(no subject)
* Not only did we bomb a Doctors Without Borders hospital for no discernible reason, our planes strafed fleeing survivors.
* Look, y'all know I don't approve of Marco Rubio's politics, but the attacks on his finances seem pretty unfair to me. He has done nothing illegal and the mistakes around credit card use are reasonable ones he made good. Did he do some things he shouldn't? Yes, but it would be hard to find politician of either party who didn't make similar mistakes early on in their career and he was cleared in an investigation that did put at least one person who was corrupt in jail. The other attacks on him that amount to demonizing him for being middle class rather than being born rich and look like classicist assholery.
Again, not a fan in any way shape or form. If I did think he was corrupt, I'd be all over it. (I haven't forgotten Chris Christie misappropriating Sandy Relief funds to help his developer friends instead of working class home owners for example.) If I thought this was substantive and not rich people mocking someone for not being rich, I'd be all over him like I was on former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, but this looks like a nothing burger to me. There is always a chance something new will come to light that changes my opinion, but right now this looks like Trump trumping up scandal to attack a rival.
* "Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Social Security and Marco Rubio:"
* TW: Rape, rape Culture. "Man Sexually Assaults His Wife At Church Because He Thinks Spousal Rape Isn’t Real:" http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/11/03/man-assaults-wife-church/
* "Sheriff to staff: Stop arresting children on prostitution charges, stop saying 'child prostitute':" http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sheriff-children-sex-trafficking-20151021-story.html
* "Viggo Mortensen defends Quentin Tarantino:"
* "Life after Ebola: The survivors facing health problems and grief:" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34728583
* "Little Known Black History Fact: The Muse Brothers:" http://blackamericaweb.com/2014/05/06/little-known-black-history-fact-the-muse-brothers/
* Really interesting linguistic thing. "How Capicola Became Gabagool: The Italian New Jersey Accent, Explained:" http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-capicola-became-gabagool-the-italian-new-jersey-accent-explained
* "Rock Hill, SC, witness to history, change, and the Friendship 9:"
* "Fox News on Cop's Suicide & Bread Bowl of Troof:"
Get More: Comedy Central,Funny Videos,Funny TV Shows
* "Nebraska Republicans Squash the Death Penalty:"
Get More: Comedy Central,Funny Videos,Funny TV Shows
* "100 Years of Beauty: USA Men - Research Behind the Looks:"
* Tonight I drank some of the Darjeeling my ex-lover sent. It is soooo good.
* Today was podcast. The next bit is going to be really hard, because the events are so terrible. I thought we cut off in good time, as we all needed to get groceries, but the sauerkraut was hiding, and the checkout line was long. I ended up spending $8.00 to much and didn't get a tofurkey. I took the boys home, but when I got out of the car to unload the groceries, I discovered my left leg was no longer load bearing. I made it inside before it gave out entirely and the other one started to fail. Squirrel brought the groceries in, but it was a race to try to get the perishables away while using two crutches and mobbed by cats before the other leg gave and the damaged bits of spine reached unbearable. I did eventually get the cats settled in for a nap, but I feel like I've let myself down abandoning three partial bags of groceries around the kitchen. The pain is startling even with the scaled up meds, but I can manage bathroom runs without serious risk of falls as long as I don't dawdle. Usually there is some sort of warning before this level of physical dysfunction, but tonight there was none at all. Really, I should have got out the wheelchair, but I was scared if I stopped to sort it I might not get up again. Chronic pain is funny this way: I was tooling around fine at the store, using the grocery cart as a walker; 20 minutes later I was struggling to stand and doing so in great pain. Remember this next time you see someone getting judgey about someone standing up out of their wheelchair to reach something. Disability isn't always how it is depicted on TV.
* I finally got a chance to sample Rome. It came out when my TV access consisted of one fuzzy channel out of Canada, and I do not like starting things in the middle. Also, after the Troy debacle I am fundamentally wary of anything mainstream and ancient world. (They were lovers, not platonic cousins! *shake fist*). I was wary. I sampled part of the first episode of Spartacus last summer and found it unwatchable. I am someone who finds the white, undecorated walls in I, Claudius incredibly distracting and who gave up on Merlin two episodes in because so many of the sets and costumes are so bad and them neither settling on a period, nor doing generic fantasy was quietly driving me up a wall. (Seriously, in 1000 years of western Medieval clothing, no woman wore a dress anything like that one particular one. Why is that one guy in 13th century gear, but that buildling 15th century or later? The other way around would have been fine as architecture persists, but.... And then there were the terrible castle sets. I kept staring at the walls trying to figure out why they were all concrete blocks and where were the tapestries or hangings if they had a castle that big and fancy and late period. Did Uthor blow his whole budget on fiber glass prefab castle bits from the future and have nothing left to make things cozy? I know, I know, fantasy alternate reality England with dragons and magic, but I could not let it go. I loved the casting in general, the choice to go historically accurate with the diversity, and the acting. I really didn't like the plot or the writing. If they were better, I likely wouldn't have been quite so passionate about hater tops and set decoration. As it was my brain would not stop).
