(no subject)
Sep. 21st, 2015 02:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* "Undocumented mom arrested at doctor's office:" http://on.msnbc.com/1FnI1vb
* "One Chart Reveals the Truth About America's "War on Police":" http://mic.com/articles/125251/one-chart-reveals-the-truth-about-america-s-war-on-police?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social
* "Obama highlights sexual abuse to prison pipeline:" http://on.msnbc.com/1Yrl5Bz
* "Obama: Black women were the 'foot soldiers' during civil rights movement:" http://on.msnbc.com/1FnESvx
* "Does the GOP know the 'real' Rosa Parks?:" http://on.msnbc.com/1FnGpl3
* "The Inaccuracy Of “Historical Accuracy” In Gaming And Media:" http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/15/missing-the-target/
* Black Sails Rewatch XV:
1. Abigail describing Miranda to Eleanor. I've written extensively about what I believe to be Miranda Hamilton's goal: to return to society on her own terms, as a gentle woman. This is akin to Flint's wanting Them to apologize to Him. Here we get a glimpse of the Miranda of Before, through Abigail's eyes. We've never really seen her properly in her Salon, her natural milieu, even in flashback, as the flashbacks were always so focused on the politics, on McGraw's relationship with the Hamiltons, and on the Fall. I think it is interesting that we never see it through either Miranda's eyes or James'. Instead, it is described by a young woman who saw her at her height as a young girl and, I think, wanted to be like her. It fleshes out the Miranda Hamilton a little more, in advance of her second tragedy, but I think it is also foreshadowing, a hint of what they might do with Abigail in future. Miranda is barely in this episode, and yet her spirit pervades it, thanks to Abigail's invoking her in the opener, and the way Abigail's story comments on Miranda's.
2. The commentary on politics and voting is particularly pointed and relevant in the vote count discussion between Billy and Flint. "My seamanship, my prospects for garnering plunder, my skill in a fight, the sound of my voice, the sound of another man's eating: I suppose at the end of the day they are all functionally equivalent. A man casts his vote for the same reason he does anything." "Why's that?" Because it feels good." Note that Billy is Quartermastering here, despite Dufresne being the actual Quartermaster.
3. Hornigold is not wrong about Flint.
4. This episode is the first time we see Jon Silver thinking like a Captain. Him spotting the opportunity both political and monetary the news of the Urca represents and making a complex plan based on what he knows of people to grasp it. He's come a long way since episode one. Like Billy there is a huge learning curve here. In Silver's case the goal stays the same (money), but his vision is larger and he has so many more tools for making it happen now that he's learned from one of the best how pirate ships work politically. Silver's lie takes the pegs out of Hornigold's challenge, making it fall apart, while putting the gold in Silver's reach. It's so quietly, ruthlessly brilliant. Jon Silver accusing Flint of orchestrating it all, so that Flint doesn't think to suspect him and then, in his anger showing Jon Silver his own power. You can see the exact moment where Flint's words turn Silver on a dime, that moment where Silver decides that his future is here instead of in running as was clearly his plan to this point. Flint built his true nemesis from the ground up, trained him and spurred him and set Silver on a path to surpass Flint. Flint and his ruthless pursuit of his grand vision is dangerous enough. Now imagine what a man better at the politics with no agenda but himself pursuing that agenda with equal intelligence and ruthlessness.
5. That Anne line, "I Always thought he saved me from something. Always been so fucking grateful. Now I wonder maybe Jack took me from something I was supposed to figure my own way out of. Maybe he took away my chance to get strong enough to save myself. To grow up." Really speaks to me. Likely because I had to save myself at that age. Now I need to think about Max's fierce defense of Anne and their mutual rescue of each other in light of Anne's meditation on Jack's rescue of her when she was thirteen. It's a complicated thought and I need to mull it some more.
