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the feminist librarian

the feminist librarian

Tag Archives: guest post

"don’t ever link those two things again…" (2 of 4)

30 Saturday Jan 2010

Posted by Anna Clutterbuck-Cook in media

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guest post, hanna, movies

guest post by Hanna, cross-posted at …fly over me, evil angel… if you haven’t already, you can see part one from last saturday.

a quick review from last week saturday: in the spirit of “don’t complain about something if you’re not prepared to do it better,” i noticed over the past couple of weeks two lists — one from wired and one from a blog i know not of called ink-stained amazon which i have to say is beautiful to look at it — that both purport to be ‘essential lists’ of ‘geek culture’ quotes.

ahem.
okay, so the wired list starts off with monty python and the holy grail and the amazon list includes the sarah jane adventures — but i’m still not wildly impressed with either one.
i figured i could do better.
then i thought about it and realised that, on my own, i didn’t have the time to do better so i roped in my ever-patient girlfriend to help me do better. 🙂
first off, a couple of notes:
1. this is for fun. if you’re not amused, go read something else. i won’t be offended, promise. that being said, suggestions and additions (politely phrased!) are welcome in the comments. but keep in mind this is installation 1 of 4! not everything will fit in here.
2. these are probably mostly going to be dredged out of my memory, anna’s memory, imdb, or official show/movie sites. inaccuracy is, therefore, almost inevitable. not to mention repetition of shows or characters. if this annoys you– well, make your own list. 🙂
3. i’m not aiming for some kind of “worst to best” or “best to worst” list. they’re here because the two people making the list think they’re fun or because one of us was able to strong-arm the other into including them. brief context is provided where anna or i thought it was necessary.
5. i am aiming for 4 posts of 25 quotes each over the next 4 weeks. tune in each friday/saturday for your new installment! and here’s the link to the first post way back there last week saturday. or sunday. or something.
okay, and that being said…

1. Evelyn Carnahan: “I — am a librarian!” The Mummy.

2. Stormtrooper: “Look, sir — droids!” Star Wars: A New Hope. [and a freebie ’cause i always think of it now when i have to find the sw movies by number — Eddie Izzard [re the Lucasian number scheme]: “He’s fucking with us numerically, you realise that, right? ‘Kids, count to 10!’ ‘4 5 6, 1 2 3, — uh –‘” Circle.]

3. Luke Smith: “I think I may have made a social blunder. I showed them how to destroy the world.” The Sarah Jane Adventures, “Revenge of the Slitheen.”
4. The Doctor: “Because I’m very clever.” , “Midnight.”
5. Dutch [to the Predator]: “You are one ugly mother-fu—” Predator.
6. Ellen Ripley: “This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.” ALIEN.
7. Red Queen: “You’re all going to die down here.” Resident Evil.
8. Mercedes[to Captain Vidal about his infant son]: “No. He won’t even know your name.” Pan’s Labyrinth.
9. Captain Jack Sparrow [to Kraken]: “‘Ello, beastie.” Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.
10. Eddie Izzard [re: the British Empire]: “We ruled the world through the cunning use of flags.” Dress to Kill.
11. John McClane: “Yippee-kay-yay, motherfucker.” DieHard.

12. Malcolm Reynolds: “Were there monkeys, Kaylee? Space monkeys?” Firefly, sorry, forgot which episode. Second or third, I feel…?
13. Chancellor Palpatine: “The Sith had many powers, some considered to be unnatural.” Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
14. Neo: “Whoa.” The Matrix.
15. The Doctor [immediately prior to regenerating]: “The end has come — but the moment has been prepared for.” Doctor Who, “Logopolis.”

16. Jozef Kastan: “You seriously drink this stuff? What is it — like, non-fat, vegan, soy blood?” Moonlight, no idea which episode.
17. River Tam: “I can kill you with my brain.” Firefly, no idea which episode. whoops.
18. James Bond [when asked how he would like his drink prepared]: “Do I look like I give a damn?” Casino Royale.
19. Alice [to the White Queen computer about the Red Queen]: “I knew your sister. She was a homicidal bitch.” Resident Evil: Extinction.
20. Capa: “When a stellar bomb is triggered, very little will happen at first -and then a spark, will pop into existance, and it will hang for an instant, hovering in space and then it will split into two, and those will split again, and again, and again… detonation beyond all imagining – the big bang on a small scale. – a new star born out of a dying one… I think it will be beautiful. No, I’m not scared.” Sunshine.

