Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.

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Sunday, July 5th, 2009
marag	11:55a	Work argl The lovely folks at Suddenly Sprockets! made some "upgrades" recently. So here's my new logon process: Go to secure website Click "I agree" Click secure login link Enter username and password Click continue Click Citrix Desktop Click on the "oh gee, you actually needed to click on this link to get where you need to go" link It opens a new instance of the browser, in which I enter my username and password again. Click Citrix Desktop (do you ever get a feeling of deja vu?) Wait for Citrix to load. Get a cup of coffee and cure cancer in spare time. Click on IE Enter URL for website editing site (because IE won't let me bookmark anything when logged on remotely) Enter username and password again. Enter URL for content inventory database At this point, I'm fnally where my work is. Mind you, to get down to the level of what I'm working on, I usually have to go several levels down the tree, but at least I feel like i'm working when I do that! And then after all that, if I accidentally knock the plug of the laptop out, my computer is prone to freezing, at which point I need to do the whole thing again. Aaaaand, as I was typing these words, Citrix froze, so I need to log out of it and see if I can get it to reload. ::headdesk:: Be careful, Citrix can sense your fear... However, I'm happy to say that Avi's taken both kids to his parents' for the afternoon, so I can get some work done. Hooray! Now I just have to not fall asleep while working... Current Mood: exhausted (5 Comments |Comment on this)
selenak	4:26p	How to seduce a friend into watching New Who This weekend one of my oldest fandom friends, V., came for a visit; we first met on a Star Trek convention eons ago. We've shared many a fandom since, and she had asked me to introduce her to New Who, being in the somewhat unusual position of knowing all of the Sixth and Seventh Doctor eras, but next to nothing else from Old Who. (One or two Tom Baker stories, plus the movie of doom, but that's it.) So I treated her to a New Who marathon, which led to the watching of the following episodes: ( Spoilery reaction descriptions ensue ) Current Mood: satisfied (4 Comments |Comment on this)
yahtzee63	2:10a	I really need a cooking icon Though, at this hour, the Calvin and Hobbes icon works too. So, I have been writing ALL DAY (my first 5K day in way too long), but tomorrow I will need to take a couple of breaks in order to prepare food for the week to come. Among these dishes will be a sweet potato and lentil recipe I'm trying for the first time. In fact, this is one of the first times I will have cooked with sweet potatoes, period. Which is why I have this important question: Do you have to peel sweet potatoes? The recipe says to peel them, but OTOH, most recipes say to peel regular potatoes, and I never do, first of all because I like the taste of the peel and second because I can't be bothered. (And as a result, I have not built my potato-peeling skills.) Is sweet-potato-peel removal also optional? My cooking experiment for today was chicken soft tacos in the crockpot; simplest recipe in the world and they came out great, but OMG, so much chicken. I'll be eating that for lunch and dinner tomorrow. Wish me similar writing mojo tomorrow! Current Mood: sleepy (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
fernwithy	11:23p	Challenge call I'm in a creative rut, so I'll do what I usually do in such situations, and let you all supply the story ideas. ;p I'll leave it up until tomorrow morning, whenever I log in. Only thing... nothing with the reincarnates. The more I play with that, the less I like it. Other than that, any of my fandoms, or original if you like it, and I'll give it a shot. ETA: I'm up--looks like a good bunch of ideas! Closing the challenge now. :) (58 Comments |Comment on this)
