sundries

[rm]

I'm back in NYC and back at my desk. Nothing has gone overwhelmingly haywire: Patty's pacing herself well on her comps and seems relatively sane; the cats are glad to see me; work hasn't blown up. And damn, it is always so nice to be back in NYC; most other cities seem like summer camp to me, and Dragon*Con is its own special brand of challenging.

luckyckljw is a photographer who has just had a number of images rejected from a gallery show in Texas because they feature nudes. The gallery has displayed other nude works before, but those works were smaller and featured more culturally acceptable bodies in terms of both size and gender binary-ness. luckyckljw is looking for suggestions of how to deal with the situation, as well as moral support.

Because Eid falls over September 11 this year (it runs from September 9 - 11), Muslims are toning down celebrations. Wow, do I get the pragmatism behind that. But it sucks, and I'm sorry.

At the end of Ramadan, Indonesians head home.

Dancing with the dead in Ambohimairary.

Unsurprisingly, a lot more suicides go for jumping off of tall buildings in NYC as opposed to elsewhere in the country. When I was a kid, during a patch of insider trading scandals, someone jumped off the roof of our building and we saw him go by the window.

On television, gender roles, and how a woman's best friend on television is often a gun. Executives were, predictably, surprised when women were okay with women on TV committing violence.

On the phrase man up.

Some of us are still die-hard pinball fans. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer people left who are capable of and willing to repair the things when they break. Did you know I used to be ADDICTED to the Doctor Who pinball machine they had in a suburban Maryland pizza parlor near where my boyfriend lived when I was 18, more than 15 years before I ever decided I like the TV show? Man, that machine was sweet.

The Brooklyn griffen.

Welcome to 1938.

IMDB revealed something sort of bizarre and totally interesting to me today. You know how there's a sequel to The Dark Crystal coming up? Yeah, did you know the current screenwriter on the project is Craig Pearce, the guy that co-wrote Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet with Baz Luhrmann?

Yeah, my jaw is still on the floor. Because that? Makes such perfect sense it's sort of ridiculous.

It also hits my fannish brain in a way that's too weird to describe to most of you, but those who know are laughing. Life's very funny.

Also, fuck, I miss Australia.

Comments

[6-bleen-7.livejournal.com]

The Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas is a must for any hardcore pinball fan with a strong nostalgia reflex. My fondest pinball memories feature the ancient electromechanical games with the clanging bells.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit boggled at the executives being surprised at the whole women liking seeing other women committing violence.

I mean, Buffy was my staple, I loved Xena at the time, Hello Agent Scully!?!
Also there was a show Nikita (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118379/) back in the late 90's and early 00's which I didn't watch, but was based on Besson's Le Femme Nikita. I love Luc Besson... Leon *happy sigh*

Also, yikes on the seeing a suicide out side your window! Did it compute at the time at all?

[rm.livejournal.com]

All those shows are mentioned in the piece, and they note particularly that the Buffy violence was not particularly intense (there's a lot of it, but not a lot of blood. Really, other than when she beats the shit outta Spike and some of S7, it's not that bad).

When the suicide happened we knew it was going on, because there was a long standoff thing, and a big inflatable thing to try to save the guy and all. So it was on the news before it went by our living room window.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read the article and still, feel the need to mention why I'm boggled! My mother was concerned about me in my teens because I liked to watch a show with so much violence.

Yeah.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

A kid once jumped off the 59th St Bridge right in front of my kitchen window. My mom was on the phone at the time and saw the whole thing.

Worse, the kid was a friend of someone we knew.

Oh, the 80s.

ETA: Pinball is what's up. My favorite machines are The Addams Family, Family Guy, and for sheer absurdity, the KISS pinball machine.

[rm.livejournal.com]

The Addams Family has really nice play, but the way it's designed, those fuckers break down all the time.

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, during a patch of insider trading scandals, someone jumped off the roof of our building and we saw him go by the window.

Thant's horrible, I'm so sorry!

And ITA with the "Welcome to 1938" op-ed.

[rax.livejournal.com]

Dr. Who is my favorite pinball machine too, and I've seen like three episodes of it ever. It's just such a great playfield.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Right?!?!?!?!? I wish I could find one near here to play. I loved that machine SO HARD.

(Sorry, I'm just repeating myself, because it's SO EXCITING when other people actually care about pinball and particularly machines I like).

[rax.livejournal.com]

I haven't found one to play since 2004, including spending a bunch of time on Google and thinking I had found two in Minneapolis only to be disappointed at both locations after like a twenty-mile bike ride. I ended up having to settle for Monopoly.

There are something like four tables at IU, only one of which I had even heard of before I walked past them a couple of weeks ago. If they are awesome, I will post about them.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I decided to do a Google and may have just found one in NYC. Or so I hope! I did just find a Bride of Pinbot, which I actually hate the play on, but I love showing it to people because the whole concept is just so horrific.

[kshandra]

I think the happiest day of my life was the night I walked into "my" bar (which was mine because it was both a low-key dyke bar and a low-key - but high-talent - karaoke bar) and saw the Dr. Who machine in the corner.

