To be angry once in a while is really good fun

[vovat]

In a comment on a recent post, lozenger8 asked why I watched Bill O'Reilly if he annoys me so much, which is similar to other comments I've gotten while commenting on similar things. I think that, like many people, I LIKE to have something to get angry about every once in a while. Being annoyed can be fun, as long as it's in controlled doses. I would imagine a lot of people here have their own irritating media that they enjoy on a certain level. It's not really the same as a guilty pleasure, or something you like ironically (which isn't to say that I don't have some of those as well). I'm talking about things that you find downright offensive, yet you just can't turn away. I'll read Chick Tracts and reviews at Plugged In Online, most of which are steeped in insane prejudice and a low opinion of the human intellect (e.g., non-Christians don't know who Jesus is, people who listen to music that includes references to sex and drugs will want to go out and do these things, etc.). I tend to find them both amusing and disturbing at the same time. The other factor (heh, "Factor") is that (in case you hadn't noticed) I like to rant about things, and media like that give me a veritable wealth of rant-worthy topics.

Yesterday, I read the short story "The Flying Thief of Oz," by Jon L. Breen. It was a pretty good story, although I think the Magnificent Mennen gets off too easily.

One dream I had last night involved my having to be part of a play. I think it was for school or something, even though I don't recall there being any audience. I somehow knew that it was final, though. I didn't have any more than a vague idea of what it was about (a common dream for me, really), so I basically just came up with stuff that I thought was amusing. I couldn't remember my character's name, so I nicknamed him "Fredjon" (the name of the Wizard's butler in Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz). He worked at the DMV, and I don't think I was really giving him a totally consistent personality. I didn't remember most of my costume, either, so I just put on a gray sweatshirt. I was talking to a character named Bob Wyoming, which I wrote down so I could remember it (both in the dream AND in real life after I woke up, although I didn't actually have to look at my notes before writing this description). I think Bob might have been played by a girl, although I can't recall for sure. I was thinking that coming up with dialogue was easy enough, but trying to make up a plot on the fly would be a real challenge. I think I'd decided that someone from his past would show up, but not much more about that. I know he was telling Bob about some kid in his class at school who was in the Mafia.

In another dream, my brother was dating someone who was part French and part Jewish, and a lot of people were offended, because it was apparently part of some bad movie or TV show with an anti-prejudice message. At one point, I was at this girl's house for a party, but then I left to go to work, and realized I'd left my car there.

Comments

[travspence.livejournal.com]

I would imagine a lot of people here have their own irritating media that they enjoy on a certain level.

The comic strip "For Better of For Worse" for me.

I had never seen Plugged In so I followed your link. At first I thought their reviews were just funny because of the tortured, overwrought prose. Then I hit this line in the review of Brokeback Mountain: "But here, Ennis' reluctance to live with Jack is a good example of how established—biblical—morality within a culture can help people make right decisions."

Jesus Christ! How is denying yourself a life with your true love the "right choice"? And they ignore the fact that (minor spoiler) biblical morality led to a culture in which it was okay for a father to show his young son the victim of a gay-bashing murder.

Holy fuck.

I'm sticking with bad comic strips.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I really don't read the comics anymore, but I do subscribe to the syndicated feed of The Comics Curmudgeon (http://joshreads.com/), which provides humorous takes on several different strips (including FBOFW on occasion).

I've learned to be distrustful of any group that claims to espouse "family values," since this generally translates as "ultra-conservative closed-minded funadmentalist two-straight-parents family values." They try to insist that gays, single parents, polygamists, atheists, and people who let their kids listen to rap music are going to have screwed-up families. Never mind that they generally lack evidence to back this up, and that there are plenty of examples of conservative fundamentalist Christians who are terrible parents. I really don't think their beliefs are based so much on morality OR religion so much as on a crippling fear of anybody doing things differently than them.

[loz]

I can't think of anything I deliberately do to annoy myself. Hmm.

I used to deliberately get into arguments with my friend Callam. I guess that qualifies.

These days I'm all about pure hedonism.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Let us cavort like the Greeks of old! YOU know the ones I mean!