(no subject)
Jan. 27th, 2012 12:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* Correction: Poll data cited yesterday was incorrect. I was mislead by three news sources. Apparently a large number of news organizations grabbed the wrong chart. Apologies.
* Congratulations to Congressman Barney Frank on his engagement to Jim Ready, his long term partner. Mr Ready will be the only Congressional spouse who will not get Congressional spousal benefits due to the discrimination built into the system. Still, I'm genuinely happy for them.
* It looks like Mitt Romney under reported his income by more than 3 million dollars in his candidate disclosure forms, mostly money stashed overseas in places like Switzerland and Cayman Islands.
* It also turns out that some of Mitt Romney's charitable donations goes to a foundation that uses the money to support things like so called "reparative therapy" and other anti-gay causes. Charming.
* He's also lying about his investments being a blind trust. Sigh.
* Speaking of lies, Newt Gingrich was not a friend of or close to Ronald Reagan, and spent quite a bit of time attacking him as a young congressman. (Multiple attacks on Reagan have surfaced).
* Boy, santorum was all over Mitt and Newt tonight.
* Robert Hegyes, who was once Juan Epstein, is dead at 60 of a Heart Attack. Many of you are likely too young to remember Welcome Back Kotter, which was a staple of my childhood and a launching pad of John Travolta's career, but my whole neighborhood stopped and all the kids came inside to watch when it was on, and the theme song was a popular 45, back when such things existed, and was weirdly comforting. I have no idea how the shows hold up after all this time, but it meant a lot to a whole bunch of people back in the day, and his smile and charm was an unrated part of the chemistry that made the show work: http://www.tmz.com/2012/01/26/welcome-back-kotter-esptein-actor-robert-hegyes-dead/#.TyH_S_lcjO8
* A marriage equality bill looks to be passing in the New Jersey Senate. I'm not holding my breath, what with Chris Christie the governor.
* We went down and signed the papers. I still haven't picked a charity. Feel free to pipe up with suggestions.
* Perishables acquired, but I'm in an impressive amount of pain, so experiments are ulikely tonight.
* What am I reading? The other half of Game of Thrones, Snuff, and Savage Beauty. I have nothing much to say, really.
* I finally put my finger on what's wrong with Burn Notice. To be clear, I haven't seen the whole series as I just don't care that much. I've watched a decent size sample, mostly because they were on during an whole in my schedule over the summer and they have Bruce Campbell on the cast. I've caught random ones here and there since it was new, including about half of season one that was on a marathon one weekend I had a lot of bureaucracy. This summer, I actually saw enough of them in a row to figure out what my issues with it are:
1. The big issue that makes it hard to watch for me is I really dislike the big arcs. The individual episodes are watchable, but not exciting for me, but my dislike of that particular sort of jeopardy hanging over the characters makes me itch. As this is a major part of the premise, that's a problem. The most recent season's arc particularly stuck in my craw, for both complex personal reasons, and because it's so clearly an artificial attempt to keep a dead premise going past the resolution point. Rather than ending the series or evolving a new basis on which to go forward, they pulled a new villain out of their asses and ran around in ever less interesting and believable circles. Yuck.
2. It's characters are formulaic in a way that I can unsee, once I saw it. Oh, they do a better job of making the cliche character checklist work than, say, the Finder (which is so blatant about it's formula and it's desperation to pretend it's characters are likable and quirky, I've decided it's unwatchable), but that's a mighty low bar. I can't really care about the characters because they are pretty boring. I can't really care about the plot because the artificial nature of the premise underlines the artificiality of the choice of characters. I can't care about the season arcs because they make me uncomfortable as well as being transparently designed to keep things moving.
* Yes, I have pretty much the same issue with the arcs of seasons six and seven of Supernatural. They really needed to reinvent and diversify instead of doubling down on increasingly less interesting and over explored areas of the premise. (I still think they should have added new and more diverse cast and started exploring non-Western stuff, instead of killing off all the female and non-white potential regulars. Seriously, WTF??) The arcs now seem boring and artificial, so it's hard to care about what happens.
Also, for the record, I genuinely like(d) the show, but much of Supernatural fandom makes me nervous in the way B5 fandom made me nervous at Cons back when it was still running. (I can enjoy a show without wanting to bully or physically hurt someone for preferring something else or having different favorite characters or head cannon. I do not feel comfortable with people who feel bullying, threatening, or being physically aggressive. This is supposed to be fun, right?) Anyway, also for the record, twincest ain't my thing. I'm pretty strictly Dean/Castiel, and my head cannon includes a little Bobby/Rufus in my personal imagining of the back story. No, I don't write fan fiction, nor do I plan to write any. This is not a judgement on folks who do, just a statement that while I have ideas about things I wish were in the show and aren't, I'm not that invested in the alternate narrative in my head.
* This made me smile: http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/16531477555/brilliant-snark-storyteller7
* Cool: http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/16565632798/weeaboo-chan-well-this-is-an-interesting
* I am confused. It was bad enough to see the travesty that is the Phantom Menace once. Why would one want to see it again at greater expense?
