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I need to start picking a theme or something.
Anyways, just making my FFAF blog rounds and wanted to stop by and say hello. :)
And I hope you all have a great weekend!
One of my favorites:
HARMONY: Is Antonio Banderas a vampire?
SPIKE: No.
HARMONY: Can I make him a vampire?
SPIKE: No. On second thought, yes. Go do that. Take your time. Do Melanie and the kids as well.
Tam, Sun-Dried Toad
That's how USA Today phrases it in the headline. "3rd adult movie performer tests for HIV." Which is better than the other screaming "HIV OUTBREAK IN PORN INDUSTRY" headlines other organizations are using. Very serious issue, so I shouldn't joke about it, but could the coverage be just a wee bit less sensationalistic? Just a tad?
Silly question, I know.
Started writing something along the lines of, "When I did sex work," but thought the better of it. I am trying to cut down on the level of pretention, after all.
Picked up Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is by the lovely and talented Abigail Garner at the library. Interlibrary loan; I did pester the poor woman behind the counter about getting their own copy, as I'd been ordered under theat of greivous bodily injury politely asked to do.
And tomorrow am possibly heading to REBIRTH: A Group Show of Works on Paper, featuring work by the possibly equally lovely and talented Kris Dresen. Never met the girl, but am looking forward to doing so. And not just because she promises free wine.
That does help, yes. . .
7-11PM at The Flat Iron Building, 1935 1/2 W North Ave, if you're thinking of ambling that way yourself. At the very least, we are also promised a "big drawing of a nekkid lady with vines on her." So, you know, there's also the chance of seeing Ashcroft's Justice Department in action. What more do you need?
By the bye, anyone with greater mad HTML skillz wanna tell me if you can adjust the spacing around an IFRAME? Not thrilled with how that flows up there. . .
So like, my name is Karsh, but you plebeians can call me the Black Gay Blogger. Here's a little poem I'd like to share with you good people by my favorite poet Etheridge Knight.
And, yeah brothers
while white America sings about the unsinkable molly brown
(who was hustling the titanic
when it went down)
I sing to thee of Shine
the stoker who was hip enough to flee the fucking ship
and let the white folks drown
with screams on their lips
(jumped his black ass into the dark sea, Shine did,
broke free from the straining steel).
Yeah, I sing to thee of Shine
and how the millionaire banker stood on the deck
and pulled from his pockets a million dollar check
saying Shine Shine save poor me
and I'll give you all the money a black boy needs�
how Shine looked at the money and then at the sea
and said jump in muthafucka and swim like me�
and Shine swam on�Shine swam on�
and how the banker's daughter ran naked on the deck
with her pink tits trembling and her pants roun her neck
screaming Shine Shine save poor me
and I'll give you all the pussy a black boy needs�
how Shine said now pussy is good and that's no jive
but you got to swim not fuck to stay alive�
And Shine swam on Shine Swam on�
How Shine swam past a preacher afloating on a board
crying save me nigger Shine in the name of the Lord�
and how the preacher grabbed Shine's arm and broke his stroke�
how Shine pulled his shank and cut the preacher's throat�
And Shine swam on�Shine swam on�
And when news hit shore that the titanic had sunk
Shine was up in Harlem damn near drunk�
Peace, love, and soy negro y'all. I'm out.
P.S.: Don't confuse Shine with Shyne. Something tells me he's treaded more than his fair share of water anyway. Outlaw.
Why yes, I did turn on the guest login last night, as you can tell from the Thursday Free-For-All Friday posts.
But now, it's officially FFAF, so you can officially post here. Officially.
http://www.uppity-negro.com/cgi-uppity-negro/mt.cgiAnd you can always drop by Just Janice or nikkiana's place. . . although I'm having problems opening the latter.
Er, I'm meant to post some rules, but figure people are sensible enough to know how to behave properly. This often leads to disappointment, yes, but I'll deal with that as it happens.
From Gapers' Block, which I reached from a link at Pound (and which they found at Skin Talk), in about a month Chicago plays host to Shibaricon, "the world's premiere international pansexual annual exhibition and conference that focuses on education and information exchange of rope bondage."
Work. Not safe for. As you can imagine.
There's classes to teach bondage safety, which seems like a good thing to know -- and that reminds me, I haven't recertified for CPR recently. Which might be a necessary fallback if. . . I shut up now.
There's also a class/sesson on tea ceremony. Since I never got 'round to taking it at U of I, because I sucked then as much as I do now.
They're also looking for volunteers, if there are any EMTs or nurses out there who have that weekend free, or if you just wanted to work the registration table, among a few other things.
Guess I could always use more volunteer experience on my resume. . .
Well, it's that time of the month again.
No, not that time, Free-For-All Friday time. Like Smile Time, only no one gets turned into a puppet. So far.
Your participants:
How it works is, you log in to http://www.uppity-negro.com/cgi-uppity-negro/mt.cgi, using
Username: guest
Password: guest
And using the intuitive MovableType interface -- so simple, even University of Minnesota students can use it -- to craft an entry, like the one you're reading right now.
Only, one hopes, much more interesting and better-written.
Obviously, management reserves the right to remove anything I don't particularly care for, but you've all been here long enough to know what does and doesn't fly around here, right?
Personally, I'm looking forward to some gratuitous sex and violence.
Update: Oh yes, and LiveJournal types, as well as DiaryLand scum are also encouraged to participate. If the latter think they're up to the task, that is.
Is this a good time to mention new links Sour Bob, luvabeans, Pound and (predictably) mimi smartypants?
No, I expect not. . .
