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For all you X-Men fans (ahem, Jenn) – a picture of Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut is floating around. Personally, I don’t think it’s that bad – because I love Vinnie Jones, and I love X-Men. Besides, Storm’s outfits and especially hair looked like hot buttered ass in the first two movies (although it looks like at least her hair is decent in this one), so in my opinion, this is nothing. Anyway, here’s the photo, courtesy of iwatchstuff.com.
And another thing I’m mad about – some friends of mine were discussing, I don’t know, stuff, over the weekend, and somehow got onto the topic of welfare, and specifically “welfare mothers” – you know, that whole “single (black) mother on welfare who has more kids to get more welfare” crap. I tend to think that that’s just a bunch of bullshit, but anyway, what upset me is of course my friends are buying into the welfare mother line, and I’m trying to argue with them, and not making any headway. I’m just frustrated that I don’t have enough facts at my fingertips to whip out and be all, “And this is why that’s bullshit.” Or maybe I was making some salient points, and they were just bulldozing me. Whatever. I’m still disgruntled about it.
I watched Equilibrium last night, and loved it. Loved it! I wanted to see what all the hubbub over gun-kata was about, and get a sense of what I’m in for with Ultraviolet, and I was entranced. I’m more eager for Ultraviolet than I was before. So, uh, I guess I’m Kurt Wimmer’s bitch now, or something. I also loved that Sean Pertwee was in it.
I’ve finally caved in and jumped on the podcast wagon. Today’s the first day I’ve listened to a podcast (no, really), and I’ve been listening to Cast On, KnitCast, Rubyfruit Radio, Sherlock Holmes Podcast, and The OTR Podcast. And wondering why I didn’t give podcasts a chance earlier.
And now I’m reading homework for my class, and getting pissed off. I’m reading Angela Gilliam’s “The Brazilian mulata: images in the global economy” (which was published in Race & Class, and if you really want the full citation, leave a comment and I’ll track it down for you, since it’s not on the reserve copy). And she’s talking about a Labour and Employment Law Office (LELO) conference, and the difficulty of getting working wimmin into the United States. Apparently, visitors to the US are considered “intending immigrants,” especially if they’re working class, so the conference’s invitees had trouble getting visas. Gilliam says, “This was especially true for women, who are often required to have high minimum balances in bank accounts, at least two children being left behind, property, or the signature of a husband in order to enter the US on a temporary visa.” That is so fucked up. And just offensive and hateful, in my opinion. I had no idea it was like that, and I don’t know what I’m most upset about specifically (like – “the signature of a husband”?! Are you fucking kidding me?). I think I’m upset about ALL of it, each bit taken separately AND all of it together. Muffinfuck. And why be such a prick to people coming to attend a conference? Are we afraid they’re going to stick around, or are we afraid they know better and are just going to come here and educate us on how fucked up our society really is? Damn.
On the other hand, that’s one of the things I like about this class – that I’m constantly coming across fucked up shit that’s current, and it’s opening my eyes, and it reminds me of the work that still needs to be done.
Oh my god! And I’m done with screenprinting! If I don’t see a screen, or paint, or a tshirt that needs decoration for the next couple months, I will be a happy, happy grrl.
Okay, it’s not that bad. But I really did screenprint every night last week. Holy shit.
I went to some parties this weekend. Some highlights: Eric got a year older; I won Apples to Apples; I got to meet Mr. RobustMcManly in the flesh, which was awesome, except for my being a little flustered, a lot drunk, and talking way too much about cats; I had the first Long Island iced tea that I actually liked (hence the being drunk); I got to watch R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet – and words just cannot convey.
We tabled for two-ish hours for Ms. Films, and learned that most people are assholes. Seriously. I guess it’s not new knowledge, but it was confirmed – I still can’t believe how many people threw little hissyfits about us not having a tshirt exactly the way they wanted it, or wanted refunds or whatever. Lame. I won’t name names, but one person only half-jokingly suggested that Greg sell her the shirt off his back – which, as the printer of said t-shirt, sorry but no. Quite a few people were wonderful to meet and deal with. Lovely. I have a new grrlcrush on Thea Faulds – an AWESOME filmmaker from Toronto – and a second crush on her fantastic pink, orange, and black hair. I’ve spent the better part of today convincing myself not to bleach my hair and try to do fun things with it. I’m pretty sure it won’t fall out, but I’m scared enough from my last bleach run-in that I think it’s safer to wait until closer to the wedding, and have it done professionally.
I signed up for Nipper Jenn’s Booty Swap, and I am SO freaking psyched! AND! I’ve figured most of what I’m going to send, and, if I do say so myself, I think it will be a pretty awesome and piratical booty. I do love swaps.
Last but not least, finally a picture! This is the progress on my socks for February, for the knit-along. I gave up on the pretty, pretty unlabelled acrylic/possibly cotton yarn because the leg was impossibly stretchy, and therefore way too big. I managed to find some tweeded baby yarn, and it’s working pretty well. Although I picked up so many stitches for the gussets – I’ve got to decrease close to forty fucking stitches. So I’m dispensing with the plain knit round between decrease rounds, because I’d like the sock to fit my foot sometime before the toe. I think the heel’s going to be loose no matter which way I go, but if I alternate decrease rounds with plain rounds, it’ll be far too long by the time I’m down to the right number. I’m hoping this will turn out good *enough*, because if it’s not, it means I’ll have to rip back and figure something else out. Anyway, picture:
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from Ms. Films:
Ms. Films Festival 2006 starts tonight! 3 days of great films, workshops,
filmmakers, and wonderful visiting artists.
