A 'what have I been up to' post

[tenaya]

Escapade was great, but I'm still working on a con report.

Domestic details:
Cutiepie the raccoon is here most nights. In fact, soon after dusk I spotted her totally relaxed laying on her back with her feet up in the air. She just rolled back and forth as her attention and questing fingers shifted between potted plants and paving bricks. There was ruckus a few hours later. From the panicked yipping it sounded like a puppy was being attack; it was actually 2 raccoons in a 'fight.' I think she'd probably cornered one of last year's litter over by the face and was telling him to clear off. I've heard/seen raccoons really fight and it's pretty alarming; strong, fast and snorting/snarling like bears.

Big Reg is back on pills twice a day. He was acting odd, so we had him tested. He is negative for the cryptococcus titer (yay!), but has ulcers in his mouth and needs his teeth cleaned. He's on an antibiotic and anti-histamine for some reason. It's anti-itch but also increases appetite. He's 18.5 pounds; he doesn't need to eat any more! He's also 12.5 years old, but his pre-op lab work came out okay, the vet said. He's fine, but I'm anxious. What would I do if I didn't have Sir Purr to fret over? He's scheduled for surgery on Monday.

Scooter is fine. Brindle hasn't savaged us in a couple of weeks. Yee haa!

I took a few packages to the post office to mail and guess who was loitering about outside the place? Yes, it was Garage Guy! I waited til he looked away, backed out of my parking space and drove off without going in. I didn't think he spotted me, but then we did have a hangup call a few hours later (and we haven't had them for weeks now.)


Peter Wingfield on Smallville. That was a nice little treat. He was underused and I wish there was more interaction between him and Lex, but it was nice to see him again. I got a kick out of the fact that his character was a bouncer in a club called Kronos. I wonder if the club logo has four horsemen in it. *g*

I've now seen two eps of House. It is entertaining and well worth watching.

I must admit I got a big kick out of this week's Lost. Hurley...who would have thunk that was his story?! Very imaginative. I adored how he handled 'the French chick!' Very, very fun.

Stargate. I was out doing errands when SG aired (we were going to watch Reckoning 1 & 2 back to back, on Tivo.) I stepped into the house and Mom looked accusingly at me. "Daniel's in a very bad way again! I think he's dead." She won't watch Meridian and I forgot to warn her that Daniel was going to die again in this ep. She was quite cross that he died again. She thinks the writer's have it in for him; she's 72 & draws her own conclusions.

Anyway, I quite liked that Jack was fretting/angsting quietly over Daniel. I felt that while Jack made a point to absolve Carter from any responsibility for whatever had happened to Daniel, that last look he gave her as she walked away looked like he did blame her on an emotional level. I'm really not feeling the shippy vibs in this ep even though they have Carter in multiple scenes with Jack in her muscle shirt. Funny how Jack and Daniel had no scenes together in this ep, yet those two characters had the only teamy connection I could sense.

I loved that Daniel was able to take control of the Replicators and do onto RepliCarter what she was doing to him. There was a throw away line that Jacob and Sam couldn't figure out how Daniel had organized his notes; that made me think of how DaVinci's notes are difficult to decipher. I'm sure the writers were actually just using the remark to stall the solution to the plot complication, but I think it works well to hint that Daniel has a lot of outside the box reasoning. Of course, the notes were there to help them decipher Ancient, so his notes should have been more like a dictionary....

Jack's "blast" door remark was great. It was good seeing the leadership, the shooting, the decisions...the snark was good, too, if oot a few times. At least he wasn't playing the fool. AND...he did admit that he thinks Thor has a cute butt. I loved how he said Siler's name with lots of emotion.

Teak'c. I like his alieness, and I want him to succeed with the Jaffa rebellion, but I don't care for him as much as I usually do when he's surrounded by Jaffa. Strangely, he works best for me as within SG-1. I wonder why?

I like Replicarter better than Carter. I like the confidence and, like all good villians, she believes in what she is doing (even if it's e-ve-il.) Sam's reaction shots, on the other hand, are getting as annoying as Lana Lane's. The chin thrust paired with the opening of the lips, that little headbobbing/gulping thing...once you you let something get to you, it's like fingernails on a chalkboard (are their chalkboards anymore???)


I need to rewatch Atlantis as we had drama going on during it. It looked interesting and I did like last week's ep. I loved Carson's and Zelenka's taped messages. The show is coming together better.

Oh, try out: http://www.20q.net/ It's a 20 questions site and a good way to waste some of those micro moments when you're waiting for something else to occur on the computer.

