you call that "cutting taxes"?

i'm already concerned about the exorbitant price of private medical insurance. this article scares me! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/opinion/16herbert.html?em

mccain's health plan would a) RAISE TAXES (quelle suprise) on the masses who are lucky enough to have employer sponsored medical insurance (and are already paying a pretty penny towards it), b) increase the number of americans (including children) who are without medical insurance and c) line the pockets of people who are already making crazy money off of an industry whose mission should be to keep people alive and healthy first (make money second).

for real? you’re going tax my employer’s contribution to my medical coverage premiums as income? and you’re going to stand up there and tell america that you’re going to cut taxes?

oh, i’m sure you’re going to cut some sort of taxes, camp mc/pain. what corporate welfare will be funding by raising taxes on me and my fellow americans? tell us that.

palin conundrum

from the ny times, about palin's announcement about her daughter's pregnancy:

"The announcement came after a swirl of rumors by liberal bloggers that the governor’s fifth child, who was born in April, was in fact her daughter’s."

really? have politics devolved such that anyone would start rumors that palin faked a pregnancy to cover the pregnancy of her teenage daughter? this is the stuff of national inquirer. and how sad for palin that her camp has to issue a public statement that her daughter is 5 months pregnant specifically to prove that her youngest child couldn't be her daughter's and therefore really is her own. wacko.

yes, i'm insulted that mccain made a vp pick that stinks of tokenism, of an attempt to get the votes of the female clinton supporters who don't want to switch to supporting obama.

but that's not the real issue. the real issue is why we're talking about palin.

1) it detracts our attention from the real issue of who mccain really is and how his actions are totally incongruous with who he's claiming to be. he's really a rich old futz that goes the way the wind blows but he's learned to play the 'maverick' on tv and we're letting him and some people are buying it. we're all talking about palin's flaws instead of focusing on mccain's flaws (which are ample) and obama's merits.

2) sexism is alive and we're seeing one of its most insidious faces: cattiness. what does her having so many kids have to do with her ability to do her job? she's been an effective governor and that is a question that would NEVER be put to a male candidate. what do palin's hair and glasses and clothes have to do with anything? the media and the citizens of this country are devolving into the same catty bullshit with palin that we did with clinton. (and are still doing...the media says, omg, is she going to sabatoge the convention? i say, omg, did the idiots in the media really think she might? the media have been watching too many hollywood flicks and nancy grace -- the people running the media and all the people who believe the media need a freaking reality check.)

change! hope! it starts with you! start to challenge the bullshit you've learned (explicitly and implicitly). challenge yourselves, for real. before you say anything about any female politician, businesswoman, celebrity, neighbor (i.e., any woman), please ask yourself: would i be thinking this if she were a man? would i feel this strongly about (insert topic here) if she were a man? would i say this petty stupid catty stuff about her if she were a man? can you think of any example when you applied that same judgement to a man? this is where the real equality of the sexes has to happen -- in our own brains.

biogenic amine

i ended my hiatus from singing...and i just nearly puked in the sink.

my eyes have been pretty itchy, but a daily dose of patanol has been keeping the rub-my-eyes-till-they-bleed-instinct at bay. i haven't noticed too much post-nasal drip, so i went off the loratadine about two months ago.

it seems a falling tree does make a sound if you're there, but just not listening to it.

yesterday, i did some light warming up, pulled out a new art song and started getting the notes in my ear. today, i attempted more demanding warm ups. a couple high c's later, i was rushing to the bathroom trying not to puke. it seems that the vibrations shook loose some post-nasal drip, and my gag reflex was not prepared to bump into an unexpected acquaintance.

so i'm back to singing and back to loratadine (and maybe some salt water gargles before practicing for a couple days, just to be safe?).

refraction

having put myself in closer physical proximity to the people and places of my past, i find myself making mental plans to visit as many as possible. many aren't necessarily people with whom i was incredibly close, but i want to see them nonetheless. it's fascinating to see how people grow and change. it's also a humbling experience to visit the self you used to be through these people you used to know...and to see who you were and who you are through the lens of who they were and who they are.

