what may or may not be hard reality

Started out the day nice and quietly with some Ellen (which doesn't differ from most other days, which shows this is not necessarily a recipe for wasting a day, but rather a good guide to starting out your day in a nice and healthy fashion, providing you assume I generally lead relatively productive and happy days). Puppy Episode commentary from my new pretty Season 4 box! Yay! Three of the writers, I think it were, and basically they talked about Ellen, what a wonderful actress she is, and other aspects of the Great One, which I whole-heartedly approve of. Compare with Fireflycommentary by Mal and Wash where they spend the entire hour raving about the beauty of Gina Torres (yay!) vs. Bats commentary by Lou Diamond-Phillips (did you know he was married to Melissa Etheridge's ex? I think I have known, at some point, but was reminded again just the other day) and some other dude, and they mentioned Dina Meyer once (nay!).

Continued the day with more Ellen, but this time in movie format, which is slightly different from most days. Goodbye Lover, starring Patricia Arquette, whom I found surprisingly pretty, having written her off completely after seeing those Medium previews. Erotic thriller comedy, I believe it was billed as when I saw it late one night many many years ago, (I was littler then) because it had Sound of Music in the tv guide summary. And even if the Sound of Music had relatively little to do with it, I still remembered liking it. However, I had not seeing it again until today, but it was still good. I rather liked it a whole lot, actually. Ellen was, of course, fabulous. She curses, and glares, and insults, and SHOOTS A GUN and ( spoiler )!!!! Wooo. And is pretty darn great at all of it. My mother didn't even realize it was her, did a double-take, and went I had no idea Ellen could actually look evil. Good movie. Fun movie. Even if ( spoiler ) It's a silly movie, but gosh, I adore it. Go watch it, people.

Quote of the Movie:
Ellen: "We wanna separate potential suspects from your average scumbag citizen."
Naïve Rookie Partner: "Ma'am, you know, we're sworn to serve and protect. If you hate everybody so much, why are you doing this job?"
Ellen: "'Cause every once in a while, I get to shoot somebody."
~Goodbye Lover

Finished off with some Remington Steele episodes and commentary from my new shiny boxes. *proud owner of all five seasons!!* Again, commentators I approved of. Creator and producer/director. They spent most of their time either talking about how much fun they had setting up various scenes and shots, which I enjoyed listening too, but still left a whole lot of time to talk about how beautiful Stephanie Zimbalist is, and what a great actress she is, and how good she and Pierce Brosnan are together, and basically fan!squeeing, which I whole-heartedly approve of. She is gorgeous, young Stephanie, (and if you don't know who she is, then shame on you! you need look no further than my icon here, isn't she lovely?) and the nostalgia over all the love my innocent little baby dyke heart felt for her way back when is sweet and strong and I still love her, and the show, and mmm... Gosh. How could I not *know*?

Which managed to get me through most of the hours of daylight.

Ended the evening with some more Remington Steele, and some behind the scenes thing it was billed as with "revealing character profiles". It was mostly present-day interviews with various people involved, and by the gods they'd managed to dig a lot of people out of the woodwork. No Stephanie, though. Which I'm simultaneously saddened and secretly relieved at. Little 10-year-old me worshipped her so intensely there's still a part of me that might be disappointed were she to turn out to be just a regular human being.

First a THANK YOU!!! to xclairedelune for the beautiful photo album I got in the mail today. The pictures are so gorgeous, thank you so very much for sending them to me... Wow. Thank you.

and there's also a Quote of the Day:

"And if nudity offends you, I'd advice you to go somewhere else. I mean, we don't have any actual nudity here, but I just don't appreciate that uptight attitude."
~Vance DeGeneres

And I cut my hair the other day, which kinda makes me look a little like the Vagina Wig's girlfriend. Which would have been amusing if I cared at all about the story line. More Helena, please. And more Bette/Jodi (tho there's plenty to make me happy even as it is...).

And a teeny bit of snark while I'm at it; yeah, Ellen, that's fair, asking the straight actor if he had any trepidation about playing a gay character. What's he gonna say to you? 'Yeah, I mean, I was really worried there for a bit, what if gay dudes started hittin' on me, thinking I was that way, you know. Finally I decided I had to do it, 'cause I needed the money.'

Last week was crazy. Just wanna mention that.

