![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jesse_the_kThanks to pauraque for prompting me to explain three of my icons. I think Dreamwidth's icons are the crucial thing keeping me here. I have altogether too many of them, and picking the right one for each post is a big thrill.
If you wanna play along, ask me to pick three of yours.
"Be aware of invisibility" in red Futura Bold Condensed
(At least half my icons are from the inimitable ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
jackshoegazer, including this one.)
I use this for topics that may not be perceivable and are nonetheless very important: queerness, disability, dysfunctional dynamics in work or home.
I convinced sasha_feather to come over and take pictures of me in hats. I’ve cropped out the lively gray green tweed flat cap, and you can still see I’m about to insert a USB drive in my left ear.
This icon shows up on the rare occasion that I have technical skills to share.
David Hewlett playing Jimmy, the prankster younger brother in 1990’s Where The Heart Is. His brilliant sister does full body makeup as an art form, and for Reasons turns Jimmy into a pink-cheeked cherubim. At 18, Hewlettt was quite the lean pretty boy. Naked, adorned with a halo, wings, a mean sneer and an extended middle finger (towards his dad, if I recall correctly)
I found that image on a still-extant site! Many thanks to tarlanx for maintaining it: https://www.davidhewlett.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=3&page=2
This huge mural combines a languid naked woman and Jimmy’s cherub with an arrow ready to let fly.
I’ve got two other "FUCK THIS!" icons, because I like my rage to be artistic.
Callum Keith Rennie in a suit screaming fuck no!
More subdued WTF in ASL fingerspelling.
(no subject)
Date: 02/02/2021 01:02 am (UTC)I always wondered about this one! I knew it wasn't Derek Jarman, but it made me think of him.
(no subject)
Date: 02/02/2021 04:16 pm (UTC)I knew Jarman's name as a director, but not an actor. Based on the returns when quacked,† I should watch some of his work. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what to watch (or not).
† Verb form of "search using Duck Duck Go."
(no subject)
Date: 03/02/2021 12:25 am (UTC)He didn't act much outside of his own work and not all that often then—I just meant it looked almost like an image from one of his films, but not quite. (I did catch him as an extra in the lo-fi landmark queer film Nighthawks (1978), which was fun.)
I'd love to hear your thoughts on what to watch (or not).
He is one of my favorite filmmakers and I discovered him before I kept a Patreon, so there's not as much record of him in my journal as I would like, but there's some and no matter what I have thoughts!
I hands-down adore and unreservedly recommend his Wittgenstein (1993): it was not my introduction to the philosopher, but it cemented my interest in him. I did in fact go out and read the Tractactus afterward. Cf.
Jarman's The Tempest (1979) comes close to being my favorite version of the play despite significant cuts and rearrangements just because it feels like Hermetic magic. Its Ariel is truly nonhuman. I love its fearless, feral Miranda. I believe her relationship with all of the strangeness she's grown up with. It's also on Kanopy.
Sebastiane (1976) was his first feature and bears more traces of other filmmakers than any of his other movies, but it's in Latin and it makes true numinous of a martyrdom, which I am such a hard sell on that it impresses me. Kanopy again, so I really hope you have access to this service and I'm not just being annoying.
The Last of England (1987) is furiously apocalyptic and it turns out that much of the rage against fascism and nationalism and imperial cruelty that drove Jarman during the Thatcher era translated surprisingly well to the age of Trump. Rush-That-Speaks has written about it as well. See once again Kanopy.
I have never written at all about Caravaggio (1986), Edward II (1991), or War Requiem (1989). The first was my first experience of Jarman and, at the risk of TMI, is the only movie I have ever put on hold for sex because there's a scene with Tilda Swinton and Sean Bean that is just that hot. The second is a queer masterpiece, visually stunning, so much a definitive version of Marlowe's play that I wasn't surprised to find it echoing into a local stage production. The third is essentially a feature music video for the Britten requiem which I have loved since college, a fantasia on the war experience and poetry of Wilfred Owen illuminating the 1963 recording with Galina Vishnevskaya, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Peter Pears; I try to write about it and I get ghost poems instead.
