Category: lists

oink

Happy New Year! As you may well already know, it’s Chinese New Year. It’s year 4705 (For some fun information and descriptions of traditional Chinese New Year’s traditions, check out these couple of cool posts on the topic by YTSL.)
piggybank.jpg
Anyhow, this year is year of the pig. (Also called year of the boar. But I prefer pig.) And while I may not be able to manage much in the way of festivities for the day (I’m away from home and forgot to pack any festive red clothing), I offer this post as a small token of celebration. To welcome in the new Year of the Pig, I’ve put together a small list of some of my own favorite pigs. (These are a few of my favorite pigs…)

  1. Piggy. Nine Inch Nails. This song has these great opening words:

    hey pig
    yeah you
    hey pig piggy pig pig pig

    2. pigs.jpg

  2. Piggies. The Beatles. A classic song. “Have you seen the little piggies, living piggy lives”
  3. Small Pig, by Arnold Lobel. This was one of the first books I ever read. It’s about a little pig (a small pig, if you will), who liked to lounge around in a mud puddle. When he gets kicked out of his puddle and forcibly cleaned up, he runs off to find a new mud puddle.( Acceptable neatness standards be damned!)
  4. Charlotte’s Web. E.B. White. That Wilbur is “some pig.” This is one of my all-time favorite books of childhood. (I haven’t seen the recent movie, by the way, and not sure I can bear to.)charlotteweb.png
  5. Piglet. From the books by A. A. Milne. In the world of Winnie-the-Pooh, I identify most with Piglet. I’m a worrier. (Strangely enough, I couldn’t score a Piglet on the 100 Acre Personality Test. I got Pooh, and when I tried to adjust my answers to be what I thought was more Piglet-like, I got Owl, and then Kanga…)
  6. The Flying Pig sketches from The Kids in the Hall. Bruce McCulloch plays Flying Pig, a flying pig who appears on the scene to rescue people from boredom while they are standing in line. (By the way, I once bought a “flying pig” mug in the airport Cincinatti, Ohio, while waiting for a connecting flight. That city seems to have adapted the slogan “where pigs fly,” based on the “when pigs fly” idiom. And developed a lot of merchandising to go along with it. I bought the mug because of my affinity for the Kids in the Hall, and their flying pig. And my affinity for coffee mugs. And I suppose somewhat for my affinity for pigs.) Anyhow, back to the Kids in the Hall flying pig. I found some of the sketches on YouTube. Here’s one. Enjoy.


[update 4/28/09: the old video was taken down, so I replaced it.]

kick-ass women TV shows I don’t know well (or at all)

Here’s another list for my ongoing kick-ass women project. (For your reference, I have an index to previous lists in the project.) I seem to be getting to the end of my lists, and soon I’ll be moving on to phase two: world domination. No, wait. That’s Starbucks. My next phase will be to start actually working at qualifying and quantifying what it means to be a kick-ass woman. Or at least what I mean when I say “kick-ass woman.” But first, a few more lists.

Anyhow, this list is following up on my last 2 lists of favorite kick-ass women TV shows (1 & 2). This time, the list is of shows I either never watched, or didn’t see much of, but that prominently feature (or at least appear to prominently feature) kick-ass women. And this list includes some of the glaring omissions from the previous lists. (Again, shows are listed chronologically by start date.)

