The other day at the office I was doing my civic feminist duty by listening to the Bitch Radio podcast when one of the gals mentioned her personal favorite podcast, How Was Your Week with Julie Klausner. She raved a bit and moved on but I wrote down the title for investigation later. Having since investigated three or four episodes, it’s new my favorite thing. I want to hang out with Julie in a snack nest for a weekend.
I should write a post where I recap everything I’ve called “my new favorite” since I started writing here. I could even go back further to my now defunct and almost embarrassingly bad blog and pull from there too. I use “favorite” all too often. I swear I have some solid, unchanging favorite things. That might be another post in a world where I write steadily.
So, a flash mob happened. And the video will not embed itself lovingly into this post under any circumstances so here’s the link: http://youtu.be/vrrmeECJzoo
As a political statement a group of dancers to an unknowing audience isn’t the strongest move but the Courage Campaign got a lot of exposure and it was a really fucking cool thing to see up close. I was involved to the extent of holding half of a sign with a stranger that said, “YOU CAN’T PRAY THE GAY AWAY,” and waving a purple piece of fabric in the back row at the end. It wasn’t exactly volunteer work in the name of equality but I’m thrilled to have been there, goosebumps prickling up my arms, tears welling in my eyes, watching so many people of so many ages and backgrounds come together and do something wildly fun and bold to make a point.
-CJ
I was listening to the Hollywood Babble-On podcast during my lunch break yesterday. Kevin Smith and I generally share the same opinions and reactions when it comes to the “celebrity news” type of topics him and Ralph Garmen discuss. Roseanne Barr’s name came up, in that she might be slated to play Chelsea Handler’s aunt in the new show Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea. Smith started going off passionately about this incredible article he’d read in the New York Times by Roseanne and I had to check it out.
OMG
I won’t paste the article in its entirety even though I want to, and then I want to Tweet it, line by line, and then send links to my entire contact list and then print it out to stick up on the refrigerator in the lunch room at work…
Behold:
(the whole shebang is here: http://nymag.com/arts/tv/upfronts/2011/roseanne-barr-2011-5/which and I highly recommend it be read and worshipped accordingly)
Marcy presented herself as a sister in arms. I was a cutting-edge comic, and she said she got that I wanted to do a realistic show about a strong mother who was not a victim of Patriarchal Consumerist Bullshit—in other words, the persona I had carefully crafted over eight previous years in dive clubs and biker bars: a fierce working-class Domestic Goddess.
…
It didn’t take long for me to get a taste of the staggering sexism and class bigotry that would make the first season of Roseanne god-awful.
…
It was pretty clear that no one really cared about the show except me, and that Matt and Marcy and ABC had nothing but contempt for me—someone who didn’t show deference, didn’t keep her mouth shut, didn’t do what she was told. Marcy acted as if I were anti-feminist by resisting her attempt to steal my whole life out from under me.
…
I grabbed a pair of wardrobe scissors and ran up to the big house to confront the producer. [...] I walked into this woman’s office, held the scissors up to show her I meant business, and said, “Bitch, do you want me to cut you?”
It just goes on and on in its greatness. Many applauds to this woman for experiencing what she did and then many more for putting this out there for us. Her show was a hit long before I could appreciate it for what it was but I am tempted to watch all nine seasons with all the coolest chicks I know.
-CJ
Filed under: in the news
A hilarious Word Play article was forwarded by my lovely friend Jamie. To see them all, click the link. Some of my favorites:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject
financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus : A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication : Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you
realize it was your money to start with.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright
ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign
of breaking down in the near future.
8. Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person
who doesn’t get it.
13. Glibido : All talk and no action.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve
accidentally walked through a spider web.
As well as plays on common words:
1. Coffee , n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted , adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has
gained.
4. Esplanade , v.. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
6. Negligent , adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a
nightgown.
7. Lymph , v. To walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle , n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.
13. Pokemon , n.. A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster , n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
Filed under: in the news
and also
no more, I promise.
Filed under: in the news
is all I have to say. (Thanks, Ree.)