however, i have not made plans to visit two of the people with whom i was closest in college. i don't know if i want to visit these women. i don't know if they'd have me. and i don't know how to answer all those don't knows.

one is the roommate. i was never her closest friend, nor she mine, but we spent nearly all of college living together. i think we made good roommates. really good roommates, actually. she was so simultaneously silly spunky and yet somehow conservative. i still do her little leprechaun dance when i'm feeling free and silly. i've sent several emails over the years -- some as innocuous as asking her advice on grad schools for my sister who was going into the same program she had been in -- but with no response.

the other was the best friend. one of the most interesting and talented people i've ever met. and so honest. when i remember the substance in college life outside the theater or the classroom, i remember talking with her, trips to chicago with her, and more talking.

the best friend and the roommate actually *were* best friends, so i was kind of the odd girl out in the trio. that's always been my place -- in but out. i suppose that's the space i've created for myself, or perhaps the only space i knew how to occupy after a childhood of moving every year or two. all the cool people have already bonded with their best friends, so when i show up late, i take what i can get.

after several years of an occasional email sent but never responded to, and rejected friend requests, i am in casual contact with the best friend again. in fact, i think she might have sent me the friend request this time, and we've exchanged a couple cordial comments.

our senior year was tumultuous, as i think it always is. for kids who've never been "on their own," there is an anxiety simmering under the surface. the only routines and responsibilities we've know are about to change forever.

i went through my first breakup. i had no clue what i was going to do upon graduation. i got really freaking depressed and put myself in counseling. i flirted with alcoholism. i found physical affection where i could, and not always in the best places. and my so-called best friends said "i don't like the choices you're making" and "i don't know who you are anymore" and they washed their hands of me. i spent most of my time out of the apartment so i could avoid their freeze. i quit singing because choir necessitated placing myself in proximity of their freeze. five months to graduation, i had to find a new social circle.

i may have crossed some boundaries in trying to be a helpful friend. i confused and possibly hurt a mutual friend with whom i had a fling. but I WAS 20 YEARS OLD!! am i exempt from ever being allowed to fuck up? am i exempt from one little semester of being young and scared and stupid? if i were my friend (and i try to be), i'd say: yes, you are allowed to be imperfect. you are allowed to make mistakes. and i still love you.

is there something i'm missing? was there something i did that i have no clue i did? is there some justification for their actions other than a) they didn't really care about me or b) they were too self-absorbed to be a good friend to me? they made the time to be friends for each other...why weren't they a friend to me?

my one call for help, my one moment of need, and the people i thought were my true friends failed me. part of me is making excuses for them ("they were probably dealing with their own shit"). my sense of justice is inflamed suspecting that their memories may have erased the good and replaced it with some skewed image that doesn't resemble me...and likewise suppressed their failure to be there for me the one time it counted. perhaps i'm mostly just trying to avoid feeling how hurt i was, and still am, by it.

best friend, i thought you were possibly the awesomest person ever. you are so beautiful and so funny and so talented. i've missed your penchant for goats and your silver tongued words. tell me, when you write it, do we become friends again?

homesteader

i've made my migration back eastward. being back in the mid-south, i'm finding that things are simultaneously familiar and new, which is actually quite a nice experience. we've been busy trying to build this apartment (with amazing potential but not devoid of some rough patches) into a home. i dare say we've made good progress. the next step is to get out of the house and make this city a home, too.

i had a lovely adventure driving out here with bf zerd. on day 1, we enjoyed all of the stimulating conversation we hadn't had time for in months before being accosted by a near-biblical downpour of mosquitoes against the windshield. on day 2, we were the accidental patriots, celebrating independence day at mt. rushmore by belting out the "ultimate american sing-along" with the 43rd army band from nebraska. on day 3, we tried to wrap our brains around what life must have been like for a homesteader as we visited wall drug, the badlands and a homestead with its original sod house (and believe me, the coughing mannequin with his pants down in the out-house was even creepier than the guy sitting out front). on day 4, i dropped zerd at what was once the place she called home, and i finally made it to the place i would make into my new home.

coat hangers

kudos to waldo l. fielding, m.d., for writing this essay for the ny times (click here to read).

