On battle exhaustion and The Pacific

“… in every war in which American soldiers have fought in this century, the chances of becoming a psychiatric casualty – of being debilitated for some period of time as a consequence of the stresses of military life – were greater than the chances of being killed by enemy fire.”  - Richard Gabriel, No More Heroes.

OK, I think I’m starting to get The Pacific.  It’s the long-term effects they’re documenting… so you have to track the disintegration over a number of episodes.  There’s the exhaustion, the physical toll, the irritability, the berserking and finally the numbness… now that I can see what they’re doing, I’m coming around on it.  I thought they would just dismiss the battle exhaustion at the end of the episode in the sunshiny-est mental hospital known to man (brought to you by the Pause that Refreshes!) but the symptoms have been gradually worsening, especially in Leckie.

I’m on to them now.  They’re following Swank and Marchand, who showed that after 60 days of continuous combat, 98% of surviving soldiers will have become psychiatric casualties of one kind or another.  (I, um, have a book with a graph.  Of course I do.  It has the cheery title of On Killing.)

Maybe this is a series best viewed in the same way I watched Band of Brothers – straight on through, back to back to back to back.  6 hours one day, 5 the following.  That way the individual deterioration would be more evident, the psychological toll of the warfare more readily traced.

Not much to say

I’m really busy with the play.  Not much to say that isn’t play related, and I know that’s dull if you’re not in the middle of it.  Glad I’m doing The Producers.  Two plays back to back might not have been the best notion though.

I’ve been watching The Pacific.  It’s very different from Band of Brothers – I think the thing I miss most is the storytelling technique.  What I like about Band of Brothers is that you have a sense of the unit, yes, but you have a sense of the individuals. The Pacific is a bit more of a jumble.  If they had one person’s POV per episode it might make it seem more cohesive maybe?  It’s a completely different war though, the Pacific front.

Yes, it’s no Band of Brothers.  It’s still good tv though.

OK, but can I just rant, because I have been known to do that, the shellshock battle exhaustion PTSD episode drove me kind of nuts.  Way to minimize a very real, very serious issue that our active forces continue to battle.  Sigh.

I’ll post a proper review when I’ve seen the whole series. For now, it’s still good TV, and it’s a tough story to tell.

On sportsmanship and sour grapes.

A few events have particularly struck me in my Olympic watching binge.

Canada had a lot of expectations going into these Games, what with the “Own the Podium” program.  So far, I have to say, it seems a lot like every other Olympics.  I think what naysayers may be forgetting is that it’s the frickin’ Olympics.  EVERY country is bringing it.  EVERY country wants to Own the Podium.   Not that our athletes aren’t bringing it, it’s just that everyone is… I can’t help but wonder if the concept of “Own the Podium” is mentally unhealthy if they don’t succeed.  Or maybe it’s just CTV’s hyperbolic coverage, I don’t know.  The Olympic Committee seems to be scrambling, all “oh noes, the Americans has our medals!”

So I think of poor Melissa Hollingsworth, so upset at letting the entire country down, when folks are just so proud of her for being in the finals of the Olympics to begin with.  I just want to give her a hug.

But then you have Jon Montgomery, who won a gold in skeleton, and who walked through Whistler on his way to a post-win interview quaffing a pitcher of draft beer.  That was kind of awesome.  And  what a gracious winner, acknowledging the skill of the Latvian who came (a very close) second.

And then there’s the figure skating thing.  Now, it’s been a few years since there has been anyone that’s made me excited about Canadian skating, so I’m a bit out of the loop.  Virtue and Moir, I have to say, are bringing me back… I am kind of meh about Patrick Chan, but I watched the Men’s program anyway.

So Lysacek skated a good solid program, and skated it well.  Sure, I mocked the giant sperm glitter snakes adornments on his costume, but his skating was solid.  Plushenko, yes he landed a quad, but he was generally less solid.  Lysacek put together a more complete program, and it was performed more competently.  Was it particularly exciting?  Not really.  But it was solid, and I think the key here is that Plushenko got outskated.  Naturally, Plushenko of the Emphatic Gestures didn’t like that.  I have to say, it all seems sour grapes to me.  The guy got outskated, regardless of the quad.  You don’t get a gold medal for doing one jump.

Then Elvis Stojko (and how long has he been retired from skating?) decides it’s his business to write an article in which he basically says to Lysacek, “I’mma let you win gold, but Plushenko had the best quad of all time.  OF ALL TIME.”

