Snapshot Chronicles

Susan Getgood's personal blog

Summer Reading

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Boy, I was tired last night. I didn’t really end the post, just stopped writing. Blogging has been a bit light this summer, but I have read some great books. So with no further ado, I give you my summer 2008 reading recommendations.

You may only know actor Bruce Campbell as Sam in the current USA Network series Burn Notice, but he has worked steadily as an actor for 20+ years, starting with the Evil Dead movies and including an excellent but short-lived series in the early 90s called The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.

He’s also a very engaging author. This summer I’ve read his memoir If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor and am nearly done with his second book, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way.

I’ve always enjoyed reading cookbooks, so I guess it is no surprise that I enjoy reading the memoirs of great chefs. I read Julia Child’s memoir My Life in France a few years ago and this summer, I read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and Marco Pierre White’s The Devil in the Kitchen. I highly recommend all three.

Finally, two new books by mom bloggers deserve a space on your shelf: Sleep Is for the Weak, an anthology of posts from mom blogs edited by Rita Arens, and The White Trash Mom Handbook, by Michelle Lamar.

[tags] Bruce Campbell, Rita Arens, Michelle Lamar [/tags]

Hummingbirds and a little sci fi

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In between the rainstorms we were having most of the first two weeks of the month, I finally managed to get some good shots of the female hummingbird.

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SciFi Sunday is pretty much on hiatus. Mostly because there hasn’t been so much to talk about. Eventually I will get around to a review of Stargate Continuum; generally, we liked it but haven’t had time to rewatch to write a decent review.

The end of Stargate Atlantis. A non-event really. I haven’t been gotten into season 5 at all, mostly because I realized that most of season 4 was pretty boring. Really miss the Weir and Carson characters. Carter and Woolsey may share letters of the alphabet with them, but they just don’t have the chemistry with the core characters of Sheppard and McKay.

SciFi Sunday: WALL-E, Stargate Atlantis and Burn Notice

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WALL-E: One of the best films we’ve seen this year. Is it better than Incredibles and Toy Story, the two animated features most often compared to it? I think so. Not because the story is better, although it is, or because the animation technology and the blend of CGI and live action is so brilliant, although it is.

It’s a story with meaning. A story that our children, our planet, our politicians need to hear. Because it’s time we all start thinking about our impact on this planet.

Recycle. Drive a hybrid. Telecommute when you can. Support your employees who want to work from home to the extent you can. Plant a garden. Just take a walk. Smell a flower.

Don’t follow orders blindly. Exercise.

Plus, the tale itself is so compelling, it needs few words, which is wonderful for children who sometimes find it difficult to follow dialogue. If you haven’t seen it yet, go!

Stargate Atlantis: The new season debuted Friday night. While it wasn’t a bad episode, I still miss Torri Higginson as Elizabeth Weir. I bought the DVD of Season 4 for Douglas because he missed a few of the eps due to the late hour. Basically, he starts watching and falls asleep  half way through.

I reviewed the list of eps and realized that there were very few that I wanted to watch again. On the other hand, I can watch Rising, The Storm/Eye and The Return arc, among others, over and over again. What does that say….

Among other things, it says that I most definitely noticed the missing person in John Sheppard’s litany of people he should have saved. While it was great to see Rainbow Sun Francks for a nanosecond, we all know who was really missing from that scene, attempts by  TPTB to “ship” John and Teyla notwithstanding.

The John-Teyla chemistry just ain’t there guys. It would be like kissing your brother. Give it up.But there isn’t that much on TV worth watching so as long as they don’t keep shoving Sheyla down our throats, I’ll tough it out.

[SPOILER]

Total ick moment: when Woolsey tells Sam Carter that he is replacing her as Atlantis leader. While I generally love Robert Picardo and look forward to the tension between his character and Sheppard,  I thought this was so poorly done as to almost rival the replacement of Torri Higginson by Amanda Tapping. Even though I know the decision was at least in part Tapping’s. Unlike the dismissal of Higginson, at least from what I read.

It seems pretty clear —  TPTB at Stargate Atlantis don’t understand their female audience. If they did, they wouldn’t continue to chop their powerful women off at the knees.

Speaking of chopping people off at the knees, let’s take a brief diversion into superspy, versus scifi. Burn Notice has quickly become one of my favorite shows. If you haven’t seen it, you are missing one of the funniest, sharpest shows on television. It stars Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless. The best part — the leads are all late thirties plus. So nice to see grown-ups headlining a network television show.

And not just as parents or presidents. These guys are hot. Even Sam, played by B-movie stalwart Bruce Campbell. Why do women keep giving Sam stuff? Ain’t for his sartorial style, that’s for sure.

[tags] Burn Notice, Stargate Atlantis, WALL-E [/tags]