[via Dark Horizons]

Babylon 5 DVDs tentatively scheduled to released April '03 (season 2) and Noveber '03 (season 3).

new guy at work = dreamy, furry-chested, goofy lopsided smile = new workplace crush

from Dark Horizons: According to Fangoria, this long-delayed Nicholas Brendon/Jamie Pressly-starring horror film about a demonic pinata (which originally was entitled "Pinata: Survival Island") will be released regionally in theaters starting August 30th.

demonic piñata. why didn't i think of that? damn, i hope this movie plays somewhere around here.

so, what do you think about (movie) Storm's new hairdo?

you can personalize and send Jeff Corwin e-cards! i'm sending them all to myself (especially the strangely appealing 'Lying on the ground with a big snake wrapped around him' one).

"Got adventure on your mind? Click here to win an appearance on Animal Planet with Jeff Corwin and drive home in a new 2002 Suzuki Aerio SX!" it's the Win a Date with Jeff contest! you can enter daily (and i will), and as an added bonus you can also win a year of free cable from your local provider. free cable and an evening (or ten minutes and a handshake) on the <enter biome of choice> with Jeff? this is what being an American is about!

anyone have some extra cash laying around that they'd like to send me? there's a house i reeeeally want, but it's about $1900/month more than i could possibly afford.

"Whedon also said the long-awaited soundtrack for "Once More With Feeling," last fall's all-musical episode, will be out by Sept. 24, the day "Buffy" begins its seventh season on UPN. "

hooray! finally, i've seen a second source saying OMWF soundtrack is coming soon! from this article, which has many spoilers, mostly casting but some plot, mostly for Buffy and some for Angel.

i've been avoiding Buffydom this summer (except when my sister or nephew come over and want to watch it, but that's been all season two). it's a way to pass through the way-too-long rerun season without scouring the internet for spoilers, but i kind of slipped last week and watched Doppelgangland on FX. now i'm all excited again. forty-four days left!

failing to conquer earth militarily, the Collective has decided to take a more democratic approach.

Buffy Xbox game street date bumped back up to August 19. i want i want i want i want

not that i meant anything at all disparaging to the people who call New Orleans home. i'm sure you're not all pirates, drunks and/or whores.

New Orleans!
Home of pirates, drunks and whores
New Orleans!
Tacky, overpriced souvenir stores
If you want to go to hell, you should take a trip
To the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Mississip'
New Orleans!
Stinking, rotten, vomiting, vile
New Orleans!
Putrid, brackish, maggotty, foul
New Orleans!
Crummy, lousy, rancid and rank
New Orleans!

because i can't get the season two DVDs yet, i'm listening to my 'Songs In the Key of Springfield,' which reminded me that my sister is planning a return trip to New Orleans sometime soon. she says she loves the city for what amounts to its historicity, but with the attributes listed above, who wouldn't love it?

Court upholds man's use of eagle feathers for religious practices.

an interesting part of the article: Government attorneys have said the demand for eagle feathers exceeds the government's supply in a repository in the Denver area.

a Fort Knox for eagle feathers!

dreamed last night of frogs in my apartment. it started with just a few, but more kept appearing. somehow, i knew that, once all the frogs had appeared and taken predetermined locations, something momentous would happen.

it didn't happen though. instead, i woke up. i went out to find the boyfriend, who was still up watching a movie. though awake, i could still see the frogs but the boyfriend didn't know what i was talking about when i asked him where they'd all come from.

i'm hypothesizing that the frogs were somehow magical in nature and usually invisible, but that i, due to some previously unknown invisible-magical-frog birthright, was able to see them.

i'd like anyone to try to disprove this.

should i be worried that there were only 49 messages in my Hotmail spambox this morning when there are usually 150 or more every other morning?

Seth Green has recorded a commentary track (with Joss and Marti) for the Buffy season four DVD set.

also, Amber Benson, with a little on Tara's death, a little about her film Chance, and a passing mention of work on The Enforcers (also with Andy Hallett and James Marsters).

Ricardo Montalban speaks on his role as Khan for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

as Max has pointed out, The Simpsons - The Complete Second Season will be out tomorrow. i received a Friendly Reminder Call from the DVD store yesterday (while i was standing in their store, coincidentally). it'd have been better if they'd called me last week. i'd forgotten that it was coming out, so i spent every extra dollar i had on various gifts for the boyfriend. i'll have to wait a week or so before i get to pick up my copy.

humorous porn title of the day: Panty Hoes: Nylon Nymphos

watched The New Guy last night.

movie: silly, but not silly enough to watch again.

best part: she's great at playing the 'tough grrl,' and Eliza Dushku is getting better at playing the soft side of her roles.

the boyfriend brought home the Fellowship of the Rings dvd last week, but didn't tell me until Saturday. i didn't get to watch it.

his birthday was yesterday, and the entire weekend was taken up with various birthday events planned by family and some birthday shenanigans by his friends. all that, together with copious quantities of alchohol, left me nearly exhausted. i turned in a little early last night and actually slept the entire night through, something i rarely do.

hold up a sec.

overall, this is, of course, a good thing. it's a little preposterous to think that a kid creating a painting of himself killing the police officer who cited him would be a threat.

