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lunasarielI hope everyone had a merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, kickass Kwanzaa, splendid Solstice, super Saturnalia, Festivus for the rest of us, etc. I was busy running around attending to family stuff, so I didn't get to shopping for gifts until laaaaate. Luckily, though, my friends and I don't exchange gifts until New Year's (J's birthday is the 29th, he's Jewish, H and I are nominally Wiccan, and C is recovering Catholic, so having separate get-togethers for Christmas and Hannukah and Yule and New Year's and J's birthday seems a bit much), and I was even mostly prepared for today's family gift exchanges. I'm really pleased with my gifts this year: normally I'm bollocks at buying stuff for people, but this year, thanks to a combination of inspiration, hints, and outright asking people what they want (an old favorite), I think most people will like what they got this year. My dad, who is a real John Muir type, got a copy of Walden, which I think he was pleased with. My brother, a major math/science/scifi nerd, got Science of the Impossible, which explains the scientific basis for scifi tech like phasers, teleportation, time travel, etc. My mom is getting a Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack CD to replace the one she lost, although that one hasn't arrived yet. C asked for Pandemic (a board game) and a gift certificate to the archery place, both of which he's getting. H asked for, and is getting, a replica of the 11th Doctor's sonic screwdriver. While I was on the BBC America website getting that, I found a customizable sonic screwdriver that can be that of any of the 11 Doctors, or a mix-and-match combo thereof, so J's getting that, as well as the first Science of Discworld.
My Christmas itself was pretty mellow. I upheld my annual tradition of being sick over Christmas, although this wasn't the usual cold/mild flu, but just a really, really persistent headache and utter lack of energy. Like "I slept for 14 out of the past 24 hours, and I'm still tired" lack of energy. This wasn't helped by my family's tradition of going hiking on Christmas Day, although if I wasn't sick, I would have had a blast. We went hiking at Foothill Regional Park, which is a couple of towns away, and it was pretty easy. One of the trails we went on was called West Side Trail, which, of course, necessitated us to belt out showtunes and nerdy Christmas carols until we ran out of ones that we could remember.
That was pretty much the highlight of the day. I've officially edged into the "too old to get Christmas presents" category, as far as most of my family is concerned, and P will be headed there too in a couple of years. We had my mom's famous drumsticks instead of the usual turkey for dinner. I was in charge of pie and stuffing, both of which turned out rather well. The pie was chocolate, and I feared disaster when I realized that I'd forgotten to bake the pre-made crust (I usually use a graham cracker crust, which doesn't require baking), but people actually seemed pleased with it. Likewise, I was making stuffing from a box for the first time, and I was worried about the quality of the pre-made mix as well as the lack of drippings to incorporate, but again, it came out unexpectedly well (with the addition of some sautéed onions). I'm blessed with a family that hates all my least favorite parts of traditional holiday meals (pumpkin anything, yams/sweet potatoes, and cranberries *grinch*), so I had waaay too much of everything.
After our mini-feast, we went to the movies. The original plan was for for me, my mom, my sister, RG (our neighbor/tenant and my mom's BFF/fourth child/friend-with-benefits [I think; long story]), and I to see Tintin, while my brother P to go see the new Sherlock Holmes, but it ended up with everyone except my mom and my sister going to Sherlock Holmes instead. P had already seen Tintin, RG generally scoffs at anything that isn't an obscure and horribly-made marital arts movie from the 70s, and I wanted something to compare the new season of Sherlock, which kicks off on New Year's Day (squee!) to, especially on the off chance that it sucks and I need to make myself feel better about the squandered promise.
As long as I could turn my brain off and just watch a fairly competent action movie, SH2 was enjoyable. Once I start to try to compare it to any version of canon, though, it falls right the hell apart, especially when it comes to the main character. ACD's Sherlock Holmes might dress up as a woman, especially to save Watson's life, but only if there were no other alternative, and he would definitely never, *ever* wisecrack or spout off witty one-liners or homoeroticism-laden innuendo while doing so (the innuendo itself, while pleasing from a shippy fangirl's point of view, did seem drastically out of place, even in this odd action movie version of Victorian England). Holmes in general had none of the suaveness, none of the dignity, none of the wisdom that I associate with him. This Holmes just kind of bumbles around until he finds something cool and goes from there.
