wafblog v3.0

I am feeling really down at the moment. I’m not really sure why. I should be happy or at least I shouldn’t be down. It’s just one of those moods where everything gets to you and you just want someone to come and say “it’ll be alright”. Of course, some people are just too thick to realise it’s that easy. Really, it’s just that everything seems to be bugging me at the moment. Must stop being angry all the time.

I was e-mailing Su yesterday, and she was talking about how she’s scared that when she comes back from Sing that everything will have changed and it’ll be all different. And I did the proper thing and told her that it doesn’t matter cos friends can survive time apart and the friendship can still be strong. Is it hypocritical if I fear the same thing? Because if you think back on your friendships, why is that some became stronger and others just… didn’t? Sometimes it’s the character of the other person and who you are and all that sort of thing. But still, where you are in life, being around, meeting and hanging out… they all have to factor in somewhere don’t they? So what if you come back to find that things have changed and it’s just not what you expect? If you’re me, you’ll likely just try and deal. Mostly by not dealing with it. It’s been pointed out to me that this is a fairly unhealthy thing to do and I agree. Sometimes I’m not sure I care though. I don’t always want to be feeling something, I don’t always want to thinking, I don’t always want to care. Sometimes, I wish I didn’t care and that I could just walk away and live in a small house in the country. By myself. I’m not even sure where this impulse comes from. Maybe the need to get away from it all. Have life be less emotional, less tied up, less baggage. Because really, how can you continue to have those issues if no one’s around?

Explanation of the Vlogathon can be found here. I’ll be trying it out for a couple days, see how it goes. Missed the first one, but seeing my reviews of Seasons 1 and 2, I think I answered the question anyways.

Name three instances where the song selection did a particularly good job of enhancing a scene.
Hrm, in some ways it was kind of subconscious for me. One of them is “Hear the Bells”. I’m not sure if that’s cos Veronica actually draws your attention to it by saying ‘I like this song’, or just because the song is actually good.

I suppose it’s a bit of a cop out to choose the karaoke scene considering that the point is the song :P But, Kristen Bell did such a good job singing “One Way Or Another”, I couldn’t go past mentioning her performance.

And yes yes, I can’t leave out the balcony scene. The music here was totally awesome, it fits the scene and even the lyrics suit! Definitely one of the more memorable kisses in a tv series :P Plus, now whenever I listen to the soundtrack and this song comes on, I can remember how it all started!

What are some of the musicians that you have become a fan of because their songs appeared on the show?
Hum, I haven’t really investigated any of the artists beyond the songs that appear on the soundtrack. If I was to, I’d pick “The Perishers” and “Adrienne Pierce” first because they play my fave songs on the soundtrack.

So I spent the weekend cleaning up room. This caused much tension between my mother and myself. I’d agreed to clean up my wardrobe before I left because my aunt had sent down a bunch of corporate-type wear that she can no longer fit into. This kinda meant that my wardrobe expanded four times straight-away (even after ditching the less desireable items). In fact, I had to send my dad out to buy me an extra hanger thing. Which was fine. I ironed the 50 shirts that I’d left in the basket since summer whilst watching “Underworld: Evolution” and then “Walking with Beasts”. “Walking with Beasts” was pretty awesome actually. I wish I’d gotten “Walking with Dinosaurs” as well.

Anyways, my mum went on a rampage about the state of my room. I should admit that my room is fairly messy and has been deemed a health hazard on numerous occasions before (re: four year old Coke bottle) but this time, it’s just piles of notes and books from uni that I haven’t gotten around to sorting out. So yeah, everytime I sat down for like 5 minutes my mum would come and yell at me and be all “why aren’t you cleaning your room?”. Drove me up the wall. I should be able to clean up most of it fairly quickly. Mostly it’s just determining what stuff to keep and what to recycle. But really, I think I would have been more productive if she’d just shut the fuck up and let me get on with it. Plus I got the ‘ungrateful child’ speech, which usually just makes me want to gag. I think I should take back previous comments about things at home being good. I’m wondering if she’s just being like that because she’s losing control over me. These days, I don’t tend to ask if I can go out – I just tell her that I am. I have no real financial dependence on my parents and I don’t really consult them on things. We’ll see how it goes. I would like to move out sometime next year, but I’m not sure if it’s financially feasible and I’m enough of a control freak to want to make sure that everything is going smoothly first.

