sundries

[rm]

Apparently the secret to picnics is going at 4 and staying til 11.

Because I am vain, and it is, in some ways, necessary, I have Google Alerts set up on my name. Having a very uncommon first name, I have one both for my full name and for just my first name. This has, until recently and for YEARS, yielded me almost no false positives.

Then, suddenly, there were models of dining chairs, tables and barstools called Racheline. And a bra. And a children's clothing line. And a Christian blogger. And a few bloggers in Europe. And now, suddenly it's all false positives all the time, because there are a legion of Rachelines. Why? How did this happen? And can I take the blame?

This year's blogathon is now over. I, personally, find blogathon conceptually challenging in that it's clearly a good that raises significant money for multiple causes, and unlike, say, walk-a-thons, produces material of lasting value while still being a challenge. On the other hand, it makes sites like LJ virtually unusable in the way they are intended to be used for some members. With at least three-people on my friendslist involved in a blogathon yesterday, I have NO IDEA if anything else happened on LJ during that time. If it did, let me know. Blogathoners, congratulations, and enjoy your sleep.

Speaking of sleep, I had a dream about Inception which was hot and bizarre and sort of made sense at the time and now I'm like "wait, WHUT?" I do remember I kept asking myself and everyone else "do you remember how you got here?" and people always knew, though. So fuck that.

Because you care: update on the "Wait, what did Tom Hardy say about sleeping with men?" story.

Long for this World: The Strange Science of Immortality.

The rooftop scene at the Gansevoort Hotel. If I wanted to be in LA. I'd be in LA. The idea that these things are the reflection of the true city, even the true wealthy/elite city always strikes me as deeply inaccurate. Not that I won't see if a random bargain wants to come up on Orbitz some day. But I have lived the glamorous life in New York, and I always bristle when people think that should look like Hollywood East or London West.

I find myself moderately squicked by the coverage of Chelsea Clinton's wedding. It's talked about as if it means she's a real person now. Now, arguably, this may be one of the first times people have managed to see her in a light other than the first daughter, so perhaps so, but as much as I like big parties and fancy clothes my feminism always balks at the idea that a moment of this nature matters more than the lifetime in which it is contained.

Before people yell at me: I am not anti-marriage or anti-weddings. I'm just squicked by how the discourse about them tends to go and tends to makes everyone uncomfortable in a myriad of different ways.

TW fic rec: Bucket List by epithetta. Why you should read it? Cadence, and the way Jack is just a little bit pathetic, both with his stories and with his confessions.

Costco!

Comments

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

oh man, I miss Blogathon now. I did it two years running and now I haven't had the spoons for the last two years. Maybe next year. I really enjoy the particular cracky wackiness my writing takes on after 18 or 20 hours of no sleep when I HAVE TO WRITE SOMETHING NO MATTER WHAT.

also that fic is complete love and just what I needed this afternoon. Thank you XD

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

I haven't been thrilled about the coverage of the Clinton wedding either.

There was a story in the Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/us/24chelsea.html) about how wounded several big Bill Clinton donors were that they weren't invited to the wedding.

I realize that the social lives of those donors revolves around giving large amounts of money to people who make them feel big and important so I can understand why they'd feel left out. So a thumbs up for the Clintons making this even in a very small way a personal and family event rather than an affirmation of Dad's Continued Political Relevance.

Besides, if they were actually interested in real access rather than stroking their egos they'd be pissed that they didn't get to talk to Hillary, not Bill.

