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why are chicks like this not on “i want to be a superhero”? oh yeah, because that show sucks.

August 17, 2007 in do's and don'ts, superheroes | Permalink

too busy at work today to do a legitimate post, but here’s something fun.

viceland is awesome, their do’s and don’ts most of all…and here are some great superhero related ones that i thought i’d pass on.

http://www.viceland.com/int/dd.php?id=1033&country=us

http://www.viceland.com/int/dd.php?id=237&country=us

http://www.viceland.com/int/dd.php?id=411&country=us

i love Stan Lee, actually that’s not true…it’s more i feel obligated to love Stan Lee regardless of his many crimes, but his show I Want To Be A Superhero is just an unforgivable crime against comics, and superheroes, and the whole ball of wax. having this show on the air is the kind of thing that encourages people to give me weirdo looks when i say i majored in sequential art (comic books) in college.

which gets really old really fast by the way.

comic of the week

August 16, 2007 in comics | 2 comments

so i had this idea (that i stole) because this blog seems to have plenty of rants and ravings, but seems to be missing the “occasional brilliance”, that i will try to do a weekly comic. i expect it will take me a couple weeks to get it up and running (i hate drawing myself), but once i do, i’ll try to do one a week. they will be funny (hopefully) day in the life kind of stuff. nothing revolutionary.

in the meantime, while i try to gear up for this little project, here are two “day in the life” type comicstrips (the kind i hope to steal from…um, i mean emulate) by a really talented arist named Les McClaine, a guy i went to college with. i doubt he even remembers me, as i was (and am) a bit of a hack as an artist, but he is truly talented. here’s his website, check him out if you get a chance.

http://www.evilspacerobot.com/about/index.html

damages schmamages

August 15, 2007 in damages | Permalink

okay, so i’m not giving it up, i think i’ve got more attention span left in me than that, but this is fair warning to FX (etc.) that Damages is officially on notice.

i am still completely interested in the larger story arc, but a Katie Connor heavy episode caused me to roll my eyes and sigh repeatedly last night, wishing for more time with Glenn Close. i truly hope that i am supposed to NOT like this character, because if i’m supposed to like her then she is both miscast and badly written. i find it hard to believe that in an otherwise well cast, well written show this character somehow got lost in the shuffle, despite playing such a large role early on. This same thing has happened on Heroes as well in that Nicki is a terrible character (along with a couple others) and she is way too important, but i’ll go so far as to say that despite my love love love of Heroes i can also admit it is an uneven show and i’m not surprised when they make mistakes – like creating a completely unlikable character – but at this point i have more faith in the Damages writers, so i’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt. an upside, and a reason to keep tuning in despite last night’s frustrating episode, is that it appears Katie has hit the road, packing up her little car and taking off with a stomp of her little feet.

[spoiler warning]

the girl hitting (oh so hard) on Ellen’s fiance David, is clearly a set up. i mean unfortunately i know first hand how aggressive young girls that think they are super attractive can be (sadly many of us do), but she’s just making things too easy. and having confirmation on Gregory, who we all suspected was a little rat anyway, in the same episode that this “vixeny other woman” character gets introduced is just too obvious. the stuff with Patty’s right hand man, Tom has gotten some much needed and very interesting story time, i love the dimensions they are giving to some of these other characters, it is helping to keep everything nice and lush. the bit with Ellen and David falling asleep in theater was great. and the scene with Patty and Ellen in which Patty gave us some nice “trust no one” forshawdowing keeps us on our toes nicely as viewers, reminding us that not all is as it seems and that a lot can change, very quickly. we need more Patty (i.e. more Glenn Close) as she is by far the best asset this show has going for it, other than the larger story arc, which is incredibly intriguing as they feed it to us piecemeal.

i’m hanging in there…so long as we don’t have to see any more of Katie for a long long time.

