This is one of those "review of a gay love story that makes me feel superior about mine" posts...

In this case the story is a movie called "Adam & Steve." Good one, huh? It is not, on the whole, being well received by the critics.

Roger Ebert sez:

...There is an underlying story here, and some comic ideas, that in the hands of a better director (or more ruthless editor) could have become an entertaining romantic comedy. But...The director, Craig Chester, is also the co-star; as an actor, he has the wrong director.

Chester stars as Adam Bernstein, first seen in the 1980s with best pal Rhonda (Parker Posey) dressed as Goths and entering a gay disco on Glitter Night, the wrong night for them. Adam makes eye contact with a dancer named Steve (Malcolm Gets), and it's love at first sight, but "We don't dance," they explain. "We're Goths. We're dead."

Their romance develops despite the usual plot convenience (fear of commitment), but there's a crisis...Will they reconcile? Can Rhonda and Steve's straight roommate, Michael (Chris Kattan), be the go-betweens?

This reminds me of something that was important to me thematically in developing my little lesbian romantic comedy. I never wanted the solution to the crisis to be something like Colley sitting down with Keitha and saying: "You know, Annabel really loves you, and..."

The lovers had to make it on their own. I think I was wary of making a gay version of all those stories we used to get ("Mississippi Burning," "Cry Freedom") that were nominally about civil rights for blacks, but managed to have white characters at the hub for "identification."

I've said this before, but I identify with Keitha and Annabel, and I want others to as well. I identify with Colley too, of course (I'm the writer, I identify with all of 'em); my point is, he's not there to ease the story for any uncomfortable straights who may be in the audience.

the creepiest invention I've ever seen

Interactive robot art helps your self esteem

"Sycophant explores the relationship between viewers and a human-like robot. The human head is mounted on a motorized base which moves along a track. As a viewer walks by, the head follows on the track, while plying him or her with a cornucopia of compliments such as "I really like your hair" and "You look really hot!"

Via MAKE. That's either the creepiest invention I've ever seen, the inevitable basis for a future Kraftwerk video, or both.

Riddle me this

Where are you going to find one of the best collections of balloon sculpture (and costuming!) you've ever seen? Right here, that's where. It's times like this I really love the internet.

Never let it be said that this is one of those blogs that only posts about the bad news

Jill Carroll, a reporter who had been held captive in Iraq for nearly three months, was released today, apparently unharmed.

My word

Oh, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made an obscene gesture and cursed out a reporter in Italian (and homophobic) terms recently. And he did it in church. And lied about it afterwards.

Via AmericaBlog, where John adds:

He did this minutes after taking the Eucharist (communion), in church, during Lent, and two weeks before Easter. In addition, he's now lying again during Lent and right before Easter.

Some man of conservative family values. He's not even a good Christian, let alone a good Christian conservative. Which begs the question of what the religious has to say about their darling being an obscene liar who shows disrespect in church?:

"We were hoping the President might elevate someone like Scalia," said Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council.

Still hoping a foul-mouthed man who disrespects church during Lent becomes the standard-bearer for Supreme Court justices?

Huff

I wanted to talk some more about Huff. I wrote appreciations of the Showtime drama's first season last year at the old blog, and more recently here, so I'll be trying not to repeat myself.

There is a moment at the end of Huff's first season when the title character speaks two words, and it's almost a throwaway. They don't pause for even a whole beat. But if you've been watching all the episodes leading up to it, it's chilling. The subtlety of that moment, and the pleasure it takes in paying off a characterization, is everything that a certain series that shall remain nameless (but starts with "L") is missing.

In his commentary track on the recently-released DVDs, series lead Hank Azaria calls that episode one of the best, if not the best, things he's ever been involved with in his career. And here is a guy who, although he may not always have had the best luck picking movie projects, can point to Robert Redford's Quiz Show, working with Mike Nichols both on film and on stage (where he got a Tony nomination), and (playing a writer better than I've ever seen one played) Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock. Plus several Emmy nominations for his almost 20 years on The Simpsons, a featured part on Friends (I still say Phoebe should have married him)...and I haven't even mentioned Mad About You's Nat ("Hey there, hi there, ho there.")

And he says Huff is "Creatively...the best job I've ever had." Are you beginning to get why those of us who have become its fans think it's so extraordinary?

One of the reasons I think Huff's first season may have had trouble attracting the viewers it deserves is because it lacks a hook, it's determinedly "low-concept." It's not "Melrose Place, only with lesbian softcore sex" (The L Word). It's not "Family politics, and family politics, of a mob boss" (The Sopranos). It's not "single mother in the suburbs becomes pot dealer" (Weeds).

It's just-who would've thunk of it?-a really well-made, strong show. How strong? Let me put it this way-I think it's the best TV drama since the first few seasons of The West Wing. And if you know how I feel about The West Wing, you know what a compliment that is.

I will qualify it slightly by defining my terms-there have certainly been other series since that I've had a lot of time for. But to me, 24 is not a drama-it's a suspense series. Gilmore Girls is not a drama, it's a "dramedy" or if you prefer, "human comedy." Boston Legal is not a drama, it's a...well, I'm actually not sure what Boston Legal is; neither are they, and that's part of its appeal. Veronica Mars, at its height, was not a drama, it's a mystery series. Okay, Bones is probably a drama, and one that I'm increasingly enjoying, but it's nowhere near as good as Huff.

Which brings me back to the question of why I think Huff is so good. Well, first of all, it's one of the first hour-long drama series since The West Wing that I've wanted to watch over and over. Most such series, no matter how well-made, simply don't invite repeat viewing-that's why sitcoms do so much better in syndication.

Huff does, and rewards it. I was re-watching the first season as they broadcast it ramping up for the second season premiere, and I still found it terribly moving, and noticed things I'd missed the first time.

Plus there is the ensemble cast. I've praised Azaria, female lead Paget Brewster and Blythe Danner, who won an Emmy for her role, in the first post linked above. So here I'll say keep an eye on Anton Yelchin, who plays Byrd, Huff's teenage son. Those of you who know my work: I think if I were casting for the You & Me, Baby section of Girlfriend's Boyfriend, this guy would be on my wish list to play the high school-aged Colley. His hair shouldn't be quite so long and curly, and he's only about 17 so there'd be a problem with him playing the adult version. But what the hell, it's all pie-in-the-sky anyway, and my point is, it's a great performance. Byrd is someone who is in some ways wise beyond his years, but at the same time very much a teenager.

Speaking of my work, I don't think I can say that Huff is an influence on it-although it may very well prove to be. It's more that the writing, done and/or supervised by series creator Bob Lowry, has a quality to it that I respond to. And recognize as appearing in parts of my own work.

I think it's a-way of seeing the joke even in something quite serious (and vice-versa) while still-I hope to god-maintaining the integrity of the characters.

The second season is starting in a few days (Sundays, 10pm) and I gather Showtime is running another one of their free weekend previews. So I wanted to give you these few more reasons why I'm so keen on it.

With the admission that the last time I promoted the second season of a prized but low-rated series so heavily to you, it was Veronica Mars. And that show's ended up spinning way too many plates this year, and has lost a certain emotional cohesion as a result.

Though the last couple episodes have been improvements, but that's another post.

Geeking It Oldschool

According to this How Geeky Are You? quiz from MSNBC/Newsweek:

Your score is 15
0 to 29: Stuck in the Last Century

0 to 29: Stuck in the Last Century
30 to 60: Heading to Geekdom
61 and up: Seriously Nerdy

"Bush to Iraqis: Time to get a government" *

Iraqis to Bush: You first.











*Actual headline on Yahoo! News.

More words to live by

From Writing & Selling Your Novel, by Jack Bickham.

Notice, too that conflict is not the same as adversity.

...a reader needs to feel more than sympathy for a character. Adversity may build sympathy, but it will never build admiration or concern.

[your character] can't fight adversity. He has no chance. Adversity is blind and will come and go by luck, no matter what [he] does or doesn't do. In a universe of adversity, nothing makes sense-nothing [he] does makes any difference.

It's very difficult to hold a reader with nothing but blind fate playing all the cards. The story may be exciting in places, but it tends to be meaningless.

Let me see if I've got this straight...

So there's this series called Arrested Development. It won Emmy awards and has been much beloved by critics and a small group of devoted fans. Trouble is, virtually nobody else wanted to watch it.

I myself tried on at least two or three separate occasions, but I'm sorry, it simply never once made me laugh. Not that Two And A Half Men does or anything, it's just that AD seemed to me to fall into the category of: Ha-ha, very funny, aren't you clever, rather than actually funny-you know, the kind of funny where you actually sit and laugh.

But anyway, my opinions aside, after Fox's decision to remove it from the schedule, the show's fan base has been hoping against hope that it might be picked up by Showtime. Where ratings matter less than awards, critical acclaim and a fanbase.

Although that still doesn't explain why The L Word outrates Huff, which is its superior in every way.

But I digress again. The Showtime deal for AD looked like it actually had a chance of happening, but now the creator of the show, a man named Mitch Hurwitz, says he's leaving it, which is likely to quash the deal.

His stated reasons?

