Not in My Name

Of course, right after that last post, he went right back on the air and fulfilled all our lowest expectations.  Supposedly speaking for America.

Nope.  Not in my name.

But some 30% of the population still seems to think this is all a-ok?

I guess that isn't (or shouldn't be) as much of a surprise as people are reacting like it is, because it's been part of the program all along.  Not the "line 'em up and shoot 'em" part, but the "everybody just keep feeding all the wealth and power this way and no one gets hurt" part.  This piece by Lindy West in the Times does a good job of calling it out to the Republicans who are responding, rightly, if only out of self-interest, to denounce the words of a president gone off the rails:

It is easy to denounce Nazis. Republican lawmakers, if you truly repudiate this march and this violence, then repudiate voter-ID laws. Repudiate gerrymandering. Repudiate police brutality. Repudiate mass incarceration and private prisons. Repudiate the war on drugs. Repudiate the fact that black Americans have still not been compensated for the unpaid forced labor that was foundational to white financial stability. Repudiate gun control obstructionism. Repudiate the Muslim ban. Repudiate the wall. Repudiate anti-abortion legislation. Repudiate abstinence-only education. Repudiate environmental deregulation. Repudiate birtherism. Repudiate homophobia and transphobia. Repudiate your own health care bill, which would have led to the deaths of thousands more people than a Dodge Challenger driven into a crowd. Repudiate your president.

Everyone else, wherever you are on the spectrum of humanity, this is a good moment for us to confront our own assumptions and biases, figure out what we need to work on to change and the best ways to do it. This is hard work, but it’s worth doing. Oh, and it goes on forever. 

One more quote – you’ve probably seen this one, but it bears repeating. It's Angela Davis, from a talk in Carbondale, IL in 2014.

You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.  

Photo: Scott Olson

After Orlando

The rational, measured, intelligent response that Obama gave to that gun guy at that town hall a couple weeks ago has been making the rounds an extra special lot in the last 48 hours.  Understandably.

Last night it came to me that there most certainly ARE some people who want to do away with all personal possesion of guns, or at least handguns & assault weapons: either repeal the 2nd Amendment or drive through the courts an interpretation that limits the right to bear arms to that well-regulated militia it mentions.  I don't happen to agree with them most of the time, although days like this make me step back and give them a little extra time to make their case, but these folks do exist, so we don't need to pretend that they don't.  Some of them are friends, and some of them are really smart.  

As far as I can tell, the "get rid of all guns" crowd is a pretty fringe-y minority, numbers-wise.  Important to be there though as a rhetorical balance to the other side of the scale, which is the "let anybody who wants one get as many guns, as powerful as they can carry, whenever they want to" crew.  I do not tend to lend them a friendly ear, nor do I generally have a great deal of respect for the "intelligence" at work in their reasoning.  ["More, and more deadly, guns in nightclubs will make things safer!" Right. Next.]  

Here again, I don't think we're talking about too many people in the "AR-15s for Everyone!" camp, although this wing of the argument is vastly more funded, and many many times more influential in terms of lawmakers and policy.  And here is where the anger gets hard to control.  Because it has been well demonstrated that a vast majority of the U.S. citizenry, including citizen gun-owners, wants some restraints placed on our current, nearly unfettered access to guns designed for the purpose of killing people. And yet the belief persists that limitations - which would strike most Americans as quite reasonable, not to say blindingly obvious - are actually intended to be the trickle that leads to the stream that leads to a gush to a flood of GUN GRABBING courtesy of the Feds.

Which it wouldn't be.  Did you notice we are talking about America?  How do you think that would play out?

But a trickle leading to a stream leading to a gush of being a lot more thoughtful about where and how and what kind of guns we want to have around might be a movement we could get behind.  Because as it is, we have a situation where - between this unprecedented civilian availability of assault weaponry with unprecedented speed, power, and capacity on the one side, and the literal militarization of local police forces on the other - we are in an arms race with ourselves.  And I for one am not the least bit interested in seeing how THAT would play out.

I could go on and on about the intolerance, the homophobia, the rush to link the murderer with a terrorist network that seems to have been barely aware of him, and by extension to a religion that would, and in fact already has, roundly condemn his actions, and much much more that is already being said out there. But one other thing I want to mention right now: please don't let the obsession with the perpetrator lead to ignoring the victims.  Let their names be known, let their stories be told, let their memories be honored. And while we're at that, please don't let the carnage at Pulse completely drown out the heartbreaking murder of Christina Grimmie, gunned down at the age of 22 by a fan while signing autographs and working the merch table after her own show the night before the Pulse massacre.  

