Friday, November 30, 2012

Life After Death: DAMIEN ECHOLS in conversation with HENRY ROLLINS

From the Live from The New York Public Library website:

"In 1993, then 18-year-old Damien Echols was arrested along with fellow teenagers Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and charged with the murders of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. As the supposed “ringleader” of the group, Echols was sentenced to death, while Baldwin and Misskelley were given life sentences. The convicted men, known as the West Memphis Three, ultimately became part of one of the most notorious cases of wrongful conviction in recent history.

Damien Echols, the central figure of the West Memphis Three, presents a gripping, eloquently written account of his early life, his arrest and trial, his eighteen years on death row, his new life after prison, and his ongoing quest for full exoneration in his definitive memoir, Life After Death. In conversation with Henry Rollins, a longtime supporter of the effort to free the West Memphis Three, Echols will discuss the story of his life before and after his trial, including his spiritual and intellectual journey in prison as well as his wife, Lorri Davis, whom he met and married while on death row. As inspiring as it is terrifying, Life After Death reveals Echols to be not only a survivor, but also an extraordinary writer."

Life After Death: DAMIEN ECHOLS in conversation with HENRY ROLLINS - November 7, 2012

Thursday, November 22, 2012

I Post it Every Year

Can't help it. Happy Turkey Day 2012.


Eddie Izzard - The First Thanksgiving

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Toss the Hare

It's true slow and steady wins the race -- but I'm not interested in winning anything.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

There's No Such Thing As An Anarchy Cupcake

I'm pretty sure an anarchy cupcake wouldn't be a cupcake.
















shot courtesy veganLazySmurf in Austin, Texas via cupcakes take the cake

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Philosopher Dan Dennet Calls for All Religion to be Taught in Schools and Embraces Evolution

http://www.ted.com Philosopher Dan Dennett calls for religion -- all religion -- to be taught in schools, so we can understand its nature as a natural phenomenon. Then he takes on The Purpose-Driven Life, disputing its claim that, to be moral, one must deny evolution.


Dan Dennett - TED Talks

The Power of Ballet: Misty Copeland at TEDx Georgetown

At the age of 13, Misty Copeland was considered a prodigy in the world of classical ballet. I know of her as she was a San Pedro, CA local and Pedro will always have a piece of me.

I'm thrilled to see her speak at TED Talks.

Copeland speaks about the historical stories of ballet that often exclude people of color: She also tells us that ballet is not dead.


The Power of Ballet: Misty Copeland at TEDx Georgetown

Neon Rainbow Cake















cutest food

How Racist is Bill O'Reilly?

I knew that he was sick but I didn't know he could grow horns.


Bill O'Reilly on the FOX News Channel - 2012 - Response to the re-election of President Barack Obama

"The White Establishment Is Now The Minority" - Bill O'Reilly

gift upon gift

Music man gave me the room to shake my head.

It's Usually Men Who Think Street Harrassment is Funny


































 Stop Street Harassment

Comic Strip by Barry Deutsch.

Too Many Like This





















Meet Us On The Street: International Anti-Street Harassment Week

Hopefully the evolution starts here.

Happy 43rd Birthday, Sesame Street






















Sesame Street

Why They Killed Him

"It is safe to say that Jesus was not crucified because he taught love and forgiveness or because he set about debating legal points with the scribes of his day. Jesus was crucified because he was seen as a threat to the powers-that-be. His brand of non-violent resistance, his manner of stirring the people and empowering the poor, were correctly judged to be challenging the political power structures of his day." 
-- Gerard Hall

Friday, November 9, 2012

Racist Woman Wishes For Obama's Assassination

Per the Huffington Post, 22 year old Denise Helms of California is a woman who asserts racist and violent beliefs against President Barack Obama.

Earlier this week, Helms wrote on her Facebook page: “Another 4 years of this (N-word)" an “Maybe he will get assassinated this term.” 

Her actions have caused her to be fired from her job a Cold Stone Creamery in Turlock, California. Rightfully so, the secret service is not investigating.



Despite this load of evil, Helms maintains that she is not a racist. I'm curious as to how she would define racism and I am curious as to what specifically she dislikes about Obama's policies. She certainly dislikes that he is black.

Body Suit






















The Tattoo Page

Forget Romance; This is True Like


Cuddling


Now there's an idea..






















(source unknown)

Pot for Thought


Always Underrated














Chloë Park

 

Misunderstood Art

A tattoo artist is banned from speaking at Career Day. Stigma seems to be as permanent as a tattoo. Too many react, rather than respond. Kneejerk reactions prompted by a ignorance about the art of tattooing.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

When Our President Cries

The day after the election (11/7/12) our re-elected president, Barack Obama, spoke at his campaign headquarters in the Prudential Building near Lake Michigan. To his campaign workers, he beamed; “I'm really proud of all of you."