6. Rudderless Anne trying to find a new place for herself in the world. That man had no chance of being a captain. He looks at the most violent and unpredictable person in that brothel and takes her for a shy new sex worker. A man who can misread people and his danger so completely would never last in charge of a ship if he managed to get voted in. A Vane or a Singleton would eat him alive one way or the other. Look at how much better Idelle reads people, let alone Max.
7. Abigail's conversation with Eleanor during the escape is a compliment to Anne's speech I quoted above. Abigail's father protected her from the world, while Eleanor's father essentially abandoned her to it. "But you seem a formidable woman, Ma'am. Perhaps it was exposure to the challenges of this place that made you the person you are." Eleanor's strange mix of privilege and self rescue have shaped her every bit as much as Anne's history of abuse, her rescue by Jack, and her molding into the perfect pirate. Eleanor is better than the son her father wanted and rejected her for not being, but her bitterness runs deep. This too speaks to me. Rescued or rescueing oneself, it still means a fundamental abandonment and a need for rescue. Lord Ashe tried to protect his daughter from the world and here she is out in it, passed from hand to hand, but her quick mind and strong will work together to make her see what is there instead of just the stories her father fed her. Nothing is as she thought it was before leaving England, including her father and Flint. She is open minded enough to see pretty truly, which pays off later when they gets to Charleston.
8. It was Billy who picked Dufresne as his successor, and it is he who dismisses him as unworthy. Here is Billy's moment where he reveals his motives. He speaks of his torture "I would fight to the death to ensure not a single one of my brothers ever has to face what I faced. Now if there's a man on this crew who feels differently, that feels as though he's willing to accept another brother's suffering that fate so that he might avoid it, then that's a man I need to remove from my crew." he said last episode that Flint is right about the English Navy. Fundamentally, this grown up Billy has decided that he will fight for the best interests of the crew. Before, he believed Flint was the danger to them. Now he believes that Flint is their best hope for survival. "There will be nothing but adherence to the principle that we are none of us safe until we are all safe."
9. Charles Vane's face in his confrontation with Eleanor breaks my heart every damned time. Does it hurt more because her sudden inevitable betrayal is not a surprise, I wonder? He so clearly knows she seduced him to do this. That blink of resigned acceptance when she locks the gate between them. This was how it was always going to end up one way or another. She really will turn on absolutely anyone, even when it hurts her. The goal always comes before her heart. He always new she was a pirate. It drew him to her, but it has always pushed them apart: Politics and ruthlessness. Eleanor Guthrie is relentless with everyone, especially herself.
10. Max has rebuilt herself. Now she hopes to help Anne rebuild herself too, and build themselves a future while she is at it. Is she any different than Jack though? Jack rescued Anne and she turned herself into the perfect pirate. Max rescued her and is now trying to shape her into something bigger, but she's still the other half of a political player. In both cases that political player loves her, I believe sincerely, but Anne isn't saving herself or figuring out who she is without Jack, which is what it looked like she was trying to do earlier in this episode. Instead, she is drifting into letting Max remake her into what Max needs. what does Anne need? Anne clearly doesn't know and the drifting is clearly painful to her, but I think she needed time to work it out.
11. Richard warns Miranda that Charleston only wears a civilized veneer, that it is brutal. Miranda doesn't listen. I get why. I get how desperate she is, how done with Nassau. I get that she likely blames her husband's fall on her yielding to Thomas and James' enthusiasm, on not standing her ground when she saw tragedy looming, and so she stands her ground now when she is wrong, first against James (two episodes ago), against Richard Guthrie. The men were wrong and she right last time after all and she needs this to be over. Like Hornigold, She can't go home again to England, but she needs a face saving semi-retirement. She doesn't show her desperation, but it is there in everything she's done since we first saw her. She's become sloppy (letting Guthrie see the book inscription, the priest, this plan) because she can't wait anymore.
