(no subject)

Home from California.

You know what's fun? Returning to a sounding smoke detector. After the panic attack that your house is on fire and the futile attempt to try and sleep through it and call the super in the morning, there's the joy of tearing apart your apartment for a manual you've long since lost, adrenaline pumping as the damned thing goes off every 30 seconds; trying to quiet a whining (but alive) cat with the other hand while you figure out how to change a battery to one you haven't got without setting off a full fledged alarm at 1 am; perching barefoot on a ladder trying not to step on your dress and go arse over tits into the terra cotta tile that seemed like such a good idea when you installed it. All the while wondering if it's been doing that since you left, and your neighbors are going to kill you dead.

Oh, for a glamorous life in the big city.

On the other hand, I've rarely enjoyed the simple absence of sound quite so much.

California and cadhla and porpentine were all lovely, I saw penguins and otters and very small sharks, American Airlines went above and beyond the call of service (you have to fetch me a drink, you *don't* have to offer to block the seat next to me to make sure it stays empty and give me good advice on felting my knitting), and now I shall sleep.

(no subject)

"It was some sort of an end to magic. For me because childhood is so rich with metaphor, a lot of it had to do with leaving that behind. Instead of a bigger than life villain, we had the nerd troika. Instead of drinking blood and doing spells as sexual metaphor, we had sex. Things became very literal and they lost some of their loveliness." -- Joss Whedon on BTVS Season Six. The rest of the interview is here.

I'm glad to see him say that. Not that it changes my opinion of season six (bleah with moments of wow) or of Joss (worship with moments of mocking), but it's nice for me to know that I really was watching the same show he was making. And it reassures me that he really was making it – that it's not just that the buck stops with him by definition, but really it was Marti who actively chose what I didn't like and Joss just didn't care enough to tug on the reins.

It's that literalism, that loss of metaphor, that is the core of my issue with season six. ( Cut for long thinkiness and Taking Things -- including myself -- Too Seriously. Spoilers through the end of the series, ATS, and extreme vagueness about Firefly. No Serenity spoilers. )