sundries

[rm]

Patty is home. It is glorious.

OMG, tomorrow we leave for Florida.

OMG, the day after that we are going on a cruise!

I am getting a ridiculous amount of waxing done later today for the first time in years. If I have one of those aestheticians who tsks at me about how hairy I am, there will be words. Mammal is not a moral failing.

You all better write me lots of lovely fic about Jack & Alonso while I'm gone. No, this does not mean I'm over Jack & Ianto at all.

Right now work is a race against the clock to get it all done before I go.

Saw a 17- or 18-year-old boy on the train setting up appointments via Rentboy.com and his iPhone on the train into work today.

I just got the word, I am officially a guest at Dragon*Con 2010. Every year, I breathe a sigh of relief. Going to try to branch out to some other tracks this year, since I think I've something concrete to offer BritTrack (see, this whole Bristol thing has been a plan related to other things all along) and there had been talk about something involving menswear, the Steampunk track and me.

Oh man, I'm afraid to even click on this one: The Naked and the Conflicted: "We denounce the Great Male Novelists of the last century for their sexism. But something has been lost now that innocence is more fashionable than virility, the cuddle preferable to sex."

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. I am sick of this idea that there is a binary that is manly sexism and emasculated everything else. NO NO NO NO NO. I think the little chart about the old narcissism vs. the new narcissism about the preoccupations of some male authors is very amusing, but otherwise -- ugh. Just... ugh.

The future of brain controlled devices.

Bringing long-lost Koreans home.

Yuletide is not a democracy. Nor should it be.

Someone on my friendslist (who was it? it's genius) recently referred to Doctor Who and a number of other shows (some of which will be obvious in a moment) as belonging to a genre called "Hellmouth Opera." Watching Doctor Who last night, I wanted it in places to actually be opera. Just saying. I would watch the shit outta that.

Further US airport security shenanigans tick off Canada. Basically the US wants the name, gender and birthdate of everyone who flies through US airspace, even if the plane doesn't touch down here. Canadian airlines says this violates their privacy procedures. Additionally "it is possible that Canadians overflying the United States could be denied boarding based on U.S. no-fly lists that were developed based on lower U.S. risk tolerance." Fucked.

Ireland has passed an anti-blasphemy law, that may cause problems for, among others, Mark Twain.

Oh good, Revolutionary Road is seeing a lot of air-time on HBO after nothing for ages. Maybe the next residuals check will be a little better.

I was so interested in the repeated use of "I'm going to get my reward" in EoT -- because it's such a Christian statement, but in Christianity, it's Heaven. In the Whoniverse, we start to believe there is no reward -- there is no Rest for the Time Lord. There is no Rest for someone like Jack. And then Ten goes and PROVES US WRONG. It's a powerful message that both utilizes and respects the power of religion while also blowing it out of the water, and I think it was very useful a note as the RTD years had this constant war of secular viewpoint and Biblical motif going on.

Comments

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm already writing Jack and Alonso fic, bb.

:D

*waves at Patty*

[such_heights]

\o/! I look forward to this!

[cruentum.livejournal.com]

Oh figures. Suckah

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I'm naughty by nature.

I'll let you do the one with the adipose... :D

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Oh, Yeah!

I can't wait :D

[svollga.livejournal.com]

I found one fic already:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5633507/1/The_Goodbyes_His_Name_is_Alonso

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

Did you see this? I'm psyched!

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/boys-in-the-band-revival-announced/

[tikvah.livejournal.com]

Where in FL are you visiting? If you're in my neck of the woods, I can suggest some restaurants and neat natural sites to visit.

[rm.livejournal.com]

We're not really, we're just down there for a day before the cruise to prevent any flight snafus from giving us problems. We're just at a Ft. Lauderdale airport hotel for a night, although we may be headed to Orlando in July depending on Patty's schedule and my motivation regarding a Harry Potter conference.

