a summer at Oxford University

Ooooooh, that would be lovely!

Nice... I've never even been to England yet.

Oh, and Ellie is very beautiful (which we all knew), and her parents clean up pretty nicely, too!

Hec and I kind of watched VM last year, and liked it well enough but weren't totally grabbed; we finally let it drop off the TiVo the same exact week of the episode that apparently changed everything, cranked it all up a good five or six notches, and made it crucial viewing. And ever since then, we've been telling each other that we really need to get S1 on DVD and catch up and start watching again, but it hasn't happened yet.

I finally said to hell with it and started watching bits and pieces of S2 without catching up; it hasn't grabbed me hard yet, but I'm liking it. And I can wait for the grabbage, which is never fast with me -- even with My So-Called Life, my show-obsession gold standard, I saw the first episode on Sassy's recommendation, went "meh," and didn't bother again until something like Life of Brian (the World Happiness Dance episode, not the Python thing, which AFAIK has nothing to do with MSCL). With Buffy, I saw Dopplegangland and then didn't look at it again for at least another year. VM isn't catching me hard just yet, but that's okay. There's time yet.

Except for the whole Cindy watching=DOOOOOMED thing, but I'll chance it.

Phew! My Independent Study professor approved my incomplete. I have through January to finish my project. I am so relieved!

That's good news, vw. Yay!

Good news, vw!

Y'all *need* to watch the Wire...it's totally designed for that slow-building arc thing.(You better try it one day or I'll get Corwood in here to say the same thing and use more words than this. He'll do it, too.) Of course some of my friends find it like watching disaffected paint dry, but with one exception those folks are not writers...writers tend to love it deep. I think they had me at "English, motherfucker! English!" but I'm atypical, you know? DVD is fricking perfect for it, too. And it's all complicated and messy and the music is cool.

I second Erika. And, Erika, now that I have watched most of season one of Deadwood, I say you MUST rent this puppy. I know you don't like Westerns, but the setting is immaterial--what the show has is what makes H:LOTS and The Wire so compelling--a complex, dark world, lots of layered characters whose agendas lead to death and conflict and shifting loyalties and many strong women characters and really creepy/smart/sexy villains. I really think you would dig it.

It's on the list, Robin. Just haven't gotten to it yet. Have not been fancying complicated entertainments for the last week or so.(Needing a good laugh more. Soon, though.) And I'm a little sad about not getting to be a genre snob anymore. Dag.