I'm feeling a bit vulnerable. Which you should keep in mind further down. Not in a bad way, necessarily. But usually when making a post like this I would grow it in my head for three days, begin writing it, then leave it over night before posting, and change everything around a bit in the morning to make it coherent and have some semblance of a point or at least a direction (don't look at me like that). And with everything going on at the moment, and I'd like to point out, again, that this busy I haven't been since about a year and a half before getting this LJ. So now I just feel stuff, write it down occasionally, and move on, no time to process. Which is good and bad but mostly weird because I'm not like that. People with real jobs are more than welcome to mock me, btw. Just don't say anything bad about Ellen, or I might cry, which would be so much worse than if I punched you, I promise.

Which brings me to the otherwise completely unrelated (if familiar - to anyone who's ever talked to me in the last, oh, four months, or so)topic of today's rant: I really *really* need to not read any forum that has 'ellen' as a main or supporting topic, allows comments, and is based in a general, or just non-ellen-fansite, place frequented by lesbians, because they do nothing but make me really really sad. He who throweth the first stone, or whatever it says. My god, all the stone throwing that happens in those places. And I'm certain Ellen has thrown a few in her days (even if I can't think of an instance at the moment), but some of these people sure are throwing more. The one sane comment in the latest place I sadly happened to visit was brilliant and, I'm paraphrasing, 'If all you people started doing the work you're blaming Ellen for not doing for you, we might actually make a difference.' and she was met with 'I donate money to the HRC so shut up, you don't know my life, bitch.' Kinda. I mean, not even Mary Cheney or the ex-gay movement inspire the kinds of hurtful comments that Ellen for some reason seem to bring out? Why? What on earth has she ever done to hurt those people so profoundly?

And I'll finish this semi-rant (it's rather unfinished, I know, I'm too tired to have rational opinions, that's all emotion up there, see the first paragraph) by bringing you three quotes, that may or may not at all have anything to do with anything, but I like them.

"I'm not ashamed. [...] It's just too precious, Lee, to allow stranger to poke their fingers into it. Yes, I'd love to go to your club with you, go to the coffee-houses, kiss you in public, but I just can't risk it. You tell me that my refusal to breathe the fresh air is stifling us both, but I know, as sure as I'm sitting here, that coming out would be the end of it. I'm not strong enough, Lee. I'm just not strong enough."
~A Grave Talent by Laurie R. King

fame
is a two edged sword
cupcakes and bullets
euphoria and humiliation
victorious
and
naked

public verbal abuse
~by Tammy Lynn Etheridge(/Michaels? She did change it, didn't she?)

when you look at an object
through a glass of water
depending on the angle of your view
the object can look broken in half
when it is not at all
and
fame is like that water
it gives the illusion
of the object on the other side
being something different than what it is....
[...]
fame
can hide the entire truth
it can break the person in half
for real or not
[...]
but i'm still here
perched from my nest way back,
taking notes, trying to learn
to jiggle the dance of the glitter
without breaking in half.
~Tammy Lynn Etheridge again (and I took parts out of this last one to avoid bringing up any other subjects that might be sensitive, not that people on here yell much, but one issue is enough for my fragile LJ at the moment...)

Got home from a long and partly sucky day at work to find a package in the mail. Inside the package was a lovely wrapped gift, and inside the paper was Ellen's the funny thing is... Yay!! Thank you so so much, sakuracorr!! You're very awesome!

Which brings us on to the quote of the day:

"Thinking back (a good thing to do while drinking scotch), I knew I wanted to write this book because I've always loved writing, especially cursive. It's so pretty, all the loops and whatnot. I thought about having this entire book printed in capital letters, so, as the narrator, IT WOULD SEEM LIKE I'M SHOUTING THE WHOLE TIME. I LIKE THE IDEA OF ME SHOUTING INSIDE OTHER PEOPLE'S HEADS. IT MAKES ME FEEL POWERFUL. "

~Ellen DeGeneres - the funny thing is...

Quote of the Day:

Q: Do you think ‘lesbian fiction’ pigeonholes itself by identifying as such?
A: Maybe it does, but that isn’t necessarily a bad idea. I would hate to go into a mega-bookstore and have to find the lesbian offerings from among the thousands of mainstream titles, all grouped as romance, mystery or sci-fi. That said, I think the sub-genres, particularly romance, can be very constraining in format. It’s tricky to deliver a satisfying romance that isn’t wholly predictable. 

~from L-Word.com's Interview with KG McGregor.

