sundries

[rm]

It's been one of those morning. Inappropriate cat peeing, followed by my sitting in inappropriate cat pee, followed by my sitting somewhere else, spreading inappropriate cat pee, followed by barging in on Patty in the shower to remove inappropriate cat pee, and now I have to go home and do laundry later. Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

I've also been having some really unpleasant neuralgia the last couple of days, somewhere that's making me super paranoid about other health concerns. That said, it's fading a bit and relocating and makes me realize it's most probably a result of the accidental gluten situation from a few days ago.

Buffy 4.8, the Thanksgiving episode. It was sort of fascinating watching it be epically faily while also talking about how Thanksgiving was faily. Also, contains the Best Line Ever: "You made a bear!" I never realized just to what degree Spike is the comic relief. Also Anya is really growing on me.

Angel 1.7, leaving aside that the narrative about Doyle and his wife failed chronologically REPEATEDLY (how old is Doyle? How old were you when you got married? how long were you together? that was how long ago? he was a teacher at what age?), I loved that he had a wife. And I loved how it was performed. And I loved the dorky brain-eating demon plot. After, Patty, assured me she wouldn't let anyone eat my brain. I assured her I also didn't want to be anyone's ex-husband. Or something. It was complicated. DEMONS.

Do we really have to call this relaxation of DADT enforcement an improvement? Because quite frankly it's still shit. Also, the stuff that they have to sort out for allowing gays in the military, I noted, included "same-sex partner attendance at social functions." Watch them ban us from the nice parties. Watch. It sounds petty to care about, but the symbolism of all this drama is what consistently makes me crazy, whether it's "you're not good to die for us" or "you're not good enough to eat with us."

Omg, PETA. "Don't let your cat or dog become an Octomom."

Since I don't live in Philly, I can't say whether this story is alarmist or what. But it's about flash mobs really being about violent teenage rampages and it reminds me of the whole "wilding" bullshit in New York back in the day. There was no such thing. Didn't exist. Fucked-up racist term the media more or less made up and this sort of has shades of that for me.

Comments

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I do live in Philly, but wasn't there for the flash mobs, so I have no first-hand reporting about what actually happened.

I will say that the curfew is irrelevant group punishment. At least one of the flash mobs is reported to have happened during rush hour-- at this time of year, that's full daylight.

[sahiya.livejournal.com]

I must admit to loving the Thanksgiving episode, despite the epic fail, mostly for the Spike bits and also snarky!Giles.

You're about to come up on some of my favorite episodes, actually. I can't wait to see what you make of "Hush." S4, while containing perhaps the weakest season-long arc, contains some truly fantastic episodes.

[ghost-light.livejournal.com]

I didn't like the arc of 4 when I first saw it, but watching (most of) the series again, it had some interesting themes that carried into the next season.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

I adore Anya with all my heart forever. That is really like the least hyperbolic way I can possibly think of to express my feelings.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I remember the wildlings stuff too. This seems ... potentially similar but a lot less 'teenagers are not human' than the wildling meme that went around then. I think this is more a response to the realization that we've given teenagers nothing to do for decades now -- and the unemployment rate for teens/young adults is huge. There's the usual race related crap but it's surprisingly mild.

[arjache.livejournal.com]

I can't remember, is Doyle's age actually specified? Maybe he's just aging slowly due to the demon genes.

[dorei.livejournal.com]

I agree that relaxation of DADT rather than a repeal is a rather weak substitution, but like the health care bill, it's better than nothing. It's my hope that they don't let it just sit there then, and continue to push for total repeal.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Exactly. This is the beginning of the battle, not the end. If anything, kudos to Gates for doing as much as he is able and thereby throwing down the gauntlet to Congress to finish the job.

[elisi]

Also, contains the Best Line Ever: "You made a bear!"
Undo it! Undo it! (Oh Spike.)

I loved that he had a wife.
Same here. This is where that 'Angel has more grey areas when it comes to demons' starts to come into play. ::hearts Doyle::

[rm.livejournal.com]

Sadly, because of the tragic demise of the actor who played Doyle, I can't stop seeing that when I watch Angel. I no longer see the performance of a character who is an addict, but rather an addict performing. And it's disconcerting.

[ghost-light.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem re-watching Angel.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem for me is that someone told me that right before I started watching Angel, so it's the first think I ever knew about the actor, and now it's all I can see. He's pale and clammy and fidgety and it's not a character choice and it's so rattling to me.

[ghost-light.livejournal.com]

I heard about it after I'd seen the first season, so I lucked out there.

[idunn.livejournal.com]

Wow, just when I think PETA can't get any tackier or less compassionate, they manage to throw a curve ball. I'm almost impressed.

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

If HALF the folks who got up in arms about the Mississippi prom thing actually thought for a moment and realized that gays in the military face the same restrictions...

[shield-toad111.livejournal.com]

Ah... PETA. I'm used to them pissing me off, but it usually doesn't happen two days in a row for completely separate issues. Yesterday's news included an article about their Hitler-themed ad.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Oh, for — *flails*. It's like they have a saboteur running their PR. Their FAIL is epic in both scale and consistency.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Oy! I don't know who is more tacky, PETA or Octomom. I say let's give them both the gold medal on this one.

