tea for one

On a much briefer and lighter note than earlier (in my state of being generally pissed off I completely forgot), I just want to mention that Joss Whedon is awesome. As is Neil Patrick Harris (his favourite musical is Rent! that earns him the extra cookie in my book). Because of them I now mentally add the phrase, "so that’s, you know, coming along" to every other sentence I say.

Also? I want a Ph.D in Horribleness!

The weather here has been insanely good lately, if a little too hot. We went out with the boat yesterday, first time in I don’t know how long. Lovely. Morris came along for the ride, too, and he was so good! Sat there calmly while we drove out, bathed a little, and then fell asleep on his towel and didn’t wake up until we started driving towards the shore again. He’s such a good dog.

The downside to this weather is that it’s too hot to go running. Or swimming. I tried both and thought I’d pass out while running, and the water at the public bath is so bloody warm it’s actually really, really uncomfortable swimming. I got in and just wanted to get up again, it felt that nasty. I made myself swim for half an hour and then couldn’t take it any longer. Nah, it’s the gym for me in the mornings instead. It feels wrong going inside to work out, but at least there’s no sun burning.

Frida! When should we meet up? It’s totally time for fika. 

Okay, I know I’m about a year and a half late in being angry about this, but they’ve only recently started showing Top Chef over here. Because of Gordon Ramsay and Hell’s Kitchen I wanted to see if this was something interesting, too, so I’ve been following it for a while - we’re on season two, also known as "Everybody hates Marcel". I still haven’t gotten why. He isn’t that much more annoying than anyone else in the kitchen, and the way they’ve been ganging up on him has bugged me throughout.

And then came the almost-head-shave, and I went past being bugged. I don’t care how annoying he was; I wouldn’t care even if he really were the asshole they’ve all made him out to be - that was fucking uncalled for. Yes, the dude can be kinda pompous and annoying, doesn’t exactly have great social skills and he has stupid hair that makes him look a bit like a wussy Wolverine Light. But a big guy who has to be twice the size of scrawny little Marcel waking him up by grabbing him and then wrestling him to the floor and holding him down, while another guy is filming it (and cackling with glee), a third guy is sitting on the sofa laughing about the whole thing and the girl in the next room is refusing to get involved? They crossed the line. As Joey would put it, they couldn’t even see the line. The line was a dot to them.

And yes, they were "just" planning on shaving his head. But he didn’t know that. All he knew was that he woke up to being attacked by a bunch of people who haven’t exactly hidden the fact that they all dislike him, and that he wasn’t let go even though he told them to stop. The kid slept in the bathroom afterwards, for crying out loud. I can’t help it - even on reality TV it just makes me seethe. The big, cool guys jumping on the small, dorky guy.

This on a freakin cooking show with what you would expect were reasonably mature professionals. It’s supposed to be based on merit and I want good food, damn it, not dramatic antics. If I wanted contrived personal drama I would watch, well, something else.

I knew I should have stuck to Hell’s Kitchen. At least if anyone’s a bully there, it’s just Gordon, and they all signed up for being yelled at by him.

Rant over! You can come out now! 

I found it! I’ve been looking for ages! Yes, this is more of So You Think You Can Dance, but I found my favourite audition performance - Ian Benardo, total superstar. I can’t even… I mean, part of me wants to think he was hired to come there and be a complete and utter (amusing) jackass (well, or did it just for the fun of it), because a guy like that cannot be for real. But then, another part of me can’t imagine anyone willingly going up there and make himself look that stupid.

If he’s not a plant he has got to be nuts, but damn, he’s awesome. He is so wonderfully rude; the ‘And who are you?’ to Mia is brilliant. And the lisp! Oh, the lisp.

Well, they said hello, sniffed each other, and that was that. Go us!

On a completely different note, Tei has been making me want to rewatch season two of So You Think You Can Dance, and man, that was an awesome season. I loved all the girls in the top ten, and almost all the guys, too. At least there was no guy that I actively disliked. And so, I bring you my favourite performances from that season’s top twenty. You can blame Tei, if you want.

Hip hop (Too Much Booty!), Benji and Donyelle. Okay, when you first saw them, they were the most odd couple you could imagine (as one judge said, the yearbook "most unlikely couple ever") - this skinny white goofy swingdancer Benji with  gorgeous black slightly-larger-than-your-average-female-dancer ‘hip hop’ girl Donyelle. And then I fell in love. They are still my favouritest couple on that show, ever.
And god, I loved Donyelle. Ever since her first audition. She lost a little steam towards the end, whether because of her injury or just being tired I don’t know, but it made me sad. She was so vibrant early on. But she’s still my girlcrush.

Contemporary, Ivan and Allison. I’ll admit it. I may have cried just a little bit the first time I saw this. Just beautiful. If you’re going to watch one, watch this. Especially the move they do at 01.14. LOVE.

Contemporary, Heidi and Travis. The famous bench routine. I have a hard time deciding which I love more; this, or Ivan and Allison’s. I mean, that jump/catch at 01.03… It’s a thing of pure beauty. The whole routine is so moving.

Mambo, Benji and Heidi. Just awesome. It’s so fast! I swear, no other couple on the show could have pulled this off. And with the chemistry it’s kind of unsettling to know they’re cousins… 

American jive, Ben and Ashlee. All right. Okay. See, as much as Ben does remind me of cousin It, and even though they both were eliminated fairly early on in the competition, I adored the two of them. They were so CUTE together. And I thought that jive was so much fun.

Paso Doble, Heidi and Travis. Kinda hot, no? I really liked them together - he helped her raise her game in the contemporary routines or the ones that resembled contemporary, and she made him stronger when it came to Latin and ballroom.

And just because… Hip hop with Benji and Travis. Brian said it best - dorktastic.

Huh. I just realised, that with the exception of Ben and Ashlee, all my favourites made it to the top eight. And then my real favourite won. That never happens.

Benji? Call me. I’m still waiting. 

Also? God damn it, I hate Python and NLTK. Frida, I’m starting to give up hope. Don’t let me!

Y’all need to see ‘The Prestige’, like, yesterday, if you haven’t already. Freakin’ awesome film. Also, Christian Bale is hot, which is always a plus.

I went to Pink & Purple with Alex today - she loves dresses, I love corsets (all right, and dresses), and there’s a sale; it was a given that we go there. I was trying on this adorable dress that actually fit quite well and showed it to Alex, saying that I didn’t know what it cost but that it was probably way too much.

Then, when I’m back in the dressing room and undressed, standing there in nothing but my knickers, a lady suddenly pulls away the curtain and asks sweetly if I would like her to check the prize on the dress. I was all, ‘Whoa!’ I think the way I covered myself up and stuttered hinted at my being somewhat taken by surprise, so she laughed and said, ‘Oh, don’t worry! We see that all the time, I don’t even notice it.’

Well, excuse me, but I’m not used to being pretty much stark naked in front of strangers. Especially when the whole store could easily see as well.

Discussing Boromir’s outfit in the animated version of the Lord of the Rings: 

- What I want to know is why Boromir feels he needs horns.

- The horn thing is interesting. Compensating, much?

- Compensating for the tiniest horn of Gondor? Possibly.

Also? 

 \o/ 

So, I’m a Swedish person, speaking with (with? in?) a London accent, trying to teach myself a northern English accent, and using the phrase "y’all". Great.