Friday Ephemeraren’t
Because I’m busy, you’re getting a chance to assemble your own pile of links and oddities in the comments. I’ll set the ball rolling with a rudely interrupted live-stream of note; a compendium of real-time air-traffic audio streams; via Damian, the thrill of Antarctic bore hole noises; via Pogonip, the bedtime companion of your dreams; and not one, but two items of flatulence-related news.
Oh, and Big Knickers.
It also occurs to me that insofar as people with disfigurements face social difficulties, this is unlikely to be because the rest of us assume that they must therefore be bad people
The reason villains so often have severe facial disfigurement is precisely because it’s visual shorthand. Disfigured on the outside, disfgured on the inside. Like it or not, the delusion that beauty is goodness (and the obverse) is persistent and predates cinema.
“I like big pillows and I cannot lie…”
A couple of years ago three mates and I ran out to the drive-through for lunch in the middle of a crunch day. The girl behind the speaker informed us that they were all out of the smaller burger buns, and “were we okay with bigger buns?”
Cue Car Karaoke.
Hal, all true. And even sillier when one knows that there are at least 4 different sizes of 2×4.
E.g. Rough, rough milled, S2S, and S4S (surfaced 4 sides).
None of these are 2×4 inches as any carpenter can tell you.
But the worst part is inflation over time. The 2×4 lumber in my 60 year old house is significantly bigger than modern 2×4, making repairs an exercise in custom fitting.
Pst314,
“But I didn’t land, just dropped something off.”
“Our campaign is calling on those in the film industry to stop using scars, burns or marks as shorthand for villainy.”
Yeah, but massive tax-funded sinecures aren’t visual…
The reason villains so often have severe facial disfigurement is precisely because it’s visual shorthand.
Scarred and resentful, yes. But outside of a cinema, in the street or in a checkout queue, is that still a default association?
Aesthetics aside, I suppose disfigurement is a reminder of our own weakness and mortality, from which some will inevitably recoil. Others may see disfigurement as embarrassing, even by association, a status issue. But I’m not convinced that there’s still a widespread aversion on grounds of suspecting bad intent, at least not in developed societies. I’d have thought pity, social awkwardness or morbid curiosity were much more common.
There’s an employee at a nearby café who’s quite startlingly disfigured – to an extent that on my first encounter I had to make an effort not to stare – but I’ve yet to see anyone dragging their children away in fear of villainy. I’ve seen people either acting with indifference, maybe practised indifference, or overcompensating slightly and being a little more polite than might otherwise be expected. I also have a relative with Treacher Collins syndrome and I’ve never heard her complain of being thought wicked.
Though, I grant you, two is a small sample size.
Sam, it fits the tune better if you sing “…every time you crack a beer.” “…pop a beer” would also work.
https://www.wowktv.com/news/national/woman-pulls-knife-on-man-after-he-complained-she-farted-loudly-/1624855235
If only Lincoln had repatriated them…
Will they pledge to stop using Scarlatti trios as shorthand for “boring rich people’s boring party”?
“It’s astonishing to think that films have done this so often and for so long. The time has come for this to stop.” — said some big cheese in the Arts Biz, quoted in the Sun.
I had not heard of Treacher Collins syndrome. Was your relative able to have plastic surgery?
The reason villains so often have severe facial disfigurement is precisely because it’s visual shorthand.
Visual shorthand for “disfiguring scars are a natural consequence of a violent life”.
Not everyone with scars got them dishonorably, but violent people are more likely to have them, and in drama they may be reminders of important events.
Two more giant cows have been found. Cowboy another Holstein in California, and Dozer a Holstein cross in Steinbach Manitoba.
With the worldwide movement of cow embryos for breeding, it would be interesting to see if the 3 are related.
“Sam, it fits the tune better if you sing ‘…every time you crack a beer.’ ‘…pop a beer’ would also work.”
And I’ve just realised the rest of the song still works. Dammit. That was “our song” with The One That Got Away, and now I’ve gone and spoiled it.
(Hmm. Maybe that’s why she… Naaah. I’m so charming.)
“Two more giant cows have been found. Cowboy another Holstein in California, and Dozer a Holstein cross in Steinbach Manitoba.”
Now look, I know it’s probably not aliens, but has anybody checked their eyes for lasers? Y’know, just in case?
You want your fires supersized ? Fine, you may have seven.
I have discovered something important!
There exists a cow metaphors website!
Alexandre Kimenyi
California State University at Sacramento
http://www.kimenyi.com/cow-metaphors.php
I am udderly surprised and milking this topic for all it’s worth (also might buy one of those pillows mentioned earlier).
Perhaps it is a sincere cultural study and I am being disrespectful by trying to score cheap joke points. I haven’t scrolled that far yet.
All I could think when I read this is that someone had the job of shaving her.
All I could think of is how absolutely beautiful and logical the way the story of an orangutan forced into prostitution in Borneo segues into a harang about people in Iceland buying “non-sustainable” palm oil, which is of course wrong, wrong, wrong. I mean of course the Icelanders buying the palm oil and thus forcing orangutans into prostitution. Well to be fair, orangutan because only one that we know of! Which raises a question that I have, is there an appropriate, especially given what we now know about them, slanderous term for those filthy scum in Iceland who are responsible for this abomination, this sin against God and nature? By Zeus there damn well better be one cause I’m right pissed right now.
Just done today …and totally worth your time
Hal,
Bloke goes to a timber yard.
