Byronic Heroes, Fandoms, and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Benedict Cumberbatch.

I love this name. I could say it all day.

I first saw this actor in a film called Creation, which features Paul Bettany as scientist Charles Darwin. I had no idea what Cumberbatch looked like, who he was or really anything about anything and so I don't remember what part he played; I just saw his name in the credits and I was like, "Sweet ass name! I wish I could use that in a book. But probs can't; 'cause he's famous."

Seriously, I am so cute and dumb sometimes in my cluelessness. Actually just dumb.

And then I got a Tumblr and then I realized Benedict Cumberbatch is in fact very, very famous and plays Sherlock Holmes on the BBC show Sherlock. And then I realized that I cannot believe that a TV show, portraying Sherlock Holmes in the modern age, has been on for two seasons and I was just now realizing it existed (in my defense, it's a BBC show. And I don't have cable. Or live in the UK). So I of course had to watch it. Which I did, very luckily finding the first episode, "A Study in Pink" on PBS (for free! You go, PBS).

OH. MY. GOD. I know people on Tumblr obsess of this show like there's no tomorrow. And now I see why. IT IS INCREDIBLE. Seriously, I feel like someone reached into my head, dug around for how I envisioned Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, put them in the 21st century and made it all PERFECT.

I know, I know. I'm being a total fan girl after seeing only one episode. I'd apologize but I'm not sorry. However, I would like to explain that this all has a perfectly understandable source. His name is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. And created the first fandom.

You see, back when Doyle (WHO WAS SCOTTISH!!!)'s stories first came out in the late 1800s via serial magazine, people got pretty attached. I mean, I think it's perfectly understandable: Holmes is logical, able to solve any case, eccentric, and totally BAMF. Also, he's not so perfect - he's got a bit of a drug habit, is arrogant, not so tact, and admits himself that if things were different, he'd probably be a serial killer. Clearly, the public then agrees with me - Byronic heroes are FUCKING AWESOME.

But the Doyle got tired of writing about Sherlock Holmes. So, trying to write himself out of this quandary, he decided to pen a story in which Holmes is killed by his nemesis, Moriarty. If your favorite character has ever died in any TV show/movie/novel, you can imagine how people reacted.

They, of course, flipped a bitch.

So Doyle had no choice but to resurrect the brilliant Holmes and cleverly find a way he could have survived. And there you have it - the first fandom.

You can probably see why I like Holmes, what with my penchant for Byronic heroes. He's tied with Edward Rochester on my list of hottest fictional characters ever (but I didn't just admit that). Add that to murder mysteries meets science and logic pre-CSI and it is pretty much the most fantastic thing ever. I have read every one of these stories/books twice (except for "A Study in Scarlet," which I just reread a week or so ago, so that makes that one three times read). I've been a total Sherlock Holmes geek since I was 15 or so, and I love how popular Holmes has become (again) in the last few years. I mean, there's a Holmes museum here at the U! (why in Minnesota, I've no idea, but I really have got to check it out some time). Plus there's the Robert Downy Jr/Jude Law Sherlock films, which are pretty good, and a Masterpiece Theater movie with Rupert Everett I saw ages ago which was good too. But I think Sherlock hits the mark best: yes, it's modern, but something about the dynamics between Holmes and Watson, the way the mysteries unfold, the vibe of the tale - it just works. And the way it reflects the original stories is very, very clever.

Also, I feel I am being slowly sucked into the legions of fan girls swooning over Benedict Cumberbatch, obsessing over his eyes, his cheekbones, and declaring that they will marry him (because, somehow, unlike most celebrities fan girls pine after, he is not married). I'm sorry you have crazy fan girls, sir, but you're gorgeous, you're talented, and your voice... Your voice... Here is how Urban Dictionary describes it:

he...has a gorgeous voice 'like a jaguar hiding in a cello'

This is not a lie. Seriously. He's got the same sort of vocal timbre that Alan Rickman has. Which is pretty much amazing.

So there you go: between Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Sherlock, I think I should have enough Byrnoic heroes to obsess over for quite some time. And another British actor to add to my list of favorites - seriously, like 85% of that list contains British or Irish actors. That should tell you something, Hollywood :P (Am I still passively-aggressively upset that Michael Fassbender didn't get nominated for an Oscar and this year is Gary Oldman's first EVER nomination? Oh yeah). But I digress.

Moral of the story: Watch Sherlock. And help me come up with ways in which to say Benedict Cumberbatch in everyday conversation. Because I really freaking love his name.

