Stratovania

Last weekend, the only major thing we did that I feel I need to write about was to attend a concert by the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra. The theme this time was the Killer B's, meaning Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms. They also threw in a Wasp, specifically the overture from The Wasps, by Vaughan Williams. The Brahms piece was the Hungarian Dance, which I largely remember because of the Allan Sherman parody, although I like it anyway.

Really, it's a piece that speeds up and slows down so much that I would imagine it's difficult to actually dance to. They ended the show with a slow, solemn performance of Mussorgsky's "Great Gate of Kiev," dedicated to the people of Ukraine. Speaking of countries that had been part of the Soviet Union, we tried Georgian food for the first time on the day before that. Beth had recently found out about Acharuli Khachapuri, boat-shaped bread filled with melted cheese topped with an egg yolk, traditionally said to represent the sea and the Sun. When we got delivery, it came in a pizza box, and the egg had somehow spilled out. I don't know if that was my fault or someone else's, but I'll be sure to be more careful if we get that again. We shared an entree of chicken in garlic sauce. Georgia actually features in Greek mythology, as it's the location of the ancient land of Colchis, Medea's homeland. Apparently the ancient Greeks considered it the farthest place they could reach by ship.

Tuesday was our anniversary, sort of, since we were actually married on the twenty-ninth. It was also the day we saw Elton John on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, although that wasn't the original intention. Due to the pandemic, the show was delayed by quite a lot. Before the show, we got Japanese food. She had a Bento box, and I had shrimp yaki udon, which is stir-fried noodles. I found the noodles a little squishy, and I'm saying this as someone who's never particularly liked al dente pasta; but I still enjoyed it. I can't say I'm a big fan of sushi; obviously it varies, but I'm a picky eater and not accustomed to raw food like that. The show was at Barclays Center, and while I've walked by there many times, this is the first time either of us actually attended an event there. On the way there, we walked by a restaurant that was playing "Funeral for a Friend," which couldn't have been coincidental, right? Elton played that one and its followup, "Love Lies Bleeding," while his piano was moved around the stage.

I took a few pictures, but obviously we were too far back to see much of anything.

I was kind of surprised by how many people showed up late and left early, and got up during the show. I pretty much figure that, if you've paid for a concert, you should stay for the whole thing, unless you absolutely need to go to the bathroom or something. With how vertical stadium seating is, I wouldn't even think it was particularly safe to be moving around in relative darkness. It was a pretty long set, and there wasn't an opener or anything. He had spoken-word introductions for some of the songs. As part of the encore, he played his part of "Cold Heart," the song he did with Dua Lipa that includes part of "Rocket Man," along with a video. I remember hearing that on the radio once, but for the most part I'm not up on modern music. I guess I never really was. I assume Dua Lipa doesn't have anything to do with Duolingo, but you never know.

Is outrage fatigue a thing? I have to suspect Trump and his followers are counting on it, because there's something terrible happening every day. There being two mass shootings this past weekend is disturbing as hell, but sadly not too shocking anymore. Not that Trump directly caused the shootings, but his racist rhetoric is empowering white supremacists. Maybe they're hoping we'll get desensitized to it. It is, however, not true that ICE was arresting people in the aftermath of the El Paso shooting. At this point, I can believe pretty much any racist thing happening. And there are still people blaming domestic terrorism on video games. Dudes, Space Invaders came out over forty years ago. You can't keep pretending they're something it's safe to blame for bad things because only the kids understand them.

As for what I personally have (or, in some cases, haven't) done recently, Beth saw Ben Folds with the Violent Femmes on Thursday, and I chose not to attend. I also turned down the chance to see Weird Al a few weeks ago, although that was the weekend it was unbearably hot, so I can't say I regret it. I just don't have the energy for concerts anymore. It helps when I buy tickets well in advance, so then it would be wasteful if I didn't go. I have tickets to see Robyn Hitchcock with Tanya Donnelly in November. He always seems to play in Brooklyn around my birthday, although I didn't go last year. For that one particular concert, though, I was still pretty tired after OzCon.

