Happy Anniversary!!

Exactly one year ago I made the first post on this blog. I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep it going but here we are.

I spent several hours playing with stuff over at Live Journal and right now I'm pretty sure I'll be moving over there at some point in the near future. I want to get it set up the way I want first. Right now the only thing I'd regret losing is the list of links to everyone's blogs. I think there is a way to do it in the template I've picked but I'm going to have to play with it a bit to make sure.

Movie Review: Birth of a Nation

The Birth of a Nation (1915)

I could seriously see a semester long college course built around this movie and I'm gonna try to review it with one post? Yep, try being the operative word.

90% of my TV viewing comes in 15 – 30 minutes chunks as I'm getting ready for work and eating breakfast every morning. When working my way through this 3 hour plus monster I found that the movie is such a study in contrasts that at times it was as if I were watching a different movie each day. I watched the last 45 minutes yesterday mostly in one sitting and watching in in smaller chunks probably helped me make it all the way through since it's a bit hard to digest in larger pieces.

This may be the most influential and important film of the 20^th century. It was the first Hollywood epic historical film. At the time it was made it boasted the longest running time and the highest budget. It set attendance records even though theaters were charging 3 and 4 times the normal admission price to see it. It may have been directly responsible for the revival of the KKK. I can't think of another movie that had such an impact on both the industry AND society.

It continues to have an impact on people today. The librarian at the bookmobile said that she didn't dare check it out herself for fear of what her bosses would think of her.

The movie itself is an odd mess. Even with it's high final production cost, it was still done on a shoestring. To recreate famous battles they only had one field with one trench. They just shot from different angles and relied on lots of smoke bombs and careful placement of actors and set pieces.

Every shot but one was done in one take. Griffith did some test filming of sets and costumes ahead of time to make sure he had the right set up. The actors weren't given scripts, Griffith just narrated the story to them and after a walk trough rolled the cameras. This gives a lot of scenes a realistic spontaneous feel.

It's an interesting snapshot of theater in 1915 The women look much more like everyday women than Hollywood stars. The acting styles vary wildly with some using the over dramatic gestures common on stage at this time, while others have already learned to tone things down for film. The man playing the villain could get work today with no problems.

Some sequences work really well and are good storytelling. Others are very badly done and I laughed out loud at them. Still others are just disturbing in their unvarnished hatefulness.

1915 was the 50^th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. It was to the people of that time as close as WWII is to us today. There were still people alive who remembered the time and it's fascinating to compare how it is presented in this movie with later efforts. This was the Saving Private Ryan of it's day. Gritty reality, extensive research, and a heart tugging story.

Well, reality as far as recreating certain scenes directly from photographs. Relatively realistic depiction of combat as long as you over look the absence of blood. But social reality and plot reality take a bigger and bigger hits as the movie goes on.

It starts out as a pretty straight forward war movie with cliches that were cliche even then. But this was based on a novel called The Clansmen and it's not about “The Birth of a Nation” it's really about the birth of the KKK or at least a fantasy version of it. Once the war is over we get down to depicting reconstruction and how it made a group like the Clan inevitable. That is to say events are slanted in such a way as to try and force the audience into accepting the Clan as not only inevitable, but good.

In order to make the Clan and it's members noble they made any blacks who didn't keep to a subservient role seem either stupid, villainous, threatening, or all of the above. The final catalyst for the forming of the KKK occurs when a black militia Captain asks a young White girl to marry him and she throws herself off a cliff. Her brother founds the group to hunt him down.

The whole sequence is very contrived and is very badly staged. The deeper we get into the pro Clan story the less tightly Griffith kept control of the plot and the more outrageous the depiction of all the Black characters becomes. I found myself alternately laughing at it and cringing from it.

This has been on my list of things to watch in the name of cultural literacy for a long time. I'd recommend others watch it for the same reason but even now that it's public domain I'd hate for it to make any more money so check it out from the library.

Thinking About Moving

Moving the Blog:
The one year anniversary of this blog is fast approaching. I started doing this November 27th of last year. Time flies and all that.

I've started to get a few regular readers who comment on things and I'm getting increasingly dissatisfied with Blogger's comment function. Live Journal seems to handle that sort of thing much better.

I really like Blogger and I'm resistant to change but I will be making a few posts to my LJ account in the next couple of weeks to try out the features there and see if I want to move or not.

If I decide to do it I'll post a forwarding address here.

Moving House:
In the real world I've got to actually move into a new place to live some time soon. In the next 3 months would be best. Next 6 might be doable. If the floor in the bathroom holds up that long.

