August 2004 Archives

I didn't attend yesterday's big march because, well, especially after seeing video the night before of cops shoving Critical Mass riders and bystanders into the ground and and weighing them down with knees on their necks and shoulders, being brown downtown was not something I felt safe being. I live two blocks from Central Park and ended up joining a handful of friends and a few thousand other protesters there in the afternoon, hanging out on the Great Lawn on a beautiful day in the largest, most colorful impromptu picnic you've ever seen. Here are some of my photos of the day, taken with my new cameraphone.

Everyone I saw was smiling and those I asked for permission to photograph were more than pleased to pose for me, as you can see—although Jason, while watching me in action, did say something like, "It sure is easier to get people to let you take their picture when you're a girl." If I took your picture, thank you for your kindness, and please send me an email so I can provide you with a better quality file or a print!

I'd also like to note that one of the best things about the day was that there were so many people of different ages in the park, not just the rebellious young punks conservatives like to believe are the only ones whining about the current situation. In fact, my two favorite people there were the proud veteran walking around with his Chicken Hawks Uber Alles sign on his head, and the man with the excellent beard and the BuSHit t-shirt on, who was sprawled happily on the grass enjoying the lovely weather and the friendly atmosphere all by himself the entire time we were there.

You can see more photos from the day at kottke.org, callalille, rion.nu and Meccapixel, among others. Flickr's got a good selection too, here are all the photos tagged with rnc and the RNC Group photopool; if you haven't got your own web space to upload photos to, sign up with Flickr (it's free!) and start sharing them!

I had no idea until I read Tom Selleck's IMDB bio this afternoon that he was George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's first choice to play Indiana Jones, only he'd just been signed to Magnum PI and the series producers wouldn't let him do it and so it went to Harrison Ford instead. Crazy!

Anyway, as we all know, Magnum PI took off in a very big way and soon enough Warner Bros took notice and gave Selleck the lead in an Indy-style movie, High Road to China. TheRaider.net seems to think pretty highly of it, but alas, it's out of print and barely available on VHS.

Tom Selleck's a member of and did an ad for the National Rifle Association. Rosie O'Donnell had him on her show to debate gun laws and it didn't go very well. Cigar Afficionado had him on their cover and did a great interview with him about cigars, his libertarianism, and the strangeness of his career. He did a Celebrity Secrets skit for Late Night With Conan O'Brien a while back, it was okay but not half as funny as, um, Harrison Ford's, Patrick Stewart's or George Takei's.

Also, those of you who are my age or older probably remember the Magnum PI theme as being totally kick ass. I couldn't find an mp3 of it, alas but this midi version still rocks pretty hard. The Magnum PI theme, like many of the best TV theme songs ever written, was the work of composer Mike Post. Some of my favorites of his are the themes to Law & Order (my current ringtone; but who knows if he was responsible for the Chung! Chung!?), CHiPs, The A Team, LA Law, Doogie Howser, MD, NYPD Blue and the most recent incarnation of Dragnet. Post played guitar on Sonny & Cher's I Got You, Babe, has five Grammys, and his song for Greatest American Hero is one of only a handful of TV themes to ever hit the top of the pop charts.

Andrew said, "don't start smoking, ok? it's bad for you." and then sent me this story:

Sexual frustration has driven a mild-mannered chimpanzee to take up smoking and spitting, according to China's Xinhua news agency.

Feili, 13, has turned from a "gentle girl" into a "shrew", said Liu Bing, the director of her zoo in Zhengzhou, central Henan province.

If he wasn't miles and miles away I would've hit him.

So you can't stand John Kerry but can't decide whether you're going to vote for Ralph Nader or George W Bush. Why not consider a write-in candidate?

Cthulhu for President! Why Settle For The Lesser Evil?

I'm not sure what I find funnier, that the Asian Warriors For Jesus exist at all (they even have their very own scary white van!) or that they have a Xanga.

There used to be pictures on it from their martial arts training sessions, but alas, those seem to have disappeared. At any rate, if you are a male asian youth and want to join a military-style organization (complete with ranks and fancy uniforms!) headed by a middle aged white guy so you can fight for God's son, they meet in Brooklyn every Saturday morning.

