Saint Huck
I was in a band in the 80s (no, not that ’80s; the 1908s…like as in the decade?). As it turns out, the band was kind of cool. And now you can all hear it.
Amazing Bird Songs
The male Lyrebird attracts mates by singing the most elaborate song he can design. The amazing part is in how the Lyrebird mimics other bird calls and other sounds. Sounds like chainsaws, car alarms, and camera shutters. Already posted on Digg and BoingBoing, but well worth spreading around.
Medieval Murder Porn
I just finished A Feast for Crows the fourth book in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice series. I liked the first few a lot, but this one really found me struggling to finish. It took me over a month to slog through its 684 pages of gore. I don’t think any of the previous took more than a week and didn’t leave me feeling quite as dirty. That it is half the book he found himself writing (other half due out next year) is truly frightening. It could have been longer?!?
A lot of what left me cold was the endless listing of names. Irrelavant names. Stupid names. The appendixes of Family Trees would be hilarious had we not actually been forced at sword point to trace all of them and more during my forced march the prose. Endless, and I mean endless passages outlining of lineages could take the shine off any book (Return of the King ring any bells?) but this book hasn’t much shine to begin with. It has a meanness instead.
The meanness in this book is intensely delivered and intensely felt. From the first book of the series, the author makes you like characters only to skewer, hang, grind, or open up in some other gruesome way. This continues through all the books, but it gets worse as you go. By the fourth, Martin had his bad guys (as if you could tell the difference between ‘bad’ and ‘good’ in this book) shoving testicles in dying men’s mouths (their own, or those of any goat that happens to be handy), raping all women, biting peoples faces off, hacking off limbs…you get the point.
The point is…there is no point. I repeat: I like this series in the beginning and I’m going to give the next book a shot if only for that but if this fucking pornographic murder-fest continues I’ll throw the damn book on the fire and be happily done with it. It’s disgusting and unneccesary. In know that life way back in this pretend history was tough. I know that people were lucky to live into their 40s. I got the fucking message, George. You didn’t have to rub my face in the entrails.
I used to recommend Song of Fire and Ice to folks who like fantasy free of elves, dwarves, and other cute creatures. I don’t recommend it any more. I think I’ll go curl up with one of my sleeping kids, breathe in the smell of their hair, and feel really fucking lucky that we don’t live in this damn book.
Gay Days at Disney World draws 140,000 participants
GayDays, the annual, unofficial gay-friendly week-long party at Walt Disney World, is underway now. The event is sponsored by the likes of Bud Light, and has drawn an estimated 140,000 attendees. (Thanks, BoingBoing!) Events Calendar from GayDayS.com
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Semantics and Design (Malarkey)
Malarkey has posted an interesting article about…well, semantics and design…over on his “Stuff and Nonesense” blog. He has some interesting thoughts about when to place images in HTML as opposed to CSS, and the impact of design on the content you are presenting. It’s a good read and, as usual, the visitor comments are just as interesting.
Queer Egg Roll
J and I camped out all night Friday with a bunch of people organized by FamilyPride.org to get tickets for the White House egg roll. It was a lovely night and only rained a few minutes Saturday morning. Next year, we’ll be better prepared with tent and sleeping bags and bring the kids.
The egg roll itself was pretty fun. There were lots of performers on different stages, and the kids had a great time. As you see from the photo, young R and old J participated in the roll. P would have none of it and I hung out with her to cheer her little brother on.
The event was marred only by some really horrible protesters outside the gate telling our kids that they would get sick being out on such a rainy day without god protecting them. I’m pretty sure that P felt all confidence that the Goddess had her back all the way, and R doesn’t listen to anything anyone else says anyway.
We overheard some White House staff grumbling as we passed that this was a family event and that…well, whatever they said it was stupid. What would you expect from this White House?
Here are some links to coverage:
CBSNews.com story
CBSNews.com slideshow
CNN.com story
365Gay.com story
SF Chronicle story
The first one in the series is Chris Cook’s Drawings
My dear friend (and former bandmate), Chris Cook, is drawing some really amazing things. I love the way they feel! There’s a sort of Southwest meets Northwest magical realism that, to me, seems totally Chris. The vibrancy and warmth in the drawings has the same sort of feeling that I used to get sitting in his kitchen, drinking Lipton tea and rolling Top tobacco after a meal of red beans and rice. Thanks Chris!