That's something I've been thinking about, seeing as I'm fairly vocal on not grouping lesbians together just for being lesbians, and so on and so forth, but that's a pretty darn good reason to stick them all in one place. However, what happens is that one can easily miss the mainstream fiction with just as good lesbian content. The question is, what's the difference between mainstream and lesbian? What makes Val McDermid, Laurie R. King, or Ann-Marie McDonald mainstream whereas Radclyffe, Melissa Good, or Ann Bannon lesbian? Any self-respecting GLBT bookstore would carry them all, but a larger chain would have the first three under mainstream and the last three under gay & lesbian.

Hmm. I gotta think on this for a while.

Laurie R. King talked in her blog about a reader who wanted there to be warnings on the Martinelli books as to the 'unsuitable lifestyle contents' or whatever the hell, and I immediately got very defensive (not to mention pissed off) because what the hell is so dangerous about me that I need a warning? (Being very inspired here by old Ellen interviews from back when they put a warning on her very non-explicit sitcom.) Of course, throwing in 'gay & lesbian' among the other categories into which a book fits isn't quite a warning, but still, it's a label that I would probably huff at if they put it on Laurie's books. And yet, if they didn't put it on Radclyffe's books I'd be just as annoyed, because... well. I don't quite know why. Because I wouldn't be able to find it?

Why is there a difference? Is it the number of lesbian sex scenes? Missy Good is the queen of PG-13. I have no idea why, but I certainly make an emotional difference. Does it have anything to do with internalized homophobia? Are there essays on the subject (gotta check L-Word.com literature)? Anyone?

Quote of the Day:

"Travel broadens, they say. My personal experience has been that, in the short term at any rate, it merely flattens, aiming its steam-roller of deadlines and details straight at one's daily life, leaving a person flat and gasping at its passage." ~Laurie R. King - The Game

And also: OMFG I'M IN THE OFFICIAL FOOTAGE!!!!!!! The Official QueenOnline UK Party Footage!!! Soooo very very cool!!! Granted, it's less than a second (4th shot, right at the beginning: Freddie - balloons - gyrating people with long hair - ME!!!), and all I do is stand around and look bored (man, I'll have you know, I was SO excited!), and you can't even see that I'm wearing my Queen Tribute Show shirt, because the print is on the back. But STILLL!!!! WOW. (more extensive updates will come)

Quote of the Day:

"Gammalt är blott det som evigt är ungt."

"Truly old is only that which is forever young.

~Seen painted on the ceiling of the guest room next to the library at the House of Carl Larsson, now turned into a museum. It might be slightly paraphrased, I'm quoting from memory. My own translation.

The Purpose of the Female Orgasm

Quite an interesting read. I don't know that it proves anything, considering that it's mainly based on a single study in which 86 couples participated (and I've taken lots of both Psychology and Theory of Knowledge to know that that's no grounds for anything but interesting speculation), but it is indeed interesting speculation. Apparently women are more likely to have an orgasm with a man who's bilaterally symmetrical (i.e. good looking), love has nothing to do with it, and the female sexual response is just as designed for sampling multiple partners and finding good genes as the male. Read it and be amused or intrigued or whatever. Parts of it sound almost like taken from fanfic.

and then on we go to...

Quote of the Day:

Brian: No-one wanted 'Bohemian Rhapsody' as a single, really... no-one would *play* it, because it was too long, and all that stuff.
Roger: Nobody except us wanted it...
Freddie: But this is not to say that we're always right, because we're not always right
Roger: Oh, we're not always right, we've been wrong...
John: Yeah, once... maybe.

~A Night At The Opera 30th Anniversary DVD.

I knew there was a reason I liked John...

Quote of the Day:

"I don’t know him!"
"You don’t need to know a man to attack him!"

~ Hard Times - part 5 by starhespera

Quote of the Day:

Sean Astin: Where's the light coming from?
Andrew Lesnie: Same place as the music.

~As retold by Sean Astin on the cast commentary for the extended version of Lord of the Ring - Return of the King, when he'd asked the cinematographer where the light on Frodo's body was coming from.


Runner-up: (but doesn't really count, as it's not a quote as such)

The visuals in my head of Billy Boyd and Viggo Mortensen making out off camera at Sam & Rosie's wedding. Heee!!

~As retold by Sean Astin and Billy Boyd on the above-mentioned commentary.


And that gives me an approximate viewing-time of approximately 20 hours of Lord of the Rings since Christmas. Woooot! And I'm nowhere near being through my 12 discs... yay!

