June Media
Jul. 1st, 2014 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiki_engThis is all of the non-fannish media content that I finished in June. (I did this in March and December, too.)
TV Episode: Book of Hours (White Collar S1E3, November 6, 2009). I decided to re-watch a chunk of White Collar and I am really, really enjoying that decision. I love El and Peter's dynamic and the way Peter and Neal interact and that whole OT3 thing is really, really good for me. I also really enjoy Mozzie's paranoia and firm anti-government stance. I enjoy Neal's wardrobe, too. The dog in this episode was really great and I loved its solemn eyes and wagging tail a lot, but am totally baffled at the part where it's the mobster, at the end, who takes it to the vet. I suspect this is a thing that happened because of narrative reasons because, I just- Neal and Peter did not take the nice man and his dog to the vet . (They should have taken him to the vet.) Neal's face when Peter dropped that really bad pun and Neal dropping clichés and all of the ways that Peter just gets Neal make me really happy. Neal reminds me of that Cary Grant quote - "I pretended to be someone I wanted to be, and finally I became that person." There are bits where Neal does something and then an FBI agent is thrown by it and Peter says something to the effect of that's Neal - "Neal Caffrey's world" - and, it is a cliché, that the world is a stage. People play roles, but Neal's playing to the audience more than anyone else on this show, because, I think, he saw that, and he loved it and so he became it. So Neal will say and do things that will make people pause sometimes, that sound like lines, but they're not the ones that you hear in the street and think "That's terrible. That doesn't sound real; that's so cliché. I would never have written that." Neal is all the best clichés and the lines you'd want to write.
Comic: Young Avengers #11 by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Kris Anka, Mike Norton and Matthew Wilson (October 23, 2013). I think I'm around halfway through the second and final story of this comic? I started reading it, because, okay, this is where all of those America Chavez/Kate Bishop photosets on tumblr are from and there are also space boyfriends, who I actually know the names of now, but, okay - this is my "young avengers" tumblr tag. I started reading this comic because there was tumblr shiny and I talked about it tosinesofinsanity, and because she is a ridiculous and awesome person she lent the series to me. (There was an unexpected package in my mail box! I am still all stuck on that.) ...and it's very much the young avengers, and it is sort of charming and great and I really love all of the romantic relationships in these comics being there for younger readers; it's great. Loki I find tricky in this book and all those before it. He's fun, but he is tricky; I'm not entirely sure what's going on with him or what he's up to... which is totally great for Loki, but a little frustrating as someone who likes having the shape of stories. I have strong suspicions, but I'm not actually sure what his character arc is going to look like. That the children must save the world from a problem that the adults cannot see, that they have become infected with, is something that feels very direct, and it's interesting reading it at a point in my life where I feel like I am learning and trying to learn how to adult - trying to do my laundry and also fight systemic oppression. I'm at a point where, I'll read the occasional piece about how today's teenagers are going to fix the world, and I'm basically making mmhm noises and examining my nails. I am very skeptical of the capacity for change because I feel that there are so many changes that are so long overdue and it's like, oh, why didn't these things happen and the answer's stuff like "We had the power to change things, but we also had the power full stop, so maintaining the system that lets us enjoy that power was more important" and "We were afraid." ...and I just, am so baffled at some people's priorities, and still need to do my laundry.
Podcast: Dana (Welcome to Night Vale, 30, September 1, 2013). One of the things that I really like about this show is how very dark it is, much of the time, because I have a dark sense of humour, and that's a pretty comfortable place for me. There are also bits of this show that are pretty realistic, that touch on fears and anxieties that I think a lot of us have, and sometimes when I listen to this show late at night (I am slowly catching up with this show in fits and stops.) it touches on those places and I question that decision. I did like this episode, though, existential angst aside. I really like Dana and having that extra voice on the show, having her voice, and I liked the voyage that she took, that intersection that she had with the scientists, and the way the episode sort of faded away with that. I think there's something there, with people passing through each others' lives, and it's nice, if not particularly happy.
TV Episode: The Election Agenda: Mike Schreiner and the Green Platform (The Agenda with Steve Paikin May 21, 2014). The Ontario Provincial Election will have taken place on the 12th of June. Currently I am hating this whole election thing a lot. The radio ads feature a lot of emotional manipulation and talking down to people* and, listening to Mike Schreiner talk I am very aware that he is a politician; I can hear the sound bites and party lines in his words, and I haven't even read his platform yet. ...and apparently the Greens have been running candidates in Ontario since 1985 and haven't won a single seat yet. A couple of the ridings that Mike Schreiner talks about his party having a chance in - like, it sounds so positive and hopeful for his party that he's listing four or five names off, but - I'm familiar, a little, with the political leanings and history of a couple of those ridings and I laughed when I heard those names, because there is no way that the green party is winning those two seats, because while they may have constituencies that have strong environmental values those tend not to be very well represented at the polls, because the current political system doesn't reward that kind of voting. The parliament is made up of the single majority winner from each electoral district, which leads to a lot of strategic voting - people saying things like, I'm a proud x-party supporter or I really like x party's candidate, but I can't vote for them in my riding because that party hasn't done well here historically and if I vote for them it's going to be a wasted vote or it's going to split the vote and that party that I really, really don't like will end up getting elected. So, what I'm going to do is vote for a candidate/party that I don't like as much but has a better chance of being elected in this district. The current political system works against younger parties and our parliament would look pretty different if the 2007 electoral reform referendum had passed. Anyway. I really enjoy Steve Paikin's skeptical face at people.