Andy Baio linked to Video game gals take it off for Playboy yesterday and asked, "what's next, the Ladies of Marvel Comics?"

It's not quite the same thing, but people who were comic book nerds in the early 90s might remember that Marvel did actually publish special swimsuit issues once a year from 91 through 95. The first was called Marvel Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (cause, you know) but subsequent editions were called the Marvel Swimsuit Special. I have copies of Illustrated and Swimsuit Special 92 in my old room back at my mom's house and remember them fondly, they were totally tongue-in-cheek, complete with cheesy ads starring your favorite characters, like Wolverine shilling for Macho Deodorant. The commentary was mostly funny and the art was great (even though this was right about the time that Rob Liefeld's distorted anatomy style was taking off).

You can see covers from 91 to 93 on SpiderFan.org. Rogue was on the covers of both 93 and 94, sharing the second one (the "Mad for Madripoor!" issue) with Gambit; you can see those covers on this French Rogue fansite, which is where I got the Brothers Hildebrandt illustration of Rogue and Gambit on an alien beach you see above.

Rogue's Swimsuit Pinup Page has a bunch of pictures of scantily clad X-Men characters of the female persuasion, some of which come from Swimsuit Special issues; the best ones are Storm and Kitty Pryde in bikinis, Rogue diving off a waterfall, Jean Grey in a pond, Domino and Cable (!!!) in bikinis, Rachel Summers with the Phoenix Force and hanging out with demons, and finally a spread of the X-Men ladies lounging under a waterfall.

Alas, the only group pinup I could find online of Marvel men is a small scan of Wolverine, The Thing, Beast and The Hulk in trunks,though I must say it was one of my favorites when I got the magazine. Immortal Thor.net's Professional Artwork page has scans from all five Swimsuit issues; my favorites are Thor's Flic disposable razor ad, beach bum Thor and Enchantress doing a L'il Kim impression before there even was a L'il Kim.

From Cheney rejects gay marriage ban:

President Bush recently backed a motion calling for a federal ban on gay marriage, prompted by attempts in some US states to have same-sex unions legalised.

The motion was defeated when Republican senators sided with Democrats on the issue.

Vice-President Cheney said he and his wife "have a gay daughter, so it's an issue our family is very familiar with".

Regarding the issue of same-sex relationships, he said, "my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone".

He said individual states have historically decided "what constitutes a marriage".

Okay, so he's either infinitesimally less evil than we thought or extra evil, because even though he a) has pull in the White House and b) knows the ban is wrong, he waited until it wouldn't matter very much to say something against it in public. Either way, it's not good enough.

You know Isagani Cruz is even crankier than usual when he starts a piece with "The most tragic defect of Philippine democracy is the stupidity of the electorate. This has led to another obvious failure and that is the incompetence of our officials."

Like him, I just want to know, when will we grow up?

In the present Senate, there are at least three misfits who could not have won as dogcatchers in an enlightened election. Yet they now sit in that once august chamber where trod the likes of Recto, Laurel, Diokno, Tanada, Salonga, and before them Quezon, Osmena, Roxas and Sumulong.

The Philippine government at present is a disgrace. It is awash in dishonesty and foolishness. There are still a few upright and even brilliant public servants, but they constitute a pitiful minority. They are shouting in the wilderness of graft and corruption, bewilderment and lack of direction, and rampant criminality. The people hear them but couldn't care less.

Some say the solution is to simply shift to the parliamentary system, as if it would automatically remove all our difficulties. That is a delusion. The problem is not our form of government but the people running that government. Basically, it is we the people, as the principals of our crooked and bungling officials, who are the root of all our troubles.

I guess it's sort of a good sign Cruz is asking "when will" instead of "will we ever", no? I must confess though that every once in a while I catch myself thinking the latter and get hit with a strong dose of UP education guilt.