21. Captain John Hart: “Did I mention I’m armed?” Torchwood, “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.”
22. The Doctor [on Rose pointing out that he sounds North of England]: “Lots of planets have a north!” Doctor Who, “Rose.”
23. Riddick: “Anybody not ready for this?” Pitch Black.
24. Rygel: “I am Rygel the XVIth, dominar of over six billion people — I don’t have to talk to you!” Farscape, no idea which episode. something in the first season, i feel.
25. Buffy Summers: “You forgot about dawn. It’s in about six hours, idiot.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Welcome to the Hellmouth.”

"don’t ever link those two things again…" (part 1 of 4)

23 Saturday Jan 2010

Posted by Anna Clutterbuck-Cook in media

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fun, guest post, hanna, movies

cross-posted from …fly over me, evil angel…

Hanna’s recruited me to help her come up with the next 75 quotes for parts 2, 3, and 4 . . . problem is I have a really, really hard time remembering snippets of things. my brain doesn’t think in quotations very easily. so my contributions end up sounding a lot like, “oh! you need to include something from that scene with Jack and the Doctor and the banana” or “that bit from ‘Merlin’ where Arthur was harassing Merlin about the bedclothes.” Me <– Not very helpful.

Nonetheless, she gives me entirely undeserved credit below and has been generous enough to share html so I can cross-post it here. Enjoy the glorious depths of her encyclopedic memory and look here for further installments throughout the next four weeks.

okay, so in the spirit of “don’t complain about something if you’re not prepared to do it better,” i noticed over the past couple of weeks two lists — one from wired and one from a blog i know not of called ink-stained amazon which i have to say is beautiful to look at it — that both purport to be ‘essential lists’ of ‘geek culture’ quotes.

ahem.
okay, so the wired list starts off with monty python and the holy grail and the amazon list includes the sarah jane adventures — but i’m still not wildly impressed with either one.
i figured i could do better.
then i thought about it and realised that, on my own, i didn’t have the time to do better so i roped in my ever-patient girlfriend to help me do better. 🙂
first off, a couple of notes:
1. this is for fun. if you’re not amused, go read something else. i won’t be offended, promise. that being said, suggestions and additions (politely phrased!) are welcome in the comments. but keep in mind this is installation 1 of 4! not everything will fit in here.
2. these are probably mostly going to be dredged out of my memory, anna’s memory, imdb, or official show/movie sites. inaccuracy is, therefore, almost inevitable. not to mention repetition of shows or characters. if this annoys you– well, make your own list. 🙂
3. i’m not aiming for some kind of “worst to best” or “best to worst” list. they’re here because the two people making the list think they’re fun or because one of us was able to strong-arm the other into including them. brief context is provided where anna or i thought it was necessary. i also tried to find links for character images that were from the episode/scene/moment where the quoted line was spoken. this isn’t always possible but i’m fairly pleased with myself for getting as close as i did! fair warning: links may contain spoilers, particularly links to doctor who or torchwood episodes.
5. i am aiming for 4 posts of 25 quotes each over the next 4 weeks. tune in each friday/saturday for your new installment!
okay, and that being said…
1. Tim Latimer [talking about the Doctor]: “He’s like fire and ice and rage. He’s like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He’s ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and can see the turn of the universe…and… he’s wonderful.” Doctor Who, “The Family of Blood.”
2. Captain Jack Harkness: “Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, arming the human race against the future. The twenty-first century is when everything changes. And you gotta be ready.” Torchwood, Season 1 opener on all episodes.
3. Brother Justin Crowe [talking about his upcoming radio broadcast]: “In a single coast-to-coast broadcast, I will speak to more souls than our Lord did in his entire lifetime. It’s going to be breathtaking.” Carnivale, “Ingram, TX.”
4. Dominic Toretto: “I retract my previous statement.” The Fast and the Furious.
5. Murtagh [in reference to a stone wall he and Eragon have run up against in their attempt to join the rebels]: “Tell me your vision looked something like this.” Eragon.

