The Antisocial Socialist

I've finished it so now we can talk about it!

Background: Sandman was the first comic I ever got into. Sandman got me into comics—it was the first comic I encountered that made me think, "hey, this medium might be for people like me." I have reread it more times than I can count. I still think it's one of the greatest comics of all time. When I was in high school I did Death's eyeliner spiral every day and my vice-principal thought it was a tattoo.

So to say that I was looking forward to this but also had apprehensions is an understatement. There have been many horrible ideas about adapting it. I was pretty confident that Gaiman's involvement would ensure that it was at least decent but you never know.

Spoiler-free version: I loved it. It's as good an adaptation as I could have possibly hoped for. They nailed the spirit of the original while making necessary changes to update it and make it work for the medium. The casting choices were near-perfect and there were times when I was just overwhelmed with emotion. I'm not terribly concerned with visual effects, as I do think the CGI looked good but will inevitably feel dated, but I think they did a good job with them. My quibbles are of the minor variety. I let out a little squeal at the end.

My biggest concern was "did they get Death right, tho?" and they got Death right. They got Death perfect.

( Spoiler version )

Anyway, what did you think? I'm interested to hear from both people who read the comics and people who are coming into the show brand new with no expectations.

I met up with notasupervillain at, of course, Platform 9 3/4 (and was pleased to discover that it’s an Ingress portal, naturally). We heard a rumour that the worst people in the country were electing the worst possible person to lead the country, so a fun thing to do would be to head down to Westminster and see what was going on.

Well, we expected some big protests, or something, but there was really only one guy in a Boris mask and a clown suit, some pro-Remain people with EU flags, and some pro-Leave people with very large signs.



And then we heard it.

( photos )

 Dammmmn I needed something like that, just losing myself in music for a few hours and dancing like an idiot. For reasons, they decided to play the Garrison. Like, on purpose. For reference, I have seen VNV Nation a bunch of times at larger venues, and it's not like they have a problem drawing a crowd. The Garrison is tiny. They drew a crowd. It his 40°C yesterday, and the place doesn't have air conditioning.

So I don't think I've ever evaporated at a concert before. It was like dancing in soup. But anyway I guess that is good for depression 'cause I'm feeling slightly less shit about life this morning.

They played songs from "Empires" and "Automatic" only, which are two of their best albums. Some folks brought glowsticks and were quite generous in handing them out, so it had the ambiance of a 90s rave and Ronan seem very much amused by this.

My latest review, in which there is a threesome and a magic missile spell, is up! Gosh, I'm almost at the end of this thing: two more episodes to go.

In IRL news, ( talk about food/diet )

Tonight I'm hopefully going to see the Cure for free. They're playing not far from my house, at an expensive music festival that I have no desire to see, but apparently if you're outside the park, you can hear everything just fine. If we can't, or we get chase off, there's also the option of going for a pint. So, regardless, a win.

Okay, I basically have the best birthday plans ever. (Note: My birthday is in May.)

Saturday, May 16th: Laibach are playing! I have never seen Laibach, and they are going to be down the street from me. I am contemplating going dressed as a communist kitten; at any rate, friends are encouraging me to do so. And possibly attend in a COMMUNIST KITTEN BLOC.

Sunday, May 17th: Driving down in a carload of wonderful people to see the live Welcome to Night Vale show in Buffalo, NY. I got hugely into it this year as a result of the podcasts being roughly the length of my walk to work—and also because it's amazeballs and people have been telling me to listen to it for years—and was kicking myself for missing the Toronto show when they toured in August, only a month or so before I finally got around to listening to it. But Buffalo is close. Ish. And it's a long weekend, so I don't need to be at work the next morning. Hence I get to see this thing, in what looks like a pretty theatre in a city where I'm told there is an excellent vegetarian restaurant.

Posting here because I think I have already irritated most of FB with my floating-cat-herding and communist-cat-herding organizing of contingents. But if you would care to join either the floating cats or the communist cats, tickets to both are apparently general admission (so I didn't have to do any herding after all—sorry, FB) and the more the merrier.

Basically, I am a very happy Miss Tabby right now, despite having the third most exciting thing that happened today being the biannual Sacrifice of the Trees, a.k.a., photocopying course outlines that no one will read.

Have I mentioned lately that I love Skinny Puppy?

I mean, they are one of my favourite bands and have been since I was a wee thing of 13. Very psyched to see them play here on the 18th.

But it's always nice when one's musical tastes and political sensibilities dovetail. You might have heard that after the U.S. government used Puppy's music for torture at Guantanamo Bay, the band sent the Department of Defence an invoice of $666,000 for the use of its music.

Here's an interview with cEvin Key about it.

In lieu of providing actual content (outrage burnout continues at pace), here's what I'm reading this morning.

I won't link anything about Syria, Egypt, or the two Canadians under arrest in Cairo, because those sorts of horrors are above my level of cope right now and there's plenty of more intelligent discussion about it elsewhere.

