Selkie

Hmm... looks like Tower must have sold out and removed the photo from their site. Toy Vault makes it, but the picture on their web site is no help at all:

http://www.toyvault.com/cthulhu/index.html

I'll try to take a picture tomorrow for you. I like the sculpt quite a bit, but when it arrived the paint was problematic. Nice selection of colors and careful application - except where it wasn't applied at all or rubbed off. I paid half price, and was pleased. At full price, I would have been irritated.

Have you see the Nightmares of H.P. Lovecraft figures that SOTA is supposed to release next year (bumped from October of 2005 to some time between August and November 2006, depending on whom you believe). Lou and I were discussing it upthread a little. If the final results look anything like the prototypes, they're going to be amazing.

Ease the trauma? Sure.

Erase the trauma? No way.

Enjoyment of Andrew would certainly explain appreciation of Storyteller, and I'm sure it made the final season much more palatable. I wonder if his character is one of those things that I would "get" after repeated exposure. A number of people whose tastes I share really like him, while I spent most of the last season praying he'd be fed to the flesh-eating demon from Same Time, Same Place. We'll never know, because the urge to throw spoiled produce at the screen sets in shortly after the first two discs of season 7, and becomes irresistable in short order. Clean-up is such a hassle with a white carpet...

I will admit "We are as Gods" amuses me.

I'm very psyched after seeing the first episode this season.

Anyone else think the reason Dutch went overboard on the suspect is that he knows what's wrong with Claudette, and his protective drives have kicked in big time?

There's nothing lame about loving OMWF. Commonplace, perhaps, but not lame. Oddly enough, I didn't care for it on the first viewing, but grew to love it later. The same pattern seems to be true of a lot of fan favorite episodes, like AtS's Smile Time which I hated the first time I saw it.

But, Storyteller? Really? I know another person who loves it too, but its charm eludes me.

Another recent BtVS convert and I just had a conversation about what our favorite episodes were, so that discussion is fresh in my mind. Although ranking within my top ten-ish is insanely difficult, it's hard to beat Fool For Love as my top choice, with OM,WF, The Wish, Innocence, School Hard. Lie to Me, I Only Have Eyes for You, Doppelgangland, Dead Things, Hush, and Restless all in hot pursuit, depending on my mood.

Then, of course, there are Halloween, Pangs, Conversations with Dead People, Normal Again, Same Time, Same Place, Faith, Hope & Trick, and The Pack. OK, I'll stop now.... or at least, for now.

On the whole, I'm not much of a watcher of special features but the Back to the Hellmouth extra in the Chosen collection was decent. I think that's where I gleaned the tidbit about the scene in Innocence. I find that on the whole, interviews with creators are often interesting; those with actors, almost never so.

Actually, in a move I can only describe as one part generosity, and two parts psychosis, I bought that box set for said friend for Christmas. Yes, it is a wonderful thing (though an absolute beast to wrap).

!!! <note to self: be Grinning Fellow's friend by the time the AtS boxed set is released>.

As for Go Fish, I think it was an alright episode that was just very badly placed. I think it could've been more enjoyable if it weren't stuck in the middle of what is quite possibly the best arc of the series.

I'm sure better placement would have helped, but I have to think it would have been a speed bump episode no matter where it was aired. How can you set a riff on The Shadow Over Innsmouth in Sunnydale, and have such a meh result? Not to mention the gratuitous and exploitative shot of Xander coming out of the swimming pool.

As for memorable lines, I'm thinking Angel's monologue-arc throughout Passion, which was simply magnificent.

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Oh yes, that was wonderful stuff.... wonderful, wonderful stuff. That, along with the reaction shot as Buffy and Willow learn about Jenny's fate.

Have you watched the commentaries yet where Joss Whedon talks about originally writing the morning after scene in Innocence to be set on the front lawn? Amazing how one close one of the most memorable scenes in the Buffyverse came to being blah, if not downright bad.

I discovered BtVS this summer, and watched all seven seasons in something like six weeks. (AtS required another two or three weeks, as I recall). I still maintian that the Angelus arc of season two was the high point of the series, although there's a ton of other great material. I thought season three was much more consistent in quality (no equivalent to, say "Go Fish"), but nothing quite beats, say, Becoming pt II. or Innocence, or .... "Take all that away and what do you have left? Me." Ah, good times.

