Category Archives: Fame Day

Fame Day: The Mako Mori Test

The Bechdel Test, a pass/fail method of determining how female-friendly a film is. Gordon and I discussed it a while back for our first E&GT ever, but to sum it up a movie can only pass the test if:

  1. it has at least two women in it,
  2. who talk to each other,
  3. about something besides a man

During our discussion we arrived at the conclusion that this is by no means a perfect test. There are instances of films that pass that still do a deplorable job of depicting women. On the other hand, take The Avengers, which features both Black Widow and Maria Hill, the former of whom is arguably one of the strongest, capable heroes in the entire thing. The two never interact, but that by no means reflects on their roles as female characters.

Really great at staring intensely, really bad at talking to one another.

Really great at staring intensely, really bad at talking to one another.

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Fame Day: Johnny Cash

Readers, I do what I can to keep my fame days contemporary, but with Switzerland pretty much legalizing apartheid, bloody crackdowns in Egypt, and network giant Cisco cutting 5% of it’s workforce, finding something positive today just isn’t happening. So I figured I’d reach back a bit and pull out a shining beacon of hope from days gone by- my favorite music artist of all time, Johnny Cash.

Yes, he is looking at your soul.

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Fame Day: Co-Ops

In our weekly discussion yesterday, Evan made mention of “‘It’s Not Easy Being Red’ Gordon,” a reference to the political blog and comic strip I used to write. For anyone who might not be aware by now, yours truly is a Marxist.

And yeah, here’s the obligatory “no, Stalin was to Communism what the Spanish Inquisition was to Christianity; no, we’re about dismantling the state, not expanding it, and no, we don’t like Obama either so please stop saying he’s one of us.”

While I try to keep my admittedly extreme Anarcho-Trotskyist views out of the blog, there’s really no denying that they affect my value system, and while most of the time this means I’m frothing at the mouth at whatever new abomination consumerism spits out, every once in a great while, it means something really catches my attention and admiration.

For this Fame Day, that thing is the co-op. Continue reading

Fame Day: CONvergence and Generally Respecting Others

This may shock you, but I’ve only ever been to one “comic-con.” I’m not counting the three or so times I attended the Toronto Comic and Arts Festival, since it doesn’t really adhere as much to the stereotype of what such conventions typically are [or at the very least what people imagine them to be]. Namely: cosplayers as far as the eye can see.

cosplay [October 31, 2006 Urban Word of the Day]: Literally “Costume Play.” Dressing up and pretending to be a fictional character (usually a sci-fi, comic book, or anime character).

And people are going to dress up like whatever characters they want, like Power Girl and Lady Deadpool, seen below:

The girl on the left is cosplayer Ardella, and this image was taken from her Facebook page.

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Fame Day: Us VS The US

A few weeks from now will see the 50th anniversary of the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”- the “March on Washington” as it is abbreviated today. Through the sweltering heart, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. boomed out his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Most everyone is familiar with the beginning, but lesser known is what King had to say later in the oration.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir… It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

Now I have a tendency to rail on America. Having been at the pointed end of US foreign policy, I don’t believe I’m unjustified in doing so. But for everything that this nation let’s slide, for everything wrong, I can always count on some American to live out the example described by King and demand the US hold true to the noble ideals it claims it was founded upon. On this 4th of July, I’d like to showcase some of the men and women who I believe are standing up and speaking out. Continue reading

Fame Day: Numenori Kawasaki

Behold, dear readers, a post about sports that does not directly have to do with race issues. This may be the only one I ever write, so treasure this while it lasts.

I understand if you have no idea what’s going on here.

As people who know me know, I don’t really watch professional sports. Heck, I’ve watched way more StarCraft II matches than I ever have actual sports games. The truth is, though, that I have watched a lot of Blue Jays baseball.

It’s partly because my granddad always has it on during and after dinner, and partly because I’ve really gotten invested in the state of my team. We recently had an 11 game winning streak, and I’ve found myself looking forward more and more to each game.

One of the reasons for this was Numenori Kawasaki.

GJkawasaki Continue reading