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Marching back into town gets us some looks.
The artillery going first is just odd; five tonnes of sheep with blood drying in its underwool and eel-tree ichor splattered all over the rest of it is unexpected.
Rust has found a couple of horse-favouring town kids happy to earn some money by making much of the horse-ghost’s feeding and grooming. It’s essential to the ghost to have contact with some technical variety of innocence Rust is unable to provide. A delegation of matrons resulted; Blossom was able to reassure them with impeccable tact that the definition of innocence was on the order of “never summoned a demon”. Since good Creeks don’t do any such thing, and even more do not mark themselves as suitable for consumption should a demon arrive, all was well.
Halt’s comprehensive definition — never consumed a human soul, never slaked wrath by wide killing, and, oh yes, never coerced a bound demon into a shape empty of all but pain — was not provided to the matrons. Even more fortunately, Halt’s oddly wistful expression was not observed by any townsfolk at all.
That's the beginning of chapter five of The March North, the first Commonweal novel by Graydon Saunders, and I'm sharing it with y'all for two reasons.
The first reason is that I'm privileged to know some damned good writers. One of them is
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
graydon, who'll soon be releasing a third Commonweal novel by the title of Safely You Deliver (find links for obtaining the first two here). The consensus opinion expressed by reviews of the books, if you're curious, is "definitely worth the effort"; this is original, subversive fantasy-with-hard-SF-underpinnings that doesn't "see spot run" readers through the details of the (amazing, richly crafted) world, a world I think is well-captured in a line from chapter two, describing the five-tonne sheep upon which possibly the most powerful living sorcerer on the planet, who happens to look like somebody's grandma, has just ridden into town: "It breathes slow, which you'd expect, and fire, which you would not." Even the reviews themselves make for interesting reading (at least to me, admittedly biased with squee and vicarious pride that something somebody close to me made is attracting such an enthusiastic following); many of these are collected unsurprisingly on goodreads (that's book two, A Succession of Bad Days, and topmost review is v. spoilery; The March North is over here) but there's also this (which is basically the first chapter of The March North as free sample glued together with my sales pitch when it came out in 2014), this (spoilery), and this.G's not alone in my dwircle; I'd run out of original things to say if I tried to list all the writers I follow here whose work I adore but I want to pick on my other two regular interlocutors/best friends currently active on this platform, who are also extremely talented (if you're not comfortable with me hyping you here I'll take it out; I just want y'all to know I think you're great).
kore posts fic as thatyourefuse writes like sinfully rich dark chocolate cake with bee stingers inside, and I mean that glowingly; current/simmering projects include in their ranks a Crimson Peak epic from the POV of an omniscient atemporal haunted house and a novel adaptation of King Lear, and it is all devastatingly good. (recessional/The second reason is that I am apparently a bound demon. I've spent the last week and a half (more?) in fucking agony. Not consistent agony, it varies in both intensity and flavour (sometimes achy tension, others like a full-body migraine), but agony as the soundtrack for daily life sucks. It's not only unpleasant but boring and extremely frustrating. I hope very much that the acupuncture appointment I have to run off to ten minutes ago will help; either the one I had on Sunday didn't do much or I'd have been howling without it. ETA: and I'm a fucking idiot because the bloody appointment was for 4:15, not 4:45, so I'm SOL and forfeit the free appointment credit (this was already rescheduled from yesterday afternoon when I was going to be too late to get there in the miserable pouring rain because I couldn't drag my ass out of the shower).
Had and still have my hands full repairing somebody's much-loved family heirloom aran sweater, which adds a physical obstacle to the frustration of Not Writing Anything. Stuck on trying to articulate thoughts on indigeneity and monstrosity for post on horror westerns, trying to remind myself it doesn't need to be a properly structured and supported essay. Keep imagining and reimagining scenes for fic and even massaging them into phrases but the prose invariably slips away when I try to record them in any way. Most of these scraps of inspiration are bits of funny (to me) dialogue without context. The rest are pretty much all UST build-up or the talky bits before the porn but I have no will to write the rest of the story, either plotty business connecting the ones that are part of larger narratives or the rest of the sex scene for the ones that lead on to that rather than leaving the characters lusting (and yes, I could publish those pieces on their own, but avoiding awkwardness with written fade-to-black can be tricky and if they get any comments at all on AO3 they'll be demands to continue, plus I have to actually write something before I can publish it). Feeling as thwarted in my creative pursuits as the characters are in their sexual/romantic ones.
This week's unplanned media kick has been horror movies in which children are threatened or threatening. I've watched Insidious 1-3, Sinister 1 & 2, and Silent Hill, and rewatched The Omen and The Babadook (and Splice, if you want to count that here, although I'd say despite its issues with reproduction and parenting it's not as much doing with children per se). Not many big thinky thoughts about this yet; only mentioning it as an excuse to say:
1. Silent Hill makes absolutely no sense and probably wouldn't even if I had known more about the games it's based on than "everything's foggy", "the one with Pyramid Head?", "something about a missing girl", and "bandage-mummy-faced Slutty Nurse cosplays", BUT it's interesting that all of the important decisions and actions are made and taken by women (the decisions and actions in question are almost universally stupid or nonsensical, but they're the only ones that matter). The stuff with Sean Bean and Kim Coates is ultimately irrelevent to the "plot" and the menfolk-townsfolk are generic henchy prop-people, almost perfect inversion of the sexy lamp test. Interesting also to look at the other films in the same light (womp womp): The Omen and Sinister films are pretty lampy in their treatment of adult women (not quite so simplistic as a binary division into evil or nagging shrews and fainting damsels but really not good, especially for the Sinister films appearing almost forty years after The Omen) while the Insidious trilogy are fairly balanced in terms of a gendered distribution of agency.
