Ombailamos

what DVRs were made for!

For the true addict, or student, or just dance lover: you can now see repeats of So You Think You Can Dance in primetime, Fri-Sun, on Ovation. And you can also now see repeats of Dancing with the Stars in primetime Fri-Sat and Sunday afternoons, on GSN (Game Show Network).

I stumbled across this latter phenomenon this weekend. Judging from the promos they were running during commercial breaks, GSN has acquired at least half of the seasons to date, and I see no reason to suppose they haven't bagged them all.

It just so happens that due to some technological connectivity engineered by Mr. P, I am the proud bootlegger of all except Season 1 of DWTS. Back in the mists of time, Season 1 was probably considered a throwaway. They had a tiny cast (compared to recent seasons) and it was over in a flash.

But lo and behold, a cultural phenomenon was born and now we have at least three dance-oriented TV series in any given year. I think this is awesome. When I was a kid, the only dancing I could see on TV was on the series "Fame" or on PBS broadcasts of the Lawrence Welk Show or of Hollywood musicals.

Also, of course, with cable and satellite TV and other media, the average person now has near-instant access to the hundreds of dance-oriented movies made over the years.

There is still stuff, of course, that is very difficult to find. Like a French near-silent movie called "le Bal" that I saw (in France) and finally found on a very expensive imported VHS. Or Sally Potter's excellent "The Tango Lesson," still unavailable on DVD.

But that's what it means to be a fan, I guess. Those oddities and rarities stick in your mind and in between "fixes" there is the mass market. Which has, happily, gotten a lot broader.

Now if ESPN would just schedule DanceSport competitions ... we would have to upgrade the DVR.

Quick note on dance movies: not long ago I picked up the DVD of "Love 'n Dancing," which is mostly about West Coast Swing and is kind of a romance and kind of an after-school special about the hearing-impaired, has a few very good dance performances at the end and those are the only reason I've kept the thing.

More recently I got something called "Leading Ladies," which I never heard of before it showed up in my Amazon recommendations. It stars Melanie LaPatin and Benji Schwimmer and it is, I am happy to report, a Good Movie. It is funny and dramatic and sweet, and while the characters are slightly over-the-top a la Strictly Ballroom, the movie loves them. Plus, not only does it contain one really excellent number with Benji, it is about dancing as much as it is about anything else. And there is a lot else going on.

Full disclosure: there are gay characters in this movie and the central romantic relationship is between two women. If that's an issue, don't search this one out. But if you like a classic coming-of-age story combined with a classic show-business story, I recommend it.

reading roundup: November-December 2011

I had a somewhat unsatisfactory reading pace during the last two months of the year. Just too much going on, and unable to block out the time required to do what I like to do, which is to read (on average) 2.8 books a week ... I managed a mere 2.5 average over the course of the year, tsk tsk.

I plan to embark soon on a binge (to clear a particular collection) which should set me up nicely for the first two months of 2012!

November: 118. Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. 119. The Return of Tarzan, by E.R.B. I love adventure stories and these are typical of the great turn-of-the-19th century style. 120. A Study in Sherlock, ed. L.R. King; short stories, all entertaining, some excellent - especially one by Jan Burke featuring WWI vets in the U.S. 121. The Aztec News, by History News. Graphic-style paperback history of the Aztec empire. Very impressive - as well as entertaining. 122. Helm, by Steven Gould (author of "Jumper"). Well-written SF coming of age story. If you liked "Ender's Game" or "The Chronicles of Prydain" you would enjoy this. 123. Saint Peter's Wolf, by Michael Cadnum. A werewolf story, not actually a whole lot of fun. 124. The Vanished Library, by Luciano Canfora. A scholarly detective work, looking at the various Bronze Age to Medieval stories about the possibly imaginary great library of Alexandria.

December: 125. Sex, Lies & Litigation, by Tyne O'Connell. British chick lit featuring a novice barrister. Fluff, and is drinking too much still considered cute in England? 126. Tell Me Lies, by Jennifer Crusie. Continuing the library clear-out (all JC are now on kindle so I can get them again if I reallyreally need to!). 127. Animal Attraction, by Jill Shalvis. Solid romance. 128. Coming Home for Christmas, by Carla Kelly. Linked historical romance novellas, her usual good work. 129. I Heard God Laughing, poems by Hafiz rendered by Daniel Ladinsky, lovely. 130. The Cinderella Deal, by Jennifer Crusie. One of my favorites of hers. 131. Crazy For You, by Jennifer Crusie. 132. Journals and Letters of Frances Burney. This was, I think, the first thing I bought for my Kindle and I have just now finished it! FB was the subject of my master's thesis and I am reminded just how admirable a woman (and writer) she was.

the virtue of Lisbeth Salander

So I hear there is some backlash against "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Some pollster discovered that a lot of women don't want to see it because of the story's violence against women.