That's not to say it was a total waste of time, though! Although the wedding got about two seconds of screentime, and most of those were taken up with Sherlock obviously fretting about Moriarty, it did eventually lead to Mary being unceremoniously literally dropped from the plot, which in turn led to her meeting up with Stephen Fry's delightfuly blasé Mycroft, with whom she presumably went on to have some truly kickass adventures while Holmes and Watson fooled around with bombs. Also, the number and variety of fight scenes and/or stuff blowing up was unsatisfying on an intellectual level, but satisfying as hell on an emotional level. I'm also not sure whether or not Irene is really dead; it seems kinda odd that she would have been killed offscreen and forgotten about so quickly. I hope she isn't, as, while I'm not crazy about Irene as a character (especially as portrayed here), she was fun, and her one scene in SH2 was enjoyable.
Today, my mom, my sister, and I went to go see The Nutcracker in San Francisco, something we haven't done in several years. It used to be an immutable yearly tradition, but in 2005 or so, they switched production designers or something, and that year's run was awful. It was spare, minimalistic, edgy, used a lot of unnecessary flashy tech, and was explicitly set in 1915 San Francisco, all of which detracted from the performacne. To me, at least, The Nutcracker is nothing if it isn't big, lavish, and magical. It has no place in the real world; it's all about the warm-and-fuzzy, candy-colored, adventure-filled, slightly scary reality that most people leave behind when they turn eight. They did away with most of the big, lush set pieces, opting instead for bare stages with a backdrop, and maybe some curtains off to the side. No more glowing grandfather clock striking twelve with a bat-like Godfather Drosselmeyer perced on top, just someone ringing a bell from the orchestra pit. No more elaborate environments for the dancing sweets, just some generic "I'm from China/Russia/etc." costumes. The piece no longer opens on the street scene that I'm pretty sure is standard, but a CGI'd slideshow of San Francisco in the first couple of decades of the 20th century, which was also annoying.
Of course, it wasn't all bad. The original opening scene that I loved, the street scene that had an almost Dickensian-Christmassy feel to it, was still there, albeit in a reduced form. The entirety of the party in Act I was just as gorgeous as I remember it, and the kids danced their hearts out very impressively. The last scene of Act 1, the Snowflake Dance, was lovely, and the stylized costumes worn by the "horses" of the Prince's sleigh were intricate silver filigree: gorgeous as well as inventive. The battle with the Mouse King's army was a significant improvement of the blackly humorous, farcical disaster it was last time, but was still a little too self-aware and tongue-in-cheek for my taste. Like I said, The Nutcracker only works when it's innocent.
Before the show, though, we upheld another family tradition and had a flat-out phenomenal meal at Max's. Max's strength really is in its desserts, and the sirloin with grilled onions, fries, and creamed spinach my mom and I split was good but not amazing, but the dessert more than made up for it. I got something, I forget the name, involving brownies, coffee ice cream, hot fudge, and caramel sauce. It was glorious, and I'm not in the least bit sorry that eating it required me to go on a strict no-sugar, no-fats diet for about a month. 'Nuff said.
Aside from the usual holiday kerfuffle, though, my life seems to just have slo-o-o-o-wed down once I got back from Berkeley. My reading pace has fallen off sadly (with the notable exception of the lovely coincidence where I happened to reach the point where the Fellowship leaves Rivendell actually on Christmas Day, which gave me a warm little glow of nerdjoy), I've done barely any work on The Fic (which is getting way too self-involved for its own good. Dammit, why do I set out to write a funny, light-hearted parody and end up with pining and depression and EMOTIONS?), and I just generally can't seem to get anything done, so there hasn't really been any of my usual nerdy fare to post about (except, of course, for the Hobbit trailer, but that's been covered in more depth and with much more skill elsewhere. My take: I'm still worried about sensationalization and prettifying characters like the Dwarves, but the appearances of Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, and Martin Freeman [who, by the way, is flat-out perfect. Good for PJ & Co. for holding out for him instead of re-casting the role!] as Bilbo have me in paroxysms of glee).
