Atomic Light fixture!

I look at the furniture section on Craigslist every single day. I became addicted to it when I realized how much I love mid-century modern decor. It seems to me that the very quick and savvy shopper can find amazing shit on Craigslist.

But today when I logged on to the site I came across this posting for am "Atomic light fixture" for the amazingly low price of 20 bucks! So of course I drove out to the bland and terrifying suburbs to get it during my break between classes, barely leaving enough time to feed and walk Marcy and get back for my office hours. But here it is! Isn't it fabulous? I love it so much, even though when I first saw it in person it seemed so much bigger than I had imagined. Once I get it installed I will post another picture! Yippee!

kleenex makes a very good hat

One of my favorite books of all time is Eloise. I love Eloise, and her nutty life at the Plaza Hotel with her turtle Skipperdee and her little dog Weenie. She gets in all kinds of trouble and makes adults very nervous and has a blast all the time. I loved that she was able to get away with so much stuff. I also love her little belly and how her clothes were always in disarray. She is awesomely disheveled.

Kay Thompson wrote these wonderful books and they were illustrated by the incredibly talented Hilary Knight. Knight is fucking artistic genius, and was honored this week at the New York Public Library.

I wish I could have been there.

make it stop!!!!!

One of my favorite movies of all time is Halloween III. It has absolutely nothing to do with Michael Myers or the original Halloween except that some of the actors from Halloween are in it and Tommy Wallace (the editor of the original) wrote and directed Halloween III.

Halloween III has the distinction of being my favorite Tom Atkins movie. If you haven't seen it, safe to say it has one of the best plots ever. It involves getting kids to wear certain masks on Halloween which then will the kill them by turning their innocent little noggins into a writhing mass of disgusting insects as they watch the Magic Pumpkin!

Beware--and Happy Halloween!

Swiffer Stalker Syndrome!

I admit I'm a big fan of the swiffer. I really like swiffering my hardwood floors, and I can't get over how great the swiffer dust mop is. I'm even going to buy a washable pad for my swiffer (Etsy!) so I don't have to rely upon the wasteful disposable dusters. That said, I don't own a swiffer wet mop, but I have thought about it. I have, however, been disturbed by the ridiculous swiffer commercials that depict mops and brooms pining after women who have abandoned them for the swiffer. And of course these commercials, as all cleaning product narratives do, only ever depict women cleaning; usually after men and children who make a huge mess.

But it was not not until this morning, when I read this post on Feministing Community by a nine year old young woman, did I really think about how these narratives romanticize and trivialize stalking. You go, smart girl!

namesake

Here's an amazing photograph of my great grandmother (Annie Elizabeth Keeton) and her daughter Annie Mae Keeton Etter (my grandmother). My mother's mother Annie Mae is very cute, and I just love the look on her face. But what I really love is the look of calm determination on my great grandmother's very beautiful face. She helped raise my mom, and although she died very soon after I was born, I feel her presence in my life in a very powerful way. Here's to strong and powerful women!

sweet kitty picture of the day

Jacks has seemed to make himself at home now that we have officially adopted him. Marcy still chases him relentlessly, and gets really bent out of shape when I pet him or even speak to him, but nonetheless Jacks finds ways of relaxing on a daily basis.

Marcy must have been sleeping at the time.

Michael, Leatherface, and Rosemary

I love horror movies--really love them. I teach a class on women in horror film and it is in many ways my favorite class to teach. What could be better? We watch horror films, read critical essays and a few novels, and take seriously a genre that deserves to be taken seriously.

Last night I saw Paranormal Activity and I really liked it. It wasn't the scariest movie I've ever seen--but it was very creepy and wildly entertaining. I think the creepiest aspect of the movie was how my own anxiety about where I was supposed to be looking made me jumpy. What was going to happen next? I kept wondering where the next fright would come from--I was trying to pay attention to the ways the camera angle was directing my gaze--it was all very exhausting and disturbing. Lots of fun!

Once I got home I found that the ending that was created for theatrical release was not the original ending of the movie--another interesting twist. I thought I'd provide the "original" ending in case anyone wants to watch it. Be forewarned, it really helps to have seen the entire movie--context is key for this one.

10/29/2009 Update: Paramount keeps blocking anyone from showing the original ending of this movie--I've literally posted and re-posted this clip about a dozen times. I give up! You can probably get it on you tube yourself, as people seem to be keeping one step ahead of Paramount there.

