Reads Randomly

In the past month, I've gone to Japan, been shaken by an earthquake while NOT in Japan, tried to ignore some significant anniversaries of major tragedies, applied to a graduate program and before any of that happened saw the final Harry Potter with my brother, completing the set. While each of those are worthy of their own post, I'm not feeling very good with words right now. Instead, I bring you YouTube videos from various shows I've enjoyed over the years. See them before they get reported! :-)

( We've got Sorkin, Asian dramas and Charlie Crews, if you're interested... )

Next time I post, I promise it will be Quaggy generated content. :-)

For some reason, I've had this one movie stuck in my head. It was a live-action adaptation of the Frog Prince, circa the late 1980s. I'm pretty sure it was on the Disney Channel. (Seems too sweet and girly for Nick.) There were two princess. One was blond, spoiled and selfish and the other, the heroine, was sweet, if a little childish and plain. The thing is that only one of them was a "True Princess" (though they never explained why, but I guess it had something to do with the fact True Princesses had magical powers), but their mother never said which was which because she wanted them to be loved equally. Everyone assumes that the older sister is the True Princess, but as you might expect, she's not. The Frog Prince part comes into play because younger sister gets help from a talking frog-like man (who's really an enchanted prince) and the golden ball that she drops down the well turns out to be magic. Well, actually, it turns out that she just thinks that the ball is magic and she's the one actually doing everything, because she was the True Princess all along. I'm pretty sure the little sister was played by Soleil Moon Frye and I think the older sister had name recognition too. Does anybody remember this? It seems far too real for me to have dreamed up when I was too high on pixie stix, but I'm beginning to doubt my sanity!

In other news, I owe people drabbles. Life's been a little abnormal, but I'll try to get to them as soon as possible. I swear!



ETA: flippet found it!! The Frog Prince! It stared the girl from Annie, not Punky Brewster. That's what was tripping me up. Now the real question is: Do I dare watch it again?

So, I've been very restrained in NOT pimping out keytus_tv other than the opening day post, so I figured you guys are due...

After a few growing pains, we've settled into a comfortable rhythm. We've started a weekly discussion thread, which anyone can join in to talk about the shows they are watching.  Since summer time means less shows to talk about, we as a community are going through that 30 days of television meme (which will obviously take us a lot longer).  We started this week with the age old question:  Which shows should never have been cancelled?

We also have episode by episode discussion threads for one or two shows at a time.  We just finished watching Season 1 of Caprica and the miniseries The Pacific. (Those of you who are coming to the party late, feel free to comment. Most participant are tracking the threads and so will see what you write.)  We just started rewatching Season 1 of Life. It's not to late to join in!  (We're planning on rewatching Firefly this fall and start Season 2 of Life over the winter, for those who are interested.)

Okay, sales pitch over.  For now. ;-)

Oh, Ugly Betty, do you really have to go so soon? I'll admit, I've fallen behind on on this show, which is a little crazy considering how nuts I am about it. I've been catching an episode here and there and reading episode recaps to keep me up to date. But I'm still invested in the characters and the show, so I was really upset when I found out this season was going to be its last.

I'll leave it to others to talk about what a groundbreaking series Ugly Betty was (and it is). I'm going to talk about the characters instead, because they're the reasons I care about this show and the reason I'm going to have trouble letting go. However, they got one of the better send-offs that I've seen, right up there with Gilmore Girls and West Wing. (Life still had far and away the best finale.) Like a lot of shows, Ugly Betty ends with its main character about to make a big change which gives everyone (and us) a chance to say good-bye. That meant there was plenty of bittersweet moments. My favorite was when Betty was waving good-bye to her family as the car taking her to the airport pulled away. For a brief moment her reflection in the glass was replaces with the Betty we first met, complete with the infamous poncho, and then we were back to the cool, professional woman she is today. She's come a long way in four years. And I'm not talking about her superficial appearance.

But even more than the nostalgia, I loved that everyone ( cut just in case there are those who still think these are spoilers )

Sigh. Goodbye, Ugly Betty and now just Betty. It was nice getting to know you. At least, we'll always have the DVDs.

As many of you know, I've been watching Asian dramas for a couple years now.  More like mini-series, most dramas have a set number of episodes and a full story arc. As it so happens, the three dramas I've been following all ended within a week of each other. So I thought I would share my thoughts.

*Warning* This post is very image heavy!!! I can talk about these dramas forever, but sometimes pictures can convey why I liked a specific show better than if I go into detail about the plot. (Note: I didn't create the screen caps myself. I've picked the images up from a variety of places, but mostly Dramabeans. (Well, at least in the case of the Korean dramas and the .gif at the very end.) I would love to post clips too since a lot of my enjoyment came from the delivery and expressions as it did from the plot, but clips have a sad way of disappearing from their hosting sites. So still images it is!)


I talked about this drama before when it first aired. Even though I had pretty major misgivings, ( I'm happy to say... )



At 45 episodes, Smile, You is by far the longest Asian drama I've watched (so far). It was a sweet family drama, but, contrary to what you'd expect, ( the series had trouble after... )



I'm actually going to save Wish Upon A Star for its own separate post, since that drama turned out to be my favorite and therefore and I have an unreasonably high number of images. But as as a little teaser, here is something completely adorable from the show...

Yesterday was Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary and it seems like everyone is getting in on the act, even Google! Today, I went on Sesame Street's YouTube channel and gathered as many of my favorite classic clips as I could find. There was the King of Eight, the Queen of Six (forgot about her!), an operatic orange, a Teeny Little Super Guy, Martians, and Tweedlebugs. Tatyana Ali (long, long before the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire) met Herbie Hancock and Tony Danza played tennis with Big Bird. There was even a very cute bit with Yo-Yo Ma! I thought I'd share them. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?







