sundries

[rm]

Oh, no wonder I feel like total shit. Menstruation. You'd think I'd stop being surprised at some point.

We still really, REALLY need to book England.

Buffy! We now are one episode away from finishing S3. God help me, I like Wesley/Cordelia. Willow is the most awesome thing ever, and I cried when Buffy got her umbrella award. Meanwhile: Jesus fucking Christ can the Buffy/Angel plotline just end already?

Russell Tovey was at WhoYork last night. He was delightful, smart, and hasn't yet hit a stage with these sorts of events where he has stock answers. So it was lovely, and he was smart about theater and funny about Doctor Who (both when the rumour started going around that he was going to be Eleven, and in regards to The End of Time scene, the huge significance of which to the fandom he had not realized at the time). In person, he was taller and cuter than I'd expected. The ears though, exactly the same. Anyway, he's a doll. And he has good boundaries! Sort of wacky and amazing.

As such, I missed most of the Oscars (as did Patty who had lots of work for school). I will note that what I saw of the ceremony was uniquely terrible. I also can't fathom how Sandra Bullock won. Additionally, even the briefest clips of Avatar made me cringe.

But the really big news, of course, is Kathryn Bigelow. I'm not sure to what extent people not in the biz grasp how big a deal it is that a woman won best director for a war movie is. It's still conventional wisdom in many, if not most, big movie-making circles that a woman just doesn't have the force of will to direct a film. And when film's go haywire (see Across the Universe) when female directors are at the helm, people will whisper that it's about her, and not the studio. People will talk about female hormones and whether she can be calm on the set (like the men are?) and about how there's no crying in baseball. If you're a woman and you want to be a big league director, you have a big, hard fucking wall staring at you, especially if you don't want to be making women's pictures. I won't say Bigelow just changed all of that, because she hasn't, not quite. But she makes it much easier for all the women I know and love in this business to say "fuck you, shut up" when the bullshit starts and have people shut up now.

The Jewish Papal Knight.

Kid banned from Catholic pre-school because she has two moms.

Last night Patty alerted me to The Gatehouse Gazette and its current issue that features quite a bit of content on "orientalism" and what people are now calling "Victorientalism" and the whole thing struck the both of us as rather jaw-droppingly not okay. dmp says it better.

Comments

[sihaya09.livejournal.com]

On a completely random note, you were in my dream last night. I was wearing a tux to my senior prom (this is how my brain interprets the Oscars, apparently) and we talked for awhile at this big banquet style table. No idea about what, but I did at least recognize it was you!

[soundingsea.livejournal.com]

Jesus fucking Christ can the Buffy/Angel plotline just end already?

Hee! This reminds me to remind you, don't forget you probably want to watch Angel Season 1 in tandem with buffy season 4, and so on. There are some significant crossovers. And oh, man, Angel is SO MUCH BETTER on his own show.

[rm.livejournal.com]

yeah, Patty and I are trying to figure out if we're going to do season by season or alternating episodes or what.

[elisi]

Meanwhile: Jesus fucking Christ can the Buffy/Angel plotline just end already?
LOL! It... drags. But then he's off to be awesome on his own show, so hang in there. :) (And I concur with all your other observations too.)

Also, I was much cheered to wake up this morning and hear about Kathryn Bigelow. \o/

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Question on your last bullet point - (and I haven't had more than a couple of minutes to scan through The Gatehouse Gazette), when you say its jaw-droppingly not okay are you referring to the content, the use of the terms (orientalism, Vicorientalism), both - or did I miss the point?

[soundingsea.livejournal.com]

This is the best viewing order list I've seen for Buffy 4/Angel 1 (and it will only spoil you for titles).

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/121242/watching-buffy-and-angel-in-order#post_1523110

Season by season I wouldn't recommend since then you miss out on some crossover goodness, and episode by episode is okay except that there are some two-parter-type eps that it might be annoying to watch an unrelated ep in the middle of.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I also can't fathom how Sandra Bullock won.

Me either. For a sports movie that I for one have never heard of. (Perhaps this is part of the Academy horse-trading that also happened to Judi Dench, giving Bullock an award this year that she missed out upon in a previous one?)

But yes, Bigelow's win (and all the gongs that Hurt Locker actually got) were awesome, and yes, their impact is probably underestimated by the person in the street. Pity "Precious" didn't get more Oscar attention, though.

[rm.livejournal.com]

"Orientalism" is as a term, as this point, generally considered offensive and inappropriate. Additionally, while someone can not have a political agenda or stance, you can't play with steampunk without bumping into colonialism. To adopt the tropes of that colonialism and say "but it's okay when we do it because we mean it out of respect" is, at best, naive. Colonialism is seriously interesting stuff, and it's a theme in a lot of the writing I do, but I think it's very, very problematic to say talk about it in a way that pretty much just says "but we're only talking about the nice bits!" It's not in a political vacuum, no matter how much we may wish it to be aesthetically, and to be blithe about it is much more offensive than at least acknowledging and moving on.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Not just a sports movie. A movie about a white family that's so awesome and great because they adopted a black kid. Yeah, that trope again.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Is there a term you'd recommend for what is called Orientalism?

