Bread
These Boots Were Made for Walkin
There's also a lot of bullshit rhetoric flying about the place of unions, the relative evillness of the MTA, blah blah blah fairness cakes.
The reality is that the TWU is every bit as corrupt, political and self-serving as the MTA. The reality is that the union administrators are pulling in six figure salaries as compared to the actual train & bus operator's 60k a year. The reality is that in-fighting in the TWU is a major cause of where we are in the city today, and I'm not getting behind anybody's billion dollar office politic scrapping. The people being most hurt by this strike are not the city bigwigs, who can continue to drive their Range Rovers and Bentleys to work, with an inconvience of heavy traffic.
Rather, its the TWU members who will be fined two working days pay for every day of striking, and the millions of working poor in the city who don't have cars, can't get to work, and will either lose their jobs OR lose money as a direct result of the commercial revenue not being generated. Those six figure union admin people can take the two days's pay penalty with ease.
The rest of us are walking one and two hours to work in 20 degree weather.
I am generally a major supporter of unions, organized labor, and the fight for a good living wage.
The major sticking points of this strike are the MTA trying to raise the retirement age from 55 to 62 for new hires, and an 8 percent a year wage increase over the next three years.
First, 60k with great medical, dental, vacation and retirement is nothing to scoff at. Transit workers are paid much more than many professionals working jobs that require more skill and more education (IE teachers, social workers, and human services in general). I've NEVER in all my working years heard of an eight percent wage increase at one time, let alone eight percent every year for three years. Where will this increase come from? The billion dollar surplus the MTA has at the end of this year. Which means never mind the badly needed system improvements. And regarding retiring at 62, welcome to reality. Fewer and fewer places are offering a 55 year old retirement age, and really we don't need it. 55 was fine 50 years ago when the life expectancy was 65 or 70. Now people are living 20 and sometimes 30 years longer, and are in generally better health at 55 than we were decades ago.
The TWU is unreasonable and so is this strike.
It would be nice if both the MTA and TWU would take their corruption out in the back alley and duke it out themselves, rather than cripple an entire city at its busiest time of year. ¶ 1:53 PM 2 comments
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
So, there's a mass transit strike in NYC. No buses, no subways. Gridlock.There's also a lot of bullshit rhetoric flying about the place of unions, the relative evillness of the MTA, blah blah blah fairness cakes.
The reality is that the TWU is every bit as corrupt, political and self-serving as the MTA. The reality is that the union administrators are pulling in six figure salaries as compared to the actual train & bus operator's 60k a year. The reality is that in-fighting in the TWU is a major cause of where we are in the city today, and I'm not getting behind anybody's billion dollar office politic scrapping. The people being most hurt by this strike are not the city bigwigs, who can continue to drive their Range Rovers and Bentleys to work, with an inconvience of heavy traffic.
Rather, its the TWU members who will be fined two working days pay for every day of striking, and the millions of working poor in the city who don't have cars, can't get to work, and will either lose their jobs OR lose money as a direct result of the commercial revenue not being generated. Those six figure union admin people can take the two days's pay penalty with ease.
The rest of us are walking one and two hours to work in 20 degree weather.
I am generally a major supporter of unions, organized labor, and the fight for a good living wage.
The major sticking points of this strike are the MTA trying to raise the retirement age from 55 to 62 for new hires, and an 8 percent a year wage increase over the next three years.
First, 60k with great medical, dental, vacation and retirement is nothing to scoff at. Transit workers are paid much more than many professionals working jobs that require more skill and more education (IE teachers, social workers, and human services in general). I've NEVER in all my working years heard of an eight percent wage increase at one time, let alone eight percent every year for three years. Where will this increase come from? The billion dollar surplus the MTA has at the end of this year. Which means never mind the badly needed system improvements. And regarding retiring at 62, welcome to reality. Fewer and fewer places are offering a 55 year old retirement age, and really we don't need it. 55 was fine 50 years ago when the life expectancy was 65 or 70. Now people are living 20 and sometimes 30 years longer, and are in generally better health at 55 than we were decades ago.
The TWU is unreasonable and so is this strike.
It would be nice if both the MTA and TWU would take their corruption out in the back alley and duke it out themselves, rather than cripple an entire city at its busiest time of year. ¶ 1:53 PM 2 comments
Outing Myself, or: In Search of an Odball Pairing
That's old news. Really old.
Rather, this is the moment where I out myself as a big internet geek.
In other words, a reader of fanfic.
Yes, I love it.
