December 2008
A lot of really good advice! I’m thinking about starting a photoblog just for my pictures…and trying to take a picture every single day.
Love Karen, Chookooloonks is one of my favorite photo blogs.
We had just driven into downtown Louisville when this quirky little car zipped by — a blue Honda Civic with vinyl decals and a bumper sticker reading, “Keep Louisville Wild and Woolly.” The driver had a thick beard that indeed looked wild and woolly, like Garth Hudson’s on the cover of “The Band” album.
The moment seemed unusual and, well, hip — a scene more fitting for Austin, Texas, or Portland, Ore. — than for an older city that is mainly known to outsiders for its traditionalism, symbolized by the illustriously unchanging Kentucky Derby.
I wrote down the information advertised on that little car, about a video store called Wild and Woolly specializing in hard-to-find, obscure and “just too weird” films. A good place to visit, I thought. Louisville has some surprises in store, my wife and I surmised.
Overall, I discovered an intriguing, funky scene and a good-humored, pop-culture-savvy populace … plus more. Louisville has an avant-garde, contemporary-art edge. In 2003, the city and county governments merged, increasing Louisville’s population to 694,000 from 256,000. Now there seems to be a fresh, invigorating self-image — the “Possibility City,” it calls itself.
I love when I read articles that acknowledge that Louisville is not some hicktown, like most people think when they hear Kentucky. Or someplace where we wear big hats and sip mint juleps all year long (for the record, just the 2 weeks leading up to Derby.) ;)
I tried to do some reporting, but couldn’t help thinking about what we might do in the event of a ground invasion. What would happen if militants launched a rocket from nearby our home? I went over in my mind how we might stockpile food, water and other necessities. I thanked God when the electricity failed. At least we didn’t have to watch any more TV. We sat in the dark, telling the children stories about their childhood to distract them. It worked—for a couple of hours. Eventually, we got tired and went to bed, but my kids insisted on sleeping in our room.
My wife and I stayed up talking about the situation. It had never been like this before. We are paying a price in this crazy war, and nobody in the civilized world cares. But at least the chaos has finally motivated my family to do one thing. As the bombs sounded in the distance, I finally convinced my wife to leave Gaza.” —Gaza Family Considers Emigration After Attacks | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com (via robot-heart-politics)
Hillary (and Bill) Clinton had quite a year: A presidential campaign that produced 18 million votes, a Secretary of State nomination… yada yada.
Now the duo will help kick off 2009 by helping to lower the 12,000-pound Waterford crystal ball in Times Square tonight. Also joining the Clintons: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
vruz:
By Rick Perlstein, Village Voice
Dateline Spring 2004
—via unburyingthelead:jhnbrssndn:retropolitics:
It was an e-mail we weren’t meant to see. Not for our eyes were the notes that showed White House staffers taking two-hour meetings with Christian fundamentalists, where they passed off bogus social science on gay marriage as if it were holy writ and issued fiery warnings that “the Presidents [sic] Administration and current Government is engaged in cultural, economical, and social struggle on every level”—this to a group whose representative in Israel believed herself to have been attacked by witchcraft unleashed by proximity to a volume of Harry Potter. Most of all, apparently, we’re not supposed to know the National Security Council’s top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians eager to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian doomsday scenarios.But now we know.
1. Remember that you are elected to represent all your constituents: those who voted for you, against you and who didn’t bother to vote. The ordinary citizen working every day for less pay and almost no benefits should be valued more highly than the lobbyists and corporate CEOs who filled your campaign coffers.
2. Promote ethics in public service. This should be simple enough. Thou shall abide by the laws of the land. Thou shall not do anything to shame your office or embarrass your family. Thou shall behave at all times as if a special prosecutor is building a case against you, or as if the words you often utter in private might some day make the national headlines.
3. Improve the nature and civility of political discourse. With a country in crisis, it’s time to get beyond the petty recriminations of the past. Work together with your political opponents. We are one nation, one people. If you do something like Chip Saltsman, a candidate running for chairman of the Republican National Committee, have the good grace to be embarrassed and offer an apology when your Christmas message CD to members of your party includes a song called “Barack, the Magic Negro.”
Hunter S. Thompson’s suicide letter to his wife. (via poortaste)
the weight of words…
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Does he know something I don’t? I find it super hard to believe he actually thinks he’s untouchable.
Same here. I do think part of him believes it though, you know…the part that’s mentally unstable.
