sundries

[rm]

Okay that deal with Australia and A-cups? Not quite true (and the female ejaculation ban still stands). Thanks to lilacsigil.

Murder isn't activism. But terminology issues aside, Dr. Tiller's killer has been found guilty.

Out of Auschwitz, a survivor reflects on the liberation.

I was thinking in sort of an off-hand way the other day when I saw someone comment in regard to a couple of Doctor Who episodes (sorry, can't remember which of you it was) about how Britain is never going to get over WWII, that better that then... well, the US. I feel sometimes, that all we can remember is the Cold War that came after and our paranoia. Everyone is out to get us! If we approached the global threat of terrorism through the lends of WWII instead of through the lens of the Cold War, would we be behaving better? Would Gitmo be closed? Would we stop trading civil liberties for a false-sense of security? I don't know, but over here, I think we could use a lot more WWII memories and a lot fewer Cold War ones.

bodlon adds his voice to great slash debate. Since he's a transman who writes fanfic and pro material some containing what we call slash or m/m romance, he has a somewhat unique horse in this race. Also, thinky thoughts in comments.

Today's XKCD made me cry. Like, actually cry. Not a metaphor or exaggeration. I cried.

So John Barrowman is going to play a villain on Desperate Housewives. Shooting starts in march, apparently. I really only have two things to say about that, neither of them rational: 1. DH is my mother's favorite show, and having to deal with her getting obsessed with JB and deciding to watch Torchwood again (which she sorta likes but anything alien upsets her and she has to look away) is more surreal than I want to deal with it. 2. Surprise Naoko Mori!

gement points us to the worst ad campaign in ages. And it's for bus travel. In Cardiff. No, really.

John Lithgow, gossip columnists and scandals in the pre-Internet age. via redstapler.

lord_whimsy reminds me that I had wanted to mention the death of Louis Auchincloss who, as the New York Times obit says "was best known for his dozens and dozens of novels about what he called the 'comfortable' world, which in the 1930s meant 'an apartment or brownstone in town, a house in the country, having five or six maids, two or three cars, several clubs and one’s children in private schools.'" He was a chronicler of the dying world (although he felt strongly it was not) that long-time readers know I grew up peering into.

jonquil ponders to what degree gender has a role in whether people like Salinger's work. Despite leading with the Salinger news yesterday, to quote her poll, my feeling was generally "Eeeeeh."

Patty and I are going to try to go to Dances of Vice tonight, but she has a cold and I'm beat, so we'll see. If we go, you may be seeing the tux,since I have this thing going on where I have to wear it for something before Gallifrey or I'm going to have issues.

Boston people. Tonight, tonight, tonight! I know it's cold, but these ladies will be wearing less clothing than you and are smoking hot. Also, seriously, my love for this troupe has little to do with nudity and everything to do with the ridiculous amounts of charisma they have on stage, which isn't limited to the traditionally feminine archetypes that are a staple of burlesque. They're also my friends.

In planning for my new headshots, I've discovered something interesting, and that is that one of the images I'm selling makes me more of a romantic-lead type than I've ever been. Most of my acting career has been about being the sharp, dark-haired woman, which means VILLAIN. In Australia though, at every class it was "you're a romantic lead, we swear!" and I was like "Not in America! In my country I am evil and villanous. I only get cast as the undead and people who steal husbands!" (which was 100% true at that time). But in Australia, even my Lady in Macbeth was played like a romantic lead, you know, despite the crazy. And now I get it. Short hair, cute tight top, shiny pink lip gloss and a little bit of mascara and a huge smile. I'm suddenly unlikely, sweet, tom-boyish (something that's a particularly weird identity for me in a way that may not seem to make obvious sense) and not, not as hard or awkward as Miranda on Sex in the City. I say this a lot, but only in certain circles: Severus Snape taught me that everything I thought was ugly about myself is actually smoking hot. Jack Harkness taught me to stop pretending I'm the quirky not so cute best-friend next door.

Comments

[sanat.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm adding you cuz my friend gwyd is always reposting your linkfinds. You seem neat! %D

And I so hear you on the idea that sharp dark-haired woman = villain in America. I blame Disney, because I never related to the fair-haired pug-nosed girls that still make up half their princess roster. Fortunately, I married someone who always thought the wicked witches and evil stepmoms were hotter. Awww...

