Logopolis

links for 2010-06-01

• This is my favorite new porn title ever...
  The.41.Year.Old.Virgin.Who.Knocked.Up.Sarah.Marshall.And.Felt.Superbad.About.It.... I'm actually assuming its a porn title... I just came across it and am not about to do a Google serach on it.
  (tags: funny)

Vogue...vogue...vogue

Here's the thing about Anna Wintour...as I watch a rerun of her interview on 60 Minutes...

One of the rumors Morley Safer 'confronted' her on was that if you get into the elevators at Vogue, you shouldn't talk.

She laughed it off, but guess what? When the former CEO at my company happened to get into the same elevator as me, we usually shut the fuck up. He probably didn't expect it. In fact, he usually started speaking to us uncomfortably.

But if there's a person whose every decision will somehow affect your professional life, you tend to shut up.

It's called work for a reason. Like Wintour said, we aren't there to have fun.

The Lawrence of Arabia of Sex in the City 2 Reviews

(by which I mean it is epic and awesome and wonderfully bitchy)

I posted my "favorite critical responses to Sex in the City 2" too early, having not yet read Burkas and Birkins by The Stranger's Lindy West.

It begins with a standard (yet wonderful) joke about Kim Cattrell's aged vagina, peaks with the following opening synopsis

Sex and the City 2 makes Phyllis Schlafly look like Andrea Dworkin. Or that super-masculine version of Cynthia Nixon that Cynthia Nixon dates. Or, like, Ralph Nader (wait, bad example—Schlafly totally does look like Ralph Nader in a granny wig). SATC2 takes everything that I hold dear as a woman and as a human—working hard, contributing to society, not being an entitled cunt like it's my job—and rapes it to death with a stiletto that costs more than my car. It is 146 minutes long, which means that I entered the theater in the bloom of youth and emerged with a family of field mice living in my long, white mustache. This is an entirely inappropriate length for what is essentially a home video of gay men playing with giant Barbie dolls.

and closes with this

If this is what modern womanhood means, then just fucking veil me and sew up all my holes. Good night.

It also includes a reference to something that I originally thought was a joke, that Samantha calls her well-endowed Arabian lover "Lawrence of My-Labia."

Yes, really.

Perhaps I'm beating a dead camel here, but I find this pun incredibly ironic, because the more I think about this movie, the more I think I'm getting closer and closer to knowing what it is like to have sand in your vagina.

My Favorite Critic Quotes re: Sex in the City 2

from Rotten Tomatoes

"Women, this isn't empowerment; it's like watching Us Weekly prank call the New York Times." - Richard Roeper

"The only thing memorable about Sex and the City 2 is the number two part, which describes it totally, if you get my drift." - Rex Reed

"Though the sequel is a welcome return of the four women we know and love, it's tough not to acknowledge that if we were all friends in real life, at this point we'd probably stop taking their calls." - Amy DiLuna

"The most depressing thing about Sex and the City 2 is that it seems to justify every nasty thing said and written about the series and first feature film." - David Edlestein

"Michael Patrick King's fascist, superficial assessment of the Sex and the City girls' intelligence insults them as the women we came to know them as on television, and no doubt has Susan Sontag turning in her grave." - Ed Gonzalez

I'm half tempted to see it just to see if I actually think it is truly "fascist".

Happy (Early) Memorial Day

 

From someecards, whose embed function isn't working, so I did it manually - not stealing this genius...and thanks to Jesse -- whose updates continue to prove that Facebook is somewhat worth it (privacy, schmivacy)

links for 2010-05-25

• Sex and Politics | Talking Points Memo
  A married conservative Republican candidate has a sexual affair with someone else involved in politics. A scandal perhaps, but not a new one. But the candidate is a woman. And the man with whom she was cheating: a blogger. (who is the one breaking the news) Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to 21st century yellow journalism -- where people piss all over themselves.
  (tags: politics TPM WillFolks NikkiHaley)
• Great Books Are Great at Being Books - Culture - The Atlantic
  This blog post makes the point that is actually something I've thought for a long time. It's not true that "the book is always better than the movie" -- sometimes books that are just good are made into great movies (and sometimes most people don't even know that the movie was a book first)
  (tags: books films movies TheAtlantic)

The Only Two Things I Have to Say About Sex in the City 2

1) Supposedly, Michael Patrick King visited Abu Dhabi to do research for the sequel.  I hope he didn't get up to any sex in that city while he was there.

