Musings from Beringia

Our Scandolous Great Grandmothers: Feminism & Pre-Code Hollywood

2009-10-10T23:17:04Z

Ever since I was a teenager, I've loved movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood - Bogart and the Hepburns in black and white, the snappy dialog and society women in gorgeous dresses. I still love those movies, in spite of their dated morality and social backwardness. In the last few years, I've been watching them more frequenty. Naturally, with Wikipedia and IMDB at my fingertips, it was only a matter of time before I discovered The Code.

It actually started with The Thin Man. It was racy! Full of innuendo! Nora (Myrna Loy) drank-- a lot! And she wasn't a bad woman! What was going on? Other films - 42nd Street, Morning Glory, Night Nurse - had similar conventions. As it turned out, these movies weren't an anomaly, with their raciness and their unrepentantly strong women. Watching old films, it's easy to imagine that the stuffiness and social conservatism simply reflected the actual social mores of their time. The next thirty years of American film -- the so-called "Golden Age" of Hollywood-- were the anomaly.

From the time the talkies really took off in 1929 until the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code in July, 1934, American films were an entirely different experience. Reflecting the increasing social liberalness of the time, movies depicted strong, independent, and sexually liberated women. These women fell in love (sometimes with other women), had abortions and children out of wedlock, were the executives of automobile firms, got divorces when their husbands cheated on them, and shot those husbands when they beat them. Sure, women did many of these things in post-Code Hollywood, but in the pre-Code films, bad things didn't happen to women when they did.

Hollywood had a reputation as "Sin City" in the early 20's, following a series of drug-related deaths and murders (including director William Desmond Taylor and the subsequent revelation of his bisexuality). State and city censorship boards were putting pressure on Hollywood to clean up its act, resulting the formation of a Motion Picture Production Code in 1930, headed by former Postmaster General William H. Hays. This early code had little to no power of enforcement, largely due to the fact that studios responded to the economic stresses of the Depression by making films the public actually wanted to see, and the racier and more shocking-- the more fundamentally modern-- the better.

Enter Joseph Breen, the real mastermind behind the code. A lay Catholic, Breen, an anti-Semite, was horrified by the rampant immorality that the corrupt and greedy "kike Jews" in Hollywood were inflicting on the public. Director Irving Thalburg tried to convince Breen that the movies were merely reflecting the real world - they weren't constructing reality. Ultimately, Breen won the argument, by organizing a Catholic boycott of any offending Hollywood picture (basically all of them), on pain of sin. With an overnight 20% drop in revenue, Hollywood had no choice but to take notice. And Breen sat at the head of the Code's office of enforcement: all future films were now subject to his approval, with no board of appeals.

According to the Code, immoral behavior could not be glorified or go unpunished. Premarital sex? Out. Shooting an abusive husband? Fine, as long as the women was duly punished by the law. Marriage was upheld as a sacred institution, and so post-Code, career women quit their jobs for love at the end. Strong, independent women apologized for their "pride," and settled down to be devoted wives. Depictions of homosexuality, interracial relationships, single motherhood, and substance use disappeared literally overnight. Movies were not allowed to titillate or excite in any way. Audience sympathies must never go with the sinner, and the law (or religion) must never be made mock of.

Many have depicted the Code as a general crack-down on Hollywood morality - no nudity, no swearing, etc. In his book Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, Mick LaSalle argues that the code was more damaging to film in general and women in particular than a simple set of standards. The Code wasn't about lengthening hemlines or taking out "bitch" and "damn," it fundamentally changed plots and altered characters.

Pre-Code movies (and the interest of audiences) weren't just about sex and violence. The late twenties and early thirties had seen the emergence of the "new woman," and audiences couldn't get enough. Armed with contraception and the vote, these women were discovering their sexuality and their independence in ways that were shaking up the nation. Pre-Code Hollywood was the only time that movies were being written about women that everyone - men and women - were watching (this holds true even today). These movies took a good, square look at what the "new woman" was doing in the world, including the institution of marriage itself. LaSalle's Complicated Women is a wonderful piece of advocacy, both for these films and for the women they depicted (and the actresses, particularly Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo, that played them) . The women themselves really deserve a lot of credit for pushing the boundaries-- the age of directors was still a good twenty years away, and actors really had a lot of influence on the roles and how they were played.

As an object lesson, try watching Norma Shearer back-to-back in The Divorcee and The Women. In the former, when Shearer's character finds out that her husband has cheated on her (but it doesn't mean anything), she retaliates by sleeping with his best friend to prove the point. When he finds out and decides to leave her, she gives him this whallop:

And I thought your heart was breaking like mine. But instead you tell me your man's pride can't stand the gaffe. I don't want to listen. I'm glad I discovered there's more than one man in the world, while I'm young enough and they want me. Believe me, I'm not missing uot on anything from now on. Loose women - great, but not in the home, eh, Ted? Why, the looser they are, the more they get. The best in the world! No responsibility! Well, my dear, I'm going to find out how they do it...From now on, you're the only man in the wolrd my door is closed to!

And this was 1930! Shearer goes on to unrepentantly explore her sexual freedom, in no way coming across as ruined or tainted. She stands her ground, challenging the double-standard of infidelity head-on.

Then watch Shearer in The Women, filmed five years after the enforcement of the Code in 1939. Shearer's husband cheats, and at first she bears up at the suggestion of her mother, for the sake of their daughter. At the urging of her friends, depicted as a bunch of catty, superficial, appearance-obsessed gossips, Shearer confronts the "other woman" in a dressing room. She goes through with the divorce, only to end up miserable (the ex-husband marries the other woman) and alone but "with her pride." Eventually, she uses her womanly wiles to trap the hussy by employing the very gossip she'd eschewed earlier, and the husband takes her back. She no longer needs her pride, she says! She has love!

This film is striking and terribly painful for several reasons. Pre-Code films depict women's friendships as strong and powerful; in The Women, the friends are superficial, selfish, and insincere. It's not wonder The Women was one of Shearer's last roles - she wasn't made for post-Code Hollywood (many other pre-Code actresses didn't make the transition, either). Shearer's performance is so hard to swallow in part because it's obvious that Shearer herself doesn't believe in it - she's at her strongest when she's asserting her independence, not when she's apologizing for her pride. By the time she repents, it feels hollow. The film really feels like a heavy-handed response to The Divorcee, with the wise, old-fashioned morals of the mother, the tearful young daughter, the cruel stepmother, the lonely and unhappy divorcees. This was all a taste of things to come.

No wonder they stopped making movies about women.

Pre-Code movies are still out there, waiting to be discovered. Many are available on DVD, or as part of the Turner Collection on TCM. Some, like Mata Hari, have been permanently edited by the censors. Others are lost completely, destroyed by the censor boards. One can't help but wonder what movies would have been made if the Code hadn't ruled Hollywood until 1968, when it was replaced by the MPAA. Post-Code Hollywood was a significant step backwards for women, for gays, and for social freedoms in general. As LaSalle says, "to discover these films today is more heartening than just uncovering a trove of amazing movies. It's like finding out you had a host of long-lost aunts and grandmothers, free and fascinating ladies about whom, for reasons of their own, your parents never told you."

Entertain your ears.

2009-06-04T18:35:15Z

I've written about some of my favorite podcasts in the past, but have started listening to a few new ones and wanted to share them. I love that more and more radio shows are now available, which means I can listen to them in the lab whenever I like. All of these are free, and easily available on iTunes, which updates and downloads your subscribed podcasts automatically. If you sync your iPod (you can edit the settings for podcasts), iTunes automatically refreshes your podcasts so that it replaces the ones you've listened to with the most recent. Or, you can listen from your computer, which is what I generally do (with external speakers).

