Well, X3's already got ME thinkin'!
Apr. 5th, 2006 01:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gogmagogWelp, as frustrating and distressing as my life can sometimes be, there are times when it's totally sweet.
For example, today after my Shakespeare class, I chatted with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lordtravis for like an hour (mostly about English stuff; we're such dorks, orz), I went to Prairie Lights and bought Elizabeth Peters' new book, then went to lunch at the Airliner. While I normally get pizza (it's 1/2 price on Tuesdays), they were having a special, so instead I got a freshly grilled brat in bun and a bag of chips. Afterwards (since it was not only less expensive than pizza, but much less filling as well) I went around the corner to Whitey's for strawberry ice cream for dessert. I sat on a bench outside Whitey's, enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather and reading my new book, and thought, "y'know, life is pretty good right now." :D
Later I discovered an awesome gourmet cooking store, Prairie Table (downtown, on Linn), which has every possible cooking aid known to man. EXCEPT, of course, King Arthur bread flour. >_<
Seriously, they even had like every other variety of King Arthur, just not bread flour! WOES
But still, despite having one less cup of King Arthur than I would have liked, I'm making bread anyway (and just filling in with regular flour) as I type this. :D
In less happy news, before class today I was holding my 10ml bottle of Dorian to put it on and I guess I was gripping it too hard, as it somehow managed to break into three pieces. So, yeah, my apartment smells really awesome right now, but I am sad because I have no Dorian, and it'll take like two months to get a new bottle if I order it now. D:
Why is the world conspiring to make me listen to Phil Collins? I mean, I like his music and all, but still WHUT.
Let's Positive Linking!
- An article about the Jewishness of the werewolf, with a look at Buffy. Interesting, but ultimately flawed, because...er, did they watch the show? Oz? Actually not Jewish, as far as we know. And it's not that it's just not mentioned, because Willow is mentioned as being Jewish. Repeatedly.
- Nuclear plant loses keys. (Fromsurlykitty.) That's worrisome. D:
- The Emo Game. (Fromjokersama.) Man, this manages to be both fun and very, very amusing. I now know more about emo boys' ovaries than ever before!
- Jesse Helms has dementia. (Fromahebert.) Like this comes as a surprise to ANYONE. It does explain some things about the last ten years though.
- An awesome TBS promo for Lord of the Rings. (Come on, like no one else saw it.) Of course, apparently it created fandom wank about "OMG THEY MADE FRODO AND SAM LOOK GAY, WHUT." Which I find amusing because, seriously, did they SEE the movies? XD
- Ian McKellen gets snippy to Hugh Jackman during X3 promotion. (Fromangrybabble.) Seriously, I think Ian McKellen's taking it too personally. I agree with Defamer, who pointed out that "Call us crazy, but it would appear that McKellan seemed to be using the opportunity of this X-Men junket to take a very thinly veiled swipe at Jackman, and his personal choice to deny his own, uh, 'mutantness,' which seems rather ridiculous in light of how he enjoys the company of handsome mutants and tends to act really mutanty in mutant-themed Broadway musicals." XDDD
And if McKellen and Halle Berry are serious about that - that if you're a mutant, you should be happy to be that way because God made you that way and it's really everyone else's problem - then I find that rhetoric HORRIBLE. Like, I realize they're both members of marginalized minorities (try saying that three times fast) and may be oversensitive because of that, but in the case of Rogue that's an awful thing to say. Not being able to touch anyone, EVER, without hurting or killing them isn't really an Other People's Problem.
I mean, it's like children with birth defects. Just because they're born with them, and hence they're natural in a way, doesn't make them good or desirable, or mean that we shouldn't try to prevent them. I know there are people like that - I recently read about deaf parents who had their fetus aborted because they knew it would be born hearing, which, GOD. I'm all for disability pride and all, but who would purposely handicap their kid because "oh, it's not a disability, it's 'differently abled.' That's moronic over-PCness and damaging to their kids specifically and to society in general, and I kind of want to slap people like that. I mean, seriously, if we came up with a genuine cure for blindness, I can understand blind people not wanting to cure themselves perhaps - it's become a big part of their identity, maybe, and I can understand that - but saying NO ONE should have that cure is just stupid and selfish and makes me want to puke.
