I Represent Queens, She Was Raised Out In Brooklyn

I remember watching this video when I was pretty young, although at times it's pretty explicit I could never take it seriously for sexual content, mostly because I found LL Cool J goofy rather than sexy. Also, the lyrics are pretty silly, although trying to be sexy. The other day I was driving around in the summer heat with my best friend, the song came on and it reminded me of more innocent days, it was perfect.

I especially like the beginning of the video, where they are chanting "Go Brooklyn." So 90's.

The Bottom Line

The recent column by Roger Simon about his purchase of Prius, reminded of a recent program I heard on NPR. The segment was the dangerous ways people are trying to save on gas and the safe alternatives that people can actually implement. The guy they interviewed was very reasonable and described things like checking your tires for air and not driving above 70 mph that would make people pay less for gas, he then had the audacity to suggest that hybrids might just be as good at fuel efficiency as some typical cars, like the Civic. The host on the other hand kept reminding us of what the bottom line was:
1. The cost
2. Environmental impact.
It was kind of maddening to listen to, since yes the environment is important, but I'm not going to go bankrupt trying to save it. I don't have the luxury of the NPR host to pick and overpriced hybrid car. The complete obliviousness is staggering.
Here is Simon's money quote:

If you do the math, our hybrid purchases still seem to be driven by that aforementioned “self-satisfaction” rather than by true energy savings. But that math is precariously close to the tipping point, especially if you keep your car for a period of time.

Amazing "Spiderman" Catch By Ball Girl

I love the player's reaction on the field, it's a pure WTF?

via Ace's headlines

Fashion Smashion: Scarves

I really don't understand the new trend of scarves that has cropped up in the recent months. It would be bad enough if only girls did it, but "men" - specifically the urban kind - who like to wear skinny jeans, smoke American Spirits cigarettes, and know the latest "it" band while showing their butt crack to the world (a right reserved to teenage girls and middle age plumbers...but I digress) seem to also get into this annoying trend. Does one really need a decorative scarf in 80 degree weather and does it really need to be worn like a bib. Seriously, every time I see this fashion statement it makes me think two things: 1. Someone is hungry and wants to stay clean; 2. Someone wants to look like a faux-terrorists. Okay, mainly I think there just dumb schmucks because it's summer, it's warm, and there is no need to cover your neck.

This is a funnier, better post that gets the point across.

And Just Smiling At The Sound

I'm going to The Cure show tonight, courtesy of Peter, and I'm really excited. I haven't been to a big concert in ages and it will be my first time at Madison Square Garden. So many reasons to be very excited. I posted the blog tagline "It's Friday, I'm in Love" a few weeks ago in anticipation of the concert and that's how I felt - it happened to be Friday and I happened to be in love. So even though this isn't even my favorite song by them I have to post it - because it's certainly the anthem for me as I travel to NYC today.

Poetry Friday

Variation On The Word Sleep

I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and as you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.

Margaret Atwood

I really like the last stanza of this poem, it's both incredibly romantic and creepy.

A Description of The New Yorker

I found this description (and the whole blog post is fascinating) of The New Yorker on the money, and I write it as someone who actually enjoys reading it.

I've been a subscriber for almost thirty years, and I'm always hopeful it won't again contain another Updike story or Hendrick Hertzberg screed, but inevitably disappointed am I. I guess it's hard to find different writers for a magazine that purports to be for the literate when it is really a middlebrow primer for an unsophisticated political bias. If that bias catered to the liberal or leftward leaning affluent it would be at least worth the price of subscription, but it promotes a more general bias: power is bad. Anything the powerful does is wrong....
My own unscientific study suggests The New Yorker's readership is especially those who believe that the little guy always gets trampled on by the powerful, but that they, the readers, are neither little nor powerful, they're in the middle. They are a select group that lacks power, but possesses wisdom. They understand what's really going on. Coincidentally, this describes another overlapping group: academics.

The Last Psychiatrist delves into how a simple psychological experiment is distorted by the article in The New Yorker simply to prove a point that: power is bad.

All Sorts of Melons

I found this image quite beautiful, the watermelons both whole and cut open juxtaposed with the naked artist, Sigalit Landau, floating in the Dead Sea. I been meaning to go to MoMA for some time. Maybe now will be a good time.

