Friday, March 31, 2017

Comedy Doesn't Require Racism

I had another post planned for this morning and then, well.  When "The Colbert Report" went off the air, in the interim, "@Midnight" moved a half an hour earlier, and for a bit I watched some of the start as I talked myself through needing to get ready for bed.  (I am a natural night owl.  The world's insistence that I be a morning person vexes me, but I also need sleep.) And with the end of "The Nightly Show" it is back there.  
So, here's the thing, "@Midnight" is a comedy show disguised as a game show.  There is a format with specific segments and it encourages audience participation with contestant often playing on behalf of folks at home, and with the Hashtag Wars game where social media users are asked to chime in with their own suggestions and then they pick a winner featured on the show the next night and the show account often also retweets some faves.  
Comedy has long had a tenuous relationship with those who are marginalized, often making jokes at the expense of the poor, the female presenting, the mentally ill, and/or the non-whites. 
And look, the challenge with creating a social media hastag is that you can't control what will happen with it. Countless social media managers have watched in horror as things unrolled not how they had planned.  But the show started in 2010,  They have, according to Wikipedia, over 500 episodes.  At some point you have to take a little bit of ownership for understanding social media.  There are hashtags you can just tell are going to encourage the worst in people. Here's some samples of some that, as far as I can tell, went pretty well, #CowTV, #StarWarsSongs, #GentlerHorrorFilms.  Earlier this week they did #JapanAMovie. I still had the TV on and I immediately grabbed the remote and changed the channel. There was no way this wasn't going to encourage at least a string of boring reductive answers, and at best just out and out racism.  And look, I couldn't come up with over 500 humorous hashtag experiments, but that's why that isn't my job.  
And no, I don't need to learn to take a joke.  "@Midnight" needs to learn how to not ecourage racism (or sexism or whatever) in the name of comedy.  (Their record on rape jokes is also not good.) And let's just pretend for a moment that no one in the room could anticipate that this would go wrong. First, of all, that's not an excuse. And second - get better people in your room then.  And if you still decided to go ahead with it, then the job of the folks handling your social media was to only RT ones that weren't racist. Oh wait, that should always be their job. And if that means there's only sad, boring ones to RT, then you know you failed.  
One of the comedians involved did apologize, saying she had made a joke about how it was kinda racist, that got cut for time.  And that she hadn't considered the rest of the internet. I'm not putting this on her.  I appreciate that she apologized.  But this brings another point, the show is taped live and then cut for time.  If they chose to cut the part that noted the racism, then they made a choice. They were trying to pretend it was all fine if we didn't talk about the racism.  That it was just the internet's fault that it got racist, and that they could not anticipate this reaction. And that's just not true.  Anyone who has been on the internet could have told you. And I'm willing to bet, after I changed the channel, all the comedians in the room didn't only make non-racist non-reductive jokes.  I'm willing to bet in the room at the moment there was plenty of opportunity to see that this was a terrible idea.  And the joy of taping but editing later for time, is that they had the option to try a backup one and air that instead.  And they didn't. 

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Three Interesting Things

1. I enjoyed this interview with Karuna Riazi about how "Jumanji" inspired her novel.
2. This article about activism and crafting focuses on women crafters making a difference. 
3. This piece - Makeup as a Language of Resistance - is a wonderful exploration of the changing ways folks sometimes choose to explore and conform to gender norms. God, that made it sound like vegetables.  It's wonderful.  Go read it. 

