Transylvanian concubine

Well, reader, I've been watching True Blood. A lot. I don't really really like it, but like many series, I find it weirdly addictive. And it features vampires. I can't resist vampires, shame on me. And I liked the book. Why am I looking for excuses? I just watch True Blood. And then I saw some top 10 list from the Rolling Stones magazine, about their top 10 best and worst vampires.
So I figured, go ahead, write your own top 10. And then I figured I couldn't, because I don't know that many vampires at all. But here's a top 5 list, anyway. And if you think I missed out on some great vampires, please do not hesitate to tell me. Aaaaah, vampires.

1. Spike. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I blame my love of anything vampirey, Twilight included, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm still looking for something as great as Buffy, and though I know it will come from Joss Whedon (as soon as he gets the chance to shoot more than two seasons of one of his AWESOME series...), I can't help but check on vampire stuff as well. Anyway. Yeah. Spike. My favourite vampire ever (though maybe he has too much of a sense of humour to actually be a proper vampire), and in fact, one of my favourite characters ever. EVEN THOUGH he has bleached hair, which is saying something.

2. Vampire Eric from the True Blood books. I couldn't figure out why everyone was so crazy about Alexander Skarsgaard in season 1 of True Blood, but he gets more interesting in season 2, I must say. Still, in the books, he's really great. He's got blond hair, and he's sarcastic. See a pattern emerging here? I think I just like sarcastic blonds, whatever their eating habits...

3. The one from Neil Gaiman's short story "Snow, glass and apple". I loved it. And it was terriffying. Some would argue that's how a vampire should be. Terrifying, not sarcastic. I fully understand this point of view, and would endorse it too if only I didn't love the two previous items on this top 5 so much...
4. Dracula. I read it when I was in Ireland a while back, and though I really, really did not like the ending (am I the only one who thinks that Bram Stoker just got bored halfway through? Am I criticizing a major literary work although I mostly read chick lit? I think I am. Sorry about that.)I found the vampire himself amazing. It is one of the... well actually it is the only book I ever read that literally kept me from turning the lights out at night. It may have had something to do with my flatmates at the time... And with the fact that I was probably (and inadvertently) responsible for the death of their son's pet gerbil and was afraid it was going to come back and nibble at my toes. "Whyyyyyy did you give me hobnobs, you crazy lady? Eeeeeek! Eeeeeeeek!" Just thinking about it gives me the creeps.

5. Edward Rochester's wife in Jane Eyre. Now I know she's not a vampire. But I can't help it. She'll always be a vampire to me. And she is compared with one at one point of the novel, I believe. So she comes 5th in here. I'm pretty sure her version of the book would be very interesting, poor woman. It would be so awfully sad and terrible that it would probably receive a Nobel Prize and/or be adapted for the screen by Lars Von Trier... Anyway.

So here it was. My top 5 favourite vampires, only one of them isn't one. And by the way, I apologize for the lack of originality of this post. It seems like just about eeeeeveryone is talking about vampires these days. We'll blame this one on peer-pressure, I already blamed the boogie too many times.

Life, oh life... [edit]

Well, reader, looks like I lied. I said I'd be writing here much more often now that I am in Germany, but nothing as thrilling as going to a goth club happened to me in a little while now. Here's a 5 steps update on my status, however. Because I'm sure you're dying to know.

1. I have a terrible, terrible backache going on, and I wish it would just stop already, because I'm going slowly crazy. Also, I don't know if you noticed that, but as soon as you back hurts, you want to sneeze every 5 minutes. Which only makes matters worse. Why is that, reader? Why do I have back pains NOW that the allergy season is full on? It is not nice at all.

2. My roommate M went to Switzerland yesterday to pick up the last things that were still missing in the kitchen. This means that we now have a fridge, a stove, cupboards, knives and forks and even sharp knives that you can actually use to cut onions without crying your eyes out. Ever tried to cut up an onion with a butter knife? Don't. But our new kitchen? I like it very much. Kitchens rule. I love cooking. I'll come back in a few days, and say that I don't have any ideas left, but as of right now, I love cooking and I am the stove-queen. I don't know, I seem to have something with royalty these days...

3. I have a truck-load of translations to do, which is great and will help a lot (money-wise) with my "find a dress for you brother's wedding" mission. I can't WAIT to go on THAT mission. A dress! A dress! I get to buy a dress! I love dresses! I'll try not to pick anything with tiny flowers on it. But you never know. Maybe I'll just go crazy and wear a Victorian gown and a gas-mask, like that girl I saw the other day at the gothic thingy. How about that? A Victorian gown and a gas mask... And then, once I have a dress, I'll actually go to my brother's wedding. HA HA! 5th of June! 5th of June! When will it finally be the 5th of June??

4. My room is in a terrible, terrible mess, even though I cleaned it yesterday. I don't know why this keeps happening to me, but I really, really hate it. OK today it does have a little bit to do with all the stuff my roommate brought back from Switzerland, but my "corner" of the room, with my bed in it and all, is in a terrible mess. I think some kind of evil spirit comes up in the night, while I am sleeping, kicks me in the back and messes up all my stuff. I'm pretty sure there is a Japanese ghost who does exactly that. And he's currently on vacation in Holzgerlingen. Stupid bugger.

5. I have been catching up on series the last few days. I now have seen all the latest episodes of Ashes to Ashes (not as good as it used to be, if you want my opinion), Glee (anything that sings hs got my vote) and Dr Who (I'm so glad Matt Smith is good. He really is good. He really is very very good). Series make me unreasonably happy. I still have some catching up to do on the Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, but I just can't keep up with the breaks and stuff.

Well, here we are, reader, 5 very important news-flashes about me. I hope you are doing good, and wish you sunshine.

And also :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wik2uc69WbU you can no longer live without this. Sing with us !

I'm feeling glad

Reader, I have annoucements and news. Today : Five good news.

1. Spring's come. Definitely. All the signs are here: radish, tulips, cherry blossoms, runny nose, itchy eyes, sunshine, sunshine all around, and I'm feeling happy. I was really, really fed up with the winter and the cold and the crap weather. I had lunch with my friend V today, sitting outside in Kaysersberg, eating a salad in the sun, and I just felt happy that winter's over. (Also we went and partied all night on saturday, and went to a concert, and I had not done any of this in a long time, and that evening was just perfect. I think I really needed to go out and dance all night. I should do this more often. Anyone care to join me? Murder on the dancefloor? Dancing Queen? No? Ok then. I'll just go brush my teeth and listen to Rihanna.)

2. I've watched Dr Who, yesterday. The brand new Dr Who. The one without David Tennant. The one with Matt Smith. And it was absolutely great. Now, I'd hate to rush things, it might still go wrong, but he passed, Matt Smith did. And so did his brilliant Scottish friend Amelia Pond. Way! To! Go! I really missed the one-shot episodes (as I am not a great fan of large-scale plots. It's the same with every series. X-Files more than the others perhaps, because I really, really hate Mulder's little sister, and I wish he'd just give up on her already. Melissa! Melissa! Melissa was eaten by aliens, Fox, get over it, and back to Eugene Tooms. He scares me. He scares me everytime I go to the bathroom, and here's the catch: I've never even seen the bloody episode!)