marag	9:55p	Trauma MY BABY WAS STUNG BY A BEE. ON THE EYE. IT SWELLDED UP. I'M THE WORST MOMMY EVER. I'M GOING TO DIE OF SHAME NOW. Okay, he's fine now. But really, as a mommy, is there anything worse than your husband walking up to you with a shrieking baby whose eye is swelling shut? I had a minor freakout, but I think I'm entitled. I snuggled Barak and then let him do some comfort breastfeeding, which helped him calm down, poor boyo. Anyway, we were at a 4th of July party and we got invaded by bees. Yael was stung behind the ear, Barak on the eyelid, Ethan on the foot, and Isabelle on the lip (which really swelled up). ::sigh:: It was not a good night for the children, although they had a great time up until that point, what with the gigantic water slide Ben set up. ::yawns:: Avi went over early to help set up, and for reasons I can't quite explain, I went along, so I basically wasn't home all day. It was nice to talk to Stacy and Mo and we met Tony's wife and their cute 4-year-old played wonderfully with Isabelle and Yael. Also, Tony and Regina have a baby two days younger than Barak. ::coughs:: And about 5 pounds heavier and two inches longer. Hee! Vincent is basically the other end of the growth chart. I think I have a picture of Megan holding both babies that shows the size difference and if I remember, I'll post it. Okay, kids are asleep, so I'm going to bed now... Current Mood: thankful (20 Comments |Comment on this)
taraljc	2:24p	So you may have noticed I'm a bit of a completist. And also DERANGED. The Pike/Number One Masterlist has been updated, and (hopefully) should now include all the tie-in novels, comics, and short stories, in addition to fan fiction (both TOS and AOS) featuring Pike and Number One. If I've missed anything, lemme know? I have yet to re-read all the Strange New Worlds anthologies, so I may have missed out some of them. Also, I've changed the Star Trek: Crew link to the collected trade, but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND buying the monthlies from either IDW directly, or best of all, your local direct sales shop. (For one thing, you won't have to wait 3 months. For another, buying the monthlies supports both the publishers and the independent booksellers!) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
claudiagray	3:11p	Happy Fourth of July, everyone -- plus, awesome interview I hope everyone is having a great Fourth of July, whether you're celebrating in the U.S. or just having a great Saturday somewhere else in the world. Mostly I'm writing today, but I am making a celebratory meal tonight: soft tacos and refried beans, because Mexican food is a fabulous way to celebrate American independence. My personal extra reason for celebration: this fun interview by the good people of YA Highway! Take a look, check it out and be rewarded with a few small spoilers for HOURGLASS, AFTERLIFE and the SPELLCASTER series. Current Mood: good Current Music: The Muppets' version of "The Stars and Stripes Forever" (4 Comments |Comment on this)
taraljc	12:33p	By Any Other Name Disclaimer: Star Trek and all related elements, characters and indicia © Paramount Pictures / Bad Robot / Spyglass Entertainment 2009. All Rights Reserved. All characters and situations—save those created by the authors for use solely on this website—are copyright Paramount Pictures / Bad Robot / Spyglass Entertainment 2009. Please do not archive or distribute without author's permission. ( By Any Other Name ) (55 Comments |Comment on this)
selenak	7:02a	Munich Film Festival IV and Torchwood: The Dead Line The last of the Torchwood radio plays leading up to the tv miniseries first. Written by Phil Ford, this was one to make the shippers of two different relationships happy. ( Torchwood: The Dead Line ) Now, on to more films I've watched at the festival: Chéri is Stephen Frears' newest movie. Given that this one has a script by Christopher Hampton and also stars Michelle Pfeiffer, the location is France and it's based on a famous French novel, the comparison to their earlier team-up, Dangerous Liasons is inevitable. Though not very illuminating, given that the types of stories the films tell are so very different, as are the sources they're based on. I will say that Michelle Pfeiffer is one of these enviable people who do not only age beautifully but do so in a fashion that makes them look more interesting than they did in their youth. Back in her very young Scarface days, I found her bland. In Dangerous Liasons, as the virtuous Madame Tourvel, she's good but inevitably overshadowed by Glenn Close's magnificent turn as the Marquise de Meurteil, both for acting and role reasons (besieged innocence just isn't as compelling as smart villainy in most cases). Now, though, as Léa, middle-aged courtesan, with the film making a point of exploring those inevitable marks of time in great detail? She's drop-dead gorgeous, immensely compelling, and as the script also gives her wit and versatility, with Michelle Pfeiffer delivering Hampton's one liners in a a thoaty, lazily amused voice, one absolutely believes that this is the most irresistable woman of France in her day. She gets to spar with another former courtesan, Madame Poulecet, played by Kathy