sundries

[rm]

Yesterday, my father called me and told me not to get gout.

Hey, can we talk about John Stewart's facial hair? I think he looks hot (minus the marshmallow fluff); Patty hates it. But we both want to know, WHY this grooming change. Anyone?

No one told me, NO ONE TOLD ME, that the actor who plays Arthur in Inception is that kid from Third Rock from the Sun. I read Arthur/Eames porn yesterday and now I feel dirty, not in the good way.

You know what's awesome about Inception? You (read: me) can write something really long and smart about it and be totally wrong. Awesome interview with Dileep Rao here.

Gay tango festival in Argentina. Meanwhile, New York City will be having its own LGBT tango festival in October. One day I should like to be less incompetent at tango than I am, but I think it means Patty and I taking proper lessons as opposed to the quickies in crowded ballrooms wherein I get all frustrated and am no joy to anyone.

CNN has an odd article (it's the slightly breezy tone), about the mental health issues potentially involved in getting plastic surgery to look like a particular celebrity. The article, somewhat hilariously, also tells us that "not everyone can look like a Pitt or a Jolie, despite the advancements in plastic surgery."

Hey can anyone tell me if Chocomize is related to Chocri or which came first or whatever?

How to measure yourself for custom menswear. Note: specific instructions from specific retailers/designers, etc, may vary; listen to them first. Also note: if you are female bodied there's stuff obviously not included in here that you'd want to consider for both fit and presentation/illusion; if you have a question, ask me.

I have, because of its upcoming conference in New York and a series of awesome "Tourist, don't be a asshole" things people are writing for it, become aware of BlogHer. Would anyone care to shed some light on this thing? Since my main reaction is one of (inappropriately) blaming women for being timid about speaking or existing online mixed with (moderately more appropriate) generalized rage that it should be this way. What is BlogHer? Do you use it? It is a good thing? Why should I shut my face? Help, help, I'm being confused! (ETA: For some reason, several commenters have assumed that my theoretical discomfort with BlogHer comes from some issue related to SAHMs, despite the fact I, in no way, mention motherhood in this item; more on what I was trying to puzzle out in this comment).

Prepositions and the ongoing mess over the Islamic center that may be built near World Trade Center Site.

A bizarre story involving a military contractor, a memory erasing pill that doesn't exist, a $100,000 belt buckle and some hookers. And not, by the way, written by William Gibson.

xtricks has another installment in what I can't seem to stop calling Teh Buttsex Series! The concluding list of "what is not in the butt" made me laugh so hard I am ashamed.

Because of Gattaca news stories about one of Saturn's moons make me tear up: The lakes of Titan are shrinking.

Last night on Angel:

I take back everything I said about Torchwood being a soap opera. Angel is a fucking soap opera. Cordy is evil (which throws us back to just which Powers were up to what when they had her ascend back when, and was that the beginning of the planning for the current narrative apocalypse?); Angel is still Angelus; Wesley just had to chop off his dead ex-girlfriend's head; Gunn is blaming Fred for the kiss she never got around to consenting too; and, OH YEAH, Cordy is pregnant with another fucking demon baby (is this 3? 4?) and this time she says it's Connor's and she's been banging the Beast. WHAT THE FUCK, SHOW? WHAT THE FUCK?

On the other hand, since they put Angel/Angelus in a cage, I gotta say the acting and the directing has really tightened up and is pretty masterful.

It's Tuesday. Does you know what Tuesday means? White Collar and Covert Affairs. Still working on the Auggie/Jack fic, but it's working. Also thinking someone should write a Covert Affairs/Inception crossover. You know you want Auggie hunting Arthur down in dreamspace, right?

Meanwhile, much to Patty's relief, Project Runway starts Thursday.

I think we're going to try to see The Kids are All Right this week.

Comments

[sillermoon.livejournal.com]

I believe BlogHer sprang out of that meme/quote that was circling for a while: "there are no women bloggers/where are the women bloggers?"

And all the lady bloggers stood up and said: AHEM, we are RIGHT HERE. We've been here! Just like you! We're just as good as you dudes, and it's time we supported each other.

