AngryBlackBitch: Take a stand...
money quote:
A bitch has met several generation Y motherfuckers and they are disturbingly stupid. How the fuck are these idiots going to pay for my retirement? Education is not rocket science, for the love of all that’s holy! Tell the religious right to get serious about private school and fucking take it back to basics. Instead of debating “intelligent design” lets [sic] have a debate on why children can’t fucking spell “intelligent”!
Friday, August 26, 2005
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Shut up and Listen
i met a friend of hers over the weekend and i guess i'm not the only brown girl who's having a tough racial summer.
it's ranty, powerful and impolite. read it.
[update: this is the original piece from kiwi grrl that pointed me to the above post. she rocks!]
i met a friend of hers over the weekend and i guess i'm not the only brown girl who's having a tough racial summer.
it's ranty, powerful and impolite. read it.
[update: this is the original piece from kiwi grrl that pointed me to the above post. she rocks!]
I was going through some of my archives last night – couldn’t sleep again – and wow – I was feisty and the writing wasn’t bad, either. Lately, I’ve come to realize that my postings are a little uneven; they’re a mixture of ‘hey, my butt!’ and ‘grr, the latest moves against women’s rights’ and ‘look, shoes!’ Work has been hectic (not complaining) and our fundraising season is heating up and will most likely stay there until October. But I’m sad the writing has been so choppy lately. My bad.
So, I’m taking a little break. Just for a couple of weeks. To regroup my writing and get thoughtful again instead of merely reactionary.
(having said all that here's a piece about GAP's new store that's supposed to be for women like me - over 35. I guess I'm supposed to be happy they have clothes in my size.)
So, I’m taking a little break. Just for a couple of weeks. To regroup my writing and get thoughtful again instead of merely reactionary.
(having said all that here's a piece about GAP's new store that's supposed to be for women like me - over 35. I guess I'm supposed to be happy they have clothes in my size.)
it's back to school!
as the late summer partying winds down, don't you wanna write an essay?
over at alas, a blog we see that The Anti-Feminists Want to Give You $5000! the partisan think tank IWF is holding a contest and i think it would be smashing if they received actual feminist essays.
(not an undergrad? shhh. but if you are...go for it.)
it's 750 words. easy peasy.
over at alas, a blog we see that The Anti-Feminists Want to Give You $5000! the partisan think tank IWF is holding a contest and i think it would be smashing if they received actual feminist essays.
(not an undergrad? shhh. but if you are...go for it.)
it's 750 words. easy peasy.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
fearless leader: wrong on women
"Bush, spending a day at the resort with Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, a Republican, said he was getting updates on the Iraqi constitutional process from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
He said Rice had assured him that the rights of women were being protected. ''Democracy is unfolding,'' the president said."
Really?
Huh. He really has no idea what he's talking about, does he?
He said Rice had assured him that the rights of women were being protected. ''Democracy is unfolding,'' the president said."
Really?
Huh. He really has no idea what he's talking about, does he?
since elvis mitchell is no longer with the times, i guess i'll have to get my movie snark elsewhere.
(yes, more important things are happening in the world but let's put them off for a few more hours...)
(yes, more important things are happening in the world but let's put them off for a few more hours...)
chicklit, pt 2
we (ok, I) often assume that most chicklits are white. i'm often wrong.
if you haven't heard of her, jackson writes paranormal romance (!!) and her blog tackles being brown in the romance community.
love the comment how chicklit critics 'roll around in a self-congratulatory frenzy over how intelligent [we] are.'
if you haven't heard of her, jackson writes paranormal romance (!!) and her blog tackles being brown in the romance community.
love the comment how chicklit critics 'roll around in a self-congratulatory frenzy over how intelligent [we] are.'
Sunday, August 21, 2005
ladies who lunch
today was hot, and not in that paris hilton vapid kind of way.
it was so hot i felt my head was on fire, a blazing bush. (why oh why did i wear a shirt that didn't breathe?)
i woke up late-ish, checked email for a bit, then left to meet a few chicago blogging women for lunch (including Bitch, who is totally cool.) we then went shopping on southport but the heat was too much for us - who can enjoy shoes when your skin is melting? i can't. but, despite the heat, i liked the women i met.
more and more, my world is filling with women. we rock.
