March Shopfessions

I figure it will be easier to confess my shopping indiscretions if I add them pat the end of the month. Inevitably I got some birthday gift cards and got some money from books sold during the purge.

I allowed a lot more self-indulgence since it was my birthday.

Clothes I Didn't Need
Keep Your Options Spoke Shirt - $35
(I was waiting for this grand display of snark to come in)
Exactly As It Schemes Shirt - $30
(This is something I could pull off at work with not-jeans)

Books/Comics I Didn't Need
Smut Peddler 2012 PDF - $15
(Sex positive comics? Yes, please)
Smut Peddler 2014 Paperback - $30
Templar Arizona All Four Books - $45
Barnes and Noble - $46 (Went to kill a gift card. That backfired.)

MISC Things I Didn't Need
Lip color from Shiro - $9
(Most shadows can be turned into a custom lip color)
Lip color sample from Shiro - $2
(I never much liked Justin but I did like this color)
Shiro shipping - $2.75
Look Human shipping - $3
(I got a gift card for my birthday and just paid shipping.)
Uber - $32.73
Dessa & Aby Wolf albums - $33

Charity
Green Peace - $15

That makes a grand total of $298.48 of unnecessary spending. It really stings when you see how much 'little' slips total up. Call the Uber 'unnecessary' is debatable. I'd been sick for a couple of days and didn't have the energy for all the metro and walking to get to the Night Vale show I had tickets for. Dessa and Aby Wolf were the 'weather' at Night Vale and they were excellent.

One expense I didn't add here was shopping for wedding presents. I've got 2 this year and I tackled buying off the registries early before the only thing left was a $300 Dyson vacuum. I feel like I get adult points for buying these items early. I also checked of a birthday present for someone.

I'm including charity because it's not a necessary expense but a nice one. I'm hoping to give to one of my beloved podcasts in the coming months. Support the arts and shenanigans! Now I just need to get better about supporting my wallet.

A Graphic Year Week 12

Lately, I’ve been gravitating toward superheroes everyone picks on. First, Aquaman and now Hawkeye. I picked up Hawkeye Vol 1.: My Life as a Living Weapon during my comic shop’s black Friday bonanza. I definitely enjoyed hearing the stories of a hero with no powers who doesn’t get a lot of love.

I didn’t realize Maria Hill’s character went deeper into the world of Marvel but I’d like to get to know her better. I suspect the stories I’m reading tie into the Marvel movies they’re currently airing and filming. They dealt with SHEILD being rebuilt from the ground up with Samuel Jackson’s Nick Fury and finding moles. They’re also talking about Captain America in the past tense. I don’t know exactly what happens but I get the feeling this all ties together.

Hawkeye doesn’t strike me as a complicated hero. He knows who he cares about and what matters to him. The job goes from there. I’d be curious to see more of his adventures, especially since I hear one of them is told from his dog’s point of view.

At the end of this trade there was an issue from Kate Bishop’s series of young heroes. This is another one of those moments where my lack of context bothers me. I made total sense of it and enjoyed the story but I only knew 2 of the characters. I barely understood the premise of this world and how it connected to the other stories in the trade. It’s why I tend to shy away from superheroes in general. There’s so much frakking stories that it’s nigh impossible to get every story line to make sense on its own.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 10 or Oh Bugger

For my one word, I read Bedbugs by Ben H. Winters. It billed itself as a horror novel but I would beg to differ. Everything moved very slowly and ordinarily for most of the book. It didn’t earn the horror label until the last 30 or so pages which was disappointing.

While the pacing made sense, it felt like there was a slow subtle build-up like a roller coaster and then dropped 500 feet for the last 30 pages. It’s great on a theme park ride but not ideal for a book. It went from feeling a bit slow and generic to an episode of criminal minds too quickly. While I loved the ending, I don’t think Winters did the best job of getting there.

I think this novel would translate very well into a visual medium. Film can do an exquisite job of conveying the subtle malice that the reader must work to translate from the page to the imagination. It would be easier to show the tension brewing and how Susan feels targeted. If done correctly, I think a film could do a better job with this story than the book.

It was entertaining and a quick read but my overall rating would be meh.

Chinese Feminism

I realized that I’ve only been posting about what I’m reading or what I’m spending lately. I have other thoughts but a limited amount of time in which to get them out into the blogosphere. Today, it’s time to post about something other than books and money. Yesterday on NPR I heard about Li Tingting. She’s a Chinese feminist activist who is currently being detained. What follows is a summary of what I heard on NPR and read in this article.

