back Stateside
May. 29th, 2009 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrotSo, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gnine and I survived the move, as did our luggage, all 6+ 50 lbs bags of it (minus the other six boxes that are coming by sea, which we'll hopefully see again in a month or two...keep your fingers crossed for them! Also keep them crossed for my marimo, one of them fell apart, and not sure they'll recover...) We're now ensconced in the brother's house in Seattle, which is slated to be my home for the next...um...I have no idea. gnine abandons me for the U.K. in a couple months, but for now we're settling in here...
Bit of a culture shock, being back in the U.S. (the store clerks chat with you! Everyone on the bus can understand what you're saying, and you can understand most of their conversations! ...And of course one of the first conversations we overheard were two teen boys discussing Final Fantasy...you can't get far from Japan these days.) Pluses to being back: cheap Mexican fast food (mmmm bean burritos, how I missed you!), cats I can pet (kitteh~~!) and the Star Trek movie is already out (opening today in Japan) so I got to see it last night:
As an old-skool Trekkie, it was for the most part, squee~~! for me, with a couple minor quibbles. Loved all the characters, thought everyone did a superb job. They were all so excellent that one got impatient during the f/x space battles, wanting to get back to the real action, the people, which is how Star Trek ought to be. And the spirit otherwise was perfect, from the barroom brawl to the starship shots. Spent much of the film squealing and dolphin-clapping because, it's Star Trek! On screen again!
I can't hope to pick a favorite among the chars - agree with everyone else that McCoy is just fantastic (such a perfectly crotchety young man! Even though his brown eyes kept making me double-take) but Simon Pegg's Scotty just killed me ded. And Chekov was so adorable! And Sulu - heeeee, when he said he knew advanced fighting I was like, wait, what does he know except fencing? And then he had a sword and ahahahah beautiful! (Also that was right after the poor red shirt died, as a a good red shirt must. BWAHAHAHAH!) Kirk was suitably crazycakes (and if I had moments I was impatient to get him off the screen and get back to the other chars, well, that's right, too!) andSylar Zachary Quinto did an amazing Spock, though his voice drove me nuts, it was so very much not Nimoy's baritone (that's really a compliment to Quinto, he so perfectly caught Nimoy's intonation and inflection that it sounded just like him, only an octave too high; I kept wanting to adjust the sound when he spoke...)
My main quibble was with Uhura - I liked a lot of the way they re-realized her character (mainly by giving her one - and giving her first name in official canon, finally, that's the first time "Nyota"'s actually been used on screen, right?) But she's the only major female character (save Spock's refrigerated mom) - so of course she has to be romantically involved. Because really, what else do women really do besides have romantic relationships with men? And be the responsible non-dorks, while everyone else gets to be silly little boys. Siiiiigh. (Also, if pon farr was going to go out the window along with Vulcan, I feel sorry for Nurse Chapel, who doesn't even get a cameo, much less snag Spock...)
I did appreciate how the franchise has been rebooted - alternate timelines are so very canon anyway, so now both versions of the 'verse can peacefully co-exist. And Nimoy's Spock bridging the gap was perfect, and he did a marvelous job...his exchanges with Kirk were a bit heavy-handed script-wise, but still, you could feel the affection, how much he'd missed his friend. Besides, y'all know how much I love intersecting alternate universes, so this was just, eeeee~!
And there were a lot of other things to love, too, like all the aliens in the background, this Federation looked almost almost as multi-species as it was in the books. And how all the crew was established as geniuses in their fields, and massive neurotic DORKS as well (three cheers for dorks in space!) which is what the Enterprise should be (even if it is a bit of putting all their brilliant eggs in one easily self-destructed basket...) And Kirk & Spock beam down together in blatant violation of any sort of sense - and oh, the video-game style transporter locking was all nifty (even if it gave me Galaxy Quest flashbacks) - and Chris Pike ended up in a wheelchair and the shuttlecraft are the same absurd boxes and oh! Star Trek! <3333
Definitely would like to see it again! And sequel, please?
Also, with the bro, there has been the obligatory YouTube sharing: I saw the Superman theme song a while ago, but I didn't realize the guy had done more - I especially enjoyed Jaws and Terminator 2, and the Batman theme proved what I've been saying since I saw Dr. Horrible, that there needs to be a superhero musical. Badly. Also liked Halloween even though I've never seen the movies - it's actually as creepy as it is funny, and weirdly effective for that.