Come out for our opening night reception at Joe & Jo’s. the event is for
festival goers, festival organizers and volunteers, workshop facilitators,
and filmmakers to get together to kick off the fest. We’ll have great live
music from Wigg Report, Charles Latham, and an extra special treat – our
favorite girl band NATASHA who we’ve missed so much since they went off to
college are reuniting for this show! This might be the last chance to see
them so come out and enjoy! Refreshments will be served courtesy of Joe &
Jo’s. We are asked for a suggested donation of $4 to help raise the
remaining funds needed for the festival.
Please join us for tomorrow (Friday’s) filmmaker lunch discussion at the
John Hope Franklin Center at noon – room 130-132. Lunch will be provided by
Nosh.
Check out the rest of the schedule, plan out your festival weekend, and have
a great time! Be sure to visit the website where there is lots of
information including screening programs and workshop descriptions. We have
amazing screening programs – check out the full schedule here:
http://www.msfilms.org/main/2006screenings.html
FRI
Noon : Filmmaker lunch discussion @ the john hope franklin center
7pm : Subcontinental Divas: Spotlight on Indian Women Filmmakers & Curated
Submission-Based Screening
SAT
11am-1pm : Living Room
noon-1pm : Movies 101
1:15 – 3:15 : Ladyfesto, Flash
3:30 – 5pm : Recycled Media, Craftivism
7pm : Reel Grrls & Curated Submission-Based Screening
SUN
11am – 12:30pm : Zines
1-4pm : Stop Motion Animation, Editing with Final Cut Pro
Locations, schedules, etc. can be found at www.msfilms.org
I had the craziest dream involving Lost and Mema Holt (that’s my grandmother) last night. So, in my dream I was sitting on the couch about to watch last week’s episode, and I remembered Jared telling me to watch for something specific – that I’d know it when I saw it, and he couldn’t believe they did it. So I’m watching Lost, and Sawyer’s being mean to Hurley (all “Barbar” and shit like in the real episode), and then Hurley and Sawyer wind up at the beach. Only, stranded on the beach (beached, if you will) is this huge cruise liner. It’s not going anywhere – it crashed – but there are people all up on it. At this point, I’m not on the couch anymore – I’m standing on the beach *in* Lost. Then, Hurley’s standing by himself, and looks up at the cruiser, and says something I can’t hear, but the end of it is “Boone” and it sounds like an accusation (in terms of tone). Then some people on the cruiser turn around, and Boone’s standing behind them in a shitty disguise, and they grab him and fling him off the cruiser into the ocean. As he falls, his disguise comes off to reveal Boone (in regular clothes, not naked), and then he morphs into Sawyer, who lands in the ocean and stands up and walks out to Hurley. And he’s mad that Hurley made the people on the cruiser think Sawyer was Boone. And somehow Hurley calling Sawyer “Boone” temporarily turned him into Boone. Now I’m back on the couch in my living room. (And the thing Jared had told me to watch for was Boone coming back.) And I can’t believe that all just happened, so I rewind it to watch again – remembering after I rewind that I was also taping it to send to Mom, so now she’ll see me rewinding through the actual show. I decide she’d probably need to watch that scene over anyway to catch the importance of what happened, and just let it be. Then there’s this crazy pull-back so we see that the island is actually on this weird planet with four moons that are in a perfectly diagonal line. And there’s a huge ocean – like the whole planet is ocean except for the Lost Island. And over most of the ocean is something that looks like a roller coaster track. And there’s a car travelling on the track, and someone’s tied to it – not sitting in the car, but tied on top of it – and they’re screaming. The end of the track is just an end dangling over the ocean – there’s like a bungie cord that attaches to the car so it bounces over the ocean once it runs off the track. And then I see that it’s Boone tied to the car, dangling over the ocean, where sharks are circling and waiting. And for some reason it strikes me (in the dream, anyway) as very Hellraiser-ish. Then all of a sudden I’m at my dad’s house – and Mema Holt has come over for some sort of picnic – she’s made all the food and brought tons of ice cream in weird flavors (I remember there was French vanilla, watermelon, mint, and peanut butter). When I enter the house, she’s sleeping on our old couch. I’m in the kitchen with Sarah and my stepmom and my mom, and Susan starts screaming about something being wrong with Mema. Of course Sarah wants to look – but I get a look first, and get my stepmom to literally hold her in the kitchen so she can’t see – there’s all sorts of blood where Mema was laying, like she’s hemorrhaging or something. And my mom’s crying. And I’m the only person calm enough to go see what’s going on and call the hospital. So I call 911, and am trying to tell them what’s happened, and they send an ambulance over. Only once I get off the phone, Mema says she’s really tired and that she just wants to die. And I’m like, “That’s bullshit. I love you.” But once everyone else hears that, they decide to eat ice cream and let Mema do what she wants – and start squabbling over who gets what flavor. (Susan wasn’t part of this squabble, but I don’t know where she went – she just disappeared from my dream.) And that’s about when I woke up.
I have to say, I think wearing socks I made myself make the rest of my day happier. I’ve been wearing my broadripple socks today, and today’s been pretty awesome. I mean, it’s had its usual share of annoyances, but I’m in a ridiculously good mood for a Monday. And I know it’s the socks. I just think about them and feel all warm-fuzzy, or like I should do a happy-feet dance. Yay for socks!
Now if only – ahem – I could get over the stall on my February socks for Six Sox. They seem way too stretchy, so I think I’ve got to get some smaller needles and start over. Oh well.
“Lift your hats
off to the checkout grrls with tattooed backs”
The Dresden Dolls really can do no wrong by me – they’ve got a track (“Dirty Business”) off their new album (Yes, Virginia) up at their (you guessed it) Myspace page, and I just can’t wait til the album comes out in April.
I also can’t stop listening to that damn song over and over. The Dresden Dolls are fucking brilliant.