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Most of you are probably familiar with NPR's weekly news quiz. Unlike some public radio shows, this one is actually funny, and unapologetically liberally biased. They have awesome celebrity guests, too. A fun way to keep up with current events.

The Stephanie Miller Show and The Rachel Maddow Show (audio and video versions are available) Two of my favorite women on the planet, both icons of liberal talk radio. Listen to Stephanie Miller for funny (and often refreshingly low-brow) commentary, and Rachel Maddow for brilliant political geekery and spot-on opinions on current events. Both are excellent interviewers.

The Thomas Jefferson Hour I recently stumbled across this show on Colorado Public Radio - I can't believe it's been airing for so long and I've never heard of it! Clay S. Jenkison plays Thomas Jefferson (brilliantly), and is interviewed about past and current events. He has a wealth of knowledge about Jefferson, and puts contemporary issues in the context of American history, culture and the Constitution. I can't say enough good things about this show.

Geek Farm Life They're geeks! With a farm! Enough said.

The Savage Love Podcast Hilarious sex columnust and gay rights activist Dan Savage has a weekly podcast! It's even better than his column, and just as smart, wise, and honest.

Why Real Men Probably Shouldn't Read (And Love) Twilight.

2009-05-31T17:25:17Z

I love the premise of NPR's new Guilty Pleasures series in part because I supoprt anything that may help to break down genre-guilt, but I found the recent piece by Brad Meltzer to be very problematic. Unnecessary gender-gauntlet-throwing aside, Metlzer proclaims his love for the Twilight series without actually saying why he does like the books. Fine: however, by doing so, he completely glosses over every reason to legitimatley dislike the books, which have absolutely nothing to do with their being young adult, or gothic fantasy, or any other reasons that often cause the Literati to defend their reading choices ("but it really transcends genre!").

Metlzer calls on women to give the Twilight books to their teenaged sons, nephews and husbands, to tell them the books are cool, that they'll like them. The thing is, I wouldn't even want my daughters (or sisters, or nieces) reading them, let alone the men - a common criticism of Bella, the heroine, is that she's a non-person, easily imprintable by the reader (this has been hypothesized as a reason for the series' popularity). She is completely unremarkable, and yet the super-sexy-important-insanely-wealthy vampire Edward falls head over heals in love with her. Or more like obsessed - Edward is controlling and possessive - he disables Bella's car at one point to keep her from seeing her friends "for her own good." Bella later becomes so depressed when Edward leaves her (also "for her own good") that she takes up dangerous hobbies (motorcycle riding, cliff-jumping) just so she can hear his voice in her head pleading with her to stop threatening her own safety.

Also in File Under A for Anti-Feminist, Bella doesn't want to get married or have kids, but she definitely wants to have sex with Edward (who won't, because he fears he won't be able to control himself and hurt her). Edward then says he won't have sex with her unless they're married, which of course happens as soon as Belle turns 18: immediately afterwards, she gets pregnant and is thrilled. However, there are serious concerns about her unborn child being a threat to her safety, and she is urged to abort - one character even designs to drug her and terminate the pregnancy against Bella's will. When confronted with anti-feminsit tropes in her books, Meyer responded with a perplexed "but feminism is all about choices!"

Feminist critiques of the series have received a lot of attention, but what about race? Bella dates Jacob Black, a Quileute Indian werewolf (whose legends Meyer may have largely fabricated in the books) while Edward was away-for-her-own good. He makes a perfect foil for the sparkly-whtie European vampire, Edward. The two become rivals, naturally; Is the white king/red pawn book cover of Breaking Dawn a coincidence? Is it a coincidence that Bella rejects the sub-human Indian wolf-man for the super-human white vampire? Several people have brought up how Stephanie Meyer's Mormonism may have influenced her treatment of sex throughout the books, but her faith may also have directly influenced her treatment of race.

But back to my first point: I live with a 13-year-old who is probably savvy enough to find Bella obnoxious on a superficial level, but if he picked Twilight up on his own I wouldn't prevent him from reading it. Most of what we read as kids is problematic in one way or another, and usually in ways that we won't appreciate until we're adults (if at all). However, I don't want to push Twilight on Ethan largely because I don't want him to get the idea that Edward's behavior is okay (when it's clearly romanticized in the books) - that it's what girls really want. That the power dynamics in Edward and Bella's relationship is a helathy one, or that it's even realistic, all fantastic elements aside. As a heterosexual male, Ethan is not as likely to identify with Bella anyway (let alone project on her blank template)-- boys are much less socialized to identify with female main characters than girls are. Which of course leaves Edward.

Sorry, Mr. Meltzer, but I won't be foisting Stephanie Meyer's anti-feminist, raceist pop-fluff on the guys in my life. Instead, I gave Ethan Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, which features an empowered-but-refreshingly-unspunky heroine, realistic relationship dynamics, and multidimensional characters. I'm sure he'll still grow up to be a Real Man.

Back to the basics.

2009-05-28T16:37:52Z

My head is exploding right now with thoughts on race and being a white ally - yesterday I was checking out some of the smart and savvy blogs by people of color (POCs, for short, as per the web-lingo) who have moved to Dreamwidth and was feeling conflicted about how to keep following them...and then I came across deepad*'s post Staking Out My Stomping Grounds, on how she realized that during the RaceFail '09 discussions, she had been writing to Whites as a default without realizing it - how she wanted "You" to be the same as "Us," and how profoundly upsetting that was for her. My first gut reaction to that, and her disclaimer about Whites writing their reactions elsewhere, was one of feeling left out, excluded.

And then my privilege smacked me in the face, and I was so ashamed of my own sense of proprietariness-- as though I was owed something, was somehow entitled to be part of that discussion. Just when we think we're "doing it right," we realize how pervasive our privilege is. And I thought about White Liberal Guilt, and how to be a better ally while at the same time checking my own motives to make sure I didn't have my hand stuck out for cookies without realizing it. It's not about absolution, or having the Black Fairy tell you you're a Real Boy.

So I joined racism_101 , in part because I really love this idea of whites educating other whites on being better allies - to, as sparkymonster said at the Safe Space WisCon panel, give your friends of color (or your gay friends, or your feminist friends) some ice cream money and send them out of the house for a bit, so they don't always have to be doing the basics for you. And at the same time, I'm reading as much as I can, and realizing how few friends of color I have (though I have a lot of gay friends, which actually came up in conversation about Prop 8 recently when someone assumed I didn't know any gay people personally just because they didn't - gah!).

Which isn't to say I'm going to put out a personal ad (White female looking for Friends of Color, enjoys books, science, outdoorsy stuff, tea, and complicated board games), but it did give me pause. As a Vermonter living in the Midwest, it's not surprising, but those can be easy straw men to hide behind-- I mean, the majority of my LJ friends are whites, too. There are no blacks or latinos in my department, either faculty or students, and our only Asians are one Chinese faculty and a handful of Chinese students, most of whome work with him. And we teach geography.

*How do I link to a Dreamwidth user on LJ? Help!

My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.

2009-05-21T02:32:30Z

Handsome James was one of three born in Pepper's second litter with The Pirate King of Pleasant Street. Pepper, a dainty seal point Siamese, twice escaped to mate with the one-eyed, ratty-eared brute before my mother finally got her fixed, abandoning dreams of raising purebreads. We know The Pirate King was the father, because every single one of Pepper's many kittens came out looking exactly like him; there wasn't a single thing to suggest their Siamese maternity, except when they opened their mouths to let out the trademark Siamese caterwaul.