Meme by Erica Olivera, from a picture by John R. Neill
I did, however, go with Beth to see Michael Ian Black on Friday evening.

His opener was Maggie Rosenquist, who had a similar style of humor, very sarcastic.

Michael told his shaggy dog story about Subway, which I remember him doing at a different show a while back. He called the Italian BMT a "garbage sandwich," but that's what I often get there! But I do agree that saying the letters stand for "Big, Meaty, Tasty" is pretty gross (not to mention slightly pornographic), and I don't think I knew that before. It's actually named after the BMT subway line, which was sold to the city in 1940. I bought a Subway sandwich for tonight, and it's just ham. I don't get vegetables on my sandwiches like some kind of nineties sketch comedian.

On Saturday, Beth and I both slept until evening. Then someone who recently followed me on Instagram tried to convince me to have kids, which was pretty bizarre. It would be strange enough even if it were someone I actually knew. I can't recall there ever being a time when I wanted kids, and I'm pretty sure humanity will live on anyway, unless we all die of global warming or nuclear war. Beth and I had dinner at Pizzeria Uno, and she brought a little bit of lobster home for our cat Reagan, thinking it would be a special treat. Rea didn't even touch it. What the hell, cat? Here she is looking at me from the arm of the couch.

Another Halloween gone by, and the Great Pumpkin never showed up. We had to settle for the Adequate Pumpkin. No, seriously, finding things to do on Halloween when you're an adult is kind of a challenge. I was allowed to dress up at work, but I didn't, as I didn't have the chance to put together a costume. There's also a Halloween-themed Oz story for which I've had the basic idea for about twenty years, and I thought maybe this year would be when I finally wrote it. I guess there's always next year. I actually just got an idea for another Oz Christmas story, but we'll see if anything comes of that. bethje and I did get to go on two haunted hayrides this year. We were hoping for more, but all the others either weren't running this year, or could only be paid for in a package deal with other stuff we didn't want. For some reason, everyone seems to be marketing zombie paintball, which combines two things that have never particularly interested me. The one we did go on last weekend, at a mulch place near Hammonton, was pretty fun.

On Halloween night itself, we went into Manhattan for a ghost tour of the East Village. We've been on these in Philadelphia and Ocean City before, and it was largely the same deal. A guide takes you on a tour of the area, and points out buildings where someone claims they saw the ghost of some famous person. I'm very much a skeptic when it comes to such things; the human imagination is a powerful thing, especially when planted with suggestions. Still, if there really are ghosts, their lives--er, afterlives--must be pretty boring. Sure, at first you can get some fun out of floating through walls and jumping out at people, but after a while that would probably get tedious. The lady who gave the tour last night wore a witch's outfit and performed in character as Peter Stuyvesant's wife Judith, complete with Dutch accent. She was amusing, and made jokes along the way. One of the places we stopped was McSorley's, a bar said to be haunted by Harry Houdini. The guide told us about how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle held a seance for Houdini's mother, but the magician didn't buy it because his mother didn't know English. Although I'm not sure the guide actually said this, I kind of got the impression this happened at the bar, when the Internet tells me it was actually in Atlantic City. I suppose it was just a good story involving Houdini and ghosts. Apparently Houdini and Doyle were good friends for a long time, but totally at odds on supernatural matters, and the seance was the last straw between them. What was more mysterious about the tour was how our group managed to shrink. There were three girls who started it with us and had Beth take their picture, but they disappeared not long after that. Hey, maybe they were ghosts! Or, you know, they had something else to do and slipped out onto the crowded Manhattan streets where nobody can ever find anybody without very specific directions. I was very tired by the time we got home, but we still have a few horror movies to watch.

To move to something that's scary in a totally different way, it came out recently that Jian Ghomeshi is abusive to women. I didn't really follow his television and radio career, but I was a fan of Moxy Früvous back in the day, and he always came across as pretty gentle. I guess that just goes to show how images can be deceiving. He claimed that everything he did with women was consensual, but: 1) according to several women, this is a lie; and 2) that carries no weight legally. Even if it HAD been consensual, I don't think that's the kind of thing you can do in casual relationships. I don't know much about BDSM, but everything I've heard about it suggests it's pretty much entirely about trust.