Does Stojko come off as the Kanye West of the skating world to anyone else here?  And it’s not just me, Plushenko’s being a total sour grapes diva, right?

Keep calm, and carry on

Busy times around here.  I’m trying to be as helpful as I can, by making myself generally available for family assistance.  Today that meant minding my niece in the morning, and taking my folks’ van to get its MVI in the afternoon.  It’s nice to be able to help.

The weekend was pretty fun.  Went to the Ale House on Saturday for Candace’s birthday, it was a great time.  I’m so glad her husband Nathan had called the book club members to join.  And the “floor cake” was delicious, lol.  Sunday, I had an “at home” for family.  I, um, didn’t know (obviously) when I planned this date a couple months back how, um, dramatic, this week would be.  But it was so nice to see family members come out and to get to show off my place.  Dad helped me to get it all cleaned up, and it’s all fresh and clean in here still.

Aside from all of that, I’ve been on a Supernatural binge.  Working my way through season 1 (I’ve seen it before).  I think I’m going to have to pick up the other seasons.  I love this show.  I totally turn into a Jensen Ackles fangirl when I watch.  I had pooh-poohed it as being a lame Buffy rip-off, and I regret that attitude now because it meant I didn’t discover a really fun show until well into its 4th season.  It’s influenced by Buffy, obviously.  But the mythology of the series is very different, and the chemistry of the leads (without a Scooby Gang to fall back on) makes it different yet again.  It’s well-written, and surprisingly well-acted by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles.  For friends of mine who watched Buffy and Angel and are not watching this show, just to let you know, you’re missing a real treat.

Where to begin?

I have a Dollhouse blu-ray, and Supernatural season 1.  I don’t even know where to start.

Still having migration issues.  Apparently it would work with FireWire, but the 13″ MacBook doesn’t have a FireWire port.  I think it will be easiest to transfer the information by flash drive after all.  It might take awhile, but it will get done.

But my computer is soooo pretty.  I just love it.

Last night I watched SYTYCD Canada – a former student was on. He did well, and got through to Toronto.  Hope he is able to continue!  It’s going to get difficult for him, he’s not exactly (at all, actually) a particularly masculine dancer.

A quiet Sunday in my own space

It’s awesome.  I am loving this having my own place and space.  It’s so restful.  Sure, I’m not done unpacking.  And I’ve got some stuff I’m going to be purging.  But!  It’s all me in here.  I’ve never had that, a space just my own.  I should have done this years ago.

Also, having the Food network again is fantastic.  Iron Chef America!  With Jamie Oliver!  It cracks me up that they’ve added sound effects.

New toob-age

Well, Dollhouse.  You know I loves me my Joss.  But I’ve got to tell you, after 4 weeks it’s just not all that great.  I’m waiting for the 6th episode – apparently stuff really gets rolling then.  But you know, that’s not the best marketing scheme ever made, to say “oh wait for episode 6, then it gets really good”.  Maybe should have spent some more time on, oh, episodes 1 through 4.  Know what I mean?  And less of the guy in the sweater vest.  Man I do NOT like that character.  And Eliza… she’s selling it pretty hard, but seriously, she did an entire scene in a bra for no real reason.  It was just silly.  Sigh.  I am trying to look at its potential but so far it’s just not impressing me.

And last night I caught the premiere of Castle.  There’s nothing particularly revolutionary about the show as a concept or its writing… but you know, the characters were quite winning.  The actors had a lot of charisma, especially Nathan.  They redeemed a show that wasn’t all that super – Dollhouse should perhaps be taking note.  Anyway, I hope Nathan does well.  He could use a good run on a hit show… and he does that cheesy, smarmy type so very well.  I also hope they have the other mystery athors return for their poker game.  That was delightful.

So in the end, I’ll keep watching both of these.  And we’ll see!

It’s still a Monday

Even when you’re on Summer Vacation you still get the Mondays.  It’s grey and rainy, that’s probably not helping.  Plus, I think I’m coming down with a wee bit of a cold.  It had better not turn into a mega cold, I have to travel overseas in 2 weeks!

I’m watching Martha Stewart.  She’s doing a lemongrass beef satay with noodle.  Mmm noodle.  Ever since Kung Fu Panda last night I’ve got a huge craving for vietnamese noodle.  The recipe actually looks really easy, like something I could make.  And none of the ingredients were crazy unavailable unless you live in a large market.  Has Martha gotten realistic in the past few years?  I somehow doubt it.  And yet…  Oh, it’s a noodle side dish, not a noodle bowl.   Wow, that looks really good.  I’d totally eat that.

