Monday, September 15, 2008

After the Storm

We ended up being very, very lucky with the storm up here. We mostly got a lot of gusty, swirling wind and some rain. The rain wasn't heavy, for the most part, but I wouldn't have wanted to be on the road in my little car with that wind because it was the kind of thing that hit suddenly, and I could imagine it blowing me all over the road -- or worse, it hitting a higher-profile vehicle and blowing it into me. It actually ended up being pretty much my ideal Saturday. My Anchorman was on the air until 2:30 in the afternoon, it was gray and rainy, and it was the perfect day for lying on the sofa and reading. I had my living room blinds open and was lying so I could look out the window, so I was watching the street lamp sway in the wind and the crepe myrtle trees bending almost double. The relief at it not being so bad here wasn't just selfish on my part -- a lot of the people evacuated from the coast are sheltered up here, and if the storm was bad for them here, that would have added insult to injury.

However, things on the coast are pretty nasty, and likely to remain that way for a while. The Red Cross needs money, if you're so inclined as to contribute to their disaster-relief fund.

And, ironically enough, hurricanes tend to bring lovely weather in their wake. It's absolutely gorgeous today and likely to be so for the whole week. It feels like fall. Fortunately, it falls at a work phase where the things I need to do can be done sitting outdoors with a notebook. I'm even considering packing a picnic lunch and going to sit at the lakeside. Or maybe making an afternoon tea to enjoy on the patio. After I put my patio umbrella and furniture back up.

Following the suggestions to give it a shot, I did catch the first two episodes of True Blood. The jury's still out. Since they referred to Monroe when they talked about going to a city, it seems like the series is set in the general area my family's from, and a lot of the characters and settings certainly rang true. I like a lot of the characters. But it is very much an "HBO Original Series" where they seem to have fallen into the idea that pushing the boundaries is automatically a measure of quality, and there's a bit too much nudity, sex, violence and language for my taste. I admit that the language is probably true to the characters, and some degree of the sex and violence fits the premise of the series, but they seemed to be going into what my former book group used to call "loving detail." That's what we said when some sensational element was necessary for the plot, but also had a little extra attention lavished on it, beyond what was necessary. So far, a lot of the sex seems to be of the "You're not watching TV, you're watching HBO!" variety. I have an edited for television mindset, so perhaps I'm not adult enough for HBO.

Then there's the fact that I just can't get into vampires. I can't find it in myself to get outraged about the idea that vampires are being discriminated against, and I don't find vampires even remotely sexy, including the main vampire. Oddly, I saw the actor as himself in one of those "behind the scenes" things they're doing about the series, and I find the actor very appealing and sexy, but when he's in character he does nothing for me. I suspect I'll be frustrated on the relationship front because I like the boss with a crush on the main character much better, and he seems doomed to be stuck in the "friend/buddy with an unrequited crush" role. I do like the twist that one reason she likes the vampire is because she can read everyone else's mind and his mind is quiet to her, but I think that might have been more interesting if she hadn't been all "Squeee! Vampire!!" before -- like if maybe she'd been one of the few people who didn't care either way about vampires, wasn't repulsed, wasn't intrigued, and then she found herself drawn to the quiet in spite of herself. But then, these books are huge bestsellers and mine aren't, so what do I know? I did discover this morning that Jacob is the one doing the recaps at Television Without Pity, so I suspect I'll keep watching just so I can follow the recaps.

On the movie front, I caught No Reservations on HBO and was utterly bored. It's not that hard to write a decent romantic comedy, is it? Only this one couldn't seem to make up its mind what it was -- a touching family drama or a bickering leads romantic comedy where the leads bickered for no real reason, then fell for each other way too easily after all the bickering, and then resolved their problems simply because the movie was almost over. Then I caught Once on OnDemand, and was so-so about much of the movie itself but utterly loved the music (which, fortunately, is most of the movie and what the movie's about). There has to be a soundtrack available, right? And I seem to recall hearing that the two lead actors now are an actual musical group in real life.

And speaking of real life, there is stuff that must be done before I can play outside.

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