things.
I got a blackberry for christmas and have since been spending like 80% more time away from my computer or something ridiculous, because now (cue choirs of angels) i can check email and access the internet from everywhere. except i can still barely type on it, lol. i tried to update lj from the movie theatre tonight and i kept accidentally activating the camera instead. life.
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I saw Tale of Despereaux and I have to say that it... really annoyed me. It had charming moments but it wasn't quite good enough a film to override the parts that just really got to me. Namely: wow, could this film be any more eurocentric? No.
A) "Ratland", which was the underworld in the dungeons, seemed to be based off the orient: it was introduced with a switch to an "exotic" soundtrack with all these eastern harmonies, and there were what looked to be things resembling chinese junks and vietnamese stilt houses.
B) Over and over again, the denizens of Ratland were presented as vicious savages, and Ratland itself as a place with no light, literally constantly dark.
C) The one nice guy who lives in Ratland (really, there's only one) isn't actually from Ratland - he's a "gentleman" rat who dresses in a double-breasted coat and insists on eating "normal" food and not living off scraps and insects/worms like the rest of the rats.
D) Where is he from? He's from Up Above, literally, in the kingdom above ground - the kingdom that's decorated completely in white (seriously), and comprised entirely of White People who alternate between English, French, and Italian accents. Seriously, there are no non-white people anywhere in this film. The only place that isn't white is the lowly Ratland, where all the rats are black.
IT SERIOUSLY ANNOYED ME SO BADLY. And I really wanted to be charmed by the film, but seriously. And that's not all.
They took one of only three female characters in the film (there are *hundreds* of male characters), made her a fat girl, and gave her low self-esteem and an obsession with beauty and a secret bitterness towards Emma Watson pretty popular girls. I am dead serious. dsfkj;asdf. This is a children's film. Would it have been so hard to put in a little diversity?
Thanks for reminding me why Avatar was, what was it? Oh, yeah. Groundbreaking. In part because Disney is off making crap like this.
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on a completely different subject, I love hitchcock films so much. I've been steadily watching/re-watching a lot of his early films, and I'm blown away at how many obviously queer characters he put into his early films. Even the silent films and those in the early 30's had these fantastic, well-done queer-coded characters, and it's so fantastic that they're just sort of there - sometimes for comedy but often just because Hitch is clearly obsessed with sexuality in all forms. There's a scene in The Lady Vanishes where two rather effeminate British men are shown sitting in bed together, cozy together as you please - one we see with his shirt off, the other we see with no pants. There's a woman in The Farmer's Wife who wears men's hats, suits, and ties, and rejects a proposal of marriage from a man, ostensibly because she's too independent for him. (Unrelatedly, there's another who hilariously announces "You are the first man to rise to my sex challenge!" I laughed and laughed, wtf wtf.)
And there's a scene between two women from the silent film Easy Virtue that I think is just stunning and sensual and I wish so much I could burn it for you (but I lost the dvd argh) so I could show you. TLDR version: I love Hitchcock. <3
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Dreamhost is giving me two weeks to get rid of all my "non-essential" content, wtf, or they are suspending my account. JOY.
At least they're giving me the chance to clear it out first.
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I am still trying to reply to the reviews for my Die Hard fic. I just want to say thanks to the universe again, because my jaw is still on the floor, and, wow, there's nothing like starting the new year off with fic. <3
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I say this all the time, but oh my god, you guys, the Devil Wears Prada fandom is incredible. Reading the fanfic is basically like having an orgasm. Yeah, it pretty much is just like that.
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one of my still-fresh year's resolutions is to read all the books i own; and also not to buy a new book (sorry border's, i know you're having a meltdown, but we'll get through it together, baby) until i've finished one i already own.