I've never managed to write properly about Jubilee (1977). It's a truly punk film. For whatever reason, that one's on the Criterion Channel.
I have never seen The Garden (1990), because it is functionally unavailable in the U.S., or Blue (1993), because I don't know if I could bear it. Rush-That-Speaks has written wonderfully about The Angelic Conversation (1985).
Jarman also did several videos for the Pet Shop Boys of which my favorite is "It's a Sin" (1987).
Basically, I have never not liked anything of his, but my favorites are Wittgenstein, The Tempest, War Requiem, and probably Edward II. I can try to answer any questions if you would like.
A Thousand Thank-yous!
Date: 04/02/2021 08:37 pm (UTC)I've recently realized that I must re-raise my News Wall, and now you've given me days worth of watching†
days' worth? I don't even know how to quack this question.
† I am indeed fortunate enough to have a UW-Madison Kanopy login, because MyGuy's last job was working for that institution
You're welcome!
Date: 04/02/2021 10:04 pm (UTC)Oh, fantastic. Enjoy!
I don't know if it counts as irony, but I feel I should note that in the time since my original comment I have now seen several hours' worth of David Hewlett on Stargate Atlantis and while I feel very mixed about the series in general, he is one of the elements I am enjoying very much.
Re: You're welcome!
Date: 05/02/2021 12:17 am (UTC)For me, the good thing about watching SG:A actual canon is it deeply increases my delight in how fans do it better.
Re: You're welcome!
Date: 05/02/2021 12:21 am (UTC)I can understand that. I was saying to
[edit] I forgot to ask the obvious thing, I'm sorry: links to your fic?
Re: You're welcome!
Date: 05/02/2021 05:20 pm (UTC)links to your fic?
I wish. My fannish contribution is enthusiastic reading.
Re: You're welcome!
Date: 05/02/2021 09:50 pm (UTC)It's an important part of the ecosystem! I do not write that much fic myself.
(no subject)
Date: 02/02/2021 01:21 am (UTC)I agree about icons being an enormous plus of being here on DW. I'll play along if you want to pick some of mine.
ZOMG!
Date: 02/02/2021 04:17 pm (UTC)I thought I had "icon issues"! You've got more than 500 of 'em. Will respond later.
That was a gas
Date: 05/02/2021 09:15 pm (UTC)I’m so glad your fandom journey has led you to cross paths with the joy that is![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
redscharlach!
Love to hear whatever you’d like to say about:
(no subject)
Date: 02/02/2021 03:04 am (UTC)(I think mine are pretty straightforward, but if you want to ask, feel free.)
(no subject)
Date: 05/02/2021 12:20 am (UTC)The full-adult human profile comes later in many actors (thanks in no part to punishing diet and exercise routines). He sure was a sweet Twink in his youth.
These icons provoked my curiosity, and I'd love to learn more about their application.
(no subject)
Date: 05/02/2021 01:52 pm (UTC)Thank you! I shall write up stuff on these... sometime. I expect.
(no subject)
Date: 02/02/2021 05:58 am (UTC)He's a ton of fun
Date: 02/02/2021 04:25 pm (UTC)As geeky as Rodney but much more humble.
Witness his enthusiasm at learning how Greek science calculated the Earth's circumference in 3rd BCE
He's been posting to YouTube since SGA ended. Almost daily in the shelter-in-place.
https://www.youtube.com/c/dHewlett/featured
Fanfic confers a kind of immortality: I read a lot of SGA, and so Hewlett-as-Rodney-16-years-ago is often in my head.
(no subject)
Date: 02/02/2021 02:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 02/02/2021 04:28 pm (UTC)Thank you for introducing me to Gerrit Graham's interesting face. Whence do you know his work?
I appreciate a crooked smile, common to GG and DH and me.
(no subject)
Date: 03/02/2021 03:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 03/02/2021 12:46 pm (UTC)Ah!
Date: 04/02/2021 08:25 pm (UTC)Today I learned that Irish Sign Language, like ASL, is part of the LSF (French sign language) family.
