Sunday, February 15, 2009
February 15, 2009: Assorted thoughts
Following up on Monday Music now!
Cilhili's album is out, apparently, and she's got a few new songs up. First is "Happy Without the Boy." The lyrics here are the main focus. Frankly, they terrify me. Part of me thinks they're implausible - would someone who throws parties by herself really accumulate this many rumors? - but part of me suspects they're all too true.
The other is "Looking for Attention," an anthem of sorts. Everything's bare-bones; really, it's vocals (and then a chorus of them) and handclaps. Thematically it's similar to the last song, but it's a theme I can get behind. People could do a whole lot worse than to be one of Cecilia Nordlund's characters.
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On Friday night I watched Dollhouse, figuring that if I liked Firefly I might as well watch this. Not to mention the whole time-slot-of-death aspect.
How disappointing. I was iffy on the premise and this didn't do much to improve my opinion. It's a pilot, but still. A few notes:
- Cool it with the damn fanservice. Just...cool it. If you want to give Echo the personality of a generic party girl, fine, but that doesn't mean you have to thrust the camera up her legs every five seconds. Not even going to touch the ads. I'm not sure how much is Fox and how much is truly intended, but it's seriously clouding the message.
- I eagerly await Adelle's acquisition of a personality that is neither "ice queen" or "ice queen - but wait, she secretly has a heart!"
- Being aware that you're using stereotypes doesn't fully excuse you from using them. Every personality that goes into Echo's brain is a stereotype, but even so, it still comes off as a MTV show wedged up against an episode of CSI (complete with the little girl who gets kidnapped!). Not everyone is an Active, after all. They don't get excuses.
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Read two more books. It's going slower than I thought. Some initial scattershot thoughts:
The Changeling - Joy Williams: Beautiful language. Dense. I need to go back and reread the last chapter instead of letting it wash over me and whiz by me. It's pure un-narrated sense, that's what it is; dipping into the pool of images for one glorious stretch.
Ibid - Mark Dunn: Not as good as Ella Minnow Pea but enjoyable in its own way. Plenty of historical jokes and such. I suspect it'll be good for spot reading in the future.
Next up are Little, Big by John Crowley and Not Wanted On The Voyage by Timothy Findley. I can't remember how the first made it onto my Amazon wish list - it's about fairies, which is good enough for me - but the second gave a title to a track off Christine Fellow's Nevertheless, which is enough recommendation. The first page was excellent, for what it's worth. (I cheated and read it out of order.)
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