"The fans have been so ardent in their devotion and in return ... I've given everything I can to the show in order to try to live up to their expectations," Hurwitz told Variety in a phone interview from New. York. "I finally reached a point where I felt I couldn't continue to deliver that on a weekly basis. "

Hurwitz said he told executive producer Ron Howard he would be willing to act as a consultant if the producers find a home for the series, but as a showrunner, "I've gone as far as I could go."

So, like I say, let me see if I've got this straight: The man is walking away from a deal because he thinks he's given everything he has, rather than just pocketing the money and delivering a substandard product. He feels he's gone as far as he can go with this idea, so he's not going to go farther.

What Hollywood is he living in, anyway?

(Of course, all this assumes we can take Hurwitz's comments at face value. That it's not all just spin to cover the fact that he wanted more money and Showtime wouldn't cough up. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.)

We are nothing if not fair here at Dictionopolis in Digitopolis

And in the past, we have written that Sharon Stone was "embarassing" herself in recent talk-show appearances and the like, wherein her costuming seemed to be trying to send a message of:

"I know Basic Instinct was almost 15 years ago, boys, but remember these?"

So. It therefore behooves us to sit up and take notice of times when she actually looks pretty good.


Here she is at the premiere of Basic Instict 2, a sequel I am looking forward to...somewhat less than the Ice Age one. But it must be said that she looks pretty good. Maybe she's engaged a new makeup person.

Everybody was kung-fu scratting

You know, I think I'm looking forward to this sequel more than I might have had any reason to expect.

I'm a big fan of the first Ice Age movie, which I discovered in its many cable showings.

I thought it was really funny, and the (acknowledged, I believe) Chuck Jones homage didn't hurt either.

In fact, I think it was the best non-Pixar CGI animated film I've ever seen (I'm not a big fan of the Shrek movies). So, the sequel? More? Yes please.

This has been an unpaid commercial endorsement.

With a step to your left and a flick to the right

Alec Baldwin got into a little dust-up with Sean Hannity recently. The well-known Saturday Night Live host, movie star and occasional actor was appearing on a radio program. Hannity, the well known radio host and better known idiot called in, alongside a fella named Mark Levin, who is apparently also an idiot and radio show host. Only not as well known.

The pair wasted little time in demonstrating the genius for sensible debate that is the hallmark of the modern republican movement.

LEVIN: And you know what you are? You're "Brokeback" Alec. [END EXCERPT]

Unfortunately, I don't think either side comes out particuarly covered in glory. Baldwin does a little better, but as we've discussed before, as a political spokesman, Alec Baldwin is a great actor.

I think I was meaninglessly hit on at the Safeway this evening

Sadly (for my purposes), it was by a guy. That's not to say it wasn't flattering, of course. I rode up in the elevator from the parking garage with a couple of guys who-well, I didn't actually see them kissing or holding hands or anything...

But I like to think I have a pretty finely tuned gaydar for a straight person, and it was going "ping!" So anyway, inside the store I was in the cat food aisle and I'd knealt down to look at the flavors in the canned variety.

Just then one of these fellas walked past me and said something I didn't catch all of (let this be a lesson to you, people: if you're going to flirt, e-nun-ci-ate!) but definitely finished with "As long as you're down there..."

Well! I mean...he wasn't even attractive, that's the tragedy of it...

Long live The Dixie Chicks

Speaking of women whose outspokenness and ability I've admired almost as long as their good looks...

You may have heard that The Dixie Chicks have recently released their first new music since the firestorm. That link will play you their new single, "Not Ready To Make Nice."

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I like it; Bill Sherman said recently that it's overproduced and he's right in places, but the instrumentation and singing balances that out, for the most part. The song is already in the top 40 on the country charts, and has reportedly been getting a very positive reaction on satellite radio as well.

If anything, the Chicks now just look ahead of their time. They were ashamed of Bush before the rest of the country caught on to what an incompetent he was. Now that they have, well...is anybody really that surprised that the Dixie Chicks are still doing well?

Now, what's weird is that many traditional media outlets are calling this a "comeback." Even though, as two or three blogs have documented, the Chicks didn't exactly fall from grace...

They fail to point out that although the corporately-led boycott by radio stations indebted to the policies of the Bush Regime meant less airplay for the Dixie Chicks, sales of CDs and concert tickets actually increased. In 2003 The Dixie Chicks won 4 Grammy Awards (their first ever): Best Country Album (HOME), Best Country Performance ("Long Time Gone"), Best Country Instrumental Performance ("Lil' Jack Slade") and Best Recording Package (HOME). And the Dixie Chicks went from being a band appreciated by country music fans to being a band appreciated by MUSIC fans-- all over the world.

And I'm among them.

I am a mass of contradictions

There's this woman named Lara Logan; she's the Chief Foreign Correspondent for CBS News. As I stopped watching network TV news long ago, I admit I had never heard of her before Crooks and Liars linked to a segment of her being interviewed.

On a CNN program, she responds to the criticism that people have an unrealistic picture of Iraq, because terrorist-sympathizers like herself keep reporting only the bad news. She comes off as firm, eloquent, calm and assertive.

Everything you want in a Foreign Correspondent, I say. So, I thought, who is this woman who seems so learned and sensitive? A quick Yahoo! search yields the following information. According to her official CBS News bio,

Logan was the only American network journalist in Baghdad when American troops invaded the city, reporting live from Firdos Square as the statue of Saddam fell. Her reporting from the frontlines of Afghanistan and with the Green Berets searching for Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden appeared on 60 Minutes II, where she was a contributor from 2002 to 2004, and on the CBS Evening News, The Early Show and CBS News Radio, for which she served as a general assignment reporter.

Before formally joining CBS News in 2002, Logan already had 14 years of journalism experience, including 10 years in the international broadcast news arena...She reported on the war in Afghanistan, Middle East violence, the Mozambique floods, the land invasions in Zimbabwe and the India earthquake...Logan also served as a freelance correspondent for CNN (1998-99), covering the U.S. embassy bombings in Nairobi and Tanzania, the conflict in Northern Ireland and the war in Kosovo, among other stories.

She got her start in broadcast journalism in Africa as a senior producer for Reuters Television (1992-96).

Her work has earned her four American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Awards: in 2004 for Individual Achievement for Best Reporter/Correspondent; in 2003 for Best News Story for her CBS Evenign News report on the attempted assassination of Afghan President Hamid Kharzi; in 2002 for Best News Story for her CBS News Radio coverage of the war in Afghanistan; and in 2000 for Best News Story for her CBS News Radio coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I don't know about you, but that's what I call a reasonably impressive resume for a hardworking, serious and experienced journalist. I also note ruefully that she's the exact same age as I am. Dear god, what have I done with my life...but, I digress.

I confess a weakness for women journalists anyway-Molly Ivins and especially Linda Ellerbee have been among my personal heroes. Ms. Logan is probably not perfect-network TV news, let's not forget-but she seems to be the kind of woman I deeply admire. And if I had a daughter, the kind of woman I would hope she would deeply admire, or take as a role model (along with the likes of, say, Holly Hunter).

In some ways she seems to be the kind of woman I like to write, too; compassionate, driven, with a good sense of herself, poised.

(Keitha: What are we, ballerinas?)

(Annabel: Shh!)

Now-I mentioned contradictions earlier. And there's a reason why I've carefully listed Ms. Logan's credits, journalistic experience and awards up top here, to make the case for her. It's because I don't want you to think of me as I thought of the republican FreeRepublic.com board when I saw a certain comment they'd posted about her:

CBS News Decides to Emphasize Breasts Over Brains!

See, everything I've said about the sense I got of Ms. Logan from that clip, and by doing a little research into her work, is true. It is also true that the very first thing that turned my head about her is the fact that she is cute as a button.

How cute? Well, apparently, she worked as a swimsuit model while in high school and college. That's how cute. Something that some of her (I'm guessing) less-cute colleagues and critics are quick to point out.

Indeed, two or three of them seem to have what I would deem an unhealthy obsession with her cup size. Because, god forbid a woman should look good in a bathing suit (or have other physical charms) yet also be a seasoned, accomplished and compassionate reporter. As Ralph Wiggum would say, that's unpossible.

To make matters worse, they say, she may use her good looks to her advantage in her work. Yes, I was shocked too. But frankly, her response to such sniping only makes me admire her more.

A New York Times story from last year quoted her,

Over a recent lunch in Manhattan, during a break in her coverage of the Saddam Hussein trial, Ms. Logan said, "There isn't a journalist alive who won't admit to you they use every advantage they have."

In that respect, she said, she was no different from the generations of male reporters who had employed various means to ingratiate themselves with the military. "Some guys come from a military background, and they'll use that," she said. "Some guys are very sporty, and they'll play on the sporty thing."

"As a woman, I have lots of advantages you don't have," she told a male interviewer. "I can be vulnerable. Usually you don't have to do anything. Men do it to themselves. They feel like they want to protect you."

Shuffle in my seat, snort, I don't know what she's talking about...my god nobody hurt you, did they baby? Come here, I'll tell you everything!

So anyway, yes, ahem, contradictions. As I was saying. On the one hand, I genuinely like the kind of mind this woman seems to have. On the other...oh my god, she's gorgeous.

This has been a review of the precarious position in which you'll find a lot of us liberal, "non-macho" heterosexual men.

Our worst is better than their best

John makes an interesting comparision betwixt and between the loony left and the right-wing radicals.