Some kick-ass women TV shows I didn’t watch

  1. The New Avengers (1976-1977)
    Starred Joanna Lumley as Purdy. The most I have seen of this show was actually as a snip in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous. This show is supposed to bear little resemblance to the previous Avengers incarnations, aside from the presence of Patrick MacNee resuming his role of John Steed. But I’m still pretty curious.
  2. Cagney & Lacey (1982-1988)
    This cop series with Sharon Gless (Cagney) and Tyne Daly (Lacey) was on for quite a few years, but I’m not sure I ever saw a single episode.
  3. The X-files (1993-2002)
    I never watched this show, but I have, of course, heard of it. My spy network informs me that Gillian Anderson kicked ass as Dana Scully.
  4. Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001)
    I’ve seen maybe a couple of episodes of this, or possibly only parts of episodes, but actually had trouble getting into its particular flavor of campiness. (I realized many of the shows and movies I enjoy are definitely campy.) I think it was mostly the other characters that I found irritating. But I fully acknowledge the supreme kick-assedness of Xena.
  5. Dark Angel (2000-2002)
    Never saw it. Don’t know much about it. Jessica Alba stars as a “genetically enhanced superhuman prototype.” Which sounds like definite kick-ass potential.
  6. Kim Possible (2002-????)
    Don’t know much about this animated show. I understand it’s about a girl (voiced by Christy Carlson Romano) who can do anything. Which sounds appealing.
  7. She Spies (2002-2004)
    I know nothing about this beyond, well, the title. I’m guessing it’s a spy show. With females. Hence the feminine third person subject. Was somewhat short-lived. Starred Natasha Henstridge, Natashia Williams and Kristen Miller. (Funny –how often do you have 2 Natash(i)as in the same cast?)
  8. Commander in Chief (2005-2006)
    Geena Davis plays President of the US. (That is potentially an even cooler role than pirate.) I should probably see this. I’ve read that it’s good. And I like Geena Davis.
  9. Heroes (2006-????)
    A new show about superheroes. Haven’t seen it. I’ve heard it’s pretty good. I don’t know all the details, but there had better be at least one kick-ass woman on the show. (Anyone care to enlighten me?)

    10. One more item:

  10. Charlie’s Angels (1976-1981)
    I’m not sure what I think about this one. Strange as it may seem, I don’t really remember watching this show as a kid. It was certainly a presence, though. I must have seen a few episodes. And I remember kids playing Charlie’s Angels, etc. Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson played the brunettes, and a string of others (Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack & Tanya Roberts) play the blonde. But I’m not sure to what extent these women kicked ass. Isn’t this the show about which the expession “jiggle TV” was coined?

eat your hearts out

It’s Valentine’s Day again. And one thing that means is the annual return of little candy hearts. Little chalky-tasting pieces of candy, shaped like hearts, and with text printed on them. These are a bizarre tradition, but apparently one that’s been around for well over a hundred years.

The original traditional candy hearts were started by NECCO, The New England Confectionary Company, in the 1800’s, and that company still dominates the little candy heart trade today. The official name of their hearts is “Sweethearts® Conversation Hearts”. Typically, the little hearts have sayings like “be mine” and “kiss me” stamped on them. I hadn’t realized, but apparently they change the assortment of sayings on the hearts from year to year. This year, according to their website, the theme is inpired by animal lovers, with sayings such as “top dog”, “my pet”, “purr fect”. (These may be particularly popular among furries this year.)

and.jpg I picked up a box of the NECCO Sweethearts at a local convenience store. Not because I like to eat them, or give them. But because I was amused to see that “and” was stamped on a couple of the hearts. Now with conjunctions! go_home.jpg (My set didn’t have the animalistic sayings, though. Perhaps I have some of last year’s batch. But how can you tell if these things are stale? Does chalk go stale?) Other than “and,” though, there weren’t any other random function words. But there was “go home,” which seemed oddly cynical for these folks.

And in case the sweetness of the traditional hearts is too saccharine for your tastes, you can now buy BitterSweets:

Now available in TWO unique collections, “Dejected” and “Dysfunctional,” featuring up to 37 unique sayings each!

“Dejected” sayings include:

I MISS MY EX | PEAKED AT 17 | MAIL ORDER | TABLE FOR 1
I CRY ON Q | U C MY BLOG? | REJECT PILE | PILLOW HUGGIN
ASYLUM BOUND | DIGNITY FREE | PROG FAN | STATIC CLING
WE HAD PLANS | XANADU 2NITE | SETTLE 4LESS | NOT AGAIN

“Dysfunctional” sayings include:

RUMORS TRUE | PRENUP OKAY? | HE CAN LISTEN | GAME ON TV
CALL A 900# | P.S. I LUV ME | DO MY DISHES | UWATCH CMT
PAROLE IS UP! | BE MY YOKO | U+ME=GRIEF | I WANT HALF
RETURN 2 PIT | NOT MY MOMMY | BE MY PRISON | C THAT DOOR?