*I haven't heard a Green radio ad.
TV Broadcast: Ontario Election Debate 2014 (June 3, 2014). Okay, so, Tim Hudak is saying that he's not going to be the best actor and give the best performance on this stage, but, fuck, okay, the way that he's standing, the way that he's gesturing so far, he's not doing that thing that Wynne and Horvath are doing with the let me give you something gesture, his arms are wide open and he's cutting down their media performances and doing this heart-to-heart appeal to the audience - 30 seconds in and he has the best performance. (Help, I don't want to live under his government.*) "Respectfully" as he interrupts Wynne. Seriously, this is fucking ridiculous. His hand gestures slip a little bit, so he does that same gesture as Wynne and Horvath, but it's a bit wider, I think. He's having so much fun and is so very comfortable. I'm wondering a bit what the screen time breakdown looks like. (I think it's pretty even, but I think that the way he's speaking may be winning him bits and pieces of more time.) I wish someone would call him on his shit. Though, to be fair, there is a lot of shit all round.
*Hudak is the Conservative leader, Wynne the Liberal leader, and Andrea the NDP leader, and that order is right-left in terms of their politics. The Liberal government held the majority of the last house.
Comic: Black Widow #7 by Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto (June 4, 2014). I love Noto's art. The colours on the two San Francisco pages are both great and also a lovely contrast to each other. I really love having a comic book that I can read and will then flip through afterwards looking at the art, because it's actually engaging and interesting. It's very impressionistic, which is such a contrast from the typical comic book style and is so interesting to see because of that. I find myself looking at Noto's paneling and it's just, really great to look at. The last page is really beautiful in this issue. I liked finding out more about Isaiah and am more interested the story right now than I was with the previous villain.
Comic: Witchling #1 by Renée Nault. I picked this up at TCAF because the art is so very, very pretty and I think I was told there were cats in it. So I've got this really pretty signed copy. (She also had a lot of postcards from her mermaid-a-week project that I couldn't justify to myself but mermaids.) It's online as a webcomic, if you want to check it out and Witchling #2 is out, too. I've only read what's in the first chapter, and the art is beautiful and I like it, but I would have loved this when I was younger. An orphan taken in by the royal family! Talking cats! A dangerous forest! Now, I'm really aware of how much older I am than the main character and I've got more distance that way. It's really pretty, though, and I am impressed at all of Nault's palace detail - there is a lot of wallpaper happening in this comic and a lot of detail in some places in general. Her sinister forces of evil are also pretty fantastically rendered. The whole thing's really lovely visually.
Short Film: Together Forever (2014). I got this off my tumblr dash fromcalvinahobbes and nobody told me there would be rose petals and candles and soft music. I spent a lot of this (short) film making this no, what have I done, make it stop face, because, while I do consume a lot of media with a romance focus, I just, nope. This was not good for me, though, if you want to watch something really sappy and happy with ladies in love this may be a good fit for you. I liked a lot of the beginning of this film and it was cool to look at someone on screen and go, hey, that's a bit like me, but then everything just got way too gooey for me. (There was soft focus at the end!)
CD: Open Season by Feist (2006). Remixes and collaborations. It was okay. Remixed pop-folk is, actually, something that appeals to me, but none of this was actually that great, none of it grabbed me, and so, I was very aware that I had a CD with a similar approach that was much better in the next room (it's this mix CD by a radio Canada DJ), waiting for me.
CD: L'univers de Rajotte compiled by Claude Rajotte (2007). I don't know if I've ever talked about how much I love mix CDs. I love mix CDs a lot. They hit some of the same happy-making mind places that rec sets do, and I just really enjoy them. This mix of Rajotte's is just kind of ridiculously cool, like, there's remixed Billie Holiday on this and I've spent time thinking about how I would vid the first track (I would need to learn how to vid, so this isn't a thing that is going to happen anytime soon.) because it would lend itself really well to some really cool cuts. I think I've used two of the songs on this for mix tapes of my own? It's just a really solid mix. It's fantastic.
Film: Yes or No (2010). So, it's this f/f Thai film. I've been seeing this coming up on my tumblr dash for a while and looking adorable, so when I had a shit day I started watching it and it's cute. It felt a lot like all of the wolfstar fic I read in high school, which is to say that it was extraordinarily fluffy and also angsty. (There is no porn. There is nothing approaching porn in this.) There's a lot of tropey-ness in this, and that was good for me - except that one of the tropes in this is, actually, okay, there are a few in this that I don't like. The lesbian freak-out makes me sad (I would like to watch a film where two women fall in love and there's no orientation revelation.) and it was pretty extended in here. I got so, so confused when I was watching this because they push their beds together! (They're roommates at university.) Before they're together! ...and, I just- they are clearly a couple long before they are a couple. It's queer and it has a happy ending, so that was nice, but there was also a character that contemplated suicide and some things that I didn't like. I'm glad I watched it but I wouldn't rewatch it, basically.
