Nothing has actually changed, I just care less about having nothing to say. Lucky you.
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I read some West Wing spoilers. :::hums Jaws theme:::
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American Idol was on ITV2 tonight. Oh dear God. Why is George gone while Jasmine is still there? Why must Fantasia bawl and squeak as though she is being goosed with a large polish sausage? Why am I watching this show? Speaking of which...
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I just spent an hour watching Britain's Biggest Celebrity Mingers, which was on in Sky's familiar Sunday night barrel-scraping slot. I have no excuse other than post-work lethargy, having spent the day staring at graphic pictures of Akhmad Kadyrov meeting his maker.
(For the record: (3) Ann Widdecombe; (2) don't remember, possibly Jordan or Dean Gaffney or some other dimwitted microceleb with a headline fetish; (1) Mick Hucknall (of Simply Red), who was there, it would seem, for the crime of being rich and having ginger hair, and thus rhyming with the title by being a ginger minger*
*But only if you're stupid enough to pronounce ginger wrongly)
The worst thing was that of the commentators on this fine piece of television, there wasn't one of 'em you'd exactly call a work of art, unless that art was by Hieronymous Bosch.
Most of them were tabloid journalists -- who are seldom beautiful in body or soul in my experience. It's a bit rich to be rude about Camilla Parker Bowles or Vanessa Feltz when you look like a bulldog sucking piss off a thistle.
They were very rude about people with ginger hair. I think this may be a British thing, as according to Scott Capurro, it's mostly prized in the US (though in the Balkans, they think you're a vampire. Or is it a witch? I forget, as Britain's Biggest Celebrity Mingers appears to have melted my brain, marshmallow-like) Is this true? Is there anti-ginge prejudice in the US? Are you strawberry blonde if you're beautiful and ginger if you're not?
I am reminded of the tale of the barber's shop in Chorlton Cum Hardy which charged people with ginger hair two quid extra for a haircut because the bloke who owned it hated the texture of their hair.
Anyway, as a bit of a minger myself, I was well insulted. Not insulted enough to be arsed to turn over obviously, despite the pull of Diarmuid Gavin and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (OMG thierloveissodecorative!!1!) on UK Style (no, it's not a contradiction in terms. Stop heckling at the back) but definitely in the darker shades of nark.
This hammering of anyone who deviates from some imaginary and unrealistic standard for physical beauty is certainly hard on the rest of us.
Luckily for you lot, I happen to know that some of you are rather ravishing (please imagine this as said in a Leslie Phillips-type voice) and one of you even looks a bit like Uma Thurman, though she'd probably be incredulous if I said so. So...
Next week on the Sky barrel-scraping slot: A one-hour special on the bra, including many gratuitous shots of celebrity norks. I shit you not.
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I just downloaded the first two episodes of season one Stargate (you're all bastards. Repeat until fade) but when I tried to play them they had no sound. I just sat there saying "why? why won't you speak to me, Jack?" in a pathetic sort of way. Astoundingly, this did not correct the problem. A shocker, I know. Is there anything I can do to .avi files to make them play on a mac?
Aside from shouting "PLAY, YOU BASTARD!" and hitting the screen with a copy of Uncut magazine? Because I've already tried that.
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I was going to talk about politics but it's all depressing. I may work myself into a cheery froth over Margaret Thatcher at some point -- and I would happily dance on her grave for what she did to the North in the 80s if only the old bag would pop her clogs -- but really she's the only politician I truly loathe from somewhere deep in the reptilian hindquarters of my brain. Most of the rest just disgust me.
These photos in Iraq: I think other people have said what I think, and better, but isn't it a bit alarming the way the press is going for Lynndie England?
While I don't think she's a scapegoat because she was there and she was a vile cretin, the Sun's headline on Thursday was "Witch". She's the only one whose name is tripping off people's tongues. It just smacks of the familiar double standard whereby men and women commit the crimes but the women are truly vilified in the press for them.
Another case in point is Maxine Carr. Undoubtedly criminally foolish and a less-than-nice woman with some mental health issues, but she's not the one who killed the children. She believed her boyfriend and lied for him to the police. Let's not pretend she's Myra Hindley.
There's an interesting comment piece from The Observer on the matter here
Apparently the kinds of humiliation seen are part of a system of degradation taught to British and American forces, called R2I. The thesis put forward here is that what we're seeing at Abu Ghraib is former users of R2I who have become civilian contractors teaching their staff how to use it but missing out one essential part of the training -- where those taught to use R2I get to experience it for themselves in order to know just what a powerful weapon they are wielding. Article here Also, Joanne Bourke on torture as pornography
Ah, the vexed issue of contractors. Or mercenaries, as they would have been called in the 80s. Speaking of which...
Even if you can't stand to read one more bloody word about Iraq, I urge you to give this a try: Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) on language and the war here. So deliciously sarcastic.
I particularly wish to bear his small, hairy manchildren for the paragraph about how Hollywood messes about with history.