I'll bet a lot of those women have no problem seeing despicable trash like "Saw" or "Final Destination" or "Friday the 13th," but we'll let slide the hypocritical assertion that that sort of violence "doesn't count" because it's not realistic.

A lot of women have read the Stieg Larsson books, because women drive bestsellers in the U.S., and they were all bestsellers. I have read all three, and I have seen all three Swedish movies based on them (excellent movies, by the way, and Noomi Rapace is absolutely brilliant).

Yes, the book upon which the movie is based is very long; very convoluted; a wee tad bit preachy; tends to glorify its protagonist, the noble crusader of a journalist; and contains some very nasty, very realistic, and quite explicit descriptions of violence against women.

However, it is also the highly unusual portrait of a complete nonconformist who - contrary to the bulk of most popular fiction - doesn't get punished for it in the end, or rescued by a hero, or otherwise infantilized. Yes, she takes a lot of damage, but in a way that makes her the equal of any great male protagonist. She literally fights her way through this story.

Here is the one real takeaway that I would like female moviegoers to consider: the character of Lisbeth Salander, who has been described as autistic, antisocial, and worse, is the quintessence of self-reliance.

She does not expect anyone to take care of her, because manifestly no one ever has. She trusts almost no one. She prepares. If her strategies and tactics take her outside the law, she doesn't apologize for it, because the law has been her oppressor. She does not expect things to work out in her favor. She takes what she needs. She arms herself. She knows that a 90-pound woman is no match for a 200-pound man, no matter how good her martial skills are, without a weapon.

If you think women ought to be prepared to defend themselves against the myriad assaults we can endure (the statistics are staggering) there is just one scene in the Swedish version of "Dragon Tattoo" that every woman ought to see. It is a scene in a subway exit when a mugger proposes to take Lisbeth down. Her response is a flurry of what may seem excessive violence.

But here's the thing: it's effective. She does exactly what she needs to do to disable the mugger so that she can get away. She doesn't then gratuitously kill him, though clearly she could.

She is like an animal. She will hurt you as much as she needs to, to save herself.

That's where most women fail, and that's why I wish a lot of women would see - if not the U.S. adaptation, please, the Swedish - "Dragon Tattoo." That is what you have to do, ladies. You can't be afraid of hurting someone who is proposing to rob or rape you. You have to hurt that person badly enough to stop him (it is usually a him, let's face it). And then you have to get away.

All too often, we women find ourselves in danger. We need to channel Lisbeth and make it stop. (Of course, we also need to stop having kids with drunkards, thieves, and gamblers; we need to stop staying with abusive bastards because "he didn't mean it;" we need to stop playing the "girl" card to get out of doing hard work; and we need to stop pretending that a weekly step class is keeping us fit.)

Mostly we just need to stop accepting that it is ever okay to be assaulted. It isn't. Ever.

You don't have to try to "relate" to Lisbeth. You don't want that kind of life, so you don't want to be that character. You don't have to find her sympathetic. But if you really think about what she represents as a character - not as a potential friend, or the stereotypical American movie heroine "girl next door" we're all supposed to aspire to be - I think your appreciation of the stories wound around her will be magnified.

reading roundup: September-October 2011

Went on two reading binges during this two-month period. I have almost filled my reading journal, which means I get to start a new one in 2012!

92. One Grave Too Many by Beverly Conner. Good writing with good characters, but the small-town setting worked my last nerve. 93. Naked in Death by J.D. Robb. The very good start to the Eve Dallas series. From 1995! This series has legs! 94. Glory in Death by J.D. Robb. Also: Midnight in Death, a novella. 95. Ceremony in Death by J.D. Robb. 96. Portrait in Death by J.D. Robb. 97. Reunion in Death by J.D. Robb. (All of the above, in paperback, now removed from the permanent collection. I did add "Portrait" to my Kindle because it's a really strong entry all around.) 98. Star Trek: Cast No Shadow, by James Swallow. 99. Pirate King, by Laurie R. King. In which Russell & Holmes embark on a brigantine chock full of actors and pirates; mayhem/intrigue ensues. 100. New York to Dallas, by J.D. Robb. 101. Heat Rises, by "Richard Castle." Maybe a guilty pleasure? I enjoy the mind-trip of a mystery series "written by" a TV series character. This one starts a bit slow and disorganized but really comes together at the midpoint. 102. Kitty's Greatest Hits, by Carrie Vaughn. A story collection. 103. Who Goes There? by John Campbell. A novella, but such a great one it ought to count as a book. On my SF Required Reading List. 104. To the Moon & Back, by Jill Mansell. 105. Quickstep to Murder, by Ella Barrick. A frolic of a whodunit set in a D.C.-area ballroom studio. Obviously a must-read for me! And quite well done. Will watch for the next.