Anyway, I was instantly charmed by the opening credits. I loved the use of real roman art and animated graffiti. I looked how much more colourful and lived in Rome looked than it generally does in movies or TV shows. This just looked so much more like the Rome I imagine based on archaeological evidence and expert recreations. The people designing this Rome clearly looked at Pompeii and Herculaneum. They really made an effort to make the city look alive. I liked that even though they did not make the city or the legions as diverse as we think they were, they did try to show that the city was cosmopolitan and it's people came from a wide variety of places. It's not enough, but the effort is more than most people manage.
Those who've been subjected to the long form of either my Troy rant or my Braveheart rant, or my Hobbit rant or my Game of Thrones complaints will likely assume I am a hard ass about historical or literary adaptations, but remember I'm also someone who thinks the Streep/Malchovich Dangerous Liaisons is geometrically better than the book and that Dexter the series blows most of the books out of the water. Adaptation of both historical and literary works is an art form in itself. Things often need to be simplified or telescoped. Chracters or historical personages often need to be cut or combined or alternately fleshed out. With book adaptations, some characters are nearly all interior monologue whih is hard to translate. With history their are gaps, or contradictions, or multiple theories as to motives and what actually happened. There are completely legitimate reasons to change things, or pick one interpretation over another, or to fill in based on best guesses. Where I get shirty is where what they do is nonsense (Ken Follet's book, Pillars of the Earth, I'm looking at you), fundamental violations of character or theme (Braveheart, Troy, GoT), clumsy grafting on of new material that doesn't fit (Romance in the Hobbit, that stupid extra song in the movie Les Miserables). I am forgiving of changes that tighten the narrative, deepen understanding, move a character into the center of the action in a way that is logical (Sharpe stories generally for example) or are necessary for time and budget, but retain theme, character integrity, and sense.
I got to watch two episodes before having to send it back and am already in line for more. They are measured and thoughtful about the changes they made, such as demoting the historical Pollo to Legionnaire for both dramatic tension and to show a foot soldier as a main character instead of having two centurions, or having the centurion character married with permission instead of illicitly so as to show certain things about domestic life for ordinary people instead of making the show all about the nobles. Fleshing out the Plebeian characters and bending the rules a little so as to provide more representation of non-nobles is the sort of change I'm okay with in things like this. I actually really appreciate them going to the effort to make sure ordinary people are there to balance out all the Patricians, and I'm okay with a little bending to make that happen. I loved the characters drawing graffiti and the obliquity of it in the set designs. I really am comfortable with the changes I spotted and was charmed by things like them remembering to dress Cato in mourning. I admit to wishing the characters were easier to match names with faces in spots, but I picked up the important ones quickly enough. The people who made this clearly cared about what they were doing and were trying hard to make it right. That goes a long way with me.
Do I enjoy all the heterosexual joyless (and often rape or rape adjacent) fucking? Not particularly, but with the exception of the bathing scene, which appeared to be about the very different cultural attitude towards nudity, there is... not quite gender parity, but something close to it on the nudity. I can think of a lot of things the show runners are likely trying to say with their use of sex: Roman cultural norms around it; the relentless patriarchy and rape culture that played into it. I am wary given my experience of Game of Thrones, but I'm willing to stick a pin in it until I have a larger sample size of shows to judge from, especially since so much of what they are doing as far as historical accuracy and adaptation is so well researched and thought out. They do seem to have a good grasp of period power dynamics and the gendered way power was exercised by both women and men, and depiction doesn't necessarily mean endorsement.
So over all I am hopeful and have mostly liked what I've seen so far, with some caveats.
* It just dawned on me that I want an Addams Family reboot starring Antonio Bandaras and Gina Torres as Gomez and Morticia.
