You may have recently seen the mini-uproar about the distorted Ralph Lauren ad, which had bloggers and most sensible people outraged over the continuing insanity about perceptions of female beauty.

Poking around articles about the ad led me to other articles on the fashion industry and pressures on women to attain impossible ideals. Some folks claimed the Photoshopped woman was "perfect". Some claimed that it was merely artistic expression and no one should take it as an actual guideline for how women should look.

Then I found an excellent article in the Huffington Post about the evils of the fashion industry (though I think it can pertain to Hollywood as well). I've long thought that this increasing emphasis on energy-depleting thinness and a state of constant weariness and fraility was just one more way to keep women down. The author, Johann Hari, brings up the work of Naomi Wolf, who focused on this very idea. She manages to match these societal ideals of beauty with times in history when women were changing their typical roles:

"Wolf points out something remarkable in the shifting tides of the fashion world. Whenever women become stronger in the real world, fashion models - our collective vision of Beauty Incarnate - become weaker and scrawnier. In the 1910s, it was considered beautiful for women to have soft, rounded hips, thighs and bellies: most women's natural shape. In the 1920s, when women got the vote, the idea of what was beautiful shrank. Suddenly models became bonier and feeble - and women started to starve themselves. In the 1950s, when women's rights receded, women could be curvy and eat again. With the 1960s and the rise of feminism, models became smaller and smaller - until today, when women are breaking glass ceilings, and emaciated models are the norm."

( Read more... )

This was taken at the edge of Millenium Park in downtown Chicago, probably in 2006 or thereabouts. I'm sorry to be posting a winter photo in summer, but I just loved the contrast of the tree against the cityscape...



*CLICK* the pic for larger view. Photo c2009 DVL Spencer.
~

Tonight on Chelsea Lately, Chelsea interviewed reality star Lauren Conrad of MTV show The Hills. The reason she was on the show?

She's written a novel.

"Did someone write it with you?" Chelsea asked right away, knowing that a career in having catfights in front of a camera doesn't necessarily prepare you for writing literature.

"HarperCollins was great," Lauren said. "I told them this idea I had for a story, and then they talked me through how to write it. I sort of wrote out all the characters and they were really helpful with the rest. It should be easier to do the next one." *hair twirl*

Excuse me while I go down a bottle of whiskey. And I don't even drink.

You know, if a politician or an environmentalist or someone *doing something* important wants to write a book and gets another writer to help them out--I can understand that. It's not your forte, but you've got something valuable to offer. But when an actress or musician or model or whatever goes "OMG, lez right a gr8 novel!" and gets someone else to write it for them--someone else who either gets their name in tiny print or isn't mentioned at all--that makes me want to tear my hair out.

But publishers don't care of course. They're hoping all the teen viewers of MTV will run out and buy a book "written" by Lauren Conrad. And they'll make money. Which I guess is the way of the world, but it doesn't make it any easier to take.

Word count: 1364

Not a bad amount of words, but I may end scrapping them all. I know I'm in trouble when I start rewriting a scene from another character's p.o.v., then get partway through and wonder if I should have stuck with the original character. Gah.

Things have been crazy busy around here--spent all last week helping a family member move. I haven't lifted so much furniture and so many boxes or climbed so many stairs in I don't know how long. I think it was hubby that recently told me that Russell Crowe bulked up for Gladiator by doing actual physical work rather than going to a gym, and it definitely is still the best way to get a real workout. And that means Crowe's muscles in Gladiator weren't just for show. :)

But I digress. I'm still tossing around some ideas of how best to use this space. I may start doing some things over in my personal LJ as well--some of you all have me friended over there but not all, so I might occasionally link over there to give you a heads up.

erastes started a great thread (with a hilariously appropriate photo) on writing promotion over at the jessewave blog (Not work safe!) that brings up interesting points and questions, and there are a lot of great comments from writers and readers alike, so be sure to check that out!

I've been wanting to post this for awhile...but guess what...I procrastinated. :P

In the March 5, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone, managing editor Will Dana wrote a glowing review of journalist Mark Binelli. Apparently Binelli is the "world's least neurotic writer", turns his pieces in on time, does what he's supposed to do and does it well.

Dana goes on to compare this work ethic to other Rolling Stone writers who apparently don't do so well, and it's a hilarious and painful look in the mirror for many most all of us. Sure, maybe not the Kid Rock part, but you get the idea:

"Our writers--who, it must be said, we love fiercely and co-dependently as only an editor or a nervous mother could--tend to be the kinds of people whose computers are always crashing, or who maybe had a little too much fun hanging out with Kid Rock last week. Their notebooks get stolen; their planes take off without them; their doctors can't get their meds right; the copy department just doesn't understand how artfully they've dangled their modifiers; they cry.

A few years ago, one writer turned in a piece more than 12 months after it was due--the death of his dog had rendered him unable to even boot up his computer. Another writer--well, it's been a lot more than a year, and the manuscript that was supposed to be 25 or 30 pages is now more than 200, and, he proudly told me the other day, he's just rounding in on the last big section. (Don't laugh: There's another writer whose piece is longer, and later.)"