hunka hunka burning man rage

August 15, 2007 in feminist rage, kim kardashian | 3 comments

my boyfriend didn’t much like my post about surgical bras yesterday as he felt i was putting too much blame on men for these “great” advancements in female beautification and not enough on women themselves, i felt that i put JUST enough blame on women, in that i mentioned we have a hand in it as well, which was all that needed to be said.

sidenote: the boyfriend is not generally a fan of plastic surgery – whether it be facelifts or breast enhancement or whatever the next hottest grossest thing is.

he also made an argument that women advance many other beautifications that men are subjected to (he used male chest shaving as an example, and while i have no proof i have to say i am inclined to believe it was more likely invented by gay men than women). my real answer to his complaint was a very intelligent “seriously? i mean you’re kidding right? can you even compare what men have physically subjected women to with what women have possibly physically subjected men to?” it was not my greatest rebuttle, but i was just stunned to find he even thought there was a comparison to be made. i consider him pretty advanced for the male species, but i have to admit i felt pretty let down. we got into a rather drawn out discussion about it and lets just say we had to agree to disagree on this issue, as with many in our life together.

however, it did bring up an issue that i have been wondering about for myself lately, which is that i’ve got a lot of man rage going on right now. i feel just poised on the edge of becoming some militant feministe lesbian woman (not that there is anything wrong with that – but i feel that scenario will likely go badly for said boyfriend). so i’ve been trying to pinpoint what it is that is causing all this feminist rage. the question should probably be what is NOT causing my feminist rage, considering the current world at large, but whatever.

i have felt listless, or restless, or pointless, i don’t know, something with a “less” on the end of it a lot lately. as such i have spent more time than usual surfing the net and ending up on annoying sites like perezhilton.com and thesuperficial.com. these sites are kind of ‘anti’ what i am about as a person, or since i have been going to them i should say that they are ‘anti’ what i WANT to be. they are mostly about calling people out (mostly women) and talking about how terrible they look.

the superficial is actually pretty funny and well written, but i’m going to have to pull the plug i think because its just bad vibes for a girl like me who thinks she’s got some feminist in her to be partaking of this stuff. here’s an example: one day this summer he (the superficial dude) was bitching about how big Kim Kardashian’s ass is (it is – and it’s awesome), there was this point (probably a week prior) where he thought her ass was the greatest thing on earth, but at some point she apparently crossed some magical and INVISIBLE line in the sand and now it is suddenly considered WAY too big, i believe the words were “the body of a regular girl and the ass of an obese woman”. to make matters worse, a day or two following that he was bitching about how flat Mila Kunis’ ass is (i believe he compared her ass to a board of wood). so here’s the thing, we can’t win. no matter what we do, we just can’t win. we can be Mila Kunis level skinny with a tiny little ass and we will be posted on the internet and reviled, or we can be curvy with a giant awesome pornstar ass like Kim Kardashian and we will also be posted on the internet and reviled. i know his job is to be funny and to tear apart “hollywood” and who really cares about these vapid little starlets and wannabes anyway right? i know i don’t care about them, which is i guess why i get sucked in like anyone else, but it’s bigger than that. i think we all have to step up and understand that it is bigger than that. we have to take responsibility for what we are supporting, and by clicking on these sites i am inadvertantly supporting them. just like by watching bad reality television that i then complain about i am still supporting it.

so here’s my experiment, which is going to be completely difficult and painful, but which i hope will ease my man rage. i’m going to stop clicking on these sites and i vow to not watch any more television that is something i would be embarassed to admit i watch (this will mostly include reality television i expect) for the next month. the tv portion of this challenge should not be so difficult because i don’t generally partake in much reality tv that i don’t think is worthwhile (Project Runway is a good show and i’m not afraid to admit to watching it), but the internet clicking is going to be very difficult.

