Filed by Lance at 5:23 pm under General, Love, Social Issues
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So after the success of our last Hatemail recording on 2/28, I felt inspired to Vlog about it.
Problem was, I felt a little like a zombie, and looked and sounded like one, too.
What to do?
(Keep reading…)
Filed by Bil at 7:58 pm under Pop Culture, Shameless Plugs, Social Issues, The Arts
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Good people of Cyberspace, prithee, look to the right side of thy screen and hark! You’ll notice we are holding an open recording session for actors to read some hatemail for us. Inquire within for more info if you’re interested. It’s from 2 to 5 PM at Trevor’s live-in recording studio (AKA his apartment). There will be coffee.
For those of you who haven’t heard me talk about it a gajillion times already, the premise is this: we get people to send us hatemail intended for someone else (anyone in the world can participate). Then, we get local actors to give them dramatic readings (any actor in town can participate). Once we have recordings, we get local musicians to underscore them (any musician in town can participate). Finally, we get local visual artists to make something pretty/grotesque/interesting for them (any visual artist in town can participate). It’s pretty simple, really.
Now then.
You know those people who claim to have read “1984″ and say that the future Orwell presents is the scariest thing they can think of? I’m gonna go ahead and call bullshit on that one.
(Keep reading…)
Filed by Bil at 10:20 pm under Fightin' Words, Homophobia, Politics, The Media
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Well this is just incredible:
For 5 days, 5 Journalists will only source news from Twitter and Facebook to test quality of news.
This is bound to be a fascinating little experiment, and I am eager to read the results.
>> Update: you can follow the journalists here.
Speaking of breaking news via Twitter, I’ve been sitting at my computer for like half an hour now just watching the real-time tweet feed come in on the Prop 8 trial in California. For all of you on Twitter, just search #prop8 (or click this link) and sit still for ten seconds. You’ll see. They won’t stop coming.
(Keep reading…)
Filed by Trevor at 11:32 pm under Addiction, Social Issues
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Alcoholism runs like a dirty river through my blood line. My natural father, grandfather, great-aunt, and uncle were all alcoholics, and as far as I know my uncle is the only person who successfully overcame it. I know nothing of my natural father’s current whereabouts, I never met my great-aunt, and while alcoholism wasn’t the direct cause of my grandfather’s death, it eroded the quality of the latter 28 years of his marriage and weakened his body considerably. My grandmother has outlived him by 14 years and counting and is no doubt rueful of the fact that his dependency is almost certainly to blame for robbing her of all of that time she could have had with him.
Hence why my mother has always been justifiably frightened that I would follow the same path and has always been uncomfortable with any reference of mine to drinking. But in this respect, I’m very lucky. Alcohol has never had more than a casual role in my life, and while I’ve certainly had my share of drunk-epic-fail moments, there has never been a threat of dependency. Rather, my predisposition to addiction has manifested itself otherwise — to food.
I am a food addict. I have been overweight quite literally for my entire life, and while I’ve had several successful weight-loss attempts that have lasted for a considerable length of time, I recognize that this is something that I will need to consciously control for the rest of my life. But frankly, given my choice between the two, I would much rather struggle with this than with alcohol dependency. Overcoming the latter requires complete and total abstinence — not to mention a debilitating process of withdrawal — whereas the former requires merely taming the beast. After all, I must eat to live.
The trouble with me is that I am not a terribly disciplined person and can rationalize virtually anything I wish to do, no matter how harmful such behavior may be. That, and I am a creature of habit; even if I slip once and head to Wendy’s for dinner while driving home from work, history has shown that such a seemingly innocuous first step easily sets into motion a pattern that stretches for months. Research shows that eating disorders are strongly linked to obsessive-compulsive behavior, and I have borne witness to that in my own experience. For me, food is less about quelling hunger and more about the taste and ritual. And ease. Why spend 20 minutes grilling chicken and steaming broccoli when I can have a double cheeseburger while watching Family Guy on Hulu and not have a sink of dirty dishes to ignore for weeks?
I’ve even experimented with various eating disorders, much in the same way one would sample blood sausage or fermented shark meat while on vacation. And I’ll put the specifics behind the cut, just in case you’d rather pass.
(Keep reading…)
Filed by Trevor at 11:25 pm under Activism, Catholicism, Gay Agenda, Humanism, Love, Sex Ed
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This evening I attended Chicago Opera Vanguard’s second annual AIDS Quilt Songbook, which not only functions as a valuable fundraiser for outreach programs in the city, but is also a fantastic exhibition of local composers and performers. To boot, this year’s concert was held at Center on Halsted, which was an even more appropriate venue and didn’t require schlepping down to Hyde Park again. Bonus.
(Keep reading…)
Filed by Bil at 1:25 pm under Damn Hippies, Love, Social Issues
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This World AIDS Day, I called in sick to the office. I don’t have AIDS, I just happen to be under the weather.
While I can’t do much about the syndrome itself, seeing as how I am not a research scientist, I can at least raise awareness and encourage prevention education.
Here’s how I do that:
Please read this article on World Aids Day 2009 from NPR’s news blog, The Two-Way. The article contains a brilliant summation of the current world AIDS situation from UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe.
If you’re too lazy to read the article, I’ll reprint the summation here, with some parts in bold (courtesy of me, because I like them):
On this World AIDS Day we are filled with both hope and concern.
Hope because significant progress has been made towards universal access. New HIV infections have dropped. Fewer children are born with HIV. And more than 4 million people are on treatment.
Concern because 28 years into the epidemic the virus continues to make inroads into new populations; stigma and discrimination continue to undermine efforts to turn back the epidemic. The violation of human rights of people living with HIV, women and girls, men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers must end.
(Keep reading…)
Filed by Lance at 2:05 pm under General, Social Issues
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I’ve always liked Fall. I don’t like hot temperatures, for one thing, and I love seasons. I’m not talking about a slight increase in average precipitation, either. I mean, gimme 100 degree swings between snow (I love snow) and that other season when I wish there were snow (I love snow). The colors, little kids running around in adorable costumes, cider, fireplaces, and everything else make it all the better.
(Keep reading…)
Filed by Bil at 2:27 pm under Fightin' Words, Politics, Social Issues
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Now that “Reading Rainbow” is done, what does the future look like? I’m worried because it wasn’t one of those things that fulfilled a specific basic human need. It’s not like it was the only pizza delivery company around; but if it was, you know damn well somebody else would pick up the torch. If there’s one thing that binds us all, liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, it’s the same — we all want our pizza brought right to our front door.
(Keep reading…)
Filed by Bil at 11:22 pm under Homophobia, Politics
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Who is this guy and where did he come from?
I’m appalled by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but I am neither gay nor in the military, so it’s easy not to listen to me. Here’s a congressman who, while not gay, actually was in the military and, in fact, was in Iraq and earned a Bronze Star for being awesome. He’s an elected official from some blue-collar district in Pennsylvania. These facts – because he’s a decorated Iraq vet, because he’s from a socially conservative district, and because he’s NOT gay – make him perhaps the least likely and the best advocate for getting rid of a stupid, small-minded policy that directly affects our national security.
And don’t get me wrong. I am not one of those guys who goes around worrying about national security. It’s a political potato, and something I find boring after two seconds. But seriously, what’s a bigger threat: having gays in the military or having a military with 13,000 fewer individuals? Think about that one.
And keep your eye on Pat Murphy. He’s a mover and a shaker.
Filed by Bil at 11:13 am under Pop Culture, Social Issues, The Media
3 Comments
Note of contention: I have been trying to post this article for over a week now, but something was wrong with our Word Press editor software. Yes. Technical problems with the website prevented me from posting an article titled “Websites are the future”…anyway, here it is, in all last week’s glory…
I’m going to write this article with three points that seemingly have nothing to do with each other, starting with:
1) Pay for what you get.
If you don’t give money to Chicago Public Radio, here’s what you have to look forward to. Or, if you don’t listen to Chicago Public Radio, it’s what you have to look forward to hearing me talk about.
You don’t want that, do you?
Speaking of websites being the future…
2) Make the most of a dire situation.
(Keep reading…)