(Look Casca: Breasts!)

The Kind of Person I Am

Is it wrong to feel a little bummed when one of my closest friends tells me that she is going to try to be a vegetarian? I have nothing against people who don't eat meat, but I experience a huge amount of empathy for the deliciousness they will miss out in the future. Although I do hate vegetarians who try to convince you eating meat is wrong and who only do it out of moral concerns, but if you want to eat only dandelions, and still let me enjoy my steak, than more power to you. Live and let eat live, I say. I'm hungry.

Constance the Confused Cat

Constance the Confused Cat, originally uploaded by S.britt.

I love the colors in this tiny illustration. Notice something funny about the cat. I personally think her choker blends in with the background, others might have more morbid ideas.

Random Thought

It seems that photos always make things look more fun than they actually are. So it's kind of sad to see miserable looking photos of people "having fun." You just know it was a bummer to be there.

Memory Tricks

I re-watched Yellow Submarine this Sunday, turns out the movie is not as funny or interesting as I remembered. About quarter of the way in I began to getreally restless, even Ringo's bad puns didn't help. And I love bad puns more than ever. Sure George's "It's all in your mind you know!" was amusing the first two times he said it. I can kind of see how being high makes the experience more pleasurable - some of the montages are incredibly colorful,lush, and strange. However since I had no intention of altering my state of mind I found the film rather disappointing, most of the music is also quite forgettable. I still like the 1,2,3,4 song though. I give the film five stars while high, two stars while sober. I can't believe I recommended this movie to others.

African Dictators and How Obama Can Help

Gib has an excellent post on what is going right now in Zimbabwe, with Mugabe's thugs mutilating/killing the opposition leader's wife and threatening starvation to a population already on the brink. He also offers an interesting solution to the dictator problem in the form of Barack Obama. Check it out.

The Last Mistress

I kind of want to see this film, even though it strikes me as dressed up soap opera. I vaguely remember seeing Romance and not liking it very much. I keep thinking I have seen Asia Argento somewhere, but don't know where. Also why is the seductress always the brunette and the bride always the blonde?

Which leads me to think, would people prefer to be brides or the mistresses? Obviously, I wouldn't like to be one or the other, I would like the person I am to be faithful. But if there was a choice to be made - and no other alternative, I feel like films always make you want to be the mistress, they make it seem dangerous and glamorous and whole lot of other adjectives that are completely false.

NoFucking Balls At All

Sorry to some of my liberal readers but this makes me really fucking mad, so just skip this post if it offends you. The Supreme Court has ruled that enemy combatants, people who want to destroy America/Americans through waging war on us get Habeas Rights under our constitution that they so abhor. Gabriel Malor over at Ace's site has more thoughtful analysis of what this means. Fucking wankers, now a bunch "pro-bono" top notch lawyers will go to work helping these assholes, meanwhile the Saudis are paying the firms where these freedom-loving lawyers work, huge sums of money. Whatever, this makes me sick.

Mediocre Day

I just got an e-mail that let me know the following: Make it a great day!

I think I'm going to stick to my intention and make it a mediocre day. I don't take instructions well from strangers.

My Next Book Purchase

A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song.

I need to know things like this (about I'm Only Sleeping):

During the break before the second bridge at about 1:57 minutes into the song, a barely audible voice (probably Lennon's) can be heard saying, "Yawn, Paul." Following this, the slightly more audible sound of McCartney yawning can be heard at about 2:00 minutes into the song.

via Wiki

Observations on Class

Ace posts an excellent analysis of the "Luppies" (Liberal Urban Professionals), a new term I haven't heard before but dig. He relates them to the dying aristocratic breed of 1910's portrayed in Gosford Park.

What to say? I've said this before, but if anyone wants to understand the basic cultural impulse of Luppies (Liberal Urban Professionals), watch the commentary track of Gosford Park. The screenwriter explains the tastes of the dying aristocracy of the early 1900's as largely a series of learned affectations designed to set them apart from the commoners. Thus their flat rejection of popular culture (something the proles like, in the main) and suspicions about anyone making money by actually making money (as opposed to just living off ancestral lands' rents).

