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June 2nd, 2008
03:12 pm - Movie review
If you see only one movie for the rest of the year, really, the rest of your life, have it be XXY. Really, it's that good. And that important.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) girlsnqueers turned to us after watching it this weekend and said "I kept expecting them to screw it up." But they didn't. Had it been made by American studios, they probably would have. Maybe that's my bias. But it was so flawlessly done - both from a technical standpoint (writing, directing, cinematography) and an emotional standpoint. I have pimped it on Facebook and written it on Yahoo Movies, so I figured I'd do it here too. I don't know how widely it will be distributed, but make an effort to see it. It really is a must-see.
A wonderful exchange from the movie, which is so much more powerful in its context:
Alex: I'm both!
Alvaro: But do you like boys or girls?
Alex: I don't know!
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February 4th, 2008
08:11 am - Facebook social experiments
Those of you on Facebook may have figured out by now that whenever I'm bored lately, I create a pop culture quiz. This actually came about by accident: I stumbled across another user's quiz on Facebook, entitled "Gay or Not?" and it had incorrectly listed Alan Cummings as gay. Alan Cummings is, in fact, bisexual. So in honor of bisexual visibility, I created a counter-quiz called "Bisexual or Not?"
I'm not sure anyone has noticed that in this one, Alan Cummings is correctly identified as bisexual, but the scores are pretty low, in general.
I then created what I thought was a ridiculously easy quiz called "Lesbian or not?" and was suprised to see that the vast majority of people in on Facebook have really, really, bad gaydar. I mean, if you can't correctly identify a celebrity who has come out as a lesbian, that doesn't bode well for your gaydar in general. What's particularly interesting is that while MOST people seem to have some idea that Ellen DeGeneres is a lesbian, no one seems to be able to identify her girlfriend, although they're photographed together all the time. And no one seems to be able to distinguish a lesbian from someone who plays one on TV.
The other thing I've noticed? I created a quiz about documentaries, and it consistently remains one of the least taken quizzes. I thought documentaries had become hip and popular. Hmmmm. Also, people don't know very much about Pedro Almodovar, which really is a shame, because he's one of the greatest moviemakers ever, IMO. But Harry Potter? There's always people out there who want to test their knowledge about Harry Potter. Too bad Daniel Radcliffe can't run for president, because he'd undoubtedly win.
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December 13th, 2007
11:05 am - The Final Kid Nation Post
Well, at least for this season.
I have to say the finale was the least interesting of the entire show, though I was glad to see the town recognize both Zach and Sophia for their dedication to the town.
But the most interesting thing I noted was this: It seemed to me that a statistically unusually large number of the kids came from two parent families. I only counted two kids who had 1 parent show up to the part at the end: Sophia and Greg. Which is an interesting pairing in and of itself. The two most self-reliant and bossy kids come from single parent families? Interesting. I suspect there were a couple others, because we didn't see all the kids' families, but all the others we saw were two parent families.
But why would this statistically anomaly occur? Did the producers consciously self-select kids from so-called "normal" American families out of some political agenda? I mean, I noticed that none of the kids had same-sex parents, either, although two (Alex and Morgan) came from interracial families. Are kids from two-parent families more likely to want to go off and live in a town run by kids for 40 days?
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December 12th, 2007
01:04 pm - Pop Culture Whore
I have been out since 1993. Why does it still matter to me so much whether some celebrity is openly queer? Why do I feel so disappointed to know that Queen Latifah is back to being coy and nonresponsive about her orientation, and yet ridiculously elated about the fact that Jodie Foster has, after decades of coyness, decided to come out?
I mean, I understand all the intellectual reasons why it matters, all the sociological and political reasons why it matters, but why does it affect me emotionally? Because after all, does it really have any impact on my life? No.
In unrelated news, Barack Obama is apparently surging as is Mike Huckabee. Apparently I'm not the only pop culture whore, if Chuck Norris' endorsement of Huckabee makes that big of a difference to bring him from being "Huckawho?" to the #2 candidate in the polls.
I have to say, I am most swayed by Obama. But he seems to me to be the least experienced when it comes to foreign policy, and also the least homo-friendly. But he also seems to be the most honest, the most thoughtful, and the most likely to be able to steer this country away from becoming a theocracy in any sort of positive, unified way.
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December 7th, 2007
01:14 pm - Dan Savage wrote to me!
So, last night I opened a Hannukah gift from shanamadele, which turned out to be a signed copy of The Commitment, one of my very favorite books by Dan. Thank you, by the way!
However, I really found Dan's note to be unintelligible. What it looks to me like is: "Eve, Sarah fart you a book - do something nin for Sarah." And that's being generous with the inferences based on what IMAGINE it might say.
