Tuesday, March 27, 2007

i genuinely don't understand this



America's Next Top (Dead) Model

what is the motivation here? to be funny? cute? Derelicte?

i know art is supposed to be provocative, to challenge you, make people feel uneasy and blah blah blah, but this just gives me an icky feeling all around. plus - it's chintzy reality television, so from personal experience i question the producers' motives immediately. especially when the judges say things like, "death becomes you" and "you look beautiful in death." the photos are pretty disturbing...kind of the stuff of my nightmares, and the context just makes them downright chilling. just last week, i looked through court evidence photos for a federal rape and murder case. actual death is NOT beautiful and it is certainly NOT sexy.

this theme seems to have come up a lot recently, like here and here. dead, dehumanized and humiliated women sell.

it's sexy and flashy and pretty looking. but i see no positive or useful purpose for this.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

"the women are strong, the men are screaming queens, and all the children are sure to be traumatized"


this child has a mommy and a daddy


Now, um...Garrison Keillor (?) joins the fray with his latest piece in Salon.

I never really cared about Garrison Keillor, nor followed his works. I still don't really. I know he's a droll fellow, and i know i didn't really like the film "A Prairie Home Companion" when i rented it on a whim. But i think the overall tone of this piece is a bit rich coming from a thrice-married adulterer. Plus, it's a pretty disappointing representation since Minnesotans tend to be more of an enlightened breed.

When i read this, my first thought was, "Ohhh snap, Dan Savageisgonnabesomad!"

...Aaaaaaand he is.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Welcome to the Freakshow



my first entry here is obnoxiously link heavy, so sorry.

these screen captures have been making the rounds.

hilarious, right? Fox News has been a punching bag for quite some time now, and the network never seems to fail in sparking some fresh outrage amongst the liberal blogosphere. i must say that it doesn't bother me anymore. i think of it as performance art now. a sideshow of freaks.

There's Amazon Ann - watch her adam's apple rise and her rhetoric plunge! Let The Amazing Falafel titillate you with his vivid sexy talk and child captivity fantasies!. Behold the pasty giant baby Jesus John Gibson: come adore him as he celebrates his religion as one of nonviolence and one of humility! peer into the tent of Big Pharma, who posesses the magical power of psychological projection!

Fox News is pretty much at the point where they are one of those shitty low-rent traveling circuses that pass through your town - broken seatbelts hanging off the rides, paint peeling off the machinery, the staff lazily pulling the levers and pressing the buttons and collecting your tickets. they aren't even trying anymore.

i see the freakshow for what it is. but that doesn't mean i will ignore them.

none of the above believe one iota in the things they say, which is probably the thing i find the most offensive of all. but its all preaching to a choir: a knuckle dragging, tiny temporal lobed choir. people who think the ugliest of things within the confines of their minds and homes and desperately seek public validation. and they've been finding it for several years now. their words, while cloaked in the disclaimer of "i was only kidding" or "come on, it's just for ratings" and even "I don't think there's anything offensive about any variation of faggy, faggotry, faggot, fag. It's a schoolyard taunt" slowly but surely drift away from the punditocracy and into our discourse, right until it becomes fashionable again to hear things like this:

"Well, you know, I hate gay people. I let it be known I don’t like gay people. I don’t like to be around gay people. I’m homophobic. It shouldn’t be in the world, in the United States, I don’t like it." - Indiana Pacers player Tim Hardaway in a radio interview

or this gem of a discussion topic off a popular "prestigious" law school blog which i do not care to link to directly:

Arabs, Coons, Spics, Chinks or Fags? Who should we kill first??

and even this:

"I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts...I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way." -Top Pentagon General Peter Pace in an interview yesterday with Chicago Tribune

yeah...the Pentagon. classy. so yes, laugh at the freakshow. gawk, point, 'tsk tsk' at will. but remember that it all starts somewhere. pay attention, tell your friends, and always try to hit them where it hurts whenever possible.