Pop Culture Items and Links..
Jul. 14th, 2020 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Meme I found on Scans Daily, but am leery of answering there...(some of the posters on scans daily scare me.)
This is kind of via Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-men.
What were your formulative television and cartoons of childhood?
Cartoons
* Kimba the White Lion
* Battle of the Planets
* Rocky & Bulwinkle
* Scooby Doo, Where are You?
* Loony Tunes (which made it into the novel I wrote)
* Tom & Jerry (I felt sorry for the Cat, though - I kept wanting him to win.)
* Star Trek Cartoon
* Justice League/Spiderman
Television Series
* Mr. Rogers Neighborhood/Sesame Street
* The Muppet Show
* Battle Star Galatica
* Star Trek
* Space 1999
* MASH
* Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman
* Batman & Robin
* Wonder Woman
* Twilight Zone/Outer Limits/Night Gallery
* SNL/Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
* Little House on the Prarie/Brady Bunch
* Ryans Hope/Edge of Night
* Fame
* American Bandstand
* The Monkeeys.
* Happy Days/Laverne & Shirley/Mork & Mindy
* The Saturday Night Movie - Westerns
* Wonderful World of Disney
* Lost in Space
* ABC Afterschool Special
2. Per Twitter notifications, and londonkds... So Many of Us Who Have Been Target and Manipulated by the Author Warren Ellis
Ellis is the latest to get blasted in a long, and seemingly endless list of male assholes in the comic book and film industries. I can't say I liked him that much - I didn't. I found him unreadable to be honest. I kept trying. A friend, who has since passed, rec'd his stuff to me and even sent me some of his comics, and I just couldn't read them. I found him to be a bit strident, and chauvinistic, bordering on misogynistic.
It should be noted that the entertainment, comic book and publishing industry is kind of known by most women for its rampant sexism and sexual harassment. I heard stories in the 80s. Particularly comic books. Let's face it - there's a reason I didn't tell folks I read them for years.
3. Which leads me to the Great Cancel Culture Debate...which I have mixed feelings about.
From the NY Times Breifing this morning:
IDEA OF THE DAY: CANCEL CULTURE
“What is this cancel culture thing, anyway?” Ross Douthat asks in his latest Times column. He proceeds to offer 10 answers, including:
Cancellation, properly understood, refers to the loss of employment and reputation on the basis of opinions or actions that are publicized and criticized by a large and diffuse or small and determined group of critics.
All cultures cancel; the question is for what, how widely and through what means.
The right and the left both cancel; it’s just that today’s right is too weak to do it effectively."
For more go HERE.
For a different view: Charles Blow, another Times Opinion columnist, has argued that there is no such thing as cancel culture. As he tweeted: “There is free speech. You can say and do as you pls, and others can choose never to deal this you, your company or your products EVER again. The rich and powerful are just upset that the masses can now organize their dissent.”
I don't know. I've discovered people are very hypocritical about these sorts of things. If it's regarding someone they despise - yay team, if it's someone they love? No, don't, bad! And if it is them? "You are evil, this is so wrong".
In short, no it's not kind. And if you don't want someone to do that to you, you shouldn't celebrate it happening to someone else. But the problem with hypocrisy is no one seems aware of the fact that they are being hypocritical. I discovered this in the 6th Grade actually. Also, self-righteous, judgemental and hypocrisy all tend to go hand in hand.
So my take? I don't think it's necessarily always a good idea? None of us are perfect. We all say and do dumb things.
4. All of the stuff coming out on Joss Whedon at the moment is old news. And some of it...questionable considering the sources. That said, Whedon came from a specific group of writers - who were taught show-running by "bullying" - he was one of the writers on Roseanne, which was Whedon's first job. And David Greenwalt - from what I heard from folks at the time, was kind of abusive as well. Also if you listen to the actor Q&A's on Youtube via various cons over the years, you'll pick up on a few things...Brendon reports that Whedon would make them re-film for missing the word "the" in a sentence. And would come up and correct them. Whedon allowed Boreanze to wander about the set with no pants on - and thought it was funny. Whedon lead Gellar to believe she wasn't getting the role during auditions. Etc.
But alas, it does go back to a statement I made in another post, how do we deal with cognitive dissonance? Where we love a writer's work but have issues with some of the writer's behavior? And do we demonize the writer or the behavior?
Can we separate the work from the writer? Or artist?
That said? It's interesting that Whedon was obsessed with stories about toxicity of power, and abuses of power. Particularly male power and how to undermine it. I think his works are a commentary and critique of himself.
Which is kind of ironic.
This is kind of via Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-men.
What were your formulative television and cartoons of childhood?
Cartoons
* Kimba the White Lion
* Battle of the Planets
* Rocky & Bulwinkle
* Scooby Doo, Where are You?
* Loony Tunes (which made it into the novel I wrote)
* Tom & Jerry (I felt sorry for the Cat, though - I kept wanting him to win.)
* Star Trek Cartoon
* Justice League/Spiderman
Television Series
* Mr. Rogers Neighborhood/Sesame Street
* The Muppet Show
* Battle Star Galatica
* Star Trek
* Space 1999
* MASH
* Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman
* Batman & Robin
* Wonder Woman
* Twilight Zone/Outer Limits/Night Gallery
* SNL/Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
* Little House on the Prarie/Brady Bunch
* Ryans Hope/Edge of Night
* Fame
* American Bandstand
* The Monkeeys.
* Happy Days/Laverne & Shirley/Mork & Mindy
* The Saturday Night Movie - Westerns
* Wonderful World of Disney
* Lost in Space
* ABC Afterschool Special
2. Per Twitter notifications, and londonkds... So Many of Us Who Have Been Target and Manipulated by the Author Warren Ellis
Ellis is the latest to get blasted in a long, and seemingly endless list of male assholes in the comic book and film industries. I can't say I liked him that much - I didn't. I found him unreadable to be honest. I kept trying. A friend, who has since passed, rec'd his stuff to me and even sent me some of his comics, and I just couldn't read them. I found him to be a bit strident, and chauvinistic, bordering on misogynistic.
It should be noted that the entertainment, comic book and publishing industry is kind of known by most women for its rampant sexism and sexual harassment. I heard stories in the 80s. Particularly comic books. Let's face it - there's a reason I didn't tell folks I read them for years.
3. Which leads me to the Great Cancel Culture Debate...which I have mixed feelings about.
From the NY Times Breifing this morning:
IDEA OF THE DAY: CANCEL CULTURE
“What is this cancel culture thing, anyway?” Ross Douthat asks in his latest Times column. He proceeds to offer 10 answers, including:
Cancellation, properly understood, refers to the loss of employment and reputation on the basis of opinions or actions that are publicized and criticized by a large and diffuse or small and determined group of critics.
All cultures cancel; the question is for what, how widely and through what means.
The right and the left both cancel; it’s just that today’s right is too weak to do it effectively."
For more go HERE.
For a different view: Charles Blow, another Times Opinion columnist, has argued that there is no such thing as cancel culture. As he tweeted: “There is free speech. You can say and do as you pls, and others can choose never to deal this you, your company or your products EVER again. The rich and powerful are just upset that the masses can now organize their dissent.”
I don't know. I've discovered people are very hypocritical about these sorts of things. If it's regarding someone they despise - yay team, if it's someone they love? No, don't, bad! And if it is them? "You are evil, this is so wrong".
In short, no it's not kind. And if you don't want someone to do that to you, you shouldn't celebrate it happening to someone else. But the problem with hypocrisy is no one seems aware of the fact that they are being hypocritical. I discovered this in the 6th Grade actually. Also, self-righteous, judgemental and hypocrisy all tend to go hand in hand.
So my take? I don't think it's necessarily always a good idea? None of us are perfect. We all say and do dumb things.
4. All of the stuff coming out on Joss Whedon at the moment is old news. And some of it...questionable considering the sources. That said, Whedon came from a specific group of writers - who were taught show-running by "bullying" - he was one of the writers on Roseanne, which was Whedon's first job. And David Greenwalt - from what I heard from folks at the time, was kind of abusive as well. Also if you listen to the actor Q&A's on Youtube via various cons over the years, you'll pick up on a few things...Brendon reports that Whedon would make them re-film for missing the word "the" in a sentence. And would come up and correct them. Whedon allowed Boreanze to wander about the set with no pants on - and thought it was funny. Whedon lead Gellar to believe she wasn't getting the role during auditions. Etc.
