subterranian marching band

Fandom space seems to be all tied up in knots of springtime hysteria, so I made this new icon.

By the way, how come nobody told me Joe Flannigan guest starred in Warehouse 13? I had no idea! I was dozing through episode 5 or so, and he just APPEARED!!!

... yes, I have no clue whatsoever what the plot was. He was hot, his hair was spectacular, he flirted, angsted and ran around in a nice coat and was ambiguously evil-ish. Staring at surprise Joe Flannigan tends to overwhelm my brain to the point where plot doesn't get processed. One thing I have noticed and found hysterical - his character's date of birth was given as 1970. Aww. Don't feel self-conscious about your age, Joe! Seriously, he still looks about 30 to me.

Other than that, I can't get into Warehouse 13 at all. The writing and acting is too deliberately cutesy for my taste, though that happens often during first seasons as the characters muddle through the setup and get lined up for their arcs. The visual style is somehow underwhelming, but again, maybe I just expected full-on steampunkery, which the concept of the series seemed to promise, and now I'm disappointed.

My husband keeps complaining about this type of gender dynamic. I haven't really noticed till he first pointed it out, years ago actually, but it does seem to dominate the mainstream shows right now. The male/female buddy cop type setup tends to have the woman bossy, uptight, emotionally guarded, perfectly poised, but of course with a squishy warm heart underneath the prickly surface. The man is a doofus, infantile and lovably roguish, the one who does all the pratfalls while the woman eye-rolls, but of course he's competent and strong underneath all that clownish exterior. Apart from Warehouse 13, I can immediately name Chuck, Castle and Bones as examples.

Yeah, I guess it's a direct reverse of the gender dynamic as it was portrayed for most of the last century - randomly poking at my DVD shelf, Sound of Music is an example. It's probably more than that, probably a commentary about women being held to different standards both socially and professionally (probably. I'm currently wearing a pair of giant yellow pedicure slippers and my NaNoWriMo 2009 shirt and I just told my boss that an hour is not enough to proof all the stupid out of our latest business proposal, so I'm not really attuned to that stuff).

And you know, I'm not actually sick of this dynamic, I like Castle (though I do find Beckett a bit bland), and I like Sarah (though Chuck is such an avatar of the intended audience, he's barely visible) and I love Bones. But I wish we had more female leads like Toph from Avatar: the Last Airbender.

So this Monday I felt a bit meh and to cheer myself up I randomly went for an audition at my local community theatre. 

Yay: I got the main part! \o/ Well, granted, it wasn't like there was fierce competition or something, but still. 
Umm: The character is a woman in her forties. Duuude. My mum is barely out of her forties! I'm going to tell myself I was cast due to my diverse acting ability and not because I look, um, wise beyond my years. The fact that I'm also playing a minor role of mother-in-law in their other play is also due to diverse acting ability. Yes, I'm sure that's it.
Hell yeah: The play I've got the main part in totally opens with my character graphically reminiscing about playing a bdsm game. This is going to be awesome.