(no subject)
Oct. 23rd, 2012 04:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* I have no words that can express my horror over the BBC pedophile scandal and so can't really say anything intelligent here.
* Bullshit Mountain: The Phantom Menace:
* Colbert on organized Republican Voter Fraud:
* I voted today. Please, please, please, if you live in an early voting state, vote early. Republicans are doing their best to discourage voting and make the lines long and intimidating. Don't let them win by giving up! Insist on your rights as a citizen!
Here in Washington, there are huge issues on the ballot and a lot of important races. There's a whole raft of Tea Party attempts to defund government and schools in particular. Please, please please vote against the 3/4's rule and vote to save funding on the other key measures. Do vote to fund housing assistance. You've seen my charter school rant. I know they sound cool, but when you look at real world effects, please vote no. Absolutely vote for Marriage Equality!
Wherever you live, don't forget to vote the whole ballot including the non-partisan offices. Trust me, who is doing the judging in your area matters if you care about your civil rights. Who is making decisions about how clean your water is and school board policy matters. Voter's guides are your friends, folks. In my state, the heavy lifting on the research is for the primary, as the November election is a run off, but it's still a good idea to look up the non-partisans. I know this is a bit of work, but an hour of paying attention to this stuff is the price of freedom.
Seriously, vote. Just vote.
* So today was a day with extreme physical inconveniences. As in, it not only really hurt, but I'm in and out of the bathroom every five to ten minutes. I planned to take it slow, rest up, and do things tomorrow. Only Hector was refusing to eat, so there was the constant interruption and needing to hobble after him back and forth, back and forth. Then Squirrel comes back saying the car is dead. Even though I paid AAA at the beginning of September, they they never sent the card. (This was on today's original to do list which I moved to tomorrow). So I call them and the National office dramatically fucked up my membership. So yes, they took my money, but it's going to take a bunch of drama tomorrow to sort out so I can actually get my benefits. They grudgingly agreed to tow the car anyway. I'm suspecting a wire loosened in the accident, but it could be the alternater. *fingers crossed* Anyway, it was a whole lot of crap to deal with for someone who had trouble holding it together long enough for the tow guy to hitch my car. *Sigh*
* I'm sure you all know that I love studying history. I have a Classics degree and a couple of history degrees, after all. You might think I'd want to live in the past, but I don't. I'm a fan of indoor plumbing and modern medicine. I know full well, that without antibiotics, I'd have lost my hearing in childhood and would have died of a lung infection at sixteen. It goes deeper than that, though. I am realistic about the life of the poor before FDR and how hard the work was. Imagine how many families who might otherwise have had a chance to survive infectious disease didn't because no one was healthy enough to go to the well for water. Think about the people who died of a cut that got infected or because the Doctor didn't wash his hands. Think about living in a shack with huge chinks between the boards in winter with only your family and livestock to keep you from freezing to death. think about all those people dieing at planting and harvest because they were so exhausted that they made a deadly mistake. And on and on and on. My bloodline is all working and middle class for the last 300 years or so, and the rich were always a small percentage of the population.
Even if I had been born rich, I think I would have been bored silly. Oh, I love me some 19th century novels. I love Austin's wit and the Bronte sister's deconstructions of their society. Hardy can break my heart if I let him, etc.. The thing is, though. I'd have hated all the inane small talk and the social ritual. Male or female, I'd have been at a loss without meaningful occupations and people who actually interested me. I am not an outdoors man. I don't much enjoy gossip. My piano playing was abyssal. To be sure, there would have been books, but think of the small percentage I would have found interesting and how few had the quality to stand the test of time. I have a lot of sympathy for those like Mary Wollstonecraft who chaffed at the strict rules society imposed on them, but it takes huge strength and quite a bit of money to stand proud and tall outside the pale. One can hope one has that that strength, but one can't know without being put to the test.
I study history, but am realistic about it: about the mud and stench and the slow starvation, about disease and the way armies did horrible things to captured civilians, about the endlessness of work regardless o how sick and how much one hurt, about the limits society put on people and the consequences for breaking the rules.
