Spontaneous Musings

1. Ali Hazelwood Dislikes Peeta and that was problem for some folks

Peeta for the uninformed was Katniss's love interest in The Hunger Games or rather one of two love interests. The other was Gale, I think. I stayed out of the Hunger Games fandom for various reasons.

Apparently what happened is Ali Hazelwood, an author of various books, made the mistake on a book panel at a fan convention of stating that she didn't like Peeta. People got upset - and fanatically attacked her on her Instagram account. To the point, in which she ended up cancelling the entire account (she couldn't figure out how to turn off the comments - Instagram is impossible to use - and makes me crazy - I just post pictures on it and like others posts), and she was apparently popular and highly active.

Excerpt from the post, which I thought worthy of sharing:
( Read more... )

Nothing new, but a worthy reminder that before you post a comment in response to something you've read online, especially in fandom, ask yourself these questions:

* Is it kind?

* Is it necessary?

* Does it help?

And are you posting out of anger or rage? Or trying to prove someone else wrong, so you can be right? What is gained by embarrassing or humiliating anyone? [Note - this is reminder for myself as much as anyone. Trying to do better.]

2. Bruce Springsteen Bio-Pic Trailer

Well, everyone else got one - I guess it's his turn? Although I admittedly like his music and Jeremy Allen.

I woke up in a decent mood and started the day, happy and carefree - yet by the end of it? Grumpy. I think the world likes to chip away at us at times?
Also it's raining, and my right leg is bothering me again. It was fine this morning - more or less, but started bugging me again at lunch time. To cheer myself up - I got a discounted Grand Central mouse pad/post-card, and a NYC 2025 Guide Book (both discounted off by 20%). Also, got a matcha latte. (I'm in love with matcha lattes - with almond milk - they are unsweetened, have almost no calories, and healthy). Sitting at home now, with a heating pad on my back.

1. The Truth About Why You Keep Waking Up at 3AM

I've basically done everything that has been suggested. I'm working on the diet bit - because I think that may be a factor. I realized that my sleep deprivation over the years is most likely why I have some of the health issues that I currently have - well that and menopause and ceiliac disease are probably factors, plus genetics. Honestly there's never one solution or one cause, if there was, the pharmaceutical industry would be out of business.

2. My Buffy Re-Watch - has made me aware of a few things? I'm still in S2.
( Read more... )

3. I do not know what to make of Amanda Palmer. I tried to unsubscribe to her Patreon, but it keeps popping up in my inbox. And I keep deleting. And she keeps talking about how all she does is love, gets browbeaten by trolls, but fights back, and can't talk about what happened until the lawsuit is over. I feel sorry for her - she gets trolled, but I also think that she's been infected by Fame and can't let go of the addiction? What I don't get is why people troll her? I get the anger? But trolling solves little? We're all flawed, let people be.

4. Bono (U2) of all people gave me a smattering of hope today.

Bono on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Kimmel asks him where he stands on the Trump vs. Springsteen issue. He's of course in Springsteen's corner...yada yada yada. But what he says that gave me a smattering of hope is this: "I founded a non-profit bipartisan foundation called ONE and it is made up of a lot of conservative and highly religious people, Anglicans, Catholics, Fundamentalist Christians, etc and they are VERY angry about what the person they voted for is doing to their country and how he is dismantling various fundamental and important life saving aid programs such as US AID and the Peace Corps which have saved millions of lives from AIDS and other diseases and poverty around the world. Taking away programs of compassion and kindness - which are what America is all about. What we are about. So angry that trust me on this, they and we are about to make a lot of good trouble."

I can't emphasize this enough to anyone who stumbles upon my journal, there are numerous coalitions forming around the United States and Globally to fight this administration and it's project 2025 plan. And they are growing daily.

5. MTA vs. the Federal Government.

Tee Hee, the MTA is winning!

MTA: The Feds want us to give up congestion pricing and tell us how to control traffic and transportation in our city. But the Federal court prevented them from vindictively punishing us by removing Federal funding. We are not giving it up. Look here? The New York Times dug deep and proved it is working.

