I've just come home from viewing the most recent Doctor Who special The Waters of Mars.

In a word: Damn! (or *squee*!!!)

In many more words: ( Here be spoilers, enter at your own risk )

I hope that wasn't too incoherent!
I will try gather more and better thoughts on this over the next few days.

In the meantime *fangrrl SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

Episode 3

Fuck.
Me.

This is bloody brilliant!

Below are the videos of what is now possibly considered the most controversial Daily Show interview to date (correct me if I'm wrong).
I'd seen them on my f-list over the past few days and hadn't had the time to watch or comment on them.
Today as I was going through my RSS Reader, someone shared the Mondoweiss post, the author of the post was actually in the audience that day.

I watched them and I found myself nodding a whole lot.
( Videos under the cut )
There isn't much to add to Barghouti and Baltzer, I always find it encouraging when Jon Stewart pushes the non-mainstream News agenda on his show.
I've read in a few places that people were irritated by his own Hasbarah bias, that he brought in Iran and tried to equalise the Occupation into being just a Conflict.
I think by voicing the "average" opinion, Stewart exposes the propaganda pumped into our heads and both Barghouti and Baltzer really stayed on message - that of non-violence and finding peace on the grass roots level, which where the true power comes from (damn I need to get back to my Arabic!).

I find Baltzer very interesting, as I had not heard of her before, Barghouti is a "known entity" and I've had a lot of respect for him and his activism for a while now - I hope I manage to actually hear him speak in person someday soon. But her background, coming from an American-Jewish Zionist household... I can relate, as y'all know.

Last week I was speaking to a fellow student and friend, she told me her partner was studying German and that as soon as they had their finances straightened out she and he were out of here.
I nodded in understanding and pangs, because so many of my friends speak like this (I speak like this a lot as well).
And she asked me if I also plan on leaving.
I said I'd like to live in a different country for a while, to have perspective, experience, do what my sisters did.
She persisted: "But you'd come back here?"
"Yeah, most likely"
"I wouldn't" she said.
And I said, like someone commented a few months ago when I was ready to pretty much pack and leave (if I could) then and there: "But what's to become of here if all us Bleeding Hearts leave?"
"I don't have a false sense of patriotism" she said.
"It's not about patriotism... it's about humanity".

I considered that I was very well indoctrinated in the Zionist ethos. I still am. I'm quite sure that the reason I see myself living elsewhere, missing this hell-hole and coming back, is because I was taught that "there is no where else that is Home for us".
As I've mentioned, ideologically speaking, I'm no Zionist, I'm a Lefty-Humanist. But I was taught and lived Zionism and very likely I learned to love my country, land and people because I was immersed in that ideology since I was a baby.
Cracks in that ideal began when I was in high school and went to Poland with my class mates and mother to see where we were exterminated... the Nationalist zeal so many came back with seemed utterly strange to me.
My apathetic teenaged angst prevented me from making the logical leap, it would be years before I could unpack the what that trip to Poland did to me, my classmates and all the other classes that went on that trip.

I suppose it's fitting that I'm writing this the week of Yitzhak Rabin's anniversary of his assassination. I had forgotten all about it, until I saw the signs for memorial ceremonies... to me it'll always be November 4th and not the Hebrew date I never follow anyway.

Where was I? Oh yes, I learned Zionism and I'm unlearning it as well. Jews and Palestinians co-operate all the time, talking on the level with each other, person to person.
Governments...
Well... not to sound all Libertarian (seeing as I like having a modicum of a safety net under me as I meander aimlessly through life), but when it comes to treating people like human beings, they're pretty fucking redundant.

But what Barghouti said was very true, it resonated.
I made it the title of this entry.

Vampires have taken over our lives. They suck out time via books, television and film like no other supernatural beast ever could.

Why?

Because they look like people, like you and me, they can walk among us unknown and seduce us with their glamour, mystique and plain ole' attractiveness.
Vampires are always beautiful, those that ugly, do not need to be. We are attracted to the fact that they are excluded from daylight, that they are reflected only in the eyes of human (their prey) and to the fact that they are immortal.

They do not die.

We pass away and they pass on.

Vampires have reached a kind of peak of pop-culture popularity. Ten years ago when I was fourteen and obsessed with Buffy, I read Dracula, Interview with a Vampire and thought Bella Lugosi was the shit.
Vampires were awesome.

Now... they're poster boys for Abstinence.
Where have we gone wrong.
( This glamour will make you click on the cut )

When some one links to an article titled The War on Science Fiction and Marvin Minsky on a website called The Spearhead and the Author's nick is Pro-male/Anti-feminist Tech; you know you're in for some fun sci-fi critique!