This past week, bethje had to go to Washington, DC to take a class for her job, and I went down there with her. During the day when Beth was at class, I mostly just hung around the hotel room. This in and of itself was a nice break from the usual, as the room had air conditioning. Outside, it was sometimes as much as one hundred degrees, so I was grateful for the cooling. After her class, we'd usually go out and sometimes see some sights as well. Here's a bit of a run-down:

Monday: Saw the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, which are located way out of the way of any Metro stops, so we were tired out after walking there and back. I remember going to the top of the Monument when I was a kid, but it was closed up this time. Speaking of the Metro, the varying fares were annoying for someone more used to the New York subway, which has a flat rate from when you enter to when you leave. Dinner that evening was at a bar that I forget the name of, which had passable but not great food.

Tuesday: We took the Metro to Dupont Circle, and ate at a nearby Italian place called Otello. I had the rigatoni with sausage and mushrooms, which was quite tasty. After dinner, we stopped by a bookstore and Beth bought a copy of Everything Is Illuminated, since she loved the movie.

Wednesday: This was the day we went to see the Capitol, and also when we got caught in the rain. After changing our drenched clothes, we ate at Nage, a fancy restaurant in the hotel where we were staying, the Marriott Courtyard Embassy Row. Beth had duck, and I had pork schnitzel with pretzel coating.

Thursday: If I may draw your attention back to Tuesday for a moment, we passed a restaurant and bar called the Madhatter on our search for a restaurant near Dupont Circle. I was somewhat enamored of the Alice in Wonderland theme, so I convinced Beth that we should go there for dinner. There were a lot of Alice-related decorations on the walls (our table was next to a French poster for Disney's animated Alice in Wonderland), and as part of the theme they served us tea before the meal. I'm not a big fan of tea, but I like it more than coffee, and I drank it to keep it the spirit. It was a pretty good citrus-flavored iced tea. After that, we had rolls with orange butter, and finally the main course. I ended up getting a bacon cheeseburger, rather boring but still quite good. I also had carrot cake for dessert. After dinner, we eventually made it to the White House, despite my getting us lost in the Circle.

Friday: Checkout time at the hotel was noon, when Beth was already at her class. I read from some books while waiting for her, and her class let out early, so I accompanied her to the train station. The government paid for her to take the train there and back, but not for me, so I took the Greyhound instead. I do have to say that the new Express Greyhounds are nicer than the old ones, but traffic was pretty bad, so I got to Philadelphia much later than I had planned. And this was AFTER I had paid $15 to get an earlier ticket. I finished Robert Rankin's The Dance of the Voodoo Handbag while on the bus, or maybe it was actually a little before boarding. Friday was also the day of the shooting in Colorado, and I'm not going to go into too much detail on that, but I will offer my condolences to the victims and their families and friends. Unfortunately, it seems to me that there isn't always a way to tell who's going to snap and do something insanely horrible. Apparently this guy was planning the shooting for a while, though, which makes it even worse to my mind. I guess I can understand a momentary lapse in sanity more than a long-lasting one, even if not by that much.

It's Martin Luther King Day, and even though where I work is still open, I'm not working today. I wonder if it's because they'd have to pay me extra for working on a holiday. I don't know. Unfortunately, when thinking of Dr. King, it's hard not to be reminded how his daughter and niece are blatantly homophobic. People will say that the struggle for gay rights is different from that for racial equality, and yeah, it's not the same. Nobody is demanding that gay people pay a poll tax or drink from different water fountains, although it sounds like Richard Floyd of Tennessee would probably be in favor of such legislation. But the important point is that, even though they're different struggles, they're both important and both about how people shouldn't have different rights because of irrelevant differences. How is the fact that someone has a different sexual orientation hurting you any more than their having a different skin color would?