Kat of Pinku! just gave me #8371 on my things to love about Japan list:

(...) many Japanese companies (including mine) provide extra days off for female staff suffering badly from their period. Very ludicrous. You can take one day off a month and they are in addition to your paid leave - you just have to call in the morning and tell them the cramps are just too bad.

This is not ludicrous at all! It makes perfect sense to me, as my cramps can be extremely debilitating. If only this idea would experience the same success in the rest of the world as the Walkman, I would be very happy. Not as happy as if I never had dysmenorrhea again (I've even had surgery to try and make it go away!) but happy enough.

George Takei (yes, Mr Sulu) was a child when he and his family were imprisoned along with other Japanese American families during World War II. He revisited Camp Tule Lake last month, on the Fourth of July weekend:

The tar paper barracks that we lived in are all gone now - long removed or destroyed by time. With the guidance of an authority, I retraced a dirt road to an area where our barrack once must have been. I recognized the view of Abalone Mountain and Castle Rock from that barren site. This must have been where my home was, so long ago. The mountains were the only landmark I was able to remember. One of the few remaining structures from the camp was the concrete stockade, a jail within an internment camp. These pilgrimages back to a little remembered time in our history help enlarge my appreciation of the preciousness of our American liberty and my awareness of its fragility. They also deepen my understanding of the painful human price paid by such failures of our democracy.

The most poignant part of the pilgrimage was the memorial service held at the old cemetery site for those who died during their incarceration. Tribute was paid to those who passed in all 10 internment camps with candles lit by representatives from each of the camps. I was honored to represent Camp Rohwer in Arkansas, where my family and I were held before being brought to Camp Tule Lake. As we paid our respects to those who passed in these camps during World War II, my thoughts were also with those Arab Americans today who are being detained without the due process to which we are all entitled. I resolved as an American to work to ensure that the fundamental ideals of this nation shall prevail over today's challenges of terrorism.

Mr Takei would probably appreciate director Cynthia Fujikawa's documentary Day of Remembrance, which won the Racial Justice Award at this year's Media That Matters Film Festival. Please take the time to watch it, the site is very fast and Day of Remembrance only eight minutes long, but extremely affecting; I saw it at the Festival and was moved to tears.

[ via randomWalks ]

Makiko Itoh's gyoza post is fantastic, especially this bit:

My family has deep emotional ties to the gyoza. My sister Mayumi loved gyoza when she was a teenager. While her schoolmates put little Hello Kitty dolls and such on their school bags, she made a felt gyoza dumpling and hung that from the handle of her bag. I didn't go that far, but I've always loved this little meat-and-vegetable filled dumpling.

Her family sound just like my kind of people! If I was the crafty sort I would make felt soup dumplings for all my friends.

I haven't had great gyoza since moving to New York (a tragedy, I know—any pointers to tasty gyoza here would be much appreciated) but Alaina mentioned two of my favorite NYC dumpling places, Mandoo and Grand Sichuan International, in her NYC Eats does dumplings round up last year.

In conclusion: dumplings = happy belly. Have some with people you love!

When I was in kindergarten in the 80s one of my favorite things to watch was Julia Child's cooking show. I've never felt the need to do the cooking myself, but from her I learned to appreciate cooking and to love all sorts of food, from fancy pants French cuisine to simple diner hamburgers.

Julia Childs died in her sleep yesterday at the ripe old age of 91. Who says butter is bad for you? I had four thick slices of bacon and some brie for lunch today in her honor. Bye, Julia, and bon appetit.

I have to confess I love The Next Generation twice as much as The Original Series^*, but this funked up commercial for the fancy upcoming TOS DVD boxed sets totally makes me want to get my Spock on.

[ via Ghost in the Machine ]

^*Captain Picard, rrrowrrr! He can come have breakfast with me every morning, if you know what I mean.

Linguist Amy Perfors, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, posted photos of men and women on the U.S. Web site "Hot or Not," which lets viewers rate pictures according to how attractive they find them.

When she posted the same pictures with different names, she found that the attractiveness scores went up and down depending on the vowels, the London-based magazine New Scientist reported.

