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May. 11th, 2012 04:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* I haven't forgotten Syria. Six soldiers were wounded in an explosion near the UN convoy a few days ago. There have been two more explosions since, likely aimed at the Intelligence building. At least forty died. It's looking like people are giving up on outside rescue or the government agreeing to stop murdering people for talking to UN observers, being a doctor or paramedic, being the wrong sort of Muslim, living in the wrong city, etc...
* If Greece can't form a coalition government, they will default in June. They have a few day and if they fail, that means fresh elections and they need a government in place when the next bailout payment is due. Good luck to Greece.
* I know this is a small thing in the face of all the terrible things happening in the world, but it makes me terribly sad that the Greek Olympic Committee is struggling to raise enough money to send their athletes to the London Olympics. It feels like that ought to be something that the wealthier countries of the world ought to be chipping in to make happen. The freaking Greeks ought to be at the freaking Olympics is what I'm saying here.
* House Republicans decided in the middle of the night to add amendments to a defense bill to ban gay soldiers from marrying and to legalize discrimination against them, because life as a gay, lesbian, or bisexual just isn't hard enough, apparently.
* Is any one surprised that Mitt Romney was a violent anti-gay bully back in prep school? I'm not. Lowlights include he and a gay of thugs chasing down a younger, smaller student so they could hold him down while Romney cut his hair off. Mr. Romney claims not to remember this incident or persistent bullying of that boy and other ones he considered effeminate, but he thinks the cruel things he did are still hilarious 50 years later. He had a good chuckle about it, but gave a superficial non-apology about how there wasn't anything wrong with his "pranks," but grudgingly agreeing that he has to apologize now. Charming.
Every time I hear the quote from back then, "He can't look like that, look at him," I shudder.
* It's all over and easy to google so I wasn't going to link the Romney coverage, but frankly, the Rachel Maddow coverage got me where I live, so I'm linking it: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/
* Anderson Cooper looked into the larger issue of Romney's positions in regards to LGBTQ folk having basic human rights. Characteristically, it's all contradictions:
Pt. 1 http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/10/kth-what-did-romney-mean-by-full-equality/
Pt. 2 http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/10/romneys-record-on-same-sex-marriage/
* I keep seeing media sources referring to the North Carolina vote as if it made same sex marriage illegal. It did not. Marriage was already illegal there. They voted to ban all civil unions, domestic partnerships, etc. as well as to invalidate all restraining orders where the abuser was never married to the complainant, and to take heath insurance away from children who's parents aren't married regardless of the genders of the adults involved. That's how much they hate us there. They want to make it so people can no longer be protected from stalkers and violent exes even if they are heterosexual simply for the joy of proving yet again that they don't consider us people.
* Sparkindarkness with a different take on President Obama's announcement: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/05/in-which-i-pour-cynicism-over-squee-in.html
* Vesta is a proto-planet! Cool vids included: http://www.universetoday.com/95101/fly-over-vestas-cratered-terrain-with-dawn/
* Hector was not quite ready to sleep in the bed with the black cats and me, but he was stable enough to come hang out during the several hours I spend getting it together to come out into the main room. (I read, I slowly get my limbs organized, I watch a DvD and get dressed/medicated in stages with rests in between, and lots of pettins for cats). *fingers crossed for tomorrow*
* Hector on my shoulder, peering at the web cam, my ear in the bottom corner: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/22833953009/this-is-hector-about-45-minutes-into-a-sit-on-my
He spent a majority of two hours draped there, much of it napping. Yes it was uncomfortable and typing was super hard. I hadn't the heart to shift him as it's the most cuddling he's been able to tolerate for weeks. he got down, ate, got a long pet, then climbed up for another nap.
* Squirrel, peering at the area where I store my trading stuff, "Why do you have all this specialty coffee?"
Me: "To trade for tea. It's a BPAL thing."
Sad thing? That totally made sense to him.
* Glee S:2
1. I'm still mulling over "Original Songs," things like Rachel in Canary yellow, and the multiple meanings of "Blackbird" in that particular set of contexts. I haven't found words yet. I'm not sure I will. I'm now wishing I was paying more attention to analysis when this came out.
2. I'm also poking at my response to the music, choreography, and context for my beloved "Raise Your Glass" in the Gleeverse. I think it's part and parcel with my complex emotional response to Dalton as a whole, involving my knowledge of what private school is like from the inside, it's position as both cage and refuge, and both the glamour of fairyland and the dark things it covers.