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Oh god, one of the (emotionally) worst nights of my life was when I was trying to go to sleep after having When the Wind Blows that day.

That was in 1984.

*shudder*

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry. I'm glad you got through it. I so wish Dr. Tiller had too.

Mandatory life sentence. GOOD.

[coneyislandbaby]

Fellow Aussie here and thinking a lot of this as I was reading down the comments. It's a part of our lives - like it was on the news when the last ANZAC digger died (of old age) not so long ago. And my grandfather was in the war, too. Probably both, but I only knew my mother's father. There's also a lot of TV and movie emphasis on it - even on the brain candy shows it's a part of the culture.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

I very much apologise for last night's outburst in your lj. It was over the top and uncalled for. I've spent a lot of time thinking it over and really want to say sorry for it, to everyone I may have hurt by it.

I think it did manage to clarify to me, however, one of the reasons I've been feeling upset and on edge about the proposed US Torchwood series. One of the other complaints about COE which rather got lost in the other stuff was that they blew up the Hub (and a large amount of the Roald Dahl Plass and the Millenium Centre) and RTD, in interviews, didn't even seem to care (poor Myfanwy). And that's been tugging at the back of my mind and last night it came together; he may or may not have been de-gaying the show to make it more palatable to Fox by killing Ianto(I don't believe this was necessarily so, but it's a possibility that I rejected out of hand before the Fox story broke and now am less certain) but he was absolutely certainly de-Britishing the show by blowing up the Hub and therefore destroying the connection with Cardiff. And it's a symbol that new Torchwood - if it happens - will no longer be interested in stories like to The Last Man or exploring the class issues which were done so well and so interestingly in the first three days of COE because they aren't the stories that an American audience is interested in hearing. And there won't be another An Empty Child/The Doctor Dances for the same reason. And that's another bit of my cultural heritage gone. Which makes me both angry and afraid - and hence, liable to lash out. And I am very sorry.

[tacittype.livejournal.com]

Has anyone linked you to this XKCD fix-it fic? http://linaerys.dreamwidth.org/683432.html Goosebumpy!

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

British thing, maybe? It was definitely one of those books that scarred an entire generation for us. I actually mostly know it by reputation (and then I read it all the way through in a bookshop once because I was too freaked out to actually buy it and yet couldn't look away). I read all Briggs' childrens books when I was little though, and I'm kind of glad now I read those first.

[ex-adarog.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. As I said, it wasn't meant to be offensive, but yes, it was flippant of me, and no, the deaths of World War Two are not funny, and I apologize for offending. The British and American experiences of the War were and are very different, and no doubt I fall short of appreciating just how bad it was over there.

[natf.livejournal.com]

Me three. Q.Q

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the apology, although I don't really think it was necessary. As long as you worked out whatever you feel need to be worked out between you and the other commenter, I sort of view it as not my problem. You're allowed to get upset in a conversation about _war_.

As to the rest of it, I always appreciate thinky-thoughts and self-awareness and the ultimate conclusion you reach (regarding your cultural heritage and your feelings about it) is both a good and interesting one.

However, and I'm not saying you did this (quite frankly, I'm not sure, so don't worry about that either, but just as you needed to write out your process above, I need to write out mine below), but this comes up over and over again in my journal (often, it seems, when people are apologizing for things I didn't think they needed to) so I'm just throwing it out there anyway: I have really different feelings about what RTD (or any creative) is obligated to care about. Creatives aren't required to feel the way I feel about a story/place/character. I see the "he didn't even care about Myfanwy" thing over and over again and my main reaction is "was he supposed to?" I've no problem with people saying that ultimately leads to a type of storytelling they don't like or that they feel it produces weaknesses/flaws in the work, but I have a hard time with people criticizing a creator because their/our perception of their emotional involvement in the world isn't what we have decided it should be.

