Kind of a fun two weeks, more or less. A little craziness/unpredictability at work, but apart from that, eggs in the soup.

I finished up my Hula classes. They weren't a rousing success, but the few people did attend liked them enough to ask for another session. So we are planning on doing some more in the Fall.

The Wednesday after that, I went kayaking with Lady Chrysanthemum. I've never been kayaking before, and I wasn't sure if I would be any good at it. My chiropractor has a kayak, and when I said that to him he said, "Can you sit? Then you can kayak."

It ended up being really easy. We (and a few other people we didn't know,) took a sunset tour at this lake in Southold. I cannot remember the name of the dang lake. But it was pretty big, and parts of it looked a little bit like those creepy Florida waterways, with little sheds hidden in the woods on the shores. Saw a great blue heron and a kingfisher, too, which was pretty much the highlight.

I'd love to get a kayak, and you can get them second hand around here for about $50 sometimes, but I'd have no way of getting it from here to water. My car is too small for that, and the rack to put it on the car is like $700 or something. Ridiculous!

Speaking of my car, I got the bill for my last payment on it. EVER. After five years, I own my car. :) That's $364 I don't have to pay every month.

Today I went to see (F)Lawless with a girl from work. She fangirls over Tom Hardy like me, so we decided to go and fangirl together.

It was a great movie, but so violent. Like, almost realistically violent, and the sounds were pretty grotesque. I cringed through a lot of it.

Things that annoy me that didn't used to: No real awesome parts for women. Women are just kind of there for the men. I have to give some wiggle room, since it was a movie specifically about three men, and roles shouldn't be shoe-horned into stories just for that reason, and it was about the 20s-30s. It wasn't one of those froofy "Let's glamourize everything about the roaring 20s bootleggers and their world!" films either. It depicted the racism of the time. Credit for that.

Everyone was really good in it. Even Shia LeBeouf or however you spell it, whom I normally can't even watch. He was good. I really liked Jason Clarke, too. I keep feeling like I've seen him in a million things, but when I go to his page, I can't find anything I recognize. Same with Guy Pierce, although I have seen LA Confidential enough that he'd stick with me. He was properly hideous. And his stupid hair, OMG.

I actually liked Tom Hardy's accent in this. When he was Bane, I was a little put off by whatever the hell thing he did with his voice. But here, I thought he was right on.

OMG I can't say enough about him. He does that scary thing with his eyes and I really like it when he's scary. I don't understand how people's clothes don't just fly off of them when they do a scene with him. My clothes would fly off. Just being honest here. If I was in a scene with Tom Hardy, my costumers would he working around the clock. "Oh no, did her clothes burst off of her again? Jesus christ."

It was a tad predictable in some ways (I knew who was going to die, just because that's the kind of character who always dies. But TBH I couldn't guess who was going to live.)

Welp, I'd definitely watch it again.

Oh, today's labor day, that's why I was off and going to the movies instead of work. Work tomorrow, though, 1-5. I know that seems like such a short day to everyone else, and it is. But it's about normal for massage therapy. :)

Well, here it is, September 3rd. Time to start thinking about Halloween, a little? I think so. :)

A few days ago I posted to Tumblr a little thing about how Loki Laufeyson is like Raistlin Majere of Dragonlance. It got some reblogs and a little bit of meta about whether or not Loki is redeemable or if such a thing would mess up his character. And elsewhere, I saw some questions regarding the same thing.

So I decided to merge Fangirl Me and English Major Me to write up a little something-something about the idea.

The easiest answer to this question is, Yes, of course Loki is redeemable, because all movie/comic/literary/other fictional villains are. If you can bring Darth Vader back from the Dark Side, you can bring anyone. (And what was his punishment for all of his wrongdoings? His Force-ghost getting replaced with Hayden Christensen. All right, yeah, I guess that is kind of harsh.)

But of course, there are lots of different canons when it comes to Loki, and as many different interpretations, too. Sure, Loki is sympathetic and can be redeemed (if not become a "Good Guy,) but in what contexts? And how? And why do we want that, or not want that? And if that is what we want, what must his punishment be, first?

First context: The real world. Since Loki doesn't exist in the real world, why even bother asking this? Because I want to make it clear that we're discussing fiction, and that in real life, this crap don't apply.

