Lazy round-up

Between a surprising and distasteful item sent in the mail from my mother and a general long week at work, I'm really fucking glad it's Friday and in no mood to talk about Serious Things, or even really anything cohesive--so have a few links to things I've done around the web recently, and things I'm currently enjoying.

• I've been emblogginating over at Paper Droids, in the Style section if you can believe it, with some outfits inspired by heroines from all sorts of nerd media. The newest is Jade from Beyond Good and Evil.
• I've also been writing reviews of comic books for Between the Panels, and last week joined site runner William Goodman, Esq. and dandy Tumblrpeep Justin Partridge for talk about Avengers vs. X-Men, Batman, and Fantastic Four. Warning: the first time you hear my voice, I say something mean.
• Have you registered to vote? There's still time!
• Elementary aired last night and yes, I love it. Partially out of spite, partially because it actually seems like it will be fun, but mostly because Lucy Liu is flawless.
• Grumpy Cat is my Patronus.
• Seriously, Tommy Karevik can wail. I'm very much looking forward to their headliner tour next year. 
• Mark Reads has reached In the Hand of the Goddess and oh my zombie Jesus, this liveblog is just so excellent and will keep on getting better, because HE IS NOT PREPARED FOR TORTALL.

If there's something better than seeing Nightwish live, it's seeing Kamelot open for Nightwish.

A few reasons I enjoy power metal shows:

1. The musicians are good. Perhaps because the style of music generally calls for virtuosic vocals and instrumentals? All I know is I've never been to a shitty power metal concert, period, and some of them have been close to religious experiences. Both Kamelot and Nightwish whipped it out last night, happy to report; apparently since the last time I saw Nightwish they've boomed in the US, because the venue was packed, sold out to about 1500 people--and let's be real, in Europe these bands regularly sell out to twice that. I'm torn between being proud that the line to get in stretched across five blocks of downtown Columbus and somewhat fearful that bands I really love might graduate to stadiums someday soon. I dislike stadium concerts as a rule.

(Anette Olzon) 

2. The fans are polite. I kinda hate moshing, and thankfully power metal fans generally groove politely. Last night's show was the first time (out of seven similar concert experiences since 2006) that I've ever seen even a bit of crowdsurfing at a power metal show. There are always huge singalongs, which the bands tend to encourage. In my experience there is also usually less douchebaggery at concerts for these bands, though I have no theory on why that might be aside from a reasonably even male/female fan ratio.

(Tommy Karevik and Elize Ryd)

A few music notes: Nightwish is touring their newest album, Imaginaerum, which made for a nice blend of songs from that record and stuff from Dark Passion Play and Once. I would have been happy no matter what their setlist was, because the band puts on a great show (and have very adorable camaraderie), but I was so happy to hear "Dark Chest of Wonders," "The Islander," "7 Days to the Wolves," and "Slow Love Slow" (a jazzy, generally unmetallic number from Imaginaerum which I adore). Kamelot's set was also pretty nice, pulling chiefly from Ghost Opera and The Black Halo plus the performance of the first single, "Sacrimony," from their upcoming album Silverthorn. This tour is most notable for it being the first official tour with new vocalist Tommy Karevik. As a fan of some years and a Khan devotee, I was anxious to see Karevik in action...and he did not disappoint. He has a great grasp on the band's older material and I'm really looking forward to hearing them perform the new album when they inevitably headline the Silverthorn tour (she said, sacrificing a goat to that end). A very talented performer and a great new frontman for Kamelot.

Other highlights included guest vocals from Elize Ryd and Alissa White-Gluz on a few Kamelot tracks, gorgeous instrumental back-up from Nightwish's touring musician-of-all trades, Troy Donockley, and getting to commune with every European metal fan within four hundred miles of Columbus.

ALERT ALERT

Mark is reading The Song of the Lioness! He's only on chapter three, so you have plenty of time to catch up. If you're not familiar with Mark Does Stuff, basically the dude in question reads and watches things that people love, and liveblogs his experiences. If you love a thing he is watching/reading, it can be very fun and rewarding to observe him flipping out over, say, all of His Dark Materials.

Yeah, that one was fun.

And now we get to watch him discover Tortall. A WINNER IS ALL OF US.