RIP Megavideo

http://phandroid.s3.amazonaws.com

I was very distraught to find late last week that Megaupload (and thus Megavideo, the awesome not-totally-legal source that allowed me to watch three seasons of Torchwood and one season and three episodes of season 2 of Doctor Who) had been shut down.

I can't even blame SOPA. Because SOPA didn't pass Congress. So this whole thing was just an unfortunate timed thing. Which makes me very very very sad. There goes the rest of Season 2 of Doctor Who. There goes my chance to watch Sherlock and Modern Family this semester. Can't the government deal with more important things than internet piracy right now - like, I don't know, the ECONOMY? - and let college students like me (who actually MUST watch TV for a class this semester, thanks guys) continue watching things we love and adore but can't get on American TV? Is it really THAT big of a threat at the moment?

Whatever, guys. Whatever. I'm just going to keep mourning here and complaining for a few minutes longer. Before you guys do something else more important and ridiculous to piss me off. Which you will. 'Cause your politicians.

Wow, I just figured out what to be pissed about next - I'm getting jaded. And cynical. The two things I refuse to become. Grrrrr.... I shall not give in. I shall not become a cynic! Because... well, this:

http://randomoverload.com

 

 But personally, I like this best:

http://www.jarche.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/cynic-460x361.gif

Girls who like Boys who like Boys who don't like Bachmann

Here I am, trying so hard to NOT write another "I hate Michele Bachmann so much" post but have epically failed. I mean, things started off better. I was actually going to write about something I disagreed with in The Advocate. But then Rick Perry pissed off the world,  and I was going to start off there. But then [Львица] stumbled across this. And of course, it was back to Bachmann.

Here's the section I found appalling:

Bachmann warned The Lion King was Gay Propaganda: At the November 2004 EdWatch National Education Conference, Bachmann said the “normalization” of homosexuality would lead to “desensitization”: “Very effective way to do this with a bunch of second graders, is take a picture of ‘The Lion King’ for instance, and a teacher might say, ‘Do you know that the music for this movie was written by a gay man?’ The message is: I’m better at what I do, because I’m gay.”

Basically, I'm going to let Stewie Griffin say what I feel about that. Because words alone aren't going to cut it.

 

I actually forgot that the quote ended that way until I made the pic. Thank you, Stewie, for creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bachmann's attempts to keep America from normalizing homosexuality will just make people gay. Yes, that is exactly the point I wanted to make :P

Where I was actually going with this is I kind of loathe Michele Bachmann. It's not that I wish her ill. It's not that I actually want to harm her or any such thing. It's just... the things that she says makes me physically ill and I very much wish she wasn't saying them. Lemme put this in perspective for you.

Before I read this article, I came across one about John Barrowman (thanks to bloggingbarrowman on Tumblr). Now, as the entire universe probably knows by this point, I love this man to the point of being utterly irrational and insane (I'm sorry; he named a his Jack Russell terrier "Captain Jack." If that's not the cutest thing ever, then I don't know what is). Anyway, this article quotes many clever, wonderful things from Barrowman. But this is perhaps one of my favorite:

John is clearly in an impossible situation when it comes to his sexuality. He would like it to not be an issue. He says, 'I'm an actor. Not a gay actor. Is Brad Pitt ever described as a "straight actor"?'

Word. Point is, being gay is not the first thing a lot of actors want to be described as - for reasons we discussed in social psych. Say things like "male nurse" or "black lawyer" or "woman doctor" imply that they are outside the social norms and perpetuate stereotypes. So, using their sexuality as a reason they're better at what they do is... well, flat-out wrong. Or, as [novel killer] said about the subject on Facebook: "Does this mean that Bachmann does view gay people as more talented and thus that is why she seems to not like them? Because that seems to be the only way she could come up with that correlation." Agreed.

Of course, there's a problem with having these concerns so near and dear to my heart. While mentioning this about Bachmann to my dad this morning, the conversation went basically something like this:

Dad: "She's not going to win the nomination anyway, so don't worry about it."
Me: "Yeah, but she's not the only one saying stuff like this."
Dad: "Sure, but I'm more worried about getting four more years of what we have now. That'll really destroy our country."

When you're in an economic crisis, it's difficult to make something like human rights a priority - I sort of touched on this in my politics post. But like I said, I feel like I shouldn't have to choose. Candidates should care about both. But I digress...

