tid bits

¤  Bush serves up rice

¤  Corrections: "A restaurant review in the Dining section last Wednesday about Spice Market, on West 13th Street in Manhattan, awarded it three stars. The review should have disclosed this."

¤  A Vermeer, Once Suspect, Will Be Offered at Sotheby’s

¤  Sex makes you clever.

¤  Jake lusts but does not carp the diem.

¤  Handsome, rich, famous (even though at 5-feet-7, he is a bit vertically challenged).

The Christ

I went to see The Passion of The Christ last night and while I understand that anti-semitism is rampant around the world - and I have blogged a lot about it before - and it's just plain unacceptable to send out messages that reinforce that feeling, I did not find the movie particularly anti-Semitic (?). It's a historic view-point that should be watched with a critical eye. Hey, the guy that helps him carry THE cross is a Jew...

Now, is it uplifting? No. Well done? Yes. Gimmicky? Somewhat.

But will someone explain to me why the THE in 'The Passion of The Christ'?

AND TO BALANCE THINGS OUT

my good (Jewish) friend (who refused to go see 'the THE' with me) mr. df wants you to watch Interview With God.

FURTHERMORE...

In an earlier post linking the movie to the trend of arts' appropriation of s/m imagery, we are told that "JIM CAVIEZEL is no stranger to whips and chains; his flogging in The Count of Monte Cristo made him the poster child for hot, demoralizing martyrdom way back in 2002—a heavy cross to bear".

La Musto

She was so good this week I wanted to blog the whole thing. We have the same 'sensibility'...

• The cast of Stepford Wives is a who's who of wait a minute, but in a potentially appealing, Oscar-winner-meet-country-star-on-the-way-to-Hollywood-Squares sort of way.


• The same goes for Johnny Guitar, a smirky version of the old noir western in which two butch babes battle it out amid the cacti. At intermission, a man cornered me and aptly said "Tedious," but then the stage antics picked up, cementing this crazy new trend where it's almost worth staying for Act Two! (But next time, people, please leave the camp to drag queens—or Bette Midler.)


• Vanity Fair has always promoted white long after Labor Day. In fact, there are fewer African Americans on that publication's cover than in Fiddler on the Roof.


• Journalist TONY PHILLIPS is writing a Gay City News piece on the arts' appropriation of s/m imagery. (...) The Passion of the Christ is part of the thesis, especially since a distributor told Phillips that the film's second biggest ticket presale group—after the crucifixion-for-lunch bunch—has been the heavy-duty bondage crowd! And not just masochists!


• Jayson Blair told DAN FORBES of drugwar.com that the coke-crack-and-a-little-heroin-for-sex acts he engaged in were with men! (Hey, I win the office pool; though funny, so does everyone else.) Blair also revealed that he's sorting out sexual issues and "drugs are a way to make myself comfortable with sex." Welcome to Chelsea, honey.


• TONY KUSHNER's work in progress, Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy, has a scene in which LAURA BUSH reads The Brothers Karamazov to a group of dead Iraqi children!


• A former pig-bottom porn star is now the assistant to one of Hollywood's most powerful flacks. No, wait, that's not a career move at all!

got thyme?

Politiken (1993): "The earliest commercial anywhere worldwide to show a gay male couple together is this one from Denmark, directed by Danish director Lars Von Trier ('Breaking the Waves', 'The Idiots', 'Dancer in the Dark')."

The Commercial Closet: works to lessen social discrimination of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community by encouraging corporations and ad agencies to improve GLBT portrayals in the powerful, pursuasive medium of mainstream advertising.

Take a look at their compilation of Same-Sex Marriage Ads.

Out-let

Via WOW Report:
"With Will & Grace, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Sex and the City, the Ellen DeGeneres Show, and other queer-friendly TV fare proving to be ratings gold, the idea for an all-gay cable channel makes fabulous sense. It was over a year ago that Viacom, parent to Showtime and MTV, mulled over the idea, then let it die. Now comes a report at gfn.com that Sumner Redstone, Viacom chairman and CEO, has directed Tom Freston, chief executive of MTV Networks, to come up with a plan for just such a network, tentatively named Outlet. And he told investors that if he'd acted on the idea two years ago, the network would be worth billions today. Billions."

In an internal memo to "Staff and Freelancers of Showtime and MTV Networks," Freston writes: "The name Outlet represents the overall mission of the new channel, which is to serve as the premiere media 'outlet' for entertainment and information to the more than 14 million gay and lesbian adults in the United States. Outlet will offer a variety of programming that represents the broad diversity of this community, including films, documentaries and popular series. Outlet will also feature original programming created especially for this channel across all programming genres.

It's All Relative

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Gov. Bob Wise sent a letter to Abercrombie & Fitch on Monday demanding that the clothing retailer stop selling a T-shirt that spoofs the state with the slogan, "It's All Relative in West Virginia."

Wise said the T-shirt depicts "an unfounded, negative stereotype" of the state.

"I write to you today to demand that you immediately remove this item from your stores and your print and online catalogues," Wise wrote. "In addition, these shirts must be destroyed at once to avoid any possibility of resale and proof be given thereof."