When my mom was little she made me (i don't know) read Life's Little Instruction Book, and the only instruction I remember was "buy great books even if you never read them." I thought it was ridiculous, because what's the point of buying a book you never read? Undoubtedly that's why I've taken it to heart so well, because my bookshelves are full of books I haven't finished or haven't even started. But this is the year. I will triumph! ...or librarything will profit off my failure, one or the other. :(
Anyway: the first book of the New Year that I am determined to finish:
_______
I saw Tale of Despereaux and I have to say that it... really annoyed me. It had charming moments but it wasn't quite good enough a film to override the parts that just really got to me. Namely: wow, could this film be any more eurocentric? No.
A) "Ratland", which was the underworld in the dungeons, seemed to be based off the orient: it was introduced with a switch to an "exotic" soundtrack with all these eastern harmonies, and there were what looked to be things resembling chinese junks and vietnamese stilt houses.
B) Over and over again, the denizens of Ratland were presented as vicious savages, and Ratland itself as a place with no light, literally constantly dark.
C) The one nice guy who lives in Ratland (really, there's only one) isn't actually from Ratland - he's a "gentleman" rat who dresses in a double-breasted coat and insists on eating "normal" food and not living off scraps and insects/worms like the rest of the rats.
D) Where is he from? He's from Up Above, literally, in the kingdom above ground - the kingdom that's decorated completely in white (seriously), and comprised entirely of White People who alternate between English, French, and Italian accents. Seriously, there are no non-white people anywhere in this film. The only place that isn't white is the lowly Ratland, where all the rats are black.
IT SERIOUSLY ANNOYED ME SO BADLY. And I really wanted to be charmed by the film, but seriously. And that's not all.
They took one of only three female characters in the film (there are *hundreds* of male characters), made her a fat girl, and gave her low self-esteem and an obsession with beauty and a secret bitterness towards Emma Watson pretty popular girls. I am dead serious. dsfkj;asdf. This is a children's film. Would it have been so hard to put in a little diversity?
Thanks for reminding me why Avatar was, what was it? Oh, yeah. Groundbreaking. In part because Disney is off making crap like this.
_____
on a completely different subject, I love hitchcock films so much. I've been steadily watching/re-watching a lot of his early films, and I'm blown away at how many obviously queer characters he put into his early films. Even the silent films and those in the early 30's had these fantastic, well-done queer-coded characters, and it's so fantastic that they're just sort of there - sometimes for comedy but often just because Hitch is clearly obsessed with sexuality in all forms. There's a scene in The Lady Vanishes where two rather effeminate British men are shown sitting in bed together, cozy together as you please - one we see with his shirt off, the other we see with no pants. There's a woman in The Farmer's Wife who wears men's hats, suits, and ties, and rejects a proposal of marriage from a man, ostensibly because she's too independent for him. (Unrelatedly, there's another who hilariously announces "You are the first man to rise to my sex challenge!" I laughed and laughed, wtf wtf.)
And there's a scene between two women from the silent film Easy Virtue that I think is just stunning and sensual and I wish so much I could burn it for you (but I lost the dvd argh) so I could show you. TLDR version: I love Hitchcock. <3
_______
Dreamhost is giving me two weeks to get rid of all my "non-essential" content, wtf, or they are suspending my account. JOY.
At least they're giving me the chance to clear it out first.
______
I am still trying to reply to the reviews for my Die Hard fic. I just want to say thanks to the universe again, because my jaw is still on the floor, and, wow, there's nothing like starting the new year off with fic. <3
______
I say this all the time, but oh my god, you guys, the Devil Wears Prada fandom is incredible. Reading the fanfic is basically like having an orgasm. Yeah, it pretty much is just like that.
______
one of my still-fresh year's resolutions is to read all the books i own; and also not to buy a new book (sorry border's, i know you're having a meltdown, but we'll get through it together, baby) until i've finished one i already own.
When my mom was little she made me (i don't know) read Life's Little Instruction Book, and the only instruction I remember was "buy great books even if you never read them." I thought it was ridiculous, because what's the point of buying a book you never read? Undoubtedly that's why I've taken it to heart so well, because my bookshelves are full of books I haven't finished or haven't even started. But this is the year. I will triumph! ...or librarything will profit off my failure, one or the other. :(
Anyway: the first book of the New Year that I am determined to finish: