Just yesterday, socialization was mentioned in the context of shame, and of sorting through our issues as adults. Looking at the above Wordles of kid's toy ads, it's clear butch-ACTING is a redundant descriptor for ANY male, even if you're actually straight.
Via Mikey D via BoingBoing via AchillesEffect
Apols for letting civilization collapse on itself last week, y'all. But y'know what? Sometimes you've gotta let your hair down! you've gotta throw caution to the wind! you've gotta shove some Doritos into your damn maw and pass out because you're too tired to cook a balanced dinner! But this week, it's back to business as usual. And what's the lay of the land this week? That Glee absolutely, positively sucks. Like, vacuum-cleaner sucks. Like, sucks worse than the sky when you've accidentally popped open the emergency doors while your plane's at a cruising altitude. It just sucks. (But that shouldn't really be news, should it!) Then there are other things! But here, follow the trail of breadcrumbs into the large gingerbread house and I promise I won't push you into the oven! (Someone else already did...)
• A man who, while being King of America, managed to drive an entire nation into the ground, has somehow released a book. Some people are doing strange things to the book for the sake of "political activism." [The Guardian]
• Glee sucks. [Queerty]
• UHH-MERICAN SPIRIT Several positively mad individuals have somehow taken offense to Google's Veterans' Day logo. [The AtlanticWire]
Hello! It's Friday! And do you smell that! It's the sweat, grime, gasoline, and left-over hamburger chunks of a week, and a world that plans to put you through the grinder again come next Monday! But kick off your orthopedic sneakers and peel off your hole-riddled socks. It's the weekend--but not before peeking into what's making everyone else's lives much worse than yours this week. Yes, it's CPR time and we're all barely floating anymore! Wheeee!
• At times, I am grateful I am no longer at the mercy of a withered media outlet for my living--late paychecks and lack of professionalism notwithstanding, I'd mostly be concerned about developing Toasted Skin Syndrome from having to work on a laptop at all hours of the day--and not having the health insurance to seek out proper treatment. [The Atlantic]
• But then again, no longer being the mercy of said withered media outlet also means missing out on the small joys of life, like speculating in print who might have been John Lennon's alleged boyfriend. [MSNBC]
Last weekend, I decided it would be a good idea to ignore the sunshine and stay indoors and play video games for about seven hours, so I rigged up an emulator on my MacBook and played this old gem and this one, too. And then when my eyes started bleeding and I decided a better idea would be to get up and pour myself a cup of lukewarm coffee. Then I took a couple minutes out to stare at the wall and idly wonder about how the human condition could be well summed up by a litany of RPG tropes: If an angry jerk stands in your way, give him some KFC and he will let you pass, if an oversized metal cat threatens you, shoot him with your crossbow, and so forth. But what do you do if your biggest hero, who has spent the last couple years leveling up, fails to vanquish the evil overlord bent on perpetuating a meaningless agenda and rescue Princess Zelda (i.e. America)? Put "Alejandro" on repeat and dive right in for your weekly edition of CPR, naturally.
• "Today was an enormous DISAPPOINTMENT, for myself, and for many young American people." - Lady Gaga on the decision to block the DADT repeal. [Official Site]
So. Some years ago, Welsh rock band Catatonia had a rad song called, "Stone By Stone," and the refrain went something like this: On common ground, we'll build our castle walls / We'll build them stone by stone and how / With more and more, you know it won't take long / Where it burned orange, let it burn gold. And today, we (I?) would do well to take a break from our (once again, my?) usual doomcasting to frame this past week's goings-on in a way that makes us think that this world of ours isn't going to cave in on itself!
• First things first, friends! Kylie Minogue demonstrated spirited heroics by giving American television something it hasn't had in a while: Pop music that makes you feel all ooey, gooey, and great inside. [YouTube]
There is this whole thing up at Queerty asking us, "Do you have to be gay to work in the gay media?" and it's like, why bother reading the 492 or how many ever words that ensue because ultimately yes, you have to be gay to work in the gay media. But by quickly skimming Out's homepage, you'll find one Joshua David Stein, a straight guy - married even! And then you'll reason that such questions don't really matter, because magazines are doomed and most people in that trade will become pretty outmoded after the digital transition finishes making mincemeat out of print, and (more terrifyingly, journalism). Which is to say, Queerty's "investigation" was total comment-hungry non-news. But you know what's non-non-news? The news briefs that make up the flimsy architecture of this week's Civilization Progress Report!
