tonight but it's not ready yet so I'm going to ramble about stuff that's been on my mind.
I wish Jesus would come back and kick Michael Vick's ass. That stupid and spoiled grown ass man prattling on about finding Jesus makes me want to vomit. Michael Vick didn't find Jesus. His so called friends didn't get the memo about how black people don't snitch and readily gave him up. Jesus, my ass, Negro.
Also, the NFL banning Michael Vick over dogfighting but refusing to ban players who stomp on their girlfriends, wives, random women that say no to being groped by them is beyond WRONG. Sara Robinson at the Group News Blog eloquently breaks down the hypocrisy that dictates women beating is okay but dog killing is not.
I don't fully understand the sub prime mortgage crisis but I do understand that it is bananas for mortgage companies to make loans to people with ZERO assets and expect to to be paid back. That's like loaning money to your relative who has never had a job in her life.
I bought a pair of FitFlops. These are flip flops that provide a workout by walking in them. How? The shoes are similar to the MBT sneakers but not as expensive. Let's see if there's a difference in my butt, legs and calves by September 29.
Kara Walker's distinctive, brilliant, uncomfortable art is featured on the August 27 issue of The New Yorker. If you like the cover ('Post Katrina --- Adrift'), check out her new work in October at the Sikkema Jenkins & Co gallery or in November at the Whitney Museum of Art.
I can't wait for Friday nights and it's all because of Rendezvous Fridays!
You know what's creepy about all the Princess Diana tributes airing this week? I imagine that the broadcasters are selling ad time to 'commemorate' her untimely passing. How do you make that business call extolling the virtues of 'amazing rate for our block of 'Princess Diana died 10 years ago and yet makes more money dead than when she was alive' programming. That's kinda immoral and tacky, no?
I've only sat in a darkened theater three times this summer for the following movies:
Knocked Up - If I think about it too much (working girl gets pregnant by slacker dude one night stand and decides to keep baby), I won't like the movie. So I decided to put my brain on pause and laugh. I also learned that it is best to let some men have their fantasy baseball.
The Bourne Ultimatum - It is my feeling that big action movies don't have to be devoid of pure emotion. Paul Greengrass, Matt Damon, Joan Allen and Albert Finney proved me right. The 12 year old adrenaline freak in me enjoyed this movie as much as the literate, lover of riveting characters and compelling storytelling.
The Simpsons Movie - I'm a sucker for this family. I've been watching since they were crudely drawn bumpers on The Tracey Ullman Show. If reading the words 'Spider Pig' makes you laugh, imagine it coming to animated life. HIGH-LARIOUS!
And that's it for my summer movie viewing.
(Sicko is still on the list although it's only playing in two theaters in the five boroughs.)
It could be because of movie ideas being executed poorly are keeping me away but I feel the number one reason I haven't been paying $11 to AMC, Regal and Clearview Cinema is the voiceover used for previews.
I am so serious.
It's that stupid over the top male voice that truly irritates me. I will have to give it to this disembodied voice that he does modify the intonations and inflections according to the preview's subject matter. If it's a Disney comedy, he has a winking humorous tone that implies 'Isn't this pedestrian bucket of family comedy swill sickeningly adorable?' If it's a serious genre film, the voice hints at danger and intrigue that puts my overstimulated brain in yawn mode.
I would rather watch commercials at the movies than hear his voice ever again.
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
I looked up this poem after seeing author Claude McKay's portrait in the
Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits* exhibit at the International Center of Photography at 43rd Street and Sixth Avenue.
There are portraits
of resistance fighters Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, singers Jessye Norman and Leontyne Price, playwright Lorraine Hansberry (one of my favorites in the exhibit) baseball pioneers Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays among many others.
It is an unabashed display of love, joy, passion, faith and heartbreak. The most heartbreaking photo is of Martin Luther King Jr's children passing by his open casket at his funeral. The look of horror and shock on his youngest daughter's face restores a much needed humanity to the myth that too many people seem to revel in when discussing the American civil rights movement and Martin Luther King, Jr.
The entire exhibit is a soothing reminder of how the supposed distant past is forever with us as individuals and a country, regardless of any attempts to pretend the past can be banished away. Seeing these photos gave me the feeling that the past can
comfort and inspire instead of just being viewed as an onerous burden.
The exhibit ends on September 9 and then goes on a national tour. If you love (or just curious about) photography and history, please go see this show.
*A thank you to Mr. Beer's grandparents for telling him about the show and to Mr. Beer for taking me.
I think this is a good meet cute idea (hat tip - Gothamist.com):
Next Tuesday night, Whole Foods Market Bowery and Gothamist will be holding a singles event, Check Out. Attendees will rock to the sounds of Terry Diabolik and DJ Never Forget of Finger on the Pulse while they taste hot, spicy, and sultry foods from Chocolove, Rick’s Picks, 5 Boroughs Ice Cream, Coffee Lab Roasters and many more. Plus there's a raffle, scavenger hunt and much mingling! Register here.
I do think Whole Foods is super expensive but if there's a chance for anyone to meet their soulmate or lustmate, why let overpriced fruit stand in your way?
started to invade Manhattan, there was always Duane Reade and Ricky's NYC. Duane Reade was the place to go if it was 3 a.m. in the morning and you needed a few things before heading out to JFK for your 7 a.m. flight to anywhere to escape your neat but incredibly small studio apartment.
