sundries

[rm]

Patty and I had lots of Internet time yesterday, until my connection crapped out too badly to say goodnight, which isn't fair at all.

Today is a public holiday here, which means even more things are closed than on Sundays. I have some work to do here today though because of time-sensitive deadlines for our US efforts.

As a New Yorker, one of the things that is natural to me is crossing against the light. If there's no car coming, you just go. Hell, even if there is. This works less well in other cities often, both due to custom and traffic patterns. Certainly it almost got me killed in Sydney a few times; it shocks people in Chicago; and I've even been ticketed for it in DC. Here, where often no cars will come for the entire time there's a five-minute don't walk sign, I've been told I can be arrested if I cross against the light.

Today, with the public holiday and no one being out, that feels particularly onerous, and it made me realize what the crux of my culture-shock here is. New York is a vast and brutal city. I may not be her master, but I am constantly invited to try, no matter how recalcitrant she may be. Here, I'm expected to roll-over, joyfully and seamlessly to rules I apparently refuse to even understand the point of. And this is no New York. And it makes me chaffe. My issue, not Switzerland's, but it's interesting, ne?

Logistical issues with Treble Entendre's website have been solved, and it, as well as, Inception: the Musical will be live this week. This is a huge weight off of everyone's shoulders. Yay Webinatrix!

Dogboy & Justine is $145 away from the 50% mark.

Yesterday I did an interview with with a journalist in New York about the show and about the fundraising path. This while being in a Starbucks here and having to holler into the mic on Skype.

That said, it was a lot of fun, even if I was long-winded, and felt like I had to be a bit defensive at times (see, it's so great that I was a journalist, as I find hard questions to be "you are awesome and doing your job!").

So yes, in case you wanted to know, with targeted marketing I don't think the fact that this show is about dominatrixes makes it a hard sell.

I also go to respond to, "so this happened awfully fast!" I'll stop spoiling you now.

You know what's great? Unless I really, really want to, I don't have to touch another screenplay until I'm back in NYC (wherein there's another round in the challenge I'm doing, and then the following weekend I'm taking a two day production-related course). I may just want to, but man, I need storyboarding paper first next time. Can't draw in a way that I would EVER show another human, but I have to do it visually or I struggle. I still feel so good about having done it though. I'm running away from shit less.

I received a completely eerie tarot card reading from wyld_dandelyon last night. It told me little I didn't know, but it made it stick. It also reminded me of something really important: if people have qualities I find pleasant and relate to in my own nature; odds are they have qualities that I relate to that are pretty nasty, and I should be as cautious of them in others as I am of them in myself.

It seems terrorists were targeting an LGBT synagogue in Chicago.

Theodore Sorensen has died. My own note on this is that I read Kennedy for a school paper in seventh grade, and as the author referred to the President as Jack, so did I in my paper. I was scolded for it, most severely, by my teacher, and it is the origin of just how hard I work (but do not always succeed) to only refer to by first name those people I've actually met (or, I suppose, talked to at length on line), despite the general acceptability of affectionate verbal familiarity in fannish circles.

Explaining the Second Avenue subway to first graders.

Original Pronunciation: the original sound of Shakespeare's words. Man, I would love to do a production like this. Just to feel the words that way. Fantastic.

Hedonism in austerity times. Man, I totally want to stay at 40 Winks.

You know New York is having hard times and art times when it's all about the subway tunnels again: the Underbelly Project.

Prothonotary warbler arrives in New York, summons paparazzi.

The last ordinary day before the Civil War started.

So, finally getting around to Merlin 3.01. I love that it has a new darker tone. It's still an incoherent mess though. Everyone is an idiot.

Morgana's "character development" happened off-screen (and apparently more cool dresses = more evil). And again with the incoherent views on genocide! Also, it totally seems like Uther has the hots for Morgana; and like Morgana and her sister want to bang.

Meanwhile, gratuitous Arthur/Merlin is still gratuitous. And, as usual the chemistry between actors is getting in the way of this being an actual show with an actual coherent narrative. That said, the hints of an actual succession plot is, as most things on the show, tantalizing, and so I refrain from expecting too much of it.

Also, seriously, did we have to trade in actual acting for "and now I talk in the evil voice!" I hate that shit, and don't know whether to blame the actors or the director.