(i drooled over a luscious red leather bag and a few pairs of low heels at this boutique: dilani on southport. and on friday, i finally found the jacket i've been looking for: a pin-tucked grey wool with 3/4 sleeves and sparkly frog closures. i'm so happy with it, i can't wait to find a good pair of cuffed grey trousers to go with it.)
it was so hot i felt my head was on fire, a blazing bush. (why oh why did i wear a shirt that didn't breathe?)
i woke up late-ish, checked email for a bit, then left to meet a few chicago blogging women for lunch (including Bitch, who is totally cool.) we then went shopping on southport but the heat was too much for us - who can enjoy shoes when your skin is melting? i can't. but, despite the heat, i liked the women i met.
more and more, my world is filling with women. we rock.
(i drooled over a luscious red leather bag and a few pairs of low heels at this boutique: dilani on southport. and on friday, i finally found the jacket i've been looking for: a pin-tucked grey wool with 3/4 sleeves and sparkly frog closures. i'm so happy with it, i can't wait to find a good pair of cuffed grey trousers to go with it.)
Saturday, August 20, 2005
soapbox? check.
ahh, the relief of fiber.
...
over at bookslut there's a link to a rather pointless conversation about whether chick lit has value. (the discussion starts out promising then devolves into a weird, meandering junior high wannabe snarkfest, and not in that interesting way, either.)
why link to it? it comes back to issues of value, taste, discernment. i've been writing my own piece of dreck lately (one that i am enjoying) and the other night, when i came home a little wasted from a work function, roomie was watching Wedding Date (the one with Debra Messing and one of the Dermots). what an utterly insipid movie. roomie put her finger on it: there's no conflict and everyone is boring. where's the conflict when the most common rule of chick lit is 'marry the boy who loves you for being you'? and where's the conflict when the heroine's journey to self-discovery follows a simple trajectory - middle class dream almost attained, middle class dream deferred, middle class dream reinforced and used as reward for maintaining the (middle class) status quo. what's discovered when she ends up back where she began, perhaps a little more knowing, but basically still unaware?
the chick-lit lovers (and their authors plum sykes, jennifer weiner, marian keyes and that woman who made my roomie throw the book across the room) defend their genre by comparing their domestic dramas to those of austen but they don't seem to have read austen very well. it's no wonder they choose austen as their guide; she's easy to underestimate. her clean and chatty novels of drawing rooms and marriage plans seem like our romance novels but austen had actual conflict. elizabeth bennet was not trying to 'find herself' in the love of a good man; she was fighting for survival, knowing that her future, and those of her sisters, depended on marriage - and marriage, even if you were gently bred, was not a sure thing especially if your family's class and reputation was...in question. this is the conflict - austen's drama is not about darcy loving elizabeth for herself; it's about class distinctions, money, sexual scandal and the laws of primogeniture that endanger a woman's ability to be free.
that's what Conflict is - the very BIG thing outside of the hero/heroine that endangers the outcome of the narrative. it's not whether someone is fat, or fired, or if someone will read the email that was accidentally sent when someone else was drunk with jealousy and stupidity. it's not a misunderstanding or a misheard conversation. that's called a plot point. conflict points to something monumental and the fact that these stories lack that largeness, that weight, just undercuts their argument that what they write is important.
...
over at bookslut there's a link to a rather pointless conversation about whether chick lit has value. (the discussion starts out promising then devolves into a weird, meandering junior high wannabe snarkfest, and not in that interesting way, either.)
why link to it? it comes back to issues of value, taste, discernment. i've been writing my own piece of dreck lately (one that i am enjoying) and the other night, when i came home a little wasted from a work function, roomie was watching Wedding Date (the one with Debra Messing and one of the Dermots). what an utterly insipid movie. roomie put her finger on it: there's no conflict and everyone is boring. where's the conflict when the most common rule of chick lit is 'marry the boy who loves you for being you'? and where's the conflict when the heroine's journey to self-discovery follows a simple trajectory - middle class dream almost attained, middle class dream deferred, middle class dream reinforced and used as reward for maintaining the (middle class) status quo. what's discovered when she ends up back where she began, perhaps a little more knowing, but basically still unaware?