i believe that women, as humans, have the right to control what goes into and comes out of our own bodies. please let us keep the right to have safe medical care among our options as we make our choices about what goes on inside the boundaries of our own flesh.

work instead of play

i've previously posted about the "stuff white people like" blog. it's useful in that is lets us look at ourselves with humor. it's a great door opener for white people to talk about race.

however, it doesn't really address issues of race and the way race works in our society (and i'm talking local, national, and global society), and it certainly doesn't force us to do the dirty work of really facing our own racism and the ways in which those of us who are white benefit from institutional racism.

this blog attempts to do just that: http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/

the white elephant in the room

portland is, by far, the whitest place i've ever lived. for such a "liberal" and "progressive" city, there is a really weird history of racial segregation here (as i was reminded by this article)...and a really weird collective ignoring of the messed-up ways race relations continue to work in this city.

i'll admit it: the overwhelming whiteness of city, and of my social circle herein, has been incredibly comfortable. race somehow becomes theoretical...or even invisible...when you're surrounded by people who look like you (in the bars, in the stores, on the tv, in the movies) -- and when the people who look like you just happen the be the ones who control most of the capital. (oh, but it's so much more complicated than just capital, isn't it?)

sure, i want my friends to be able to purchase affordable houses. sure, i hang out on alberta and i live in the northeast. but every once in a while, reality seeps in. the life that i and much of my social circle enjoy is dependent on the displacement of other people -- specifically, black people. (gosh, this application of black/white labeling to humans seems so absurd, and yet it is a social reality.) whether i want to admit it or not, the things i enjoy about northeast portland are inextricably linked to gentrification's whitewashing effects.

how do we, as white people, learn to see the selfishness inherent in our everyday actions? how do we come to break the learned selfishness and decide that the greater good is more important than our personal comfort, benefit and advantage? (ditto for sexism, my man-friends and heterosexism, my hetero-friends.)

it's some dirty, nasty, hard work trying to unravel the gnarly social stupidity we've been taught and upon which all of our social institutions are built. but it's good work. it's the right work. so let's get to work.

contained chaos

the seam in the time-space continuum has sealed back up. no longer as i stuck in that magical yet unnerving state of duality. now there is only all the shit that must get done in two weeks time.

our home is exploding as we try to find space for all the things that are packed amidst the things that are not yet packed. soon the empty space will reappear between the boxes and newsprint and rolls of tape as we crate up our life for shipping.

work is exploding, too. i've inherited a behemoth study that the previous owners made impossibly complicated. ugh. more and more i'm trying to preach the gospel of kiss (which was taught to us by our seventh grade english teacher as: keep it simple, stupid.)

i feel like i'm in line for chaos at opryland (which, alas, has since been replaced by a huge shopping mall). chaos, the indoor roller coaster that was nashville's answer to space mountain, opened right after we moved to nashville. what i remember most is not the ride but the effectiveness of the wait. an hour spent inside with artificial air and nothing to look at but the black walls and the people around you, with the constant sound of multiple dissonant clocks ticking and a lady's voice periodically saying "hurry to the station...your time is running out..."

i keep hearing it as i'm packing, as i'm working, as i'm shitting...when i should be sleeping. tick tick tick. hurry. your time is running out.

i catch myself holding my breath as i go about my day. if you see me, remind me to breathe.

party politics

as the primary progresses, i am increasingly disappointed with the democratic party. i understand that we want to put a democrat in the white house. believe me, i want that too!

that said, i also want the people of this country, not some party-loyal elites, to determine who that democratic nominee will be. this may be unavoidable due to our "protect the ignorant masses from themselves" delegate structure which gives totally out-of-whack super-representation to a few elite party leaders (and don't even get me started on caucuses), but it's too late to restructure the system for this election. what really concerns me, and what can be resolved in the here and now, is the democratic party's disenfranchisement of nearly 1 in 10 americans -- simply because they live in michigan and florida.

it is abhorrent that the residents of michigan and florida who took the time to vote are having their votes thrown out because of decisions made by party leaders in those states to move up primaries against the will of the national party. i see no democracy in this kind of petty party politics in which the punishment for not playing by the rules results in the mass disenfranchisement of citizens.

