sundries

[rm]

Of course, after Patty finishes her comps _then_ I wind up with a work weekend from hell. Today's goal -- no LJ after I post this. I want to be home, and I want to clean all the things (okay, one area of all the things), because I'm sick of letting it hover over me. Also, we have important things to do like seeing if Merlin still sucks.

Stranded is the magazine of the volcano. Put together on the fly during the Eyjafjallajökull-caused closing of European airspace, the magazine features stories by and about those stranded by the unprecedented situation. I'd actually been assigned a story and a photographer when we got a flight out, so I'm not a part of it, but I'm going to get a copy as an awesome souvenir of Patty and I's UK odyssey. Plus the $18.95 purchase price goes to benefit the International Rescue Committee.

New Yorkers: Tomorrow is primary day in our state. If you are eligible to vote in a primary please do so.

Gabourney Sidibe is one of 4 cover models for the new issue of Elle. Which seemed pretty awesome until jnanacandra pointed out in comments they they used photoshop to lighten her skin. Not cool, Elle, not cool. (We can also, I think, reasonably complain about the way we can't see her body. The shot is much closer than the other models).

Brutal, but still not Wolfram & Hart: The making and unmaking of partners at Goldman Sachs.

Kristof responds to the appalling recent piece in The New Republic about the value of Muslim lives to Muslims. If you missed the original item, he quotes the relevant bits.

From street vendor to shop owner.

Lady Gaga appeared at the MTV music video awards with an escort of four soldiers dismissed under DADT.

CNN has a bit of an oopsie with "Are gay characters bad for society?"

Interview with Baz Luhrmann from a while ago. It's 22 minutes long, and I don't think any of you care, but the thing where the reporter asks him a question while he's trying to pour tea and then he keeps gesturing with the Limoges teapot for a really long time is pretty lolzy.

The True Blood finale: I missed pretty much all of the season before, this, so I'm not engaged with it the way other people are, but I have some complaints:

1. Bill is a creepy asshole. He's also boring.
2. Not a complaint: Eric and Pam are the bomb.
3. Tara used to be the most awesome character. Now she's a bucketfull of kinda offensive cliches. The writers need to fix this.
4. Cement? For serious? It was lolzy on Torchwood and agonizing here.
5. Okay, the whole faerie plotline annoys the crap outta me.
6. Lafayette is awesome, so how about we don't turn him into another person with a crappy victim narrative?

I love heightened realities. But this show doesn't quite work for me. And yet, I still want to know what happens next.

Comments

[mamadar.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link to the Christof piece. I'm glad he mentioned Jewish and Christian people who are speaking and acting to counteract the hate.

[iterum.livejournal.com]

From the Christof piece: "...a magazine long associated with tolerance"

Only one correction here: maybe the magazine in general, but TNR head honcho Marty Peretz's writings about Arabs and Islam have been sadly in this vein for years; it's no sign of the times.

[iterum.livejournal.com]

Peretz replies:
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/77607/martin-peretz-apology

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Wow, that apology stared out good and then utterly failed. Of course, Peretz's anti-Muslim bigotry is far from new.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Or news.
He's officialy Part Of The Problem.

[idunn.livejournal.com]

Not naming names, but when I worked in Securities, a very well-known investment place in the city was infamous for hiring and firing managers. It was policy to cull 1/3 to 2/3 of management every two years, regardless of how well those managers performed, just to keep people on their toes. I'd argue that this instills fear instead of loyalty, but then, there's a reason I no longer work in that industry.

[jnanacandra.livejournal.com]

Re Gabourey Sidibe - it's worth noting that Elle made her skin several shades lighter. Compare with her Ebony cover, or any of the results on Google images - that's not lighting, that's Photoshop.

Yes, it's wonderful to have a fat black woman on the cover - but lightening her skin? That's appallingly racist.

[rm.livejournal.com]

WOAH!

Thank you for pointing that out.

