I just watched this, slack-jawed in awe, over at Racialicious and had to repost it here. Thank you, Jay Smooth, for some sharp intelligence laid down in three short minutes!
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Beauty in a Wicked World is a weekly column by Jennifer Gandin Le. It appears on Wednesdays.
I got an email this morning from a person named Curple Turnle. I kid you not. Here is what, in part, it said:
your style is overwrought and sophomoric and the content of your articles is self indulgent pap and you are incapable of writing more than a paragraph about any given issue be it large or small without delving into the nauseatingly insignificant details of your worthless life
After a quick recovery (those who know me well know that I struggle with the fact that my writing voice naturally turns towards the personal), I started thinking about what would motivate someone to write such an email. What is Curple’s life like? Clearly he’s smart and well-educated; he’s got a killer vocabulary. What motivated him to write such a coarse and damning evaluation of my writing? I get that not everyone likes my style. I get that some people may find my writing naive or plain old wrong. But what motivates someone to declare another’s life “worthless?”
I never thought I’d be one of those people who posts a concert set list on a blog.
Turns out, I am. It’s 1:13 AM and as K said, I’ve crossed the line.
Maybe I thought some part of the night would fade with time. Maybe I needed to be sure that this little dream of mine actually came true.
Whatever the reason, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the set list –
George Michael
Madison Square Garden, NYC
Monday, July 21, 2008. 8:00 PM.
1. Waiting for the Day (reprise)
2. Fast Love
Read more…
Courtney Martin
- “The Aisle of Least Resistance” at The American Prospect Online
- Read an interview with Courtney called “Bringing Back the F Word” at Activate
Kate Torgovnick
- “Skin Deep - Hey, Mom, the Rabbi Approved My Tattoo” in the New York Times
I met the word of my dreams. It wasn’t a particularly handsome or edgy word. It didn’t sound smooth or delicious. It didn’t even conjure up some sizzling memory. But the encounter was a lightning strike. At the Whitney Museum in NYC, I rounded a corner at the Buckminster Fuller show and there it was: comprehensivist. Upon first glance, I started to spin, “That’s me, thank god, goddess and all above, I am finally definable.” In a cultural climate where we are encouraged (either by parents, peers, economic reality or ourselves) to slot our talents into one career, I have felt like a loner.
Just about the time most of my friends were immersed in year one of graduate school or year five of a healthy focused career, I switched jobs another time. To outsiders, I am a dilettante. To me, there is always a thread and each experience builds laterally upon the next. But it can get lonely when everyone else in your community is thrusting most of their energy into one pulsing passion. If I had been raised around true dilettantes, would I feel less of an odd bird? Perhaps. In Buckminster–the man of geodesic domes, sustainability, environmentalism, architecture, social responsibility and many other things–I found a comrade, albeit someone dead many years. In his words:
“I refuse to treat diverse subjects as specialized areas of investigation, because it inhibits my ability to think intuitively, independently, and comprehensively.”
There is no right or wrong, but I adore his thinking process. Boundaries may breed crystals, but can a holistic approach reach further? In my personal experience, it has–so far. What about your experience?
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Kimmi
Therapy Thursdays
Some more info…
Read more…
The movie, Wanted, is based on a comic book, so it’s not surprising that the violence is artful and the characters are two-dimensional. Racial and gender stereotypes are played to the hilt so that we can see how the anxiety-ridden accountant turned super-assassin perceives the world. The three women in his life (and the movie) are: The overweight, bitchy boss; The whining, cheating girlfriend; And finally, The Fox. She’s hot, she’s flexible, she’s quiet, she’s virginal, she’s loyal, her only job seems to be to help him succeed– until she turns on him. But then she helps him again in the end. Fickle, isn’t she?
I’ve been packing dozens of boxes for our big move next week. Wait, I’m not switching topics. I’m getting around to a metaphor. The thing is that although this sixth move in three years could be overwhelming, there’s something so satisfying about fitting things into boxes. You pack them tightly, hoping they won’t break, and then you tape the cardboard flaps shut so that nothing can get in or out. Isn’t that how a stereotype works? The whole, expanding, messy person exists in the world. Their stereotype pretends to contain them by shoving everything “that fits” into a box and sealing it shut.
Today’s Writers’ Almanac message holds that special sacred balance between the awful and the inspiring. It mentions that 63 years ago today at 5:30 a.m., the U.S. exploded the world’s first atomic bomb, in New Mexico. It also mentions that Tony Kushner was born today in 1956. (I still remember reading essay about regional theatre, his prologue to Angels in America, in high school — Kushner made our busload of Houston theatre kids feel important, even though we weren’t growing up in New York City.)
And via Rob Brezsny’s mailing list, I find this collection of Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s aerial photography. They’re not all pretty. You’ll also find photos of an abandoned city near Chernobyl, deforestation of a rainforest, homes with their roofs torn off.
Last week I flew to California to be with a friend whose mother just passed away at age 54. (She lost her father earlier this year, at a similarly young age.) She is quite a private gal, so I won’t speak about her experience or her details. But in my experience (and this echoed the feelings I got at the other funerals and memorials I’ve attended in the last year), even in the midst of mourning, there are new seeds, old pleasures, quiet joys.
Courtney Martin
- Courtney’s book Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters was quoted in Gail Collins’ op-ed “A Virginal Goth Girl” on Saturday.
