i'm goin' to toontown

The year in review, as seen through public posts in this journal. Leaving out last year's end-of-year memes. (Bolded phrases are subject lines; unbolded are first lines of the post, used where no subject line exists.)

January: a random act of kindness
February: [purimgifts] Dear Author
March: Safely and exhaustedly arrived back in NY. Consonance was amazing.
April: Pesach recipe round-up
May: a postcard from the magical land of sick
June: Conterpoint ahoy!
July: So we saw Pacific Rim today.
August: a mazel tov
September
October
November: (It is completely ridiculous that I haven't posted a thing since August.)
December: words, words; they're all we have to go on

So hey guys.

This show. I'm kind of digging it a lot and I suspect it's doomed. Any of you watching it? Thoughts?

(I am caught up as of the most recent episode, "That's Not My Penguin". Spoiler protection is to be considered OFF in the comments.)

Man, have I really not posted in here since September? *brushes dust off of random flat surfaces*

Things I could post about but haven't been:

• Recipes! I have recently made, among other things: low-carb kishka, sugar-free and dairy-free chocolate ganache frosting, and whole-wheat sourdough bread stuffing.
  
• Books! For some reason, this year I've been reading a lot more new things than I have in previous years. Including finally picking up the Hunger Games series, which oh my god, you guys.
  
• Music! I have been living on the acapella offerings that my wonderful friendslist supplied me with back in the summer, further fortified by the various albums available on Spotify. (College acapella has changed some since I was in college. Everybody has vocal percussion now, apparently.)
  
• TV! Doctor Who is on hiatus, Supernatural has not been making me as happy this year as it has in years past, and ... truth to tell, most of what I've been watching lately has been older stuff. Some of it much older, including original-series Who.
  
• Writing! Seriously, did I never even post links to my purimgifts fics from last year? WTF, past me?
  
• Work! ALWAYS FUN.
  
• Homestuck! I got sucked into this webcomic about a year ago and have been mildly obsessed with it ever since. It is bizarre and amazing and there needs to be filk about it. Speaking of which:
  
• How much I miss conventions and housefilks. But that's a sad topic. :(
  
• Another sad topic: how much I miss my mother.

It's been getting better.

I was talking to somebody recently about why I haven't posted a lot, and it seems to be at least in part that I have lacked the energy to polish anything I write -- and the inclination to post anything I haven't polished. As my dear sdelmonte says: the perfect is the enemy of the good.

This post isn't perfect, but it's going up anyway.

Hi, gang. You know I love you.

by B. Wittenberg, age 35 1/2

a list in four parts

( 1. En Route )

( 2. In Ramat Beit Shemesh )

( 3. In Yerushalayim )

( 4. Going Home )

All in all: a week wasn't anything like long enough. I want to go back.

Because there are a lot of kids out there who need to hear this:
It Gets Better.
"...I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better...."

And because there are some for whom it won't:
Spirit Day.
"...On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in honor of the 6 gay boys who committed suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse in their homes and at their schools...."

Because bullying doesn't get taken seriously enough, and doesn't get stopped often enough. Because there are a lot of ways to be a designated victim, and this is one of the ways in which I wasn't. Because it's bad out there. Because I cried when I heard. Because, as a wise man once said, you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if you're in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do.

we write it down 'cause it's something we have to do
and you can find your voice for the ones who come after you
and you can be the one to tell the kids: hang in there
there's a way to survive, you can believe me, i've been there
i'm not that strong, i can't fight this crime
i can't right this wrong, but i can write this rhyme
if i can write this song, well then it might just shine
and i swear to god i'm a get it right this time

So gao tagged me for the Association Meme!

Comment to this post and I will give you five subjects/things I associate with you. Then post this to your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

Here's what I got:

( 1. Talk about some of your less high-profile/pop-culturey fandoms? )
( 2. What is it about filk? )
( 3. Your neighborhood. )
( 4. Cooking. )
( 5. Alex! I'm interested in marriages today. )

Off to Conflikt. Internet access is likely; free time to use it is less so, since I'll be, you know, at a con. But I should be reachable by email if you need me.

It feels decidedly strange to be going back to Seattle, which is where I lived between the ages of three and thirteen. I don't expect to be seeing much of my old stomping grounds, because they are nowhere near the part of the city we'll be in, but ...
Just let me see the mountain while we're there. That's all I ask.

Because, as I posted in someone else's LJ today:

I realized today, while looking over my icons, that I don't have a political pride one. Just a political angst one (here) and a political mischief/defiance one (here).

And what that means, I gradually realized, is that this is the first time I've needed one.



Yes we did. By god, yes we did.

Apparently today is Blog Against Torture day.

Here's the thing: Torture doesn't work. Not as a means of extracting reliable information. This is known.

Is it wrong that I think this practical question completely invalidates any ethical question on the subject? That I'm not interested in even addressing the moral issue of whether it is ever defensible to hurt people in order to achieve something good or necessary, because I'm convinced that hurting people is not in fact going to achieve it?

Listen: if I can't get you to stop because it's wrong, can I get you to stop because it's futile?

So everyone's talking about Sweeney Todd (sorry, agonistes, me too). And in the comments to filkertom's post on the subject a while back, somebody was complaining about how the musical changed the original story, and expressed disgust for how Sondheim turned Todd into "a misunderstood anti-hero".

I boggled a little, as I'm sure at least some of you are, but it got me thinking. Sweeney Todd is obviously not a misunderstood anti-hero, but what is he?

Has anyone yet coined and defined the term anti-villain?

If an anti-hero is a character you're not supposed to like, or sympathize with much, or admire, but who is nonetheless the one you're supposed to root for ... I propose to define an anti-villain as a character you do like or sympathize with or admire, but are nonetheless not supposed to root for.

Sweeney Todd may be an example of such. So is everyone from Booth to Oswald in Sondheim's Assassins. I'm not sure where to draw the line between an anti-villain and a villain who has been humanized to the point of drawing audience sympathy, or one who is just so awesome as to draw audience admiration. I think the difference may be in the presentation of villain as protagonist.

Following the immediate obvious association, does this make Elphaba an anti-villain? I don't think so, but I'm not sure I can put my finger on why.

Discuss.