Weeds are almost chest-high where the Town and Country buildings used to be in downtown Sunnyvale, behind the fences. Weeds and the occasional California poppy are growing cheerily in the verges and flower beds, and in sidewalk cracks. Someone has bombed them with weedkiller beside the little pink house, which sits forlorn and with a pro forma sign requesting community input on demolition. Walking the dog this morning, I saw a homeowner girded with a bandanna sweatband hoeing the weeds out of the verge in front of his house in order to install strips of green carpet to match those covering the small part of his front yard that is not asphalt.
We came home from a cat food run to the grocery store. Edward was by the pool eating a mouse. "We go buy cat food, why?" Christine asked.
Tags:
I have been "writing" my ![[livejournal.com profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
het_idcrack for ten and a half hours now. In the first four hours, I changed "biting the inside of his lip" to "squaring his shoulders." Somewhere around 7:00, I wrote fifty words. I spent 10:00 on Esquire's drinks database trying to find the appropriate drink for this scene. (Desired characteristics: No squeezing citrus, no shaking, no vodka, no whiskey, no bright colors, contains sugar, served in collins or old-fashioned glass. I got all but "no whiskey.") And then, from 12:45 until now, I spent an hour trying to avoid using the words "amber liquid" to describe the rye.
I mentioned I want to have this finished by the end of the weekend, right? I think I might need the extra incentive of, "No, you cannot pre-order your iPad until you finish this story."
het_idcrack for ten and a half hours now. In the first four hours, I changed "biting the inside of his lip" to "squaring his shoulders." Somewhere around 7:00, I wrote fifty words. I spent 10:00 on Esquire's drinks database trying to find the appropriate drink for this scene. (Desired characteristics: No squeezing citrus, no shaking, no vodka, no whiskey, no bright colors, contains sugar, served in collins or old-fashioned glass. I got all but "no whiskey.") And then, from 12:45 until now, I spent an hour trying to avoid using the words "amber liquid" to describe the rye.I mentioned I want to have this finished by the end of the weekend, right? I think I might need the extra incentive of, "No, you cannot pre-order your iPad until you finish this story."
(![[syndicated profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
dinosaur_comics_feed Mar. 18th, 2010 09:57 pm)
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March 19th, 2010: Ladies and gentlemen, I'm in Scotland! Or at least I should be, as I've scheduled this to go up in advance and so everything you're reading is pre-written. I really hope there's not a typo in today's comic because it too was scheduled to go up in advance, and it'll take me forever to fix it. If there IS a typo in it, no, that last sentence was not me being fully aware of that and being cute. It was me hoping for a better world than what we ended up in, and it's ALL MY FAULT. :O – Ryan | |||
It was a good night. Epic karaoke was epic. I'mma sleep well tonight. Now if only tomorrow today wasn't Friday...
Tags:
I'm having one of those brief moments where I'm pretty much out of pain altogether. (I played some catchup with stacked painkillers last night, and with the most recent dose I'm actually having a moment of comfort!)
I felt like throwing some sort of parade, but I'm feeling picturey, so: how does being out of pain (or whatever discomfort your disability causes you) make you feel, in pictures?
Please provide alt/title tags or descriptions to keep it accessible.
I felt like throwing some sort of parade, but I'm feeling picturey, so: how does being out of pain (or whatever discomfort your disability causes you) make you feel, in pictures?
Please provide alt/title tags or descriptions to keep it accessible.
I LOVE LISTS, OKAY? Just a warning.
List 1: News
1. WE GET THE KEYS TO THE APARTMENT TOMORROW OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.
2. Much shopping/painting/moving/cat situating/etc. to do over then next 11 days (I love that I have the luxury of being able to have that overlap. Never let it be said that I am not thankful).
3. Concert next weekend. And by next, I mean the 28th. Steve Reich's New York Counterpoint, a really cool clarinet choir piece. Anyone roundabout Baltimore/DC interested in coming? I believe the concert's free.
4. I worked on the plotlines for Impromptu some, and accepted a principal clarinet part on the Prokofiev violin concerto for a concert in April (yes, I have Rodney playing that).
List two: things to talk about after the move so people don't think I'm boring. Y halo thar content.
1. Why Ihate facebook prefer DW (and LJ) as a platform for my online activities.
2. Music as a craft. Writing as a craft. Applying what I know about music to writing.
3. That adoption post from way back when about Astroboy (which is coming out on DVD shortly).
4. There was a four, but it's late and I'm up past my bedtime.
List 1: News
1. WE GET THE KEYS TO THE APARTMENT TOMORROW OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.
2. Much shopping/painting/moving/cat situating/etc. to do over then next 11 days (I love that I have the luxury of being able to have that overlap. Never let it be said that I am not thankful).
3. Concert next weekend. And by next, I mean the 28th. Steve Reich's New York Counterpoint, a really cool clarinet choir piece. Anyone roundabout Baltimore/DC interested in coming? I believe the concert's free.
4. I worked on the plotlines for Impromptu some, and accepted a principal clarinet part on the Prokofiev violin concerto for a concert in April (yes, I have Rodney playing that).
List two: things to talk about after the move so people don't think I'm boring. Y halo thar content.
1. Why I
2. Music as a craft. Writing as a craft. Applying what I know about music to writing.
3. That adoption post from way back when about Astroboy (which is coming out on DVD shortly).
4. There was a four, but it's late and I'm up past my bedtime.
Before I forget!
Current Easter break plans include (are entirely) me driving up to Minneapolis/St. Paul on Thursday after class, chilling out at Katja and Ingus' place and coming back on Monday at some point. There will be a trip to SR Harris. There will also be brunch on Easter Sunday.
