Aside #11: Reminiscing about Buffy while Bento Boxing

October 2011

SmartCooks here for an aside....

I spent hours Sunday night in the kitchen preparing Bento Box Lunches for the week.  Now, lest you feel sorry for me, let me assure you I wasn't alone and I had a grEAT time. 

Cat-friendlies first....

Furry friends of the cat kind paid the first visit.  Whine-y Girl Grace Cat did her frantic Meow-thing at the back door, pleading 'pleeeez' to be let out (it's so not going to happen Grace!) and was finally turfed for failing to stop the insanity and get with the program.  Sir BB -- Big Boy Will -- flopped on top of a recipe and asked for a head scritch; after 100 or so (never enough) he too got turfed.  Head Girl Spice Queen came in for a drink of fresh water and gave me one of her silently mouthed meow-s of "Hi" and "I love you" before heading wearily back to bed. ;)

Scooby Gang next....

So, furry friends gone, kitchen was then cleaned and sterilized, and the door to the family room tightly closed and my back turned on the little noses pressed up against the glass pawing at the door... I then invited in the next group of friends to help cook.  



I'm talking about the ipad Netflix episodes of Buffy:  The Vampire Slayer and the "Scooby Gang" of Willow, Xander, Cordelia, Dawn, Anya, Tara, Watcher Rupert Files (my personal favourite from his days as Anthony Stewart Head in the Nescafe/Taster's Choice commercials in the early 1990s) and of course Buffy Summers.  The Buffy series ran from 1996 until 2003 and I didn't miss an episode, thanks to VCRs and PVRs and renting or buying the DVDs.  And I can't forget vampires and demons Angel, Spike, Glorificus, Drusilla, the Master etcetera ...

I blame Husband for my original addiction.  He first found or rented the pilot movie, called, appropriately, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" with Donald Sutherland.  We were both hooked from the moment we watched it.  There's something about "Valley Girl" speak that debuted in the movie e.g., Buffy to dead guy vampire:  "Excuse much!  Rude or anything?"  Or her cheerleader chant:  "How funky is your chicken? How funky is your chicken? How loose is your goose? Our goose is totally loose! So come on all you Hog fans, so come on all you Hog fans and shake your caboose, and shake your caboose! WHoooO!" (And I thought my high school/university chants were lame....) 




I spent 7 seasons in Buffyverse -- 145 episodes. I blame Husband for my re-addiction, this time via Netflix with no commercials.  I'm in Buffy-dom heaven, or Hellmouth this is.  I'm well into Season 2, where Angel has just made out with Buffy for her first time ever, but tragically cursed he loses his soul by giving his heart to a mortal Buffy.  And now he's an uber baddie vampire again, in league with another uber baddie vampire  named Spike and creepy, crazy maxvamp-y Druscilla. 

I can't wait for the 7th episode of the 6th season!! Why, you ask? Because it is the only episode in the entire series done as a musical.  Called "Once More with Feeling", a demon compels the entire population of Sunnydale to break into song at random moments to express hidden truths.  After the singer sings the taboo 'truth', the demon invites him/her to sing it again... "Once More With Feeling"... and the singer, umm, bursts back into song and goes down in flames (i.e., combusts, flames out... should I stop?) and dies (it's an ironic vampire series after all...).

Big secret (shhhh!) is that I know every single line and musical note in the episode. I  have it on a separate CD/DVD thanks to a former colleague/friend.  More truth... I sing it OUT LOUD in deeply felt off-key harmony with the cast whenever I'm alone and feeling like a pick-me-up. I haven't yet exploded into flames. I might if anyone ever hears me. 

And, according to Slayage: The Online Journal of Buffy Studies (I kid you not!) apparently the episode went into the theatres for a bit for a theatre-goers sing a-long (aka Rocky Horror) but, 'natch, there was some kind of financial dispute (always about the $$$) and now we can only get it by watching the re-run episodes. 

The episode has deeper undertones (scoff at your peril) but the whole story arc and plot of the series progresses in this episode as the characters reveal previously deeply kept secrets about themselves (e.g., Willow's attraction to Tara and spell she casts on her, Buffy's burgeoning sick desire for baddie Spike etc).  The episode is similar to one I liked from Season 4, called "Hush" when a demon takes away everyone's voice but they manage to communicate anyway. 

SmartCooks:  Bento Box Lunch recipes in next posting.