sundries

[rm]

On the train this morning a small child was singing: "Spider filled with rabies. Rabies rabies rabies. Spider filled with rabies. Rabies rabies rabies!" It made my morning.

Speaking of bugs, it's an exciting week in Rach and Patty land as we're going to see Ovo on Thursday.

shes_unreal needs some help getting a better job to get out of a bad situation. It's complicated, so I'll let her explain. Reliable source, real person, real situation. Please help if you can.

A fandom auction is being run to help thdancingferret who's job was evil and found a way to fire her for having cancer. Because the need is immediate, bidding closes tomorrow. Go now.

Yesterday on Twitter I linked to this giant sinkhole story before they included any info about the sinkhole, just the picture with no explanation whatsoever. Patty and I had a good time reading the comments (and subsequent ones on Twitter) to each other. They involved a remarkable number of references to "orbital lasers." But that sinkhole? Serious business.

Americans at the Bolshoi. One of the things that interests me is a passing mention that it is "all but taboo" for dance teachers to touch their students in California. I recall having a similar frustration in fencing -- take my limbs and show them where to go! That's how dance was when I was studying, but that was the 70s and 80s, and I guess the world changed; I am glad it hasn't everywhere.

Turns out there's more girls than boys in NYC's gifted programs and, as usual, The New York Times is alarmed. Meanwhile, people shrug and say "well, that's a shame" about all the ways boys of favored over girls. You'd think it would be okay for girls to be better than boys once in a while.

Lovely gay-themed ad for McDonalds from France. Although, when I first saw it, I thought McDonalds was going to be the host of this kid's coming out conversation with his father. But that's not the plot, which makes it all a little bit realer.

A history of trans and trans-like veterans that I should actually get around to checking out, since I reference stuff like this in that Snape, Gender and Heroism project I should actually write up for publication somewhere.

Last night on Buffy and Angel:

So, it was finally time for "Seeing Red," and my feelings are largely ambivalent. I don't think what Spike did (whether it was rape, attempted rape, threatened rape, etc.) was out of character -- we see him physically and sexually bully women both pre- and post- chip. I did find Buffy's response out of character -- not that she was startled, afraid and weak/injured, but just that what the show has argued as her automatic (not learned, most of us forget what we've learned when we're in danger) fighting abilities were not there. Also, I hated how the scene was overlit, although it was also interesting at the end how the scene where Buffy is talking to Xander before Warren shows up with a gun is also overlit. Also this whole thing doesn't stop me from being engaged with Spike as a character -- that's the great thing about fiction, I can like totally shit people who do totally shit things because their use in a narrative is brain stimulating on some level.

I found Tara's death to be startling, even though I knew about it (I didn't know it was this episode), and well done. I did not find it to be homophobic. Willow and Tara were the last couple standing, and if Whedon wanted all the couples doomed and they'd just gotten back together, that's what he had to do. I also appreciated that prior to the shooting Willow and Tara finally read like people who actually fuck, as opposed to the way lesbians usually read on TV, which is as people who pet each other gently and don't really have sex.

Xander was SUCH AN ASSHOLE in this ep I thought I was going to throw something at the TV.

Loved the Spike/Anya thing.

Meanwhile on Angel, Cordy is some mother goddess demon of love who I assume will eventually sacrifice her life so that Angel can become mortal. Connor is fucked up (and where do I know that kid from) and Holtz has bad make-up and a fucked up plan. Lila is courting Wesley and none of this is going to end well.

Comments

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

You know that kid from Mad Men.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I don't watch Mad Men

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

What? Really? I'm quite sure you spoke about it here before... hmmm, odd.... my mistake then.

Well, that's what he's in at mo', I can't think of any where else (big that is) that he's been in.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I've seen like two eps and keep meaning to, but mostly I talk about how it creeps me out since my father was an ad man of that era and a lot of the thigns in the show were still the same in the 70s when I used to go to work with my dad as a kid.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember that. Two eps are enough to make him look familiar-where-do-I-know-him-from kind of imprint, I think.

Touching when Teaching

[j-v-lynch.livejournal.com]

I am really uncomfortable touching people at the best of times, but when I'm teaching fencing it is sometimes the only way to get people in the correct position. You try and show them and they just can't get their bodies to do what they are seeing. So I ask permission and then move them around like a puppeteer and hope they don't move.

[andrewducker]

My grandfather was an ad man in the 50s, and thus my father cannot watch Mad Men, because it's too realistic/creepy.

[speedingslug.livejournal.com]

The sinkhole is awesome, is does look like a laser strike. Very sad about the people who died, like you I just saw images with the story.

[andrewducker]

Totally agreed on Willow/Tara - I was just starting to like the way the relationship was being drawn, and the character interaction was working for me.