gnine and I survived the move, as did our luggage, all 6+ 50 lbs bags of it (minus the other six boxes that are coming by sea, which we'll hopefully see again in a month or two...keep your fingers crossed for them! Also keep them crossed for my marimo, one of them fell apart, and not sure they'll recover...) We're now ensconced in the brother's house in Seattle, which is slated to be my home for the next...um...I have no idea. gnine abandons me for the U.K. in a couple months, but for now we're settling in here...Bit of a culture shock, being back in the U.S. (the store clerks chat with you! Everyone on the bus can understand what you're saying, and you can understand most of their conversations! ...And of course one of the first conversations we overheard were two teen boys discussing Final Fantasy...you can't get far from Japan these days.) Pluses to being back: cheap Mexican fast food (mmmm bean burritos, how I missed you!), cats I can pet (kitteh~~!) and the Star Trek movie is already out (opening today in Japan) so I got to see it last night:
As an old-skool Trekkie, it was for the most part, squee~~! for me, with a couple minor quibbles. Loved all the characters, thought everyone did a superb job. They were all so excellent that one got impatient during the f/x space battles, wanting to get back to the real action, the people, which is how Star Trek ought to be. And the spirit otherwise was perfect, from the barroom brawl to the starship shots. Spent much of the film squealing and dolphin-clapping because, it's Star Trek! On screen again!
I can't hope to pick a favorite among the chars - agree with everyone else that McCoy is just fantastic (such a perfectly crotchety young man! Even though his brown eyes kept making me double-take) but Simon Pegg's Scotty just killed me ded. And Chekov was so adorable! And Sulu - heeeee, when he said he knew advanced fighting I was like, wait, what does he know except fencing? And then he had a sword and ahahahah beautiful! (Also that was right after the poor red shirt died, as a a good red shirt must. BWAHAHAHAH!) Kirk was suitably crazycakes (and if I had moments I was impatient to get him off the screen and get back to the other chars, well, that's right, too!) and
My main quibble was with Uhura - I liked a lot of the way they re-realized her character (mainly by giving her one - and giving her first name in official canon, finally, that's the first time "Nyota"'s actually been used on screen, right?) But she's the only major female character (save Spock's refrigerated mom) - so of course she has to be romantically involved. Because really, what else do women really do besides have romantic relationships with men? And be the responsible non-dorks, while everyone else gets to be silly little boys. Siiiiigh. (Also, if pon farr was going to go out the window along with Vulcan, I feel sorry for Nurse Chapel, who doesn't even get a cameo, much less snag Spock...)
I did appreciate how the franchise has been rebooted - alternate timelines are so very canon anyway, so now both versions of the 'verse can peacefully co-exist. And Nimoy's Spock bridging the gap was perfect, and he did a marvelous job...his exchanges with Kirk were a bit heavy-handed script-wise, but still, you could feel the affection, how much he'd missed his friend. Besides, y'all know how much I love intersecting alternate universes, so this was just, eeeee~!
And there were a lot of other things to love, too, like all the aliens in the background, this Federation looked almost almost as multi-species as it was in the books. And how all the crew was established as geniuses in their fields, and massive neurotic DORKS as well (three cheers for dorks in space!) which is what the Enterprise should be (even if it is a bit of putting all their brilliant eggs in one easily self-destructed basket...) And Kirk & Spock beam down together in blatant violation of any sort of sense - and oh, the video-game style transporter locking was all nifty (even if it gave me Galaxy Quest flashbacks) - and Chris Pike ended up in a wheelchair and the shuttlecraft are the same absurd boxes and oh! Star Trek! <3333
Definitely would like to see it again! And sequel, please?
Also, with the bro, there has been the obligatory YouTube sharing: I saw the Superman theme song a while ago, but I didn't realize the guy had done more - I especially enjoyed Jaws and Terminator 2, and the Batman theme proved what I've been saying since I saw Dr. Horrible, that there needs to be a superhero musical. Badly. Also liked Halloween even though I've never seen the movies - it's actually as creepy as it is funny, and weirdly effective for that.
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-29 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-29 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-29 11:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-29 08:11 pm (UTC)I still haven't seen Star Trek, BFF keeps bailing on me. Next week better be a charm or he's losing an F. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-29 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-29 11:38 pm (UTC)I think this is what excited me the most. I had been so afraid that the sequel would suck, as many movies' sequels do, but it was perfect. T_T
no subject
Date: 2009-05-30 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-30 11:07 am (UTC)dorks in space Yes, exactly.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-30 09:01 pm (UTC)Yay for dorks in space! They're a running theme in much of what I enjoy...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-30 09:03 pm (UTC)And thank you, it's...odd, to be back...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-30 09:22 pm (UTC)Seattle seems like a nice city, from what I've heard. Have fun!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-30 11:57 pm (UTC)Would like to see it again myself, perhaps, it was a lot of fun!
And yes, Seattle is quite nice, what I've seen of it, though it's going to take some getting used to...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-31 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 01:48 am (UTC)We have got to stop meeting like this....
Date: 2009-05-31 01:03 pm (UTC)Who's stalking who this time? i've lost track...
Re: We have got to stop meeting like this....
Date: 2009-06-01 01:51 am (UTC)(Ever been into Man From UNCLE? Illya Kuryakin's my current flame...)
Re: We have got to stop meeting like this....
Date: 2009-06-01 09:15 am (UTC)And yes, the nuWho cybermen still suck ass.
