| Hope! | 12:24 AM |
Obama won! And we will soon have an intelligent and articulate man in the White House again. Someone who truly believes we're all equal and really wants to make things better for everyone regardless of who they are. Never in my life have I felt so much anxiety about an election before. I couldn't concentrate all day worrying about how it would all turn out. And honestly it turned out even better than I had expected with McCain conceding even before we'd finished dinner. It feels amazing. It feels hopeful and I'm excited and relieved and I think a lot of other people around here are as well. I could hear shouting and excitement in the street earlier and can still hear a little of it now. January 20th can't come fast enough.
| The Subway Stripper | 1:18 AM |
I love this story! A subway stripper in Chile was arrested for trying to strip near the presidential palace. She strips on the subway cars; the media call her the "Metro Goddess". And she's doing it -- to make Chile a less prudish place.
I love this idea because I think sexual repression is unnatural. We're designed to procreate. I'm not a hedonist -- I don't think people should be running around trying to procreate however they can, but I do feel strongly that people should feel comfortable thinking and talking about sex. With friends, family, but especially with your partner. Think about it -- if you can frankly talk to your partner about sex, what can't you talk about with him?
And what about your child(ren)? Do you really want them growing up into their sexually mature years learning and believing what their school friends tell them about sex? Like how you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex, or how oral sex isn't really sex -- kids believe this shit! And the list of other things they believe is long -- here's just one page full of them.
I'm a big fan of education, openness, and honesty. Teaching kids and uninformed adults about sex, contraception, etc. so they can make educated and informed choices when they need to. I think anytime you try to make something natural seem unnatural, you end up encouraging secrecy and deception -- because if you make it bad, it's not going to stop people from doing it, it's just going to change the way that they do it. Another good thing about being comfortable with your own sexuality is that it makes it easier to accept other people's sexuality too -- whatever that may be.
So hurray to the subway stripper! I wish we had poles on the Bart :)
| What I learned about George Carlin | 12:20 AM |
So I'm sure you all know that George Carlin passed away this week. I'm not a big follower of comedians, but I have seen some of his stuff and found him funny. One of the first videos I watched after his death was his classic Seven Dirty Words routine. And being someone who swears a lot, loves language, and enjoys people who defy convention, I immediately loved it. I have an image in my head of Carlin as a white bearded, bald guy. But in this clip he's young and handsome and seems more jovial than I ever remember seeing him -- like the world hasn't quite worn him down and jaded him yet.
Add to it the fact that this routine got him arrested and got the radio station that broadcast his uncensored routine sued in a first amendment stir and it makes it all the more charming.
A friend of mine was saying how when he was a kid his parents had vinyl records of Carlin's routines -- vinyl! I think it's not uncommon to see someone differently after his / her death. I always thought of George Carlin as a funny grumpy old man, and now I've got a different, more interesting image of him in my head. Though it's too bad it takes death for me to soften my heart and open up my mind.
Some links to more informative articles:
- Carlin: comic who buzz-sawed hypocrisy
- The Station That Dared to Defend Carlin's '7 Words' Looks Back
- George Carlin mourned as counterculture hero
| Burning Man Sex and Out of Body Porn | 10:52 PM |
I love this Violet Blue article on Burning Man. It cracks me up. I've been to burning man twice and will probably never go back. I think it's vaguely cool that people are so into it, and every year as the buzz about it grows and it gets closer and closer to Labor Day weekend, I get the slightest itch to go back. But I'll never scratch it -- it's just not my scene. I love the art, I love the enormous installations, I love the community feel, I love the communal environmental activism, I even sort of love the playa and don't mind being covered in dirt all the time. But it's a little too hip for me, a few too many people that are too into it, and a little too much effort to be in costume for an entire week. It's like one big rave where everyone looks and is cool, and I don't do either well.
In other news: out of body experiences scientifically explained. Now we know that it's not a) a psychic phenomenon, and b) it's not just something that happens to loonies. Just imagine the applications in porn!
| Shrinks vs God | 10:50 PM |
I love this quote by Ann Coulter: Liberals go to therapy. Conservatives go to church. (Right Wing News compiled her best quotes from last year -- most of them are too long, but some of them are real gems). It's so true, isn't it? Priests, pastors, confessors -- they're really like shrinks (is shrink a derogatory term?)
