Sunday, September 30, 2012

Best American Architecture

My brother has a great post up about the best American buildings. I'll agree with him on the Chrystler building, Hearst Castle, Trinity Church, and the Gamble House. However, I'd include a few more:

The Biltmore Estate. I mean, this is as close as we get to European castles around here.

The Hacienda

The Transamerica Pyramid

SF City Hall

The Thorncrown Chapel

The Fairmont

The Getty

AT&T Park

The Holocaust memorial

The Francis Little House and the Van Bergen house. I actually don't like a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright's designs. But I like these.


And whatever these are:



Monday, September 24, 2012

Music Countdown Meme

Yeah, these categories are going to have a LOT of overlap.

Day 1 - Your 10 favorite albums
(Ah, geez. Okay, runners-up: Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer?, Tori Amos - From the Choirgirl Hotel & Little Earthquakes, Muse - Black Holes and Revelations & The Resistance, Fiona Apple - When the Pawn, Hole - Celebrity Skin, Alanis Morrissette - Jagged Little Pill, AFI - Decemberunderground & Sing the Sorrow, Green Day - Dookie & 21st Century Breakdown, No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom, Go Soundtrack, Evita soundtrack, Rocky Horror Live, Cabaret soundtrack... Ahem. Why place limits?)

The Cranberries - No Need to Argue (here's Zombie:)

Red Hot Chili Peppers - By the Way (Minor Thing:)

Bush - Sixteen Stone (Machinehead:)

Tori Amos - To Venus and Back (Sugar:)

Green Day/Broadway Cast - American Idiot (Favorite Son:)

AFI - Crash Love (End Transmission:)

Poe - Haunted (Hey Pretty:)

RENT soundtrack (Out Tonight:)

Elastica (SOFT:)

Garbage - Version 2.0 (You Look So Fine:)


Day 2 - Your 9 favorite songs
Another Day - RENT

Midnight - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Satellite Mind - Metric

In Like the Rose - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 

Kiss and Control - AFI

Whatsername - Green Day

Hysteria - Muse

I Think I'm Paranoid - Garbage (see further down)

Sunday, September 23, 2012

The Emmys

Jimmy Kimmel's timing seems oddly off. Like, some of his jokes are funny, but he seems nervous or like he's rushing.

Emma Stone looks pissed. Maybe because Andrew Garfield isn't there?

Eric Stonestreet! I'm surprised. I loved his guest spot on American Horror Story, so rock on. (I would have preferred Max Greenfield or Bill Hader, but Modern Family seems to have spiked the punch.) 

Hmm - I wonder if Louie's writing win bodes well for best actor? Or if the actor will go to Parsons now. 

Breaking Bad as Andy Griffith. Love.

Julie Bowen - ugh. I hate you. Eat something and learn what grace is. And hot oil treatments.

Why are they having the audience watch the winner's butt as they get their photo taken.

Are the teleprompters off? Everyone seems to be having these weird pauses in their speeches.

Fucking Modern Family. WHAT is the appeal? Why are the Emmys going back to the years where only Frasier and NYPD Blue won things?

Hi guy chewing gum with his mouth open.

Whoa. Jon Cryer. Is this a belated note for Charlie Sheen?

Aww - I liked Julia Louis Dreyfuss' speech. Especially with the shout-outs for Amy.

And now we're into Reality, so I can mute and go do the laundry. Whoo!

Whoa. We're going drama before Movie/Mini?

WHOA!! Aaron Paul over Giancarlo Esposito! YAY AARON PAUL!!!

Yay! Homeland for writing! (Why are they doing writing before supporting actress? The flow here makes no sense to me.)

Aww. Maggie Smith. Good for her.

Yay new Bond film! It looks gooooood.

Snazzy suit, Giancarlo.

Yay Jeremy Davies and Martha Plimpton. I LOVE YOU BOTH. Oooh! And Martha has another great dress.

This seems like a good time to revisit my favorite quote about Jeremy's nomination; "Jeremy Davies as best guest actor on a drama series, as Dickie Bennett on Justified. I know a lot of people who think this performance is just too much in every way. But that's the point of it. He's this generation's Crispin Glover. Old Italian grandmothers look at his performance on Justified and think, You're gesturing with your hands too much. There is a place for this. It's fun."

Whoa! Boardwalk Empire over Homeland. Shocked!

Hmmm. I think I like Juliana's dress.

HOLY FUCK DAMIEN LEWIS. DID NOT SEE THAT COMING!!!!

Love Tina Fey's dress.

Yay Claire Danes!

Oh! It isn't Emma Stone. It's Jane Levy. I liked her on Shameless - I was sorry when she had to drop out.

Hee Aziz Ansari.

Ugh. WHO NOMINATES THE DEBACLE THAT WAS THAT OSCARS.

God, so little in this telecast is going well. Not funny. Not interesting. 

Yay Tony love!

