Introducing…Caturday Reads

Posted: March 24, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: just because | 44 Comments

Did someone say "Ikea" and "assemble"? Look at how fast my delivery cats are out the door ( "...those cats were fast as lightning...") Photo: L+R, yesterday.

Morning, news junkies!

A tentative solution to my blogger tardiness:

  • Saturday link dump interspersed with Lily+Rue kitty photos
  • Photo bomb at the end of “Caturday” post as time allows
  • Hillary Sundaes at least once or twice a month!

I hope this works out better. I miss y’all bigtime! And, hope to be back to participating in the comments more.

Linkage is super short today! But, I hope adequate to get the morning conversation ball rolling…

  • I so would have rather had a Governor Kay Bailey than a Guv. Goodhair: “Breaking ranks with her party, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on Thursday urged Gov. Rick Perry — her erstwhile gubernatorial rival — to work with the Obama administration to keep federal money flowing to the Women’s Health Program, which has been caught in a crossfire between the state and the feds over state support for Planned Parenthood.” [Source: Texas Tribune]
  • Mysterious Chinese Fossils May Be New Human Species [Live Science]
  • Orphaned Owlets Raised by a Friendly Park Keeper [6 Pictures] [Terribly Cute]

    L+R, Tuesday. "Naptime is so over"

  • I love the Dogs Against Mitt Romney / #IRideInside movement, and I love this video! Be sure to click on that if you need a pick-me-up.
  • Don’t think I’ll have time for the Hillary post this Sunday, so I’ll end with Hill… and Kirsten Gillibrand! Kirsten says Hillary should run in 2016 [Buzzfeed]…I say IF Hillary runs, then we all know who I am voting, campaigning, and volunteering my ass off for. However, barring a sudden conversion from Hillary on the question of her future in electoral politics, I personally say… Gillibrand 2016!

Ok, that’s all I got for now! Maybe I’ll throw in some more links and kitty pics in the comments if I get time later in the morning/day. YOUR TURN, Sky Dancers! What’s on your read+rant+recommend list this lovely Caturday?

Saturday: Politics, Physics, and… Purr-pics!

Posted: March 10, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: just because | 72 Comments

Morning, news junkies!

Here’s your Saturday morning link dump… grab a cuppa or have your furry one pour you a refill… and let’s get started!

“What Barack Obama seems to want to do is go back before those days when we were in different classes based on income, based on color of skin.”

–another moment of Grizzly Inanity, on Sean Profanity’s show

JACKSON, Miss. – Campaigning in the Deep South, where he faces tough opposition from more-conservative rivals for the GOP nomination, Mitt Romney is promoting an antiregulatory theme and a vision of a new environment in which regulators “see businesses and enterprises of all kinds as their friends.”

At a town hall meeting here on Friday, Romney also slammed the Obama administration for imposing a moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP oil-spill disaster.

“We were in Pascagoula yesterday and we saw behind us a couple of large drilling rigs not being used right now,” Romney said. “The use of drilling rigs in the Gulf is the lowest of any place in the world, lowest utilization. That’s because of this president and the moratorium he put in place that’s illegal.”

  • This headline made my Friday night: “Gloria Allred seeks Rush Limbaugh prosecution“…. Bwahahaha! Classic! Whatever you think of Gloria Allred and her skill/intentions at seizing any opportunity to take on a high profile lawsuit, she still serves as a check and balance in our misogynist culture… anytime she gets on her legal eagle box, it’s a barometer of sorts. So I says… Go get him, Glo! LOL.
  • You don’t hear me say this often, so listen up: Thank you, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Obama Administration for not granting a waiver that would free up funds meant for the Women’s Health Program here in Texas. The banning of this program, due to icky Planned Parenthood cooties, has been such a maddening and saddening story to watch unfold. So to have the HHS and President do this is a welcome surprise for me. I hope it is more than a showhorse (rather than workhorse) move during an election year–but I’m not foolish enough to discount that possibility either. Still, this is a GOOD showhorse move, with symbolic heft to it.
  • I always give credit where it’s due… So, while I am firmly in the “Honey Badger for President” camp and have zero intention of voting for Obama (or any other Republican running, Obama being one himself in everything but name…), here is another move that I must give the President credit for this week: Obama Personally Lobbied to Defeat XL Pipeline. More election pandering? Probably. It is Obama’s typical “we need more studies first” stance. But, I was still very glad to see the measure defeated. And, we do need more studies first–at minimum.

