"yes, all right, i'm jeff vader!"

you know what this post really is? this post is really a reasoned, thoughtful, intellectually inspiring critique of the recent election -- or semi-election or whatever the hell snafu they've decided it is now -- in britain.

your perception that it is a youtube video of an eddie izzard routine illustrated with animated lego figures just goes to show that you should get more sleep midweek.

"i am self-propelled. i have my own little motor."

so since today is election day in britain -- "go, labour, inasmuchasyouarenottheconservativesandunlikelytothreatenthebbc! woo!" -- i thought we all deserved a little mid-week video treat.

particularly since eddie izzard has been campaigning for the labour party.

:)


i love the person who commented on a video i didn't put up in which izzard was quoted: "eddie's a socialist. ... damn." what did you think for heaven's sake?!

(sorry about the formatting glitch with the videos, btw; blogger isn't listening to me when i try to correct the code.)

"don't ever link those two things again..." (4 of 4) - finally!

a quick review from...well, the last time this was on a saturday: in the spirit of "don't complain about something if you're not prepared to do it better," i noticed over the past couple of weeks two lists -- one from wired and one from a blog i know not of called ink-stained amazon which i have to say is beautiful to look at it -- that both purport to be 'essential lists' of 'geek culture' quotes.

ahem.

okay, so the wired list starts off with monty python and the holy grail and the amazon list includes the sarah jane adventures -- but i'm still not wildly impressed with either one.

i figured i could do better.

then i thought about it and realised that, on my own, i didn't have the time to do better so i roped in my ever-patient girlfriend to help me do better. :)

first off, a couple of notes:

1. this is for fun. if you're not amused, go read something else. i won't be offended, promise. that being said, suggestions and additions (politely phrased!) are welcome in the comments. but keep in mind this is installation 1 of 4! not everything will fit in here.

2. these are probably mostly going to be dredged out of my memory, anna's memory, imdb, or official show/movie sites. inaccuracy is, therefore, almost inevitable. not to mention repetition of shows or characters. if this annoys you-- well, make your own list. :)

3. i'm not aiming for some kind of "worst to best" or "best to worst" list. they're here because the two people making the list think they're fun or because one of us was able to strong-arm the other into including them. brief context is provided where anna or i thought it was necessary.

5. i am aiming for 4 posts of 25 quotes each over the next 4 weeks. tune in each friday/saturday for your new installment! and here's the link to the first post, and the second, and the third.

okay, and that being said...

1. The Doctor: "Allons-y!" Pretty much any episode of the new series with David Tennant (we'll miss you, Mr. Tennant, sir.)

2. Gareth Blackstock: "I am Gareth Blackstock; I am seriously unpleasant!" Chef!, can't remember which episode. Something in Season 1, I feel.


3. The Player [to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]: "Until next time." Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.


4.  Leela [to someone attempting, foolishly, to grab her]: "Touch me again and I'll fillet you." Doctor Who, "The Sunmakers."


5. Lola: "Burgundy. Dear God, tell me I've not inspired something burgundy." Kinky Boots.


6. Cat: "I'm lookin' nice. My shadow's lookin' nice. We're a great team!" Red Dwarf, again, something in the first season.


7. Spongebob: "I came over to see if you wanted to go jellyfishing, but I can see you're busy having an episode." Spongebob Squarepants, something in the first season...er. I can't admit to remembering the name of this episode but nothing from Chef! or Red Dwarf -- I just can't!

8. Han Solo: "Hey -- it's me." Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.


9. Jared Grace: "I was reading in a footlocker!" The Spiderwick Chronicles.


10. Sarah Connor: "Do I look like the mother of the future? I can't even balance my checkbook!" Terminator.


11. Danny Archuleta: "It has not been a nice day!" Predator 2.


12. Ianto Jones: "Because I know everything. Also, it's written on the bottom of the screen there." Torchwood and I am ashamed to say, but I have no idea which episode it's from. ... Second season? Maybe? Oh, help.


13. Son of Mine: "He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing - the fury of the Time Lord - and then we discovered why. Why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he had run away from us and hidden. He was being kind." Doctor Who, "Family of Blood."


