Well, I haven't had much to say lately. My hand has healed, which is nice. Other than that though, I don't really have any news. So I guess I'll just talk about my feelings and shit for a while.
I talked at the start of the warm weather about being assaulted with a feeling of over-the-top happiness. Well, that's gradually morphed into a strange feeling of general energy and optimism. I feel like I could conquer the world, for some reason. It's nice; I just don't know how warranted it is. Of course, there's a bit of a double-edge to this sword. Feeling like I could do anything, brings my attention to the fact that I'm not really doing anything. I feel like I should be working on some big project. The wrinkle is, at the moment, I'm spending every waking second going flat out on mundane day-to-day bullshit.
......so.......
I don't know what I'm going to do. I suspect the problem might just be one of time management. I think I'm going to have to sit down with my schedule, move some things around, and see how much crap I can cut back or cut out altogether.
Any thoughts, all?
...
Goings on in the political scene have got me back into following local news. I got burnt out after the last federal election, and I've been spending more time listening to tech-specific and world news, especially from (but not limited to) alternative & fringe sources. So, coming back to mainstream Australian media feels quite frustrating. It feels like this big fucking "show", where too much of the inconsequential bullshit is front and centre, while most of the important stuff quietly dances past in the background.
I feel like I need to find some Australian news sources which are thorough, broad-ranging, independent, and don't spend so much time talking about what unnamed sources have to say about internal party politics. I want deep analysis of proposed legislation and business deals; I want to know about who's meeting with whom, who's lobbying whom, who's family members work where, who's doing deals, who's submitting tenders, and who's getting contracts; and I want backgrounding on who all these people are, the businesses they've been involved in, the clubs they belong to, speeches they've given, policies they've backed, and the contacts they maintain. Basically, I'm asking for shitty-celebrity levels of scrutiny on the worlds of business and politics. Actually, right now I feel like I should be researching all this stuff myself, but again, there's that issue of the time factor.
A new version of my favourite vector graphics software came out recently, and I was thinking about talking about that for a bit, but I can't imagine any of the possibly two people reading this actually being interested in it. So I guess I'll give that a miss. At least until I get really desperate for something to talk about.
There's a few movies up on the SBS website at the moment that I'd like to see. Compliance is supposed to be a small, simple story which explores the psychology of authority and obedience. It's "based on true events" (for whatever that's worth), which somewhat parallel those famous experiments where ordinary people were willing to kill a stranger if someone with authority ordered them to do it (was that the Milgram experiment?). I really liked the German film Das Experiment, which was inspired by the similar Stanford prison experiment, and I remember really looking forward to Compliance years ago, when I heard it was being made. Well, I guess now I've got my chance.
They've also got a some old Backsploitation films up which I haven't seen; Blacula being the most interesting looking one.
Of course, once again, there's that pesky time factor.
Lastly, I've been having some very strong nostalgic feelings about the Slayers animated series. It came out in '95, which makes it 20 years old now, I guess, and it was one of the first things I bought on DVD, back in around 2000 or so. Maybe it's because I've been thinking about how crappy the female characters are in the shows my nieces and nephews are watching. I have a very, very strong desire to go back and rewatch it, and if I do, I might write a bit more about it. For the time being, I'll leave you with this nice fan-made music video, and a warning, just in case you decide to hunt up episodes online: The show is only watchable in its original Japanese form. The English dub is ATROCIOUS! Enjoy
13 comments :
Nup, Alex. Also caught up in the dull minutiae of day-to-day bullshit
Re: news. Maybe you should have been a journo? Alternatively, have you thought about just giving up on the news. Do you not ever feel it's just another form of pointless consumerism and that we glut ourselves on too much of it
Re: Slayers. Looking at that clip reminds me of a NS article I recently read (skim read) about men preferring women with markers of high oestrogen: big eyes, pert little noses, small chins, hourglass figure. I'm thinking the girl in that clip totally OD'ed on oestrogen. I think she drank a billion litres of it. Not that I'm at all bitter because I have squinty eyes, a sturdy nose, strong chin, and pear shaped figure. It's actually ok because men prefer less oestrogen-ey features when times are hard so I just need to wait for the apocalypse which looks like being just around the corner
Re: News; yes, no, sort-of, and maybe. I have considered giving up news altogether, but can't do it. And yes, I think mainstream TV/newspaper news is 85% junk-food for the brain (I can't speak for social network type news, since I'm not on it). But I also think there's stuff going on in the world, and locally, that's worth knowing about, and that's the frustration. You have to sift through all the bullshit to find these little puzzle pieces, which you basically then have to put together yourself and hope you end up with something resembling a picture. So while I still do feel like it's worth it, I'm just frustrated by the fact that the process seems many, many times harder than it ought to be.