My first thought after reading that diatribe of misogyny, homophobia and exclusionary nostalgia, was pretty uncharitable, petty and mean.
Not even the most "one of the boys/I'm not a feminist" female-geek wouldn be able to consider this person particularly tasteful.
Seeing as he's laying out misogyny and homophobia pretty fucking thick. Without any shame and certainly without any self-reflection.
But That's what cowards do.

I'm reminded of my entry into the comic book world, there are women there (readers that is) and I gravitated to the classics (Batman, Superman, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, the Justice League - yeah, I'm a DC grrl) and to horror-fantasy (DC's Vertigo line; Sandman, Hellblazer, Fables, Lucifer etc).
This is not an odd thing, most people like more than one kind of genre in they chosen form of medium, but I definitely felt the overwhelmed by the amount of boys in this medium and how my reading of the stories being feminist (even before I could articulate why it was feminist - I was 15 when I got into comics) made me iffy about getting into discussion with other Batman fans - many of them, somehow, ignoring the fetish gear he dons in order to fight crime and the only women he's ever been interested in sexually (he doesn't do romance) have been other criminals who wear costumes.
I digress.
( This is cut for length )

Times they are a changing, and guess what, they've been "changing" and "changed" since the mid-60's, you, Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Tech failed to get on that boat and complaining about us women and queers taking over your genre and taking your jobs in science...
This is not a tree-house club and there are no more Wendy houses.
This is a sandbox - please stop peeing in it.

ETA: I couldn't stop myself. I commented, sans a link to this blog. I don't need to make easier for them to find me.

Just this evening, at the Berlin World Track and Field Championships, Caster Semenya of South Africa won the 800 metre distance run.

I saw it on teevee and I was amazed.

She left them all in the dust, a few of the other athletes were utterly bewildered.

Now she faces a gender probe, more info here.
That is, she's going to go under the invasive procedure of "making sure" she's female, because she did too well in her field.

Such is the fate of female athletes who are too successful.

I don't know what how Semenya ID's, nor do I care, however, her appearance is butch... too butch for the comfort of the athletics committee.

Diversity within female "sex" is verboten, obviously.

I'm smelling the misogyny, transphobia, homophobia and racism from here, in my little dusty room.

Maybe one day athletic categories will be divided through comparative abilities, rather than through gender segregation.

I actually have a lot to write about.

However, the home environment is not conducive to writing.

I am distracted by trying to avoid Torchwood spoilers. Soon the "Children of Earth" episode 3 of the third season of TW will air in the UK.

I am trying so hard to avoid them as I plan to marathon the five eps of Saturday/Sunday and finally be able to participate in the discussions, read the fic and write my own bloody meta!

I'll write some for the radio plays as well when I'm over the overwhelming antici(say-it-master)pation... *sigh*.

Props to [Southern!Girl] and the rest of my BFF's for putting up with my huge Fangrrl!Monster.

Y'all know I'm bigger on the inside.

Mandatory Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett RIP mention.

Each in their own, and very different, ways, shaped pop-culture as we know it.

Thank you for the music and great characters.

Personally, Michael Jackson will always be the artist I associate with my childhood favourite movie "Free Willy" and much like other cultural phenomena of the time, helped shape my conciousness regarding global and environmental issues.

Personally, "Charlie's Angles" was one of the first live-action shows I watched on television and I thought I could be super hero like the rest of those girls, along with Mrs King, Cagney and Lacy and Remington Steel.

( Video under the cut - you may skip, it is cheesy )

( Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) vs Edward Cullen (Twilight) )

Buffy rocks.
Period.
"Twilight" can go suck on a stale bag of O Neg and perish quickly into the aether never to return.
Please.
Now-ish!

This is of course, memed everywhere.

This the text that accompanies this brilliant remix at the blip.tv link:

In this remixed narrative, Edward Cullen from the Twilight Series meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer at Sunnydale High. It's an example of transformative storytelling serving as a visual critique of Edward's character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy's eyes some of the more patriarchal gender roles and sexist Hollywood tropes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed in hilarious ways. --- This transformative work constitutes a fair-use of any copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US copyright law. The remix is licensed under a creative commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license. -- Find me at www.rebelliouspixels.com

I had planned to post this last night, but alas, things happened and in reality, I doubt my thought on *yayz* new Canon are that interesting.
Well, you'll get to read it anyway, if you want to be spoiled that is!

I live blogged the ep as I watched it.

Hope you enjoy my impressions as I went by!

( Spoilers! You have been warned! )

All's well that ends well. The Doctor is back in the TARDIS and off to a new adventure that will be airing sometime in November, I think.