Bates, quite a lot, and they make great foils for each other. The problem of the film, in as much as it has one, is that the title character (Bates' son and Pfeiffer's boytoy, whom she developes genuine feelings for) is the type of self-indulgent sulking adolescent who really needs a trauma to justify the attitude; in lack of same, one feels like yelling "get a job, young man!" quite a lot. Mind you, the film never pretends that he's anything he's not, because the irony of genuine emotion developing between a professional and a thoroughly shallow young man is crucial to the story, but I still couldn't help thinking that most of everyone's problems would be solved immediately if he were forced to actually work for a living instead of sponging of his mother and Léa. (Not that anyone in Dangerous Liasons is working for a living, either, but there is the historical awareness the guillotine is waiting for the lot of them...) La Nana, directed by Sebastián Silva, is a fabulous Chilean movie somewhere between character study and comedy. The maid of the title is Raquel, who has lived with and worked for the family Valdes for 23 years, and is not keen on them hiring another maid at all, frightening them all of until she meets her match with Lucy who is just too sunny-natured to be intimidated and is the first to see Raquel as her own person. Catalina Saavedra in the title role is terrific; when Raquel's usuall sullen and suspicious expression gives way to a smile, this is a revelation each time. The script also conveys a lot of social background without being sledgehammery about it; Raquel basically has no life beyond the family she works for, and this is partly due to the demanding nature of her job and partly due to her own choices. The Valdes' aren't cruel capitalist exploiters and are clearly fond of her, but it's also undeniable that the "almost one of the family" description will always include the "almost", and that they never question why Raquel does the things she does because they never think of her in a context outside her role in their household. It needs Lucy as an agent of change. A very enjoyable film which makes you curious to see more of everyone involved in its production. Current Mood: impressed (16 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
selenak	9:22p	Musical fannish5 Name five series that should have had a musical episode (and how it could have been explained). 1.) Alias. Especially given they had a genuine star of the genre among the cast (Victor Garber), they so should have gone there. Yes, there was one episode where Sydney's alias was a singer, but that just sufficed for measly one and a half songs and is not the same thing. How it could have been explained: if in doubt, via a Rambaldi invention - only by singing will Our Heroes And Villians discover the key to his most mysterious masterpiece/prophecy yet! Or, more mundanely, they simply have to go undercover. Not on Broadway, no; the villain of the hour conducts his operation hidden in Rio during the carnival, and for the grand climax, Sydney & Co. have to dance and sing through the Sambadrome. (Originally only Sydney was sent on the mission, with Dixon as her back-up, but Jack, being the concerned SpyDad he is, went as well to keep an eye on her and ended up having to perform a solo so we can finally hear Victor Garber. Also, Sloane perfectly embodies an agent and gets roped into singing "I am a sentimental man" from Wicked because he gets confused with Ned Bolger. *Joel Grey joke*) 2.) Babylon 5. Instead of showcasing both writerly exhaustion and pettiness in the last season 4 episode, The Deconstruction of Falling Stars, JMS uses the same basic idea but in a different and more original format. So we don't get debating historians bashed or holo reconstructions, oh no. Instead, we see the story of B5 as narrated a century later in a glorious Centauri opera, with the regular cast playing their roles, but with a musical twist. Christoph Franke rises to the challenge, and we get an episode nearly threatening to outshine the s5 finale. 3.) Ashes to Ashes or Life on Mars, I'd be happy with either. Justifying it would not be a problem, given the nature of both shows (i.e. the ambiguity as to whether any of this happens anywhere outside of Our Timetravelling Cops Heads). That convenient sudden attack of illness which has been known to hit both Sam and Alex mid-seasons to heighten suspense and make everything even more surreal strikes again, and suddenly Gene sings, Chris and Ray duet, and Ray, depending on whether this takes place in the 70s or 80s, has a particular moment of musical revelation. Also, if it's the 80s, there's a tango number of Alex, and if it's the 70s, Sam gets to to stepdance (we know John Simm can do it). 