Abercrombie & Fitch spokesman Tom Lennox declined to say whether the New Albany, Ohio-based company would comply with the governor's request. He said the T-shirt, which features the slogan on an outline of the state, has been selling well at $22.50.

"Abercrombie and Fitch was born and raised in the USA, and we honor all 50 states in the union," Lennox said.

West Virginia is not the only state that is spoofed on an Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt. Another shirt's slogan is "New Hampshire. 40 million squirrels can't be wrong."

ajc.com

Q. Is it rude for a guest to ask to use a host's computer to check e-mail or surf or play games?

A. Why would a guest ask to do this? Their desire to disassociate from the social interchange is not a good sign of their mental wellness and, of course, it is downright bad manners. Would you let a guest try on your clothes? Asking to use someone's 'personal' computer is like asking for a piece of paper from someone's diary. Of course, he or she who wants to use your computer is clueless and will probably need a major explanation of why you are saying no. This may also include professionals of great self importance like doctors and lawyers who think their emergencies are your emergencies. They aren't.
Why don't you say something along the lines of:
'Let you use our computer and deprive us of the pleasure of your company for even a minute? Heaven's no.'

Questions for William Norwich

i hate to reinforce stereotypes but...

HOMEM BOM É ISSO AÍ!!!!!!
(translation: 'THIS is a good man!!!")
via Fleshbot.

Also via Fleshbot,
the latest installment of the 'Brazilians Do It Better' series:
Brazilians Do It Better 9.

NINE???? People, get a grip of your fantasies,

he is back!

Gort, Klatuu borada nikto

Awaking to a Dream

"I want to wake up and read that Justice Antonin Scalia has recused himself from ruling on the case involving Mr. Cheney's energy task force when it comes before the Supreme Court -- not because Mr. Scalia did anything illegal in duck hunting with the V.P., but because our Supreme Court is so sacred, so vital to what makes our society special -- its rule of law -- that he wouldn't want to do anything that might have even a whiff of impropriety."

NYTimes Op-Ed Columnist Thomas L. Friedman

Beethoven: Unfair to Labor!

"From Bonn (Beethoven's birthplace) comes word that violinists of the Beethoven Orchestra are suing to be paid more than their wind- and percussion-playing colleagues, because they produce more music. In most of the orchestral literature, the argument runs, the strings play almost continuously, but the brasses, for example, tend to play in bursts, often widely separated, when they play at all."

NYTimes Week in Review

sauna whack

If you're also a fan of hunky, sweaty Estonian men in towels, you might want to check out this television commercial

via Fleshbot

damita jo explained

Janet explains that Damita Jo is her middle name

milk that shake!

Spring

Birds and the Bees

via Byrdhouse

photo by heather champ.
See more "Global Day of Action" photos

being shallow

I finally took the physical attraction test from Match.com that everybody has been taking. What did it tell me? That these tests are bogus.

According to the selections you made in the test, this man fits Your Type. Duh!

And I have to agree with Lyndsay: "The biggest problem with the test is that one doesn't choose potential mates based on basic looks. At least I don't. The first two times I took the test, I took forever to make choices because I kept trying to read their faces to figure out their personalities, intelligence, taste in music, sense of humor, and politics. Realizing that I couldn't tell those things from a picture, I had to fall back on the only guarantee: a pretty face. So this test doesn't really work. But it sure was fun!"

Daúde is hot!

Very Hot!



Songs from the latest album: "Neguinha Te Amo"

Amazon.com: Daúde

Forget Me Not

"How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd."

Alexander Pope

BUT...

"Streisand still says it best: 'If we had the chance to do it all again, tell me?
Would we? Could we?"

Citizen Kubrick

The journey to the Kubrick house starts normally. You drive through rural Hertfordshire, passing ordinary-sized postwar houses and opticians and vets. Then you turn right at an electric gate with a 'Do Not Trespass' sign. Drive through that, and through some woods, and past a long, white fence with the paint peeling off, and then another electric gate, and then another electric gate, and then another electric gate, and you're in the middle of an estate full of boxes.

There are boxes everywhere - shelves of boxes in the stable block, rooms full of boxes in the main house. In the fields, where racehorses once stood and grazed, are half a dozen portable cabins, each packed with boxes. These are the boxes that contain the legendary Kubrick archive .

Guardian Unlimited via MemeFirst

Another favorite passage:

"The fan letters are perfectly preserved. They are not in the least bit dusty or crushed. The system used to file them is, in fact, extraordinary. Each fan box contains perhaps 50 orange folders. Each folder has the name of a town or city typed on the front - Agincourt, Ontario; Alhambra, California; Cincinnati, Ohio; Daly City, California, and so on - and they are in alphabetical order inside the boxes. And inside each folder are all the fan letters that came from that particular place in any one year. Kubrick has handwritten 'F-P' on the positive ones and 'F-N' on the negative ones. The crazy ones have been marked 'F-C'."

