Appeciation of Photography 101

Then and Now.

Today in my Life: Benefits get Cut!

Because unemployment taxes have doubled in the last 6 months, my company had to cut all benefits except for health and dental insurance...

Yikes.

Tonite on Lost: Dead is Dead

Synopsis
BEN ATTEMPTS TO SUMMON THE SMOKE MONSTER IN ORDER TO BE JUDGED FOR SINS OF THE PAST

Written by Brian K. Vaughan & Elizabeth Sarnoff
Directed by Stephen Williams

Guest List
Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert
Tania Raymonde as Alex
Sonya Walger as Penelope “Penny” Widmore
Alan Dale as Charles Widmore
Jeff Fahey as Frank Lapidus
Sterling Beaumon as young Ben
Zuleikha Robinson as Llana
Said Taghmaoui as Caesar
Melissa Farman as young Danielle Rousseau
Brad William Henke as Bram
Matt Hoffman as Jed

I'm stupidly excited for tonite's episode of Lost because IT'S A BEN-CENTRIC EPISODE!!!

Wow...I think I wet my pants there.

sorry, for getting carried away, but Ben episodes are always good episodes because Ben is the best character on the show thanks to the writing of the character and the excellent acting of Michael Emerson. And, judging by the previews, we're also going to get our first view of the inside of The Temple!

And Smokey!

And little Ben! (and isn't it odd that Little Ben will be in the Temple in 1977 at the same time that Big Ben is in the Temple in 2007? Interesting...)

And Manliner wearing Eternal Studmuffin and possibly Cuban-Egyptian Love God, Richard Alpert wearing his trademark natty shirt and crisp khaki pants! And, looking at the Guest Cast we're also going to see flashbacks with young Danielle, dead daughter Alex and that British bit of fluff known as Penny Widmore, her dreary Scotch husband Desmond and her menacing but hot pepaw Charles Widmore!

and, uh, some guy named Bram!

me so excited...

image of Big Ben/Little Ben come from darkufo.blogspot.com

Quentin Tarantino worships at the altar of Junk Cinema.

He pays hommage, or rips off, depending on your viewpoint, the genres common to exploitation cinema of the last 50 years; gangsters and crime noir, kung-fu, black and sexploitation, gore, violence, smut, big guns, fast cars etc. The films he reveres and apes were short, fast little programmers usually destined for double bills at drive-ins and secondary theaters. They were junk, frequently very entertaining junk, but junk nonetheless.

And they were short. Most films of this type ran 70 to 90 minutes long, seldom much longer because they were designed to be shown on a multiple bill with one or two other similarly themed and timed films. These films work, as entertainment and ocassionally art, because of their brevity. They get in and get the job done and get the hell out.

Tarantino's next film, Inglourious Basterds, his remake/reimagining of a cheap 70's WWII film by director Enzo Castellari, (sidenote: a contemporary of my beloved gay porn iconic director Joe Gage; Gage, under his real name of Tim Kincaid and Castellari co-directed Sinbad of the Seven Seas together). It's Tarantino's first war film but it features a strong revenge theme; a band of Jewish American soldiers kicking Nazi ass towards the end of the war. Tarantino has a big star, Brad Pitt, and his usually large cast of eclectic actors including The Office's BJ Novak, Mike Myers, Cloris Leachman, director Eli Roth and old timer Rod Taylor, from Hitchcock's The Birds. It sounds like a potentially great movie or at the very least a stupid, fun movie in the Tarantino vein. It opens at Cannes in May, and wide release in August.

The downside: it's been leaked recently that the movie runs 2 hours and 45 minutes long. The original was 99 minutes long. So in other words, the same thing that lessened the experiences of watching Kill Bill and Grindhouse are coming into play again with Tarantino's next movie...the stupid motherfucker wants to remake fun, trashy, SHORT, exploitation films but blow them up into some long, dumb, dialogue heavy Tarantino extravaganzas. There was no need for Kill Bill to be divided into two films and Grindhouse might have worked if each part had been no more than an hour long. The man has such a massively huge ego, he's letting it get in the way of making great cinema and the result is overlong, self-indulgent crap. And maybe Basterds is brilliant, (and I hope so), but frankly very, very, very few movies need to be, or deserve to be 2 fucking hours and 45 fucking minutes long...