I'll cut to the chase: The man cries, and it is wonderful. I cannot fail to mention, however, that when Hilary Clinton cried, the conservatives insisted that she did so because she's a woman and therefore she wouldn't be able to handle the job as Prez. Obama cries, and the world goes, "Awwww." I admired Clinton for her candor and I admire Obama for his. Sincerity makes me emotional. Mr. President, you are a true social worker.

President Obama: "I'm Really Proud of All of You." - 11/7/12

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Great 2012 Presidential Victory Speech

But long and late. I imagine it's past Sasha and Malia's bed time: I know it's past mine. G'night, all.

President Barack Obama Wins Second Term! Obama 2012!

Whew! Hallelujah! I've been sitting in my pjs, wearing my "I Voted" sticker on my top. I'm falling in love with this good man, all over again. Let the work continue!







Planned Parenthood Action

"The role of citizen in our democracy does not end with your vote!"
~President Barack Obama

Puppy vs Doorstop

So cute, it hurts. Epic battle between inanimate object and beast.

"Tugger, The Cutest Labrador Puppy EVER"

glee

"Go high! Go high!"
That was me. I was on some swings today. It was grand.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

one more idea

Before we find insult we must first explore nuances.

I'm no sailor but..

Before we find insult we must first explore nuances. Below is a targeted rant, but I imagine one that tickles exhaustion rather than sweeping generalizations -- I think.

(source)

Fuck L Ron Hubbard and
Fuck all his clones.
Fuck all these gun-toting
Hip gangster wannabes.

Learn to swim.


Fuck retro anything.

Fuck your tattoos.
Fuck all you junkies and
Fuck your short memory.

Learn to swim.


Fuck smiley glad-hands

With hidden agendas.
Fuck these dysfunctional,
Insecure actresses.

Learn to swim.
--Aenima by Tool

swim



One great big festering neon distraction,
I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied.
Learn to swim.

Learn to swim. 
--Aenima by Tool

Mind & Spirit


Fret for your figure and
Fret for your latte and
Fret for your lawsuit and
Fret for your hairpiece and
Fret for your Prozac and
Fret for your pilot and
Fret for your contract and
Fret for your car.
--Aenima by Tool

Gay Men's Sexism and Women's Bodies by Yolo Akili at The Good Men Project

Article from The Good Men Project.

Gay Men’s Sexism and Women’s Bodies


Yolo Akili explores how gay men’s sexism and male privilege shows up in relationship to women.

At a recent presentation, I asked all of the gay male students in the room to raise their hand if in the past week they touched a woman’s body without her consent. After a moment of hesitation, all of the hands of the gay men in the room went up. I then asked the same gay men to raise their hand if in the past week they offered a woman unsolicited advice about how to “improve” her body or her fashion. Once again, after a moment of hesitation, all of the hands in the room went up.

These questions came after a brief exploration of gay men’s relationship to American fashion and women’s bodies. That dialogue included recognizing that gay men in the United States are often hailed as the experts of women’s fashion and by proxy women’s bodies. In addition to this there is a dominant logic that suggests that because gay men have no conscious desire to be sexually intimate with women, our uninvited touching and groping (physical assault) is benign.

These attitudes have led many gay men to feel curiously comfortable critiquing and touching women’s bodies at whim.  What’s unique about this is not the male sense of ownership to women’s bodies—that is somewhat common.  What’s curious is the minimization of these acts by gay men and many women because the male perpetuating the act is or is perceived to be gay.

An example: I was at a gay club in Atlanta with a good friend of mine who is a heterosexual black woman. While dancing in the club, a white gay male reached out and grabbed both her breasts aggressively. Shocked, she pushed him away immediately. When we both confronted him he told us:  “It’s no big deal, I’m gay, I don’t want her– I was just having fun.” We expressed our frustrations to him and demanded he apologize, but he simply refused. He clearly felt entitled to touch her body and could not even acknowledge the fact that he had assaulted her.

I have experienced this attitude as being very common amongst gay men. It should also be noted that in this case, she was a black woman and he a white gay male, which makes this an eyebrow-raising dynamic as it invokes the psychological history of white men’s entitlement to black women’s bodies. However it has been my experience that this dynamic of assault with gay men and women also persists within racial groups.

At another presentation, I told this same story to the audience. Almost instantly, several young women raised up their hands to be called upon. Each of them recounted a different story with a similar theme. One young woman told a story that stuck with me:

“I was feeling really cute in this outfit I put together. Then I see this gay guy I knew from class, but not very well. I had barely said hi before he began telling me what was wrong with how I looked, how I needed to lose weight, and how if I wanted to get a man I needed to do certain things… In the midst of this, he grabbed my breasts and pushed them together, to tell me how my breasts should look as opposed to how they did.  It really brought me down. I didn’t know how to respond… I was so shocked.”