Podcast: A Blinking Light up on the Mountain (Welcome to Night Vale, 31, September 15, 2013). I really liked this episode. There were lots of old and comforting threads in here. I liked the man in the tan jacket's public transit pamphlet and the whole story of the mountain was just a really lovely thread to listen to unravel; I liked everywhere it went, including the imagery of Carlos with a spatula at the end. I love the voice of the faceless old woman who lives in your house; each time I hear her I am surprised and a little delighted - it's nice.
TV Series: Coffee Prince (2007). I'd seen this before and forgotten how much I love Eun Chan, she is a delight and this was really fun to re-watch because I didn't have to stress about any of the relationship drama. I really love this drama for how much growth the characters do - like, Eun Chan finds something that she's passionate and a career in it, Han Kyul stops hanging on to this crush that is basically a bad habit and he finds someone that brings out the best in him, but he also doesn't need her around all the time and does well in the time she's gone, and he finds a new career that he likes, and the other characters grow, too! It's nice, I like it a lot, and I like it a lot because the couple gets together and then there are a number of episodes before the end, and it's not something that happens in a lot of media but shows up in fanfic a fair bit and makes me happy when it does. Coffee Prince does some interesting, and, basically happy-making things with gender and sexuality. It is really, really, not perfect in respect to that, but it's got a woman who basically doesn't pass as female a lot of the time and a man that works through a lot of internalised homophobia so that he can be happy. I like it.
Book: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962). I'd been intending to reread this for a while. I feel like I'm in such a different place now than when I first read it. It feels incredibly relevant and immediate now, which is sort of disappointing, because the book is all about how the chemical industry was wreaking havoc on life, basically, on ecosystems, on the people that were exposed to those chemicals, etc. ...and one of the things contributing to that was capitalism, which is something that is still true today - that when it comes to decision-making money is still being weighted far more heavily as a determining factor than other factors, like environmental impact. One of the things that comes out of that bias is that there are fewer environmental studies funded as a result of that, and I feel like that's short-sighted, and that science has been suffering in Canada. It is a well-written, accessible, book and a good read that focuses a lot on specifics.
Podcast: Yellow Helicopters (Welcome to Night Vale, 32, October 1, 2013). I really like a lot of what this show chooses to be, and I am also super worried about Strex Corp. I like that Cecil used to go bowling with Old Woman Josie, that's really lovely, and I like the Nasim's athlete-speak, and I liked Hiram McDaniel's (to me) unexpected American accent and his other menacing head. I really love how much of Welcome to Night Vale is basically the world is fucking terrifying... Let's Enjoy That! I just- it makes me happy.
Comic: Captain Marvel #4 by Kelly Sue DeConnick, David Lopez and Lee Loughridge (June 11, 2014). I am going to stop reading this comic, I think. There are some really delightful bits. This issue had a scene that was so femslashy, but there was also the page that I tried to read the wrong way because they united two pages and it just doesn't physically work with the binding and I really hate some of the colouring and basically I feel like, with this comic, that the more I think about it the more disappointed I'm going to be, I just, am beginning to feel like Carol deserves better than this.
Book: A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer (1961). I read this becausesophia_sol posted about really enjoying this book and its marriage of convenience and I was like, okay, I can do a marriage of convenience with a slightly shitty ending, I'm used to Heyer having bits that make me huff unhappily to myself, it'll be fine, and, yeah, it was fine, though, agh, I am so in agreement with sophia_sol on this one about the ending not being satisfying. ...because, okay, Adam and Julia would have been a terrible couple and they'd have been all emotional at each other, which is fine? I hear some people are into that? ...but I just really loved Rockhill and Jenny being all practical at each other, so I liked ending up with two more balanced couples and I liked that Jenny seemed to bring out Adam's more practical side and I loved all of their domesticity a lot. One of the things that always throws me when I'm reading romance novels is when it's mostly from the man's perspective - I'm not really used to it and it's pretty disorienting - I liked, with Adam, getting all of this economic-focused detail, but, I found him pretty frustrating sometimes. There was the bit in the carriage early on where he is repulsed by the appearance of his bride and I basically feel that Jenny is brilliant and awesome and he does not end the novel nearly as in love with her as he should be, because it's like, wow, she's extraordinarily useful and I'm quite comfortable around her and she's part of my life and, he thinks a bit throughout the book about not contributing a lot to the marriage, not giving her much while she's giving a lot and I feel like he appreciates Jenny for what she does for him and not nearly enough for herself. So, I enjoyed reading this, but there are sort of a number of bits where I would like fanfic, where the story did not deliver for me - the ending especially, and I would also really like sex scenes, because I feel like that is a thing that was important here. ...because, okay, I basically believe that Adam and Jenny's sex life would be, like, it would start out like their marriage and I am firmly of the opinion that the first time they had sex would have been pretty terrible and I totally want to read about them having bad awkward sex, because while it doesn't comprise the entirety of their relationship I do think it's important and I think it would be interesting. Like, I'm used to reading fanfic, which has a tendency to have sex scenes and to have them really integrated with the story and whatever else is going on with the characters, so the exclusion of sex from novels is sometimes disorienting for me, and I felt the lack with this novel more than I usually do, because it would have been so interesting, and, okay, I imagine that it would be, like, so utterly terrible to read it written from Adam's perspective, and probably Jenny's, too, and I just am apparently really interested in reading about Adam having sex with someone that he apparently finds unattractive while he's busy pining for his lost love and is all I must do my duty and sire heirs while also trying to be a gentleman and just that combination of a complete lack of enthusiasm, a very procreation rather than pleasure-based approach, and attempted solicitousness? That shit is totally fascinating to me. Do Jenny and Adam ever enjoy having sex together? Who knows! (...and now I want to read all the bad!sex fic.) I feel like attempting to get a kid together was a significant thing that they did together that probably involved a lot of feelings on both sides, so while the exclusion of those details from the novel kept it clean I don't think it made it a better story.
