomorrow night, Musical Evening at Paul’s, and the night after that, Circle Dinner at Heather and Ian’s for church.  Then church on Sunday.  The weekend looks busy.  If the weather is good there is always the possibility I’ll go to Wreck on Saturday.  If I feel like being too exhausted to go to the Circle Dinner that is, so, no.

The last episode of Justified was amazing.  The last scene between Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins is breathtaking.  They did it right.

Back to writing… Kima just squeezed Pharos out and has returned to the surface to check unheard messages.

 

Half an hour and 114 words

Yeah, seems like I hit the brakes. Fortunately I have all of the chapters blocked out and I know what I want to say.  The characters sometimes step in front of me and take me places I did not intend to go, but I like that part. The livelier the story is the better.

I suspect if I get my poop in a group and clean my Cpap I’ll sleep better tonight.

Today a Costco run (mmmm SOURDOUGH) and FINALLY get my crown this afternoon.  The tooth has settled down nicely after disassembling itself during that last massively uncomfortable appointment, so I’m not anticipating any troubles this time.  Although of course we shall see.  This is the first time I’ve had a temporary crown that I didn’t break before the appointment.

Tonight, the last episode of Justified (I thought it was last week, but no).  The Game of Thrones season opener was quite good – Varys and Tyrion I particularly enjoyed; when Varys chides Tyrion about his drinking, with “There are faster ways to kill yourself”, Tyrion’s blunt response, “Not for a coward” was wonderfully played.

Ciaran Hinds as Mance saying, “The freedom to make my own mistakes was all I ever wanted,” on the way to his burning was pretty good too.

 

 

No mask for me

The mask pushed into my gums where the dentist assaulted me yesterday, but I should be okay for tonight, and I did get a lovely sleep with all that acetominophen chasing through my sensorium.

Agents of Shield is so boring, confusing, and emotionally trying that I just don’t want to watch it any more.  I keep hoping that there will be cool CGI but no dice.  Comic book plotting is hard on the nerves.

Justified, on the other hand, serves up plot twists and turns that you don’t see coming and couldn’t actually foresee and yet feel more true to life and more emotionally accurate than all the bushwah in Agents of Shield put together.

So, not great to watch the two shows back to back.

There’s only one episode of Justified left and if it’s anything like the last one it will be a wringer.

Bills all paid.

a visit

Keith and Paul came over yesterday and we watched chunks of Ken Burns’ The Civil War and went for a walk in the glorious sunshine. It was lovely to have Keith here.

I made chocolate chip oatmeal flax cookies. And now they are gone, surprise surprise.

I found this article on weight loss really interesting.

 

And, for Midnite Moving, this looks kinda interesting as well.  Mostly because it helps solve the problem (by reframing what’s possible) of how George moves electricity around his body when he doesn’t have, you know, organs.

It’s early, but I think I’m going to go for a walk.  And….. I did go for a walk.  The weather is quite pleasant.

My take on Hitchens

That which can be asserted without evidence should be ignored without distress.  And no, I don’t apologize to dead men.

I’m having a much harder time assembling part II than part I since I don’t seem to have as many connecting links between the pieces.

My friend Catherine was on the telly last night talking about her role in rescuing 60 cats.  Despite her allergies she is fostering two immense, extremely affectionate rescue cats, Riopelle and Smokey. Complaints about their point loading have already been registered.

We are enjoying Agents of Shield while ignoring plot holes, bad acting and the comic book world’s lack of sophistication with respect to air frame physics.

Church & Happiness

Church was very, very good this morning. The homily was on how rationality is not anywhere close to being the most important thing about a person, and how presenting a reasoned argument is no way to win one.    I had a lovely long chat with a newcomer, and did a shop afterward, learning that Halloween candy is GASP 75 percent off.  And Downton Abbey is back so I’m all happy.  I’m happy to hear that Hell on Wheels is getting another season, but they are splitting the air dates out to 2016.  Boo, hiss.  See how frequently my mood swings? My mood swings, let me elucidate their prolix fluency.

The rest of the day included a roast beast dinner and Margot making weird noises and asking prettily for her treat.

I vacuumed the kitchen and washed the rugs, heaven knows they needed it.

No writing today, but much musical noodling.