Last LDS-related post for awhile and I swear there'll be kittens or sex or something FUN soon

In the interest of providing some background and insights into people who manage to be both Christian and polytheist or other brands of pagan, a few links:

Ruby Sara's new blog at Witches and Pagans 

Cat Chapin-Bishop and Peter Bishop, two Quaker Pagans 

Zillah Threadgoode of Surprised Christo-Pagan 

And one that is specifically LDS: Mother Wheel

Not all of these bloggers' paths fit my personal definition of what "Christian" means, but they all share glimpses of spirituality that reaches beyond what we typically consider "Christian" and "pagan," and anyway, that's the beauty of living in a free society, isn't it? Note to conservatives: we are still living in a free society, where people are free to worship according, as it were, to the dictates of their own conscience.

I am actually a little bit scandalized

Still on the Mormon train: what's this I see about the Book of Abraham being removed from official LDS canon? I suppose you could say that until super official word comes down from the General Authorities, nothing doing--but this interview is still a very interesting read. After fifteen years of Mormonism Florida-style, I'm inclined to think that, despite the church's intense efforts at correlation, members in the mission field apparently practice a bit differently from the hub in Utah. Hearing an LDS "expert"--can I read that as "mouthpiece"?--state that some items of doctrine "depend on which Mormon you talk to" is frankly a goggler for me; what church is he part of? Nothing in LDS doctrine is supposed to depend on who you're talking to! That's the whole point of correlation, the much-loved adage that "the Church is the same everywhere."

Basically my reaction to this piece was a lot of gasping. Manfriend became concerned and thought perhaps naked pictures of Idris Elba had surfaced on Tumblr. Alas, nothing so sexy, but it is very strange to contemplate things that I had never considered fringe aspects of LDS doctrine being talked away or denied significance. May I remind you all that I'm only twenty-five? Less than ten years ago the Book of Abraham was part of my seminary classes, eternal progression was a main tenet of the Plan of Salvation, and the Garden of Eden was most definitely located in Missouri--hell, I joked about the latter in a LiveJournal entry dated to 2004: "Then it was time to pack up our dear camp by scenic Troutless Lake and pull out for Zion! I mean, Salt Lake, since Zion was actually behind us, in Missouri, contrary to what Utahns believe."

Trek-related teenage sniping aside, I do wonder how potlucks, dances, and wedding receptions will change now that drinking Coke is ok (seriously, they picked the caffeinated items that are totally terrible for you to OK?). On the one hand, shoving the Book of Abraham to the quaint-and-outdated or esoteric-and-scholarly closet is a long time coming, since it's basically a crock of easily disproven shit, but there's a lot that stems from that book that is very important to the larger church doctrine. Or is it? Who knows? Apparently the LDS Newsroom is now the center of revelation in our techy era. All I can say from my own experience is that if beliefs about the world to come are indeed misconceptions, they are misconceptions held by a good chunk of members. Part of participating in a religion which accepts modern revelation is experiencing and acknowledging changes to lived doctrine, but I don't think I'm wrong in thinking that most Mormons prefer to get their revelation straight from the Prophet in General Conference, rather than the church website on any given weekday.

Those Mormons and their polytheism

Check out this article from The Wild Hunt--interesting, nay? I've never personally encountered anyone who considered the LDS religion to be a polytheistic (and therefore "pagan" and "non-Christian") one, but it comes up occasionally in articles that I read, and always, without fail, I am taken aback. Of course it never occurred to me while I was in the church to wonder if my religion was a polytheistic one, and once I left, I had other things on my mind. But now I have all the time in the world to consider such things! 

So. Are Mormons polytheists? This is not really the kind of thing that I think matters, but lots of other people do. Generally I feel like if Christ figures into your belief system as a personal and/or universal savior, you are probably a Christian, and by this measuring stick, the LDS church is a Christian one. I have more than once explained this to people, but it didn't occur to me until just now to wonder whether those people were implying that Mormons were pagans when they said that they didn't think the church was a Christian institution. Maybe they were! Maybe everyone thinks Mormons are pagans and I'm just really oblivious! I think, being in the church and worshiping as a Mormon, it doesn't cross most members' minds that they might be polytheists. But then, if it does, I also think it doesn't cross their minds that this automatically makes them not Christian.

