Uppity-Negro.com

. . . like the ADL condemning the San Francisco Bay View for anti-Semitism:

When it objects to comparisons between Israel and apartheid South Africa, particularly when it does so in San Francisco, the ADL is treading on dangerous ground. It was 10 years ago this month that an embarrassed SFPD revealed that one of its officers, Tom Gerard, working together with Roy Bullock, a long-time undercover agent for the ADL, had been spying on the African National Congress, Black South African exiles, and the anti-apartheid movement, for South African intelligence.

Since Bullock had been spying on the apartheid movement for the ADL, as he told SFPD Inspector Ron Roth, doing the same for the South Africans meant little extra work, since much of the information the South Africans wanted he and the ADL already possessed.

As would be expected, the pair were already spying on Palestinian and Arab groups and individuals. But what was revealed in the more than 700 pages of documents released by District Attorney Arlo Smith was that the ADL was keeping files on more than 10,000 individuals* and 600 political groups that ranged across the political and racial spectrum - from the NAACP to the Asian Law Caucus to the San Francisco Labor Council - and that similar operations were being conducted by ADL agents across the United States, making the ADL probably the largest private intelligence gathering operation in the country.

At the time, Bullock had been paid through a cut-out, a Beverly Hills lawyer, who would send him a check every week. The ADL’s response to the “revelation” that their agent was moonlighting for the South Africans was to put him directly on its payroll. At the time, Israel was a close ally of the apartheid regime, selling it weapons, tear gas, water cannons and high tech electronic equipment, and jointly developing atomic weapons, in violation of the international sanctions then in effect.

As they were then and remain today, the ADL’s policies are indistinguishable from those of the Israeli government. When questioned in May 1993 about his organization’s spying on the ANC and the apartheid movement, the ADL’s long-time national director, Abe Foxman, was unapologetic.

“People are very upset about (the files) on the ANC,” he told the Jewish Bulletin. “At the time we exposed the ANC, they were communist. They were violent, they were anti-Semitic, they were pro-PLO, and they were anti-Israel. You’re going to tell me I don’t have the legitimacy to find out who they were consorting with, who their buddies are, who supports whom?”

Yes, that ANC. And yes, these complaints about 'em sound similar to the ones Dick Cheney tossed out during the 2000 election.

Mind you, the paper isn't entirely in the clear here either -- hit the link (he suggested) to see what they said that triggered the nastygram. But there's a Very Good Reason I avoid mentioning the sitch over there very often.

I mean, I've read the comments at Little Green Footballs. Those people, well, they don't frighten me in terms of physical harm, but there's just so much open, not-even-a-bit-ashamed hatred coming from those folks, that I prefer just staying out of it.

I am a bit amused that the right wing blogs have adopted "the rising threat of anti-Semitism in Europe" as a pet topic, given that there's either no, or very little, written about this by the people actually experiencing it. Bit like how they studiously avoid mentioning any Iraqi blogs that don't express infinite gratitude for us liberating them.

Blogging often seems incestuous/echo chamber-y enough as it is, but they seem to have raised it to an art form. A particularly boring one.

Posted by Aaron at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The S-Train, brother of Sidonie, just noticed something:

I completely missed Kim du Toit's essay The Pussification Of The Western Male back in November 2003 and the nuclear explosion of reactions (both positive and mostly negative) to it. Well, I finally did read it and generally had no reaction to it. Neither positive or negative. Obviously he was very passionate about it. But I couldn't get passionate about it. Disturbed, I called Master Kim and had him read it. After he read it, he said it is a "very passionate essay by a good writer". But he had the same passionless reaction to it.

Want to know why? Hit the link and read the entry.

Slightly less behind the times, I just saw (via anil dash's daily links) the essay Ikeaphobia and its discontents:

I must hear some version of this spiel once a month, generally from some self-consciously leftie male between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two desperate to prove his authenticity, present his down-with-the-people, fuck-the-Man bona fides. This despite the fact that Ikea was explicitly founded on the premise of providing well-designed furniture to the masses at affordable prices - a premise that the company still largely delivers on. (If I have a quibble, it's with quality, not price.)

You know what? I'm done with it. If your life is mediocre, I promise you, Ingvar Kamprad didn't make it that way. You did. And if you're so desperate for your own soixante-huit moment that you can sit there with a straight face and tell me that you're being oppressed by flat-packable pine furniture with goofy pseudo-Scandinavian names, I'd advise you to spend a few days working with child slaves in the Sudan, or something.

And they call me snarky.

Want to know why I find the two pieces similar? Link. Hit. Read.

Which might be annoying, but much less so than just linking something without providing either a title or a quote, a practice that I find. . . annoying is too mild a word, actually. The real bloggers do that sort of thing, but I never claimed to be one of them.

I prefer the context-providing Rebecca Blood style (although this may not be the best example of same):

Lakoff's Second Law

Voters vote their identities, not their self-interest.

From The 2004 Edge Annual Question, "WHAT'S YOUR LAW?", featuring answers from such luminaries as Marvin Minsky

Don't just do something. Stand there.

(Um, Elayne, does that sound familiar to you, or is it just me?)

And Steven Pinker

Human sociality is a product of conflicts and confluences of genetic interests. Our relationships with our parents, siblings, spouses, friends, trading partners, allies, rivals, and selves have different forms because they instantiate different patterns of overlap of ultimate interests. History, fiction, news, and gossip are endlessly fascinating because the overlap is never 0% or 100%.

And also some riff-raff like John McWhorter

In a context of widespread literacy, easy communications, and a large class of people with ample leisure time, the social movement that begins by addressing a concrete grievance will, after the grievance has been largely addressed, pass into the hands of persons inclined for individual reasons towards the dramatic and self-righteous, who will manipulate the movement's iconography and passion into a staged indignation difficult for outsiders to square with reality, and with little actively progressive or beneficent intention.

He's subtle, that one. Like a heart attack, or preemptive nuclear strike.

For my own self, I usually hit indy coffee shops (or at least local chains) due to the same hippy impulse that has me buy books at Women & Children First even when I could get 'em cheaper (and in the case of special orders, faster) elsewhere.

Speaking of which, it's warmed up a bit and there's a copy of Joss Whedon's Fray 'round the block with my name on it down there. Later for y'all.

Bonus link, found in the trackback for S-Train's entry, feministe: What I'm Reading Since I'm Not Writing. A title so nice, I wish I'd thought of it first. . .

Extra special bonus found at Elayne's, corsets (well, singular) on display at The Sideshow, which I really should add to the sprawling list since I always manage to forget about it. . .

Posted by Aaron at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Another mixed-bag entry, but I have special dispensation to do that sort of thing. So nyaah.

First off, Michelle sent this earlier this morning: GETUPMOVEON.COM

This is Tanya Jessen's story of how she lost 95lbs,
not through conventional diet and exercise but by playing the video game, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). Tanya started playing DDR 4 years ago when she was 17 and enjoyed it so much that it became a regular activity. Through sharing her weight loss story, Tanya hopes to tell people that losing weight can be easy and fun by choosing an activity that fits in with your lifestyle. Tanya is working with RedOctane to educate Americans about a fun new way to lose weight while using an Ignition™ Dance Pad.

Results may vary, I expect. But I ordered a copy of DDR Konamix anyway.

By way of the links at DebWire's blog, I ended up at White Privilege, specifically the entry Dread Scott, Artist:

Among other themes, Scott’s work pointedly addresses various forms of violence faced by people of color with searing critiques of the dominant culture, its hypocrises and contradictions.

Scott’s work, “What is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag?” came under fire this Fall at an exhibition at Nassau County Community College where Nassau County officials attempted, unsuccessfully, to have the exhibit taken down. The College refused.

I vaguely remember said work from the brou-ha-ha which accompanied it at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago back in '89. The previous President Bush called it "disgraceful."

Others were less guarded:

In Russia you would be shot and your family would have to pay for the bullets. But once again what do you expect from a nigger named "Dread Scott"?

Right now a lady is on the ground crying because of what you have done. I feel you did something wrong and I feel you should be put in jail or have something done to you for this. I love my country and it hurts me to know that don't. I hope you feel good about yourself for what you are putting people through. You're an asshole.

And there are a few more reactions in the sidebar at his site.

Not all of them are hysterical. Honest.

Speaking of the School of the Art Institute, which I was a bit ago, someone who shall remain nameless described her stay there as, "a complete waste of fucking time," and offers more details if there's interest.

I'm interested.

And really don't belong in a links list with people who are talented and have interesting things to say, like Carla Speed McNeil and Lea Hernandez, but thanks, Blondy Bear. You're a peach.

And speaking of Modern Tales/Girlamatic, have I mentioned lately how cool Kris Dresen is?

What else? Expect I need to write something about the hyphenless uppitynegro.com site at some point. If for no other reason, because all those little ™s almost look like a challenge. . .

And added Sidonie's Way and Radical Rejection to the sprawling list o'links.

Later, I may put them in alphabetical order, which takes like all of two mouse clicks. . .

Update: I'm a spazz. Also added DebWire and sorted the links and stuff. Bloglines makes all this much simpler than I make it sound, and if it wasn't for the whole not marking recently updated blogs in your links list thing, I'd recommend 'em unconditionally. As it is, there's just that one condition.

Posted by Aaron at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

More or less. If you squint a little. . .

ONE WEEKEND ONLY!
Jan 30/31
Come see your favorite [Chicago] Kings
in a Queerified version of
West Side [Story]! See the showtimes
page for more info.

My sis went last night, and invited me to come with, but it was just Too Damned Cold to venture outside again.

The Drag King Rooftop Karaoke Hootchie Cootchie No Name Show and Musical EXTRAVAGANZA

A rival (Latina) Maria challenges a Natalie Wood wanna-be! Tony and Riff take coke bottles to a whole new level!  Sharks and Jets fight the night away in gender-bending glee! Don't miss the cutest bois in the toughest ballet-dancing gangs

January 30 and 31 Friday at 8 p.m. Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. FREE Admission! Wallis Theater in the Theatre and Interpretation Center • Northwestern University 1949 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 • Featuring performers from: the Chicago Kings, Teatro Luna, and Northwestern University

I'm working at the Chicago campus, so it's not like I could'a hung around waiting for the show to start. Or taken the shuttle to the Evanston campus, since I don't have a pass, since I'm just a temp. . .

Maybe the 2 o'clock this afternoon. If it gets warmer. I don't ask much. Double digits is all.

And this one is no ways advance notice: Stolie performed last night at Gunther Murphy's, in a show mentioned on Ecto, but that I didn't read about until this morning, because I suck. Well, she's also doing a show at College of DuPage next Wednesday, which might be students-only, and then at 400 Bar in Minneapolis next Sunday.

Ok, those last two are advance notice. I can still get away with the title.

Posted by Aaron at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

At some point, I'll actually dig up the blog entry Kim du Toit did on this merchandise a zillion years back. Since this means reading his site, I'm just not nearly drunk enough to deal with it right now. Management apologizes for the inconvenience.

From various sources, so let's say The Seattle Times, Stores pull 'Boys Are Stupid' merchandise:

The T-shirts and pajamas are meant to be funny, with cartoon captions such as "Boys Are Stupid — Throw Rocks At Them." But some protesters, encouraged by a fathers'-rights talk-show host, are not amused and have pressured Bon-Macy's and two other retail chains into dropping the merchandise.

The products in question — an array of girls' clothes and accessories — are manufactured or licensed by David & Goliath, a T-shirt company based in Clearwater, Fla.

[. . .] The graphics have been in use more than two years but only recently came to the attention of Glenn Sacks, a commentator who hosts "His Side," a weekly radio show sympathetic to the fathers'-rights movement and often at odds with feminists. The show airs in Los Angeles and Seattle (11 p.m. Sundays, KKOL, 1300 AM).

At Sacks' urging, listeners and supporters have contacted targeted retailers, urging them to stop selling the David & Goliath products. Seattle-based Bon-Macy's, California-based Tilly's and Claire's Stores, an international chain, say they no longer will carry the contested items.

[. . .] Sacks said reaction to the protest campaign had been largely positive, although some people have suggested he was overreacting.

"I'm sorry if I sound like a humorless zealot, but I just don't see the humor in it," Sacks said. "My 11-year-old son, whatever the joke is, he just doesn't understand it, either."

He contended that many marketers, while wary of offending women and minorities, "have developed a moral blind spot toward disparaging males."

I note that if Mr. Sacks has a daughter, he didn't ask her if she saw the humor in it. And no mention of a wife either. I expect I should look to see if he's married.

I also expect I could see if he had anything to say about those shirts Abercrombie & Fitch were selling a bit ago.

But again, too sober.

"moral blind spot toward disparaging males." Christ. For the longest time, I thought people who said shit like that were just playing to the crowd, that they couldn't possibly actually believe what they were saying.

I've learned better.

I almost wish I hadn't. Hypocrisy I can deal with, but that sort of total ignance. . .

The other thing driving me to drink is how much sense Warren Ellis makes to me in this entry, Microcasting, Message Boards And Social Networks over at Die Puny Humans:

The argument against this is usually that the net was intended to be a free conversation space, and that gating off spaces goes against its intent. Obviously, I don't agree. And further, I think the evolution of the net has outpaced early intents. There are people out there who freely admit that most of their time on the web is spent attempting to fuck up the flow of message boards. Pro trolls, would you believe. For those of us who want the net to effect cultural leverage, I think it's way past time to acknowledge that not everyone has a useful opinion and putting up a message board isn't an invitation that you want to deal with children's shit. If someone wants to sit down with you and your friends, they need to prove in some basic way that they're not going to spill their beer down their fucking shirt fronts.

I have a feeling that you can't talk about social networks without talking about social skills. I have a feeling that maintaining the net as a communications system over the next few years is neither about technology or policy -- it's about basic pub etiquette.

Haven't had to play bouncer around here lately, but that's mostly because the trolls and tourists have had very short attention spans, or bigger fish to fry. We'll see how long that lasts.

Oh, and the Weather Pixie in the next entry? Pulling archived info from whenever they shut down the Chicago/Meigs station, apparently. It's like 9 degrees here, without the wind chill factored in. So running out of smokes was a Very Bad Thing Indeed, because there's just no way I'm going back out in that to get more. . .

Update: That Context Thing.

From ifeminists.com > introduction > editorials > They're Only Boys, from the misty past of August 27, 2002:

Think male bashing is confined to the baby boomer, feminist set?

Oh, please. Now our teenage girls are encouraged to wear their anti-boy sentiment. Literally.

Bra burning may be out, but the anti-male movement is most definitely still in.

But instead of doing away with an undergarment in a symbolic break from male oppression, girls can now display their freedom from testosterone-generated evils -- pretty much the root of all that is wicked and unjust -- on the outside via antiboy T-shirts.