"Without question, it was intemperate and demonstrated extremely poor judgment," presiding Justice Arthur Scotland wrote in his opinion. what's wrong with teens today, being all intemperate and demonstrating extremely poor judgement? when i was a teen (and the same applies to my parents' and grandparents' generations. heck, i'm pretty sure it goes all the way back into antiquity) we never excercised poor judgement.

anyway, i don't care about Justices stating the obvious, but i do think this part is interesting

"The appeals court dismissed a finding by Butte County Superior Court Judge Ann Rutherford that the teenager had made a terrorist threat against MacPhail "

what, in the mind of Judge Rutherford, distinguished the painting as a terrorist threat and not just a plain, everyday kind of threat (well, i guess "terrorist threats" are kind of everyday things now)?

glad to see that our law enforcement officials are keeping these horrible, dangerous criminals off the street.

yet another article on the evils of Tara's death (and i don't mean 'evils' as in murder. it's 'evils' as in Joss-has-fallen-into-the-evil-and-death-lesbian-cliche). nothing in the article is original, and, in fact, seems to be nothing more than a rewrite of any of the previous articles, only this one came two months after all the others. the author seems to think that he's the only one who's said any of this ("plot turns as fitting into what I will label the "dead/evil lesbian cliché." yeah, because no one else has thought to label it that), and also, he irritates the hell out of me with the "it doesn't take a PhD" line, because, ya know, he's Rodger Streitmatter, Ph.D. and this whole cliche concept is so simple that even we who aren't as educated should recognize it.

while i'm linking to TV Guide Magazine, i'll also link to their truncated online version of the print article 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time. i thumbed through an archive copy of the magazine (i won't get my copy until today. i think we just get the left overs) and the small part of me that's not a half-wit is wondering what criteria they used to select these particular toons. Arthur? Bobby Hill?? Josie and the friggin' Pussycats??? but no Darkwing Duck? neither of the Warner brothers or their sister? bah!

and please, Beavis and Butt-head? feh.

i've been so disconnected from television during the last month or two that i didn't even know The Rerun Show existed. i'll have to take a look tonight.

"I already know how I feel about 9/11, I don't need to be told how I should feel by some sort of slick memorial programming."*

yay for sensibility! much more succinct than the way i've been trying explain it.

the company has replaced my old keyboard with a newer, ergonomic monstrosity. it's huge and tall. it feels funny, and i can't type worth a crap on it. it totally screws up the way that i type. i know i use the "wrong" hand for certain keys, but i've been doing it that way for 15 years. progress sucks. i want my old keyboard back.

anyone heard anything about OMWF soundtrack CD to be released soon? (scroll down to 17 Septemeber).

Manchild on BBC America beginning Friday.

"With 67% of the votes, you've elected him your favorite Manchild. Anthony Head, well-known for his role as Rupert Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, plays the rich, sexy, champagne-quaffing, penis-extending Manchild called James."

heh. forgot to hit publish.

my cousin's wife's birthday party was on Saturday. i was only there a couple of hours. my sister said things got interesting after i left: the lesbian couple decided to make a show of licking whipped cream off each others nipples. i suppose that's what happens when most of the party attendees are heterosexual men (all softball teammates of my sister and cousin), and i am, for once, thankful that my allegies were causing me so much pain.

one teammate said he had to attend a funeral yesterday for someone who had died of a spider bite on the testicle. he added that "The doctors said it was pneumonia, but we know." he sounded like there was some conspiracy by the doctors to suppress that information. "Dr. Jones, we mustn't let the world find out the truth. Can you imagine the hysteria if it was revealed that spiders are venomous?"

life would be much simpler if it could borrow from computer games. i'd like to see The Sims's little plus and minus signs above peoples' heads to indicate whether i've done or said something to make them like me more or less. also, little pictures appearing as they spoke would be helpful at those time when you don't know what the hell someone's talking about.

an interview with Amber Benson.

happiness is:

your 6 year old nephew calling to ask that you pick him up so he can come over and watch Buffy.

the Constitution should be amended to allow an annual Quality Assurance vote on each individual member of our respective Congressional delegations, one that gives us the very legal and very unappealable option to check "Execute Immediately" (the other options would be 'Acceptable' and 'Unacceptable, but we'll give him or her a chance to improve and then probably execute him or her next year when they fail'). if a majority of votes are cast for immediate execution, the Congressperson is then dragged kicking and screaming (and that will be written in too. they must kick and scream as they're dragged) into the town square. the now-former-constituents can come by, spit their grievances and kick the former-Congressman in the 'nads or the former-Congresswoman wherever it is that women are reeeeallly sensitive about being kicked (i haven't a clue where that is). after a few days of that, they should then be executed in a painful and not-too-quick manner. all of his or her property should be confiscated and sold off, with all proceeds being divided equally among the former-constituents.

i think this plan will make our Congressional representatives more accountable to us.

something of interest for Oklahomans and those who may be travelling through: Gilcrease Museum to Showcase Contemporary Native American Photography.

one of the great things about having closely-shorn hair is that you can take a nap at lunch and not have to worry about it mussing up your hair.

disclaimer: i wouldn't actually "do" Sarah Michelle Gellar. i did vote for her in this poll though. there's no way i can not vote for SMG.

i like her photo too.

classic film: A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell.

coming on Saturday the 20th (you know, to commemorate the Apollo 11 moon landing), Angel Series I Action Figures!

buy for me and i'll be your love slave.

proud to be #1

some spoilers for the next season of Enterprise. some of them made me pound my head on the desk, crying that "Berman is the devil!" another has to be done right or Berman's diabolic nature will be confirmed. yeah, i know it's an interview with Braga, but everyone knows Berman's in charge and that he very well may be the ruination of the franchise

some season 4 Angel talk, and it DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS, possible, general and/or/but/for/to specific.

