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Aug. 11th, 2012 03:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* Pennsylvania has a "Voter's Hall of fame" honoring people who have voted in 50 consecutive elections. About a quarter of them just lost the right to vote along with 10% of all voters as part of the Republican voter suppression drive which lawmakers say is specifically for the purpose of "delivering the State to Romney." (They have filed court papers saying that there is no in person voter fraud and given speeches bragging about the above. This is all matter of record, look it up). Meanwhile, in Iowa, they are purging voter roles 3 months before the November election without public input, over sight, or evidence that it's necessary. At the same time in Ohio, they are "correcting" the fair and efficient election system by cutting down early voting in only Democratic counties but not in Republican ones. If you are curious, the Republican argument is that fair elections are too expensive sand the fix for this is to make it harder for Democrats to vote than it is for Republicans.) Riiiiight. (In my head, I hear that line from Evita, “So inconvenient, having to get a majority.”) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48621094
* Delhi Charter School is requiring girls to study from home if they get pregnant and any girl suspected of being pregnant is being subjected to medical exams against her will. Republicans: government so big it can be shoved in the vaginas of underage girls without their consent. Remember my long list of why charter schools are bad? I'm adding this to the list: http://news.yahoo.com/aclu-targets-anti-pregnancy-rule-la-school-002944071.html
"The system used at Delhi Charter School is quite unusual and punishing to the young lady; however the young man can strut along, continue in school and compete in or participate in all extracurricular activities," he said. "However, the pregnant young lady is not only excluded from all of these activities, but also must be home-schooled instead of having the privilege of attending school."
* I managed to electrocute myself cleaning a 20 gallon. I threw out the offending heater. Now I need to add another aqua heater to the shopping list. I still haven't spotted the second suckermouth, so I can't check it, but none of the other fish were hurt. The oto is still rather more active than I'm used to, but its gills look okay, so I'm just going to keep an eye on it. There's still no platys fry at all. Fingers crossed for next month. I found the suckermouth dead in the office tank. I'm now worried the blue platys girls are sick rather than pregnant. I don't want to lose my blue girls.
* Olympics Day 11
Men's gymnastics: There is no question that the Chinese gymnast that won that gold in parallel bars was very much the best. I was terribly happy for the Frenchman who won the first ever parallel bar medal for his country. I was bummed out when the greek gymnast stumbled. His routine was interesting and creative and he'd had to overcome so much to be there, from crumbling (unheated and air conditioned) practice facilities, the struggle to find enough money to send athletes to England and raising a family with four children while financing training. It was just heartbreaking for him to fail and watch him hang his head as he left the floor. Danell was lovely on the high bar. Fabian was even better. But Epke Zonderland? OMG! No wonder there's so much hype.
Women's Gymnastics: Usually there are some specialists from countries that can't field full teams. In balance beam though, it was just the usual suspects: China, Russia, Romania, USA. It made me sad. I like cheering for the athletes from the small countries. I like it when an underdog without the full weight and money of a major gymnastics machine makes it and medals. Witness me cheering for Greece and France on parallels. I'm still team Gabby though and skill is skill and art is art. I was sad for Catalina Ponor falling apart on beam. At least she redeemed herself on floor. (I also root for older than average gymnasts, because that shit isn't easy). It was terrible when Gabby fell. And the Victoria fell. Twice. Ouch, ouch, ouch! Aly pretty clearly got robbed as they didn't give her credit for a connection she made. I'm not surprised the US team appealed. They gave it to her and this left her tied for bronze just like in the all around, only this time the tie breaker went to her. It looked fair to me, as did the gold and silvers for the Chinese. Floor: Poor Jordon Weiber. Poor Sandra Izbaza. It was nice seeing Aly Raisman finally get to kick ass. She works so hard and gets very little spotlight time. I'm very happy for her.
Dual Synchronized swim: As vaguely creepy as I find the ritualized grins, I like synchronized swimming. I'm a sucker for sports that are also arts as you can likely tell. I know fuck all about the judging and technical aspects, as it's hard to catch coverage even during the Olympics, but I am happy to watch the way I am to watch a good ballet, only with the added wonder at them doing all that athletic stuff while holding their breaths. Seriously, like a lot of these sports, they might as well be doing magic.
