i may be a bird in a cage but at least it's your cage

HOT FUZZ: GREAT MOVIE, OR GREATEST MOVIE? discuss.

in other news, i'm watching angel season five on the tivo, and i had forgotten how desperately wrecked both "you're welcome" and "a hole in the world" made me the first time around. i can't say that i was any particular sort of 'shipper in the angel fandom, because i was partial to a variety of pairings, but in the end, it was wesley that i watched the show for, and wesley that i wrote fic for -- wes/lilah was a desperate love of mine for most of the late series, but, man, fifth season wes/fred just pushed all the right buttons for me. and the stuff with wes and fred in "a hole in the world" -- as well as the stuff in that same ep with all the boys looking after fred, and freaking out -- totally still capable of making me weep like a baby, all these years later.

i'm thinking about having an angel renaissance this summer, watching the whole series in order from the beginning. who's with me?

in other news, there is no other news except that i'm bored at work and cameron mitchell has Issues with a Capital I and still hasn't taken off his pants.

guys, if you like sports night, you should totally go read everything that was posted for putting the sports back in sports night -- every single story is fantastic, and exactly what i was craving when i thought this challenge up. i'm so pleased! it was like a birthday present ALL FOR ME when stories were posted on thursday.

and not to take away from any of the other stories because they really were all great, but one story absolutely, 100% stuck out of the crowd for me: bring me the head of bobby knight, by scrunchy. it takes bobby knight's oft-discussed 880th career victory and turns it into something more; it's a little bit heartbreaking and lot hilarious, and if you can pick out the line that made me actually clap my hands together with glee, you get ... nothin'. but you can be proud of yourself, i guess. anyway: this story is amazing, and you should all go appreciate it.

and thank you, thank you to everyone who wrote for this challenge, pimped it, betaed for it, all of that -- you guys are also amazing.

in other news, i had a rockin' birthday weekend: the axis was drunk and hilarious for, pretty much, three days straight, starting on thursday; the parentals got me an exercise bike, the boy got me more ram for starbuck, triskellita got me a tiara (which i drunkenly called "my princess hat" last night), lnboz made me the amazing sg-1 sings [min's] favorite songs, and the axis and siscat both took me out for dinner; the tarheels got me not only an awesome first round blowout of eastern kentucky but also a gritty, tough-nosed second round victory over michigan state. (rageprufrock also wrote me dirty haiku about the tar heel basketball team, but, uh, i'm going to keep those to myself.)

and on sunday, keri and i met t. to see black snake moan, which, people, was so unbelievably good i can't even verbalize it -- i mean, the justin timberlake/christina ricci sex was worth $6.50 alone, but then there was a movie to back it up, a gravely, painful, very real movie, and i absolutely adored it. my post-movie summary was A+, would buy on dvd. you guys should all go see it, because a) it's awesome and b) keri and i would like you to make us some fic.

and that, my darlings, is that.

( bobby -- including SPOILERS (though if you are like the middle-aged man sitting behind us who was surprised by the fact that bobby kennedy got shot, i ... don't really know what to say to you. bobby kennedy was shot and killed in 1968. this is not a spoiler, this is history. there are, however, spoilers for the movie behind this cut tag.) )

( stargate: atlantis 3x11: the return part two -- SPOILERS )

you know what i've been thinking? where are the nip/tuck/dexter crossovers? (i'm not watching dexter, mostly because i devoured the first two books last week, and i've spoiled the mystery for myself, alas, but i loved the books and i want fic about dexter, omg.) MIAMI! they are both in miami! it would be awesome, people. creepy and dark and hilarious. and, since i've been reading carl hiaasen's novels, too, if you could toss in a reference to any of those books but particularly to governor clinton tyree crazy ol' skink (if you know the books, you know who i mean), it would be even awesomer. for real. okay? okay. *waits patiently*

in other news, all of you who subscribe to my delicious bookmarks know that i suffered from an intense and debilitating bout of john barrowman malaria late on saturday evening, which manifested itself in the fact that i spent three hours at youtube, watching video of john singing show tunes. i don't want to talk about it. i do, however, want to share [this clip], which is a blooper from the putting it together dvd; i can't decide what's funnier, carol burnett losing her skirt mid-performance or john barrowman's completely over the top reaction to it. regardless, i can not stop watching it. i'm sick. it's a sickness. send help or more clips of john barrowman singing show tunes.

(i would also like to recommend this clip, of john and ruthie henshall singing [anything you can do] from annie get your gun, mostly for john's dancing, which is truly hilarious. i laughed until i cried.)

in conclusion: christmas shopping for the family and the boy, done; christmas shopping for the axis and lani, contemplated but not done; schoolwork due in the next two weeks, not even close to being done; mental health, unstable and currently deteriorating. stay tuned! my nervous breakdown might come any day now, and it's sure to be entertaining. you could even start a pool if you wanted: when and where is min going to finally break down and lose it completely, and what will be the catalyst of the breakdown? PLACE YOUR BETS NOW.

did i loan someone my copy of raymond carver's what we talk about when we talk about love? i can't remember if i loaned it out or just lost it (both are possibilities; i tend to trail stray books all over the place like i'm a personal walking library, which is why i've had to replace certain favorites three and four times), and i was craving it this weekend.

