SGA 4x14: Harmony

[sholio]

I wasn't really that inspired to write up a reaction post this week, as has generally been the case lately, but I went and typed out a fairly long comment at naye's post, so I figured I could rework it as an actual episode reaction post, albeit brief. (Hmm, I keep adding stuff to it. Maybe not so brief, then!)

Basically: Hee!

It was a cute and fun episode. Like some of last season's (e.g. Game) this one felt like it could have been really good if it had been a little deeper and more serious with maybe a little more anthropological research than a high school textbook on the Middle Ages that the writers read 20 years ago *g*, but as it was, all it achieved was fluff and fun. SO MANY PLOT HOLES HELP HELP HELP. Still ... who's gonna argue with a little bit of fluff and fun? It's not going to be an episode I'll rewatch much, but I managed to turn my brain off and have a lot of fun. :D

This really felt like the John and Rodney version of "Missing", only without the serious undertone of that one. Still, it made a nice counterpoint to it, though of the two I liked "Missing" better (despite the lack of John and Rodney in that one ... but the coolness of having a girl "Butch and Sundance" duo made up for it).

I really liked Harmony. She was bitchy, but smart and tough and competent and brave. I was actually pretty impressed with the writers for going ahead and bringing her crush on John out of subtext into actual text -- it's such a taboo subject that I was expecting them to dance around the issue, and pleased that they went ahead and dealt with it. (His look of horror when she asked him to be her king! Oh, John.)

So many cute scenes with Rodney and John! He called him John ... again ... multiple times! (It still feels really weird to me, after two years, to get used to hearing Rodney say "John." But in a good way!)

I figured from the get-go that Harmony would have some kind of epiphany about Rodney. I was hoping it would be a more, er, emotionally fraught situation, let's just say. (Yes, I wanted h/c. So sue me. *g*) But still, nice, and her about-face, switching the crush from John to Rodney, was not just hilarious, but SUCH a 13-year-old thing to do. And the painting, oh god! *dies*

I've gone around to a few LJs and seen Sheppard fans griping about the episode casting their hero in a bad light ... which seriously cracks me up, because Rodney's been the brunt of the jokes for years, and now the tables have been turned and it makes me giggle! I love them both, and I find the jokes at Rodney's expense equally funny, but it's about Sheppard's turn, darn it! The painting slayed me, and now Rodney's got ammo to counter the lemon and whale jokes. You just know Rodney won't let him live it down. :D

Comments

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Casts him in a bad light? Because a little girl made fun of him? Oh, fandom... *headdesk*

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I must admit the idea NEVER occurred to me, when I was watching the episode, that anyone would be genuinely ticked off by that. It still baffles me. Of course, the thought didn't cross my mind that fandom would have the reaction that it did to the lemon in Pegasus Project or Rodney's arrow-in-the-ass in Sateda, either. Wraith and Genii are one thing, but the characters must be protected from the dread scourge of lemons and little girls. Heh.

[foliogal.livejournal.com]

I totally don't know why anyone would be upset by that. This was such a perfect 'On the Road to...' episode with McKay and Sheppard as Hope and Crosby and Harmony as Dorothy Lamour. It was *fun* and it was funny, and I almost laughed until I cried at the ending, and I am just so happy and in love with my show. I guess when I'm this happy with an episode I like to see everyone else happy as well. I think I'll just toddle off and watch it again...

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

This was such a perfect 'On the Road to...' episode with McKay and Sheppard as Hope and Crosby and Harmony as Dorothy Lamour.

Hee! It was, wasn't it? I'm glad they do lighter episodes interspersed with the darker ones (which there have been a lot of, this season).

[alipeeps.livejournal.com]

OMG it totally was! And I used to love those movies! :D

[clarkangel.livejournal.com]

I'm one of those gripers. I cringed at the portrait and didn't find it funny at all. I had seen Harmony as a smart kid for her age and suddenly, 13 or not, she forgets how John saved her. And I'm so not a Rodney fan, but I would have cringed equally had the portrait roles been reversed. I've never laughed at Rodney being made the butt of jokes either and when it happens on eps, LJ is alive and screaming with Rodney fans griping about it. Just to be fair.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

and when it happens on eps, LJ is alive and screaming with Rodney fans griping about it.

Oh sure! I have a longstanding tradition of mocking them too. :D Gently mocking, that is. I definitely think some people (and I'm not saying this is what you're doing, but I've certainly seen it) over-identify with the character to the point where a joke at the character's expense is taken very personally by the fan. I thought that Harmony framing Rodney for the theft of the Powerbar and threatening to have him beaten (with John's encouragement) was funny, too. Both characters got skewered in this episode, but they're both thick-skinned guys and I don't expect to see either of them sobbing in a corner over it. (Rodney snapping a picture and pinning it on the Atlantis bulletin board ... now ... THAT I could see! :D )

[kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com]

My Harmony live blogging episode notes are now up. (http://kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com/307296.html) I rewound ALOT during this episode, but then again I adore Martin's writing usually :)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I ought to try live-blogging the episodes one of these times. I always forget half the things I wanted to say by the time I get to the end!

[aelfgyfu_mead]

I was upset at the lemon. That's probably a result of having relations who do have deadly food allergies, and the "fun" that results when a server doesn't take seriously someone who explicitly says, "I need to be sure there's no X in my food"--"Oh, no, I'm sure that's not in your food!" A few trips to the ER takes all the fun out of the joke, and I can't get into it even if people are telling me the character's imagining his allergies (probably because that's what some people think about my mother-in-law--hey, check with her doctor). Yes, I'm on my soapbox--too many people never take food allergies seriously. No, I don't want to reopen the argument about whether Rodney has real food allergies; I just want to point out that some people do, and those who do or are close to those who do may not find this funny at all. [/soapbox] (I will make this distinction: John showing the lemon to Cam was a little funny to me, because I don't think he really expected Cam would really threaten Rodney with it, any more than we've seen John actually brandishing lemons at Rodney.)

The arrow? "A pretty girl...and a caveman"--now that was funny! John in the painting? Hilarious! Hey, nobody got hurt, and Sheppard only got a litle annoyed. I'm sometimes one of those who gets annoyed with Rodney being the butt of jokes, but hey, sometimes it's just funny. The crushes are a little creepy, but funny still wins out for me. I kept waiting for John to remind Rodney, "Hey, you called dibs on her!" but was glad he didn't.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I certainly don't mean to downplay the seriousness of real food allergies. I realize that a lot of times, what seems to be a fan reaction to the show is actually a person reacting to real issues in their own life that are reflected in the show (which may explain some of my negative reaction to pregnant Teyla being coddled by the guys, too). But it definitely seems like anytime Rodney is the brunt of a joke on SGA, no matter its content, there are Rodney fans jumping out to cry foul on behalf of poor woobie Rodneykins. It cracks me up. Like a guy as thick-skinned as he is would be sobbing in a corner over a practical joke (which I've actually SEEN IN FIC *shudders*). Same thing with John and the painting. I just find it very amusing the way that people react to some of these things.

[drufan.livejournal.com]

I'm there with you, it was a sweet fluffy little episode with a hilarious ending shot. The picture is funny...hence my icon.

At 13 I remember going steady and then a week later not liking the boy at all. Come on, she's 13. The episode seemed like a little oasis in the darker happenings of the year. It's like someone cracking a joke at a wake. A nice tension reliever.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Hee! Rodney is going to hold that over his head forever.

And, yeah, it was SUCH a 13-year-old thing to do! She's totally going to switch her allegiance from one guy to the other at the drop of a hat. (And now she's in charge of a country. Yikes! I hope her sister acts as regent or something. She's actually a pretty self-possessed 13-year-old, but not enough to be running a nation!)

[leesa_perrie]

ROTFL!!! This episode was great - and Harmony was such a brat and yet not so bratty at the same time!! I love the way she switched her crush - and the portrait! Oh boy, I don't think I've laughed so much for ages!! And it was the portrayal of Rodney in the picture that really made me laugh (though I did laugh for poor John too!). Rambo Rodney - snerk!!!

And as you said, it's about time Sheppard got the brunt of the joke for once! It probably won't happen again anytime soon (if at all)!

Also, Rodney calling him John again - still a little weird for me too, but I like it. Let's hope we get more of that.