* I fully endorse this rant about Olympi coverage: http://gofugyourself.com/fab-and-yes-the-olympics-rhythmic-gymnastics-08-2012/olympics-day-13-gymnastics-rhythmic-11
* "From Basic to Bedazzled, a Look Back at the Evolution of Gymnastics Style:" http://fashionista.com/2012/08/the-evolution-of-gymnastics-style-from-the-cold-war-to-the-kardashians/
* The Bourne Legacy: I saw Matt Damon on Comedy central just after the last one came out, saying he was getting to old for it. At the same time, the under lying conceit is pretty brilliant and the movies made money, so I can see the temptation to make more. (Full disclosure: I've only read the first book and I found it dated and not nearly as good as the first Matt Damon movie. I'm not a purist. It's also not my genre, though I've seen most of the Bond movies over the years whether I wanted to or not and I do like LeCarre. So call me genre savvy, but not the target audience).
Anyway, I like that instead of rebooting too soon (Marvel and DC) I'm looking at you), they stuck with the world and continuity of the other movies, but rather simply picked up a different main character in the aftermath of the first series. Nice in an unironic way. What wasn't so nice is that they had an opportunity to start over with a more diverse cast. I like Jeremy Renner just fine and his acting was solid, but this is essentially the same part he was playing in the Avengers, and I kept thinking what if they cast the two leads as POC? Why does nearly the whole cast have to be white? Again, nothing against Rachel Weisz, by why not have, say, Freema Agyeman or Thandie Newton or any number of other talented actresses of colour play it? Or... when is the last time I saw a Latina scientist in a blockbuster movie? Or.... you get the idea. Most of the speaking roles were white. You get a few people of colour in not particularly flattering roles. Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it: all those white scientists, the mostly white analysts, the all white main cast, with the exception of a few operatives who are silent or hardly speak. I think there was one African American Analyst with a line. Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it and it was distracting as hell. The people of colour in this film are mostly pawns or antagonists or obstacles instead of people with agency and fully fleshed out personalities.
Spy movies are generally action movie fluff (with the exception of John le Carré as far as I can tell). This is perfectly reasonable action movie fluff, watchable and mostly forgettable. I found it a little unsatisfying, but I had that same response to the previous Bourne movies, the Bond movies, and to a certain extent, Salt. Again, I'm not the target audience and I can't begin to guess how someone who loves this stuff would feel.
I nearly didn't write anything about this movie at all because the only thinky type thoughts I had were about the similarities between Hawkeye and Aaron Cross and the whole racial agenda thing. I decided to write this up because the racial agenda thing is something people might want to know before they decide whether to rent air conditioning in this particular film.
* I can't imagine living like this voluntarily: http://curbed.com/archives/2012/08/08/check-mate.php
* O.o: http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=850
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* Delhi Charter School is requiring girls to study from home if they get pregnant and any girl suspected of being pregnant is being subjected to medical exams against her will. Republicans: government so big it can be shoved in the vaginas of underage girls without their consent. Remember my long list of why charter schools are bad? I'm adding this to the list: http://news.yahoo.com/aclu-targets-anti-pregnancy-rule-la-school-002944071.html
"The system used at Delhi Charter School is quite unusual and punishing to the young lady; however the young man can strut along, continue in school and compete in or participate in all extracurricular activities," he said. "However, the pregnant young lady is not only excluded from all of these activities, but also must be home-schooled instead of having the privilege of attending school."
* I managed to electrocute myself cleaning a 20 gallon. I threw out the offending heater. Now I need to add another aqua heater to the shopping list. I still haven't spotted the second suckermouth, so I can't check it, but none of the other fish were hurt. The oto is still rather more active than I'm used to, but its gills look okay, so I'm just going to keep an eye on it. There's still no platys fry at all. Fingers crossed for next month. I found the suckermouth dead in the office tank. I'm now worried the blue platys girls are sick rather than pregnant. I don't want to lose my blue girls.
* Olympics Day 11
Men's gymnastics: There is no question that the Chinese gymnast that won that gold in parallel bars was very much the best. I was terribly happy for the Frenchman who won the first ever parallel bar medal for his country. I was bummed out when the greek gymnast stumbled. His routine was interesting and creative and he'd had to overcome so much to be there, from crumbling (unheated and air conditioned) practice facilities, the struggle to find enough money to send athletes to England and raising a family with four children while financing training. It was just heartbreaking for him to fail and watch him hang his head as he left the floor. Danell was lovely on the high bar. Fabian was even better. But Epke Zonderland? OMG! No wonder there's so much hype.