Second context: Norse Legends. This is a weird one, because the legends are so bizarre. But we have to say, of course Loki is redeemable in Norse legends, because the Æsir keep taking him back anyway. In this context, Loki (a fire-god,) is just a trickster. One whose "tricks" involve setting murderous wolves on Asgard, eating people's hearts, having sex with horses and birthing mutant horse babies (and giving them to Odin, so hey, not so bad really,) and, you know, bringing about Ragnarok. So he's pretty bad, yet in the context of the mythology, he's kind of just doing what they do there. His various punishments include things like being bound with his son's innards, being chained up to rocks with venom dripping on him for millennia, and other such unspeakable tortures. That's just how they roll. And yet he's still an occasional ally to the Æsir, like when he and Thor dressed in drag together to retrieve Mjolnir. (Trying to get Thor chosen as a bride in order to infiltrate the Bad Guys: I could do a whole 'nother write-up about how much Final Fantasy VII is based on Norse mythology, but too many other people have done that already.) So anyway, yeah, in the Norse Mythology, Loki is both good and bad, and does terrible things and does good things, and has terrible things done to him, and is accepted and rejected in turns.

Third context: Marvel Comics. Let me take a moment to say, first, I'm not too familiar with the comics, so me writing about it is a little iffy.

Is Loki a redeemable villain in the world of the comics? The way that whole 'verse operates, its laws and logic and world-views? Again I'm going to have to say "Yes," for reasons similar to the Norse mythology ones. Because to me—and remember, I haven't read them, just seen a few pages—this is just how they roll. People turn bad, then good, and they do horrible things and have horrible things done to them. In a violent (fictional!) world, violence is just an accepted part of life. Like, hey, we've all killed a few people here and there, right? You pay for your sins, angst for a while, and move on. It's worth noting that the world Loki comes from in the comics is way harsher than the world of the films. And while in the film, we only see a preview of what his punishment might be (I don't want to spoil it for anyone,) it's a hell of a lot milder than ( what happens in the comic: )

Yes, I think that in this context, it is possible to not only see Loki as a redeemable character, but even to understand why he turned out the way he did. If his family is so blithe about torture-as-punishment, you sort of have to expect that kind of character development.

But the movies; now that's really what we're talking about here. The answer to "Is Movie Loki redeemable?" is as easy as it gets: Yes, of course he is. If Natasha is redeemable, Loki must be, too. She's the one who says, "But he killed eighty people in two days." Girl, your record isn't exactly pristine, either. Natasha was supposed to pay for her crimes, but was given another chance. And really, the same goes for Thor, in the first movie. Didn't he go to Jotunheim with the intention to commit genocide? Yes, he was being manipulated by Loki, but mass murder was still a part of Thor's process, and he still did kill a bunch of Jotuns who were just defending their territory when he showed up like Rambo without a jock strap. (I'm not bashing Thor, okay, I thought he was great. But this is his world-view for the first half of the film.)

But there's so much more to play around with in the movies. Would we even be talking about Loki's redemption if he hadn't been played in a specific way by Tom Hiddleston? Part of this is down to Kenneth Branagh's direction in Thor, and part of it is down to T-Hiddles' talent for conjuring empathy out of thin goddamn air. He's probably the most woobified / whitewashed character since Sephiroth, and let's not even lie about this, part of the reason is because he's pretty, and pretty people get away with more crap. All right, but he's not just pretty, he's good at it, and Branagh's decision to have him play like two-thirds of the movie with big, watery, sad eyes, always looking rejected and betrayed, has a lot to do with it.




On the other hand, Movie Loki has much less of an excuse to become a Crazy Genocidal Hate Machine than other incarnations of Loki, because as far as we can tell, he was raised in kindness, for the most part. Odin seems a decent sort (if misguided, since I believe all parents should tell their children the truth of their lives and parentage from DAY FREAKING ONE if you want to avoid major issues, okay,) and Frigga clearly loves Loki, as does Thor, in his own arrogant, overbearing way. But I mean, there are plenty of folks who find out that their families weren't what they thought they were, or who live in the shadow of their hugely popular siblings, or who are outright abused, and those people don't generally turn into Crazy Genocidal Hate Machines. But it's the movies, okay, so that happens.

