Day: January 29, 2010

Putting Friday to bed

Just an average Friday here in New York. I caught a slightly earlier train this morning, having for some inexplicable reason woken up early and not fallen immediately back to sleep, and so I’m actually a little tired right now. I have an early-ish start of it tomorrow, making a quick visit to Washington, D.C., to celebrate my sister’s birthday (which is actually next Tuesday), so I think sleep might be called for soon.

Which is good, because other than “y’know, I’m kinda tired,” I don’t have a lot to report right now.

That’s one way of putting it

Shaenon Garrity on Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay:

It’s fun. It’s just kind of like reading a novel about a Victorian inventor who comes up with the microchip, the integrated-circuit computer, the Internet, Google, and furry porn, yet is only considered on par with the guy who made those bikes with the one big wheel.

She also makes another really interesting point:

Also, just to put on my irritable-feminist hat for the day, I’ve noticed a tendency in fiction where these superhuman feats of intellect and inspiration are only considered plausible in male characters. While Joe and Sammy come up with every brilliant innovation in the history of American comic books, their lady Rosa Saks gets to be… the second-best artist of romance comics. Sure, in real life there weren’t many women during that period drawing great comic books, but neither were there any men who simultaneously combined all the best qualities of Siegel and Shuster, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Will Eisner in their prime. Why must our ridiculous wish-fulfillment fantasy characters be confined to fanfiction.net?

Via Bookslut

Random 10 1/29

I was a little surprised that none of last week’s lyrics were guessed, but maybe you’ll all have better luck with these ones:

  1. “Private Goes Public” by Suzanne Vega
    Take your last kick now at any regime
  2. “Whistling in the Dark” by They Might Be Giants, guessed by Betty
    By hitting it with a rock, he said, though I am not unkind
  3. “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” by Edith Piaf, guessed by Generik
    Tout ça m’est bien égal
  4. “Movin’ Right Along” from The Muppet Movie, guessed by Betty
    With good friends, you can’t lose
  5. “5:15” by the Who, guessed by Clayton
    The ushers are sniffing, eau-de-cologning
  6. “Mother and Child Reunion” by Paul Simon, guessed by Occupant
    I never been laid so low
  7. “Midnight Rambler” by the Rolling Stones, guessed by Generik
    He don’t give a hoot of warning, wrapped up in a black cat cloak
  8. “A Matter of Time” by the Leisure Society
    She lacks in desire what I lack in direction
  9. “Dead Man Walking (A Dream Like This)” by Mary Chapin Carpenter, guessed by Chris McLaren
    Broken worlds will not be fixed
  10. “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues, guessed by Clayton
    Letters I’ve written, never meaning to send

Good luck!