I named him Handsome James, because that's exactly what he was; sleek, black, strong, with yellow-green eyes and an affable face. He spent most of his waking hours patrolling the neighborhood, eventually inheriting his father's title by the ancient rite of combat. He likely fathered plenty bastards before he, too, was fixed, almost as an afterthought. He would sometimes disappear for days, only to show up in the backyard with a mouse, smelling of skunk, or with a gash in his ear: trophies from his many escapades.

Sometimes he would march in, eat a can of catfood, promptly vomit it back up again, and march back outside, satisfied. Other times, he'd chase around Annabelle, my mother's chihuahua, or decide that the best place to nap was on top of your sleeping face in bed. Whenever he left the house on one of his many adventures, he would answer my mother in a call-and-response that continued until he disappeared around the corner.

"Here you go, Handesome James."
"Mrrow!"
"Don't go in the road!"
"Mrrow!"
"Have fun!"
"Mrrow!"
"It's supposed to be cold out tonight!"
"Mrrow!"
"Goodnight!"
"Mrrow!"
"See you later!"
"Mrrow!"
"Okay!"
".....Mrrow!"

He'd been gone for nearly three weeks when my mother found his body underneath our front porch today, already far along the process of rejoining the soil that fed the grass he loved to hide in, stalking voles.

I had worried about how he'd take it when my mother left the house, taking the animals to start a new life. I know he wouldn't have been happy being an indoor cat. He'll always be a part of Pleasant Street, now, his belly always full of fieldmice and his feet on the sun-warmed earth.

My first animal rescue run!

2009-03-01T18:23:39Z

Yesterday, Jeremy and I drove our first rescue transport, and I am absolutely hooked! We got involved when driveforlife was spotlighted a few weeks ago, and I've been waiting for an empty Madison run to come up. I thought it would be something fun for us to do on our one day off together, and a chance to use the Forester for the powers of good!

We drove Mercy, an English Setter, from Madison, WI to Rockford, IL for Above and Beyond English Setter Rescue. Mercy went from Zimmerman, MN to Haverton, PA to a permanent home, which she should reach some time today. She is tiny for an English Setter - I'm guessing some breeder decided she wasn't show material and abandoned her, and there's evidence that she's already had a litter, even though she's only 18 months.

She was really smart and well-behaved - as soon as she got out of the truck at the hand-off station and saw our Forester with the hatch open, she ran right over to it and jumped right in like she knew the drill already. She rode beautifully, chewing on the treat we bought her and finally settling in for a nap. At one point we stopped at a Culver's drive-through for a lunch on-the-go, with silly me not thinking that the tantalizing smells of fast food would be a bit distracting for a canine, but after a quick investigation she realized she wasn't getting any french fries, and she settled happily in the back again with her bone.

We were sad to hand her off again - she's going to make someone a fantastic companion!

Merida & Yucutan Peninsula, Mexico - 2009

2009-01-23T16:43:09Z

I've uploaded my photos from Mexico! Some turned out nicely, though as usual I'm unhappy with how few I took - I took many more than what I posted here, of course, but I'm referring more to content. I have next to nothing that captures the colorful city of Merida, or the rural Mayan villages where people still live in houses made of thatch and wood. Evrything is open to the air, and washed with pink, or white, or turquoise. Butchers and food vendors have carts on the street selling panuchos or chili-covered mango...One of my priorities for the next few years is to get a good camera with a telephoto lens, largely to be able to capture people discretely from afar.

This and the photos to follow are from the Ria Celestun Biosphere Reserve. There are no lakes or rivers in the Yucatan (all freshwater is from wells), so this is a rare spot where spring water meets the sea in a super-saline estuary. The abundant crustacean life supports hundreds of species of birds, including these gulls and cormorants.

And these pelicans.

And more cormorants, doing what cormorants do!

That line of pink in the distance is composed of thousands of flamingos!

Joining the flocks. Flamingos in flight move up and down as though on a roller coaster.

I sometimes wonder how these bids can even fly.

Flamingos!

We then visited the mangroves along where the freshwater spring bubbles up.

These trees are adapted to the salty conditions here.

The rippling is where the fresh water is bubbling up.

It's incredibly clear!

See?

We stopped and walked through the mangroves on a boardwalk. I saw an elusive tiger heron!

Pretty sap!

For lunch, our tour stopped in the town of Celestun, which is on the ocean. We had lunch in a palapa overlooking the sea:

They say the ocean isn't as blue as the Cancun side, but I thought it was lovely:

Maybe Jeremy could drive one of these?

Shifting gears, we're now at Chichen Itza, one of the new seven wonders of the world. The pyramid, which you can no longer climb.

There are 91 steps on each side, plus one at the top = 365.

It's pretty steep!

A temple in the post-classic Mayan style, revealing Toltec-inspired Qetzlcoatl-type serpent designs.

Choc Mul, an intermediary between god and man, with a plate atop his belly to receive offerings.

Many stones were taken from the pyramid by the Spaniards, and were used to build houses and churches (the Maya themselves carried the stone from 10km away - by hand). There weren't enough to fully restore the pyramid, so they restored it on two sides only.

A serpent head on the Venus temple.

If you stand with the pyramid on your right, and the temple in front of you (far ahead, of course) and clap loudly, you can hear a great bird-like "Honk!" coming form the top of the pyramid and a "ch-ch-ch-ch!" coming from the temple, like a rattle snake. Snake + bird = Qetzlcoatl! Now, imagine ninety-thousand people clapping all at once, as the sun crests through the chamber atop the pyramid, illuminating the god-king standing at the top (covered in paint and wearing an elaborate headdress...).

500 skulls surround the burial chamber, with a platform above for dancing and ritual.

Heros of the aristocratic class were buried here. 5000 nobles lived within the city, and 95,000 commoners dwelt outside. A "hero" was defined as someone who died in the line of duty - this could be a ball court winner (they had their own chamber), a warrior who died in battle, or a noblewoman who died in childbirth.

A warrior who died in battle - you can tell by the bones showing in his legs.

The ball court at Chichen Itza was the largest in the Mayan world, and it is believed that a sort of ballgame Olympics was played here. Contrary to popular belief, losers were not sacrificed - WINNERS were. This was considered one of the highest possible honors -to be a team captain and train your entire life in order to sacrifice your blood for the renewal of the land. See that tiny hoop way up on the wall in the back? You had to get your ball through that hoop using only your elbows, knees, and hips.

The king sat here on the pavilion overlooking the ball game, with musicians at the opposite end. The game went on, with each side taking turns trying to score, until the music stopped. Notice that there's no way to get up to the pavilion - the kind was carried in on a palanquin, and never touched the ground.

In short - I loved Mexico, and I can't wait to go back as soon as possible. I couldn't help but feel that I was in a land of wild, ancient gods quite different from my own (even before I went to Chichen Itza). It's a wonderful place with so much light and color, incredible food, generous and warm people, and a fascinating history. Merida is fantastic, and I'd definitely recommend it over the more touristy Cancun.

Mexico Haiku #1

2009-01-07T14:08:15Z

getting on a plane
ninety-four in Mexico
i'll wear my flip-flops

50 Book Challenge 2009

2009-01-02T04:29:13Z

I'm keeping track of my 2009 read here. If you're interested in past lists, check out the "50 book challenge mast list" tag below. Reviews and other details will be added as available.

