Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Arts / ??!! / Theater Arbitrary Art Grant #2: A Protest at On the Boards
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 9:45 AM
Greg Lundgren is a busy one. He of the Hideout, the cast-glass headstones, PDL, a Genius Award, and probably lots of secret, mad-scientist projects nobody knows about yet, has announced the second of his arbitrary art grants.
Lundgren's Vital 5 productions is handing out $500 grants—via a process he calls "Dada Economics"—for completed projects. The first assignment: Build a sculpture in a shopping cart, using materials from the shopping cart's store.
Those who made sculptures had their names, written on slips of paper, dropped on one end of a grocery-store aisle. A representative of Vital 5 dropped a raw egg on the other end. An electric leaf blower shoved the names towards the egg, and the first one that stuck got $500. (See the video here.)
The next arbitrary art grant will happen this Friday—a protest at On the Boards, against the first showing of their Northwest New Works festival.
The questions: How many people will show up? How will they protest? How does On the Boards feel about this? And, most importantly, by what mechanism of "dada economics" will Lundgren select the winner?
Show up, walk around On the Boards with a picket sign for an hour, and you might win $500.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Savage Love Central Washington University
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 11:01 PM
Some of the questions put to me by Central Washington University students tonight...
Which is worse: watersports or anal sex?
Why are all my ex's so vengeful?
If a boy had a night of experimentation with another boy, a night that included a make-out session (during which he got immediately hard), followed by a handjob (that was unfortunately short), and then tried to reciprocate the hand-job (and failed miserably), and THEN says it wasn't for him and he's "straight"—what is your take on the truth of his sexuality?
What do you think it says about society that people are quick to assume that two close friends of the same sex are dating?
What is your thoughts on bondage?
Is it normal to fantasize about other people when your partner is gone for long periods of time?
What are your views on agnostics dating Christians?
Is Ira Glass as adorable in person as he sounds on the radio?
Some of my answers: whichever one you like less; you're the common denominator; I'd need to review the videotape; that things are improving; what are my thoughts on bondage; it's normal to fantasize about other people when your partner is on top of you; they can do better; Ira Glass is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.
News Debris From Air France Flight 447 Found
Posted by Jonathan Golob on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 6:53 PM
Via the New York Times:
Wreckage spotted by Brazilian military planes in the Atlantic Ocean is that of missing Air France Flight 447, the Brazilian minister of defense said Tuesday afternoon at a news conference. The jet, bound for Paris from Rio de Janeiro with 228 aboard, disappeared Sunday night without any distress call.Nelson Jobim, the defense minister, said that “without a doubt” the debris was from the Air France plane. Military planes located the wreckage in a three-mile strip in the ocean, as hope of finding survivors all but vanished.
The debris included “an orange life vest, an aircraft seat, a drum, kerosene and oil,” an earlier statement from the Brazilian military said.
The NYT also has put together one of the more beautiful figures I've seen—of such an awful event.
The Ladies Fuck You, PETA
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 5:33 PM
Abortion provider George Tiller has barely been dead two days, and those fucking worthless bottom-feeders at PETA are already using his death in an ad campaign:
Get it? Because in PETA members' tiny brains, EATING MEAT IS MORALLY EQUIVALENT TO MURDERING A HUMAN BEING IN COLD BLOOD. And, hey, everybody's talking about that abortion guy, so why not use his death as a nifty tie-in for our anti-meat propaganda?
These ads are running, by the way, in Wichita, where Tiller's many friends and family members are still grieving his death.
God, I wish there was some way to give an anti-donation to those fuckers. Maybe I'll just go buy some foie gras instead.
Via Feministe; cross-posted.
Life Jumpers
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 5:15 PM
That couple found dead at the bottom of Beachy Head with their young son in one rucksack and a collection of soft toys in the other?
Turns out their son had died at home of meningitis four days earlier. So they drove themselves and their boy to Britain's notorious suicide spot and pitched themselves over the edge. Tragic, certainly. But it's also a little surprising to those of us steeped in Dan's "every child deserves a mother and a father" posts, who wrongly assumed the parents had suicided themselves and murdered their kid. We are relieved to be wrong.