Finally, the level of "Merlin is a cowardly girl" humour is offensive, not just because it's boring and insulting to women, but because of the allegory of being closeted that surrounds Merlin's character. I am highly uncomfortable.

Comments

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Certainly it almost got me killed in Sydney a few times

Heh, I cross against the lights all the time in Sydney. Strangely, my mother seemed to think that crossing against the lights in Ireland would be hugely culturally inappropriate -- even though the Irish put the least stock in road rules of any people I have ever encountered (yet they are also some of the most polite drivers I have ever encountered too).

ETA: And yeah, Merlin is fucked. The way in which hidden magic functions as a closet metaphor has been upsetting me since S2; the whole thing could have been handled in a much more complex and non-offensive way. I'm disliking the way Morgana is portrayed throughout S3, but I have enjoyed the character development of other characters.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, people do it, but for me, with everything on the wrong side of the road and a different traffic light pattern, I just could not get the hang of it.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

re: Merlin -- Yes. I will only say that Merlin 3x08 was the best episode of the show I have seen, and is kind of like -- WHY IS THE REST OF THE SHOW NEVER LIKE THIS? WHY WHY WHY?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Why is it so bad? Why do we keep watching? No one on the show is hot enough to merit this. And it's not bad enough to be entertaining in that manner either.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Jaywalking is par for the course up here in Boston, but I think you already know that. Whenever I've visited places where people actually wait it still dumbfounds me.

The Shakespeare clip is utterly fascinating. And yeah, your typical New England accents aren't that far removed from it.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't find the dialogue that hard to understand in those clips. I was catching a good 80%. It sounded less foreign to my ear than I would have expected.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

I found it very easy to understand too.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

:-) about crossing against the light.

That was one of the signals to me that dating a particular New Yorker wasn't right for me. It was my first trip to New York, and we were in Brooklyn. He was halfway down the block on the other side of the street, and I was still standing on the curb. It wasn't the fact that he crossed that was the problem, so much as that he crossed without making sure that I was coming along.

[azn-jack-fiend.livejournal.com]

I've never had the slightest desire to watch Merlin because the people who watch it regularly and write fanfiction for it all cheerfully proclaim that the show sucks dead donkeys. I just don't get it *scratches head*

Glad you're holding up in Switzerland!

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

?? I'm a native Chicagoan and I jaywalk all the time, as do most people I know. Odd.

[skitty-kitty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was gonna say, I was born in the Chi-town area and it's def. made me a huge jaywalker. My friend I visited in LA blew my mind when she said you get ticketed there for jaywalking. I had no idea any cop would waste their time doing that, lol.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in so CA you'll find a fair number of jaywalkers, but you do run the risk of getting ticketed. I don't know why, but it's always European visitors around here who get it the worst (most likely to be ticketed). Maybe b/c the rest of us check for the fuzz as well as the cars ;-)

[solitary-summer.livejournal.com]

Finally, the level of "Merlin is a cowardly girl" humour is offensive, not just because it's boring and insulting to women, but because of the allegory of being closeted that surrounds Merlin's character.

What also really annoys me continuity-wise is that S1's Labyrinth of Gedref specifically dealt with that issue and showed Arthur questioning this kind of thinking and all the associated 'masculine' clichés like valuing honour above everything else, hunting and killing for the fun of it, etc. But then they decided to reset his character in S2 and ever since then he's been very hit-or-miss.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Interesting about the different politics of jaywalking (I think I did know about DC's jaywalking laws, though I've never understood why they were so draconian). I can't say that I did it even remotely as much in the UK, partly because there weren't as many streets governed by traffic-lights where I was, partly because the cycles were usually pretty sensitive to both traffic and passenger demand, so it wasn't hugely taxing on one's patience to wait.

And interesting about how rules and byelaws in cities in general differ, yes.

[puella-nerdii.livejournal.com]

I like the new darker tone in theory, but the kind of tone they're shooting for is incompatible with the series' usual "inter-episode continuity and development what inter-episode continuity and development" stance on things, and you can't actually engage with the kinds of themes they're shooting for if there are no lasting consequences. It's hard to care about any of the grimdark twists if we know the status will be quo next episode. I didn't mind so much during season one because the plots were a hell of a lot more lighthearted, and Arthur and Merlin's relationship did develop over the course of the season, but the show seems stuck in sitcom mode now as far as actual character development goes, and it's frustrating.

Also, the Shakespeare nerd in me delights at that article. Mmm, linguistics.