12. Billy says he slipped and fell. He doesn't know if Flint tried to save him or let him go and that maybe even Flint doesn't know for certain. I've written extensively about my "Flint hesitated" theory, that maybe he didn't try as hard as he would have if they hadn't been in conflict. I stand by that, that he didn't intentionally drop him, but that he carries some guilt for letting him slip. I think it's why he never defends himself, and I think there was a hint of guilt when he talked to Gates about Billy that time. But I can't prove it and Flint never tells us outright one way or another in the two seasons we have so far.
13. Dufresne allies with the thrice betrayed Hornigold; Silver allies with Max. Hornigold sees the end coming and Dufresne has offered him one last way out. Silver offers Max the gold to build the future she dreams of.
14. Silver warns Max about who he is, much the way he repeatedly warned Flint, who didn't listen. I've said I think he was allying himself with the biggest predator on his horizon and was drafting in his wake towards a mutual goal. Now Flint is no longer driving towards Silver's goal and he's picking a new predator to ally with. Basically, "I'm a predator, you're a predator, let's make lots of money." (Age test! Do you hear the Pet Shop Boys singing "I've got the brains; you've got the looks, Let's make lots of money!" in your head right now? I do!)
15. The lanterns, mist, ominous silhouette closer was beautifully shot.
16. "The things I have destroyed to reach this moment: everything and anything that stood in it's way." I think the theme of this episode is desperate measures.
* A charmingly deadpan hoax: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/129551505202/nudityandnerdery-dieselpunkflimflam
* My anger at Joss Whedon does not stop me thinking "the Gentleman" was his most effective creature design ever and that transparency projector scene still makes me laugh out loud.
* Ebay: 6 Lots, 3 Days, one no bid:
Quintessence of Dust 2014 (Only Lovers Left Alive): (Company says: The passing: beeswax and smoke, yellowed paper and well-worn leather books, droplets of spilled ink, faded incense, blood-tinged salty tears, and the metal of the knife that skewers that illiterate zombie philistine’s portrait.). 3/4 Full.
Lindworm 2012 (LE, DragonCon, Event Exclusive): (Company says: Smoky green leather smeared with crushed grasses and wild herbs). 3/4 Full.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-Quintessence-of-Dust-2014-Only-Lovers-Lindworm-2012-LE-DragonCon-/301739204845?
THE GILMAN HOUSE HOTEL 2010 (LE, Lupercalia): (Company Says: Musty, dilapidated furnishings, peeling paint, swamp gas, and decay.) 1/2 Full.
MOUSE CiIRCUS 2012 (Neil Gaiman, Coraline): (Company Says: A toodle oodle of pink cotton candy noses, vanilla spun sugar fur, scattered kernels of popcorn, and a touch of polished golden wood.) 1/2 Full.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/301739211523?
A Moment in Time 2014 (LE, BPTP): (Company says: A tranquil scent, illuminated by joy and warm with the serenity of love: bourbon vanilla and soft sandalwood with tiare, white fig, sweet benzoin, guiac wood, French lavender, and a touch of warm patchouli.). Just above top of label.
The Ninth Cage 2011 (The Last Unicorn): (Company says: A claustrophobic blend of iron and oak.). Just below top of label.
Port-Au-Prince 2011 (Wanderlust): (Company says: Dark, decadent and incomparably exotic: the rich scent of buttered rum flavored with almond, bay, clove and sassafras.). 3/4 Full.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/301739220678?
Haute Macabre 2013 (Retail Exclusive Oils): (Company says: Oak leaf, bourbon vanilla, almond husk, and black leather accord darkened by a 13-year aged black patchouli.). At label.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/301739230206?
A Low Candle-Lit Room 2013 (LE, Yules): (Company says: Candle wax and waxen "skin," rotting leather and reeking damp wood, and the ashes of a yawning, cold fireplace.). 3/4 Full.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/301739234032?
TARANTULA FASCINATOR 2013 (LE, Liliths): (Company says:Done and done: fuzzy cacao-drenched hazelnut with hay absolute, black pepper, and nutmeg, laced with stripes of wild plum and white sandalwood.). 3/4 Full.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/301739237669?