106. Faking It, by Jennifer Crusie. 107. Aunty Dimity's Death, by Nancy Atherton. Not really a mystery, and yet a bit mysterious. Not really a romance, and yet a bit romantic. A Cinderella story with no evil stepmother. It's a sweet little book. 108. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, by Laurie R. King. Simply brilliant. The binge begins. 109. A Monstrous Regiment of Women, by Laurie R. King. 110. A Letter of Mary, by Laurie R. King. 111. The Moor, by Laurie R. King. 112. O Jerusalem, by Laurie R. King. 113. Justice Hall, by Laurie R. King. 114. Locked Rooms, by Laurie R. King. One of my absolute favorites in this series. I advise watching the Clark Gable movie "San Francisco" while reading this. 115. The Art of Detection, by Laurie R. King. Also a top entry, in which King mixes the Russell/Holmes narrative (a continuation from "Locked Rooms") and her Kate Martinelli procedural series. 116. Bet Me, by Jennifer Crusie. One of her best, and just added to the Kindle, so the hard copy can go to the library's donation box. 117. Welcome to Temptation, by Jennifer Crusie.

Incidentally, anyone who would like a better idea of just how the Middle East got to be the mess it is, but can't bear to read The Economist, might consider reading these Laurie R. King "Mary Russell" novels as well as Elizabeth Peters' long-running "Amelia Peabody" series. There is a lot of history sneakily packed into these entertainments.

bonus link: how to choose your next SF/Fantasy book

http://www.box.net/shared/static/a6omcl2la0ivlxsn3o8m.jpg

I find this hilarious, and also accurate, which just tells you I read a lot and am a nerd. Which you already knew.

I have not read all of the books on this list by any means. But I have read A LOT of science fiction & fantasy. In fact, I just re-read "Who Goes There?" the classic novella by John Campbell, upon which various movies called variations of "The Thing" have been based. Trust me ... the story is better. I can't imagine that the latest film version will do justice to the suspense of the original. There is a lot to be said for not over-describing.

This brilliant little chart leads you, by meandering paths, down the various byways that are genre fiction. From any endpoint on this chart you could meander right back out again into mystery or romance. I love books. But you already knew that, too.

bonus link: Slate

Actually this isn't a link, it's just a recommendation. Although you can try this: http://www.slate.com/id/2301332/landing/1

On Slate.com recently, there has been a series of articles by Paul Lukas about the Manhattan Trade School for Girls. Only it's not so much about the school as it is about the girls. It's called "Permanent Record" and it is a stellar example of relevant, engaging, historical investigation and writing.

Paul found a stash of permanent records, a.k.a. report cards, in an old file cabinet marked for disposal. He saved them, and eventually started researching (pre-Internet) the students profiled in these records. The results are fascinating reading. Highly recommended!

Most of my early report cards are long gone, and even if they had survived, I don't know that they would say much about my school or my community, or how the two environments interacted.

reading roundup: July-August, 2011

69. Different Seasons by Stephen King. 70. Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz. 71. Kitty's Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn. 72. A Summer to Remember by Mary Balogh. 73. A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh. 74. The Spiral Path by Mary Jo Putney. 75. Irresistible by Mary Balogh. 76. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. 77. Endurance by Alfred Lansing. 78. How to Wash a Cat by Rebecca M. Hale. 79. Gamble by Felix Francis.

80. Stardust by Joseph Kanon. 81. Vengeance in Death by J.D. Robb. 82. Innocent in Death by J.D. Robb. 83. Fearless by Rafael Yglesias. 84. Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon. 85. Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly. 86. Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb. 87. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. 88. A Deceptive Clarity by Aaron Elkins. 89. The Giant Rat of Sumatra, or Pirates Galore by Sid Fleischman. 90. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun. 91. Now and Then by Robert B. Parker.

Highlight of July: "Endurance." What a cracking good yarn! And all, incredibly, true. In case you haven't heard of it, it's the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated 1915 attempt to cross Antarctica by land. He never even got to the continent, of course; his ship was seized and destroyed by the pack ice. 22 months later, after unending struggle, privation, misery, and what we would now call heroism, his entire crew of 28 was safely returned home. A quote:

"Unlike the land, where courage and the simple will to endure can often see a man through, the struggle against the sea is an act of physical combat, and there is no escape. It is a battle against a tireless enemy in which man never actually wins; the most that he can hope for is not to be defeated."

