A Cat's Life.

Watch this time-elapsed 7-hour power nap:

I, Malcom

Nathan Fillion on being Malcolm Reynolds: "It was only a short time, but Firefly changed me. It changed my whole life. Rotten it’s over? Sure. Regrets? No. No way. What happened, happened. Anything bitter made everything else all the sweeter. I fought the good fight. I was a part of something that resonated with people, and still does. I made lifelong friends who have improved the quality of my life. So, what was it like to be Mal? I don’t know. ... I guess, imagine wanting, all your life, to be able to fly. Daydreaming about it, fantasizing about it. Imagine that flying was all you ever wanted. Then, for a few months, somebody gave you wings. ... Ooo. That’s good. I’m going to write that down."

Check them out while you can!

Check out these new photos from Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull before Spielberg and friends find them and make the site take them down.

Ford is looking pretty haggard in the first shot - well, he looks his age, I guess - but I think he's looking fine in the other two. I can't wait to see it!

For old times' sake, here's the trailer for original, best Indy movie:

I saw this on the local news last night.

Police fear child porn stash could yield hundreds of victims: "A doctor who once faced child abuse allegations kept a staggeringly large collection of child pornography -- found nearly a decade after his death -- and investigators fear there could be hundreds of victims, authorities said Wednesday. The owner of a West Hartford home formerly owned by Dr. George Reardon found the images -- 50,000 35 mm slides and more than 100 8 mm movie reels -- in a hidden storage space during a renovation project in May, town police said."

Wow.

Buster Gets a Girlfriend

Have I mentioned lately how much I miss this show?

"Good news, everyone!"

Futurama is Back:

"Futurama was killed, but like some B-movie cyborg it refused to stay dead. The fans watched the 72 episodes religiously in syndication and shelled out $170 to get the entire run on DVD. So, in 2005, Fox green-lighted 16 new episodes. Cohen and Groening have reassembled many of the hundreds of writers, animators, and voice artists who'd gone on to other projects to create four DVDs of new material, including sexy robot stage shows. The first DVD hits stores on November 27, and the features will then be divided into half-hour episodes when the entire run of the series begins airing on Comedy Central next year.

At last, Futurama is getting a fifth season."

I bought my copy of "Bender's Big Score" yesterday. Woo!

TV Talk

rondmoore.com - The creator of Battlestar Galactica has a personal blog, in which he talks about the strike and how it affects the show: "I refuse to believe that we won’t finish, that we won’t be back to film our final stories, but I know and accept there is that possibility. The strike will be a seminal event for many of us in this business as it’s put literally everything we care about in the balance (if only for a short time so far) for something we all believe is important...Galactica’s coming back, I frakking promise you that. But I am ready to put the rest of the story on the table and take the risk that I’ll never be able to tell it, in support of this strike." God, I hope it doesn't come to that and that the recent contract talks prove to be fruitful.

Top Gear - A BBC show that consists of 3 men talking about cars, driving cars really fast, creating space shuttles out of cars...more testosterone than you can shake a dipstick at and yet I really enjoy it. They show much disdain for American cars (and America in general), but they're funny and crazy and the cars are pretty cool. You can find it on BBC America on Monday nights.

The Biggest Loser - I am a reality show snob that got sucked into this show one night while channel surfing and now I have to see it through to the end. I hate the usual reality show trappings - creative editing, manufactured drama, etc. - but it is amazing to see how these people transform themselves.

Cloverfield

I can't believe I've never heard of this movie!

(thanks for the heads-up, mike!)

Heroes: Episode 10

Truth & Consequences

I knew that was Joanna Cassidy!

This was an extremely uneven episode, particularly disappointing after the awesomeness of last week. There were some bright spots - Elle trying to start the car and her subsequent face-off with Claire, Bennett's scene with Mohinder in the beginning, every scene Ando was in, Mrs. Bennett holding the gun on Bob, Micah beating the crap out of his obnoxious cousin, even Claire's little soliloquy about how much she hurts after her father's death - a lot of bright spots, actually. Yet I found it to be just an OK episode. I think part of the problem is the writing - stupidity is not a good plot device.

