sundries

[rm]

Man beaten for being gay in New York City.

I wish Karl Lagerfeld would stop saying so much offensive crap about food and weight (via fabricdragon) (btw, if you read what he has to say a lot, which I do, you can see that his size-ist stuff really comes out of his own issues and self-hatred), because I find him really fascinating and incisive on a lot of other topics. But man, he is such a toxic arse on this topic. Even other people in the fashion industry find his stance on this stuff appalling.

So it appears I'm really going to Zurich. I should have the plane tickets this week. I am... more or less completely zen about it as regards work and my real life and all that, which was not the case when this first sort of came at me. I'm sure I'll still find some reason to be weirded out by being in Switzerland (with my pinstripe suit and my fucking greatcoat) in the middle of NaNoWriMo. Also, should make a note to go over to the Sprint store and see what the deal is in terms of my phone and Europe. I don't want to be unreachable there, and fear I may be without serious intervention.

You folks make me want to have a what are you doing to ruin SF? poll every day. You are all awesome.

I finished Risk Assessment, more later. Thumbs up.

The home Internet is out again. *growl*

Last night (after an emergency B&N Internet run) we ate our baby klari cheese peppers and the paprika that we grew. We're pretty awesome. We've also started cooking and eating together a few nights a week (something we haven't done before, because my dietary restrictions, our food preferences and our schedules has made it hard). It's awesome and time-saving.

This weekend is the Regency Assembly in Connecticut. The weekend includes a night of dancing, period food, and a day of period games and refreshments. It is not too late to join us (period attire encouraged but not required). Info:
Front | Back | Registration Form
(if you decide to register, best not to do it via mail at this point -- comment here for paypal or other info)

Going to marrus's book launch party cabaret thing on Thursday. Now that I don't have to try to fit it in a suitcase, I can get her book.

Some guests have already been announced for Dragon*Con 2010. They are hilarious to me for reasons of embarrassing personal history. Also: I am really glad my hair is short at present (even if it does need a cut). That is all.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I don't want to be unreachable there, and fear I may be without serious intervention.


Uck, good luck. Despite my being on an internationally-recognised network (T-Mobile), it was less faff to get a cheap PAYG phone (from the same network!) while in the UK and use that, than it was to go through the rigmarole of converting my American phone to roam in Europe (and then have to undo that in order to make it usable in the States again). YMMV.

[rm.livejournal.com]

This is my suspicion. Were you able to get the PAYG in the states? or did you have to wait until you were over there? I really want Patty and my parents to be able to reach me in an emergency (I figure I can get phone cards for calling Patty and do that from wherever).

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I had to wait until I was over there to get it, but it is ridiculously easy to get.

[rm.livejournal.com]

*nod*. Like right in the airport, right? I mean, I just hope I have time to do that, since I'm rather at the mercy of my employers.

[valdary.livejournal.com]

You can get a Pay as you go phone for £15 + a minimum top up of £10 so £25 altogether. This may well work out cheaper than roaming charges depending on who you plan to phone.

[valdary.livejournal.com]

sorry that's Britain not Switzerland

[ckd]

Since rm is on Sprint (which uses a different system), I'm pretty sure that phone won't work at all in Switzerland. T-Mobile is GSM, and if you have an unlocked GSM phone with the right set of frequency bands (often called a "quad band" or "world" phone) you can just swap in a local PAYG SIM card.

That's what I do when I go to the UK; I have a Virgin Mobile PAYG SIM that I can drop into my phone. It means my US number is no longer available for people to call me on, but it also means I'm not paying insane roaming charges.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

...Ah. Thing is, my GSM phone is locked, as far as I can tell, since I'm on a contract. It made more sense at the time to get a whole 'nother phone. But yes, switching out SIM cards makes sense.

[ckd]

It's worth asking T-Mobile if they'll unlock it; IIRC they will do it before your contract is up, if you're in good standing and have had it for a while.

If your phone just has the US bands (850/1900) and not the European bands (900/1800), then unlocking it isn't useful for this; it still makes the phone easier to sell to someone in the US/Canada if you ever need to, so you may as well.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Probably the saddest thing on the Lagerfeld story is that most of the commenters on the story are spam for weight loss/anti-aging products. >_<

There are a number of folks on my FL who can be helpful with the Swiss experience, primary being evilshell who lives there, just got Swiss citizenship herself, and filkerdave who just finished up a contracting stint there. You are going to need to be extra vigilant regards dietary concerns (I've mentioned this before?) because the Swiss diet tends to ovo-lacto vegetarianism, with bread being a HUGE part of the daily diet. While you might find some gluten-free products, I only found them in the apothocary shops, and pretty sad they were too. There ARE health food stores aplenty - the Swiss invented the Kure Spas, after all - how well do you cope with oatmeal? Some folks with celiac issues cope well, some do NOT. (Biercher-Muesli is one of my favorite things, get the most traditional preparation possible - if you can handle eating something that looks like an ice cream sundae for lunch, as big as your head. It's rolled oats, apple, walnuts, lemon and yogurt. Num.)

Still very jealous. But you are wise to check the phone issue thang now.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I've not tried clean oats yet, and I won't try non-cleaned oats, so it's pretty much no.

I've informed conference related people (part of the time I'll be out of the city at a conference) about my food issues, but this seems to reinforce my need to bring packaged goods because of my health concerns (and I'm arriving on a Sunday, which I assume is a trading holiday there (man, I hate that) and won't be able to get ANYTHING). Also, while I love eggs and dairy, they aren't the easiest for me to digest as a celiac, so that's a bit of a hassle too. Aaaaaaaaargh. Italy, oddly, was very easy.

[moizissimo.livejournal.com]

Italy has a high proportion of celiacs in certain regions, due to the various migrations that were part of the rise and fall of the Holy Roman Empire. :) If I take another history class, it's something I want to look at further, because it's so interesting.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*taps chin* Boy, this could be tough. All my favorite things are either bread, cheese or milk based. I *do* see more 'ethnic' options, Thai in particular (wha?) since I was last there (Google Maps Street View, FTW), but even then I don't expect much respite.

They are familiar with the issues celiacs have - I'd get that on a card in German to have handy when ordering out - and I always found them to be receptive, if not overly involved at times - to food-related issues (remember, I had the diabetic husband while living there).

Ask for Itallian options, if Italy worked so well - they do have a large ethnic Itallian population as well, after all. As I also recall, one of the things they found tasty was tomato salad - which is just sliced tomatoes, a bit of red onion and basalmic vinagrette.

They do a lot of 'salad talers' - which is an assortment of prepared salads. This is also one of my favorites, but could be a minefield if they don't know you can't tolerate something that might be used as part of a prep.

Sundays - everything is closed. EVERYTHING. Everywhere. Period, full stop. You get used to it. You will discover the miracle of vending machines - do get some money converted before going over. It'll help.

Also, chat up Diane Duane if you haven't already. Like potatoes? That's a good fallback in Switzerland, and they do awesome things with them.

[fremen-dancer.livejournal.com]

Oh, Karl.

You're a fashion genius, but clearly an insecure bitter little boy who's still terrified of being fat on the inside.

[twystedpixie.livejournal.com]

I think Lagerfeld is off the mark on this one. He spends so much time in the circles of haute couture that he forgets what drives the sales of most fashion magazines are the hoi polloi, common women desperately trying to live up to what they see in the pages. Dove has been very successful with its real women campaign, both on TV and in print. And a few months ago, Glamour magazine used a normal sized model with a bit of a belly in a spread, and you know what: Readers responded. A LOT. And the responses were overwhelmingly positive.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

If you like Regency outfits, you need to see "Bright Star" the new John Keats biopic. His beloved is Fanny Brawne and in the movie she is the Regency equivalent of a fashion designer. This is one of those movies I could watch for the outfits alone!

[twystedpixie.livejournal.com]

As a Keats junkie/scholar, you'd expect me to be all up in arms that the movie focused more on Fanny and less on him (and it does bug me to some extent), but you're right in one thing: The costumes were incredible.

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

Funny you mention Lagerfeld. Today, one of the folks on the Metalocalypse board on AdultSwim.com pointed out that he looks like a character on one of the episodes of the show.

For those not up on it- Adult Swim is the night version of Cartoon Network. It's a seperate network that shares the channel with CN. Metalocalypse is one of their original programs and is about a death metal band named Dethklok. According to the show they are the biggest band in the world.

One of the episodes, Dethfashion, had Dethklok exporing the world of fashion. They were coming out with their own line of clothes created by this German designer who they got out of prison. He was there for straving a bunch of models to (say this in a German accent) "fit in my skinny pants!"

Edit for a link: http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c392161eb6420116212ad66101e4 That is a clip that includes the character.
The character looks like Lagerfeld and he has a thing about people being too fat and too big to fit into his skinny clothes.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Are you sure that's not Metalocalypse satirising Karl Lagerfeld? He's been like this (and eminently mockable) for quite a while. I think I started developing my loathing of him in the early 1990s.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I love that episode. The apocalypse is coming and we must all fit into my skinny pants!

I think the designer is the love child of Lagerfeld and Lars von Trier. Hah!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh god, fuck Lars von Trier.

[phaetonschariot.livejournal.com]

I'm re-doing TKKS, again, today. I'm ruining sci fi that's already ruined! Fuck yeah!

[neifile7.livejournal.com]

Writing from Italy here. There's been a recent rash of gay-bashings around the country (linked to far-right politics Italian-style, another can of worms to be unpacked in a future post), and today the government stalled on legislation that would make gay-bashing a hate crime, with increased penalties.

The interesting part is that US and Canadian legislation is being used as a model -- to the extent that such protections exist -- and that this is spurring visible activism in a community that has remained largely invisible in the media. But it's very much a good news/bad news scenario, unfolding day by day here. Just wanted to signal that news on this front is worth checking for; I'll post links in English as I find them.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Karl is an ugly man who makes ugly clothes. This has never changed no matter what he weighs or how much surgery he's had.

[requiella]

he doesn't seem to really like women or (girls) he had a major fit at an airport when he was asked to pay for excess bags (he must have had more then a dozen bags and boxes). He proclaimed that girls were purposely unhelpful and rude, while men were just so nice and never give him any problems. Jerk.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

Lagerfeld referring to mummies is rather the pot calling the kettle black.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I feel really sad for Karl Lagerfeld - but just because he hates himself, he doesn't have to spread that hate to everyone else. Here's hoping he finds his way to a saner and happier place.