on the new captain of the Angel ship, David Simkins: Angel co-star Alexis Denisof (Wesley) told SCI FI Wire that Simkins has been doing his homework in preparation for taking over Angel. "He sat down this summer with his wife and watched 66 episodes of Angel from beginning to end in a marathon," Denisof said in an interview. "Can you imagine? ... They just took one tape out and put the next one in. He was just hammering it. I mean, that's more than any hardcore fan would do. So ... he's already got the bible in his head of the show. He's done his homework, and he's ready to go."

and why the hell can't i sit down and watch 66 episodes of Angel back-to-back? oh, because i'm not lucky enough to be Western European, Columbian or New Zealandian (Zealandish?).

my mom called last night to tell me that RHPS was on AMC. i was very happy. it'd been a long while since i'd done the Time Warp.

i love that my mom's first thought when she saw it coming on was to call me. greatest mom in the world.

btw, if you didn't go see it at the cinema, the dvd release of Kung Pow: Enter the Fist should hit on July 23. i thought it would be a humorous-but-stupid film but the boyfriend brought it home last Thursday, and i watched it three times. it's frigging hilarious, and i demanded that it be the next dvd we buy. really, go rent it. if you haven't seen it and are resisting, GO RENT IT! it's three bucks and 81 minutes of your life.

WB, UPN seek change. my favorite part: "I'm too old to change this stuff," said TBS chairman Jamie Kellner, who oversees the WB. "But I hope somebody younger takes the fight on… because we've been doing the same thing for so long and we have to break the cycle."

then get out now, i say.

thanks for a loving (and lovable) boyfriend, i can remove this from my wishlist.

he also bought the Nightmare on Elm Street Collection for himself. we had a Freddy film marathon, which led to two nights of nightmares for me. i'm such a wuss.

i was at the computer sometime last week and the boyfriend was flipping through channels on the television. he stopped on an MTV commercial for The Real World season finale and the reunion episode. "We'll have to watch that" he said. "Yeah," i agreed. a couple minutes later, puzzled, he asked "Why?" we thunked a minute, and by our count, we'd only watched the premiere and half of one later episode of the season.

we don't care about the characters real life people and have no interest in the show and its plot, but we were mesmerized and minion-ized by the commercial. Yes, Master, we will watch... it was scary the way we fell in line without resisting, and i wonder how many of the other things i decided to watch due to evil electronic mojo. i wonder now especially about my decision to be sure to watch the premiere of the E! True Hollywood Story: Liza Minnelli on Sunday, July 21 (though that could be the Judy gene kicking in).

take a vacation, the world goes to Hel (feeling Norse today):

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Disney will do yet another remake of their family comedy The Shaggy Dog.

concerning Batman vs. Superman: the casting of the roles is going to be for 'actors' rather than 'stars' but Director Wolfgang Petersen mentioned he was impressed by Matt Damon's action & acting skills.

Filming is currently underway on this film based on a skit from "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment" show, the story follows a white would-be rap star from Malibu who thinks he's from the ghetto finds out what being from the ghetto is really like. John Whitesell is apparently directing.


the dubious (or possible signs that ragnarok is not upon us):

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Sci-Fi has ordered a two-hour movie/backdoor pilot of a new version of Quantum Leap. The cable channel also plans to do a TV series spin-off of the "Tremors" movies.

A CG version of the early 80's animated feature The Last Unicorn

according to Dark Horizons, CNN reports that Luke Perry will guest star next season on Buffy, reprising the role of Pyke from the movie. (i checked CNN, but couldn't find anything about Luke Perry. and yes, i know, a report of a report, blah blah blah. fuck off).


the good (or signs that Odin smiles on us):

UPN's fall premiere schedule. Buffy on September 24th! let the countdown begin!

yay for vacations! mine began last wednesday. my best mate Brian and his boyfriend drove down from St. Louis (and brought along that girl i hated so much last time) and we all went camping. sort of. they camped. i drove back home every night and slept in my bed (anyone really think that i'd sleep on the ground, in the woods? there are bugs and heat and Blair Witch-type sounds out there). they're gone now, but i still have this week off, so i'm gone for a while. no updates. will still check email (you know, in case there are any important Buffy developments i need to know).

PeopleNews talked with Sarah Michelle Gellar who denied the Britney Spears rumours. yay! (couldn't find it on their slooooow loading site. hope it's true)

yummy Marc Blucas news... (that's yummy as in Marc is yummy, not the news)

Cockfighting vote petition clears hurdle. yay! maybe we'll actually get to vote on this in November. or not. the OK Supreme Court keeps allowing opponents to request a rehearing. they're reluctant to let it get on the ballot because (most people don't know this), the OKSC building is rented out after-hours as a cockfighting arena. a cockfighting ban would be a loss of income for the Court, and they need the money to pay for the hip robes they wear and for the big red velvet chair the Chief Justice type guy gets to sit in.

i thought this just a quick list of little head-nodding truisms about retail, but as i scanned through it, i hit #8 (yah, i'm an easily amused goob) and spit coffee through my nose (thank Juan Valdez that i ice my coffee!).

just because every day should have a Buffy link: Unsung 'Buffy': Props for A Magical Musical Moment. it starts out with the Buffy-Getting-the-Emmy-Shaft that's so popular right now, but then goes on to explain the episode ("Once More, With Feeling"), and it does so well enough for even the non-watchers.

i saw this badphotoshoppery thing a couple of weeks ago, and i've been starting my day by looking at it every morning since. it cracks me up way more than it should.