1a) Happy that Silent Hill features a hot butch motorcycle cop, sad that ( spoiler ). Would prefer story with no stupid ghost town where Radha Mitchell and her kid are actually on the run from Sean Bean and hot butch motorcycle cop tries to apprehend her but then helps her, with or without hooking up.
2. The Babadook totally deserves its status as one of the biggest buzz-generating indie/horror films of 2014, because it's really well done. I recommend it heartily but with a massive side order of trigger warnings (spooky shit and a few jump scares, bugs, tooth/mouth injury/body horror, violence towards animals, actual plot summary stuff behind cut: ( short version = widowed mother of neuroatypical 6-year old is either being targeted by a malicious supernatural entity or having a total mental breakdown. )) My one ridiculous quibble is that the pop-up book looks professionally printed and bound, and I would like to have seen Amelia (a writer before Samuel was born) check the front matter for publication details even if their weren't any or they lead to a publishing company that doesn't exist or something.
3. Struggling to articulate this . . . I'm curious about how many of the people directly responsible for these films are parents and how many aren't and how all their fears of and for children inform their work?
This week's unplanned media kick has been horror movies in which children are threatened or threatening. I've watched Insidious 1-3, Sinister 1 & 2, and Silent Hill, and rewatched The Omen and The Babadook (and Splice, if you want to count that here, although I'd say despite its issues with reproduction and parenting it's not as much doing with children per se). Not many big thinky thoughts about this yet; only mentioning it as an excuse to say:
1. Silent Hill makes absolutely no sense and probably wouldn't even if I had known more about the games it's based on than "everything's foggy", "the one with Pyramid Head?", "something about a missing girl", and "bandage-mummy-faced Slutty Nurse cosplays", BUT it's interesting that all of the important decisions and actions are made and taken by women (the decisions and actions in question are almost universally stupid or nonsensical, but they're the only ones that matter). The stuff with Sean Bean and Kim Coates is ultimately irrelevent to the "plot" and the menfolk-townsfolk are generic henchy prop-people, almost perfect inversion of the sexy lamp test. Interesting also to look at the other films in the same light (womp womp): The Omen and Sinister films are pretty lampy in their treatment of adult women (not quite so simplistic as a binary division into evil or nagging shrews and fainting damsels but really not good, especially for the Sinister films appearing almost forty years after The Omen) while the Insidious trilogy are fairly balanced in terms of a gendered distribution of agency.
1a) Happy that Silent Hill features a hot butch motorcycle cop, sad that ( spoiler ). Would prefer story with no stupid ghost town where Radha Mitchell and her kid are actually on the run from Sean Bean and hot butch motorcycle cop tries to apprehend her but then helps her, with or without hooking up.
2. The Babadook totally deserves its status as one of the biggest buzz-generating indie/horror films of 2014, because it's really well done. I recommend it heartily but with a massive side order of trigger warnings (spooky shit and a few jump scares, bugs, tooth/mouth injury/body horror, violence towards animals, actual plot summary stuff behind cut: ( short version = widowed mother of neuroatypical 6-year old is either being targeted by a malicious supernatural entity or having a total mental breakdown. )) My one ridiculous quibble is that the pop-up book looks professionally printed and bound, and I would like to have seen Amelia (a writer before Samuel was born) check the front matter for publication details even if their weren't any or they lead to a publishing company that doesn't exist or something.
3. Struggling to articulate this . . . I'm curious about how many of the people directly responsible for these films are parents and how many aren't and how all their fears of and for children inform their work?
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1. Murderfamily recommendation: Burke and Hare (2010). Not a horror movie, although it's got serious horror cred (directed by John Landis [An American Werewolf in London] with cameos from Christopher Lee, Ray Harryhausen, and a sword-wielding Jenny Agutter, to scratch the surface) and bristles with murder, mayhem, and medical dissection (latter can get pretty graphic; murders themselves tend more to slapstick than gore). Rather, it's a wicked little loosely historical comedy with an excellent cast about the business of death.
2. 2016 = Year of the Snot. Feels like I've been microbe-sick (on top of the usual fibro business) more days than I've been "healthy" thus far this year. Probably more like a fifth or a quarter but it's still unusual for me to have two mini colds and a vigorous flu within seven weeks when I usually go through around four infections per year.
3. Random badass Avatar vid viagarden_hoe21
4. Like riding a rickety deathtrap bicycle: I can still read academic fluently, although I'm unsurprisingly tentative trying to speak it. No, I'm not trying to exhume my thesis, although I am setting myself up to review some things I read in uni and grad school and crack open some of the books I didn't (and some of what I'm looking at could be called on if I ever do cut Damocles' thread). I'm looking for text addressing or applicable to horror cinema, to which end I've also (probably unwisely) picked up some new-to-me volumes at used book stores around town, including the game-changer: Carol Clover's 1992 Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. So far I've read the available free sample of The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul (edited by Gina Freitag and Andre Loiselle, 2015) and am most of the way through The Horror Film (Peter Hutchings, 2004--will have to share quotes at some point; find I often agree with him on general approach but disagree with readings of particular films). If anybody cares I can type up a provisional book list, but I don't imagine anybody does.
