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Friday, August 31, 2012

What I Am Watching

I tend to latch onto some TV shows late, but I prefer it that way, because then I can watch episodes one after the other without having to wait a week in-between episodes. And it's ad-free, too.

So recently, I started watching Rizzoli and Isles, and I have to say, it's pretty entertaining. It doesn't take itself too seriously (I'm looking at YOU NCIS, CSI, LMAO, WTF), and the cases aren't laughably convoluted. Which is refreshing. There's a crime, there are clues, leads are followed, the crime is solved. Jen is convinced that it's at least partially parody. I'm not sure.

What is particularly interesting though, is the relationship between the two lead characters. I don't have to tell anyone who watches TV that relationships between women are more often than not portrayed as, let's put it mildly, 'competitive'. Often, women are murdered, harangued, or just generally made miserable by other women. That, or they're the stoic, loner type with no friends who ends up alienating their prospective boyfriends after a week. Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles bicker and disagree, but you get the sense that both have a deep admiration for the other. It is exactly their differences that bring them together. It's unusual to see this kind of relationship between women on television (or in films). It's very likely part of why the show is so popular.

In the meantime, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander are the perfect foils for one another. The writing is funny, but the sometimes serious and brutal nature of the cases involved creates a good and needed balance, stopping the whole thing from slipping into being overtly silly. People's private lives are addressed, something that is often missing in procedurals, and effects a distance between viewer and character that hinders the former from relating to the latter.

Bonus points: Lorraine Bracco plays Jane Rizzoli's mother. I will always remember her from Medicine Man, a movie in which she outplayed Sean Connery. By a mile.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Go Edgar!

He may have been crazy, but he knew what he was talking about.






Tuesday, August 28, 2012

On My Lunchbreak, I Invite Shoggoths Over For Tea


When AJ Fitzwater is not a shoggoth, she's an awesome specfic writer. Read more about her endeavours at her blog, Pickled Think.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Stand-Up Fundies: Help!

Jean Carroll was the first truly famous female stand-up comedian. My dad had "look...a coat" on vinyl record, and I remember listening to it as a kid. When I got older, I started appreciating the real-life comedy of Carroll's routines; tame (some would say lame) in comparison to what is considered "funny" today, there's something about the way Carroll tells a story and delivers a punchline that's both heart-warming and hilarious at the same time.

Somewhere between all the moving and changing countries, my dad's record disappeared. I had a back-up copy on tape, but that has vanished into the ether as well; not that it would have lasted long, because I had worn it out as much as I dared after record players started going out of fashion and you couldn't find replacement needles anymore.

I've been trying to find a digital copy of "look...a coat"(the entire album) for forever. Do you know where I can possibly try next? Do you have a copy. Do you know someone who does? Please HELP! I'd be extremely grateful.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

I'm Interviewed By The Lovely Sharon Wachsler

Bed, Body & Beyond: Interview with Lynne Jamneck, editor of Periphery

"When my work is in an anthology it's always great fun when my copy of the book arrives and I discover what and who else is between its cover..."

Writer and editor Sharon Wachsler asked me some great questions about the process of putting together Periphery, now available from Untreed Reads in multi e-formats.