This week, I've been contemplating the clothes of the upper classes. You can actually see them get less practical century by century, decade by decade. The men's clothes start moving the other way towards the end o the 18th, with the Revolutions. Women's clothes though.... You can tell by the outfits that the Medieval upper class women still had a lot of work to do. The history bears this out, of course, but I'm talking about simple moving about and accomplishing things. You can see the outfits getting more restrictive and cagelike as the ideal shifted from a woman who could run the estate on her own, who's hands were always busy to the ideal of feminine idleness and ignorance. At the same time, the men's outfits did this differentiation where you had court dress and the things they wore for actually doing things. For sure the fancy outfits are beautiful. I marvel at the inventiveness of design and the clever hands that made them. It's just, looking at early modern through Edwardian women's fashions, I think of how trapped I'd have felt wearing them. All those layers, all that boning and corsetry. I have trouble keeping on my modern type particularly chosen to be loose fitting and of fabrics that don't irritate my skin. Looking at those women, even knowing that a small army of servants dressed them makes me tired just thinking about it. Up until upper class men's clothes simplified, it's not much better. Ever watch the opening sequence of Dangerous Liaisons? It symbolic, sure, but the effort involved in dressing Valmonte is pretty accurately depicted and isn't all that different from what his female counterpart endures. For sure, he doesn't have a breath restricting corset, but corsets also help bare the weight of the outfits. He can move faster in that outfit and with less restriction, but it's still a lot of layers and hassle. I have trouble eating with my coat on when I'm actually cold as I feel too restricted. Just saying. Does this stop me wanting pretty historical type outfits to wear? No, but the thing is, I can take it off to eat or if I get tired and it's only for special occasions. It's optional and occasional, not a requirement if I want to leave the house. I do not know which would make me feel trapped, the clothes or societal rules, but I know they both would have driven me to extremes of desperation. Just Saying.
* Early colour film test from 1922: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_RTnd3Smy8
* "They’ll never notice:" http://thequackdoctor.com/index.php/theyll-never-notice/
* OMG! It turns out that the best taffy maker at the Jersey Shore is not only online, but one can order molasses paddles through the mail!!! Omnomnom! There's not much I miss about the East Coast, but molasses paddles are on the short list: http://www.fudgekitchens.com/
* "Deadpool Vs New York Comicon 2012:" http://big-wired.livejournal.com/307093.html
* Bullshit Mountain: The Phantom Menace:
* Colbert on organized Republican Voter Fraud:
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
* I voted today. Please, please, please, if you live in an early voting state, vote early. Republicans are doing their best to discourage voting and make the lines long and intimidating. Don't let them win by giving up! Insist on your rights as a citizen!
Here in Washington, there are huge issues on the ballot and a lot of important races. There's a whole raft of Tea Party attempts to defund government and schools in particular. Please, please please vote against the 3/4's rule and vote to save funding on the other key measures. Do vote to fund housing assistance. You've seen my charter school rant. I know they sound cool, but when you look at real world effects, please vote no. Absolutely vote for Marriage Equality!
Wherever you live, don't forget to vote the whole ballot including the non-partisan offices. Trust me, who is doing the judging in your area matters if you care about your civil rights. Who is making decisions about how clean your water is and school board policy matters. Voter's guides are your friends, folks. In my state, the heavy lifting on the research is for the primary, as the November election is a run off, but it's still a good idea to look up the non-partisans. I know this is a bit of work, but an hour of paying attention to this stuff is the price of freedom.
Seriously, vote. Just vote.
* So today was a day with extreme physical inconveniences. As in, it not only really hurt, but I'm in and out of the bathroom every five to ten minutes. I planned to take it slow, rest up, and do things tomorrow. Only Hector was refusing to eat, so there was the constant interruption and needing to hobble after him back and forth, back and forth. Then Squirrel comes back saying the car is dead. Even though I paid AAA at the beginning of September, they they never sent the card. (This was on today's original to do list which I moved to tomorrow). So I call them and the National office dramatically fucked up my membership. So yes, they took my money, but it's going to take a bunch of drama tomorrow to sort out so I can actually get my benefits. They grudgingly agreed to tow the car anyway. I'm suspecting a wire loosened in the accident, but it could be the alternater. *fingers crossed* Anyway, it was a whole lot of crap to deal with for someone who had trouble holding it together long enough for the tow guy to hitch my car. *Sigh*
* I'm sure you all know that I love studying history. I have a Classics degree and a couple of history degrees, after all. You might think I'd want to live in the past, but I don't. I'm a fan of indoor plumbing and modern medicine. I know full well, that without antibiotics, I'd have lost my hearing in childhood and would have died of a lung infection at sixteen. It goes deeper than that, though. I am realistic about the life of the poor before FDR and how hard the work was. Imagine how many families who might otherwise have had a chance to survive infectious disease didn't because no one was healthy enough to go to the well for water. Think about the people who died of a cut that got infected or because the Doctor didn't wash his hands. Think about living in a shack with huge chinks between the boards in winter with only your family and livestock to keep you from freezing to death. think about all those people dieing at planting and harvest because they were so exhausted that they made a deadly mistake. And on and on and on. My bloodline is all working and middle class for the last 300 years or so, and the rich were always a small percentage of the population.
