bob

friend_of_tofu @ 23:40 : Notes on CWP* Camp
I couldn't find my copy of Philip Core's glorious 'Camp: The Lie That Tells The Truth' (an encyclopedia of camp's coat of many colours, and a towering achievement) this weekend, so I couldn't bring it along for 'Brideshead' viewing. So, I've copied Core's entries for both the book and the drama below, as I think (writing as he was in 1984) that he had some very pertinent views on Waugh's enduring success:

'Brideshead Revisited' (Novel) (1945)

Although Evelyn Waugh claimed it was a study of the effects of Divine Grace, 'Brideshead Revisited' was in fact an exercise in wartime nostalgia, a holiday camp away from the rigours of rationing and blitzes. Avid social-climber and arch-sensualist, Waugh sated himself with a vast map of upper-class life and a larder full of luxury, the whole encased in an aspic of evocation for a world into which he was not naturally born. This false rosy light has guaranteed the novel a perennial readership, despite its beautiful writing. The quintessentially 1920s brand of homosexuality, which portrays it as essentially a class phenomenon, has made both the novel, and its anti-hero Sebastian Flyte, beloved of aristocrats and their former servants in a land where socialism has disguised society.

'Brideshead Revisited' (TV Film) (1981)

Cashing in on the mass discovery of camp during the 1970s, one of Britain's commercial TV companies, Granada, gathered together a cast of stars to personify Wugh's novel in a glut of sensibility that provided two years' good living for a host of extra, costume designers and researchers. Even the books handled by people in the films were 1920s first editions - although such authenticity looks odd - first editions were not *old* in 1920. Nostalgia for a world its viewers can never know, which Marx observed as a marked tendency in insecure societies - made the TV version of 'Brideshead Revisited' a smash hit. The whole thing was an exercise in paying camp - the concept, the script (so cultured in its verbatim truth to the novel), the actors, the fortune pumped into the long shooting, even the fact that it was presented like a soap-opera in weekly installments.

If the novel was a lie that told the truth about Waugh's snobbery, the series was a lie that more than told the truth about England's swansong belief in the beauty of a noble past which oppressed two-thirds of her population. The big secret, one supposes, is that the English yearn for a time when everyone was told what to do, and a few homosexual teenagers were allowed to destroy themselves to provide glamour for their friends. Retrospective tolerance is so much easier, and therefore a variety of mass camp.


*CWP = Class-War Porn, for those who are uncertain. A towering example of camp, as Core would, I hope, have agreed.

Tags: it's art darling, lgbt, political

friend_of_tofu @ 23:37 : Satrapi on Iran
Any of you New York Times subscribers? Any chance you could copy me their op-ed with Marjane Satrapi, "I Must Go Home To Iran Again"? I would be terribly grateful.

*flutters eyelashes*

Tags: online things, political

mirrorshard @ 23:25 : Book review
At Eastercon, we were given free books; I have reviewed one of them here.

It's Unnatural History by Jonathan Green, the first book under the Pax Britannica label from Abaddon Press, and it's uproariously, hilariously, risibly bad. It's like the hastily aborted bastard child of Bulldog Drummond and Sebastian Tombs, exhumed from a shallow grave and encased in a steam-powered armature of shiny brass.

(Elly made me post this link. In retaliation, I'm going to make her post about handling elephant poo.)

Tags: sf

slashfood_feed @ 21:53 : Virginia Is for Red Hot Dogs

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/07/06/virginia-is-for-red-hot-dogs/

Filed under: Pork, Television/Film, Southern States

It's hard to miss the dogs at Skeeter's in Wytheville, Va. Photo: Hanna Raskin

Most every American ate a hot dog this July Fourth weekend, but only a small sliver of southern Appalachia is still putting the red in the red, white and blue tradition.

Southwest Virginia's enduring affection for stoplight-red weenies is the subject of Fred Sauceman's new documentary, "Red Hot Dog Digest," which premiered at a Southern Foodways Alliance event last week in Bristol, Tenn. While many cancer-fearing hot-dog makers started shunning red dye in the 1960s and 70s, when the FDA singled out certain dyes for study, Bristol's Valleydale Packers stuck to the (government-approved) recipe that by 1958 was responsible for more than $100 million in gross annual sales.

