sundries

[rm]

All hail the 80s! Yesterday at Inception we saw trailers both for the Wall Street sequel and for Tron: Legacy. Child of the 80s that I am, I was rolling around in my seat in utter pleasure. Also, The Town looks really good. Of course, we also saw a trailer for Eat, Pray, Love which made both Patty and I want to kill people a lot.

Man stabbed at ComicCon: cue panicked analysis of geek subculture? Or perhaps a discussion about all bloggers being liars? You see, the story at CNN and the eye-witness accounts are really different. Discrepancy story via yendi.

Bird shit drives Kings of Leon from the stage.

Threat Down: Bears - Bear goes on joyride, trashes car.

The Web means the end of forgetting. I haven't read it yet, but expect the usual NYTimes alarmist crap about how the wacky Internet will destroy your life. On the other hand, maybe it will actually explore what nearly unavoidably documented personal legacy means to a culture that venerates self-invention and practically demands everyone have lots and lots of alter egos.

Sissy Bounce in New Orleans -- this article is really interesting, but fair warning as it is about gender, identity and race, among other things, the New York Times is often baffled and condescending.

Shirtless bartenders: tacky, health hazard or targets of homophobia?

Hey, so Target is opening a new store in New York today. It's also been contributing money to an anti-gay politician in Minnesota. So, you know, be aware when you make your shopping choices, because we're not talking just any anti-gay politician here but a guy who likes to hang out with some dude who says that Muslim countries are even more moral than US Christians because they execute gay people.

Target has responded to say they donate political funds solely based on their retail interests and no other issues; seems logical and harmless really, til you think about it. I AM YOUR RETAIL INTERESTS.

We're going to a wedding in August, so obviously we don't feel this way, but keori has a point. Also, especially that thing about having a bachelorette party in a gay bar -- that shit is annoying. At best.

xtricks is is helping fandom understand how "teh butt sex!" really works. Also known as "if you're not willing to shove peanut butter up your own ass, please stop writing fic where someone uses it as lube." (xtricks doesn't quite say this, but that's the message, and yes, I have seen badfic where someone uses peanut butter as lube). Anyway, his post is both useful advice for smut writers and HILARIOUS.

On Buffy, it's time for Buffy and the Slayerettes. Wow, one thing I'll say for this season is there is a lot of great speechifying. One of the things I love in film and TV more than anything are call-to-arms speeches. The thing is, very few actors can pull them off. I get annoyed with the nearly perfect Gangs of New York for just this reason -- I don't believe DiCaprio when he does this. And let's not even get started on Oliver Stone's Alexander.

What's remarkable about these episodes of Buffy is she has two of the speeches in nearly back to back episodes and KNOCKS THEM OUT OF THE PARK. Xander then has a great, tender (albeit slightly over-written) one to Dawn. And I am ALL OVER THIS SHIT, even if lots of other things are going on on Buffy that are annoying right now.

I love Kennedy though (and I think they are doing a lot of smart, subtle things with her -- i.e., the one Slayerette who's actually had decent training is the one with cash; that really says something and speaks to the clearly class-focused world of the Watchers) and Patty reports fandom loathed her at the time for being too perfect and annoying. All I could think really, was "fuck you, Torchwood fandom and your shit about Gwen." I AM SO SICK OF FANDOM'S MISOGYNY. Anyway, I think it's great to see a character who has lost a love to death moving on to a new relationship -- we don't get that on TV a lot.

All the Slayerettes amuse the crap out of me. The southern girl who was really dead and a project on the First Evil was the fuck fantastic -- what does the devil do but tell lies and sow doubt?

Comments

[marcmagus]

Dammit, we've been shopping Target preferentially to Wal*Mart for explicitly political reasons including that the research I did found Target not doing anything especially awful at a corporate (rather than individual store) level. So much for that one. Thanks for the heads-up.

[marcmagus]

[Can't edit to add] Quick correction: according to the article it's the politician's musician buddy that made the statement about Muslim countries, not the politician himself. Which, y'know, doesn't make the politician ok at all, and there's that whole thing about knowing people by the company they keep...

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh, Advocate and your tangentialness. *sigh*

But yeah, still. I just sent Target a nastygram.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Also, as I said elsewhere in comments, I think, in the scheme of things Target is the lesser evil if you can't shop at smaller, non-chain stores for whatever reason. They do give money to pro-LGBT causes as well and do not have the same really alarming, potentially deflationary, impact on both wages and the price of goods. Basically when Wal Mart comes to an area they start a process in motion that makes it increasingly difficult for anyone to be able to afford to shop anywhere else. That's not just ethically crap, but is really bad for the economy.

[eredien]

Me too. *sigh*

Now there is no big department-type store in my hometown that I can go to which does not somehow support bigotry. I see another fight with my parents in my future; great.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Target is definitely the lesser evil as they also give money to LGBT causes and have a less deflationary impact on the economy. If you can't avoid these large chains, it's the better option. Living in NYC, I can opt out of Target.

[matthewwdaly.livejournal.com]

There was a stink about five years ago that Target would not insist that their pharmacists honor prescriptions for birth control, and I decided at that point that was a deal-breaker for me (which broke my heart, because they're otherwise a great store), and I've never been able to find evidence that they've changed their policies so I have yet to return.

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

(Data Point: When I was applying for a job in the pharmacy at Target, this was explicitly not the case. This was circa 2003/4 so I'm not sure if it's changed since then. But I had to say I was OK doing it.)