Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
I lied
I just can't let it die. Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, none of them can replace my darling blog.
My current obsessions are the Girl's Guide to Rocking, Das Racist(yes, still), Werner Herzog, and what I like to call "The New Sincerity." I'm going to try and make my relationship with the internet nice and earnest, even if only 2/3 of my current obsessions contain actual feeling.
Probable future posts include "Why I make my boyfriend prescreen episodes of Mad Men for me," "Are you more likely to have a doorman or be a doorman," and "Why the first season of Rhoda is more progressive than all six seasons of Sex and the City." Stay tuned.
My current obsessions are the Girl's Guide to Rocking, Das Racist(yes, still), Werner Herzog, and what I like to call "The New Sincerity." I'm going to try and make my relationship with the internet nice and earnest, even if only 2/3 of my current obsessions contain actual feeling.
Probable future posts include "Why I make my boyfriend prescreen episodes of Mad Men for me," "Are you more likely to have a doorman or be a doorman," and "Why the first season of Rhoda is more progressive than all six seasons of Sex and the City." Stay tuned.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
And another thing...
Much as I love a good scandal, it's absurd that this mess is front-page news when the unlawful arrest of Amy Goodman, Nicole Salazar, and Sharif Abdel Kouddous in St. Paul isn't even noted by major news sources. If Goodman doesn't warrant mainstream media attention, the actions of the St. Paul police against peaceful activists are doomed to go unnoticed.
According to several news reports I have read, police are staging a frightening number of preemptive strikes against protester targets. The New York Times buried its article about clashes between police and activists far down the page, and its coverage tiptoes around the blatant violation of civil liberties even as it documents them. Alternet, Democracy Now!, and Firedoglake all feature on-the-ground reports of the clashes and the protests. As a friend's pictures show, it's not just hurricanes and Juno jokes in Minnesota this week.
According to several news reports I have read, police are staging a frightening number of preemptive strikes against protester targets. The New York Times buried its article about clashes between police and activists far down the page, and its coverage tiptoes around the blatant violation of civil liberties even as it documents them. Alternet, Democracy Now!, and Firedoglake all feature on-the-ground reports of the clashes and the protests. As a friend's pictures show, it's not just hurricanes and Juno jokes in Minnesota this week.
I'm deeply conflicted about this whole Sarah Palin/Bristol Palin/Trig Palin/yet-to-be-named-but-probably-to-be-Algebra-or-Triangle-or-Wolverine Palin-Johnston baby situation. I want to leave the poor girl alone, and I know all the terrible jokes I want to make about how Bristol may have had mono but wasn't "too tired" to get herself up the stick are in terrible taste, but I know that this is something that matters for the election and I think it needs to be discussed.
Others have said this, but it's worth saying a million times: no matter how, or whether(I'll concede it's probable she felt that "choosing life" was the right thing to do, but good luck convincing me that her upcoming GOP-sponsored shotgun wedding was her idea), Bristol Palin came to the decision to continue her pregnancy, John McCain and Sarah Palin don't believe any other woman in America deserves that freedom. They believe that grown women of all races and backgrounds are less capable of making decisions about their bodies than a small-town, backwoods child.
It is not necessary to impugn Sarah Palin as a mother in order to have a discussion about the hypocrisy that the Republican party and the religious right have shown since the decision was made to sacrifice a young girl to political ambition. You want to talk about how great it is that this girl made the "right" choice? It's fair game to talk about how you want to take it away from others. You want to talk abut how great it is that you made a difficult but rewarding decision to give birth to a disabled baby? Let's talk about the fact that you don't support funding special education programs.
John McCain picked Sarah Palin because he honestly thought women voters would be dumb enough to believe that an incompetent, corrupt, anti-woman woman was better than no woman on the ticket. He believes we're all trollops, cunts, and morons, and he was so mad that he didn't get his way with Ridge or Lieberman that he made a bad decision and expects us all to think that "history" is enough of a reason to overlook his blatant disregard for women and their abilities. The best thing women can do to fight back is to tear him and his running mate to shreds on everything they stand for.