Again, that's 2002. Hard to believe, I know.

And (know I'm gonna regret this), from kimdutoit.com: Rant 09/03/2002: Women Bashing Men:

So in the same spirit, I will publish entries submitted by interested readers which demonstrate the opposite side of the coin. Let me start the ball rolling with this one:

• Girls: F. F. F. (Find 'em, fuck 'em, forget 'em)

Let's see who has the best sense of humor. Oh, and one last thing: Girls, don't throw rocks at us, unless you want to get Big Owies. We throw better and harder than you do.

I was a hell of a lot kinder or something in 2002. I look at this now, and really don't see how I can work with this material.

Update: Apropos of that "wary of offending women" shit, from the Business 2.0 101 Dumbest Moments in Business for 2003,

10 - In November, Chrysler announces that it will sponsor the Lingerie Bowl, a football game to be played by female models airing as a pay-per-view special during halftime of the Super Bowl. After the carmaker comes under fire for the sexist nature of the event, CEO Dieter Zetsche quickly distances himself from the spectacle, claiming he had no knowledge that it was in the works. The company reportedly pressures the event's producers to change the players' uniforms, demanding that participants wear sports bras and volleyball shorts; then, a week later, it drops the event altogether.

Perhaps this is some unique definition of "wary" that I wasn't previously aware of.

Link to the Lingerie Bowl added, because driving up their traffic is obvously a Good Thing, right?

Posted by Aaron at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Suppose it was spam, or someone really did think I'd be interested, but seeing as it didn't have a virus attached (not that launching a DDos at SCO strikes me as a bad thing, really - apologies to Bruce Perens) - FYI, Filipino Art.net describe themselves as, "showcas[ing] the best of Filipino Visual Arts." So, if that's the sort of thing you're looking for, there it is.

And yes, this is the pre-coffee syntax. I ran out, and it's too effin' cold to go anywhere to get more.

I'd illustrate using a Weather Pixie, but mine died of exposure, poor thing. . .

Update: Meh.

Mind you, that's for Chicago/Meigs. Which, as we all know, ain't actually there no more. Thank you, Mayor Daley, may I have another?

Update: And here's the actual weather, from O'Hare. Which as far as I know is still there, but I haven't checked the local news today. . .

Supposed to be in the mid to upper 20s this weekend. Woo hoo.

Posted by Aaron at 6:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

This grew out of a reply to something Neo said on her LiveJournal, but I realized it was getting way far afield, and probably wasn't gonna go over too well.

So, it goes here, where everything is far afield, and I don't have to give a flying fuck how it goes over.

Short version, she mentioned a review of The L Word over at AfterEllen.com, which said in part:

The L Word has also given voice to something that the straight world may not be aware of. My friend Cynthia explained, “What really turned me on about this show is [that]…of the friendship group and the scenes where it’s the core characters, it’s all gay. I’ve had straight people in the office…[who] didn’t believe that I could have an entirely dyke universe.”

Which led to a discussion of the desirability of such a thing. More or less. Like I said, I'm going afie-- fuckit, the point is, I read this as having a space where the consensus reality is different from your mainstream, het, white, middle-class boring bullshit that takes up most of the space in the media (and politics, and pretty much everything else) in this country.

And, you know, I think that's a good thing. Not as a constant, obviously -- I don't think there's anything more damaging to a healthy psyche than spending all your time with like-minded people -- but sometimes it's nice to not have to justify things, or explain them, to folks who might mean well, but at a certain level Just Don't Get It.

An example: back when that wretched fucking Joe Boxer discussion was going on, a white acquaintance decided to speculate as to what was wrong with George and Jason and, by extension, me, for having a few issues with the thing.

What I should have said was, "Cracka, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about, shut the fuck up."

Instead, I smiled and nodded.

Zero Four, I've decided, is the year of no longer smiling and nodding.

Another example: Based on my dealings with the guy, I think Grey Miller of Madison, Wisconsin, is a racist, arrogant prick. Any people of color who know him and disagree with this opinion, feel free to try to convince me that I'm wrong.

White folks can sit this one out, as they have nothing worthwhile to contribute to the discussion.

Let me rephrase that: when it comes to discussing whether a particular person or statement or, say, mock propaganda poster is racist, although you may be well-meaning, know lots of black people, blah de fucking blah, since you don't have to experience this every day the good lord sends, cracka, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about, shut the fuck up.

Clear enough?

Another example: it's never even crossed my mind when someone talks about expereincing sexism or homophobia to explain to that person, slowly, and using very small words, and making sure to use their name in every other sentence, that what happened wasn't really sexism/homophobia/discrimination. Not having dealt with these my own self, I don't think I can examine the situation objectively and offer a unique perspective that those who do are incapable of seeing. I figure I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about, and shut the fuck up.

There's no shame in not knowing what the fuck you're talking about. Just in not realizing that you don't, and not shutting the fuck up.

Am I. . . am I getting through to you at all here?

Yes, I know people who expereince these things. Yes, I've sometimes been with them when one or another form of discrimination takes place. Yes, I get pissed about that shit. But, not expereincing it myself, I realize that at a certain level I Just Don't Get It, and never will. I can try to draw comparisons to my own expereinces, but those ain't gonna be exact.

And again I sez, fuckit. I don't think I can explain this any better, but if you're still confused, try asking for clarification. Politely. If you're just pissed off about what you just read and need to vent, this ain't the place, and I ain't the one. So if you ever want to post here again, take a deep breath, count back from ten, and shut the fuck up.

Posted by Aaron at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (1)

Brought to me by way of Ecto, the Fuzzy Blue Mailing List:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: A New Day for the Email List.
From: Rasputina <list@rasputina.com>
Date: Wed, January 28, 2004 2:21 pm

Hello!
We believe that our email list problems may be over!
News to know:
Our new album, "Frustration Plantation" is coming out March 16.

We will be touring, starting in April.

There will be much more news about listening parties, street teams, etc.

The merchantile section of Rasputina.com now takes credit cards through Paypal. www.rasputina.com/merch01.html

If you would like to be included in our regional mailings, please unsubscribe, then re-subscribe, adding that information.

Yours Sincerely,
Rasputina

Why yes, I am going to manage to miss them if they play Chicago, because I suck.

Posted by Aaron at 7:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Pink Tank?

Pink Hello, Kitty Laptop?

Has the whole galaxy gone crazy?

Seeking refuge at Common Dreams, I saw a new(ish) piece from the Noamstar, What a Fair Trial for Saddam Would Entail:

In 1990, the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Iraq, administered mainly by the United States and Britain. These sanctions, which continued through president Clinton and into Bush II, are perhaps the sorriest legacy of U.S. policy toward Iraq.

No Westerners know Iraq better than Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, who served successively as U.N. humanitarian co-ordinators there from 1997 to 2000. Both resigned in protest of the sanctions, which Halliday has characterized as "genocidal."

As they and others pointed out for years, the sanctions devastated the Iraqi population while strengthening Saddam and his clique, increasing the people's dependency on the tyrant for their survival.

As usual, he's saying entirely the wrong things, which is probably why the piece originally appeared in the Toronto Star rather than the US press. Which is free and independent and liberal and shit.

There's also a full transcript of Arundhati Roy's The New American Century, which I quoted a bit of a few days back:

Unlike in the old days, the New Imperialist doesn't need to trudge around the tropics risking malaria or diarrhea or early death. New Imperialism can be conducted on e-mail. The vulgar, hands-on racism of Old Imperialism is outdated. The cornerstone of New Imperialism is New Racism.

The best allegory for New Racism is the tradition of "turkey pardoning" in the United States. Every year since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the US President with a turkey for Thanksgiving. Every year, in a show of ceremonial magnanimity, the President spares that particular bird (and eats another one). After receiving the presidential pardon, the Chosen One is sent to Frying Pan Park in Virginia to live out its natural life. The rest of the 50 million turkeys raised for Thanksgiving are slaughtered and eaten on Thanksgiving Day. ConAgra Foods, the company that has won the Presidential Turkey contract, says it trains the lucky birds to be sociable, to interact with dignitaries, school children and the press. (Soon they'll even speak English!)

That's how New Racism in the corporate era works. A few carefully bred turkeys--the local elites of various countries, a community of wealthy immigrants, investment bankers, the occasional Colin Powell or Condoleezza Rice, some singers, some writers (like myself)--are given absolution and a pass to Frying Pan Park. The remaining millions lose their jobs, are evicted from their homes, have their water and electricity connections cut, and die of AIDS. Basically they're for the pot. But the Fortunate Fowls in Frying Pan Park are doing fine.

She's saying the wrong things as well. Honestly.

If you'd rather seek refuge from my refuge, there's always the Hello, Kitty sections at the Sanrio Store. There are Valentine's Day Cards, for a start.

However, neither they nor Early to Bed appear to have. . . er, never mind.

Apropos of nothing, put Stephen Downe's referral script back on the page, with a bit of CSS pixie dust from Mandarin Design. It may look wacky. I'm working on it. Eventually.

Posted by Aaron at 6:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

From his Bad Signal mailing list:

Perhaps interestingly, and showing this message is eating its own tail, bloggers like Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds live or die on user donations sent via PayPal. I just wonder if people really use words like "pundit" in real life without vomiting.

I just wonder if these people have real lives. And am quite relieved that the UppityNegroPundit redirect seems to have expired. Really, goneaway, it's cool, no need to reinstate that. Honest.

If you think Britney Spears is sexy, you're a probable paedophile who masturbates over the imagined sound of Minnie Mouse having an orgasm.

Hullo, Oliver.

Want to know more? See Four Questions for Warren Ellis, a mini-interview at Bookslut by America's sweetheart Karin Kross:

Is there any movie, book, or comic (or one of each) you've seen or read this year that you wish you hadn't? What would you prefer to have seen, read, or done in their place?

Most of them. And I would rather have been forced to depilate a raging tiger with a toothbrush while trapped in a phone box with the bastard. 2003 was a real cultural dead zone, the likes of which I hope we do not see again in a hurry.

And you can pick up the Ellis-penned, Tom Baker voice-acted Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising videogame (for Windows only, alas) fairly cheap these days.

2032. The entire world is at peace for the first time. Together, the human race is moving to become a world civilization. Together, we are becoming great. Until the bombings start. A cabal of Old World magnates -- the now powerless financiers, the despots and Presidents, the death-loving military men -- are working together to destabilize the planet and return it to its fractured, hate-ridden war economy past. The past they understand, as opposed to the future they fear.

A demo is (supposedly) available from either of those previous links; I'm in Linux, on dialup, and didn't bother trying -- it's 113 MB, after all.

Posted by Aaron at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

. . . that one day I'll be a real grown-up like Priest:

If I had it to do over again, I never would have accepted the appointment as editor of the Spider-Man franchise. I made a lot of mistakes. I hurt a lot of people. I lost a lot of friends. It's a difficult thing for me to discuss. We'd all like to be heroes of our own stories, and it's hard to tell the story of when you were a chimp. I spent two and a half years of my life being an incredible chimp, paralyzed by my own chimp-ness and chimposity, and wholly convinced that, if I lost my job at Marvel, the world would end. Well, I did and it didn't. And now, nearly two decades later, I have some maturity and experience under my belt. Not that I'm any less of a chimp at 40 then I was at 22, but I have the perspective and, yes, the wisdom now to be horrified by the choices I made.

I'm not being sarcastic here, hard as that might be to believe. I'm six years shy of 40, and no doubt still have a lot of perspective and wisdom to pick up -- when you stop doing that, I figure, you're just using other folks' air for no good reason -- but there's still that horrified by early choices thing.

I almost envy the people who take the easier route, steadfastly maintaining that they've never done anything wrong in their lives. Don't think I present myself as the "hero" when I write about personal stuff here; more often than not I give other people all the good lines, if nothing else. I'd also like to think I've avoided the opposite route, presenting myself as the perpetual victim. That dualism thing again; nasty shit, ain't it?

No, this entry has no point. Except, you should read Priest's site, even if you're not into comics, because he's a real grown-up and those seem to be in short supply right now.

And desperately needed.

Posted by Aaron at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I like to give credit (for links) where credit is due, but have no idea where I first saw Piled Higher and Deeper, a grad student comic strip by Jorge Cham. Pretty sure it wasn't at Comics Sherpa, I never use that thing. . .

Realized at one point yesterday that I'd mentioned The Dark Crystal, a children's film, and in the same entry linked to an interview at a porn site.

I'd feel worse about this, if Michele hadn't trackbacked (that's. . . not a word, is it?) to that entry in one where she mentions Neopets, a site/activity for children. . . and also linked to the same interview at the porn site.

Unlike her, I don't have any children for DCFS to take away, though.

There's a review of the new DC DVD over at PopMatters, by the bye:

Crystal's ability to inspire terror is indicative of its creators' amazing craftsmanship. Jim Henson and Frank Oz, of the Muppets, with the help of artist Brian Froud (credited here as a "conceptual designer"), created a live-action fantasy world without any human characters. Instead, this world is populated by the hobbit/elf-like Gelfings; the numerous birdish Skesis; the gently lumbering Mystics; and assorted creatures more menacing than not. Amazingly, all of these characters are puppets, often elaborate. Only the occasional human stunt double can be glimpsed. These technical specs alone make Crystal a rare cinematic achievement, a feature-length puppet show.

If I was feeling all feminist analysis, I'd mention that Kira does most of the heavy lifting in the film, which is why she's later promoted to Major in the Bajoran. . . ok, if you even started laughing at that, you're a geek.

What else? Looking over papers at the temp job at Northwestern gave me a few ideas for entries, like the one on Self-Esteem and External Validation. Half-formed notion about linking/traffic as providing the latter, and feeding into the former, for people maintaining blogs, but like I said, half-formed.

Title inspired by an entry at Mac-a-ronies "describing ways bloggers can produce more reliable and credible weglogs," which is actually taken from an entry at Radical Rejection, which was itself inspired from an entry at. . . oh, you get the idea. One of 'em I strongly disagree with is:

Title - Every entry should have a title that is descriptive and topically singular. Its the easiest way to distinguish an informative weblog from an online journal. If mulitiple topics are covered in the majority of posts, then the web log probably isn't a reliable source for information. An exception would be a "what i've been reading" entry that is identified as more of a bibliography than a commentary. But, in general, posts that cover multiple topics leave the reader prone to confusion and allow the writer to make off-the-wall connections by jumping topics.

I'm all about the off-the-wall connections. Reader confusion is assumed.

All of which might, possibly, have something to do with the Technorati beta, or maybe The Truth Laid Bear: Weblog Traffic Rankings. Or not. Half-formed, remember?

The latter depends on Sitemeter for stats, so a blog that doesn't use their system (or doesn't make the stats public?) isn't included. As of this writing, Daily Kos has passed Instapundit, and I vaguely remember someone writing about this, but again, have no idea where that was.

Bringing us full circle -- my memory sucks.

Posted by Aaron at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The post office opens at 8:30 on Saturdays, so even if you're horrbly, utterly, suck-tastically late sending a cheque and button to Karin for the Dark Crystal she mailed to you several weeks ago, there's no point dashing through the snow any earlier than that.

Oh, and hon? Could you be a perfect dear and not cash that until, um, direct-deposit on the paycheck should hit Thursday, so let's say Thursday? Thanks, you rawk. And thanks again for the DVD.

And thanks to Jason for the DVDs he bought off my Yeah-I-Wish List. That plus the other birthday loot means I may never have to rent anything again.

Except Firefly. And Invader Zim, which I noticed at Michele's place is due out May 11th.

There's an interview with show creator Jhonen Vasquez over at, of all places, Suicide Girls. Actually, they've got quite a few good interviews there, including Xeni Jardin chatting with Susannah Breslin.

Plus, you know, that whole alternaporn thing; previous link to a suggested definition at the VegPorn LiveJournal.

Which reminds me, Jason, any idea why we's linked at Dave Reader?

Posted by Aaron at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

Am pretty much ignoring Bush's new marriage initiative, as I do most stupid things that I hear about. But it did remind me of something the youngsters may not even have heard of, from the last time the Republicans decided to impose their wisdom on the lower classes and lesser races: ACLU: Norplant: A New Contraceptive with the Potential for Abuse, from the distant past of a decade ago, 1994:

Norplant is a new contraceptive that became commercially available in the United States in February, 1991, after its approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Norplant consists of six matchstick-size silicone capsules that are inserted in a woman's upper arm. The capsules release small amounts of progestin over five years and must be inserted and removed by a trained medical professional.

[. . .] But this new method of birth control has also been a vehicle for infringing on the reproductive autonomy of women. Almost immediately after the FDA approved Norplant at the end of 1990, judges and legislators attempted to mandate its use by certain individual women or groups of women. Because it works automatically, is easily monitored, and cannot be removed without medical assistance, Norplant can be used more readily than other contraceptives to control women's reproduction.

[. . .] In several states, judges have given women convicted of child abuse or drug use during pregnancy a "choice" between using Norplant or serving time in jail. In 1991, 1992, and 1993, legislators in more than a dozen states introduced measures that, had they passed, would have coerced women to use Norplant. Some of these bills would have offered financial incentives to women on welfare to induce them to use Norplant. Other legislation would have required women receiving public assistance either to use Norplant or lose their benefits. Some bills would have forced women convicted of child abuse or drug use during pregnancy to have Norplant implanted.

Since I'm about to pass out, and am too disgusted to think about it, I'm not checking to see if this is still a going concern. That it was even floated as a trial balloon says entirely too much.

Because in my opinion, there's a few things you just don't even consider. You don't discuss the cost/benefit analysis. You don't calmly speculate about possibilities. Some things are just too fucking horrifying for sane people to rationally discuss. And forced sterilization is pretty high on that list.

Because the people calmly speculating about this weren't talking about the good, white women who outnumber the women of color on the welfare rolls, oh no.

Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty:

The policies affecting these women–prosecuting pregnant substance abusers, pressuring women to use and keep in Norplant, and welfare family caps–all have two central features in common. They are designed to influence reproductive decision making; more specifically, they are designed to deter certain women from having children. And they affect poor women and a disproportionate number of Black and Latina women. The vast majority of women who have been prosecuted for drug use during pregnancy are poor Black women who smoked crack, even though this health problem cuts across racial and economic lines. Of the four dozen women arrested in South Carolina, all but one were Black. (And the nurse noted on the chart of the sole white woman arrested that her boyfriend was Black.)

Only two days after the FDA approved Norplant, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a controversial editorial, "Poverty and Norplant: Can Contraception Reduce the Underclass?" The editorial linked two recent news items: one announced the approval of Norplant; the other reported research findings that half of Black children live in poverty. It then went on to propose Norplant as a solution to inner-city poverty, arguing that the main reason why more Black children are living in poverty is that the people having the most children are the ones least capable of supporting them. The Inquirer was forced to print an apology when Black leaders across the country expressed their outrage at the editorial’s racist and eugenic overtones. But many journalists and pundits came to the Inquirer’s defense. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch put it, Norplant offers society yet another way to curb the expansion of an underclass, most of whose members face futures of disorder and deprivation.

That article, by Dorothy Roberts, is worth a read. As is my wont, I cherry-picked an excerpt to demonstrate my point. It gets worse.

But don't take her -- or my -- word for it. Have a look at The Impact of Norplant on Minority Women:

The problem with judicial and legislative enticement of Norplant implants is the decision is not voluntary. As was seen in the [California case of People v. Johnson], the defendant had the option of seven years in prison or one year in prison and Norplant implants. This is not much of an option. Likewise when the state offers increased welfare benefits for Norplant use, the recipient does not have much of an option. Many of the recipients need the extra money to provide for themselves and their family. The choice to "voluntarily" submit to Norplant is their only other option beside starving. For these reasons a woman’s choice is coerced into accepting Norplant. Thus the state is effectively sterilizing these women. Most of the following annotations provide insight on how this coercion effects poor African American women.

Or maybe Norplant and the Dark Side of the Law:

Black, Asian and Hispanic women comprised a disproportionate number (86 percent) of the forced surgery victims mentioned previously. Opponents of mandatory Norplant legislation claim that it, too, will result in discrimination.

[. . .] While white and black women tested positive for drugs at equal rates, black women were reported to authorities ten times more often. Poor women have likewise been reported at much higher rates than their middle-class counterparts.

Opponents of [Washington senate bill 5278] also suggest that mandatory Norplant legislation is itself discriminatory-along gender lines. Lonnie Johns-Brown of the National Organization for Women suggests that the bill ignores the fetal effects of paternal drug use. While Patterson agrees that "it may seem like a biological injustice" to target women, she believes it boils down to a "biological reality" in which mothers "expose infants to their blood stream." Johns-Brown and others counter with the fact that fathers are very often supplying addicted mothers with drugs throughout their pregnancies.

But, you know, other than the racial and gender discrimination, it was a great idea, really.

I'm sure this new marriage promotion thing is founded on the same principles, and will go over just as well.

One last point, from that ACLU link up there:

Dr. Sheldon Segal, the originator of Norplant, has stated: "I am totally and unalterably opposed to the use of Norplant for any coercive or involuntary purpose. It was developed to improve reproductive freedom, not to restrict it. My colleagues and I worked on this innovation for decades because we respect human dignity and believe that women should be able to have the number of children they want, when they want to have them. Not just educated and well-to-do women, but all women."

A Google News search did bring up a recent link to National Review Online, but since I'd like to maintain some faith in humanity, I'll just not click that. Anyone feeling braver wants to hit it and sum it up in comments, feel free.

Posted by Aaron at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (4)

Hi.

Not ignoring the site, have a new temp assignment (started yesterday) without 'net access. It's at Northwestern's downtown Chicago campus, so there's probably WiFi networks out the ass I could access, if I felt like dragging the laptop with me. Maybe next week.

Also went to the Field Museum's Chinese New Year celebration last night with Redpac, which is why I didn't update then either.

Not sure how much detail I should go into about the assignment -- not that it matters, Google Aaron Hawkins and this place pops up either at the top or darn close -- right now it involves clearing out old files. Most of which have titles like the one of this entry. Some of 'em look fascinating, others (from the med school) look like word salad. And I've only seen one from the linguistics department; guess they're like the one at UIUC, keeping a low profile so the administration doesn't say, "Wait, we have a linguistics department? What the fuck? Shut that bad boy down and use the savings to buy the football team some new uniforms!"

Which is silly. You can't buy a whole team uniforms on a linguistics department budget. Replacement shoes for two or three players, tops.

There was an exhibit on shoes at the Field Museum. They had some for Chinese women who had had their feet bound. Um, ick.

And also one on Africa, including the slave trade and the diaspora. I'd forgotten that a black man invented the xylophone.

And no doubt will again.

And I'm out.

Posted by Aaron at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

mozdev.org - themes: themes/ohcanada!

Available for Mozilla, Netscape 7 and Firebird, it features a maple leaf for the default favicon (and I keep meaning to make one), and waving Canadian flag as the throbber.

Keep telling Redpac that if I go to a Wolves game where they play a Canadian team, I'll actually stand up for "O Canada." My failure to do so for the US anthem has been noted, but ain't nobody got the nerve to say shit. And that's as it should be.

Any questions? Comments? Cuss words?

Lyrics?

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Guess I should memorize this, huh?

Update: I'd embed this, but that tends to make lesser browsers crash and burn: O Canada (Real Audio), shamelessly stolen from previous link.

Posted by Aaron at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

Right then, Michele finally noticed the Freepers getting their hate on with Margaret Cho.

Most of the emails are filled with horrible grammar and more spelling errors than a first grade essay contest. Things like this is why the right is often considered to be hateful, racist, ignorant trolls.

"considered"?

Any road up, this leads to. . . complaints about the Democratic Underground boards. And a few missives about Margaret and the Dixie Chicks crying about being attacked, which I don't seem to remember being the case.

Oh, and more white people sitting around chatting about how the left is/are the real racists, and wild speculation as to why people of color seem incapable of thinking for themselves. Because if we could, of course we'd become conservatives.

There are also some additional attacks on Margaret, but because this is the second wave, they're kindler, gentler attacks. Not as openly racist, no actual death threats that I noticed. . . this is the face of compassionate conservatism.

The CCC rather than the KKK, basically.

See the trackbacks for yet more. . . something. I'd link these myself, but that might lead to those people coming here. And, worse, saying stupid things. Again.

I realize that Blogs Aren't a Safe Space, but there has to be some happy middle ground between all-out flame-fests and having a closed, gated community.

Which is why I'm not looking forward to the comment registration feature in the next MT release, or at least don't think I'll be turning it on.

Really need to come back and edit this. . . from that previous link:

One thing that we're missing as disconnected souls reading each other's words is a shared social structure where we can intuitively understand when to critique and when to support. The blog world too easily lends itself to a forum for attacking each other, purportedly to critique ideas. How often are anonymous critiques truly constructive? How easy is it to tear apart someone you don't know? Stanley Milgram learned that ages ago... if you feel like your responsibility is to critique, you can do so infinitely, regardless of how another might feel. And the further removed you are from witnessing the horrific reactions, the more you can continue on. Sometimes, i think we're all a bit sadistic.

Except that this does seem like a safe space, with the exception of tourist season, and even that hasn't been particularly bad -- or interesting, really -- this time around.

Yep, definitely come back and edit.

Posted by Aaron at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (1)

Posted by Aaron at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Billy Bragg, still relevant:

Help save the youth of America
Help save the youth of the world
Help save the boys in uniform
Their mothers and their faithful girls

Listen to the voice of the soldier
Down in the killing zone
Talking about the cost of living
And the price of bringing him home

They're already shipping the body bags
Down by the Rio Grande
But you can fight for democracy at home
And not in some foreign land

Posted by Aaron at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Because I trust that people are capable of acting like adults, particularly today:

URL: http://www.uppity-negro.com/cgi-uppity-negro/mt.cgi

User: guest

Pass: guest

Suggested topic: The state of race relations in the United States. Or the blogosphere. Or your city. Or on the planet. Fuckit, knock yourself out.

That, and it ain't like I can't delete anything I find annoying.

A spin-off of Free-For-All Friday, or something. Hit the link, and the mike is yours. Within reason, of course. Don't disappoint me.

And yes, I decided againsn't combining this with Talk Like a ****** Day. Soon. Honest.

Wondered a bit about doing this now, what with tourist season upon us, but then decided that perhaps that was the best time. And when you come right down to it, what's the worst someone could do? Call me a big whiny baby?

Been there, done that, not impressed.

Update: Added the suggested topic. Couldn't hurt, might help.

Posted by Aaron at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (2)

Had been wondering about the silence on the right about the Freeper attacks on Margaret Cho, and now I know that they were too busy taking umbrage at WhiteHouse.org about this poster:

There's just teeny-tiny little problem.

I sort-of laughed my ass off when I saw it. And, I'm not sure, but I think they're taking umbrage on my behalf.

Which is terribly thoughtful of them, but really, if I need your help. . . no, things could never get that bad.

Posts and comments at/from Dawn Olsen (yes, the irony meter goes off the scale), Outside the Beltway, One Fine Jay, the evangelical outpost, North Georgia Dogma and Matthew J. Stinson. And possibly others. That's more than enough to keep you in stitches for the rest of the day, though.

There's also a comment in one of those -- please don't make me wade in there again -- from La Shawn Barber. Luckily, I caught myself before sending the email congratulations for a brilliant piece of satire, when I realized that no, she's serious.

But worth noting as, near as I can tell, the only actual person of color commenting on the thing at any of those sites.

Which reminds me that I'd meant to link Misbehaving.net's discussion why are bloggers mostly straight white men?. And have now done so. My work here is done.

Except the being offended part. Um, anyone here find this offensive or racist or something? Don't be shy, now.

Update: Oh, right, forgot.

In the early days of poststructuralist cyberculture research, people believed that the digital world would finally relieve people of the identities that are written on the body: sex, age, race, etc. People could be whoever they wanted to be. Many people, including myself, took issue with this belief. Amy Bruckman did something about it. Along with Josh Berman, she invented The Turing Game. In this project, people were assigned an identity that they were to perform. Everyone could ask each other questions to try to figure out who was "real" and who was "fake." The results were astonishing. People are *really* good at identifying others' identities when they are trying to.

From misbehaving.net: The Turing Game (Amy Bruckman), which entry follows the previous one linked at misbehaving. I'd rather hoped people would follow the bouncing ball of logic and links and I wouldn't have to deal with. . . whatever point Joe Carter is trying to make in comments.

I'd ask for clarification, but have decided to go into NegroPanopticon mode for the rest of the day.

Posted by Aaron at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (27) | TrackBacks (4)

Expect I'll be visiting the right wing sites to see how they cover these two stories. I can make an educated guess, though.

Roy hopes Saddam's fate for Bush

Writer Arundhati Roy, who wants an ongoing anti-globalisation conference to launch a campaign to shut down US companies, said Sunday she hoped President George W Bush would share the fate of the captured Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"If Saddam Hussein deserves to be humiliated and have his fillings counted and his hair checked for lice on primetime TV, then so does George Bush," Roy told about 100 people at a leftist convention on the sidelines of the World Social Forum.

"Saddam Hussein surely ought to be tried for crimes against humanity. But so should all his accomplices in the US and Europe," she said.