Whenever I get into a discussion with a Republican over how nasty conservatives have become over the past 15 years, I often get the "well you have Michael Moore" refrain.

Only problem is, yes we do have Michael Moore, and when did he ever suggest blacks are genetically inferior to whites (Republican David Duke), that Supreme Court justices should be assassinated (Republican Ann Coulter), and when was he ever indicted (Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff, Scooter Libby, and oh so many more)?

He hasn't, because Michael Moore is someone conservatives simply disagree with, and that makes him per se hateful. Kind of like the Dixie Chicks, except they have boobs too, which makes it an even bigger crime in Republican circles that they have opinions.

Read the rest in AmericaBlog.

Words to live by

From Orson Scott Card in Characters And Viewpoint:

Oh, you can have a major inexplicable change and have no one in the story remark on it, but you can't blame your readers for concluding that you're an incompetent writer and that the unjustified change was a mistake.

Worse still, your readers might conclude that the unjustified change was a practical joke you were playing on them, as if you were saying, "Oh, were you starting to care about these characters? Were you starting to take this story seriously? Well, here, I'll show you that it's all silly and I can do anything." Of course you can do anything. But your implicit contract with your readers says you won't do just anything-that your story will mean something, even if the meaning is that there is no meaning....

That's very much the feeling I get when watching or reading a story with crappy characterization; especially if it's seemed to be good in that department up till then. That the writer (or writers, if it's a group effort like most television series) has in essence pulled the rug out from under me, and laughed at my trust.

The trick (and I'm saying this as much to myself as to any of you, if not more) is to keep your characters' actions surprising yet somehow inevitable. Your audience should be in a recurrent state of saying "What...yeah, they'd do that," or "Why would they do that...I'd better keep reading (or watching, or whatever) to find out!"

That second one only applies to stories that are going to explain what may seem to be an at first unjustified change, of course.

I always like to hear what Walter Cronkite has to say

...so here he is using the recent documentary Why We Fight as a stepping stone to talk about Vietnam, Iraq, their differences and similarities.

And the TV must always be set to Fox News...

Via Crooks and Liars, The Daily Show on Dick Cheney's travel requirements.

Ooh!

Remember that Republican blogger the Washington Post hired? Per AmericaBlog, he's resigned following accusations of plagiarism. So never mind.

How, indeed?

Matthews: "How can you not trust" Bush?
During a discussion about President Bush's recent public relations campaign to rally support for the war in Iraq, Chris Matthews said: "How can you not trust a man who says, 'I won't be able to win this war in my presidency; I'm leaving it up to other presidents in the future'?"

Media Matters

I don't know exactly what it means either, but I like it

Maybe
someday
Saved by zero
I'll be
more together
stretched by fewer
Thoughts that
leave me
Chasing after
My dreams
disown me
Loaded with danger

So maybe I'll win
Saved by Zero

Holding
onto
Words that teach me
I will
conquer
Space around me

So maybe I'll win ...

Saved by zero

The Fixx

Oh HELL no

Via Pink Is The New Blog....coming soon to a Saturday morning near you...Paris Hilton: The Animated Series.

A choice of responses

A lawmaker in...wait for it...Tennessee sez:

most gays and lesbians are unfit to parent because they have "emotional dysfunctions and psychological issues."

A choice of responses:

1. Yes, I've certainly never known any straight parents who had any of those.
2. I'd argue the point, but I've been watching The L Word...it's true, these people are sick!

Okay, the "Washington Post has hired a racist wingnut creationist to be their new official blogger" thing

As you may have seen around the ole' lefty blogs, the Washington Post announced recently that they were hiring a fella named Ben Domanech to be a new official blogger. His blog is called, and he's expected to be speaking for, "Red America."

They couldn't have made a better choice. As is being thoroughly documented throughout the aforementioned lefty blogosphere, Domanech is racist, scientifically illiterate, still obsessed with Communism some 14 years after it collapsed, and a chickenhawk.

In other words, he is red America. But I know what you're saying. You're saying...if only he were connected to Jack Abramoff in some way. Well, guess what. He's connected to Jack Abramoff in some way. See above link for details on all these accusations.

In a related story, Bill Sherman has some fun with this other Ben's recently proclaimed "greatest pro-gun movie ever!" and gives a shout-out to yours truly.

Now that's comedy

It seems a certain blogger was offended by a billboard one of those "ex-gay" groups put up. So he whipped up his own variation and posted it to his blog. Now they're threatening him with legal action and the ACLU has gotten involved.

Source: AmericaBlog.

Why Holly Hunter is one of my favorite actresses (and James L. Brooks is one of my favorite writers), #6 or so in a series

PAUL: It must be nice to always believe you know better. To think you're always the smartest person in the room.

JANE (From her depths): No, it's awful.

Broadcast News

Our man Paul Cornell has been nominated for a Hugo (Updated)

Update: Paul Cornell has a blog. Who knew?

Original post: I'm delighted to see that three different stories from the successful-beyond-anyone's dreams revival of Doctor Who have been nominated for the Hugo Award in the dramatic presentation, short form category.

I'm especially pleased to see former Who novelist Paul Cornell recognized. He was the creator of the companion character Bernice Summerfield, original to the novels. She became so popular that when Virgin books lost the Dr. Who license, they continued publishing books for several years afterwards just about her.

Something he said in an interview has been coming back to me in recent years when I contemplate why I seem to be able to write women well. Asked why he thought Bernice had been so succesful, he replied that most men wrote the kinds of women they wanted to date (or maybe at least sleep with), and...

"I don't want to date Bernice. I want to be her."

Paul became something of a friend during my rec.arts.drwho days, though we haven't spoken in a while. We didn't have a falling out or anything, I've just moved away from active Dr. Who fandom.

That said, I think Steven Moffat's two-parter is (were? was?) the better episode; the story I'd most like to see win. (Sorry Paul if you happen to stumble across this)

Do you think the fact that all I can think of is...

...how cool it would be to set some of this to a really great dance track is a sign that they've got their claws too deep into me already? AmericaBlog passes on some literature-and I use the word loosely-from one of those "cure homosexuality" groups:

The Creation of New Homosexuals
These warnings beg a very serious question: Can people, children in this case, become homosexuals by exposure to certain ideas and behavior? In other words, can a person who would not otherwise become homosexual start the behavior, come to prefer it and form a habitual addiction?

Can a society create more homosexuals? The answer quite clearly is yes. That is how current homosexuals, in fact, came to be.

I can hear it now, kind of an electronic thing..."Thumpa! Thumpa! Thumpa! Thumpa! 'The creation of new homosexuals...' Thumpa! Thumpa! Thumpa! Thumpa!"

The Muppets are dead to me

There's a song called It's Not Easy Being Green. Undoubtedly you know it; one of the Muppets most well-known songs, its status as something of a minor modern classic is testified to by the fact that both Ray Charles and Frank-freaking-Sinatra saw fit to record it.

And it is, of course, as goes without saying, not about being "green" at all, but about being different. Or feeling that you are. It's meant a lot to a lot of people over the years for just that reason.

And now it's the theme song to a commercial for some sort of off-road all-terrain vehicle.

The Muppets are dead to me. You know, Jim Henson certainly wasn't above commercial work; he knew the value of a dollar. But IIRC he seemed to make them without shitting in the faces of multiple generations.

By taking something that was made to tell kids it's all right to be different and using it to sell adults enviromentally irresponsible gas-guzzlers. A curse on every single member of the current Muppet brain trust who approved and/or worked on this.

And not the kind of curse that can be cured by baking the hall in the candle of her brain, either.

Whoa...this is actually really cool.

"Coffee Art." I don't drink coffee, but if I did, that's the kind I would drink. Sing us home, Frank:

And when their ham and eggs need savor
Coffee ketchup gives 'em flavor
Coffee pickles way outsell the dill
Why, they put coffee in the coffee in Brazil

No tea, no tomato juice
You'll see no potato juice
The planters down in Santos all say "No, no, no"

-The Coffee Song, written by Dick Miles/Bob Hilliard

It's times like this I wish the St. Patrick's Day parade wasn't so blatantly homophobic

Because by the look of it, I could have enjoyed watching this one go by.

But it is so blatantly homophobic.

My god, he's back

On Monday, September 06, 2004, I wrote in my old blog about an incident that took place at the Republican National Convention.

Video here of a WABC News story about the response a brave young Republican man had to a female protestor.

He kicked her. While she was being held on the ground. By three secret service agents.

dig the absolutely delicious look on the kicker's face when he's informed that the reporter has him on tape kicking a woman.

I suppose I always wondered what happened to that angry young man, Scott Robinson, so full of the spit and fire that comes from knowing that your party, virtually on its own, has plunged the country into painful, unending war.

Well, good news! He's still serving his country. Not by actually oh, what is the phrase, joining up and fighting in that painful, unending war. Because, you know, Iraqi insurgents are just a little spunkier than people who are being held down so you can kick them.

No no, he's taking on a really important issue of the day: The announcement that Jodie Foster will be the Commencement speaker for the class of '06 at Penn, where he attends. And why? Well, his opinion piece written for a "libertarian" student newspaper begins with this quotation:

"Jodie Foster is an eminent Ivy League graduate who has achieved tremendous success and influence in the powerful entertainment industry.? - A star-struck President Amy Guttmann upon announcement that Jodie Foster will be the not-so glorious commencement speaker for the Class of 2006.

