A minor jumbled sort of rant on gay marriage

So I re-stumbled upon Keith Olbermann's impassioned speech about gay marriage and Prop 8 due to its inclusion in AfterEllen.com's Top 8 LGBT Political Videos of 2008 list just now... (Check it out, the first vid is an anti-Prop 8 musical starring Jack Black as Jesus.) And on second watch it still resonated so I thought I'd share:



Transcript here.

It seems like the main reason people (and when I say people, I mean religious bigots and deluded conservatives- so a loose definition y'know) do oppose gay marriage is the sheer symbolism of the thing- civil unions are accompanied by most of the same legal entitlements as marriages, right? But "Seperate but equal" is by definition segregationist and therefore just not true, it's a signifier of second-class citizenship. Recognising gay marriages as legally and socially completely equal would mean that the validity of homosexual relationships would have to be taught in schools and accepted everywhere- that they would be recognised as equally good, morally and practically. This is an article on same-sex marriage and equality by Wilkinson & Kitzinger which I've only skim read so far because it's holidays and my brain is disintegrating into melted ice-cream mush, but looks stimulating. Love doesn't discriminate and neither should the law! Oh look, I'm reduced to yelling slogans. That's okay though. It's holidays.

So anyway... Everyone got all het up over the ridiculousness that was Prop 8 last month, in America and around the world, but has anyone noticed that there is relatively no public movement for marriage equality in Australia? Nothing halfway as publicised in the US, so far as I've noticed anyway. Maybe there are just less of us here. I do think that the legalising of same-sex marriages is inevitable, like other human rights advancements that we look back on now and wonder why the fuck it took so long. But what to do in the meantime eh? http://www.australianmarriageequality.com/.

And in other LGBT news, the Pope is an arsehole! Fsk fsk fsk, I am so not into organised religion right now.

FLOW: Can anyone really own water?

Flow is a new documentary by Irena Salina about the global water crisis that looks at the growing privatisation of the global water supply by corporations, whether we're running out of lifejuice and widespread ramifications of such things. It's won a bunch of important wreaths and shit, should be in indie cinemas early next year. Looks scary!

http://www.flowthefilm.com/

Dashing through the snow, etc.

IS IT CAN BE XMAS TIEM NOW PLEES?

#474; In which you better Watch Out

This one kinda dilutes the message, but gosh dang whadda classic: (& lol)

I don't really mind Xmas (as I've taken to calling it in a really feeble secular gesture, considering that the X actually stands for Christ in Greek lettering or someshit- whatever, it LOOKS different!*) as like... a cultural tradition, familial bonding sort of event. I guess. Not that my family is doing excessive amounts bonding though- it does feel pretty pathetic to be cruising the internet on Xmas Day! (Also I first typed that as "excessive amounts of bondage", which is true and pretty comforting...) From my room I can hear neighbours on every side getting drunk and singing ABBA kareoke, makes me feel sorta deprived and lonelylike. No big jolly crazy times here! But at least we don't have to go to church. And I got some presents. So nothing to complain about really...

I will though, because gotta say I do wish my laptop knew it was Xmas. Maybe then it would stop giving me so much shit (on this most holy of days)- the volume control is having an epileptic fit and Amanda Palmer's blog won't open, in addition to which it has managed to summon me for a daily web trawl on what should really be a completely web trawl-free day. I've even checked my Facebook, for fuck's sake! Alas poor Yorrick etc.

*EDIT: Language Log of course has a significantly more sensible position on the matter, from a while back... Bah humbug.

(Almost!)

Austenbook

Are you doing the Austen comparitive study for HSC English and CBF actually reading Pride & Przhej? Do you tend to spend all your life on the internet instead? Then look no further than Pride and Prejudice, the FaceBook feed! Gold gold gold.

(From the same site there is also this fanfic that basically summarises/parodies the book "in the form of Austen's juvenilia". Not quite as brilliant but just putting it out there yes.)

opposite day.

“What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest
loneliness, and say, ‘This life which you live must be lived by you once again
and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must
come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass will again
and again be turned and you with it, dust of the dust!’ Would you throw yourself
down and gnash your teeth and curse that demon? Or would you answer, ‘Never have
I heard anything more divine’? ”

—Nietzsche

I have not bummed across America
with only a dollar to spare, one pair
of busted Levi’s and a bowie knife.
I have lived with thieves in Manchester.

I have not padded through the Taj Mahal,
barefoot, listening to the space between
each footfall, picking up and putting down
its print against the marble floor. But I

skimmed flat stones across Black Moss on a day
so still I could hear each set of ripples
as they crossed. I felt each stone’s inertia
spend itself against the water; then sink.

I have not toyed with a parachute cord
while perched on the lip of a light aircraft;
but I held the wobbly head of a boy
at the day centre, and stroked his fat hands.

And I guess that the lightness in the throat
and the tiny cascading sensation
somewhere inside us are both part of that
sense of something else. That feeling, I mean.

—Simon Armitage

Picasso painting with light, 1949:

The world is an amazing place.

Year 12 and so forth is sehr tiring, but I found this nice thing via frankie:

With all the shit that has been going on recently all over the world, it’s
nice to see something as heartwarming, silly and gosh-darn ‘hands across the
globe’ as these dancing videos from Where the Hell is Matt? Don’t question it – just go and watch and sniffle a bit and realise that, really, we’re all the same.

