The end of summer doldrums are behind us and the glory of September has arrived! Well, glory for me as it means my kids are back in school, now in middle and high school, and that means I don’t have to contend with them being around all day once the main summer activities have ended. Hello, hentai, how I have missed you.
This week has certainly been chaotic because of the start of school here in New England as well as the three day holiday. I always seem to get more work done during holidays – especially since it doesn’t mirror with Japan – and Labor Day was a great day for a lot of labors of love. While I did spend some time away, I also got to do some fun work related stuff. I managed to squeeze in a little time to read the first issue of The Star Wars – which was hard to wrap my head around – and I even managed to find a little quiet time away from it all to read a bit more of Game of Thrones. While I’ve done my best to not get ahead of the TV series, I’m getting perilously close doing just that. I had picked up the four volume ebook release awhile ago and read the first book after the first season and the second book after the second season. And now that season three ended a few months ago, I’m 61% of the way through the whole collection and slowly catching up to some devilishly awful material. I can’t wait.
I also made sure to make it out to the movies this weekend for two very different films. On Friday, I took my significant other to see The World’s End as she’d seen the other two movies in the Cornetto Trilogy, not that she realized it. I really, really loved this movie, more so than Hot Fuzz and nearly as much as Shaun of the Dead. It just hit so many fun notes, especially where it balances out the other films since it’s about trying to relive the past but realizing you can’t. It had a lot of great humor, so many wonderful references and, most importantly, it made Sisters of Mercy a near constant due to the lead character’s shirt. I had gotten into that group in the early 90’s when a petite waif of a woman introduced me to it – so seemingly out of character for her when the first lyrics are “twenty five whores and I need more) – but the band has been something of a real passion of mine for years. To see them this way and to have snippets of a song and the full ending song just made me swoon in delight.
I also took in The Spectacular Now, which finally arrived in my region after its August 2nd debut. While the film is the director’s third, and not someone I was following, I went because it had Shailene Woodley in it. She gained some note earlier this year as a promising up and comer who was cast as Mary Jane Watson in Amazing Spider-Man 2 only to be cut as the role didn’t work in the film and its time constraints. The casting is one that I can see working – over time as she grows older – but the vitriol people placed on her about her appearance was awful and just so poor of them. She’s also headlining a big film next year that’s trying to be in the mold of The Hunger Games (what isn’t?) with Divergent. My eldest daughter is a huge fan of the book series so I have hopes for it to succeed for her.
I really enjoyed The Spectacular Now as it delved into life of teenagers in the present without all of the added stress and pressures of technology and things that don’t always factor in. While she is a lead, it’s more about the young man in the film, but I really enjoyed her performance. What got me about it was while watching it and seeing her and the other young woman in it, Brie Larson, was realizing just how skewed movies have become with our perceptions. I see a lot of media as most may know, but while watching some of the scenes where they’re dressed less or even just conventionally, you find yourself thinking that they’re not exactly thin. But then you realize that they’re healthy looking and not rail thin with huge bosoms that seems to populate so many teenage driven movies. I hated myself for thinking that, then being aware of it and then walking out of the theater and seeing so many posters of rail thin women for upcoming films and realizing the problem once again. I’m not judging the movie by their looks – I heartily recommend it for the well written story and engaging character drama – but I’m also glad that they cast people that look healthy for the roles.
On the flip side, I also started marathoning a new series on Netflix with Longmire. I’d seen the ads for season two at the theater all summer, so I finally checked out the first season. Good golly am I ever hooked. The show, based on the books of the same name about a sheriff’s office in Wyoming alongside an Native American reservation, tells some really good stories with great actors. While it’s filmed in New Mexico, it has some great locales and plays the police procedural well because of the things they deal with, such as the police force the reservation has, the quiet nature of the area and the way things are changing. I really like seeing Katee Sackhoff in it but it’s Robert Taylor in the lead that just makes for such an engaging and layered sheriff to watch. And Lou Diamond Phillips excels at this role, bringing something strong to the table.
I’m in the midst of preparing for the fall TV season now while trying to not get too hooked on some other Netflix shows. Sadly, I just watched The Writer’s Room on Sundance Channel for American Horror Story and now I find myself wanting to check that out. I had watched this show with writers because of the Game of Thrones episode, but I suspect they’ll introduce me to more shows that I had tried to stay away from since there’s only so much time in the day…
Until next time!