I am looking for company! I plan on attending church, so that should be done by 12:30 at the ABSOLUTE latest. If anyone wants to join me, you are more than welcome to tag along! I'll be hitting one of the Episcopal churches in Shoreview or thereabouts. This part of the plan isn't required, obviously. :)
Anyway, brunch will probably be around 1:00 at an undetermined location. If it works out that a bunch of us misfits can invade the house of an amenable someone, I'm more than happy to do the cooking. Otherwise, we can colonize the local Denny's/Perkins/What-Have-You.
So! Anyone interested?
-Kat
Current Easter break plans include (are entirely) me driving up to Minneapolis/St. Paul on Thursday after class, chilling out at Katja and Ingus' place and coming back on Monday at some point. There will be a trip to SR Harris. There will also be brunch on Easter Sunday.
I am looking for company! I plan on attending church, so that should be done by 12:30 at the ABSOLUTE latest. If anyone wants to join me, you are more than welcome to tag along! I'll be hitting one of the Episcopal churches in Shoreview or thereabouts. This part of the plan isn't required, obviously. :)
Anyway, brunch will probably be around 1:00 at an undetermined location. If it works out that a bunch of us misfits can invade the house of an amenable someone, I'm more than happy to do the cooking. Otherwise, we can colonize the local Denny's/Perkins/What-Have-You.
So! Anyone interested?
-Kat
I seem to have turned into one of those people who hardly ever posts, I'm not sure what's up with that.
I've basically been sick for the last week, first with allergies which turned into a full blown cold all weekend, followed by the still-lingering Cough of Doom, and today the introduction of inexplicable bouts of nausea. Fun times.
My time since the wedding has been full of immigration-related errands and flailing. I've had my picture taken, my fingerprints sent off to the FBI so they can say I'm not a hardened criminal, and today I got poked, prodded, x-rayed and made to pee in a cup all in the service of assuring the government of Canada that I am healthy enough to stay here. (A rant for another day.)
The only good thing about being sick is at least I'm sick in Canada! It's so strange! I don't feel well, so I go to the doctor. And I don't have to calculate how I feel vs. the state of my bank account, because the community health center a block away from here? Takes uninsured patients, and doesn't charge a cent. It's pretty much the most awesome thing in the WORLD. The various doctors and labs I went to today were the first time I've had to pay for medical treatment since I came here. Those of you from countries with sane medical systems have no idea what an amazing revelation that has been for me. I'm still struggling to get used to the idea that if I'm sick, I can go to the doctor.
I've basically been sick for the last week, first with allergies which turned into a full blown cold all weekend, followed by the still-lingering Cough of Doom, and today the introduction of inexplicable bouts of nausea. Fun times.
My time since the wedding has been full of immigration-related errands and flailing. I've had my picture taken, my fingerprints sent off to the FBI so they can say I'm not a hardened criminal, and today I got poked, prodded, x-rayed and made to pee in a cup all in the service of assuring the government of Canada that I am healthy enough to stay here. (A rant for another day.)
The only good thing about being sick is at least I'm sick in Canada! It's so strange! I don't feel well, so I go to the doctor. And I don't have to calculate how I feel vs. the state of my bank account, because the community health center a block away from here? Takes uninsured patients, and doesn't charge a cent. It's pretty much the most awesome thing in the WORLD. The various doctors and labs I went to today were the first time I've had to pay for medical treatment since I came here. Those of you from countries with sane medical systems have no idea what an amazing revelation that has been for me. I'm still struggling to get used to the idea that if I'm sick, I can go to the doctor.
(girlgenius_feed Mar. 19th, 2010 04:00 am)
girlgenius_feed Mar. 19th, 2010 04:00 am)The Girl Genius comic for Friday, March 19, 2010 has been posted.
Hello again to all the new people on DW! I'll likely get around to doing a proper intro post later, but for now, feel free to ask me any questions about me, my interests, whatever. A quick note though: I just about never post anything locked, which is why I haven't granted access to anybody. I'll probably get around to that sometime this upcoming week, but basically you're not missing anything if you're not on my access list. I'll also probably be going through and doing a trim of old, unused journals on my reading list.
Anyway, I am currently in the airport, waiting for my flight back home. It'll probably be around 11:30 by the time I get home, which makes this a very long day, but I'll be glad to be back home. There will be less relaxation than I'd like, what with working on the thesis, but at least I'll be able to lounge about on the couch and eat my mom's cooking.
I've had a pretty good week, if busy. I spent some time at the GTU on Monday, and I have just a few things to wrap up in terms of research there. Which is good, since I need to start focusing on actually writing my thesis. Tuesday was a full day of classes, and FemSex was especially awesome. (FemSex = the class on Female Sexuality I'm taking.) This week's unit was reproductive choices and childbirth, and on Monday a midwife came in to talk with us and show us a video of a natural water birth. It was amazing omg. The mother gave birth at home, in her huge tub, with her husband and two young sons with her, and it just seemed so natural and loving and...connected, I guess. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, since she was obviously in pain, but when the baby came out, it just looked like the easiest, most natural thing in the world. And of course, the baby was adorable. She had the chubbiest cheeks, I just wanted to reach through the screen and pinch them. Also had to restrain myself from making puffin face at the baby, what with how it was only on video and all.
Also cute moments from FemSex: our facilitators gave each of us thank you notes for our midterm body image presentations. It's a ridiculously sweet thing to do, and it made my day just as much as watching a baby being born did. And today, we got another present: a plastic speculum with some lube! Ahahaha, ♥ FemSex. Also also, we had FemSex bar night on Tuesday night, where our facilitators bartended and proceeds went to the program. So I got mildly tipsy and felt virtuous for it! Also got a FemSex class t-shirt, wth "VENUS ENVY" on the front. It is awesome you guys.
Uh, okay, about to start boarding now, gotta go.
Anyway, I am currently in the airport, waiting for my flight back home. It'll probably be around 11:30 by the time I get home, which makes this a very long day, but I'll be glad to be back home. There will be less relaxation than I'd like, what with working on the thesis, but at least I'll be able to lounge about on the couch and eat my mom's cooking.
I've had a pretty good week, if busy. I spent some time at the GTU on Monday, and I have just a few things to wrap up in terms of research there. Which is good, since I need to start focusing on actually writing my thesis. Tuesday was a full day of classes, and FemSex was especially awesome. (FemSex = the class on Female Sexuality I'm taking.) This week's unit was reproductive choices and childbirth, and on Monday a midwife came in to talk with us and show us a video of a natural water birth. It was amazing omg. The mother gave birth at home, in her huge tub, with her husband and two young sons with her, and it just seemed so natural and loving and...connected, I guess. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, since she was obviously in pain, but when the baby came out, it just looked like the easiest, most natural thing in the world. And of course, the baby was adorable. She had the chubbiest cheeks, I just wanted to reach through the screen and pinch them. Also had to restrain myself from making puffin face at the baby, what with how it was only on video and all.
Also cute moments from FemSex: our facilitators gave each of us thank you notes for our midterm body image presentations. It's a ridiculously sweet thing to do, and it made my day just as much as watching a baby being born did. And today, we got another present: a plastic speculum with some lube! Ahahaha, ♥ FemSex. Also also, we had FemSex bar night on Tuesday night, where our facilitators bartended and proceeds went to the program. So I got mildly tipsy and felt virtuous for it! Also got a FemSex class t-shirt, wth "VENUS ENVY" on the front. It is awesome you guys.
Uh, okay, about to start boarding now, gotta go.
There's two approaches you can take to managing this actually.
One way is to create a "Default" reading filter, subscribe to the feed yourself, then not add it to any of your reading filters. That way it won't show up on your reading page and it won't show up on your network page. (I don't remember if reading filters are a paid feature though. Also, this only works if you load your reading page while logged in. If you load it logged out, all entries are displayed. Also, also, you have to remember to add all of the other journals that you actually do want to read to your Default reading filter.)
The other way is to add to your style the following CSS:
Everyone can add CSS to their style and have it work, as long as they are using one of the official styles. Unofficial styles may not support the html that makes this CSS manipulation possible.
That will work whenever you are showing things in your style, so if you switch to someone else's reading page, make sure to add ?style=mine to it.
The above CSS is specifically for images in entries, because I was prompted to write this out for someone who was upset aboutsexisnottheenemy_feed on their network.
For me, in addition to .poster-sexisnottheenemy_feed, you want .poster-eagerlicker_feed, .poster-femdom_feed, and .poster-malesubart_feed, so you'd actually add that line to your CSS four times, changing out the feed every time.
If you want to hide the entries of a particular poster, delete the
If you want to hide that person's entries and comments, I think that deleting
If you want to hide entries from a specific community instead of a person, or a person's post only in their own journal, but not in communities, use
One way is to create a "Default" reading filter, subscribe to the feed yourself, then not add it to any of your reading filters. That way it won't show up on your reading page and it won't show up on your network page. (I don't remember if reading filters are a paid feature though. Also, this only works if you load your reading page while logged in. If you load it logged out, all entries are displayed. Also, also, you have to remember to add all of the other journals that you actually do want to read to your Default reading filter.)
The other way is to add to your style the following CSS:
.poster-example_feed .entry img { display:none }Everyone can add CSS to their style and have it work, as long as they are using one of the official styles. Unofficial styles may not support the html that makes this CSS manipulation possible.
That will work whenever you are showing things in your style, so if you switch to someone else's reading page, make sure to add ?style=mine to it.
The above CSS is specifically for images in entries, because I was prompted to write this out for someone who was upset about
sexisnottheenemy_feed on their network. For me, in addition to .poster-sexisnottheenemy_feed, you want .poster-eagerlicker_feed, .poster-femdom_feed, and .poster-malesubart_feed, so you'd actually add that line to your CSS four times, changing out the feed every time.
If you want to hide the entries of a particular poster, delete the
img from the above. That will catch them in their own journal as well as in any communities they post to.If you want to hide that person's entries and comments, I think that deleting
.entry img will do the trick, but, again, only while you are displaying things in your style. Pages in the sitescheme will not hide their comments.If you want to hide entries from a specific community instead of a person, or a person's post only in their own journal, but not in communities, use
.journal-exampleaccount instead of .poster-exampleaccount.Tags:
Tags:
In my quest to bring you more boring stuff, here's my recap of tonight's Brewers game. The game is currently being broadcast on delay on MLB Network, so the game thread is currently semi-active.
Waaaay back in the sands of time, I started a project.
It currently resembles being finished.
Please link to that entry as appropriate. I need more feedback from different kingdoms!
-Kat
It currently resembles being finished.
Please link to that entry as appropriate. I need more feedback from different kingdoms!
-Kat
*long-time reader, first-time poster* (tm)
Here's my list. Had a bit of a rough year last year and got behind. So am optimistic this will help me dig out.
Here's my list. Had a bit of a rough year last year and got behind. So am optimistic this will help me dig out.
Tags:
It's funny, but my SPARTACUS office AU, which I wrote pretty deliberately as badfic, reminds me just how much I really dislike fanfic AUs. Part of this is because it turned out worse than I intended, looking at it, but part of it has to do with the nature of fanfic AUs in general.
