Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to sally jones,
Key’s cruisey and quick ride to the top made that much easier by his willingness and ability (having a dick) to exploit this privilege and prejudice.
I don’t think this is a wall I want to keep banging my head against, but I can quite legitimately compare Key’s supposed intention to “do a runner” to a simple matter of fact: Clark resigned not only from the leadership of her party and the Opposition, but Parliament, quite literally seconds after conceding the 2008 election. And as I’ve said clearly and unambiguously, she was hardly candid about her intentions but I can’t really muster any outrage about what she did.
But if you really want to go there, I’d note Saint David Lange didn’t exactly pay his dues – he’d been in Parliament for a little over four years when he became leader of the Opposition, and Prime Minister two years after that. Fairly obviously, the electorate did not find Lange's inexperience against Muldoon's twenty four years of public service a disincentive to elect the Fourth Labour Government. Now, history may come to view Lange's tenure as something of a curate’s egg but I don’t think you could say he bludgeoned anyone with his privileged dick to get there.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Can we agree that speaking for people is problematic?
Yes, because it is. But to get all Phil Dick-ian for a moment, simple empathy may well be all that separates us from being meat-bots. I don't have to be a woman to realise that sexism and misogyny sucks; and one of the many reasons I love and respect people like Deborah, Megan and Emma is they constantly challenge me to be better; more mindful of what I say and do; to just be human. A valuable subset of that is remembering that the urge to tidy away human beings into a neat stack of collective nouns is moally and intellectual laziness.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to nzlemming,
See, that’s why we have Craig.
Snarf. Can I cut you with this broken beer bottle I prepared earlier? Just a little bit. You'll faint, but I promise you'll wake up again. Probably. :)
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Muse: Reel Life: Pliéing Turkey, in reply to sally jones,
Another dance film recommended to me is La Danse. It’s a documentary about the Paris Opera Ballet and has subtitles
Damn, I was kicking myself for missing this at the festival last year (and it would make an interesting double bill with his 1995 film about the American Ballet Theatre) because I love Frederick Wiseman. Even though he hates the term, he’s a master of the “observational” cinéma vérité style of documentary film-making. His refusal to impose narrative or an editorial line on his work can be really challenging, but if you go with it, his films aren’t only insightful but curiously moving.
ETA: La Danse will be available on DVD from Madman Entertainment April 4.
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Muse: Reel Life: Pliéing Turkey, in reply to sally jones,
Might I suggest as well Gelsey Kirkland’s autobiographical Dancing on my Grave which is not unlike Black Swan in its depiction of Kirkland’s own descent into drug abuse and ‘madness’ as her career faded, having been worshipped as one of the most brilliant ballet dancers of her time.
Oh, Muses, yes. And I don't think she's the only person who could acknowledge that George Balanchine is rightly revered as a great figure of 20th century dance, but in so many ways a deeply unpleasant man.
I'd warmly recommend the 2005 documentary Ballets Russes. It's basically archival footage and a lot of elderly but astoundingly candid talking heads, but what stories they've got to tell.
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Muse: Reel Life: Pliéing Turkey, in reply to Rich Lock,
Are you going to be reviewing ‘Never let me go’ at some point?
Would love to -- but I'll be damned if I've heard anything about a release date, even straight to DVD. (Which wouldn't surprise me, considering that the reviews in the US and UK have been lukewarm and even by arthouse standards the box office was dreadful.)
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Muse: Reel Life: Pliéing Turkey, in reply to Neil Morrison,
Not unless someone is going to throw a bushel of comps at my head - still learning the fine art of getting my name on all the best press lists. :) Still, that's another item to add to the next Linky Love post.
Of course, if you've got any picks or pans to bestow, don't let me stop you.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to sally jones,
Clark served her country for 28 years, Key less than ten. Please don’t compare their level of commitment or propensity to lie. There is no comparison.
Was there a point there, Sally, beyond you like Clark and despise Key? And I certainly hope you're not saying there's a long-service pass for politicians being economical with the truth, however understandable that "truthiness" may be.
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Muse: Reel Life: Pliéing Turkey, in reply to Tim Michie,
So if not Portman, who would pick Craig?:
I'd vote for Jennifer Lawrence, but wouldn't bet the farm on Oscar voters being that tasteful. (BTW, here's a fun-fact and some homework. Winter's Bone is based on an excellent novel by Daniel Woodrell , whose second novel Woe to Live On was adapted into Ang Lee's criminally under-rated Ride with the Devil.)
The only other nominated performance I've seen is Benning's which was typically solid work from a much under-rated actress who doesn't work enough. But The Kids are All Right was... alright. It's one of those charming but slight films I'd happily sit down to watch on television (which is not damnation with faint praise), but Benning, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo weren't exactly being stretched.
But I've digressed a long way.
I'm still rage-y that True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld wasn't even submitted for best actress -- no disrespect to Jeff Bridges or Matt Damon (both doing fine work) but she just owns a very welcome return to form for Los Bros Coen. I'm currently polishing up a review - and trying not to make it sound like a Humbert Humbert-y mash note on a fourteen-year-old girl. :) But it's safe to say I'm a fan, and if they hadn't cast an actress who could nail Mattie Ross to the floor as firmly as Steinfeld does I just don't think the film would have worked.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Kracklite,
Until as late as the early 1980s, in England IIRC, a husband could not be convicted of raping his wife because, logically, consistently, he could not steal his own property.
Try a lot closer to home – IIRC, martial rape was not criminalized in New Zealand until 1985.
BTW, a little more fun with Scalia “logic”: I don’t believe landing a 16 year-old with a statutory rape jacket for having consensual, non-violent sex with his (or her) 15 year old boy/girlfriend serves no public good. Does that mean I’m “inconsistent” and hypocritical for having no qualms about the possibility of this chap [WARNING: Link SFW but may be triggering for sexual/physical abuse survivors] spending a very long time in prison. Slippery slopes and all that, because teenage sexual experimentation is just like violent predation and sexual abuse..
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