Other exciting news includes the shooting that was happened in my work building on Friday morning. There’s a nightclub at the bottom of the building, and apparently at 1am three men in balaclavas drove up and shot some 30+ bullets into the front glass doors of the building. Near the actual entrance to the nightclub but didn’t damage it. It was a little scary to walk to work on Friday morning and find the usual entrance blocked off with police tape and media cameras standing around outside (especially as I didn’t know what had happened). I was sorely tempted to whip out my phone and take pictures with my camera of the bullet holes and the shattered glass. I actually wondered if someone hated RailCorp enough to come shoot at our building. The most annoying thing though, was not being able to use the normal liftwell. I had to use the other one, go to Level 9, walk across the level, go up to 16, change again, and then go to level 26. It was a real deterrent to going downstairs for a coffee. Not that it stopped us. I’ve since read in the paper that they suspect the shooting may be in connection with the owners not paying protection money or something.

Went to Equilibrium for drinks after work on Friday for one of guy’s birthday and also cos someone else retired. We got there just before 5, which was cool cos it wasn’t packed. But two of the people got there late and were refused entry to the bar citing that there was a RailCorp function and they weren’t on the guest list o_O This seemed rather dodgy considering that we had gotten in, and we were in the public area of the bar, not a function room. Anyways, they left, and we all walked out in protest. Apparently one of the guys stayed to give the bouncer a piece of his mind using four letter words. Heh. My boss was telling me yesterday that Equilibrium was also the scene of a shooting later that evening. So maybe it was good that we left. Maybe they should train their staff in customer relations to avoid this sort of thing happening in the future. All in all, a very exciting day LOL.

Went to Hurricane’s for dinner last night with Mike, Manda and Travis. Was lots of fun, and I always enjoy their company. The good thing about Hurricane’s is that there’s heaps of meat and you fill right up. I can’t believe I forgot to order extra Monkey Gland sauce, but I did take a picture (monkey!). Bondi is totally dead on a Monday night, I was quite surprised. But I’m guessing that’s because it’s winter and people don’t want to dine outside when there’s gusty wind. I wish I was able to afford dining out more often, as I’d really like to be able to spend more time with friends and try new foods. Maybe when I come back.

Hrm, I think I overreacted to something Mike said/did last night. I mean, he was being insensitive, but I really should have handled the situation better rather than I did. I’m not sure why I’m so insecure or why I reacted in that way. Normally I would have been able to laugh that sort of thing off and it would have been fine. But this time I just didn’t see it that way and reacted rather adversely. Maybe I’ve changed more than I thought I had. And not really for the better either. Or maybe I just find it harder to hold in my emotions anymore.

What else? New seasons of TV shows will be starting soon. Pity I won’t be at home when they come out. I’ve been trying to find new things to watch as both “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” lost their appeal to me early in the second seasons. There’s a whole bunch of shows that have been on in the U.S. that we never hear about here. I guess it’s same for the U.K and stuff. It’s a pity Australia doesn’t make many shows beyond crappy soaps like Neighbours and reality TV that makes me want to cry or hurl things at the television set.

So guess where this song comes from? Yep, that’s right… straight off the Veronica Mars soundtrack. I really will stop obsessing over it soon… Couple of songs stood out on this soundtrack. Tegan and Sara’s “I Know I Know I Know”, although their voices kind of annoy me. But this one, had more interesting lyrics and better sentiment in some ways too.