Anyway, one-shot episodes seem to be back, and it was a really good one at that. I do hope it will go on like this, and stay that cool. He said "Carrots? Are you insane?" about three minutes in, and I was lost. Maybe the BBC can do it again! They made me love David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston, I am willing to love Matt Smith too. And all the new characters that have been added seem really cool too. C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!

3. This is my 200th post. I wrote 200 of these (good news to me, not so sure about you :D). I do hope I'll reach 400 and maybe even 1000, as long as you are willing to put up with my grammar mistakes, my constant whining, and stay interested in my slug-filled adventures and detailed classification of post-2000 Hindi musicals, characters with hats, and English actors' backsides. I love blogging, I love the format and the medium, and I love comments, and I'm very, very happy I've got you, reader.

4. I'm going away again. I was born under a wandering star. Maybe. Which is going to take me as far as Stuttgart. I've been spending too much time on my parent's couch doing nothing at all. So I'll be off next week, in one last and desperate attempt to improve my German enough to claim I actually speak it.
I've found a room, a cool flat-mate, and though he also owns a pack of live scorpions, I'm pretty sure I'll feel at home real soon (provided he doesn't choose to lock me up in his basement and feed me beetles, I've only met him twice, you can never be sure). In any case, I'll be going to Stuttgart, and having brand new adventures on German-speaking land. Wish me luck. I will tell you all about it. What I won't do is crawl under my bed and indulge in my most sociophobic behaviors. No watching series all night, sleeping till noon, and hiding away as soon as someone makes a noise in the hallway! No nervous giggling and sudden, shameful silence in the middle of a sentence I am sorry I ever started. Open, sunny, easy-going Claire I'll be, and my brain will have no choice but to remember that it exists and knows better. Mark my words.

5. My brother and his fiancée S are getting married. Two months from now. 5th of June. I'm very, very happy, and I can't wait. Two months! Not even two months! Here are the details. And in my blog-roll. Weeeeeeehehehee! A wedding! Drinks all around! And then guess what? They might even stay in France! No more expat interviews! He he... Happy news \o/

There you go, reader. I have a feeling maybe part of the crap actually is melting away under my very eyes. And it makes me oh-so-happy. I hope you're happy too.

Here come the drums here come the drums

Hey reader! Here I am, waiting for the very last episode of "Alisa, follow your heart", (the German series I told you about a few posts ago). It is apparently to be followed by "Monika, don't trust your brain".

It's the 240th episode of the series (oh my, I can't believe I've watched so many). It has helped me a lot with my German (am I believable? OK, right, maybe it hasn't, but I can now say "Zum Risiken und Nebewirkungen, lesen Sie die Packungsbeilage und fragen Sie Ihren Artzt oder Apotheker" nearly as fast as the guy on TV, who says it after basically every add (it's the warning for over-the-counter medicine, for which there are very many adds in the afternoon on German channels. Suits the target. I have the same taste in clothes as English old ladies, and the same taste in TV shows as German grans.)

Oh my, here we are. Started already. They got married, last time, and the previous three episodes were spent mostly making out on various couches all over Germany, whispering "I love you", and "Never again shall we part", and "I'll never let you go" and "you're my life". Also, we had a little sneak preview of the following series, "Hannah something or other", which is actually a spin off. Very handy. In any case, since I also baked millionaire's shortbread yesterday, I'm not sure I can handle any more sugary sweetness. Here we go. Speeches. Cut the cake! Cut the crap :D

So. Well. What I really wanted to tell you is : today's top 5. Today's top 5 will be about the series that really matter(ed). Now, I'm not crazy, I know the difference between fiction and reality, and nothing is ever as important as what happens in real life. But some series, especially n°1, just matter more than others. They make you laugh and cry even once the credits have rolled, they make you feel like you know the characters, they change you ever-so-slightly, just like books can. Top 5 rules apply, and some of the items on the list matter much less than others. Number 1 and 2 matter more than 4 and 5. So it's not really a top 5. It's more of a list. Here goes, in any case (and I promise I'll try to be a little more focused from now on).

(Ah ! Watlz time ! Huhuhuhu I so wish I could put a video right here. You'd love it I'm sure. She looks like a swan, he looks like a penguin, their offspring have a 50/50 chance to fly... Ok right. I don't care. I love it and have been waiting for it for... 240x40 minutes. Feels like a lifetime.)

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Best series ever, according to me. I'm not at all ashamed of admitting how much I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Series 1 to 7 kept me rivetted, me and my sister M were in front of the TV every saturday at 20.50 sharp (not sure she's as keen as me to admit stuff on the internet, but hell... XD), and I so wish it had not ended and I still miss it, and I still compare all the series I watch with it. Willow, Alex, Anja, and my favourites : Spike, Giles and Buffy herself... 7 years of coolness and great dialogues. And the best title music in the history of television. Also, something more I have in common with my best friend V. We both cried our eyes out during Acathla, and we still call Alyson Hannigan "Willow"...

2. Dr Who. Now, only three seasons had any impact on my mood (I did not like the fourth so much, and I have terrible fears concerning the 5th), but boy... They really hit hard. And there are so many episodes, and so many aspects of it that give me the shivers that I think The Doctor deserves his place on the top 5 completely, in spite of the ridiculous visual effects and the Oods, which are so ugly I wish they had blurred them altogether. Still, there is the "Blink" episode with the creatures that can move only when you don't look at them, the episode when the Doctor becomes human and David Tennant's last, which I watched at my sister's the other day. I think I'll stop right now, because I feel like all I ever talk about on this blog is the Doctor. Is this love, is this love, is this love that I'm feeling?

3. ER. I don't know exactly why, but I know that simply listening to the title music makes me cry. Cause it's over, now. And I'm a little emo. I was very disappointed by the last episode, but it's still a brilliant series, with great actors and great stories, and Neela. (My my. Alisa and her brand new husband are off to Canada in a horse drawn carriage. I'm a little stressed about the part where they cross the Atlantic, but whatever). Neela, and Abby, and Carter and Benton and Archie. Yeah, even Archie. And also Kovac, who kills me with his smile, even though I don't even like his character that much. And also that episode in Africa which was better quality than many movies, and that other episode with Ewan McGregor as a guest star.

4. Firefly. Another Joss Whedon series, and I'll never know if it mattered so much just because I felt maybe if I loved it enough it would not really be cancelled. It has great characters, brilliant dialogues and that's all I would ask for. But it also has a Star Wars vibe to it. And by that I mean a cool Han Solo vibe, not a lame Jar Jar Bings groove. Yeah. I said Jar Jar Bings groove. I'm very sorry.

5. Bones. This is one of the ones that don't really really matter, but I still want to mention it here. Because Booth is one of these character that you think you might actually fall for in real life. And because I like them all so much, Sweets and Bones and Hodgins and even Angela and her calling everyone "sweetie". I really wish they would show us the end of season 5... It was suspended, here in France.

So here. And of course, there are many, many other series that are really great (Lost, for a start, House MD, Glee (ahahaha !! That's a new one ! Drives me completely nuts, can't wait till april for season 2 !), Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes...), the list is very, very long. What's your opinion on the subject? Any series' characters you might fall for in real life? Anyone thinks I have missed something huge?

Ashes to ashes

Well reader, it's me again! I'm coming back from my first international business trip to Lille. What do you mean, "it's not international if you stay in France" ? What do you mean "we don't give a rat's ass"? Have you been watching Craig Ferguson again, reader? Oh no, wait. That's me. Guess I'm talking to myself again...

Anyway. First mission complete, it was really nice and interesting and I love my job. Did I tell you already? Well, I do, anyways. And while going to Lille (and coming back from Lille, which included missing my stupid train because of my stupid alarm clock and waiting for three hours at the stupid Lille train station in a stupid café and having to pay for my stupid ticket twice) I watched videos on my laptop (which I had probably brought with me because a part of me just knew I could not catch a train before 7 a.m.)

I watched the first episode of Dollhouse season 2 (while going to Lille. That's a paragraph ago. I know I should go see a doctor about that brackets issue...). What I mean to say is: I watched the first episode of Dollhouse season 2 and THE WHOLE season 1 of Ashes to Ashes. And I just thought I should tell you that it was great.

Both were great.

And I will never, ever understand why shows like Smallville manage to stay on air for years on end, and shows like Dollhouse and Firefly get cancelled in a jiffy. Bad ratings. For DOLLHOUSE! It's great! It's fantastic! It's moving, it's original, it's funny, it's sad and I love it. I hope it's going to keep things up until the end, which I know to be near. So here's to Joss Whedon, and I hope he keeps up the good work for years to come, even if it's just one season at a time.

But let us not be bitter, and let me tell you more about Ashes to Ashes (nothing whatsoever to do with Joss Whadon there. It's an English show). It's a Life on Mars spin-off. Or a follow-up, I don't quite know which, but it's really good in any case. It's the story of a single mother who gets shot in the head (things are starting out great for her...) and who is sent back in time to 1981. She doesn't know if she's dreaming or if it's some kind of paranormal time travelling thing, but in any case, she knows for a fact that she's one second away from death in her real life, and she still wants to get back to her daughter.

You might or might not enjoy the main character being a little too hysterical for my taste, (even though she plays really well), but not liking Gene Hunt (who is about as unlikable as they get, since he is racist, homophobic, bitter and rude) is a real challenge. I don't know what it is with English series these days, but between Dr Who, Life on Mars and this one, I just can't wait for the next one to come up.


Anyway. I guess this is all for today. I hope you are well, and I hope you managed to follow. Next time, I promise, less brackets and more interesting stuff. I know I can do it.

PS: We do have TGVs in France. The steam train thing is just because my TGV just looked like a weird rectangle.

And I'm a million miles froohom youuuh

Well well well reader. Guess what? YES! Indeed! I have not written in a very long time!! No particularly good reason for this. I was thinking about something great to write about the end of this schoolyear, that will be my last, it is now official. Did not find anything great, at least not great enough to describe my years at the university, so I figured, let's just tell them I made it and move on.

I MADE IT READER!! I'M AN INTERPRETER!! Do the boogie, do the boogie, YEAH!! YEAH!!

So, 5 words to describe my mood now, before I move on to today's 'official' top 5: happy, incredulous, sad, panicky and hopeful. I do hope sad will go away one day, when hopeful turns to happy. Twice happy! Wish me luck!

But enough about me, let us turn to today's top 5 : The top 5 things I learnt while watching "Alisa, Folge deinem Herzen" on the German channel ZDF.

You have to forgive my regular references to Alisa over the last few posts (actually, I think I only talked about it once, but still), since I am watching one episode a day these days. It is slowly becoming an obsession. It is eating away my life, my soul, and most importantly, any sense of taste. Just kidding, it's actually not that bad, the actors are good and the music is great. (Check out "wrong turn", by Jack Johnson, it's a great, great song). Anyway. Alisa, as we will call it for short, is, as the title indicates, following her heart. And teaching me valuable life lessons in the making.

1. If you are in Germany, and you really, really want to look inconspicuous, because the whole police force is after you since you've been making dirty business with arms dealers (I always feel silly saying "arms dealers" in English. I keep imagining some kind of limb-distributing ATM...) what you really, really should do is sport an ugly and fake looking blond wig, huge sunglasses and Columbo's coat. And walk really fast but making teeny tiny steps, looking either at your feet or casting quick glances all around you.

2. Apparently, the German police force are quite stupid

3. If you're really sad because your boss died, the first thing you should do is go out in the garden and play a sad little tune on your trumpet while doing the boogie of death. It's always appreciated by the mourning family, which will then proceed to come out in the garden and give you a nice big hug.

4. Behind every great german businessman, there is a strong willed Damart-model who bakes apple-pie for him.

5. You could make me watch anything. Anything at all. Put a nice soundtrack and a love story in it, and there I am. Lost. Forever.

There you go reader. And if any of you likes "Alisa, folge deinem Herzen", please note that I am being mean, but I like it too. More than I like to admit. They're all so lovable. XD

Have a nice evening !!

Your butt is mine ! \o/

I just can't believe I finally found a good reason to put this as a title here. Anyway. Yeah, cause "I'm bad". You'll understand in a minute. But first, a big question, adressed mostly to my sister F: What does Michael Jackson say, in Bad, that sounds like "shamoo, shamoo"? Anyone?

Ok, now for the actual post : Today, my top 5 favourite actors who look perfectly evil without even trying.

1. Rufus Sewell. This whole post is actually just an excuse to write something about Rufus Sewell. He looks evil, he squints a little (or maybe one of his eyes is bigger than the other, I can't decide), and he's got green eyes and curly black hair. I want green eyes and curly black hair on the 7 feet tall and cape-wearing, curry-eating man I ordered for Christmas. Write that down, Santa! Rufus Sewell played in A Knight's Tale, which is one of my favourite comedies ever (featuring Paul Bettany. Crap. Paul Bettany's got no curly black hair, and blue eyes. Whatever, Santa. Take your pick.)

He also played in Dark City, where there is one of those scenes (oooh, I just found the theme of my next post!)... One of those scenes that make you shiver just thinking about it. Oddly enough, it involves another black-haired and green-eyed creature, who is, incidentaly, the wife of aforementionned Paul Bettany. This first paragraph is getting sooooo long... :D Well. Rufus Sewell.

2. Alan Rickman. I saw him first in Robin Hood when I was 8, and he said something to the effect of "I'm going to tear your heart out with a teaspoon ("why with a teaspoon ?") because the less sharp, the more painful". And then I saw him in Sense and Sensibility. Like Rufus Sewell, I saw him both as a nice and as a totally evil character, and loved him in both cases. Wait... Am I talking about Rufus Sewell again ?

3. Gary Oldman. Just for the "disappointed" thing in the 5th Element. Just for the 5th element. I have not seen him in much else, in fact. But just for this, he's got my vote. I really like the 5th element actually. Mostly because of Gary Oldman, I believe.

