![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatIt was hazy and rainy all day, until I got home and the clouds parted and sun swam through along with gale force winds. Brrr.
So today, cubicle wall mate aka Art History Major (AHM) and I were discussing Broadway shows. Apparently they had seen Hades Town and it went over their head, they didn't get it at all. (Hades Town is a musical retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth).
Me: Well it's Greek and Roman myths -
AHM: Oh I hated those in school. I didn't believe in them -
Me: You aren't supposed to believe in them, that's why they are myths - they are just stories, metaphors - (Note to self - don't tell her that I was a cultural anthropology minor and basically studied myths, epics and folklore in school.)
AHM: They make no sense.
Me: You don't like fantasy do you?
AHM: No.
Prior...
Me: I've been rewatching comfort shows.
AHM: Oh what?
Me: You wouldn't like them. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel -
AHM: Oh I never got into those -
Me: You wouldn't like them - they are a blend of fantasy and horror.
AHM: Ugh, you're right.
Me: Although you seem to love Wicked The Musical.
AHM: I adore it. Every moment of it. I don't know why - I just do.
Me: Maybe it's the political satire...
I don't know how she can love Wicked and hate the other stuff. I'm the opposite, I'm ambivalent about Wicked (neither lover nor hate it - and perfectly fine waiting for it to pop up on streaming again). Maybe it's who is in it? Or the overall theme? (Which I do like, but its not enough to make me love it or want to desperately see it? I'm ambivalent about the stars too.) People bewilder me? She did like the first two seasons of Stranger Things - with the kids, but kind of lost interest after that.
Why can't I find people offline that like/love the same things I do? It shouldn't be this hard?
****
In other news...I decided to listen to and kind of watch the 60 Minutes expose of the El Salvador Prison from Hell - that the Trump Administration is sending all these people to. After CBS yanked the segment from the US's 60 Minutes broadcast yet somehow forgot to yank it from Canada's broadcast - where it accidentally aired, got leaked on the internet and subsquently went viral. It was leaked repeatedly on the internet by various folks (as often happens with banned and censored content that people know about) - and as a result - is now the most watched episode or segment of 60 Minutes and by the most people since 60 Minutes inception. (That's kind of huge, 60 Minutes goes back to...1968, so it's roughly 57 years of age. And it's certainly had huge stories in the past - it first aired during the Vietnam War and prior to Watergate). It's the curiosity factor. I admittedly watched for the same reasons. (And I wouldn't have - if it aired on CBS as previously planned - since I've not consistently watch 60 minutes in ages.)
Internet: 1
CBS (aka Skydance Media): 0
I found it on Instagram. They keep yanking it from Youtube, so folks put up their own recordings of it on TikTock and share on Instagram. It's really hard to censor things in the age of the Internet. We have too many social media platforms, and folks perfected the art of sharing censored or banned content back in the early 00s, while they were in junior high and undergrads in college. They know how to share stuff. I know how to find and share stuff, and I'm not techie in the least.
I don't think I need to go into the gory details? it's about the horrific prison practices in El Salvadorian Prison, and how the current US Administration is not only applauding these inhumane practices but paying for them to continue, and sending folks there that shouldn't be sent to prison at all, with little more than circumstantial evidence, falsified testimony, innuendo, and lies.
Personally? This sickens me. My background is in prisoner's rights - I fought for them in the 1990s. One of the things we did in Kansas Defender Project was fight for the "humane" treatment of prisoners (and that's for people who actually committed crimes). The people in this El Salvadoran Prison - don't even have clean water to drink.
Did this at lunch time - mainly out of curiosity. Also I felt compelled - like I needed to know? Although I've no idea what I can possibly do about it? Sometimes I just like to torture myself with bad news? When I listened - I felt nothing, I was numb. Then much later discussing it with my mother over the phone - I felt the rage and the discouragement, and the sadness.
It's not like I didn't already know about it - it's been written about elsewhere.
***
It's windy here, but no rain at least. My knee still hurts whenever I go up or down steps. Considering it is multiple flights of steps, this makes sense. I have managed to limit it a little - by no longer switching trains at 4ths and 9th Streets. I also rescheduled my hair appointment for late February - to avoid the steps at that stop for as long as possible. Icing three times a day. Doing my exercises. Hopefully it will improve. I live in fear of the MRI.
***
Angel S3 - Episode 6 - Billy - is oddly enough one of the better episodes of the series. Small wonder - it was written by Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell.
The episode is perfect noir thriller, except for one thing? It is a wicked and biting critique of the noir genre - by exposing the misogyny within it, calling it out, and giving it a ripe spanking. I was impressed. Not only does it comment on the misogyny in our society and culture (which both series do rather well and at a time period in which that rarely happened - this was 2001 before the Me#Too Movement), it also manages to move forward various character arcs, and set up two new star crossed romances that span the series. This episode blew me away - I'd forgotten it - and is a great companion piece to That Vision Thing (Episode 2 of S3).