Highlight of August: "The Secret Garden." How is it possible I never read this before? I blame the cover art. I've seen it in bookstores all my life and always been turned off by that pastel-green wrapper with the sketch of three little kids. My preference as a young reader was always for stories about animals and/or stories of adventure. I moved into murder mysteries very young! But this ... well, it's great. Maybe I was just now ready for it. In any case, I got it for my Kindle and really loved it. A quote:

"The Robin was tremendously busy. He was very much pleased to see gardening begun on his own estate. ... Where gardening is done all sorts of delightful things to eat are turned up with the soil. Now here was this new kind of creature who ... had had the sense to come into his garden and begin at once."

link of the week: pure nonsense

http://londonist.com/2011/09/hogwarts-pupils-confounded-by-moving-platform-at-kings-cross.php

I am trying to get through 2011 without re-reading any of the Harry Potter books.  Then I see something like this and I really, really want to pull one off the shelf.  LOL

link of the week: hierarchy of disagreement

http://paulgraham.com/disagree.html

This is so damn smart I can't even get over it.  I'm tagging it in the Reading category because this is really all about how to read.  How to be objective about what you read AND about what you write.  I love it.

training your brain

During college and graduate school - the latter of which took me six years, while working full-time - I read probably close to a million pages, much of which was non-fiction.  After finishing my degree, my rate of consumption of non-fiction dropped precipitously.

And it showed.  Limiting my intake of facts to the selectively-edited and mostly context-free bits available in periodicals meant I was not building on, much less actively using, any of the store of historical and scientific information I had accumulated.  And as I've said before: use it or lose it.

My reading speed for fiction is about twice my speed for non-fiction.  My attention span for non-fiction is shorter.  This may be normal, but I don't think it's good.  I had a large library of high-quality non-fiction that went mostly untouched for over a decade.  That's not good either.

As part of my decluttering project (ongoing) I started making determinations about what I was realistically going to read and what I wasn't.  A good bit of that non-fiction left my home.  Much of it was material I had relied on for my master's thesis, and was very project-specific: not the kind of thing that would expand my mental world.  The rest, I have been slowly but determinedly tackling.

My advice for the person who is afraid their brain is turning into mush: make it easy on yourself.  Don't "force" yourself to sit down with a 1000-page history, no matter how well-reviewed, and no matter how interested you are in the subject, if you haven't made it through a few short ones first.   

It's just like training for a marathon: you don't run the whole 26 miles your first day out.  Most of us have to work our way up to the real commitments.  Or challenges. 

If you want to learn more about history, I can wholeheartedly recommend the "Don't Know Much About ... " series.  "Instant European History" was also a winner.  If you want to learn more about science, "1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Science" is a good starting point - it will provide a review of things you already know, and a primer on other branches.

What makes books like this work is their encyclopedia approach.  And by that I don't mean that they cover every single thing you might want to know - I mean they offer short treatments of essential information, easy to absorb in a single sitting.  They will not give you a deep understanding of the material, but they'll give you framework and vocabulary that will make more extensive treatments a lot easier to absorb.

After you get used to reading non-fiction, think about what subject really interests you.  For me, recently, it's the space program.  I'm combining memoirs with NASA films.  I may not pursue it in further detail, but the point is that I'll know a lot more about the history, science, and people involved than I did before.  I also just finished a great book, called "Under the Black Flag," about pirates!  For me, it's fun to know the real history behind movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean" - and also kind of fun to know how much of it the screenwriters tried to apply.

Subjects of interest are the obvious way in, but sometimes writers can surprise you.  Richard Feynman, one of the few world-famous physicists, wrote in a very engaging and accessible way and I have read quite a bit of his stuff.  On the other hand, the guys who wrote about unlocking DNA were a little on the dry side: I got through their book "The Double Helix" mostly because I already understood a lot of the science. 

You can also approach things from a tangent.  There is an inexhaustible supply of great travel and nature writing out there.  Nature leads quite naturally to science, and travel leads inevitably to history.  Coming in through the ground-level door does not make you a lazy or un-serious reader.  There's no law that says starting at the most arcane and difficult stuff makes you smart. 

In short, think of self-education as another form of fitness, and approach it the same way.  Start slow, try a lot of different things with a low commitment level, and work your way up to real challenges in the field you find most engaging.

Just as a fitness trainer should never push a client to run if the client is really interested in weight-lifting, your mental training shouldn't push you to study Elizabethan history if you're really interested in the Pacific Islands.

Generally, the more you know, the more you will be interested in.  Your range of interests is likely to expand, not contract, as your knowledge base improves, because facts have a way of pointing in unexpected directions.  This will make you a more interesting and probably more social person, with a more active and open mind.

And that's good for every kind of health.