“How much is your four by two?”
“Sorry mate,” says the assistant, “we call it 100 by 50 now.”
“OK,” says the bloke, “how much is your 100 by 50?”
“Four bob a foot.”
badum tish.
Also I would like to point out that all the boobie pillows with prominent nipples have sold out. There’s a message there for the ladies, I think.
Further thoughts on movie villains. In the Batman movies, the Joker’s real name is Jack Napier, and the Riddler’s is Ed Nygma. Quite cute.
I just today watched the Bela Lugosi (1931) version of Dracula. In it, every time Lugosi appears, he is in immaculate white tie and tails, and hair not a millimetre out of place. If he can’t see himslef in the mirror, how can he always turn himslef out so perfectly? Or check that he looks so spiffy, if he has a henchvampire to do it all for him?
Visual shorthand for “disfiguring scars are a natural consequence of a violent life”.
Not everyone with scars got them dishonorably, but violent people are more likely to have them, and in drama they may be reminders of important events.
Name every action movie hero you know with a large or disfiguring scar on their face.
ACToldfart, that’s what the three vampire ladies were there for.
The reason villains so often have severe facial disfigurement is precisely because it’s visual shorthand.
It’s true that disfigured villains are a cinematic trope and overused, often lazily, but the real-world association being complained about isn’t, I think, entirely convincing. For instance, the people used in the campaign’s own marketing don’t look like associates of Blofeld, or criminal lunatics who fell into vats of industrial acid while on a murder spree. I didn’t see them and immediately think that they must be untrustworthy or unkind. One woman has some kind of burns, perhaps injuries from an acid attack, which doesn’t suggest that she’s a terrible person, but rather the victim of one.
And when a publicly-funded arts organisation is laying down conditions regarding the portrayal of cinematic villains – they can’t be this, they can’t be that – that isn’t an unambiguously happy situation.
Harry Potter.
Name every action movie hero you know with a large or disfiguring scar on their face.
Deadpool.
Name every action movie hero you know with a large or disfiguring scar on their face.
Maybe not all strictly action movies but:
Inigo Montoya;
The Scottish dude with the Glasgow smile playing the Irish dude in Braveheart;
Danny Trejo when he plays against type;
Various Van Johnson roles where the makeup guys didn’t cover it;
Leonidas in the latest iteration;
The rugged scar (see above), and its cousin the eye patch – Nick Fury has both.
…precisely because it’s visual shorthand.
Indeed, but for both good and bad, it would seem.
Possibly NSFW due to extensive profanity in the music used, here’s Thomas the Tank Engine just bustin’ some moves:
https://twitter.com/Mr_Martin81/status/1068807553692430336
via: https://twitter.com/DamCou
Name every action movie hero you know with a large or disfiguring scar on their face.
Gene Kelly in The Pirate comes to mind.
One woman has some kind of burns, perhaps injuries from an acid attack, which doesn’t suggest that she’s a terrible person, but rather the victim of one.
The 2017 The Tick humorously plays Yara Martinez’s Ms. Lint directly to this stereotype.
https://www.bing.com/th?id=OIP.88DkhIU6p5bAlonzDwh62gAAAA&pid=Api
“I mean of course the Icelanders buying the palm oil and thus forcing orangutans into prostitution”
I nominate this for Sentence of the Week.
Aw, crap. I wrote the above before reading this:
“All the boobie pillows with prominent nipples have sold out.“
Aw, crap. I wrote the above before reading this:
Damn. I was > < that close. Oh well. Never give up. Never, never, never give up.
It is as if they go out of their way to parody themselves.
Who says the people in DC are out of touch with the rest of the country ?
In terms of hysteria, think of Brexit as the British version of “Orange Man Bad.”
“Family frightened of no-deal Brexit stockpiles quinoa and passata”
https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/28/family-frightened-of-no-deal-brexit-stockpiles-quinoa-and-passata-8185104/
“Family frightened of no-deal Brexit stockpiles quinoa and passata”
The choice of Heinz squeezy mayonnaise should have been a warning sign.
It is as if they go out of their way to parody themselves.
I scrolled through the article and got to the word “Lutheran.” Without even looking at the “pastors” congregational website, I knew it was affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), a group which would Martin would scarcely recognize. Sadly, conventions like the Missouri (which tossed the ELCA heretics out in the ’70s)and Wisconsin synods get tarred with the same brush.
Who says the people in DC are out of touch with the rest of the country ?
I will lay odds the geographical illiterates in that office are under 30 and went to publik skool.
They don’t know all the states, but I bet they know how to put a condom on a banana.
“Family frightened of no-deal Brexit stockpiles quinoa and passata”
Until I saw the URL I honestly thought that would be the Daily Mash. Unbelievable.
“Who says the people in DC are out of touch with the rest of the country ?”
“Sorry, this content is not available in your region.” Another one of the many benefits of EU membership, no doubt. (Like that’s going to stop me.)
Subhed of the week to Muldoon’s link about the Harvard professor who announced you’re all eating too many French fries:
His comments sparked predictable outrage online
Easily the best six word summary of this century so far.
I will lay odds the geographical illiterates in that office are under 30 and went to publik skool.
♫Look for the union label♫
At least they knew Mexico wasn’t part of the US. Wait till they find out there is an old York, Jersey, and Hampshire.
Harry Potter.
Deadpool
Danny Trejo
Inigo Montoya
Gene Kelly
Point proven, thanks all.
A worthwhile tiny house project.