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posted by [personal profile] stunt_muppet at 11:49am on 31/10/2008 under , , , , ,
Yes, I have voted. For the first time ever, no less. My absentee ballot is in the mail.

I suppose it would be too much to ask that this clears me of any obligation to hear, talk about, or THINK ABOUT this damn interminable election anymore? Of course it would.

No offense meant to those on my flist who are involved in or posting about the election, and hey, I think it's great that our generation(s) is so active and involved this time around. But damn, it feels like this election season has gone on forever.

Other witterings:

-After dithering about it for weeks, I think it may finally be time to head back to the counselor's office, since I managed to sleep through Chem again and I don't need any more reasons to fail this class. But then, I was supposed to have been in counseling since last year; I just...forgot about it last semester. Which I shouldn't have done, and which is probably why I'm repeating the same cycle this year. Sigh.

On the bright side, several professors have assured me that if I can handle a Bio seminar and Intro Chem simultaneously (I wouldn't say I'm handling it precisely, but there you go), I can handle whatever the next year and a half throws at me. I suppose that's comforting.

Molecular orbitals are still a bit incomprehensible, though.

-Oh my lord, it's only a year and a half until I graduate and shuffle out into the Real World. Mommy, I'm scared. Hold me.

-Speaking of immaturity, I've had the sudden craving to watch The Great Mouse Detective again; I haven't seen it since approximately the age of ten, and TV Tropes has reminded me that no, I'm not just being nostalgic, it really was an awesome movie. TV Tropes has also informed me that Rattigan was voiced by Vincent freaking Price, and you know how I get about old horror movies and the stars thereof.

Unfortunately, neither the library nor the school rental service appears to have it, because they have no appreciation for the animated movies of my youth. I suppose I could put it in my Blockbuster queue, but that would mean sending back Inferno. I don't want to send back Inferno.

-Transitioning to Doctor Who wittering: I think I'm starting to ship Commander Randor and Professor Eldred from The Seeds of Death. It's already canon that they were friends before Radnor left to work on TMAT, but there's just something about the very personal sense of betrayal and disappointment during their conversation in the museum that makes me want to ship them pre-episode. Not to mention Eldred gets a chance to tease Radnor about his bad luck with women, after a fashion.

Because, really, I need to write more fic about random minor characters that nobody cares about but me.

-Also, I think the reason I liked the Iron Man movie so much is that it's Season 8 of Classic Who, only shinier. Really. It's got the jerkass genius with an ultimately good heart (Tony and Three), the long-suffering assistant who's occasionally quite frustrated with him but sticks by him no matter what, providing a buffer between him and the rest of the world (Pepper and Jo), the smooth-talking, manipulative childhood-friend-gone-evil who manages to have subtext with both Jerkass Genius and Assistant (Obadiah Stane and the Master), and the Jerkass Genius' military liaison, with whom he sometimes butts heads but who ultimately has faith in him (Rhodes and the Brigadier).

Dear fandom: Please write me some Rhodey/Brig fic. Or even Rhodey-and-Brig fic, where they have a bitch together about their respective boyfriends Jerkass Geniuses.

-Talking of movies I liked, is WALL-E on DVD yet? How about now? I've got the strangest urge to write fic for it, and am indeed a bit resentful at all the internet for already producing so much WALL-E fic that I couldn't request it for Yuletide. Never mind. It's apparently eligible and has been requested. The category has an unremarkable good-to-suck ratio so far as fic is concerned (haven't found any gems yet), but not much of it involves AUTO. Or even MO. And while I loved WALL-E and EVE to pieces, what I'd really like fic about is the Captain and AUTO pre-movie, seeing as they were, more or less, each other's only companionship for decades. Failing that, I'd like fic about how MO learns to cope with a planet consisting entirely of foreign contaminants.

-Back to academia: I'm surprised I haven't seen more fic that quotes, uses, or is otherwise inspired by the poetry of E. A. Robinson. Don't get me wrong, I like Eliot and Keats and Whitman as much as the next person (though perhaps with special preference to the latter), but we just covered his poetry in class, and "Luke Havergall" made me choke up reading it, which I haven't done since reading "Fern Hill" last year. It's very beautiful, grim stuff, with the same resigned, melancholy edge as Frost but with slightly more elaborate language.

