krazy kat's korner

I survived. Actually did surprisingly well.

A tidbit for the West Wingers.

One of the guests was Tony Amendola. As well as his recurring role on SG1, he has guest starred in a multitude of tv shows. Including West Wing - "Game On" as Qumari U.N. Ambassador Ali Nissir. I asked him out of the guest roles he's done, were there any that particularly stood out or that he really wanted. I got the answer I'd been hoping for.

He said West Wing. Every actor wanted to do it and he would've been so disappointed if he hadn't been able to. And he got to work with John Spencer, the day after John's Emmy win. He praised him and said that John Spencer was the person character actors looked up to. He said he told John things along those lines, and John was telling him to stop it and brushing it off (he did a good imitation of John). Tony said there were two people he'd wanted to work with, John and Hector Elizondo, and he got to work with both. His respect for John was very touching.

When I got my autograph signed, I thanked Tony for sharing that story.

Oh, and his other favourite guest star role was on Angel which he said was a lot of fun.

My other brother called at 10 tonight. He said he was supposed to be in bed an hour before (he's on early shift which I think is a 6 or 6.30am start), but West Wing had sucked him in (ABC was showing the final ep of season 4 and the first ep of season 5). He said, "I have to know, does Zoey survive?" He loved Toby and the twins :)

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Budgies went to the vet this morning to have their nails clipped. Quite an adventure. First getting them in the boxes (2 in each). I think Danny was trying to fly in it, because for the first few minutes all we heard was a thump as a little head hit the top of the box. Dad put his finger through a hole in the side of that box, and a little bird (probably Woodstock) came and sat on it. CJ and Snoopy were very good in their box.

CJ managed to escape the vet's clutches twice, but being a small room and CJ's habit of running into things, the vet kept on ending up with CJ sprawled against her. But the poor little bird was so exhausted and anxious you could hear his breathing :( A couple of nails bled (he has long veins in some of them) and they had to be cauterised. As soon as she got CJ out she said what a beautiful bird he is.

Snoopy was pretty good, though gave her a few bites. She nearly lost Danny, he was a little more difficult, but she also commented on his beautiful sapphire colour. And Woody was a shock. He behaved and didn't grumble. Don't know what was wrong with him. We think he may have a bit of a problem, he doesn't seem to be able to stretch his legs out much. He waddles and can't stand up tall like the others. Doesn't interfere with his climbing and playing though.

They had problems when we got them home, their nails don't grip the perches as well and there were a few slides off. And after their fly we had to clean CJ's and Danny's feet with iodine and parrafin oil to clear up an infection. Poor CJ has had enough today.

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On Catalyst they just started a little series: This TV documentary series follows the journey of Australia’s brightest student biologists, fighting for a chance to bring home gold from the International Biology Olympiad.Thousands try, twenty-four made the shortlist, but only four will make the Australian team.

BATTLE OF THE BRAINS is the inside story of the world’s toughest teen biology competition, and what it takes to compete with the smartest kids in the world.

I'm hooked! There's a website if anyone's interested.

Would anyone please be able to send me the Entertainment Weekly with the West Wing ending article? I'll pay you somehow.

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Any Wire in the Blood fans, a gorgeous vid here. Including lovely Carol/Tony (it's just not going to be the same without her). And now I want to watch my dvds.

I'm sad but relieved.

While I was pretty certain it would end this season, I was worried that Wells may try to do an ER. For me this show has always been about Bartlet and Leo, CJ and Toby, Josh and Sam, Donna, Charlie, Abbey...and everyone else. It was about the Bartlet administration, not the office of President. I went in expecting it to end with them leaving office. And I'm relieved it has lived it's natural life cycle.

While it hasn't been the same show for me the past few years, I haven't been able to let go. And I don't know what I'm going to do knowing that Allison won't be on tv each week.

What I'm sadder about is the probable death of what little remains of the fandom, or at least my little corner of it. My time online has already diminished incredibly, and there's so little commonality left.

Apparently when little Logan was born, they found my cousin was a week further along than they thought, so ~30 weeks.

My Gilmore Girls and West Wing season 5 dvds arrived today (I'm getting annoyed with how long amazon is taking). My Seaquest dvds were sent today (so will have to wait about 3 weeks), and yesterday they sent That's Entertainment Trilogy (actually 4 dvds, I've been wanting them for ages to replace my videos, bought it with the gift certificate the lovely Rhonda sent me for Chrissie). Also getting a few movies (including a few with Allison in little parts).

Stolen from everyone:

Name a fandom you know I know and I'll tell you:

1. The first character I first fell in love with
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't
4. The character I love that everyone else hates
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer
6. The character I would shag anytime
7. The character I'd want to be like
8. The character I'd slap
9. A pairing that I love
10. A pairing that I despise

'West Wing' Actor John Spencer Dies at 58

and cast reactions (season 6 and 7 references)

This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey you. Can you help me out?' The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by, 'Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.'

West Wing in Australia.

( 9 has sold it to ABC...but when will we see the rest of season 5? )

Maybe we need to ask them to start up in season 5, otherwise they're going to cop the wrath.

The West Wing: The American Presidency As Television Drama edited by Peter C. Rollins and John E. O'Connor

A mixed bag. I'm probably just dumb, but I found some of the essays too academic in style and requiring background knowledge I don't possess.

And I was going to strangle the next writer who felt the need to tell me the show was unrealistic and real West Wing staff spend most of their time on the phone or doing boring paperwork. Well, duh! It's a television series, which is always hyper-realistic (and I'm probably using the completely wrong term), and that's the same for police/hospital/law/etc tv series. Do you think viewers are going to watch an hour of paperwork and phone calls? I read a quote in the Police News the other day which said that policing was 2 hours of boredom, followed by a couple of minutes of sheer terror, followed by 6 hours of paperwork.

Memo to John Podhoretz: your argument may (though I doubt it) carry more weight if you didn't have several factual mistakes regarding the plot of the pilot episode.

By far the most interesting and informative was the final essay, The Transformed Presidency - People and Power in the Real West Wing, by Myron A. Levine, which looked at how the role of West Wing staff, presidential advisors, cabinet secretaries etc has changed over various Presidencies.


The Last Temptation by Val McDermid

The third novel in the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series, and the first that I hadn't seen a televised version of. I very much like McDermid's writing style, and adore Tony and Carol (so close yet even further apart). A disturbing read (and I fear a favourite of Scientologists).