(no subject)
Apr. 28th, 2012 01:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* House Republicans caved on their plan to double student loan interest rates, but chose to pay for it by cutting things like AIDS prevention, cancer screening, and the like, rather than remove a tax loop hole helping the most profitable business in the history of the world, the oil companies. After all, who cares if mere humans suffer and die unnecessarily if it's for the corporate good, right?
For the record, I think it's bullshit that Democrats are pretending this is part of the Republican targeted assault on women's rights and health care. Yes, they are cutting breast cancer screening, but they are also slashing prostate screening. yes, it's bad for women, but not disproportionately so. Instead, it's yet another example of them being in favour of killing humans to make the very rich even richer at the expense of people who work for a living. By pretending otherwise, it besmirches real issues like the Republican insistence on government mandated medical rape, taking away birth control, and breast/cervical cancer screening. It's pretty fucking cynical and out right horrifying on both accounts, but the way to stop them is not to lie, but to tell the truth and tell it loud.
* I just watched a Republican pundit argue 1. The best way to make college affordable to the middle class again is to completely stop government subsidies on colleges. Run that through again, the problem is that eroding the subsidies on colleges and universities has made tuition so high only the rich can afford it any more. The Republican argument is dramatic increase in tuition caused by starving the colleges of funds will make tuition lower like it was when there were big subsidies. No really. So, lying or stupid? 2. Romney's story of being the son of a rich politician and becoming a rich politician is identical to President Obama's story of being the biracial son of a single mother and working hard to become financially comfortable and to become the first POC President of the United States. Somehow, the first was the same level of miraculous was the second.
Can they hear themselves talk, I wonder?
* On Dr. Spitzer 's apology: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/04/dr-spitzer-has-apologised.html
* Rachel Maddow's take: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#47198688
* They woke me up at 9AM to question me extensively about my medicare. It did not help that she had a thick accent and talked fast. I'd have been fine if I wasn't half asleep and in pain so I had to keep switching ears. It also did not help that some of the questions were ambiguous enough that my answers where really different depending on interpretation. If the answer could be either 3 or 15, it's impossible to choose which is more accurate. Then of course, Hetor needed me. I was going to do an errand, then garden. Instead, I went with a slow start and then just the errand.
* Glee is having a peculiar effect. I dreamed Kurt Hummel in a distopian future high School, in which they had biological technology, so you could do things like have a cat with a snake head, but everything had pretty much gone to shit and civilization was barley holding on and totally dysfunctional. Me: "Ah! this is why I keep finding snakes in my bed." The music was excellent though.
* Glee season 2:
1. For the record, despite lyric mutilation, I did think the music in the rocky Glee Picture Show was excellent. Extra props to Mercedes, who unlike most of them didn't try to sound like the movie soundtrack, but made Frankenfurter's voice her own. That's not easy, and it was gorgeous. The plot was unpleasant and cring worthy, but I don't hold the performers in any less esteem for that.
2. Watching last night, it occurred to me that part of my extreme hatred of Shu is that guys like him are way more damaging than adult bullies like Sue. With a Sue, you know where you stand, and you can choose to join or array yourself in opposition. The rules of survival are fairly simple, and you can play it out from there. Shuster reminds me of my 6/7th homerom/english/Social Studies teacher. You have that same surface appearance of caring nice guy with enough charisma to convince people he's sincere, and underneath hypocrisy, selfishness, and a willing to do real damage if it serves his agenda. It was incredibly disillusioning to me as a 6th grader to have this white knight nice guy teacher going on and on about social justice and fighting racism, which is a sort of promise that he's trying to make his classroom a safe space, only to allw horrible things to happen, because it turned out he didn't give a shit about keeping someone like me safe as long as he could be popular. I think Shu's like that with a slightly different agenda. He' all about reliving his high school glory and living through the kids, to the point he is both controlling and has alarmingly bad boundaries. He plays surface sensative, caring, nice guy, while completely failing to protect Kurt in his room or outside it. Not okay. I had a lot more respect for the shop teacher who apologized because he could only keep me safe in within the walls of the class room, but couldn't save me from all the rest. That's honest. Sue is honest about what she is. Shuester is a lie.