And the deliberate misspelling of the title is a bit precious.

The image is of the original film's movie poster...obviously

The modern equivalent of Tijuana Bibles...

seems to be websites (obviously, NOT very safe for work, or life that matter)devoted to porn images of beloved and iconic cartoon characters from shows like The Simpsons, Futurama, King of the Hill, and Family Guy doing unspeakable things.

Do some people really get off on this, or is it all just for a dirty little chuckle?

It's mildly amusing at best, but frequently it's pretty gross and disturbing; lots of images of Bart fucking Lisa...the incest theme and bestiality appear to be popular themes here.

Is this just an outgrowth of the whole slash fiction and furry movements? People seem to really enjoy fantasizing about fucking the famous, either the real or the fictive, or actually having sex with someone dressed up as some sort of creature.

Personally, I think my biggest kink in THAT department would be swarthy Latins/Greeks in chitons and togas...or maybe Men in Tights...

And, Zoidberg WISHES he had a body that cut and buff...

Beating the Dead Book Horse...

I just thought of something in regard to the discussion about indie bookstores versus the corporate monster bookstores...everyone engaged in this discussion probably buys at least 75% of their books at HalfPrice Books or a similar used bookstore which deprives indie AND corporate booksellers, publishers and authors of any money.

I'm not ashamed to admit it. As a book lover, if I can buy 10 used books for the price of ONE new book, I'm going to go for the big bargain...like MOST book lovers with limited means, which today means pretty much everybody...

More Bookstore Chat....

I got reamed a bit on Paul Constant's post, so I just HAD to respond, (no, I don't know when to quit and yes, I have a big mouth...DUH!)

oh, give me a fuckin' break.

yes, I loooooove good indie bookstores but this notion that every town and neighborhood in America was once dotted with hardwood floored, exposed brick, indirectly lit, cinnamon/patchouli scented, cheery little indie bookstores lovingly stocked and run by bookloving hippies with grey ponytails and happy librarian-type ladies is so much bullshit. For one thing, those kinds of stores have ALWAYS been the exception, not the norm and 90% of them came into existence in the late 60's and early 70's founded by book loving, arty/litty, hippie types; they're a fairly recent thing. You found/find them in college towns, arty resort towns, and bohemian neighborhoods in large cities but not in the vast majority of America. The greatest number of indie booksellers in this country were small glorified newstands/stationary/card stores...they had a long wall of magazines, a small room or area of kid lit (maybe), quite a lot of space devoted to cards and gifts and racks and racks of mass-market, popular paperbacks...there wasn't much devoted to non-fiction or serious literature and most of those stores were very suspicious of hardbacks and trade sized books. When you've been reading about the 200 or 300 or 400 indie bookstores that close every year for the last 25 years, the majority of the stores closing, were those kinds of stores, and yes, it is sad when ANY kind of bookstore closes, but these weren't the kinds of bookstores that y'all revere. And yes, the big guys are largely responsible for their demise which is sad but does it make the big guys evil by their mere presence? No, it doesn't. The advent of the chains meant that millions of people had access to a much wider variety of books than ever before, especially people that live outside of liberal, arty areas and the urban core. That's a good thing. The big stores like B&N and Borders that really started to grow in the 90's exposed people to an even larger inventory; they have history sections that are larger than many neighborhood indie stores! Does that mean I don't still shop at indie stores? Of course not. I love having a bookstore in my neighborhood, locally owned and operated by an owner who loves books. But if Michael at BaileyCoy doesn't have a book I really, really want and I know I can get that book downtown at Borders, I'm going to go buy it at Borders and not wait the two weeks it would take if I ordered it at BaileyCoy. And for folks in the sticks; the Pocatellos and Topekas and Amarillos of the world, their local big bookseller is the only option they have and to be honest, probably the best option they've ever had.

(as for the big chains having a negative impact on publishing, that's a different kettle of stinky fish...but most chains can have some kind of negative impact on their suppliers which leads to standardization and blandness in everything from fashion to home decor...)

