sundries

[rm]

We slept very late, and correctly didn't get up when the doorbell rang. It was Jehovah's Witnesses, and I feel irritated that they gave us fancy new Do Not Duplicate keys to the building, and this nonsense is still going on.

Patty has tied a large squeaky mouse toy to the end of the cat dancer. The cats are HORRIFIED and making faces best described as "Jesus Christ, it's a mouse, in the AIR!"

Patty, despite being femme-like in many other ways, does not wear heels. Except she just got this pair of platform sandals with a slight heel that add about 3 inches to her height. She's an inch taller than me, but since I usually wear more significant shoes to her flip flops, I'm generally used to thinking of us as the same height. Last night, she comes home in these shoes, I'm barefoot and she's a giantess. It was super weird.

LJ is being slow about delivering comments again, so just FYI if you get something form me you interpret as looming silence.

Tiny Turtle! via moonpupy.

How Muslims get treated in America via shadesong. It's not clear at first, so I will tell you the guy behind the counter is an actor as is the Muslim-dressed woman that comes into the shop. The experiment is how patrons react. (Note: video does not have captioning; if someone knows of there being a transcript anywhere, let me know; if not, I will try to do one this evening).

First two teachers harassed a student who they perceived gay. Then another student in the same school-district killed himself because of anti-gay bullying. via pgdudda.

But.... but... but the sand: NC-17 porn circa-1900 via azn_jack_fiend.

eredien found this Tampax marketing site thingy in which a boy turns into a girl and gets his first period. The boy character then describes his female condition as being neutered and uses cheesy predatory metaphors to discuss his male attraction to women. It's so damn peculiar, it's hard to know what to say about it, other than Dear Tampax, Blogosphere will eat you.

The depth of offense I believe all Americans should take from Glenn Beck and co. attempting to usurp Dr. King's mantle is actually beyond my ability to describe.

The last resident of Carnegie Hall moves out.

Last night we finished season 4 of Angel: What a strange, strange season. I felt ultimately satisfied with the payoff from the endles, boring, "turgid supernatural soap opera" that dominated most of the season. Jasmin was a great and compelling villain and the ethical issues raised were interesting, although I felt we ultimately deserved more about her motivations, the Powers in general, the truth of her love (no matter how malevolent in execution) and more. I loved the surprise reappearance of Lilah, and the Wolfram & Hart twist.

In fact, I think the Wolfram & Hart twist provides the best entry point for fanfiction in all of Angel thus far, as I imagine each team member probably has small obsessive personal projects they engage in with those resources -- like the matter of Wesley's desire to destroy Lilah's contract.

Also, huge props to the writers for making that final scene with Connor and his family so well-done that after hating Connor for the entirety of his existence on the show, I suddenly cared about and like him.

The memory erasure issue is either compelling or hugely problematic -- erasing Connor also erases the central fracture in the team: why Wesley left; why Angel was missing; and all the issues of trust and family. Also, RTD? I see what you did there.

Meanwhile, I wrote a Torchwood thing. Now all I have to do is my Retcon Book Rewrite and I'm all done on my fic obligations until Kali gets me the next bit of EtGB. Just in time too, as I have a lot of serious business pro work I need to attend to (and if I owe you email in that regard, it'll be sometime this weekend).

Comments

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Somewhere on my hard drive is a PDF of Victorian Porn. So many "Pricks" dear lord.

There was a similar social experiment regarding how Muslims are treated in society in my locale and it seemed that when there was blatant disservice, people were outraged... other times... not so much. It's really about the degree, if it's something explicit you can say and object to it, when it isn't... good luck giving a damn if it doesn't affect you directly.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was much more concerned in the video by those who said nothing, than by the 6 blatant bigots. There's always going to be some of those. But 22 people staying silent in the face of the scenario they set up? SCARY.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

It's the 22 who give the 6 power.

I think and practice all the time so that I don't end up being one of the 22. Hmm. I think I have another post to write.

[bizetsy.livejournal.com]

It's the 22 who give the 6 power.

agreed.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Would you share that Victorian erotica? I've got a couple of books, but I'm always looking for more classic erotica - I find it both fun and fascinating.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I'll do my best to find it and shoot you a pm when I do :)

[yarram.livejournal.com]

Just a quick note... in all articles I've seen, the harassed student identifies as straight, so the harassment was based not on actual sexual orientation, but on perceived sexual orientation. Which is itself a cause of all sorts of WTF-ery, but I'm Not Going There...

