Vacation, holidays, return to work, plus a new season of television.

The holidays totally rock, especially since the company I work for sees fit to give some folks a little extra time off around December. This year, it was pretty much the last week of December. I had a little time to burn as well, and it turned in to a fabu almost-2-week sabbatical. Woo-hoo. Not that I don’t like my job — mostly I kinda do. But it’s always nice to get a little peace and quiet to sit around in. Sleep decadently late. Play silly games with the cat in the early afternoon sunlight. Lounge on the floor with the puppy watching soap operas. (He likes Passions. Seriously.) Play the video games that Santa brought. I’m a lucky girl — my Santa’s into technology.

And once I’d managed to work up a riotous case of sore thumbs, it was time to sober up and head back to the day-to-day, which always seems a bit harsh after such luxurious treatment.

Being that I spend most of my life online, I took a break from blogging as well. The smackdown I got from the unfriendly little worm kinda soured me on Pivot for a few days, anyhow. I don’t think the software sucks or anything… it’s more personal. Like I’m actually sort of annoyed at my installation for letting that bandying little bugger root around inside. I mean, God, have you no decency little program? Whoring yourself out to every little exploit down the block? You see what sort of icky diseases you can pick up? Man.

But now upon the sobering up I sort of forgive the little bastard, and, ho, let the blogging continue. Besides, there is lots of new media afoot.

Music

Entreat (from The Cure) finally made it into my CD collection this season. I’ve been looking for that record for ages and it completes my set of their full-length releases. Now I can satisfy my fandom by searching for the rest of the singles and the crazy promo posters and the like. It’s a sick fascination, but so pretty.

I suppose I could give a review to it or Three Imaginary Boys (remaster, 2-CD set), but it would be the same review I’d give any Cure album — lots of slobbering near-worship — so I’ll skip that part. There are some demos on the second CD of TIB that I didn’t have elsewhere, and it’s certainly worth it for that and the accompanying booklet with lots of adorable poses. You kinda have to love the band, though, to really get off on the songs produced in Robert’s garage in the 1970’s. I mean, I of course think it pure genius, but YMMV. Ah, obsession.

Depeche Mode Remixes. I like Depeche Mode a great deal, and it’s always fun to hear an adept cover, or an interesting cover. Several of either sort are found on this compilation, but there are also some bloody awful adaptations that should simply be skipped.

David Bowie, Aladdin Sane A classic. I heartily thank my uberboss for his recommendation of Ziggy-era Bowie. I had gotten a copy of Bowie’s Greatest Hits album, and, noticing it one day at work, he spoke at length of his love of this period of wackiness. I picked up in short order The Man Who Sold the World, which I already knew I liked because of an ex, and Ziggy Stardust and Space Oddity. All remarkable. AS is also incredible, but I still think Ziggy is my favorite. Though the song about the people who’ve forgotten how to have sex and get shown a how-to movie at the drive-in is really funny, and almost put AS over the top. Suffice to say, drugs were good for that crazy skinny strange little man.

Video games

The video game haul for this year was immense. Between my roommate and I, we’ve discovered the joys of rolling the world up into a ball. Katamari Damacy, my friends, is pure crack. Rock cocaine in the form of anime weirdness. It is easily the strangest (yet best) video game of the season. The controls are simple enough that a full-grown adult of a particularly technophobic age could master it easily. The concept is very clear, the rendering lush and interesting. Even after quite a few hours, the novelty of squashing pigs, dogs, ducks, sushi, erasers, caramels, paperclips, park benches, fishes, buildings, islands, and screaming people into your beautiful katamari does not wear off. The obviously narcotic theme music doesn’t hurt either. I can hear it in my head right now. We were humming it the other day on a walk through the park. It is infectious.

Silent Hill 4: The Room was another addition. I’ve only played through the first three locations, so I expect there is a great deal of game to go. So far it resembles the previous titles in this series — spooky, decently well-written, and fairly easy to play through. That last part is critical for me, as I’m truly terrible at actually defeating video games, even though I do enjoy trying. SH always provides a ridiculously easy ‘Easy’ setting, and I do thank them for it. There are still plenty of thrills and chills, lots of creatures to discover and fight, but they come in manageable numbers and seem to have fewer hit points. The premise of the new version is an adventure in a single room, and at first I was a bit hesitant — thoughts of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day came to mind and I really loathe that movie. Luckily, it was obvious that early in the game you escape the room through various portals and have adventures wandering around large, sprawling maps, with baddies lurking around every foggy well-rendered corner. A definite choice for a spooky late night session alone in our creaky house.

