The Beastie Boys meant so much to fans world wide, and I am no exception. Adam Yauch’s contributions to both popular music and progressive politics will not be forgotten.
ETA: If you find yourself questioning MCAs feminist or philanthropic credentials, you may want to click here, here, here or here.
(Source: ph0cus, via taylarspoetica)
I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian, but you don’t need to be religious to know I have deeply bigoted views and use fallacious reasoning. As President, I’ll end separation of Church and State….I’m Rick Perry and I approve this message.
The Occupy movement maybe be the important political movement of our time. If our generation is great at most things intersectional, one of our biggest failings is leaving behind those with disparate economic and class circumstances. Maybe sleeping in the parks alongside those who have no where else to go will help us all to wake up.
The other day there were rumors of a cop refusing an order to pepper-spray civilian protestors. So this begs the question, what if our police stopped wearing riot gear, gave up the pepper-spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets, and sat down with their fellow 99%?
I can almost hear the cry from Zuccotti Park: N-Y-P-D, you belong here with me!
(via inothernews)
Feminist Ryan Gosling is getting me through a rough week at work, school, and everywhere else. Shout out to Danielle Henderson, creator and grad student at University of Wisconsin in the Gender and Women’s Studies program. Danielle, you totally rock!
(And so does Ryan Gosling. Any man who calls out the patriarchy is A-Okay in my book.)
There’s a certain Change.org petition that’s been getting a lot of media attention. The digital petition asks Sesame Street to “let Bert & Ernie get married.” Change.org draws attention to the countless LGBTQ youth lives lost each year to suicide as a result of bullying or feelings of isolation, a tragedy which organizations and projects like It Gets Better are working to address.
Change.org argues that Sesame Street is in a unique position to teach the kind of acceptance of others that would plant seeds of peace for the future (paraphrased). But The Sesame Street Workshop has issued a statement saying the puppets are not to marry. Sesame Street argues that Bert and Ernie prove to preschoolers that we can befriend those different from ourselves, and that:
Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets™ do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.
If you’re wondering where Change.org, or anyone, got the wild idea that Ernie & Bert were gay, look no further than the adult Sesame Street parody, Avenue Q. Though I doubt that Avenue Q originated the Bert-and-Ernie-are-gay storyline, they played upon the notion with a Rod and Nicky story line where Nicky finds Rod a boyfriend in Ricky, his nearly identical gay counterpart (who, as evidenced below, were present at the NYC courthouses to support marriage equality.)
The real question is, does Sesame Street’s argument hold water?
I am not compelled to tell a children’s television show to marry two male best friend puppets when there hasn’t ever been an explicit love story previously. However, the argument that the puppets “do not have a sexual orientation” is laughable.
My main argument rests with Miss Piggy, who very clearly loves Kermit, and I’m not talking platonic love either. She may not be a Sesame Street character, but as Kermit is, the logic is flawed.
Change.org was right when they said that Sesame Street was in a unique position to reach out to youth and teach acceptance, but it doesn’t have to start with two puppets. Perhaps the PBS show could include more nontraditional human families, either in the cast or visiting friends. I grew up with Sesame Street telling me that we were all special and worth being loved, and I hope that message remains consistent.
![A good image to represent my hometown. There’s some really Harry Potter love in Lexington, Kentucky.
thedailywhat:
Looks Legit of the Day: Either someone hacked this Lexington, Kentucky road sign, or we’re gonna need to find a forehead-scarred orphan with a posse to take care of this sh*t stat.
[lex18 / io9.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_loc3bcKS7h1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
A good image to represent my hometown. There’s some really Harry Potter love in Lexington, Kentucky.
Looks Legit of the Day: Either someone hacked this Lexington, Kentucky road sign, or we’re gonna need to find a forehead-scarred orphan with a posse to take care of this sh*t stat.
(Source: thedailywhat, via everythingharrypotter)
Day Two of the Legendary Marathon: The Prisoner of Azkaban & The Goblet of Fire
I studied enough film in college to earn a minor, and perhaps the most fun thing about watching the movies back to back is seeing the shift in tone. Director Alfonso Cuaron took over from previous director Chris Columbus on The Prisoner of Azkaban, and his vision, like the plot, was much darker than the first two narratives. Gone were the golden hued films of Columbus, the soft focus. Cuaron’s films lend themselves a ghost story air. In one of the opening scenes, Harry mutter’s “spooky” about seeing a dog in the distance, and that’s what the film sustains, an element of spookiness. Cuaron doesn’t hide from the technological limitations of the time, but rather utilizes other effects to make the film look advanced: like time lapse photography to show the car of the train freezing from the presence of dementors.
He allowed the film to leave behind strict plot in order to establish a tone, like the early scene in the boy’s dormitory at Hogwarts where Harry and his fellow Gryffindor’s eat candy that gives them animal voices. Perhaps my only complaint was how reliant he was on nature to show a change in time, but its a small complaint next to the first two films.
Because of my distain for The Goblet of Fire, and my joy that Mike Newell only directed one film, I will only say that I remember when boys with over-grown, poorly shapen haircuts were cool, but the look doesn’t age well on screen. However Ralph Fiennes is the perfect Voldemort and its great having an antagonist with a body–-makes the visual experience really come together.
(Source: hailmika)
Happy Harry Potter Week!
This week marks the general release of the final Harry Potter film, and to celebrate select AMC theaters across the US are hosting an event called The Legendary Marathon. Extreme Harry Potter fans pay $45 to view 19 hours and 39 minutes worth of Harry Potter on the silver screen, two films a night until Thursday viewers watch HP7 Part 1 at 9pm and Part 2 at 12:01am. Obviously, it was imperative that my sister, father and I go and see all of the movies.
Dad got into Harry Potter when The Goblet of Fire was released. Our neighbor came over and asked him to sign a petition to have Harry Potter banned because it was satanic––The Goblet of Fire even features a resurrection. Well Dad said he never signs anything without reading it first. So after reading books I-IV, he started waiting with us in line for the book releases not as a chaperoning parent, but as an avid fan.
Last night fans packed into seats to watch The Sorcerer’ Stone and The Chamber of Secrets. It was while watching the bad CGI and the drawn out endings that I realized no one is there because every movie is infallibly wonderful. We are there because we have to be. I was eleven when I picked up the first three Harry Potter books. I, like the rest of the audience, have grown up with Harry. And as the week goes on and the movies get better, the plots more complex, and the graphics become more believable, it won’t really matter. Because this is really all about the experience. We are the Potter Generation.
(Source: theoldonetwo)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 London Photo-call, July 6, 2011.
The internet is buzzing as we wait for the premiere of the final Harry Potter movie to hit the United States in 1 week. Above we see the cast, sans Radcliffe, before the first red carpet premiere.
(Source: fuckyeahharrypotter)