4.) Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's Q's fault, obviously. Our Heroes have to solve the mystery of the hour before they're allowed to speak instead of sing again. Surprisingly, Worf - who loves Klingon opera, after all, and has been known to belt out tunes of same when alone - adopts quite quickly, though not as quickly as Data who sounds mysteriously like John Adams in 1776. Beverly Crusher stuns everyone with a dance number, and Deanna duets not with Will but with Reg Barclay, who has practice for these kind of scenarios thanks to the holodeck and thinks his hour has finally come. But because it is a Q story, the final challenge has to involve a solo from Picard. (Sidenote: the reason why I picked TNG instead of the others is that DS9 basically went there already with the various Vic Fontaine episodes, and Voyager with the Doctor and Seven, more than once.) 5.) Farscape. If in doubt, blame John Crichton's mind. He came up with cartoon scenarios to indulge in while in a coma, so why not with a musical? Most likely setting would be s3, which means Moya-John, but because we're in his mind, he gets a terzett with Talyn-John and Aeryn. More importantly, he also gets a shared step dance number with Harvey and a duet with Scorpius, while his imagination resurrects Zhaan for a Zhaan/Chiana/Aeryn number. The breakaway hit is a song from Pilot to Moya, though. When John finally visits Earth again in s4 and collects the Buffy tapes his sister recorded for him while he was gone (remember, he was a BTVS fan and explicitly lamented the missing of episodes as one of the drawbacks of his existence in the UTs), he thinks Joss must be in a conspiracy with the Ancients because clearly Once More, With Feeling is directly ripped off his mind. Current Mood: mischievous (13 Comments |Comment on this)
lizardbeth_j	11:31a	BSG Fic: One on One Pairing: Kara/Sam Rating: ADULT Wordcount: 1700 Summary: The first time they meet it's on the basketball court at Nellis. (Earth AU) ( the previous fics in the Nellis-verse series) ( Sort of like Top Gun, but hotter ) Porn Battle strikes again! (13 Comments |Comment on this)
rheanna27	8:12a	A quick check of my webpage referrers tells me that someone got to my webpage by googling "Cornwall air ambulance call outs". I hope they weren't too confused. Question for the SGA and especially SG1 people on the flist: If Atlantis is on Earth, would its 'gate work? I can remember that there were at least 2 'gates on Earth in SG1, but I don't know what the 'rules' surrounding them are, i.e. whether one 'gate overrules the other. (All I can remember is that early ep where Sam and Jack are stuck in an icy cavern and think they're on another planet but are actually in Antarctica and everyone thinks they're dead and, oooh, I want to see that again now). My hunch is that the Atlantis 'gate wouldn't work while the city was on Earth, because it's still part of the Pegasus network rather than the Milky Way network. My mobile phone will work in other European countries, where it can pick up a local network, but not in the US. So the 'gates are like mobile phones and America is another galaxy. Okay, the metaphor maybe works in better my head. Big Bang progress update: I have done no writing so far this week (arghh) but the weekend is going to be quiet, so I'm hoping to break the back of chapter 2. Last night another bit of the plot clicked into place while I was vacuuming; when I'm writing I tend to do more of things like going to the gym and housework and gardening, because they're a lot less boring when my brain can nibble away at a problem in the background. Also while I was vacuuming, it occurred to me what one of the best parts -- the privileges -- of writing fanfiction is. The normal rules are that if the audience doesn't like the way something ends, they have to live with it. The great thing about fic is that you don't have to. If I write this story, then for ever after I can point at it and say, "See? That? That's how the show ended, as far as I'm concerned." It'll never get filmed, but it'll be as real as canon in my head, and -- as the saying goes -- they can't take that away from me. I've started a 'highlights of SGA' rewatch, beginning with '38 Minutes'. The stuff in the jumper was as much fun as I remembered -- early team bonding and "I respond to certain doom in a certain way" and the most frankly ridiculous looking