Filed by Stephen at 7:32 am under General, Pop Culture, The Arts
3 Comments

“Sure, I know I sound like a reincarnation of a flower child, but really, do we have to be so crass during the Christmas season?” — Roland Martin

I’ve kept silent up until now regarding the apparent controversy of preferring “Happy Holidays” to wishing “Merry Christmas” to the odd passerby, choosing instead to grab a front-row seat to Bill O’Reilly’s yearly frothing about the “War on Christmas” and other such nonsense. Frankly, I find the phrase useful since I encounter many people from varied religious backgrounds on a daily basis, as we all do. For example, if I know someone is an observant pagan, Jew, Muslim, or Christian, I will tailor my greeting accordingly, but one can hardly feign such intimate knowledge of the random strangers we encounter; “Happy Holidays” both conveys the spirit of “Merry Christmas” while acknowledging the existence (and validity) of a great many other religious holidays occurring around the same time. Thus, I find that those who take issue with this greeting are themselves going out of their way to be offended — not the opposite.
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Filed by Trevor at 6:24 am under Religion, Atheism, UU, Social Issues, Pop Culture, Fightin' Words
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Apparently, topping the list of most memorable quotes of 2007 (and thus defining this year in history) is the phrase, “Don’t tase me, bro!”

This angers me, because I never even heard it before today. The fact that the most popular, most year-defining moment came while I wasn’t even looking, and the fact that I completely missed its fifteen minutes of fame, makes me think that all that other stuff I paid attention to was all for naught.

Anyway, the year isn’t over yet. That list doesn’t even include anything (or everything) that George W. Bush said this year.
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Filed by Bil at 1:28 pm under Pop Culture, Damn Hippies, Politics
2 Comments

This may just be the best tourism ad in the universe.

Surprisingly, there are people – lots of people – that think this ad is bad for New Mexico. I can see why they might think that, but I would tend to side with this ad. It reaches people through the pop culture of the Roswell legend. Who doesn’t like aliens?

One of the main arguments from the political opponents is that it doesn’t show the beauty of the state. Of course, I don’t live there, so I can counter that everyone knows about the beauty of the state by now, and really, to someone from New England, the whole American Southwest looks the same (in the same way that to someone from the American Southwest, all of New England looks the same). So why New Mexico over Arizona? Well, on top of the desert beauty, there are aliens. Case closed, I’m going to see the aliens.

It’s an interesting (if not completely useless) debate.

Here’s another one!

P.S. We are still waiting for those pictures you promised, Bil. Yes, yes, I know.

Filed by Bil at 5:14 pm under Pop Culture, The Media, Politics
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I know I’m not the first to note this, but I pass by it every day on the newsstand in my building.

Oxymorons are way funnier when they are unintentional.
And on the cover of magazines.
And printed a bazillion times.
And clearly visible all over the world.

Witness Michael Jackson, cover boy for this month’s Ebony Magazine, looking as white as the driven snow.

ebony |ˈebənē| noun: heavy blackish or very dark brown timber from a mainly tropical tree.
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Filed by Chelsea at 10:41 am under Pop Culture, The Media
1 Comment

To begin, welcome to Chelsea (!) and her marvelous musings on Craigslist Missed Connections. I don’t spend much time reading them, but I too always assume they’re for me.

A recent encounter at the lake front running path reaffirmed my suspicion that some of those listings are for me, and that they were perhaps just a little more than a missed connection.
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Filed by Bil at 1:29 pm under Pop Culture, Racism, Homophobia, Love
4 Comments

Wow. Here we go. My name is Chelsea. I write here now.

I figured I’d just jump right in and share my latest internet obsession/way to kill time at work. I’ve been spending a lot of billable hours on this particular site recently, and every day I grow more intrigued by the sheer humanity on display. The page is updated a hundred times a day by thousands of individual authors, who have no qualms about letting the world in on their desperation, flirtation, loneliness, heartbreak, and triumph. Some of the entries are so personal and so badly spelled that they could have been ripped directly from the pages of a fifteen-year old emo kid’s diary.

I am talking, of course, about the Missed Connections page on Craigslist.
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Filed by Chelsea at 9:59 am under General, Pop Culture, Love
2 Comments

The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Trevor and I went to see Jenny Owen Youngs this evening. It was just about the most glorious rock concert I’ve been to in years. I know, I know. You’re probably thinking, “But, Bil, Jenny’s brand of rock isn’t exactly what you’d call ‘glorious.’” Or perhaps you’re thinking, “But, Bil, that doesn’t count, because you hadn’t even been to an actual rock concert in years.” And you’d be right in thinking those thoughts. But I have ways around them both. First of all, the word “glorious” is as vague and re-definable as the word “fuck.” It can mean anything I want it to mean. If I say so, it can include the words “mellow” and “hipsterrific” in the definition. Second of all, I’ve been to so many events that have included rockin’ out that I can add them all together and easily make the claim that my life is practically an ongoing series of rock concerts. (This claim is especially easy to make when you count going to a bar with a decent jukebox as an “event” – and when you realize that the word “practically” is as vague and re-definable as the word “glorious.”)

It was a new experience for me, however, when the headliner came up first and at the end of her set encouraged us to hang around afterward and listen to the opening act. I was expecting it to go the other way around. In fact, I had been told that it would be the other way around. But hey, I can respect that you have to keep an audience on its toes.
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Filed by Bil at 1:56 am under Shameless Plugs, Social Issues, Pop Culture, The Arts
2 Comments

Even if you find Kelly annoying, please give this one a chance, especially if you’ve never had a lesson in the finer points of lesbian sex conducted entirely in Spanish. Hilarious!

Filed by Trevor at 4:09 am under Sex Ed, Pop Culture
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Sorry boys, I’m jumping ship; I’m afraid my heart has been stolen away. I won’t tell you her name, but it in Latin it means queen. Which is actually terribly appropriate, wouldn’t you say? Kind of like hetero-on-training-wheels.

Filed by Trevor at 5:59 pm under Pop Culture, The Arts
2 Comments