(no subject)

Been scrolling through flist this morning.

1. Came across a couple of posts on VVidcon. Now, I'm admittedly not a fan of vids and I'm not going to bore you with why, because really, why would you care? But, the posts about VVidcon's odd policies regarding the disabled which can be found at this post on the whole thing, by a disabled fan, blew my mind.

The first thought, I had, was - I guess these people wouldn't be interested in Stephen Hawkings attending or the late Christopher Reeves, both favorites in the sci-fantasy community. And there are others.

How hard is it, really, to be considerate of someone else's needs? I wonder this sometimes.. Guessing pretty damn hard - or we wouldn't have so many laws in place forcing people to be considerate. (Reason number 250 for why libertarianism does not work. 85% of people are just too selfish to live in a world without laws governing certain behaviors.)

Not sure what the laws are surrounding disabilities in the UK, but the Americans with Disabilities Act does require handicapped facilities be provided at events and I can see one hell of a class action law suit against the VVidcon folks if it were in the US, the ACLU would have a field day and rightly so, as would the Association of Americans with Disabilities. [ETA - apparently Vividicon is being held in Chicago, USA - and they've acknowledged their mistake and are fixing the language and do provide facilities for handicapped - they'd have to, or the ADA would be all over them. Can we say class-action lawsuit, yes we can! Beware my the internet my son, the jaws that snatch... ](Studied the ADA in Law school. It was proposed and pushed by Bob Dole. And had effected my life - because of it, I got special compensation regarding the Bar Exam - I'm dyslexic and transpose numbers and spaces, which makes multiple choice computer tests impossible - I end up skipping a line, so I've filled in the answer on the line below the one I was supposed to fill it in. I remember discovering this while taking the LSAT and having to erase half my score sheet and re-put in all the answers in the last twenty minutes of the taste - I always ended up with several questions unanswered as a result. This happened every time I took a computerized test. Unfortunately for me, I didn't know that arrangements could be made and should be made to help people like myself until law school - law school taught me that we do have rights, the trick is figuring out how to fight for them in a way that we can get peaceful and just resolution.)

[ETA #2 --- Apparently the real fight is over triggering content or "offensive speech"? - which has been going on along with copyright law since the internet's inception. We just can't agree on what speech is inappropriate and what is not. And no, it's not as obvious as one may think. People have always been weird inconsistent and contradictory about this in my opinion and if you want to start a flame war on the net? Just write a post about it, doesn't have to be inflammatory. Been there done that, too many times to count.]

2. I read that the Buffy Comic Artist George Jeanty will draw Spike with his shirt off for $700.

Hmmm. My first two thoughts on this were as follows: 1) I don't know, even though the Spike/Angel nude scene in Long Way Home Dream Sequence wasn't that bad (as in better than everything else he's done in this respect)...after seeing his artwork in issue 34 of the Buffy comics, I'd be more willing to pay Jeanty to NOT draw Spike or anyone else without their clothes on, for that matter. Although - be cheaper just not to buy the comics, I suppose. 2) We can see Spike without his shirt on, heck without any clothes on whatsoever online at any time, why would anyone in their right mind pay Jeanty to draw him? Does anyone really think his art is worth $700? And does anyone really have $700 lying around to spend it on that - because if that's the case - I know of some really good charities that could use that money. Haiti still needs help, folks.

3. Read a portion of Rahriah's The Indefinite Article - no time to read more, and oh, so far, it is good. The plot itself - Spike seeking a soul to fix himself, unable to get his own, ends up with someone else's - I've seen before, as I told her way back when. BUT - how she is writing it, is gripping. She's making the reason a little mysterious - which is good choice. And
what he's giving up, something that on the surface seems insignificant, yet is not. Sigh, will have to bookmark and hunt down later to read all of it - when have time. That probably, alone, gives you an idea of how good it is, since I've sort of backed off of both Buffy and fanfic at the moment...due to lack of time and interest. My cultural obsessions have moved elsewhere.

Speaking of cultural obsessions...

