stunt_muppet

1. The Taming of the Shrew makes for some really, really uncomfortable reading, and while I appreciate the efforts of feminist critics everywhere who tie themselves into interpretive pretzels trying to make the whole affair less repulsively sexist, I'm not sure I'm buying it. You can read allegories of gender performance and re-examination of social roles into it, and I don't think for a second that Shakespeare meant for Petruchio and Katherina's relationship to be a model one, nor even Katherina as a model of feminine behavior (he writes so many other good female characters in the comedies, after all), but the ending is still tough going. But we're moving on to As You Like It after this, and I like that one.

2. The first Matrix movie is incredibly loud. The bass, it is still throbbing across my eardrums the morning after watching it. With respect to my Film professor, I suspect that The Matrix is one of those movies you're not actually supposed to watch on a big screen with big speakers because you'll wind up stone deaf.

Also, maybe it's just that when it was released Matrix was hailed as the best thing since sliced bread and thus I was expecting to hate it on second viewing, but the movie holds up pretty well. There are some clunky lines and acting and way too many wide-eyed repetitions of "He's the One!!!", but Laurence Fishburne actually pulls off a great deal of lines that really shouldn't work, and Agent Smith wasn't nearly as overplayed as I seem to remember him being. Plus, there's a lot of playing with the media/audience division and the nature of a medium itself, which is really cool to watch now that I'm a little more savvy to it. (Notice, for example, how the "authority figures", Morpheus and the Oracle, are almost always shot in close-up with their face to the viewer, effectively talking to us; there are very few two-shots.)

Also, I want there to be prequel movies all about Switch and Apock and Mouse and Tank and Dozer having adventures. Even if Switch and Apock don't really do anything I inexplicably love them, and despite being sketchy I think Mouse is just adorable.

3. The Mind Robber is one of the best things to happen to Doctor Who, ever, in the entire history of the program. On occasion I'll leave a DW serial going in the background to have some familiar noise while I'm working; I can't do that with Mind Robber. It demands full attention because it's just that good. 

Again, maybe it's just because I hadn't seen it in a while, but I hadn't remembered just how intense and scary the first episode was, with the sense of intrusion and control and sheer unpredictability - the kind of surreal horror of the familiar rules of the universe breaking down, replaced by new rules that you don't understand and can't learn. And the Doctor's desperation to maintain control of his own mind and his own ship conflicting with his worry for his companions and the thought that he may not be able to do anything at all for them...it...I just...brrrr. :(

Other things:

4. Reading The Trial for class and am halfway finished with it, which isn't so great as I'm supposed to have it finished by tomorrow, but I suppose that's better than not having started it. Progress! Work ethics! 

Anyway, despite some iffy things about the translation (a lot of the dialogue is really stilted, but then that might just be how Kafka writes) I'm enjoying this much more than I did Metamorphosis, mostly because Josef K. actually does things and goes to new places and makes plot happen, whereas Metamorphosis is pretty much entirely about Gregor Samsa being a cockroach and how much that sucks. 

I'm still not sure why every female character in the book wants to sleep with Josef, but I'm sure that'll have some relevance by the end.

5. VH1 Classic is apparently having a Beatles-a-thon to promote Rock Band: The Beatles (which I would have bought right this second if I had money and a game console to play it on), which means I've watched Help! twice in the past couple of days. Supposedly, this movie was made before the Beatles were on all manner of illicit substances. I don't see how that's possible.

Also, all the cuddling and puppy-piling and silliness in the "Ticket To Ride" music video section makes me start to realize what all those Beatles RPS shippers are on about, much to my shame and horror. 

5.a. In flim class I started talking with my classmates about children's TV we used to watch, and was delighted to discover that the boy sitting in front of me was not only a fellow Thomas the Tank Engine viewer but a Ringo purist (i.e. no narrator was ever better than Ringo, though I contended that George Carlin certainly wasn't bad). I love my school so much.

6. I appear to have gone from "incapable of writing anything" to "writing 1500 words or so, stalling once I hit a plot point, and abandoning the ensuing fic fragment, never to be seen again". Equally unproductive and annoying, yes, but better than nothing.

7. I have internets back! Sort of. It keeps cutting out and insisting I use the LAN cable even though I'm using wireless, but at least it's here. Hopefully this will not prevent me from getting things accomplished, except how it already sort of has. Like lookit that, I just missed Commons lunch AGAIN. Ergh.


And now I have officially spent too much time on the Internets again and must be off.