| Relocation |
[12 Dec 2008|02:16pm] |
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mood |
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 hopeful |
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music |
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"Talking Bird" - Death Cab for Cutie |
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My new project lives here:
hourofgold.blogspot.com
Comments, questions, etc, are welcome.
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| Self-Sabotage |
[08 Jul 2008|10:04pm] |
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mood |
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 grumpy |
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music |
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"Scatterbrain" - Radiohead |
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Thing I Have Done Today Instead of Working on My Book:
Read fanfiction
Washed the dishes
Read all the IMDB trivia on "Gone with the Wind"
Tried to teach myself how to play a Kylie Minogue song on the ukulele (I'm getting there)
And now this . . .
( Writing-related bitchyness under the cut )
Seriously, LJ is what I do when I don't want to do anything else. How much more can I shoot myself in the foot?
Answer: No more! Because I say so. I go now to do work!
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| Gloria Steinem on "prick flicks" |
[16 Jul 2007|10:42pm] |
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mood |
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irate |
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music |
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"Perfect" - Guster |
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Sometimes even horrendously brain-killing hateful forums like ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) ohnotheydidnt turn up something interesting:
Gloria Steinem of Mysogyny in the Film Industry
There's nothing particularly revolutionary in what she has to say, not really, but it's nice to hear someone saying it, especially on a celebrity gossip LJ.
That is all.
EDIT: More thoughts on "chick" stuff.
Steiem defines a "chick flick" as one that has more dialogue than special effects, more relationships than violence, and relies for its suspense on how people live instead of how they die. And, indeed, I think she's right to say that most people would refer to a film like that--a film like, say, "The Hours," or, oh, I don't know, I'm at a loss here--as a "chick flick." And that's just ignorant. But I think the phrase "chick flick" also represent a more particular type of movie: mass-produced empty-headed romance films. I'm thinking of movies like "Raising Helen" or "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days" (Kate Hudson seems to be a particular offender), or . . . "Just My Luck" with Lindsay Lohan, or the epic "Failure to Launch." They're the poorly written romances that strain credulity and set nerves afire. Admittedly, sometimes they're cute, and you can enjoy them if you don't think too hard, but at their core, I kind of feel like they're evil. By which I mean that they work very hard to reinforce all the hallmark mysogynistic stereotypes about relationships, while wrapping these charming little affronts towards women in the warm-and-fuzzy paper of a happy ending. Boy and girl end up together, and all is well, by which I mean the statis quo is maintained and nobody is asked to think about anything.
In defense of women like Kate Hudson, it seems like the "chick flick" is the lone descendant of the classic screwball comedies of earlier film eras, which, although they may not have been much more enlightened towards the roles of women, were at least funny. I do blame Kate Hudson a little bit for agreeing to participate in such dreck, but more than that I blame the executives and producers and all those members of the Hollywood machine (whoever they may be) who seem collectively to have decided that there are "chicks" out there in the world to whome this sort of film would be appealing. I kind of think of "chick flick" more as a marketing term, as a genre of films created expressly by the people who create films. I know I'm not making much sense now, but to me "chick flick" represents an exploitative pigeon-hole which film execs use to deaden the minds of the populous.
Which sounds very paranoid.
But it's mostly my way of saying, I don't feel wrong calling certain films "chick flicks," because I feel that's the mind-set in which they've been created. I feel like I'm calling it what it is--with a certain amount of disdain for that tradition of exploitation.
OK, now I'm really done.
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| Man of the Year |
[03 Jul 2007|11:39pm] |
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mood |
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 nervous |
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music |
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"Girls" - Tori Amos |
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My parents got the Barry Levinson film "Man of the Year" from Netflix recently, and we watched it tonight. For those not familiar with the plot, Robin Williams plays a Stephen Colbert-esque political comedian who runs for president and, through a glitch in the new computer voting system, actually wins.
Now, you may say, and I can't disagree with you, that the premise is totally absurd. The response to real-life celebrities like Susan Sarandon who get involved in political causes is so deafeningly negative that I can't help thinking that any celebrity who even proposed to run would get laughed off the stage. Then again, there was Reagan, and at this very moment Schwarzenegger is governer of California. So maybe it isn't as absurd as I might like to think.
But what I really took away from the movie was this:
We talk a lot about how a growing number of Americans gather their news from shows like the Colbert Report, which, admittedly, makes me uncomfortable. I think it's important that politics are made accessable, but I don't think people are watching the Colbert Report simply because it makes news more palatable through comedy. Instead, I think that the reason most people are going to alternative sources (like comedy shows) for their news is that all of the traditional channels have absolutely failed them. Newspapers don't offer balances commentary, radio doesn't offer balanced commentary, and television certainly doesn't. Political debates have become like awards ceremony acceptance speeches. Just look at the recent Democratic debate. That wasn't a debate, that was . . . I don't know, pandering. And, sure, you can say all those candidates are all vying for the same bill, but it's not going to change when it's down to the final two presidential candidates.
More and more our political process seems to be working on a polarized basis. We have, as Robin Williams says in the movie, Red States and Blue States. We have Republicans and Democrats. And we can get those two parties in the same room together, but we can't get them to do anything but talk past each other. They're talking to their known constituents and their constituents only. You listen to any talk show on NPR and it's two opinionated people reiterating their opinions without ever discussing anything.
I don't know what the solution to that is, but I know that it scares me. It scares me because I don't think you can run a country where one half of the people don't even listen to what the other half has to say, and vice versa.
Maybe it's nothing new. Probably this has been happening since Caesar was hanging out in the Roman Senate. But I wasn't alive then, and I am now.
Profound thoughts, I know.
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| Veronica Mars |
[18 May 2007|05:18pm] |
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mood |
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 aggravated |
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music |
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"Artisiya" - Amadou & Miriam |
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Can I get a moment of silence for the cancellation of "Veronica Mars"? Definitely one of the best shows on network TV, and it's been replaced by the Pussycat Dolls and a farmer dating show. That's just heinous.
There may be more important things going on in the world. Oh, well.
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| It's raining and I'm nervous |
[10 Feb 2007|11:29pm] |
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mood |
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 morose |
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music |
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"Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" - Rachmaninoff |
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Oh, Columbia. Would you ever accept me?
Somehow I doubt it, but I know I'm going to try anyway. There's no harm in aiming high, after all, unless you only get halfway there, in which case the fall down is pretty hard.
The future's coming up like some big malignant planet on the horizon. ("Malignant planet," was that the phrase?) I've been worrying about grad school, about life after grad school, about life in general. Writing papers on the undead does nothing for one's sense of one's own mortality, let alone one's certaintly of a carreer after higher education.
I'm being very maudlin. But it's raining, so let's put it down to that.
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| This one's a winner |
[12 Jan 2007|03:50am] |
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mood |
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amazed |
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music |
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"Shipbuilding" - Elvis Costello & the Attractions |
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So, OK.
My sentence is:
"When Jack came in, James was engaged in a hushed conversation with the physician who was hovering by his bed."
Microsoft Word wants my sentence to be:
"When Jack came in, his bed engaged James in a hushed conversation with the physician who was hovering."
Now, I'm willing to admit that I may not be on the highest possible grammatical ground, myself, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not making beds talk.
Thank you, Bill Gates.
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| You know it's a bad day when . . . |
[10 Jan 2007|02:06am] |
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mood |
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 crazy |
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music |
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rain on the window |
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. . . You're looking at celebrity paparazzi photos (innocently avoiding the work you actually have to do) and notice a picture that is subtitled, "Johnny Depp leaving Cipriani in London," and all you can think is, "Hey, we're in the same country! I could go look him up." The fact that I somehow conceived it possible to go to London and run into Johnny Depp is a sure sign that I am losing my grip on reality. I'm pretty sure I'm quite frequently in the same country as lots of super-cool people, but I can't even manage to run into people I know in real life most of the time, let alone ginormously attractive shwashbuckling movie stars.
Also, another sign of my insanity? The complete incoherence of that whole paragraph.
I also had some kind of manic half-hour freak out about the state of my literary career. It passed . . . but I'm still crazy.
I would like to put my head in the sand for the next, oh, five months--or, barring that, at least the next week. Not to complain or anything. 'Cause really? Life is golden.
OK, I'm going to go back to the crazy-ass book I'm trying to read. If anyone ever asks you to read "The Mysteries of Udolpho," just say no.
