Oh. My. God. I have an apology to make. *ahem*

Dear James Cameron,

I deeply regret talking shit about Avatar. My accusations that your film would be all special effects and no substance was grossly inaccurate. You presented a tale that was joyful, heartbreaking, and meaningful.

That is not to say the special effects were not a major player. Sir, you have not just delivered a technological marvel. You have created an artistic masterpiece. From the moment they stepped onto the screen, the Na'avi were a real people. They had actual screen presence. You created a geographically amazing world filled with a complex system of organisms that would make fantasy and sci-fi authors weep. It was more than worth the extra $5 to see this movie in 3D.

I thought that saying you were going to change the way people looked at movies was arrogant and kind of douchey, but I can guarantee you that decades from now, film students will still be studying this movie. (You could have gone a little easier on the hype, though.)

Please accept my humblest apologies,

Maison

I've been marathoning animated Disney movies since I got home from The Princess and the Frog. This past quarter I took a History of Animation course and it's been interesting watching the movies, some of which I haven't seen since I was a child, from that perspective.

So my question is: If I write up mini essays/reviews about the historical significance/animation techniques/my experience as an adult vs experience as a child where applicable, would you guys read them? I have three weeks off and it's something I would like to do for myself, but I don't want to spam my flist with Disney essays you aren't interested in.

Every piece of news that comes out about Deadpool gives me more and more hope. The current rumor that's making the rounds is that Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of Zombieland, will be writing the screenplay.

If all these things fall into place, Deadpool has the potential to be my favorite comic book movie ever.


I saw The Princess and the Frog last night. It was really good. Definitely reminiscent of the golden age of Disney.

The Shadow Man totally stole the show. "Friends on the Other Side" was incredibly creepy, and the animation of the voodoo was gorgeous. The other animated sequence I loved was "Almost There". They did the entire sequence in a flat, deco style and it was really cool.

The story was a bit predictable, but it's Disney so I wasn't expecting any different.

Let's talk about how last night's Glee was sheer perfection, shall we?

( MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE MID-SEASON FINALE OF GLEE )

Getting in some last-minute studying for my history of photography final. And checking LJ. Shut up, I can't focus unless I'm doing multiple things at once. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but it's just another ADD thing.

I get a few comment notifications every couple of hours, but they're old. I still feel lost and alone. And also kind of rude; I don't generally camp out in posts that I've commented in, so I only know if someone replied to me if I get a notification. So sorry if I haven't replied to you on something.

ETA: I totally rocked my exam! On the midterm I didn't get any of the identifying questions (she puts photos up on the projector and we have to identify the photographer, the title, and the date), but I got all of them right on the exam. AND I got the bonus identifying question!

I also usually have trouble writing essays on the spot, but we had to critique a photo that we'd discussed in class before, so it was easy.

I have ADD/ADHD. I also have a slew of other disorders - mainly depression and Social Anxiety Disorder - but we're talking about ADD right now.

Like a lot of people with ADD, I have trouble sleeping. It takes me at least an hour to fall asleep every night. I just can't seem to turn my brain off. I have a clock on my wall (IT'S A CRAYOLA CLOCK AND THE NUMBERS ARE COLORS ON THE COLOR WHEEL) that ticks audibly and sometimes I can get my brain to focus on the ticking, which helps.

The other problem I have is that I tend to get very excited about shiny things. The more I get worked up, the harder it is for me to even consider sleeping. Considering I have made two capslock posts about three things that make me very excited? Yeah, I'm not sleeping tonight.

THAT'S OKAY, I HAVE A HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY PAPER TO FINISH ANYWAY. AND THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL IS ALMOST DONE DOWNLOADING. MUPPETS + DELIGHTFUL MUSICAL NUMBERS + MICHAEL CAINE AS SCROOGE = ALL OTHER VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL ARE INVALID.

FUCK, I AM NEVER GETTING THAT PAPER DONE, AM I?





Okay, I'm back. See? I'm so worked up I keep lapsing into capslock. My family always knows when I'm having a really bad ADD attack because I start bouncing up and down and talking like that.

OH MY GOD DISNEY IS DOING A HAND-DRAWN VERSION OF THE SNOW QUEEN.

OMG OMG OMG SHAKING AND CRYING FOR REAL



P.S. RYAN REYNOLDS, I LOVE YOU. PLEASE FOX, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LISTEN TO RYAN REYNOLDS.

Stealing from thursdays_girl, who I bonded with in last night's Alice Capslock Watch-A-Long.

Rules:
- Bold all of the following TV shows which you've ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime.
- Italicize a show if you're positive you've seen every episode of it.

( I feel that being a film student disqualifies me from looking like a loser with no life for these results )

OMG OMG OMG IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. SYFY LEARNED ITS LESSON ABOUT SHIP COCKBLOCKING AFTER ALL THE BITCHING ABOUT TIN MAN.

HE CAME THROUGH AFTER HER AND IT WAS AMAZING AND ADORABLE AND *squeee*. THEY CUT IT CLOSE, THOUGH. I WAS GETTING READY TO CUT SOMEONE. ME AND THE REST OF THE ONTD_TWATLIGHT WATCH-A-LONG POST WERE GNASHING OUR TEETH. I BELIEVE MY EXACT WORDS WERE "I WILL PUNCH A BABY I SWEAR TO GOD."

List 10 TV shows you like, in no specific order. Do this before reading the questions below.

10. Glee
9. Kings
8. Supernatural
7. NCIS
6. White Collar
5. Doctor Who
4. Avatar: The Last Airbender
3. Criminal Minds
2. How I Met Your Mother
1. The Mentalist

( the rest )

Been busy with school lately. I also came home sick today at lunch. I spent the rest of my day lying on the couch watching a Law & Order: SVU marathon. (As strange as it may seem, given that the show is about unspeakable crimes, SVU is my television equivalent of comfort food. I like to have it on in the background while I work, or while I kind of drift in and out of sleep during a sick day.)