( in which i go on about reading short stories, at probably boring length )

on saturday, rageprufrock, triskellita and i went to see casino royale (daniel craig = hot like burning, movie = best bond flick in years, if just a tad too long) and then darastar joined us for happy feet (elijah wood = omg so charming as animated penguin, movie = SO GOOD I CAN'T EVEN), the two movies separated by some aimless wandering of the mall. christmas crowds in november make me insane; too many people, too much noise, just too ... everything. but we had a lovely dinner at maggiano's and the movies were both fantastic, so it was a success on all counts, especially since i didn't beat any annoying shoppers to death with my purse. arrests for murder always put a damper on an outing, you know.

sunday was devoted to five loads of laundry (three of clothes, two of sheets and towels, eliminating ALL LAUNDRY BACKLOG, thank the lord) and the tarheel basketball game. i did very little homework. i lay on the couch and read trashy crime novels. i did not write, and i did not justify to myself not writing. i was a large lump of uselessness.

i want my brain back; school has consumed my desire to do anything other than flop on the couch like a beached whale. i would like to have large, interesting thoughts about fandom! i would like to rewrite and post some stories for you guys! i would like to not feel fragile, bruised and exhausted every single day of the week! i am tired of feeling less than human all the time.

tell me something good. tell me that stargate: atlantis really does start again in canada, with the second half of season 3, tonight. because that would make everything okay, for real.

eta: i have located the GREATEST PHOTO IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. ben browder kisses michael shanks! in public! *falls over* my mood = 150% percent improved, between this photo and the notion of an acc fantasy basketball league. today might not be so wretch after all.

i'm not sure why asb, ashley and i decided to go see snakes on a plane - except for the fact that it was, well, snakes on a plane - given that all three of us are scared of snakes, and i particularly belong to the shriek and scale the furniture or the nearest available tall person indiana jones school of snake phobia. that said, ( do i need to warn you that there were snakes on the plane? )

asb and i think that shanks and claudia are doin' it. WRITE US RPS. SMUTTY SMUTTY RPS.

sg-1 episode 200: the greatest piece of meta ever to be filmed for television. i laughed so hard i cried. i had to lie down on the floor and concentrate on remembering to breathe at various points. i frakking loved it. bravo, everyone.

( stargate: sg-1 10x06: 200 - SPOILERS, oh, how there are SPOILERS )

( stargate: atlantis 3x06: the real world - SPOILERS )

on tuesday, oracleasb, quicknow and i went to see wordplay - which i'd wanted to see since asb and i saw trailers featuring jon stewart before thank you for smoking - and it was a truly fantastic little documentary. compelling, funny, and genuinely charming without being saccharine. i can't recommend it enough; it's possibly the best movie i've seen all year. A

i desperately want the old 97s live ep that's been released in the itunes music store, and i am pooooooor. sadness. stupid graduate school. stupid poverty.

THURSDAY. top five. etc. top five best songs to seduce someone to. whether it's seduction to a one night stand or seduction in a lifelong romance. whatever. interpret how you will. sexy songs.

my list [files on my webspace, right-click-save, comment if you download, kthx]:

1. "let's get it on", marvin gaye. so. there you go. that's your free pass. you can include it on your own lists if you want, or you can say, "min included it, that counts for me", and have a bonus spot! the number one with a bullet greatest seduction song ever. for when you're feeling OBVIOUS.

2. "bodies", soul miner's daughter. soul miner's daughter is a now-defunct georgia band, and they mostly played the sort of crunchy hippie folk rock you'd expect from an athens band of the late '90s, but this track. oh, this track. it's a sultry, sweaty, swingy little a cappella number from their one and only cd, and it's full of double (and single) entendre and it's great. the counterpoint on the line i know that god was with us, girl, i heard you call his name makes my knees weak every time i hear it.

3. "birds flying away", mason jennings. it's actually sort of a creepy song, but the lyrics i remember climbing up those shoulders, coming up under you like a lion, coming down like we were dying give me the shivers every time.

4. "please pass you", whit hill & the postcards. please pass the salt, please pass the sugar, please pass you.

5. "designs on you", the old 97s though i do wish you'd come over but i'm warning you if you do, i'd be lying if i said i didn't have designs on you. dear rhett: OF COURSE I WILL COME OVER. love, min.

OKAY, NOW YOU GO.

paraphrased recreation of a conversation had this week:

minervacat: i think i should write spin city fic.
oracleasb: usually i encourage your crazy ideas, but this time, i think, just ... no.
minervacat: yeah, i guess so ... but carter was canonically gay! it would be so easy!
oracleasb: seriously. no.

sometimes i stop and take a long hard look at my life and think how the hell did i end up here, deciding that i wanted to write spin city fanfiction? then i shake my head and go back to the gay porn and try not to embarrass myself in public too often.

my non-spoilerly one two sentence review of the da vinci code: wow, that was better than the book! and also, what an incredibly poorly paced movie. i might have more to say about it later, but those are the two big things that i walked out thinking. in case you cared.

