(no subject)
Jul. 12th, 2011 05:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* They have taken the slavery clause out of the republican candidate marriage pledge, but according to Candidate Michelle Bachmann, there was nothing wrong with the slavery clause. she is claiming that in slavery times, slave children had a mother and a father. I call bullshit. Slave marriages were not legally recognized, and families were routinely separated as members were sold off. This doesn't even get into things like the masters raping female slaves.
Pretending slavery was a lot nicer than it was dishonors the memories of those who suffered it, and I genuinely have trouble believing that having you or one or more of your parents sold away is genuinely better than living in a country where there are still inequalities, but where an African American child really can grow up to be president. Apparently white Republican politicians beg to differ. I find that both dishonest and seriously icky.
* John Boehner finally admitted publicly that crashing the US economy is not a good idea. Of course, nothing's been passed.
* Sunday Times and The Sun are now implicated in the UK Rupert Murdoch hacking scandal.
* Good luck to Janice Hahn in her special election. her opponent calls Planned Parenthood a "murder mill" and the ad for her opponent was so offensively racist and misogynist, that I refuse to link it. I've talked about it before in this space. While her opponent has disavowed the ad, his other stances are so outright unpleasant and can do nothing else than to hope Ms. Hahn kicks his butt.
* The cats would really like the fireworks to stop, please. It's not as bad as last year, but it's still stressing them out.
* As I was already working my way through B5 in my bedroom, I ordered the two seasons of Taxi our library has to watch in honor of Jeff Conway. This was a show my family watched together in real time back when it was new. The theme song still sounds like the whole family watching TV together to me. My modern eye notices how lacking in diversity it is, and the pervasive late '70's early '80's workplace sexual harassment. My modern eye notices that it's very much about chosen family. On a personal note, I am now wondering if early exposure to Simka and Reverend Jim Ignatowski effected some of my choice of friends at my first college. It's funny, as a kid in the '70's i took the silhouette men's jeans gave them for granted; as an adult, I was startled by how much that style shows off bottoms and baskets, something nine year old me didn't notice. The double vision is a little dizzying, as i have the sense memory of child me in my favorite chair watching the first time overlaying my own oh my god, look at his... yeah. Surreal. I'm also thinking one could write a thesis on Tony Banta as a representation of a Vietnam war vet vs. Reverend Jim Ignatowski as the spirit of the 1960's and how differently this would have been done if it was made now. I am also suspecting that taxi was the first time I heard drug slang like "black beauties" and other adult words like horny, though I can't swear to it.
Anyway, last night, I watched the Simka episode, which referenced Grease. Of course, Jeff Conway was and is still best known as Kinike and was still getting people yelling "Hickey from Kinike" at him up until his death. In the final scene, Latke mourns the death of his relationship while listening to "Summer Lovin'" from Grease. I'm sure the bright frothy singing was meant to contrast humorously with Latke's mood, but all I could think was how young the late Mr. Conway was when he was in Grease, and how young Mr. Kaufman (who played Latke) was when he died. A dead man listening to a dead man singing. Poignant in an entirely unintentional way.
* One of the many aspects I found baffling about the royal wedding fever, is why anyone would want to marry into British Royalty. The whole life style looks boring and unpleasant. There is nothing about it I would want. The whole constant attention, the being on display, the hot uncomfortable clothing, the having to look photo ready at all times, the preppy sports, and I'm betting the conversation. I know people all over England, Canada, and the US dream of marrying a prince. (I have no clue about Australia, but I'm guessing people there do too). I never have, but then I thought dating the American preppies at my high school looked boring and unpleasant too, and that was without the paparazzi and other external pressures. Even now, I'd pick my deep poverty and over riches and Princes.
