Friday, November 07, 2008

Auto-Fun of the Brand New Bright Beautiful Day: 11-7-2008

Good Morning America! Welcome to the rest of your life! GOBAMA! The "No on 8" fight continued in full force after election day, and Haviland's been giving me reports of really inspirational crowds at recent West Hollywood rallies ... howevs, prospects remain dim ... way dimmer, actually. I don't mean to sound like I'm at Kentucky Fried Chicken with my Mom in 1987 throwing a tantrum 'cause she'll only let me have mashed potatoes OR french fries rather than both, but I feel saddened that Obama's triumphant victory has been slightly overshadowed by this heartbreaking loss. I hate everyone! JK, I love Tinkerbell and Sasha Obama.

YES WE CAN! Except ... the publishing industry (that's mine, hypothetically) is tanking. Job cuts at Time, Rodale, Hearst, The New York Times, McGraw-Hill, the L.A. Times, and Conde Nast. Magazines keep folding like paper planes, sigh. Probs not the best time to start my own.

Speaking of the art of losing, my leg has remained the same, looking as if my leg dressed up as Frankenstien for Halloween and forgot to take off the costume. But I discovered it's a fantastic opportunity to play with photobooth.

quote: "Basically, I realized, I was living in that awful stage of life from the age of twenty-six to thirty-seven known as stupidity. It's when you don't know anything, not even as much as you did when you were younger, and you don't even have philosophy about all the things you don't know, the way you did when you were younger, and you don't even have a philosophy about all the things you didn't know, the way you did when you were twenty or would again when you were thirty-eight -- Nonetheless you tried things out: "love is the cultural exchange program of futility and eroticism." I said.

And Eleanor would say, "Oh how cynical can you get," meaning not nearly cynical enough. I had made it sound dreadful but somehow fair, like a sleepaway camp. "Being in love with Gerard is like sleeping in the middle of the freeway," I tried.

"Thatta girl," said Eleanor. "Much better."
[from Anagrams, by Lorrie Moore]

Links:
1. Hello, Rachel on the cover of The Advocate! Rachel Maddow is the Smartest Person in TV [@the advocate]
2. Looks like getting drunk and making out is no longer as compelling as feeling feelings!: The Real World: Brooklyn - TOTALLY EMO. Feelings are the new Friday. [@gawker]
3. First Person Plural - we all contain multiple selves with different desires, fighting for control. ta-da! [@the atlantic]
4. Philadelphia - How it Was Done [@n+1]
5. The 20 Greatest Campaign Ads of All Time (@nerve)
6. "Historic moments call for historical front pages and historic headlines. Yet not all of them are as successful as they would like to be." Newspaper Front Pages Proclaim Obama Victory [@the font feed]
7. Speaking of the audacity of hope ... this NPR podcast "Going Big" [@thisamericanlife.org] about Geoffery Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone, was, like the book about it discussed in this article (from @a_ex): "Poverty and the Brain" [@brain and behavior], one of the "most bracing, sobering and inspiring" podcasts I've listened to in a while. Geoffery Canada's Harlem Children's Zone changes the lives of thousands of Harlem children with a revolutionary plan that utilizes new social work and educational concepts to fix poverty culture itself and the cyclical way of life that ensures its continued existence. He take into account "how our brain is changed by the details of our upbringing" -- like, for example -- the number of words per day that middle-class children hear from their parents, etc. It's a good example of how we truly can work to move forward in this country from the ground up.
8. The Polling Place Photo Project (from @abartleby) [@nytimes]
9. FINALLY! An interview with the man himself, Bill Ayers [@newyorker]
10. Really I feel like media should stop declaring the death of other media all the time. Let's talk about puppies or something. Can The Daily Show survive a Barack presidency? [@nymag]
11. Does Religion Make You Nice? Does Atheism Make You Mean? [@slate]
12. Lonely Together. [@the age au]

12 comments:

autumn m said...

so, that was an interesting maddow article. and thats a pretty awesome battle scar. just think, you could totally make up some awesome story about what happened and how you got it.

autumn m said...