alien insect prop ever and salt water being the magic bullet, like it always is (Signs, I'm looking at you, and also the movie version of The Day of the Triffids with Howard Keel, and please don't ask me how I remember that) -- and to preserve my blood pressure I skipped over the scene where Elizabeth shows an utter lack of respect for the Athosians' culture and beliefs (I choose to believe that the 'real' Elizabeth would not have done this, and this part simply didn't happen. Lalalala, I can't hear you. I guess the writers were going for the 'she won't give up on her people' angle, but it comes off as the worst kind of cultural imperialism: 'We know better than you so get out of the way'.) Watching the ep, I was reminded that most of SGA fandom's cast of minor characters have their origins in the first season -- Stackhouse (what happpened to him?) and Simpson and the rest. I wish we'd seen more of Simpson (and rather less of Kavanagh). I liked the feeling in the early episodes that the expedition actually is a closed community, with the same faces popping up in the background all the time. And I thought it was cute at the end that Weir, Rodney, Teyla and Ford were all out of uniform and in casual gear in the infirmary: what was that about? It looked like they were all off to a party to celebrate the expedition having survived its first week without everyone getting killed. Or possibly an all-departments we're-stuck-here-indefinitely-so-we'd-better-get-to-know-each-other mixer. (18 Comments |Comment on this)
selenak	9:43a	New Torchwood! BBC Radio 4 is currently broadcasting Torchwood radio plays (three all in all), which non-Brits like yours truly can download here until July 7th. Having listened to the first two, here are my reviews: ( Torchwood: Asylum ) ( Torchwood: The Golden Age ) Current Mood: working (17 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
yahtzee63	3:20p	Two "Five Ways" answers, plus awesome pastiche fic I will never write So, this morning, while looking at a bit of "North by Northwest" during breakfast, I realized the single greatest pastiche fic I will never write: "North by Northwest"/"Mad Men." Both Don Draper and Roger Thornhill are ad execs in NYC during the same era. But take Don Draper and put him in that situation, and you end up with a story that's about a thousand times more fascinating -- because I think when Don is mistaken for "George Kaplan," he simply says, "Yes, and you are?" And goes on to totally assume the role of a superspy and probably turns out to be pretty kick-ass at it. Maybe calls Peggy for help at some critical moment. Tell me that would not rock. OK, I asked everybody for five things prompts on Friday; I meant to do them Friday, but work was busy, so I figured I would catch up during quiet moments of the weekend. Then there were no quiet moments this weekend. So I'll catch up bit by bit: amilyn asked for Five Times Booth Let Brennan Drive. ( herein lie the results ) And delordra wanted Five Prophecies Rambaldi Wrote About Derevko Women: ( read prophecy here ) We get to leave early! Woot! Current Mood: excited (20 Comments |Comment on this)
matrithon [ alara_r ]	12:11p	The Rules Okay, it's looking as if we have a decent amount of interest in this ficathon, so the dates I was kicking around can be finalized now. ( Dates and rules ) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
talkingdonkey	12:20a	Where's Waldo? If I saw you, how would you recognize me? I've come to realize that I recognize people by their hairstyles. I suppose that sounds very weird. The more students I meet, however, the more I wish people had more varied hairstyles or the more I wish we all had really weird ears or were animals because then we'd have variations of species -bowed ears, pointed ears, curved ears, no ears. I could remember who people are! As it is, people are accusing me of being racist because I can't tell my students apart. No, rather I can't tell sixteen little boys with bowl-shaped haircuts who all sit next to each other apart. The one little boy with long hair sitting next to them I remember. I suppose I shouldnt be surprised. Hair, either facial or atop the head, is one of the first things I notice on a person and usually something I describe when asked about my ideal mate. In other unrelated news, my students the other day were making stores as a project. They often like to make fun of one another by naming things after each other. I have a trio of students: Dick, Steve and Jack. S: Teacher, I want to make a Dick Store. Me: No, you don't. Yes, this is my life. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