The whole article is fascinating. Worth reading.

sign made by LetterJames

there he goes again

Pope John Paul has said Sunday should be a day for God, not for secular diversions like entertainment and sports.
CNN.com

The Exorcist

in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies.

Damita Jo's first mix

A sample of Peter Rauhofer's mix via T-Pro's web site

just in time for my birthday

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

Instapundit: this cartoon sums up the media worldview quite nicely.

i heart london too

Photos by Meccapixel

Unexplained Snacks of America

The Morning News
Australian Matt Roden guesses what’s in the boxes of America's popular foods.

A lot of American television and movies are shown here in Australia, and for the most part any Stateside pop-culture references made are either previously known or easily decoded. Food and beverage references, however, are an entirely different matter. A lot of the bigger and better brands are already out here – Oreos, Big Red, we’ve even got a few McDonalds. A lot that aren’t available here are still easy to work out – Drake’s Coffee Cake and Junior Mints, for example. But buffalo wings? Bear claws? Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? What are you doing, shots of sandwich spread now? Here’s a few of America’s unexplained foodstuffs deciphered by an unknowing Australian.

when it rains...

DJ Ben Watt (Everything But The Girl/Lazydog) at Canal Room (Sun, 3/28)

NY things that put me in a good mood

Central Park Disco Rollers

shrub: Shameless

Yahoo! News:
"President Bush poked fun at his staff, his Democratic challenger and himself Wednesday night at a black-tie dinner where he hobnobbed with the news media.

Bush put on a slide show, calling it the 'White House Election-Year Album' at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association 60th annual dinner, showing himself and his staff in some decidedly unflattering poses.

There was Bush looking under furniture in a fruitless, frustrating search. 'Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere,' he said."

MemeFirst: "I'd love to know whether the 1,500 people in attendance all thought that was funny"

Time

"There are too many clocks in my life. And each one is showing a different time, so I don't know when I am anymore."

as posted by kottke

Rosemary's Baby

via low culture: Actually, his name's Seamus. But he's still creepy-looking.

The Top 10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School

To self: Apply to life. (Read the whole thing @Design Observer)

1. Talent is one-third of the success equation.
Talent is important in any profession, but it is no guarantee of success. Hard work and luck are equally important. Hard work means self-discipline and sacrifice. Luck means, among other things, access to power, whether it is social contacts or money or timing. In fact, if you are not very talented, you can still succeed by emphasizing the other two. If you think I am wrong, just look around.

2. 95 percent of any creative profession is shit work.
Only 5 percent is actually, in some simplistic way, fun. In school that is what you focus on; it is 100 percent fun. Tick-tock. In real life, most of the time there is paper work, drafting boring stuff, fact-checking, negotiating, selling, collecting money, paying taxes, and so forth. If you don’t learn to love the boring, aggravating, and stupid parts of your profession and perform them with diligence and care, you will never succeed.

3. If everything is equally important, then nothing is very important.
You hear a lot about details, from “Don’t sweat the details” to “God is in the details.” Both are true, but with a very important explanation: hierarchy. You must decide what is important, and then attend to it first and foremost. Everything is important, yes. But not everything is equally important. A very successful real estate person taught me this. He told me, “Watch King Rat. You’ll get it.”

4. Don’t over-think a problem.
One time when I was in graduate school, the late, great Steven Izenour said to me, after only a week or so into a ten-week problem, “OK, you solved it. Now draw it up.” Every other critic I ever had always tried to complicate and prolong a problem when, in fact, it had already been solved. Designers are obsessive by nature. This was a revelation. Sometimes you just hit it. The thing is done. Move on.

5. Start with what you know; then remove the unknowns.
In design this means “draw what you know.” Start by putting down what you already know and already understand. If you are designing a chair, for example, you know that humans are of predictable height. The seat height, the angle of repose, and the loading requirements can at least be approximated. So draw them. Most students panic when faced with something they do not know and cannot control. Forget about it. Begin at the beginning. Then work on each unknown, solving and removing them one at a time. It is the most important rule of design. In Zen it is expressed as “Be where you are.” It works.

6. Don’t forget your goal.
Definition of a fanatic: Someone who redoubles his effort after forgetting his goal. Students and young designers often approach a problem with insight and brilliance, and subsequently let it slip away in confusion, fear and wasted effort. They forget their goals, and make up new ones as they go along. Original thought is a kind of gift from the gods. Artists know this. “Hold the moment,” they say. “Honor it.” Get your idea down on a slip of paper and tape it up in front of you.

7. When you throw your weight around, you usually fall off balance.
Overconfidence in as bad as no confidence. Be humble in approaching problems. Realize and accept your ignorance, then work diligently to educate yourself out of it. Ask questions. Power – the power to create things and impose them on the world – is a privilege. Do not abuse it, do not underestimate its difficulty, or it will come around and bite you on the ass. The great Karmic wheel, however slowly, turns.