Yeah, that's not obscure or anything. . . by way of Dwayne McDuffie's weblog, an announcement of Justice League: Starcrossed:
Subtitles: 1 English, 3 Francais, 2 Espanol
Sound Quality: 2.0=Dolby Surround Stereo - English, 2.0=Dolby Surround Stereo -
Spanish, 2.0=Dolby Surround Stereo - Portugese
What?
Sheesh. Plot summary and more pimping of product in the link. Do I have to do everything around here?
Possibly related -- I'm entirely too chickenshit to ask either Dwayne or Kris about the current status of Th* R**d T* H*ll -- braver souls may now interact with the lovely and talented Kris Dresen over at her forum bulletin board thingee. Plus, more McDuffie madness at The Milestone Delphi Forum. Although that isn't the current name, and possibly never was.
Yes, I saw about Hal coming back at The Sideshow (who saw it at Amygdala, for those of you playing the home game). Yeah, whatever, John Stewart ain't make the cover of the JLA direct-to-video movie, I'm too busy being bitter over that to say anything.
And wondering how this will effect Priest's novels.
I expect I should explain that title.
Yep, I should do that.
People are probably wondering why it doesn't say, "by Ben Bova."
And I'm not really planning on going to this:
Bruce Sterling will be speaking and signing
his new book THE ZENITH ANGLE in the following cities:Chicago, IL Thursday, April 29th @ 7:30 PM
Talk & Signing
Barbara's Bookstore
1100 Lake Street
Oak Park, IL 60301
Don't think I've ever actually read anything by Bruce Sterling. . .
Also, via Jessa Crispin at Blog of a Bookslut, the Guardian piece Porn and the novel :
Yet most writers who take on the subject of pornography are men, and for them it is usual to adopt a pretty breezy, often humorous view of the way that pornography works. In Adam Thirlwell's recent novel Politics, for example, we see a female character sitting at her computer, scrolling through the pornography on offer: "Having exhausted the fisting gallery, Anjali was offered 29 snaps of horny babe cucking [sic] lover off in back of class, 30 zooms of gorgeous sexy hottie opening fat bald beaver . . . This list bored Anjali . . . In fact, thought Anjali, only one description showed potential. This was 18 looks at neighbour boy fucking grandma after mowing her grass. It was the mown grass that was good. It showed such homely appreciation of context."Female writers who have tried to deal with pornography often write from a very different perspective. Although it was Martin Amis who said that pornography is littered with the death of feelings, it is women writers who have dramatised this most explicitly. Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, which was shortlisted for the Orange prize this week, is a fascinating exploration of a world in which pornography has taken over from sexual intimacy. She writes of a dystopian future in which the needs of the body rule, and in which the mind and the soul are entirely discredited, a culture in which "Executions were its tragedies, pornography was its romance".
This is a novel that rests on moral certainty, and one of those moral certainties is the way that the growth of pornography can threaten the individual's ability to love. The relationship between her protagonist, Jimmy, and the woman whom he first falls for on a pornographic website is a simulacrum of a real relationship, in which communication is stunted and he is constantly searching for a connection that cannot be achieved.
Another writer who has tried to grapple openly with what it means if you allow pornography to dominate sexuality is Helen Walsh, whose first novel was published to great interest last month. Brass, a coming-of-age novel set in Liverpool, is unusual because it engages so fiercely with what is troubling about porn. "I saw women through the eyes of a pornographer," her character Millie says; she learns to see other people whom she desires not as living, loving individuals but as objects to be used. Indeed, she goes so far as to pick up prostitutes and pay them to enact pornographic scenarios with her. There is something terrifying about the way she describes the sex in this unfeeling universe. "I manipulate myself hard and selfishly," says Millie, "the whore becoming nothing but a body. A cunt in a magazine."
Half-listened to a possibly appropriate discussion on Unfiltered this morning on Air America, but they don't appear to have a blog, unlike some of the other shows. Or, again, not looking hard enough.
Listened to the 'net stream; the Chicago affiliate sometimes airs shows, and sometimes plays music with the odd promo. Yes, it'll be going completely away soon. No, still no word on a replacement, but I'm confident that no matter what, the right wingers will prattle on mindlessly about the death of the network and how they're silencing the voices of people of color, which we all know the right wing is all about listening to.
Wankers.
Some commentary and sketchy details at Eric Zorn's Notebook, although I should warn you that he leaves me in the dust as far as Mimi Smartypants celebrity stalking goes.
Bringing this almost full circle, Blog of a Bookslut also linked the Guardian's excerpt of O: The Intimate History of the Orgasm by Jonathan Margolis.
Guess I should move the Sterling bit after the bit on. . . nah.
Just my jaundiced reading of the NYTimes article Answer, but No Cure, for a Social Disorder That Isolates Many:
Because Asperger's was not widely identified until recently, thousands of adults like Mr. [Steven Miller, a university librarian] — people who have never fit in socially — are only now stumbling across a neurological explanation for their lifelong struggles with ordinary human contact.As Mr. Miller learned from the article, autism is now believed to encompass a wide spectrum of impairment and intelligence, from the classically unreachable child to people with Asperger's and a similar condition called high-functioning autism, who have normal intelligence and often superior skills in a given area. But they all share a defining trait: They are what autism researchers call "mind blind." Lacking the ability to read cues like body language to intuit what other people are thinking, they have profound difficulty navigating basic social interactions. The diagnosis is reordering their lives. Some have become newly determined to learn how to compensate.
