k.d. lang

Because I want and need it. So do you.

Nowhere to Stand (cut #12)

Memories of children
Are written in stone
Some, they get buried
Not to be shown
Still they do linger
Deep down inside
Like a seed that's been planted
And won't be denied

Helpless (cut #3)

Baby can you hear me now?
The chains are locked
and tied across the door,
Baby, sing with me somehow.

Love Is Everything (cut #11)

so take a lesson from the strangeness you feel 
and know you`ll never be the same  

Window dressing

That's pretty much what The New Yorker's James Surowiecki calls yesterday's health-care reform summit in Washington.

 

The gap between Democrats and Republicans is "unbridgeable," says he.

The only answer:

"If Democrats want what they say they want, they’re going to have to pass a bill on their own. Which is, at this point, precisely what they should do."

She packs a punch, that one

Afterellen.com dishes at length (pun intended) on Lady Gaga's "curious bulge" on the current cover of Q Magazine. In short (pun intended), she's strapping.

Jezebel.com wasn't as nice as afterellen,  snarkily asking why The Lady didn't simply use her own penis for the photo shoot.

Those godless gays and their endless gossip.

The scoop on Scarpetta

The Los Angeles Times tells us the situation on Angelina Jolie's plan to portray Kay Scarpetta, the not-quite-out-of-the-closet medical examiner from Patricia Cornwell's book series.

I was pulling for Helen Mirren to get the Scarpetta role. As solace, I include a pointless photo of Dame Helen.

Cornwell also pushed in the 1990s for Jodie Foster in the role. Oh my Sweet Lord Jesus. Yes, please. (See: Gratuitous pic of Clarice Starling.)

Looks like Hollywood has figured out how to fit the young Jolie into the role better suited for an older actress. From the article:

"But Jolie's desire to play Scarpetta has revived prospects of a movie franchise that could begin shooting as early as next fall. In a surprise, Fox 2000 has decided to jettison the books in favor of an origins story written directly for the screen. Set in the present day (as opposed to the late 1980s, when the series begins), the film will feature a distinctly younger Scarpetta in the years before she becomes the steely, unassailable expert pathologist she is today. "

Catching up with Dorothy

I hope you haven't neglected dorothysurrenders.com like I have. God, she is good. From a recent entry:

"In case you hadn’t noticed, I love “Glee.” Fun, fabulous and so fucking gay, the show has almost everything I love. Singing, dancing, snarking. Jane Lynch, jazz hands, gay cheerleaders. That’s just quality television, right there."

Pitch-perfect blog writing. Pitch-fucking-perfect.

And here's Ellen and her girl in the archives. So go! Dig through Dorothy's vaults. I'll wait here.

'Neutered or not, you need to be sexy'

Cat insights for your a.m.

This Venn diagram confirms the obvious--I'm a geek (always) on the edge of crazy-cat-lady status who takes an embarrassing amount of pleasure in LOLcats.

I'm not afraid to fly my freak flag.

Blast from my college past

Ric Ocasek and his Cars, my favorite New Wavers. (Please don't hold forth on Depeche Mode's superior sound. Pretentious and fey, were they. And from what I heard from Charles--receding-hairline-at-22, clove-cigarette-smoking, Sally-Jesse-Raphael-frame-wearing deejay at my college radio station--them Depeche Mode boys mighta been gay. Stick with The Cars, I say).

Just What I Needed

Tonight She Comes (a video from the heyday of MTV)

My Best Friend's Girl

She tells me it's easy

When you do it right. . .

Famous, er, um tomboys

That's what thefrisky.com calls 'em.

Gotta disagree with many of these. 

Diane Keaton during the "Annie Hall" era? Wearing a tie and hanging out with a pedophile does not a "tomboy" make.

Fergie a tomboy? On what and whose planet?

Jodie Foster in Chuck Taylors? OK, I'm all in (pushes chips forward).

CnH2nOn

My first cousin Suzanne is giving up sugar for Lent.

Wow. We Blevins girls don't let go of our sugar typically.

I'm gonna sit back, eat a Kit-Kat and see how this turns out.

"Downtown Church"

Patty Griffin has a new album.

The New York Times talks about Griffin's influences for the gospel CD--including the Staples Singers.

Griffin recorded the album at Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville. 

