I wanted to do something really meaningful for International Blog Against Racism Week. Something wrenching, profound, well-written.

I thought about writing a heartfelt essay about people of color in movies. Then I thought about writing a well-organized essay about people of color in movies. Then I thought about creating a list of well-realized people of color in movies. Then I realized there’s no way to organize any aspect of this little Hollywood clusterfuck, so let’s play it fast and loose, okay? There’s just so many ways to be offensive, why stick to just one?

Welcome to A Night at the Movies!

Come in, sit down! Be exploited and stereotyped! It’s fun.
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You guys, there’s a TV show called The Vampire Diaries, adapted from a YA series of the same name. I have not read the books and therefore cannot comment, but the show is clearly trying to be the small-screen Twilight (smart move), no matter how hard they have to wrestle it into shape.

Basically, this preview clip is five minutes of comedy gold, is what I’m saying. Enjoy our pregnant pauses!

My favorite part: They go to high school inside the west wing of a Mondrian, for some reason.

(Oh, Ian Somerhalder. Was rent due?)

I’m using my Katrina Ghent face for this. She was sorely missed in this total stinkbomb of a finale. As usual, the official version is up at Tor.com.

A spoiler-free list of things I wish had been different:

- THE CHARACTERIZATION. The actual, official characterizations were perfectly good. However, every time the show needed a plot twist, someone would get amnesia or aphasia or a concussion and act like an idiot. That’s frustrating.

- THE PACE. Let’s not just drop things for weeks at a time, yeah? Also, maybe have a through-line with more suspense than “Will the King learn to hate David this week? Again?”

- THE WASTE. Let me get this straight; you have your lead character speak directly with Death – nay, have weirdly romantic tension with her – and you never follow up on that? Oh, Kings. Was Saffron Burrows REALLY so hard to schedule?

A spoiler-free list of things I loved:

- MOST OF THE CAST. Chris Egan and Girl Who Played Michelle can sit down. The rest of you get a round of applause. That was some top-notch acting, guys, don’t think I didn’t notice! Also, I hope that Susanna Thompson and Ian McShane get to work together again. I loved every time they had a scene together.

- THE MUSIC. Oh man, the music. NBC, I WANT A SOUNDTRACK. I am not kidding around. (The composter of Hannibal scored the pilot. I’m just saying, it’s nice stuff.)

- THE PRODUCTION DESIGN. Sometimes you may have been dumber than a sack of hair, but show, you looked good.

I have no hopes that this show will open the doors to better-quality television, or that this show will get picked up, or even that the next random-religious-allegory series will fare better than this one. This show tanked, flat-out. However, I appreciate NBC airing the full season for those of us who wanted to see it.

Now just hand over the soundtrack album and we can forget this whole thing.

My short story “Bespoke” is live at Strange Horizons!

This one is close to my heart, as it contains both costumes AND despair.

So, a week or two ago I got a Facebook, because my sister told me there were other Genevieve Valentines on Facebook and I might want to snag the little nametag profile whatever. (She’s very thoughtful.) So I made one, so secretly that I did not even tell her. Stealth, right?

Somehow, in the last 24 hours, ten people found me. I don’t even know how that happened, that is how little I know about Facebook, but it was…illuminating.

I still don’t know what I’m going to do with it (and I dread finding out), but I’m this one, and not the one who’s a physical therapist in Texas or whatever.