I feel sorry for the MTA, they are fighting everybody. Including idiotic talk radio hosts who think the subways are dangerous. They are not dangerous. I take the subways twice daily, five days a week and sometimes on weekends and to doctor's appointments, basically everywhere. They are safer than cars or buses. And far less stressful. Not to mention cheaper.

Very few people die on the subway. The worst thing I've seen on the subway was a man who was scarred from third degree burns on every inch of his body and begging for money. Also once during the pandemic - a homeless man with a knife. But we were perfectly safe - the conductor stopped the train, got us all off, and called for assistance at the next station.

First things first - still rainy, cooler, and humid (because rain). But better mood for some reason or other. Maybe I slept better?

Cultural Items worth noting:

Music

Stumbled upon this interesting youtube podcast with a music nerd (they are always men for some reason?), and this is the top 10 70s Television Theme Songs (I clicked on it because the click-bait headline (they always have clickbait headlines) was "Director Told 14 year old Son to Write the Stupidest Song Became the Best TV Song Ever". That's a very long clickbait headline.

I figured out what it was before I clicked (but was curious to see if I was right), because I listened to the biography of Robert Altman. But he's wrong - it's not the director of the television show. It was the director of the film, who famously despised the television show and tried to block it. (He obviously didn't and would kick the Professor of Rock from the grave for indicating he was even remotely involved with it). He also joked that his son made more money off of rights to the song than he did from directing the film. Although, usually you just hear the composition. The reason the song is so good - is the achingly haunting composition by Johnny Mandel (who actually performed it in the film) and he turned it into magic.

Guess which song I'm talking about?

Met Gala

Looked at all the costumes, sorry fashions, today at work. ( I was bored.)
Then discussed with Art History Major - her favs were..

Louis Hamilton's Outfit

( photo )

Sabrina the Ring Leader

( photo )

I explained to AHM and Mother over the phone tonight - that they don't wear those outfits for as long as you think. In reality, they change in a special changing area about two blocks away, get in a limo, arrive, disembark, do the big photo shoot, then enter the lobby, another photo shoot, then change and go to the party. No cameras are allowed in the Museum itself. And only a scant few journalists. So a lot of the guests have a change of clothes. Also they don't always buy the outfits - they are wearing them to display the art, then oftentimes the outfit is either donated to the Museum or a gift. It's to show off the designer - like a runway show.

AHM: So they only wear them for 15 minutes?
Me: Yup. Usually they are wearing sweats or jeans at the party. It kind of explains a lot, if you think about it.

Another tidbit worth noting? The Gala is always chaired and hosted/put on by the Editor and Chief of Vogue, Anne Wintour, who banned Trump and his entire family from the Gala in 2017.

AHM: She should have done it for life.
ME: She did.

****

Question a Day Memage

I'm behind again:

End of April

27. If you could change one thing about your appearance, what would that be?

At the moment my hair - or rather how it parts and my forehead. But I honestly don't know how I'd change it.

No, wait, my back. I'd love to ditch the curvature resulting in rounded shoulders. I want a straight spine, damn it. (It's physically impossible without surgery and just no. Besides, everyone seems to end up with rounded shoulders by their 70s and 80s.)

28. In 1761 Marie Harel was born – a French cheesemaker credited with the invention of Camembert. Are you a fan of this type of cheese?

Yes. I like cheese. It's a guilty pleasure, I admit it. And I love Camembert. The smellier the cheese, the better.
( the rest under the cut )

Listened to the church service today via FB, but didn't manage to get it until almost halfway through - or five minutes into the Sermon. Didn't matter, just meant that I missed a lot of the introductory items and the wisdom story. The Sermon surprised me, because it was from an intern minister who I'd mixed feelings regarding. Her sermon was about reclaiming things like the American Flag and Religion from those who've tainted it.
It belongs to no one, just as God belongs to no one person or religion. Patriotism is protesting and attempting to protect one's constitutional rights. And Jesus? He had a lot of amazing things to say, that maybe we should consider and think about promoting - such as "love one another", "share", "there's enough for us all to share equally", and "treat others as they wish to be treated and as you would wish to be treated with kindness".

It ended with a remastering of the ABBA song Thank you for the Music. It skipped the first lyric and went with the chorus only, kicking all the other lyrics to the curb. (Which I'd have done to, the chorus is lovely on its own.)