The problem for me with this whole conversation is that there is apparently one very narrow definition of Christianity. You could argue, as some do, that Catholics are pagans and polytheists for their veneration of Mary and the various saints. The possibility of Heavenly Mother adds to the perception of the LDS as polytheists (if you know enough about the church to know about possible Heavenly Mothers). Indeed there is a good bit about Mormonism and the history of the LDS church that is quite pagan--Joseph Smith utilized what amounts to fortune-telling and divination methods (and one of his and following prophets' titles is "Seer"); temple architecture and ceremonies take many aspects from Freemasonry, with its mysterious origins and pan-religious membership, and the mere existence of sacred (or secret) temple rituals is somewhat analogous to mystery cults; and an entire new mythology is found in the Book of Mormon. Interestingly enough, Lorenzo Snow's couplet "As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be" is very close in spirit to the popular pagan adage "as above, so below," generally attributed to Hermes Trismegistus but said by nearly ever major figure in modern Western paganism at some point. Imagine that! We're all cribbing from the same sources, folks. These are not small things. They certainly make the LDS church a peculiar one. But are they enough to cancel out Christ as the centerpiece of the religion?

Not for me. I suppose the commandment "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" is a pretty clear one (then again, so is "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," and pretty much ONLY Mormons stick to that one), but then you get into all sorts of arguments about who is speaking: it is God the Father? Is it Jehovah-who-will-be-Christ? Does it matter? If Christ is the same figure as God the Father and God the Holy Ghost, why are they demarcated at all? For Mormons, such questions are even stickier, since LDS dogma indicates that the members of the Godhead are distinct figures, that Jehovah of the Old Testament is Christ, not God the Father, and that God the Father was once a physical human man and is the literal as well as spiritual father of humanity. But does that make Mormons true polytheists? I say ye nay, and here's why--henotheists acknowledge the existence of more than one deity, and active polytheists worship more than one god figure. The LDS church does neither and wouldn't dream of it; you aren't even supposed to be praying to Heavenly Mother in the privacy of your own bedroom. Prayers are without fail addressed to God as "Heavenly Father," and ordinances such as baptism are carried out "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost" much as other Christian churches' rites are. Practically and functionally speaking, there's no polytheism to see here. Theologically speaking...it's a thicket, man. If you consider the LDS doctrine that all humans who reach the celestial kingdom will eventually become deified, well, that's a very un-Christian idea both in concept and in practice--as far as I know--to think that there are a myriad other worlds with their own Heavenly Parents and Saviors. Mormon theology's greatest sin may be that it wants to have its cake and eat it.

Ultimately, for me, the church's emphasis on Christ as the Savior is enough to make it a Christian institution. That isn't the case for everyone, but I very much abhor the idea that Christians must be monotheists. Basically, to Christians who are concerned that voting for Romney means they won't be voting for a "Christian" I would say: have no fear, he and his running mate share all your bigotries.

The case for Wonder Woman's virginity

Now. I don't mean that Wonder Woman has never had sex or should never have sex. But I do think there's something to be said for using a different definition of "virgin" when considering the Amazon, a la Marilyn Frye. In this meaning, a woman may have sexual relations but, if unmarried or unpartnered, is considered a virgin, she who is without fetters, not under anyone's control: the willful virgin.

(she dates herself...)

This is the light in which I prefer to read Wonder Woman, for several reasons. First, this definition allows for same-sex relationships, which is useful for people who read Diana as a bisexual or lesbian woman (as I do). Furthermore, it allows for a woman having multiple sexual partners or no sexual partners, according to her lights. I like this because I view Wonder Woman as loving both men and women--but chiefly women--and also as having no particular interest in long-term relationships. Part of the reason that I find the new Superman/Wonder Woman As Official DC Power Couple so distasteful is that I don't see much in Wonder Woman's persona that is interested in being with one person. Her love goes elsewhere; it can be directed to a child in need of help or whole countries. She loves everyone, as a goddess loves. And like a goddess, she might take a consort for some time, or she might not. 

(she's authoritative...)