OK, so what happened?

Sylar, Maya and Alejandro have made it as far as Virginia already. For some reason, Maya finds Sylar attractive and ditches Alejandro for him. Actually, what happens is Sylar shows Maya that she can control her own power (by stupidly upsetting her so that she will cry the black tears at him and then have to stop it herself so he wouldn't die, and Sylar is damn lucky she figured out how) and doesn't need her brother. Meanwhile Alejandro, who supposedly can't speak any English, finds a news article on the Internet- in English - about how Sylar murdered his mother. Sylar convinces Maya that it was an accident, she believes him, Alejandro leaves but then comes back to Sylar's motel room and Sylar kills him and then makes out with Maya outside his room.

Nikki goes back to New Orleans to see Micah. She tells him that she has the virus but that Mohinder is working on a cure for it. He wants to give her his dad's bravery medal, but it was in his backpack and his juvenile delinquent of a cousin stole it for the comic books it contained and then the gangbangers he was selling the comics to stole the backpack from him. Monica, who is having a particularly stupid night ("So that's why Clark Kent wears glasses!" Seriously, Monica? And why even bother waking Micah up to tell him that you're going to go get his backpack for him if you don't want him to do anything?), and Micah head over to the gangbangers' house to retrieve the backpack. Monica uses a freerunner's jumping techniques to get in the house and she finds the backpack. But then the gangbangers come home and they catch her and throw her in the back of a van. Micah runs away.

Hiro and Ando look through Kaito's old papers to see if there is any record of Kensei in them. They find a photo from 1977 showing Adam Monroe (Kensei), Victoria Pratt and Kaito at Primatech Paper in Odessa, TX. (you know, for an ultra-secret superhero organization, these guys took an awful lot of pictures of themselves) Hiro travels back to 1977 to the Odessa lab and finds out that Adam wanted to release the mutated virus (strain 138) into the general population in order to "save the world" - basically annihilate everyone and start all over again. Kaito and Pratt catch him trying to steal it and lock him up. Pratt wants to destroy strain 138 but Kaito won't let her. She leaves The Company in protest.

Hiro returns from the past and tells Ando that he must go to Odessa to kill Adam and avenge his father's death. He grabs his sword and blinks out of there, leaving poor Ando alone. I think Hiro and Ando are like peanut butter and jelly - they should always be together. Hopefully Ando will have a part in next week's episode.

When Bennett wakes in his hospital room, Mohinder is there. Mohinder and Bob are the ones who saved him. He tells Bennett how he saved his life using Claire's blood and Bennett gets all fierce because he doesn't want him near Claire. Mohinder and Bennett argue about The Company's motives. Mohinder still believes The Company's intentions are good while Bennett tells him that they are the ones who invented the virus, you moron! Wake up, Mohinder!! Gah!

Back at the Bennetts, Bob delivers Noah's (fake) ashes to a pistol-packin' Ma Bennett. The family spreads the ashes at the beach (actually, Claire does - you'd think her mother and brother would have been standing beside her, wouldn't you?) and Claire spots Elle watching her from a car. She confronts Elle and tells her that she's going to go public with her ability and then The Company will have to leave her and her family alone. Smart, Claire, then you'll only have the rest of the world to worry about.

Peter tells Adam about the Shanti virus and Adam tells him he knows who made it: a bio-engineer named Victoria Pratt who used to work for The Company. They find out where she lives, go there and it's Joanna Cassidy! Told ya! Anyway, Peter gets the location of strain 138 - Odessa, TX - out of her by reading her mind. Why doesn't Peter read Adam's mind to see if he's telling the truth? Stupid Peter.

Peter tells her that he wants to destroy the virus but she tells him she doesn't believe him because Adam is not a good guy and wants to release it. Peter's so kind-hearted he could never believe anyone could be that bad, I guess. Adam gets all tricksy and releases Pratt from her bonds, knowing she will try to shoot Peter, and then Adam can kill her. And he does. Wait - all of that buildup for this character and she's gone, just like that?? What the heck? Adam pulls out a photo of Pratt and scrawls the Godsend symbol on it in her blood and drops it on her body. Nice.