Podcast: Cassette (Welcome to Night Vale, 33, October 15, 2013). Backstory! Or maybe not. This is one of those episodes that is basically "What Even Is Night Vale?" I think. I liked the bit at the end about adults projecting their former teenage selves on teenagers, though I don't really feel the truth of that. I loved that Cecil had a slightly awkward teenager voice and that there were self-conscious teenage recordings and also that his middle name is Gershwin and how simultaneously enchanted and terrified he was by the world.
Podcast: A Beautiful Dream (Welcome to Night Vale, 34, November 1, 2013). So, this episode features the music of Tom Milsom, and, for me, there is good news and bad news here. It turns out Tom Mison, Crane on Sleepy Hollow, is not a known creeper and I can look at cast photos without cringing again. That's the good news. The bad news is that there is a creeper and it's this guy and his music is featured on a show I like. hfukgvyfkuslghwrlmijoimrw. I like evil computers; they make me all nostalgic for my childhood, basically, so that was fun, but I mostly listened to this episode as background noise, honestly.
CD: Mischievous Moon by Jill Barber (2011). Vocal Jazz! I don't know, new jazz recordings are sort of interesting, because like, I feel like there's a cache of people who are always going to go More Jazz! Yes! I love Jazz! but there's also a thing where, because of sheer volume and the nature of the genre, there's more comparison with other recordings. ...and this is really nice! It's got a kind of slow dancing and summer nights feel to it for the most part. I really like Oh My My which fits with the CD, but not my description of it, so much; it's a more interesting song to me than the slow dance stuff. So, it's good, but I'm not about to go out searching for the rest of Barber's works, basically.
Comic: Lumberjanes #3 by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters and Brooke Allen (June 11, 2014). Best. Okay, this is definitely my favourite so far. Adventures in a series of caves and they... there's fist bumps, and they've got April, who's been coded the most femme so far, doing the arm wrestling, which is great. ...and Molly in this one! ♥ Flailing and insecurity and supporting Ripley and going back for her hat and over-reacting and having feelings and solving anagrams. And Mal throwing Ripley! ...and, okay, it's Fibonacci, which, I feel is basically a cliché at this point, but math. ♥ Math is pretty. ...and Mal and Molly in this one. And moose! I like Ripley a lot. I love everyone, basically.
CD: Castor, The Twin by Dessa (2011). This is an album of Dessa remixing her own songs after having toured with them. I think the wiki page talks about this being a softer version, sort of, but I'm not familiar enough with her previous work - the original versions of these songs - to gauge that, really. I do like these songs, though. I like all of those places she drops into spoken word and there's this contrast with a kind of orchestral thing happening behind her and I like all of the range with that, basically.
Book: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (1895). So, I've watched at least one film version of this, something like ten years ago (which is a thing I feel like I am typing a lot, lately) and that increasingly faded memory didn't prepare me for how funny this play is. I'd be really interested in seeing this on stage at some point; I'm really interested in seeing all of this put forth by actors in earnest, that just sounds like a good time to me. The edition of this play that I've got comes with all of this criticism - of the play, of various performances thereof - and there's a review by George Bernard Shaw that contains this fantastic line: "If the public ever becomes intelligent enough to know when it is really enjoying itself and when it is not, there will be an end of farcical comedy." It's amazingly obnoxious.
TV Episode: The Dark Moon (Teen Wolf S4E1, June 23, 2014). What is the lighting in this first scene. Oh my goodness, Stiles and Lydia are so adorable - all of this hesitation and sort of clumsily put on theatre. Okay, and so I got spoiled for this episode via tumblr and yet was completely unprepared for the way that Malia/Kira scene was shot. ...because, okay, you shoot a scene like that and there's snogging. WHERE IS MY SNOGGING? Their electric chair is very silly. ...and Derek Hale is a beautiful princess under a spell - castle made of stone, cobwebs, repose, QED. ...and I am so pleased to see the mercenary lady again and that this means that we've got a caravan where the men are outnumbered by women. This is so old school horror, with the people going off to investigate and the whole entire building that Braeden and Scott are in - just, everything about that place, I mean - indigenous ruins? (There are some criticisms with respect to the treatment of race and ethnicity to be made about this episode, I think.) And there's a scorpion crawling over a skull, really? There's music and heavy breathing! I love Malia a lot. Like, I don't ship her and Stiles at all because they would just be terrible amoral people together, but they should be friends forever? ...and young Derek Hale is a thing that is happening, which is interesting, and I sort of like, though the lack of Hoechlin is sad.
CD: Sing to the Moon by Laura Mvula (2013). So I got introduced to Laura Mvula viasophia_sol on tumblr and the music video for That's Alright, which is fantastic. I looked her up again when I started looking for summer songs this year and found Green Garden - which is a great summer song, I think, though, not really a dancing tune, at least not in the club sense - and then picked up this album of hers, and those two songs of hers are my favourite of hers so far, but, I just really love her sound. It's lush and beautiful.