8. The road to hell is paved with good intentions; or, no good deed goes unpunished.
The world is not set up to facilitate the best any more than it is set up to facilitate the worst. It doesn’t depend on brilliance or innovation because if it did, the system would be unpredictable. It requires averages and predictables. So, good deeds and brilliant ideas go against the grain of the social contract almost by definition. They will be challenged and will require enormous effort to succeed. Most fail. Expect to work hard, expect to fail a few times, and expect to be rejected. Our work is like martial arts or military strategy: Never underestimate your opponent. If you believe in excellence, your opponent will pretty much be everything.

9. It all comes down to output.
No matter how cool your computer rendering is, no matter how brilliant your essay is, no matter how fabulous your whatever is, if you can’t output it, distribute it, and make it known, it basically doesn’t exist. Orient yourself to output. Schedule output. Output, output, output. Show Me The Output.

10. The rest of the world counts.
If you hope to accomplish anything, you will inevitably need all of the people you hated in high school. I once attended a very prestigious design school where the idea was “If you are here, you are so important, the rest of the world doesn’t count.” Not a single person from that school that I know of has every been really successful outside of school. In fact, most are the kind of mid-level management drones and hacks they so despised as students. A suit does not make you a genius. No matter how good your design is, somebody has to construct or manufacture it. Somebody has to insure it. Somebody has to buy it. Respect those people. You need them. Big time.

Just A Little While

I love Janet Jackson but I Want You, the first single out of Damita Jo was totally underwhelming. The second single, "Just A Little While", is better but I'm sure Jonathan Peters can make it MUCH better.

Listen to Janet's New Single,
"Just A Little While"

the best browser available

in my opinion, of course:


OmniWeb

and there are days when the bears are just too far...

Mountainbears (Luc et Rolls)
Grenoble | France

On envoie le bas en réponse aux messages avec photo

no forgiveness

a special event

Danny takes you to church amen / hallelujah / can i get a witness?/ there will be no forgiveness if you miss this revival from beginning to end please arrive early....

SUNDAY MARCH 28TH DANNY SPINS HOUSE CLASSICS - 6PM-2AM

@
ARC

great pictures of the black party

Pics and text via Sarge, once again.
but that's exactly how i was seing things the whole nite -
Thanks to Mr.DF, for being ON.K. Sooooo 1997.

"Cameras are strictly forbidden at the Black Party. Yet every year, around dawn, they mysteriously begin appearing on the dance floor. This year, I snuck my camera in. This year, I didn't see a single other person taking pictures. Oops. This slideshow only depicts large shots of the crowd, viewed from the balcony, or blurred/colorized shots from dance floor. Pictures of individuals have been deleted, or will be mailed to you personally, if you are shown. Let me know what you think. Even the indistinct shots are kinda cool, IMHO."

Body&soul 2004 reunion

The pictures are courtesy of my friend Sarge8X6
who, thankfully, did not listen to me but to the last rule: "Follow your instincts, and fuck 'em if they don't like 'em."
and provided the means (the extra ticket) for me to go.
thank you thank you thank you
this is a personal selection of memories captured by him. if you want you can see all the pictures he took

This was his second time to body&soul. The first was the 'last night' when they had this unbelievable emotional and physical marathon. The club shelter had become arc and the trademark industrial fans had been removed and air condioning finally installed. after years...
well, it had broken down the night before.
EVERYBODY was there. It was summer. It was hot. It was hotter than ever.
a few times i felt i was going to have a heart attack on the dance floor. As the night progressed it was impossible to dance a whole song without stepping out for water.
It was hot.
It was unforgettable.

following are sarge's review of the place. right on:
"Wow. Almost 2 years since shuttering their legendary downtown club, the Body&Soul crew gave us a reunion party that made me ACHE for B&S to return to regular weekly parties! The room was murderously hot, but the smiles on the faces of that impossible-anywhere-else crowd made the sweating all worth it. Gay, straight, both. Black, white, neither. Foreign, native, and truly alien. Spectacular. When I entered the room, I paused on the steps and broke into a huge idiot grin at all the exuberant dancing. A very tall black queen saw me, and reached over to pat my head, saying: 'Welcome home, sweetheart'. The room was a Who's Who of house royalty. I spotted DJs Danny Tenaglia, Lil Louie Vega, David Mancuso, and Tommy Bones. And up in the booth, of course: Francois Kevorkian, Danny Krivit and Joe Clausell. Big songs: Always There- Side Effect, Do I Do -Stevie Wonder,Relight My Fire-Dan Hartman, Movin'-Brass Construction,Feel Up-Grace Jones. James Brown,Teddy Pendergrass...BLISS!"

Body&Soul, like TheSaint, is one of those places that will make future generations mad because they did not experienced it. And never will.

There is no place like home.

body + soul = time warp

...and it was as if nothing had changed at all in the last 2 years and we were living in happier times.

rules

by Marc North dot blog

Crowds are boring.
People in crowds are interesting.
The reaction of a single person in a crowd is fascinating.

Cats can be photogenic, but usually aren't.

Permission yields artifice. Stealth yields truth.

Faces trump landscapes and object shots. Unless the object is a face, then those rule!

Focus shmocus.

Your photos will never mean as much to others as they do to you.

Follow your instincts, and fuck 'em if they don't like 'em.