• TWIST! The true surprise ending of Christopher Nolan's Inception that it was able to catapult one of its thesps to just-above-C-list status after he came out. [Us Magazine]
• Scientific evidence shows that bans preventing gay couples from adopting kids is bogus. [NYT]
• Anne Rice took to Facebook to denounce her Christianity. Related: I recently took to Facebook to denounce my sanity. [BuzzFeed]
There are some weeks that seem to burn both fast and slow simultaneously--and leave you winded regardless. These are weeks when you find yourself clocking five, maybe six hours sleep a night and you end up snapping at hapless landlords and brokers while looking for your ideal new apartment because they want you to pay too much for a place with a bathroom that doesn't even have a sink. And then you're all like, "Dude. I want a place where my mother can come and visit me," and then he's like, "But all the other apartments in this area are like this," and you tell yourself, "I bet Geri Halliwell doesn't have to deal with problems like this!" Which, then, is the best way to segue into the week's just-add-water buffet of banality...
• It's a dark day when MTV is applauded for its portrayal of gay and lesbian characters on television. [Mercury News]This week, those of us living in spacious apartments in the outer boroughs (and areas of Manhattan that are so far north of 125th Street that they might as well be an outer borough) crawled into our freezers in a two-pronged effort to experience what it would feel like to (a) not die of a heat stroke as a vicious heat wave threatened to scorch all of New York City and (b) pay too much to live in a veritable sardine tin of an apartment like many Manhattanites do. Meanwhile, the rest of the world enjoyed several different interpretations of the phrase "world on fire."
• RUDE OIL Which is the best time to point out that BP, who remains deludedly optimistic that they can clean up the oil spill within the month, may have torched a whale or two. [Current]
• CRUDE OIL Speaking of crude oil, thanks to America's blind and uneducated love for EVOO--and pretty reprehensible food distribution laws--most of the olive oil that lands on our supermarket shelves ends up diluted with canola oil and cat spit or something comparable. [Consumerist]
Take my hand and let's go further deep into this pile of rubble to see what else is left of the world!
Hey New Yorkers, has this week seemed unseasonably chilly to anyone else? Also, does anyone else think paying $2 for a Diet Coke in Chinatown is too excessive, especially when you can get it for $1.50 out in Midtown or $1 out here in Bushwick? I know, I know! And the V train! They're killing it and replacing it with the M train and the M train isn't going to Chinatown any longer, but it is going to Midtown...so I suppose that solves my Diet Coke dilemma, doesn't it?
Sorry for that extended monologue. On to your weekly compost bin of cultural dregs, then!
• One of the best lines of dialogue to come out of the Prop. 8 trial, which wrapped yesterday: "Do people get married to benefit the community? When one enters into a marriage, you don't say, 'Oh boy, I'm going to benefit society!" [Wall Street Journal]
• SOUTHERN COMFORT A softball team based in Memphis, TN has been banned from a church league because their coach is a lesbian. [USA Today]
• Oh and before we continue, please note that for a brief while, they were manufacturing a brand of Diet Coke that, at least aesthetically (pictured above), seems like it would've been an easy sell during Pride Weekends across the country.
I'm having a hard time reminding myself this kid - one Elian Gonzalez who you may remember from a little Moses-like episode with a tire down Miami way about 10 years ago - is but 16 years old. The last thing anybody'd accuse me of being is a chicken hunter, but he's definitely grown into quite the handsome young man! These pics have me fantasizing he'll need rescuing from another closet at some point (once he's legal) in the future.
Apparently, the Cuban government website posted some photos of the now celebrity (they celebrate his birthday - Dec. 7th - with parades!) at a Young Communist Union congress on April 4th and the photos (conveniently) made their way to American news sources like Google News.
Clearly they're taunting me us.
If Mister Cator Sparks can get his closet under control, maybe there's hope for the rest of us. I'm blessed with a generous four closets, but still seem to be constantly spilling out of them. Mister Sparks went the Elfa route, but maybe just a spring purge (followed by a trip to Buffalo Exchange for some cash for clothing) is in order.
But? The weather! It's been amazing weekend after weekend, leaving spring cleaning (and those pesky taxes) undone. Just one year again our April (and much of May and June) were gloom-filled rain dances and the apartment? Immaculate.
So here's hoping for some stormy Saturday to present itself soon, just for the sake of home maintenance.
