I feel so ashamed...

...but Bravo's Work of Art makes me want to blog about reality TV again. But! It's hard, because as ready to "take sides" as I feel (the fact that one "side", as I see it, includes Ryan, Mark and Erik - the macho, egotistical, often vaguely homophobic, transphobic and misogynist dudes who hate on the hot girl everyone's desperately trying to treat like a dummy despite her current climb and the one non-normative-ish male who gets called a "pussy" for having insomnia and, I don't know, wearing sweaters and mumbling? is making it so easy.), I know this is a show and they edit this shit to death in order to create drama, and beyond that, this is probably not how this people would actually treat each other if left to their own devices (i.e. not in a contest, not on television, not on edge all the time).

Jaclyn made this point with a great blog post about how unnecessary Erik's exit was, if it weren't for producers messing with him.

They also edited out scenes of Jaclyn doing math, but left in the scene of Erik claiming she brought everyone snacks. A real mystery, what they're trying to do there...

Ok. Forget the drama this past episode (and the way it carried into twitter, which is why I included Mark on that list of people I'm jumping to side against). I want to talk about my problem with this show in general.

WHERE. ARE. THE. QUEERS?

WHERE ARE THE QUEERS, BRAVO? Do you forget why I and an enormous portion of your audience started watching you in the first place? Of course you have. You're a soulless reality machine now. After Queer Eye ran out of juice and Project Runway ran out on you, it's all housewives and fashionistas and straight, straight, straight people who want to do violence to each other. You're so far from home. Kathy Griffin is all you have left, and you can only absorb the residual queer off of her. Bravo, if Work of Art gets another season: QUEERS. And don't you DARE Zulema them out this time. I'm still pissed about that.

Seriously. The most shocking thing about the "shock art" episode was how shockingly fucking heteronormative Ryan has to be to think dressing up like a "tranny hooker in bondage" is innovative and outrageous, instead of casting him as an immature bigot totally devoid of an original thought.

I am OVERWHELMED but how straight this show is. I can't think of an artist I know who isn't queer! Art and queerness go hand in hand. But if any of Work of Art's artists are queer, the subject has been avoided. Forget this evil editing bullshit, next time, just. hire. queers. We make good television.

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My Blood and Sweat is in Kaniakapupu

I suppose I've been writing here semi-regularly, so let me share just a little something from what I'm doing. I'm on an anthropology travel course right to Hawaii, learning about the islands' history and culture. There's a million things I could tell you about, but I'm exhausted so for now I'll just point you to a few resources:
Support the Friends of Iolani Palace
Defend Oahu Coalition
(I wish I had more... keep checking back!)

Some books to look for:
Music, Past, and Present at Kamehameha Schools
Dismembering Lahui: A History of the Hawaiian Nation to 1887
Ethnicity and Inequality in Hawaii
From a Native Daughter
Hawaii's Story By Hawaii's Queen

And this video is almost the exact tour I took of the ruins of the summer palace at Kaniakapupu with Dr. Baron Kaho'ola Ching, except, of course, we didn't have the guy with the cheesy-TV-host-sounding voice and after the tour my roommate and I chopped down a tree that was degrading a wall (something tells me cheesy-tv-host-sounding-voice-guy didn't jibe so much with the manual labor). I can't begin to describe the experience and this youtube video, despite its 27 minutes, pales in comparison.

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Worry

Hey, all. I was going to blog about Toaster Strudel today. I even wrote "not paid to say this" in frosting on a toaster strudel and took a picture. They're delicious, was what the point was going to be. But I got an email from The Boy this morning, and now something else is totally occupying my brain.

The Boy, as I affectionately refer to my significant other of over three years on this blog, is studying in Buenos Aires right now. He mentioned to me last night that the city has been covered in smoke for a few days, but seemed to be clearing up last night. This morning, he emailed me to say the smoke wasn't over. So I looked into what the news had to say about it. And I saw this video:



And that's some mind-occupyingly-frightening stuff.
I keep reading that this is farmers burning residue from crops, and that they do it annually- so has this happened before? Or did something just go wrong this year? The Boy told me, with what seemed like a fair amount of certainty, that this was connected to the dispute Argentinian farmers have been having with the government. That could just be his perspective or what the people in Buenos Aires are saying, but no new sources I've seen have mentioned it. I clearly don't know what the truth is. It's just another question to occupy my brain today.



(pictures from here)

The Boy was told it's not dangerous. That certainly sounds familiar. Obviously there's a difference, but how can breathing in smoke this dense every moment not do any damage?

"They say that it's okay, but I say don't breathe that shit in."
Anthrax, Kimya Dawson. song, lyrics.

