some miscellaneous prose & thoughts

[brainwane]

On what helps some people decide to attend social gatherings.

On the Short Trek The Escape Artist.

On noticing that I'm trying to read inaccessible fiction.

"Random" (as in the modern slangy sense, e.g., "the Mountain Goats are making an album about D&D? That's random") means: unexpected in a way that I disapprove of, unjustified, and I resent having to make room for this unexpected thing; where do I even file this?!.

The coverage of celebrities (especially actors) and sports that I run into is usually a way into telling stories about labor and power.

Arrested Development loved showing us how its characters clung to the perceived power of names/categories, to make other people see things their way. "It's a satire!" "Illusions, dad!" "Mr. Manager." And, relatedly, mistook fake things for real -- living in the model house, George treating all dolls as though they were people.

Comments

[wohali]

Hm, when I use "random" that way, I usually mean: "Wow, that's unexpected and really off-the-wall. I'm totally intrigued!" But I've noticed people can mean the sense you say, so I usually say:

"Wow, they decided to write their new program in Clojure? That's random...I'd like to know more!"

re: sports, labor, and power

[jesse_the_k]

thanks to emceeaich's thorough review, we watched High Flying Bird on Netflix last night. It's super-good, and I know less than zero about basketball.