[rm.livejournal.com]

AHah! That is good! And seriously, haven't there sort of always been more women bloggers than men bloggers?

or is this another case of "it's only interesting/positive/rewarded when boys do it"? (this goes with, among other things, college educations, the modern pagan movement, writing of any and all types, and raising kids, it seems).

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Bingo.

[sillermoon.livejournal.com]

Quick google-fu reveals it originally was aimed at political bloggers.
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Where_are_the_women_bloggers%3F

Key quote from Matt Yglesias:
"I'm a bit surprised that there hasn't been more discussion of the overwhelmingly male (on the order of 80%) cast of political blog readership. At first glance, one might think of this as an internet issue, related to hardy perennials regarding women and technology in general, but I think it's a manifestation of the broader fact that women don't seem very interested in politics...."

And Kevin Drum:
"you will find exactly three women in the top 30... That's a grand total of 10% of the most popular political blogs...
which means either (a) there are fewer female political bloggers and thus fewer in the top 30, or (b) there are plenty of women who blog about politics but they don't get a lot of traffic or links from high-traffic male bloggers."

[rm.livejournal.com]

It also raises the question of what is a political blog -- does feminism count as politics these days or not? that would be my first question.

After that, I suspect we get into "why is this the case" and what you've linked to (thank you, btw) certainly leaves out the intense hatred and threats of sexual violence directed at high-profile female political bloggers (to the exclusion of all other types of harassment and trolling -- people are assholes to everyone on the Internet, but, as I'm sure you know, it's just the women who are threatened with rape over and over and are then told they have a problem because they don't think it's funny).

*sigh*

[gaaneden.livejournal.com]

Arthur AKA Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also in the most fantastic modern day noir flick known as Brick. If you have not already seen it, you should. He is an amazing actor.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Agreed - Brick is one of those movies I want to watch over and over and over. It has so many of the things I love from old Bogart films brought into this brightly colored, more contemporary setting. It's delightfully menacing.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

No idea w/r/t Jon Stewart's beard, but maybe he's trying to compensate for going gray à la Philip Swallow in David Lodge's Small World.

Or maybe he's trying to be Stephen Colbert's Bearded Nemesis. Has he been stroking said facial follicles a lot going "mweh heh heh..."?

That article on bespoke clothing reminded me that I hadn't visited Duchess Clothier's website in a while. Looks like they've expanded!

[delchi.livejournal.com]

As a person who has had gout attacks, I concur. Do not get gout.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHA SEASON 4 IS SO FUCKED UP!

[gement.livejournal.com]

From the bizarro retcon article of the day, I surfed to the article on Library of Congress ruling iPhone jailbreaking legal. Look what was buried in the last paragraph:

"In addition to this decision, the Library of Congress also granted an exception to artists who remix copy-protected video content for noncommercial work, and renewed its approval for cellphone owners to “unlock” their phones or lift controls that restrict use to one wireless carrier."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/technology/27iphone.html?src=me&ref=general

[rm.livejournal.com]

I actually saw that when it came down yesterday and didn't link to it here because I knew it would lead to People Who Are Not Lawyers Playing Lawyers on the Internet to Argue About Fanfiction and that NEVER ends well. But it's a really good thing!

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

One of the benefits of being the same age as JGL -- I had a crush on him when he was on 3rd Rock! It seriously makes me gleeful to watch him grow into this fucking amazing actor.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

To give the man his due, not getting gout is one of your father's better ideas that I've heard.
And my favorite thing about the belt buckle/retcon story is that the guy's name is David Brooks!

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I think the problem with David B.'s acting is that Buffy was his first time acting ever. he was learning on the job and he started to get the hang of it at some point during the run of angel. I've seen him do beautiful things nuance wise on Bones with what is essentially the same character with a different back story. he really only plays the one character, but he did get good at it eventually.

It's at least the third Demon pregnancy for Cordelia. It's like she took the flaw "demon baby seed magnet" during chargen.

[mizg.livejournal.com]

No one told me, NO ONE TOLD ME, that the actor who plays Arthur in Inception is that kid from Third Rock from the Sun. I read Arthur/Eames porn yesterday and now I feel dirty, not in the good way.

He was also Bianca's admirer in 10 Things I Hate About You. And was totally my favorite character in Inception.