What with technological advances, we now can also get virtual little candy hearts. Here’s one generated just for me when I filled out a quiz. And unlike some other results I’ve had on these things, this one kinda fits me.


Your Candy Heart Says “Get Real”


You’re a bit of a cynic when it comes to love.
You don’t lose your head, and hardly anyone penetrates your heart.

Your ideal Valentine’s Day date: is all about the person you’re seeing (with no mentions of v-day!)

Your flirting style: honest and even slightly sarcastic

What turns you off: romantic expectations and “greeting card” holidays

Why you’re hot: you don’t just play hard to get – you are hard to get

But for many years, I’ve wanted to compose my own little candy hearts. And while NECCO can print up special batches of hearts for you, I’m not sure I’m ready for this level of commitment:

Got a special message for your sweetheart? NECCO can custom imprint Sweethearts Conversation Hearts, if you’re willing to buy a full production run – approximately 3,500 pounds of the six-flavored candies or 1.6 million individual hearts.

But have no fear. Now there are websites that let you make up your own candy hearts, and spare you the sugar overload. One such is this one, which has allowed me to engrave the following sentiments in virtual candy:

istalku.jpegloser.jpegsucking.jpeg

But while the large size of the candy hearts above allows for longer expressions and therefore a greater range of possibilities, my favorite little candy heart generator is the ACME Heart Generator. Like the hearts I remember from my childhood, and like those you can still find today, the size of the heart is small. The text is limited to 1 or 2 lines of 4 characters each. And these constraints provide a bit more of a challenge.

Here are some of the ones I’ve come up with. Enjoy.

biteme-yellow.jpgblahblah.jpgoop_ack.jpgbro-ken.jpgdick.jpgdorkface.jpgfishlips.jpgfoot.jpgholyshit.jpgmyass.jpgrong.jpgscru.jpgyousuck.jpgbit-chy.jpgin_hell.jpglusr.jpgmilf.jpgmoo.jpgno_hope.jpgoh_crap.jpgwtf.jpgyo_dude.jpgdumb_fuck.jpgran-dom.jpg

dude looks like a lady, lady looks like a dude

Or, the clothes make the man (look like a woman or the woman look like a man)

As I promised last night, while reflecting on the cross-dressing tendencies of the females of our household, I’ve put together a list of some cross-dressing instances in theater, film and TV. The entertainment media show us a host of reasons for donning the garb of the opposite gender. Whether it’s a lifestyle choice, or for some pragmatic or work-related reason, we see a variety of possible benefits.

The list below is a bunch of movies, shows and plays that feature some sort of cross-dressing, that have further been tagged and sorted by additional features.

1. We have two main types, as in two main genders. So representatives will be tagged:

  • (m->f): male dressing as female (dude looks like a lady)

    • and

  • (f->m): female dressing as male (lady looks like a dude)

    • 2. (kaw) Also note that a lot of these movies and shows also have been highlighted in lists of my kick-ass women project, so I’ll tag them, too. Especially those involving women dressing in men’s clothes. (Coincidence?)

    Movies, shows and plays that feature cross-dressing

    1. First, we have movies featuring transgendered or transexual folk:

    • Some dramas:
  • Glen or Glenda (1953) (m->f)
    Ed Wood stars, Ed Wood directs. Ed Wood wears fuzzy angora sweaters. Known (as are all of Ed Wood’s films) as a wonderfully bad movie. I need to see this some time.
  • The Crying Game (1992) (m->f)
    Yes, I know I just spoiled the surprise ending.
  • Boys Don’t Cry (1999) (f->m)
    Hilary Swank plays a teenage boy who was born biologically female. (Another one I haven’t seen. I hear it’s very good.)
    • Drag Queens of the stage:
  • Kinky Boots (2005) (m->f)
    Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Lola, a drag queen who needs some new shoes.
  • The Bird Cage (1996) (m->f)
    Nathan Lane plays a stage queen. Also pretends to be a woman off the stage to fool some folks.
  • La Cage aux Folles (1978), La Cage aux Folles II (1980), La Cage aux Folles 3 (1985) (m->f, m->f->m)
    Haven’t actually seen these. “The Bird Cage” was based on the first one. The second involves man pretending to be woman pretending to be man, from what I understand.
    • Road-tripping drag queens:
  • The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) (m->f)
    A drag queen goes on an Australian road trip.
  • To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995) (m->f)
    Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo as drag queens in an American road trip movie.