Quote of the Day:

"Kriminella bakom illegal rovdjursjakt."

translated:
"Criminals behind illegal hunting."

~ headline in NWT, 14-10-05

No kidding.

Spent the day watching Weeds, all five eps!! Eeee!! I love it!! Mary-Louise Parker is veryvery lovely... Becka, will you make me an icon of this picture?? Please...? Pretty please...?? And I'll promise to kiss your owie all better... don't know what I want it to say, so maybe 'MLP' or something like that? Feel free to think of something else, if you feel creative... and maybe a pink tint... (will you consider becoming my primary icon provider? I mean, not that you're not already, but rather, tell me if there's anything I can do for you in return...)

Quote of the Day:
Nancy: Do you have a card? 'Cause you never know, in my business, when you might need a lawyer...
Lawyer: What's your business?
Nancy: I own a bakery.
Lawyer: Smart cover. Call any time. *flirtatious smile*
Nancy: *wider flirtatiouser smile*
Me: *squeee!!*
~Weeds - 1x05 - Lude Awakening
And it should be noted that the lawyer is played by Allison Janney, and I will now go on to build an OTP based on a guest appearance that lasted less than two minutes. *sticks out tongue*

Eeeee...!! I feel all warm and fuzzy... There's slash to be written here... *hopes hopes the muse will return from her extended vacation in the south pacific*

Quote of the Day:
“Books, [...] They’re like an old friend.  They’re always there for you.  You can read them again and it’s comfortable.  You can hold them and touch them without fear.  You can depend on them and they never let you down.”
~Kerry Weaver - The River: The Friendship Thing 3 by maven

( Read the paragraph )

Quote of the Day: Vi äter på engelskt sätt. I USA skär man först isär maten, lägger kniven på tallriken, flyttar gaffeln över till höger hand och äter med den. I Sverige gör man bara så åt små barn som inte kan skära själva.
~ På rätt sätt - praktiska råd för moderna människor om uppträdande och umgänge.

translated: We eat according to the British fashion. In the United States you first cut the food to pieces, put the knife on the plate, move the fork over to the right hand and eat with it. In Sweden this is only done for small children who are unable to cut the food for themselves.
~ The Right Way - Practical advice for modern people about behaviour and social life.
published in 1964

"Jag är en dålig människa. Dålig, dålig, dålig."
Jag slog huvudet i ratten igen för varje ord.
"Sluta upp att ömka dig," sa Baby och blåste en rökring. "Du är inte sämre eller bättre än någon annan. Välkommen till verkligheten."

spontaneously translated:
"I'm a bad person. Bad, bad, bad."
I hit my head on the steering wheel again for each word.
"Stop it with the self-pity," Baby said, blowing a smoke ring. "You're no better or worse than anybody else. Welcome to reality."

~Stjärnor utan svindel - Louise Boije af Gennäs

Because the weather is gorgeous, the temperature is several degrees above freezing, and I'm feeling romantic.

Quote of the Day:

"A thousand moments of their history suddenly floated around them, dusting the air between them with golden flecks and Gabrielle took a moment to simply let her heart fill with the emotions it evoked in her until her chest ached, and her throat closed with the intensity of it."

~ Missy Good, from One Wild Ride, ch. 88

The very nice beginning of what I'm sure is going to be a long long day...

Tina Fey: In entertainment news, if these two [picture of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston torn down the middle] are tired of having sex with each other, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Amy Poehler: On a similar note, I don't know if you had anything to do with this, but you watch yourself, Angelina Jolie. You are too sexy to be trusted. You're a black widow spider, Jolie. Stay away from me and my husbands. And don't think you're gonna come here, Jolie, with your long legs and your mohawk baby and steal my fake news Update TV-wife! Cause I will cut you.
~Weekend Update, SNL - 30x09 - Topher Grace

'Cause I didn't think there was anything that could make me smile happily at 7:22am... (ugh) Ah, sigh, Angelina's long legs...

Quote of the Day:
Rallyförarna borde samåka mer eftersom de i allmänhet ändå ska åt samma håll.

freely translated:
The racedrivers should car-pool more, since they're generally going in the same direction anyway.

from a column in DN, 8th of February, quoting an unnamed activist group.

Bloody F***ing GodsBeDamned Environmental Villain of a Rally....

from Dead Woman Walking

Calleigh: So we don't know if it went on Delko, in Delko, or through Delko?