So I sent him an email with this scanned copy of what he wrote, asking him to interpret. He wrote back:
"it says -- as plain as the nose my face -- "sarah got you a book, do
something nice for sarah!"
sorry about my handwriting...
and happy holidays!
xo
dan"
And now I feel like a giddy school girl whose childhood idol wrote her back. Hahahahahaha. I love Dan.
Also, and this is too big to fit into an also, congratulations to A and M on the birth of their second child! Mazel Tov!
Oh, and if anyone felt compelled to go back and read the poem I posted earlier today, I would really like to hear others' thoughts - either on the poem, or on the incident that inspired it.
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December 6th, 2007
09:17 am - Pop Culture Whore
Much to the chagrin of kaphine, I've been listening to the music from Sweeney Todd almost nonstop since we went and saw a live production of it about a month ago.
I think I have concluded that these lines from the show capture my view of the world:
"For what's the sound of the world out there?
Those crunching noises pervading the air!
It's man devouring man, my dear!
Then who are we to deny it in here?"
and later...the essence of the whole show: "The history of the world, my sweet, is who is eaten and who gets to eat."
Can I just say, OMG, Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd in the movie version, directed by Tim Burton? Wow. Sexiest Sweeney Todd ever. Which is kind of disturbing. Cannibalism should *NOT* be that sexy.
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December 5th, 2007
11:38 pm - In Which realsupergirl learns a new word
Told to me in writing group tonight:
"I really admire your prolixity." --helioposis
Also, on Kid Nation tonight: I have been saying ever since the start that Alex is some sort of alien child. Tonight, after winning the gold star, what did he say: "Well, it's kind of a lot of money, but it's kind of not. It's a paradox." What 9-year-old talks like that?
And by the way, for those of you not on Facebook, where I posted this dream earlier - I had a dream about Sophia from Kid Nation last night. In the dream, I was telling her she should go to Reed. I think that's a little weird. But can I just say, I continue to be impressed with her. It was kind of set up to have the town council leave town and leave her in charge, and she handled it beautifully. She was clear and firm about the expectations, but positive and encouraging at the same time. It's like she's a fucking Montessori teacher, not a 14 year old girl.
Seriously, these kids should be running the world. Imagine what Sophia could do if she were meeting with Abbas and Barak in Annapolis this week. I'd have more faith in her than I do in anyone currently in office right now.
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November 29th, 2007
09:36 am - realsupergirl and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Before 9:00 AM all these things had happened:
* My computer went on the fritz and has decided it can't stay on without freezing, no matter what I do.
* I locked myself out of the apartment.
* I slipped on some leaves and fell and now my hand hurts and my knee is bleeding.
In the words of Limp Bizkit, whose song "Break Stuff" is on my aptly named 'People Suck' playlist: "Its just one of those days/When you don't wanna wake up/Everything is fucked/Everybody sucks."
In other news, Kid Nation was pretty fucking dead-on accurate last night. After 34 days of building a community and choosing the socially responsible choices for their rewards, the new town council chose a video arcade over a library, and suddenly, no one could be bothered to do their chores anymore, because they wouldn't come out of the arcade.
Sophia declared "I'm a thirty-year-old trapped in the body of a fourteen year old" as she tried to get her community members to do their jobs and bought all the books in the store to start a library. Clips of next week show her reaching her breaking point and declaring others to be stupid. I know how you feel, sister. That's how I feel about most of the human race, most of the time, and especially today, when my knee is bleeding and my hand and dignity are bruised.
Of course, most of the human race managed to walk to work without falling. So who's the stupid one, really?
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November 22nd, 2007
11:22 am - Oh. My. God.
Can you think of anything more exploitive than this: The Cherokee Youth Choir performing in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?
It's the great American way - we colonize, import our crappy values and merchandise, and rape native cultures of their own values. Yay!
Happy Thanksgiving Day, anyway! At least the National Dog Show is coming on soon...
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November 15th, 2007
08:07 am - Status quo
The sociological experiment that is Kid Nation continues. Last night, the "town council" decided to mix up the teams a tiny bit to make them more fair, which was in general a good idea. But Laurel, the council member who has been there since the beginning, and one of the best leaders in the group decided not to welcome anyone else into her Green team. And while members of all the Red and Blue teams criticized their leaders for trading members of their teams, what was fascinating was that members of Laurel's own team criticized her, as well. Michael and Sophia both challenged her and said it was "selfish" not to welcome anyone else into their district, which she did ostensibly because she didn't want to mess with her team's chemistry.
Several other members challenged her as well (included Anjay and Zach, who are on the town council) and pointed out that she wasn't really acting in the best interest of the town, but only in the best interest of her district.
What think made me think about is how this parallels a frequent phenomenon in politics - how many times have we seen an incumbant politician who is generally well-loved and supported by his own constituents, and who gets too comfortable with his own power? He forgets to work for the betterment of the larger community: the state, the city, the country, and is focused only on protecting what he has. When I was on the political action committee of SEIU, I saw this often. There was a constant dilemma as to whether our goal was to protect what we have gained as a union, or be focusing on getting more workers unionized to make the larger union stronger.
At the end of the show, we see the town calling for another re-election (only a wek after the last one!) because everyone is so unhappy. And while no one ran against Laurel the last time, this time Michael as stepped up to challenge her, which I think will be interesting.
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October 23rd, 2007
12:22 pm - On Dumbledore being gay
So I find it really intriguing that Rowling has announced that Dumbledore is gay. We got so much backstory about him in Book 7, but not that...although, as people have pointed out, there were certainly hints if you read between the lines. Dumbledore had a passionate and intense friendship with Grindenwald...what queer doesn't have one of those in their past, usually before they came out as queer?
One article I read online criticized Rowling for leaving this information out, accusing her of reverting back to the days when gay characters had to stay in the closet or die, or both. it also assumes that Dumbledore never had a love affair after Grindenwald. But I think this misreads what she has done with Dumbledore.
I am recalling a passage in Book 4 or 5 where Harry wants to write someone for advice, and eventually remembers Sirius, but he thinks to himself, I have no idea what Dumbledore does when he's not in school. And I think that's a very important moment - we never really learn anything about any of the teachers in terms of the private life, except those who don't stay as teachers, like Moody and Lupin. We learn a little about Hagrid, because he crosses some boundaries and becomes more like Harry's friend, but it's always pretty clear that he's crossing boundaries to show us this side. Do McGonagall, Flitwick, or Grumbly-Plank have families? We have no idea. So it is entirely possible that Dumbledore had hot sex at some wizard gay bar, or had a long term monogamous partner who was never around. Or perhaps being a Hogwarts professor is like taking an oath of celibacy. The point is, we never know, because it's always through Harry's eyes, and Harry never thinks about Dumbledore as anything but a teacher. Most of us didn't really know much about our high school teachers' sex lives, did we? Nor did we want to.
Yet, in allowing Dumbledore's backstory to come out, it sends a really powerful, subtle message: He's gay, but it doesn't matter, because it has nothing to do with what's really important about him. And for most of us, that is the way our sex lives work. They're there, and they're important, but mostly only to us. What's more important is what kind of people we are, what we believe in, what values we live by.
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October 17th, 2007
10:05 pm - Kid Nation
Things we have learned this week on Kid Nation about politics:
1. Class really is the invisible prejudice. The most moving moment of this week's show was Greg telling the kids that winning the "gold star" for hard work would allow him to go to college. And the kids who have been the most natural leaders are largely the ones who come from privilege.
2. Winning an election is 98% projecting confidence and 2% having a substantative platform. Sorry, Mike. You're just too anxious and neurotic to instill much confidence in your constituents. Which doesn't mean that in your actions you did anything wrong as a leader.
3. The best leader does not always result in the team that wins. Hello, Green team.
4. Sometimes it only takes 1 vote to make a change. In the world of kids, the youngest team came down to girls versus boys, but it only took 1 girl to switch her allegiences to get Taylor ("Deal with it") out and Zach ("Viva La Revolution") in. In the adult world, it's often not all that much more complex.
5. What qualities make a strong leader? Laurel, whose team chose not to run anyone against her even though she has three strong leaders on her team, had several key qualities: Comfort with conflict and disagreement, a willingness to listen to her team, and a respect for their leadership qualities. And as for Morgan, Michael, and Sophia, who all could have run and won - it shows their leadership that they were willing to allow Laurel to continue to serve. As Michael said: "If I were on any other team, I would run."
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October 11th, 2007
12:05 am - Kid Nation
OK, so, check out this kid Alex. He's 9. His responses to the questions in the link are ridiculously sophisticated for a 9 year old. If I hadn't seen him on the show, I would doubt any 9-year-old could have written them. But I have seen him, and he really is that precocious. He's brighter than about 90% of the adults I've met in my lifetime.
And how cool was it that Morgan led the town in an interfaith prayer service? That's pretty freaking amazing. And those ignorant, silly things the kids were saying about each others' religions beforehand? Not all that far off from the things adults say, from the things we all think, about other religions.
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September 25th, 2007
11:40 pm - Pop Culture Whore
Completely irrelevant thought while watching the season premiere of Law and Order: SVU this evening:
Anyone else completely, totally in lust over Mariska Hargitay? I didn't watch much last season, or at all over the summer, so I forgot...
Oh. My. G-d.
I think I need to go an update my Permission-to-Fuck list. Not putting her on it was a serious oversight. Hmmm, I've got Prince, Eddie Izzard, Sandra Bernhard, and Clea Duvall...I think Steve Martin has to get dropped. Sorry, Steve. I think you're getting too old for me, anyway.
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