Are you following the protests by University of Cape Town students who want the statue of Cecil Rhodes to come down? You should:
Students argued that the university’s lack of transformation is evident in the naming of structures around the campus. Jameson Hall, they noted, is named after Leander Starr Jameson who was prime minister of the Cape Colony from 1904 to 1908. There are no black female professors employed by the university and the history of black academics such as AC Jordan, UCT’s first black professor, and Archie Mafeje, a senior lecturer at UCT whose removal from the campus under apartheid law sparked outrage and protest from staff and students, has been largely ignored.
The statue of Rhodes, they said, had become symbolic of this lack of transformation and of institutional racism at the university.
I am the nerdiest person in the world but John Renbourn died last week and now he and Bert Jansch are reforming Pentangle in heaven and FOLK ROLK FOREVER. Not just Pentangle, tho, John Renbourn’s solo stuff was great too!
If you missed it, I judged a Zombie Round in The Morning News’ Tournament of Books!
…Station Eleven turned out to be the fiction equivalent of the 121st episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Kamala, played by the luminous Famke Janssen, is an empathic metamorph designed to adapt herself to become the perfect mate for an important diplomat. She winds up adapting to Picard, instead—it’s a great episode, you should watch it. And in this metaphor I am Picard, and Station Eleven is Kamala. It would be impossible for a book to be better suited for me. It is unfair that I have been placed in a position to evaluate its merits at all.
I have to power-pump twice a day on top of breastfeeding to combat my low milk supply, and get a total of two oz from both sessions combined, so I am in awe of people who can donate to others, but I also don’t judge any woman who wants to sell hers, and I would love to see better safety controls.
Robert Durst updates, obviously, we’ll be on this story 24/7 until the heat death of the universe.
Rosanna Bruno, of Emily Dickinson cartoon fame, on her project!
You include a lot of funny elements regarding Emily Dickinson’s entourage. In her Facebook feed, Ralph W. Emerson likes W. Whitman’s status, and two of her siblings are active presences; in her OKCupid profile, ex-minister and soldier Thomas W. Higginson is suggested as a match. How elaborate did you get in imagining not just her interior world, but those adjacent to her?
My favorite pieces of those comics are the various references that can operate on many levels depending on how much of the backstory you know. For instance, a Judge O. Lord is featured as a possible match on OKCupid, too. First of all, I just love the play on his name there—Judge, O Lord! He was a friend of Emily’s father and around his age. It was rumored that he and Emily had a romance and that her infamous “Master Letters” were written to him. Emphasis on the word “rumored.” Scholars have been writing about her possible lovers for ages, and we still don’t know anything for sure. As her relationship status on Facebook says: It’s complicated. I do like reading about these various players in her life and inserting them into different scenarios. The more absurd, the better.
Jess Zimmerman emails me when she runs something on The Archipelago that Toasties simply MUST read, and she is usually right.
The death of Cindy Gladue and the acquittal of her murderer is unconscionable, and this really could not be a more upsetting story, so make sure you’re in a place for that.
the most important lesson of worldbuilding all fantasy authors subsequent to tolkien have basically ignored is how many breakfasts there are
— 100% Genuine Michael (@WarrenIsDead) March 29, 2015
Let’s compare the 1991 and 2014 versions of “Moments in the Woods” now (JOANNA ALWAYS NO COMPARISON BUT EMILY IS FINE):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXdb02DJGG0
Ha! I had “Moments In The Woods” in my head this morning. 🙂
Also I read Station Eleven basically in its entirety yesterday and I am still processing it and ugh, it was just. so. gorgeous.
I loved Station Eleven so much. I was a little wary of it at first, because I was under the impression that it was going to focus more on the theater aspects of it and that the pandemic was just going to be background material, but it wasn’t the case at all. I loved the back and forth of the timeline and all the interconnected characters… so good. I can only hope that if it ever does get made into a movie, it won’t get completely World War Z-ed.
The University of Cape Town protests sound remarkably like those at my alma mater, the University of North Carolina, over “Silent Sam”, a statue of a Confederate soldier put up in the Jim Crow era on campus, to honor the university’s Confederate dead. To the people who say, about these statues’ continued places of pride on campus, that they are innocuous and certainly don’t reflect ongoing institutional racism in both universities and the countries they’re in: don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.* Assholes.