You have seen the beautiful boxed set now available for BtVS, right? It is a thing of beauty, and I'm greatly looking forward to the equivalent for AtS. (Region II has it already, but we're always the last to get such things). I never was quite the AtS fan, but it definitely has its moments, and I must say, the character progression of Wesley was the single best character arc on either show.... even if I grumble a bit at his eventual fate.

Apparently you're not the only one who can't read, because I missed the "on February 1st" part of your post.

Cthulhu bust measures about 6" from backskull to tentacle tips, but it's a "big" 6" if you know what I mean. Fits nicely in my hands with fingers outstretched.

Every year there's one critically adored movie that leaves me scratching my head wondering what on earth they see in it. I can usually find some small element that's worthwhile, but overall, the film will leave me cold.

Then there is Brokeback Mountain. Dear Og, what am I missing? Sure, it was pretty, aside from the annoying smudge on the lower left of the camera lens that affected most of the scenes on the mountain. I understand that we're supposed to see how sterile and passionless these men's everyday existences are when they're not with each other. Unfortunately, as "not with each other" comprises both most of their lives and most of their screen time, it's tedious as hell to watch. The pacing was glacial, Heath Ledger's voice intermittently channeled Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade, many of the interactions between the lovers were tinged with violence (and almost never tenderness) that made their relationship far from endearing, and apparently it's OK to cheat on your wife and lie to your children as long as it's with your True Gay Love. Oh, and apparently despite these men having little to no education, no money, and almost no social skills, women - even a woman from a wealthy family - are throwing themslves at them with marriage on their minds.

FTR, I understand that we're to believe that Heath Ledger's character is so scared and inarticulate that it takes little provocation to incite him to violence. Doesn't make him any more sympathetic.

I am the least funny person I know.

I make an excellent straight man, though.

Taz is my hero.

Closely followed by Wile E. Coyote.

My toy collection is nearly complete - nowhere near as large as yours, but never intended to be - but there are always a few things I'm looking for. Most of those fall into the "I'll never be able to afford them" category, although I enjoy looking. Fun to pick up stuff on sales, though, as gifts or custom fodder or even the occasional gap filler that wasn't worth full price to me.

I've already got a Cthulhu bust - the one with the peeling paint. But you - YOU need one! Everyone needs one! Heck, at that price I was sorely tempted to buy one to customize. Alas, I was a good girl, and refrained.

Congrats on your exclusive, BTW.

Just wait until you see my Question custom, which is, at long last, almost completed. Spent way more time on it than what shows, but it was a learning experience. Of course, a major part of that learning experience can be summed up as "Don't pick a figure wearing a trenchcoat as a base for a custom that needs small details added around the boundaries of said trenchcoat.

Josh, you live in SAN FRANCISCO! Of course you see the equivalent of "Rainbow Chiropractic." There's probably the equivalent in Chicago's gay neighborhood (the name of which is completely escaping me right now) as well. Travel even to the suburbs, and such a business would never survive.

Running out of steam for this discussion, so here are my final two cents.

I don't ever remember a time when Pat Robertson would get fairly extensive coverage on the evening news every time there's a major controversy. He and his ilk have always been around, it's just that they never received the level of media attention I see now. Ditto a lot of the articles about the rise of Christian-labeled businesses, references to "The Purpose Driven-Life" every time I turn around, and more. I can't even count the number of newly created Christian dating services I've been subjected to ads for (some local, some apparently national).

I'm well aware that "being Christian" and "being a rightwing fundamentalist bigot" are not synonymous. Making a public show of one's Christian faith in general is the fashion statement, and that means a percentage (probably a disproportionate percentage) of the rightwing fundamentalist bigot persuasion are more visible than they were before.

When have Eastern hemisphere English-speakers who like to generalize about the United States ever heard of Mormonism?

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In my experience, quite a few. Most of the people outside the U.S. I've corresponded with on the topic are aware there is this peculiar thing called Mormonism, they just don't have firsthand experience with it.

He he hehe. I almost wrote you this morning about the sale, Lou, but figured you already knew about it. Didya get anything? Their stock of the stuff I collect was pretty depleted, but I still picked up three BtVS figures this morning. Apparently they've already shipped. That's almost too bad, as I just spotted the Spawn "Wanda Simmons" figure who would make lovely custom fodder. Oh well. As expensive as their shipping is per figure, it's probably just as well.

For $17, don't you think you need that Cthulhu bust?!

Closest I've made it to Texas is Branson, MO, that that was scary enough, thankyouverymuch. Heck, Branson scared the Christian friend I was traveling with! I can't imagine what Dubya's homeland is like.

