Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Wednesday Wisdom: Megan Rapinoe Edition

Have I told you lately, that I adore the US Women's National Team, and particularly Megan Rapinoe?
It's beginning to make a lot of sense, so to speak, as to why the press and pundits had to have a National Conversation about whether the US team members were acting in a manner unbecoming of lady sportswomen in the World Cup recently, when the team kept celebrating after scoring "too many" goals in a game in which the point is to score goals, in the sport's biggest tournament.
The performance of commentators expressing concern about women's behavior, it seems to me, is often rooted in a misogynistic desire to humiliate women just as they're reaching the height of their success and, perhaps the bigger sin, power.

Good for Megan Rapino.

I reckon if more people in mainstream punditry had her courage, our country would be in much better shape.

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Gentleman Jack Recap: Season 1, Episode 5 ("Let's Have Another Look At Your Past Perfect")

Over at Shakesville, I continue my recapping of the TV show Gentleman Jack. For those not familiar:

Gentleman Jack is an eight-episode drama series from BAFTA-winning writer Sally Wainwright (To Walk Invisible, Happy Valley).

Set in 1832 West Yorkshire, England, Gentleman Jack is inspired by the true-story and coded journals of Anne Lister (played by Suranne Jones), and follows her attempt to revitalize her inherited home, Shibden Hall. Most notably for the time period, a part of Lister's plan is to help the fate of her own family by taking a wife.
The series is on HBO and runs Monday nights at 10 PM. (Note: Recaps will include spoilers for that episode.)

Check it out!

Monday, June 17, 2019

On Cersei's End

Lena Heady has spoken out about Cersei's death in Game of Thrones:
“I will say I wanted a better death.”
In the penultimate episode Cersei was crushed by falling masonry along with her brother-lover Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). It was an underwhelming end, to put it politely.
“Obviously you dream of your death,” she says. “You could go in any way on that show. So I was kind of gutted. But I just think they couldn’t have pleased everyone. No matter what they did, I think there was going to be some big comedown from the climb.”
I agree that the way she and Jaime died was pretty anti-climactic.

Of course, the producers already had Cersei suffer the ultimate degradation of being perp-walked naked through King's Landing while being jeered at by the townsfolk, and that seems to be the Worst Thing they ever envisioned happening to her. Along with Dany, I think the show simply ran out of ideas for the two female characters who had consolidated the most political power in Westeros and couldn't fathom an end for them other than "becomes evil, then dies." Running concurrently, of course, was Jon Snow's storyline which, I guess, demonstrated that anyone supposedly fit to rule, and who was an inherently good person, wouldn't want the job, would be too weak to even try, or would never actually garner enough support to rise to the throne.

As the finale has marinated a bit, this "lesson" about human nature and power has been, I think, one of the more disappointing from the series not just because it is pessimistic, but also uncreative. It seems far more difficult to show us a world, and model of leadership, that is more nuanced or even transformative.

Dany, for instance, had been the Breaker of Chains. I would have been satisfied with an ending that leveraged this past so that she ultimately helped liberate King's Landing from Cersei's rule and, along the way, come to some realization that monarchy is regressive. Instead, they had her go full totalitarian, based on the fact that she had always felt entitled to throne, worked with a single-minded purpose for 8 season to achieve that aim, and apparently learned no real lessons about power and leadership along the way.

Alternatively, and this might seem counter to what I've just said above, but I would have been satisfied with an ending in which Cersei kept the throne after having simply waited for her enemies to deplete their ranks fighting the White Walkers and each other. It's pessimistic, sure, but it would have been a different lesson about how and when to allocate resources for in-fighting v. existential threats, which seems highly relevant today and always.

Anyway, in the interview cited above, Heady mentioned that the cast is in a WhatsApp group where they talk about the show, and oh to be a fly on that virtual wall.

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Quote of the Day - Hannah Gadsby

Los Angeles Times ran an interview with comedian Hannah Gadsby about her new show, "Douglas." I recommend the entire thing, but it's especially worth it for her take on Louis CK:
You establish the comic tone early in “Douglas,” saying you quit comedy the same way Louis C.K. said he was sorry.

He is a joke now. And I think it’s important to keep making that joke. This is dangerous to talk about, but I’ll give it a go. What the issue is, for a long time Louis C.K.’s comedy platform was that he was this hopeless guy bumbling through the world. And at some stage, he was no longer that, but that was still his voice. And I think he still believes that. He has not reassessed his position of power, and that is why he was able to abuse it. It’s difficult to see a shift in your own power and privilege. It’s not something we’re trained to do. He still honestly thinks he’s the victim in all of this.

That comes through clearly when he’s performing. There’s a real anger there now in his delivery.


He’s saying the same kinds of things. The material hasn’t changed. He’s just angry and bitter. I always struggled with his work because I’m a visual thinker. And there’s just so much semen. So I literally couldn’t see the humor in this waterfall of body fluids. That’s my issue. I never blamed him for that.

But then I think, “Gosh. That’s on his mind a lot too.” The guy clearly had an issue. And that’s sad for him. So why are we trusting a man who has a compulsion like that where it diminishes the humanity of people around him? Why do we care what he thinks about the human condition? He needs to worry about his own condition a bit. Just sit quietly.
Yup.

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Gentleman Jack Recap: Season 1, Episode 4 ("Most Women Are Dull and Stupid")

Over at Shakesville, I continue my recapping of the TV show Gentleman Jack. For those not familiar:

Gentleman Jack is an eight-episode drama series from BAFTA-winning writer Sally Wainwright (To Walk Invisible, Happy Valley).

Set in 1832 West Yorkshire, England, Gentleman Jack is inspired by the true-story and coded journals of Anne Lister (played by Suranne Jones), and follows her attempt to revitalize her inherited home, Shibden Hall. Most notably for the time period, a part of Lister's plan is to help the fate of her own family by taking a wife.
The series is on HBO and runs Monday nights at 10 PM. (Note: Recaps will include spoilers for that episode.)

Go read it!

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Gentleman Jack Recap: Season 1, Episode 3 ("Oh Is That What You Call It"?)

Over at Shakesville, I continue my recapping of the TV show Gentleman Jack. For those not familiar:

Gentleman Jack is an eight-episode drama series from BAFTA-winning writer Sally Wainwright (To Walk Invisible, Happy Valley).

Set in 1832 West Yorkshire, England, Gentleman Jack is inspired by the true-story and coded journals of Anne Lister (played by Suranne Jones), and follows her attempt to revitalize her inherited home, Shibden Hall. Most notably for the time period, a part of Lister's plan is to help the fate of her own family by taking a wife.
The series is on HBO and runs Monday nights at 10 PM. (Note: Recaps will include spoilers for that episode.)

Go check it out!