Sunday Observations 12.16

The past few months I've had some fun with the petitions on the White House website. Who wouldn't have some fun with secession, death star building, imaginary countries? At the moment there is a very serious petition you should take a look at; We Petition The Obama Administration To: Immediately address the issue of gun control through the introduction of legislation in Congress. At the moment it has 113,000 signatures or four times what is needed for an official response from the Obama Administration. It's very short, only five sentences, and you can sign it here.

That's all I'm going to say about guns at the moment. I had a few notes for today but now they all seem relatively unimportant as I look at them. The wingnuts made a big deal of President Obama planning on spending Christmas in Hawaii and thought he should cancel those plans if there is no fiscal deal. Petty as hell because they know damn well, as Joe Scarborough noted, he was born there. Some of us are lucky enough to be born in Hawaii and some of us aren't. I wouldn't mind spending Christmas on Kee Beach with lights in the palm trees and a Corona in my hand but I don't see it happening anytime soon. The wingnuts probably think the President should be spending Christmas in Nairobi.

Meryl Schenker, ZUMA Press

Here is a little something to remind you that even after the past few days there is always something to make you smile about life. Last week I posted a photo of Larry Duncan and Randell Shepherd, the gay bears, getting their marriage license in Seattle. Last Sunday the two were married in Seattle's First Baptist Church. While not religious at all the two said they wanted a church wedding because as Larry said, "Enough people have told me, ‘God hates fags,’ I want someone in a church to say, ‘God loves fags,’ to have that stamp on it." No word on where the happy newlyweds spent their honeymoon.

I did something yesterday I have never done before, went into a Japanese bookstore. If for whatever reason you ever want to feel totally lost in the world I suggest a Japanese bookstore. The most awesome looking books you'll ever see but I have no idea what they said.

Finally Jesuit Father Jose Funes, the head of the Vatican Observatory, assures us the Mayan Apocalypse is not going to happen this week. In L'Osservatore Romano he published an article in which he emphatically states the Mayan calender is 'irrational' which is something I'm sure a Jesuit priest would know something about.

I have to go now, seems hell is calling ....

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra, Chinese turkey.

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Observations from the Window 12.15

Gun control is that subject I try and stay away from, probably the only issue where you can be seen as too extreme by both sides of the argument, but after twenty children were slaughtered yesterday I really can't do it anymore. Be warned that post is on its way but this isn't it.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg may sometimes be a bit full of himself, imperial is word thrown around in the city, but at times he is the most rational politician in America. Maybe that comes with having a personal fortune large enough to say fuck you to any group he cares to. Honestly he may be the one non-Democrat I would like to see run for president, one I would seriously have to think about voting for.

What follows are Bloomberg's words after yesterday's Connecticut shootings, italics are mine ....

"With all the carnage from gun violence in our country, it’s still almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen. It has come to that. Not even kindergarteners learning their A,B,Cs are safe. We heard after Columbine that it was too soon to talk about gun laws. We heard it after Virginia Tech. After Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now we are hearing it again. For every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns. Today, many of them were five-year olds. President Obama rightly sent his heartfelt condolences to the families in Newtown. But the country needs him to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem. Calling for ‘meaningful action’ is not enough. We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership – not from the White House and not from Congress. That must end today. This is a national tragedy and it demands a national response. My deepest sympathies are with the families of all those affected, and my determination to stop this madness is stronger than ever."

The madness has to end.

update - Sometimes simple is the best, at left is Google's poignant homepage since the Newton shootings.

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

One of my favs, I was going to save it for Christmas Eve but given what happened today ....

"Imagine"

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

"Good night, Santa. Good night, Mrs. Santa's sister."

