Ahh, it's that time of the year again! Time for turkey eating, the subsequent tryptophan-induced food comas, and waiting in line outside of Best Buy at 2 a.m. with family in order to buy hordes of CDs at 50% off the original price. Mmm. Signs of the season.
Whoever and wherever you are, I hope all of you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families and friends. And so does teh kitteh:
I know I need to stop posting trailers for this show, but I can't help it! OMG DESMOND/PENNAH!!!! AND SAWYER AND JULIET HOLDING HANDS!!!! I want Sawyer/Juliet, people! I want it! Wow, I almost cried watching that...I'm turning into a crazy person!
Here's the Season 5 poster:
WHERE IS JIN ON THIS POSTER?! WHERE IS HE?! Zozzizle, you need to come over here and reassure me that Jin is still alive, ok? I'm feeling sad.
Apparently, I really can talk about my excitement, heh. I think I might even do some season 4 posts when I get the dvds in preparation of season 5. SO EXCITED OMG!
5 words to describe Twilight the movie: Zzzzzzzz. Chagrin. Dazzle. Unintentional laughter.
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A special Ashitaka's Angels guest blogger, The Derelict, Twilight movie review:
Confession: I've never read the books. Another confession: Thank the Lord for small favors. This movie was boring. I was drunk while I watched it but not drunk enough. I would have had to have been stone drunk wasted passed out in the corner to have been drunk enough to see this movie. It was just plain boring. There is nothing worse in cinema but to be boring and unvisual. This movie was unvisual (did I mention I'm still drunk from the thought of having to even review the boringness that is this movie). I will recap this movie in five words. Ready? Go.
Okay, you've seen the movie now. Don't hate me for removing five seconds from your life. Blame Stephanie Meyer's bedroom fantasies. Seriously girl, make out with your husband before it's too late.
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Fantastic review, Derelict. The only person who could describe it better is Edward Cullen himself:
I cannot believe how good this season of Supernatural has gotten. I've always thought it was a good show, but this season seems to find every episode reaching even greater heights than the one's before. It's been a while since there was a true two parter on this show. They have cliffhangers every once and a while, but these last two episodes "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Heaven and Hell" really felt like two parts to one whole. It's why I saved talking about "Last Summer" until I had seen both episodes, because both played off the other. While "Last Summer" was a Sam-centric episode dealing with what Sam went through while Dean was in hell, "Heaven and Hell" was very Dean-focused, where we finally learned about his time in hell and his connection to the new demon on the block, Alastair. There were a ton of parallels in both eps. Sam connected and slept with the demon, Ruby, while Dean hooked up with the angel, Anna, an interesting commentary on where both boys' stories are at at the moment.
"I Know What You Did Last Summer" was definitely the setup episode of the two. We got the intro for Anna the angel whisperer, Alastair, and Castiel and Uriel bringing the vengeance. But this episode also had some great payoff in the form of flashbacks to what Sam did while Dean was in hell. And it wasn't pretty. I loved this episode for the exploration into Sam's character, something which has been lacking so far this season. His hurt, hopelessness, and grief was painful to watch and Jared played those scenes wonderfully. I happen to be in the minority in that I love the character of Ruby, all the way from when she first appeared and was played by Katie Cassidy (who I still love better than the new girl, even though she's starting to grow on me). So I really liked seeing how she found Sam and helped him. I still don't know if we're supposed to fully trust Ruby or not yet, but I get the feeling from her that she really, genuinely is in love with Sam. That she really wants to be a "good" demon and that Sam is the only person who she feels connected with. I bought their sex scene because it was angry and wrong and hot, and Sam was so completely at rock bottom that he just wanted to feel something, anything to take away the pain over Dean (compared to Dean and Anna's sex scene which I felt was totally unbelievable and gratuitous. It just seemed to come out of nowhere). Not to say I want a permanent Sam/Ruby pairing, she is a demon after all, just that I bought the scene and thought it added to the evidence of just how messed up Sam was when he lost Dean.
