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best scene at a political event ever
Nov. 7th, 2008 08:22 am(Ganked from Ezra Klein.) At Obama's rally in Mannassas, the night before the election, two kids riding their dads' shoulders make friends with each other and share a sign...
depressing irony
Nov. 5th, 2008 10:06 amAfrican American voters turned out in California in record numbers to support President-Elect Obama.
African American voters were, according to exit polls, the only ethnic demographic to have supported Prop 8. It lost among whites and was 50/50 among asians and latinos, but blacks lopsidedly favored it. Full citizenship for me but not for thee.
Oh well. We'll put a repeal initiative on the ballot and we'll keep hammering away until we win. Four years ago same-sex marriage was unthinkable radical crazy-talk, and now it's one voter in fifty away from winning. Bigotry is doomed.
And my kid, who was appalled when I told him what prop 8 would do, is eleven years from voting age. Never give up.
African American voters were, according to exit polls, the only ethnic demographic to have supported Prop 8. It lost among whites and was 50/50 among asians and latinos, but blacks lopsidedly favored it. Full citizenship for me but not for thee.
Oh well. We'll put a repeal initiative on the ballot and we'll keep hammering away until we win. Four years ago same-sex marriage was unthinkable radical crazy-talk, and now it's one voter in fifty away from winning. Bigotry is doomed.
And my kid, who was appalled when I told him what prop 8 would do, is eleven years from voting age. Never give up.
(no subject)
Oct. 30th, 2008 03:38 pmSo, I wasn't going to...
Copy this sentence into your LiveJournal or blog if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by people who think that GLBT marriage hurts it somehow.
...because I have, what, twelve readers?, and they're all lovely people who agree with me already, so what's the point of spilling pixels on it? But then I started to notice something on my friends page...
Copy this sentence into your livejournal or blog if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by people who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.
Copy this sentence into your livejournal or blog if you're in a straight marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by people who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.
Copy this into your livejournal if you're in a non-same-sex marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.
Check it out. It's evolving!
So now I'm gonna post it after all, and see what happens. Maybe the process of natural selection will gradually imbue it with interesting new characteristics! Perhaps it will gradually expand, weedlike, into evolutionary niches where there isn't a lot of competition, such as opposing the children's hospital bond, or supporting Susan True for the Cabrillo College board of trustees. But what I'm really hoping to see is for it to develop free-swimming capacity and predatory instincts, and go out to feed on less well-adapted right-wing memes throughout the blogosphere. Someday, there it'll be, strutting around on page 56 of a Jonah Goldberg book. "How did that get in there?" the Regnery Press editors will cry in anguish as they recall every copy, and our work will be done.
Copy this sentence into your LiveJournal or blog if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by people who think that GLBT marriage hurts it somehow.
...because I have, what, twelve readers?, and they're all lovely people who agree with me already, so what's the point of spilling pixels on it? But then I started to notice something on my friends page...
Copy this sentence into your livejournal or blog if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by people who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.
Copy this sentence into your livejournal or blog if you're in a straight marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by people who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.
Copy this into your livejournal if you're in a non-same-sex marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.
Check it out. It's evolving!
So now I'm gonna post it after all, and see what happens. Maybe the process of natural selection will gradually imbue it with interesting new characteristics! Perhaps it will gradually expand, weedlike, into evolutionary niches where there isn't a lot of competition, such as opposing the children's hospital bond, or supporting Susan True for the Cabrillo College board of trustees. But what I'm really hoping to see is for it to develop free-swimming capacity and predatory instincts, and go out to feed on less well-adapted right-wing memes throughout the blogosphere. Someday, there it'll be, strutting around on page 56 of a Jonah Goldberg book. "How did that get in there?" the Regnery Press editors will cry in anguish as they recall every copy, and our work will be done.
Latest book meme
Oct. 1st, 2008 12:46 pm1. Take the nearest book and open it to page 56.
2. Read the fifth sentence on the page.
3. Put the book back exactly where it was before you touched it.
4. Tell no one what you have done.
5. Go about your life as if nothing has happened.
6. Carry the secret of this meme to your grave.
2. Read the fifth sentence on the page.
3. Put the book back exactly where it was before you touched it.
4. Tell no one what you have done.
5. Go about your life as if nothing has happened.
6. Carry the secret of this meme to your grave.
post-bedtime conversation with the 6yo
Sep. 3rd, 2008 11:15 pm"Dad? DAD!"
"What is it?"
"I keep hearing this clicking sound. And I know it's probably just someone walking on stilts outside my window, but I called you because there's always a chance that it could be monsters snapping their fingers."
"What is it?"
"I keep hearing this clicking sound. And I know it's probably just someone walking on stilts outside my window, but I called you because there's always a chance that it could be monsters snapping their fingers."
for my musically-inclined homies
Aug. 20th, 2008 01:29 pm(and I suspect dvb in particular will dig on this, having once shared a conversation with me about ideas for a New And Improved piano keyboard...)
I totally want to try one of these:
I totally want to try one of these:
(no subject)
Aug. 16th, 2008 10:54 pmBen: "Dad, did you know I can change my age to anything I want?"
