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Aug. 13th, 2023 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Mother: Do you know about the Ohio Vote?
ME: I know there was a big vote in Ohio, I just couldn't figure out what it was about.
Mother: Near as I can figure it was to keep abortion rights from ever entering the ballot or being allowed under the Ohio Constitution.
Me: Ah, how'd the vote ago?
Mother: overwhelmingly against
Me: Against the Conservative - I mean against the anti-abortion rights?
Mother: Yup. Which means they can and most likely will put abortion rights on the ballot in November in Ohio. The Conservatives keep forgetting about all the independent voters out there who do not like to have their rights determined or infringed upon by the government.
ME: Well not everyone is a fascist idiot. Also, the Conservatives lost the culture war. I know this because of the commercials and advertisements that I see everywhere. They are sore losers, and throwing a hissy fit over it and resorting to illegal and violent measures to get their way, and throwing a violent temper tantrum like a sociopathic toddler. It's not going to get them what they want -
Mother: Well, the liberals have done a bad job of holding onto local and state legislatures.
Me: Yes and no. Some have been bought and paid for...
I have hope.
2. They asked on Twitter to name a comedian you don't find funny. There's too many to count. It's harder to name living comedians that I find funny.
Comedians I find funny? Trevor Noah, possibly Hannah Gadsby...
Comedians I do not find funny? Louis CK, Chris Rock, Dave Chappell, Kevin Hart, Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Rogan, James Gaffikans, Jay Leno...I don't like insult humor. Never have.
3. Speaking of humor? Started watching Good Omens S2 on Amazon Prime.
It's funny. I actually laughed out loud during it. The odd couple of Arizaphale, Crowley, and now Gabriel, is hilarious.
Crowly: Ask him what he is doing here!
Arizphale : I did. He doesn't know.
Crowly: Did you ask properly? I will ask properly. WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS BOOKSHOP??
Gabriel aka Jim: I AM DUSTING.
Tee Hee. I find absurdist situational humor funny.
Neil Gaiman's absurdist somewhat ironical snarky sense of humor charms me. Also, I adore David Tennant, and would most likely watch him in anything. Shannon and Hamm, I like...so it works.
I'm spreading this one out. Just watched one episode. Doing same with Witcher S2-3.
4. Other items that I've watched on television this weekend? Not that much considering I spent about three hours watching Oppenheimer - which did exactly what a movie is meant to do - took me into another perspective and managed to make me feel empathy for that perspective and understand it, changing me in the process. (That's how I determine whether a movie or book is any good - did it pull me into another perspective, and did it make me feel empathy for that perspective, and did I come out changed afterwards - so I remember it?)
Anyhow...enuf on Oppenheimer. Sorry, it ate my brain on Saturday.
* Dark Winds - a series on AMC, produced and created by Robert Redford (yes, that one) and George RR Martin (him too) - from the Tony Hillerman mysteries - or the Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Mysteries. Hillerman wrote mysteries from the Navajo perspective, his lead detectives were Navajo tribal police, and they took place on the Navajo reservations in New Mexico and possibly Arizona. (He'd been raised among the Navajo and grew to respect the people of the nation, and felt the need to write about them.) I read all of them back in the 1990s, as did my Grandmother (who adored them) and my parents. My grandmother spent a lot of time with the Navajo, Hopi, and Arapaho in her travels out west. She learned how to bead jewelry from them, specializing in beaded medicine bags and dreamcatchers, and she taught them how to do it - when the knowledge was lost.
Anyhow, over the years they've done various film adaptations of the novels, but this is the first time that Navajo actors, writers, and directors adapted them. Martin and Redford tried to get HBO to do it - but HBO turned them down - it was too close to True Detective, which HBO preferred. So they finally found a distributor in AMC.
I watched S1 last year - which was quite good. And S2 has gotten off to a good start. To date there are three seasons, and there appears to be hope for a fourth.
It's on AMC, Sunday nights around 10 pm. I tape it.
* Lucifer S5 - I don't know this series just gets sillier as it goes. I keep trying, and keep getting annoyed. Also Lucifer doesn't change at all.
* Seven Deadly Sins S3 - eh...after watching Vox Machina and Dragon Prince, I gave up. The animation and storytelling doesn't live up to the other two. It's cheap and gives into sexism and objectification of the female form to the point in which I want to smack the animators. (It's in short very 20th Century anime, and I've grown weary of it.)
So I gave up on both and jumped over to Good Omens and am happier for it.