As far as "Heaven and Hell" goes, there were a few things I had some trouble with. I'm not sure how much I bought Anna as a fallen angel who turned into a human or the stuff with her grace and the necklace. I was also a little disturbed at the implication that heaven and God? Not so great actually. What the episode did do extremely well however, was setting up tension throughout. The whole episode was filled with a sense of dread for both the angels and the demons coming for the Winchesters, so when both sides finally did meet, I was on the edge of my seat, heart pounding in my chest. It's been a while since an action show like this has made me really, truly excited (I'm looking at you Heroes), and to sound undignified for a moment, I was absolutely freaking out, holy crap! The showdown was particularly good because of all the characters involved. I admit to absolutely loving both Castiel and Uriel. They both bring so much to every scene they're in. Castiel's calm sadness mixed with Uriel's aggressive bravado is so fascinating to watch, and I absolutely loved their fight scenes, especially the first one where you can really see both their personalities come through, with Uriel physically attacking both Dean and Ruby while Castiel calmly puts his fingers to Sam's forehead and knocks him out. And then there's Alastair. I'm always for the show adding new demons, I think they do a really good job with that side of the supernatural, and this new guy was suitably creepy. That scene where he was torturing Ruby was really disturbing. That actor really sold it and I totally bought that this was the head punisher of the underworld. The big showdown ended with neither side really coming out the victor, and I liked that. I like that Alastair presumably got to live to see another day, and that Uriel is clearly not going to forget everything that went down this episode. And poor Castiel, he always has that conflicted, lost look on his face. I wonder if they're leading towards him becoming a fallen angel as well. There seems to be hints there.
Of course, the greatest scene of either episode was the last scene of "Heaven and Hell", the boys sitting on the Impala, drinking a beer, like they've done a million times. But this time, Dean, much like Sam in the previous episode, decided to stop keeping secrets and share what happened to him in hell. And for those people who wonder why we're fans of the show, this is a scene I would point them to. These emotional beats between the characters is what makes this show what it is. Dean divulging the pain he felt over what he did in hell brought me to tears. Much of that is due to Jensen Ackles' heartbreaking performance, but more is due to the connection we as viewers have made to Dean throughout these last 3 seasons. We've come to know Dean almost as much as Sam does, and to see him in pain and to see Sam in pain over Dean, absolutely shattered me. These are the moments that Supernatural does so well. Because after everything, after the demons and the angels and everything else, this show is about the characters. And when they cry, we cry, when they're happy, we're happy. And it's reasons like this that I will always care about the show. Because the show has crafted the characters in such a way that I will always, no matter what, care about Sam and Dean.
Pushing Daisies comes back from its 3 week hiatus tonight with a brand new episode!:
Episode Title: Oh Oh Oh…It’s Magic
Episode Summary: Ned reluctantly agrees to help “The Great Herrmann” (guest star Fred Willard), a famed magician whose animal assistants are being mysteriously killed off. The magician has been a surrogate dad to Ned’s half-brothers Maurice and Ralston (Alex Miller, Graham Miller) ever since their father walked out on them. Meanwhile, Dwight Dixon (guest star Stephen Root) insinuates himself into the Aunts’ lives, but Lily is instantly suspicious of his motives.
What I'm most excited about in this episode is getting to see Ned's adorable twin half-brothers again! Yay!
Ok, here's the "plea" portion of my entry: Please please please watch this show! There is a very big danger of it being cancelled because of low ratings, and it would be an absolute crime if that were to happen. This is one of the most wonderful, creative, beautiful, inventive shows I've ever seen before in my entire life and I really think people are missing out, and that's a shame. I've talked the show up a lot in my past entries, and I don't know if there's anything else for me to say. So here's this awesome video I found that really sums up the magic and whimsy and sweetness of the show and the Ned and Chuck relationship. Watch the video and remember to watch Pushing Daisies at 8 tonight on ABC!
So this past week in the areas of Smallville and Metropolis, Chloe basically lost all of her memories. Due to the overuse of her new powers and the infection that she gained from Brainiac. Chloe Sullivan is one amnesiac girl on a rampage in this epi. And the only thing that remains to the near end are her memories of Clark until the moment she's left alone and begins to forget him too!