"To applaud the US army's capture of Saddam Hussein and therefore justify its invasion and occupation of Iraq is like deifying Jack the Ripper for disembowelling the Boston Strangler," Roy said.

Doubt that's going to go over too well.

Meanwhile, over in Europe: Israeli Ambassador Kicked Out of Swedish Museum After Vandalizing Art

The art installation, called Snow White and located in the museum's courtyard, featured a basin filled with red water, designed to look like blood.

A sailboat with the name Snow White floated on the water, and placed like a sail was a photo of a smiling Hanadi Jaradat, the female lawyer who blew herself up in the Haifa suicide bombing attack in October which killed 21 Israelis.

"For me it was intolerable and an insult to the families of the victims. As ambassador to Israel I could not remain indifferent to such an obscene misrepresentation of reality," the ambassador told Swedish news agency TT.

According to museum director Kristian Berg, the ambassador went berserk in front of the 400 specially-invited guests when he saw the piece.

"He pulled out the plugs and threw one of the spotlights into the fountain which caused the entire installation to short-circuit and made it totally life-threatening," he told TT.

Life-threatening? Well, I'm sure the ambassador will be sternly rebuked for this display of. . .

Sharon praises art vandalism

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has praised the Israeli ambassador to Sweden for vandalising a Stockholm art exhibit about Palestinian suicide bombers, saying the "entire government stands behind him".

[. . .] Sharon expressed unreserved support for the ambassador's action.

"I called our ambassador in Sweden Zvi Mazel last night and thanked him for his strength in dealing with increasing anti-Semitism, and told him that the entire government stands behind him," he told a cabinet meeting.

"I think Ambassador Mazel behaved in an appropriate way," he added. "I think the phenomenon (of anti-Semitism) is so serious that it would have been forbidden not to have acted on the spot.

Dror Feiler, the Israeli-born artist who created Snow White and the Madness of Truth, said it was supposed to call attention to how weak, lonely people can be capable of horrible things.

Israeli-born anti-Semites are the worst kind, you know.

Back in the previous article:

One of the two artists who created the work, Israeli-born Dror Feiler, told AFP the ambassador was "totally unreasonable and undiplomatic" and would not listen to his explanations.

"He said he was ashamed that I was a Jew," Feiler said. "We see this as an offensive assault on our right to express our thoughts and feelings."

The other artist, Feiler's Swedish wife Gunilla Skoeld Feiler, told daily Expressen that the work was "not a glorification of the suicide bomber."

"I wanted to show how incomprehensible it is that a mother-of-two, who is a lawyer no less, can do such a thing," she said.

"When I saw her picture in the paper, I thought she looked like Snow White, that's why I gave that name to the piece," she added.

Well, see, there's the problem. That's practically treating her like a human being, when everyone knows the Paleostinians are subhuman savages, etc., etc. Oh, that reminds me, in that thread at Tacitus' place, someone did write:

This quote:

"When I heard Bush was coming here I couldn't believe it. I was outraged and disgusted, and I just think it's a photo op. It's so transparent," said Kathy Nicholas, a flight attendant from Atlanta, who was among hundreds of local supporters protesting Bush before his appearance at the tomb of the civil rights leader.

From:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,108508,00.html

Looked to me as a faint echo of the Palestinian repsonse to Sharon's visit to the temple mount. I wonder how similar are the sensibilities.

I wonder what the fuck he's talking about, but that's me.

Ah. And the art destruction story has already spawned a thread at Little Green Footballs. Eh, Static Shock doesn't start for another few hours -- and why it's premiering on Sunday here in Chicago is (Batman) beyond me -- so where's the harm in having a quick look?

Update: Oh, right. Because they're horrific racist morons over there. How could I forget?

As usual, the more I look at this, the more I'm reminded of why I avoid the political stuff lately. From Haaretz: Swedish envoy: artwork exhibited in Stockholm 'in bad taste':

[Sweden's ambassador to Israel Robert Rydvberg] said that the artwork was not a justification of suicide bombers. "The piece is about a Palestinian woman having murdered innocent civilians. It mentions the names of the tragic Israeli victims in Haifa. It is not a justification of suicide bombings. It is in my view an example of bad taste, but I think the whole issue has been blown out of proportion."

Which doesn't quite match the headline, but it's hard to fit all them words in.

[Israel's ambassador to Sweden Zvi Mazel] was unrepentant about damaging the "Snow White and the Madness of Truth" exhibit at Stockholm's Historical Museum. "My wife and I stood there and began to tremble," he said on the Ynet site. "There was the terrorist, wearing perfect makeup and sailing placidly along the rivers of blood of my brothers and the families that were murdered."

The envoy told Haaretz that his protest was not spontaneous; he had planned the act after learning about the exhibit in the local press. He said he could not understand how an exhibition devoted to preventing genocide can feature a work that casts the murderer of 22 Israelis as Snow White. "In my eyes, that's not art; it's abominable," he said.

So, that's premeditated destruction of a work of art. By an ambassador. Is it possible to satirize something like this?

The exhibit is the work of an Israeli expatriate musician and artist, Dror Feiler, who has been active in "Jews for Israeli-Palestinian peace," a Stockholm-based group opposed to Israeli activities in the territories. As background music to his exhibit, the Tel Aviv-born Feiler mixed music from Bach's 199 Cantata "My Heart Swims in Blood." Feiler castigated Mazel's action as vandalism.

"At last, he managed to render something which caused a political outcry - that's what is called artistic terror," Buki Greenberg, a friend of Feiler's and fellow musician-artist, said Saturday.

Feiler told Army Radio Sunday morning that his artwork was misunderstood. "The display itself is against violence. It can be summed up by a biblical quote: 'He who spills human blood shall have his own blood spilled by man,' and this is exactly what we need to put an end to. The Israeli ambassador caused diplomatic and political damage to Israel, and since he is an intellectual midget, his actions were similar to those of a stall owner in a third world country," Feiler said.

Historical Museum Director Kristian Berg said that the exhibit will remain on display. "You can have your own view of what this piece of art is all about, but using violence is never, ever allowed, and it is never allowed to try to silence the artist," he said.

In recent months, Israel's Foreign Ministry has invested considerable effort to ensure that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is kept off the agenda of the genocide conference. "The goal has been to prevent the Durbanization of this conference," a top Foreign Ministry official said Saturday, referring to the eruption of anti-Israeli protests at the 2001 human rights conference in the South African city.

I mean, I can't, but perhaps others are more imaginative.

No one, with the possible exception of Kristian Berg, comes out looking good on this one. The artist was trying to provoke a reaction -- possibly a discussion, but that quote from his friend ain't encouraging -- and the ambassador was only too happy to oblige.

Lost in all this, of course, is the perfectly reasonable question of why a "mother-of-two, who is a lawyer" would choose to kill herself and twenty-two others.

OccupationalHazard.org 10.15.03: Ticking bomb - Vered Levy-Barzilai - Ha'aretz

Four months ago, Hanadi Jaradat stood over the freshly dug grave of her brother Fadi and vowed to avenge his death. "Your blood will not have been shed in vain," she is quoted as saying by the Jordanian daily Al-Arab al-Yum. "The murderer will yet pay the price and we will not be the only ones who are crying." Weeping bitterly, she added: "If our nation cannot realize its dream and the goals of the victims, and live in freedom and dignity, then let the whole world be erased."

But why ask questions you already know the answers to?

Posted by Aaron at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (23) | TrackBacks (4)

Well, I hope not, or I don't come out looking so good.

Free For All Monday tomorrow, and if anyone else is looking for an opportunity to post unsigned attacks, please have a look at anonymous proxies before you post. Otherwise, I'll just put up your IP address, which in the seriously fucked-up mindset of some will make me the Bad Guy.

That I don't buy into the concepts of enemies or Good Guys or Bad Guys counts for nothing, apparently.

And I'm still waiting for the person who posted that to step forward. Or for someone who knows who did it to let me know who it was.

Not holding my breath waiting, true.

Apropos of nothing, PopMatters has a review of Milllennium Actress:

In a class on the personal essay, my teacher had assigned a pair of readings. The first piece was a criticism of memoirist Vivian Gornick, who had admitted to "composing" parts of her memoir, Fierce Attachments. The second was Gornick's response, in which she maintained that it was sometimes necessary to sacrifice absolute fidelity in order to communicate a greater, underlying truth. It bothered me that Gornick had played fast and loose with details of time, place, personality, and dialogue. Shouldn't a writer who claimed to be writing from personal experience remain faithful to the "truth," even if it was only the truth as she happened to perceive it on any given day?

To my surprise, not one of the other students in the class took issue with Gornick's creative license. They all asserted that it was perfectly okay to use composite characters, compress timelines, and simply "make stuff up." Oddly, I found myself siding with Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post, who wrote, "There's a word for that: fiction."

I wasn't sure why I was being so curmudgeonly. In graduate school, we tossed phrases like "social construction" and "subject formation" around like rag dolls. History is told by the winners; race, gender and sexuality are arbitrary markers along the continuum of human variation; individuality is merely a by-product of language. But this time I was the dumb bunny, the thickheaded literalist in search of "truth" and "reality." Despite my excellent education to the contrary, it bothered me that someone could write a personal essay about something that wasn't entirely true. It was acceptable to misremember, to have forgotten a detail -- such is the purview of the "personal" -- but to alter time willfully, or make up a conversation? It just didn't seem right.

There are bits of it that even mention the film. Quite favorably, in fact.

And it's possible to disagree without being disagreeable -- Neo ain't care for it nearly as much as I did, yet somehow things never came to blows. Go figure.

Posted by Aaron at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Which is why I'm not linking this tomorrow, on MLK Day: American Renaissance: The Decline of National Review.

Subtitle: "NR was once a voice for whites."

[T]he National Review of the 1950s, 60s and even 70s spoke up for white people far more vigorously than Pat Buchanan would ever dare to today. The early National Review heaped criticism on the civil rights movement, Brown v. Board of Education, and people like Adam Clayton Powell and Martin Luther King, whom it considered race hustlers. Some of the greatest names in American conservatism–Russell Kirk, Willmore Kendall, James Kilpatrick, Richard Weaver, and a young Bill Buckley–wrote articles defending the white South and white South Africans in the days of segregation and apartheid. NR attacked the 1965 immigration bill that opened America up to Third-World immigration, and wrote frankly about racial differences in IQ.

[. . .] A famous example of the early NR stance on race was an unsigned editorial of August 24, 1957, titled “Why the South Must Prevail.” It was almost certainly written by Mr. Buckley, since he uses similar language in his book Up From Liberalism. The editorial argued against giving blacks the vote because it would undermine civilization in the South:

“The central question that emerges . . . is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not prevail numerically? The sobering answer is Yes–the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race. It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the cultural superiority of White over Negro: but it is a fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists.”

“National Review believes that the South’s premises are correct. . . . It is more important for the community, anywhere in the world, to affirm and live by civilized standards, than to bow to the demands of the numerical majority.”

And on like that. I do suggest reading the whole thing, if you can stomach it.

Then have a look at this threat at Tacitus:

I submit that those booing the president of the United States, laying flowers at the grave of Dr. King--who was one of the greatest uniters in our nation--sullied his memory yesterday by using tactics of division, polarization and hate.

The comments are, um, about at that level. In fact, I'll save you hours and sum up the right-wing talking points on recent events:

1. MLK was opposed to affirmative action, according to one interpretation of the I Have a Dream speech.
2. The Mississippi NAACP supported Charles Pickering.
3. Robert Byrd was in the KKK.
4. Condi Rice.
5. Colin Powell.

And that's pretty much it. Rather than debating, they just toss those out. They're not terribly intelligent.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Jason and Jeanne (er, the person who does Body and Soul, there's not a name on the entries. . .) and Silver Rights (I give up on the name thing. . .) and doubtless lots of other people I'm forgetting have worthwhile things to say. Perhaps I should have suggested reading them instead.

Posted by Aaron at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

: : : righteous babe records > listen to educated guess : : :

On songs like "Bubble" and "Swim," the first-person narrator revisits past loves and reflects on the lessons learned from them. Elsewhere, particularly on the spoken-word track "Grand Canyon," Ani addresses the oft-misunderstood connection between patriotism and dissent ("i love my country / by which i mean i am indebted joyfully / to all the people throughout its history / who have fought the government to make right") and issues a rallying cry in support of "the coolest F-word ever"-feminism, which she sees as the birthright of men and women alike. The beautifully designed package also contains a small specially bound book including original artwork by Ani and three additional poems currently unavailable anywhere else.

Which text is actually from Ani Difranco | More About Educated Guess, but the first link up there only has text as a graphic, and I didn't feel like retyping it.

Except this bit: Click on the link to hear the entire album

Found this when I opened Quicktime Player in Linux, and a full-window ad for the cd came up. Which I found slightly weird, but ok. . .

Mind you, the actual "hear the entire album" thing doesn't seem to be working for me -- plugin initialization failed, according to Mozilla -- so I can't tell ya if it's any good. You'll just have to find out for yourself. Sorry.

Posted by Aaron at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Simple global search and replace on the following should take care of it, right?

"Hello, I'm Jerri Blank and I'm a 46-year-old high school freshman. For 32 years I was a teenage runaway. I was a boozer, a user, and a loser. My friends were dealers, cons, and 18 karat pimps. But now I'm out of jail, picking up my life exactly where I left off. I'm back in high school, living at home, and discovering all sorts of things about my body. I'm finding out that though the faces have changed, the hassles are just the same." -- Jerri Blank

No, huh?

Visited The Heartland to see The Hotness That Is Nina X earlier today. One of the topics that came up?

Showtime’s The L Word debuts this Sunday

Sunday, Jan 18, 9 p.m., Star Gaze. The premiere of Showtime's new lesbian series, The L Word, 5419 N. Clark. (773) 561-7363. T-shirts, giveaways, drink and food specials, $1 pink pussy shots. Star Gaze, the only lesbian bar in Chicago showing The L Word.

Indeed, while the ladies from The L-Word may be as stylish, frisky and prone to slumming in cafes, and both shows offer glimpses into their respective close-knit social circles, the similarities really do end there. Executive produced by Ilene Chaiken and co-created by Chaiken, Kathy Greenberg, and Michele Abbot, The L-Word’s ensemble of nine gorgeous core characters stand to redefine lesbian iconography: there’s not a Birkenstock, mullet, vegetarian potluck or O’Donnelesque woman to be seen.

“It’s really funny and ironic because when Go Fish came out in 1994 everyone was like ‘not all lesbians are ugly, you know,’” notes Go Fish/L-Word pilot director Rose Troche. “And I think what will happen with this is that people will say ‘not all lesbians are beautiful and skinny and fabulous.’ Certainly we know that, but we have to start somewhere. If the show’s popular we will get more leeway [to show more diversity]. Not a potluck yet, but they have dinner parties!”