Here's a question: If Victoria Pratt left The Company 30 years ago, what the heck was she doing in a photo that was apparently taken within the past couple of years? Did they have a reunion or something?

Mohinder combines Claire's blood with his own and comes up with a cure for the virus. Yay! He tells Bob about the cure and how he wants to destroy all strains of the virus that The Company has stored. Bob agrees. (yeah, right) Mohinder calls Nikki to tell her that he has found the cure and is on his way to New Orleans to give it to her (oo!). On his way to the airport (I think), Mohinder gets a call on his cell phone from Sylar. He and Maya are in Mohinder's apartment with a sleeping Molly and he wants Mohinder to come home now. Yikes! Where's Parkman?

Peter and Adam are walking through the Primatech Paper warehouse when time stops for everyone but Peter. It's Hiro, come to kill Adam. Hiro tells Peter that Adam killed his father but Peter doesn't believe him; he believes someone he just met instead. Peter raises his hand to Hiro, threatening him with a ball of electricity. Hiro raises his sword above his head and charges at Peter and...you have to wait until next week to find out.

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" airs tonight at 8:00, on ABC.

Drive Thru Reviews

I've seen quite a few movies lately. Here are some thoughts on them.

Ratatouille - This felt more like a regular, live action film than an animated one. And the animation was extraordinary, especially the "sets". If the rats weren't talking I would have sworn the locations were real!

Night at the Museum - I wanted to see this even though Ben Stiller is in it, because it looked kind of funny. And it was. It's a fun family film.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend - This was horrifyingly BAD. Don't even bother.

Chinatown - I've seen this movie a few times and it never disappoints. A convergence of the perfect screenplay, director, writer and actors make this one of the best movies, ever.

Grey Gardens - I can't believe I'd never heard of this movie before. It's a documentary from 1975 about an eccentric mother and daughter (Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, aunt and cousin to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis) who were living in virtual squalor in their dilapidated mansion in the Hamptons (the titular "Grey Gardens"). It is absolutely fascinating. Imagine if Charles Dickens wrote Sunset Boulevard and you'd have a pretty good idea of what Grey Gardens is like. As a side note: I work with a woman who is one bump on the head away from being Little Edie, I swear. Anyway, try to see this one if you can!

Heroes: Episode 9

Cautionary Tales

After such a lackluster start, it's so nice to see this show return to form in what I think is possibly the best episode they've ever done. Thematically, the writing was very tight, with the episode examining several father/child relationships; and the cinematography was stunning.

Parkman discovers that his power is developing - from simple mind-reading to something more powerful, like the power of suggestion, only it's done telepathically. Very much like his father. He first realizes what he can do when he thought-pushes Molly into returning to the table to finish her breakfast. Then he plays the Jedi mind trick on his Captain, convincing him to give him another 24 hours on the Nakamura case so that he can interview Angela Petrelli. He wants to know the identity of a woman in The Photo (it's Joanna Cassidy, Parkman, I swear!) and will question Angela to find out. In an amazing bit of acting, the awesome Angela is forced by Parkman to tell him what she knows: That Adam is behind the killings and that he is immortal because after regenerating often enough, the body stops aging altogether. The identity of the woman, however, is something she doesn't want to reveal because, she says, all the woman wants is to be left alone, and that she "made her a promise." She also tells Parkman that if he forces the information out of her, he'll be no better than his father. The scene ends, but later we see Parkman looking at The Photo again, and this time there is a yellow stickie above the woman's face with the name "Victoria Pratt" on it.

I think Parkman is standing at the top of a very slippery slope right now, and I can see him finding darker uses for his gift, not unlike his father. Remember the "dark" Parkman we saw in "Five Years Gone"?