TV Episode: Book of Hours (White Collar S1E3, November 6, 2009). I decided to re-watch a chunk of White Collar and I am really, really enjoying that decision. I love El and Peter's dynamic and the way Peter and Neal interact and that whole OT3 thing is really, really good for me. I also really enjoy Mozzie's paranoia and firm anti-government stance. I enjoy Neal's wardrobe, too. The dog in this episode was really great and I loved its solemn eyes and wagging tail a lot, but am totally baffled at the part where it's the mobster, at the end, who takes it to the vet. I suspect this is a thing that happened because of narrative reasons because, I just- Neal and Peter did not take the nice man and his dog to the vet . (They should have taken him to the vet.) Neal's face when Peter dropped that really bad pun and Neal dropping clichés and all of the ways that Peter just gets Neal make me really happy. Neal reminds me of that Cary Grant quote - "I pretended to be someone I wanted to be, and finally I became that person." There are bits where Neal does something and then an FBI agent is thrown by it and Peter says something to the effect of that's Neal - "Neal Caffrey's world" - and, it is a cliché, that the world is a stage. People play roles, but Neal's playing to the audience more than anyone else on this show, because, I think, he saw that, and he loved it and so he became it. So Neal will say and do things that will make people pause sometimes, that sound like lines, but they're not the ones that you hear in the street and think "That's terrible. That doesn't sound real; that's so cliché. I would never have written that." Neal is all the best clichés and the lines you'd want to write.
Comic: Young Avengers #11 by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Kris Anka, Mike Norton and Matthew Wilson (October 23, 2013). I think I'm around halfway through the second and final story of this comic? I started reading it, because, okay, this is where all of those America Chavez/Kate Bishop photosets on tumblr are from and there are also space boyfriends, who I actually know the names of now, but, okay - this is my "young avengers" tumblr tag. I started reading this comic because there was tumblr shiny and I talked about it to
sinesofinsanity, and because she is a ridiculous and awesome person she lent the series to me. (There was an unexpected package in my mail box! I am still all stuck on that.) ...and it's very much the young avengers, and it is sort of charming and great and I really love all of the romantic relationships in these comics being there for younger readers; it's great. Loki I find tricky in this book and all those before it. He's fun, but he is tricky; I'm not entirely sure what's going on with him or what he's up to... which is totally great for Loki, but a little frustrating as someone who likes having the shape of stories. I have strong suspicions, but I'm not actually sure what his character arc is going to look like. That the children must save the world from a problem that the adults cannot see, that they have become infected with, is something that feels very direct, and it's interesting reading it at a point in my life where I feel like I am learning and trying to learn how to adult - trying to do my laundry and also fight systemic oppression. I'm at a point where, I'll read the occasional piece about how today's teenagers are going to fix the world, and I'm basically making mmhm noises and examining my nails. I am very skeptical of the capacity for change because I feel that there are so many changes that are so long overdue and it's like, oh, why didn't these things happen and the answer's stuff like "We had the power to change things, but we also had the power full stop, so maintaining the system that lets us enjoy that power was more important" and "We were afraid." ...and I just, am so baffled at some people's priorities, and still need to do my laundry.Podcast: Dana (Welcome to Night Vale, 30, September 1, 2013). One of the things that I really like about this show is how very dark it is, much of the time, because I have a dark sense of humour, and that's a pretty comfortable place for me. There are also bits of this show that are pretty realistic, that touch on fears and anxieties that I think a lot of us have, and sometimes when I listen to this show late at night (I am slowly catching up with this show in fits and stops.) it touches on those places and I question that decision. I did like this episode, though, existential angst aside. I really like Dana and having that extra voice on the show, having her voice, and I liked the voyage that she took, that intersection that she had with the scientists, and the way the episode sort of faded away with that. I think there's something there, with people passing through each others' lives, and it's nice, if not particularly happy.
TV Episode: The Election Agenda: Mike Schreiner and the Green Platform (The Agenda with Steve Paikin May 21, 2014). The Ontario Provincial Election will have taken place on the 12th of June. Currently I am hating this whole election thing a lot. The radio ads feature a lot of emotional manipulation and talking down to people* and, listening to Mike Schreiner talk I am very aware that he is a politician; I can hear the sound bites and party lines in his words, and I haven't even read his platform yet. ...and apparently the Greens have been running candidates in Ontario since 1985 and haven't won a single seat yet. A couple of the ridings that Mike Schreiner talks about his party having a chance in - like, it sounds so positive and hopeful for his party that he's listing four or five names off, but - I'm familiar, a little, with the political leanings and history of a couple of those ridings and I laughed when I heard those names, because there is no way that the green party is winning those two seats, because while they may have constituencies that have strong environmental values those tend not to be very well represented at the polls, because the current political system doesn't reward that kind of voting. The parliament is made up of the single majority winner from each electoral district, which leads to a lot of strategic voting - people saying things like, I'm a proud x-party supporter or I really like x party's candidate, but I can't vote for them in my riding because that party hasn't done well here historically and if I vote for them it's going to be a wasted vote or it's going to split the vote and that party that I really, really don't like will end up getting elected. So, what I'm going to do is vote for a candidate/party that I don't like as much but has a better chance of being elected in this district. The current political system works against younger parties and our parliament would look pretty different if the 2007 electoral reform referendum had passed. Anyway. I really enjoy Steve Paikin's skeptical face at people.