Monday, March 27, 2017

So Let's Talk Bathrooms

I heard someone on an NPR show way back when (okay fine, it was probably a few years ago) talking about ADA and how there tends to be this assumption that making accommodations for disabled people is super hard and causes an undue burden and how many disabled people are there really, and that in pretty much every case, the accommodations needed benefit more than just the disabled.  The example he used was making sidewalk corners wheelchair accessible and that doing that also works great for people pushing strollers, folks with wheeled bags, and people riding bikes.  
So, I thought I'd talk about bathrooms.  In DC, the right to use the bathroom that corresponds with your expressed gender identity has been the law for a while.  It is also the law that single stall bathrooms should be gender neutral.  This has had huge benefit for me as a cisgender person.  There have been studies, and in general women take a little longer in the restroom (about 60 seconds is the data I could find) and we could discuss to death differences in clothing, sit stand preferences, and likelihood a woman may be accompanied by a small person who will also need to use the facility, but in the end even 60 seconds more can add up when you really gotta go.  Putting to the side all the people who claim to be very worried about the birth gender of the people peeing next to them -  why do we care when there's no one else in there?  We do not.  So having all the coffee shops and restaurants that have single stall restrooms have both be gender neutral doesn't eliminate waiting, but does mean if one is empty you can go.  
So now when I go places where that is not the rule, I am irritated.  I think everyone should adopt this rule across the country.  (Other countries would be nice too, but let's start here.)
And those of you who are like, okay, but the shared stalls, um, no.  Not agreeing with you on that.  Unless you meant to say wherever you want to go. 

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Three Interesting Things

1. "Sesame Street" has added a regular character with autism and now a recurring character with a father in jail.
2. This article on some new and upcoming YA books that take a look at race and police brutality has some great chats with the authors.  As many have pointed out, Ibi Zoboi's American Street also fits neatly within that category.  
3. This remembrance of a copy editor talks about a shared love of language and the way that we use it. 

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

The Flash - Duet

I had been advocating on Twitter for a musical episode of "The Flash" since about the beginning.  I was aware for obvious reasons that Joe (Jesse L. Martin) could sing.  As an avid Disney channel movie watcher of a certain era, I also knew that Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) could sing.  I assumed the rest could too. (Nice people later pointed out to me that Grant Gustin had been on "Glee", that there had been a musical episode of "Ed", and of course, with my Disney movie experience, I knew about Victor Garber. And then, for a side project, Jesse L. Martin, Rick Cosnett, and Carlos Valdes sang the Firefly theme song (video here) and I was all in.  Oh, who  am I kidding, I had already been in. 
I do not believe that every show needs a musical episode.  I think more shows should think seriously about doing on.  Or coming up with an excuse to get them to sing.  "Ground Floor" and "Ally McBeal" never did an actual musical episode. But both shows made use of the singing talents of their cast members in ways that advanced the plot.  And yes, speaking of "Ally McBeal", I'm a little sad "Supergirl" didn't follow my advice sooner.  (Also, you may recall that Jesse L. Martin guested on "Ally McBeal", and I would have love to have seen Martin and Flockhart together again.  Ah well.) 
So, when Melissa Benoist and Grant Gustin (along with Stephen Amell) did a joint interview with Conan O'Brien who asked them about the fan desire for a musical episode, and Benoist said she didn't know if there was fan outcry, I might have tweeted at her that hello, there was.  (I assume this question was planted since the episode was already in the works.)
Anyway, I was excited about the musical episode, even though I was a little bored with "The Flash", and their constant mucking with the timeline.  "Supergirl" I remain more attached to, although this year's Kara tries to be a reporter even though her boss is mean had, in my opinion, been a terrible waste of Ian Gomez. 
