rm | sundries

Patty!

Great haul at Costco last night, including carrot ginger soup, butter masala sauce, pesto, mozzarella, gluten-free chicken-basil meatballs, honey-mustard chicken burgers, brie, grilled chicken, vegetable casseroles, etc.

But god, that trip is hard work -- it's more than a mile walk RT (which isn't the hard part except when it's 94 out), pushing heavy groceries and then it's 3 trips to get all the groceries up stairs (4th floor) and a fourth to retrieve the cart.

Dear cats: pesto is not for cats.

Tattoo is in the SERIOUSLY itchy stage.

Much to do, much to do.

Hey, you know that "write like a dead white guy" meme? It's also promoting a sketchy religiously-affiliated vanity press and pretty much just pumps answers out at random. So you may not want those links all over your journal. Thanks to

mercutin for the latest heads-up.

My fault, I'm female. via

supergee.

Rep. David Vitter apologizes to Rachel Maddow for being an asshole about her gender presentation. As usual, don't read the comments.

At summer camps, stories are real.

Men's fashion on the sweltering streets of Manhattan. More power to them, but when it's over 90 here, I don't care if I look or feel like I'm in drag, I'm wearing a damn dress. Privilege is sweating less.

Fashionable, in 1964.

Public transit's effect on weight. Pretty much all studies about weight are suspect because we have so many issues about it as a culture that are crap, but this was still marginally interesting. Also I didn't know New Yorkers live an average of a year and four months longer than other Americans and the credit has largely gone to our public transit system.

I actually rewatched bits of Covert Affairs last night (I'm working on an Auggie/Jack crossover story - which I admit may be my playing into some of the show's squicky issues, instead of, hopefully, responding to them), and the relentless heterosexuality was more annoying this time.

My complaint isn't a lack of queer characters (although queer characters would be nice), it's that every interaction in every scene is about Male-Female desire. It's the central drama, the secondary plot, the one tool for spying, the witty banter, the comedic relief, the backstory, the family tension.... really not fun to watch a show where all motivations are the same motivation and that motivation is kinda alien.

The fact that there is little to no interaction between any same-sex characters in any capacity, with the exception of Annie's boss making her cry, is also weird, and this isn't me complaining about the difficulty of applying slash-goggles to the show (which in this case, remind me that the original application of such was less about "yay porn" and more about looking for hidden queer narratives because there could never be overt ones) so much as it is me complaining about the sense of overcompensating fear that comes off the show for me. It reminds me of being in all girls school and how all public displays of friendship had to be tempered lest anyone get the slightest whiff of even non-existent queer.

Only Auggie seems to transcend this, despite being all after the chicks and being written in his own over-compensatory way, but as the blind guy he's the only character the show is letting out of that extreme heteronormativity at all (i.e., he's friends with Annie, not trying to sleep with her; he banters briefly with the other men in a way that is about power dynamics and sexuality even if that sexuality is directed at women; and he fakes being the call-center guy at the escort agency Annie pretends exists, which is just BIZARRE, you'd NEVER have a male phone person in that sort of gig ever (precisely because of homophobia, johns don't feel straight enough talking about buying sex with (essentially from, even if a woman is doing the servicing) a man, especially one not previously known to them. Women work phones at agencies that supply women. Period. You'd think the CIA would know this)).

And this is both refreshing and problematic. On one hand, yay for the character with a disability being the most fully-written character on the show and one who they've managed to avoid a lot of cliches with. On the other hand, as AWESOME as Auggie is, the show others and fetishizes him pretty severely, although less because of their fail about him and more, instead, because of their fail about everything else.

I want this show to fix itself so bad, so that it survives. Because right now I feel like I'm going to keep watching so I can keep doing this particular line of criticism, which is less fun than it seems, or something.

I also want IMDB to be wrong in saying that Auggie's only in three episodes.

Also, hat tip to the show's costume designer. Auggie's outfits are so texturally focused, and that, at least, is a very smart choice.