Unanon's blog

There are certain actors whose presence I enjoy every moment they are onscreen, yet whose names I never bother to remember. 

These actors mostly portray supporting roles, but it seems to me that they bring an incredible amount of intensity and passion to their performance despite the rarity of headlining. 

They are solid and I know, upon seeing them, that I'm likely to end up a little fascinated with the character they portray.  I'll want to know more about the characters, I'll wonder what shaped them into the forms we're allowed to see.  I'll be a little frustrated because the movie or tv show won't ever answer these questions about them.  I won't ever know those characters, the story isn't about them, even if I would prefer it to be.

The characters they portray have histories, entire lives looking out from their eyes.  These actors make me believe that...and that's something I appreciate.

Actors who fit this criteria for me include (but are not limited to) those whose pictures I've added to this entry.

Alice Krige first won my geekish little heart by seducing Lt.Commander Data in her memorable performance as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact.  She's mesmerizing, but her roles (like a more recent one in Deadwood) always seem to be short-lived.

Emily Watson just makes me stare.every.time.  I don't know what it is about her, but she brings certain physical manerisms into her roles that, like Alice Krige, make it impossible for me to take my eyes off her.

Chris Cooper is just amazing on so many levels.  He's in so many movies...and so rarely anything even remotely approximating a lead character.  Just...He inspires trust.  He can be playing someone vaguely repulsive (as he did in Adaptation) and yet be so charismatic at the same time that I understand...I get the character and am left wanting to know more.

These are three actors whose work I appreciate, yet never seek out.  I'll consistently be surprised to find thay they're in a movie, on a show.  But I've come to realize that it's a very welcome surprise every time.

St. Elsewhere

Gnarls Barkley

Have discovered Gnarls Barkley.  Have also decided that I think I rather like and am amused by Gnarls Barkley.  

*blinks*

I always think I won't like or be interested in new music.  But then again I almost never am exposed to any. 

Damn.  I'm going to have to remember to buy this right around the time I finally cave to Outkast.  *weeps*

The idea of Heath Ledger playing Joker to Christian Bale's Batman doesn't burn. No, not one bit.  They both have those

Christian Bale

...you know...those cheeks with the crease in the right place. 

I like cheek creases, always have.  Cheek creases with the slight roughness of stubble.  Mmm... Want.to.pinch.

So sorry, did I go off on a bit of a tangent there?  Entirely intentional.

Why don't I own Batman Begins yet? 

*makes plans to rewatch Equilibrium tonight*

No seriously, I DO love Equilibrium.  It takes EVERY SINGLE successful Sci-Fi concept of the past 100 years and combines it with ONE original idea to create something that actually is more than a heap of genre cliches.

That's something, don't you think?

Drainupload

Once upon a time I lived in that house.  My parents built it right around the time I was born; they lived in tents for about a year until they could move in.

Once upon a time the trees would have made a different horizon.  There was an enormous marker tree on the hill immediately to the rear of the house.  It would have dwarfed the entire picture, eaten up a chunk of the sky and you still wouldn't have been able to see the top.  It had a plaque indicating that it was special and not to be cut down, but I suppose that it had grown too high to be seen from the ground because, clearly, it is no longer there.

This picture was taken years after my Mother sold the property.  52 acres of Oregon that I'll never get back.  52 acres that have imprinted themselves indelibly on my soul in both comforting and disconcerting ways.  I never have a nightmare that doesn't take place on that property or within that house, but I also have no memories stronger than the ones I made there.  Good, cherished memories that are stronger even then memories of lovers, friends, or any happy times I've experienced as an adult.  It's as if everything that ever taught me of kindness and joy is tied up in my sense memory of a landscape that no longer exists.

I dug this picture out because I had a flash today of bouncing on a waterbed in the rain.  You see, one of our waterbeds (because there were at least 3 king-sized) developed a fatal leak and the main bag was replaced.  The old free-flow bag was hauled out to one side of the house, mounted on some plywood or somesuch, and filled with water.  It leaked, yes, but it also acted as a marvelous trampoline, a slip-n-slide in the rain and, on hot summer days, a naturally cool lounge where one could spread out with a book or three. 

It never occurred to me until today that having a full (albeit leaky) waterbed in the middle of the yard might be construed as slightly odd.

But Lord, it makes for a great memory.

What's the most recent vivid dream or nightmare that you remember?

Last night's nightmare of my Mother's death via medical error is still pretty vivid, but that's probably more due to the fact that it is still so near.

I don't have nightmares often, but when I do they are almost all memorable, at least to me.  Even silly old ones of my toddler self being chased by a cow walking upright and mooing  "I want to eat you up like a hamburger." 

What's vivid aren't the experiences in the dreams themselves, but the recurring thematic elements...of which I have two principal ones:

1)  The surface - be it ground, flooring, walkways, ANYTHING - is never level.  Sometimes the angle is greater and my world consists of steep surfaces with very few "flat" landings upon which to rest, but more often than not everything is just slightly tilted.  It doesn't veer into the realm of disconcerting very often,  but it remains a constant in all my dreams.  There simply is no truly flat surface anywhere.

2) Partially-filled swimming pools/fish tanks/bathtubs/any container typically full of larger quantities of water.  Sometimes the water is fresh and clear, but more often it's stagnant, swampy, and full of life.  The swimming polls in particular are extremely reminiscent of certain run-down resorts I remember from Mexico in the 1980's, when tourism had dried up in places.  Occasionally the dream swimming pools are even surrounded by shabby lawns and crumbling, derelict hotel buildings.

These are the things that are vivid to me in dreams, not the dreams themselves. 

But there is one exception: dreams of people who are dead.

And that exception is only vivid because of one thing: sense memory.  It's amazing to realize that your brain remembers bits of people long dust in such visceral ways.
 
Those dreams are the most vivid, be they happy or nightmarish.  That is why those are the dreams that fucking hurt the worst.

Well, I'm attached to LiveJournal, but I can't help but get interested in something that looks to be an up and comer like Vox. 

Hell, at least it isn't MySpace.  Can't quite bring myself to do MySpace yet.  God, it disgusts me when Movies have MySpace links instead of normal URLs, but I suppose I need to get over it and "get with the times."

Still...MySpace links for movies are cheap and gross and really tacky.  I'm just saying