5. Another thing's been bubbling around my tiny head, seemingly at the opposite end of the pool from horror (and academia), and that's the notion of hygge (I'd challenge the conviction of absolute opposition, but that's another witter). I want to do something with hygge as a mood/theme in a (fannish) creative capacity but I'm not sure what/how. I was planning just to ask for prompts for myself that could work with the idea (senses of comfort, warmth, self- and other-care) with a note inviting others to play along, but I didn't, and (because this is me) it started getting ambitious. I know better than to go hog wild and create a comm that I wouldn't have spoons to maintain if it took off, which it wouldn't because I'm not that popular, but is it worth making a post for public sharing of prompts and commentfic? I don't know if I'd even be able to write anything--I still haven't finished any of the other (some decidedly less hyggelig) stories I'm trying to work on--but I want to.
2. 2016 = Year of the Snot. Feels like I've been microbe-sick (on top of the usual fibro business) more days than I've been "healthy" thus far this year. Probably more like a fifth or a quarter but it's still unusual for me to have two mini colds and a vigorous flu within seven weeks when I usually go through around four infections per year.
3. Random badass Avatar vid via
garden_hoe21 4. Like riding a rickety deathtrap bicycle: I can still read academic fluently, although I'm unsurprisingly tentative trying to speak it. No, I'm not trying to exhume my thesis, although I am setting myself up to review some things I read in uni and grad school and crack open some of the books I didn't (and some of what I'm looking at could be called on if I ever do cut Damocles' thread). I'm looking for text addressing or applicable to horror cinema, to which end I've also (probably unwisely) picked up some new-to-me volumes at used book stores around town, including the game-changer: Carol Clover's 1992 Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. So far I've read the available free sample of The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul (edited by Gina Freitag and Andre Loiselle, 2015) and am most of the way through The Horror Film (Peter Hutchings, 2004--will have to share quotes at some point; find I often agree with him on general approach but disagree with readings of particular films). If anybody cares I can type up a provisional book list, but I don't imagine anybody does.
5. Another thing's been bubbling around my tiny head, seemingly at the opposite end of the pool from horror (and academia), and that's the notion of hygge (I'd challenge the conviction of absolute opposition, but that's another witter). I want to do something with hygge as a mood/theme in a (fannish) creative capacity but I'm not sure what/how. I was planning just to ask for prompts for myself that could work with the idea (senses of comfort, warmth, self- and other-care) with a note inviting others to play along, but I didn't, and (because this is me) it started getting ambitious. I know better than to go hog wild and create a comm that I wouldn't have spoons to maintain if it took off, which it wouldn't because I'm not that popular, but is it worth making a post for public sharing of prompts and commentfic? I don't know if I'd even be able to write anything--I still haven't finished any of the other (some decidedly less hyggelig) stories I'm trying to work on--but I want to.
My mental/emotional state continues somewhere on the order of "sludge at the bottom of a septic tank", and the other day I slipped on an icy sidewalk and bruised the right side of my ass (odd, given that I landed on the left), so everything hurts more differently than usual. Attempting to face any of the things I ACTUALLY SERIOUSLY NEED TO DEAL WITH makes me cry so I'm la-la-la-ing around doing things that don't help me and feeling guilty about it, huzzah!
To that end . . .
Informative essay on the popular practice of nipple piercing in the Victorian era.
Frequently obnoxious, occasionally brilliant: LiarTownUSA.
A friend of mine is looking for information/recommendations of resources on Black Canadian history. Suggestions? Bueller?
Contemplating changing DW user name to "hyggenaut", possibly AO3 as well. I dunno. Been a while since I changed alias, having trouble finding pros and cons.
Thinking of trying to make my own mayonnaise; soy-free Veganaise is pretty good but unnecessarily expensive, especially given I'm buying it for the "soy-free" and not the "vegan".
Grain-free dairy-free soy-free chocolate peanut butter muffins; I tweak the ratios for more peanut butter and less oil. Also grain-free (-ish; there's cornstarch): almond pear cardamom pancakes; haven't tried yet but have the ingredients, should get around to it before the pears rot and the almond meal rebels.
To that end . . .
Informative essay on the popular practice of nipple piercing in the Victorian era.
Frequently obnoxious, occasionally brilliant: LiarTownUSA.
A friend of mine is looking for information/recommendations of resources on Black Canadian history. Suggestions? Bueller?
Contemplating changing DW user name to "hyggenaut", possibly AO3 as well. I dunno. Been a while since I changed alias, having trouble finding pros and cons.
Thinking of trying to make my own mayonnaise; soy-free Veganaise is pretty good but unnecessarily expensive, especially given I'm buying it for the "soy-free" and not the "vegan".
Grain-free dairy-free soy-free chocolate peanut butter muffins; I tweak the ratios for more peanut butter and less oil. Also grain-free (-ish; there's cornstarch): almond pear cardamom pancakes; haven't tried yet but have the ingredients, should get around to it before the pears rot and the almond meal rebels.
Have re-uploaded the murder ballad mix I put together for ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
kink_bingo in 2011; hopefully all the links work. And I have more murdery songs to share with you! This isn't really a playlist, at this point, there's no order to it, just a mass grave for music.
"She's Not There", Neko Case & Nick Cave
"Highway", the HorrorPops
This really should have been on the original list but I missed it somehow when I was putting it together--I knew there was a HorrorPops song I wanted to use but couldn't remember which one it was, and apparently didn't check this one when I was looking.
"Knoxville Girl", Brett Sparks with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
"Miss Otis Regrets", Jenny Toomey with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
"The Snakes Crawl at Night", Janet Bean with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Gender-neutral partner violence!
"Gary Gilmore's Eyes", Dean Schlabowske with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Amazing song, about the recipient of the donated eyes of an executed murderer and the question of is vs. does (i.e., is murderiness inherent in the tissue of a murderer's body, and can it thereby live on after the murderer's death).
