Being sick for 5 months and counting gives me lots of opportunities for watching TV and reading books. Here are a lot of things I've learned this
year since January.
1. Babylon 5 is worth the effort. There was a thread on this show at the end of last year, and I promised to do my best to stick it out even though Season 1 ranged from interesting to atrocious. But as everyone said, the series does get much better, and a lot of the information from Season 1 is important. Season 3 and the first half of 4 are the best. Watching Season 5 is like watching the Blaze Bayley era of Iron Maiden. It just doesn't seem right. Now that I've finished the TV episodes, I'm watching the made-for-TV movies. I'd love to have JMS and Co. go back and make another movie, to show what ever happened with the Psi Core and Garibaldi, after Lita and G'Kar come back from their two-year voyage. This show demonstrates what a well-thought-out, time limited show can do, much like Lost.
2. Brandon Small is a god. During the real low points of being sick, there were periods of many nights in a row when I just couldn't sleep well. To distract myself, I started wearing wireless headphones tuned to Adult Swim. I got to listen to King of the Hill, Family Guy, some truly terrible shows (like Tim & Eric: Awesome Show). But, as I went in and out of dozing, there was one show I'd hear bits of at around 4am. It seemed vert funny, and the dialog was *great*. It took a search through the guides to find out that this show was Home Movies, created by Brandon Small. I liked it enough that I put the DVDs in my Netflix and watched all 4 seasons. This is now one of my favorite animated series ever, and Coack McGuirk is one of the best animated characters ever! It actually works better as a listening experience; the animation itself doesn't really add to it, it's all about the dialog.
My liking of Home Movies led me to Metalocalypse. I had seen bits of Metalocalypse when it first came on, but it left me feeling "eh". But when I discovered that Brandon Small of Home Movies fame was also on the creative team for Metalocalypse, I gave it another shot. And, I'm glad I did! This show takes a bit to get used to, but does have some really funny (and gross!) moments. This show does make me wonder, though, why so many animated shows find it necessary to have characters with muddled voices? King of the Hill has Boomhauer, South Park has Kenny, Aqua Teen Hungerforce has the meatball guy, and Metalocalypse has William Murderface. His voice isn't as unintelligible as those others, but if the voice actors have to strain so hard to make a voice, the voice will be a strain to hear as well (same with Pickles and Skwisgaar, too).
3) Stephen R. Donaldson likes the word "exigencies". I reread his Gap series. It held up really well, and like with most other series, it's better when you read the books close together (not a year apart as when the series first came out). I decided a good SRD drinking game would be to take a shot of vodka every time he used the word "exigencies". You'd get pretty drunk!
4) The Belgariad and Dragonlance books do not hold up well. These two series were ones I read when first getting into fantasy those many years ago. I loved them both when I was younger. I've reread both this year. The Belgariad is still entertaining, but wasn't as captivating as the first time around back in the 80s. (RIP David Eddings.) The Dragonlance books, by Weis and Hickman, turn out to be completely terrible. Now that I pick up on things like crafting a good point of view, narrative glitches, and other intangibles that come from many more years of experience reading, I see how bad this series really is! The sad thing is that I remember liking the sequel series (War of the Twins) even better than the first three Dragonlance books and planned to reread them, too, but now I don't know if I want to spend any time on them.
5) S.M. Stirling has great ideas but falls a bit flat on the execution. I read the first three emberverse and have finished 2 of 3 of the Nantucket books. I love the ideas and overall set up, but don't really like his writing style that much. But I keep reading the books since I want to find out what happens in spite of not really liking the page-to-page progress.
Next up, I'm launching into the one season of Freaks and Geeks, am re-reading the Nicholas Seafort saga (first 4 only) by David Feintuch, and may start into Steven Erikson's series - on a schedule to finish the first 8 books slowly over the next year or two while the final two are completed.
This coming Monday, I'm on my way to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago to see if their infectious disease specialists can figure out why I've had a low grade fever for 5+ months now. I'd better be over this by September, dammit!
year since January.