    • 2. Often, cross-dressing can be a work-related activity. In many cases, it can be about landing a job:

    • For example, for men who aspire to become a nanny, it may be helpful to pretend to be a woman:
  • Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) (m->f)
    Robin Williams impersonates a woman to land a role as his kids’ nanny.
  • Arrested Development (2003-2006) (m->f)
    Ther was a story arc about Mrs. Featherbottom: Tobias (David Cross) “disguises” himself as a woman to play a nanny in the spirit of Mrs. Doubtfire. His family pretends to be fooled because they got a cleaner house out of the deal.
    • Police and spy jobs often require clever disguises for undercover work. And what could be more cleverly disguising than opposite-gendered apparel?
  • Barney Miller (1975-1982) (m->f)
    Periodically, the men/detectives of the cast/department dress up (unconvincingly) as women in order to entrap potential solicitation offenders, muggers, or others.
  • Charlie’s Angels (2000) (f->m)
    Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore disguise themselves in suits and facial hair to infiltrate a tech company.
  • White Chicks (2004) (m->f)
    Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans play FBI agents. Two (black) dudes masquerade as two (white) chicks. For some reason or another. (Haven’t seen it.)
  • Supercop a.k.a.Police Story 3: Supercop/Jing cha gu shi III: Chao ji jing cha (1992) (m->f, kaw)
    Uncle (Bill Tung) makes an appearance as the mother of Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh, who are pretending to be brother and sister for an undercover assignment.
  • Supercop 2/Chao ji ji hua (1993) (m->f, kaw)
    Jackie Chan makes a cameo. In drag. I’m not really sure why.
    • Getting into, or out of, the military by way of getting into transgendered clothing:
  • MASH (1972-1983) (m->f)
    Klinger (Jamie Farr) spends several seasons dressing in women’s clothes to try to get out of the army.
  • Mulan (1998) (f->m, kaw)
    A girl pretends to be a boy in order to join the army.
  • Futurama (1999-????) (f->m, kaw)
    The episode with balls. Bouncing balls. (Called “War is the H-word”) Leela disguises herself as a man to join the army to keep an eye on Fry and Bender (who joined the army to get a discount on gum.)
    • Getting onto the screen or stage:
  • Shakespeare in Love (1998) (f->m)
    Set in Elizabethan England, when/where only men were allowed to act on the stage. Gwynneth Paltrow pretends to be a young man in order to land a role in Shakespeare’s new play.
  • Tootsie (1982) (m->f)
    Dustin Hoffman dons wig and dress to land a soap opera role.
  • Victor/Victoria (1982) (f->m->f)
    Julie Andrews plays a (male) female impersonator.
  • Farewell My Concubine/Ba wang bie ji (1993) (m->f)
    Leslie Chung (a man, by the way…ambiguous name and all) plays an actor in the Peking Opera who plays female roles on the stage.
    • And like for the Peking Opera and the Shakespearean stage, sometimes real-life actors in more recent times play roles of the opposite gender:
  • Peter Pan (f->m)
    The play written by J. M. Barrie. Stage performances of this play written by J. M. Barrie commonly feature women (Maude Adams, Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan) playing the lead role, a boy.
  • Iron Monkey/ Siu nin Wong Fei Hung ji Tit Ma Lau (1993) (f->m)
    The young boy, Wong Fei-Hung, is played by a girl (Sze-Man Tsang).
    • There’s the related sketch comedy tradition:
  • Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-1974) (m->f)
    The chaps (Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Eric Idle) don dresses, and speak in sqeaky voices. (I don’t remember Terry Gilliam ever appearing in a dress.)
  • Kids in the Hall (1988-1994) (m->f)
    The kids (Dave Foley, Scott Thompson, Mark McKinney, Bruce McCulloch and Kevin McDonald) wear a lot of dresses, and a lot of wigs. And sometimes make very convincing women.

    • 3. And finally, we have a bunch of miscellaneous reasons for cross-dressing. Prizes! Disguises! Housing! Respect! Modesty!

