HippiesEatBabies

hippieseatbabies — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:43:33 +0000

I’m going to ditch this and stay at http://hippieseatbabies.tumblr.com/ for the foreseeable future.
You may ask, why? Why are you doing this, Katie?

And the answer is:
I’m lazy.

And I want to consolidate all the random stuff I reblog, upload, etc, as well as actual entries into one nifty site. Streamlining is the name of the game, and I am nothing if not organized.

Welcome Your New Computer Overlords

hippieseatbabies — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:05:18 +0000

On a level of 1 to infinity, how much of a computer nerd am I?

Well, after I discovered that megaupload had been taken down by the Feds (despite megaupload’s history of being incredibly spot on when it comes to removing copy written material), my first thought was:

SOPA is going to pave the way for an internet war the likes of which has never been seen before and one that will result in SKYNET and the destruction of humanity.

(yes I know SOPA is not the reason megaupload got shut down, but the impeccable timing sure doesn’t do anyone any favors)

Thanksgiving Casualty #1

hippieseatbabies — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 02:38:26 +0000

I just tried to make spiced walnuts and they ended up tasting like burnt rubber and unfulfilled dreams.

But the real test will be:

Also, Glee is a hot mess and a half. And the new kid looks like a Scottish Fold.

But with bigger hair.

Edit:

UPDATE: Thanksgiving Casualty #2- Electric Boogaloo
After successfully making the brine for the turkey, roommate and I spent a good 5 minutes figuring out how to get the plastic out of the turkey. We then had to wait an hour for turkey to thaw a bit because our fridge is like hell after it’s frozen over and wait for the brine to cool. Then. THEN when the time came to combine brine and turkey in their new home “giant-ass plastic ziploc” I spilled 1/2 of it all over the counter and the floor. Everywhere. Our kitchen has officially been brined, and this is why brining is like something out of a horror movie.

Stay tuned for when I light a loaf of bread on fire tomorrow, or possibly send someone into anaphylactic shock.

Gears of The Machine

hippieseatbabies — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:31:04 +0000

“We have an autocracy which runs this university. It’s managed. We asked the following: if President Kerr actually tried to get something more liberal out of the Regents in his telephone conversation, why didn’t he make some public statement to that effect? And the answer we received — from a well-meaning liberal — was the following: He said, “Would you ever imagine the manager of a firm making a statement publicly in opposition to his board of directors?” That’s the answer! Now, I ask you to consider: if this is a firm, and if the Board of Regents are the board of directors, and if President Kerr in fact is the manager, then I’ll tell you something: the faculty are a bunch of employees, and we’re the raw material! But we’re a bunch of raw material[s] that don’t mean to have any process upon us, don’t mean to be made into any product, don’t mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone! We’re human beings!”

[Wild applause.]

“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!”

[Prolonged applause.]

“Now, no more talking. We’re going to march in singing “We Shall Overcome.” Slowly; there are a lot of us. Up here to the left — I didn’t mean the pun.”

If you want to know how protests gain support, just watch this video:

Consider how that silent, completely peaceful protest was in response to this:

And consider that all it took was an arrest

to incite a movement.

It’s like a rubber band is being stretched to its limits, and even though you don’t know when it’s going to finally snap you know that it has to to happen. It’s that waiting, that’s what this feels like. I don’t know if it’s being in New York, or staying up to date with national and international events, or this sense of hyper analyzation from reading one too many scripts, but I can’t imagine not being aware of it. I want to be as present as possible, because years from now people are going to read about the last 6 months and ask if anyone saw the warning signs and drew parallels to fifty earlier.

But Don’t Take My Word For It

hippieseatbabies — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 08:42:06 +0000

I’m reading a book right now- Feed by Mira Grant. It’s YA and set in the not-so-distant future after a zombie plague almost wipes out humanity. Almost, but not quite. It follows a group of bloggers as they follow a Republican presidential candidate in this strange new world of increased safety precautions, fear, and the internet as the sole mode of human interaction. It’s an interesting take on post-Apocalyptic and dystopic literature. The most fascinating aspect, though, is that it focuses on the role of the internet as a means of educating and rallying the masses and encouraging individuality, even as an avatar. The television and hardcopy based news sources are useless- they have long been co-opted by the government and various interest groups.