*I haven't heard a Green radio ad.
TV Broadcast: Ontario Election Debate 2014 (June 3, 2014). Okay, so, Tim Hudak is saying that he's not going to be the best actor and give the best performance on this stage, but, fuck, okay, the way that he's standing, the way that he's gesturing so far, he's not doing that thing that Wynne and Horvath are doing with the let me give you something gesture, his arms are wide open and he's cutting down their media performances and doing this heart-to-heart appeal to the audience - 30 seconds in and he has the best performance. (Help, I don't want to live under his government.*) "Respectfully" as he interrupts Wynne. Seriously, this is fucking ridiculous. His hand gestures slip a little bit, so he does that same gesture as Wynne and Horvath, but it's a bit wider, I think. He's having so much fun and is so very comfortable. I'm wondering a bit what the screen time breakdown looks like. (I think it's pretty even, but I think that the way he's speaking may be winning him bits and pieces of more time.) I wish someone would call him on his shit. Though, to be fair, there is a lot of shit all round.
*Hudak is the Conservative leader, Wynne the Liberal leader, and Andrea the NDP leader, and that order is right-left in terms of their politics. The Liberal government held the majority of the last house.
Comic: Black Widow #7 by Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto (June 4, 2014). I love Noto's art. The colours on the two San Francisco pages are both great and also a lovely contrast to each other. I really love having a comic book that I can read and will then flip through afterwards looking at the art, because it's actually engaging and interesting. It's very impressionistic, which is such a contrast from the typical comic book style and is so interesting to see because of that. I find myself looking at Noto's paneling and it's just, really great to look at. The last page is really beautiful in this issue. I liked finding out more about Isaiah and am more interested the story right now than I was with the previous villain.
Comic: Witchling #1 by Renée Nault. I picked this up at TCAF because the art is so very, very pretty and I think I was told there were cats in it. So I've got this really pretty signed copy. (She also had a lot of postcards from her mermaid-a-week project that I couldn't justify to myself but mermaids.) It's online as a webcomic, if you want to check it out and Witchling #2 is out, too. I've only read what's in the first chapter, and the art is beautiful and I like it, but I would have loved this when I was younger. An orphan taken in by the royal family! Talking cats! A dangerous forest! Now, I'm really aware of how much older I am than the main character and I've got more distance that way. It's really pretty, though, and I am impressed at all of Nault's palace detail - there is a lot of wallpaper happening in this comic and a lot of detail in some places in general. Her sinister forces of evil are also pretty fantastically rendered. The whole thing's really lovely visually.
Short Film: Together Forever (2014). I got this off my tumblr dash from
calvinahobbes and nobody told me there would be rose petals and candles and soft music. I spent a lot of this (short) film making this no, what have I done, make it stop face, because, while I do consume a lot of media with a romance focus, I just, nope. This was not good for me, though, if you want to watch something really sappy and happy with ladies in love this may be a good fit for you. I liked a lot of the beginning of this film and it was cool to look at someone on screen and go, hey, that's a bit like me, but then everything just got way too gooey for me. (There was soft focus at the end!)CD: Open Season by Feist (2006). Remixes and collaborations. It was okay. Remixed pop-folk is, actually, something that appeals to me, but none of this was actually that great, none of it grabbed me, and so, I was very aware that I had a CD with a similar approach that was much better in the next room (it's this mix CD by a radio Canada DJ), waiting for me.
CD: L'univers de Rajotte compiled by Claude Rajotte (2007). I don't know if I've ever talked about how much I love mix CDs. I love mix CDs a lot. They hit some of the same happy-making mind places that rec sets do, and I just really enjoy them. This mix of Rajotte's is just kind of ridiculously cool, like, there's remixed Billie Holiday on this and I've spent time thinking about how I would vid the first track (I would need to learn how to vid, so this isn't a thing that is going to happen anytime soon.) because it would lend itself really well to some really cool cuts. I think I've used two of the songs on this for mix tapes of my own? It's just a really solid mix. It's fantastic.
Film: Yes or No (2010). So, it's this f/f Thai film. I've been seeing this coming up on my tumblr dash for a while and looking adorable, so when I had a shit day I started watching it and it's cute. It felt a lot like all of the wolfstar fic I read in high school, which is to say that it was extraordinarily fluffy and also angsty. (There is no porn. There is nothing approaching porn in this.) There's a lot of tropey-ness in this, and that was good for me - except that one of the tropes in this is, actually, okay, there are a few in this that I don't like. The lesbian freak-out makes me sad (I would like to watch a film where two women fall in love and there's no orientation revelation.) and it was pretty extended in here. I got so, so confused when I was watching this because they push their beds together! (They're roommates at university.) Before they're together! ...and, I just- they are clearly a couple long before they are a couple. It's queer and it has a happy ending, so that was nice, but there was also a character that contemplated suicide and some things that I didn't like. I'm glad I watched it but I wouldn't rewatch it, basically.
Podcast: A Blinking Light up on the Mountain (Welcome to Night Vale, 31, September 15, 2013). I really liked this episode. There were lots of old and comforting threads in here. I liked the man in the tan jacket's public transit pamphlet and the whole story of the mountain was just a really lovely thread to listen to unravel; I liked everywhere it went, including the imagery of Carlos with a spatula at the end. I love the voice of the faceless old woman who lives in your house; each time I hear her I am surprised and a little delighted - it's nice.
