sundries

[rm]

Tonight Patty and I are dining with friends of hers, then tomorrow it's my parents, and then Wednesday it's just us and Thursday night she gets on a plane. Deep breaths. What's great about Cardiff is this time I won't have to go those two - three weeks where it's impossible to hear from her. Those are always the worst.

Right now I have two pitches out that I'm waiting to hear on. My goal for the fall, if I can manage it, is to always have three things out awaiting answer. That way, nothing looms too large and neurotically in my head, and I produce more and get stuff done. Also, if someone says no, most of these things can be retooled for other potential markets/outlets/mediums/whatevers.

Meanwhile, 'tis the season in New York. We're just off Fashion Week, now moving into the New York Film Festival and shortly into the New York Musical Theater Festival. It's the most wonderful time of the year -- that is, if you care and have the time and the cash and the clout. Me? Any year I can't get into the opening night of the NYFF always feels slightly tragic to me. I saw Akira Kurasowa's Ran with my parents the year it opened the festival, sitting up in the balcony in a hand-painted sweatshirt dress and a big clunky antique anklet on that had been my grandmother's in the old country. Kurasowa spoke and everyone below us was in black tie, and you could feel in the air that it mattered. It's one of the only times I can think of where I wasn't where I wanted to be, but it was happily close enough.

Speaking of that time of year -- it's time for the Regency Assembly in New Haven CT -- October 16 & 17th. (yes, Dragon*Con Recency people, I still owe you a post, but you should come to this!). Baring extreme social excitement, this will probably be my last public outing before I leave for my 5 weeks in Europe at the end of that month, so if you want to say hi, come to Connecticut.

Girl on a Whaleship! In 1868 a six-year-old girl went with her family on a 3-year whaling voyage and kept a journal, now scanned in and available online.

The Deseret News has been sympathizing with illegal immigrants, angering much of its conservative and devout Mormon readership.

At the polls, it's anger vs. despair and that breaks down along gender lines: men are angry, women are despairing and may stay home from voting. I could make comments. I could make a lot of comments, but they'd reinforce a lot of gender dichotomous stuff I work hard not to believe in or pay attention to when it comes to my opinion other people, so I'm just going to let it sit there, because you're all smart enough to draw your own conclusions.

Paul Krugman, meanwhile, on the rage of the rich. Btw, it's worth noting that study after study show that something like 98% of Americans, when polled, define themselves as a higher economic class than they actually are. There's some interesting lines to be drawn through my first voter rage link to this one, in light of that.

Keeping kids safe from the wrong dangers: statistically, it's irresponsible to put your kid in your car and drive them to the orthodontist; they're a lot safer if they walk there. Alone.

The German foreign minister has entered into a civil partnership. Good on him. Article linked because it notes how civil partnership in Germany conveys most of the same rights as marraige, oh, except tax benefits and the right to jointly adopt children. I'm so sick of all these "I suppose that will do" footnotes. Also can you imagine having such a high-ranking openly gay official in the US? Yeah, thought not.

So, Boardwalk Empire: Scorsese is at his best when he's working with music, and the same is true for this show so far. Much of the rest of it feels flat, and it's perhaps my own biases (and the heavily rhythmic trailers) that left me feeling this was something of a disappointment. On the other hand, Scorsese is also often at his best when working with small New York stories, so there may be hope for this, even as Atlantic City is on the fringe of New York. Certainly, it's no surprise to me that what shines the most in this show so far is the surprisingly sweet and wry face of the young Al Capone, a figure who is so far, merely a winking footnote to the audience. "Think about what this man will become!" the show cries. But I want the show to tell me a damn story. I'll be fannish if I'm fannish, and I'm happy to do the intellectual work, but the show should do its own hopefully compelling narrative work.

I've also seen a bit of discussion about the presentation of race in the series (notably, an early sequence showing a white band in black-face). Yes, it's historically accurate. But, that doesn't make it unreasonable for people to talk about how it makes them uncomfortable or whether or not showing this moment is necessary to the construction of the show. It's not appropriate to dismiss that conversation, even if you ultimately disagree with the conclusions any particular person involved in it reaches.

Last night on Angel: We watched "Number 5" and the one about Wesley's robot dad. Both episodes are problematic, and both episodes are saved by their heart and their performances.

I really, really did not know what to do with "Number 5". Is this Angel does Tarrantino? How much of this is as things happen in a supernatural reality and how much of this is as heightened (un)reality narrative bias? Is this racist? Should Whedon ever be allowed near anything that pretends to be about South American or Latin American or Hispanic cultures? Ever? Because I remember "Inca Mummy Girl" and so do you. On the other hand, it had such a small, gentle, touching ending, and I do like the idea that everyone, even the dude you think it just a punchline has an important, meaningful story and deserves your respect.

