Inside of a Dog, It's Too Dark to Read

Why yes, I do have Puppy Bowl III on, as I have for the past two hours, and am still entertained. They have a boxer! And a bulldog, and a Frenchie, and the prettiest long-haired dapple dachsie, and...

So who wants to either discuss Heroes here, or tell me who's regularly posting about it so I can build a filter for Mondays? ^_^

Hey, guess what? I'm finally caught up on Heroes! *crickets chirp* Look, I work during prime time and the rest of it's spent trying to sleep with puppies jumping up and down on top of me... when they aren't escaping from the yard.

I keep wanting to give the characters code names - y'know, superhero monikers. It's unlikely to happen in-canon, of course. I imagine any files on the metas are all 'Subject #42' and suchlike. But... I still wanna give them code names anyway. Wanna play? Be as cheesy as you like.

NB: Spoilerish for anybody who's not watched through episode 11.

[Poll #910711]

One of the staff writers (along with the marvellous James D. Parriot, the very genre-ish Michael Cassutt and the experienced Pam Norris) of the annoyingly unavailable but completely memorable Misfits of Science has created a new superhero show for NBC this fall.

This is gonna be great.

ETA: OKOKOK, here: Heroes ("Heroes" 2006/II). And here: Heroes-TV, #1 Fan Site for NBC's Heroes (wow, they work fast...). And lastly, Wiki: Heroes (TV series).

I am very slow out of the gate nowadays with movies, much to my frustration. I didn't get to go see Superman until today, with Debbie.

Right out of the gate, the movie makes a point of saying 'I'm related to the Salkind movies!' The title design (the titles must be worth 25% of the ticket by themselves, honestly) is almost exactly the same, and John William's beautifully chilling Krypton theme starts the film's story right after a Williams-esque medley of the Superman motifs. The whole soundtrack isn't half brilliant, I think - the little touches between the rearranged Williams music are extremely effective and integrated with the story.

Brandon Routh does a spectacular job, a true heir to Chris Reeve in my opinion. They continued the little character jokes from the earlier movies - Lois's spelling, Clark's hunch-shouldered, eyeglass-nudging geek schtick - without ever seeming parodical or a close enough imitation to be both eerie and painful. He's got great body-line as Superman, making his moves graceful and powerful; Singer even set up a couple of shots to reproduce classic Superman imagery, like the first Action Comics cover where Superman's lifting a car over his head, and Rouch sells every single feat.

The set designer(s) should be nominated. Especially at the 'Daily Planet', the sets are richly designed and detailled. The newsroom looks both cluttered and busy enough to be the real thing while looking like a Deco masterpiece at the same time. The island used in the second half of the film evokes not only the original design that, in story, it's a mockery of, but also of the basalt columns of Giant's Causeway and other formations, which indicates somebody might have actually been thinking about real geology when they designed that set.

James Marsden, going from one comics publisher to another, plays Richard, who is absolutely the Guy Too Good to Be True. His character, starting off with being gorgeous, athletic, rich, talented and employed, goes through emotional strains during the course of this film which not only render him completely sympathetic, but also worthy of respect and admiration for his strength of character. Anything more would be spoilery, and there might be someone else out there who hasn't seen this and wants to.

There's other little touches, like Jimmy's bowtie; Clark's reaction when he drops his eyeglasses while helping Lois pick up her spilled purse; what Clark (Kal) says to Jason at the end of the movie; Parker Posey's performance as henchwoman Kitty, just in general; Noel Neill's cameo at the beginning of the film; the laws of physics as applied to aircraft — the scene-stealing David Fabrizio as 'Brutus'; AND, OMG, Sir Richard Branson as a shuttle astronaut! (I thought there was something unusual about that beard.) Totally engaging.

Superman Returns has all the heart in it that X-Men 3 did not, and it all has to be due to the presence of Bryan Singer. Let's keep him around for a LONG time, please.

LJ-cut for the HTML table, because they freak out some Flist styles. I've got one in here expressly for firedrake_mor; and one because _audrey just keeps getting BETTER and better; and even though I still do not have a decent 'mystery' icon, at least I have a Wild Wild West one - I'm probably going to use the animated one, but I share.

