Non-breeders unite!

Marcy, the lovely Chi above, is my baby. I don't have a human baby. In many ways I have chosen not to have any children for what I consider ethical and social reasons.

Here's my gripe. Or question, rather. I have many, many dear friends who do have kids, and who lately seem to be having them more and more. I started this thing a few years ago (inspired by my friend Darcie) when my first local pal had a baby boy. I arranged a dinner delivery service for the new family by organizing myself and other friends to take dinner to said newbies every couple of days after the sprout comes out. I have done this now, either by organizing or participating, four times, for four different families. Four delicious dinners, made lovingly by me, for four very deserving new families. I don't mind that part.

What I mind is that there is no occasion when I am likely to get dinner delivered to me. Why is this? Why do we reward and celebrate reproducing, and not just life in general? Or some other non-reproductive achievement? It's much like Carrie's complaint on Sex and The City about supporting marriage (and not singlehood) with lavish parties and gifts. I object! Why do we celebrate only normative behaviors?

The Vatican hates women

This morning, my wonderful mom (feminist inspiration that she is) asked me if I had heard the latest from the Pope. She wanted me to guess what the Pope thinks is the most significant cultural event in terms of women's liberation and independence. What is his holy Popester's take on this pivotal cultural event? Could it be the pill? Working outside the home? No--it's the automatic laundry machine.

Apparently The Vatican agrees with a 1950s Whirlpool vision of emancipated womanhood. Ladies! Girls! Bitches! All we really need is a washing machine!

Personally, I'd like a dishwasher and someone to rake my leaves in the fall.

Hilarion candy review

Sugar Babies are a poorly designed candy. As far as I can tell: 1) They are essentially sugar with some brown flavor mixed in. 2) I can not stop eating them until I am physically ill and incapable of eating them again for at least eight months.

I'm not sure why I find the above candy review (brown flavor!?!) posted on Tiny Showcase so fucking hilarious, but I do. Jon Buonaccorsi wrote this one. In case you don't know about it, Tiny Showcase is a wonderful web site that releases a small affordable art print every week on Tuesday evening.

Brazz Tree

Amazing music recommended by my friend Melisa. They're called Brazz Tree . You can purchase their disc at C D Baby.

Jan in the Pan vs. Pre-pan Jan

One of my very favorite movies of all time is The Brain That Wouldn't Die . That's Jan in the pan up there--occasionally called "Pre-pan Jan" by my students during the brief time she spends with a body in the early parts of the movie. I love this movie for its campy ridiculousness as well as for its keen gender commentary.

It is worth watching for the stilted and terribly clunky filmmaking alone--but it also provides some amazing insight into gender and power relations in mid-century western culture.

My favorite line from the movie is when Kurt, Dr. Bill Cortner's intrepid assistant, says to Jan in the pan, "You're a freak of life, and a freak of death!" Soon after this statement the monster in the closet rips his arm off. Poor Kurt.

Best commercial ever (so far)

How can you not love this singing doggy ?

Victory Dance FAIL!

Who ever knew a table tennis game could inspire such jubilent madness???

More Mindsticker Madness!

1960's Tab Commercial (Be A Mindsticker.)
Uploaded by dampier

Here's another mind-blowing Tab commercial. Mindsticker, indeed. After watching three of these mindsticker commercials again and again, I think I've figured out the main purpose of Tab. It makes you completely unable to DO anything except wander around aimlessly, tossing balls, picking up shells, traversing stairways in a jaunty fashion, and of course attending to your offspring. Tab is not designed to keep you thin--it's true purpose is to make women into listless creatures who pose no threat to society.

Too many babies . . .

Although I can't say I'm a fan of our cultural obsession with reproduction, isn't it interesting that the MSM seems to adore families with multiples such as the Duggars and the Gosselins, but yet they are having a big old fun time harrassing the woman in California who had eight children at once?

Why the disparity? Why is she "octomom" and Jon and Kate are media stars? (Well, stars to some--here's an intriguing critical article about the Gosselins) Why are the Duggars "Eighteen Kids and Counting" and have a fucking TV show? The Duggars are members of the Quiverfull movement which advocates as many children as "God" wants you to have. I guess God also wants women to die young from wearing the body out after carrying so many pregnancies.

