Collie's Bestiary

Update: Same-sex marriage was legalized in the U.S. state of New York on June 24, 2011 by the New York State Legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo! The law will take effect on July 24, 2011. Huzzah!

I don't often post on political issues. Today, however, I found New York State Senator Roy McDonald startlingly inspiring. In a nutshell, when questioned regarding his planned vote on same-sex marriage, he told reporters:

"You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn't black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing. You might not like that. You might be very cynical about that. Well, f*ck it, I don't care what you think. I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it. I come from a blue-collar background. I'm trying to do the right thing, and that's where I'm going with this."

Checking out his facebook page showed an encouragingly overwhelming support. Admittedly there were two very vocal individuals who disagreed, who were repeatedly spamming the page, but on the whole (at least while I was checking the page out) people were relatively courteously refuting those two, and thanking the senator for his courage.

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Upon reflection, I think at least one of the reasons the movie was unpopular is because many people define success as what they would like to have happen to them — especially if they are identifying with the heroine. I remember, for example, how mixed the reactions were to the movie Brazil, some years ago; I honestly didn't really care for that one myself either, despite enjoying Sucker Punch. Consequently a bittersweet ending, where the heroine retreats into her own mind yet still succeeds on her terms, is not always clearly a success to such a viewer. Also, as I mentioned earlier, one of my friends noted he would not have come to see the movie had he known about the lobotomy scene, as that was a personal "squick" of his.

I'd guess the multiple levels of potential meaning and "reality" within the movie also added to many viewers not enjoying it. For myself, I enjoyed dinner after the movie with several good friends, all of us fascinatedly puzzling over the various potentialities and meanings the movie offered. Our tentative conclusion was that Blondie and Amber were either just aspects of the mental landscapes of Sweet Pea or Babydoll (especially considering the meaning of Amber's name, and the flat-out contradiction of Blondie's)… or their murders in the brothel were only symbolic rather than actual in the "real" world of Lennox House. We thought, were the deaths actual, Dr. Gorski would have mentioned that in her listing of Babydoll's "crimes" — and she does not, though she does mention the fire, the attack on Blue, and the escape of Sweet Pea. Hmm… that raises another possibility: that Rocket too was an aspect of someone's mental landscape, and Sweet Pea thereby embodied what Babydoll could not be, in respect to her own little sister.

Reading on-line later, I discovered there had been several dance numbers planned in the brothel setting, which were cut due to concerns with time. Frankly, I think that made the movie much tighter and stronger. The closing credits were rather interesting, as that was where the only dance number — "Love is the Drug" — was played. It was very slick, in dramatic contrast to the grimy, decrepit, and moldy environment of Lennox House. The brothel setting ended up feeling curiously distanced and archetypal as a consequence, with the dance number containing girls dressed as angels and demons, Amber as a sword-wielding Dragon Lady, lines of dancing chorus girls, champagne as a bubbly metaphor for sex, Blue and Madam Gorski in an extremely seductive and torchy number… it was, in fact, a creepy sort of insanity: singing about love as a drug in a setting where clearly lust was as cheaply bought and sold as were drugs.

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The missions are a fascinating study all on their own, due to the girls slowly becoming less and less successful as the mission goals become increasingly difficult. For example, the old man / mission commander / guardian angel warns Babydoll in the very first (and most successful) battle to try to stay alive. She ends up destroying not just the oni, but also a temple. Later the girls are warned up front in the first mission to try to work as a team. They don't, and several of them are isolated and almost die: Rocket & Babydoll specifically — only by heroic scrambling do they manage to keep each other alive. In another mission they're warned to not wake up the "mother" — but the girls end up killing both an adult dragon and her offspring. The final mission, which fails and ends in Rocket's death, is to protect an entire city — and in the end the girls cannot stop the bomb in time.