Though I'm wondering why they moved it forward (I'm pretty certain it was originally meant to be later in the season). Rodney calling 'dibs' on an alien princess so soon after Quarantine makes it look like he wasn't bothered by the break up with Katie, which doesn't match with someone who was going to propose... oh well, only a minor gripe. Perhaps we'll understand the reasoning later on.

Still, it made me laugh and although I don't think it'll be an all time fav, I can see me watching this again just for the fun element in it!

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's the one-two punch of poor John and completely over-the-top Rambo Rodney that sent me off into giggle-fits. Rodney's going to be insufferable for DAYS.

I hadn't even thought about the juxtaposition of this episode with his breakup with Katie. On the other hand, his breakup with Katie was fairly pleasant on both sides, and I don't see why he couldn't jump back into the dating scene pretty quickly. Well, to the extent that Rodney's ever really in the dating scene, that is! Maybe being with Katie gave him more self-confidence, even. He now knows that he can occasionally get the girl, for a little while at least! (And hey, he's got to compete with John. :D )

[balikpulang.livejournal.com]

I watched with no expectations and surprisingly enjoyed it. The overall dialogue was fun, Harmony (more-mature-than- other-women-he's dated) was well played by Jodelle and definitely better than some of SGA's duds featuring settings (aka The Tower, Epiphany, Irresponsible, etc.)

I also agree that the ep had loads of potential if it had a wee bit more depth, some H/C hero action ... and yeah, less plot holes. But hey, that's what fan fic is for, right?

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think it would've been a fantastic episode with a little more depth and internal consistency, as opposed to merely a fun, fluffy one. On the other hand, after all the heaviness and darkness this season, it was kind of fun just to goof around for a while (and get to hear Rodney call Sheppard "John" again! I can never get tired of that).

[sgatazmy.livejournal.com]

I was so hoping Rodney would get shot when he tripped over/protected Harmony. Alas, it was not to be. But the funny ending was worth it. I think people are mad at the portrait because John saved Harmony and she just forgot all of that. But I think they're missing the point. Harmony is about to be a queen and he took her amlet. For good or bad, the way he tricked it from her, yeah she's pissed off so yeah she got her revenge. She's 13 and she's now a queen and I really wouldn't expect much different. And really, the portrayal was just so backward, it was great!

But Rodney! I love it when she says he's modest. :)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she's thirteen, and I think she's behaving just as a 13-year-old would. John didn't want to marry her and he took her jewelry, so she's taking her revenge as only a 13-year-old with a castle full of people at her beck and call can do! At least she didn't have him thrown into the dungeon! :D

I was hoping for Rodney to get shot when he threw himself over Harmony! I'm so very sad! LOL. But I wasn't unhappy with the eventual resolution of things. (Although I was thinking how funny it is that I used to nitpick your stories so hard on the alien cultures when I was beta'ing them, and the show itself is so very much worse! They *really* need to find some sort of anthropological advisor, just for one episode would do!)

Very fun episode. It was nice to get an antidote to the dark mood this season.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

I found the episode funny, but then I wasn't expecting anything from it after hearing the plot ;) I didn't see Shep in a bad light at all. He did what was necessary to ensure all their survival, and well, Harmony's a fickle, self-center pre-teen, so her behavior was pretty much par on course.

And that painting. There has GOT to be a jpg of that floating around on Atlantis. No way would Rodney let the opportunity pass to take a picture of it :)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Harmony is just acting as a jilted 13-year-old would -- a 13-year-old with a castle full of people doing her bidding! *shudder*

And I have no doubt that picture will be making the rounds of the Atlantis server. :D Honestly, John is so laid-back that he probably isn't too bothered by it. I can just see Teyla's eye-rolls at Rodney's antics ...

[anniehow.livejournal.com]

This episode made me doubt myself as a gen-ner (genphile?), because when Sheppard (god, I find it strange that Rodney calls him John too!) was pointing out to Rodney that the kid is very much like him I immediately though "why? Because she has a huge crush on *bat eyelashes* John? I bet the slashers are going to be all over this :P"

And then when Harmony is afraid that Rodney will come between her and Sheppard I just about exploded in a fit of giggles. There will be legends told about the noise of squee the slashers made, hee!