  • News Radio (1995-1999) (m->f)
    The episode where Dave Foley wins a costume contest by donning a wig and a little black dress. A bit of a tribute to his Kids in the Hall days.
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon/Wo hu cang long (2000) (f->m, kaw)
    Zhang Ziyi runs off with a stolen sword and disguises herself as a young man. (Leading to that incredible scene where she fights a restaurant-full of men. And trashes the restaurant. Not that I condone the trashing of restaurants. I just love that scene.)
  • Twelfth Night (f->m)
    Play by Shakespeare. Made into bunches of movies, including She’s the Man (2006). Woman Viola pretends to be her brother. (I’m not actually sure on the motivation for this. Shamefully haven’t read or seen the play. Or movies.)
  • Just One of the Guys (1985) (f->m)
    Haven’t seen it. High school gal pretends to be a high school guy in order to be taken seriously.
  • Some Like it Hot (1959) (m->f)
    Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon disguise themselves as women to hide out from the mob. (And get to hang out with Marylin Monroe.)
  • Bosom Buddies (1980-1982) (m->f)
    Peter Scolari and Tom Hanks pretend to be women in order to get a good apartment.
  • Splash (1984) (w->m) (f->m)
    Daryl Hannah plays a mermaid who arrives in New York City without a wardrobe of her own. Staying at the apartment of Tom Hanks (not the one shared with Peter Scolari), she puts on one of his suits before heading out for a shopping expedition in order to avoid further displays of public nudity.

    • goodbye, tokens

    token11.jpgRecently, the MBTA (Boston’s public transit system, also called the T) underwent some major changes, which can be boiled down to a single big change: you no longer use tokens. They’ve converted to a an electronic system involving the use of cards. Last week I mentioned that I got my first Charlie Card. Previously I’d unwittingly bought a Charlie Ticket. What’s the difference? Let me lay out the differences and similarities for you:

    Charlie Card: Hard plastic, like a credit card. Very sturdy.
    Charlie Ticket: Stiff paper, like a business card. Somewhat flimsy.

    Charlie Card: Available for free, then you pay to add credit to it.
    Charlie Ticket: Available for free, then you pay to add credit to it.

    Charlie Card: Can be reused by adding credit to it.
    Charlie Ticket: Can be reused by adding credit to it.

    Charlie Card: Can be registered in case it gets lost.
    Charlie Ticket: Can’t be registered. If you lose it, you lose. (Loser.)

    Charlie Card: A T ride costs $1.70
    Charlie Ticket: A T ride costs $2.00

    tokens_3.jpgYes, this paper version of the MBTA card lets you ride the T for 30 cents more than if you take the same ride using the Charlie Card. Why would anyone want to do that? Why did I buy one? The short answer is cluelessness. I hadn’t even realized there were two different kinds of tickets. The Charlie Ticket is what’s available from the machines. To get your Charlie Card, you must know to seek out a distribution point and ask for one. Easy enough, as long as you know. The Charlie Ticket must be meant especially for newbies and tourists. A tax on cluelessness, as it were. Perhaps it should be called the Sucker Ticket, or the Clueless Card. But I suppose that would spoil the fun.

    And so that this post won’t end up being just a rant, I should bring up some fun trivia that folks not around Boston may not know about. The name of the Charlie Card actually refers to a song: “The M.T.A. Song,” by the Kingston Trio, a song about a guy named Charlie who gets stuck riding around on the T. Funny thing is, it’s a song written in protest of a fare increase in the Boston T system, then called the MTA. (And by the way, all these recent changes to the T system have also been accompanied by a big hike in fare.) And here, how about a list. A list of songs that relate to my T adventures:

  • “The M.T.A. Song,” by the Kingston Trio (Also known as “Charlie on the M.T.A.”)
  • “Skinhead on the MBTA,” by the Dropkick Murphies (An updated punk reinterpretation of the Kingston Trio classic.)
  • “Ambition,” by Subway Sect
  • “The Metro,” by Berlin
  • “She’s got a ticket to ride,” The Beatles
  • “She’s got her ticket,” Tracy Chapman
  • “Brand New Sucker,” Jonathan Coulton
  • “Ain’t Got a Clue,” The Lurkers
  • “Loser,” Beck

    • subway tokens

    I have a long commute. I work and go to school in Boston, and neighboring Cambridge, Massachusetts. But I live out in the boonies. I’ve been dealing with this commute since I started grad school. Until fairly recently, I would pretty much always take public transportation. I would drive to the nearest train station, take the commuter rail into Boston, and then ride the T, Boston’s combined subway and above-ground transit system. The whole commute would take about 2 to 2 and half hours from door to door. Each way. I’d only do this about 2 or 3 times a week, piling up my Boston/Cambridge commitments into crazy-long days. I’d usually be gone from home between 12 and 15 hours on one of my commute days.

    Sometime last year, say around February, I stopped commuting so often. I’ve been largely busy with another project, and have been working from home, telecommuting, etc. And days when I’ve gone into work for meetings, I’ve driven. While it has plenty of downsides (traffic delays, parking hassles and environmental impact), driving is also usually a bit faster: 2 to 3 hours total. Plus with more flexible times. So, in order to be able to have that extra time with the other project, I’ve been driving a lot more. But I decided to start taking the train in again, at least some days.

    So here I am, taking public transportation again. (And today I got my first Charlie Card. I guess I’ll write about that later.) Sitting on the train and the subway, I have time to sit and think. So I’ve been thinking about subways, and subway scenes.

    Subway scenes seem quite popular in movies and TV shows, especially in the action genre. There’s something compelling about the seedy, dark atmosphere of a subway station for a fight scene, with the tension of possible oncoming trains. Or about slipping into a subway car as the doors shut in a chase scene. And let’s not forget the claustrophobic fight scenes inside a subway car.

    Subway Scenes

  • Buffy, season 5 “Fool for Love”
    This is the episode where Spike tells how he killed 2 slayers back in the day. The second one involved a fight scene in a New York subway car.
  • The Fugitive (1993)
    This one has an L train (elevated train) rather than a subway. Harrison Ford has a fight scene with the one-armed man in a train car.
  • Daredevil (2003)
    There’s that vengence fight scene in the subway station at the beginning with Ben Affleck, followed by that whole flaming “DD” insignia on the platform in the scene with Joe Pantoliano.
  • The Matrix (1999)
    Keanu (dude) Reeves has a big showdown with Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) in a subway station.
  • V for Vendetta (2005)
    V (Hugo Weaving, again), with some help from Evey (Natalie Portman), uses a subway train to deliver a message. (“Boom.”)
  • Run Lola Run/Lola rennt (1998)
    Lola’s run started because her boyfriend left a bag of money on the subway.
  • Strange Days (1995)
    The movie starts off with a chase scene where a woman (Brigitte Bako) escapes by running into a subway car just as the doors close.
  • Sliding Doors (1998)
    This movie’s alternate outcomes hinge upon whether or not Gwyneth Paltrow makes it onto a subway car before the door slides shut.
  • Crocodile Dundee (1986)
    End of movie. Declarations of love shouted across a crowded subway station.
  • Hellboy (2004)
    Hellboy (Ron Perlman) chases down demons in the subway tunnels, gets hits in the head with a train. (Don’t worry, he’s fine.)
  • The Italian Job (2003)
    Minis get driven down into a subway station, and race down the subway tunnels.

    • More kick-ass women TV shows

    Here’s continuing my ongoing kick-ass women project. (Check out my index to previous posts in the project, if you like.) Following up on my last list of favorite kick-ass women TV shows, I offer up another list of TV shows. These are are shows that I’ve watched and loved, or at least enjoyed, that prominently feature kick-ass women (and girls). I do have some reservations about some of these, though…(And again, shows are listed chronologically by start date.)

    9 more kick-ass women TV shows

    1. The Avengers (1962-1964)
      This incarnation of The Avengers starred Honor Blackman (who later gained more fame playing Bond girl Pussy Galore) as Cathy Gale. I didn’t get to know the Gale episodes until quite recently, when they were released on DVD. But they are well worth watching, in spite of the poor video-taped quality.
    2. Get Smart (1965-1970)
      Barbara Feldon was great as Agent 99, the competent foil to the bumbling agent Maxwell Smart. However, I was never too thrilled with the plots developing to woo and win Max. I don’t really buy her desire to get married, especially to him…
    3. The Avengers (1968-1969)
      I was mostly just going through the motions when I watched this incarnation of The Avengers. Linda Thorson played Tara King, a much softer, wimpier partner to Steed. But she still played a secret agent who could kick some moderate ass.
    4. Remington Steele (1982-1987)
      Stephanie Zimbalist plays Laura Holt, a brilliant private investigator who finds she gets more clients by operating under a man’s name, even a man’s name that she’s made up. Unfortunately, the whole premise of the show is that Pierce Brosnan comes along and usurps her success, and she has to go along with it.
    5. Teen Titans (2003-????)
      This Cartoon Network animated series featuring bunch of adolescents with superpowers has a couple of pretty kick-ass girls. Starfire (voiced by Hynden Walch) is a bit too needy-touchy-feely for my tastes, but I guess can kick some ass in a fight. I’m partial to Raven (voiced by Tara Strong), who is cranky and dark.
    6. Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)
      It’s been absolutely ages since I watched this. I didn’t even realize it was on the air that long. Anyhow, I seem to recall some pretty kick-ass women characters: Roxann Dawson as B’Elanna Torres and Jeri Ryan as the Borg Seven of Nine. There was also the kick-ass character Captain Kathryn Janeway, portrayed by Kate Mulgrew. (I am remembering a story about Kate Mulgrew publicly proclaiming that she wasn’t a feminist, though, which made me lose quite a bit of respect. Jenny, care to remind me of the details?)
    7. Futurama (1999-????)
      Leela (full name: Turanga Leela) as voiced by Katey Sagal shines with competence as a spaceship captain surrounded by dimwits in this animated series created by Matt Groening. (I never really bought her attraction to clueless Fry, and am suddenly noticing the parallels to 99’s infatuation with Max Smart…It’s a theme we’ve all seen too often…)
    8. Jackie Chan Adventures (2000-2005)
      Animated Jackie’s trouble-making little niece Jade (voiced by Stacie Chan) shows some potential to grow up into a kick-ass woman in this kid-oriented cartoon. She’s got some of the key ingredients: courage, daring and wit. (Forget sugar and spice.)
    9. The Tick (2001)
      This inpsired gem of a show, the live-action version of the zany superhero cartoon, only lasted 8 episodes. Liz Vassey was great as the tough-as-nails-in-her-shiny-gold-boots Captain Liberty, a character inspired by Wonder Woman.

    back to school

    So I started class again today. It’s been over a year since I last took a class. (Though not that long ago since I actually finished the work for that class….) I think I’m getting too old for this. 35 years old. Rushing off to a class where the average age of the students is probably 20. (My face, perhaps in an effort to make me feel younger, has graced me with a nice red zit on my nose. Just in time for the first day of school. It’s like high school revisited.) And can I just say that I didn’t quite feel prepared? As I was rushing around the house trying to get my essentials together for the ride in (car key, wallet, iPod…), I said to myself, “I should bring a pen. I think students use those.” So I grabbed a pen, and hoped that whatever papers were left in my backpack would serve for any note-taking purposes. (I did bring my laptop, though. So, here I sit in class, pretending to take notes. Just kidding! I’m really in the car driving home!)

    So I rushed around this afternoon dealing with registering for class (which I should’ve done weeks ago). And I sat in class with 40+ other students. And I felt almost like I was back in a previous life. And I had various flashbacks to other days in the classroom. Other classes I’d taken, as a grad student, as an undergrad, and even back in high school. And oddly, I had flashbacks to the movie Back to School. Mind you, I’ve never seen more than a few minutes of this movie starring, and apparently largely written by, Rodney Dangerfield. Nor do I want to see any more. (Really not a big fan of Rodney Dangerfield.) But I could somewhat identify with the premise: an old guy goes back to college, where he stands out for being such an old guy. (Also for being loud-mouthed, lewd and crude. Hopefully I didn’t come off as such an oaf.)

    I was going to put together a list of other movies of older folks going back to school. I mean, there must be others I’ve seen or know of. There’s that whole genre of parent/kid body swapping (like Freaky Friday and Vice Versa) that must have some misadventures of adults going to school with a bunch of youngsters. But I really should get to bed instead.