Tom Hiddleston said that part of Loki's development in Avengers came while he fell to Midgard at the end of Thor. He said that Loki "saw things" that made him go mad. Okay, Hiddles, I'll accept that if you and your blue eyes say so, but Loki is still not off the hook. There are plenty of "mad" people who don't go around subjugating planets. Those who do are still generally frowned upon. "There are always men like you."

Another theory I hear around is that Loki is being manipulated by (redacted for spoilers.) Loki, the God Of Lies, being manipulated? I don't buy it. Okay, you say, but he's obviously been tortured and coerced. Well, I'm willing to give you that one. Yes, it's clear that Loki has been through some kind of horror at the beginning of the film, and there's no question that he's at least operating under the threat of torture. That scene is in there for a reason. That's not even up for debate, BUT, that only goes for him retrieving the Tesseract. The idea to subjugate Earth is his own. No one forced him to do that.

So what changed him so fundamentally? In Thor, at least in the beginning of the movie, Loki was just a bitter little brat, who, though willing to "ruin Thor's big day" (at the cost of letting a few people die,) still actually loved Thor, and his family. And even after he found out the secret of his birth, ("By the way, Loki, those really awful monstrosities that you've been taught to fear and hate all your life? You know, basically the vilest thing that exists in your world? You're one of them, sorry kiddo,") Loki still maintained that he honestly didn't want to rule Asgard. He only ever wanted to be Thor's equal. He says this, and I'm inclined to believe him because A) why even say it, at that point, when you're already seething with madness and willing to fight to the death? And B) because of the deleted scene. FFS, why did they shorten this? It's so important, and so well-acted! OMG, his face when he's offered Odin's spear. It is literally like O_o;;



He legitimately did not see this coming at all. Odin going all Odinsleep was never part of the plan, and it's like it didn't even occur to him what would happen next. He's playing Frigga a little in that scene ("How long will Odin be asleep? Why would Thor come back?") but at that moment, no one's looking at him aside from the audience. I think that's such an important part of the direction. And then once he gets the spear in his hand and Frigga says "Make your father proud," he's like, "Aww hell yeah, now it's my turn." It somewhat explains his arrogance when Sif and the rest find him on Odin's throne. "Mom told me to make Dad proud, so I'm going to act like a King to you now, with the added benefit of the power to really screw with everyone. You guys have always thought I was sly? I'll show you sly."

I think that at the end of the movie, he still loves Odin, Thor and his family, even as he resents the hell out of them. And by the beginning of Avengers, he probably still does, although by that time he's completely around the bend and in way too far over his head to admit it, even to himself. His surrender at this point would be far too costly for him in every way; the only thing he could possibly afford at this point is victory. But as Tony Stark (and another character) both tell him, victory was never an option for Loki. Logically, as Stark tells him, there is no way he can come out on top. And (redacted) tells him, even more importantly, "You lack conviction." Loki is so riddled with self-loathing, even he doesn't believe in himself.

Not that any of that excuses his actions, or the pleasure he takes in tormenting beings he thinks are beneath him. If he himself is being tortured, one would like to think that he wouldn't do it to others, and yet he's just as merciless as (redacted) have (most likely) been to him.

But at the end of the film/mythology/story/this bit of fangirl rambling, YES, Loki is still redeemable. Likable? Maybe not. A "Good Guy?" Probably not. Relatable? Maybe sort of. Sympathetic? Yes, of course, because GOOD ACTING. But will he, and should he have at least a few moments in Thor 2 to redeem himself? Of course! Everyone else gets to!

ON THE OTHER HAND, we all know what happens to villains when they get their moment of redemption, don't we? Oh yes we do. Redemption = death. So maybe it would be better for all of us if Loki stayed naughty.

I've never been good at the "in conclusion" part. Suffice to say that I might have run out of thoughts on the subject, but I have not run out of feels.

Okay, this movie was dumb and insulting, let's just get that out of the way. Two dudes stalking a woman and fighting over her like she's a piece of steak or something. And what was that ending line in "alternate ending 1?" "I'll be your bitch?" Really? And FDR was horrible. Horrible.

WITH THAT SAID, it did have some good laughs, mostly from well-timed lines and Chelsea Handler. Unless she's done something gross and creepy that I'm unaware of, I like her and think she's hilarious. She reminds me very much of a friend I used to work with, and actually, her character could have been this friend.

If it had been possible for me to ignore the sexism of the film, I would have found it really entertaining. There were parts of it that were super entertaining, in fact.