(and as for the loving attentions of indie bookstore clerks, that's also a lot of horseshit...for every nice, knowledgible, helpful clerk I've met 4 that were either irritating, hipster jerks or idiots that didn't know what they were doing...like in most retail stores...book retailing is NOT a sacred brother/sisterhood)

Gay Porn Legend Jack Wrangler: Dead at 62

The Advocate is reporting that legendary gay porn icon, Jack Wrangler has died at 62 from lung cancer. Wrangler was recently the star of a documentary, "Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon" which looked back on his career as the first gay porn superstar, his transition to straight porn and his surprising marriage to the much older singer Margaret Whiting. And, I feel his death warrants me to publish this full frontal nude shot of him...it would be disrespectful to NOT pay hommage to that beautiful body...it is, after all, what helped make him a Star.

A toast to Jack Wrangler.

Paul Constant has a post on SLOG bemoaning the loss of indie bookstores.

It kind of irked me so I wrote a HUGE comment in reply to that original post, but it's far too long to post there, so I'm posting it here:

ya know, it IS kind of sad when big chains kill off locally owned independent book stores, but why should books be any different than any other commodity? Why is it a greater day for mourning when your local "Book Nook" is forced to close than when it's "Barney's Friendly Hardware" or "Appleoff Family Appliance"? Is the corporate commercialization of certain kinds of businesses taboo because those businesses are cute and beloved?

That's kind of silly.

We live in a capitalist society where the goal is to make increasing large amounts of profit. That's both a good and a bad thing but the alternatives are totalitarianism and socialism. Socialism has some advantages, but it's not perfect, and is it really the responsibility of a socialist government to financially support heartfelt businesses like indie bookstores, because they make us feel warm and fuzzy on the inside?

uh, no.

And the chain bookstores ARE kind of soulless but as a kid growing up in a small town Midwest town, my local book buying was confined to what they had at the local Pamida (a regional, rinky-dink version of Walmart) in their tiny book section, or what was on those wire display units at the local pharmacies. If I wanted to go to a real bookstore, my choices were a Waldenbooks or a B. Dalton in the nearest "big" cities of St Joe, Missouri or Topeka, Kansas...and you know what, thank god for those chain bookstores. And, both Topeka and St Joe had indie bookstores, but they weren't that great...lots of popular paperbacks, magazines and large Christian sections...they weren't the twee, wood floored, coffee scented enclaves of knowledge and wonderment presided over by quaint, loving bibliophiles...it seems like they were usually run by prune-faced, overweight matrons or dim-witted teens that weren't that knowledgable or willing to recommend a regional literary delight. And it seems like the majority of clerks in chain bookstores are booklovers themselves, happy to recommend good books they've encountered and more than willing to promote unsung authors. And, if anyone thinks that the demise of any of the big book chains is going to be GOOD for booklovers, and that the indie bookstore is going to make some sort of huge comeback, I think you're deluding yourselves. Books have awful profit margins, retail is a bitch and the result is going to be fewer bookstores, both chain and indie, and people not going to have the option to personally buy ANY books inside a bricks and mortar store...and that sucks

It's about time the Justice Department did something about this national nightmare:

From Google News:

Justice Department pursuing restraining order against Lohan and the family of ex-girlfriend Samantha Ronson...
New York Daily News - ‎6 hours ago‎
By Korin Miller Lindsay Lohan is publicly showing restraint in her split from Samantha Ronson. And it may be because she has to. Ronson's family is pursuing a restraining order against the "Mean Girls" star, according to several reports. And in a surprising move, the United States Department of Justice announced that in order to protect US citizens against further involvement in the irritating tabloid fueled lives of Lohan, Ronson and their respective celebrity-seeking families, they were pursuing filing a national restraining order against all members of both families in an effort to remove them from the public forum. “We think it would be in the best interest of the American public, if the Lohan and Ronson families were barred from any contact with any US citizen at anytime, regardless if it’s in person or on the pages of tabloid newspapers or on the many infortainment television and internet programs currently broadcast in this country, “ Attorney General Eric Holder announced in a news conference yesterday. He further added, “ We are co-operating with the INS to see if it’s possible to have all members of both families deported from the US and barred from appearing in any media broadcast into this country, including the construction of an internet firewall prohibiting offshore websites from transmitting their horrific visages and antics into North America. The INS is currently involved in delicate negotiations with the African nation of Malawi to see it that nation could be persuaded to take these talentless and emotionally draining families off the hands of the United States government and its citizens.”
Lindsay Lohan's Dad on Ronson Breakup: 'Thank God, my daughters not a dyke' ABC News
Lindsay Lohan Confirms Split From Samantha Ronson: ’I already miss her muffinhole of love’ MTV.com
E! Online - msnbc.com - Los Angeles Times - TMZ.com
all 723 news articles »