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Observations from the Window 12.13

Last night was the 121212 Concert for Sandy and it wasn't bad. I'm quite sure my dad enjoyed it much more than I did, he told me so. I grew up listening to that music with my dad and so much of it really is timeless. Clapton, Pink Floyd in everything but name, and the Stones will always be the Stones even if they look like they escaped from a wax museum for the night. One thing I didn't need to see was Roger Daltrey's almost seventy year old bare chest. Really I was never a fan of The Who and that sight didn't change my opinion in the least. My thought is the concert could have used some younger performers and less Kanye West, but that's just me, it raised $30 million in just ticket sales.

But I didn't set out to write a concert review here. As always I have something else on my mind.

While we were watching I had my eye on twitter even though I had told myself I wasn't going to tweet the night away and just retweeted phone numbers and the like. Still I can't stop myself from looking and as the night went on one segment of humanity slowly began to irritate me. I did a good job of keeping my thoughts to myself, until now.

Occupy Sandy and Occupy Sandy New Jersey have done a lot of good since the storm and I don't want to take away from that at all. They have done such a good job that a one point FEMA actually shipped supplies to them to distribute. To their credit they stayed away from ideology last night, just thanked those that had donated to OS, and said where to be today if you really wanted to help. I can't say the same for some members of Occupy or the 'official' Occupy twitter account. I should add I have no idea who runs that account now or how many have access to it.

To me when the recovery costs are in the hundreds of billions of dollars it doesn't much matter where the money comes from. There is no right or wrong way to help, just helping is what matters. Yes people are needed in the neighborhoods to 'hands on' help but that doesn't make those people any better than corporations or celebrities that donate money, supplies, or just their time and name to the cause. All those supplies Occupy handed out were paid for by somebody, they didn't just magically appear in Brooklyn. You could say that Chase donating is all a PR stunt, or as Occupy calls it "disaster capitalism," and you might be right. So be it. Somebody who likes Chase will like them whether or not they give and I doubt their giving will make anybody think better of them. Personally I would take the money from the devil herself if I had to so if they want to donate I have no problem with it. It's less they have to hand out in bonuses this year.

To publicly say that Chelsea Clinton should rip down mildewed drywall if she really wanted to help does absolutely nothing for anybody. It all just smells of the holier than thou sanctimonious attitude I hate about the far right and that's turning into a major problem with politics in this country. Until people accept the fact that we are all in it together, that neither side is totally right about everything, we are just screwed. I don't see that happening any time soon.

I'll finish with a tweet from someone I have since stopped following, "Charity is a bullshit illusion. It has to be said."

No it didn't.

Observations from the Gallery 12.12

Just a quick post because on Sunday I mentioned a Charles Bukowski quote that was popular on my tumblr, "My soul is sadder than all the dead Christmas trees of the world." I thought it suggested people weren't all in a happy holiday mood but it seems a few days can make all the difference. Today they rediscovered a Tolstoy quote I had originally posted months ago ....

"If you want to be happy, be."

At the same time you may have noticed today's date is 12.12.12, Speaker Boehner is doing his best Nero impression, and North Korea has a satellite in orbit. Taken together the three make me wonder if the Mayans may have indeed been right.

And where have you gone NHL?

12/13 update - NBC News reported this morning that the North Korean satellite seems to be "tumbling out of control" and I don't think the were referring to the tumblr blogs. I just wanted to say ... heads up!

Observations 12.11

Tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden is the 121212 Concert benefiting Hurricane Sandy relief through the Robin Hood Relief Fund.

The current list of performers includes the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Kanye West, Chris Martin, Roger Waters, Alicia Keys, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton and Bon Jovi. Also appearing Susan Sarandon, Chris Rock, Kristen Stewart, Quentin Tarantino, Brian Williams, Jessica Chastain, Chelsea Clinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Seth Meyers, and Jon Stewart. Expect the usual array of 'surprise' guests, maybe a certain Governor from Jersey.

The concert will be broadcast on 34 U.S. TV networks including AMC, Encore, Fuse, HBO, Showtime, Sundance, and VH1. A full list of networks, radio stations, and streaming sites is here. The "Concert for New York City" after the 9-11 attacks was broadcast on just one network, VH1, and raised $32 million.