Apparently, Mr. Robinson disagrees with that statement. Now me, I would say that as an actress, Jodie Foster has a solid record of critical and/or box office successes and has won the Academy Award twice. She's one of those few former child actors to successfully navigate an adult career. She's an acclaimed director and producer (side note: Waking the Dead, which she produced, is highly underrated). And she is on the very short list-I think it's just her and Sigourney Weaver-of women who can open a movie that is not considered to be a "chick flick."

I'd say President Amy Guttmann, star-struck or not, is well within her rights to say Foster "has achieved tremendous success and influence in the powerful entertainment industry.” So well you may wonder: What really gets on Mr. Robinson's tits about Foster's selection as speaker?

Could it be that he is upset with the intrusion of a mere girl into a man's world?

Why yes, yes it could. Because he further goes on to say:

Gutmann raves about Foster: “In addition, she has used her tremendous talents to bring before an international audience such weighty social issues as violence against women, parent-child relationships and the challenges faced by women in traditionally male professions." Thanks but no thanks, President Gutmann -- the pomp and circumstance of my graduation ceremony should not be a forum for your half-baked social theories about the plight of women.

For starters, any fraternity men at Penn who, as newly initiated members, has been compelled by the University to sit through the patronizing and commense“’don’t rape women or put drugs in their drinks speech”, knows what I mean. Furthermore, whoever allowed Amy Guttmann’s Marxist theories (which insist on examining everything in the public realm through very narrow prisms of race and “gender consciousness”) guide the process should be ashamed.

Stupid buzzkilling feminazi dykes. Don't they know frat boys gettin' it on and convincing a 19-year-old to have her first threesome and/or bisexual experience on-camera is a much greater challenge than women ever face? Especially those who are unlucky enough to get knocked around, stupid enough to get knocked up, or uppity enough to knock on the glass ceiling.

I mean, that's just commense.

(And a flip of the chapeau to Mon Generale)

Happy Anniversary!

Three years ago tomorrow night was when our news channels filled with images of bombs exploding in Baghdad. 9:34pm est. time will mark the anniversary of the actual start of the invasion.

So where have we gone since then? Well we did make it to Baghdad with little effort. We did find Saddam Hussein. That’s about it for the good points..

Now here we sit 3 years later and where are we. We have lost 2,318 soldiers, over 30,000 Iraqi citizens; spent over half a trillion dollars (increasing by $200 million a day) and we sit here, isolated from the rest of the world.

In January of 2003, Saddam Huessein vowed to give the Americans “a war like no other they have fought before”. Many people laughed at that comment. Well there are 2, 318 families not laughing now. In fact Saddam has given us exactly what he vowed. The insurgency is that war which Saddam vowed.

In retrospect, it almost makes the fact that three years ago I was sitting in a hotel in Tennessee gradually coming to the realization that I was perfectly capable of taking the life of another human being seem somehow insignifigant, doesn't it?

Almost.

Have I asked you to buy me things from my Amazon.com Wish List recently?

If you look over to the right there and click the View my complete profile link you'll find, among other things, a link to it. If you're amazed at the quality of posts on this site (I know I am), please consider making a small donation to the Buy Ben Those CDs And Books He Can't Score Through The Ink 19 Gig Fund. I thank you.

My God. It's Fluffy and Uranus.

This is a frame from the fine (and long overdue on DVD, if you ask me) cartoon series "Duckman," featuring supporting characters Fluffy and Uranus, described by one site as

Duckman's annoyingly cute, incredibly politically correct office assistants, a pair of stuffed animal temp workers who were mistakenly hired as a result of a computer error.

The site doesn't mention it, but the running gag with the characters was that they were destroyed in almost every episode, usually by Duckman himself, only to re-constitute their little sawdust bodies by the next one. And yes, this pre-dated "South Park."


These are the new Sound Pet rockin' teddy speakers.

Chris Matthews asks the important questions

The increasingly-spooky Chris Matthews distinguished himself last week with two questions that show him to be the proper heir to Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow. First, in discussing Hillary Clinton's apparent reluctance to admit she made a mistake in voting for the Iraq war (for which she has drawn much criticism from liberal progressives):

MATTHEWS: You know, Hillary Clinton, the senator from New York, will not say what you just said. She has a way of skirting the issue. We had her spokesman on, Mr. [Howard] Wolfson, on last night who said there wouldn't have been a vote to allow force if the administration hadn't made the case it made.

But she won't say that she made a mistake. Is she hemmed in by the fact that she's a woman and can't admit a mistake, or else the Republicans will say, "Oh, that's a woman's prerogative to change her mind," or "another fickle woman?" Is her gender a problem in her ability to change her mind?

Dig how he says she has a way of "skirting" the issue, too. Pretty nice, huh? Then he went on to exemplify the way in which "Beltway people" like him really are separate from other Americans in their perception and in their thinking, asking this question:

MATTHEWS: Take a look at this very unpleasant bit of polling here. In a recent Pew Research Center poll, the one word descriptions of President Bush have turned incredibly negative with 48 percent -- I checked this twice, this, I couldn't believe it, but it's true -- 48 percent of the people responding to this poll used such words as "incompetent," "idiot," and "liar" to describe our president. Kate O'Beirne, what happened to respect?

Good question, Chris. I'm not Kate O'Beirne, but should you be up late some night running Yahoo! News searches on your own name and stumble across this blog, I think you deserve a good answer.

I think...I think trying to sell control of our ports to a country that gave aid and comfort to the terrorists who killed thousands of our citizens might have happened to respect.

I think packing the Supreme Court with justices who make few bones about their desire to repeal a law most Americans support might have happened to respect.

I think detaining prisoners indefinitely and torturing them might have happened to respect.

I think exploiting the civil rights of repressed minorities for political gain might have happened to respect.

I think the quagmire in Iraq might have happened to respect.

I think Bush showing that he is at the beck-and-call of religious fanatics to the extent of injecting himself and the government into private medical family decisions might have happened to respect.

But that is, of course, just one fellows' opinion.

Items courtesy of Media Matters.

We -Are young but getting old before our time (updated)

Update-I found this paragraph in a book titled The Film Director As Superstar from 1970. It's a quote by Mike Nichols.

I don't even know that I want to go on, at all. When I saw Kubrick, I said: I don't know why the hell I do this. Tell me why you do it, because I'm not so sure I love doing it." And he said, "It's better to do it than not to do it." I suppose that's true. It explains why I keep making films though there are so many things involved that panic or distress me.

Original post: Tell it, brother. Roger Ebert's review of Ask The Dust doesn't make me any more eager to see the movie, but it does tell me he knows something about writers (or at least this writer) and the difficulty of depicting the art on film.

Who is harder to portray in a movie than a writer? The standard portrait is familiar: The shabby room, the typewriter, the bottle, the cigarettes, the crazy neighbors, the nickel cup of coffee...

For the record, I think I may have told one or two of you this privately, but: My favorite depiction of a writer in any film, at least in terms of Getting It Right about what it's like for me, remains Hank Azaria in Cradle Will Rock.

Still, in its wider focus, "Ask the Dust" finds a kind of poetry, because although we may not find it noble and romantic to sit alone in a room, broke and hung over and dreaming of glory, a writer can, and must. The film stars Colin Farrell as Arturo Bandini, who lives in a Los Angeles rooming house during the Depression. He has sold one story to the American Mercury, edited by H. L. Mencken, the god of American letters, and now he tries to write more: "The greatest man in America -- do you want to let him down?"

What the movie is about, above all, is the bittersweet solitude of the would-be great writer. Whether Arturo will become the next Hemingway (or Fante, or Bukowski) is uncertain, but Farrell shows him as a young man capable of playing the role should he win it...

Because all us next Hemingways look like Colin Farrell.

Is it me, or does this picture from X-Men 3 make it look like a musical?

"Memory, all alone in the moonlight..."

Ready to LOL so hard you'll fall out of your chair?

...and others in your household may come to ask you what the hell is wrong? Then take a look at Nathan Lane on Letterman late last year when he did the best parody of Brokeback Mountain anyone ever did.

(Let the clicker beware: Depending on your computer, the clip may be a little stop-and-start and take a long time the first time through. If it's anything like mine, you need to let it go through once doing that and then play it again from the top. But it's really funny and I think you'll think it was worth it.)

Clip is via Mark Evanier, who also reminds us that Al Jaffee celebrated his 85th birthday recently. As Mark notes:

Jaffee, according to the definitive book on people who've drawn for that silly publication, began his comic book career in 1941 at Quality Comics. He later became a writer-editor and occasional artist for Timely Comics and soon segued into a close relationship with Harvey Kurtzman, which led to him participating in some of Kurtzman's last issues of Mad as well as several post-Mad projects. It also led to him working for Kurtzman's successor at Mad, Al Feldstein, and becoming a mainstay of the magazine, first as a writer and later as a writer-artist. Along with the fold-in, he created the recurring feature, "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions," which David Letterman has (actually) cited as a fine summation of all he does for a living.

It's also what...let's just say "inspired" Bill Engvall's hook ("Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's your sign.").