Taking her original origin (I am also serenely ignoring her new origin), Diana is gifted by the Greek deities to be "as beautiful as Aphrodite, as wise as Athena, as strong as Hercules, and as swift as Hermes," as well as receiving other blessings from deities such as Demeter and Hestia. All told, these gifts combined with the love and will of the Amazons create a demigoddess who is very similar in many ways to the goddess Artemis, and even shares her Roman counterpart's name, with Artemis and Diana being two of the most well-known virgin goddesses. Pre-Olympian stories indicate that Artemis occasionally loved humans; the stories of Orion, Endymion (where Artemis and Selene are considered to be two parts of a tripartite figure), and possibly Actaeon fit into this scheme, as do the numerous nymphs and maidens Artemis had about her as companions and supernatural/divine versions of Sappho's colony on Lesbos. The pre-Olympian Artemis is the quintessential willful virgin, and as her avatar on Earth, Wonder Woman is too. Both are active, powerful, complex female figures whom misguided souls attempt to cram into too-small boxes.

(...but always diplomatic, even in war)

Seeing Diana placed in a heterosexual long-term relationship grates. Romantic relationships are not the be-all end-all of female characters; heterosexual sex is not the only sex; sex and relationships don't have to go hand in hand. And let me be frank: I ship my lady with a whole slew of people, from Batman to older versions of Dick Grayson, from Batwoman to Power Girl. It's very easy for me to imagine her in the throes of passion--she isn't sexless--but my reading of her personality and her life and her mission is that she won't be distracted for long. She won't give in to relaxation and pleasure when there's work to be done. And she won't tie herself to another person, because she belongs to the people and the world first. Most importantly, she belongs to herself.

Republicans in the Big Guava

This Salon article is both deeply depressing and extremely accurate. As you all probably know, the Republican National Convention is taking place in my fair former city, Tampa, starting this weekend. When this was first announced, I shuddered in horror and thanked my lucky stars that I would already be gone when it came time. It would even worse than when we hosted the Super Bowl! And by all accounts it's going to be--the city is playing host to a slew of birther nutbars, and the prison on Orient Road is just waiting for people to be arrested. 

A new billboard greets GOPers as they roll in from the airport, seen below:

Believe me, to live there you would have no idea that this is actually true. The only reason Tampa is occasionally a spot of blue in a sea of red is because there are large amounts of students and people of color living there. Nothing in the city's infrastructure or plans for the future indicates the presence of liberal devils; I've posted here before about the utter lack of parks, the dangers of being a pedestrian or bike-rider, and the terrible public transit, including our idiot governor's rejection of the high-speed rail and Hillsborough County voters' rejection of a one-cent tax raise to fund light rail. On the other hand, the city doesn't display many of the virtues of conservatism, either--the tourism business is a shambles. There is nothing that Tampa has for tourists that every other Florida city doesn't have--Tallahassee doesn't have a beach, but then neither does Tampa proper--and a good bit of what it does have isn't being promoted properly. A rich and interesting history, sure...but where do you go to learn about that history? A lovely waterway...almost entirely ringed with unwalkable roads (the Riverwalk project, mentioned in the Salon article, has been in progress since before I moved to Hillsborough). Beautiful and historic houses...in the poorest parts of the city. Seminole Heights is to date the only successful attempt at gentrification, and frankly, gentrification isn't what the goal should be. The neighborhoods on all sides of Seminole Heights, including V.M. Ybor where I used to live, could see the same level of success that Seminole Heights has, but there's no initiative to make that happen, and even if it did, it would most likely manifest in the same old "push locals out, put Starbuck's in". Hillsborough County is a patchwork of extreme cases, where expensive high-rises sit next to urban-ugly tenements, and there are few hard dividing lines between "neighborhoods" as many other major urban centers have. The "solution" to distasteful urban spaces has been to push ever farther away from the city center, creating white-flight suburbs like New Tampa.

Tampa is a city that displays some of the worst excesses of typical Florida urban hubs: development run rampant with comparably few gains, extreme dependency on automobiles with all that entails (including some of the worst traffic in the nation, high rates of pedestrian injuries, and pollution), and a fatal disconnect between residents of the city proper and residents of the larger county. It has no essential spaces and it's far too spread out to be livable. There is very little that stitches Tampa together--other than 275. There is no overarching meaning to living in the place, little cultural identity unless you've been rooted there for generations, and most folks would rather say they're from somewhere else.