Moving Out of This Chair:
I had planned to make the rounds of the bank and several places here that deal in modular homes but I have felt increasingly worse over the last few days and I ended up just catching up on various forums while lying in the recliner. It's very frustrating.

I don't know what the heck is wrong this time. I just hurt all over and I have recurring bouts of stomach ache. It feels like flu sort of but I don't have any fever. In fact my temp is lower than normal. Anyway, I had the flu shot.

I have a dozen things that could all be classified as high priorty that I should be doing but maybe I can get to them tomorrow.

Various and Sundry

Yet another potpourri post.

The film Mandy found – I got the disks from Walgreen's last week but every single picture had been saved to the disk upside down, or backwards, or both. I've been pressed for time so I just finished fixing them Sunday. I haven't had time to upload them yet.

None of the costume contest shots came out. It just looks like lots of shots of the backs of the heads of the people sitting in front of us. On the other hand, the Homosassa pics came out pretty well. I'm very happy that my shots of the foxes were on there and look great.

I'll probably post some of my pics at some point in the near future.

Tanner – The thyroid tests were inconclusive so the vet wanted me to take Tanner to the university vet school for an $800 thyroid scan. Discussion with the other vet revealed that while the scan would tell us if it was thyroid or not, it would not tell us what was wrong if it wasn't thyroid. I pointed out that if it was thyroid then it will gradually get worse and doing the $75 blood work again in a couple of months would give us a more definitive answer. If it isn't thyroid then there isn't a whole lot to be done and if he drops dead in six months from heart failure it will not make a difference if we know that at least it wasn't his thyroid. I don't have $800 and I'm not going to put it on my credit card at 20% interest just to satisfy his curiosity.

Tanner continues to look and act perfectly healthy.

I've got to get ready to go over to my cousin's for dinner. I'll finish this up and post it when I get home.

.......

I'm back. I have a full day planed for tomorrow and today is a holiday so of course I feel like death. Everything hurts. I want a new body.

Anyway on with updates and news.

Pet Peeves – I forgot to mention that the phrase “healing light of his cock” was originated in a review of a story in which the guy's equipment really did get all glowey and when it did it gave him some sort of powers but I don't remember what at this point.

Trin: I know what you mean about having to read stuff even though you know the author is headed in a direction that will make you behave like a mad woman and yell at inanimate objects.

Christina: Thank you for the scooper but I have now read TWO stories in which Sess kills Inuyasha after sex and I need some brain matter left. What are these guys? Dog demons or praying mantises??? In the second one Sess changes his mind and uses his magic sword to resurrect Inu. No not THAT sword the actual sword. The same story also features men behaving like teenage girls, OOC behavior to advance the relationship, excessive angst, and incest slash but at least nobody gets raped and sex alone doesn't solve anyone's problems.

I got within 20 feet of a deer yesterday. I was leaving work and I started to unlock my car when I felt like someone was watching me. I looked up and jumped before I realized it was a young deer. I think it was a doe, I didn't check to make sure but it had no horns or buds to form them.

We looked at each other for a few minutes and finally she stomped her hoof and jumped away. It was very cool.

Happy T-Day everyone.

Beauty & Hypocracy

A video showing how they take an average looking woman (but with a good bone structure) and use her as the canvas to create the illusion of great beauty with makeup, lighting, and photoshop.

http://www.videotiger.com/incrediblemakeupvideo.shtml

So after viewing this commentary what do you get if you click on the link below it that says "Now see real beauty"? An incredibly pink page sponsered by Oil of Olay with all sort of tips on how YOU can achieve beauty with liberal use of their products.

Pet Peeves pt. 1

I'm sure there will be further editions as I find material.

The reading period for the IYFG awards is a time when I read little else except nominated stories. This time the new screening process made that much less painful as a record number of nominations didn't make it to the voting list and those that remained were of a higher average quality. There were still stories that, while otherwise well written (or not), contained things that have gone past mildly irritating to me and whose presence is enough for me to not vote for story, or in some cases even read any further.

I have noted on my own, and had my observation supported by comments at Fic Bitches, that there are certain repeating themes that bad or immature writers (not always the same) seem drawn to like flies to a dead horse. Here are some that are getting on my nerves in no particular order:

1. Insta-Angst: Just add characters.

Young people seem to adore wallowing in angst for angst sake. Mature adults have enough real angst in their lives without getting extra doses from their fiction. Insta-Angst is a term I coined when jotting notes down about nominated stories. It refers to the stupid writer's trick of using an increasingly improbable series of coincidences and misunderstandings to maximize the angst quotient in a story beyond what could reasonably be expected given the starting situation and the characters. Not that the characters will stay in character if doing so will reduce the angst.

