GIP

[strange_complex]

I've been filling in the latest two icon slots that LJ has bestowed on permanent users. Now at last I have an icon about time - and it manages to combine Apollo, Pompeii and a line from one of my favourite Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks as well, all in one big cross-overy love-fest! Hooray.

I do wish I'd bothered to go out and look at the lunar eclipse last night, now I've seen everyone's photos of it this morning. I was vaguely aware of it, but didn't quite register that it was actually going to be a total eclipse, at a perfectly civilised hour of the evening. Oh well - your photos were good, anyway, all of you.

This morning I saw the episode of Angel from season five where he turns into a puppet. Lots of fun. I am really loving season five, actually. I know some people think it went a bit off the rails there - especially people who don't like Harmony. But I love Harmony, and I love the general tongue-in-cheek feel of season five as a whole. It's reminding me quite a lot of Hercules: the Legendary Journeys. There's a lot to be said for a series whose format is well-enough established to start playing around with it a bit - and while I know it can be overdone, I think Angel had very much earnt the right by season five. I've still got quite a lot of it to go, and I know some quite Dark Things happen later on. But that's all good for the balance, and overall it feels so far like a good way for the series to go out.

On a similar note, I also saw the episode at the end of season two of House where he gets shot on Monday. Sheer brilliance. And it's interesting how often format-breaking episodes like these are actually used very successfully to push the overall plot-arc of a series along. Like the way Singing Buffy brings out important revelations about Anya and Xander's relationship, as well as Willow and Tara's. Similarly, Angel-as-puppet is finally able to act on his attraction to Nina-werewolf, in a way that regular Angel can't (not to mention what's happening meanwhile between Wesley and Fred), and House's hallucinations after being shot cause him to request a treatment that will (temporarily, I know) remove the pain in his leg, and to adopt a more sensitive approach to his patients. Three cheers for all that.

Right. Now I am going to spend the rest of the day catching up with my Italian. We're supposed to hand in homework every couple of weeks, but I think I've done so about twice so far over the whole course. Bad Penny!

Comments

[themonkeypolice.livejournal.com]

Pity you missed the eclipse and it was oh so visible in Leeds too.

Fancy lunch during the week?

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Yes, why not? I'm afraid the only day I can do is Thursday, though, and even then I couldn't meet you until just gone 1, as I'm teaching from 12-1. Would that be OK?

[themonkeypolice.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me. I thought I had a lecture at two but just had that lovely moment of realisation that last week was in fact my last Thursday lecture. yay!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Where shall we meet?

[themonkeypolice.livejournal.com]

Is the food in Mine nice at all? I've discovered that there is also an entrance around the back of the Union making it a lot easier to get to!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is actually - and cheap for what you get, too, I presume because it's in the Students' Union.

So meet there at about 1:10, then?

[themonkeypolice.livejournal.com]

great. see you then!

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Well, I loved season 5! juniperus has a lovely puppet angel icon. I think that that particular episode (Smile Time?) was so very dark that the puppet made it watchable without getting too freaked out.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I didn't think it was unusually dark, actually. Certainly not as much as - say - the episode where Fred dies. But yes, inserting episodes with t3h funnies from time to time does help make the general diet of Dark more palatable.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

I tend to be sensitive to Things That Target Children and/or Animals and also anything doll/puppet that isn't actual muppets. Dolls are rather frightening.

[primitivepeople.livejournal.com]

"Cities In Dust" is amazing. I approve. :)