sundries

[rm]

Another morning wherein I have avoided the apocalypse. I think. No, really, some days just feel this way.

Last night Linden and I hung out at Shake Shack and talked about private school and Cyteen.

We're up to 21% ($1,275) in D&J fund raising. That sounds like a lot, or a lot of progress. But we still have to average $75 in donations a day to make this happen -- and that's hard after the initial flurry of excitement. mithrigil and I are going to start (soon, but maybe not until I'm in Europe), doing various features on each of our journals about things related to the show, since it's more interesting (and polite) than talking $$ -- I'll be telling tails from the dungeon and talking about my various personal beliefs about theater. She'll be writing about music and some other stuff as yet to be determined. And we're going to host little interviews with each other. So, if there's stuff you really, really want to know, now is the time to make your voices heard.

OMG, the Dingo Ate My Baby case has been reopened (I just had to tell Patty it was real, not like Coke and Pop Rocks!). Come on, you all know you read my journal for wacky Australian news. My original phrasing regarding a tragic event and subsequent bias in the investigation thereof was offensive. Leaving this for the record.

Advocating energy savings in areas that don't believe in global warming. This is super interesting.

On really being Peggy: Flatter and escape.

Warm Cats, Cold City: photojournalism of the past.

Fans of an Ohio high school football team have been caught on video taunting their rivals with an anti-gay chant.

Is Christian Fundamentalism to blame for anti-gay bullying? a debate.

The New York Times covers It Gets Better. (Please note: Yes, it's not enough. Yes, Dan Savage can be problematic and cruel to members of our own community. Yes, people dealing with multiple marginalizations experience a vastly different narrative and may not find relevance in this project. Yes, telling kids "one day everything will be fine" is crap, because hey, my life is awesome and shit still happens. But... BUT: the message that You Are Not Alone, MATTERS. And media attention makes more conversation. 'Tis good).

Ryan Murphy has been offered the chance to direct a remake of Rocky Horror. This is one of those pieces of information I'm not sure what to do with: too many factors, some, somewhat personal. And unlike many of you who have feelings about it, some also somewhat personal, mine have little to do with a lot of participation in late night showings of RHPS -- maybe I've gone 20 times total, which is nothing for real fans? Anyway. Hrrrrrr. I'm intrigued.

Meanwhile, A hilarious (to me) intersection of science with a movie I love.

Not new, still awesome: FUCK YEAH, SKEKSIS.

Comments

[elisi]

“If you want to improve circulation, run cat pictures.”
Ahahahahahaha! Nothing EVER changes! Thank you. :)

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Hee, I know, right? Though that cat picture was ingenious for expressing a truth or two (it's cold! Sometimes cats are to be found on the streets of NYC!) through cute.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Ryan Murphy has been offered the chance to direct a remake of Rocky Horror

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

*ahem* sorry, I was one of those fans. We still have a show on at the end of every month at an old cinema revival theatre and there's usually a production during the local cons.
I played Magenta... I played the Red Door (for serious). I do not want to know the travesty that Murphy would do the RHPS - I hate the fact that I feel compelled to watch Glee because I love musical theatre >:(

Sorry for the rant, but I find Ryan Murphy's projects pretty insulting most of the time.

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

Every so often, Fox decides that what's needed for RHPS is a revival. The idea has been floating around for at least fifteen years — and before that, it was putting Richard O'Brien's notes for a sequel into production. I don't see how it'll happen.

Also: http://www.bilerico.com/2010/10/rocky_for_tiny_fools_who_quake_with_fear.php

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I don't care who's running the project, a remake of Rocky Horror is just a disaster waiting to happen. People have been trying--and failing--for decades to recapture the magic behind Rocky, and have failed every time. (See also: Repo. Screenings of The Room. Even Buffy sing-alongs.) It's a gigantic waste of money and time.

(And this coming from a vaguely-qualified fan. I ran and performed in my college's production of Rocky for three years, but I've only been to a few other showings.)

[mithrigil.livejournal.com]

Seconded, and I'm one of those who directed it back in college and still goes to new productions. The movie is more community than project at this point. I'm extremely pessimistic about recapturing the magic.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's also debatable what the magic is, which I think is the biggest problem:

Is it that it's sort of terrible?
Is it that everyone was having a great time?
Is it that Jim Sharman is Jim Sharman?
Is it that dude, it was the 70s, and the sexuality just would never read or be handled the same way now?

I think the biggest obstacle is no one knows what the energy they want to recapture is really about.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

It was that the castle they filmed in was about 50F and everyone was running around half naked.

Yeah, I got nothing.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

no one knows what the energy they want to recapture is really about

You have just pointed out the problem with every remake ever.

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Somewhat all of the above, I think, along with, well, Tim Curry.