But singing. 
Making use of Darren Criss as the Music Meister, he whammied Kara on "Supergirl" causing Mon-El and J'onn to track him to Central City, where it turns out he whammies Barry too and they collapse but both wake up in a old school musical where they work as singers in a Club run by a dude named Cutter, in case you didn't think that there might be danger in the musical dream world. They hammer Kara's love of "Wizard of Oz" to remind you why all the characters in this world look like people that Kara and Barry know, Joe, Merlin, Iris, Mon-El, Winn, Cisco, and Doc are all there.  If you think I'm still miffed that Caitlin wasn't - you might be right.  There is at least a passing mention that HR can sing, so I'm guessing time and/or budget constraints were the issue, but I think they could have tightened up the Wally, J'onn, and Cisco capture the bad guy plot and saved us all some time for more songs. 
So, Kara sings "Moon River".  The Music Meister leads the club members, including alt-Cisco and alt-Winn in a group number of "Put a Little Love in Your Heart". Kara and Grant get kidnapped by alt-Doc and alt-Joe to find their daughter, who turns out to be alt-Iris who has been hooking up with alt-Mon-El, which throws both our superheroes who have both just kind of ended things with their significant others. Kara and Barry convince them to tell their parents about their love, and Kara and Barry each follow their alt-love back to witness this.  The dads, because alt-Mon-El is of course Cutter aka alt-Malcolm.  After singing "More I Cannot Wish From You" (trading verses, that's right Garber, Martin and Barrowman - together!), the dads hug their kids and then go off to declare war.  Oblivious to the oncoming war, Kara and Grant ask alt-Winn if he can help them with the prior instruction they received to do an original number, and he presents them with a song that any "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" fan will recognize as having the wry sensibility of one Rachel Bloom.  The song is called "Super Friend" and in addition to having references about not mucking with the timeline, it also is incredibly fun, and the characters go full on dancing on furniture and tapping throughout.  
This is what I love about musical episodes, they are often a bright spot.  Also, it's why I tend to like Barry better when he hangs with Kara, even when they are griping about their love lives, Kara is so bright, that she lightens Barry up.  (I think "The Flash"/"Arrow" crossovers reinforce what a serious, boring doom and gloom dude Oliver is compared to "The Flash" team, but on the peppy hopeful spectrum, "Supergirl is definitely the peppiest of the three.) 
Shots break out as the previously mentioned war breaks out, dream Kara and Barry race out and realize that without their powers they are not much help and both get shot.  And of course, dying in this dream would mean they die in real life. Back in Central City, Caitlin notes their dropping vitals, and Iris and Mon-El, with a nudge from the now captured Music Meister, try out the true love's kiss methodology and save them.  
And the Music Meister reveals that his point was to teach Kara and Barry that even superheroes need to get saved sometimes, and that's what love is about. 
But, you might have noticed, gee, the hour's not up yet, but we...seem to be done?  And if you had been stalking interviews you might have recalled that there was supposed to be Benji Pasek and Justin Paul song (the now Oscar winning duo who also worked on "Dear Evan Hansen").  So, perhaps it was less of a surprise to you when Barry pulled out his phone and triggered some background music so he could sing "Runnin' Home to You" which was sappy but still nice, especially as a lead up to Barry re-proposing to Iris.  (It also reminded me a bit of "You Will Be Found" although it's not like the idea of people being there for you isn't littered across the musical landscape. This isn't a knock, more a statement that this song felt very Pasek and Paul to me.) 
So, am I happy?  Sure. Overall it was great, and certainly proved that the cast has the chops to do this. I think that it suffered from trying to not be an all out musical episode.  It also had a jukebox musical feel, in that it was clear that the songs were written by different people and had different sensibilities, and not always in ways that made sense.  
But in the end, for all my quibbles, if all we got out of this was the "Super Friend" song, it was worth it.  