No mullets?

Guess it doesn't take place in Columbus, huh, Neo?

Wondering if I should brave the cold tomorrow and walk the two or so blocks to Star Gaze for the show.

Star Gaze, one of the few lesbian bars in the city that's not packed with 708's and 630's, is a comfortable lesbian bar located in the heart of Andersonville (aka "Girlstown"). StarGaze is owned by a fab Latina lesbian couple, Dusty and Mamie, who took over the bar a few years ago from Cafe Ashie's owners. They've done a great job with the place, making it into the City's best and most diverse lesbian bar, at least on the North Side.

I have never before seen Andersonville called "Girlstown," but maybe I don't get out enough.

Oh well. Might be able to scrape up enough cash to afford one pink pussy shot, which I can then nurse the rest of the evening. . .

Posted by Aaron at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Followed a link from an old entry to Lynn Peril's review of Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend over at San Francisco Bay Guardian. Which I'd meant to link back then, and didn't, so this is the first I've seen of the site for a while.

They have a politics blog, which (from the entries there now) seems to focus on local/state/national stuff, in that order. And maybe the rest of the world. I should look at it closer before writing stuff about it.

Nah, they'd kick me out of the bloggers' guild.

Is there a bloggers' guild?

This also meant a visit to the Mystery Date site -- not much new there that I noticed -- and also the Pink Think site. Anyone read the book? I'd, um, managed to forget about it too. . .

Not much new there either, but there is a link to Miss Abigail's Time Warp Advice:

Welcome! Take a step back in time as I pull out relevant quotes, tidbits, and words of wisdom from my collection of old advice books in a quest to solve your modern-day dilemmas. The books span from 1822 to 1978 and cover the age-old topics of dating, love, living together, marriage, health, beauty, puberty, sex, etiquette, housekeeping, home economics, and home repairs.

Here, I got a little sample, which I assure you was chosen completely at random and has not hidden meanings or messages whatsoever, cross my heart:

1956: When You Don't Want to Date

"It is discourteous for a boy to ask why when a girl tells him that she cannot do something that he asks. When a boy pushes for explanation of a girl’s refusal, she is justified in kidding him about his persistence, or in simply changing the subject.

"If a girl does not ever want to date a particular boy, she does him a kindness when she gives him no encouragement whatsoever. To lead a boy on, when she never intends to go out with him, does him an injustice and unnecessarily prolongs the refusals. There are many reasons that a girl may refuse to consider dating a particular boy. He may drink, or run around with a fast set, or have a bad reputation, or be the kind of person whom for other reasons she does not feel she can associate with. If he is not datable from her point of view, she will be wise to refuse his attentions courteously but with firmness and finality."

Source: Facts of Life and Love for Teen-Agers
~ p. 307~

And it's as true in 2004 as it was in 1956.

Am at Evanston Public Library, abusing the WiFi. And looking at a hardcover of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, which looks more like a weapon than a novel. Um, anyone out there read this either? I've heard Good Things, and someone I've lost contact with composed a piece based on his work (after securing his permission. . . think he was at SIU at that point?), but never braved any of it.

And that's enough random randomness for one entry, I think.

Posted by Aaron at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Because I can mix topics as I like.

And I rather like this photo from the :: Sponsor Mixer Party Oct 4, 2003 :: Miss Vietnam USA :::. They've redone the Miss Vietnam USA web site, by the way, and now you can order not only the Ao Dai calendar, but also bikini and evening gown. . .

Ok, I'll stop.

As we wonder today what happened to the clear and easy-to-defend agenda of the civil rights years, those forgotten years between Dr. King's landmark speech and his death show us how difficult it was even for the great dreamer himself to turn dreams into reality.

"We all have a task, and let us do it with a sense of divine dissatisfaction," Dr. King said in one of his final speeches. "Let us be divinely dissatisfied as long as we have a wealth of creeds and poverty of deeds." That's his legacy. We may never achieve a perfect world, he told us, but we must never stop trying.

That's from King's 'forgotten years' worth remembering, by Clarence Page, which I noticed over at Cursor. Which I really should add to the links list, or bookmark, or something. Any road up, the column refers readers to Citizen King, airing on Monday, January 19th on your local PBS station as part of American Experience. Check your local listings.

Cursor also links -- as I've done in the past, I think -- The Martin Luther King You Don't See On TV by Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon:

You haven't heard the "Beyond Vietnam" speech on network news retrospectives, but national media heard it loud and clear back in 1967 -- and loudly denounced it. Time magazine called it "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi." The Washington Post patronized that "King has diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people."

Link added, natch.

Here, I got a little sample:

This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I'm not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: "Let us love one another (Yes), for love is God. (Yes) And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. . . . If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us." Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.

And I'll have to start using "patronizing" instead of "condescending" to describe the attitude I keep running into from well-meaning white folk. Couldn't hurt, might help.

On the plus side for my not-dead-yet faith in humanity, Margaret Cho announces I Love You. All Y'all.

I am enjoying the vitriol and the rage coming out from the haters and the crazy motherfuckers out there. It is indeed a crusade, for they falsely believe that God is on their side, but He is just embarrassed. God is awesome, and all are welcome in the House of the Lord. He got the crunk, He got the chronic, He got the best Djs. Fuckin A. He is God and shit, yo.

We have not been impressed by the insults. They haven't been mean enough, because they don't make sense. They are all about how I don't belong in this country, how I am ugly and fat, how my eyes and pussy is slanted, how all us gays and lesbians gonna burn in hell. It is kind of repetitive. Boring. I see that being crucified in the eyes of the right wing don't mean shit. It don't hurt at all. No thorn in my side, just boring in my side. It is funny. What I love is that the people that have love for me are showing it right now. I feel bathed in love, like Paula Abdul in that video where she was in a tropical waterfall. Love is coming down on my little life like manna from heaven, and God is telling me, "See? You tha bomb gurl!" SO many mails saying "thank you" and "bless you" and "I love you" and "You are Beautiful" and "you are me".. People saying "thank you for letting me be myself again," for representing, for being me, telling my story, being my voice, because mine ain't loud enough. That is what I hear. I can't hear the hate anymore, because the love has drowned it out. Love is the big booming beat which covers up the noise of hate. Thank you. I need you. I love you. All y'all.

Mad love from me to aldahlia and Sam -- they post the idjits' addresses, so I don't have to.

Plus, aldahlia also writes:

It is indeed possible to Go Black, then Go Back, in case you were wondering.

Which had me in stitches earlier this morning. I could not explain why. It just did. And still do.

Posted by Aaron at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mentioned in the Margaret Cho mailing list email from yesterday -- don't you wish you were a subscriber? -- Margaret Cho Talks [to BuzzFlash] about MoveOn, the Bushin30Seconds Ads, Freepers and Performing Comedy That is Both Personal and Political:

BuzzFlash: Do you laugh at the fact that some people can't comprehend a joke and then respond to you with righteous indignation?

Margaret Cho: I really don't have a choice about being political or outspoken. I have my own definition of community and it means that people should talk about issues that are meaningful and incendiary, which I specialize in. If it wasn't irreverent, I would be betraying my own personality. My race gives me away every time. I have to speak about race. If I don't, it's weird. I have to talk about my own experience in this country being a minority, because if I don't, then what would I talk about? I don't look at it as being any particular responsibility or burden, but it's kind of funny to talk about. I just enjoy working. I enjoy writing. I enjoy being political because it is hopefully opening people's minds to alternative views of how we can live in the world.

Also mentioned, Showtime is airing both her concert films tomorrow. Well, maybe "airing" is the wrong word. Broadcasting?

Posted by Aaron at 8:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Really, I'll thank you. From beyond. Somehow.

Girl power
Women are breaking out a new weapon to attract men: Flirting with each other

Men, the fantasy starts here.

As five young women in low-cut jeans and tight, flimsy tops grind their hips together on the dance floor of a hot nightclub, space clears around them and the crowd stands back, mesmerized.

At another club, the clothes come off as the hour grows late. Six women, two topless, dance provocatively together.

Fantasy has become fad as scenes like these-at Buzz and SmartBar-play out night after night in Chicago's hottest clubs.

Lesbians? Bi-curious behavior? No, this is pure performance, cultural observers say, in the same vein as the "Girls Gone Wild" videos or Madonna swapping spit with Britney at the MTV awards. More young women are dancing, touching and kissing each other in public in order to titillate men.

Call it the Flexosexual Revolution, a feminine answer to the cultural overdose of metrosexuality.

The act seems to be working.

"What's better than two feminine women doing something to please you?" asks clubgoer Steve Matthews, 33, who said women have hooked up in front of him.

I will also be torturing Steve Matthews, 33, from the afterworld. If I did it while I was alive, I'd get arrested. Yes, he says this shit, and I'd be the one to get arrested. There is no justice.

There are, however, more links where that one came from:

• Lesbians: Go for it - Young women should be free to test their sexuality, they say
• Showtime's `L Word' gets lazy, lacks zip, though why they had a guy review this is beyond. . . oh, never fucking mind.
• Attraction is emotional, not sexual

From that last one:

Female homosexuality may be grounded more in social interaction and emotional attraction and may change over time, recent studies suggest.

Young women also appear to be more open to homosexual relationships than young men are. In one recent national study, more than twice as many girls as boys reported being attracted to the same sex at least once.

Girls may be reacting, in part, to relationships gone sour with guys.

"Girls understand how girls think," says Chanda Harris, a high school junior near Washington, D.C. "You can tell a girl, 'I think I'm falling in love with you,' and she'll listen. A boy will slough that off, or run away. Besides, the young boys around me are into making money, selling weed and stuff. That's not what I'm about."

Translation: All she needs is to meet the right. . .

Yep. Something quick and fairly painless, if you don't mind.

Update: Cross-posted to Chicago Lesbians Invading Taverns, where there's a very interesting comment on The 'L' Word, including this tidbit:

and if you don't have showtime, you can watch it at stargaze or t's lounge this sunday night jan 18 9pm - no cover!

I shouldn't. I really, really shouldn't. . .

Posted by Aaron at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

Must still be drunk from spending the evening at Hamilton's with Redpac and The Ghettofabulous Jessica. What else could explain actually hitting a link to The Corner?

Left-wing blacks in Atlanta are hopping mad over President Bush's plan to lay a wreath at the MLK gravesite tomorrow, according to the NYT. They accuse him of playing politics with an American icon--but the truth is that by protesting Bush's small gesture, they're the ones playing politics. And looking like fools, too.

"Left-wing blacks".

How did The National Review describe the late Doctor King while he was still with us? I'd ask that they reprint/post some of those old articles on Monday, in the interest of providing historical background, but that would require a level of intellectual honesty that I just don't think they're capable of.

I'd ask who these hopping-mad left-wing blacks were looking like fools to, but that's obvious.

White folks.

Making the entire entry redundant. We always look like fools to them, apparently.

What else? Redpac has a photoblog that I promised I'd actually link. Was going to compare the right wing reaction to the City Pages piece on Lileks to their non-response to the actual hate mail that Margaret Cho has been getting from their ilk of late, but again, there's that intellectual honesty thing. And again, person of color, racist attacks are just par for the course for daring speak your mind. Grey taught me that. I suppose I should thank him. Or not. Let's go with not.

(Amusingly, the people who sent nastygrams are now asking that their email addresses be removed from Margaret's site, because they're getting messages they don't like. No, I don't think they see the double-standard either.)

Postponing the free for all and Talk Like A ****** Day until Monday, in honor of MLK Day.

Or because I just don't particularly feel like doing it today.

Update: The headline - "Protesters Chant and Boo as Bush Honors Dr. King." Very Ministry of Truth,no?

The quote, with emphasis added - "Black voters are among the Democratic Party's most loyal, and only about 8 percent of them voted for Mr. Bush in 2000." Them. Yes. What is wrong with them?

My reaction - wondering who on God's green Earth still seriously maintains that the media is "liberal."

Posted by Aaron at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Possibly copyright on the image, but perhaps driving traffic their way will cause Astrolabe to turn a blind eye.

Or, more likely, cause them to find out who's sending the traffic, and therefore notice the image which otherwise they wouldn't.

Maybe I should think this through better. . .

Any road up, since George asked to see the chart/info I skillfully edited yesterday to make me look like a much nicer person than I actually am:

Click the image for a larger, perhaps more legible version. The interpretation appears below:

Hello, here is the interpretation of the astrological chart that you asked for. Also attached is a .GIF graphic file which depicts your chart wheel. Thank you for visiting the Astrolabe WEB site at http://alabe.com This report has been created especially for you. It represents your Unique picture at the time you were born and at the place you were born. If you are unsure of the exact time of day of your birth (or the date or the place), the reading will probably not seem as accurate as it could be in certain places, but other parts will seem to be very appropriate. You will notice at certain places in the reading that contradictory information seems to be given. This is to be expected, because the personality of most people is extremely complex. For example, at times we are quite shy and at other times we are very aggressive, and so forth. You will also notice that, at certain points in the reading, certain patterns may be repeated over and over, especially in a longer more detailed report than this one. This is also to be expected. This simply means that your horoscope has an extremely strong focus on this particular pattern and that you should pay extra close attention to what is said about it. Now, on with your Report!

Name: Aaron Hawkins
January 12 1970
11:00 PM Time Zone is CST
Chicago, IL

Rising Sign is in 07 Degrees Libra
Very attractive and popular, your charm helps you to get your own way and prevents others from getting angry with you. "Peace and harmony at all costs" is your battle cry. You always try to ameliorate or to cosmetically hide any physical ugliness or any angry feelings between people. Flashy, but not gaudy, you prefer to dress elegantly. You generally have good taste in music, art and literature. Beware of the tendency to compromise yourself in your attempt to be agreeable at all times. A bit of a social butterfly, at times you can be vain and lazy. For the most part, however, you are gracious and affectionate, and your refined and aristocratic demeanor serves as a role model to others.

Sun is in 22 Degrees Capricorn.
Extremely serious and mature, you are capable of accepting responsibilities and do so willingly. Others expect you to be dutiful as a matter of course. You tend to get angry when people get rewards after not having worked anywhere near as hard as you. You are goal-oriented and an achiever by nature -- you're a hard worker and are justifiably proud of the tangible results of your efforts. You tend to have "tunnel-vision" -- this allows you to block out extraneous matters that might distract others and to concentrate totally on the matter at hand. As such, you are the ideal one to manage or administrate any ongoing project and to be practical and efficient at it. You are not a fast worker, but you are quite thorough. You are known for being totally persistent, tenacious and tireless in reaching your goals.