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

But... BUT: the message that You Are Not Alone, MATTERS.

Thank you for saying this. I've seen several people saying that the project is crap because sometimes it doesn't get better or gets better in one way & worse in another. Knowing you're not alone is huge. And while some people may not be able to hang on to that idea of "it gets better" to get them through the night, some people will.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

With regard to the energy savings in Kansas, I'm surprised that isn't something the Obama admin hasn't been getting behind more publicly. It appeals to a certain American pride in thriftiness and reliance on America's own resources. *And* is probably just as important in the long term for defeating global warming as finding renewable ways to generate energy. *Very* interesting to see how it's being "sold" in positive ways.

You're right - it's important that IGB and related projects get a signal-boost, since this issue matters. (The New Yorker was covering similar territory, though I don't think it explicitly mentioned IGB.)

Hilarious science, perhaps, but that's awesome!

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Of course if Obama threw his visibility and weight behind it, then "they [the Republicans] would say no." :-P

Still, very cool project! And yes, more...

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

Re: Kansas. If it gets the job done, that's fine. I am just always amazed when folks who live smack dab where the Dust Bowl hit blow off the possibility that human action affects the environment.

[tommx.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big fan of the idea of Ryan Murphy directing a remake of Rocky Horror. There are some movies that you just can't remake in my humble opinion, and RHPS is very much one of them. Its particular brand of success was largely an accident, in that I don't think the film makers expected it to become the phenomenon that it did. (i.e. people having responses to the screen, throwing toast, etc.) Hence, trying to recreate that seems to me doomed to failure.

But, I could very well be wrong.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Short-form reaction to "It Gets Better": It's not perfect, but it's something. If we waited for perfect, we'd never have anything. The perfect is the enemy of the good.

Speaking as a perfectionist-in-perpetual-recovery.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

The other thing about the It Gets Better Project is that it's utterly subversive. Would Dan Savage (or you, or me, for that matter) get invited to talk to kids in middle and high schools? By and large, that would be a resounding NO. But on the Internet we can all do a complete end-run around that. And yeah, just knowing there are others out there (and many of those are including references to the Trevor Project, which is a suicide hotline, so that definitely helps) is half the battle sometimes.

I was particularly happy to see a set of them done in ASL, too.

[mercurybard.livejournal.com]

In the school district that I went to high school in, that would be a definite NO...they succeeded in banning the formation of any LGBT-related groups. The closest thing to finding support was getting involved with the theater kids, which was full of all the deviants who weren't sent to alternative school (at least when I was there).

But at the same time, the It Gets Better Project did produce footage of a Fort Worth city council man using his minutes in assembly to spread the message that you can be a cowboy and a member of the community and have a same-sex spouse.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Would love to have heard your thoughts on Cyteen.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

If nothing else, the very existence of IGB raises an important question: Why must we make a person wait until they are 18 before they can go out in public (or even be in their own HOME) with the expectation that they don't have to worry about being assaulted, or in the event that they are assaulted, it will finally be called assault?

I can understand making someone wait until they are 18 to buy cigarettes, but not making them wait until they are 18 to not have to worry about getting clotheslined by some goon. I really don't. And I feel that IGB is raising this very critical question.

[sanat.livejournal.com]

:Like:

[amberite2112.livejournal.com]

would like to hear your thoughts on Cyteen, as well.

'you are not alone' is a MUCH better message than 'it gets better'. cuz, what if it doesn't?

also - RHPS remake? does anyone else see the cultural appropriation going on there? or is that just me? as a trans/poly/queer person that passes as straight, i want to say to these folks - NO! you can't have it! its not yours!
i can see that they don't have a clue about all the subtleties in that movie, as evidenced by how they are re-imaging it. i think there ought to be a protest about this, and soon.

[byzantienne.livejournal.com]

And now I'm writing commentfic about Grant.

(Awesome conversation, though. Seriously.)

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I'm a little uncomfortable with you framing the dingo story as "wacky Australian news". I know it's passed into popular culture as a reference, and how people engage with it on those terms (as per Patty's reaction) is interesting - but the article you link to is then not about that but the case itself, which is horrific and tragic and sits rather badly with your word choice.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I am not even sure what to do here.

If I remove the whole thing: my insensitivity is erased and that is not appropriate.

If I remove the offending sentence: I'm still sort of "OMG, POP CULTURE!" about it.

If I leave it alone, I am an asshole.

I am going to strike out the whole thing (but leave visible) and point out my fail. I hope that is acceptable.

My apologies.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I appreciate that. It is certainly worthy of comment how media retellings lead people to respond to cases like this like they're fiction (or not realise it isn't) - and how we/the media circus round child killings in general - but the case itself - ow.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I like this exchange very much. It's nice to see.

Also, I get very upset with "HAHAHAHA MCDONALD'S COFFEE CASE" rhetoric myself, and it's good to have a reminder about other things that have become frivolous in the retelling but are really quite serious.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

For all of society's sneering at parents who won't let their kids out of their sight, the Chamberlain case does point out how quickly we turn on parents who have an out of the blue tragedy happen to them.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

See also: Madeleine McCann - the discourse certainly developed a hint of savage glee when her parents became implicated in her disappearance. Not that I don't think the possibility needed serious consideration in both cases, since, statistically, parents killing their children is horrifically common, but I think sometimes we want it to be as awful as it can be, for the sheer story of it.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that - while the case has certainly gone into "OMG POP CULTURE" territory, it's a horrible story which is still affecting the lives of those involved. One good thing, I suppose, is that we're never going to get the death penalty back while the Chamberlain case is in living memory.

[azn-jack-fiend.livejournal.com]

I'm a monster Cherryh fan, and bought Regenesis as soon as it came out, but the series really isn't one of my favorites by her. I love the plotting, the intrigue, the weird morality of it... but all the characters leave me cold.

I think the main reason is the class dynamic. All of my favorite sci-fi books by her are written from the bottom up, not the top down. Like Rimrunners, for example. The Cyteen books are from the POV of a slavemaster caste, so I can't help but draw parallels to the real world... the lives of the Reseune elite are interesting, but it's hard for me to care if they're hurt, or if they die. Florian and Caitlin are the most identifiable, and I wish there'd been more of them.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Obviously I can't follow the video (on the debate of whether fundamentalism is to blame for gay bashing), but I note that Ann Althouse is representing the fundamentalist side. Is this actually a debate worthy of watching?

Also, I'm still searching for an atheist homophobe.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Re: atheist homophobe. Try trolling Randian objectivist blogs. If they exist, I suspect that's where they'd end up.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Nope, you're right.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Oooh, great idea! I'm sure they exist, they just don't seem to jump out of the woodwork the way the religious nutjobs do.

[wingstar.livejournal.com]

I came out to my dad as bi this weekend (he and I are both atheists) and... he's certainly not a virulent homophobe, but he definitely started talking about "if that's your choice" and the "lifestyle" and then changed the subject to babies, as in me having them.

...consider me more baffled than anything.

[ophymirage.livejournal.com]

when my mom forced me out of the closet, many years ago now, "the babies" was the thing she was stuck on as well. I pointed out that, as a bisexual, my chances for babies & marriage might in fact be significantly better than the average woman's (marry a guy and have babies, marry a woman and have babies, marry a woman and SHE has babies, marry a guy who has babies from a previous marriage, etc.)

In the interests of not breaking her heart completely, I left out the bit where I've known since I was about 13 and babysitting that I don't like children in general, have no interest in raising any, make a decent auntie in specific (friends' kids), and the thought of actually having something living & moving around in my abdomen gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies. That all came out in later years..

ETA, because I should: congrats to you for the come-out. it's an act of incredible bravery, every time, every person. Well done, you.

[wingstar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's actually a pretty good point to make! I'm pretty young, so for me, babies are... in the nebulous future, to be thought about later. :)

I guess that's why I was confused, since in my brain, the two subjects (sexual orientation and whether or not to have kids) aren't related at all. But maybe actually he was stuck on biological babies, and could use a reminder about non-biological babies? (ps, has "babies" stopped looking like a word at this point?)

Either way, I hope you and your mom are at an okay (for you) place now. *ehugs*

And, thank you. :)

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia. Personally, I think she doesn't care about homosexuality in the slightest, but is perfectly happy to deny us marriage rights to appeal to the supposed "swinging voter".

[ldybastet.livejournal.com]

I think the "It Gets Better" project is at least an important start. Like many people online have pointed out, yes, it might actually be a lie. Maybe it doesn't get better at all. But if these videos can give a few teenagers a little hope to hold on to and stop them from killing themselves because they think that maybe there is a way out after all (apart from that big one)? "It Can Get Better" would be less of a lie, but would also not bring as much hope. I don't know. First step? Next project will be better?

[melebeth]

Hmph, I failed to hang out at Shake Shack last night, because when I got there at 8 it was still way too crowded for M. and I to sit, eat ice cream, and quietly discuss freelance writing. I'm jealous.

[mercurybard.livejournal.com]

As someone who has never been involved in a production of Rocky Horror and who has in fact been banned from ever seeing another showing by several friends, I still find the idea of a remake to be a travesty.

Some things are better left alone, Hollywood. Go invent something new for a change!

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Hillary Clinton put out a video...!
Secretary Clinton: "Tomorrow Will Be Better"

Note that the auto captioning on this is actually pretty decent. There's supposed to be a transcript at her gov't site, but I haven't found it yet.