3. It connected to my constant awareness of and discomfort with Blaine's facade and my real life tendency to worm past defenses of people I care about. His facade screams that he's not okay to me, and I got my fingers mangled a few times to often by not looking when I was young, so now I can't leave that stuff alone when I get get close. I've always rather stare into the dark head on and learn the shape of the damage than get ambushed by it later. It makes me fear for Kurt, for the weight and pain of it when Blaine inevitably does open and let him see the wounds. I know Kurt will want to help carry that weight, untangle the knots, and I know I wasn't even close to ready to handle that stuff at his age and how hard I tried anyway and how much that costs.
4. Night of Neglect spoke to one of my essential confusions about Glee, which is that I honestly prefer Mercedes' voice to Rachel's. It's a matter of taste, I guess. Rachel's voice is just fine, but I find Mercedes's more interesting. It seems like Shue often wastes her talent like he does Kurt's and that's baffling to me. I suppose it comes down to Shue being a shitty teacher and unwilling to examine his biases. Rachel's explanation only works if Shue isn't good at his job. As Shue is bad at his job, I guess Rachel's explantion makes sense, but it still leaves me hostile.
5. Kurt and Blaine, how do I put this, looked so much like us towards the end of High School. That private school surface polish. They looked so adult next to the other kids, that particular sort of poise that means absolutely nothing, but can be impressive if you don't know how it's made. Like sausage. At eight when you put me in an adult cocktail party and I'd do just fine, a miniature adult, only quieter and more polite, until I could slip away to fish for stories from the old men at the fringes. My nine year old self being polite and charming for the visiting mothers. Pretending "Everything's fine here, you haven't sent your children to the ninth circle of Hell, where it's all about treachery and cruelty and dragging the others down so you can be on top. You aren't paying for institutional abuse and endless backstabbing. We're all fine here."
6. I loved the way Kurt and Blaine interacted, that sense of "us" not only in the way they faced off against Karofsky, but in the little asides and the way they talk to each other. They feel like a couple in an adult sort of way the other Glee couples don't. I can't explain it in words, but watching them was like watching a couple at least five or six years older that had been together a lot longer. I'm wiling to buy it given their context and personal histories. They both have been through a lot to get where they are, which ages one faster but unevenly, because they both are used to having to be adult in ways their peers don't, because of surface polish, because they are vulnerable and open to each other in ways they aren't even with friends. It looks fragile to me, but it also looks like potential to last if they can get through the really bad bit of trying to deal with the damage while learning the advanced relationship skill set as they go. Rm recently referred to Blaine as an onion, which seems about right to me, and Kurt still has a lot of his own bagage he's barely started to unpack.
7. I keep thinking about the costs of leaving fairyland along with the costs of staying. I have nothing new and profound to say, except, I study the character's faces and have all sorts of things percolating in the back of my brain. Quinn laying out a future where Rachel leaves and Quinn goes into real estate and gets fin, but never gets out, and ouch. I think she can Reach higher than that and dream bigger. I think about Finn as the anchor around Quinn and Rachel's necks. I get the realism in her lower aspirations. I root for her getting free of Finn and Lima, because even though I often don't like her or what she's doing to others, I get what sorts of prices she's had to pay and she's so often displayed a grace in adversity I can empathize with and admire.
8. Lauren fascinates me. I have nothing profound here, but wow, there's a lot to play with there.
9. I've started "Born this Way," but am not far and have no real opinions yet.
10. Just generally, I like that Brittany and Becky are written as people and not cardboard stereotypes. I like that they are capable as being as mean as everyone else instead o being perfect.
BTW, just looking at the "Props" photos in RM's blog made me queasy. I'm someone who has been known to make a partner who just got a drastic haircut wear a hat for sex, and has had a Long term partner who would considerately warn me of an impending hair cut a few days in advance and warn me again before entering the room to give me time to brace myself and start adjusting, and let me sniff him thouroughly before wanting physical affection. Some of my earliest nightmares from when I was a toddler were like this. When I eventually get there, it's going to be really hard to watch. To be clear, I support people's right to change hair on whatever part of the body they feel like. This is entirely a matter of me taking several days to convince my hindbrain that's still them if the cut is too drastic. I know intellectually it's still them, but it doesn't help. I often wonder if this is the way my soldier felt the first time he saw me where make-up (for a LARP costume. I still remember his horrified, "Are you sick? What's wrong with your FACE!" It turned out is was the lipstick freaked him out.), or the time he lost me in Cub Foods because I threw on an emergency sweater in a colour I normally never wore and he could recognize me in the wrong clothes. (He passed me repeatedly as I pursued the shelves, unaware of his growing panic). For the record, I didn't handle the Mythbusters where Adam and Jamie swapped faces well either.