But aside from all of that, Tom Hardy. WHAT EVEN IS HE? I don't get it, I don't understand his existence. How was Reese Witherspoon not straddling him every second? How was EVERYONE not straddling him in every frame? I damn near climbed onto my TV set. I legitimately can't even look at him for too long because his face hurts my eyes. I'm being honest when I say I hope I never get the chance to meet him, because if I did, I'd probably just try to mount him and it wouldn't even be my fault. "Hi, nice to meet you, I want to hug you with my legs." Also, I'm pretty sure I would lick him.



It seems weird to me that he's a real, living person and not someone made up – and I actually feel bad about that, because I think it's horrible to misunderstand someone's humanity because you see them in movies or whatever. It's not because he's in movies, it's because HE CAN'T EVEN BE REAL. My eyes feel like the want to reach out of my head and pet him. He's so impossibly lovely with his stupid perfect nose and crooked teeth that it physically pains me to look at this bastard.



And if you disagree with me, you're wrong.





I hope I've made myself clear.

Now to catch up on everything else.

I never caught the stupid cat that killed my birds. It stayed trapped in the aviary, with a trap set for it with some food as bait. For three days, it didn't take the bait. The day of Bai Si, it somehow pushed the aviary door outwards and escaped. I still want to catch it because I still have birds in the yard. So I still have the trap, and I'm gonna set it somewhere under the bushes.

The day that it happened, I went into the aviary to take the birds' bodies out and bury them. The entire time, the cat was hissing and growling at me. I couldn't leave them in there. I buried them just outside of the aviary and put up a bird feeder at the site. That day, all three of the released birds came back to the aviary and just stood there, looking at the cat. Birds are amazing, aren't they?

Also, I got a goldfish. I was never going to get one, because they can grow to 8 inches and you can't put any other fish in the tank (goldfishes make a lot of waste,) but then I thought, you know, I see all these people keeping these really hardy goldfish, and they're so pretty and cute and they live forever. So I got a tiny little calico one and I named him The Doctor. Now, by my Mom's suggestion, the tank is called The TARDIS. Which is so hilarious.

Speaking of Dr. Who, last night I watched the tenth episode of the third season, Blink. This is, I guess, the most famous Dr. Who episode, and with good reason. It's terrifying. I legitimately had nightmares all night, about the Weeping Angels. Seriously, the entire night. Which is awesome; it's been so long since I've seen something fantastic enough to give my nightmares. This inspired me to try to do a Weeping Angel costume for Halloween. Don't know if that's going to work out or not, but I'm going to try.

Speaking of watching awesome things, I saw Warrior the other night. It was only playing in Southampton, and only for a week, so I had to run out and grab it.

Now first, the things I didn't like. Let me just get this out of the way. I hate the role of women in most American martial arts movies. All they do (in most of them) is first: try to hold the man back. "I don't want you to fight! Wah!" And then they relent, and alternately hide their eyes and cheer. That honestly sums up the characterization of all women in most American martial arts films, and this one was no exception. That really, really irks me. I'd rather, in that case, if they left women out entirely, if they're just going to delegate us to the sidelines like that.

Secondly, the ending left me unsatisfied. ( SPOILERS )

So, aside from those things, it was a really intense ride. I really liked the grappling too, because a lot of that is stuff we do in class as well. Grappling and anti-grappling, actually. They did a lot of the same exact take-downs and joint-locking that we learn. In fact, the one major arm lock that Brendan keeps doing is the one we always review in class.

Do I need to say how awesome Tom Hardy is? He's terrifying. He's actually got very few lines in this film, but he doesn't need a lot. He's just one of those actors that you can't stop watching because he's so unafraid. He doesn't care what he looks like, what you think of his character, if he's being judged. That's the best kind of acting. He just goes in and does his job, and it's 100% convincing. You forget you're watching Tom Hardy. He really is a forger.

His eyes are amazing. I'm not talking about "Oh he's so hot, he's got these big grey eyes" or anything like that. I'm talking about that thing that he does in every single movie when he's playing a scene that's any kind of cold, or distant, or angry. He's so menacing and predatory when he does that, and it gives me a shiver. I'd hate to be looked at in such a way.

Anyway, I realize its theater run is probably already over, but if you missed it, do catch it on DVD when it comes out. The performances were awesome.

