Some quick links

1) As a follow-up to my rant about movie theatres from the other day, you can read this article in which a college freshman expounds on the unwritten rules of theatre etiquette. I agree with every single thing he says.

2) You can make your own Google header!

3) The following link is sick, obscene, twisted, offensive, disgusting, and repugnant. It just so happens that it's pretty effing hilarious as well.

Gay-ification

So my friend YayCoffee has this whole discussion thing going on her Live Journal about slash fiction. Now, I'm still a little muddy in the whole fanfic vernacular, but my understanding is that slash fiction is fanfic which creates homosexual pairings of well known characters who are not expressly portrayed as gay in the "canon" literature. It could refer to all romantic pairings, gay and straight, of this nature, but for my purposes I'll use it to refer to the former. Basically, she was saying something along the lines of she didn't understand why everyone needed to take profound platonic relatioships, and turn them into romantic ones. The idea is that people seem to lack understanding that just because something is stronger than a standard platonic friendship, that doesn't necessarily equate to a romantic connection. This is a sentiment with which I strongly agree, and have thought about a lot in reference to pop culture.

Nate and Dinah and I were talking about something similar the other night. Specifically, the movement of revisionist history going on toward older TV programs. By that I mean the trend of taking characters that were generally considered sexually neutral, or not IMPLICITLY straight (i.e. a big deal was never made of them making out, or whatever, with members of the opposite sex), and proclaiming them gay because of some societal stereotype.

I use as a particular example the whole Bert/Ernie debate of the 90s. Two men, living together, neither of them with female companionship. Of course, they DID share one bedroom, but in separate beds, with space between them. "They did the same thing in the early days of TV! Lucy and Ricky never shared a bed on screen, and they were MARRIED!" you say? Well, that was because of Standards and Practices for the time (the people who make the decisions as to what can and can't be allowed on TV), and it doesn't even begin to relate to these two puppets. My feeling, in this particular case, was that Bert and Ernie were meant to be seen by children as brothers. They didn't live with their parents, but they had a very brotherly relationship, (something to which the children watching could relate), and brothers sometimes share a room. I feel that's all that was meant to imply.

The reason it came up in our conversation was this: We were discussing what old TV shows we would like to see on DVD. Mention was made of Diff'rent Strokes, Growing Pains, Family Ties, and The Facts of Life. When this last one came up, I mentioned having a crush on Jo when I was growing up. Dinah said something along the lines of "Even though she was a lesbian?" Of course, she was joking, but this got us off on the whole train of hating it that no character was safe from being considered gay, even if there was nothing to support it.

Don't get me wrong. This is not a condemnation of being gay or gay people. It's a condemnation of using stereotypes to revise history (besides, wasn't Jo the one who dated George Clooney on the show?) and make it fit better with our current ideals and norms. Plus? THEY'RE TV SHOWS PEOPLE! They don't HAVE to match the melting pot society in which we live. That's why they're FICTIONAL.

Anyway, that's my rant. Long-winded and boring as usual. So to make up for it, here's something funny to watch. It kind of makes fun of the smelly French, which would make ANYBODY feel better.

Musings

1) I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night (after staying up until 2 AM two nights in a row). What a great read. It really is the perfect bridging story between the previous five books and the last one to come. So many big, big things happened, full of joy, heartbreak, and long-awaited answers. Hats off to Ms. Rowling.

2) I finally joined My Space yesterday (you can see the link over there in the sidebar). Nathan and Dinah have been telling me forever that I need to join, so I finally bowed to the peer pressure and signed up. I hear about people meeting random strangers on that thing all the time; I have at least two friends who met and went out with people from My Space. Of course, I don't believe it was to much success in either case, but still.

3) One day, when I am disgustingly wealthy, I am going to open an adults only movie theatre. Only those 21 and up will be allowed, and alcohol and appetizers will be available. Why the emphasis on the adult only theatre? I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Sunday with Nate and Dinah. We waited until 8:30 to go, hoping the kid factor would be reduced by the late hour. No such luck. First there was the family who brought a BABY to the movie. The kid started to cry, and the parents looked like they were going to take him out. Instead, they proceeded to pace back and forth in the front of the theatre, while the rest of their kids ran willy-nilly around the theatre, totally unsupervised. In addition, about 10 minutes into the movie, two women came in with about 6-7 little children between them. One of the women sat right next to Dinah (who sits right next to a stranger in an uncrowded theatre?), and held a little girl in her lap. The girl talked out loud during most of the movie. I realize they are children, and can't really be blamed for their rambunctious behavior. But the parents can CERTAINLY be blamed for their lack of control over the kids. Neither of these sets of parents made any significant effort to control their children. KICKED IN THE FACE!!

Seeing is believing

Indian Paintbrush
Originally uploaded by The Bagboy.

I went to Ennis back in April with Erin and Nate to the bluebonnet festival. Nathan told me about it, and told me I had never seen bluebonnets like I would see at this thing. "Yeah, right," I thought. "I'm from Texas; I see bluebonnets all the time!" Boy, was I wrong. There were places where the fields were a solid blue for hundreds of feet (if you click on the picture, you can see an example or two). On top of that, I never realized that bluebonnets had any kind of pleasant scent. But when you step out into an entire field of them, it's mind-blowing how good they smell. Kind of like honeysuckles, but a bit sweeter. It was a great experience, and I might have to go back next year.

I wanted to post this picture for the simple reason that I'm not a visual artist. I can't paint, draw, sculpt, build origami monkeys; none of it. I can occasionally take a decent picture, but it's usually an accident. However, this one I planned, lined up, adjusted angles on...yada yada yada. And it turned out better than I could have ever imagined. So this is my one and only piece of artistic greatness. You may commence with the bowing.