5. Books
* Almost finished with Blood Sweat and Chrome - the Making of Mad Max Fury Road via audiobook. It's currently talking about the Oscar race.
And how it kept winning. Although it does bemoan the fact that Charlize Theron wasn't nominated, yet Leonardo Di Caprio was for Revenant, and both had similarly grueling roles. (I'd have nominated Theron and not Di Caprio, who was only nominated because he gained weight, lost weight and fought a bear...I didn't care. I did not like Revenant and can't remember it at all, well except for the bear fight - and I don't remember why that happened. While I do remember Fury Road, and can still see bits of it in my head.)
Fury Road was the better movie, and the one most people remember. Revenant has been done before, and wasn't all that memorable - hence the reason Fury Road for the most part cleaned up at the rewards.
They go into detail about things like editing - and how the studio cut it to pieces, and they managed to convince the studio to show both Miller's cut and the studio's cut to a focus group back to back, to see the response. Afterwards - they went with Miller's cut. (The studio cut out all the bits that explained why Furiosa et all were running away from Immortan Joe and the villains. Basically the milking maids, the torture, etc. So the studio's cut was just the car race. There was nothing to make the audience care.) Miller however - noticed that the studio cut out a few things that did not work - so he pulled those out of his version as well. (One was Tom Hardy's Mad Max giving birth to himself in a dream sequence.)
They also go into detail about how they had to do reshoots, and how grueling the shoot was - and how no one wanted to do the reshoots. Plus the whole bit about the red carpeting (and how grueling that was), selling the film - and when they realized that they'd hit pay dirt - it was when the critics and journalists stopped talking about Charlize and Tom butting heads on set and about the movie itself. And the reaction at Cannes was over the top.
It's not surprising it got a great reception - it was different. It was also a surprise. A lot of people were hesitant because it was Mad Max without Mel Gibson, or just another Mad Max film - then they saw it and went - whoa, this is brilliant. They'd originally planned a happy ending with Max and Furiosa ending up together, but decided against that - and to let Max go off on his own again. When it had been Gibson cast in the role - that would have worked as Gibson's swan song, but Hardy was younger and it worked better to have him just go off into the distance on his own, letting Furiosa have the happy ending without him.
* Working through Dance with a Fae Lord by Elisa Kova - this is a free book via Kindle Unlimited subscription. It's also problematic. I may be burned out on romance? The author leans in a wee bit too much on the Cinderella and Cupid/Psyche vibe, and the heroine's mental abuse, which gets in the way of the romance. The heroine doesn't trust love - which is a nice subversion but gets old after a while.
I've figured out that the heroine or protagonist is half fae, and the daughter of a fae queen or princess. But the book is taking a very long time getting to the reveal. I figured it out at the 20% mark, and I'm at the 67% mark now.
I'm only reading it at the moment for that reveal, I really don't care about anything else - and have skimmed over the kissing and sex scenes (they aren't well written).
* Also working my way through several X-men comics, mainly X-Force at the moment. They aren't what most people think. They are more graphic novels than comics, with actual bits that have no art, and are like a page from a log. I'd say they are speculative science fiction graphic novels more than anything else? And deal with various themes. Action is there - but rarely the main point. And the romantic soap opera is no longer central or relevant. These writers really don't care that much for love triangles. For example? When Jean Grey is assassinated by Moira X at the Hellfire Gala, she visits both Cyclops and Logan in her astral form, and informs both that she loves them, that she is dying, and says goodbye to them. She doesn't choose one over the other. And prior to that - she was sleeping with both, and with both, and both men were okay with that and didn't care. The love triangle was non-existent or irrelevant.
Women also aren't objectified in these books any longer. Or not in the way they were previously, and if so - equally with men. Pairings are LGBTA and heterosexual. The focus is more on broader themes, and friendships and partnerships.
It's also a very liberal take on the verse. Marvel always was more liberal than most of the books. And Disney appears to be leaving the comics alone for the most part. While Marvel's editors are taking political pokes at conservative politics and corporations right and left.
The art is also far better than it was in previous decades and more consistent. As is the writing.
I think a lot of folks are snobby about comics - they either only tried them once - way back in the day, when the art and dialogue was rather rudimentary, women weren't really in them, and it was ahem sexist and very white and very heterosexual cisgender male fantasy. But they haven't been like that for decades now. Actually not since the mid-1980s. And since the 80s, have gotten even more evolved and better with time.
But alas, we're all snobby about something, I suppose. I'm admittedly snobby about a lot of video games. (shrugs)
ME: I know there was a big vote in Ohio, I just couldn't figure out what it was about.
