For newcomers, some items from the archives:
Hard To Tell If It’s Going Well.
The thrill of atomised dairy products.
Here, let me bring you artistic sustenance, with some “performance documentation” from Manhattan’s Grace Exhibition Space. The mighty talent featured in the following video is artist, educator and “community organiser” Alex Romania, whose work teeters on the edge of profundity, as will doubtless become clear, via juddering and convulsion, and the strategic deployment of twenty-five pounds of powdered cheese.
New Niche Indignation.
On transgender dinner parties, where competitive upset is the sweetest dish.
Readers are invited to ponder the prospect of a dinner party at which, in order to be polite and suitably affirming, you’re obliged to insinuate that the host is rapist material. And to do it convincingly. Rather than, say, compliment the cooking or the décor.
Sudden-Onset Womanhood.
On gender-bending Bond and other modern wonders.
We’re also told, “A gendered spin on the character can open up more potential for exploring Bond’s individuality.” And this exploration of the character’s individuality will apparently be achieved by erasing a rather fundamental aspect of the character – his maleness – and replacing him with an entirely different person of a different sex.
Readers are invited to ponder whether similar transitions might enrich the character of, say, Miss Marple, who, via similar logic, could be depicted as male, and as always having been male. Thereby exploring her individuality.
Answers on a postcard, please.
The recent, sex-swapped iteration of Doctor Who is invoked as a “positive example” on this front, as if Jodie Whittaker’s brief, unloved manifestation had been a rip-roaring success – despite the terrible writing and wildly unpopular retconning, both loudly derided by fans, and despite the subsequent, rapid death-spiral of viewing figures. Because boring and alienating much of your audience, and shrinking it dramatically, is a political triumph. A breath of “new life.”
Big City Dreams.
On London’s struggling artists. Terms I use loosely.
At which point, readers may suspect that the imperative is not so much being creative, but being creative
in London, a notoriously expensive city, but in which one can draw attention to the fact that one lives and works in London, a notoriously expensive city. Thereby glowing with a kind of location status.
Readers may also note the article’s, shall we say, coyness regarding the art on offer – all that cruelly underfunded creativity. None of which is displayed to sway readers of the Observer. The nearest we get is a photo of Ms Kwan standing next to a creation that we cannot actually see, and a photo of Grayson Perry in a hideous frock.
Our Betters Stroke Their Pets.
The hounds of love.
Other questions generated by means of Queer Theorising include, “Do I think I’m having sex with my dogs when they kiss my face?” Apparently, for Dr Kathy Rudy, a Professor of Women’s Studies, being licked by a dog is difficult to distinguish from kissing grandma on the cheek or being lost in a full-on erotic fever. And thus, we’re told, “The line between ‘animal lover’ and zoophile is not only thin, it is non-existent.”
For those craving more, The Year Reheated is a pretty good place to start.
Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
Wm. Shakespeare, late, of Stratford-upon-Avon, would disagree.
Cold tongue of what?
Ice axes optional.
Wm. Shakespeare, late, of Stratford-upon-Avon, would disagree.
Thespis and Euripides were also unavailable for comment.
I was, understandably, reminded of this:
“Our politics reflect who we are!!!!!” said Mindy Isser, co-creator of the socialists-only dating platform. Which is rather the problem, I think.
[ Notes plate of untouched sandwiches. ]
[ Puts plate of untouched sandwiches under bar for tomorrow’s clientele. ]
Restrooms: once I had my perhaps 8 yr old daughter with me at a McD on S side chicago and she needed the restroom but the women’s was closed for cleaning or something. I checked restroom and was empty so I sent her in. A black male came up while I was guarding and I explained and he was like “no problem man” and he patiently waited. Even in bad parts of town men used to know these things.
I now have an adjustable standing-sitting desk. I am standing as I type.
Though I don’t see why I should be the only bugger on his feet.
I’m also having to adjust to a new full-size keyboard. The number of typos is maddening.
Even in bad parts of town there are plenty of good people.
Homina, homina, homina…Trudeau channels his inner Kamala.
Clear as mud.
A “Heh” via the Critical Drinker.
