My job searching is done for the day, I've eaten a hefty salad, I've finished this week's ComicMix column and I've even written another page or so in Megillat Vashti. I feel my writing muscles returning, and have resolved not to neglect that aspect of my life whilst searching for a permanent full-time position with benefits. If I put my mind to it I could do both easily! Of course, then blogging (at least blog-reading) might go by the wayside, but I'm not as caught up in all of this as many of the folks I read. I like blogging, but it's always going to be a hobby for me, I'm never going to be like one of these people. (And honestly, anything calling blogging a modern-day equivalent of sweatshops has a tremendous lack of historical perspective, and insults the memory of the men, women and children who really did labor under horrid conditions. I'm sorry, not comparable in any way, shape or form to eager geeks who choose to park their posteriors at computer terminals cranking out posts for $7 per.) That said, right now I feel like catching up:
• I agree with Lis, this is a very cool promo:
• Used to be, a good ear for different characters' "voices" was essential for a comic book writer. But that was before the current Cult of Personality age, wherein a number of popular writers put whatever words they want to in the mouths of characters that may as well be interchangeable. If the writer has a strong enough personality, he (almost inevitably "he") can get away with it for a time, but after awhile a tin ear tends to piss off discerning readers by shattering their ability to become absorbed in the story. (That's assuming, of course, that the writer even intends to tell a story, rather than making a series of in-jokes winking at his own cleverness.) Lisa Fortuner takes exception to the way Brian Bendis puts sexist words in Doctor Doom's mouth in some Avengers comic I don't read. Kevin Church agrees, and shows how to dialogue the same panel with much more finesse -- sure it's still sexist language, it's supposed to be (he's a badguy!), but it's imperious and slightly antiquated and perfectly "within" the established characterization, rather than the crude, possibly Miller-inspired "Goddamned Batman" school of clunkiness. And of course Bully has a ball making other suggestions of dialogue that would be very wrong in that panel. Lastly, Val gives more examples of inappropriate-to-the-character dialogue from the a recent Buffy comic. Given that we have seven seasons worth of Allison Hannigan's acting and dialogue by which to judge this writing, this kind of thing is bound to be scrutinized even more than the words of characters who've never existed outside of a comic book page.
• Meanwhile, real life also features characters saying things entirely inappropriate to what I'd previously assumed their personas to be. Over at HuffPo, Randi Rhodes' stand-up routine wherein she called Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro "fucking whores" (rather than umpteen other things she could have said about politicians with which she agreed, like "misguided liars" or other epithets that would have had nothing to do with their double-x chromosomes) is justifiably pilloried by Earl Ofari Hutchinson (who's quickly becoming a HuffPo must-read for me) and Bill Press. I used to love Randi, I even called her my goddess a few times in this blog. But wow, this was so far beyond the pale, particularly for a feminist progressive working in liberal radio, that I'm still reeling.
• Sometimes, of course, culture informs reality. Leigh confesses to some important lessons she learned via Hollywood. (By the way, congratulations to Leigh on being published in the Joss Whedon Nothing But Red antho!) And Jill links to this interesting piece by Peter Sagal on NPR's site about the daughters of Whoville's mayor in the new Horton movie, which also prompted a response from BetaCandy at The Hathor Legacy about reactions to pointing out sexism in children's entertainment.
• Giblets makes the case for blowing up the moon. I'm so glad Fafblog is back to save the universe!
• Via Neil Gaiman, this made me laugh far more than I felt I should have. Ahem. I think I need a cold shower now.
• Over at Corrente, chicago dyke points out something that can't be said enough -- our media, both old and new, keeps thinking this presidential campaign is all about them. Zuzu's put her finger on why a lot of Obama supporters are freaking her out -- to many, particularly those who treat this as one big game rather than something that will affect millions of lives, it's just another form of fandom. And fandom often blinds its adherents to anything negative about their chosen idols, and anything positive about anyone who isn't in their circle. In this particular case, it translates into parsing everything Clinton says even when it's discovered she's told the truth and the media has lied, and rarely examining Obama with anything near that kind of scrutiny (and do check out the video passed along at the end of that link to eriposte's post). When he's been "attacked" at all, it's most often been on cheap-shot unimportant "personality" stuff like his smoking or bad bowling. Meanwhile, Steve Soto joins the chorus of those of us who miss the promise of a return to responsible journalism that Keith Olbermann once represented. The Hillary Hatred is like the stupid, it just keeps on burning. (Insert usual disclaimer here reminding folks that neither Clinton nor Obama is particularly progressive and that I cast my vote for Obama in the NY primary largely on the strength of his eloquence and mostly because Edwards had dropped out of the race by that point.)
• My ex-husband passes along a very important video about the continuing American heartbreak that is the Centralia, PA tragedy.
• Both Lance and LowerManhattanite give Chuck Heston his due.
• Mustang Bobby has been kind enough to praise my blogarounds in the past, but he has a pretty comprehensive one here that's well worth your perusal.
• August doesn't get the whole Hell's Kitchen thing. I don't either; promos for that show turned me off to the whole idea of reality-show cooking competitions for a long time, and I now regret not having watched the first couple seasons of Top Chef, which is guilty of none of Hell's excesses as described by August: "The host of the show is a belligerent maniac who verbally (and apparently as close to physically as the law allows) assaults the contestants to the point of physically and emotionally crippling them." This ain't entertainment to me, either.
• Via Henry at Crooked Timber, the "Colbert bump" can now be scientifically proven.
• Lastly, an important announcement from Liss.
I know the time stamp says 3 PM or so but by the time I finished the post it was past 6:30 and I'm off to make dinner...
• I agree with Lis, this is a very cool promo:
• Used to be, a good ear for different characters' "voices" was essential for a comic book writer. But that was before the current Cult of Personality age, wherein a number of popular writers put whatever words they want to in the mouths of characters that may as well be interchangeable. If the writer has a strong enough personality, he (almost inevitably "he") can get away with it for a time, but after awhile a tin ear tends to piss off discerning readers by shattering their ability to become absorbed in the story. (That's assuming, of course, that the writer even intends to tell a story, rather than making a series of in-jokes winking at his own cleverness.) Lisa Fortuner takes exception to the way Brian Bendis puts sexist words in Doctor Doom's mouth in some Avengers comic I don't read. Kevin Church agrees, and shows how to dialogue the same panel with much more finesse -- sure it's still sexist language, it's supposed to be (he's a badguy!), but it's imperious and slightly antiquated and perfectly "within" the established characterization, rather than the crude, possibly Miller-inspired "Goddamned Batman" school of clunkiness. And of course Bully has a ball making other suggestions of dialogue that would be very wrong in that panel. Lastly, Val gives more examples of inappropriate-to-the-character dialogue from the a recent Buffy comic. Given that we have seven seasons worth of Allison Hannigan's acting and dialogue by which to judge this writing, this kind of thing is bound to be scrutinized even more than the words of characters who've never existed outside of a comic book page.
• Meanwhile, real life also features characters saying things entirely inappropriate to what I'd previously assumed their personas to be. Over at HuffPo, Randi Rhodes' stand-up routine wherein she called Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro "fucking whores" (rather than umpteen other things she could have said about politicians with which she agreed, like "misguided liars" or other epithets that would have had nothing to do with their double-x chromosomes) is justifiably pilloried by Earl Ofari Hutchinson (who's quickly becoming a HuffPo must-read for me) and Bill Press. I used to love Randi, I even called her my goddess a few times in this blog. But wow, this was so far beyond the pale, particularly for a feminist progressive working in liberal radio, that I'm still reeling.
• Sometimes, of course, culture informs reality. Leigh confesses to some important lessons she learned via Hollywood. (By the way, congratulations to Leigh on being published in the Joss Whedon Nothing But Red antho!) And Jill links to this interesting piece by Peter Sagal on NPR's site about the daughters of Whoville's mayor in the new Horton movie, which also prompted a response from BetaCandy at The Hathor Legacy about reactions to pointing out sexism in children's entertainment.
• Giblets makes the case for blowing up the moon. I'm so glad Fafblog is back to save the universe!
• Via Neil Gaiman, this made me laugh far more than I felt I should have. Ahem. I think I need a cold shower now.
• Over at Corrente, chicago dyke points out something that can't be said enough -- our media, both old and new, keeps thinking this presidential campaign is all about them. Zuzu's put her finger on why a lot of Obama supporters are freaking her out -- to many, particularly those who treat this as one big game rather than something that will affect millions of lives, it's just another form of fandom. And fandom often blinds its adherents to anything negative about their chosen idols, and anything positive about anyone who isn't in their circle. In this particular case, it translates into parsing everything Clinton says even when it's discovered she's told the truth and the media has lied, and rarely examining Obama with anything near that kind of scrutiny (and do check out the video passed along at the end of that link to eriposte's post). When he's been "attacked" at all, it's most often been on cheap-shot unimportant "personality" stuff like his smoking or bad bowling. Meanwhile, Steve Soto joins the chorus of those of us who miss the promise of a return to responsible journalism that Keith Olbermann once represented. The Hillary Hatred is like the stupid, it just keeps on burning. (Insert usual disclaimer here reminding folks that neither Clinton nor Obama is particularly progressive and that I cast my vote for Obama in the NY primary largely on the strength of his eloquence and mostly because Edwards had dropped out of the race by that point.)
• My ex-husband passes along a very important video about the continuing American heartbreak that is the Centralia, PA tragedy.
• Both Lance and LowerManhattanite give Chuck Heston his due.
• Mustang Bobby has been kind enough to praise my blogarounds in the past, but he has a pretty comprehensive one here that's well worth your perusal.
• August doesn't get the whole Hell's Kitchen thing. I don't either; promos for that show turned me off to the whole idea of reality-show cooking competitions for a long time, and I now regret not having watched the first couple seasons of Top Chef, which is guilty of none of Hell's excesses as described by August: "The host of the show is a belligerent maniac who verbally (and apparently as close to physically as the law allows) assaults the contestants to the point of physically and emotionally crippling them." This ain't entertainment to me, either.
• Via Henry at Crooked Timber, the "Colbert bump" can now be scientifically proven.
• Lastly, an important announcement from Liss.
I know the time stamp says 3 PM or so but by the time I finished the post it was past 6:30 and I'm off to make dinner...
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