All in all not a bad episode. I was expecting something a bit more on the Horror Genre, with a name like Planet of the Dead, I was expecting something like the Library episodes in Season 4, or the Ood episodes in Season 2.

I enjoyed the episode, so much more than "The Next Doctor" which absolutely sucked! My (spoilery) thoughts on that ep to be found here, but it wasn't really the standard of "A Christmas Invasion", "The Runaway Bride" (Donna FT Fucking W!!!!!) and "Voyage of the Damned" (Kylie!!!!).

A few Meta thoughts on this ep not included in my Mystery Theatre 3000 above: ( Don't blame me for being spoiled! )

It would appear that the next adventure "The Waters of Mars" is to be a bit more Horror, what with an impersonal foe and such. Those are always creepy.

---

In relation to this fandom post; I want a Dreamwidth account. I'll probably attain one once the Beta version is up, but having an invite would be awesome! If not because someone out there likes me, but because my Birthday is in a month.

The saga continues.

The bloody Guardian.
Neil posted about Amazon!Fail on his own blog. It has earned a mention on Feministing, in which an Amazon rep specifically says it was not a glitch.

I'm crossing my fingers for The Daily Show.

The issue has moved to Meta as can be read in a fascinating article on the super fantastic website AfterEllen, which I found via rm who herself wrote about the glitch, and I quote:

Computers do what you tell them to. This is a glitch that involved human error, homophobic human error. Amazon needs to issue a clear statement that what happened was against policy, is being corrected, is being investigated and that they enjoy serving a broad spectrum of customers, including those interested in gay and lesbian topics.

Which ties in with the Amazon Rep told Feministing.
Human error.
Not everything can be blamed on the HAL 9000.

The AfterEllen article, titled What Amazon's "Glitch" Says About American Pop Culture.
American Pop Culture, is everyone's pop culture. Despite being Israeli and writing with English spelling and using British slang, my first and foremost frame of reference is Americana.
This is especially true when it comes to LGBT representation and Queer liberation - because despite the British teevee that I watch being very gay-friendly, most of what we watch is written, produced, made by the USA.

And in the USA (and the rest of the world of course), Queers are defined by sex, the having of.
Now it's been a while since behaviour dictated identity, but still you have to admit on teevee, if the character isn't "doing it" with someone of the same sex... how are you going to know... unless they come out.
Which is another issue, of course, the coming out, the declaration, the need to affirm that no, they are not "sisters" and why, yes that is the leading man with that other guy.

At the same time, the double standard is maintained. Straight characters get to have depth and more to them than sex.
Queer characters... not so much as a general rule, certainly on regular network television.

I think it all boils down to visibility and invisibility.
Queer visibility is important, crucial and yeah, I think it's safe to say affirming. At the same time, when the only visibility we get is either as fetish items or "single issue" characters... that says something about how the Queer persona is regarded by pop culture and by default everyone.

Every country and nation has little moments in which you proclaim "Only in [name of country]!".

I came upon a moment like that yesterday on my home on my regular mode of public transportation. Now, lots of things make me go "Only in Israel", but this incident was seriously unique.

I'm sitting and a few rows in the back I hear a guy speak to his buddy on his cellphone. He was crystal clear and I couldn't miss a word.
Here is what he said, translated from Hebrew to English for your benefit:

"Hey man [other person on the phone], I saw Waltz with Bashir last night. And guess what, one of the soldiers that was interviewed was my Commanding Officer when I was in the Army.

My eyes fell out of my face.
He continued:

The movie doesn't make us look good. But it was powerful and seeing my CO there got me to be even more connected

This country is seriously small and screwed up.

It's an interesting coincidence that on the same day that I had this Overheard on Israeli public transport that the social activism channel Social TV (YouTube Channel) broadcast the second edition of their magazine In an Occupying Society, which is a ten minute podcast of interviews in which Left, anti-Occupation, Feminist, etc activists talk about the Occupation from various perspectives, from the Israeli side, in an attempt to raise awareness as to what the Occupation is costing Israeli society.

This month's edition is about Militarism and it connects so well with what I overheard on the train.
The video is in Hebrew with English subtitles.


Last month's edition was the economic cost of the Occupation: Part 1 and Part 2.

I've been told by a few of my friends that I'm authentic.

Authenticity is such a mailable idea. What does it mean exactly? That I live up to the ideals I believe in (hardly) or that I live up to the idea that I have of myself.
Or the idea that others have of me.

I don't know.

But it's a hell of a compliment.

aesiron had a meme: Comment to this post and I will give you five things I associate you with. Then either elaborate in a reply or in an entry in your journal.