the other side to this is that by ignoring a whole facet of american life (and elsewhere?) that everyone is involved in perhaps i am just ignoring and avoiding a problem that i should instead face up to, i.e. just because i don’t click on things that make me mad and don’t get riled up and have man rage, doesn’t mean anyone is actually behaving any better and i am just kidding myself. we’ll see how i feel in 30 days. wish me luck.

the bra from hell

August 14, 2007 in breasts, misogynistic bullshit, the continued torture of women | 2 comments

http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2007/08/cupup_to_uplift_breasts.html

apparently there is some new surgical option for women who can have a permanent “bra” surgically implanted into their bodies (see the link above for the full story).

i’m sure there are plenty of good reasons why logical women would want support without a bra, i know i often fantasize about skipping bra-less through open fields (and in these fantasies my breasts are not only fully supported and comfortable but they look awesome) however, i can’t help but think that this is mostly more misogynistic bullshit of men torturing us with their idea of what the fuck we should look like with more painful expensive and oh so creative surgeries.

who in their right mind actually thinks this is a good idea?

ironically this makes me think of a bit in Consider The Lobster, by David Foster Wallace (which i have still not finished). the first essay in the Consider The Lobster collection is a brilliant engaging piece about the porn industry (no sarcasm – it really is brilliant). at one point in the essay, published originally in the early 1990’s i believe, Wallace is talking to a wannabe starlet that is hoping to get her big break in porn soon, and she is showing off her new breast implants, which are literally inflatable, meaning she can change their size by small valves under her arms. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? i mean why don’t you just lay yourself on a lab table and ask to be turned into a full on sexbot?

…what a leap into the future!

unfortunately i think this is all too similar to things like the permanent make-up craze, and all the nuttiness that goes with that, i have to admit that i too briefly fantasized about a permanent toenail pedicure/paint job because i just really really hate painting my toenails, but in about two seconds of thinking about this a logical person can see that it is just not a good idea. jesus.

the only reason for any kind of hope when i was reading Wallace’s piece was that i realized that the article was written in the early/mid 1990’s and i had never heard of such a ridiculous thing as inflatable fake breasts in the years since, therefore we women must be smarter than we’re usually given credit for, because we saw what a sham this idea was and moved on from the ridiculousness that is flexi-adjustable-inflatable-fake breasts, but then i saw this article:

http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2007/04/in_progressadjustable_breast_augmentation_circumvents_implant_remorse.html

curses. foiled again.

let me be honest here. i have large breasts. i also wear a push up bra every single day and i am inclined towards low cut clothing to show off what i’ve got going on. perhaps because of this fact i have never been “anti-breast implants” because who the hell am i to tell a small breasted woman that she shouldn’t get to have what i already have (that said where is the fucking surgery that gives me the tiny little wrists and feet i’ve always wanted?!). anyway, i guess my point is only to say that i understand the desire and the myriad of different reasons that many women use to justify cosmetic surgery in their lives and i am the last to judge. but i think we’ve also got to wake up here. some of this is just ridiculous, and not good for us, and put upon us by an innane society, and idiot men, and even each other, as we tend to be the harshest critics of the female figure, and we are just setting ourselves back…so far back.

let’s wake up here ladies.

you’ve been given a direct order…

August 14, 2007 in anis mojgani, slam poetry | 4 comments

to vote for Anis Mojgani on famecast this week…

the title of this post is actually the title of one of Anis’ lighter pieces, and one of my favorites. i write this post for two reasons, 1) because Anis is the best spoken word poet out there and he needs all the support i can rally for him over on Famecast, and 2) because just having Anis’ name on my blog raises my blog views. at least once a day (more like ten times a day) someone comes to this blog becuase they use the search term “anis mojgani”. he is IT my friends. and you should check him out, so you can see what IT is all about.