Top of the morning to 'ye

But since it fell into my lot
That I should rise
And you should not
I gently rise and softly call
Goodnight
And joy be to you all

Irish traditional. As quoted on the prayer card from Michael O'Donoghue's wake, itself as reprinted in Dennis Perrin's biography of the writer.

Fan-fucking-tastic

From AmericaBlog:

Donald Wildmon, of the American Family Association, warns against using "Jewish words"
by John in DC - 3/16/2006 11:32:00 PM


From the March 8 edition of the AFA Report:

BENSON: Yeah, I mean, this is -- this is what you call -- what? -- chutzpah. This is -- this is --

WILDMON: That's a Jewish word, right? Be careful.

Mark says a lot of what I think about the moves to censure or impeach Bush

So just go read what he says.

Bush continues to inch closer to an approval rating in the 20s

...according to the latest from the Pew Research Center.

Bush's overall approval measure stands at 33%, the lowest rating of his presidency. Bush's job performance mark is now about the same as the ratings for Democratic and Republican congressional leaders (34% and 32%, respectively), which showed no improvement in spite of public approval of the congressional response to the ports deal.

I have to wonder what the approval rating would be like for Democratic congressional "leaders" who realized they had deeply unpopular opponents, and might actually be in a good position to go on the offense, but yadda yadda yadda, you've heard it all before...

Lately I'm just amazed at the extent at which the American people is-clearly-so far ahead of our so-called "leaders," to say nothing of the traditional media. We know that Bush republicans have been revealed as terrible incompetents. It's only in the corridors of power and mock communication that anyone pretends otherwise.

Slipping away

I've been thinking about whether or not I want to blog about this. I don't do a lot of airing of "dirty laundry" here as some people do on their blogs, apart from our occasional trips into the insecure psyche of a writer.

I just feel that I'm losing a friend, and I don't want to, but I don't really know what to do about it. It's somebody I've known for a pretty long time, but we just seem to have hit that point where the emails and calls stop being returned. And at a certain point I have to conclude that I need to take a hint and that-for whatever reason-I don't mean as much to them as I once did, or as I thought I did.

I say "for whatever reason" because it's not like we had a fight or anything. I hate the moments in friendships where you realize they're changing, or just ending. Why do you think I write about enduring friendships?

Part of me wants to say, it makes me sad, but you have to respect the wishes of friends.

Part of me is incredibly fucking angry that apparently they don't value me.

And yet a third worries that this is just going to make things worse-but it doesn't seem like it's getting better on its own anytime soon.

I've had the experience recently of somebody posting their POV of a fight we were having on their blog and even though they didn't identify me, it didn't make me feel great. It made me feel I was being passively-agressively manipulated, and I don't react to that.

I don't want to make anyone feel like that. The person I'm thinking of reads this blog, and I don't want to make them feel like that. But I've just been feeling crummy about this, and thinking about whether I wanted to blog it, and it's late, and what the fuck.

A long time ago, we used to be friends

And a long time ago, I used to watch a cool show called "Veronica Mars" that was well-acted and smartly written. I don't know what happened to it, but the show in its timeslot now has a lead actress sleepwalking through her part. Like a Buffy season-six-and-seven Sarah Michelle Gellar.

And the plots used to be the sort where you thought you knew where an episode was going at the beginning only to be delighted by a truly surprise twist. I had last night's "bad guy" pegged 15 minutes into the show. I even guessed the motive correctly.

(Granted, that may just have been that I'm so used to thinking like lesbians do these days, and it wasn't a fair test)

But, "Veronica Mars" has now moved onto the list of shows that I don't know how many more times they can miss the mark before I give up and stop watching in despair. Thank god the sexond season of Huff is starting in a few weeks.

Sing if you're happy that way

Now the national Democrats' 2006 marquee is ablaze with the names of carefully selected stars. Notably missing from the party's spotlight are candidates who embrace gay marriage; their ranks include strong gubernatorial contenders in two of the largest states, New York and California. So who is cast in leading roles?

Newly elected Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine, a vocal opponent of gay marriage, was tapped to give the Democratic response to Bush's State of the Union address.

Tennessee's Rep. Harold Ford, boosted by national Democrats for a Senate seat being vacated by the GOP, brags of voting in favor of amending the U.S. Constitution to outlaw gay marriage.

The Democrat recruited by the national party to challenge deeply prejudiced Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Bob Casey Jr., boasts, "The values I live by call on me to fight discrimination wherever I find it." Only trouble is, he doesn't find discrimination when he sees gay couples prevented from protecting themselves and their children by marrying.

And, of course, there will be plenty of cameo appearances by Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is quick to point out she supports the Defense of Marriage Act. The party's leading lady sees nothing wrong with a federal law that keeps elderly gay partners from getting Social Security survivor benefits.

Heart-breaking betrayals, cold calculations, whispered promises. It's another film noir political year. I've been scolded for revealing that Jack and Ennis didn't ride into the Brokeback sunset together, so I won't give away the ending of this year's real-life thriller -- but only because I don't know it.

I do know the national Democratic Party is still taking millions upon millions of gay and gay-friendly voters for granted.

Read it all here. And-

Don't try to kid us that if you're discreet
You're perfectly safe as you walk down the street
You don't have to mince or make bitchy remarks
To get beaten unconscious and left in the dark
I had a friend who was gentle and short
Got lonely one evening and went for a walk
Queerbashers caught him and kicked in his teeth
He was only hospitalised for a week

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Tom Robinson Band, "Glad To Be Gay"

Meanwhile, in my stupid state

Washington Considering 'Pharmacist Refusal' Proposal

The proposal would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions like emergency contraception on moral, religious or ethical grounds.

SEATTLE - Getting a prescription filled is pretty straight-forward. Take the doctor's slip into the pharmacy and get the medication.

But some pharmacists are stepping up and saying they won't fill prescriptions on moral grounds.

The debate centers around the so-called morning after pill, or Plan B.

It's emergency contraception meant to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex.

Given how blue this state is, I don't want to think this absolutely indefensible proposal will get anywhere-and Governor Christine Gregoire does oppose it. But then, I don't don't want to believe that most Democratic men, given a choice between standing with women or winning, will throw the ladies to the wolves, and that's apparently true.

I don't want to believe that the Republican stranglehold on our jugular is so strong it doesn't matter that 66% of the country dislike Bush (and more dislike Cheney), the Democrats still aren't going to...oh, what is the phrase..."do anything."

And that's apparently true, too.

ETA: If you missed it, The Daily Show did a great bit last night with former Democratic political hopeful Paul Hackett essentally sticking it to the Democratic establishment that "escorted him out of town."

Good morning.

This one's for James "the" Mann

The rest of you may enjoy it just as much, of course. But mostly, it's for James.

A couple of notes on recent TV watching

One: As if I needed another reason to hate The L Word...they just killed off one of their major characters; she had contracted breast cancer. Since I had no emotional investment in the character-she was little miss "I'm gay, and when I deny that I deny the best part of me..." in the first season-that's not my new reason to hate it.

From what I saw, it was no better or worse than your average "death of a major character" episode. But-following the episode, they showed a 10 minute bit of self-congratulatory bullshit about how-quote-"groundbreaking" the episode was, and how "the loss of the character reminds us of the true heroes..." (women who are battling breast cancer).

As someone whose mother had breast cancer, and her recovery from it was the strongest thing I have ever seen her do. And as someone who values subtlety in his art and entertainment, and real sentiment as opposed to Hallmark.

To the writers of The L Word: Go back to bed, would you please!

Two: They also killed off one of my heroes on 24 last night, someone I actually did have five seasons worth of investment in. BASTARDS!

Republicans get overwhelming support from our military

Except, of course, when they don't.

There'll always be an England

From the Telegraph:

As a trooper in the Special Air Service's counter-terrorist team - the black-clad force that came to the world's attention during the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980 - Ben Griffin was at the pinnacle of his military career.

Within a year of joining the elite force in early 2004 and serving as a trooper in the SAS's G-Squadron, he learnt that his unit was being posted to Baghdad, where it would be working alongside its American equivalent, Delta Force, targeting al-Qaeda cells and insurgent units.

Unknown to any of his SAS colleagues at their Hereford-based unit, however, Mr Griffin, then 25, had been harbouring doubts over the "legality" of the war. Despite recognising that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator and posed a threat, albeit a small one, to the West, he did not believe that the case for war had been made. The events he witnessed during his three-month tour in Baghdad, and especially the conduct of the American troops, would force him into making the most difficult decision of his life. During a week's leave in March 2005 he told his commanding officer in a formal interview that he had no intention of returning to Iraq because he believed that the war was morally wrong. Moreover, he said he believed that Tony Blair and the Government had lied to the country and had deceived every British serviceman and woman serving in Iraq.

Mr Griffin expected to be placed under arrest, labelled a coward, court-martialed and imprisoned for daring to air such views.

Instead, however, he was allowed to leave the Army with his exemplary military record intact and with a glowing testimonial from his commanding officer, who described him as a "balanced and honest soldier who possesses the strength and character to genuinely have the courage of his convictions".

My god. They're onto me.

Take the quiz:
Which Victoria's Secret Angel are you?

Tyra Banks
You are easygoing, sweet, and care for others!

Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!

If there's war between the sexes then there'll be no people left

Good column by a woman whose name is new to me, Beth Quinn:

...South Dakota has banned all abortions except when the pregnancy or birth is about to kill the woman.