TV Series: Coffee Prince (2007). I'd seen this before and forgotten how much I love Eun Chan, she is a delight and this was really fun to re-watch because I didn't have to stress about any of the relationship drama. I really love this drama for how much growth the characters do - like, Eun Chan finds something that she's passionate and a career in it, Han Kyul stops hanging on to this crush that is basically a bad habit and he finds someone that brings out the best in him, but he also doesn't need her around all the time and does well in the time she's gone, and he finds a new career that he likes, and the other characters grow, too! It's nice, I like it a lot, and I like it a lot because the couple gets together and then there are a number of episodes before the end, and it's not something that happens in a lot of media but shows up in fanfic a fair bit and makes me happy when it does. Coffee Prince does some interesting, and, basically happy-making things with gender and sexuality. It is really, really, not perfect in respect to that, but it's got a woman who basically doesn't pass as female a lot of the time and a man that works through a lot of internalised homophobia so that he can be happy. I like it.
Book: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962). I'd been intending to reread this for a while. I feel like I'm in such a different place now than when I first read it. It feels incredibly relevant and immediate now, which is sort of disappointing, because the book is all about how the chemical industry was wreaking havoc on life, basically, on ecosystems, on the people that were exposed to those chemicals, etc. ...and one of the things contributing to that was capitalism, which is something that is still true today - that when it comes to decision-making money is still being weighted far more heavily as a determining factor than other factors, like environmental impact. One of the things that comes out of that bias is that there are fewer environmental studies funded as a result of that, and I feel like that's short-sighted, and that science has been suffering in Canada. It is a well-written, accessible, book and a good read that focuses a lot on specifics.
Podcast: Yellow Helicopters (Welcome to Night Vale, 32, October 1, 2013). I really like a lot of what this show chooses to be, and I am also super worried about Strex Corp. I like that Cecil used to go bowling with Old Woman Josie, that's really lovely, and I like the Nasim's athlete-speak, and I liked Hiram McDaniel's (to me) unexpected American accent and his other menacing head. I really love how much of Welcome to Night Vale is basically the world is fucking terrifying... Let's Enjoy That! I just- it makes me happy.
Comic: Captain Marvel #4 by Kelly Sue DeConnick, David Lopez and Lee Loughridge (June 11, 2014). I am going to stop reading this comic, I think. There are some really delightful bits. This issue had a scene that was so femslashy, but there was also the page that I tried to read the wrong way because they united two pages and it just doesn't physically work with the binding and I really hate some of the colouring and basically I feel like, with this comic, that the more I think about it the more disappointed I'm going to be, I just, am beginning to feel like Carol deserves better than this.
Book: A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer (1961). I read this because
sophia_sol posted about really enjoying this book and its marriage of convenience and I was like, okay, I can do a marriage of convenience with a slightly shitty ending, I'm used to Heyer having bits that make me huff unhappily to myself, it'll be fine, and, yeah, it was fine, though, agh, I am so in agreement with sophia_sol on this one about the ending not being satisfying. ...because, okay, Adam and Julia would have been a terrible couple and they'd have been all emotional at each other, which is fine? I hear some people are into that? ...but I just really loved Rockhill and Jenny being all practical at each other, so I liked ending up with two more balanced couples and I liked that Jenny seemed to bring out Adam's more practical side and I loved all of their domesticity a lot. One of the things that always throws me when I'm reading romance novels is when it's mostly from the man's perspective - I'm not really used to it and it's pretty disorienting - I liked, with Adam, getting all of this economic-focused detail, but, I found him pretty frustrating sometimes. There was the bit in the carriage early on where he is repulsed by the appearance of his bride and I basically feel that Jenny is brilliant and awesome and he does not end the novel nearly as in love with her as he should be, because it's like, wow, she's extraordinarily useful and I'm quite comfortable around her and she's part of my life and, he thinks a bit throughout the book about not contributing a lot to the marriage, not giving her much while she's giving a lot and I feel like he appreciates Jenny for what she does for him and not nearly enough for herself. So, I enjoyed reading this, but there are sort of a number of bits where I would like fanfic, where the story did not deliver for me - the ending especially, and I would also really like sex scenes, because I feel like that is a thing that was important here. ...because, okay, I basically believe that Adam and Jenny's sex life would be, like, it would start out like their marriage and I am firmly of the opinion that the first time they had sex would have been pretty terrible and I totally want to read about them having bad awkward sex, because while it doesn't comprise the entirety of their relationship I do think it's important and I think it would be interesting. Like, I'm used to reading fanfic, which has a tendency to have sex scenes and to have them really integrated with the story and whatever else is going on with the characters, so the exclusion of sex from novels is sometimes disorienting for me, and I felt the lack with this novel more than I usually do, because it would have been so interesting, and, okay, I imagine that it would be, like, so utterly terrible to read it written from Adam's perspective, and probably Jenny's, too, and I just am apparently really interested in reading about Adam having sex with someone that he apparently finds unattractive while he's busy pining for his lost love and is all I must do my duty and sire heirs while also trying to be a gentleman and just that combination of a complete lack of enthusiasm, a very procreation rather than pleasure-based approach, and attempted solicitousness? That shit is totally fascinating to me. Do Jenny and Adam ever enjoy having sex together? Who knows! (...and now I want to read all the bad!sex fic.) I feel like attempting to get a kid together was a significant thing that they did together that probably involved a lot of feelings on both sides, so while the exclusion of those details from the novel kept it clean I don't think it made it a better story. Podcast: Cassette (Welcome to Night Vale, 33, October 15, 2013). Backstory! Or maybe not. This is one of those episodes that is basically "What Even Is Night Vale?" I think. I liked the bit at the end about adults projecting their former teenage selves on teenagers, though I don't really feel the truth of that. I loved that Cecil had a slightly awkward teenager voice and that there were self-conscious teenage recordings and also that his middle name is Gershwin and how simultaneously enchanted and terrified he was by the world.