Rage-inducing:

• Jezebel has a good post on how not to react to Chelsea Manning's announcement that she's Chelsea Manning. I'm lucky enough to be shielded, by virtue of currently being within my little progressive bubble and having a strict policy of not reading the comments since Manning's outrageous sentencing a few days ago, but I'm aware that there's some serious stupid out there. The discrepancy between her treatment and that of rapists, murderers, and war criminals is so infuriating that I can't even begin to put it in words—add transphobia and misogyny into the mix and you have a perfect storm of asshattery.

• On a related note, here's a long read about Manning, American institutions, and the internet. (Written before her sentencing and the official announcement of her gender identity, so the article uses male pronouns.)

“Why wasn’t I consulted?” is the fundamental question of post-network democracy, and the fundamental question of the Internet, to which the state mechanisms have so far replied: “Who the hell do you think you are?”

• Locally, some more on the shooting of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim, murdered by pigs on a Toronto streetcar. One pig (not the one who tased the dying kid after he'd been shot eight times) has been charged, but make no mistake—a pig will not actually be convicted for gunning down a likely-mentally-ill person of colour. This is a concession to the massive outcry following Yatim's murder and is intended, ultimately, to absolve all of the pigs of guilt by finding this pig not guilty.

Tell me I'm wrong, people.

• Quebec's proposed religious symbols ban, WTF? Though maybe the Jewish and Muslim communities there, not exactly accustomed to holding hands and singing Kumbaya, will find some common ground in opposing this bullshit. Proof that New Atheism is a continuation of White Man's Burden imperialism by other means.

Amusing:

• I'm getting some lulz out of the food poisoning at the CNE. I mean, isn't the point of eating these things to get food poisoning? The receptionist at my physio place, who is approximately my height and much thinner, apparently eats this kind of shit and announced her intention to try the Cronut despite everyone getting sick from it, and despite a job where she works with health professionals.

Happy-making:

• What, you mean that community-building is actually more effective at stopping crime than putting cops and surveillance cameras everywhere? You don't say! Will you just check out this lady making community housing better for everyone:

“We go up to the crack dealers, face-to-face, and we say, ‘Hello, how are you?’ says the 56-year-old woman, who uses a wheelchair. “‘It’s a beautiful night out. I love your coat. May we sit with you?’”

• Someone wrote a book just for me, apparently. Industrial music, Marx, and the Situationists. I of course immediately placed a hold on it.

• Baby Nautilus!

Useful:

• The title of this article, Anti-Fascist Fitness, made me hope that there was a training regimen to get in shape in order to beat up neo-Nazis, but it's actually not so much about that as about the politics of the fitness industry and the OMGBEESITY panic.

• This article, on how to be an ally to people with illness, chronic pain, and invisible disabilities, is quite a good read. I don't like the random capitalization or Tumblr SJW-style language, but the advice itself is useful and certainly would have been worth distributing to certain people *cough*co-workers*cough*. Especially the bits on being "the doctor," "the parent," and "the worshipper," all of which I've had to deal with in abundance.

Read, discuss if you find 'em interesting.

Eee! Last night, I finally made one of the Salon Noir events, which is an evening of cabaret and gothy awesomeness. It was apparently the right one to start off with because it featured the Sex Gang Children playing their first Toronto gig in 30 years. (As precocious a darkling as I was, I was not quite cool enough to hit up their show when I was 4.)

So the deal with Salon Noir is that it's held at a lovely venue, there's a strict dress code (hilariously reminiscent of the dress code at the Sanctuary Vampire Sex Bar, where I misspent much of my adolescence sneaking in underage), and everything and everyone is dazzlingly pretty. So, tamales and red wine and goth music and hangouts with friends old and new. I hadn't heard of the opening act, Scarlet Fever, but they were quite good. Amusingly, their singer looks exactly like Viserys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, but is a much nicer person. They were followed by DJ Uriel, spinning all of the songs that I like, two burlesque acts, including the drop-dead gorgeous Coco Framboise, and a sideshow act. Sex Gang Children were actually more awesome than I might have imagined—incredible stage presence and energy, and their new album is quite impressive.

I regret that I don't have photos to post, but I got the most awesome compliment on my outfit ever from a drunk girl who mistook me for one of the burlesque dancers. Heh.

And speaking of Sanctuary, I ran into Lance, the former proprietor of said establishment, who back in the day was kind enough to turn a blind eye to my underage ass sneaking into his club every weekend. He's a mortician now. I was vastly amused.

So yeah, that was a blast. And thanks to the_axel for finally dragging me out to one of these events, given that for a year and a half I keep saying Maybe to them on FB and then not managing to get tickets.

Almost at the end of the first season! And it keeps getting better and more plot-heavy and with more explosions.

( in which there is a lot of religion for a show written by an atheist )

In other news, Rome (the neofolk band, not the show or the city) are quite excellent. I have been listening to them while packing and painting all day.

Ganked from corwin77

How many songs: 5636, though not entirely representative of my musical taste.

( cut for IMS )