My little darling Duncan brought in a mouse yesterday- at 5am. Being 5am I wasn't in my right mind, so instead of helping said mouse I chased him out of my room and went back to sleep. Upon waking at my usual time of 6.30am I had forgotten the incident until I was on my way out the door and I see Duncan peering up at the curtains with much interest; mouse was now at the top of the railings and impossible to catch, so left for work. So, in a house of eight cats, we now have a mouse running free on the curtains. Go figure.
That wasn't even the funniest part; last week I had gotten a free Despereaux toy (from The Tale of Despereaux) and put him on my desk to match my other toy, so all day I had this face staring at me:

"First you get the money, then you get the women, then you - wait a minute. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate- no that’s not right either" Xander Season 4
So began my rewatch of Buffy Season 4 and 5. Having conned the elder sister (salimbol) into paying for  new DVD copies of Buffy series 4-7, I set about watching them. I have just finished S5 and some S2 & S3 rewatches and while S5 onwards is not nearlt as good, it's still entertaining TV. More thoughts to come on the whole series when I'm finished. The first half of season 4 didn’t grate nearly as much as I remember it doing so when I watched it for the first time a few years ago, and I have fallen in love with the music in the series again. (attached are my favs).
Something I do still love about Buffy is the fight scenes; not so much after S4 when they got a new stunt double for Sarah Michelle Geller, but before that they rocked!

Best Fights:
Bufy vs The Master S1
Buffy vs Angel S2- any fight tehy had was awesome but my fav might be at teh end of Innocence
Buffy vs Faith S3- possibly the most brutal fight ever seen on TV
Buffy vz The Gentlemen S4- no sound = scary

Fav Music:
Sophie Zelmani: Season 1, Episode Angel
After Buffy discovers Angel is a Vampire they meet at the Bronze and discuss why they can’t be together (worked out really well)
www.megaupload.com/

Alison Krauss- It Doesn’t Matter: Season 2, Episode 1 When She Was Bad
Buffy has come back from her Summer in LA and is moody and distant, song begins when she and Angel are talking in her bedroom.
www.megaupload.com/

Cibo Matto- Sugar Water: Season 2, Episode 1 When She Was Bad
Buffy sexy dancing with Xander at the Bronze. After all these years I still don’t understand some of the lyrics.
www.megaupload.com/

Morceeba- Never An Easy Way: Season 2, Episode Passion
Angel watches Buffy dance at the Bronze and talks about how passion rules us all
www.megaupload.com/

Puccini- La Boheme: Season 2, Episode Passion
SOB! The song playing when Giles enters his apartment and believes Jenny has planned a romantic evening for the two of them. He walks upstairs and- you know the rest.
www.megaupload.com/

Splendid- Blue: Season 7 Conversations With Dead People
I’ve only watched this episode once but the song stuck with me.
www.megaupload.com/

Assalimbol mentioned in her last post we’ve been watching am English program called “Supersizes Go…” which pits two English food critics (Giles & Sue) against the daunting food of a particular era each episode. We’ve decide to watch them in chronological order and so far have seen, Elizabethan, Restoration and Regency. First observation- our forefathers must have been raving alcoholics. Not being able to drink water (or coffee or tea until Regency), the pair invariably end up sloshed by the midday meal and at the final dinner party each episode one must down a glass each time a toast is made or the Kind mentioned- which is a lot! Second: they ate a lot of meat. A LOT.

So Giles and Sue spend the week dressing, living and eating in each era, generally playing man and wife (although in Regency they are sister and brother and are trying to get Sue a husband- it does not go well) and there have been some DISGUSTING things, but also some things that sounds delish. These people used every part of the animal, more often than not putting all the most disgusting things into a pie and calling it a ‘coffin’, appetizing no!

Here is a post from www.justhungry.com/ that sums up each menu, I have left in the best and the worst:

Well worth watching- just not while you're eating dinner!
 

