Old and New

To be filed in the 'oops, I did it again' category: on Monday, almost immediately after publicly stating that things might be getting better, I re-injured myself (must’ve forgotten to knock wood). As the majority of my brain has been busy dealing with pain and/or been heavily medicated, I've been thinking of very little and I'm fairly sure that what has passed for thoughts would not be blog worthy. However, Patti to the rescue! In Monday's comments, she asked for details about my recuperation entertainment materials, so that's going to be today's topic.

Books:
I've been rereading A Game of Thrones (the first book in A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, a series I've been utterly obsessed with in the past). I'm having the oddest reaction to it. On the one hand, I'm as enthralled as I was the first time I read it. It's a fantastic book, incredibly intricate, well written and the narrator is excellent. On the other hand, I've lost focus twice - once halfway through and now again at the last quarter. (at this moment, I know at least 3 people who are fainting and looking to burn me at the stake for blaspheming) It's a pretty serious book - the first in a series of seven, this one’s setting up The Problem and it's a big one. Which means that the book essentially is a slow plummet into what you know will be inevitable Badness. Many of the main characters are members of a family by the name of Stark and boy, are they ever. Their family motto is “winter is coming” and it’s said often in ominous, unrelenting tones of doom. So far, there's been 27 hours of doom and no end in sight. I find myself veering off to fluffier fare to cleanse my palate, then coming back to immerse myself in it again. It's very strange. And disappointing. I guess I'm not the person I used to be.
Undead and Unpopular is the polar opposite of A Game of Thrones. It's the latest in the "Undead and…" series - the frothiest, funniest take on vampires I've read in a long time. Imagine the Queen of the Vampires as a shoe-obsessed Valley Girl and you’d be getting the idea. Highly entertaining.
Next in line is the fourth book in the Amelia Peabody series. I've been reading these books for almost 20 years, camping out by the bookstore, chomping at the bit when a new one would come out. It's the story of a larger-than-life family, helmed by Amelia and her husband Radcliffe Emerson, egyptologists during the Victorian age. Sometimes, I think I have a little Amelia in me, although I try to constrain that aspect as much as I can – in real life, it’d be incredibly annoying, in fiction, it’s hysterical. This was one of the authors I missed the most during the years where I couldn't read books and I was overjoyed to not only find that Audible has every single one of them, but that the majority are read by a narrator who completely embodies what I thought Amelia would be like. Barbara Rosenblatt, you are my hero.

Movies/TV
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Although not in the "old friends" category, it's definitely a movie I want to see again. Watching Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer (two of my favourite actors, although Kilmer hasn't been getting good material for while) spark off each other was wonderful and the movie has so many twists and turns, it's hard to keep up. But what a ride!
Battlestar Galactica. As you may remember, I have a small – tiny, really - problem with this series. The kind of problem that renders me incapable of doing anything but obsessively watching it for hours every day until I've seen every episode or keel over from overload, whichever happens first. I have resisted renting the first half of Season Two, because I knew what would happen. But then a friend lent me his copy and I'd had enough distance from the last BG incident that I was convinced I could handle it. I'd watch one episode a day. I could keep it under control. I have WILLPOWER! So, I watch the first episode - so far, so good. And then, after the second episode, it all went downhill. I spent several days doing nothing but watching BG, waiting until I could watch BG, kicking people off the phone so I could watch BG, talking (and talking) about BG. And when I went to sleep, I dreamt about it. I have the BG DTs. The second half comes out on September 19. I don't know how I'm supposed to wait that long.
Big Eden. I often watch movies I like again, but never immediately – I always wait months, even years. But the first time I rented this movie, I watched it that evening. Then I kept it an extra day and watched it again. And then I had to buy it. It’s a favourite of mine, one of the loveliest, sweetest movies I’ve ever seen – it just makes you feel good and leaves you with a goofy smile and hope in humanity. Some may say it’s utopian, a cynic might call it corny. But I am charmed beyond words every time I visit (yes, it feels like visiting) and I want to live in the place this movie represents. Also, I’m madly in love with Pike.
(and I’d prefer it if we didn’t talk about how I have developed feelings for a fictional character)

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