Now, increasingly improbable coincidences and misunderstandings can be great fun, if you are watching a comedy like Some Like it Hot, but in a Serious Fanfic it's slow torture.

Not an actual plot from any one story but here is the sort of thing I mean. Character A loves B but thinks B doesn't like her in that way even though he does and she overhears gossip that he is going out with C and angsts. Then she tries to distance herself from B and B angsts because she is getting more distant from him and why oh why can't he get up the guts to tell her how he feels even though he is sure she doesn't feel that way and this proves it. This even if in canon A would have immediately confronted B about C or at least verified the gossip before believing it.

Then either A or B nearly dies and the other one sits by the bedside and angsts. Or one of them leaves town to start a new life and both angst about the distance...I can't keep this up. Even in abstract it's making me ill.



2. The healing light of his cock.

I found this phrase at Fic Bitches and despite the public mocking of stories using this concept there and elsewhere it continues to be a favorite with Lemon writers. This is when a character's problems, no matter how serious, are all solved by a roll in the hay with your one true love. Even if he's someone you thought you hated right up until you got naked together. Even if you are a guy who thought he was straight right up until you got naked together.

Entire family murdered brutally? Scared that your father will disown you when he finds out you are gay? Overwhelmed by fear and misguided guilt after being raped? Once you are bathed in the healing light of his cock it will all go away because you will then be soul mates and will be able to face anything together. His love will heal you and make you whole It will probably also fix your credit score, get out tough stains, and reveal the secrets of how to win at poker.

3. Incest slash.

It seems that just putting two men in bed together isn't an illicit thrill anymore so let's kick it up a notch and slash brothers. I'm not sure which is more disturbing, the stories based on brothers who totally don't get along in canon or the ones where they have a close (but not THAT close) relationship.

In Inuyasha fandom Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru are winding up in bed with Inu taking on the submissive role. In one memorable instance (I really wish it weren't, I need that melon baller Christina, STAT) the author does acknowledge the history of warfare between the two by having Sess murder Inu right after intercourse.

Over in Full Metal Alchemist land it's Al and Ed even though Al's body was destroyed in a mystical accident and his soul walks around in a suit of animated armor. It's like writing pr0n about the Tin Man but ickier since in canon Ed is 15 and Al is about 11 or 12. Hey, incest slash isn't enough, you really need underage incest slash for that extra spice. Nevermind how they manage to do anything at all logic is not welcome here.

4. Turning men into teenage girls.

No, not literally. Well, at least not in THIS instance; that story was actually a little funny. I mean slash stories where one of the guys, no matter how macho in canon, inevitably starts behaving like a teenage girl. He becomes weepy, and clingy and utterly co-dependent. He will angst about whether or not his partner really loves him or is just using him for sex. He gets jealous. He starts to cook and clean for his lover. It's really disturbing to see Inuyasha cry over finally being accepted by his brother as they hold each other after sex. It's even more disturbing to see Sesshoumaru and Kouga have a cat fight over him. Stop. Now. Please.

5. Making one half of a canon pair behave OOC to justify breaking them up so one of them can end up with someone else.

Frequently paired with either full blown insta-angst or at least just the improbable coincidence part of it. Writers of this bilge, it doesn't matter if that someone else is another canon character or a Mary Sue, if you have to manipulate things that much to make it work you need to re-think your plot. It is not believable to anyone but you.

6. Rape as foreplay.

Any author who writes a scene that starts out with one character raping another only to have it turn into hot monkey sex with the former victim begging for more needs to be grounded from the computer for a year and be compelled to spend that time helping out at a rape crisis center. Writers of these stories tend to be female and young. Scary ain't it?

Some of these plots show up in pro fic too and people get paid for it. That's nearly as scary.

Single in Chicago? Why not settle for Brian?

http://settleforbrian.com/

Brian is single. He's frustrated with online dating so he's set up his own website listing his pros and cons with both flattering and unflattering pictures. He's got imagination and initiative I'll give him that.

Best line on the whole site:

"So let's be clear here. You are not going to marry a guy who looks like Colin Farrell, is tough but sensitive, smart, funny, charms every room he's in, and pulls in the big bucks. I know you really want to meet that guy. I wish you could find him. I really do. But there's only like 4 of those guys in the world, and they're already taken. I'm sorry to tell you this, but it's time to think about settling."

Movie Review: Dark Command

Dark Command (1940)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032383/

John Wayne and Roy Rogers made a movie together. That should be sufficient to get you to the video store or Netflix NOW if you haven't already seen it.

If that's not enough Roy was 27 (and playing younger) and extremely adorable.

The bad guy is Walter Pidgeon, and Gabby Hayes is comic relief. There are wonderful stunts by Yakima Canute throughout.

There is also a blond rich bitch love interest who I really wished would catch a stray bullet and die with beautiful angst but you can't have everything.

The plot is pure formula and just serves to provide opportunities for great lines like:

Mary: I thought they bred men of flesh and blood in Texas. I was wrong. You're made of granite!
Bob Seeton (John Wayne): No, Mary, just common clay. It bakes kind of hard in Texas.

Ma Cantrell: You're no good, Will.
Willam Cantrell: I've killed men for saying less than that!
Ma Cantrell: You've killed a lot of men for saying nothing at all!

Fun With David Blaine

If you're like me you're really, really, tired of Blaine with his assinine stunts and smirky attitude. So watch this.

The Pictures!

Here you go:

http://tinyurl.com/y8m4y4

About 2/3 of the pictures I took didn't come out due to bad lighting and my camera's sudden decision to wait a second after the button was pushed to take the picture. I got several nice shots of the walls and carpet that way.

I know that there is a way to set the camera for low light and it didn't pause before so there must be a way to change it back but I didn't have the book along so I was out of luck.

Mandy found three undeveloped rolls from last year when she packed and I'm picking those up from Walgreen's today after work. Expect them when you see them. It's taken longer than I expected to get these up since Firefox has gone wonky, they take forever to load on dial up, and I'm busy with fanguild and WASIF stuff lately.

I'm particularly proud of the first picture. Does anyone think it's good enough to post at DA with my flower pics?

Where are the Pics?

I have just finished uploading the 26 Necronomicon pictures. It took a minimum of 5 minutes each thanks to me being on dial up and browser glitches. Apparently Photobucket plays better with IE than Firefox. I'd heard that 2.0 could freeze up completely but it's the first time I've had it happen in the couple of months I've been using Firefox.

Anyway, it's 10 minutes 'til bedtime so creating something coherent with commentary and/or captions will have to wait until I get home from work tomorrow.

Brrrr

It was 48 in my living room when I got up. Okay you Yankees stop laughing. When yesterday was a beautiful day in the mid-seventies waking up to 48 was a bit of a shock. It's supposed to warm up and be another nice day but right now I'm huddled in my fuzzy robe with the Tanner cat and a cup of tea wishing my heater worked faster.

So, random catch up post stuff:

This week has been really hectic. It's almost not worth it to take time off work. They just slam you with all the stuff you weren't there to do when you get back. We had the big quarterly meeting that I'm support for this week just to add to the fun.

Weeee! TGITWE!

At some point today I swear I'll get the Necro pics up and decide which ones to post. Note to Mandy, Those rolls from last year that you found while packing have been dropped off but they won't be back until Wednesday because Walgreen's is waiting for a part for their processor. I remember some of the shots that should be on there but I'm sure there will be some fun surprises.

The flock of wild turkeys that made frequent appearances two years ago has come back. I couldn't get close enough to get a good picture darn it. I'll keep an eye out and try again. I wonder where they have been? Are turkeys migratory?

The afore mentioned Tanner has a heart murmur. The vet did an ultrasound and found that he has an enlarged heart muscle. No idea why yet. They pulled blood for a thyroid panel but I haven't heard back on it.

I find it hard to believe he is hyper thyroid since he is a solid 9 pounds + but that puts him thinner than Pye, who I think of as a small cat, and some of his bulk is hair. When he sat on my chest last night and put all his weight in one small area of my sternum it felt like he weighed a ton.

If it is thyroid, I'm more worried for me than him. He HATES pills and I like my fingers. I've got a pill popper but it doesn't work that well. Or I don't use it that well. Take your pick.

I'm having frustration dreams. You know where you are trying to do something and keep getting interrupted and things that are simple are difficult? Like you need to call someone and it take 5 tries to get the number punched in and just as you do someone walks in and you have to hang up. I also was trying to get packets of paper organized at one point and kept loosing track of where I was due to interruptions.

The sad thing is that this is such an accurate reflexion of work this week that it feels like I'm working a lot more hours than I did.

I need to go make some more tea.

Pictures Will Have to Wait

This week is turning out to be insane so I'm not even going to try and organize the pictures until Saturday. I may have the ones from last year from the cameras that Mandy found by then too.