Review of YellowBrickRoad

My partner and I just watched YellowBrickRoad.  I loved some things about it, and hated other things.  Here's my take.  The direction was beautiful, and I was grateful to some extent that it wasn't found-footage for a change (this story easily could have been; all the elements are there).  The acting was really great, and I found this to be all the more well-done when I realized that I actually cared what happened, and was truly upset at some of the more sinister moments in the movie.

[There Be (mild) Spoilers Ahead]

Steam Vent Release - Here There Be Blitherings

(An unedited stream-of-consciousness rant that I had to get out of the way to finish reading Bruno Latour's Science in Action.  It isn't his fault; this is just the sort of thing these readings tend to do to my head.)

What is like to be able to think that there is one and only one objective (and knowable) Truth?  To think that perception, even sensory perception, is uniform and explicable, and exists independent of the way we are socialized to experience it?

Searle and Poststructuralist Theory: I'm Really Tired Edition

Last night in class I bitchily compared poststructural historical writing to John Searle's chinese room, then had to explain to the professor what I meant by that.  It was intended as a jab at the incomprehensibility of Dipesh Chakrabarty and Ann Stoler (among others), though I'm pretty sure I managed to imply that I just didn't understand any of the readings and that I was embarrassingly okay with this fact.  The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.  I am not a stupid person, nor do I have trouble understanding theoretical frameworks, but these authors have confused me greatly, and I'm as willing to blame them as myself.

"Arrow"

I didn't hate the pilot of the new Green Arrow show, despite all the many reasons why I should have.

The narration was the first problem.  Stephen Amell is a beautiful pile of abs topped with an anonymously handsome face.  There is beefcake to be had.  The problem is, his voice is silky, baby-soft, and a touch... well... he has a lisp.  A really pronounced one that makes his hard-edged pronouncements about the rough years on his magical parkour island difficult to take seriously.

The writing is cheesy.  Like, Velveeta cheesy, not the good stuff.   It's needlessly melodramatic, with characters regularly possessed by the exposition fairy in a really ham-handed way.  The dialogue is just not that great, though they clearly tried to spruce it up with cultural references (for the kids).

The plot I will mostly forgive for now.  It's Batman meets Beatrix Kiddo, all the more so because they seem to have removed everything that made Oliver Queen *not* Batman so far.  However, Green Arrow was never not derivative, and clearly there's some ground that they could break if they can stop writing for the bottom half of their intended demographic's IQ pool.

I don't hold out hope, but I will give it at least another episode before I call it a wash.

My Life With Irma Levinson

My great grandmother is dying.  She's in the hospital again, and as I understand things, from this point it's a matter of how quickly or slowly it happens, but it's a near-certainty.  I think about it and my heart starts to jump around in my chest like a terrified bird in a heavy cage.  My whole body feels like molten lead.  My vision tunnels out and I feel like I can almost hear her in my head.

I haven't had the chance yet to cry about it.  Well, now I am, as I type this.  I thought I was prepared; we had such a scare a few years ago, when she had a heart attack, but it still hurts as if it wasn't something expected.  It's hard to explain how much I love her, and how much she has always meant to me and always will mean.  Damned if I'm not going to try.

Feeling a Little Smashed (ha ha)

Amidst all the stress and chaos and pleasant introductions and gathering of books and funding and all the waiting, I just watched the first season of Smash.  Well, the rest of it.  I started watching from the beginning, but only got a few episodes in before we had to get rid of our cable service on account of the move.  In any case, thanks to Hulu, I got to watch a bunch of commercials, and also Smash.  So while I know I'm months behind on this, I have some small commentary to share.  (SUCH SPOILERS TO SHOW YOU!)

What's Your Orientation?

Yesterday was magnificent for so many reasons.  It was graduate orientation day at my school, and I took it as the first day of my graduate career.  I enjoyed every minute of it, not because of the obligatory and congratulatory administrative speeches (however heartfelt) or because of the breakaway information sessions (some of which were very, very helpful), but because I got to spend most of the time I was there in the company of some of my incoming cohort, and learned some things that may be useful later (or may in fact turn out to be nonsense).