A Touch of Evil, film noir by O. Welles, 1958

Adaptation of the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson.  

Director: Orson Welles

Producer: Albert Zugsmith and rick Schmindlin (1998 restauration and director's cut)

Dark Angel, series

Dark Angel is a 2 seasons series in which the super sexy actress Jessica Alba impersonnates Max, a genetically engineered super soldier who escaped from her military camp as a child. 

Season 1

Max works as an employee of the Jam Pony mail delivery service with her hot lesbian friend Original Cindy. In their world, a strike caused the economy to collapse and most people live quite poorly, which is why Max uses her superhuman abilities to steal from the rich and give to herself.
 During one of her robberies she comes across a guy named Logan, who is able to witness her uncany habilities. Logan uses his riches to broadcasts informations the corrupted ones would rather keep a secret by hacking into the news system undercover as Eyes Only. 

 His lower superior brain instantly understands that Max could be a magnificent girlfriend ally and asks her for her help. However Max refuses, which eventually results in Logan being shot and loosing the ability to walk. 

But when she discovers that Logan can help her locate the 11 other Manticore soldiers that escaped with her years ago, Max decides to help, and thus starts doing errands for Eyes Only, who's now stuck in a wheelchair thanks to the misses. 

This season can pretty much be summed up by Max searching for the other runnaways, eventually finding some and having to part from them, some flashbacks about her sad childhood as X5-452 in Manticore, Logan turning all emo about being stuck in a wheelchair and both of them falling in love with each other but being to stubborn too admit it.

Season 2

It starts with a burnt down Manticore and the escape of all transgenics. The government, who paid for the secret project with public taxes, doesn't want it revealed and asks Mr. White to kill them all. So at first, Max and Logan's tasks is to hide all the transgenics their find, from the part-man part-dog Joshua to the X5 Alec.

Only that Mr. White is also working for some kind of cult who breeds transgenics by selecting mating partners. When his son, who was the result of one of those breedings, is kidnapped by Max at her mothers' demand, he decides exposure is worth it to retrieve his child.

Thus the transgenics' presence is officially revealed and the public decides lynching them is the way to go. The series ends with the trangenics regrouping under a flag to fight for their right to live.

Overall

The  series had a great potential. The idea of a super sexy super strong fighting chick isn't new but hell, who would complain about Jessica Alba rocking the world. And let's not even get me started on Jensen Ackles.

Basically, it's a canon series with everything a good geek needs to feel happy: gorgeous girls who goes in heat and lesbians on motocycles, improbable fighting, guns, genetic engeneering, an apocalyptic future, weird-looking super monsters, good people above the law, a geek who's not only an undercover superheroe but also a super-smart super-brave hacker good-looking enough to tame the wild and beautiful superwoman they can identify with... It's almost a SuperBatCatPr.Xman Marvel comix.

However, the main story is quite weak, as most of the characters we meet disappear almost instantly (remember Americans, the solution to all your problems is going to Canada). That keeps the focus on Max but is also kind of illogical regarding her goal, as she almost always ends sending away, turning down or even killing the members of her escapee "family". However, this is less relevant in season 2, were the recurring characters of Alec and Joshua are intruced to stay.
And also, what is that about Max and Logan not being able to "get busy" because of a "right time" or a freaking virus? Guys guys guys, if you want to let a geek boy viewer dream about being the only one who ever (dream) banged miss Alba, please at least learn about subtlety. 

I also think the characters are quite shallows.
Max quickly turns from a strong willing and independent wildcat into a fragile, emotionally driven kitten (okay, maybe I'm exagerating, but only a little).
Logan is... actually, I'm not sure we even know why Logan does such a dangerous job as Eyes Only. Plus, come on man, you stoped killing yourself because who saw water drop from your ceiling? How not serious were you about commiting suicide?
Max friends have little or no background.
Joshua is quite cool, and his weirdly found interest in painting kinda nice actually, but the fact that only freaks / blind girls would talk to him is a bit pessimistic from my point of view.
Alec's story is disappointing. It looks like suddenly the writers discovered that he had the potential to attract fangirls (which is so true), so they cooked him a sickening sad romantic background. Which could have worked, actually, as Jensen Ackles is just that pretty, had they not insisted on Max kicking his ass each time she had the opportunity to do so (don't worry Jen, we still love you). Moreover, the more Max kicks him the more Alec likes her. X5 turned into a masochistic kitten, take 2.