the chick-lit lovers (and their authors plum sykes, jennifer weiner, marian keyes and that woman who made my roomie throw the book across the room) defend their genre by comparing their domestic dramas to those of austen but they don't seem to have read austen very well. it's no wonder they choose austen as their guide; she's easy to underestimate. her clean and chatty novels of drawing rooms and marriage plans seem like our romance novels but austen had actual conflict. elizabeth bennet was not trying to 'find herself' in the love of a good man; she was fighting for survival, knowing that her future, and those of her sisters, depended on marriage - and marriage, even if you were gently bred, was not a sure thing especially if your family's class and reputation was...in question. this is the conflict - austen's drama is not about darcy loving elizabeth for herself; it's about class distinctions, money, sexual scandal and the laws of primogeniture that endanger a woman's ability to be free.
that's what Conflict is - the very BIG thing outside of the hero/heroine that endangers the outcome of the narrative. it's not whether someone is fat, or fired, or if someone will read the email that was accidentally sent when someone else was drunk with jealousy and stupidity. it's not a misunderstanding or a misheard conversation. that's called a plot point. conflict points to something monumental and the fact that these stories lack that largeness, that weight, just undercuts their argument that what they write is important.
Friday, August 19, 2005
Thursday, August 18, 2005
how intolerant of me
if anon hated my intolerance for maxim and its readers, this should really blow their stack.
word snobbery.
love. it.
(and the writing exercises are an excellent way to take a break from work to get the flow going again.)
word snobbery.
love. it.
(and the writing exercises are an excellent way to take a break from work to get the flow going again.)
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
reading sucks
Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | The tyranny of reading
For someone to say they don't care for reading labels them as some kind of thickie pariah, fair game for any insult. To decide any such thing on the basis of one single trait seems both sweeping and snobbish.
during my footloose-like childhood, two things distinguished me from my sister:
1- my birthmark was on the right side, hers on the left
2- i read books, she didn't
as we grew up, this second division between us became more marked. i horded my books and she launched guerilla attacks at me through them. (oh, the day i found my hardy boys mystery ripped, defaced and chewed by my dogs because my sister threw it in the back yard - oh, that was a dark day.) my sister knew how deeply this hurt me just as i knew how it hurt that i preferred reading to playing with her.
all of this is to say that my sister doesn't read very much. she read in college, yes; now her collection of books can fit in a small file cabinet. but she has read a book. somewhere, a book has felt my sister crack its spine. somewhere an idea has been digested by my sister and now sits percolating in the ether of ideas my sister carries above her.
but NEVER to have read a single book? and boldly to admit it? (and you don't have a condition to account for it?) you're no pariah. just hugely ignorant.
For someone to say they don't care for reading labels them as some kind of thickie pariah, fair game for any insult. To decide any such thing on the basis of one single trait seems both sweeping and snobbish.
during my footloose-like childhood, two things distinguished me from my sister:
1- my birthmark was on the right side, hers on the left
2- i read books, she didn't
as we grew up, this second division between us became more marked. i horded my books and she launched guerilla attacks at me through them. (oh, the day i found my hardy boys mystery ripped, defaced and chewed by my dogs because my sister threw it in the back yard - oh, that was a dark day.) my sister knew how deeply this hurt me just as i knew how it hurt that i preferred reading to playing with her.
all of this is to say that my sister doesn't read very much. she read in college, yes; now her collection of books can fit in a small file cabinet. but she has read a book. somewhere, a book has felt my sister crack its spine. somewhere an idea has been digested by my sister and now sits percolating in the ether of ideas my sister carries above her.
but NEVER to have read a single book? and boldly to admit it? (and you don't have a condition to account for it?) you're no pariah. just hugely ignorant.
illinois rocks: pharmacy access to contraception permanent
yay!