The Wesley's robot dad episode has its own set of problems. Namely, robot ninjas raining from the sky. Ninjas are a crappy shortcut in terms of narrative and racial presentation (faceless Asian horde, seriously?). On the other hand, the performances knock this out of the park -- we see the awkward Wesley we remember from Buffy, we see a man who is both too ruthless (Wes, just because you have nothing left to live for and would happily give up your life for the greater good, doesn't mean everyone else is on that page) and too generous (for fuck's sake, TELL FRED) to be happy, and, ultimately, we see a man who doesn't know quite what to think about his own childhood. Was his father merely cruel (not that words don't do a lot of damage) or as was referenced in an episode way back (Patty had to remind me) actually physically abusive? What makes Wesley the worse man? the desire to connect with his father or the desire to kill him? None of this works without Alexis Denisof being able to run rings around a simple script (again, ninjas? must we?).

This is also an episode that speaks, again, to so much of early Torchwood -- Wesley and Angel touching base after a night of professional disasters. Wesley, worrying about how their fearless, remote, miserable leader is doing, more than being worried about his own pain related to robot girlfrienddad. I can see watching this and shouting at the TV "what is this? Why is it here? What is the deal with these two? It makes no sense!" and I see how you get from here to Jack/Ianto "Cyberwoman" - "They Keep Killing Suzie" -- because none of that makes any sense either, it just seems to thanks to sex.

It's worth noting that if I write about pop-culture and race on here, I invariably get a lot of Hetalia ads.

Comments

[rax.livejournal.com]

it's worth noting that study after study show that something like 98% of Americans, when polled, define themselves as a higher economic class than they actually are

Is it bad that I read this as "98% of Americans have different definitions for class boundaries than economics researchers do?" :) I mean I expect they are measuring a real phenomenon, but...

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha, no, that's really reasonable.

But the studies I've seen are so basic, I'm not sure they'd support that reading. It's like "a new tax will affect households making over 70K per year, will that affect you?"

Households then say yes. Then they ask the households how much they make per year, and it's like 50K. And then everyone is confused.

[rax.livejournal.com]

Hope... springs... eternal?

Yeah I got nothin'. (Thanks for the clarification.)

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

Btw, it's worth noting that study after study show that something like 98% of Americans, when polled, define themselves as a higher economic class than they actually are

While this makes me want to slam my head into the wall it does help frame a lot of problems I've noticed in american politics, namely how very, very easy it is to get people to vote against their own self interests. I always thought that people were under the impression they'd win the lottery or would inherit huge amounts of money from some previously unknown relative due to a tragic and fatal bout of food poising at a family reunion and were ensuring that their future wealthy self would be well cared for.

So they actually think they're currently better off then their 1040 implies?

Math is hard. I guess.

[rm.livejournal.com]

There's also one, I'm trying to find that might take me a few days that shows 40% of random sample respondents saying they believe they are in the richest 2% of taxpayers, which may be less bad math and more a lack of imagination about the wealth of others.

[yamx]

Westerwelle isn't just foreign minister, he's also vice chancellor. (Chancellor is the most powerful post in German government.) And the head of the junior partner in the current government coalition.

Let's just say there's been more than one occasion where he could have done a lot more to make real equality happen. But he seems more concerned about pushing his party's political goal in the area of economics, and about not pissing off the bigger partner in the coalition.

Still, I'm happy for him and his partner. They've been together for years now, so I'm sure they're overjoyed to take this step. :)

[rm.livejournal.com]

I also have to imagine the visibility (although clearly, this isn't news to anyone there) has to help on some level. My knowledge of German politics is much more detailed than many Americans but deeply spotty, as I only know stuff relevant to some of my clients, and this isn't that.

[colmmcsky.livejournal.com]

What about Barney Frank? He is a congressman with a domestic partner. I don't know much about the german government, is a foreign minister higher up then a congressman?

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

I am *loving* that article about parental risk assessment --I was reading all sorts of quotes from it to my poor roommate, who is doomed by the fact that I am very very enthusiastic about the fact that I live with another fannish person for the first time in my life and therefore want to share interesting things.

We have examined the "children would have to wait outside for 750000 hours to be ensured of a kidnapping" and determined that that basically means 85 years, and at that point, you are probably no longer pedo-bait. You can still be kidnapped, sure, but it's unlikely to be for the same parental-panic reasons.

Also, she apologizes on behalf of her fandom for the Hetalia ads thing.

~Sor

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Scorsese is at his best when he's working with music... I've noticed that I tend to favor directors who pay a lot of attention to their scores and sound design: Kubrick, David Lynch, Tarantino.

I really, really did not know what to do with "Number 5". I remember watching that one and wincing repeatedly, but every time I think of Wesley's awed expression as he breathes, "¡El Diablo Robotico!" I crack up.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Foreign minister is cabinet level, and as another commentor notes he is also vice-chancellor, which makes him like Vice Presiden sort of. Definitely a guy who could be head of the whole thing some day, which is very much not what is going to happen to Barney Frank's career.