I love the slash, I love the genfic, I love the rare pairings and the smut and the angst and the darkfic and the whole fanfic universe. For every really stupid fic I come across that won't be read beyond the 1st paragraph, there are two amazing, well written, compelling and totally interesting fics giving new spin to great characters we love OR filling in the blanks that shows so often leave behind.
Long live fanfic!
That said, I recently saw the film version of RENT. Being a longtime RENThead, I was excited and trepidatious at the same time. I've seen the stage show 4 times, and the music has the power to make me cry just listening. I was worried about Rosario Dawson stepping in to the role of Mimi for the film. Not because I don't think she's a great actor...she is. Rather, in her climb from indie quirk talent to blockbuster supporting roles (say, KIDS vs Pluto Nash) she's developed this off screen gangsta personality I find totally grating. Lose the tude, Rosario, you're far too talented to need it. You're only really too cool for school when you don't act like you are.
Anyway, my worries for all for naught. She was GREAT! Although the film had some majorly clunky moments due to Chris Columbus's weird need to have spoken dialogue and altered timelines... the film really did stay true to the spirit of the show, and had some GREAT moments to balance it out. Overall, it was a good experience and I'd like to see it again. I think that's very much due to the fact the nearly all of the original broadway cast that ORIGINATED the roles were cast for the movie. Rosario as Mimi being one of only two exceptions.
ANYWAY, she was amazing, and brought such a vulnerability to Mimi's character that was played just right. Not pathetic, but compelling. The only thing is, I felt that Rosario had WAY more chemistry on screen with Wilson Jermaine Heredia, who played Angel, than she did with Adam Pascal's Roger.
Which brings me back to fanfic. Before the film, it never occurred to me that there was RENT fanfic out there. The show was just right as it was. After the movie, however, I'm interested to explore some relationship stuff between the movieverse's Angel and Mimi, as their onscreen chemistry was just. that. good. I've looked, but all I can find is Mark/Roger fic.
Consider this a call for submissions, or a request for links. If you write it, I'll post it. If you give me places to visit, I will. I'm on the hunt for movieverse Mimi/Angel fic, pre or post canon events, or even AU. Anything that takes that chemistry between them and runs with it. ¶ 12:09 AM 0 comments
Saturday, December 10, 2005
For those of you who know me well, no, this is not a post about being a lesbian.That's old news. Really old.
Rather, this is the moment where I out myself as a big internet geek.
In other words, a reader of fanfic.
Yes, I love it.
I love the slash, I love the genfic, I love the rare pairings and the smut and the angst and the darkfic and the whole fanfic universe. For every really stupid fic I come across that won't be read beyond the 1st paragraph, there are two amazing, well written, compelling and totally interesting fics giving new spin to great characters we love OR filling in the blanks that shows so often leave behind.
Long live fanfic!
That said, I recently saw the film version of RENT. Being a longtime RENThead, I was excited and trepidatious at the same time. I've seen the stage show 4 times, and the music has the power to make me cry just listening. I was worried about Rosario Dawson stepping in to the role of Mimi for the film. Not because I don't think she's a great actor...she is. Rather, in her climb from indie quirk talent to blockbuster supporting roles (say, KIDS vs Pluto Nash) she's developed this off screen gangsta personality I find totally grating. Lose the tude, Rosario, you're far too talented to need it. You're only really too cool for school when you don't act like you are.
Anyway, my worries for all for naught. She was GREAT! Although the film had some majorly clunky moments due to Chris Columbus's weird need to have spoken dialogue and altered timelines... the film really did stay true to the spirit of the show, and had some GREAT moments to balance it out. Overall, it was a good experience and I'd like to see it again. I think that's very much due to the fact the nearly all of the original broadway cast that ORIGINATED the roles were cast for the movie. Rosario as Mimi being one of only two exceptions.
ANYWAY, she was amazing, and brought such a vulnerability to Mimi's character that was played just right. Not pathetic, but compelling. The only thing is, I felt that Rosario had WAY more chemistry on screen with Wilson Jermaine Heredia, who played Angel, than she did with Adam Pascal's Roger.
Which brings me back to fanfic. Before the film, it never occurred to me that there was RENT fanfic out there. The show was just right as it was. After the movie, however, I'm interested to explore some relationship stuff between the movieverse's Angel and Mimi, as their onscreen chemistry was just. that. good. I've looked, but all I can find is Mark/Roger fic.
Consider this a call for submissions, or a request for links. If you write it, I'll post it. If you give me places to visit, I will. I'm on the hunt for movieverse Mimi/Angel fic, pre or post canon events, or even AU. Anything that takes that chemistry between them and runs with it. ¶ 12:09 AM 0 comments