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning, praise the dawning
It's just a restless feeling by my side
Early dawning, Sunday morning
It's just the wasted years so close behind
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all
Sunday morning and I'm falling
I've got a feeling I don't want to know
Early dawning, Sunday morning
It's all the streets you crossed, not so long ago
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all
Sunday morning
Sunday morning
Sunday morning

- The Velvet Underground

Oh xkcd, you complete me:

Also, this article:

Happiness is contagious, spreading among friends, neighbors, siblings and
spouses like the flu, according to a large study that for the first time shows
how emotion can ripple through clusters of people who may not even know each
other.

The study of more than 4,700 people who were followed over 20 years found
that people who are happy or become happy boost the chances that someone they
know will be happy. The power of happiness, moreover, can span another degree of
separation, elevating the mood of that person's husband, wife, brother, sister,
friend or next-door neighbor.

...Previous studies have documented the common experience that one person's
emotions can influence another's -- laughter can trigger guffaws in others;
seeing someone smile can momentarily lift one's spirits. But the new study is
the first to find that happiness can spread across groups for an extended
period.

When one person in the network became happy, the chances that a friend,
sibling, spouse or next-door neighbor would become happy increased between 8
percent and 34 percent, the researchers found. The effect continued through
three degrees of separation, although it dropped progressively from about 15
percent to 10 percent to about 6 percent before disappearing.

...Unhappiness also appeared to be catching, but not as strongly: An unhappy connection increased the chances of being unhappy by about 7 percent on average, while a happy connection increased the chances of being happy by about 9 percent. While having more friends is important for a person's happiness, the benefit of having more friends appears to be canceled out if they are unhappy, the researchers found.

Kind of makes sense, kind of doesn't so much, but makes me want to administer hugs all round either way!

Sexy Exciting Things #1

So yesterday I gave my slapdash BOW proposal presentation, including this beautiful video called Women in Art by Philip Scott Johnson which my VA class seemed to like and maybe you will too. It basically morphs together female faces from 500 years of Western portraiture and I won't go into how it relates to my BOW but I will say that it's mesmerising and elegantly done and I reccommend it for an overview of painting through the ages, sweet Bach tunes and hot laydeez! It's a hit on YouTube...




Also, below we have the Kansas City Public Library: I wonder if they're ever out of the titles featured out teh front? How pissed would you be if they were like sorry no Charlotte's Web for you sir, onto the waiting list! Sue the bastards for all they have I say!



For more wacky wacky buildings visit 50 Strange Buildings of the World or http://unusual-architecture.com/. Feats of engineering and/or the imagination abound!

synchronised sinking.

Disclaimer: Moody post! Don't read on!

So it's 1:00 AM exactly on a... Wednesday morning? Yes that's about right. I've messed myself around all day and managed to come out thoroughly unprepared for my second and third HSC assessment tasks tomorrow (today?) and Thursday. Thus, self loathing time! I'm not sure what I'm talking about, it's been an odd few days and several different factors have culminated in an urge to overshare, how regrettable...

What I am thinking about right now is this: (in handy bullet point format!)

• unrealistic expectations (of self, others, relationships both friendly and romantic, humanity as a whole, etc)
• subsequent disappointment (I am pathetic, others are flawed, noone really knows what everyone else wants and if they did would they give it to them?, the planet is fucked, etc)
• emotional and/or physical connections: will I ever be satisfied? How the heck do you make people like you anyway?
• the incredible, strange, sometimes wonderful but mostly frightening changes I and presumably most of my friends are going through right now. In the head. Other places too I guess. The ravages of puberty leave noone unscathed. New bodies we don't understand? Sure, that's actually old news by now. But everything else is changing too. It's hard to put into words. It's probably called life experience, or waking the fuck up, or similar... There are all these new things in my mind, mini intellectual awakenings and attitude shifts and emotions, emotions.
• I can no longer use the word 'belonging' in ordinary speech or writing without being punched in the face by a disgruntled Advanced English student but can I just say that I'm struggling here. Maybe you are too, who knows? I don't know. You can tell me if you like. I won't know what to say though. I never do. (Oh God /wrists Bodhi, build a frigging bridge.)
• self-expression reallt. I suppose that's what this is all about. Again, sorry for making my loathsome thoughts and general headspace public. Although it's not like anyone's chaining you to a desk and making you read it. At least, I hope not! You should really get that checked out if they are dear...

Anyway. Listening to The Lucksmiths on repeat is soothing. Dear friend, have I ever recommended a song called Fiction to you? If not, I do so now. It's soft and lovely and just that little bit wistful... Ah wistful. That's how I'm feeling a little bit wistful right now. That, and mildly depressed...

Oh shit gentle reader, you've just lost several minutes of your life reading this bile, several minutes that you'll never get back. I myself wasted almost half an hour writing it! A sorry state of affairs, this whole being-alive thing has turned out to be. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. Opinion of the millisecond: I do not in fact like Chuck Palahniuk, his writing is brusque and arrogant and trashy. Not bad at one liners though. On this banal thought, I leave you! Off to find a more effective cure for stress, insomnia, and a quiet sneaking sort of loneliness. Bonne nuit.

P.S. Bodhi uses too much punctuation: (Y/N)?