Rough couple days for Orlando.

Happy Daylight Saving Time, Ides of March, St. Patrick's, All That

This year they decided to put the New Hampshire primary right at the end of the trifecta that was Super Bowl Sunday, Asian/Lunar New Year, and Mardi Gras.  I started writing this post way back then.  And a lot has happened since.


Putting aside a discussion of the Dems (for the moment) to share a few words about Donald “Making America Great Again” (Which slogan, as has been pointed out, is intended to mean "making America white again."  In case you weren't clear on that.) Trump.  Or Drumpf, as the case may be.

And I do get torn about making fun of the guy.  This whole post started with that GIF way down at the bottom. (You'll get to it; you've probably already seen it.)  Because while pretty much everything he says and does warrants making fun, it's getting less and less funny as the primaries wind on.  The notion that he has any real understanding of, or even much interest in, actual policy crumbles upon the slightest scrutiny.  So what’s going on?

Well, a couple things pop to mind off the bat.  Here’s a guy who was born into money, and plenty of it.  He took a look at the options and made some choices.  My guess is that he was drawn to gambling, and sees the obvious truth in the maxim that “the house always wins.”  So, since he had the cash and saw that it's more lucrative to be the house than the gambler, he bought some ‘houses.’  Even when they didn’t win (you know, those bankruptcies in Atlantic City, the University, the Steaks, the list goes on) well, gaming the system is his game, so he made it work, and made it fit in with a pretty clear addiction to being the center of attention. 

He’s also a proven showman of the huckster variety, with a Barnum-worthy eye for the audience.  And it may be that his true talent lies in media manipulation.  And now that he's running for President, not just as a punch line in the late night comedy, but a real honest-to-god frontrunner, that audience is America.  Which has shown itself to be hungry for the hatred, the racism, the puffed up machismo, the gutter sniping, the name-calling.  It's not just the latent intolerance rearing its head after the perceived indignity of living with a President of Color for 7 years, and having to suffer through progress in gay rights and access to health care.  It it not just that a large portion of the populace is frightened at the idea that a woman should be permitted (or - say it isn't so! - possibly be in a place to do the actual permitting) to have control of her body; and not completely comfortable with the notion that her worth might not be wholly dependent on her appearance; and thoroughly confused, gobsmacked, terrified by the idea that gender itself may be a fluid concept. It is not just that people have those bigoted reactions, though it most certainly is partially that.  The embrace of the neighborhood bully shouting down the nerdy wonks in the debate club also comes from years and years of pent-up frustration resulting from seeing crony capitalism strip wealth away from the population at large and concentrate it among a very small number of people gaming the system. Never mind that Trump is one of "them" - his 'telling it like it really is' (which, let's not forget, is not-very-clever code for racism, sexism, dominance fantasy, and discomfort with outsiders), he is speaking for "us."


And that dualist formulation is suuuupes a problem, because it's never never never as simple as Us vs Them.  I am about 99.5% positive that I have friends and/or family members who support this guy, just based on the numbers.  And we should be very-clear sighted about the alternatives in the Republican party - not one of them offers anything remotely worth voting for.  And I have zero problem condemning the philosophy (if you can call it that) driving the white-supremacist, sexist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, plain old hateful ideas being spouted.  But the people who have those ideas - not often very fully thought-out (how could they be?), but viscerally, authentically bubbling up from the gut - they live here too.  "They" have a voice, they get a vote, and you are probably related to and/or friends with some too.  Is there a chance they will change the way they feel?  Some of them will, maybe, but history (remember that?) shows pretty clearly that it's hard to get a whole bunch of people to face that mirror and realize that you've been doing it wrong.  [And don't forget, when we're Us and Them-ing it, "they" are all hoping that "we" will face that same mirror from the other side, see our reflection and make the same conclusion.]



