sundries

[rm]

We're back. We wound up much more off-line than intended due to a range of fascinating technical difficulties.

While I and the Internet were not working correctly, the International Transgender Day of Remembrance took place. Trans people and those perceived to be gender non-conforming can be at extremely elevated levels of risk for violence. We must remember as a step towards stopping the violence.

Netflix is screwing over its customers who use captioning. Illegally.

North Korea has fired on South Korea. This is very, very bad.

Vatican shifts position on condom use in some cases. Too little, too late is one very valid response to this. But what interests me is the implication that preventing something that's been viewed as a punishment for sin is acceptable. Doesn't that imply that even if one is to suffer in hell in the afterlife, that's no reason to encourage suffering in this one? That's interesting to me.

New York knows all stories are true.

I should say this more often than I do: Jason Isaacs is really cool. (Kali - READ THIS).

It's not just the sizes for women's clothes that lie.

Reviving the lost art of the castrato.

So Warner Bros is having someone write a script for a Whedon-free Buffy reboot. Y'all know how far "someone writing a script" is from "film actually getting made" is, right? Really frigging far. Even with noise about "2012 or even 2011." Believing it when I see it. Feeling really bad for folks for whom this feels personal, though. It's not for me, but I know what these things are like.

Have discovered my access point to old Doctor Who may be novelizations -- that way I don't have to face the crap effects.

Aside from being generally wonderful, our 24 hours at the St Davids was Super Fucking Weird for the first 90 seconds thanks to Bad Fanfiction I Have Read, also some Good Fanfiction I Have Read too. Just saying. It was lolariously awesome.

Possible best thing about Hay-on-Wye? Reciting horrible back cover copy to each other. Especially of porn thinly veiled as sci-fi from the late 60s.

Also, Patty and I have watched some Sherlock. I have (and have had for some time) many things to say, but for now I'll just say, Euros Lyn can direct anything. It's the pacing that makes it so good.

Have got Yuletide assignment. It is excellent.

Less than 1 month for us to raise the Dogboy & Justine funding. We still need to average $68 and change for each of the next 28 days. Eek.

Time to go make dinner.

Comments

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Jason Issacs was my favourite thing in the movie. Seriously.

This has been my face because of the Buffy thing >:-( *sigh*

St. David sounds lovely.

Sherlock is awesome! I too *squeed* at Euros Lynn.

There are issues - race and gender, fail, which I've unfortunately come to expect from Moffat (though in "Jekyll" he was better in that rgard). The fandom is a bit... um... I probably should not be disparaging as it is prolific and a much of the works are good, but the superb things are slightly harder to find.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I have race and gender things to say, but I'm waiting until I have time. Highly complicated by issues of source material (race) and what Moffett may have been trying to do vs. what actually happened there (gender).

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I look forward to your thoughts.

I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to the source material (I've only read a couple of the stories) so I can't comment on that regard, but man if Moffat tried to do what I think he tried to do, he veered severely off the mark (though I think the female characters in the show are great, despite the complications - rather than complexities).

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

a) That men's pans link explains so much! (as I am prone to wearing men's pants and all. Old Navy especially, heh.)

b) re: the Vatican, noting please that I am a non-Catholic, I nonetheless think you have hit the nail on the head.

to clarify a point

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

re the pope and condom use.....

everyone seems to either attribute to the Catholic church positions stated by other religions, or mis interpret what was said...

so remembering that i am not a theologian, and just to clarify what the church teaches on the subject (although its better stated in the Catechism)

The Catholic church simply holds that any sex outside of marriage (as they define that) is a sin. period.
gay sex is no more sinful, and no less, than het sex outside of lawful marriage.

this does not mean you should get a disease, or that this is a punishment. they hold that sexually transmitted diseases ARE a natural consequence of sinful behavior, but are not pointing at YOU and saying YOU got it because YOU sinned....

sexually transmitted diseases affect many people who are NOT engaged in anything "sinful" like that. its because the *world* is fallen and sinful and everyone pays for it even if its unfair.
so the chaste wife gets a disease from her cheating husband. the hemophiliac gets a disease from a blood transfusion, and the playboy picks it up from wild parties... can we trace this back to "sin" certainly.. but not that THEY are being punished for THEIR sin necessarily.

as to condom use.
the pope, in his PERSONAL capacity, not speaking ex cathedra.. has stated that condom use, while not desirable, can be a first step toward consideration for others and mitigating a problematic lifestyle.

so...... a gay prostitute using a condom is not *compounding* his sin, but may be mitigating it slightly...