All right, now I guess it's time to straighten the house a bit, clean the fish tanks (the TARDIS, I mean,) and dick around on the internet for the rest of the day.

Tom Hardy's new short film, 12 minutes long! IT IS VERY PEENFUL, you should know this.



So like I don't even have WORDS, do you understand! I laughed, I cried, I went like this


and like this


sort of like this


and like this


And I will watch it again and again! It was better than LES MIS.

Because the peen has rendered me dead! I feel like I know Tom Hardy so well now which is only appropriate since he is my husband! That's two of my husbands who like to whip it out in films and show it at varying angles and doing different things in different situations (the other being Ewan McGregor, I know what his looks like upside down, pretty much.)

I mean there was also a movie and whatnot and he's honestly I can't even make a joke about it such a terrific actor with everything he does but IT'S HARD FOR ME TO GET PAST THIS. So bear with me! Because also look at his beautiful face! That jaw? OMG, how do people get so hot?

I'm happy tonight because Tom Hardy lives on the same planet as me, at least I think he does, and this short film is like a piece of cake for me to eat.

I AM HAPPY TO HAVE SEEN THIS FILM is the gist of what you should be taking away from this post.

Yes, many ridiculous things.

I brought Haku for his re-check today. What was meant to be a half-hour visit turned into three hours as the vet decided it would be better to wrap his leg in a bandage. "Bandage" turned out to be full cast. This cast has taken about 30 points of Haku's IQ.

Chaos recently ensued (about 30 minutes ago) during feeding time at the zoo, when I had Haku's meds in one bowl and Sano's in another, and Haku jumped up like a maniac before I got the bowls down (he's not supposed to get up on his own) and then Sano came barreling toward him. I made a dive to grab Haku before he hit the floor, put both bowls down (in the wrong places-my fault,) Sano stuffed his head into Haku's bowl and ate Haku's meds. This includes Phenobarb and Cephalexin.

So, panicking, I called the vet again and they reassured me that Sano might only be mildly sedated at this point (Haku's on a relatively low dose of PB.) But the Cephalexin is a little more complicated, as it is on the list of drugs known to induce bouts of ITP in dogs who, well, have ITP. Which Sano does.

Umm, so there's that.

In less doggy news, it's snowing bitches and hos today and I'm already sick of it. I always say that I love winter, but I am beginning to rethink.

Umm, I can't stop making videos for hitrecord. I've always loved making videos but this is turning into an addiction.

Oh! In movie news, I watched Bronson last night. I'd been putting off watching it for fear that Tom Hardy in all his naked and frightening glory would somehow manage to punch me through the computer screen while I was watching. This was a very naked movie and it left my computer screen dripping in testosterone and blood and other fluids. Tom Hardy was amusing and terrifying and huge and intimidating and yes, hot. Also I would listen to him recite the phone book and it would sound like porn. But aside from that. It was the kind of film that moved slowly, that really took its time, but then all of a sudden it would come out and slap you in the face unexpectedly (except after a while you started to expect to get slapped.) There were two parts that made me go D: D: D: D: and I nearly covered my eyes. (One part was the guy in the mental hospital, OMG. I could not even. And the second part was the very end. I do not get squeamish, okay, but THIS, THIS.) I have to say that the supporting cast was also really awesome, playing with such restraint around his character which was just RRRAAWWWRRRR. Like seriously, he felt like a bomb that you just knew was going to go off every few scenes.

So that was Bronson.

Okay, so here's the other thing that's on my mind today: all these dead animals. I can't help but wish I could have a look at those birds. While I was out today, waiting to pick up Haku, I kept going over it in my head. I don't really like any of the reasons I'm hearing for all the dead birds, all at once like that. One report (with the five thousand grackles) says that they were startled up and night blind. I just can't fathom how that would mean that so many of them would die at once like that. I know grackles flock by the thousands, but still.

And it's been grackles, red-wing blackbirds, starlings, jackdaws and doves, AFAIK. Okay, so grackles do flock in ridiculous numbers, starlings less so, but not really doves and jackdaws. A few hundred, maybe.

Then I thought, well maybe they flock in greater numbers out in open fields. But if that was the case, what did they fly into?

Then the scientists were saying that blood clots had shown the force of trauma. How I wish I could take a look. Force of trauma is so clear in birds because their air-sacs break. So unless they were dead for a long enough time for them to deflate, those air-sacs would be easy to spot. Or if the trauma was so forceful and so big that it just whacked the entire bird out of the sky. I can't imagine that happening.

