I just discovered Daniel Silva, author of most excellent spy novels. I plan on spending the next few months popping them like cheesy-poofs.
Speaking of things that piss me off. 
I have a love-hate relationship with that site. Most of the recappers drive me up the wall…but sometimes they’re really funny! It’s usually just worth it to wade through the obnoxious nicknames, opaque references, and TV-biz know-it-all stuff to get to the two or three really hilarious insights that come out of an episode. But sometimes it’s not, and I’ve just wasted 15 minutes of my life. And the worst part is that NO ONE is ever allowed to criticize anything, so there are always pages and pages of praise showered on the recappers with no room for anyone to say, “Hey, we just want to read about the show, not your personal life. Thanks.”
Well, I started reading them lo these many years ago because I couldn’t ever remember who all those bit people on the Sopranos were, and I kept reading them because sometimes I couldn’t catch three words in ten on Deadwood. And now it’s just a habit. And the fact is, the BSG guy sometimes does have good insights. (Recaps are rarely funny unless the show sucks, I’m talking to you season 4 Buffy. Also, Project Runway used to be very funny.) But damn do I want to punch him in the face. Allow me to find a good example. I will spoiler it because I guess it does have spoilers for episode 1 of season 3, but they’re what you learn right in the beginning.
Kara looks at the needled corpse of Leoben in the night of her apartment, her eyes wet. I like to think that they had to do this not only because of the fantasy-fulfilled thing, or because of how it pushes every button you can have as the child of an abusive parent, but also because: if she were free, she’d take them all out. She’s too powerful, so she had to be taken off the board, and both Leoben Conoy and Ronald Moore know this. She could so beat all their asses, she could save everybody, if she weren’t locked up. I don’t really believe that’s true, I know it isn’t, but it’s a choice, because sometimes you have to think things that aren’t true, or else it just gets too hard. A to B to C: I love her; so she doesn’t belong here, blunted and stained and helpless; so clearly this is due to her being a superhero. If he didn’t have her locked up, she’d fly out of there like a ninja, straight to a Viper, and take them all out and beat everybody up, and then she could take everybody home, and they’d be safe forever.
See, there’s one good idea in there (“for story reasons, character reasons, and in-game real reasons, she is too powerful and must be fettered”) hidden in a lot of “throw the laptop against the wall” crap. Seriously, you are not a mad stalker and this is not your diary.
…we need a mini-MPSIMS thread too, but I’m scared to start it.
I’m casually reading through all the Batman comics and keeping a database. Some of my ‘tags’ are ‘so much for heroes don’t kill’ (mostly the really early stuff), monkeys, ‘don’t/doesn’t work that way’ (a catch-all for everything from chemicals to anatomy), stupidity, crack, ‘no one’s ever died from falling’, pirates, crossdresssing, cosplay, ‘is everyone in Gotham retarded?’, ‘never trust a clown’, ‘yay! deathtraps’
Some of my better comments on the stories:
Detective Comics #31: “battles the Monk. Brucie has a fiancee. You know she’s toast.”
Detective Comics #40: “battles Clayface. Wow Bruce’s fiancee still isn’t dead.”
Detective Comics #60: “Case of the Costume-Clad Killers (the Joker convinces crooks to indulge his cosplay fetish. Sorry Mr. J, I’m not impressed. Also Robin gives into his crossdressing fetish)”
I keep meaning to do some more MST-style commentary on them for my LJ, but I haven’t yet.
Awesome!
You know, snozzberries are almost in season.
Oh yes, just finished his last book…I’m sure more will follow.
I came in just to post about DS9, which my husband and I just finished watching for the first time. I think Season 5 and Season 6 are the best. You can’t imagine what lies ahead.
Do you have a tag for “super-morality induced collateral damage” or “Batman playing world like sick game for personal satisfaction”? 'Cause I have a few theories on the subject… 
I asked this in the Idol thread but was (justifiably) ignored. Billie Jean – is the kid his or not? Lyrics here.
