cordelianne (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cordelianne) wrote2006-04-07 08:52 pm
cordelianne) wrote2006-04-07 08:52 pm
Entry tags:
What would Buffy do?
Today I was exercising with the tv on the station which plays Buffy the Vampire Slayer repeats, and "The Freshman" was airing. It was great background for working out, until the scene when Xander gives Buffy his Dadaist pep talk, because it made me cry. I've seen every BtVS episode a ridiculous amount of times yet there are certain moments that get me every time, even if I'm in the middle of Pilates. I just love this speech so much:
Xander: Buffy, I've gone through some fairly dark times in my life, faced some scary things, among them the kitchen at 'The Fabulous Ladies Night Club.' Let me tell you something, when it's dark and I'm all alone and I'm scared or freaked out or whatever, I always think, 'What would Buffy do?' You're my hero. Ok, sometimes when it's dark and I'm all alone I think, 'What is Buffy wearing?'
Buffy: Can that be one of those things you never, ever, tell me about?
For some reason this got me thinking about the various fandoms and obsessions that I've had over the years, so I thought I'd list a few of my favourite fan obsessions and embarrassing fan activities (some of these are from when I was very young). Feel free to tell me your shameful fan moments!!
- Anne of Green Gables (books & movies) and L.M. Montgomery - I was Anne for Halloween once, and did an essay on L.M. Montgomery in high school. I have read every single published work by L.M.M. at least once. In a zine of mine, I had a section in which I quoted (out of context) lesbian subtext moments between Anne and Diana.
- Annie (the movie) - I actually made an Annie costume for myself and would act out the movie.
- Little House on the Prairie (books & tv show) - I was Laura TWICE for Halloween, I love her so much. I can discuss the differences between the books and the tv show, and why the books are better.
- Baby-sitters Club books - Oh the shame! I saw the movie when it came out even though I was much older. I still own #1 through #40, and the first 4 Super Specials.
- The Sound of Music - I know all the words to the movie.
- Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High (those amazing Canadian teen soap tv shows) - So good, so addictive.
- My So-Called Life and Jordan Catalano - I actually had a picture of him up in my high school locker.
- Dawson's Creek - I was a Joey/Pacey shipper. Katie, why have you ruined my memories of Joey and Pacey with your antics with Tom?!
- ani difranco - I would go to all her concerts, I own all her albums and used to have posters of her on my walls.
- The Lord of the Rings - I went to all the movies on opening night, and then watched them at least 2 more times in the theatre.
- BtVS/AtS/Firefly/Joss Whedon - Other than my entire LJ? I have a clipboard which I use at work that is decorated with pictures of Spike. Seriously.
There are likely MANY more, but I'm trying to restrain myself so I don't reveal anything else shameful!
I also did that Birthday meme, and the answers for September 2nd are here:
The instructions: Go to Wikipedia. In the search box, type your birth month and day (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Post this in your journal.
Events (I avoided the distressing massacres):
1666 - The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral. This is still distressing, but I'm fascinated that the fire started on my birthday.
1901 - Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair. I'm highly entertained that the exact date & location of this phrase's orgin is remembered.
1998 - In Canada, pilots for Air Canada launch the first strike in company's history. Yes, I picked this one because it's a Canadian entry.
Birthdays:
1850 - Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer (d. 1915)
1964 - Keanu Reeves, American actor Dude!!!
Death:
1973 - J. R. R. Tolkien, British writer (b. 1892) Yes, gotta go with Tolkien.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday night!!
Xander: Buffy, I've gone through some fairly dark times in my life, faced some scary things, among them the kitchen at 'The Fabulous Ladies Night Club.' Let me tell you something, when it's dark and I'm all alone and I'm scared or freaked out or whatever, I always think, 'What would Buffy do?' You're my hero. Ok, sometimes when it's dark and I'm all alone I think, 'What is Buffy wearing?'
Buffy: Can that be one of those things you never, ever, tell me about?
For some reason this got me thinking about the various fandoms and obsessions that I've had over the years, so I thought I'd list a few of my favourite fan obsessions and embarrassing fan activities (some of these are from when I was very young). Feel free to tell me your shameful fan moments!!