Moon is in 05 Degrees Aries.
High-spirited and courageous, you are a fighter when your emotions are aroused. The degree of force and drive that you can bring to any effort sometimes surprises others. You have hair-trigger reactions to specific stimuli and tend to "let it all hang out." You sometimes act before you think and do things on the spur of the moment, and that sometimes gets you into trouble. Your moods change quickly -- you have quite a temper, but you don't hold grudges. Very independent, with an extremely strong and forceful personality, you are known for being impulsive, careless, reckless, foolhardy, rash and daring.

Mercury is in 23 Degrees Capricorn.
You are a careful thinker, very cautious and conservative. You are quite skillful at organizing, directing and planning activities. Practical and useful things interest you -- you are not attracted to abstract thoughts or ideas. With your tendency to be highly focused and very goal-oriented, you have a good head for business. But beware of a tendency to be narrow-minded and dogmatic. Your sense of humor tends toward being earthy and slapstick crude.

Venus is in 19 Degrees Capricorn.
You tend to keep your feelings under control -- emotions are only released in serious or important situations. You are distrustful of others whose behavior could be judged excessive or immoderate. As such, you prefer to relate only to those who are older than you or to those whose position is such that respect and duty are more important for both of you than passion or emotional response. Be careful, however, of relationships that are merely based on practicality or utility or you will ultimately be lonely.

Mars is in 21 Degrees Pisces.
Very sensitive and vulnerable, it is difficult for you to assert yourself. At times, you feel quite tired and you will require a lot of sleep in order to maintain your health and your strength. You are at your best when you act without your ego being important. You can be very unselfish and considerate of the needs of others. You get the most satisfaction by giving to others when you expect nothing in return. Beware of a tendency to want always to work behind the scenes or to become overly deceptive by doing things behind others' backs.

Jupiter is in 03 Degrees Scorpio.
You love to dig deep beneath surface appearances in order to find out what is really happening. A persistent researcher, you are very interested in the psychology of any situation. You tend to become overwhelmed by the complexity of what you uncover, however, and that makes you a bit gun-shy about explaining things to others. But you must learn to try to communicate as best you can because what you know is really very valuable to others.

Saturn is in 02 Degrees Taurus.
Complete freedom of choice makes you ill at ease. You must have a firm, ordered, secure foundation in your life in order to feel comfortable. You do not adapt easily and tend to fear the new and untried. You constantly fear that you do not have enough (love, property, material things, etc.) and this makes you tend toward being selfish, withdrawn and stingy. If you try to surround yourself with supportive people in your environment, you will become more emotionally self-supporting.

Uranus is in 08 Degrees Libra.
You, as well as your entire peer group, have a very free, unstable and unconventional approach to relationships and emotional commitments. You will be attracted to experiments in marriage and shared lifestyles. Personal freedom is more important to you than entangling emotional bonds. In the realm of art and aesthetics, you are attracted to the bizarre, shocking and unusual.

Neptune is in 00 Degrees Sagittarius.
You, and your entire generation, are heavily involved in investigating and idealizing foreign and exotic intellectual systems and religious philosophies. The most extreme ideals will be pursued with gusto. You will be at the forefront of humanitarian attempts to improve the lot of those who are in need of assistance. You will be comfortable with the concept of the "global village."

Pluto is in 27 Degrees Virgo.
For your entire generation, this will be a time when profound changes in society's attitude toward work, duty and responsibility will be initiated. Radical changes in attitudes toward personal health and general nutrition will be promulgated and gain wide acceptance and practice.

N. Node is in 13 Degrees Pisces.
You're attracted to others who need your assistance. You seem to go out of your way to form relationships with those who are weak, sick, injured, addicted or troubled in some way or other. At your best you can indeed provide the relief that others need. But at times you can be victimized by those who would prey on your good nature and take advantage of you. This can lead to all sorts of negative situations -- make sure that those you assist are truly worthy of your time, energy and commitment. A little enlightened self-protectiveness on your part can make your life work much, much smoother!


This is only the abbreviated highlights of the full length (PNR) Professional Natal Report http://alabe.com/chartservice/natal.html If you would like a detailed (approx 30 page) interpretation of your astrological profile which includes your houses, aspects, and major trends in your chart - or if you would like other reports or readings that depict your life and the influences that you are under for any specific dates - See our chart service offerings at http://alabe.com/chartservice or contact us at 1-800-THE-NOVA for prices and information. Copyright ©1999 Astrolabe Inc. All Rights Reserved. Not for Commercial Use. This text may not be modified or altered. You may post this text of your own personal report online as long as the links above are preserved.

Like I said, I cherry-picked what to reveal yesterday. But since I never can keep secrets and lies straight, that's the lot. And possibly enough info to make a go at identity theft, but do you really want Ford Motor Credit calling you? I think not.

Oh, and the time of birth is a best guess; really need to visit the City Clerk and get a copy of me birth certificate at some point. . .

Posted by Aaron at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (2)

Not that that's saying much. . . from Dwayne McDuffie News, you can catch Virgil Hawkins, b.k.a. Static, meeting up with the Justice League today and tomorrow in "A League Of Their Own" parts one and two, the latter written by Mr. McDuffie himself, and then Saturday morning the new season of Static Shock kicks off with Static teaming up with. . . ok, the name of the show was Batman Beyond, but no one actually called Terry that, right? Like the show was Doctor Who but the character's name was just The Doctor? Any road up, Static and The Batman. Or A Batman, anyway.

Received more birthday gifts yesterday -- thanks to Michelle and e.j. and, um, George? Wow. Just. . . wow.

I do solemnly swear to use this only for Good, and not for Ev-- wait, no, you're the Good Twin. It'll be Evil.

Running late. Off to do the ritual de-spamming, will try to reply to comments later.

Update: Forgot to include Virgil's last name. Odd, that, I'm so used to seeing it. . .

Posted by Aaron at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

For the ritual seppuku I intend to commit.

Was thinking a few days ago that the template for entirely too many conversations in my life is something like this:

Other Person:

So, you're a vegetarian.

Me:

. . . yes?

Other Person:

So do you eat fish?

Me:

. . . no?

Other Person:

Why not? Fish aren't meat!

Me:

. . .

I mean, what am I supposed to say at that point? "My god, you're right! I never noticed that flaw in my supposed moral code! Waiter! Cajun blackened catfish, and keep 'em coming!"

Just had someone ask me why we couldn't control the Mars rover remotely. I tried to explain, with my half-remembered high school AP Physics, that the distances involved and the speed of light meant too long a pause to do something like that. Is Mars minutes away? Seconds? Hours? I'm sure I could work it out on paper, if I knew the actual distance. . .

Anyway, they looked at me like I was nuts.

Clearly, I'm doing something Very Wrong.

Trying to deal with people like that, I think.

But there are so damned many of them. . .

Posted by Aaron at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

The next official Free-For-All Friday is January 30th, but I'm doing one this Friday just to be difficult.

And because that's also going to be Talk Like A ****** Day. Michelle, who did a lovely design for the occasion, knows what I speak of. And yes, that's too many letters for Yoda. Try again.

Also, moo hoo ha ha.

Off to seek my fortune, or something. Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. Given the recent music mentioned 'round here, and I may as well put the links for Mediaeval Baebes (thanks, Karin, hadn't heard of 'em before) and Claire Voyant (thanks, Neo, I'd forgotten about them) and Miranda Sex Garden here on the front page, one wonders how Goth someone can be when they do insist on wearing their dreadlocks in a bright pink (or fuschia) scrunchie.

Not sure about the pigtails formed using Nightmare Before Christmas/Jack Skellington ponytail holders either.

Discuss.

Posted by Aaron at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

Sorry. Had to get that out of my system.

Finally added The GhettoFabulous Jessica to the sprawling list o'links, something I could have sworn I did a while ago -- senility, no doubt -- and made the mistake of following a link at her place:

Hello, here is the interpretation of the astrological chart that you asked for.

Mars is in 21 Degrees Pisces.
Very sensitive and vulnerable, it is difficult for you to assert yourself. At times, you feel quite tired and you will require a lot of sleep in order to maintain your health and your strength. You are at your best when you act without your ego being important. You can be very unselfish and considerate of the needs of others. You get the most satisfaction by giving to others when you expect nothing in return. Beware of a tendency to want always to work behind the scenes or to become overly deceptive by doing things behind others' backs.

Jupiter is in 03 Degrees Scorpio.
You love to dig deep beneath surface appearances in order to find out what is really happening. A persistent researcher, you are very interested in the psychology of any situation. You tend to become overwhelmed by the complexity of what you uncover, however, and that makes you a bit gun-shy about explaining things to others. But you must learn to try to communicate as best you can because what you know is really very valuable to others.

Luckily, being a sensible, skeptical person, I don't believe a word of it.

But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

Posted by Aaron at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Because policy has become so insulated from politics that even discussing stuff doesn't seem like a worthwhile way to spend time.

Or my blood sugar level is low.

San Francisco Bay View | The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X | Part 1:

Following the assassinations, in the 1970s, the COINTELPRO (the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program) disruption operations by the government against the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-War Movement and radicals and socialists became public knowledge. Under COINTELPRO, U.S. spy agencies used informers, agents and agent provocateurs to disrupt these organizations.

One of the stated purposes of this program was to “neutralize” Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Elijah Muhammad in order to prevent the development, in the government’s terms, of a “Black Messiah” who could unite and lead a mass organization of Black Americans in their quest for freedom and economic equality.

A second assassination of these two leaders has been the attempt to distort what they really stood for in their last years of life. This is a process, described by Lenin in the opening to his book, “State and Revolution” that

in the course of history has happened repeatedly to the theories of revolutionary thinkers and leaders of oppressed classes fighting for emancipation. During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain extent for the ‘consolation’ of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it.

As one who was politically active at that time, I believe that it is important to tell the truth about Martin and Malcolm to help keep their ideas alive and prevent them from being reduced to “harmless icons.”

There. I think the mention of COINTELPRO and quote from Stalin should frighten away the idjits. I'd prefer to spend 2004 as far from them as possible, thank you very much.

Mind you, some of the conspiracy theorizing from Negroes worries me -- there's a link at Black Electorate now promising me the truth about HIV/AIDS that I'm quite deliberately not clicking on -- but this piece I did click on, and read, and link to.

Make of that what you will.

Posted by Aaron at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (2)

Available for purchase/download from EMusic, it is, and it features Transylvanian Concubine (The Marilyn Manson Mix) by Rasputina.

Aye, thought that would get your attention.

Only track by the group that's there, I'm afraid, but they do suggest Switchblade Symphony as an alternative. Does this seem reasonable to people familiar with both groups?

And searching Google for the Switchblade Symphony web site brought up a paid link to Hate in the Box. I strongly suggest that Jason not look at the band photos.

Music samples for both groups at their respective sites, yadda yadda yadda.

Posted by Aaron at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The mighty Stephen Hawking is fuckin' insane,
So if you see me coming bitch you better duck,
'cause Stephen Hawking is crazy as fuck.

Oddly, I post this, then openly wonder when, precisely, I'm meant to have threatened people. Keep telling white folk that I have less faith in my telepathic abilities than they (foolishly) have in theirs, and they keep expecting me to read their minds. . .

Meanwhile, back in the Real World, Dominick's to close 12 stores in March:

Dominick's will close 12 poorly performing stores, the grocer announced Monday, two months after it failed to find a buyer for the troubled supermarket chain.

Eight suburban and four Chicago stores--with 290 full-time and 500 part-time employees--are scheduled to close March 13, the company said.

This plus the Fannie May factory (and at the mo', all their locations) closing, and Bush and company still insist the economy is turning around. Yeah, if you're working on tech to send somebody to Mars, or some other place Holst wrote a piece about.

I feel folks on the whole "humanity spreading forth from the womb" shit -- I've read Octavia Butler's Parables trilogy, or twology, or whatever you want to call it -- but also gotta agree with Bruce Sterling:

I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people setting the Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert is about a thousand times as hospitable as Mars and five hundred times cheaper and easier to reach. Nobody ever writes "Gobi Desert Opera" because, well, it's just kind of plonkingly obvious that there's no good reason to go there and live. It's ugly, it's inhospitable and there's no way to make it pay. Mars is just the same, really. We just romanticize it because it's so hard to reach.

But hey, they want to spend a trillion or so bucks of their money doing it, it's a free coun-- wait, they are talking about using their money to do this, right? Rich old white fucks that they are?

Posted by Aaron at 8:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Still adding to the massive list of links, most recently following up on the recent (rediscovered) interest in linguistics. Which is why there's now:

• The X-Bar
• Language Log
• languagehat
• Prentiss Riddle: Language
• semantics etc. ²

And while we're not on the subject, check out Dilettante: Dropping Science:

After a fashionable expanse of time, an emcee appears. "Some of you may know her from running around in a banana suit or licking a lollipop in a little girl's dress. Others of you are students of hers." little lera boroditsky (girl scientist), a confident, diminutive, soft-spoken pixie in a smart brown suit, takes the helm, hands firmly planted on an overhead projector pilfered from the Stanford psychology department. A bookish, socially retarded scholastic savant she is not.

"I'm not by any means an artist," boroditsky broaches. "I wanted to let you know that straight up. I'll prove it to you by showing you some of my drawings." She overhead-projects an optical illusion of two stick-figure boxes that, at different angles, appear to be different sizes but aren't. Which demonstrates, she says, that everything humans see is made up by our brains. We don't see what's actually there.

Speaking of Pixies, you best order now, because ABC7Chicago.com: Chicago's Fannie May plant to close:

Archibald Candy Corp. announced Monday that it is selling its Fannie May and Fanny Farmer businesses to an unidentified buyer and shutting down its decades-old manufacturing plant in Chicago, putting 625 employees out of work.

The 84-year-old Chicago candy maker made the announcement after informing representatives of its five labor unions in a meeting. It said it is in "final negotiations" with a buyer for its candy businesses.

The new owner will supply the candy to keep the Fannie May and Fanny Farmer brands going, Archibald spokesman Ron Bottrell said. But no buyer could be found for the aging plant in Chicago's West Loop.

And also (registration possibly required), All Fannie May stores to close:

Archibald Candy Corp. will shutter all of its 228 Fannie May and Fannie Farmer stores by Feb. 15, the company told union officials Friday.

Stores will start closing Jan. 20, said an officer of Service Employees International Union Local 1, which represents the company's retail store cashiers.

"They're going out of business. No more candy stores in the U.S. No more candy made in the U.S.," said Charles Bridgemon, director of the union's industrial division.

The girl scientist is another Chicago expat. She'd understand.

