Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

I had occasion to see about thirty minutes of Disney's A Christmas Carol from two years ago. I've always been curious about it, but haven't got around to watching it. That remains the case for most Disney movies from 1997 on. I can probably count the Disney films I've seen that were made after that on one hand.

Anyway, I've heard that it's quite dark in places and sticks very close to the original Dickens text, bringing out some things that he wrote that are generally not portrayed in the film adaptions.

That holds true to the thirty minutes I saw. I was quite intrigued and in love with it. The animation is simply amazing.

However, I did take issue with one thing. During Marley's visit, when he screeches "Business! Mankind was my business!" there was a stupid bit of dead people humor: he screamed so ferociously that his jaw became quite unhinged and fell on his chest. He had to work to get it back in place and could not, so he had to manually move it for a while. Then he got things terribly out of order again and couldn't speak at all. It was all played for humor and was very irritating. It completely broke the seriousness of the moment, and of that important speech!

I went looking in the original Dickens text to see what happened there. To my surprise, there was a similar issue earlier on in the visit. However, it was quite different in that the literal jaw-dropping happened when Marley removed that bandage around his head. The implication was that he knew it would happen and it was a deliberate action, perhaps as he tried to further demonstrate his current state to Scrooge. It was played for horror in the book, adding to the seriousness of the scene, and it was not extensively dwelt on at all.

Anyway, I'll admit it rather turned me off in the movie. I'd still like to see the rest of it, but I don't know that I'd want to buy it. I hate that kind of dead people humor. I hated it in the movie Anastasia; I felt it completely ruined a beautiful film. And it ruined the scene in the Christmas Carol movie. Marley's visit is one of my most favorite parts because of the friendship squee of Marley wanting to help Scrooge avoid his own fate. There's a book out this year about Marley and I am dying to read it. I'm sure it will treat things in the serious manner that it should.

So, moving on, and in complete contrast, I want to absolutely squee about something. I've meant to post about this for the last couple of days. I've been watching both Dragnets lately, the 1950s version and the 1960s version. I love them both dearly. I used to think that the 60s one just wouldn't be the same without Frank Smith as Joe's partner, but then I saw the 60s version and loved Bill Gannon too. (It doesn't hurt that he's played by Harry Morgan, an actor I've been a fan of for years and years.)

This week has been only the second time I've seen the 1950s Dragnet after watching a lot of the 1960s version. And I remember how awesome Frank Smith is too. I'd forgotten a bit, with the awesomeness of Bill Gannon.

And the 1950s Dragnet has probably the most intense, heart-wrenching, and friendship squeeable episode of both versions. It's called The Big Frank, from season 2. (All episodes in the 1950s version were "The Big ..." something.) Frank ends up shot during a case and Joe has to finish out the case on his own, while not knowing if Frank is even going to live.

I wasn't expecting the shooting at all; I think I literally jumped when the criminal started shooting and Frank went down. And something else I expected every bit as little was Joe's reaction. I did expect him to be utterly furious at the creep, which he was. But he also shows an absolutely adorable, heartbreaking soft side that I didn't imagine I would ever see from the stoic, serious Joe Friday.

At the hospital he keeps wanting to look in on Frank and asks the doctor more than once if he couldn't just look in one moment. The doctor refuses. And the most heart-shattering line is when Joe says, either to the doctor or his lady friend, or both, that if anything happens to Frank he doesn't know what he'll do. He's so vulnerable in that scene! It comes through so well how close they are and how much Joe cares about Frank. It adds a whole new dimension to Joe's personality.

I am just in love with the episode. I say everyone who loves friendships in shows should watch The Big Frank, even if they've never seen Dragnet and/or have no interest in it!

Please explain to me the logic of how using "Schrank" as an interest makes it a clickable link, yet I am the only one listed with the interest. The other interests I have that no one else lists are not clickable. I'd really prefer to list him more respectfully, but "Lieutenant Schrank" comes up non-clickable, and I'm obsessed with having interests clickable if possible.

(Also, I didn't want to do this, either, but Krupke is listed as "Officer Krupke". I think I'm the only one who bothers to care that he's a sergeant, not an officer. I just don't understand that discrepancy in the script.)

I finally saw a second-season episode of Riverboat I like! Listen to the Nightingale, which is, I think, the last episode, was excellent. Of course, as per what seems to be the case for all season 2 episodes, Grey has to become interested in the latest woman passenger. Sigh. Yawn. And what's more, she is just about the strangest one yet. She doesn't utterly aggravate me like the girl in that season 1 episode, but I can't figure her out at all. She bounces back and forth on the real reason why she won't perform in New Orleans after the theft of her necklace. And she acts like she's romantically interested in Grey at the beginning, yet in the end she seems to rebuff any continuing interest he has in her. I'm a woman, but I cannot understand her illogical behavior. (And I'm noted in general for siding with the men more than the women, unless the man really is acting a jerk and/or I can actually understand the woman's feelings.)

