Worries

Well I managed to find parking outside the closed streets yesterday and walked the rest of the way to Light Up Arlington. Once I oriented myself on the major streets, I just had to follow various food trucks and vendor booths to all the activities. It was indeed hot but I found plenty of shade and breezes that made the 90 degree weather feel nice; I wasn't sweating through my clothes at least. There were outdoor toilets, but the local library was open for kids activities, so I could actually use an indoor toilet before moving on to some outdoor concerts. I spent way too much money and drank too many sugary sodas and sno-cones, so I started to feel sleepy at the end. There were plenty of benches and other public seats by City Hall, but I should have brought my handfan and maybe a beach towel so I could sit on the grass. I'll have to remember that for next time. The fireworks were supposed to be set to music with a radio station, but I didn't have a radio with me; it was just the bombs with no soundtrack. The explosions were very loud and some little kids screamed out of fear I think, not joy. I worried about the various dogs that I'd seen walking around earlier that day. I hope their owners took precautions with thundershirts or something.

I had to wait for traffic to clear out before I could leave. The SUV next to my car had its trunk open for no discernible reason; didn't they fear someone stealing their car while they weren't there? Anyway, I got home very late and couldn't really sleep. My fridge woke me up in the middle of the night with very loud noises, making me fear that it was dying and I'd need a replacement that I can't afford right now. I need it to hold on until payday next week. I'm trying to look into July 4th appliance sales, but I have to factor in the cost of delivery and installation too.

Meanwhile, France is having its elections, with worrying results so far. Not that I understand Parliamentary government, really. More confusing negotiations over ceasefire in Gaza. It's still opaque over whether anything will change.

Moving Forward

I didn't watch the debate on the Thursday, and I hear it didn't go well. Too bad. I had hoped that the mic cutoff would make a difference to stopping Trump's firehose of lies. But lots of people panicked over it. It was just one bad night, and Joe was great at a rally the next day. Steady on. If you panic this much over a bad debate, how are you gonna handle more shitty Supreme Court decisions?

Frankly I'm more shocked and sad about Martin Mull passing away. He was a comedy legend, with so many memorable roles that sometimes I would confuse his character names with his real name. I'm surprised to read in the obituaries that he was a musician and painter too. So talented. What a great loss. Bill Cobb was a great character actor too.

Meanwhile there's going to be an early fireworks show and street festival today in Arlington. I'll try to go if can just figure out the road closures and parking situation. I've tried going to their Juneteenth before only to find they closed parking lots down as early as 3pm.

Oh I almost forgot to mention that I saw the Thelma movie with June Squibb and Richard Roundtree this week. Pretty funny and enjoyable for a smaller movie. When summer gets hot I try to cool off in theaters, and if the movie selection is terrible I'll have to opt for one of the stupid blockbusters I was avoiding.

New Sherlock

Guy Ritchie is apparently creating a Young Sherlock TV series for PrimeVideo instead of doing a third Sherlock Holmes movie. It's not based on the 1985 film starring Nicholas Rowe, but on a book series about a 19-year old Sherlock at Oxford. The description sounded okay until they got to the "globe-trotting conspiracy" part. I hate conspiracy mysteries. They're so lazy and vague, and I bet it will involve Moriarty. Why can't it just be a regular murder mystery or robbery or college cheating scandal, etc? Some of the best Holmes stories like "Speckled Band", "Hound of the Baskervilles" and "Red-Headed League" were just local villainy, not far-reaching conspiracies.

Still holding out hope that the new Watson show on CBS won't be conspiracy-minded. I guess we'll see.

Nothing happened

I just don't understand Israel. Biden announced that ceasefire deal weeks ago, Hamas accepted, and someone said that Israel's war cabinet accepted it too. But nothing happened. Even the UN voted on it, and it passed. But nothing happened. The deal apparently included language that the US would "guarantee" that Israel would abide the deal, but nothing happened. Wasn't the deal in phases? Phase 1, immediate cease fire and freeing hostages, then phase 2 negotiations for post-war, etc? But nobody's enacted phase 1 yet. They talk like they won't do phase 1 until after they've done phase 2 negotiations. But that's backward. It might as well not be a deal at all.

Then later Israel starting claiming, "If Hamas accepts, then maybe we'll..." But they already accepted didn't they? Are they fucking gaslighting us? Trying to make us have amnesia? And the entire news media goes along, never challenging their narrative with the facts? And Benny Gantz quit the war cabinet, so the press started suggesting that the government would fall and there'd be new elections. But nothing happened. Every time I think something's going to change, nothing happens. Fucking hopeless. Back in the 1980s it seemed like the Irish Troubles were bloody hopeless too, but then they made peace. The fact that Israel continues this insanity decades after the end of the Irish Troubles shows how fucked up they are.

