shroud ourselves in the cosmos; let the music play

So today I, um, watched Star Trek. Again.

Hey, Campus Events was showing it for two dollars. TWO. That is the same price as a cookie from the organic vending machine. Only twice as much as a bag of chips from the regular vending machine. And about 1/5 of what my dinner from Rubio's cost today.

I almost decided not to go, because, damn, I have so much shit to do. And I promised myself I would decide where to apply to grad school by the end of today -- which is looking unlikely. (I did have a good talk with Dan about grad school and other things today, though.)

But today kind of sucked -- tired the moment I woke up, frustrating practise, scratchy throat (o hai post-nasal drip), angry at work, dozed off in the stacks at work, didn't play well in a coaching -- and I decided that no, I needed to go to this movie. Because I need the future to be bright and shiny and beautiful and full of lens flares and french horn solos.

Seriously, this film has a great score. I hope the horn soloist got paid really well. And I love that they used the original theme for the end credits.

Honestly, Star Trek just gets better and better, possibly because now I've seen about 20 times as much TOS as I had when I first watched it. ( potential spoilers? )

BUT OMG I WANT SALT AND PEPPER SHAKERS THAT ARE SPACESHIPS. MOST ADORABLE PROP EVER. I CAN HAS?

Dear The CW,

What is up with re-launching TV shows from when I was a child in the early 90s -- 90210, Melrose Place? Are there no more good ideas anywhere in the world? Also, what was with the name change a few years back? Your programming was much higher-quality when you still went by The WB.

-----------

Dear Fox,

Glee. Why? Whywhywhy? None of the characters are actual human beings. They all, every single one, embody frightening stereotypes -- overblown shells of people. Plus, as my roommate puts it, "Now everyone will think show choir is full of crazies!" (Not that I'm entirely sure it isn't full of crazies, but still.) The only one with any redeeming qualities is Jayma Mays as the germophobic counsellor, and I think I might like her solely because I loved her character Charlie in Heroes. (Oh btw, what is it with all the actors who were in Heroes that are in this cast?) And why all the cheating? Is there some secret campaign against fidelity and honesty going on behind the scenes? I am terrified of this show and terrified of its apparently positive reception.

P.S. USE LESS AUTO-TUNE. IT PAINS ME.
P.P.S. Wherever did you find Lea Michele? She looks freakishly like Idina Menzel -- so much so that my friend and I spent the entire first episode thinking she was Idina Menzel acting the part of a high-schooler superhumanly believably.

I've just read something that made me remember my Thursday evening, which was a Total Wash. And now I want to share because, HAY, THAT'S WHAT THE INTERNETS ARE FOR, RITE???

So yeah.

Last week, BBC America aired the 5-night third series of Torchwood, my Queer British Science Fiction Programme. (They call it "event television," this business of writing a big five-hour story and showing it all in one week, rather than writing 13 one-hour stories and spreading them out over a season. We call it a miniseries. Heh.) Anyway, it aired in the UK at the beginning of the month and I tried not to read spoilers but I eventually couldn't help myself because why deny oneself information when you have the internet and it's all right there, you know? So I knew what was coming, but on Thursday night ("Children of Earth: Day Four") when they killed My Favourite Character, I was still really broken up. Good storytelling, it gets to you anyway, yeah? But Flatmate's band was having an Important Show in Hollywood, and they had a really early set, so as soon as it was over, I got underway... slightly later than I should have, probably, but they always tell people their sets are earlier than they actually are, so the "latecomers" arrive right on time. Except. I was avoiding the freeway because, you know, weekday evening, Los Angeles traffic, so Google told me to take National and I. Got. Lost. Honestly, National does some really confusing shit by my apartment and I ended up getting kicked really far out of my way to get to a street from whence I could find my way back to Google's directions. And at that point, I'm feeling down because of the telly already and I don't really want to go out on the town, especially by myself and sober (since if you go alone you're always the D.D.), but I carry on because I do like Flatmate's band a lot and I want them to have people in the audience for their Important Show. But, this city being what it is, by the time I actually got to the venue, their set was practically over, and there was nowhere to park that wasn't going to cost me $20. So I gave up, started to make my way back home. I took a more meandering route, to avoid traffic (and to refuel at the ARCO STATION OF THE FUTURE -- it's at Robertson and Olympic and it's the coolest gas station EVAR but the in the street view on Google maps it isn't even BUILT yet so I can't show it to you), and that's when I saw ads for "Torchwood: Children of Earth" on at least TWO billboards, and that made me even more sad. I cleaned passive-aggressively when I got home, read people's reaction posts on LJ, and actually sobbed myself to sleep. Not just because of Queer British Sci-Fi, but it was a large contributing factor, along with Los Angeles traffic and disappointment and being too much in my head.

