Links + Things: Terrifying Roosters, Beautiful Book Covers & Gendered Television Criticism

Hi y'all! Happy Friday and welcome to another installment of Links & Things! Let's get down to business...  

Video of Awesome

File this under "Important Videos You Must Share," a rooster terrifies a reporter. (Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know I've had my own rooster concerns for some time now.) 

Required Reading

“Just as films labeled as romcoms become marginalized under the sexist label of “chick flicks,” primetime dramas labeled as “soaps” become “women’s shows.” And, unfortunately, once it’s limited to that label, the show loses its credibility.

Just look at “Scandal.” The Shonda Rhimes-helmed ABC series is one of — if not the — most intelligent series on network TV. With its emotional intensity and complex, always-twisting plot, “Scandal” embraces its identity as a full-out soap. Sure, its storylines are often implausible and sometimes straight-up unbelievable, but since when is plausibility essential to great television? While “Scandal” often isn’t taken seriously for its more outlandish moments, other shows like “Breaking Bad” are given free pass after free pass. We let “Breaking Bad” get away with improbable feats, because the things that truly matter — emotions, characters — are believable.

The same is true for “Scandal,” which may get wacky with its plot points, but is bitingly real when it comes to its characters’ emotions and the complex issues that inform the story: power, race, sex, morality. And yet, people pigeonhole “Scandal” into the category of “guilty pleasure” TV, while more male-centric series that stay clean of the gendered “soap” label are held up as beacons of today’s golden age of television.”

— Kayla Upadhyaya: The glass ceiling of TV’s golden age - The Michigan Daily

Apologies for the excessive quoting of Kayla Upadhyaya's phenomenal piece about television and gender and the notion of credibility in what's largely considered a "golden age" of television.  I am quite fascinated by the way gender influences our perception of what's "good" versus "fluffy," and Upadhyaya brilliantly dissects this issue.

“Which is the major problem with avoiding spoilers in 2013: A lot of the audience isn’t trying to. For all of the talk about DVRs and segmented viewing and death of the monoculture, we still really enjoy a Television Event. Everyone wants a viewing community, with hundreds of recaps and GIFs and witty jokes to make us feel like we’re not alone on the couch. So when an opportunity like the Breaking Bad finale presents itself, the community goes hog-wild. That is not going to change anytime soon, and unless you’re one of the sad souls stuck on season three, it’s actually kind of fun. So just think of television finales like the Super Bowl: You’re either going to watch with everyone, or you’re going to hear about it all week from everyone else. Acceptance is the first step to not being so angry all the time.”

— Sorry, You Can’t Avoid Spoilers Anymore | Amanda Dobbins | Vulture

The spoiler battles on Twitter/Facebook/Etc are quite interesting, right? Awhile back someone "yelled" at me on Twitter for "spoiling" Dawson's Creek--a show that ended 10 years ago! I am pretty good at avoiding spoilers by either avoiding social media when something's on or using the snazzy mute filters. Anyway, there are some interesting thoughts on the subject on Vulture.

“There was a time when Facebook users could make themselves “unsearchable” by changing a privacy setting called “Who can search for me by name?” Their accounts would still be visible to people who clicked their names in a News Feed story or on a mutual friends’ timeline, but the random person who they met in a bar the previous evening could not find them using the Facebook search bar. Facebook quietly announced it was axing that feature for people who weren’t already using it in December. Today, the company announced it will take it away from everybody else in the coming weeks.”

— Facebook Users Can No Longer Hide From Search | Fast Company

This short piece in Fast Company is important information for anyone who previously had their privacy on Facebook locked down regarding the search function (I did). I'm pretty sad about this, as while I don't use Facebook a lot, I have kept an account because there are some family members and friends I wouldn't otherwise hear from if not for Facebook. I do not use it for work, and keep my settings so it's hard to find me--I'm not sure what I'll do now that this is changing.  

Further Reading

• Here's the scoop on Coach and Tami's long-lost FNL sex scene. 
• Are you a typewriter nerd? Check out this story about an Italian typewriter museum. 
• Broadcasters are very scared of Aereo, a device that lets you easily DVR and stream over-the-air television. 
• This is a very raw and profound first-person essay on why "sex positive feminism" can be alienating for some people. 
• Stop saying, "I'm so OCD," says the author of this article. This is a good reminder of the importance of diminishing real mental health issues by making off-the-cuff remarks. 
• Author Malinda Lo is absolutely brilliant--if you ever get the chance to see her speak, do it! This recent article on sexuality, masculinity and the stereotypes of Asian men is excellent and incredibly thought-provoking. 
• I really loved the honesty of Sarah Rees Brennan's interview with Rich in Color. 
• Richard Belzer said goodbye to his long-running character, Detective Munch, this week. I loved this character on the 90s show "Homicide: Life on the Streets," but didn't realize he'd played Munch on 10 different shows over more than 20 years! Munch is the longest-running live-action character in television history, amazingly.
• The Boob Tube Dude has been killing it with excellent commentary on television lately (if you're not reading that blog and love TV, you should fix that ASAP). I particularly enjoyed his thoughts on angry fandoms and the ridiculousness of the Nielson Twitter TV ratings.

Recently in Cover Art

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Hollywood Crush revealed the cover to the sequel of Suzanne Young's fantastic allegorical YA novel, The Program. The Treatment's cover is just as creepy and grim as the first book's was. This is definitely one I'm hotly anticipating.

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I read Elizabeth Scott's forthcoming release, Heartbeat, last night and absolutely loved it. Yesterday, Teen.com unveiled the cover, which perfectly captures the mood of the novel. There is an interesting backstory to this cover, as Harlequin Teen made the bold move to delay the book's release until the cover was exactly right.

Cheapo Books

Kindling the Moon: An Arcadia Bell Novel (The Arcadia Bell series)

By Jenn Bennett

Carniepunk

By Rachel Caine, Rob Thurman, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, Jennifer Estep, Allison Pang, Kelly Gay, Delilah S. Dawson, Kelly Meding

Under the Empyrean Sky (The Heartland Trilogy)

By Chuck Wendig

• Even if you're not an urban fantasy fan--or if you have UF burnout--you've got to take advantage of this deal for the first book in Jenn Bennett's fantastic Arcadia Bell series. It's $1.99 for the Kindle edition and it's one of my favorites.   
• Carniepunk is a solid anthology of highly-regarded authors' urban fantasy short stories. I have an ARC and kind of jumped around to the authors who I most wanted to read. It's $1.99 on Kindle. 
• We love Chuck Wendig. He's newest novel is a YA dystopian about, well, corn. The ebook is $1.99 (if you're a member of the Amazon lending library thingie, this one can be borrowed for free).  

Have an awesome weekend, all!