southerlywind

Congratulations on your jobs, guys! The economy is d-i-s-m-a-l so you've both done well to have found them, as I'm sure you know. James, you seem to live in the most exciting places.

I'm home from my holidays--my partner and I spent two weeks with my family in Kentucky, hanging out with the pets and eating home cooking. My parents love to feed Whitney authentic southern food, so we had gumbo, grilled shrimp, hush puppies, black eye pea stew, barbecue pork, etc. We also got to play the Wii that they bought recently and are now thinking about getting one for ourselves.

Also, I'm taking a class on Ulysses this semester, and my book came in the mail. It is two and a half inches thick with no footnotes, endnotes, anything. We'll see how this goes.

Not to mention the jawdroppingly incredible performance by Natalie Portman. She is so so good in this.

Correct. I was talking to a friend today who complained about the

, and my only response was: it's Natalie Portman. As long as they keep showing close-ups of her incredibly expressive face, I will never get bored. Her intense physicality makes this movie, and she's onscreen the whole time.

and Black Swan too.

 

This would be a huge loss on your part!

Ditto. It is hella creepy. Super dark, expertly crafted, and seriously frightening.

Hah, I just saw Black Swan with my mom and girlfriend, and when the Tree of Life trailer came on we all turned to each other and said "okay, what on earth is that movie about?"

So I'm late on this but: saw the Christmas special, enjoyed it, my girlfriend cried so it was definitely doing its emotional work, but when we took it apart later it did not hold up (also, I may be the only one but I spent the first twenty minutes very confused about where we were and what was happening). I had the same problems Mark did with Moffat's "obstacle or prize" school of writing female characters, which got me thinking about my issues with the Rory-Amy-Doctor relationship.

Remember the first season, when Rose and Mickey and the Doctor are all together in Cardiff--I think it's in Boom Town, but it might be earlier? And Rose takes Mickey for a walk and they have a real conversation about the repercussions of her decision to take off in the TARDIS? I may be remembering this wrong, so correct me if you've seen it more recently, but I think it was quite touching and developed Rose's character very well. It is exactly something like that that I'm missing for Amy. We're told she's a powerful woman, but her power seems to consist of being capricious and unpredictable, and she's never required to apologize for leaving Rory in the dust, or constantly flirting with other men, or sort of date-rape-ily throwing herself at the Doctor. Rose had problems as a character, absolutely, but she felt a lot more real given that the flip side of her youthful impulsivity was acknowledged. As written, Amy is kind of an insensitive dick and it seems that Karen Gillan's incredible hotness is the only thing we're given to offset that. This irritates me.

Hey, Slick! Good to see you, man. How's Copland?

 

To summarise the 6b thing for people who can't be bothered reading the entire wiki article, season six of Doctor Who ends with a story called 'The War Games'. This is the last one to feature Patrick Troughton. At the end of it, his companions are returned to their original times and he falls into a vortex. The next time we see him, he has turned into the Third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee. The actual regeneration happens off-screen.

 

However, Troughton continued to appear, post-regeneration, in special episodes featuring multiple Doctors - many of which could not have happened prior to 'The War Games' (because, for example, his also-returning companions make references to events in that story). So some Doctor Who novel writers - including current series writer Paul Cornell - proposed 'Season 6b', which took place in-between the final shot of 'The War Games' and the start of the first Pertwee story.

 

Disappointing, eh?

Oh hey it turns out I had actually heard of that fan theory. I just forgot what it was called. Actually, I find fan cultures really interesting, and if there were any scholarly books about fandom I would happily buy and read them. I don't want to have to write my own, guys, but I will if it comes to that.

I don't get it but I would like to if anyone sees fit to explain!

Jesus shit on a shingle, Mark, you cut your hair. Just don't shave it all off, please.

Glad you're off the pain pills--I hope that doesn't kick you in the ass in an hour or two. hope your recovery goes well!

Well, I'm quite ambivalent about them. Whereas Kate's question regarding fonts. There is little on this planet that elicits such interest in me as well made typography, but I took it in the spirit of the question.