(I doubt that it's coincidental that this is in Michele Bachmann's district, but let's at least have the grace to not equate WTF-inducing politicians with their constituency. Though why this person continues to be re-elected is utterly beyond me.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

I will edit to reflect that, thanks.

[sinonmybody.livejournal.com]

I LOVE those turtles. :)

From honeymoon day one

[torenheksje.livejournal.com]

Patty has tied a large squeaky mouse toy to the end of the cat dancer. The cats are HORRIFIED and making faces best described as "Jesus Christ, it's a mouse in the AIR!"

You owe me a new cup of coffee. And possibly a new laptop. WARN a person, willya?

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

The thing that both frightens and frustrates me most about Glenn Beck (and Rush Limbaugh, and all others like them) is not that they exist, but that so many people listen to what they say and believe it as the god's truth.

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

Yes. It's that level of acceptance - "I will not check these facts anywhere else; I will not get news information from anything that might disagree with them, since *by definition of disagreeing* those other sources are wrong" - that concerns me more.

And the fact that these people DON'T SEE ANYTHING WRONG WITH THIS.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

What bothers me more is that they then throw it into [our] faces, that "you just don't think they're right because you're a LIBERAL!"

[humascot97.livejournal.com]

Seconded!

[solitary-summer.livejournal.com]

Personally, I like Angel S4 a lot, especially Wesle'y arc, but what really bothers me about Jasmine is that in the end it comes down to male reason (in the person of Angel, of all people) defending free will and individuality against the, quite literally, female hive-mind.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

That series - "What would you do?" - has been upsetting and validating at the same time for as long as I've been watching those videos. I've had *so* many people tell me that racism is over in the U.S. (unsurprisingly, all of them white-identified, or passing-for-white-to-most). So few of us speak up, so much goes on, and yet there's this perception that there are hysterical hordes talking up a very few, isolated, freak occurrences.

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing that second link...

It was both terrifying and heartening.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

The memory erasure issue is either compelling or hugely problematic -- erasing Connor also erases the central fracture in the team: why Wesley left; why Angel was missing; and all the issues of trust and family.

It's all handled (really well, I think) in various points in Season Five. I'm glad to know you reacted the way I thought you would to the end of Season Four; it makes me think you'll like most of the rest of the show.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

OK, the Edwardian porn? Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

Now I have to start looking for more of this. I had no idea that m/m had been around (well, published -- I'm sure some cave paintings just haven't been correctly interpreted) that long!

Sand. Seaweed. SALT WATER. o.O

[yarram.livejournal.com]

Speaking of cave paintings... don't forget about Greek urns!

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. :) There are also any number of [Roman] rooms with VERY salacious paintings and murals on them. But the written word version of porn... that has always struck me as much rarer than the visual porn...

[heron61.livejournal.com]

The depth of offense I believe all Americans should take from Glenn Beck and co. attempting to usurp Dr. King's mantle is actually beyond my ability to describe.

Indeed. I almost made a post about this and I just can't.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I think nearly everyone has had this reaction. I've read some completely correct and well-executed opinion pieces in the Times and elsewhere today, but nothing quite reaches the pitch, scale or epic-ness of language I feel is required here.

Honestly, I would like to consider the whole matter beneath the notice of any American who isn't virulently racist (my parents, for example, who can be incredibly unenlightened on matters of race are deeply, DEEPLY appalled by all this nonsense), but that's not a luxury that any of us have.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

My friend flemco live-blogged it with commentary. He's posted some more things in his LJ, but the one bit he locked is the one I wish he'd made public. He made very chilling and accurate correlations between this and the beginnings of the Nazi party.

He's been doing some of that in the public posts, but I felt the private post was more cogent.

It's scary stuff.

[yarram.livejournal.com]

Oh, good (in a bad way), I'm not the only one to notice the parallels between the two...

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the linky.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

I thought about posting something about Beck as well, but decided to go to YouTube instead and watch the entire, 17-min "I have a dream" speech as a much more appropriate action. I'd never actually heard the whole thing before. Damn, that's some speech. Beck, pft.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

re: angel - yep, pretty much summed it up there, especially connor and that whole love-triangle-oedipal thing they had going on

also, series 5 is the MOST like torchwood the show will ever be - i think you'll love it (btw, did you finish buffy?)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Nope, we're finishing Buffy tonight.