[yamx]

The first high-level German politician to come out was Klaus Wowereit. He came out very shortly before he was elected mayor of Berlin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wowereit

It caused a lot of press interest, because he was the first, but it, and the public reaction, were overwhelmingly supportive. It was probably at least in part what gave Westerwelle the courage to officially come out after his homosexuality had been sort of an open secret for years.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ah, I knew about Wowereit (as you say, it got a lot of press, including here), but sort of missed everything after.

I am completely, btw, fascinated that gay pride there is called the Christopher Street Day apparently (or this may be an odd translation I'm getting from my German-speaking colleagues, I'm not sure). This New Yorker (where Christopher Street is) is tickled by that.

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

Keeping kids safe from the wrong dangers: statistically, it's irresponsible to put your kid in your car and drive them to the orthodontist; they're a lot safer if they walk there. Alone.

I was just talking to a mother of two about this very thing yesterday over brunch. She's noticed that her twin girls are gaining weight, and she attributes that to the fact that they don't walk around and don't play outside much anymore. She then asked us at what age we started to "play" outside, and said that it's not socially acceptable to let you kids just play outside unless they are supervised.

She says she feels guilty about the fact that her girls are putting on weight because they're sitting around watching tv instead of running around outdoors, but that between work and household duties, she doesn't have the time to take them every day. Her and her husband are starting to let the 11 year old girls walk to the park a few blocks away on their own, and while it seems to be going well (she goes to join them after a half hour or so), she said she gets judged by the other Moms who are there supervising their kids.

My parents always kicked us out of the house to play outside all day. Granted, we lived on a very quiet street, and most of the neighbours would keep an eye on us kids running around. But we were free to play as we wanted. I can't imagine what it'd be like to be confined to the house or a supervised fenced in yard just because of social fears and expectations.

Sorry, long babble. I might be procrastinating from real work. ;) Good article, thanks for the link. I'll try to send it to the woman I met (she's a friend of a friend).

[sethg]

I remember being frustrated in the 2004 campaign when Kerry kept referring to “the top 2%” of the income scale, because of this factor. Somebody in the Obama campaign must have figured this out, because he always used dollar amounts instead.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

'tis the season in New York

It's interesting to me how the meaning of "the season" has changed in the past 100 years. And yet it's still the same time of year. I suppose there are still symphonies happening where the beautiful people go to be seen, and in October there will be balls. But at least now you don't have to be listed in the Social Register to get into those.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yes. It's very much "oh god, what culture do I need to be at to be seen" right now in New York. It scares me how well-developed those reflexes are in me (Must. Get. Opera. Tickets. Now.). On the other hand, I only go to shit I actually like.

[yamx]

A lot higher, yes. Basically, he's the equivalent of the Secretary of State - Hillary Clinton's current job,.

There are several hundred congressmen. There are sixteen ministers. And the foreign minister is one of the most (some say the most) important ones. (And ministers are also members of congress, anyway, so he's a congressman, too. :) )

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

I also have to imagine the visibility (although clearly, this isn't news to anyone there) has to help on some level.

I keep abreast of the German news partly to maintain language skills and partly because I spent a lot of time procrastinating on the internet (to make it clear that I'm not speaking as someone in Germany, or ever Europe), and it took ages before I found out Westerwelle's gay. There was a small row a while back about whether his partner should go on state visits to countries hostile to gay people and whether by not taking him, Westerwelle was tacitly accepting their policies, which then turned into a debate on whether a straight politician would be subject to such scrutiny of his personal life. On the other hand, I'm not sure it comes up that often that Volker Beck's gay and he'd be my answer if you asked me to name a visible gay German politician.

[rm.livejournal.com]

There was a small row a while back about whether his partner should go on state visits to countries hostile to gay people and whether by not taking him, Westerwelle was tacitly accepting their policies, which then turned into a debate on whether a straight politician would be subject to such scrutiny of his personal life.

This is a totally, totally worthy discussion. What was the ultimate concensus?

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

"a new tax will affect households making over 70K per year, will that affect you?"

This could be people reacting negatively to any new tax, whether it affects them or not. Especially if they think their own income will increase in the coming years, thus affecting their put-upon future selves. :)

[stephl.livejournal.com]

I remember watching that one and wincing repeatedly, but every time I think of Wesley's awed expression as he breathes, "¡El Diablo Robotico!" I crack up.

"Hermanos! The Devil has built a robot!"

[sethg]

A lot of people making 50K aspire to make 70K (and up), so they identify with the upper classes instead of seeing them as Part Of The Problem. So class resentment gets sublimated into cultural resentment (“elites”, etc).

[yamx]

Yeah, it's called that. Has been for... forever. *g* Though mostly just CSD for short. :)

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

By another measure (that perhaps maps between systems), Westerwelle's the leader of his party. Barney Frank's high-ish as he's (if I recall correctly) chair of Financial Services, but Westerwelle's Nancy Pelosi-level. (Well, except the FDP's a small party who have ended up the junior partner in the coalition and the Democrats are the majority party, but yeah.)