It's kind of a wreck. But I love it: it's home to my favorite restaurants, breweries, and bookstores, it's hot and bright and exquisitely scented, and it's lousy with memories. I'm sad the Republicans saw fit to descend upon it in their locust-like waves. Give them hell, Tampons! Since stand-your-ground is still in place, you might as well make good use of it.

Suck my status quo, J-boy

It was announced yesterday that, come Justice League #12, Wonder Woman and Superman would be shacking up. This sent yet another wave of outrage through DC fans (oddly enough I have yet to see any comments supportive of the decision; the most lenient ones are people who don't care or who are out of fucks to give--usually there's at least one person who's willing to keep sucking DiDio's dick) for several reasons: foremost for Superfans is that this is yet another blow to the Clark/Lois relationship, which is one of the oldest and most popular relationships in superhero comics. For some WW fans, including myself, this development dashes any hopes that we might have seen Diana with a female partner at last.

Also, you know, this exact thing has happened and been retconned like eight times because everyone hates it. Whatever. I will anticipate some glorious subtext in Wonder Woman's upcoming crossover with Batwoman (gaaaaaay Batwoman) and serenely ignore any goings-on with Supes unless it touches her title outright. Which, I'm sacrificing a goat today to ensure that it doesn't. Get thee hence, thou unclean thing. Pairing the two most powerful characters in the DCU is both the most obvious and least inspired relationship choice the bigwigs could have made. It's boring. Superman and Wonder Woman have a wonderful friendship, Clark and Lois have a wonderful romance, and if I really get an urge to see the demigods doing it, THAT IS WHAT FANFIC IS FOR. There are much better fic writers than you, Johns.

 (I mean this is just straight-up RUDE)

And let's be honest--if I go searching for smut involving Clark and Diana, there needs to be a Bruce filling in the middle of that sandwich. Pure Trinity porn or bust! Don't suppose we'll be getting any of that in the JL title.

In other news, Rob Liefeld, the most hated man in mainstream comic book creation, is rage-quittingleaving DC. Really! This time he means it! We can only hope. I can't blame him if the creative atmosphere is that dreadful--which I assume it is, with the possible exception of people working on Batbooks and Green Lantern titles, which are all the bigwigs care about--but his comment about overseas talent is pretty fucking nasty. A number of the best artists DC currently employs are not Americans, and guess what? This isn't news! Ed Benes and Guillem March might really enjoy drawing big tits, but their art isn't bad. Eduardo Risso is one of the greatest comic artists to ever live. Marcus To and Yanick Paquette are Canadian; do they count as evil talentless-hack foreigners? If Mikel Janin is good enough to work with Jeff Lemire, he should be good enough for you, Liefeld.

The bottom line to all of this is that comics should be good. I am only willing to spend money on things that I think are good. I don't buy books that have grammatical errors, crappy, boring plots, and suspect ethics; why would I buy a comic with the same? There seems to be a really low bar for consumption of comics, like, well it's just a comic book. No. It is not just a comic book and if you've let yourself be tricked into thinking that, you are part of the problem! Get some standards --they don't have to be MY standards, just A set of standards--and quit giving money to comics you don't actually like.

Male-pattern badness

So I went to see The Expendables 2 for my birthday, as one does (surely you all recall how I feel about The Expendables). Possibly even more exciting than the most homoerotic fight scene ever filmed outside of gay porn is the inkling that an all-ladies Expendables movie might possibly happen. 

I KNOW you all can tell how I would feel about that. Of course I have some suggestions as to who should be involved in such a venture: Maggie Q, Michelle Rodriguez, Gina Carano, Milla Jovovich, Gina Torres, Zoe Saldana, the flawless Lucy Liu, and of course a cameo by Pam Grier, to name just a few. If I can't get my Birds of Prey film or All DC Ladies All The Time miniseries, I'll settle for a gynocentric Expendables venture.

Ok, back to the really gay fight scene. I canNOT, dear readers. See, the best thing about this sequel is that Jean Claude Van Damme is in it--playing the baddie, no less, sleek Eurotrash in sunglasses who's trying to sell plutonium to...whoever wants it. His name, obviously, is Vilain. So inevitably he and Sly Stallone's main bad-mother-do-gooder have to mix it up, and though there could have been more actual fighting in their Thunderdome showdown, the lines spoken make up for it. "I'll man you up," Sly snarls. "You must really want to hurt me," JCVD hisses back. "Taste good?" Sly grits as blood drips from JCVD's jaw.

