sundries

[rm]

Jack McGeorge died yesterday. He was a man of personal and professional integrity who understood that if you don't keep secrets it a hell of a lot harder for anyone to try to hold your choices over your head as if they are something of which to be ashamed.

There was a ferocious storm here last night and it seemed to hit my neighborhood the worst. We had some power outages, multiple downed trees and our plants were all tangled around each other (luckily, it seems relatively minimal damage was sustained). ETA: News reports do indicate that the worst of the storm did hit our neighborhood and did major damage to Central Park.

While I understand the fundamental difficulty of navigating large groups of small children through the New York City subway system, a teacher shouting "up against the wall!" at a pack of five-year-olds disturbs me slightly.

Ahoy! We have achieved Dragon*Con room. We'll be in the Sheraton (which I thought I didn't want to be in again after last year so we could be in a "cool" hotel, but you know what? The Sheraton was civilized and gave me a bit of a respite from the crazy).

And I'm back on the Alternate History track as part of a Rapid Fire Reading on Monday at like 11:30 or something. When my schedule is fully reconfirmed again I will post. So yes, it seems you will get four minutes of gay airship pirate romance thingy, which is much, much weirder than that description makes it sound.

I've had a brilliant idea for one of my interview targets for D*C footage. Email sent. Fingers crossed.

Proof that the political spectrum, as well as the earth, is round: Conservative lawyer argues for equal marriage rights.

Update: It's not the Marriott blaming a victim for her own rape, but the Marriott's insurance company. Why does this surprise me not at all?

You should just look at all of dimethirwen's links today.

Not all questions are equal. Go Barney Frank: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8 (article on same with entire dialogue exchange).

Caprica casting just got pretty interesting. I need to get around to watching all of BSG -- that and Mad Men are my two catch-up things for the Fall.

Still annoyed about a random person on newyorkers querying whether a given neighborhood was safe the other day. 1. New York is the safest big city in America. 2. I want to know what she thought her martial status had to do with it (i.e., she stated that she was a young married woman -- oh, people are targeting them! WHUT?)

Oh hey! Actual chance I might get to be a "masculine lesbian" at a black tie affair on camera. That's pretty rad. Yay acting! *snerk*

Today is Ianto Jones's birthday.

Comments

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

psst - check your links. The Marriott link seems to go to the equal marriage thing and it looks like there's something funky with the Jack McGeorge one as well.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Got 'em. Thanks!

[lawsontl.livejournal.com]

Oh hai! Another "round conservative" here :) And many, many of my conservative and/or GOP friends think the same way. It's not nearly as cut and dried as many people want to think. Nice to see the article, too, thanks for linking it.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

I heard the "up against the wall!" thing on the train the other day, too, and jumped about three feet in the air before I even saw the kids.

Barney Frank is such a badass.

Obviously, the person on newyorkers was clarifying so that we'd know she's a) not one of those big tough dykes (because the kind of people who use "married" as a shield are not generally gay and married) who don't have to worry about people bothering us because we're so, you know, gross and b) not one of those skanky single girls she's heard so much about, who are totally asking for it with their heels and cosmos and all. Possibly with a side helping of c) code for "white middle class" because everyone knows those *other* people don't bother with getting married.

[offbalance.livejournal.com]

You hit the newyorkers poster on the head. And anyone with any doubts about her marital status need only see her in all her bridal glory in her icon.

It's exasperating. Especially since my answer always is: "Go there in daylight, in early evening, and after the sun has fully set. Alone, if possible. See how comfortable you feel, and make your judgement that way." I explain because common sense is entirely too much to expect from some of the population these days.

[eac.livejournal.com]

Re: NewYorkers board psot -- you're so right about this, and, well, yuck...

:/

Re Olsen

[angstzeit.livejournal.com]

If only more people would act in accordance with the principles they purport to have instead of reacting to the actions of others.

(BTW, the irony of me making this statement is thick.)

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Kudos to Jack McGeorge. His integrity will be missed, as will he.

Yeah, that was one scary storm last night.

Good luck at DragonCon!

...Yeah, still not impressed with the Marriott. If it wasn't for the con rate (and maybe I should do some comparisons), I'd consider getting a room at the Sheraton round the corner from the LAX Marriott for Gally. (They have a better breakfast buffet, into the bargain.)

Good links! (Particularly the notion of a Hypatia of Alexandria movie.)

Re: annoying person on newyorkers: sounds like she hasn't been here long enough to be able to disprove by her own experience all the horror stories about NYC? Or at least the Harlem bits of it. But yes, good grief.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm currently holding a reservation at the Marriott, but whether I keep it or switch the Sheraton will remain to be seen on the resolution of this (also, I have a bazillion points with Sheraton, so convenient Sheratons are always an incentive for me!).

Will you be at Peculiar later?

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

Having regularly commuted on the DC Metro with a 5 year old, I can understand why the teacher may have shouted, "up against the wall" and find it disturbing none the less. I usually said, "Here! By me!" or "Scootch out of the way!" And the ever present, "What are you doing?" and "hang on," to my kid when we would navigate the fray at Metro Center. Once we got on our train and seated there were often high fives for successful navigation of crowds.

I've just added BSG and Caprica to my list of must watches as well. I guess those Highlander eps are just going to have to wait! ;-p

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Later, Hua Jiang, spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, said that being into BDSM was no more likely to be a cross-cultural problem in the Middle East than any number of other issues.

Considering that some sections in the Middle East are likely to take offense at things like the wrong haircut, or mixing tomatoes and cucumbers in the same bin, that's certainly a reasonable statement!

[gement.livejournal.com]

Ha! All your links make me happy today.

Thanks for pointing out Ted Olson. I actually sent him an approving email for having carefully considered principles and being willing to take the flack for them, and isn't it nice that our principles are in alignment today. :)

I had never heard of Jack McGeorge, and oh man am I happy to have changed that.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

You said "martial" then didn't tell me what color belt she had? :-)

I <3 Barney Frank. The funniest part about this, is I got the transcript to read, and there's that gorgeous bit at the end where he says "And trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it." Apparently it's not audible in the clip, and a friend of mine said, after reading the transcript, that it was a pity it was cut out. But I reviewed it and he does say it at the end so I'm guessing the audio is not there or there's applause or some other voice over going on. Thot that was funny.

I still <3 Barney Frank...

[rm.livejournal.com]

I heard it on an audio I listened to of it last night, but I'm not sure if the one I just linked to was that one -- but it was under a lot of applause noise and yelling.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

re safe neighborhoods:

I used to work in an information and referral program that provided listings for housing. People often wanted to know if a neighborhood is "safe". My answer was "I'm a lesbian, and I look like a lesbian. For me, Concord [suburb, white flight] would not be safe. I live in downtown Oakland, and feel safe there. We can't list what areas are safe, because 'safe for whom?"

[marchek.livejournal.com]

There was a ferocious storm here last night
It hit right after The Bacchae finished last night. The pre-storm weather worked very well with the climax of the production and it felt as though the gods had unleashed the storm on the mortal audience.
Today is Ianto Jones's birthday.
I am shamed. While I am wearing a red shirt it's about four times too big for me. I'm trying to get home to change before the DWNY thing.

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

Great set of links and info! I love Barney Frank too--YAY! And happy birthday Ianto!

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I could NOT get a hotel room closer than the Grand Hyatt. But hey, I can escape the crowds. :D

[rm.livejournal.com]

What day are you getting in? I feel like we should try to all get together early in the con not even to socializing, but to plan socializing.

[sethg]

Regarding Congressman Frank's riposte: As Duncan "Atrios" Black says, please reward good behavior.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I don't want to rain on the happy links parade, but I just saw this (http://shemale.livejournal.com/154335.html) and I'm just appalled... really.

I'm going to post about it a little later, but I think it's just something to compound the crazy that Barney Frank dealt with.

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

The Marriott still isn't off the hook as far as I'm concerned. The right thing to do would have been to threaten to take their insurance to another carrier if they didn't withdraw the defense.

As for the married woman and NY safety, it may simply have been code for, "I'm going to be doing some traveling alone, possibly after shopping with upscale stores with upscale packages, and I'm used to having a man around to help ensure my safety."

That's how I read it, anyway.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Marriott's not off the hook with me either, but I'm waiting to see how this evolves -- also no we know what to be demanding.

As for the woman on New Yorkers: plausible. And still offensive.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Today is Ianto Jones's birthday.

Well, one of them at least...

Heh.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Right! Everyone is all "this is the one fandom accepts" and I'm like "hi, I'm the asshole who used the December one in a fic."

[marcmagus]

Did you also do a double-take upon realizing that Lady is Ms. Olson's given name?

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Barney Frank is a goddamn hero.

Would an introduction to the io9 folks be at all useful for you or the video project? If so, let me know.

Masculine lesbian black tie = great excuse to write off that tux as a business expense?

[rm.livejournal.com]

1. Yes.

2. Yes, but probably not at this stage.

3. Yes! (also, hilariously, scene is for the new S&tC movie)

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

Caprica casting just got pretty interesting. I need to get around to watching all of BSG - i read somewhere that james marsters was going to be in it

[rm.livejournal.com]

right in one!

[to-the-wick.livejournal.com]

As a New Yorker -- coming from a different borough, with different experiences, and having a different race -- I don't see anything inherently wrong with that newyorkers post.

1. New York may be the safest big city in America, but tell that to people living in inner city ghetto neighborhoods. The whole stereotype of 'omg these neighborhoods are dangerous!1' isn't just fairytale. Exaggerated, maybe, depending on the neighborhood, but not completely made up. 2. I took marital status as a sign of "I'm going to be traveling with my husband and realize that traveling with a male is, unfortunately, safer than traveling alone as a woman." Or something to that effect. Which, as far as my own experiences are concerned, has been true. (Angering and not fair, but true.) Moreso if, say, the woman is white and in a largely non-white neighborhood. It depends on what she's wearing and how she's carrying herself, really, but if a robber were looking at two people for potential hits, one would think they'd go for the one that looks richer, and white people are assumed to be richer whether they are or not.

Again, speaking from experience. I'm betting different experiences here is the big reason I'm not seeing her flaunting privilege so much as asking questions she might actually need to ask.

Fail on her for the 'lol what's there to do other than eat spanish food' thing, though. C'mon, it's NYC, what isn't there to do? And if it isn't in that neighborhood, mass transit is your friend.