Be your own historian!

An artist is going around the Silver Lake and marking gentrified bars with monuments memorializing their past lives as Latino gay bars. The link is to a story by Adolfo Guzman-Lopez (the man with the best name in public radio).

You don't need to accept governmental sanctioned landmark plaques, just like you don't need to swallow the AFI's ridiculously lillified top 100 film list as Ken Burns Hates Mexican reminds us.

"The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past" (dude)

Scientific proof cats can barley stand you

"Study Traces Cat's Ancestry to Middle East"

Unlike other domestic animals, which were tamed by people, cats probably domesticated themselves, which could account for the haughty independence of their descendants. “The cats were adapting themselves to a new environment, so the push for domestication came from the cat side, not the human side,” Dr. Driscoll said.

All that draft stuff

means we are destined for more KG trade stories...
...plus Jordan is CRAZY!

Summertime and the living is easy

Project for Excellence in Journalism news coverage index June 17-22:

At the same time, the Iraq policy debate—the Washington-based battle over war strategy—generated only 1% of last week’s coverage and failed to make the top-10 story list. Those findings are indicative of a trend in recent weeks in which coverage of the political debate over the war has diminished substantially.

For the first three months of this year, PEJ found that the policy debate was the leading news subject by a large margin, accounting for 12% of all the coverage. (The next biggest story was the 2008 campaign at 7%.) But on May 24, after a lengthy political showdown, Congress approved war funding without including troop withdrawal timetables. Since then—in the period from May 27-June 22—the policy debate has been the sixth-biggest story attracting 3% of the coverage. This suggests that the May 24 vote was viewed as a major victory for President Bush over the Democratic-led Congress that, temporarily, brought some kind of resolution to the policy fight.

It's a good thing the Dems folded and agreed September, SEPTEMBER, SEPTEMBER would be when they'll do something about that endless, pointless war. Apparently it's not like anyone cares. You know, except all those dead people. And the people those dead people knew. No one except them!

Is Bill supposed to be AJ

You've probably already seen this by now, but what is the deal with this???


The obvious implication to me seems to be Hillary is Tony, is that what her campaign is going for? Also, I don't want Hillary "watching out" for me by ordering carrots instead of onion rings when I met her at a diner, I want her to do it by not invading and occupying other nations and actually reading intelligence reports! It is good to see Johnny Sac is doing slightly better.

Meanwhile Bill O'Reilly says reporting on the death and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan is pointless while telling his viewers about the things that "really affect their lives", like bears and Playboy spreads. Seriously.

Is it irony or hypocrisy?

On Friday I met LW at the Formosa at happy hour for a drink. A guy there waiting for his cab asked us (but mainly me) where we're "from", and not from but FROM. After that he told us he was in town to premiere his film at a Tom Tancredo fundraiser at the Nixon library, he had smoked weed in SFO during the 60s, one day we'll think we had fallen asleep and will wake up old, and that he's good friends with the owner of Geno's Chessesteaks in Philadelphia. Maybe you know about Tancredo and his run for the GOP nomination solely on the issue of the horrors of illegal immigration (if you think I'm overstating this, check out his website), but don't know anything about Geno's in Philadelphia. They made some headlines last year when they started an "English-only when ordering" policy. Headlines on Fox News at least.

I was really bothered about this guy a bit later: I should have told him off. I don't know what I should have said, but it bugged me that someone would ask someone like me, out of the blue, where I'm from, and then go on brag about knowing nativist politicians and ignorant restaurant owners. I just doesn't make sense, what do you expect to hear? "Yeah, I can't stand all these illegal too, let's go harass the busy boy here and then call INS on the cab driver taking your drunk at 5pm ass home!"

I felt bad until I read about this article in a post on the Carpetbagger:

The California Republican Party has decided no American is qualified to take one of its most crucial positions -- state deputy political director -- and has hired a Canadian for the job through a coveted H-1B visa, a program favored by Silicon Valley tech firms that is under fire for displacing skilled American workers.

