The Raptor's Den
Voluntary experimentation-
Going through softcore mutation...
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
We must have seen Enter The Dragon three dozen times, and yet we never get tired of it, and always end up watching it when it’s on, which is why I'm posting at one thirty am. It’s just that brilliant. It’s not the best martial arts film ever made, but it is the one that introduced the West at large to the genre, and the three leads (Bruce Lee, John Saxon, and Jim Kelly) are all skilled, charismatic, charming, and fascinating to watch. Bruce Lee, of course, is the centerpiece; he is vital and mesmerizing, with a disarming grin and speed that has to be seen to be believed. The sets are lovely, the fights well done, the music amazing - it’s not hard to see why this film became a phenomenon when it arrived on the scene in 1973.
Interestingly, although Jim Kelly got a few of his own martial arts movies after Enter the Dragon (Black Belt Jones is particularly fun to watch) and of course Bruce Lee would have had dozens had his untimely death not robbed us, John Saxon never really got starring roles in martial arts films. I'm not sure why- he's certainly skilled enough, and he can act- but it just never happened.
Friday, March 23, 2012
So our Tumblr Famblr had a cute thing where they held a "Tumblr Prom, " and everyone dressed up and reblogged their pictures along with those of their dates. Even if they were hundreds of miles apart, they posted their pictures together as though they were in the same place. It's really cute, and, getting into the spirit of the thing, we dressed up and took our place as chaperones. :)
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Why the friendzone is bullshit and self-proclaimed "nice guys" are misogynists »
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As defined by urban dictionary, the friendzone is…
“When you are expected to support a girl you really like while she searches for a smarter, richer, and more handsome boyfriend. There is little you can do without feeling like a dick. All in all, one of the meanest things a girl can do, whether they mean it or not.”
and ”The perennial location of nice guys everywhere.”
Although this hypothetical situation could work both ways, friendzone is almost always applied to a man who is rejected by a woman. Therefore, there is something inherently unequal, something inherently sexist about the term “friendzone”. But what and why?
From my experience, this is what friend zone is. A “nice guy” pursues a woman, but isn’t forward with his intentions from the get-go like, say, a “jerk”. The woman is pleased to see a man who is interested in her not as a sexual object but as a human being and wishes for things to stay that way. The man is not satisfied with seeing the woman as a human being because being “expected to support a girl” is a bad deal if she’s not putting out.
Before I delve into the sociological aspects of this, I just want to point out that ”friendzone” is no more pleasant for a woman than it is a man. First, that is to say unrequited love works both ways, but the person who doesn’t return affections is considered mean only when she’s a woman. And second, what option does the woman have in a traditional “friendzone” situation? Just stop talking to a close friend to avoid “leading him on”? In high school, I found out my best friend of 2 years liked me. Having to tell him I didn’t feel the same way and being immediately ex-communicated via Facebook status (“Thanks for wasting my time”) was one of the worst things that ever happened to me. Were our two years of friendship invalid because I didn’t want anything more? Was all our time together really wasted because there was no hypothetical pay off?
Guys who do this and claim to be “nice guys” are the worst misogynists because of their sense of entitlement toward a woman. They make investments in property and expect their dividends. They are fake friends. They are selfish. And they will jump at the chance to vilify you and victimize themselves when their attempts at manipulation don’t work. Clearly, “friendzone” is the remnant of a phenomenon that has plagued women since the beginning of time: women are not independent creatures. Our love lives exist only in the context of a man’s desire. When we make independent decisions, we are subject to a host of derogatory terms. “Slut” is how we vilify a woman for exercising her right to say “yes”. “Friendzone” is how we vilify a woman for exercising her right to say “no”
- http://angels-and-angles.tumblr.com/
Friday, March 16, 2012
I got a message in my spambox from "Fiona" - apparently my horse is trying to sell me off-brand Viagara.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Things I do like about Santa Monica:
1. The easy availability of anything buyable. There is a store for everything here, usually within a three block radius of wherever you might be at. There are eight secondhand shops (that I'm aware of) in a two mile radius alone. I saw three different lighting stores within the same amount of space. I don't know how one supports three lighting stores in that radius, but there you go.
2. Pedestrians are demigods. Seriously, I haven't seen the actual laws, but judging from how people stop for you, if you so much as get within two yards of pedestrians while in a vehicle, someone must go to your house and set it on fire. People stop for you on unlighted intersections on four-lanes just because you're standing there wanting to cross, and they wait without the least sign of impatience. It's astonishing.
3. Any possible style of food you may feel like eating any given minute is available to you within a couple of blocks. Anything. And it's all pretty much uniformly great.
4. March in LA is really mild, and pleasantly cool (which makes a marked change from the stinking hot weather we had on the past two trips.) It is endlessly entertaining to watch people walk by in the 58 degree weather in heavy coats. I saw two people in parkas yesterday, and one of them was wearing a ski hat. It was all I could do not to burst out laughing.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
So I was very pleasantly surprised by John Carter of Mars. I went in expecting nothing, and had a great time. It doesn't follow any exact book storyline, but it incorporates all the salient bits of A Princess of Mars, does a very interesting take on some ideas from the Gods of Mars, and adds in a very interesting moving city that I think Burroughs would have approved of. The Tharks are awesome, there is a fair amount of blood (blue, which is what I think got it past the censors) and a high bodycount, Dejah Thoris gets a well-deserved personality addition (now she's intelligent as well as kickass!) and really, it was just all very pleasing and enjoyable.
Labels: movie review
Friday, March 02, 2012
Doodle Or Dieis the best game ever. We just sat up playing it for three straight hours.