I guess I'm going to want to post this before it turns into a book outline rather than a blog entry.  But before I do, I want to point out that - for all his many, many failings - Señor Trump is simply reflecting the racism and extreme intolerance/intolerant extremism that has been developing for years, in America and abroad.  Carefully cultivated by the Republican Party and its media wing? Sure. But really - it's been doing just fine growing wild on its own too (and not just in the GOP, while we're telling the truth about things).  And the non-Donald Republican rivals are not improvements, in any real day-to-day way: although they might pose slightly less risk of complete destruction of the American two-party system (a bad thing?) they do stand for policies that essentially do away with any part of government that benefits workers and the general population, while enhancing those parts of the government that prop up corporations and the wealthy, and expanding the military and hastening conflict (while, paradoxically, ignoring the needs of actual soldiers and returning veterans).



SO - are the Dems the answer?  Never, not really.  They are, of course, about a hundred times better than their opponents on the other side of the aisle, but if you're flipping through the Book of Perfect People, I don't think you'll find either Clinton or Sanders.  It is a very short book.  



What you want to do is vote for the presidential candidate you agree with most, AND - and this part is extra-special important, and you'll be making a big mistake if you overlook it the way people seem to do every year - the people you agree with most in your other national, state, and local elections.  And then - and here's the part people really forget about - stay engaged.  Because there is no elected official completely impervious to pressures and temptations of elected office.  Stay out there, stay active, keep talking and keep listening.  It's only - only - ongoing social movement that causes anything to happen that really benefits the people.

 

By the way, what the fuck did he think he was doing when he sat for this shot?  Even the most experienced falconers use a glove.  Of course, they also have a clue about how to approach and handle a bird of prey.  [And, ummmm, yes: that's a metaphor for the unspoken Big Bad risk associated with any of the fellows running for President Right Wing Nut Job: global nuclear annihilation resulting from overwhelmingly misplaced responsibility.]

Oh, you betcha!

“Trump’s candidacy, it has exposed not just that tragic, the ramifications of that betrayal of a transformation of our country, but too, he has exposed the complicity on both sides of the aisle that has enabled it, O.K.?”

You just keep on endorsin', Governor!

Nimoy

What can you say? By all accounts a kind and generous person, thoughtful, caring, devoted to the arts and helping humanity and the environment, with a great sense of humor, he created one of the most iconic characters of the 20th Century (and beyond).  He'll be missed by entire generations of fans and fellow travelers.

Selfie

Uncopyrightable Macaque selfie, or, me on a Monday like this...

The link takes you to an article (one of many) about the intellectual property legal questions surrounding photos taken by animals (non-human animals, I mean) no matter how human-trained.  I do feel bad for David Slater, who is losing out on the money from these images, but have hopes he'll strike gold on another project.  Meanwhile, come on - those photos!!!!

Thoreau is Weeping

You may have seen some things about this on Jon Stewart or FOX News, but you want to take a look at this article, from the Times.

I know, it's from that East Coast Elitist rag, but no one is claiming they are misquoting Freedom-Loving Rancher and purported champion of Civil Disobedience Cliven Bundy when he held forth on “The Negro”:

“They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

You know Cliven, when y’all keep saying things like that while you’re waving guns around, people are going to start to think you’re downright unreasonable.

Of course, according to him, Bundy is just a Patriot doing the Lord's work. A confusing kind of patriot, in that he Really Really Loves America while simultaneously denying the authority of the Federal government over Federal land.  Go into the comment thread and banner ads of that article at your own risk.  Personal fave from my first glance: "What would you rather eat... Beef or Solar Panels?"  Yup.  Just keep raising the bar of discourse, guys.

Speaking of beef, lest you think I’m only unhappy with the right wing racist nutjobs out there, I've also got a beef with a quote in that Times article from Rob Mrowka from the Center of Biological Diversity:

“This should not be confused with civil disobedience. This is outright anarchy going on here.”

Well, sheesh Rob!  That’s just flat-out unfair to anarchists.

As Essential as Groceries

The title of this post is paraphrased from Dr. Fowler's paraphrasing of Amiri Bakara in the opening moments of this clip (with thanks to Poets and Writers Inc. for drawing attention to that video).



The clip has about 7 minutes of interview footage, and includes great perspective from Baraka on the importance of speaking and hearing poetry, as well as simply reading it off a page.  Early on, it also has this pearl of Truth:

The reason they cut the arts always is because the people that run the world don't want you to be conscious, because otherwise you'd resist. You couldn't possibly be living like we live if you understood what they were doing, you know, you'd fight them.  So the arts is always expendable.  Anything that makes people conscious of what the world is, and what it could be, is always expendable.

Baraka goes on in this interview to discuss how an artist needs to live and work on this earth, in this actual world, the physical universe of people and things, rather than retreating into an imaginary, idealized, self-constructed cave or tower, of ivory or any other color.