To conclude, great ideas (for a comic), gorgeous actors, not that great a series.

A Very Potter Musical / A Very Potter Sequel, by the Starkids

The Starkids are a bunch of crazy godamn good singers from the University of Michigan. "A Very Potter Musical", originally untitled "Harry Potter: The Musical", was born on April of 2009 as a two act parody, from this very grave wondering: "did Draco have a crush on Hermione in the Order of the Pheonix Book?". After its successful release on Youtube, "A Very Potter Sequel" followed on the 22nd of July 2010 (see more info. here, and here).

THE trans narrative? not my narrative, by Eli

This is a message about transgenderism from "eli. 22. demisexual. open to all identities and embodiments. poly. queer. subversive. human. fourth year psych & soc student. pro-women. pro-choice. pro-lgb/t/q/. sex & body-positive. political. radical. philosophical. ex-christian. sensitive. empathetic. egalitarian. writer. depression, usually triggered by college stress."

It is very interesting to read, and highlights the fact that little information often gives the people the wrong idea about things such as gender, as it happens with female-to-male transgender Chaz Bono being the main voice, "THE narrative" of transgenderism: not every trans lived that same experience, says Eli. 

It also shows us how NOT definite our gender is at birth, and how people try to understand it by blaming it on external causes. Gender isn't even defined by genitals, as turning into a male won't make Eli less of a "non-binary identified person". Eventually, Eli concludes that even if it wasn't always easy, being trans "has been fucking awesome", whereas being denied an identity, either physical (for instance sexual) or spiritual (religious for instance) was painful.

My own conclusion would thus be that if people can be made happy by being allowed a choice, making them sad by denying them said choice out of misunderstanding or fear is very... well, very human, in a non-rational, non-positive kind of way. It's "mammal" human, and I think an auto-proclaimed "superior" species should know better.

Quoted from xthread, from Woven Together

so i usually almost always just reblog stuff and save my personal thoughts and wrestling-with-the-self type stuff for more private mediums, but i’m thinking today i want to tumble.  i have been reblogging quite a bit recently that speaks directly to my current life situation, not just the things i agree with or the ideologies i hold, so i want to get into that. also, be gentle with me. part of the reason i don’t like blogging my own personal stuff on tumblr is because ya’ll aren’t that gentle, and i’m a tenderoni that needs to be handled with care. kay?

recently (as in, last week) i had a conversation with my mom about beginning hormone therapy (which should happen in august!).  i’m a (more or less) non-binary* identified person but have been going by he/him/his for over three years now and have been “male” in presentation this whole time. since this is such a huge shift from how i used to present and identify years prior (which was pretty feminine in the socially-legitimated sort of way), everyone in my life took notice. but that doesn’t mean that everyone opened dialogue with me surrounding it, though many did- just not my parents. so this conversation has been a long time coming.

in the back of my mind i always kind of recognized that testosterone would be the only thing with the ability to signal to my parents “hey i’m serious”, and that has really frustrated me. not taking t/ having surgery/ dressing in 100% “male” clothes/ etc are all legitimate ways for a cafab person to express a male gender and/or nonbinary gender. but i didn’t really believe it until last week when i brought up testosterone and my mom pretty much told me she didn’t want me to be a man, completely erasing 1) my inner gender identity, which i have taken time to explain in recent weeks, and 2) my way of living in the world the last three years.

and this is where i want to talk about how “the” trans narrative hurts me. 

i don’t want to make this about chaz bono, but he has to be mentioned because of a reason i am about to get to. chaz has received (i’m sorry) WAY too much media attention—simply for being the child of cher—when he is not the only trans voice, and *certainly* not MY trans* voice. he’s not only binary-identified, which i’m not, but he’s hugely sexist. his media attention is problematic for me because people are going to see him and think they understand the trans* experience (as if it’s singular) when they really have no clue (because the reality is that our lives are complex and diverse). and when i say “people” i really mean: my mom. well, at least in the context of this post.

in this dialogue with my mom around my transition there was a huge road bump: i am nothing like chaz bono. (thank god. not that there’s anything wrong with experiencing gender in that way, but, it’s just so not me.) her comments are hard to distinguish in that i can’t tell if she is more upset that i 1) wish to live in a male body now or 2) was content living in a female body previously.** or on a less-presentation-based note, that i 1) had a strong sense of femininity as a child or 2) still have a strong sense of femininity. because she believes THE narrative. and i don’t fit the narrative.