  ( Table o' icons! )

Special annotation for Yvonne: The grammar icon's just text, but it's quite amusing. The different frames read as below:
* A populace is what makes a kingdom populous
* "Your stupid"? My stupid what?
* Your throws of ecstacy send me into throes of amusement
* Never enter your PIN number on an ATM machine. You could get the HIV virus.
* You can defuse a bomb. But diffusing it might be a bad idea.
* If you really did have baited breath, you would smell rather fishy.
* I before E except after C or when sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh. Unless it's weird.
* Your is not mine. You're means you are.
* Thru is only a word if you're referring to getting a hamburger in your car.
* Rouge is a color. A rogue isn't.
* Per se means of itself. Per say is only how you pronounce it.
* A horde is a large group, often unruly. To hoard is to gather, and often references dragons.
* Fire is fiery. Burn all misspellings.
* Et cetera does not abbreviate to ect., ecc. or et. Etc.
* E.g. means for example, and i.e. means that is. I.e., always be correct.
* You should definitely spell definitely definitely.
* If you had a D, you wouldn't deserve congratulations.
* A lot is two words. Allot means to distribute.
* The two-N canon, that's official/The three-N cannon shoots a missile/But any more goes far past fanon/There isn't any four-N cannonn.

Exhibit 4: the couch
I told them EXPRESSLY...!


But if you have the bandwidth/patience for it, you gotta look at this:

Mob the Boxer: The Movie!
4.6Mb of 90-degree-skewed canine cuteness (tilt your head or monitor to your right). MOV format, so QuickTime will play it.


Meanwhile, I am totally not watching the Oscars. It feels unnatural.

The other day I saw a man, in suit and tie, noodling around the credit union's car park on a skateboard. He also apparently was talking on his mobile phone at the same time. It was the suit part that really made me grin.


Meissa seems to be finally getting a clear concept of housebreaking... except, Meissa dear, when you need to go, you're supposed to poo after you get out the door, not before. But thank you for asking for 'out' anyway.


I really need to wash my hair but the puppies have used up all the towels the right size. Meh. And it's a pain anyway.


Due to the generosity of myfanwy, I've finally got around to watching Moulin Rouge!. Although there's various aspects of it that were enjoyable, as a whole it's not turned out to be a film I'm actually crazy about. Considering I love Strictly Ballroom, this was a little disappointing.

The music is anachronistic and intriguingly built. One medley covers about a half-a-dozen pop hit from over the past decade or two, including something from U2. A few minutes later, there's a snippet of filked Bowie. I knew Sting had to show up in that kind of company, and sure enough, one of the most involving scenes has 'Roxanne' remixed as a tango, roared out by a narcoleptic Argentinean character played by a Polish Australian. Now that is a medley.

The cast is excellent; Ewan's and Nicole's voices surprised everybody. Ewan especially has a sound that makes me think he'd be well-suited to Sting's catalog - there's something of that same howl in his voice. I thought both their performances were moving.

Richard Roxburgh, who I'd only 'seen' before in the abomination The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, had wonderful menace. I've heard he really fangs the scenery in Van Helsing, but gawd, who's gonna watch that for anything except mental popcorn? With the makeup he was wearing, he was actually reminding me a lot of Gary 'Wee Brun Man' Oldman somehow.

Surprisingly, I didn't recognise Faramir. *coughCOUGH*

And I really don't know of anything that a little John Leguizamo doesn't improve. No, that was not a pun. Well... not meant to be.

Art direction: only one word -- LUSH.

As to the story... well... kinda same-ol'-same-ol', in a way. It's a very old story, after all. No surprises. All in all, I didn't feel I'd wasted my time (especially when I found out Kylie Minogue was dubbed by Ozzy Osborne), but it's not something I'm interested in buying.


For some reason, I have Ghost in the Machine on my brain. For that, I proffer you a lyric:

( Omegaman )

Work, being that it's Monday, has decided to suck already.