I don't like AUs for a lot of reasons, but I think the chief one has to do with one of the reasons I don't like porn fic. About ten years ago, I was of the theory that fans wrote porn when the actual material didn't sufficiently capture their interest -- ie, if you really liked THE X-FILES, you wouldn't be writing dumb porn about Scully doing Mulder, you'd be writing casefic in an attempt to emulate the actual show. I don't know if that was true then, but it certainly isn't true now; for a lot of people, porn is the entire point of fandom. But AUs often give me that feeling: if you like these characters so much, why are you putting them in weird scenarios where they're so far removed from what made you fond of them in the first place?
And putting existing characters and dynamics into an AU often is clumsy as hell. ( Consider mine. )
I don't like AUs for a lot of reasons, but I think the chief one has to do with one of the reasons I don't like porn fic. About ten years ago, I was of the theory that fans wrote porn when the actual material didn't sufficiently capture their interest -- ie, if you really liked THE X-FILES, you wouldn't be writing dumb porn about Scully doing Mulder, you'd be writing casefic in an attempt to emulate the actual show. I don't know if that was true then, but it certainly isn't true now; for a lot of people, porn is the entire point of fandom. But AUs often give me that feeling: if you like these characters so much, why are you putting them in weird scenarios where they're so far removed from what made you fond of them in the first place?
And putting existing characters and dynamics into an AU often is clumsy as hell. ( Consider mine. )
This is probably the first of several posts about Simon's death, and being there with Mom, and my reactions then and after. (Mom, you don't have to read these; if I write anything I think you'd rather not read, I'll flag it/use a cut tag.)
It took me a few days after my return to realize that I wasn't jet lagged anymore, and it wasn't just tiredness from missing sleep while traveling: grief is draining. I'm feeling a bit slow, mentally. I'm still doing good work, I think, but it's taking me longer than usual. Fortunately, my boss Wendy is understanding of what I've been through, and how it's affecting me. (My direct boss, Marilyn, is out sick right now, so a less sympathetic person than Wendy might be leaning on me: of a team of three, two of us were out all of last week, and Marilyn is still out and we're not sure when she'll be back.)
When I realized some of what was going on, I emailed my beloveds, partly so they'd know and partly because writing things down helps me remember them. I got a thoughtful and sympathetic reply from![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
adrian_turtle, who pointed out that being present at a death is hard. I don't know if that's always true, but it seems to be here. In some ways, it's not something we're prepared for, culturally. On some levels, yes. I knew enough that when Mom asked me if I was sure that Simon had stopped breathing, I first thought of the old idea of seeing if the person was fogging a mirror, and then realized that I could check for a pulse at wrist and neck. And in the minute, where patience and compassion were needed, I had what I needed: from my family, and choices since. (Adrian and I were discussing this in another context, the last time I was in Massachusetts, and she suggested that compassion may be partly inborn, and partly upbringing, but we keep making choices, and mine tend to be in that direction. Not all of them, but enough.)
On my way to buy lunch today, I noticed myself blinking away tears, and thought "It's okay to cry." I haven't cried, much, over this: a little bit last week, whilerysmiel was visiting: no specific trigger, just a minute of "hold on a moment, I need to be hugged" and then the tears ebbed and we went on with what we'd been doing.
cattitude has been holding me, and encouraging me to cut myself slack, and I'm basically figuring that I will go to work (and concern myself more with doing the work well enough than with how fast it gets done), go to the gym, and otherwise take it easy: read some, play scrabble if we're up for it, play with the cat, be glad it's finally spring.
On the practical side, I called Delta Airlines today, with the ticket number (I called yesterday and was told I needed that), and got a helpful person who looked at the records she could see, called in her supervisor (who can see older information), and told me what I would need to do to get a refund. This is a relief after the dismissive people I'd gotten on the phone when I called to change the return flight while I was in London.
It took me a few days after my return to realize that I wasn't jet lagged anymore, and it wasn't just tiredness from missing sleep while traveling: grief is draining. I'm feeling a bit slow, mentally. I'm still doing good work, I think, but it's taking me longer than usual. Fortunately, my boss Wendy is understanding of what I've been through, and how it's affecting me. (My direct boss, Marilyn, is out sick right now, so a less sympathetic person than Wendy might be leaning on me: of a team of three, two of us were out all of last week, and Marilyn is still out and we're not sure when she'll be back.)
When I realized some of what was going on, I emailed my beloveds, partly so they'd know and partly because writing things down helps me remember them. I got a thoughtful and sympathetic reply from
adrian_turtle, who pointed out that being present at a death is hard. I don't know if that's always true, but it seems to be here. In some ways, it's not something we're prepared for, culturally. On some levels, yes. I knew enough that when Mom asked me if I was sure that Simon had stopped breathing, I first thought of the old idea of seeing if the person was fogging a mirror, and then realized that I could check for a pulse at wrist and neck. And in the minute, where patience and compassion were needed, I had what I needed: from my family, and choices since. (Adrian and I were discussing this in another context, the last time I was in Massachusetts, and she suggested that compassion may be partly inborn, and partly upbringing, but we keep making choices, and mine tend to be in that direction. Not all of them, but enough.)On my way to buy lunch today, I noticed myself blinking away tears, and thought "It's okay to cry." I haven't cried, much, over this: a little bit last week, while
rysmiel was visiting: no specific trigger, just a minute of "hold on a moment, I need to be hugged" and then the tears ebbed and we went on with what we'd been doing. cattitude has been holding me, and encouraging me to cut myself slack, and I'm basically figuring that I will go to work (and concern myself more with doing the work well enough than with how fast it gets done), go to the gym, and otherwise take it easy: read some, play scrabble if we're up for it, play with the cat, be glad it's finally spring.On the practical side, I called Delta Airlines today, with the ticket number (I called yesterday and was told I needed that), and got a helpful person who looked at the records she could see, called in her supervisor (who can see older information), and told me what I would need to do to get a refund. This is a relief after the dismissive people I'd gotten on the phone when I called to change the return flight while I was in London.
Tags:
First: wow dudes wow! Overtimes (as many so far as total last year in the whole tournament), and upsets (wtf Vandy, wtf Georgetown), and I'm writing this right now and Lehigh is up over Kansas 12 to 4, 6 minutes into the first half. Which is RIDICULOUS.
( blathering! )
( blathering! )
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Well, UNLV lost and wow, bracketFail! on so many levels.
Also, I have finally created a second twitter for my non-fandom life. So, if anyone wants to follow my fandom associated twitter, it's twtd (just like my username here).
Oh, I should add that I'm not going to be importing my tweets here, if anyone was worried about that. I generally just think that's annoying and just skip over those posts.
Also, I have finally created a second twitter for my non-fandom life. So, if anyone wants to follow my fandom associated twitter, it's twtd (just like my username here).
Oh, I should add that I'm not going to be importing my tweets here, if anyone was worried about that. I generally just think that's annoying and just skip over those posts.
Tags:
I've been watching Supernatural in order to vid it in this multivid I'm making. I've watched many many episodes now, or large parts of them at least.
( cut for disconnected rambling about SPN, SGA, misogyny, racism, and my own freakout )
( cut for disconnected rambling about SPN, SGA, misogyny, racism, and my own freakout )
My knees were kvetching again, but I threw some ibuprofen at the problem and went to the gym.
( cut to avoid boring you )
( cut to avoid boring you )
Tags:
(wendynever posting in ![[community profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
original_slash Mar. 18th, 2010 09:15 pm)
wendynever posting in original_slash Mar. 18th, 2010 09:15 pm)( You're about to view content which the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )
Tags:
(icanhascheezburger_feed Mar. 18th, 2010 05:00 pm)
icanhascheezburger_feed Mar. 18th, 2010 05:00 pm)
Good newz: we ate all ur bills & replaced dem wif our cuteness Bad newz: ur broke.
Picture by: Elwing313 Caption by: gnu via Advanced Lol Builder
(disabledfeminists_feed Mar. 19th, 2010 12:00 am)
disabledfeminists_feed Mar. 19th, 2010 12:00 am)Full disclosure: I know the film’s producer, Anne Kenyon, and she lent me a copy of the DVD after we got chatting about her film work one day.
The Music in Me (2007) is a documentary following a Sydney, Australia-based dance group called the Merry Makers, which is made up of about 50 intellectually and physically disabled dancers as well as 15 helpers. They’re pretty well known around these parts. The group meets every Saturday and has been running for about 30 years as I’m writing this. The documentary, a winner of multiple international awards including Best Documentary at the 2007 Avignon Film Festival, follows the group leading up to a performance at the Sydney Entertainment Centre (and as anyone from Sydney reading will know, that’s a really, really big deal).
We’re first introduced to Lucinda Bryant, the group’s present artistic director and choreographer. ‘They are probably the most amazing group of people I have ever come across. They break down all boundaries placed in front of them,’ she tells us. There’s a great deal of focus on Bryant’s role, as you might have predicted, and what she thinks and says, but she consistently redirects attention to what the Merry Makers themselves do rather than her role, which is refreshing considering that these sorts of documentaries – and sometimes abled people who work with disabled people! – tend in quite the opposite direction.
The structure of the film is such that, within the framework of leading up to the Sydney Entertainment Centre concert and dance rehearsals, there are also a number of interviews incorporated. These are with members of the Merry Makers as well as their families (and Bryant, of course). There were many interviews that must have been recorded that didn’t make it into the film; there are some included in the DVD’s extras. It was saddening that they evidently didn’t have enough time to fit them all in, because I would have so liked to have learned more about everyone.
That both dancers and their families are interviewed produces some interesting dynamics. We get to delve into people’s home and family lives more, and so there’s a more holistic picture of how Merry Makers fits into each person’s life than we might otherwise have had. We learn about the lives of Sam and his mother Maria; about how Sabina came to care for her granddaughter Samantha; about the relationships between Jenny, Alana and Aida. That’s because Merry Makers draws in a community wider than the dancers themselves. As Lea says of her daughter Rebecca’s participation in Merry Makers, ‘I didn’t realise when I joined Merry Makers that it was gonna be about me, too.’ There’s a very uncomfortable moment when Lea recalls her thinking about Rebecca’s being disabled as a tragedy, but then we come to her changed thinking, that the tragedy framework needn’t apply: Rebecca ‘can be what she wants to be, do what she wants to do’. It becomes more about everyone’s relationships than the dancing, and the interviews are really humanising. All too often disabled people are portrayed as a disability with a person attached, but these interviews really serve to show that the people concerned are in fact people.
The thing that bothered me the most about The Music in Me was that there were times when interviewing people’s relatives (most of the featured dancers were minors) took the place of the dancers speaking for themselves, when it moved from being about the community to parents speaking for their children. And at times, it didn’t fit in very well either, for instance, there wasn’t really a call for adult dancer Beaver’s parent to speak for him. Perhaps some dancers preferred their parents/carers to speak for them, perhaps communication styles were such as this was preferable, but nevertheless that overall dynamic remains, and I would like to have had more on the dancers’ perspectives. Something that did a little bit to mitigate my discomfort was that Lucinda’s mother Janet was interviewed, too, and there are some amusing tiffs between them over the administration of Merry Makers. I guess in this respect the documentary reflects the structure of the organization, it seems to be run by abled people. Overall, there’s a really high ratio of abled perspectives to disabled ones featured. As I’ve mentioned, this leads to some very distressing moments; it’s particularly stark when there’s talk about life expectancy and some of the talk from parents/carers about the dancers’ futures was upsetting to me.
