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shadowkat1. Cool things via SmartBitches
* Harlequin has established Harlequin Studios
So basically CTV in Canada via Harlequin is going to do their version of the cheap romantic dramas that Hallmark does? Now Hallmark has competition for bad romance movie of the week.
Actually it would be one thing if the Hallmark flicks were bad or campy, but they are just sort of there. And the actors in them take the art of looking wooden to new heights.
It would be nice if they did the historicals, which are actually slightly better than the contemporaries. (I'm not sure it is possible to write or film a good contemporary romance nowadays...but I'm willing to be proven wrong.)
* Not to be outdone, Warner Brothers has decided to enter the streaming business and adapt one of the Dune books to a television series..Dune Sisterhood. I don't know, Dune to date has suffered greatly in the book to adaptation cycle. No one has done a good job with it. I don't quite know why.
* Japanese Magna Artists Have decided to characterize world flags with various Japanese Magna characters..go check out your own
* In case you ever wondered how writers would get around the limited characters on twitter...and tell a lengthy story...here you go:
About how they met their wife at a graveyard
About how the writer's kids can only go to Disney if they get enough money together to do it -- and wait, no, they want to house a homeless man with the money instead
The Saga of Lucy and Tim in twitter snippets
Why I hate twitter in a nutshell -- you have to read tiny snippets from a thread, and sometimes it's really hard to read or find them. Why people would rather hunt a way around being limited to 24 characters as opposed to just doing a blog...is beyond me. I think they are frustrated coders.
2. I'm about 64% of the way through Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
I like the legal bit, and the historical information a great deal. It gets a touch preachy on the feminism and conditions women had to suffer during that time period in India. Although at least it is equal opportunity, depicting the British as being no better in this respect and just as restrictive in their own way. Also shows the racial and class frictions.
I realized while reading it -- and on my commute home, where I travel through Little India and Pakistan, and with Bengal and Pakistan and various other immigrants...is how exclusive these cultures are. They stick to themselves, speak their own language on the subway and on the streets, and pretend as if those who are not like them do not exist. They also recreate their own culture and home country in the area to which they've immigrated.
Britain did the same thing with India. Treated Indians as other. Just as Indians treated the British as other. This book demonstrates how neither is guilt free in this regard, and both stubbornly see themselves as either superior or victimized. And in India itself, the Parsi, Muslim and Hindu faiths segregated themselves to such a degree -- that prejudicial views have been allowed to foster, and they understand very little about one another or each other's beliefs, nor necessarily see the commonalities. Because they avoid each other. Resulting in violence, tension, sexism and racism. Instead of interacting and sharing their cultures, celebrating each other's differences, and being open to new things, and new ways of thinking, they are overly protective and defensive of their own traditions, culture, and selfishly push forward the interests of their own tribe or family to the exclusion of all else. As a result, attracting all levels of violence down upon their heads. Religious sects ironically bring hell onto themselves by their inability to see past their righteousness and religious intolerance of those who differ from themselves.
It's painful to read this stuff. And I wish the writer were a bit less focused on it, and more focused on the relationships between the characters.
All of that said, she does a good job of explaining the differences between each group, although I pick up on authorial bias here and there. And, at the heart of the story is a deep friendship between Perveen (the female lawyer) and her British female friend, Alice (a mathematics teacher and closet lesbian -- she'd be out, if it weren't the 1920s and her parents were accepting of such things). Yet another indication of how religion and the religious demean and denounce those who are not like them.
One of things I've learned in life is it is easy to be kind and generous to those who are like us, or like-minded. It is far harder to be kind and generous to those who are not. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to be kind to people that you do not like, aren't like you, and are not like minded, whomever they are.
I'm tasked with this challenge on a daily basis -- since I do not like my boss and we are oil and vinegar, and various people in my workplace make me crazy. But I've learned that being kind, thinking kindly of them, and letting go of the crazy -- does wonders.
I've decided I should feel grateful for this educational experience. Even if it is exceedingly difficult at times. Never fun to be yelled at.
* Harlequin has established Harlequin Studios
So basically CTV in Canada via Harlequin is going to do their version of the cheap romantic dramas that Hallmark does? Now Hallmark has competition for bad romance movie of the week.
Actually it would be one thing if the Hallmark flicks were bad or campy, but they are just sort of there. And the actors in them take the art of looking wooden to new heights.