Comments

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

"The chin thrust paired with the opening of the lips, that little headbobbing/gulping thing"

Chin thrust! That's what I forgot. There are two main Carter reaction shots: the gulp/chin thrust combination, and the wide eyes. Sometimes, there are different combinations, so you'll get a chin thrust with wide eyes, or wide eyes with a gulp, but that's pretty much it. There used to be more reactions, but I suspect various directors have decided what they like over the years and that's what they always get now. That would have to be part of a SG-1 drinking game.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

I think that's one reason why I liked RepliCarter was she didn't do any of those expressions. Wide eyes! *shudders* Isn't it a little embarrassing as an actress to be so limited and predictable? Good God, if that was in a drinking game, we'd all be stewed after one semi-long Carter scene!

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if it's AT that's limited, or if it's what's asked of her on this show. I've seen her in something else, and I don't remember those kinds of reactions - she seemed much more natural.

I've heard directors talk about AT's reactions, and how they like going to her. I can't remember where - perhaps on a DVD commentary. I laughed at the time, because it made the commentator seem a bit daft - had he not actually looked at what he was getting? On the other hand, commentary on the Without A Trace S1 DVDs mentions how they love to go to Eric Close (Martin Fitzgerald) for reactions because he's always absolutely in the moment. They showed various examples, and they're right - each reaction is different and suits the scene.

I think it might have something to do with them never taking a step back to take an objective look at what's being produced. And I do wonder if AT watches the episodes - does she see that kind of predictability? Maybe they assume it's a part of Sam's character that she doesn't have much versatility in terms of responses - have they been trained out of her?

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

I've not seen her in anything else. I thought she did pretty good in Entity and fair in Singularity (a little over the top, but not too bad.) I think she's become comfortable if not a bit lazy. And you're right the directors could be partially responsible, particularly if they adore that wide eyed doe-eyed reaction (which I think at least PDL said he loved.) It could have been trained out of her, but surely there must be variations on a theme. I don't feel like she is 'in the moment' as you mentioned with Without a Trace.

Speaking of which, I did not know there was commentaries on those. Now I have to buy them. Whoohoo! Thanks!

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

I hope you got some pix of Cutiepie in that position! I can't believe it...missed opportunity again! I was with sheepsclothing tonight (dinner at the King's Head, and the Welsh Choir concert), and while we were eating, I said, hey, I can give you the peanuts, which are still in my trunk...and of course, forgot to do it...again. Argh!

Hope Reg is okay. My kids were doing their best to totally show off for sheepsclothing. They're certainly not shy around company!

[ashton7.livejournal.com]

Wah!!! We missed seeing Peter on "Smallville." I set the DVR to record it and it didn't. I think it was because the unit was too full because right after that I got a message for another show that it didn't have space to tape. Strangely, though, it didn't give me the message for "Smallville." If it had only warned me, I would have turned off the recording of 'Lost" that it does automatically every week. I just let it run and then erase it if we don't need it.

"Atlantis" *was* good this week. I think it's one of my favorite episodes. Definitely good for a *clip* show!

[ashton7.livejournal.com]

There are two main Carter reaction shots: the gulp/chin thrust combination, and the wide eyes. Sometimes, there are different combinations, so you'll get a chin thrust with wide eyes, or wide eyes with a gulp, but that's pretty much it. There used to be more reactions, but I suspect various directors have decided what they like over the years and that's what they always get now.

I find now that I can't ignore the reaction shots, either. Even in the older episodes when I see them. They just stand out for me and they *are* more frequent these days. The gulping really gets to me. Although it seems like the Doe Eyes and the close-ups on them have been *finally* given a rest.

[ashton7.livejournal.com]

I think it might have something to do with them never taking a step back to take an objective look at what's being produced. And I do wonder if AT watches the episodes - does she see that kind of predictability? Maybe they assume it's a part of Sam's character that she doesn't have much versatility in terms of responses - have they been trained out of her?

I've really started to wonder, too. That's why I often say that they need some new *directors*. They've used some different ones on "Atlantis" last year -- some good ones, some that I even remember from "Highlander" days. I like Martin Wood and Peter DeLuise as directors but I think they get in a rut. They are used to working with these actors and these characters and they don't ask them to stretch or do things differently. They just coast along doing the same sort of shots and same things and letting the actors do the same things. I find it amazing the way they focus on AT so much with the close-ups and for reaction shots and just *ignore* all of the other characters so often. It's *boring* because, as you say, she never changes the reactions to suit. She just gulps a lot and raises her chin and sticks it out. If you look at older episodes, *all* of the actors got reaction shots and close-ups much more often.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

Atlantis was written by Carl Binder, a writer with 20 years experience according to tvtome.com. Since the SG writers have made no bones about hating to write clip shows, I'd bet a lot of money that they assigned this to him to get out of the job themselves. What is really cool is how good it turned out. So much cool character details and some really good conflict between Shepard and Teyla. I hope the others took notes on what a little creativity can accomplish. *g*

Too bad about SV. He was just the villian and didn't get as much screen time as he deserved. There was one shot that I thought, "Oh! Methos is in Smallville! Cool!" You'll have to grab it on the repeats, for sure.