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| Glee |
[21 Nov 2006|06:54pm] |
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Can we just pause a moment to talk about how GOOD "Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix" looks? If you haven't taken a look do it now!!! (That links to a pretty large Quicktime file, but if you can't watch it, I'm sure there are different formats around.) I am so excited. Hooray.
Also, on an unrelated note, Jane Eyre seriously rocks my socks.
That is all.
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[12 Oct 2006|10:16pm] |
Whoa. England.
That is all I have to say.
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| Life is but a "Pirates" dream |
[14 Aug 2006|02:19am] |
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mood |
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 chipper |
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music |
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"Daybreaker" - Beth Orton |
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I bought the cutest Old Lady dress today. I love it so much.
Also on a positive note, whoa, hahahah, my novel is not dead. Ish.
And, weirdest of all, I had a PotC dream last night, only it wasn't exactly PotC . . .
( Cut for a glimpse into my subconscious )
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| The Eraser |
[05 Aug 2006|12:33am] |
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mood |
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skippy |
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music |
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"The Eraser" - Thom Yorke |
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Let it be known that the real reason I am going to Oxford this year is so that I can run into Thom Yorke and ask him to marry me.
Actually . . . I probably shouldn't say that, what with this being the information age and my visa application still in consideration.
But! "The Eraser" is just so damn good. At first, I was sort of "eh" about it--asi-asi, if you will--but it's grown on me so intensely in the past couple days. I find this often happens with Radiohead stuff. I wasn't that into "Hail to the Thief" on first listen, but it's since become one of my favorite Radiohead albums. Anyway. "The Eraser" is brilliant and subtle and quiet and I freaking love it. As the chef at the restaurant I work at says, "It's amazing!" Which is why I want to marry Thom Yorke.
Also, a kid who works with me has formally been dubbed "Draco Malfoy." He has a pointy little ferret face, dark eyebrows and blond hair, and the tendency to be irritating as hell. But he's still an OK guy (unlike Draco), in a sixteen-year-old-boy kind of way.
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| Oh, God, this is sad |
[04 Aug 2006|12:13am] |
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mood |
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surly |
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music |
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"Hat Shaped Hat" - Ani DiFranco |
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So . . . I'm not a bird expert, but . . .
It seems to me that Jack Sparrow's infamous tattoo is actually a picture of a swallow. Aren't swallows the ones with split tails?
What're your thoughts, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) aenohe?
If I'm right . . . it's pretty funny that Jack Sparrow couldn't even manage to get his own namesake tattooed on him. Next we'll find out the Chinese symbol for "mysterious" that he got tattooed on his hip actually means "strange."
Also, check out that freckle on Jack Davenport's thumb. That is so freaking HOT. (Also, his slightly dirty nails = love.)
Also! I almost forgot about this!! This amuses me to no end, especially because generally accepted fandom knowledge is that Gilette is French. "Gilet" is the French name for a waistcoat. That is all.
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| Fic: "Atonement" (Norrington/Sparrow, PG) |
[29 Jul 2006|03:04pm] |
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mood |
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chipper |
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music |
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"Police & Thieves" - the Clash |
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It's been done before, but I decided to do it again. Yes, it's Sparrington prisonbreak fiction.
And, yes, I have no doubt that this will be obsolete the very second "Pirates" 3 comes out. But I cannot bring myself to care.
( Cut for slightly gay law-breaking )
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| Norrington! |
[27 Jul 2006|11:34pm] |
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mood |
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ambivalent |
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music |
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"Mr. Grieves" - TV on the Radio |
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So, my novel sucks right now, and instead I've been writing "Pirates" fanfiction. So far, nothing longer than five pages, but, hey, anything that keeps my hand in.
These are just three little Norrington-centric vignettes, in order of increasing size (and, probably, quality).
( Drowning )
* * *
( Requiem )
* * *
( The Hanged Man )
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| Thoughts on "Pirates" |
[20 Jul 2006|12:48am] |
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mood |
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persnickitty |
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music |
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PotC on DVD |
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I've been thinking a lot about "Pirates of the Caribbean," both "Curse of the Black Pearl" and "Dead Man's Chest", recently. So, behind the cut, some thoughts "Pirates."
( Arr! )
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