Media Update

[daasgrrl]

My Friend Totoro

Finally saw this on DVD, and all I really have to say is that it was charming. Two young girls move to the countryside with their father to be nearer the hospital where their sick mother currently resides. They quickly get to know their human neighbours... and their more magical ones, like Totoro. Miyazaki portrays children so

Comments

[daasgrrl]

Hee, I take it you're not in the US right now, or you're just that international (the stores keep trying to make Halloween a thing here, but it hasn't caught on at all where I live) ;)

I think Doctor Strange was good for the kind of movie it was. Probably. I still much preferred Thor and Iron Man, though, if we're talking Marvel.

Yeah, Girl on the Train is one of those things you'd probably quite enjoy if you saw it, but that's a lot of things, lol.

...no, I'm afraid I never finished Mad Max (I assume you mean the latest one, not the original?). I need dialogue to stay awake, apparently.

I would have thought a day off would be kind of cool. Let's celebrate being able to vote! We have ours on a Saturday, which works fine for most (and there's early voting for those for whom it doesn't).

[veronica_rich]

As long as the GOP has a heavy enough hand on the goings-on, voting is never going to be made easier. The thing about voting is that if it was easier for more of the people, the Republicans wouldn't hold as much power or offices as they do (this is also the reason for all the gerrymandering of districts, as well as why THAT particular piece of shit policy hasn't been outlawed yet too). So no, I don't see that getting easier anytime soon.

When you see ads or campaigns in this country celebrating voting or pushing it as a positive thing, it's almost always a Democrat-backed or some sort of liberal organization initiative. Republicans view it as an endurance trial and do their best, by and large, to maintain it as such.

[daasgrrl]

Yeah, I saw a John Oliver thing (yes, this appears to be where I get all my information about the US) on how difficult it was to register to vote in some areas. It seems like it'd be far easier to, I don't know, buy a gun :P

Obviously I have a biased cultural view, but I also think there's a lot of money spent in the US persuading people to vote that could possibly be put to better use. Or since it'd probably be spent on campaigning anyway, maybe not.

[lamentables]

All our voting happens on Thursdays in the UK. Polling stations are open from 07:00-22:00. Postal votes are freely available on demand.
I infer you cast your votes on non-work days - weekends or special holidays?

[daasgrrl]

That's interesting, I didn't know that about the UK either!

We vote on a Saturday - it's a big civic thing, schools do a lot of fundraising (book sales, cake sales) to take advantage of the captive audience, and there's ALWAYS a sausage sizzle :)

I think our polling stations shut at 6pm, but there's early voting and postal voting as well. It's easy to vote early (you're meant to have a valid excuse, but they're not strict about it); postal votes aren't freely available, but accepted under reasonable circumstances as well.

[lamentables]

I like the sound of it being a big civic event. Is voting compulsory for you, though? It isn't here.

[daasgrrl]

Yes, it's compulsory, so it really is a huge turnout - they allow for that, though, so the wait times generally aren't bad, depending on when you go, and there are often plenty of distractions in the area. I didn't know voting wasn't compulsory in the UK - if asked to guess, I would have thought it was, since we borrowed almost everything else!

[flywoman]

Yes... you would think that The Powers That Be didn't *want* ordinary working stiffs to vote, or something :P.

[daasgrrl]

Yes, it does seem uncanny how that works out :P

BTW, did you ever write up your visit to see Camelot and I missed it? No pressure to do so obviously, I just wanted to be sure!

[flywoman]

I never did. cuddyclothes and bironic both wrote up great reviews, and I... just haven't made the time. Even my monthly book list is a week late!