red fuzzy jesus

Whale Fail

Just a note: when you take a wild animal out of its natural habitat for entertainment, don't act shocked when it acts like a wild animal.  Also, if an animal is already responsible for two people's deaths, you have plenty of reasons not to stand on its nose.  MSNBC (and I assume other networks) keep reporting as if a trained whale did something wrong.  No, the whale did what whales are supposed to do.  I'm sorry for the poor trainer that was drowned.  But I don't like pretending it's shocking or that the whale did something unexpected.  Even if it's cute and it manages to wave to the crowd with its flipper, it's still a freaking whale! 

Totally Gnarly, Dude!

I honestly don’t know if this is funny or just kind of sad.  Last week, in conjunction with the annual CPAC meeting, conservatives reached out to young voters with XPAC.  Hosted, by Stephen Baldwin, the obese, fundamentalist of the brothers Baldwin, XPAC tried really, really hard to be hip.  It failed. 

 

“I know you don’t hear the word gnarly too much in conservative circles, but you’re gonna start hearing it in the future!”

 

Really, Stephen?  Gnarly? 

That’s so dope and fly, dude! I mean, bro! 

 

The New Republic Account of the event makes it sound like it was organized by Poochie from the Simpsons.  There were mostly adults present by the end as even Chik-Fil-A™ isn’t cool enough to keep millennials interested.  However, the saddest part of the article is the description of the “rapper” that “entertained” the young folks.  His name was Politik and he rapped about what most rappers on the Youtubes rap about these days, Socialism. 

 

“The night’s “jam session” was beginning—they had moved it up from the originally scheduled time of 11:00 p.m., realizing that no one would come—but most people had already filtered out as the rapper Politik took the stage.”

 

And what did Politik say to those that remained,

 

“You can clap if you want to, it always makes me feel better,” Politik told the sparse audience.

 

Oh booooo-eeeey… rappers that ask crowds to clap!  Rappers that ask the audience to make them feel better… that’s what the kids are into these days.  High five, dude!  That’s what I am talking about.  I always enjoy clapping while listening to rappers.  It helps me keep the beat. 

 

The focus later returns to Stephen, now eating McDonalds.  Obesity is so hot right now. 

 

The whole story is just pathetic.  Part of me wants to laugh but the other part legitimately feels bad for whoever put this together.  It sounds painful.  I’m sure Stephen Baldwin was happy just to get out of the house and get free fast food.  And I’m sure some DC area parents were relieved their children weren’t at an imaginary rave, or whatever parents of conservative youth think their kids go to.  I’m just relieved the whole event was over by 11.  I wouldn’t want a waffle fries and soda hangover to ruin Sunday school. 

Stephen Fry - Intelligence Squared

This is an amazing video of Stephen Fry speaking at the Intelligence-squared Debate.  He does such a good job it needs no introduction other than to say watch it if you want to listen to compelling argumentation. 

The Intelligence² Debate - Stephen Fry (Unedited)
Uploaded by Xrunner17. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

Change Out of that Skirt: Why Super Bowl Ads Sucked This Year

After watching the Super Bowl Sunday night I was tempted to write a commentary on all the overt sexism and homophobia in the commercials.  Fortunately, someone already did that.  Amanda Hess has a good rundown of all the messaging in the ads in Why Super Bowl Ads Are So Sexist, Racist, and Homophobic. Her piece is great but it’s a little more severe than I would write.  I’m generally opposed to any form of language policing.  Attempting to impede someone’s speech or expression is one of the most insidious forms of control.  That said, I still think there’s value in evaluating messages in advertising.

 

Hess’ article credits the repeated gender norming in Super Bowl ads to the need to balance non-offense with high expectations for humor or shock.  Reliable things that make people laugh but don’t offend the sensibilities include men who are interested in reading when there’s beer involved and women who lead their boyfriends by the nose to smell lavender candles. 

 

An advertisement for a gay online dating site was rejected out of fear of offense.  But, a man is admonished at one point to change out of his skirt because he doesn’t have a gadget that allows him to never stop watching football.  Men act like this but women act like this.  And I can’t help noticing the tone is more prescriptive than descriptive.  I’m not so much “offended” as disappointed.  I think the impulse to always avoid offense limits creativity to the banal use of gender stereotypes.  There’s also a smattering of mild homophobia – you’re not a real man if you don’t fulfill a lengthy list of criteria – and not-so-subtle racism.  Even the two commercials that highlight green living do so with a tinge of sexism and stupidity.  In one, a man makes a house out of beer cans but acts ignorant when green architecture is mentioned.  Men don’t care about Earth.  They care about beer!  Only beer!  The other enviro ad featured “Green Police” that made environmentalist look crazy and overly imposing on personal liberty. 

 

I know… I know… don’t take it too seriously.  They’re just silly little commercials.  But they are commercials that fit into a larger culture of suppressing any expression that doesn’t fit the pre-approved genderizing.  Surely smart, creative, top-notch people in advertising tasked with writing $3 million commercials have better ideas than this.  So I can only wonder what clever ideas were axed in favor of guys acting like zombies for Budweiser. 

SNL Surprisingly Pertinent and Insightful

Snowed in, I watched SNL for the first time in a while last night.  It was good, particularly the opening sketch skewering Fox "News". 

And there was a good sketch with Elliot Spitzer on Weekend Update...

Quick Update

As of 4:10pm 2/2/10 I'm done with comps.  It went well but I am wiped.  I'll wait to see if an oral interview is necessary following the written portions.  And of course, I'll anxiously await the results.  They can't come too soon.  Now, I have class at 4:30pm and I teach tomorrow morning at 9:30am.  Hectic days...