This world has plenty that is nearly uncontrovertibly craptastic in it [which, in case it's not obvious by now, is one of the most important reasons why art and poetry out loud are as essential as food].  But one of the things I'd argue is good about these internets is that, in addition to the cat videos and endless rants, you can find a trove of material at a moment's notice about Amiri Baraka, the Black Arts Movement, and delve into a rabbit hole of your own devising.

For now, I'm leaving you with a couple clips of Baraka reading his work.  One, a relatively recent live performance video with Rob Brown, courtesy of The Sanctuary for Independent Media.



And this other, even more powerful and controversial (if that's possible) earlier poem - audio only, with a still photo - Black Art, with Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Sonny Murray, Henry Grimes, and Louis Worrell.  Required listening.



Rest in Power.

Banksy in Chelsea

We're a few days into Banksy's New York residency.  I haven't been too engaged in the Painter Chase, but this piece is so close to Chome that I hunted it down.

Worth a look.  As all the press mentions, his pieces tend not to last too long before other taggers get to it.  If you review those press and online items, you'll notice that many of the images are different from each other in content as well as perspective: more or less in the way of images and verbiage, depending on when the taggers and photographers got to the spot.  You can see in the shot above that someone (who? a sympatico fellow tagger? one of the nearby gallerists?  Banksy himself?) has recently gone over "THIS IS MY NEW YORK ACCENT" to reinforce it, so that it is complete on the surface, above the other tags, at least for a little while on Friday morning.

And then there's the (slightly) greater context.  Again, this surface - like most un- or semi-sanctioned street art canvases - is continually evolving.  Some 'vandalizing' Banksy's attention-getting 'vandalism'; a Bronx record label making use of the attention; someone calling on (challenging?) Banksy to make use of his newly declared accent to use the megaphone of the attention to, you know, come out and say something; another stencil down left wondering out loud if the emperor's wardrobe is really all that impressive.  This could go on for a while.

What do you think?  Important urban art?  Commentary on the Gallery District/the Great New York Art Scene (now polished and sanitized for your protection and convenience!)?  A damn squit?

Look closer.  And keep looking - we should be getting more of these all month all over the city.

The Great Butter Slide of American Culture

Article in the Times about a drop in Arts Attendance in America.

Theater takes the brunt and "straight plays" (also known as "plays") are worst of all, attendance having dropped 33% in the last 10 years.

"At the end of the day, I’m not troubled by it."

No no, of course not, executive director of the American Theater Wing. Everything's fine; nothing to see here; move along...

photo c 1928, Man Ray

RAGE

Sesame Street goes Upstate

This has been around for a few months, but I just ran across it recently.  Of course I'm behind on most things: it's a problem.  But in this case I feel more or less off the hook, in that, having no children and not likely to become a parent anytime soon, I don't feel much responsibility to keep up with the details of kid's TV.  But this is significant on a few levels, so I was impressed when I found out about it.

Meet Alex, a new character on Sesame Street (or at least an online version of Sesame Street) whose father is in jail.  It says something pretty important about the World We Live In that this platform is necessary – as this Pew Research article mentions, some 2.7 million American children currently have a parent in jail or prison.  That would be 3.6% of American children with an incarcerated parent.  Incarcerated, one might add, in a correctional system that is arguably ineffective, weighed down by misguided drug laws, and inescapably, profoundly, maddeningly racist and classist.  Oh, and well nigh devoid of any noticeable corrective element.

But this piece is for the kids.  And of course Sesame Street being Sesame Street, they find a way to deal with this unbelievably tough-to-even-wrap-your-mind-around topic with not just kindness and sensitivity, but with a "did they just pull that off?" sense of humor.

“What’s ‘carcerated,’ and why was your dad in it?”

Well played, Children's Television Workshop.  Well played.

'Prison-Industrial Complex' is one of those terms that rubs me kind of wrong, being that too clever for its own good brand of inflammatory.  But America is out of balance - way out of balance - in the way we handle corrections, and the penal system is so seriously in need of reform that I'm willing to accept the provocation.

More materials and more video is on the Little Kids/Big Problems section of the Sesame Street website.

A Modest Proposal

Because that would, you know, totally work.

Courtesy of Michael Stipe's Tumblr.

Ad to Joy

Maybe you're not susceptible to flash mobs.