i also want party leaders and the media to start reporting the results of this competition with some sense of statistical context. again, i understand that there can only be one winner, and i understand the implications of the math if we're dealing with delegate counts which exclude michigan and florida. however, the reality is that obama's lead over clinton is less than 10%. that's a pretty small margin, if you ask me, and surely is not a decisive lead. what i don't understand is the audacity it takes to ask someone who trailing by such a small margin to drop out of the race. politics are gnarly, unpredictable stuff, and an upset can't be entirely ruled out with such a small margin and so many variables. furthermore, i wouldn't want to be counted out or asked to quit something when i trailed by less than 10%. would you?

fourth dimension

what is it about springtime that always gives me this feeling of deja vu?  perhaps it is the awakening from winter's psychic hibernation and that moment when you look at yourself and say hey, don't i know you from somewhere?

amidst the warmer air and longer days, i get a distinct sense of time overlapping.  it's like i've been here before, and simultaneously like i haven't.  winter feels so...linear. (perhaps i'm mistaking static for linear?)  in springtime, however, i find it highly unlikely that time functions linearly.  i'm not talking about a spinning wheel either -- time is way too messy for such a simply-structured model.  i suspect that the answer lies in relativity rather than in absolutes.

in this moment (if such a thing exists outside my brain's perception of the concept), i am open to believing in parallel realities, multiple lives or multiple levels of consciousness.  or is my brain just regurgitating theories and books and movies?  in this day and age (again, whatever that means if time as we conceptualize it doesn't exist), is it even possible to have original thought?  sometimes i wonder if we aren't so programmed that even our rebellion is merely an acting out of what we've been taught to do.

i have this low-grade, continuous flutter of deja vu in my gut.  the sun and warm air feel familiar and feel right, but are they only noticeable due to the contrast with what preceded? either way, they are intoxicating and rouse desire to do something risky, but they are also making me nostalgic.  i continue, overwhelmed by mystery yet emboldened by possibility.

huh.  i guess this is what they call spring fever?

sassy is as sassy does

i can't help but smile everytime i see one of the robin's egg blue cabs with "sassy's cab" running across the side. one of these days i'll remember to take a picture of it. i think i'll post it next to my monitor to remind me about what's really important.

desperately seeking sense

oh, what a world, what a world.

how is it that corporations manage to have zero brains and zero heart yet audacity up the wazoo?

the big-business of agriculture in south america -- which exists so that we can enjoy produce out of season -- is poisoning us and poisoning the eco-systems and communities where said produce is grown. as if that weren't evil enough, it's detrimental, global impact reaches so far as poisoning the north american birds who winter in south america. (read article here.)

in other "dear god, what kind of mess have we created" news, manufacturers of bio-diesel are making a "green" energy source but are dumping tons of by-product into the rivers. since the by-product is non-toxic to humans, someone apparently thought dumping it in the river would be okay. alas, it is literally suffocating the inhabitants of the river to death. reduce petro dependency, kill eco-systems -- is this really a "green" alternative? (read article here.)

how is it that we allow the import of produce grown with massive pesticide use that would be illegal in the u.s.? and how, in this day and age -- after looking at everything that has happened in this country, everything that is happening in china -- how can anyone think it is okay to dump ANYTHING into a river or lake or ocean...ever?

i blame people. corporations are amalgamations of people -- not some sort of autonomous entity. people in power are making irresponsible decisions. and other people in power profit from it, and their tacit support of the irresposibility makes them just as culpible.

what the fuck is wrong with people

(btw, read casimir's blog for additional education about the enviro- socio-global implications of food we eat -- and some yummy slow-food recipies.)

keeping my eye on the real issues

living in portland is feeling lately like living in a sea of optimistic, idealistic obama-supporters. their enthusiasm for his rhetoric can make a person second-guess herself. thank goodness that not everyone in the media is infatuated with obama or a clinton-hater (maureen dowd, i loved you, but we're over). more and more, i am finding paul krugman to be the voice of reason among all the demonization and idolization being thrown around.

let's talk policy. read paul's latest column.

i prefer a president who has progressive yet actionable policy plans, no matter how entrenched in politics-as-usual she might seem on the outside. many of clinton's policies are a return to the idea of a government responsible for taking care of its citizens (à la new deal policies) and in our present economic situation, that might not be such a bad thing. i find this to be a compelling position. re-tooling the system to serve a greater purpose is change, and i'd like to think it is at least somewhat realistic.