there are a lot of things wrong with illinois government - but this isn't one of them. if things go bad on the federal level, i feel good that my state legislature still recognizes women's needs. (and good on planned parenthood for keeping up the pressure.)
there are a lot of things wrong with illinois government - but this isn't one of them. if things go bad on the federal level, i feel good that my state legislature still recognizes women's needs. (and good on planned parenthood for keeping up the pressure.)
why i'm glad i'm 35: maxim is 'cool'
Do You Read Maxim? Like to Shoot Pool? Welcome to the Club - New York Times
"It's a very cool magazine," Mr. Gerber said. "I've been to a bunch of parties they've had. It's my clientele at those parties." The typical Maxim reader is a 27-year-old male whose favorite alcoholic beverage is tequila and whose preferred leisure activity is shooting pool.
do you fear for the future? cuz i do.
"It's a very cool magazine," Mr. Gerber said. "I've been to a bunch of parties they've had. It's my clientele at those parties." The typical Maxim reader is a 27-year-old male whose favorite alcoholic beverage is tequila and whose preferred leisure activity is shooting pool.
do you fear for the future? cuz i do.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
yawn: Chicago Tribune | BLOGS CAN BITE
same old same old.
here's a thought for writers covering this new-fangled things called blogs: how about writing something interesting?
you have a front page story to write and these are the most interesting stories you can explore? jeebus.
here's a thought for writers covering this new-fangled things called blogs: how about writing something interesting?
you have a front page story to write and these are the most interesting stories you can explore? jeebus.
Monday, August 15, 2005
meme meme meme...
(it's my lunch break. really.)
50 Questions (via ABDmom)
1. First name: Ding
2. Were you named after anyone? Yes; my mother’s best friend back in the philippines
3. Do you wish on stars? No.
4. When did you last cry? Sunday I teared up a little while watching First Daughter but I’m chalking that up to PMS.
5. Do you like your handwriting? Very. My print is very blocky.
6. What is your favorite lunch meat? Um…shhh…liver loaf.
7. What is your most embarrassing CD? I once had a baby face cd. I later sold it in a yard sale.
8. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? Of course! I’m fabulous (despite the fact that I will most likely forget my new friend’s birthday.)
9. Do you have a journal? Yes, one that i’ve been neglecting because of this thing.
10. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Doesn’t everybody?
11. What are your nicknames? Yum-yum, gassy princess...
12. Would you bungee jump? Um, no.
13. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Shoes? With laces? You mean gasp athletic gear?!
14. Do you think that you are strong? My lower body strength is immense – really! I can leg press a muther. I have weak girly upper body strength that only kicks in during panic.
15. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk. (because I am a super fudge chunk – ha! Roomy – beat you to it.)
16. Shoe Size? 8
17. Red or pink? Persimmon.
18. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? I think I’m inheriting my mother’s problematic filipina grandmother tendency to be, uh, hairy. I’m not happy about it. At all. Grr.
19. Who do you miss most? My mom.
20. Do you want everyone you send this to, to send it back? Whatever.
21. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? I am proudly wearing a maternity summer dress from Target! Why maternity? Because it’s comfy and gives me an excuse to stop holding it in. Heh.
22. What are you listening to right now? Radiofreevirgin.com
23. Last thing you ate? Corner Bakery croissant.
24. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Burnt sienna.
25. What is the weather like right now? Hot and slightly humid.
26. Last person you talked to on the phone? Roomie, to wake her up.
27. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? I actually have a hard time noticing the opposite sex…(no peripheral vision, dude! None!)
