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I'm in the process of doing a blog post about Scrubs S8, its wrapup and upcoming series finale, and all the political, personal, and character weirdness that contributed to this weirdest of seasons. Anyone wanna pay me for it? *g*

Orrrr, get me an interview w/Bill Lawrence? Randall Winston would do, too.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: musesfool, I can has remix time nao????

On the ongoing discussion of race:

I read fiercelydreamed's post and firstly want to say that a lot of what's in that post has been on my mind, and that I really agree with where she's coming from.

I mean, in fandom, we're pretty much all queer and Jewish. (ETA: This actually might have been truer when the post was flocked, but still, I have never felt alone on LJ because of my queerness or Jewishness or whatever) We all have mental or physical health issues, and fandom is nothing if not a safe space for people like us. And for a lot of us, even outside fandom we've been in supportive communities for queer or Jewish or disabled people. Even if that's not true, we're still here arguing in an arena that's been nothing but inclusive and full of people like us, and when the subject at hand is about asking the general populus to shut up for a second and listen to somebody else for a change, I am really really on board with listening to somebody else for a change.

On the other hand, it's a little frustrating that the suggestion is now circling that people who haven't engaged in RaceFail '09 are exercising privilege by doing so. Even if it's true, I'm willing to exercise my own privilege not to start talking when I lack the vocabulary to navigate the conversation, or when I don't have anything to add. I'm also not wild about participating in anything dubbed "Fail," because, seriously, diving into a debate that's already been written off as an insulting and vitriolic mess on all sides is not my idea of a wise choice. By which I mean, I'd only bungle it up.

Even now, as I go to post this, I stopped to do a little tally of the people of color on my friends list. There are certainly many of you whose race and background I have no clue about, but I did stop and think about my friends of color specifically reading this. I don't really have any particular thoughts about it beyond the fact that I did the mental census, but I am aware that it's a product of my privileged experience growing up in incredibly inclusive, multiethnic, liberal, supportive communities. Which is to say, everyone's a little bit racist, definitely including me.

ETA: I'm unlocking this post because there have been good challenges to it and discussion in the comments.

And while I'm here, let me just get it out of my system. One of the main reasons it's hard for me to find ways to involve myself in the ongoing conversation is because nobody wants to hear a white girl explain her experiences with racism, even though sometimes, awkwardly, that's an instinctive way to feel included in the conversation. So, here goes: as many know, my sister's girlfriend is black and my family all adore her and we hope they stay together forever (no pressure, Lizzie). When I introduced my 88 year old grandfather to my girlfriend he kissed her and said "welcome to the family." Once in high school I won a game of Monopoly and my friend Andy said: "Isn't it appropriate? The Jew gets all the money!" I made fun of him and explained to him why that was not cool. On the other hand, on the recent episode of House, Taub, the Jewish doctor, got made fun of for his large nose. House himself teased him by calling him "Berkowitz." And while that is broad stereotype and quite indicative of the way TV deals with race, in this case I actually liked it. I felt included and I felt like House was thinking about and speaking to Jewish people like me. I felt happy to be called Berkowitz at any time. And several months ago I kicked a guy out of my house for using the n-word. Similarly, one of my favorite songs, De La Soul's "I Am, I Be," uses the n-word, and even when I'm singing along alone in my house I either close my mouth or sing "people" instead -- it has the same two syllables. And, the kicker; some of my best friends are black.

Honestly, that's what I know how to say in a conversation about race and there are so, so many of you who have written and expressed things that have educated and inspired me. Please continue to link me to the very best stuff you come across; I basically read what ciderpress, rachelmanija and telesilla link to.

Now to have some food and then go to bed, dreading waking up tomorrow to find out who I may have offended. I truly am sorry in advance if I bungled it all up again.