4. Thomas Gumpert. Yeah, I also did not know the name until 30 seconds ago (thanks, IMDb), and you probably don't know the face. He's the guy who plays the villain in a stupid German telenovela I'm watching at the moment in order not to forget my German during the holidays (Ok, also because I really want to know the ending, and also because I'm slightly addicted. But the actors are actually very good, unlike the scenario which is as lame as they get).

Thomas Gumpert, then, who plays an evil German (how original). He looks very much like the stereotypical Nazi, I must say, with icy-blue eyes and he's kind of freaky (also he speaks German, which sends shivers down my spine). Yet he is so caricatural that he cracks me up. He smiles an evil smile, and you can see that the actor is actually having fun (or at least I like to believe he is). I'd like to meet him in person, I'm sure he's great fun. I can't see his evil smile without smirking too. And now I can't even see his face without smirking.

5. Paul Bettany. Comes 5th because he doesn't actually look evil without even trying, he just plays evil guys very often. But I love him in anything (except of course for Dogville (akh, bakh) and Firewall (ukh bukh) for very different reasons. And some other things were bad too. But I still love him). And he can look absolutely terrifying. Have you seen Gangster Nb 1, Reader ? He laughs and bares his fangs in an elevator, and the picture is burnt in my retinas. Very, very frightening.

Anyway. This is it for today's top 5 (I have no time left, lunch-break is nearly over). I am sorry for the lack of ethnic diversity in this post. I tried thinking of a black or asian evil looking actor whom I really love, and could not find any. The only asian actor I could think about was Takeshi Kaneshiro, and he's not evil at all. In the last movie I saw him in, which was quite good, he was cast as a wise military genius/zen master. About as believable as Orlando Bloom as Yoda. But hell... any role will make me happy... Have a nice day, reader !!

Space cowboy

Hi reader!!

I have a question to put to you. What do you do, when you learn that the thesis you have to wirte, due in 7 days, must be 100 pages instead of 40?

You get to work, stop sleeping, replace meals by Red Bull and coffee and consider brewing your own vodka with old potatoes in a plastic bottle under your mattress?

Ooooor, maybe... you pretend nothing happened, work little by little, hide the panick under a thick layer of sugar and go to the movies? That's what I did. I liked it.

I went to see Star Trek, since I am planning to become a geek in order to understand all the jokes and references in The Big Bang Theory. I liked it. I like all these recent movies that are very first degree and could have been shot 30 years ago. Star Trek perfectly qualifies, and it was really great. Only it's still shows that it's a modern movie, since the special effects are very, very pretty and I think the costumes have been slightly updated.

There were some things that I did not like though. For example, the guy cast as Jim Kirk. You can only be so ridiculously caricatural and not lose me (Not true at all. I am very, very hard to lose. But that guy? With the blue eyes and the squint?) And the music too. The music was a little weird. Though I loved the title music which was basically just TAM TAM TAM TATAM. Got me in the mood for the rest of the movie.

Anyway, I thought it was really nice, and I secretly believe it dealt with nuclear weapons and why they are not good for you. I like making up my own secret meanings for movies as much as I hate reading those of other people. I have a great secret meaning for Joss Whedon's new series Dollhouse. Probably completely obvious secret meaning. Interested in knowing?

If you hate reading the secret meanings other people discover in movies (like ""Singing in the Rain" is a metaphore for McCain's campaign and why it failed" or whatever weird stuff you sometimes read on the Internet) then do not proceed with the reading. (Is that English, or do I just sound like a douche?)

Well, the Dollhouse is a series where people are emptied of their own personalities and kept in a super-secret underground base. They are then imprinted with a new personality and sent on missions. I thought at first it was about whether you are a body or a soul and, if you are a soul then where is it exactly, in your body, or in your memories and stuff. But I think, in the end, what I get from it is more a story about what we do with ourselves.

It's like we were all our own little Dollhouses. We go on missions and we want to have new personnalities in order to be able to face the challenges, so we make room for the new character to step in. Only sometimes it's a little complicated not to forget who we were in the first place, and if you do a bit, which is a compulsory part of growing up, then when one of your "mission" personnality is outdated or falls, like a mask, maybe because you are a little tired or because there's no one here at the moment to remind you of what you are exactly, then you feel like you're empty and meaningless, like the empty Dolls of the series.

I'm not saying we all are empty deep inside or anything that pessimistic and depressing, just that you may feel this way once in a while because you realise that you can't remember who you are exactly. I feel that it's because I am not exactly the same person depending on the context and on who I'm with. In real life, though, I like the fact that you make your own imprints. People around you may change the mission. But you make your own imprints. I like it.

Anyway. This is starting to sound half-Gollum, half-Dr Phil, so I guess I am just going to go to bed now. Yes. That will be nice... HIT THE PILLOW !!

Live long and prosper ! (I bet you did not expect that one...)

Haribo macht Kinder froh, und Erwachsener ebenso

Guess what, reader ! Yeah ! I've been watching another episode of Dr Who tonight (season 4 finale, for any of you who might be a fan too), and now I'm all blue for all kinds of reasons (I've seen a lot of my family this week end and now they've all gone back to their own abodes, --I'm afraid Claire misses her pillow and the smell of her own house--, one of my housemates screamed at me for no reason, and oh *hopeless and withered sob*... David Tennant *sob again*... broke my heart twice over *sound of glass shattering*-he's leaving the show and he... well I can't tell, spoilers, you never know.)

Anyway, my post tonight will be about sweet sweet songs and movies. Sweet Sweet Songs and Movies being, of course, a genre in itself. OK, I'm not the last one to laugh at High School Musical, I'm not the last one to laugh at anything, for that matter, and I am a very cynical and sarcastic being, I must say. But, still, in my opinion, all this silliness, this melted marshmallow and stuff, does help to make the world go round, and I sometimes wish I could stand by my opinions about all that a little more.

Bollywood musicals, musicals in general, in fact, having cute little rabbits pinned on my wall, liking pink, liking Pink (actually, I just realised, Pink illustrate about the diametral oposite of the point I'm trying to make, but I still like her...), liking all those cheesy movies and stuff, being naive -be it consciously ;) being an optimist, it's sooo nice once in a while.

Sometimes, I even think it's more of a stand to make than being a punk or a revolutionnary. It's also not so funny as being cutting and ironic, I have to say. Sweet and soft-brained is not a state I would like to be in all the time. But it is something I love once in a while. Often, actually. And I STAND BY IT, world ! Looove it what makes you go round! Sweet sweetness, faith, beauty and heroism. And songs. And beauty. Did I say beauty already? Well, you get my point, hopefully.

However, since I am not even sure of the point I wanted to make, I guess I'm just going to go now and get to sleep, because I've been living a crazy life these days. Enough craziness. Craziness makes me blue and soft in the brain. And a poor blogger. Have a good night, reader! Sweet, sweet dreams ! Involving music and love, and beauty. Did I say beauty?

As for me, Mr Dreammaker, if you hear me, let mine involve a doctor and a blue box, would you?

Don't go breaking my heart

Well well well, reader... I've been watching an episode of Dr Who again (what do you mean, "get a life"? I have a life, reader, I went to Bruge today with my friend A, and it was brilliant. But still, generally speaking, it's nice and boring, and I can watch all the episodes of Dr Who I like.)