Okay, I think it's time to take a break from serious subjects for a little while, and talk about cartoons. The idea of Lisa starting a Facebook-like social network for Springfield is a little weird when an earlier episode actually mentioned Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, but the way it played out was all right. Not great, but all right. Nothing earth-shattering in the plot or the humor, but I guess it worked, and the frame story with the trial was a good way to riff on the typical episode structure. I do get a bit annoyed at people making the same point over and over again about how socializing online isn't really the same as socializing in person, though. When you're socially awkward, you take what you can get. I'm not sure why this one ended up running short enough to require the unrelated bit at the end, but on the other hand it was nice to see another one after so long. Was it supposed to be in the style of Edward Gorey or someone else? I'm not quite sure.

I don't have a whole lot to say about the Family Guy episode other than that it really highlighted how much of a jerk Brian can be. I'm sure I've talked before about how it's interesting that Brian has gradually changed from the voice of reason to a character with his own significant flaws. I don't know exactly how that happened, but I think it has a lot to do with the idea that a sentient dog dating human women is acceptable within the confines of the show. If I remember correctly, the early episodes never really got into Brian's love life, and it's when they did that they played up how shallow he could be. Then there's the fact that he's become somewhat of a self-insert for Seth MacFarlane, so maybe there's an element of self-parody involved.

I didn't watch the Napoleon Dynamite cartoon. I wasn't a big fan of the movie anyway, although it certainly had its moments. Really, though, why is Fox trying to squeeze more milk out of that cow at this point? And is there really anything else they can do with the character? Eh, whatever. I've never really watched Allen Gregory either, although I did once have it on in the background while on the computer. I can take or leave The Cleveland Show; I generally watch it when it's on between two other things I was already planning on watching, but otherwise not so much. Regardless, I wish Fox would just stick with a schedule instead of changing it every week. And what happened to Bob's Burgers, anyway? I think I heard something about it coming back in March, but not what time slot it would be in.

As far as things I didn't watch, you can add the Golden Globes to the list. As far as I can tell, the only point of the endless awards shows is to see attractive celebrities in pretty clothes. And sure, I like that as much as the next person, and perhaps more than some, but even that tends to bear out the disconnect between rich people and everyone else. "Here's Female Celebrity X, wearing a dress that she got for free from a company that helped to ruin the American economy by shipping all its jobs overseas." Which is part of why I never buy it when people claim Hollywood is liberal.
( Anyway, behind the cut are some pretty girls in outfits made by job-killing corporations. )

Today, I got around to watching last night's Simpsons, and the American Dad and Family Guy from last week. Or was it two weeks ago? I can't remember. It was the AD where Roger played Snot's girlfriend, and the FG with Lois' sister (since when does she have one of those?) married Mayor West. I wonder if the marriage is going to be canonical. As for the most recent Simpsons, you'll notice that they didn't mention that the original Fat Tony had died. Since this guy presumably wasn't a widower and instead had a wife who looked to be much younger than him, I guess anyone who cares about continuity is supposed to assume this is the former Fit Tony. It was kind of weird that they referenced Koyaanisqatsi, since bethje just recently added that to our Netflix queue. They've actually made quite a few Philip Glass references on the show, though. The Bart and Lisa subplot was amusing, but I kind of wish it had tied in at least slightly with the main plot. I mean, both involved Italian-Americans, right? Also, have you noticed how, since the Simpsons Movie, every pig they've shown has had the little tuft of hair?

I don't think any of them did before that, although I guess we don't know for sure what's under Sir Oinks-A-Lot's hat.


Since I was working last night, however, I missed the television show everyone was talking about, which I believe was called We Got Bin Laden. Seriously, though, Beth texted me about it, and I came home and pretty much immediately made a joke on Twitter about how it might have been a lookalike instead, only to be admonished by at least two different people who said they'd already DNA-tested the body. I guess that'll show me to make a bad joke before getting the facts. At least I wasn't one of the approximately 20,000 people who said Donald Trump wants to see the death certificate, which was funny the first time, but not so much after that. Anyway, I've seen various opinions on the matter, and I think I agree with the people who say it's a relief, but not really a cause for celebration. I mean, there's a definite sense of closure to finally getting this guy we're supposed to have been after for years, and if anyone deserved to die it's definitely him. And while I'd like for him to have been put on trial, from what I've heard it was entirely his decision to go down fighting instead of surrendering quietly. Still, cheering about someone's death, even that of an utterly horrible person, makes me a little uneasy. I don't feel sorry or anything, just that that sort of seems to be stooping to his level. Oh, well.

