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

[riverrocks.livejournal.com]

I think letting Target know what you think is a good thing. They do have a history of making a point of spreading funds around pretty well and their hiring policies are pretty GLBT friendly. Not saying boycotting them is wrong, just pointing out the grey spots. It's totally possible that in the name of "fairness" (which is a tricky, slippery thing sometimes) their plan was to support some folks on the republican side and some folks on the democratic side, but the republicans here have chosen a rather frightening (and somewhat off the wall) candidate and the democrats are still figuring things out (and won't decide until mid august.

The whole thing is about money and who gets it and who doesn't. Target didn't give it directly to the politician in question (Emmer), they gave a grant to an organization who then bought tv adds supporting him. And my problem with the music buddies (besides the fact that they have song lyrics that espouse executing gays) is that Emmer gave them money to support the distribution of their work, which is clearly racist and homophobic.

and the problems with Emmer include but are much broader than being anti-gay. This big fuss about him right now in Minnesota is that he wants to reverse relatively recent changes to state wage laws so that people who earn tips (restaurant servers, bartenders, etc.) can be paid less than minimum wage (way less, like half of it). There was some convoluted way that this was going to help solve both the state's budget deficit and the economic downturn, but I couldn't follow it. But then he seemed to be under the impression that all servers who earn tips are making more than $100,000 a year. His math, I think it comes from another dimension.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I wrote them a letter, yeah, and they are certainly the lesser evil with Wal Mart on the scene which has such a negative, scary impact on the economy.

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

This big fuss about him right now in Minnesota is that he wants to reverse relatively recent changes to state wage laws so that people who earn tips (restaurant servers, bartenders, etc.) can be paid less than minimum wage (way less, like half of it).

*eyes bug out of head*

I'm stunned by that, and not for the reason you're probably thinking. I worked as a waitress for years (in MA), and the idea of making minimum wage in addition to tips is almost completely foreign. (Almost, because in CT, I worked in a diner that did pay minimum wage in addition to tips, but mainly because there wasn't all that much tipping happening.) I remember earning something like $1.65/hr when minimum wage was $5 or so. It wasn't at all unusual to have paychecks that were in the negatives because there wasn't enough there to cover the taxes on the tips.

Good on MN for not going there until now at least. I fail to see why/how they think this would be a help to the economy somehow, but undoubtedly they've decided since other states do it, there must be some benefit to be had.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in NYC I think servers get like $3/hr with tips presumed to make up the rest.

[matthewwdaly.livejournal.com]

FTR, the New York State minimum is $4.60, and it actually is contingent on being a position where the server gets $2.55 (the difference) per hour in tips.

I've delivered pizzas in both sorts of states, and I agree that it can be (pleasingly) boggling to get paid minimum plus tips. For instance, when I was an assistant manager in California doing mostly delivery, I was offered a promotion to manager (of an unprofitable store) and turned it down because it would have doubled my stress and nearly halved my income.

[riverrocks.livejournal.com]

In the 80's and 90's servers in the restaurants I worked in earned $2.25 an hour when the minimum wage was $4.25 and later still $2.25 when minimum wage was $5 (I was washing dishes for minimum wage). Then the government started taxing tips. There's something very bitter about spending all day on your feet serving people to get a paycheck that taxes you on tips that weren't nearly as good as the government assumed they were. Then, not that long ago, they raised the minimum wage for everybody, and everybody actually included workers who make tips. The reasoning Emmer was giving (before he decided he probably shouldn't talk about it at all for a bit) was that he didn't think it was fair for the people who owned the restaurants to be taking home less pay than the people they employed and he didn't know any restaurant or bar owners who were making $100,000 a year, but that's what full-time servers made if you included their tips. I don't know where he's eating/tipping, but it's not in any of the places I ever worked.

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

he didn't know any restaurant or bar owners who were making $100,000 a year, but that's what full-time servers made if you included their tips.

Dude, casino workers don't make tips like that, much less waitstaff. What an idiot!