Jeremy's Selections
My Selections
Book Club
Feminist Sci-Fi Book Club
Academic

January

1. Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco (*****)

February

2. Wilderness Tips, Margaret Atwood (****)

March

3. Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut (***)
4. Set This House In Order, Matt Ruff (*** 1/2)

April

5. Kushiel's Scion, Jacqueline Carey (****)
6. Emma, Jane Austen (***)
7. 20th Century Ghosts, Joe Hill (****)

May

8. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (*****)
9. Kushiel's Justice, Jacqueline Carey (****)
10. Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future, Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards (**)

June

11. Santa Olivia, Jacqueline Carey (****)
12. Confessions of an Economic Hitman, John Perkins (*** 1/2) (Audio)

July

13. Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette, Sena Jeter Naslund (***)
14. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder (****)
15. Crocodile on the Sandbank, Elizabeth Peters (****)

August

16. Curse of the Pharaohs, Elizabeth Peters (****)
17. Kushiel's Mercy, Jacqueline Carey (****)

September

18. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers (*****)

When Christ and His Saints Slept, Sharon Kay Penman (reading)
The Terror, Dan Simmons (reading)
American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century, Paula Uruburu (reading)

Graphic Novels
The Walking Dead [4]
Fables - The Good Prince
Ex Machina [3]

The Books of 2008

2009-01-02T04:02:40Z

26/50 Books = 52% of the Challenge completed. I read less than last year (I blame crafting and Battlestar Galactica), which is a bit of a disappointment.

Jeremy and I started off the year selecting books for one another every other read, so I color-coded my reading to keep track:

Jeremy's Selections
My Selections
Book Club
Academic

January

1. Run, Ann Patchett (****)
2. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut (***)
3. Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (*****)
4. The Children's Blizzard, Dave Fromkin (****)

February

5. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (****)
6. Fear of Flying, Erica Jong (****)

March

7. The Gunslinger, Stephen King (****)
8. Henry & June, Anais Nin (****)

April

9. Kushiel's Avatar, Jacqueline Carey (*****)
10. In Defense of Food, Micheal Pollan (****)

May

11. Ship of Magic, Robin Hobb (*****)

June

12. White Teeth, Zadie Smith (*****)

July

13. Mad Ship, Robin Hobb (**** 1/2)
14. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (*****) - Audio

August

15. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (*****) - Read my review!
16. The Good Thief, Hannah Tinti (***) - Read my review!

September

17. Down to Earth, Ted Steinberg (****)
18. Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder (****)
19. Ship of Destiny, Robin Hobb (*****)
20. A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold (*****)

October

21. The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly (****)
22. Flight Maps: Adventures with Nature in Modern America, Jennifer Price (***)
23. Crimes Against Nature: The Hidden History of the American Conservation Movement, Karl Jacoby (*****)
24. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith (*****) (reread)

November

25. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan (****)

December

26. Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins (****)

I didn't track graphic novels, but listed them separately, here:

Graphic Novels

1. Fables [9]: Sons of Empire, Bill Willingham (****)
2. Promethea [1], Alan Moore (*** 1/2)
3. Ex Machina [1]: The First 100 Days, Brian K. Vaughan (****)
4. The Walking Dead [2]: Miles Behind Us, Robert Kirkman (*****)
5. The Walking Dead [3]: Safe Behind Bars, Robert Kirkman (****)
6. Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowall, Bill Willingham (****)
7. Ex Machina [2]: Tag, Brian K. Vaughan (****)
8. Y: The Last Man [10]: Whys and Wherefores, Brian K. Vaughan (*****)
9. Cairo, G. Willow Wilson (****)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

50% Male, 50 % Female
27% Nonfiction, 73% Fiction
21 American, 3 British, 2 French
Oldest book: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782)
Newest book: Run (2007)

Best Books of 2008:

Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos - Surprisingly racy for 1782 and very well written, and the epistolary style is qutite fun. Definitely the sleeper hit of the year for me.

Liveship Traders Trilogy, Robin Hobb - I loved this! Creative, feminist, emotionally engaging, earthy, and suspenseful. Hobb writes realistic characters who act (and change) in a refreshingly organic way. Her plot is really a joy to unravel.

White Teeth, Zadie Smith- Funny, smart, and actually lived up to the hype.

A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens - I loved this. Clever, funny, and surprisingly emotional.

Crimes Against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation, Karl Jacoby - My favorite of the books read this year for my environmental history course with Bill Cronon.

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath - As I said in my review, "Why was I reading Holden Caulfield when I should have been reading Esther Greenwood?!"

Honorable Mention: Kushiel's Avatar, Jacqueline Carey - A very satisfying conclusion to a wonderfully fun, well-written, and fascinating sort-of-fantasy. It's so refreshing to read about a sex-positive society, too.

Best Graphic Novel: Y: The Last Man [10]: Whys and Wherefores, Brian K. Vaughan

Worst of 2008

The Good Thief, Hannah Tinti - Another book I actually got around to reviewing. I was so disappointed in this, and am somewhat shocked to see it on so many year-end Best lists (including the New York Times). It felt patchwork and forced (and at times downright confused), and the given the huge publicity campaign I'm guessing it's an orchestrated "hit."

Tidings of comfort and joy!

2008-12-20T00:22:16Z

Continuing in the tradition of 2006 and 2007, I've put together another holiday mix! This year's may be the best collection yet, with covers of classics by artists like Liz Phair and the Asylum Street Spankers, and Bright Eyes. Or, check out originals by The Knife, Okkervil River, Halo Benders (a Calvin Johnson side project), and the Weepies. We have a little blues number by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, a soul classic by Clarence Carter, folksy numbers by Tracy Chapman and Chris Isaak, and a little punk by the Vandals. Don't miss the final track (always a hit), which this year is Things I Want by Tenacious D. Enjoy!

Here is Jacquelyn & Jeremy's 2008 Christmas music mix! Download and be merry!

And as an added bonus, you can also download the 2006 and 2007 mixes, too!

antarcticlust @ 2008-11-04T10:49:00

2008-11-04T16:54:30Z

I voted this morning, walking to my polling place at 8am to be the 95th voter in line. I voted for Obama in the same booth I voted for Hillary Clinton in during the primaries. I am honored and proud to have made both choices. I know most of you are just as gung-ho about this election as I am, and I'm proud of all of my American friends who have voted so far. I encourage you all to share your voting stories, and urge those of you who haven't voted yet to do so, even if you think your vote won't matter. I will not tolerate any "but my state's blue anyway!" talk even if it's true. Practically speaking, there are more issues than just the presidential selection at stake here - for exampe, in Wisconsin we voted to allow the state to offer the same healthcare option that the state legislature gets to all other citizens. Practicality aside, this is the only chance we as American citizens have to participate in our democracy. We don't get to draft laws, or pass them. We do get to vote, however, and if you choose not to exercise that right, you forfeit your right to an opinion.

I'm planning on live blogging the election in a separate post this evening. We're going to be following the results via computer (the New York Times has an excellent live feed window), and have decided not to spend the night at any of the several parties we've been invited to (partly because of Ethan and partly because it's going to be a long, emotional evening and we'd rather be somewhere quiet). In the meantime, I wish all of you a happy election day!

Necessary and Proper! A Supreme Court Meme

2008-09-30T21:06:31Z

An excellent meme from so_patriarchal - (thanks, brdgt !):

Let's teach Sarah Palin about the Supreme Court!

Everyone's probably heard by now of Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for Vice President. What you may not have heard yet is that she is, as of this moment, unable to name any Supreme Court Case other than Roe v. Wade, as evidenced by Katie Couric. Seeing as how this woman could very well be our NEXT VICE PRESIDENT, I say we, the People, should take an active role in our government and teach her about this hallowed institution.

Rules:
- Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic to your lj.
- Any decision, long as it's not Roe v. Wade. (She knows that one already!)
- For those who see this on your f-list, take the meme to your OWN lj to spread the fun and the edumacation!