1. Babylon 5 is worth the effort. There was a thread on this show at the end of last year, and I promised to do my best to stick it out even though Season 1 ranged from interesting to atrocious. But as everyone said, the series does get much better, and a lot of the information from Season 1 is important. Season 3 and the first half of 4 are the best. Watching Season 5 is like watching the Blaze Bayley era of Iron Maiden. It just doesn't seem right. Now that I've finished the TV episodes, I'm watching the made-for-TV movies. I'd love to have JMS and Co. go back and make another movie, to show what ever happened with the Psi Core and Garibaldi, after Lita and G'Kar come back from their two-year voyage. This show demonstrates what a well-thought-out, time limited show can do, much like Lost.
2. Brandon Small is a god. During the real low points of being sick, there were periods of many nights in a row when I just couldn't sleep well. To distract myself, I started wearing wireless headphones tuned to Adult Swim. I got to listen to King of the Hill, Family Guy, some truly terrible shows (like Tim & Eric: Awesome Show). But, as I went in and out of dozing, there was one show I'd hear bits of at around 4am. It seemed vert funny, and the dialog was *great*. It took a search through the guides to find out that this show was Home Movies, created by Brandon Small. I liked it enough that I put the DVDs in my Netflix and watched all 4 seasons. This is now one of my favorite animated series ever, and Coack McGuirk is one of the best animated characters ever! It actually works better as a listening experience; the animation itself doesn't really add to it, it's all about the dialog.
My liking of Home Movies led me to Metalocalypse. I had seen bits of Metalocalypse when it first came on, but it left me feeling "eh". But when I discovered that Brandon Small of Home Movies fame was also on the creative team for Metalocalypse, I gave it another shot. And, I'm glad I did! This show takes a bit to get used to, but does have some really funny (and gross!) moments. This show does make me wonder, though, why so many animated shows find it necessary to have characters with muddled voices? King of the Hill has Boomhauer, South Park has Kenny, Aqua Teen Hungerforce has the meatball guy, and Metalocalypse has William Murderface. His voice isn't as unintelligible as those others, but if the voice actors have to strain so hard to make a voice, the voice will be a strain to hear as well (same with Pickles and Skwisgaar, too).
3) Stephen R. Donaldson likes the word "exigencies". I reread his Gap series. It held up really well, and like with most other series, it's better when you read the books close together (not a year apart as when the series first came out). I decided a good SRD drinking game would be to take a shot of vodka every time he used the word "exigencies". You'd get pretty drunk!
4) The Belgariad and Dragonlance books do not hold up well. These two series were ones I read when first getting into fantasy those many years ago. I loved them both when I was younger. I've reread both this year. The Belgariad is still entertaining, but wasn't as captivating as the first time around back in the 80s. (RIP David Eddings.) The Dragonlance books, by Weis and Hickman, turn out to be completely terrible. Now that I pick up on things like crafting a good point of view, narrative glitches, and other intangibles that come from many more years of experience reading, I see how bad this series really is! The sad thing is that I remember liking the sequel series (War of the Twins) even better than the first three Dragonlance books and planned to reread them, too, but now I don't know if I want to spend any time on them.
5) S.M. Stirling has great ideas but falls a bit flat on the execution. I read the first three emberverse and have finished 2 of 3 of the Nantucket books. I love the ideas and overall set up, but don't really like his writing style that much. But I keep reading the books since I want to find out what happens in spite of not really liking the page-to-page progress.
Next up, I'm launching into the one season of Freaks and Geeks, am re-reading the Nicholas Seafort saga (first 4 only) by David Feintuch, and may start into Steven Erikson's series - on a schedule to finish the first 8 books slowly over the next year or two while the final two are completed.
This coming Monday, I'm on my way to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago to see if their infectious disease specialists can figure out why I've had a low grade fever for 5+ months now. I'd better be over this by September, dammit!