While I'm on the subject of attacks, I think it should be fair game to attack Sarah Palin for being just a pretty face. Remember John Edwards and his $400 hair cuts? It was okay to criticize him for lacking experience because of his short Senate tenure, his career as a slick ambulance-chaser, and because he was attractive. This woman is not smart. She is not informed. She has no experience. But she knows how to smile pretty and speak in good soundbites because she used to have to do it for the beauty pageant judges. The Vice President has to do a lot more than go to Wal-Mart ribbon cutting ceremonies, and anyone who thinks it's unfair to criticize Palin for being all surface is painfully naive.
Others have said this, but it's worth saying a million times: no matter how, or whether(I'll concede it's probable she felt that "choosing life" was the right thing to do, but good luck convincing me that her upcoming GOP-sponsored shotgun wedding was her idea), Bristol Palin came to the decision to continue her pregnancy, John McCain and Sarah Palin don't believe any other woman in America deserves that freedom. They believe that grown women of all races and backgrounds are less capable of making decisions about their bodies than a small-town, backwoods child.
It is not necessary to impugn Sarah Palin as a mother in order to have a discussion about the hypocrisy that the Republican party and the religious right have shown since the decision was made to sacrifice a young girl to political ambition. You want to talk about how great it is that this girl made the "right" choice? It's fair game to talk about how you want to take it away from others. You want to talk abut how great it is that you made a difficult but rewarding decision to give birth to a disabled baby? Let's talk about the fact that you don't support funding special education programs.
John McCain picked Sarah Palin because he honestly thought women voters would be dumb enough to believe that an incompetent, corrupt, anti-woman woman was better than no woman on the ticket. He believes we're all trollops, cunts, and morons, and he was so mad that he didn't get his way with Ridge or Lieberman that he made a bad decision and expects us all to think that "history" is enough of a reason to overlook his blatant disregard for women and their abilities. The best thing women can do to fight back is to tear him and his running mate to shreds on everything they stand for.
While I'm on the subject of attacks, I think it should be fair game to attack Sarah Palin for being just a pretty face. Remember John Edwards and his $400 hair cuts? It was okay to criticize him for lacking experience because of his short Senate tenure, his career as a slick ambulance-chaser, and because he was attractive. This woman is not smart. She is not informed. She has no experience. But she knows how to smile pretty and speak in good soundbites because she used to have to do it for the beauty pageant judges. The Vice President has to do a lot more than go to Wal-Mart ribbon cutting ceremonies, and anyone who thinks it's unfair to criticize Palin for being all surface is painfully naive.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
There are worse reasons to have sex...
Earlier this year, a friend and I spent an evening plotting out trajectories for summer romances. We both reasoned that since we are intelligent, attractive, and endowed with the sort of quirks that repel i-bankers and attract intelligent but sometimes financially deficient creative types, we were probably doomed to some very sweaty affairs. We lamented the misery of the summer prior, spent sleeping directly in front of discount-mart oscillating fans, and we made a pact: our (still theoretical) boyfriends would have A/C.
Fast-forward six months. Boyfriends? Check. Icy cool sleep? Check(at least in one case). Imagine my dismay when I read that this harmless little dream scenario is, according to one Judy McGuire, called "appliance envy," and is a bad reason to have sex.
I know, I know, she's talking about sleeping with someone you actively dislike in order to get that sweet, sweet freon breeze. In the grand scheme of things, isn't adding, "has air conditioning/cable/awesome collection of comedy DVDs" to the "pro" list better than scribbling down, "has enough money to try to buy my love?"
(Incidentally, it was all over for me long before the A/C was installed. It was all over at, "I DVR-ed Battlestar Galactica for you." Now that's a good reason to have sex.)
Fast-forward six months. Boyfriends? Check. Icy cool sleep? Check(at least in one case). Imagine my dismay when I read that this harmless little dream scenario is, according to one Judy McGuire, called "appliance envy," and is a bad reason to have sex.
I know, I know, she's talking about sleeping with someone you actively dislike in order to get that sweet, sweet freon breeze. In the grand scheme of things, isn't adding, "has air conditioning/cable/awesome collection of comedy DVDs" to the "pro" list better than scribbling down, "has enough money to try to buy my love?"
(Incidentally, it was all over for me long before the A/C was installed. It was all over at, "I DVR-ed Battlestar Galactica for you." Now that's a good reason to have sex.)
Saturday, August 16, 2008
According to the local affiliate's Olympics news, there are 20 women(I think on the US team, I wasn't listening closely) on the US team that "have an even more important title than [Olympian]-mom." As if that wasn't annoying enough, according to the same announcer, having kids and being an Olympic-caliber athlete is only a full-time job for the women on the team. Are there no Olympian fathers? I'm sure that plenty of them get to take naps whenever they want without thinking of their kids' schedules(Dara Torres, you're twice as old as some of your competitors and you're good enough to win the gold medal-if you don't get to take naps whenever you want, you have a shitty husband).
It sucks that Jennie Finch has such a positive attitude towards not allowing herself to be objectified in men's magazine photo shoots but doesn't object to being the face of the "supermom" myth.
As penance for not listening closely to the obnoxious and sexist Olympic coverage, please enjoy this picture of Michael Phelps in a tiny Speedo.
It sucks that Jennie Finch has such a positive attitude towards not allowing herself to be objectified in men's magazine photo shoots but doesn't object to being the face of the "supermom" myth.
As penance for not listening closely to the obnoxious and sexist Olympic coverage, please enjoy this picture of Michael Phelps in a tiny Speedo.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
This discovery might make up for my disappointment with the new X-Files movie. Head transplants are not nearly as scary as the Peacock family.
In the years since the X-Files went off the air, Chris Carter seems to have forgotten a few things, namely that the show was based around supernatural phenomena. Many critics have pointed out that the post-9/11 world might not be as open to a show as rooted in distrust of government as the X-Files, but it certainly seems to be open to sci-fi. Lost, Heroes, and my beloved Battlestar Galactica have thrived. Why, then, did Carter decide to create a central mystery for The X-Files: I Want to Believe that wouldn't be out of place on a special Halloween episode of CSI?
When it comes down to it, the story wasn't original. Carter and company essentially remade The Silence of the Lambs with more utilitarian villains. The Russian(I called him Leoben while watching the movie-Callum Keith Rennie might be in danger of type-casting) isn't interested in fashion, he's interested in function, specifically in easy to kidnap female bodies. It's just too bad their heads have to come off before he can let his husband see if they fit. The psychic pedophile priest barely DOES anything, and a side plot about Scully, her ever-conflicted faith, and stem-cell research(clearly written in after Gillian Anderson discovered she was pregnant and couldn't do serious stunts), was distracting and frustrating.
A Catholic hospital would be a great place for a conspiracy. 15 years ago, stem-cell research would probably have sounded like something out of an X-Files episode. Religious zeal and orthodoxy have infected government and science alike in the last eight years; Scully's scientific rigor and Mulder's search for the hidden Truth are heroic for different reasons now than they were during the show's heyday. There were good ideas buried in the script, and I wish that Carter had explored them instead of writing a slightly more gruesome "woman-in-distress" flick.
I'll set aside my attempt to make a serious critique of the film and mention my real frustrations: there were no aliens. None. No aliens, no giant flukeworms, no telekinetic teenagers, no evil inbred recluses, no Cher-loving abominations of science, no prehistoric ice-dwelling rage-parasites, nothing. Many of the stand alone episodes featured memorable creatures, some of which still give me the heebie-jeebies(don't put me in a freshly cut section of forest at dusk. I'll freak out). I wasn't expecting much from the movie, but even my diminished hopes were disappointed. It was good to see Mulder and Scully again, weird as it was to see them acting like a couple, but it felt like a missed opportunity. I know I'll never be able to recapture the feeling I had the first time I saw an episode of the show("E.B.E.," in my basement, with all the lights off, when I was 11), but I'm sure if they make another one, I'll go and hope.
