THAT'S RACIST

 By now you've probably seen this poster campaign encouraging people not to dress up as ethnic stereotypes for Halloween:

I guess I shouldn't be totally surprised at the controversy around these messages, but the turn that the conversation around them took really made me feel obligated to chime in. I get the two sides; "People should get a sense a of humor/ Don't tell me what I can't do" vs.

And I'll admit I'm on the latter team. I don't really think it's funny or appropriate to dress up like an unflattering caricature of a race, regardless of the reasons. It perpetuates stereotypes and deepens the divide that prevents us from understanding and respecting other cultures, while making the wearer look like a clueless inconsiderate asshole.

At the same time I understand the other argument, to a certain extent, especially if you live in a mono-cultural community with no real exposure to actual people of these races (which is why this poster campaign putting a real face to the ethnicity is very well done). Halloween is supposed to be a time to dress up and have fun and act foolish and satirize the world- so I kinda sorta see the other side (even though I don't agree - it's totally racist).

But there was one argument/comment that popped up more than once that really blew my mind:

'If I can't dress like a bandito then nobody can dress like a ghost because I don't have a tan and I find it offensive.'

Are you kidding me? Are you really trying to equate dressing up like an ethnicity to dressing up like a spectral being? My apologies- I didn't realize that your parents were ghosts and that you were born and raised in the ghost culture, with all their rich and celebrated ghost traditions. I'm so embarrassed I reduced your proud undead history to that old stereotype of a sheet with eye holes. I can't believe that guy over there dressed like a ghostbuster! How insensitive to all the spirits they've imprisoned from your culture over the years. Shame on him.

Seriously. Ghosts are not a race. WTF.

Why yes! I will hang that on my wall!

So Cafe Press has a pretty substantial collection of fan-made Star Trek Merchandise. I was browsing through it other day. Some of the posters are really cool and well done!

Others...not so much. On that note, I present:

The Top 10 Laziest Star Trek Posters

1.

I wanted to start with this one, because it's not exactly "lazy"...it's more strange and awkward. WEIRD!

2.

3.

I should point out that there are TONS of these, one for pretty much every lead male character that has been on the show.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Just a Shirt? WHY FOR?

9.

10.

YOU LITERALLY CANNOT EVEN SEE WHAT THIS IS!

Crossover Special?

The X-Files are pretty cool. Last night Paul and I watched the one where a black oil slick sludge monster/ alien body snatcher body snatches its way from the ocean floor to the American heartland so it can hop in it's top secret space ship.

I really really really like to imagine that this alien and the one below are one in the same.



OMG crossover!

Space Babes

 Yesterday, We went to the Star Trek Convention in Boston, costumes and all. If I do say so myself, we ladies were lookin' pretty cute!

If you'd like to see more out-of-this-world beauties (HA!), check out this Flickr stream: The Galactically Hot Women of Star Trek!

It was a good way to research appropriate hair stylings. For the next Convention, I wanna do a bee hive!

David Lynch's Dune

Today Paul and I watched David Lynch's 1984 version of "Dune". 

This movie's reputation for being mediocre is, I'm sad to say, pretty deserved. While the costume and set design is excellent, the story was drawn out and weighed down by excessive amounts flat exposition. Good story telling is often built on building the story through action, "showing, not telling." And this movie has an awful lot of scenes where people literally recite the plot to the camera. This is partially because its a story built heavily on political and religious intrigue. Tales of societal stratagem often don't translate well in film. 

The special effects are also kind of silly. Lynch is, as usual, obsessed with fetal imagery, and one of the main villains of the film has a distracting vagina for a mouth. The silliest effect of all though are the "shields" that the Family Atredies uses for protection (:53 in the trailer). LOL!



Not to say it isn't a visually interesting film, but you can really tell it was made in 1984.

I also really hate the depiction of the Harkonnens and the Baron in particular. Stupid, Gross, annoying! But it is fun to see Sting play the bad guy.



And speaking of weird celebrity appearances, this movie is like a who's who of nerd actors.

Brad Dourif played Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings. As Piter de Vries, he plays the almost identical character; a corrupt and nasty political adviser with close ties to major figureheads.

 Patrick Stewart (again!) as Gurney Hallock.

 

And Dean Stockwell, AKA Al from Quantum Leap as the traitorous Dr. Yuweh. It was neat to see him in something else.

I've actually been dying to see him in 1970's "The Dunwich Horror". He plays the lead in this movie based on Lovecraft's short story about demon worshiping monsters. It looks hilarious and he's so young!



