AMAZING

At some point this summer I've got plans to visit the places where the exteriors for the "Twin Peaks" pilot episode were shot. You know, the biggies: the Great Northern, the falls, etc.

Somebody has done all the work in finding the locations for me. They even found the friggin' branch upon which the bird in the opening credits perched.

In Twin Peaks for the photo comparisons; More In Twin Peaks for the actual locations.

Wow. I'm super-psyched.

Blah Rain; Also, Hedgehogs & Welcome To The Super-Bitch

Uncle. I give up. I'll admit it: I fucking hate the rain. I hate it. I HATE IT. I don't care if that's why Oregon's so bleeding green. Well, to be honest, I hate it when it rains ceaselessly for DAYS ON END. Gray skies, a spot of rain, hell even a whole day of rain here & there, that's great. But it has been raining for four days with no relief.

Although waking up to melty rain on the skylight is pretty nice. I had a funny little dream last night about my folks' trailer converting to a spaceship, part of which involved David Thewlis having a button that would turn him into either a black cat or a hedgehog, depending. He also gave me chocolate. Apparently I like to plagiarize J.K. Rowling in my sleep. But the hedgehog bit, well, that's all me. One day. One day I will have my very own Spiny Norman. The dream lives!

Also, I quit smoking a couple of days ago. So I'm in super-bitch mode. I got a Chantix prescription from my doctor to help, but then I found out that I was going to have to take the pills for six months. Which seems kind of ridiculous. I quit once before, in 2003, & it only took a month before I felt human again. So I'm not taking any cessation aids, though I suspect I may break down today & buy some sugar free gum. I'm secretly fierce. Although being fierce is probably going to involve a lot of sleeping for the next few days, so maybe I'm more softly fierce than secretly.

I've got a couple of thoughts on the cold-turkey thing: (1) What's the point of eliminating poison if I have to use other poison to do it (including patches, gum, etc.)? & (2) I think it's better for me to get all the difficulty out of the way at once. I usually save the best for last, which means I have to go through the worst first, right? I'm not worried about reneging on the quitting so much - the way I look at it, it's goddamn hard & I ain't doing it but once. Besides, I'm in the process of detoxing my system overall in the next month or so, which won't exactly work if I pick up a cigarette, any more than it would work if I grabbed a cup of cofffee.

The only thing I think I have to manage is the way in which I react to sudden shocks to the system, because both times I started smoking, it wasn't really a gradual thing. It was a decision that I made in response to events - some retarded sort of revenge - "Oh yeah? Crap on me? I'll show you, world, I'll crap on myself!" But if my friend can go through freakin' Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans & not start smoking again, well sheesh, I got nothin' on that.

Also, I'm tired of having to go out in the rain to destroy myself. See? It's all a circle, folks. A CIRCLE OF ADORABLE HEDGEHOGS.

Oh, this is not some sort of lame-ass resolution thing, for the record. As if.

Finally: the third of season of "Lost"? I change my mind. I take back all those things I said about how "sick I was of the fucking Others" & that the six episodes I saw "kind of sucked". I suspect that Season 3 is, in fact, the best season yet. Those bastards got me back but good; & for the first time I truly believe that they actually do know where they're going with this. Bless 'em.

When Research Goes Bad

So my friend Heather & I are booking through Seasons 2 & 3 of "The Office" in an attempt to catch up to Season 4 (no, not by this Thursday. We're gonna have someone Tivo the season premiere for us. Hopefully, though by next Thursday we'll be caught up). I haven't seen Season 1, but I've been told that it's not that great. Season 2 is fucking hilarious, though.

Anyway, the point is, I really like Jim. I think he's appealing. I'd say he's cute. I like sarcasm & self-deprecation, what can I say? So I looked up the actor who plays him, John Krasinski. And I kind of wish I hadn't, for the following reasons:

1. He's a whole year younger than me! I'm officially old.
2. When did People magazine go all Afterellen.com on me & actually get something right? I feel dirty. And common.
   
