Cake or Death?
I'm henceforth adapting this Eddie Izzard saying as philosophical mantra, I've decided.
You can either put the effort in and go for the good stuff i.e. CAKE or you can just sit back and wait for DEATH. Both are worth waiting for, but only one of these involves doing nothing.
With finances at rock bottom, I'm very wary at the moment of going for non-productive gigs. Trying to get extra gigs in the next couple of weeks is an absolute no-no anyway as any travel will involve travel expenditure. With canny use of travel vouchers, discount cards and packed lunches, I've managed to make the latest round of things I had planned to do viable.Thus it was I went to the BSFA AGM on Saturday and had a jolly nice time. Lots of thoughts in my head re women and invisibility in both SF and comedy that I have no time to articulate except to say it's a social thing that we all have to kick against.
Sisterhood is great too, but I caught a bit of the Murray Walker documentary the other day, and was reminded that one of the reasons I love Murray so much is not just because he has a true energy and passion for what he commentates on, but all those years working alongside James Hunt and he's never let his head get turned by a pretty girl.
I really don't like promos girls. Hate is not the right word, as it's very often not the girls themselves but the idea of what they do that I don't like. But promos girls, they either love what they do or they'll have their eyes opened.
I was reminded of a time when I was working the stands at the commercial Vehicle Road show and a nearby stall - Something Lubricants - had 3 bikini-clad girls touting raffle tickets. If wearing cowboy boots with those bikinis wasn't bad enough, they also had to wear a sash with the word 'Lubricants' on it, whilst not wearing many clothes. They got asked to do a photocall with the show paper... in January with snow on the ground what a wheeze it would be, the photographer thought, to make them do that shoot outside in those bikinis holding snowballs. That and all the comments they got made them think... and they kicked back. Not in a big way, but a very subtle one.
They decided to rig the raffle. And then they flagged down any passing women and said what they had done so the women would buy a £1 ticket and walk off with champagne and the like. No men were going to win after they'd been made to feel like pieces of meat.
Good on them, I thought!
You can either put the effort in and go for the good stuff i.e. CAKE or you can just sit back and wait for DEATH. Both are worth waiting for, but only one of these involves doing nothing.
With finances at rock bottom, I'm very wary at the moment of going for non-productive gigs. Trying to get extra gigs in the next couple of weeks is an absolute no-no anyway as any travel will involve travel expenditure. With canny use of travel vouchers, discount cards and packed lunches, I've managed to make the latest round of things I had planned to do viable.Thus it was I went to the BSFA AGM on Saturday and had a jolly nice time. Lots of thoughts in my head re women and invisibility in both SF and comedy that I have no time to articulate except to say it's a social thing that we all have to kick against.
Sisterhood is great too, but I caught a bit of the Murray Walker documentary the other day, and was reminded that one of the reasons I love Murray so much is not just because he has a true energy and passion for what he commentates on, but all those years working alongside James Hunt and he's never let his head get turned by a pretty girl.
I really don't like promos girls. Hate is not the right word, as it's very often not the girls themselves but the idea of what they do that I don't like. But promos girls, they either love what they do or they'll have their eyes opened.
I was reminded of a time when I was working the stands at the commercial Vehicle Road show and a nearby stall - Something Lubricants - had 3 bikini-clad girls touting raffle tickets. If wearing cowboy boots with those bikinis wasn't bad enough, they also had to wear a sash with the word 'Lubricants' on it, whilst not wearing many clothes. They got asked to do a photocall with the show paper... in January with snow on the ground what a wheeze it would be, the photographer thought, to make them do that shoot outside in those bikinis holding snowballs. That and all the comments they got made them think... and they kicked back. Not in a big way, but a very subtle one.
They decided to rig the raffle. And then they flagged down any passing women and said what they had done so the women would buy a £1 ticket and walk off with champagne and the like. No men were going to win after they'd been made to feel like pieces of meat.
Good on them, I thought!