Previously, on 'The Internet' #2

My Twitter bio states: Reading the internet since 2001. NO SPOLIERS. Based on a joke (ok, not really) about what I'm currently reading, which is always and forever, the internet. I'm about 50% done guys! Previously, on 'The Internet', is a weekly listicle of what I eyeballed. Down to business.

Dear readers, it's been a week. And I'm about to be catapulted directly into another one - my 6 year old is having his tonsils out tomorrow. There is nothing quite like hearing a nurse tell you all the worst case scenarios for after surgery to scare you shitless and make you want to grab your baby and run in the opposite direction. Alas, I will be putting my big girls pants on and getting through it like a boss.

•  So, let's start the roundup with something beautiful, shall we? I think these landscapes by Chris Floyd speak for themselves. Calm, space, serenity. I wants.

• It was a big week on the Internet for Kesha. There have been approximately 1 gazillion articles about the horrendous reality she is currently living which I'm sure you've seen. So I'm going to refer you instead to an  important piece, that whilst not about Kesha directly, makes a brilliant point about women making the culture:

"So it all comes down, again, to money and autonomy: women need to be in charge. Women need to be in charge. At least half the time. Our culture suffers when this doesn’t happen. And it is my job, it is all our jobs, to keep shouting this over and over and over and over until we start to see some movement. And not just say something, but do something. Start filling out the paperwork."

• On a related tack (sigh, it's all related right? The way we treat women and their invisibility in society...?) I'm also going to point you in the direction of Rebecca of Girls Gone Child, whose writing about rape culture actually made me stop and think. To be honest, I'm still wrapping my head around it and untangling my feelings... There is much I hands down agree with and yet the point of rapists not being monsters per se, and maybe pointing more to the culture... I'm struggling. I completely get that cycles of abuse, messages that society gives and normalizes etc play a huge, impactful part, BUT. I also believe, need, want, to know that men can think before pinning a woman down, or assaulting her in her sleep that this is not something a decent human being does. Doesn't it all just come down to human decency? This heartfelt piece written by Emma Lindsay feels like the flip side of the coin, and the one which I am more inline with.
• I loved this advice given to a writer in her late 40's who's struggling. And THIS:

"I think just becoming a mother can make you feel like an awkward alien among the carefree and the hip.

But look, the whole idea of "breaking through" is such a crock of shit. If you do nothing else, build a religion around this one fact. Beyond the ability to feed yourself, it doesn't fucking matter if a million people love you or five people do. It doesn't matter if you're 25 or 75. You cannot pollute your life with this fixation. You can feel relevant, you can imagine that you somehow matter in the larger scheme of things, you can commit to being a force in the world, without hitting some arbitrary high score or crossing some imaginary threshold of popularity. I am drawn to the flame of Twitter for some great reasons and for some reasons that spring from some slow, sick, sucking part of me, to quote Pavement like the old fucker I am. But you can't construct your life around these equations. You can't try to "reach" some imagined mob of dipshits, molding your work to match their dipshitty tastes. Be a lovely odd duck instead, one who hardly notices if people are booing or cheering."

http://www.mtv.com/news/1984964/jennifer-lawrence-real-life-mockingjay/ 

JLAW WINS EVERYTHING

• It's Oscars weekend guys! I love Oscars. Ok, I love the carpet. I love staying up with my husband and judging the clothes and eating Oscars snacks. We even print ballots and EVERYTHING. But this year I will be missing it all and sleeping in prep of son's surgery *single tear slides down face*. I'll be watching Chris Rocks opener first thing though, what with the uproar that has rightly surrounded this years extremely white ceremonyI'm expecting him to bring it. I'll console myself with this hilarity. Play it! ACT HARDER.  Whilst we're talking film, I'm not going to lie, I fell in love with Morag Ross and this conversation about her amazing career as a Film and TV make up artist, and found this pretty depressing about being a female cinematographer. There's also The Secret Actress over at the Guardian, dishing on what it's like to be nominated (my money is on it being Minnie Driver), and sticking with actresses Jennifer Garner's baller interview with Vanity Fair was everything I look for in a celeb gossip piece. 'I WILL NOT BE THE ASHSES' is my new mantra.
• I mentioned that I started Apatow's 'Love' on Netflix last week and was hit with MEH. This is spot on about the old classic ugly guy hot girls syndrome comedy has invested in, and makes me think back to my favourite ever Girls episode, One Man's Trash. The roles were somewhat reversed - the beautiful, but not Hollywood standard beautiful, Hannah hooks up with a Holywood standard hot guy and the internet loses their shit. Excuse the sound of my eyes rolling there.
• Why Do We Teach Girls To Be Scared made me want to sign my daughter up for all the dangerous activities I could think of RIGHT NOW whilst cheerleading her hard, and this on kids needing their own space really spoke to me as a Mother of and being someone who loves their own company.
• Meanwhile, offline - season openers of Girls and Fresh Meat! Apparently I'm not done with Serial 2. I finished The Silent Woman for book club, and I fell asleep listening to Max Richeter's Sleep - which I think is the point?