Not to mention the recent protests over Saunders Hall. Did you see the “Which Racist UNC Building Are You?” quiz someone put up on Buzzfeed back when the protests were happening? (Fellow Tarheel here)
I will never understand the institutionalized Confederate circle-jerk that still goes on in this country*. I grew up in Northern Virginia where every other highway is named after a Confederate general and it’s such bullshit nonsense.
*I mean, I know it’s because white supremacy but they were traitors to the Union wtf you guys
I don’t understand why we even have to PRETEND this “both sides had legitimate grievances” business. I grew up in the north, and somehow, “yeah, the South definitely deserved to lose that war” was never said out loud in my school.
I once visited my father’s family in Louisville and my great-aunt (who was very upset that Louisville has the most northernmost Confederate memorial in the US) took me to the local historical society’s exhibit on Henry Clay. It was an amazing act of, “we’re not going to say either side was right on the Civil War, but what we are going to say is that IF EVERYONE HAD JUST LISTENED TO NATIVE SON HENRY CLAY, WE WOULDN’T HAVE HAD ALL THIS UNPLEASANTNESS.”
Once when I was a bartender in New York, a woman from Texas came in and started conversationally talking to me about how she was from the South so she knew how bad it was, about all the mansions that got burned and the priceless works of art that were slashed and destroyed by Union soldiers.
And I mean, I just nodded and everything because that is what you do when you’re a bartender, but in my head all I could think was, “Yeah, but. Slavery though, that was pretty bad, right?”
Also, Texas was not really hit that hard by the actual “war” part of the Civil War. But we sure as hell had a LOT of slavery here.
I had a history teacher in junior high who trotted out the old, “It wasn’t ABOUT slavery! It was about states’ rights!” Which, for those of you who have not heard that particular line of bullshit, was the way that confederacy apologists tried to legitimize the south’s side of the war. Dudes. We were wrong, and we deserved an ass-kicking. Stop trying to justify it.
I got that in high school in California, for pete’s sake. I was at least in a class with a teacher who taught us that out of the textbook because he was supposed to and it would be on the exam, but then pointedly showed us documentaries about the actual slavery part of the Civil War just so we wouldn’t come away from the required material with any rosy ideas.
I grew up in the PNW, and mostly got “yeah, the South deserved to lose”, although probably more implied than explicit. (Unless you’re talking about military specifics; we got the explicit “the South was doomed to lose” there.) There was some explanation of how and why the south got around to fighting on the wrong side, but it was pretty clear that it was the wrong side.
It just meant we got to fast-forward to the next Racism Doublethink Exemption Clause, though, where racism was a thing that happened in far-away, exotically backward places called “Alabama” and “Mississippi” and nowhere else.
I expect that it’s got a lot to do with distance — I grew up in Pennsylvania, and despite our pretty admirable history of being a hotbed for the abolitionist movement, also this state is full of racist motherfuckers.
I am also from the PNW and I was horrified when I learned *as an adult* about all the sundown towns in Washington and Oregon. I knew the region was pretty white, but I had no idea that kind of overt racism had happened here.
I grew up in Illinois, and I also leaned in school that the south was doomed to lose. You see, wage labor is a better capitalistic system for food processing and especially railroads, which are the staples of America, progress, victory, Chicago, a strong dollar, etc. I’m not sure we really addressed the fact that there was also plenty of wage labor going on in the south alongside slavery, but the important thing was that slavery was morally wrong but also terribly old fashioned and inefficient.
Yep, this is pretty much what I got in Indiana, too.
I’m Southern, from Charleston, SC no less, and it always weirds me out how, here in Chicago, people born and raised in Illinois will say, “Well, it was really about States Rights” to which I then vehemently, violently object. Like, how freaking effective was Lost Cause-ism that progessive people in THE LAND OF LINCOLN will spout that shit? Very, very effective and very, very gross.
States’ Rights to own people. Like, what is this disconnect?
Ugh, yes. I have so many family members who are like, “What’s the big deal about the Confederate flag? History! We have the right to remember those super-brave soldiers who died!” Yeah, sure, guys. And what, exactly, were they fighting for?? “Umm, errr….states’ rights??” Uh-huh. Riiiiiiggghhhhttt…
I’ve started comparing it to the swastika–what once was a symbol meaning thing X has been transformed over decades into meaning thing Y, and the original intent completely overshadowed by the present impact, and that usually shuts people up.