* Watch me lose my shit about medieval history in the comments: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/132583546522/what-did-you-think-of-danys-im-not-a
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
This entry was originally posted at http://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/570193.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
* Look, y'all know I don't approve of Marco Rubio's politics, but the attacks on his finances seem pretty unfair to me. He has done nothing illegal and the mistakes around credit card use are reasonable ones he made good. Did he do some things he shouldn't? Yes, but it would be hard to find politician of either party who didn't make similar mistakes early on in their career and he was cleared in an investigation that did put at least one person who was corrupt in jail. The other attacks on him that amount to demonizing him for being middle class rather than being born rich and look like classicist assholery.
Again, not a fan in any way shape or form. If I did think he was corrupt, I'd be all over it. (I haven't forgotten Chris Christie misappropriating Sandy Relief funds to help his developer friends instead of working class home owners for example.) If I thought this was substantive and not rich people mocking someone for not being rich, I'd be all over him like I was on former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, but this looks like a nothing burger to me. There is always a chance something new will come to light that changes my opinion, but right now this looks like Trump trumping up scandal to attack a rival.
* "Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Social Security and Marco Rubio:"
* TW: Rape, rape Culture. "Man Sexually Assaults His Wife At Church Because He Thinks Spousal Rape Isn’t Real:" http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/11/03/man-assaults-wife-church/
* "Sheriff to staff: Stop arresting children on prostitution charges, stop saying 'child prostitute':" http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sheriff-children-sex-trafficking-20151021-story.html
* "Viggo Mortensen defends Quentin Tarantino:"
* "Life after Ebola: The survivors facing health problems and grief:" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34728583
* "Little Known Black History Fact: The Muse Brothers:" http://blackamericaweb.com/2014/05/06/little-known-black-history-fact-the-muse-brothers/
* Really interesting linguistic thing. "How Capicola Became Gabagool: The Italian New Jersey Accent, Explained:" http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-capicola-became-gabagool-the-italian-new-jersey-accent-explained
* "Rock Hill, SC, witness to history, change, and the Friendship 9:"
* "Fox News on Cop's Suicide & Bread Bowl of Troof:"
Get More: Comedy Central,Funny Videos,Funny TV Shows
* "Nebraska Republicans Squash the Death Penalty:"
Get More: Comedy Central,Funny Videos,Funny TV Shows
* "100 Years of Beauty: USA Men - Research Behind the Looks:"
Click to view* Tonight I drank some of the Darjeeling my ex-lover sent. It is soooo good.
* Today was podcast. The next bit is going to be really hard, because the events are so terrible. I thought we cut off in good time, as we all needed to get groceries, but the sauerkraut was hiding, and the checkout line was long. I ended up spending $8.00 to much and didn't get a tofurkey. I took the boys home, but when I got out of the car to unload the groceries, I discovered my left leg was no longer load bearing. I made it inside before it gave out entirely and the other one started to fail. Squirrel brought the groceries in, but it was a race to try to get the perishables away while using two crutches and mobbed by cats before the other leg gave and the damaged bits of spine reached unbearable. I did eventually get the cats settled in for a nap, but I feel like I've let myself down abandoning three partial bags of groceries around the kitchen. The pain is startling even with the scaled up meds, but I can manage bathroom runs without serious risk of falls as long as I don't dawdle. Usually there is some sort of warning before this level of physical dysfunction, but tonight there was none at all. Really, I should have got out the wheelchair, but I was scared if I stopped to sort it I might not get up again. Chronic pain is funny this way: I was tooling around fine at the store, using the grocery cart as a walker; 20 minutes later I was struggling to stand and doing so in great pain. Remember this next time you see someone getting judgey about someone standing up out of their wheelchair to reach something. Disability isn't always how it is depicted on TV.
* I finally got a chance to sample Rome. It came out when my TV access consisted of one fuzzy channel out of Canada, and I do not like starting things in the middle. Also, after the Troy debacle I am fundamentally wary of anything mainstream and ancient world. (They were lovers, not platonic cousins! *shake fist*). I was wary. I sampled part of the first episode of Spartacus last summer and found it unwatchable. I am someone who finds the white, undecorated walls in I, Claudius incredibly distracting and who gave up on Merlin two episodes in because so many of the sets and costumes are so bad and them neither settling on a period, nor doing generic fantasy was quietly driving me up a wall. (Seriously, in 1000 years of western Medieval clothing, no woman wore a dress anything like that one particular one. Why is that one guy in 13th century gear, but that buildling 15th century or later? The other way around would have been fine as architecture persists, but.... And then there were the terrible castle sets. I kept staring at the walls trying to figure out why they were all concrete blocks and where were the tapestries or hangings if they had a castle that big and fancy and late period. Did Uthor blow his whole budget on fiber glass prefab castle bits from the future and have nothing left to make things cozy? I know, I know, fantasy alternate reality England with dragons and magic, but I could not let it go. I loved the casting in general, the choice to go historically accurate with the diversity, and the acting. I really didn't like the plot or the writing. If they were better, I likely wouldn't have been quite so passionate about hater tops and set decoration. As it was my brain would not stop).