This doesn’t sound as though it has anything to do with the current state of affairs, but really it means everything. The book was published after the Green Revolution, but before the rest of the Middle East was struck with rebellion, before London riots, before Occupy Wall Street, before the height of the financial crisis and the passing of the Net Neutrality Act. Before the government dissolved into a series childlike bipartisan temper tantrums. Before religion became state-mandated oppression and womanhood was traded for ‘personhood’ (but only until birth, then only the strong survive). Before states began passing laws that demand identification be carried at all times, and that you can be arrested for appearance. Before images of passive resistance facing police in riot gear, before mace was used to dispel “forceful opposition” in the form of linking arms and setting up camp in a privately managed but publicly owned park.

Feed is a world where the ability for the individual to question or survive outside of complete and total compliance is an impossibility. Zombie films, much like Westerns, have always been about conformity and fear. Can the individual survive against all odds, when those odds are in the form of a more powerful and overwhelming force? With each passing day, the world seems to be tumbling towards the inevitable, where books such as Farenheit 451, 1984, Brave New World, One, and The Long Tomorrow seem to be more possible with each day. Between the Net Neutrality Act, the complete demonization of passive resistance and protest, and the establishment of companies as individuals- well, you tell me. Objectively, it reads like a bad dystopic novel. Toss in some zombies, and you’ve got a(nother) reboot of the Dawn of the Dead.

I haven’t written about Occupy Wall Street, despite living less than 2 miles from the park. I haven’t written about the Cal Students staging a sit-in, about Davis, about Portland, or the arrests of reporters which does little to quell the dissemination of information through twitter, Facebook, Anonymous, and various internet sources. And if it hasn’t been obvious that this entire entry is a political entry masquerading as a book review, you would be correct. There is a reason that there has been a resurgence of literature, film, and television about controlled societies, invasions, and zombies. Because that world, at its core, resonates within us and as artists we are a product of and reflect the present time.

Maybe at some point I’ll actually comment on Occupy Wall Street, but will be another entry. For now, have these links:

Forbes: Police Response to Occupy Wall Street is Absurd
Zombies, a History
Zombies, a History: Part 2
Civil Disobedience, Thoreau
A History of Protest

He’s an awful person, but a great character- or, why writing a Mad Men spec is fun but people suck.

hippieseatbabies — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 06:10:21 +0000

Dear Man Who Wrote This,

If your goal in life is to be like Don Draper, then have at it. I hope you alienate yourself from everyone within a 100 mile radius (including your children) and are left to slowly drown in a pool of self-loathing, regret, and crippling loneliness.

But please, leave the rest of the world out of it.

Sincerely,
A woman who doesn’t speak for any other women, but would like to point out that emulating Don Draper is about as good an idea as a five year old performing brain surgery.

PS If you can’t understand why this post secret is awful on about 10 different levels then you should lock yourself in a bubble and refrain from human contact for the rest of your days.

PSS In other news, this may be the most appropriate Post Secret I’ve ever seen.

To the Editor:

hippieseatbabies — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:28:18 +0000

Re “Hollywood on Wall Street” (column, Oct. 23):

Does Frank Bruni expect people in show business to give up their rights as citizens to speak out when they identify with a political or social movement just because they’ve found a way to make a good living in the arts? Have artists and actors and musicians not always used their voices to add to the conversation, and even further it, during times of change and upheaval?

Isn’t it their responsibility as recognizable public figures to speak out? Are people who are fortunate enough to find success supposed to exempt themselves from criticizing the system?

Surely Mr. Bruni can distinguish between the avarice and greed of some celebrities and the distinct social responsibility that celebrity affords those who choose to use it wisely. Is Mr. Bruni suggesting that all artists and actors are inherently selfish dilettantes unable to distinguish between showboating and sincere advocacy?

The column dismisses the important role that artists can play in bringing attention to important issues.

