Technical Difficulties

TIME: 42 min.
DISTANCE: 5.4 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 270.2 mi.
DISTRACTION: Dead Zone, "Dinner with Dana"
NOTES: Callum Keith Rennie as an abusive psycho makes me want to cry. Convincing, though.
SHIRE RECKONING: No change.

1. My (rather pathetic) Storytellers Unplugged column for August is here.

2. WATERLOG (yesterday)
TIME: 41 min.
DISTANCE: 5 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 258.1 mi.
DISTRACTION: The Dead Zone, "Enemy Mind"
SHIRE RECKONING: In thickets

3. This Dead Zone episode gets points for giving the girl agency. She has hard-earned knowledge that Johnny doesn't; she is an active participant in saving herself. My worst problem with the episode, which is purely my problem, is that the cougar is so beautiful I keep forgetting it's symbolically the bad guy.

4. Shift, Shift 2, Shift 3, and Shift 4 are flash games that make brilliant, and frequently fiendish, use of their medium.

5. I will have more to say about Anna Katharine Green when I've finished reading The Leavenworth Case, but if you're going to be near Milwaukee anytime before the twenty-third, I highly recommend the Milwaukee Art Museum's current exhibition, "American Originals," on Charles Rohlfs' furniture and the paintings of the Eight (Arthur B. Davies, William Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice B. Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan).

(Anna Katharine Green, whom I had heard of as the first American woman mystery writer, was Charles Rohlfs' wife; the exhibition and the accompanying book, The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs by Joseph Cunningham, are concerned to emphasize her collaboration with her husband, and the exhibition store made me very happy by having copies of one of Green's books: The Leavenworth Case, as mentioned above.)

TIME: 42 min.
DISTANCE: 5.3 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 247.6 mi.
DISTRACTION: The Dead Zone, "Unreasonable Doubt"
SHIRE RECKONING: This is going to take a while.

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Twelve Angry Men, this ain't. I do give them credit for dealing with race head on, even if unsubtly and (in places) clumsily, and likewise with the issue of sexual assault--although there they opened up a can of worms much much larger than they were prepared to deal with, as the awkward little meet-cute with the sports nut and the assault victim at the end shows. Both conversion moments--the assault victim and the hold-out juror--depended far too much on Johnny using his psychic powers to cheat do some social engineering, rather than on the case in front of them. You could even read his speech to the assault victim as blackmail. And the fat fanboy nerd . . . did we have to?

Also, while Anthony Michael Hall does a great job acting when he's not being Johnny, Johnny, as OUR PROTAGONIST, needs a bigger emotional repertoire than the Solemn Look, kthnx.

On the other hand, I got a total fangirl rush for Jim Byrnes.

TIME: 41 min.
DISTANCE: 5 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 237 mi.
NOTES: Apparently the blisters and the shin-splints are trading off. :P
DISTRACTION: The Dead Zone, "Netherworld"
SHIRE RECKONING: Still not king. Still haven't reached Weathertop.

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This episode owes a lot to Jacob's Ladder. In other news, Chris Bruno is growing on me (although he still isn't Sheriff Bannerman), and John L. Adams deserves an award for NOT phoning in his crap sidekick role.

TIME: 43 min.
DISTANCE: 5 mi.
TOTAL: 227 mi.
NOTES: An advantage of exercising in the afternoon: since it is the least productive part of the day for me, I actually look forward to getting away from the computer.
DISTRACTION: The Dead Zone 1.3, "Quality of Life"
SHIRE RECKONING: Two miles to the foot of the Weather Hills!

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1. There was too much slow-motion portentous hockey in this episode, but they get points for the kid demonstrating agency and common sense.

2. Anthony Michael Hall is sure working that Martin Sheen impression for all he's worth. ETA: Where by "Martin Sheen" I mean, of course, Christopher Walken.

3. David Ogden Stiers is lovely lovely lovely. Also hateful.

TIME: 41 min.
DISTANCE: 5 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 216.7
DISTRACTION: The Dead Zone 1.1, "Wheel of Fortune"
NOTES: So the weight-lifting gloves keep me from getting blisters on my palms, but now I get blisters on my fingers instead.
SHIRE RECKONING: Still slogging toward Weathertop.

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The Dead Zone is possibly my favorite Stephen King novel. So you will understand that my reaction to the TV show is to nitpick every deviation from the source material TO DEATH. That said, I am actually legitimately grumpy with the way their changes have made Sarah Bracknell look stupid, shallow, and dishonest.

TIME: 45 min.
DISTANCE: 5.2 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 206.7 mi.
DISTRACTION: mirrorthaw Wiiing
NOTES: Need to remember the weight-lifting gloves.
SHIRE RECKONING: Slogging along toward Weathertop.

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The male trainer in particular needs a Drown Trainer In Bucket button.

TIME: 51 min.
DISTANCE: 6 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 195.9 mi.
DISTRACTION: "The Mad Mad Tea Party Affair"
NOTES: I think this would easily be my favorite MfU episode if only the Innocent of the Week could act. (Apparently Zohra Lampert can act, so she must have been having a seriously off day or something.)
SHIRE RECKONING: We're not quite to the eastern edge of the Marshes.

TIME: 24 min.
DISTANCE: 2.5 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 187.2
DISTRACTION: the first half of "The Yellow Scarf Affair"
NOTES: Why must it ALWAYS be a Thuggee cult? (Steven Spielberg, I am so looking at you.)
SHIRE RECKONING: Midgewater Marshes. Good thing this is imaginary, or I'd be eaten alive by now.

TIME: 49 min.
DISTANCE: 5.3 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 179.4 mi.
DISTRACTION: "The Deadly Decoy Affair"
NOTES: I remain a slave to David McCallum's left eyebrow.
SHIRE RECKONING: We have camped in the western part of the Marshes.