So, all you dear fellow procrastinators, we're in good company with people not writing for Rolling Stone.

I'm starting to feel like I have some kind of procrastination gene. I can't seem to function unless I'm pushed against the wall of a deadline. This is bad enough, but it forces an additonal complication: if I have no deadline, I never get anything done.

Take this week for instance. I had five articles due by Wednesday. A myriad of home and family obligations prevented me from getting much done on them when they were assigned late last week. So on Tuesday I had these five articles due on Wednesday, another due on Friday, and a book to be read in time for a book club meeting on Friday.

So, rationality would dictate that I finish the articles first, and then late Wednesday or Thursday I could focus all my energies on finishing the book club book and my sixth article.

So on Tuesday I started reading the book. It's pure insanity, but there it is. This is why it is difficult for me to read a lot of books the way all writing manuals tell you to. Once I crack open a book, if it's any good, I am bound to sit there and read endlessly until it's done. I probably have some mild form of OCD that also encompasses me having to check the stove 12 times before I leave the house.

Anyhoo, all day Tuesday, it was "Just a half hour more. Just until 2. Just until 3. One more hour." And then there I was at 7pm on Tuesday, deciding to start my five articles. Pure madness.

I stayed up until some late night hour and then on Wednesday I held a virtual gun to my head and forced myself to complete the remaining two articles before doing *anything* else. No dishes, no laundry, no 17 other distractions I always manage to have when I'm supposed to be writing.

I got them done, sent, set. And I felt this wonderful amount of relief when I had the rest of the afternoon to do as I pleased. WHY would I not want to feel like this always? Why can't I sit and get work done during a normal work day like other people do? I don't have any problem working hard--I'll sit there from 7pm until 4am typing away until I fall out of the chair from fatigue. I just can't seem to start without a windup of several hours of procrastination.

I keep hoping that this is the sign I'll be some revered writer genius, because apparently I have the Crazy part down.

Anyone else have the procrastination gene?

Things have been rather crazy around here, with a lot of non-fic deadlines and RL stuff, but this week I squeezed in some fic work again.

Word count: 1357 plus some helpful edits.

This week's photo is of the Pacific Ocean, on the beach out front of the famous Del Coronado Hotel, on the island of Coronado, California. The image was taken a few years back, on a trip we made out for a friend's wedding.


(*CLICK* pic for larger image!)

Hope you all have had some productive weeks, and perhaps a visit to a beach like this one. :)

*cross-posted*

The blogging network that included the Shrine blog, Today.com, recently cut the pay for bloggers across the board. Top bloggers with hundreds of thousands of page views fell right alongside the newbies.

This was not a huge shock, as Today had been saying in the forums for some time that the business model wasn't working and that they were losing money every day. Without going into great detail, bloggers were unhappy with the coporate responses and had some legitimate questions they wanted answers to.

I posted in the forums about the pay cut--at the time thinking I might be one of few. The forum post swelled to 8 pages, as it became quickly clear that the cuts had hit nearly everyone. Honestly, while people were unhappy, it was one of the most civil threads I've seen of this nature. It was not a big wankfest that went down in balls of flames. Seriously.

When I went in today to check on the progress of the thread, I discovered I had been locked out. Today sent me a form email, that apparently many other bloggers received, that said "Apparently you're unhappy with our blogging service, so we've closed up your account for you."

So, that's that folks. I had honestly been contemplating moving to my own platform with the Shrine blog, where I had more control, and I guess now that's going to happen sooner than I had planned. I want to thank you all for all of your visits to the Shrine and for supporting my blogging endeavors. I promise when I get set up in another blog, I'll be moving all of the juicy screencaps to the new place so they'll have a shiny new perv-worthy home.

Thanks.

Word count: 1268 with lots of editing.

The Shrine blog also has a bunch of posts of lovely Doctor Who "Smith and Jones" screencaps...



...and photos from the Empire Awards, including lovely James MacAvoy as well as Gerard Butler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean, and a giggly Gerard Butler...



(Visit the Shrine blog!)

Hope you enjoy!

Word count: About 200 words. I had a bit of a change in thought about the story I'm working on, that some things maybe needed to happen sooner, and so I spent a good chunk of writing time just thinking, trying to puzzle it all out. So, progress of sorts, but nothing with a word count. :P

Hope you all have had a good week!

Just thought I'd share some photos of what our front and back yard looked like earlier this week:








Welcome to Spring! Thankfully it's mostly melted already, but it's still unbelievably cold here...gah.

Sorry about last week, I was running around a lot and by the time Saturday night rolled around I thought it was a bit late for "Word Count Friday". *G*

Word count: 1102

I've been busy in the Shrine blog. I went kind of Star Trek-crazy, posting the new trailer for the movie, screencaps from the new movie, and screencaps from the Star Trek original series--particularly the episode "The Naked Time". :)





And I finally saw The Devil Wears Prada, so there's some yummy Simon Baker and Anne Hathaway shots. Tonight I should be posting the shirtless Simon Baker pics. :)



(Visit the Shrine blog!)

Word Count: 756

I'll post a blog update in a day or two, when I've got some more new stuff on there to share!