The Ahh-HA! moment came when she has a memory of Black Thursday (the episode where she kisses him because she's unsure if she'll ever see him again--unexpectedly a good moment) and everything gets replaced and all she can remember is Davis. Who apparently is Doomsday * dramatic music here* and in love with Chloe. Which I saw coming a mile a way but I still have to say, Dang Davis! Why are all up on Jimmy's girl.
Anyways back to Amnesia Girl she goes running into the arms of Davis who is making some creepy changes who brings her back to her fiance and bestie buddy and Clark takes her to the newly built Fortress of Solitude and replaces her memory through the powers of Jar-El but here's the glitch and the thing that is truly upsetting me, why did he have to take away her memory of when she discovered his powers and what made their best buddy bond so tight :( I mean she was the best sidekick a guy could ask for. But I guess I can see him wanting her to be happy for the few days before her wedding. Which happens this Thursday in a episode called "Bride"
And we all know that a wedding in Smallville can never go down without a hitch in the giddy-up. As we found out after Davis confessed his love to the bride and her admittance of a connection before stating that Jimmy is her only one... I can see it now the drama that will involve Davis and maybe a fight between Clark Along with the dubious infection that Clark caused with the re-building of the Fortress with a mysterious and troublesome crystal.
Finally with the eminent return of Lana Lang--whom most cherish and adore, but personally I wish she would DIAF!!! Cause she may be the worst returning character and if she takes the spotlight for either Chloe/Jimmy or Lois and Clark new collection I will personally throw the match myself!!
Also none other that the evil Lex Luthor is rumored to return, because apparently he's in connection with Mercer.
On the Cubicle front:
The Office my why question has to be why won't Angela just let Andy loose already! I mean really that whole moment in the bar with Oscar just showed, if it hadn't before that this relationship just needs to be over. I mean the fact that she was with Dwight when he called her is a major problem. So I hope that the producers clear that up soon. Finally I'm so glad that Pam "came back the wrong way" Cause I don't think that I could take much more of them being separated! I just love the twinkle in their eyes when they're together and hopeful they can bring that spark back to the office atmosphere. Also Ryan has a serious problem and is such an idiot!!! I need to say YAY!!! for the return of Toby, because I find it so hilarious how much Michael hates him :)
I know this is the first time I've mentioned Harry Potter around these parts, but I am a huge Harry Potter fan of both the books and the movies, and I cannot wait for this movie to come out! This trailer looks fantastic and is only making me sadder that the movie got pushed back (WE WOULD HAVE BEEN SEEING IT NEXT WEEK)!
This trailer is apparently going to be shown in front of the new Twilight movie, which I am going to be seeing out of my morbid curiosity at how bad it's going to turn out. I'm a glutton for punishment, what can I say? Still, I look forward to seeing this trailer on the big screen as well as being reminded of what a good book series really looks like. ;)
I'm so excited!!!!!!!! I know it was for only week and for a good cause, but I still missed them.
There's no let downs for this blogger with Chuck, because this season he's as adorable as ever :) Hee! And they added a new story line about Sarah's past which is super intriguing. Also we can see the heightened feelings they have for one another. It's going to be interesting to see what happens when his ex-returns this week.
On the Heroes front the show has taken a pretty interesting direction, there have been so major changes some great and not so great. This blogger is malcontent with:
Peter losing his powers
Sylar being a possible double agent
And Elle might die, because she had a "Claire" moment and ran into the building!!!!
Also something that is uneasily settling is the fact that Claire just told Nathan where his dad is after Peter insisted on him not knowing. SERIOUSLY, something is wrong with Claire and I hope they "FIX IT!!!" soon.