The law is being challenged, of course - which was the point - and will go to the Supreme Court. With Bush's anti-abortion Justices Sam Alito and John Roberts on the bench now, that women-loving Roe v. Wade ruling is probably gonna be toast!

Researchers have developed a vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. You'd think we'd be dancing in the streets over this one - an actual cancer vaccine that could save thousands of women's lives annually. It works by safeguarding women against a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

Here's the rub. Women should get the shot before they're sexually active. That means it should be part of standard childhood immunizations.

And that won't do. Bush says removing the threat of cervical cancer would make women promiscuous. Abstinence only, girls! If you get cancer from sex, you're just a slut anyway.

Another right-on Krugman column

Like one or two of my brethern on the left, there have been times when I was quite impressed with John McCain. His apparent candor, respect as a war hero, and given the lack of any truly dynamic candidates in the last election...well, I suspect it's easy to see why some of us fell for him.

Thing is, the longer you look at McCain, the more you notice that for all hus cultivated image as "the maverick republican," he does things just as bad as the rest of them. Whether it's singling out Michael Moore from the dias of the Republican convention to criticize F-9/11 (which he hadn't seen). Or the way he swallowed the dirty tricks Bush and Rove played on him and his family in the 2000 election to suck up.

Or a few things Paul Krugman talks about in this column (via TGW)...

Would Mr. McCain, like Mr. Bush, have found some pretext for invading Iraq? We'll never know. But Mr. McCain still thinks the war was a good idea, and he rejects any attempt to extricate ourselves from the quagmire. "If success requires an increase in American troop levels in 2006," he wrote last year, "then we must increase our numbers there." He didn't explain where the overstretched U.S. military is supposed to find these troops.

He isn't a straight talker. His flip-flopping on tax cuts, his call to send troops we don't have to Iraq and his endorsement of the South Dakota anti-abortion legislation even while claiming that he would find a way around that legislation's central provision show that he's a politician as slippery and evasive as, well, George W. Bush.

Good to have that cleared up

The General found a dandy paragraph in a "polygamist wife wanted" ad from a Pastor(!) who is just not finding his one wife sufficiently attentive to his needs. Or perhaps it's not the Pastor whose needs aren't being sufficently attended, because the paragraph reads:

We do not believe in homosexual relationships! Although we believe that the 'two women' are okay as long as it does not take the place of the male.

How utterly reasonable of them.

Well, good, 'cause you're not getting any

Jennifer Aniston says she doesn't want "pity." Not a problem. I try to make it a practice not to pity people who make more than a million dollars a year, as a rule. It's just a good guideline.

...Bruce Lee, V For Vendetta & Into The Groove(y)

The New York Times has an article about Alan Moore. For any of you who don't know, Moore is the comics writer whose works include "Watchmen," one of the most acclaimed comic books of the past 20 years if not of all time, as well as the books upon which the movies "V For Vendetta", "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," and "From Hell" were based.

He was not best pleased by the adaptations of his work, and has taken a marvelously overreactive position:

With inventions like these, and a body of writing that spans nearly three decades, Mr. Moore, a 52-year-old native of Northampton, England, distinguished himself as a darkly philosophical voice in the medium of comic books — a rare talent whose work can sell solely on the strength of his name. But if Mr. Moore had his way today, his name would no longer appear on almost any of the graphic novels with which he is most closely associated. "I don't want anything more to do with these works," he said in a recent telephone interview, "because they were stolen from me — knowingly stolen from me."

Mr. Moore recognizes that his senses of justice and proportion may seem overdeveloped. "It is important to me that I should be able to do whatever I want," he said. "I was kind of a selfish child, who always wanted things his way, and I've kind of taken that over into my relationship with the world."

He was also immortalized in Pop Will Eat Itself's catalogue of cool, Can U Dig It? referenced in the headline above. And as someone who spends much too much time thinking about what's going to happen to my work once it's "outside my protection," let me just say...

Alan Moore knows the score.

Get to know your bloggers

John of AmericaBlog and Redd of firedoglake, two blogs frequently quoted here, at a gathering in San Francisco.

Are you going to Scarborough fair?

Ah, Joe Scarborough. He's a good little Republican in the bottom of his black little heart, but for a couple of years now he's been on the short (and getting shorter every day) list of right-wing louts I could learn to like.

Here he is joining in the dogpile on the president.

A couple of funny, funny cartoons

Paging Dr. Freud...paging Dr. Sigmund Freud

So it seems the Today Show found another person willing to defend the ports deal. It was George Bush's 19-year-old nephew. Now, putting aside for the moment the question of, as Joe put it in AmericaBlog:

I don't know what is more pathetic...that the Today Show thought this was news...or that the only person they could find to defend Bush on the port deal was the 19 year old nephew of the Prez.

Putting that aside for a moment. Dig the name one of the president's brothers actually inflicted on his kid:

"Pierce Bush."

Yikes.

Obviously this quiz doesn't know how I feel about anime

Your beauty hides in your intellingence.

Nothing wrong with being a little smarter and quick

witted than the others around you. Let's

face it, smart and pretty aren't common in

the same catagory these days, so that makes

you hard to find. You are a very rare person

indeed and that is what makes you beautiful.

You know the world more than most and with

that you can tell them or even show them what

it is like. Keep up the good work!

Where is Your Beauty Hidden? (Beautiful Pictures, Icons & Detailed Results)
brought to you by Quizilla

Makes me want to listen to Rauhofer’s radio edit of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” followed by Depeche Mode's "World In My Eyes."

For your consideration

The greatest lead paragraph to a movie review ever, or, "Roger Ebert makes me laugh with joy," number 325 in a series.

During the course of "Failure to Launch," characters are bitten by a chipmunk, a dolphin, a lizard and a mockingbird. I am thinking my hardest why this is considered funny, and I confess defeat. Would the movie be twice as funny if the characters had also been bitten by a Chihuahua, a naked mole rat and a donkey? I was bitten by a donkey once. It was during a visit to Stanley Kubrick's farm, outside London. I was the guest of the gracious Christiane Kubrick, who took me on a stroll and showed me the field where she cares for playground donkeys after their retirement. I rested my hand on the fence, and a donkey bit me. "Stop that!" I said, and the donkey did. If I had lost a finger, it would have been a great consolation to explain that it had been bitten off by one of Mrs. Stanley Kubrick's retired donkeys.

ETA: Also at Ebert's site, editor Jim Emerson has a few theories about why "Crash" won over "Brokeback Mountain" for the Best Picture Academy Award. I haven't seen either yet, so I have no opinion, but it seems to be something of a cause celebre in the film and gay communities.

Which, as Emerson points out, are not the same thing as much as some might think.

all the inane gab about how homosexuality is "no big deal" in Hollywood is just ludicrous. (Not Ludacris, ludicrous.) It may be generally true on an inter-personal level, but it were true about the business, why are so many major performers still closeted to the moviegoing public?

Because they're afraid it will hurt them in the industry, that it will cost them work and big bucks. That's why. The concern is not so much that fans will not accept them, but that the decision-makers who have hiring approval will consider the performer's sexuality as yet another "risk factor" for a given a production.

yes, West Hollywood is indeed a gay mecca. But that has nothing to do with the business end of Hollywood -- which is still a small, snoopy company town where half of the incessant gossip that keeps people awake nights (whether spreading it or fretting over it) is about who's really gay and who's really bi.

This reminds me of a few things. One is a recent interview with Amber Benson, the talented and lovely actress who played Willow's girlfriend on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", in which she talks about "having doors closed in my face because of it."

Another is to kind of reassure me once again that yeah, maybe the book is the way to go-because what are the odds I'm going to find actresses who look like/can play/and are willing to play Keitha & Annabel?

Also, it makes me finally understand why the regular cast of "The L Word" contains exactly one (1) openly gay actress. Some are known to be straight, some are kind of coy, but they all want to have a career that goes beyond "Lesbos Place."*

*Which is my new name for the series that I think I coined. It's meant to be a comment on the fact that I realized it's just "Melrose Place" with more lesbians and softcore sex, you see. This is the kind of wit that once led a friend of mine to dub me "An American Oscar Wilde, only heterosexual."

about-face!

On "The Daily Show" last night the guest was a man named Bruce Bartlett, the author of "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy." Bartlett is a conservative man who is evidently listened to in many conservative circles, and he's the latest among many such to realize that oh...Bush just isn't very good at his job.

I thought he came off rather well, actually, the kind of conservative you could see sitting down and talking to, with a decent sense of humor about himself. Jon Stewart was a gracious host, as he always is, and when he got off one line somewhat at Bartlett's expense-

Bartlett: Conservatives like to believe they make the trains run on time.

Stewart: So you're saying their model is Mussolini?

-Bartlett had the grace to see the humor in his ill-chosen remark.

(Quotes are approximate)

I was impressed enough to consider ordering his book from the library. Then this afternoon I find, via TGW, reminders of things you'd think I wouldn't have forgotten.

Paul Krugman:

Bruce Bartlett, the author of "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy," is an angry man. At a recent book forum at the Cato Institute, he declared that the Bush administration is "unconscionable," "irresponsible," "vindictive" and "inept."

