爬墙云翻

Salt of the Earth - 1954, Black and White. I couldn't find captions on this library DVD.

A story of a miners' strike in New Mexico, told by Esperanza, who is the wife of a miner. Feminist, anti-racist, pro-union story, that was black listed by Hollywood. Recommended! I super enjoyed this and wish this was shown as a classic film in college classes. Content notes: police brutality, Catholic religion.

ETA: It's on YouTube legally http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE1oKQCwwo4

Aquaman - also a library DVD.

Very silly and fun, not to be taken seriously, and probably very forgettable, but the effects were nice. Was definitely too long. I do appreciate that there are indigenous actors in this big-budget film.

Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind

I don't think I'd seen this before, and it was entertaining and well done, but the characters we so thinly sketched, and the story was so simple, that it left me a bit cold. The slow pace relies on the creepiness of the aliens, and the special effects, which were state of the art 1977.

Richard Dreyfuss plays ordinary "every man" Roy Neary. He has a close encounter with aliens and subsequently develops an obsession with them. He compulsively draws a figure that turns out to be a clue about how to find the aliens' landing site. Prior to this encounter, he seemed to be a happily married father, though we get few details here. The behaviors he exhibits seem to be out of his control, and at the end he basically fucks off to go on a space adventure with the aliens, abandoning Earth and his family. I'm not sure what I as a viewer am supposed to take from this story.

Things blooming right now!

Orange day lilies, I believe they are called Tiger lilies. Stella d'Oro day lilies, which are a popular city plant with a bright yellow flower.

Bird's foot trefoil, which is a low-lying ground cover with a very cheerful yellow flower, sometimes seen along roadsides and in pastures. This plant is a Nitrogen fixer I think.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_corniculatus

Milkweed! The only food source for Monarch caterpillars. There appear to be many varieties of milkweed; the ones around here have soft, broad leaves and a purple flower.

The spaghetti squash that I planted in the back have a few flowers.

Coming into fruit right now are mulberries. I found some in the neighborhood and picked them. They taste a bit like tart cherries.

I'm definitely bored. It's not that I can't think of anything to do: it's that I don't really want to do those things, which is probably because of being lonely, sad, and/or tired. I'd rather do things with other people.

I miss books to prisoners a lot. So today I made sure it was OK to go into the space, and I went in and opened up boxes of donations. It felt so good just to do something useful, even if my back was cranky about it. I'll probably go in again tomorrow.

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A Secret Love - Netflix

This is a documentary about 2 older lesbians. I turned it off after 5 minutes, because it was giving time and voice to the homophobic relatives, which I found super irritating.

Douglas - comedy special by Hannah Gadsby - Netflix

Lovely and fun. She basically gives content notes at the beginning of the performance. Really enjoyed some of her use of language, like "pufferfish" meaning to react strongly and quickly to some minor annoyance.

Circus of Books - Netflix

A fascinating documentary that I'm still thinking about. The film maker, Rachel Mason interviews her parents, who are a straight Jewish couple who for decades ran a gay sex/porn shop in LA. They saw a business opportunity and took it, then just kind of kept running it out of momentum I guess? The husband/father (Barry) is a very easy-going, chill kind of guy. The wife/mother (Karen) is more complicated and difficult. Mason also talks to store employees, porn industry people, and her brothers.

One of her brothers is gay and the mom had a problem with it due to her conservative Jewish background. This was so odd? I mean i guess compartmentalization and all that, but it seemed like up until the brother came out to his parents, Karen seems to lack political awareness or an activist mindset. Some time afterwards, she and Barry joined PFLAG.

I wish Rachel Mason had pushed harder here, and raised the issue of appropriation. If you are profiting from the queer community, even modestly, don't you have a responsibility towards that community? Aren't there ethical issues with hiring and supervising people, with putting money into gay porn movies, with buying stock for your store, if you don't fully support what you are doing? This wasn't explored enough.

Still, I enjoyed this film, it was fun to watch.

We had about 3 days of Spring, and now it's hot and muggy. Too hot for me, but the plants like it. Today I moved some more house plants outside. I started a few spaghetti squash from seed and planted them in the back. Lilacs and Wild Rocket are blooming.

Today my roommate and I saw two Sandhill Cranes with two chicks. The chicks looked half-grown already, despite the cool Spring. They were lounging under a Willow tree near the convention center. I turned my car around and drove back for another look.

WisCon was all online this year; a combination of live youtube streams, Discord chats, and Zoom room parties. I loved the vid show, which worked pretty well. I liked being able to watch panels after the fact and from the comfort of my home. I didn't spend much time on the Discord, which was a little overwhelming. Rebecca Roanhorse, the guest of honor, seems thoughtful, funny, and kind. She spoke about using reading and writing for survival.

Attending online means I didn't get to see many friends except on Zoom calls, but overall it was much less exhausting to experience a con this way. WisCon always feels like it feeds my soul, and I did get a bit of that this year too.