i like getting letters from Congressmen (though none from outside my state ever write me back. assholes). i send them email condemning something they've done, they send me a nice letter with Congressional letterhead. i especially like to write them concerning votes they cast on bills up for consideration five years ago. i usually get a letter that's about three lines long, thanking me for my input, but reminding me that it has been a closed issue for a while now. today, i sent two more on recent issues, but i don't think Mr. Lucas responds in writing if you live outside his district, and all i asked Mr. Carson to do was update his website.

another winning Oklahoma Congressman, Frank Lucas, according to his official website, proposed an amendment to protect the Pledge of Allegiance. while i group this in with the Flag Protection Amendment proposals (you know, the whole "Elevating the Symbol above the Meaning" thing, the realm of fanatical fascist nuts), this is what really bugs me about Lucas' statement: “I can’t think of a better way to educate our children about the value of patriotism and democracy than by reminding them that we are ‘one nation, under God’.”

Mr. Lucas isn't very bright, i think.

hallefuckinglujah! the corrupt sonuvabitch says he won't run again! or he could be lying (again) and trying to win some concessions. at any rate, i'll spend the rest of the day happy, then tomorrow i'll think about the whole Congressional redisticting brouhaha (Oklahoma is losing one of six seats in the House), then on Friday or maybe Monday next week, Watts will release a statement that "That's what I'm doing today in announcing my retirement from Congress at the end of this current term" was taken out of context and that he meant no such thing.

anyone know if APX is a reputable news source? cause i'm not liking news that News Corp is pushing to break up Gemstar-TV Guide. i don't know why Gemstar would go for it. according to this SmartMoney article, "most of Gemstar's revenue and earnings come from TV Guide magazine," so that'd be dumb, right, for Gemstar to trade us away? right?

i can't find this anywhere else, so i'm not reading anymore news today. it i don't see it, it doesn't exist.

Rocky To Rise Again: "The Fox network will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the camp SF movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show with The Rocky Horror Birthday Show, a two-hour movie to be produced by Fox TV Studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter."

my birthday is coming up (in just over four months) and this book or one similar to it would be a perfect gift. or a Xbox, but i'll probably have one of those before i reach the hallowed birthday season. i'll probably end up buying the book long before then too.

this sucks.

a two month old rundown of music television, this could be useful to someone like me who thought MTV had ruined music television. there really are alternatives (though given time, i'm sure MTV will ruin even that)! i actually figured that out last night when watching the TVGuide Channel (yeah, sometimes i just watch the listings scroll by. it's relaxing, almost mesmerizing...) and saw the listing for MTV Español. in two hours, there wasn't a single Shakira, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez or Enrique Iglesias video. i didn't recognize any of the artists, of course, but it was good stuff. the videos were fun to watch, without the "This Is High Drama/See How Deep and Real We Are" of too many of their American counterparts and the artists were chosen for their musical talent and not their ability to look good in a white tank and ballcap. because i couldn't understand what was being sung (me español is no muy good), i wasn't shouting "Who the @%$*! wrote these *&$%#! piece of ^&$*!#( lyrics?!?" and, when you don't know what they're singing about, you can make up your own storyline to the video.

saw a prostitute working the corner in front of the supermarket near my apartment last night. she looked to be wearing the same thing Sharon Stone wore during the Basic Instict-leg-uncrossing scene, except the 'tute* was also wearing matching thigh boots and big, teased haired with a large hot pink bow.


* 'tute' because calling her a whore feels so rude.

awww.... photos of SMG when she was younger (and one of Seth Green?).

woo hoo! Farscape season one DVD set to be released October 29 (just in time for my birthday!)

Blade as a television series? don't we already have someone kicking vampire ass on television? ahh! but this one would have lots of swords, right, and probably use firearms?

as i sat at a stoplight while returning from lunch today, i was stuck behind a minivan full of clowns. real, honest to the evil-that-they-are, make-up and wigs clowns. it was horrible. visions of Killer Clowns From Outer Space flashed before me.

Buffy related stuff:

Buffy Cast Teases New Eps.

Joss will finish Fray

A little makeup, a lot of soul. an Andy Hallett article

from Dark Horizons:

Batman Beyond: Year One: 'Bat in the Sun' productions have created this independently-made "Batman Beyond" flick which'll make its premiere in August at the San Diego Comic-Con. An official site with trailers is now up.

i have fleas!

well, i found a flea on me this morning. i have no pets, though one of the women who sits nears me here at work took in a puppy this weekend. she's probably the flea-ridden one. she and her puppy need a nice, medicated dip. i'll be very unhappy if any of the little beasties end up in my apartment.

connecting pet and apartment... i think the boyfriend wants to get a pet. he's been dropping little hints like "We should get a cat" and "I want a cat." i was beginning to cave (how do you resist when he nuzzles up to you and says it in a pouty little voice?) so i offered a compromise: we have to get a bigger place first. Mr. or Mrs. Cat won't be allowed into the bedrooms (allergy issues) and he or she will need plenty of space. also, Cat will be the boyfriend's dependent since i'm not responsible enough to remember to feed and clean up after another creature (ick). i'm too young to be a parent.

today is Shorts Day in the office, and i'd like to take this opportunity to thanks my boss' parents for the fine chromosomal material they provided him at conception. verily, the end product is a sight to behold.

in related news, i'm getting no work done today.

some Buffy stuff:

first, Buffy toon greenlighted. yippee!

the next two links contains SPOILERS for Season 7, casting and some plot details. read at your own peril: some Season 7 talk from Joss from the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER panel at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences featuring creator Joss Whedon and other cast members.

here's a second perspective on Joss's comments, including the lines "Firefly came up. Some of the staff from Angel and Buffy are moving over to the new show. Nick joked about a crossover with Firefly, entitled Fire-Fluffy, and how no one would ever watch that." photos from the ATAS event;

Animal Planet's show Emergency Vets should not have an episode titled "The Bon Appetit Episode." very wrong sounding. (July 1 @ 5pm EDT, for any doubters who want to look it up).