i don’t believe i was “born in the wrong body”. i didn’t hate “girly” things growing up. i am not a misogynist who detests all things associated with women or things deemed “femme” or “feminine” and in fact feel the opposite quite strongly. i didn’t “always know” i was male, nor do i identify as male now. i don’t believe there is one gender in my brain and another in my body, as chaz bono so ridiculously spouted. i believe that my mind and body are inseparable entities that interact with each other and the world as the world interacts with them; i believe that i am composed of many different genders and identities that i am only able or desiring to express at various different times. i am happy to have been raised as a girl and encouraged to be sincere, compassionate, creative and empathetic. but being raised as a girl, and enjoying femininity even today—none of that has to determine how i live now.

the thing i am coming to realize is that changing my body actually has little to do with my gender identity(ies) inside. it’s political for me, at least somewhat. i am exercising my freedom to decide for myself which shell my soul navigates the world through, and, essentially, whether this shell has facial hair or not (although it’s a little more complicated than that). i don’t see myself as “female bodied” and i am not transitioning “to” anything. i don’t identify as ftm. i was given this one body, this one body i use to interact with the world around me, and this body has a vagina. and because of that many other people interpret my body as a “female” body. but that doesn’t make my BODY female; at the very least, it makes my *genitals* female (and even then…). there is so much overlap between “the two sexes” (ew) as far as voice pitch, fat distribution, muscle mass, bone structure, height, shoe size, genitals, literally everything— to essentialize everything down to birth sex is like, really fucking trivial. and on a note more related to characteristics, it’s even more trivial. the amount of diversity within experienced and expressed characteristics is a human experience. last time i checked, men and women (binary on purpose) were both human, so they should be able to experience a vast array of emotions/ passions/ feelings/ attractions/ needisaymore.

it hurts me that THE NARRATIVE is so pervasive, not just because it hurts me in itself, but because it hurts me to know i am hurting others by not even remotely fitting it. i mean, they didn’t choose to internalize the blank-to-blank narrative; it’s just the only easily accessible narrative about trans* people. my mom is upset that i “misled” her into believing i was content within my femininity; that i “didn’t show signs” from an early age. in her world, the only *legitimate* way to be trans* (or gay or queer) is by an outside force (be it genetic or environmental) that pushed you into it. to be created this way (in an essentialist way, not in a way that suggests i’ve actively created myself this way). she has tried to pinpoint it to being raised with brothers. to sexual assault i experienced as a child. family members have tried to pinpoint it to my dad having had always wanted his first child to be a boy, and for treating me like one. for my mom’s pregnancy stress washing me in a testosterone bath. for so many things i had no control over.

it’s none of those things. or maybe it is. or maybe i don’t care. ha, i mean, i don’t care. i am queer by choice, friends. i wasn’t always, and there was a time i intensely hated myself for being nonnormative. but those times are in the past. i want to scream from graffitied urban buildings: I’VE NEVER BEEN HAPPIER. i’ve legitimately never been happier. i have broken so many boxes; i have shattered so much shame; i have triumphed over so much turmoil; i have pushed through so much pain. (okay WOW rhyming needs to end.) this is NOT to say that being trans* has been painful; i refuse to say my BODY has caused my pain. it hasn’t. being told i am broken was painful. being denied agency over my own sexuality was painful. being denied freedom of gender was painful. being denied freedom of religion was painful. being trans* has been fucking awesome.

and i don’t mean to say that it’s been all happiness and rainbows and unicorns—there have been times when it’s been fucking hard—but i’ve stepped into this place where i feel complete control over who i am and how i exist in the world, where outside forces are no longer playing tug-of-war with my soul… and i wouldn’t trade it for anything. i just wouldn’t.

————————————

*i’m still trying on the non-binary label. i identify mostly as a queer genderblended/ gendercolorful/ gendercreative / genderfierce trans* person. but for some reason it’s important to me to be read as male. 

** not to essentialize the male/female body differences. i don’t believe in them. i just can’t take too much time making every word perfect or i will never actually write anything, ever.

*** i still love my binary-identified trans brothers. i love those who identify as ftm, and those who identify as mtm. i love all of ya’ll. it’s just not me.