mamadeb	9:35a	Vacation We are leaving for a ten day vacation tonight - one that starts with a 5 hour drive. Ends with one, too. Has a couple more long drives in the middle. What have we done to prepare? Oh, the important things like room reservations, and I borrowed my mother's car, and Jonathan just filled a thumbdrive with filk and other such music. He's also in the middle of changing his meds, which is absolutely the right time to go far away from our doctor. Only, well, not. Which is why he has his third appointment this week today. What haven't we done? Well. Packed. At all. And I need to wind yarn so that I'm not stuck making acrylic scrubby pads when I finish the current projects. Not that I will, but you know. And then we need to choose books because ten days and only maybe going to two bookstores and a convention at the end so dedicated to literature that the dealer's room is called the Bookshoop. Also, we're taking the laptop and dvds so that we can watch what we want (mostly Torchwood and Doctor Who) at the inn and my in-laws. And I've been sleeping very badly and feeling tired now. But. We're going on vacation. YAY. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
selenak	1:24p	W is for Women, and also for West Wing and Watchmen alara_r just kicked off a prompt-based ficathon about women over 40 in all fandoms. The community is matrithon; you can read the rules here and and submit prompts here. The prompts which are there already reminded me a) how many awesome female characters past 40 already exist (it always annoys me when people take up the "there are no interesting women in my fandom" stance), and b) that I need to rethink my no more ficathons this year resolution, because of the tasty ideas. Meanwhile, I started this morning reading a crossover that doesn't take place in space, and brings together two fandoms you'd think are irreconcilable. Not so: West Wing/ Watchmen: Zero Sum: in which one of Jed Bartlet's students during his teaching days is one Adrian Veidt. No spoilers for West Wing beyond Bartlet's backstory; if you happen to be a Watchmen-only reader, you should still find this a good read (and I think kangeiko does a great job getting Jed Bartlet's personality across even if you don't know him). Of course, now that I've read this I so want to read more West Wing/ Watchmen crossovers. Keene Act debates among the WW regulars! CJ versus the Comedian! When Toby met Rorschach... Current Mood: bouncy (8 Comments |Comment on this)
kellychambliss	3:44a	New Fest! Check out the matrithon   -- a "pan-fandom" fest for stories featuring women over 40.  Looks like fun!  (Thanks for the tip, Rocky!) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
lizardbeth_j	9:40p	badassery eee! I totally missed this ep of Criminal Minds the first time around. *stares at Michael Biehn* still hot. damn. Ohai there, Kyle Reese. damn it. Even CBS is freaking GUILTING ME with hot men, how is this even possible????? *back to ficathon fic* (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
lizbee	12:19p	"It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape." A thirteen-year-old boy swaps his iPod for a Walkman. I feel so old right now. I used my Walkman right up until my second year of uni, and have fondish memories of making mixtapes for the bus trips. *is still bitter about that time the Walkman ate Magic Dirt's What Are Rockstars Doing Today?* On the other hand, I realised on Monday that I was in my late teens before I realised Michael Jackson was black. Today, my hair hurts. I am tired. I am going to take advantage of my day off, and ignore the fact that I got paid less than I expected, and go and have a massage. It's never a good sign when the roots of your hair start to hurt. (26 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
kellychambliss	6:51p	Paris Update I'm having some weird kind of delayed jet lag and find myself wide awake at 1:00 am Paris time.  Everyone else is blissfully asleep, so I'm taking the opportunity to check my email and LJ and to natter to you. ( Random Parisian Notes ) Other news:  I see from logging-on that I've received my assignment for the ownficfest.  It was the one I most hoped would be picked; I can't wait to get started, even if it does make me nervous.  I also see from the prompt list that several stories I wanted to see have received at least five votes, so I'm happy to know that I'll be reading some of them even if they turn out not to be my particular gift. Well, I'm off to a cold shower and (I hope) some sleep. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
