Gotham

We can't all like the same things. Different strokes, no accounting for taste, and all that. I get it; I really do and I'm fine with it. But still, once in a while something comes along that is so awesome I just can't fully grasp the fact that not everyone loves it as much as I do. My brain has always known that there must be people out there who do not love Gotham but my heart and soul do not believe it's possible. So it was a bit of a shock to learn that there are at least two people who do not like Gotham.

In case anyone reading this has missed out, Gotham (Fox) is a Batman prequel. Bruce Wayne is a teenager - quiet, serious, and often surprisingly innocent. All the familiar characters are there, though some of the villains have not yet acquired their villain persona. Edward Nygma, for example, in the early seasons is just a shy young guy with issues that probably wouldn't seem all that bad if you didn't know what was coming and it is great fun watching him become The Riddler.

Gotham is incredibly fun to watch. The casting is outstanding. The actors all play their characters brilliantly. My favorite is Robin Lord Taylor as Penguin. I can hardly keep from giggling every time he appears on screen. I could list each actor and gush about how brilliant each of them is but you really just have to see for yourself.

Could it be though, that I am having so much fun watching the characters that I never noticed that there's no plot? Typically, shows that have a long season to season story arc tend to eventually lose focus and go off on weird tangents. I have to admit I'm starting to get a little bored with the Court of Owls, and if Penguin is "killed" and brought back to life one more time it might make me roll my eyes a little, but overall I don't think that's happening with Gotham. It does seem like they skip around a lot. Often the story will refer back to events of a season or two ago. I started watching during season two and I caught on fairly quickly but I don't think it would be possible to pick it up much later than that. This skipping around really doesn't bother me though. To me, it just makes it seem more real. In real life events do not always happen in a smooth, logical progression.

So anyway... I suppose I'm just defending one of my favorite shows and if it's not your cup of tea, it's not your cup of tea but if you haven't watched it yet try it. Start at the beginning and give it some time. And don't worry about the plot or lack thereof. Just sit back and enjoy it moment to moment.

Random Linkage

Starfleet Academy - It's a real place and you can take a tour! But you might be disappointed when you find out what it really is.

Artist Rick Stevens - I love this. Abstract and not quite abstract?

Language Links - A long list

Scardy Dog - Lots of pictures of dogs being afraid of things. Vacuum cleaners are a common fear and far from the silliest.

Tender Wings of Desire - OMG! Someone please tell me this is not real.

Digital Pin-Ups - I suppose that, as a woman, I'm supposed to be outraged about stuff like this but I like pin art. I can't help but appreciate the silliness and ridiculousness. These have a bit of a retro feel but at the same time modern and twisted. NSFW?

Sarah Forbes Bonetta - Interesting, little known history

The Orville - A Star Trek parody series. I'll decide later whether I love it or hate it. Of course you know if it's good Fox will cancel it after only 14 episodes.

Beautiful Tables

Train and Rail Yard Art

Sakura

Water Bucket

A simple but clever idea: put a camera in a bucket of water. I'm a little disappointed that no cats came to drink but I love this anyway.

This 'n' That

I tried Coca-Cola "Life", the one with the green label, and it's not awful. It took me a long time to get to it. The green label greatly bothers my inner Sheldon Cooper. I know it's silly but it goes against my sense of the way things are supposed to be. Coke labels are supposed to be red. The silver Diet Coke label and the black Coke Zero label don't bother me but green is just a color too far. Another thing is stevia. I assumed as soon as I saw the green label that stevia had something to do with it. I had tried it in the little packets before and didn't like it. It's supposed to be "natural" but it has a bitter artificial taste so I had no interest in trying the green label Coke. But then I saw in a commercial that it's sweetened with cane sugar and stevia. So, okay, worth a try.

As I said, it's not awful but it's not great either. I can't decide if it tastes more of less like "the real thing" than Coke Zero. I haven't had a "real" Coke in a fairly long time so it's hard to say. I think I like it slightly better than Coke Zero but it does still have a bit of that wrongness about it that artificially sweetened drinks have. I would be interested in trying a Cherry Coke "Life". That should have a colorful label. Maybe they could come out with it right before Christmas time.

* * * * *

Speaking of Sheldon Cooper, I just heard that there is going to be a Big Bang Theory prequel series about Sheldon as a child. I don't really have an opinion about it yet but I do think it's interesting that Sheldon's mother will be played by Zoe Perry who is the real life daughter of Laurie Metcalf, who plays Sheldon's mother in The Big Bang Theory. And the young actor who will play Sheldon looks enough like grown-up Sheldon to be believable.

* * * * *

I discovered Kenga Rex on Twitter. If you want to spend hours looking at collections of wonderful photographs this is the site for it. It uses a slide show format, which is one of my top pet peeves of the Internet but this is not too terrible. The photos load reasonably quickly and they are so beautiful and amazing that it's worth the relatively small annoyance.

* * * * *

Oooo! I must get the PlantNet app. (I forget where I first saw this.) At a glance, the website doesn't look especially well organized but the app might be more useful. There are of course other plant identification apps. Everything seems to be focused on useful or desirable plants but what I really want most is to identify all the interesting little "weeds" that grow all over my place.

Fascinating Fungi

We have been getting SO MUCH rain lately! I think maybe someone is supposed to be building an ark. We have had a few breaks, like yesterday, when the weather was nice and I could get out and walk around outside. Naturally, when we get lots of rain we get lots of fungi and it seems like every year I see something new. A few days ago I found this gorgeous fungus growing on this small tree. It actually seems a bit translucent.

Voices

Fillyjonk said something that caught me by surprise. Talking about Willie Nelson, that "He doesn't have a beautiful singing voice..." When I really think about it, I suppose that's true. He doesn't have the kind of voice that people normally think of as beautiful but I have always loved it.

I am attracted to unique voices, at least in popular music. With operatic singing I'm more interested in the music itself. I expect operatic voices to be well trained and I only want the singers to respect the music and "sing it right." But with popular music I want to hear voices that don't sound like all the other voices.

She mentioned Hallelujah. I hadn't heard Willie Nelson's version of that and I've had a certain fascination with that song recently so of course I listened to it. I was a little disappointed, probably because I have developed certain expectations for the song, so I'm posting one of my favorites instead.