"12-12-12" The Concert for Sandy Relief

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Observations

by  Kate le Roux

"This Happened."

Photo at left and words tweeted by Dan Savage after he and Terry Miller were officially and legally wed in Seattle, Washington earlier today. I don't think I need to add anything.

Sunday Observations 12.9

I'm going to start with a quick warning. The Eagles won a football game today, the Mayan apocalypse is upon us.

For possibly the first time in my life I have three biographies started. Now I've often had three books started but never three bios, I hope I don't get anything mixed up. I guess that isn't possible with these three books; Ted Kennedy's True Compass, Keith Richards's Life, and Salman Rushdie's Joseph Anton: A Memoir.

Not sure if it's a sign of the times or what but at the moment one of the more popular quotes on my tumblrs is this from Charles Bukowski, "My soul is sadder than all the dead Christmas trees of the world."

I don't want to be totally depressing on a Sunday evening but this week I saw a good article in Forbes about sex trafficking which it says is now a $32 billion a year industry worldwide. I'm not going to get into it, the article isn't long if you want to read it, but I wanted to share this line. It's one of those things that is so obviously true but evidently isn't seen that way in this country. "Legally, they cannot consent to sex with an adult, so the use of the term “child prostitution” in the media is misleading. In any other context, this would be considered statutory rape."

A few days ago I said that there was a lot going on in the art world this week but I have yet to finish that post. One of the major things was the ribbon cutting at the new Louvre-Lens museum which will officially open later this week. The museum will contain over 300 works from the Louvre. The other thing was the Art Basel show in Miami. A funny geek thing happened this morning that relates to the Miami show. I was reading a Le Monde article about it and hit the tweet button which than said it was posted. It hadn't so I tried again with the same result. Turned out something in the french name of the culture section was telling twitter it was a direct message so it wouldn't send it.

Finally Ash's line of the week, "If you are going to call yourself a painter you really need to paint."

Truth.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 12.7

I'm hoping to finish an art post later today but I have a few updates to throw out here. The first is just a link to a list of the 38 Senators who voted against the U.N. disabilities treaty, The List: The 38 Senators Who Voted Against The Disabled. As David Badash wrote with the list, "If there is a Hell, these 38 just earned some frequent flyer miles toward a long-term stay there."

by Meryl Schenker

In some better news yesterday was the first day same sex couples could get a marriage licence in Washington and a lesbian couple who had been together 35 years was the first, getting theirs in Seattle just after midnight. They might not have been the first but this couple, 56 year old Larry Duncan and 48 year old Randy Shepherd, certainly has left the most memorable photo of the day. If these two don't become the new poster guys for gay marriage I don't think anybody should. The first day same sex couples can get a marriage licence in Maine is December 29^th and January 1^st is the first day in Maryland.

Finally I know what I said just yesterday about those end of the year lists but this one is just awesome. From BuzzFeed LGBT comes the 60 Reasons to be Proud in 2012. Number has 14 the best photo and number 31 is the best fact but you're going to have to go look yourself.

For now it's back to waiting for those first infallible papal tweets. I can't wait. Happy Friday.

update - The Supreme Court decided today it would hear cases involving both DOMA and California's Prop 8. The DOMA case wasn't surprising because a federal court had ruled a federal law unconstitutional so SCOTUS has the final say. Prop 8 is the surprising one, what they could ultimately decide is whether or not a state can take away a right once it is given. The problem with that is if they say yes same sex marriage is never totally safe. All very confusing but the cases will probably not be heard until maybe March.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 12.6

It's the end of the year so every place you look is another one of those end of the year lists which I really don't like all that much. I can't say I'm thrilled with the thought of looking at them for another month but this video makes it all worthwhile because I love movie trailers almost as much as movies. I sat and watched it over and over as I tried to figure out what each movie was. He does an awesome job.