...and clearly I've thought WAY TOO MUCH about a throwaway comment tangentially related to a summer popcorn movie, so I'll end there. XD
For example, today after my Shakespeare class, I chatted with
lordtravis for like an hour (mostly about English stuff; we're such dorks, orz), I went to Prairie Lights and bought Elizabeth Peters' new book, then went to lunch at the Airliner. While I normally get pizza (it's 1/2 price on Tuesdays), they were having a special, so instead I got a freshly grilled brat in bun and a bag of chips. Afterwards (since it was not only less expensive than pizza, but much less filling as well) I went around the corner to Whitey's for strawberry ice cream for dessert. I sat on a bench outside Whitey's, enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather and reading my new book, and thought, "y'know, life is pretty good right now." :DLater I discovered an awesome gourmet cooking store, Prairie Table (downtown, on Linn), which has every possible cooking aid known to man. EXCEPT, of course, King Arthur bread flour. >_<
Seriously, they even had like every other variety of King Arthur, just not bread flour! WOES
But still, despite having one less cup of King Arthur than I would have liked, I'm making bread anyway (and just filling in with regular flour) as I type this. :D
In less happy news, before class today I was holding my 10ml bottle of Dorian to put it on and I guess I was gripping it too hard, as it somehow managed to break into three pieces. So, yeah, my apartment smells really awesome right now, but I am sad because I have no Dorian, and it'll take like two months to get a new bottle if I order it now. D:
Why is the world conspiring to make me listen to Phil Collins? I mean, I like his music and all, but still WHUT.
Let's Positive Linking!
- An article about the Jewishness of the werewolf, with a look at Buffy. Interesting, but ultimately flawed, because...er, did they watch the show? Oz? Actually not Jewish, as far as we know. And it's not that it's just not mentioned, because Willow is mentioned as being Jewish. Repeatedly.
- Nuclear plant loses keys. (From
surlykitty.) That's worrisome. D:- The Emo Game. (From
jokersama.) Man, this manages to be both fun and very, very amusing. I now know more about emo boys' ovaries than ever before!- Jesse Helms has dementia. (From
ahebert.) Like this comes as a surprise to ANYONE. It does explain some things about the last ten years though.- An awesome TBS promo for Lord of the Rings. (Come on, like no one else saw it.) Of course, apparently it created fandom wank about "OMG THEY MADE FRODO AND SAM LOOK GAY, WHUT." Which I find amusing because, seriously, did they SEE the movies? XD
- Ian McKellen gets snippy to Hugh Jackman during X3 promotion. (From
angrybabble.) Seriously, I think Ian McKellen's taking it too personally. I agree with Defamer, who pointed out that "Call us crazy, but it would appear that McKellan seemed to be using the opportunity of this X-Men junket to take a very thinly veiled swipe at Jackman, and his personal choice to deny his own, uh, 'mutantness,' which seems rather ridiculous in light of how he enjoys the company of handsome mutants and tends to act really mutanty in mutant-themed Broadway musicals." XDDDAnd if McKellen and Halle Berry are serious about that - that if you're a mutant, you should be happy to be that way because God made you that way and it's really everyone else's problem - then I find that rhetoric HORRIBLE. Like, I realize they're both members of marginalized minorities (try saying that three times fast) and may be oversensitive because of that, but in the case of Rogue that's an awful thing to say. Not being able to touch anyone, EVER, without hurting or killing them isn't really an Other People's Problem.
I mean, it's like children with birth defects. Just because they're born with them, and hence they're natural in a way, doesn't make them good or desirable, or mean that we shouldn't try to prevent them. I know there are people like that - I recently read about deaf parents who had their fetus aborted because they knew it would be born hearing, which, GOD. I'm all for disability pride and all, but who would purposely handicap their kid because "oh, it's not a disability, it's 'differently abled.' That's moronic over-PCness and damaging to their kids specifically and to society in general, and I kind of want to slap people like that. I mean, seriously, if we came up with a genuine cure for blindness, I can understand blind people not wanting to cure themselves perhaps - it's become a big part of their identity, maybe, and I can understand that - but saying NO ONE should have that cure is just stupid and selfish and makes me want to puke.
