Ballet, news desks & wish lists

Bunheads
Amy Sherman-Palladino’s new entry into television world sees her trademark dialogue, the majority of the cast and the same personality type from Gilmore Girls plonked into a dance school setting.  Needless to say I hated it.   My love for Gilmore Girls is strong but I always recognised the flaws (coughRorycoughLogancoughfinalseasoncough).  I found Bunheads to be a show where Sherman-Palladino embraced all those flaws and made them worse.  The only thing I liked was Emily Bishop…and that’s about it.

It was so lacking in ambition that every appearance by her GG stable of actors made my hackles rise.  Tonally it was off – if you’ve seen the last minute of the pilot you know what I mean.  There was a complete lack of diversity in ethnicity, gender or perspective.  The dance outfits weren’t cute and while Sutton Foster is talented, I didn’t want to see a rehashing of something I’ve always experienced in a higher form.

I did like Boo – that’s about it.

With every announcement of a new GG alum dropping by I am glad I have bowed out…if not gracefully.

The Newsroom
I had read the many critical reviews from Sepinwall, McNutt and other tv journalists who’s opinions I respect.  I was prepared for the worst.  Not to say that the plot and character breakdown was pretty much the same as SportsNight except a drama instead of a comedy.  I still found myself enjoying it.  I do find Aaron Sorkin smug, occasionally sexist and all around on the nose at times but I still buy into the experience.  Call me a pushover.

But then the cast is pretty darned good, even if some of their dialogue is pretty rank at times.

Definitely watching this until Sorkin doesn’t something anvil-like horrendous.

Also – Sam Waterson is adorable.

Films to cross off my to do list:

• The Amazing Spider-Man – my love for Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone shall never wane (may they never break up)
• My Sister’s Sister – Blunt, Witt and Duplaus…improvised drama….uh yeah
• The Sapphires – Mailman and O’Dowd!
• Cabin in the Woods – when I finally find someone willing to go with me
• Safety Not Guaranteed – YES
• People Like Us – Pine, Banks and a sibling drama
• Brave – I don’t typically do animated but this looks good
• Hysteria – a historical comedy about vibrators?  What’s not to like?
• The Bourne Legacy – I love this series, it may not be Damon but I do love Renner

Seriously – where were all these movies in the first six month of this year?  

Inspiration – Lynda Day

Growing up there were two people I wanted to be.

Jo March.  Which is pretty much a given….if you take Professor Bhaer out of the equation.  Which I never will.  It’s a bugbear that I can’t relinquish.  (More here.)

The other person was also fictional but from a television series.  She was a character I loved from the beginning despite being a dictator who no sense of humour and a penchant for over sized cardigans, short flouncy skirts and tights.  Her name was Lynda Day and she was a pocket rocket on a power high.  I adored her.  The editor of The Junior Gazette, she was my role model as a tween onwards.  A girl who was smart, driven and wouldn’t take no for an answer.  She was a bulldozer in Doc Martins.

Press Gang was a British television show that ran from 1989 until 1993.  It was broadcast on the Australian Broadcast Company (ABC) every afternoon as part of the children’s programming block.  The premise of the show was a famous investigative journalist starts editing The Gazette and sets up a junior publication.  Students managed the paper in the hours before and after school.  The staff was made up of a mixture of the highly academic (Lynda, Sarah, Kenny) and the delinquents who were forced to use their time productively (Spike, Frazz, Colin).  The running arc was the day to day operations of the newspaper plus the Lynda/Spike relationship with self contained investigations each episode.

While I adore Spike…I will watch Dexter Fletcher (the British actor who spoke with an American accent the entire run of the show) in anything – it was also the Lynda show for me.  While she was on occasion called a bitch, not undeservedly at times, she was a compelling character.  Brittle, feisty and completely lackingthe ability to socialise.  She was fascinating in her sheer power of will.

The show was smart and well ahead of the times.  I still remember their episodes on teen suicide and huffing with clarity.  The idea for the show was formulated by an Glaswegian head master and pitched to ITV.  The head master was Bill Moffat.  When the pitch was picked up, he recommended his son (Stephen Moffat) a twenty-five year old English teacher write the script.  Stephen wrote it, they LOVED it and the rest is history.  Twenty years later that man is the head writer for the BBC’s Doctor Who, Coupling and the upcoming movie The Adventures of Tin Tin.

Today I read that Sawalha and Moffat continue to talk about a reunion and it is my fervent wish that this happens.  I want to see where Lynda is today, with or without Spike.  She’s compelling enough on her own!

Who were your inspirations as a tween?

High School Journals – Wanna See Mine?

Some of you know that I am about to move to Japan (more information here). This means many things, the worst of which is that I had to pack my entire house up for storage. There was one sparkling moment though, I found my partially filled notebooks from high school. These notebooks contained my inane ramblings.

I thought I might share some of my horrific teen train of thought scribblings.

…maybe I am dark person disguised by the day to be more socially acceptable.

I don’t even know what that means!

An angry glance
A tense stance
A cutting tongue.

It’s not the writing that concerns me as much as who was I writing about. Considering what else is on the page I am assuming it was me. I was such a bright bunny!

Words stuck in your chest.
A knot in my stomach.
Both tongue tied, we are silent.

I don’t mind this too much. It’s a little too self aware but of most of the crap I’ve read this is among the least embarrassing.

Hand me your hankerchief
So I may touch your hand.
I don’t exist to you.
You will never understand.

And then the crap continues…. This is beyond horrible, AND it rhymes ARGH.

Like some profound creature it robs us of precious moments and give us an eternity of forgettables.

What the heck was I talking about? Time. Sigh.

Hopefully I haven’t broken your mind with my self indulgent teen journals.