Anyway. As soon as you stop making impolite comments about my social networking skills, I'll be able to tell you the subject of today's post, i.e. The Top 5 Works of Filmed Fictions that Broke My Heart so Bad I couldn't Stop Crying Even After the Credits Were Over. A long title. As always, this list is not classed in any way, nor is it exhaustive. It's just the one I came up with tonight.

1. Moulin Rouge. Broke my heart. Made me cry and cry, and after I came out of the cinema, I wasn't happily ashamed of myself, like I was at the end of Amelie, when me and my sister M gave a big, loud and simultaneous sob as soon as the movie was over. I was down and sad, and it didn't go away until I reached home. Then I remembered the Elephant Love Medley and Ewan McGregor's teeth and all and I felt slightly better (also I went and saw it again and again -and again- with my best friend V, and then I was so focused on his eyes and his eyebrows smiling before he did in "Your Song" that I mostly flew home and sang The Beatles' "Till there was you" all the way). The first movie by far that touched me that much, as well as one of the first of a huge lot of great movie-going experiences with said best friend V.

2. The Dead Poet's Society. Saw it once, didn't understand any of it, saw it when I was old enough to relate, and now I still get shivers when I think about that O Captain my Captain thing when they all climb on their desks. (Yeah, I know, that's not very original, but it's definitely in my top five I think, even in the classed and exhaustive one). It's that sense of waste and the good things that are said about human nature that do the trick in this case. Faith and regret and love. I like it.

3. Well, there we go, I talked about it, I'd better write about it now, Dr Who's "The Human Nature" and the follow up episode called "The Family of Blood". Now I know I might well sound lame, it's just Dr Who, it's for kids and all, but these two episodes are simply something else. The Doctor becomes human for a change, he quits being a Time Lord (you don't need to know nor understand the reasonsfor that, really, they really are lame), and he forgets all about what he used to be. The episodes are mostly about Martha Jones, his companion on the Tardis, starting to think that even without their love being impossible, it still would be. It's one of these occurances when the screenwriters just went too far. It's too sad to be enjoyable, and it quite simply depresses me, but they still are my favourite episodes of Dr Who ever, because they say so much about the characters and they say it so well, and you know me, the Doctor, Martha Jones, I think they're just brilliant, the both of them. I must admit this might not be on my top 5 in 2 days' time, but I saw these episodes tonight, and I just HAD to tell you about them, because they are such good GOOD episodes.

4. Devdas. Oh, yeah, Devdas. The lady and the tramp (only it's rather the prince and the lady-tramp, only calling Aishwarya Rai a tramp simply won't do, not on any occasion, not even a lady-one), but which would end terrrrribly wrong. The worst ending in the history of cinema (in that it is terribly sad, of course, not in a Matrix Revolutions kind of way). Plus music, plus costumes, plus curry, plus Chandramukhi. I love it. The movie is 4 hours long, more than worth the time if you watch it on a big screen. Allow one good hour to get over the heartbreak (oooh, the heartbreak, break brrrreak, chanananan). And do not forget to take one big sister with you, it's a sine qua non condition, you definitely cannot go alone.

5. Buffy's Acathla. I'm actually still not over it. It's too mean to do that to a character, it's cruelty for the pleasure of being cruel to your character. It's beautiful and great and I loved every bit. Actually, now that I come to think of it, I'll make number 5 a global award to the amazing works of Joss Whedon : the Acathla episode was brilliant, the one when Giles leaves for England left permanent salted-water stains on the carpet of the living-room, Spike alone would deserve an entire top 5. And let us not forget the regretted team of Firefly, who managed to make me cry when watching the bonus material. I so wish we could have seen more.

There you go, reader. A new top 5. It is now officially 4 in the morning here in Belgium, and more than time for people like me to get their beauty sleep if they do not want to look like the whole cast of Dawn of the Dead rolled into one tomorrow morning (Ghrrrruuuuuuhh). And I'd like to know more about your own top 5 ! Tell me more, tell me more!

Roses are red, violets are blue...

Now, reader, please do not ask me why the title, I have no idea. I had no idea and no title, and now I have no idea, but at least I have a title. It's magic.

Anyway. I know I have already done so in a previous post, but today, I want to tell you about Dr Who. Last time was some time in January, and at the time, I said "No matter what Englishman he's played by". HA! How terribly Naive of you, January's Claire! You knew it even then, poor you, if not played by David Tennant, why should anyone care about Dr Who??

I don't know if you've ever watched an episode of Dr Who, reader, but if you have not, please, do, for my sake. Especially if you are French. Do watch Dr Who, so that I am sure that season 4 will be broadcasted in France like seasons 1 to 3. Well, I should not really attempt to number the seasons insofar as the series actually started in 195o-something (I don't really know when it started, but it was a long time ago) so the numbers must be even more confusing than those of the pre-sequels of Star Wars. Four, five, six, one, two, three, put these numbers in the right order, you might win a trillion dollars!

Whatever. Anyway. Where was I... ooh, yeah, Dr Who. David Tennant. Brillant. The series is extremely lame, and I do not watch it for anything but the dialogues, the occasionnal appearance of Giles (I KNOW he's not called Giles in real life, but at least, you know who I mean, and Anthony Stewart Head doesn't sound so good if you ask me), and of course, David Tennant's big eyes and daft smile. Makes me make faces all alone in front of my TV screen. Makes me make faces (just like Jason Mraz) when he's heartbroken and I'm alone in front of my TV screen. Makes me make faces when he's happy and I'm alone in front of my TV screen. I don't know why, I just find his character and the whole series incredibly moving.

Like, you still think about it the following day, and you imagine how cool it would be to be allowed to actually meet the Doctor... Fat chance of that ever happening. But hell... If I ever wrote a book, the main male character would be based on David Tennant as the Doctor. Hint of Scottish accent included. (By the way, I would be interested to know why a Time Lord come from the end of the galaxy would have landed a Scottish accent. But I like it in any case) If I ever wrote a book, which is extremely unlikely to happen. And if it ever does happen, I'll probably have forgotten about this post. But if I had to write a book today, well, the main character would be based on... you see what I mean. Oh, and let me insist on the "based on" because I'm not one of those crazy fan-fic writing fans... He'd just be like the Doctor.

Besides, I think writing the pitch of an episode of Dr Who could be achieved by a seven year old. Because, just like Russel T Davis (the actual writer of Dr Who), seven-year-olds have brilliant ideas and a lot of imagination, but then they get carried away, and their parents come over to take them home, and they need a sonic screwdriver to save the day in less than a minute. Russel T Davis's parents have been replaced by the 40 minutes' format of today's series, but you get the idea I'm sure.

Not much to tell you about what's up in Saarebrücken, really, except there's a German guy playing Greensleeves on the bagpipes at my window. Germany's mourning the loss of the European Soccer Championship. No use playing the bagpipes now, stupidhead! It wouldn't have happened had Oliver Neuville been on the field!! They should have called ME! Ooh, my, we seem to have a situation here, he switched to Amazing Grace... I have to get away!

Suit up!

Well well well, reader, I thought I'd wait some more days to write this post, and then I thought I'd write a post about something else, but now I've just watched another episode, and I just figured I should write this post right now. Time to tell you what I'm talking about maybe?

Maybe.

I'm talking about How I Met Your Mother. No not yours, reader, come on, make an effort. How I Met your Mother is an American TV show. The pitch? Some guy is telling his children about how he... ?

Yeah! Met their mother! Glad to see you're following me. So the whole series is built like a giant flash-back or something, and you meet new people every episode or so.

The guy's name is Ted, and he's the most basic nice guy you'll ever find in a TV series. He reminds me of the Dawson's Creek series, (only Dawson's Creek was pretty lame, what with all these teenage kids giving speeches that must have been written by cheap shrinks... you need to get into rehab/the university, darling/my son/granny, being on coke/an alcoholic/a teenage mother is not going to make your father-son-boy-girlfriend care more/make your mother come back/win you Dawson's heart/make you pass your exams/help you deal with your homosexuality), insofar as he overthinks everything (Ted does, sorry about that, a new parenthesis crisis), and you can hear his thoughts (Ted's thoughts. Sorry). Only it's really funny.

It's a bit of a mix between Friends and the cute sides of Dawson's Creek, only they're not teenagers, and there's Alyson Hannigan in there too, which reminds me of how cool she was in Buffy.

Right now I just watched an episode which was so good it could have qualified as a romantic comedy as such. I think that's what's so great about this series, is the fact that each and every episode could become a movie, because it's got interesting and inventive plots and really cool characters. The last one I watched was about how Ted met a bridesmaid at a wedding (yeah, reader, indeed, it's not very original, but try and be tolerant, the main thing is not the idea itself, it's what you make of it. At least in this case.)

I really need to figure out what it is about romantic comedies that make me feel like that. I mean, I've seen so much of them, I should resist their engiggling power (I do know it's not a word, but hey, I'm sure you see what I mean. Don't pretend! I won't believe you if you do!) But I never can! I always fall in their trap and feel giggly, and then I cry in the end. Especially if I am alone, like tonight. You know, I was even known to cry during a 7th Heaven episode when I was alone. Though I despise 7th Heaven as the single worst TV series ever shot. YES, reader, worse than Smallville. Patronizing and know-it-all and intolerant. Bak!

Anyway, I wasn't talking about 7th Heaven, thank God (ha ha ha) but about How I met Your Mother. Besides, I've been watching the whole thing in English, and it's really easy to understand, no weird accent whatsoever. So well. If you get the chance... watch it in English though, because I watched an episode of the dubbed French version and found it really stupid.

Well, I'm getting hungry now, so I'll go cook some pasta! Pasta time! Oh, and here's to my friend H who first told me about the series! Have a nice evening, reader!

I shot the sheriff

Guess what, reader?? (you still there, reader? I haven't written in quite a while, so I hope you're still hanging on!) I should be working again! I should be working very hard, as a matter of fact, and instead, I have been reading a book which was in English, so I hope it counts a little bit as work. Let's say it will improve my English and thus help me pass my exams. Who knows. Sweet dreams. Anyway...

I have been reading books, as I said, and more particularly one book which my sister F gave to me, and which was really great. The reason why she gave it to me was that it was written by the famous Hugh Laurie, whom I have already mentioned on this blog a few times, because he is also known for playing the infamous Dr House. The one with the cane and the evil lines. The brilliant one who always figures it out in the end. Well, he wrote a book. Or rather, the actor wrote a book.

It's areally cool book, and it's real fun to read. It's very interesting and keeps you riveted from beginning to end. And aslo it made me laugh out loud on the train. Which is nice and doesn't happen too often, but not so nice, because afterwards, people look at you as if you were a madwoman. I think I am know by train users in Alsace as "the madwoman who sneezes all the time". They must love me. Allergic to the train's air conditionning system, I guess... Anyway. Back to "the Gunseller". Yeah, cause that's the name of the book, "The Gunseller". It's really fun, as I said, and it's about a guy who gets dragged into some international terrorism plot. It's not goofy and annoying, because it's a book and not a comic book. It's serious at times, and the hero is real cool. And it's very entertaining.

Now I've read it through, and bought a new book called "The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen". Indeed. I shouldn't have. I bet it's going to be crappy. I'd better re-read Sense and Sensibility. But you never know. And besides, the cover is nice, there's a fake ribbon on it, and it appealed to my girly feelings. A nice change from international terrorism, I must say. But hell, you never know. I haven't even gotten started on it yet, so I'm going to give it a chance, I should not slander it even before I read a single page!

Well, reader, I've got to go now, and do a little work at last, before I have to get back to class (tonight's specialised theme. I like it, but it's from 18 to 20.30, and I'm already hungry, so forgive my lack of enthusiam, please.)

Have a nice evening!!

Glad tidings we bring...

Happy new year!!! Happy New Year! Love, health, money, fame, glory, riches, and anything you might wish for!! I don't know if you have made any resolutions for the new year, as far as I am concerned, I stopped trying, because I never keep them anyway. But good luck with them if you have, however!!

Today, I wanted to tell you a little bit about what I watched on TV yesterday, i.e. Dr Who. OK, reader, Dr Who is far from being perfect. For one thing, it might well be the ugliest TV series since "Xena, the warrior princess". Which is really really ugly. I watched some pieces of an episode of Xena today, and it's amazing how big a percentage of the dialogs is actually composed of screams and yells. You nearly need subtitles to explain what she really means... "Yaaaaah!" means "Don't touch my sweet Gabrielle, but "Waaaargh" means, "don't you touch my sweet Gabrielle". It's all very varied. Anyway. This post is not about "Xena the warrior Princess", even though there is a lot to say about her, it's about Dr Who. Where was I. Oh, yeah, bad things about Dr Who.

I never understand what's happening, and I never have any doubt that things are going to be OK, so the suspense is a little wasted. Also I hate his name, because when I try to talk about the show in French, I never know how to pronounce it. Comes out kinda like "docteur ouh" which is ridiculous.

But, even if I only saw three episodes so far, and never any one of them from beginning to end, I must say that Doctor guy, whichever weird-looking Englishman he's played by, has got something for him. I don't know if it ever happens to you reader, but sometimes, you watch something on TV, or at the cinema, and you think "I could fall in love with that character." Well, it was like that with Dr Who. Even though I hardly know him, and stuff. By the way, if you are a guy, and thinking about Scarlett J. right now, please, write me an e-mail, I have some stuff to tell you, about her naming her breasts and... well anyway, this post is not about Scarlett J. either (thank God for that). It's about Dr Who.

He was there yesterday (in my TV set, I mean, I'm not that crazy...), asking two different girls in two different episodes to follow him to the end of the world and stuff, and had it been me, I would have said yes, both times. Even though he's likely to be half my size and weigh less as me. Less than 5 movies-or-TV-characters spring to my mind when I think of people who have made me feel like that... Paul Bettany in Wimbledon, Nathan Fillion in Firefly (all episodes), Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (can't remember the names of the episodes, there are too many of them) and also Denzel Washington in Much Ado About Nothing. It's not just about being good looking, and stuff, it's not even about the movie being great (as has been demonstrated by Dr Who), it's just some kind of feeling that I get sometimes. Weird.

Anyway. I have to go now, and annoy my sister, who's trying really hard to get some work done in spite of her being sick. It's my holy mission. Or maybe I'll just go bake some bredalas in the kitchen (weird how no one ever bakes bredalas in the bathroom...) in order to keep it up with the indigestion. Ah, the blessed post-Christmas days... That sweet taste of... no, OK. Well, reader, let me once again wish you all the best for the new year, truckloads of happy events, beautiful days, party and enjoy every 525 600 minutes of it. (Thank you, Rent, for sparing me the good half hour it would have taken me to actually count those...)

Feel like going insane, got a fire in your brain, and you're thinking of drinking gasoline?

Hello hello!!

I'm back from my cold and rainy Norman week-end, which was very cold, and very rainy, but still nice, because I got to see my friend J, whom I met in Graz last semester. That was definitely cool.

Yesterday, when I came back, I was not in a very good mood, because it was late and I was half frozen to death (yeah, I'm very clever and thought it would be OK to go off to Normandy with no jumper), and I sat down with my sister in front of the TV and watched the last episodes of this season of ER. Adn I decided I could not restrain myself any longer, I have to let it out: I HATE END-OF-SEASON CLIFFHANGERS.

Several reasons to that:

-First of all, I think it is one of those opportunities when directors make wrongful use of the powers invested in them (JJ Abrams has got a peculiar talent for these kinds of things, by the way). I mean, OK, you can make us go crazy for months, but why would you do any such thing?? Besides...

-... if the series is bad, in a year, when the next season starts, I will have forgotten all about the last season and won't give a damn about whether the hero dies or lives, so I won't watch it anyway. If the series is good, on the other hand, I will watch it for sure, because I like to. What's with trying to make us watch things we don't want to watch by putting pressure on our feeble minds? Why not make good series instead, which will keep you interested without having to make you wonder about the drowning/freezing/bleeding to death character?

I know, I know, it would not be fun to watch something where only good things happen to the characters. I know. But if you take the case of ER, for example, they always write things in the scenario which I had rather did not happen (like, lately, cut off both the legs of Ray, the very cool rock star doctor, who was in love with Neela, the very cool Indian-American doctor). There is no need to leave us wondering if so and so is going to die in dreadful sufferings or not, I mean, we are already surprised enough as it is!

Of course, I would, if I could afford it, swear never to watch a cliffhanger type of series ever again. But that would deprive me of Buffy, Lost, ER, Alias, and many others (I so wish I could add Firefly to the list! I'd get over a lot just to watch a second season!) So I won't take any rash decision (I'm sure you're very relieved), but still, people, producers, directors and screenplay writers, if you hear me, just be nice! We like you anyway, we're not going to go away! Don't do it! Besides, if we want to know more about it, it's so easy to go find spoilers, and this (strangely) spoils all the fun and makes me want to not watch the series any more because I already know what's going to happen, and usually I don't think I'll like it.

Anyway. Here we go, reader, it's time for me to get back to work. Good thing today is that I am alone in "my" office, and I can listen to silly Bollywood music on my iPod, nobody cares, and I don't look like a sociopath. But well, it will be over on wednesday, which is just as well, because the sociopath in me would probably awaken if left alone for too long... I can feel her rattling her cage up there where my brain should be :)

Have a nice day!!!

Shpounk

Today, reader, I want to tell you about Lost. Therefore, the title of this post is the opening credits' music (I'm sure you had noticed).

Anyway. Lost is a fantastic series, of which I would never miss an episode, which is why I watched all three of them yesterday evening, which is why I turned off my alarm clock this morning in an unconscious attempt to stay in bed and keep dreaming about airplanes full of handsome men crashing down on Paris. It was successful, until I woke up and found out that it was 9.00, which is the time at which I'm supposed to start working.

I just hate sleeping in, reader, I don't know about you, but it makes me crazy. I mean, one minute your head is resting on your pillows, you are swimming in an ocean of bliss, you brain is switched off, and life is beautiful, and the next you are trying to cram yourself into an already packed train, and you have to think, and you have to be polite. It's just too brutal. I hate my alarm clock. I think I might become an ermit, just so I can wake up when I feel like it.

It's just a question of picking the right place! I'd be an ermit on the island where they shot Lost. I'd have the company of the cast and crew once every year, and the rest of the time, I'd just be eating mangoes and roasting seagulls! Wake up late and kill your own food, that's my idea of paradise :) Of course, you don't want to do the same in Alaska, because apparently, their national dish is made of seals' poo and oil. And they don't even have bread to spread it on. I'm not kidding, I saw it on TV, so it must be true. Anyway, this post is getting nowhere, and I think it's time for me to go home, so I'll leave it at that for tonight.

I am translating some newsletter about laws on working conditions in Germany (how to fire people politely, and stuff), and my brain is just about to explode. I uderstand the sentences in German and it seems to magically turn into gibberish as soon as I write it in French. I say the same thing three time, it makes no sense, it's all very confused, and very confusing, and I don't even want to think about the time when I'll have to proof-read the whole thing. The Claire of tomorrow is going to hate my guts...

And no, indeed, this post was absolutely not about Lost, but I thought pretending it is would be a nice justification for me to put nice pictures in and a silly joke at the beginning.

Have mercy on me!!

Well, I thought I'd save my 60th post for when I leave Graz, but I changed my mind. I should be writing some texts in German for a Portfolio right now, so I figured, "what else could I do instead", and writing a new post was my first idea, so here we go.

Even though my computer has been showing signs of weakness these last few days (blacking out every half hour, making very weird bleeps when I turn it on, and turning so hot you could fry eggs on it), I have managed to watch a new TV Links series! A Texan friend recommended it to me, and it's called "Mystery Science Theatre 3000". If you feel like training your oral comprehension abilities, and watching something really lame, go on to TV-links, and click on this title.

I would evaluate the budget for each 90 minutes episode at about $20, it's extremely ugly, but it's good fun. It's about a guy and three robots, who are trapped in a spaceship, kept prisoners by a mad scientist who forces them to watch really bad movies. So basically they just sit in a theatre, watching old horror movies (even when it's not horror movies, it's still horrible) and making stupid comments about the dialogues, the music, and the film in general. I sometimes have trouble knowing what they are talking about, because they make references to some stuff which I have never heard about, but it's still funny. Funnier than writing texts for my German portfolio in any case. So far I have watched "Night of the blood beast", (or something like that) and I found it really good.

Apart from that, I am afraid I haven't done much lately to improve my English. I have mostly been avoiding getting any work done, and trying to figure out ways of making money. I am now on a diet of noodles and water, and I am thinking about going down to the Jakomini and sing, so that people would pay me to stop. As Gene Kelly would say "Dignity, always Dignity"... :)

Anyway. I think I'd better get back to my Lese- und Schreibtraining... It's nearly finished, so it's not much incentive for me to get to work... But I have to. I'll do it. I'm a good girl. I can do it. I'll just watch one more episode of "Will and Grace", and then, I promise, I'll start doing something useful. By the way, "Will and Grace", in the last episodes I watched, they organised a marriage of convenience between a 35 years old gay man and a middle aged cleaning lady from El Salvador so that she could stay in the country, so I guess I could say that it's useful to watch, because it improves my cultural knowledge of America :). Does it actually qualify as English Skills improvement??

