girlonthepark

I will probably revisit this thread but off the top of my head: Old Boy Axe Fight! Kung Fu Hustle (can't think of a specific fight since it has been years since I watched this but I heartily enjoyed some of the Looney Toons-esqe fight scenes. Roadhouse - Dalton tears that guy's throat out - not the best fight but THE SWAYZ RIPS A DUDE'S THROAT OUT WITH HIS BARE HANDS!) Anchorman News Crew Fight (the original). X-Men: Muppet Babies - Magneto kills those Nazis in a bar. I just saw this movie last year and highly enjoyed it. I was thinking that it was like a lesser Braveheart but it was so much better than that overhyped Mel Gibson mess.

I don't know if I am alone on this board, but does anyone else on here love Degrassi Classic? Being Canadian, there is definitely a cultural awareness you have of both shows (fun fact - I have uncles who did post production sound work on both Degrassi Classic and the early seasons of New Degrassi) and both have their strengths. I appreciate a lot of what New Degrassi has to offer in terms of plotlines with gay and transgender teens because I think those topics are really important to address and I am not sure where else that is happening right now in kids/teen programming (Tara Ariano - please feel free to correct me by pulling the name of an ABC Family show I have never heard of into the mix ;) ). However, truthfully, I think my heart still lies with the '80s episodes because they are a lot more quaint and real feeling to me. The kids wore their own clothing to shoot episodes (Lucy's pleated stretchpants 4eva!) and some of the cast went through stages where they were gangly and awkward and had bad skin. I feel sometimes when I watch New Degrassi (and I fully admit I am an old person and therefore am looking at everything through the lens of age) that all of the teen actors are unrealistically attractive and that some of the characters have Sexy Teen ProblemsTM that just don't ring as true to me. Aficionados of New Degrassi, please correct me/debate with me on this - does New Degrassi feel like your high school experience? Please enlighten my 31-year-old self.

Yay! None of my friends really watched this show or watched the movie so I am happy to have people to bounce things off of. Thoughts: I overall liked the movie (and LOVED being able to watch it from home - having a small child makes theatre visits few and far between) but I wasn't as bowled over by it as many fans were.

I very much felt that way too, but I thought it was just me since I only started reading comics actively about 8 years ago and I never got all the way through Preacher. This might be a weird analogy, but it felt a little like if Kevin Smith made Clerks but instead of adding in semi-interesting/funny dialogue to kind of keep things going, the entire thing was just masturbation and corpse fucking . . . which, no. Ah Preacher . . . It started out so well too! Oh! Another thing I am really looking forward to in May is the first trade of Velvet which is sort of like if Miss Moneypenny from James Bond had her own spy adventures. (Apologies if my recommendations are heavily based around trades - having a small child doesn't make going to the comic book store on the regular particularly easy so I tend to wait and grab collections as they pile up.)

Throwing another post up since I am at home and able to reference a few other things my collection visually instead of just pulling things out of my head. 1) Cowboy Ninja Viking - A series that revolves around a counter-intelligence unit where the operatives have multiple personality disorder. (I was disappointed they didn't do more issues of this - only two trade collections - but it has been optioned so that is interesting.) 2) Lucifer - Actually a spinoff from the Sandman series. 3) Birds of Prey - I am particular to the Gail Simone stuff. 4) The Boys - Also Garth Ennis who did Preacher. (Full disclosure - I am half heartedly recommending this as I find with Ennis that things start off really well and then kind of hit a point for me where I feel like it is more about shock value than story. I abandoned Preacher about four trades in and abandoned The Boys around three.) Also, Boom and Self Made Hero released some cool Cthulhu and Lovecraft collections if that is your thing.

Hey Dave! Things you might enjoy (some are series and some are one off graphic novels): 1) Unwritten - a guy discovers he is the real life inspiration for a Harry Potter like book series and weird things start happening. 2) Chew - Tony Chu is Cibopathic, able to get psychic sensations of the past of anything he bites into or ingests. He uses this special power to solve crimes. 3) Ex Machina - A superhero type dude is the mayor of New York City. 4) Gotham City Sirens - Shorter run but Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Catwoman are roommates. Foxy ladies abound. 5) Fatale - Supernatural noir. 6) iZombie - Told from a female zombie’s perspective, a detective series that mixes urban fantasy and romantic dramedy. 7) Morning Glories - Weird stuff is happening at a prep school. 8) Gotham Central - A look at the cops who work on the Gotham City Police Force. 9) Greek Street - Greek myths translated into an urban setting (only three trades - eventually got cancelled). 10) Kill Shakespeare - Kind of like Fables but with Shakespeare characters. 11) Powers - Noir detectives investigate superhero crime. 12) Runaways - A group of kids discover their parents are supervillains. 13) Black Hole - A group of teens in the '70s get infected with an STD that mutates them. 14) Fun Home - Alison Bechdel talks about growing up in a funeral parlour with a closeted father. 15) Scott Pilgrim - You might have already read this, but if you ever miss Toronto, it will fit the bill. :)

