Reaching Out

I just had a two-hour nap with one of those dreams where you’re pretty aware you’re dreaming, except, you also try to wake up, and even though you feel you’re awake, you know you’re dreaming? I find those a bit nightmarish, usually, because I’m struggling to wake up, but just now? I had this really interesting dream, okay, so.

I was watching a TV show, a kind of black middle-class comedy, ala Jeffersons, Fresh Prince, Cosby Show, and the premise was about the developing relationship between a vet (played by Isaiah Mustafa) and a hairdresser (LIKE PEECH, except played by Gabourey Sidibe). And the hairdresser character is kind of, I guess, rising into middle-class herself? So the comedy kind of explores that troubles that arise in their relationship as a result of this class divide and fat hate and other things one could expect a comedy to explore with Isaiah Mustafa and Gabourey Sidibe in the lead roles.
( cut to save the rest of your f-list )

Hello peoples! I have been working on applications to Clarion and Clarion West, as well as developing a business strategy for a SEA SFF zine. Sekrit plans! But I did quite a bit of reading this week too!

First up, there are 20 days left for WisCon36 programming! I wonder if anybody's submitted programming on anti-racism in SFF and/or Asians in SFF because I would like to. And if you're a POC worried about getting to WisCon, Con or Bust! helps out with that sort of thing.

As I mentioned, Clarion and Clarion West SFF workshop applications are now open! They've been open for a while. And again, if you're a POC, you're eligible for the Octavia E. Butler Scholarship that Carl Brandon offers.

I know I mentioned this last week, but it bears mentioning again: Stone Telling 7 reading period is open, looking for queer-themed submissions. Check out the Outer Alliance's interview with editor Rose Lemberg here.

And Expanded Horizons' fundraising period is still going on, I believe. Help EH pay semi-pro rates!

( OK, stuff under a cut, because it gets long )

Hope you enjoy the links! Hope you have a happy week!

I started the new year with WildUnicornHerd. We had Chinese for dinner, went to a coffeeshop where we poured alcoholic stuff into our drinks, drank that on the way to her sister's friend's place, where we hung out. Played sparklers at midnight, which was fun, and then the two of us proceeded to kick ass at Cranium until we were too drunk to really win (almost though. Almost). Anyway, we slept in, had dim sum, I got home around 4.30, I slept, and slept and slept and had hives, but yeah, no condition to put up a linkfest yesterday. So you get it today instead.

So anyway.

Call for submissions for a queer issue of Stone Telling. Also, if you've liked Stone Telling's work at all this year, consider donating to their tip jar! Shweta and Rose have had a horrid year, so let's help them get 2012 off on a better start.

Fans of Scarleteen are having a fundraiser by offering fic! Or other things.

So, there was some fail, and there was some. I'll post the fail first then the win.

( Fail under a cut )

OK now that the Most Terrible is out of the way, here is some less terrible stuff:

My post on Goliath got a lot of hits from Strange Horizons, where editor Niall Harrison also linked to this cool post on Kameron Hurley's God's War.

China Daily has a thing talking about Gene Yang, who's doing the A:TLA sequel comic "The Promise".

A French businessman has offered to pay any burqa fines he hears about to render the burqa ban null. This despite the fact that he believes the burqa is also restrictive. But it's nice to see a man recognize some women actually want to wear the hijab.

Meanwhile, check out this article on this fierce French presidential candidate, Kenza Driver, who campaigns while wearing the niqab. <3

Study finds that language may be more important than race in creating sense of identification during a child's formative years.

Here is the site for Decolonize Portland.



Look at what UPenn's digital library has: the full text for the Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands
Yeap it is a full autobiography of Mrs. Seacole, a Jamaican nurse!

Recipe for champagne marshmallows

A film feature free on Youtube: African Tales: The Movie, with shorts called "The Mark of Uru," "the Enemy of the Rising Sun," and "Business and Pleasure"

Aaaaaaand something I found while googling for "steampunk Toussaint Louverture"... remember how Danny Glover tried looking for financiers to fund his movie on Toussaint Louverture but erryone all like "sorry but this film needs white heroes"? French network France 2 is producing a TV movie on this revolutionary leader, directed by Philippe Niang, with Haitian-born actor Jimmy Jean-Louis in the title role. Check out the trailer!! It is so very exciting!

I'm also looking forward to Red Tails, a movie about the Tuskagee airmen, coming out Jan 20!

Best wishes to ya'll for a good 2012 with much win.

Hello all! It's Sunday! I've been waking up at 1pm for the last few days, maybe in preparation of the 31st where I will have to stay awake very late for NYE shenanigans. Anyway, here are some links for you!

A call for papers for Neo-Victorian Networks: Epistemologies, Aesthetics and Ethics.

Do you believe in a project made for and by queer POC? Then please support the Arkh Project!