MARTHA PLIMPTON
Los Angeles, Oct. 23, 2011

It’s hard to miss out on Occupy Wall Street, I daresay that if you aren’t aware of or at least remotely sympathetic to the message than you either have avoided human contact for the past month or are a Tea Partier. I went there, I said it. Regardless of if you think those who are occupying Wall Street, Oakland, London, Toronto, Paris Chicago, Seattle, Rome, Montreal, what have you… Even if you think they are a bunch of patchouli scented hippies, how can you argue that they don’t have a point? That they are wrong?

Here’s why Occupy ______ is important.

No, wait. I mean- Stephen Colbert did a segment a week or so ago where he spoke with “the normal folk.” Perhaps they are a part of the 99%, but they aren’t down there proclaiming their status. Some have considered them the 53%, the part that says BOOTSTRAPS and “get a job!” but complain that the housing crisis has fucked them over royally, or that their pensions dropped through the floor and into the basement. They were upset, sure, but couldn’t be bothered to actively go out and demand change. Hell 2 1/2 Men is on tv, and tivo just ain’t gonna cut it. So maybe tomorrow, maybe then we’ll go and make a sign and hold it and pretend we wouldn’t rather be somewhere- anywhere else. This is the group who has been affected by everything Occupy Wall Street shouts against. But instead of doing anything they wait it out.

So who are left? Young, many of whom have just been released into the world and are unable to find stable jobs. Adults of various ages who had jobs and lost them and now are living on the fumes of their retirement plans. People at the end of their rope. People who can’t get a job because of bad credit, but can’t improve their credit without a job. People who bought into the idea of school, only to leave with $20,000 in debt. People who weren’t given all the opportunities that 1%, 30%, 54% had. People who remember what the 60s dreamt of and the 70s failed to attain. People who saw the 80s and 90s, people who saw the implementation of greed as the only currency in a world run on a tenuous high-stakes poker match.

About an hour ago, two-hundred people marched up Bleecker and turned on MacDougal, right below my window. They headed to the park. The Gossip Girl set ground to a halt, the giant spotlights illuminating the street as though it were all some bizarre scene from a dystopic movie set in the near future.

I guess the thing that compelled me to actually write anything in the first place is Oakland. Having grown up in the Bay Area, the moment the words Oakland and Police are uttered in the same sentence, you know to expect the worse. So it isn’t a surprise that while in New York the Pepper Spray Happy Cop got jokes on The Daily Show, while in Oakland the result is a slow simmering rage.

Some links:
a history.
Occupy Wall Street tumblr for photos, etc.
HuffPo collection of sources

It’s 3 am, do you know where your children are?

hippieseatbabies — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:23:37 +0000

If you’re my mother, you’d say “procrastinating her pilot work by watching Supernatural, drinking fake coffee and then complaining about it on twitter as though someone cares.”

And if you’re my mother, you’d be correct.

But you’re not, thank God. So here I am, almost 3 am, watching Jon Stewart’s reaction to Gaddafi’s death. No, to be precise, watching his reaction to Republican reactions to Gaddafi’s death, while wearing earplugs because my street at 3 am is no different than any other street at 3 pm. Why, sir, do you insist on honking for four blocks straight? Isn’t that just as annoying for you as it is for me?
I hope you get carpal tunnel and can’t drive for the rest of your life.

On a completely unrelated note, American ~~History X~~ Horror Story. I haven’t been so needlessly angry at a television show since I realized that the lack of continuity on Glee wasn’t just some genius way of to up ratings but was actually considered by show runners to be effective.

The problems I have with American Horror Story? Let me count them.

1. Characters. What characters? You mean caricatures? Because we sure as hell haven’t figured out anything except that Dylan McDermott likes to cry at inappropriate times and the only thing he’s consistent with is in doing the opposite of whatever it is he should be doing. Tell the truth? Hell no, lie. Stay with your pregnant wife? Hell no, go to crazy town. Tell your daughter to stop smoking? Hell no, say she deserves a good puff or two after fighting off The Strangers. And Mrs. Coach? I love her, but what exactly is that character doing? Other than not leaving her house.

2. Logic. I get it. Suspension of disbelief. I’m with it. Ghost stories scare the shit out of me. I will fully go with the idea of someone being haunted. What I won’t believe is how no one’s figured out that there’s a ghost motel going on in their house and that all these people they’re talking to are dead. Seriously. Ghost boy randomly shows up at an opportune time and destroys episodic antagonists and NOBODY EVEN WONDERS HOW THE HELL HE GOT THERE. I like the idea of the house conspiring to keep them there, but seriously. The money issue, great. Helter Skelter reenactments. Not so much.

