Reading

Wake Up Dead Man

Netflix's Wake Up Dead Man, the third Knives Out movie, wasn't for me.

The first one had an interesting mystery. I guessed a lot about the second one, but it was pretty fun and original. I also guessed a lot about this one and found it quite depressing. Plus, we didn't even see Benoit Blanc's husband again.

Nice cast, though, especially Kerry Washington and Andrew Scott. <3

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Media Post

Movies: Wake Up Dead Man, the new Knives Out movie. I liked it quite a bit, but I think that it didn't use a lot of the supporting cast as much as some of the previous films.

Television/Streaming
Farscape:

"Won't Get Fooled Again" - where John is experiencing all sorts of delusions after being captured by a Scarran on the commerce planet. Despite the serious of the ground situation, which we only discover later, there are some funny bits in here, as the characters are not their "regular" selves.

"The Locket" - where Aeryn is technically only gone for one day, but has lived over 150 cycles on a different planet, and Crichton follows her back there. This was a really good episode, had some touching moments without being over the top.

"The Ugly Truth" - where the crew meet with Crais on board Talyn but then the ship shoots at a Plokavian ship, and the whole crew gets interrogated, and we see the different versions of the story everyone tells. Much like the Japanese film Rashomon.

"A Clockwork Nebari" - where some of Chiana's people find her and are determined to take her back to her planet for "cleansing." Meanwhile, the whole crew gets brainwashed, too. The eye thing was a little too much for me; I had to look away.

"Liars, Guns and Money - A Not So Simple Plan" and "With Friends Like These" - two episodes of a three part series, where the crew hatches a plan to rescue Jothee, D'Argo's son.

Buffy:

"Passion" - where Angel is still actively stalking Buffy. And Jenny (Ms. Calendar) dies.

"Killed by Death" - where Buffy goes to the hospital after developing a high fever and ends up rescuing a bunch of sick kids from Death.

"I Only Have Eyes for You" - where two tortured souls are haunting the Sunnydale campus. You really can tell the time period here, because Buffy hates the young male student for killing the female teacher when their "relationship" ended, while conveniently ignoring the fact that the woman was a predator.

"Go Fish" - where the swim team starts growing into freaky amphibious creatures.

And by this point, I am so very tired of all the ableist digs Angel keeps making toward Spike in his wheelchair. I know he's supposed to be a dick, to EVERYONE, pretty much, but come on, man, not cool.

Reading:
Finished Daisy Jones & The Six and loved it. Want to check out the series to see how it holds up.

For book club, we read All Systems Red by Martha Wells, the first Murderbot Diaries book. I enjoyed it, and Murderbot is an interesting and sometimes very relatable character. I want to check out the next book in the series.

Entry tags:

podcasts

podcast friday

Here's a series from a week or two ago that you really should check out: It Could Happen Here's "Darién Gap: One Year Later." It's four parts and I recommend listening to the whole thing, as it's some truly brilliant reporting, but if you are like me, the one that will stand out the most is the second episode, "To Be Called By No Name." It begins with a song written in 1948, Woody Guthrie's "Deportees (Plane Crash At Los Gatos)" that has horrifying resonance now, nearly 80 years later. From that jumping off point, James discusses the media coverage of the manufactured migrant crisis.

The four part series focuses on two migrants in particular, Primrose and her daughter Kim, from Zimbabwe. Primrose's family opposed the regime there and her father was disappeared; she and her daughter fled a deadly situation to try to claim refugee status in the US. The plight of migrants from African countries is even less discussed than those from Latin America or the Middle East; in detailing Primrose's story, James makes her visible, a heroic protagonist facing impossible odds, someone who lodges in your heart and stays there. It's great storytelling as well as great journalism. He refuses the objectivity of the mainstream reporters, who just don't bother to talk to migrants, let alone give voice to their names and stories.

Even posting about this tears me up. I know a lot of you reading this are doing your best to fight ICE but I want to beat every one of those bastards to death with my bare hands and by the end of this series, you will too.

Letifer by TD Cloud

Letifer by TD Cloud was amazing! A human cop and a vampire enforcer secretly team up to investigate serial killings.

If you love Vampire: the Masquerade and Kindred: the Embraced, you're in for a treat! There's a variety of vampire clans, each with their own specificities, and a bit of a noir vibe. The plot also has some interesting layers.

There's major m/m, as well as a lesbian side character.

Entry tags:

books

Reading Wednesday

Just finished: You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson. I never had the privilege of seeing Gibson perform, other than on YouTube, so this is as close as I'm ever going to get. They really were a brilliant poet. Some of the poems lose a bit in print—they tend towards the storytelling and autobiographical, and that reads much less powerfully on the page than in speech—but this is a fairly minor critique. Gibson writes powerfully about queerness, gender, disability, and the climate crisis, and their furious energy is made all the more poignant by their premature death earlier this year.

Currently reading: Censorship & Information Control: From Printing Press to Internet by Ada Palmer. This is an exhibit based on a course that Palmer taught and it just makes me wish I could take the course. I'm screenshotting bits to text to people. Her central argument is that the total state censorship we see depicted in 1984 is the exception rather than the norm; more often censorship is incomplete, self-enforced, or carried out by non-state entities like the church or marketplace. This is obviously important when we talk about issues like free speech, which tends to be very narrowly defined when most of the threats to it have traditionally not come directly from the government (I mean, present-day US excepted, but it took a lot of informal censorship to get to that point).

The bit about fig leafs, complete with illustrations, is particularly good, as is the bit on Pierre Bayle, who hid his radical ideas in the footnotes to his Historical and Critical Dictionary in lengthy footnotes that he knew no one would read.

You can get this for free if you want to read it btw.

(no subject)

Christ.

Things move quickly, I suppose. It's sort of ironic — I ended that entry with a note about plans changing, and this morning, they did.

Max texted me that the funeral is this weekend. Friday, specifically.

"So I guess I'm not going", because there were no flights.

I pointed out that thanks to the atmospheric river, temps are actually much warmer than they have been — "so if we want to drive..."

I texted a friend of ours that cat-sits for us, usually, asking if she was free. She said yes, as long as I was fine with them getting fed two hours early on Thursday.

"Yeah, of course."

So.

Text exchange with Maximo back and forth, re: whether or not he wanted me to go; I hate "well, it's up to you", because when it's shit like this, it's not up to me. If I'm going out with you as support, I want to know that you want that support, goddam.

Anyway he admitted at long last that yes, he would like it, so we're leaving Thursday.

Today was something of a mixed bag, shall we say.

Woke up with the alarm at 7:20, talked to Maximus about the whole funeral business, then fell back asleep because I hadn't actually fallen asleep last night until almost 3am. (Sigh.)

Almost immediately went into a nightmare about my ex, one where he found out where I'm living now and after I got home from running an errand in town (that I'd walked to; town is small enough that this is plausible), followed me home, stole my keys to keep me from getting into the house, and ended up literally chasing me through the neighborhood.

Woke up mid-panic attack, fully hyperventilating, fight-or-flight response in full gear, nearly kicked one of the cats trying to get free of the bedclothes. Cool.

Laid there for a very long time just trying to get my heart rate back down to normal. I haven't talked to him in eight and a half years. I have seen him at a few points, but it's been the sort of thing where I've had the ability to just leave, so I have, without talking to him.

(I know that if for some horrible reason I did end up in the same place as him at the same time with no way to escape, he would try to talk to me — I don't know that he'd be able to help it. I saw him do it to others. I also know that I would probably just end up giving him the cut direct, but, well, you know.)

Eventually did get up and get ready to do therapy, etc, but God, that cast a shadow over the whole fucking day.

Happier news, suppose: I made bread today. Very simple stuff. In essence:

500 g bread flour (~4ish cups but woe betide you if you're using volumetric measurements for flour)
1.5 c water
2 tsp coarse salt (kosher, or I use coarse sea salt for mine)
2 tsp instant yeast

Throw into a bowl, knead until it passes the windowpane test (about eight minutes at speed 2 in my KitchenAid). Allow to rise in a warm place (on top of the coffee maker, here) until doubled in size. Tip out onto a baking sheet, shape into a loaf, allow to rise until puffy and, well, large, another 45 minutes, then slash the top and bake at 425F until browned, about 25 minutes in my oven.

I opt for crispy crust by preheating a cast-iron pan with the oven and filling it with boiling water just before I shove the bread in, but you do you.

Anyway it's dead fucking simple and it makes a loaf of bread that the Maximus goes nuts for.

Literally — I put it out on a board, just as a, "we can have some of this with olives and cheese and some wine while we're waiting for dinner to finish baking" (I made pot pie), and he flipped and ate a third of the loaf by his lonesome. Good lord.

I did a tarot reading for myself as sort of a, "great, what next?" post-therapy.

It was...enlightening?

Midway through doing it, I had the funny little revelation that the deck I bought for myself a couple of years ago that I cannot do a proper reading with is something that a friend of mine would probably have better luck with, because it's moon-themed, and I am just...look, I know what I am, and I am not Moon Energy. So.

The upshot of the reading is that yes shit sucks right now, why am I asking my tarot deck for confirmation that it sucks? It does, you're welcome, the end. Acknowledging that it sucks and doing what needs to be done will at least maybe help with the feeling of absolute misery, so, uh.

...thanks, goblin deck, for that...?

I did laugh while doing the pulls, but — yeah.

I did tarot in part because I joked with my therapist that perhaps I should just pay an Etsy witch to uncurse me. "Do you know the name of the one that uncursed the Seattle Mariners? Do you think she does more than just baseball?"

He laughed.

The — reading was basically, like, "look if you want to reach out to weird metaphysical shit for help, then yes, find that Etsy witch and pay her", which was deeply funny to me, but yeah.

Some part of me is like, "this is ridiculous, you are a PhD scientist" — and another part of me is like, "but, you know..."