Given my recent post about Libertarians, I thought it was only fitting that I mention McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). This landmark case established early in our nation's history that states' rights were trumped by federal law. The state of Maryland imposed a tax on all notes from banks not chartered withing Maryland. James McCulloch, cashier at the Second National Bank of the United States, refused to pay the tax, and the suit was filed.

The case established that the Constitution grants Congress implied powers to carry out the Constitution's express powers, and that states may not impede Congress from exercising those powers. In other words, Congress had the authority to establish a bank (the Second National Bank of the US), and Maryland did not have the right to tax that bank or penalize it for not being chartered by the state of Maryland.

Why is this important? Chief Justice Marshall, whose rulings oversaw much of the establishment of modern constitutional law, stated that:

“ If any one proposition could command the universal assent of mankind, we might expect it would be this– that the government of the Union, though limited in its power, is supreme within its sphere of action."

Marshall essentially argued that while the Constitution does not outline every actual power of Congress (practically speaking, that would be a nightmare), the necessary-and-proper clause in Article 1 states that:

"The Congress shall have Power - To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."

Essentially, the Constitution grants Congress "implied" powers to do what is necessary to run the government without having to specifically address those powers (i.e., just because the Constitution doesn't explicity state that the Congress can charter a bank doesn't mean it's unconstitutional).

So: states are essentially granted power only inasmuch as Congress allows, and there is no inherent state right to, say, declare abortion illegal, if it conflicts with federal law. As Marshall stated, " ... a government, entrusted with such ample powers . . . must also be entrusted with ample means for their execution. The power being given, it is the interest of the nation to facilitate its execution. . . . "

This Monday is brought to you by the letters W, T and F.

2008-09-29T15:54:48Z

W is for WaMu and Wachovia:

So, of course I'm concerned about the Washington Mutual forced buyout (I am now a customer of JP Morgan Chase), because I just started checking and savings accounts there a couple of weeks ago (I need a debit card, so I decided to try out internet banking and my research pointed to them as the best on the web). Aside from the trickle-down effects of the financial crisis, here's why you should care: given that a prior bank failure had wiped out about one quarter of the FDIC reserves (these guys insure your bank holdings up to $100,000), if WaMu had been allowed to fail, it would probably have wiped out the other 3/4 of the FDIC. That means that anyone with money in an American bank (though not a credit union, as they're insured by a different agency) would have found themselves no longer backed up by the FDIC. Which means there would have been nothing between you and the Great Depression, if there was a run on the banks. Scary, huh? And now that Citigroup just bought Wachovia, most of our banks are now owned by just three companies: JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America. Anti-trust what?

T is for Taxes and Texas:

Also, I have absolutely had it with this Democrats-and-Republicans-lesser-of-two-evils crap, which is often (but not always) spouted by Libertarians. Someone who says that is obviously in a position of privilege: It's a privilege to not have to worry about your ability to have a safe and legal abortion, or to have to worry about paying for school, or whether you ahve access to affordable healthcare, or whether your little brother who signed up for the National Guard to pay for college will get sent to Iraq. Just because neither McCain nor Obama is going to let you ~~grow pot on your gun farm~~ own guns on your pot farm and take away your taxes does not make them both "evil," or "the same." That is lazy, privileged thinking, and those people need to grow up and realize that they share the nation with a whole lot of other people who have to worry about feeding themselves, drinking clean water, driving on paved roads, getting a quality education, and having access to a good, safe job.

F is for Funding:

There have been some wonderful commentaries on and responses to the debates, which I won't go into. The scientific list-serv and blogosphere communities have been discussing one particular statement of John McCain's, and I really think it bears (no pun intended) sharing here: McCain brought up the Montana bear study during the debates as an example of out-of-control funding for the sciences. Later, he suggested a moratorium on funding for everything except VA and the military as a solution to the failing economy. Among the hundreds of thousands of things on the list of Everything (like highway maintenance, public schools, and the National Weather Service) is science - the National Science Foundation funds studies like the bear research mentioned above.

The bear study is unprecdented in both its scope and the size of the dollars awareded, but some incredible data has come out of that research. But let's look at the numbers: If you divide the cost of the $10 million bear study by the number of taxpaying Americans, the study costs the individual American less than a penny per person (9/10 of a cent, actually, or $0.009). The $700 billion bailout, on the other hand, will cost the average taxpayer $2300 per person. Cutting science spending will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, as scientists, graduate students, and universities rely on those funds to operate. And we won't get multi-million dollar severance packages like CEO's of failed banks are getting.

50 Book Challenge 2008 - Book #15

2008-09-14T16:09:42Z

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (*****) Why, oh, why was I reading Holden Caulfield when I should have been reading Esther Greenwood?

One might think that a novel about a young college woman's experience with madness in the mid-20th century would come across as dated or even quaint. On the contrary, as I read I found myself nodding emphatically, and even calling up friends to tell them about passages I'd read that were particularly familiar. This reaction emphasizes The Bell Jar's staying power after half a century; any ambitious young woman who has struggled with anxiety about their future, or felt like a square peg in society's round hole, will find themselves identifying with this novel.

The story is heavy with the weight of the author's suicide; in fact, the novel is so close to Plath's own experiences that it wasn't published in the United States until after her death, as she was afraid of hurting the real-life people who were thinly veiled as characters in the novel. While the Bell Jar is an important novel in its own right, it will also give readers a more nuanced perspective on Plath's poetry.

The Bell Jar sheds light on psychiatric care in the 1950's, under the stifling expectations of a woman's role in post-war America. The novel explores themes of feminism and mental health without being didactic; Esther's insights feel relevant and real today, while revealing much about the society in which Plath herself came of age. Some find heroine Esther Greenwood's descent into mental illness to be depressing, but I found her story to be ultimately life-affirming; Plath avoids nihilism by not merely focusing on Esther's breakdown, but also her recovery.

You needn't have spent time under "the bell jar" (Plath's metaphor for the extreme anxiety and depression felt by the young protagonist) to appreciate this novel; Plath makes the workings of Esther's mind accessible and real. Plath's matter-of-fact style makes neurotic thoughts and suicide fantasies feel almost ordinary; Esther's struggles seem like a perfectly natural response to a world full of date hypocrites and phonies. Some readers may empathize more than others (a friend told me "it's like we all become our own version of Esther Greenwood while we're reading the book"), but it's difficult to be unaffected by what has become one of the most iconic novels about mental illness, feminism, and the youth experience.

50 Book Challenge 2008 - Book # 16

2008-09-14T15:58:54Z

The Good Thief - Hanna Tinti (***) - An almost-great first novel falls prey to first-time-author traps.

I was initially intrigued by the premise of The Good Thief; an orphan with a missing hand, a mysterious past, and an historical New England setting seemed like the perfect combination. At first, I thought this was a surprisingly solid first novel, and one that had a lot to offer the over-crowded young adult fiction section.

But The Good Thief isn't a young adult novel - or is it? I waffled back and forth between the evidence: a simplistic, almost fable-like writing style, a young child protagonist, and a bit of adventure and even mysticism thrown in suggested that this book would be best enjoyed by the YA crowd. Suggestive content and a lack of character development (strong characters are often the strength of YA novels) and a convoluted plot suggest otherwise. Frankly, it's as though Tinti simply couldn't make up her mind as to what kind of novel she wanted to write, and her editors did her a serious disservice by not guiding her onto one path or the other. This would have been a perfectly delightful YA book, but some of Tinti's choices make it seem like she was deliberately avoiding that path, and the story really suffers for it.

