Fun Buffy stuff

First, for your entertainment, a brilliant video - really well-done remake of the Ocean's Eleven trailer, starring the Buffy and Angel casts. I would so totally go see this movie.

Also, a nice interview with Amber Benson, who never ceases to impress me, and an interview with James Marsters on his upcoming WAT role. Fun fact: he beat out former co-star Nicholas Brendon for the part.

James Marsters... Detective Mars?

Woohoo! James Marsters was just announced as a recurring guest star on Without a Trace, playing a character named - I kid you not - Detective Mars (I wonder if his daughter's named Veronica). This is super-exciting, because now I get to watch James on my TV regularly, and it's a pretty well-known show, so he should get noticed. (As opposed to that awful, horrible Saving Grace. Did anyone else watch that? I forgot to talk about it, because I was on vacation when James' episode aired and watched the tape later, but he was only in it for about two minutes. Thank God he turned down the regular role on that show... I don't think I could stand watching it every week, even for my James.) It's about damn time James got a decent role in something mainstream. I've never watched Without a Trace before (I'm moderately anti-procedural), but I'll at least be watching the episodes he's in.

Best thing on television

Has anybody been watching Damages on F/X? I missed the first episode, and was going to write it off as another lawyer show, but everyone's been calling it one of the best shows of the summer... or, you know, ever. Well, I downloaded the first three episodes, and they weren't lying. It's absolutely brilliant. Seriously, the fourth episode just aired on Tuesday, and I can't believe I have to wait a whole week to see what happens.

The show focuses on Ellen, a young lawyer working for a powerful law firm headed by Patty Hewes (Glenn Close). In the present, Ellen is brought in by the police, shell-shocked and blood-spattered, as a suspect in the murder of her fiance. But most of the story is told in flashbacks to six months earlier, when Ellen was first hired by Patty, while the firm was in the midst of a high-profile case suing a corporate executive (Ted Danson) whose employees lost their pensions in an Enron-type scandal. The thing I love about it is that you really have no idea who's a good guy and who's a bad guy - everyone is duplicitous and manipulative, but then you see the softer side, too. There are so many shades of gray that it's hard to decide who to root for, since everyone seems a little bit evil, except for Ellen - and even she might end up being a murderer! The twists and turns are insane, and will keep you going "Oh, my God" pretty much throughout the whole show.

It doesn't look like the episodes are available online, or repeated on F/X, but hey - this is all about shades of gray and questionable morals, so do what I did and illegally download it. It's worth it, trust me. Do it now while you've only got 4 episodes to catch up on. (That may sound like a lot, but believe me, you'll want to watch the next one as soon as the first episode ends.) Hell, I'll give you a summary of what you missed, just as long as you watch it. You'll thank me later.

Japanese mind bending

I found this "river IQ" game... it's really fun, but kinda hard. (I totally got it, though.) The instructions are all in Chinese or Japanese or something I can't read, but here's what I remember of the rules:

1. You have to get everyone to the other side of the river.
2. Only two people can go on the raft at a time.
3. Only the mother, the father, and the policeman know how to operate the raft.
4. The criminal can't be left with the family without the policeman.
5. The mother can't be left with the boys.
6. The father can't be left with the girls.

I think that's all of them... it'll give you a little sad noise if you do something wrong, so you can kind of figure out the rules by trial and error, like one of those lab rats in the maze that gets an electric shock when it goes the wrong way. Try it, it's fun!

My advice? Go to Bermuda

Hey, all. Kelly and I have returned, and Bermuda survived unscathed. I've posted up some of our pretty pictures here if you're interested. I'm having some trouble adjusting to everyday life. You remember that Royal Caribbean commercial (or maybe it was Princess... the point is, they're treated like royalty), with the couple that comes back from their cruise? And they're going about their daily routine again, and the husband's like, "My waiter knew exactly how I take my tea," and the wife's all, "I was not to be disturbed before nine a.m." And the husband says, "Dinner was served promptly at eight," and then at the end they're like, "These new circumstances are quite an adjustment," or something. Yeah, it's like that.

Oh, and if you were expecting a postcard from me... I sent them. Honest, I did. But see, there was this thing, where apparently a cricket match is cause for a two-day holiday, and so the post office was CLOSED on Thursday and Friday (along with everything else in Bermuda). So it's possible that your postcards may not arrive in a timely fashion. I choose to blame the cricket. It's a stupid sport, anyway.