...and clearly I've thought WAY TOO MUCH about a throwaway comment tangentially related to a summer popcorn movie, so I'll end there. XD
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-05 06:34 am (UTC)stalkerloyalty...not to mention Sam/Frodocomfort!sexrescue scene from the orcs. Quite possibly the most canon pairing in literature evah.(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-05 07:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-05 04:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-05 06:38 am (UTC)Damn you, Low Carb Craze! *shakes fist*
As for the mutant=homosexuality point of view that McKellan's taken up, I think that has to do with the producers/director/etc having pitched that notion to him to attract him to the role, and from there he didn't* investigate other characters' issues beyond his own and the ones directly relating.
* (Or couldn't, because who'd know where to start, even just focusing on one character over so many issues/arcs. @_@;)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-05 07:17 am (UTC)Though I can't really talk because I love making frou-frou desserts. XD
And re, Ian McKellen: if he's SEEN the movie (and you'd think he would've, since he's actually in it XD), he's got to know what Rogue's power is. (And you notice that Hugh Jackman did, and talked about it quite articulately, I thought.) So McKellen is either a) ignoring Jackman's very real movie-based point to argue RL politics that have very little to do with the discussion at hand and nothing to do with Jackman's comment, or 2) he's making an argument ("it's God-given, don't mess with it!") like the one that I railed against for like two paragraphs. XD
(And the same goes for Halle Berry, though at least she didn't push the point so hard.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-05 12:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-05 04:38 pm (UTC)You referenced my journal(I think). Yay!
Date: 2006-04-05 05:04 pm (UTC)http://www.dailysixer.com/bblotr.shtml
Its not a bad BBM spoof, but its way to easy, as you pointed out. The Heat spoof on the same site is much more complex.
I'm more curious about the statment that the script is the best of the three, since the first one was really good, and the second one was downright awesome. So good that Bendis ripped the whole thing off with his whole "House of M/Decimation" nonsense.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-06 05:59 pm (UTC)#2: To be honest I think McKellen was taking the "Gay or black" thing and extending it to encompass Rogue's problem. It sounds more like a misspeak to say that Rogue's problem was an OtherPeopleProblem, when really he probably meant to generalize it to all of Mutant-hood-ness-thing. Admittedly you have a great point but it still doesn't deny the fact that the very thought of a "Cure" for something that isn't your fault and changes what you are in order to be more acceptible to public opinion is rather horrendously offensive. In Rogue's case, when such issues cause the person to have an inability to interact, or such like disability, then it should ultimately be the person's choice. Well, to be honest, it should always be the person's choice. If they were to make a "no-more-gay" pill, I'd say offer it, see if the public takes it. There are probably a lot of gays out there that would jump at the chance to do that, if simply because sometimes it's hard to find anyone who's "your type" in some situations. That said, making it known as a "This is a great thing for you because you'll be accepted" is still offensive.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-07 08:05 pm (UTC)To go with my blindness example; if they developed a cure for blindness, wouldn't it be criminally sadistic to withhold it because "your blindness is part of your identity"? (And really, disability is the best example for the mutants to whom a "cure" would seem best; either the ones who aren't able to pass as human for being physically disfigured, such as the Morlocks, or the ones whose powers are uncontrollable and can make it nigh-impossible to live a normal life, such as Rogue and Cyclops. The ones who wouldn't want the cure are generally the ones who don't need it in the first place because they have all the advantages of being a basically normal human with a little extra - like, say, Jean Grey or Storm or Professor X.)
Also, on a practical level, while the whole "mutant = various minority" things works well as a narrative device, extrapolating actual behavior towards it to race/homosexuality/gender/disability/etc. doesn't work all that well in practice. While being a member of a minority like that can be difficult in real life, being gay or black is not exactly a superpower. And after all, one of the reasons the cure seems so viable in the X-Men world is people like Magneto; in the real world, of course, we don't usually have gay/black/Latino/female/disabled people constantly threatening the world with nuclear missiles or some other harebrained supervillain plot (Jerry Falwell's protestations that gay people caused 9/11 and Katrina to the contrary). XD