(and, yes, i secretly hope that a return to new-deal style government during economic gloominess might again lead to the creation of governmental support for arts outreach like the federal theatre project. art is critical to keeping us in touch with what is human, particularly when times get tight and, as a whole society, we start switching out of "thrive" mode into "survive" mode.)

the monogamy myth

it turns out that even those species that "mate for life" are apparently getting their groove on outside of the relationship. (read ny times article)

perhaps it's time we set aside unrealistic expectations of complete monogamy. instead, i suggest we focus on figuring out how to have affairs without destroying our partnerships. that is perhaps the harder task, but it is the one which respects both our nature and our social bonds. a 100% commitment to the relationship and to your partner need not require a 100% dedication of your sexuality to that person.

the politics of fruit

i didn't know farming policies and politics in this country are so messed up. i'm jaded enough not to be surprised, but i'm still disturbed by it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01hedin.html?em&ex=1204693200&en=4f0386d314947329&ei=5087%0A

stuff white people like

okay, so this blog is clearly talking about a certain kind of middle/upper-class, left-leaning white person.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

i choose to share it for some funny moments it musters up, accepting that it has imperfections (including its presentation of redundant ideas as separate and unique items).

laughter and my new love of radio lab

i've recently developed a love for 'radio lab' on opb. i keep stumbling into it on friday nights while in the car between dinner and drinks. i have to wrench myself away from it and out of the car to join the fun in the bar.

while looking for a podcast of the "laughter" episode, i discovered that this show is on the air four nights per week on opb. yes!

i couldn't find a podcast of the laugher episode, but i found a webpage for it which contains most of the material from the episode. it looks like it's going to air again next friday (i heard it about a month ago). maybe after that they will podcast it.

their podcast list is enticing, though. i'm looking forward to their exploration of wagner's ring cycle, musical language, sleep, placebo and emergence. it makes my brain tingle with activity!

what lies beneath

please read this article. it sums up everything i want to say about the democratic candidates, as well or better than i could. it calls out so-called "hillary hating" for what it really is, for the woman-hating that lies beneath it. the attacks against her in the media and by private citizens, and the tolerance of these attacks by the general population, is completely appalling.

http://www.womensmediacenter.com/ex/020108.html

i have been thinking about the election a lot. many of us have. i, for one, am not so naive as to think a democrat in the white house is a done deal. (call me a cynic, but i think realist is more accurate.) that said, we should not determine our democratic primary vote based on who we think is more "electable" against a republican -- in doing so, we let the republicans (and arguably the media) choose our candidate for us.

i've also been thinking about the criteria i look for in a president. yes, the ability to inspire citizens is nice. but i see the presidency as any other job, and experience and training count tremendously. personally, i expect the candidate i back to either have a strong track record as an executive leader at the state or national level (i.e., 5-10 years governor, vice president, perhaps cabinet member) or a strong track record in either house of congress at the national level. basically, you gotta really know how to be a head executive or you gotta really know the workings in washington, and preferably you know both. only one of the two leading democratic candidates can claim this.

one other request, if you have not already done so. please ask yourself: if they were both white women, who would i vote for? if they were both black men, who would i vote for? if they were both white men, who would i vote for? if they were both black women, who would i vote for? if all other things were equal, would obama's talent for charismatic delivery (sometimes of his own but sometimes of someone else's words) outweigh his lack of substantial executive branch or federal level experience?

idealist-realist

the struggle between idealism* and realism seems to have pervaded all areas of my life this week.

several conversations about the democratic primaries have been laden with references to these concepts. the unexpected effect, alas, is the bittersweet resurgence of the personal political aspirations i set aside to focus on a career in the performing arts. (note to self: establish residence in california in order to parlay entertainment industry experience into a senate seat or gubernatorial success.)