Even more upsetting is the fact that this week we don't even get to move forward and find out if my girl K. Bell will survive. Because it's yet another flashback epi, to before they were Heroes and discovered all that they could do :(
The Office 5.07 "Customer Survey"- Whenever you combine Jim and Dwight in any capacity, you can guarantee hilarity will ensue. While I've been loving season 5 so far, this episode I think may have been the funniest one of the season. Hell, the fake sales call with Jim, Dwight, and Michael may be one of my favorite scenes this show has ever done. So funny! I've also been slowly realizing that Kelly is one of my favorite characters. Every scene she's in is brilliant, heh. When watching this episode, my friends and I were commenting on how it's so nice that Jim and Pam are just being cute together and not having problems. Then, of course, they had to end the episode with all that New York angst and I was sad again. Mostly because, I don't know what they're going to do. Pam can't stay in New York for the whole season, but yet, she isn't really going to want to move back to Scranton and be a receptionist again. I don't know what's the best thing for the show to do, and it's scaring me. I'm just going to trust the writers because they have never let me down, but Jim and Pam have a lot of decisions to make and they're not going to be easy.
30 Rock 3.01 "Believe in the Stars"- This episode was so much better than last week's. I was really disappointed with the premiere, so this episode was such a relief. I don't even know if I can go through all the funny parts of this episode because it felt like I was laughing the whole way through. I will say though, that the amount of time Kenneth is onscreen greatly increases the likelihood that I will like an episode, and there was an abundance of Kenneth love in this episode.
Favorite quotes (besides my absolute favorite one from this ep in this post's title):
"I watched Boston Legal nine times before I realized it wasn't the new Star Trek!"
"I never get picked anyways because I wear my Princess Leia outfit"
"White people stole jazz, rock & roll, Will Smith, and heart disease!"
"I'll call you back. I'm sitting next to Barpo!"
"Kenneth Parcel, you are one Latina fantastica." "Hola"
"Is Spongebob Squarepants supposed to be terrifying?"
Supernatural 4.08 "Wishful Thinking"- Wow, I absolutely LOVED this episode. I'm a big fan of Ben Edlund episodes because they're always so wacky, and this one did not disappoint. It was hilarious. I can't even tell you how hard I laughed over everything with the little girl and her 7 foot tall, suicidal teddy bear ("Why am I here?" "FOR TEA PARTIES!") and Sam and Dean as teddy bear doctors ("lollipop disease"). But what I absolutely loved about this episode, was that even though it was funny, it was also serious, and it revealed a lot about both characters. Hearing that what Sam would wish for most wasn't his old normal life back, but instead Lillith dead, was so interesting and telling, and to hear Dean say he remembered everything that happened in hell was surprising and horrifying and I can't believe that Dean is even functional. But most of all, the reason why this episode was so good for me, was that it really felt like a Sam&Dean episode. They were together in almost every scene, they were figuring things out together, sharing things together, and just being brothers. And that, my friends, is why I will always love this show.
What is it with our pop culture's obsession with vampires? It seems like lately I can't get away from them. Earlier this year, I was forced by a friend to watch Buffy and Angel. I'm constantly (and against my will) bombarded with the Twilight phenomenon. And now, I've got sucked into the new HBO show, True Blood.
True Blood explores what would happen if, in a world much like our own, vampires really existed and they exposed themselves to the world, and are now trying to integrate themselves with humans by drinking synthetic blood called Tru Blood. The heart of True Blood however is the story of a naive waitress, Sookie Stackhouse, from a small town in Louisiana, who meets the handsome, brooding, Bill Compton, who's, you guessed it, a vampire. It's mostly a love story between a human girl and the vampire who loves her, but because it's not TV, it's HBO, there's plenty of violence and sex to appease everybody!
The reason why I decided to do a post for True Blood is because I have very conflicting thoughts about it, and I had to put them out into the open. On one hand, I've gotten totally sucked into this show. I watched episodes 5-9 over the weekend, and am attempting to catch up on the first four episodes that I missed at the beginning (I'm on episode 3 at the moment). On the other hand, I really don't think this show is that good, heh. It's kind of cheesy and silly and the plots don't really go anywhere and the characters are all filled with cliches and stereotypes and are all kind of annoying. Like, do we really need to see Jason have explicit sex every episode? We get it, he's a slut. While I do appreciate seeing Ryan Kwanten shirtless every episode, it's getting to the point where I just fast forward every time he has a scene, because it's like, been there, done that. You can only shock me so many times, True Blood! When dealing with the vampires, the show is also totally over the top. That vampire staking in episode 9 was so ridiculous, it crossed over into being cartoony, instead of scary.