And though I have been hating on Bachmann (a lot), something else Barrowman said in that article got me thinking about a TV show that has been troubling me of late:

He was famously rejected for the role of Will in Will & Grace, on the grounds that he was 'too straight'. He rolls his eyes. 'Because I like sports and I like cars, I'm not easy to slot into that "camp" box. To me, it is just pigeonholing. Too easy.'

He believes that the Will & Grace model is a perfect example of what is wrong with the way the big American networks portray 'gayness'.

'If that programme was true to life, Will would have a boyfriend. But they want to perpetrate the myth that he is waiting to be "cured".'

John Barrowman was rejected for the role of Will?! Wow... just wow. I kind of have a special place in my heart for "Will and Grace" because it was the first sitcom I ever seriously watched. And it was the first show I ever saw homosexuals on. But I gotta agree with Barrowman here. I remember one episode - the last episode I watched of it, actually - where Grace wanted to have a baby and for some reason she wanted to have Will's baby and instead of doing artificial insemination, they were going to sleep together. And I was like, "WHAT THE FUCK?!" It seemed totally wrong to me. Let me have NPH explain why:

via the-slow-show.tumblr

There you go - how simple was that? Will is a gay man. Will would probably never sleep with Grace unless under threat of death - he's her friend, not her friend with benefits, boyfriend, OR A STRAIT MAN AT ALL. Within that moment, the entire show went from being kind of stereotypical but supportive of gay culture to being totally... awkward. I've never felt quite right about that show ever since. 

This is the whole reason why I don't like the term "fag hag" (and thus wrote that post about it) - because it in some ways insinuates that women who are friends with gay men just want to change him into a strait man and sleep with him (not necessarily in that order). That's not to say "fag hag" is always used that way. But that association is one of the major issues I have with it.

So, it seems the pic I used on my post for "fag hag" might be more fitting than I thought. There's some weird, complex stuff at work here - wanting to portray Will in a stereotypically gay way, but getting him to end up with Grace in the end. And making women who are friends with gay men just wanting to actually sleep with him instead of being friends. It's this weird, discordant... mess.

And to add to that mess, I feel like addressing people who keep saying stuff like "I'd totally sleep with [insert name of hot gay celebrity here] if he wasn't gay!" Partly, I feel like it could be too easy to slide back into the "wanting to turn him straight" mess (or have people declare that's what you mean). I also feel like it's not true. Honestly, I'm totally obsessed with John Barrowman because of who he is; I feel like if he were straight, he'd be an entirely different person. So girls out there who have a major crush on a gay man: it's okay. You want to sleep with a gay man. It'll never happen, but neither will sleeping with Brad Pitt. That's the way it goes.

So... this took me a lot longer to write than I thought it would. Mainly because of the Will and Grace tangent. And I still haven't gotten to that article from The Advocate. Dammit. Well, to be continued then...

As I Lay Dying

I finished reading Faulkner's As I Lay Dying yesterday, while sitting in this little study hall/ cafeteria that reminds me of my father's alma mater. I got this cool, intellectual feeling sitting there, letting Faulkner's prose flow over me, and began thinking about how much death has come up in my thoughts this month. I don't mean to be overly morbid, but it HAS been a common theme. For one, I'm writing a book about people who can't die. You can see how it would be a common musing. For another, it's the month of All Hallow's Eve and growing closer to Dìa de los Muertos - Day of the Dead. Again, a common theme. Also, people I admire keep dying. And it's terribly depressing.

First it was Steve Jobs (I think I'm still grieving about that, actually. Is that weird? Probably, yes...). And then this weekend during an Indy race, English driver Dan Wheldon died in an accident. This might surprised you that I am a racing fan (only the Indy Series; my parents and I watched NASCAR when I was younger because we used to live in Columbus, IN where Tony Stewart is from, but I don't like NASCAR much. For various reasons that aren't important right now). My fav driver in the series is Dario Franchitti, but I really like Wheldon too - he seemed like such nice, friendly guy. Something I love about the Indy Series over NASCAR is that they seem better able to keep their cool and less... I don't know, Hollywood. They seem more down to earth. And I really respect people like Wheldon who can drive a car like that and be really damn good at it. It's just so sad how he died - something about racing accidents just haunt me. Well, car accidents in general, but especially racing ones. I remember seeing Dale Earnheardt's fatal wreck on TV when I was 10 - it was one of the first NASCAR races I watched too. There's something scarring and terrible about seeing such a terrible wreck on TV with your own eyes, then finding out later that you witnessed a fatal accident. I can't imagine what it was like to actually be at the track... that sort of thing would haunt me for a long time.