Been a MUNCLE fan for an, erm. embarrassingly long time. (Remember that vague shred of a TS/MUNCLE xover I was poking about ten years ago? Jesus, has it been that long??) I blame my parents. McCallum aged magnificently IMO. Vaughn on the other hand...sweet jesus, he hit every branch in the ugly tree on the way down....
(And trek doesn't count 'cos everyone's all over trek *pokes tongue out* )
Re: We have got to stop meeting like this....
Date: 2009-06-01 09:45 am (UTC)...and no one warned me that Illya is the fangirl bait black hole; no one can escape the gravitational pull of snarktastic trim-waisted blond superspy. So now I'm crushing madly on a guy almost my grandmother's age. Oh Dear.
Trek on the other hand I come by honestly; it was my introduction to fanfic, before I was even online. XP
Re: We have got to stop meeting like this....
Date: 2009-06-01 09:56 am (UTC)Jesus. I remember how wrecked mum was after seeing Wrath of Khan at the cinemas (I was 'too young' to see it, ended up seeing lady and the tramp instead, dammit)
NCIS cracked me the hell up when they referred to a younger ducky looking "like Illya Kuryakin" And ducky/abbby. I don't care how damned tacky or how high the ick factor is...I ship it.
*runs away*
Re: We have got to stop meeting like this....
Date: 2009-06-01 08:11 pm (UTC)...I pretty much ship every possible pairing in NCIS, really; Ducky wasn't part of the equation before, but nowadays...(I've wondered if a couple of the guest actresses whose chars are all flirty with Ducky maybe crushed on him in their teens, so inside are thinking, "I'm acting with Illya!")
Re: We have got to stop meeting like this....
Date: 2009-06-02 09:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-31 02:04 pm (UTC)I agree with you about Uhura. Too much of her role revolved around people being hot for her – and while it’s perfectly understandable that multiple people would be knocked over – it oddly gave her more independence of thought and action in the original series. My main objection though was that she made Spock act in an un-Spocklike way. The thing with a what-if AU, is that the less the what-if part affects a character, the less change there should be. We see Spock’s childhood following the events in the original series pretty much exactly. It seems (can’t resist) logical to assume the young Spock we see should resemble the young Spock we would expect from seeing the original series – because all the possibly personality changing stuff hasn’t happened to him yet.
Okay, now let’s move along to the scene where everyone’s being assigned to the ships. Spock’s been entrusted with the job of assigning the recruits where they’ll be most useful based on their abilities and performance to date. Can you see Spock (any version of Spock) deciding to ignore his responsibilities, ignore any logical method of selection, and assign an inferior crewman to an important post, bypassing someone who would be better for the job and who had earned it – and all because he was worried what people would think?
If all the Spock and Uhura scenes had been like the one in the elevator where she asks him what he need and he says for everyone to do their jobs… the look on her face when she accepts that, when she accepts who he is… that was priceless and made me believe they belonged together right there. The thing is so many of their scenes together seemed to be the kind of generic cute boyfriend/girlfriend moments, and I found that really infuriating.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 02:00 am (UTC)I have to admit, I'm disappointed Spock was put in a canon relationship. He was one of the few asexual characters on TV (putting aside pon farr) so of course they had to take that away. Phooey! I liked the moment between him and Uhura in the turbolift because it was more subtextual; it could have been romantic, but it could have been intense friendship if you wanted to read it that way...but the bit with her when he was beaming down with Kirk made it explicitly romantic/sexual. Sigh.
(I also admit to being ticked that Kirk got to hear Uhura's first name from Spock, rather than her giving it to him herself. I wanted her to extend Kirk that trust herself, to show her developing faith in her future captain, but instead that platonic relationship was put aside in favor of Kirk/Spock and Spock/Uhura...)
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Date: 2009-06-01 09:35 pm (UTC)And I also felt that it made Spock seem a bit out of character. Making out with his girlfriend in front of his captain and other crewmembers? I can't quite picture that. They should have left it at the elevator.
I also didn't feel the Kirk/Spock-friendship (which I always loved most about the series) as much as I would have liked. Bones was awesome, and I loved the Kirk/McCoy scenes because, awwww. BFFs, right? Spock wasn't really part of that though because in all scenes where he showed a more vulnerable side, he was paired with Uhura. *sighs*
no subject
Date: 2009-06-02 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-07 02:59 pm (UTC)I agree about the Uhura. Good she has a first name, but I'm torn about the rel with Spock.
I've said it before and I'll said it again. Happy Trekkie, Happy Trekkie.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-07 07:51 pm (UTC)& just saw Pixar's newest "Up" last night - great stuff! ^^
no subject
Date: 2009-06-08 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-07 06:14 pm (UTC)So when she and her husband decided to drop their lives in S. Carolina (Clemson told him he wasn't getting tenure, no way no how) and move to Seattle, I said, "Why? It's just like Japan, except that a few more people speak English as a first language."
She was not amused.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-07 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-07 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-07 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-08 12:50 am (UTC)