Use this thread to discuss whatever. Self-linking is as welcome as hot chocolate on a cold day.
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Okay, the smarmy news guy is annoying (especially at the end, when he gets all Paul McCartney on us). But I nonetheless found this story irresistible.
Also: Advertising photography, circa 1962. Then as now, the most common strategy seems to be: show happy thin white people possessing product, “good life”.
Also: The trailer for Charlyne Yi’s Paper Hearts, a semi-not-really documentary is astonishingly cute-looking (much discussion of this in the comments there). Via.
In case you’ve not yet heard enough I’ve written a short primer on swine flu, as it relates to cancer.
my thoughts on the movie Obsessed: http://filthygrandeur.blogspot.com/2009/04/obsessed-hot-interracial-cat-fight.html
on my own whiteness: http://filthygrandeur.blogspot.com/2009/04/on-my-own-whiteness.html
my analysis of Robert Poe’s Return to the House of Usher: http://filthygrandeur.blogspot.com/2009/04/legacy-of-poe-return-to-house-of-usher.html
adam lambert wears eyeliner: http://filthygrandeur.blogspot.com/2009/04/adam-lambert-nail-polish-and-eye-liner.html
1) I’m sick. I hate being sick. Colds suck.
2) How do you explain to a small child that you are switching from one public school to another, without being negative about the existing school?
3) I am putting in a HUGE garden this year. Yum.
Sailorman,
What’s the context for the move? I switched schools between second and third grade (from neighborhood school to magnet school), and I’m pretty sure my folks just told me it was a better school (not that old school was bad, just that new school was better) with more stuff to do and fewer kids so the teachers could give us more time. Or something like that. This was a long time ago, but I remember it distinctly as a non-event. Of course, I was a “roll with it” kind of kid, and not all kids are.
Amp,
That video is some seriously day-brightening, mood-lifting goodness. Yeah, the reporter gets a little carried away at the end, but dog and elephant love can do that to a man.
The new school is better in ways that I care about (academics) and probably worse in ways which she cares about (social.) It will not be an easy sell.
Sailorman,
I think you have to be honest that you think the new school will be a better fit for her academic needs. Otherwise you’re just being Mean Old Because I Said So.
My parents had me skip a grade because they thought I was getting too bored at school, which I sort of accepted as being OK when they told me I should do it, but ended up being quite difficult. (I’d somehow assumed that I would stay friends with the kids in my old grade, which didn’t happen, and also that the kid with whom I was friendly in my new grade would stay friendly, which also didn’t happen.) Be conscious of whether the new school is the kind where all the kids knew each other from birth and have a fully-established clique system.
I always find the depictions of high school as the most brutally caste-based part of American social life a little puzzling, because at least by 10th grade, most of the kids at my high school were mature enough to not want to be the Mean Kids from a John Hughes movie. In my experience, kids were most awful to each other at the ages where they didn’t have that level of self-consciousness and where their victims also aren’t mature enough to have some self-confidence (i.e., middle school is hell on earth).
My own question for Alas folks: does anyone know of resources about co-parenting in the U.S., especially a place where someone can find other people who are interested? I found http://co-parents.net/, but it’s new and doesn’t have a lot of Americans on it yet.
Ha! “Take a good look, America. Take a good look, WORLD.” Manipulative treacle, Exhibit A.
In other news, I highlighted some racist Stones’ lyrics, and interviewed anti-racist artist, standup comic, and Bill O’Reilly jouster damali ayo.
Oops, sorry! Wrong link for the damali ayo interview–here it is.
They skip the most fascinating parts of the Tara & Bella story. You can find it at http://www.elephants.com/index.php
A couple of highlights – as I recall them:
Tara has always liked dogs, but most dogs are terrified of her. Bella was found guarding a bulldozer. Also, when Bella suffered her injury nobody could find her. Turns out Tara stood over her for 2 days or so before Sanctuary staff went to check on Tara to see why she wasn’t moving.
The Elephant Sanctuary newsletters w/ the story are much more detailed and a lot less sappy but more spiritual. I encourage you to consider donating to them as part of your charity donations (if you have any) if you consider what they’re doing to be a worthy cause.
Corporal Punishment Is Alive And Well At Schools: Spanking is still accepted by many as a legitimate form of discipline despite the numerous studies that have been performed that prove how damaging this practice is. I was terribly upset to read about John C. Calhoun Elementary Calhoun Hills, S.C., where principal David Nixon wields his paddle to keep the students in line.
We Sure Loves Us Some Chicken: Popeye’s has a sale on chicken and runs out of course the media can only show black people complaining. Nice way to push the racist all black people love chicken meme.
Women As A Tool To Justify Transphobia: New England is currently working on House Bill 1728 which bans discrimination based on gender identity or expression in the areas of employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and public education. In order to defeat this bill opponents have chosen once again to raise the supposed dreaded spectre of “men in womens bathrooms”.
The Criagslist Killer: Just A Normal Guy: Though Markoff is yet to be convicted, unlike so many men of color who daily interact with the criminal justice system the presumption of innocence actually applies to him. Even if he is found guilty Markoff will never be understood as representative of his race; no his actions will be deemed an aberration as whiteness cannot afford to own such a taint.
Someone wrote, “Delurking to share my new blog, Did You Look At This Before You Approved It?”
But then I accidentally deleted the comment when I intended to approve it.
So, sorry about that! Hopefully me posting the link like this makes up for my stupid error. :-)
Any fans of “Real Housewives of New York City”? (Oh come on, admit it!)
Is it just my poor monitor (or more poor eye sight) or has the color difference between the body text color and the link color become basically non-existent. Currently, links in body text look like faintly bolded plain text. Dopes anyone else have this problem, or do I just need a new monitor?
Charles,
You need a new monitor.
Alas, it’s your monitor.
Although, better your monitor than your eyes.
Sailorman, how would the new school be worse, socially? Is it because she’ll have to leave all her old friends behind – which sucks, I’ve been through that a couple times – or is there actually something about that school that’s somewhat anti-social? From your description of her, it sounds like she’s in elementary school, and I don’t think elementary schools specialize enough for the latter to be an issue, though I could be wrong. Though of course, it’s difficult to explain anything to an elementary school kid.
PG, I agree. The few papers as well as lots of anecdotal accounts I’ve read point to middle school being the worst time for a kid in America, as far as getting picked on by the Mean Kids go. TV and movies don’t reflect this, because they want the petty drama of middle school but the relevance of high school or college. (If you want an athletics subplot, you have to make it about a nationally publicized NCAA athlete, or else a high school guy being recruited by a Division I school. No one cares about middle school teams.) Not to mention the hazards of casting very underage actors, or the shooting of sex scenes thereof.
Full disclaimer: I did not actually ever go to “middle school” myself, because I’m from Canada and there we go straight from elementary (K-7) to high school (8-12). So lucky me, I never went through middle school hell. And I think that’s the system the US should adopt, although the educational establishment here brings its own infuriating brand of inertia.
I think it’s your monitor.
People have been sending me links to a YouTube video about the police commission parodying several of us as being interviewed by a reporter. They put us in claymation which I guess is more interesting than the usual stuff that’s been posted but I can’t figure out how I ended up looking like Skipper. And why do I have a dog show up and start following me around?
But they show the only African-American commissioner, who quit because of the crap that’s been going there with what some said looks like a flask of alcohol. I can’t tell what it is. How bizarre. Of course, there’s no name on the video. They always parody him and never one of the ones who are lock step with the police department.
The silly thing is that my sound is down and out on the computer so I can’t get the audio part so I’m not sure what I “said”?
Blogging about the local elections in my city sure is interesting but I can’t wait until the election is over because these people who are supporting my elected official who’s up for election are nasty and rumor is some were paid campaign workers ordered to do this to people they perceive are their candidate’s critics.
Radfem, I’m sure their views are awful, but that they did it in claymation is amazing. Is it original claymation, or did they just add new voices to already existing footage?
I think it’s both, in some weird way. I don’t look like Skipper for example but they were customized a bit. I’m sure someone put some effort on it and I’m pretty much feeling whatever, except for how they treated the former commissioner from what I have heard.
And there were complaints that the depiction of the police commissioner was very mean-spirited. There are two White commissioners who are really outspoken in questioning what City Hall has done to the commission but they target the Black commissioner who is outspoken who has resigned?
And really the only people who have tried to ridicule him before were city cops, while they were at a training course and during their breaks, they showed police commission videos on screen.
I had a lot of people ask me about the video, so I guess it got around on the net. Like I said, it’s been a particularly virulent election cycle surrounding only one incumbent candidate out of eight total candidates running. Like today, someone was spewing that I was blogging about the councilman because I was obsessed and was spurned romantically by him. So you can’t be female and write about local politics?
The strangest thing that happened was in another election where there were like three blogs all critical of a couple incumbent candidates and the editorial board wrote up how we were all operating under the command of some candidate and a council member researched whether or not he could sue us not for slander, libel or defamation or anything like that but for costing him the election. I think enough lawyers rejected his legal argument and he gave up.
Oh no! I’m a overzealous and angry feminist? How original indeed! This is such a common form of attack. I’m not a self-identified feminist but I do feel the hate out there for feminists as a class. But it really does get old.
I’ve been writing on the Maywood Police Department (CA)which became the second LE agency in my state to be facing mandated reforms by the state AG’s office. Some interesting similarities in rhetoric being given by the city’s leadership. I’ve been following this case closely and the investigator worked with my city’s department so his insights into Maywood were pretty interesting.
It had rampant abuses, at least one-third of its 39 officers were fired and/or arrested/charged with crimes in their previous agencies. Two interim chiefs were hired by the council.
The first, convicted of DV but reduced to terrorist threats against girlfriend
The second, fired by Maywood for being caught having onduty sex with a woman on surveillance video, fired at a teaching job at a college for ethics violations and convicted of petty theft.
The third, was apparently not a convicted criminal.