My Guilty Pleasure DILF of the Day and My New Favorite Website

yes, yes, I know...Harvey Levin, creator/producer/presenter of TMZ, the sleazy, celebrity gossip website/tv show is the scum of the earth and the chicken of the sea. He's rude, obnoxious, pushy, vulgar and the worst kind of characterture: a predatory gay, Jewish, lawyer, Hollywood sleazeball, gossip reporter who's reportedly a bastard to work for and directly responsible for the downfall of Western Civilisation, blah, blah, blah...

He's also kind of hot.

Hey, some of us are turned on by chutzpah, dark hair, and a front-tooth gap and the ability to look sexy in business casual while constantly sipping from a sippy cup. And he gets props for being in the public eye and out of the closet.

Oh, and on a related note, My New Favorite Website is www.leavethesepeoplealone.org which is a pretty funny hate site devoted to ripping on TMZ and it's douchy tactics and even douchier on-air "reporters" in particular this guy, Max Hodges,otherwise known as the dimwitted, blond surfer dude who seems to get the most airtime on the tv show. WebMaster Gus, who created the site, seems to have it in for this slack-jawed, himbo in particular, (most of the site is dedicated to trashing Max) but he also goes after the other "reporters" on the show and since TMZ doesn't identify anyone by name, Gus has come up with some pretty funny nick-names for the cast...I especially like "Chubby Spikey" and "Chubby Ballcap" for the two chubby schlubbs on the show and the difficulty in telling them apart...Oddly, Gus doesn't do that much ripping on Harvey himself, the guy ultimately responsible for this daily travesty of journalism and human degradation...Gus reserves the hate for Harvey's low-paid assmonkeys whose days in the glare of The Celebrity Sun will be fleeting and not very satisfying creatively or financially...well, except for Max who's the type who'll land on his feline like surfer feet...as long as he doesn't get fat and ugly.

Check it out.

To continue the theme of Italy...my favorite Memaw, Erminia Motika!

Who is Erminia Motika? She's the mother of beloved, Italian TV chef Lidia Bastianich, star of PBS/Create's cooking show, "Lidia's Italy", which is one of my new tv addictions since we upgraded to a digital tv converter box. Lidia is my favorite tv chef of all time; she's warm, and smart, and delightful and she makes everything look so easy! AND, she peppers her speech with endearing terms in Italian and takes us on tours of her favorite parts of Italy where she always visits the local market and manhandles all the produce! Lidia frequently features family members on her show, including her kids and grandkids, but best of all, she periodically has her mother, Erminia Motika, on the show to help out in the kitchen and pass along her years of cooking wisdom and general adorable Italian Grandma advice. (And Lidia confusingly calls her mother, "Grandma" on the show; for a long time I thought she really was Lidia's Grandma, and I figured the woman must be 110). Grandma is like a Muppet version of Sophia Petrillo from The Golden Girls, all cute and snuggly like a Muppet with a hint of Sophia spice, (but none of Sophia's bitchy meanness). Grandma loves her sweets and it's pure delight when she goes to town on a piece of strudel or torte, and she ALWAYS wants more creme fraiche! She's so adorable you'll want to go out and get your own cute Italian granny to act as your personal kitchen prep cook...

In case you haven't figured it out, Grandma is the older lady on the left in the picture and the lovely Lidia, regal in her old school bullet bra, is on the right...and check out Lidia's show, website, and cookbooks...she has some great recipes.