4. Quite annoyed that BBC America has decided to take a two week hiatus on Doctor Who showings, and not show me the final four or is it five episodes of the series until late July, when I'm in Maine. The Wankers! What in the heck could be the reason for this? I can't think of one. They already showed the entire season on the BBC in Britain. It's not like they are still filming or anything. Is it the holiday weekend? People watch tv on the 4th of July Weekend, plus why would the BBC care - it's our independence day from Britain, the day we won our freedom not to be a British Colony, and unlike Canada and Australia not a part of the Commonwealth. They broke away a bit more peacefully than we did, at least I think they did - I'm admittedly blurry on Canadian and Australian history - used to be clearer on Australian (my parents lived there for a bit and were a mite obsessed - so as a result, I've read a lot of Australian novels (all the Upfield ones), and seen Australian TV (mostly British imports but they do have some really good shows (this was in 1990, so nothing recent), and film.) I remember being in London during the 4th one year - they made fun of us.
Got lots of good ribbing. The next year, was in Wales, the Welsh were more sympathetic and I'm thinking a bit jealous (this was back in the 1980s during the whole huge recession with the coal mines and the dollar skyrocketing, while the pound dropping.) It is easier to revolt against your home country's governing regime - when they are an ocean away during a time period where the only way to get to and from things is by boat, horse, and foot. Now, revolts are bit harder to manage, I'd imagine. Anyhow, dang it, I hear the last episodes are the best of the season.

Off to watch a bit more Farscape, some lunch, before doing other things that I have to do.

Farscape - Eat Me and Thanks for Sharing & Doctor Who

Didn't do much today, needed a break from people - well except for landlord and a brief shopping excursion (okay took an hour and a half, so not that brief). Spoke and spent time with landlord regarding the mouse problem. We've decided it's not mice, it's a mouse - a very clever mouse who is ignoring the traps we've laid for it. Jerry - 10, Landlord and me - 0. (Yes, I've named him Jerry after the vintage cartoon mouse.) LAndlord laid down a bunch of sticky traps - where basically the mouse gets stuck, is visible, dies, and I have to dispose of him. So, I find myself oddly torn, part of me is hoping the mouse evades the sticky traps. I just want him to magically disappear - not a fan of killing things. Also have a new downstairs neighbor, a 30 something guy, who works for ESPN and is gone most of the time. (Preferable in some respects to young couple who parked shoes and bikes in the hallway. Also brought mice and roaches...and left them behind, dang them.)

Also watching tons of Farscape. Made it up to the brilliant Thanks for Sharing... which makes the somewhat annoying bridge episode Eat Me worth it. Also, as an aside, is it just me or does every tv series have at least one really whiny annoying character that you wish would die? It works best if they aren't the leads, which they aren't, thank god, in Farscape. It works best if they are disposable supporting characters that eventually die or disappear - which was the case in Farscape. The annoying characters were short-lived, and barely focused on. Also, Farscape does something in the third season, I've only seen happen in fanfic - they "double" the lead character, Crichton. And they explore all the angles and problems with doing it. There's a brilliant scene with the two guys facing each other, doing rock paper scissors and always tying - that wordlessly gets across that they are duplicates in every way. This is why I don't have to read fanfic for Farscape - the writers actually were willing to take risks and break rules that other writers never do.

They do point out in the commentary that because Farscape was filmed in Australia and not in the US or Canada, they were able to afford a higher, cinema quality production value that you just can't do in the US. Farscape has the CGI and cinema quality F/X, makeup, costumes, direction and set design that you don't see outside of films in US.
The only other tv series that come close to this level of production value and makeup may be Caprica and BSG, which were filmed in Canada. So you can also do it in Canada.
Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse, and Firefly were all filmed in US and had cheap productions, unfortunately. Star-Gate was also Canadian - yet not nearly the same quality for some reason. The effects and set design on this show continues to blow me away - and it is so pretty and pristine on an HD TV, DVD. (Much better than on my old tv, with bad reception.) Plus, as a bonus, all those European scenes that were not shown in the US, because Europe, doesn't have as many commercials (this, ahem, explains a lot!)


( Farscape spoilers - for Eat Me and Thanks for Sharing )

All the squeeing over River Song on my flist - makes me think I'm going to love the last five episodes of Doctor Who. I first fell in love with the Doctor during a River Song episode - way back in S4, before the specials. And totally with River. I adore Alex Kingston's portrayal and that this gal is portrayed as an equal to the Doctor.
In fact my two favorite episodes are the River Song arc - where she wears an astronauts suit the whole time. No one else mentioned her. I had to join a river song fan community - to get more on the character. Now, all of a sudden, I see her icon popping up on flist and all these posts that I can't read, for fear of spoilers, about her? Since this did not happen during the Time of Angel's arc, I'm guessing something really cool happens with the character at the end? Cool! Something to look forward to. And no, don't spoil me!!! Off to change my icon collection.