* If Greece can't form a coalition government, they will default in June. They have a few day and if they fail, that means fresh elections and they need a government in place when the next bailout payment is due. Good luck to Greece.
* I know this is a small thing in the face of all the terrible things happening in the world, but it makes me terribly sad that the Greek Olympic Committee is struggling to raise enough money to send their athletes to the London Olympics. It feels like that ought to be something that the wealthier countries of the world ought to be chipping in to make happen. The freaking Greeks ought to be at the freaking Olympics is what I'm saying here.
* House Republicans decided in the middle of the night to add amendments to a defense bill to ban gay soldiers from marrying and to legalize discrimination against them, because life as a gay, lesbian, or bisexual just isn't hard enough, apparently.
* Is any one surprised that Mitt Romney was a violent anti-gay bully back in prep school? I'm not. Lowlights include he and a gay of thugs chasing down a younger, smaller student so they could hold him down while Romney cut his hair off. Mr. Romney claims not to remember this incident or persistent bullying of that boy and other ones he considered effeminate, but he thinks the cruel things he did are still hilarious 50 years later. He had a good chuckle about it, but gave a superficial non-apology about how there wasn't anything wrong with his "pranks," but grudgingly agreeing that he has to apologize now. Charming.
Every time I hear the quote from back then, "He can't look like that, look at him," I shudder.
* It's all over and easy to google so I wasn't going to link the Romney coverage, but frankly, the Rachel Maddow coverage got me where I live, so I'm linking it: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* Anderson Cooper looked into the larger issue of Romney's positions in regards to LGBTQ folk having basic human rights. Characteristically, it's all contradictions:
Pt. 1 http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/10/kth-what-did-romney-mean-by-full-equality/
Pt. 2 http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/10/romneys-record-on-same-sex-marriage/
* I keep seeing media sources referring to the North Carolina vote as if it made same sex marriage illegal. It did not. Marriage was already illegal there. They voted to ban all civil unions, domestic partnerships, etc. as well as to invalidate all restraining orders where the abuser was never married to the complainant, and to take heath insurance away from children who's parents aren't married regardless of the genders of the adults involved. That's how much they hate us there. They want to make it so people can no longer be protected from stalkers and violent exes even if they are heterosexual simply for the joy of proving yet again that they don't consider us people.
* Sparkindarkness with a different take on President Obama's announcement: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/05/in-which-i-pour-cynicism-over-squee-in.html
* Vesta is a proto-planet! Cool vids included: http://www.universetoday.com/95101/fly-over-vestas-cratered-terrain-with-dawn/
* Hector was not quite ready to sleep in the bed with the black cats and me, but he was stable enough to come hang out during the several hours I spend getting it together to come out into the main room. (I read, I slowly get my limbs organized, I watch a DvD and get dressed/medicated in stages with rests in between, and lots of pettins for cats). *fingers crossed for tomorrow*
* Hector on my shoulder, peering at the web cam, my ear in the bottom corner: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/22833953009/this-is-hector-about-45-minutes-into-a-sit-on-my
He spent a majority of two hours draped there, much of it napping. Yes it was uncomfortable and typing was super hard. I hadn't the heart to shift him as it's the most cuddling he's been able to tolerate for weeks. he got down, ate, got a long pet, then climbed up for another nap.
* Squirrel, peering at the area where I store my trading stuff, "Why do you have all this specialty coffee?"
Me: "To trade for tea. It's a BPAL thing."
Sad thing? That totally made sense to him.
* Glee S:2
1. I'm still mulling over "Original Songs," things like Rachel in Canary yellow, and the multiple meanings of "Blackbird" in that particular set of contexts. I haven't found words yet. I'm not sure I will. I'm now wishing I was paying more attention to analysis when this came out.
2. I'm also poking at my response to the music, choreography, and context for my beloved "Raise Your Glass" in the Gleeverse. I think it's part and parcel with my complex emotional response to Dalton as a whole, involving my knowledge of what private school is like from the inside, it's position as both cage and refuge, and both the glamour of fairyland and the dark things it covers.
