Linda Hamilton

I was watching Frasier the other day and was surprised by the presence of one Linda Hamilton towards the end of the episode. Hilariously (or pathetically) I found myself sitting up straighter in my chair and squaring my shoulders… I had to stop myself from reaching up to check my hair. My reaction that woman is almost chemical. I can’t control it. She is just so unbelievably beautiful to me. And no, it’s not just her iconic turn as Sarah Conner in the Terminator movies, although she was spectacular in that role – and yes, her physique was… wow. I mean, watch that movie. Check out her arms, her back, her… everything. I told my trainer today that I want Sarah Conner in T2 arms. (I’ve got a really, really long way to go before that happens. But one day maybe…)

But, awesome and drool worthy as she was in those movies, my love for Linda Hamilton stretches back to before I ever saw them (and I didn’t see the first Terminator movie until about 5 years ago), back to her role as Catherine Chandler in Beauty and the Beast.

Now I didn’t have cable growing up, and up until about grade 10 or 11 I was only allowed to watch an hour of TV a day (which was reserved in my younger years for Little House on the Prairie and then as I got older for Star Trek: The Next Generation) so I honestly haven’t seen very many episodes of Beauty and the Beast, but I remember the ones I saw, and I remember the impact they had on me. But mostly, I remember Catherine Chandler – or rather, Linda Hamilton. I remember concocting these elaborate fantasies that would somehow end up with her hugging me, or brushing my hair or (if I was feeling particularly bold) kissing me (chastely, on the forehead or cheek… I was young and innocent and didn’t really understand what I felt at all), and would get butterflies and goosebumps at the thought of it.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I actually think she’s really good at what she does. I don’t really know how to describe what I’m thinking here, but her face… she’s so good with it. I watch scenes where she’s emoting (and, man, can she emote!), and to me it seem that there isn’t a point on her face you could focus on and not be incredibly aware of what she’s feeling. Although, I suppose it’s entirely possible that the fact that whenever she’s on screen all I can really focus on is her could be tainting my opinion.

For the most part I try to not pay attention to celebrity news – although I do remember about a year back when I had another chance encounter with her on my TV and I found myself googling her, there was rumour (ie: it was a part of her bio on her Wikipedia page) that she had at one point had a relationship with her stunt double from Dante’s Peak (a thought that makes me grin uncontrollably – could she possible be a ‘friend of the family’?). That particular juicy bit of info is no longer part of her Wiki-bio, though, so who knows how true it is. (Yes, I googled her again after this more recent encounter). Anyway, all of that is to say that I don’t know much about her as a person. I’d like to think that she’s smart, funny, awesome… and possibly not averse to the idea of making out with a chick. Who knows. And considering that the chances of my ever meeting her are practically nil, I kinda don’t care. She’s gorgeous. So, yeah, Linda Hamilton is on my “like list”… my “really-really-like-a-whole-hell-of-a-lot-list”

AfterEllen.com

So, I was trying to figure this out recently, but I just can’t remember. I have no idea how I found this website at all. But, that having been said, it has become one of my main procrastination tools.

AfterEllen has changed quite a bit since I first found it about a year ago. First, they added a blog, which… well, I don’t know why the blog is different from the main page, it seems to me that that is not necessary, but whatever, it’s good. The main difference though, is that they got bought out by Logo and added a whole bunch of new writers, meaning that there are way more posts going up (mainly on the blog section) every day… we’re talking sometimes as many as 10 posts a day. It’s awesome

I suppose I should tell you what the site is about. The byline of the website is “News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual Women in Entertainment and the Media”. So, that should give you some idea, but I don’t think it’s an accurate byline at all. Because it’s not just about gay women, it’s about anything that happens in pop culture that they think may be of interest to gay women. And when I first found this website it really stunned me how pretty much every single post was about something I was interested in, I just couldn’t figure out how they did that… how did the people who ran this website know what would appeal to me simply based on my sexuality. It’s still weird to me, even though with the buy out and the subsequent hiring of the huge amount of writers they now have the ratio of articles I’m interested has gone down significantly – it’s worth pointing out though, that it’s still pretty darn high.