Continue reading Virginia Is for Red Hot Dogs

Permalink | Email this | Comments

easterbunny @ 16:43 : Let freedom ping
I love rain. A nice drizzle is nice and drizzly, but a good thunderstorm really whacks my bonobo. After a weekend in Athens, Katie and I are now in the gracious catchment area of greater metropolitan Perry, Georgia watching Tiger Williams miss a putt while thunder and lighting rattle the china. (Yesterday, anyway. Will I ever start and finish an LJ¹ in one sitting again? Stay tuned, campers.)

Adam, Katie and I spent a pleasant and patriotic July 4th weekend in and around Athens. On Friday afternoon, we postponed a visit to Raccoon Caverns² in favor of hunkering down at a Chattanooga Olive Garden. While the Olive Garden underwrites romantic significance for our marriage in that at one such franchise in Meridian, Mississippi a discussion of airmiles engendered the dawning realization that we didn't have to stop dating just because we no longer lived on the same continent, we mainly keep going back for the all-u-can-eet soup / salad / breadstick troughdown. We arrived in Athens a few hours later, and there we joined my parents for a pootle around the bulldog sculptures and a laid back evening at the Trappeze. I really, really get a kick out of the geographical placement that necessitates headin' down the Atlanta Highway to get from my stepmother's apartment to downtown.

On Saturday, the five of us drove to the pseudo-alpine mountain village of Helen, Georgia, a town which afforded ample viewing opportunities of a series of tubes forming a neon log jam down the Chattahoochee River. Now, I know that when each of you thinks "biker chick chic," you think "easterbunny". I now yet further typify the genre through acquisition of Harley Davidson mules from Helen's multi-outlet motorcycle emporium. The lady who sold them was very nice and chatted to me about the importance of reading to small children every day.

( One hundred places to take a screaming baby: #18, Independence Day brewery tour at the Terrapin microbrewery )

As the sky got dark, we looked for a non-sardine tin spot to watch the Bishop's Park fireworks. We followed a crowd to the recreational field of Forest Heights Baptist Church and ate ice cream. Katie made friends with several babies, divers dogs and many fireflies. At 9:15, we started to watch fireworks blooming through the trees, and at 9:30 the main attraction started. Perfect view. Katie sat in my dad's lap. She clapped and laughed and hooted at both the colorful explosions and the loud bangs. Note to self: write to PBS and suggest more special effects on Elmo's World.

Thought for the day: "Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic." ~W. H. Auden



¹The spiritual zipcode of LiveJournal must surely be centered upon Ellijay, Georgia.
²amberlou, this promotes Raccoon Caverns into pole position for a full day of Wild Cave Expeditioning with optional gemstone panning. No mere 45 minute Crystal Palace tour for us. As God as my witness, I shall never go spelunking in kitten heels again.

slashfood_feed @ 20:23 : Beer of the Week - Full Sail Session Black

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/07/06/beer-of-the-week-full-sail-session-black/

Full Sail Session Black. Photo: Full Sail

You can't always judge a beer by its color.

Exhibit A: the Session Black, the latest release from Hood River, Ore.'s employee-owned Full Sail. At first blush, the raven-hued brew looks like a stomach-stoking winter warmer, best sipped during a blustery blizzard. Yet that's a failure of a first impression.

Session Black, sold in retro 11-ounce stubbies that recall Red Stripe, is foremost a thirst-zapping lager, clocking in at a relatively mellow 5.4 percent ABV. "Session Black is short, dark and totally drinkable," said Jamie Emmerson, Full Sail's executive brewmaster. This follows the template Full Sail set with its original Session (so named because you can drink several without getting rip-roaring drunk). It's a full-bodied, all-malt lager of the sort crafted in the early 20th century, before Prohibition sent American brewing to the Stone Age.

But how does it taste? Details, after the jump.

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Full Sail Session Black

Permalink | Email this | Comments

slashfood_feed @ 19:46 : 'Tomatoes & Mozzarella' - Cookbook Spotlight

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/07/06/tomatoes-and-mozzarella-cookbook-spotlight/

Filed under: Cookbook Spotlight

Photo: Amazon.

'Tomatoes & Mozzarella'
Recipes by Hallie Harron and Shelley Sikora
Photos by Richard Eskite
The Harvard Common Press -- 2006
Buy it on Amazon

Cookbooks that are focused on one or two ingredients can be hit or miss: It can be hard to feel as though you've gotten the most out of summer vegetables, for example, during their peak season. Authors Hallie Harron and Shelley Sikora take this into account and produce a book focusing on two summer favorites -- tomatoes and mozzarella -- making them useful (especially the former) year-round by taking into account canned and sun-dried variations.

