January 2008
105 posts
Body Work | by U-Tern →
(Right click, “Save As” that link). I posted the Pointer Sisters video because I was listening to U-Tern’s mixtape, Body Work on my bike ride home the other day (listening to music while I ride is my ONLY safety vice. I wear a helmet, flashing lights, etc. Listening to mixes at a low volume is so necessary though). It’s one of my favorites. U-Tern himself describes it here:...
It's International Delete Your MySpace Account Day →
Do iiiiiit.
“Democrats intend to end the war, but they don’t know when. Democrats are...”
– P.J. O’Rourke in A Letter to Our European Friends in the Weekly Standard.
The Pill: A First-Rate Feminist Rock Opera
From Amanda Schaffer in Slate: When Margaret Sanger first dreamed of a “magic pill” to prevent unwanted pregnancy, and then its actual appearance came to symbolize sexual and personal freedom for women, few wanted to dwell on tough questions about potential health hazards. But in 1969, journalist Barbara Seaman forced the issue with her book The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill....
Why Edwards Couldn't Win | American Prospect →
Edwards Drops Out | New York Times →
A bummer because, if I was voting based on policy alone, Edwards would be my man. He has great ideas and he’s the only politician discussing class struggle in America right now. But this is no surprise. It’s also good news for Obama. I anxiously await his endorsement announcement (if he makes one).
Damn girl, don't hurt 'em
Why Jessica Biel continues to be my fitness inspiration. cakeface: see all of the images here
Why Do Women Use Their Own (Nude) Bodies In Art? |... →
Ms. Greer doesn’t give us any definitive answers, but I thought this point was interesting: “It is a truism of feminist history that women have been regarded primarily as body, passive, fertile body, as essential to human survival as earth. If women artists were ever to engage with anything, they were going to have to engage with body as earnestly as Cézanne engages with landscape,...
Bare Rear Could Cost ABC $1.4 Million →
“The agency rejected the network’s argument that ‘the buttocks are not a sexual organ.’ BAHAHAHAHAHA! This whole situation (and article) is ridiculous.
Ch-ch-ch-changes
I changed the name of my tumblr because having a Jawbreaker reference for a blog title is, like, so 1994. I named it “revengetherapy” out of habit, laziness and not really thinking I’d actually post in this thing. Maybe I’ll keep the “shield your eyes” title to grasp on to some semblance of my emo-punk loving, teenaged self or whatever. But who knows. I think...
P.S.
I did my previous post that way because it’s probably the only time I’ll be able to use the “chat” format. I rarely chat online unless with my editors. I’ll spare you those beasts of intellectual dialogue.
Gmail subject line: "A kinda cool thing"
gillian: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18352146&ft=1&f=1032
ian: Thanks, G! I sleep on NPR so hard.
gillian: I was gonna post it on my tumblr but then I was like, "Well, then I'd be copping Ian's steeze."
ian: Dude. Go for it and i'll reblog it!
McDegrees →
“McDonald’s employees trained in skills needed to run outlets for the fast-food chain can get credit toward high school diplomas, the British government announced Monday.” AAAAAACCCCKKKBLAAAARGHH!
The Choice: The Clinton-Obama battle reveals two... →
I’ve been thinking a lot about this article, especially the two points made here: “Whereas Clinton echoes Churchill, who proclaimed, “Give us the tools and we will finish the job,” Obama invokes Lincoln, who said, “As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.” and… In “A Woman in Charge,” Bernstein...
Game Developers are Writers Too →
“The skills one needs to tell a good story certainly apply to a video game—and don’t laugh, you elitists who think that games are the silly obsessions of emotional retards. People are deadly serious about their games and how good the stories are. I worry sometimes about where the novel is going. But stories—and the problems inherent in telling them—aren’t going...
After Heath Ledger's Death, Is Media Ignoring... →
This was one of my first thoughts when I heard about Heath. “I’m not advocating the kind of senseless media fixation which so often marks Paris/Britney/Lindsay coverage. But it seems we are ignoring one end of the problem while over-covering another. It’s time to bring some quality journalism attention to both sides of this equation and highlight these struggles before anyone...
Science fiction is the last great literature of...
From Clive Thompson’s column in Wired: From where I sit, traditional “literary fiction” has dropped the ball. I studied literature in college, and throughout my twenties I voraciously read contemporary fiction. Then, eight or nine years ago, I found myself getting — well — bored. Why? I think it’s because I was reading novel after novel about the real world. And there...
Link dump
I co-wrote a story about Hillary Clinton causing contention at dinner parties and in the bedroom. “Anytime I went to a cocktail party or a dinner party, the conversation somehow got around to Hillary and the volume was just raised,” said Susan Morrison, current New Yorker editor and former editor in chief of The Observer. “People got contentious about her and waved wine glasses around. She pushes...
It's the 35th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade →
“Thirty-five years ago, the Supreme Court affirmed in Roe vs. Wade that women have a fundamental right to choose abortion without government interference. Now, on this anniversary of that landmark decision, the United States has some of the most restrictive policies on abortion in the developed world.”
PSA: TheAtlantic.com is Now Free →
How the Web Turned You Into a Schmuck →
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From the book’s official site: In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity’s impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us. The World Without Us reveals how, just days after humans disappear, floods in New York’s subways would start eroding the city’s foundations, and how, as the world’s cities...
Broome & Allen streets
I was singing “Feels Good” by Tony! Toni! Tone! on my ride to work this morning. I pulled up at a stop light and kept singing at the top of my lungs (forgetting that being on a bike is not like being in a car, when jamming to your morning music is an acceptable semi-public act). A drunk started singing along with me and clapping his hands for a beat. A couple of people were smiling at...
Morals, dogma and science
Each month, Frank Furedi picks apart a really bad idea. This month he challenges the moralisation of science, and the transformation of scientific evidence into a new superstitious dogma. From Spiked: Many greens blame science and technology for contributing to environmental degradation and to global warming. Indeed, one of the puzzling features of our time is this: the relentless expansion of...
Drinks At 8 a.m. | The New York Observer →
I know I over-link the Observer. But it’s my tumblr and I’ll do what I want. This story was my favorite from this week’s issue, and it’s definitely worth reading.
P.S.
I got an A on that paper. For whatever that’s worth.
Where my girls at?
(Edit: I just added a whole bunch more to the end of this entry) I am back from lunch today and saw the new issue of Wired on my desk. Sarah Silverman is on the cover. I lost my appetite. (Note: Wired doesn’t have the cover on their site yet, but I’ll link to it later). I’m not really on the “Sarah Silverman sucks” train. I don’t think she’s...
“All people know the same truth; our lives consist of how we choose to distort...”
– Woody Allen from Deconstructing Harry.
“The solitude is unbearable. Am I alone? Are there others like me? I decide to...”
– Day 45 from Conan’s Strike Diary.
Hey, you can post comments now
Just sayin’. It took me five minutes. http://disqus.com/
“Not joining Facebook is no crime; it’s also not much to talk about. I can avoid...”
– Spencer Morgan, counter-column specialist.