Do yourself a favor and just laugh, okay?

Sent to me by the ever-incomparable Maria:

What else am I reading?

Over at Think Progress, we are reminded once again what an asswipe our President is. From his 2000 Inaugural address:

“A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam: When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming.”

New Orleanian Blake Bailey reviews Julia Reed's Katrina Memoir, The House on First Street for the NYT:

As for Reed’s Katrina experience — well, strange to say, it made me rather nostalgic for my own. (I’m reminded of what Percy said about the weird gaiety of disaster.) Like Reed and her husband, my wife and I gave a dinner party the night before evacuation, and the next day we wondered what to do with the garbage...

Is Greater Than is a pretty cool online zine. I skim most of the articles, but this one hit a very special secret place in my heart. My heart that owns 52 lipsticks, each of which is a varying shade of one color:

But there is another, hidden allure to beauty products. That allure lies in the heady world of woman to woman bonding, a social phenomenon that often takes place in the context of beauty.

And I had a really really hard time picking a favorite children's book quilt:

Every teacher and pre-service teacher enrolled in Dr. Bergeron’s undergraduate and graduate Children’s Literature courses at the University of Miami makes a child-sized quilt-top inspired by a piece of quality children’s literature. Then, Dr. B quilts their projects and the quilts are displayed at the Lowe Art Museum.

I spent my weekend lost in the world of comic books and graphic novels (yes, I read those too).

Warren Ellis is just never afraid to go there. And it doesn't really matter what there we're talking about. Sometimes I feel it's a bit too much for my - ahem! - delicate sensibilities. Okay, mostly I just find it all a bit more depraved than I really need. Planetary, however, sucked me into a story where, while I may not understand completely what is going on, I am on this journey with Elijah Snow and the rest of Planetary to uncover the secret history of the world.

Minx is a girl-friendly division of DC comics that puts out digest-sized one-shots with girl-centric themes (and is there a way I could have had more hyphenated words in the previous sentence?). The reviews have been mixed overall, but the large variety of titles available (from comics heartthrobs such as Andi Watson, and Brian Wood, and YA girlcrush Cecil Castellucci) at least attempt to guarantee there might be something for everyone. So far I've read 4 of the offerings with mixed reviews of my own. Of course, DC could possibly...maybe increase their girl readership by, I don't know, dialing down the fanboy inspired cookie-cutter female body type? However, at least DC has a female superhero in their Big Three (that would be Batman, Supes, and Wonder Woman for those who don't care enough to ask). Marvel has....[crickets].

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Aside from reading comics, I gave myself a happy by (you guessed it) buying Hot Fuzz. Oh yeah. Oh, and watching an okay LOCI wherein I finally get used to The Beard, but wonder what the wardrobe department is trying to tell us by having Bobby wear that same striped shirt week after week.

Online Travels

Here are the articles, blogs, and etc. that have been catching my eye lately:

Politics (yea, though I am tired of the stress and just wish it were over already, a part of me still follows public opinion:
Daily Kos' 25 Reasons
There is no question Obama is an icon of hope. And despite ridicule to the contrary, hope does matter. When people join movements to realize raised hopes, our nation has a chance of changing for the better.

The Race Factor (from Angry Black Woman)
There’s this underlying idea that gender and race can be separated and that when people speak of women that umbrella means that all women (regardless of ethnicity) have the same concerns and so in this election getting to see a woman in power is far more important than any other consideration.

Dear Geraldine (from Angry Black Bitch)
Let’s get real, Geraldine. You don’t give a flying shit whether you offend the hell out of some people as long as your message gets through to the right people. The kind of people who hear a quote like that and are thankful that someone said it…fucking cheer when they hear it then eagerly e-mail it to five friends…and can’t believe you’re catching hell for it.

The Pain of Others (from Adbusters)
Considering the degradation with which homeless people are treated, it’s no surprise that these ideas have begun to weave their way into pop culture as well. 'Bum Fights' is a series of amateur style DVDs that are available for sale online and at one time were available for sale at corporate chains such as Borders and Best Buy. Various titles in the Bum Fights series include Bum Hunter and Bag Lady Beatings. In these DVDs, homeless people are coerced with drugs, alcohol and food into performing dangerous stunts or degrading acts.

Books and Pop Culture:
I was Beth Ellen (from Jezebel)
The Long Secret, the sequel to Harriet the Spy, understands having a BFF is extremely complicated even when no one is blowing the UPS man. (Don't get me wrong. I love SATC and its ilk in a greasy, 1:00 am, fried-chicken-in-a-bag way. I've just never understood how anyone could be friends with Carrie without therapeutic intervention.)

Haikuvies
(The Princess Bride)
Iocane powder
brings end to battle of wits
ha ha ha ha... flop

Inside Tommy Westphall's Mind
If St Elsewhere exists only within Tommy Westphall's mind, then so does every other series set within the same fictional sphere.

Freakangels (from the mind of Warren Ellis)
23 years ago, Twelve strange children were born in England at exactly the same moment. 6 years ago, the world ended. This is the story of what happened next.

Fugtify My Love (from Go Fug Yourself)
IGGY: I wonder what it'd taste like if I used Madonna's fearsome guns to tear off that kid's young flesh and eat it.

Sacrilegious Comic Book Porn from Neil Gaiman (NSFW)
Okay, there is no quote for this, it's about the pictures, folks.

Fancast.com is pretty fucking awesome

There you have it. A slight peek inside what's eating my brain these days...

Okay, so the guy in the office next to mine is watching Dr. Phil

I guess I'm not the only one doing something personal on the company dime.

Recently finished reading:
Can there be a true meshing of tragic American history and magical realism? Yes, it's called The Monsters of Templeton.
The first two of the ever-growing (and addictive) Maisie Dobbs series, by Jacqueline Winspear.
The latest in a series of hardboiled vampire noire: Already Dead, by Charlie Huston.
Comic book genius Warren Ellis' fiction debut, Crooked Little Vein.
And I caught up on all my Buffy Season Eight (yes, including that issue).

It occurs to me I have very diverse reading tastes. I like it that way.

Listening to:
My iPod! I lurv lurv lurv my iPod! It's like having your favorite radio station on all the time with no commercials. The only problem is, I'm obsessed with my shuffle. I have 854 songs on the thing and I'm only at song 476. Do I have the fortitude necessary to keep going until I hear every song in the tiny thing? My favorite aspect of it: the Dada-esque quality of song choice. For example: I had My Bloody Valentine's Loveless in there. And it seemed the Pod was determined to give me every song off the album at inopportune times, such as when I want to hear Rob Zombie, for example. No one wants to hear "Soon" when they're in the mood for "Living Dead Girl" people. So I would fast-forward only to have...yet another song from Loveless come up not two songs later. As if the Pod were telling me, "You will hear something dreamy right now because it's what I've determined is good for you and I'm the mighty Pod. Do not question me!"

Yes, master. Shall I eat some bugs next?