Thursday was a low point.

And honestly, as much as "Children of Earth" is extremely high-quality television, nothing about it is quintessentially Torchwood and it could have been made without those characters and I wish it had, because it was too dark and too desperate, and the show I love is campy and full of plot holes and hope, and this miniseries left everything too broken. The ratings were exceptionally good, and I'm sure the Beeb will give them a fourth series, but I can't see how it can be anything recognisable as Torchwood, because CoE stripped away everything we cared about -- silliness, the wonder of the stars, the goodness in humanity, and especially the Big Gay Romance.

Sorry. I've been needing to get that out.

IT WAS GOOD. OMG IT WAS SO GOOD.

So it went down like this: Roomie texts me at 12:30ish while I'm in class and asks if I want to see Star Trek at 10:20, because she is buying tickets.... I say OMG YES HOW MUCH DO I OWE YOU??? and proceed to have paroxysms of nerdy joy for the next nine hours. (I had completely forgotten it was opening, actually. And I guess it must have opened early in selected theatres? Because the one we went to had been playing it the entire day, even though it was billed as opening today. w/e I'm not complaining or anything... ) Turns out there are seven of us going, which is brill -- Roomie, her sister, her sister's bf, her sister's bestie, Flatmate's band's drummer (who is also one of our downstairs neighbours), Roomie's friend from Bruin Democrats, and me. Which was awesome because they are all awesome people.

AND OMG IT WAS SO GOOD.

Favourite post-movie quote:
Roomie: Spock can have my babies.

But honestly, I think it was an extremely successful reboot of a franchise that has been fizzling out (because lord knows I hadn't heard many great things about Enterprise), and they left the door open to make more movies! (Although someone mentioned that they could do a new TNG and I wasn't so sure about that, but it's probably because it's the one I'm most attached to; I was much more open to this movie because I'm not as familiar with TOS.)

I was very pleased with (and proud of) the cast, as well (fanboy's dream team that they are), and I was especially impressed with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock. Simon Pegg's Scotty was a hoot, and Karl Urban played a Bones that I was much more fond of than TV Bones. John Cho was an admirable Sulu, and Anton Yelchin as Chekov was too cute. P.S. Also Zoe Saldana is fuckin' gorgeous.

( Here there be spoilers. )

So in conclusion: OMG SO GOOD. EPIC WIN.

1. I just finished my cello final and while my bowhold is fatiguing and it was not as clean as I could have hoped, I am satisfied with my playing, especially the dynamic contrast and musical intention. Music Ed is fun, kids!

2. Yesterday Pianist E and I went to see Carmen at the LA Opera. It was fun! For a while we were terrified that they would run out of rush tickets.... just as we reached the window. It was a near thing, let me tell you. But we got in, and our seats weren't terrible, either. The mezzo singing Carmen was kind of so-so, but we discovered in the second act that she has mad castanet skillz, which sort of made up for her singing. And the rest of the cast was pretty great! Especially the Micaela and the Escamillo. The Don Jose was quite the actor, also. A lot of them were making their debuts with the company, which was cool. And I'm also pretty sure I saw the wife of Graduate Conductor SFPK in the chorus, which she started working with this fall (personally invited by Director Grant Gershon, who met her when she was in the chorus for Mahler 8 at the Hollywood Bowl this summer & liked her a whole lot) -- so that was exciting, too. Also I got to introduce E to the brownies they have there, which are $3.00 and made by the Patina restaurant and totally worth every cent because they are to die for. Rich as anything with squishy insides and a perfect flaky crust on top.