And I did actually suggest "Torchwood vs. Angel: Cracky Spinoff Deathmatch" to Gallifrey programming.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

ooh! definitely finish buffy before you start series 5
HAHA that would be the craziest panel

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

I think you are going to enjoy S5 of Angel a great deal. :D

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Put a little sign on your door saying, "No Soliciting (including religions)." Ours works for repelling both Witnesses and Mormon missionaries, the largest of our local pest population. It only failed once, when a storm had folded it over, which was not their fault.

(I wanted to hang a "Missionaries will be sodomized sign," but squirrel wouldn't let me).

[ubixtiz.livejournal.com]

Agh, the Zack 16 thing? That went around last summer. I think there was a Tiger Beatdown response to it (ah, here (http://tigerbeatdown.blogspot.com/2009/06/adventures-in-advertising-presents-fear.html)), and a few other mentions around. Even female-targeted products apparently require a male protagonist in their ad campaigns? (For the record, though, Zack doesn't turn into a girl. He acquires female-attributed sex organs, but the ad campaign maintains him as a dude with a vagina...somehow without ever implying that trans people exist.)

[elisi]

Late, I know, life's busy - but I wanted to just ramble a bit. :)

like the matter of Wesley's desire to destroy Lilah's contract.
'Home' was the first episode of Angel I ever watched (then I caught up with the rest before S5 started), and that scene totally sold me on Wesley/Lilah even though they were obviously over (what with her being dead and all). "But it matters that you tried." Breaks my heart, every time. Also, it's Wes in a nutshell - he tries, he always tries, for the best reasons in the world, and then fails. But it matters that he tries, and I love it that they point that out.

As for the season as a whole there's a LOT of stuff underneath - themes, layers etc. F.ex. remember that Angel, at the very beginning when he was stuck under the sea, hallucinated a happy family dinner with all his friends... which then comes full circle at the end, with Connor's family's dinner. (And then which is more true? Can you be saved by a lie?) Also, I always, always loved the fact that 'The Father Will Kill the Son' came true in the end.

The memory erasure issue is either compelling or hugely problematic -- erasing Connor also erases the central fracture in the team: why Wesley left; why Angel was missing; and all the issues of trust and family.
Like others have said this is dealt with very well in S5, which is definitely my favourite season for a lot of different reasons. (Although there is a lot of gender fail unfortunately.)

Jasmin was a great and compelling villain and the ethical issues raised were interesting
*nods* And I, too, wish we'd had more of an exploration, because it tapped into 'the end justifies the means' quite exquisitely. Actually, this theme will be revisited in S5, and we already see it in Angel's choice to save Connor any way he can, no matter the price he (and his friends) have to pay.

[tommx.livejournal.com]

What I loved about this season of Angel was that it justified Conners existence, not because of the explanation Jasmine gave for him existing in the first place, but because the true depths of his character were fleshed out and explored. His speech to Cordelia really spoke volumes to me because I could relate to it. He always saw Jasmine as she really was. He simply didn't consider her to be particularly horrifying because of her outward deformities. But, it wasn't even that: he always knew she was a lie. Jasmine offered world peace at the expense of a dozen sacrifices a day and free will. The free will thing was the lie, but Conner was willing to overlook that if it meant he could finally feel something.

But, he couldn't, and this was always his issue. He never felt the peace that Jasmine promised any more than he could feel love as a positive emotion. He was brought up to hate Angel by Holtz who, if he ever did love Conner, it was twisted by his desire to make Conner into a weapon against Angel.

Conner thought that sinking Angel to the bottom of the sea would give him closure, but it didn't work. He thought he found love in Cordelia, but he was just being manipulated. He thought he found peace in Jasmine, but he never could actually feel it.

So, in the end, the only way to save Conner was to literally change the entire world (including him) so that he would have a different past, and the illusion of a normal life. It is still a lie, but it is one that he now can accept because he doesn't know it is a lie.

Season 5 of Angel is worth a looksee. It's not consistent, and there are some weak episodes, but there are some good ones as well.

Thanks for letting me reminisce with you on this one.