FIRST!!!!! ok well second now, but i was totally first!!!!

asher said...

i hope you got the scar on the 4th. it'd be a nice keepsake.

ps - maddow was on the colbert report last night. she wore the glasses just to make me happy.

word veri - author
i thought these weren't supposed to be real words?

caitlinmae said...

my one true love Corey Booker (mayor of Newark) is apparently biffles with Rachel, and was on the show on Weds. I was so giddy I took photos of my teevee with my phone.
I agree with asher/autumn- what a memento- a battle scar in the war for change.
my word veri is cromical which is totes a word.
PS this was a lot of autofun

carlytron said...

mmmmmadoowwwwww

asher said...

ps - gay aside.

i imagine you've read (on afterellen) about the bullshit going on with grey's anatomy now. this one site is way too dedicated to the cause, but i thought this was a cute suggestion. i think i'm going to send them each one leaf with 'i think you lost your glasses.' written on it.

riese said...

autumn m: Oh I've already made up a few awesome stories about how I got it, I just have to pick a final one depending on how the scar looks.

asher: I did, I did! You're right, that's the best part of the story. I mean also it stopped me from freaking out about it or going to the hospital for a tetnis shot, 'cause I was too excited about the election.

Is author a real word? It's not a real job anymore. Hey-o!

I just watched that video she was perfect! I watched the daily show last night thinking she'd be on it. Silly me.

caitlinmae: When I got the first camera that I ever got in my life, I used to take a lot of photos of the teevee. I took a photo of George bush declaring war on Iraq 'cause I hated him, and I took a picture of Ricky from the MMC, 'cause I loved him. I think I snapped some shots of the Clarence Thomas trial too.

carlytron: Pollllooooooo

asher: Actually I did not know about that Grey's Anatomy thing. What's going on? How can Rachel be so lovely and the gays still lose so much ground this week, argh.

asher said...

okay. basically this season on grey's was supposed to show a full relationship development between two female characters (callie and erica). but apparently a few episodes into the exploration of that storyline ABC execs got all chicken shit after receiving a bunch of complaints, and abruptly fired one of the actresses to kill that storyline. also a new doctor who was supposed to be introduced soon as bisexual (or as tila tequila would say, 'a bisexual') is now gonna be straight.

the thing that breaks my heart is brooke smith (erica), the now unemployed actress had supposedly just moved her family out to LA to be closer to work.

anyway, the leaf analogy is from this heartfelt scene that was in her next to last show.

so that's sorta what's going on. i just like when activism and cute, smart analogies can come together.

ps - about the gay world falling apart while maddow becomes superwoman... i often wish she'd discuss more gay shit on the show. still, nothin' but love for her.

oh, and i thought the same thing as i typed the word veri of author. next one should be designer, cos i can't get hired anywhere.

Coffee Stained said...

I'm late on this. Not that I haven't been paying attention. But Canada says congrats, on everything Obama related. In other news, Canadian's were polled and would have voted for Obama 6 to 1, but still voted for another Conservative gov back in October. And the world continues to make no sense.
Congrats---we had an election party with Obama Cakes, and Freedom fries, and cried when he was declared the winner. We're nerdy like that.
Love,
Canada

AK said...

My client yesterday, who is a lesbian attorney, told me that the supreme court may well strike down Prop 8 as unconstitutional and the argument they can use is the same one that was used in 2004 in the Gore/Bush election. The one about equality what. And the hatemongers won't be able to take that any further because no one tried to reverse the Gore/Bush decision.

AK said...

I mean the 2000 election. Here I researched it for you. The Equal Protection Clause was used to say that the different standards of voting used in Florida was against the Equal Protection Clause. It was a pretty lame use of that clause, but if the Supreme Court in California uses same clause to strike down Prop 8, then if the Yes people try to take it to the Federal level, the Feds won't go there because it will just open up the mess they made of the Bush/Gore election.

Judges on California Supreme Court may be pissed enough at the way the constitution is being used to limit the rights of citizens to actually do the right thing. It would be an auto-win.

P.S. I think Rachel rocks.

Anonymous said...

so, this scar on your leg, does it match that scar you got from slicing cheese?
Neosporin- very good idea.
Tetanus shot-not a bad idea.
Long pants-great option.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxox