MONDAY MEME - 20 MEN I ADMIRE

Found here.

The meme is called the 20 Men I Admire. The title pretty much explains it all. Here are the rules.

1. Link back to the blog that tagged you.
2. Link back to the originator of this meme, which is The Dino Lounge
3. Create your own list of 20 men that you admire and post them on your blog.
4. Tag 5 other people to participate in this meme.
5. If you like, please let The Dino Lounge know that you've participated in this meme so he can check out your posting and comment on it.

So, I hereby tag:
bonebreaker over at The Mad Ravings of an Entertainment Junkie
SQT over at Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin Blog
Johnny over at Freddy in Space
Melody at Trap Door and
iMike over at The World of iMike

Now since this is a Geeky blog here's my list of the 20 pop culture men (still living) I admire:


1. Neil Gaiman. He's too talented for words. Plus, Sandman kind of changed my life in a lot of good ways.

2. Johnny Depp who I am convinced can do anything save for maybe flying and 3. Tim Burton one of my favorite directors.

4. Robert Downey Jr. who, like Depp is an amazing actor and both should have far more awards then they already do.

5. Paul Simon who I have seen in concert twice and whose songs can always make me feel better.

6. The Cohen Brothers whose films are made of awesome.

7. Eddie Izzard. Seen him twice, highly intelligent, funny and talented. I quote him endlessly.

8. David Bowie. I have no words.

9. Peter Jackson. For making some of my favorite horror films and then bringing Lord of the Rings to the big screen.

10. Wade Robson. He's an amazing choreographer.

11. Joss Whedon. Buffy, Angel, Firefly. The man is a genius and a fellow geek and I could not admire him and love him more.

12. Neil Patrick Harris. From Doogie to Barney Stinson, he's pretty much made of awesome. In fact, you could say he's legend...hope you're not lactose intolerant...dary.

13. Bruce Campbell. He's comfortable with who he is. And a very nice guy in person.

14. John Williams. Composer/Conductor extraordinaire.

15. George Romero. I love zombies. Zombies make me happy and he brought them to life for me.

16. Hugh Laurie. Snark = sexy, but more than that he's incredibly funny, gifted and can write one hell of a story.

17. Danny Boyle. Trainspotting. Life Less Ordinary. 28 Days Later. Sunshine. Slumdog Millionaire. Need I say more?

18. Chuck Palahniuk. He's written some of my favorite books.

19. Bryan Fuller. Another fellow geek who brought me Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, and Pushing Daisies. Maybe he can save Heroes from itself.

20. Tom Waits. Amazing musician.


Wow, that was harder than I thought it would be.

WHAT I'M WATCHING

I watch a lot of tv. Half of the time it is while I am doing something else, but it makes me happy. Sometimes I wonder where I get the time to watch it all and then I remember, thank the Gods for DVRs because I rarely get to watch television on the night it airs. That’s what the weekends are for. Unless of course it is Friday or Saturday, then it is quite clear where I will be. Anyway, here’s what I am looking forward to this week.

SUNDAY: United States of Tara (SHO): Having Multiple Personalities is like having a kegger in your brain while you are passed out cold on the sofa. I love Toni Colette. Secret Diaries of a Call Girl (SHO): Not as good as last year but I adore Callum Blue. The Last Templar(NBC): probably going to be horrible and a made for tv movie that screams a Dan Brown book, but perhaps will entertain me while I do my laundry.

MONDAY: Big Bang(CBS) and How I Met… are repeats, although if you haven’t watched either show I immediately order you to do so as they are the best comedies on right now as far as I am concerned. So it looks like it may have to be the second half of The Last Templar(NBC) or just some general catching up of films I have lying patiently on the DVR. There’s Ab-normal Beauty by the Pang Brothers or Step Up 2 because yes I am a sucker for any and all dance related media. Not sure what I will be in the mood for.

TUESDAY: Fringe (FOX): Still interesting. And worth the watch. This week brains are getting turned into liquid. Fun. Leverage (TNT): Good show. You should try it if you haven’t already. It’s the Snow Job and oh look I have five inches of snow outside my window right now. Not that that probably has anything to do with the storyline, but I am just sayin.

WEDNESDAY: LOST(ABC) because it is made of awesome. Wednesday = Lost Day, just like Friday = BSG day. Two of my favorite days of the week. Lie to Me because I am still intrigued and still like Tim Roth.

THURSDAY: Burn Notice (USA) remains a good show. This week Michael, Sam and Fiona pose as car thieves. Eleventh Hour (CBS) I watched the original with Patrick Stewart and this isn’t a bad Stateside remake. This episode features a man who has two developed hearts. Maybe it’s Doctor Who. America’s Best Dance Crew (MTV) Go Quest Crew and Beat Freaks. They’re my favorite right now. Finally, Supernatural (CW).

FRIDAY: BSG (SCIFI) best show on tv right now. This episode looks like one hell of a doozy. I cannot wait. Psych (USA) I laugh, I quote and wish Gus and Shawn were my best buds.

SATURDAY: aka the day I actually get to watch some of this stuff.

So what are you watching or looking forward to?

GEEK WEEK IN REVIEW

How was your geek week? Any recommendations, movie reviews, etc?

BEST IN TV: BSG is made of awesome even though this wasnt as great as last week. It was amazing last week and this week was pretty damn cool as well. See last post of BSG picspam. Speaking of amazing shows LOST returned. In the future I am hoping to have my crazy LOST theories every week but couldn’t seem to muster up the energy to do it this week. However, I will say that the boys are still in fine form because LOST continues to amaze. To be honest it was a great week Lie to Me was pleasantly intriguing, but maybe that’s because I like Tim Roth. United States of Tara delighted me, Psych, Big Bang Theory, HIMYM and Burn Notice continued to make me a happy little tv geek, and America’s Best Dance Crew makes me want to get up and dance. Go Beat Freaks, Quest Crew, and Strikers All Stars. It was a good week.

BEST IN FILM: Persepolis was absolutely beautiful. It was heartbreaking, funny and poignant with an amazing score. You really should watch it. Netflix queue gave me Death Race which had Jason Statham in it which sadly was enough for me to enjoy it. He’s yummy and I can be shallow. Though I will say Joan Allen cracked me up. Also had Funny Games which was good, but I liked The Strangers a lot better in the end.

BEST IN PRINT: Fables Volume 2: Animal Farm See my review over at Bibliosnark to see why it was the best of the week.

BEST IN MUSIC: I have been listening to the Sunshine soundtrack a lot in an effort to distress a bit. Beautiful score by John Murphy and Underworld to a movie I quite enjoy. I absolutely love The Watson Twin’s cover of The Cure’s Just Like Heaven. Top Five new tracks to my iPod would include: The Little Things - Danny Elfman/Wanted Soundtrack, Godan daginn - Sigur Ros, Love and Hate - Benoit Guerin/Persepolis Soundtrack, Mouthwash - Kate Nash, and Not an Addict - K’s Choice

OTHER GEEKY THINGS: I made a weekly jaunt to the library and picked up the first three TPs of the Ex Machina by Brian K Vaughan which looked too intriguing to pass up, as well as a bunch of other comics which I look forward to reading on my day off tomorrow. I also hope to pick up a new cell phone which I lost almost a week ago, but been too poor to pick up a new one. And finally I have been catching up on some scrapbooking and other crafts because its been too cold (four inches of snow to add to the pile this morning) to do anything outside.

The Disquiet That Follows My Soul

Yet another BSG Picspam Review/Commentary by yours truly. Have your own review of the episode, let me know otherwise feel free to speculate in the comments.

Uh oh, Cally must feature in this episode. I don’t miss Cally. Her death, while still a bit shocking didn’t make me go…gosh that sucks. It made me hate Tory a bit more, but I have never liked her. She’d horrid.


Daddydama gets up, brushes his teeth, takes a shower. See, BSG people are like normal people folks.


Ooh and he has piles of TBR books cleverly disguised as furniture and modern art sculptures like I do…or well in his case as piles of books. Roslin should get him a bookshelf for his birthday.


Ah, little cylon baby. Wonder if he will be a pirate too?


Its our baby Saul. I need a drink.


What? Now they are all dovey dovey? Is he still seeing Ellen?


I mean Earth’s a cinder, Dee’s dead, suicides are up, fleet’s a mess, president’s missing in action, but hey got to make sure the Cylons are taken care of. Snarky Felix, hey how are ya? Not bitter at all. Or crazy. Good to know.


I am a bad ass and I am not answering your questions.


Hee hee, Lee pushed Zarek out of the way. It’s because his tie is prettier.


Oops…I wasn’t supposed to say that. We believe she…I mean he…Oh look over there, something shiny.


Theirs. I mean Ours. Or Yours. Maybe you’d like a chart to keep it all straight.


I don’t like mean Gaeta. I want old Gaeta back. As in opera singing, kind of emo but good guy Gaeta. I liked him. Not so much crazy Gaeta.


Acute Renal failure? Umm, but he’s a cute little plump hybrid baby. Can that happen? Poor Nicky. Here have some crackers.


When Doc says lets have a talk, and starts off with this is going to be a shock…this can mean only one thing…Nicky is not his. So much for my hybrid ‘when they grow up’ pairing of Hera and Nicky. So who’s the daddy aka who could get Cally to stop whining long enough? Kind of sucks for Chief though. Looks like he needs a hug.


She looks like a little kid who just knocked something over just for kicks because she knows its wrong, but cant help herself. It’s kinda cute. Also Roslin has a rainbow collection of pills.


You tried to throw me out of an airlock once. Still cryin about that. Kara, I loves you.


Gaeta, you should stop now, Kara will beat your ass down in snark vs snark war. She is Queen. All should be in awe. Plus, she’s…well she’s special. We’re not sure what she is, but its special.


At least I’m not a gimp. See…she won. Told you. And yes the pity frak is out of the question.


People are so gonna die when Cavil shows up.


Roslin/Adama they are so cute. And McDonnell rocks.


I kinda missed Gaius.


We should talk. Nod. Punch. Really Hotdog, you didn’t see that one coming?


I love that Gaius is completely unimpressed with the fight.


Frak. Mutinies…and… Finding a crispy critter Earth has not helped things. Everyone is so aimless, so lost. It’s great because its real. People didn’t just shrug and go…oh, well. People have handled it fairly badly. How would you react?


Zarek…you are so, and when I say so, I mean sooooo dead.


Should I send in a medic?


I am so gonna hit you with pointy objects Felix.


Aw, cute coupledom. About damn time. Except I must admit that bald Roslin always makes me giggle.

So I end with is: did we have it all wrong? Maybe Roslin was never the dying the leader, but perhaps it is pill popping Daddy Adama. And is everyone going to think Kara is the last cylon? Though it is a bit frustrating to kind of put the whole Earth thing on the backburner (I think it is because we all know how much time is left and I think we can all agree that it is not nearly enough) I like this storyline. A friend of mine said this episode was Ron & Co giving us what we need not what we want.

We're seeing the fleet at their worst. Earth is a crispy critter, suicides are up, fleet's a mess, no one is picking up their trash anymore, Roslin's...well a fun sort of crazy and people are in a bad place. Earth has always been a reason to keep going. It was a hope and reality just tore that shiny happy puppy to pulpy pieces. People are in a bad way (save for Doc, Helo, Athena and Hera who seem to be fairly chipper), but its realistic. People are lashing out and making some rash decisions. How would you react when put in the same situations?

And as much as I want to kill Gaeta with pointy objects right now, I get him. Something broke when Dee killed herself. Something broke when Gaeta was on that ship during the Webisodes. Something broke when he lost his leg. Something broke when....well when has something good happened to Gaeta of late? He's a brat and needs a good swift kick in the head and probably wont last to the end of the series, but he's a worthy advesary right now. As much as he annoys me and I want my old opera singing, kind of emo Felix back, I like hating him. His character is still interesting.

As far as Kara goes, I still think she has a very important role to play. I still think that Maelstrom episode has some importance that we dont quite see or realize yet. While I am kind of on the Kara is Tigh's daughter theory...which makes her punching him in the miniseries that much funnier, I think there is something going on that will surprise us all. Cylon is too easy. Ship of Light being involved maybe too nostalgic and easy, but would be interesting if the Ship of Lights could be the 13th cylon that is posed. *shrug*

I am a happy BSG geek. I am happy to have it back and dont think the show has lost its stride at all. I have questions. I want answers. I have wants, but maybe its not what I need right now. Plus I have faith, they havent let me down yet.

What did you think?