Its the born again Christians, the baptists, and the four square churches that held an official position that "AIDS was Gods punishment on sinners"

Re: to clarify a point

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

These are all good points, though I'm going to quibble with a few of them. First, though, a question. Does Catholicism even have the idea that you can be punished (by God) for a sin while alive? I mean, I think it happens in the Bible, but I don't think it's floating around Catholicism. (It actually strikes me as a relatively recent idea in some strains of Protestantism, but I don't exactly have an encyclopedic knowledge of Christianity.)

While, as far as I've ever been able to tell, all non-procreative sex acts and all procreative ones outside the context of marriage are the same sin*, in some sense, I find it very hard to understand the Church as equally hostile to heterosexual and homosexual sexual activity outside of marriage or not hostile to gay people--the Pope's still not ended his campaign against gay priests, for instance. The Church is still a long way from "We like gay people" or even "Well, we like you, but we won't marry you".

I think it's very hard to parse, first, precisely what the Pope meant and, second, what weight it carries. There was initially ambiguity about whether he was referring to male or female prostitutes, which has been clarified to prostitutes in general, which seems to suggest that the fact condoms have a contraceptive use is an acceptable side effect of their use to prevent disease transmission. It's pretty clearly not an official change in the Church position, but I don't think it's so easy to draw a line between the Pope's personal statements and his official statements. Regardless of whether he's speaking as the Pope or Joseph Ratzinger, he's made a theological statement and, to me, that's different if he, I don't know, offered his opinion on a restaurant. The Pope's theological statements are going to carry more weight than another theologian's statements, particularly, I think, this Pope. If he's seen as being movable on the issue of condoms, suddenly the Church is movable, whereas it previously looked like this Pope was going to dig his heels in over everything.

*Though, if you scrutinise the Catechism, one might wonder whether the Church counts sex not involving a person theoretically once capable of producing sperm as sex.

Re: to clarify a point

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

no
Catholicism officially doesnt hold that people get punished for sin while alive.

at least, not usually (there have been exceptional smitings) and not like that.
people suffer, (Not are punished) because of sin in teh world. generically. we live in a sinful world and so many people suffer. period.

there are many many quibbles! certainly, i have a few myself...

one of the issues is the difference between "dogma" or official teachings, and the opinions of important people in teh church. that happens.

i suspect the hostility to gay priests is being fueled especially by three things (not agreeing with!!!!! simply pointing to issues)

1. the fact that the church is always accused of "harboring teh gays!" by other churches, and they specifically point at celibate priests as a "safe haven" for gays.. i suspect the reaction to that has been to dig in their heels a lot.
2. there have been instances of SOME seminaries having some very abusive gay teachers and seminarians, who were badly behaved, often AT the other seminarians. This led to at least a few would be priests leaving the church and joining other even less gay friendly churches, while proclaiming how the seminary was a hot bed of gay sex. what do you think the reaction in the church heirarchy was to THAT? it only has to happen once to blow up .....
3. the constant confusion between pedophilia, which is often same sex, and homosexuality, which is not an attraction to children. as long as those two keep getting confused there will be issues. (basically a lot fo straight folk just see "but it was a male priest and a male child" they dont GET the difference)

honestly? i think lesbianism is one of those things that.. well teh church inherited the Jewish position on sex a lot.
to over simplify?
we are a tribe. we must reproduce. anything that leads to not reproducing is bad. also leaving teh tribe or marrying THOSE PEOPLE OVER THERE is bad. men making with other than the wimmin =no kids.

if the girls want to play with each other , as long as they make babies and dont endanger my paternity, its nothing we need to know about

honestly most of Catholicsim is layering on that tribal "must track lineage" stuff....