So I can't decide if, in my mind, it really was trauma or something chemical, the blood clots. There are some air-borne pollutants that can cause clots to form – bacterial ones, I think. But again: thousands, all at once? All in the same spot when they dropped out of the sky? IDGI. I know trauma can and does cause clots like that and all. I'd just dearly love to take a look at those bodies.

Then you have to consider the fish and crabs too, all within a few days of each other. I realize that mass deaths occur pretty frequently, but when you lump them all together like this, one kind of has to take a step back and look at the forest, you know? I think it would be foolish not to.

It's almost like a big sound wave or something knocked them out of the sky. I don't know. Imagine? Like they all flew into some invisible wall.

Still awaiting info on the fish, penguins and crabs though. I cop to being a little freaked. I'm fond of my planet and, well, birds are kinda my friends. Especially the grackles and starlings, you know? They're like the unpopular underdogs of the bird world, no one ever wants to rehab them and I just think they're fabulous beasts.

Anyway. That's what's on my mind today.

It was preposterous! I was like whaaaaaat?

But I watched it because T-hard was in it. Was this his first ever movie? Because he was just a tiny baby, not even yet buff, and he inexplicably reminded me of Blackadder. He didn't even have his grown up voice yet. Oops, I tell a lie; I see that he was in Black Hawk Down with my husband, Ewan McGregor. WTF, I saw that movie and I hardly remember it.

Anyway, T-Hard was supposed to be this badass villain, and he was portrayed all intimidating-like on the cover with a really cool knife. But in the movie he only whipped that thing out once. And he played such a sickly scared dying little boy that it was impossible to feel any kind of threatened by him or feel anything other than pity.

However he's got almost the same nose as Patrick Stewart (who, every time I see him, I can only think of him saying "I'VE GOT GIRL-BOOBS" on Family Guy.) Tom Hardy, best nose ever, seriously. And his space ship was really rad. Chicks love a guy with a sweet ride.

Then there was this robot like Bishop in Alien, and a guy named Number One which, to me, that's way better than being Number Two if you know what I mean, and Number 1 was married to some lady. Came a scene where they were about to get it on, when all of a sudden the Viceroy from Star Wars it seemed like, hooked up the gal's brain to see Tom Hardy instead of her husband Number 1 and she was all like "DAHHH, OMG NO" and I was like, Bitch seriously, are you upset about this? Come on, get real. Someone needs to hook my brain up like that.

Then there were a lot of people shooting at each other very poorly—PEW!PEW!--and only the bad guys ever got hit, and lots of people got beamed back and forth between the two space ships, and like I said, T-Hard's space ship was really sweet and looked like a lionfish.

And then T-Hard was all mad at the world and pathetic and was going to blow up the Earth and he was chargin' up his laser, and then Patrick Stewart was like "I'VE GOT GIRL-BOOBS" "No Tom, you should please not do that!" *stab stab* Then Bishop was like ZAP and everyone was all "But where was the Earth-shattering Kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!"

Then I fell asleep for a couple of minutes I guess, because the next thing I knew it was the credits.

And that's my first ever viewing of anything having to do with Star Trek. ^_^


P.S. He wore really shiny clothes too, like you might see in Velvet Goldmine.

P.P.S. Then he grew up to be Mr. Eames. BRRRRRM!" Seriously, click on that and play with it. It's insane how something so pointless can provide such repetitive fun.

Yeah, totally having to own the Wuthering Heights DVD. I watched the second half last night (with a quart of Cherry Garcia,) and I about died in many different ways.

Aside from the WTF ENDING, seriously, what the hell makes anyone think they can change Heathcliff's death?

( I tried to close his eyes: to extinguish, if possible, that frightful, life- like gaze of exultation before any one else beheld it. )

Okay, he does not pop a cap in his ass and lie there still managing to look inexplicably hot. Yeah, so aside from that. We'll just pretend that never happened.

Digression: While searching for Heathcliff's real death scene so I could C&P without having to type it all out, Google had a suggestion for me: ( No, Google, I did not! )
WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. The other thing I didn't like was that they made Linton the younger sort of likeable. In the book he was a whiny bitch.