I mean really. This scene is a gift from the gods of war.

(also, Jason Statham joins the roster of sexy Hollywood priests)

Belts are ripped off! Guns and knives are tossed aside until the only phallic objects around are actual phalli! And at last Sly triumphs (which would totally not happen, said the Jean Claude fangirl) and his reward is a heart-to-heart with Maggie Chan, the team's lone female member. Dear talented, badass Yu Nan, what are you even doing here? Bruce Willis coins the phrase "male-pattern badness" early on in the film and really, that's what the movie is about and the reason why anyone goes to see such movies. Shoehorning in women as a nod to diversity or as romantic interests is really beyond the ken of a movie that is only trying to be a slugfest. There's nothing at all wrong with slugfests but I don't necessarily enjoy it when they try to be more than what they are. This is not to say that women can't be action stars or that there are no action films that utilize female characters skillfully. Being the only person alive who enjoyed Haywire and Salt and who can't stop going to all the Resident Evil and Underworld films, I consider myself a big fan of ladies shooting and/or stabbing things. But action movies that work with female characters are ones that don't make a big deal about them being there. Maggie, of course, gets to go through the mild gauntlet of being underestimated by Sly and hit on by Dolph, until finally she has proven herself as good as one of the boys. Hopefully, if a female-cast Expendables comes to fruition, the plotline will be something other than this. In the first Expendables movie, Giselle Itie's character Sandra had a  fairly solid plot-driven purpose for being present, but in this sequel, Maggie's purpose is more tenuous. As a government agent, she could be anyone, and she has no real investment in the plan going off without a hitch other than "not dying". Ultimately both Sandra and Maggie's higher purpose is to serve as the mode for Sly's introspection. Will they help him out of his shell? Will he eventually open his heart to luv? Sorry, but no thank you. Barney Ross will continue to seek refuge in blowing shit up.

Final words: Stallone and his cowriter seem to have made a drinking game out of fitting into the script as many action film references as possible. Chuck Norris is that kid who follows you around on the playground but demurs when you invite him to play with you. Charisma Carpenter is sorely underutilized by these movies. And will someone please, please cast Terry Crews to play Luke Cage already?

Happy birthday, Jimmy and Karen!

Yes, it's true, yesterday saw not one but two of my best-beloved creators celebrating birthdays! Jimmy Palmiotti, comic book writer and artist, and Karen Healey, YA author, are August babies, and bear with me as I gush a few words about them (alas, as my laptop is busted in various ways, there will be no schmoopy photos of me and my fave titles this time).

Palmiotti has written and/or illustrated several of my favorite comics titles, including several with his wife, amazingly talented Amanda Conner, and his longtime collaborator, similarly amazingly talented Justin Gray: these include Jonah Hex and the current ongoing All-Star Western (one of the greatest of DC's New 52 titles), an utterly classic run on Power Girl, and the superfun miniseries The Ray. He also had a hand in Gail Simone's first arc of Secret Six following Villains United, Six Degrees of Devastation. I was lucky enough to meet Palmiotti at Megacon one year and can confirm that he's a stand-up dude who enjoys talking with his fans.

(recent All-Star Western issue featuring my fave Old West femme fatale, Tallulah Black)

Healey is the author of two books, with a third coming out NOT SOON ENOUGH; I've written about her here. Guardian of the Dead and The Shattering are both rooted in New Zealand cultures and provide wonderfully well-rounded and diverse casts while also creating exciting and original stories. Healey is outspoken in the realms of YA lit and geek fandom, and her blog is a great place to go for informed opinions and recommendations, as well as hilarious musings from Down Under. 

(Healey with her debut novel)

Happy birthday, Karen and Jimmy! Many happy returns to you both.

Geek Girl Con 2012

This past weekend I was lucky to be able to travel to Seattle and attend the second annual Geek Girl Con gathering. I was prepared for awesomeness, but not quite the level of great that occurred. It was definitely the best convention experience I've had thus far: excellent and varied programming, some truly sweet guests, an exhibition hall where I wanted to buy something from every table, an astonishing amount of talented cosplayers, and general good vibes.