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How much do I want to read Superman - Red Son? Very much
I've just finished The Da Vinci Code, a combination of info-dump and proto-film script in which all the "good" characters were twinkly-eyed and handsome and inimaginably articulate and the villain was an evil albino giant. Because there's nothing quite so enjoyable in this world as scapegoating people who look different [/follow-on rant]. Ah, Dan "now extremely rich" Brown; there's a man who took notes on The Eight when he read it. Plagerist!!!OMG!!11!Eleventyone!!! *g*
If I were 15 years old, I would have thought it was the greatest book ever. As it was, I thought it was glib, unlikely and underwritten but I couldn't put it down.
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A couple of driveby recs:
Keane's new album is supposed to be patchily excellent, much as Coldplay's debut was. I can highly recommend Everything's Changing, Bedshaped and Somewhere Only We Know for download. I'm sure that some will say it's a bit MOR but I don't care. It's *lovely*. It has sensitive boys playing *pianos* in a wistful fashion and singing about being lonely. I'll review further when I buy the album tomorrow. (Even though I'm skint.)
Shaun of the Dead How much do I love this film? Almost as much as I love Terry Jones right now (see above re: small hairy manchildren)
It's very, very funny *and* it has lots of fun eviscerations *and* it's a sweet romantic comedy *and* it's genuinely suspenseful *and* it has Chris Martin from Coldplay making a very funny, blink'n'you'll-miss-it appearance. I think the Chicago contingent would love it.
Admittedly, if you don't like seeing someone's intestines scooped out by the evil dead, you should probably give it a miss, but if you think you can stand a few seconds of that, definitely go and see this film when it comes out at a cinema near you. The website alone is brilliant.
A funny British comedy which is not about people taking their clothes off... A sign of the oncoming apocalypse, I think.
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Goodnight
- Current Mood:
contemplative
- Current Music:Moses, Coldplay
Comments
You're kidding me. Those people are *weird*.
The thing about not using ginger altogether is interesting though, given that it's used here a lot, as are its politer synonyms: auburn, titian, strawberry blonde etc etc.
I even cheat a little to make mine brighter, as it's kind of a blondy-auburn naturally, and I like it chestnut, thank you. *g* (I'm Swedish, Irish, Scottish, and Ukranian. Guess what hair color I got? Yep. I'm a non-redheaded non-stepchild in a family of coppertops.)
I wonder if the British prejudice against redheads has anything to do with anti-Scots/anti-Irish prejudice? Or maybe we can blame the Danes...
Well, auburn does here too, I suppose, though only when you're an adult. If you have red hair as a kid at school you're fortunate to get through the day without being called "carrots", "ginger" (rhymes with singer in this instance, no idea why) or "Duracell" or worse.
(I'm Swedish, Irish, Scottish, and Ukranian. Guess what hair color I got? Yep. I'm a non-redheaded non-stepchild in a family of coppertops.)
I'm from a family which divides between rather dramatically dark-haired, sallow-skinned but blue-eyed Norwegians (Portuguese shipwreck, island ancestry, long story *g*) and coppertops. I have mousy brown hair which occasionally blondes up a bit in the sun. It seems very unfair.
I wonder if the British prejudice against redheads has anything to do with anti-Scots/anti-Irish prejudice? Or maybe we can blame the Danes...
I can't discount that but I sort of doubt it. I seem to remember Scots ribbing others about ginger hair. Will ask the Irish and Scottish friends tomorrow.
It carries flavours of careless promiscuity, dirtiness or commonness as well as ugliness when applied to people.
As a verb, it's used of smells, places etc. It mings, it is minging etc.
So, for example, sour milk would be minging, as would a damp hovel.
It's the train wreck from which you can't look away! And maybe you're a little like me, in that you have high hopes that you'll see it implode right in front of your very eyes. *g*
Minger? Norks? Actually, I get what that one is...I rather like it. I'll try to slip it into conversation soon. ;)
It is! Only LaToya holds a candle to the final three last year. I think she's possibly one of the best singers they've had on but I don't think she has the X factor. I could imagine her being an absolute wow on stage where she's playing someone, but as herself she seems a bit ill at ease when she's not singing.
Fantasia seems to be getting worse by the week and I can't bring myself to give a damn about Jasmine or Diana. I'm sure they're both very nice, but who cares?
{/Chandler Bing}
Nooooo! Hey. How you doin'{/Joey Tribbiani}
Trust me when I say I understand, and that {snip wild-eyed rant about the U.S. VP, so as not to set your LJ on fire}
Ahem. Yup. I have one of those.
Believe me when I say I understand. I'm approaching Thatcher c.1987 levels of detestation of Blair right now. Actually, I would be interested in your VP rant but I suspect your blood pressure would be unhappy during it.
I might check out Angels and Demons when I've put a bigger dent in the to-be-read pile
Kim dies laughing. But wait, no, she's coming back. Because:
I read some West Wing spoilers. :::hums Jaws theme:::
Do share either the spoilers or the URL. The shark jumping of the West Wing is a crime against television. Smart smart good show gone sharky? A fucking sin is what it is.
It might work out all right. I could be being over-fretful. But it certainly smacks of shark-jumping.
