Question of the Day: World Marriage Day

[the_siobhan]

Behind again. As was foretold.

11 – Make a Friend Day: How easy is it for you to make friends? Do you have many casual friends, or just one or two close friends?

I think I am reasonably good at making friends. Since the invention of the Internet it has gotten easier to find the local weirdos, and those are usually my people.

12 – World Marriage Day: In your opinion, is marriage an outdated institution or has it stood the test of time? Should we seek to preserve it, or might there be a better alternative for committed couples?

I have some - mixed feelings about it.

Same sex marriage is so important because hostile family used to swoop in and deny people access to their partners in the hospital. A bad breakup could mean never being able to see your children again. It's still out of reach to polyamourous[1] families.

But I do have issues with how the laws around married people treats the couple as a single entity. Social supports are out of reach if you are married because it's just assumed that somebody is supporting you. Marriage is still out of reach for people on disability incomes for exactly that reason, they lose their income and become entirely dependent.

I don't think it's the best system. Just maybe the best one we have right now. Anyway, I'm certainly never doing it again.

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House-building progress has been delayed by weather. Mostly because our contractor lives in the snow belt and is currently too buried under the white shit to make it to Toronto.

You know, patience is really not my forte
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Monday nights are date night with the gf. She took up cooking as a hobby over the pandemic and she is really good at it.[2] So we eat dinner and watch a movie or pick up a new TV show together. The last few weeks we decided to get me caught up on some movies that came out a while ago but that I had never watched.

So that's how I ended up watching Legally Blonde. BC described it by saying, "It's a good movie, but not a deep movie," and I think that's a pretty solid take. It was interesting because it took the trope of somebody who wealthy, pretty, and who is really into fashion and made her not shallow - she works hard, she's sharp, and she is nice to people who really don't have anything to offer her. And it's a movie that doesn't pit the women against each other, which was pretty freakin' rare. So yeah not deep, but still kind of fun.

And then we watched Hackers. Oh my God. All those famous actors as wee babies on the screen. And I was completely delighted by the hacking itself. It was absolutely dumb and entirely entertaining and funny as shit. (And now I secretly want to see every single movie Matthew Lillard has ever been in, because watching him chew through the scenery was just so entertaining.)

BC talked me into watching Master and Commander, which is not so old but which I had skipped because it's not really a genre I'm into. And it was SO WELL DONE, holy shit. I spent the entire thing being absolutely horrified by the entirely historically accurate portrayal of LITERAL FUCKING CHILDREN working as soldiers on a ship and getting shot to bits in the process. Honestly, a battle at sea has been solidly confirmed as right up near the top on my Ways I Would Really Prefer Not To Die Thank You list.

There were also some Disney movies in the mix, but none of them really grabbed me. Every time I see an animated movie now, I'm all, "Well it was OK, but it was no Megamind."

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[1] Why is polyamorous not in my spellcheck? What fucking decade is this?
[2] So good that she has started asking me if I didn't like it on the rare occasion where I can't fit a second helping.

Comments

[dissectionist]

Oh my goodness, Hackers is a joy of a movie. I was literally a teenage hacker when it came out, and all my friends were also teen or early-to-mid-20s hackers. We all loved it without reservation precisely _because_ it was so silly and wasn’t trying to be anything but hilarious. It was a shitpost of a movie, everyone working on it knew it was a shitpost and they weren’t trying to make it something it wasn’t, and that’s why it still holds up today. It was fun then and it’s fun now.

My kids watched it last year and they loved it too.

[elusis]

DNA Lounge in SF has occasional Hackers nights which I gather have been various levels of awesome, especially pre-pandemic, but as I have still never seen the film I didn't drag my carcass out to any of them and now this is probably another thing I will slowly regret more and more as I age and the pandemic becomes just another way in which middle and later adulthood for Gen X has turned out to be really fucking disappointing.

I seem to be grouchy this evening, sorry everyone.

[dissectionist]

I feel you. With my elder kid we started a tradition of “when you’re 15 you get to go see a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show” and my younger kid has been waiting years for his chance. He’s turning 15 next month but now we’re in this situation where doing indoor activities could mean death or permanent disability from Covid, and I don’t know what to do. He’s been waiting so long but things are just so much riskier now.

[greylock]

Without knowing his specifics, can you (a) do an outdoor cinema RHPS experience?, (b) throw that in your yard?, (c) ask they watch Shock Therapy first?, (d) promise to take them to NZ where there is a Riff Raff statue? or (e) give them to me, and I will prepare a lecture about why it is not a good movie, including a screening of Grease 2?

But, really, summer outdoors seems the best option (mask or not?)

[dissectionist]

I haven’t heard of any outdoor showings with the full cast/audience participation anywhere near where we live, unfortunately. :/ If there were, that would be an easy option. But it’s not just about seeing the movie at a drive-in or something, it’s about it being the RHPS audience-participation experience. Seeing the cast acting it out in front of the movie screen. Shouting alternate lines back to the cast. Dressing up to attend. Everyone getting up to dance. If those things aren’t present, it isn’t worth watching or doing.

It’s not a good movie (hence why it’s not worth watching on its own), but it’s played a huge role for many of us - including me - in our growing up as LGBTQ folks. RHPS midnight showings saved me when I was a kid, because they were literally the one single place where I didn’t have to be closeted, my one tiny break a couple times a month where I could drop the mask and be among my people.