6. The Guide: “Don’t Panic.” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
7. The Doctor: “Don’t blink.” Doctor Who, “Blink.”
8. M [to James Bond as he almost says her real name]: “Finish that sentence and I’ll have you killed.” Casino Royale.
9. Captain Jack Sparrow [in reference to almost anything]: “Not good — not good!” Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.
10. Alice [before killing the monster that used to be her work partner and “husband”]: “I’m missing you already.” Resident Evil.
11. Riddick: “If you can’t keep up, don’t step up. You’ll only die.” Chronicles of Riddick.
12. “I’m going to curl up in his sock drawer and sleep for days.” MST3K riff in MST3K: The Movie: This Island Earth.
13. Dean Winchester: “Well, that’s healthy.” Supernatural, Pilot.
14. C-3PO: “Shutting up, sir.” Star Wars: A New Hope.
15. Dr. Frank N. Furter: “What ever happened to Fay Wray? That delicate satin-draped frame…how it clung to her thigh as I started to cry… ’cause I wanted to be dressed just the same…” The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
16. Jim [wandering in an empty London]: “Hello! Hello — hello! Hello!” 28 Days Later.
17. Temperance Brennan: “I don’t know what that means.” Bones, multiple episodes.
18. Plankton: “Well, goodbye, everyone. I’ll remember you all in therapy!” Spongebob Squarepants, “The Algae is Always Greener.”
19. Wesley Gibson [talking to Sloan who may, or may not, be trying to induct him into a secret brotherhood of assassins]: “So do you make sweaters or do you kill people?” Wanted.
20. Toshiko Sato: “Because you’re breaking my heart.” Torchwood, “Exit Wounds.”
21. The Doctor: “Well, progress is a very flexible word. It can mean just about anything you want it to mean.” Doctor Who, “The Power of Kroll.”
22. Michael Corvin: “Are you fucking kidding me!” Underworld.
23. Mme. de Pompadour [talking to/about the Doctor]: “Such a lonely little boy. Lonely then and lonelier now.” Doctor Who, “The Girl in the Fireplace.”
24. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker: “We’re smarter than this!” “Apparently not.” Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
25. Marvin the Paranoid Android [about life in general…]: “I have this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side…” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

guest post: "quod…….the fuck"

16 Saturday Jan 2010

Posted by Anna Clutterbuck-Cook in media

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boston, guest post, hanna, humor, web video

Hanna reviews the Eddie Izzard show we saw on Tuesday. Cross-posted from …fly over me, evil angel…

so a few last thoughts on the eddie izzard “big intimacy” show and then i promise i’ll shut up about him for awhile.

as you may have noticed in my thursday post, anna and i had a phenomenal time at the show. neither of us are big on concerts, shows, or big arena-type events and it was the first time either of us had been at the banknorth garden. i have to say, though, for a relatively big event, the running of it was really smooth. the banknorth staff were really helpful and very polite. our tickets got upgraded very seriously at the last minute — not that we realised this until we were sitting down and triangulated where our original tickets would have placed us — and the process went really smoothly.
with the new tickets, we weren’t quite “stage-side” but we were way closer than we would have been which was originally somewhere in the nosebleeds of the nosebleed section. we wouldn’t really even have been able to see the jumbo-tron screens very well. as it was, we were about a dozen rows back from the seating on the actual floor and just about ideally placed to take advantage of the three gigantic screens on the stage. mr. izzard looked quite tiny by comparison to the giant digital versions of himself. he did realise this and made a point of telling the audience, particularly those in the front rows, that they weren’t to feel obligated to try and look at him: “because, really, that guy up there? he’s doing the exact same things as me. except — maybe a bit slower.”
honestly, i thought he was hilarious. three hours worth of pretty damn solid hilarious. when considering live performances, i try to take into account — for some strange reason — whether or not i could or would be willing to try and do the same kind of thing. in this case, hell, no. i am in awe of his skill at a) remembering material; b) handling an audience; and c) making them both seem effortless. i mean, i am sure he could recite this material if woken up out of a dead sleep he’s said it that many times — and it seemed new. it seemed as though he were just making some of it up for our benefit right then and there because he thought we’d think it was funny. making that kind of connection with an audience of several thousand people is a fucking impressive skill. this is why great rock band front men are great. the same skills apply here, i feel.
and you know what else is a fucking impressive skill? getting that same audience of several thousand people in tears of laughter over latin. latin, people. (i apologise for the sound quality on this one; it’s a little dodgy. but also lots of thanks to anna for digging up all the youtube clips for me when i didn’t have the time to do it in time to put this post up.)

i did have a moment or two of indecision when it came to using these at all since “no recording” rules were on the tickets. but then i decided…well, what the fuck. it really is too funny to give up the opportunity of illustrating my point with primary source material, so to speak.