Anis is currently in the final five over on Famecast (and up for the 10k first prize – a hell of a lot of cash for a poet). please help him get it, not only because he deserves it, but because you will be better for going to Famecast today and listening to Anis’ words. i actually defy you to go there and listen and NOT be moved. i’m not sure it’s possible. even if you don’t think you like spoken word…give Anis a try. what he does is not just poetry, it’s not just spoken word, it’s not JUST anything, and the shit can change your life, or at least how you think about your life.

all five poets in the finals are talented, but Anis is it. please, go check him out and VOTE!

here’s what to do…

go here: http://famecast.com/login.php?login=1

create an account (or log in if you already have an account) and check out the spoken word poets (stage 9). and vote for Anis. that is all.

this is a picture of Anis.

i’ve become a crybaby

August 11, 2007 in Uncategorized | Permalink

i can’t pinpoint the moment this happened, but happened it has. i never used to be a big crier. not in life and certainly not at the movies. i don’t want to say i prided myself on this fact, but i suppose in some small way i did. what i did not realize though, was that really all i was doing was emotionally cutting myself off from things. which is to say that i believe the same things that would have made me sad (and possibly leave me in tears) are the same now as they were before, but before i was better at emotionally shutting down. i was better at burying how i really was feeling and allowing my surface self to appear unaffected, certainly to the casual observer, and as i’ve now realized, to myself as well.

how did this come about you ask? well i’ll tell you. i was home the other day and Out Of Africa with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford was just about to come on HBO. i thought to myself, “oh, i’ve wanted to see that, maybe i’ll watch it”. and watch it i did. at first i was trying to read a book as well (since i am way behind in my 52 books for this year), but i quickly gave that up as i could see the movie was going to be fantastic and deserved my full attention (4 nextflix stars by the way – if you have not yet seen it – you should put it in your queue straight away – it was quite beautiful and moving). anyway, without giving away the ending it was devastating. and i was trying to keep myself together and not cry, but finally i just gave in and wept openly. and you know what? it felt great. instead of trying to keep the emotions at bay i embraced them and it not only felt better, but i felt like my mind was expanding.

i know that sounds kind of ridiculous and ‘new-agey’, but if you think about it, it makes quite a bit of sense. in general, in life, when we try to hold things back of course we are not learning and growing because we are so busy controlling ourselves that we have no extra energy to learn anything. yesterday i felt not only relieved, but unburdened by my outburst, not to mention, the movie deserved it. it was heartbreaking and it earned the tears i gave over to it. i found myself afterward thinking about life and death and relationships and experience and even my recently strained relationship with my family (though this is not remotely what the film is about). i don’t think i would have thought any of these things had i resisted my tears, it was only through letting go that i managed to have these thoughts. i wouldn’t say i necessarily had any revelations, but maybe next time.

i wouldn’t generally be writing a post about this because i’d either be keeping it to myself (out of shame) or because i’d be writing these tears off as a one time occurance, except in the last three months here are just a few of the things i have openly wept about, sometimes even in public, a thought i would have been horrified by five months ago:

the movie Away From Her
a short story from The New Yorker titled The Mahogany Elephant by Maxim Biller
an email i recived on Tuesday from my mother
the response i wrote to her 20 minutes after receiving her email
my new sister-in-law’s wedding vows (a very specific line did me in)
the last episode of Studio 60

this is a lot for me. this is a lot for me in five years, let alone the last three plus months. so what has changed? a lot actually. i went through something recently, the kind of thing you don’t think you can get through until you have to. and i guess i see the old me as very naive. as young. as innocent and stupid. and this new me, while i don’t like that she’s such a crybaby, i have to say that at least she has been through some shit, and maybe she’s even made it through to the other side and hopefully learned something new. time will tell. but for now i’ll be crying at things that deserve it i guess.

someone give me a reality check though if you notice me crying at things that are definitely NOT worthy…like programs on lifetime, WE, and oxygen, or reality television, or bad chick lit or something.

lamenting the loss of studio 60

August 9, 2007 in Uncategorized | 3 comments

i plan to write a more involved post about Studio 60 tomorrow after i finally finish the last of the episodes i have saved up on tivo, but i just have to ask you people, why weren’t you watching this show? it is SO good (i only started recording it after i learned it had been cancelled).

my complaint about the show early on was that it was kind of naturally getting compared (by me and everyone else) to The West Wing, and it was hard to take the show seriously because The West Wing was about some intense life changing stuff…i mean it was hard NOT to care. so in comparison Studio 60 initially appears a bit vapid…white house drama versus backstage comedy show drama? not really even a fight. however, the show had some of the most fully developed characters, and hands down the best, most witty writing around.

as television viewers, have we just forgotten what quality programming looks and sounds like?

most of our shows these days (on the major networks) pander to the lowest common denominator (and i’m not even talking about reality tv which is in a horrible category of it’s own). even Heroes, a show i really enjoy, and can’t wait to premiere, has its low points. there are episodes of Heroes (and whole characters – Nicki anyone?) that are just gag inducing, but not so with Studio 60…it was just so good…consistently. so please, if you’re someone out there that gave up on Studio 60 early on then let me know. although if you’re one of those people who was angry with it because it had a bunch of liberal pontificating and because it was filled with “those liberals” then i don’t want to hear from you…i saw too much of this criticism early on, and i have to say, what the hell else do expect from a show about a comedy show in hollywood? as a sidenote to this i have to say that they actually balanced all that “liberal atheism” nicely as one of the best characters on the show was a hardcore christian. but seriously, if you’re someone who tuned in for a few episodes and was exited for and wanted to like the show, i genuinely want to know where it went wrong for you…?

it just never went wrong for me, and having watched a block of delicious episodes last night i am so sad to know its not coming back.

all airplane seats are not created equal…

August 8, 2007 in blogging | Permalink

i traveled by plane this past weekend. i’m not a fan of airtravel and haven’t been for a very long time. i’m not afraid of heights, and i’m actually not really afraid of dying in a plane crash (my fears run more in the being eaten alive by crocodiles, bears, sharks, etc. vein). however, i despise airports, which have only gotten worse over the years, and i am afraid of being desperately miserable and trapped with a bunch of strangers for five plus hours (depending on your destination) with no escape. i think we can all agree that traveling coach is pretty miserable these days, it doesn’t matter if you’re thin or fat, short or tall, smart or stupid, if you’re stuck in coach you’re pretty much going to uncomfortable for the duration of your flight and subjected to passive aggressively angry flight attendants and frustrated passengers.

so that said, what am i bitching about if it’s just a fact of life that all coach air travel sucks? well, my current rant is about the fact that there is no generally accepted standard when flying. forget about there being a standard between airlines, or standards between specific airline planes, or as i came to realize this past weekend, there aren’t even standards amongst general non-exit row/non-bulk head airplane seats. i was flying Delta and was exhausted getting on my plane Thursday and did something very unusual for me (perhaps proving that i am prematurely ageing) i sat in the wrong seat. i was in the correct row and i was in an aisle seat, but i sat on the wrong side of the plane. i have never done such a ridiculoulsy stupid, although easily correctable thing before, but i’m glad i did it so that this weirdness was brought to my attention. basically i was sitting in my incorrect seat and quietly groaning to myself as my long legs had maybe less than an inch between them and seat in front of me. i would not only not be able to put a book or an ipod in the “helpful and handy pouch” without eliminating that precious inch, but once the guy in front of me decided to lay back that would also be the end of my precious inch. as i silently lamented my sad fate, a bitchy woman and her two equally bitchy daughters informed me that i was in their seat(s). i, feeling like a rube, realized my mistake and immediately moved across the aisle. once seated in my new and correct seat, i was astonished to find that i had about eight inches of space between my knees and the offending seat in front of me. what the hell? now in this case luck was with me…but seriously, what the hell!?

sitting in my horrible seat, but with my precious inches of extra leg room, i remembered flying to Hawaii the year prior, on a different airline, and finding on the leg from New York to Chicago, that i had NEGATIVE inches of extra leg room, and was almost reduced to tears for fear of what a painful journey it was going to be to Hawaii, only to happily discover on the Chicago to Hawaii leg (same airline) that i had maybe three or four extra inches between me and the seat.

i’m a pretty boring person i guess, but i really think it would be nice if a body could know what to expect on a flight. that if you’re flying Delta you know you’re getting a certain kind of seat and with American you’re getting a certain kind of other seat, and even if they can’t do that it would be nice to know what you’re getting with a certain kind of airplane versus another. is this really too much to ask? i guess with the death of customer service it is.

one last thing…as i bitch and moan about airlines…it’s important to mention that first class just keeps getting better and better as coach gets worse and worse. coming back to New York this past weekend my boyfriend and i were seated in the bulkhead seats, thinking wrongly, that it would be good, and as such we could see through the gauzy curtain right into first class. while we were having bags of chips angrily thrust at us and a quarter of a can of some kind of soda begrudgingly gifted to us, first class was literally dining on steak, potatoes, steamed vegetables, and some kind of dessert, all with real silverware and while relaxing with blankets and pillows. i guess airlines are just another little example of how the world is spinning these days. the rich just getting ever richer and reaping all the benefits of life, while us poor just get poorer and are subjected to more and more pitiful low standards of living.

i guess i just wish i was a rebel and i had the energy and passion to work on changing the system. instead i looked at my boyfriend and said, “we have got to be rich…soon.”

damages

August 8, 2007 in damages | Permalink

i tried real hard to think of a fun title for this post, but it was just not coming. my favorite was “damages schmamages” but that sounded like i didn’t like the show, which is untrue, so i had to go for boring old “damages”.

so this is a good show. it is beautifully shot and has really invested some time (and money) in great actors. Glenn Close is riviting and as my boyfriend says, “you can see her make very good choices”, which is true, she is magnetic to watch and has given her Patty Hewes a depth in only a few episodes that many characters never achieve. Ted Danson has never been better. Rose Byrne is not a favorite actress of mine, she always seems to have the same concerned/worried look on her face (in every SINGLE shot) but she holds her own here. the plot/story is truly interesting and it winds and turns in a beautiful and well planned out way. i definitely don’t have the answer to the mysteries that are coming our way, and every episode has surprised me at least once. there are great creative writers and directors working on this project – people who have been involved with very good shows in the past (The Sopranos to name one) and it shows. Tate Donovan and Zeljko Ivanek both turn in nice supporting performances as well, particularly Ivanek.

i have to admit a bit of bias as my boyfriend works on this show, however he’s worked on a lot of shows and movies in the past and i usually hate them all (except the upcoming We Own The Night, which has potential, and also has two guys from my top 10 list – Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg) but this show is just good.

[episode #2 spoiler below]

i am three episodes in and very intrigued. i think they made a few casting mistakes though, the actress who plays Katie is annoying and whiny. i am just not invested in her and can’t sympathize with her in the least (perhaps this was the creators goal? could be). also, the fiance of main character Rose Byrne, David, is a bit of a miscast as well. it’s not that i don’t like him, just that he doesn’t quite seem to fit the type they want him to be. who knows though, maybe he’ll grow on me (i hope not too much, since it is obvious from episode two that he’s dead in 6 months/by the end of the season).

anyway, if you haven’t checked it out you should – Tuesdays 10pm on FX. plus, it seems to be playing in encore format about 24 hours a day, so it shouldn’t be hard to squeeze it in at some point. also, while i’d recommend seeing it from the beginning and i expect that doing so will give you a better shot at piecing things together, i don’t think it’s a necessity. if you read up on the first couple episodes i don’t think it would be too difficult to catch up at this point.

here’s the trailer for We Own The Night as well: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809425430/video/3558370/