Eyes like flowers, I love the way you see
You see, you see you’re the best thing that’s happened to me
Maybe I should fight harder for you
But I said I’d let go when you wanted me to

Have no power, I see the way you run
You run, you run as soon as we start to have fun
Maybe I will be feel better alone
Or just feel something, heart is turning to stone

So, so slow
Can you feel me letting go
I, I know that we turn away when the cracks begin to show

And now we’re
Sleeping with the television and all the lights on
One of us is leaving soon but we’re both already gone
Stuck at the lost at found, watch things disappear
looking for the missing piece but it was never here

Every hour, I find a way a way
A way, a way to convince myself to stay
Back and forth, I can’t juggle
Lying here need to stand up and struggle

Ivory tower, I know that what you think you think
You think it’s making my heart sink
Unamused, tired of the antics
Sick of arguing over semantics

So, so slow
Can you feel me letting go
I, I know that we turn away when the cracks begin to show

And now we’re
Sleeping with the television and all the lights on
One of us is leaving soon but we’re both already gone
Stuck at the lost at found, watch things disappear
Looking for the missing piece but it was never here
Adrienne Pierce – Lost & Found

Yeap… That’s right.. Veronica Mars *again*. Needless to say, the PSA still holds. Really, I probably should have put up a SPOILER ALERT for those Aussie folks who haven’t seen all of VM yet because Channel Ten keeps screwing around with the time.

Hum, this turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. Really, I’m just writing it all down because I don’t have anyone to discuss it with, and I’d like to be able to come back during Season 3 and see how I felt earlier.

So I once again have deprived myself of sleep to watch the sassy blonde solve petty crimes and other mysteries. Generally, if I like a TV show or movie I can be fairly lenient towards any obvious plot-holes, plot-devices and bad acting. I think though that I’m slowly learning to be discerning with my viewing. I have limited time so I want whatever I watch to be awesome.

In general, Season 2 didn’t live up to the same level of greatness that Season 1 achieved. There’s several reasons for this. In the first season, the Lilly Kane murder case has a deep, personal affect on Veronica and she has a vested personal interest in solving the case. In many ways, I think solving that crime is the driving force behind her going to school and helping out other people. Now that she’s solved it and despite it not being fully resolved as a story line, the first 10 or so episodes are not very engaging. The bus crash just isn’t as interesting a mystery. The only person on the bus that Veronica knew was Meg, and they weren’t exactly close friends. Besides blaming herself for it, there wasn’t really any reason for her to be interested beyond that she’s a slave to her curiousity.

Coupled with the (really poor) pregnancy storyline which I think they ‘resolved’ too early in the season, it made for some dull episodes between some very good ones. The kidnapping episode was great and I was mildly amused that they had decided to show it the way that they did. Essentially playing the viewer just as the characters were. It was touching the lengths that Veronica went to in assisting Duncan despite him having kept secrets and lied to her. I found Teddy Dunn’s acting to be slightly uh… wooden but sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s just poor dialogue or poor acting. However, I don’t think the relationship between Duncan and Veronica was built up well enough to have us believe the amount of trust the two of placed in each other. Hence, I think this ep would have had more effect if placed later in the season after the relationship had grown. Plus, what was with getting rid of two of the characters for the majority of the season? I mean, the actors were still in the credits but Wallace and Duncan had less air time than Dick Casablancas! The only other thing I wondered was whether or not Wallace was affected by the fact that Veronica lied to him as well. Considering her father’s outburst that she ‘played’ him, and that he couldn’t trust her, Wallace would have had to feel somewhat put out that she didn’t tell him either. He tried very hard to make sure that she wasn’t moping around and being depressed (but then, I’m betting she was – just for a different reason). Although, I get the impression that Wallace very much accepts that Veronica does what she believes she has to do and for her own reasons. Considering that we’ve seen it before (in ‘A Trip To The Dentist’) when she finally told him everything she’d been hiding I’m guessing he’s wise to the fact that sometimes it’s better not knowing. Then again, we see that he’s not always happy to just ‘live in her world’ and have everything ‘be about her’. Guess she’s just really lucky to have him as her best friend (:

I did find it rather odd that Duncan didn’t tell Veronica anything about Meg being pregnant. I do wonder if he knew before we see the letter. It seems logical to believe that’s the reason he kept going back to the hospital. This rings a little false for me, as Duncan claims to really love Veronica yet he keeps so much for her. It made it hard for me to believe that she would risk so much to help him. Then again, we’ve seen before the lengths she’ll go to for the people she cares about. I really kind of wish that Meg had told Veronica she was pregnant as she reverted straight back to being a 09er bitch – even if Duncan and Meg didn’t get back together at least it would have been a nicer ending.

The other episode that I think really stood out was the Magic Mountain one. I like the growing interaction between Veronica and Weevil. She doesn’t trust him, but she’s gone out on a limb for him more than a few times and as such, I’m fairly sure that he trusts her. This is despite her accusing him of murder or larceny every other episode. He is the perfect fall guy though huh. In fact, the main reason I liked this one was because she blamed him and she was right – he was just one step ahead of her! Plus, their banter is usually quite amusing.

I suppose I should at some point mention Logan :P But really, he kind of deserves a whole section to himself. I wasn’t surprised that he was the one on her porch. Neither was I surprised that she was with Duncan by the end of the summer. Why? Too much foreshadowing. She wasn’t over him, he wasn’t over her, they weren’t siblings… all good! I did like the way they threw in all these twists though, kept you guessing a bit before the end of the first ep. I did feel sorry for Logan, particularly when they reveal that Veronica broke up with him. And the reason for it. But it felt justified and fairly realistic. I will say, he’s snarky, sarcastic comments about D/V did start to get tiresome but as he says to her later in the season, “you’re so cute when you’re jealous”. I was kind of waiting for him to have some sort of breakdown but I suppose the whole sleeping with your friend’s stepmom works too. The scene where he comes to save her from the Fitzpatricks and her resulting breakdown was a great showcase of the chemistry between Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring. It’s a shame there wasn’t more of this in the season. Having watched too many teen soaps it is often very easy to predict the romantic tangles that the characters will get into. I loved Logan’s tortured appeals to Veronica to help him prove his innocence. I loved that he was protective of her. And I really loved that she got all jealous when he was with Hannah. I did have some trouble believing that she wanted to get back together with him – considering how cut she was when Duncan left. But I think that she’s given up ever seeing Duncan again and it’s obvious that she still has some feelings for Logan. She pretty much admits that. It should be interesting to see where this goes in the next season.

I have mixed feelings about the season finale. I did not like the chlamydia revelation. Maybe because I actually MISSED the revelation as the file I had cut out a few minutes from the beginning of the ep where that was revealed. Apparently this happened to a few people ): But yes, I didn’t like that revelation… and once it was revealed that Woody had the clap, then it was really just trying to work out how it got to Veronica. I didn’t like the way they used the STD revelation in the trial either, but it was obvious from the get-go that Aaron Echolls was going to be acquitted. There’s no drama otherwise. It’s a shame they didn’t keep him around to stir up more trouble, but he sure went out in style.

The graduation ceremony was alright. I liked that the other students did cheer when Veronica walked across the stage. I hope it goes some way to helping her realise that not everyone hates her. She does have friends. Clemmons’ short farewell to her was a nice touch as well – I’m guessing we won’t really be seeing him again. I should say at this point, that I found the scene (from the previous ep) where Wallace says he’s glad he got taped to the flagpole somewhat flat. I mean, it was a nice scene as we haven’t seen enough Wallace/Veronica friendship-building this season but more that she doesn’t say anything to him and it makes it seem like they’re going to walk out of school and never speak to each other again. Considering they’re best friends this seems rather unbelievable. Maybe I read it wrong?