Now Netanyahu is doing doublespeak about how he's commited to the ceasefire, even though he hasn't fucking implemented Phase 1. And Israel talks about going after Hezbollah now. What the fuck is going on? Fucking neverending war.

Dolls Do Matter

Netflix released their Black Barbie documentary on Juneteenth, but I could not watch because I quit Netflix long ago over their anti-trans comedians. So I'm envious of those viewers who have seen it. Debbie has some reviews and links to clips here. I don't know. Maybe I'll rejoin Netflix yet again to watch, but I'd rather wait until the 3rd Knives Out movie comes out, in case I miss a theatrical release.

However, as much as Black Barbie was an important milestone for girls, more than "Black Francie" or Christie was, there were competitors filling that niche before 1980. I recently learned about Shindana Toys, founded by Operation Bootstrap in 1968. This was a community effort to rebuild and create Black businesses after the Watts riots in Los Angeles in 1965. They actually had some funding and training from Mattel to get started, but they succeeded on their own and revolutionized the toy industry. Shindana Toys made Black dolls and games from 1968 to 1983. Their first hit was a Baby Nancy doll, and they did Black celebrity dolls too, but eventually they created a fashion doll named Wanda who sported empowering careers like Barbie did. The local PBS did a documentary about their cultural impact that's available on Youtube. Shindana dolls are extremely rare and expensive on ebay, so I won't be able to buy any.

After Shindana shut down, Olmec Toys arose, at first making Black superhero dolls, then later Imani fashion dolls. They lasted until 1997, and some of their dolls are available on ebay for reasonable prices. I'm glad they're not as rare. In 2022, Mattel decided to license the Sun Man characters and release them with the He-Man Masters of the Universe brand. As I've said, I've seen newer Black fashion dolls like Fresh Dolls and Naturalistas in stores, so Black businesses are still making dolls.

Also there have been many Mattel competitors making so called Barbie clones over the years. So many brands like Candi dolls and Shillman dolls and more. DeeBeeGee has collected several Black clones here. I've come across Asian fashion dolls too such as the Chinese Yue-Sai WaWa dolls. I do own one of those in purple, because it was the closest thing to a doll wearing a Vietnamese ao dai that I could find. Traditional Vietnamese dolls always come mounted to a wooden stand, and the clothes are sewn on, so you can't undress them and play like with Barbies. Mattel tried doing Japanese Barbie dolls with Takara, but they had to be changed quite a lot to succeed, and they eventually became the 10.5" kid-like Jenny dolls which resemble anime characters.

Comstock Laws

Well I finished reading that long biography of Madame Restell by Jennifer Wright. Though the subtitle on the book cover calls her "fearless" and "fabulous," the book is not a hagiography of the abortionist. She's a complicated person like all real people. The truest adjective for her is "infamous" because everyone in New York knew her profession and yet she lived a wealthy comfortable life for decades before Comstock arrested her during his puritanical moral crusade. I would say she was more of a pragmatic businesswoman who could be ruthless when she had to be. I applaud the book for giving lots of details so I could see the full woman, warts and all. She was frequently unapologetic about her job, arguing that limiting family size was moral and good to save women's lives and keep people from having more children than they could afford.

Originally born Ann Trow in England, she started out as a maid before marrying a tailor and immigrating with him and their daughter to New York. Unfortunately, she soon became a widow, and she could not make good money as a seamstress. Nobody could in the Gilded Age. That's when she met a neighboring patent medicine guy making pills to sell. She learned how to make pills too, particularly for birth control and abortion, then eventually started performing surgical abortions since her pills weren't foolproof. She was a self-taught surgeon, but then again, many midwives didn't have degrees, and she performed the abortions so successfully that the women survived and could become repeat customers. By contrast, other abortionists could kill their patients. In later chapters, Wright points out that even formally trained male doctors in America didn't have experience practicing on female patients before they got their degrees; they weren't so much better than midwives, especially since many doctors didn't believe in germ theory and were resistant to washing their hands. In Victorian times, newspapers claimed that Ann's second husband Charles Lohman pressured her into becoming Madame Restell, but Wright makes clear that Ann did this herself, and that if anything, Charles gave up his career as a printer in order to help Ann's career. He adopted a fake doctor persona too and opened a branch office selling the pills. Ann also recruited her brother to help the family business.