Even if I had been born rich, I think I would have been bored silly. Oh, I love me some 19th century novels. I love Austin's wit and the Bronte sister's deconstructions of their society. Hardy can break my heart if I let him, etc.. The thing is, though. I'd have hated all the inane small talk and the social ritual. Male or female, I'd have been at a loss without meaningful occupations and people who actually interested me. I am not an outdoors man. I don't much enjoy gossip. My piano playing was abyssal. To be sure, there would have been books, but think of the small percentage I would have found interesting and how few had the quality to stand the test of time. I have a lot of sympathy for those like Mary Wollstonecraft who chaffed at the strict rules society imposed on them, but it takes huge strength and quite a bit of money to stand proud and tall outside the pale. One can hope one has that that strength, but one can't know without being put to the test.
I study history, but am realistic about it: about the mud and stench and the slow starvation, about disease and the way armies did horrible things to captured civilians, about the endlessness of work regardless o how sick and how much one hurt, about the limits society put on people and the consequences for breaking the rules.
This week, I've been contemplating the clothes of the upper classes. You can actually see them get less practical century by century, decade by decade. The men's clothes start moving the other way towards the end o the 18th, with the Revolutions. Women's clothes though.... You can tell by the outfits that the Medieval upper class women still had a lot of work to do. The history bears this out, of course, but I'm talking about simple moving about and accomplishing things. You can see the outfits getting more restrictive and cagelike as the ideal shifted from a woman who could run the estate on her own, who's hands were always busy to the ideal of feminine idleness and ignorance. At the same time, the men's outfits did this differentiation where you had court dress and the things they wore for actually doing things. For sure the fancy outfits are beautiful. I marvel at the inventiveness of design and the clever hands that made them. It's just, looking at early modern through Edwardian women's fashions, I think of how trapped I'd have felt wearing them. All those layers, all that boning and corsetry. I have trouble keeping on my modern type particularly chosen to be loose fitting and of fabrics that don't irritate my skin. Looking at those women, even knowing that a small army of servants dressed them makes me tired just thinking about it. Up until upper class men's clothes simplified, it's not much better. Ever watch the opening sequence of Dangerous Liaisons? It symbolic, sure, but the effort involved in dressing Valmonte is pretty accurately depicted and isn't all that different from what his female counterpart endures. For sure, he doesn't have a breath restricting corset, but corsets also help bare the weight of the outfits. He can move faster in that outfit and with less restriction, but it's still a lot of layers and hassle. I have trouble eating with my coat on when I'm actually cold as I feel too restricted. Just saying. Does this stop me wanting pretty historical type outfits to wear? No, but the thing is, I can take it off to eat or if I get tired and it's only for special occasions. It's optional and occasional, not a requirement if I want to leave the house. I do not know which would make me feel trapped, the clothes or societal rules, but I know they both would have driven me to extremes of desperation. Just Saying.
* Early colour film test from 1922: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_RTnd3Smy8
* "They’ll never notice:" http://thequackdoctor.com/index.php/theyll-never-notice/
* OMG! It turns out that the best taffy maker at the Jersey Shore is not only online, but one can order molasses paddles through the mail!!! Omnomnom! There's not much I miss about the East Coast, but molasses paddles are on the short list: http://www.fudgekitchens.com/
* "Deadpool Vs New York Comicon 2012:" http://big-wired.livejournal.com/307093.html
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-23 01:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 03:10 am (UTC)