[merchimerch.livejournal.com]

Eid does fall on Sept. 11 this year -- it is three days long, from Sept. 9-11. (Most calendars just mark the first day, but people celebrate for three days.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you! Most news stories I've seen here say near and cite Sept. 9 I will edit accordingly, assuming LJ's cooperation (it's being tetchy today).

[merchimerch.livejournal.com]

Well it is variable, since people begin the fast on different days, depending on which time zone they're in and the dependence on the lunar calendar.

Still, I believe most people in North America start on the 9th this year. My family seems to sometimes go with the North America timing and sometimes with Bosnia timing. Still, Eid would either start on the 9th or the 10th, which means EVERYONE is still celebrating on the 11th.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting when in the discussion of women action heroes arises, no one ever brings up the fact that in real life, very often you have to rescue yourself, or at the very least the only person you can count on to not gaslight you in the name of keeping up appearances. Instead, it is lots of executive head-scratching over the latest condescending rom-com flopping at the box office.

There is the bystander effect to consider, true, but it has been my experience (esp. as a teenager) that persuading others that there is a problem, or that things are getting frightening is an exercise in futility. Dropping hints and currying favor are wastes of time, and to see female characters who think likewise and TCB (and aren't tripping over their own feet in the writer's attempt to make her look "cute") makes me feel vindicated.

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

Hey, that Brooklyn griffen is right near me! I can walk over to it. Just down the street from the Montrose L subway stop. I'll head over and get a few photos tomorrow.

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

It's sad that they feel they need to hide their celebrations...

Executives were, predictably, surprised

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Suits:they know us so not.

[mercurybard.livejournal.com]

I wish I could say I was surprised about luckyckljw's nudes, but it's Texas.

It's right up there with an attempt to ban The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas...not because of it involving prostitution, but because one of the characters says "goddamn".

Building suicide.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

That is a truly horrid childhood memory.

You know, since they tore down the town water tower, and the Wheat Pool grain elevator, there is literally nothing within a day's march of here that you could jump off of. You could, I suppose, climb to the top of a spruce tree, but even cats don't climb to the tops of spruce trees, because they'd sway back and forth too much.

I don't know, but I bet you this is pill country.

Re: Building suicide.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's actually, for me, just a thing, that was weird at the time and is weird now. Intellectually, I know I should be horrified, but it was just this thing. It happened very quickly. On the other hand, I saw someone get hit by a bus (and die) a few years before that, and that's BURNED into my brain and was pretty horrifying.

Re: Building suicide.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Wow. It's funny how our brains react and process things.
Quite unpredictable.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I am fond of "vag up" as an alternative to "man up", since there's little in nature tougher or more flexible. I first heard it at an intensive class where we were all a little loopy all the time, so that might have something to do with my enjoyment.

[kurometarikku.livejournal.com]

Two of the suicides at the hotel since I have been there were jumpers and they both lingered before they croaked. I joked about being offended at the Yalie that went off the empire state recently shunning us, but it really was smarter to go off somewhere taller.

I was already a Whovian for years by the time I came upon it, but I loved the Who table, too. There was one at a MassPike rest stop that I used to play on the way back to New Haven from visiting my girlfriend in Boston. She was so sexually frustrating at times, I am certain there were some visits where I enjoyed the pinball game more than the time in her dorm room. Definitely one of my favorites, along with Addams Family, Terminator 2 and South Park.

[misch.livejournal.com]

Some of us are still die-hard pinball fans

I must have spent hours of my evenings at JavaOne 2004 conference in San Francisco playing some of the pinball machines they had set up there. Oh wow... Pin-Bot, The Twilight Zone... mmm... pinball. *drool*

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

I am being slow about The Dark Crystal because I haven't seen it (or the Luhrmann stuff) in yonks and can't make smart noises about it yet beyond "Please let this be brilliant..."

[rm.livejournal.com]

But think about -- The Dark Crystal -- heightened reality, detail oriented, nearly Shakespearean, very dark material that covers both death and desire but aimed at a PG audience.

What's Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge but same? Pearce co-wrote both of those and also wrote the death-focused Charlie St. Cloud script (which I haven't seen, and wasn't that interested in, but now feel the need to look at for the sake of talking in a thorough way). It's such a smart writer choice I could scream.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

I think my worry is that The Dark Crystal is such a thing in its own right, and that revisiting it seems strange. Not entirely surprising, because remakes and sequels and prequels have been a thing for about 10 years now, but the worlds both within (thanks to advances in special effects) and without (hello, world!) will be so different.

I'm nervous. It's such a special film. It's like handing someone an heirloom. Even if it's a trusted someone, there's a risk.

You're right, though, about Pearce being a great choice. Of all the someones out there, he's one I think can potentially do a very fine job.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

The folks at the Alamo Drafthouse really, really love The Dark Crystal. I bet they will do something kick ass when this comes to the screen, and if it does you have to come here for it!