And yet...I still kind of love it. It's funny because all of the reasons why I think it's a bad show can also be attributed to why I love it. Like, the most cliched and stereotype filled character on the show is probably Sookie's best friend, Tara, yet Tara is just so bitchy and awesome that she's one of my favorite characters. And sometimes the over the topness of it all is kind of amazing. Like when Sookie ran through the cemetery in her long flowy white night gown before flinging herself into the arms of Bill and then having hot vampire sex. That scene was so ridiculous it sort of turned around into being awesome (and hilarious). And while they can all be kind of annoying, I really do love most of the characters. I don't really like Sookie, but I enjoy Bill and his gentlemanly charm. I love Sam, probably more than Bill, and I love that he's really a dog (or whatever is up with that, heh). I also am greatly intrigued by Eric, I find Lafayette hilarious, and I even sort of like Jason, even though he's the biggest screw up ever.
A trailer for ya:
So, I guess the moral of the story is, I'm watching True Blood. You should watch too if your into that sort of thing. I do think it's a show that has lots of different aspects to appeal to all sorts of people: romance, horror, comedy, drama, gore, sex, etc. Just maybe don't take it all that seriously. I know I'm not, and I'm finding that I'm enjoying myself a lot more. :)
Last note about True Blood: You may have noticed that the show has a lot of similarities to Stephenie Meyer's "book" series, Twilight. What with the human girl falling for the vampire guy, and with one of them being able to read minds, but they can't read the other's mind, and the whole love triangle thing with a dog/wolf. But don't let that fool you! The mere fact that Bill doesn't sparkle gives True Blood the definitive edge, but it really is just a million times better than Twilight all around. After I watched True Blood the first time, I breathed a sigh of relief, because I think it was just what I needed to wash the horrible taste in my mouth left over from Twilight. STAY AWAY FROM TWILIGHT, PEOPLE! It will ruin your life!
So last night we as a country discovered who our next President was going to be for the next four years. And I'm proud to say that Barack Obama is my president.
All the excitement of that night led me and my friends to create a memory that I won't be able to forget in my old age. From hearing the news of this historic event my friends and I didn't know how to express all the excitement that arose in us, so like many others on our campus we ran outside.
This lead to a the best random experience of my life. Where we as students and as citizens of the beautiful USA congregated on the diag! There were so many bodies and voices gathered there that were probably heard by their government for the first time.
check out this crowd!
This gathering expressed their love for their country and their newly elected President, with chants, that were part of his campaign. Along with their own personal feelings.
Somethings we chanted last night/early this morning 1. Obama 2. Yes we can/did 3. No More BUSH!!!
And among other things singing our beautiful national anthem. I can truly say that this was probably the first time I sang it with true contentment and relation to the words in the song.
After chanting for a bit we eventually decided to take our joys to the street and I did something slightly dangerous, which was being a part of a march and blocking the flow of traffic. This was just how my friends and I spent some of our times after this news. And I have to say that I dream and hope that we never loose this excitement and never forget the memories and opportuniteis afforded to us in this democracy and in hand with our new President. President Obama.
This blog usually doesn't delve into politics. But, dear readers, today is different. Today marks one of the most influential and exciting days in our nation's history. The U.S. will be electing either its first African-American president ("...we're solid...solid as Barack!") or its first female Vice President (whose voice is like an "Alaskan windsong"). And the best part is that we, as citizens, get to participate in it! In keeping with that spirit, Ashitaka's Angels encourage you to make your voice known at the polls today. If you haven't already, go out and vote!!!
And just in case you're not convinced to vote yet...Think of the benefits!
1) You'll get to keep this...(nifty sticker)
2) And get rid of this...
Sure, the lines may be long and polling procedure may be confusing, but it'll be worth it in the end. Just think, a couple hours waiting in the poll lines will change the next 4 years in this country.
Here's to making history and making the next 4 years better.