So Babydoll destroys first a temple — religion did not protect her, after all — and then later the girls slaughter a mother and infant; clearly they are all motherless and cannot empathize with either the sleeping baby dragon or the grief-stricken parent. Admittedly, the mother is a fire-breathing dragon doing her best to kill them all for the murder of her child… but what does that say about the girls' respective parents, and the protection they should have been able to receive from family? It's no surprise, in a way, to see the entire city go up in the final atomic blast: what is religion, what are families and communities, to girls who have been utterly abandoned by all of society?

Another small grace note that wasn't really understandable until later was the narrator's introductory commentary regarding guardian angels: that they can appear as an old man or a child — and as the narrator spoke, you were looking down from the ceiling directly at Babydoll's back, where she sat tensely on her bed waiting for news of her dying mother. I suspect that was our clue that she was, at least part of the time, embodying Sweet Pea's guardian angel. There was also a wonderfully mind-bending moment in the brothel "level" of mental escapism, where the camera was looking over the shoulders of the girls as they sat at their dressing tables in front of the big, well-lit make-up mirrors. Just as you realized what you were seeing was the reflection of the girls rather than the girls themselves… the camera swooped forward, gliding through one of the mirrors — and you were looking at the girls' backs as they sat in front of their mirrors again! Very "through the looking glass" there.

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There have been incredibly mixed reviews concerning the movie Sucker Punch. I can kind of understand why people hated it — I have one friend who told me he enjoyed the movie overall, but had he known about one particular scene he would not have gone, since it squicked him. I, however, rather enjoyed it, and I'm going to sort of mentally meander here about why I did. Fair warning, though:

This review has great big honkin' spoilers! ;-)

There were the obvious reasons to enjoy the movie, of course. As I noted previously, quoting someone I know: "It has orcs! -and zeppelins!" The zeppelins were indeed incredibly spiffy. The five young women who were our heroines wore extremely stylish and stylized fantasy outfits and were marvelously competent in the wonderfully dramatic, video-game style combat. The bad guys in the missions were established instantly as so non-human and/or evil as to require no remorse whatsoever as they were mowed down. There were duels with three giant Japanese oni which were utterly spectacular, and there was an aerial dog-fight between an awesome fire-breathing dragon and a B-52 bomber (I think?) that had me practically bouncing in my seat with excitement. The soundtrack was fantastic, the visuals were crisp and gorgeous, the plot moved very swiftly, and perhaps most of all: the controlling bad guys were not idiots! They were scarily smart, in fact, figuring out almost immediately what our heroines were up to, which ratcheted up the tension accordingly.

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Having a very good month so far! Excellent news on the home front, which eliminated a major source of stress, which meant I focused enough to get one of my two remaining final papers written and done, woo! :)

Went to the Symphony Silicon Valley last night with my housemates to celebrate, and was startled to see the Notre Dame de Namur Catholic girl's high school graduating class still slowly exiting. Balloons, gleeful graduates, flowers and leis, happy families, banners and a limo — it was a delight to me, as I'm still very much thrilled by last year's graduation. More power to them all! :)

The performance we attended was the last one of this season, titled Spices, Bandoneon, & Italy. Marvelous choices, I think! I very much enjoyed this last season, and we'll definitely be returning for the 2011-2012 season. If you've been waffling over whether or not to join, please do! I heartily recommend this orchestra — they have intriguing and imaginative musical choices; they play with true verve and joyous technical brilliance; and the introductory talks are friendly, fascinating, and informative, adding another dimension of enjoyment to the experience. For those worried about attire, I myself have attended in anything from jeans and a sweater to a more elegant silk dress. Don't worry about it; they're friendly and welcoming, and the California Theatre is a beautiful building with (I think) wonderful acoustics.

As they noted during the introductory talk (which is, again, one of the major reasons I think so highly of this orchestra), all three of the pieces chosen were considered dangerously daring at the time they were composed. This was particularly interesting to me due to the composition dates. For example, Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 in A major, the Italian, was composed in 1833, and is a particular favorite of mine. You've probably heard it, even if you don't recognize the name; click the above link to open a new window for the first minute or so of the first movement, and you'll hear what I mean.