Be happy with your looks Squib; not only are my eyes squinty, but I have a broad, flat nose with a kink in it from where it's been busted. Still, I'm content with that. Like you said, apocalypse can't be too far away now.
Re: Lina from Slayers; funnily, in the show, she is actually a little bit sensitive about the fact that she has zero sex appeal. In her world, she's considered short, skinny, and flat-chested. She compensates by being outrageously self-confident and incinerating anyone who gives her shit about it. As for her face, well, everyone in the show is drawn like that, even most of the men.
Also, new episode of Gravity Falls just dropped (after, what, a month or two?) Very nicely done, but I think they might be pushing the boundaries of "horror" for a kid's show with this one. I don't think I'd want to show it to anyone under about ten or so.
Haha about the apocalypse. I'll join you both with my strong chin, beady eyes (they are blue, though), unmatching ears, disappearing eyebrows and small, lipless mouth.
Interesting to know the features you list are markers of high oestrogen squib. I always did suspect I had more testosterone than the average woman should...
Squib, I thought about what you said on and off all day today. I want to know more about this study. Which men did they sample? Age? Culture? How did they sample them? Over what period of time? How did they sample them in both good and bad times? Or did they just look at historical pop culture trends?
'cause I kind of have a theory that beauty as a pop culture trend is kind of arbitrary bullshit. Just look at those "sexiest (wo)man of 2014" type polls. It's all about celebrity, isn't it? I can remember a time when image-conscious women were getting fat sucked out of their arses and injected into their tits, and now, after the Kardashian takeover, I'm hearing stories about them putting it back again.
Remember when heroine chic was a thing? What about giant lips? In two years, huge arses will probably be out and it'll be broad shoulders, small eyes and a strong jaw. Of course, we'll probably be in a global depression at that point, so maybe the theory will be borne out after all.
I get what you're saying, Alex, but it'll never be small eyes and a strong jaw. Even though fashions have changed in terms of body shape (with the Kardashian arse) the prized facial features seem to have remained constant I think. It's something to do (also) with faces that look similar to baby faces. Large foreheads, smaller chins, bigger eyes, smaller noses. Symmetry also factors in beauty measures. I think full lips have always been prized. The only thing (facial feature) I can think of that might have changed as a beauty standard over the centuries is nose shape. Roman noses considered attractive back then, not so now. As I said, ideal body shapes have changed the most (from plump to skinny) but facial features, I dunno. I wonder if there are cross racial studies that have been done, ie what's considered beautiful in different countries and ethnic groups. I'm sure there have. It'd be interesting to see any commonalities; I bet there are.
*Pin-Ups of the Apocalypse*
That'll be us, that will.
I'm remembering that I saw a doco last year about cosmetic surgery in South Korea (think I might have wrote about it even). Apparently it's so common there that more people have it than don't. And apparently the most common changes are rounder eyes, a stronger jaw line and ... something to do with the nose ... I can't quite remember, but I think it was actually making the bridge more prominent. A couple of the "experts" they had as talking heads reckoned the trend started around about the same time that South Korean pop culture started to be overrun with American shite, so now everyone basically wants to look more "white".