I’m here for anything that gets those people to shut up. And yet…the meaning of the confederate flag, at the time it was created, was essentially, “Treason In Defense of Slavery.” Not sure that really fits the same historical trajectory as the pre-Nazi swastika!
Oh no, it definitely doesn’t–the analogy falls down exactly as you describe. When using the argument though, it’s nearly always with the “THAT FLAG JUST MEANS STATES RIGHTS, NOT ABOUT RACISM” crowd, and if that’s how they want to see it, great, and then it works flawlessly. Let them hang on to that delusion if it means they’ll also then be able to see the problem with its use now.
True, and a good argument for the pragmatic approach that is less wedded to Being Right than actually changing people’s behavior.
My historian self probably couldn’t pull that off on this particular topic, being too pedantic, but I salute your effectiveness!
Funny how no one ever seems to have a decent answer when you reply, “Yeah, but the state’s right to do what, exactly?”
Yeeeeeeep.
Same effect as innocently asking a gross white person who is complaining about how black people get to use the n-word and they don’t, “And why is that a word you wish to use so badly?”
I live in Southern Ontario, and there’s a house I always drove past on my way to school that had a Confederate flag flying out front. I could never grok why. Guys, we’re CANADIAN. We didn’t HAVE a civil war.
Well, maybe he confuses the Confederate Army with the Canadian Confederation (which the US Civil War helped motivate! Alongside the desire for railroads, absentee landlords, and other such fun).
Or more likely, he’s just racist and proud of it
From that Wikipedia article on “Silent Sam”:
‘At the 1913 dedication of the monument, industrialist Julian Carr gave a speech wherein he credited the soldiers of the Confederacy of having “saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South,” and as a consequence, “the purest strain of the Anglo Saxon is to be found in the 13 Southern States”‘
WHY DO YOU PEOPLE (and by “you people” I mean “pure-strain Anglo Saxons”) HAVE TO MAKE EVERYTHING ABOUT RACE.
And then he bragged about whipping a black woman. D: I’ve lived in Carrboro for six years, and I only just processed the fact that the town is named after THIS ASSHOLE a couple days ago. It’s full of lefty hipsters now, but I still feel gross.
(hi, I am also in Carrboro, and with you 100000%)
Maybe he’s at least rolling in his grave about the current state of Carrboro? I had no idea about the name either.
And ok, here’s a nitpicky tangent: a significant portion of the settlement of the South was Scots-Irish. You know, those people who fled Great Britain because “Anglo-Saxon” landlords and lawmakers were treating them like shit?
STOP SAYING ANGLO-SAXON. JUST SAY WHITE. But oh wait, you still need a way to make it clear that you’re not talking about Jews or Eastern Europeans or Italians. Assholes.
I thought that too, since my ancestors were said Scots-Irish settlers of the South. Don’t lump my people in with those dang, washed up Germans!
I’ve also heard a weird slut-shaming twist on Silent Sam – the story was something like, “whenever a “pure” woman passes by, his gun will shoot. But he’s silent because all ladies are sluts, yeeeeeeah!” Yeah, I’d be happy to get rid of it.
Is it just me who wants to make a Tumblr of white students sitting at the Unsung Founders memorial right next to it, literally adding extra weight to the monolith supported by the arms of slaves? Because every gd time I walk across McCorkle (so like 10x a week) I see someone doing just that.
FUN FACT about that memorial, with all the anonymous slaves, and the “oh how tragic that they were not recognized message.” We know the names of the slaves who worked on the university. We have tons of records of who did the work. But nope! Anonymous “unsung” founders they remain.
UGH another person parroting the Brazilian breastfeeding study that either found that breastmilk magically makes humans smarter OR that women who have the luxury of breastfeeding their children longer AND the stability to stay in touch with researchers for twenty years get their kids better education. WONDER WHICH IS THE CASE
I always like to point to the ONE STUDY DONE where they actually compared sets of siblings where one was breastfed and the other wasn’t and GUESS WHAT just about all of the differences other studies find disappear!!!!! It’s almost like there are confounding factors!!!
Something about correlation and causation I think?
I just happened to read this yesterday and thought it was a really smart take on that study (and what outcomes and factors we do and don’t look at and how that colors what we know.) Basically I’m amazed how little we do know about breast-feeding. (ETA: And how we aren’t necessarily doing the right kind of studies to understand it OR how to make formula even better.)