Hush now

Miss Beverly Hills opines that the Good Book dictates gays be put to death.

I don't use this term often since it's the most hateful word in the slang dictionary. Making an exception for Miss Ashley. Your cunt. Shut it.

P.S. Girls who proselytize shouldn't--in the accompanying photo--look like someone who's waiting to sign her adult-movie contract. Wakka chikka wakka.

Manly drinks

11points.com lists 'em.

I'm going to get a Black Sunday this minute. 

Here's you some Jackson and Buffett.

Pour me something tall and strong

Make it a hurricane, before I go insane

It's only half past twelve, but I don't care

It's 5 o'clock somewhere

Here it comes

I see a reckoning on the horizon. Is it mine? Is it yours?

Evening kittehs

I got nothing else but cars and Gillian today.

Time's the revelator

Ain't it always been?

Darling remember from when you come to me
that I’m the pretender,
I’m not what I’m supposed to be
but who could know, lf I’m a traitor?
time's the revelator.

Gillian Welch. With a "G" as gaunt as her face.

Red Clay Halo 

I'll Fly Away, with Alison Krauss (If you're a hick, this harmony will send you straight to the gates of gold.)

Wrecking Ball

Whiskey Girl

Listening to these last two, I'm waiting on the collaboration between Welch and Margo Timmins.

Here's hoping Welch shows at Telluride in June. I'm on it.

Gather 'round, childrens

New plan. No one sprang forward with 30K for my 2010 Camaro.

Instead, I'll settle for this--1972 Olds Ninety-Eight. I'm thinking my walker and a couple bags of groceries would fit in the trunk.

And I'd like to buy this for my friend JCatt--1967 Chevy Chevelle with a 4-speed and a 396 ci.  (If you go Chevelle, you oughta go all out and get that iconic engine. Just sayin.') Yeah, I see the price tag on this one. Y'all can swing it. Maybe one of yous can sell a kidney or something.

Yep. Posting songs I've posted before. That's how I roll.

455 Rocket by Kathy Mattea (Gillian Welch co-wrote this one. Don't ever cross THAT hillbilly).

Sweet Little '66 by Steve Earle

Mr. Smith had an Oldsmobile

Baby blue with them wire wheels

I took her home the day that she was adverstised
He said she leaked when it would rain
And sounded like an aeroplane
But I knew she was a jewel in disguise
She had a 455 Rocket
The biggest block alive
I couldn't hardly wait just to take my turn
She was made for the straight aways
She grew up hating Chevrolets
She's a Rocket, she was made to burn
Whose junkpile piece of Chevelle is this?
You boys come here to race or just kiss?
Don't you wanna know what I got underneath my hood?
I know she might sound like she's missing
But buddy, she could teach you a lesson
In just a quater mile, and I'll smoke you good
In my 455 Rocket
The kind the police drive
I couldn't hardly wait just to take my turn
She was made for the straight aways
She grew up hating Chevrolets
She's a Rocket, she was made to burn
I'm telling you and I ain't ashamed
I cried when that wrecker came
As we skid I thought I heard the angels sing (sounded like the Beach Boys)
We hit the curve and began to sail
Took out most of the safety rail
Even the cop asked me
"Man, what'd you have in that thing?"
I had a 455 Rocket
The very kind you drive
You oughta watch yourself when you take that turn
'Cause she was made for the straight aways
She grew up hating Chevrolets
She's a Rocket, she was made to burn
Lord, she's a Rocket she was made to burn

It's a Cinderella story. Mostly.

How'd America get to the moon first? There was homegrown Homer Hickam. John F. Kennedy and his soaring rhetoric. And of course, the concentration camp prisoners who gave their lives for the rocket.

The University of Alabama at Huntsville presents "Dora and the V-2: Slave Labor in the Space Age."

After World War II, American scientists brought Germans to Redstone Arsenal to pick their brains for the Space Age. The source of some of that Nazi knowledge: a war labor camp where thousands suffered and died.

After the Germans came to Huntsville, we promptly forgot about the laborers and treated the Germans as scientific gods.

I am shamed that I didn't know about the Dora camp. Now I know. Wish I could go to the exhibit. If you're close, go for me.

'Who'd I leave out?' 'Uh, lesbian environmentalists for Reform Judaism?'