( Even more under here... )

And for one last trip down memory lane, this was my Sesame Street...





Thank you for 40 wonderful, educational years, Sesame Street. Here's to 40 more!

I originally responded to this over at zinke as part of her anniversary meme, but figured I should also post it here too, at least partially.

This is one of my favorite scene and contains one of my all-time favorite quotes.

Bartlet is asleep in his bedroom. The phone rings four times before he finally answers it sleepily.

BARTLET: What?

CHARLIE: Good morning, Mr. President. It’s Charlie. I hope...

BARTLET: What could you possibly want right now?

CHARLIE: Sir, it’s 6:30 a.m. and...

BARTLET: In the morning?

CHARLIE: Yes sir. And I wanted to remind you that...

BARTLET: I mean, what in the name of everything holy could you want right now?

CHARLIE: I wanted to remind you that you have a 7:00 a.m. at the Oval Office with senior staff, followed by your security and intelligence briefings, and a meeting with the Chairman of the Fed. Would you like me to have the stewards bring you some coffee and the Washington Post?

BARTLET: Who the hell is this?

CHARLIE: Sir.

BARTLET: And what could you possibly want?

CHARLIE: Sir. I need you to dig in now. It wasn’t a nightmare. You really are the President.

BARTLET: All right.

CHARLIE: I’ll have the stewards bring the coffee to your room.

BARTLET: I’ll get up now.


I miss my show.

On my way to work yesterday, a tourist stopped me to ask directions.

“I knew you were a local. You looked like you were from around here,” she said. I walked the rest of the way to work with a big grin on my face.

I love being from DC. It has it’s own culture and flavor that is hard to describe to outsiders. It’s very quirky and surprisingly apolitical. This Washington Post article from the Inauguration gets close. The politicians and the lobbyists may get all of the attention, but I’ve lived in a very different world from that, where people wear their government badges with geeky pride and Metro is main way to get around. It’s a pedestrian city. I bring this last part up, because the distance between places is the thing that The West Wing usually and consistently gets wrong.

I know I’ve complained before about the closing shot in 20 Hours In America when Toby, Donna and Josh all walk back into the city over the Watergate Bridge. It’s a beautiful image of the city. But you know what else? It’s at least a 30 minute walk to the White House from there. I should know. I’ve done it before!!

Last night, I watched “Shutdown” for the first time in years. I really enjoyed it (maybe even more than I did the first time around) but then Angela Blake said that the Capitol was only a five or ten minute walk away from the National Gallery, which is definitely an underestimate. Five minutes will get you to the Capitol Reflecting Pool. If you walk fast. And how would Josh, who had been working in and around the Capitol his whole life, not know how long of a walk it was?!

Then, as an added kicker, as CJ and Toby watch the news on television, the newscaster (a self-proclaimed twenty-five year Washingtonian) mixed up the National Archives with the National Gallery. You do not get those two building mixed up. Not to mention it’s close to another half hour from the Archives to the Capitol. Again, I know because I’ve walked it!

I remember at the time having trouble buying that Secret Service would be okay with Jed casually taking a stroll up Pennsylvania Ave. (Though I always figured that Josh ran the idea by the Secret Service first before presenting it to the President.) Now, after having gone through the most recent Inauguration (HE WALKED!), I realized one reason that the Secret Service would have been okay with President Bartlet setting out on foot: it’s mostly government building from there until the Capitol. Empty government building because the government was closed. Nice how that worked out!

Other than those blatant inaccuracies, it was a very good episode. It’s easy to forget those existed during Season 5. Yes, pod!Leo was in full force, but it’s was such a Josh episode. And in a lot of ways, this was the episode where Josh went from being Leo’s boy to Jed’s virtual stand-in. This was probably the episode that helped give root to number 3 on my fanon list. And Donna saved Social Security, which still just delights me.

I never did that Facebook “25 (or 27 depending on who you ask) Things About Me” thing. For one thing, I still refuse to have a Facebook account. Secondly, I’m not sure my list would be all that interesting…. Until I realized I could make it fandom related.

I’ve always meant to write down my personal West Wing fanon and a list is a great way to do it. I figured since I write fic, it’s only fair that I publicly acknowledge where I’m coming from. So the following are the beliefs I hold about The West Wing. Some of these I’ve worked into stories. Some I haven’t. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which is which.

( 25 Random Things About My West Wing Fanon )

I’ve probably got more, but 25 seems a good place to stop.

Okay, I normally don't ask for help with fic on such a widespread basis, but I think the topic is broad enough that I'll get a range of answers. I'm curious about what everyone's answers would be.

Without getting into details about why I need the information, I'm having trouble figuring out who Donna would have on her iPod. I have a feeling hers would be a little different from mine. I think I can make a pretty good case for R.E.M. and I decided that even if she wasn't a Cranberries fan, she would have a soft spot for "Linger". flippet  and tomfoolery815  both rightly pointed out that Donna was in all likelihood a U2 fan. (Her excitement to possibly meeting Bono was very similar to her excitement about seeing Yo-Yo Ma.) And I would bet money on her wearing out her copy of the Garden State soundtrack. But other than that, I'm stumped. I'd like to use a Matchbox Twenty song that wasn't released as a single and I don't know if she would be a big enough fan to buy the whole album.

So, I'm opening the floor for suggestions. What kind of music do you think Donna listens to? Specifically what kind during season 7 and beyond?  I don't mind if its obscure, but it would be helpful to have some sort of sample, if you can find one. (YouTube is fine.)