[anniehow.livejournal.com]

Forgot to add:

When Rodney did his "heroic lunge" I had a momentary OMG moment where I was so sure a genii bullet had nipped his ear or something, because I thought I saw a bit of blood... but I guess it was just a shadow and me projecting my h/c preferences LOL

Though I do think that it would have made the 180° scene even more funny and over the top if Rodney had the classic heroic head wound that typically isn't that bad but it bleeds a lot and it's all to the side so you can still see his face :D

[sheron]

The painting is absolutely hilarious. Do you think Rodney would take a picture and bring it to Atlantis? Or can they take it with them? Haha!

Brilliant line:
"I've got to hand it to you, you're a lot more mature than the women he usually falls for."

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that a picture of that painting is going to be making the rounds of the Atlantis server within 24 hours of Rodney getting back to Atlantis. :D

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I think it's safe to say I'd probably be one of those ticked-off by the painting had I seen the episode. For me, though, I've never been a fan of humor through humiliation, no matter how mild. It's actually kind of - in a small way - a squick for me, depending on the level of humiliation. I've been there, experienced that, so there is a personal level to it. And when it's a favorite character being humiliated, that makes it all the more unpleasent.

Although nothing really, truly squicks me like a group ganging up on a single person, either to play a joke, get revenge, or what have you. It doesn't matter who the one being ganged up on is, it makes me cringe and - depending on the situation and how it's handled - will sometimes even leave me disgusted.

Sorry, personal rant moment.

However, now that I know what to expect with this episode, it probably won't bother me as bad when I do finally get to see it (I may even find it funny). This is why I love spoilers. I hate looking forward to episodes only to have them be such a let down as to leave me fuming, so it's nice to be prepared.

[clarkangel.livejournal.com]

You said it better than me. I have a huge squick about any character being humiliated. And the real KILL THE FUN issue I have with it is that Everyone on that planet will think Shep is a coward. I think that's worse than anything Rodney's suffered humiliation wise. Most of his humiliations have been small and mostly contained. Stil hated them though.

[parisntripfan.livejournal.com]

This was a fun episode.

I hadn't thought much about the fact that Sheppard was the one who was "cast in a bad light" because he wasn't really. At least not to the same degree that Rodney has been over the years. As you have said, this is in the view of a 13 year old kid. I mean it is not like anyone else form Atlantis is going to see it, and even if they do they are going to know it for the lie that it is.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree -- and she had herself painted as the real hero anyway (she's the one controlling the drones in the painting...).

[mcalex22.livejournal.com]

Hmm, fans griping again? Well, nothing new... I tend to stay away from them though as I know that passions run high and people do feel very very strongly for their characters. The thing is I think that everyone has a point to make but I honestly don't take anything seriously so I don't care to read it all (plus it's depressing to read too much into everyone's complaints).

I think that I have the opposite reaction these days; I seem to find that the eps increase my respect and love for all the characters of the show! To me, this episode reaffirmed aspects of John and Rodney's friendship and actually increased my love for the guys.

I liked the actress and I liked Harmony's interactions with the guys. She was a smart and precocious child and I think Rodney saw her intelligence by some of her comments and conceeded that she was perceptive in her very 13 year old ways. At the same time, she was arrogant and petty, very likely due to the fact that she was a princess who'd always received whatever she asked for.

Rodney's comment to Harmony about her being more mature than any other woman he's dated made me chuckle because I thought that there was truth in it and also the fact that Rodney's taken note of John's choice in women and is aware of how abysmally bad they've been...

John's comment about how being queen was about serving the people reflected his own leadership abilities; that certain humility he has and how he sees himself in his people's mind.

I just found it cute that she could easily flip emotions so easily and she could be a petty little girl as well as being surprisingly observant.

Of course, there were aspects they could have developed more; eg the repercussions of the Geniis' attack, the discovery of a mini-drone development facility etc... but hey, it's SGA and I don't expect to be too serious!

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

While I'm not quite as fanatically obsessed with the show as I was in the beginning, I really just love the characters more the more we see of them -- from episodes like "Miller's Crossing" that reveal different facets of them, to episodes like this where it's pretty much something we've all seen before, but I for one can't get enough of. :D

I'm glad you liked Harmony too! I was expecting her to set my teeth on edge, but she didn't; I liked how she alternated between being smart and competent, and acting like a petty and spoiled 13-year-old girl. After all, she's probably been handed anything she could want all her life. It's not surprising that she'd have an entitlement complex; what is surprising is that she's still capable of sneaking around in the woods at night and taking care of herself.

And we got some nice little character insights into the bargain! Including John's discussion with Harmony about leadership -- he's certainly learned more about that in the past three years than he ever wanted to.

[ga-unicorn.livejournal.com]

This episode was not a huge, significant addition to the Stargate mythos. But darn... it was funny. It was a snarkfest of the finest quality: Sheppard and McKay; McKay and the Princess Brat. The Brat so quickly losing her crush on Sheppard and switching to McKay? Hilarious. And the painting? Brilliant - the best laugh of the night. And I am a huge Sheppard fan (although I love McKay, too).

I sometimes have to stop and remember that "fan" is short for fanatic. And one thing I have noticed about true fanatics is that too many of them seem to lose their sense of humor when it comes to what they are obsessed with. They are the ones that give fandom (for anything) a bad reputation. All I can say to them is: Lighten up! ;-)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Yay snarkfest! I think this is the first episode we've had this season that's been truly John-and-Rodney focused (although we've had nice John/Rodney bits in a number of the ensemble eps).

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Fun ep, very like "The Game" indeed - I enjoy that one much, and this one, too, am just careful to turn my brain off for the duration. Fortunately this ep stayed in humor mode throughout, so except for a little killing (death in non-black comedy always knocks me off my stride) I had no trouble with it.

LOL to Sheppard-fen getting touchy about the painting. Er, no diss on Sheppard-fen intended, just, fans are funny. In a galaxy that worships the Shep's heroism (understandably, as he is pretty darn heroic) such that Rodney will even invoke his name to the Genii, it cracks me up that there's one world which sees him otherwise.

Is Harmony's crush really a potentially taboo subject? It's pretty much a platonic crush - she wants to marry him and have him be her King, she doesn't actually try to kiss him or anything - and he so completely rejects it/is discomforted by it that I don't really see why they would have left it subtext. I swear I've seen the little girl crushing on adult man before (maybe only in books? still...is America really that whacked these days?)

The "John" still makes me squee. I wonder how Rodney was finally brought around to using it? (it's still only been Gero eps, though, have the other writers caught on? Admittedly Rodney rarely addresses Sheppard by any name, tends to use "you" more...)

Meanwhile - dangit, show, conversations about the meaning of love and "people"? you are killing my last gen impulses! murdering them, I tell you! Siiiigh (...okay, I'm not really minding that much. But still!)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

The official MGM Stargate website actually ran a "favorite slash pairing" poll a few weeks ago. (John/Rodney won, of course. Duh.) But ... it's certainly not as if they DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT.

I agree about the similarities to "Game". And, *hee* ... the one world that doesn't think Sheppard is a hero! I love the idea that they might come back years later and discover that they've passed into local legend as the idiot jesters who saved the queen or some such thing ...

(Actually ... that might be the reputation they have on a lot of worlds, come to think of it.)

Is Harmony's crush really a potentially taboo subject? It's pretty much a platonic crush - she wants to marry him and have him be her King, she doesn't actually try to kiss him or anything - and he so completely rejects it/is discomforted by it that I don't really see why they would have left it subtext. I swear I've seen the little girl crushing on adult man before (maybe only in books? still...is America really that whacked these days?)

Well, she wants to marry him and she told Rodney that she was in love with him ... I don't really think it's all that platonic. Though it's pretty obvious that he doesn't reciprocate in the slightest.

It's a perfectly natural thing for a 13-year-old to do ... but it did surprise me a little to see it on TV. I think manga and anime gives one a slightly skewed idea of what American TV will put up there; the cross-generational subtext in manga is very much text, but it seems like American genre TV, in general, doesn't really touch those sensitive subjects. Maybe I'm selling it short, but I can't think off the top of my head of similar scenes that I've seen. Books, yeah, but even there it's approached with a bit of caution.