A Postscript: I spent the whole time Rennie was on-screen suppressing the urge to shout, "You'll never create another Starbuck!" Clearly I've found a new show to love obsessively. Once a nerd, always a nerd.
In the years since the X-Files went off the air, Chris Carter seems to have forgotten a few things, namely that the show was based around supernatural phenomena. Many critics have pointed out that the post-9/11 world might not be as open to a show as rooted in distrust of government as the X-Files, but it certainly seems to be open to sci-fi. Lost, Heroes, and my beloved Battlestar Galactica have thrived. Why, then, did Carter decide to create a central mystery for The X-Files: I Want to Believe that wouldn't be out of place on a special Halloween episode of CSI?
When it comes down to it, the story wasn't original. Carter and company essentially remade The Silence of the Lambs with more utilitarian villains. The Russian(I called him Leoben while watching the movie-Callum Keith Rennie might be in danger of type-casting) isn't interested in fashion, he's interested in function, specifically in easy to kidnap female bodies. It's just too bad their heads have to come off before he can let his husband see if they fit. The psychic pedophile priest barely DOES anything, and a side plot about Scully, her ever-conflicted faith, and stem-cell research(clearly written in after Gillian Anderson discovered she was pregnant and couldn't do serious stunts), was distracting and frustrating.
A Catholic hospital would be a great place for a conspiracy. 15 years ago, stem-cell research would probably have sounded like something out of an X-Files episode. Religious zeal and orthodoxy have infected government and science alike in the last eight years; Scully's scientific rigor and Mulder's search for the hidden Truth are heroic for different reasons now than they were during the show's heyday. There were good ideas buried in the script, and I wish that Carter had explored them instead of writing a slightly more gruesome "woman-in-distress" flick.
I'll set aside my attempt to make a serious critique of the film and mention my real frustrations: there were no aliens. None. No aliens, no giant flukeworms, no telekinetic teenagers, no evil inbred recluses, no Cher-loving abominations of science, no prehistoric ice-dwelling rage-parasites, nothing. Many of the stand alone episodes featured memorable creatures, some of which still give me the heebie-jeebies(don't put me in a freshly cut section of forest at dusk. I'll freak out). I wasn't expecting much from the movie, but even my diminished hopes were disappointed. It was good to see Mulder and Scully again, weird as it was to see them acting like a couple, but it felt like a missed opportunity. I know I'll never be able to recapture the feeling I had the first time I saw an episode of the show("E.B.E.," in my basement, with all the lights off, when I was 11), but I'm sure if they make another one, I'll go and hope.
A Postscript: I spent the whole time Rennie was on-screen suppressing the urge to shout, "You'll never create another Starbuck!" Clearly I've found a new show to love obsessively. Once a nerd, always a nerd.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
He just wanted the beautiful, blond, cute, shiksa girls to be nice and shut the fuck up!
Apparently having "one foot in the grave and one on a banana peel" makes it okay to speak ill of the dead, and that's fine with me. Sydney Pollack did seem like a sexist pig. It's too bad that more women don't speak with the same candor that Teri Garr does in this interview. Then again, if more women working in Hollywood spoke up about the shabby writing and sexist treatment they receive at the hands of male "auteurs," someone might have to actually go to the trouble of making a movie where women play a role other than doormat or object of desire.
Tina Fey had high praise for Garr back before Baby Mama was released; maybe Fey could write a guest spot for her on 30 Rock this season? She had Carrie Fischer on; maybe she could start a Faerie Tale Theatre alumnae tradition.
Tina Fey had high praise for Garr back before Baby Mama was released; maybe Fey could write a guest spot for her on 30 Rock this season? She had Carrie Fischer on; maybe she could start a Faerie Tale Theatre alumnae tradition.
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