Also taking up my time is fandom stuff with USA's new show White Collar. I'm a mod at both of the currently existing White Collar communities, whitecollar_tv and caffrey_burke, and we've been gearing up for the premiere on Friday @ 10pm. Most of my work has been at caffrey_burke; I set up the layout on Monday and I'm currently working on the tagging system.

Anyway, here's some news.

( Headlines )

I could not sleep last night, and it wasn't because I stayed up late or the hamsters in my brain were working overtime like they sometimes do. I tossed and turned from midnight to seven, maybe sleeping an hour at a time. I'm exhausted. I think I will be turning in early tonight.

TV
Monday Night Ratings And the countdown to Heroes cancellation begins....now. That show is hella expensive to produce and it's sinking lower every week. (The only reason I'm still watching it is for the lulzy watch-a-long posts over at ontd_twatlight.) (P.S. Heroes, synethesia is not a superpower. Just sayin'.)

I am pleased to see that NBC's ludicrous plan to have Jay Leno take the 10pm slot every night is backfiring spectacularly.

Glee Rules the iTunes Charts With Astounding 1.1 Million Downloads "GLEE currently boasts 10 songs on the iTunes Top 200" This is one of the reasons that, despite what history shows happens to "quirky" shows, I was optimistic about the show's chance of survival. It doesn't just make money from advertisers. I'm so happy that my optimism has paid off and Glee has both great ratings and chart topping songs.

Dollhouse: Where Did It Go Wrong?! Personally, I have found this season very boring, which is a major disappointment after the awesome unaired episode "Epitaph One".

New Doctor Who Logo Revealed I was about to say that I wasn't sure about this, but then I took another look. And now I love it. It's modern, but the font and color scheme also call back to the old Who logos. The one they'd been using for the new series was so different from the others, which I think was necessary at first to establish it as a new era of the show, but now the show is comfortable enough in it's identity that it can afford to start being a bit sentimental about the old series. Not to say that they didn't consider the old series before; they were just a lot more conscientious about establishing themselves so they weren't being constantly compared to "the good old days".


Movies
Citing Flight Risk, Swiss Officials Refuse to Grant Bail for Roman Polanski

The First Five Minutes of The Princess and the Frog This was the first news item I found this morning, and it is the only reason I wasn't a cranky bitch to everyone who crossed my path today. Words can't even begin to express how excited I am for this movie. And I can't be the only one to think the rich little girl looks remarkably like Darla Dimple from Cats Don't Dance. (A sadly underrated movie, btw. You should check it out.)

Paranormal Activity Director Swaps Ghosts for Aliens in Area 51 Granted, this actually sounds like it might be cool. But Hollywood has a history of taking any gimmick that happens to work once and then beating it into the ground until it's an unrecognizable pulp. Just keep in mind that the Blair Witch sequels tanked, okay guys?

Forget a Zombieland Sequel: Writers Have 12 Films Planned It's funny that I linked to the review that said Zombieland felt like the start of a TV series, since this article reveals that it was originally conceived as such. (And now that they mention it, I do have a vague recollection about a network being in talks for zombie TV series.)

Strip Roland Emmerich's 2012 of It's Special Effects, and What Do You Get?

Rifftrax Riffs Dragon Wars

You have no idea how much this just made my day. Dragons Wars is one of my favorite drunken-yelling movies ever. (BTW, that's where you get slightly tipsy, put on a bad movie, and proceed to yell and crack jokes at the screen for two hours. Try it, it's a blast! For movie selections, I highly recommend something from the Uwe Boll library, such as Bloodrayne.) I saw it with a bunch of friends and I can honestly say that I have never laughed so hard in my entire life.

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I work as a teaching/administrative assistant at a college and it was crazy busy getting ready for the new school year to start. Our offices are now filled to the brim with every possible precaution against hamthrax, by the way, so hopefully I will be avoiding the piggy sniffles despite being in the target age group.

Also, the pilot light at home is out and October kind of snuck up like a ninja of cold, windy weather so now everyone in the house is wearing at least two layers at all times. I could really use some more pairs of slipper socks.

( Have some news! )

Audio of Matt Smith and Karen Gillian rehearsing a scene on the set of Doctor Who has surfaced on YouTube.

( Listen to it after the cut (SPOILERS) )

There's been a lot of news about upcoming movies in the wake of San Diego Comic Con and it seems like there are so many movies to get excited about. Here are the ten movies that I am most looking forward to, in no particular order.

( Lists Are Fun )

Dollhouse Gets A Second Season To Find Its Identity

Well done, FOX. You have avoided a mass uprising of Whedonites. For now.

So I saw Star Trek last night. It was completely and totally amazing.

To give you a little background: I was not a Trekkie. I had absolutely no interest in the franchise. And then I started seeing teasers and trailers for this movie. And I was intrigued. I decided to go back and watch the original Star Trek series. It's no secret that I love me some campy sci-fi, so I was in love almost immediately.

Guys, watching this.....I was as emotional as anyone who had loved the series for years.

I am officially a Trekkie.

( SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT )

THIS SEXY BADASS ASSASSIN IS GETTING HIS OWN BADASS MOVIE.



....I may be just a little bit excited about it.

This Friday my aunt came down from Columbus to visit. After a successful shopping trip at IKEA (I got new sheets) and dinner, she went with my mom and sister to see Sunshine Cleaning. They tried to convince me to go with them and while I would like to see that movie eventually, there was another movie that demanded my viewing.

( <i>X-Men Origins: Wolverine</i> )