What’s your interpretation? I think he slept with her and she had a child who looks like him, but he’s not the only one she slept with so he doesn’t know, and it’s killing him.
I haven’t got that far. He didn’t pull that stuff during the Golden & Silver ages. I think some of that would be covered by batdickery.
Tell me about it—I’ve got a link around here, somewhere, of Batman hanging and machine gunning people in his first appearence.
Nowadays…bah. It’s kind of like Robert Shaw’s character in Battle of the Bulge. He doesn’t want to win—that would mean he’d have to stop fighting evil. He’d lose the only purposes he’d given his life: battling his enemies, using his hard-won skills, venting his near endless rage over the loss of his happy life, and most importantly…being a hero.
I bought a used cd in a beat-up case for fifty cents. For that price, who cares if it sucks, right? It was some band I’d never heard of, but it’s a kickass little album. Turns out it’s THE Japanese punk band, the Blue Hearts. I didn’t even know they HAD punk bands!! They’re some kind of legends by now (their heyday was in the 80s) but their stuff is so hard to find that it’s making me crazy. I need more!!
My boyfriend and I watched the first few episodes of The Riches over the weekend. I think I love it. BTW - it’s on hulu.com if anyone else is interested in checking it out/catching up.
I like Ron Howard’s movies for the most part. The Divinci Code not so much.
My TV-junkfood guilty pleasure at the moment is a “reality” show on MTV called Parental Control. For those who haven’t watched it, parents who don’t like their son or daughter’s significant other each choose a blind date for their kid, then watch highlights of the date on video while trading barbs with the hated significant other. Afterwards their child must decide upon his/her boyfriend/girlfriend or one of the two blind dates.
The “witty barbs” twixt parents and significant-other have got to be the most painful moments on television, so horribly unenjoyable that I can’t not watch them when I’m channel surfing. To begin with, the exchanges are both obviously scripted and usually vocalized by a pair of parents and a significant other who would have to take 5 months of acting lessons from someone channeling the late Uta Hagen in order to be up to the caliber of most porn stars or third lead in the 10th grade play in terms of comedic timing and believability. Half the time it’s clear that the people speaking don’t even know why what they’re saying is supposed to be funny.
Secondly, the “ad libs” all seem to have been scripted by hacks who fried their brains on $2 wine and $5 acid with their last unemployment check after being fired from Family Matters or The Nanny- just bloody dreadful. In terms of biting wit and spontaneity Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (by Tyler Perry) with special guest star Tyler Perry look like Arrested Development. The show is so terrible that it turns a corner and becomes almost good in spite of itself (as opposed to said Tyler Perry’s House of Tyler Perry which is so bad it’s just bad- even hardcore Madea fans seem to be turning away from that one).
Yep. Also, he’s going to deny, deny, deny until she gets that DNA test. 
This weekend, I started watching season 1 of Homicide: Life on the Streets. It was, in fact, as good as I remembered. Some of the stylistic choices get old (like the odd cuts and thrice-repeated words) but I just like that they go out on a stylistic limb sometimes. The episode I watched last night was #3, I think. It took place almost entirely inside the squad room, and there was a radio playing eerie jazz behind every minute of the episode. Weird lighting, very atmospheric. The kind of thing you don’t see much on TV, but it kept my eyes glued to the screen. And, I renewed my crush on Melissa Leo.
http://silvercat17.livejournal.com/25679.html - specifically #13 & 14. I can’t remember if 13 is from a cover or the splash page. 14 is him killing a vampire, so technically it’s okay. Sort of. As long as you don’t consider vampires people.
Robin’s first appearance - god, they kill like ten people between them. Not even by doing something as clean as shooting them - they toss them off this construction project. I feel sorry for the street cleaners in Gotham.
I saw a clip of this show on The Soup where a mother is singing for her kid and then stops and says “What, is my tampon showing?”. That is just wrong on so many levels.