——————————————

these are some things i’ve read that have been meaningful to me lately:
- my trans* confession
- “genderqueer” adjective? noun? verb?
- toward the queerest insurrection
- for lovers and fighters
- chaz bono: almost a transgender role model
- i am not your tragic trans narrative
- i’m glad i’m faab
- the blank-2-blank model
- wrong bodies, wrong gestures
- the cost of exclusion and erasure

Loom, short movie

Orlando, 1992 movie by Sally Potter

Tilda Swinton portraying Orlando

The young aristocrat Orlando makes a promise to Queen Elizabeth the First on her death bed: in exchange for a castle and a land, he will not age neither fade... For 400 years he walks the earth, learning about death, love, poetry, politics, sex, birth... He even swiches genders at some point, learning then about the difficulties of living as a woman. 

To tell the truth, this movie puzzled me. It's quite conceptual I think, and I have not yet read the novel by Virginia Woolf it is based upon, so I might not have understood it all properly; but after seing this, I'll make sure to read it. It is quite fun, actually, and sad, too, but always in a subtle, kind of intemporal way, as if the story was passing by as a rivers do. To feel it, you have to let yourself get carried by the flow.

Epic moment

Shelmerdine arrives grandly, riding a magnificent black horse from the blurs of the fog to the open air; then his beautiful stalion magnificently rears, jerking Shelmerdine off the saddle to the ground, his mouth tightly embracing the mud, his hair a mess, right in from of Orlando, who was also streched over the grass.

SHELMERDINE : You're hurt ma'am?

ORLANDO: I am dead sir.

SHELMERDINE: Dead. That's... serious; can I help?

ORLANDO: Will you marry me?

SHELMERDINE: Ma'am I would glady but hum, but I fear my hankle is... twisted.

My absolute favourite part of the movie is Tilda Swinton. I already enjoyed her acting in the Constantine (...), but here, she's also breathtaking. Her habit of impersonating (splendidly) both men and women is admirable. And the deep of her changing black from clear-blue eyes has a certain way of always astonishing me.

Tilda Swinton as Gabriel in the Constantine

So that's what happened! G. Lucas Strikes back, short movie

And I who wondered what had happened to that marvelous script of the first Star War trilogy. I'm all relieved now -let's go kick some ass! (plus, two thumbs up for striper Leia. Yummy.)

More videos by Slick Gigolo here.

The Importance of Being Earnest

The play: "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People" brought to you by Oscar Wilde (1895)

To preserve his intimacy when in town, Jack has himself pass for a so-called Earnest. He also tells his relatives whom reside in the country that he is visiting his fictitious brother he also nicknamed Earnest. However, when Gwendolen, the town woman he wishes to marry, insists on loving him because of his being named Earnest, things get a bit complicated; when his friend Algernon proposes to Jack's pupil as his pretense brother Earnest, events turn a tat tricky; when both fake Earnests meet in the countryward, having both proposed under this name to different women, who eventually meet, meeting also with Algernon's severe Aunt Agatha, a lightheaded baby stealer and a shy priest, it all becomes somewhat chaotic...

Though severe, Aunt Agatha is one of the wittiest characters of the play and her dark puns are delightful.

2002 Movie

This movie hightlights the play by adding to the fun of the original script through visual images such as a fierce riding knight when Cecily daydreams, turning the priest into an adorating paintor, giving us an interpretation of Aunt Agatha's... past, etc. The actors are great and the result, delightful.

 

Some Epic Quotes

AUNT AGATHA: To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

AUNT AGATHA: I must confess that I feel somewhat bewildered by what you have just told me. To be born, or at any rate bred in a handbag, whether it have handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life which reminds one of the worst excesses of the French revolution, and I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to?

JACK: You have been christened already.

ALGERNON: Yes but I haven't been christened for years!

ALGERNON: The doctors found out that Bunbury could not live, that is what I mean - so Bunbury died.

LADY BRACKNELL: He seems to have had great confidence in the opinion of his physicians. I am glad, however, that he made up his mind at the last to some definite course of action, and acted under proper medical advice.

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest. Additional 37948, f. 109v. Copyright © The British Library

 > Read the play. 

Latte Art

Free Pouring By Scottie Callaghan in 2006

Latte art sprout all over the world thanks to the inventing of expresso machinery and microfoam (insertion of air in milk leading to milk texturing or "velvet foam"). It might have originated in Italy, and developped in Seattle in the 1980s, credits going to David Schomer at his shop Expresso Vivace. 

 Etching Latte Art by Sammy Lin

To create Latte Art, one needs to know how to deal with the conception of the coffee and of the foam, controling temperatures and speed ; some use free pouring to create the art, while others rather use a tool to carve into the foam.

 Fun Latte art depiction from the Uncyclopedia.