And to continue this parade of macabre, my college band is playing a Bach piece titled, "Come Sweet Death." To really get us into the mood of the piece (I think I've got the mood down enough, thank you very much) our director had us rehearse it once with the light dimmed. It was totally eerie and chilling, even if we as a group didn't sound as good as this choir. It's just... grim. I mean, it's more about life after death than just death... but still,  it's a momento mori - a reminder of that death is inevitable.

And because I'm a freak, I get reminded of Captain Jack Harkness every time I play this song (okay, if you want to get to the real passion of a piece about seeking release from pain and looking for solace in the afterlife, but is still a really dark, angst-ridden, tormented song, what better way to illustrate this than our dear Torchwood leader who can't ever die. Even after being blown up - yeah, just saw that in season 3. Holy shit, dude. Holy shit). And to top it all off, I had NO IDEA that Owen and Tosh were going to die at the end of Season 2 and now I'm all pissed off about that and THEN Wikipedia ruined the end of season 3 for me by telling me that Ianto dies and now I just want to crawl in a hole because I freaking love Ianto AND WHAT THE HELL, TORCHWOOD WRITERS WHY ARE YOU KILLING EVERYONE?!

Look, I take my sci-fi TV very seriously, apparently (I got really into Buffy freshman year. I mean, I had a dream that [mind ninja] and I were killing vampires. It was terrifying) and I'm terribly saddened that Ianto is going to die within the next three episodes. And it's just another reminder of our eventual lack of control, that we can't help the fact that we die. And it is terribly, terribly hard to deal with. Nay, impossible.

Yet, somehow, Faulkner makes me feel better. Not that he is comforting - he's really not, with his gritty, complex, grim ideas. But he's honest. And I like that. He doesn't always make complete sense. But neither does life. He wonderfully captures the difficulties of living, of dying, of grieving. And somehow, he makes it sort of beautiful. The same way Bach does with his tragic piece. The way momento moris are - great and terrible and beautiful. I guess what I like about all these things is that they articulate the mystery - the unknown. The fact that we don't know why things happen the way they do, why death is a necessary part of life, why it is so hard to deal with, why we think about death while other creatures don't, why accidents happen, why people like Wheldon and Jobs die too soon. We just don't know. And there's something comforting to know that we as individuals are not the only ones who think about this; it's a sort of strange way of uniting us socially, to know that we worry about the same things, that we are not completely alone. Perhaps thinking about death is important, a way of reminding us that time is limited, that people are important in our lives. Maybe I'm not really being morbid. Maybe I'm just being human.

Cussing Rabbits = Love

This is Sid. And because of Sid, the fact that I can't sleep just got way less important. Seriously, I just heard Beirut on David Letterman, which was a nice perk. And then the first thing I see on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson is Sid. Who is the best.

You see, Craig Ferguson for reasons unknown to me likes using puppets sometimes to start off his show. And Sid is my personal favorite. He looks cute, cuddly, and adorable. His voice apparently sounds a bit like David Beckham. And he's from South London and swears like a sailor. The paradoxical relationship between cute, cuddly toy and swearing, rabid creature is wonderful. Especially when you've just realized that lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and crying and feeling sorry for yourself is a waste of your time and, as it is conveniently 11:30 pm Central time, you might as well get up and watch your favorite show. And thus, my insomnia was rewarded by Sid. Thank you, Craig Ferguson and writers of CBS, for understanding my insomnia to a T. Even the theme song says it all...

The Impossible Dream Returns!

I have a confession to make.

I am a dreamer.

You probably know this by now. Perhaps there is some essence of "dreamerism" that pervades my writing. Or because I write about the possibility of Nicholas Cage being a vampire without really addressing the point that vampires PROBABLY AREN'T REAL.

I'm also a Scorpio. I think being a dreamer is just a side effect.

Um... maybe we feign interest because we're daydreaming?

Anyway, point is, I have ridiculous hopes and expectations. Many of which I am  my rational side and my dreamy side are constantly fighting over. And things get complicated.

I actually started blogging last summer (the summer before sophomore year) because I decided I wanted to try to get an internship on the Late Late Show. And I thought blogging would be a good way to build my resume. Except that blog kind of died out when school started up again AND I HAD TO BLOG FOR CLASS. It made me a better blogger (I hope) but it also kept me from doing personal writing for a while. And then I had the idea that I wanted to go for grad school for Cultural Studies.