I did not like any of Rory's boyfriends! Sorry! Not a one! In the beginning, I thought Dean might be okay, but then with the whole I love you thing, I thought he was kind of unfair and emotionally manipulative about it. I mean seriously dude, you are 15 or 16 years old, stop pushing for things to be so serious! Then when she dumped him for Jess, Jess suddenly went from being a semiviable option (he read and liked the same music/seemed to be her intellectual rival) to a complete dick like the second they got together and Rory just kind of put up with it. Then from there, she got back together with stupid Dean, so again, bad choice! Not even judging about the cheating, but your first girlfriend dumps you so your immediate thought as a high school age boy is "You know, this other girl seems okay, so obviously I need to ask her to marry me because god forbid I spend a second of my romantic life alone at 18"? Really? And after Dean, Logan. I will admit, he had moments where he was kind of okay, but for the most part, I felt like he kind of treated her like his peppy little gal companion and not so much like an equal at times which bummed me out/confused me why she would put up with him (if I had to hear him call her "Ace" one more time in that smarmy ass way of his, I was going to scream). Growing up with Lorelai as a mother, I kind of thought that Rory would be instilled with more of a sense of individualism and the idea that she didn't need a man to succeed, but she kind of swallows some seriously crappy behaviour and just kind of resigns herself in her relationship with him. The only time I sort of thought she might have an okay match was when she ran into Jess later in the series when he was working at his own publishing house and had written a book. He at least seemed vaguely grown up and in the real world to a certain extent. Reading back over what I have read, I think my ultimate desire was for Rory to be single for a while and happy with it. The one season they made her single (first year of college before the Dean Devirginizing), they made it seem like it was the worst thing in the world to not have a boyfriend (Oh my god! You asked a guy out and he said no! Oh my god! You went on like one horrible date! Your life is so tragic!). It would have been more interesting if they just let her do her Rory thing for a while and had some actual viable friendships (as opposed to the late college ones she made with those art girls when the writers seemed to realize she didn't hang out with anyone but Paris) and then had a more organic dating relationship spring up from one of her actual interests.

I love Paris. I think that she is always pretty true to herself and I never looked at something she did and thought "Man, that doesn't seem like her character!" Even when she dated that old professor guy (which bummed me out because I really liked Jaime), I remember thinking "Yeah, that makes sense."

Ah Gilmore Girls, how I loved thee! I did an entire series rewatch when I was pregnant with my son as it was like TV comfort food to me and made me so happy in the face of six months of nausea. In fact, Gilmore Girls was what made me think I was having a girl - all I wanted to do during that time period was eat peanut butter chocolate ice cream and watch funny, fast talking ladies. I have to say though, I kind of loved the high school years better than later seasons (although the finale of Rory's first year of college was pretty great). The stuff with Lorelai and Christopher and the stuff with Rory and Logan kind of bummed me out. They were both too smart for those duds! Thoughts?

In Canada, we get a year of mat leave, so for my own personal sanity, I took my son on a lot of walks and listened to podcasts so I could hear other adults talk. Ones I enjoy: Extra Hot Great (Obviously!) You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes (Comedians chatting) Pop My Culture (Pop culture based celebrity interviews) The Indoor Kids (a video game podcast) Risk (Story-telling podcast hosted by Kevin Allison of The State) Doug Loves Movies The Dana Gould Hour The Dead Authors Podcast (Paul F. Tompkins hosts as H.G. Wells and interviews other famous dead authors as voiced by other comedians - very funny!) It's That Episode with Craig Rowin (Craig invites a guest to his place and they watch and talk about an episode of tv) Wham Bam Pow (Action movie podcast) Pop Culture Happy Hour (Similar to EHG) Movie BS with Bayer and Snyder (Movie reviews and chat) One Bad Mother (Parenting podcast - pretty good straight talk about motherhood if that is your jam) Greg Proops Film Club (Specific movie discussions) Will have to try some of the other recommendations on this thread!