i have also been trying to balance idealism and realism when it comes to this opera career thing. on the one hand, one must apply a certain amount of optimistic disregard for the politics of the system in order to achieve any kind of success with one's ethics still in tact and without having been consumed by cynicism. on the other hand, a realistic grasp of the system, corruptions and all, is requisite in determining the intermediate steps between aspirations and their fulfillment.

whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of...wrong monologue. but not entirely off topic, huh? i'm feeling kind of overwhelmed and confused, but so long as i can stave off the incapacitating effects of woulda-coulda-shoulda, i am feeling energized and ready for change. i'm also fortunate enough to have a partner who is at this moment similarly energized and ready for change.

*i use 'idealism' in general/idiomatically rather than referencing the philosophical doctrine of idealism.

ticker-tape parade

i didn't realize until today that a ticker-tape parade was a parade where people throw paper out the windows of buildings on the parade route. it's a curious little ritual, but it certainly looks like more fun than your average coffee break. hmm. i was shredding work documents for an hour on monday...maybe i too will scatter it off my balcony in celebration for the giants.

satisfaction

I very nearly didn't watch the Super Bowl this year. It seemed like a recipe for frustration and disappointment: mix one part strong dislike of the Patriots with one part lack of confidence in the Giants and one part jaded feelings about incompetent officiation in several recent Super Bowls; let stew for three to four hours until reaches screeching point.

I decided to suck it up, ignore the game and enjoy the company and smorgasbord of junk food. I spent the first half of the game only half watching, giving most of my attention to catching up with acquaintances and limiting myself to "reasonable" consumption of pizza and spinach dip.

The second half, however, found me glued to the screen. Somehow the surprisingly low-scoring first half had mutated the gathering's ambivalence about the game into a tangible excitement. We were a room devoid of Giants fans (most of us were still sore the Packers didn't make it), but we became Giants fans-for-an-hour. (I actually do happen to like the Giants, but I wouldn't qualify as a committed fan.)

My favorite defensive play among a lot of fine defensive playing had to be Michael Strahan flying over the line to sack Brady. Neither offense managed to have tons going on, but the Eli Manning/David Tyree feat in the last minute of the game was one to remember. For once Eli scrambled! And that catch by Tyree -- jumping into the air, catching it against his helmet and managing to maintain possession (and keep the ball from making contact with the ground) while being bent backwards over the lap of the defensive player. I don't know that any of this merits the exorbitant paychecks these guys receive, but today the Giants certainly earned their dough.

(And, of course, Belupchuck's lack of sportsmanship in the final second of the game...just another example of his class-act leadership.)

break my heart, warm my heart

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/sports/football/02vickdogs.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

touché, radio. touché.

you gotta i love it when the radio fucks with you.

last night was one of those times when the radio decides to provide extended and highly sarcastic commentary as you're processing your mental junk. yes, there are those magical moments when the radio becomes the perfect soundtrack to life, but this was definitely commentary. perhaps one could argue that it merely is what it is and that my mind interpreted it as commentary. but i prefer to think that there was some sort of cosmic smart-ass working the airwaves last night.

jerry springer: the opera

this picture is not what it looks like. it is a chorus line of dancing transexual klansmen in jerry springer: the opera. and what's giving me the most shits and giggles is that this is playing at carnegie hall. (for the ny times, click review here)

in a similar vein, i stumbled across some of the new lyrics for the too much coffee man opera. while i might not get to play a
diaper fetishist, this show might yet give me the most atypical opera character i'll play...

from shannon wheeler's livejournal:

The sequel opens 2 years later with the Barista married to a Martian and now she's bored with that too....

BARISTA: (slowly)
Love is like bondage with the safety word forgotten
Two people playing chicken until the chicken’s rotten
And so the hours thicken, we dare each other to stay
This way…

things that make you go hmm...

While spending geek time in The Aria Database, I decided to read the translation of Monostatos' aria from Die Zauberflöte. Wow. To be sure, it presents an interesting challenge to a director and cast. I had learned from Zerd that Monostatos is a Moor, but I didn't know the extext to which race is present in his lyrics. The few productions I've seen have whitewashed the translation, erasing all traces of race issues. I wonder, however, if a better approach would be to reveal and challenge the biases of that era rather than try to erase them.