And then I surrounded myself with grad students in a lecture about Hegel and realized that GRAD SCHOOL WOULD KILL ME. So I spent the rest of the year trying not to die (never take 18 credits that involve two night classes - EVER) - and I created this blog. Which is now being used for various nefarious purposes.

And then, after seeing Craig Ferguson live, I realized that I AM TOTALLY STUPID. I stopped thinking about the internship only because no one seemed to think it was possible, that no one seemed to believe I was able to do it (*cough, [X],* *cough, [novel killer]*). Would I like to work in television? I think so. Would I like to work for the funniest comedian in existence? Hell yes!

Do I have the right major for this sort of thing? Who cares! After dropping in at Radio K (which is as close to working for television as I'm going to get around here; not the same but the same general idea at least) I learned that half the volunteers are at least CSCL minors and I already ran into a few fellow psych majors. Do I have enough job experience? Well, thanks to this little run with the apartment, maybe so. Do I have any idea what L.A. is like? Fuck no.

Which is probably going to be my biggest problem.

I'm not the sort of person who ever dreamed of going to L.A. or running of to make it big in Hollywood. My yearning for fame always came from book writing. And music. And acting in the theater. Those sort of ridiculous things. Not Hollywood.

So it's strange for me, to say the least, to actually want to go to Hollywood now. Although it's not really the location - it's the show. It's so rare for me to find something that I really, really intensely like. I might be passionate, but only regarding a few selected things. Like 19th Regency romance novels. Stories involving life at sea. Scotland. Complicated psychological dramas that often involve sci-fi/fantasy themes. Things that I keep bringing up again and again and again... I mean, I like many things. But there are only a few certain things that I REALLY REALLY LIKE.  Thus it probably is for most people.

Anyway, my long-winded point is, I am sometimes incredibly picky. Especially regarding humor. The fact that I can watch Craig Ferguson and that he always makes me laugh seem to be a sign that he is, at least, a demi-god.

Seriously, I love humor, it's like my favorite genre of... life - but I am SO PICKY. I'm one of those people who can sit in a theater and watch a comedic film and not laugh at anything (exactly how I felt when I saw Bridesmaids. But I'm wondering if that had to do with extenuating circumstances). I have watched George Lopez and David Letterman and not even smiled. Generally, I like Monty Python, but The Life of Brian just made me uncomfortable. Maybe because I was watching it with [hahahaha SHUT UP].

So it makes me really happy that the Late Late Show is something I: A) find funny, B) can relate to, C) is the most un-L.A. thing in L.A. and D) something I feel like I could be a part of. Thus, the impossible dream.

A little Broadway, a little Sinatra - FOR THE WIN.

Of course, there are some difficulties with this whole crazy plan:

1) The intership would have to happen next summer. Or I would have to decide to add an extra year of school - thus a five year degree. Which means more money spent on college.

2) I would have to make sure the U actually will allow me to get credit for this internship. Otherwise I can't do it.

3) I would have to have AN AMAZING RESUME AND NOT FUCKING GET NERVOUS AND MAKE MYSELF LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT.

4) I would probably have to learn how to drive, since transportation around L.A. sucks.

5) I would have to figure out where the hell I'd be staying in a town I've never been to.

Oh, yeah, and this....

6) I WOULD ACTUALLY HAVE TO GET THE BLOODY INTERNSHIP IN THE FIRST PLACE.

The requirements seem pretty loose; they don't make any mention of needing any previous experience in TV. But I have no idea what I'm competing against. Maybe all TV interns just want to go to the Daily Show or the Colbert Report and so it won't be as competitive as it could be. But then I think about all the kids who are majoring in communications - and all the ones who aren't - that would totally love to do this. AND I FEEL TOTALLY FUCKED.

But I am not giving up. NOT THIS TIME.  I'm going to go for it. It's what I want to do - the only thing I really want to do, other than write and blog and watch movies and British TV shows and talk about hipster music. So what if it's a big mistake? I've got a lot more to make (thank you, Gossip Grows on Trees, for that awesome line. For that, I shall introduce you to Radio K).

Renaissance Men and Byronic Heroes

I wonder if psych majors have a difficult managing their relationships.

I thought of this as I read a chapter of my social psychology book on "the self." It started after this section on self-awareness (the idea that when people focus on themselves, they compare themselves to... well, themselves; their own values and such. It seems obvious, but that way we're on the same page):

Even when we are self-aware and introspect to our heart's content, it can be difficult to know why we feel the way we do. Imagine trying to decide why you love someone. Being in love typically makes you feel giddy, euphoric, and preoccupied; in fact, the ancient Greeks thought love was a sickness. But why do you feel this way? Exactly what is it about your sweetheart that makes you fall in love? We know it is something about out loved one's looks, personality, values, and background. But precisely what? How can we possibly describe the special chemistry that exists between two people? A friend of ours once told us he was in love with a woman because she played the saxophone. Was this really the reason? The heart works in such mysterious ways that it is difficult to tell.  (pages 125-126, Aronson, Wilson, Akert - Social Psychology, 7th edition)

After this, they site an example from the "old" TV show Friends (seriously, they call it old. Thanks for making me feel ancient, textbook) when Ross makes a list of things he likes and doesn't like about Rachel. This is, according to the author's, a very bad idea.

Consider people like Ross who try to analyze why they feel the way they do about a romantic partner. When people list reasons in this manner, they often change their attitudes toward their partners, at least temporarily... Why? It is difficult to dissect the exact causes of our romantic feelings so we latch on to reasons that sound good and that happen to be on our minds (remember our friend who claimed he was in love with a woman because she played the saxophone?). (page 128, Aronson, Wilson, Akert)


This causes issues for us when we make lists and then list strange things about a person (the textbook mentions a partner annoyingly smacking their gum) instead of more complex things like good chemistry. Thus if we focus on things like gum smacking, we might suddenly decide we're not really in love with our partner and break up with them, then later regret it.

And to make matters even WORSE, the authors mention a study done where men and women are startled on a bridge and the men either immediately evaluated how attracted they were to the woman or asked to evaluate after they crossed the bridge. Those that were evaluated immediately while still startled rated the women as more attractive than those who had calmed down. This "misattribution of arousal" has been found to be true in both women and men. "The moral is this:" the authors say, "If you encounter an attractive man or woman and your heart is going thump-thump, think carefully about why you are aroused - you might fall in love for the wrong reasons!" (page 135, Aronson, Wilson, Akert)

The Doctor, God, and Life

So check this out on: How Doctor Who Became My Religion. Not only does it talk about how awesome the TV show is, it also features Craig Ferguson (I love how all of my interests seem interconnected. Like within a few degrees of each other. I wonder where Kevin Bacon fits in...)

Okay, okay, so I don't watch Doctor Who, I watch Torchwood. BUT they are connected. Thus I am kind of almost a Doctor Who fan. I have seen the episode about the weeping angels... but then again so has everyone else.

If anything, I want to watch the show to figure out where Torchwood came from (which I kind of know, it involves Queen Victoria and werewolves... and stuff). But I also feel like it's a show that's popular in the U.S. but not THAT popular. And Craig Ferguson loves it so obviously it's pretty cool.

Of course, some of my friends will say I started watching because they said it was cool or because Craig Ferguson said it was cool (which they' be some percentage right. It gave me initiative). But really what interests me is the bit about Doctor Who is the bit Cracked.com mentions that the show portrays - that we are not alone against evil. And the bit from Ferguson's sketch - about intellect and romance overcoming brute force and cynicism. WELL SIGN ME UP. I need way more of that in my life. Spending all weekend dealing with the remains of stress from school, working at the apartment and general everyday issues only to have [X] call me up with the need to complain about something petty and then suddenly have to go when I want to talk about myself is TOO MUCH. I need HOPE. I need romance and intelligence and faith and goodness to be rewarded at the end of the day. And I can get that in fiction, in sci-fi, in these two British TV shows. And if that makes me a nerd - well, I've always been a nerd. Or as Ryan, a guy in my Italian class said, "Nerds are just passionate. Everyone's a nerd." Damn right. Truer words have never been said. 

A fight for realism?

"Hollywood always wanted me to be pretty, but I fought for realism." ~ Bette Davis

It seems like talking about British culture has become today's theme. But then again, I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Mainly because I've been watching a lot of British television and missing bits about Scotland (the rain every day, the beer, the feeling of everything being foreign and yet so similar...)