Her story invoked rage amongst many other women in the audience, and an obvious silence amongst the gay men present. Their silence spoke volumes.  What also seemed to speak volumes, though not ever articulated verbally, was the sense that many of the heterosexual women had not responded (aggressively or otherwise) out of fear of being perceived as homophobic. (Or that their own homophobia, in an aggressive response, would reveal itself.) This curiously, to me did not seem to be a concern for the lesbian and queer-identified women in the room at all.

Acts like these are apart of the everyday psychological warfare against women and girls that pits them against unrealistic beauty standards and ideals.  It is also apart of the culture’s constant message to women that their bodies are not their own.

It’s very disturbing, but in a culture that doesn’t  see gay men who are perceived as “queer” as “men” or as having male privilege, our misogyny and sexist acts are instead read as “diva worship” or “celebrating women”, even when in reality they are objectification, assault and dehumanization.

The unique way our entitlement to women’s physical bodies plays itself out is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gay cisgender men’s sexism and privilege. This privilege do not make one a bad person any more than straight privilege makes heterosexuals bad people. It does mean that gay men can sometimes be just as unthinkingly hurtful, and unthinkingly a part of a system that participates in the oppression of others, an experience most of us can relate to. Exploration of these dynamics can lead us to query institutional systems and policies that reflect this privilege, nuanced as it is by other identities and social locations.

At the end of my last workshop on gay men’s sexism, I extended a number of questions to the gay men in the audience. I think it’s relevant to extend these same questions now:

How is your sexism and misogyny showing up in your own life, and in your relationships with your female friends, trans, lesbian, queer or heterosexual? How is it showing up in your relationship to your mothers, aunts and sisters?  Is it showing up in your expectations of how they should treat you? How you talk to them? What steps can you take to address the inequitable representation of gay cisgender men in your community as leaders? How do you see that privilege showing up in your organizations and policy, and what can you do to circumvent it? How will you talk to other gay men in your community about their choices and interactions with women, and how will you work to hold them and yourself accountable?

These are just some of the questions we need to be asking ourselves so that we can help create communities where sexual or physical assault, no matter who is doing it, is deemed unacceptable. These are the kinds of questions we as gay men need to be asking ourselves so that we can continue (or for some begin) the work of addressing gender/sex inequity in our own communities, as well as in our own hearts and minds. This is a part of our healing work. This is a part of our transformation. This is a part of our accountability.

Photo—Kyle Taylor, Dream It. Do It. World Tour/Flickr
Read more at http://goodmenproject.com/ethics-values/gay-mens-sexism-and-womens-bodies/#wcIIXZfs2qtgGLjI.99

Vote Damnit. 2012 Election.


Saturday, November 3, 2012

You Said

And you said: But snake oil, always looks good.

Fugazi: Instrument • A Documentary by Jem Cohen


Fugazi: Instrument • A Documentary by Jem Cohen

Tool at The Glass House in Pomona, CA - 1996


Tool - Full Show - 1996

October 16th, 1996
The Glass House
Pomona, CA, USA

SETLIST
-----------------
01:00 Stinkfist
06:17 Forty-Six & 2
13:35 Eulogy
22:45 Hooker With A Penis
28:20 Prison Sex
34:45 Jimmy
40:55 Undertow
47:30 Sober
53:30 H.
01:00:00 Ænema
01:08:00 Opiate
01:14:00 Third Eye

An Interview with Ian McKaye of Minor Threat & Dischord Records at Loyola University

An Interview with Ian McKaye of Minor Threat & Dischord Records at Loyola University

In this clip from www.artistshousemusic.org - Watch as Ian MacKaye, founder and owner of Dischord Records, participates in a detailed Q&A session with an auditorium of Loyola University Music Business students. MacKaye speaks on his experiences with his bands like Minor Threat, Fugazi and The Evens. He answers questions about Straight Edge, DIY ethic, his Dischord record label and more.

"Going Through a Scary Breakup? Celebrities Have Been There Too" - The Good Men Project

















(source)

The Good Men Project
, posted a simple article (which really isn't an article) about celebrity women who have had difficulty with romantic breakups. The article features women only, which I find interesting and also disappointing. 

Perhaps the November 3rd 2012 article posted by was only meant to focus on women, but the question is: why? The title, Going Through a Scary Breakup? Celebrities Have Been There Too, suggests that celebrities are inclusive of both genders.