Raised by a proud and brutal chauvanist father, Li became involved with activism in college and went on to create a gender-equality advocacy network. While they went the traditional route of legislation and calling out discrimination, Li’s group became best known for their ‘performance art,’ so termed to avoid the politically dangerous work “protest.” To protest the groping epidemic and slut shaming response of authorities, volunteers boarded the train wearing a metal bra and a sign that said “I can be slutty but you can’t be dirty.”

Since half of all Chinese men admit to violence against their partners, it isn’t surprising the country has almost no domestic violence laws. Li and a few other protetors tried to raise awareness by walking down a busy thoroughfare clad in red paint splatter wedding dresses. In a country where “family ugliness must not be aired” is an actual saying, this got the attention of police officers who followed them until they left.

Her next protest about a lack of sufficient toilets in public women’s restrooms got the attention of China’s “stability maintenance.” It’s a polite term for squad who must quash any political unrest. They took Li to an umarked car, treated her to an expensive meal, and told her to basically stop being an activist. When she didn’t listen, the good cop routine ended. Since her family had nothing to threaten, they tried bribery including a work-study position at her university normally reserved to low-income students. Her response, “How about I give you 120 yuan and you give me my freedom!”

Li is also a lesbian, out ot everyone but her parents. LGBT causes are seen as more inflammatory than LGBT causes since it shakes the foundation of ‘traditional families.’ Although a large number of gay men marry unsuspecting straight women leading to disaterious marriages so the crack down on traditional families seems to be backfiring. Sham marriages between a lesbian and a gay man also gained rapid popularity but still see similar domestic abuse to hetero sexual marriages. Because China is a patriarchy, gay men get more respect and facetime with government officials. Li and others want to see women’s voices heard to ensure lesbians get the respect they’re currently denied.

Despite “stability maintenance” trying to shut her down, Li’s protests seem to be working. After occupying men’s rooms, several city governments started looking into adding more toilets to women’s restrooms. A woman killed her husband during a beating and was senteneced to die. Li and several others protested (on a day with limited police presence #stratergery) and the execution was quietly canceled. The case was eventually overturned completely which is a BFD.

Currently Li and four other women are in jail for “picking quarrels and creating a disturbance,” or ticking off ‘stability maintenance.’ Many countries in the world are 50 years behind where America is but in the age of the internet, it’s more difficult to silence a movement. I look forward to seeing what other changes Li can make happen.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 9 or Life Changing Magic

For translation I enjoyed The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, originally published in Japanese. It’s basically Shinto minimalism. I started investigating minimalism last year when I just felt so bogged down by my things. I felt suffocated and wanted the space and freedom to breathe. Kondo’s book blew up in January and was a bestseller on multiple continents. Her methods are unique but they work.

One person said she was ‘crazy’ to bless the houses and thank her items but that’s not crazy, that’s Shinto. An indigenous religion to Japan, one of the tenets of Shinto is the existence of spiritual power in inanimate objects.  Kondo is a former shrine maiden so this belief is central to who she is and her method of decluttering. To an extent, I’ve always had a little bit of that mindset. I believe valuing something means caring for it and treating it respectfully. I’m dancing mighty close to 30 and I still care about my stuffed animals’ feelings.

I loved her idea of letting something go once it’s filled its purpose so it can bring purpose to someone else. It makes it easier to know my book with ripped pages going in recycle is just giving it new purpose in it becoming printer paper or a pizza box. I think her idea of thanking her possession for their hard work is a nice way to bring gratitude into your everyday existence. It reminds you to enjoy what you have that’s making your life function smoothly(ish).

I’m not ready to go whole hog but she has definitely inspired me to cut down on what is just taking up space in my life. Frankly, I’d have to cut my possessions in half just to be able to go through them all in a day. The next things on my cut-down list are winter accessories and handbags. I’ve already got an insane amount of books to take to be sold, again. If feels liberating to know I’m only keeping what I brings me joy or serves a purpose.

A Graphic Year Week 10 & 11

Once again I took care of 2 weeks in the same weekend and neither of them were Deadpool or Archie. I read the first trade of the New 52’s Aquaman. I wanted to find out why everyone constantly rags on Aquaman. It seems like he’s got a pretty cool power IMHO so I never got the hate. One of the guys at my comic shop was so enthusiastic about this one because Aquaman proves he’s a good hero, not just to the world, but to himself.

I didn’t know he was half-human and half-Atlantian. When he ruled Atlantis or walked on land, he was always of both and neither place. This series starts with unknown creatures rising from the depths that even Atlantians didn’t know existed. Aquaman manages to save many people but at a great cost. While pondering the cost, it is discovered that the artifacts found during the battle reveal a great deal more happening beneath the waves than Aquaman ever realized. I’m very curious to see where they take this series and the Atlantian mystery.