It's no wonder, then, that one commentator wrote of Mr. Bartlett that "if he were a cartoon character, he would probably look like Donald Duck during one of his famous tirades, with steam pouring out of his ears."

Oh, wait. That's not what somebody wrote about Mr. Bartlett. It's what Mr. Bartlett wrote about me in September 2003, when I was saying pretty much what he's saying now.

I forgot, man. I forgot. That's how insidious they are...and that's why they're going to win again. Of course, if the Democrats had listened to "the grassroots base" back then, they'd be in a lot better position than they are now.

But they didn't then, because they thought it was more important to suck up to someone that virtually the entire country now knows to be an incompetent. And they won't now, because they think it makes their balls look smaller (and I'm including Hillary) to say "You were right, and I was wrong."

Does anybody else sometimes feel like the whole world is going to hell and we're just standing by with marshmallows on our sticks?

Something to read

There's a fella named Joseph DuRocher. He

was for 20 years the elected Public Defender of Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, covering Orange and Osceola counties. Since retirement, he’s been writing and teaching law at the University of Central Florida and the Barry University School of Law. He was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s, serving as a Naval Aviator in the Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

Last Monday, Mr. DuRocher returned his Lieutenant’s shoulder bars and Navy wings along with an excellent letter explaining why to President Bush. You should read it; it's strong stuff, and very well written.

Here's a little taste of it; the first paragraph:

As a young man I was honored to serve our nation as a commissioned officer and helicopter pilot in the U. S. Navy. Before me in WWII, my father defended the country spending two years in the Pacific aboard the U.S.S. Hornet (CV-14). We were patriots sworn “to protect and defend”. Today I conclude that you have dishonored our service and the Constitution and principles of our oath. My dad was buried with full military honors so I cannot act for him. But for myself, I return enclosed the symbols of my years of service: the shoulder boards of my rank and my Naval Aviator’s wings.

The ugliest design for cartoon characters you've ever seen in your life

That's what I thought when I saw this picture yesterday, anyway. I thought about posting here to that effect but, in a moment of weakness, decided to let it slide. For what it's worth, Cartoon Brew's Amid-a greater student of the art of animation than I am; I'm just a relatively informed fan-would seem to agree with me.

What does a yellow light mean?

NPR's Fresh Air has an interesting interview with James Burrows, "the dean of sitcom directing." Burrows has directed hundreds of episodes of sitcoms including Taxi, Cheers (which he also co-created), Night Court, Frasier, Friends and Will and Grace. For many of them he directed the pilot and helped to set the tone of an entire series.

Audio clips from a few of them are included in the show, including what is, for my money, one of the funniest scenes ever done on television. It's the Taxi scene referenced in my headline above and if you know it, you're smiling already.

How good is his sense of what's going to work? This story isn't in the interview, but I remember reading that when Friends was just staring up, Burrows took the cast on a trip to Vegas and told them to enjoy the last time they were going to be unrecognizable for a long, long time.

There's one story that is in the interview and that I hadn't heard. Burrows has directed most if not all of the episodes of Will & Grace. And in early episodes, he cleverly used misdirection to suggest to viewers who were resistant to Will's homosexuality that he might after all be "cured."

And by the time they realized that was never going to happen, they were already hooked on the show because it was so funny (ah, the glory years of those first couple of seasons). Clever, clever, Mr. Burrows.

Of course, I have to love his repeated insistence that the success or failure of any of his episodes starts on the page and his respect for radio as a smart, funny medium. He comes by it honestly; Burrows' father Abe was a radio writer and playwright who wrote the books for Guys & Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.

Actually, forget what I was saying about Uma Thurman being a "poor dear"

The woman who really deserves our sympathy is former Reagan speechwriter (and recurrent fawner over his legacy) Peggy Noonan. You see, it seems that the dainty Miss Noonan's dignity was violated recently by an experinece being searched at an airport.

I'll let Miss Noonan's words, and what seems to me their undoubted subtext, speak for themselves.

It was like a 1950s women's prison movie. I got to be the girl from the streets who made a big mistake; she was the guard doing intake. "Name's Veronica, but they call me Ron. Want a smoke?" Beeps and bops, her pointer and middle fingers patting for explosives under the back of my brassiere; the wand on and over my body, more beeps, more pats. The she walked wordlessly away. I looked around, slowly put down my arms, rearranged my body. For a moment I thought I might plaintively call out, "No kiss goodbye? No, 'I'll call'?" But they might not have been amused. And actually I wasn't either.

Amused? No. But you couldn't wait to get to your hotel room to see if they had Showtime, so you could watch The L Word in private, could you, Peggy?

Being (publically) a lady of dignity, Miss Noonan can only react with Molly Ringwald-style slack-jawed mortification to such things that offend her sense of propriety. (At least without the presence of her big strong Mr. President Man to shield her.) Things like...

I experience it when I see blaring television ads for birth-control devices, feminine-hygiene products, erectile-dysfunction medicines. I experience it when I'm almost strip-searched at airports. I experience it when I listen to popular music, if that's what we call it. I experience it when political figures are asked the most intimate questions about their families and pressed for personal views on sexual questions that someone somewhere decided have to be Topic A on the national agenda in America right now.

I declare, these Cotillions are so drainin'. Because you know, those things just aren't talked about in polite society (do try not to spill your tea, dear). And yes, Peggy, if music is popular, we in the reality-based community do indeed call it popular music, whether we like it or not. I don't like Madonna's latest stuff (that I have heard) very much, but it's selling.

And as The Revealer (from which blog I learnt about Noonan's near-mute, defenseless suffering because she is merely a woman after all) reminds us,

disregard the seeming contradiction of a conservative columnist's newfound modesty over the very same sex issues that propelled her favored candidates to office.

The Dress

I've just seen one of the creepier films of my life. It's called The Dress and it was made in the Netherlands about 10 years ago. The director is reportedly "a cult favorite in Europe," and the premise sounds like something a cult favorite, or a wannabe of same, would cook up:

To follow along the "life" of a dress as it goes from cotton being harvested, is passed from owner to owner, and is eventually destroyed. Not a bad concept for a film, perhaps. But the decision was apparently made to make the dress cursed, and each woman who wears it is humiliated or worse.

It comes billed as a "dark comedy;" it's dark to be sure. But how comedic you think it is may depend on how funny you find the concept of multiple women nearly being raped, one mutiple times, by multiple people.

Of course, in her case, they make it a little bit hard to have too much sympathy for the woman in question. I put it to you, ladies. If--

• A man you didn't know broke into your home
• Took off nearly all his clothes
• Got into bed with you while you were sleeping naked
• Tricked you into believing he was your boyfriend for a moment, so you'd touch him
• And kissed you

--how likely would you be to make a date to meet him another day? No matter how beautiful he said you were or how much he told you he loved you? Well, that's exactly what one woman with the misfortune to wear The Dress does. When she finally decides that hey, this guy might be a nutjob (y'think?), she escapes from him by running for a deserted bus...the driver of which promptly tries to rape her.

Are you feeling the comedy yet?

After escaping from this would-be rapist, she gives The Dress to a charity store, where it is altered and sold to our next unfortunate victim. This is a young girl who has the bad luck to wear it on the same train where our hero, the first would-be rapist, works as a ticket agent. He follows her home, ascertains that her parents are going away for the weekend, breaks in, and forces her to strip naked and allow him to sleep in the same bed with her.

She escapes the next morning, locking him into the bedroom, and we think Ah! She's going to phone the authorities! But she just gets back on the train, seeing him escape out the window as she rides past.

Like the first woman, she's seemingly little the worse for wear. I submit that most people (male or female) would not shrug off such a thing.

Of course, there are one or two women in the movie who never wear the accursed Dress, but don't worry, the film makes sure they're humiliated too. Like the one we see thrown out of a house in only a white bra (no panties) and shot at, because, we are informed by dialogue, she balked at having sex with a pig.

When I say "a pig" I don't mean "A man whom she found physically and/or sexually disgusting," I mean a big, snorting pig. Did I mention that this film was made in the Netherlands? It's all wrapped up with an ending that just cries out for a voiceover that says "Those wacky rapists."

I would just like to take this moment to apologize to any and all members of "the fairer sex" who may be looking in. I'm sorry for having inadverdently supported, in any way, this movie (if only through the rental charge) and indeed, for having watched it.

I was misled by inexplicably favorable reviews and deceptive DVD packaging, but I accept that these are not excuses. How many "chick flicks" do I have to watch to do penance?

Uma Thurman just can't keep a man

The poor dear.

Letters, oh we get letters

Bob Black recommends an article at Slate.com which he says basically argues

(1) That the South Dakota law is just the latest in the back-and-forth abortion see-saw this country has seen for the last 30 years, and (2) we're well on the way to having medical/technological advances render the abortion question moot in a lot of circumstances, to the point where Roe may become irrelevant, or at least less relevant.

I find the prose style of the article's author, Will Saletan, to be all-but impossible to hack through, but that does, indeed, appear to be what he's saying.

Andrew Sullivan thinks it's a good piece, too. During the last election I went through a phase where I thought Sullivan was one of the good guys. I got over it, but you gotta feel for the guy. Sullivan is a hawkish, (neo) conservative, Republican...gay man. The amount of contortions he has to put his conscience through in order to clutch to the belief that his beloved President Bush thinks he and people like him are actual human beings is terrible.