I took a gander at the original study and they had the results broken down by income tertiles. Even setting aside my reservations about this being one study with terribly bad retention rates and questionable methodology and my general doubts about what IQ really measures, I just couldn’t be brought to care about their conclusion.
In their own results, breastfeeding added a couple IQ points, but there were ~10-15 point gaps between the top and bottom income groups, regardless of breastfeeding. Way to miss the money forest for the boob trees, science people.
But, let’s not talk about the money forest at all. Let’s not think about income inequality or quality of life or do any of that kind of work. Let’s harass moms over choices they probably made for good reasons, in the spurious hope of achieving a minimally significant benefit! Sounds great!
(Sorry for rant! I’m just so mad!)
Rant all you want… that’s what anyone who has ever lactated wants to do. I can hardly talk about the subject without simultaneously getting ranty and being crippled by guilt – I chose to stop breastfeeding because I have Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex, which basically makes me suicidal any time I have a let down. I know that my 24 pound eight month old is doing JUST FINE on formula and that the two months of solid breastfeeding she got was probably great for her, but I still feel like quit nursing for Selfish Reasons and I should HATE MYSELF FOREVER because of all the mom guilt.
So rant away!
I’m just a Tragic Childless Spinster with a love for the soapbox, so I can rant forever without incurring Mom Guilt. I take requests and am available for parties and special events.
(Also, holy cats! Dysphoric Milk Ejection is a thing?!? I thought I had a big enough estimate of how much of a douchecanoe a person has to be for making a mom feel bad about not breastfeeding, but I guess I didn’t…)
that sounds unspeakably miserable and two months is plenty and, just, crap. I’m sorry it hurt, and I’m glad you are not hurting now.
Way to miss the money forest for the boob trees, science people.
This might be the greatest sentence ever written in Toast comments.
Totally this. I’m breastfeeding for the second time, it’s my choice and I would never question anyone else’s. I cannot get on board with the way these studies are done for all the points you have raised – and especially wildly missing the point by pinning everything on breastfeeding rather than myriad other factors, plus what could be done to actually improve the lot of mothers and babies.
I only hope that as this study began a long time ago there are other, better designed ones underway that have more useful aims.
I was totally comparing “Moments in the Woods” over the weekend! Your summary is exactly right, although it’s kind of not fair to compare Emily Blunt to Joanna Gleason, because Emily Blunt is a mere mortal. Her performance was so warm and goofy!
Also, Station Eleven: I’m not finished yet, but the whole first chapter, that name checks the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre, Cabbagetown, the College streetcar — these are my haunts, yo. The apartment he never goes back to is about four blocks from mine. I did a show at the Winter Garden like five months ago. Serious goosebumps.
Yes! I did not know it was set in Toronto when I started it and it was a delight to stumble into my city through the book.
Yes yes! And it’s kind of a double-edged sword, because you’re so excited to see Toronto in a book, but then as it details the spread of the virus, you have this really chillingly clear picture of how it would unfold. I couldn’t stop imagining being another person on that streetcar, listening to those one-sided phone conversations. Just… creepy.
That article about not being able to breathe is terrifying and I think my throat is going to be tight with sympathy all day now yikes
I had to stop reading because I’m sure my constant throat clearing was going to become a distraction for people around me.
This actually happened to me for reals. Not as bad as the woman in the article but very similar stress=throat tension=lost voice. I also compulsively throat-cleared. The best thing I did was take Wellbutrin and Lexapro. The second best thing was teaching myself to yawn instead of throat clear.
Isn’t it! I get physical symptoms from stress normally even before my brain notices I am stressed, and now I’m *really* hoping my subconscious forgets that article and doesn’t get any ideas.
I finally watched “Bernadette Peters Isn’t the Witch” this weekend and it was FINNNNNNE the whole thing was FINNNNNNNNNE but then I made my mom watch Bernadette Peters on YouTube with me.
But you have to admit that their version of Agony was great. Other than that I am Broadway version all the way.
that version of Agony is the apotheosis of Agony
BEYOND POWER OF SPEECH (I’m sorry)(I’m not sorry)
These are all very good links but the news that TREVOR NOAH IS TAKING OVER THE DAILY SHOW has blown everything else out of my brain.
