Circus Arts

I toured with a circus for nearly three years when I was in my twenties and I still have a huge soft spot for a really good act.

I've never seen this piece of equipment used before. It's similar to the German wheel, which is two of these hoops joined together. There is a simplicity and a grace in this act that I really loved.

 

This next one is just stunning. It's an adaptation of the Chinese poles - in this case there's just the one pole. It's called the Vertical Tango.

Welcome!

It seems my site got a little plug on the boards at ABC.com's official Castle site. So, welcome to anyone who has wandered over from there. Make yourselves at home.


I'm looking forward to a new episode of Castle on Monday. Finally! Also, according to ABC.com, where I poked around after checking out the message boards, there will be some live-tweeting with Seamus Deaver and one of the costume designers starting at 10pm ET on Monday. I'm not actually sure what I feel about that, though. I wonder if it's distracting? Maybe watch the episode and then catch up on the tweets? We'll see.

This will probably be followed by some ranting from me about how Castle and Beckett are both grown ups and there's plenty of drama to be had in an actual relationship, so why don't they just SAY IT OUT LOUD, ALREADY! But, I'll save that for Monday.

Quick reaction to Castle "Setup"

Another Firefly reference! That's two in, what, three weeks? Not that I'm complaining. They still make me ridiculously happy. And it went to Martha this time. Spreading the love around.

I have to get up at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow, so I'm heading to bed now. I'll update the list sometime tomorrow evening.

Exciting news

In addition to this blog, I do some travel writing. I submitted a short piece to trazzler.com and today I got the following note:

Hey kithica,

Our editors selected your trip as a "Trazzler trip." What does this mean? Out of hundreds of submissions, yours caught our eye. While all writing submitted to Trazzler is published and available on the site, only the very best are cherry-picked to go into the public tripstream on trazzler.com.

If you entered a writing contest [I did] or applied for a freelance assignment, having your trip promoted means that you are on our short list of potential winners/freelancers.

I'm pretty excited about this! And I welcome you to take a peek at the piece - it's only about 150 words, so it will be nice and quick. If you like it, please click on "Save" and I'll have a chance of winning the People's Choice Award.

Castle - "Lucky Stiff"

"Lucky Stiff" is the first new episode of Castle since we had the kiss in "Knockdown." The kiss clearly had some kind of impact on Castle, so going into "Lucky Stiff" I was most curious to see how the dynamic between Castle and Beckett was going to play out.

It's interesting. For the most part, they're clearly choosing to ignore the kiss. But, something has shifted. It's subtle, which makes me wonder whether it's Nathan Fillion bringing his own bit of character development to the episode, or whther it's something that was scripted.

Castle "Lucky Stiff" - another Firefly reference?

It wasn't Castle this time who had the line, it was Beckett, which is why I'm not quite certain it was an intentional reference.

Castle - "Knockdown"

Season one gave us some tidbits. The season two episode "Sucker Punch" gave us the first part of the story. In this week's episode of Castle, "Knockdown", we get the next big chunk of the mystery.

I'll get to the rest of the episode in a moment. But first, a recap of what we know so far about Johanna Beckett's death.

Who killed Beckett's mother? Recapping what we know so far.

I was watching The Big Bang Theory this evening, and CTV was busy promoting the heck out of Castle. There's a new episode tomorrow, in which [spoiler] happens. And, according to the trailer...

more bits of interesting: The Big Bang Theory and Firefly's Jewel Staite

I should have waited another day before posting. I have two more bits of interesting!

First of all, The Big Bang Theory has been renewed. It has been renewed, in fact, not for one more season, but for three more. The quality of the episodes this season has been a little uneven, but for the sake of the occasional episode that makes me pee my pants, this is a definite HURRAY!

On a marginally related note, if you've ever been curious about what those vanity cards at the end of each episode of The Big Bang Theory actually say, you can find them all here. They're written by the producer, Chuck Lorre, who is also responsible for Two and a Half Men, Mike & Molly, Dharma & Greg, Cybill and Grace Under Fire. Vanity cards for those episodes can be found through links at the same site.

Secondly, Jewel Staite, who played Kaylee the mechanic on Firefly, is going to be blogging semi-regularly on Blastr. Today's post can be found here. It's a nice mix of information about her life and answers to reader questions. She also talks about why watching Serenity makes her cry.

Star Wars had nothing to do with it

I stumbled onto this article the other day. "Shoulda Been Bigger: How Star Wars Killed Babylon 5." It posits that science fiction fans were so wrapped up in the Star Wars prequels that they had no attention left to spend on science fiction television like Babylon 5. And that in a world with no Star Wars prequels, presumably, Babylon 5 would have launched into a hugely successful franchise.

I call bullshit.

Firefly references in Castle

Here at last!

I am a huge Firefly fan and I adore Castle as well. I get such a kick out of all the little Firefly references that they've been sneaking into Castle over the last couple of seasons.

And the good news is, I've finally put my little notes together and created what will be a comprehensive list of all the Firefly references in Castle, with details, explanations and clips!

Have you noticed any references that I've missed? If so, I'd love to hear about it. Want more details? Have any questions? Drop me a comment! I'm very excited about my little project.

Check it out here!