Hiro is attending his father's funeral when he decides this is just not right and he blinks himself back to the roof where his father is standing right before his murder. Kaito doesn't want him to save him, and tells Hiro that he must not play God and that it was meant to be. Hiro won't accept this and blinks himself and his father further back in time to his mother's funeral in order to remind Kaito of how sad he was when his wife died. Hiro encounters his young (and extremely cute) self and realizes that he is being childish. (By the way, all of the funeral scenes were shot so beautifully). Hiro and Kaito return to the roof and say their goodbyes and I cry. Then Hiro blinks out of there and the hooded figure appears and tackles Kaito. Just before they go off the roof, though, Hiro reappears and stops time. His father and his attacker are frozen in midair. Hiro pulls back the hood and sees that the attacker is Kensei (Adam Monroe). He vows to avenge his father's death.

OK, now the big story. This plot was sort of serpentine, but I'll try to distill as best I can.

The Bennetts are packing up the house and getting ready to leave town. Claire tells her father that she isn't going. They argue a lot and she tells him that she hates him and storms out of the house. Claire! Don't ever say things like that! You'll regret it later on, believe me. After she leaves, Bennett finally shows his wife the death painting and explains why he's been acting so weirdly.

Claire tries to reconcile with West, but he's not convinced so he flies away and then swoops down and snatches Bennett from his yard to find out why he took him. They have a nice chat, agree that they both want to protect Claire and Bennett enlists West's help in keeping Claire from Bob and Company.

Meanwhile, Bob, Elle and Mohinder arrive in town and prepare to take Claire by force. We find out that Elle is Bob's daughter, which is what I was assuming anyway. Mohinder gets a big gun from Elle and through his not-so-superior spy skills unknowingly reveals to Bennett that he has been turned by The Company. Claire is kidnapped from her house by Bob (but not before she sees the death painting, finally!) while Bennett and West manage to kidnap Elle from Mohinder. While Bob has Claire, he takes some of her blood; while Bennett has Elle, he tells her that her father basically gave her to the Company for experimentation and that the reason Bennett kept Claire from the Company all these years was so that she wouldn't wind up like Elle. Ouch. Bennett arranges a swap with Bob - Elle for Claire - during a beautiful sunset on the beach. But the exchange goes wrong and Mohinder ends up shooting Bennett in the eye, just like in Isaac's painting! NO! WTF?! But then...

In the final scene we see Bennett lying on a hospital bed, with blood being intravenously pumped into him. The camera pans up and Bennett's obliterated eye begins to regenerate. He awakens, sits up and looks around, and says, "Oh, sh--." He lives!

So who do you think saved him? Did Bob bring him back to The Company labs and use Claire's blood? Was Mohinder in on it? Or did Peter and Adam have something to do with it? Maybe using Adam's blood? Is this a one time deal for Bennett, or will have the power to regenerate now? And if they can bring anyone back with Claire or Adam's blood, will anyone ever really die on this show?

What did you think?

Image Hosting

I haven't been able to figure out how to point to a "missing files host" yet, so images that I have hosted myself will not load right now.

Also, I will hopefully have a Heroes post up today!

Success! (so far)

Finally, I have fixed my archives problem!! Yay! And at long last I am able to utilize the Labels feature offered by Blogger. I have a lot of work to do, adding labels to my old posts (over 4,000!), so please just consider it a work in progress. Soon, you'll be able to click on the "LOST" or "Heroes" labels and call up all of my recaps and posts regarding the shows. Or "Idol" or "photos" or "pugs"...it's like Christmas!

Hopefully all of this will add to your thisisgina reading experience, in a positive way :-).

Thisisgina undergoing organizational and publishing changes

I'm playing with custom domains and DNS records, so it's very possible that you won't be able to access this site over the next few days. Apologies in advance.

If you do encounter some trouble, or get a dreaded "404" message, please have patience and check back periodically. I haven't deserted you - please don't desert me!

Oh, and wish me luck.

The First Course

The First Course, originally uploaded by gina64.

Today I am thankful for all of my wonderful family, friends and faithful readers (who are almost all family and friends!). I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving Day.

Time to stir the gravy!

Chatty Cats

Bang!

FABIO: Come on, girls, give your Uncle Fabio a hug. Say it wid me, "I can't believe it's not --"

KB: Ow! Ew! Who is this guy?

HP: My mom is gonna flip when she sees this!

FABIO: "-- buttah!"

In the beginning...