Bethany

- I can't decide which one I love more, this Hornblower/Bush vid to "I Touch Myself" or this Sam/Gene vid that inspired it. Oh, internets, DON'T EVER CHANGE.

- There is quite a good deal of win to be found over at trek_crack, but the intro post especially is not to be missed. Unsurprisingly, the Spock/McCoy bits are my favourite (ohhh man, Bones' little 'yay medicine/boo engineering' shout bubble? LOVE).

-I've started watching The Prisoner (been meaning to for ages, and now it's all up on AMCTV.com! How convenient!). After one episode I am confused as hell and will probably have nightmares for days, which means that I like it and plan to watch more.

- ETA: I almost forgot! If you haven't already joined in years past, you should all go check out the lost_bookclub; how else are we to occupy the long, lonely Wednesday nights between now and February? Also, I'm leading the Philip K. Dick month so, y'know. Be there or be square and all that.

And now for the Robin Hood portion of our evening:

- ARMITAGE -- GOOD LORD -- THAT MAN SHOULD BE ILLEGAL. The show has been off for all of... three days, and already I miss having him in my weekly schedule.

- I think I may have unraveled a portion of my deep and abiding love for all things related to the Gisbornes (aside from the obvious bits where they are smouldering and lovely and act circles around the material they're given): namely, brother and sister both are so stuck in the 80s and totally should have ended the series by starting their own heavy metal/hair band.

( Image cut, but only because I am a nice person )

Don't lie. You know you want it. I am actually contemplating a "Gizzy is Stuck in the 80s" playlist, but I don't know if I'll ever get around to it. Plus, man would it be hard to narrow that down. Maybe it'd be better to just hand out an instruction manual. 1. Put on Aerosmith/Van Halen/Def Leppard/Billy Idol/whatev. 2. Mope about until your simmering woobiness comes to a boil. 3. Angst to death.

- My great Robin Hood Rewatch continues! This is making up for the fact that I never posted about these episodes when I saw them for the first time:

1.06 - All of the "sparring" between Vaysey and the abbess is just an unparalleled delight to watch, hee! And once again with Gisborne being surprisingly religious -- I think this is swiftly becoming my new show-related obsession and some day I will have to do a proper write-up of my feelings on that. For now I find it interesting that on the one hand he can be so solemn and venerative in his attitude toward most church practices, and yet so completely derisive of Marian going to a convent. I suppose here it's more kneejerk anger, whereas in 2.08 it's more outright mocking (although I have to admit that I always join him on that when I watch the episode. Marian: "Okay, well, now that we're done having a jaw-droppingly hot make-out session, I think I'll just pop back into the convent." Guy: "Ummm, I don't think that's how nuns work. ...Have you been talking to Allan?"). Essentially, Guy is such an odd inconsistent bumbling idiot when it comes to omg pretty girl!!! Yeah, like that's news, but still. I know Armitage said of the first series that he wanted to make people's skin crawl during the Guy/Marian scenes, but mostly in this episode they just make me laugh at Guy's expense for being a GIANT AWKWARD CREEPER.

1.07 - Aaaand so Guy's wooing dumbness continues. "Curses! I need to get Marian another present but I didn't have time to go to the store. Well, this one looks nice; pity somebody else is already wearing it. ... Wait, who am I kidding, I'm mothereffing Guy of Gisborne and I'll take what I please and shoot sexy glances at passerbys as I do it." For the most part, though, this episode is far less about the awkward and far more about the epic angst and twisted attraction and betrayal potential and, oh dear, is this not what sold me on Guy/Marian from the start (because, yes, this was indeed the first episode of the show I ever saw)? Far more than my purely shallow thoughts along the lines of "oh dear they are so terribly attractive and to hell with the storyline let's just have the Richard & Lucy hour of hotness all the time," I was just so blown away by how well they feed off of each other as actors, how Marian's utter distaste for Guy begins to be eclipsed by her need to use him, how Guy's foundations are crumbled and rebuilt and crumbled again every time he encounters Marian anew. It's such a watershed moment for the two of them, when suddenly their relationship shifts from that of a relatively pedestrian match dictated by gender roles and societal conventions to that of a charged, inextricable political and ethical entanglement. The full gamut of emotions that the two of them run through in the proposal -- well, it's just as impressive to me now as it was during that fateful first viewing two years ago, when by the power of their sheer awesome they conspired to TRAP ME FOREVER AUGH (the "Feel it, it is real" line SLAYS ME EVERY TIME). And, shockingly enough, the bits of the episode that don't have to do with Guy/Marian are still interesting, too! Ah, yes, the good old days when the gang actually had relevant plots. The Allan/Djaq! And Will/Allan! And in fact just general Allan-ness of it all! Also, once more the Sheriff is so hugely badass here. How could I have missed the fact that he gives Guy an ass slap??! And then when he's busy goading Guy into taking his revenge on Marian -- yeesh. (Possible but doubtful significance to the fact that Vaysey refers to Marian as a "leper," given Guy's family history? I still sincerely doubt that the writers had any of that backstory in mind at this point in time, but at the very least it is one of those happy accidents of show canon.) I love how Keith Allen can be so alternately thrilling and chilling, especially during the hanging.

- In conclusion, can you tell that I'm still unemployed? Geez. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with one of the ladies I used to work for over the past few summers, so we'll see if anything comes of that (except of course all of that was "unpaid non-profit community enrichment" and now I NEED MONEY, PEOPLE).