Fic and other items of note.

[annakovsky]

Junior Year, Winter, part two (8,337 words) and Junior Year, Winter, part three (15,687 words)
easy_academy, Winters POV, NC-17 (underage, teacher/student, Nick Jonas/Dick Winters)

Here are two songs I have been obsessing over lately, because when it's been raining for weeks and you're writing depressing fic, things happen.

Rescued by Jack's Mannequin (because you might be too old for pop-punk piano ballads, but they're not too old for you)
My Backwards Walk, by Frightened Rabbit

Man, so on Friday night moireach and I had this incredibly bourgetarded evening, wherein we went and saw Brian Dennehy and Dame Eileen Atkins read a bunch of T.S. Eliot poems. And I thought, hey, this'll be pretty cool, I guess, and beforehand, M, as a T.S. Eliot EXPERT, was like, "They better not read it too fast. I have had to delete recordings where they read them too fast." So our expectations weren't too super high but oh my God, you guys, it was like, the best thing I have ever experienced. Like, I can't even describe how good they were, reading everything completely, mind-bogglingly perfectly, so that even though I've read The Wasteland a thousand times, they totally brought out new layers of meaning. They did the VOICES. AUGH I WANT TO GO SEE IT AGAIN. WHY CAN I NOT GO SEE IT AGAIN?

Haha, it was funny, though, because in the program it had a list of past actors who had done poetry readings put on by the same woman doing this one, and Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory were on the list, and I was like, "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME IF THEY WERE HERE READING ELIOT WHILE I HAVE LIVED IN TOWN I WILL KILL SOMEONE." Haha, which is exactly how I feel about Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello doing a Wigfield performance in the Somerville Theatre while I totally lived two seconds away here. (God, I still get so mad at my past self when I think about that. WHY DIDN'T YOU CARE SOONER?) Um, but anyway, luckily it turned out DLew's reading was at the British Library, so I can rest easy.

Then we ran straight from that poetry reading to see Germaine Greer, who totally hilariously bitched out the Harvard professor we had just seen introducing the Eliot thing, so that was super weird and kind of awesome. Also she was v. funny and interesting and she called M "that stripey person in the back" during the Q&A which kind of made my life.

And finally, speaking of feminism, the weekend before that, me and M went and saw Sarah Haskins of "Target: Women" at MIT (AWESOME), and so that day we were talking about what shows currently airing on TV consistently pass the Bechdel test (which is, if you are unfamiliar, that there are two female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man). And we honestly came up with almost none.

The Office, while at least very sexism aware, almost never does, especially these days. 30 Rock doesn't very much either, because Liz Lemon's only female friend is Jenna, who is ridiculous. Big Bang Theory -- hahaha, oh God, no. (Penny doesn't even have a LAST NAME, you guys. They literally had a GIRL FIGHT last week when she was threatened by another woman moving into the building. Oh my GOD, I mean, I do enjoy that show, but COME ON, it's 2009.) How I Met Your Mother claims that Robin and Lily are best friends, but they actually interact the two of them, like, maybe twice a season. (I feel like claiming Lily and Robin are best friends is like claiming Robin and Marshall are. I mean, sure, you can say that, but if I don't see it, it doesn't really count, guys.) But HIMYM, while masquerading as a Friends-esque ensemble show, is actually a show about Ted, so. It's right there in the title.

Anyway, we actually got out a list of all the shows currently airing, but I really could not find very many that have actual female relationships consistently portrayed. But I don't watch that much TV these days, so does anyone know of any? Because it was SUPER DEPRESSING to actually tally it up, guys.