Meanwhile, Jill at Feniniste brings up a good point about Saletan's article, and provides several good links on reproductive rights as well:

Guess what, Billy: You didn’t invent the idea that contraception prevents unintended pregnancies, and hence lowers the abortion rate. That’s exactly what the pro-choice side has always said, so cut the shit about “changing the pro-choice rhetoric.” You just used our rhetoric and claimed it as yours.

The Mahablog argues that "there is no correlation whatsoever between abortion rate and abortion law," and joins me in complaining incredulously about this notion that everything would be better if everyone just played nice.

I know I keep using that phrase; it's because I resent being asked to display a nobility clearly possessed by nobody on the other side.

Like, say, this fella-I'm guessing, but it does seem to be mostly the fellas who feel this way. He/she/it commented anonymously (but interestingly enough seems to hail from Wasington, D.C.), with some questions about my below post regarding abortion.

What is the difference between killing an unborn baby and killing a 1 year old?

A one year old is a human being. A fertilized egg is not.

It is easy to say outlawing abortion is denying a woman control over her body but it is female babies in China and India that are aborted at a vastly greater rate than male babies, what women are speaking up for them?

Well I certainly hope women (or men) in China and India are, if that's true. I live in the United States, and has so recently been demonstrated, we can't impose freedom at gunpoint.

What about long term studies of the psychological affecs of aborting your baby?

What about them? I don't think anyone has ever seriously suggested that the choice to abort a fetus was not a terrible decision to have to make.

Outside of the fantasies of the pro-life lobby, that is. They seem to have this image of women blithely skipping through life as if they're on a permanent spring break, fucking and fucking and fucking indiscriminately. Only stopping occasionally to have pesky fetuses sucked out of them as they would wipe mud from their shoes.

I've known enough women who have chosen to have abortions over the years (and read about others) to believe that is never, or at least rarely, the case. I rarely if ever knew a woman who felt she had to do so who took the issue anything but seriously.

It's a terrible decision to have to make-so terrible, that no one should make it except (in a perfect world), a combination of the mother, the father, and an ethical, competent Doctor. In the case of a tie, the mother has the veto.

I am not allowed to use illegal drugs, is that a violation of my right to control my own body?

Many would argue, in fact, that it is. I've never used any illegal drug in my life but I've yet to see a coherent argument for why tobacco and alcohol are okay because they're legal and pot or 'shrooms aren't because they're not.

Please don't hesitate to write if you have any further questions.

Well duh

Spring break, apparently, not that good for women.

Consquences, Smonsequences

I don't want to single anybody out, but I get the idea there are one or two of you who think Roberts', and then Alito's, confirmation to the Supreme Court wasn't really that big a deal. Or worth paying as much attention to as did some blogs (including this one).

I wonder how you feel about the recent bills in South Dakota and Mississippi banning most abortions with the only exception being if the mother's life is in danger, but not in the case of rape or incest?

Here's how Digby feels about it (via firedoglake)

I just realized that those nuts in South Dakota might be having an unanticipated effect. I am working today and this guy said to me over lunch, "I can't believe that these people are really serious." He's a bit of a putz and he admitted that he'd believed women were exaggerating the threat. I said "I hope you're ready to be daddies, boys. Last time abortion was illegal they didn't have DNA testing" and they all looked stunned.

Those of you who thought it got a little shrill in the confirmation battle: Sleep tight, knowing that everything would be better if everyone just played nice.

Ladies: Enjoy control over your uterus while you can.

And any Democratic elected officals who may be looking in: Thanks for fighting the hard fight.

Little more on the Oscars and Jon Stewart

Reviews of Stewart's performance seem to be truly mixed from what I've seen. Tom Shales apparently actively disliked him (but Tom uncritically loves every single season of Saturday Night Live, so whatareyougonnado?).

RogerEbert.com editor Jim Emerson thought Jon killed. I remain somewhere in the middle.

Sometimes you just need something that only wants to make the world smile

Via firedoglake.

A few things to say after the fact

Working from notes hastily typed during commercial breaks...

Jon Stewart's opening monologue. Good, not great. Hurt by the awkward staging-I understand not wanting to sit him behind a desk as on The Daily Show, but better he should have just worked a microphone stand as he would as a comic, locking him behind a podium was the worst of both worlds.

George Clooney, as always, showed great perspective on it all-and actually might not make a bad host himself...

My first completely biased choice for the best-dressed women at the Oscars: Naomi Watts.

Someone needs to break a baton over the head of whoever it was who decided to start the music playing immediately the winner got up there. It's disrespectful enough to someone like Clooney-but he's got a very public microphone any time he chooses. For the people whose one chance at recognition this may be, it's disgraceful. Could we give people more than 30-45 seconds to speak before playing them off? Either that, or if time is such a goddamn premium, it's time to eliminate from the commercial broadcast the categories that virtually no home viewer cares about. And yes, I say that knowing writers fall into that category.

I enjoyed Nick Park's speech almost as much as his bow tie.

John Canemaker winning an Oscar was the first of a few pleasant surprises this evening for me. I haven't seen the winning animated short, but like most fans and students of the art I know his name from his many articles and books on the subject. I hadn't known he was gay, however.

My second completely biased choice for the best-dressed women at the Oscars: Jennifer Aniston. Her necklace was a little too showy for my tastes, but that dress was really working for her. It was working for me, too...

Bulimia award: Rachel McAdams. I shouted in surprise, because McAdams was number four in ohnotheydidnt's recent 100 hottest women list, and though I haven't seen mean Girls or any of the other movies that have brought her such acclaim in the past few years, I have seen enough of her in clips, interviews and photographs to understand why. Now I just want to understand; What happened?

Runner-up: Reese Witherspoon, whose face looked absolutely triangular (and not in a good way) when she was a presenter. I will say that she looked much better when accepting her award, though, so maybe it was just an unflattering camera angle.

Rhetorical question: How cool is Morgan Freeman?

Rachel Weisz made a point of thanking the author of the book her film was based upon. I always knew I liked that girl.

Second pleasant surprise of the night-the winner of Documentary (short subject): "A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin." Corwin is one of the most influential and greatest writers of his time; I have the book of the same name upon which this documentary was presumably based but if I even knew it existed (let alone had been nominated) I had forgotten. Now I'm most eager to see it.

Third: Stephen Colbert's v/o for the faux Oscar commercials.

And now, I want to tell you ladies something. Making your head look like a peanut is not a good look. It never has been. It never will be. Anyone who tells you different is not your friend. If you doubt me, I refer you to this picture of Jennifer Lopez.

Fourth pleasant surprise: The performer and co-writer of the nominated song for Crash, Kathleen "Bird" York, is better known to me as the lovely and talented actress who played Toby's ex-wife and the mother of his children on West Wing.

But what fool staged the number? Less is more, people!

Although Stewart's opening monologue was, as I've said, not great (early reviews seem to agree with me), where he really made me thank god for him was in doing what he does best: Puncturing the pomposity to which the Academy is so given. Following the montage of "issue" or "problem" pictures, he was there to say "And you know what's great? After each of those films, none of these issues was ever a problem again."

Unfortunately, he was then followed by the tool from the Academy, whose speech got the kind of "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"'s from me it usually takes two or three entire seasons of The L Word to generate. If I ever hear that "Language of film is universal" crap again for the rest of my life, or any more mouthed pieties about storytelling, I am gonna vomit.

Speaking of which, here is a tip for any of you who may wish to follow in the footsteps of the Motion Picture Acadamey. If you ever want to make yourselves look like real twits...make a big stink about how you can't see "epic" films on television and then make your point...by showing a bunch of scenes from epics on television.

And thankfully, there was Jon again to point the seeming incessant, and pointless, montages this year.

Oh, quick prediction: Now that Munich is well past any chance of winning any Oscars, we will never hear Steven Spielberg say another word on any of the politically charged issues to which he was paying lip service when it came to beating the drums for his movie. Call it a hunch.

And now, back to the good part.

My third completely biased choice for the best-dressed women at the Oscars: Jessica Alba.

Meryl Streep and Lilly Tomlin made a surprisingly good comedy team, I thought-good enough to make me wish somebody would write a female "buddy comedy" for them.

I liked Altman's sand castle metaphor.

God bless the children ("pre-infant," and infant, respectively) of Rachel Weisz and Jennifer Garner.



















Philip Seymour Hoffman didn't bark, the coward.

Besides looking better than she had as a presenter, Reese Witherspoon made a nice speech, too.

You may not know this about me-my tolerance for self-congrantrulatory bullshit is remarkably low (and you say you want to work in show business, Ben?). But as I heard person after person pontificate about the meaning of art (Is it a reflection? Is it a hammer?), I couldn't help but think about what I want my role as an artist to be. And, you probably did know this about me, I found it in the out-of-context words of Aaron Sorkin. What do I want to be as an artist?

I want to be a comfort to my friends in tragedy.
And I want to be able to celebrate with them in triumph.
And for all the times in between, I just want to be able to look them in the eye...
I want to be with my friends, my family, and these women.

--The West Wing, "the Crackpots and These Women," Aaron Sorkin

No points for guessing who I think of when I think of "these women."

Now, backing away from that moment of self-revelation, and finally, my fourth completely biased choice for the best-dressed women at the Oscars: Uma Thurman.