Hope you all are having productive weeks!

Word Count: 1306 + 11 pages of editing. Whoot!

Special thanks go to clockwerkdragon for rescuing my files from my dead computer!! xoxo

As for my blog, since I last posted, there are lots of pictures of Wolverine from X-men...*rowr*



And some yummy pics of Viggo and Naomi Watts for the start of my Eastern Promises series. (No, no naked shots yet. :)



Yum yum yum. Love Viggo in this role. *guh*

(See all the goodies in the Shrine blog)

Sorry I'm late. This week did not turn out as planned, as my PC completely bit the dust. The majority of my files are all now sitting there, held hostage (hopefully safely, though) on my hard drive.

So, no word count this week. I usually type away on Fridays, but instead I was texting madly with clockwerkdragon , our cool techie guru friend. After that I spent about an hour virus-scanning and updating my laptop, which got bit by some fake-virus-cleaner program on the SAME DAY the PC stopped working. *cries*

Mercury isn't even retrograde, it's not fair!

Hope you all are having better luck with your writing and technology! :)

I know I should stay away from MSN and the comments left on there, but sometimes it's like a car wreck and I can't look away. Today there was an article about gossip columnist Liz Smith being laid off from the New York Post. It was a small blurb, in the Entertainment section. It mentioned her sadness at being let go, and that she did have other projects and streams of income. It also mentioned that she is 86 and was being paid by the Post $125,000--after working there for 33 years.

Now I have to tell you, I don't really know much about Liz Smith, but my first thought when I read her income was "that's all? After 33 years?" I mean, sure, I'd love to have that income, but in New York it's not exactly like she's Donald Trump. But the message boards for the article lit up with people saying the old bag should get out already so people with families could get her money, and that she should shut up and go away already. They mentioned their own lay-offs and struggles, and wanted to know why MSN wasn't doing any articles on them. (Never mind that this was the "entertainment" section and MSN has whole sections devoted to economy and money and the state of the non-celebrity world.)

There were three posts that really stood out, however. One said she'd do Liz Smith's job for $50,000 and work harder and do it better, since she was young. Another said she'd take $20,000 for it, and it wouldn't be any big deal because she'd keep her day job. These made me cringe particularly since I see that sort of thing every day. No matter how little businesses these days offer to pay for writing, there are people out there willing to take it--and offer to do it for less. There are many places on the Internet that take writers' work for no pay. This economy has made it even worse, as publications make cutbacks and writers (and non-writers trying to be writers) are fighting each other for pennies.

Most disturbing of all was the third comment. It said that it was a necessity in these economic times to get rid of anyone who isn't providing goods and services--and that all children should avoid going into the arts as a career and choose more wise career paths instead.

I do realize that an 86 year old woman with various streams of income and a nice long career has less to worry about than a family of four with no income coming in. I get that times are tough--believe me, I know firsthand and secondhand and thirdhand. But it just killed me the way these people were sniping at this woman, and deriding writers in general, and rating people's "worthiness".

And what about the value of writing? Sure, if you boil it down to a simple fact of "do I buy food or buy a book", basic life sustenance takes precedence. But isn't art and self-expression a part of our sustenance too? I left a lengthy comment on MSN (as Valor13), that included a paragraph about a life without art. I mean, when you think about it, a lot of things around us are actually art. It's not just pictures and music and TV and movies and books. There're photos, and calendars, and vases, and silk flowers, and sculptures, and action figures, and paint colors, fabric prints, toy designs. So much of what is around us has some form of art to it.

Even the earliest people on the earth made cave drawings. Can a culture survive with no culture? Should all writers get the ax because they don't make tangible goods? Is $125,000 too much for a gossip columnist?

Word Count: 805, plus editing.

As for the blog, I did two more installments of Gattaca screencaps and a post on some American actors I admire.

There're also two posts of sexy Nathan Fillion Firefly screencaps, with both Christina Hendricks and Melinda Clarke...



And a review of Clive Owen and Naomi Watts in The International.



(Visit the Shrine blog.)

Hope you enjoy!

Word count: Probably a couple hundred words along with the editing I did. Not the best week, but still, it's forward progress!

As for the blog, it's all about the pretty this week. There's Orlando Bloom new movie news and Legolas screencaps, and then a bunch of Ryan Phillippe caps from Gosford Park...



And then two posts of the uber pretty Jude Law and Ethan Hawke from Gattaca (with Uma Thurman).





*guh*

(Visit the Shrine blog.)

Word count: 1,002 + some editing

And let's see, since my last post the Shrine has gotten more Orlando Bloom Ned Kelly shots, three posts of news and caps on this guy:



and some yummy shirtless pics of this guy:




(Visit the Shrine blog)

Word Count: 1212

As for the Shrine blog, lesse, since I last updated here I posted some screencaps and news and some ramblings and rants, including love for Sean Bean (with Famke and Pierce), Gerard Butler, Omar Shariff, Linus Roache, and these two lovelies:





And be sure to check out Angie's awesome comment on the Orlando post...hee...thanks!

(Visit the Shrine blog!)