Double Reading

Adding to my theory that Smallville is awesomely postmodern, I just watched the season five episode “Thirst.”

The episode is about a vampire sorority headed by a girl named Buffy Sanders. Hmm… sounds a bit like my favorite vampire hunter Buffy Summers!

To make things more fun and postmodern, there is a scene where Clark tells Professor Fine (played by James Marsters) that he thinks Lana was bit by a vampire. Professor Fine responds, “There’s no such thing as vampires.” … Except that in Buffy Marsters played the evil-turned-good vampire Spike.

Oh will the references never end! Let’s hope not!!

The thing about being privileged (be it by being white, straight, male, etc.) is that if someone ever calls you a name or treats you what you perceive to be unfair or differently, you never have to think twice about whether it’s because you’re somehow “different” than most people.

This morning on The Commentators, they were talking about an incident in Portland in which two 14-year-old lesbians were kicked off a public bus for kissing/making out.

According to the girls (it sounds like the transit system hasn’t released audio/video of the situation yet), after making out the bus driver called them “sickos” and that after one of the girls went to hug her upset friend, the bus driver kicked them off.

John Carlson kept insisting that the girls were making out to taunt the passengers and drivers and that the driver ultimately kicked them off because public displays of affection make people uncomfortable, and that it had nothing to do with the fact the girls were lesbians.

Okay, fine, that very well might be the case, but to those girls, I’m certain that they assumed they were kicked off for being lesbians.

When you are straight and something like this happens, you never have to think, “Wow, does the bus driver somehow hate me or have a prejudice against me because I’m straight?” I think the fact you never have to worry about that stuff is one of the most prevalent ways that white/straight/male/etc. privilege exists.

Also, on a somewhat related pet peeve of mine, I hate it when straight people say that they don’t mind gay people “as long as they don’t flaunt it” (by holding hands, kissing in public, etc.). They try to disguise it as “public displays of affection make me uncomfortable” but I highly doubt they’d complain about straight people making out in public, too. You can ask my friends: As a joke, when I see straight people holding hands, kissing, etc. in public I often say, “Ugh, don’t you hate it when straight people flaunt their sexuality?”

Again, when you’re straight you don’t even have to think twice…

Fact of the day: Bill Breeden was the only person arrested for anything having to do with the Iran-Contra Affair.

Who is Bill Breeden? He’s from John Poindexter’s home town and held a sign for a street named in Poindexter’s honor for “ransom.” He was arrested and jailed for this. None of the military or government officials involved with illegally selling weapons or funding a war that the U.S. wasn’t supposed to be involved with or covering up served jail time.

Anyone who thinks that the recent news about Paris going to/from jail/house arrest has anything to do with faith in the justice system is terribly confused, I’m afraid.

(Fact thanks to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.)

I just upgraded my WordPress install, so things might be a little weird for the next few days while I work out changes and whatnot.

I hate that I am linking to FOX News, but the fact that they are reporting that Jon Benet’s Dad and  Natalee Holloway’s Mom Are Dating makes it worthwhile. I mean, really… this is just too bizarre.

For what it’s worth, I’m still “boycotting Aruba.”

I’m giving Windows Live Writer Beta a try. Usually I write my posts using the WordPress interface, but it’s always fun to try new products. I’ve heard really good things about Writer so I figured why not?

This post is mostly a test

Well, maybe Arrested Development is the best postmodern show ever (and Boston Legal would be up there, too), but Smallville, my latest television obsession, is probably the second.

I’ve been plowing through the show for about two months now, and have reached the season four premier. I’ve been meaning to post about the postmodern, self-reflexive greatness for a while, but nothing has compelled me more than this episode.

For those not aware, Smallville basically goes back to the origins of Superman and follows Clark Kent growing up in Smallville, Kansas. The show is set in contemporary times so it’s not like some ’50s or ’70s version of Superman-as-a-kid.

I myself am not a huge Superman fan (when it comes to comic heroes/stories, I prefer Batman and X-Men), so I was reluctant to start the show… but after the urging of a couple of friends, I took the plunge. And now, obviously, I’m quite hooked.

From a television entertainment standpoint, I like the way the show is serialized (like Lost) and not many weekly stand-alone episodes. The first season was “monster of the week” (a la old X-Files episodes), but once season two came around the show did a great job of incorporating those MOTW stories with the overarching mythology of the show.

What I really love about the show, though, is all the little references and allusions it makes to other pop culture incarnations of Superman. Some of my favorites (in a quick, incomplete list):

• Lex Luthor telling Clark, “Our friendship is going to be the stuff of legend.”
• Casting Annette O’Toole to play Clark’s mom. She played Lana Lang in Superman 3
• Casting Christopher Reeve to play the mysterious Dr. Swann. He, of course, is the most well-known actor of Superman.
• In “Crusade” (the season four premier) the pilots of a plane notice the approaching and now-flying Superman and one says, “Is it a bird?” while the other says, “Is it a plane?” in reference to “It’s a bird, it’s a plane… it’s Superman!”

There are tons others and I probably should’ve kept a list, but oh well… you get the idea.

One of my favorites, however, is the fact that in “Crusade” (the aforementioned season four premier), Margot Kidder (the most well-known actress to play Lois Lane) appears in the same episode that we are introduced to the Smallville version of Lois Lane. So basically the episode is an all-around Lois Lane fest.

Another thing I love about Smallville is the tension that I felt when I started watching the show and saw that Clark was friends with Lex Luthor and Clark’s main romantic interest is Lana Lang. I say “tension” because ever since I started watching, I’ve been waiting to see when Lex and Clark have their falling-out and when we’d meet Lois Lane, who we all know becomes Clark’s primary love interest for most of the Superman mythology. It’s an interesting way to do the show, since we all know what happens in the end, but it’s all the details in the beginning and the middle that are murky, and I think the creators/people who make the show do an awesome job teasing that tension out.

So all-in-all, I’m delightedly surprised at how much I am loving Smallville. My only concern now is that I’m almost on season five, and that’s the last season available on DVD now, which means I’m almost all caught-up. I’m gonna have to start thinking of new sci-fi television shows to fill the void that I’m still trying to fill that was left by X-Files and Buffy.

Another reason to love our friend Wiki: an entry on unreleased songs by Madonna. I remember back in high school I used to love hearing about this stuff especially when it involved Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins.

Unfortunately, Wiki doesn’t have anything about either of those bands, but a quick search for “unreleased songs” does turn up results about Mariah Carey and Limp Bizkit — two rather unfortunate choices, if you ask me…

I cannot help but think of the ship of fools (which I first learned about while reading Foucault’s Madness and Civilization) while watching Pirates of the Caribbean — especially the second one, Dead Man’s Chest when they go to the Tortuga Port to find the “99 souls” to give to Davy Jones.

I think Captain Jack Sparow is the perfect example of a fool on a ship without any idea what he’s doing or where he’s going. I’m surprised I didn’t make the connection earlier. The way Johnny Depp plays the character totally adds to the idea of it, too.

I can’t believe The Stranger is hating on the new Smashing Pumpkins song, “Tarantula”!!! This is very likely my favorite Smashing Pumpkins song since Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. (Yes, I did love some of the electro-tinged stuff from Adore, but MCIS has always been my favorite…)

The song totally reminds me, in fact, of a cross between the MCIS song “Bodies” and the MCIS outtake/jam/collage “Pastichio Medley” from the “Zero” single.

Anyway, I’m loving it, and if this is a sign of what’s to come from their new album, I’m pumped.

Search for “Tarantula” on the Hype Machine and you are sure to find the mp3 somewhere…