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[subduction]

Now is the time on sprockets where we talk about stuff what I have been watching on the television box!

Finished the second season of The Wire just before going to Philadelphia earlier this month. Tight, clever, well-paced, heartbreaking and hilarious by turns: all the things people have been telling me for five or six years and more. And self-

Comments

[i_phianassa]

Re: the unmnetionable, my family is really very sorry we didn't come get you! Although I guess none of us knew it would be that long.

Also I feel like I should announce to LJ that it is officially My Fault your trip was cut short.

I also enjoyed HBP in the same way. In fact, I almost enjoyed the fact that it was at least 20% really creative AU instead of it driving me up the wall as it probably should have.

I know I came here to comment on Something Important, but that has obviously been lost somewhere. Sorry!

[subduction]

No, don't feel sorry! For either part. I still think we made the right call in taking the Grand Adventure, and really, NO ONE expects the, uh, Newark Inquisition? I don't know. But I certainly couldn't have asked you guys to come get me, esp. since you were flying out that morning anyway!

Yeah, I guess it'd been long enough since I'd read the book, too, so that I didn't remember things in so much detail as to be annoyed when they suddenly went AU, and it seemed to hang together as a whole, so. I liked it, and I'm undoubtedly going to drag A to see it again when she gets back. :)

[i_phianassa]

Well our first thought was to come get you, but by the time we saw it it was ~10 pm or so and we thought that you had a flight out at 7, which meant between re-checking in and driving time you would have had approx. 4 hours at our place. :\

[subduction]

Oh yeah, no kidding. I actually called my dad that night to check how far away our cousins live (somewhere in rural NY, but whenever we used to visit them we'd fly in and out of Newark rather than JFK or La Guardia, presumably because it was closer/easier/less traffic), to see if they'd take pity and come get me, but it turns out they live about an hour and a half away, so it wouldn't have been worth it for similar reasons. And I THOUGHT I'd be able to get a flight out at 7, so. (Well, technically I DID get a flight out at 7, just, not the 7 I was hoping for. ;)

[randomalia]

Agreed about Torchwood -- 1-3 awesome, then it fell over in the plotting department. And the Ianto department.

I am finding other TV kind of boring right now as its all so predictable.

[subduction]

Yeah. :/ I had lunch with quigonejinn when I was in Philadelphia and I was raving to her about how great it was! and how it was like they made a Torchwood where John Barrowman could act and everything wasn't retarded! And then later I saw the last two episodes, and, *facepalm*. So, quigonejinn, if you're reading: you're not missing much.

I haven't been watching much of anything, really, because there's nothing much airing new episodes, and besides it's summer here so I feel too guilty about staying indoors watching TV when I could be out in the sun (or, I don't know, doing schoolwork? Surely not!). (I suppose that really doesn't work in your favour, does it? All the new shows must air right over the middle of summer for you.)

Did you ever see the new ST movie, btw? (I'm just going to keep prodding you until I hear what you thought. ;)

[randomalia]

I think it would have been better had RTD not tried to merge two so very different threads together -- Torchwood and the Frobisher/parliament/aliens story -- because in the end I don't think he could make them coherent. There was some excellent stuff in there, it just didn't resolve in a way that suggested the writers had actually thrashed out every possible plot hole/alternative option, and were doing whatever it took to get them to certain end points.

And I was watching some s2 outtakes the other day and remembering that I did rather love that inconsistent, cracked out show; I think would have preferred another full season?

I didn't see ST at the theatres. :o It's ridiculous, I know, but I tend to think of the amount of work I have to do and then the smallest things like seeing movies become impossible in my head. I'm going to try and get to HP though...we'll see how that goes. :>

[subduction]

Yeah, agreed. I guess Torchwood's just never quite been the show I wanted it to be -- although I'm not sure just what that would be, either. It always seems to have the potential to be something better, though, which aggravates me far more than if it were just genuinely shit, you know? :/

I know what you mean re: horrifying amounts of work, but do take a break and see HP sometime if you can. I thought it was really quite sweet and well done, as long as one's in the right mindframe and not inclined to pick it to pieces over deviation from canon and whatnot. I figure you have more than enough Srs Thinky Work to do anyway, right? <3

centralia!

[plasticity]

you went to Centralia! how is Centralia these days? I did my architecture thesis on it. I designed a post office and archive. it was very useless-academia. but it's such a tragic, depressing place, especially knowing how fiercely those small-town-folks tried to hold on to home. even so, the coolest part of the process for me was finding copies of hand drawn mine maps from the 1920s. *is geek*

Re: centralia!

[subduction]

I did! I've been wanting to go for years, ever since I first read about it, and I have this friend who's from PA and is a huge geography/history dork (this spring we spent a night at the pub having this very earnest discussion about wrong-way concurrencies and highway multiplexes, which I think is how we got onto the topic of going to Centralia in the first place), so we took this long rambly drive and spent three or four hours exploring the town and vicinity. In retrospect we should have been better equipped in terms of maps and things, because there were things we missed which would have been interesting to check out, but we made some pretty neat finds regardless. A lot of areas, like the busted part of PA 61, are obviously well-travelled and consequently full of trash (seriously, who drives someplace like that and then litters all over the place? I mean, apparently a lot of people, but honestly), but we found one building which was really quite well-hidden and looked like very few people had been inside since it was abandoned. We