So anyways, "Dune" is really long and kind of boring at times. Also very very weird. I wouldn't recommend it if you haven't read the books. The film is very true to the novel, but it's almost like because it's so word-for-word, it's not very good. I dunno. David Lynch's style and Frank Herbert's mythos is a weird combination.

Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania

Patrick Stewart as Oberon in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1977 production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Check out that head of hair on him!

"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,   
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in"- Oberon, Act 2, Scene 1

One of my favorite Shakespeare plays, as I got to be in it in High School. I still know bits of it by heart.

Wheels at Warp Factor 9

We're thinking about getting a second car here at the Barba household. It's kind of the end of an era. Paul and I have been ride sharing every morning and afternoon since graduation. I'll miss having the morning ride together. But it's seeming more and more likely that whatever my next job may be, it won't be feasible to carpool. It will be the first time we both have our own cars.

Maybe I'll put this sweet Trek Fish on whichever car becomes primarily mine.




May our new vehicle live long and prosper.

Show off yer gams!

When I took French in high school, we did a unit on clothing. Included in the garment names we had to memorize was one of my favorite french words: Jupette. My text book defined it as "tennis dress," but it can also be used more generally for a short skirt.

Given the sticky hot weather mother nature has been treating us to, I think celebrating jupettes and the baring of legs is most appropriate.


Vintage Tennis Dresses are always so awkwardly explicit about what they are to be used for.

While modern ones, like this one by Stella McCartney, are cute always. But I think that shorty short skirts should be rocked off the court too...






....even to a fancy soiree...
....Or in outer space!
Whoa Uhura!

Captains Personal Log: Supplemental

Quite a while ago I blogged about an unbelievable Lost prop auction that is coming up later this summer. The same auction company, Profiles in History is also doing a big Auction of Star Trek props from all across the different incarnations of the series. Pretty sweet stuff, though I'm not sure I'm diehard enough to pay the estimated value for some of these things.


Geordi's Visor - $4,000 -$ 6,000. If I bought this, it would be my Halloween costume every year from the rest of my life.
Scotty's Family Tartan: $300-$500

Federation Phaser from The Wrath of Khan: $1,500 - $2,000
An Ipad, oh wait. No. It's a PADD from Star Trek: Generations (a movie a bought last fall on VHS for a quarter.) $300 - $500
Random Buttons from the Bridge of the Enterprise: $1,500 - $2,500

Collection of Sick Bay Blankets: $400 - $600. I think I would bid on these if I were to bid on anything. At least they're functional.
Least functional but pretty badass. A Collection Borg Bones from First Contact: $200 -$300

The Trekkie that brings these guys home with him is going to be SO happy!

Knitting for Mom / Caturday XIX

It's been awhile since I posted anything knitting related. I got caught at kind of an impasse, trying to expand my yarn manipulation skills into the realm of crochet. It didn't go so hot...but I'll write more about that another time.

I jumped back into working with two sticks by whipping together this little guy for mothers day. I had tons of leftover sparkly white yarn from christmas projects, so I decided to make a twilight themed teddy bear for Paul's mom. An Eddy Bear, I guess.

It came out looking less cute and more creepy than I was hoping, but he's supposed to be a terrible undead vampire, right?

I stuffed him with catnip, making it not just a twilight themed toy, but a twilight themed cat toy!

Speaking of cat toys, Roosevelt has gotten some pretty good ones lately.

1. This little puff of fake fur.

It makes her think she actually caught a mouse. It makes me think I'm on the starship enterprise.


An uncanny likeness really...I hope it doesn't start multiplying like crazy!

2. This Bee is a laser pointer - it shoots lasers out its mouth!

How scary would that be in real life? VERY.

War of the Worlds

It's no secret that I think books are really awesome. I love them not only as works of literature, but as works of art. I can't resist an old book with a really beautiful cover, and I think jacket illustrations are actually a great way to judge a book, thank you very much. My interest in the graphic design of books has taken me to The Book Cover Archive, and their extensive galleries of beautiful illustrations. They have a great collection of covers from "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells, spanning the 100+ years and plethora of countries the book has been in print.

1899, Cohen Zonen, Dutch

1913, World's Work Sixpennies No. 2, English

1939, Scheltens and Giltay, Dutch

Well, it wouldn't be the 50's without a babe sprawling out helplessly for no reason in the direct line of peril!
1951, Famous Fantastic Mysteries Magazine

1961, Heineman, New Windmill, English

So it was Starfleet all along!
1978, Siglo XX, Spanish

1982, Vivo Press, Netherlands

2002, AST, Moscow

2004, Folio Society, London

You can see them all (over 350!) here. It's really interesting to see the reinterpretations of the story and design motifs change over time and through each culture.