links and such
I've been quite boring lately--not much cause to post, so I haven't. I don't expect that will change much, unless I lose my self-control and start inflicting my dissertation woes on you all. I'll try to spare you, I swear! It's really not that interesting. :) I don't even expect the upcoming new TV season to make a big difference on what I have to say. The shows I was fannish about have ended, and I've yet to hear of anything new that sounds worth working into my too-busy-for-television schedule. Bones, Castle, CSI: New York--this will probably be the extent of my fall viewing (and any of those, especially the last, is likely to drop off due to lack of time), and I don't expect to have a great deal to say about any of them. 'Tis a season of stepping back from fannishness, though I do expect to still be generally around.
But for the moment, have some links:
I couldn't be nearly as eloquent on this subject as many other people have been, but RIP, Senator Kennedy. He was a terribly flawed human being, but also an extraordinary public servant, and I admire the complexity of that. We're a messy species, and some of the greatest of us are also among the messiest of us.
Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the release of The Wizard of Oz. That article points out that the film didn't make the kind of iconic splash one might have imagined when it was first released. It wasn't until the 1950s, when the annual television airing of the film began, that it really became part of the cultural landscape in a big way. I imagine my own generation is among the last to really feel the impact of that annual viewing: I remember years of having to go to bed before the film was over (I got to watch up until they got to the Emerald City, and then I had to go to bed), and then finally being old enough to stay up until the end. And then having nightmares because I'd been allowed to see the scary parts! My mother vividly remembers the first time she saw it on a color TV: up until that point she hadn't realized that Oz is in color! I'm sure the children of the present and the future are still getting introduced to The Wizard of Oz (or at least I sincerely hope they are!), but I suspect it loses some of the ritual if one just pulls out the DVD at will.
And today is Women's Equality Day in the US, in commemoration of women obtaining the right to vote on August 26, 1920.
On a fannish note, I wanted to rec halcyon_shift's TSCC Out on the Wire 'verse. This is a series in progress (the link is to the tag--scroll to the bottom for the first fic) picking up from the series finale, and it's absolutely splendid. All of the characterization, but especially Sarah, I think, is marvelous, and the plot is compelling and sophisticated. I usually don't read WIPs, much less rec them, but this is wonderful enough that I'll make an exception. The first two, in particular, work as stand-alone stories, though by this point there's enough of a plot arc going that it really does feel like a WIP. But even if it should end up unfinished, it's still well worth reading.
And I'm off in the morning to spend a long weekend with gabolange, and I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!!!!! Seeing gabolange is always FTW, but this time I get to rent a car and DRIVE!!!!!!! I miss driving so much! Just me and the open road! And gabolange on the other end of it! Let's just hope I can remind myself why it's important to come back again... Sometimes I do fear that the impulse to get in a car and drive away and never look back, an impulse that has dogged me my whole life, might really win out someday.
But for the moment, have some links:
I couldn't be nearly as eloquent on this subject as many other people have been, but RIP, Senator Kennedy. He was a terribly flawed human being, but also an extraordinary public servant, and I admire the complexity of that. We're a messy species, and some of the greatest of us are also among the messiest of us.
Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the release of The Wizard of Oz. That article points out that the film didn't make the kind of iconic splash one might have imagined when it was first released. It wasn't until the 1950s, when the annual television airing of the film began, that it really became part of the cultural landscape in a big way. I imagine my own generation is among the last to really feel the impact of that annual viewing: I remember years of having to go to bed before the film was over (I got to watch up until they got to the Emerald City, and then I had to go to bed), and then finally being old enough to stay up until the end. And then having nightmares because I'd been allowed to see the scary parts! My mother vividly remembers the first time she saw it on a color TV: up until that point she hadn't realized that Oz is in color! I'm sure the children of the present and the future are still getting introduced to The Wizard of Oz (or at least I sincerely hope they are!), but I suspect it loses some of the ritual if one just pulls out the DVD at will.
And today is Women's Equality Day in the US, in commemoration of women obtaining the right to vote on August 26, 1920.
On a fannish note, I wanted to rec halcyon_shift's TSCC Out on the Wire 'verse. This is a series in progress (the link is to the tag--scroll to the bottom for the first fic) picking up from the series finale, and it's absolutely splendid. All of the characterization, but especially Sarah, I think, is marvelous, and the plot is compelling and sophisticated. I usually don't read WIPs, much less rec them, but this is wonderful enough that I'll make an exception. The first two, in particular, work as stand-alone stories, though by this point there's enough of a plot arc going that it really does feel like a WIP. But even if it should end up unfinished, it's still well worth reading.
And I'm off in the morning to spend a long weekend with gabolange, and I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!!!!! Seeing gabolange is always FTW, but this time I get to rent a car and DRIVE!!!!!!! I miss driving so much! Just me and the open road! And gabolange on the other end of it! Let's just hope I can remind myself why it's important to come back again... Sometimes I do fear that the impulse to get in a car and drive away and never look back, an impulse that has dogged me my whole life, might really win out someday.