Is it true that Austin is an oasis of sanity, diversity, and tolerance, or is that a comforting myth that liberals like to tell themselves?

I don't see homosexuality being used as a cynical marketing ploy the way I see with Christianity.

 

Just a quick note, as someone who works in advertising/PR I believe that many commercial entities regularly advertise to the gay dollar. Witness Ford coming under fire from an extremist religious group for its ads in a gay magazine.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but they're advertising for the gay dollar in specialty publications, not in general interest venues. I see advertising for the Christian dollar everywhere, not just Christian-oriented publications.

Just as there were patroitic rich business-people who voted for Kerry or even Nader for the same reasons.

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Excuse me? Being liberal implies one is not "patriotic"?

Funny change 'Christian' to 'homosexual' and 'Republican' to 'gay lobby' and that's exactly the same as some people are saying.

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I'm sure people do say that , but the difference is that in actual practice I don't see homosexuality being used as a cynical marketing ploy the way I see with Christianity. May be a regional thing, but in any area I've lived in or visited, outside of a very few very geographically restricted gay communities and the pink pages, I doubt many businesspeople find it beneficial to identify themselves publicly as gay. That's not at all the case with Christianity. I drive past a clinic all the time with the name "Fish Chiropractic" and just in case one thinks the guy's name might be Fish, the sign is dominated by a GIGANTIC Jesus fish. Examples like that abound in even the most secular areas I frequent. When I start seeing "Rainbow Chiropractic" clinic signs with pictures of two men kissing, then I'll believe that being homosexual is in fashion.

I agree that idealogues on both sides are using hyperbole to make their cases, but I see a lot more attempts on the side of the Christian right to impose themselves on secular culture than the reverse. (And, speaking as a devout secularist, not only do I not care about the presence of Christmas trees on government property, I don't know a single other secularist who does. Yet, apparently, they're flashpoints in the war "we" are waging on Christianity. Sigh.)

I think it's a gross generalization but not entirely unjustifiable becasue there has been a rise in radical wierdo Christians, especially in the South.

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Do you believe there are really more extreme right wing Christians, or simply that they're getting more airtime than they used to?

Just to add onto the excellent points already discussed:

There has been a strange new trend the last fiew years of people classifying themselves as "evangelical" and wanting to only enjoy Christian media, Christian rock, Christian books, Christian TV, movies, etc. I've even heard of people making sure they only visit Christian dentists and spend their money with Christian stock brokerage firms and the like.

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Don't forget the Christian chiropractors and an entire nationwide chain of Christian craft stores (Hobby Lobby).

I tend to agree with Charlie on the five year-ish timeframe for some of the most visible Christian cultural isolationism, and I don't think it's a coincidence that this roughly coincides with the election of George Bush and those brown-skinned heathen furriners bombing the WTC. Right now, being visibly, flamboyantly Christian is in fashion, in much the same way that owning English Springer Spaniels was in vogue when the first Bush was in office. A lot probably has to do with the "us versus them" mentality the Republican party has managed to foster. I think a lot of the businesses labeling themselves "Christian" when religion has nothing to do with their services are doing so out of a desire to cash in on the trend rather than genuine religious feelings. (They may very well be Christian, don't get me wrong, but in a slightly different cultural climate wouldn't feel the need to proclaim it to the world in a business context).

That's not to deny that Christianity is a major influence on U.S. culture and politics in a way that it isn't in most European countries, just that even I - an increasingly cranky ultraliberal tree-hugging feminist atheist - expect the U.S. to snap out of the worst of this craziness.

I'm surprised the professor was picking on Colorado rather than Utah. Now there's a scary theocratic state, even moreso than what one sees in the deep South. At least in the South, the religious climate isn't dominated by a single denomination of Christianity the way it is in Utah.

GenGris, my best wishes that your ailment turns out to be an attack of nothing.

Unfortunately, I am often afflicted with severe honesty in office related matters, particularly when I think the requests are excessive.

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Hey! I have that condition too!

Rogan, I'm stunned, and so sorry. My condolences to everyone affected by the tragedy.

Boringly straight. The only girl who ever interested me wasn't interested in me. For reasons I don't understand, I'm usually assumed to be gay. (I'm told it's because of my hair. :huh:) The men I date are also usually assumed to be gay, often by their own parents. AFAIK, though, no one's ever assumed I'm a beard.

This is me as a child:

On the off chance Lou K hasn't seen this yet:

Thor Rolls a Joint