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Dec. 27th, 2019 05:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatI'm back from South Carolina. Flight went well, although there was one poor woman who spent an insane amount of time in the bathroom. Also, the cab ride home almost took as long as the plane flight. Actually I think it took the same amount of time.
And was far less pleasant -- no snacks, drinks, bathroom or cheerful airline stewardesses. Not to mention more stressful.
Had a pleasant holiday. My father is so much better than he was the last two times I visited. He's walking with a cane now and sometimes without it. (Before it was a wheel chair and a walker). Also, he's not as confused as he was before, and he can hold a conversation. He does still have issues with words, and remembering what day of the week it is -- but then so do I, sometimes. Also spatial relationships are difficult. (He has rear brain altzheimers like the late great writer Terry Prachett). It's painful at times -- my father was a very good artist, and meticulous, now he's sort of more abstract and his art work is reminiscent of a child's watercolors, when before it was amazing. Also he can't write at all and he was an excellent writer, and struggles with reading (avid reader) -- but he does read still. He's making the best of it, sleeps a lot, is social, and watches sports and news mainly. Not bad for 84 years of age. We had dinner with friends of theirs last night, and they were 102 and 85 respectfully. I don't want to live to 102. Although he didn't a look a day over 78.
Over the holiday, saw a few things on television, and a repertory production of the musical "Kiss Me Kate" (which being a musical adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew, with a score by Cole Porter, was understandably sexist. Also it's a 1940s musical, so there's that. They did tone it down a little but not by much.) It was well done for the most part, excellent singers and dancers. They have a rather good repertory company on the island. But it's a bit long. The first act is an hour and a half, the second about one hour. The second is faster. I still think they should cut a few numbers -- if I did it, I'd cut a few numbers or at the very least shorten them.
Other things I saw:
1. The Two Popes -- this is on Netflix (was also released in theaters) and it stars, Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce as the Pope Benedict and Pope Francis. Was quite good. We all loved it. Very much a two person drama -- although we get interesting flashbacks in black and white regarding Pope Francis' background in Argentina. It's more about Pope Francis than Benedict. The premise is the real life meeting of the two popes, prior to Benedict's resignation when Pope Francis was trying to resign his commission as a Cardinal and go back to being a Jesuit Priest.
Pope Benedict keeps turning him down and they have this interesting discussion that leads to them confessing and absolving each other, and forming a long-lasting friendship. The take-away scene is the two popes watching soccer (aka football) together.
It's an uplifting film, about two men on opposite sides of the political divide, one who is liberal and the other conservative, finding a way to understand each other's point of view.
2. The Aeronauts this is on Amazon starring Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne. It's also mostly a two-person character piece. Although more adventure, and the focus is more on Felicity Jones's female pilot than on Eddie's scientist/weather forecaster. Loosely based on real events, it's about a scientist and a balloonist taking a hot air balloon up to 38,000 feet -- the highest anyone had been at that point in the 1800s. He wants to go up that high to see if he can forecast the weather and get readings. She, to break a record. But mainly it's about Felicity Jones character, Ameilia, getting past her guilt for her husband's death.
And James (Eddie Redmayne) discovering something more valuable than weather forecasting.
It had mixed reviews. We enjoyed it more than expected. Quite a bit actually. Although my father gave up on it. (But I wouldn't go by my father.) Our difficulty with it -- is it isn't quite believable in places. I had difficulty believing they could get that high without dying -- oxygen over a certain number of feet, and well temperature becomes a problem, and neither were dressed for it. Also she somehow climbs over the top of the balloon in 5 degrees, and little oxygen. Over ice. No gloves and no coat. They are coated with ice and should have serious frost bite.
So you sort of have to handwave that, which we did, or it won't work.
3. Marvelous Mrs. Maizel -- not as good as last year or the year before. Feels very self-indulgent, and the satire doesn't quite work. Also we found the parents to be annoying. My father didn't like it at all this year, and he'd enjoyed it quite a bit the previous two years. My mother also had issues with it. I was the only one who found it funny in places.
We did figure out who Shy Baldwin was supposed to be - Johnny Mathais.
While down there, my parents watched the news a lot. They even tape it. CNN, ABC, PBS...and BBC World News. (The only one I could stomach was BBC World News). So I spent the time on FB and Twitter -- to distract myself while they watched the news. It would have been rude to leave the room -- tried that last year and it didn't work. So this year, I played on the phone.
