So I returned Before Sunrise and got Before Sunset, and sat down to watch it tonight.
It was damaged.
Oy.
Archive for October 18, 2006
Interacting with Image
I was kinda wondering last night how I ended up being included in two Big Fat Carnivals. I don’t consider myself a fat activist particularly.
Here’s the thing: Both of the included blogs were about movies. And this is what fascinates me; the image. The interaction between images and social constructs. The things we see on-screen (or on TV or in magazines) reflect the unspoken and often unconscious prejudices we hold. What is acceptable to see, what is unacceptable to see; what is shown as good, shown as evil, never shown at all. I honestly don’t see how you can watch movies with a critical eye and not notice the sexism and the narrow definition of acceptibility.
What makes The Celluloid Closet a great movie? It’s because it looks at homosexuality in the movies through that lens. Which is to say, it just looks. It looks and asks, ‘What is being shown here? What is not being shown?’ It doesn’t make any activist statements particularly, or issue any answers on right and wrong. It just says ‘Look at this.’ It exercises the intelligence of pattern recognition, and the pattern it recognizes is largely homophobic.
I’m interested in that. I’m interested in what movies say about women and age and size and Teh Gay and Teh Slutness and race and money. All that.
I’m very capable of getting worked up over triviality, because we express ourselves in triviality. The recent blogstorm over the intersection of feminism and femme beautification has everything to do with that. Looking For Mr. Goodbar says more about our reaction to women who have casual sex than any dissertation or politician ever could.
So, yes. I will keep reviewing movies. In case you were wondering.
(A cross-post is worth a thousand words.)
I totally love this stuff
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Femme socks
At this moment I am wearing black lace “trouser socks.” Trouser socks are a weird hybrid animal that sorta resemble socks and sorta resemble “knee-his,” which are themselves a hybrid of stockings and socks. There is more cross-fertilization among women’s hosiery than in the American Kennel Association.
I have to wear femme socks. If I wear plain black socks, they end up in Arthur’s sock drawer. Black lace is a form of self-defense. I also have these very cool black socks with pink toes and heels; the pink doesn’t show when you wear them, but they show when you do laundry, thereby warning Arthur away. I have like four of those.
So what do gay couples do? Loads of wash full of boysocks. Do they just…share socks? I suppose you could, I mean, I’m not attached to my socks, I just want an adequate supply. Or maybe separate hampers and separate washloads.
Or one of them could wear femme socks.
Monday Movie Review: The Departed
The Departed (2006) 9/10
Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) grows up under the tutelage of Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), ruthless boss of Boston’s Irish mob. Sullivan becomes a police detective, working as a mole to protect Costello. Meanwhile, Internal Affairs places Bill Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) as a mole in Costello’s mob, taking the trouble to first hide any evidence that he is still a police officer. The two moles come closer and closer to finding each other’s identity. Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Among other things, The Departed is a work of technical virtuosity. Here is a film in which all the pieces come together; it is brilliantly filmed, edited, performed, and scored (in Scorsese’s trademark pop/rock style). Scorsese has perhaps never been so confident as a director, so mature.
The movie reminds me, and many others, of Goodfellas, although I caught enticing whiffs of Taxi Driver. » Read more..
Follow the money
Here’s a thing. When the Bush administration starves our school districts of cash and then makes them waste what they do have on NCLB, wingnuts are empowered to destroy school systems that don’t have the funds to fight back. “Lawsuit” is a very scary word when there’s no money in the till.
I was thinking about the art teacher in Texas. The news report say she was fired based on one parent complaining. One. After multiple approvals and winning awards and blah blah. One. Which reads to me like fear of lawsuit, and that implies things about the pressures that the school district is under and how much money it has to fight if it chose to fight.
A big chunk of the wingnut agenda has been to take over the schools. Weaken the schools by starving them of money, and they’re easier to take over. Maybe it’s just that simple.
(No cross-post left behind.)
Absence of right answers
(The following is some writing I did today for a forthcoming book. I thought it was worth sharing.)
In order to be Pagan, you have to feel comfortable with an absence of right answers. There are many right ways to do things, and there are definitely wrong way to do things, but if you are convinced that there’s one truth that overrides all other truths, and that anything that contradicts truth must be false, well, Paganism is probably not for you.
Pagans have to be comfortable with many gods, many ways, many possibilities. We have to be able to know that Wicca is right, and Asatru is also right, and Christianity is also right (although there are definitely some Christians who are dead wrong, especially when they talk about killing Pagans). We have to be able to say that Thor is the thunder god, and Chango is the thunder god, and not be freaked out by two “the”s that seem to contradict each other.
Some Pagans believe that “all paths lead to the same place.” I don’t happen to feel that way. Many paths lead to very similar places, but I don’t care to mush them all together. What’s necessary to be Pagan is simply to believe that there is more than one true path.
Happy Blogiversary to Me!
I actually started this blog on January 31, 2005, but was using it entirely as a “What’s New” event/update page. I had a brief sputter of sort of interesting posts in the next few months, not much.
(Seriously, the above-linked posts are the only ones worth revisiting between January 31 and October 10 of 2005.)
So what happened on October 14, 2005, that started me blogging in earnest? Daniel Craig.
You know, I’d like to say that I was inspired by the current political climate, or by an overwhelming urge to reach out to the world, but no, it was James Bond. For some reason, I became a real blogger after that, and within the next six weeks had put up my first political snark, started some movie blogging, had started to tie the personal to the philosophical, and begun posting Fun With Language and feminism.
And now it’s one year later. Please send champagne.
Hairy-handed gent
He’s the hairy-handed gent who ran amok in Kent.
It’s such a great line. Such an elegant use of language, so flowing, while at the same time bizarre and funny.
Some people don’t get Werewolves of London, but to me, a song that lets you howl during the chorus needs no explanation. I’ve often imagined that the song was written around the excuse to howl, or perhaps around an image of a werewolf at Trader Vic’s or of Lon Chaney Jr. with the Queen. (This is a hobby of mine, imagining how a song came to be written. Okay, not much of a hobby. But I digress.)
Well, while looking for a link for lyrics to add to this post, I found the real story:
Zevon wrote this with guitarist Robert “Waddy” Wachtel. When Zevon was working with The Everly Brothers, he hired Wachtel to play in their backing band. At one point, Phil Everly asked them to write a dance song for the Everly Brothers called “Werewolves Of London.” Wachtel and Zevon were good friends and were strumming guitars together when someone asked what they were playing. Zevon replied, “Werewolves Of London,” and Wachtel started howling. Zevon came up with the line “I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand,” and they traded lyrics back and forth until they had their song.
Anyway, I’d like to meet his tailor.
Friday Catblogging: Small spaces
One of the very first photos I kittenblogged (now there’s a formation!) was of the Gang in a basket.
Now only half a Gang fits:
» Read more..