Alright. Now for a bit of Blogger housekeeping…

I apologize for not getting the Kitty or the Hillary posts out last weekend as promised. I’m not sure *when* I’m going to be able to get the Saturday afternoon kitteh posts going, though I haven’t forgotten about doing them one bit (and commenter paperdoll, if you’re reading, I haven’t forgotten about the dog pics I am super duper tardy on owing you, either!) It’s just going to take a few weeks more or so for me to deliver. This afternoon I have to attend the first birthday of my cousin’s first kid, so this weekend is a non-starter. And, I’m in the process of moving into some new digs (move-in date is Saint Patrick’s day)! And, then at the end of this month I turn thirty-one. So it’s nonstop nonstopping for me for a bit 😉 As soon as things settle down, I’ll re-organize my blogger schedule and fit everything in.

I  will have a new “Cinematherapy in Feminist Perspective” post  over at Taylor Marsh’s this evening, so check it out.

Until then… here’s a picture of Rue reading the Economist with me:

If you’re curious (or nosey like Rue’s sister, Lily), here’s what we were reading last Saturday night…

Sex and Advertising: Retail Therapy -- How Ernest Dichter, an acolyte of S. Freud, revolutionized marketing (The Economist, Dec. 2011, holiday double issue)

As for the Hillary blogging–well, I’ve tried to keep my morning read on the lighter side this Saturday so I can spend more time on a super duper sized Hillary Sundae post for you this weekend.

Therefore… it is now your turn in the comments… What’s on your read-n-rant list this morning? Hope you have a lovely Saturday!

Oh… and here is Rue telling Lily some kind of secret…

(…actually, Rue was just grooming Lils…)

Morning-ish Reads: Carpe the Saturday!

Posted: March 3, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: just because | 43 Comments

Pluperfect. (h/t Joyce Arnold for passing this graphic along)

Morning, news junkies… What a week in politics…what a bunch of election year/horserace manure! I’ve got a potpourri of reads for you this morning, to help you get a break from all the political nonsense and recharge a bit. Hope you enjoy. I’m just gonna do this real quick link-dump style and then get to the grand finale… 😉

“Unfortunately, the Mexican food served abroad is not at all like ours. There is a misperception that Tex-Mex food – burritos, chilli con carne – is part of our daily diet,” says Ricardo Munoz Zurita, a well-known chef and owner of Azul Condesa restaurant in Mexico City.

“Perhaps Mexican chefs don’t know how to export their food as well as French, Spanish or Italian cooks,” he tells the BBC.

I’m going to post try to post a Saturday afternoon photobomb of my kitty-babes… here’s a brief teaser/preview:

So what’s on your read ‘n rant this morning?

Saturday: Ohana means…

Posted: February 25, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: just because | 48 Comments

As you may know, Callie–my family’s beloved pomeranian dog-girl–died almost a year ago. March 13th will mark an entire 12 months without her physical presence…I still feel her with me, each and every day. She will never be left behind…or forgotten.

This week I adopted a kitten, Callie’s niece, my baby. I brought her home yesterday. Meet Lily Sue:


Tomorrow Today (Saturday), Lily and I are hoping to adopt and bring home Rue (hopefully Lily’s sister, and my younger baby by about 4 months…) Both Lily and Rue are rescue kittens, and while I got nothing but green lights when it came to adopting Lily, I’ve known Rue a few weeks longer… and there have been some roadblocks along the way. The funny part is…I might not have found Lily had Rue not been adopted before I could adopt her first. I was so upset that night I went scouring the internet for a kitty similar to her…which is how I  stumbled upon Lily’s listing on petfinder.com…then never let my eyes off her. She’s sleeping in my arms right now as I type this, and I am on Cloud Nine. Funny how things work…

Funnier still is this: The day I started the adoption process for Lily–I got a call from Rue’s rescue organization saying that the family was having second thoughts and that I might be able to adopt her after all.

If Rue is meant to join us, she will. And, if not, we will always love her dearly and keep her in our thoughts and hearts, wishing her the loving, caring home she so richly deserves.

No one left behind or forgotten–simply more loved ones to not leave behind or forget.

And, with that Sky Dancers–here are a few Saturday reads for you, link-dump style…

  • Fiscal Times: Hillary Clinton is Now Secretary of Job Creation…

The State Department may become the nation’s human resources department by adding job creation to its already bulging portfolio.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited U.S. companies to call on Foggy Bottom experts for guidance on increasing their exports, safeguarding intellectual property abroad, and increasing foreign direct investment in the U.S. as part of a new administration effort to promote domestic jobs.

