Olbermann: Gay marriage is a question of love

Daily blogging went out the window when I started having to go to bed at pathetic o’clock. Still, this Keith Olbermann piece is well worth a look.

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“she’s not really my type, but I think you two are forever”

I’ve been linking to it everywhere else in my online life, so WordPress can be no exception.  My missus got a blog selected for the Guardian website.  Isn’t she awesome?

“a change would do you good”

So, Obama did it.  I’m not providing a link, just click on anything that’s on the internet and you should stumble across it.  I like him a lot more recently, and I thought his acceptance speech was fantastic.  John McCain’s concession was befitting the man we knew before this messy election, before he was ground up in the cogs of the Republican machine.

I was wondering if his nomination had been a half-hearted gesture on the part of the Republicans.  He’s never been ‘their’ guy, incapable of motivating the base until the already-missed Caribou Barbie joined the ticket.  Is it possible that the strategists knew they had no chance of winning against the superstar Democratic choices, and after the disaster of Bush Jr?  So they let an old dude win through, with none of their own big hitters ready or eligible to run, so that if he lost it was no biggie?  Not like he’ll be able to run again in four years, and they haven’t had to change the party significantly (though it seems some shifting will be necessary if they’re to get back in power?)  I hope and pray that Sarah Palin does at least consider running in 2012 because 1) Tina Fey and 2) while the prospect of her with actual power terrifies me, I just find her hysterical and oddly compelling.

It’s over at last.  It was lovely coming home on the Tube, seeing so many wildly different faces poring over their free papers and smiling or nodding at the huge OBAMA WINS spreads.  The world definitely feels like a slightly better place today, even if it looks like California just screwed itself on gay marriage.

“pour me up another”

Something that’s been bugging me:

Bad recycler, bad!

Drinkaware’s new campaign.  First up, if you’re bothering to recycle, you’re a pretty functional alcoholic.  Also, do we really want to demonise people for recycling?  Isn’t it hard enough to get people to do the right thing here?  Even I have occasionally chucked paper in the regular bin because I can’t be arsed going out into the garden on a miserable day.

“but be careful getting coffee, I think these people wanna shoot us”

I should have known it was too good to be true.  No more lesbianism on Grey’s Anatomy.  (Spoilers for anyone not up to date with the fifth season).

Not that they’ve handled it as well as they could have from the start.  It took a particularly weird turn with all the ‘need to seek out girl-sexing advice from a guy’.  I mean, surely the golden rule of lesbianism is ‘do unto your girlfriend as you’d like done to you’, then see how successful it is and talk about what you want.

It was a huge development though, we’re talking about one of the most watched (if not any longer one of the best) shows on television.  It’s turned into part of a disturbing trend though, look at House’s ‘13′, a bisexual character who steps up the sleeping with women thing as a sign of spiralling out of control.  Basically, her lady-lovin’ is portrayed as a vice akin to her penchant for illegal drugs.  Not exactly feeling the warm and fuzzy embrace of diversity and inclusion there.  Although it is on Fox, so I wasn’t exactly expecting good things.  I’ve always felt that Ellen got cancelled post-coming out partly because the episodes did drop in quality, or at least I rationalised it that way.  It’s hardly the first time that a show with a prominent lesbian character got booted.

I can’t believe we’re really still at this stage – that lesbian “relationships” (complete with those air quotes) are perfectly useful to shock or to titillate, but woe betide any show that tries to show it as a sustainable and valid lifestyle choice.  I think the only character who had a prolonged lesbian storyline would be Dr Weaver on ER, or Lt Griggs on The Wire (I’ll be doing a guest blog for Jay about the women of The Wire, with particular reference to the realistic lesbianism sometime soon!).  Please, tell me if you can think of any others.

As for British TV?  Well, I can’t say I watch much these days, and it’s mostly just panel shows like Mock The Week.  The only drama I watch consistently is Spooks, and though I dozed off during it last night, I’m fairly sure they haven’t turned the delicious Ros Myers into a dyke just yet.  I didn’t see any lesbians in the fifteen minutes of Corrie that I caught last night, though I had heard rumours of it happening in Eastenders?