They are filling up scarce classes that teach skills like how close to stand next to someone at a party, or how to tell when people are angry even when they are smiling. Others, like Mr. Miller, have decided to disclose their diagnosis, hoping to deflect the often-hostile responses their odd manners and miscues provoke. In some cases, it has helped. In others, it seemed only to elicit one more rejection.
It's the last paragraph that jumped out at me. Puts me in mind of how no one really heard of lactose intolerance until lactaid came out and did a publicity blitz.
Of course, this could just be the Asperger's talkin-- no, that's just in poor taste. . .
Mentioned this a while back, after reading Clare Sainsbury's Martian in the Playground : Understanding the Schoolchild with Asperger's Syndrome. Link to Amazon.co.uk; don't see any evidence of a US print of the book, but may not be looking hard enough.
Article seen at Metafilter, which also had a link/discussion to/about The Obesity Myth over at Big Fat Blog.
Suppose I could explicitly tie these two apparently disparate topics together by mentioning the diet industry, but I just did, so why bother?
I forget what a sheltered life I've led. I'd never heard that pithy little aphorism before. From News Bureau: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Schools failing to accommodate teens who are pregnant or new mothers:
The Title IX legislation of 1972 has been celebrated for the dramatic benefits it brought to girls in school sports.But another group of girls, also guaranteed educational equality through Title IX, have seen little benefit, says Wanda Pillow, a professor of educational policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In a new book, “Unfit Subjects: Educational Policy and the Teen Mother” (RoutledgeFalmer), Pillow writes that schools today rarely make even small accommodations for pregnant and mothering teens. As in the pre-Title IX past, the majority of pregnant teens apparently still leave school and don’t return.
In some schools, the old understanding that “when you show, you go” is still in effect – at least in practice, Pillow said. In some larger school systems, pregnant students are encouraged to attend alternative schools, but the quality of these schools is unclear.
Title IX clearly requires access to equal educational opportunity for these students, but the interpretation has been left to the individual schools, Pillow writes. “Presently, beyond forbidding expulsion, there is no case law to enforce or guide the provision of educational services for teen mothers at the local or state level.”
I mean, yes, when I was in high school, pregnant girls did seem to disappear and never come back, but I'm old, and this was during the Reagan administration, so I just assumed it was death squads.
Death squad jokes. Always a good ice-breaker.
As are discussions of race and class:
Those homes [for unwed mothers] served mainly white, working-class women, and the program emphasized job skills training that would enable the single mother to support herself and her child, Pillow said. The emphasis on training would lead to a later concern about the teen mother’s right to an education, and helped lay the groundwork for Title IX.But the homes also helped establish a clear pattern of defining the issue of unwed pregnancy by race, Pillow said. “White, unwed mothers were seen as fallen women, women who had made a mistake in their life … but who could be redeemed.” For black women, however, unwed pregnancy was seen more as a “cultural deficit,” Pillow said, and “redeeming” them was not a goal.
Those attitudes, along with concerns about moral contamination, have helped bring about a divided and shifting discussion on teen pregnancy and education, Pillow writes. The divide is between policies that view education for the pregnant or mothering teen as a right, versus those that view it as a responsibility.
“We are still treating white girls, particularly the white girls who are good students, as entitled to an education,” she said, though in reality they still face “severe limitations.” For girls of lower income or racial minorities, however, the perspective is often that they are responsible for their schooling, no matter the barriers, to avoid becoming a “burden on society,” she said.
If you're not already appalled, there's a bit on abstinence-only education, "the only form of sex education taught in Illinois and 16 other abstinence-only states." Bigot that I am, I'll thank our downstate legislators for this (even though the Republican 'burbs no doubt helped). See, this is why Chicago should secede. . .
And I didn't want to come off as even more of a rube, but it did surprise me to see that about Illinois being an abstinence-only state. So, yes, I went digging for info, and came across a (registration-required, quit your whining) Trib article from 2001, Scope of sex education varies widely:
When Mark Temple asks parents if they want their schools' sex education classes to cover potentially touchy subjects such as birth control, abortion or homosexuality, they frequently throw a question back at him."They'll say, 'You mean they aren't teaching this already?'
"They think it's being taught," and they want it to be taught, said Temple, an assistant professor of health education at Illinois State University and president of the Illinois School Health Association.
Like their parents, students also want plenty of straight talk on sex, said Nancy LaCursia, a health teacher at New Trier High School, which has one of the most comprehensive high school sex education programs in the Chicago area.
Later, my brain broke from irony overload on seeing the name of an organization:
Several organizations in the Chicago area are bringing abstinence-only messages into the schools. One of those is Project Reality, based in north suburban Golf and funded through grants from the Illinois Department of Human Services.The national, non-profit organization publishes texts and videos, trains teachers to use its curriculum and sends its speakers into middle school and high school classes.
Actually, guess it depends on the stress pattern you use for the first word, and the corresponding definitio-- sorry, linguistics geekery.
Link added -- also stuck one for the book/publisher site in the first quoted bit way at the top -- to Project Reality's site. It keeps showing yet more charming little aphorisms, like "True Love Waits" and "Avoid the Pain: Abstain."
And, of course, "Condoms don't protect the heart."
There's a joke there, somewhere, about not putting the thing on properly because you're a product of abstinence-only sex ed, but I have a broken brain.
Update: On Rhetoric.
There's a more recent, no-registration article at that bastion of journalistic integrity, the Fair and Balanced ones themselves, FOX NEWS: Bush Budget Fuels Debate Over Sex Ed:
Proponents of comprehensive sex education say telling teens to wait on intercourse is fine, but they also need straight talk about how to protect themselves from disease and unwanted pregnancy when they don't decide to wait. Safe-sex educators contend that abstinence-only programs drag schools and community outreach programs back to the dark ages by covering up frank sex talk with an unrealistic drumbeat about “waiting for marriage.”“It’s not what the public wants,” said Michael McGee of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which has received millions in federal money over the years for family planning services that include community-based programs for teens.
“Not one of these (abstinence) programs have been proven effective,” he said.
Contraceptive promotion and family planning programs receive an estimated $2.2 billion each year from the federal government. Abstinence advocates say by doubling the current spending on abstinence-only programs, funding will only reach $270 million in 2005.
“It’s a good step toward equalizing the funding,” said Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council.
“I wish the numbers were reversed,” said Peter LaBarbera, director of the Illinois Family Institute. “We would love it if Planned Parenthood weren’t subsidized at all.”
I wondered who we were in this context, and ended up at the Illinois Family Institute site.
They have issues:
Imagine the liberals’ outrage if public schools across Illinois endorsed a student protest organized by a national evangelical group that called on students to remain silent all day in school--and pass out Christian literature--to protest the lack of respect for Christianity in the education system.Now substitute “gay” for “Christian” and you see the hypocrisy of educators regarding Wednesday’s “Day of Silence” protests organized by the radical Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Once again, the policy at our schools is 'anything goes'--as long as it’s not religious (especially Christian). Some of the same administrators who are petrified at the idea of promoting belief in God are openly endorsing homosexual and “transgender” (read: cross-dressing) activism by students.
God is out. Sin and secularism are in. That’s the formula that has sucked the integrity out of our education system today.
Reading shit like that fucks with your head. I'm convinced of this.
It's a lovely example of the form, though. Overheated rhetoric, embrace of victimhood status for what the writer (mistakenly, in my opinion) labels Christianity, the almost amusing ignorance -- anyone want to explain that <sneer quotes>transgender</sneer quotes> should not be read cross-dressing? -- as long as you're not looking at it from the point of view of this lot having impact on public policy, or thinking you might actually have to converse with one of them, they're quite fascinating.
The Chicago Sun-Times sez:
Based in west suburban Glen Ellyn, the institute identifies itself as a "non-partisan, nonprofit, pro-family group." According to its Web site, it belongs to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability and has a working partnership with Focus on the Family.
Note to self: Stay the hell away from west suburban Glen Ellyn.
I've gone days without a Buffy reference. Shut up.
Celebrating or observing, take your pick, five years of level-headedness and sensibility, Rebecca Blood writes of echo chambers, online and off:
And what about those neighborhoods? It seems they have become ideologically more homogeonous, less diverse than they were even in the 50's. And as the Austin American Stateman puts it, this is the unexamined backstage story of the nation's increasingly rancorous politics.[. . .] As you know, I've linked and written and talked about this before. And while the Internet exacerbates the problem, but it would appear that this is a general trend--one that we need to pay attention to if we care about the survival of our democracy.
Which dovetails nicely with the ongoing discussion of, phrasing it incredibly poorly, what progressives/the Left should do with the religious folk in our midst.
Problem is, well, although instead of babbling in my half-informed about the new Iraqi flag, I can easily link to/quote from, say, River Bend:
I also heard today that the Puppets are changing the flag. It looks nothing like the old one and at first I was angry and upset, but then I realized that it wouldn't make a difference. The Puppets are illegitimate, hence their constitution is null and void and their flag is theirs alone. It is as representative of Iraq as they are- it might as well have "Made in America" stitched along the inside seam. It can be their flag and every time we see it, we'll see Chalabi et al. against its pale white background.
But I'm possibly choosing her, of the many Iraqi bloggers, because I feel a sense of ideological affinity. Plus, she's writing in English, another limitation on which of them I could choose from.
Dunno, really. On the one hand, diversity of opinion and talking across ideological lines is clearly a Good Thing, but on the other, the key word there is "talking." As opposed to sneering, or playing "Gotcha!" or name-calling, all of which I'd prefer to avoid around here, if it's all the same.
Well, I can still do the name-calling, but it's my site, dammit.
Anyway, so, by way of anil dash's daily links, it's the Top 100 Biggest Cities in the US of A:
- New York, New York (pop 8,008,278)
- Los Angeles, California (pop 3,694,820)
- Chicago, Illinois (pop 2,896,016)
- Houston, Texas (pop 1,953,631)
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (pop 1,517,550)
- Phoenix, Arizona (pop 1,321,045)
- San Diego, California (pop 1,223,400)
- Dallas, Texas (pop 1,188,580)
- San Antonio, Texas (pop 1,144,646)
- Detroit, Michigan (pop 951,270)
What I forget is how few cities in the US have over a million people. Indianapolis and Columbus appear in the list as 12 and 16, respectively, and although both are nice enough to visit, it's a bit difficult wrapping my brain around them ranking that high. Austin, of course, falls right below Columbus.
I suppose some enterprising soul has already checked these numbers against where weblog/LiveJournal/Diaryland/etc. maintainter type people say they live. Obviously, people I read make up a seriously skewed sample set, but a first pass would seem to confirm that "flyover country" is an accurate name for the vast majority of the country. Or I'm feeling snarky. Take your pick.
Along those lines, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul combined still only make up about how many people you could expect to find at Taste of Chicago on a good day, around half a million.
Well, give or take 150,000 or so; they're #47, at 382,618, and #63, at 287,151. Dammit, Jim, I'm a linguist, not a. . . math guy.
Not looking at racial breakdowns, because ignorance is bliss.
Print, namely. Does film count?