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about the Chelsea Clinton marriage coverage. While I am married, I agree that there is much more to life than achieving a piece of paper that confirms a commitment two people make to each other (and all the recognition under the a law of that relationship). I think this really points at an under-addressed facet of sexism: that of the unspoken sense of "ownership" of the female by the male.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

When my husband and I got engaged in early 2005, we were planning a tiny, quick pagan-style ceremony with maybe two dozen people. His mother insisted that we have a Jewish wedding with all the bells and whistles, because "this wedding was going to be for her family." The guest list expanded to sixty-five. Most of the guests were the groom's family members. I was so overwhelmed by other things going on that I barely had time to feel upset. Adam's mother is deeply manipulative and loves to act as a martyr, and I decided that I didn't care enough to fight her.
Adam and I compromised by finding a non-religious officiant, having my artist parents draw up a pagan-style ketuba, having Adam wear the yarmulke and tallit, and not saying anything about God in the vows.
I've always felt a little bitter that I let myself be so easily manipulated into a wedding I didn't really want. I wanted a tiny pagan ceremony. I got a mid-sized semi-religious ceremony that I barely remember because I kept having panic attacks. Ah, well.

(My mother said we should have eloped and had a party afterwards, like she and my dad did.)

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

I was kind of hoping the conversation went like this:

Chelsea: Mom, Dad, we've thought about it, and rather than have a big political circus of a wedding, we want to go down to City Hall with you and his parents and the secret service agents...

Bill: ::bursts into tears::

Hillary: You know that ever since you were a tiny baby that we dreamed of this day! You father longed to walk you down the aisle and I've wanted to go wedding dress shopping and help you choose appetizers and...

Chelsea: OH MY GOD! All right! Stop with the guilt!

Bill smiles: Thank you, honey.

Chelsea: But no Chicken Dance.

Hillary: We'll see.

[marieoroumania.livejournal.com]

Man, that hotel story you linked was eight different kinds of offensive. I wouldn't want to be stuck with any of those people in an elevator, or anywhere else for that matter. Gross.

And I gotta defend my LA, I lived there for a long time (and hopefully will again) and even ran in some circles that from outside would be considered glamorous, and I was never once part of a scene like this.

[rm.livejournal.com]

New York's pantomime of LA is surely far worse than the real thing. It's not a town I get and one in which my experiences have been markedly bizarre.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

...there are a legion of Rachelines.

This is the sort of thing one should say from a perch at a great height, and with maniacal laughter. Just saying.

Meanwhile, I am groaning and rolling my eyes at the Tom Hardy thing, but without more information I don't know which bit I'm directing the OH FFS at.

And OH. BUCKET LIST. Wow.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

I went to the Gansevoort once. It was the most baffling, frustrating, and hateful four hours of my life since I'd left Dalton.

And I could never quite put into words why I felt that way. So thanks, New York Times, for giving me something to point at!

[4hour-ramona.livejournal.com]

my once-uncommon first name (lorien) has undergone a huge surgence. mostly i don't mind, except for when people ask if i was originally "lori" and changed my name because of the lotr movies. that makes me stabby.

[effervescent.livejournal.com]

I am 'eh' about the article about Tom Hardy, because I've seen articles like that in the past, but this in the comments irritated me:

Second, we are born gay or straight. "Bisexual" means closet gay.

I should know not to read the comments, sigh.

I'm sure Chelsea Clinton must be irritated that suddenly the whole country is paying attention to her - I can't imagine living under that kind of scrutiny.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Yeah I saw that and got out before I combustulated.

[marchek.livejournal.com]

The funniest thing to me about the Chelsea Clinton wedding is that it's being held in the same town as that WWI airshow we went to last year.

[6-bleen-7.livejournal.com]

I haven't been following the coverage of Chelsea Clinton's wedding, mainly because I cringe to think of how much of the discussion must revolve around how attractive she is now vs. when she was the famous first daughter.

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

Did someone run an alterna-thon this year? Blogathon.org did not, they put up a "we're taking a nap this year" page about a month ago. It's the second time since I've been participating that it has been canceled.

(Though this year, I wasn't going to blog anyway, as I had tickets to see Bon Jovi at Soldier Field for the Friday night show, and no way in hell would I have managed Blogathon the next day on just a few hours of sleep.)

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Oh, Tom Hardy. Oh, the celebrity backstep. Oh, it's all too familiar.

[canaana.livejournal.com]

Not during the blogathon, but while you were in Bristol (I think) I finished up "This, Too, Is Love."