"The Plans We Made", Jon Langford and Sally Timms with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Murdercouples!thatyourefuse, I think you might like this one.
^ These are all from the first volume of The Executioner's Last Songs, an anthology of songs about death assembled in support of a campaign to abolish the death penalty in Illinois.
"Salt Salt Sea", The Railsplitters
Breezy, interesting spin on "The House/Ship's Carpenter"/"The Daemon Lover"/"James Harris".
Added 25/02/16
"The Box It Came In", Anna Fermin & The Trigger Gospel
Wanda Jackson cover from an album of same, awesome tribute to an awesome lady.
Added 29/03/16
"Bicker Fable", Kim Barlow
Variation on "Two Sisters"/"The Bonny Swans"/etc. narrative.
"Lucy & Jack", Moonshine Willy
"If he can't have her no one will, you've heard it all before"
"Cat-eye Willie Claims His Lover", Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer
(There are also a few tracks of this ilk in the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women playlist I posted in December, if you missed that.)
kink_bingo in 2011; hopefully all the links work. And I have more murdery songs to share with you! This isn't really a playlist, at this point, there's no order to it, just a mass grave for music."She's Not There", Neko Case & Nick Cave
"Highway", the HorrorPops
This really should have been on the original list but I missed it somehow when I was putting it together--I knew there was a HorrorPops song I wanted to use but couldn't remember which one it was, and apparently didn't check this one when I was looking.
"Knoxville Girl", Brett Sparks with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
"Miss Otis Regrets", Jenny Toomey with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
"The Snakes Crawl at Night", Janet Bean with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Gender-neutral partner violence!
"Gary Gilmore's Eyes", Dean Schlabowske with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Amazing song, about the recipient of the donated eyes of an executed murderer and the question of is vs. does (i.e., is murderiness inherent in the tissue of a murderer's body, and can it thereby live on after the murderer's death).
"The Plans We Made", Jon Langford and Sally Timms with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Murdercouples!
thatyourefuse, I think you might like this one.^ These are all from the first volume of The Executioner's Last Songs, an anthology of songs about death assembled in support of a campaign to abolish the death penalty in Illinois.
"Salt Salt Sea", The Railsplitters
Breezy, interesting spin on "The House/Ship's Carpenter"/"The Daemon Lover"/"James Harris".
Added 25/02/16
"The Box It Came In", Anna Fermin & The Trigger Gospel
Wanda Jackson cover from an album of same, awesome tribute to an awesome lady.
Added 29/03/16
"Bicker Fable", Kim Barlow
Variation on "Two Sisters"/"The Bonny Swans"/etc. narrative.
"Lucy & Jack", Moonshine Willy
"If he can't have her no one will, you've heard it all before"
"Cat-eye Willie Claims His Lover", Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer
(There are also a few tracks of this ilk in the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women playlist I posted in December, if you missed that.)
Tags:
The people on the other side of the wall seem to have finally concluded/abandoned their almost hour-long screaming argument. I almost admire the dedication and stamina required (I'm fairly sure I can't yell that much in one sitting).
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I like horror movies—not all of them, obviously, and not necessarily for being horror movies, but I also like horror movies as a thing, a genre, a cultural phenomenon. Because of this and the fact that I suffer from clinical knowitallism I have Opinions on the subject and things relating to it, and my Opinion on Stephen King’s 1982 essay "Why We Crave Horror Movies" is this:
( Stephen King Is Wrong )
Next up: I honestly have no idea, but I'm open to suggestions.
( Stephen King Is Wrong )
Next up: I honestly have no idea, but I'm open to suggestions.
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Seen a handful of people posting wishlists lately, as is customary when nights get long. Feel (irrationally) guilty joining them because I haven't done anything to answer anybody else's lists yet, but I have wishes and maybe answering them will fulfill somebody else's wish, YA NEVER KNOW.
I wish for crossed fingers/good energy to help me get the job I applied for today or another, better one.
I wish for the motivation to accomplish all the cleaning I've been meaning to get to :/
I'm always interested in recs/directions towards anything you think I might like, be that fic, music, meta, movies, books incl. genre fiction popcorn reads, knitting patterns, random funny stuff--including (maybe even especially) things the recommender has made themselves.
If you want to write/create some new fanwork for me, I'll take Mass Effect, Sense8, Pride, Flashpoint, MCU (even though I'm mad at canon), The Losers, Peaky Blinders, Penny Dreadful, Prey for Rock'n'Roll,graydon's Commonweal series :D , or anything else you have reason to suspect I'd enjoy (I've never done fandom_stocking and probably won't this year either but I'm thinking about it; if I do sign up I'll link to it).
I don't wish for material goods but if you want to send me physical media (cds, dvds, books, etc.), BPAL (esp. "Breathless Horror", or check posts tagged "scents" to read what I've tried so far), fibre arts paraphernalia, houseplants, or nickel-free earrings, I will not say no.
What I want most right now, though, is someone(s) to brainstorm fic with me, because I want to write and post something new but am stumped (or stalled by inertia) on pretty much everything I've started. Magically solving all my indecisive frustration with brilliant ideas would be great but just nodding and asking for clarification while I rant would be helpful. I'm specifically seeking help with Mass Effect now because that's where my mind's at and I've got stacks of WiPs to deal with--you don't need to know canon to help! if you do that's extra awesome!--but if you want to offer support for other stuff I'll still eagerly take it (or just love you for offering). For ME I'm struggling both with plot/structure for multiple stories (some of which might be one giant story?) and with filling in/making up sex practices and other cultural details for non-human sophont species, so if either of those things row your boat lemme know!
I wish for crossed fingers/good energy to help me get the job I applied for today or another, better one.
I wish for the motivation to accomplish all the cleaning I've been meaning to get to :/
I'm always interested in recs/directions towards anything you think I might like, be that fic, music, meta, movies, books incl. genre fiction popcorn reads, knitting patterns, random funny stuff--including (maybe even especially) things the recommender has made themselves.
If you want to write/create some new fanwork for me, I'll take Mass Effect, Sense8, Pride, Flashpoint, MCU (even though I'm mad at canon), The Losers, Peaky Blinders, Penny Dreadful, Prey for Rock'n'Roll,
graydon's Commonweal series :D , or anything else you have reason to suspect I'd enjoy (I've never done fandom_stocking and probably won't this year either but I'm thinking about it; if I do sign up I'll link to it). I don't wish for material goods but if you want to send me physical media (cds, dvds, books, etc.), BPAL (esp. "Breathless Horror", or check posts tagged "scents" to read what I've tried so far), fibre arts paraphernalia, houseplants, or nickel-free earrings, I will not say no.
What I want most right now, though, is someone(s) to brainstorm fic with me, because I want to write and post something new but am stumped (or stalled by inertia) on pretty much everything I've started. Magically solving all my indecisive frustration with brilliant ideas would be great but just nodding and asking for clarification while I rant would be helpful. I'm specifically seeking help with Mass Effect now because that's where my mind's at and I've got stacks of WiPs to deal with--you don't need to know canon to help! if you do that's extra awesome!--but if you want to offer support for other stuff I'll still eagerly take it (or just love you for offering). For ME I'm struggling both with plot/structure for multiple stories (some of which might be one giant story?) and with filling in/making up sex practices and other cultural details for non-human sophont species, so if either of those things row your boat lemme know!
In recognition of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, a toxic masculinity playlist (do I need to explain what I mean by this? Probably not to my dwircle but this is a public post).
Man - Neko Case
Interstate City - Dave Alvin and the Guilty Men
The Other Shoe - Old 97's
Delilah - Jon Langford with Sally Timms and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Behind the Wall - Tracy Chapman
Valentine's Day Is Over - Billy Bragg
Heterosexual Man - The Odds
Thick-Necked Man - Crash Test Dummies
Be a Guy - Spirit of the West
Boys Will Be Boys - The Nields
Big Man with a Gun - Nine Inch Nails
The Man with the Blurry Face - Firewater
Boys Wanna Fight - Garbage
Why - Bronski Beat
The Bells of Morning - Stephen Fearing
I
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For me and kore and anybody else who can use them.
You Feel Like Shit: An Interactive Self-Care Guide
kore and anybody else who can use them.You Feel Like Shit: An Interactive Self-Care Guide
F*ck That: A Guided Meditation from Jason Headley on Vimeo.
This is nowhere near as articulate as I want to be, but perfectionist procrastination: it don't otherwise get done.
I, like many other people, have done exactly what Netflix knew we would and watched the entire Jessica Jones release back-to-back-to-back. I loved elements of it, specific scenes and relationships, and I think I like what it's doing in terms of themes and ethical-political orientation? But aspects of it made me really uncomfortable, and/because right now I trust Fandom (the abstract entity comprised of people I don't know and uncomfortably a handful I do) about half as far as I can headbutt it not to respond to things in ways that make me want to whack them with a mallet (please believe that nothing in this post is meant as indictment of any individual fan, just exasperation at the ubiquity and predictability of certain patterns of behaviour).
To summarize my current relationship with Marvel Studios and to steal once again fromrecessional: I think it's a great tragedy they were wiped out by that meteorite. I still haven't seen AoU because I know it'll piss me off and I haven't watched Agents of SHIELD since the first episode of the second season. I only gave JJ a shot because it looked to be arm's-length enough from the rest of it to have caught minimal backsplash from the Whedonspooge tidal wave and in that regard I was thankfully correct.
To summarize my problems with JJ and specifically Fandom response: David Tennant as Kilgrave.
( Cut for length, discussion of abusive relationships with and without mind control, criticism of fan behaviour, unpopular opinions about <i>Doctor Who</i>, and spoilers for <i>Jessica Jones</i> and <i>Crimson Peak</i> )
P.S.: One of many tracks iTunes shuffled at me while I was writing this, felt appropriate at the time:
I, like many other people, have done exactly what Netflix knew we would and watched the entire Jessica Jones release back-to-back-to-back. I loved elements of it, specific scenes and relationships, and I think I like what it's doing in terms of themes and ethical-political orientation? But aspects of it made me really uncomfortable, and/because right now I trust Fandom (the abstract entity comprised of people I don't know and uncomfortably a handful I do) about half as far as I can headbutt it not to respond to things in ways that make me want to whack them with a mallet (please believe that nothing in this post is meant as indictment of any individual fan, just exasperation at the ubiquity and predictability of certain patterns of behaviour).
To summarize my current relationship with Marvel Studios and to steal once again from
recessional: I think it's a great tragedy they were wiped out by that meteorite. I still haven't seen AoU because I know it'll piss me off and I haven't watched Agents of SHIELD since the first episode of the second season. I only gave JJ a shot because it looked to be arm's-length enough from the rest of it to have caught minimal backsplash from the Whedonspooge tidal wave and in that regard I was thankfully correct.To summarize my problems with JJ and specifically Fandom response: David Tennant as Kilgrave.
( Cut for length, discussion of abusive relationships with and without mind control, criticism of fan behaviour, unpopular opinions about <i>Doctor Who</i>, and spoilers for <i>Jessica Jones</i> and <i>Crimson Peak</i> )
P.S.: One of many tracks iTunes shuffled at me while I was writing this, felt appropriate at the time:
Get it? Like the Sleater-Kinney song? Nevermind.
Over a year ago now I had to do an assignment for comms class on the Stephen King essay "Why We Crave Horror Movies" (about which I shall say more later) and as "research" I went a-binge-watching, refreshing myself on things I'd seen before and educating myself on things I hadn't. This fall I went on another binge prompted mostly by a facebook friend's commitment to watch a horror movie a day for the month of October. I didn't copy the idea but in contributing recommendations I reminded myself of Joey Comeau's currently dormant blog I'm into survival. The blog's an entertaining read, presents some interesting analyses, and introduced me to some pretty cool films. I really like Comeau's encouragement to horror movie fans to help stop real violence by supporting the Assaulted Women's Helpline.
Reading back through the entries last month I was reminded . . . I wanna do that. I want to post (rant) about horror movies (and other movies, particularly movies with social justice themes, and I want at some point to try holding the two categories up together). There's no shortage of material, certainly; even if I cover films or topics Comeau's already done I won't be duplicating because I have a different brain in a different body speaking from a different subject position.
I want to launch this (likely not going to last long enough to really qualify as a) series by returning to my original inspiration "WhyStephen King Is Wrong We Crave Horror Movies", not in this post but in one I hope will follow shortly. In the meantime I'm throwing the doors open for requests of subjects you'd like me to write about (films, original vs. remake comparisons, recurrent themes, etc.) and recommendations of stuff for me to look at (films, essays/books/YouTube videos, etc.--I haven't done a lot of secondary source research or read about horror outside the pieces mentioned here but I'd like to, especially feminist analyses of horror and analyses of feminism in/and horror, queer theory, critical disability studies, postcolonial and critical race theory . . .).
Some things I already know I want to write about, no clear idea about order or cross-connections: ( cut more for length than content or spoilers )
Obviously if you're interested in reading this stuff and want me to warn/tag/grey-out anything in particular, please let me know.
Over a year ago now I had to do an assignment for comms class on the Stephen King essay "Why We Crave Horror Movies" (about which I shall say more later) and as "research" I went a-binge-watching, refreshing myself on things I'd seen before and educating myself on things I hadn't. This fall I went on another binge prompted mostly by a facebook friend's commitment to watch a horror movie a day for the month of October. I didn't copy the idea but in contributing recommendations I reminded myself of Joey Comeau's currently dormant blog I'm into survival. The blog's an entertaining read, presents some interesting analyses, and introduced me to some pretty cool films. I really like Comeau's encouragement to horror movie fans to help stop real violence by supporting the Assaulted Women's Helpline.
Reading back through the entries last month I was reminded . . . I wanna do that. I want to post (rant) about horror movies (and other movies, particularly movies with social justice themes, and I want at some point to try holding the two categories up together). There's no shortage of material, certainly; even if I cover films or topics Comeau's already done I won't be duplicating because I have a different brain in a different body speaking from a different subject position.
I want to launch this (likely not going to last long enough to really qualify as a) series by returning to my original inspiration "Why
Some things I already know I want to write about, no clear idea about order or cross-connections: ( cut more for length than content or spoilers )
Obviously if you're interested in reading this stuff and want me to warn/tag/grey-out anything in particular, please let me know.
I tried to write this in a comment on one of recessional's (otherwise totally on-point) posts on election day but I accidentally backpaged or something and firefox ate it, so trying again:
Do not spoil your ballot in a Canadian federal election.
Election rules change all the time so this may not always be the case, but under the current framework it is a futile action and accomplishes absolutely nothing. Trust me, I was a deputy returning officer on Monday and have been a DRO or a poll clerk in almost every federal or applicable provincial election since 2003 (Manitoba until '08, Ontario since): you're wasting your own time.
Elections Ontario at least has a category for declined ballots, which is when you receive your ballot and return it to the DRO saying "I do not want to vote for any of these weevils". I don't know how much weight that carries, I suspect "roughly equivalent to a flake of dandruff" unless they get a LOT of them in a single election, but there is a recognized place for protest voting (or protest not-voting). Elections Canada has no such provision.
A true spoiled ballot, per EC terminology, is a ballot that is returned to the DRO rather than being placed in the ballot box. EC, unlike EO, makes no distinction between ballots handed back in protest and those returned because the voter messed up and wants to take advantage of their one do-over. These all go into one envelope together and the total number is used to balance the number of ballots issued by the RO with the number of ballots, used and unused, found at the end of the day. That's it. The most recognition a real spoiled ballot will get is an entry with other "notable events of the day" in the poll book (log used to record new registrations, oaths administered, etc.).
Any ballot that makes it into the ballot box that is not clearly marked for a single recognized candidate gets rejected when votes are counted. This includes ballots deposited without marks and ballots with any kind of writing: no write-in candidates (Elections Canada doesn't recognize 'em), no editorial comments. Just like spoiled ballots, no distinction is made between deliberate protests and accidental screw-ups (even assuming the people conducting and observing the count can deduce the intentions of the person submitting a given ballot, which we often can't); rejected ballots go in one envelope and are used to reconcile ballots issued with ballots returned. The most acknowledgment a recognizable protest vote gets is a note on the sheet used for recording stuff like objections from scrutineers at the time of the count. These notes may or may not ever get read and if they do there isn't really anything anybody working for Elections Canada can do about them.
If you want to participate in the election process but don't like any of the candidates in your area? I hate to say it, but on election day at least you're kinda screwed. You have to pick the least of X number of evils, or your vote doesn't count.