Perhaps what inspires one man is tepid to another. I stand corrected.

Trivial, sure. But tepid?

Haven't seen the finale yet but I downloaded it today so I'll probably watch it in the morning. However, episode two? Horrible.

I am probably particularly sensitive to this stuff because my girlfriend is Chinese American and has introduced me to a fair amount of Asian American cultural critique, but either way it was almost unwatchable. Redeemed only by Watson shouting at the checkout machine, which cracked me up.

Is First Utterance the best acid folk album ever recorded?

What is the psychological profile of someone born in a warzone?

You guys, these questions are many things but tepid they are not.

I am moving! All my shit is in boxes and garbage bags, and tomorrow morning we pick up the UHaul to move my life and Whitney's into an attic apartment in upstate New York. I spent all day in a car with crappy A/C and one semifunctioning seat belt. And I will do it again on Tuesday.

I just read the archives of that. I love how the visual style works with the juvenile gags. It was a Mighty Boosh kind of thing where I kept reading, going "I don't think this is funny, but I need to make sure it's not funny by reading the whole thing" and then it started cracking me up.

I really enjoyed it. I could probably watch Martin Freeman in anything, though, and I'm interested to see how the whole "John Watson, celebrity blogger" thing plays out. Is the fellow playing Holmes *really* named Benedict Cumberbunch? Can you even imagine the playground taunts?

Well, I have. And Mark, Jessie and other guys. I Loved it.

Yay! I'm glad you did. Jennifer Tilly is especially great in that movie. Gina Gershon's not bad either. And yes, lesbians really do get ugly labrys tattoos and I have no idea why.

But it, afaik, does not state that verbatim, it only, if anything, accounts for the life span of modern man- Even if I'd believe in God creating the universe and all in it in six days, those days could mean very different "divine" time intervals.

 

Is it really that different in English-speaking countries? I mean, I went to protestant gymnasium where we had around 3 masses a week, yet we also were taught of evolution et al like anybody else and never had this whole creatonism. vs evolution debate like it seemingly rages on elsewhere.

Yeah, it's a stupid theory; I'm just saying that the stupidity of it is sort of the point. The more bizarre and disprovable it is, the better--that way it's clearly a matter of faith. It doesn't really matter which stupid theory fundamentalists choose to rally around, as long as it's easy for other people to doubt (so the believers are more special).

And I think the evolution vs. creationism thing is mainly a problem in America. We have a whole tangle of religious issues, as a country.

So why should Christians care what he said then? Maybe I'm "biased" because I had great interest in dinosaurs and stones as a kid, but to me it's pretty clear that the world's far, far older than 6000 years even as a Christian, and I'm sure all my former schoolmates think that way too.

It seems objectively stupid, but matters of faith like this are very powerful ways of ensuring in-group solidarity. The world is 6000 years old. Why? The Bible said so. No questioning allowed. That sort of line-in-the-sand mentality really appeals to some people. And if you're an in-group member, any contrary evidence (dino skeletons, carbon dating) can be neatly categorized as God testing your faith, allowing you to ignore it. Everybody else is taken in by those things, but not you, because you have faith, therefore you are special and God likes you more.

...ookay.

 

I wouldn't say I love TVTropes.org, but it is extremely addictive.

That site is a timesink, man. I told my mom about it and she spent hours opening new tabs and periodically going "Hey, I didn't know there was a name for that!"

Nobody tell him, it'll be way better if he gets to find out on his own.

 

Kate, you need to watch Bound, like, yesterday.

Okay, I'll keep mum. But ditto, Kate. Watch it. Now.

I suppose this is as good a time to, um .... mumble mubmle jennifer tilly mumble

Have you seen Bound?

Go ahead, flaunt your shallowness, Jessie.

Oh, believe me, I am happy to flaunt my shallowness. You should flaunt yours more!

I declare a love (lust?) for Diana from White Collar, aka Martha Thomason. Probably nobody else here watches this show but if you don't, you should, she is some kind of hot. Especially in a suit.

And I guess the show isn't bad either.

Thanks Red and Abhimanyu!