However, the rest of it was so true to the spirit of the book that I loved, it was, yeah, a litgasm. I was so glad they gave Cathy her head-bashing cray-cray scene, and I got honestly teary-eyed into my empty ice cream vat during the "CATHERINE!" "HEATHCLIFF!" scene on the moors.

So, last post I was raving about how T-Hard had the grace and restraint to play Heathcliff with such quiet, seething menace which he can express with just his eyes. Or crushing betrayal, without even using words. And that he can gorgeously deliver dialogue that could sound dated and cheesy but instead just flows from him. He did most of the movie in a low rumble that seriously gave me a ridiculous voice kink. You know, where I get all effusive and start saying junk like "his voice is like melty dark chocolate, or a big sweater, or a stiletto through the heart" etc.

SEVEN MINUTES IN, LISTEN.



UNNNFFFF. He is just so creepy, horrible, irredeemable, but as Heathcliff should be, you have to love him anyway, even though you hate yourself for loving him, the puppy killer.

So he did most of the movie with that kind of intensity and restraint, but after Catherine dies he has a moment where he just screams and I was like, ARRRRRGGGHHH along with him.

OMG, he should be in every single movie. I mean this. Every. Single. Movie.

I don't even care that they didn't bother to age him eighteen + years through the movie, just WHATEVS, he stays beautiful, I love him at 5:00 on, or really through the whole thing:



Ahhh he's so pretty, I can't even.

So, okay, I'm done for now.

SWEET PYGMY JESUS, TOM HARDY AS HEATHCLIFF.

I've been jonzing to look at something else with T-Hard in it, since Inception and RockNRolla. Inception, which was really kind of just nifty for me, obviously ate my entire soul with its glorious cast, enough to make me fanpoodle. RockNRolla, tons of fun. Tom Hardy, sex even when he's camwhoring like a moron.

Wuthering Heights, I say without shame, is one of my favorite books ever written. So rarely done well on screen.

Thank you for not making Heathcliff some sympathetic victim. He killed puppies, okay, let's not get too far away from that. And while I can totally do without puppy-killing in a movie, I mean, the fact remains that Heathcliff was really kind of a monster. Obviously he didn't have too much of a choice and all (if you go by cycles of abuse and the nonexistent recourse that abused people had in that setting) but seriously: unrepentant.

OMG, thank you, T-Hard, for giving Heathcliff such quiet menace and thinly controlled rage, unnnnnffff, thank you for not having to yell and scream in order to convey that kind of wrathful heartbreak that we all wish we could act on. Umm, sometimes.

I think it's sad that people miss the point that Wuthering Heights makes about the cycle of abuse, the idea of which was so ahead of its time. It saddens me that people just see it as some kind of early romance novel. The book was so difficult, brutal and heartbreaking. And so, at its heart, about child abuse. (I'm getting repetitive; sorry. It's late? Long, emotional day, topped by this film?)

I remember my professor from college, she was mad awesome and I valued her so much, and her opinions which I either agreed with naturally or quickly adopted, because she was just right most of the time and because she had such passion for literature. We used to have these endless conversations about the assigned books, in her office or after class, and one time she had a tea party at her house where a bunch of other English majors sat and geeked out for hours. We'd hang around and talk about who we'd cast as our heroes and villains.

Once, she told me that she could only picture Catherine as me, since she'd met me. Another professor disagreed, saying I wasn't insane enough. (He was lovely, I doted on him. But he didn't quite get me. ;D ) In fact when she said that, we were discussing the scene where Catherine flips her crap and starts bashing her head in (I haven't seen that part yet; the movie is a two-parter and I really, really hope they go there.)

I know I could never do any kind of justice to something like that, but it was fun to speculate. Catherine was insane; she was so maladjusted, manic, depressive, violent. My professor's favorite line in the book was when Catherine says, "I am Heathcliff. Like, she's so passionate it consumes her entire identity.

I remember another student positing that Catherine and Heathcliff had never banged, because, she said, if they had, "The moors would have caught fire!" I begged to differ; of course they banged, jesus. It's not like they were just crushing on each other.

I'm not yet sure how I feel about Charlotte Riley as Catherine, though. She's beautiful and has the best hair I've ever seen. The costume design they did for her was pretty cool. But she came across as kind of funky, edgy and free-spirited, rather than the BITCH CRAZY I've always preferred her. Why do we not push the envelope with Catherine? Though like I said, I haven't yet watched part two. She's still got time to be all head-bashing and baby-shaking. (Although, they gave the head-bashing scene to Heathcliff already, so.)