Me: "Really? That must be nice. I wish I could do that. Sometimes I get tired of being 40."
Ben: "Okay... you can be the age you really are, or you can be any multiple of 40."
Me: "... yay."
Me: "Really? That must be nice. I wish I could do that. Sometimes I get tired of being 40."
Ben: "Okay... you can be the age you really are, or you can be any multiple of 40."
Me: "... yay."
Writer's Block: Your First Record
Jul. 18th, 2008 12:46 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
The Chad Mitchell Trio, Mighty Day on Campus (1961).
I was four years old, and someone gave my parents a box of old unwanted record albums. Most of them were terrible, but this one (along with the Bill Cosby and Shelley Berman comedy albums that were also in the box) changed my life. I played that record until I could hear it in my head, learned most of what I know about harmony and arrangement and song structure from it, and yes, now I have the CD and I still listen to it.
(Well... technically, that wasn't my first. My first was a Disneyland Records LP called Here Comes Peter Cottontail that I was given as a toddler. As I recall, I listened to it for a few minutes, then grabbed the tone-arm and dragged the needle back and forth across the record, rendering it unplayable.
(By golly, I'd do it again, too.)
The Chad Mitchell Trio, Mighty Day on Campus (1961).
I was four years old, and someone gave my parents a box of old unwanted record albums. Most of them were terrible, but this one (along with the Bill Cosby and Shelley Berman comedy albums that were also in the box) changed my life. I played that record until I could hear it in my head, learned most of what I know about harmony and arrangement and song structure from it, and yes, now I have the CD and I still listen to it.
(Well... technically, that wasn't my first. My first was a Disneyland Records LP called Here Comes Peter Cottontail that I was given as a toddler. As I recall, I listened to it for a few minutes, then grabbed the tone-arm and dragged the needle back and forth across the record, rendering it unplayable.
(By golly, I'd do it again, too.)
the muppet musing
Jul. 11th, 2008 09:43 pmThis week I got to do a happy thing I've waited a long time for: I watched one of my lifelong favorite films, The Muppet Movie, with my kid. (To accommodate his attention span and the fact that he's just not used to watching TV, we ended up watching it in half-hour segments over three nights.)
All three of us enjoyed it, but after Ben went to bed on the last night, Willa said: "I have to confess, I've never really understood why you love that film as much as you do."
I answered, "Well, these days... mostly nostalgia. It doesn't really hit me in the same place it used to." Then I spent a while trying to remember what it was that I loved so much when I was eleven. I mean, it's not... exactly... a good film. The jokes are corny, the story is clichéd and often forced, the songs hold up pretty well but only one or two of them are truly great...
After a while I started to think about themes and metaphors and what the film says just by the way it's made. And one aspect of The Muppet Movie that occurred to me is that a lot of the time it has this sophisticated, ironic detachment--it's jam-packed with self-referential jokes playing off the fact that it's a movie. ("How did you guys find us?" "Easy. We read the screenplay: 'EXTERIOR DESERT, NIGHT'. We knew exactly where you were."). But at the same time, and to exactly the same degree, it has this happy, childlike, wide-eyed naïveté--total enchantment with the magic and wonder of it all--it's a MOVIE!
It's based on puppetry, which is the most self-evidently artificial of the performing arts (we'd never seen any of the characters from the waist down before), but the sense of artifice is blown away. Kermit's riding a bicycle, sitting on top of a tall stool with no place for a puppeteer to hide, lounging on a log in a swamp. But it's blown away selectively--he's still obviously made of felt.
In the big finale, after studio mogul Orson Welles offers the Muppets "the standard 'rich and famous' contract," they recreate their adventure with painted backdrops and special effects... only to have it all come crashing down, every artifice revealed as a cheap trick... only to have the wreckage illuminated by a glorious rainbow.
In short, one way or another, every moment of the movie depicts a tension between "believing in the magic" and "knowing it's a trick".
Which means it's about being eleven. Being right on that cusp between childish naïveté and mature (or at least teenage) sophistication, being pulled in both directions, trying to resolve the two.
The ultimate message is: The fact that it's a trick doesn't make it less magical. And that really spoke to me then. Willa was older and in a different phase of life when she saw it the first time. Perhaps I should have waited a few years longer to show it to Ben. But when I was eleven, it was made for me.
All three of us enjoyed it, but after Ben went to bed on the last night, Willa said: "I have to confess, I've never really understood why you love that film as much as you do."
I answered, "Well, these days... mostly nostalgia. It doesn't really hit me in the same place it used to." Then I spent a while trying to remember what it was that I loved so much when I was eleven. I mean, it's not... exactly... a good film. The jokes are corny, the story is clichéd and often forced, the songs hold up pretty well but only one or two of them are truly great...
After a while I started to think about themes and metaphors and what the film says just by the way it's made. And one aspect of The Muppet Movie that occurred to me is that a lot of the time it has this sophisticated, ironic detachment--it's jam-packed with self-referential jokes playing off the fact that it's a movie. ("How did you guys find us?" "Easy. We read the screenplay: 'EXTERIOR DESERT, NIGHT'. We knew exactly where you were."). But at the same time, and to exactly the same degree, it has this happy, childlike, wide-eyed naïveté--total enchantment with the magic and wonder of it all--it's a MOVIE!