It never used to matter to me, I’ve always felt secure in my own identity as a gay woman.  (The obvious exception being my bizarre love for Fernando Torres, of course.)  What worries me is the lack of role models for more impressionable girls, ones whose only impressions of being gay are being shaped by the occasional risqué snog on something like Hollyoaks.  Surely, even with the religious right in the US, or the unable-to-take-a-joke brigade at the Daily Mail, we can still manage one realistic depiction on TV.

After all, this is my lifestyle, and that of so many people close to me.  I’m not pushing some radical agenda to get the heteros off the television, it would just be nice if someone a little like me was represented there too.

“where once we watched King Kenny play (and could he play!)”

Oh, crap.

Well, we had to lose some time, and taking the pressure of being undefeated away might actually help the team not to lose the head altogether.  The minute I saw Redknapp had been appointed, I knew the ‘bounce’ factor would kick Liverpool in the arse.

So what about this title race then?  Like so many Reds, I’m scared to even think about it properly for fear of jinxing everything.  Our squad is as strong as it’s been in five years, and yet we’re playing some of our worst football.  Then you look at the Chelsea game where we made one of the best teams in the world right now look average and stunted.

Of course, if you turn on a TV or pick up a paper today the grumblings about how our season is pretty much over have no doubt started in earnest.  I’ll be honest, I look at the squads and worry we don’t measure up sometimes, but give us a bloody chance.  I mean, it’s not like Chelsea and Man U haven’t already dropped points unexpectedly.  As for Arsenal, they’ve lost to Hull, Fulham and now Stoke – we’re surely still in with a better shout than them?

It feels like we *have* to win it this year, we can’t rely on Chavski to stop Man U equalling our record, and while Man U have nyaffs like slimy Ronaldo in their team it’s even less palatable. It would be particularly satisfying to knock Fergie off HIS fucking perch for a change.

Not to mention that April is the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, and while we don’t deserve anything for sentiment, the timing would be appropriately bittersweet.  I can’t be arsed with anyone (including my beloved Boris) who throw out claims about wallowing in victimhood.  I may not be a Scouser by birth, but it is a big part of my heritage.  I didn’t lose anyone I loved that day, but only thanks to a trick of fate and their tickets being in another stand.  If it had happened to any other team, it would still be a horrible tragedy and I can’t stand supporters of other teams sneering at it.  So don’t mock me for still refusing to buy the Sun, or getting choked up every so often when You’ll Never Walk Alone is being belted out.

Why does it matter so much to me these days?  I don’t know really.  I’ve always supported Liverpool, even during the season I pretended to support Man U in order to wind my dad up (grievously would him would be more accurate). The past couple of seasons I’ve felt it step up a gear – I can’t bear to miss a game, I have rituals about rituals to keep the superstitious ju-ju working in our favour.  It’s an established fact that all the lesbianism in the world can’t stop me from being a little bit in love with Fernando Torres, no matter how much it makes my girlfriend pout.

Liverpool is a way of life, clichéd though that may sound.  For someone like me, far from my original home and with only loose connections to concepts like family, it’s actually really comforting that there are tens of thousands of people all over the place who understand the significance of a good ‘BOUNCE!’.  It’s a currency, a common language even with those I find it hard to communicate with.  Sometimes I think it’s all my dad and I have left as a bond between us, and for that alone it’s worth the heartbreak of last-minute winners and the stress of penalty shoot-outs.

They’re my team, and that’s all it comes down to in the end.  If we can pull it off this year, if we can win the Premier League, I don’t think I can tell you just how happy it would make me.  But for now, as is the Liverpool Way, I’ll go back to living and dying with every kick of every match, not daring to think beyond each final whistle.  After all, nobody ever won anything in the autumn.

“show me just a little of your omnipresent brain”

So, this blog pretty much died on its arse, huh?

I haven’t got any spectacular excuses for it, just a drifting and diverting of attention to other things.  Mostly good: I’m reading a lot more, spending more quality time with people I like.  I haven’t had quite so much to say because I’ve been chattering like a madwoman on a daily basis, rarely keeping my own counsel.

Still, like the button below might indicate, I’ve found the push that I needed to get back into this side of things.  I’m conscious as I get older that what I write online, be it in quick emails or a pointless ramble on LJ, is the only record I’m keeping of my day-to-day life.

So get used to me being around – I’ll be on here at least once a day for the next month!