(Personal reaction: wow, this is much less painful than I expected! Trevor was hugely impressive from his very first appearance on TDS, and I think he’s going to bring a really important international perspective to the show, considering how he’s from South Africa and has already succeeded touring internationally. That said, is he here on a work visa??? And he said in TDS podcast that he doesn’t really know much of American politics, so I really hope he’s able to keep the majority of the staff to help him along.)
Love him! Have you seen the QI episode where he demonstrates click singing?
https://youtu.be/baEiWB2aM9Y
I hadn’t! Thanks so much for sharing, that was very cool.
YES! and developed a deep and enduring crush on him at that instant.
We need If Trevor Noah was your boyfriend now, yes/yes?
Wow, this is exciting!
John Oliver was here on a work visa for, I think, most of the time he was on TDS–he talked about that with Terry Gross once. He got a green card eventually.
Yep, it was a big deal during the writers’ strike — also he ran a much higher risk whenever they might have gotten in trouble with law enforcement.
Yeah, it’s doable, just seems a little precarious for the host of a show with TDS’ prestige.
Fair enough. The job probably makes it easier to qualify for an “extraordinary person” visa though.
I imagine he’ll be fast-tracked for a green card if he does well at TDS, as I fully expect him to.
Yes! I am super happy about this. Trevor Noah is fantastic!
Weirdly, NPR did a blurb on this on Morning Edition, and they went *WAY* out of their way to diss the show for having only 1 million viewers, plus another 250,000 online viewers. For a cable show not called The Walking Dead, those are decent numbers. Also, there is a much broader cultural context and impact, since Fox news spends about 10% of its time worrying about what TDS is saying about them.
His comedy special (streaming on Netflix) was good. I think the fish-out-of-water aspect with respect to America politics could work really well for the Daily Show.
In better news tangentially related to South Africa, Trevor Noah is going to be the new host of The Daily show.
So, I realize this isn’t the Open Thread, but do y’all remember the thread last week talking about celebrity sex dreams? So, I had nothing to add to the conversation, until Saturday night: Peter Dinklage. It was…incredibly satisfying. And I have no idea what to make of that, because he was not someone I ever considered? If that makes sense? So yeah, umm, would recommend. I am still processing this.
AAAAAHHHH, sorry, I had to tell people, and I figured Toasties would understand, because I’m pretty sure Mr. Wren would not!
His voice, though. Delicious. Even in his natural New Jersey speech.
This is accurate and a completely valid point. I do love listening to him talk.
I had a dream last night that I was friends with One Direction and we went on tour together and they trusted me. No kissing, just friends.
ps, harry was the nicest
When I first binge-watched 30 rock I had recurring dreams that Alec Baldwin/Jack Donaghy was my best friend. He gave really good hugs. In one of the variations of the dream he was managing a rock band I was in.
I may possibly have listened to the fellows from The Flash cover the Serenity theme a capella far too many times last week, but on the other hand last night’s dream featured Grant Gustin, Carlos Valdes, Wentworth Miller, and Dominic Purcell rehearsing a dance number in a diner for me, so…no complaints, and certainly no judging.
oh my god that was just gorgeous, though, there is no such thing as too many times
Oh wow that sounds delightful.
OMG I had a Peter Dinklage sexy dream like 10 years ago, and always felt weird telling anyone about it!!
Joanna Gleason >>>>>>>>
(also, Chip Zien is a complete delight.)
Maybe this is interesting to some folks: the reconstruction of the grave goods of a Scythian prince & princess from a 6,000-year-old burial mound.
http://en.tengrinews.kz/science/Reconstruction-sh…
Wow, that is so incredibly beautiful. Thanks for linking to that!!
5th century BC Scythians had the Tallest Hats
With amazing goats on them.
They also had the fanciest horse armor, with tall horse-hats (?) that made them look like deer. Google Scythian horse headdress if you dare.
OF COURSE I DARE
A good question is if there is an episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic where they go back in time to the bronze age and everyone is dressed like a Scythian war-horse.
At least one of my horses needs this.
If you’ve got more than one horse, and you aren’t decking them out with bronze age Scythian barding, then you are letting all of us down.
SOME people don’t have horses that we can kit out like this, SOME people have to live vicariously through others!
I apologise and will get on it forthwith. I might have to improvise with gold-sprayed cardboard for the hat though.
This is acceptable.