The recipes range from quick meals -- like open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches -- and no-cook meals -- like a marinated artichoke salad -- to gourmet dishes that require more time, such as Stuffed Porchetta with Chunky Olive and Tomato Relish and Rich Tomato Pot Pie.

See what we tested, get a recipe and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Continue reading 'Tomatoes & Mozzarella' - Cookbook Spotlight

Permalink | Email this | Comments

slashfood_feed @ 19:46 : Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris - Wine of the Week

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/07/06/pinot-grigio-pinot-gris-wine-of-the-week/

Filed under: Wine, Summer, Wine of the Week

Photo: Barefoot Cellars

Gretchen Roberts writes the wine blog Vinobite, has passed the introductory course at the Court of Master Sommeliers and is studying for her sommelier certification this fall.

I confess I'm not a huge Pinot Grigio fan, but only because so many of them are boring and insipid, like the drone who corners you at a party and prevents you from meeting more interesting people. But Pinot Grigio is the wine du jour in the summer, and when you find a good one among the sea of soulless, watery summertime quaffers, it's wise to snap it up.

Pinot Gris is the French name for the same grape, but is generally used to denote fuller-bodied and riper wines -- those with some interesting complexity and a mineral character. Here are six Gris/Grigio brands I'm happy to sip.

Six $25-and-Under Pinot Grigio/Gris recommendations after the jump, plus our Wine Poll of the Week (do you like it hot?).

Continue reading Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris - Wine of the Week

Permalink | Email this | Comments

scifiwire @ 13:00 : Transformers 2 is No. 1, breaking holiday weekend tie

http://scifiwire.com/2009/07/transformers-2-is-no-1-br.php

The big frakkin' robots appear to have won out over the woolly mammoths after all. Updated studio estimates released today show that Paramount's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was No. 1 in the photo-finish race for box-office supremacy this weekend, topping the domestic pack with $42.4 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

We reported yesterday that Transformers and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs were tied for the top spot when preliminary box-office estimates for the July 4 weekend were released.

scifiwire @ 12:00 : Harry Potter stars honor murdered Half-Blood Prince co-star

http://scifiwire.com/2009/07/harry-potter-stars-honor.php

The cast and crew of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will wear white ribbons on their wrists at the film's world premiere in Leicester Square Tuesday as a mark of respect to murdered actor Rob Knox, BBC News reported.

Knox, 18, who portrays Marcus Belby in the film, was stabbed in southeast London last May while defending his brother from an attack by Karl Bishop, who received four life terms in March.

mjg59 @ 19:04 : What does the desktop want from the kernel?
I'll be running a session on Wednesday at GCDS to find out what desktop developers would like to see from the kernel. There's a lot of interest in making things easier for file indexers, but if anyone has other problems that could be made easier with some level of kernel support then please turn up. No precise time or location yet, but probably around 3PM at the university. More details forthcoming.

Tags: advogato, fedora

slashfood_feed @ 18:03 : Tangy Tomatillo Salsa

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/07/06/tangy-tomatillo-salsa/

Filed under: Vegetables, How To, The Skinny Chef

Tomatillos. Photo: The Skinny Chef

I didn't know what to do with tomatillos until I moved to New York City and learned about traditional, homemade Mexican food from many of the cooks I met working in restaurants. They came from towns like Puebla and Oaxaca and they all knew the secret to grinding nuts and spices for the perfect mole and how to roast chilies and other ingredients for sensational salsas -- things I had never tasted in the Mexican restaurants I had visited in the past.

I remember the first time I bought tomatillos, peeling back the husk to reveal a green orb covered with a slight tacky film that made my fingers stick together. Unfortunately, I bit right into the fruit that looks like an unripe tomato! I was disappointed with the taste -- like a cross between celery and cucumber with a sour tang of uncooked rhubarb.

See how Jennifer mastered the tomatillo and get her Salsa Verde recipe after the jump.

Continue reading Tangy Tomatillo Salsa

Permalink | Email this | Comments

mjg59 @ 17:00 : One of the strengths of the open source community is that so much happens in the open. It's generally easy to find out what's happening in a project and directly interact with the developers. Code is out in the public. People frown upon closed discussion and implementation. But there's also a cost. Personality conflicts get hidden in the corporate world. We air them in public. And while in some ways that's arguably an advantage, it also results in things like this.