Anyways, I really wanted to get to the point of the season finale where we find out who caused the bus crash. I must say the episode was good in that it delivered what we wanted to know, tied up quite a few threads, and left enough teasers to keep us guessing till next season. (Lucky for me, I’ll only be waiting three weeks for it :P). I do believe the execution was not the best though. Some of things that happened could have been done better. The next part is a big big spoiler, so I really suggest anybody who hasn’t seen it stop reading now.

I was pretty surprised that it was Cassidy. He’s been a bit creepy lately, and some hints were dropped about him but I actually thought it would be something to do with Kendall and the Fitzpatricks. I’m not sure if that was a red herring or more foreshadowing in regards to Weevil. Anyways, Veronica’s discovery of Cassidy’s secret and her attempts to warn Mac seemed a little out of character. We’ve seen her worm her way in and out of some rather difficult situations and yet she just gave up after asking the hotel reception. I really believe she could have done a better job. Even worse, she then believes the SMS that “Mac” sends and goes up to the roof. Now the kick-ass daughter of a PI should know better than to go to somewhere so isolated, BY HERSELF without telling anyone. The following showdown however, was both intense, shocking and absolutely heart-wrenching to watch. I need to watch it again to see exactly how she kept her favourite gadget on her. This was especially useful of course in getting Logan to the roof. I found *this* hard to believe as well as we see Logan’s phone display a number not an address book entry labelled “Veronica”. Considering the amount of trouble Logan’s been in lately with the Fitzpatricks, the PCHers and life in general… it also seems a rather stupid idea for him to go to the roof alone. But moving right along, they needed some way for both of them to go to roof huh. I was reading at TWoP that quite a few fans couldn’t believe that Veronica survived three shocks from the taser and still managed to tackle Cassidy. Initially, I thought this as well. However, I remember in the dog-napping episode, the girl (I forget her name and she wasn’t memorable anyways :P) tasered Hans quite a few times and he was still able to yell out that the dog wasn’t dead. Really, it would depend on how long the taser is applied for and perhaps the voltage. I’ll give the writers the benefit of the doubt. Plus, she’s pretty emotionally traumatised at this time. Having worked out that she was actually raped (more on this later) AND having just seen Cassidy blow up a plane she thinks was carrying her father… her anger must’ve been channelled somewhere. I did like that it was ‘Logan to the rescue’ again. I think this was a nice throwback to the “Weapons of Class Destruction” episode. It was also a nice mirror to the beginning of season where Veronica was cradling a very beaten up Logan.

To be honest, I don’t think many viewers would have believed that Keith died. It was an interesting twist, and Kristen Bell’s acting was superb here so I can’t really fault it. I also like that she’s back with Logan. As I said before… excellent chemistry :P

So, the last thing to discuss really is the whole rape revelation. I really really disliked this. Sure, after re-watching “A Trip To The Dentist” I can now read into Cassidy’s scenes a bit more and maybe construe that he was lying. But having already dealt with this issue in what I consider to be one of, if not, THE best episode really kind of ruined it for me. It’s kind of ironic to note that Cassidy *is* both a murderer and a rapist. I do hope that we see more of Veronica dealing with this news in the next season then, if they’ve made such a point of returning to the storyline to drop a bombshell. I kind of preferred that she wasn’t raped and that she slept with Duncan willingly and yet couldn’t remember it. It was a nice reminder that as much as she’d like to be, Veronica isn’t in control of everything in her life. That sometimes she’s wrong. And sometimes she just can’t get revenge. Particularly the revenge thing cos it’s been touched on more than once that she has some sort of fixation on ‘making people pay’.

It’s a shame we won’t be seeing more of Cassidy. I liked him as a character, probably because he seemed like such a nice guy for an 09er. Maybe we should be pinning our hopes on Dick instead *cough*. I am wondering what will happen with the Phoenix Land Trust. Did Cassidy actually mean for it to be left to Kendall considering how much he disliked her? Seems like a bit of an oversight but we know there’s more to that story in the next season.