  • Those fetus fetishists are willing to let all their incubators die off of preventable and/or treatable disease, quelle surprise. Via Texas Democrats, Feb. 23rd (Thursday):

Today at the direction of Republican lawmakers and Attorney General Abbott, Health and Human Services commissioner Tom Suehs signed a rule that would essentially end the Women’s Health Program in Texas. This essential program, which is funded largely by the federal government, allows low-income women in Texas to access health screening for things such as breast and cervical cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

Alright, well that’s it for me. I’ve got a Lily to attend to 😉 What’s on your read-and-rant list this weekend? Let us know in the comments and hope you have a weekend full of R&R if you can!

Saturday: Whitney is Every Woman

Posted: February 18, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: morning reads | Tags: | 26 Comments

Morning news junkies.

Today is Whitney Houston’s funeral, so I thought I’d devote my Saturday rant+reads to her. To the right, a little sign I made in Whitney’s honor, based on an interview quote of hers. (h/t to paperdoll for introducing me to the church sign generator.)

Here’s a little list of names that I’d like to run by you…

Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Janet Jackson, MC Hammer, Paula Abdul’s “Shut Up and Dance ,” and the Wayne’s World soundtrack (just for Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody alone).

What do they have in common you ask? Well in this self-centered little corner of the universe, all of the above were a wee Wonk’s very first music purchases with her very own pocket money. (Oh, yes I did just use the third person with my pseudonym. I really couldn’t give less of a frig about obeying those kind of blogger Do’s and Don’ts.)

Anyhow, these artists–along with a complimentary audio cassette that came with my Dad’s ’86 Oldsmobile–made up the bulk of my earliest music collection. (That Oldsmobile freebie was a damn good compilation, too, btw. Everything from Fur Elise to Cyndi Lauper.)

I’m clearly a child of the eighties. And, I still have the tapes I bought of Whitney, Michael, Madge, and Janet to prove it. Also the Oldsmobile tape… though it is nearly entirely defunct (B-side and A-side) from so much overplay on my ridiculously pink walkman back in the day.

Point of all that nostalgia being, I literally grew up with Whitney et al.

Madonna’s still kicking it, and Janet’s doing her thing, too. But, what the hell happened to the other half of my childhood?

When I was entering junior high, the Bodyguard came out…and of course I bought the soundtrack and crooned “I Will Always Love You” in front of the mirror, bathroom singer-style. But, the other song I remember singing almost as much?

Whitney’s cover of Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman.”

That was the Aretha Franklin “R-E-S-P-E-C-T”/”Natural Woman” anthem of my preadolescence–not to mention the choir girl way of singing Meredith Brook’s “I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a mother…” as well as a lot easier for a twelve year old to grasp than a Tori Amos album (goddess love Tori–I do! but her lyrics are up there in the clouds…)

Whitney’s “I’m Every Woman” was also just a smidge before I would be a freshman in high school and the Riot grrrl bands, Liz Phair’s Exile Out of Guyville, etc. would explode in the mainstream.

I’m Every Woman was the song a little girly-Wonk-in-the-making *needed* to hear and sing right at that moment in time. And, yes, it’s all about the girl being like I Dream of Jeannie in a bottle, making her master’s wishes come true. That’s not really the part I listened to when Whitney sang it though… Here’s what I heard her sing/emphasize–the refrain that played through my mind:

I’m every woman,
It’s all in me.

Those lyrics were a burst of girl power. A woman-of-color girl power!

I was a shy nerdy Indian girl who went through the worst of bullying during those junior high years. But, whenever I turned on my walkman at home and started belting out “I’m every woman, it’s all in me…,” I felt a little stronger.

I’ve also seen the human costs of anxiety, depression, and addiction, up close and personal. Every nook and cranny of my immediate and extended family has been affected by one and/or the other. Chances are at least a nook or cranny somewhere in yours has been affected, too.

Mental health care is a right.

Mental health equity is not just about money or access, as we’ve seen, even the uber-wealthy are hardly immune.

Mental health equity is about breaking down the stigma so that people who are self-destructing can get help without having to feel like it’s a personal failing. The mind isn’t outside of the body. Mental health problems are not personal human failings anymore than pneumonia is.

Whitney’s personal successes and personal struggles are all of ours. Her premature death is our premature death. We as a society need to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves and all our national treasures along with.

Okay I’m gonna get off my soapbox, and leave you with a few musical+political links and snippets to chew on…

“I prefer to stay on the sidelines. I genuinely believe an artist [is] supposed to be the canary in the coal mine, and you’re better off with a certain distance from the seat of power.”

Springsteen said he still supports Obama but expressed disappointment in his handling of the job market and home foreclosures and disapproved of the attention Obama paid to corporations rather than the middle class.

“I would like to have seen more activism in job creation sooner than it came. I would like to have seen people helped out, seen some of these [home] foreclosures stopped somehow,” Springsteen said.