If, however, you are a member of that portion of the population who occasionally enjoy life, you may wish to spend 5 minutes and 40 seconds viewing and listening to the following:



As far as I can tell, it is some kind of extended promo for a Catalan bank.

I don't think I care.

Gezi Park

This video is disturbing as can be, as is a lot of what's going on in Turkey. A friend of Cory's in Istanbul also reminds us that there is a real opportunity for positive developments too. She writes:

"it is nuts but it is also so exciting. we have been so depressed thinking nothing could be done about the spiraling hell..and now! so in general we are happy. just hope it causes some real changes." 

Keep an eye and some focus on that part of the world, please.

Boston

One of my homes.  Not the one I live in today, but one where I lived for 6+ years, and which still holds a more-than-little piece of my heart.

Where Monday happened.

All my friends are ok, as far as I can tell, none of them were in the vicinity.  Most were at work (while they're proud of Patriots' Day up there, they still don't usually give you the day off unless you managed to score Red Sox tickets), a few were at home.  The physical therapist who helped me in the wake of surgery last year qualified for the Marathon, but opted not to run it this year.

Bostonians in general have been dealing with it amazingly, but not surprisingly.  The news outlets have rightly referred to their heroism, generosity, fearlessness, and humanity.

And I'm not going to dwell on the typical media sensationalizing of tragedy (and I'm certainly not going to dignify crap like this with a response)

What I will spend a little bit of time on are a couple pieces that talk about resilience, toughness, and not giving into the fear that, by definition, feeds terrorism.  Here’s one, from cryptographer and security maven Bruce Schneier in The Atlantic. It’s a good reminder that we get to choose how to react (or overreact) to these horrors, and that giving into our fear is neither necessary nor useful.

We actually have all the power here, and there's one thing we can do to render terrorism ineffective: Refuse to be terrorized.

It's hard to do, because terrorism is designed precisely to scare people -- far out of proportion to its actual danger. A huge amount of research on fear and the brain teaches us that we exaggerate threats that are rare, spectacular, immediate, random -- in this case involving an innocent child -- senseless, horrific and graphic. Terrorism pushes all of our fear buttons, really hard, and we overreact.

But our brains are fooling us. Even though this will be in the news for weeks, we should recognize this for what it is: a rare event. That's the very definition of news: something that is unusual -- in this case, something that almost never happens

And then this one from Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River, Shutter Island, and a bunch of other Boston-centric work.  I like that this piece confronts Boston's blemishes (which is too weak a word; maybe I should say Boston’s glaring flaws) directly, but wraps them in the resiliency we all can be proud of.

Trust me, we won’t be giving up any civil liberties to keep ourselves safe because of this. We won’t cancel next year’s marathon. We won’t drive to New Hampshire and stockpile weapons. When the authorities find the weak and terminally maladjusted culprit or culprits, we’ll roll our eyes at whatever backward ideology they embrace and move on with our lives.

There’s been a lot of Boston love going on in the media, including some standouts in the sphere of late night comedy, and even the Yankees got in on it, much to their credit (and – you know this – I do not like to give the Yankees credit for anything, but damn, they deserve it for that.)





Also published in The Atlantic, with the caption: A sign saying "New York Loves Boston" is projected on the facade of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in New York, late on April 15, 2013, hours after the bombings of the Boston Marathon. The work was done by the Illuminator, a guerrilla projection van that was a project of Occupy Wall Street, and members of the the OWS Light Brigade. (© Lucky Tran, The Illuminator collective)

Do what you do. Make the things you make. Definitely keep up with any activist work you're doing.  And send a little love and healing mojo to the Hub.

Oh, and my show opens tomorrow night.

Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?

Memories of English lefties adapting Maggie's Farm as a response to/indictment of Margaret Thatcher sent me down the Dylan rabbit hole once again. 

More on Baroness Thatcher later, but for now, shifting from one quicksilver song to another, I now pose the following query:

Was Dylan writing about someone in particular in the song Queen Jane Approximately?  I got pulled into the song (again) when listening to "Hwy 61 Revisited" the other day.  There's certainly no need to associate it with any particular person in the flesh & blood universe, but I wonder...

I've never held much truck with the notion that it was about Joan Baez.

The idea that it's about literal Queen Jane Seymour has struck me as even more farfetched, though there's something vaguely interesting about thinking that the "smell of roses" has something to do with the War of the Roses, and that he was being extra special clever referring to "all her children" starting to resent her (when she died of complications from the birth of her only child.)

