walk in beauty, like the night

Not particularly enthused by the idea of a family holiday right now. I'll spend it working up a reasonable tan, reading and panicking about my yet unfinished startrekbigbang piece. Sigh.

I’ve been slowly going through TOS and for some reason, What Are Little Girls Made Of? is the first episode that really made me want to recap it. For several reasons, some of which are probably just a product of my demented mind. But, anyway.

The premise is that Chapel’s fiancé, renowned scientist Dr. Roger Korby, has been missing for five years. The Enterprise is the third ship to come look for him on planet Exo III. And just when all hope seems lost, Korby hails them! He asks that Kirk come alone to the planet’s surface, but Chapel goes with him. And then things get weird, as they always do. Redshirts die, Kirk hangs off cliffs and kisses alien girls, etc. end credits.
( Wonky recap, with selected screencaps! Now with added meta! )

My very first macro for ontd_startrek. Because we all need the occasional orgy of vegetable sexuality. I'm so proud of myself :D

I should be working. Instead I'm making lame-ass macros with all the new set pics from Heroes. The photos show Milo Ventimiglia and new cast member Deanna Bray (as Emma) filming a scene. And for some reason a particular scene from Star Wars sprang to mind...
( Spoilerish but, no plot or anything! )

Man walked on the Moon on July 20th, 1969.
In celebration of this, Zachary Quinto brings you:





With a bonus side order of:



Because Pluto's a planet, not a doctor, dammit.

Movie Quote of the Day at IMDB:

And they'll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields... and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?

Damn. My heart stills breaks everytime.

Do you ever order a book, receive it in the mail, randomly scroll through its pages and immediately find a passage that vindicates your purchase? I got a used copy of Spock's World by Diane Duane and received it today. I'm leafing through the book and find a chapter that focuses on Sarek. Upon which I find this true gem:

"The marriage was a quiet one, but the new was still greeted with astonishment on Earth. Sarek took it calmly. One particularly annoying newspaper, which published a slight alteration on Amanda's headline - "I Married a Little Green Man!"- received an interesting riposte from Amanda, when she was interviewed on one of the broacast news services shortly thereafter: "There is nothing little," she said with great dignity, "about my husband." Sarek did not at first understand the amused ripple that went through the crowd of reporters standing around. Certainly he was tall by Earth standards."

Oh, Amanda. Oh, Sarek.

I've had a somewhat weird few days. Lately it seems that I have bad luck clusters - there's two or three days each month when everything fucking goes to hell, if you mind my French. I worked like a dog all past week and the Friday everything collapsed. I was going to work early morning, sunny day, then I'm almost at the office when I had The Most Inane Car Accident Ever™. I'm not even sure I can express the EPIC FAIL! of this in English. Let me try. It's nine in the morning so traffic is a little intense. There's this intersection with traffic lights, right? I am on a lane that is meant for cars that want to turn left. Traffic lights go green. Two or three cars in front of me advance and so do I, and so do the cars behind me. But the lane where all our cars are supposed to turn into is so filled with cars so we can't advance and we all stop only a few meter after we advanced. My car is barely past the traffic lights, but the guy in front of me is totally in the middle of the intersection and panics that the traffic lights will change and he will be blocking the way of incoming traffic from the other road. So he puts the car in reverse and backs down.

The following happens in slow motion, only not.

The guy is backing down towards my car.

I honk the horn like a madwoman and he doesn't hear it.

CRASH.

I came out of the car with the serious intent to inflict bodily harm unto the other driver. Alas, he was a kid - a student from the university which is just across the street from my office - and immediately owned up to being responsible, so we traded insurance forms and moved on. He'd only had his licence for three months and didn't hear my horn because his music was so loud.

Dude, seriously?

So it turned out to just be a fender-bender and no trouble, in the grand scheme of things, but I was still almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown the rest of the morning.

Later that afternoon I was on the train back to my parents' and my friend called me. We had tickets to see Depeche Mode on Saturday. But Dave Gahan tore a muscle ligament during a concert in Bilbao on Thursday, and the concert was cancelled.

Some days you just can't win.

It's Milo's birthday! This merits a picspam. Go go go!


( Mini birthday picspam behind cut! )

Oh yes, I signed up. And now I have two different plots going around in my head and I must chooose between the two. I'm a procrastinator. I need deadlines, they give me structure. So excuse me while I panic for a little while and then start writing stuff.



startrekbigbangstartrekbigbangstartrekbigbang

I squee at any chance to pimp my library. Got this from classics_geek. Instructions: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. 

I just realized that I'm Portuguese and I read half the books of this list in English. Not to mention the ones of which I ended up with both the translation and the original edition. Is it any wonder that there's books everywhere in my house except the kitchen and th bathrooms?