I’m sure the Scythians would have done the same, if they’d had cardboard and gold spray paint. You’re just updating the design to use the best in modern materials.
I cannot add anything to this conversation except to politely request photos once accomplished? kthx
Oh man–ancient Central Asia–the most fascinating stuff in the universe.
That article about not breathing is making me so grateful I live in Canada and could just go to the doctor if I was having trouble breathing to see what was up, without having to think about how much it costs. Like the idea of even having to hesitate about going to the doctor in such a situation is so foreign to me. Sorry, U.S. toasties. 🙁
I find the idea of not being able to go to the doctor far more terrifying now
Sorry indeed :C
I had no health insurance for three years, and Planned Parenthood was my only medical provider/regular check up/ blood pressure measuring/etc.
No matter what else, I am donating to them forever. Thank you, pp, for providing healthcare for me even though I didn’t have 1 full time job but several part time ones.
my partner asked why still I “go there” even though i have insurance now and could get a “real doctor”. Planned Parenthood has been there for me through all of the worst shit in my life, even when i was unemployed and homeless. PPFL.
PP 4EVR
The shit they have to deal with makes my blood boil, sometimes.
That’s what I thought as well – I’m in the UK, medical care is (almost all) free at the point of use, and the thought of weighing up “being able to breathe” against “not spending money” is really scary.
I am all in favor of the proliferation of elevensies. In fact, going to go prep for that now.
Also, can we talk about today’s Tournament of Books zombie round? (Untamed State vs. All The Light We Cannot See)? There is so much willful ignoring of the point that it’s utterly hilarious, and also makes me think that maybe (maybe) I should read All the Light, since this judge made all of the criticisms that I imagined myself making of it, and his reading of Untamed State, which I have read, is completely wrong and ungenerous.
it’s such a weird review of both books. http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/. I hesitate to call an opinion on something subjective like a book wrong, but it is befuddling, to say the least.
Anyone looking for a hate read, to whet your appetite: “The protagonist, Mireille, is an entitled lawyer from a wealthy Haitian family, arrogant and unlovable, with a puzzling habit of running away so that her fiancé has to go in search of her. For no reason”
ETA: The discussion afterwards is really good, so it’s not all a hate read, for me at least.
yeah, the match commentary is amazing (as so often). I especially liked the link to the Dale Peck judgment from 2006 (hey Stephen Merritt, you think you’re so edgy with your patronizing, not-that-veiledly-misogynist curmudgeon act? WELL THIS IS HOW THAT SHIT’S DONE PROPERLY.)
Yeeeeeah, I’m both disappointed and yet not particularly surprised to learn that Stephen Merritt is a total smug jerk-ass. I was really looking forward to reading this judgement — I loved both books for very different reasons and there are so many interesting things you could say about them! But instead he was just like “HAVE U CONSIDERED HOW SMART I AM also ladies and their lady problems grosssssss who even cares about that shit amirite lolol”
SHOULDA LET NICOLE DO ALL OF THEM
uuuuuuuuuunnnnghhhhh
The commentary is a delight, though.
It is like Merritt is the “more cowbell” guy in that SNL sketch, but in this case he’s saying “less gang rape.”
Oh goodie, Ed Champion showed up in the comments to scold the entire TOB endeavor.
oh god I knew the name sounded familiar but I couldn’t remember who that was and I just googled him and it’s all coming back now
he said like six snide things about my judgement without mentioning me and it makes me feel great bc now I know he definitely read all my mean tweets about what a cockroach he is
Thank you for not even including the 2002 revival of Into the Woods which is pretty much meh except for Laura Benanti, who is flawless and a goddess despite the fact that they RUINED her On the Steps of the Palace by adding Red and Jack into it and UGH. Also, that kid from Gilmore Girls was in it.
Musical theater opinions, I have them. Don’t EVEN get me started on the Great Frances Ruffelle vs. Lea Salonga Debate (Frances, all day every day).
Lea Salonga is … fine. But Frances is everything.
I saw that revival and as I recall the princes were fantastic and the scenery deserved ALL THE AWARDS. Vanessa Williams, who is great, tried to be Bernadette Peters, and — well, she’s very different and she is not a very good Bernadette Peters.
I cannot hear or comprehend criticisms against Emily Blunt.
But is this a safe space to discuss Meryl Streep’s Bernadette Peters impression?