3. Looking at the episodes I watched since I logged off last night in particular, I think Sue is often right about the big things, even though she often goes too far and goes about it the wrong way. For example, she's right that there needs to be healthier cafeteria food and less greasy stuff. The problem is, she goes too far. A more moderate approach would be better and more likely to last. When she expelled Karofsky (briefly), it dawned on me that she's a better Principal than Figgins. (I hate, hate, hate, Figgins, who is clearly doing it wrong. Nowhere I ever taught would allow that slushy thing. It would be shut down as forth degree assault the first time it happened. There would be suspension, cops, restraining orders, etc. With the death threat, If another high school was close, they'd have transferred him. In some districts they will pay private school tuition for either the bully or the victim to provide a safe learning environment. You can't legally expel without providing an alternative. If not, you'd have rearranged schedules, and an aid if necessary to keep him from interacting, and if that didn't work, the BD room or home bound teaching depending on the district. Allowing routine forth degree assault is pretty much begging for group bulling and more serious assaults such as group beating. That way lies things like lawsuits, murder, and mass murder. I honestly don't understand why he hasn't been replaced by someone competent long ago, but that's Glee, where thing are exaggeratedly worse.) Anyway, it was a little scary how much better sue was a it, given how assaultive and inappropriate she generally is. (Seriously, I'd have been fired and my license yanked if I went around hitting/pushing students). Anyway, it gave me shivers when Sue did the right thing with Karofsky.
4. Cris Colfer singing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" is one of the most heartrendingly beautiful things I've heard in years. His voice just blows me way when they let him really use it and the acting? Stunning. I'm with rm who calls him a once in a generation talent.
5. That thing were Blaine says something like, "There's a reason we all wear uniforms?" As someone who went to a prep school, that is so spot on. Dalton may be idealized in other ways, like an enforced no bullying policy, the opposite of the official scapegoating and institutionalized bullying at my real life school, but it still has that lop off the tall head everyone has to be the same thing going on, and I can read the class currents there the way a bird reads air currents. You grow up with that web of unstated rules and politely disguised barriers you learn to see them in the subtle stuff.
6. BTW, when I saw that half Cheesus episode in December, I totally misread it that Bieste had been outed as trans, what with me having missed all the set up.
7. It continues to annoy me that Mike an Tina are still barely characterized, but I love that they are starting to use/showcase Mike' delightfully mid last century style dance skills. I grew up on Astaire, Kelly, et a., and it's charming me.
8. The Substitute is just as right and wrong as Shue. It's a careful threading of the needle. You need enough control to accomplish stuff and maintain good boundaries, but beyond that you need to give them room for choice and self expression. As a former professional, they both make me cringe.
9. The Wedding episode was beautifully done with everything working together well on both an macro and a micro level (arc, character development, single episode plot, visual motif, etc. Nice. Watching it, I could also see what rm meant about Finn not really dealing with his homophobia, but merely shifting Kurt into the family and there for his tribe. It's subtle, but clever.
10. That thing Emma says about Shue not using everyone's talents? I've been saying that since the first episode.
11. So I left off partway through "Special education." I can see why it's one of rm's favorites.
12. For the records, I agree with rm that Kurt is being threatened with sexual assault, and I am a also seeing the stuff about gender involving the punishment of women for being women and the punishment of men for not reading masculine as much, but have nothing clever to say that hasn't been said already. I also think it's interesting that Finn is official arbiter or the construction of masculinity for the guys whether for Sam or Kurt. I know that he's in that role for Rory later, an am fascinated that it's as long game embedded as Kurt's relationship to death and ritual around death.
* I'm only fifth in line for the next installment, so that should be faster.
* BPAL I see there's been another round of Discontinuations due to component issues. I'm lucky enough not to be hit, but if any one lost a scent they love, I'm sorry.
* Re Supernatural: At least there's now in in story explanation for why the boys are dumber since Kripke left.
* The Clutch:
For the record, I think it's bullshit that Democrats are pretending this is part of the Republican targeted assault on women's rights and health care. Yes, they are cutting breast cancer screening, but they are also slashing prostate screening. yes, it's bad for women, but not disproportionately so. Instead, it's yet another example of them being in favour of killing humans to make the very rich even richer at the expense of people who work for a living. By pretending otherwise, it besmirches real issues like the Republican insistence on government mandated medical rape, taking away birth control, and breast/cervical cancer screening. It's pretty fucking cynical and out right horrifying on both accounts, but the way to stop them is not to lie, but to tell the truth and tell it loud.
