Stuff I love, in linked pairs
1a) Watership Down--So this has to be the most epic book about bunnies ever written. Much more so than Rabbit Hill, which I remember more as a bunny domestic melodrama. I love the way that Richard Adams has conceptualized rabbit life with their own language and the way rabbit memory works and how storytelling is essential to rabbit life but art is a corruption of authentic rabbit life. It's all very Cold War--a democratic bunny kind of society is cool, especially compared to the fascist and authoritarian bunny societies. I loved it.
1b) This dish drier--Seeing this guy is the only time I've ever been sad we had a dishwasher. Bunnies!
2a) Battlestar Gallactica, season 4--last week's episode sucked, but that made this week's episode all the more enjoyable. I loved the Adama/Roslin consummation; I loved Gaius Baltar from start to finish; and I loved the direction they took the newest #8 sister, diet Athena, who began by just sort of hitting on Helo. I thought initially it would be all about Helo's temptation by this other Sharon or some bizarre affair, and instead it became this really creepy but also sweet and sad interaction once diet Athena admitted she had downloaded Athena Original's memories. And I loved the AV Club's comparison of the basestar to "a nightclub after all the lights have been switched on and you can see how sticky the floor got." I also loved . . .
2b) Lucy Lawless, back as the #3 model. Between Battlestar and her cameo in this past season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, I'm tempted to check out Xena. How great is Lucy Lawless?
3a) the sexual politics of Daniel Deronda. So I have to admit that I kind of hated the Jew part of Andrew Davies' interpretation of George Eliot's novel. I suspect I would hate the Jew part of the book too because Davies usually makes that stuff better not worse. But George Eliot fucking nails sexual politics. First, her indictment of marriage is amazing and on par with the harshest critiques by 19th century feminists. It's hard to say what was original to Eliot and what Davies added, but Gwendolyn Hareth's reluctance to marry since it limited her independence, her consent to do so because of economic circumstances, the financial and legal status of a child born out of wedlock, and the reality of marital rape were all spot on. The culmination of her story was mind-blowing. Wow; if that story is intact, it's a million times more subversive than what I ever would have expected from late 19th British fiction. Middlemarch is one of my all time favorite books, but I really disliked Silas Marner. This book seems to combine the two; I might try Daniel Deronda and just skip the Jew parts.
3b) The Last of the Mohicans. Speaking of the Jew parts, the Jewess in the movie was played by Jodhi May, who also played Alice Munro in the Last of the Mohicans. I loved her in LotM, and she was great here as well. And was joined by . . .
3c) Lee Adama who had the funniest facial hair ever.
3d) Marihuana. And to circle back to sexual politics, I tivo-ed Marihuana from Turner Classic Movies' Forbidden Hollywood series. It's described as "A woman discovers the evils associated with marijuana, including possible pregnancy, in this early pseudo-documentary." Umm this movie, from 1936, is hilarious. There are extended scenes of women doing absurd shit under the influence of "the funniest cigarette I ever saw" aka "giggle weed." Including being sprayed in the ass by seltzer water and skinny-dipping. And then they SHOW the women's naked asses running into the ocean. And then one dies. And then another gets knocked up and gives the baby up and then becomes a drug dealer. And then she kidnaps her own sister's kid. Which turns out to be her own kid she gave up for adoption. And then commits suicide when she finds out. And another woman trades her engagement ring for some pot. Anyway, a diatribe against marijuana is pretty much the best excuse ever for watching butt naked women I've ever heard of.
Photo credit courtesy of here, here, here, and the AV Club.
1b) This dish drier--Seeing this guy is the only time I've ever been sad we had a dishwasher. Bunnies! 
2a) Battlestar Gallactica, season 4--last week's episode sucked, but that made this week's episode all the more enjoyable. I loved the Adama/Roslin consummation; I loved Gaius Baltar from start to finish; and I loved the direction they took the newest #8 sister, diet Athena, who began by just sort of hitting on Helo. I thought initially it would be all about Helo's temptation by this other Sharon or some bizarre affair, and instead it became this really creepy but also sweet and sad interaction once diet Athena admitted she had downloaded Athena Original's memories. And I loved the AV Club's comparison of the basestar to "a nightclub after all the lights have been switched on and you can see how sticky the floor got." I also loved . . .
2b) Lucy Lawless, back as the #3 model. Between Battlestar and her cameo in this past season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, I'm tempted to check out Xena. How great is Lucy Lawless?
3a) the sexual politics of Daniel Deronda. So I have to admit that I kind of hated the Jew part of Andrew Davies' interpretation of George Eliot's novel. I suspect I would hate the Jew part of the book too because Davies usually makes that stuff better not worse. But George Eliot fucking nails sexual politics. First, her indictment of marriage is amazing and on par with the harshest critiques by 19th century feminists. It's hard to say what was original to Eliot and what Davies added, but Gwendolyn Hareth's reluctance to marry since it limited her independence, her consent to do so because of economic circumstances, the financial and legal status of a child born out of wedlock, and the reality of marital rape were all spot on. The culmination of her story was mind-blowing. Wow; if that story is intact, it's a million times more subversive than what I ever would have expected from late 19th British fiction. Middlemarch is one of my all time favorite books, but I really disliked Silas Marner. This book seems to combine the two; I might try Daniel Deronda and just skip the Jew parts.
3b) The Last of the Mohicans. Speaking of the Jew parts, the Jewess in the movie was played by Jodhi May, who also played Alice Munro in the Last of the Mohicans. I loved her in LotM, and she was great here as well. And was joined by . . .
3c) Lee Adama who had the funniest facial hair ever.
3d) Marihuana. And to circle back to sexual politics, I tivo-ed Marihuana from Turner Classic Movies' Forbidden Hollywood series. It's described as "A woman discovers the evils associated with marijuana, including possible pregnancy, in this early pseudo-documentary." Umm this movie, from 1936, is hilarious. There are extended scenes of women doing absurd shit under the influence of "the funniest cigarette I ever saw" aka "giggle weed." Including being sprayed in the ass by seltzer water and skinny-dipping. And then they SHOW the women's naked asses running into the ocean. And then one dies. And then another gets knocked up and gives the baby up and then becomes a drug dealer. And then she kidnaps her own sister's kid. Which turns out to be her own kid she gave up for adoption. And then commits suicide when she finds out. And another woman trades her engagement ring for some pot. Anyway, a diatribe against marijuana is pretty much the best excuse ever for watching butt naked women I've ever heard of.
Photo credit courtesy of here, here, here, and the AV Club.
posted by ant at 7:01 AM
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