As a result of this -- I got to see "Twitter" blow up with a WAR between the Romance Novelists and RWA. I've been following shipperX, Courtney Milan, Elizabeth Hoyt, Rose Lerner, and Cat Sebastain...and apparently shortly before Xmas, RWA (Romance Writers Association of America) decided to suspend Milan for one year from membership and ban her for life from having a leadership position. Then they went silent and shut up shop for the holidays. The reason? A couple of romance novelists that I've never heard of decided to file a complaint with the Ethics Board of the RWA against Milan. Apparently Milan had posted screen shots of one of the novelists books -- showing racist passages --- on twitter, and had called the other one out (a publisher) for supporting an editor who was a Doofus supporter, and pushed racist content. (Yes, I knew HE WHO SHALT NOT BE NAMED had to enter the picture somewhere in there.) The first complaint was filed by Sara Tisdale, a romance novelist of Scottish Boddice Rippers, who is setting up her own publishing company. The second was by one of her authors, someone named Lydia Davis? Who spent some time in China and then wrote a romance novel about it -- which has some offensive passages and rather racist ones at that. Milan who is Chinese-American took issue with the passages and posted about them on Twitter. This went viral on Twitter. And the woman claims that her publishing company dropped her as a result. (Really? Because of Twitter? Didn't realize it was that powerful.) So RWA penalized Milan for tweeting about the women and pointing out the offensive content.
I asked my mother if she'd ever heard of these two women. My mother has read more romance novels than I have in her lifetime -- and no, she hadn't. While she has read a lot of Courtney Milan and the writers supporting her. So have I. I've read and rec Milan, Sherry Thomas, Rose Lerner, Cat Sebastian, Loretta Chase, Elizabeth Hoyt, Tessa Dare, Joanna Bourne, Meredith Duran, and Eloisa James. We're picky romance readers.
Although, I can't say I care about RWA that much -- I've always found them more of a hinderance in my writing and reading pleasure -- mainly because for years they had this paint-by-numbers formulaic bible on what you should write. (Bleach.) And the publishers went along with it. Thankfully, self-publishing and independent publishing became available -- and we've been able to get off that beaten path. (I don't like the publishing industry very much -- haven't since I thoroughly interviewed and investigated it. The publishing industry has a well-earned reputation for being sexist and overrun by bullies.) So seeing the somewhat sexist and racist, RWA, get taken down, along with their publisher cronies..is oddly satisfying and quite amusing.
Here's the problem with genre publishing -- it's racist and sexist. Always has been. That's why it has a bad rep. One of the reasons at any rate. It also doesn't tend to attract the best writers on the planet. Lots of bad writing gets published in genre.
Shame. Because there's a lot of good stuff that gets overlooked.
So to date? I've watched the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre's racist SOB's get taken down in the HUGO controversy. The comic book genre's racist SOB's. And now the Romance genre. Waiting on the mystery and noir genre -- although I think that may have already happened, when I wasn't paying attention. Horror definitely got kicked a while back.
The other fights I watched were on FB. I briefly engaged.
Poster was whinging about the lack of help towards homelessness in the city. And less should be wasted on rail.
And I posted that actually the railroads had a homeless outreach contract and were doing their utmost to resolve it.
The idiot wanted an award.
I asked why he wanted an award.
Apparently he wanted one for riding late night trains with homeless folks, because it was beyond him to call 3-1-1 to get them help.
Mother: What are you doing?
ME: Who? ME?
Mother: Yes, you.
Me: Something I probably shouldn't..
Mother: Which is?
Me: Responding to someone who knows nothing about my work place/organization about my workplace/organization.
Mother: Don't do that. Bad idea.
Me (ponders.): Yeah, you're right. It just annoys me when people who know nothing about a subject whine or expound on it as if they do.
Mother: Walk away. No good will come of it.
Me: Okay.
She's right. Best not to fight with people on the internet that I don't know. They could be cyber-trolls. Also, I'm prohibited from discussing my workplace online.
Besides friend whose page it was -- engaged with him instead and let him know in no uncertain terms that he was an idiot.
And was far less pleasant -- no snacks, drinks, bathroom or cheerful airline stewardesses. Not to mention more stressful.