Since I'm posting anyway, I might as well go ahead and include this survey that I got from SamuraiFrog.
( Read more... )

Interestingly, within the past week or so, I found links to rumors about the locations of both Biblical arks, Noah's Ark and the Ark of the Covenant. I seem to recall that, when I first learned about these two arks, I didn't know why the translation used the same word for both, when the latter wasn't a boat. Except it kind of was, or at least a vessel used for conveying something.
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I've already said a bit about Medusa, but after reading kevenn's review of the Clash of the Titans remake, I felt she was worth another look. Only not a DIRECT look, because I don't want to be turned to stone.


I actually remember when I first learned about the Gorgon. There was a Medusa pinball game at our local pizza place, and my dad explained about how she had snakes for hair and anyone who saw her turned to stone. What I didn't learn until long after that was just how many versions of the Medusa legend there were. Earlier takes on the myth made her one of the primitive chthonic monsters that were always being killed by heroes to pave the way for civilization. She was the daughter of the primordial sea deities Phorcys and Ceto, and was totally hideous. Later, the myths gave her two sisters, Stheno and Euryale, and the three were of course known collectively as the Gorgons. Later depictions and stories actually started making Medusa attractive apart from the snakes, and Ovid's version of the myth says that she was originally a drop-dead gorgeous priestess in the temple of Athena. When she and Poseidon had sex in the temple, Athena punished her by turning her into the serpent-tressed monster we all know and love. I'm not sure the story was entirely clear on whether this intercourse was willing or not. You'd think it would have to be, as there wouldn't be any sense in punishing her for something that was done TO her. Unfortunately, however, the idea of blaming rape victims has a long history, and is still practiced in some parts of the world. You probably remember the recent story of a Somali girl being stoned to death for that. Poseidon probably said Medusa was asking for it because she dressed too provocatively. The thing is, you'd think Athena would sympathize with the Gorgon, considering that not only is she female, but also supposed to be the wisest of the Olympians. As we learned in the story of Arachne, however, the goddess was not at all free from jealousy and wrath. Apparently the new Clash film uses the idea that Medusa was raped and then punished for it, and if what Kevenn said is correct, then this was never even frowned upon!


By the way, did Medusa have to feed the snakes, or were they parasitic creatures living off nutrients from her body? Inquiring minds want to know! {g}

This last picture was drawn by Becca, whose blog is definitely worth a look. Probably not at work, though, as there's occasional nudity.

We all know about Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift's moment in the spotlight at the Video Music Awards to announce that Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. But was he right? I hadn't seen either of the videos all the way through at the time. I'd heard the songs, which are of the typical pop hit variety, simple and impossible to get out of your head when you've heard them. I do have to say that Taylor had some bad timing with her song, though, because it's about her thinking she belongs with someone because they know everything about each other, when I'm currently learning that that doesn't always work out. Are you mocking me, Taylor? What did I ever do to you?

Anyway, here's the video for Beyonce's "Single Ladies":


It's her dancing for the entire length of the song. The fact that Kanye thinks this is one of the best videos of all time makes me wonder how many others he's seen. Maybe he was like me, and grew up without cable. Mind you, it's Beyonce's choice if she wants to release a fairly minimal video, and she's no slouch as a dancer. But really, I don't know the basis for judging the VMAs (considering that it's MTV, it probably has something to do with the size of the bribe offered), but I would have to think creativity would be an important factor. As you can see, Beyonce's video was sorely lacking in that department. Now, here's Taylor's video for "You Belong with Me":


I certainly wouldn't say it's one of the best of all time either, but it's clever and kind of sweet, and looks like a good deal of effort went into it. So, yeah, definitely a better video than Beyonce's. I'll have to agree with the President on this one.

1. Online Presence and Future - Between this journal, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, it can sometimes be a bit of a challenge deciding where to address a certain topic. Really, I don't use Facebook much except to link to stuff I've written elsewhere, as I find the interface rather overly complicated. On the other hand, that's where I have the most followers, so there's no accounting for tastes. I use Tumblr pretty much exclusively for pictures and videos, although I'll occasionally throw in a link or a brief text post. Twitter is for brief observations (as it pretty much has to be by its very nature; I actually kind of like the fact that it prevents me from being unnecessarily verbose), and this journal is for a real mishmash of stuff. Lately, I've been writing more topic-specific posts (Oz, mythology, video games, etc.) than personal stuff here on LJ, and I have to wonder if it's really the best medium for that. It's convenient, but bethje has said she suspects people tend to see "LiveJournal" and think it's going to be someone whining about their relationships (which I do do, but not quite as often). She and some other people have suggested getting my own domain, but I have to admit I have no clue how to do that, or how to work with it when I do have it. I know some people have blogs (i.e., movable type) on sites that aren't specifically tailored for it (like LiveJournal, Blogspot, Wordpress, etc.), so I know it's very possible, but I don't know how to arrange such a thing. And does anyone think I'd actually get more traffic that way, or would it just be a waste of money? I'm looking for input here, people!

2. iPod So You Don't Have To - I've been considering getting a new MP3 player, since my current one is now about four years old. It still plays, but it has occasional problems, and it's probably better not to wait until it conks out entirely. I currently have a Creative player, and I like it, but I don't think they make any with much storage capacity these days. I know some of the iPod Classics can store a lot of music, but is it true that you can only use those with one computer? I've heard that, if you plug an iPod into someone else's computer, it will erase all of the stored data. Is this true, and if so, is there any way to get around it?

3. This Is Not Really an Item - I already mentioned this on Twitter, but I thought I'd elaborate on how ridiculous I found it when an eHarmony commercial insisted that it WASN'T a dating site. Their explanation for this was that it was a match-making site, or something like that. I forget the actual phrase they used, but it was something that sounded suspiciously like a dating site to me. It reminded me of something I first read in a Chick Tract and later heard from other fundamentalists, which is that Christianity isn't a religion, but a relationship with God. I don't think any of them have been able to sufficiently explain what the difference is, though. Is saying things aren't what they pretty obviously are a growing trend?

4. Brangelina Blues - Well, I've now heard about 80,000 times from various media that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are breaking up, although they officially deny it. Wow, what a shock! You know, if you get shocked by really obvious things. ("Oh, wow! Grass is GREEN!") Didn't Brad cheat on Jennifer Aniston with Ms. Jolie in the first place? Not that I really blame him for that one, since at least Angelina is somewhat interesting. Ms. Aniston has to be one of the dullest people in the entertainment business, yet somehow she keeps appearing on magazine covers. The story usually seems to be something like "Jen upset over break-up," which I suppose is news because people who didn't star in Friends just LOVE breaking up. But anyway, my point is that I never figured either Brad or Angelina for the type who goes for stable relationships.

5. Haitian Satan - An interesting post I read today puts Pat Robertson's moronic comments about Haiti into context. Apparently the idea that the Haitians are in league with the Prince of Darkness is nothing new, because some Christians assume that Voodoo rituals must be Satanic. Yes, we're back to the idea that every god other than yours has to be the Devil in disguise, as if Satan really has that much free time. As the article mentions, Christianity itself was subject to that sort of slur in its early days. I can't say I believe in any of these gods, but I always kind of liked the ancient Roman notion that having more gods would strengthen the state. Really, I think paganism would work out well in today's society, because as it is we have hundreds of different interpretations of the same deity. If you really want a violent deity, why bother insisting that the notorious pacifist Jesus would have been cool with guns? Just become a devotee of a war god (Ares/Mars, Tyr, Mithras, etc.), and you can easily mix your pro-war stance with your religious fanaticism! Also, I think I might do an article on Voodoo mythology in the near future, as I don't know a whole lot about it and it sounds interesting. I do know one of their gods (or loa, anyway) is a skeleton in a top hat, and how can you go wrong with that?