Times Correction

Did you catch the unusual correction in the wedding announcement section of the Styles Section?:

"A report on Feb. 15 about the wedding of Riva Golan Ritvo and Alan Bruce Slifka included an erroneous account of the bride's education, which she supplied. Ms. Ritvo, a child therapist, did not graduate from the University of Pennsylvania or receive a master's degree in occupational therapy or a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Southern California. Though she attended Penn for a time, her bachelor's degree, in occupational therapy, is from U.S.C. The Times should have corroborated the credentials before publishing the report."

MUG got a copy of additional details that didn't make it into the correction. For the record: Ms. Ritvo was not inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1998 and never swam the English Channel. Her cockapoo, Pauline, is not a 2002 Westminster champion; cockapoos are not a recognized AKC breed and Ms. Ritvo's dog died in 1985. Ms. Ritvo was not the inventor of HotPockets brand stuffed sandwiches and has never worked for Desmond Tutu.

via Manhattan User's Guide

happy black party!

THE SAINT AT LARGE

Some days, you eat the bear.

Some days, the bear smacks you against the ground like a little bitch and you cry and cry.

sorry i missed it...

NY1 News: Anti-War Rally Draws 40,000 Peaceful Protesters

"'We are demonstrating today on the first anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq,' said Sarah Sloan of A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. 'We are calling for the U.S. occupation of Iraq to end immediately in accordance with the wishes of the Iraqi people and their right to self-determination and the wishes of the U.S. soldiers and the vast majority of people in the world.'

'I'm upset with the president for just about everything,' said one protester. 'His war in Iraq that goes on and on and kills people, what he's done to our economy and what he's doing to our future.'

The police estimate that 30,000 to 40,000 protesters turned out for the march. They were shadowed by as many as 6,000 police on foot patrol, on horses, with dogs and even in helicopters, keeping a wary eye on the thousands of protesters."

Leather Limericks

by Sarge8x6
Celebrating St.Patrick's Day AND The Black Party
******
Flog9 planned it all in advance
This time he'd leave nothing to chance
He packed blindfolds, handcuffs and rope
But he should have brought soap
His trick, you see, was from France
******
Two tall hairy cops from New York
Went to meet a hot piggy at Pork
Much to their distress
He walked in, in a dress
Just like that swan thing on Bjork
******
Two guys at the Eagle discussed whether
It was tacky to wed wearing leather
Would the priest be in chaps?
Should they wear matching caps?
Could they drag their boy in on a tether?

strategies for the man hunt

so i log on manhunt and right away i get a message from "vasco510". Now, mind you, my real name is Vasco. Too weird...
He is a top but he is looking for well endowed fellows...
It happens too often: false advertising. Gotta do what you gotta do in NYC: first, all 'bottoms' became 'versatiles'. Now, they say they are tops that bottom...
i still like my friend sarge's take on the whole thing: time to evolve.

vasco510
New York -  midtown -  New York
Hot beefy muscular
Looking for hot passionate sex. Well endowed preferred.
I get into Fucking, 1 on 1, Group Sex, Voyeurism.
I am 42 years old.
Sexually I am A Top.

fuck!

swearing: a must!
via MemeFirst

psychosomatic symptoms

"From a lack of community property
And a feeling she's getting to old
A person can develop a bad, bad cold!"

fractals

Cool Science Image

An oasis of sanity on gay marriage

"Now, be it hereby resolved that the New Hope Borough Council supports the issuance of marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples and calls upon the County of Bucks and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to issue such licenses."

I came to the historic riverfront town of New Hope expecting to find Gomorrah on the Delaware, its populace turned to pillars of salt for daring to so brazenly embrace homosexual union.

But on Friday, three days after the Borough Council unanimously voted in favor of gay marriage, all was quiet.

Philadelphia Inquirer | John Grogan forwarded by my friend Sexpartyguru

Worster Album Covers Ever II

Golden Classics
via Stone

i heart Redheads

It’s been documented: The Redhead Cluster Phenomenon.
You happen upon redheads in close sequence, followed by long periods of seeing none whatsoever. You’ll see five in an afternoon and then none for two weeks.

See Red Headed Men NAKED!

via Fleshbot

Trump Tries to Buy Rights to English Language; Judges Refuse

via Gothamist

fortune cookie wisdom

"Reasonable people endure;
passionate people live."
via dogpoet

Acknowledgements: My common sense

"I’m firmly against taxing fast food. Your fat ass is your fault. And I don’t understand all this Atkins and South Beach Diet crap. A diet book should have two pages in it:
Page 1 – Eat right.
Page 2 – Exercise.
Acknowledgements: My common sense."
via Bill Maher

meanwhile, in rhea county, tenessee

Homossexuals allowed again in the county.

But not welcomed.

"12-year-old Caitlin Kinney, attending the meeting with her mother, said she supported the commissioners' initial vote.