Rest in Peace

Hey reader!! Tonight is a big night!! Well, yesterday was, but I'm telling you now: MY FRIENDS GOT THEIR DIPLOMAS!!!! They are studying law, just so you know what an achievement it is, and I'm just so proud and happy for them, I could not resist telling you. Congrats girls!! You're the best!!!

Anyway, I just spent some time doing guess what?? Watching series on TV links. But not any series of course, tonight, I was feeling like going home and spending my Saturday night with my friends and my family, just like when I was in high school and did not have to bother with exams and real life, so I decided I'd watch some episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, just like I was doing on Saturday nights when I was in High School. And even though it's over now, the series as well as high school, I thought I'd tell you about it (the series, not my time in High School, don't worry...) because they are really really cool, and English speaking.

I don't know what would have become of me if I had had to write a blog about my learning Swedish in Strasbourg. After my post about Abba I would have run out of inspiration, but English-speaking cool stuff, you find that all around!

Anyway, let's get back to the subject of this post: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have seen quite a lot of series now, (especially in the last three months :) ) And I still haven't found anything as good as Buffy. Well, Dr House is really very good, I love ER, and Lost, and Firefly might have had a chance provided it had lasted long enough, but Buffy, it's something different. I mean, the dialogues are awesome, just like in all Joss Whedon series. (Well, just like in Firefly, that is), and the actors are good. But more than that, I think it is believable enough for it to make you interested even if you are not a student anymore.

I mean, contrary to Dawson and the like, it is not pretending that teenagers all have a PhD in cheap psychology. "Now now, Dawson, you get angry at me for cheating on you with your best friend, but it's actually just my having problems with my father, who is actually the uncle of your hidden step-brother's wife's ex-husband, it made me angry, and in order to release my passive-aggressiveness, and overcome my Oedipus complex, I HAD to sleep with him." None of that in Buffy.

She does have a sister who appears out of nowhere in the middle of a season, and who is extremely annoying, but that's all you're going to get, as far as strange family ties are concerned. She has believable relationships with 350-year-old vampires, how cool is that?? Well, that's her business, being a super hero and having to fight the forces of evil. That's what she does. And she does it well.

There have been 7 seasons in all, beginning in Buffy's first year in High school, and ending in some kind of massive nearly-apocalypse. Yeah, I know I just complained about how people in Hollywood tend to get all cosmic when they smell the end in the wind, but with Buffy, somehow, it's OK, because they always are so funny. I mean the characters are just brilliant, from Buffy, who's strong and funny and just a girl (whoa, would the feminists not just love her....), to Spike, a brilliant blond vampire, pathetic very often, but also sarcastic and bitter, with great lines. Though the actor has been known to betray the cause and play in ... yeah... Smallville... How could he.... Anyway.

If you are interested in seeing some episodes, in case you never have, which is a shame, you can go to the TV-links site, and well... what can I say... Watch any of them, more particularly "Once more with Feeling", the great musical episode. Well, maybe it's not such a good idea since maybe you need to be a fan already to appreciate it... Well, then, just watch any of them, they are all great.

I guess it's time for me to get back to some serious work now... I learnt that "aggressivity" was not an English word!! I haven't lost my time completely watching Buffy tonight! I am thinking about another "Major Problems in the US society" summary, but I think I would not survive it, so I'll just pass, and start on my German to French translation. That's going to be nice... Have a nice evening reader!

Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand...

I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from meeeeee... Sorry.

Hello!

I'm back reader! I'm feeling much better! In spite of the rude awakening this morning, due to my forgetting to change the time on my alarm clock. I trusted it to guess that we had changed time... Silly machine... Anyway...

Tonight, in order to celebrate my unblocked nose, I want to tell you about Firefly. No, not the bug, the series. It has been seen by about 5 persons in the world, so I guess you might not have heard of it before, but it is one of the best series ever created in my (personal and humble) opinion.

Just imagine, reader, the main character is a mix between Han Solo and Clint Eastwood. Could you possibly get cooler than that?? The scene is set in a distant future, the Earth has died out, but humans have colonized other planets (and you don't have to put up with multiple-eyed and funny-voiced creatures from outer space, all there is is plain human beings. Sometimes gone wrong, but still, they all are human).

I particularly like the creator's view of the Earth's future, some kind of multicultural society where everybody can speak Chinese.

I think it's a pretty cool and new idea to acknowledge Chinese as one of the main cultures, for an American creator.

The said creator being Joss Whedon, the famous director of the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" series, which were also really really cool. In my (personal and humble) opinion. Anyway. I think he is a genius.

I have to say a word about the cast, too, of course. I find all the actors real good, especially the main character, Captain Mal Reynolds (I have seldom seen a character as charismatic and original). He is played by the Canadian Nathan Fillion (Yes... The one with the interesting backside...), who is a really great actor, and has less success than he deserves. He has recently played in "Lost", (in Evangeline Lilly's flash-backs), and in a new series called "Drive", which I had not even heard about (once again, I owe all these informations to the wonderful IMDb website.)

Captain Mal Reynolds is a smuggler, who used to be in a war his side lost. As he puts it "I was on the losing side, maybe, but I'm still not convinced it was the wrong one". He now travels all over the universe, in his old Firefly ship, which is supposed to look like a firefly, but actually is more of a giant turkey type of UFO... So much for the designers...

The supporting roles are also very interesting, even though some are more interesting than others, especially the crazy young girl, who has a tendency to get on my nerves. But that's OK, because you don't see too much of her anyway.

Just as in Buffy, I find the dialogues very very funny most of the time, nearly always realistic, and it is one of the main attractions of the show.

The only trouble, as I said, is that only about 5 persons have seen it so far, and that did not seem to please the 20th Century Fox too much. So there are only 14 episodes, plus one movie, "Serenity", which is OK, but not quite as great as the series. The good thing is that you know the beginning and you know the end, you can make a "Firefly night", you don't need to make that a week, and the need to keep the producers pleased and the audience watching put such a pressure on the shoulders of the screen-writers, that all episodes are real jewels.

But then again, the cast and crew seemed to get on so well with each other and the whole story could have gone so far, that I can't watch the bonus material of the DVDs without getting a bit teary. I don't even think the whole thing has ever been translated, so you're bound to improve your English, although they do have a funny accent and they also have their own vocabulary, such as "shiny" instead of great, and other things like that. That's where this market-dominated economy is leading us!!! Everybody watches Smallville and Firefly is down the drain!! No, my friends, let's rise!!

Well OK.

Let's not rise, let's just appreciate what's good while we can. I hope you'll find a way to see one or two episodes of this wonderful series, I just guarantee you'll like it. Otherwise, I'll repay your time by giving you a wonderful ticket for one hour free squash training!! Isn't that great?? Don't you want it very badly?? I didn't think you would...

Well, it's midnight now, thanks to the silly daylight saving time change, so I'll just go now... As Captain Reynolds would probably say, "Claire, your mouth is talking, you might want to see to it"... So good night, reader!!