The teaser trailer for Star Trek Nemesis, the upcoming 10th Trek movie, will debut at Starbase 21's Trek Expo in Tulsa, Okla., on June 22, the official Trek Web site reported. The trailer will debut on TV and online shortly before it hits theaters in time for the July 4 holiday weekend, the site reported. Nemesis opens Dec. 13.

Téa Leoni (Jurassic Park III) and actor-husband David Duchovny (The X-Files) announced the birth of a baby boy, the couple's second child, the Reuters news service reported. The 7-pound, 10-ounce baby was born on June 15. No other details, including the child's name, were announced. The couple have a 3-year-old daughter named Madelaine West.

soon after, Duchovny disappeared without explanation.

and ya know, i just realized who Téa Leoni is and that she's not the Wayne's World chick (or should i call her the Relic Hunter chick now?).

some changes in the enforcement of the internet use policy in the Tulsa office and the reporting of whatever it is they're reporting here will be keeping me from doing much posting during the day for a while. because i do little posting in the evenings, posts will be infrequent until someone around here can answer my questions about what is an acceptable use and duration of use of internet time.

they're making individual determinations about what sites we're allowed to visit: so far, CNN is ok. Ebay is ok. Metafilter is not. Toys 'R' Us is ok. Gamespot is not ok (which is moot, because the Cybersense thing blocks it anyway). TVGuide Online, of course, is ok, and so is Gist TV. then there's the general, unspecified "research is ok" but they didn't tell us which (or whether) search engines are ok. we were also told that websites that have anything 'adult related' in the title bar are not ok. this means my own website is off limits right now.

in other news, i'm sleepy.

there's been lots of uproar among fans about Tara's death on Buffy. entire posting boards are filled with nothing but profanity, invectives and promises never to watch any Joss Whedon show again, all because, they claim, Joss is a terrible man who is obviously homophobic and misogynistic, and he fulfilled the Hollywood cliche of the lesbian death and tragedy and anger, or something like that. many articles have been written on Joss' evilness, and most of them point to the Celluloid Closet for their evidence of the lesbian-death-and-evil thing.

i disagree with all that, and finally, someone has responded well to the Lesbian-Killing Evil-Joss talk.

(linked article now copied here)

Death and the Single Girl: Buffy Grows Up

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER


by Andrew Gilstrap
PopMatters Associate Music Editor

Death and the Single Girl: Buffy Grows Up

"Something, isn't it? One tiny piece of metal destroys everything. It ripped her insides out... It took her light away. From me. From the world."
— Willow, "Villains"

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is about death. It is about losing loved ones and struggling to carry on. It is about finding happiness, or some semblance of it, and having it snatched from you. That might seem pretty obvious. After all, this is a show where vampires, demons, and other assorted bugaboos kill and are killed on a weekly basis. Its body count is unparalleled on TV (unless you count its spin-off, Angel).

I'm not sure, though, that the show itself came to terms with death until its fifth season, when Buffy's mother, Joyce (Kristine Sutherland), died of an aneurysm. That episode, "The Body," is possibly the finest hour of television I've seen, bar none. It concentrates on the aftermath of Joyce's death, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) finding the body and going into shock, of her friends failing to cope with it in various ways. It is an incredibly moving episode, one that finally admits that you don't walk away from death unscathed. It also shows that, for all the group's slaying experience, they really weren't prepared for death when it stole a loved one.

Oh sure, Joss Whedon and company had been tweaking the whole tormented life-of-the-Slayer thing, and even raised it into sharp definition by playing Buffy against Faith (Eliza Dushku), a second Slayer who got a literal sexual thrill out of the hunt. But until Joyce's death, they only rarely dealt with the raw impact of death, as when a newly demonic Angel (David Boreanaz) kills Giles' (Anthony Head) new girlfriend, Jenny (Robia LaMorte). But that pain passed pretty quickly, in the show's memory. The effects of Joyce's death have lingered.

Why does that matter now? Because as horrific and numbing as Joyce's death was to Buffy, during the last season, an even greater seismic shock rocked the characters and caused more controversy among viewers than anything else the show has done. Tara is dead.

As the past season wound to a close, the increasingly-annoying-and-increasingly-evil geek Warren (Adam Busch) fired a gun at Buffy. He hit Buffy, but he also accidentally hit Tara (Amber Benson), and killed her. All we see of the shot hitting Tara is Willow (Alyson Hannigan) being splashed with her blood. It's a shocking moment. Tara and Willow had just reconciled after months of hardship, and were taking a breather from days of marathon makeup sex.

This, of course, sent Willow on an unparalleled course of vengeance, in which flaying Warren alive and incinerating him was her idea of just getting started. The two-hour finale was a non-stop knot of tension that found Willow going head-to-head with everyone in the Scooby Gang (and kicking every square inch of their collective asses, to paraphrase Dark Willow) until Xander (Nicolas Brendan), of all people, kept her from destroying the world.