Women's Gymnastics: Usually there are some specialists from countries that can't field full teams. In balance beam though, it was just the usual suspects: China, Russia, Romania, USA. It made me sad. I like cheering for the athletes from the small countries. I like it when an underdog without the full weight and money of a major gymnastics machine makes it and medals. Witness me cheering for Greece and France on parallels. I'm still team Gabby though and skill is skill and art is art. I was sad for Catalina Ponor falling apart on beam. At least she redeemed herself on floor. (I also root for older than average gymnasts, because that shit isn't easy). It was terrible when Gabby fell. And the Victoria fell. Twice. Ouch, ouch, ouch! Aly pretty clearly got robbed as they didn't give her credit for a connection she made. I'm not surprised the US team appealed. They gave it to her and this left her tied for bronze just like in the all around, only this time the tie breaker went to her. It looked fair to me, as did the gold and silvers for the Chinese. Floor: Poor Jordon Weiber. Poor Sandra Izbaza. It was nice seeing Aly Raisman finally get to kick ass. She works so hard and gets very little spotlight time. I'm very happy for her.
Dual Synchronized swim: As vaguely creepy as I find the ritualized grins, I like synchronized swimming. I'm a sucker for sports that are also arts as you can likely tell. I know fuck all about the judging and technical aspects, as it's hard to catch coverage even during the Olympics, but I am happy to watch the way I am to watch a good ballet, only with the added wonder at them doing all that athletic stuff while holding their breaths. Seriously, like a lot of these sports, they might as well be doing magic.
* I fully endorse this rant about Olympi coverage: http://gofugyourself.com/fab-and-yes-the-olympics-rhythmic-gymnastics-08-2012/olympics-day-13-gymnastics-rhythmic-11
* "From Basic to Bedazzled, a Look Back at the Evolution of Gymnastics Style:" http://fashionista.com/2012/08/the-evolution-of-gymnastics-style-from-the-cold-war-to-the-kardashians/
* The Bourne Legacy: I saw Matt Damon on Comedy central just after the last one came out, saying he was getting to old for it. At the same time, the under lying conceit is pretty brilliant and the movies made money, so I can see the temptation to make more. (Full disclosure: I've only read the first book and I found it dated and not nearly as good as the first Matt Damon movie. I'm not a purist. It's also not my genre, though I've seen most of the Bond movies over the years whether I wanted to or not and I do like LeCarre. So call me genre savvy, but not the target audience).
Anyway, I like that instead of rebooting too soon (Marvel and DC) I'm looking at you), they stuck with the world and continuity of the other movies, but rather simply picked up a different main character in the aftermath of the first series. Nice in an unironic way. What wasn't so nice is that they had an opportunity to start over with a more diverse cast. I like Jeremy Renner just fine and his acting was solid, but this is essentially the same part he was playing in the Avengers, and I kept thinking what if they cast the two leads as POC? Why does nearly the whole cast have to be white? Again, nothing against Rachel Weisz, by why not have, say, Freema Agyeman or Thandie Newton or any number of other talented actresses of colour play it? Or... when is the last time I saw a Latina scientist in a blockbuster movie? Or.... you get the idea. Most of the speaking roles were white. You get a few people of colour in not particularly flattering roles. Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it: all those white scientists, the mostly white analysts, the all white main cast, with the exception of a few operatives who are silent or hardly speak. I think there was one African American Analyst with a line. Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it and it was distracting as hell. The people of colour in this film are mostly pawns or antagonists or obstacles instead of people with agency and fully fleshed out personalities.
Spy movies are generally action movie fluff (with the exception of John le Carré as far as I can tell). This is perfectly reasonable action movie fluff, watchable and mostly forgettable. I found it a little unsatisfying, but I had that same response to the previous Bourne movies, the Bond movies, and to a certain extent, Salt. Again, I'm not the target audience and I can't begin to guess how someone who loves this stuff would feel.
I nearly didn't write anything about this movie at all because the only thinky type thoughts I had were about the similarities between Hawkeye and Aaron Cross and the whole racial agenda thing. I decided to write this up because the racial agenda thing is something people might want to know before they decide whether to rent air conditioning in this particular film.
* I can't imagine living like this voluntarily: http://curbed.com/archives/2012/08/08/check-mate.php
* O.o: http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=850