The transation from The Aria Database is as follows:

Everything feels the joys of love,
Bills and coos, dallies, cuddles, and kisses,
And I should have avoided love,
Because a black person is ugly!
Was I then not given a heart?
Am I not of flesh and blood?
Always to live without a little wife,
Would truly be the flames of hell!

Thus, I want, because I am living,
To bill and coo, kiss, be tender!
Dear good moon, forgive me,
A white woman captivated me,
White is beautiful! I must kiss her;
Moon, hide yourself for this!
Should it vex you too much,
Oh, then close your eyes!

Speaking of more race politics in opera, I read an interesting article in all that's fit yesterday on a new jazz-style, Katrina-set Porgy and Bess. Realizing I didn't really know much about the plot, I took a trip over to wiki. Again, Wow. To be sure, it presents an interesting challenge to a director and cast. Porgy and Bess is some kind of messed up when viewed in the context of plot and characters, but at the same time it is such an important piece of work when viewed as an œuvre in greater social context.

So much to think about.

(The image here is a print of Monostatos from the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry .)

don't drink the water

...well, at least not if it's hot water from the tap. it sounds like a myth that drinking hot water from the tap contains higher levels of contamenants, but then it does makes sense, and the ny times is saying it's true. granted, we can't trust everything the ny times says (see blog entry below), but i'm hoping this is a subject they actually researched before reporting.

out of touch at the ny times

those crazy kids at the ny times have done it again -- they done gone and went and belied their total lack of knowledge in the realm of pop culture. that and they revealed their apparent belief that facts are totally unnecessary when "reporting" on mainstream/pop culture topics.

in this article in today's times on the new wave of temporary tattoos, the reporter chooses the following as her list of "heavily tattooed" celebrities noteworthly of citation in the article: gwen stefani, amy winehouse and jeremy shockey.

hmm. gwen stefani has no tattoos. i'm still trying to figure out that math.

the other two have some tattoos, but they are hardly what i would call "heavily tattooed", nor are they celebrities with huge impact on fashion trends among the masses. if we're talking about trends here, shouldn't the people cited in the article be trendsetters?

oh, ny times, give me a break! if you can't find staff who know anything about mainstream culture, please just don't report on it!! if you feel you can't leave these topics to E! and *must* cover it yourself, at least get your freaking facts right. a couple minutes of internet research would help you a) report accurately and b) not look like a totally out of touch fool. the bottom line is that this kind of disregard to the basics of good reporting in one area, however unimportant the topic might be in the grand scheme, does shed doubt on the quality of reporting in all areas.

teeth

i am interested in seeing this sundance winner called teeth. it looks mighty interesting.

i came across a review of it in today's ny daily news. the reviewer liked it pretty well, but e gad were there hostile comments from readers. seems some people are really shook up by the idea of a vag that's equipped to defend itself. my favorite is the comment about how terrible it is to subject young males to watching the depiction of young males being castrated. i guess subjecting young females to the depiction of young and adult males trying to rape a young female is totally kosher.

as my blood pressure was rising and i was again losing all hope in humanity (as i did reading reader responses to a page on racist disney characters), i distracted myself by trying to find a trailer. the reader comments at imdb restored my faith that some people, in fact many people, do actually own brains and know how to operate them. yeah!

calling gloria

oh, gloria, i admit i have been unhappy with you at times this last decade or so. however, thank you for this op-ed piece in the all that's fit on the intersection of sex and race and how it's playing out in electoral politics.

sidebar: i continue to be thoroughly puzzled, angered and distressed by the widespread denial of sexism that is clogging our cultural discourse and our psyches.

taking marriage private

i love when people talk sense. i love it when people have a conversation about contemporary issues and put it in a historical context. thus, i enjoyed this article. i hope you will too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/opinion/26coontz.html

what a shocker...

... i'm a liberal. weird. i never saw that one coming.

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 10% Conservative, 90% Liberal Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal Defense and Crime: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal