We’ve been on a run of >100° days. I think we’ll only hit 97° today. What a relief.
I moved offices at the day job yesterday for the first time in 10 years. My new one is upstairs and at the back of the building from where I used to be. Means I’ll be using a different entrance most of the time and I’ll be getting the extra benefit of climbing a set of stairs a couple of times every day. There is an elevator, but it’s only one flight, so it will be the stairs for me. Right now it’s pretty quiet in my new quarters, but I’ll be getting more neighbors in the coming weeks. It’s almost like moving to a new building. Different kitchen. Different restroom. Different fellow employees. Sorta nice. I had the assistance of a former Montreal Alouette when it came time to move my massive desk. He wrestled that thing like he was trying to bring down the quarterback.
My wife and daughter are gone for a week-long roadtrip to the Grand Canyon. So, while the cat’s away, this mouse will…work like a sonuvagun. Here are the things I hope to accomplish this weekend: finish my essay for Screem #23. Redraft a short story so it will be in a condition to send to a new market I want to try. Write my Storytellers Unplugged essay. Catch up on Torchwood, Burn Notice and Haven. See Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Cowboys & Aliens. Read a chunk of 11/22/63. Eat and sleep as necessary.
A good mid-season finale to Covert Affairs. A lot of shows have done the spy-poisoned-by-radiation plot, but this one was handled well. There was a terrific two-minute continuous tracking shot near the beginning of the episode that followed Annie and the Chinese defector from the conference room at the hotel, down a corridor, through the kitchen, down a flight of stairs to the emergency exit. Very well choreographed. There was a lot of background action, people moving across the camera path, dropping things, interacting. The camera sometimes had to dodge around food carts and walls, but it kept up with them for the entire span. Hitchcock would have been proud. Annie finally got up the gumption to tell Annie her secret. Annie over-reacted, predictably and then recovered, predictably but, surprisingly, stuck to her guns about making Annie move out. Well played.
When I watch Rizzoli & Isles, I often have a hard time matching Sasha Alexander’s character with the one she played on NCIS. On NCIS she was the straight man to Tony’s clown, whereas here she’s pretty much the clown. She used to roll her eyes at Tony, and now Rizzoli is the one rolling eyes. Got a kick out of the scene where the two friends switched clothes. “Your suit is a real booty call magnet,” Isles tells Rizzoli. “I got hit on twice. By women.” Angie Harmon can do an excellent job of hiding her femininity, even when wearing a little red dress. It’s all in the way she holds her body, like she’s getting ready to tackle someone. Reality check—when Isles is asked for a quick turnaround on some lab results she quips, “This is not CSI: Boston.”