14. Sarah Jane Smith: "There are two types of people in the world. There's people who panic -- and then there's us. Got it?" The Sarah Jane Adventures, "Invasion of the Bane."

15. Eddie Izzard: "I have penis nonchalance, really." Live at Wembley.


16. Sam Winchester: "You're...afraid of flying?" Dean Winchester: "Why do you think I drive everywhere!" Supernatural, "Phantom Traveler."


17. Willy Wonka: "Everything in this room is edible. Even I'm edible. But that, children, is called cannibalism and is frowned upon in most societies." Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.


18. Dr. Frank N. Furter: "But isn't it nice!" The Rocky Horror Picture Show.


19. Willow Rosenberg: "The library. Y'know -- where the books live?" Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Welcome to the Hellmouth."


20. Reverend H.W. Smith: "This is God's purpose, but not knowing the purpose is my portion of suffering." Doc Cochran: "If this is His will, He is a son of a bitch." Deadwood. Sometime around the end of the first season.


21. Carmen Ghia: "May I take your hats? And your swastikas?" The Producers.


22. Protagonist: "My name? Well, if you knew that, you'd be as smart as---" Layer Cake.


23. Nina Conti: "That's a sweet voice on a monkey but with breasts it's bloody sinister."


24. Arthur Burns: "You shot me, Charlie. What're you gonna do now?" The Proposition.



25. Norman: "What about me?!" The Dresser.


And I know I strayed a bit from my original self-issued mandate with 22, 24, and 25. 


But...sue me, really. :)


They're all amazing movies. If you haven't seen them -- why the hell are you still sitting here reading this? You have watching to do!

"i'd like to leave the army, please, sir, it's dangerous."

it's friday and, even though i'm writing this on the preceding saturday, i'm predicting that i will probably be a little bit tired by thursday night and not entirely keen on the entire "blogging" phenomenon.

so i'm taking the easy way out and posting a youtube clip.



but perhaps mr. izzard wouldn't have been so out-of-place in the army after all:

"don't ever link those two things again..." (3 of 4)

a quick review from last week saturday: in the spirit of "don't complain about something if you're not prepared to do it better," i noticed over the past couple of weeks two lists -- one from wired and one from a blog i know not of called ink-stained amazon which i have to say is beautiful to look at it -- that both purport to be 'essential lists' of 'geek culture' quotes.

ahem.

okay, so the wired list starts off with monty python and the holy grail and the amazon list includes the sarah jane adventures -- but i'm still not wildly impressed with either one.

i figured i could do better.

then i thought about it and realised that, on my own, i didn't have the time to do better so i roped in my ever-patient girlfriend to help me do better. :)

first off, a couple of notes:

1. this is for fun. if you're not amused, go read something else. i won't be offended, promise. that being said, suggestions and additions (politely phrased!) are welcome in the comments. but keep in mind this is installation 1 of 4! not everything will fit in here.

2. these are probably mostly going to be dredged out of my memory, anna's memory, imdb, or official show/movie sites. inaccuracy is, therefore, almost inevitable. not to mention repetition of shows or characters. if this annoys you-- well, make your own list. :)

3. i'm not aiming for some kind of "worst to best" or "best to worst" list. they're here because the two people making the list think they're fun or because one of us was able to strong-arm the other into including them. brief context is provided where anna or i thought it was necessary.

5. i am aiming for 4 posts of 25 quotes each over the next 4 weeks. tune in each friday/saturday for your new installment! and here's the link to the first post and to the second...

okay, and that being said...

1. Madame Klara Goteborg: "I may have been a distraction to men -- never a burden!" Journey to the Center of the Earth.

2. The Doctor: "What's wrong with this jumper?!" Doctor Who, several episodes from Christopher Eccleston's sole (bastard) season.