>I just sat there saying "why? why won't you speak to me, Jack?" in a pathetic sort of way.<
Aw. I have no advice, but I send good karmic vibes your way because a silent Jack is a saddening things.
As Minnow says, no one deserves a silent Jack. It's one of the saddest things about season 7: less Jack, and he looks tired when he shows up. Sigh.
Ah, Dan "now extremely rich" Brown; there's a man who took notes on The Eight when he read it. Plagerist!!!OMG!!11!Eleventyone!!! *g*
Bwahahahahaha.
I hated The 8, couldn't believe I'd waded through all that kerfuffling for a stupidass macguffin like immortality. Sheesh. I don't think I'll like The Da Vinci Code, especially since "da Vinci" is hardly Leonardo's last name. It's like calling me "of California". Dumb.
Marvelous to see you post. {{hugs}}
http://www.3ivx.com/download/index.html
Also, if that fails, Divx Doctor might work (but I haven't had to use that lately...so if the above codec doesn't work, then perhaps there's another one you need.)
VLC will play most anything you toss at it though it's only available for 10.* and I have no idea what OS you're on:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Happy Viewing!
I had the DivX doctor downloaded and I ran the sound through the codec. It sort of works. Kind of. It's like a badly dubbed Japanese monster movie but that sort of suits Stargate.
These are the codecs that I have listed as installed under Hard drive/Library/Quicktime:
3ivx D4 4.5.1 for OSX
DivX 5.component
The first one comes from the site I linked above. The second one came from here:
http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/
It just smacks of the familiar double standard whereby men and women commit the crimes but the women are truly vilified in the press for them.
One of my endless talk radio shows opened with the host asking people about Lynndie England. The host wanted to know that people thought of her. The response was almost the same as mine. Now, this was before we found out the pictures were even worse than what we saw, but the idea was that guys behave badly in groups. It is usually the "mom" or the "wife" or the "girlfriend" who tells the guys to pipe down, behave, act like a grown-up when they're behaving badly.
Here, it looks like there was no difference between the men behaving badly and the women that were around them. Instead of being the voice of common sense, they were as bad as the men. We're all equal now, and we seem to be less for it.
Take Care
Mara
I know. And there's so much wretched backstory. I guess it's good cheesy fun -- or it seems to be so far.
Here, it looks like there was no difference between the men behaving badly and the women that were around them. Instead of being the voice of common sense, they were as bad as the men. We're all equal now, and we seem to be less for it.
I think that you're right and that's the problem. I've been reading a book about nurses in the Middle East in WW2 and they're spoken of as a civilising influence. Granted they were nurses, but that's what we expect of all women, I think.
Actually, I'd beg to differ. More, if that's okay...? :D
These photos in Iraq: I think other people have said what I think, and better, but isn't it a bit alarming the way the press is going for Lynndie England?
While I don't think she's a scapegoat because she was there and she was a vile cretin, the Sun's headline on Thursday was "Witch". She's the only one whose name is tripping off people's tongues. It just smacks of the familiar double standard whereby men and women commit the crimes but the women are truly vilified in the press for them.
I get the feeling people don't really know what to do with the idea that women were involved in perpetrating such cruel, brutal acts, because yeah, it flies in the face of conventional gender expectations (those vaguely Victorian ideas that still persist about how women are fine, delicate, civilising creatures who act as a good influence on strong, big, beastly men). I'm struggling to recall whether women have been involved in any military scandals other than ones having to do with sexual misconduct among ranks since having women integrated into the American and British armed forces became commonplace, but I can't think of anything. I think maybe this vilification of Lynndie England is the flipside of the Jessica Lynch affair - there, people got upset by the thought of what could happen to her, and she was cast, very cleverly, as simultaneously the damsel in distress and the plucky little all-American fighter. In both cases I think people got their dander up over the feeling that these were situations in which women should just not be involved. I've been seeing a fair bit of comment about all this in the press: Salon had an article the other day which wasn't as perceptive as I might have liked, but it might be worth a look: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/05/07/abuse_gender/index.html
Huh. Thinking about it, the only red-headed man I can come up with? Is English. That guy from The Forsyte Saga, Damian Lewis, who has hair like copper wires. (And I pity him the amount of sunblock he must use not to be dead already of skin cancer.) Although I can think of plenty of men with blond or brown hair whose beards grown in red.
My BIL has golden brown hair, but was considerably redder as a child; we're all just tickled to death that my niece his daughter it turning out to have ginger hair. (We're using ginger, in this case, to mean "redder than the dishwater brown of the Nuttykin, but not like a house on fire".) Baby Casper does not yet have freckles, but we pretty much expect her to, and they will be remarked over with as much goofy affection as her dimple and her folded ear ridge -- cute idiosyncrasies.
I know you're saying that sarcastically, which means you are wrong. *g*
Diarmuid Gavin and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (OMG thierloveissodecorative!!1!)
LOL!! If I'd been holding something as I read this, I would have spilled it all over the computer.
I'll review further when I buy the album tomorrow.
Yay! Buy, buy, buy! This album better have been released in the past two weeks or so or I may be annoyed about not having it myself. ;)
Shaun of the Dead
Is this the zombie trailer I saw?