Two Rants for the Price of One!

Fasten yer helmets, Rangers, there's incoming!


First- a Harry Potter related rant:

This is not meant at anyone in particular, so don't get personally exercised about it. I'm just bloviating.

I am really really really really REALLY tired of the whining about the casting of Michael Gambon as Dumbledore.

Richard Harris wasn't perfect either- in fact, he was pretty much phoning in his performance in COS. And he didn't give a rat's patootie about the books either. He only signed on because his granddaughter threatened to never speak to him again if he didn't.

Harris died, and they had to find a replacement. Someone who they could make up to look similar at least. Someone from the British Isles. Someone with acting chops. Someone who was available and could be available for future films.

Were any of us involved in the call for said actors? Were any of us involved in the casting process at all? Did anyone ask our opinion? The same people who picked Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane and Maggie Smith also picked Gambon. There must be some reason for that, don't you think?

I would also like to suggest that it may not necessarily be his _acting_ in the latest performances, but the _direction_. I thought Gambon was fine in POA, and I also thought that Cuaron was inspired. I was less impressed with Newell and Yates. I suppose we'll have to wait and see how the next one turns out.

I'm just tired of the second-guessing. No film is perfect, and these films have an incredible weight of audience expectations- more than anything with the exception perhaps of LOTR. Frankly, I'm just glad that they're being made at all.

And oh- I was rooting for Pasty Byrne (Nursie from Blackadder II) to be Umbridge- she would have been perfect. But you know, Imelda Staunton did a very good job. And I'm satisfied with that.

That is all. :-|

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Edited to add-

Questions came up when I posted this rant to the Harry Potter For Grown-Ups list. So to clarify: Yes, none of us were in casting process or were asked what we thought. Which means that we don't know the reasons that Gambon was cast and someone else was not. Second-guessing when one has the same info as the original decision was made from is one thing, but second-guessing with none of the information is just stupid.
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And now Rant #2...

A General Rant About Life as I'm Getting It.

IT SUCKS!!!

Well, lessee, where to start? I'm sleeping really badly again- in fits and starts, and I'm always groggy and tired. I've tried taking sleeping pills the last couple of nights, and all it does is leave me really gorked the next day. I am also in a fair amount of pain, which doesn't help with the sleeping thing, and also wears down what little energy I had, and shaves my nerves razor-thin. I'm Dealing with some fairly major depression, fueled by the lack of sleep, the pain, and the @#$%^& weather (grey, grey, the skies are grey...),

Money is tight, thanks to a minor fooble last month,

I slept most of Monday and clean forgot about an appointment- and haven't rescheduled it yet.

I'm feeling fat and ugly. And I'm losing large quantities of hair again,

and the man I love above all is 300 @#$%^&* miles away. Again. Still.

I really want some ice cream. And we haven't any. Boo.

Bother, said Pooh.