Mother: Near as I can figure it was to keep abortion rights from ever entering the ballot or being allowed under the Ohio Constitution.
Me: Ah, how'd the vote ago?
Mother: overwhelmingly against
Me: Against the Conservative - I mean against the anti-abortion rights?
Mother: Yup. Which means they can and most likely will put abortion rights on the ballot in November in Ohio. The Conservatives keep forgetting about all the independent voters out there who do not like to have their rights determined or infringed upon by the government.
ME: Well not everyone is a fascist idiot. Also, the Conservatives lost the culture war. I know this because of the commercials and advertisements that I see everywhere. They are sore losers, and throwing a hissy fit over it and resorting to illegal and violent measures to get their way, and throwing a violent temper tantrum like a sociopathic toddler. It's not going to get them what they want -
Mother: Well, the liberals have done a bad job of holding onto local and state legislatures.
Me: Yes and no. Some have been bought and paid for...
I have hope.
2. They asked on Twitter to name a comedian you don't find funny. There's too many to count. It's harder to name living comedians that I find funny.
Comedians I find funny? Trevor Noah, possibly Hannah Gadsby...
Comedians I do not find funny? Louis CK, Chris Rock, Dave Chappell, Kevin Hart, Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Rogan, James Gaffikans, Jay Leno...I don't like insult humor. Never have.
3. Speaking of humor? Started watching Good Omens S2 on Amazon Prime.
It's funny. I actually laughed out loud during it. The odd couple of Arizaphale, Crowley, and now Gabriel, is hilarious.
Crowly: Ask him what he is doing here!
Arizphale : I did. He doesn't know.
Crowly: Did you ask properly? I will ask properly. WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS BOOKSHOP??
Gabriel aka Jim: I AM DUSTING.
Tee Hee. I find absurdist situational humor funny.
Neil Gaiman's absurdist somewhat ironical snarky sense of humor charms me. Also, I adore David Tennant, and would most likely watch him in anything. Shannon and Hamm, I like...so it works.
I'm spreading this one out. Just watched one episode. Doing same with Witcher S2-3.
4. Other items that I've watched on television this weekend? Not that much considering I spent about three hours watching Oppenheimer - which did exactly what a movie is meant to do - took me into another perspective and managed to make me feel empathy for that perspective and understand it, changing me in the process. (That's how I determine whether a movie or book is any good - did it pull me into another perspective, and did it make me feel empathy for that perspective, and did I come out changed afterwards - so I remember it?)
Anyhow...enuf on Oppenheimer. Sorry, it ate my brain on Saturday.
* Dark Winds - a series on AMC, produced and created by Robert Redford (yes, that one) and George RR Martin (him too) - from the Tony Hillerman mysteries - or the Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Mysteries. Hillerman wrote mysteries from the Navajo perspective, his lead detectives were Navajo tribal police, and they took place on the Navajo reservations in New Mexico and possibly Arizona. (He'd been raised among the Navajo and grew to respect the people of the nation, and felt the need to write about them.) I read all of them back in the 1990s, as did my Grandmother (who adored them) and my parents. My grandmother spent a lot of time with the Navajo, Hopi, and Arapaho in her travels out west. She learned how to bead jewelry from them, specializing in beaded medicine bags and dreamcatchers, and she taught them how to do it - when the knowledge was lost.
Anyhow, over the years they've done various film adaptations of the novels, but this is the first time that Navajo actors, writers, and directors adapted them. Martin and Redford tried to get HBO to do it - but HBO turned them down - it was too close to True Detective, which HBO preferred. So they finally found a distributor in AMC.
I watched S1 last year - which was quite good. And S2 has gotten off to a good start. To date there are three seasons, and there appears to be hope for a fourth.
It's on AMC, Sunday nights around 10 pm. I tape it.
* Lucifer S5 - I don't know this series just gets sillier as it goes. I keep trying, and keep getting annoyed. Also Lucifer doesn't change at all.
* Seven Deadly Sins S3 - eh...after watching Vox Machina and Dragon Prince, I gave up. The animation and storytelling doesn't live up to the other two. It's cheap and gives into sexism and objectification of the female form to the point in which I want to smack the animators. (It's in short very 20th Century anime, and I've grown weary of it.)
So I gave up on both and jumped over to Good Omens and am happier for it.
5. Books
* Almost finished with Blood Sweat and Chrome - the Making of Mad Max Fury Road via audiobook. It's currently talking about the Oscar race.