1) The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. There will never be another like it. I read it in my teens and several times since, and I still can’t help that feeling of bittersweet melancholy when Sam returns home in the end, and says “Well, I’m home”. Also: I can write Elvish (a little). Ha.

2) The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge. This book, found by accident on the dismally small science fiction section of the school library when I was approximately 14 years old, was an awakening to the sci-fi and fantasy genre which has been my favorite ever since. It was also perhaps the first book I ever read with a decidedly female perspective of things, an intriguing world and a heartbreakingly beautiful story.

3) The Stone Dance of the Chameleon, a trilogy by Ricardo Pinto. I got my LJ username from this series. This is powerful stuff. It’s the story of a boy in a very cruel world. And it takes him a long time to, er, grow a spine, so to say, and sometimes it’s painful to read because he’s so passive as the world unravels around him. But that makes it incredibly realistic. The third book finally came out and I read it in a rush only last week. I was so shocked with everything that happened that I now have to go and re-read the whole trilogy because there are trillions of details which suddenly gain a whole new meaning.

4) The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Redefined my perspective of Arthurian legend. Still my favorite version of the tale.

5) The Persian Boy, by Mary Renault. The story of Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia through the eyes of the eunuch Bagoas. A beautiful story on the many facets of love. Probably left me forever with a romantic and irreversibly biased image of Alexander.

6) Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell. Everybody watches the movie. Does anybody still remember it was a book? I read it and in English nonetheless, which is not a small feat taking into account the way Mitchell writes some characters’ accents. Sometimes I had to read lines out loud to understand what they mean. It was a sobering experience, because the book is so much more realistic and dare I say, cynical than the movie.

7) My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell. I love all books by Gerald Durrell and this was my first. This tale of his childhood in Corfu is so endearing and funny.

8) The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell. Because I’m a nut for world mythology and this is an amazing book. And a very interesting read for authors.

9) The Beautiful Fall, by Alicia Drake. I love fashion and this book tells of the intertwining lives of two incredibly influential fashion designers through the sixties and seventies in Paris. It’s a window into a world of beauty, wealth and decadence long lost.

10) Dune, by Frank Herbert. This sat for many years on my shelf unread. And then one day… I don’t care much for the other books in the Dune series, but this book is just amazing.

11) Moby Dick, by Herman Mellville. Adventure and obsession? I’m there. On a boat? Where do I sign up?

12) The Prince, by Machiavelli. A very accurate, and for that reason very cynical, insight into human nature.

13) The Pillow Book, by Sei Shonagon. The diary of a court lady in 10th century Japan. Sometimes it's about the most petty things, sometimes the writing is liquid poetry. The descriptions of court robes read almost like porn.

14) The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco. A murder mistery. In a medieval abbey. Yes, with monks. And bloody good fun too. Even the pages and pages dealing with historical and theological themes. This is how it's done, Dan Brown. This is how it's done. Also: a small part of me never ceases to be amazed that I read this aged 13. I was a bookworm like that.

15) Afrodite, by Isabel Allende. A research into supposedly aphrodisiac foods which soon derailed into an intriguing and often incredibly funny mix of personal memoir and reflection on human relationships, food and sex.

So, I received my tax refund today. Yay.

And then I went to the mall on lunch hour and splurged on two suits. Not yay. But they were really good looking original not corporate drone suits and they were on saaale. And I look damn fine in them.That's my story and I'm sticking to it dammit!

Now hoarding the rest of said tax refund because I have to take my car to the autoshop to figure out what's causing the funny noise in the front wheel. And pay my vacation. Assuming I go on vacation...

Your result for The Heroes Personality Test...

Sylar

You scored 25 Idealism, 71 Nonconformity, 50 Nerdiness

Take The Heroes Personality Test at HelloQuizzy

Got it from takhallus and can't resist a good quiz. This is the second quiz where I got Sylar as a result, I also got it on a Facebook quiz titled "Which hero are you?"

I'll try not to eat your brains. Really.

Yes, Michael Bay, there is a moment when bigger, better, faster, more becomes a little too much. I actually went and checked this on IMDB: the movie is only six minutes longer than the first one (150 minutes versus 144). It feels twice as long. The whole first part was so boring I seriously considered leaving on intermission. I didn't, and the final part was better, but still. Not even Optimus Prime (and I've always had a weird crush on him) could save this mess.

Michael Jackson is dead at 50, and the media circus has just gone into overdrive.

This is just... a sad end to a sad story. Thriller was the first vinyl record I bought. Dangerous was the first CD I bought. And then everything imploded and what was left? A childlike eccentric? A very disturbed person? Most likely a little of both.

I would like to remember him like this:


And that is all.

TrekMovie.com and ontd_startrek have the first details on the Star Trek DVD release from a couple of German sites. Details are for the Blu-Ray edition but they better also be on the special edition set or else I'm gonna smack somebody. So I'm just gonna post the extras list here. With my running, squeeeing commentary.