* Nonbinary pronoun survey: http://anlamasanda.tumblr.com/post/5640003992
* dario Argento is making a Dracula with Rutger Hauer as Van Helsing. O.o
Pretending slavery was a lot nicer than it was dishonors the memories of those who suffered it, and I genuinely have trouble believing that having you or one or more of your parents sold away is genuinely better than living in a country where there are still inequalities, but where an African American child really can grow up to be president. Apparently white Republican politicians beg to differ. I find that both dishonest and seriously icky.
* John Boehner finally admitted publicly that crashing the US economy is not a good idea. Of course, nothing's been passed.
* Sunday Times and The Sun are now implicated in the UK Rupert Murdoch hacking scandal.
* Good luck to Janice Hahn in her special election. her opponent calls Planned Parenthood a "murder mill" and the ad for her opponent was so offensively racist and misogynist, that I refuse to link it. I've talked about it before in this space. While her opponent has disavowed the ad, his other stances are so outright unpleasant and can do nothing else than to hope Ms. Hahn kicks his butt.
* The cats would really like the fireworks to stop, please. It's not as bad as last year, but it's still stressing them out.
* As I was already working my way through B5 in my bedroom, I ordered the two seasons of Taxi our library has to watch in honor of Jeff Conway. This was a show my family watched together in real time back when it was new. The theme song still sounds like the whole family watching TV together to me. My modern eye notices how lacking in diversity it is, and the pervasive late '70's early '80's workplace sexual harassment. My modern eye notices that it's very much about chosen family. On a personal note, I am now wondering if early exposure to Simka and Reverend Jim Ignatowski effected some of my choice of friends at my first college. It's funny, as a kid in the '70's i took the silhouette men's jeans gave them for granted; as an adult, I was startled by how much that style shows off bottoms and baskets, something nine year old me didn't notice. The double vision is a little dizzying, as i have the sense memory of child me in my favorite chair watching the first time overlaying my own oh my god, look at his... yeah. Surreal. I'm also thinking one could write a thesis on Tony Banta as a representation of a Vietnam war vet vs. Reverend Jim Ignatowski as the spirit of the 1960's and how differently this would have been done if it was made now. I am also suspecting that taxi was the first time I heard drug slang like "black beauties" and other adult words like horny, though I can't swear to it.
Anyway, last night, I watched the Simka episode, which referenced Grease. Of course, Jeff Conway was and is still best known as Kinike and was still getting people yelling "Hickey from Kinike" at him up until his death. In the final scene, Latke mourns the death of his relationship while listening to "Summer Lovin'" from Grease. I'm sure the bright frothy singing was meant to contrast humorously with Latke's mood, but all I could think was how young the late Mr. Conway was when he was in Grease, and how young Mr. Kaufman (who played Latke) was when he died. A dead man listening to a dead man singing. Poignant in an entirely unintentional way.
* One of the many aspects I found baffling about the royal wedding fever, is why anyone would want to marry into British Royalty. The whole life style looks boring and unpleasant. There is nothing about it I would want. The whole constant attention, the being on display, the hot uncomfortable clothing, the having to look photo ready at all times, the preppy sports, and I'm betting the conversation. I know people all over England, Canada, and the US dream of marrying a prince. (I have no clue about Australia, but I'm guessing people there do too). I never have, but then I thought dating the American preppies at my high school looked boring and unpleasant too, and that was without the paparazzi and other external pressures. Even now, I'd pick my deep poverty and over riches and Princes.
* Nonbinary pronoun survey: http://anlamasanda.tumblr.com/post/5640003992
* dario Argento is making a Dracula with Rutger Hauer as Van Helsing. O.o
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-12 02:10 pm (UTC)I'll always remember the real time episode of Barney Miller were they're sitting in a motel room guarding a witness, and Wojo(?) asks Harris what does he want to do, and Harris says, "Well, Taxi's on in 5 minutes", and it was.
There were a lot of iffy things about the 70s, but at least the sitcoms were willing to look at
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-13 12:57 am (UTC)*nods* I think they were better at sitcoms than we are now.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-13 01:07 am (UTC)"to look at serious social issues and not be afraid of controversy."