(pregnant) women and children first

I'm not really afraid of getting the H1N1 flu virus. I may get it, but I figure I'll survive even though it would surely wreak havoc with my semester. I am only really concerned because I have asthma, and that make me a bit more vulnerable to the flu and to more serious complications from the flu. Of course I get my regular flu vaccine every year without fail. Here's my gripe: I'm really pissed that I am not on the list right now of groups that are prioritized for the H1N1 vaccine.

Who is on the list? Health care workers, of course, children (I suppose) and pregnant women. The pregnant women group is that group that I take issue with. Here's my twisted and, according to my Mom, self-absorbed/narcississtic logic. Pregnant women, by and large, choose to be pregnant. They certainly don't have to get pregnant. In fact, I might argue that pregnancy is a darn poor choice in this economy and in this messed up environment. But really, please, I have asthma. I didn't choose to have asthma--it is an inherited condition that makes my lungs less able to process air out and in. Asthma also weakens one's immune system. So, therefore, those silly, selfish, breeders need to move over and let me in the line.

Step aside, bitches!
(Photo above is of the flu epidemic in 1976.)

Meet Judy the talking embryo!

Okay, apparently there is another group out there (with the catchy name Choice Kills) that has gone and done lost their teeny tiny minds. They actually have a tiny talking embryo with a teeny tiny little girly voice saying "All I want is to get out of here alive!" Aside from the fact that a fetus cannot talk, what would she really say? Perhaps she might protest this group using her image without permission.

And what's with that logo? A fetus being speared by a machete? Now that's just going too far.

fall color from hell

Everyone around here (the midwest) loves fall. Really loves it! I think it's okay, but in some respects I dislike it because it is a reminder of the winter to come. Yes, the colors are beautiful. It's sort of nice to wear scarves and boots and feel cozy. But really, now, I like summer so much better! Hot sun, humidity, ice-cream. Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of the stunning fall color around my domain.

Are you prepared to get arrested?

Just watched this really great video of the civil disobedience group The Yes Men totally fuck with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and their unconscionable stance on global climate change.

The best part about this public disruption and manipulation of the press is the way the "real" Chamber of Commerce guy cannot seem to get control of the fake press conference. It's just so much fun to watch him try.

But really what makes me happy is the idea that The Yes Men are really trying to DO something. You can sign up at their web site. I did.

This is not why I am fat . . .

. . . but it is a very interesting and mildly disgusting website. It is called This Is Why You're Fat, and it is chock full of pictures of the most disturbing food items ever devised. Some of my favorites are the Rubix Cubewich and the corn dog casserole, and the banana peanut butter cup and marshmallow grilled sandwich. Enjoy!

I wonder if people actually eat any of these concoctions?

I know, I know, yet another auto-tune the news!

Auto Tune the News #9: UNITED NATIONS AIR GUITAR
Uploaded by BarelyPolitical. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

Holy shit, there is a grilled-cheese truck in Los Angeles!

Wow-there is actually a food truck in Los Angeles that specializes in gourmet and down-home grilled cheese sandwiches. Holy velveeta! Here's a picture of their basic BBC sandwich (bread/butter/cheese).

They have all kinds of amazing grilled cheese delights, like gouda and pear, and of course the cheesy mac and rib melt (gross!)! They also have a caprese sandwich with mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil. I am looking forward to the savory sandwiches with no meat. Check out their web site, and to find out where they're gonna be parked follow them on twitter. I will definitely be seeking out this food emporium on wheels when I get to Los Angeles in December!

serious press release

Here is the complete text of a very serious press release issued earlier today by Drake University.

Suspicious backpack outside Howard Hall found to contain a toy gun

At approximately 8:02 a.m. today, a Drake University staff member called Campus Security after finding a suspicious unattended backpack on the exterior south landing of Howard Hall. A cryptic but nonthreatening note attached to the backpack contained the cell phone number of a Drake student.

Campus Security immediately responded and called the Des Moines Police Department, which sent the bomb squad.

While Campus Security officers kept people away from the backpack, members of the bomb squad took an x-ray of it. The x-ray showed what appeared to be a handgun.

Members of the bomb squad attached a rope to the backpack and dragged it away from the building and onto the lawn. There, they opened the backpack and found it contained a toy metal cap gun, a toy dinosaur and Twinkies.

The investigation is continuing as Campus Security and the Des Moines police question the student whose phone number was attached to the backpack.

A sweep of all other Drake buildings found no unattended backpacks or other suspicious items.

My only question is this: Twinkies?


October 16 update: Apparently there were no twinkies in the backpack, just Ho-Hos. A serious disappointment!

Bush vs. Zombies!

