January 2003 Archives

Operated by the Sisters of the Magdalene Order, the laundries were virtual slave labor camps for generations of young thought to be unfit to live in Irish society.

who had become pregnant, even from rape, who were illegitimate, or orphaned, or just plain simple-minded, who were too pretty and therefore in "moral danger" all ran the risk of being locked up and put to work, without pay, in profit-making, convent laundries, to "wash away their sins."

They were completely cut off from their families, and many lost touch with them forever.

Stripped of their identities, the were given numbers instead of names. They were forbidden to speak, except to pray. If they broke any rule or tried to escape, the nuns beat them over the head with heavy iron keys, put them into solitary confinement or shipped them off to a mental hospital.

Over a period of 150 years, an estimated 30,000 women were forced into this brutal penance, carried out in secret, behind high convent walls.

The last Magdalene laundry finally closed down in 1996. 1996!

As Zed said, "I really should get around to getting myself formally excommunicated."

NYU has the most number of international students of any university in the United States, so changes in INS regulations always get coverage in the Washington Square News: " New INS Rules Worry Foreign Students", "Slow Down INS Changes".

Scariest sentence in both those pieces? "Under the new system, something as simple as dropping below the number of credits necessary for full-time status, one’s name misspelt or providing a wrong address can be grounds for deportation."

Long time readers may remember my odyssey of how many months to get NYU to get my name right on my I-20 form—despite numerous phone calls and emails they sent me three forms with my name either incorrectly spelled or incomplete, neither of which the U.S. government finds acceptable. None of NYU's various computer systems have enough character spaces to accomodate all three of my first names (Gee, thanks Mom! But I'd rather have gotten your good skin.) and so I was told last semester to "just make sure to have them fix it on your diploma when you graduate". Um. First thing Monday I'm trekking down to the Office for International Students to make sure I don't get deported because the damn university can't fit my name in or some clerk somewhere can't type it correctly.

As some of you probably know, today's the last day to vote in the Third Annual Weblog Awards and cheesedip.com is nominated for the second time around as Best Asian Weblog, so if you've enjoyed what you've been reading here go and vote!

Alternately, if you're feeling extra rich and extra generous, there's always my my wishlist; the more incoming stimuli there is, the more I'll have to post about! Hee.

There's all sort of pixelly goodness at Lolailonline, including icon collections and customizable dollhouses, but the most astounding thing on the site to me is this Photoshop toolbar done in needlepoint.

I hated our mandatory sewing classes in grade school and high school so much I'd either bribe a more skillful classmate (and they were all more skillful than I) to do the projects in the back of the room or during lunch, or bring whatever I'd done home for my aunt to try and salvage. To this day I'd rather walk around in a tatty shirt than break out the needle and thread to fix it myself.

What might have been if Cindy Jackson, Jocelyne Wildenstein or Joan Rivers had gotten ahold of a DIY Plastic Surgery Beauty Kit for Little when they were younger?

P.S. Not for the squeamish.

[ via brooklynkid ]

One thing that fires up the bulls never changes: the bellowing of the Carabao anthem, "The Soldier's Song." At the 2002 Wallow, the room was already thick with smoke—every place setting had been adorned with (forget that embargo) an authentic Cuban cigar—when a voice said, "Gentlemen, please turn to your songbooks," and the U.S. Marine Band, seated to the side, struck up a tune. The Carabaos, most of whom seemed to know the words by heart, lustily sang the first stanza's story of the dreaded "bolo" (the Filipino revolutionaries' machete—they had few guns) and deceitful "ladrones" ("thieves"):

In the days of dopey dreams—happy, peaceful Philippines,
When the bolomen were busy all night long.
When ladrones would steal and lie, and Americanos die,
Then you heard the soldiers sing this evening song:

And then the bulls and their guests rhythmically banged their fists on the tables during each rendition of the chorus:

Damn, damn, damn the insurrectos!
Cross-eyed kakiac ladrones!
Underneath the starry flag, civilize 'em with a Krag,
And return us to our own beloved homes.

That's from Ian Urbina's piece in this week's Village Voice, "The Empire Strikes Back", about the super exclusive Military Order of the Carabao (formed in 1900 during the Philippine-American War), and the people singing happily along are among the U.S. military's most elite officers.