Cordelia's character, along with Lilah's gets the most growth. The twist at the end, works better than most and fits with the genre. (Not all their twists do. Bell and Minear have a good fell for the genre, and the characters. If I see Minear's name attached to an episode? I know it will be good. As are Mere Smith and Jeff Bell.)
Cordelia is bad ass in this episode, and has an excellent scene with Lilah Morgan (one of the shows recurring villains, at the evil law firm). She tells Lilah at one point, "I was you. Except I had better shoes." And they have a rapid fire dialogue on shoes, which is about two minutes, and says volumes about both and their relationship with very little.
These shows know how to use dialogue effectively (so few do, sigh, sometimes I worry that it is a lost art?).
We also see Cordy and Angel draw closer - as he teaches her to fight, and discovers she can actually handle herself with a sword. This sets up another one of Angel's doomed star crossed love affairs. He has three in the series: Buffy, Darla, and Cordelia.
And the other star crossed romance - is Wesley and Fred, which winds into a quadrangle at one point. This is equally tragic, if not more so. Before Wes can tell Fred how he feels towards her - he's infected by Billy's misogyny, and hunts her through the corridors of the Hyperion hotel, ax in hand, acting like a rather proper and creepy mix of Daphne Du Marieur's Maximillian and Stephen King's Johnny from the Shining.
The twist here - is Fred saves herself via her own ingenuity. The women save themselves in this episode. Angel doesn't kill Billy or really save anyone. Nor do Gunn and Wes.
The women, Cordelia, Lilah, and Fred save themselves. And the twist with Lilah - is well done.
Add to the above, information is conveyed on each character. We learn more about Wes' baggage and his difficulties with women. And more about Gunn, who is a bit more self-aware than Wes, and figures out what is happening to him - a lot faster, while Wes doesn't quite figure it out until after it is over. It affects Wes more than Gunn - possibly because he got too close to Billy's blood, so was more affected, and there's his own baggage regarding women (established clear back to Buffy S3, when he first appears). Angel - it doesn't affect at all - in part because he's a vampire, but more importantly, a 240 something vampire - and anger/hate kind of faded ages ago. He was into the pain and evil of it - which Cordelia sees as more noble, and I realize is actually the hallmarks of a sociopath. Or someone who has been disconnected from his emotions and the human race for too long.
Excellent episode. Sticks with me.
Buffy S6
I'm rather enjoying these initial episodes. I always did. The middle is the weak portion of the season. And I see the cracks in the various couples romantic lives.
Putting a pin in that.
It's late and I need to go to bed.
So today, cubicle wall mate aka Art History Major (AHM) and I were discussing Broadway shows. Apparently they had seen Hades Town and it went over their head, they didn't get it at all. (Hades Town is a musical retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth).
Me: Well it's Greek and Roman myths -
AHM: Oh I hated those in school. I didn't believe in them -
Me: You aren't supposed to believe in them, that's why they are myths - they are just stories, metaphors - (Note to self - don't tell her that I was a cultural anthropology minor and basically studied myths, epics and folklore in school.)
AHM: They make no sense.
Me: You don't like fantasy do you?
AHM: No.
Prior...
Me: I've been rewatching comfort shows.
AHM: Oh what?
Me: You wouldn't like them. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel -
AHM: Oh I never got into those -
Me: You wouldn't like them - they are a blend of fantasy and horror.
AHM: Ugh, you're right.
Me: Although you seem to love Wicked The Musical.
AHM: I adore it. Every moment of it. I don't know why - I just do.
Me: Maybe it's the political satire...
I don't know how she can love Wicked and hate the other stuff. I'm the opposite, I'm ambivalent about Wicked (neither lover nor hate it - and perfectly fine waiting for it to pop up on streaming again). Maybe it's who is in it? Or the overall theme? (Which I do like, but its not enough to make me love it or want to desperately see it? I'm ambivalent about the stars too.) People bewilder me? She did like the first two seasons of Stranger Things - with the kids, but kind of lost interest after that.
Why can't I find people offline that like/love the same things I do? It shouldn't be this hard?
****
In other news...I decided to listen to and kind of watch the 60 Minutes expose of the El Salvador Prison from Hell - that the Trump Administration is sending all these people to. After CBS yanked the segment from the US's 60 Minutes broadcast yet somehow forgot to yank it from Canada's broadcast - where it accidentally aired, got leaked on the internet and subsquently went viral. It was leaked repeatedly on the internet by various folks (as often happens with banned and censored content that people know about) - and as a result - is now the most watched episode or segment of 60 Minutes and by the most people since 60 Minutes inception. (That's kind of huge, 60 Minutes goes back to...1968, so it's roughly 57 years of age. And it's certainly had huge stories in the past - it first aired during the Vietnam War and prior to Watergate). It's the curiosity factor. I admittedly watched for the same reasons. (And I wouldn't have - if it aired on CBS as previously planned - since I've not consistently watch 60 minutes in ages.)