It would be nice if they did the historicals, which are actually slightly better than the contemporaries. (I'm not sure it is possible to write or film a good contemporary romance nowadays...but I'm willing to be proven wrong.)
* Not to be outdone, Warner Brothers has decided to enter the streaming business and adapt one of the Dune books to a television series..Dune Sisterhood. I don't know, Dune to date has suffered greatly in the book to adaptation cycle. No one has done a good job with it. I don't quite know why.
* Japanese Magna Artists Have decided to characterize world flags with various Japanese Magna characters..go check out your own
* In case you ever wondered how writers would get around the limited characters on twitter...and tell a lengthy story...here you go:
About how they met their wife at a graveyard
About how the writer's kids can only go to Disney if they get enough money together to do it -- and wait, no, they want to house a homeless man with the money instead
The Saga of Lucy and Tim in twitter snippets
Why I hate twitter in a nutshell -- you have to read tiny snippets from a thread, and sometimes it's really hard to read or find them. Why people would rather hunt a way around being limited to 24 characters as opposed to just doing a blog...is beyond me. I think they are frustrated coders.
2. I'm about 64% of the way through Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
I like the legal bit, and the historical information a great deal. It gets a touch preachy on the feminism and conditions women had to suffer during that time period in India. Although at least it is equal opportunity, depicting the British as being no better in this respect and just as restrictive in their own way. Also shows the racial and class frictions.
I realized while reading it -- and on my commute home, where I travel through Little India and Pakistan, and with Bengal and Pakistan and various other immigrants...is how exclusive these cultures are. They stick to themselves, speak their own language on the subway and on the streets, and pretend as if those who are not like them do not exist. They also recreate their own culture and home country in the area to which they've immigrated.
Britain did the same thing with India. Treated Indians as other. Just as Indians treated the British as other. This book demonstrates how neither is guilt free in this regard, and both stubbornly see themselves as either superior or victimized. And in India itself, the Parsi, Muslim and Hindu faiths segregated themselves to such a degree -- that prejudicial views have been allowed to foster, and they understand very little about one another or each other's beliefs, nor necessarily see the commonalities. Because they avoid each other. Resulting in violence, tension, sexism and racism. Instead of interacting and sharing their cultures, celebrating each other's differences, and being open to new things, and new ways of thinking, they are overly protective and defensive of their own traditions, culture, and selfishly push forward the interests of their own tribe or family to the exclusion of all else. As a result, attracting all levels of violence down upon their heads. Religious sects ironically bring hell onto themselves by their inability to see past their righteousness and religious intolerance of those who differ from themselves.
It's painful to read this stuff. And I wish the writer were a bit less focused on it, and more focused on the relationships between the characters.
All of that said, she does a good job of explaining the differences between each group, although I pick up on authorial bias here and there. And, at the heart of the story is a deep friendship between Perveen (the female lawyer) and her British female friend, Alice (a mathematics teacher and closet lesbian -- she'd be out, if it weren't the 1920s and her parents were accepting of such things). Yet another indication of how religion and the religious demean and denounce those who are not like them.
One of things I've learned in life is it is easy to be kind and generous to those who are like us, or like-minded. It is far harder to be kind and generous to those who are not. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to be kind to people that you do not like, aren't like you, and are not like minded, whomever they are.
I'm tasked with this challenge on a daily basis -- since I do not like my boss and we are oil and vinegar, and various people in my workplace make me crazy. But I've learned that being kind, thinking kindly of them, and letting go of the crazy -- does wonders.
I've decided I should feel grateful for this educational experience. Even if it is exceedingly difficult at times. Never fun to be yelled at.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-14 02:09 am (UTC)But more, I love following certain people. I'm now following the guy with the Disney story and the John and Lucy story.
I follow writers, Thoughts of Dog, several actors, and some people who just make me laugh or think.
But I know it's not for everyone.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-14 12:19 pm (UTC)Yeah, a lot of people love it. I just find it..headache inducing. But keep in mind, not a fan of coding or tech stuff. Also -- I've a spatial dyslexia -- where my eyes skip down a line then have to go back up, and I use reading glasses -- twitter is not created for folks like myself in mind. ;-)
But you can get unrolled twitter threads -- which are very helpful.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-14 12:21 pm (UTC)Twitter is definitely not created for people with any kind of dyslexia!