But alas, it does go back to a statement I made in another post, how do we deal with cognitive dissonance? Where we love a writer's work but have issues with some of the writer's behavior? And do we demonize the writer or the behavior?
Can we separate the work from the writer? Or artist?
That said? It's interesting that Whedon was obsessed with stories about toxicity of power, and abuses of power. Particularly male power and how to undermine it. I think his works are a commentary and critique of himself.
Which is kind of ironic.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-15 03:36 pm (UTC)There's a lot to parse when it comes to "the work" and "the creator of that work". Sometimes that creator's actions are so specifically heinous that, for me, there's no way to separate them. Sometimes I figure that I already own the thing anyway (no new funding for that work passed along to the creator), so it's mine now. IDK. It's certainly an interesting (and unanswerable) question.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-15 05:21 pm (UTC)The only one that he did by himself was the comics - which were the ones I had the most issues with. But everything else was collaborative. And he didn't write all the episodes of Buffy, or direct them - a lot of the episodes were written by multiple people.
It's not quite the same as Orson Scott Card or Anne McCaffrey - whose work I found more disturbing, although McCaffrey's is all over the gamut.
I think it depends on how much their work is a reflection of their ideology or perversions? Dollhouse and Firefly of Whedon's works - I think may have been the most problematic in this way. But again, both were collaborations.
Also, sometimes the work stands on its own? There are times that what I know about the writer or creator taints it, but not always. A lot of Kevin Spacey's work stands on its own. As does TS Eliot's. (shrugs)
no subject
Date: 2020-07-15 03:38 pm (UTC)I also loved some oddball animated features, like The Point (1971), Maurice Sendak's Really Rosie (1975), and Rene Laloux's Fantastic Planet. The Point and Really Rosie feature some of the best songwriting in the catalogues of Harry Nilsson and Carole King, respectively, but both have kind of disappeared down the memory hole....
no subject
Date: 2020-07-15 05:31 pm (UTC)Hanna Barbara tended to repeat itself. The Jetsons/Flintsons are copies of each other, same formula and in turn copied from The Honeymooners. Scooby Doo - they had several copies off of it, Josie and the Pussycats, Jabber Jaw, Drak Pak (the most innovative of the bunch), etc. I watched all of them, but not much there.
Anime tended to ruin me in regards to cartoons though - mainly because my brother and I and my Dad could draw the cartoons, but we couldn't draw the anime. LOL!
The writing was better in the Jay Ward cartoons. The animation jumped up a bit in the WB revival cartoons in the 1990s, but by then I'd moved on to anime full time. I had however, seen everything you list above. Watched all of them in college and law school. LOL!
no subject
Date: 2020-07-15 05:53 pm (UTC)The sheer density of jokes on a typical R&B episode was astounding. (Which is why the movie was so universally hated: the ratio flipped from 10 jokes per minute to 1 joke per ten minutes...)
no subject
Date: 2020-07-15 06:00 pm (UTC)It had a lot of satirical political jokes that frankly were above kids heads.
But one of the better written series. Rocky and Bulwinkle had a similar comedic team up to Yogi and Bobo, but far better written.
(The art - sigh. But the writing very good. That's the problem with animation, often it's one or the other - great art - bad writing or vice versa.)
no subject
Date: 2020-07-15 06:35 pm (UTC)"Again?"
"Nothin' up my sleeve..."
[Tears off sleeve]
"PRESTO!"
[Pulls lion head out of hat. Lion roars; Bullwinkle shoves him back in the hat]
"Don't know my own strength."
"And now, here's something we hope you really like!"
no subject
Date: 2020-07-15 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-15 04:44 pm (UTC)We saw Looney Tunes, the significantly less good Merrie Melodies, Tom and Jerry, Mighty Mouse, Felix the Cat (mostly from the silent era), Popeye. From the 1950s Beep Beep the Roadrunner, Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear, had good stories if inferior animation work. I didn't like the Jetsons or the Flintstones, and stuff like Johnny Quest, was so crudely done, I just couldn't watch. Rocky and Bullwinkle was great when I was in high school, but it was pretty unique.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-15 09:48 pm (UTC)You will definitely get Buffy vibes from it: one girl in the all the world, a Chosen One.... The ending will remind you of Chosen in a way, though the cliff hanger means we can't know yet.