sundries

[rm]

Really tired and still catching up on sleep from Dragon*Con. I remain impressed by Patty's comps diligence and know I babbled at her quite oddly when she came to bed last night and I was more or less asleep. Ah well. Only a few more days of this.

Meanwhile, I am trying to solve our cruise drama for April; it's a long story that I thought I had solved and then a sailing we want is sold out and the timing is complicated. So I suspect the next cruise will be 2012 for us, and that in April of 2011, we're either going to do one of the two domestic trips we've talked about or just choose an island and go there for a week. We loved Bonaire, and there are a few places we haven't been that we'll probably consider too. I dunno; if you have recommendations about islands, resorts and the like, please let us know since It's probably not the right time for us to go to Sydney (not the warmest for them), which is a shame, as I want a room in the Altamont right now.

In case you missed it last night, bifemmefatale's 16-year-old daughter has run away from home. If you're in the Illinois area and could keep an eye out that would be good. If you could also not be an asshole or a concern troll (i.e., telling her to go to one of the places it is suspected Morgan might be heading to in order to understand - right now the priority is finding an underage girl who may need help; the Internet can be a part of this. But Morgan is not the Internet's kid, and this sort of stuff is NOT helpful right now; useful advice from folks that work with runaways and street kids is a different matter).

rarelylynne is participating in the DeKalb County Wheel-a-Thon to raise money for disability services in her area. If you're interested in helping, you can visit her journal where she writes more about the event and her fundraising team, Team Caitlin (named after her daughter).

Hey, sihaya09 is facing some MASSIVE vet bills for a lovely cat that is having some hardcore neurological/spine issues. Luckily, sihaya09 is an AWESOME artist and runs a cool etsy shop. If you're looking for something for you or yours, you might wish to check out her wares.

Hero rats search out landmines in Africa. The rats are too light to trip the mines themselves, so only one has died in the field, and that was a result of a car crash.

Religious leaders of several faiths have gathered to condemn the sharp rise in religious intolerance directed at Muslims.

Iran has suspended the sentence of a woman slated to be executed by stoning for an adultery conviction.

Students protest the forced resignation of a lesbian dean at a Catholic college after she married her partner.

After the media apocalypse, stories survive as patchwork quilts. This is an amazing art exhibit. Quilts as storytelling mechanisms are nothing new; quilts as a future mechanism of telling our current stories when they are near lost, however, is an amazing idea.

Said to tsarina at Dragon*Con: "You know, after Children of Earth happened I asked what it would take to remember Ianto for a thousand years, and you know, people wrote fic if they saw me say that or not, but that wasn't what I meant. No one got it. I meant, if this story means so much to us all, let's sit around and speculate on the process by which narrative becomes remembered outside of its pop-culture moment and, eventually, becomes myth. How do we make that story survive? How do we force those characters to keep their promises?"

These quilts make me think of that discussion I never really got to have. Link via shadesong.

Last night on White Collar: So, the Mozzie rage is out in force. I don't think we could possibly get Ianto-esque mourning here, but the rage if he's really dead could be pretty epic. I've already seen a lot of range towards the writers that was expressed pretty inappropriately.

That said, I'd be surprised if Mozzie is dead. It would really change the character of the show into something darker and more serious. If the show is taking that step, I'm thrilled and excited (although I don't know that it needed to happen at Mozzie's expense), but I'd be surprised.

The lead up to Neal crashing through that window? Filmed like a tango scene in a classic Hollywood musical in terms of pacing, camera angles, body language, and multiple parties. I was sort of jumping up and down and wanting to rant about Baz Luhrmann (seriously, if you have not seen his explanation of tango in film that talks about the four horsemen of the apocalypse you are missing some awesome movie trivia; it's somewhere in the goodies in the Red Curtain box set). Gorgeous work.

Also loved: creepy taxidermied squirrel and tracker anklet on the pug.

And! This is no longer really about Kate's death, but solving a bigger mystery. I'm so fucking grateful, because shit, I am so over Kate.

You know, when I started watching this show everyone said it was so slashy and so D/s-y and I've been a bit "well that's nice, but fuck you and your subtext" about it. The last couple of weeks (and I talked about this a lot last week too), I've just been left somewhat puzzled, because here's this situation where, no, Peter and Neal aren't fucking in canon, and yet their relationship is highly sexualized because the way they do their power dynamics are all about dominance challenges and that is, to some degree in our culture, unavoidably about sex.

And this episode only underscored that. Pretty much everything Peter said to Neal in this episode could be replaced with "Do I own you, or do I not own you, because if I do, you need to make a goddamn choice." And when Neal chooses, we then get a public show, not just of him being shamed by Peter, but of Neal instinctively feeling shame himself.

It is profoundly astute, and, quite frankly for me, uncomfortable to watch. The question really is what is the show planning to do with it. Because it could leave it sitting there as fan service and an interesting character dynamic that most of the audience wouldn't be able to clearly put its finger on or it could take a risk I can't quite figure out the shape of. Until last night, I thought the risk wasn't an option -- then they shot Mozzie. Now I don't know.

Also, I can't believe I didn't mention this on these terms last week, but that scene where Neal helps Peter with his cufflinks? Did I really digress into show structure without talking about that act of tending to his master? I guess I did. Well now.

I, quite frankly, do not wish to be moved by this show in a personal way. It is inconvenient. But, here I am. Also, I gotta say, Neal's beautiful, but Peter is way hotter.

Finally, I tend to think this show is really, really good on race (at least regarding African-American characters), but its Asian characters and references are so cliched and feel pretty faily to me. On the other hand, maybe all that crap last night was a tribute to Blade Runner?

Last night on Covert Affairs: Okay, what is up with Auggie? Is he running an op on this reporter or what? Basically, I don't believe anyone. And I'm fascinated that she's shocked when he says she's a friend: that's some awfully casual/commerce-oriented ongoing sex those two have been playing. Closest comparison I can think of is Wesley/Lilah, but there I knew they were both emotionally involved even if they didn't want to be; here, maybe yes, maybe know. And I'm not sure she gets (or maybe that's the point) how hard she's pinging Auggie's issues about his blindness.

I love that the Ben mystery now feels like instead of being about Ben it's about Jai. That makes a few things more compelling, and the show much darker, because if Jai is trying to get with Annie, it raises the possibility of her being passed around between these men for all sorts of nefarious purpose. Again, it's the question of a show trying to figure out if it's dark or if it's a buddy comedy. Go dark, brave little show, go dark!

So non-canon pairings that are AWESOME after this episode: Jai/Ben and Joan/Auggie (because just imagine Arthur's conversation with Auggie about wanting his wife out of the blast radius if she's shagging Auggie) and Joan/Annie. Right?

Really, none of you wanted to talk about The Dark Crystal sequel with me? You all suck.