Perhaps most perplexing is the plot; at times bordering on random, readers may sense Tinti's desire to branch into magical realism, but she's never brave enough to fully make the plunge. She makes a few historical errors (e.g., twins weren't killed in 1800's New England, and tarring and feathering was fatal), and her setting never feels quite believable. One gets the sense that the fault is not so much with the novelist, but with the editor; some guidance here and there would have made this a much tighter novel, and eliminated distracting errors.

Tinti is not only working with rich material ("resurrection men" and orphans are just plain fun to read about), but she also delves into more heady subjects, like what it means to be good. If you suspend your disbelief and power through when the plot starts to feel a bit over the top, there's enough talent and ability here to make for a fun read.

Defending Genre: Or, Would a Book Of Any Other Color Still Be Shelved in Literature?

2008-09-06T21:01:53Z

I've always liked the idea of a special Hugo to be awarded (by force, perhaps) to literary authors who write books dripping with themes filleted from mainstream SF and then deny that it's science fiction 'because it's not about robots and spaceships'.
- Terry Pratchett

The debate over the legitimacy of "genre" fiction has been getting some high-profile attention, thanks to popular authors like Michael Chabon, whose recent Hugo acceptance speech was a defense of genre-- though his audience certainly needed no convincing. Readers and scholars of Science Fiction and Fantasy (SF/F) love to point out how the genres have long been bastions of social criticism*. Popular and literary fiction have largely abandoned discussions of gender, sexuality, race, or ethics, while these issues are often at the crux of the so-called escapist literature. This is a powerful arguemnt for the importance of SF/F, but why do we need to legitimize it in the first place? Abaonding the notion that books have to confront social inequality in order to be relevant, many of these books are just damned well written.

Authors and publishers (at least, the ones with self-confidence issues) bridle at being called "fantasy" or "science fiction" in spite of their books containing fantastical or futuristic elements. I think the important question is whether or not SF/F are essential categories; we might intuitively recognize the difference between Little Women and Starship Troopers, but what happens when the categories become blurred? Books like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale ** are shelved in the fiction or literature sections of bookstores, while Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game will generally be found in the genre section, though both depict dystopic futures in our own culture, and both address socially relevant issues. The essential element of SF/F clearly, then, is not definitional; not all books with fantastical or futuristic elements fit the bill (or the entire library of the Hipster-beloved Vonnegut would long ago have been relegated to canonical obscurity). So what is it?

To be honest, I don't believe that there is one (at least as applied in the industry) that isn't normative. Clearly publishers consider The Handmaid's Tale (and the even more techno-futuristic Oryx & Crake) to be something more than SF, or they'd go with a definitional formula (i.e., future setting plus technological elements equals genre). One can imagine a meeting of fiction arbiters sitting around a table and throwing around words like "literary" or "broader appeal,"justifying the marketing label. The problem is, I can think of a number of books in the "literature" section of my local Borders that definitely lack both a broader appeal and a quality of writing. I can also toss out a number of SF/F authors (Card, Martin, and Hobb, for starters) that provide both in spades.

The problem of categorization has traditioanlly arise when authors start off in one camp and moonlight in another. I'd argue the reason Chabon is being taken so seriously is because he published the Pulitzer-prize-winning Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay before The Yiddish Policeman's Union. Is it merely a coincidence that the name of the comic book character created by the protagonists, "The Escapist," is a commen epithet for genre fiction (and one I've been guilty of using myself, when I feel defensive about my reading choices). While quality, innovation, or social relevance may not separate SF/F fom literature, I'm not necessarily arguing for literary integration; I wouldn't disrespect the legions of SF/F fans by suggesting that their genre doesn't have some legitimate strengths of its own.*** Neither am I suggestion a "separate but equal" policy, because it does a disservice to both genre fiction and literary fiction (whatever that is) to stick Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go on one shelf or another.

Maybe we should replace "genre" as a normative label with "genre" as a positive one. To put it another way, let's let "science fiction" carry equal weight with "postmodern literature," "historical fiction," or "African literature" as a descriptor, rather than a value statement. This effort will have to have a marketing component; we can start by giving mass market paperback SF/F books covers that actually match the conent, rather than the ubiquitous spaceships and generic swordsmen. More importantly, however, genre lovers need to start educating the general public about all the good books out there. There are plenty of self-proclaimed genre haters, but fundamentally, a book-lover is a book-lover. I can think of no better arguement than handing someone George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. If all else fails, sneak copy of Ender's Game into a pile with Watership Down, The Road, and Cloud Atlas. It should feel right at home.

* ThePublisher's Weekly review of Chabon's collection of essays, some of which include his thoughts about genre, reveal how much the industry clearly doesn't get it.

** Interestingly, Ms. Atwood prefers the term "speculative fiction," which she sees as literature that uses futuristic or fantastica elements to address societal issues (Heinlein, who is considered a hard-core science fiction author, first coined the term). According to Atwood, "science fiction" as a term addresses literature whose primary purpose is to entertain. It should also be noted that SF/F itself is broken into a number of finer classifications, ranging from "alternative history" to "sword and sorcery."

*** One aspect of SF/F that I love is how involved and active the fandom is; readers and writers interact much more closely, and readers are very engaged in the genre. Click on the Amazon.com reviews above, and the difference is striking; SF/F novels typically have reviews numbering in the thousands, as opposed to a couple or a few hundred for the literary equivalents.

antarcticlust @ 2008-08-14T16:51:00

2008-08-14T22:17:50Z

From urbpan:

The Omnivore's Hundred is a list of foods the gastronome Andrew Wheeler thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives.

The rules of the meme:
1) bold those you have tried
2) strikethrough those you wouldn't eat on a bet.
2a) Italicize any item you'll never eat again.
2b) Asterisk any items you'd be interested in trying but have not yet.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea*
3. Huevos rancheros
4. ~~Steak tartare~~
5. Crocodile
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp*
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush (I'm not an eggplant person)
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich (seriously?)
14. Aloo gobi (yum!)
15. Hot dog from a street cart * (I was vegetarian for 11 years and have catching up to do!)
16. Epoisses*
17. Black truffle (in cheese!)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes (I'm growing some!)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (Thanks, brdgt!)
24. Rice and beans
25. ~~Brawn, or head cheese~~
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper *
27. Dulce de leche
28. ~~Oysters~~ (I may try this someday, I just don't like shellfish)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda*
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi* (I've had mango, does that count?)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a ~~fat cigar~~
37. Clotted cream tea*
38. Vodka jelly (he means jello shots)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail*
41. Curried goat
42. ~~Whole insects~~ (I'm sorry...I am too weak)
43. Phaal (Hot!)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (Should I care?)
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (Why? When I could have so many other things?)
56. Spaetzle*
57. Dirty gin martini*
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine*
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. ~~Sweetbreads~~
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst* (Huh?)
65. Durian*
66. ~~Frogs’ legs~~ (I like frogs too much)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. ~~Haggis~~
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. ~~Caviar and blini~~
73. Louche absinthe*
74. Gjetost, or brunost*
75. ~~Roadkill~~ (I don't know where it's come from, or what it's done. Why not just "game"?)
76. ~~Baijiu~~
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (Again, why?)
78. ~~Snail~~ (It's a texture thing more than anything else).
79. Lapsang souchong (I love this!)
80. Bellini
81. Toam yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant*
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate*
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa*
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. ~~Bagel and lox~~ (I can't eat salmon - way too fishy for me).
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

As with urbpan, I think there is a disproportionately small number of vegetable and fungal selections. I'd also leave off some of the seemingly random entries, like a Big Mac and a Hostess Cake, or Spam. Why not a Poptart, or an Oreo while we're at it? This list also includes a fair number of cultural biases - I see nothing African or Asian (aside from the Thai and Japanese selections). Off the cuff, these would be my personal additions/replacements:

Pickled Green Beans
Flan
Green Papaya Salad (Som Tum)
New England Boiled Supper
10-year aged cheddar
Mock Eel
Sweet Potato Fries with Honey Mustard
Peanut Soup
Fried Green Tomatoes
Pasties
Tiramisu
Fried cheese curds
Almond butter
Fresh-baked bread
Framboise Lambic
Zucchini Nut Bread
Mexican Hot Chocolate
Popcorn with Nutritional Yeast

Creative Outlet

2008-08-13T14:50:40Z

I'm thinking of starting a craft blog to keep track of my crafty endeavors. There are a lot of great blogs out there, but I'd like to toss one into the mix that isn't written by an experienced or professional crafter, but rather a developing crafter who is a grad student by day.