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Film Advertisers Seem to Be Unable to Grasp the Concept of Original Concepts

Ever since a friend rented "The Last Kiss" which was touted on back cover to be a quirky romantic comedy and turned out to be one hundred and fifteen minutes of bleak, uh- bleakness, I've been wary to not view movies based on what they advertise themselves as.

So, I'm in a quandary with the movie Teeth. It was discussed on Feministing a while back, and a friend saw it at the Williamstown Film Festival (which she covered for the school paper, you can read here). She seemed to like it a lot, and certainly the subject is interesting, so I've been anticipating a chance to see it. However, the advertising has created some confusion as to what the tone of the film is- you see, the first poster looked like this:


It's very fluffy, and our hero strikes an almost Clueless-esque pose, but without pants, of course. The writer at Feministing took issue with this, and rightly so- there is rape and castration going on, and this poster looks like an American Pie sequel- but I was at the time at least hopeful that this indicated satiric humor. I thought some humor might not only bring people out to theaters to see a movie about, you know, a vagina with teeth, but also could be useful in discussing the sad state of sexuality in the country. Abstinence clubs and purity pledges are inherently funny to me.

This afternoon I was browsing movie trailers when I saw one for Teeth, and I was obviously excited. However, my excitement faded when I see the advertising spin switched from fluffy teen movie fare to straight-up horror. Not fluffy to dark comedy (as I had hoped), not fluffy to riveting drama- there is no mistaking, if I knew nothing about this movie, I would think it was a bizarre and even tacky (every rose has its thorns? really?) low-budget thriller instead of a feminist Sundance gem. You can watch the trailer out on the official website. Also observe the black-and-red horror motif of the website itself, which seems to clash with the blue tint of all the screen shots I've seen. There is also, less importantly, poor grammar- the tag line, Every Rose Has It's Thorn, implies Every Rose Has It Is Thorn. Tsk!
Here's the new poster:


From what friends and reviews tell me, the film is an interesting (though intense) way of confronting society's fear of sexuality, particularly female sexuality, and is generally empowering. However, these ads just seem to be exploiting this fear- the quote on the film states that is an "alarming cautionary tale for men". Herein lies the problem, or at least my problem.

Why is the film suddenly about/for men? I'm sure there's something to be learned for men here, but is it comparable to Fatal Attraction, in which the female antagonist tortures a family and eventually gets killed? I don't want to spoil the ending of Teeth (though I obviously don't know all the details yet, I do know the general arch), but the answer to the conflict here is not violence, and the woman is certainly not a threat to be eliminated. She is, you know, the heroine and everything. But you wouldn't know it from the trailer- the protagonist (or at least her vagina) is made out to be the monster and her touchy-feely gyno to be one of many hapless victims (by the way, the friend that covered it stated that in a Q&A following the film, one male viewer expressed he did see the gynecologist as an innocent victim- a statement to which anyone in the audience who had ever been to an actual OB/GYN appointment scoffed).

Revolutionary idea: pitch the film about female sexuality with a complex female protagonist to women for what it is, instead of a sexy teen comedy or a tacky rehashing of an old horror story.

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Episode 5: Finals > Blogging

Hey all. Sorry I haven't blogged in a long time. The semester is ending and I'm struggling to get everything done. There won't be full Project Runway updates until my break starts and I have a little more time on my hands.

Let me make a few notes:

Tim Gunn Objectification continues. This week: sexualization of his advice. Sheesh, these people make it such a hard world for Tim Gunns to live in.

What is with the Ricky haters? Look at this poll on the PR livejournal community. At the time of this post, 81 people want to give Ricky the boot. And the person second to him is Elisa! I just don't get it. I know his last outfit was kind of gross, but everything else has been totally inoffensive to me, and heck, I thought he deserved to be in the top three this time.
But who is there instead? Jillian. Infuriating. It was boring, it was bad, and she used even less material from the original than Steven did. I really thought it was going to make the bottom.
But who is there instead? Elisa. The judges claimed that the outfit didn't fit her client. DEAR JUDGES: Would you shut your projectionist mouths for a second and bother to ask the client if she liked the outfit? She seemed to really enjoy herself in it, and it was really toned down for an Elisa piece while still retaining her point of view. The judges just baffle me.


I know, Ricky, I know! It's infuriating. Even the rays emanating from Sweet P's smile don't cheer you up.

To hell with the haters. I love Ricky.


You're so very, very special to me.

On Jack leaving: the circumstances are sad, but I won't miss him too terribly. Though, I suppose this means my Jack/Christian suspicions will never come to fruition, but I already knew that, considering he's dating Dale from Top Chef. That there's a happy ending, right?

On Chris returning: He called Tim Gunn a guardian angel in his note. It's just a better show with him on it. Good call, Bravo.

On Steven leaving: He just didn't pull it out this time. It was bound to happen sooner or later, I think. I'll certainly miss him a lot, but c'est la vie.

On Christian winning: Whatever. I'm hoping the judges will pull out the one-note comments on him soon enough.

In other news: my friend Melissa, whose artwork you may remember from this post, once again proved her overwhelming amazingness, and this time on TV. And it's totally Project Runway related- she walked the same runway as Heidi Klum!
She was one of thirty young women chosen to be stand-ins (or walk-ins, I guess?) for Victoria Secret models during rehearsals. You can see a video about it here, and I captured the best shot of her:


She's the one on the right. Isn't she angelic?
Go Melissa!

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Happy Tofurkey Day, Vegetarians!

Happy Turkey Day, all, if you're celebrating. The update on PR is going to be late, but to keep you entertained through Buy Nothing Day, I wanted to share a few things.

This video via brownfemipower:


It's a die-in in front of Citibank in DC, and several of my friends were there as part of Powershift. They were protesting Citibank's investment in coal, and ended up shutting the place down for the day. Power to the people! I'll also share with you the chant my friend made up, but did not exactly catch on: "I don't want to wait, for our lives to be over! I want global warming to end right now- hey hey, ho ho!"

I am pretty much in love with this comic from Overcompensating:

Seriously, if you care about peace, or just want to vote for someone NOT evil instead of LESS evil, vote for Dennis Kucinich. Think he can't win? Uh, he kind of already is. Just in secret.

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Raison D'être

I'll start with a somewhat relevant story: On Monday morning, I freaked out and caused a scene at work for the first time.
Why? I gave one of the cooks, my acting manager, a big flyer from the Rhode Island Blood Center that a very nice volunteer had given to me to hang up, and after this manager and a younger cook scoffed at the thought of giving blood, insinuated it was some sort of conspiracy, and generally mocked the idea of doing a good deed for a person you don't know, he ripped up the flyer before my eyes.
There were customers. I screamed. I stole the pieces (with the panicky idea that I could fix it), ran to the bathroom and cried. I guess it was just a shock- maybe I've come to assume everyone has the compulsion towards kindness. I realize I'm just blessed to often be surronded by people who are so generous, loving and inspiring.

This is, of course, how I spent Sunday night.



Raison D'Etre (reason for being) was Sunday, and it was beautiful. The kids raised $500 for World Vision- and that's at the low admission price of three dollars.


(Psst, I'm pretty sure The Blue Rhoda is playing in this picture.)

I wish I got some shots of the art in progress- there were two big murals being painted outside, and ornate chalk arrows stretching down the nearby street to advertise. Oh well. Here's some of the art featured:








These two are by my friend Melissa. She's so talented, it might kill you.


These pieces are by Mike, who is possibly my current favorite person. What a kid. The top left one is by his girlfriend, Mindy.


This is the handiwork of Nick, who made an apperance, but was too manly or something to stick around all night. The furthest right is a self-portrait.


The portrait there is actually a self-portrait, by the leading lady of the evening, Katie! The trombone belongs to one of the boy's friends, but I don't know who painted it. Sure is swell, though.


These are mine! Huzzah. In case you are wondering, their titles from top to bottom are "Enlightenment", "Turn Your Pain Into Love" and "Yeah, We're Pretty Fucking Beautiful".

And now, a musical interlude:


This is an Izaiah, who possesses the very genes for musical genius. Not kidding. I'm pretty sure the members of his family were all born with a tiny guitar in their hands.


The painting behind him is also by Miss Katie. It's the Mona Lisa. The real one.


This is Kevin! He's one of the boy's nearest and dearests, and an all-around good kid. He was home for the weekend from Americorps*NCCC, and it's a bit depressing to tell that Ian was working at camp all weekend and didn't get to see him.


He was very good, and very modest about it. The word for his performance would be "endearing". I hope he keeps playing that thing.


This is Breathe Easy, who were quite good, and not as loud as they claimed they would be. I was in a band with the bassist, once. Guess he was too "committed to playing music" for a band that had two practices, one of which was dominated by playing video games. The lead guitar player, Tim, is pretty amazing. I don't know those other guys.


In this image, people are moving stuff around to accomodate the last band. I don't know who they were, actually, but they were crazy loud. It was pretty good, for a mosh band in an art gallery. The lady in yellow is top banana herself, Katie. I don't mean to discredit the other people who organized this, I just wasn't involved, so I don't know who did what. Not to mention that I don't have any pictures of them. Laura and Jen were the ladies who brought the whole idea forward, I believe, and worked with Katie as a team. There were plenty of others who helped out. From the outside, things seemed to go smoothly- so a pat on the back, an I love you, and a cup of freshly squeezed mango juice to everyone who made it happen.