Also, Ginsburg's poetry is not as incomprehensible as I'd been led to believe it was. Which is not to say that I understand it, because I don't, but even without completely knowing what Ginsburg's talking about it still...I hate to say "speaks to me", because it sounds so cliche, but it still has an emotional impact. I can still respond to it, which is more than I can say for a whole lot of modern poetry I've read to which my sole reaction was "bzuh?".

-Less academic: iTunes wanderings have informed me that both Type O Negative and Motorhead have done covers of "Cinnamon Girl", which...doesn't seem like that heavy a song to me, to be honest. Though I do enjoy the TON cover, because I'm a heathen.

None of this, however, is as amusing as the Richard Cheese lounge-music version of "Enter Sandman". I lol'ed.
Mood:: 'numb' numb
There are 22 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 
posted by [identity profile] airie-fairy.livejournal.com at 05:00pm on 31/10/2008
Omg so it's not too late to send a absentee ballot? When's the deadline? I thought I was too late, but I can get this shit over with NOW?

Your analogy makes me want to watch Iron Man.

People need to stop their damn whining about Ginsberg. *hugs him* I have a ton of his City Lights editions and on those occasions when I don't know what he's literally saying, I like having the dense symbolism to dig through with just enough cryptic, gorgeous imagery and implication to let me have my own interpretations.
 
posted by [identity profile] stunt-muppet.livejournal.com at 05:11pm on 31/10/2008
I was under the impression that you could send one up until election day, at least for the general election? If it isn't, I'm a bit screwed.

Your analogy makes me want to watch Iron Man.

Do iiiit. It was really good. I generally like superhero movies anyway, but this one was genuinely well-acted and sharply-written. And if they were writing the Third Doctor today, he would be movie!Tony Stark. No lie.

People need to stop their damn whining about Ginsberg.

No kidding! I was all worried that his poetry would be word salad that none but the highest echelons of academia could even approach, but he's actually not so very far removed from many of the other poets I like. In content, maybe, but not in structure and poetic device. Heck, sometimes he reminds me very strongly of Whitman.

(And thus far, Howl's been way easier to get through than The Waste Land. I can't comment on respective quality, because they're such different poems, but Ginsburg's actually the more readable of the two.)
 
posted by [identity profile] airie-fairy.livejournal.com at 05:28pm on 31/10/2008
I find Howl to be rather straightforward. A long run-on sentence, but straightforward. And lovely. And, yeah, I think Eliot's meaning is harder to catch. ...I do like him too, though.

I think one of my favorite Ginsberg's is "On Burroughs' Work," which advises through the use of symbolic language that you always make your meaning clear. XD So...yeah, I don't think he utterly obscures his own meaning.
 
posted by [identity profile] stunt-muppet.livejournal.com at 05:47pm on 31/10/2008
I do like Eliot, but I hadn't read The Waste Land before now, and it's frustrating me a bit. I'm trying to just read it the first time through, and go back for the footnotes later, but if I do that I have no idea what's going on, and if I don't the cross-checking breaks the flow of the poem for me.

I hadn't read "On Burroughs' Work"; I'm assuming he's referring to William Burroughs? I have to admit I've yet to read Burroughs, too, still being somewhat intimidated by him. But perhaps if Ginsburg's more understandable, than I thought, Burroughs might be as well? Hmm.
 
posted by [identity profile] airie-fairy.livejournal.com at 07:28pm on 31/10/2008
Yep, William Burroughs. My cousin would scream with rage at you that Naked Lunch makes no sense, but she did go into the book knowing nothing of Beatniks because she liked the cover and gave up a third of the way in.
 
posted by [identity profile] pimpmytardis.livejournal.com at 09:11pm on 31/10/2008
You are encouraged to get absentee ballots postmarked by today. I think you can physically turn them in at any polling place in your area on Nov 5, or before that at certain official buildings.
 
posted by [identity profile] pixxistixx4me.livejournal.com at 05:55pm on 31/10/2008
LOVE RICHARD CHEESE. Especially his cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back.

