Only because I'm a Buffy fan ...

Ghoul Power: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sticks it to the System

By Jackie Esmonde

"I’ve always been a huge fan of horror movies. And I saw so many horror movies where there was that blonde girl who would always get herself killed. I started feeling bad for her. I thought, it’s time she had a chance to "take back the night". The idea of Buffy came from the very simple thought of a beautiful blonde girl walks into an alley, a monster attacks her and she's not only ready for him, she trounces him."
-- Joss Whedon, Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Now in its seventh season, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a television cult hit based on the premise that there is "one girl in all the world" -- the slayer -- chosen to fight vampires and demons. The show revolves around Buffy Summers' weekly battles with evil in the fictional town of Sunnydale. Buffy is a show that defies pigeonholing, continuously alternating between campy comedy, gothic horror, adventure, and drama.

Buffy, played by Sarah Michelle Geller, is a strong woman in every sense. Many of the secondary characters are also strong women -- from Willow the powerful witch to the no-nonsense demon Anya. Watching these characters kick demon ass is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the show and a great antidote to the mewling female characters that tend to populate most popular television and film. The show quite deliberately sets out to reverse typical depictions of women. Joss Whedon, the show's creator, has also stated that one goal of the show is to use entertainment to popularize feminism: "If I can make teenage boys comfortable with a girl who takes charge of the situation without their knowing that's what's happening, it's better than sitting down and selling them on feminism."

Buffy, then, is a consciously "feminist" show. But "feminism" encompasses many different political perspectives, from the conservative to the revolutionary. So just what kind of feminism is Whedon selling?

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Dreams

You know, I don't remember my dreams of late. I really wish that I did.

An Anime Plot

From the description of Sins of the Sisters, page 357 of The Anime Sourcebook:

During the ill-fated Children's Crusade of A.D. 1212, Pope Innocent III double-crosses the loyal Christian soldiers and sells them to African slavers. Distraught at his betrayal by the very church he is sworn to serve, the children's leader, Hans, throws himself inot the sea. Centuries later, he is reincarnated as a hermaphrodite in a convent school, where he seduces the girls and leads them in a bloody revolt against the oppressive nuns. Seizing control of the nuns' time travel, Hans (now called Aiko) and his/her chums travel back to Japan's Amakusa rebellinon [. . .], where they fight the evil Christians. Eventually, all religions are wiped out in a worldwide atheist jihad, and the battle-hardened schoolgirls decide to go back in time again to save the original Hans from the slaves. Meanwhile, Hans/Aiko's lesbian lover, Rika, is brought back to life by Aron/Yuki, an evil nun out to retrieve her kamikaze pilot boyfriend from hell.

::blinks::

Travelling

OK: I've rebooked my ticket so as to be able to attend Senior Week. I will be leaving for Toronto on the afternoon of the 20th, and coming back to Charlottetown on the afternoon of the 29th. (Nothing on the 28th.)

So: Who can I count on seeing? :-)