I stopped seeing mine. Not for any particular reason other than I've been too lazy to call my insurance to see what it'd cost me to keep seeing her. But I also felt like I'd go in and just sort of sit there, not sure what to talk about. We spent the first session talking about my mother, then she never came up again and she was the reason I was there in the first place!
I had four sessions with her and in two of them she asked if I thought I had a drinking problem. And I said no both times (btw, I'm quite confident I do not have a drinking problem). So when I woke up on the morning of my 4th scheduled apointment with a raging hangover, I called in sick -- I wasn't about to go in there after I'd just told her I didn't have a drinking problem, hung over on a school morning! I'm sure she would've been suspect of the validity of my previous denials. Besides, I was too hungover to talk.
So I've started to blog about more personal things again. Mostly because I'm no longer worried about future employers finding this blog. If you search for me, there isn't anything I'm really ashamed of online. No naked photos of me (at least none with my face -- haha, just kidding, potential future employer!), no stories about late night drugfests (just the occasional boozefest with friends), no compromising videos, no crime or violence. Just my raw voice. Oozing with sarcasm and heavy handed with profanity. It's me! Yay!
I read this in the news today about a settlement in racial harassment suit against a health clinic. It obliquely reminded me of some of Ann Coulter's quotes. Racism in code words -- think about it -- that someone would come up with coded language (not very well coded) to deride someone else because of race. Sneak attack racism. Who the fuck comes up with this stuff? And how much hate must you have in your black coal heart to think this is ok -- in a place of healing even. Tsk tsk.
| Drawbacks of Democracy | 1:25 AM |
So I was reading this today about the Philip Atkinson article on The Family Security Foundation, Inc site. I thought it was hilarious and well written -- it reminded of Swift's A Modest Proposal. I thought it was a parody, a commentary on Bush. But after seeing his treatise on democracy, I think the man is serious.
The funny thing is that I can understand the stance he's arguing from -- that selfish people don't always want what's best for a community as a whole. That sometimes what the "popular" opinion is, isn't always the best opinion. It sort of sounds antithetical to the recent revelations on crowd theory -- how the aggregated wisdom of many people results in the optimal decision, but it's not. If you listen to the most vociferous groups in the United States today, they are a homogenous group, far too keenly aware of each other's opinions of them. They lack diversity, independence, and are often rallying around a centralized point. They voted Bush in, they shut down valid scientific research, they fear sex education, they don't want to allow all people equal rights...shall I go on? If that's the popular opinion, then yes, democracy doesn't seem to work for the good of the community as a whole.
I can't remember who it was, but someone was recently saying that liberals don't make enough babies -- how are we going to fare when there are so many fewer of us than them? Well, we're fewer, but like a million times smarter. It seems like that should count for something...sadly it doesn't seem to be enough.
| Book Burning | 10:30 PM |
A few weeks ago, Human Events Online (The National Conservative Weekly) came up with its list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries. I find the list really interesting -- a few communist books, one of the core feminist books, a couple philosophy books, a book on male sexuality, Hitler's Mein Kampf, and a couple of others. It astounds me that in this day and age, in our country, people still figuratively burn books. To me, this is the equivalent of having someone say you're too dumb to be exposed to the dangerous ideas in these books. It assumes you don't have the power or the ability to think critically for yourself. Writing a non-fiction book is like having your say, sharing your ideas with anyone who'll read it. For a site that puportedly supports individual freedom, having had this list created seems somewhat ironic. What is it that Jesus calls his followers? Oh, sheep.