the only real irritation in the show came from two young women seated behind anna and myself — they left just after the start of the “second act,” thank god, or i would’ve had to dopeslap them — who insisted on critiquing the show quite audibly and discussing their social lives when they weren’t commenting that, “oh, he’s done that joke before” or “that’s just what he did in st. louis.” well, yes, probably both true. two essential points that you’re missing here: a) he is here, now. why don’t you shut up and enjoy the show in front of you? and b) there’s a fine line between “recycled material” and “a long-standing joke with the fans” both of which he had but he mostly managed to keep the first feeling like the second. it has to do, i think, with the variety of characters he manages to summon up out of thin air to populate the stage and illustrate what he’s talking about:

guest post: holland, hope & homosexuality

13 Wednesday Jan 2010

Posted by Anna Clutterbuck-Cook in think pieces

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gender and sexuality, guest post, michigan

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a response to Dustin Lance Black’s op-ed, describing his experience this past fall in my home town of Holland, Michigan. I also invited one of my sister’s friends, Arin Fisher — a Hope College senior in creative writing (poetry) and self-described “closet pamphleteer” who was involved trying to bring Black to campus to write a guest post about his own experience of how Holland and Hope College deal with homosexuality. Without further ado, here’s Arin.

I’m a gay clichĂ©, especially recently. I’m now the gay who quotes Harvey Milk, gestures always with endearing melodrama, and isn’t afraid to wear ivory post-Labor Day. As you may assume, my behavior is a red-flag to hicks everywhere, especially at home in Indian River, that I’m a goddam homsexshul. I make trite jokes about the gay agenda and how, due to mail-error, the conservos always receive my copies. Fuck me.

But I wasn’t always so gay. I was the kid whose first very secret crush committed suicide, who went on short term mission trips with Global Expeditions, whose reorientation therapy failed (whose therapist’s son was gay, too, and who taught me a few of the tricks I now know), and who applied to all the conservative colleges in Michigan, including Hillsdale, and was accepted with enormous scholarships because of my promise in right-wing politics. But I chose Hope for the mentors who, like me, struggled to come to terms with their sexuality and who married women and led what many believed to be perfectly normal straight lives.

Freshman year I followed my RA, Erin, to a Gay Straight Forum meeting at a wee white house just off-campus, but then I passed the house, peaking as covertly as possible through cracks in the lacy curtains before looping back toward my dorm, spooked by the perceived threat of association and other threatening receptions from the gay people in the house. I thought quietly [righteously] that had I gone there to listen to the conversations, they’d know that I’m queer. Gawd.

Growing up in northern Michigan, I was skilled — I skirted every gay man I encountered. Those gays whose friendship I began to value, I diligently offended. All those whom I crushed on, I cut out of my life because I was Christian, and you know the story. I elegantly employed these hard-learned skills. I learned that to avoid other gay men, I must avoid situations where gay men would be present. All to say: I’m unaware of any concerted effort to dialog about sexuality apart from the Mel White battle in the late 90s as I spent a majority of the past three years praying the gay away.*

You might aim blame at me for Lance’s misinformation. I briefed him from my experience which was teleologically sub-gay until fall 2008. Now that I’m more on the front-lines in terms of having “friendly” conversations with the Dean of the Chapel and “friendly” discussions with the Dean of the Students and organizing 501c3 LGBT groups, I’m doing more research, both personal and academic, in hopes of self-informing enough to competently reflect informed LGBT students to the higher-ups at Hope and in the community. I’m happy that I’ve been able to contribute a little to the conversation, if not always in the most informed way, at least in a way that adds Dustin Lance Black and my supreme penchant for melodrama to the coveted repertoire of Hope’s self-consciousness of diversity.

~Arin Fisher.

*Editor’s footnote: “the Mel White battle” Arin refers to is the period I described briefly in an earlier post. Former Christian right activist turned gay Christian author Mel White was invited by a coalition of campus groups to speak at Hope in response to another guest speaker, Mario Bergner, a conservative ex-gay therapist, brought in by the campus ministry as part of a chapel series on Christian love.

summer book review: the strain

24 Monday Aug 2009

Posted by Anna Clutterbuck-Cook in book reviews

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family, guest post, michigan

While I’m enjoying the last few days of summer (I’ll be back blogging after the Labor Day weekend!) I thought I’d put up this little book blurb my father, manager of the Hope-Geneva Bookstore, wrote for the Michigan Association of College Stores newsletter when they called to ask what he’d been reading. The Strain was a novel that Hanna read and passed along to me earlier in the summer; I recommended it to my father who read it and passed it to my mother, who emailed me last week to tell me about this vampire novel she was reading . . . such is the, er, viral nature of good reads in a family of bibliophiliacs.