Posted by Aaron at 7:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Knew I would miss 'em:

Anonymous 4 American Angels
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 8 p.m., $29/28

Take a 300-year journey through American song with four women renowned for their virtuosic singing and unearthly vocal blend. Featuring “Amazing Grace” and “Wondrous Love,” along with songs from the Bay Psalm Book (the first book published in the English-speaking New World). A question-and-answer session with the artists will be held following the performance.

Want to know more? See Anonymous 4 - American Angels:

Anonymous 4 turns from the medieval repertoire to explore the roots of American sacred music. Developed in Toni Morrison’s Atelier program at Princeton in spring 2003, American Angels includes songs of redemption and glory from the time of the American Revolution to the present day: 18th-century psalm settings from rural New England, 19th-century shape-note and camp revival songs from the rural South, and some of the nation’s best-loved gospel songs.

And also the Anonymous 4 Tour Dates. Guess I could drive out and catch the show in Northampton. . .

What?

Remembered the show -- and hoped, in vain, that I hadn't managed to miss it -- while in Columbus, when Neo played some Rasputina and mentioned their cd of madrigals.

Like most Negroes, I'm all about the madrigals.

Oh, and cello-playing goth babes:

Only the odd little songs she made up as a child gave any indication of the direction Melora Creager would take. "I remember a 'Ballad of Lizzie Borden,' where I hit the piano with my hands, like I was chopping," she recalls. "That was my five-year-old taste."

That mixture of childlike playfulness and dark humor is a hallmark of the music Creager makes today with Rasputina, the world's greatest female cello Goth-rock trio. Whether singing about burial rites for broken dolls and crushes on boys at state fairs, wearing corsets and bloomers as stage costumes, or collaborating with shock-rocker Marilyn Manson, Creager has shaped her fanciful artistic vision into an ensemble that's unique in both the worlds of rock and stringed music.

Unlike Jason, however, I realize that such women are bright and beautiful, but best appreciated from a distance. Y'know. Like Hiroshima.

You can listen to some samples from the safety of your computer at Rasputina - Audibles. For the Buffyheads in the audience, I regret to inform that Transylvanian Concubine is not among them.

Update: Right, you can also hear some Anonymous 4 on their Harmonia Mundi page.

I don't think they were ever on Buffy, though.

Posted by Aaron at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Either of which can be either feminine or masculine, depending on the language you speak. But I was referring to the Ani Difranco song.

Any road up, What is Focusing?

Focusing is a body-centered process you can use to bring clarity and fresh air to all the life issues you face. Based on extensive research into successful personal change, Focusing gives you access to a deep level of knowing, leading to inner transformation you can feel immediately.

Focusing is a process of attending inwardly with non-judgmental presence. It is a self-help skill which can be used to find greater clarity, insight, centeredness, and inner peace. It can also be combined with therapy of all kinds to increase effectiveness. Focusing is used all over the world, and has been spreading steadily since Eugene Gendlin introduced it, based on research into successful psychotherapy, in the 1960s.

From Dr. Gendlin's book on the subject, called Focusing:

A therapist is not necessary in focusing. By yourself, or with a friend who knows how and when to keep quiet, you can achieve focusing results.

The most important rule for a therapist or friend to observe, in helping someone to focus, is to stay out of the focuser's way. Most therapists like to believe it is they who produce results, rather than a process in the patient. Therapists have much to offer and think this will make all the difference. There is always a strong temptation to analyze what the patient says, to make guesses about the nature of the problem, to lecture, to rearrange the person's situation.

But only your body knows your problems and where their cruxes lie. If I were your personal therapist, I would resist the powerful temptation to tell you things, as though I knew more about your problems than you do.

Was going to add emphasis to that passage, but realized I'd be either bolding or italicizing the entire thing.

Part of the focusing process involves, well, on the outside it looks like pauses, and saying things that contradict each other or don't seem to follow. This is normal and accepted.

Unfortunately, in standard Western/English/American conversation, this is ab-normal and not accepted.

Might have more to say on this later, since I keep dealing with people who can't -- or at least don't -- resist those temptations mentioned in the passage, but for now?

Deal.

Want to know more? You might could visit Focusing Resources, for a start, or some of the links at Milz - Psychotherapeutische Medizin, Coaching, Ganzheitliche Medizin.

Or go directly to the source at The Focusing Institute.

Posted by Aaron at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Weird running across it twice in one day, or at least one 24 hour period, but maybe it's the (virtual) company I'm keeping these days. By way of the Delany group again, She explores the world of language and thought:

At the heart of [Lera] Boroditsky's research is a question: Does the language we speak shape the way we think?

At first, the answer seems obvious. The 6,000 languages of the world are wildly diverse, and it seems reasonable that language must shape the way people think about the world. Take gender, for instance. English speakers don't assign any genders to nouns. But in Spanish, the word for "bridge" for example, is masculine and in German it is feminine. In a recent study, Boroditsky found that German speakers used words such as "elegant," "fragile," and "pretty" to describe a bridge, where Spanish speakers chose adjectives such as "strong," "sturdy," and "dangerous."

But what do these differences really mean? As Steven Pinker put it, "just because a German thinks a bridge is feminine, doesn't mean he's going to ask one out on a date."

Boroditsky argues that each individual effect might be small, but the cumulative effects could be awesome.

"A lot of languages have small grammatical differences, like genders that attach to every noun," she said. "Now in each case that's a small difference, but if you add it all up -- every single noun -- it could be huge."

[. . .] Her work at Stanford showed that English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently because of differences in how the two languages talk about time. The results were hailed by proponents and critics alike, and today there are at least a dozen groups across the country doing similar research. Boroditsy herself has just established a lab in Indonesia, and the first round of studies -- on Indonesian verbs -- is intriguing.

Click through to find out what's so intriguing, if you're interested.

And if you are, you could look around Lera Boroditsky's page at MIT; there's some papers, working and otherwise. When did folk start using PDF instead of PostScript for those? Honestly. Young people these days.

And MIT OpenCourseWare is always worth a look, even if I have neglected to mention it before, being a flake.

Update: Oh look, Lera's name-checked in an entry at languagehat. Note to self: Chaos Magic Bad, runaway synchronicity mildly disturbing.

Posted by Aaron at 5:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Noticed on the Delany Yahoo! Group, which I should read more often:

A Sense of Wonder: Samuel R. Delany, Race, Identity, and Difference, by Jeffrey Allen Tucker

In-depth study places a major American writer in the African-American tradition.

Samuel R. Delany is one of today’s most interesting writers. African-American and gay, Delany crosses boundaries—generic (science fiction, memoir, theory, pornography) and academic (literary studies, cultural studies, African-American studies, gay and lesbian studies). Critics both black and white have read Delany as a writer who downplays his racial identity in order to aspire to universal values. In contrast, A Sense of Wonder shows how Delany’s works participate in African-American cultural traditions.

Was thinking about the man earlier because (fasten your seat belts, this gets involved) David Moles posted a quote from him in a thread at Kathryn Cramer's blog which was linked from that discussion at Making Light about Poppy Z. Brite and the LiveJournal kids:

And if a writer thinks his or her work has been misinterpreted, I think by far the best response is Chip Delany’s short, sweet “That’s an interesting reading.”

I'm so going to be using that one.

Damn shame I'll have to use it, but what can you do?

Update: Further down in the list is a pointer to Racial Realities and Amazing Alternatives: Studying the Works of Samuel R. Delany by Jeffrey Allen Tucker, Ph.D., an essay that the book might be built on. Or something.

An uncle, inquiring as to the nature of my graduate research asked me, "So just what are you doing up there at Princeton?" When I explained that I was writing on the first major African-American SF writer, my uncle replied, "Oh no, we (meaning African Americans) don’t do that. We leave that kind of stuff (SF) for white folks." I had no idea as to how to reply and let the matter drop, but his words indicated that for many people--black as well as white--science fiction and African-American culture are mutually exclusive. However, such assumptions seem odd given that the narrative of African-American history resembles something by H.G. Wells or George Lucas. Consider: A group of beings is invaded by an alien race, captured, and taken across vast distances to a "New World," where they are enslaved and later liberated following a near-apocalyptic war. Both past and recent black experiences have had all-too-fantastic features, as Mark Dery writes in a preface to an interview with Delany:

African Americans, in a very real sense, are the descendants of alien abductees; they inhabit a sci-fi nightmare in which unseen but no less impassable force fields of intolerance frustrate their movements; official histories undo what has been done; and technology is too often brought to bear on black bodies (branding, forced sterilization, the Tuskegee experiment, and tasers come readily to mind).

What makes the perceived split between black and SF cultures even more puzzling is the presence of SF themes in Black musical culture: The straight-outta-Saturn jazz of Sun Ra, Parliament/Funkadelic’s cosmic slop of rocking funk, and Afrika Bambataa’s interplanetary search for the perfect beat are some of the noteworthy examples of black music’s incorporation of futuristic and fantastic elements. And there is anecdotal evidence that black participation in SF conventions and consumption of SF merchandise has increased in recent years. So how does one account for the imagined gap between Black culture and SF?

Said essay was "[r]eprinted with kind permission from Ohio University College of Arts and Sciences Forum V. 15, Spring 1998." Things have changed a bit since then.

Posted by Aaron at 5:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, except for Audio Jam with Steve Hart on WBEZ as a youth, but that was before the invention of television. . .

Also celebrating birthdays today, Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh.

There's bad karma, and then there's the Gods whispering in your ear "DON'T DO THAT SHIT," in that subtle little way of theirs.

Oh, and Rob Zombie's bday is today too, which is why I also don't do. . . whatever the hell it is he does.

Thanks to all for the Good Wishes in the other thread. I'd reciprocate on your birthdays, but there's that whole senility thing. You'll have to remind me of when they are. And even that might not help. . .

Posted by Aaron at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Or something, although the writer is known for his linguistics work as well:

There is a trap which is deeply rooted in the intellectual culture, and we have to avoid it. The trap is the doctrine that I sometimes call the doctrine of change of course. It's a doctrine that's invoked every two or three years in the United States. The content of the doctrine is yes, in the past, we did some wrong things because of our innocence or out of inadvertence, but now that's all over, so we can't not waste any more time on this boring, stale stuff, which incidentally we suppressed and denied while it was happening, but must now be effaced from history as we march forward to a glorious future. And if you look, it is literally every two or three years that the doctrine is invoked. There is a qualification. We are permitted, in fact, required to recall with great horror the misdeeds of official enemies, and we're also required to admire with awe, our own magnificent achievements in the past in both categories, relying in no small measure on self-serving reconstructions, which quickly collapse if you follow the path of paying attention to the facts, but fortunately, that dangerous course is excluded by the convenient doctrine of change of course, which blocks any such heresies.

The Noamster, of course, at ZNet | Iraq | After the War. Nothing he hasn't said a zillion times before, but unlike me he still seems to have some patience for repeating himself.

Second Verse:

Speak read or write Spanish   No Yes  
Speak read or write Polish   No Yes  
Communicate using ASL (American Sign Language)   No Yes  
Communicate using SEE (Sign Exact English)   No Yes  
Speak read or write Arabic   No Yes  
Speak read or write Cambodian   No Yes  
Speak read or write Cantonese   No Yes  
Speak read or write French   No Yes  
Speak read or write German   No Yes  
Speak read or write Greek   No Yes  
Speak read or write Gujarati   No Yes  
Speak read or write Hebrew   No Yes  
Speak read or write Hindi   No Yes  
Speak read or write Italian   No Yes  
Speak read or write Japanese   No Yes  
Speak read or write Korean   No Yes  
Speak read or write Laotian   No Yes  
Speak read or write Mandarin   No Yes  
Speak read or write Portugese   No Yes  
Speak read or write Russian   No Yes  
Speak read or write Tagalog   No Yes  
Speak read or write Vietnamese   No Yes  

Questions from the Illinois Skills Match System. Yes, the presence or absense of a particular language, and the order in which they appear, is quite significant. But if I gotta tell you that about Polish and Chicago, you might be at the wrong web site.

Third Verse:

Although all observers may be confronted by the same physical evidence in the form of experiential data and although they may be capable of "externally similar acts of observation," a person's "picture of the universe" or "view of the world" differs as a function of the particular language or languages that person knows.

(Lee 1996, page 87)

First you have to claw your way through the linguistic thicket created by the academic register in which that quotation is written. Why is it written like that? One of the rules of the Academic Regalian register is that the more you expect other academics to be opposed to what you're saying or wanting, the more extreme your use of the register has to he. This is unfortunate, because controversial subjects are also subjects about which it's important to be as clear as possible. But if the academic game is the game you're playing, clarity has to be sacrificed to this linguistic dominance display.

The translation process introduces a delay, certainly; but when you get to the end of it you will realize that you've cone upon a concept so interesting that it grips the mind and won't let go. It's called "the linguistic relativity hypothesis" (also "the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis" and "the Whorf/Whorfian hypothesis"). Lee's quotation says that the way human beings perceive the world around them varies with the languages they know — even though they perceive the same things, in the same manner, using the same physical and mental "equipment." This will strike you either as common sense or non-sense, depending on your own personal convictions about the power of language.

From The Link Between Language and the Perception of Reality, itself an excerpt from The Language Imperative, by Suzette Haden Elgin. Some of whose SF novels I'm certain I read at some point, but damned if I can remember anything about them. Maybe memory is the first thing to. . . no, my memory's always been crap.

Thing about the third verse is, currently I seem to playing the role of the villain in several people's psychodramas, and only find out about my villainy second- or third-hand, weeks or months after the fact -- I'm still slightly puzzled about when I threatened anyone, unless white folk aren't familiar with the phrase "put my foot up his/her ass," which I don't think is the case.

Luckily for all involved -- well, for me, anyway -- I find all this alternately amusing or hideously idiotic, rather than getting defensive about it. Meaning I joke about it. Some people, it seems, take offense at this.

Well, there's a simple solution.

Goodbye.

No, really, if reading this site bothers you that much, the chances of me changing to make you feel better are somewhere between slim and none, so you'll do wonders for your attitude by just going the fuck away. Buh-bye.

Unless, you know, you'd prefer to act like grown folk and actually talk to me about what's bothering you.

Didn't think so.

Buh-bye.

Posted by Aaron at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Ok, bad enough I'd somehow managed to confuse Teresa Nielsen Hayden and Suzette Haden Elgin -- see, the names are similar, kind'a, if you squint a little -- but I'm starting to think I'd done the same thing with Poppy Z. Brite and, um, Faith Popcorn.

See, the names are similar, kind'a, if you squint a little. . .

Realized this after reading a bit of PzB online and thinking, "Wow, this isn't at all what I expected."

I've mentioned the degenerative brain disease, yes?

And white people all look alike anyway.