Emily Blunt is beyond amazing. I had never seen her name or anything about her being in Looper and then I did a fist pump as soon as she showed up on screen.
Emily Blunt’s version was better than Joanna Gleeson’s. THERE I SAID IT
Also totally with you on Meryl Streep totally imitating Bernadette Peters and bringing surprisingly little of her own to the roles (except those times she couldn’t hit Bernadette’s notes, snark)
There is no good place to be in to read about the exoneration of Cindy Gladue’s murderer. The institutional racism that leads to the appallingly high number of First Nations women who become missing persons or homicide victims is one of the most shameful things about this country, and the further inability to achieve justice when those responsible are identified is even more of a blot. It is atrocious.
It’s equally atrocious, and not at all surprising. I admit, I’m not at all sure how it’s a legal decision, though, as I was under the impression that in Canada one cannot consent to being injured, to the point where hockey players cannot consent to being injured in an on-ice fight. How the hell is that not applicable when the defense seems to be that this very drunk woman “consented” to being stabbed with a knife?
If I understand correctly, he claims not to have used a knife and that her death was accidental. Your point about consent is a good one, although it feels like the jury basically went, “Well, the act of her drinking in the first place meant she consented to anything, because she was just a [insert Not-A-Perfect-Victim description here]”. Also revolting!
I can’t stop thinking about the opening scene of Station Eleven, with the theatre and the snow and the sense of things in suspension, which plunged me so deeply in that world I almost wished that a pandemic flu would break out irl so I could have a similar experience.
I still cant get the image of the dead plane out of my head, and I read the book last year.
Holy shit that Cindy Gladue article. I hadn’t heard about it. How horrible.
This is not especially current, but I heard a lovely poem this weekend that I thought some of you might like!
Warsan Shire – “For Women Who Are Difficult to Love” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gUvOViIXPAk
I want so badly for that to apply to me and feel so narcissistic to think that even 10% of it might.
This is beautiful, thank you
I finally started watching The Jinx last night, and when I got to the second episodes with Durst’s interviews- “she was probably upset that I made her get an abortion,” “I don’t remember the FIRST time I slapped her-” ugh ugh ugh I wanted to take All The Showers. And he’s so calm about it! He doesnt’t even try to defend the way he treated Kathie, he just laid it out there like it was totally normal! THIS GUY GIVES ME THE CREEPS.
The not-breathing article.
Fascinating for the subject
Relevant for:
a) You’re not weak – you’ve been too strong for too long
b) Don’t hold yourself up to fictional characters ‘only created to drive the writer’s plot’
Annoying for:
The author seems to be EXTREMELY into the whole ‘women must be silent’ thing. Call me privileged, but is that still such a big thing?
yes.
I think it is, yes, especially once you have kids. The number of people who assume that I have literally nothing interesting to say (because I’m a SAHM) or who are deeply offended by me talking about my life (which includes parenting, which is boring, ugh go away you mom-type person) is … huge.
Just try being female at any kind of professional convention or fan convention. Have fun watching all the successful women get overridden and pushed to the sidelines by their male fellow panel members.
I’ll definitely be asking this again on Friday, but do any crafty Toasties want structurally sound but probably unplayable cassette tapes for any reason? OR can you suggest ways to repurpose them/otherwise keep them out of landfills, since while the plastic is okay to recycle, the tape itself is not? I’m not taking them all with me on another move, but I’d love for them to be reborn. Tx.
if you can’t find a new home for them, a quick google search shows that there’s at least one recycling service for cassette tapes. apparently it can be done.
Thanks! I’ve done my due diligence, though, and am down to one tenuous possibility that charges per tape. Many of the website listings are out of date or outside the US. It’s a medium small box I’m looking to unload, so if anyone wants to start knitting with mylar, hit me up.
Have you looked to see if you can donate to an etsy artist or seller?
Great idea, though I was hoping to find an etsy-ite on a break either here or on FB with no luck so far. I may just go to Harbor Freight for zip ties and make a chair out of the ones I’m set to part with. Listening to them today has been fun, and kind of gargly.
The new mountain goats album is streaming at npr and it is about southwestern pro wrestlers of the 1980s.
well of course it is
station eleven is three bucks for kindle right now!
Love, love Pentangle.