I'm not sure what bothers me more about the Order of the Carabao, the racism or the imperialism. No, wait, it's that these people have access to so much power between them¹, and positively thrive when their country is at war.

Oh, and that while everyone was up in arms about Trent Lott last year and cheered when he was forced to resign from his position, this is probably not going to make the nightly news or the front page of any of the national newspapers, even though this is about a group of people who have so much more influence than Lott ever had.

Why does it feel like most people in the US don't know or care to know that racism isn't just about hating blacks? Look at how little media attention was paid to Shaq's racist taunts towards Yao Ming, how quickly that went away and how it isn't likely to follow Shaq around for the rest of his life². If Yao Ming had been the one to say something racist about Shaq or any other black player, people of all colors would scream for his blood and he likely wouldn't be able to continue playing in the U.S.

If we found out tomorrow that top officers of the German military threw yearly parties to sing happy songs about slaughtering Jews during the Holocaust, how would we all react? How about if the Indonesian military did the same thing about all the years they slaughtered the East Timorese, or the Chinese and their continuing occupation of Tibet? How about if the Japanese celebrated all the Americans that died during the Bataan Death March?

It doesn't matter what the color of your skin is or what nationality you are, we should all speak out against it whenever we see it because racism is wrong and it affects all of us. If you were outraged by Trent Lott and Shaq, if you had a blog and posted about them, why haven't you written about this?

[ via caterina.net ]

Further reading:
1) Rebuke for the Society of the Carabao from 1914 on Jim Zwick's BoondocksNet. I emailed Zwick the VV article and he wrote back surprised, saying he didn't even know the group was still around.
2) these comments from a MetaFilter thread: 1, 2.

¹Don't believe me? Check out some of the Distinguished Service Award recipients they're most proud of: Strom Thurmond, William Perry and George H. W. Bush. Generals and admirals are among their members and Colin Powell (!) has attended more than a few of their annual dinners.
²Meanwhile every article that will ever be written about Fuzzy Zoeller will have to include "fried chicken and collard greens".

Britney Spears on why she walked out of a movie at Sundance after chattering non-stop with friends for 45 minutes, royally pissing Robert Redford off (and rightly so):

"The official line is we had our schedules mixed up, so we had to leave, but I didn't like the movie . . . Sundance is weird. The movies are weird - you actually have to think about them when you watch them."

Could you make this shit up if you tried? I don't think so!

This ranks right up there with Britney proclaiming herself a rock chick and talking about loving Pat Benatar while doing press for her (putrid) cover of "I Love Rock and Roll"—which was, of course, done by Joan Jett. Clever , this one.

[ via Gawker ]

I AM GEORGE WALKER BUSH, SON OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, AND CURRENTLY SERVING AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS LETTER MIGHT SURPRISE YOU BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT MET NEITHER IN PERSON NOR BY CORRESPONDENCE. I CAME TO KNOW OF YOU IN MY SEARCH FOR A RELIABLE AND REPUTABLE PERSON TO HANDLE A VERY CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS TRANSACTION, WHICH INVOLVES THE TRANSFER OF A HUGE SUM OF MONEY TO AN ACCOUNT REQUIRING MAXIMUM CONFIDENCE.

This is quite possibly the best spoof Nigerian moneylaundering scam spam ever.

Andrew (of dirtynerdluv pitas) asks if you've seen Bon Jovi lately and explains who they've come to look like. Brilliant.

I've been browsing through rathergood.com on and off for the past three days, no thanks to Ranjit, who made me watch the abjectly terrifying Spongmonkeys singing "We Like The Moon. Hopefully he's been saving up because he'll be sending me to therapy for the rest of my life for that.

Anyway, if you're short on the spare time and only want to see the best of Joel Veitch, these are my favorite rathergood.com pieces in ascending order:

5) George Michael's Slug Obsession
4) Big Pant Trekking!
3) Crab Bloke in London
2) Mark Llama, Gerbil Farmer
1) "Independent Woman" Sung By Kittens

Find me a mp3 of the song from that last one and I'll love you forever be your friend owe you one!

update: Thanks to Paul and HG, I've got Elbow's cover loaded in iTunes playing right now, which pleases me immensely. Thanks guys!

So Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando's supposedly on the New People's Army hit list for "oppressing the people", in reference to his campaign to clear Manila's sidewalks of vendors.

Hmm. I'm not Fernando's biggest fan, but if this is the reason they're going after him they should just tie themselves to huge blocks of cement and jump off a boat near the damn Marianas Trench. Even if you conveniently forget the fact that sidewalk vendors are breaking the law (and the MMDA finally seriously enforcing it for the first time in my lifetime), they take up so much space that they force pedestrians off the sidewalk and into the street where they a) don't belong and b) can get hit and killed by passing vehicles. We like to blame those with power for everything that goes wrong but the truth is sometimes our neighbors are the ones fucking us over and more often.

Oh, and isn't it just so cute for the NPA to be talking about "oppressing the people" when they "charge" what they so charmingly call "revolutionary taxes" in some rural areas, and like to torch the buses of buslines that don't pay, making it impossible for people too poor to travel any other way to get around and bring their goods to the markets before they spoil? That's dedication to the people for you!

From "After 30 Years What's Going On?" by Eljeer Hawkins, a great piece from last year on the story behind Marvin Gaye's landmark album "What's Going On?":

Two important events contributed to the album's birth. First, while on tour in San Francisco, Renaldo "Obie" Benson of the Four Tops, witnessed a violent showdown between police and protesters over People's Park. He thought to himself, "The police was beatin' on the kids, but they wasn't bothering anybody." He continued to think about this and deeper connections came to him, particularly to the Vietnam War. He questioned sending young people, black, white, working class, and poor, to a war in the name of "Democracy" not practiced at home. Along with Al Cleveland, Benson began to work on a song that addressed these issues. He attempted to have other artists record and perform it, but no one was interested. Even his own group, the Four Tops, wouldn't record a protest song.

Second, in 1968 Marvin Gaye's cousin died in the Vietnam War. His younger brother did three tours of duty there. Gaye's brother told him about events he participated in and witnessed in the war. Marvin Gaye collected more information about the condition of the Vietnamese people, particularly the children. Eventually, Benson gave his song to Marvin Gaye to refine. The song "What's Going On" began to take shape.

Marvin and [Berry] Gordy had a bitter fight over releasing a protest song not a staple of the Motown sound. Gordy later called the song, " the worst thing I've ever heard in my life." At Motown, an artist's choice of material was under the control of Gordy, who feared ruin if Motown became too closely linked to the antiwar or black power movements. Gordy thought that adopting Black Capitalism would save black people. He was in tune with others like James Brown who supported Richard Nixon for president at the time.

After a back and forth struggle, a single of "What's Going On," was released. It was an instant hit on the radio and thousands of copies were sold. The single's success forced Berry Gordy to give the okay for an album to be produced.

Before today I'd only ever celebrated my birthday away from home thrice: once as a kid when we lived in Cambridge while my mom went to KSG and twice in high school, in Bali and Tokyo with classmates from my Cultural Anthropology class. The weird thing about living thirteen hours behind where you were born and where almost all your friends are is that you get a slew of birthday greetings way before the calendar says you're a year older—I got a ton of emails and sms yesterday afternoon and before I went to sleep, and then a few more when I woke up this morning. Thanks to everyone who sent greetings and gifts! It's awfully cold outside but I feel warm and mushy for being so loved.

Nothing on my wishlist sound good to you? You could get my name carved in cheese! Heh.

David Grenier shares his thoughts on race:

Folks know that racism is bad. Folks know that being a racist is one of the worst things you can be - up there with child molesters and serial killers. The problem is that since no one wants to be associated with this evil, instead of dealing with the problem they simply claim, “I’m not a racist, I’m colorblind.” In truth the only blindness going on is turning a blind eye to the issue.

National Geographic's latest contest prize is an eleven day trip for two to the Galápagos Islands.

Is that the sound of people scrambling to give their information away I hear? I think so.

Shannon was right, TranceJen's "The Sanctity Of A Son Or Daughter's Rights" entry made me laugh even as it depressed me. If you've ever feared turning into your parent(s), you might want to give this a read.

I linked to Yiying Wang's deliciously salacious noodoll.com a long time ago, but she's added a lot to the site since then so go look around.

I want both t-shirts and all of the buttons in the store, but really, the best new thing on the site is the noodollsutra. Who knew explicit fucking could be so damn cute?

I was amused but every so slightly underwhelmed by NewYorkish.com's first issue and thought it a weak cross between The Onion and Gawker, but the January 20 issue had me at hello:

"Bush Says New Yorkers "Safer" Than Other Americans"

President George Bush said on Friday that New Yorkers who travel by subway may be "better prepared" for Iraqi biological attacks that other Americans. According to the White House, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta have found that New Yorkers who regularly take the subway are exposed to germs, bacteria, and airborne viruses that may potentially prove beneficial in the event of an attack. "Our research has shown that New Yorkers who take the subway have stronger immune systems," said CDC scientist Dr. Steven Patterson. "We think the subway has exposed many New Yorkers to a variety of viruses and they're probably better protected," he said. "Particularly since people on the subway often cough on you and the platforms are covered with urine," Patterson added.

There's a new issue of Whalelane out, so go read through it.

It's all excellent, as always, but I have to say my favorite piece is Sally Doud's "The Late Visitor"—it disturbed me when I first read it a few days ago and reading through it again today I'm unsettled all over again.

For US $25 you can send Rannie the PhotoJunkie to SXSWi and have your portrait taken if you're in Toronto or will be at Austin too. If you've ever seen his site then you already know this is a total steal.

Ranjit says:

It's almost time for the 3rd Brooklyn Lanternfest. Inspired by the Chinese New Year tradition, our little lantern festival will be held in Brooklyn's Prospect Park on Sunday, Feb. 16th, 5:30-8pm. Make a lantern, bring it to the park at dusk, admire all the pretty lanterns! I will bring hot apple cider to warm you up.

For directions, tips on lantern-building, and pretty pictures from last year's lanternfest, visit

http://www.lanternfest.com/

Hope to see some of you there!

Who knew Dionne Warwick did a soft porn photo shoot?

Well, okay, so she probably didn't but that photo makes me feel icky nonetheless.

So by now you've probably heard about the the fabulous Louis Vuitton Murakami bags that have fashionable ladies all over the planet going insane trying to claw their way to the top of the LV waiting lists. My boyfriend on if the Murakami had been Haruki instead of Takashi:

"What's a Haruki LV Murakami bag? It's a very expensive bag that's there, and then all of a sudden you have to chase it all over the city and you end up in some fantasy weird world that's neither here nor there, but you can all take it in because you're japanese."

If you have a weak stomach or don't want to get angry, you probably shouldn't read how some AOL users celebrate Martin Luther King day.

Finished reading? Your stomach in knots? Read OnePotMeal on racism in Boston; it won't make you any happier but his point and the quality of his introspective writing will, at the very least, help calm you down.

RIP, Maurice Gibb.

My two favorite covers of Bee Gees songs are Kevin Fanning's "How Deep Is Your Love" and Ozzy Osbourne's "Stayin' Alive".

It's recently been brought to my attention that not all of you have as yet experienced my friend Jesus H. Skooter's comedic stylings over at Izzle Pfaff.

This makes me sad, and so, being the kind soul that I am, I've chosen my three favorite recent posts for your edification: "A Game of Jeopardy in Which the Category is My Unfortunate Life", "Now the World is Just A Little More Boring" and "I Laugh at the Suffering of Others".

Now go read them all or I'ma gonna hafta come over to beat you the fuck up.

Chess set of Philippine politicians—it's a bit out of date, camps of allegiance-wise, but hey, I'd still buy one.

Dear Chris,

[Kylie Minogue] will leave Britain after more than a decade to set up home in - and try to conquer - the US.

A friend told The Sun newspaper in London: "This year is about cementing her place in the US music scene, which will require long stays in New York and Los Angeles. She is ready to live there."

Picked the wrong time to move to London, did you?

