The latest issue of Gilbert Hernandez’ “Speak Of The Devil” came out. It’s a story of a high school gymnast who channels her frustrations with her life by becoming a peeping tom in her neighborhood. I don’t really like it, but I respect Gilbert for having the guts to keep trying new stories — and, unlike classic Gilbert, they are self-contained ones. And it’s high stakes and original (i.e. it doesn’t rely on comics invented fifty years ago like so many superhero comics) and is weird, and has lots of emotional and honest characters. It just isn’t a good STORY somehow. He makes great moments, but not great page-turners. But Gilbert has got serious balls! I love him, even when I don’t love his comics. He will figure this out.
Finished season 2 of Battlestar Galactica. I love that show. Please go watch all the episodes and talk about it with me. Question one: does the show hate women? It kinda seems like over the course of the show that it stays true to the geek trope of pretty girl = evil trap.
I uploaded a slightly trimmed version of “News Anchors” to FunnyOrDie. I’m getting views there, so why not?
Saw ‘Walk Hard’ last night with Violet and company. It was… really good! The trailer made it seem like a warmed-over reference movie, but it’s really fun and smart and good. Lotsa UCBT love in it with Besser, Roberts and McBrayer and Helms and probably a bunch of others.
‘Momma’s Boy’ by Chromeo is a fun, good song.
I haven’t looked at my Netflix queue in so long that I forget what’s coming, which is exciting but dangerous. On Saturday a copy of “Dances with Wolves” arrived. That is a bummer.
My iPod stopped sending sound to the right earphone. I thought I was blowing out headphones but after intense analysis and internet surfing it seems that the likely explanation is that the contacts in the headphone jack have lost their spring. I might try replacing the headphone jack.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
On my iTunes now:
The Delivery Man by Elvis Costello from "The Delivery Man"
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Dec 24th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
I found Battlestar Galactica (and, like you, I’ve only seen the first two seasons so far) to play off, but not embrace, the “pretty girl = evil trap” device. For example, although pregnant Boomer certainly put on deceitful airs at first, she moved into something less straightforwardly evil with time. And Roslin is certainly a non-hateful, if somewhat flawed, character. Not entirely sure where you’re coming from re BG’s relationship to women.
Dec 26th, 2007 at 11:51 am
YLlama — here is why I think that “pretty girl = evil trap”
[Spoilers ABOUND here]:
–Beautiful blonde woman? Cylon. Hates humans.
–Beautiful Asian woman? Cylon. Shoots people.
–Sexy reporter? Cylon.
–Sexy wife of Tight? A Lady MacBeth lush who ruins things.
–Female Commander: Evil and wrong and eventually, murdered.
–Beautiful communications officer? Ditches the good boy who loves her for a hotter military dude.
–Sweet companion of the crew chief? Let’s have her get the shit beaten out of her.
Starbuck? She’s okay but is also essentially a man.
Roslin is the exception. Wise and good. She’s also not young and hot.
Some of the men are scumbaggy (Gaius) — but far more a the saving graces (Adama, Apollo, even Lt. Gaeta).
Dec 27th, 2007 at 12:49 am
Starbuck is not a man. She’s a lesbian with inexplicable heterosexual tendencies. And I’m not at all convinced most of the men are anything other than mixed bags. Apollo especially is a total prick, albeit one who frequently does the right thing.
And I cannot support a reading of Galactica that places the cylons in a “definitely evil” category.
That said, I think the show could use a little less male-against-female sexual assault. When are we going to see a morally repulsive fisting gang rape by several of the female characters against a male-form cylon?
Dec 27th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
I think you’re spilling hairs! Yes, the cylons are not “totally evil” — but when someone is revealed to be a cylon, it’s not, like, GOOD news, right? It means the person is at least suspicious, possibly destructive and at LEAST unreliable.
Apollo is a “total prick” — but he also saves the day, every time, right? Or MOST of the time? He’s the hero, even if he’s a flawed one.
I know that Starbuck isn’t REALLY a man, but she functions as a man on the show — tough-talking, hard-drinking, fight-staring, sexually aggressive fighter pilot!
We’re going to have to agree to disagree. But I’m pretty confident then if a new character enters BSG, and it’s a pretty girl, then she’s either going to a) fuck things up for everyone or b) be beaten/raped within a few episodes!
Dec 28th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
I dunno. I suppose I root for the cylons more than perhaps I ought. I’m not always pleased to find out someone in the Galactica crew is a cylon, but more for the disingenuity than the treachery. Ultimately, I’d like to see the humans out-evolved by their own creation, and see the many iterations of Number 6 rule the galaxy.
Dec 29th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
I don’t think the show hates women. For me, one of the compelling aspects of the series is its attempt to portray a society with realistic sexual parity. The female characters are free to be as heroic, inventive and treacherous as the men. Consider the moments when Roslin suggests or does things that make even a grizzled vet like Adama wince for their brutality. And yet, when you trace them back, the motivation for these “masculine” acts are actually traditionally feminine–Roslin is the ultimate maternal figure. The fleet, the human race itself, are her young. Similarly, when the “sweet companion of the crew chief” goes all Jack Ruby and blows Boomer away she’s cheered in a frathouse manner by her friends, but the act really stems from what seems to be a daughter’s love for Adama. Sure, it’s American t.v. and geeks love to see hot chicks turn out to be heartless shits, but I think the writers are playing WITH that trope more than into it.