Ah…the Pleasures of Juxtaposition
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From Joshua, the consummate minimalist
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(Un)Common Denominators of the Last Six Films I’ve Watched…
Kelly Reilly and Rupert Friend.
Out of this list…
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Lars and the Real Girl
The Darjeeling Limited
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
The Libertine
The Young Victoria
…Two films of which they were in together.
Just noting a pattern.
Also, a shout out to Rosamund Pike for appearing in 3 of the last SEVEN movies I’ve watched. I feel as though I’ve been watching a repertory company.
Damn I miss theatre.Living in Lent
Historically, Lent is both a time of preparation and a time of longing. In the early church, it was a time to prepare for baptism, which in the midst of intense persecution meant preparing for death. You underwent a spiritual death and rebirth so that you no longer had to fear physical death. In Lent, we also reflect on Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, where, as he prepared to begin his ministry, he was tempted in the midst of privation, loneliness and hunger.
Culturally, if you’re at all familiar with Lent, it now tends to mean giving up stuff you like because God maybe wants you to. While there’s always room to reflect on what might be worth letting go of or putting aside for a time in order to place more value on something else, this type of Lenten practice rarely engages my heart or soul. It tends to play into the lies and darkness I’m already struggling to weed out—keeps me focused on myself instead of growing in relationship with God or others.
This year, my Lenten journey began with a day of blessing and being blessed. Ash Wednesday, a day largely associated with mourning and sorrow, was to me, Full and Alive. It was a friend who crossed my forehead with ashes, and I was able to do the same for another dear friend. As I moved throughout my day, the faces of those around me reflected back the solid black lines that marked me as well. We marked each other as we had been marked, have been marked, are being marked.
I was so thankful Joshua posted his camera-phone self-portrait on Ash Wednesday, because it captured for me how much that day (which involved confessional art, heart-to-heart conversations and late night bonfires) was about the faces of the people I love and with whom I have been journeying.
Without going into the specifics of my chosen Lenten practice, I can say that it has far more to do with engaging life than pondering death. For me, it’s probably the bigger challenge. This year, my Lenten colors are not shadow.
2010 Pop Culture Conference Rundown
4 days, hundreds of professors, PhD/Grad/Undergraduate students and very short food breaks = the Southwest/Texas Popular and American Culture Association’s annual conference.
Ian Klein joined me in Albuquerque for another year of frying our brains with academic discourse on popular culture. We heard about 50 papers and drank a lot of smoothies. It was indescribably delightful.
Here’s the panels I attended and the papers I liked best (per panel- not overall):Science Fiction & Fantasy 19: Battlestar Galactica and Narrative
Fave paper:
“I Came to Galactica to Tell a Story”: Battlestar Galactica and Transmedia Interactivity
Jennifer Fong, UCLAScience Fiction & Fantasy: Twilight Fandom
Fave paper:
Undead Authors, Anne Rice, J.K. Rowling, and Stephenie Meyer Battle Roland Barthes on the Internet
Bridget R. Cowlishaw, Northeastern State University, TahlequahScience Fiction & Fantasy: Joss Whedon, Sexuality and Gender
Fave paper:
Anya’s “Disturbing Sex Talk”: Breaking the Pattern of Punished Female Sexuality in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Tamy Burnett, University of Nebraska, LincolnScience Fiction & Fantasy: Sex and Violence in Twilight
(I presented on this panel)
Fave paper:
Rewriting the Byronic Hero: How the Twilight Saga Made “Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know” Acceptable Teenage Fiction
Jessica Groper, Claremont Graduate UniversityReligion: Conservative Christianity and Culture
Fave paper:
Sacred and Sexular: Ann Veal in Arrested Development
Brandon Barnes, Texas A&M UniversityComputer Culture: Game Studies 7
Fave paper:
Beyond the Button: The Nintendo Wiimote Interface and its Implications for Embodiment, Performance and Play
David O’Grady, UCLAScience Fiction & Fantasy: The Dangers of Twilight
Fave paper:
Un-Biting the Apple and Killing the Womb: Genesis, Gender and Gynocide in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga
Colleen Orihill, Cleveland State UniversityScience Fiction & Fanstasy: Whedon and Genre
Fave paper:
Firefly: Between the Noir Frontier and the Final Frontier
E. Chrlotte Stevens, york University and Ryerson UniversityAmerican History & Culture: Rethinking Suburban Sense of Self: Identity and Memory in the Suburbs
Face paper:
Everything’s Bigger in Texas: Mega-Religion in Lone Star Suburbia
Charity R. Carney, Stephen F. Austin State UniversityComputer Culture: Game Studies 11
Fave paper:
America’s First Person Shooters: Violent Interactions with Historical Narratives
Harrison Gish, UCLAHorror (Literary & Cinmenatic): “Torture Porn”
Fave paper:
It’s all Liv Tyler’s Fault!: Male Shame and Protective Failure in The Strangers
Glen Donnar, RMIT University, MelbourneHorror (Literary & Cinemantic): Affective and Imaginary Machines of Horror
Fave paper:
Manufacturing Images: Allegories of the Factory in Tomb Raider
Craig Bernardini, Hostos Community College
Punk: Punk Literature Philosophically and Rhetorically
Fave paper:
Punk’s Not Dead, it’s Un-Dead: The Vampire Spike as Punk Rock Expression
Bryan L. Jones, Northeatern State University, OklahomaComputer Culture: Ethnography, Writing, Second Life, and Film
Fave paper:
The Sex Life in your Second Life: An Ethnological Study of Women as Sexual Objects in Second Life
Alexis Waters, Northeastern Illinois UniversityScience Fiction & Fantasy: Whedon and the Body
Fave paper: Ian, of course!