And of course there are large chunks of the documentary that are devoted to showing what they do, just dancing, without commentary, which is great. It’s about the love of dance! It was pretty lovely to see how close everyone was, and the lack of the sort of contempt you often encounter from abled people who work with disabled people. There’s a great deal of emphasis on catering to every single person as individuals rather then expecting them all to fit into a particular frameworks of what people with their disabilities are like as is all too common.
The film runs at about an hour. And guess what, everyone? It’s subtitled all the way through and properly at that! This is something I oughtn’t to be surprised at, but proper subtitling is all too rare, even sometimes in disability-focussed media.
©2010 FWD/Forward. All Rights Reserved.
.Props to CBS for making watching NCAA basketball games online easy, even if I can't get the high quality version to work. This is acceptable.
What isn't acceptable is that UNLV is suddenly not winning anymore. Grrr.
Oh, and my bracket is already completely screwed up.
Edit: Also, hello new people!
What isn't acceptable is that UNLV is suddenly not winning anymore. Grrr.
Oh, and my bracket is already completely screwed up.
Edit: Also, hello new people!
Wow, liv's non-fannish friending meme is an amazing thing. I've subscribed to like a bazillion people! And hi to all the new people who've subscribed to me! Welcome! I look forward to getting to know a bit about you all over the next few weeks. :D At some point, I'll do a proper introductory post -- because you know, I don't think I ever did one for this journal! -- but for now, my entries will have to suffice. :Da
Anyway! On to State of the Kitchen Renovation (part ii). How's that for a pretentious title? ;P
So, yesterday, the contractors hauled away all the boxes and old cabinets. I was originally going to donate the cabinets but they are so old and some of them didn't make off the wall intact. The sink base cabinet was already a no-go because there'd been a leak at some point in the past and the wood was ruined.
(A tangent: Ah, the kitchen sink. In which the plumbing was so old that to switch out the faucet, my dad and I had to SAW OFF THE OLD ONE. Also, that was the one where we discovered the leaky piping underneath had been "repaired" with caulk and tape. Good god, people, don't ever, ever do this.)
Today, I stopped by after work to see that they'd did a rough-in of the appliances -- they were all put in place and the over-the-range microwave was hung. None of the things are yet connected. And after seeing the range in place with the microwave over it, I nixed the idea of a backsplash. Have no need for it! Instead, I've decided to paint the newly exposed wall. I'll have to prime it and all that first though, plus scrape off some of this horrendous 70s wallpaper that must have been original to the townhouse but was never removed due to inaccessibility. (Like they'd scraped off the majority of it at some point but the bits behind the original double stove and behind the old formica backsplash were left behind.)
I emailed my designer guy to see if he'd heard back from the countertop fabricators about my measured square footage and the edging options. (I want one particular edge but I'm not sure if I'd have to pay extra for it in which if I did, I'd totally choose another edge instead.) He hadn't yet but he told me he'd email them and email me as soon as I did.
A funny comment he made yesterday about the undermount sink I'd be getting: Since it has a curve and it's set in the corner, you can either center the faucet or offset it to the right so it'd be out of the way!
My reply: It'd be out of the way but I'd spend every day pissed off because I'm left handed so I'd have to reach over like this to turn the faucet on and off.
Him: Center, it is then!
Good man.
liv's non-fannish friending meme is an amazing thing. I've subscribed to like a bazillion people! And hi to all the new people who've subscribed to me! Welcome! I look forward to getting to know a bit about you all over the next few weeks. :D At some point, I'll do a proper introductory post -- because you know, I don't think I ever did one for this journal! -- but for now, my entries will have to suffice. :DaAnyway! On to State of the Kitchen Renovation (part ii). How's that for a pretentious title? ;P
So, yesterday, the contractors hauled away all the boxes and old cabinets. I was originally going to donate the cabinets but they are so old and some of them didn't make off the wall intact. The sink base cabinet was already a no-go because there'd been a leak at some point in the past and the wood was ruined.
(A tangent: Ah, the kitchen sink. In which the plumbing was so old that to switch out the faucet, my dad and I had to SAW OFF THE OLD ONE. Also, that was the one where we discovered the leaky piping underneath had been "repaired" with caulk and tape. Good god, people, don't ever, ever do this.)
Today, I stopped by after work to see that they'd did a rough-in of the appliances -- they were all put in place and the over-the-range microwave was hung. None of the things are yet connected. And after seeing the range in place with the microwave over it, I nixed the idea of a backsplash. Have no need for it! Instead, I've decided to paint the newly exposed wall. I'll have to prime it and all that first though, plus scrape off some of this horrendous 70s wallpaper that must have been original to the townhouse but was never removed due to inaccessibility. (Like they'd scraped off the majority of it at some point but the bits behind the original double stove and behind the old formica backsplash were left behind.)
I emailed my designer guy to see if he'd heard back from the countertop fabricators about my measured square footage and the edging options. (I want one particular edge but I'm not sure if I'd have to pay extra for it in which if I did, I'd totally choose another edge instead.) He hadn't yet but he told me he'd email them and email me as soon as I did.
A funny comment he made yesterday about the undermount sink I'd be getting: Since it has a curve and it's set in the corner, you can either center the faucet or offset it to the right so it'd be out of the way!
My reply: It'd be out of the way but I'd spend every day pissed off because I'm left handed so I'd have to reach over like this to turn the faucet on and off.
Him: Center, it is then!
Good man.
Tags:
am i reading into things too much to take ilene kristen's scenes and st. paddy's day outfit on oltl today as a nod to ryan's hope? lol
(actually, i suppose it started yesterday with the john and bo in dress uniform at rody's, talking about the parade.)
curiously, i was also thinking earlier that the new attorney on gh, claire, reminds me a little of jillian...
(actually, i suppose it started yesterday with the john and bo in dress uniform at rody's, talking about the parade.)
curiously, i was also thinking earlier that the new attorney on gh, claire, reminds me a little of jillian...
Tags:
0. I am not caught up on comments! I'm just saying, I'm aware of this.
1. It is so weird to me how no one not from the Middle East would probably assume I was a Middle Easterner. And yes, Israel is a giant fusion-y mixed culture of any and all things, but we are still located in the Middle East (even though it may not feel that way sometimes, living here) and a significant portion of our culture is still indeed Middle Eastern! It just feels a little weird to be watching a show like East WEest 101, about Australian Arab-Muslims, and get a shot of familiarity from the main character calling his wife habibti, and not from any other aspect of White Australian culture, as depicted.
This brought to you by my trip downtown to get takeout hummus at my favorite restaurant (populated as it was this Thursday afternoon with IDF soldiers in uniform and people in kafiyas and turbans), passing by the Santa Terra elementary school (populated as usual with Arabic speaking Christian children).
2. Talking toroga today, reminded me something that happened my first year at Uni. I was taking a mandatory Statistics class, as part of my Psychology major, and one day we were studying... that math thing that I do not remember the name of, much less in English, lol, but the thing where people get graded on a scale instead of with absolute values? Like the SAT?
And the TA (since this was a discussion group/practical session) said: "Like when you get an 80 on an exam. How are your parents supposed to know if that's a good grade or not? Depending ont he rest of the class, right? If the average of 95, then your grade probably isn't very good. If the average is 75 then you did very well. Well, today we're going to learn..."
And it was a mini moment of utter culture shock. I called J as soon as I got out of the class.
Me: (recounts what TA said)
J: ............
Me: I KNOW RIGHT
J: I JUST. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Me: IN WHAT UNIVERSE WOULD OUR PARENTS EVER LOOK AT AN 80 AND ~WONDER~ IF IT WAS A GOOD GRADE?!
J: IN WHAT UNIVERSE WOULD OUR PARENTS CARE WHAT EVERYONE ELSE GOT?!
Me: ALL THAT MATTERS IS--
J: --IF IT'S LESS THAN 100 IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
Me: Like THERE IS NO RELATIVE SCALE.
J: It's just: if it's less than the maximum possible score, YOU DID NOT DO WELL ENOUGH.
Me: I just. ISRAELIS, man. It's like, IN WHAT WORLD.
This brought to you by a conversation I had with my dad LAST WEEK:
Me: Oh hey, I got 94 on this exam!
Dad: Oh! Pity you couldn't get those last 6 points :(
NO REALLY. Talk to me about perfectionism people, please! Let's see if we can compare notes. It warms my heart sometimes to see movies set in Japan or Korea where similar attitudes are still very prominent. And just to clarify - EVERYONE I knew growing up obviously grew up with the same attitudes at home so I didn't even know people EXISTED who could like, look at an 85 and go "oh, that's nice!" before I met native Israelis. I still have these weird conversations with people at Uni where they tell me about their grades and I make a sympathetic face and they go "...which is excellent!" and I try to quickly change my expression, LOL.
Russian childhood was Russian, sigh.
3. me: ugh god damnit I made paper notes for a fic recently
and now I can't find the paper
roga: lol
I'm kind of hoping you like left them in a notebook you lent to someone from class or something
because that would be awesome.
me: :O
roga: and you could be like,
me: YOU BITCH
roga: "yeah, I'm a film student, it's for a paper I'm writing"
me: YOU KNOW IT WAS FOR PORN RIGHT?
roga lmao
it's a class on sexuality in film!
me: RIGHT.
roga: its for anthro!
me: "I'm recording my dreams lately for an anthro project.... um."
roga: lmao
I need to write fiiiiiic D: I have a few things started, I just need to get into that mindset, you know? Maybe I'll do some write-or-die tomorrow. It's not so much for the MUST WRITE thing as that I HATE HATE HATE having unfinished things in my head (and like, in my life in general, lol) so I'd really rather have it out of my head and posted as soon as possible. Options include White Collar, True Blood, an original snippet and a sequel to a story called The Farm I wrote for yuletide.
4. I have like 4 different icons for "bored" on DW which is very wtf since I am... rarely actually posting because/when I'm bored. I need to look into that.
...5. ETA:roga: I think that you should write Bandom, personally.
me:: Really, DO YOU?
roga: I do.
I mean, you've read some bandom now, you must be getting the hang of their names/fanon personalities a little, you can just write a little original fic with, you know, bandom names or whatever.
It will be brilliant.
me: LOL
YOU MUST BE GETTING THE HANG OF THEIR NAMES
roga: lol
JUST DO IT OKAY
me: stop putting these thoughts in my head when I am tired and vulnerable
roga: you already know this is going to end with
"I can't believe roga roped me into this again
and somehow I ended up writing bandom rpf gen crossovers what the fuck"
me: AHAHAHAA
roga: I'm not even asking that this time! just write, you know, your thing. On a tour bus. IT'S NOT TOO MUCH TO ASK YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO ANYWAY.
me: I wonder if it's like, me not having any willpower, or some deep seated trauma about needing to be approved of/liked that gets me into these things
roga: I think it's because secretly, deep inside you, there's a gen crossover rpf lover dying to come out.
she's opressed by the porn part of your brain, but you know, once in a while the window opens and she gets the chance to see the sunlight and sing.
me: wow that's like
I wish I could put that on my profile
roga: this is why I never studied psych. I don't need to, I'm just that perceptive.
1. It is so weird to me how no one not from the Middle East would probably assume I was a Middle Easterner. And yes, Israel is a giant fusion-y mixed culture of any and all things, but we are still located in the Middle East (even though it may not feel that way sometimes, living here) and a significant portion of our culture is still indeed Middle Eastern! It just feels a little weird to be watching a show like East WEest 101, about Australian Arab-Muslims, and get a shot of familiarity from the main character calling his wife habibti, and not from any other aspect of White Australian culture, as depicted.
This brought to you by my trip downtown to get takeout hummus at my favorite restaurant (populated as it was this Thursday afternoon with IDF soldiers in uniform and people in kafiyas and turbans), passing by the Santa Terra elementary school (populated as usual with Arabic speaking Christian children).
2. Talking to
roga today, reminded me something that happened my first year at Uni. I was taking a mandatory Statistics class, as part of my Psychology major, and one day we were studying... that math thing that I do not remember the name of, much less in English, lol, but the thing where people get graded on a scale instead of with absolute values? Like the SAT? And the TA (since this was a discussion group/practical session) said: "Like when you get an 80 on an exam. How are your parents supposed to know if that's a good grade or not? Depending ont he rest of the class, right? If the average of 95, then your grade probably isn't very good. If the average is 75 then you did very well. Well, today we're going to learn..."
And it was a mini moment of utter culture shock. I called J as soon as I got out of the class.
Me: (recounts what TA said)
J: ............
Me: I KNOW RIGHT
J: I JUST. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Me: IN WHAT UNIVERSE WOULD OUR PARENTS EVER LOOK AT AN 80 AND ~WONDER~ IF IT WAS A GOOD GRADE?!
J: IN WHAT UNIVERSE WOULD OUR PARENTS CARE WHAT EVERYONE ELSE GOT?!
Me: ALL THAT MATTERS IS--
J: --IF IT'S LESS THAN 100 IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
Me: Like THERE IS NO RELATIVE SCALE.
J: It's just: if it's less than the maximum possible score, YOU DID NOT DO WELL ENOUGH.
Me: I just. ISRAELIS, man. It's like, IN WHAT WORLD.
This brought to you by a conversation I had with my dad LAST WEEK:
Me: Oh hey, I got 94 on this exam!
Dad: Oh! Pity you couldn't get those last 6 points :(
NO REALLY. Talk to me about perfectionism people, please! Let's see if we can compare notes. It warms my heart sometimes to see movies set in Japan or Korea where similar attitudes are still very prominent. And just to clarify - EVERYONE I knew growing up obviously grew up with the same attitudes at home so I didn't even know people EXISTED who could like, look at an 85 and go "oh, that's nice!" before I met native Israelis. I still have these weird conversations with people at Uni where they tell me about their grades and I make a sympathetic face and they go "...which is excellent!" and I try to quickly change my expression, LOL.
Russian childhood was Russian, sigh.
3. me: ugh god damnit I made paper notes for a fic recently
and now I can't find the paper
roga: lolI'm kind of hoping you like left them in a notebook you lent to someone from class or something
because that would be awesome.
me: :O
roga: and you could be like,me: YOU BITCH
roga: "yeah, I'm a film student, it's for a paper I'm writing"me: YOU KNOW IT WAS FOR PORN RIGHT?
roga lmaoit's a class on sexuality in film!
me: RIGHT.
roga: its for anthro!me: "I'm recording my dreams lately for an anthro project.... um."
roga: lmaoI need to write fiiiiiic D: I have a few things started, I just need to get into that mindset, you know? Maybe I'll do some write-or-die tomorrow. It's not so much for the MUST WRITE thing as that I HATE HATE HATE having unfinished things in my head (and like, in my life in general, lol) so I'd really rather have it out of my head and posted as soon as possible. Options include White Collar, True Blood, an original snippet and a sequel to a story called The Farm I wrote for yuletide.
4. I have like 4 different icons for "bored" on DW which is very wtf since I am... rarely actually posting because/when I'm bored. I need to look into that.
...5. ETA:
roga: I think that you should write Bandom, personally.me:: Really, DO YOU?
roga: I do.I mean, you've read some bandom now, you must be getting the hang of their names/fanon personalities a little, you can just write a little original fic with, you know, bandom names or whatever.
It will be brilliant.
me: LOL
YOU MUST BE GETTING THE HANG OF THEIR NAMES
roga: lolJUST DO IT OKAY
me: stop putting these thoughts in my head when I am tired and vulnerable
roga: you already know this is going to end with"I can't believe roga roped me into this again
and somehow I ended up writing bandom rpf gen crossovers what the fuck"
me: AHAHAHAA
roga: I'm not even asking that this time! just write, you know, your thing. On a tour bus. IT'S NOT TOO MUCH TO ASK YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO ANYWAY.me: I wonder if it's like, me not having any willpower, or some deep seated trauma about needing to be approved of/liked that gets me into these things
roga: I think it's because secretly, deep inside you, there's a gen crossover rpf lover dying to come out.she's opressed by the porn part of your brain, but you know, once in a while the window opens and she gets the chance to see the sunlight and sing.
me: wow that's like
I wish I could put that on my profile
roga: this is why I never studied psych. I don't need to, I'm just that perceptive.Tags:
.