One of the newer things they’ve started to do over there are these vlogs (video blogs), and I love them! There’s “She Made Me Watch This”, which ‘stars’ Sarah (who started this website, and who, if you check out her myspace page, lists her occupation as ‘professional lesbian’, which is awesome!) and her girlfriend Lori. I just love watching them together, it gives me warm fuzzies.



See... too cute, I'll give you more.


And then there’s the “We’re Getting Nowhere” vlog, which is pretty much brand new – they summarize this show called South of Nowhere which doesn’t air in Canada anywhere (but which I manage to watch somehow… I plead the fifth on how), and this vlog cracks me right up. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve developed a celesbian crush on out actress Jill Bennett (beware, that link makes loud music happen), who I'd never actually heard of before



Anyway, there it is… one of my favourite websites and most faithful procrastination tools. It’s pure fluff, and I love it.

Queen Latifah

Queen Latifah is someone I forget about when she isn’t in a current movie. And I don’t mean I forget that she exists, I mean I forget that I like her. Cause, well… she is named Queen Latifah – one of the more ridiculous celebrity names. Oh, I know, her name is actually Dana Owens (which reminds me, I really should pick up her jazz CD – the Dana Owens Album), but she chooses to go by Queen Latifah which is actually worse that if it was really her name.

I suppose Queen Latifah isn’t that unusual a name for a rapper, which was what she was mostly known for back in the day. That’s a world populated by people who go by ridiculous names, like P. Diddy… and if we go back to rappers that were contemporary to her foray into the public world you’ve got your Vanilla Ices, your Salts, your Peppas… so, I really should cut her some slack on the name, but it is such a weird name to see come across the credits of a movie, or to hear listed among the Oscar nominations.

But that’s just it, she was nominated for an Oscar, and it was a well deserved nomination. Because she can act… and sing, and she is drop dead gorgeous… what I suppose is known as a triple threat (maybe even a quadruple threat if you include her rapping, which I don’t because I never listened to her rap I’m afraid). Every time I see her I leave the theater thinking “Oh, that’s right… Queen Latifah is awesome, why do I keep thinking of her as some weird novelty act?”

So, maybe writing this will help me to remember that I like her. Here’s a clip that should help…

Sports Utility Vehicles

I hate SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles). HATE them. I think there should be a law that you have to prove that you need an SUV in order to buy them – you know, you live in an area where roads are often wiped out by vicious rain storms… or you have a job that requires a lot of off-roading.

I wish I could say that I hate SUVs for the right reasons… you know, they guzzle a lot of gas and pollute the precious world that was given to us. But, I don’t. I hate them because they are big. I hate all big vehicles, actually, but I have come to accept the necessity of vehicles like minivans… they are the only vehicle in which one can safely transport more than 5 people, so if you have a big family, that’s what you have to have – although, why they can’t add seats to those station wagons, I don’t know.

I just hate driving close to SUVs, vans, buses, trucks… anything bigger than my little Volkswagon Golf. I hate not being able to see beyond them to see what’s going on in front of me. I hate having them beside me in the next lane. I hate when they come up behind me… And the only one of those vehicles that are completely unnecessary in a big city is the SUV. Why, oh why are there so many of them?

Anyway, those are my thoughts. SUVs are bad.

Torey Hayden

Torey Hayden was a teacher for children with special needs for many years. She also happens to be an author who wrote about her experiences as a teacher… and she’s totally one of my heroes.

I don’t really know what to say about her that isn’t going to sound incredibly cheesy and false. I know that she has inspired me (see, cheesy sounding, right?). I work with children – not anything like what she did – and I can tell you that whenever I am having a problem with a particularly difficult child, I can’t help but think about her books. It’s not exactly a “What Would Torey Do?” situation, but pretty damn close. It’s perhaps more like “I’ve got one child here who is acting out, but Torey had 6 or 7 of them at once, so I really should be able to handle this without losing my patience.”