The ASL origin story combines LSF, the trade sign language used among native peoples, and isolated sign languages nurtured in communities with high incidence of genetic deafness.
LSF originated in Catholic monasteries and Church-run deaf schools, which may have helped Irish sign resist BSL pressure. The BSL two-handed alphabet is great for deaf-blind people, but slower for the rest of us.
Re: Ah!
Date: 05/02/2021 07:52 pm (UTC)From what I've heard, most Deaf Irish people were sent to institutions run by nuns or monks -- which likely had strong connections with French or Belgian orders, explaining why there is so much similarity. Deaf men and women were routinely separated by the church, and different dialects of Sign grew up in institutions for men and women, meaning that men and women struggled to communicate with each other (and were discouraged by the church from communicating). ISL is still a VERY gendered language, like there are different ways to say "walk" or "shopping" if you are a man or a woman -- it's very strange.
Re: Ah!
Date: 05/02/2021 08:54 pm (UTC)The ISL gender variation is intriguing and yet scary. Reminds me of Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin.
I was a very rudimentary ASL interpreter back before I got too sick to work (last assignment was 34 years ago). It’s thrilling to see how YouTube and suchlike provide the tools to maintain Deaf culture — doesn’t quite balance the heavy hand of cochlear implantation.
How did your life intersect with ISL?
Re: Ah!
Date: 08/02/2021 08:51 pm (UTC)I knew that YouTube and Instagram had been a big bonus for Deaf culture, but I hadn't considered that in the context of the upswing of cochlear implants. At least there are some positive things happening... My wife is unilaterally deaf after childhood mumps, and I am autistic, so we both have trouble with speech/processing sound at times, and we though ISL would be helpful and we wanted to learn more about Deaf culture. My wife is much better at Sign than I am, and has had more opportunities to learn, as her work sponsored her, but it's something we're both interested in and I would like to pursue more. When did you learn ASL?
Origin story!
Date: 09/02/2021 12:08 am (UTC)I enjoyed learning languages growing up: I've learned and forgot modern Greek, French, and Russian. In 1970 (high school) I read Joanne Greenberg's In This Sign. Although hearing, Greenberg did due diligence showing how and why Deaf adults were oppressed by eugenicist hearing culture. The novel tells the story of a hearing daughter of deaf adults, who both loves and hates the responsibility she bears as the linguistic go-between her parents and the hearing world. It takes place before interpreting was a profession. It formed the basis for Love Is Never Silent a 1985 TV movie which raised the profile of ASL.
After I'd moved to my current town, a recent Gallaudet graduate posted "ASL lessons from an expert" notices in my food coop. After some great learning with her, I took ASL classes at a local college. Even though my town didn’t host the Wisconsin School for the Deaf, there was a lively Deaf community. The profound lack of interpreters is why one of my Deaf teachers encouraged me to consider doing this work. At the time, my state had "pre-interpreter" screening: I was a Communication Assistant I. I love communicating with sign! It feels right in my hands.
Interpreting is the hardest, most challenging, and most rewarding thing I’ve ever done, and I miss it a lot.
Re: Origin story!
Date: 09/02/2021 07:36 pm (UTC)Re: Origin story!
Date: 09/02/2021 11:28 pm (UTC)Ah, glad to learn of another fan.
I've read everything Joanne Greenberg has written -- I can particularly recommend Of Such Small Differences: a young DeafBlind man develops a romance with his hearing support worker and discovers how she's been filtering the world for/from him.
Which leads to my last rec: the spirited, inventive DeafBlind poet John Lee Clark.
Re: Origin story!
Date: 10/02/2021 09:35 pm (UTC)I just read "My Understanding One Day of Foxgloves" by John Lee Clark, and it's beautiful -- I'll definitely read more of his work.
Re: Ah!
Date: 05/02/2021 09:57 pm (UTC)A friend of mine was just reading Nora Ellen Groce's Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language (1988)! As recently as 2020, efforts were being made to revive an ASL-MVSL dialect on the island. (Then I assume the pandemic put the lid on it, just like it did on everything else cool.)