* I just watched a Republican pundit argue 1. The best way to make college affordable to the middle class again is to completely stop government subsidies on colleges. Run that through again, the problem is that eroding the subsidies on colleges and universities has made tuition so high only the rich can afford it any more. The Republican argument is dramatic increase in tuition caused by starving the colleges of funds will make tuition lower like it was when there were big subsidies. No really. So, lying or stupid? 2. Romney's story of being the son of a rich politician and becoming a rich politician is identical to President Obama's story of being the biracial son of a single mother and working hard to become financially comfortable and to become the first POC President of the United States. Somehow, the first was the same level of miraculous was the second.
Can they hear themselves talk, I wonder?
* On Dr. Spitzer 's apology: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/04/dr-spitzer-has-apologised.html
* Rachel Maddow's take: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#47198688
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* They woke me up at 9AM to question me extensively about my medicare. It did not help that she had a thick accent and talked fast. I'd have been fine if I wasn't half asleep and in pain so I had to keep switching ears. It also did not help that some of the questions were ambiguous enough that my answers where really different depending on interpretation. If the answer could be either 3 or 15, it's impossible to choose which is more accurate. Then of course, Hetor needed me. I was going to do an errand, then garden. Instead, I went with a slow start and then just the errand.
* Glee is having a peculiar effect. I dreamed Kurt Hummel in a distopian future high School, in which they had biological technology, so you could do things like have a cat with a snake head, but everything had pretty much gone to shit and civilization was barley holding on and totally dysfunctional. Me: "Ah! this is why I keep finding snakes in my bed." The music was excellent though.
* Glee season 2:
1. For the record, despite lyric mutilation, I did think the music in the rocky Glee Picture Show was excellent. Extra props to Mercedes, who unlike most of them didn't try to sound like the movie soundtrack, but made Frankenfurter's voice her own. That's not easy, and it was gorgeous. The plot was unpleasant and cring worthy, but I don't hold the performers in any less esteem for that.
2. Watching last night, it occurred to me that part of my extreme hatred of Shu is that guys like him are way more damaging than adult bullies like Sue. With a Sue, you know where you stand, and you can choose to join or array yourself in opposition. The rules of survival are fairly simple, and you can play it out from there. Shuster reminds me of my 6/7th homerom/english/Social Studies teacher. You have that same surface appearance of caring nice guy with enough charisma to convince people he's sincere, and underneath hypocrisy, selfishness, and a willing to do real damage if it serves his agenda. It was incredibly disillusioning to me as a 6th grader to have this white knight nice guy teacher going on and on about social justice and fighting racism, which is a sort of promise that he's trying to make his classroom a safe space, only to allw horrible things to happen, because it turned out he didn't give a shit about keeping someone like me safe as long as he could be popular. I think Shu's like that with a slightly different agenda. He' all about reliving his high school glory and living through the kids, to the point he is both controlling and has alarmingly bad boundaries. He plays surface sensative, caring, nice guy, while completely failing to protect Kurt in his room or outside it. Not okay. I had a lot more respect for the shop teacher who apologized because he could only keep me safe in within the walls of the class room, but couldn't save me from all the rest. That's honest. Sue is honest about what she is. Shuester is a lie.
3. Looking at the episodes I watched since I logged off last night in particular, I think Sue is often right about the big things, even though she often goes too far and goes about it the wrong way. For example, she's right that there needs to be healthier cafeteria food and less greasy stuff. The problem is, she goes too far. A more moderate approach would be better and more likely to last. When she expelled Karofsky (briefly), it dawned on me that she's a better Principal than Figgins. (I hate, hate, hate, Figgins, who is clearly doing it wrong. Nowhere I ever taught would allow that slushy thing. It would be shut down as forth degree assault the first time it happened. There would be suspension, cops, restraining orders, etc. With the death threat, If another high school was close, they'd have transferred him. In some districts they will pay private school tuition for either the bully or the victim to provide a safe learning environment. You can't legally expel without providing an alternative. If not, you'd have rearranged schedules, and an aid if necessary to keep him from interacting, and if that didn't work, the BD room or home bound teaching depending on the district. Allowing routine forth degree assault is pretty much begging for group bulling and more serious assaults such as group beating. That way lies things like lawsuits, murder, and mass murder. I honestly don't understand why he hasn't been replaced by someone competent long ago, but that's Glee, where thing are exaggeratedly worse.) Anyway, it was a little scary how much better sue was a it, given how assaultive and inappropriate she generally is. (Seriously, I'd have been fired and my license yanked if I went around hitting/pushing students). Anyway, it gave me shivers when Sue did the right thing with Karofsky.
