(no subject)

I'm feeling very irritable and misanthropic and self-abusing today. It's because I didn't get to go to my church this morning, like I'd meant to nor did I go to the OWS movement with social justice group. So... I'm angry at myself. Had to do laundry and couldn't do it yesterday due to nasty storm. I don't own a washer and dryer nor a car nor do I have laundry in my building, so I lug my laundry in a laundry cart two to three blocks away - this is fine when it is sunny or not raining, but any storm? Forget about it. Beautiful day, today though. Might take a walk and get more yarn to finish the hat that I'm knitting for my niece and hopefully some apples and groceries.

Read this amazing story this morning, one of the best things I've read in a while and sort of makes up for missing church - or what I'd have gotten from my church. It's hard to talk about church online, people are...well it's an incredibly controversial and emotional topic even more so than the Spike/Angel wars or politics, believe it or not. Just as God is a controversial topic. I am a theist and a christian...small c. Although I don't like to be that narrowly defined. I don't believe things can be defined that definitively. My beliefs are like water...they ebb and flow, not like stone.

This long disease my life by Tom Shakespeare

Bits from it:

The more you try to grasp the world, the more it flows beyond you. Understanding is the punch line of a cosmic joke, in Zen.

The problem is that the story is too simple, I think. I have learned that in real life, there are more twists and turns. The black is not entirely black, and the white turns out to be a different colour entirely. There are never only two choices. I am trying to find a new story, but I am finding it hard. It takes too long to explain it all, and I keep on losing the thread. I am sure it would be easier if I just told the old story. Many people still like it, certainly. But how can I tell a story if I am not certain that it is true? Of course, this is not a true story either. But that's different.

I make where I am going much more important than where I am, to the extent that there is no longer any point in going there. This is not the right philosophy.

American Horror Story

Did a lot of wandering about today. Planned on getting a haircut, but alas, wimped out. I need to find a good reliable stylist and just keep going back to them. Instead of having a new one each 6-8 months. I hate getting my hair-cut. It's rare I get a haircut that I actually like. Also bought Bloody Mary Mix from the grocery store - which is wickedly strong. Jeeze. My lips were numb from whatever they put in it. Talk about being "hot". You can't taste or feel the vodka, which is not necessarily a good thing. However, does clean the sinus cavities and makes one feel admittedly lovely afterwards. And they say alcohol isn't a drug. Seriously, if alcohol is legal, why isn't marijuana or cocaine? All three have their problems. Of the three, marijunana is probably the safest and healthiest.

Also watched American Horror Story. By the way, for those who missed an episode, such as the second episode, they are doing an marathon on Halloween night starting at 10 pm on F/X. Just set your DVR's.

Great to watch this in broad daylight, so bright, that you can barely see the tv screen.
Works quite well. The creepiest thing in this show is ...the rubber man. I don't know why exactly, but the rubber man bugs me. Nothing else really does. I'm guessing because everything else in the story is taken from other stories or movies, so I've seen it before.
While the rubber man is sort of new and different.

Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck ...fascinate me in a weirdly masochistic/sadistic sort of way. I get their brand of humor and understand their rage. Their humor, which is pitch black is also soaked in rage. It's angry humor, and as result razor sharp at times - biting satire.
In all of their shows, Nip/Tuck, Glee, and AHS - there is a mentally challenged child somewhere in the show who is horribly killed or abused or makes friends/bonds with someone who is a pseudo-tormented adult villain (Sue Sylvertrie in Glee or Jessica Lange in AHS). Also in all of their shows - there is a theme about gender, how it is perceived, and how it is dealt with. Their humor is often targeted at the "pretty" people or "norms" - the heterosexual, non-queer, non-different, plastic folk that populate many a television sitcom. The bullies. Who basically look like Dallas on Subrogatory. And it is humor that is filled with rage. At times, watching a Ryan Murphy show - I feel like I'm watching the tv series that Jonathan, Andrew, Amy and Warren from Buffy would come up with. It's that same level of rage.
( Read more... )

Eh, off to pick up laundry.

Once Upon a Time and Revenge - two views on vengeance

Finished watching the second episode of Once Upon a Time - which I'm still enjoying a great deal. This isn't for everyone. For one thing - it is targeted to families, specifically families with young children, and women. The story's focus is on a child's view of fairy tales, not the darker adult view. For me? It's a breath of fresh air, because finally we have a series that isn't about resolving our fears and curses with violence. The antagonist solves her problems with violence and curses. Also the violence is cartoon or metaphor. In addition? It's nice to see a show that someone under the age of 12 can actually watch at 8pm at night. There isn't anything else that I would allow a child of mine to watch. Most of my friends, and my brother? They don't. They have their kids watch either DVD's via netflix, or Nikoleodian and Disney Channel. This was not the case when I was a kid. I remember tv shows that I could actually watch, which weren't violent, and too scary. So, it's sort of nice to see a LOST style series for families.

That said, it works for adults too. The fairy tale world, while admittedly hokey, is intentionally so, while Grimm in direct contrast, wasn't. Confession? I actually thought Buffy's premise was incredibly hokey and silly. But at least Whedon seemed to be aware of it. Greenwalt, not so much.. There seems to be acknowledgment of it - via Emma Swan's bounty hunter character, who states how silly and somewhat crazy this fairy tale world is. But, she acknowledges this is how her son is coping with his world. So the metaphor's are real trope - which was a device in LOST and in Buffy, and in other similar series, is used here as well - except most of the characters, actually everyone but the little boy, his adopted Mom, Regina, and possibly Mr. Gould, believe the metaphors are well just that metaphors.

( vague spoilers for Once and Revenge )

Off to watch Good Wife and sleep.