'I think they should go further, try to see if they can ban them,' she said. 'It's not a Christian thing.' "

"The spirit of Rhea county Christianity lives on among its youth"

via CBS News and AndrewSullivan.com

Sleeping Muse I

"Fascinated throughout his career by the theme of a reclining sleeping head, Constantin Brancusi refined the motif of the sleeping muse for more than a decade. In preliminary compositions such as Repose, 1906, and Sleep, 1908, he emulated Auguste Rodin's marble carvings of dreaming or contemplative female heads. But Brancusi deliberately developed a coolly dispassionate style quite unlike that of Rodin's emotionally expressionist sculptures, with their contorted poses and distraught faces. Instead, Brancusi simplified a subject into its most elemental shape, synthesizing the original figurative reference with the then new formalist discipline of abstraction.
 
In 1908-09, Brancusi sculpted two portraits of Baroness Renée Frachon, whose elongated oval face, thinly arched eyebrows, diminutive nose, and chignon hairstyle became the inspiration for the Hirshhorn's Sleeping Muse I. In this sculpture, Brancusi made the crucial transition from descriptive naturalism to abstract purity of form. The subtly delineated facial features do not interrupt either the contour or the surfaces of the head. Without overt reference to a body or subject, the image seems inner-directed, its pristine features and closed eyes conveying a classical sense of serene detachment and repose. The title implies the limitless realm of dreams and inspiration, while the white ovoid shape also evokes associations with an egg-a symbol for the potentialities of future life and growth. In subsequent versions, particularly two stone heads from 1917-18, Brancusi emphasized that analogy by further minimizing the descriptive details, a trend that culminated in the purely abstract ovoid Beginning of the World, 1920."
Hirshhorn Museum

crime against nature

Rhea County commissioners unanimously voted to ask state lawmakers to introduce legislation amending Tennessee's criminal code so the county can charge homosexuals with crimes against nature.
Rhea County, about 30 miles north of Chattanooga, is among the most conservative in Tennessee. It holds an annual festival commemorating the 1925 trial that convicted John T. Scopes on charges of teaching evolution, a verdict thrown out by the Tennessee Supreme Court on a technicality. The trial later became the subject of the play and movie, "Inherit the Wind."
FOXNews.com

"So much attention has been paid to the handful of places that have advanced gay civil rights in the last few months that the tidal wave of anti-gay legislation being proposed and passed across the nation - pioneered by Republicans - barely merits notice. One state - just one - has moved toward establishing equality in marriage for gays. Thirty-eight have banned it outright. A few have re-written their constitutions to ensure inequality for gay citizens."
AndrewSullivan.com

Gothamist knows golden shower

"Gothamist knows that Virigin Airlines is supposed to be risque and everything, but the new lipsticked-mouth urinal at the Virgin Airways Clubhouse at JFK is really gross. While golden shower may be a part of people's sexual repertoire, Gothamist sees no need for them to be encouraged. However, if this is a way for men to act out the fantasy, well, pee on. But it's just gross. The Post reports Virgin Airways as saying, "We expect the response to the urinal to be very positive. With everything we do, we want there to be a smile, and that's also the case in the clubhouse. The urinal is just for fun. But it's not the centerpiece of the clubhouse." But the spokesman admits, "There will be some people that won't like it."

Netherlands design company Bathroom Mania created the "Kisses" urinal. Made of vitreous china, "it's the one target men never miss." Blech."

photo by heather champ

In other sicko news...

"Entertainment Tonight recently revealed that when Michael Jackson flies, he demands KFC for all his meals. Just as I always suspected: Jacko likes chicken. In fact, he likes chicken legs up in the air! Pity that pilot."
La Dolce Musto

Bans on Interracial Unions Offer Perspective on Gay Ones

NYTimes News Analysis:
"Opposition to interracial marriage in the last century was in many ways more vehement than opposition to gay marriage today. It was, for instance, a criminal offense in many states. None of the 38 states that expressly forbid gay marriage by statute today go that far."
Graphic: Banning Interracial Marriage

new yorkers

forwarded by mr. df

a day to stay home

St. Patrick's Day
"Shirtless bartending firemen, bikini-clad bartendresses, and $3 Guinness pints! Puking on the L train, intra-office ass-pinchings, and hands-on investigation of the Irish curse: hurray for St. Patrick's Day! It's amazing that one holiday could so totally embody all our values of getting all liquored up and felt up.

Locations to avoid are listed at the NYC Bartenders & Patrons site and in the Murph's Guide. Most important: don't even go near McSorley's on 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd. Definitely avoid the lecherous leprechauns on parade up Fifth Avenue. Hell, call in sick and stay home with a bottle of Irish Mist."

via gawker

I am Belle de Jour

Confess to being Belle de Jour:
"Since the press has been filled with speculation, we thought we’d give you the chance to confess. I know that I’m Belle de Jour. But are you?"