You know, I can't say I miss George W. Bush at all, in fact every day that goes by without hearing his voice makes me feel lucky to be alive, but this video is funny. Watch til the end for a Dick Cheney cameo!

white people playing with leaves!

Okay, I'm very excited to be able to post this totally fucked up and truly weird and disturbing anti-gay marriage video. It was created by some group called Protect Marriage Washington. Oh my stars.

UPDATE: The scumbags have forced removal of their lame-ass hate-filled commercial from all sites except their own lame-ass hate-filled web site. It's worth a look.

D'accord, l'homme est fantastique!

Voila il est: Alain Robert, the one they call the French Spiderman, climbing yet another ridiculously tall building. The video is wonderful--not just for his climbing, but for the lovely people watching, the frenzied response of the police, and the charming applause once he reaches the top.

My question is this: why do we do things like this? What makes it so fun, thrilling and inspirational? I think it's partially because he could fall at any moment and be crushed like a bug. I also think it is because he is very brave, and very foolish, a combination we love.

teenage spinach?

Okay, now I swear I'm not making this up, but the other day I was buying bagged spinach in the regular old grocery store and there I found not just plain spinach and the ubiquitous baby spinach but a new kind of spinach: teenage spinach. I've tried to find out what this means, really, and I've had very little success. What on earth is teenage spinach? I managed to find a site that describes what it is in contrast to baby spinach:

NSF categorized spinach into two sizes, “baby” and “teen,” although no products were marketed as “teen” spinach. There are no regulatory standards for the term “baby” and “teen” spinach. The difference between baby and teen spinach was based solely on the size of the leaf, otherwise the products were handled the same. . . . baby and teen spinach may have been used interchangeably in processing if demand made it necessary. A bag labeled, “baby spinach” manufactured at NSF, was not necessarily composed of baby spinach under the firm’s specifications.

I took this text from a State of California Public Health web site that had a report on the tainted spinach scandal of 2006. Anyway, of course it's out of context, but it is revealing. I got the photo from a British produce firm. I'm going to take a picture of the actual bag of "teenage" spinach and I will post it as soon as I can.

Thank You to my Followers!

I'm very excited to say that my blog now has seven followers--thank you very much! I wanted to take this post to ask you and anyone else who reads me from time to time what kinds of entries you would like to see more of. Please let me know!

summer road trip pictures

I've decided to finally post some of the pictures I took on my summer road trip. I drove from Iowa to California (and back!) with my faithful companion Marcy. She was a very good navigator, and kept me alerted to any predators that were lurking.



While driving through Las Vegas, I noticed the intriguing juxtaposition of these two billboards, one right after the other. Hmmmm . . .

I admit my Etsy addiction

Looky what I just bought! I love Carol Berryhill's work, and since I just got paid (we only get paid once a month!) I decided to splurge on another one of her luminous etchings. This one is called "Eliza" and has a companion piece entitled "Emma." Only bought this one.

Carol Berryhill does some amazing stuff; there's a link to her Etsy shop at right. It's called Plate Ink Paper. Yes, I admit I am addicted to Etsy. Etsy is the first place I go in the morning after I check my email. Sometimes I talk myself into being a good citizen and go to the Los Angeles Times, then perhaps BBC News, then after I've had at least a half cup of coffee I zip on over to Etsy and peruse my favorite sellers.

I wonder . . . am I the only one who checks Etsy obsessively?

You too can be the Queen of your home!

Okay--now this is just too much. The folks over at Sociological Images posted this ancient commercial for Suzy Homemaker products, and I just can't get enough of this one. Whoever thinks that patriarchy doesn't exist just needs to watch this little gem of sexist marketing. Wow.

The Song of the Pigeons

Here's another pair of images from my favorite artist, Katrine Kalleklev. She has a new blog (in Norwegian) and a new cat named Fia! I sometimes post comments on her blog in english--I try to read the Norwegian but it is futile. I don't care, I love her work so much I may try to learn Norwegian just so I can read her blog!

My fantasy is to someday travel to Norway so I can meet and visit with Katrine, and to Sweden to meet Camilla Engman. I would love to meet Camilla, of course, but I really am almost obsessed with her dog Morran. But really, primarily, I would truly love to meet Katrine along with her beautiful family and cat Fia. Someday . . .

The top painting is called "The Song of the Pigeons" and the bottom one is, in Norwegian, is "dueierikkemeg" which translates to "You Can Never Have Me." I love the palpable tension in this drawing. Sublime and disturbing.

Holy Shit: pro-life=anti-contraception

Thanks to the folks at RH Reality Check we have this very disturbing video showing protestors at family planning clinics, where a bunch of anti-choicers protest birth control. Yikes.