[kurometarikku.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to train my cat, Darth, to start peeing inappropriately, so people will barge in when I'm in the shower.

[eac.livejournal.com]

Because quite frankly it's still shit.

Yea, that was my first thought when I heard this this morning. "Not good enough, Mr Gates." Do they think the LGBT community is going to feel grateful about this?

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Also, contains the Best Line Ever: "You made a bear!" I never realized just to what degree Spike is the comic relief.

One of my favorite lines in the whole series!

I remember reading a few years back how with Cordelia gone to LA, they had lost their character who would say the blunt "true stuff" stuff, and provide comic relief that way. They decided to make Spike that character, since being outside of humanity, he could say stuff like he says in this episode, and get away with it.

I just love James Marsters in this episode. He really brings it to all aspects of performance, drama, comedy, horror-menace, bastard, and as you will see in later seasons, moments of tremendous vulnerability and pathos.

[ghost-light.livejournal.com]

We watched through season 5 of Buffy again last year. Pretty much the moment Spike got tazed by the Initiative, lonelydumptruck said "Ah yes, the end of Spike as the Big Bad and the beginning of Spike as an Object of Fun."

[scarlettgirl.livejournal.com]

I live right outside of Philly and this has been the top story for far too long. It seems everyone is focusing on the "mob" portion of flash mob and hysteria is abounding. Now, to be fair, the incident in question may have started off as an organized snowball fight but it quickly morphed into a bunch of kids running rampant through the Gallery throwing snowballs inside the stores which is not cool and counter to the point of a flash mob. However, the term, at least in Philadelphia has become demonized to the point of hysteria. Today's paper had a side-bar which explained the origin of and what exactly is a flash mob. It was sketchy and incomplete but also the very first time I've seen anyone try to explain it as more than a bunch of hooligans brought together by the internet in order to cause damage and mischief.

[ravenskye8.livejournal.com]

The Philly thing - I'm no longer in the city enough to actually see these things other than on the news... but, as titaniumjunky said, the behavior being reported is no different than any other mob scene/riot that has occured in the past... the difference is what is the "cause"...

Where for past incidents you could point to a sports event, parade, party, or some other event getting out of hand, now you have seemingly random occurences. I think a lot of the panic we're seeing from officials is that when it was rioting stemming from a public event you could plan for it - have more police out during and after the event. Now that it's random, do you have to have more police in public gathering spaces all the time?

As for it being alarmist...

I know that the one news story where they showed video footage of the "flash mob" - I can see the problem... idiots ruining something "fun" for everyone... you had a huge group of teens gathering on South Street just hanging out and, okay, being loud and obnoxious - but besides that, nothing bad was happening... and then all of a sudden there was this small group on the side that picked a fight, or decided to loot a store or something, and all hell breaks loose... it was clear to me that the majority of the group had no intention of being a part of that and was just trying to get out of the way...

I have a feeling though, that now that it's been a "special report" on the news that you're going to see more incidents of where people call the police about large groups of loitering teens where they never would have before... which is going to make the youth population angry because now they can't even hang out with friends in a public park without being considered a security threat... and they will respond by living up to the negative expectations everyone now has for them...

[sevendayloan.livejournal.com]

Anya really grew on me as well. I don't know what happened, but sometime over the years she went from being a character I barely noticed to one of my favorites.

[realtsunamigirl.livejournal.com]

Actually, I gotta go with "It's a ritual sacrifice, with pie." as the best line ever.

Anya will suck you in, just like the rest of us. Emma Caulfield's comic timing borders on genius.

Also while "Amends" does fail on some levels, Spike's speech about "you won, get over it" resonates with me to a certain extent. Europeans committed horrendous atrocities beyond a shadow of a doubt, but as long as we get stuck in the past we're not moving forwards to address to issues of the aftermath.

(Please bear in mind that this was posted by a Canadian. Our history with First Nations peoples ain't pretty, but our attempts to make reparations are going better than down in the States. Probably because we had a lot more to atone for what with the residential schools and all:-( )

[systris.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not I was on south street near ground zero to see the beginning of the so-called flash mob when I was in line for free water ice, the local media in an attempt to not sound as un-net-savvy as the actually are, called it a flash mob because people texted/twittered/facebooked each other to meet up to cause chaos and never mind the fact that flash mobs were originally a 'fun' thing and a trend that died two years ago at least. This is just teen mischief 21st century style...and I see it getting worse as the weather warms up and bored teenagers get antsy. Though the several dozen kids that were sentenced and facing charges will be made examples of...but that is nothing compared to the insanity of say...greek week, mardi gras on south st and philly's tribute to public hooliganism - the mummers parade... Its Always Raucous In Philadelphia!

Regarding cat pee

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

Have you ever stepped on a cat hairball in the middle of the night while staggering to the bathroom? It's why I took up wearing socks to bed. At least that way I can just strip off the sock, instead of hopping around on one leg.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

# Omg, PETA. "Don't let your cat or dog become an Octomom."

But it's okay to let my fish, hamster and gerbil become Octomoms, right? I just need to know where to draw the line here!