Or, Stewart covers CPAC.

The modern conservatives. Today's John Birchers, keeping us laughing as the apocalypse nears.

A butch's best friend

Thefrisky.com asks guys to give their 10 biggest turn-ons.

I gotta agree with the ginger fan. And SMYT. A classic that never goes stale.

Respect the commie.

The Soviets knew a thing or two about propaganda.

Here are 25 rocking Red Army posters.

That's what I'm talking about

I scootered about downtown today and saw an orange 2010 Camaro parked on the street.

Anybody got $30K or so to loan? Anybody? 

The Okies called. . .

. . . they're just gonna sit here and pretend it's 1962.

An Oklahoma man is suing the state for denying his request for a personalized car tag that says "I'm gay" because it might offend the public.

Excerpt from the story:

Kimmel points out officials allowed tags such as STR8FAN and STR8SXI. "They defended using ‘straight sexy.’ … They didn’t think that one was inappropriate but yet ‘I’m gay’ is. I think it’s kind of a double standard,” said Kimmel, a political science/pre-law student at Oklahoma City Community College.

Got it? Gay=The Other. Plus, it's icky.

Too late?

Nate Silver, the statistical sage at fivethirtyeight.com, says Obama may have pissed away his HCR mandate. 

 An excerpt:

. . . the decision to proceed aggressively on health care had been made at least by early April, at a time when Obama's approval rating was about 60 percent and what few polls there were indicated a general desire for reform. The bigger mistake -- and I've been saying this since at least last June -- may have been in giving the Congress so much latitude to craft its policy, which resulted in an extremely protracted process and news cycle after news cycle in which the lead story was Democrats yelling at one another.

Lucky her

Kathy Griffin will guest-star on Law and Order: SVU, and gets to kiss Mariska Hargitay.

The episode airs at 9 pm eastern on Wednesday, March 3 on NBC. I'm setting my DVR this minute.

We are the World. We are the Children.

I'm old school.

I tear up at this. Always will.

And  I love how Tina muscles to the mic at 1 minute in. Watch, then help Haiti if you're able. 

Dance, damn you

Code organ calls the tune for my blog. Not bad. A bit '80s, but let's concede that's appropriate, given the site owner.

Your afternoon waste of time

And I mean that in the best of ways.

Blender not only lists the 50 worst songs of all time, the snarkers specifically say what parts of these ditties are the most cringe-worthy.

Example: When "New Kids on the Block" warn "don't cross our path or you're gonna get stomped" in "Hangin' Tough." O vey.

Some of these songs I like. But I acknowledge that:

"The Sound of Silence" has self-important lines.

"Longer" by Dan Fogelberg is so cheesy that Wisconsin called, and they want their cheese back.

"Broken Wings" by Mister Mister is an '80s anthem. That is all I am going to say.

But overall, the list. . . .dead on. Billy Ray Cyrus and his mullet blew acid-washed chunks. People across the globe bleed from their eye sockets when Celine Dion launches into her schmaltziest. Vanilla Ice should have died for the sin of releasing that song. You know the one.

Enjoy.

Bill to Barack: Note what you're packing in your pants

It's not that Obama doesn't know that he's the most powerful person on the planet.

As Bill Maher notes here, the prez wants to finesse his way through Washington. Stop trying to impress with your bipartisanship and just. get. some. shit. done.

John Cole, on his kick-ass blog balloon juice, said this last year:

I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years.

Maura O'Connell

Yep Yep. I'm on an Irish--and redhead--kick.

O'Connell and Nanci Griffith with "Trouble in the Fields."

Pets hearing death metal

Feeling the noize.

I suspect Squeak listens to Creed when I'm out. She's a tad more mellow than the parrot pictured.

"Crazy Heart"

Essentially "Tender Mercies" with timeline twists.

Good flick. Jeff Bridges deserves his Best Actor nod.

And Maggie Gyllenhaal. How could you ever go wrong casting Gyllenhaal?

Here's the "Crazy Heart" trailer.

Off to the movies

My book club is seeing "Crazy Heart." The movies sounds a lot like a rehash of "Tender Mercies," and who can top Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, and Ellen Barkin?

We shall see. A review when I return.

Meanwhile, here's some RD for you:

STDs in America

Buzzfeed.com has the skinny.