At least Blake was awesome this time. I was hoping he would endear himself to me. It looks like he and Grey do have a friendship in that episode, so maybe it's something that grew over time from their partnership. He was still worried about money, but it didn't get in the way of him being compassionate as it seemed to in Chicota Landing.

And I think I'll try working on a short Perry Mason ficlet inspired by The Case of the Misguided Missile. I still haven't resolved the problem of wanting Captain Caldwell to live, so this follows a different angle.

I caught Simon Oakland playing good guys in two early episodes of Gunsmoke, How to Cure a Friend and Overland Express. I am particularly thrilled with the latter. He plays a poor guy wanted for murder who only killed in self-defense. Matt and Chester are chasing him, and after a confrontation they all end up on a stagecoach back to Dodge that's marked for hijacking. And when the trouble comes down, Matt is forced to trust Simon's character, Jim Nation. Jim comes through with flying colors.

I also watched episodes 7 and 8 of Baa Baa Black Sheep. 7 was very intense, but I loved 8 the best of the two. General Moore is again especially awesome in it! He reminds me so much of a more calm Tony Vincenzo, compassionate but stern. He listened to a wild idea of Pappy's for a different way to do a dangerous mission that would be less likely to result in losing some of the men. He said that it was so crazy that only someone like him would be willing to listen to it. And he was risking a lot by agreeing to do it, but he did. I wonder if there's any other episodes that feature him taking a fairly large role in the proceedings.

And I've been loving Riverboat and Captain Grey Holden. Darren McGavin is so wonderful in the role. Grey reminds me a lot of Kolchak in some ways, particularly how he's so frank and calls them as he sees them and refuses to bow to wicked men and has a very strong sense of not allowing innocent people to be harmed.

I think I like the earlier episodes best, from what I've seen. I really love Ben Frazer's (Fraser? Frasier?) interaction with Grey. I want to do a friendship h/c fic with them (and Grey as the one hurt). I'm really quite indifferent to Burt Reynolds in general, but I liked his character Ben the moment I saw him. It felt so right for him to be there. I'd wondered if I'd have trouble liking him, but there was no problem at all.

(In spite of that, I admit I haven't watched The Unwilling yet. I only watched the parts at the beginning and the end where Grey is there. I like Ben, but Grey is the whole reason I'm watching the show. I don't really have close ties to any of the other characters yet, so if Grey isn't around I lose interest quick.)

The Fight Back is my favorite episode so far. Grey is absolutely awesome in it. And it's so intense! I just love the cold open with the burning town. Grey grabbed my attention with his opening speech.

As a general rule, I really haven't cared much for episodes focusing on Grey's love life/him romancing a girl. (I temporarily had to give up on Race to Cincinnati, because both the girl's frustrating brand of flirting and Grey crushing on her was driving me nuts.) But I do really love The Path of the Eagle (with the flashback to Marion and what happened to keep them apart) and The Fight at New Canal (where the married woman keeps making advances on Grey and he keeps to his integrity). There's a lot of hurt/comfort in those episodes, too.

The prompt I want at sharp_teeth is the following quote:

"Can't even shout, can't even cry
The Gentlemen are coming by
Knockin' on windows, tappin' on doors,
They need to take seven and they might take yours.
Can't call to mum, can't say a word
You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard."

I'm told it's from Buffy, a show I have never gotten into. But regardless of the source, it's intriguing. It would definitely work well as a Kolchak fic, and I haven't counted out that possibility.

Another idea came to me as well, however. I've been wanting to write a cop fic. And while watching Highway Patrol I had the thought that maybe I should write the prompt with Tony Ferano and have it take place when he was still on the police force. (Heck, if I wanted, Kolchak could be in the fic too.) It could be a really creepy case he's trying to solve.

What I'm not sure of is, if I use that idea, whether the story should be split into past and present segments. That is to say, whether half should be while Tony's on the police force and half should be after he joins up with Baby Face. If I opted to do it like that, I wonder if the case would be unsolved from years before and then reopen in the present or whether it would have been solved in the past but still reopen.

If I do half-and-half it, that means The Monkees and other characters would probably feature into the present segments. If it's just in the past, then Tony would be the only canonical character involved (other than possibly Kolchak, haha). Tony would not have met Baby Face at that time.

And I've started the Kolchak/YGO fic. I'm liking it so far. Kolchak's voiceovers are fun to write. Currently he's matching wits with a police officer.

Oh, and I posted the final chapter of the weird Monkees fics on monkeesfic. I also got the whole thing up on the fic journal and linked on 31_days. I apologize profusely for any brain-breaking experienced while reading it.

After discovering that the previous 31_days theme fit Carl Kolchak to perfection, I decided to try jotting down a short ficlet idea I had for the show to make the prompt. I made it. I also got it on FF.net, where the category sadly is largely dead. Mine was the first fic since dangelos_song's in November.