Naaaaah, that's crazy talk.


I have thought that it might have more than a little to do with Edie Sedgwick.

But I am intrigued by the notion I came across while scouring the internets the other day that it might not be this Factory Girl, but actually the Boy who started the Factory, Andy Warhol himself, who's being addressed in the song.  I picked up the idea from one of the sites out there (cheese factories themselves, for the most part) devoted to picking apart song meanings, with a guy calling himself LuckyTown making the case.  Further steps down the rabbit hole led me to this interview Nora Ephron did with Dylan around the time the song came out - it is vintage Bob being random and chaotic and anything but serious or straightforward, but it does contain the quip "Queen Jane is a man."  And he offers this mini rant on art and accessibility:

Great paintings shouldn't be in museums. Have you ever been in a museum? Museums are cemetaries. Paintings should be on the walls of restaurants, in dime stores, in gas stations, in men's rooms. Great paintings should be where people hang out. The only thing where it's happening is on radio and records, that's where people hang out. You can't see great paintings. You pay half a million and hang one in your house and one guest sees it. That's not art. That's a shame, a crime. Music is the only thing that's in tune with what's happening. It's not in book form, it's not on the stage. All this art they've been talking about is nonexistent. It just remains on the shelf. It doesn't make anyone happier. Just think how many people would really feel great if they could see a Picasso in their daily diner. It's not the bomb that has to go, man, it's the museums.

SO - is it possible that this is an offer/invitation to the artist of plastic (inevitable) repetition who ran the Factory where his kinda sorta girlfriend spent a lot of her time?

When your mother sends back all your invitations
And your father to your sister he explains
That you're tired of yourself and all of your creations
Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?
Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?

Now when all of the flower ladies want back what they have lent you
And the smell of their roses does not remain
And all of your children start to resent you
Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?
Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?

Now when all the clowns that you have commissioned
Have died in battle or in vain
And you're sick of all this repetition
Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?
Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?

Oh when all of your advisers heave their plastic
At your feet to convince you of your pain
Trying to prove that your conclusions should be more drastic
Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?
Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?

Now when all of the bandits that you turn your other cheek to
All lay down their bandanas and complain
And you want somebody you don't have to speak to
Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?
Ah, Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?

Just askin'.

Do you still go outside?

"Just as water, gas, and electricity are brought into our houses from far off to satisfy our needs in response to a minimal effort, so we shall be supplied with visual or auditory images, which will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand, hardly more than a sign."
   -Paul Valery, 1931





Instant access to everything: all the music ever recorded, all the words ever written, all the pictures ever drawn, photos of every sculpture molded, carved, or cast. Footage, accounts, and descriptions of any event you care to witness or recall. The history of people and of nations. A 3-D rendering of any item that could be imagined. Economic information and mathematical formulations. Erotic fantasies, comedic interludes, pithy remarks, athletic exhibition, action and suspense, diversion without end.

And then what?

Les Miserahahahahahaaaaaa!!!

Spoiler Alert(?) You may not want to watch this if you haven't seen the Les Miserable movie yet.  But if you have seen it (or don't care about it), For Your Consideration...


Put the "?" there because - even if you haven't seen the film, you've probably seen at least part of the scene the (holy crapballs amazing!!) Emma Fitzpatrick is satirizing, because it's been clipped on every awards show and every talk show and late-night comedy appearance Anne Hathaway has made.

Now let me be Obama clear here: I love Anne Hathatway.  I LO-UH-UH-UH-LOVE Anne Hathaway and want to see everything she does.  She should probably win some sort of award just for how she handled Matt Lauer, and is a brilliant actress on stage and on screen.  And I will shed no tear if she wins an award on Oscar night.

But I also have no beef with those who claim Les Miz iz lame.  And this viddy is effin funny.

Words Fail

They just do. And people fail even more.

The Sandy Hook shooting goes beyond anything I can put into words, and no one else has had much luck as far as I can tell either.  We could (and we will) go off on the media, the elected officials, gun policy, gun culture, the underlying aggression in our culture, the evil that visited that community (see? those words from Governor Malloy seem both overwrought and not enough. I'm not criticizing the Governor for that - he had an impossible job.  Words fail.) but for now we just have to be in it.

Please be as kind as you possibly can today.  I mean, all the time, but especially today.

Today

Happening now, after work, and, well, as long as it needs to.