How many hours does your dvr have on it?

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

By the time I grabbed the camera, she was just laying on her side. She looks very ordinary in those shots. Later on, I took a non flash photo of her, a skunk and a opossum all within touching distance of each other as they ate kibble. A flash would have just reflected off the glass door. It's very dim but visible. I'm going to have to master a photo program and get smaller sized photos up so you can see this stuff.

The peanuts...I think I'm just going to have to come down there for fish and chips, you know. Oh, the things I do for my varmits! *g* Besides, I need to see these kids of yours.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

Whoa! There aren't episode commentaries on the WAT DVDs. There are extras, though, and they're worth watching, certainly - how the show is made, and how the actors were chosen for the characters. But it's not like SG DVDs.

However, I think everyone should own WAT DVDs just because it's an excellent show *g*

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember something about how MS had to learn about reaction shots, as he hadn't really had that kind of thing in theatre. But his were always pretty varied, I thought. CJ's were very similar, but often so subtle they're brilliant. And AT used to have more variety. I'm sure she did.

You might be right about new directors. Although, it might also be down to the final edit that chooses Sam shots over other shots.

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

My mom really gets a kick out of hearing about the adventures of all your critters. I managed to print out some photos once and send them to her.

I'd love to have you come over. Ask sheepsclothing, my kids were, surprisingly, soooo not shy. They were ignoring me and clambering for attention from the 'new lady'.

Let me know some weekends when you're not working.

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

LOL, I was going to say that was a typo, they were CLAMORING for attention, but I realized that clambering was an apt decription in this case, because they were climbing her like mountain goats!

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

Very true. It's nice to know the behind the scenes people appreciate Eric Close. I know I appreciate him...though probably not in the same way as they do. *g*

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

I thought clambering was the exact word you wanted. I could see it. Have you been over at her house and had Willem 'groom' your hair? I squeal like a little sissy girl when he does that. *g*

We'll have to compare schedules. It might be a few months as I've got a lot of irons in the fire til about JUNE! *g*

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I appreciate him in lots of ways. It's rare to see an actor who can convince me s/he's a different person. I usually see Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt or Julia Roberts on screen, rather than their characters. EC is one of the few who can convince me he's someone else, and it's fascinating to watch. Mag7 is one of those shows I stare and just can't see the actor at all. I try hard, but I can't do it.

The other thing that convinces me is when an actor cries in-character. If he can draw me in, he's good - that includes MS, EC, and the chap who plays Jack on WAT. It doesn't usually include those who are paid tonnes of money to make big screen films - finding a good actor amongst those people takes effort, IMO. That test isn't limited to male actors, though - females don't often convince me with their crying.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that you and your mom likes the stories. You know that only encourages me, right?

Well, Reg was just sent off to the vets to have his teeth cleaned. Poor thing was shivering, but still walked cooperatively into his travel cage. He is such a sweet creature. I have to try to sleep as I work tonight but I'm worried, worried, worried.

He'll be okay and come home feeling better.

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

Haven't met her kids. We might hook up to go to the Cairo Festival thingy. I've never been, but had thought about going before. So I might see her place then. Every once in a while my previous kitty, Brat, decided to chew my hair when I was using hair spray. It was the weirdest feeling/sound!

I bought a hilarious little book called "Bad Cat" - 244 pix of very naughty kitties looking evil, with funny captions. The author's web site is www.mycathatesyou.com

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

Do consider yourself encouraged! ;-)

My kids could use a teeth cleaning too, I'm sure. I'm not really worried about it at this point, though, because their major diet is dry food, so that's better, tooth-wise, than if they ate only canned food. But they are both now (gasp!) 'middle-aged', so it's something for me to think about.

I hope you're going to pamper Reg tonight. Lots of extra luv and his favorite goodies?

[sheepsclothing.livejournal.com]

I remembered the peanuts...on the way home of course! LOL!
After being told that the fur children would be a bit shy, they immediately went to great trouble to prove that they were, in fact, anything but!

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

Maybe they're turning into party animals! ;-) A few Whisker Lickins and they'll do anything. Mreowwww?