Among those things, another sort of thing has enchanted me about British media, something I've noticed in novels and on TV shows. There seems to be a sort of trend of using female leads that aren't your traditional Hollywood types. They seem to appear in mysteries series or sci-fi genres (the ones I'm thinking of are the books The Eyre Affair, The Dead Lie Down, The Likeness and, you knew this was coming, the TV show Torchwood). They feature quirky, not-traditionally beautiful women who aren't afraid to speak their minds and do what needs to be done, even though they may not want to. They make mistakes. They're compassionate while still strong and not overly sexual. But they're still sensual and feminine - just not over the top. Over the top like how in CSI, Catherine Willows is always running around in tanktops and all the guys are in their full investigation gear.

Catharine Willows, CSI

Gwen Cooper, Torchwood

See the difference?

This is even a more glammed up version of Gwen, I feel like. I mean, the first time we meet her on the show, she's in full police gear with her hair all tucked up under her hat. No Catharine-like waves in sight.

Of course, I have to remind myself that England was also the country that gave us Twiggy. And thus in association, pants that will never fit women's hips. Of course, I guess the really scary thing is I look at Twiggy and think, "Oh, she's not that skinny." Then I take a closer look at her arms and I'm like, "Fuck yeah, she is." But then I think again, "No, not really - there's girls in my classes who look like that." Then I just feel weird and pissed off.

Twiggy, you're wonderful, but I hate you.

It's true that super skinny women have become WAY more common. Not so much in college, because people have finally realized that you can't walk a mile to class each day and not eat more to compensate. But high school totally sucked because it seemed like what like 50% of the girls (but was probably more like 10%) were frightfully skinny. And I, of course, was not. Example of what some of the girls at my school were like. One of my classmates got treated for bulimia and when she came back to school from rehab, the first thing one of her so-called-friends said was, I kid you not, "She looks so fat." And people wonder why kids hate going to school.

So, to say the least, it's certainly nice to see women like Gwen Cooper on TV, who are beautiful not because they're scantily clad or because they're super skinny or shit like that. It's nice that Gwen has imperfect teeth and seems to be of normalish body weight. Girls need to see more of this on TV, in books, everywhere. Why can't women be the way they look in real life? There's a difference between creating an imagined world and representing one person's idea of a utopia. Besides, beauty isn't the same think to everyone. Perhaps we're looking for it in all the wrong places. Maybe it's something simpler, more in line with this:

“The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It's the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows and the beauty of a woman only grows with passing years.” ~ Audrey Hepburn

It's not that appearance doesn't matter; it clearly does. But it's all about belief, confidence and your eyes. If YOU believe that you are beautiful, if you truly TRULY LOVE yourself, it will show. Of course, this is all easier said than done. But I believe it to be true. There is no one definition of beauty, and if there was, all of the people we consider to be beautiful would all look the same. And people like Paris Hilton would be more popular than Angelina Joli. But I think Audrey Hepburn's idea of beauty if more spot on and more of what these British female characters are beginning to show more of. So work on this, American TV. I'm a little out of touch with some of your shows, so maybe you've gotten better about this. But then again, we've still got this goddamn show:

"America: It's like Britain, only with buttons"

The more British TV I watch, the more I realize how different the UK and the US are. It's kind of mind-blowing, really. Everyone thinks that because we all speak English, we're really similar. Watch this video and think about it (sorry, linking disabled, so we'll have to do it the old fashioned way):

http://youtu.be/s0eYRHZLHAg

This is from a show called Friday Night Project (which, according to Wikipedia is now called Sunday Night Project, but whatever). This show is totally gay. I mean this in a not-at-all insulting way. It's just got a lot of homosexual vibes. Apparently, being gay is way cooler in Britain than it is here. More mainstream, more - part of everyday life. Note to America: work on that, please.

Besides that, the cultural references are just WAY different. Like the celebrities they reference. I have NO idea who they are - and thus the jokes are lost on me. There's even something almost Japanese game show about the way this show is structured. Or maybe they're just having fun :P

Over all, it's the little things that get me. Like how we use words. I was doing the crossword today in the paper and one of the clues was "alphabet ender in England." Zed was the answer - because Zed is how you say Z in French. Which makes sense, they're close together. But how did the Americans shy away from saying Zed? It's too bad... it sounds cooler.

Speaking of different ways of using words, watch this other clip from Friday Night Project:

We have a game like this in America, too (which I was forced to endure by [novel killer]. At least I had [mind ninja] there for moral support). Except we call it, "Marry, have sex with, or kill." Which just doesn't have the same... levity. Plus "shag" is just a great word we don't have in our "form" of English.