Generally, I'd write a little spiel of my love of those things.
But everybody does that.
So I'm going a different route.
( Batman )
( Sinead O'Connor )
( V For Vendetta )
( Gender Politics )
( Buffy the Vampire Slayer )

Enjoy!
Comment away!

I just finished watching the first episode of Joss Whedon's new show Dollehouse.
It's available via streaming (thanks nurint!) and the Pilot episode is titled Ghost.

The rest of this entry is placed under a cut for spoilers, I'm generally very bad with that sort of thing because I tend to watch things after they've been "out" for a while and thus don't bother. However, seeing as this is a brand spanking new show that only began this week, I'll be considerate.

( Dollhouse S1 Ep1 - Ghost )

I'm not an automatic Joss-Fan. I didn't particularly enjoy Firefly, nor did I think Buffy Season 8 was a particularly well crafted comic book.
Teevee is where Joss belongs and I hope this show grows into its huge amount of potential.
Here's to a new show we can obsess about!

So much to write about, so little time!
Exam on Monday, which I just can't wait to get over with! On Tuesday there are the Elections, which I haven't decided if I'm going to be live-blogging or not.

On the fandom front (Gosh it's been a while since I written anything fun!) I'm now in possession of Torchwood Series 1 and 2.
My *squees* are un-ending. Yes I've seen all the episodes, but I like owning things, especially when they come free.
Which means I will have the chance at re-watching all the eps before watching series 3:


Who knows when it will come to Israel and who knows when there will be enough people sharing it for download.
Oh, Torchwood, you are my crack!
I think Doctor Who and Torchwood have definitely taken a place in my huge fangrrl heart right there next to Buffy, Sandman and Batman.
Seeing as Jack behaves like a hyped up Batman (sans the secret identity) and Ianto is like a sexy, sexy Welsh combination of Giles, Alfred and Wesley... but with a baby-face and homoeroticism... there is no bad there!

BTW, if it should happen that Ianto dies in this mini-series (this season is built as a five episode arc which will be shown consecutively over the week, in the US and UK - dunno about other places at this point)... I think I may end up being sadder than when Angel got sent to hell at the end of BtVS season two.

*gasp* What if Gwen dies?
*gasp* What is this is Jack's last Hurrah and they plan on cancelling the show after this?!
*gasp* Okay... must remain calm. The likelihood of any of the Mains dying in this mimi is remote.
That's what the series 4 finale will be for!

I now have the episodes for prosperity and I will have this mini-series as well.

Cannot wait for Torchwood: Children of the Earth!

Hey remember my post Satire for the Masses which has lyrics to the "Hasbarah Hip Hop".

Well, I've finally found the video for our pleasure on Youtube!



( Video with English Subtitles )

( X-Plain Lyrics )

The Israeli Socio-Political Satire show Eretz Nehedret - ארץ נהדרת - lit. Wonderful Country is probably one of the sharpest, most biting, satires on television today.
They are definitely up there (at least in my book) with "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report".

On this week's show they had a sketch of hip-hop Hasbarah (Hebrew for "explanation" and what is colloquially known as Israeli for describing the efforts of explaining Israeli government policies, and to promote Israel to the world at large)

The video is brilliant - but unfortunately cannot be embedded at this time, so I've put the direct link here and translated the lyrics which are a mixture of Hebrew and English (everything emphasised is me translating the Hebrew/Hebrish terms)
Link to Video: It's Time for a War Anthem.
( Lyrics under the cut )

Hilarious!
So biting and true!
Though, I acknowledge... it may only be funny for the Israelis and other Hebrew speakers here.

I just watched the Doctor Who 2008 Christmas special titled "The Next Doctor".

That means there will be spoilers! Beware!

It was... eh.

The villainess, Miss Ms. Mercy Hardigan, was boring and an Angry Woman who is Angry! At Men!
Lots of Men.
Has most brilliant mind there ever was!
Mwahahahahahahahahahaha!
Defeated by massive guilt trip.
Not so brilliant.

The Cybermen were uninteresting, like they usually are when there aren't any Daleks around.

Seriously, the Cyberman-Dalek exchange in "Doomsday" series two finale was one of the best ever! So hilarious.

( For your enjoyment: the entire brilliant scene of Dalek and Cyberman Extermination and Deletion! )

Aaaaaaanyway!

The Doctor - Tennant - was cute and dashing as always.
The "Next" Doctor - Morrisey - should... really keep to singing as he's truly a horrendous actor.
Rosita - yes, that was the name *gag* - was the pretty, cockney, token woman of colour... she of course had to rescued from danger and from prostitution... I'm feeling the forward sci-fi thinking here.

Oh Russel T. Davies why do you wound me thus!

Aargh!

As I was watching the episode on Ursula-the-laptop, my mother asked me why I was looking so glum and why was I cringing.

Dude.
It could have been so-so-soooooooooooooo much better!

The next Doctor Who special is called "Planet of the Dead".
It's either Zombies or Vampires.
Either of those options has to be better than this special.
I really hope Auntie Beeb doesn't SNAFU Tennant's final year as the Doctor.
It would leave me with a really sour taste in my mouth... I don't know anything about this new guy... Matt Smith... except that Steven Moffat (he who will be replacing current Executive Producer and main writer Russel T. Davies) has a crush on his coiffure.

Man... I mean, compared to "A Christmas Invasion", "Voyage of the Damned" and "A Runaway Bride", "The Next Doctor" was just unoriginal, predictable and just plain... eh.
I'm tempted to say Pareveh - which means neither Milk nor Meat as related to Kosher laws and is colloquial in Israeli Hebrew as bland, boring and neither here nor there.
So yeah.
Pareveh.

Edited To Add: Via hemlock_sholes and violachic.
The Alternative Doctor Who Christmas Special:
( Trek Through Time )

All over the interwebs, for this transcends fandom, people are talking about the (yet to be confirmed, by the way) New Doctor.
Doctor Who that is.
Family friendly sci-fi adventure show featuring the alien Time Lord and his trusty TARDIS.

As we all know, David Tennant is doing in the way of previous Doctors and leaving for greener pastures (as if!), but I digress.

This (yet to be confirmed) New Doctor is causing a controversy, ya see, for the actor Joseph Patterson, is black (and in my opinion quite dashing). A BBC veteran and having acted in previous productions with sci-fi and fantasy flair like the Marquis De Carabas in the BBC's "Neverwhere" (the mini series written by Neil Gaiman that came before the book by Neil Gaiman).
As an aside, I've never seen "Neverwhere", though I'm dying to now!

I've already read small reports of complaints.
I mean, duh, right. It's a big deal that a role that has embodied British pop-culture, which always revolves around the white, middle-class, man - Christopher Eccleston broke the mold by not disguising his Northern roots, thus making The Doctor, in Lennon's words, a Working Class Hero (which we all wanted to be).
Anyway, the breaking of the mold or at the very least shake it up a bit, is a requirement of the sci-fi and fantasy genre in my opinion. At least when in regard to television.

While this a yet to be confirmed casting, seeing as we have all of 2009 to look forward to with regards to the Whoinverse, I'd keep my eyes open for the White Guys as well, who knows, really.
Television is an unstable medium when it comes to rumors and casting assumptions.

I think the only thing that we'll know for sure is that Doctor Who will never be a woman, though it would be awesome to have a gender switch episode (something I hope happens in Torchwood, seeing as the show is very set up for exploring that kin of avenue), I very much doubt that the Doctor, as a character, is of the Genderqueer mind frame... or at the very least, just very attached to his male body image.

Regardless.
A black Doctor.
How effing cool is that!

P.S.
David Tennant Forever!

I now leave you with the Doctor Who Theme tune:

Teevee.
Television.
As a sampler and some-times addict of that potent drug I can't help but try and explain.

Commencing academia babble now:
Benedict Anderson wrote about Imagined Communities, the idea that through a non-existent or imagined commonality we establish the community in which we live.
He speaks mainly about the print and literature in order to exemplify this, because News papers are the most reproduced form of literature in the world today - think of those scenes in 1940's and 50's movies in which the frame is filled with men in fedoras and all of them reading the New York Time or the London Times, etc. Are they looking at one another? Do they communicate with each other? Most likely they can barely recognize each others face, but they are reading the same thing and they imagine or consider what they think about they are reading to be social consensus, despite the fact that they most likely would never talk about what they are thinking to another person.
That's an imagined community.

Television takes it one step further in my opinion.
News papers are relevant until the next edition and it takes conscious thought to read and absorb the information and data printed on a page.
Television by its nature, allows you to switch off your cognitive operations and just sponge in what is going on as you watch the screen.
Television has replaced religion when it comes to values as well.
Once in order to know what was right and wrong you listened to pulpits to tell you who was good, who was evil and what one should believe.
Now television tells us who is vilified, what is beautiful, how we ourselves can be like the idols which we worship on the flat screened alter.
Instead of family prayer, a family will congregate around the television and watch the episode of whatever programme we are addicted to at the moment.
And we obsess about it, no less than people used to obsess about god while those who control and create the discourse make some kind of profit off us "sheeple".