Internet: 1
CBS (aka Skydance Media): 0
I found it on Instagram. They keep yanking it from Youtube, so folks put up their own recordings of it on TikTock and share on Instagram. It's really hard to censor things in the age of the Internet. We have too many social media platforms, and folks perfected the art of sharing censored or banned content back in the early 00s, while they were in junior high and undergrads in college. They know how to share stuff. I know how to find and share stuff, and I'm not techie in the least.
I don't think I need to go into the gory details? it's about the horrific prison practices in El Salvadorian Prison, and how the current US Administration is not only applauding these inhumane practices but paying for them to continue, and sending folks there that shouldn't be sent to prison at all, with little more than circumstantial evidence, falsified testimony, innuendo, and lies.
Personally? This sickens me. My background is in prisoner's rights - I fought for them in the 1990s. One of the things we did in Kansas Defender Project was fight for the "humane" treatment of prisoners (and that's for people who actually committed crimes). The people in this El Salvadoran Prison - don't even have clean water to drink.
Did this at lunch time - mainly out of curiosity. Also I felt compelled - like I needed to know? Although I've no idea what I can possibly do about it? Sometimes I just like to torture myself with bad news? When I listened - I felt nothing, I was numb. Then much later discussing it with my mother over the phone - I felt the rage and the discouragement, and the sadness.
It's not like I didn't already know about it - it's been written about elsewhere.
***
It's windy here, but no rain at least. My knee still hurts whenever I go up or down steps. Considering it is multiple flights of steps, this makes sense. I have managed to limit it a little - by no longer switching trains at 4ths and 9th Streets. I also rescheduled my hair appointment for late February - to avoid the steps at that stop for as long as possible. Icing three times a day. Doing my exercises. Hopefully it will improve. I live in fear of the MRI.
***
Angel S3 - Episode 6 - Billy - is oddly enough one of the better episodes of the series. Small wonder - it was written by Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell.
The episode is perfect noir thriller, except for one thing? It is a wicked and biting critique of the noir genre - by exposing the misogyny within it, calling it out, and giving it a ripe spanking. I was impressed. Not only does it comment on the misogyny in our society and culture (which both series do rather well and at a time period in which that rarely happened - this was 2001 before the Me#Too Movement), it also manages to move forward various character arcs, and set up two new star crossed romances that span the series. This episode blew me away - I'd forgotten it - and is a great companion piece to That Vision Thing (Episode 2 of S3).
Cordelia's character, along with Lilah's gets the most growth. The twist at the end, works better than most and fits with the genre. (Not all their twists do. Bell and Minear have a good fell for the genre, and the characters. If I see Minear's name attached to an episode? I know it will be good. As are Mere Smith and Jeff Bell.)
Cordelia is bad ass in this episode, and has an excellent scene with Lilah Morgan (one of the shows recurring villains, at the evil law firm). She tells Lilah at one point, "I was you. Except I had better shoes." And they have a rapid fire dialogue on shoes, which is about two minutes, and says volumes about both and their relationship with very little.
These shows know how to use dialogue effectively (so few do, sigh, sometimes I worry that it is a lost art?).
We also see Cordy and Angel draw closer - as he teaches her to fight, and discovers she can actually handle herself with a sword. This sets up another one of Angel's doomed star crossed love affairs. He has three in the series: Buffy, Darla, and Cordelia.
And the other star crossed romance - is Wesley and Fred, which winds into a quadrangle at one point. This is equally tragic, if not more so. Before Wes can tell Fred how he feels towards her - he's infected by Billy's misogyny, and hunts her through the corridors of the Hyperion hotel, ax in hand, acting like a rather proper and creepy mix of Daphne Du Marieur's Maximillian and Stephen King's Johnny from the Shining.
The twist here - is Fred saves herself via her own ingenuity. The women save themselves in this episode. Angel doesn't kill Billy or really save anyone. Nor do Gunn and Wes.
The women, Cordelia, Lilah, and Fred save themselves. And the twist with Lilah - is well done.
Add to the above, information is conveyed on each character. We learn more about Wes' baggage and his difficulties with women. And more about Gunn, who is a bit more self-aware than Wes, and figures out what is happening to him - a lot faster, while Wes doesn't quite figure it out until after it is over. It affects Wes more than Gunn - possibly because he got too close to Billy's blood, so was more affected, and there's his own baggage regarding women (established clear back to Buffy S3, when he first appears). Angel - it doesn't affect at all - in part because he's a vampire, but more importantly, a 240 something vampire - and anger/hate kind of faded ages ago. He was into the pain and evil of it - which Cordelia sees as more noble, and I realize is actually the hallmarks of a sociopath. Or someone who has been disconnected from his emotions and the human race for too long.
Excellent episode. Sticks with me.
Buffy S6
I'm rather enjoying these initial episodes. I always did. The middle is the weak portion of the season. And I see the cracks in the various couples romantic lives.
Putting a pin in that.
It's late and I need to go to bed.