The other irony is that lists like these only make books on them that much more tantalizing. By the way, the 15 judges that came up with this list were 14 males:1 female.
| Butt Stoked into Flaming SUV | 7:24 PM |
I've been waiting for one of these stories for a long time -- it was one of my constant fears when I smoked that I'd burn my backseat upholstery. Even when I didn't throw my cigarette butts out the window, I always dropped the cherry out the window and every single time, I thought, what if the wind blows this into the back of my car where I can't reach it. Still did it. That's the amazing power of smoking. I can laugh about this guy because he wasn't hurt -- but he burnt up his cute little SUV just because he didn't want to dirty his ashtray and stink up the car.
| Misc Crap... | 1:46 AM |
Interesting article on Ghost in the Shell and the two men responsible for its creation.
| Joining the Circus | 11:59 PM |
That phrase has such romantic appeal, doesn't it? A girl I knew used to live in a huge community warehouse in Oakland. At one of her parties, I got to meet a friend of hers who was going to the SF Circus Center. He was graceful and limber, and gave me an itch for the circus. Geek Love, read years ago, gave me an itch for the circus. So did Nights at the Circus beautifully give me an itch for the circus. Oh, and of course, HBO's Carnivàle makes me yearn for the circus. Now, apparently, it's fashionable to be into the circus. Trapeze for fitness is recently trendy. And apparently a good place to pick up on hot men with buff arms. I just want to fly through the air.
| Fruit Sex? | 3:53 AM |
This is so funny...Catholics upset about fruit sex labels.
Haribo macht kinder froh
und Erwachsne ebenso
I can even sing that little jingle if you ask :)
| State of the Union Address | 1:57 PM |
You've probably already seen this, but I just saw it today for the first time -- I almost peed my pants watching this! Slightly Modified State of the Union speech (mov file).
| Current State of Sex Continued | 1:50 PM |
That article from last night reminded me that my son is soon to be in the 6th grade. Sixth grade -- then it's junior high school and that's just a couple of years from high school. I had a dream the other night he was a head taller than me. He's getting old and his sister and cousins are already in their teens. And I wonder if they talk about sex so openly and explicitly. Sometimes I worry that my son will have questions, but not ask. His family is communicative and open and even though we tell him all the time he can pose any questions he may have, he seems a private and reserved person.
The only sex education I got was from health class, but it didn't leave much of an impression on me. And my parents never spoke of sex, though I was constantly told I was not to masturbate because it was really evil and god would punish me (though, ironically, I was not told to not have sex). I didn't have any ideals about sex, and no real sense of what it was and wasn't, and I desperately don't want my son to feel that way. I want him to be informed. I don't want him to have sex. Ever. But that's not very realistic. I don't want to talk about sex explicitly with him (for god's sake, he's only 11!), but I don't want him to feel like we didn't talk to him about it at all. Every now and again, I'll bug his father -- "have you had the talk with him?", "you know, you should really do it soon." I think it'd embarass him if I broach the subject. Better if it comes from the dad. And easier on me.
| The Current State of Sex | 10:38 PM |
There's an interesting article about the explicit nature of current discussions of sex by young people.
| Aeon Flux in the Flesh | 2:23 PM |
There's been interesting news lately, but I haven't had much time to blog...however, this I could not pass up. Aeon Flux, that amazing, short-lived, animated series on MTV by Peter Chung, is going to be adapted into a live action, feature length film starring Charlize Theron.
"...[T]he project would find Theron playing a futuristic assassin known for her extreme style, cool attitude and tight clothes."
I only hope Theron can do her justice...but oh man, just imagine the merchandising! Little Aeon Fluxes loitering on all the shelves...
| Lolita | 4:18 PM |
30-year-old SF teacher caught undressed with 14-year-old boy. I saw this and all I could think was, Why? I'm 30. I can't imagine making out in a car with a 14-year-old boy. That's just three years older than my son. Even without my son as a reference point, it's unfathomable for me.
But stories heard from that distance stir up immediate disdain, prejudice, moral outrage. Personal stories...they have the power to morph that outrage into pity, disdain into sadness . A case of Lolita. Except here Lolita is a young boy, and our Humbert Humbert is a female schoolteacher. Everyone knows Lolita's story, whether they've read Nabokov's novel or not. The first time I read Lolita I was deeply moved - his obsession with young girls made perfect sense. It is not to excuse or justify what he did, only to admit that I could appreciate the emotional chokehold a brief childhood encounter had on the rest of his life. And who knows what this was for Ms. Arreola, but you can't help but immediately hear the echo of Lolita.