Now, to be fair, I've never been an especially big fan of Sam's work. His journalism generally leans towards lazy sensationalism rather than any attempt to actually understand the issues. He's not especially well versed on the basis of free software (see his assertion that the difference between the cathedral and bazaar development models is about project leadership rather than source code availablity and how people participate). He's managed to mischaracterise my opinions in the past, which means trusting his characterisation of anyone else is somewhat difficult. But that's not the point. Sam's article isn't about facts or analysis. It's about crucifying someone for expressing an opinion that Sam disagreed with.

I don't know Anirudh. From his website, he sounds like a pretty typical young hacker. He's contributing to a project that interests him. He's self taught. He holds strong opinions. And, last week, he published a rant on a topic he cared about - specifically his feeling that the patent concerns about Mono shouldn't prevent people from developing in it, and that RMS's statements about not using Mono harm the free software community more than they help it. I don't agree with all of his arguments. I don't think it was a hugely well structured rant. And, shockingly, telling RMS to fuck off isn't going to achieve a great deal.

But the point wasn't to change the world. People like voicing their opinions. I've done so several times on several occasions on a wide range of topics. People have disagreed with me. People have voiced concerns about the way I've expressed myself. People have flat out told me to stop being a cock. But nobody has attempted to tell me that I haven't earned the right to express that opinion. Nobody has expended four pages to tear me apart for daring to criticise another member of the community. Nobody has dared to call me a coward for deciding that I'd gone too far and modifying or retracting something I've written.

Yet that is precisely what Sam Varghese has done here. And let's be clear here - the use of the word "fuck" is a red herring. Sam is publically humiliating someone because he has his own agenda. He's picking on someone smaller than him because he can. He's explicitly stating that anyone arguing in favour of Mono can expect to be thoroughly abused in front of a large audience. In Sam's world I don't get to criticise the shockingly distasteful sexist remarks RMS made during his GCDS keynote because I didn't write emacs. I don't get to point out that ESR's understanding of racial genetics and natural selection are fundamentally flawed because I don't maintain the jargon file. I don't get to say that I think Ted Tso was wrong about ext4's semantic changes because I've never written a filesystem. And if I do any of these things, I can expect Sam to pop up and do his best to destroy my reputation.

Of course, he won't. Because in Sam's world, it's not actually about whether anyone has achieved great things. It's about whether the targets of his vitriol will be able to stand up for themselves or not. And while the truth is that nobody in the community is above criticism and nobody needs to earn their right to disagree, I doubt that Sam is ever going to show the courage that Anirudh did and publish a public retraction of his astonishing attack.

Shame on you, Sam Varghese.

Tags: advogato, fedora

slashfood_feed @ 16:29 : Strawberries, Starbucks and Shortcake - The Seattle Times in 60 Seconds

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/07/06/strawberries-starbucks-and-shortcake-the-seattle-times-in-60/

Filed under: In Sixty Seconds

Fruit salad. Photo: TiffanyWashko/Flickr

• When bright summer fruit is in season, make desserts like shortcake and cobbler without fuss.
• The three rules for succulent summer cocktails, plus a few recipes.
• Probiotics might seem great, but experts say the term is misused and misunderstood.
• Starbucks gets a new store that is both environmentally sound and modern.
• Nicaraguan coffee farmers will ease picking pains via new ergonomic baskets.
• Strawberries get a new mode of transport by sailing to Seattle.
• Four steps to a tasty homemade iced tea.
• Anthony's Fish Bar offers fish and chips in the summer sun, and GreenGo Food loves local nibbles.
• Recipes: Leftover Bread and Tomato Salad, Pucker Up P'Sghetti, Crunchy Peanut Butter Ice Cream, Chili Spice Rub with Orange, Caramelized Little Tomatoes with Linguine, Summer Salad with Blue Cheese and Dill, Roasted Eggplant Salsa, Grilled Strip Steak with Olives and Feta, and Pasta Salad with Smoked Chicken and Oven-Dried Tomatoes.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

slashfood_feed @ 15:58 : Elephants Beat Humans in Eating Contest - No One Surprised

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/07/06/elephants-beat-humans-in-eating-contest-no-one-surprised/

Filed under: Food News

"Coney Island Elephant." Photo: Theremina/Flickr

In a result that shocked ... no one ... elephants defeated humans in an eating contest at Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Coney Island on Friday afternoon. The trio of animals, whose names sound like second string Golden Girls (Bunny, Susie and Minny) beat the people eaters by nearly 3 to 1 -- 505 to 143 hot dog rolls, in case you were counting.

