Every Line Speaks the Language of Love by mardia: HIMYM FOLKS, READ THIS FIC NOW. THIS IS BY FAR THE MOST DEPRESSING FIC I HAVE EVER READ AND YOU WILL HATE ME (AND THE AUTHOR) AFTER READING IT AND YET, REEEEEEEAAAAD. Because it's GOOD. How can HIMYM fic be depressing you, ask? How can that possibly happen? Does she break up Robin and Barney's future angst-filled relationship? Oh, no, it's worse. And it also kind of blew me away. So read it. (OKAY, READING ONE OF THE COMMENT REPLIES ON THE FIC JUST MADE ME CRY, WTF.)

House, on the other hand, made me yay this week. We had great House, Wilson, Kutner, Foreman, and... you know, other people. I was really happy they let Kutner have his moments, even though I can't call this a Kutner-centric episode, seeing as he was bumped out of the case after about ten minutes. Which sadly means that he probably won't get an story of his own for at least a few more episodes.

You've all read a few reaction posts already, I assume, and I'm coming late to the party, so I don't have much to add to the general squee. I LOVED Wilson here, which isn't something I say too often. And I liked Foreman and the former ducklings' interactions - I can't say I truly get their relationships, but I liked that they helped him when he asked for it, and that House knew about the case - not just that there was a case, but the particulars, that it was a little boy - all along.

Three other things I liked: 1. 13 (or someone) telling House that he doesn't care about the patient's life, just about solving the case. And for a moment I was afraid House was going to launch a speech or deflect or act in some way OOC, but all he did is stare blankly and say: "So?" and YES. THIS is House - first season House, the "misanthropic bastard" who, at his core, really does care about solving the mystery and anything else - patient-wise - is secondary. As the seasons progressed, things have turned more towards the psychological reasonings for why House or his fellows take on cases or treat one another and that's, you know, good and understandable, but this was one fundamental aspect of House which I feel we've been missing for a while.

2. The good ethical dilemma. Again, this flashed me back to the first two seasons, where the core of the medical mystery was, many times, not medical but ethical. Should the police be notified about the rape? Should they interfere in the girl's wishes to get the transplant from her parents? Never mind that in the end they avoided the question with it not being rape after all, but the question was there, and it was good.

3. We've gotten used to House always solving the mystery in time. And if we identify with the fellows, we always know that House is there, in the background, backing us up, solving the case. This episode actually made me feel the pressure, for once - because the detective wasn't House, and where Foreman (and Chase and Cameron) doubted himself, so did I, and I suddenly felt all the responsibility that weighs down on you when you're the diagnostician and if you don't figure this out, the little boy will die, and you have to either be brilliant or come crawling to House - in time - and there isn't that certainty that it'll be okay in the end. The fact that Foreman did solve it really shows how much he's grown but also how very, very scary it would be to leave House's patronship and become a diagnostician.

It also made me think about House as a teacher. And I know that the least of House's worries is being a good teacher, but somewhere inside him, as this episode proved, he does care a little about making his fellows better doctors. And I think that if we look at the three ducklings, we can categorize Foreman as a success, Cameron as a partial success, and Chase, frankly, as a failure. Chase was a good diagnostician. He was a fellow for four years, he learned a ton, and in the end, when he left, he basically - the way I understand it - threw it all away to become a surgeon. Because in the ER Cameron still exhibits some, at least, diagnostic skills, but in surgery, Chase just cuts them open and sews them back up, and that's it. Even when he's performing exploratory surgeries and difficult procedures, they're just tests - the diagnostic process happens either before or after. And that kind of sucks. His four years in Diagnostics got him a weirdly estranged relationship with Cameron and diagnosing techniques that will remain unused, for the guy who has mad surgical Superdoc skills anyway.

Also, this line in last night's The Office killed me: "I tried to talk to Toby and be his friend, but that is like trying to be friends with an evil... snail. I feel like I'm dying inside."

Hee! Steve Carell ROCKED this episode. As did Dwight, and Jim and Pam brought the warm and fuzzy feelings. And what made this an even better episode was the return of Toby! I love, so much, the thought of the writers of the show playing these sidelines characters, and seeing Ryan, Kelly and Toby, three writers, acting in the same scene was awesome. Also Ryan's break up with Kelly, LOL.

I was, originally, going to make this post all about Izhar Ashdot's awesome new CD! I'm not a huge fan of the guy, but his new(est) album is all songs from his Irish tour, which is him arranging his songs with an Irish music band, traditional Irish instruments, you know. And it puts a spin on some songs that I never realized I liked before, but now sound far more pleasant.

He also does a cover of Whiskey in the Jar (or here, by Metallica), which I am glad for, because it completed a connection in my brain: I'd always known that the music of Gidi Gov's Siman She'ata Tzair (It's a Sign That You're Still Young) was taken from somewhere else, but I never knew from where; officially, it says "traditional Irish tune". So apparently, it's Whiskey in the Jar. (These kinds of Israeli/foreign song connections have happened to me before; I always love it.)

Anyway, this ramble is not for naught;

Six songs from the CD, in this Mediafire folder.

Individually, songs are:

02 Habalada Al - The Ballad Of
03 Rikud Katan - A Little Dance (chorus: and all this happened in a white night / no good or bad, no feeling of time / two souls went out in a little dance)
04 Eric and the Angels - pretty Irish music instrumental
05 Whiskey in the Jar
09 Ma Tomri - What Would You Say (what would you say if I met you today / just like that, suddenly / and told you hello)
10 Kichlot Hakol Vehatmunah - ♥ ♥ ♥

Okay, that last song deserves a mini into of its own, because I really do love it. When I hear this version, which is of local singer-celebs performing it at a charity event, I can actually get chills, and it's all because of one line that keeps repeating itself and, if you listen to the lyrics, actually sounds like it's talking to you: "When was the last time you did something for someone?"

I also love the song title. The phrase "VeAcharey kichlot hakol" is taken from the Adom Olam prayer, and means "and after everything", or "and when all shall end". The word kol also means voice, though, or sound. Spelled as it is in the song, it means something like "and after all the sounds and images are over", or "and after the end of all the sounds and images", which is a really pretty play on the words.

And what the hell, here are the lyrics in full:

Kichlot Hakol Vehatmunah (lyrics by Yankale Rotbleit)

Your smile is pasted all over the city
like a great promise
and you have a fanbase, yes
singing with you in a choir
what can one say
all the tickets were sold out
what can be said
don't let it go to your head
tu-du-du-du-du

Because after the sound and image are over
someone might unintentionally ask you
when was the last time
you did something for someone,
you did something for someone
for someone.

It looks like a sure card
you are galloping, you're on the horse's back
everyone opens doors for you,
and talk politely
you sit and get photographed
just like a success symbol
you think the whole word is already in your pocket
tu-du-du-du-du...

Because after the sound and image are over...

You live like in a movie
you're a superstar in a dream production
watch out so they don't turn on the light
and you'll suddenly wake up
and then you'll see that from up to down
is the same distance
and then you'll learn
who will be the last to laugh

Because after the voice and the picture are over...

OKAY, SERIOUSLY, DONE NOW.