Had a few hard days lately. What suited my mood was watching a certain type of movie about sports and consensual violence.

Warrior - 2011

I feel like I've written about "Warrior" before? Maybe? It is on Hulu in the US right now and stars Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, and Jennifer Morrison who was in "House" and "Once upon a time". I absolutely love this movie.

In some ways this is a very silly movie about people struggling with masculinity and with a dysfunctional family. These men can't work out their emotions and relationships so they do it via MMA (mixed martial arts) fighting. The plot is elevated, however, by excellent acting, editing, and other movie magic elements, so the film is just so affecting and emotional. It is a wonderful example of a sports film. It's 2 hours and 20 min but I was glued to the screen the whole time, absolutely invested.

Tommy (Tom Hardy) shows up at his dad's doorstep in Pittsburgh. Pops used to be a real asshole but is now reformed. Tommy doesn't want a relationship with his dad, he just wants his dad to train him so he can fight and win. Tom Hardy is a very physical actor, and so interesting to watch; he moves like a tiger, head down, huge shoulders prowling towards you. You feel that at any moment he's going to bust out of his cage and cause mayhem.

Meanwhile in Philadelphia, Brendon, Tommy's estranged brother, is living a pretty straight-laced suburban life. He has a family and is a high school physics teacher. He's hurting for money and is in danger of losing his house, due to medical bills for one of the kids. He used to be a UFC fighter, and picks up a fight to earn some quick cash. When he shows up to school with a black eye, he gets suspended. So he decides to do some more fighting and gets himself a professional trainer. Brendon has a different fighting style, very controlled, technical, patient.

Both brothers will compete for a one-time, 5 million dollar MMA prize, being offered in Atlantic City.

There is a plot twist involving Tommy's time in the military, which I won't spoil for you.

Content notes: alcoholism, brief mention of past spousal abuse. People beating the shit out of each other in the ring.

Today's Shower Thoughts are about how tattoos and piercings might be a form of gender expression.

Although such things are very common in my community, I've resisted tattoos, piercings, even hair dye. I feel about them much the same way I do about makeup: looks good on other people, but don't want it anywhere near my skin.

As a friend pointed out else-net, we don't really know what gender *is*. It could be anything.

I marathoned through all the available episodes of "911". The 1st and 3rd seasons are on Hulu, and I went to some shady website to watch the 2nd season since the library is not really an option at the moment. This is the original series for which "911 Lonestar" (which I watched previously) is the spinoff.

This is an over-the-top drama with lots of ridiculous situations, but it is largely fun and undemanding, the characters are endearing, and there is a diverse cast. I like that it's about rescues and trying to help people.

In particular, I love the friendship between Athena (Angela Bassett), and Hen (Aisha Hinds). Hen (short for Henrietta) is a married lesbian EMT, and Athena is a cop who is having family drama: her husband has just come out as gay. They are both tremendously good actors, and it's so heartening to see this friendship between two competent black women. Tracie Thoms plays Karen, Hen's wife, who is a PhD-level scientist.

In the first season, Connie Britton plays Abby, a 911 dispatcher, who has an adorable romance with a much younger firefighter. In the second season, there's a new 911 dispatcher played by Jennifer Love Hewitt. All these women are age 40 or older, which is so great!! Some of them play characters who are younger than the actors which is the opposite of how it usually is in Hollywood.

There are a couple of characters with disabilities, played by disabled actors. There's an Asian-American firefighter, and a Latinx one. I particularly love Chimney, played by Kenneth Choi (Morita in the MCU!). He is super charming.

The two white guys on the show are pretty boring, and/or obnoxious, and the writers need to stop with the man pain and women in refrigerators. Bobby, the fire captain, hits all the points on this one: alcoholic, failed to save his family from a fire, has Catholic guilt, keeps secrets. Luckily this is mostly resolved by season 2.

Positives:
--Lesbian and gay characters, characters of color, disabled characters.
--Characters who are good people and try to do the right thing.
--Some humorous moments
--Found/created family at the firehouse
--Pretty quick pacing, although that may be down to the fact that I watched it very quickly. If I was annoyed with a plot line, it usually wrapped up fast and moved onto something else.

Negatives:
--Occasional body horror
--OTT drama both in the characters personal lives, and in the rescue situations.
--Women in Refrigerators / man pain
--A bit of "inspirational disabled kid"
--Super-speed healing for injured characters
--Some fat phobia in one episode

Misc content notes:
--suicide/ self-harm, domestic violence and stalking, blood, cheating, cancer, death, lots of medical things, natural disasters.

My brother N. says he is able to make face masks, but not sure who needs them. He lives in a small city in Northern Wisconsin, and he's not an internet person. He's an engineer and has 3D printers both at home and at work.

Anyone know info I can send on to him?