Woa there. Stop a horse. This blog has been neglected. There is no reason except that it’s shit, we’re shit and blogs in general are shit.
But I’ve come to the conclusion that my time could be more profitably spent writing innane bollocks on the internet than doing my actual job.
I say me, there is another half to this blog, she hasn’t got a proper job (hippy) so I’ll tell her to wrtie some crap too just to keep it balanced and not too gay/punk/nerdy. Though she may obsess about PJ Harvey which is probably all of those things combined.
So so so, all I have to do now is think of things to write. So here goes:
1. Paul Baribeau. Ordinarily I don’t like acoustic music. Well, ok, not don’t like, I just usually find it incredibly boring. So when people recommend me acoustic music or singer/songwriter music, I do one of 3 things:
i) Pretend I’ve already heard the artist in question so I can say, “meh, not really my kind of thing” without someone forcing me to listen to them.
ii) Tell them to fuck off, I only like fast music.
iii) Look at them witheringly.
Therefore, imagine my surprise when I discovered a song by Paul Baribeau on the Fest 7 compilation called ‘Ten Things’ which I actually thought was frakking amazing (incidentally I make no excuse for the use of any sci-fi swear words). Go listen to it on his myspace. So, I’ve now decided I will give acoustic music in general more of a sporting chance before I dismiss it, but as I’m too proud and stupid to accept recommendations and I’ve got a big list of better things to get into, this resolution won’t really result in any action. But at least now people can’t criticise me about being too close minded. Well, they can, but i’ll just wave my Paul Baribeau cd at them.
2. Kara Thrace (a.k.a. Starbuck) and Doctor Who.
i) Ok, so me and possibly ever other lesbian who likes sci-fi ever, love Starbuck. It isn’t just the looks of course, it’s the entire personality. The fighting, the drinking, the cigar smoking, the flying skills, the intelligence, the insanity, the heroics, the strategic thinking, the gambling, the sexuality, the ‘fuck you’ approach to authority, the independence…I could go on to post screen shots demonstrating just how cool she is, but really, if you don’t know, you should go and watch Battlestar Galactica. (Don’t worry, the crux of the piece is forthcoming.)
ii) Before the new Doctor Who was announced a little while ago, I had a discussion with a few people on the internet about the possibility of the new Doctor being a woman. I’m not a massive Who fan, but the couple of people who were said that the idea was a pretty ridiculous one and would never work. After getting into some petty squabbling and dsicussions about the limitations of the Doctor’s physical transfomation with each regeneration, one of the guys said that the reason the Doctor couldn’t be a woman was that there were just some fundamental differences between men’s and women’s personalities, even if this isn’t anytihng to do with genetics, being gendered is pretty much an inevitable result of being brought up in our society. Therefore the Doctor could not be a woman because a woman could not have the Doctor’s personality, which is ‘male’, and fans would not accept this. (The people I were talking to actually said they think it could work with the right script but it would be much harder, so they’re not total arses or anything.)
iii) Starbuck’s personality could also be typified as ‘male’. More so, in my opinion, than the Doctor’s. No-one has a problem with Starbuck being female except the guy who played the old Starbuck, who it’s generally agreed upon (by me) as being a complete and utter dick (see here). For me, if you just wrote a normal Doctor Who script but had a woman play the part, it would be believeable. And can you imagine what a great role model that would be for kids? For all the male heroes little boys get to grow up watching, here would be a female hero that little girls could aspire to be, and it would show all those little boys that women can be heroes to be admired too. The negative, that fans would have trouble accepting a female Dcotor, does not outweigh the positive impact it could have on our culture. Masculinity is not owned by men.
Fuck, well, that was just two things but it took me long enough. See yer.