Love Joanna Gleason, too. Emily Blunt is fine but Joanna is … yes.
on books-I saw thursday? friday? idk that someone recommended The Secret History and I read the whole thing this weekend and it was wonderful and horrible and I came the closest to crying at the end of a book that I have in a while. Bunny, for all his faults, was my favourite character and I REALLY hated Henry. Even Charles I found more sympathetic than Henry. If anyone wants to talk more about it I would LOVE to b/c Mr. Floridagal wants to read it but hasn’t yet so I can’t say spoilery things to him. 🙁
YES I am happy to talk with you forever and ever about The Secret History. I read it for the first time three summers ago and basically haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Discussion topic #1 to get us started: why do you suppose Donna Tartt made the decision to have the most important plot event (the bacchanal) happen “offscreen,” as it were? What do you think REALLY happened at the bacchanal?
such thoughts very wow! I think she had it happen offscreen b/c if it had happened onscreen, it would have been too easy for people to get distracted by who had sex with who else and in what way, when that is so not the point at all of the bacchanal! I think what really happened is that they all got into some kind of altered state of consciousness via fasting and then maybe drinking too much wine, and then just berserkly had lots of sex and then killed a guy in a disgusting way. I wasn’t too curious about the details of the sex parts of the bacchanal, probably on account of being asexual, except for the murder part of it-I have SO many question about that! I still can’t figure out about Camilla’s hair-how did it get all the blood in it? Did she like try to wash her hair in blood? Like when whoever it was (I feel like it was Henry)tore the guy’s stomach open and maybe she put her hair in his intestines or whatever and that’s how it got red?The bite on Charles, that was from the guy they killed right, like when he was trying to get away?
I would love to hear your take on it!
That thread made me really want to reread it, lo these many years hence, because now the only thing I can remember is that a few years before I got around to it my mother read it and her one complaint was that nobody would ever really be named Judy Poovey. Which is a totally valid point, but maybe a little off-topic. PS If you want to read something similar yet different I also really liked An Education by Susan Choi. I love it when a book just gets on you and wont let go.
I was struck just an hour before I saw this post with a strange desire to reread The Secret History! Everyone in that book is the worst. When I first read it (as a sophomore at a New England women’s liberal arts college) kind of wished that I had read it before I went to college, so that I could have seen it with the naive wonderment I had as a high school student for narratives about college.
Have you read Nicole’s “Classic Trash” column about it? One of the discussion questions from it is: “If you were a white person who is rich without having a job, what would you name your creepy twin offspring?”
After very little deliberation, I can say that they would be Poppea and Milton.
You guys, I started losing my voice on Thursday, but since my job necessitates a lot of talking, I over-strained my voice.
No voice since Friday.
It’s been 4 days. I figure after a week it’s worth worrying about? I’m just not sure how to negotiate doing my job vs getting better for realz. Took today off as a chance to not talk at all and hope for the best…..
This totally happened to me by doing several singing performances during a stressful time in my life. Like the author, I eventually figured out it was stress-related, but there was definitely this vicious cycle: You strain your voice, so it hurts and you lose your voice, so then you tighten up your throat muscles to fight through the strain, which causes more strain, etc. Try doing lots of things that make you happy and yawn a lot if you can. Yawning stretches those muscles!
Folk rock forever indeed!
such thoughts very wow! I think she had it happen offscreen b/c if it had happened onscreen, it would have been too easy for people to get distracted by who had sex with who else and in what way, when that is so not the point at all of the bacchanal! I think what really happened is that they all got into some kind of altered state of consciousness via fasting and then maybe drinking too much wine, and then just berserkly had lots of sex and then killed a guy in a disgusting way. I wasn't too curious about the details of the sex parts of the bacchanal, probably on account of being asexual, except for the murder part of it-I have SO many question about that! I still can't figure out about Camilla's hair-how did it get all the blood in it? Did she like try to wash her hair in blood? Like when whoever it was (I feel like it was Henry)tore the guy's stomach open and maybe she put her hair in his intestines or whatever and that's how it got red?The bite on Charles, that was from the guy they killed right, like when he was trying to get away?I would love to hear your take on it!
Besides U.G.L.Y., the thing I remember about Daphne and Celeste is a radio interview where they had played (I think) Reading Festival and the crowd pelted them with all the contents of a salad, bottles of water, bottles of not water and anything else that was at hand. But they didn't seem to mind, because they had roused a listless crowd into action. "They woke up to hate us!"
There is a great thing about that here: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/29/daph…