The scene with an amplified Gerald – still incomprehensible and now much louder – still makes me laugh. And the attempt to cook chillies.
The original Star Wars was made by a visionary. The reboots by a committee of woke midwits with no idea about story-telling. Same with anything Disney touches now. They probably believe the woke lie that anyone can do any job, that excellence is just a ruse for white supremacy.
Over 7 years since his arrest, and this serial killer’s trial has still not begun.
But can they launch their car?
Maybe not.
We’ll be assessing mad dogs for mental competency soon.
I sometimes wish for separate trials: First, did he do it, followed by was he mentally competent.
Of course, we also need to address the question of the mental competency of the teachers and politicians and journalists and “activists” who incessantly scream about “white supremacy”.
Convicted 23 times. On parole for 3 more burglaries. Arrested yet again. Sent home on parole without even an ankle monitor.
The Queen of Hearts approach seems indicated in these cases.
Many problems can be attributed to liberal tolerance of the intolerable.
I’d suggest a fire extinguisher but, as we’ve seen, there aren’t any in the vicinity.
LOL (via CoderDyne)
when you say “don’t judge”, eliminate shame, and declare everyone a victim, it is easy to justify letting criminals go.
“The number of typos is maddening,”
Those of us who are Ancient of Days and grew up with not only real keyboards but actual (gasp) typewriters, and lack the questionable evolutionary benefit of minithumbs, are somewhat lacking in sympathy,
Still have my portable Smith-Corona.
The greatest crime fighter the world has ever known
Nothing better than genuine English cheesecake.
The horror, the horror!
Listen to how he talks about the girl’s mother: “parent,” “they.” Not a single female noun our pronoun for her.
And yet he’d flip tables if he were misgendered.
I guffawed.
Head.
Spinning.
¡Viva la libertad carajo!
The original Star Wars was made by a large team of people, mostly by overriding Lucas’ “vision”. Lucas unfettered got us the prequel trilogy.
The biggest myth George Lucas ever created was his own.
Sampling your morning bathroom routine.
Quoth Colin
It’s more likely the GOP will eff up so badly that everyone will want to change the ruling party again.
As noted the morning after the election:
You’d think that repel invaders and uphold the most basic of laws wouldn’t be too much to ask of a government. And yet.
And so.
[ Once more, the sound of slightly farcical stretching exercises. ]
Not entirely unrelated, from the new Vice Chair of the DNC.
May I introduce you to the Klangphonics?
Also, it occurs to me that protesting the deportation of illegal migrant criminals by burning the US flag, while waving the Mexican flag, is not the most persuasive of optics.
Speaking of…
Read downthread a piece.
It’s related, and probably originated with xenia. Xenia was the custom of guest-friendship, the idea that mutual hospitality was owed between random guests and kings of sea-towns. It’s fairly easy to see this evolving as a necessity to make trading possible at all.
What’s interesting about xenia is that it doesn’t just bind you and the king; it binds your entire houses and descendants. There are scenes in the Iliad where a Trojan and Achaean warrior meet on the plains of battle, and as part of the ritual engage in a bit of swaggering, naming their ancestors and great deeds only to discover that three generations back one of their grandfathers hosted the other. Since it would be unthinkable for them to fight, breaking the xenia between their houses, they exchange armour as a sign of renewed friendship and go off to find other enemies to slaughter. The xenia was so important it overrode the war.
One of my classics profs used to joke that the real reason the later Bronze Age Greeks were traders and merchants instead of warriors was that by the time of the Argonautica everyone had visited everyone else and there was no one left to fight.
If you’re going to introduce an obnoxious sound as your foundation, at least choose a cat.
Or an unbalanced washing machine during spin cycle.
Or a newer washing machine’s little ditty.
Apparently, if you’re going to hike around b’ar country, don’t bring bear spray, bring a cat.
Supporting evidence: youtube query for “cat chasing bear“
I bring news from academia.
Never has so much been made of such a small claim on the public’s attention.
Still, it’s nice to know that particularly malignant strain won’t be contaminating the gene pool.
@dicentra,
Hold my beer.