At that time of morning, the surly, slow as molasses Duane Reade cashiers would bother to smile as you unloaded your little pre-vacation splurge of condoms and breath mints on their counters. Was the smile because we were the only people awake and listening to Yvonne Elliman's 'If I Can't Have You' together or because they imagined me popping a breath mint and seducing some man? Maybe.
While Duane Reade is functional, Ricky's NYC is fun.
Ricky's NYC is a beauty emporium and then drugstore. From the cheap eyeliner that somehow survives a night of sweaty dancing to super ass expensive Kerastase hair products, Ricky's NYC has everything. AND sex toys, too.
And it's the best source for anything for HALLOWEEN. Need a wig? Need fake teeth? Need a maid costume and handcuffs? Oh yeah. Ricky's is the place. For the last five or six years, I've had to cross a body of water to get my Ricky's on.
Not anymore.
Coming soon to Montague Street in the heart of bohemian Brooklyn Heights, there will be a Ricky's NYC.
All I can say is that it's about time.
Although I still have not seen Sicko, health insurance is on my mind.
For anyone reading, please share your thoughts, insights, horror stories on purchasing insurance as a freelancer or sole proprietor in the comments.
I'm starting to research the options ( it's all Sanskrit to me) but would love to hear other points of view than the following from George W. Bush:
"People have access to health care in America," he told an audience in Cleveland. "After all, you just go to an emergency room."
Image via http://www.dizpins.com/archives/images/2006marchpics/wdw_doctors_day_032006.jpg
- When someone you want to date says 'I'm divorced', why not ask to see the original divorce decree? This isn't meant to be nosy but it is better to be safe than sorry. Besides who would bother to fake a divorce decree for a date?
- Why does my boyfriend start channeling Stevie Wonder when the apartment needs to be cleaned? (Note to Stevie Lite: I can put glass in your food.)
- Why do New York subways stop running because of rain? Anytime there's a torrential downpour, the subways just stop. I've been taking the subways for over 20 years and this was never a major problem in the 80s and 90s. Sure there were delays due to rain but not a full on stoppage! Although last night's storm was a tornado (which I slept right through), it's still bizarre. Yes, I have issues with the MTA.
- Glenn Murphy Jr. This man, former head of some national Young Republicans group, was at a Young Republican shin dig and because there was a lot of drinking at the party, the hostess' invited him to crash at her house. She also invited her 22 year old brother to stay, as well. So Glenn and the brother crash in the same bedroom. Why does the brother wake up with Glenn sucking on his penis?
- the women who flip out on Bridezillas. The crying, whining, the complaining about the pressure. Who is holding an AK-47 to these women's heads forcing them to have an elaborate, stressful wedding? Is it Martha Stewart?
Let me know because I know how to talk to Martha. Ex-con or not, she don't scare me. Anymore.- Rude customer service reps. Life is too short to get mad with me because I called to ask a question.
- what Rudy Giuliani could have done to make his own daughter not support his quest for POTUS? Damn, Gina.
- why pundits seem upset about Barry Bonds cheating the system AND WINNING but not Team Bush? To the chattering chimps,did you think baseball would be immune from the all American zeal to win by any means necessary? Sigh.
- anyone who spends money to tour sites featured in a television show. Also don't understand when they decide to take a picture of the site.
- why do some men believe a woman when she says 'Don't worry, baby, I'm on the pill' and then get irate when the woman shows up pregnant? If you don't want to have a baby or an STD, wear a condom. It's not the end all of protection but at least, a dude will know he tried his best. Also buy your own condoms...some women will poke a hole in a condom.
watching television too.
Don't worry about what show I'm watching but
one of the character's discovers that her boyfriend has written a check from her account without her permission.
Not for a small amount, either. The girlfriend confronts the boyfriend. He explains that his business was in trouble and he became
desperate.
She responds by telling him to move out.
The next line from the boyfriend's mouth is:
Don't make a big deal out of this.
Of course, I know it's the writer's fault for even writing something so ridiculous but but but I also know it's based on reality, too.
I would stab a mofo's tongue the moment he or she even uttered something so asinine after stealing from me. But I'm curious, who forgives a lover turned thief? And continues living with them and LOVING them?
Yep.
According to People,
Mr. Gore being sentenced to 90 days in a drug rehab program is the standard response for someone facing these type of charges . The statement from a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney explains it for my jaded and cynical azz:
This is what anyone coming off the street would be eligible for.
Now that I know, I can't wait to get caught with some Vicodin, marijuana and "dozens" of other prescription meds in Orange County.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Paul Zeise said on a sports TV show that quarterback Michael Vick would have been "better off raping a woman" than being charged with dogfighting.
Poor Zeise...he thought he was at a bar hanging out with his friends and instead he was on television!
You can read the rest of the story and the sincere apology
here.
I'm wondering why Zeise didn't specify what kind of woman Michael Vick should rape to have less trouble in his life. Should Vick rape Zeise's mother? Maybe Zeise's very first girlfriend? And why only a woman?
Men do rape other men.
What if Vick raped Zeise? Would that make it better for Vick? Probably not for Zeise. But imagine ESPN reporting on that story!
I ain't mad at him though. Being on television ain't for everybody.
