sundries

[rm]

Despite Patty's hatred of Costco, I've lured her into going with me today. YAY. This mitigates, slightly, the pouring rain factor.

Last night I said to myself, "don't forget to post about ANZAC Day tomorrow," and then, of course, forgot. wcg reminds us all.

Don't be fooled by this article. While plastic surgery may be out for actors, impossible beauty standards still reign. So if you didn't win the genetic lottery, you can forget about going into the business, at least on screen, in the United States. Also? the ratio of period films for which natural breasts are a must have to everything else? Yeah, not so much.

I told you the UK was a very drinky country. Because, holy crap, Cardiff! I can't believe this is where Patty's going to be for 10 - 12 weeks.

Last night on Buffy we watched "Shadow" and "Listening to Fear".

- OMG, Riley, REALLY? You're patronizing vampire hookers so you can be dark enough for your girlfriend? This is the most fucked up plot ever, and, quite frankly, sort of a stupid one. But I've always thought Riley was such a dumb lug, that I'm not riveted by this complete absurdity Wheedon has visited upon us.

- Aliens! There are canonical aliens! Man, that thing, that whole ep, was TERRIFYING. Except, you know, the part where Riley was being distracted because he wanted to go visit some more whores.

- Willow was AMAZING in "Listening to Fear"

- This whole arc in which Joyce eventually bites it (yes, I have that spoiler and the Tara spoiler) is going to be really hard for me to watch. I have an acute medical phobia that manifests in weird ways -- it's not about the gore, it's about the lack of control, medicine as punishment and my own probably not so awesome genetic odds. And this is punching those buttons hard.

- I really don't like Glory. She's just not a bad guy I find interesting and I think I really dislike the actresses performance, although it's clear she's just following directions. I am, however, really curious about Ben and the whole cosmology around her now.

- And I forgot to mention about "Fool for Love" the other day that hey RTD, you really liked SPike's little "you're connected to people and that keeps you alive" speech, didn't you? Well, good to know that Torchwood isn't _just_ about the Angel/Wesley Jack/Ianto loving. Wow, now if only Torchwood fandom could remember that. *snerk*

Royalty in New York. Really.

Sainsbury's gluten-free cherry bakewell tarts? AWESOME.

We think Cricket's squeakiness may be cat sonar.

Comments

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

I think it's that there are huge cultural pressures from all sorts of directions, on all sorts of levels that reinforce the all-pervading idea that this is what sociability is, that this is what having a good time is, this is what a good night out feels like, that this is where all the good stories are, that you're worth more as a person if you can drink more (no insult more cutting than calling someone a light-weight), and the prestige which comes with the morning after if you really did drink yourself half dead.

I mean, I won't pretend I'm a saint, but I don't much like getting drunk, so I'll often switch to soft drinks, and in a pub where everybody knows me, I have to keep on accounting for myself, explaining myself, laugh off all the teasing, refuse offers to buy me a "proper" drink (very tactfully, because this can be read as rude) over and over again. So many times I've ended up drunker than I've meant to in those situations, and I don't even much like it. And though this is quite a particular, and working class, environment, I think the same ideas ingrained at a lot of levels in our culture, much as it's sometimes characterised as being a lower class problem. I've often seen City types - stock market workers, rich people, in nice suits - on their hands and knees in the gutter at 2am in the City of London.

I probably sound like I should write for the Daily Mail now, and there is certainly a side to it that is sociable and fun and a bit of cutting loose does no long term harm, but if you're a person who's predisposed to have a problem, then you're in the worst possible environment, and you'll grow up to be my ex's dad, with nothing else to fall back on.

[rm.livejournal.com]

We saw lots of definitely not working class people drinking like idiots in London. Granted, we were staying in Brick Lane, but guys in suits wandering the streets swigging out of open bottles of wine, carrying classes nicked from pubs, etc etc.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if I had to stereotype - while acknowledging all the problems inherent with stereotyping etc - the most obnoxious kind of drinker, that would be the kind I'd think of. Money to burn, no ties, no breaks, and a nice fat sense of entitlement.

I should apologise for getting slightly impassioned above - I'm not really evangenical about this stuff; generally, I do think it's true that the media whips things out of proportion, and I certainly participate too much in that kind of culture to really be on my high horse about it - but I'm also quite finely attuned to the point where it gets beyond a joke, for the reasons mentioned above.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I mean, while there are some cultures here in the states where it's hard to refuse a bought drink or whatever and the drinking contest thing is still very there, it's pretty easy here to go to bars and be out and not get excessively pressured to drink. One or two statements about not wanting to drink or drink more and people stop, very quickly. This is probably better in NYC than other places. The aggression that you describe in these interactions both is and isn't surprising to me, and unsettling, but I think some of that is female socialization -- it pushes the "just how fucking loudly do I have to say no?" buttons.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Yes, though actually it's an environment where it's generally easier for a woman to say no (though if a young woman going out for a drink with a group starts the evening by asking for a soft drink she will invariably have to fend of an, "Are you in the club?" type comment) and it's the guys who come in for the most pressure.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

I think it's quite telling how gendered the pressure is, with all the implications that comes with - the idea that abstaining is somehow girly puts huge social pressure on young lads (and from there, to a certain extent, on girls who want to be taken seriously by the lads as real people rather than just bacardi breezer-supping arm furniture). And I'm sure there's pressures within social groups of girls too, though I'm less personally familiar with those - I used to do fake vodka lemonades for this one girl (lemonade in a short glass, basically) who didn't want her mates to know she'd wasn't drinking.