UNNNNNNGGGG Tom Hardy is so hot and scary in this. He plays it real quiet but that makes him more intimidating. He's all "Beeatch you'd better get used to appeasing me" and I'm all, homeboy I'd appease you like a screen door in a hurricane, shyeeet.

One other thing I notice about this is how easy it would be to get the dialogue all damn wrong. When you read it on the page, it could easily come across as stilted and false. This movie suffers no such flaw. It just flows. There's something about—yes--Tom Hardy's delivery that's really, really simple.

If anyone here hasn't heard him speak, do so.

Anyway, I am so floored when people make acting seem so effortless. You have to be really unselfconscious, that's for sure. I mean you totally have to utterly, without reserve, completely not care wtf anyone thinks of you at any time, ever. I hope that by my use of many adverbs you can understand how true that is. It seems such a simple thing, but it isn't: to let go of that "but what if someone judges me?" and "how do I look when I say or do these things?"

(This is why I could never really act. Not in a dramatic role, I mean. Making people laugh or whatever, that's different. When they laugh, it's because you're doing it on purpose. Umm, my own issues. Anyway.)

Okay, I've already gone on like thirty paragraphs longer than I meant to. This has made me want to dig up the paper I wrote on this book. I know it's in a drawer somewhere with the rest of all my damn papers I wrote for my BA.

So, yeah, Tired!Effusive!me has gone on way too long.

Everyone should look at Tom Hardy. I want to share him like Christopher Nolan seems to want to. He's brilliant, to use an already overused word for actors. No, but he really is.

This past week was a mixed bag. First thing I need to get out of the way is that last night I lost my beautiful white betta, Leon the Magnificent. I couldn't be more bummed. He had looked thin to me, and I called this local fish expert who informed me that either: Leon had too much competition for food (he didn't; he ate tons of food every day,) or he possibly he had fish TB. Which is the same as people TB and just as contagious, and zoonotic. Third option, he was just old. Since it's impossible to know how old a betta is when you get him, I guess it could have been that, too.

But, I loved my beautiful Leon and I really miss him. I wish I could for once get a nice hardy betta. All my other fish are thriving (knock on wood.) I test the water every week and I do weekly water changes. The water is perfect, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Sad sad.

The beginning of the week was actually quite a treasure. My uncle (Dad's brother,) aunt and cousin from upstate came down for a rare visit, and stayed for two days. My cousin is just a few years older than I am and we always have a good time. Plus, my uncle's cheerful ways are a lot like my Dad's, so it was nice to be around that again. We spent the two days—Mom, me, and the three of them—going all over the North Fork to various vinyards and veggie/fruit stands for pumpkins. And I got to pet goats. It's been a long time since I've been around farm animals. I know that sounds rally weird, but it's true; I love to be around different sorts of animals and I have really missed chickens, goats, sheep, turkeys and such. I pet a sheep and goat for a long time and I can still smell goat once in a while. O_O Not sure that's a good thing though.

( TONS OF PICS. )

Haha. ^_^;;

Then we went to Halloween Town (a disappointing store) and I bought a few H-ween decos. That always makes me stupidly happy.

Wednesday night was the "Harvestest Moon," the full moon on the equinox. I missed the actual moonrise over the water by about a half an hour because I fail at military time. :/ meh.

But I went to the beach anyway and snapped a few pics.

( Harvestest moon )

I really like that last one.

Then I saw the movie "Watching The Detectives" and oh, wow, how inane. I mean, I'd hit Cillian Murphy like the fist of an angry god just as hard as the next person and yeah he can turn out a performance and all, and I totally love Lucy Liu, but WOW, it was seriously a waste of nearly two hours. For most of it I was just "COME ON NOW, REALLY?" Seriously, even his prettiness didn't make it worth it - and that's saying a goddamn lot.

However I did finally learn the origin of my new favorite I AM FRUSTRATE .gif:



The .gif is better than the movie.

Oh, do you guys wanna see something else I did?

Well you'd have to go here, because I can't embed it! It got 24 recommends and 9 comments. I was pretty happy!

The rest of the week was much the same as usual: School, Kung Fu, pick Jo-chan up, clinic. And tomorrow is work, and Sunday is work.

Yup, that about covers it!