YouTubing

The "All-Abbie, 'Cause-its-your-birthday" Edition





And because she's a strange German Electronica-loving monkey:

Good Times.

Perhaps my favorite dance sequence from my favorite movie ever to include a donkey sex show scene.

Well, there goes this news cycle.

So, Michael Jackson died. It makes me feel kind of old.

But I hope this doesn't keep us from talking about more important things.

Neda

Yeah. This.

I mean, I feel nothing but 100 percent solidarity with the people of Iran protesting for reform, but the sort of ghoulish thrill people are getting watching her bleed to death over and over again is seriously disturbing to me, more so than similar previous videos of Oscar Grant's shooting I've posted myself here.

I think it's because there's no record of the crime committed in the video, or of the criminals who committed it. It's just a woman dying horribly. It's like it's written in the passive voice.

I don't know. It just makes me sad that this woman had to die in order to be an icon for the people of Iran. Because it seems to me that the living Neda was pretty awesome.

RIP Neda. I'm sorry agents of your government murdered you. I'm sorry video of your death, what should have been an intimate, private moment between you and your loved ones at the natural end of your life, is being shown without your permission to a world full of creepy rubberneckers. I'm sorry you were so quickly abstracted into a symbol instead of a person, like you were some kind of sacrifice on the altar of democracy or something. (And I'm sorry if the thought of accidentally killing people like you wasn't enough to keep certain politicians from singing "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran!") May peace and solace come to your family as soon as possible.

I'm sure everyone has heard about this by now.

But I'm especially saddened by the shooting at the Holocaust Museum in D.C. because for me it was the location of my Obama inauguration experience. Tragedy and triumph, so close together.

I actually remember asking a nice black male security guard for directions that day. I wonder if he was the man who was shot.

I wish I had something pithier to say on the subject.

Happy 0th Birthday!

To my new stepcousin, Logan! Wow, two new babies in one week! What the heck was going down nine months ago?

Happy 0th Birthday!

To my new niece, Rory Teagen Gatsch!

*screams*

Umm, yeah. Even as a Sesame Street segment, Twin Peaks remains the freakiest thing ever to appear on television.

Battlestar Galactica = Good

So I've been watching BSG on dvd. How come no one told me this show was so dang good?

I kind of feel like it would have been better to see as it was coming
out, though. It feels very very much about the Bush years, in a way that's almost triggering.

(I've also been watching a lot of random independent documentaries from the past few years that occasionally show our last president at work, and each and every time I get a little catch in my throat, like a mixture of sadness and relief. Obama's not perfect by a long shot, but seriously folks, out long national nightmare is over.)

Oh and can I put Starbuck in the same category as Angelina Jolie's
character in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? The, "Vanessa *swore* she was straight" category?







Ahem. Apparently I have a fetish for butch white women who fly future planes. Who knew? Is there a complicated latin word for that? Is it related somehow to my thing for Sawyer on Lost?

I'm only on season two, again, which is apparently when I feel the need to announce these things to the internet. Nobody spoil me this time either.

Because I think we all could use a good laugh.

My new favorite obsession: literal videos. Try not to laugh until you pee, I dare you.





And this one is the best because, wtf is this video about anyway?

RIP Dr. George Tiller

An act of terrorism was committed on American soil today.



Dr. George Tiller was an American Hero. May his murderer rot in jail forever.

Feministe has a list of links up to places you can donate in Dr. Tiller's memory.

**added** Read this commenter's account of a personal experience under Dr. Tiller's care.

Qte

Go ahead and squee. Abbie and Coco, my mom's new puppy.

Youtubing

The "Ahhh Summertime" edition.

For me, summer and music are linked. That's true for everyone, right? I mean, in summer you have the time to blast loud music and dance around in your kitchen or something. (Not that I've been wasting my time on that recently, not while I need to put together a CV and try to find a real job, no siree.) Summer needs a soundtrack. So, here goes.

Firstly, because it reminds me of my misspent youth, and driving around in blisteringly hot weather for no reason in a crappy car when gas was cheap with all the windows rolled down while blasting the radio, and maybe later drinking a slurpee with rum in it (or maybe a frosty with whiskey in it) while lounging about on the front porch.

The Clash - "Rudy Can't Fail"


This one's for Abbie, who continues her weirdo love for Kraftwerk and all things roboty and electronical.

Kraftwerk - "Music Non Stop"


And because it's a good song, and in honor of being suspicious of any government who so readily denies civilian death tolls without letting anyone investigate, (methinks the lady doth protest too much) there's this one.

M.I.A. - "Sunshowers"


I've been finally watching Battlestar Galactica on DVD this summer, and quite like it, but I really like the music, funnily enough.

Bear McCreary - "The Dance" (not a particularly exciting video though)


And finally, because its the best summer song ever, (although here they are performing it the year I was born...neat!) and also optimal for kitchen dancing purposes.

The B-52s - "Rock Lobster"

Apparently

I apparently actually graduated summa cum laude, not magna cum laude.

I promise to stop talking about graduating now.

Fascinating.

I'd known about the original Solomon Linda version of Mbube (or "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" for the culturally appropriative amongst us) but I'd never heard it. I had no idea it was an isicathamiya song (a la Ladysmith Black Mambazo). At least it seems to be that way to my Western ears.

Thought that was interesting, anyway. Just being an ethnomusicology nerd. Professor Feld (look, you're in wikipedia!)would be so proud.