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities to donate money to instead of seeing the racist Stonewall Movie that decided to portray a black trans woman activist as a cis white man. http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
* "One Chart Reveals the Truth About America's "War on Police":" http://mic.com/articles/125251/one-chart-reveals-the-truth-about-america-s-war-on-police?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social
* "Obama highlights sexual abuse to prison pipeline:" http://on.msnbc.com/1Yrl5Bz
* "Obama: Black women were the 'foot soldiers' during civil rights movement:" http://on.msnbc.com/1FnESvx
* "Does the GOP know the 'real' Rosa Parks?:" http://on.msnbc.com/1FnGpl3
* "The Inaccuracy Of “Historical Accuracy” In Gaming And Media:" http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/15/missing-the-target/
* Black Sails Rewatch XV:
1. Abigail describing Miranda to Eleanor. I've written extensively about what I believe to be Miranda Hamilton's goal: to return to society on her own terms, as a gentle woman. This is akin to Flint's wanting Them to apologize to Him. Here we get a glimpse of the Miranda of Before, through Abigail's eyes. We've never really seen her properly in her Salon, her natural milieu, even in flashback, as the flashbacks were always so focused on the politics, on McGraw's relationship with the Hamiltons, and on the Fall. I think it is interesting that we never see it through either Miranda's eyes or James'. Instead, it is described by a young woman who saw her at her height as a young girl and, I think, wanted to be like her. It fleshes out the Miranda Hamilton a little more, in advance of her second tragedy, but I think it is also foreshadowing, a hint of what they might do with Abigail in future. Miranda is barely in this episode, and yet her spirit pervades it, thanks to Abigail's invoking her in the opener, and the way Abigail's story comments on Miranda's.
2. The commentary on politics and voting is particularly pointed and relevant in the vote count discussion between Billy and Flint. "My seamanship, my prospects for garnering plunder, my skill in a fight, the sound of my voice, the sound of another man's eating: I suppose at the end of the day they are all functionally equivalent. A man casts his vote for the same reason he does anything." "Why's that?" Because it feels good." Note that Billy is Quartermastering here, despite Dufresne being the actual Quartermaster.
3. Hornigold is not wrong about Flint.
4. This episode is the first time we see Jon Silver thinking like a Captain. Him spotting the opportunity both political and monetary the news of the Urca represents and making a complex plan based on what he knows of people to grasp it. He's come a long way since episode one. Like Billy there is a huge learning curve here. In Silver's case the goal stays the same (money), but his vision is larger and he has so many more tools for making it happen now that he's learned from one of the best how pirate ships work politically. Silver's lie takes the pegs out of Hornigold's challenge, making it fall apart, while putting the gold in Silver's reach. It's so quietly, ruthlessly brilliant. Jon Silver accusing Flint of orchestrating it all, so that Flint doesn't think to suspect him and then, in his anger showing Jon Silver his own power. You can see the exact moment where Flint's words turn Silver on a dime, that moment where Silver decides that his future is here instead of in running as was clearly his plan to this point. Flint built his true nemesis from the ground up, trained him and spurred him and set Silver on a path to surpass Flint. Flint and his ruthless pursuit of his grand vision is dangerous enough. Now imagine what a man better at the politics with no agenda but himself pursuing that agenda with equal intelligence and ruthlessness.
5. That Anne line, "I Always thought he saved me from something. Always been so fucking grateful. Now I wonder maybe Jack took me from something I was supposed to figure my own way out of. Maybe he took away my chance to get strong enough to save myself. To grow up." Really speaks to me. Likely because I had to save myself at that age. Now I need to think about Max's fierce defense of Anne and their mutual rescue of each other in light of Anne's meditation on Jack's rescue of her when she was thirteen. It's a complicated thought and I need to mull it some more.
6. Rudderless Anne trying to find a new place for herself in the world. That man had no chance of being a captain. He looks at the most violent and unpredictable person in that brothel and takes her for a shy new sex worker. A man who can misread people and his danger so completely would never last in charge of a ship if he managed to get voted in. A Vane or a Singleton would eat him alive one way or the other. Look at how much better Idelle reads people, let alone Max.
