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acampbellHi, all.
I haven't been online much lately. I'm still waiting for the capping program and Word to get back on my computer, and with the holidays and work and all, it's been busy. I'm a couple of months behind on f-list, and haven't been on TWOP for a couple of weeks, either. I have the sad feeling I'm kinda meta'd out on SV. I've reread all the old threads and enjoyed reliving the discussions, but lately the thought of what's happened with the program has been getting me down. It's such a shame. Even though I'm enjoying S9, the season so far is just a jumble in my memory, and even though I'm enjoying it, I just can't think of much to say about it, except: Clark is HOT.
I've been going to SSA and hunting out Clex fics I've never read and rereading old favorites, which helps more than anything to fan the embers. I imagine if I'd read f-page, I'd feel better, too. Every year about this time I do a post listing the fics of the previous year, and this year I think I've only written about two fics and a dodecal. Which makes me sad.
For Christmas, I gave my daughter the complete series of "Upstairs, Downstairs," and on Disc 4, there's a feature on: "Upstairs, Downstairs Remembered," like, 35 years after. And listening to what the people involved had to say, I was filled with admiration at what painstaking care the writers, directors, creators and actors took with their material: the storylines, the characterizations, the details. For example, when Hazel Bellamy (played by Meg Wynn Owen, who, at that age, was always my idea of what Lillian Luthor should look like, both before AND after Lillian appeared on SV) died of Spanish influenza, one of the men in charge was worried that she would be very disappointed to learn she would no longer have a job. However, both she AND the creators agreed that "Hazel's story was finished," at that point, and they'd done as much with the character as they could and as was appropriate. And I couldn't help but think: oh, if only the SV people could have come to the same realization with Lana, around S3 or so. Or even with Lionel Luthor by S4. But that would have entailed truly caring about the show as a work of art, or at least a program of quality. It's bittersweet as well as reassuring, to know that it CAN be done.
I enjoy rewatching "Upstairs, Downstairs," now, but I remember getting heartily sick of it back when it was first shown. My first Masterpiece Theatre program, the one that got me hooked on the series way back in 1971, was: "The First Churchills," with Susan Hampshire and John Neville, and it seemed that once "Upstairs, Downstairs" came along and got so popular, they quit showing the dramatizations of classic novels which I loved so well and did nothing but Edwardian and WWI stories. Enough time has passed since then that I can forgive that, especially since I've been able to obtain some of the long-ago programs, like "Cousin Bette," "The Last of the Mohicans," and "Tom Brown's Schooldays," on DVD.
Well, enough blather. Since there's no work tomorrow or the next day, I'm going to try to do a little writing this evening.
I haven't been online much lately. I'm still waiting for the capping program and Word to get back on my computer, and with the holidays and work and all, it's been busy. I'm a couple of months behind on f-list, and haven't been on TWOP for a couple of weeks, either. I have the sad feeling I'm kinda meta'd out on SV. I've reread all the old threads and enjoyed reliving the discussions, but lately the thought of what's happened with the program has been getting me down. It's such a shame. Even though I'm enjoying S9, the season so far is just a jumble in my memory, and even though I'm enjoying it, I just can't think of much to say about it, except: Clark is HOT.
I've been going to SSA and hunting out Clex fics I've never read and rereading old favorites, which helps more than anything to fan the embers. I imagine if I'd read f-page, I'd feel better, too. Every year about this time I do a post listing the fics of the previous year, and this year I think I've only written about two fics and a dodecal. Which makes me sad.
For Christmas, I gave my daughter the complete series of "Upstairs, Downstairs," and on Disc 4, there's a feature on: "Upstairs, Downstairs Remembered," like, 35 years after. And listening to what the people involved had to say, I was filled with admiration at what painstaking care the writers, directors, creators and actors took with their material: the storylines, the characterizations, the details. For example, when Hazel Bellamy (played by Meg Wynn Owen, who, at that age, was always my idea of what Lillian Luthor should look like, both before AND after Lillian appeared on SV) died of Spanish influenza, one of the men in charge was worried that she would be very disappointed to learn she would no longer have a job. However, both she AND the creators agreed that "Hazel's story was finished," at that point, and they'd done as much with the character as they could and as was appropriate. And I couldn't help but think: oh, if only the SV people could have come to the same realization with Lana, around S3 or so. Or even with Lionel Luthor by S4. But that would have entailed truly caring about the show as a work of art, or at least a program of quality. It's bittersweet as well as reassuring, to know that it CAN be done.
I enjoy rewatching "Upstairs, Downstairs," now, but I remember getting heartily sick of it back when it was first shown. My first Masterpiece Theatre program, the one that got me hooked on the series way back in 1971, was: "The First Churchills," with Susan Hampshire and John Neville, and it seemed that once "Upstairs, Downstairs" came along and got so popular, they quit showing the dramatizations of classic novels which I loved so well and did nothing but Edwardian and WWI stories. Enough time has passed since then that I can forgive that, especially since I've been able to obtain some of the long-ago programs, like "Cousin Bette," "The Last of the Mohicans," and "Tom Brown's Schooldays," on DVD.
Well, enough blather. Since there's no work tomorrow or the next day, I'm going to try to do a little writing this evening.