So for my own GBTQ kids (got all of those covered between the two kids), I’ve chosen to take them once each (well, only one has been able to go so far) and have them experience that part of my history. We discuss the (many) problematic aspects of the film, because our protocol has never been to hide dodgy things from view, but instead teach the kids to analyze dodgy stuff in what they see. We also discuss what a huge role this specific movie played for many in my generation of LGBTQ kids, and how awesome it is that kids their age now have so much more representation than just a few movies.

So yeah, I agree with your assessment that it’s not a good movie, but there’s a lot more going on with our selection of that movie (and specifically that experience of seeing the movie in a specific way) than just its merits or lack thereof as cinema. :)

[greylock]

I haven’t heard of any outdoor showings with the full cast/audience participation anywhere near where we live, unfortunately.

If it's still as beloved as it was when I was a teen-ish type (and I have no reason to believe it isn't, it's a sticky movie), but maybe it's an option.

You can have the full in-theatre experience outside, it just takes the right outdoor cinema.

I am dragging on decades-old memories here, but if there are re-enactment groups, maybe you could pitch them on organising one at an outdoor space. Won't be midnight, but will be under the stars,

Anecdotally, I know a lot of people (from my admittedly small sample) who would leap at the chance to see an outdoor movie with actual other people, and they're the type of folks who are a bit iffy about movies in the pandemic-era.

I reckon it's possible.

Down here, in the before times, we had months-long summer, outdoor film festivals at universities, I reckon tacking a date on there, or even a midnight showing would be possible.

Or, get a projector, invite friends around, and do the best you can to replicate the experience. You'll be happy,the kids will be happy, and while it's not quite the experience you wanted, it's the best you can do while the virus is here.

Or get these (https://prescientx.com/products/breathe-reusable-mask-single) and cinema away! Depending on your level of risk.

The other other option is renting a cinema yourself and doing it that way, with RAT tests ... but that seems excessive. People will go for it though.



[Various offers are void in the US, and especially Tennessee, 'cause I reckon RHPS would be classed as drag]

[elusis]

Get a FloMask, decorate it, go and throw rice.

[dissectionist]

We have sealed N99 [breathe] masks from PrescientX that we love, but we’ve still been avoiding anything indoors other than the kids (unavoidably) going to school/college.

I’m really hoping the SaNOtize/Enovid phase 3 clinical trial will show that it’s an effective prophylaxis against Covid. That will really make things easier if it is.

[greylock]

Gen X has turned out to be really fucking disappointing.

I KNOW.
But, I knew Gen X. Gen next won't be better, we're all trying to not die of hunger.

I seem to be grouchy this evening, sorry everyone.

Honestly, let the rage out.

And, as above, or below, do your own Hackers. Maybe Riftrax did it? Chuck X no of friends in a (ugh, sorry) "safe safe" and enjoy. It's not the quantity, it's the quality.

[greylock]

But I do have issues with how the laws around married people treats the couple as a single entity.

The couple as a single entity used to bug me too (and the fact the law decided I was married, but I have kvetched about that a lot in the past.

So that's how I ended up watching Legally Blonde.

For reasons (ie, a girl asked me) I saw this in the cinema. Didn't hate it, but if there was a sequel I never watched it.

Hilarioiusly, I was reminded about it just the other day because the episodes of The Nevers I downloaded contained American adds, including one where Alicia Silverstone was recreating the character to shill for an app (unless it has her Clueless character).

HA! Hackers is a trip, I found a whole bunch of flyers for the the other week when I was cat-sitting. They were shoved into a comic collection I pulled off the shelf to read while patting said cat, who had been home alone for two weeks.
For bonus '90sness, it was Dawn, one of the big-breasted characters from that era (the one Gary Numan wrote an album about). I must rewatch Hackers someday.

every single movie Matthew Lillard has ever been in

That's... a choice. He's been in some real stinkers.

But, if you have the option, the Thirteen Ghosts is a fine place to start, and maybe the Scooby films. And Bloodsucking Bastards for his recent work.

SLC Punk isn't terrible, for what I remember of it, and She's All That is a fine '90s teen romcom.

But, for the love of Gorilla Grodd, avoid Wing Commander.

Damn, I saw Master and Commander 20 years ago?
Damn.

Polyamorous? Also not in mine.

[the_siobhan]

I did like SLC Punk. According to friends in SLC every single character in that film is based off a person they can name.

[greylock]

I have a weird sense of deja vu.

Maybe you suggested I watch SLC Punk, once upon a time.

[sabotabby]

Hackers is the most amazing movie. It's so inaccurate but all the hackers loved it and apparently at least changed hacker vocabulary to be more like the movie.

[greylock]

I often scream "hack the planet" while using my "Megabyte modem" to log into my work account!

(It is true, though, it did change the lingo. Everything before that was all phreakers, crackers and Mondo2000).

[doggiesushi]

Even though it's what I do for a living, I somehow never saw Hackers until about 5 years ago. It's... something. I totally see how it's so iconic for folks when they saw it for the first time when they're 15, but at not-15, it just makes me laugh so hard. It's so cheesy!

But, Rollerblades!

[dissectionist]

No no, we found it just as hilarious at age 15/16. That’s why we loved it so much. :) It was always a shitpost, even when it first came out!

[doggiesushi]

Ok - that's fair. :)
So many people I talk about it like it was some seminal part of their childhood or something, and I didn't quite get it. But, if everyone realized it was hilarious but somehow _also_ inspirational? Ok. I can get behind that.

[kest]

I like Legally Blonde and lovvve Hackers. I saw it in the theater. The cheap theater, but still. It was what every young computer geek WANTED hacking to be. Like a weird 90s utopian fever dream.