I've also been thinking about a random comment on some social media platform - can't remember which one - which stated "where are all the protest songs for this period?"

And I thought, but we have so many already that fit? Today, when she talked about reclaiming the flag - I thought of Johnny Cash's song about the American Flag. Ragged Old Flag It's an odd song - and like most of Cash's songs can be interpreted more than one way. Also thinking about Bruce Springsteen's song Born in the USA which was co-opted without Springsteen's permission by the Regan in the 80s. Listening to that song, I realize it's not at all what Regan and the Republicans twisted it into, but something else entirely. Still Patriotic, still featuring the American Flag, but it is in reality a protest song, with a lot of ironic twists and turns.

Then of course, there's Woody Guthrie's classic song, that he wrote as a counter-point to God Bless, America (which he had massive issues with). Guthrie a folk singer who traveled the breath of the US, often on the back of a rail car, wrote songs on what he saw - as a way of chronicling what he observed and felt about the towns and places he visited. He, like Springsteen, Cash, Mitchell, Young, and Dylan used music to tell stories.
Interestingly enough, Springsteen and Dylan have done covers of this one. As have many others. And I honestly think it should be the rallying cry we use now.

Here's the versions of it, in case you are interested?
( several versions of the song )

( here's the original lyrics )

And then there's this haunting song from the film MockingJay part of the Hunger Games film quartet.

The Hanging Tree

***

There's other songs of course..empowering ones, like 500 Miles or this version 500 Miles, same title, different songs.

And of course, this past week, I've been thinking of Nine Inch Nails - whose songs often feel like primal screams in the brain. They do a rendition of Kristofferson's Hurt (made popular by Cash) - Hurt and of course the one with David Bowie and the original with CASH

Or... American Idiot by Green Day - which screams frustration much like a primal scream, where no one can quite hear you without preaching peace kindness and forgiveness in a whisper.

I often think music says it better than any prose.

Here's Michelle Shocked's song Quality of Mercy. It feels like a protest song in its own right, and is about forgiveness. And Bruce Springsteen's Dead Man Walking,
not to mention the previously linked Amazing Grace, which is the plea of a former slave ship owner for forgiveness from God for his sin of slavery, which to the enslaved is an unforgivable one.

And Harry Belafonte's classic Turn the World Around

***

This week, my church hosted a traveling high school choir from Transylvania. The Unitarian Church has its roots in Romania and Transylvania or so I'm told.

Translyvanian Choir

And here they are thanking their host families in the US in song

***

From someone who can neither sing or play a musical instrument, Thank you for the music world.

Checked the stock market just now (9:30 pm) and the Market dove. Everything is down, by about 3,000 dollars, possibly more for some.

Small wonder. The Doofus decided to impose tariffs on literally every non-US owned land mass on the planet, with the possible exception Canada (the Senate fought back on that, so it was paused) and maybe Russia, including unoccupied land masses. Well, unoccupied by humans at any rate. Yes, my friends, the Doofus actually imposed Tariffs on New Zealand and Australian Puffins and Penguins, along with those in Antarctica.
( Read more... )
Sometimes I don't know whether to punch something, stomp my feet, bang my head against a wall, yell, scream, laugh, or cry or all of the above? I'm not sure anyone else does either.


***

I cancelled the tech appointment with Optimum, mainly because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And I was afraid that on the day they came out, it would be working, and they'd charge me. They were threatening to do so, if everything worked.

Better idea - is to just cancel the cable and the landline, which barely work and go full internet. And that way - if I continue to have issues with the internet - I can easily switch to another provider.

Meanwhile it was announced by Super that the building now has to do composting. At first we all had to get our own little bins and put it in a bin in the basement, then it was changed - so that we just need to put the scraps in bags and bring them to the bin in the basement. (NYC passed a law in which everyone has to compost and do curbside composting.)

****

Before I go to bed...

Sony has decided to do Four Beatles Bio-Pics, Directed by Sam Mendes

The cast was announced today.

"Sony‘s long-awaited Beatles movie biopic plans are finally coming together.

Director Sam Mendes took the stage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas to reveal the cast for the features and said that all four films are set for theatrical release in April 2028. The surprising plans to make four films — one for each member of the famed band — were first announced last year.

