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

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I have to say I like Whimsy but saying he doesn't care about Salinger because Auchincloss died is a bit like saying one doesn't care about milk chocolate getting banned because dark chocolate is banned. Like, I get that not everyone likes Salinger, but they wrote on rather similar themes.

(I think really I just had issues with the way he phrased it, though, TBH.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, these are two things that are not related (and they did write on similar worlds at different moments from different perspectives. I think I've enjoyed Auchincloss more because I was closer to the world of Holden Caufield just on teh basis of the dissafected kids I grew up with. I never got to live the world I grew up in as an adult, however).

[bluejeans07.livejournal.com]

Surprise Naoko Mori? Eh?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Yea, ditto?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Last year, Naoko Mori, who was not a guest at Gallifrey One showed up because she'd run into one of the other guests (I can't remember if it was Kai Owen or GDL) at the headshot retouchers earlier in the day. So "suprise Naoko Mori!" has been the code word for "unexpected guest fantasies" about this year's con.

[rm.livejournal.com]

See below.

[jigglykat.livejournal.com]

OMG that XKCD makes me so sad!

[bluejeans07.livejournal.com]

HAHA! I remember this, that was so exciting! It was GDL that ran into her, he teasingly said, "I think they're all shit!" about her headshots. XD

JB would be mobbed. Like SCARY mobbed.

BTW, we are panel rivals! AHHH!

[rm.livejournal.com]

I knooooooooooooow. It's like the universal law of panels -- all panels you are are on are scheduled against panels your friends are on and/or panels you want to go to.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

JB would be mobbed. Like SCARY mobbed.

*nodnod* It was pretty scary-mobbish when GDL was in attendance IIRC.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I found myself at ChiTARDIS wishing I had an *actual* TARDIS, or failing that a Potterverse time-turner, to get to all the panels I wanted to. Eh. I had fun with those I did go to.

[starstealingirl.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who cried at that XKCD. It was so, so sad.

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear gods. You mean I will actually have to watch an episode of Desperate Housewives?

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I would love surprise John Barrowman!

Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease.

[rm.livejournal.com]

People were chill with GDL in the bar. It was just sorta everywhere else. Poor guy.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

It's not the worst show ever. I mean, many parts are cringe worthy for various and many reasons... but it is a fun and don't-need-to-think-too-deeply-about-stuff kind of show.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, that XKCD...

[ex-adarog.livejournal.com]

I think that was me with the WW II comment, talking about "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances". I phrased it rather flippantly, but it wasn't meant as a criticism, an implied "You people should get over it". Pearl Harbor was a long way away from the North American mainland; England is a geographically small nation, and their capital was bombed every night. They don't have to get over it. But when you watch a lot of Who, classic or new flavor, you can't avoid seeing how that shadow is still hanging over them, how many times they re-visit that era in fiction or re-create aspects of it (see also Harry Potter).

During the Cold War we were afraid of the very thing happening to us that happened to Great Britain, and that we made happen to the Japanese: Death from the sky. But it never came, until 9/11. I'm going to think about how that Cold War mentality was reinforced by that event....

[gement.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, I had already heard about Spirit, and had been inured by spiritrover and opportunitygrrl. I already have my stories about them, and in my stories they know it's a one-way trip, and they are SO STOKED to have beaten their operational parameters by 2100%.

Meanwhile, in Cardiff WTFery: http://worldofwonder.net/2010/01/29/AD_CAMPAIGN_FAIL/

XKCD

[nysidra.livejournal.com]

Me too! So very depressing.

[rm.livejournal.com]

OMGWTF CARDIFF!

[arjache.livejournal.com]

"You meet really interesting people in Torchwood - that's how I met my late girlfriend!"

[rm.livejournal.com]

Bwhahaahaha.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I'm going to think about how that Cold War mentality was reinforced by that event....

Interesting point. Thinking of historical ironies, apparently "Band of Brothers", a miniseries set in WWII, broadcast its first two episodes two days before 9/11 and was (apparently) very nearly never completely shown as a result.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

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

Still amazingly LOL.