I can't believe you haven't seen... TV edition

Confession time. I’m only now, for the first time, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’ve borrowed the DVD’s from my friend Kylie, who has been in love with the show for as long as I’ve known her. I’m really enjoying it, but have a feeling I might have appreciated Buffy more when it was first on TV, in its original context, spoiler-free and fresh. As proud as I am that I “liked Arrested Development before Fox canned it”, I’ve also been a johnny-come-lately fan of many classics:

Deadwood

Completely missed it. I blame Australian television programmers. Not my fault.

Fringe

I’m not too late, Fringe hasn’t been cancelled, but I’m only now getting on board. I love its X-Files-style mythology that is thus far not too confusing. And that last scene of S1? Wow.

Breaking Bad

Watched 3 seasons in 2 weeks. Where do I collect my award? Bring on Season 4! I’m ready. I’ve been waiting for so long… ahem.

The Wire

I don’t feel too bad about this one. Everyone missed it the first time around. Society's fault.

Over to you, readers! What shows are you (maybe shamefully) just discovering for the first time?

Quote of the day: Words a source of magic & a farewell to Harry Potter

"I always surprise myself on my ability to turn a phrase. Words are, in my not so humble opinion, the most inexhaustible source of magic; capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it." Albus Dumbledore

I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 on the weekend. It was fantastic, a perfectly dramatic and heart-wrenching end to one of the history's greatest stories, told by one of history's greatest story-tellers: JK Rowling. JK's turn with a phrase is well-known, and the script of The Deathly Hallows Part 2 included many of my favourite lines from the book on which it was based. The above quote felt like a nod to all of the word-nerds out there, a reminder of the power of language and the impact your choice of words has on your own world.

So as we farewell Harry, Ron and Hermione, let us pay tribute to their creator, the marvelous JK Rowling. Here is her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” from the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.

 
J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

Quote of the day: Here is New York

“There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last — the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is the third city that accounts for New York’s high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion.” - E. B. White