It works. Many a parent or coworker has commented on how patient I am with children… I really should credit Torey Hayden more. Heh, I guess I’m doing that now.

Of her books that I’ve read, I suppose the one that impacted me the most was the first one I read, One Child. I’d summarize it, but well… I just linked to the Amazon page so you can read a perfectly good summary over there. I should admit that there is a section of that book that I have never read because I started to feel physically ill (it was the section that dealt with the kind of horrific abuse one of her students had suffered), but I’m known for having a fairly weak stomach when it comes to things like that. But her books are full of hope and joy and promise and all the things that make me love working with children and I highly recommend them.

You can check out her website here.

Law and Order (the original)

I was in New York recently with my mother and we did one of those bus tours of the city. As we entered the downtown core, the tour guide gestured over to his left. I looked and saw this.


I squealed a rather girlish squeal, which the tour guide heard and before he continued with his shpeal (sp? I just realized that I have no idea how to spell that, and neither does my Word program), he asked me what I was squealing about. In my excitement I just blurted out, “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups; the police who investigate crimes and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.”

He just stared at me for a few minutes before asking me how I knew that, to which I could only respond, “I… um… like Law and Order.”

My mother stared at me as if she’d never met me before.

So, it’s no secret, I do like Law and Order. A lot. I even watched that weird one about the juries. And I didn’t hate it – didn’t like it very much, but I was willing to give it a chance just based on the fact that Dick Wolf hasn’t failed me yet.

The original used to be my favourite of the series, but it’s now at the bottom… but I don’t think that’s because I like it any less, I think it’s just that the others have surpassed it.

There’s not much to say about the original, I like it a lot. It’s been through a lot of cast permutations – but I think that’s just a result of it being on the air for so long. I like the new lead detectives played by Jesse Martin and Milena Govich – it’s about time they had a female detective! And, yet again, it doesn’t hurt that I think she’s kinda purty. (Another one I was excited to see Dick Wolf kept around after Conviction went off the air… she played an attorney on that show.) But, honestly, I watched this show even with that horrible Fontana guy… man I couldn’t stand him. But in general, this is just a well written, well executed show that I’m glad has lasted so long.

That’s not to say that there haven’t been missteps… the most notorious of which is a scene I literally can’t watch without laughing – if you can, you’re a stronger person than I. I suppose I should give you some background, such as it is. Serena had been the assistant D.A. for a year… um, that’s about all you have to know, really. They never get into the character’s personal lives on this show. Anyway, watch and see.



I’ve heard it argued that this was an attempt to pacify those who had lobbied for a gay character on the show… to out a character in the last 6 seconds of her last episode… kind of a "Look, we had a gay character for an entire year... you just didn't know about it. So stop pestering us."

I have no idea if that’s what happened, I just know that it was ridiculous. I burst out laughing when I watched it alone in my living room, and I just burst out laughing watching it again.

Movie Theater Concession Lines

Okay, so this is a pet peeve that came up recently when I went to see Transformers at the theater. It’s not anything in-depth really, but why oh why do the lines for popcorn have to take so long? It’s going to sound like I’m exaggerating, but I waited in line for my popcorn and drink for 30 minutes… for them to scoop popcorn into a bag and hand me a bottle of water… 30 minutes… at least! I got the theater at least half an hour early and missed the first 10 minutes or so of my movie… and that’s with the huge amount of previews (and commercials) that they show now. Luckily it was Transformers and didn’t require me to concentrate a lot on the “plot”. Cool robots blowing stuff up. That’s about it.

I just don’t understand how you can go to McDonald’s and have a meal (an albeit entirely unhealthy one) cooked and bagged for you in 5 minutes, yet the bloody popcorn in a bag takes forever.

Of course, it was the line that took so long, not the actually scooping of my popcorn. For some reason, the popcorn line always moves so slowly, and I just can’t figure out where the lack of efficiency is. The popcorn is already made, the drink dispensers are usually right beside the cashier, the candy dispenser is right below them (usually)… so what are they doing that takes so long? I don’t get it. And it annoys me every time.