The second time I've actually laughed out loud was Jon Stewart. That was wonderful.

WE HAD TO PUT UP WITH JIMMY KIMMEL'S BULLSHIT TRIBUTE TO HIMSELF AND DIDN'T GET ANY JESSICA LANGE CLIPS?!?! WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Heh. You can tell very few of the Emmy audience watched Hatfields and McCoys because NO ONE understands what Tom Berenger is on about.

What is wrong with the sound? Why can't I hear the person singing?

Lucy Liu is wearing a hardware chest.

Aww - I love Abi Morgan, but.... Danny Strong! Awesome.

Bored. This isn't quite the debacle that the Oscars was, and yet... it's trying.

Whoo - figured with the earlier wins it was going to Homeland. Yay! Mandy Patinkin gets to be on stage. Go Showtime. I couldn't care less about Modern Family, so... that's it for me.

Yay for Homeland, Jessica Lange and Aaron Paul. Boo for not enough love for The Good Wife, American Horror Story, The Hour, Justified, Community, Girls, Sherlock, Parks and Rec, Game of Thrones... In such a golden age of television, hard to have made this go so badly. Let's have Jimmy Fallon next year, mmmkay?

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Emmys - Predicting the Winners

Comedy Series
Modern Family. *sigh*

Comedy Actor
I think Louis CK is going to upset here. Otherwise, it'll be Jim Parsons.

Comedy Actress
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss. It *should* be Amy Poehler.

Comedy Supporting Actress
Either Mayim Bialik or Julie Bowen. Hopefully Mayim.

Comedy Supporting Actor
Hmmm- Ed ONeill. Unless he splits it with Ty Burrell and Max Greenfield slips in.

Comedy Writing
Girls. Which -yay-, but this is really the only chance Community has.

Comedy Directing
Either Curb Your Enthusiasm or Louie

Drama Series
Mad Men and Breaking Bad seem to have split the predictions evenly. I'm going Breaking Bad.




Drama Actor
Bryan Cranston


Drama Actress
Claire Danes


Drama Supporting Actor
Giancarlo Esposito

Drama Supporting Actress
Christina Hedricks

Drama Writing
Downton Abbey

Drama Directing
Homeland

Miniseries or Movie
Game Change

M/M Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch. Or Kevin Costner

M/M Actress
Julianne Moore

M/M Supporting Actor
Ed Harris. Or Martin Freeman

M/M Supporting Actress
Jessica Lange

M/M Writing
I find it hilarious that Danny Strong, he of Roger Moore (below), is going to win an Emmy (for Game Change). 


M/M Directing
Game Change

Variety
Daily Show


Reality
Amazing Race

Monday, September 17, 2012

Doctor Who Meme

Day 01 - Your Favourite Who Quote
At the moment;


Day 02 - Your Favourite Classic Series Episode
Never seen any! Bad Whovian.


Day 03 - Your Favourite New Series Episode
Hmm - several contenders, but probably Tooth & Claw:


Day 04 - Your Favourite Doctor
Ten. 








Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Best Chase Scenes

I haven't seen Premium Rush yet, but... (nor have I seen The Seven-Ups, The General, Tell No One, Vanishing Point, Ronin, The Road Warrior... and it has also been a long time since I've seen the Blues Brothers.)

Special mention for those films which are largely one long chase (Thelma & Louise, Catch Me If You Can, The Fugitive, Logan's Run...)

Additionally, Run Lola Run isn't exactly a chase, a couple of short scenes aside, but it sure feels like one:


23. RocknRolla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4rO60aoJ04

22. No Country for Old Men


21. Trainspotting


20. The Dark Knight




Monday, September 10, 2012

The saddest tv episodes

Sad like lump in throat. Not sad like Family Guy.

Since we did sad movies yesterday, let's do sad tv episodes today.

I'm finishing up Six Feet Under over the next couple of weeks. And yes, I KNOW I'm going to be a wreck. I'm also in the middle of Season 4 of the Wire, which I can already tell is going to be rough.

I haven't seen Rescue Me yet, or In Treatment. Or the dog episode of Futurama.

Doctor Who - Doomsday (runners up: The End of Time part 2, the Girl in the Fireplace)
Buffy - The Body
So, this: http://whedonversegifs.tumblr.com/post/29421469552

The West Wing - Two Cathedrals. Weirdly, the only episode of the West Wing I've ever seen. That's because it was partly filmed at my school and some of my cast mates from the spring play were in it. I (being a girl) was not cast (it was subbing in for a boy's prep school), but I did get yelled at by the director for walking through a shot between classes. That said, and not knowing the characters at all when seeing it, it did seem like a tear-jerker.
 
LOST - Through the Looking Glass (runner up: The Constant, because that's mostly happy crying.)

Grey's Anatomy - designed to make you cry about every other week, the worst was Denny. I turned that episode off and never watched the show again. Because what kind of tragedy was going to top that?