The animals are in their 40s, and moved at what one reporter called a "leisurely" pace, compared to human counterparts who utilized strategies like dipping two buns in liquid, then stuffing them in their mouths.

Ironically enough, when Slashfood reported this story last week, our source at Major League Eating, George Shea, said, "really, the strategy of ... whether or not the elephants will understand they're in a contest: Will they begin as quickly as the eaters? Will they eat in a leisurely fashion?"

It didn't seem to matter. The results, declared organizers, were a "setback for humanity."

Permalink | Email this | Comments

flickgc @ 13:12 : WIDTW
On Tuesday, I went out for dinner with C&H, from Uni. We went to Andrew Edmunds in Soho, and had a fun evening.

On Wednesday, I went riding, even though it was hot.

On Thursday, I went to college, sulked over my results and went to the Ton.

On Friday, I played video games.

On Saturday, we went to S&G's 4th of July BBQ. There was bunting, thanks to mkillingworth.

On Sunday, we went to see Andy Hamilton at the Greenwich theatre. It was rather fun, and I'm very glad I didn't let Mike convince me to put my hand up when he asked who was there because they'd been dragged along by their partner: the man who *did* got picked on.... We were demons at one point, though.

Today, I have done astonishingly little, other than play video games. Oops. Ridng later; hope it stays dry.

Tags: going out, widtw

palfrey @ 16:27 : Quacks and Cures
The Wellcome Collection is doing an event on Friday entitled Quacks and Cures, covering bizarre medical ideas over the past three centuries. Looks to be pretty fun, and I'm planning on attending. Any other takers?

(There's also an official Facebook event page for it)

owlfish @ 15:56 : DWJ
So. An entire conference devoted to Diana Wynne Jones and, improbably (because of the topic), I gave a paper.

It was a lovely conference, by and large, around 50 people most of the time, although a total of about 70 were pre-registered. We were in a conference bubble for the weekend, staying and working at a semi-rural university in greater Bristol and - due to lack of appropriate tech support from the university - generally without internet access for the duration. I was planning on being offline; most people were not. There was a full program of papers, double tracked on Saturday, a handful of plenaries (including Sharyn November channelling DWJ), a HarperCollins-sponsored drinks reception, and a showing of the 1992 BBC six-parter of Archer's Goon. Despite the threatened heavy rain, the weather was almost entirely good. intertext, heleninwales, gillo were there. steepholm and fjm organized it. I have now met lady_schrapnell, among a great many other engaging people who may or may not have weblogs.

That there are a great many interesting things to say about our author was evident from how, at the end of the weekend, it felt as if we'd barely scratched the surface. Many books weren't mentioned at all in any paper I attended, or mentioned only transiently, especially her early work and her short stories. No one spoke about Dogsbody, for example, which would have made a good pairing with the two papers on The Game. The Howl series was - as expected - ever-popular. Dalemark was only occasionally attended to.

I'm happy to say that my paper went well. I boiled it down to a reasonable subset for twenty minutes, and had a good discussion about it with the audience afterwards. I also didn't feel as out-of-my-depth as I was expecting to, given it was a conference so far removed from my usual ones. Best of all, mine was part of a session of really well-presented papers. It was a real pleasure to listen to the others in it.

Tags: academia

slashfood_feed @ 14:28 : Brat Attack - Feast Your Eyes

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/07/06/brat-attack-feast-your-eyes/

Filed under: Feast Your Eyes, Summer

Photo: marilyn819/Flickr

So Fourth of July has come and gone again. Lest you already be feeling nostalgic, here's one last photo to make you feel a bit misty. Grilled and photographed by marilyn819 at Flickr, these fat brats, with their artful tan lines, are for many people the sight and smell of the Fourth, as well as the approximately two remaining months of summer. They're a reminder to go out and buy some sunscreen and lighter fluid, drop a lit match through the grates and wait attentively for dinner to be ready, as yet another summer afternoon disappears into the realm of lightly charred memory.

[Via Flickr]

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

scifiwire @ 10:00 : Columnist Michael Cassutt overdoses on Star Trek's time-travel twists

http://scifiwire.com/2009/07/columnist-michael-cassutt-4.php

Somewhere between watching the first half-hour of the new Star Trek film and, five days later, the season finale of Lost, something happened.

You know how it is when you have that second piece of dessert? It tastes great at the time. The sensory delights linger through the after-dinner drinks and through the evening ... right up to the moment when you step on the scale the next morning.

It can happen with stories, too. There are themes and high concepts you love, then you have one more than the standard adult requirement.