Category Archives: TV/Movies

Spike vs Angel: The Battle Rages On

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I have been pretty vocal about my love of Joss Whedon and the whole Whedonverse. Whedon fans are usually pretty vocal about their love. When he got the job writing/directing The Avengers, there was a universal squee that echoed across the Internet.

And yet, there is one question that threatens to tear the Whedonverse asunder: Who is more awesome, Spike or Angel?

I am a fan of Angel. Valerie was for Spike. This led to several polite discussions about how one is better than the other.

Now I’m not knocking Spike. He’s a great character. But this is why Angel kicks his ass:

1) Angel is Batman: Angel follows the classic motif of the characters that I love. Like Spiderman, he is driven by remorse for his past actions, and strives to do good in a world that conspires against him. Like batman, he is a tormented soul, not to mention the whole brooding dude in a cape/trench coat thing. Spike, he’s just a snarky English guy with dyed hair and a hard on for the Slayer.

Also, Angel tapped it first

2) Angel is a legitimate hero. When the gypsy cursed Angelus by giving him back his soul, he was ripped apart by remorse, so much that it drove him to near madness. Thankfully, Whistler helped him find his new purpose. Angel didn’t have to go that way. A soul does not make you good or evil. There are millions of people out there with souls who are awful. Father stabbers, mother rapers, father rapers, etc. Angel could have given in, said “fuck it, I’m evil. I have to kill to live.” Instead he strove for good, even though his own body begged him to hunt, Angel refused. He sacrifced his own well being to protect the people around him, and sacrifice is what makes you a true hero.

Yes, Spike eventually wishes for a soul, but he does it to impress a girl. How heroic!

3) Angel cares: Angel legitimately cares about other people. He becomes a detective because he wants to help, he wants to fight evil. Can you imagine Spike doing that? Spike only cares about Spike…and Buffy, and Dawn, in a weird creepy older brother way.

The meta point of view: From what I’ve gathered, people like Spike mostly because he is funny. yes, he is funny. That makes him a good supporting character, but nothing more. They could never make a show about Spike. It would just be him sitting on the boardwalk, making fun of and occasionally biting the people that go by. Angel has the cult of personality, enough that he draws people to him, enough that he can be a leading man.

Sorry Spike, you may be all witty and shit, but you’re no Angel.

Gay Action Figure Theater (NSFW)

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As I’ve mentioned here before (I think), Valerie used to collect action figures.  Sometimes she would pose them in naughty positions, but hey, who didn’t?  I inherited her action figures, and as a tribute to her, they are all making sweet sweet love down by the metaphorical fire.

She also made this incredible youtube series using her action figures called “Gay Action Figure Theater.”  It’s stars Buffy, Rogue, My Chemical Romance, Pete Wentz, Batman, and Oscar Wilde, among others.  Not only is it brilliantly witty and charming, it does a pretty good job of capturing who Valerie was (especially the rant at the end of part 2).

I love this so much and I wanted to share it with you.  Feel free to share it with the ones you love too.  And hug them, don’t forget to hug them.

 

Rest in Peace, My Valerie (1977-2013)

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I buried my soul mate yesterday.

Last Tuesday (Jan 22), I went up to Binghamton to visit Val.  She was up there to begin her PhD candidacy in English.  I climbed the stairs to the back door and knocked.  I looked through the screen, and she was on the floor.  I don’t think that Val would want me to tell the final details of her life to strangers, so I will refrain.

Val was pronounced brain dead Thursday morning.  She died that evening.  She was my world.  She was the most brilliant, caring, gifted, loving, person that I will ever know.  Her writing is some of the best that I have ever read.  I only wish that I could write like her.

Her obituary is here.  Her website is here.

If you read my blog, you know how much I love her.  We just celebrated our anniversary.  I went to her mom’s for Christian Christmas (as opposed to my usual, Jewish Christmas.  We just didn’t have enough time together.

I want to tell you all about her.  I want people to know and love her the way that I love her, the way that she deserves to be loved.

This is what I told the Binghamton reporter that is writing her memorial:

She was about as warm and giving a person could be.  She cared very deeply about her students and would always go the extra mile for them.  Her favorite writer was Oscar Wilde, and I am sure that she could go wit for wit with him and come out the victor.  On her wall there was a picture of Oscar Wilde next to a picture of Malcom X.  I asked her about it once, and she said “I’d like to think that they are lovers in Heaven.”
Val loved so many things:  Joss Whedon (especially Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Rancid (for the past year she has been keeping a tongue-in-cheek photo journal updating the status of Tim Armstrong’s epic beard.  That was just her sense of humor), action figures (she had a massive collection of action figures, she would sometimes use them as writing prompts for students, but mostly they just hung around the house).  She loved to write, she was constantly writing, but even more than that, she loved to teach.  She loved the Oxford Comma, if you could love punctuation.  She had a passionate affair with Semicolons.

She was a strong woman: independent but not distant, tough but not hard, witty but not cruel.  She was brilliant, the most intelligent person that I have ever met.  She loved Grammar.  She was very excited to be taking a Grad level Grammar class at Binghamton.  She felt a great sadness for people that couldn’t use “there, their, and they’re” properly.

Her writing was incredible.  When we first started dating, I asked what she wrote.  She said something like “I do mostly short stories, mostly humorous, but when you say you write humor people think you write bad stand-up or something. I love the type of short story that can make you laugh and feel sad within like five pages so that’s what I try for.” 
If you read some of her writing (on her website), you will see that she succeeded everytime.
 
If you would like, I can recommend some of my favorite stories. 
 
I don’t know what else I can say.  She was the most perfect person that ever walked the face of this Earth.  She was too perfect, too gifted, too gentle and loving for us.  I would say that she was ahead of her time, but Time will never catch up to her.
This is what I said, but there was so much more to her.  She wrote erotic fan fic  as a hobby, and helped form an entire community for it.  Her frank talk and writing about mental illness was inspirational and life saving for many people.
On our first date, she gave me a toy for my turtle.  Who does that?  Who is that thoughtful?  Val was.  On our second date, I spilled an entire move-sized diet coke in her lap, and she didn’t walk out on me.  On the contrary, after the movie, she still made out with me.
She did all of this, but I knew that she was the One when I first walked into her apartment, and there was a giant Godzilla doll on her refrigerator.
I am concerned with her legacy.  I want the whole world to know how gifted a writer she was.  I want her name immortalized the way that it should be.  She was everything that I could ever want, or want to be.
I love you so much, Valerie.  I will love you forever.
The two of us, late December, 2012

The two of us, late December, 2012