It's based on puppetry, which is the most self-evidently artificial of the performing arts (we'd never seen any of the characters from the waist down before), but the sense of artifice is blown away. Kermit's riding a bicycle, sitting on top of a tall stool with no place for a puppeteer to hide, lounging on a log in a swamp. But it's blown away selectively--he's still obviously made of felt.
In the big finale, after studio mogul Orson Welles offers the Muppets "the standard 'rich and famous' contract," they recreate their adventure with painted backdrops and special effects... only to have it all come crashing down, every artifice revealed as a cheap trick... only to have the wreckage illuminated by a glorious rainbow.
In short, one way or another, every moment of the movie depicts a tension between "believing in the magic" and "knowing it's a trick".
Which means it's about being eleven. Being right on that cusp between childish naïveté and mature (or at least teenage) sophistication, being pulled in both directions, trying to resolve the two.
The ultimate message is: The fact that it's a trick doesn't make it less magical. And that really spoke to me then. Willa was older and in a different phase of life when she saw it the first time. Perhaps I should have waited a few years longer to show it to Ben. But when I was eleven, it was made for me.
(no subject)
Jul. 6th, 2008 10:55 pmSo today was spent at the home of our friends Bela and Sandy, whose daughter Nadya is a month younger than Ben and they've been friends since birth.
Nadya decided to change into her "princess dress," a floor-length white gown covered with lace looking for all the world like a wedding dress. I teased her about it, asking who she was marrying, and with enormous six-year-old dignity she explained to me that this was a Snow White dress, not a wedding dress, though on second thought we could certainly have a pretend wedding. And she was off.
Ben was busy with something else at the time, but he was the nearest unattached male, so he never stood a chance. She dragged him, looking somewhat confused, out of the room with her, then explained step by step how a wedding works:
NADYA: Okay Ben, now you walk in the room with me like this. [slow, dignified march] No, slower. That's good. And then... we dance together.
BEN: Dancing? YAY! [they both begin hopping and spinning]
Next time I officiate a wedding, I really must remember to suggest this ceremony. I think it has a lot to recommend it.
Later, the two of them started a small but apparently lucrative business, blowing bubbles and popping them for money--which, as Sandy observed, is nice work if you can get it. Getting married and starting a career! Big day.
Nadya decided to change into her "princess dress," a floor-length white gown covered with lace looking for all the world like a wedding dress. I teased her about it, asking who she was marrying, and with enormous six-year-old dignity she explained to me that this was a Snow White dress, not a wedding dress, though on second thought we could certainly have a pretend wedding. And she was off.
Ben was busy with something else at the time, but he was the nearest unattached male, so he never stood a chance. She dragged him, looking somewhat confused, out of the room with her, then explained step by step how a wedding works:
NADYA: Okay Ben, now you walk in the room with me like this. [slow, dignified march] No, slower. That's good. And then... we dance together.
BEN: Dancing? YAY! [they both begin hopping and spinning]
Next time I officiate a wedding, I really must remember to suggest this ceremony. I think it has a lot to recommend it.
Later, the two of them started a small but apparently lucrative business, blowing bubbles and popping them for money--which, as Sandy observed, is nice work if you can get it. Getting married and starting a career! Big day.
(no subject)
Jun. 19th, 2008 08:43 pmA few minutes ago Ben told me he wanted to draw the inside of a digital computer, and asked me what they look like.
I told him that it was electronics, a lot of which are too small to see, but mainly it's a very big collection of on-off switches. So he started scribbling a picture of that and then said, "Maybe there could be gears and rollers that flip the switches on and off, and change the numbers?" and he started drawing a highly simplified picture of such a device, talking to himself as he went--"this shaft will turn this gear, which turns this other gear, and that turns these rollers that have cams that push the switches..."
I bet he wishes to God these calculations had been executed by steam.
I told him that it was electronics, a lot of which are too small to see, but mainly it's a very big collection of on-off switches. So he started scribbling a picture of that and then said, "Maybe there could be gears and rollers that flip the switches on and off, and change the numbers?" and he started drawing a highly simplified picture of such a device, talking to himself as he went--"this shaft will turn this gear, which turns this other gear, and that turns these rollers that have cams that push the switches..."
I bet he wishes to God these calculations had been executed by steam.
Writer's Block: Gender Bender
Jun. 14th, 2008 01:37 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
Oh heavens no. You kidding? Of course not. I'd never stop playing with my boobs, and it would totally interfere with getting my work done.
(More serious answer: If you could switch your body back and forth on a whim, like in John Varley's SF stories, I imagine I'd give it a try. But "want" is too strong a word. I'm okay with the parts I've got.)
Oh heavens no. You kidding? Of course not. I'd never stop playing with my boobs, and it would totally interfere with getting my work done.
(More serious answer: If you could switch your body back and forth on a whim, like in John Varley's SF stories, I imagine I'd give it a try. But "want" is too strong a word. I'm okay with the parts I've got.)