Love from Manhattan,
Lia

I've somehow neglected to point out that not only did Heather resume posting on Dooce last August, but she's thankfully as hilarious (and pottymouthed!) as ever. Most people who've ever had to take care of dogs will probably be able to relate to December's "My Little Non-Pooper", which starts like this:

The thing about our dog is, you see, our dog only poops on grass. And this is not something we necessarily trained him to do, to poop only on grass. In fact, I don't know why someone would actually train their dog to poop only on grass. Because if someone like that ever got stuck in a place where there is no grass, like say, a gigantic parking lot in Ukiah, California, and their dog really needed to go poop, that dog would hold that poop so tightly and with such astounding determination that two days later when he finally did go poop, a miniature crystallized replica of Mount Rushmore, all four sets of eyes, noses and ears intact, would tumble out of his ass.

If you're in the market for a new cellphone (paging Adriana...), you might want to check out Amazon's current deal on the Sony Ericsson t68i—they're basically giving it to you for free (through a rebate), provided you sign up for a plan with T-Mobile. Unfortunately the camera attachment isn't included, but then again the t68i would usually cost you $300, so if you get the phone via Amazon you'll have the money to spare. Offer only good till January 27, so make up your mind quick.

[ via 0format, strangely enough ]

Hi! The seven eggs of I Love Egg are not normal ones.
They express feelings through seven cute expressions.
In addition, these seven eggs are so fashionable that they like to wear pretty clothes.
They are jealous of one another, trying to get the prettiest clothes.
They act like characters of fairy tales. They always attempt to change, since they feel that they cannot stay in the refrigerator as normal eggs.
They wish to be reborn.
See these lovely eggs in the shopping malls or clothing stores on the streets today!
Witness these seven eggs change their clothes every day!
Decide which egg is the prettiest!...

I'm guessing I Love Egg is someone's marvellous little brand creation and marketing project—check out the mobile and goods sections with their mock products. Too cute! Someone get this I Love Egg person a development deal!

Oh, and make sure to watch the animations, they're all fantastic. They make me even more depressed about not being able to draw. I want to make cute things too, dammit!

[ via HalfProject ]

I was googling my favorite uncle when I stumbled onto "Nous de Negor", the society column of The Visayan Daily Star.

Okay. So how freaking crazy is it that Dumaguete has a society column? This is a place so tiny that everyone knows everyone else, all the rich people (and I do mean all the rich people) are related in one way or another, and it's impossible to hide from anyone looking for you for more than a few hours.

Case in point: the last time I was in Dumaguete, my second day there a saleslady approached me in Lee Plaza to confirm if I was in fact staying at Doña Trining's house (I was) and was I a Teves relation (I'm not). I mean, what the hell? Anywhere else and I would've called the police on her creepy stalker ass, but that's how things are in small towns.

Anyway, check out these lovely "Nous de Negor" samples I've picked out for your reading pleasure: "Celebrating her belle vie" and "Macabre Halloween". They're such exquisitely grotesque reads that they make Maurice Arcache and Tim Yap seem like budding Dorothy Parkers in comparison.

"ERROL, DON'T FORGET... I'M WAITING FOR YOU 'COZ YOU ARE THE BEST IN MY HEART. I LOVE YOU AND MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!! LOTS OF CARE, JHOSIE"

(Not that we'll ever know for sure, but nevertheless) I'd bet my shrinkwrapped original vcds of "Bagets" and "Bagets 2"^* that our Jhosie's Filipino.

I guess it isn't very likely considering where the photos were found but still, I'm hoping Jhosie and Errol eventually managed to get together and are living happily ever after.

^*Christmas gifts from an obviously troubled individual.

Two people who are going to be at Barnes & Nobles Union Square at 7 p.m. on February 13:

1) me
2) William Gibson

Reuters, via Yahoo: "A man plays with an electronic game called 'Laden versus USA' which shows the faces of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and U.S. President George W. Bush, that was on sale on a street in Baguio City, northern Philippines, January 12, 2003. The toy, made in China, is on sale for P250 ($4.70). The game plan is to defend the twin towers by shooting down the bombers."

Has anyone seen these in Manila yet or have they for some peculiar reason only reached Baguio?

[ via Geisha asobi ]

Nasty, put your clothes on!

Would you take a class on the administration of justice taught by a superhero? I know I would.