Was there a new 30 Rock this week?
Was there a new NCIS this week?
Was there a new The Unit this week?*

*and what happened to The Unit? The CBS website has stopped hosting full episodes and won't tell me anything -- the last ep I saw was the one where Bob and Kim were on surveillance in the hotel and Bob was detoxing and then killed whatshisname. What's happened since? (On the other hand I saw a still adorable and fit Max Martini in a recent episode of Burn Notice; that was unexpected and delightful.)

And then, in news of stuff I have indeed been watching:

( top chef )

( leverage/hustle )

( big love )

( house )

( usa network fake detective shows )

( sitcoms )

( oh, right, BSG )

That's what I'm watching this year. And NCIS and The Unit, but I will cover my vaguely Republican CBS shows at a later date when I've caught up on the potentially missing episodes.

And you?

Today Studs Terkel died. That's worth remembering.

( Studs Terkel, RIP, American hero )

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And then in totally unrelated news there's that thing where David Tennant's leaving Doctor Who. I mean, come on. We saw this coming.

( Tennant scared the pants off me before, and now I'm REALLY scared )

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My tiny baby sister is turning 30 next week. Also in November, mischa and unwinding, my PEEPS, my PEERS, turn 30. AFTER my sister. World, why you scare me so?

For perspective it's also useful to point out that this November rossetti turns a whopping 28, and my dear _abulafia turns frickin' 24. Kids today. I swear. With their emo music and their Playstations and their YouTube! When I was yer age computers were green text on black and we all programmed in BASIC and played... what was that programming game with the turtle called?

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I wrote House fic a couple weeks ago: HUGE EGO SORRY, like maybe 3200 words, House/Wilson.

I have this deep and absurd love for Greg House; I dream about him at least twice a week...

( yeah, so Hugh Laurie went to Cambridge and can play the hell out of the piano; wanna make something of it??? )

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Can't even imagine what's next. But wish my Dad a happy 74th on Nov 4 (I feel like there's something else important happening that day... hmmm....) and my sister spycookies a happy and insane 30th on Nov 6th. In fact! If you have any good femslash recs (Grey's Anatomy's prob good, House, ANTM, etc) please go over to her LJ and post links in comments to her latest post as part of a birthday present from me? Pictures of hot lesbians also always appreciated. All she wants is Obama for her birthday, but I think eye candy and reading-candy is never a bad way to go. Help a sister out?

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(The icon, get it? Get it? It's about House but ALSO about election day! Oh, I R so SMRT.)

Through the Sontaran two-parter...

( what she said )

If you're on Facebook, do come join the most important community ever created, namely: If Chris Carter Screws Us Over This Time, We're Never Speaking To Him Again.

Here on LJ, come join xf2orbust, aka, the same thing, but here in the fandomverse.

No, no, for serious. If you are also dreading this movie and its many, many potential opportunities to re-infect us with an anger and frustration we've only just gotten over -- if Chris Carter does it to us again -- if this movie is not the satisfying conclusion we need and deserve, I tell ya, rabbles will be roused! Marches will be marched! Protests and boycotts will be protested and boycotted!

Me, I need about three months to psych myself up for this movie and/or prepare myself for the inevitable disappointment. You too? Come join. xf2orbust!

Tell yer friends.

Yeah, okay, I can't keep my fat mouth shut. But there's so little in the blogosphere that I've seen in defense of Hillary and her candidacy -- I've joked that this must be what being a republican on LJ must feel like. So anyway, I can't complain about that and not do anything about it, but I will try my damndest to keep this brief and as uninflammatory as possible.

This is in response to txvoodoo's recent post about racism and sexism, and, before I start -- Lisa, I have nothing but the greatest respect for you, and I am all ABOUT people on LJ and everywhere expressing their opinions. What's more I'm glad that people are responding (80 comments and counting) and opening up discussion.

But anyway.

( what my father calls the I-don't-know-squared problem -- I don't know what I don't know )

Um, here's some articles:

LA Times Op-Ed on Obama's speech on race
The New Republic on race in this election
Howard Dean, briefly, on the campaigns.

Tell me a TV show you like, and I'll tell you another one you'll like just as much.* And in many cases, where to find it.




*to paraphrase sloganeer

I can't sleep, and that usually leads to fantasizing, in this particular case, about Tennant/John Smith's arm, in his white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and the suspenders. I can get lost in the most absurd things about this man. Yesterday I spent forty five minutes on about four frames from "Utopia", just watching over and over again --

( spoilers through Utopia )

First they came for the hackers.
But I never did anything illegal with my computer, so I didn't speak up.

Then they came for the pornographers.
But I thought there was too much smut on the internet anyway, so I didn't speak up.

Then they came for the anonymous remailers.
But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi, so I didn't speak up.

Then they came for the encryption users.
But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway, so I didn't speak up.

Finally they came for me.
And by that time there was no one left to speak up.

That's me referencing alara_r's classic reappropriation of the Pastor Niemoller poem, which has always been a kind of fannish mantra for me. And the circle of reappropriation goes on, and on...

I want to talk about the debate surrounding the mainstream popularization of killabeez and tjonesy's K/S vid, because --

jadelennox said:

It's been bothering me increasingly in recent months, as fanvids get posted on YouTube (not by the creators), that my non-fannish friends link to them as just another cool internet video. Of course, how would non-fannish folks recognise the incredible violation of fannish etiquette involved in posting a vid to YouTube? They're insider creations, not intended for general consumption, and so why would non-insiders know the etiquette involved?

Well, first what it is is we have to start adjusting to the fact that we're not insiders anymore -- the world got really small really fast, and we are right there in the spotlight, or, as Punk put it, they can see us now. We've been on the cutting edge, "hiding" on the internet with our creations, but here in Web 2.0, the user-created web, we can't hide anymore, we are the internet. And so of course people are going to try and find ways to popularize us -- eventually, they will try and find ways to use us to make money.

Take Revver.com, for instance, which is a YouTube clone with one bonus feature -- you upload homemade vids and get PAID per click, so it behooves you to make a vid that lots of people want to see. (Revver, at this point, is only accepting original material, however, so while you can make bucks off that video of you making a Mentos bottle rocket in your backyard, you can't yet make money off of Kirk and Spock and Nine Inch Nails. But, it's only 2006 and copyright law has a long way to go to catch up with the world we're in...)

Point being, the folks who see the Closer vid on YouTube might not be "fannish" per se, as we have come to understand it, but I defy you to tell me the difference between a fannish person watching a slashy video and enjoying it, and a "non-fannish" person watching a slashy video and enjoying it. At that moment, they're just as fannish as we are -- it's not that they've intruded into fandom, it's that fandom extruded to become big enough to hold the whole world in its hands.

In Doctor Who's The Chrismas Invasion, the Doctor says to Prime Minister Harriet Jones, when she asks if there will be many more alien races invading Earth: The human race is drawing attention to itself. Every day you're sending out probes and messages and signals - this planet's so noisy. You're getting noticed... more and more.

Her response was to shoot down the alien spaceship, kill it dead before it can go out there and warn the rest of the galaxy about us. Like that'll work. Like that'll keep us hidden. The intergalactic equivalent of not signing the Kyoto Treaty because doing so would admit that global warming exists.

And I don't want fandom to be another Harriet Jones, shooting down everyone who finds us, rather than trying to find ways to integrate ourselves with the new and changing world we live in -- because it's not going to go back to how it was. Not ever. The days of hiding out in brown paper zines and usenet are behind us, and we have to move forward or die. And then the new generation will come along, with their fanvids and their YouTubes, and they'll act like they invented the thing, like they own the place, and we'll all be stuck at the old fangirls' home, bitching about Chris Carter and the good old days.

We're all the same, the creators and the poachers and RPSers and the YouTubers and the uploaders and the downloaders. And the world right now is trying to figure out how to regulate us, how to clap down on us, how to make money off us. If we want to be part of that process, we have to stop pretending they can't SEE us just so we feel safer.