Elvis Mitchell is not in the buildingGossip websites and media blogs circulated rumors last week that film critic Elvis Mitchell was leaving the New York Times since A.O. Scott was allegedly made head film critic. Sources even reported seeing a dejected Mitchell leaving the New York Times building last Friday. The web is raging Monday morning with the scoop that Mitchell is heading to the Chicago Tribune, in the Trib's attempt to bring a celebrity film critic in to compete with Ebert and Roeper over at the Sun-Times. So, is it bye-bye, Michael Wilmington, hello Elvis? "Uttterly false," says Deputy Features Editor Jim Warren when asked about the rumors.
Nertz. And since when is Roeper a celebrity or a film critic? Especially the latter?
Also, and this is approaching scary stalk-ness, so a brief mention:
Dear Diary
Mimi Smartypants' blog is now a book. Unfortunately.
Didn't see the article (in the print edition, with a photo of Herself gracing the cover) until after hearing the On the Media/All Things Considered piece on chick lit (I hate sneer quotes). So the thing about disembodied feet, and the shoes they're in? Apparently, it could have been worse.
And the paperback cover will be.
I'm sure the US version will be much more tasteful. Or something.
Not really interested in protesting that it's a journal, not a blog. Any takers?
Yet another book -- this is not a literary weblog, can't you tell from my grammar? -- available
A Collection of Essays about the experience of lesbians in the field of teaching. This book includes for the most part discussion of coming out to the school comminity and issues of how lesbians should represent themelves.
It's from 1988, so I'm going to pretend this stat from Anna Stein's contribution
60% of those surveyed in a recent Gallup Poll objected less to gay soldiers, salespeople, priests, and doctors than to gay educators.
is no longer accurate.
And that the percentage is lower now, thank you very much.
Found the book (where else?) at Brown Elephant, which, yes, is nowhere near Shampoo-Banana, but I decided that little road trip really wasn't going to help me decide whether to move back down there for the next several years or not.
It's a slim volume, 58 pages or so. Anyone out there want it after I'm done?
Not that this material would be of interest to anyone who reads this site, or anyone I know. . .
Which is the title of the upcoming short story collection by David Sedaris. Noticed a big banner at Unabridged Books week before last announcing his appearance/signing there. A brief list of that and others, from Steven Barclay Agency:
June 1 - NYC, NY. Barnes & Noble 7:00 PMJune 2 - NYC, NY. Symphony Space, DS will be presenting an evening of Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story. For more information go to http://www.symphonyspace.org/
June 3 - Minneapolis/ St. Paul, MN. University of Minnesota Bookstore 7:00 PM
June 4 - Chicago, IL. Unabridged Bookstore 7:00 PM
June 5 - Chicago, IL. Barbara’s Bookstore in Oak Park at 7:00 PM
And there's others on the West Coast and other places I'm even less likely to attend. Then later, in the Fall:
Sunday, October 31, 2004 - Chicago, IL. Chicago TheatreWednesday, November 3, 2004 - St. Paul, MN. Fitzgerald Theatre, 10 Exchange Street. Tickets are available in person at the Fitzgerald Theater box office. Minnesota Public Radio members will receive a discount by ordering tickets through the Fitzgerald Theater box office at 651-290-1221. Tickets are also available through Ticketmaster at 612-673-0404, on-line at www.ticketmaster.com, or in person at any Ticketmaster outlet, located at all Marshall Field's and Mervyn's stores.
Friday, November 5, 2004 - Austin, TX. Paramount Theatre. For information call 512-472-5470 or go to www.austintheatrealliance.org
And then some appearances in November in Hawai'i. Insert snarky comment here.
Related, in that they're both with Steven Barclay (and are doing some appearanes together in 2005), Sarah Vowell appears today/tonight at 8 at the Herbst Theatre, courtesy of City Arts & Lectures in San Francisco. And I'm confident I'll forget by then, but she'll also be at Butler University in Indianapolis on Thursday, October 7th.
Why yes, I am a This American Life fanboy, why do you ask?
Which is the title of a book of conversations with Arundhati Roy, conducted by Alternative Radio host David Barsamian:
DB: You were speaking to some students in New Mexico recently and you advised them to travel outside the United States, to put their ears against the wall and listen to the whispering. What did you have in mind in giving them that kind of advice?AR: That when you live in the United States, with the roar of the free market, the roar of this huge military power, the roar of being at the heart of empire, it's hard to hear the whispering of the rest of the world. And I think many U.S. citizens want to. I don't think that all of them necessarily are co-conspirators in this concept of empire. And those who are not, need to listen to other stories in the world-other voices, other people.
That's from an excerpt at South End Press's site, something else I haven't visited in entirely too long.
There's a listing at PublicRadioFan.com of air times of Alternative Radio, and a Broadcast/interviewee schedule at AR's site, if you're interested.
np: World Café on WFUV, with guest Sarah Harmer.
S'funny, I don't remember ordering the pain on tap last night. But there may be many parts of the evening I don't remember. . .
Best thing about the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban trailer is, of course, the first thing: Alan Rickman. There needs to be a Severus Snape: Potions Instructor movie. Or tv series. Or something.
Not sure why I hadn't heard of Other Magazine until today, when I noticed a link at Bad Subjects. It's one of those dead-tree thingees, although some gods-I-hate-the-word "content" from the first two issues is up on the site. You can snag the current issue at Tower Records for $4 (instead of $5), or could a few weeks back, at any rate. Contributors include The Ubiquitous Hanne Blank (see also The Chicklit Challenge at Alternet [but from the current Utne], something else I stumbled on earlier while trying to sober wake up), Nalo Hopkinson, Cecilia Tan and America's Other Other Sweetheart Annalee Newitz. And, as they say, many, many more.
I'm annoyed to see that FreakMagnet.com has already been taken, as this was the proposed name of the dating site me, TranceJen and luvabeans were cooking up at Simon's. Bugger.
Well, I'm sure they're a nice band.
Considered driving up to Minneapolis tomorrow, realized that the current price of petrol makes this economically unfeasable at this juncture, and will instead probably be making the much shorter jaunt to beautiful Shampoo-Banana. Just to see if the place gives me flashbacks, or causes me to flee screaming. Best to avoid the parking lot where my old apartment building used to be to prevent the former, and stay the hell away from Kam's and C.O. Daniels to prevent the latter. Not so much of a problem, managed to not go into either of the hellholes during me undergrad years, and see no reason to start now. Besides, the idea of drinking holds no appeal whatsoever at the moment.
np: Shakira, Ojos Asi, Random MiniDisc mix of Randomness
Well, apparently the good people at Alice & Friends were frightened by the prospect of entering Kitchen Stadium (or maybe they're just afraid of Chairman Kaga. Hell, who wouldn't be?), but they were a no-show last night.
Um, what I'm trying to say is, the restaurant was closed last night, although they do promise, on a note taped to the door, to re-open Saturday, May 1st. Instead, there was Moody's, and there were onion rings. And fries. And entirely too much sangria. This is a very bad combination, and readers are advised to avoid it.
One side effect is writing horribly elliptical blog entries with entirely unnecessary Iron Chef references.
If you believe there's any such thing as an unnecessary Iron Chef reference.
Not much point claiming I'll return to this and rewrite it into something coherent, is there? No one believes me when I say that anymore.
Details are hazy. I think I owe XXX and XXX a round of drinks, since they each bought one at Simon's and my vodka Red Bull's were probably the most expensive thing. Also, Preston Klik bands tend to break up, whether I'm involved or not. The one-man Steel Magnolias at Broadway Armory is worth your time and the quite reasonable cost, and the program is a work of art. And Ebert gave Shaolin Soccer three stars.
Elliptical, I said. And also, hazy.
This certainly has nothing to do with any other recent events or entries, although I did touch on it way back when. I'm just waiting to head over to XXX to pick up XXX, head to Chi, meet up with XXX and have dinner at Alice & Friends.
What?
From The AFU and Urban Legend Archive: Death: Charles Drew:
In a recent article in McGill University's student newspaper, titled: "MCGILL ACCUSED OF RACISM FOR NOT REMEMBERING BLACK GRADUATE", the writer states:
'Drew's life ended tragically in the forties after a car accident in the southern United States. He died of blood loss at the doors of a hospital which would not admit him because of the color of his skin. Ironically, his own invention could have saved his life.' [trimmed]
Does anyone have any hard data on this?It's this weekend and I checked, the book thoroughly refutes the myth. Dr. Drew suffered fatal injuries in the wreck. Despite the immediate attentions of the three other physicians who were with him (two of whom were substantially uninjured), and prompt attention at a nearby mixed-race (segregated) hospital, where he was attended by three other physicians, one of whom was the co-owner of the hospital, Dr. Drew died from the massive injuries. Included in the treatment was the administration of "at least one blood transfusion" - the hospital stocked both whole blood and plasma.
The myth has been widely circulated, including _Time_ magazine. It also mentions:
"But the story lives on. A McGill University publication, the _McGill Reporter_, repeated it in its December 1981 issue. Fortunately, it brought a vigorous denial from Dr. Edward Bensley, professor emeritus of medicine at McGill, [...]. Part of the evidence that Dr. Bensley had was a copy of a letter written by Dr. Ford [another black physician who was with Dr. Drew in the accident], in which Ford tried to lay the 'bled to death' canard to rest."
And later, quoting Dr. Ford:
"Doctor Drew's cause of death was that of a broken neck and complete blockage of the blood flow back to the heart. Immediately following the accident in which he was half thrown out of the car, and actually crushed to death by the car as it turned over the second time, the doctors who were were able to, got out of the car quickly and came to Doctor Drew's rescue, but it was of no avail because even at that time, it was quite obvious that his chances of surviving were nil."
It also notes that the myth was circulating shortly after Dr. Drew's death, and speculates that it may be a mutation of a myth concerning Bessie Smith's death in 1937. She also died in a car crash in the South, and the myth circulated that she had died outside a "white's only" hospital after being refused admittance. In fact, she was taken directly to a "black" hospital by the black ambulance driver - half a mile from the nearby "white" hospital - where she died from internal injuries. (They amputated one of her arms while trying to save her, BTW). I guess the myth is just more believable than the truth somehow.
Emphasis added for no particular reason.
I, for one, welcome our new Michigan Senate Overlords, and look forward to a return to the bad old days.
. . . that previous sentence contradicts the introductory one, doesn't it?
Bugger.
The appearance of which on the cover of Mimi Smartypants' book means nothing, even if such were noted in the All Things Considered piece on chick lit. With a brief interview/comments by Miss Hanne Blank.
Yes, this entry sucks. Will come back to it later.
I have to finish watching Heroic Trio first.
Which had a preview for Shaolin Soccer, odd as the film is actually currently playing here in Chi. I asked The Irresistably Cute Lisa if she wanted to see it, but she's only into hockey.
That's cool. I just got one thing to say, though.
GO GRYFFINDOR!
I was worried that at some point I'd lose the ability to be surprised or disgusted with them anymore.
Michigan Preparing To Let Doctors Refuse To Treat GaysDoctors or other health care providers could not be disciplined or sued if they refuse to treat gay patients under legislation passed Wednesday by the Michigan House.
The bill allows health care workers to refuse service to anyone on moral, ethical or religious grounds.
The Republican dominated House passed the measure as dozens of Catholics looked on from the gallery. The Michigan Catholic Conference, which pushed for the bills, hosted a legislative day for Catholics on Wednesday at the state Capitol.
The bills now go the Senate, which also is controlled by Republicans.
And it's finally happened.
To their. . . let's say credit, "it would prohibit emergency treatment to be refused." So as long as someone's received fatal wounds from a fag-bashing, that pesky Hippocratic Oath would still be in effect. Yay them.
Linked all over creation: see blogdex for a run-down.
Is this part of that backlash we were told to expect in the wake of the SF marriage thing? Because, if so, I admit, I lack imagination. I never thought they'd go this far.
I actually underestimated how fucking evil they are.
It won't happen again.
Update: Let's be Fair and Balanced on this.
Catholics back freedom of conscience for doctors in US stateThe Michigan Catholic Conference has backed four bills which allow doctors and hospitals to refuse to perform abortions or other procedures they object to.
Health care providers in Wisconsin will also receive legal backing for their conscientious objection if pending bills pass.
The Wisconsin bills also allow doctors not to inform patients of treatments that might violate the doctor's conscience.
The legislation is focused on abortion, but the 365gay.com news service reports concern in the gay community that gays could be refused treatment by doctors because of their homosexuality.
Oh. Well, that's all right, then.
Apropos of nothing in particular:
In 1936 Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler created a Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion: Special Office (II S), a subdepartment of Executive Department II of the Gestapo. The linking of homosexuality and abortion reflected the Nazi regimes population policies to promote a higher birthrate of its "Aryan" population.
Nothing at all.
Have I mentioned my unrequited and utterly foolish adoration for Spike lately?
Which isn't nearly as all-consuming as my equally if not greater unrequited and utterly foolish adoration for Kris Dresen, true, but. . . you know, this sentence can't possibly end well. Best to not have started it at all.
Let's just say the decline of Mickey Mouse (registration required, quit yer whinin') and
Like most guys named Mickey I know, it turns out that my own personal Mouse is a drunken Irishman.
And leave it at that.
It's fine, though. I'm sure at some point I'll fixate on someone who's a) available, b) dates boys and c) is actually interested in me.
And then the Cubs and the White Sox will face each other in the World Series, and wingéd monkeys will fly out of my butt, and we'll all be swept up in the Rapture. Or be forced to listen to Blondie's Rapture on an infinite loop. Or something.
Or I can become a monk. Them Shaolin guys seem to have fun, if you think wearing a wire harness while kicking arse and taking names is fun.
Which is the title of Karma Sutra's cd, and I truly wish I could remember what the word means, because I think it's appropriate to mentioning this entry at chandrasutra:
My article "Linked out: blogging, equality, and the future" is now live at Mindjack. Here is a passage:April 19 , 2004 | As I write this, another journalist is explaining what a blog is for the first time. Quite possibly, they are describing blogging as a trend created by actor Wil Wheaton. Most likely, they're announcing how blogs have just "hit" the mainstream. Blogging authority Rebecca Blood has named this repetitive rediscovery of blogging "Blood's Law of Weblog History." According to Blood, "the year you discovered weblogs and/or started your own is 'The Year Blogs Exploded'."
There's no limit to the number of embedded <blockquote>s you can put in. . . never mind. This bit pulled my attention:
[Clay] Shirky also argues that "there is no real A-list". Yet anyone who has spent even a small amount of time blogging knows that there are handful of bloggers who are so A-list their names are synonymous with the form itself (Clay Shirky, for example)."Cliquish preferences" play a very large role in creating and reinforcing blogging status. This influence determines by and large who we read and link to and what information is most heavily circulated. "People link to people like them," says Danah Boyd. Famous bloggers link to each other, blog about each other, speak at many of the same conferences, and endorse each others books.
Links added here and there.
And there's a quote from S-Train, which you should read the actual article to see, in context, since we all know that cherry-picking bits of linked material can (hell, does, intentionally or not) alter the meaning of. . .
Right, comments at S-Train, linkage at Boing Boing, Chuck D. and Ed Begley, Jr. on Air America's Unfiltered.
Clearly, shouldn't be listening to that while trying to write entries. Apologies in advance for multiple pings, as I find errors and correct 'em.
And I'd meant to put in something about how I've, apparently, been defining A-List wrong all this time (except I'm not sure how I was defining it. . .), or tying this into the Online Diarist/Blogger distinction, something else I'm slightly unclear on, but ain't even sure where to start with all that. . .
Bit difficult, as I'm listening to Alexandra Robbins on Morning Sedition, discussing Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities. Perhaps if it wasn't validating/reinforcing my prejudices. . . hang on, I'm supposed to actively seek out things that validate and reinforce my prejudices. I should be loving this. Weird.
I expect I should ask Jessica about this sort of thing, good little Kappa Slappa Ho that she is. . .
Caller just declared that, really, Black sororities aren't like the ones described in the book. And some of 'em are headed, en masse to DC this weekend for the March for Women's Lives. Robbins had mentioned she'd seen no indication that. . . mainstream, let's use mainstream as a euphemism for white. . . mainstream sororities were even aware of it, or had any interest in participating.
Expect I could have a look around the Zeta Phi Beta and AKA sites to confirm this, but I'm too busy pretending not to have noticed that the women pictured on the latter site are all lighter-skinned than those on the former.
Unclouded by hate. I can do this.