3. Eddie Izzard: "I grew up in Europe...where the history comes from." Dress to Kill.

4. Pennywise: "Everything floats down here." It.

5. Ianto Jones: "Lots of things you can do with a stopwatch." Torchwood, "They Keep Killing Suzie."

6. Peasant: "Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!" Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

7. Nanami Kiryuu: "Oneeeee-samaaaaaaaaaaa...." Shoujo Kakumei Utena, more episodes than I like to remember.

8. Jake of New York: "Go, then. There are other worlds than these." The Gunslinger.

9. Bernard Woolley: "It used to be said that there were two types of chairs for two types of ministers. One sort folded up instantly; the other went round and round in circles." Yes, Minister, "Election Night."

10. Dave Lister: "Look out, Earth! The slime's comin' home!" Red Dwarf, "The End."

11. Sarah: "You have no power over me." Labyrinth.

12. The Ood: "Your song is coming to an end." Doctor Who, "The Planet of the Ood."

13. Sally: "I feel there's something in the wind / That feels like tragedy's at hand..." The Nightmare Before Christmas.

14. Tom Servo: "If you get near a song, play it!" Mystery Science Theatre 3000, "Mr. B Natural."

15. Jeff Slater: "We're entering a weird area, here." Tootsie.

16. Bernadette: "I've said it before and I'll say it again -- no more fuckin' Abba!" Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.

17. Leia Organa: "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" Star Wars: A New Hope.

18. Don Logan: "You've got lovely eyes, Deedee. They real?" Sexy Beast.

19. Mau: "Does not happen!" Nation.

20. Granny Weatherwax: "I can't be havin' with this." More or less any of the Witches books in the Discworld series: Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, etc.

21. Kyle Broflowski: "I learned something today..." Any episode of South Park between the 1st and 8th seasons...'cause that's as far as I've seen!

22. Ray: "One gay beer for my gay friend and one normal beer for me 'cause I'm normal." In Bruges.

23. The It Man: "It's...." Monty Python's Flying Circus.

24. Captain Jack Harkness: "Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, 'That could be more sonic?'" Doctor Who, "The Empty Child."

25. Sullah and Indiana Jones: "What are you going to do?" "I don't know -- I'm makin' this up as I go." Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

"my eyes! my eyes!"

after 17 combined hours this week straining to discern over 100-year old handwritten french, my eyes are a wee bit tired this thursday evening, so go enjoy some youtube clips:

i know, i know, all good doctor who fans have seen this about 90, 000 times already but, hey -- it is so worth watching another time!

and so is this:

and this:

isn't leviticus blue just a great name?

short post today (really, i mean it this time) because i must've been sitting funny during my 7.5 hours of data entry today because the muscle of my right shoulder feels like someone's holding a match to it. ow.

anyway, the upshot of today's quick hit -- or whatever you want to call it -- is that cherie priest's boneshaker is quality dystopic steampunk if you find yourself in the mood for that kind of thing.

i thought i knew where there was a review of it on tor.com, but apparently i imagined the whole thing. but, really, she does blog over there -- see? she was a big presence during steampunk month in october -- duh on that one, really -- and i think you can probably follow her on twitter, too, if you're into mild celebrity-stalking.

in any case, boneshaker is the first of priest's novels that i've read and i'm going to go find more. boneshaker is a divided narrative, telling the story of a mother and her son living outside a seattle at the end of the nineteenth century. some years in the recent past, there has been an "accident," releasing poisonous gas from beneath the earth's surface. the gas kills -- and then reanimates. sometimes. in any case, seattle is nowhere anyone now wants to live, but, because the gas is heavy and slow-moving, they walled it in. (yeah, i'm not sure about the science either.)

there isn't a great deal of surprise about the overall arc of the story -- bar the end which was pretty damn cool -- but there are some great characters along the way. i particularly liked the mother, briar. anyone who's response to "yeah, well, your son has disappeared into the poisoned city filled with slowly rotting zombies and there probably isn't any real way to get him out" is to dig out her dad's old leather overcoat and rifle and head out after him has my vote. and if briar doesn't get your attention, hang on 'til lucy shows up. lucy is awesome.

and then there's some eddie izzard 'cause i have to think about french all the time -- well, sort of all the time:

"don't ever link those two things again..." (2 of 4)

a quick review from last week saturday: in the spirit of "don't complain about something if you're not prepared to do it better," i noticed over the past couple of weeks two lists -- one from wired and one from a blog i know not of called ink-stained amazon which i have to say is beautiful to look at it -- that both purport to be 'essential lists' of 'geek culture' quotes.

ahem.

okay, so the wired list starts off with monty python and the holy grail and the amazon list includes the sarah jane adventures -- but i'm still not wildly impressed with either one.

i figured i could do better.

then i thought about it and realised that, on my own, i didn't have the time to do better so i roped in my ever-patient girlfriend to help me do better. :)

first off, a couple of notes:

1. this is for fun. if you're not amused, go read something else. i won't be offended, promise. that being said, suggestions and additions (politely phrased!) are welcome in the comments. but keep in mind this is installation 1 of 4! not everything will fit in here.

2. these are probably mostly going to be dredged out of my memory, anna's memory, imdb, or official show/movie sites. inaccuracy is, therefore, almost inevitable. not to mention repetition of shows or characters. if this annoys you-- well, make your own list. :)

3. i'm not aiming for some kind of "worst to best" or "best to worst" list. they're here because the two people making the list think they're fun or because one of us was able to strong-arm the other into including them. brief context is provided where anna or i thought it was necessary.

5. i am aiming for 4 posts of 25 quotes each over the next 4 weeks. tune in each friday/saturday for your new installment! and here's the link to the first post way back there last week saturday. or sunday. or something.

okay, and that being said...

1. Evelyn Carnahan: "I -- am a librarian!" The Mummy.

2. Stormtrooper: "Look, sir -- droids!" Star Wars: A New Hope. [and a freebie 'cause i always think of it now when i have to find the sw movies by number -- Eddie Izzard [re the Lucasian number scheme]: "He's fucking with us numerically, you realise that, right? 'Kids, count to 10!' '4 5 6, 1 2 3, -- uh --'" Circle.]

3. Luke Smith: "I think I may have made a social blunder. I showed them how to destroy the world." The Sarah Jane Adventures, "Revenge of the Slitheen."

4. The Doctor: "Because I'm very clever." , "Midnight."

5. Dutch [to the Predator]: "You are one ugly mother-fu---" Predator.

6. Ellen Ripley: "This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off." ALIEN.

7. Red Queen: "You're all going to die down here." Resident Evil.

8. Mercedes [to Captain Vidal about his infant son]: "No. He won't even know your name." Pan's Labyrinth.

9. Captain Jack Sparrow [to Kraken]: "'Ello, beastie." Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

10. Eddie Izzard [re: the British Empire]: "We ruled the world through the cunning use of flags." Dress to Kill.

11. John McClane: "Yippee-kay-yay, motherfucker." DieHard.

12. Malcolm Reynolds: "Were there monkeys, Kaylee? Space monkeys?" Firefly, sorry, forgot which episode. second or third, i feel...?

13. Chancellor Palpatine: "The Sith had many powers, some considered to be unnatural." Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

14. Neo: "Whoa." The Matrix.

15. The Doctor [immediately prior to regenerating]: "The end has come -- but the moment has been prepared for." Doctor Who, "Logopolis."

16. Jozef Kastan: "You seriously drink this stuff? What is it -- like, non-fat, vegan, soy blood?" Moonlight, no idea which episode.

17. River Tam: "I can kill you with my brain." Firefly, no idea which episode. whoops.

18. James Bond [when asked how he would like his drink prepared]: "Do I look like I give a damn?" Casino Royale.

19. Alice [to the White Queen computer about the Red Queen]: "I knew your sister. She was a homicidal bitch." Resident Evil: Extinction.

20. Capa: "When a stellar bomb is triggered, very little will happen at first -- and then a spark will pop into existence and it will hang for an instant, hovering in space, and then it will split into two, and those will split again, and again, and again... detonation beyond all imagining - the big bang on a small scale. - a new star born out of a dying one... I think it will be beautiful. No, I'm not scared." Sunshine.

21. Captain John Hart: "Did I mention I'm armed?" Torchwood, "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang."

22. The Doctor [on Rose pointing out that he sounds North of England]: "Lots of planets have a north!" Doctor Who, "Rose."

