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August 17th, 2009
07:13 pm - what do you want this year?
Every year is the same; I finish some massive crafting project in August and embark on the Christmas crafting. Which means, of course, that I need to know who (if anyone) wants what (if anything).
Things I can currently craft:
hats
mittens / wristwarmers
scarves
shawls
stuffed animals of various sorts
aprons (half/full)
placemats
Tell me which of these wonderfuls you want (and what color and fiber, if you know) in the comments.
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May 27th, 2009
11:32 pm - awareness
I've not been taking care of my cuticles lately, so they tear and get those annoying staph infections. Adding to the bother is the extent to which I still sunburn; cue more redness and swelling. Frustrating. But for a moment, I stopped and thought. My body, without my being particularly aware of it, is responding to threats. It's working to protect me against radiation from the sun; it's attacking foreign bodies that my torn cuticles admitted. In the most ridiculously literal sense of the words, my body is fighting for me. It shouldn't be as encouraging as it is, but there you have it.
Work is routine, although the reading is good. I've mostly been working on this women of color in academia issue, trying to find articles that also treat it as an issue of class, which is surprisingly hard. I'm more inclined to do the other research job that I have, the international criminal law articles. Still knitting, on a difficult lace shawl that just seems to take forever. The summer is heavenly.
Buffalo Bill's Orange Blossom Cream Ale tastes like soda pop. I'm going to Washington DC on the 18th (only for the weekend) and to Ireland on July 10th (for study abroad). The future's so bright I oughta wear shades.
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May 26th, 2009
02:02 pm - About the Prop 8 lawsuit
I feel like I should make this point clear to my non-law friends: while the decision of the California Supreme Court is unfortunate, the Court's hands were essentially tied. The issue being argued was not whether Prop 8 was wrong, or hateful, or a product of the LDS; the issue was whether it was an 'amendment' (requiring only a simple majority of the popular vote) or a 'revision' (requiring prior approval by 2/3 of each house of the CA legislature). However the CA Supreme Court felt about the amendment, they could only decide whether or not Proposition 8 was procedurally sufficient under the California constitution.
So please, stop Facebooking about how disappointed you are in the California Supreme Court which, if I may point out, already overturned one ban on same-sex marriage. Democracy means that sometimes the voters get to do mean, mean things to people they don't like, and until there's a recognized federal right to same-sex marriage, it will continue to be so.
(A caveat: I personally disagree vehemently with Prop 8. Of course same-sex partners should have all the rights given to heterosexual married couples. But the specific law being applied in this case means that it really could have only come out one way.)
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April 26th, 2009
08:01 pm - page 1 of the perfect metaphor book
Stewing over something that you can't do anything about is like snakebite; you have to suck it up and spit it out or else the poison circulates and causes necrosis. (ewwwwwwwwwwww.)
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January 6th, 2009
07:49 pm - the fight continues
I went to see Milk today. It's very good, and very fair. Importantly, it isn't overly congratulatory and doesn't treat the fight for gay rights as a thing of the past. How much would I have loved to work with Milk and his compatriots; how much I should still be working for marriage equality. Honestly, Ursula, stop knitting and go volunteer.
In slightly related news, there's apparently been an uptick in anti-gay violence in 2008, maybe centered around the Proposition 8 campaign. A few weeks ago a woman in San Francisco was gang-raped because her car had a pride sticker on it. Closer to home, seven gay bars on Cap Hill have received letters threatening to dose their patrons with the nerve toxin ricin. There are awful, hateful people in the world, and those of us who care about equal rights have much, much more work to do.
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December 8th, 2008
11:35 am - avoiding the topic
Saw the 1979 version of Dracula last night. It's not extraordinary (except perhaps for the liberties it takes with the original story) but it has an even-handedness that some more recent versions lack. Frank Langella plays the Count as intellectual, compelling, and charismatic, but not overtly creepy or 'metro'; his seduction of (in this version) Lucy Seward is believable, because he generally seems affectionate towards her and she towards him. (NB there's no poorly played lost-love/reincarnation narrative as there was in Francis Ford Coppola's version.) Because of the civilized of most of the movie, the scenes where it does go over the top are almost comically misplaced; the discovery of Mina Van Helsing (no seriously) as a vampire and the climax between Van Helsing et al. and the Count are happily brief and rely too heavily on special effects.
There are also interesting gender narratives that I can't quite address in brief here, sadly. This version compares favorably enough with the Guy Maddin version from 2002; they have the same sense of swooning romanticism, although Guy Madden's plays much more with silent film techniques and beats one over the head with the colonialist subtext. If you're sick of slick Dracula reimaginings, either of these two films might be your antidote.
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November 13th, 2008
01:37 pm - well that was quick.
The latest Bond movie once again features naked ladies in its title sequence. Thank god, because we were RUNNING OUT OF OBJECTIFICATION.
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November 4th, 2008
08:26 pm - happy election day
What is there to say? I hope, as many do, for a new era in American politics. But even if the Obama administration is only competent, it is something more: it is a door opened.
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November 3rd, 2008
October 21st, 2008
11:25 am - hum-de-dum
Not much to say today. Here's a great review of 'On Beauty' by Zadie Smith, which is a deeply unsatisfying and thought-provoking (and yet immensely readable) novel. Amanda talks about a lot of issues that I'd noticed but hadn't really addressed through a feminist lens. The key, I think, is that there is no protagonist; every female character reflects and struggles with society's gendered pressures on her. (Perhaps the only happy female character is Charlene Kipps, and that happiness itself might be her chosen coping mechanism.)
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ursako's journal