Social Psychosis
I’m no Luddite, but the fervor over the new iPhone is making me a little fearful.
Numerous people with whom I have casual contact feel absolutely no shame in announcing their unbridled excitement over the prospect of getting a new one, to upgrade their barely-a-year-old models. These aren’t people who I normally associate with techno-lust. My dept head… an artist friend … a college student … etc.
I’d say this is a true psychosis, but then the pharmaceutical companies would have to come in and “fix” the problem.
Furthermore, what’s the obsession with the white model? I’ve also seen various crying faces reacting to the unavailability of the white model for pre-order. 😦
Oh, humanity. You do make me fearful. Constantly.
p.s. This commencement speech [the link takes you to an archived version of a transcript] from David Foster Wallace in 2005 makes a good case for searching for some ground in the midst of ridiculousness and tragedy, notwithstanding his 2008 suicide … Perhaps bloggers already knew this?
Outfit Panic
I left the house wearing one thing, got outside, turned around, and changed. This is outfit panic. This is my life.
Taken Takes the Cake
I was sitting in the theater before Taken started, reading me some Location of Culture (well, the prologue to the Routledge Classics edition) and Michelle was out buying some popcorn and I was thinking, “I can’t wait to put away this Homi Bhabha and watch me some torture porn!”
Torture porn was the least of my worries.
(Spoiler! Spoiler! Since I know the hoards of you are going to see this movie!)
Dude, like it’s not enough that the audience cheered while Liam was on his torture mission. That, I expected. But … his daughter, a rich white chick from LA, was not taken for some ransom. Oh no. Some Albanians wanted to sell her into the sex trade, which turned out to be particularly lucrative given she was a virgin.
Because there is a huge problem with Albanians kidnapping Americans and selling them into the sex trade.
The whole final sequence basically involved the audience holding our breath while we waited to see if Liam could get to his daughter before she lost her virginity. To an Arab sheik. While wearing a white veil.
I’ll leave it to you to figure out if he did, but I will say I think they had a great time at the Purity Ball upon their return to the United States. After Liam Neeson killed like a million people. I think the US traded him so France would keep Roman Polanski. Or else the Christianist right has completely taken over our media and we just don’t know it yet.
Stalker Movies as Romantic Comedies
If I could make a Doc Film series based on stalker movies I’ve seen with Renee, these would definitely be on the list:
Wicker Park (2004) — People going in through the windows, pretending to be people they’re not, and, generally, creepiness.
Addicted to Love (1997) — An amazing movie wherein I remember Meg Ryan spying on the guy she wants, spending exorbitant resources to do so, in spy-vs-spy fashion.
I’m sure there are 8 more, so I’m submitting the proposal.
HJNTIY, Take 309
Just when I think I can’t love Rebecca Traister on Broadsheet any more…
So if anyone else out there has a sentence they want to get off their chest, but especially if it’s about how women should just pull themselves together and stop being so damn crazy, get ready to ride the American Dream Train all the way to movie theaters!
Last night I was forced to admit my obsession with this book to someone I’d actually like to have a little respect for me in the morning. When it came down to it, there was no back-tracking, there was stumbling over words. His reaction was an undeniable what-the-fuck moment.
I’m a woman, I obsess. Maybe the book just isn’t that into me.
Chocolatey Racial Political Goodness
I first saw this ad when Julia and I went to see Rachel Getting Married, but that was a good movie that didn’t put me to sleep so I sort of half put it out of my mind. Last night, Calgary and I were on our way to see He’s Just Not That Into You (sold out! at every theater!) and I started talking about this ad. Lo and behold, all of a sudden everything that was wrong with the ad hit me. (What can I say? I am slow) and we got to talking about the racial implications of the ad. You know, like the idea of white women consuming a chocolate man. The complete objectification of him as he breaks pieces of himself off for the hoards of white women who find him irresistible.
Yea. It’s called “Dark Temptation.” There isn’t a single woman of color in the whole ad. A woman bites his ass on a subway. Um, it’s called “Dark Temptation.”
Then, at a 9:50 showing of The International (the only movie still available for viewing in New York City) I got to see the ad again. As soon as it came on the black couple in front of us looked at each other, sort of a little freaked out, and Calgary said “It’s like a minstrel show!”
Seriously. It is.
Building better unbalanced babes
What’s with the spate of weird dolls being proposed lately? Are we trying to build complexes into the women of tomorrow?
Showbiz Promotions announced they will not be producing an “Inspirational Caylee Sunshine Doll”, modeled after murdered toddler Caylee Anthony, due to general public disgust and outrage.
In her fourth full day as First Lady, Ms. Obama issued a statement criticizing the maker of Beanie Babies for marketing two new dolls called Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia, seemingly modeled on her children. “We feel it is inappropriate to use young, private citizens for marketing purposes,” Ms. Obama’s press secretary said in a statement Saturday.
Do You Want Fries with your Xenophobia?
Blah, blah, I just got back from Mexico. Blah, blah. And now I am about to make lots and lots of really obvious assertions.
The thing with going to the Yucatán Peninsula is that you sort of have to fly through Cancún. It’s the cheapest way to get there, and then you can hop on an ADO bus to just about anywhere your little American heart desires. Apparently, most little American hearts really desire to stay in Cancún, the made up little city that basically just exists to serve us Domino’s Pizza and make sure we don’t have to leave our comfort zone.
Obviously, I hate Cancún. You want a beach? Where people speak English? And serve you hamburgers and fries? Um … I don’t know. The US does have a coast line.
I had a great two weeks in Mexico, and then I got to the airport and watched American after American hand invisible Mexican workers their trash, without even trying to speak to them in any language.
Law & Order
You know that beginning scene on Law & Order, when the people are just sort of chilling and bam! dead body? It always seems sort of interesting and glamorous, as if finding dead bodies is awesome.
I never really had an opinion on it until Thursday. Most people don’t find dead bodies, but then every once in awhile someone does. And it might look something like this: you realize that your neighbor‘s shoes haven’t moved in a couple of days, his mail is piling up, and his plants are sort of wilting. And, then, maybe if you’re sort of out of it and these things aren’t evidence enough, his co-workers will stop by and tell you that he’s missed three days of work.
Then you’ll put it all together and realize, it’s time to call the police.
But you’ll call the landlady first, and she’ll get here and want to open the door. You want to discourage her. But she does it anyway. She’ll call the police and unlock the door. The door will be chained from the inside, and there will be an unmistakable and completely unforgettable odor.
And you’ll realize that someone who was awesome and amazing and a huge presence in the world is dead, and you found him, and you’ll get really sad.
Just because someone lived alone doesn’t make his life somehow less valuable.
None of this is awesome as Law & Order. None of it.
Holiday Shopping
I don’t want to be presumptuous but I am in Barnes & Noble looking at the newly expanded edition of He’s Just Not That Into You.
The Shanty Kingdom 