Re: Touching when Teaching

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yes, one or two of the fencing instructors would ask and then do, but were still really weird about it in a way that made me feel self conscious and hate my body, which is not really an experience that's common to me.

Obviously, with fencing there are differences -- people are holding weapons and you need to warn them before you touch so you don't startle. But in dance my body was a machine, not some terrifying sexual object that must be ignored even as it is central to the work.

The degree and manner in which people tried to avoid sexual harassment lawsuits in fencing was infinitely more shaming, uncomfortable and sexualizing than the 15 years I spent having teachers pick up my legs and put them where they needed to be. The body must be shown.

There's a lot of reasons my salle was probably an irrevocably terrible fit for me, and many of them were unique to that place, but this issue was perhaps merely me at odds with the modern world. In dance there is touching. That's how it works. Dancers touch in dance. Perhaps in fencing since you mostly never touch, the taboo is stronger.

[angstzeit.livejournal.com]

When I first saw that sinkhole picture I thought it was a fake. It's just too incredible.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Glad to know I'm not alone in this. My dad started in the mid-50s and he can't watch it either. Too dead on.

[elisi]

What a lovely ad. Thank you. :)

Sinkhole. O.M.G. I've just sat staring at it. Also just a horrible disaster... :(

I don't think what Spike did (whether it was rape, attempted rape, threatened rape, etc.) was out of character -- we see him physically and sexually bully women both pre- and post- chip. I did find Buffy's response out of character -- not that she was startled, afraid and weak/injured, but just that what the show has argued as her automatic (not learned, most of us forget what we've learned when we're in danger) fighting abilities were not there.
This is pretty spot-on. And poor Tara. :(

Meanwhile on Angel Cordy is some mother goddess demon of love who I assume will eventually sacrifice her life so that Angel can become mortal.
LOL! Um... I shouldn't laugh. Sorry. It's just... you'll see. And really, I shouldn't laugh.

Lila is courting Wesley and none of this is going to end well.
Lilah/Wesley is probably my favourite AtS couple. Soooo screwed up, and yet... Oh Wesley.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Wait wait, DO LILAH AND WESLEY ACTUALLY HOOK UP?

[elisi]

Weeeeeell... It's complicated.

ETA: My other favourite couple is Spike/Angel and they're not exactly much with the in-canon hand holding...

[rm.livejournal.com]

How is that question complicated? Is there astral plane sex?

[rm.livejournal.com]

But they have canon backstory!

Re: Touching when Teaching

[j-v-lynch.livejournal.com]

I'm disappointed to hear they let their weirdness show and how that affected you. Especially since any martial art should be about feeling comfortable in your own body and not the opposite.

Did they have the same issues repositioning male students?

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

"Seeing Red" is actually one of my favorite Buffy eps, because it has some gems of story telling. Willow and Tara getting back together and then being torn apart, jackass!Xander (though in my book he's pretty much always a jackass), and Spike finally snapping.

Buffy's reaction to Spike's attack was the one of the things that felt off. It felt as though the author's agenda took precedent over the character's story and past conduct. There was a lot of that in season 6 (see the magic=drug addiction story line).

[elisi]

Is there astral plane sex?
*dies laughing*

It's more about how you define 'couple'.

(And I swear I didn't mean to spoil you - so, so sorry! *points to icon* I thought you were further along than you are.)

Re: Touching when Teaching

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yes, and probably more so. In fact, I suspect much of their discomfort with me came from my masculinity, not my femininity.

I remember, right when I was first allowed to use a foil one of them yelling at me "don't be embarrassed aim for my nipple" and it never occurred to them that because I had never struck someone with a foil before I DIDN'T REALLY KNOW HOW TO AIM YET. So the idea of telling me what I felt, telling me I was ashamed. It was, unconsciously, important to them I be afraid and embarrassed, both of the work and my body.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

And I keep thinking I'd seen it before. A case of deja vu I'm still trying to figure out. (I have seen deep sinkholes before.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Well Patty did say to me last night "I read Lilah/Wesley all day" but right now the most we've gotten is her having him meet her at that night club.

[elisi]

But they have canon backstory!
That the writers tiptoe around with great care.

I swear, every single Spike/Angel fan was squealing in delight at the Jack/John barfight/makeout scene and at the same time complaining: 'WHY DIDN'T WE GET THIS WITH SPIKE AND ANGEL???' At least we got the sorta-kiss in my icon... Me? Bitter? Not at all. (This is why I love Torchwood and RTD stealing all of Joss' ideas! And sometimes his actors too...)

[rm.livejournal.com]

The show does have a sort of nervous, mocking tone about male homosexuality that's entirely unpleasant and was only possibly absent as regards Giles/Ethan (although I have mixed feelings about that portrayal as well).