ideas live forever
so i finally got to see barbie today and i really liked it. it looked fantastic - barbieland is so obviously, perfectly fake and pink and whimsical and plastic, and stereotypical barbie's clothes are so cute, and all the barbies in fact look adorable and perfect (and those shoes, holy cow, my feet hurt just looking at them) and even tho they're all just "barbie" and all the kens are just "ken" they're all visually very distinct. and of course the ceo of mattel is wearing a pink tie. i thought some of what it was trying to say (or at least what i thought it was trying to say) was not at all subtle, altho to be honest i don't think barbies are subtle, and maybe i just expected the message to be a little less obvious. i don't know. i did enjoy it! it's really well done and margot robbie's fantastic and it's funny and serious and existential and weird and a little nostalgic (i mean, i had a barbie! and i had some cool stuff for her including gold lame pants and a shirt to go with) (it was the early 80s, ok?) and i appreciated the messages i got from it. like, patriarchy is demonstrably awful but the barbieland opposite, where the world revolves around barbie and ken is just her accessory, isn't great either. neither option is fair to the other side. (kendom was a really exaggerated, ott world but to be fair barbieland kind of is too.) i felt kind of bad for ken - he was dissatisfied but didn't seem to know why, or what he wanted, or how to get it. and then he comes to the real world and people see him! and acknowledge him as his own person! instead of just an accessory! and he takes all the wrong things back to barbieland with him to share with the other kens. >.<
sasha's critiques of barbie were fair - barbie is an unrealistic image of womanhood, and she (or at least mattel) does encourage rabid consumerism (think of all the barbies you can buy, and all the accessories and clothes and, uh, kens you can buy to go with them). not sure why she called barbie a fascist, tho. when stereotypical barbie is saying that she's not good at anything and she's not smart - she's not a president or a physicist or a writer or a doctor - she's not a specific barbie - i kept thinking that it's because she's potential barbie. she doesn't have a particular job because she's blank-slate barbie, the barbie that little girls can project their fantasies onto. she's anything and everything barbie, but not in the sense that gloria rants about, in which women have to be this (but not too much of this) and that but definitely not the other thing and they have to be all things to all people - og barbie represents the idea that girls can be whatever and whoever they want, without having to be directed one way or another. they can make their own futures.
i liked that it wasn't sasha but sasha's mother who was playing with og barbie and infecting her with sadness from the real world (gloria's drawings that you see in her first appearance, when aaron is trying to get into the meeting to talk to the ceo - her drawings of things we've already seen barbie wear - were a clue that i kind of caught and kind of didn't) and i don't think it's an accident that when she picks sasha up from school and they see barbie being carted away by the mattel suits, gloria's belt is pink and glittery. it's a very barbie belt.
(the other pink sighting i loved was during the kens' dance-off towards the end, they're all wearing black t-shirts and pants and loafers... and pink socks. i think that's the grease influence more than the barbie influence but does it really matter? it's pink.) (also john cena as merman ken which isn't a pink thing but just a thing that made me squee. i love him.)
randomly, gloria's husband is played by america ferrera's actual husband. does anyone speak spanish and understand what he said at the very end, in the car? that gloria responded to with "that's a political statement" and sasha with "that's appropriation!"
oh, "i'm here for my gynecologist appointment" cracked me right up. that was perfect. and when president barbie comes out of one of the dreamhouses and calls ken a motherf*bleep* the entire audience gasped because barbies do not swear. (it was also perfect.)
loved helen mirren as the narrator and rhea perlman as ruth handler. (who really was busted for tax evasion. but that's another movie. :D ) loved that barbie saw an old woman sitting on a bench and her first reaction was to tell the woman in all sincerity that she's beautiful, and the old woman's response was to smile and say "i know that." no arrogance, just a statement of fact. loved all the mattel suits on the tandem bike on their way to barbieland. so surreal, so weird, so fun. loved barbie's comment that she'd never wear shoes like that if her feet weren't shaped that way. loved that we saw trash collector barbie and construction worker barbie and mail carrier barbie, and the giant trash barrels were (of course) pink. loved wheelchair barbie wheelchair dancing in the big dance number and hijabi barbie in the barbies-at-work montage and attorney barbie being a plus size barbie and still entitled to cute clothes.
it's about a lot - mothers and daughters (kind of) and feminism and patriarchy and existential angst and finding your place in the world. and cute clothes. and high heel shoes. i do recommend it if you haven't seen it. there were a non trivial number of people in the movie theater wearing pink which was adorable.
(previews were the hunger games prequel, my big fat greek wedding 3 (seriously?), dune pt 2, and wonka. the last two both star timothee chalamet and are very, very different movies. and before barbie my sister and i went out for mexican food and i ate too much. al pastor tacos, yummy. also way too many taco chips.)
thursday at work was the admins' "retreat" and i put in quotes because it wasn't a retreat so much as a long lunch. we had it catered by a local seafood place (woodman's, for those who might be familiar with places to eat in greater boston) and blocked off three hours altho we cleaned up after two. i had enough leftovers for dinner thursday and friday.
steamers! the stuff in the cup that's not butter is clam broth to dip the clams into to clean them off a little, because sometimes they're a little gritty. we sat outside to eat them.
this is after we went inside. i was not expecting full ears of corn. aren't the napkins cute?
not pictured: the clam chowder and fried clams to start. the caterers brought a portable fryer so we knew the fried clams were fresh. they were so good. so, so good.
we got an impressive turnout for a weekday in august - we only have to come in two days a week during the summer - we even got t-shirts. they're very cute.
i'm pretty sure something happened on wednesday but i have no idea what, and tuesday was tuesday. it was not super hot which is always nice.
my roommate spent some quality time this morning reading me statistics about the wildfires in maui - acres burned, buildings destroyed, people dead - i was about to ask her to please stop enumerating the tragedy when she wound down on her own. it's horrific because it is, but there's a little extra layer of awful because i was there four years ago, and my sister and i walked through lahaina and had lunch and stood under the banyan tree and got our mom a crystal pineapple. (and i bought a wooden spoon with a pineapple carved in the bowl because it was a very pineapply week.) it's always worse when it's a place you've been.
in more cheerful news, check out the butter cow carved for the illinois state fair. she weighs 800 pounds. imagine all the toast you could cover with that.
and in garden news, we have more tomato!
medium size ones
and very red tiny ones
and a random pepper. no word yet on what kind of pepper it is.
one of my pi's is going to italy for vacation tomorrow, and will be out the rest of the month. it's brutally hot there which is the only reason i'm not jealous.
sasha's critiques of barbie were fair - barbie is an unrealistic image of womanhood, and she (or at least mattel) does encourage rabid consumerism (think of all the barbies you can buy, and all the accessories and clothes and, uh, kens you can buy to go with them). not sure why she called barbie a fascist, tho. when stereotypical barbie is saying that she's not good at anything and she's not smart - she's not a president or a physicist or a writer or a doctor - she's not a specific barbie - i kept thinking that it's because she's potential barbie. she doesn't have a particular job because she's blank-slate barbie, the barbie that little girls can project their fantasies onto. she's anything and everything barbie, but not in the sense that gloria rants about, in which women have to be this (but not too much of this) and that but definitely not the other thing and they have to be all things to all people - og barbie represents the idea that girls can be whatever and whoever they want, without having to be directed one way or another. they can make their own futures.
i liked that it wasn't sasha but sasha's mother who was playing with og barbie and infecting her with sadness from the real world (gloria's drawings that you see in her first appearance, when aaron is trying to get into the meeting to talk to the ceo - her drawings of things we've already seen barbie wear - were a clue that i kind of caught and kind of didn't) and i don't think it's an accident that when she picks sasha up from school and they see barbie being carted away by the mattel suits, gloria's belt is pink and glittery. it's a very barbie belt.