Anyway, I was instantly charmed by the opening credits. I loved the use of real roman art and animated graffiti. I looked how much more colourful and lived in Rome looked than it generally does in movies or TV shows. This just looked so much more like the Rome I imagine based on archaeological evidence and expert recreations. The people designing this Rome clearly looked at Pompeii and Herculaneum. They really made an effort to make the city look alive. I liked that even though they did not make the city or the legions as diverse as we think they were, they did try to show that the city was cosmopolitan and it's people came from a wide variety of places. It's not enough, but the effort is more than most people manage.
Those who've been subjected to the long form of either my Troy rant or my Braveheart rant, or my Hobbit rant or my Game of Thrones complaints will likely assume I am a hard ass about historical or literary adaptations, but remember I'm also someone who thinks the Streep/Malchovich Dangerous Liaisons is geometrically better than the book and that Dexter the series blows most of the books out of the water. Adaptation of both historical and literary works is an art form in itself. Things often need to be simplified or telescoped. Chracters or historical personages often need to be cut or combined or alternately fleshed out. With book adaptations, some characters are nearly all interior monologue whih is hard to translate. With history their are gaps, or contradictions, or multiple theories as to motives and what actually happened. There are completely legitimate reasons to change things, or pick one interpretation over another, or to fill in based on best guesses. Where I get shirty is where what they do is nonsense (Ken Follet's book, Pillars of the Earth, I'm looking at you), fundamental violations of character or theme (Braveheart, Troy, GoT), clumsy grafting on of new material that doesn't fit (Romance in the Hobbit, that stupid extra song in the movie Les Miserables). I am forgiving of changes that tighten the narrative, deepen understanding, move a character into the center of the action in a way that is logical (Sharpe stories generally for example) or are necessary for time and budget, but retain theme, character integrity, and sense.
I got to watch two episodes before having to send it back and am already in line for more. They are measured and thoughtful about the changes they made, such as demoting the historical Pollo to Legionnaire for both dramatic tension and to show a foot soldier as a main character instead of having two centurions, or having the centurion character married with permission instead of illicitly so as to show certain things about domestic life for ordinary people instead of making the show all about the nobles. Fleshing out the Plebeian characters and bending the rules a little so as to provide more representation of non-nobles is the sort of change I'm okay with in things like this. I actually really appreciate them going to the effort to make sure ordinary people are there to balance out all the Patricians, and I'm okay with a little bending to make that happen. I loved the characters drawing graffiti and the obliquity of it in the set designs. I really am comfortable with the changes I spotted and was charmed by things like them remembering to dress Cato in mourning. I admit to wishing the characters were easier to match names with faces in spots, but I picked up the important ones quickly enough. The people who made this clearly cared about what they were doing and were trying hard to make it right. That goes a long way with me.
Do I enjoy all the heterosexual joyless (and often rape or rape adjacent) fucking? Not particularly, but with the exception of the bathing scene, which appeared to be about the very different cultural attitude towards nudity, there is... not quite gender parity, but something close to it on the nudity. I can think of a lot of things the show runners are likely trying to say with their use of sex: Roman cultural norms around it; the relentless patriarchy and rape culture that played into it. I am wary given my experience of Game of Thrones, but I'm willing to stick a pin in it until I have a larger sample size of shows to judge from, especially since so much of what they are doing as far as historical accuracy and adaptation is so well researched and thought out. They do seem to have a good grasp of period power dynamics and the gendered way power was exercised by both women and men, and depiction doesn't necessarily mean endorsement.
So over all I am hopeful and have mostly liked what I've seen so far, with some caveats.
* It just dawned on me that I want an Addams Family reboot starring Antonio Bandaras and Gina Torres as Gomez and Morticia.
* Watch me lose my shit about medieval history in the comments: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/132583546522/what-did-you-think-of-danys-im-not-a
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
This entry was originally posted at http://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/570193.html. Please comment there using OpenID.