I met literal social justice warrior Purple Reign and her partner Phoenix Jones; I attended panels about disabilities in comics and other popular media, feminist concerns in YA literature, creating well-rounded characters, and gender and race in The Hunger Games; I chatted with three of my favorite comic book writers (one featured below); I hooked up with amazing Internet friends; and I managed not to empty my bank account on swag.

(your faithful blogger with Greg Rucka. Yes, THAT Greg Rucka)

It was a wonderful view into a portion of fandom that is motivated, thoughtful, smart, talented, and passionate. I really hope I can go back next year, and every year after. If you'd like to see some of the pictures I snapped (mostly beautiful cosplay), check out my Tumblr and the official con Flickr. I also have a couple of posts about the con experience up at my other blogge and the comics website Between the Panels.

Blergh, just blergh

It's been a pretty bad few weeks for attacks on American citizens on American soil by other Americans--you know, domestic terrorism. It's also been a pretty bad few weeks for the media refusing to call these people what they are. Between the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, the burning of a mosque in Missouri,  and the Colorado movie theater shooting, I'm not real proud right now to be a white American (am I ever tho?). On (somewhat) less dire fronts, bigots lining up to be counted at fast food restaurants is hardly worth lauding, although I like it when assholes identify themselves for me, and NBC's general terrible Olympic coverage and specifically their tendency to ignore certain Black female athletes' triumphs has been giving me a little of the old throwing-up-in-my-mouth feeling.

Good news, anyone? IS there any so far this week?

REALLY BRAIN?

Normal people have nightmares where they're back in school, sans pants or with a test to take they didn't know about.

Former Mormons have nightmares where they're sitting on the stand in sacrament meeting, about to give a talk that hasn't been prepared.

Happy birthday, Gail Simone!

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite comic book creators, Gail Simone. Simone has written all of my favorite characters at one time or another, including Wonder Woman, Renee Montoya as the Question, Deadpool, and of course the superteams Birds of Prey and Secret Six...and she recently got to use Batwoman in the Batgirl title, an issue I'm very much looking forward to!

She's one of the best DC Comics has got and I wish her many happy returns. Have a great birthday, Gail!

Godspeed, Dr. Ride

In case you missed the news, Dr. Sally Ride passed away on Monday. She was sixty-one years old.

Being that Ride was the first American woman to travel in outer space (as well as the youngest astronaut, aged 32 at her first flight), I heard a lot about her growing up on the Space Coast. She was a staple of Florida history classes and science lessons. As an adult, I have even more admiration for this remarkable woman and her legacy. She did much to break barriers for women in the sciences and provides a wonderful example for youth to look up to.

If you'd like to learn more about Dr. Ride, check out Sally Ride Science.

Talking about it

In the interest of continuing to think about that blasted Hairpin thread/giving myself an ulcer, happy Friday!...having lived on the Internet since I was fourteen and begun unpacking my spiritual knapsack about five years ago, it really seems to me that it's very difficult for people to have a useful discussion about a religion they aren't and have never been part of. 

I don't mean that only people who have directly experienced a religion are the ones who can talk about it.

Or maybe I do. Because really, what useful things do I have to say about Catholicism or Judaism or Islam? All my knowledge of those religions is strictly academic and must ever remain. Any opinion I have about the Catholic church has little to do with personal experience, and religion is all about personal experience. As we can see in the Pin thread, there are people who have poor opinions of the church and its followers, and there are people defending the church and its followers who largely draw from the pool of "all the Mormons I've met are nice people." Yes, it's true, most LDS folk will not tell you to your face that you are going to Outer Darkness--unless you used to be part of the church. Like, those arguments just do not work on apostates. I can say the same thing about Catholics; I have never met a Catholic who told me point-blank that I was a heathen sinner. But my ex-Catholic gentleman heard plenty of that ilk when he was a teenager. What exactly are we trying to prove with these statements of "but all the [blank] I know are nice"? Your lack of experience does not cancel out my lived experience. 