Interested in an anthology of spec fic inspired by Filipino mythology? Check out Alternative Alamat! (Editor Paolo Chikiamco also has a review of Writing the Other by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward.)

Some seasonal items:
A note from a Chinese restaurant thanks Jews for eating Chinese food on Christmas

"Yes, We Know It's Christmas," say African Musicians as They Finally Record a Response to Band-Aid (this is a satire site, alas, but, it's still hilarious! I encourage you to check out the rest of the site.)

Allison Curval, composer for The Clockwork Dolls, has the entire instrumental collection of the last 4 years for free download until Jan 1. The tracks are demo unmastered tracks, and don't really demonstrate the full power of the album Dramatis Personae, but it's still neat.

After Nnedi received her racist award, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, editor of Innsmouth Free Press, responds. I feel it's really important to note that Moreno-Garcia is a WOC running a Lovecraftian zine.

In more pop culture news, A POC cast for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Agree, disagree?

A Dutch magazine calls Rihanna a n*gg*b*tch, out of ill-informed and deeply-set racism, hides behind "ignorance" (look, scary forrenners, anyone can tell that the N-word is a horrible racist slur just by paying a bit of attention, jeepers). Rihanna responds.

Philip Cheah says something about film festivals in the Third World. I'm not familiar with the film festival circuit, but maybe you are.

In other news, seems the first HIV cases in Africa coincides with polio vaccine testing. Hmmmm.

US Charities buy Kenyan Samburu land. Kenyan Samburu people are evicted. Colonialism continues under the guise of saving wildlife.

This continued colonialism is part of a larger pattern, as 50 years after Franz Fanon's death and his last testimony The Wretched of the Earth, his work remains relevant, even prophetic.

(As an aside, talking about colonialism, here's an archive of film footage from the time of the British Empire.)

TRIGGER WARNING: War photos and data of US soldiers raping Iraqi women emerge. Land of the free and all.

In India, an Indian inventor disrupts the sanitary napkins industry. Basically he invented a way to more cheaply produce sanitary napkins, so women could afford them, and these machines are a lot cheaper so local women could start their own business producing them. I highly highly recommend reading this, and spreading the word. THIS is what people helping people within the limits of capitalism does.

Speaking of capitalism, here's bfp talking about how capitalism operates and why we need to question it. Aaaaand we're back to news in the States.

Six years after Katrina, New Orleans struggles to rebuild infrastructure.

Chimamanda Adichie weighs in on the DSK case.

An Open Letter to Newt Gingrich from a Black Kid who Grew Up in a Poor Neighbourhood.

Global Comment on the Curious silence around a transgender hero... please stop calling Private Manning "Bradley"; her name is Breanna Manning.

POC Organize have an eulogy to SlutWalk.

And commenting on the corporatization of education, "We Are Not Contingent: An Adjunct Manifesto"

Here is a brief biography of Lucy Parsons, a black activist considered "More dangerous than a thousand rioters" for good reason.

Abagond delineates four frames of colour-blind racism.

In lighter things, here's how to send a brick to bulkmailers. Thoughts? I think it's a mean thing to do; would it really create more jobs?

Salon's thing on why women need fat.

Parent Map's alternatives to spanking in discipline... proving to me further that the world needs more people helping out with parenting.

To finish, since this is the last Sunday of the year, here is a selection of online fiction I read and enjoyed from the admittedly very few venues I read on any kind of basis. Some of them I read on my Kobo, buying and downloading issues at random. Some I read when the issue came up. Many of them from 2010... I did some very limited reading of short fiction and poetry this year, since I was so caught up in reading non-fiction and writing on novels, so *cough*

( So I just collected them together into a kind of Christmas present for you! )

Hope your Christmas is a safe and peaceful one.

Hi folks! Here is an attempt to get back to regularity in Linkfests.

An open letter from America's Port Truck Drives on Occupy the Ports

The Estrangement of Trans Gay Men from Cis Gay Men

In that vein, Monica Roberts writes about Chasing Pseudo Cisprivilege.

Gender relations in pre-independence Sub-Saharan Africa

A family's effort together to help their daughter transition

Did ya'll read "If I Was A Poor Black Boy" by Gene Marks? Yeah, it was rubbish, wasn't it? Dominion of New York and ColorLines have responses.

Ohio landlord decides to make pool "whites only"; fights discrimination suit. *rolls eyes*

Apparently it is "too soon" to build a pixelated cloud twin towers apartment block. I think the design is ugly, but seriously, this is Seoul, not New York.

Nnedi Okorafor receives racist award, deals with it

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes on Muscular Empathy, a kind of thinking that doesn't try for exceptionalism, and instead of says, "I would have done X," asks instead, "Why wouldn't I?"