The controversy over Tara's death and Willow's reaction has been amazing. Whedon has been accused of misogyny and homophobia because he killed Tara, and that his subdued portrayals of the gay couple's sexuality didn't mirror the swingin' heterosexual sex that dominated several seasons of the show. Todd Ramlow, in an article on this site, contends that Whedon's answer to the problem of presenting Tara and Willow was to "code lesbianism as witchcraft, and specifically, lesbian sex as spell-casting."

I think that's a fundamental misreading of what was happening. The portrayal of Willow and Tara's relationship was in keeping with their personalities. Since Buffy started, the show has had fun with Willow's wallflower tendencies ("leather-clad ghost Willow" and "evil Vampire Willow from another dimension" come to mind). Historically, she simply hasn't been prone to overt displays of sexuality; when she was dating bandmember/werewolf Oz (Seth Green), we never saw them making the beast with two backs atop an amplifier at The Bronze. In fact, Willow's tentative steps into sexuality and her "first time" were very tender moments, especially compared with Buffy's full-on passion with Angel.

Willow's relationship with Tara followed the same course. Extremely tentative, it bore the telltale signs of a friendship that was growing into something more. As both Tara and Willow were witches, Whedon used scenes where they collaborated on spells to mirror their growing affection towards each other. Some of those scenes were downright erotic, which is probably why some folks feel like Whedon was ciphering an equation that read: lesbianism = witchcraft. Spell-casting might have been the bridge that allowed these two to come together, and Whedon might have played the magic angle (a kissing Willow and Tara floating above the dancers at The Bronze, etc.) a touch too heavily at times, but there's nothing in the show to suggest that lesbianism is a gateway to witchcraft, or vice versa. At least initially, Whedon used scenes of magic to get past potentially troubling and overt representations of lesbian awakening, but by the time Willow became addicted, the landscape had become markedly more complex. Her lesbian identity was always a liberation; the same couldn't be said for her witchcraft.

Willow's descent into a magic junkie had very few erotic undertones (the only obvious one was where fellow witch Amy takes her to see Rack [Jeff Kober], a pusher who specializes in magic fixes). Rack is into "little girls," it's later revealed, and Willow's first rush of bought magic is undoubtedly sexual. Overall, though, her reliance on magic to manage daily life -- to wash dishes, turn on lights -- are free of sexuality. It's like any junkie's increasing dependence on the crutch of choice. Even as Willow and Tara's relationship became known to the rest of the group, it remained a fairly private affair. Stolen kisses, furtive holding-of-hands, post-coital snuggling in bed. Admittedly, it paled in comparison to Buffy's passionate coupling with Angel, her repeated bedding of Riley (Marc Blucas), or her dark and compulsive trysts with Spike (James Marsters) -- and we all know how well these relationships turned out. Buffy, as the show's focal point, has naturally enjoyed the most on-screen sex, but those scenes rarely exemplify mental health.

Apart from Anya (Emma Caulfield) and Xander (or Cordelia [Charisma Carpenter] and Xander), whose sex lives were portrayed mainly for laughs, Willow and Tara were the very picture of sexual normalcy. And, apart from Joyce's death, they hold a monopoly on the show's most heartbreaking moments. It's impossible to forget Willow's anguish as she nursed an addled Tara, her sanity taken by a voracious Glory (Clare Kramer), Tara's breakup with Willow, or, most recently, their reunion. At that point, when Tara haltingly asked Willow if they couldn't just skip the awkward parts and get right to the kissing, it seemed like everything was perfect. Willow was off the magic and her emotional lynchpin, Tara, was back. And then, Tara died.

Willow tried to bring her back, failed, then embraced dark magic, absorbing magic books and viciously draining Rack of his energy. She was the most powerful witch in the Western Hemisphere, and unstoppable in her quest for vengeance. Her every action following Tara's death was fueled by grief. She reacted in the same way that many of us would have (straight or gay), except that she had a pipeline to the dark powers at her disposal.

Willow's torment was free of any links between magic and lesbianism -- quite simply, Willow had lost the love of her life. While she was with Tara, Willow blossomed both as a lover and as a witch, but the two paths were always running parallel -- not intertwined -- and they eventually diverged. It was Tara who tried to talk Willow out of relying on magic, it was Tara who broke up with Willow because of her magical abuses, and it was Willow's ditching of magic that brought Tara back into her life.

True, it's unfair that Willow and Tara suffered like they did, but is any character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer free of grief? Giles lost Jenny, and later exiled himself to England for the good of his surrogate daughter, Buffy. Buffy had to say goodbye to Angel. Buffy lost her mother. Buffy died. Buffy worked at the Double Meat Palace. Things got so bad for Buffy that she briefly preferred an alternate reality in which she was insane. Anya and Xander's engagement dissolved at the altar. Spike has been reduced to a neutered version of himself, his love for Buffy culminating in an attempted rape and a mystical quest for revenge that's taken a really wild twist. Who hasn't suffered to insane degrees on Buffy?

Willow and Tara were treated like anyone else on the show -- they tried to live their lives and got smacked around by fate in the process. Perhaps the biggest tragedy is that, as everyone else on Buffy seems to be drifting aimlessly, Willow and Tara were the last characters who still seemed rooted in something tangible. Now that's gone. To think of Willow and Tara only in terms of their lesbianism is to do a disservice to lovers who were fully realized, regardless of their gender or orientation.

Proposing that Willow's magic addiction is somehow a punishment for being a lesbian, or that Willow and Tara were degraded simply because the complexities of "real life" assailed them, is to ignore seasons worth of episodes that argue the exact opposite. Attaching veils of nonexistent symbolism and sexual politics obscures what the couple really was, right up until the end: the very model of healthy stability in the Buffy universe. But nothing good can remain in Sunnydale. As Whedon himself put it in a post to Buffy fans: "Willow's story was not about being gay. It was about weakness, addiction, loss... the way life hits you in the gut right when you think you're back on your feet. The course of true love never did run smooth, not on my show."

Willow had gotten back on track, she was clean, her lover was back, and then her lover was gone. In the end, Willow and Tara were not treated any differently than anyone else, and that's the way it should have been, the way it always was. One of the refreshing things about Whedon's treatment of the couple was that Willow and Tara's lesbianism was largely a non-issue, free of impassioned speeches or "very special episodes" about discrimination. It simply was.

The sixth season of Buffy ended with pure, uncut sorrow. For one night, Willow became pure vengeance, and it had nothing to do with magic addiction, and it had nothing to do with lesbianism. She was never going to have Tara again, and someone was going to pay. It was a hell of a finish. Whatever the seventh season brings, it will include mourning. Willow will mourn the evil she's done, she will mourn her weakness, and she will mourn Tara. So will we.

— 10 June 2002
(article originally found here)

saw Scooby Doo at a matinee this weekend. it was well worth sitting in a theater full of kids.

"Variety reports that Jerry Bruckheimer has greenlit a sequel [to Coyote Ugly] to be penned by the original film's writer Gina Wendkos.

because the first one didn't suck enough. feh.

Xbox Buffy the Vampire Slayer game's official website. /drool

and Hunter: The Reckoning is a second reason to get an Xbox (more on the original H:TR, which is very Buffy-like).

Relma's a resbian?

correction to a yesterday post: my Buffy s2 DVDs have three Buffys, not two. still, there's one Spike and no Angel (neener)

hey, let's go with more Joss (last of the day, promise)! “There are no plans to put [Spike] on Angel.”

i'm soooo relieved. i was so worried about that happening that i really haven't been able to sleep lately.

not really. i'd never thought they would, and i hadn't heard the rumor. really, what kind of show would that be? Angel and Spike: The Ensouled Vampire Duo. Fate made them vampires. Fighting evil and brooding alot has made them brothers.

ok, so i don't think Spike is going to brood. i think he'll be the one to realize that he's not the same creature that did all the terrible things that Angel seems to get all broody about, and that, hey! even without a soul he was turning into a good guy. maybe it'll play into that Spike cockiness. "I was a souless vampire and fighting against the evil within. William is da man!"

i wouldn't mind seeing some Spike/Angel encounters though. you know, showing off the shiny new soul he's got.

Spike: "See, I've got one too. And guess what, ya ponce? Mine's not a curse, which means I don't have to worry about losing it for shagging Buffy."

::Angel gets growly::

Angel: "You stay away from her. She'd NEVER let you touch her."

::Spike circles slowly around a motionless Angel, looking more-than-a-little smug,. He stops at Angel's side and leans in close to his ear, whispers::

Spike: "She already has, mate. Many times."

::Big fight breaks out. Spike laughs a lot. Angel growls a lot.::

Joss talks to Sci Fi Wire a little about next season [which means it's SPOILERY to a degree, but it's very general].

also, Joss puts to rest a rumor about Angel [this link also SPOILERY in the strictest sense, but only if you'd read the afore metioned rumor or concluded it on your own]

and for the Joss triune (because Joss is god), a little about a disagreement between Fox and Joss over the direction for Firefly. to Fox, i say, leave the guy alone, 'cause he knows his shit.

yippp! the season 2 DVDs look great. each disc has one of the characters on it, two with Buffy but none with Angel. one has Spike though. ha ha! (no Giles or Cordelia, either, but that doesn't give me joy).

there's an ad for the the Buffy Xbox game, and it looks kick ass. i'm seriously thinking of getting one.

sadly, the insert for the third season DVD set says Winter 2003 *sob*

ok, so "The Gift" is showing on FX tonight, so after that, i'll watch all the season 2 eps that have commentary.

via Dark Horizons:

a new Supergirl movie? please, not this one.

also: "Whilst talking with E! News Live, actress Kelly Hu revealed her character [in the second X-Men film] is more than just your standard bad guy's sidekick - in actuality she's the somewhat well-known Wolverine nemesis Lady Deathstrike." if she looks like the comic book Lady Deathstrike, i'll be very happy. her costume was 'feh' but the hands were great!

winners of the Saturn Awards have been posted. highlights (or You-Know-Where-This-Is-Going):

Face of the Future (Male): James Marsters, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.
Best Network TV Series: BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER


also, the 2001 Bram Stoker Awards were given out a few days ago. highlights:

Work for Young Readers •The Willow Files 2 by Yvonne Navarro

Buffy comic news from Dark Horse: "In the weeks to come we also have Buffy: Reunion, Jane Espenson's smorgasbord of Buffy action. She tells the story of Buffy's post-death reunion with Angel from the point of view of the Scoobies." (some of us have already speculated on that)

also released last week: part three of three in the "Death of Buffy" story arc (telling how the Scoobs decided to resurrect Buffy).

towards the end of this month comes Fray #7 (of 8).

the end of next month should see the debut of Scott Lobdell with Buffy #47, kicking off a four-issue arc that has my interest piqued.

todays the day! it's like Christmas, only no drunk aunts and creepy old uncles! btw, i'm happy they changed the box art. i didn't like SMG's hair in the old box art (scroll down to the bottom to compare) .

brief Joss Q&A on season two.