Extras:

• Audio commentary (JJ Abrams, Bryan Burke, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Roberto Orci)
• Featurettes:
  • Where no man has gone before:
    • The Shatner conundrum Conundrum? That's being diplomatic...
    • The redshirt guy He's dead, Jim.
    • The green girl
    • Trekker alert!
  • Casting
  • A new vision ("Savage Pressure")
  • Starships:
    • Warp explained
    • Painting work
    • Accelerated bridge construction
    • The captain’s chair Everybody wants to have sex in it. It better be self-cleaning.
    • Operating the buttons
    • Shuttle shuffle
    • Accelerated Narada construction
  • Aliens:
    • The alien paradox
    • The girl with the big eyes
    • Big pro Quinto WTF?! Also LOL. Someone make an icon of this, please.
    • Klingons. They actually researched and filmed them, then cut them out of the movie? No wonder those guys are perpetually PISSED.
    • Drakoulias anatomy 101. HUH?
  • Planets:
    • Additional businesses
    • Confidentiality
  • Equipment and costumes: Klingon costumes
  • Sound
  • Music
  • Gene Roddenberry’s vision
• Deleted scenes:
  • Spock’s birth YAY! baby!Spock is WIN!
  • Klingons capture Narada
  • Young Kirk, Johnny and Uncle Frank YAY! More angsty fanfic material!
  • Amanda and Sarek argue after Spock’s fight See comment above...
  • Interrogation and escape from prison
  • Sarek and Amanda YAY YAY YAY!
  • Bedroom and Kobayashi Maru (original version)
  • Kirk apologizes to the green girl. Apologizes? Wait, we get to see Gaila rip Kirk a new one because he only (almost?) slept with her to crack the Kobayashi Maru? If we don't, I'm gonna have to write it...
  • Sarek sees Spock Prime Fascinating...
• Starfleet vessel simulator (probably BD only)
• Star Trek gag reel MY PRAYERS, THEY HAVE BEEN ANSWERED.
• Trailers:
  • Teaser trailer
  • Theatrical trailer "The wait is over"
  • Theatrical trailer "Prepare for the beginning"
  • Theatrical trailer "Buckle up"
• Star Trek: D-A-C demo (trailer) for XBOX 360
• BD Live options

WAIT... that's it?! There's no special feature on LENS FLARES?!

Two banks holidays last week, which means I had practically a week off. And I even took my laptop home so I wouldn't have to fight my dad over the computer and could use the free time to write some porn fanfic.

Ha.

I did get miscellaneous stuff done, and didn't actually waste my time, but I didn't turn on the computer a single time.

Meanwhile, more time to watch TV meant a bunch of random sightings.

Sighting #1
So I'm zapping and I catch the season finale of Private Practice. Now, I'm not really into Grey's and I loathe Private Practice, but I kept watching to see for myself if the season finale was as bad as I'd been told. It was. But, lo and behold!!! James Morrison (whom you may know as Bill Buchanan from 24) shows up as the guy who is going to buy Pacific Wellcare. Or, whatever. WTF?!!! Does this means he's going to be a regular next season? Oh crap. I've loved James Morrison ever since the brief and brilliant but cancelled Space: Above and Beyond but I'm not sure I can brave Private Practice just for him. What do you do when actors you love show up in series you hate?

Sighting #2
Later that same night, Jason Alexander is the villain of the week in Criminal Minds. He's very different looking and has long gray/white hair which is frankly creepy (I think that was the point). And yet I couldn't take him seriously because every time he showed up onscreen, my mind went George Costanza George Costanza George Costanza George Costanza... Is this what they mean by the Seinfeld Curse?

Sighting #3
And sometime on Saturday afternoon, they're showing some Hillary Duff movie and she's going to a costume ball with a boy who's her only friend and he's dressed as Zorro, hat, mask and all. And I look at him and immediately think, Luke?! That's right. I recognized Dan Byrd in a freaking Zorro costume. Anyway, I ended up half-watching the movie after that. And today I checked his IMDB page and realized he was the kid from Aliens in America, which I used to watch at dinner time over a year ago. Wow. Now I'll feel even more of a perv the next time I read Luke/Sylar. Probably in the next five minutes or so.

Cable's showing Enterprise again, only now it's once a week instead of four episodes a week like last time. Anyway, I'm getting to see some early episodes I'd missed. Today was the much-discussed episode wherein Trip gets pregnant.
( Of course, the writers had to mangle the whole thing. )

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

I finally saw Terminator Salvation (it only premiered last Thursday in my neck of the woods). It's damn good and can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with the first two (oh please let's forget the third one happened).
( Rambling, review, and reminescences about Guns n'Roses... )