“I Like My Scars”: Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse and the Narrative of Flesh
Ian Klein, Columbia UniversityComputer Culture: Theorizing Internet Forms
Fave paper:
“Wizards and Witchcraft in the Wired World”: Magical Thinking in Popular Culture
Nicholas Goodman, Northeastern State UniversityTalking Twilight, or am I…?
Powerpoint sneak peaks from my presentation for this year’s Southwest/Texas American & Pop Culture Association’s conference. Best week ever kicking off next Tuesday!
Oh the power of correlationIn Search of Lost Time
I’ve been feeling pretty chaotic inside lately- both overwhelmed and un-tethered–trying to find strucutre and a rhythm, but just sort of floating, ever more anxiously, into the vacuum of dark outer space. Basically, it’s my usual Jan-March challenge when Intiman goes off season and 35 hours of my week float away into the ether. I spend three months trying to find my sea-legs of having more time, only to hit my stride at the time I have to go back to work. Four years, and I haven’t gotten better at this dance.
But I made a little movement forward this week in realizing that perhaps this sense of lost/untetherered/un-strcutured time could be alleviated slightly if I stopped letting December 2009 stare at me from my wall. I needed a new calendar: literally and figuratively. This has never proved so challenging. My search started to resemble to quest for the grail, when I found my dream calendar only to discover it’s been sold out for a month. So here’s the round-up of runners up, good enoughs, the Grail and the chosen.The Unattainable Holy Grail of Calendars
I still plan on finding this one.The “Sold Out”
I love this illustrated and essentially narrative calendar. At the end of my search I managed to find what looks to be some available copies, but ultimately, I wouldn’t be able to see the details well enough where I hang my calendar. Poor reasoning, but I just felt it wasn’t a perfect fit.The Runners-Up
black, white, script
UmamiThe “Almost Bought Them Even Though They Weren’t Monthly” Calendars
Sticks, barns, lines
Soda, turquoise, orangeThe Chosen
Technically this calendar is smaller than my qualifications for calendar purchase but it wins out for color, concept, aesthetic and the project patterns it features. I’m a devoted Purl Soho customer back from my NY days, so I’m glad to support their creativity and smart handcrafted style (rare to find Yale MFA folk behind yarn and quilt company design). So I bought this and added two Cascade 220 skeins to my order for good measure. Still hoping to stumble over a full-size calendar to love as well. Thanks for all those who made great suggestions.
One Meal to Feed Them All, One Meal to Find Them, One Meal to Bring Them All Where Watching Movies Binds Them
For the second year in a row, I spent the first day of the year going “There and Back Again” with friends, watching all three Lord of the Rings films. Last year we watched the theatrical cut of Fellowship and Return of the King, with the extended Two Towers in the middle (in my opinion, the best version of each film) but this year we stuck with the three theatrical versions, and used the extra hour for eating!
Last year Jody Spiro made an amazing potato soup a-la Samwise Gamgee (Po-Tay-Toes!) but this year Jamie offered to keep things simple for the hostess extraordinaire by just ordering pizza. Instead, Jody broke box office records of best-catered Lord of the Rings Marathon in history. The day went as follows—and sorry I didn’t take pictures that day. The following images pale in comparison to the actual offerings that day.Elevensies: Before the first film we were treated to stacks of pancakes for a wonderful Hobbit-style brunch.
Also for pre-show appetizers we had, in honor of Gollum, smoked salmon and capers.
“Give it to us raw and wrrriggling.”
Fellowship of the Ring Lunch: In honor of Merry, Sam and Pippin’s ill-advised meal on Weathertop, we had bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches.
“Tomatoes…nice crispy bacon.”
For movie snacks, almond biscotti served as Lembas Bread.
“This Elvish stuff’s not bad.”
Two Towers Dinner: Like Sam’s stew made on the hills beyond Emyn Muil, Jody made a “rabbit” stew with potatoes. The rabbit was actually turkey, but was oh so delicious.
“Po-ta-toes. Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew!”
After The Return of the King, we peeled ourselves off the sofas and went to Shari’s Restaurant for choclate/peanut butter milkshakes in honor of…umm…wanting milkshakes!
It was an amazing 12 hours, and still one of the best ways I can think of to start off a new calendar year. Thank you to our Spiro hostesses for the extravagant Hobbit hospitality!
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