So what did I do this weekend?  On Friday Scott went surfing with Mike D. in Nova Scotia, so I got to hang out with the lads.  Jenn and Stew came over and we had a fun evening in, chilling with a bottle of Smoking Loon, Trivial Pursuit and also the movie In Bruges.  I missed a lot when I fell asleep during the middle of that movie in Montreal.  It’s really good, I enjoyed it.  Other than that, I did some cleaning, ran some errands, popped over to see Mom and Dad for a bit… it was pretty quiet.  Yesterday I went to the Nature Park with Scott and Jack, ran some errands in the afternoon (Scott had to pick up a few gifts at the mall for people) .  It was quiet but steady.

I read the Anne Perry WW1 series on the weekend/end of the week, all save one.  It’s an interesting project – there is a book for every year of the war.  1914 she does the so-called endless summer (No Graves As Yet), and the assassination of the archduke.  1915 is the one the library did not have, apparently that’s Gallipoli (Shoulder the Sky).  1916 is NOT the Somme, as you would first think – no, instead she does the battle of Jutland (Angels in the Gloom).  Clever, that.  1917 is Passchendaele (At Some Disputed Barricade).  And 1918 she joins almost at the very end in the 100 days (We Shall Not Sleep).  The historical context is nice, and most of it is spot on.   There is also a story runs through the series – the series focuses on the Reavely family, whose parents are killed in mysterious circumstances on the day of the assassination in Sarajevo in 1914.  One brother is a chaplain on the Western Front, one sister is married to a naval commander (hence the Jutland link), another brother is in British Intelligence and the youngest sister is an ambulance driver on the Western Front.  There is a nefarious presence they term “The Peacemaker”, a man who acts out of motives of pacifism or imperialism (they get mixed up) and whose plots are somehow thwarted by the Reavely Scooby gang.  Added to all of that:  each book has a one-off mystery that is solved in the frame of the book.  It’s complicated, but it’s really well done.  The characters are compelling, and the circumstances are written with the pathos and nostalgia so typical of Brits looking back at the Great War.  It’s an odd cultural quirk.  I think At Some Disputed Barricade, the 1917 book, is probably my favourite of the lot.  It presents the anger and the heartbreak of being at Passchendaele (and the simple exhaustion of the men, three years into the war) but also the simplicity of the bonds between men on the battlefield.  It’s a depiction that is historically accurate and emotionally sincere.  So what if she puts the Canadians on the field at Passchendaele in July of 1917 when we didn’t get there till later in the Fall.   The story rings true.  A very compelling read.

Last week I also read Philippa Gregory’s Fallen Skies.  It was OK.  I thought the ending was quite rushed.  The story of Lily Valance (Pears), a daughter of a shopkeeper who becomes a singing sensation on the music-hall stage in Portsmouth.  After losing her mother to Spanish Influenza after the war, she marries a former officer, Stephen.  The disintegration of that marriage and the real story of events that occurred during the war form the bulk of the story.  It’s pretty grim, to be honest.  I was expecting a read more like her Tudor series, something soapy.  I think the story would have benefitted from a bit more of the soapy style Gregory later uses in her Tudor period novels. 

It’s summer, I read.  *shrug*  And now I have to finish Brother of Sleep ahead of book club at Sabine’s on the weekend.  I’m enjoying it so far, though I haven’t read much of it.  It reminds me so much of the Brothers Grimm, which I read (in translation of course) when I was younger.  You can really tell this book has been translated; it has a cultural sensibility that is definitely not North American. 

Also on tap this weekend:  Claudia’s Big Fat Italian Wedding.  She has over 300 guests!  It’s basically my nightmare scenario, but that’s how it’s done when you’re the only daughter of an Italian family, I guess.  Also Mamma Mia opens on Friday night.  I am SO going to Mamma Mia.  Oh, and I’m also buying SingStar at last.  It’s going to be a good weekend.   Now, I just have to get there.  Jenn and I are supposed to be going for a pedi this week, I hope we make it.

Mad Men is awesome

That’s pretty much all I have to say.  It’s really, really awesome.

Galactica’s back!

Ahhh yeah.  It’s my carrot for getting through my marking today, the potential to watch the season 4 premiere of Battlestar Galactica later.  I’m looking forward to nerding it up!