(no subject)

On Saturdays before Dr Who, BBC1 airs a ghastly show called Strictly Dance Fever with gaudily-clad couples flinging themselves about way too energetically, and I always seem to get caught with the last couple of minutes of this whether I want to or not (except for last weekend when it was football, which was much better to my mind, but I digress...).

The show this week finished with candid video footage of the various over-energetic types being interviewed and one thing stood out for me - none of them ever said 'if I lose' or anything of that sort. It was all 'if this gets taken away from me', as if losing something because a vote went against you was some kind of personal affront and so they were determined to play on how upset they'd be to reduce the chances of people being mean to them (or that it would be some kind of personal conspiracy against them and this would be Bad and Mean as well). Of course, the way this show is pitched seems to be all about 'your favourite couple' rather than 'the best dancers' and I guess I struggle with that whole way of doing things.

I don't watch Pop Idol or any of the thousand rip-offs it's seemed to spawn so I was wondering whether this outlook is common? Is it that unacceptable now to have the level of insight that allows you to say 'well, I was good but they were better, so they deserved to win more than I did?' or is it just that the voting is so arbitrary it makes a nonsense of how good you are because if enough people like you then you'll win anyway?

E.T.A. sg1scribe reminds me that many of the self-same 'please don't take this away from me!' teenagers (and some non-teenagers) were struggling to find a reason to go on living if they didn't win. Jeez.

(no subject)

Gakked from rach74, and these are all on my computer playlist... ;)

1. A song by a Beatle/the Beatles: Help (as covered by Ben Lee)
2. A song featuring piano as the main instrument: Landed - Ben Folds
3. A song with a woman's name in the title: Penelope - Great Big Sea
4. A song with a man's name in the title: Michael - Franz Ferdinand
4a. With both: Romeo and Juliet - Indigo Girls
5. A song about money: If I Had a Million Dollars - Barenaked Ladies
6. A song with weather in the title: Dry the Rain - Beta Band
7. A song with parentheses in the title: (If You Were) In My Movie - Suzanne Vega
8. A song made by a punk band: Teenage Kicks - The Undertones
9. A song with the word "song" in the title: Pulp Song - Bloc Party
10. A song you love so much you stop and listen whenever you hear it: Sinner - Neil Finn

(no subject)

Rejoice with me, for my tealc_ficathon story is posted (even if nobody else likes it...) and all my other porn is proofread! :)

Letter meme

This is how it works: Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write ten words beginning with that letter in your journal, including an explanation what the word means to you and why, and then pass out letters to those who want to play along.

przed gave me the letter S (after I whined at her for giving me something trickier).

1. Syria. At some point I really must get my photos from my trip to Syria and Jordan scanned and inflict share them with everyone. It was about 8 years ago now, and I loved almost every moment of it. The bit I didn't like was the 24 hours or so when I had the runs and we were camped here at Qalaat Salah ad-Din.

2. Shanks (Michael). Yes, I'm a fan. And yes, I've met the guy and he's even cuter in person and his eyes are even bluer. Now he just needs to get the chance to stretch his acting wings in something other than Stargate SG-1, because while I think he's turned in some fantastic performances as Daniel Jackson, it pains me to see people who can't act anything like as well as he can doing better than he is...

3. Solo (Napoleon). I like Napoleon Solo but I'm really glad they didn't decide to make the show all about him. That would have been a mistake, since it's the relationship between him and Illya Kuryakin that makes most of the episodes. That and we probably would never have had the dancing gorilla episode and the world would be so much poorer! :P

4. Slings (and Arrows). I'd heard good things about this series but remained sceptical until I saw the first season. And I'm now one episode away from the end of season 2 and can hardly wait till my season 1 dvds arrive. So very good, such excellent performances all round.

5. Sunburn. Owww. I remember it well, falling asleep on the beach aged about 10 and waking up to discover my back felt like it was on fire. Not fun. :(

6. Stephen (Chow). What can I say about him? If your sole experience of Stephen Chow is Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer then you start to have an understanding of the man, but to my mind he's a man who was born to play the Monkey King. See also here for a genuine screencap from another movie (Royal Tramp), to see what I mean.

7. Stout (Rex). Writer of a bunch of books, occupying an entire shelf on their own in my living room. Rex Stout is, of course, the creator of the detectives Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, recently portrayed onscreen by Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton. I've been a major fan for years and have all the opus bar one book (Where There's a Will, in case anyone was wondering...).

8. Shaw (Brothers). Like my introduction to the movies of Stephen Chow, I blame blktauna for this one. See here for examples of half-naked men who die dramatically right at the end of the movie, usually together and after many long-held gazes at one another all the way through.

9. Standish (Ezra). Oh, why isn't everyone writing Magnificent 7 fic a fan of Ezra? Why would you think from a cursory inspection of the various archives that there are only three other characters (maybe four) and he isn't one of them? :( There needs to be more Ezra appreciation, since he's an entertaining character who fits my usual character-love profile: intelligent, snarky, doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve, and gosh-darned cute with it.

10. Snape (Severus). See comments re: Standish (Ezra) for details of why I was always going to be a Snape fan. Plus Alan Rickman just looks so good in black robes, swishing about the place! :)