bits and bobs

[fictional]

As part of the Dr. Who methadone program*, I watched my very first episode of Red Dwarf the other day. [Honestly, I wasn't that enthused. But I have an oddly unticklish sense of humour. I also don't get the Monty Python thing, which I concede to be blasphemous. I'm not proud of it or anything. They just don't make me laugh.] However, when watching a multi-fandom vid, I noticed that it a) included Red Dwarf, and b) had the two guys kissing. Wow. Slash everywhere, omg.

Screw you, British Empire for being such freaking wimps. If you hadn't lamed out, we could ALL BE BRITISH. And enjoy the beautiful, beautiful spectacle of boys kissing in every single available medium. Instead you were all, oh noes! My tea! My taxes! Hippies on salt-walks! Minutemen! [Talk about an unscary moniker there] Come on. You should be ashamed. White man's burden, my ass.**

In other news, I seem to have got a job. So there will be a new College Which Must Not Be Named come September. I'm teaching kidlit @ Hunter on Mondays & Thursdays. While I was there for the interview (the speediest, most railroad-y interview of my life; they had me filling out my paperwork so fast I thought my head would spin off!), I ran into in rapid succession: jlh, sykii [*waves* Hi guys!], another friend of mine from the grad center, and another woman I went to high school with, whom I cordially loathed***. Any omen interpreters on deck? Sybilline oracles? Anyone? Bueller? What does it all mean???


*Netflix queue now includes things which are British, include time travel, or are about death. Like methadone, ultimately unsatisfying.
** I'm kidding. Mostly.
*** I really mean both the "cordial" and the "loathing". It was the friendliest non-liking I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. We were both equally close friends with one other girl, so spent any number of drunken evenings having civilised conversation about how much we despised each other. With my kinks, I can only be surprised that it didn't blossom into romance.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

With my kinks, I can only be surprised that it didn't blossom into romance.

No one's dead. There's still time.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Wicked!

And also, ew. Like, no. Really, really no. This is not the Draco Malfoy to my Harry Potter. Or would I be Draco...? Hmm...

[rm.livejournal.com]

Is it weird that I honestly don't know the answer to that?

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

*laughs* well, you haven't met the chick ;-)

[calloocallay.livejournal.com]

I don't know the chick either, but I'm pretty sure you would be Draco.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

hahah. I wish!

Flattery will get you everywhere? ;-)

p.s. it has been an aeon since I have seen you!

[prosicated.livejournal.com]

Now I am desperately curious who this woman is! I have a guess, in that I suspect the mutual friend was M.T., but...

Also, congrats on the job and all that!!!

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Got it in one. Jen, of course.

Thanks, love! We're turning into such grown-ups! Condos! Work!

Dunno what to make of it all...

[prosicated.livejournal.com]

I did kiss her once... I think it was a bad idea. Still. Do I win a prize for guessing who it would be?

Who knew we'd be allowed to grow up? I kind of assumed we'd try and it wouldn't work. As long as we're happy with the progress (I am incredibly pleased by the image of you teaching kidlit @ Hunter, it makes me feel like all's well in the world for a second or two), right?

[demotu.livejournal.com]

After Torchwood, it's kind of a downer to remember I don't get to watch pretty boys and girls kissing in every show. On that count, nothing else quite compares. *sighs*

Hence writing. It helps. And reading gloriously kinky stuff that wouldn't end up on the show anyway. :D

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

It does help! The Internets are where we can all be free and kiss everyone! In kinky, kinky ways.

But yeah, Torchwood is totally the holy grail of fandom, in my opinion, at least for slashers. Unpopular fandom opinion: I don't understand why more people aren't more grateful for it ;-)

[demotu.livejournal.com]

Hey, if it's an unpopular opinion, I don't want to be mainstream!

I never get into shows for good plots and storytelling. I'm always there for the characters. Hence the slew of American shows that have stagnant character development driving me nuts. I can NOT handle 10 seasons of UST.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

10 seasons of UST

Did you have something specific that you were referring to?

I love good plots and story-telling, (TW does, I find, occasionally fall down on that front *cough* secret brother *cough*), but the thing is, I can't seem to care that much about either if the characters don't make me love them.

I have this problem with shows like Heroes and Lost. They too often fall down on the good story-telling/plot front, but I'd forgive them that in a heartbeat if I cared one iota for any of the people on them. And when they are good, they're good in a very cerebral, non emotional way that I just can't be bothered to care about that much, although I can still, if pressed, see their good moments in an objective, unmoved kind of way.

[demotu.livejournal.com]

JAG, actually. I loved the character but MAN did they ever never let them get together.

Big yes for Lost! I haven't seen Heros, but I watched two seasons of Lost and just. didn't. care. if the characters lived or died. And it got a little silly, so I gave up.

A balance is good - I'm working through Jericho with my bf, and I thought I wouldn't like it because it sounded like Lost in the all-plot-no-characters thing, but I've quite taken to the lead character, so I'm really enjoying it. Less in the BUT WHO DID IT? way and more in the Aw, he's adorable and tormented, what will happen to him? way.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

I've never seen JAG, but I think I remember my bf telling me I'd be v. fond of it. I'm actually still sort of new to the whole tv thing; I didn't really watch at all when I was a kid besides like Sesame Street and things of that ilk, and then sorta fell madly for Buffy (which I still love) & (erm) Dawson's Creek - god, that's embarrassing to say out loud!

But I watch way too much now, (like last season I think I had a show on every night; it was sick) although at the moment it all seems to have been superseded by things Who and Torchwood.