28. Favorite Drink? Red wine, champagne, hendrick’s gin, or whiskey
29. Favorite Sport? That’s funny.
30. Hair Color? Brown (with gray in exactly the same spot my dad has it)
31. Eye Color? Brown
32. Do you wear contacts? No – I’m terrified of them. I sport cute black glasses.
33. Favorite Food? Meatloaf. Always meatloaf.
34. Last Movie You Watched? The Aristocrats. Heh.
35. Favorite Day Of The Year? Thanksgiving.
36. Scary Movies Or Happy Endings? Scary movies; happy endings are for chumps.
37. Summer Or Winter? Summer
38. Hugs OR Kisses? Kisses
39. What Is Your Favorite Dessert? (see Ben & Jerry above)
40. Who Is Most Likely To Respond? Hmmph.
41. Who Is Least Likely To Respond? Phht.
42. What Books Are You Reading? Jonathan Ames
43. What's On Your Mouse Pad? My hand, on the mouse.
44. What Did You Watch Last night on TV? The one with that skinny girl in it and that preternaturally mature child, dakota fanning
45. Favorite Smells? Bread, bacon, jasmine, gardenia, issey miyake’s parfum
46. Favorite Sounds? Traffic
47. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Rolling stones
48. What's the furthest you've been from home? Europe.
49. Do you have a special talent? Um…my (cough) yoda imitation.
50. What is your ring tone? Some baroque thing…
50 Questions (via ABDmom)
1. First name: Ding
2. Were you named after anyone? Yes; my mother’s best friend back in the philippines
3. Do you wish on stars? No.
4. When did you last cry? Sunday I teared up a little while watching First Daughter but I’m chalking that up to PMS.
5. Do you like your handwriting? Very. My print is very blocky.
6. What is your favorite lunch meat? Um…shhh…liver loaf.
7. What is your most embarrassing CD? I once had a baby face cd. I later sold it in a yard sale.
8. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? Of course! I’m fabulous (despite the fact that I will most likely forget my new friend’s birthday.)
9. Do you have a journal? Yes, one that i’ve been neglecting because of this thing.
10. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Doesn’t everybody?
11. What are your nicknames? Yum-yum, gassy princess...
12. Would you bungee jump? Um, no.
13. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Shoes? With laces? You mean gasp athletic gear?!
14. Do you think that you are strong? My lower body strength is immense – really! I can leg press a muther. I have weak girly upper body strength that only kicks in during panic.
15. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk. (because I am a super fudge chunk – ha! Roomy – beat you to it.)
16. Shoe Size? 8
17. Red or pink? Persimmon.
18. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? I think I’m inheriting my mother’s problematic filipina grandmother tendency to be, uh, hairy. I’m not happy about it. At all. Grr.
19. Who do you miss most? My mom.
20. Do you want everyone you send this to, to send it back? Whatever.
21. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? I am proudly wearing a maternity summer dress from Target! Why maternity? Because it’s comfy and gives me an excuse to stop holding it in. Heh.
22. What are you listening to right now? Radiofreevirgin.com
23. Last thing you ate? Corner Bakery croissant.
24. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Burnt sienna.
25. What is the weather like right now? Hot and slightly humid.
26. Last person you talked to on the phone? Roomie, to wake her up.
27. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? I actually have a hard time noticing the opposite sex…(no peripheral vision, dude! None!)
28. Favorite Drink? Red wine, champagne, hendrick’s gin, or whiskey
29. Favorite Sport? That’s funny.
30. Hair Color? Brown (with gray in exactly the same spot my dad has it)
31. Eye Color? Brown
32. Do you wear contacts? No – I’m terrified of them. I sport cute black glasses.
33. Favorite Food? Meatloaf. Always meatloaf.
34. Last Movie You Watched? The Aristocrats. Heh.
35. Favorite Day Of The Year? Thanksgiving.
36. Scary Movies Or Happy Endings? Scary movies; happy endings are for chumps.
37. Summer Or Winter? Summer
38. Hugs OR Kisses? Kisses
39. What Is Your Favorite Dessert? (see Ben & Jerry above)
40. Who Is Most Likely To Respond? Hmmph.
41. Who Is Least Likely To Respond? Phht.
42. What Books Are You Reading? Jonathan Ames
43. What's On Your Mouse Pad? My hand, on the mouse.
44. What Did You Watch Last night on TV? The one with that skinny girl in it and that preternaturally mature child, dakota fanning
45. Favorite Smells? Bread, bacon, jasmine, gardenia, issey miyake’s parfum
46. Favorite Sounds? Traffic
47. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Rolling stones
48. What's the furthest you've been from home? Europe.
49. Do you have a special talent? Um…my (cough) yoda imitation.
50. What is your ring tone? Some baroque thing…
Sunday, August 14, 2005
scribble scribble
roomie sits on the couch tonight blissfully engrossed in miracle, the movie about our olympic hockey victory in 1980. (have i mentioned roomie is from minnesota?) i sit at our dining table, surrounded by a watered down whiskey, a coke, cigarettes and unopened mail. (mail=bad news!)
