Wow. That was racist.

( cut for spoilers )

I finally got around to watching this fabulous video.

Excuse me while I check out everything else they've done.




Unrelated except for the awesomeness, but Little Mosque on the Prairie is on Hulu and I will finally be able to catch up on it (assuming I can get myself to stop watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). If you haven't seen this adorable Canadian sitcom and you have access to Hulu, WATCH IT. WATCH IT NOW. Because who doesn't need a series about a lawyer-turned-imam from Toronto moving to a small Canadian town and hijinks ensue? I ask you.

I don't know what I'd do without The Mary Sue, which linked me to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, aka what would happen if Lizzie Bennet lived in 2012 and decided to do a video blog about her life (plus a tumblr, plus twitter, plus facebook...). It's hilarious, and the writing & acting are really superb. As entertainment, I highly recommend it.

As a Jane Austen fan who overanalyzes the shit out of things, I have thoughts.
( Read more... )

This was something I thought about when writing about whiteness and Legend of Korra, but I don't know much about it so I didn't bring it up: skin whitening products.

I have more thoughts, but they border dangerously close to table-flipping rantfests on subjects I can never fully understand because I am a pasty pale white person. (It also feels immature to bitch about Tumblr behind Tumblr's back. Because Tumblr...has feelings? I don't even know.)

So there you go. Your hilari-tragic link of the day.

Awesomely cool watching along/analysis of the first two Korra eps. I thought it was really interesting how they connected the evolution of bender privilege with the status of benders in the first series.

I gotta ask, though - am I the only one convinced Amon has an agenda that's separate from the Equalist agenda? /sits alone and lonely in her conspiracy theory corner

( Legend of Korra and race )

I've depressed myself with this. Time for some Jay Smooth.

That. Was epic. Holy goodness. I love it when Community fucks around with genre. When the credits started rolling, I was like "Best. Episode. EVER!"

And then I thought about it some more, and I got a little pissed.

( Spoilers )

The first ten minutes had me worried. Lucas is basically King Midas of shitty dialogue, and I felt it was especially egregious in the beginning of the film. He was showing and telling at the exact same time, like the film was supposed to be for 5 year olds, and setting things up so hamhandedly that I was all ready to go: "...god damn it, Lucas, why do you do this to us?" (with appropriate raegface).

Then it got awesome, mostly due to the incredibly talented cast. By the end of the movie, I was sick from sobbing and too much popcorn - the best kind of sick to be, honestly. It packed one hell of an emotional wallop, even though 75% of the time I knew what was coming.

I have my quibbles with it - the Sofia storyline was cheap emotional manipulation; in a movie full of well-rounded characters, the lone woman had less humanity than a Disney animal sidekick; and the music could be eye-rollingly overwrought - but the rest of the movie is strong enough that they really are just quibbles. If I had friends who lived less than an hour away, this is totally a film I would drag them to see in theaters.


My only regret seeing in the theater was the previews. Normally? My favorite part of the movie. But when you're a pacifist anti-racist feminist going to see a war movie...yeeeeeeah. One had an interesting sci-fi premise except the lone female character's role was princess in the tower futuristic space prison. Another had humor and an all-black cast, but was premised on such hetero/sexist ideas that I wanted to barf ("Act like a woman. Think like a man.). There was the preview for Battleship, where a Hispanic woman shared the Mystic Foresight of her grandfather in a wonderful show of romantic racism. And then there was a film whose sole selling point seemed to be real Active Navy SEALS were the actors, and had a bunch of white guys blowing shit up to save a captured female soldier and beating up a (brown) terrorist and I honestly have no fucking idea what the plot is except BLOW SHIT UP and TERRORISM and YAY WHITE AMERICAN MEN.


So seriously, everyone, go see Red Tails. We need more films like this in the world, and less films like everything else they fucking advertised.


This is Avatar Korra, and she approves of this message.

Title: The Book of Mormon
Book, Music, & Lyrics By: Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone
On Broadway: Yes
If you liked: South Park, Spamalot

I've been meaning to check out The Book of Mormon for awhile. I am the anti-thesis of a South Park fan, but I had heard such amazing things about it, and the interview with Jon Stewart peaked my interest. So when I discovered that the album was available on Spotify, I gave it a listen.

My feelings are… extremely mixed.

( Cut for spoilers )

( Review by song )

I should never, ever be allowed to title things.

As an almost pathologically non-confrontational person, my first instinct is to preface this post with apologies and "No, I'm not a hater!" while waving my fandom cred card (which, sadly, is still in the mail).


But going through that spiel would distract from the real points that I’m trying to make and possibly take the conversation in a direction I have no interest in. It also assumes that the Parks & Recreation fandom is full of mean people, which has not been my experience so far. (Y'all are full of love, and I love you for it.)

So instead, I am going to direct those who are unfamiliar (or simply curious) about social justice issues to this article and this video.

I’ll just chill out here while you read/watch and, when you’re ready, I’ll tell you where I think Parks & Recreation is seriously dropping the ball on being progressive tv.

( Come, join me through the looking glass! )