The human narrative in the doco was about this teenage girl who was happy with her appearance, but was getting pressured heavily from her parents to get surgery. They were saying it would make her more employable, etc, etc. Quite a sad and rather grotesque story, really.
But anyway, the point being that looking "white in the face" wouldn't have always been a trendy thing in that culture (I imagine). So I have to imagine that even that can shift. Maybe it takes the influence of an outside culture displacing the local one? Maybe if China displaces America culturally as well as economically, in a generation or two, people will be getting their eyes narrowed to look more oriental?
Maybe I'm just talking out my arse but I'd certainly like to know more.
Actually you're right; they want to make their eyes bigger (and get rid of the folded eyelid) and build up the bridge of the nose, the overall effect: to be more western. That's not just Korea, it's China and Japan. There would have been traditional standards of beauty and yes, they've been infected by western influence.
I read once that while western white women's overriding concern tends to be weight, for Afro-American women it's hair. Hair can often be the bane of their existence from very young, I remember finding the concept really interesting. That different groups have different things.
Slightly connected to this, the one time I taught in an Islamic school, in Melbourne's north, I had to wear a headscarf. It was the first time I'd worn one properly, and when I got to the office to sign in, I asked the girl behind the desk if my scarf looked ok. She was busy finding something, looked up quickly, and said: 'You look fine. I'M the one having the bad scarf day.'
I will never forget that. It made things really go 'click' a lot more for me, about life and how things work. You can know something intellectually (which can be a surface knowing), and then you can really get it. That moment for me was: we really are all the same and the things that connect us are many many more than the things that distance us, culturally.
Yes, I believe I understand what you mean with your last point Melba. It's why I find language such a frustrating part of the human condition. It has such potential for helping people to really understand each other, and yet, so often, it just drives us apart.
In point of fact, here's some excerpts from some of the independent American news/editorial/comedy shows I listened to today:
This one's from self-described liberals.
And this one's from self-described conservatives.
I'll spare you an excerpt from the show I listened to that basically just had a bloke yelling "Fuck you mother-fuckers for taking us back to war!" for twenty minutes; but what I find interesting is that ALL of them are criticising MSNBC for being a right-wing, war-mongering, propaganda platform. MSNBC, the media outlet that openly favours the Democrats, and is supposed to pitch to a left wing audience.
***
But going back to looks; as someone who likes to sketch, I'm fascinated by how people look -- age, sex, ethnicity, family resemblance, etc; but it's not something I often get to discuss. I think the last time was years ago, watching the Eurovision Song Contest with a friend who'd spent a lot of time in Europe. I feel like I learned a lot that night. One of the things I asked him was if he'd noticed the difference between the Spanish and French look. He told me it was because a thousand years ago the French/Spanish border was the border between the Christian and Muslim worlds. And then he told me he thought Spanish and Portuguese women were the most beautiful in the world. ... So yeah, not everything I learned that night was about the differences between people of the European continent.
My tiredness made me write Afro-American, I meant African-American. I paused over trying to recall the term to use. I think cause I was writing about *hair* ?
Isn't Afro-American a legitimate term?
Alex, fraid that article is for subscribers - can copy, paste, email if you're really keen. It's not that in depth but part of the study involved asking men in 28 countries.
Agree with you Melbs about the basics not really changing. The whole anime/manga thing, big head, big baby eyes, is supposed to trigger the pleasure center in our brain that responds to babies. Dogs have the same effect - they hijack our parent-baby bond thing with their big eyes and goofy behaviour
Well, from an artist's point of view, big head and big eyes make it easier to convey expression, but I also agree with the subconscious effect you describe as well.
Makes you wonder what part of the brain cats are hijacking, doesn't it?
I would like to have a read of the study, if it's not too much trouble, thanks Squib. Although, it's a bit of a shame if it's not very in depth; but once I've read it, I might be able to hunt up some more detail online.
Email's in that right hand column thing. Again, only if it's not too much trouble. Thanks.
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