I thought Orientalism meant westerners disrespectfully picking up on Asian customs.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure to what extent people not in the biz grasp how big a deal it is that a woman won best director for a war movie is.

Not only do I get it, I'm thrilled to bits.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

for some reason, i'd been thinking sophia coppola had won best director before, but i think it was screenplay wasn't it? for 'lost in translation'
but anyway, yes, HUGE deal and i was very very happy
also, that stupid avatar didn't win best picture - SO HAPPY
(and now must see the hurt locker)

[rednwhiterose.livejournal.com]

Re: Sandra Bullock.

I couldn't agree more. I personally find her annoying (equal parts her acting in general and equal parts she plays the same stock character in all her movies...which just so happen to be the same movie over and over again). I was equally put out that Colin Firth and Cary Mulligan (sp?) didn't win...but I always push for the Brits to win. But I am very glad that Avatar didn't win the big ones...I don't understand the hype with that movie.

[rm.livejournal.com]

If you skim down into dmp's critique, the user mentions how the term is going out of fashion in even academic circles and how people are trying to navigate it.

In fact, the term "Orientalism" may be on the way out. Its negative connotation has become so prevalent since Said first made his argument forty years ago that academic communities are starting to reject the term even in reference to Eastern-originated fashion, prefering the terms "Asian Look" or "Asian Fashion." Academic Bong-Ha Seo's 2008 article for the Journal of Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles argues against the use of the term "Orientalism" in fashion in "Critical Discussion on the ‘Orientalism’ in Fashion Culture":

dmp goes on to include quotes from academics that address it.

This really isn't my area of expertise. It's just a thing I dabble close enough to often enough that I'm like "WOAH", so the best I can do is point you back there.

[gallo-de-pelea.livejournal.com]

I only saw the preview (before Star Trek) and it made me cringe and sink down into my seat.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Hey, Bigelow directed Near Dark. Any woman who can make a movie with only the Best. Badass. Vampire. Bit. Ever. should not be underestimated.

I just wished she'd brained Steve Martin with one of her Oscars to shut him the hell up.

[matthewwdaly.livejournal.com]

Your quest has caused me to pick up on Buffy again this past week (I watched a year or two ago but my local library only had up through S5 on DVD), and I'm in S6 asking JC for the Buffy romantic plotline to end myself. V. v. problematic, not just with Buffy but across multiple arcs. And not in a "Wow, what a thorny knot" sort of way, more like a "Did I unknowingly cut off Joss Whedon in traffic one day and this is his sick idea of revenge?"

I'm strongly tempted to convince myself that BtVS ended the episode after "Once More with Feeling" and write off the rest. Can anyone (without disturbing rm, of course) talk me down off that ledge?

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Gatehouse Gazette link, which is extremely relevant to my interests. I wonder if their complete failure to discuss the "Yellow Peril" was deliberate, or an oversight?

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

The Gatehouse Gazette thing annoys me for a few reasons . . . not because it exploits and explores those tropes but because it does in such an irritatingly LAZY manner.

Like, yes yes yes . . . steampunk coming back into fashion can and should mean spirited dialogue on Colonialism, oppression, and culture-as-fetish. This topics can be navigated in smart ways that can reveal ways that mainstream culture treated race in the past as well as the present.

But just throwing out the word "Negro" and putting up some old movie posters? Lazy, lazy, lazy.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yup.

[dkellergrl.livejournal.com]

Russell Tovey was at WhoYork last night. He was delightful, smart, and hasn't yet hit a stage with these sorts of events where he has stock answers. So it was lovely, and he was smart about theater and funny about Doctor Who (both when the rumour started going around that he was going to be Eleven, and in regards to The End of Time scene, the huge significance of which to the fandom he had not realized at the time). In person, he was taller and cuter than I'd expected. The ears though, exactly the same. Anyway, he's a doll. And he has good boundaries! Sort of wacky and amazing.

He IS a doll. Dennis and I totally "squeed out" after the Q&A over how absolutely cute, smart, talented and SWEET he is, while working in the acting industry. The thing he said about as an actor being mentally ready to take on the larger than life roll of The Doctor is so true.

He just wants to be able to do as many things as possible as an actor and I really hope that he gets that chance. I would LOVE to see him portraying a drag queen.

[dkellergrl.livejournal.com]

Also - Since he's so adorable in person, I can't even contemplate how gorgeous Lenora, Sinead AND Aidan would be if I ever get the chance to see those three in person.

I hope that series 3 of Being Human is up and ready to go before the NY Comic Con 2010 in October.

[offbalance.livejournal.com]

Yes, she won for screenplay, not director. She was nominated for best director, but lost to Peter Jackson for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

Kathryn Bigelow's win made me cry and cry. I am so happy for all the little girls who got a new dream last night.

It was a huge deal. It makes my heart burst.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

It is perhaps worth noting in Britain "Asian" almost invariably means south Asian, not east Asian (completely the other way around to the US, as I understand it), which is I suspect why the term oriental continues to persist here beyond its welcome. I'm not justifying its use at all, and I'm sure they could have found a less loaded substitute, but in a BrE article, "Asian" would probably be considered a misleading word choice in this context.