Want to know more? I'll be looking over Teresa Suzette's Linguistics & Science Fiction Newsletter when I get a chance, and probably signing up when I manage to secure that gainful employment thing the kids are all into these days.

Update: Bringing this all full circle, there's an entry (and long related comment thread) at Making Light about the whole banned from a fan community about your own work thing.

Spot the looney.

HInt: She (or he) has a LiveJournal email addy.

I know several sane people who have LiveJournals, but I'm starting to think they're the minority.

They probably say the same thing about bloggers.

Posted by Aaron at 6:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

Been hearing the name Poppy Z. Brite for a dog's age, but somehow never got 'round to actually reading anything by her. Link to Bruce Sterling's blog over at Die Puny Humans brought up an entry on her, um, getting "thrown off and banned from a Poppy Brite fan website," which impressed me enough to finally look up her site (that first link up there), and have a look at her LiveJournal, where the full version of the whole banning story really must be read to be disbelieved. And she contributed a story to the Matrix site, which either brings us full circle or is a total non-sequitur, depending on if you consider the blog as a whole as a text, or if each individual entry constitutes. . .

Ok, I'm bored. Does it show?

Off to read.

Specific Die Puny Humans entry here, and the Sterling entry on her is here. Remember kids, never link the word "here" in hypertext, it defeats the entire purpose.

Posted by Aaron at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

If, like me, you've had comment spam out the arse lately and are using MT-Blacklist, you could do worse than add my blacklist; currently I have slightly more entries than the master blacklist, for some reason. Possibly because I should submit my list to Jay.

The Uppity-Negro.com Winter 2004 Toxic Tour has concluded, for the nonce, after stops in Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, IN. It was nice to see Neogrammarian again, even if I did choose a very bad time to drop by, and to finally meet Michelle in person. I didn't meet B., because I'm a flake, but did have a nice Ethiopian lunch with were-you-going-to-do-something-with-this-or-not? Gothic Femme. So, um, yeah. Angry black men all. Or angry black queer women. Or something.

And I got a new coat.

And found out that a couple DivaNation cds are available through EMusic. So if you wanted those Karma Sutra or Pointy Teeth albums. . .

And that's it, I'm going to bed.

Posted by Aaron at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Ok, I'm in Columbus. Specifically, in The Waiting Room, which oddly doesn't seem to have a web site.

Free WiFi and vegan sammiches. And a cute punk girl at the next table. I may never leave.

Oh, right, unemployed. Eventually, I'll finish this strawberry-banana smoothie and I suppose they get upset if you stay for hours on end without ordering anything. . .

Anyway, am fine, except for Neo's cat either not remembering me, or not remembering nice things about me. Watched Millennium Actress last night, which I liked more than Neo did, but possibly because the last line made me go, "Duh."

And not in a good way.

Maybe it was more of a "D'oh."

Um, most of yesterday was the drive here. Monday was spent at Brown Elephant and the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Tour with the lovely and talented Nelly Min.

I expect you will all behave while I'm not here. Since, you know, I'm not not here.

Posted by Aaron at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Right, wrote a up a brief entry yesterday mentioning how there wouldn't be any entries yesterday, but managed to not post it. Thus confirming the contents.

Pity, since I'd wished Dru a Happy Birthday, and now have to be all CPT with it. . .

Might have an assignment starting next Monday, which isn't the worst birthday present I've ever gotten, but still. Also getting the results of the physical I had yesterday, and which I'm hoping is the reason I passed out yesterday afternoon. They took blood. Lots of precious, precious blood.

That, and I'm living on cigarettes, coffee and Red Bull. Gave up on the Mountain Dew. That shit'll kill you.

In fact, I think I shall call go back to calling it The White Man's Poison. Always a good way to cause the person drinking it to snort it out their nose, saying unto them, "Look at you, drinking The White Man's Poison! This is why we don't get nowhere as a people."

Helps if it's a person of color, but really works either way.

Current plans include a road trip out to Columbus for the rest of the week, with a swing through Indianapolis on the way back. All this could change, of course.

In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves.

I'll give you a topic.

In the Matrix films, some jobs in Zion/aboard ships require implants. Others, like being an Operator or controlling the way-cool fighting robots (any film with fighting robots is automatically good, I don't care what anyone says) do not; in fact, Mifune's line to The Kid indicates a level of tension between the two groups.

Discuss.

Posted by Aaron at 6:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (1)

It all goes slo-mo.
I don’t know why I’m crying.
Am I suspended in gaffa?

From Cloudbusting -- Kate Bush In Her Own Words: Suspended In Gaffa:

When I wrote this track the words came at the same time, and this is one of the few songs where the lyrics were complete at such an early stage. The idea of the song is that of being given a glimpse of ``God'' - something that we dearly want - but being told that unless we work for it, we will never see it again, and even then, we might not be worthy of it. Of course, everybody wants the reward without the toil, so people try to find a way out of the hard work, still hoping to claim the prize, but such is not the case. The choruses are meant to express the feeling of entering timelessness as you become ready for the experience, but only when you are ready.

The song was covered by another band I killed, My Scarlet Life, on the Chicago-based Kate Bush tribute album, I WANNA BE KATE: The Songs of Kate Bush.

Which I expect I shall have to order a copy of, as I've been unable to find one anywhere.

Posted by Aaron at 6:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (2)

Bit curious as to if that charactar is going to render correctly; it's the upside-down e, ə.

And "fəna" is common enough in Black Vernacular English, at least the variety spoken in Chicago. Excuse me, mother fucking, trigger-happy homicide capital of the US, Chitown.

Not something to be proud of, true, but since the Cubs choked. . .

Any road up, what I'm fəna do is use Wishlist.com to try to guilt loot out of readers. They have a JavaScript link you can add to your toolbar which (supposedly) allows you to add items to your wishlist from anywhere, but I'm skeptical. Or just using Debian GNU/Linux and Firebird.

So, this is my wishlist. And I'm quite serious about the big, pink Hello, Kitty television. It would brighten up the living room considerably, I'm thinking.

Wishlist.com found poking around the Sanrio site, because what else would I be doing early Saturday morning?

Blah. Weird UNICODE encoding on the character, it appears. Live and learn. . .

Update II: The New Batch -- did a Copy & Paste of the character from Karsh's comment, since the encoding just weren't working in most browsers/character sets.

Update III: The Search for Rawk -- No, idiot me left the pound/hash symbol out of the encoded bit, because I am a tool. Maybe I should go back to the Mountain Dew. . .

Posted by Aaron at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Ok, not quite new. And I'm not sure this 400-pixel width banner is going to fit into the new/current design. . .

Yes, Lisa Loeb joins the not-so-illustrious ranks. It's the glasses, I think.

That, and the Hello, Kitty tie-in.

Speaking of whom. . .

When you purchase the limited-edition "Handle With Care" T-shirt Sanrio will donate $10 to the YouthAIDS organization. YouthAIDS is working in 70 countries to educate and protect kids from a life of HIV/AIDS. Through theatre, media, music, fashion and sport YouthAIDS promotes decreased sexual activity, protected safer sex and abstinence.

Links added here and there.

I expect the abstinence-only conservatives will have to boycott Sanrio now.

This notion amuses me.

Want to know more About Youth AIDS?

YouthAIDS is a growing global initiative that generates funding and awareness to help fight the spread of the disease among the world’s youth. YouthAIDS programs are designed to educate young people and protect them from a life of HIV/AIDS. Through mass media, theatre, music, fashion and sport, YouthAIDS promotes abstinence, decreased sexual activity and safer sex among 15 – 24 year-olds, the generation most likely to be infected.

I'm more likely to buy the “My Fetish is Saving Lives” Eve tee. It comes in black. One can never have too many black t-shirts.

Posted by Aaron at 5:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Ah me.

Tried one last time to make nice with the ex on New Year's Eve, in ICQ, in a conversation I probably should have saved instead of closing it in a fit of pique.

Did manage to ask if she'd received her Kwanzaa gift (she had) and wish her Nuevo Año Felicidad before the Venting began. And I learned a few things.

Apparently, I'm toxic.

Good to know, good to know.

This is why she feels we cannot ever be friends again.

S'funny, since she's a narcissistic bitch with a body count who almost convinced me it was better to swallow a bullet than spend another second dealing with her bullshit, and whose male-bashing rhetoric confirms some of the worst stereotypes about lesbians, but I'm willing to give it another go anyway.

We cannot control who we love, after all.

And I still remember the woman I knew before, oh, call it March of last year, who actually was loveable. One I talked to that last day of 2003 wasn't even vaguely likeable.

Didn't feel the urge to rise to the Venting, though, or retaliate (which one could argue is what I'm doing now, but. . . yeah, actually, I guess it is), or try to explain where she'd misinterpreted things, or mention that private emails sent to third parties while pissed off and drunk may not be an accurate reflection of how someone feels about anything, but meh.

I vented, I felt better, I tried to be nice. I got it thrown back in my face. I'm done.

Probably wouldn't even bother writing this if Neo hadn't kindly told me what the hell "toxic" means in this context, since I had no clue. Never been called that before. I suppose this will be the next poll, asking how common this opinion is. . .

And, like the last one, I'll treat the results as a punchline, because when you come right down to it, I'm not changing who I am to try to please other people anymore. Been there, done that, felt like shit as a result.

Probably ain't gonna be updating today; hope everyone has a good first weekend -- especially those of you/us enjoying a four-day weekend -- and will ask the nice people at the State of Illnois Driver's License facility if my toxicity means I get a Class B or extra sticker or something. Have to renew mine, which expires on my birthday, January 12th, so buy me stuff.

Posted by Aaron at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Except you can't quite buy what you try. . .

From Blog of a Bookslut, notice that you can view the entire first issue of Jessica Abel's La Perdida, which is out of print, but still purchase the rest of the series. Which will probably be eventually collected in trade, yes, but why wait?

Carla Olivares, a young woman with a Mexican father and an Anglo mother--but who grew up entirely Anglo--arrives in Mexico City in search of some sense of her Mexican roots and history. She initially stays with an ex-lover, Harry, and starts to meet new friends, learn Spanish, and see the city.

From the description at Artbabe. Jessica also has a free/sample comic at Artbomb.net, as well as the This American Life comic, Radio: An Illustrated Guide, if you wanted to know more.

Yes, I'm an Artbabe fanboy. But my heart will always belong to Kris Dresen, who asks:

Anyone out there feel like starting 2004 off with a selfless deed? I don't have cable (oh, shut up) and I would really be grateful if someone would find it in his or her heart to tape this for me:

"On Saturday, January 3, at 10:00 pm and Sunday, January 4 at 4:00 pm: Maggie Balistreri on C-SPAN 2's Book TV, reading from The Evasion-English Dictionary and taking questions from the audience."

Please? Someone? Anyone? I'll swap ya the tape for comics or even a sketch. Heck, I'll even pony-up for the cost of the tape. If anyone feels like being a pal, email me!

They took away my free cable, so I cannot help. Anyone? Bueller? Lewis? Randall? Phillips?

Posted by Aaron at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ok, something else Zero Four is going to bring around here is, more likely than not, less political discussion.

Or fewer political entries. I can explain the usage difference if you want. And then explain that, as far as linguists are concerned, it's bullshit and you can use whichever you fucking well please.

Or not.

(Re-)Quoted a bit from (Trouble On) Triton which explains why I'm not going to be bothering, and there was some stuff on Cobb and DC Thornton's blogs recently that really underscored the point for me. Bored now.

Find you own links. Bored.

Let the next-door neighbor's cat, Violet, wander around the apartment for a bit. He lets her out into the hallway from time to time, and she's too intelligent to go outside, or even into the (locked) foyer, because, you know, cat. Unlike dogs, cats evolved with brains.

And also a certain aloofness that I find charming. Tried getting her attention, and she gave me that, "Uh-huh, I see you, I just don't find you remotely interesting, please leave me alone" look they do so well.

Dogs seem waaaay too needy -- remember Heather once telling me that we couldn't go back to the apartment, because we'd just left, and the dog would go crazy. And thinking, but not saying, "And I would give a fuck. . . why, exactly?" The cats, they'd either jump off the table and play it off like, "I wasn't doing nothing wrong," or look up and be like, "You back already? It's cool, there's still food in the bowl, go on, go out, have fun. Just make sure you back in time for the morning feeding, or there'll be Hell Toupee."

All of which reminds me, picked up the soundtrack for The Truth About Cats & Dogs at Brown Elephant last Saturday, but still haven't seen the movie. Maybe when I take Kiki back. . .

Posted by Aaron at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

But shouldn't everyone start the New Year with a fresh cache?

New Hotness courtesy of Michelle Jones' Blog Body Shop, improving the appearance of Uppity-Negro.com since 2003. But she can't do nothing about the content, no matter how hard she tries to talk me out of some stuff.

Out of my options for last evening, I choose "D," passing out on the couch and waking up about 45 minutes into the new year. And then watching Kiki's Delivery Service, which I'd rented for the night's entertainment.

This film has nothing to do with Kiki Stockhammer, thank you very much. Not even the transitions.

(And after that last joke, there's no way I can mention Warp 11 without sounding like a total geek, so I won't. Ha!)

Speaking of quality entertainment for children, he transitioned easily as someone driving a stick shift for the very first time, Cricket Magazine, I was surprised to learn, keeps on keeping on. Maybe if I had kids, or knew anyone who did. . . any road up, Trib article on the mag and the new anthology/celebration, Giving kids their due: In its 30 years, Cricket magazine has maintained high standards for its young readers:

In November 1973, in a note he wrote about himself for the children's literary magazine Cricket, Isaac Bashevis Singer declared that he liked to write for children. Children, the Nobel laureate opined, "are the best readers."

It was a sentiment Singer clearly shared with a gratifying number of that era's leading thinkers--with men and women who could have done anything with their prodigious minds and turned their talents to children. Clifton Fadiman, whose resume included hosting the famed "Information, Please" radio program, helping make Book-of-the-Month Club selections and serving as book editor of The New Yorker, believed, like Singer, in young readers. Fadiman thought they brought sophisticated sensibilities to books. They were capable of deep and true responses. "The child does not interpose a continuous, fuzzy, wavering screen of personal desires and wishful visions between himself and the page," Fadiman noted in "My Life Is an Open Book," a 1945 essay. "On the contrary, he and the page are one."

Found a bunch of old, old issues of the magazine from when I was a kid, in one of my abortive attempts at cleaning/organizing/unpacking at my mom's place. Which I should head to for another go at some point in the near future. But I digress. Cricket. Do they not do non-sub sales, or am I just looking in the wrong places? Like I said, I was surprised they still exist.

This may be a manifestation of The Stupid, though, and since that got the most votes, that's what you won't be seeing any of this year, on this site.

I give you my word as a Negro.

Posted by Aaron at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)