Fast Women under Ultraviolet!

I have some good stuff to recommend today.

Jennifer Crusie's FAST WOMEN was great. At least as good as FAKING IT and possibly better. It's a "sparring couple" story, with the romantic leads verbally jousting and falling in love with the one person willing to fight back. It's also a murder mystery, and while that's not the focus of the story it's a pretty decent one. But what makes the book is its large cast of vivid characters and their complex and developing relationships, its willingness to delve into serious emotional issues and dilemmas and treat them in depth but with a light touch, and some extremly funny dialogue. Even the _dishware_ is characterized. Bonus points for a can-you-do-this-in-genre-romance scene between Suze and Nell. It ultimately affirms the heterosexual norm, but all the same...

ULTRAVIOLET is a terrific six-hour British miniseries, perfect for anyone still jonesing for new episodes of the X-FILES from back when it was good. It's horror done in the style of a sophisticated cop show, with hardened police battling somewhat scientifically rationalized vampires. (The word "vampire" is never used.) It's classy, well-acted, extremely gripping, and frieghted with a disturbing moral ambiguity. (The satisfying ending has some open-ended plot elements which suggest a planned sequel which never materialized, but those aren't half as open-ended as the question of whether the heroes are doing the right thing.)

There's an American remake in the works which will undoubtedly reduce or soften the role of the woman scientist and make sure that we know who the good guys are. Available on DVD.

Fast Women under Ultraviolet!

I have some good stuff to recommend today.

Jennifer Crusie's FAST WOMEN was great. At least as good as FAKING IT and possibly better. It's a "sparring couple" story, with the romantic leads verbally jousting and falling in love with the one person willing to fight back. It's also a murder mystery, and while that's not the focus of the story it's a pretty decent one. But what makes the book is its large cast of vivid characters and their complex and developing relationships, its willingness to delve into serious emotional issues and dilemmas and treat them in depth but with a light touch, and some extremly funny dialogue. Even the _dishware_ is characterized. Bonus points for a can-you-do-this-in-genre-romance scene between Suze and Nell. It ultimately affirms the heterosexual norm, but all the same...

ULTRAVIOLET is a terrific six-hour British miniseries, perfect for anyone still jonesing for new episodes of the X-FILES from back when it was good. It's horror done in the style of a sophisticated cop show, with hardened police battling somewhat scientifically rationalized vampires. (The word "vampire" is never used.) It's classy, well-acted, extremely gripping, and frieghted with a disturbing moral ambiguity. (The satisfying ending has some open-ended plot elements which suggest a planned sequel which never materialized, but those aren't half as open-ended as the question of whether the heroes are doing the right thing.)

There's an American remake in the works which will undoubtedly reduce or soften the role of the woman scientist and make sure that we know who the good guys are. Available on DVD.

Women's Sparring

Another dojo which has a fair amount of cross-training traffic going on with mine hosted a women's sparring seminar today. Its Sensei is female, but she co-taught it with the same two male instructors she does all her seminars with. I was the only woman from my school to attend, as there's a rank cut-off and Tweedkitten, who would have qualified, has a tornado kick injury. Several friends and a bunch of friendly acquaintances were there, for Shotokan karate in LA is a surprisingly small world and everyone eventually meets everyone if you go to enough seminars.

It was more a regular sparring seminar where all the students were female than one which delved all that much into issues particular to women. It was more geared toward potential tournament competitors who would spar with other women than toward regular training and how to deal with people who are bigger than you.

There was a fifteen-year-old green belt from the Camarillo school who was kicking all of our asses. Just imagine J-- as a teenage Latina. I didn't free-spar her but I was with her for a long series of drills and I almost had a self-esteem meltdown. Then I saw her beating up the black belts, and I felt better.

When we free-sparred, it was one match at a time with everyone watching. I have a performance anxiety Thing, which becomes a THING when that Sensei is involved. She has a very intimidating personal presence. I lost both my matches because I was tense and slow and sucked, basically. I didn't see kicks coming that I'm pretty sure I would have in my own dojo, and my left breast got compressed under one like a mammogram.

It was a fun seminar and I learned a lot, but I can't say the all-women aspect made much of a difference. It certainly didn't reduce my sparring anxiety, because in my case that comes from performance-related issues and unfamiliar partners and situations, not from being afraid of getting hit hard or looking weak in front of men. (Besides, those women were hitting hard too.)

It was nice to train with new people (and old friends), but I'm just as happy training with a new mixed-gender group. Just as long as they're not all enormous.

Women's Sparring

Another dojo which has a fair amount of cross-training traffic going on with mine hosted a women's sparring seminar today. Its Sensei is female, but she co-taught it with the same two male instructors she does all her seminars with. I was the only woman from my school to attend, as there's a rank cut-off and Tweedkitten, who would have qualified, has a tornado kick injury. Several friends and a bunch of friendly acquaintances were there, for Shotokan karate in LA is a surprisingly small world and everyone eventually meets everyone if you go to enough seminars.

It was more a regular sparring seminar where all the students were female than one which delved all that much into issues particular to women. It was more geared toward potential tournament competitors who would spar with other women than toward regular training and how to deal with people who are bigger than you.

There was a fifteen-year-old green belt from the Camarillo school who was kicking all of our asses. Just imagine J-- as a teenage Latina. I didn't free-spar her but I was with her for a long series of drills and I almost had a self-esteem meltdown. Then I saw her beating up the black belts, and I felt better.

When we free-sparred, it was one match at a time with everyone watching. I have a performance anxiety Thing, which becomes a THING when that Sensei is involved. She has a very intimidating personal presence. I lost both my matches because I was tense and slow and sucked, basically. I didn't see kicks coming that I'm pretty sure I would have in my own dojo, and my left breast got compressed under one like a mammogram.

It was a fun seminar and I learned a lot, but I can't say the all-women aspect made much of a difference. It certainly didn't reduce my sparring anxiety, because in my case that comes from performance-related issues and unfamiliar partners and situations, not from being afraid of getting hit hard or looking weak in front of men. (Besides, those women were hitting hard too.)

It was nice to train with new people (and old friends), but I'm just as happy training with a new mixed-gender group. Just as long as they're not all enormous.