So with my growing crush on Richard Armitage well, growing, sister lent me her copy of season one Robin Hood series, the newish BBC one. As I started the first series I was struck by how weedy Robin is- what’s with that? Robin Hood should be dashing and strong, not a weasel. I do not like this Robin Hood, instead of the inspiring speeches of Michael Praed we get Robin yelling lines of “we must do this, for England etc….” at his men in a way that would surely have Ray Winstones’ Will Scarlett clonking Robin over the head with a pitcher full oh beer. Early on Guy takes over Locksley when Robin is made an outlaw so you never really see Robin in action as a lord. He had a in the first episode to stay a lord and subtly change the way things work from the inside, or save three Locksley boys from the hangman’s noose in a show of flashy brainlessness- guess which one he chose? I know Robin Hood wouldn’t have existed without this silly act but a smart man would have freed his men and kept Locksley Village out of the hands of the Sheriff. I feel a bit sorry for the actor actually; imagine being cast up against Richard Armitage and trying to be loved above him- damn near impossible I’d say. Guy of Gisborne, ah guy of Gisborne, you leather clad hunk of brooding manliness you. Richard Armitage in true tradition plays him with a Northern accent (which he does so well- North & South!) and is dressed head to toe in black leather. This Guy of Gisborne is somewhat lacking in brain power and is easily lead by the over-the-top Sheriff of Nottingham (like mental over –the-top). They are not friends and I do not think they even really like each other, but they use one-another to increase their power in Nottingham. Maid Marian I actually quite like. She’s strong but believably so, beautiful but not stick thin, smart and I like the actress (who is so young, 19 when they started). She and Guy have much more chemistry than she and Robin though. The Merry Men are the usuals: Little John (whose accent slips from English to Scots in the first season-WTF!), Will Scarlett (very young and quiet and a carpenter in this), Much (a slightly annoying idiot), Alan A Dale, and Djac, a Saracen woman in disguise as a boy. No real character development with any of these except Alan A Dale,

BUT, despite it’s pitfalls I found myself actually getting into the series. So much so I took yesterday off work and went out and bought the second series. I came home, lit the fire, ate junk food and watched it all day. BLISS. I’m not finished yet but this series is much more cohesive than the first and it already has some memorable episodes (Ep 2 “The Booby and the Beast” is an Oceans 11 type heist). There is betrayal, Merry’s leaving the gang and even death in this series which makes it much more adult than where it began. It has none of the depth of the 1980’s adaptation Robin of Sherwood but is still worth a watch and sticking out the first few episodes.

If that doesn’t convince you how about this:

So sister salimbol and I got talking a few weeks ago about our favourite parts of Doramas (it may have started with something like 'who has the best body' but we're not shallow or anything! So we ended up with a huge list of our favourite dorama related things ever!

All are ‘best’ unless stated otherwise!

 General

Little-known: Golden Bowl, Freaky 7 Days, Queens Taiwan

Metaphorical (“WTF?!”) ending: Love Contract

Dialogue: Trick

Kiss: Zhu Shu & Xiang Qin (ISWAK)

Oddest show: Trick

Opening credits: Love Contract

Musical score (background music): Legend

Insert song: Nine-tailed Fox

Opening theme: Ling (Mars)

Romantic comedy: ISWAK

Drama (serious): Mawang

Troubled courtship: Love Contract, Meteor Garden

Love triangle: Why Why Love,

English-speaking: Akanishi Jin in ep 8 of Yukan Club

Worst English-speaking: Hana Yori Dango 2 (“What do you want with the *great* Mr. Doumyouji?” Okay, they pronounced it properly because they’re English speakers, but that was cringe-inducing on every level!)

Language-learning opportunities: Hana Kimi, Hong Gil Dong

School environment: Dragonzakura

Teacher: Yankumi (Gokusen)

Best spoof of another drama: Stand Up! (taking off ‘morning after’ scene from Innocent Witch/Forbidden Love)

Cutest child: At Home Dad (next-door neighbour’s son Ryota)

Dysfunctional relationship: A Love To Kill

Opportunity for Mystery Science Theater-style commentary: Devil Beside You

Funniest accidental nudity: Why Why Love

Rude nickname as sign of impending love: Why Why Love (Obasan)

Most shameless greasing to rich people: Meteor Garden

Best intro to doramas: Mars (Taiwanese), HYD (Japanese), Legend (Korean)

Action

Vehicles: Mars

Battlefield: Legend

Guns: Time Between Dog and Wolf

Characters

Mother (non-evil): Love contract (Ken’s mother)

Father (non-evil): Ah Cai, Xiang Qin’s dad (ISWAK)

Oddest character: Akira (Nobuta wo Produce)

Most annoying character: Romantic Princess (main female, bobble head)

Best speaking voice (aka ‘The Shakespeare Club’): Kingone, Lee Sun Gyun (Coffee Prince), Jang Geun Suk (Hong Gil Dong), Tamaki Hiroshi (Nodame Cantabile)

Crossdressing by a woman: Eun-hye (Coffee Prince), Ella (Hana Kimi Taiwanese)

Crossdressing by a guy: Teddy Xiong (Queen’s Taiwan)


Part Two is over at salimbol's journal!

what flavor pocky are you?

[c] sugardew

picks tongue up off keyboard. yum!

thanks to http://yeinjee.com/ for the video