Then there's this story from a survivor of Beachy Head who tried to jump twice and failed:
When I got there I remember lying on the ground looking at the sky and thinking about my mother and that I couldn’t do it. That was what kept me from jumping: my parents and husband.I went to a nearby pub where apparently they can tell from the way you look whether you’d been trying to jump and I made up an excuse. They were very understanding and called me a taxi.
Also thrown over the chalk cliffs of Beachy Head, back in the 1800s: the ashes of Friedrich Engels.
Photos—of the cliff and of a cable-car used to build the Beachy Head lighthouse—from Wikipedia.
Wilderness Buggin'
Posted by Lindy West on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 5:15 PM
You know this bug?
This bug that's, like, half-caterpillar half-spider? It's all squirmy and ribbed-for-bug-pleasure with some stupid orange spots on its back? Here, perhaps this close-up will help you understand which bug I mean. ——————>
Seeeeee? That bug. I knew you'd understand.
Anyway, THIS BUG IS PERVERTED. This bug just crawled out of my shirt (the front part!!). Keep this bug away from your children, unless you want your children to get crawled on by TINY SEX OFFENDERS. Ew, bug. Ew.
Religion Forgive Me, Father, for I Haven't Sinned
Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 4:55 PM
A Vatican official is lamenting that many faithful no longer confess their sins, and says some confuse a psychologist's couch for a confessional booth.Archbishop Mauro Piacenza has told Vatican Radio the sacrament of penance has been experiencing a "deep crisis" for decades. Piacenza, an official for the Vatican office on clergy, says fewer people distinguish between good and evil, and as a result don't go to confession.
It's curious that the archbishop provides only negative explanations for the dearth of confessions: Catholics engaged in sin are morally corrupt and cannot identify the division between good and evil. This is because the church is in the business of guilt. Otherwise, the archbishop might suggest that he's hearing fewer confessions because fewer people are sinning! Or, more realistically, Catholics discovered that acts previously believed to be evil—sex before marriage, wine before church—are actually quite good. And things that are actually evil—the clergy lusting after alter boys—clearly aren't getting solved in the confessional. Rather those issues are best addressed on the psychologist's couch or jail cell.
Books / Film This Is Not a Useful Website
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 4:41 PM
Some people were talking about this website at BEA as one of the ways people can use the internet to enhance the reading experience: Storycasting ("For the Movie in Your Mind!") is a website where you can cast actors in the roles of characters in books.
But wait! There's more!
...Actually, no, that's just about it. That's about all you can do. What a weird, unnecessary little website.
City Former OPA Auditors Endorse Carr
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 4:29 PM
City Attorney Tom Carr—who's being challenged for reelection by Pete Holmes, the former head of the city's Office of Professional Accountability Review Board, which oversees internal police-misconduct investigations—just received endorsements from two former OPA auditors, Terry Carroll and Kate Pflaumer. Pflaumer's endorsement is somewhat surprising, since she has differed from Carr on issues such as the release of reports critical of the police (and actually endorsed Carr's opponent, Edsonya Charles, during his first run for city attorney in 2001). Pflaumer was OPA auditor until earlier this year; Carroll was the first auditor for the office, which was created in 1999.
Speaking of long-ago history: Carr's campaign manager is Cindi Laws, who served on the board of the Seattle Monorail Project, which Carr helped found. On Holmes's endorsement list: Attorney Cleve Stockmeyer, who served on the SMP board at the same time as Laws.
Media Radio Off
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 4:21 PM
Every time I hear Juan Williams on NPR I snap off my radio and deduct $10 from my annual pledge. Currently NPR owes me several hundred dollars.
SIFF The Cinema of Immigration
Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 3:58 PM
Here is the trailer for one of my favorite SIFF films, Welcome, which stars my favorite French actor, Vincent Lindon.
Wonderful Welcome screens tonight at the Harvard Exit at 9:15 pm.