It's kind of a long video (seven minutes) but well worth your time.

the sound of me throwing up . . .

Here for your viewing pleasure is clinically insane and purely hateful anti-abortion activist Lila Rose.

Ms. Rose, who has so little regard for women, privacy, or anything else, suggests that abortions be performed "in the public square." She envisions a world in which we would get so sick of watching them that we would again make abortion illegal.

This woman makes me physically ill. More charming bullshit from the Values Voter Summit!

Carrie Prejean is the voice of God!

You know, I just can't get enough of this woman and her silliness. She really does believe what she's saying. I think we will all be enjoying much more from the outstanding folks at the Values Voter Summit.

Have a great weekend!

Yes, we can!

Holy Shit on a sidecar--have you seen this picture yet? This photo actually appeared in Glamour magazine's September issue. I am so excited to see this picture of plus-size model Lizzie Miller that I can barely contain my joy. Although it does seem absurd that she is considered plus-size she is definitely not your average skeletal model.

And the really good news is that Glamour has gotten loads of positive feedback on the image. I'm not surprised, really, since most women look much more like Lizzie Miller than they do most super-skinny models. Also, According to Jezebel Glamour is planning to do a whole spread of fatty models very soon! Yippee!

out of one, many

I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from a dear friend last week which included my favorite sunflowers and lots of purple and wildflowers. It was amazing. Today it needed something, so I took it apart and made five separate arrangements from the original one. Below (and left) are four of the re-arrangements. Enjoy!

luminosity from auto-tune the news!

Auto-tune The News Part 8 - watch more funny videos

Ben and Jerry's is delicious . . .

I'm very excited that Ben and Jerry's has renamed their Chubby Hubby ice cream Hubby Hubby to celebrate same sex marriage in Vermont. Yay!

I have to admit I love ice cream--even though it's not vegan. I'm a lapsed vegan. But anyway, despite my moral and ethical failures, I wish that they would bring back their Tuskegee Chunk flavor. It was my favorite ever.

Kudos to Ben and Jerry's for taking a stand.

There you go again . . .

Need I really say anything about this most recent lunatic ranting from Glenn Beck? I will say that everything he says could also have been said right after the Bush administrations reactions to 9/11.

Southern California Wildfires

Almost every year wildfires rage in my homeland of Southern California. It is always a reminder of the fragility of life everywhere, and the tenuousness of living in a desert made into an oasis.

One of the scariest aspects of the fires is when officials recommend that people with respiratory ilnesses and the elderly stay inside. I think this warning bothers me particularly because I have asthma--but also because it conjures up images of people huddling, frightened in their homes, afraid to go outside. Also, everyone likes to breathe, no?

Here in Iowa we have had way too much rain lately. There are droughts in California and Texas. Why can 't we send the rain to them? If we can ever figure anything out, it should be this: communication with the weather.

Goodbye, Dillon!

Here's a lovely picture of my good friend Carmen's doggy, Dillon.
Dillon recently died, very suddenly, after living a long and useful doggy life, taking good care of his family. I remember him as being a very sweet and loving creature; he was even nice to Marcy.

We'll see you later, Dillon.

here's my book!

Yes, it has finally arrived on store shelves near you! Probably not, actually, but you can get it from Amazon or Scarecrow Press.

I'm really happy my book is finally in print, and out there in the world, but it's also kind of scary. People can read it and critique it--perhaps even say bad things. But that's okay--I can take it. I'm already working on my next project! I'm hoping to write a biography of author Maureen Daly who wrote Seventeenth Summer. This novel is pivotal in many ways to the entire world of fiction about and for teens. I love her--she died a few years ago.

Seventeenth Summer also has a special place in my heart because it is set in the midwest--Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, to be precise, and until I moved to Iowa I never really knew what cottonwood fluff was. But I had read about it in Seventeenth Summer, and one day I was driving to the store and there was all of this fluffy, white stuff floating around in the sky--I realized it was cottonwood fluff! Amazing. I still hope to take a field trip to Fond Du Lac one day. I can never seem to interest my students in this adventure . . . I wonder why?

this is truly scary . . .

Apparently people are showing up to Obama town hall meetings with guns. Not just any old guns, but assault rifles. This guy was at an Obama protest Monday, according to this article on CNN . What is up with this shit? Why is this okay? We are a nation obsessed with owning guns--and I find all of this just a little bit frightening.