As much as I enjoy the machinations of the media I think their treatment of the woman in California is hateful, misogynist, and deserves a bit more scrutiny. What is it? Why do we celebrate certain overblown families and vilify others?

I think it's in part because she is single, has done what she wants with her own body, and resists our heteronormative fantasy of the traditional, patriarchal family. Maybe it's because she didn't conceive from intercourse--but then neither did Jon and Kate. Anyway, ideally we should all stop having children altogether--our planet can't take any more humans.

By the way--is his name really Jim Bob? Come on.

I love you, Farm Sanctuary!

Farm Sanctuary is an amazing organization dedicated to rescuing, saving, nurturing, and sheltering farm animals. They have two sanctuary locations, one in New York and one in California.

I think the work they do is very important and makes a huge difference in the world. Check out their web site!

What I love more than anything is when I get to read about a particular animal they've rescued, such as Wendy the wayward chicken! Here's her story. Isn't she beautiful??


And here's Whitney, and his story of abandonment on a roadside in central California.

Little Richard goes on . . .

Groovy 1973 video of Little Richard waxing poetic about Jimi Hendrix. Awesome.

vaginas and muffins

Do you ever have one of those days (weeks!) when you just seem tired? Exhausted? I feel that way today. I woke up at 7:00, fed the furry one, made coffee, answered about seventy emails, and then took a shower. Then I got my hair cut at 9:15 after drinking a burger king mocha BK joe to help me wake up (didn't really help). Then I went to the Beaver-Dahl's grocery store to get some muffin mix so I can make muffins for the Vagina Monologues bake sale at school. Then I came home, checked email, took Miss Marcy out and took an hour and a half nap.

Now I'm awake--Marcy and I just returned from another brisk walk, and I must clean my house, bake those darn muffins, deliver them to the Vagina carnival, and then, who knows? Perhaps I will watch the last two hours of Five Days, this really intriguing BBC/HBO miniseries about a family that vanishes.

But what I really want to do is just get back into my cozy bed . . .

corn mazes scare the crap out of me

Iowa corn. From a corn maze I went to last fall, or the fall before. It was weird, the corn maze. You had to get a card and hole punch it at various numbered stations along the maze. At first we were wandering randomly, happening across stations, hole-punching away. We humanities types tend to meander.

Then, the science person in our group became frustrated and took control. He announced we were to follow in numerical order (!) and thus progress in an orderly fashion through the maze. I'm almost sure that if he hadn't forced us to do this, we might still be there.

At one point, my pal Maura and I came across a small girl. We asked her if she was lost and needed help. She looked at us disdainfully and asked us if we needed help. Was it so obvious that we were clueless? Yes.

back when I was adorable and controllable

Kindergarten was such a lovely phase of life: naptime, playtime, snacks, little dresses, tights, recess, nice hairdos, girls and boys segregated in pictures, and the fabulous Mrs. Brady.

My friend Carmen sent me this picture of my very own K-class from a million years ago. I'm fourth from the left in the front row.

Alan Keyes is fucking nuts

In case you didn't know, Alan Keyes is batshit crazy!

Mindsticker songs stick in your mind!

Okay, I admit I'm becoming obsessed with these mindsticker commercials, but this one takes the cake. Really.

It's creepy in a very Stepford Wives kind of way. I can't decide if the voice-over guy sounds like HAL from 2001 or a tour guide from Westworld.

Be a Mindsticker?

1960's Tab Commercial (Be A Mindsticker.) 2
by dampier

Wow. I'm not sure what else to say, except I may never drink a diet beverage again.

Mindsticker???

Thanks to feministing for the link.

Peter Cameron is a genius

I love author Peter Cameron. Ever since I read a sublime story by him when I was in college many moons ago ("Memorial Day" in his collection One Way or Another ) I have followed his work.

One of his recent novels is Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You. I read it almost in one sitting, and it is beautiful. I don't use that term easily, but this book is truly beautiful and very, very good.

Got this one from The Daily Beast . . .

We have a celebrity in our house . . . Argos does not enjoy being photographed, and thus when I try to take his picture he slinks away. He is lovely.