23. Riddick: "Anybody not ready for this?" Pitch Black.

24. Rygel: "I am Rygel the XVIth, dominar of over six billion people -- I don't have to talk to you!" Farscape, no idea which episode. something in the first season, i feel.

25. Buffy Summers: "You forgot about dawn. It's in about six hours, idiot." Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Welcome to the Hellmouth."

"quod.......the fuck."

so a few last thoughts on the eddie izzard "big intimacy" show and then i promise i'll shut up about him for awhile.

as you may have noticed in my thursday post, anna and i had a phenomenal time at the show. neither of us are big on concerts, shows, or big arena-type events and it was the first time either of us had been at the banknorth garden. i have to say, though, for a relatively big event, the running of it was really smooth. the banknorth staff were really helpful and very polite. our tickets got upgraded very seriously at the last minute -- not that we realised this until we were sitting down and triangulated where our original tickets would have placed us -- and the process went really smoothly.

with the new tickets, we weren't quite "stage-side" but we were way closer than we would have been which was originally somewhere in the nosebleeds of the nosebleed section. we wouldn't really even have been able to see the jumbo-tron screens very well. as it was, we were about a dozen rows back from the seating on the actual floor and just about ideally placed to take advantage of the three gigantic screens on the stage. mr. izzard looked quite tiny by comparison to the giant digital versions of himself. he did realise this and made a point of telling the audience, particularly those in the front rows, that they weren't to feel obligated to try and look at him: "because, really, that guy up there? he's doing the exact same things as me. except -- maybe a bit slower."

honestly, i thought he was hilarious. three hours worth of pretty damn solid hilarious. when considering live performances, i try to take into account -- for some strange reason -- whether or not i could or would be willing to try and do the same kind of thing. in this case, hell, no. i am in awe of his skill at a) remembering material; b) handling an audience; and c) making them both seem effortless. i mean, i am sure he could recite this material if woken up out of a dead sleep he's said it that many times -- and it seemed new. it seemed as though he were just making some of it up for our benefit right then and there because he thought we'd think it was funny. making that kind of connection with an audience of several thousand people is a fucking impressive skill. this is why great rock band front men are great. the same skills apply here, i feel.

and you know what else is a fucking impressive skill? getting that same audience of several thousand people in tears of laughter over latin. latin, people. (i apologise for the sound quality on this one; it's a little dodgy. but also lots of thanks to anna for digging up all the youtube clips for me when i didn't have the time to do it in time to put this post up.)

i did have a moment or two of indecision when it came to using these at all since "no recording" rules were on the tickets. but then i decided...well, what the fuck. it really is too funny to give up the opportunity of illustrating my point with primary source material, so to speak.

the only real irritation in the show came from two young women seated behind anna and myself -- they left just after the start of the "second act," thank god, or i would've had to dopeslap them -- who insisted on critiquing the show quite audibly and discussing their social lives when they weren't commenting that, "oh, he's done that joke before" or "that's just what he did in st. louis." well, yes, probably both true. two essential points that you're missing here: a) he is here, now. why don't you shut up and enjoy the show in front of you? and b) there's a fine line between "recycled material" and "a long-standing joke with the fans" both of which he had but he mostly managed to keep the first feeling like the second. it has to do, i think, with the variety of characters he manages to summon up out of thin air to populate the stage and illustrate what he's talking about:

see what i mean? sheep, wolves, persians, and spartans. all sort of magically there. not to mention the raptor with the trilby, a jazz chicken, mrs. badcrumble (yay!), god, noah, moses, and various other characters who floated by at one time or another.

and now because i must get back to the bread i'm trying to make and stop boring you all to death with my paean to eddie izzard, one last clip and you may return to your regularly scheduled saturday:

important scientific research

so i'm writing this post on sunday evening in the full anticipation of being so fried by thursday of this week that i will barely be able to think straight let alone post anything particularly wonderful.

there is much visiting to be done with diana who is coming to boston for alise conference ahead of the ala midwinter conference. there is contemplation of the eddie izzard concert on tuesday to be done. there are preparations to be made for new job, letters to be written for possible future jobs -- just all sorts of things that i'm anticipating taking up time this week.