And of course those forced to be most ostentatious about these affectations were precisely those least entitled to call themselves the aristocracy, that is, those who were only barely high-born, or actually quite poor despite their high social status, or otherwise in danger of losing their cherished membership in the club.

Those more secure in their position, or adequately dirty-rich, could better afford to flout the affected tastes of the country-manor set.

It's the same sort of overcompensation that is often said to lead to men with feelings of inadequacy buying big-engined sportscars. The same impulse leads those with a gnawing sense of lack of adequate social status to buy Volvos and Priuses, but of course they don't like to joke about that.

Many liberals are much concerned with setting themselves apart as members of the socio-cogno-cultural elite, and yet don't have any particularly strong claims on such status, to wit, either aristocratic lineage, high accomplishment in one's field, or (as ever) a big stinking heap of money.

And thus these idiotic cultural/tribal signifiers -- an otherwise inexplicable romance with rather overpriced and often-burned coffee sold in strip-malls and walking-malls by a vendor with some light European pretensions, a rage about this or that independent movie that all of the smart-set agrees is a must-see, which hot new vodka is currently the only one to drink, etc. -- occupy such a disproportionately large part of the Luppies' mindspace.

They're not just buying coffee at Starbucks, you see. They are, for just $3.99 per Venti, establishing or reinforcing, they think, that craved position in the social/cultural/cognitive elite that otherwise eludes them. Renting status at a steeply-discounted price, considering the various other ways -- either difficult or expensive or both -- to actually obtain it.

My ringlet of Tasty Death!!

My boyfriend is having problems with cockroaches in his apartment. I suggested he use "chinese chalk" a product my family has used to eliminate the disgusting buggers a while back. I went on line to see if I can find some information about the chalk and I came across this gem:

LISTEN ALL I HAVE HOPE FOR YOU!!!
I live in the Bronx, New York City area and I have found the ANSWER! It is ILLEGAL however, but a solution nonetheless. I have had some serious bouts with these bastards, they are quite resilient a species.
I am quite sadistic in nature, so this may not be the best or even humane route to accomplishing the task you've set out on.
THE ANSWER YOU SEEK involves destroying a creature thats been around millions of years!! But don't let numbers get in your way!
You simply MUST find a product called "Chinese Chalk" or one of it's many other names...IT WORKS MY FRIENDS!! NO BULLSH*T!!!
First, Google what the side effects are because of it's pesticidal contents, and the fact that yes it's ILLEGAL in the states to purchase...but what the hell, it's the price I payed to be roach free, and I'd do it again in a heart-beat!
Secondly, find the product and purchase it...then laugh aloud meniacally, and in sinister way rub you hands together back and forth mimicking the dirty little buggers you're about to annihilate. (I pretended personally that I was the pilot of the Enola Gay all the way home with product in hand)!!!
Thirdly, kick open the door and yell out (IM MAD AS HELL...AND IM NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!)
My way to destroying these bastards was derived from a friend who told me what to expect 15 hours after employing the product...except I went overboard...WAYYY OVERBOARD!
The chalk has some kind of nervous system destroying ingredient that only affects insects..so when they cross the line that you've drawn on the floor, wall, baseboard, etc. the chalk gets picked up by the legs of the creature and breaks down the nervous system of the infidel, leaving a twitching, parylized, roach on the floor!
So what I did was draw a sort of "bullseye" out of the chalk in the middle of my most infected room which happened to be my kitchen..in the middle of my bullseye....there was my piece de resistance to all cockroaches!!! A large piece of white bread smothered in Welch's Grape Jelly and Chunky Jiff Peanut Butter!! I called it: My ringlet of Tasty Death!!
Lastly, since I have large ceramic
tile floor in my kitchen...I bought a 99 cent water spray bottle meant for watering plants, and turned it into a tool of instantaneous insect death by filling it with rubbing alcohol. 13 hours later after deploying the chalk I had a hundred or so twitching little bastards on their backs on my tile floor...so I let loose the water bottle on them with the help of my trusty zippo lighter...had me a little roach barbeque...oh how they snapped and popped!!
I have used it a handful of times after that until I recieved satisfactory results ending in no sightings for months at a time! Try it, believe me you wont be sorry!!!

