More Saturday night stuff (complete withOUT proofreading)
Woo! Time for another packed-full-of-too-much-stuff, non-SEO-friendly, old-school-blogging post!
Speaking of SEO, Rusty and I were talking yesterday about how everyone wants high search engine rankings, and they’ll invest in all the whiz-bang SEO stuff but they won’t do the one thing that really matters: making sure anyone else knows their site exists so they’ll get some incoming links. Is that ironic? Or just unfortunate?
And that reminds of me of the scene in Reality Bites where Winona Ryder’s character (a journalism major who was valedictorian of her class) is asked, at a job interview, to define irony, and she stumbles over her words and can’t come up with a definition. Then she goes home and tells Ethan Hawke’s character what happened and complains that no one can define irony anyway, and he immediately defines it as when the actual meaning is the opposite of the literal meaning. When I first saw the movie, I remember thinking that that definition sounded awfully fancy, but when you think about it, it doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense. Now, searching webster.com, I see they include the same definition:
Main Entry: iro·ny
Pronunciation: \ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē\Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural iro·nies
Etymology: Latin ironia, from Greek eirōnia, from eirōn dissembler
Date: 15021: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other’s false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony
2 a: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b: a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c: an ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2): an event or result marked by such incongruity b: incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony tragic irony
To me it seems like 3a is the definition that makes the most sense.
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But enough of that. The big news is, re: the house… we are officially under contract!! We have binding agreement as of Thursday. This morning, we had our home inspection, termite inspection, mold test (will get results by Tuesday), and appraisal. The appraiser was so stereotypical. He struck me as someone out of a 1960s movie. But he was apparently impressed enough with the house to actually speak to us and say as much. Ha! As for the home inspection, it went well. The inspector found a few issues (naturally), but most of them are small things that the workers should have done in the first place during the renovation.
Now that I’m not quite as nervous about jinxing the sale, I’ll post a few more photos:
There’s also an old wooden swingset in the backyard that’s super cool.
I’m so excited! Thank you to everyone who has @’ed or DM’ed on Twitter about the house. I really need to write emails to people. I don’t want to become one of those people who constantly whines on being soooo behind on email, blogs, etc. But I think I’ve reached a tipping point where it’s all getting to be too much to manage. More on that later, though. The point: Thanks for all the well-wishes about the house! I’m going to be a home-owner, holy crap!
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I don’t know how to write about this without upsetting someone, because regardless of my intent I know emotions are (100% understandably) a bit raw right now. Yet I still feel the need to speak, and I admit I’m doing it after Karsh did the hard work of speaking first. Ever since I heard about the vigil at The Standard and the formation of the Facebook group against rising crime in Atlanta, something about it didn’t sit well with me. Karsh articulated it well:
Yes, citizens in Atlanta need to feel safe. But I get the overwhelming perception from people I’ve talked to and read about that because this happened in East Atlanta, things must really be out of hand. I’d disagree with that. What if this happened in Bankhead or East Point or Buckhead? Would the public outrage be this great or this social-media oriented? Why start organizing now? Because it happened at a familiar haunt? I can almost smell a Twitter hashtag forming. (I’m partially kidding about that.)
I don’t disbelieve Maigh’s sentiment, and yet the fact is, we haven’t seen this type/level of outrage over other murders. To me it kind of smells like when I call a guy on sexist behavior and he insists, “I’d treat a man the same way!” Well, we don’t know that for a fact, now do we? And it’s moot anyway, because you haven’t treated a man this way. (Yet another clumsy analogy [I'm all about those lately] but I can’t think of a better one right now.)
Note this is not about accusing individuals of being “racists,” as in, a noun. People always latch onto that kind of thing and it derails discussions, because once again racism is cast as something that individuals perpetrate against other individuals, and you are either “a racist” or you aren’t; rather than racism being acknowledged as the systemic, ingrained, oft-unnoticed (by white people) issue it really is. Oh and if someone didn’t mean something in a racist way then it’s not racist. Except, that’s the entire point.
There are systemic issues here that have to be addressed, and if they’re not addressed, nothing will change. Yes, the cutting of the budget and reduction in police force is part of the problem. But far too many people are either ignorant of, or willfully ignoring, the deeper issue.
I’m sure someone will come over here and comment that I’m being disrespectful of John Henderson’s memory and that it’s not the appropriate time and that I’m just being an asshole. If they do, I understand. As I said, emotions are raw right now, and maybe it’s not the right time – but then, I wonder when the right time will be. I know what it feels like to deal with the loss of someone close to you, and the desire for “rational discourse” on a blog FFS is pretty much priority zero. So I understand and I’m sure I would feel the same way if it were my friend who had been murdered. But I just wanted to say my piece.
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I admit I am a bit annoyed with this discussion of sex-positivity at Ren’s. Obviously I respect Ren’s right to like or dislike any terms, and to identify however she chooses! I get frustrated, though, when sex-positivity is constantly portrayed as meaning “I like sex.” Too many people have taken too many steps to explain why this is not the case for the myth to continue to be put forward. I know it’s a hard one to fight against because the marketing world has co-opted the term and applied it to things like fashion magazines, expensive shoes, and men’s body spray. As I said in the comments at Ren’s:
The sex-positive feminism wikipedia page and sex-positive wikipedia page actually have a much more detailed history of the term than the about.com article. I’m always a bit wary about linking to those pages though, because sometimes they get edited by anti-sex-positive people with an ulterior motive.
Anyway, personally, I’m not interested in debating the meaning of the term. It’s been spelled out pretty clearly in many places. For me, it’s part and parcel of feminism because it centers women’s sexual health and the way women’s sexuality has been pathologized under patriarchy. I provided links in order to help clarify some of the history behind the term; most people are not familiar w/ the history and unfortunately the way we most often hear it now is in the co-opted marketing sense, where it’s been twisted around so that it stands in for “anything vaguely related to sex, at all.” Often it’s applied to things that are completely the *opposite* of true sex-positivity.
