I'm a slayer, ask me how.

I feel like we should stop calling feminists ‘feminists’ and just start calling people who aren’t feminists 'sexist,’ and then everyone else is just a human.

— Maisie Williams on Arya Stark as a feminist

(I'm sure this has been said before, by many many people but still...I like it)

I didn't watch The Academy Awards this year. Actually, I haven't watched in awhile because I don't have a antenna on my TV so I don't get any network channels.

But I did Google Chris Rock's opening monologue this morning because I was curious about what he had to say. This is the quote that stood out for me:

Hey, if you want black nominees every year, you need to just have black categories. That’s what you need. You need to have black categories.

You already do it with men and women. Think about it: There’s no real reason for there to be a man and a woman category in acting.

C’mon. There’s no reason. It’s not track and field.

You don’t have to separate ‘em. You know, Robert De Niro’s never said, “I better slow this acting down, so Meryl Streep can catch up.”

No, not at all, man. If you want black people every year at the Oscars, just have black categories like Best Black Friend.

"Freedom of expression truly exists only when a society's most repugnant nitwits are allowed to spew their nonsense in public."
--- Sarah Vowell, Lafayette in the somewhat United States

"We don’t get wiser as we get older [...] But we do learn to avoid, or raise a certain amount of hell. Depending on which we prefer."
-- Hannibal Lecter

Found my book o' quotes. Most of them are from tv shows, movies, and then random "quote of the day" emails my mom forwards me BUT there are a few quotes from actual BOOKS that I have read and then made a point to write down so I will share then now:

Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new. When it was made, they lay in each other's arms, holding love, asleep.
- from "The Lathe of Heaven" by Ursula K. Leguinn

"What are you doing with that spork?"
"Well, when we find some bad guys, I'm going to spork the fuck out of them!"
- from "Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore

All your life you live so close to truth it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye. And when something nudges it into outline, it's like being ambushed by the grotesque.
- from "Rosezencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" by Tom Stoppard

I think that life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it."
- from "Lady Windermere's Fan" by Oscar Wilde

That is a quote from Steven Spielberg. I just flipped through a new book about his life and work that we got at the library. It was more of a collectible coffee table book than something you can sit and read (seriously, I tried to read it last night in bed and there was really no comfortable way). Also, the text about each movie offers only a tiny bit of insight - most are just summaries of the movie, behind the scenes stuff you probably arleady know if you're hardcore enough to be flipping through the books. So mostly the book is about collecting pretty pictures and taking random quotes and putting them into large print.

BUT ANYWAY - I digress. I just really loved this quote because I have felt this way SO MANY TIMES. Like, when I read Unbroken and found out about all the terrible things that happened to MIA POWs on the Pacific front. The Japanese way of war does not go by the same rules as the European way of war. Or when I read Seabiscuit and really got a grasp of what was happening during the Great Depression. As an adult, I think I've grown to love history because you can find uncensored stories of what happened. Not that it's all doom and gloom. I enjoyed Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fishes which was a fantastic look into Hawaii's history with the United States.

I know this statement is ridiculous but THERE IS SO MUCH HISTORY. And, of course, the schools and teachers have to pick and choose what they need to impart to young people to help them best understand their country and culture. And in school we tend to get bogged down with memorizing names of the leaders and dates they did stuff. It wasn't until college, when I took an American Studies course and had to read books that were true stories of normal, average people living through upheaval in our history that I finally understood how history could be interesting. It's hard to identify with great leaders and a list of dates. Give me the story of a young woman trying to get by in the 1960s and suddenly it has releveance...

But I totally get what Spielberg is saying. And every time I help a kid who sighs about hating history, I just know that, deep inside, there's probably a story out there that would touch them and make them want to know more. But I worry they might never find it...

The delusion you're trying to cure is called "Christmas," Duncan.

It's the crazy notion that the longest, coldest, darkest nights, can be the warmest and brightest.

Yeah, and when we all agree to support each other in that insanity, something even crazier happens

It becomes true

Works every year, like clockwork.

Christmas is a time to sing
that's what Christmas is for!
Christmas can even be a Hanakah thing,
that's what Christmas is for

And for a huge percentage of this God fearing planet it's about the birth of Jesus Christ,
But for the rest of us it's still a good time to remember that it's good to be nice!

Christmas cookies and liquor and trees that's what Christmas is for,
Video games for two straight weeks, that's what Christmas is for,
Hanging out with the people you love
saying "I love you!"
That's what Christmas is for!

--- From Community, Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!
xoxox
Sam

"The two things that matter the most to me in the work I do: emotional resonance and rocket launchers. I think 'Party of Five' - brilliant show, and often made me cry uncontrollably - suffered ultimately, I think, from a lack of rocket launchers, which, obviously 'Innocence' doesn't have a problem with"

-- Joss Whedon, from the audio commentary for Season 2 episode "Innocence"

iTunes put up Joss Whedon's Playlist today and I was looking over the tracks, just curious to what (if any) songs I knew. I was familiar with most of the tracks but my favorite comment had to be about Liz Phair's song "H.W.C":

"Just so jaunty and delightful, you can't help but sing it at home, in your car, in the super-market, at your kid's pre-school...why is everyone staring at me? Damn you, Liz Phair! But this album is ridiculously under-rated. And I prefer to hear pop songs about sex from women old enough to be any good at it."

Lulz. That song is hilarious and it gets stuck in your head and then you have to try all your might NOT to sing it. Or tell anyone the title because they will inevitably ask "What's that stand for?" and then you'll just have to run away.

Also, that was the first Liz Phair album I ever bought and I love it too. They [the hardcore fans] tried to make me feel guilty because it was so pop-y and they said it she was selling out but I think she was just having a good time. I now own WhiteChocolateSpaceEgg and Exile in Guyville (though I'm not sure I've actually listened to it) but this one will always be my first full length Liz Phair experience.

Also, random useless bit of info: Pete Yorn plays drums on that track.