This Pin thread was really disheartening to me. At the most basic level, I was disappointed to see the comments devolve into name-calling. As I said in the previous post, I had a genuine critique of the article, one which was barely mentioned in the comment thread and which, for my money, is the only viable critique (other than maybe you just aren't into cute travel writing, which is pretty valid. I think the market for that is sort of over-saturated, myself). I have no idea how or if the site editors will address yesterday's mess. But I really am beginning to think that I Just Don't Care about your opinions of my former religion unless the conversation is purely academic, as in, Let us discuss how Jewish temples and Mormon temples are similar! or something of the kind. This thread was not academic in the slightest; it could have been, if anyone had been interested in talking about why and how missionary work is problematic, but that didn't happen. This thread was a case in which I just wanted to scream at everyone on both sides of the argument to do their homework before opening their mouths.

...so yeah, I'm pretty glad it's Friday. I need a stiff drink after this week.

No Mormons allowed?

So this was posted on the Hairpin, one of my favorite websites, yesterday. As you can see if you skim the comments, there were some posters who were displeased with the article and others who weren't. Honestly the comments are a pretty big mess and I don't agree with most of the dissenting ones, despite being a bitter apostate. The bulk of the dissenting comments were in the mode of "Mormonism is toxic, we should not have articles about LDS culture/belief here," a few veering into "Mormons should not be writing for the Hairpin, period" territory.


I'm not chill with either of those statements. It might seem, reading Ye Olde Blogge here, that I am angry at the church and by extension anyone involved with it. That's largely true, but it doesn't mean that I'm uninterested in the church and its people. I spend a good chunk of my time online reading LDS-related blogs, and not just the ones written by the disaffected. If I thought there was the skinniest chance that I would never encounter another LDS member or have to hear about the church again, I might be able to just let it all slip away. But having been very devout for fifteen years and with LDS parents and a Mormon running for president, there's just no way. It's always going to be there, tendriling into my life, and trying to force it out completely is more tiresome and less rewarding for me than trying to continue engaging with it in non-toxic ways. For me this means thinking about who I was when I was LDS, considering the aspects of the church that most influenced who I became, considering how the church relates to the world at large, and keeping abreast of news and changes. Because I would like very much to see changes occur in the church. I can't think of a change that would make me want to return to it, but it would give me joy to think that all members could be married in the temple, for instance. If that happens, I want to hear about it and think about it and talk about it. Just because I'm no longer part of the membership doesn't mean I'm no longer affected by its workings. 


I don't often defend the church or its members. Everyone knows nice Mormons,  indeed most Mormons are nice Mormons. But within the context of the article presented, there was an issue for me and that issue is missionary work. I have no good feelings about missionary work, any missionary work. That is my problem with the Hairpin piece; not that it was written by an LDS church member, not that it concerns a facet of the LDS belief system, but that it concerns the imperialist-based act of going into a country with the set goal of converting the inhabitants. Missionary work is not neutral to me. This was why I looked at the article askance, but based on the rest of the comments, there are few interested in presenting a critique that isn't "Mormons are bad, we don't want Mormons here." That's a bullshit criticism and I was glad to see a few commenters say that Hey, I am a Mormon actually and I am allowed to comment here.

I hope that the Pin editors maybe think about inviting a few LDS bloggers to talk about other aspects of church belief and culture which aren't quite so rooted in privilege and colonialism. There are so many interesting Mormon topic blogs, so many conversations going on that are relevant to topics that the Hairpin talks about frequently--gardening and canning and baking, parenting, and of course, feminism. I don't think barring Mormon writers from the website is a good idea, but I also don't think that a missionary travelogue couched (somewhat oddly) in "weight loss tips" is a necessary item.

For the good of humanity

Not much to report other than that cookie butter exists, and it is delicious. My gentleman is out of town for three weeks and so I'm slowly falling into a state of natural Dianitude: endless Netflix queue of brooding period pieces, spending hours at a time reading, never cooking dinner.

Cookie butter. Go get you some. 

In which I use more exclamation points than usual, all very warranted

Today in the mail I received a book I won in a giveaway on Rue's blog: Jude's Herbal Home Remedies (by Jude C. Todd). Also included was a package of celandine seeds! Must find a pot and get planting. I'll be reviewing the book here once I've finished it. Many thanks to Rue!

Something else arrived in the mail today too...a signed George Perez sketch of my favorite superpowered lady, Wonder Woman herself! My cousin commissioned it at a recent convention and sent it as an early birthday present. What a guy!