N korea

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

yup, very very bad. and s korea has had to fire back and chase off the fighter jets.

worry, definately worry.

Re: N korea

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

It's serious, certainly, but all part of a definite pattern of behaviour on the North's part.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

It's not just the sizes for women's clothes that lie.

Wow.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

may i swipe this icon?

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Go ahead! Credit as per my own icons-page.

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

"Among other provisions, the legislation requires telecom equipment used to make calls over the Internet to be compatible with hearing aids, provides for captioning on new TV programs online, and mandates that remote controls have a button or similar mechanism to easily access the closed captioning on broadcast and pay TV."

I don't know that this law actually effects Netflix content, however, as it is not broadcasting any new programming (though last year they did a one-time deal with Showtime's "Blood and Sand"). They are instead responsible for going into their back catalog and recaptioning old content for streaming, which appears to be harder than one would think, and in fact something they must develop new technology to do. And while yes, they have recently raised their prices (one dollar-- after having lowered them in previous years), this is the first raise I've seen since having been with them almost two years at this point, and don't consider it to be unreasonable. I can see how frustrating it must be for someone who relies on subtitles, but I can't see their actions as screwing their customers.

[yarram.livejournal.com]

Actually, Hulu and YouTube both have existing technologies in place. And captioning is entirely separate from subtitles - they occupy a completely separate data channel, so it has to be deliberately omitted. True, many DVDs omit captions and just use English subtitles instead, which is reasonable if not 100% strictly kosher, because captions and subtitles serve different purposes. On top of which, if either is present, it's a simple text file with timing cues. You just do what YouTube did - adapt existing technology to display the captions, or not, as the user deems fit.

[Not touching the YouTube autocaptioning feature, because ROFLOLOL CAPTION BLOOPERS GALORE, but hey, at least they're pretending to try.]

[rm.livejournal.com]

Have adjusted original post to say "captioning" since my mistake muddied the water on this issue. Thanks for commenting so I could get that cleaned up.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Possible best thing about Hay-on-Wye? Reciting horrible back cover copy to each other. Especially of porn thinly veiled as sci-fi from the late 60s.

*grins* There are very similar Star Trek novels from the late 70s, The Price of the Phoenix and its sequel The Fate of the Phoenix (1977 & 1979) have to be seen to be believed - extended wrestling scenes, Kirk being ordered to kneel and call the villain "master", while thinking about Spock...

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

"much of pre-19th-century opera — or for that matter, Shakespearean comedy — is based on the understanding that what drives a woman wild is a boy who may or may not be a girl."

Hee!

[andrewducker]

I grew up with the Target novelisations of Dr Who serials. I've read a fair few that I've never seen the TV series of, and overall I'm quite glad of that, because the special effects (and acting) were much better in my head.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I remember that the Target novelization of "The Chase" actually had a foreword to a similar effect: "this is the story that we *could've* told if we'd had the budget", including a lot of sequences that had to be cut from the final show.

[marymac.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Target version of Five's Omega story (that I acquired because the owner of the really big kids bookshop in Hay On Wye was so entertained by my teenaged self bluescreening over All The Books that she let me down into the store) is much, much better read than see. It ... well, it very clearly isn't Amsterdam, for a start.

[sanat.livejournal.com]

Jason Isaacs came up with the wand-cane idea himself? :swoons:

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Possible best thing about Hay-on-Wye? Reciting horrible back cover copy to each other. Especially of porn thinly veiled as sci-fi from the late 60s.

Okay, that's awesome.

The Netflix thing, however, is not awesome. I didn't realize that their streaming option could caption, mind, but knowing that it's supposed to is more than a little bit angry-making. Cranky customer feedback mode engaged.

I find myself baffled and skeptical of this whole Vatican condom thing. Like I'm so used to bad/ragey news from them that I'm waiting for an extra special shoe of badness to drop. I realize these things are relative, but still.

And man. I knew I liked Old Navy for a reason.

As for the countertenors, I'm amazed and in a little bit of love. Then again, I also listen to Antony and the Johnsons and have a fair bit of Alfred Deller, now that I look at my iTunes library...