so go find out about pavlov's cat results. you didn't know about those, did you? no, i didn't think so. :)

pre-posting/post-writing edit: the eddie izzard concert was knock-down fan-fuckin'-tastic. three solid hours and my throat ached i was laughing so hard. he got laughs off of jokes about latin -- latin, mark you! and mudskippers. to say nothing of badgers, raptors in trilbys, giant squid, and the existence or non-existence of god as evidenced by the fact that no-one reached down from the sky to knock hitler's head off.

was being a child really that much better?

along the lines of my previous post about the delights of buying pets to give your unwanted books to, this post from helen stringer at tor.com caught my eye. she wrote a piece about a week ago called "read like a child" which is absolutely worth clicking through to read. she's mostly talking about what she remembers of reading as a child when it was an immersive, absorbing experience which blocked out the rest of the world in favor of the printed page.

We no longer lose ourselves and, you know, it really isn’t fair. Why should children get all the fun?

it's a good point. i'm all in favor of kids not getting all the fun. beyond the fact that the ones i see on a regular basis rarely seem to be having any fun at all but it's hard to tell under all the winter gear this time of year. i am pleased to see that children do seem to inhabit the coolidge corner library (of which i can find no pictures, distressingly enough) on a regular basis. i'm less pleased that they're loud but these things happen, i suppose.

i do remember reading in the fashion she describes but, for whatever reason, i also don't remember it "switching off" as she does. i still read like that every now and then; granted, the book has to be really good and it isn't every book that does that but it never was, really. i think there are always going to be authors and titles that do a better job -- often at a given time and place --of grabbing your attention. i've never revisited, for example, ernest hemingway's for whom the bell tolls because i have such vivid memories of reading it while working as a 'security guard' at the 4-h exhibit hall during the skowhegan state fair one summer when i was in high school. i don't know if it would ever be able to live up to my memory of reading it that summer. perhaps it would and i'm selling it and myself short and i should try it again.

but there is also something to be said for her last suggestion of turning everything "off" to read -- i generally, out of habit more than anything else, have music or something playing as 'background noise.' most of the time i like to have something rabbiting away in the background as i do other things; it makes the apartment seem more lived-in, prevents me from wishing to rip people's throats out during the honking contests on our corner, and generally just makes life a little more fun. also, given how my memory works, it also means i memorize frighteningly large portions of things i wasn't even aware of listening to which is always fun for startling and dismaying your friends and loved ones.

still, sometimes it is lovely to turn everything off, close the laptop, let the tv be a silent black box, and go back to reading the way i did in my parents' house when i was a kid and couldn't just turn on mindless electronic entertainment whenever i wanted to.

i have to say, though, that a really good book -- y'know, the kind you don't want to put down last thing at night even when your eyes are aching and stinging a little and you know you have to get up for work in the morning but, really, just one more page... -- can pretty much block out anything else going on.

but you know one thing you probably can't do when you're a kid? you (most likely) cannot get tickets to go see eddie izzard live in concert at the banknorth garden tonight!

which i can. and have. and will. :)

"some people have techno-fear. i have techno-joy!"

so it's nearly the end of 2009 and in celebration, here are some miscellaneous clips from eddie izzard. because it's the thursday before new year's and we all need a laugh, right?

first, from dress to kill, british versus u.s. movies:

and then from glorious (i hate his suit but i love the fact that he wore it), commentary on the american colonization of the robin hood story. particularly meaningful, i feel, in the face of the upcoming ridley scott/russell crowe version:

and then the ever-wonderful techno-fear vs. techno-joy bit (also from glorious):

action transvestite!

i have no brain.

i've been doing the last-ditch revisions of my thesis for -- well, what feels like several years now. checking my email, i see it's only since the 1st of december. it feels like longer. my brain is slowly turning into swiss-cheese'y stuff but thanks to my wonderful friend diana (you should go and read her blog and decide that it is awesome and go and vote at the best librarian/library edublogs 2009 site. that link right back there), i have truly gorgeous slide backgrounds for when i turn to making my slide-show presentation.

for my presentation.

which is next week.

immediately after which, i have a job interview. so that's going to be a really good day!

anyway, the upshot of all that is, determined though i am to stick to this random and self-assigned every other day schedule, i have really nothing to say this friday except "bleerrrrrrrr" and "has my professor's handwriting always been this awful and i've never noticed before? what the hell is that word?! is it important? oh, god, what if it's important -- oh, crap--" and other things of that sort.

so go watch some eddie izzard instead. really. it's about star wars. you'll like it.