    Oh yeah, and I still owe some pants. I ran off to class earlier with my pants only half- way up. I mean, my pants post. It’ll have to be tomorrow.

    9 of my favorite kick-ass women TV shows

    Here is yet another installment of my ongoing project to collect, classify and critique movies, TV shows and other media that prominently feature kick-ass women. This is the first list of TV shows I’ve put together. I’ll probably have one or two more, and probably another movie list at some point. To recap the lists so far:

    Kick-ass women project meta-list

  • movies I love or at least like moderately well (1, 2, 3, 4)
  • movies I need to see (5, 6)
  • movies I found disappointing (7)
  • movies I don’t expect to like (8)
  • another blogger has put together a related list of Hong Kong movies
  • I also started a consolidated list, for quick reference, but haven’t updated it recently.

    • So, here’s the first TV list. As in my previous lists, I’m ordering these chronologically, though in this case by year that the show began to air. (I considered ranking these differently, but since my favorite came first chronologically and gets to be at the top of the list this way anyhow, I’m going to avoid the tricky task of ranking the rest of my favorites.) (I also feel compelled to say that if you’re wondering why “Xena” and “X-files” aren’t on the list, it’s because I didn’t watch them. I’ll try to remedy that. One of these days.)

    9 of my favorite kick-ass women TV shows

    1. The Avengers (1965-1967)
      This is my all-time favorite kick-ass woman TV show. Emma Peel (as portrayed by Diana Rigg) is my idol. (By the way, the whole series ran from 1961-1969, but here I’m talking about the Mrs. Peel seasons.)
    2. The Bionic Woman (1976-1978) Lindsay Wagner plays Jamie Sommers, a woman with “bionic” (cybernetic) superpowers. It’s been absolutely ages since I watched this, but I enjoyed it as a kid. It may well have been the first kick-ass woman show I watched.
    3. Wonder Woman (1976-1979)
      Lynda Carter plays the quintessential woman superhero. A colorful show where good and evil are portrayed as black and white. (I vaguely remember watching this when I was little, and then got some of the DVDs recently. I don’t think I’d ever seen the first season before, though, which was set during World War II. It’s actually quite a bit better than the following seasons, which are set in the contemporaneous 1970s.)
    4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
      Sarah Michelle Gellar kicks ass as Buffy, as do a variety of regular cast members and guest stars. I also love the way this show interleaves the horrors of living in the midst of monsters and supernatural evils and the after-school-special-type horrors of being in high school. (This show is another one of my absolute favorites. A possible 2nd.)
    5. Stargate SG-1 (1997-????)
      I quite like Amanda Tapping as Samantha Carter, with her brilliant matter-of-fact geekiness. She was usually about brains more than brawn, but could hold her own in a fight scene.
    6. The Powerpuff Girls (1998-2004)
      Three cute little girls with big eyes and superpowers battle the forces of evil in this animated kids’ show. I’m partial to Buttercup, the angry one. I fear I’m probably more like Blossom, the annoyingly nerdy one. I don’t think I’m much like Bubble, the sweet one. (Though she’s John’s favorite. What does that mean?)
    7. Alias (2001-2006)
      Jennifer Garner plays secret agent Sydney Bristow in this flashy spy show. Lots of fun fight scenes and clever gadgets, combined with over-the-top cloak-and-dagger disguise scenarios. I’ve only seen the first 2 seasons, though. I liked the first (lower budget) season better.
    8. Firefly (2002-2003)
      A great, but sadly short-lived, sci fi masterpiece, which happily at least led to a movie. I love Gina Torres as Zoe, a warrior woman with a dry wit, steady hand and a sense of being in control.
    9. Battlestar Galactica(2004-????) (plus the 2003 miniseries)
      I was surprised at how much I like this reinterpretation of the cheesy 1980’s space opera. In this show, strong women are the norm, rather than the exception. Katee Sackhoff as Starbuck majorly kicks ass as an ace pilot. Other noteworthy strongwomen include Grace Park as Sharon(s) Valleri, Mary McDonnell as President Laura Roslin, and Tricia Helfer as the bad-ass cylon Number Six.