LOTR toys...

Yesterday maboroshimaki and I went to The Silver Snail, Ottawa's best comic book shop, and spent a lot of time browsing.

They had some terrific new Lord of the Rings action figures. None of the Aragorns look quite right, in my opinion; I was tempted by Eomer, but no more. There were some Batman graphic novels that I had even more trouble resisting. I didn't know Warren Ellis ever wrote Batman stories!

Today we went to another store and found something we'd never seen before: the action figures of Galadriel and Eowyn. Both are lovely. maboroshimaki bought both. I held off (regretting my lack of funds) but I'm hoping that they have good material in the dealers' room at the Tolkien Gathering in Toronto in December. I particularly love the Eowyn figure. But then, I particularly love Eowyn.

I'm watching the Smallville episode "Hug" right now. Such warm and sexy looks between Lex and Clark....

I let the green budgies Wisdom, Simon and Domino out of their cages. Wisdom and Simon are sitting on the top of their cage right now, perfectly happy to be there. Domino is practising flying. He really needs the practice: his aim isn't very good, and his trajectories leave something to be desire. He's having fun, though. The joy of freedom. Singing happily on the curtain-rod: Look at me! Look at me!

What a nice, lazy Sunday. But I have to get a few things done.

They can't take the sky from me....

Oh I am a happy fan. I didn't even skew my answers to get Mal, I swear.


Mal


Which Firefly Guy is For You?
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Birthdays...

Last night I was at a surprise birthday party for my friend Donna - who turned 50. The party was orchestrated by her husband Jim, whom I also like. She was completely blown away by surprise. We all had a wonderful time.

One of her gifts was the Canadian Herstory date book for 2004. Each day has a short article about a Canadian woman - not hugely famous ones, but people who have dones something significant, like a woman in Toronto who has written/drawn a comic book about date rape, and another one in the early 19th century who became a firefighter in Halifax.

Here I was, sitting at the table in a restaurant wanting to read all the entries, and realizing how rude I was being. So I stopped. Even reading half a dozen of them made me feel like an underachiever. What have I done to change the world? Not much. Not enough. But even the fact that I feel ... unsettled ... by this is something to think about in terms of self-awareness.

I enjoyed the company. Donna's family are delightful, particularly her mother. Besides family (both Donna's and Jim's) there were friends of Donna's from work, and friends from her gaming groups, and friends from her choir.

Her stepdaughter-in-law Jennifer sat next to me, an attractive pregnant woman with one of the most beautiful necklaces I have ever seen: criscrossing wire strands with irregular bits of amber on them. She's an anthropologist who got her degree at Cambridge (which she said was as wonderful as you'd think it would be) and has lived in Brazil and Ghana. In Ghana, she said, it's difficult to overcome the cultural differences and the racial consciousness.

Since I was mostly sitting with those of Donna's friends who are my friends too (Tasia and Peter and Beulah), I didn't get much chance to talk to the other people I didn't know, but they all seemed interesting and friendly. Unless that was because I drank rum (the influence of Jack Sparrow) in the form of a pina colada, and then let the waiter refill my wine glass a few times. I am not accustomed to that. Ayurvedic, it isn't. But it was fun.

Donna got a neat present where things were in a decoraed paper bag with strings attached to tags hanging out of the bag, to pull out one by one. The tags said things like "when you're really beyond it" (the string was attached to a denture brush and case) - various items of dubious or definite usefulness (including candy) with funny but ambiguous comments or instructions on the tag. Two different people gave her gift certificates for Chapters - I was one of them. She said she was going to buy Ann Marie MacDonald's new novel, but two people gave her that, so she doesn't need to! She and Beulah got into a discussion of the previous novel, which Donna said was her favourite book ever and Beulah said she'd hated it. What an interesting discussion - it made me want to read it more than all the publicity I'd heard.

Carnivale....

I just watched the first three episodes of "Carnivale" (recommended to me by maboroshimaki all in a row.

Interesting show. It's different, and there's not much I like more in a TV show than originality. It keeps you guessing. It's not action-packed and fast-paced, which is a relief, as I am getting awfully tired of a fast pace in movies and TV shows. It's about a carnival in the southwest U.S. in the 1930s, where there is a farmboy with special powers (who is not in the least Clarklike) and a Preacher who is.... odd. And the battle between good and evil.

Impossible to tell for sure yet who is good and who is evil, though my guess is that the farmboy (Ben Hawkins) will turn out to be good and the preacher (Father Justin Crowe) is evil. He reminds me a little of Gabriel in the Dunnett novels.

None of the characters are particularly endearing, though I like the diminutive Samson, the Boss of the "carnivale", and Ruthie, an older woman who is flirting with young Ben. Or something. I am intrigued by Sophie and her mother Apollonia, the catatonic-telekinetic. And Gecko, the reptilian freak, who looks good. I also like the mysterious "management" which gives Samson his orders.

There's a lot to speculate on here, both natural and supernatural. Sometimes it's hard to tell if the oddities and anomalies are deliberate or meaningful and, if so, what they portend. If the show doesn't answer some mysteries I can see myself getting impatient and bailing: if we don't have more elucidation of plot soon, it's going to feel like a show about nothing. Just vague hints. Meanwhile it's fun as food for thought.

It feels like something Neil Gaiman might write. And though it hasn't slipped from fantasy into horror, its ambiance is fairly dark, especially Ben's life and his role.

"Angel" again....

With maboroshimaki as my tour guide to tell me who was who and what was going on, I actually sat and watched the whole of the season opener of Angel. Now, I don't like the character of Angel or the actor who portrays him, and this is only the third episode I have ever seen right through - in the past, except for the first two episodes of first season, even if I start watching, I lose interest and turn it off before the end of the episode.

This time I watched it all. I thought the plot was totally uninteresting. except for its strong echoes of old "Wolverine" plots. When Joss Whedon takes ideas, he takes from the best. There were two instances where I thought Angel had a brilliant moment. Amazing but there it was: truly brilliant. My favourite moment of all was teh song from "The Pajama Game". Most of the dialogue was wonderfully witty, and I thought more than once of "Firefly", practically wishing Wash or Jayne would walk in.

But where I find the characters in "Firefly" absolutely lovable, I find the characters in "Angel" annoying and lacking in personality - even when I chortle over their dialogue. The huge exception is Spike, of course, who is utterly wonderful and just might be enough to get me to watch again next week. Maybe.

Maybe not.