Drumroll, please: Mendes also brought the cast onstage. Set to star in the films are Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. Each of the four movies will focus on one of the members of the Fab Four. "

[I've only heard of Barry Keoghan.]

I didn't know this was in the works? Why is it in the works? Well, I guess if they've done Elvis, Bob Dylan, and Elton John, it was the Beatles turn eventually?

But we already have multiple documentaries on the Beatles, plus various movies? Although, you could say the same thing about Elvis and Elton John?

" “We’re not just making one film about the Beatles — we’re making four,” Mendes said. “Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply.”
( Read more... )

So...he's adding four films, not just one, four to the oodles of other films on the Beatles? Honestly if you are a big fan of the Beatles, you could at some point do nothing but watch and listen to the Beatles for years. They could even have a streaming service devoted to them at some point.

The news is exhausting. So was church, which is hardly surprising, it's a liberal progressive social justice inspired institution. ( Read more... )

The news makes me violently angry, exhausted, and feeling incredibly impotent. So angry, I found I couldn't get past the headlines to read the articles in New Yorker and New York Magazine feeds. Or even post them here. I can't reiterate it. I don't want to think about it. My blood pressure rises and I just feel really tired.

I watched the Kendrick Lamar super bowl half time video finally - I didn't watch the Super Bowl, and had mostly forgotten about it? But someone posted about it on social media and I got curious. I can see why my mother didn't like it - she's 82 years of age, and not a fan of rap aka hip-hop music, and couldn't hear or understand any of it. To her? It was mostly just noise and people moving about in costume. Also she doesn't necessarily think metaphorically like I do - so a lot of it went over her head. And she tuned out.

I also watched the analysis of the performance, and looked up the lyrics. And then saw an article from New York Magazine or the New Yorker, not sure which, detailing the conflict between Canadian Rapper Drake and American Rapper Kendrick Lamar. Most of which appears to be nationalistic in context, and not really about being Black or Black culture, so much as a Black Canadian resenting an Black American for ripping off his music and telling him he didn't represent or know Black Culture. The article gave me a headache and was also exhausting. I stopped reading halfway through.

I tried to watch the Therapist's analysis on youtube, but it gave me a headache and depressed me further.

I knew what Kendrick was doing, my niece is or was a huge Kendrick Lamar fan and introduced me to him way back in 2020. I downloaded his music, listened to it, and realized that I'm not really a fan of hip-hop, but can appreciate it? It's not easy to listen to and not for everyone. It's angry music, with a lot of angry virulent energy emanating from it. Listening to it - can feel at times like being punched in the face with sound.
( my thoughts on the whole thing for what its worth )

Lamar's performance at the Super Bowl was basically a big and very loud "Up Yours" at the various folks/organizations he was understandably and justifiably pissed off at - including the current Republican President and his Administration. It also was about Race Relations as they currently stand in the US. Not to mention our current political situation. He was furious at Drake for suing him over the song. (In case you don't know who Drake is? Drake is apparently a Black Canadian who was upset with a Lamar, a Black American for co-opting his lyrics and telling him that he knows nothing about Black culture, because he happens to be Canadian. Lamar was basically telling Drake where to go, with interest. That's the fight between Drake and Lamar according to the New Yorker. Oh - there's a fight going on right now between the US and Canada. Yes, Canada. I know. We are actually fighting with Canada. It's kind of like, I don't know, me fighting with my brother? Canada is understandably and justifiably pissed off with the US, and the US isn't helping. What's ironic about this is that the US owes Canada about 380 billion dollars in change. They are one of our (the US) creditors. And you wonder why the Onion and SNL gave up on political satire?)

I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like I live in an age in which everyone is constantly yelling at each other and nobody is actually taking the time to really listen? Empathy occurs when we listen, but its blocked when we're busy judging and condemning, and as a result all we get is the cacophony of sound, and meaning is lost along with it. I'm finding myself lost in the cacophony of sound at times, until, I just switch the whole thing off.

Its as if people are so angry and so tired of not being seen or heard, they feel this need to punch you in the face with it - verbally speaking. Yell at full volume. Thinking, oh then I'll be heard? Over the noise cancelling earphones, and ipod inserts, and everything else. But no, it's just adding to the cacophony of noise.