A PDF from Black Mesa Indigenous Support describes the culture of white supremacy, identifying the behaviours and attitudes which allow supremacists to thrive. Here's a HTML version.

moniquill has a cool thing about Native Steampunk. And while we're still on steampunk stuff, steampunk Emma Goldman has a thing on dieselpunk alternatives that don't rely on fetishing fascist fashion. Yes it is a thing no I do not know why.

Fantasy Armor and Lady Bits -- neat and informative on how armour works.

New book on Postcolonialism and Science Fiction is out. It is ridic expensive (FIFTY. POUNDS.) but I've been told the Amazon version will be cheaper.

There's a photo going around of women firefighters from Pearl Harbour. here is a story about them.

47 year-old television signals are bouncing back to Earth. Original broadcasts of TV shows from back then! And of course we're recover some Dr. Who. Of course.

And finally, some appreciation of Mother Nature's efficiency: Smithsonian researchers have found that tiny spiders have brains in their body cavities.

Within the last few days I've started and closed before the 20th page:

Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age
Grahame-Seth's Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
Tim Powers' Anubis Gates
Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day

The ONLY book I could tolerate to read from beginning to end that featured a white male character was Kenneth Oppel's Airborn, and I rather suspect this is because it was a YA.

*grumbles*

ETA: Started JM McDermott's Last Dragon, his debut novel. The chapters are all supershort, the language is all... I dunno, it's that kind of poncy literary fiction type. After 6 pages I didn't care enough about the characters to keep reading. His other book seems more interesting, though.

Release date, cover, and story introductions for Alternative Alamat: Stories inspired by Philipine Mythology, edited by Paolo Chikiamco!

Paolo was the same guy who wrote "High Society," the Filipino steampunk comic I posted about earlier. So exciting!

My friend Munira showed me this today: Don't air porn songs, West Java radio, TV told

JAKARTA: All radio and television stations in the West Java province have been told not to broadcast songs or video clips depicting lyrics which may be deemed pornographic.

The ban was made by the West Java provincial branch of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPID) following calls from the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), the provincial legislative council (DPRD) and the community.

"As of September this year, we received 263 complaints through various media including text messages, mail, email, telephone calls and other social networking media regarding the contents of TV and radio broadcasts," West Java KPID commissioner Nursyawal was quoted by the English daily, The Jakarta Post, as saying Monday.

Songs considered pornographic include "Mobil Bergoyang" (Rocking Car), "Cinta Satu Malam" (One Night Love), "Hamil Duluan" (Pregnant Out of Wedlock), "Aku Ingin Dilubangi" (I Want to be Perforated) and "Mari Bercinta 2" (Let's Make Love 2).

"Mobil Bergoyang", for example, which starts off with the sound of a girl moaning, contains lyrics describing how bad girls do not need expensive hotels, but only a car, to make love.

The song "Hamil Duluan" describes how an unmarried couple's sexual activity results in the girl getting pregnant.

Nursyawal said the commission was not acting as a censor banning the creation of songs or video clips.

"What we can do is ban them from being broadcast. Even in developed countries such as the US, which has been dubbed the most liberal country, songs and videos containing sexual material are not allowed to be broadcast in public," he said.

Parents have welcomed the ban. Iman Herdiana, 29, a father of two, for example, said he was really disturbed when hearing his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter singing the "Cinta Satu Malam" song.

"It's too vulgar to listen to," he said, adding that his daughter had learned the song from the television and he had to ask his wife to switch to other channels whenever the video was broadcast. BERNAMA

1) LOL THOSE SONG TITLES ARE HILARIOUS.

2) LOLOLOL SORRY YOU WERE OBVIOUSLY NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO COUNTRY MUSIC.

3) THOSE SONG TITLE TRANSLATIONS ARE THE BOMB.

ETA: Music videos in question:

Mari Bercinta 2 - Vicky Shu:



Hamil Duluan - Tuty Wibowo:



Mobil Bergoyang:



Cinta Satu Malam - Melinda:



I actually kinda like this one whenever Melinda's not ridiculously dancing across the screen, because, cute guy. BUT. It's really not porny at all. And it was SO promising. Sigh.

Have Kleenex.

brb flying home to hug my dad now

HERE!

The work in question is High Society, by Paolo Chikiamco and Hannah Buena, and it is set in an alternate history Philippines:

Take your first step into a world of automata, magic, and alternative history! The year is 1764, and, for the first time in nearly two centuries, the Spanish forces have been repelled from the great walled city of Manila. While the Spaniards are quick to lay the blame at the feet of the invading British and their clockwork machines, the secret to the success of the Filipinos may lie closer to home, with an ally that is both ancient and new, mythical and mechanical. “High Society” is a stand-alone steampunk comic book in the “Wooden War” series.

Tinamats has one Kindle version to give away, so, so, so, hook yourself up and support some non-white POC steampunk!!!