Sample post:
Greetings and felicitations i am sorry indeed for making your acquaiantence in this way but your esteemed details were given to me by a colleague in the Nigerian Department of Works (Lagos).I am Belle de Jour and I was forced to flee my country of Liberia when a coup brought down the government of my good friend MR CHARLES TAYLOR. When I left he gave into my safe keeping a douche bag containing the sum of $100,000,000.00 (ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS) which I am seeking your respected help to move into your country, in return for which I will give you 30%.Until this money is moved into your country I am forced to assume the position of callgirl untill my assets is unfrozen.I thank you and look forward to a successful business relationship with you. I am confident, we will both benefit from the hard work I am now engaged in. I trust that you will enjoy and benefit from this opportunity to work with me.I respectfulkly remain respectfully yours,yours respectfully,BELLE DE JOUR (Mrs)
Posted by "Jello de Boer (Ms)"

Engrish of the Day

www.engrish.com

When the Circus Comes to Town

NYCDOT - Weekly Traffic Advisory:
Elephant Walk: There will be closures on Tuesday, March 16 from 11:15 p.m. to Wednesday March 17 at 1:00 a.m. at the following locations:
Route: Through the north tube of the Midtown Tunnel; Exit Midtown Tunnel at 34th Street; West on 34th Street to 7th Avenue; South on 7th Avenue to 33rd Street; West on 33rd Street into Madison Square Garden.
End: Madison Square Garden."

"It was 12:35am when the elephants finally emerged from the Midtown Tunnel, but the crowd still went wild- cheering, yelling, clapping, blasting circus music. Nick and I took a couple of shots at the entrance to the tunnel, then ran around the corner with the rest of the mob, and snapped a few more as the elephants came up 34th Street. Definitely one of those classic New York experiences not to missed!"
Bluejake

have i mentioned it's snowing?

dogpoet is moving to ny

"There are people out there who probably don't obsess over things beyond their control. But I'm not one of them. "

"Four years ago my life was so, so small. It fit within the tiny bag of crystal meth I'd buy from my dealer every few days . Everything's different. I've worked hard, and I've been blessed.

God, I miss my mother. I wanted to call her up and tell her the good news. I thought about her when I was standing at the urinal at work after the phone call from Columbia, and I just started laughing out loud. And then I finally cried a little, from relief and gratitude. And then I started laughing again."

to be intelligent...

"I believe that this state of affairs is contrary to the will of God. But traditionalists, especially Christian traditionalists (in whose ranks I include myself) need to get a clue about what has really been going on and face the fact that same-sex marriage, if it comes about, will not cause the degeneration of the institution of marriage; it is the result of it."

... is to be reasonable.

"Sex, childbearing and marriage now have no necessary connection to one another, because the biological connection between sex and childbearing is controllable. The fundamental basis for marriage has thus been technologically obviated. Pair that development with rampant, easy divorce without social stigma, and talk in 2004 of "saving marriage" is pretty specious. There's little there left to save. Men and women today who have successful, enduring marriages till death do them part do so in spite of society, not because of it.

If society has abandoned regulating heterosexual conduct of men and women, what right does it have to regulate homosexual conduct, including the regulation of their legal and property relationship with one another to mirror exactly that of hetero, married couples?"

Save Marriage? It's Too Late.
from The WSJ Editorial Page
The writer is the pastor of the Trinity United Methodist Church in Franklin, Tenn. He writes at DonaldSensing.com.

THE BIG BANG, SO CLOSE AND YET...

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers reached deep into space and time to come within "a stone's throw'' of the Big Bang itself.

Astronomers at the Space Telescopic Science Institute on the Johns Hopkins University campus used the Hubble to obtain the deepest telescopic view into the universe ever - a million-second exposure of a small patch of dark sky in the constellation Fornax.

But scientists cautioned that more work would be required before they know if their surmises are correct. Astronomers will not be able to take a deeper picture until the James Webb Space Telescope goes into orbit in 2011.
via NYTimes

get physical

"Extraordinary scenes unfolded in Seoul on Friday, as politicians physically battled each other in the country's first impeachment bid since the nation was founded in 1948."
via CNN.com

South Korea's parliament, after a dramatic and rather pathetic brawl, voted to impeach President Roh Moo-hyun and suspended his powers.
It was a tawdry spectacle but with luck the closing chapter on a very disappointing presidency.
via MemeFirst

Gay Marriage: Update

"It's still too early to see what the final outcome of the Massachusetts legislature's struggle to prevent or allow equal marriage rights in the Commonwealth. The amendment that passed the preliminary round is by far the least objectionable. It would enshrine a semantic difference between heterosexual and homosexual marriages by calling the former 'marriage' and the latter 'civil unions.' But it would uphold the Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court's ruling that there should be complete substantive equality in terms of all protections and benefits. In other words: Vermont, but by constitutional amendment, not law. What bothers me about this is that it amounts to the constitutionalization of pure stigma. There's no possible reason to give gay couples something that walks, talks and squawks like a marriage but is called something else - except to maintain a purely semantic distinction, whose purpose is to reaffirm the inferiority of homosexual couples. Since many of these couples will get married in a religious ceremony as well, they may well describe themselves simply as married anyway. In time, common parlance will simply refer to all of the above as married. The only real difference may be that a civil union will be less transportable to other states. But that will also surely change, as some states will agree to recognize such civil unions, just as New York state has said it will agree to recognize Massachusetts' civil marriages. Of course, this process in Massachusetts is not, in many ways, a bad thing. It really has initiated an extraordinary public debate that has enriched many of us. The legislative and judicial processes in that state are signs that the system is working on a state level, and there is no need for clumsy federal intervention to pre-empt this state-by-state process and impose a premature 'solution' on the entire country through the drastic option of a federal constitutional amendment. That also goes for California, where the judicial process should be allowed to continue unmolested by Washington."