This is the third year that he has made the video so if you want to see more just follow the link to The Sleepy Skunk's YouTube channel, "Movies That Come To The Rescue" is a good one.

2012 Movie Trailer Mashup


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Published on Dec 2, 2012 by sleepyskunk
FULL LIST OF MOVIES AVAILABLE HERE: SleepySkunk Tumblr
1. 'Pruit Igoe' - Composed by Philip Glass (Nonesuch Records)
2. 'Tick Tick Boom' - Performed by The Hives (Polydor Records)
3. 'Outro' - Performed by M83 (Naïve Records and Mute Records)

I dedicate this video to my cat Gaston who normally sits by my side when I engage into crazy long editing ventures (he even assisted me on The Amazing Spider-Man in 25 minutes!). Unfortunately, the poor thing had to be treated for colon disease a few weeks ago and was obligated to sit this one out. I hope to edit many more videos with him in years to come. Cheers Gaston :)

Have a safe Holiday Season moviebuffs!
T.S.S.

12/7 update - I didn't realize until later that one of the better movie mashups from last year wasn't by this, emm, sleepy skunk. Rather than embed another complete video I'll just drop the link here. This is probably the best mashup from 2011. The 2011 Portfolio. Hopefully the link works, YouTube just updated yet again and everything is different.

Observations from the Window 12.5

Did you ever wonder why when Bill O'Reilly is talking the words type next to him on a split screen? I never thought about it before but I think the answer came to me last night watching The Last Word. They showed a clip from O'Reilly's show and two reasons hit me. One reason could be that his viewers, and Fox News viewers in general, are so old they can't hear what he is saying. More likely is that those viewers are just so thick they need to see the words just to understand what they are hearing.

Wingnutism reached a new low yesterday when the United Nations disabilities treaty fell five votes short of ratification in the Senate. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, based largely on the Americans with Disabilities Act, was negotiated by the Bush administration and signed by President Obama in 2009. It has been signed by 155 countries and ratified by 126 including Britain, France, Russia and China. Eight Republicans voted for the treaty but a two thirds majority was needed and it fell five votes short. The reason the wingnuts used for voting against it, home schooling. I have this vision of a wingnut fantasy, blue U.N. helicopters flying over America dropping wheelchairs.

John Kerry called the vote one of the saddest in his 28 years in the Senate, "a wake-up call about a broken institution that’s letting down the American people." I repeat, The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is almost a copy of the Americans with Disabilities Act, something that has been law in the United States for twenty two years. These people really are just pathetic and stand for absolutely nothing positive, nothing at all.

After that embarrassing display a petition currently on the White House website looks even better than it did when I first saw it. It says, "Cease paychecks and health benefits to ALL members of Congress and the President until the fiscal cliff is avoided."

Maybe it should say stop paychecks until the Congress of the United States of America starts acting a little more mature than a typical junior high school student council.

Hillary

I know what you are thinking already, it's too early for 2016 talk, and you would be correct. Hillary Clinton will be leaving the State Department soon and she says she isn't going to run for President but honestly why should she say otherwise? If she did run she could wait until just before the primaries began to announce and it would be more a coronation than a campaign. Any presidential campaign would be a combination of the Clinton and Obama machines, two of he greatest political machines the country has ever known. There isn't a thing the Republicans could throw at her that hasn't already been in the past twenty years. If she won there would be children who only ever knew a black or a women president and that boggles my mind.

But it's way too early to even talk about it and the only reason I even mention her running is this video. Last Friday night Hillary spoke at the Saban Forum, a sort of Israeli-American Clinton Initiative, where she was introduced by this video. I love the Clinton's so the video is worth watching for what 'officially' is, a retirement video, and it is good. The thing is if it reminds you of one of those campaign kickoff convention videos you wouldn't be alone.

So much can change in the next couple years but as Tony Blair says in the video, "I just have an instinct that the best is yet to come."


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