It exists. True story.
ext_3685: Stylized electric-blue teapot, with blue text caption "Brewster North" (music)
posted by [identity profile] brewsternorth.livejournal.com at 06:11pm on 31/10/2008
Better than Jonathan Coulton's?
 
posted by [identity profile] stunt-muppet.livejournal.com at 07:05pm on 31/10/2008
I've just listened to that one too. And it was just as amazing and brain-breaking and epic. :D

I can't believe I didn't know about this before.
ext_3685: Stylized electric-blue teapot, with blue text caption "Brewster North" (Default)
posted by [identity profile] brewsternorth.livejournal.com at 08:50pm on 31/10/2008
You'll probably want to listen to some of his other stuff: "Re; Your Brains" is appropriate for today, I think.
 
posted by [identity profile] stunt-muppet.livejournal.com at 03:29am on 01/11/2008
I've heard a couple of his songs; "Skullcrusher Mountain", "Mandelbrot Set", and "Still Alive", specifically. I hadn't heard the two you recced, though, and "Re; Your Brains" is strangely catchy, considering the subject matter.
 
posted by [identity profile] stunt-muppet.livejournal.com at 06:59pm on 31/10/2008
OMG.

I HEARD IT. AND IT WAS EPIC. Possibly the epic-est thing I have ever heard.

Though his cover of "Another Brick in the Wall" is actually not as silly as it sounds, I find. In fact, it's rather sinister. His "Welcome to the Jungle", however, is not.

I do wish Rasputina had released their version on CD, though.
 
posted by [identity profile] livii.livejournal.com at 06:09pm on 31/10/2008
WALL-E sparked that much fic? Damn, that's unfair. I want some of my fandoms to not be Yuletide-eligible, so that I can actually read fic for 'em!!
 
posted by [identity profile] stunt-muppet.livejournal.com at 07:22pm on 31/10/2008
Hmm...apparently I spoke too early, since it's been requested already. Which is strange, since it had just a hair over 1000 fics last I checked ff.net...

*checks again*

And now it appears to have 150-something. Perhaps ff.net was having a hiccup?

Still, though, that means some WALL-E fic might come out of Yuletide! Also, it means I only have 2 more pages to look through, rather than the 12 or so I thought I had.
 
posted by [identity profile] glock35gal.livejournal.com at 08:34pm on 31/10/2008
Congrats on voting! I heart you because you did your civic duty, yet I envy you because I'll be standing in a long, long line trying to vote either before or after work. This election season *has* gone on forever, no doubt about it!

Vincent Price? I love him still. I need to find that flick and get it into my Netflix queue. Good rec!

Now I'm intrigued about Type O Negative, so I'm off to iTunes. :D

Good luck with chem! (You'll make it through, you really will.)
 
posted by [identity profile] stunt-muppet.livejournal.com at 03:26am on 01/11/2008
I'll be standing in a long, long line trying to vote either before or after work.

:( I'm sorry. I'm quite glad I got to vote by absentee ballot, and still don't quite get why there aren't more opportunities for early voting or off-hours voting.

I need to find that flick and get it into my Netflix queue. Good rec!

Really, it might just be nostalgia talking, but The Great Mouse Detective was a lovely pastiche of Sherlock Holmes. Only funnier. And with mice. And an excellent villain song. It becomes funnier now that I've actually read some Holmes novels.

I'm normally meh on Type O Negative, finding them an okay but not distinctive metal band in the vein of Metallica, but for some reason I love their covers. They do a nice one of "Day Tripper" too.

Thank you for your good wishes!
 
posted by [identity profile] biichan.livejournal.com at 09:00pm on 31/10/2008
I love listening to this MP3. It's Ginsberg reading his America poem over Tom Waits music.

http://www.box.net/shared/22rpu9iavv
Edited Date: 2008-10-31 09:03 pm (UTC)
 
posted by [identity profile] stunt-muppet.livejournal.com at 03:42am on 01/11/2008
Oooh. Thank you for pointing that out to me; I'd never heard Ginsburg read before, and listening to it I think his work gains a lot when read aloud.
 
posted by [identity profile] pimpmytardis.livejournal.com at 09:20pm on 31/10/2008
Iron Man= DW Season 8. That's... kind of awesome.

Also, Great Mouse Detective! I think I know all the words to the Rattigan song. Here, sing along!

 
posted by [identity profile] stunt-muppet.livejournal.com at 03:48am on 01/11/2008
That video just made my entire evening. And it turns out I still remember almost all the words. Including the dialogue when he summons the cat. *facepalm*
 
posted by [identity profile] viralmancer.livejournal.com at 01:39am on 01/11/2008
MO: EEK! EEK! CLEAN! CLEAN!! CLEAN!!! *etc*
 
posted by [identity profile] stunt-muppet.livejournal.com at 03:48am on 01/11/2008
Yes! It would be so cute, but I worry that his little robot brain would absolutely break. I feel sorry for post-movie MO, really.

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