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Perhaps the one and only advantage to being too sick to do much of anything all weekend is that I got a lot of time to catch up on my reading and DVD/television watching. Some highlights:
I read Naomi Novik's Black Powder War, the third book in her Temeraire series. It was good fun. I didn't like it quite as much as book one, but liked it a bit better than book two. Probably because of all the Napoleonic War stuff. And wow, what a cliffhanger for book four. I can't wait to see where she goes with it.
I'm now about halfway through Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's The Grand Tour. (I seem to be on a bit of a Napoleonic kick at the moment. Then again, everyone seems to be on a bit of a Napoleonic kick at the moment. I wonder if it's just because we all suddenly (re)discovered how much fun Jane Austen and the Hornblower novels and Patrick O'Brien are, and we wanted more? Or is there something in particular about that period of time that resonates with present day readers? I don't know. Worth thinking about.) Also good fun. And thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sbuchler, I have some idea of what they're talking about when they talk about clothes!
I downloaded and watched the two episodes of Doctor Who that I was supposed to have seen at the Legion of Rassilon meeting Friday night. I suppose I'll talk about those later in a separate post, as has been my wont for Doctor Who Season 3 stuff. And I watched two episodes of Life on Mars, which continues to be weird and wonderful. I am struck by the number of rather obscure (to Americans) British cultural references that are woven into the show, and find myself wondering how many more I must be missing. (Just as an example, one of the episodes that I watched obliquely references the Hillsborough football disaster, which I only know about because it's routinely cited on Doctor Who fan message boards as an example of why one shouldn't trust any reporting by The Sun.) There's room for a great annotated Life on Mars website out there.
I also watched Shrek 2. Eh. It was cute, it was sweet, and I got a little teary at the end, because I'm a sap like that, but I think it was ultimately pretty forgettable. It's a bit telling that the part I laughed hardest at was the "Technical Goofs" special feature on the DVD. I love blooper reels.
And I watched The Revengers Tragedy, a film based on a Jacobean revenge drama probably written by Thomas Middleton. I'm not sure what to say about it. I watched it, watched the "Making of" documentary on the DVD, watched it again with the commentary on, rewatched a few of my favorite scenes, and went to Amazon.com this morning and ordered a book of 5 of Thomas Middleton's plays. So, I guess I liked it. Either that, or I was feeling too lazy to get up and put in a different DVD. But it's a movie that's more interesting than successful. I wouldn't generally recommend it to a friend unless the friend had a particular taste for dark and somewhat surreal films. (I did think that the commentary and making of documentary had some interesting observations for people interested in directing and film-making.) It's also got some terrific acting. It's also got a lot of stuff that will leave you going, "Huh? What?"
And I think that's the lot.
I read Naomi Novik's Black Powder War, the third book in her Temeraire series. It was good fun. I didn't like it quite as much as book one, but liked it a bit better than book two. Probably because of all the Napoleonic War stuff. And wow, what a cliffhanger for book four. I can't wait to see where she goes with it.
I'm now about halfway through Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's The Grand Tour. (I seem to be on a bit of a Napoleonic kick at the moment. Then again, everyone seems to be on a bit of a Napoleonic kick at the moment. I wonder if it's just because we all suddenly (re)discovered how much fun Jane Austen and the Hornblower novels and Patrick O'Brien are, and we wanted more? Or is there something in particular about that period of time that resonates with present day readers? I don't know. Worth thinking about.) Also good fun. And thanks to
sbuchler, I have some idea of what they're talking about when they talk about clothes!I downloaded and watched the two episodes of Doctor Who that I was supposed to have seen at the Legion of Rassilon meeting Friday night. I suppose I'll talk about those later in a separate post, as has been my wont for Doctor Who Season 3 stuff. And I watched two episodes of Life on Mars, which continues to be weird and wonderful. I am struck by the number of rather obscure (to Americans) British cultural references that are woven into the show, and find myself wondering how many more I must be missing. (Just as an example, one of the episodes that I watched obliquely references the Hillsborough football disaster, which I only know about because it's routinely cited on Doctor Who fan message boards as an example of why one shouldn't trust any reporting by The Sun.) There's room for a great annotated Life on Mars website out there.
I also watched Shrek 2. Eh. It was cute, it was sweet, and I got a little teary at the end, because I'm a sap like that, but I think it was ultimately pretty forgettable. It's a bit telling that the part I laughed hardest at was the "Technical Goofs" special feature on the DVD. I love blooper reels.
And I watched The Revengers Tragedy, a film based on a Jacobean revenge drama probably written by Thomas Middleton. I'm not sure what to say about it. I watched it, watched the "Making of" documentary on the DVD, watched it again with the commentary on, rewatched a few of my favorite scenes, and went to Amazon.com this morning and ordered a book of 5 of Thomas Middleton's plays. So, I guess I liked it. Either that, or I was feeling too lazy to get up and put in a different DVD. But it's a movie that's more interesting than successful. I wouldn't generally recommend it to a friend unless the friend had a particular taste for dark and somewhat surreal films. (I did think that the commentary and making of documentary had some interesting observations for people interested in directing and film-making.) It's also got some terrific acting. It's also got a lot of stuff that will leave you going, "Huh? What?"
And I think that's the lot.