Once on an episode of The West Wing a right-ish character made the observation that progressives do not simply disapprove of the guns themselves--she said that us lefties don't like the people who do like guns. And you know what? She's right. I don't like them, I wish they would go away and shut up and stop threatening the president with their half-assed, half-baked lies about health care reform and everything else they can't wrap their uneducated, puny, little brains around. If they would just think for a minute, they might realize how fucking stupid they truly are.

The Ideal Husband?

I have not read the novel The Time Traveler's Wife, nor will I probably ever see the film version, mostly because I can't stand the word wife. Anyway, since the movie version has been advertised so frequently lately it got me wondering--what is so appealing about this story? A woman meets a man, a time traveler, when she is young, falls in love with him, then proceeds to marry him, have kids, whatever. I don't really know the plot intricacies, if any. But what I realized was in some ways this is the story of a man who shows up and then disappears--seemingly without notice, right? So what makes him different from most men?

Perhaps it is really a story of ideal male behavior. Show up when you're really needed, dude, and go away the rest of the time. Re-appear to inspire love and lust, to impregnate, to get married, to be at the birth of said child, to sit at the side of your wife's bath and hand her the bath sponge.

My vulva, my self . . .

I'm disturbed by the recent Vagisil commercial I saw in which a woman is undulating in front of the camera with some satin-y fabric draped around her lower torso, and the copy reads: "feel like yourself again." What does this mean? And what does it mean that the woman in the above print ad has her wrists crossed as if in bondage? Are they telling us to keep our hands away from our vaginas?

Vagisil Satin is going to make me feel like my self--is it? I think this advertisement is trying to tell us that unless our vulvas are smooth, slippery, itch-free and as smooth as satin that we are not allowed to feel good. I don't know about you, but I don't check my vagina daily for slippery smoothness. I certainly don't equate the state of my vagina with the state of my self.

If my vagina is my self, what about the rest of me?

I feel good about egg salad

There is a wonderful passage in one of my favorite books. It is from Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You by Peter Cameron, and in this sequence James is having a kind of heavy-duty discussion with his lovely grandmother. She decides they should move onto another topic, such as lunch, and asks James, "How do you feel about egg salad?" James replies, "I feel good about egg salad."

For some reason this passage resonates with me. Why is it? I don't really know, except that it seems to me that James' answer is one in keeping with his character-- but a quirky and unusual answer also. Most people would answer, sure egg salad is fine, or whatever they think about having it for lunch that day.

It reminds of of a very frequently asked question when someone visits another person. Guests are usually asked, "Would you like something to drink?" or "Can I get you a diet coke/water/scotch/slurpee?" What people usually answer if they don't want a beverage is "No, I'm fine." I always want to say I didn't ask how you were--I asked if you wanted a fucking coke. Anyway, perhaps my current obsession with this passage from the novel can be related to the ways we answer ubiquitious questions.

Sometimes I try to answer questions with real answers, but it's kind of exhausting. But I'm happy to have a character to read about who seems to share my prediliction for pondering these silly questions, and answers.

(image by katrine kalleklev, unrelated to post)

Turn an LOL into a great big OMG

Auto-tune The News Part 7 - watch more funny videos

Is there anything to say, really? Auto-tune the news speaks for itself.

HEADLINE: "gunman at health club was bitter over women"

I was very surprised when I read the headline above about the recent shooting in Pennsylvania. I was surprised because it actually mentions gender. I applaud this headline, mostly, because I think it's time we (meaning the media, the general public, everyone) begin to recognize and name the fact of male violence against women. Just yesterday this man walked into a health club in PA and specifically targeted women. He pulled out a gun and killed three women and wounded many others. His blog indicates his "frustration" with women.

From the AP:

He went to the sprawling L.A. Fitness Club in this Pittsburgh suburb, turned out the lights on a dance-aerobics class filled with women, and opened fire with three guns, letting loose with a fusillade of at least 36 bullets.

He killed three women and wounded nine others before committing suicide.

Okay, so he was frustrated. But here's the issue: why is it that the MSM barely ever even mentions that so many crimes where someone shoots up a bunch of people the shooter is male? And much of the time the shooter targets women? What about the Amish school shooting? What about the guy at Virginia Tech?

Is it not a hate crime, to target one sex? Jennifer Pozner has written an incisive article about this phenomenon.

tomatoes and lavender

Here's a picture of a very small portion of the bountiful harvest of tomatoes I have grown this summer in pots in my driveway. They are doing very well despite the lack of big heat. In fact, I'm reaching the point where I'm considering opening up a tomato stand.

I really like growing tomatoes, but once they're grown I'm not as excited by them as when they're in process. Is that weird?


Also, here's some of my freshly harvested lavender. I love lavender.