In the longer term, if you want something to change (or to resist a suggested change), either take it up with whomever is in office (email, physical mail, phone, social media, showing up to public appearances--you have options) or support the person you want to replace them (or both; both is good). Make sure that you're sending your message to the person at the right level of government to deal with your issue (MP, MPP, city counsellor, etc.), and don't just dump your complaints on elections officials or campaign volunteers because we have no more ability to make stuff happen than you do.
(Also: if you're "strategic voting" or "voting against" a particular party or candidate, do some research on the electoral history of and current trends in your riding to figure out how high the risk of your anti-preference winning actually is and how much leeway you have to vote for who you most want, or least don't-want, vs. who is the safest bet to keep the enemy out. A strong second-place showing tells the party your riding is a smart place to invest resources so they'll have a better shot at taking it next time.)
recessional's (otherwise totally on-point) posts on election day but I accidentally backpaged or something and firefox ate it, so trying again:Do not spoil your ballot in a Canadian federal election.
Election rules change all the time so this may not always be the case, but under the current framework it is a futile action and accomplishes absolutely nothing. Trust me, I was a deputy returning officer on Monday and have been a DRO or a poll clerk in almost every federal or applicable provincial election since 2003 (Manitoba until '08, Ontario since): you're wasting your own time.
Elections Ontario at least has a category for declined ballots, which is when you receive your ballot and return it to the DRO saying "I do not want to vote for any of these weevils". I don't know how much weight that carries, I suspect "roughly equivalent to a flake of dandruff" unless they get a LOT of them in a single election, but there is a recognized place for protest voting (or protest not-voting). Elections Canada has no such provision.
A true spoiled ballot, per EC terminology, is a ballot that is returned to the DRO rather than being placed in the ballot box. EC, unlike EO, makes no distinction between ballots handed back in protest and those returned because the voter messed up and wants to take advantage of their one do-over. These all go into one envelope together and the total number is used to balance the number of ballots issued by the RO with the number of ballots, used and unused, found at the end of the day. That's it. The most recognition a real spoiled ballot will get is an entry with other "notable events of the day" in the poll book (log used to record new registrations, oaths administered, etc.).
Any ballot that makes it into the ballot box that is not clearly marked for a single recognized candidate gets rejected when votes are counted. This includes ballots deposited without marks and ballots with any kind of writing: no write-in candidates (Elections Canada doesn't recognize 'em), no editorial comments. Just like spoiled ballots, no distinction is made between deliberate protests and accidental screw-ups (even assuming the people conducting and observing the count can deduce the intentions of the person submitting a given ballot, which we often can't); rejected ballots go in one envelope and are used to reconcile ballots issued with ballots returned. The most acknowledgment a recognizable protest vote gets is a note on the sheet used for recording stuff like objections from scrutineers at the time of the count. These notes may or may not ever get read and if they do there isn't really anything anybody working for Elections Canada can do about them.
If you want to participate in the election process but don't like any of the candidates in your area? I hate to say it, but on election day at least you're kinda screwed. You have to pick the least of X number of evils, or your vote doesn't count.
In the longer term, if you want something to change (or to resist a suggested change), either take it up with whomever is in office (email, physical mail, phone, social media, showing up to public appearances--you have options) or support the person you want to replace them (or both; both is good). Make sure that you're sending your message to the person at the right level of government to deal with your issue (MP, MPP, city counsellor, etc.), and don't just dump your complaints on elections officials or campaign volunteers because we have no more ability to make stuff happen than you do.
(Also: if you're "strategic voting" or "voting against" a particular party or candidate, do some research on the electoral history of and current trends in your riding to figure out how high the risk of your anti-preference winning actually is and how much leeway you have to vote for who you most want, or least don't-want, vs. who is the safest bet to keep the enemy out. A strong second-place showing tells the party your riding is a smart place to invest resources so they'll have a better shot at taking it next time.)
Waiting for boarding call to fly to Winnipeg, staying at family cabin until Monday. Pretty sure there's still no WiFi there so if you don't hear from me for a few days you . . . probably won't notice.
I kinda really don't want to go? I'm actively looking forward to seeing exactly one relative. When plans were made I was told my brother would not be there but now apparently he will? Air Canada and I maintain a longstanding mutual loathing. I have exponentially TOO MUCH SHIT TO DO at home. Blech.
I kinda really don't want to go? I'm actively looking forward to seeing exactly one relative. When plans were made I was told my brother would not be there but now apparently he will? Air Canada and I maintain a longstanding mutual loathing. I have exponentially TOO MUCH SHIT TO DO at home. Blech.
Is it bad that I kinda wish I did have Lyme disease? (Pretty sure I don't, but will get phlebotomized when lab is open just in case.) It would be such a great excuseplanation for all the failboating I've been doing the last few weeks, and if antibiotics can help make that go away? Sign me the fuck up.
In other news: late to the party once again, but a couple of people in my dwircle have done variations of a meme-format prompt solicitation that looked like fun, except they generated lists from bingo challenge cards and I'm not signing up for anything new right now. I do however have this untouched card from the last round ofkink_bingo to play with, so . . .
Specific requests/suggestions for squares on the card are also very welcome, though I can't promise I'll follow up on any of them.
In other news: late to the party once again, but a couple of people in my dwircle have done variations of a meme-format prompt solicitation that looked like fun, except they generated lists from bingo challenge cards and I'm not signing up for anything new right now. I do however have this untouched card from the last round of
kink_bingo to play with, so . . .Leave me a number between 1 and 24 and a something (link to a song, a picture, etc.), and I will attempt to write you 100+ words of fic.
Specific requests/suggestions for squares on the card are also very welcome, though I can't promise I'll follow up on any of them.
Tags:
Facebook says I have Lyme disease, which is the first thing I convinced myself I didn't have, but I've been ordered to go to a walk-in clinic anyway.
I don't think the itchy thing on my arm is ringworm after all. Maybe a spider bite? I've had some similar mysteriously appearing swollen itchy bite-like spots recently, mostly on the same arm, but this one creeped me out with its size-and-shape twoonie impersonation. Still, I should probably postpone my plan to go to Value Village today in case it is communicable (not that I'm feeling all that up to errand running since the rain moved in, stupid achey everything).
Been clawing my way out of a bad mental health pit and I can't say I've reached the top yet but I am kicking my apprehensive ass into actually doing something about that and the physical pain: met with my doctor to get excuse notes and a prescription change (not sure yet whether that'll help, especially as it interacts poorly with methocarbamol and naproxen), talked to a counsellor at school, made some DIY aromatherapy diffusers, went to the Shiatsu School of Canada acupuncture student clinic for the first and second time in months. Still staring at homework and similar obligations with a paralyzing mixture of "donwanna" and "can't", so that's a bit of a problem.
As tired and sore and sulky and paranoid as I've been, I'm looking forward to Mariposa Folk Festival next weekend hella hard. Lineup-wise I know few acts by more than name, apart from Mary Chapin Carpenter (just the mainstage headliner set, no workshops, but still: ).
Oh--nothing dramatic happened with the shirt yesterday. It definitely got some looks and one person walking past me in the other direction said something that included the word "polyamorous" but I didn't catch the rest of it because my earbuds were in and I'd been briefly trapped on the bus between a window and a weed-reeking guy dancing with big arm gestures in the seat next to me about an hour earlier, so I wasn't in a place to stop and ask for repetition.
Been clawing my way out of a bad mental health pit and I can't say I've reached the top yet but I am kicking my apprehensive ass into actually doing something about that and the physical pain: met with my doctor to get excuse notes and a prescription change (not sure yet whether that'll help, especially as it interacts poorly with methocarbamol and naproxen), talked to a counsellor at school, made some DIY aromatherapy diffusers, went to the Shiatsu School of Canada acupuncture student clinic for the first and second time in months. Still staring at homework and similar obligations with a paralyzing mixture of "donwanna" and "can't", so that's a bit of a problem.
As tired and sore and sulky and paranoid as I've been, I'm looking forward to Mariposa Folk Festival next weekend hella hard. Lineup-wise I know few acts by more than name, apart from Mary Chapin Carpenter (just the mainstage headliner set, no workshops, but still: ).
Oh--nothing dramatic happened with the shirt yesterday. It definitely got some looks and one person walking past me in the other direction said something that included the word "polyamorous" but I didn't catch the rest of it because my earbuds were in and I'd been briefly trapped on the bus between a window and a weed-reeking guy dancing with big arm gestures in the seat next to me about an hour earlier, so I wasn't in a place to stop and ask for repetition.
Today I have done all of the laundry and none of the homework. I also skipped the class the homework was due in partly for that reason but also (and officially) because when I woke up my hip was actually screaming. Feeling much better now, knock on wood, which is good because I have to put my shoes on so I can go to the other class, at least.
Today's just weird, folks. I don't know. The US just nationalized same-sex marriage recognition, there's an itchy and almost perfectly circular rash on my arm that I think might be ringworm (so glad I knew there's no kind of worm involved before googling, else I would be FREAKING OUT), my strawberry plant suddenly covered itself in spider mites (no other plants seem affected, knock on wood again, and I have sprayed everything in that room down with diluted rosemary oil). If any interesting reactions to my "Polyamorous Bisexual Switch" shirt occur, I shall be sure to report them.
Today's just weird, folks. I don't know. The US just nationalized same-sex marriage recognition, there's an itchy and almost perfectly circular rash on my arm that I think might be ringworm (so glad I knew there's no kind of worm involved before googling, else I would be FREAKING OUT), my strawberry plant suddenly covered itself in spider mites (no other plants seem affected, knock on wood again, and I have sprayed everything in that room down with diluted rosemary oil). If any interesting reactions to my "Polyamorous Bisexual Switch" shirt occur, I shall be sure to report them.
Tags:
Back in the fall when I was binging on horror movies, and again a little later on movies about unions, I kinda wanted to blog reviews/comments about them. I didn't do it then because I wasn't sure anyone would care and also I generate more than enough work for myself already, but now I'm watching masses of films about social justice and civil rights and labour conflicts and political activism again* and I'm just going to go ahead and do it.
If anybody does want to read these and wants me to be more pro-active warning for certain things or greying out spoilers (probably less relevant for these than for horror movies given how many of these are based on true stories) or triggers (probably very relevant for both), please let me know and I'll be happy to accommodate.
( Selma (2014) )
( Freedom Road (1979) )
( Bloody Sunday (2002) )
*Largely for myself, out of interest and a desire to educate myself on histories political and pop-cultural, and also for Socialist Steve Rogers because I am determined to actually write that story, damnit.
If anybody does want to read these and wants me to be more pro-active warning for certain things or greying out spoilers (probably less relevant for these than for horror movies given how many of these are based on true stories) or triggers (probably very relevant for both), please let me know and I'll be happy to accommodate.
( Selma (2014) )
( Freedom Road (1979) )
( Bloody Sunday (2002) )
*Largely for myself, out of interest and a desire to educate myself on histories political and pop-cultural, and also for Socialist Steve Rogers because I am determined to actually write that story, damnit.
.