Auto-Tune or The Cher Effect Explained

Yaron had brought this effect to my attention on Snoop Dogg's Sensual Seduction.

via Kottke

The Russian or the American Way

When it comes to how Russians treat their adversaries and how Americans do it - it's like comparing day and night. I've been thinking about this recently, the cut throat approach of Russians and the kid gloves approach of Americans, both leave me unsatisfied. And while I would never want Americans to behave like Russians, sometimes a situations warrants a more severe reaction. I don't think I would openly advocate for this kind of action but Ephraim's words about a deadlocked jury in the case of Naveed Haq, the man who killed one woman and shot six more in a Jewish center while ranting against Israel and the Iraq war, resonated with me:

Only in America could a Muslim invade a Jewish building, gun down Jews while shouting “Death to the Jews” and somehow the jury can’t decide if he’s guilty.
We should do what the Russians do: shoot the fucker. It would save us all time, money, and embarrassment.

Cases like this make me think that sometimes it would just be a little more satisfying if Americans learned a few things from the Russians.

Obama Flip Flops On An Issue Number 3,782

Let me tell Israel supporters of Israel one thing and then turn around and tell palestinians the complete opposite. Catch it - HopeChage!

Books I Need to Read

I have no idea about investing, good thing Warren Buffett is recommending 10 books about investment.

via Kotke

I Love Jenna Fischer

Check her on Fresh Air.

Related:

Reading room of sorts

In my home the bathroom doubles as a reading room. If it wasn't for the bathroom reading time I wouldn't be able to finish anything I started. It's the best, but only at home - in public it's just wrong.

TMI? Oh well.

Refusnik

I went to see a special screening of Refusnik last night, with many former refusniks and American activist for Soviet Jews in attendance, the director, Laura Bialis was also there answering questions at the end of the film.
As a film, Refusniks is not breaking any new ground, in fact at times it felt choppy and crammed in with too many interviews and repeated archival footage. In fact Bialis admitted that she had a rough cut of about eight hours long and she mentioned she conducted close to 2,000 interviews. So it's understandable that she would want to put as much information as she could. I largely agree with Ty Burr's assessment of the movie,

The talking-head parade would dry the film right out if not for the startling, even amusing human drama that keeps poking through the historical fabric.

The human drama certainly does peek threw especially from the interviews of the Soviet dissedents, maybe I'm biased but I found their stories more compelling than the American counter parts (without who's efforts the refusniks would not have been released). Some of the stories struck a personal chord like refusing Jewish students entries into good Universities even if they were the top students in their class (like winning the gold medal that guaranteed you entrance into any University without being rejected from the University). My father was denied attendance to a University of choice even though he received a silver medal or my grandfather being fired because he was Jewish.

The most admirable aspect of the film is how it makes you aware of the people who paved the way for the massive immigration of a million Jews from the former Soviet Union, because of people like the ones featured in the film my family and I were able to leave the Soviet Union. Many Russian Jews who are in this country don't realize the debt they owe these people and take it for granted coming to Israel or America.

It also shows how important State of Israel was to Soviet Jews. It was a beacon of hope and place they could look to as their true homeland. There's a beautiful moment in the film when one of the refusniks describes waking up in Jerusalem for the first time and realizing that the nine years in exile and hard labor camp was worth the moment of seeing sun over the Old City. The movie also emphasizes what Jews can accomplish when they band together. There's an old joke that says something along the lines of: two Jews, three opinions. During the Q & A someone asked why Bialis why the film didn't mention that there was fractures in the Jewish advocacy in America, supposedly things were not all honkey dorie and sweet as it appears in the documentary. Bialis implied that it was a sub-plot at some point, but that it ended up on the cutting floor and also she wanted to convey the message of how the ultimate unity of American Jews brought on this monumental action.
In short I would recommend seeing it, the stories and images stick in your head. I was left feeling grateful that I live in America. Bialis also said that many people and stories did not make it into the film and that a project is in the works to archive and compile this information. Maybe a mini-series documentary. Definitely would be a great resource to have.

Fashion With a Terrorist Twist

Pretty Numbers post reminded me of this cartoon:

Because the last twelve hours or so have been brutal...

here's something to cheer myself up with.