Men with "front vowels" in their names—sounds formed at the front of the mouth like the "a" in Matt—were considered sexier than men with "back vowel" sounds like the "au" in Paul, she concluded.

I know we all love science, so let's try a little experiment, shall we?

Do we really think Matt

is hottter than Paul?

My friends, the decision is in your hands. Vote once, and vote wisely!

BURBANK, Calif. - A fire broke out early Wednesday in a studio where the Black Eyed Peas were recording a new album, destroying about $500,000 in gear and instruments, authorities and band members said.

I hate the Black Eyed Peas more than anyone but hey, as Bart Simpson said, "I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove anything."

Warning - by visiting this site you will destroy it. Each visit will remove one pixel from these photographs.

However, we will tell you a story. It's a story about Romania, which is to say, it's a story about change.

My only complaint about Ian Curry and Maria Mayer's goodbye romania is that it's too damn short. Now go visit before there's nothing left to see.

Meet James L. Hart, author of Favored Races and Republican congressional candidate:

He is an unapologetic supporter of eugenics, the phony science that resulted in thousands of sterilizations in an attempt to purify the white race. He believes the country will look "like one big Detroit" if it doesn't eliminate welfare and immigration. He believes that if blacks were integrated centuries ago, the automobile never would have been invented.

(...) Hart, a 60-year-old real estate agent, knows his views on eugenics are far from the mainstream and viewed as racist by most people.

He insists his beliefs have nothing to do with racism and everything to do with "favored races" from Europe and Asia and "less-favored races" from Africa. To achieve his goal of a country populated by "favored races," Hart proposes eliminating both welfare and immigration.

Hart conducts his door-to-door campaign wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a gun, and no wonder:

"Every person who opens the door—as long as they're white—I'll say, 'I'm James Hart. I'm running for Congress. My name will be on the ballot in the Aug. 5 Republican primary. I think white children deserve the same rights as everyone else.'"

Hart's the only Republican on the primary ballot because Rep. John Tanner, the incumbent Democrat, has represented the district for 15 years and the Republicans didn't think they could beat him and so didn't even bother to field anyone. The Shelby County Republican Party, appalled by Hart's candidacy (and the PR nightmare that will surely ensue if his name gets on the November ballot) passed a resolution urging voters to cast write-in ballots for Army veteran Dennis Bertrand instead.

That's nice, I guess, but I couldn't help but snicker when I read that SCRP Chairman Kemp Conrad said that "The Republican Platform states that 'We denounce all who practice or promote racism, anti-Semitism, ethnic prejudice, and religious intolerance' and we will not sit idly by and allow one man to tarnish our Party name." After all, Trent Lott is "entering his fourth decade" as a Republican congressman from Mississippi...

[ via the always superb Sisyphus Shrugged ]

A new study by the University of Wisconsin finds Minneapolis to be the most literate of the 79 largest US cities; New York and Los Angeles come in at 49 and 68 respectively.

I'm sure this has absolutely nothing to do with New York and LA being the epicenters of acting and modelling.

[ via Walk the Plank! ]

Dear Chels,

If I'd known they were gonna do this to you, I'd never have let them bring you to San Francisco!

Love,
Lia

I have been customizing figures off and on since 1988.  Most of the figures you see here were constructed over the last 8 years.  You may have seen some of my figures in Tomart's Action Figure Digest, Overstreet's Comic Book Marketplace, and Wizard magazine.  I have been one of the winners of the Tomart's Action Figure Design Contest three times. (1996, '97, & '99)

Even if you aren't really into action figures—I buy one every once in a while myself but I'd much rather save my money for comic books—Charlie Jackam's Gallery of Custom Action Figures is still worth a visit just to see the care with which he recycles old unwanted figures into ones the toy companies will probably never release.

Some of the pieces I really liked: Alfred Pennyworth, Batgirl V.2 (very sexy!), Batmite (even though I hate this character, I've got to admit it's cute), and Commissioner Gordon.

Yes, I'm a Batman nerd, so sue me.

My absolute favorite though has got to be this L'il Sergio doll he created in honor of Sergio Aragonés:

So gosh darn cute! Just like the original!