4. Cris Colfer singing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" is one of the most heartrendingly beautiful things I've heard in years. His voice just blows me way when they let him really use it and the acting? Stunning. I'm with rm who calls him a once in a generation talent.
5. That thing were Blaine says something like, "There's a reason we all wear uniforms?" As someone who went to a prep school, that is so spot on. Dalton may be idealized in other ways, like an enforced no bullying policy, the opposite of the official scapegoating and institutionalized bullying at my real life school, but it still has that lop off the tall head everyone has to be the same thing going on, and I can read the class currents there the way a bird reads air currents. You grow up with that web of unstated rules and politely disguised barriers you learn to see them in the subtle stuff.
6. BTW, when I saw that half Cheesus episode in December, I totally misread it that Bieste had been outed as trans, what with me having missed all the set up.
7. It continues to annoy me that Mike an Tina are still barely characterized, but I love that they are starting to use/showcase Mike' delightfully mid last century style dance skills. I grew up on Astaire, Kelly, et a., and it's charming me.
8. The Substitute is just as right and wrong as Shue. It's a careful threading of the needle. You need enough control to accomplish stuff and maintain good boundaries, but beyond that you need to give them room for choice and self expression. As a former professional, they both make me cringe.
9. The Wedding episode was beautifully done with everything working together well on both an macro and a micro level (arc, character development, single episode plot, visual motif, etc. Nice. Watching it, I could also see what rm meant about Finn not really dealing with his homophobia, but merely shifting Kurt into the family and there for his tribe. It's subtle, but clever.
10. That thing Emma says about Shue not using everyone's talents? I've been saying that since the first episode.
11. So I left off partway through "Special education." I can see why it's one of rm's favorites.
12. For the records, I agree with rm that Kurt is being threatened with sexual assault, and I am a also seeing the stuff about gender involving the punishment of women for being women and the punishment of men for not reading masculine as much, but have nothing clever to say that hasn't been said already. I also think it's interesting that Finn is official arbiter or the construction of masculinity for the guys whether for Sam or Kurt. I know that he's in that role for Rory later, an am fascinated that it's as long game embedded as Kurt's relationship to death and ritual around death.
* I'm only fifth in line for the next installment, so that should be faster.
* BPAL I see there's been another round of Discontinuations due to component issues. I'm lucky enough not to be hit, but if any one lost a scent they love, I'm sorry.
* Re Supernatural: At least there's now in in story explanation for why the boys are dumber since Kripke left.
* The Clutch:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-28 10:57 pm (UTC)"Don't Cry for Me Argentina" is so interesting for so many reasons, and I listen to it on my ipod a lot. When I do, I'm always interested in how much I hear Kurt defending himself from victim blaming in it, yet also taking everything that's happened on as his own. It's fucking heartbreaking.
(For the record, Colfer thinks of himself as a singer last to his other talents, and doesn't like to sing in the show if it's not plot relevant, which is why his songs are fewer and more effective. It's also why they've structured so much around "no one knows what to do with Kurt's voice" and how that's driving towards a victory moment for him in S3).
(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-29 02:37 am (UTC)They are doing a way better job of using his voice in season 2 in things like "Jazz Hot."
I'm seeing the cracks in Blaine. I understand why you talk about the Pavarotti getting used to his cage scene so much. Ouch. Blaine is his cage waiting for Kurt to get used to it to so he can sing again. Ouch, ouch, ouch.'
I think it hit me extra hard having done 14 years in a cage like that myself. I only ever learned to sing outside of it, but I have a deep and personal understanding of the ways you have to mutilate yourself to get used to the cage. I saw people do it; I saw people try and fail. The last thing Anne Marie ever said to me before she escaped forever was, "You and me are the only ones left who still know how to be different." That was the year before Graham came and was gloriously different too. I think he was the only one got out completely unmutilated and unscarred.
Watching the Warblers perform, I keep thinking about how their choreography all looks like canaries with clipped wings moving back and forth on perches in unison. Ouch, ouch, ouch. And Kurt in the sectionals number not quite managing to be ordinary, but trying to be another clipped canary.