Again, for me, I find that the term fits, and I will continue to self-identify as a sex-positive feminist. Everyone else is free to do what they want, of course!
See also my page of sex-positive feminism reference material, especially Queer Dewd’s post from two years ago on the matter. I (or anyone else) will never be able to say it better than she did.
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This has been saved in my Bloglines for weeks, and I’m not sure what I can say about it, because you just need to check it out: $pread’s excellent cultural analysis of anti-trafficking posters. Seriously, read it. And tell me those images aren’t fucked up.
No, it wouldn’t. Listen, people are robbed every day in Atlanta. Murders happen more frequently than you think. But because those crimes are often black and on black in neighborhoods with a lower socio-economic class, most people don’t give a shit.
And now, I will bear the brunt of you “saying your piece.”
Btw, the house looks fabulous!
What if this happened in Bankhead or East Point or Buckhead? Would the public outrage be this great or this social-media oriented?
As I read this I thought “well, it might depend on who lives in East Point or Bankhead” – e.g. it depends on who it hits “close to home”. The reason I’m not concerned about that aspect is that I think no matter what kicks off this kind of response, where the incident happens that kicks it off, it’s necessary to start to respond. Yes, it probably has been necessary to respond for quite some time now but the difference here is that someone (@tessa and friends) are actually organizing a way for people to do so. And the fact that it happened at a popular establishment, to someone a lot of people know, makes it all the more likely that the mass that is swelling may actually be emotionally invested enough to push the issue through to some kind of conclusion that will ultimately benefit the people who live in more blighted areas. I also immediately thought of the Susan G. Komen foundation and all the work they’ve done to help in the fight against cancer. Perhaps, just as that one woman’s fight hit someone “close to home” enough for them to do something, the single senselessly violent act at The Standard may have finally made the crime issue personal. Just my $.02 on why atlantanstogether feels like a good and appropriate response to me.
Shannon,
I get what you are saying but part of what bothers me is the assumption that people in others areas have *not* been organizing. Sure it may not be centered around social media, but that does not mean they haven’t been organizing within their communities and trying to raise awareness of what’s happening. The difference is when has any of that gotten any media attention? The media (and unfortunately many new in-town residents in “gentrified” areas) think of Bankhead, etc. and think of violent crime as “business as usual” – so there’s no story there, and who cares about poor black people trying to organize their community, why give coverage to that. I’m also bothered by what seems to be your assumption that crime does not “hit close to home” for anyone living in more “blighted” areas. I may be reading you wrong but that’s how it comes off.
The house is gorgeous, Amber. I’m loving that kitchen and the deck is incredible! Good luck with it.
You know that scene always irked me too in some ways. I love that movie. Except for the ending.
I agree with your discussion of racism. I think individuals can be prejudiced against others, but racism is a systemic problem, to me. It’s far, far easier to accuse others of racism than to address how the system we support creates and maintains racism.
Love. The. House. Awesome kitchen, great deck. Can’t wait to see it for real.
I have had some of the same feelings about the sudden interest in Atlanta crime, but I also tend to believe that anything that focuses attention on the crime problems in one party of the city is likely to help battle crime across the city. I am acutely aware of the crime in the Bankhead neighborhoods because I drive thru those neighborhoods twice a day to and from work, and our business sits just on the edge of that part of town.
Ten years ago when we moved to SW Atlanta the Bankhead to MLK neighborhoods were rough but in that time we have seen improvements with new homebuilding and renovations, new businesses. It was really exciting to observe. But, in the past 12 months or so we have watched the neighborhoods deteriorate – abandoned homes, signs of gang activity, increased loitering, shuttered businesses. Crime statistics are up too.
There cannot be too much emphasis put on the effects tough economic times on crime. Sure, vigilant policing is essential, but the relationship to crime and the economy cannot be ignored.
I hope you are right. My concern is that once again those with the most economic resources/leverage will benefit while those who lack those resources will continue to be swept under the rug. I am trying to balance being realistic without becoming too cynical.
Exactly. Gotta look at the underlying causes and address them, anything else is just a Band-Aid solution for looks.
[...] She has more pictures and thoughts here. [...]
I’m really glad you had links about what the term “sex positive” means because I’ve always been the type to try to pick up phrases from their context instead of just coming out and embarrassing myself by just asking. I never really looked it up and sort of glommed onto the idea that it was anti-anti-porn/sex workers, but as a term, it passed me by (I’m too old for the kind of talk you young whipper-snappers are using these days.). Heh. I’m sex-positive too. Always have been. An idiot is me too. Yup.
Anyway, that is the cutest, most adorablest, most squee house! If it were a puppy I would be ticking its belly. Good luck–I can totally see you there.
Messed up the URL on the last post. I’m still an idiot.
Sex-positive isn’t a term us young whipper-snappers made up; it was popularized in the 70s!
Glad you liked the reference info I posted, and thanks for the compliments on the house!
I will fix your link :)
Okay, okay. In the 70s I lived in Maryville, Tennessee. A hot time on the old town back then was a little homegrown, some near beer, and maybe if you were really lucky you might do a little chatting with a through trucker on the CB radio while you cruised around Midland Shopping Center in your 1968 brown Buick stationwagon desperate for a little attention from the redneck boys in their airbrushed Chevy vans listening to Merle Haggard or the Eagles. I was a little backwards back then.
Hey, that sounds like a good time!
[...] for a particular community. It’s like I was saying about ATACC getting press coverage and people assuming that other communities haven’t been organizing; just because it doesn’t happen online doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Kind of [...]