For this week, I read Great Zombies in History which is an anthology of what history would be like with zombies inserted into the annals of history. I picked it up at a Baltimore Comic Con a couple of years ago and it’s been collecting dust on my shelf for far too long.

The first one about the great battle of Troy is good but really sticks the landing at the end. Both Roanoke and Sacajawea’s stories are poignant while Teddy Roosevelt’s works well within historical continuity. The Jack the Ripper tale actually has some Deadpool like humor. If you’re into zombies and/or history, you’ll get a kick out of this one.

Music: Geronimo by Sheppard

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 8 or Wild Thing

For a book that became a movie, I tackled Cheryl Strayed’s Wild. Everyone has been going crazy for that book. I’ve also been listening to her podcast Dear Sugar with Steve Almond which made me even more curious about what her story was.

I loved her writing style. It was easy to read without being simple, smart without being condescending. Strayed struck that rare balance of writing for a wide appeal without having to simplify her writing. It’s smart in a way that’s hard to articulate but you know simple memoirs when you find them (any Bachelor(ette) contestant for example). Strayed assumes you’re on her level, if that makes sense.

From what I heard on her podcast Dear Sugar, I had no idea she made such a mess of her life. It makes sense when the driving force that held her family together passes away, everything she ever knew or loved slowly breaks apart. It’s almost like she had to smash the rest of her life to pieces before she could start over again. She had to grieve her mother, her marriage, and her family as she knew it. It was a devastating time after her mother passed and it makes sense she chose the ill-advised escapes that she did. She is neither defensive nor shamed of her poor decisions; simply matter of fact.

I greatly enjoyed this and would very highly recommend it. I’m eager to see the movie since I hear it’s supposed to be very good. Let’s see if it does the book justice.

A Graphic Year: Coming Attractions

I know A Graphic Year was designed to remind myself and everyone else what graphic novels have to offer. So far it's offered Deadpool and Archie. I promise I will be reading other graphic novels. I just got a couple for my birthday so you can look forward to hearing my thoughts on:

Aquaman (The New 52)

Legenderry (Bill Willingham's Steampunk series)

Ratqueens Vol. 1

Saga Vol. 1

Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon Vol. 1

Quantum and Woody Vol. 1

Apocalypse Al Vol. 1

and several others. There will be some more Archie and Deadpool because those are favorites and it's my blog but I will be branching out soon. I'm already bouncing off the walls waiting for the trades for Lumberjanes and Bitch Planet. I know I'm supposed to be spending less but I will absolutely make an exception for feminist comics.

A Graphic Year Week 9

I meant to post this sooner but Week 9 is my birthday week so I was little distracted planning a party and being grateful I had so many wonderful people with whom to celebrate. I read the next graphic novel in the Deadpool Minibus: Deadpool vs Carnage.

After fighting different versions of himself, Deadpool must have been more in tune with the universe because his TV sent him a message about how he is the only one crazy enough to stop Carnage. After that he kept seeing signs from the universe on his journey to find and stop Carnage.

I knew very little about Carnage going in but he looked to be the same sort of critter as Venom, a symbiote originally from the Spiderman comics. I was correct and his invincibility made him a very interesting foe for Deadpool. The fight simply couldn't end with someone dying because both characters are near impossible to kill. Deadpool had to tap into Carnage's version of crazy and outsmart him. It was very fun to watch this happen.

There was a moment that shows, as bad as Deadpool can be, the foes he fights are often worse. One of the most brutal deaths in Carnage's rampage wasn't even shown but the implied violence reminded us why Deadpool is a hero. I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the Deadpool Corps and Night of the Living Deadpool have to offer.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 7 or Catty Burglars

For ‘based on a true story’ I read The Bling Ring by Nancy Jo Sales. I saw the movie by Sofia Coppolla and decided to get the whole story. As interesting as this tale is, I don’t have strong feelings about it.

It read like a longer, more detailed article than the one that originally postedin Vanity Fair. It was broken up in a similar way to a magazine article and the tone was very comparable. Sales remains the teller of facts rather than the caster of judgments. The consummate journalist, Sales is trying to get the kids to tell their story rather than narrate her own ideas about it.

Sales definitely has an opinion on some of these kids. You can find her contempt for Alexis Neiers in their conversation about karma. I would have been curious to hear more about what the working mother thought of this interesting assortment of law breakers. Criminal loving Courtney, mastermind Rachel, shallow reality star hopeful Alexis, or the humbled Nick.

As much as I enjoyed hearing the facts, I wanted to hear about who needed to be slapped as well. I left all of this feeling very much on the outside looking in. I needed more than Sales was able to get to feel satisfied.

Current Music: Just Like My Heart by Fault Lines