Chilling images from Italy...

which really hit home for those of us who live in earthquake country and can remember the last quake they were in...if not our prayers, then at least you have our hearts and minds with you, Italy.

Avete tutto il nostro amore, bella gente dell'Italia

Would someone please find Anna Faris some brilliant comedy scripts?

And some brilliant comedy directors to go with them? She's a great comedienne that's usually wasted in films in small parts, or horrid scripts, or playing the "girlfriend" who ends up stealing the film from the male comedic lead who's getting paid 20 or 30 times what she's getting...she's worthy of so much more.

Here's an article about her in New York Mag.

Saucy Rupert enrages the Gay Mafia...Good for him!

Rupert Everett is in hot water, AGAIN, after making some bold statements and sharing his opinions on gay marriage, gay child-rearing and the state of the Gay Rights Movement. Here's a quote from this interview, conducted by Kevin Sessums for The Daily Beast, which I got from Towleroad:

Here's what he has to say about gays who want to be parents:

"I think this surrogacy thing is crap. It is utterly hideous. I think it’s egocentric and vain. And these endless IVF treatments people go through. I mean, if you are meant to have babies then great. But this whole idea of two gay guys filling a cocktail shaker with their sperm and impregnating some grim lesbian and then it gets cut out is just really weird. If I did have the impulse to be a parent, I would adopt—or foster. But this whole thing of forcing the idea of parenthood on us gay men is so bogus. Marriage? Babies? Please. I want to be illegal. I want to live outside the mainstream."

Everett believes his wish to be outside of the mainstream puts him "ahead of the curve."

"These awful middle-class queens—which is what the gay movement has become—are so tiresome. It’s all Abercrombie & Fitch and strollers. Everybody has the right to do what they want to do, but still..."

Naturally, the gay press and mainstream members of the queer community are up in arms about this...the tone of the Towleroad post, Dan Savage's repost on Slog, and many of the comments being posted are largely negative, with the general consensus that Everett should just shut up and that he's a tired, bitter, old queen.

Equally naturally, I have to agree with (most) of what Rupert Everett had to say, and so did a few other people on the comments threads. Here's what I had to say on Slog:

no, no he doesn't...I appreciate his candor and the fact he's not afraid to state his opinion even if it's going to be a politically incorrect opinion.

And his comment about the mainstreaming of the gay movement, is sort of dead-on...it HAS become all "Abercrombie & Fitch and strollers" and a desire to ape middle class, heteronormitive society, which is fine for some and we SHOULD have the same rights as everyone else, but all traces of sexuality are being removed from the homosexual rights movement because it upsets the straights, and because aping the straights makes some homosexuals feel better about their "lifestyle choice".

and, here's what my big mouth had to say on Towleroad:

bravo to Rupert Everett for being brave enough to state HIS opinion, even if it's a politically incorrect one. The gay rights movement HAS become bland and dedicated to the notion we want to be just like the straights...all traces of SEXUALITY have been removed. Yes, we SHOULD have the same rights as everyone else, but that doesn't mean we have to take advantage of those rights if we don't want to. Embracing the heteronormitive lifestyle is great for some people, but it shouldn't be expected that we should all fall into line and live "respectible" lifestyles. I might want the RIGHT to have a husband and a baby and a Suburu and a white picket fence in front of my suburban tract house but that doesn't mean I should feel forced to excise that right.

I get really irked when people get told to shut up for stating their opinion, if their opinion goes against the status quo, and for being a celebrity for stating their opinion...just because ANY celebrity gives an opinion, doesn't mean you have to listen to it, but they have the right, just like anyone else to give it. And anyone with the balls of a Rupert Everett; renaissance man, actor, writer, admitted rentboy, one of the first out actors in the world, can say WHATEVER the fuck he wants.

Art I really, really love: Kate Pfeiffer

Her attention to detail is amazing and technically, it's very, very difficult to pull off. She's really young; just graduated from college. Here is her bio:

Kate Pfeiffer graduated from the Rhode Island school of Design in 2008. She has a BFA in Illustration with a concentration in English.

