Music Video of the Day: Acoustic Cover of Paula Abdul's "Straight Up"

I've always loved this song. I kinda love Paula Abdul. But there's something about paring it down from a dance song to this more raw, simplistic interpretation that really lays bare the emotional vulnerability expressed in the lyrics.

Affirmations

Sometimes it helps to write things down, lest you forget, or lest anyone asks you and you haven't the time to tell them. This list might grow with time. We'll see. So, my affirmations, my beliefs:

• I believe in an all-powerful and loving God.
• I believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and in his plan to save humanity.
• I believe that we as people will never 100% understand God's plan but that He calls us and encourages us to try to do so.
• I believe that no man should be completely alone.
• I believe in the importance of family, whether blood related or not, for each person's emotional well-being...for support, encouragement...united in an effort to grow and love.
• I believe in karma, not in the full reincarnationist sense of the word, but in the idea that the sort of energy you put out in the world is the sort of energy which will permeate and surround your life: if you constantly expel negativity, your life will be shrouded in negative energy.
• I believe that the heart and mind should work in concert with one another; that emotion without reason is dangerous and reason without emotion is blind.
• I believe that we need artists just as much as we need doctors.
• I believe that the most important members of our society are often the most underpaid.
• I believe it's better to live a short fulfilling life than a long, meaningless one.
• I believe that chocolate can cure almost anything.
• I believe in self-fulfilling prophecy.
• I believe that it's ok to burn bridges if said bridges are nothing but precariously placed tight-ropes.

Because we're all a little bit racist

Fine, I'll Count My Blessings. Whatever.

Woman receiving massage: Do you fix a broken heart?
Chinese masseuse: What? What you say. Heart? Pain? Heart not good?
Woman: I said, do you fix a broken heart?
Chinese masseuse: Hmmm... You heart is good! No bad! No worry! You healthy -- very, very good!
Woman: Oh... Good...

--Massage parlor, Mott St

via Overheard in New York, Feb 8, 2008

Proud to be an American

I'm going to take a break from this important day in American politics, Super Tuesday, in order to say that if you have not been watching the new American Gladiators, then you need to go to the Official Website where you can watch full episodes in order to get caught up. This show is AMAZING.

Edwards out, Obama in

My immediate reaction to the news of John Edwards backing out of the presidential race:

It's no secret (though I like to pretend it is) that I've been a supporter of John Edwards for a while...I believe he's stayed in the race this long, not because he thought he had a chance at the White House, but in order to keep his issues at the forefront. He's consistently stood up for the every-American and has been one of the few liberals who seems to actually know who the every-American is. That being said, I also think he's holding out on endorsing a candidate until he has a better idea of who's going to the White House, in order to not burn any bridges and to keep open the opportunity of once again being a running mate. (But I do think he's a Barack supporter at heart.)

Now I think my original prediction of a Hillary/Barack ticket is more likely to come to fruition. But we shall see. Until then, Barack gets my support, despite my inability to vote in primaries due to being an independent and being registered to vote in a state that only lets those affiliated with political parties vote in the primaries. "Fresh Intelligence: Radar Online: What's Next for John Edwards?"

Music Video of the Day - "Your Ex-Lover is Dead" by Stars

Yes, the lynching situation got worse

Golfweek magazine also covered the Kelly Tilghman/Tiger Woods lynch comment story discussed in my last entry. They unfortunately chose a very unfortunate cover photo to accompany the article:

Gawker coverage here

Worthless Wars of Words

Tiger OK with 'lynch' remark, but Sharpton ready for battle

Because Al Sharpton has launched himself into the position of being the most vocal member in the efforts of advancing the African-American race, I would like to say that he has helped his people in countless ways. But that would be a lie. I am not saying that he has done no good. I'm sure he has. But as usual, I think he has gone too far in fighting what really amounts to a ridiculous and unimportant battle.

