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

[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.

[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.