[jnanacandra.livejournal.com]

I'm ashamed to say I didn't notice it at first, either. Then I read Renee's post about it. I should have mentioned that straight off.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

That's fucking sick that Elle did that, shallow fashion industry magazine aside.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

It's absolutely racist. And it's planned, deliberate, we-discussed-this-at-the-meeting, premeditated and consciously racist.

That's what's appalling.

[nisaa.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link to Stranded Magazine. I will have to share.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

OK, your comment on Goldman Sachs made me LOL for real.

On The New Republic piece. Really? OH REALLY??? Christ. I'm starting to think any published newspaper or magazine that has online content is going to have to start editorially reviewing all associated blog posts just like they do any other published article in their dead tree version. Because, really? Even if Martin Peretz is a fucking idiot, I'd hope the New Republic has a slightly more sane editorial board. Yes? *facepalm*

I can't stand Lady Gaga's music, but I'm beginning to really like her apart from that. Or at least her public persona.

And now I'm completely curious. What *are* Patty's comps? Comprehensives? Tests in... ? Thot she was already a doctorate in archaelogy?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Comprehensive examinations are a hurdle to her PhD.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Aha, okay. Cool! Is she thru with them or are there more rounds later on? Or is she now ABD?

Also, on that CNN poll -- this reminds me of the hyperventilating *some* people do when there are too many GIRLS in class. You know, when it's 50-50 girls-boys and everyone wails that girls are taking over. I'm willing to bet we haven't even reached 10% glbt programming and ppl are hyperventilating...

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Comps are the last thing you have to do before becoming officially ABD. So: Yay! Or at least, yay once they've been graded, I guess.

[rm.livejournal.com]

What is ABD? So I know what awesome thing you are about to be.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

All But Dissertation!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Heh, I suppose that's not too helpful. It's not just a catchy acronym, but really an official status that means you are now cleared for hurdles such as certain grants and applying for jobs (though clearly some of those will not be happening for me anytime soon.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ahah! See, and here I thought it was a funny thing. I love that it's an official status called that. We will celebrate, possibly on fucking skype, when you get the word.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Adding to the definition, ABD means that coursework is over, and the dissertation is the last hurdle before the degree. (And a very big hurdle it is too.) When I was ABD, I kept a picture of David Duchovny on my cubicle wall to remind myself that he was ABD in English Lit and never finished.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

When do you know it's a go? Tee-shirt?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hahahaahahah. I love that.

ABD

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

How could you not know this? She is now(or will be in just a stech)free, free, free to make an actual bona fide original contribution to the sum total of human knowledge. It's all over but the thinking
This means that she already knows as much as someone with a professional degree not requiring a dissertation, and is just completely awesome.
Now she makes research!

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

On a small town city council with nine members(eight aldermans and a mayor)THREE(3) women is a complete matriarchal takeover. Apparently.

[eandh99.livejournal.com]

Somewhere I've seen research on this, that in any group used to being almost all male, anything under 70% male is perceived by the males as not just "half and half" but even "the women taking over". Long before the group gets to 50/50, the men think they're outnumbered.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

And commence to whining and whinging.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

I can't stand Lady Gaga's music, but I'm beginning to really like her apart from that. Or at least her public persona.

Definitely agreed. I like that she's so vocal about LGBTQ issues, as opposed to glossing over it because it's "controversial." On the other hand, I can't stand her work. So it goes.

Is it possible to imagine the same kind of casual slur tossed off about blacks or Jews?

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

I don't have to imagine it. I can remember it.
Mr. Peretz should have it explained to him that the First Amendment doesn't establish any Privileges. It establishes Rights. His along with everyone else's.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Stranded is one of the coolest things I've seen in ages. What a great idea! For once I'm not sorry you missed a chance to participate in something, though, because being unable to get home sucks.

My limited experience of reading The New Republic is that I'm usually appalled by it. This upsets and troubles me like Fox News upsets and troubles me.

And, of course, Gaga love.

