The damned days aren't long enough to get around to doing even half of what I want/need to do!

*big sigh*

Last Wednesday, the Verzaubert-Festival (Gay/Lesbian Movie Festival) started, and we've been to several films so far, the best of them being (no surprise here) the Alliance-Atlantis ones. You simply have to love that production company!

"Wilby Wonderful", the first movie we watched, already sent us into bouts of bliss by starring not only Paul Gross, but also Callum Keith Rennie, with the latter's character even being sexually interested in another man (sadly not played by Paul Gross, though). The best, however, was still the scene in which CKR's character, 'Duck' MacDonald, local handyman in the nice little town of Wilby, leaned into the car of Wilby's police officer Buddy French, played by PG, asked him how he'd been and simply smiled at him. We all oohed and aahed and had our first due South moment.

"Touch of Pink", another Alliance-Atlantis production, starred Kyle MacLachlan (whom I still find dashingly attractive -- ever since Twin Peaks), a young gay couple with problems due to one's Muslim heritage (and his mother's dearest wish to see him married off to a nice Muslim girl), and, gasp! stagger! Dean McDermott as a droolworthy gay swimmer. God, the hair! The after-sex scene! Ok, Turnbull is gay. I'm finally convinced. Eep.

No Dief and no Gordon Pinsent, though... I kept expecting them to pop up any second in another movie. Well, who knows... I still have "H2O" lying around here, and with at least three dS characters already in it... *g*

The third Canadian production was "Marion Bridge", which, frankly, wasn't lesbian at all, but still very deep and moving -- it was, just as one of the main protagonists said, "a story about four sisters". With one of them being the other's daughter as well since Agnes (played by Molly Parker) had been raped by her father during her childhood. I loved the beach scene at the end, so full of optimism and resolution to overcome the wounds of the past.

The best movie in my opinion however was "Walk on Water" by Eytan Fox who produced "Yossi and Jagger" which was shown during the festival the year before. Having been made for the cinema, "Walk on Water" did not have the handheld camera feel of "Yossi and Jagger" and, while not exactly happily, ended at least without one of the main protagonists dying. Lior Ashkenazi was seriously hot, plus his character's stoic face and laconic comments were a great source of hilarity to the whole theater, and while I found the German 'high society' party scene in the Himmelman's villa more than a bit outdated, the movie was very successful in depicting Israelis, Palestinians, Germans, their ancestors' nazi past and its repercussions on Israeli-German relations today. Very good.

Damned computer hate my posting again (or rather, damned lj server. HATE that shit! Grrr.)

Anyway, I just wrote that yesterday I decided to go look for a fantasy gaming group again and posted a message to that respect to the KOOP database, plus sent a couple of mails to people listed as living in my area. By now, I've received several replies, and even a telephone call this afternoon. They're a group of four who're looking for two more gamers, and play AD&D 2^nd edition. I'd prefer MERP, but I'll settle for AD&D; they sounded nice enough. We'll see.

Ever since I left - or rather was forced out of - two gaming groups last year, I've been unwilling to try the whole hassle again. But I miss gaming, I really do. So as now this has overcome my apprehension, I keep my fingers crossed that the others turn out to be decent guys and we'll have fun instead of ending up fighting each other.

We'll have a trial lesson not this weekend, but the next. I'll go dig out my dices and sharpen my pencils. Orcs and dragons, here I come!

In "Stargate - Atlantis", episode 1x13, 'Hot Zone', Rodney showed his leadership qualities, and, while still being him ("I don't care; I'm alive!"), he took charge competently and stopped the virus from spreading -- much in contrast to John's impulsiveness. But I don't want to get into -- again -- Sheppard's problem with Weir's authority, and Weir's problem with Weir's authority.

I've just finished watching episode 1x14, 'Sanctuary', and I'm still confused.

On one hand, I hated the episode, having dreaded that something similar would soon come to pass -- one of the guys falling for a love-interest-of-the-week. It was even worse so since John was so obviously smitten with Chaya from the very beginning, and even got to kiss her and (urgh) supposedly had offscreen sex with her.

On the other hand, the episode (and the het sex relationship) had a mitigating factor, and that was Rodney's reaction. His overwhelming jealousy and immediate suspicion of Chaya's motives were a sure sign that he felt something for John, and, slasher that I am, I simply cannot picture something else than love/lust/want/possessiveness. There is not other logical explanation for Rodney's actions. He was rude and suspicious towards Chaya, ran all the tests he could think of in an attempt to prove that he was not acting because of his conflicted personal feelings, drew Weir to his side, forewent sleep... heck, he even waited for John to return from his 'date' so he could confront him about what he'd done with Chaya! Jealousy. Plain and simple.

How that storyline ever made it into the script is beyond me -- even the most blind of persons simply has got to see the implications and the (sub)text we're hit over the head with! Not that I'm complaining. I'm just wondering. No way is it only friendship that Rodney's feeling towards the Major.

And in the end he was right, of course, although not quite in the way we, the viewers, had been beginning to suspect, but our resident genius did indeed figure it out.

Furthermore, Rodney's frequent Kirk quips simply blew me away.

I'm confused about one more thing -- were the people on Chaya's planet real, or just projections? If they were indeed "her people", why did she want to keep her distance from them? Them, she could protect, or at least that's how I understood it.

Meet those glowy squid people. Unavoidable, I guess.

After that last embrace between Sheppard and Chaya, I now want more McShep slash fic to get this bad taste out of my mouth; the longer the fic, the better. I'd simply love to read an episode tag that deals with Rodney's reaction once John's returned to Atlantis.

And I sincerely hope John never makes good on his promise and visits Chaya's planet again. Urgh.