* Republican racists in the South trying to keep the President off ballots in the election have actually gotten to the hearing stage in Georgia: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46157665
* Romney courting the antigay vote: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46157391
* Congratulations to Congressman Barney Frank on his engagement to Jim Ready, his long term partner. Mr Ready will be the only Congressional spouse who will not get Congressional spousal benefits due to the discrimination built into the system. Still, I'm genuinely happy for them.
* It looks like Mitt Romney under reported his income by more than 3 million dollars in his candidate disclosure forms, mostly money stashed overseas in places like Switzerland and Cayman Islands.
* It also turns out that some of Mitt Romney's charitable donations goes to a foundation that uses the money to support things like so called "reparative therapy" and other anti-gay causes. Charming.
* He's also lying about his investments being a blind trust. Sigh.
* Speaking of lies, Newt Gingrich was not a friend of or close to Ronald Reagan, and spent quite a bit of time attacking him as a young congressman. (Multiple attacks on Reagan have surfaced).
* Boy, santorum was all over Mitt and Newt tonight.
* Robert Hegyes, who was once Juan Epstein, is dead at 60 of a Heart Attack. Many of you are likely too young to remember Welcome Back Kotter, which was a staple of my childhood and a launching pad of John Travolta's career, but my whole neighborhood stopped and all the kids came inside to watch when it was on, and the theme song was a popular 45, back when such things existed, and was weirdly comforting. I have no idea how the shows hold up after all this time, but it meant a lot to a whole bunch of people back in the day, and his smile and charm was an unrated part of the chemistry that made the show work: http://www.tmz.com/2012/01/26/welcome-back-kotter-esptein-actor-robert-hegyes-dead/#.TyH_S_lcjO8
* A marriage equality bill looks to be passing in the New Jersey Senate. I'm not holding my breath, what with Chris Christie the governor.
* We went down and signed the papers. I still haven't picked a charity. Feel free to pipe up with suggestions.
* Perishables acquired, but I'm in an impressive amount of pain, so experiments are ulikely tonight.
* What am I reading? The other half of Game of Thrones, Snuff, and Savage Beauty. I have nothing much to say, really.
* I finally put my finger on what's wrong with Burn Notice. To be clear, I haven't seen the whole series as I just don't care that much. I've watched a decent size sample, mostly because they were on during an whole in my schedule over the summer and they have Bruce Campbell on the cast. I've caught random ones here and there since it was new, including about half of season one that was on a marathon one weekend I had a lot of bureaucracy. This summer, I actually saw enough of them in a row to figure out what my issues with it are:
1. The big issue that makes it hard to watch for me is I really dislike the big arcs. The individual episodes are watchable, but not exciting for me, but my dislike of that particular sort of jeopardy hanging over the characters makes me itch. As this is a major part of the premise, that's a problem. The most recent season's arc particularly stuck in my craw, for both complex personal reasons, and because it's so clearly an artificial attempt to keep a dead premise going past the resolution point. Rather than ending the series or evolving a new basis on which to go forward, they pulled a new villain out of their asses and ran around in ever less interesting and believable circles. Yuck.
2. It's characters are formulaic in a way that I can unsee, once I saw it. Oh, they do a better job of making the cliche character checklist work than, say, the Finder (which is so blatant about it's formula and it's desperation to pretend it's characters are likable and quirky, I've decided it's unwatchable), but that's a mighty low bar. I can't really care about the characters because they are pretty boring. I can't really care about the plot because the artificial nature of the premise underlines the artificiality of the choice of characters. I can't care about the season arcs because they make me uncomfortable as well as being transparently designed to keep things moving.
* Yes, I have pretty much the same issue with the arcs of seasons six and seven of Supernatural. They really needed to reinvent and diversify instead of doubling down on increasingly less interesting and over explored areas of the premise. (I still think they should have added new and more diverse cast and started exploring non-Western stuff, instead of killing off all the female and non-white potential regulars. Seriously, WTF??) The arcs now seem boring and artificial, so it's hard to care about what happens.
Also, for the record, I genuinely like(d) the show, but much of Supernatural fandom makes me nervous in the way B5 fandom made me nervous at Cons back when it was still running. (I can enjoy a show without wanting to bully or physically hurt someone for preferring something else or having different favorite characters or head cannon. I do not feel comfortable with people who feel bullying, threatening, or being physically aggressive. This is supposed to be fun, right?) Anyway, also for the record, twincest ain't my thing. I'm pretty strictly Dean/Castiel, and my head cannon includes a little Bobby/Rufus in my personal imagining of the back story. No, I don't write fan fiction, nor do I plan to write any. This is not a judgement on folks who do, just a statement that while I have ideas about things I wish were in the show and aren't, I'm not that invested in the alternate narrative in my head.
* This made me smile: http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/16531477555/brilliant-snark-storyteller7
* Cool: http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/16565632798/weeaboo-chan-well-this-is-an-interesting
* I am confused. It was bad enough to see the travesty that is the Phantom Menace once. Why would one want to see it again at greater expense?
* Republican racists in the South trying to keep the President off ballots in the election have actually gotten to the hearing stage in Georgia: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46157665
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* Romney courting the antigay vote: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46157391
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-28 06:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-30 06:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-29 12:49 pm (UTC)I really hope the small 's' was intentional... either way, I can't help how I read this... or how it made me giggle.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-30 06:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-29 12:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-30 06:07 am (UTC)