Why the fuck are we letting him appoint anyone? Sometimes this state can suck it. I do not care how well liked and respectable the person he picked is, I hope the Senate blocks the appointment. The Illinois legislature needs to hurry up and impeach Blago, since he does not have the decency to step down.
MSNBC is reporting that the Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston may receive up to $300,000 for the first pictures of their son Tripp.
The price didn’t soar immediately, according to the sources, because Sarah Palin stories just didn’t sell all that well for the weeklies on newsstands.
…The drug-related arrest of Johnston’s mother, however, caused the price tag for the photos to go up.
I didn’t set out to get somewhere. I thought it might be nice to work. But you just have to have a very accurate internal barometer with your own finger as the dial pointing to success and failure. The film industry is so noisy you have to find little quiet places to keep experimenting—otherwise, exit stage left. But the noise doesn’t interest me; the work does.” —Cate Blanchett
Kucinich said the perpetrators of attacks against Israel should be brought to justice, but that Israel “cannot create a war against an entire people in order to attempt to bring to justice the few who are responsible.” “All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law,” Kucinich said in a statement. “Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable.”
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NO!? You don’t say? I’m shocked and appalled I tell you, shocked and appalled.
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This is probably my #1 fear in life.
Brian Guest wrote on the Western Angler website forum in 2004: “I have always had an understanding with my wife that if a shark or ocean accident caused my death then so be it, at least it was doing what I wanted. Every surfer, fisherman and diver has far more chance of being killed by bees, drunk drivers, teenage car thieves and lightning. Every death is a tragedy – regardless of the cause – but we have no greater claim to use of this earth than any of the other creatures [we] share it with.”
In talking to a few other tumblr people (okay, why do I lie, just one!) we realized we didn’t know many of the blogs listed on Tumblr Awards. So what to do? Since I have had 3 glasses of chardonnay and just watched a very inspiring What Not To Wear (US) (YES I AM A LIFETIME MOVIE. Fuck off, I love cold wine and being inspired!.) I am going to spearhead an Independent Spirit of Tumblr Awards. Not affiliated with Tumblr. Just by the people, for the people.
RULES
No one who is nominated for a Tumblr award can be nominated for a Tumblr indy spirit award.
There are no other rules.
CATEGORIES
Best Original Writing
Best Snark Tumblr
Best Original Photos
Most Creative Use of Tumblr
Most Underrated Tumblr
Best Use of Cute Animal Photos
Best Smut Tumblr
PRIZES
I don’t know yet. But they will exist.
Email nominations to ME at dancethis@gmail.com
FOLLOWERS… ARE YOU READING THIS?! Pretty please, it would be awesome. I’ll totally exchange sexual favours for votes, should you so wish. Sucky sucky $10.
LOL, britches.
Independent Spirit of Tumblr Awards?! HAHA, that’s genius!
But why honey?” Cem asked. “It’s all Manhattan. It’s all the same, isn’t it?
“Some people might look at it that way,” Brenda said. She waited.
Lola crossed her arms and stood with her back to her parents, looking out at the street. “Carrie Bradshaw lived in the West Village,” she said.” —Candace Bushnell, One Fifth Avenue (the first of my winter break reads)
i had a feeling when i posted today about the Israeli attacks on Gaza that i might lose some followers. sure enough, i’ve already lost one. i know who it was. and i know that i was unfollowed because what i was posting seemed ‘unsympathetic’ to Israel.
i don’t care what country you are. what religion you are. who you are: this type of attack is terrorism. it’s terrorism when the U.S. does it. it’s terrorism when Israel does it. it’s terrorism when anybody does it. you can call it whatever you like. that’s what it is.
you can unfollow me because you don’t care for my feelings on the Israeli/Palestine conflict. however, i will never unfollow someone for expressing their political beliefs. and to prove it, i am now following you, unfollower.
Bravo. I’ve appreciated each of your posts on the situation in Gaza, because I’d honestly had no clue what was going on until you posted them. So thank you, while some might not appreciate it, you deserve to know others do.
Thomas Friedman - Time to Reboot America
This is one of those columns where you want to quote each line, each graph. I leave you with the close, but I promise it’s not a spoiler.
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Ditto in Fort Wayne!! That’s a 65 degree swing from earlier this week!!
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it’s 70 degrees here in Lexington today…and it was about 4 degrees less than a week ago. i don’t even try to understand it anymore!
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I wore FLIP FLOPS to check the mail! Which would excite me if I didn’t know that the temps are just going to swing again and I’ll continue being miserable in the cold.