Perhaps was unable to find quotes from male celebrities or perhaps wasn't interested -- there's no way to know. If it was difficult to find quotes from a male voice, that tells me societal influence may be playing a part. Sexist society tells us that it is unacceptable for men to reveal their feelings without scrutiny. There are plenty of men who have been hurt by relationships gone sour and plenty who harbor gems of wisdom derived from their experiences. I would have loved to have read some quotes from male celebrities as well.

The quotes within the post came from Demi Moore, Taylor Swift, Jessica Simpson, Emma Stone, Kate Mos, Vanessa Paradis, Madonna, Kim Kardashian, Halle Berry and Debra Messing.

There are a couple of ladies on that list whom I'm not familiar with.

Below are two of the quotes which I found impressive.

Jessica Simpson

“It was like a death in the family: you go through the mourning stage, then the rebellion, and then all of a sudden you have to find life by yourself … I loved everything about marriage. I loved having a companion to wake up with and have barbecues with. But things happen and people grow apart. I don’t really ever talk about the divorce because it was a heart-wrenching thing to go through.”
— Jessica Simpson said divorce can feel like death.

Emma Stone

“I was crawling on the floor. I remember throwing up. I remember being on the floor … I have never felt anything quite like that. It was so visceral. It’s like someone has killed you and you have to live through it and watch it happen … It was awful.”
— Emma Stone’s teen heartbreak caused her to throw up.

When Jessica Simpson and her then husband Nick Lashay, participated in a reality tv show, she earned a reputation of being a ditz. It's a rep that she has not fully shaken. If there are any concerns, simply read this quote.

She likens the divorce to a death. This is an analogy that I have often used, myself. When you breakup with someone, there is no going back. It's done and that feels unbelievably suffocating.She goes on to acknowledge that although their is mourning there is the desire to fight back or fight off. She then makes the excellent and very true point, that afterwards one must "find life" by oneself. The world is different when you are minus the partnership. I also love how she speaks about waking up with a companion and having BBQs with them. An intimate experience and a seemingly casual one, that exists as a part of every day life. All of that can change in an instant and then all of a sudden, you have to learn to live without.

Emma Stone spoke about how she was crawling on the floor and puking. I've never thrown up, but I've certainly found myself on the floor. Ending up there is a strange and humbling experience. Her statement about living through your own assassination is a profound one.

Thank you ladies. There's an incredible importance and bravery in allowing oneself to be so vulnerable. It is quotes like these that exemplify how human we all are. Now, where are the gents?

amen

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
 - Gandhi

We Do

We all want to meet someone with perfect hands.

Keeping it at Bay

At Bay
by Lady J 2012©

When all that shit comes back
the nail in the coffin
is having to get used to it fast

You Shook

You Shook
By Lady J 2012©

Laboratory-like conditions are not well received in the cells that make me.

pay up

You should pay rent in my mind.
~Fugazi

Feliz Dia De Los Muertos












My KC Bakes

Isolated Incident

I remember a time last year, when I didn't have the brain to think. Today, things are so much better.

Friday, November 2, 2012

"Try" Has Me Jealous

I can't stop watching this video and I can't stop wishing that I was a part of it. I'm not the hugest Pink fan, but I do think she has got some great pipes. The below video features the type of dance, I wish more music videos would dare explore.

I will say that there is one moment which unnerved me instantly. So, let this be my trigger warning. There is a moment where Pink's partner spreads her legs wide and fits his foot underneath her crotch and kicks upward. It's a brisk movement, in keeping with a modern dance tempo -- even so, I instantly thought, RAPE.

I also saw it as a creative way in which to switch the "being kicked in the balls" idea. As a woman, as a feminist, I am certainly aware that there may be some who take issue with the violence that takes place here. I view it as two shapes in motion, moving with and against the strength of their bodies. A confrontation between love, fear and frustration. Symbolism exists as these forces push against each other, try to find stability, while trying to destroy the other.

I envy Pink's experience as I imagine it would take a great amount of team work, trust, care, strength, practice, trial and error, vulnerability and introspection to complete this project.


Try - by Pink

The "Try" video features dancer Colt Prattes as Pink's partner. The piece was directed by Floria Sigismondi and choreographed by The Golden Boyz (RJ Durell and Nick Florez) along with stunt choreographer Sebastien Stella.

Katy Perry Dresses as Jane Lane for Halloween 2012






















Katy Perry bugs, but she gets points for dressing up as Jane Lane.
















Daria is an MTV animated comedy series, which has been off the air for many years now. The DVD box sets are available for purchase. I might have to steal this idea and go as Jane Lane next year. I can only hope I become Jane Lane, in my next life.

Halloween Pumpkins Decked Out in Tokidoki

Pumpkins decorated with Tokidoki characters.


Happy Belated 81st Birthday Leonard Knight

Happy belated birthday to Leonard Knight, creator of Salvation Mountain.