Had a pleasant holiday. My father is so much better than he was the last two times I visited. He's walking with a cane now and sometimes without it. (Before it was a wheel chair and a walker). Also, he's not as confused as he was before, and he can hold a conversation. He does still have issues with words, and remembering what day of the week it is -- but then so do I, sometimes. Also spatial relationships are difficult. (He has rear brain altzheimers like the late great writer Terry Prachett). It's painful at times -- my father was a very good artist, and meticulous, now he's sort of more abstract and his art work is reminiscent of a child's watercolors, when before it was amazing. Also he can't write at all and he was an excellent writer, and struggles with reading (avid reader) -- but he does read still. He's making the best of it, sleeps a lot, is social, and watches sports and news mainly. Not bad for 84 years of age. We had dinner with friends of theirs last night, and they were 102 and 85 respectfully. I don't want to live to 102. Although he didn't a look a day over 78.
Over the holiday, saw a few things on television, and a repertory production of the musical "Kiss Me Kate" (which being a musical adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew, with a score by Cole Porter, was understandably sexist. Also it's a 1940s musical, so there's that. They did tone it down a little but not by much.) It was well done for the most part, excellent singers and dancers. They have a rather good repertory company on the island. But it's a bit long. The first act is an hour and a half, the second about one hour. The second is faster. I still think they should cut a few numbers -- if I did it, I'd cut a few numbers or at the very least shorten them.
Other things I saw:
1. The Two Popes -- this is on Netflix (was also released in theaters) and it stars, Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce as the Pope Benedict and Pope Francis. Was quite good. We all loved it. Very much a two person drama -- although we get interesting flashbacks in black and white regarding Pope Francis' background in Argentina. It's more about Pope Francis than Benedict. The premise is the real life meeting of the two popes, prior to Benedict's resignation when Pope Francis was trying to resign his commission as a Cardinal and go back to being a Jesuit Priest.
Pope Benedict keeps turning him down and they have this interesting discussion that leads to them confessing and absolving each other, and forming a long-lasting friendship. The take-away scene is the two popes watching soccer (aka football) together.
It's an uplifting film, about two men on opposite sides of the political divide, one who is liberal and the other conservative, finding a way to understand each other's point of view.
2. The Aeronauts this is on Amazon starring Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne. It's also mostly a two-person character piece. Although more adventure, and the focus is more on Felicity Jones's female pilot than on Eddie's scientist/weather forecaster. Loosely based on real events, it's about a scientist and a balloonist taking a hot air balloon up to 38,000 feet -- the highest anyone had been at that point in the 1800s. He wants to go up that high to see if he can forecast the weather and get readings. She, to break a record. But mainly it's about Felicity Jones character, Ameilia, getting past her guilt for her husband's death.
And James (Eddie Redmayne) discovering something more valuable than weather forecasting.
It had mixed reviews. We enjoyed it more than expected. Quite a bit actually. Although my father gave up on it. (But I wouldn't go by my father.) Our difficulty with it -- is it isn't quite believable in places. I had difficulty believing they could get that high without dying -- oxygen over a certain number of feet, and well temperature becomes a problem, and neither were dressed for it. Also she somehow climbs over the top of the balloon in 5 degrees, and little oxygen. Over ice. No gloves and no coat. They are coated with ice and should have serious frost bite.
So you sort of have to handwave that, which we did, or it won't work.
3. Marvelous Mrs. Maizel -- not as good as last year or the year before. Feels very self-indulgent, and the satire doesn't quite work. Also we found the parents to be annoying. My father didn't like it at all this year, and he'd enjoyed it quite a bit the previous two years. My mother also had issues with it. I was the only one who found it funny in places.
We did figure out who Shy Baldwin was supposed to be - Johnny Mathais.
While down there, my parents watched the news a lot. They even tape it. CNN, ABC, PBS...and BBC World News. (The only one I could stomach was BBC World News). So I spent the time on FB and Twitter -- to distract myself while they watched the news. It would have been rude to leave the room -- tried that last year and it didn't work. So this year, I played on the phone.