- Anne of Green Gables (books & movies) and L.M. Montgomery - I was Anne for Halloween once, and did an essay on L.M. Montgomery in high school. I have read every single published work by L.M.M. at least once. In a zine of mine, I had a section in which I quoted (out of context) lesbian subtext moments between Anne and Diana.
- Annie (the movie) - I actually made an Annie costume for myself and would act out the movie.
- Little House on the Prairie (books & tv show) - I was Laura TWICE for Halloween, I love her so much. I can discuss the differences between the books and the tv show, and why the books are better.
- Baby-sitters Club books - Oh the shame! I saw the movie when it came out even though I was much older. I still own #1 through #40, and the first 4 Super Specials.
- The Sound of Music - I know all the words to the movie.
- Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High (those amazing Canadian teen soap tv shows) - So good, so addictive.
- My So-Called Life and Jordan Catalano - I actually had a picture of him up in my high school locker.
- Dawson's Creek - I was a Joey/Pacey shipper. Katie, why have you ruined my memories of Joey and Pacey with your antics with Tom?!
- ani difranco - I would go to all her concerts, I own all her albums and used to have posters of her on my walls.
- The Lord of the Rings - I went to all the movies on opening night, and then watched them at least 2 more times in the theatre.
- BtVS/AtS/Firefly/Joss Whedon - Other than my entire LJ? I have a clipboard which I use at work that is decorated with pictures of Spike. Seriously.
There are likely MANY more, but I'm trying to restrain myself so I don't reveal anything else shameful!
I also did that Birthday meme, and the answers for September 2nd are here:
The instructions: Go to Wikipedia. In the search box, type your birth month and day (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Post this in your journal.
Events (I avoided the distressing massacres):
1666 - The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral. This is still distressing, but I'm fascinated that the fire started on my birthday.
1901 - Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair. I'm highly entertained that the exact date & location of this phrase's orgin is remembered.
1998 - In Canada, pilots for Air Canada launch the first strike in company's history. Yes, I picked this one because it's a Canadian entry.
Birthdays:
1850 - Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer (d. 1915)
1964 - Keanu Reeves, American actor Dude!!!
Death:
1973 - J. R. R. Tolkien, British writer (b. 1892) Yes, gotta go with Tolkien.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday night!!
no subject
One of the reasons I loved Trixie was the sibling factor. I have none and it was a little taste - without the actual annoying siblings! *g*
A friend of mine is even more of a Holmesian addict than I am - she's in a club and everything - and we adore Without a Clue. It makes fun of and completely subverts the characters, but it loves them too. I'm never such a fan of something that I feel it can't be made fun of. Humor is such an important part of life and if you take something so seriously that you can't laugh about, then something is wrong. I don't get folks like that. I laughed hysterically at Shatner's 'get a life' SNL rant, but some fans were so offended. *rolls eyes* So no, I'm not upset you like the movie, I'm laughing with you. *g*
I was equal tv and books. As I've said, my uncle and I would watch stuff together. But, especially in the summer, I did a lot of reading in my 'downtime.' The library had a competition - you'd get a sticker for each book read. You put it on a card and collected the cards. At the end of the summer it was amazing how much I'd read. I'd come out with armfuls of books. Weirdly, I never won. Someone out there was reading even more than me. Wow!
No, the world at large does not understand 'the fan.' At least not our kind. Not all of us are Troika-like and that's all the world sees when they look at SW fans. The fact that I also have a battery-powered light saber somewhere in my basement (also nearly 30 years old) means nothing. Nothing, I tell you! *g*
Okay, I was into Blake's 7 and War of the Worlds when we got our last dog. I wanted to name her Cally (B7) if we got a girl. We got a boy instead and my fav characters from B7 were: Avon (sorry, no - the poor fella never would've lived that one down), and Vila (no, folks would've thought we'd named him 'villa' like an Italian house and that made no sense). My fav characters from WoW were: Colonel Ironhorse (dogs need short names and Iron is dumb and yelling 'here, horse, horsie' out the back door would've made the neighbors think I was more insane than they already did *g*) and Dr. McCullough. We went with McCullough. Fine Celtic name for a fine Celtic dog and it got shortened, most of the time, to Mac. He knew though, like a kid, that if his full name was yelled at him, he was in serious trouble! *g*
no subject
hee! I have a brother, but no sisters so I often read books and imagined various girls as my sister. Of course, now that I hear stories of people's childhood relationships with their sisters, the fictional does have its advantages!
Our library had a similar competition! I recall having sheets with stickers, and I would always check out an armload of books too! My mom had us borrow books in multiples of 6 to make it easier to find the books to return them. It took me many years to realize that you didn't have to get books in amounts of 6, 12, 18, 24 etc. Oh, I don't think I ever won the competition either.
No, the world at large does not understand 'the fan.' At least not our kind. I think that there's a lot of misconceptions about fans, particularly on tv. Which is funny because a lot of tv writers are big time geeks and fangirls/fanboys!
I enjoyed your story of the naming of your dog! It would have been very funny if you'd called him Villa, Iron or Horsie. I didn't know that War of the Worlds was made into a tv show. I've read the book, and seen the most recent movie, but never seen the show.
no subject
I think the writers who are former fan types exaggerate because they like to make fun of themselves - much as we do. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. *g*
WoW was a series shot in your country and ran in syndication from '88-'90. Just 44 eps. It took the premise that the events in the movie from the '50s with Gene Barry actually happened, but it got treated like the '30s radio broadcast. Mass hysteria and destruction over a mistake. No one believed in the aliens - except the government and a scientist named Dr. Harrison Blackwood (Jared Martin). He had been adopted by Gene Barry's character (and the girl he fell for in the movie) after his parents were killed in the invasion.
The aliens find a way to re-invade (much sneakier this time) and Blackwood heads up a government sponsored team to fight them. There's another scientist, Suzanne McCullough (Lynda Mason Green) and her young daughter Debi (Rachel Blanchard); a computer expert in a wheelchair, Norton Drake (Philip Akin); and the leader of the military side, a Special Forces/Ops guy Colonel Paul Ironhorse (Richard Chaves). They all stayed on a large country estate with barracks for the soldiers and lots of security. They'd go out on missions, investigations, etc. They all reported to General Wilson (John Vernon). It was set in the here and now with the aliens among us as they could take human form. Interestingly, Blackwood's adopted mother was in a mental institution because she could sense when aliens were around and, of course, everyone thought she was crazy. Except our heroes.
The second season, to improve the ratings, Jonathan Glassner took over (I detest him to this day) and ignored the show's heartthrob (Chaves) and premise. He had Chaves killed off and knocked the world off kilter. It become a post-apocalyptic mish-mash and the team lost their posh digs and had to scrounge about. It became dark, rainy, dirty, and depressing. The wanted to do Blade Runner, but failed. They brought in a former military guy to help, John Kincaid (Adrian Paul). Two regular baddies joined the invaders, Malzor and Mana (Denis Forest and Catherine Disher). Unfortunately for fans, this not only didn't fix anything, it turned off the borderline fans and casual viewers. The show's ratings plummeted and it was canceled.
My friends and I were heavily into it at the time and if we'd had the means, we'd have hunted Glassner down and made him suffer. To this day, when I see his name in the credits of something (and he worked on Stargate:SG-1 which almost made me not watch it) I hiss. I mean it. I make a really nasty sound with his name in which the 2 esses are drawn out. *g* Fangirls are so unforgiving sometimes when we're messed with.
no subject
As you were noting re: Without A Clue, it's so much better - and more fun - to have a sense of humour about oneself!
The first season of War of the Worlds sounds awesome! I just checked and can see that it's on DVD, so I'll have to see if I can rent it. I'm figuring it should be around since it was filmed in Canada(!). There's also a lot of Canadian actors in it.
The second season, to improve the ratings, Jonathan Glassner took over (I detest him to this day) and ignored the show's heartthrob (Chaves) and premise. He had Chaves killed off and knocked the world off kilter.
That sounds very distressing, I can see why you're not a fan of Glassner. It's one thing to change things, but to ignore the premise (why people watch) and kill off the heartthrob?!! Bad, bad, bad. Even Joss Whedon isn't that evil, he brought back the heartthrobs he killed off (because in my mind they all survived "Not Fade Away").