Oh, Britain... sometimes I'm sad that we left your empire. Oh, the splendors we could share together. But then if I were British, this wouldn't seem as novel and exciting. Plus, if America still belonged to Britain, we'd be stuck in some weird parallel universe and it might be like 1984 and totally suck. So we're probably better off. No hard feelings, right? Right?

Well, that was quite homoerotic

After an interesting lecture on "Holocaust Envy" [Львица] and I went to a pub called Town Hall Brewery for dinner and to have an "intellectual conversation" on the presentation we'd just witnessed. Amidst our critiques and questionings, [Львица] noticed two men sitting at the bar, one apparently doing an eye exam on the other. We thought it was odd, but turned back to our conversation. Then, while passing by an eye glasses shop in Dinkytown today, the event returned to my mind, along with this fun factoid: Top 5 Jobs for Gay Professionals. Yes, that's right boys and girls - apparently people in the gay community are drawn to helping people improve their vision. I can't remember where I first heard this statistic, or why it would have come up, but it's one of those random things to throw into conversation. Like the fact that plants can have fevers (did you know that? [Львица] shared that knowledge with me after finding it on the inside of a Snapple cap. Yes, that's now where I get my scientific information from).

But back to our dear friends at the bar. Either we watched two men practicing doing eye exams just because... but if at least one of them really was an optometrist, and if they were both gay, maybe we just caught some kind of kinky foreplay. C'mon, like you never used your job to impress someone. You know what Captain Jack would say...

This video took me like an hour to find on Youtube. Seriously, be proud of me - I beat the big, bad video posting sight. Also forgive the two hundredth Torchwood reference this week.

Bisexuals and eternity, or: yes, this is what I spend my spare time pondering

As I stated previously, the BBC show Torchwood has begun to take over my life. So much so that this strange unidentifiable bugs that inhabit our apartment building have earned the name "weevil bugs" even though they don't look like the actually weevil or the weevils from the TV show. But calling them weevil bugs at least incorporates how alien they look.

An actual weevil. I could make a Master and Commander reference, but I'll spare you.

A weevil from Torchwood. I think this one is named Janet.

What we're dealing with.... gross gross gross gross gross gross.

Upon looking for images of our little "weevil bug" I have since discovered that our strange creature is in fact centipedes. WHICH I LOATHE.  Seriously, they are one of my least favorite insects ever. FUCK. Well, I'm still going to call them "weevil bugs." Because for some reason naming them after aliens from a TV show somehow makes them less terrifying than calling them by their real names. Unless they start actually looking like weevils... *ugh*

Anyway, I digress. Point is, I'm obsessed with this show. It's killing me that we know that the main character Jack Harkness can live forever but we don't really know who he is, what's happened to him, how he joined the organization Torchwood. Thus the reason the show is so damn addicting. But over the course of watching the first season (we're into the second season now, yay!) I've noticed something - though the show focuses on relationships with Jack  that usually involve men, the writers have also hinted at heterosexual relationships (note season 1, episode 5 - "Small Worlds," for those who are as nerdy as me :p). Which reminded me, strangely enough of another sci-fi/fantasy series I'm interested in - namely, Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series.

American TV, we need more of this

So [Львица] introduced me to this British TV show that's a spin-off of Doctor. Who. Now, unlike everyone else I know, I haven't seen Doctor Who (I'm sorry, I don't get BBC. It saddens me deeply. But now in my new apartment I don't have cable at all. So it really doesn't matter). It sounds interesting, it's on my to-do list. But right now, I'm going to focus on Torchwood. Because John Barrowman is the shit. Like, I just stumbled across a video of him singing "I am what I am" from La Cage Aux Foilles. And then, [Львица] told me about Torchwood, WHICH HE'S IN (he plays Jack Harkness). And he plays a kick-ass action character. For the win. May I also add that the Brits seem way more cool with guys kissing guys, girls kissing girls and gay men doing bad-ass things? (or at least Jack Harkness' co-workers think he's gay as "imperial military is not the dress code of a straight man.")

Work on this, American television producers. Give me something that's not a doctor or police drama. This is like X-files meets Fringe meets AWESOME. The lead character is even American... or so it seems. Why don't our writers come up with stuff like this? I shouldn't be complaining that much, because shows like Six Feet Under and Dexter are pretty great. So as long as I have access to BBC, Showtime and HBO, life is good.

Thank God [Львица]has instant streaming on Netflix. :D

Yes, we know we're that awesome. Deal with it.