[demotu.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big TV watcher, actually, in terms of actually watching a show when it comes out every week. TW and DW were the only things I've watched in... goodness, a couple years? I didn't have a TV with more than two English channels last year (CBC!) so I got out of the habit. My boyfriend and I download series - mostly Sci Fi, but also things that didn't last too many seasons, like Firefly and Jericho - to watch in their entirety. And I think we're into season 5 of ST: Voyager, which is mostly a nostalgic thing for us, since we both watched it as kids as it came out.

JAG was one of the shows I watched on and off when I was younger - Star Trek, Stargate SG1, and other random things here or there. But Torchwood's the first time I've gotten really into a show - and fandom and writing for the first time ever are a really big part of that, I think. It's hard for me to separate my TV from my fannish activities, now, and I'm not sure I'd want to! Much more fun this way.

[demotu.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Buffy. Of course I've seen all of Buffy. And collect the comic. :P Not all of Angel, though, just 1-3.

[invaderwitch.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to introduce myself because I friended you on account of your and rm's Torchwood story, and it is customary and polite to let people know who you are when you do such things. So... hello! *kindly exits your journal* :)

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Welcome, and thank you kindly! I have friended you back as well.

More story on the way soon...(writing as we speak, actually!)

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Is Doctor Who about death?

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

For me, anyway, it's the primary theme. Death and love and loss and letting go of things in the proper time. I get really attached to stuff, really caught up in ruts and obsessions, and letting go is something I never do easily, so I find it's a really important lesson for me. It's one of the reasons Dr. Who has come to mean so much to me in the short time I've been watching it. In the second ep. of the new series, the Doctor takes his companion to see the End of the Earth (5 billion yrs in the future) - and says, "everything has its time, and everything ends." And because the show is sort of built around the replacement of Doctors and companions, it's sort a meta-lesson in learning to love things (like certain versions of the Doctor), and then having to let them go and be replaced by the new thing. It's actually very hard. I mean, it's also lots of running about, and pepperpots in space, which I totally enjoy as well, but really it's about death. Especially since innocents & civilians die in every episode, and they're mourned as well. I find that in many action shows, either civilians mysteriously never get dead, or somehow you don't care when they do.

I seem to have written you a small novel in response to a short question. Sorry!

[justinej.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure it would be better to be spanish acutally. Have you seen any of the Almodavar films. I saw Bad Education the other day! Quite staggering.

Apologies on behalf of my fellow Brits by the way.

I'm trying to think what other UK TV programmes have pretty men kissing. I'll get back to you.....

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

*g* I'm fond of Almodovar, but I don't know if I'd want to live in his world. Too many mommy issues ;-)

But am excited to hear of more pretty boys kissing! Pretty girls kissing each other = okay too!

[framefolly.livejournal.com]

Whoa! Job?!?!?! Congratulations!!!

Hey, actually, I'm dying of curiosity about "College Which Must Not Be Named," what you'll be doing, etc., etc. I'm happy to share stories about my own continuing job search story...Send me a message if you'd like, and I can send you my RL email, too.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. Well, not a job in the academic sense; just adjuncting. But still, senior level course, etc etc. So, thank you! I'm excited. Now I just have to...er...make a syllabus, order books. DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO WORK.

I'm meant to be in dissertation hell myself, but instead am, well...writing a lot of Doctor Who/Torchwood fanfic. SIGH.

God. Job search. *cries* am so scared. Could definitely use moral support! My email is kalliopeia at gmail dot com. We should start an email thread.

[troygirl68.livejournal.com]

OK; I am going to bed soon, but I couldn't resist a comment about this.
Red Dwarf was something I watched years ago, but I recall finding it pretty funny, mostly. You're right about boy kissing. There's TONS of it all over British TV from YEARS back. It's a public schoolboy thing I think.
I am starting a (sometimes not) very quiet British invasion in Michigan aka one of the flyover states / conservative mid west. It usually involves my filthy sense of humour and youtube links and dragging the Bunko gang to nightclubs they would NEVER usually go to. That kind of thing. Then i discover that actually some of these ladies are filthy little sluts just like me. So life isn't actually too bad here.
My husband is doing the same, and he has a couple of work allies. Funny how insulted a person can be over a can of spotted dick!
I was thinking about some story ideas and I remembered a series called Sapphire and Steel which I used to love. I think you can buy it but not rent it. i am investigating it, because it was fantastic.
Why the fuck BBC America is STILL showing Monty Python I don't know. It makes me want to scream!!!!! Does Fox show I love Lucy? No!!! It's ancient and crap. There are TONS of really really funny classic comedies (some are older, but are still funny, like The Good Life, and some are newer. you'd love The Royles and One Foot In the Grave). There was a comedy called It Ain't Half Hot Mum about a troupe of entertainers posted in India during WW2 (a gay guy in it but no kissing, lots of cross dressing though), which was so bad it was good. Including the fake Indian (i swear it was boot polish on his face) and the faked Indian accents. OMG, it was cringey.
I have my contacts back home keep me up to speed. If you ever want a rec let me know. Can I friend you?

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

re: friending, yes please! *friends you as well*
Hahaha. I taught Tom Brown's School Days this year, and the kids flipped out over the whole public school institution of 'fagging'.
And yay for British invasion in Michigan. They could certainly use it, I'm sure. *grins* And as for recs, yes yes yes yes! I don't get BBC America because my cable company is evil, but the internet is a glorious thing. I think I've heard of Sapphire and Steel, but I'm not sure from where.
The fake Indian thing used to send me flying into my room in tears of humiliation when I was young (Peter Sellers in The Party was a particular terror of my childhood) but I think I'm better equipped to deal with it now. After you've seen a few Bollywood films, there's nowhere left to be humiliated, is there? *grins*