(the other pink sighting i loved was during the kens' dance-off towards the end, they're all wearing black t-shirts and pants and loafers... and pink socks. i think that's the grease influence more than the barbie influence but does it really matter? it's pink.) (also john cena as merman ken which isn't a pink thing but just a thing that made me squee. i love him.)
randomly, gloria's husband is played by america ferrera's actual husband. does anyone speak spanish and understand what he said at the very end, in the car? that gloria responded to with "that's a political statement" and sasha with "that's appropriation!"
oh, "i'm here for my gynecologist appointment" cracked me right up. that was perfect. and when president barbie comes out of one of the dreamhouses and calls ken a motherf*bleep* the entire audience gasped because barbies do not swear. (it was also perfect.)
loved helen mirren as the narrator and rhea perlman as ruth handler. (who really was busted for tax evasion. but that's another movie. :D ) loved that barbie saw an old woman sitting on a bench and her first reaction was to tell the woman in all sincerity that she's beautiful, and the old woman's response was to smile and say "i know that." no arrogance, just a statement of fact. loved all the mattel suits on the tandem bike on their way to barbieland. so surreal, so weird, so fun. loved barbie's comment that she'd never wear shoes like that if her feet weren't shaped that way. loved that we saw trash collector barbie and construction worker barbie and mail carrier barbie, and the giant trash barrels were (of course) pink. loved wheelchair barbie wheelchair dancing in the big dance number and hijabi barbie in the barbies-at-work montage and attorney barbie being a plus size barbie and still entitled to cute clothes.
it's about a lot - mothers and daughters (kind of) and feminism and patriarchy and existential angst and finding your place in the world. and cute clothes. and high heel shoes. i do recommend it if you haven't seen it. there were a non trivial number of people in the movie theater wearing pink which was adorable.
(previews were the hunger games prequel, my big fat greek wedding 3 (seriously?), dune pt 2, and wonka. the last two both star timothee chalamet and are very, very different movies. and before barbie my sister and i went out for mexican food and i ate too much. al pastor tacos, yummy. also way too many taco chips.)
thursday at work was the admins' "retreat" and i put in quotes because it wasn't a retreat so much as a long lunch. we had it catered by a local seafood place (woodman's, for those who might be familiar with places to eat in greater boston) and blocked off three hours altho we cleaned up after two. i had enough leftovers for dinner thursday and friday.
steamers! the stuff in the cup that's not butter is clam broth to dip the clams into to clean them off a little, because sometimes they're a little gritty. we sat outside to eat them.
this is after we went inside. i was not expecting full ears of corn. aren't the napkins cute?
not pictured: the clam chowder and fried clams to start. the caterers brought a portable fryer so we knew the fried clams were fresh. they were so good. so, so good.
we got an impressive turnout for a weekday in august - we only have to come in two days a week during the summer - we even got t-shirts. they're very cute.
i'm pretty sure something happened on wednesday but i have no idea what, and tuesday was tuesday. it was not super hot which is always nice.
my roommate spent some quality time this morning reading me statistics about the wildfires in maui - acres burned, buildings destroyed, people dead - i was about to ask her to please stop enumerating the tragedy when she wound down on her own. it's horrific because it is, but there's a little extra layer of awful because i was there four years ago, and my sister and i walked through lahaina and had lunch and stood under the banyan tree and got our mom a crystal pineapple. (and i bought a wooden spoon with a pineapple carved in the bowl because it was a very pineapply week.) it's always worse when it's a place you've been.
in more cheerful news, check out the butter cow carved for the illinois state fair. she weighs 800 pounds. imagine all the toast you could cover with that.
and in garden news, we have more tomato!
medium size ones
and very red tiny ones
and a random pepper. no word yet on what kind of pepper it is.
one of my pi's is going to italy for vacation tomorrow, and will be out the rest of the month. it's brutally hot there which is the only reason i'm not jealous.