As to Ianto's death -- Jack's narrative is about the tragedy of eternal life. Torchwood's narrative is that (someone said this in fanfic and I love it) in Torchwood "if you don't die young, you die weird" and sometimes it's both. Jack's lovers are going to die as a major plotpoint as long as he has lovers on the show. They are going to be young and go out in grisley ways as long as the plot makes them TW operatives (which since so much of the plot is "you can't have a RL in TW"). If Jack's omnisexuality is going to shown on the show, that means there's going to be a lot of dead young gay dudes. Are we in a cultural moment where that can still look like fridging to lots of people? Yes. Is that the intent? I don't think so. Do any of us truly have any way of knowing what goes on in RTD's head? Nope.

Look, I love watching fictional tragedy. Maybe RTD does too. And maybe he likes his fictional tragedy to look a little bit like his life. Which means when he kills off someone like Ianto, it's not homophobia or some evil plan with Fox or whatever. Maybe he just has buttons that are easily misread in 2010. That's my suspicion anyway.

[austengirl.livejournal.com]

WWII was very real for me growing up, because my grandmother would tell many stories about what it was like for her to live through it. Having cousins from Scotland move in with them in the US to avoid being bombed, going to her prom on a trolley (sounds romantic now) rather than in a car due to gas rationing, losing her fiance at the age of 18 when he was killed in the Pacific. Certainly she experienced the fighting of that war from a great remove, but it gave me a glimpse into what it was like, what it felt like.

Now that I live in the UK, I see the scars on cities like Liverpool and think, yes, they may never really heal. Liverpool was only second to London in the amount of bombing it sustained, but you don't hear about it in the same way you do the Blitz. My (British) husband is far from patriotic, but his sense of what his country went through runs surprisingly deep. We visited the WWII memorial in DC once and he was visibly upset that its dates are only 1941-45. He understands the historical reasons for it, but he felt as if that had erased the trauma of everything that had happened in the 2 years before Pearl Harbour and denied the sacrifices made by those who fought and died in that time. His vehemence shocked me, but I could only agree.

As for attitudes now...the 'Spirit of Blitz' where people pull together and get on with it, does still exist and comes out occasionally. Unfortunately the current government seems in as just as much a hurry to threaten or remove civil liberties as the Bush administration was (though opposition to this is vocal and some measures, like attempting to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days, have been defeated). And you know that when the only political parties referencing British history, albeit *extremely* selectively, are the far-right ones, there are Problems.

[alumiere.livejournal.com]

The Spirit comic made me cry too; glad I'm not the only one.

Severus Snape taught me that everything I thought was ugly about myself is actually smoking hot. Jack Harkness taught me to stop pretending I'm the quirky not so cute best-friend next door. Interesting thoughts, and if you don't mind I'd like to use this in an upcoming post on appearance and perceptions that's brewing. Especially since I just volunteered to model (as a hot, fit, differently abled, "dainty punk") for Dr. Sketchy's in LA.

Also, do you have a rough schedule for Gallifrey (sp?) yet? I seriously doubt I can do a full day at a con, but I'd love to find a bit of time for a drink and chatting in the hotel bar or something (I can bring gluten free cookies, or maybe if I learn how to bake better, bread too). I want to meet you (and Patty? or is she staying in NY?) if I can and just talk for a little bit.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Gally schedule: http://gallifreyone.com/schedule.php

Saturday is my busiest day in terms of panels if you actually want to see me on programming. It's also arguably the day I have the best downtime for seeing people who just want to come by and hang out in the afternoon/evening.

Patty, who is not of the Whoniverse, is more than happy to be staying home for this one.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh and yeah, feel free to quote it. I say it a lot, despite my whole mumblemumble thing about it.

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

When I read the Lithgow article you linked above I had no idea this was the show my niece was was working on (which is dumb because I knew she was working on something at Second Stage again but brainfail).

We were able to see it in Previews on Sunday and it was fun and fluffy. Not going to change anyone's life but Lithgow and Ehle were fun to watch. The set decoration was great (keeping in mind that I'm the Prop Master's aunt!)

If you have any interest in Horton Foote's plays I heartily recommend the Orphan's Home Cycle at the Signature. We were actually in town for the marathon on Saturday and it was amazing. The middle set is the strongest and the final three acts probably don't work very well without the context of the first six but it was sort of a thrill to spend twelve or so hours with the same folks and the nine plays!

Best, Dremiel