and, in an act of civil disobedience,
Dan Savage gets married to a lesbian

Amy Jenniges lives with her girlfriend, Sonia, and I live with my boyfriend, Terry. Last Friday I accompanied Amy and Sonia to room 403, the licensing division, at the King County Administration Building. When Amy and Sonia asked the clerk for a marriage license, the clerk turned white. You could see, "Oh my God, the gay activists are here!" running through her head. County clerks in the marriage license office had been warned to expect gay couples sooner or later, but I guess this particular clerk didn't expect us to show up five minutes before closing on Friday.
The clerk called over her manager, a nice older white man, who explained that Amy and Sonia couldn't have a marriage license. So I asked if Amy and I could have one--even though I'm gay and live with my boyfriend, and Amy's a lesbian and lives with her girlfriend. We emphasized to the clerk and her manager that Amy and I don't live together, we don't love each other, we don't plan to have kids together, and we're going to go on living and sleeping with our same-sex partners after we get married. So could we still get a marriage license?
"Sure," the license-department manager said, "If you've got $54, you can have a marriage license." ... It's not the marriage license I'd like to have, of course. But, still, let me count my blessings: I have a 10-year relationship (but not the marriage license), a house (but not the marriage license), a kid (but not the marriage license), and my boyfriend's credit-card bills (but not the marriage license). I don't know what a guy has to do around here to get the marriage license. But I guess it's some consolation that I can get a meaningless one anytime I like, just so long as I bring along a woman I don't love and my $54.

via Andrew Sullivan

drugs: just say know

urban75 neither condemns nor condones drug use -- this resource is for people to access the facts and make their own, informed decisions

counter fit at Wal-Mart

Four things made Wal-Mart cashier Janice Sanders suspicious of the nervous lady who wanted to pay cash for $1,671.55 in purchases.

First, the greenback Alice Pike allegedly handed Sanders had a picture of the Statue of Liberty on it.

Second, third and fourth: printed below Lady Liberty were the words "One Million Dollars."

"The cashier saw the bill and realized something was up," said Almond Turner, the assistant police chief in Covington, Ga.
via New York Daily News

photo by quarlo

sorry: it's so easy to say it.

Saying you're sorry does not mean you're sorry, let alone taking responsibility.

GIANTmicrobes!

"We make stuffed animals that look like tiny microbes—only a million times actual size! Now available: The Common Cold, The Flu, Sore Throat, Stomach Ache, Bad Breath, Kissing Disease, Athlete's Foot, Ulcer, Martian Life, Beer & Bread, Black Death, Ebola, Dust Mite, Bed Bug, and Bookworm."

give god a chance

Guardian: Scientist has calculated that there is a 67% chance that God exists.

Dr Stephen Unwin has used a 200-year-old formula to calculate the probability of the existence of an omnipotent being. Bayes' Theory is usually used to work out the likelihood of events, such as nuclear power failure, by balancing the various factors that could affect a situation.

(...)

Factors that were considered included recognition of goodness, which Dr Unwin said makes the existence of God more likely, countered by things like the existence of natural evil - including earthquakes and cancer.

The unusual workings - which even take into account the existence of miracles - are set out in his new book, which includes a spreadsheet of the data used so that anyone can make the calculation themselves should they doubt its validity. The book, The Probability of God: A simple calculation that proves the ultimate truth, will be published later this month.

(..._

Despite his findings, Dr Unwin maintains that he is personally around 95% certain that God exists.

library destroyed

Washington (Reuters)
A tragic fire on Wednesday destroyed the personal library of George W. Bush. Both of his books have been lost. A spokesman said the president was devastated, as he had not finished coloring the second one.  More details to come.

fwd by mr. df

as seen on eBay

eBay item 2992105112: Barbie Super Bowl Halftime SHOW Janet
Starting bid: US $49.99
Time left: 6 days 0 hours
Ends Mar-14-04 18:13:34 PST

photo by laura titian

Gay Marriage? How Straight.

"'Being gay and single is the new smoking,' Mr. Rudnick said. 'It won't be socially acceptable anymore, and you will have to go outside.' Or as Michael Musto, the Village Voice columnist, told me: 'It used to be that the whole point of coming out of the closet was to get people to stop asking you when you are going to get married and have children.'

Those days are just about over, for better or for worse."
The Age of Dissonance

west side club busted

no, not THE west side club but A west side club: Sound Factory.



"Police raided a Manhattan nightclub and arrested its owner on federal drug charges early Sunday, alleging the club's lax security policies allowed widespread illegal activity."
via New York Newsday

my favorite dj of the moment

blue sky

via heather champ
(click on thumbail for enlargement)