Well. I'm happy I can say that this is the sort of thing I do with my life, and I'm practically in love with all of my friends. Did I mention Dave was there, after spending a week helping orphans in Haiti? That just struck me, when the cook ripped up that flyer. They were unrelated, really, but I just wanted to shout, "How can you be so heartless about such a thing, when people are out feeding Haitian orphans?"
Katie, Laura, Jen, Kevin, Dave; they're not crazed, or superhuman or anything. They're just nice people, seizing opportunities to do good.
I hope this hasn't been too shmaltzy for you. I'll talk about TV some other week. This week, I hope you're inspired by these friends of mine. I am, constantly.

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In Which My Friends Are AMAZING

I love being surronded by such inspiring humans.
Some girls that I love are doing good deeds in a fabulous way: raising money for kids in Africa by hosting a big show for local artists and bands this weekend.

You can check out their beautiful website. If you're not of Rhode Island (as many people are not), don't fret, I'll be taking plenty of pictures.

Later, babies.

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Jesus Loves You, And Wants You to Get a Pap Smear

Apparently some bots have been impatient about my posting the pictures from the sex-ed conference- I apologize to anyone who might've witnessed the flooding of porn links. On to a more intelligent conversation about sex.



This is my third church-camp sex-ed conference, but my first time acting as a counselor at one. I was sneaky enough to guarantee a spot at this one- what can I say? Sex ed has been a hobby of mine for a while. I pride myself on knowing the ins and outs body, and there's always more to learn. A plug for one of my favorite sites: Scarleteen. Reader-friendly and oh-so-aesthetically pleasing.



The couple that runs the weekend are amazing, awesome, and several other positive adjectives. The wife is an Episcopal preist and the husband is a science teacher. They are, literally, a marriage of science and religion. How beautiful. They're the type of parents that disallow Barbies, repeating the "real women don't look like Barbie" mantra. (By the way, I had one of their kids in my cabin over the summer- she's the coolest nine year old I ever met.) They're the kind of awesome hippies that support free expression and Christian love over their own political agenda. Only one kid spoke up against gay marriage, and after the session they thanked him for speaking his mind.


That fuzzy fellow is a giant microbe of gonorrhea. The red book is The Vagina Monologues, which I borrowed and read with my campers. It was pretty beautiful.


Listen, these beads are AMAZING. My friends and I wished we could have an impromptu arts & craft project and make our own. You put a ring on the red bead on the first day of your period. The brown beads tell you what days you're less likely to get pregnant, and the white beads are when you're very likely to get pregnant. Sure, I'm already on birth control, but damn, additional birth control through jewelry- I want one.


Yes, this is a blown-up condom. There were several examples of how far small condoms can be stretched. The most memorable, of course, was when the male conference leader, with less effort than you'd imagine, slipped it on like a glove and pulled the thing all the way up his forearm. Soon after, this silliness happened. He's the best.

Among other things, we watched a documentary about breasts, which acted to demystify boobies for the boys and inspire the girls to feel comfortable and even empowered in their skin. We didn't get all the way through it, but it was more interesting than you'd probably imagine. We also watched the movie Saved to chill out after a long day of learning, including the most horrifying slideshow I've ever witnessed. It was an extensive collection of photos of the effects of STDs. The very first one was a green penis. They know how to start a show, eh? The most distressing had to be the one of a baby born from mothers with gonorrhea. We all twisted our heads, wondering where this bloody, dirty sore was, until it was explained to be an eye.

On that note, I'll plug that fantastic site again: Scarleteen. You should know all about it well before you do it.

Sadly, this was the last sex-ed conference I can attend, unless I'm a chaperone or even a leader many moons from now. It was great to be the older-wiser type this time around. Just about everyone fell upon a certain plastic whatsit while overlooking the table of goodies, and time and time again, I explained that it was the tool used during a pap smear. I displayed how it functioned, talked about my own expiriences and assured them the slight discomfort was ignorable, and definitely worth enduring considering the importance of the tests. I was so, so happy about to impart my limited knowledge to those young'uns. I truly care about those girls.
Ah, also, my darling friend Emma and I created this beautiful question box.

It's being saved for the next sex-ed conference, so I'll always be a small part of the tradition.

I'm so proud.


Finally, I thought I'd get photographic evidence that this all went down at religious establishment. So, here you have it, Jesus Christ overlooking our sex education.


One last time now, check it out, Scarleteen.

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