Speaking of canaries, I can't get it out of my head that in a scene earlier that season when Karofski knocks him to the floor, Kurt is wearing canary yellow. Deep continuity. In my head I see him sprawled there devastated and a little numb, the canary in the jungle, knocked out of his tree an aggressive predator juxtaposed with Blaine talking about getting used to cages. I grew up knowing in my bones there is no such thing as safety, I suspect over at Glee they know that too. I keep thinking about Fairyland and prices paid.
I've heard a lot of talk about Darren Criss not being a good actor. Watching him, I noticed something. He does exaggerated stage style acting when he's singing, which makes sense. There is also a sense that Blaine, the character, is always acting a little bit in scenes where he is not formally performing. I can see how people read that as Darren Criss is not a good actor, but that's not how I see it. I see it as Darren Criss is playing a person who is always performing, always pretending he's happy and fine and not even a little bit broken because if people think he's okay maybe they'll like him, an being liked means being safe, right? Right? Look at me! I'm high functioning, well adjusted, and articulate! Nothing to see behind my mask! Look at how extremely okay I am!
It seems to me that that's actually pretty subtle to try to get across. I think people are reading the trying a little to hard to fit in as Darren Criss trying to hard to fit in. I see it as Blaine trying to look happy in his pretty little cage so he wonn't get pecked.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-29 04:09 am (UTC)There is an ITunes version of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" that's just Colfer. They released three -- the quasi duet, one of just Lea Michele and one of just Colfer. So!
It's interesting how much you talk about Blaine being Pavoratti. Because then these episodes aired, the rage was that Kurt was Pavoratti and it was Blaine (who much of fandom viewed as evil) forcing Kurt to conform (look at how Blaine tells him to lower his hands during that audition).
I got into this fandom because I accidentally bumped into fandom rage at Blaine for being a talented private school boy (and fandom rage at Darren Criss for same), and went "Oh, I bet I'll care, this anger sounds familiar" and then I was just ... smitten.
Like you, my private school experience was not "nice" like Dalton (and Dalton does not remain that way in S3), but despite that, the show manages to be truthful about what it was and what was necessary to excel in it.
Glee never really addresses the class issues implicit in Dalton's addition to the narrative beyond a discussion of tuition fees, but the issues are unavoidably there and a source of fannish upset when even their absence is discussed.
Everything about Dalton's addition to the story line seemed to evoke these very primal reactions from fans, and that's been interesting.
Oh man, I can't wait til you see the stunts Blaine pulls in his desperate need for approval. As they aired they just seemed weird, because a lot of the advance press on the character was that he would be a mentor for Kurt (Blaine was originally only supposed to have a three episode arc, giving Kurt advice that leads to Kurt hooking up with Sam. Then "Teenage Dream" happened and they literally rewrote the entire season plan to accommodate Blaine) so the deteriorate of that image was surprising and came from external factors as opposed to original plans. But they've kept with it in S3 and watching him fall apart has been riveting (and vindicating. Glee is a hot mess in many ways, but none of its details are placed without intent. They've been very good at dropping breadcrumbs re: Blaine).
(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-29 07:38 am (UTC)Damn! I wants it! Alas, I haven't got the sort of money that leads to ipods.
Re: Pavoratti: I get that Blaine is talking about Kurt and not just the bird. I think he's trying to teach Kurt to cope like he did. I think about how he said that stuff about not being as brave as Kurt and running away from the bullying to Dalton. Now Kurt's run there too, he's trying to help him acclimate. I just think it's fundamentally Blaine's cage too. He's acclimated and started to sing again. The cage is less lonely with someone else in it to sing with.
I absolutely don't think Blaine's evil; I think he's terrified they will hurt Kurt because he's too different. I think for Blaine conforming is survival and it's serious or him. The things he said after the Warbler's rejected Kurt's solo bid about having to be a team player to succeed there? That signals to be they lop of the heads of flowers that grow to high in a metaphorical sense. Kurt is special and unique and a really tall flower. I'm not saying it's long term healthy, I'm just saying it's a completely understandable protective instinct.
Like you, my private school experience was not "nice" like Dalton (and Dalton does not remain that way in S3), but despite that, the show manages to be truthful about what it was and what was necessary to excel in it.
Word.
Now that you tell me Sam was intended as a love interest for Kurt, I am even more convinced I was picking up a vibe between him him and Finn and Puck. He really read bisexual to me the first few times we saw him, but they seemed to vere into completely heterosexual and I started second guessing myself.