SIFF SIFF Picks of the Day
Posted by Lindy West on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 3:46 PM
Not to be missed today, if you are a person who likes things that are good:
Charles Mudede adores Welcome:
Starring the great Vincent Lindon, Welcome is all about the feeling of longing. And longing is only longing as such if the thing that is longed for is totally out of reach. There are two men in this film—the Iraqi teenager (Firat Ayverdi) and the middle-aged swimming coach (Lindon)—and each longs for a woman. In both cases, she is “somewhere not here.” For the Iraqi teen, the longing becomes a matter of immigration, of crossing borders, and eluding border agents. The desire for the woman is a desire for a better, higher standard of living. For the swimming couch, the woman he loves is symbol of emotional enervation, of lost hope, a sense of emptiness and drifting. The end of this film almost made me cry. And African men don’t cry.
Jon Frosch endorses Summer Hours.
Jen Graves jumps up and down and claps for Laila's Birthday:
Remember that Hollywood movie where that poor, downtrodden, white-collar white guy completely loses his shit? What's it called? Falling Down. Right. Michael Douglas. Well, this movie is the story of a Palestinian father and judge who actually has cause to break down over the course of one unbelievably (and yet typical) day, who actually has cause to become an insane murderous freak a la Michael Douglas, but who doesn't, because, you know, not everything is about him. It is, for instance, his daughter's birthday. You will love this man.
Eli Sanders demands that you see William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe:
This fantastic documentary is about activist lawyer William Kunstler—director of the ACLU, defender of the Chicago Seven, subject of FBI surveillance, mediator at the Attica uprising, lawyer for Abbie Hoffman and Lenny Bruce. Equally fantastic is that this film was created after Kunstler’s death in 1995 by his two daughters, Emily and Sarah, who, without the gauze of familial loyalty, explore the evolution of a complicated man—their father—who was both a strident idealist and a blatant hypocrite, a selfless activist and a camera-loving egotist, a revered hero and a despised villain. It’s a wonderful, weird, and very American story.
And Jesse Vernon quite likes Daddy Cool:
A dash of magical realism and the ghost of Albert Einstein turn the typically trite tale of the out-of-touch father and his rebellious teenage daughter into over-the-top satirical glory in Francois Desagnat’s Daddy Cool. Daniel Auteuil (nerdy microbiologist) and Juliette Lamboley (faux-rebel hottie) play a clueless father and a 15-years-estranged daughter. Romantical slo-mo scenes, a ludicrous daddy boot camp, and a raging rave in the woods make this film light, funny, and so French.
Tonight is also your last chance to see Spike Lee's Passing Strange.
So get to it! Chop chop!
Film / Nerd Must See: Danger: Diabolik
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 3:43 PM
Because you can't go to SIFF every single night of the festival, I'd like to recommend you watch the 1968 film Danger: Diabolik on DVD tonight. Adapted from Italian comic books, Diabolik is the story of the anti-James Bond: a master criminal who continually pulls off daring and dangerous heists to keep funding his lifestyle, and he'll murder anyone who gets in his way. Unlike Bond, this thief seems to be in a sexy monogamous relationship: Over the course of the film, it seems that Diabolik is stealing gems, gold, and cash to keep his leggy blond girlfriend happy.
Besides the Ennio Morricone score (which often sounds like a classic Bollywood riff), director Mario Bava the other compelling reason to watch Danger: Diabolik. Bava is best known for his gory Italian horror films, but here he makes a comic book movie with a whole lot of propulsive style. The special effects are almost entirely great, and the cinematography is both wildly experimental and beautiful. It's one of the best comic book movies I've ever seen. The fact that it wound up as the last movie to be mocked by Mystery Science Theater 3000 doesn't make it something cheap and cheesy, just very much a product of its time.
And I think it's one of the few good movies I've ever seen that made me really hungry for a remake. I don't know why Diabolik isn't a recurring film character, just like James Bond. A new Diabolik series starring Clive Owen—Ocean's Eleven meets 007, with just a little Batman thrown in—would be one of those blockbuster films that manages to charm everyone.
