sundries

[rm]

Tonight we do the paperwork for Claudette and we pick her up Monday.

Meanwhile, tomorrow we head to Cold Spring.

Google Buzz - less confusing than Wave but just as dumb? Certainly the various drama that's sure to arise when people start realizing who people know (either through the "how dare you talk to my ex" phenom or the "OMGOMGOMG you know Random Famous Person") because people couldn't figure out how to be discrete is going to be epic. Google, of course, auto adds contacts in a way that makes avoiding drama harder.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison 20 years ago today.

When he came to New York, after, there was a ticker tape parade for him. I had just met a young man through our mutual recent appointments to the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation National Youth Committee whose father was a judge, and he invited me down to one of the court house buildings where he said he could get us out on the roof. He did, and we were the only people up there and we watched the parade from there. It was terrifying, and I remember thinking he was supposed to kiss me; he didn't.

Tigers are on the verge of extinction in the wild.

What's on a $177 bagel?

What would you do with 178 sq. ft.?

Alexander McQueen has taken his own life.

Charlie Wilson has died.

A queer zombie anthology from a small horror press got canceled apparently because some of the other authors who write for that press expressed their homophobic complaints about sharing a publisher with queer content. When you surrender to bigots, even if you are not a bigot, you are still doing something bigoted. This goes for the press in this little drama and it goes for everyone who automatically gives a higher rather to fanfiction with gay content in it because otherwise someone on the Internet might yell at them.

Capitulation to bigotry causes real harm.

phaetonschariot explains why: Queer people people don't get to stop being queer. How fucking handy it is that you can duck out of the fight. Just because you can, doesn't mean it's right. You know, I don't like people yelling at me either.

jslorentz talks about desire, activism, quaint little categories and trying to do the right thing -- for oneself and for the community.

Designing a better gender menu, via supergee. I don't agree with all of the suggestions (I don't, for example, like "it's complicated" as the only choice beyond "male" or "female" and I'm not all that off-put by "other" because I feel it includes less judgment than other options which assign narrative that may not be relevant to me. Obviously YMMV), but it's a good, interesting, relevant read.

Is it terrible that my main reaction to this seems to be about my hatred of the double-breasted suit jacket?

Last night we watched that Buffy episode where everyone keeps reenacting that final fight between the teacher/student murder/suicide couple in 1955. It was like "here, watch the cast of Buffy demonstrate Practical Aesthetics." Seriously, it was WEIRD. I have no idea if any of the actors or the director were drawing on that technique for the episode, but every time the scene played out, it felt EXACTLY like a a Practical Aesthetics scene to me. EVERY TIME.

Also, wow, I feel way too much compassion for Spike.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

I wrote a Harry Potter trivia book that's hardly critical. I have published original fiction and poetry. I am currently in the middle of a TV show pitch process. I am writing a novel.

I had credited role in a major picture that was distributed by Dreamworks and Paramount and continue to audition for film and television.

I worked in advertising, marketing and PR for ten years. Before that I worked for a major wire service. I continue to write copy for a range of commercial websites.

Saying that my living comes only from being critical of the media is not accurate.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

You're right. I overlooked some of that. I was only thinking of one of your jobs, in which I thought you did analysis of the media.

Mea culpa.

[rm.livejournal.com]

All good. And yeah. But that job is also telling people about how to work the media better, so analysis is not inherently critical.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Right - I did not mean to imply ( if I did ) that analysis is inherently critical.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's all good, I'm being vague because I can't really talk about it. Three Days of the Condor and all that. ;)

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Someday we will sit down over drinks, loosen our ties , and I'll tell you my version of Three Days of the Condor. :)

[rm.livejournal.com]

We should make a club.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

We so should.

On that note, I have heard tell from another DJ that there is a very nice retro speakeasy style bar/club that is far off the beaten path , and well hidden. I was supposed to check it out but the DMV and all , ugh , it never happened. The impression I was given is that it's not unlike DoV.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Also , just to make sure we are clear - I am not saying that you are evil , or that you do evil. I think the machine is evil , and in order to reverse that agents of change are needed - and that is what I see you as. An agent of change working towards fixing a broken system.

[rm.livejournal.com]

We're clear. I'm just like "HEY I MAKE STUFF" and it's a subject about which I am defense due to petty LJ/fandom wankery that you can consider yourself blessed to have missed.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Speaking of making stuff - I still need to get a copy of your book, and I know you have not had the time/space to look over the stuff that I am creating ... but I am hoping to make stuff as well ( my graphic novel ).

You know I have not written/published anything since my serial story in cthulhusex?