Last week, Kelly Tilghman, an announcer for the Golf Channel, caused a very mild scandal when she made a joke about young golfers lynching Tiger Woods. The comment was in response to a joke her co-announcer made in regards to how the other players would try to compete against the phenom. It was an ill-conceived comment, made in the heat of the moment. I for one have made lynch-mob jokes, thinking in my mind more of the witch-hunt aspect of the idea, than the intense racial undertones. However, I am not on television and I do agree that her lapse in judgement was worthy of a slap on the wrist. Tiger Woods himself was content to just shrug it off.

But Rev. Al Sharpton once again felt it necessary to mount his horse, raise his battle flag, and demand that she be fired. CNN compared it to the Don Imus fiasco. But here's the thing: Don Imus has a tradition of making malicious and controversial jokes for the sake of being malicious and controversial. Imus crossed a line when he made an attack that was both sexist and racist against a group of very young women. He too probably didn't fully think of the consequences and the depth of meaning of his words, but Imus, as aforementioned, made his name, his fortune, from towing the line of what is and isn't appropriate. Tilgham just likes to talk about golf. She made a small mistake and her friend, Tiger Woods, forgave her.

Perhaps this is a bigger deal than I'm making it out to be because of golf's history of deeply rooted racism...But I still have a better idea for Al Sharpton. Instead of going after public figures who make public snafus, why not work on getting equal education for blacks in public schools? Instead of wasting so much time trying to get media attention, why not try to get the attention of the youth stuck in a cycle of violence? Instead of worrying about what white people are doing wrong, why not try to help blacks do what is right?

Suggested reading: White Guilt by Shelby Steele

A shout out to VH1's 40 Least Hip Hop Moments List*

Um, I Created a Life.

Stuffy white lady pushing stroller, to friend: I can't believe people are actually taking Justin Timberlake seriously these days.
Hipster crossing East: He brought sexy back, bitch! What the hell did you do?

--Central Park West

Overheard by: Zora Zero

via Overheard in New York, Jan 15, 2008

*Justin Timberlake made the list

Not News

Senator Hillary Clinton narrowly won the New Hampshire primaries.

President George W. Bush began a Mid-East tour.

Violence is ripping apart the once peaceful country of Kenya.

White women across America are being kidnapped and butchered.

This is not a blog post about what should and shouldn't be considered newsworthy. I am one of those who believes that a couple of fluff pieces in a sea of death and politics and war can help to boost the morale of those who would become jaded by the dark world we live in. I think reading about the exploits of the rich and famous can relax someone's mind when in the middle of trying to decide what to do to help their working class family, help their country, help their community...

...but can we please heed the little Southern boy's cry and leave Britney alone? I am admittedly part of the problem. I have enjoyed watching the train wreck that is her life. But isn't it a bit disgusting the way we will exploit human beings (the way I am doing even now by blogging about her) who are the in the midst of great emotional and mental turmoil? And we write apologetics for it, justify it, "She's begging for the attention" or "Well, that's the price you pay for fame." It's one thing to have a little less privacy and another to have your problems fueled and intensified, scrutinized by the egging-ons of a world watching from the comfort of their own homes, thumbs pointed downward, waiting for you to finally meet your bloody end.

No, she is not innocent...but her children are. Maybe if we stop paying attention to her, she can start paying attention to the things that matter most.

Memo: In Sweeping Policy Change, AP Alerts Staff Britney Is Now 'A Big Deal

No Day But Today

Procrastination is a lot like masturbation: it's a lot of fun until you realize that you just screwed yourself.

I am notorious for my tendency to procrastinate. It has been a lifelong disorder, that when I was younger, had minimal consequences. I managed to do my work well enough to get by okay and often, as many do, found that the urgency of a fast approaching deadline caused me to create work of a relatively high quality. But one often wonders, "What if you approached that work with urgency from day one?"

Part of the problem is that it is easy to get burned out on a project...to quickly lose all affection for it: whether it be a writing project, a cleaning project, a science project, etc. But work, even artistic work, is called work for a reason. It is not easy and it should not necessarily be easy.