it's been a nice weekend, rainy and warm, and we spent hours at the movie theater yesterday. march of the penguins (hey, we thought it'd be educational!) was less than satisfactory. first, seeing any G-rated movie is a mistake if you see it in the afternoon. children. everywhere. really chatty children. we had to move to an empty part of the theater but we were pursued into that section, as well. here's a piece of movie theater etiquette: when your newborn starts wailing at the top of its lungs, pack up everyone and leave the theater. please.
we decided to wash the children's fare from our minds by taking in 'the aristocrats.' ah, profanity, vulgarity, incest, shit and bestiality. it was the perfect tonic to the curiously bloodless march of the penguins. (i'm sorry, if you intone pretty much from the beginning of the movie that some penguins won't survive the winter, i want to see penguin carcass; if you say predators are coming for the fuzzy babies i want to see that weird ass bird snatch a fuzzy baby, rip off its head and fly away with it. it's nature.)
we came home to watch tv (we're total potatos) and then had a brief discussion of race - again - and why people of color ask less questions about white people. roomie has come to terms with her privilege and i've reassured her i don't blame her for anything, though perhaps some reading would be in order. (remember that reading list?)
today, i stayed home to write. the Worst Romance Ever is in full swing, though i'm having some issues trying to keep my heroine from sounding like a humorless prig. it was good to puzzle some things out. i miss these times when it's just me, a cursor, a question and a pack of cigs. these are the things i miss most from graduate school.
...
B- sent me a short series of emails this week. it's been a couple of months (or has it been three?) since he and i were last together. our contact is spotty and usually follows a familiar cycle: a night together, several months apart, a tentative attempt at reestablishing contact, contact is made, another night together. and so on.
his last three messages went unanswered and sooner or later i'm going to have to figure out a way to say i'm not up for it anymore.
it's been a nice weekend, rainy and warm, and we spent hours at the movie theater yesterday. march of the penguins (hey, we thought it'd be educational!) was less than satisfactory. first, seeing any G-rated movie is a mistake if you see it in the afternoon. children. everywhere. really chatty children. we had to move to an empty part of the theater but we were pursued into that section, as well. here's a piece of movie theater etiquette: when your newborn starts wailing at the top of its lungs, pack up everyone and leave the theater. please.
we decided to wash the children's fare from our minds by taking in 'the aristocrats.' ah, profanity, vulgarity, incest, shit and bestiality. it was the perfect tonic to the curiously bloodless march of the penguins. (i'm sorry, if you intone pretty much from the beginning of the movie that some penguins won't survive the winter, i want to see penguin carcass; if you say predators are coming for the fuzzy babies i want to see that weird ass bird snatch a fuzzy baby, rip off its head and fly away with it. it's nature.)
we came home to watch tv (we're total potatos) and then had a brief discussion of race - again - and why people of color ask less questions about white people. roomie has come to terms with her privilege and i've reassured her i don't blame her for anything, though perhaps some reading would be in order. (remember that reading list?)
today, i stayed home to write. the Worst Romance Ever is in full swing, though i'm having some issues trying to keep my heroine from sounding like a humorless prig. it was good to puzzle some things out. i miss these times when it's just me, a cursor, a question and a pack of cigs. these are the things i miss most from graduate school.
...
B- sent me a short series of emails this week. it's been a couple of months (or has it been three?) since he and i were last together. our contact is spotty and usually follows a familiar cycle: a night together, several months apart, a tentative attempt at reestablishing contact, contact is made, another night together. and so on.
his last three messages went unanswered and sooner or later i'm going to have to figure out a way to say i'm not up for it anymore.
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