Random hot night ramblings and stuff.

I have no idea where this post is going, because it is late at night, the weather is still hot and I am tired and not really able to sleep. It's starting with something I watched tonight on BBC iPlayer, apparently it was originally broadcast on Thursday (but I thought it was Friday, so it took me ages to find it when I was actually ready to watch it, but anyway).

A spoof of fantasy-fiction TV series of the Robin Hood/Zena/Hercules/whatever genre, it's called "Kröd Mäldoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire". With Matt Lucas in the "Sheriff of Nottingham"/Evil Overlord role as my initial "main attraction", I soon found some distinctly sex-pos/feminist values in the chief character list on the "goodie" side, too.

In the merrie band, there's a polyamorous pagan warrior woman, for whom Kröd has "emotions". She is strong-willed, owns her own sexuality, and defines her body and the way she uses it on her own terms and no one else's. Kröd has issues with her promiscuity and polyamorous attitudes, and tries (unsuccessfully, obviously) to impose patriarchal norms of a woman's sexual and social place.

In the opening episode, a new member joins the band: the gay lover of Kröd's mentor, General Arcadius (or "Archie" to Bruce, his lover). The General, alas, does not survive, sacrificing himself to save Kröd's life, and because of this, Bruce joins the band.

Slightly less positive are the roles of the sorcerer (POC role - African-American accent, playing on traditional "foreign mystic" vibes; the twist is that the sorcerer is a fake, a simple conjurer) and the "dim fatty" (who is a member of a humanoid slave-race - however, Kröd keeps trying to free his "slave", because of the "PR nightmare" that arises from a freedom-fighter having a slave...)

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The women continue to show the men how it's done in the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup: in the final 8 stage of each competition, the women have put on far more exciting matches (judging by the scorecard updates) yet they do not receive nearly as much attention or coverage as the men. The England women are earning honours (Charlotte Edwards literally so - awarded the MBE in today's "Birthday Honours" list) while their male counterparts flounder somewhat. The New Zealand women have been sweeping all before them!

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I've now read through the entire Old Testament, and have started in on the Letters in the New Testament (on the grounds that I'm fairly familiar with the Gospels and Acts already but have never read any of the Letters before).

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There's all sorts of family type things happening around me - Grim and Squeeze are expecting a second baby; Squeeze is in the second month apparently! Also, my sister and her betrothed have just moved into a new flat together today.

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I watched one of the worst films ever made last night - seriously, at times it resembled not so much a direct-to-video release as a direct-to-home-movie release. "Grim Weekend" - if you ever have the chance to see it, DON'T!

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On my BT/Yahoo email account I keep getting advert banners saying "win free laser eye surgery". I really think they should be more careful about stuff like that - I mean, even before the current ban on handguns, to get a firearms licence you had to undergo all kinds of personality tests and stuff. So just giving out free laser eye surgery seems a bit reckless to me. I mean, if I had free laser eyes the world would not be safe, man! And I'm a good guy! Although, just how good would really be put to the test if I got them... I mean, I always had more of an interest in being a Bond-style supervillain, than in being a Bond-style hero.

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Ren Ev apparently identifies me as one of "the sisters", whom she identifies as "us freak pervs who should put down the hot wax and be responsible womyn". Considering who's making this identification of me, I think this is a high honour indeed. Somehow, I honestly think I identify more with the label "sister" than "brother" anyway (except when it comes to, like, actual blood family relations). I vaguely remember seeing a television documentary about the "Greek System" in US colleges - you know, the fraternities and sororities. Oddly, I felt myself much more drawn to the culture that this documentary identified in sororities than the culture surrounding fraternities. Although ultimately, the whole thing strikes me as being a little bit sordid really. Anyway, so yeah, me more sister than brother? Dunno, but a weird thought I had.

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I've got about 3 different pieces of music that I need to finish composing/recording, and not sure when I'm going to do so. I really should get on with writing my novel - oddly enough, the bit that has me stuck is the BDSM sex scene, and normally I think I'm quite good at writing BDSM sex scenes in literature form. I'm also struggling to get back to the Midnight Isles tales. I have a long story arc planned out in my head, with several of the tales on that arc already sketched out, but getting the chronology filled in so that I can have the right details fitted in is giving me headaches. Still, I have until I'm about 70 to finish it so there's no rush. There's also the ukulele concerto for which I have the 2nd movement, and most of the first movement, but only the vaguest of themes for the 3rd movement; I also have done very little work on the dynamics for the first movement so far. Ideally, I would have about three or four different lifetimes to do all this stuff in!

"There are so many things I could have been, if I could only choose between them..."

(Oh crap, that's actually a lyric from another song I haven't finished writing!)

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Hmm, it seems my tiredness is reaching the "maudlin" stage, and I think that should be my cue to head to bed before it gets any worse. I've dumped the contents of my mind in this post, almost like a landfill of the soul; now all you gannets can swoop down and see if you can find something worth commenting on in amongst the refuse!