Atari Legacy Collection My mom, in her first video-game-purchasing foray in ages, scores high. A collection of all the games we played as kids, this was first in the X-Box. It includes Combat and Asteroids and Pole Position. Same sound. Same graphics. Only thing that’s changed is the controller, and that does take a bit of adjustment. But it’s still every bit as fun as it was when I was 8. Rock on.

Vampire the Masquerate: Bloodlines The game that is all the rage among my friends these days. The irony is: as much as I begged for this game, I haven’t even installed it. :( I should have asked Santa for a new hard drive. Sigh. I should have also asked him for more hours in a
day. Conflict: Vietnam and Cruise Ship Tycoon haven’t hit the CD bay either.

Movies and television

I picked up two awesome films from favorite series over the holidays, LOTR: Return of the King Extended Edition and Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban. Both were must-owns for me, beautiful funny wonderful films.

But what I really wanna blather on about is the start of new seasons of series I watch on TV. Gods, how I love t.v.. I love even more, of course, the invention of TiVo and DVRs in general, as well as the release of series television on DVD. Oh, 21 Jump Street and a young, hotttttttt Johnny Depp, how we’ve missed you!

After finally getting my roommate caught up on 24, we sat for the 2-hour premiere of the fourth season. SPOILER: If you haven’t seen the opener, you probably want to skip the next paragraph. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Jack Bauer is, once again, breaking the rules of CTU. Big shock. So far, there has been no appearance of Daughter Useless, except in expository conversation. (Apparently she and hot agent Bionic Hand are gettin’ all domestic in the Midwest.) And there is the overwhelmingly exciting addition of Alberta Watson (Madeline from La Femme Nikita) as the new and incredibly bitchy head of Jack’s former employers. She fired Jack Heroinface, of course, but his dismissal from the agency allowed him to capitalize on his political earnings to remain doing gov’mint work. And gov’mint workers. Like the senators daughter. Cause, you know, without Daughter Useless, they gotta have some blonde thing to do dumb shit and get kidnapped. But Madeline. Oh yeah. And, according to imdb, Operations won’t be far behind. If only Sherry Palmer were alive to see this.

MI-5 also premiered — finally — on A&E. It had been a long wait, and at the moment, I’ll be waiting a little longer. Catching up on 24 took up the entirety of my weekend TV budget, so the episode that will hopefully explain just what the hell Tom is going to do to get back is on-deck in the TiVo. There are two more episodes of 24 tomorrow, but I think I might be able to squeeze in some more secret agent action before it’s over.

And before Lost. Lost just keeps getting better. Creepier. More MST3K-able. Because there is the Hobbit, and the presence of the hobbit somehow invites snickering. Especially since he is so… sensitive. Poor little sensitive hobbit.

Speaking of Hobbits, my TiVo was kind enough to record for me one late-night HBO gem titled Lord of the G-Strings. My curiousity overrode my common sense, obviously, and I can tell you that this, um, film is set in the land of Diddle Earth. It is a tale of the Throbbits of Throbbiton and their dealings with the One G-String, a rather uncomfortable-looking faux-leather and paper-clip panty. Throbbits are — of course — horny little bastards and Smirnoff (yes, Smirnoff) is a rather drunken old wizard who keeps asking folks to, ahem, hold his wand. Um, thanks, TiVo? Yipes.

However, it would make a great candidate for Geek Peek. Michael.

But in the real television-I-asked-for-thanks-anyway-TiVo world, the show with the non-horny hobbit (Well, maybe. He was kinda jonesing for that pregnant chick.) is now followed by Alias. It’s the first really good TV night since Buffy went away. It’s great plot that isn’t afraid to be ridiculous and silly; A pair of series that frequently throw bones to the fans and keep them guessing from one cliffhanger to the next.

The tiny talking box is niiiiiice….

And that about covers vacation. Movies. TV. Good friends. Good wine. Video games. And the puppy.

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