[ via reenhead.com ]

How much do I love Craig's List? It's extremely useful, absolutely free and best of all, sometimes it's pee your pants funny. I was in the middle of discussing yoga classes with Ranjit over AIM when I read "Beautiful Yoga Goddess in my class".

From last year but still good: "Old Chinese Woman Who Tickled My Shaft".

One of my all-time favorite expressions in Philippine gay lingo "lola". Taken from the spanish "abuela" for "grandmother", it means the same thing in tagalog. Or at least that's all it meant up until a few years ago. I can't remember when I first heard it used but now it's become a default term of endearment among gay men and their friends.

Anyway, Ralph Galan once spent five minutes at a party explaining the correct usage to me; I don't know why, I didn't ask, but he did, so now I'm going to share it with you. In a nutshell, the rule is this: "lola" can be used in the first person or third person, but never in the second unless you know the one you're referring to very well and are close, otherwise it's incredibly rude.

First person: "Namiss mo ba ang lola mo?" ("Did you miss me?")

Second person: "Shet, lola, ang suot mo!" ("Shit, what do you have on?", them's fightin' words!)

Third person: "Kung kaka trenta lang ang lola mo, putangina, ako si Catherine Zeta Jones." ("If he's only just turned thirty, well, son of a bitch, I'm Catherine Zeta Jones.")

Needless to say, your lola isn't in "Chicago".

Tarun Tejpal, editor of online newspaper Tehelka, which the Indian government is doing its darndest to shut down:

"I read all of Franz Kafka when I was 19 and 20, but I only understand him now," Tejpal wrote in a recent essay in the magazine Seminar. "He accurately intuited that all power is essentially implacable and malign."

[ via Plep ]

What can I say? It's true, I am cuter.

I've somehow never noticed the NYU Weblog Portal before, run by Anthony of CityCynic.com. Nice idea but I think it would be more useful though if the blogs were divided by school (Tisch, Stern, etc), to make it easier to find people you share interests with.

Also, what's with all the people using Xanga? Yuck! I'd take Blogspot or LiveJournal over that any old day.

Check out Paul Krugman's explanation of why he compared George W Bush to Ferdinand Marcos in an interview with Der Spiegel and then, more entertainingly, go read Glenn Reynolds getting all huffy about it (certainly more overwrought than he accuses Krugman of being) but not actually rebutting Krugman's comparison.

[ thanks, George! ]

Choire from East West presents Sordid Gay Mac OS X Icons, "tacky gay flair" for all your personal computing needs!

Randy "Peter Pan" Constan is selling swag, partly to pay for his hosting bills but also to give to charity—he raised over $700 for the Make A Wish foundation over the holidays. And he put new Christmas photos up!

I was out walking Jarvis after dinner when I saw a wallet propped up by the Laura Ashley display window.

I opened it up to check for identification so I could return it to the owner only it was empty, except for a folded piece of paper.

I opened that up and this is what it said:

This is considered a lucky wallet. It was found, and returned, to a gentleman in Hong Kong. It was sent to me with a small reward. As I don't need this, please keep it or pass it on. It is lucky... Trust me.

Is this some new strange interpretation of the whole chain letter thing I haven't heard about yet or am I missing something? I'dve brought the thing home for a friend who needs luck and a new wallet besides, but the ellipsis plus the "Trust me" killed that urge real quick. I'm sure the writer was going for profound but really, what he hit was pure cheese.

I guess you'd have to be a Star Trek fan to appreciate this, but allyourtrekarebelongto.us is brilliant.

[ via prolific.org ]

Apologies to readers who didn't graduate from UP Diliman in the last few years, but these just made me laugh so damn hard. The first one especially—it handily makes up for the seven lame annual Collegian parody issues I read through in college.

(Bonus points to the Kule staff for working a "Ringu" reference in there. Sadako! Sadako!)

In the interests of full disclosure: I passed the Features section exam for the Collegian in my first semester of college, along with my blockmate Paul and another freshman. I dropped out after two weeks when I realized I'd burnt out on extra-curricular activities in high school and couldn't bring myself to care anymore. Paul lasted a little longer, not quite a year, but the other guy eventually became an editor. Yayy freshies of 95!

The best thing about JerseyGOP.com? "Republican BABE of the Week Winners!"

Classy!