[tristen84.livejournal.com]

This episode was okay for me; I loved the McShep and the banter between them, AND Rodney's obvious worrying every time he lost contact with John. Rodney's "I thought for sure we'd lost you!" made my little h/c heart thump a little faster :o)

But Harmony did get on my nerves a little. I was getting tired of her setting Rodney up for things she did, but thankfully she stopped doing that halfway through the ep. I would've liked a slightly more serious undertone to this, because I never really felt like they were in any real danger, though I agree with most of you that it is good to have a more light-hearted ep to give us a little breather from the tenseness of the season so far.

I'm a Shep fan (although I do love Rodney), but I didn't feel at all like he was being humiliated at the end. I laughed at the painting (mostly because of the way Rodney had been painted), and I really enjoyed the smirk on Rodney's face as he looked at Shep, waiting to see his reaction. John didn't seem upset at all, and though Rodney's bound to poke fun at him for this, they both know what really happened and I personally feel that, if they had seriously tried to humiliate Sheppard, Rodney would've tried to set the record straight.

So, loved the McShep and the banter (I just adore those two spending time together, and I'm not even that much into slash), Harmony was a little bit annoying and the ep could've been done slightly more realistic. But overall, a good filler episode :o)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Yeah ... it was a nice light episode between the heavier ones they've been doing this season. :)

[alipeeps.livejournal.com]

I've gone around to a few LJs and seen Sheppard fans griping about the episode casting their hero in a bad light ...

Seriously? Cos as a confirmed Shep fan, I loved it! :lol: And I watched it in a gang of 9 people crammed into one hotel room, composed of 3 Germans, 2 Americans and 4 Brits, some of them Shep fans, some of them McKay fans, some whumpers, some slashers, whatever... and we all laughed like drains! :D We laughed so much we had to keep rewinding the ep cos we'd missed what had happened next! :D

And we all cracked up over the painting! :) And heck, how does that cast Sheppard in a bad light? I mean, he was the hero and saved the day and that just makes the painting all the funnier! :D

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I mean, he was the hero and saved the day and that just makes the painting all the funnier! :D

See ... I totally agree! I love Sheppard and I didn't feel that he was being put down at all. We know the truth of what happened, and the princess's utterly absurd caricature of Rodney as Rambo or herself wielding the drones is just as over-the-top as the way that Sheppard is represented. :D

WOW!

[army-rat.livejournal.com]

For not wanting to put up a reaction post you got a LOT of reaction to your post!

There are so many things I would love to say here, most of them seeing the episode from strictly a male point of view and how I reacted to certain scenes differently than most of the posters here. But I'm still new to LJ and pretty much a genfan so maybe I'll hold off until a later episode.

But thank you so much for posting. Lurking my way through the comments has been incredibly educational.

Re: WOW!

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

For not wanting to put up a reaction post you got a LOT of reaction to your post!

Ha, yeah, true. Last week was even funnier, because all I did was put up a post saying, basically, I enjoyed this episode but didn't really feel up to writing a reaction ... and then quite an extensive discussion happened in the comments! Not that I'm complaining, because I like that sort of thing; I just didn't really feel all that talkative that day.

I hope you don't feel TOO overwhelmed by all the estrogen around here. *g* I enjoy hearing from different viewpoints and it actually would actually be nice to get a guy perspective on the episodes -- well, I get one from my husband each week, of course, but of the people who regularly comment on my journal, I think the overwhelming majority, if not all of them, are female. (Of course, I don't know or care to know the gender of every single person who posts here! But I think most of them are female...)

Anyway, I *do* find those sorts of variations interesting -- although it's also interesting in these discussions how many differences there are when you just get together a group of women who theoretically would have similar tastes and let them all go at it! But I hope you'll feel free to post your opinions -- I'm always curious what other people thought about it, and feel free, of course, to lurk anytime.

[leesa_perrie]

Just in case anyone is wondering about the painting...it's in the hallway outside of Lawren's office (according to Joe Mallozzi). Check out the close ups (two with Marty G):

http://josephmallozzi.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/dsc04183.jpg

http://josephmallozzi.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/dsc04186.jpg

http://josephmallozzi.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/dsc04187.jpg

http://josephmallozzi.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/dsc04188.jpg

It just gets funnier the more I look at it!!!

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

*cracks up* Oh, what a bunch of goofs they all are. :D

I wonder if that's the same artist that did the paintings for "The Game" ... and if they still have those around somewhere, too.