7. Abigail's conversation with Eleanor during the escape is a compliment to Anne's speech I quoted above. Abigail's father protected her from the world, while Eleanor's father essentially abandoned her to it. "But you seem a formidable woman, Ma'am. Perhaps it was exposure to the challenges of this place that made you the person you are." Eleanor's strange mix of privilege and self rescue have shaped her every bit as much as Anne's history of abuse, her rescue by Jack, and her molding into the perfect pirate. Eleanor is better than the son her father wanted and rejected her for not being, but her bitterness runs deep. This too speaks to me. Rescued or rescueing oneself, it still means a fundamental abandonment and a need for rescue. Lord Ashe tried to protect his daughter from the world and here she is out in it, passed from hand to hand, but her quick mind and strong will work together to make her see what is there instead of just the stories her father fed her. Nothing is as she thought it was before leaving England, including her father and Flint. She is open minded enough to see pretty truly, which pays off later when they gets to Charleston.
8. It was Billy who picked Dufresne as his successor, and it is he who dismisses him as unworthy. Here is Billy's moment where he reveals his motives. He speaks of his torture "I would fight to the death to ensure not a single one of my brothers ever has to face what I faced. Now if there's a man on this crew who feels differently, that feels as though he's willing to accept another brother's suffering that fate so that he might avoid it, then that's a man I need to remove from my crew." he said last episode that Flint is right about the English Navy. Fundamentally, this grown up Billy has decided that he will fight for the best interests of the crew. Before, he believed Flint was the danger to them. Now he believes that Flint is their best hope for survival. "There will be nothing but adherence to the principle that we are none of us safe until we are all safe."
9. Charles Vane's face in his confrontation with Eleanor breaks my heart every damned time. Does it hurt more because her sudden inevitable betrayal is not a surprise, I wonder? He so clearly knows she seduced him to do this. That blink of resigned acceptance when she locks the gate between them. This was how it was always going to end up one way or another. She really will turn on absolutely anyone, even when it hurts her. The goal always comes before her heart. He always new she was a pirate. It drew him to her, but it has always pushed them apart: Politics and ruthlessness. Eleanor Guthrie is relentless with everyone, especially herself.
10. Max has rebuilt herself. Now she hopes to help Anne rebuild herself too, and build themselves a future while she is at it. Is she any different than Jack though? Jack rescued Anne and she turned herself into the perfect pirate. Max rescued her and is now trying to shape her into something bigger, but she's still the other half of a political player. In both cases that political player loves her, I believe sincerely, but Anne isn't saving herself or figuring out who she is without Jack, which is what it looked like she was trying to do earlier in this episode. Instead, she is drifting into letting Max remake her into what Max needs. what does Anne need? Anne clearly doesn't know and the drifting is clearly painful to her, but I think she needed time to work it out.
11. Richard warns Miranda that Charleston only wears a civilized veneer, that it is brutal. Miranda doesn't listen. I get why. I get how desperate she is, how done with Nassau. I get that she likely blames her husband's fall on her yielding to Thomas and James' enthusiasm, on not standing her ground when she saw tragedy looming, and so she stands her ground now when she is wrong, first against James (two episodes ago), against Richard Guthrie. The men were wrong and she right last time after all and she needs this to be over. Like Hornigold, She can't go home again to England, but she needs a face saving semi-retirement. She doesn't show her desperation, but it is there in everything she's done since we first saw her. She's become sloppy (letting Guthrie see the book inscription, the priest, this plan) because she can't wait anymore.
12. Billy says he slipped and fell. He doesn't know if Flint tried to save him or let him go and that maybe even Flint doesn't know for certain. I've written extensively about my "Flint hesitated" theory, that maybe he didn't try as hard as he would have if they hadn't been in conflict. I stand by that, that he didn't intentionally drop him, but that he carries some guilt for letting him slip. I think it's why he never defends himself, and I think there was a hint of guilt when he talked to Gates about Billy that time. But I can't prove it and Flint never tells us outright one way or another in the two seasons we have so far.