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Let Me Share My Wisdom

It's tempting, as you get older and figure out stuff, to share your wisdom as absolutes. Don't major in this. Only take notes like that. Real writers do this. It ignores the following.
1. Some lessons have to be learned. listened to a "Love and Radio" episode with someone who thought they were trans only to discover they "just" had gender disphoria, and one of the things asked was what do you think you would have listened too, and their answer was - I'm paraphrasing here - nothing.  I would not have listened to someone telling me I maybe wasn't this. In those cases, sometimes all you can do is share your story and hope it helps someone.  Not everything we share and do has to provide an absolute right answer for a younger version of 
2. I realized when talking to a younger cousin who was looking at some colleges my sister had applied to that my first response was to tell her to talk to my sister.  But sister had already (as have I, since I'm older) been out of college for some time.  It's a natural reflex.  So-and-so went there, worked there, looked at that, you should talk to them.  But let's face it.  Since I graduated college, even putting to the side the huge ginormous shifts in the economy, many things have changed.  The SAT has changed.  I applied before the common app was the big thing it is today. I mailed my college apps in.  There are things that are still the same about the college experience.  But there is a lot that changed.  So, my ability to advise incoming freshmen based on my path and my college experience is limited. 
3. Talk to enough authors and you will find there are a trillion different paths.  (I'm using authors as an example here.  Watch a "Chopped" marathon.  You'll see the same.) There are authors who got their first contract while in high school.  Authors who had six or seven careers before even trying to write.  Authors who wrote for ten years before self publishing.  Authors who published the first thing they wrote.  The point is there are lots of ways to become an author.  I can share my advice, the advice I would have given myself, but it may not be the best advice for you.  In fact, one of the things I look for in writing workshops is people who offer disclaimers.  Because people who think there's one true path are almost always wrong about how that path will work for me. 
4. My two siblings are both employed in a job that matched their college major.  However, my sister changed her major three times.  I changed my major from a more specific choice to general (aka liberal arts) because I figured out I could save myself a year of school and still have the qualifications needed to get the further degree I had planned at the time.  Having a plan is good. Being open to opportunities and figuring out what you want is an ongoing process not limited to college majors. 
5. As with so many things in life, people often tell you what they did as if it was an absolute.  I didn't major in English, they say, because what would that have done except teach me how to read, write, and communicate well.  Who needs those as job skills?  If anything the last decade or so should have taught us, it's this.  I have no idea what the job market will look like in four years. Social media jobs didn't use to exist.  Ride-sharing has changed drastically.  There are all types of jobs and skills that rise up and change.  Some of them will last.  Some won't.  Pursuing things that make you curious and interested can be satisfying in itself. 
6. People's brains are different.  Therefor the tools and techniques that are great for you, may make me bang my head against the wall.  And vice-versa.  So presenting your life hack as as all successful people do X, assumes that all successful people are like you.  And hi, I don't know you, but I'm pretty sure that's not true.  
7. People's bodies are different.  I write using a combination of handwriting (with a tech enabled pen), typing on a word processor, and touch typing on my phone.  I know folks who use dictation, do the whole first draft on their phone, do the whole first draft by hand.  How is kind of the least important part.  Getting the words down is what counts. If you do that typing with your nose, then, I raise my glass to you.  

Friday, March 17, 2017

"Greenleaf" Returns

I confess the episodes of "Greenleaf" stayed stacked up on my DVR for a bit and I only just finally got the first season completed last week, so I have not yet watched the start of season 2.  "Greenleaf" is about the Greenleaf family, who happen to be headed by a Bishop James Greenleaf and let's just say, the family business is church.  The catalyst for the first season was Grace, the lone Greenleaf who left not only the family business, but the family home and the town, but has at long last returned for her sister's funeral and bringing her daughter with her.  As you might suspect, since there were thirteen episodes in the first season, she and her daughter do not immediately return home, as Grace discovers that her sister's death was, as she had suspected, tied to having been sexually abused by her uncle, who was recently accused by another young church female.  
There are lots of other family secrets, affairs, conflicts about one's sexuality, jockey for coveted positions in church, and a secret illness.  Grace has two more siblings, both married, and they are all living in a large house together, which is very convenient for awkward family dinners. As with any family drama, there were storylines I cared more about than others, but, with the exception of Mac - the sexually abusive uncle - most of the people mean well.  They don't all want their secrets out sure, but they want good things for each other and the church, their approach to getting these things differ.  But Merle Dandridge, as Grace, is an amazing performance.  In fact there really isn't a weak link in the cast, which is full of faces that are familiar (Lynn Whitfield, Keith David, Gregory Alan Williams, Oprah Winfrey) and those that are likely new (Desiree Ross, Tye White, Benjamin Patterson). 
The other thing that I find clear, is much as USA had a run of lightly serialized shows that all took place where you might want to vacation, this fits well in the OWN brand.  The show is full of fully realized characters, and there is time in the show for characters to fully react to things.  There are moments where they sit, and process what is happening in their lives without talking.  
One of my favorite moments of the first season, happens with very little dialogue.  First season spoiler's ahead. 

Grace, before she left, was considered a wonderful preacher by many, including her father. In her absence her brother Jacob has been taking on the role of the preacher in the next generation. But Bishop James is worried Jacob's not being leaderly enough.  Then, James shoots uncle Mac in the church, and well, you can understand that the church board thinks James should take a little leave of absence.  Once of the church matriarchs suggests that Grace should step in to Grace's mom Mae, who has been convinced all along that Grace's return would spell ruin, so is not on board with the idea.  At her lady's day, Mae makes a speech, addressing the church's recent troubles and leading up, the audience knows, to her suggestion of herself for the new church preacher in the interim (she even points to herself as she references the need for a virtuous woman).  However, said church matriarch jumps to her feet in applause and turns and smiles at Grace, who is sitting in the audience, and many of the other women follow suit.  It is hard to say who is more uncomfortable, Grace or Mae as they both try to smile like this is what they wanted. 

So, I am in for the next season and ready to see what happens.  

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Three Interesting Things

1. NPR had access to the cast album from "Come From Away" (which I did not manage to get tickets to during it's DC run, and yes, I am still a little sad about that, thanks for asking), prior to it's release (it is now out and likely available on your favorite music service) and Playbill had footage of the cast recording of the song about actual real life female pilot Beverly Bass which is hopeful and, erm heartbreaking.
2. I am not thrilled to learn that US Soccer has made standing during the anthem a rule.  I wonder if being present during the anthem is also a rule for players.  And look, this is a small thing, and sure, there are rules in my job about where and when I have to be places, but legislating false patriotism is just unnecessary in my opinion, and honestly the anthem, and the flag (which is the part we're supposed to be honoring) are not made stronger by requiring that people pretend their aren't problems.  And I'm still way more irritated by flags left up in the rain. 
3. We're getting bodega cats!  The Humane Rescue Alliance has launched a program focused on cats who are not necessarily snuggly but great at deterring rodents for homeowners and businesses who have been having rodent issues. 

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Angie Thomas at Politics and Prose

All in all, it was a great night. 

Monday, March 13, 2017

NoVaTeen Book Fest

This past Saturday was NoVaTeen Book Fest and well, I can't tell you which event had my side of the metro packed, but I ended up having to wait for a second train, and as such got there a little later than planned.  But, I made it to the Stranger in the Strange Land panel with Natalie C. Andersen, Leslie Livingston, Lindsay Smith, and Ibi Zoboi.  They talked about their characters straddling worlds and cultures.  Andersen's story is about a refugee, Livingston's a young woman who is kidnapped and enslaved, Smith a Japanese American young woman sent to Japan for the summer, and Zoboi's a young woman who has just immigrated from Haiti to Detroit. 
The (Don't Fear) the Reaper Panel had Zoraida Cordova, Brendan Kiely, Nina LaCour, and Lance Rubin talking about how death featured in their books.  Cordova's features a Death Day for each bruja, Kiely's was looking at the love that you remember at the end of your life, LaCour's story is about grief, and Rubin's is about a world where we get death dates in advance.  The death date idea led to soem really intersting discussion on the panel and in the audience. 
For the mini panel segment, I went to the Q&A with Jaye Robin Brown and Katie McGarry who both talked about their books and their process to publication.  McGarry also mentioned that she had written Pushing the Limits as a standalone, but the publisher wanted it to become a series and had proposed two characters they thought would be the next couple.  (These two characters did not fall in love in the series. As a huge fan of the series, I would say that this works out fine for us all.)
The Love of the Rocks panel had Julie Buxbaum, Katie McGarry, Rafi Mittlefehldt, and Caleb Roehrig.  There was discussion of who was into mushy, smoochy stuff, and who wasn't - Buxbaum really is. Roehrig came into this more from a thrille rbackground. I confess I have grown wary of audience questions, but the teens in this panel (and others throughout the day) had good stuff.  One asked if the authors with queer characters had worried about that.  They had not, and Roehrig and Mittlefehldt both said they found writing stuff that was meaningful to them worked better and was easier to write. Another audience member asked McGarry what inspired her to write female characters that were confident in their sexuality. She thanked them for noticing and said it was important to present female sexuality as a normal thing and that people are ready to explore it at different rates and times, and that she also wrote male characters who respected that. 
The Reflection panel had Jaye Robin Brown, M-E Girard, Tiffany D. Jackson, and Will Walton, talking about the role of the perception of others in each of their books. Brown's book has a teen moving to a small town her dad warns her will not be as accepting of her out lesbian self, Girard's book is about a genderqueer teen finding that she's hit the point where everyone around her wants her to stop being who she is, Jackson's book is about a teen who was convicted of murder at age nine, and Walton's is about a teen working on coming out as gay to his family. 
And Nina Lacour did the keynote about seeing yourself reflected in fiction, about how Walter Dean Myers' Hoops had spoken to her in ways she hadn't necessarily expected and that reading widely and learning about many different kinds of people makes us all better people, people who know that we need to stand up and fight for others. 
It really is an amazing event, and I appreciate the works of the volunteers who make it happen and keep bringing authors I knew about and authors I didn't know to have on my radar but now are new faves. 

