sundries

[rm]

Help me with something: name a temporary city that only exists periodically -- Pennsic. Burning Man. What else? Anywhere in the world. Not just geek-related.

I keep hearing we're supposed to get at least a sliver of the snowpocalypse, but there's been nary a flake.

Patty and I had the most awesome night last night. We picnicked on the floor -- fondue with potatoes, carrots, salami, apples, and also pesto sauce for dipping. And then we watched tons of Buffy.

I would like to state for the record that Ted was almost an impossible episode for me to watch (btw, I don't think it's a bad episode; I think it's pretty great, really, it's just not pleasant and hard for me to sit through) -- it punched all of my buttons, none of them good -- about never being believed (because you are female, an only child, unusual, imaginative), being threatened with institutionalization as a power play (it's happened to me, it's happened to friends), and gendered violence & humiliation (the "little lady" thing was causing me to want to flee the room). I really, really, almost couldn't watch it.

Also, Kendra's apparently Jamaican accent? Yikes. There is a lot of race fail one really has to overlook to get through this show (and the only reason there isn't more, it seems, is through sins of omission because IT IS SO WHITE, although I fully acknowledge I might not have noticed that when it was actually airing, although living in NYC and DC, I hope I would have).

I'm also still uncomfortable with the level of rape metaphor/content. I get that Wheedon isn't fetishizing rape in the gross way TV programs often do. I also get the necessity of its acknowledgement in a show about a young woman facing danger. But I can't get past a feeling of nice guy self-congratulatoriness I feel like I'm sensing in it. It's not handled badly (I thought the Giles/Jenny convo about "Your behavior is making me feel bad for not feeling better" was particularly smart), but I sort of want to yell at them for asking for a cookie quite so loudly.

But I really am enjoying the hell out of the show. Just watching many episodes close together gives me a way to see patterns (and feel saturated with themes) in a way that was different for peopel who watched it once a week and with seasonal breaks.

Yes, of course I'm still desperately interested in all things Whoniverse This Buffy thing is less a break and more of a refuge, because I'm about to descend into writing my paper for Bristol and what may be a very tense panel/audience relationship at Gally. Also, I'm working on making my relationship with melancholy and grieving a feature, not a bug, which means caring about other sorts of plots sometimes, although I realize Buffy will probably transmute into more of the same for me eventually.

Thanks to gay marriage legalization Mexico City now at center of debate.

FDA reconsiders portion size. Because no, no one eats 8 corn chips and then puts away the bag.

fireflygirl tells us of the lonliest whale.

The restoration of a movie palace.

The end of St. Vincent's. Shocking, I think particularly, to those who remember its centrality during the emergence of AIDS.

Something is up, and I know not what, with Amazon.com stocking my book. If you're looking for the print edition (as opposed to the Kindle edition), right now your best bet is B&N.

Comments

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

There's the Hajj. Isn't the pilgrimage at a specific time of year? I remember reading that the Saudis are having exponentially increasing logistic problems as more people can afford to make the pilgrimage.

Also read an article some time ago about a festival in India, the Kumbh Mela that attracts millions. In 2001 on the 12th cycle of the every twelve year festival it attracted 60 million people.
http://www.thepolisblog.org/2009/12/urban-transformations.html

The mongols might be another historical reference to look into for nomads creating temporary cities.