3. I wanted to make the line "going to Houston... to get me some pants" a subject for a post... It's at the very end of a Beck song that came on right before my cello test.

4. I swear there was some other reason to make a post. I mean, other than to do something that is not my paper about Disney Hall for geography. Oh, right!

5. Last week was full of (a) Beethoven 9 and (b) angst about Boy which he inadvertently caused by letting his phone get disconnected... and then not seeing fit to let me know that until last night, allowing me to think I had somehow caused him to put me on his shit list and ignore me for a week. There might be more on that later... or if anyone wants to know, you can ask. I cried. My roommates offered to drive to the valley and shiv him. It was pretty miserable. The angst part, not the Beethoven part. Beethoven was draining but it filled me with elation and a feeling of brotherhood. And, you know, joy. I will have Beethoven 9 stuck in my head for the rest of my life.

1. penicillin smells terrible i want to retch every time i open the bottle
2. daddy told me i should start taking advil instead of the vicodin because the amounts of painkiller in those mofos is ridiculous and too much is bad for your liver or something? i can't really tell the difference, because a) no fun vicodin-related side-effects for me and b) i can't tell if the hurt is there or if it's not. well i mean the only thing that hurts so far is my jaw, which is dully sore all the time whether or not i'm drugged up.
3. i finished deathly hallows and am at a loss as to what to do with myself. i can't write, i can't draw, i can't practise -- i can colour and i can knit, but i have no desire. also, it made me cry at various intervals, but i was overall satisfied with it. exciting from the get-go, and so intriguing, and taking it (slightly) slower let me follow the tug of memory to look stuff up in hbp, which was awesome when i was right.
4. side note to z-chan, since i just saw your comment to me a few posts pack -- it's not that i dislike the canon Tonks ship. I mean, it's canon, and I've discovered a strange purist tendency in myself over the past several years, so of course i'm not going to ignore it or deny it or anything. it's just that
( wow, i really didn't mean this to turn into a rant. really, it was supposed to be short )

phew. that seems like it's been stewing for a while? i don't know. also, i think i avoided spoilers? that is, as long as y'all are familiar with HBP, nothing will shock you. um. i should go to bed now, eh?

I don't know if any of you have read Eragon or were planning to see the movie, but a few words of warning: THE MOVIE IS TERRIBLE.

I am serious. It was the worst movie I have seen in a LONG LONG TIME, maybe ever. Certainly the most clumsily adapted-from-a-book movie, and that includes the animated Hobbit & LotR movies that I pray you never have the misfortune to find at your local video store. It was cringe-worthy. I was actually embarrassed to be in the theatre. I spent the rest of the day apologizing to my brother & my cousin for ever suggesting that we go see it. One wonders if Christopher Paolini had anything at all to do with the movie-making process. Jeremy Irons was really all that made it bearable, I think, and he still had some crappy, cheesy lines.

Oh, the books are fine. Go read them. I mean, they're not spectacular -- he started writing them when he was what, fifteen? And they're marketed to kids. So you can clearly see the influences (the glossaries at the back were a little bit embarrassing, because, no, Chris, you're NOT a philologist like Tolkien, but hey, youthful enthusiasm?), and the story isn't as tight as it could be. But they're pretty good, worth reading if you are so inclined. The only real complaint I have is that they're predictable (I suspected the Major Twist of the second book by the middle/end of the first one, and such-like), and that's okay, since it is a kids' book and he's our age and stuff.

Just. Steer clear of the movie, yeah? For your own good. I'm still recovering from it.

Must... cleanse... brain....