Clearly, reading or thinking about anything having to do with Greek systems is a bad way to accomplish this.
Forgot to mention that last Thursday at Northwestern was their Take Back the Night march. And that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Determining why I mention these last two events/facts in an entry about Greek systems is left as an exercise for the reader.
Update: Knew I'd seen this mentioned recently. . . very brief write-up of Pledged at Blog of a Bookslut from a few days back.
Also, there's a very nice t-shirt with art from Spike that you can buy to support the site. Ignore the bit saying his website is ironcircus.com. Typo, I'm sure.
'Cos it's true
I Do, I Do, I Do!
Part Deux
Adieu!
Ok, so it doesn't scan properly. . . new Max & Lily, as I've mentioned before, but this time on the official site. Officially.
Also, there's now a Girlamatic LiveJournal! And one for GirlAMatic.com 24 Hour Comics Challenge!
GAM is hosting a 24-Hour Comics Challenge on 24-Hour Comics Day, April 24, 2004.
More details on the Girlamatic stuff at the latest Editorial, brought to you by Lea Hernandez. Who, despite mentioning her in multiple entries, I assure you I'm not stalking.
I'm stalking Kris Dresen, silly.
I have more ABBA lyrics where the title/first paragraph of this entry came from.
Don't tempt me.
Just. . . don't.
Despite the interviews with interesting people, like Lea Hernandez:
Daniel Robert Epstein: Manga and anime focuses a lot on switching genders. Why is that?Lea Hernandez: If I was going to guess, based on what very little I know about Japan, I would say gender switching has a lot to do with the fact that they have a really regimented culture and society. That idea of getting to do something that’s not normally socially acceptable. For instance in Ranma one of the gags was that Ranma really liked these parfaits which is a very girly dessert. That was one of the times he liked being the girl because he could eat them without embarrassing himself and looking like a sissy.
DRE: What appeals to you about gender switching?
LH: I don’t know how guys feel about it but I like the way Margaret Cho put it “You’re in a drag all the time even when you think you are not.” That idea of being someone else and you can’t get more else than being the opposite gender of the way you are born. In the context of the story the gender switching wasn’t so much a statement about gender roles except that the engineered people are made to be either/or because they would have an easier time socially depending on what the occasion demanded. They could play for both teams. We have so much vanity in our culture that I thought that would be the ultimate vanity design to pay for your kid to have every advantage including gender. Taking it one step beyond wanting a boy or a girl.
Links added here and there.
This doesn't detract from SG's evil, and no, no particular reason for linking Nala, why do you ask?
Any road up, go read Rumble Girls after you finish the interview. And you do want to finish it.
But do I think our culture has an unhealthy focus on people who are built like 12 year olds with Pamela Anderson tits? Yes I do. I am very uncomfortable and distressed with our current standard of beauty. Its really depressing which is why whenever I go anywhere for an appearance I chant to myself “Margaret Cho, Kathy Bates, Camryn Manheim.” I have three role models.
Because the best bits are towards the end.
Which seems. . . very, very silly, for some reason I'm unable to put my finger on. Other than that I can just read her site, that is.
The World According to Mimi Smartypants
This is the real-life diary of a sassy, funny, straight-talking thirty-something Chicago girl who tells it like it is. Mimi first appeared on the hot internet site diaryland.com which hosts over 400,000 live diaries from – mostly girls – all over the world and has 800,000 registered users. Mimi became the most clicked diary and is now officially a web cult.
I wouldn't call us a cult, exactly. . . anyway, that's from the page at HarperCollins.co.uk for the book, which is available from Amazon.co.uk, but not from Amazon.com. Or Barnes & Noble. Or Powells. Um, not that I'm obsessively checking online bookstores looking for it or something. That would be cult-like. Or something equally disturbing.
No, this is more a local girl makes good sort of thing. If, unlike me, you actually are interested in getting the book from overseas, the ISBN is 0007173415. Bon chance.
Anyone care to speculate wildly about why there's been (from a couple quick Technorati and Google searches) so little coverage of this in the blogoswhateverthefuck? I mean, given how many of the "A-listers" *snicker* are angling to get some of that phat dead-tree-publishing cash and all.
I figure partly because the book (oddly) isn't (yet?) published here in the States, which seems dumb since I thought the whole point of the InterWeb is that we were no longer tied to physical locations. So, other stupid possible reasons are because she's on Diaryland, which is, what, one step up? Sideways? Down? from LiveJournal, and because the book is being marketed, at least, as chicklit. Apparently. I'm going by the "Hailed as 'the new Bridget Jones'" line on the publisher's site.
I rather hope people at least glance at her site before taking that blurb and running with it, but seeing as Wonkette has been tagged as. . . ok, this is getting entirely too theoretical for 6:30, seeing as I've not quite managed that sleep thing yet.
Short version: Me,TranceJen and luvabeans have seen Mimi reading live *twice* and you haven't.
So nyaaaaah.
Update: Actually, that was cruel.
I forgot to mention we also saw Wendy. My bad.
Want to know more, and not particularly concerned about accuracy? Wait, you're here, clearly that's not a concern. So you shouldn't worry about CSIndy: Blog jogging: From Internet diarist to published author, either:
This new cadre of writers has not gone unnoticed by publishing houses. Several blog authors, or "bloggers," have earned book deals. Mimi Smartypants of http://smartypants.diaryland. com and Wendy McClure of www.poundy.com are two such fortunate blogging celebrities.Both women, Chicago residents in their early 30s, write personal blogs covering distinct material. Pound, McClure's Web site handle, focuses primarily on her experience with weight loss a