On Super Bowl XXXIX
Monday, 07 February 2005 09:04:33

This isn't so much worthy of a chat-type-topic, as just a little blog for me and maybe you, if you're interested in that sort of thing. Super Bowl XXXIX, for all intents and purposes, was a winner. Tight game. All the rest of the stuff around it, bluntly, sucked. Don't argue with me. It did. Song, hype, packaging, blah. Commercials too. With the following exceptions: BEST SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL, 2005: __ Second Runner Up: The Ford Truck Commercial, where all the bikers roll up to the restaurant, and they're all like, "(nervous) I don't think we should stop here," and the other biker is all, "The salad bar at the next restaurant is pretty good, I hear...." Funnier because I thought there were a bunch of minivans out front; after it ended my friends pointed out those were Ford Trucks. That's less funny, but still a good idea. __ First Runner Up: Tough call, but the NFL commercial for itself, with all the talent singing. It was awkward enough to see all the players trying to carry "Tomorrow, Tomorrow," from Annie, but when they hit Jon Gruden, I just lost it. He is the gruffest, scariest lookin' dude (who looks like he was just adorable at age 10), and not only did he try to sing, but he looked nervous as %^$# when he was doin' it. Now that's comedy. __ Winner: Everyone's going to pick this tomorrow, but damn, that really was Brad Pitt plugging Heineken. Even as I was watching it, I knew I would never, ever see this commercial again. Thumbs up. Rock on. Peace out. (qs)

sympathy, sympathy
Monday, 07 February 2005 16:34:35

I've got the flu. I just spent all weekend lying wrapped up in blankets and coughing and groaning, and my 'Wash''s sympathy is totally used up. I've been told not complain any more - but mentioning it in passing on fireflyfans isn't moaning, right? Besides, I really do deserve that sympathy, honest. I was so weak I even turned down the offer to watch Buffy and eat chocolate last night, in favour of going to sleep (we're up to season five. I'd forgotten how good it was - my memory had been overshadowed by being disappointed that Dawn didn't turn out to be evil. I have a younger sister and it would be a much easier solution for her to be evil rather than for Buffy and Dawn to have to learn to live together...) Anyway I felt I needed to add a little more on here after I edited all my earlier entries about work. It's not that I'm paranoid, just careful... though given that at one point my boss was stunned by my screensaver and I spent ten minutes explaining to her how to get one on her computer, I think I was pretty safe that they weren't going to check everything. It wasn't an all-bad place anyway. I suppose. One of my friends emailed me today and said I sounded like a character in an eighteenth-century novel to them: retiring to the countryside in order to get well. Except with internet and DVDs and stuff. Hey, that's kind of like Firefly: an old historical concept (Westerns) with something modern (space). Think Joss Whedon would be interested in writing about someone who spends all day at home sick or occasionally going for gentle walks in the fresh air?? Sympathy, come on! Oh, by the way, I'm going to London tomorrow, going to see some test screening of some movie. What do you mean, definitely no sympathy now? I was feeling a bit down about it though (must of been the flu) as a couple people had posted comments about how fans didn't understand it wasn't an event for them, it was a marketing device to try and find out how well the film would do. I was feeling excited about seeing the film, and also about going to a test screening as I've never seen one before and I thought it would be really interesting to see more of the process of making / editing a film. I haven't seen too much of that before, just since I got a DVD player really (which was quite recently), and I was never a big TV watcher. Actually, when I grew up we still had a b&w TV when everyone else had colour. Watching snooker was fun. Ooh, and I remember watching my first ever film too - there was only one cinema near where I grew up, and it was in town (we were just outside) and we didn't have a car and it was a bit rough at night... anyway, it wasn't till we visited relatives in the city that I went to the cinema. My first ever film was Care Bears. I think it was even the sequel. I couldn't believe it, I thought it was real: remember, I'd never even seen colour TV at this point. I thought it was like the theatre and the pictures came out of the wings... The second film I ever saw was 'Return to Oz', which my friend's mum took us to for my friend's birthday. It was absolutely terrifying. I watched it again a few years ago on video, and it was still pretty scarey... I forget what my point was exactly. Just that films are so exciting. I'm the person who sits dead silent at the cinema, completely focused on the screen. I love watching films. It's magical, watching a story which so many people have worked on together. Those comments I read, which seemed a little patronising (none of them were on this site, by the way), about how Firefly fans had 'got it wrong' with their attitudes to a test screening seemed to take a little of the magic away. Or something. Anyway, it made me a little sad. But perhaps that was the flu. Maybe I just need more sympathy...