[tikvah.livejournal.com]

Ah. Ft Lauderdale is a bit south of me, while Orlando is a few hours north of me. However, if your hotel is close enough to Wilton Manors, the queer suburb, and you have a few hours to kill, I suggest a visit to the main drag (pun intended). I'm quite fond of the adorable queer-owned ice cream parlor, The Gelato Station, that has the most delicious desserts, including some of the best sorbets I've tried. You and Patty might enjoy it. Depending on how close the hotel is to Wilton Manors, a cab ride there and back might be affordable and fun.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

It is a wonder to me that anyone publishes Roiphe; even without clicking we can be reasonably confident that this is the same schtick she's been performing since college. She should be treated, professionally speaking, the same way Caitlin Flanagan is treated (except that Flanagan is by far the better writer, in terms of sheer talent with the language if not in terms of analytical ability); and yet for some reason she gets a pass.

It can't be just because she has a famous mother. Can it?

[rm.livejournal.com]

As someone who grew up with a lot of people with famous parents, yes, yes it can.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Yet another reason to regret the way giant international law firms want to promote one out of research and writing, dammitall. If they'd left me in peace, and not wanted me to do boring things like meeting clients and supervising teams when I could have been coming up with novel legal arguments I'd be there still, in an environment that is happily immune to such things.

Really, they spoiled me. But I spent my formative years there, in a system where parentage was irrelevant, and I still have trouble wrapping my mind around systems where people actually know and care about this garbage about who you're related to.

[kproche.livejournal.com]

Have a lovely time on the cruise. bovil and I did one some years ago and it really was nice.

We haven't made the announcement yet, but the Torchwood 4 gang is doing the Titanic's first-class lounge as the Friday party theme, so your tux will have another place to visit.

And no, I'm not going to be Alonso (I have enough allergy trouble with WWII Jack's wool jacket). I am, however, going to build a White Star Line's able seaman uniform; I've always wanted a sailor suit :-)

Bon Voyage!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Why would wanting Jack to get laid with a cute boy mean you (or I, or anyone) were over Jack and Ianto?

If anything it's the opposite! It's not like he's chucked Ianto, Ianto *deep breath* died in his arms. Jack deserves to not mope.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Why would wanting Jack to get laid with a cute boy mean you (or I, or anyone) were over Jack and Ianto?

I've come to the conclusion that I see both the world and media _really_ differently than a lot of people. That's all I know.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I've come to the conclusion that I see both the world and media _really_ differently than a lot of people. That's all I know.

*sigh* tell me about.

[neifile7.livejournal.com]

Vive la difference.

Have a wonderful cruise, btw.

[fleur.livejournal.com]

Where are you in RR? I could not find you but then realized I wasn't sure where I was looking ...

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

yep they've been playing Revolutionary Road a lot - i still haven't watched it, though, b/c... yknow depressing! but tell me where abouts your scenes are and i will look for you!

Have a lovely vacation

[newwaytowrite.livejournal.com]

cruising is a grand thing in my opinion. I am not sure what cruise line you have chosen but it is a joy to just be at sea. Indulge as much as possible.

As for the story about US wanting plane lists even if Canadian flights don't "land" in the US is has me screaming "Fuck Off" to Stupid Ideas and the People Who Make Them Society. Glad I don't fly and I can see that this whole thing of labelling everything that is criminal as "terror-related" will slay the airlines... maybe time to buy stock in passenger railways.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Just curious, because I'm kind of a legal geek...when you talk about possible residuals from Revolutionary Road, are you talking about acting royalties as a result of your acting contract with the production company? (If you're not comfortable talking about what's in your contract, that's totally fine, and I don't mean to pry. I've just been studying a lot of film production-related contracts because of a recent school project I did, in which I completed a budget/business plan for a film. It would be interesting to see how film producers with various budgets compensate the actors, based on the level of the actor's involvement with the film, especially in an industry where movies are starting to see much less expected and actual income from ticket and DVD sales.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yes. The production company has very little leeway in terms of minimums for certain types of film roles because of the union. If you want to see numbers you can probably dig it out of the endless contract docs on the SAG site (the reality is I'm never up to date as they change all the time).

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Oh, good point. I wasn't sure how big your role was in that movie, because I haven't actually seen it.

The thing about my project is that I was also trying to use as many non-union people as I could, at least in terms of actors and crew...film school students, acting students, etc. So while I familiarized myself with typical union fees, I wasn't as familiar with the actual contracts.