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Here there be dragons… and plot spoilers! Proceed at your own risk. :)

I'm struggling through getting final papers written, and my brain needed a break… so I did a quick review of L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s The Eternity Artifact to clear my head. Whew! I needed that. Now, back to work! ;)

I'm sure most of us have had, at some point in our lives, the unpleasant and frustrating experience of trying to talk to someone so passionately devoted to their religious beliefs that they approach — or have gleefully pounced upon — zealotry. Don't you hate it when you're trying to reason with them, but they already know it all so they don't even bother listening to you? Don't you want to just shake them sometimes when they're so dismissively, bigotedly sure they are the reasonable ones, dealing only with clear facts — and you're obviously just deluding yourself if you don't agree with them? Isn't it annoying when you try to explain a complex concept to them, and they patronizingly brush you off as delusional, as effectively lying to yourself — because it's really just simple black and white: you're wrong and they're right?

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Got another tambourine completed — this one's just a little 6 incher. The theme seemed perfect for spring though: a calla lily on the silhouette of a rose. I've always loved the creamy texture of calla lilies, and wanted to try replicating, in art, that interestingly smooth crinkle effect as they curl.

Both the rose and the lily are strongly associated, through history, with the Divine Feminine. The calla lily itself also stands in as a beautiful metaphor for female genitalia, and most recently I've discovered the rose was considered a lovely metaphor for the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus.

This was a perfect opportunity for me to play with the design. You can see more of my designs on my Art! page. If you'd like a tambourine too, let me know! :)

Had a lovely day today! Started in a panic due to realizing I had but two weeks left until end of semester, which means I have two 20 page papers to complete by then, as well as a revision of another, and a ten-minute presentation on the spirituality of creativity. Lost all the panic, though, while laughing at a good friend's query: "So other than the arrival of the First Corgi of the Academic Apocalypse, how are you doing? (Doesn't quite rate a horse just yet.)" Oh, the angst — I don't yet rate an equine apocalypse?! ;-)

Went to work out and felt very good about that, especially after receiving a lovely compliment about how I'm looking trimmer already. That is so good for the ego — shiny colorful spandex for the win! :)

Heading back to the house after working out, I stopped by a nice little Mediterranean restaurant that I'd been meaning to try out for lunch. They were quite busy, and I was still overheated from exercise, so when the waitress assured me she'd be right out, I went and sat at an outside table. It was a pleasant area, and allowed me to make some excellent notes and very productive reflections on what to include in one of my papers.

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I was recently asked the following question: "Why is it important for feminists to study and comprehend women-centered cultures?" While I thought it a good question, I also think it can and should be fruitfully expanded, in that I do not think only feminists should study these fascinating matriarchies. Learning is good, and as the old saying goes, knowledge is power.

Matriarchies, both ancient and modern (such as those discussed in this fascinating book: Societies Of Peace: Matriarchies Past, Present, & Future) are emphatically not simply a gender-swapped form of patriarchy. Further, they seem to lead to a very different view on both the world and the communities in which they thrive. I personally believe if we can learn about more options on how to live better lives, without damaging either the world around us or ourselves, then as responsible and rational humans it is our duty to do so.

So, to answer the question: to me, one of the most important things I do as a scholar of women's spirituality is open minds: my own, and that of others around me. There are a small handful of books I've read in my life that changed my world — that contained an idea so new, so radical and wonderful to me, that I literally had to pause a moment while my mental image of the world actually reshaped itself slightly to accommodate this amazing new concept.

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Walking through a parking lot today with one of my housemates, we spotted a car with a really big sticker on the back window: "Team Edward" with a big pink kiss-mark. After a moment to realize it's associated with Twilight (which only the housemate, much to his subsequent disgust, had bothered to read), the housemate murmured, "Huh. Didn't know they were allowing 13 year olds to drive."