"words. words, words, words."

the other day i was at work (big surprise, yes?) and i clicked to the main website rather than the archives website and i found this news story about a professor working on a legal project. i must confess that i didn't read the story through very closely at first (i have since read it over with more care); what caught my eye immediately was the acronym: sgbv.

quite often the neu news feeds feature stories about research scientists working at the university, or professors who have gotten grants, or engineering grad students who have presented something nifty to someone interesting, or people on co-op doing something spiffy -- but that's not what this story is talking about.

and i should say right off the top that it sounds as though this professor is doing dynamite work. if what she does gets help for people who need it, that's great. more power (and chocolate) to her.

but the acronym -- sgbv -- struck me and i couldn't think why for a minute until i realised it reminded me of the opening of this george carlin routine. (i'm not bothering to embed the player because i couldn't find a live cut and i really don't want a still shot of george carlin (r.i.p.) glaring out of my blog at me.) the part of the routine i'm thinking of is the first two to three minutes -- not very much of an eight minute cut, but the rest is absolutely worth listening to if you like what you're hearing so far.

he's talking about the shift in language over the course of the 20th century from "shell shock" to the current "post-traumatic stress disorder." (i'm not even sure he gets as far as ptsd; i think he might stop with "battle fatigue" but you get the idea.) and he's talking about this shift as a softening of the words, a multiplication of syllables -- and a distancing from the actual poor sod suffering from the medical/psychological problem in hand. he was making a very specific point in regards to vietnam veterans not getting adequate medical or psychological attention for the issues they were suffering from, but i think his idea, besides being very funny in a "wow, that isn't really funny at all is it -- but why am i laughing?" sort of way, has broader applications and i think "sgbv" is along the same lines.

what the hell does it stand for? well, according to the news article, it stands for "sexual- and gender-based violence." okay. so, in old-school terms, physical attacks like rape. i realise there is a broader spectrum of attack possible here covering not only the physical (probably the highly aggressive physical searches most of the republican prisoners i'm writing about underwent count under this heading -- both the physical search itself and the resulting trauma) but anna isn't here for me to pick her brain for what these things might be and i am very tired, so i'm just going to let you fill in the blanks on your own. i'm sure you've read the odd news story you wish you hadn't about horrible things happening to children or young women or old women or young men or old men or dogs or cats or chickens; just pick something from there.

and as i said before: if what she does gets help for people who have these horrendous things happen to them, good. excellent. but i don't know if i think this kind of acronym is going to help.

it's...catchy. sort of.

it's memorable. -ish.

it covers a lot of ground. absolutely. almost too much, in fact. if you say "sgbv," people say, "huh? what?" but if you say "rape," people know what you're talking about. there's an immediate visceral reaction to the word. this is bad. something bad has happened. (and if you recognize that really vague movie allusion, give yourself a hug.)

i thought i would have a really coherent post to write about this, but i find that i don't. i just find the shift away from what seems like the precise language to the vague acronym -- troubling on some level. maybe it's just me.

but whichever way you think about it, that's a pretty miserable thought for a wednesday (and i could go on about the irish republicans. really. i could. with quotes. you don't want me to.) and so i'll leave off instead with a clip from my latest fun thing which is eddie izzard's stand-up. netflix has been insisting for years that mr. izzard and i are meant to be "bff." i didn't believe it, so i didn't watch any of his stand-up until this week. the up-side of this is that now he has something like six (6!) routines that i get to watch -- yay! (plus or minus movies, of course.)

anyway, this is from his dress to kill show in san francisco; if you watch nothing else of this, watch the first 2-4 minutes and take in the full glory of his theory of european history (and i want his nail polish):

probably nsfw. :)