Thanks for the reference!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Sure. While there are things like the SAG low-budget agreement and student agreements, they're still prohibitively expensive for most small film-makers and if you're union you just can't do a non-SAG project, so it squeezes pretty much everyone on one end of the spectrum.

The union sets rates for all performers, including stand-ins (who are not seen on screen), and background. Residuals generally only come into play when you're a day-player or otherwise have a screen credit at the end of the film.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. I'll have to look into those contracts more to see how those royalties are collected - it sounds like it could be interesting.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

You all better write me lots of lovely fic about Jack & Alonso while I'm gone. No, this does not mean I'm over Jack & Ianto at all.

I started writing some Jack/Alonso last night, although I'm not sure if this fic is actually going anywhere or not. It's not working in the way that I wanted it to.

And yeah, still definitely not over J/I either. It's weird, actually, becaues my feelings about the Jack scene in EoT2 seem similar to the way you've described your feelings about CoE, in that I loved it, I thought it was brilliantly done, and it felt right to me, but at the same time it's gutted me completely, and I feel raw and full of grief. (And in addition to that, it's bringing up the many problems that I still have with CoE and the way Ianto died, which I know you don't share.)

[delchi.livejournal.com]

"The group urged the Irish government to repeal the law. It also asked lawmakers for a referendum on removing all references to God from the Irish constitution."

Oh yes, please. Followed by something similar here.

[lorem_ipsum]

Hellmouth opera: C'était moi. For a couple of years, I've been trying to describe Torchwood as space opera, but I think the space travel aspect is a crucially defining element of that genre. Hellmouth opera is what happens when your space opera characters get nailed to a particular location-- which is why I don't put New Who in that category.

But, yes, I would so watch the fuck outta any musical space/hellmouth opera that the TV wants to send my way.

And I so, so want more space/hellmouth opera, with or without actual music, on my TV.

I really do think that all those folks who think Torchwood is terrible could be shown that They're Watching It Rong if we sat them down in front of La Traviata (which, for the unitiated, is opera for beginners).

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm so over people going "it's trashy, therefore it's bad."

KIDS, OPERA IS TRASHY. AND IT IS GOOD.

Grrrr high-art/low-art wank.

[lorem_ipsum]

Oh, and the SG-verse is unique in being both space opera and hellmouth opera, though from what I've seen of it, I'd say it tends to run light on the operatic aspects. (The writers are more interested in epic than opera?)

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Ai, ya, you reminded me!

I did get an e-mail from Shaun conforming the character death panel for Gallifrey. I stressed that you NEEDED to be on that panel, since it wss based on your concept.

I have yet to hear back, but we just rolled in from Phoenix a few hours ago and I am still shoveling e-mails.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Cool. Keep me posted, although I'll be off-line in a couple of hours for a 10 day vacation.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

That bloody law. I was hoping someone would see sense in time, but clearly not. This is the unfortunate consequence of the people in charge still having religious residue and probably Catholic guilt. Or something. Bah.

[weirdquark]

You all better write me lots of lovely fic about Jack & Alonso while I'm gone.

...called "Hellmouth Opera." Watching Doctor Who last night, I wanted it in places to actually be opera. Just saying. I would watch the shit outta that.

While I was waking up this morning I got this image of the Doctor capering around the bar singing "Put on a Happy Face" to Jack. (There followed some introspective wanderings about grief and living, but the only thing that stuck is that image and a line of advice from the Vorkosigian books -- 'you just go on.')

[invisible-lift.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who latched onto the reward angle in EoT. We've seen a lot of instances in the Whoniverse where victories are Pyrrhic, or doing the right thing is painful but worthy, and I think it was a wonderful to see that sometimes -- just sometimes -- it pays off. Especially for Ten, because he's so good that he uses that payoff to do others a good turn.

And really, if we're going to come at this from the secular humanist position RTD often professes to be coming from, that's an incredibly powerful statement. Because there's no one watching over the Doctor to reward him or punish him for doing good or evil. He has to make it happen himself, and make the choices he makes on his own. That's pretty significant in my view.

Reading "The Naked and the Conflicted," and will probably have something to say about it at some point.

Have a brilliant trip!

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

Alanso was v. cute, but I hear you about Jack and Ianto. Still sad.