Here's the trailer, but I have to warn you that the last minute or so of the trailer completely shows you the ending of the film—as in, you get a condensed version of the last fifteen minutes of the movie in the trailer—so if you think you're ever going to watch Danger: Diabolik, I'd recommend only watching the first half.
Now that's a movie.
(In less welcome movie news, they're apparently making a prequel to Alien.)
Economy The Return of the Monster Car
Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 3:36 PM
The future of the horrible Hummer? China!
Bankrupt automaker [GM] discloses details of plan to sell truck line to China's industrial company Sichuan Tengzhong.Privately owned Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd., based in China, will acquire the truck brand, which has been part of GM since 1999. Tengzhong said it plans to keep Hummer's management team.
God, no, please. Let that monster just die.
Homo What He Said
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 2:58 PM
Andrew Sullivan on what Dick Cheney said about gay marriage—and what he didn't—and on Barack Obama, marriage equality, DADT, and the HIV travel ban. It's required viewing:
Books Not a Jest
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 2:42 PM
Here's a good idea for a bookclub: This website is the home base for "Infinite Summer," which is a group effort to read David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest over the entire summer. It seems eminently do-able:
Read Infinite Jest over the summer of 2009, June 21st to September 22nd. A thousand pages1 ÷ 92 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat.1. Plus endnotes 2.
2. A lot of them.
I heartily endorse this plan.
Homo Old News: Dick Cheney Supports Gay Marriage
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 2:41 PM
Dick Cheney yesterday:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday he supports gays being able to marry but believes states, not the federal government, should make the decision. "I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone," Cheney said in a speech at the National Press Club. "I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish."Cheney, who has a gay daughter, said marriage has always been a state issue.
Dick Cheney in 2004:
At a campaign rally in this Mississippi River town, Cheney spoke supportively about gay relationships, saying “freedom means freedom for everyone,” when asked about his stand on gay marriage.“Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it’s an issue our family is very familiar with,” Cheney told an audience that included his daughter. “With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone. ... People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to."
No news here, folks, nothing to see here, move along. But here's hoping that one of Barack Obama's daughters turns out to be gay.
Politics Is Cheney Still a Republican?
Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 2:37 PM
When Dick Cheney was asked about Colin Powell last month on CBS's Face the Nation, he said, "I didn't know he was still a Republican." He criticized Powell's endorsement of Obama, but he also took issue with Powell for becoming generally too moderate. "We're Republicans, and we have certain things we believe in," he said. If you don't believe in the sorts of things Republicans believe in, you're not a Republican.
But now Dick Cheney, yes Dick "My-administration-was-built-by-pushing-against-gay-marriage-as-a-wedge-issue" Cheney is coming out for gay marriage. He said it yesterday, but I don't think it's been on Slog. From MSNBC:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday he supports gays being able to marry but believes states, not the federal government, should make the decision. [...]"And I think that's the way it ought to be handled today, that is, on a state-by-state basis. Different states will make different decisions. But I don't have any problem with that. I think people ought to get a shot at that," he said.
Yes, his daughter is a lesbian and he loves his daughter very much and wants her to have the best. But he's a Republican—or was—and Republicans "have certain things [they] believe in." One of those things is explicitly detailed in the 2008 Republican Party platform. "Because our children’s future is best preserved within the traditional understanding of marriage, we call for a constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage as a union of a man and a woman, so that judges cannot make other arrangements equivalent to it."
So... is Cheney still a Republican?
Savage Love Savage Love Letter of the Day
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 2:00 PM
I was just listening to Savage Lovecast 129, and I am writing regarding the trans teen who is on "lockdown" for having engaged in sex work and other behaviors. My heart breaks for this kid. Your advice sounds great from an adult perspective, but seemed an excruciating thing to tell a teen in crisis. You called her parent's punishments "aggravating" and told her "a year is not that long....take the long view." As an adult, I completely understand where you are coming from, Dan, but that kid probably didn't hear a word of it. Her pain was palpable through the phone/radio/itunes, whatever; it pierced me.I ran away (for the final time) at 16. I do not recommend this; however, I did not do so stupidly and without a plan. I asked my best friend's parents if I could move in. I had a very mature, honest, sit-down conversation with them, where I explained why I could no longer live at home, told them I had a job 3 days a week at a pizza parlor and that I would pitch in what I could for groceries. They did not really have the room, nor did they completely agree with me (they are Jehovah's Witnesses, I am SO not) but they opened their hearts and home and displayed the kind compassion that changes a kid's life. I was able to live with them and complete high school.