RIGHT! thursday. thursday, thursday. actually, i think this is as close to the anniversary of the top five lists as we're going to get - the first thursday list i posted was on the first thursday in june 2003. so. happy anniversary! three years of (almost) weekly top five lists. that's a lot of lists.

for today: top five tv shows that are no longer on the air. that's it. if it'll be on next fall, if there is a scheduled return date (even if it is vague) for spring of 2007 (ROME I AM LOOKING AT YOU), it doesn't count. finished up this spring? totally counts (west wing and alias, for example, are fair game). shows that have gone to the great tv in the sky. you know.

my list:

1. the west wing, sorkin-era. tww in general, too, of course, but tww of seasons one and two no longer being filmed is possibly the greatest loss to television ever.

2. homicide: life on the street. i'm having a renaissance, okay? and man, were seasons three and four and even bits of five just spectacular.

3. cupid. possibly the only show on television to be set in chicago and actually, you know, be set in chicago. due south doesn't count, much as i wish it did - they hardly made any effort to set that show in chicago. but cupid? cupid got chicago right.

4. sports night. not to suggest that sports night is fourth on any list of anything ever, because it's not. sports night is the number one default cancelled television of my show, and i live with the fantasy that season three would have been even more brilliant than the first two were. since it was cancelled, you can't prove me wrong.

5. kitchen confidential. fox cancelled this show way too early. they filmed 13 episodes but only five aired in the states; the rest aired in australia this spring and thanks to the glory of the internet, i got to see them. and it only got quirkier, funnier, smarter and gayer as the run went on - this, this was the big mistake of the 2005-06 television season, for reals.

okay, now you go. what are the best tv shows that are no longer on the air? what should i be getting on dvd from netflix?

personal goal this morning while imaging staff computers in my boss's office: knock out my writing for the day. multi-tasking can have its upsides, you know.

yesterday being payday, i stopped and treated myself to a triple venti raspberry mocha at starbucks, and the levels at which i am STILL stupidly tired, even after all that caffeine, cannot be textually rendered.

can somebody send me dolly's nominated song? because i fucking loved that, and i missed it when it was free on itunes a couple of weeks ago. ha, apparently it's still free on itunes. I STILL NEED "HARD OUT HERE FOR A PIMP", though, because honestly, people, that ROCKED.

( the actual awards bit )

i have SO MUCH WORK to do tonight and i'm glued to the tv and i hate microsoft access like burning. LIKE BUUUUURNING.

"i can't actually walk, but i can stand rather well." oh, i *heart* my girlfriend so damn much. she looks FABULOUS. and she's so adorable and self-deprecating and hilarious.

i didn't manage to see all five best picture nominees; i'm kind of pissed at myself for that, if i'd planned better i could have gone to see munich this weekend and gotten crash from netflix, but i didn't. who am i rooting for? brokeback for best picture; phillip seymour hoffman for best actor; felicity huffman for best actress. outside of that, i don't really have opinions. yeah. i know. me, no opinions? WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED?

( abc pre-show stuff )

( jon stewart is my king )

jon stewart wins at everything.

( west wing 7x12: internal displacement )

onthecontrary's eighteen hour visit included: inability to operate cheesecake; drunk dialing rageprufrock; getting drunk, sobering up, and getting drunk again, all before sleeping; the decision that john sheppard's middle name is vincent; canonical utterance of the sentence "i'm gay, mom" by THE HAIR; two viewings of THE HAIR'S dawson's creek episodes; drunk dialing the little red apartment; a dramatic reading of several parts of cesperanza's last will and testament; the utterance of the sentences "my ass muscles hurt. did we have buttsex last night and i just don't remember?" and "are you actually more hungover now that you've showered?"; one viewing of drumline with the sound off and the subtitles on; and cheesecake for breakfast (cheesecake was successfully operated while hungover on sunday morning).

sunday i saw keri off to parts south and hauled my exhausted self over to oracleasb's for the second annual paul gross and callum keith rennie movie festival, part one; asb, megan and i watched wilby wonderful, which i continue to adore without measure, and men with brooms, which continues to be the best vanity project paul gross ever embarked on. i also came down with a mild case of brooklinegirl's contagious paul gross malaria, and spent most of the afternoon mooning around and saying, "his little face! i just want to crush it to my breasts!"

so, you know, par for the course. i really, really love men with brooms unironically and a ridiculous amount. beyond belief, really.

today i got up early and did a bunch of homework, because i am the lamest. and then smashsc, asb and i trundled off to southpoint to see glory road, because a.) i am sucker for sports movies and b.) the university of texas-el paso (nee texas western) story is the best story in the history of college basketball, and ( glory road, spoilers, etc, though if you don't know that adolph rupp gets his comeuppance already, you're living under a rock )

the keywords on this icon are "wrong in eleven whole planes" and i just like to look at it some days.