After reading the Neil Gaiman article last night, this morning at work I listened to Amanda Palmer's New Zealand Survival Songs Album (referenced in the article) on Apple Music. There's five songs in all. And got obsessed with three songs - two of which pretty much convinced me without a shadow of doubt that it all happened.

They are fascinating songs, that resonate in some respects. My favorite is the Ballad of the New York Times (which isn't about Gaiman at all).

1. Whakanewha (with Aurelia Torkington). I got a little obsessed with this song today in that I listened to it repeatedly. Why? It talks about how you can get sucked in by someone, seeing the good in them, trying to save them, and end up almost being pulled down by them into their darkness.

It's gut-wrenching song about a bad breakup and an abusive relationship.

"Whakanewha"

Another forest metaphor
You've heard a million before
The trees know everything, I tried a wedding ring
But you just cringed and said, "What for?"
And now the whole thing's turned to ash
You try to cover it with cash
Another falling tree no one can hear but me
Another suicidal mass
Landing on my doorstep, thanks a ton
Oh, darling, how can I repay you for what you have done?

And then you lied to me at Whakanewha
And you sealed it with a kiss
I wanted to live with you, but, fuckin'-a, fuck you
No one on Earth could live like this
( Read more... )

The song is furious and as it goes, she inserts the word fuck repeatedly.
It goes from wistful poetry and metaphor to simmering rage, that finally boils over.

2. The Man Who Ate Too Much. Another gut-wrenching song about trying to hold onto a marriage for a child and realizing it won't work.

"The Man Who Ate Too Much"

8,000 miles away
My life is still packed up in boxes
I was positive I would sort out in May
I keep telling my friends that it's strange
How many times can you say that before it's not strange?

We've spent all summer in the winter on a stingray that was hacked to pieces
And Ash points to the giant in the mountain and he asks me where his arms is

Another man who ate too much
And women keep grieving them with the songs we sing
I wanted to get back to New York
And now it isn't looking promising

But Kya brought Izzy's old coat and it fits like a glove
And Aidan put Ash on his back when we went for a walk
And one of these days, I swear, I'll take a second for me
And one of these days, I swear to God, I'll get out to the sea

8,000 miles away
A man in a White House refuses to face his own pain
Why should it matter? What lives really matter?
Why bother to open your heart when there's pussy and fame?
( Read more... )

Palmer's lyrics at times feel like a punch to the gut. In your face like a closed fist. But at the same time soft and meandering, painful, like tears falling down a cheek. You can you almost hear the tears in her voice. It's a song that brings tears to the eyes with the utter pathos.

3. The Ballad of New York Times - this song is half spoken, half sung, and resonated with me. It explains why I stopped reading the New York Times. It's funny and painful at the same time. Raging and self-deprecating.

"The Ballad Of The New York Times by Amanda Palmer"

It's a cousin of the song I wrote a year ago. Like a first cousin, so they can't have babies

They sell Canadian grade A maple syrup in New Zealand
It's expensive but I splurge
So I can put it on our pancake breakfast and
Sometimes I forget to put the lid on and the ants come
Into the kitchen of this AirB&B we've been renting for six months for a fortune and
Sometimes I take a magazine and I escort them two by two
In a little glossy lifeboat into the garden and
Sometimes I just create an ant holocaust and kill them all
With a paper towel
(Fuck the ants!)

I don't understand which part of me is kind
I don't understand which part of me can be so goddamn unkind
I don't understand why I'm tired all the time
All I know is that last night I wanted to go to bed by five o'clock
And I took off my necklace
And I turned on the heater
And I couldn't stop shaking
So I put on a sweater

And I read the New York Times
On an app in my phone next to my sleeping child
And the headlines hurt my mind
Five thousand dead, Cher got an elephant back into the wild
And the light on his face
And his curly-haired head
And I knew I should be reading a good book instead
I can't fit all of all humanity into this bed
With me
( Read more... )

It's a wonderful song about being overwhelmed by the pain in the world.
And the need to help but the inability to do so - and wondering if one is a horrible person for not wanting to.

****

The things I didn't post from the Neil Gaiman article and now can't, because I don't have access to the article any longer. It was far too long to post all of it, and the former copyright lawyer in me - couldn't do it.