AN EVENING WITH KEN BURNS

Last night I had the privilege of attending a screening/Q&A event with historical documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and his partner Dayton Duncan as they talked about their new film about the National Parks. If Ken Burns’ name doesn’t immediately conjure up anything he has done films that regularly appear on PBS and have titles like The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, Horatio’s Drive and more recently War. He uses archival footage and photographs and I think they are great. In fact, I think may have learned more about the Civil War from his documentary than I ever did in school.

The new film, as I said, is about the National Parks with the clever subtitle of ‘America’s Best Idea’. Burns and Duncan previewed a bit from the first episode and then quite a bit with Yellowstone since we are less than an hour away from the park. It was funny, it was interesting and beautiful. I connected with it as well. The parks are a great idea because they are beautiful places that are preserved not for the elite, but for everyone. They are timeless.

Ever since I moved to Montana, I have felt a closer connection to nature. It’s not every day that you have two bald eagles hunting for mice in your backyard or seeing an entire herd of elk walk past your window. The mountains are my backdrop. The sky really is endless and I can see the stars when I look up at night. Its great stuff. It makes you feel connected in ways that you can’t feel in an urban setting. Sure it has its downsides, like the nearest movie theatre being nearly half an hour away or worrying about hitting a deer every time I come home at night, but it has its perks.

I suppose it helps that I am a nature girl. I love camping, hiking is way fun and nope the bugs and critters don’t really frighten or annoy me. Perhaps it has been my upbringing. My dad worked for the Forest Service (In Yellowstone) when he was younger and the nature vibe kind of runs in the family. I guess it made the whole film presentation even more worthwhile. I understood it. I appreciated it. I connected with it.

When it was all over Burns and Duncan answered a few questions. If you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing Ken Burns speak. He is charismatic, eloquent and intelligent. He has one of the voices where it is a joy to listen to him, as the woman remarked behind me ‘I could just close my eyes and listen to him all night’. But more than that he felt like just a normal guy. He was easy to relate to, as re his films.

He talked about how he makes his films to try and figure out how our country works and who we are as a people and a nation. As far as the parks themselves he said, “when we’re in the presence of these magnificent places that we’ve been fortunate enough to save, we’re reminded of our insignificance. At the same time, we feel bigger and feel a connection to everybody else.” I couldn’t agree more.

Dayton Duncan also spoke and answered questions. When asked ‘what park is your favorite’, it was difficult but he has a great connection with Glacier Park which is also in Montana as it’s the memories made there that are so important. The National Parks are safe havens for memories. For the most part they aren’t going to change. The Grand Canyon isn’t going to suddenly fill up and generations can visit the same place and kind of say ‘Yep, this is exactly how I remembered it.’ Or ‘See? Its just like I told you’. I know that when my Dad first took my brother and me to Yellowstone, the Canyon Falls were the same as they were when he first went there. And they will be when I take my children.

I have been lucky. After my parents divorced when I was a kid, my dad would take my brother and I to a new National Park every summer. I have seen lava flowing into the ocean in Hawaii, seen Old Faithful erupt, or stood staring in absolute awe at the Giant Sequoias. However, there are 58 and I still have plenty to go. For example, I still have not been to the Grand Canyon or the Everglades. I should really get on that.

Anyway, it was an amazing evening and when the documentary shows up in late September you really should catch it.

Wednesday Wish List

There are a lot of cool things out there in the pop culture world and some of them need to be my very own. If only I was bazillionaire. However, I am not. Still a girl can dream can't she?

Because nothing says love, like a Han in Carbonite chocolate bar. It's what everyone should get their sweetie for Valentine's Day or me, whenever cause I like chocolate and that scruffy looking nerf-herder named Han Solo. You can grab them here


How could you not want him. He is so cute. And plus he reminds me of one of my sister's characters from one of her books (which I hope someday will be published once it was finished...and yes that was a hint) You can grab him here


Doctor Who = awesome. (Though I am not to sure how I feel about the new incarnation...am said about no more Tennant, but I am not going to make any judgments until I see him in action because to be honest I felt the same way about Tennant taking over from Eccleston) I already own the screwdriver, need the pretty little journal now. You can order it from Entertainment Earth


Ooh pretty. Tarot with Vertigo images. Yeah. john Constantine = The Fool, The Endless scattered throughout and more. Plus artwork by Dave McKean...need I say more. Can be bought for me...I mean you here


And finally...because a girl can dream. The person who made this gets every shiny gold star I own. More pics are here.