January fourteenth, incredibly almost a month ago, I was commuting to work on the 405 freeway, head bangin’, iced coffee sippin’; my routine in place. I was glad it was Friday, even if I was running behind on time. I saw a missed call on my cell from Josh’s mom. It wouldn’t be strange for her to call me at will, but prior to eight a.m. raised my brows. I was worried and dialed her back. She asked if I was ‘ready’ and I knew she was going to hit me with a blow.
With a deep breath, she informed that just hours prior, Josh’s aunt Sharon, uncle Steve and cousin Jonny had all died in a freak electrocution accident, stemming from a downed power line at their house.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/inland_empire&id=7898033
The breath was sucked out of me and I struggled to remember that I was operating a vehicle. I shook my head to loosen the words stalled in my brain, hoping for anything to come out, and blindly settled on what? over and over again. She asked that I be the one to tell Josh in person. She needed me to be strong for him, as she was being for her husband, Steve’s older brother. It would be too time consuming to venture out to Orange County to bring Josh the news while the family around her was reeling, but she couldn’t settle on doing it by phone.
I nominate his mother to deliver any bad news I must bear for the rest of my time here. Woman’s a friggin’ saint.
I made a quick call to my supervisor and then my mom, as a grown woman tends to do in light of what-the-fuck moments of any degree. I still hold some guilt that I was talking to her about it before I was talking to my boyfriend but if I was to show any amount of strength and will myself from falling the fuck apart, I needed her to help me. As always, she did.
Josh told me later that he thought I’d been fired. Showing up at his office on a weekday morning and calling his company line, something I’d never done before, to ask him to come outside was unexpected, to say the least. I would trade the best job in the world for that to be the news I had. Like I’d hoped he wouldn’t, he didn’t ask why I was calling, just got up from his desk and came to the parking lot, headset still around his face. I hid behind my sunglasses and clenched my hands to stop the shaking. His reaction mirrored mine, as his hands went to his head. What?
A short amount of time has passed. The funerals came and went; one for Jonny and one for Sharon and Steve. My love donned white gloves and a rose pinned to his dress shirt as a pall bearer. Hundreds of people showed up to the double service last weekend, including at least a hundred leather vest clad bikers in green bandanas for Steve.
It was an incredibly gut-wrenching experience, watching these hard, tough, scarred and tattooed, grown men cry. One that I never hope to see again. The collective shock and heart break was damn near too much to bear and these are not even my blood relatives, but Josh’s and Kiddo’s. Kiddo and I didn’t have much of a relationship with them, and still she was in tears when she saw the sadness her dad tried his best to hide from us. It was the shock and the tragedy and fucking unfairness of it that shook me to my core.
We played poker with them two weeks before, on New Year’s Day. I told Josh on the drive home that it was like watching a couple of high school sweethearts, they way they so blatantly adored one another. I’m thrilled I got to see them leaning against the back of the couch to peer into a lit up fishtank, arms slung around each others’ waist. I’m glad I got to laugh my ass of Steve’s shit talking during Seven Card Stud. And I’m really glad I got to meet Sharon for the first time that night. When she hugged me goodbye and said, “It was so nice to meet you,” I really believed her. They were such genuinely good people and a crowd of a few hundred were reminded as people took the podium during their service and told stories about what a joy it’d been to know them.
The night of their deaths, I posted to my Facebook: We are all finite. Drop your grudges, kissed your loved ones.
You just never fucking know.
-CJ
From an article on MSN: Senate repeal of ban on gays in military falters
Socarides said President Barack Obama “badly miscalculated” the Pentagon’s support for repeal, while Democrats made only a “token effort” to advance the bill.
A part of me wants to be lighthearted and say the gay and lesbian community is too good for the military anyway. The other part of me is so, so sorry for the lives this is negatively affecting. We can all argree this is the one of the stupidest laws in effect, right?
Right.
-CJ
THE GAYS CAN MARRY!
THE GAYS CAN MARRY!
A federal judge in San Francisco decided today that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, striking down Proposition 8, the voter approved ballot measure that banned same-sex unions. U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker said Proposition 8, passed by voters in November 2008, violated the federal constitutional rights of gays and lesbians to marry the partners of their choice.
This is fucking incredible news! I can’t stop smiling! I can’t even be witty or sarcastic! Someone come hug me!
-CJ