And how it kept winning. Although it does bemoan the fact that Charlize Theron wasn't nominated, yet Leonardo Di Caprio was for Revenant, and both had similarly grueling roles. (I'd have nominated Theron and not Di Caprio, who was only nominated because he gained weight, lost weight and fought a bear...I didn't care. I did not like Revenant and can't remember it at all, well except for the bear fight - and I don't remember why that happened. While I do remember Fury Road, and can still see bits of it in my head.)
Fury Road was the better movie, and the one most people remember. Revenant has been done before, and wasn't all that memorable - hence the reason Fury Road for the most part cleaned up at the rewards.
They go into detail about things like editing - and how the studio cut it to pieces, and they managed to convince the studio to show both Miller's cut and the studio's cut to a focus group back to back, to see the response. Afterwards - they went with Miller's cut. (The studio cut out all the bits that explained why Furiosa et all were running away from Immortan Joe and the villains. Basically the milking maids, the torture, etc. So the studio's cut was just the car race. There was nothing to make the audience care.) Miller however - noticed that the studio cut out a few things that did not work - so he pulled those out of his version as well. (One was Tom Hardy's Mad Max giving birth to himself in a dream sequence.)
They also go into detail about how they had to do reshoots, and how grueling the shoot was - and how no one wanted to do the reshoots. Plus the whole bit about the red carpeting (and how grueling that was), selling the film - and when they realized that they'd hit pay dirt - it was when the critics and journalists stopped talking about Charlize and Tom butting heads on set and about the movie itself. And the reaction at Cannes was over the top.
It's not surprising it got a great reception - it was different. It was also a surprise. A lot of people were hesitant because it was Mad Max without Mel Gibson, or just another Mad Max film - then they saw it and went - whoa, this is brilliant. They'd originally planned a happy ending with Max and Furiosa ending up together, but decided against that - and to let Max go off on his own again. When it had been Gibson cast in the role - that would have worked as Gibson's swan song, but Hardy was younger and it worked better to have him just go off into the distance on his own, letting Furiosa have the happy ending without him.
* Working through Dance with a Fae Lord by Elisa Kova - this is a free book via Kindle Unlimited subscription. It's also problematic. I may be burned out on romance? The author leans in a wee bit too much on the Cinderella and Cupid/Psyche vibe, and the heroine's mental abuse, which gets in the way of the romance. The heroine doesn't trust love - which is a nice subversion but gets old after a while.
I've figured out that the heroine or protagonist is half fae, and the daughter of a fae queen or princess. But the book is taking a very long time getting to the reveal. I figured it out at the 20% mark, and I'm at the 67% mark now.
I'm only reading it at the moment for that reveal, I really don't care about anything else - and have skimmed over the kissing and sex scenes (they aren't well written).
* Also working my way through several X-men comics, mainly X-Force at the moment. They aren't what most people think. They are more graphic novels than comics, with actual bits that have no art, and are like a page from a log. I'd say they are speculative science fiction graphic novels more than anything else? And deal with various themes. Action is there - but rarely the main point. And the romantic soap opera is no longer central or relevant. These writers really don't care that much for love triangles. For example? When Jean Grey is assassinated by Moira X at the Hellfire Gala, she visits both Cyclops and Logan in her astral form, and informs both that she loves them, that she is dying, and says goodbye to them. She doesn't choose one over the other. And prior to that - she was sleeping with both, and with both, and both men were okay with that and didn't care. The love triangle was non-existent or irrelevant.
Women also aren't objectified in these books any longer. Or not in the way they were previously, and if so - equally with men. Pairings are LGBTA and heterosexual. The focus is more on broader themes, and friendships and partnerships.
It's also a very liberal take on the verse. Marvel always was more liberal than most of the books. And Disney appears to be leaving the comics alone for the most part. While Marvel's editors are taking political pokes at conservative politics and corporations right and left.
The art is also far better than it was in previous decades and more consistent. As is the writing.
I think a lot of folks are snobby about comics - they either only tried them once - way back in the day, when the art and dialogue was rather rudimentary, women weren't really in them, and it was ahem sexist and very white and very heterosexual cisgender male fantasy. But they haven't been like that for decades now. Actually not since the mid-1980s. And since the 80s, have gotten even more evolved and better with time.
But alas, we're all snobby about something, I suppose. I'm admittedly snobby about a lot of video games. (shrugs)
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Date: 2023-08-14 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-14 04:58 pm (UTC)