Without further ado, here’s Mark:

If you are looking for a summer read that will keep you turning pages (or refreshing screens) late into the night you could do worse than, The Strain, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. The first of a promised trilogy of vampire novels (forget the Twilight series), this worthy addition to the genre reads like a cross between Stephen King and Michael Crichton. While Spanish film maker del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) is not known as a novelist his storytelling ability is clearly on display. The novel starts out with a routine jumbo jet landing at New York’s JFK. The plane suddenly rolls to a stop and the lights go out. All communication with the tower cease. An investigation of the mystery reveals that everyone on board is dead including the pilot and co-pilot. The creepy action ramps up from there.

In a radio interview earlier this year del Torro described his effort in the book as wanting to take the modern romance and “sexiness” out the vampire legend and return to the concept of pure evil inherent in the blood-sucking parasites. I think he does a good job of honoring our core understanding of the mythology while combining it with the threat of a modern viral epidemic. His characters are familiar types but engagingly articulated and the close of the novel leaves us waiting for the next installments.

More Favorite Things: Joint Movie Blogging

26 Thursday Feb 2009

Posted by Anna Clutterbuck-Cook in media

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domesticity, guest post, hanna, movies

A couple of weeks ago, Hanna’s bed unexpectedly died. It was a very traumatic event that led to a lot of hauling of various old bits out and new bits in, deconstruction, construction, sweeping of dust bunnies and the consumption of a very nice bottle of sake. Which in turn led to the creation of this annotated list of twenty-nine of our favorite romantic movies.

Which was also, in part, a response to this list, that Hanna had blogged about earlier.

So anyways, check out our own (far superior, *coughcough*) list over at Hanna’s blog, …fly over me, evil angel….

UPDATE: We’re already accumulating, via comments, constructive critique concerning films we short-shrifted. And really, there is no excuse for forgetting a movie like Secretary or My Girl Friday. In the interest of full disclosure, certain movies (Hanna has already mentioned History Boys) were considered for inclusion, sidelined, and then we ran out of room (the list we were responding to had 29 films, thus our seemingly-arbitrary cut-off). “Honorable mentions” from the rough draft also include Stardust, Beyond Silence, Little Voice, Bend It Like Beckham, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Lion in Winter, Stage Beauty, and The Princess and the Warrior.

Clearly, we’re already at work on installment number two . . . thoughts? put ’em in comments (on either blog)!

Womyn’s Land (Take Three)

09 Monday Feb 2009

Posted by Anna Clutterbuck-Cook in think pieces

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feminism, gender and sexuality, guest post

My friend Linda Smith, who is a resident at Hawk Hill Community Land Trust and was a part of the Aradia oral history project (see post one), read my thoughts on the recent article about lesbian communities in the New York Times. (See post one and post two here.) She wrote me an email in response, which I am posting here with her permission. Thanks Linda!

Hi Anna,

Nice to hear from you! I just read your blog entries on the article in the NY Times. I too hope there will be more “conversation between generations of women who are intrigued by the idea of communal life, and spark creative, contemporary approaches to experiments in living that will help our elders and youngers improvise lives worth living.”

For me, as a feminist in the 70’s, separatism was a strategy not a political position or a life style. I think it is sometimes important for women (or blacks, or other oppressed peoples) to separate from the oppressive culture in order to discover who we are apart from the stereotypes imposed on us. To contact our own power and source of being. Remaining separate and at odds with the dominant culture isn’t the goal. Most of us involved in feminist consciousness raising and women-only groups in the 70’s have chosen to act out our truth in the world. To contribute to the culture and the evolution of our species. This is a spiritual question for me. One of the major problems in the world today is the false belief that individuals and groups are in fact separate – we are all connected, men/women, Jews/Christians/Muslims, and all living beings.

I think a healthy community grows organically and changes with the times. I live on an environmentally protected landtrust. There are five households and six lesbians living here. We are not a commune – we have no community buildings and do not share our income. In many ways our community includes our neighbors and the surrounding environment. We do not own our land but have 99 year leases. By signing our leases we agreed to specific “covenants” designed to protect this land, the waterways, and all the creatures living here. There have been many changes in the world since the first lesbian land groups formed. If younger women (or perhaps men, or ?) are going to come and take care of this land after we are gone we’ll have to be more flexible and learn from each other as you suggest! At Hawk Hill, as far as I’m concerned, it’s really about the land, all the creatures living here, and our relationships to these and each other – not about lesbian separatism.

Thanks for you thoughtfulness.
Linda

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