3. Really creepy “see me write women, aren’t I awesome and totally great at this even though I’m totally giving in to madonna-whore complexes without a second thought” misogynistic undertones. Nymphomaniacal psychopaths or princess in the tower. That’s what we’ve got going on with the women. Except Violet. But she’s a teenager and we all know teenagers aren’t. real. people.* I mean, these are the creators of Nip/Tuck. Should I have expected anything less? Not really. But that leads me to

4. Also really creepy abortion, sexual assault, and victim blaming imagery. The abortion theme is obvious. But how about the fact that everyone who wants to or has had an abortion is either a)bananagrams crazy b)about to get michael myers’d. Oh and while all these whorish psychotic women are getting abortion’d up, you have Mrs. Coach desperately striving to have a child. It’s not overt, and I don’t think that specific message was intentional, but I find it unsettling. And not in a Boo! Creepy! kind of way.

Oh and unless someone explains to me why Moira is being depicted as the scarlett whore when she was in fact shot in the face mid-sexual assault, I’m going to go apeshit. I don’t care if she had an affair at some unknown point in the past. And I’m all for Jessica Lange shooting her in a fit of wifely rage. What I am not for, is establishing this character as an awful, unrepentant, manipulative human being, and then showing her being brutalized and murdered as though she deserved it. I get that Old!Moira is most likely the real personality in terms of the girl who was shot and that Young!Moira is Jessica Lange’s projection or a reinvention of what the dead husband wanted her to be, so I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. For now. But if it’s not explained, then I hope anyone who green lit that scene gets a firepoker up their–

Anyway.

5. There is a difference between over-editing, quick cuts, throwing a bunch of non-plot points and images at the screen and actual incorporation of tension into the story and character arcs. One has a reaction of AHH WTF and the other has the reaction of AHH WTFshowmemore. When you confuse overwhelming an audience to the point that they have no way to react other than “tell me, so I know what the hell is going on” with “tell me because I’m invested in finding out what happens,” that means you’re shit at being a writer and want money and people to talk about you. (in which case, good for you. Success!)

I guess I should say that I don’t hate every aspect of American Horror Story. I’m obviously watching. But I don’t enjoy it. Everything is either tossed in together or drawn out in a way the makes no sense, the few good actors and the few legitimately great scenes are surrounded by so much other that it’s frustrating more than anything else.

I’m also convinced that this should be a one-off miniseries. I know that they’re supposed to switch families every year (or at least that’s the rumor) but once we’ve seen all the ghosts here, then what? Even if you go to another house, you have tossed everything in to this season and you’ve got nothing new to give us. Because you’re not creating stories, you’re creating vignettes masquerading as a plotted television series. And if I wanted to watch a really good, creepy, vignette-style serial show, I’d watch The Twilight Zone

*It’s been scientifically proven that at the age of 13, human teenagers are abducted and replaced with automatons programed to make life difficult for everyone, including their future selves. Then on the eve of their 21st birthday they short-circuit, shut down, and the humans are returned with no recollection of anything that happened that entire day and plausible deniability for the last 8 years.

A Quote and a Trailer

hippieseatbabies — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:07:14 +0000

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” — Ira Glass

If you haven’t seen Animal Kingdom then you’re missing out.

Fall TV Casualty #5

hippieseatbabies — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:04:48 +0000

Charlie’s Angels
aka Things that claim to be feminist but make me want to shove needles in my eye for $100, Alex – has been canceled.

And I wonder why.

I never saw an episode, or even a promo, so it’s not like I can say much…BUT, I’m waiting for the time when it’s normal for female crime fighters/detective/officers/superheroes/whatever to fight the baddies in flats.

The Angels are dead. Long live the Angels.

Wonder what’s gonna be next.

Edit: Evidently this is the 5th show to be axed this season.
1. Playboy Club
2. H8r
3. Free Agents
4. How to be a Gentleman
5. Charlie’s Angels