Podcast: A Beautiful Dream (Welcome to Night Vale, 34, November 1, 2013). So, this episode features the music of Tom Milsom, and, for me, there is good news and bad news here. It turns out Tom Mison, Crane on Sleepy Hollow, is not a known creeper and I can look at cast photos without cringing again. That's the good news. The bad news is that there is a creeper and it's this guy and his music is featured on a show I like. hfukgvyfkuslghwrlmijoimrw. I like evil computers; they make me all nostalgic for my childhood, basically, so that was fun, but I mostly listened to this episode as background noise, honestly.
CD: Mischievous Moon by Jill Barber (2011). Vocal Jazz! I don't know, new jazz recordings are sort of interesting, because like, I feel like there's a cache of people who are always going to go More Jazz! Yes! I love Jazz! but there's also a thing where, because of sheer volume and the nature of the genre, there's more comparison with other recordings. ...and this is really nice! It's got a kind of slow dancing and summer nights feel to it for the most part. I really like Oh My My which fits with the CD, but not my description of it, so much; it's a more interesting song to me than the slow dance stuff. So, it's good, but I'm not about to go out searching for the rest of Barber's works, basically.
Comic: Lumberjanes #3 by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters and Brooke Allen (June 11, 2014). Best. Okay, this is definitely my favourite so far. Adventures in a series of caves and they... there's fist bumps, and they've got April, who's been coded the most femme so far, doing the arm wrestling, which is great. ...and Molly in this one! ♥ Flailing and insecurity and supporting Ripley and going back for her hat and over-reacting and having feelings and solving anagrams. And Mal throwing Ripley! ...and, okay, it's Fibonacci, which, I feel is basically a cliché at this point, but math. ♥ Math is pretty. ...and Mal and Molly in this one. And moose! I like Ripley a lot. I love everyone, basically.
CD: Castor, The Twin by Dessa (2011). This is an album of Dessa remixing her own songs after having toured with them. I think the wiki page talks about this being a softer version, sort of, but I'm not familiar enough with her previous work - the original versions of these songs - to gauge that, really. I do like these songs, though. I like all of those places she drops into spoken word and there's this contrast with a kind of orchestral thing happening behind her and I like all of the range with that, basically.
Book: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (1895). So, I've watched at least one film version of this, something like ten years ago (which is a thing I feel like I am typing a lot, lately) and that increasingly faded memory didn't prepare me for how funny this play is. I'd be really interested in seeing this on stage at some point; I'm really interested in seeing all of this put forth by actors in earnest, that just sounds like a good time to me. The edition of this play that I've got comes with all of this criticism - of the play, of various performances thereof - and there's a review by George Bernard Shaw that contains this fantastic line: "If the public ever becomes intelligent enough to know when it is really enjoying itself and when it is not, there will be an end of farcical comedy." It's amazingly obnoxious.
TV Episode: The Dark Moon (Teen Wolf S4E1, June 23, 2014). What is the lighting in this first scene. Oh my goodness, Stiles and Lydia are so adorable - all of this hesitation and sort of clumsily put on theatre. Okay, and so I got spoiled for this episode via tumblr and yet was completely unprepared for the way that Malia/Kira scene was shot. ...because, okay, you shoot a scene like that and there's snogging. WHERE IS MY SNOGGING? Their electric chair is very silly. ...and Derek Hale is a beautiful princess under a spell - castle made of stone, cobwebs, repose, QED. ...and I am so pleased to see the mercenary lady again and that this means that we've got a caravan where the men are outnumbered by women. This is so old school horror, with the people going off to investigate and the whole entire building that Braeden and Scott are in - just, everything about that place, I mean - indigenous ruins? (There are some criticisms with respect to the treatment of race and ethnicity to be made about this episode, I think.) And there's a scorpion crawling over a skull, really? There's music and heavy breathing! I love Malia a lot. Like, I don't ship her and Stiles at all because they would just be terrible amoral people together, but they should be friends forever? ...and young Derek Hale is a thing that is happening, which is interesting, and I sort of like, though the lack of Hoechlin is sad.
CD: Sing to the Moon by Laura Mvula (2013). So I got introduced to Laura Mvula via
sophia_sol on tumblr and the music video for That's Alright, which is fantastic. I looked her up again when I started looking for summer songs this year and found Green Garden - which is a great summer song, I think, though, not really a dancing tune, at least not in the club sense - and then picked up this album of hers, and those two songs of hers are my favourite of hers so far, but, I just really love her sound. It's lush and beautiful.
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Date: 2014-07-06 05:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-07-07 10:39 am (UTC)