Abu Dhabi Penal Code makes sodomy punishable with imprisonment of up to 14 years.

Unless the male writer of the Sex in the City isn't gay. In which case, let me re-do just about my entire world view.

I guess what I mean is that any gay man who makes an entire film travelogue showcasing a country where gay men have been imprisoned for "homosexual practices" as recently as 2005 without mentioning this consistently in the film and in the promotional stuff is a coward and a kiss-ass.

2) I really hope I win the Red Eye's Sex in the City 2 contest.

The Only Question That MUST Be Answered in the Last Two Episodes of #LOST

(no matter what all the other Internet idiocy tells you)

How does this story end?

By which I mean:

• Does anyone else die? (since it turns out death is more permanent on the island than we used to think)
• Does anyone now on the island get off the island?
• Does anyone replace Jacob?

That's all.  While many questions have been answered in interesting ways (see: Adam and Eve last week, though your mileage may vary on that one), any other question can properly be answered by the information we've been given - especially if you are capable of logical and creative thought and have seen every minute that has been presented to you over the past 6 years.

American TV fans need to learn something that Doctor Who fans learned long enough.  Once you start involving time travel and alternate reality -- any theory you as an educated fan make up, as long as it doesn't contradict something we've been told on screen, is just barely a less valid answer than what you've been told. 

So anything else the team behind Lost decides to tell us between now and Sunday at 11/10 Central is cake, but there's nothing else we MUST know (even by the slightly warped definition of "MUST" used by  salivating fans)  Anything else we learn -- while still being entertained -- is cake.

links for 2010-05-18

• Mitch McConnell's Problem | Mother Jones
  It's blog posts like this that keep me reading political sites even though I pretend not to care about politics anymore. Kevin Drum's examploe of Mitch McCollell's (mostly as successful as it could be given his position) actions as Senate minority leader in opposition to President Obama is fascinating and a quick 30 second read and view of the world in a direction I never would have seen
  (tags: KevinDrum MotherJones blog MitchMcConnell)

IDAHO Protest...and hyperlocal documentary showing

No, I'm not suddenly going anti-potato (mmmm...tater tots)

As part of Chicago's Harvey Milk Week of Action, itself a part of a local response to Cleve Jones's call to action during last fall's national march on Washington) and to recognize the International Day Against HOmophobia¹, Gay Liberation Network, Courage Nigeria, and the Coalition for Justice and Respect are sponsoring a protest opposing anti-LGBT hate in Uganda, Kenya and Malawi tonight at 5:30 PM in front of Millennium Park at the corner of Monroe Street & Michigan Avenue.

If you don't know about what's going on in Africa, check it out here.

Also tonight, as part of Chicago Milk Week, Fish out of Water, a documentary by Chicago directoy Ky Dickens about the tensions between homosexuality and the Bible, is showing at All Saints' Episcopal Church near my house. It starts at 7 and I'm not sure I'll be able to make it to both, but you should try to go to one.

For other Chicago Milk Week scheduled events and info, check out http://chicagomilkweek.wordpress.com/

¹ Because I'm an asshole, I can't help but point out that the URL for the  IDAHO website is www.homophobiaday.com -- which is sort of hilarious to me (again, because I'm an asshole) -- as if it's the day we all celebrate homophobia. 

Also, they have this picture on their website, which I'm not sure what it has to do with the topic at hand, but I like it.

I also like to think it represents a universal international symbol of something that applies to most homophobic situations:

"Why don't you two just stop yelling at each other and kiss already?!"