As a result of this -- I got to see "Twitter" blow up with a WAR between the Romance Novelists and RWA. I've been following shipperX, Courtney Milan, Elizabeth Hoyt, Rose Lerner, and Cat Sebastain...and apparently shortly before Xmas, RWA (Romance Writers Association of America) decided to suspend Milan for one year from membership and ban her for life from having a leadership position. Then they went silent and shut up shop for the holidays. The reason? A couple of romance novelists that I've never heard of decided to file a complaint with the Ethics Board of the RWA against Milan. Apparently Milan had posted screen shots of one of the novelists books -- showing racist passages --- on twitter, and had called the other one out (a publisher) for supporting an editor who was a Doofus supporter, and pushed racist content. (Yes, I knew HE WHO SHALT NOT BE NAMED had to enter the picture somewhere in there.) The first complaint was filed by Sara Tisdale, a romance novelist of Scottish Boddice Rippers, who is setting up her own publishing company. The second was by one of her authors, someone named Lydia Davis? Who spent some time in China and then wrote a romance novel about it -- which has some offensive passages and rather racist ones at that. Milan who is Chinese-American took issue with the passages and posted about them on Twitter. This went viral on Twitter. And the woman claims that her publishing company dropped her as a result. (Really? Because of Twitter? Didn't realize it was that powerful.) So RWA penalized Milan for tweeting about the women and pointing out the offensive content.
I asked my mother if she'd ever heard of these two women. My mother has read more romance novels than I have in her lifetime -- and no, she hadn't. While she has read a lot of Courtney Milan and the writers supporting her. So have I. I've read and rec Milan, Sherry Thomas, Rose Lerner, Cat Sebastian, Loretta Chase, Elizabeth Hoyt, Tessa Dare, Joanna Bourne, Meredith Duran, and Eloisa James. We're picky romance readers.
Although, I can't say I care about RWA that much -- I've always found them more of a hinderance in my writing and reading pleasure -- mainly because for years they had this paint-by-numbers formulaic bible on what you should write. (Bleach.) And the publishers went along with it. Thankfully, self-publishing and independent publishing became available -- and we've been able to get off that beaten path. (I don't like the publishing industry very much -- haven't since I thoroughly interviewed and investigated it. The publishing industry has a well-earned reputation for being sexist and overrun by bullies.) So seeing the somewhat sexist and racist, RWA, get taken down, along with their publisher cronies..is oddly satisfying and quite amusing.
Here's the problem with genre publishing -- it's racist and sexist. Always has been. That's why it has a bad rep. One of the reasons at any rate. It also doesn't tend to attract the best writers on the planet. Lots of bad writing gets published in genre.
Shame. Because there's a lot of good stuff that gets overlooked.
So to date? I've watched the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre's racist SOB's get taken down in the HUGO controversy. The comic book genre's racist SOB's. And now the Romance genre. Waiting on the mystery and noir genre -- although I think that may have already happened, when I wasn't paying attention. Horror definitely got kicked a while back.
The other fights I watched were on FB. I briefly engaged.
Poster was whinging about the lack of help towards homelessness in the city. And less should be wasted on rail.
And I posted that actually the railroads had a homeless outreach contract and were doing their utmost to resolve it.
The idiot wanted an award.
I asked why he wanted an award.
Apparently he wanted one for riding late night trains with homeless folks, because it was beyond him to call 3-1-1 to get them help.
Mother: What are you doing?
ME: Who? ME?
Mother: Yes, you.
Me: Something I probably shouldn't..
Mother: Which is?
Me: Responding to someone who knows nothing about my work place/organization about my workplace/organization.
Mother: Don't do that. Bad idea.
Me (ponders.): Yeah, you're right. It just annoys me when people who know nothing about a subject whine or expound on it as if they do.
Mother: Walk away. No good will come of it.
Me: Okay.
She's right. Best not to fight with people on the internet that I don't know. They could be cyber-trolls. Also, I'm prohibited from discussing my workplace online.
Besides friend whose page it was -- engaged with him instead and let him know in no uncertain terms that he was an idiot.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-28 10:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-28 02:30 pm (UTC)And yeah, fighting with folks on social media is a losing prospect. I always feel miserable afterwards. Always.
I can't really tell that BBC is biased, possibly because it's British, liberal and not discussing the Doofus, so win-win from my perspective. Also it's not run by evil yellow journalist Rupert Murdoch.
Right now, my favorite news channel is NY1 aka Spectrum News - it's local. Followed closely by the NY Times, they are the only ones that don't rise the blood pressure. ABC News isn't that biased. And neither is PBS.