Monday, September 30, 2013

I'm glad they're pleased with themselves




Watch who gloats to assign credit.  Bachmann's positively beaming as she sends our very productive MN office home and lets her constituents wait indefinitely for financial stability.  Homelessness, foreclosure, hunger, medical emergencies, why should she care- she gets her cool quarter mil, or whatever it actually is in farm subsidies...

As a headline said, they get an F grade in Hostage Taking 101.  All I'm gonna say, probably due to Stockholm syndrome setting in.  If I talk about SFF, it's not cos I'm oblivious.  Just too angry to speak, and somewhat fettered. 

Governance. It's not just a word. 

Have a beer, on me.


Friday, September 20, 2013

Too sciencey!



Someone gave me a very intriguing book: The Tapir's Morning Bath, about biologists researching rain forest animals and ecology.  Great cover!  Thanks. 

I put aside KS Robinson's 2312 because it was so slow to start.  Now I may put away the other ebook I was about to try again, for SCIENCE...  without the fiction...

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Why I'm excited about "Carrie" 2013



I was listening to Worldcon attendes discussing the trailer for the"Carrie" remake and totally disagreeing about the likelihood the movie would be both bad and as simplistic as the trailer, as I ran my 11 miles last Sunday.  But I wasn't really sure I was not offbase.  Hadn't seen the trailer.  Or the movie.

But I've been excited because Kimberly Pierce is directing.  Kimberly Pierce of "Boys Don't Cry" and "Stop Loss," which have similar themes of bullying, violence, and the externalization of shame and self-hatred.  These articles convince me it's worth a peek, as she seems to be focused on the queerer aspects of "Carrie," being truer to the book, and exploring those very timely themes.  I'd have to guess revenge and the thrill, horror, and remorse that come with it, or don't when they should, figure in too...

Article with interviews 

After Ellen video interview 

Oh, and Julianne Moore as Carrie White's mother- terrifying and bound to be interesting and different.  If not wickedly brilliant.  Todd Haynes has used her skills to great effect.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Local agriculture



A friend was cranky at the students running this project in the neighborhoods today, but it made me  research further.  I have even more respect for Gandhi Mahal now...   This too.  They obviously have not worked out all the kinks, in true nonprofit style, but I'd give an A- for big ideas in action...

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Labor day




I'm headed in on a fine Saturday morning, the first non-90 degree day we've had in weeks, or it seems like that anyway.  Don't defame us public servants.  No one else is headed in today to make things keep moving along, except some flight attendants and guys who're clearly headed to open restaurants.  (My old job, I do not envy them. It's hot and greasy in the kitchen, and restaurant managers... Yeesh.)

I'm listening to China Mieville's City and The City, which I just started and have to restart cos of some VERY LOUD kids on the light rail yesterday who were pulling the "You're racist if you complain or move away" schtick that doesn't really work that well in public transportation when it's not the suburban Vikings/Twins crowd. 

I'm also reading Outlaw Platoon, about the U.S. troops in Afghanistan.  True war stories, my guilty pleasure.  It's interesting, from the POV of a new platoon leader set down in a remote village with lots of local political intrigue.

(Later) I made it home, napped, ran 5 miles, biked to the store, and now I'm making black Russian sourdough and chipotle raspberry chicken wings, while it decides whether it's storming outside.

I'm reading Riding Fury Home by Chana Wilson intermittently, but can't take too much of it at once.  It's fascinating - particularly as a look at daily life in the 60s/70s women's movement and lesbian circles, but a little too much of what I think about all day at work.  Will review it separately.

Later- I'm trying to rework the setup for these two different novels I got stuck on.  The setting in terms of time and place is not right in one, maybe just slightly off.  The other is not taking the characters where they need to go.  I think it's the characters, not quite realized enough.  They started as kind of stereotypes, so that's likely enough.  Stewing about them on the page is likely my plan for today- now Sunday.  Plus finishing the bread, which rises overnight, then five hours, easier to fit in a weekend.  Farmer's market in Kingfield and salsa canning is possible, too, if I'm not too lazy.  And it doesn't rain- it's hazy grey out.

Anyway...  Wrote this like I read and write fiction, in fits and starts...