3. It connected to my constant awareness of and discomfort with Blaine's facade and my real life tendency to worm past defenses of people I care about. His facade screams that he's not okay to me, and I got my fingers mangled a few times to often by not looking when I was young, so now I can't leave that stuff alone when I get get close. I've always rather stare into the dark head on and learn the shape of the damage than get ambushed by it later. It makes me fear for Kurt, for the weight and pain of it when Blaine inevitably does open and let him see the wounds. I know Kurt will want to help carry that weight, untangle the knots, and I know I wasn't even close to ready to handle that stuff at his age and how hard I tried anyway and how much that costs.
4. Night of Neglect spoke to one of my essential confusions about Glee, which is that I honestly prefer Mercedes' voice to Rachel's. It's a matter of taste, I guess. Rachel's voice is just fine, but I find Mercedes's more interesting. It seems like Shue often wastes her talent like he does Kurt's and that's baffling to me. I suppose it comes down to Shue being a shitty teacher and unwilling to examine his biases. Rachel's explanation only works if Shue isn't good at his job. As Shue is bad at his job, I guess Rachel's explantion makes sense, but it still leaves me hostile.
5. Kurt and Blaine, how do I put this, looked so much like us towards the end of High School. That private school surface polish. They looked so adult next to the other kids, that particular sort of poise that means absolutely nothing, but can be impressive if you don't know how it's made. Like sausage. At eight when you put me in an adult cocktail party and I'd do just fine, a miniature adult, only quieter and more polite, until I could slip away to fish for stories from the old men at the fringes. My nine year old self being polite and charming for the visiting mothers. Pretending "Everything's fine here, you haven't sent your children to the ninth circle of Hell, where it's all about treachery and cruelty and dragging the others down so you can be on top. You aren't paying for institutional abuse and endless backstabbing. We're all fine here."
6. I loved the way Kurt and Blaine interacted, that sense of "us" not only in the way they faced off against Karofsky, but in the little asides and the way they talk to each other. They feel like a couple in an adult sort of way the other Glee couples don't. I can't explain it in words, but watching them was like watching a couple at least five or six years older that had been together a lot longer. I'm wiling to buy it given their context and personal histories. They both have been through a lot to get where they are, which ages one faster but unevenly, because they both are used to having to be adult in ways their peers don't, because of surface polish, because they are vulnerable and open to each other in ways they aren't even with friends. It looks fragile to me, but it also looks like potential to last if they can get through the really bad bit of trying to deal with the damage while learning the advanced relationship skill set as they go. Rm recently referred to Blaine as an onion, which seems about right to me, and Kurt still has a lot of his own bagage he's barely started to unpack.
7. I keep thinking about the costs of leaving fairyland along with the costs of staying. I have nothing new and profound to say, except, I study the character's faces and have all sorts of things percolating in the back of my brain. Quinn laying out a future where Rachel leaves and Quinn goes into real estate and gets fin, but never gets out, and ouch. I think she can Reach higher than that and dream bigger. I think about Finn as the anchor around Quinn and Rachel's necks. I get the realism in her lower aspirations. I root for her getting free of Finn and Lima, because even though I often don't like her or what she's doing to others, I get what sorts of prices she's had to pay and she's so often displayed a grace in adversity I can empathize with and admire.
8. Lauren fascinates me. I have nothing profound here, but wow, there's a lot to play with there.
9. I've started "Born this Way," but am not far and have no real opinions yet.
10. Just generally, I like that Brittany and Becky are written as people and not cardboard stereotypes. I like that they are capable as being as mean as everyone else instead o being perfect.
BTW, just looking at the "Props" photos in RM's blog made me queasy. I'm someone who has been known to make a partner who just got a drastic haircut wear a hat for sex, and has had a Long term partner who would considerately warn me of an impending hair cut a few days in advance and warn me again before entering the room to give me time to brace myself and start adjusting, and let me sniff him thouroughly before wanting physical affection. Some of my earliest nightmares from when I was a toddler were like this. When I eventually get there, it's going to be really hard to watch. To be clear, I support people's right to change hair on whatever part of the body they feel like. This is entirely a matter of me taking several days to convince my hindbrain that's still them if the cut is too drastic. I know intellectually it's still them, but it doesn't help. I often wonder if this is the way my soldier felt the first time he saw me where make-up (for a LARP costume. I still remember his horrified, "Are you sick? What's wrong with your FACE!" It turned out is was the lipstick freaked him out.), or the time he lost me in Cub Foods because I threw on an emergency sweater in a colour I normally never wore and he could recognize me in the wrong clothes. (He passed me repeatedly as I pursued the shelves, unaware of his growing panic). For the record, I didn't handle the Mythbusters where Adam and Jamie swapped faces well either.