Any thoughts? Suggestions? What makes you check out craft blogs (or any kind of blog, for that matter)? I'm thinking I'd discuss my adventures in crafting, but also have a place to put tutorials for things as I start to come up with my own patterns. As a beginning crafter, I often had a hard time finding good, detailed how-to posts for more basic things. I'd also like to review books, link to other cool sites and patterns, and discuss my thoughts about crafting and DIY in general. As a grad student, and non-professional crafter, I'd like to offer something that isn't already out there.

I'd like a name that reflects the style of the blog - science geek, grad student, outdoorsy tomboy with a strong 1950's housewife streak. My first thought was "Pedicures for Amazons," which was the title of a recent post I made about coming to terms with my enjoyment of girly things, but I'm not sure if that quite fits.

The blog will live on Blogger (home of my first blog attempt, which sort of fizzled out because it was too close to work, I think, and also because it was to monospecific- The Climate Blog). I'd love to hear any thoughts, but especially suggestions for a name! My name on most craft sites (Ravelry, Craftster) is "antarcticraft," so it will probably have a home here on LJ with that monnicker. But what should I call the blog itself? I'll solicit suggestions, and then hold formal elections, and then ultimately pick whatever I want. :P

View Poll: What should Jacquelyn call her craft blog?

In my copious free time...

2008-08-12T22:33:17Z

I haven't posted my crafty endeavors recently. I'm up to 32 items in my "52 Crafts Challenge" (a craft a week, posted at 52_crafts ). Some of these go back to February, but I'd still like to chronicle my efforts here. I'm really pleased with the progress I've made since the beginning of the year, especially in sewing, crochet, and embroidery. I'd still like to experiment with resin and make a quilt before the year is out. I'm going to try to make a lot of my holiday gifts this year, which means I need to get started now!

My first apron, and second-ever sewing project (Amy Butler's pattern)! I love this fabric and am glad I have lots more.

Some embroidered produce bags, made as a housewarming gift for schmecky :

Embroidery I made for the "tea towel tour" embroidery swap on Craftster. You send you "towel" out and it makes the rounds of the group, and comes back with a sample from each member in the group. Here are some of my favorites that I did:

A swallow - my own design:

Pandas from a Chinese Cut Paper Design book:

Jet Set Girl - from a Sublime Stitchery iron-on:

Bird and berries - from the Chinese Cut Paper Design book

A sock monkey made for jackshoegazer for Valentine's Day (The Gap has the best sock monkey socks!):

Portable picnic mat: This was from my own design for brdgt for her birthday. I'm going to perfect it and then write a tutorial.

Afternoon Tea Gloves: Made for a Victorian-themed swap on Craftster

Victorian Wall Art Squares: Some are covered with fabric, others with collages from 1889 issues of Ladies Home Journal.

Marble Magnets: Made from the above-mentioned Ladies' Home Journals.

Cthulu Baby Bib (pattern for this and the following bibs here). A gift for katachthonios who just had a baby.

Vampy!

Drooly!

Day-of-the-Dead-inspired Cow Skull brooch. Embroidered on felt for a Taurus in the "What's My Sign?" swap on Craftster. I am REALLY proud of this! This was my first time working with felt, and I am very keen to do so again soon.

Taurus coffee cozy (again, for the swap above). VERY quick and easy to make, a good stash buster.

Thanks for looking!

home alone

2008-07-23T15:19:42Z

I thought the wide expanse of bed would feel like sleeping on the dock at summer camp
spread wide and rocking with my breath, but:

without your night-time sounds and weighing-down
it's vacant and unrumpled and too still for sleep,
becomes a night-time playground for the cats who wonder where you've gone

I'd hoped that while you were away I'd spread out on the couch
unconcerned and dangling like a teenage giraffe,
eat ice cream and olives for dinner every day,
waste hot water and all the other contested amenities of partnership
and enjoy the quiet that I always say I want

but:

without another pair of toes to keep mine entertained
i just get

bored

Great Duck Light

2008-07-17T21:09:03Z

My undergraduate advisor recently joined Facebook, and I was very happy to borrow a series of photos from my summer on Great Duck Island in the Gulf of Maine. GDI was the fourth island I've lived on, and probably the most exciting; it's got an active lighthouse, and is home to several species of breeding seabirds. I spent ten weeks there for an internship without running water and with minimal electricity provided by solar panels and a generator. It was one of those experiences you really can't describe to people, but photos definitely help:

The lighthouse! It's all automated now, but we lived nearby in what was once the lighthouse keeper's cottage. You get used to the perpetual bray of the lighthouse pretty quickly (the horn- which can shatter your eardrums from close range- is actually separate from the house, so we could go up to the top of the lighthouse and hang out).

Access to the island was exciting, to say the least; it has a rocky berm surrounding the island, with sea cliffs and no actual beaches. Any dock or wharf would be destroyed in the winter winds and surf, so to get onto the island, we have a boat ramp. Essentially, a boat (like the fishing-sized boat in the photo) anchors, and you row a large dingy from the boat up onto the ramp, which extends down into the water (depending on the tide). The dingy has a rope attached to the front, and the idea is that you row towards the ramp and someone tosses the rope to a catcher on the ramp; this catcher than guides the dingy onto a crade with wheels that's resting on the ramp, ties the dingy off, and someone at the boathouse at the top turns on an engine-driven winch, which the brings the dingy up the ramp. The dingy brings visitors and supplies (food, water, etc.) to the island.

This can be especially exciting during storms, when wave surges drive the dingy haphazardly towards the rocks on either side of the ramp, or up on to the ramp itself. I was typically the catcher, except for a couple of times when I got to row the dingy. Rowing out to the boat was no problem, but coming back was extremely frightening, and I still can't look back on the experience (wave-tossed, veering towards the rocks, with x_pyewacket_x calling over the surf) without a rush of inerita. I did get damned good at rowing after that, though! This is a view of the boat ramp on a calm day at low tide.

The crew! Fellow students from College of the Atlantic. I'm in the purple at the bottom of the pyramid:

Elderly (and wealthy) college patron Ed Blair loved whales, and took us out on his private boat for an up-close-and-personal (and probably illegal) whale watch experience. We were incredibly close to this humpback and her calf - close enough to feel the spray on our faces from the blowhole. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced (I'm in the red jacket in the foreground).

Daily "chick checks" were part f the research team's routine (though not for me, as I worked with a different species). This involved banding new-hatched chicks and catching them for measurements and weighing, which became much more difficult as the chicks got older! Here, fellow students Jess and x_pyewacket_x are banding a serendipitously-captured herring gull juvenile!