3. He wrote & directed a film adaptation of David Foster Wallace's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Which I didn't read. Because I thought Wallace's debut, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, was basically a full-length book version of the badly written, thinly disguised autobiographical "fiction" that proliferates every Intro to Short Story Writing class on every college campus in America. Ew, John. Are you really a crybaby wanker?
4. Um, apparently, yes. At least, judging from the fact that his Wallace adaptation features Mr. Death Cab for Cutie himself in his first acting role. DOUBLE EW. Is it even possible to be more emo than that?

I'm going to work really hard at forgetting that I learned all this stuff. Because I'd like to continue to enjoy my little crush. I hope I've learned a lesson from this.

EDIT: OMG, I've gotten my pretentious Dav-s all mixed up! Whoopsy. Dave Eggers is the man responsible for the awful heartbreak book. David Foster Wallace is the guy who wrote that huge-ass book, Infinite Jest, with the footnotes for days. I thoroughly enjoyed those 30 pages of it I read 10 years ago, & hope to finish it before I'm 80.

EDIT CONT'D: My own idiocy notwithstanding, Mr. Krasinski is still not absolved - Ben Gibbard is in his movie. Even if the Postal Service makes music that I wish I'd had on cassette when I was 12, that doesn't excuse the whole Death Cab thing.

Battlestar Galactica

Recently I've been watching the Sci-Fi Channel series "Battlestar Galactica". People's reactions to this show have surprised me - for instance, when I rented the first couple of discs from my video store, the clerks warned me that it would become my new heroin. (Confession: I was spared the shame of walking up to the counter with the final season of "The O.C." only because it was already rented. I suspect that selection would not have garnered such an enthusiastic response.)

And so, I suppose it has. Become my new heroin. Because while it's totally addictive, it also makes me feel kind of dirty & gross. Far be it from me, who has to avoid a veritable minefield of information on the not-yet-on-DVD Season 3 in order to glean any kernels of knowledge on the first two seasons of the show, to indulge in spoilers, but...I cannot resist airing a few grievances & handing out a few compliments. I WILL NOT GIVE AWAY PLOT POINTS.


1) Edward James Olmos is AWESOME.

2) Sharon "Boomer" Valerii (played by Grace Park) is HOT, & an extremely interesting character as well.

3) Most of the other characters are annoying as hell. In fact, I can't even make a list of annoying characters, because that would mean naming almost all of them, & I don't have time to look up those spellings.

4) But the show itself is still captivating. The interpersonal relations, the shifting dynamics, the tension, the action...good stuff.

5) Except that a lot of the time I feel like my chain's being jerked. It's like a pseudo-serial, where they drop tantalizing bits of plot before you, then just leave you hanging. (Sometimes I feel like I want it to be more like "Lost", where mystery abounds but you can trust that it's probably actually going somewhere.)

6) Which makes me very hopeful that eventually everything will tie together. Apparently the deal is, they've got a TV movie & then Season 4, & then that's it.

7) But somehow I doubt it. The show seems to often have an "issue-of-the-week" mentality.

8) Considering the sand-buried heads of most popular entertainment, however, this is refreshing, if frequently overwrought. A show that actually considers the consequences, & dare I say, ethics of torture, as opposed to "24", which merely revels in its own pointless brutality.

9) Though it's hard to care when the humans are, by & large, such buttheads.

10) Luckily, the Cylons are endlessly fascinating & I'm entirely curious to see what their deal is.

11) However, that just takes us full circle back to the possibility my chain is being jerked & these rampant speculations in which I've indulged will never see the light of payoff.

12) Then again, who knows? There's two seasons & a movie to go.

So, would I recommend "Battlestar Galactica"? Hell yeah. Do I feel like my expectations & hopes stand a good chance of ultimately being solidly crushed? Hell yeah.