Buffy season two, btw, will be out on DVD tomorrow (as if you didn't already know, because i know that you'll be waiting in line at 11:55pm tonight at the local VideoMart).

Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, with Vincent Price and Frankie Avalon. rent it, see it, love it.

Wanda has a brief gossipy bit on casting for the next season of Angel which ties into the whole cliffhanger season finale. [iow, may be considered spoilery by some]

Buffy to Lighten Up: The show's sixth season ended with the death of Tara, the transformation of Willow to evil and the departure of Giles for good.

huh? did i miss something? he's gone for good?

i'm feeling especially foul-mooded today, so foul that it's an evil mood. not evil in a 'harm kittens' kind of way (that's waaay too evil for me). it's the type of mood in which the little tiny Arrogant Ass bit emerges to go forth hand-in-hand with the medium-size Contempt for People bit and the great big Potty Mouth bit. tagging along behind is the amorphous Want To Make People Cry bit.

[generic segue: Potty Mouth] the boyfriend has asked me to stop using the f-word. he thinks i use it too much. he's already convinced me to stop waving that naughty second finger at people, and i haven't in a few months (yay me!). i do, however, have to do something, and because the instinct/habit to lift my hand is still there, i now wave my uplifted index finger at people. get a lot of puzzled looks doing that.

the Sarah Michelle Gellar episode of E!'s Revealed airs next Wednesday, June 12.

i noticed yesterday that the gubernatorial campaign headquarters for former-Congressioinal rep Steve Largent is only a few hundred feet from my apartment, and i'm torn between simple arson and firebombing, or maybe a daring raid by former military commandos and samurai.

from Dark Horizons: Ren and Stimpy (TV): TV Guide reports that Viacom have hired the show's creator John Kricfalusi to create new episodes (starting with a feature-length film) of the series for cable station TNN. The programs will air next year.

i looked briefly for the TVGuide article mentioned but couldn't find it (not that i did more than a cursory scan). still, if true, it's good news. Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Fox has updated it Firefly website.

ok, so the UK is getting the first 11 episodes of Buffy season 6 on video this month. the second half will be released in August. meanwhile, we (the region 1-ers) will be getting season 2 on DVD in eight days. that's EIGHT DAYS, on June 11. go buy it, everyone, so maybe they'll release season 3 in a few months.

Demon Island, a Nicholas Brendan film (really, check the poster). in case you missed, go out and rent Psycho Beach Party. Nick's in it too and i liked it.

woo hoo! good news for us EQers who play pet classes! the Boyfriend and i only yesterday were discussing the very problem of pets taking experience which exacerbates the slow-leveling problem for iksar, who already gain experience more slowly than any other race. he and i have been playing our main characters roughly the same length of time. his non-pet-using halfling is level 52, my pet-reliant necromancer only level 30. also, considering that my iksar necromancer spends most of his time soloing, it's a good thing that i no longer have to try to outdamage my pet. casters suck in the melee damage arena, and i'd rather save my mana for casting defensive root/fear or Get-Me-The-Fook-Outta-Here spells.

one of the local enternewsment broadcasts last night began with "Terrorists could be targeting bridges! The Coast Guard is on alert!" and then went on to describe how the collapse of the I-40 bridge last week has shown the Terrorists how vulnerable our bridges are. is this just a local thing, or are the national news programs saying the same thing?

so, the scene would be: Mr. Terrorist is sitting on his futon, drinking a wine cooler and watching the news. just after the reports on the amazing sunglasses-wearing, tree-climbing terrier and the results of the city-wide poll to determine whether Cheese Nips really are better than Cheez-Its, the bubbly news anchor is suddenly somber during the report that a bridge has collapsed and blah blah blah. Mr. Terrorist suddenly sits upright, and shouts "That's it! We shall destroy their bridges! Without bridges, the Americans will be unable to cross rivers and gorges! The Keys will be cut off from the rest of Florida! People will be trapped on Long Island, and others will have to take the long way to get from Oakland to San Francisco! What a brilliantly diabolical plan, and I must attribute the idea to NewsChannel 5's coverage of that story!"

does it make people feel safer to think that Terrorists are that fucking stupid? the local paper's Calls to the Editor section seems to always have someone complaining that the media shouldn't report Some News because it'll give the terrorists ideas. because, you know, they'd never thought to hijack planes and crash them into buildings until that CNN report on how to do it. damn, we'd better pull Volunteers from the video store shelves right away! geez, let's not report things like this, or the Terrorists may sneak into our country to rent fog machines and turn them against us!

i also like the "What You Can Do In Case of Biological Weapon Attack!" stories. like anyone would know it was happening until too late. "My god! Look at the giant green cloud of bacteria coming our way! Quickly, everyone into your biosuits!"

come on, people! wake up! don't you realize that your kids and grandchildren are going to be laughing at you in the future? this War on Terrorism is the duck-and-cover of the 21st century. heck, some of us have been laughing at you for a while. one day, when MTV wants to show its audience how relevant and cool it is, it'll trot out clips of you buying your gas masks and four hundred gallon jugs of water and your stupid little anti-Osama bumper stickers (because, of course, by laughing at how uncool you were, MTV will be proving how cool it is). it that the legacy you want, to be an MTV joke?

and back to the topic of collapsing bridges : The Mothman Prophecies should be out on DVD tomorrow.

beneath Clem's floppy ears and wrinkly skin is this.
[via Jean]