Kate currently resides in her beloved home-state of Wisconsin. When she's not painting, Kate enjoys coaching, volleyball, running, rock climbing, and eating tomatoes. Kate also likes striped clothing, has an affinity for dry humor, and falls asleep almost instantly on planes.

If you wish to comission a piece or purchase a piece on this website, please contact Kate

Check out her website: http://www.gallerykate.com/Index.html Oh, and I first discovered her work at Juxtapoz.

FINALLY!!!

Spring has sprung; doesn't it feel great? And, everyone's walking around with a big ole smile on their face, even those of us trapped in our offices and jobs. (I've already had 4 smoke breaks today, and it's only 12.30...).

And, we had our first apartment complex bbq in our courtyard last night...it was heavenly...delicious barbecued chicken and burgers and brats...vodka gimlets...warm breezes...

ahhhhhhhhh......

now, to get my big, fat, white butt to a beach.

oh, and to check out the frontside of the guy in the photo, go HERE. He's nude but not erect, so it's NSFW but not hardcore NSFW...

Tonite on Lost: Whatever Happened, Happened

Synopsis
LOST - "Whatever Happened, Happened" - Kate goes to extreme measures to save (young)Ben's life when Jack refuses to help. Meanwhile, Kate begins to tell the truth about the lie in order to protect Aaron, on "Lost," WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1 (9:00-10:02 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

Guest List
Guest starring are Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, Kim Dickens as Cassidy, Doug Hutchison as Horace Goodspeed, Susan Duerden as Carol Littleton, Sterling Beaumon as young Ben, Patrick Fischler as Phil, Jon Gries as Roger Linus, William Blanchett as Aaron, Sebastian Siegel as Erik, Candace Scholz as Debra, Susan King as sweet young woman, Miko Franconi as grocery worker, Scott Moura as manager and Olivia Vickery as Clementine.

Oh, joy, a freaking Kate episode immediately after last week's bland Sayid outing...I really don't care that much about the the original cast anymore, esp the schizoid misanthrope Kate ("I love Jack! No, I love Sawyer! Wait, I love them BOTH!!!!!")...I want less of them and more explainations about life in DharmaLand, esp what's up with Doctor Pierre Chang and the construction of all those Dharma stations; I don't need any more installments of Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet Love Quadrangle and frankly, I could care less if Sayid lives or dies, (though I would have loved to have seen the look on Naveen Andrews face when they told him Sayid was going to deliberately shoot a 12 year old boy in the chest because he was going to grow up to be evil...)

Well, at least we have an appearance by Richard Alpert and his Manliner and it looks like we get a break from the irritating Radzinsky...and it's not too difficult to figure out what's going to happen in tonite's episode, just based on the Guest List...obviously we're going to find out what happened to Aaron, (looks like he's going to meet his Ozzie Grandma) and we find out what it was Sawyer whispered to Kate before jumping out of the helicopter last year, ("check up on my old girlfriend and illegetimate daughter, would you Freckles?")

Hopefully, it'll end up being good but I'm more looking forward to next weeks episode, "Dead is Dead". Here is the official ABC synopsis for THAT:

Synopsis
BEN ATTEMPTS TO SUMMON THE SMOKE MONSTER IN ORDER TO BE JUDGED FOR SINS OF THE PAST

And, the cast list includes appearances from Penny, dead daughter Alex and young Rousseau so hopefully we'll find out if Ben tried to kill Penny before getting on the Ajira flight and how did Ben get custody of Alex in the first place. AND, it sounds like we'll see ole Smokey!

Andy Hallett/Angel's Lorne: Dead at 33

One of the sweeter elements on a very dark show, Hallett is the the second Angel actor to die young. Glenn Quinn who played Doyle, died from drug related causes in 2002. And 33 is waaaaaay too young to die.

So, a toast to Andy Hallett.

And in a Buffy/Angel/Whedonverse Circle of Life coincidence, Alyson Hannigan/Willow and Alexis Denisof/Wesley had a daughter they named Satyana last week.

What a horrid name...

Irving R Levine: Dead at 86

A toast to the nattiest reporter who ever lived...they don't make them like that anymore.