That's right, apparently in the entire state of California there is no one qualified to hold the position of state deputy political director in the state's Republican Party offices. They can hire whoever they want, but its a bit confusing considering their party's position on immigration as a whole. What about all the homegrown political hacks? Maybe the wages are too low so no self-respecting American would work in that job?

I was going to make a larger joke about there being something about Canadians being not as scary and bloodthirsty as the Aztec nation to the south, but I think this about sums it up. Yeah, its not very funny.

Ang Lee: Colossal Tease

Thanks to FN for this, which actually reminds me of a friend, especially towards the end...

David Chase doesn't have time for your theories

He's nice about it than that, but that's pretty much the nut of it.

By the way: he picked that Journey song, and convinced everyone it was sick. And for the record, it is sick!

UPDATE: Chase might not have time, but here's an interesting one I'm sure you have time for. Close shot analysis in the house!

Two strangely hypnotic videos

Am I the last person here to have seen this video of Edwards combing his hair?


The music is funny. As a political object its kind of unfair, but it does literalize the GOP's major argument against Edwards: he's gay.

AT sent this from the Made blog (home to dorks making weird shit worldwide). Its pretty amazing how long it is even with time-elapse photography. Still, the music here is LAME!

DC: Delusional funhouse or Delusional crackhouse?

Here's Bush on the failed immigration billed (which one commentator referred to as "the death of his domestic presidency"), Peter Pace's aborted renomination, and the impending no-confidence vote on his boy Alberto:

“It’s an interesting comment about Congress, isn’t it, that, on the one hand, they say that a good general shouldn’t be reconfirmed, and on the other hand, they say that my Attorney General shouldn’t stay,” he said today. “And I find it interesting. I guess it reflects the political atmosphere of Washington.”

1. Congress didn't say the general shouldn't be reconfirmed, you didn't want to deal with uncomfortable questions like: WHEN THE HELL IS THIS F-IN WAR GOING TO END?!
2. They are saying your AG (who you don't refer as "good") shouldn't stay because he probably broke the law and doesn't seem to remember places, events, times, policy decisions, personal, law, etc.
3. How often is this guy going to hide behind the world "politics" as if its a horrible thing that immeditately indicates the opposition is evil. Dude, you're a politician! And how do you think that immigration bill is going to pass? With the brilliant strategic thinking you showed with working Putin? Um...homeboy worked YOU! Actually that's grammatically incorrect: homeboy had, has been, and will continue to work you!

Anyway, maybe he's right about the atmosphere in DC being fucked up. Here's Glenn Greenwald ripping into Joe Klein for saying (seriously) Paris Hilton going to jail is for the good of the nation, but Lewis Libby serving time for "obstruction of justice" makes baby Jesus cry. No, seriously.

Why does LeBron get more pressing questions about passing the ball or scoring in the last seconds than our political class about the logic behind its decisions?

Don't Stop Believing!

We're still here, with Putin's life lessons and the most important news to come out of the Stanley Cup: Al-Jazeera Banned!

And Wii-less, I just got around to watching Children of Men, I'd say I'm still a few months from see The Lives of Others. Also, you know what's a great double feature, Children of Men followed by Knocked Up. It will BLOW YOUR MIND DUDE!

Been telling you LeBron is the Global Icon!

Just like I've been telling you Fahrenheit 451 was about television!

The ascension of King James (in your face haters!) into the LAST NBA playoff series means one major thing: no more television till September. No basketball, soon no Sopranos, another confounding Lost finale, and the President saying don't worry about Iraq till the fall? While that last one is a joke, what the hell am I supposed to do? Watch movies? As one student seem to be arguing this quarter: movies are only about sex and violence and they appeal to the lowest common denominator. Plus, Transformers isn't coming out for another month.

I guess I could get religion, or more precisely a radical humanist, neo-Marxist, anti-fascist form of Hinduism as expressed through blog posts.

Or maybe watch You Tube clips, like this Huell Howser puppet tour of the LA River:

Or this trailer for Godfather IV (which has been kind of beaten to the ground, but still funny?):

Religion or the Internet or television. That's it, no other choices!