Springsteen said Obama was “more friendly to corporations than I thought he would be, [and] there’s not as many middle-class or working-class voices heard in the administration as I thought there would be.”

But Springsteen did send a little praise Obama’s way, saying, “He kept GM alive, which was incredibly important to Detroit and Michigan, and he got the health care law passed, although I wish there had been a public option and didn’t leave the citizens victims of the insurance companies. He killed Osama bin Laden, which was extremely important. He brought some sanity to the top level of government.”

Obama was joined by the soul singer at a Democratic fundraiser on Thursday, a month after the president launched into a brief, impromptu version of Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” at New York’s Apollo Theater.

Obama thanked Green, prompting a member of the audience to shout, “Give us a verse!” The president declined to sing this time, telling about 70 campaign donors that he “took a chance at the Apollo and I’m not going to take a chance again.”

“After re-election I might go on tour with the good reverend — be his opening act,” Obama said.

But he warned, “I don’t want to lose any further votes because of my singing voice.”

During his performance, Cornell also performed Bob Marley’s Redemption Song: a couple of numbers from his ex-band Audioslave, Ground Zero and Wide Awake; John Lennon’s Imagine; and Nick Lowe’s (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding.

But it was with his finale that Cornell truly floored the audience, belting out the Dolly Parton-penned song that Houston turned into a classic when she sang it in the 1992 film The Bodyguard.

Voters of America, President Obama has made you a mix.

The president shared a Spotify playlist on his Facebook page Thursday: 29 tunes that he’ll be pumping on the campaign trail between now and Nov. 6. There are songs from artists you’d expect (Bruce Springsteen), artists you wouldn’t (Ricky Martin) and artists that are actually from Canada (Arcade Fire.)

And while candidates have been playing music on the stump since the days when doing so required a brass band, this feels different. We’re being invited into a courtship ritual as old as cassette technology. This is a collection of songs designed to make the recipient fall in love with the sender.

Only, Obama has a vast and varied electorate to woo — and that means his playlist does a lot of herky-jerky genre jumping. The results are not all swoon-worthy. Florence + the Machine’s melodramatic pop bristles up against country duo Montgomery Gentry. The beatific falsetto of Curtis Mayfield reminds us how awful Ray LaMontagne is. And for some reason, there’s an Electric Light Orchestra song. In speeches, the president has cited the plight of American farmers and factory workers. Now he feels the pain of America’s wedding DJs.

And so does his staff. On Spotify, the mix is subtitled like so: “The official 2012 playlist includes picks by the campaign staff — including a few of President Obama’s favorites.” A spokesperson for the Obama campaign clarified in an e-mail that the president didn’t choose the songs; they were suggested by staff members and volunteers.

As the obituaries roll in and the tributes pour out about Whitney Houston’s ability to hit those celebrated and “magical” high notes, surely the most overlooked of her many achievements as an artist is that she is perhaps the first black female artist to take the technical virtuosity of her skills culled in the church and successfully transpose them onto Arista-industry driven, market-tested Top 40 pop arrangements. Whereas even the Supremes worked their way up through a Motor City black-owned business that willed them to global stardom against the odds, and whereas a whole slew of “niche” artists (Natalie Cole on the R&B charts, Donna Summer on the Giorgio Moroder Euro-disco circuit) made the leap to the center, it was Whitney who emerged at the very center of ’80s pop and then subtly and yet fundamentally changed its landscape forever. She made the aesthetics of black female vocalizing once and for all not only mainstream (as Aretha Franklin had done in the late ’60s by way of her uncompromising Muscle Shoals soul) but also accessible to the masses, across age groups (the very young and the old who maybe didn’t groove to “Bad Girls” at Studio 54; the teens and 20-somethings who saw a Seventeen magazine model girlfriend in the singer), and across racial groups, by delivering the good news of the gospel melisma in shiny pop music deemed “universal” rather than “distinctly African-American.”

[…]

Drawn as some may be to the tales told by gossip folk coming out in droves, the more compelling story of Whitney Houston resides in a voice that raises above the din of US magazine and E! network chatter and holds for us the history of post–civil rights era womanhood as it defiantly, regally and audaciously weaves its way through a world of both legislated racial equality and lingering systemic discrimination. Even in that most iconic of moments, the 1991 Superbowl “Star-Spangled Banner” performance, the woman with the imposing three-octave range would complicate the fraught symbolic meaning of that patriotic ritual by virtue of her sheer vocal power.

Go read the rest. It’s divine.

That’s it for me. Your turn, Sky Dancers! What’s on your rant ‘n’ read list this weekend?

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