Lord God. Look at the Deep South. What are you people doing over there, Coach?

Shit my Uncle Bruce might say

Forgive me, but I'm in the archives of shitmydadsays today. I discovered there that the dad prefers Maker's Mark bourbon, so I am hooked now for sure.

Check out this one:

"Everybody’s broke, so here’s the rule for Christmas this year: if you still shit your pants, you get a present. Otherwise tough shit."

And this one:

"Son, people will always try and fuck you. Don’t waste your life planning for a fucking, just be alert when your pants are down."

And this one:

"Who in the fuck is Tila Tequila? Is she a stripper?…That’s her? Yeah, that’s a stripper, son, I don’t give a shit what you say."

Sunday kittehs

You need 'em as much as I do.

Fire it up, baby

I'm referring to the Kindle I got for a birthday gift. Get it? Fire, kindle? Oh, gah. Somedays I love my geekdom.

The assignment for my next book club meeting is "The Hamilton Case" by Michelle de Kretser. I need to download and read by Monday week.

Here's a quote from the book that the New York Times cited in its review:

''History, like any other verdict, is not a matter of fact but a point of view.''

Night kitteh

Happy belated new year

Feb. 14 saw in  the Chinese New Year. It's the Year of the Tiger.

I'm a Horse on the Chinese zodiac, but can enjoy a little grrrrr this year. Calculate your Chinese zodiac sign here.

This site outlines your ideal love interests, careers, etc. (It says Horses such as I are good at journalism and language. Hmmm.)

Oh, the humanity

Forbes names the 20 most miserable American cities. Cleveland tops the list. 

Memphis comes in third worst. I reckon that adds up. Crime is rampant, the Mississippi River is a toxic-waste stream, and there is but one forecast in Elvis-town from May through September--it's hot and it might rain. 

Add the fact that for the last, oh, 100 years or so, Interstate 40--the Memphis main east-west corridor, has been one lane through the city. I exaggerate, but not by a lot.

Pictured: A scene from Philadelphia--city of, um, Brotherly Love.

Here's Duke Ellington with "Memphis Blues."

And how 'about Robert Johnson with "Sweet Home Chicago," another fair city that made the list. 

At least misery makes good music.

You need some 'shit my dad says'

Revisit one of the best blogs on the Twitter-twats. William Shatner is tapped to portray the savvy dad on a sitcom.

"No, I’m not a pessimist. At some point the world shits on everybody. Pretending it ain’t shit makes you an idiot, not an optimist."

"No presents goddamit. I’m turning 74. I don’t need you to commemorate that with a fucking Barnes and Noble gift card."

"Don’t mess with him … Trust me, you don’t fuck with a man that sleeps next to a woman he never screws. They’re unpredictable."

Delany

When McMurphy whispers "kiss me" to this GI and puts her mouth to his as he bleeds out. . .

My favorite Coen Brothers flick

Where to start? "Raising Arizona."

"Son, you got a panty on your head."

"Hang on, Nathan. We're gonna take a shortcut."

"You son of a bitch. You're actin' like a mad dog. What if me and the baby had been picked up? Nathan Jr. woulda been accessory to armed robbery."

"No, it ain't armed robbery if the gun ain't loaded."

The Secret City

I love me some Oak Ridge. Motel.com is noting it's a hot place to visit. Pun intended.

When next you go east, get your atom on.

Pictured: The K-25 Plant, once the largest space under roof in the world, covered 44 acres and contained 2 million square feet. Scientists needed the space for sciency stuff (separating isotopes to enrich uranium). Bomb-building, baby.

I am no warmonger. Dropping the bombs on Japan were unspeakable acts. But I believe:

• A U.S. invasion of the Japanese homeland would have killed countless Japanese citizens and U.S. military members. 

• On the European front, Hitler was busting his ass to get the bomb before we did. The Germans surrendered in 1945 partly because they knew we were close to securing the ultimate weapon. Else their own killing machines--the death camps--would have ground on and on.

Finally, the co-opting of atomic-bomb imagery and analogy during the Cold War is so hideous that I cannot look away. It speeds right past atrocious and arrives at absurd. Sort of like my celebrating the Secret City, I reckon.

Examples:

"Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb," a song by the Soul Stirrers

"Fujiyama Mama," by Wanda Jackson