- “Counter Cyberbullies with Compassion” at Christian Science Monitor
- “Obama is Not a God” at The American Prospect Online
- “The Carrie Bradshaw Effect” at The Huffington Post
Kate Torgovnick
- “Divorce Parties: Congratulations on Your Split!” in New York Post’s Page Six Magazine
According to the office of Bronx Borough President, Adolpho Carrion, nearly 17,000 teens made calls to New York City’s Domestic Violence Hotline just last year, and more than 1-out-of-10 NYC high school students reported being hit, slapped, or physically hurt on purpose by a boyfriend or girlfriend.
These numbers represent an increase in reported incidents of teen domestic violence, which is especially troubling because teens are even less likely to report domestic violence than adults. They learn not to tattle on their friends and don’t always have the confidence or resources to stand up for themselves.
New York State Assembly Member, Naomi Rivera, decided to do something different about these disturbing trends in her district in the Bronx. Instead of sponsoring a lecture or public service announcement, she reached out to teens using beauty and art.
When you go to the doctor looking for a remedy, do you like the fluorescent lights? What if you could lie back on the x-ray machine, or in the middle of that GYN exam and look up at the sky? I’m talking about simply being surrounded by growing green things. Nature helps us heal. There have been numerous studies done that prove the efficacy of such a system. Patients who have a view of trees use fewer drugs and leave the hospital sooner. Plants = regeneration = life. Read more…
Back in Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a shorter stint this summer. Only this time I’m writing from 8,000 feet with a sinus infection. So, hopefully my thoughts aren’t too fuzzy. Actually, not sure I have thoughts. Just wondering how many of you out there got that “open letter” (e-mail) from 12 airlines, pleading consumers to contact Congress and demand more regulations for speculation and manipulation of the oil market.
“Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs,” the e-mail reads, above the signatures of CEOs of every major airline. And the website they point to insists that, “Every time you buy products such as food or gas, you are impacted by unregulated, secretive and often foreign commodities futures markets.”
This is a guest post by my super extraordinary intern Krystie Yandoli.
What used to be a time for senior pranks, swimsuit shopping, and one serious sigh of relief has now become one more step in the never-ending pursuit of the perfect resume. That’s right, now it’s not enough to get into college; one has to spend the summer before in a prestigious, sometimes grueling internship, as well.
Students across the country are participating in this internship through school-sponsored programs where students are encouraged to pad their already dictionary-thick resumes. Students apply for internships through the school and attend their job-site everyday in place of classes for a set period of time.
These students are not only interning at local newspapers, but in surgical wings of hospitals, ABC studios, and even firms in Norway. I have witnessed countless peers of mine juggle Varsity sports, volunteer work, AP classes, and commuting internships on top of it all—and these aren’t even the ones going to Harvard or Yale!
At Pearsontown Elementary School, we had an annual Balloon Launch. It was a fundraiser—all the kids would go around our respective neighborhoods, selling balloons for a dollar a piece. On the anointed Balloon Launch day, the balloons would be filled with helium and tied to posts on the playground. Each balloon had a tag attached with the school’s telephone number and the name of the person who bought said balloon. On the principal’s count of three, all the kids would run around and cut the strings, sending the balloons skyward in a multicolored rush. Then we’d all just stand there looking up into the sky in awe. For the next two weeks, calls would come into the school reporting where various balloons were found, and they’d be charted with thumbtacks in a map in the office. The owner of the balloon that made it the farthest distance won a prize—I don’t remember what, exactly.
By the third grade, the Balloon Launch was history—evidently, it was an environmental hazard. But I still remember the sight of all those balloons rushing into the air. It was one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen.
I happen to like math. A lot. In fact, I have a Lisa Simpson-type love of numbers.
So you can only imagine my delight at discovering Scott Brown’s Nostalgorithm for Pop-Culture Sensations on my Google homepage.
Not since Rob Harvilla’s graphical dissertation on Mim’s single “This is Why I’m Hot” has a pop culture-based algorithm captured my heart.
Unlike Scott Brown, I’m actually excited about seeing the X-Files sequel. Not because I expect it to be a great film; I don’t go to the movies to see great films. I go for the funny and I go for camp.
Assuming The X-Files: I Want to Believe fits into neither category, it will most certainly satisfy my need for nostalgia. A throwback to countless Friday nights spent stuffed into a dorm room lounge, eating cheese fries and wondering out loud whether this was the episode where Mulder and Scully were finally going to do it.
There are many types of independence. The dictionary defines it this way: “freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like, of others.” Certainly the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others from the Colombian insurgency this week is almost miraculous–a French-Colombian female politician trapped for 6 years by a web of men who live in the jungles and protect coca growers. Betancourt has found independence! What does that feel like? To one day have the ability to move freely, to live without fear. My Czech friend Sona told me once (when we were picking pears in New Zealand of all things) that her grandparents did not know what to do when communism ended. For their whole lives, they had had the same government-issue couch, chairs, chocolates and frying pan as their friends. Having to choose disoriented them. Everyone deserves independence, even the little living breathing things. Read more…
Ever think about what’s in your sunblock? Apparently, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) tested 1,000 brands and found that 4-out-of-5 contain toxic or suspicious chemicals. In addition, most of the leading brands do not effectively protect our skin from sun damage.
Believe it or not, more than a million Americans are diagnosed with skin cancer every year. However, the FDA does not have any standards for effective sunscreen (they’ve been working on it for 30 years!). If you think that skin cancer is a public health issue and that sunscreens should be regulated, fill out this online form to tell the FDA that you’re tired of waiting for sunscreen standards.
Until then, I thought I’d share the EWG’s recommendations for safe and effective commonly found sunscreens (their top 10 sunscreens can be a little hard to find, but click here if you’re ambitious). Check them out after the jump.