What do you want to accomplish in life? Start working on it now! The thing about life is that you don't know when your deadline is. You don't know when it is too late. I am not making a New Year's Resolution. That seems like a guarantee of future failure. No...but I am working daily to begin to live life with a new sense of urgency. I must assume that opportunities will no longer fall into my lap. I must not let those opportunities that do appear, pass me by.

This is an emergency. This need to live the life I want to live is a present need and should not be a dream or a wish. And I will proceed day by day with this knowledge in my heart.

Go boldly in the directions of your dreams; live the life you have imagined. -Henry David Thoreau

To Cherish and Embarrass

I must admit that I am probably late to this party. I was just watching Wildest Wedding Show Moments 2 when they showed a clip of a scene that a friend of mine had told me about.

We had been talking about public marriage proposals. For the most part, I think they're sweet. I think it'd be awesome for a guy to propose to me at a baseball game, for instance. But only if it had been clearly established that we planned on getting married. The idea of turning down a marriage proposal is almost as painful as the idea of having my marriage proposal rejected. Now imagine being proposed to by someone who you don't want to marry in front of thousands of people? What do you do? Do you say yes to spare that person the embarrassment, or do you follow your heart and say no?

Now, I've found that the clip I saw on TV was a hoax, but the below clip seems to have actually happened. (And it seems to have happened just a couple of months after the hoax. Bad timeline on my part? Life imitating art? Or another hoax? Suspicious, but still outrageous.)

More Bhutto

A great post from Jezebel:

• Musharraf On Bhutto: "I May Be A Dictator, But She Was Like An African Dictator..."
  • For someone who wants to be military dictator for life and cried when he had to take off the uniform, that's a pretty pot-kettle kind of statement. Does that mean he's really just following in her footsteps?
  • I also recommend reading all of the links within the post.

Goodbye to Bhutto

This morning CNN.com greeted me with blaring headlines about the death of Benazir Bhutto and my jumbled thoughts were something to the effect of: "Holy shit! I know who she is. Oh, no. This is bad. This is very bad."

I'm not going to waste time giving my view of things. I am unqualified to do so and still a little too shaken up. Also shaken up by the fact that I know enough to be shaken up. Apathy is so much easier. I don't quite know when or how the ripples of this tidal wave are going to reach my doorstep, or if the effects will even be as severe as some predict, but I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge this troubled day.

Once Upon a December

I like to measure my life in Decembers. It's a hard month. It's cold in a way that the other winter months aren't. By February, the cold is purely physical, it's annoyance, it's scarves and coats held tight, a distaste with hot chocolate after months of imbibing warm drinks to counteract the low temperatures.

But December feels fresh. The outside cold is still sort of new and can invigorate. The hot chocolate tastes like happy memories. The chai tastes like family and friends and the sudden steaming up of your glasses when you walk into a warm coffee shop after walking for blocks in the cold.

But the December cold goes deeper than the temperature outside. The coldest part of December is the remembrance of another year gone by. It's facing all of the things you've fucked up, acknowledged that you've changed in a lot of ways that you shouldn't have, and haven't changed in a lot of ways that you should have. December is the month of introspection, self-reflection - internal combustion.

My best love stories begin in the chill of December - under blankets, beside ice covered cars, in front of fire places, inside of crowded movie theatres; memories of window sills and hookah bars and road trips and love letters and lame bars. My worst love stories begin in December.

So, here it is: December 2007. A year ago, writing out 2007 felt so amazing. The number seemed to teem with positive energy and hope and promises of fantasticness. It of course turned into just another year and this is yet another December, full of emotional tidal waves catalyzed by memories, twinges of regret, moments of fear...hope for the upcoming year...anxiety over what the remainder of this year has in store for me.

And there's nothing more to say. I have a case of the Decembers. It is neither good nor bad. I'm not depressed or overly excited. I am pensive. And by the time I get anywhere with my thoughts, draw any conclusions about my past or future, the new year arrives and I realize once again that there are no conclusions...