Apparently, Gaiman did some degrading sexual acts with Pavolich, his son's babysitter, with his son in the room. They were together in the bedroom. These acts included things like..( trigger warning for degrading sexual acts ) Pavolich told all this to Palmer in 2022, and Palmer immediately got her son away from Gaiman and started proceedings to keep Gaiman out of their lives.

Another disturbing bit - that I didn't post? Gaiman doesn't like foreplay or lubricant during sex. And he told Palmer he didn't believe people could fall in love - she felt the need to convince him otherwise. She did get him to get help - a couples counselor named Mueller - who he agreed to see - this happened after the Rachel incident. He swore he would stop - it was the last time. But he kept lying to her. She begged him not to do it with the babysitter, Pavolich, who she'd taken in. ( Read more... )

Each one of the women that Gaiman went after had one thing in common, including Palmer - they were vulnerable, and easily manipulated. All were idealistic. All had at one time or another been raped, beaten, or hurt.
All were desperate when he met them, and didn't have his financial resources. Also all with the exception of maybe the caretaker, were over twenty years younger than Gaiman. Impressionable, young, women.

It's also the pattern with Scientology. Gaiman was raised partly by L Ron Hubbard and Scientology. I know more than I want to about Scientology. It's a nasty cult. My sister-in-law's cousin was raised in it - and it damaged him beyond repair, he's MAGNA, and somewhat nuts. He was forced to wear diapers until he was 10. His father had to fight the Scientologists and the mother, who was in the cult, for custody. And he escaped. Gaiman wasn't as lucky.

This is so so sad. And so painful. Gaiman isn't all bad, clearly. No one is. (But I won't be reading him or watching any of his stuff any longer. And I do believe the allegations.) He is exceedingly charming. Also, most of this is unfortunately impossible to prove. Gaiman per NPR article stating Gaiman's response to the allegations.

Other links:

* AV Club - Gaiman denies Sexual Assault Allegations (Note he's not denying he practiced BDSM, which is legal with safe words. Gaiman doesn't tend to use safe words, and ignores "no" seeing it as part of the act - according to the New York Magazine article. He's denying it was non-consensual or rape.

* Neil Gaiman Breaks Silence on Horrible Sexual Abuse Claims

* Neil Gaiman Denies Sexual Abuse Allegation per Variety

* Also Variety - Multiple Women Accuse Neil Gaiman of Sexual Assault

* Tori Amos on the Neil Gaiman allegations via The Guardian

* Rolling Stone - More Women Accuse Gaiman of Sexual Abuse

* USA Today - Gaiman responds to Sexual Assault Allegations

* The Huffington Post - Neil Gaiman Assault Accusations

* USA Today discusses the Vulture Article on Gaiman Sexual Assault Allegations

As you can see - it's gone viral now. After disappearing from the news for a bit, it popped back with a legitimate journalist writing an article about it. Which was what we were all kind of waiting for.

I'm all bad moody...mainly due to sleep deprivation. [Yes, a Buffy reference, I swear that show has permanently insinuated itself into my lingual lexicon.]

Last night I couldn't sleep because no matter what position I was in - my hip hurt. It was most likely a digestive issue and an alignment issue. I can't sleep on my back due to the untreated sleep apnea. I'm afraid I'll suffocate and not wake up.

I should go to bed, but I don't fancy just lying there.

Was worried that Babs was upset with me because of something that happened at last Friday's meeting with BB & BYT, but as luck would have it? She has no memory of it and had no idea what I was talking about.

My workplace makes me feel like I'm perpetually having the "Who's on First, What's on Second" conversation. The only change is who I'm having it with.
This requires an insane amount of patience, I think.

( personal health related issues that are somewhat boring to read about so I'm sparing you all )

( tonight's dinner in case you are interested, can't see why you would be, but just in case )

And listened to more of Barbra Streisand's memoir - I have about 9 hours left. (It's 48 hours and 17 minutes. Yes, she needed an editor - we've discussed this already.) Currently on the big MGM Grande concert that she held sometime in the 1990s? And everyone came, except her mother - who she has an impossible relationship with, and I do not think her brother showed (she never mentions her brother).

The story? ( Read more... )

On the reading front?

Well this is very meta..

"William Gibson
greatdismal
If you had told me that the thing that would finally make VR commercially viable would be Apple releasing it as a very expensive personal device, I’d’ve winced, and hoped you were wrong. Doing that now, kind of."

I'm trying to work my way through NK Jemsin's "We Became the City" but the writing is getting on my nerves. It's a bit all over the place. And I'm struggling with the concept of human beings being absorbed into a city and becoming a literal part of it? To fight a monstrosity?

I need to find something else. But what? I need to poke through my books and find something. This is the worst reading slump.

***

1. Someone on Smart Bitches stated that they had a bit too much of the "hater" in them to be truly fannish about anything. I wouldn't say that about myself exactly? But I'm admittedly far too critical of the art I love, or analytical of it, to be truly fannish I think? I don't squee. Or scream. Nor am I groupie. The whole concept of being a groupie makes me want to crawl under my covers and hide.

2. The internet is still flogging a number of dead horses in the Buffy fandom. I find it amusing when people get all self-righteous about a fictional pairing or storyline that was written, filmed, and aired over twenty years ago. Just as I find it amusing that folks get all self-righteous about celebrity, singer, or artist's misdeeds from over forty years ago. Folks? They are 80? It's a bit too late to cancel them for something they did when they were thirty-eight. Also why would they care at this point?

3. Bradley Cooper has gotten himself into trouble in the Oscar Race, he keeps making snide comments about Cillian Murphy's prep for Oppenheimer, who remains oblivious (Because he is Cillian Murphy and tends to stay off the internet). See? This is why Awards for the Arts are a bad idea. Still bizarrely fun.

4. I decided to listen to Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus's albums today out of curiosity. I actually liked Cyrus' "Flowers", it's kind of clever - ( lyrics )

It's kind of nice single's mantra right there. I've heard songs that were similar of course.

Then I tried Taylor Swift's Midnights, and stumbled across a really good song in the midst of it... Snow on the Beach.

Swift has gotten better. I like her later albums better than her earlier ones. I do wish she'd move away from love songs and break up songs, though.
But that is pop music for the most part.

As an aside? I have widely eclectic tastes. Or diverse tastes. I like most music. And can be persuaded to try any of it.

I'm in a bad mood. Blame Crazy Workplace, honestly what's new? I had the same circle arguments today that I've been having for the last two to three months, and didn't get anywhere. I'm tired of arguing with people at work. I can't seem to go a day without it.

Work is exhausting. I should have gone to my Church's evening vespers today but alas, passed.

Meme that I swiped from slaymesoftly.

1. Do you have a button stash. My answer is, well, kind of? I put them somewhere, forget about them...and never sew them on. I can't sew. I occasionally manage to sew a button on, but it's not pretty.

The rest of the questions -
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**

Frustration is possibly the worst emotion next to anger and envy/jealousy, and often all three are interrelated.

My music choices today fit my mood, and were oddly reassuring:

*Don't You Need - Melissa Etheridge
*Tokyo A Go-Go - The Magnetic Fields
* Insecure - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
* Giants - Dermot Kennedy
* Woman of Heart and Mind - Joni Mitchell
* Breaking Glass - David Bowie
* Corner of the Sky - the Jackson 5
* Stranded - Heart
* She Never Could Resist a Winding Road - Richard Thompson

I particularly appreciated Insecure. It helps to know everyone else is in the same boat.

***

Reading...

* Finished reading the Jean Grey comic arc written by Louise Simonson. It's four issues. And available via comixcology and Marvel.
It was oddly reassuring. The whole theme of it was - that we have limited control, and we do the best we can, and the direction our lives take us isn't necessarily all our fault. Jean is blaming herself for all these deaths and thinking she went wrong somewhere or made the wrong choices, and tries to undo it by making different choices in her head - but is gradually shown that wouldn't matter, the choices she made were the best ones that she could possibly have made at the time. She went with her gut, and that's all she could do, and really it's all any of us can do. We don't know everything, we don't have all the information, and there are other variables at play that we don't have any control over.

* Finished listening to Turn of the Screw as read by Emma Thompson, with some material read by Richard Armitage via audible. It's okay. I had difficulty following it. Thompson was excellent - no complaints there. I'm just not a fan of James. He takes a long time to get to the point. I feel like I'm listening to legalese. And he's very flowery, which is a writing style that irritates me - mainly because I was taught not to be flowery.
My father was a minimalist who preferred Hemingway.

The story is about the ghosts of a manservant and governess - go after two children, who are under the care of the current governess. The title refers to the horrific use of children by ghosts. "The turn of the screw is when a child is possessed or taken over by a ghost, it's worse when it is two turns of the screw." James was obsessed with sexuality or repressed sexual desire - I personally think it was the time period? (And it is why I hate that particular time period in literature - it irritates me). And wrote a great deal about sexual repression as did many of his contemporaries - Hawthorn, Wharton, etc. ( Spoilers )

Now, I'm listening to Barbara Streisand's Memoir - "My Name is Barbara" - which she wrote in order to tell her story, her way, and stomp on the lies told about her by various journalists and critics over time. She makes a point of stating that she likes facts and can't stand lies. (Unfortunately we all lie, whether we want to admit, acknowledge or realize it. People tend to twist things to make themselves look good, embellish a story, or fit whatever belief or worldview they have. And they lie to themselves. We see the past as we wish to - and tend to remember it the same. But alas, I'm not sure everyone has figured this out yet? Or is that self-aware?)

Streisand is apparently the same age as mother - 81. I wonder if her son is the same age that I am?

She's reading the book herself - which is excellent. If you plan on listening to a memoir - pick one read by the author, and preferably by an actor - since most people can't read their own work without going into a monotone.

Almost done with Starling House which has been categorized as dark fantasy by Good Reads. I guess that works.

1. More television shows... Entertainment Weekly aka EW online does their breakdown of fifty-six shows returning or new this year

[And folks on FB love Manifest's ending. I don't know, I gave up during the second season - anyone think I should go back to it?]

[And regarding Dancing with the Stars? Guess who two of the contestants are? Allyson Hannigan (Willow from Buffy, and well How I Met Your Mother) and Miro Sorvino. I did a double take regarding Hannigan.)

Here's the one's I'm checking out on the list (there's no way I'm looking at all 56, and honestly, most of them are reality shows, or cop procedurals, which bore me.)
( not that many - because seriously, no time )

2. Television this weekend...

* Next in Fashion on Netflix, Season 1. Kind of a professional version of Project Runway, except more along the lines of Great British Bake Off (let's everyone hug) and less (the Apprentice - everyone is an asshole). These aren't amateurs, these are professionals - on a global level. And the contestants are from around the world. So the fashion is well sewn and not clunky, with professional runway models, and an actual audience. I don't like a lot of it - but I'm a pragmatist when it comes to clothes - it has to be comfortable, and be flattering. Most fashion is neither for me - and only for people who are shaped like fashion models - or clothes hangers.

The winners of the challenge for streetwear - were for well...this:
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And just no. Not my cup of tea.

This episode had a ton of unnecessarily drama because the judges couldn't make up their mind over which designers should go home. When it was kind of obvious. And clearly just a contrived excuse to keep everyone around for the next challenge.

But it's fun to watch while doing something else.

However, they provided some good advice - which is - you only need one yes. So don't let the rejection and the no's kill you. And it's very subjective.

* Foundation on Apple TV - I decided to go back to it, after I slept through the first two episodes last year. It's better. And it gets progressively better as we go. Apparently S2 is really good. Also, I like Lee Pace.

It's adapted from Issac Asimov's Foundation series, which I've never read.
So no clue how close to the original it is. I'm on episode five now.
And the Clone's are kind of interesting - in how each is their own individual. Pace is in a way playing various versions of the same character, as is Terence Mann.

Also the protagonist is interesting - Salvor, who is dealing with the Terminus and weird statue.

* Good Omens S2 - I'm kind of stretching it out. I'm on the fifth episode? There's about eight, I think? It's on Prime. The plot is goofy, but the characters are fun, as is the world-building. I'm not sure Gaiman's plots ever work well, I'm always handwaving them for characters.

3. Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads - is coming back again for the reunion of the Band, 40 years later

( excerpt )

For more - Go HERE (it is under a paywall.)

4. Update on the Wales situation from Last post...
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