From there, I rented a house with too many friends, attended junior college, dropped out, went back, fought with my friends, made up, and generally had great life experiences. I now have a career and family, and while I did everything "backwards" (had a kid at 19, married my husband at 23, got a college degree at 31) I do not for a moment regret leaving a home where I was tormented, taught to question myself constantly and forced to become a sneaky, lying person. Do I recommend running away and living under a bridge? No, but that is not the only way to leave home.
Science Cops Will Soon Make You Want to Puke
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 1:46 PM
Science has been threatening this for a while, but it looks like now the Dazer Laser—a highly focused laser beam that will cause people on the receiving end to experience nausea, blurry vision, and probably vomiting—is getting very close to being available for law enforcement agencies. Two "humanitarian" models, the "Defender" and the "Guardian" will soon be available for purchase from this company. I'm not an expert, but I think you might want to consider buying stock in this company immediately.
Economy Three No More
Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 1:44 PM
Seriously, the recession is hard on ordinary people, and being unemployed sucks, but a passage like this reveals that nothing but a great economic crash could bring to an end some really bad American habits:
Joe Morrone, a laid-off trading clerk from Prudential, has been unemployed for two years and struggles to support his daughters and grandson. He has had stints as a deli worker, a doorman and a bouncer. "I used to have three cars," Mr. Morrone says. "Now I share one."Three cars! Americans sometimes.
Chow Are You Someone Who Eats at Taco Del Mar?
Posted by David Schmader on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 1:41 PM
If so, have you noticed something weird about the sauce?
You're not alone. Last week my guy Jake came home after tasting the weird new sauce and wrote a letter to TDM overlords. Here's the response (all exclamation points by training manager Shelby K. Sakoda herself):
Hi Jake,We received your feedback that was left on our website recently and wanted to thank you for your comments!
We did recently make some changes to the sauces (as you noticed), and what we are doing is making them from scratch ingredients in-house. I do apologize that it wasn’t up to par with your last meal, and just so you are aware we have made some adjustments recently from what you most likely tasted in Ballard. Our intentions were not to have a “tomato saucy” salsa, but a more “habanero flavored” salsa.
I’m glad that you are a long-time loyal customer of Taco Del Mar, and am glad that we have satisfied your hunger and taste after all these years!
If you have any questions or just want to drop some feedback, please do not hesitate to contact me!
Thanks and have a great week!
Shelby K Sakoda
Franchise Business / Training Manager
TDM Support Team, TDMFC
"I'm not going back until Shelby Sakoda emails to say they've worked out the kinks," vows Jake.
TV Conan O'Brien: He's a Pretty Fast Sprinter!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 1:40 PM
Yesterday was Conan O'Brien's first night at the helm of The Tonight Show, and while there were no astounding surprises—it just felt good, ya know? Like Bush leaving office, the blase darkness of Jay Leno was suddenly washed away by someone who actually deserves the job. Here's the opening sequence from last night's show, which may not be fall down funny, but it's certainly goosebump inducing, and will make you sigh with affection and relief.
Video of the Day Lunchtime Quickie
Posted by Kelly O on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 1:15 PM
The Ladies Aborted Logic
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 12:41 PM
The only thing more outrageous than a woman casually obtaining abortion after abortion—using abortion as a birth control method—would be compelling the kind of woman who would use abortion as birth control to bring a child into the world after she hit the "sane limit" of abortions allowed her under a plan designed to prevent women from obtaining too "obscenely large" a number of abortions. (Exact number of abortions allowed to an individual woman TBD... but by whom?)
Would a woman who ran out of abortions really be a fit and loving parent to the kid(s) born to her after she hit her abortion limit? What kind of a mother would that woman make?
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