So I suppose we shall see? :P

If anyone has a preferred Etsy witch (or method of curse removal), LET ME KNOW.

Oh! Right, of course, yes.

The other weird thing is that one of my fics on AO3 has suddenly gained almost 125 hits over the last two days. No kudos, no new comments, just a fuckload more hits. Like, why?? Do I get to know?

...do I want to know?

(It's explicit, tagged clearly with what it is, and fairly unremarkable, so I can't imagine it's been linked anywhere, but — huh.)

Entry tags:

music

Bandcamp Friday

There are a few hours left in Bandcamp Friday. Instead of using Spotify, why not buy some music there? Coincidentally Grace Petrie has a new EP out.

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podcasts

podcast friday

There has been another round of great podcasts this week, but this is not an unbiased blog, and thus check out The Fiction Lab's "The Intersection Between Activism & Fiction with Rachel A. Rosen" and hear all about how fiction and real life activism inform each other, the challenges of telling political stories, and how to make your political stories (and activism) a little less on-the-nose.

Dreamwidth Paid Time

Thanks a lot to the anon who bought me 6 months of paid time! <3

Dreamwidth Paid Time

Thanks again to the kind anon who bought me paid time last year! If someone wanted to extend it, I would be very grateful.

Ignore this post if you have money issues.

Entry tags:

books

Reading Wednesday

Just finished: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Couldn't put this one down, which is why I'm tired this morning. It's dark academia meets gothic with three rather compelling heroines who've been cursed by witches. Like most gothics, it's more about the atmosphere than the mystery, though I did really enjoy ( spoilers ). And I loved all three characters, which, in true SMG style, are very driven, to the point of alienating most of the people in their lives, and very lifelike.

I am glad I was warned for ( another spoiler )

Oh it's also super adorable to see the "ancient department heads" at Stoneridge College. This is best not spoiled.

Currently reading: Nothing, but I have a hold that should be coming in soon at the library so it's time to read all my short books.

Entry tags:

books,
tv

Media Post

Movies: None.

Television/Streaming
Farscape:

"Look at the Princess" episodes 1-3 - where the crew goes to a planet where Crichton is a "match" for the princess and is forced into a marriage with her (then made into a statue!). I thought this was a pretty good story arc, and the bit at the end, where he interacts with a future hologram of his child, was moving.

"Beware of Dog" - where Moya has parasite problems. This one was a bit gross, haha. And Crichton is really starting to lose it.

Buffy:

"Surprise" - the one where Drusilla and Spike reassemble the Judge. And also, where Angel and Buffy get together finally, and that destroys his soul. What a metaphor, hah.

"Innocence" - where we learn Ms. Calendar's backstory (her family are tasked with watching Angel) and Willow discovers that Xander and Cordelia are together.

"Phases" - the werewolf one, where Oz discovers his true self. Can you imagine living in this town? So much weird shit happens and everyone just kind of rolls with it.

"Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" - where Xander has Amy (the girl with the witch mom from Season 1, who is herself a student of such arts) cast a spell to make Cordelia obsessed with him, but it backfires mightily. I love how Giles is mad at him, CORRECTLY, I might add. Also cringy that Ms. Calendar is coming on to him.

Books:
In between Murder of the Century and Rose in Bloom, I finished The Nameless Restaurant by Tao Wong. This had characters from the author's other series, and is a slice-of-life kind of adventure set in the same world. I enjoyed that the restaurant was magical and had magical elements, and the food, but there was some repetition that was annoying and it could have done with better editing.

Finished Rose in Bloom. This is the sequel to Alcott's Eight Cousins, which I read some years ago and forgot a good chunk of, haha. Rose is an interesting character; wants to make a name for herself with philanthropy, which was really one of the only ways she could do this, but also a bit preachy, such as being scandalized where her cousin, Charlie, gets a bit too drunk on New Year's or Christmas (I forget which) and stayed out too late. It makes her love him a bit less.

Also finished Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams was interesting, but also infuriating. So, Wynn-Williams was Director of Public Policy at Facebook, basically begged them to give her a job back in the day because she recognized the impact that the social media platform would have on the world. Very starry-eyed and naive, and this continues for quite a while, even when she is regaling us with horrific stories of what Facebook is doing in countries such as Myanmar. (They even send her to Myanmar at some point to get a meeting with the military junta, ALONE, with no safety briefings and no knowledge of Burmese).

And I get it: she was pregnant a couple of times, and was concerned about health insurance; she's also from New Zealand so immigration issues were a consideration. HOWEVER, there were plenty of times when she could have gotten out before the shit publicly hit the fan; she used to work for the United Nations so I'm sure her C.V. would have been good enough to get a high-powered job elsewhere.

I am a grunt, essentially, but if my firm was responsible for fucking WAR crimes, I would find a way to get out.

So, yes, Facebook is terrible; has been for a long time; not much of this was surprising; but Wynn-Williams doesn't cover herself in glory here, either.

Current reading: Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I know this came out a LONG time ago, but I'm just getting around to it.