My research on the island involved the Leach's Storm Petrel, a burrowing seabird that breeds in the North Atlantic and winters in Antarctica. The chicks hatch in June and the parents stop showing up to feed it around November, at which point it gets hungry and leaves its burrow, flying to outlying Antarctic islands completely unassisted! These birds come in and out of their burrows at dusk and fly around in the night making the most whimsical, surreal chortles - sailors often thought islands were haunted with strange spirits when they heard the petrel calls. Here me holding a petrel chick:

Other inhabitants of the island included breeding Greater Black-backed Gulls, a pair of puffins, Eider Ducks, and Black Guillemots. We also had a breeding family of bald eagles who would terrorize the gull colony and pull chicks out of the water. The island was devoid of mammals except for bats and vast quantities of hares who chewed through the ethernet cables so consistently that we had to slip them into bear-proof chainmail casings. The hares had been released by a bored lighthouse keeper who wanted something to shoot at.

I took dozens of rolls of film when I was on the island (with my Canon EOS, stolen in the Caribbean and probably sold on the black market), only to discover that salt spray had gotten into the shutter and none of the rolls of film had actually been exposed. That was definitely a lesson in Zen! I was therefore very excited to see these, as the only other photo I have is the one that made the cover of the Bangor Daily News (one of my Facebook photos, with my arm down a petrel burrow):

Tell Heinz that it's ok to show gay families in commercials!

2008-06-24T16:31:54Z

jackshoegazer joined the American Family Association mailing list a few years ago when they were protesting Kraft's advertising "support" of the Gay Olympics. The AMA is a right-wing, fundamentalist Christian hate group that gets up in arms about the "gay agenda." The problem is, they're a relatively successful group when it comes to organizing boycotts. jackshoegazer has since used the e-mail list as a way to keep in touch with their latest campaigns, in order to call up and do the exact opposite of what they'd like: telling various companies that we support their advertising, or whatever. I lifted my personal boycott of Kraft (because of their association with Phillip Morris, among other things) to show my support four years ago, and I called to tell them so.

The AMA's current "Action Alert" is targeting Heinz for an add featuring a gay family. The website is here, if you'd like to read more about the issue and sign up to be notified of future opportunities to thwart their hate-based campaigns (warning: there is some sick, hateful, twisted, un-Christian vitriol on this website).

A YouTube version of the ad is below. Please take a moment today to call Heinz's corporate headquarters toll-free and let them know you support them for using advertisements that feature non-hetero-normative families. Tell your friends! You may have to wait on hold for a bit, but remember that it's because of all the homophobic hate-mongers tying up the lines - don't give up! I had the lab phone on speaker phone for about five minutes before I got through, and the woman on the line was very happy to hear from me.

HEINZ's number is 1-800-255-5750, or feel free to e-mail them (info here) instead (thanks, were_duck!). Then, tonight you can have a celebratory barbecue with your newly-purchased Heinz products!

See? What could be more despicable and evil than good, old-fashioned family values, like a loving parent who makes meals for their polite, well-behaved children, and kisses their hard-working spouse goodbye for the day?

To: Senator Barack Obama - - - From: a former Clinton supporter

2008-06-23T23:48:47Z

Dear Sen. Barack Obama,

As a former Hillary Clinton supporter, I'd like to let you know a little about myself. Contrary to the press' categorization of Clinton supporters, you may be surprised to know that I am young (under thirty) and educated (with secondary degrees), and consider myself a democratic socialist on the scale of liberalism. I was dismayed throughout the primary season to see the degree to which many of your supporters made me feel as though I weren't a real Democrat for supporting Clinton (the real cause of division in the party, if anything), and consequently feel as though I am now supposed to come to the Party with my tail between my legs, shut up and vote a straight Democratic ticket like a good liberal. Don't worry; again, in spite of the press' field day with a few vocal Hillary supporters, I am not going to vote for John McCain in November.

However, just because I'll be voting for you this fall doesn't mean you don't still have to earn my vote. Your acceptance speech the night that you won the Primary was eloquent, and I stand behind it (and you) completely. However, as a supporter of the candidate who lost by the smallest margin of any loser in history, I would like to let you know why I had reservations about supporting you in the first place, in spite of the many, many things we agree on, your energy, your ability to motivate the young and the disenfranchised voters, and your superior communication skills.

As you described your platform that night and how it differed from John McCain's, I waited to hear you say a word you've avoided for most of the primary season (I'll give you a hint: you didn't say it). Your voting record on this issue as a state senator along with your close ties to Christian leaders have been causes of concern. The fact that, on a night when I wanted to be wooed as a supporter of a feminist presidential candidate, you failed to mention the word "abortion," or even "reproductive rights," has been a very big problem for me as a woman and a voter. I feel that the omission was so glaring as to have been intentional, and I worry that you either don't see reproductive rights as important, or you'd rather not have to think about it as a sticky issue and so are hoping it doesn't come up at all (there are three sentences on abortion buried under "women" on your website). I ask you, Sen. Obama, to show me as a voter that protecting women's right to choose is important to you, and to show me openly and adamantly.

Secondly, I am extremely concerned about your positions (or lack thereof) regarding the environment. Your speech with Al Gore was a disappointment; I was left with the impression that the environment simply isn't an important issue to you, but one that you're expected to give a token nod to. If that's not the case, then show me otherwise. Your co-sponsoring of the liquid coal bill betrays an ignorance of environmental issues that I find surprising in so smart a man, so I am left to wonder if you acted out of a lack of knowledge, pressure from the coal lobby, or both? Your support of ethanol as a significant portion of your environmental platform is equally troubling, though perhaps not surprising given that you come from a corn (and coal) state. I understand why you've chosen to spin your environmental platform solely surrounding energy, given the timeliness of the issue, but I find that platform weak and lacking given the gravity of the issues we face. Among your campaign swag, I was surprised to see a number of buttons for various ethnicities and political groups ("Jews for Obama," etc.), but not "Environmentalists."

I want you to know that my choice to support Hillary Clinton was based on real, tangible issues that are important to me as a citizen and voter. The difference in your two websites is striking: Clinton organized her platform by issues ("Strengthening America's Middle Class," "Achieving Energy Independence," Healthcare for All") with tangible goals for each one. Your platform issues are alphabetized, with a few sentences devoted to the plethora of aspects of each. I ask you, Sen. Obama, to take those differences seriously, and to consider what drew millions of voters to Clinton. These are real, on-the-ground, daily-life issues, and just because Clinton will not be our president in January does not mean that we will stop caring about those issues. Please take a strong stand on abortion, the environment, economic hardship for the middle and lower class, and social justice issues like gay rights and immigration; these are real issues that matter to real American voters.

I bought a sign, a t-shirt, and buttons with your name on them to show my support for you and my participation in the Democratic Party; the name on the campaign swag may not be the one I hoped for, but the issues that bring me to the polls are the same. Every day, I am thankful that I can be so lucky as to have such a strong, inspiring, and qualified second-choice for President of the United States. I ask you, however, not to take my vote for granted; while we focus on party unity and mobilizing Democrats against McCain, let's also remember why so many people didn't vote for you the first time around, even though they'll be doing so in November.

Sincerely,

antarcticlust

Ann Landers Race for Multiple Myeloma Research

2008-06-10T03:54:44Z

On September 7th, I will be running my first 5k race, having started the Couch-to-5k running plan this June. I will be joined by my friend brdgt, who lost a brother to multiple myeloma last winter. The running is for my own health; the race is for brdgt, whose encouragement and support have helped set me on my own path to fitness. Your contributions will beneft the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, whose work has improved the lives of those suffering from Multiple Myeloma. I can't think of a better cause to set for my first fitness goal.

I'll post this link again with my fitness updates over the summer, but for those of you who are interested in donating, I've set a fundraising goal of $500 to start with. More information about the MMRF can be found here.