selenak	11:17p	Munich Film Festival III Two quite different but memorable movies from last year, neither of them shown in Germany yet, so they premiered at the festival. Both were co-produced by the BBC, but that's about the only thing they have in common. The most interesting thing about The Edge of Love is that it defies expectations in not being a Dylan Thomas biopic, or a love quadrangle centered around Thomas (played by Matthew Rhys), but focuses instead on the passionate friendship that developes against the odds between his first love Vera (Keira Knightley) and his wife Caitlin (Sienna Miller). Indeed Dylan Thomas is easily the least sympathetic character among the four, a spoiled manchild unable to grow up (probably a good thing they cast Rhys, otherwise it would completely unbelievable these women ever saw anything in him at all). Cillian Murphy as Vera's war time romance and later shell shocked husband is the fourth party, but the film really belongs to Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley, who are gorgeous together. One wishes they'd run off alone, ditching the guys (the film takes other liberties with history, so why not that one), but it's not to be. Five Minutes of Heaven, starring Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt and directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (who after Der Untergang/Downfall seems to have made it into English language films), is a very different kind of film. In 1975, Protestant teenager Alistair shoots a Catholic worker in front of his little brother Joe. Thirty years later, they meet again. It's essentially a two person chamber play that miraculously avoids all the obvious traps such a story could fall into. Early on, Joe, whose life after the death of his brother fell apart as did his family, pours scorn on the idea a handshake with his brother's killer so everyone around can feel better and pat themselves on the back, seeing this as an inspiring story about redemption, which tells you then and there this will not happen. Joe actually agreed to the meeting only so he'd finally have the chance to kill Alistair and have his "five minutes of heaven" - of satisfied revenge. But this isn't a revenge Western, either, and this, too, will not happen. It's not a story with easy answers, and it's a powerful one. On a personal note, it's also the film that finally made me see what his admirers see in James Nesbitt, since I had loathed the Jekyll pilot and Nesbitt in the role (which meant the false rumour he might be up for the role of the eleventh Doctor on Doctor Who did not make me happy last year). He's truly fabulous here, conveying the long term damage done to Joe perfectly, with his nervous energy never over the top but the desperate outlet to what he thinks he needs to do. He's also suberbly balanced by Liam Neeson, whose performance as the adult Alistair is as low key and restrained as Nesbitt's is extrovert. Which brings me to more traps the film avoids: either to show more interest in the killer than in the victim, or to do the victim's story justice but feel compelled to demonize the killer in order to do so. Here, though it's a two leading men film, the narrative emphasis is on Joe's story, not on Alistair's; however, Alistair is a believable character, both the us-versus-them minded teenager who thinks gunning down a helpless man is a great thing to do, and the adult thirty years later who knows the consequences of murder all too well, "broken under his own wheel", as someone else put it. A story about what happens after; after the violence, the deaths, i.e. the part movies usually focus on. Definitely a must. Current Mood: exhausted (2 Comments |Comment on this)
fernwithy	1:45p	Happy Canada Day! Eep, I've been away from home too long, and almost forgot to wish all our north-of-the-border friends (well, west-of-the-border in Buffalo) a Happy Canada Day! Long live the True North, strong and free. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
alara_r	1:01p	Mature women ficathon I've finally gotten off my butt to put the mature women ficathon I talked about before together. I have no idea of the level of interest, so exact dates are still up in the air, but we'll roughly have prompt collection for two weeks, signups for two weeks, then a month to write stories and have the stories due in September approximately. Here are the relevant links: Welcome post Definitions Prompts collection Pimp this around! (1 Comment |Comment on this)

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