[nobodyreally.livejournal.com]

I may be as close to an insider to BlogHer as it gets around here. (I'm a member, have their ads running on multiple sites, have published at their site, etc.) The organization is interesting, founded by women, who did all the work building it - much of it for free since only the contributing editors got paid.

When they established their ad network, it was for only mom-bloggers. Then they opened it to more niches, like food, and then started to let in sites owned/written by men. When asked, it is said to be discrimination to not include men in the spoils of the women's work.

Here we will pause while I stuff down my fury at yet another online organization that was built from ground up by women, yet as soon as there was money men could become members and benefit. They had a policy for a while that men could be in ad network but couldn't do volunteer work. Big penalty. From my experience, dissenting opinions on men's participation are not particularly welcome.

That's the business side. Now BlogHer the part, er, conference.

For many attendees, the conference is, all session lists aside, an excuse to party the fuck on for however many days they can carve out away from their partners and kids. They take the babies. Everything is sponsored and the big parties are endless, couple dozen in three days.

It is also about swag. The shit they leave with is amazing, as is what they will do to get it. Last year, some woman threatened the Crocs rep giving away free shoes to every attendee that he'd better get her the right shoes 'or else...' Another woman grabbing a swag bag gave a baby a black eye.

Night before that, a woman had shown up to get into a limo for an invite-only Nikon party with a months-old baby, stroller, and car seat without checking with the party sponsors. (This was in Chicago, not Alabama.) When she was politely turned away, she turned to twitter and within a few hours, #NikonHatesBabies was a trending topic. No shit.

There is always drama and trauma. One year, a new blogger called Dooce (at the time probably the biggest mom-blogger) a 'mythical hobbit' on her blog - meaning she was so important in the blogging world that she couldn't imagine being in the same room with her or something. Heather (Dooce) took it as some sort of insult and called her out during a big keynotey Q and A thing. New blogger was a little tipsy at time and stood up to discuss. Awk. Ward.

There is an inevitable kerfluffle or five; after, there are posts reprimanding the people the community decided misbehaved. I believe the first time I saw 'swag hag' was after BH '08.

It goes on and on...and on and on...as do I. You get the picture.

[rm.livejournal.com]

o.0

I mean.... part of me isn't surprised. Part of me also feels like that's my own misogyny speaking.

Also interested in how many microcosms filled with celebrities I've never heard of are out there, and I suppose, on the Internet, we all play in at least one.

[nobodyreally.livejournal.com]

Always glad to jump in and do a mini brain dump so you too can know crap I know. Sharing the burden and all. If you have to be near the conference itself, there is a 'tutus for T___' (boy who is dying) in which lots of BHers will wear tutus for the whole conference - there will be a crafting session early to make them. What tutus have to do with a 4-5 year-old boy w/terminal illness I have no clue, but there ya go...

[pineapplechild.livejournal.com]

The facial hair makes John Stewart look 45% more like my father. The only thing that my dad is missing now is the nose. (He's got a beak, but not quite as magnificent a one.) (This now makes my dad look 85%-95% like John Stewart. I'm an economist; I did the math.)

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Project Runway? On my television schedule? EFF TO THE YES. I completely missed last season. This is most welcome news.

I really need to see Inception.

Oh, and Torchwood laughs at defense contractors. Ha!

[sevendayloan.livejournal.com]

I'm actually a little embarrassed to admit it, but I really, really love that episode of Angel. It's hands down my favorite part of late season four, seriously. Ooh, Angelus and Wesley and Lilah, oh yes.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I almost loved it because it was so OTT, but at the same time I was like "You all knew this was crack, right?"

[sevendayloan.livejournal.com]

Lordy, I know. I think my mouth actually dropped at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Season four of Angel makes Torchwood look subtle and refined. :P I adore it, though, despite all of it's OTT crazy. Or really, because of it.*

Outside of the silly, though, I did think any work David Boreanaz in while in a cage, as well as the scene with Wes and hallucination!Lilah was just objectively well done. Other than that, though, just pure frakkin' crack.

*Edit: Of course, I say that having skipped every episode from Calavry to the finale, so. xD

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the direction and performances are superlative in the face of some serious crazy, which is just odd!

I'm telling you, panel for Gallifrey 2011 --

Torchwood vs. Angel: Cracky Spinoff Deathmatch