13. Dufresne allies with the thrice betrayed Hornigold; Silver allies with Max. Hornigold sees the end coming and Dufresne has offered him one last way out. Silver offers Max the gold to build the future she dreams of.
14. Silver warns Max about who he is, much the way he repeatedly warned Flint, who didn't listen. I've said I think he was allying himself with the biggest predator on his horizon and was drafting in his wake towards a mutual goal. Now Flint is no longer driving towards Silver's goal and he's picking a new predator to ally with. Basically, "I'm a predator, you're a predator, let's make lots of money." (Age test! Do you hear the Pet Shop Boys singing "I've got the brains; you've got the looks, Let's make lots of money!" in your head right now? I do!)
15. The lanterns, mist, ominous silhouette closer was beautifully shot.
16. "The things I have destroyed to reach this moment: everything and anything that stood in it's way." I think the theme of this episode is desperate measures.
* A charmingly deadpan hoax: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/129551505202/nudityandnerdery-dieselpunkflimflam
* My anger at Joss Whedon does not stop me thinking "the Gentleman" was his most effective creature design ever and that transparency projector scene still makes me laugh out loud.
* Ebay: 6 Lots, 3 Days, one no bid:
Quintessence of Dust 2014 (Only Lovers Left Alive): (Company says: The passing: beeswax and smoke, yellowed paper and well-worn leather books, droplets of spilled ink, faded incense, blood-tinged salty tears, and the metal of the knife that skewers that illiterate zombie philistine’s portrait.). 3/4 Full.
Lindworm 2012 (LE, DragonCon, Event Exclusive): (Company says: Smoky green leather smeared with crushed grasses and wild herbs). 3/4 Full.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-Quintessence-of-Dust-2014-Only-Lovers-Lindworm-2012-LE-DragonCon-/301739204845?
THE GILMAN HOUSE HOTEL 2010 (LE, Lupercalia): (Company Says: Musty, dilapidated furnishings, peeling paint, swamp gas, and decay.) 1/2 Full.
MOUSE CiIRCUS 2012 (Neil Gaiman, Coraline): (Company Says: A toodle oodle of pink cotton candy noses, vanilla spun sugar fur, scattered kernels of popcorn, and a touch of polished golden wood.) 1/2 Full.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/301739211523?
A Moment in Time 2014 (LE, BPTP): (Company says: A tranquil scent, illuminated by joy and warm with the serenity of love: bourbon vanilla and soft sandalwood with tiare, white fig, sweet benzoin, guiac wood, French lavender, and a touch of warm patchouli.). Just above top of label.
The Ninth Cage 2011 (The Last Unicorn): (Company says: A claustrophobic blend of iron and oak.). Just below top of label.
Port-Au-Prince 2011 (Wanderlust): (Company says: Dark, decadent and incomparably exotic: the rich scent of buttered rum flavored with almond, bay, clove and sassafras.). 3/4 Full.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/301739220678?
Haute Macabre 2013 (Retail Exclusive Oils): (Company says: Oak leaf, bourbon vanilla, almond husk, and black leather accord darkened by a 13-year aged black patchouli.). At label.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/301739230206?
A Low Candle-Lit Room 2013 (LE, Yules): (Company says: Candle wax and waxen "skin," rotting leather and reeking damp wood, and the ashes of a yawning, cold fireplace.). 3/4 Full.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/301739234032?
TARANTULA FASCINATOR 2013 (LE, Liliths): (Company says:Done and done: fuzzy cacao-drenched hazelnut with hay absolute, black pepper, and nutmeg, laced with stripes of wild plum and white sandalwood.). 3/4 Full.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/301739237669?
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities to donate money to instead of seeing the racist Stonewall Movie that decided to portray a black trans woman activist as a cis white man. http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com