Talkin' 'bout my generation

Don't tell me I'm not X. I'm on the borderline between X and Y, but my mindset is pure X.

This rant is why.

Generation X is beyond all that bullshit now. It quit smoking and doing coke a long time ago. It has blood pressure issues and is heavier than it would like to be. It might still take some ecstasy, if it knew where to get some. But probably not. Generation X has to be up really early tomorrow morning.

Generation X is tired.

...

Generation X is used to disappointments. Generation X knows you didn’t even read the whole thing. It doesn’t want or expect your reblogs; it picked the wrong platform.

Generation X should have posted this to LiveJournal.

So I'm reblogging it on my LiveJournal. Hat tip to symbioid.

Visual input

I had to get some new shows because Doctor Who is over for awhile, I think I will cry my eyes out if I watch Sarah Jane Adventures. My other shows right now are Treme, Mad Men, Leverage, Borgias, and Game of Thrones—you may notice a theme here, and it is that the new seasons have not started. (I'm terrible at keeping track of when seasons start.) Community is still good but it's only half an hour a week. I'm still watching Fringe (still great) and Castle (still sometimes good—I liked the superhero one), but that's still two hours a week and a girl sometimes needs more brain-dead time than that.

Accordingly, my new shows are Lost Girl and—finally—Breaking Bad.

I resisted watching Breaking Bad because it is seriously everything I hate to watch on TV: drug dealers, drug addicts, fuck-ups, cops, and cancer. You could not come up with a more concise list of Things I Don't Need To See. So while various friends whose opinions I trust tried to get me to watch the show, and I politely watched a few episodes, I didn't get into it.

Okay. You win. I'm into it.

Reasons I'm into it: With all of the strikes against it, it has something that is firmly in the camp of Things I Always Want To See, which is Crossing the Line Twice. The show is so over the top it's not even funny. Well, it is funny, because really early on there's a sequence involving the disposal of an inconveniently dead body that goes on for far too long, portrayed in far too much disgustingly graphic detail, and that's honestly what got me hooked. I also really like the idea of having a show where none of the characters are sympathetic. Mad Men had that at the beginning, but the characters slowly became more human. On Breaking Bad, everyone just gets more awful and I love it.

Also, the cinematography is something brilliant. I watch shows for cinematography now. I mean, it's technically magnificent, with shots of beautiful landscapes and ugly buildings and people.

I'm partway through the second season now. I'm told it gets worse but in a good way.

I resisted watching Lost Girl because it looks stupid and it totally is. But I needed something to watch that wouldn't depress me, and it's pretty good for that. It's less well-known than Breaking Bad (well, and deservedly), but the concept is that all mythology is true, and attributable to the Fae, who come in a variety of interesting species and are divided into Light and Dark. The main character is a succubus with a track record of killing anyone she kisses. When she becomes aware of the supernatural origin of her powers and how to control them, she decides against choosing a side and becomes a private detective helping the hopeless or some such. In short, it is exactly the sort of thing I used to write when I was, like, 11, which was fortunately before the internet happened.

Reasons I'm into it: Okay, first of all, a relatively high-budget production of the shit one wrote when one was 11 is awesome and much like eating a gigantic vat of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Second of all, it's unabashedly filmed in Toronto, with no attempt to disguise Toronto landmarks. Towards the end of the first season, they at least admit to being in a Canadian city. At least one scene in every episode is filmed in an alley that my old office overlooked.

On a less superficial level, it is Bechdel win according to both the letter and spirit of the law. Half of the main cast is female, and of those, only one is the stereotypical genre hot chick kicking ass. The main character has both male and female love interests, but the most important relationship on the show is between her and her platonic best friend, an adorable gothy thief with a staggering collection of wigs. In between bouts of supernatural menace and romantic angst, there's a good deal of screen time devoted to discussions of feminism and standing up for the oppressed.

So, not great art, but really fun.

Book-wise, having finished Volume 1 of Das Kapital, (go me!) I am now relaxing with Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I don't remember the last time I related to characters as much as I relate to these ones. Seriously, Chabon writes smart books that hit every single one of my narrative kinks to the point where I can barely appreciate them on an intellectual level.