New Dolls

I decided to buy a couple of new Barbie dolls recently. I found some ebay auctions for an Allan doll, and after making sure that he had straight legs and not the yucky bendable legs, I bid and finally won. It's not in perfect condition, of course, and he doesn't have his iconic rainbow shirt. For those, the cost would be way too much. But I have some extra Ken clothes and Allan's charming face is great.

In looking for more Asian Barbie dolls I came across the 2002 Star Skater Barbie based on Michelle Kwan at the Winter Olympics. At least this Asian doll resembles her namesake, and she's articulated so she can do spins and such. Her Twist N Turn body is very similar to a 1996 Olympic Gymnast Barbie I already have, with articulated joints and flat feet. That's the way that Mattel did articulation back before the Made to Move dolls. When I received the delivery, I saw that the Michelle Kwan doll has green eyes. It's very cute. Also her blue skirt is partly painted on her butt, and it's supposed to meet up with her blue panties. In practice, though, the panties keep falling down as they're connected to her pantyhose. I may have to add a real fabric skirt to make up for the disconnect between torso and legs. The ribbon fringe skirt doesn't cover enough.

The doll is missing her orange ice skates, but I have some other boots that work. They're sky blue ice skates from the 1997 Olympic Skater Barbie, which open on a hinge and then snap shut over the foot. I recently bought extra blue ice skates on Ebay along with the pink ice skates from the 1998 Ice Capades Barbie. The pink skates are the same size and design as the blue skates, but for some reason the metal blades are too loose and keep falling out the bottom. I may have to glue them in, but I'm worried it will interfere with the opening and closing of the skates. And I might want to use the pink skates without the blades as boots for any other flat-footed Barbies I have. It's very hard to find cowboy boots in this size.

Sherlock Holmes and the Elusive Ear

I saw the Holmes play at Stage West and it was excellent. I was a little concerned that the use of famous Victorians as characters would be too gimmicky, but it was fun, and they actually pronounced Vincent Van Gogh's name in the Dutch way, like "Hogh" instead of the American or British way. Also fascinating is that Irene Adler is merged with Mrs. Hudson; apparently Watson made up the fictitious persona to cover up the scandalous amorous relationship. The playwright is clearly a Sherlockian, sprinkling in lovely details like the V.R. in bullet holes and the tin dispatch box at the bank. He also writes women in a feminist way and understands that Irene Adler is not a villain; she blackmailed one bastard ex who wronged her. She was not a career criminal gleefully destroying people for profit; she was an opera singer. In the play, she has also become a partner in Holmes's detective work while pretending to be the mere landlady to clients.

The play takes place post-Reichenbach, but also needs to take place in December 1888 to coincide with Vincent Van Gogh's ear trauma after a fight with Paul Gauguin. But movie timelines for Holmes have long been wonky, such as the Rathbone movies and Without a Clue, so I can go with it. Oscar Wilde also makes reference to his Portrait of Dorian Gray novel, still in progress along with Watson's (Doyle's) The Sign of Four novel. There's a couple of clever Princess Bride references, with spectacular fencing duels. Van Gogh also takes Watson's portrait of "Chinese Gordon" and paints over it while drunk on absinthe. Very funny and delightful. I loved the costumes and wish I could have taken pictures of them, but of course that's a no no during live theatre. Definitely looking forward to the sequel next season.

Edited to add:

Hooray, I found a  publicity photo from Stage West with the characters in costume. Isn't that blue dress beautiful? I also uploaded some pictures of the set to my Substack Notes. If you zoom in to the wall behind the chaise lounge, there's the V.R. in bullets on the wall.

Happy Pride Month

Well I'm happy that Trump is now a convicted felon, even if the GOP wrongly think that the trial was rigged. Ken Paxton and other blowhards are vowing revenge on Democrats and fantasizing about reversing the conviction somehow. Fuck them.

If only the other trials weren't delayed. I also read on Daily Kos something about Biden announcing a ceasefire deal on Friday, maybe to pressure Israel? I don't know. We'll see.

Meanwhile the thunderstorms have continued this week. I also found that PBS Passport has the 1970s show The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, which is an anthology of various Victorian detectives. The show is mostly okay, but some episodes are more suspenseful adventures than actual mysteries to be solved. Robert Stephens even plays a blind detective similar to how he played Holmes in the Private Life of Sherlock Holmes movie. I'm still in season 1, but I think Douglas Wilmer, another Holmes actor, will be in season 2. As I mentioned before, I'll be watching a live Sherlock play at Stage West this month. I hope it will be good. Movies don't look very interesting this summer.