[eandh99.livejournal.com]

2. Not a complaint: Eric and Pam are the bomb
It doesn't matter how much True Blood you watch or don't watch, the above is an eternal truth. I would be the biggest TB fan in the world if it focused on Eric and Pam. Also - Eric/Pam vs Jack/Ianto, compare and contrast? Starting with the impeccable dress sense and the unerring snark, and carrying right on through "rescue from imprisonment in concrete".

[rm.livejournal.com]

YES. ALL THE YES IN THE WORLD.

Pam is proof we can have female characters that are just as compelling as male characters. It doesn't take a cock to be awesome in fandom terms.

I love how deeply Pam and Eric love each other, how they're both preoccupied by their separate lives, how she's largely more competent than him, how whether they are in love or not is both a huge question and totally irrelevant. I look at Pam (who is a lot more femme than me), and she's the closest representation to my gender and sexuality I've ever seen on screen.

[eandh99.livejournal.com]

Pam is my favourite fandom character since Aeryn Sun in Farscape, I think. She's also hugely popular in the fandom itself - fangirls don't have to trash the female characters. I'm a fairly femme, fairly sarcastic dyke, so she's everything I've never had a representation of on TV before. And she rocks those stopstaring dresses in real life.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I want Pam/Ianto friendship fic (wth Jack/Eric being all "are they talking about us? Shit" in the background) hot like burning now.

[eandh99.livejournal.com]

Eric/Jack could be fun too, or it could go very very dark. Wouldn't an immortal Jack be irrestible vampcandy?

There's a great scene in the first episode of this season where both Sookie and Pam walk in on Eric having sex with a woman. Sookie is trying and failing not to look at Eric, Pam doesn't even bother with Eric (meh, same old same old) and ogles the naked woman. I can see Ianto reacting to Jack in much the same way.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha, yes, I totally saw that.

And I agree, there could be some seriously dark/fucked up Jack/Eric. I normally don't like putting vampires into non-vampire universes, but that shit could work.

Gays:Threat or Menace.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

That's not a poll, it's a bigot round-up.

[timelady.livejournal.com]

True Blood-

1. Completely in agreement. I say this after reading my way through all of the books and watching the entire series. Sorry, but Bill really doesn't have much in the way of personality, and he just randomly kills people without any conscience.

2. I adore both Eric and Pam in the books. Pam has just so much character it's ridiculous. And Eric...gods...I love his humor. Though the Eric and Pam in the TV series are lacking in comparison. Eric's missing his overtly sexual humor that I adore, and Pam is just not how I pictured her. But they are both worlds better than Bill.

3. Actually I didn't care much for Tara earlier and I still don't care for her now.

4. What can I say? You can blame the TV script writers for this one since it wasn't in the books. I'm just irritated at how much the TV series deviated from a good book. (Though I do really like Jessica. She's certainly grown as a character from irritating to fun to watch).

5. Unfortunately it's worse in the books. One of my friends is crazy about it. Me, personally, I could do without the whole fae plot line and don't care much for the last couple of books. Though I did think it was interesting that the TV series actually linked faeries with aliens. Hadn't considered that before (and certainly wasn't linked in the books).

6. Yeah, I'm glad they didn't kill him off in the second season (like they would have, had they stuck to the books). And I do like his relationship with Jesus. Though I'm really wondering if Jesus is actually going to be carried over to season 4 since I noticed he's co-starring in Terriers (though, granted, that's going to be a Fall season show, so it'll probably be in season break with lots of time for him to get back to filming True Blood).

In summary, I'm going to recomend reading the books (at least the beginning 6 or 7). Though things are a bit more naive and black and white in the series. But where we're sacrificing the neat dark issues, the books have more imagination and a lot more tongue-in-cheek humor.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I saw the cement thing happen and groaned. It makes NO LOGICAL SENSE! 3,000 year old vampire - kill it or leave it alone, damn it! Imprison him for 100 years when you and he are both likely to be still alive? BAD IDEA *headdesk*