Friday, March 10, 2017

Let's Talk "Powerless"

"Powerless" apparently went through some production changes, and well, I don't know what the show looked like before, but I like what I see now. I think it's making excellent use of it's cast, and using a fun twist to make what is an office comedy.  "Powerless" takes place in Charm City, and the employees are working for a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises (a business you may have heard of before) focusing on creating products for use by people who live in cities where sueperhero/supervillian fights mean your commute was delayed, or there's falling rubble to deal with.  Sure, at it's heart perky newcomer to the office butts up against less competent than he thinks he is boss, and sardonic but competent fellow employees and team members isn't unusual, but the superhero adjacent twist gives it enough.  This show is fun.  I am a person who has watched every iteration of "High School Musical" and still thinks Vanessa Hudgens has a narrowly specific talent.  (This is not a knock, lots of actors have narrow lanes, the trick is recognizing how best to make use of it.) And this works well, I believe her as the perky new manager with great ideas about energizing her new team, who is slowly coming up against the realities of large corporate structures.  
Alan Tudyk, Danny Pudi, Ron Funches, and Christina Kirk are all great too.  The disclaimer I should perhaps offer is that I am pretty so-so about most superhero shows (they should sing for me more, I'm just saying) so people tuning in for more superhero stuff, probably won't like this.  People who wish "The Flash" just did a whole episode with Cisco and Caitlin chit chatting as they solved a problem might find this up their alley.  
So far episodes on doing things like creating rubble umbrellas, or dating when the dating pool is full of henchmen have provided enough of a superhero slant for me. 

Thursday, March 09, 2017

Three Interesting Things

1. In my podcast mania, I had heard about Missing Richard Simmons, this article looks at the reason behind and the focus of the podcast. 
2. Having read on unusual flag use in European games before, I read this piece about the use of the Confederate flag in Italian games, which I confess produced more mixed feelings for me. (other examples I have run into before (in reading) include Israeli and Palestinian flags.)
3. And on a similar theme, English Rugby fans have apparently adopted "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" as their anthem which is strange and proof that people just like singing good songs in stadiums and care very little what the words mean.  (I mean "Flower of Scotland", Scotland's sporting song of choice is not cheery, but it's about war, which seems a more apt metaphor, than funerals, but I mean, okay, it's still about death, so fine.) So, sports fans are weird.  I think that's what we've learned now.  

Monday, March 06, 2017

Fun Book, but the Setting


I do however have nitpicky DC area thoughts:
2. They have terrible taste in cupcakes.



Friday, March 03, 2017

Top Chef: The Finale


Thursday, March 02, 2017

Three Interesting Things

1. I recently had a discussion with some folks about the twins who had different dads, and someone said, there's actually a theory that more fraternal twins might be fertilized at different times (usually close together though) and it's simply that in most cases, it's the same person providing sperm, so who would know.  Anyway, that conversation was brought back to me by this article about superfetation - which is more common in other mammals - but can happen in humans where the body just doesn't turn off the we're pregnant no new eggs stuff, and you can in fact get pregnant again while pregnant.  Super rare, but possible. 
2. DC has a third grader up for nomination in the Goodle Doodle competition
3. This story on a children's author who was detained on her arrival into the US to be the keynote speaker at a conference is a reminder that we don't have to deport people to make visiting us really, really uncomfortable.