... So after fourteen-odd years of interest, five of those years with more intense interest, and a week and a half of actually watching the show, I put up a fic. A week and a half. Is that a new record for me? I hope the characters sound alright. And I hope someone even more familiar with the show/characters than me will review to let me know how I did.

I can hardly believe I had a dream about Knight Rider. I've seen *five episodes.* My dream involved a very different re-envisioning than what aired about three years ago. My dream version had a girl car and a girl human agent. It was interesting. But I'll still take the original over any re-envisioning.

I'll probably try working on the fic idea I have for it soon. Yes, I'm really going to try going ahead with the sequel idea to Custom-Made Killer. But I still need to decide what should happen in it, other than sightings of the supposed dead man O'Malley. Maybe the villain with the custom-made sportscar should also be back.

I get a new disc today, of Quincy, M.E. episodes. I hope Jimmy has a good-sized part in the episode he guests in!

I also learned, thanks to dangelos_song, that Johnny Staccato, a rare P.I. TV show, is finally on DVD! YES! It sounds really interesting. And I think Jimmy's character must have a very good-sized part in his episode, as his character's name is even in the title.

And I'll be overhauling my icons once my free Paid Account Trial runs out later today. After using some new icons, I don't want to give them up. So I'll have to play icon musical chairs. I think I've mostly figured out what will have to go.

I have jotted out a short fic involving Baby Face and his gang. This one was not mentioned among my plunnie ideas and I'm a bit nervous about its acceptance in the The Monkees fandom at large, due more to the plot rather than the focus being on Baby Face. I think it came out really well, though. Now I'm just trying to figure out what to do with it and where to put it. I still don't know how to access my old Angelfire sites.

I have to admit, I had a bit of a struggle with what the ending lines should be, or rather, how they should be presented. I really felt that a very mild swear word would have more fully presented the despair and discouragement of the scene. But I long ago vowed never to have swear words in my stories. And I don't want to start, because then it could become easier to do it in future stories. As it stands now, Baby Face does swear, but you do not see what he said, which is usual when I'm writing for a character who either does swear or else probably would even if canonically it's never shown.

And I wish Antenna TV would add Circus Boy to their lineup. They should have access to it; it looks like Columbia/Screen Gems have the rights.

I did get the second part of Fuer Dich up, though I was in a bit of a quandary again wondering if Pike sounded alright. I don't like her, but I don't want to write her OOC. She isn't very congenial to Autor in the chapter, but I tried to bring out that she was concerned wondering if he was really the special, loyal friend Ahiru had made him out to be. She cares about Ahiru and would be upset if she felt Autor had betrayed her.

Now I just need to figure out if the third part is the final one for sure.

I finally typed up the half a page or so of chapter five of the crypt fic I had ready. Then I wrote a bit more after that. It felt good to get a move-on with it again. I haven't done much writing lately, but I'm hoping my burst of AMV making has got me back on track and interested with fic plunnies. It certainly seems to have been working this week.

I also have the infamous vegetable monster fic more or less done, but I'm holding back on posting for a little bit longer, maybe a day or so.

I'm possibly considering either switching out some of the Paranormal25 prompts or else converting it to a 50 table, if I can do that. It would probably be better to just switch out a few similar ones, however; 25 seems like a more reachable number. Specifically I was thinking of writing a fic around the concept of the Black Agnes killer statues. So freaking disturbing and creepy! Supposedly if you sit on the lap of one of these statues (which mark the graves of women who died grieving), you'll be dead in the morning? I think that's how it goes. Now, one would certainly not be stupid enough to sit on the statue's lap, we hope. But what if they were knocked unconscious and draped across the statue's lap? At any rate, that's what would happen in the fic. And I'm thinking Ahiru would be the victim.

And I wrote a heart-breaking blurb where Ahiru goes to the school to see Autor lying dead after the carriage accident. It went up on the Deathfics comm; most of what I write for it are short blurbish things that don't get posted anywhere else. I think so far only the Fakir and Rue ficlit and Fuer Dich have been posted to FF.net. All the rest so far are comm-exclusive. When I get everything written (and if I can get hold of a tag), I may post a link to the Tutu comm. I'm undecided on that, since some of the blurbs are not the greatest quality (and since the genre is not one the fans seem by and large to be interested in). Others I really like so far, however, like the one I put up last night.

And EEEE! I love to watch the oldies programming late night/early morning on the This network. Recently I discovered a character actor who appears off and on in episodes of The Patty Duke Show and looks like Autor. I swear it; his hair isn't shaggy at the back and it's parted the wrong direction, but otherwise he looks just like Autor would in real life. He even has a nasally voice, like Autor in the Japanese version. LOL. I managed to get a few low-quality screengrabs from an episode floating around. Once I get them properly cropped, which I can't do on the laptop, I'll put them up for people to see. I may mirror/flip them, too, so you can see him with his hair parted in the correct direction.