I’ve written a whole essay on this. Scary. Guess I’ll be getting back to my regular blogging program.

PSA: This entry is mainly a discussion of ‘Veronica Mars’, so I suggest you skip it if you’re not interested in hearing my rambles on teen soaps.

OMG. Weekend was rather uneventful. I didn’t go out at all. Not even for an afternoon jog. Instead, because I couldn’t sleep on Friday night, I ended up watching Veronica Mars Season 1 until about 7am on Saturday morning. I woke up at 2pm. *oops*. I ended up doing the same on Saturday night… and going to sleep at like 7am Sunday morning -_- Yes, it was kind of stupid to watch something so engaging that in the end I had trouble sleeping after watching it cos I had all these questions in my head LOL.

So yes, Veronica Mars is an awesome TV show, and if you haven’t seen it yet I suggest you go out and do this. It’s been a while since I’ve seen an intelligent show, and this is one of the best. Admittedly, you have to suspend disbelief a little to allow yourself to believe that say, she knows THAT much stuff, and THAT much ‘crime’ goes on in the town of Neptune, but besides that it’s pretty good going. I think Kristen Bell is outstanding as Veronica, showing just the right amount of bitchiness to make her character tough whilst also having a rather vulnerable side considering the things she’s had to endure in her life. The over-arching storyline with the mystery of Lilly Kane’s death was well played out, and I liked that the clues given over the entire season had you guessing the entire time. Plus the fact that the murderer was someone I hadn’t suspected but I’m sure if I watched the first season again I’d see more clues. My fave ep was definitely “A Trip To The Dentist” with Veronica finally discovering who ‘raped’ her. Teddy Dunn was brilliant as Duncan and the exchange between him an Veronica at the episode’s climax was really intense. The ep pretty much went at a breakneck pace, but was well placed within the season to pack a powerful punch. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a good TV ep, and the only other comparable experience I can think of would be the two-parter from Grey’s Anatomy Season 2.

I’m not even half-way through the second season yet, but I’m definitely hooked. As far as I can see, shows like “The O.C” just aren’t of the same calibre although it’s arguable as to whether or not they’re even the same genre. I’ve admitted more than once that I’m a great fan of teen soaps, so this is no exception. It’s good to have a bit of a twist to it though and VM does a great job of it.

Of course, no discussion of TV shows would be complete without a small mention of shipping. It’s been ages since I’ve watched a show where I’ve not had a clear-cut shipping preference. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever been like that. So I’m quite stumped at Veronica Mars. It’s obvious she’s not over Duncan, and it seems like they were good together. But I like her chemistry with Logan and of course, the fact that he’s a bad boy only adds to the appeal. It’s difficult only because you can see that Duncan’s still in love with her and I think he’s good for her and will protect her. Yet Logan has so much potential and when they were together she very much prioritised him in her life. I didn’t like her with Leo (what a puppy dog -_-) and the episode with her and … darn what’s his name? The bomber dude… that was hilarious. So, if I had to pick… probably Logan/Veronica because it’s a more interesting pairing but I’ll be happy if she ends up with Duncan. Naturally, this’ll all change in a few episodes because there’s really no drama on that front if they don’t mix it up a bit eh. The only pairing I would really object to is Wallace/Veronica. They work so much better as best friends and I’d rather they didn’t taint that with any silly ‘awkward feelings’ stuff. It’s good to see Veronica have a close male friend that she can count on and doesn’t ‘like’ her in that way.

All in all, I think this has restored my faith that there are excellent TV shows out there. I just hope that it doesn’t get canned for some unknown reason as so many good shows seem to do. I do suspect that this show won’t have a long life only because there’s only so many storylines that they can explore. Kudos to the producers though if they can continue to do so. I plan to finish all of the second season before I go overseas, which I’m fairly sure I can do even if I’m watching like one episode a night. So I should be all caught up before Season 3 starts.