My roommate and I were in foul moods tonight, stressed, tired, and cranky. We stumbled upon Glam God by total accident and ended up watching for an unbelievably long hour. We couldn’t help it – it was a train wreck! We’d like to thank you, VH1, for providing us with this show. It cheered us up… And helped us realize that our lives are sooo much better than those of the contestants, judges, and host.
Much thanks,
5B
PS: We would be happy to come on the show to provide some “Mystery Science Theatre 3000“-style commentary. We assure you, your viewers won’t mind us talking over the cast of Glam God. (You might even gain some new viewers.)
Following up, and making sure you’ve written to your MP.
Because this isn’t over.
Canadian Industry Minister lies about his Canadian DMCA on national radio, then hangs up: CBC Radio’s Search Engine just posted/aired its interview with Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice about his Canadian version of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Before hanging up on interviewer (and my cousin) Jesse Brown, Prentice “lies, dodges, weaves and ducks around plain, simple questions like, “If the guy at my corner shop unlocks my phone, is he breaking the law?” and “If my grandfather breaks the DRM on his jazz CDs to put them on his iPod, does that break the law?” and the biggie, “All the ‘freedoms’ your law guarantees us can be overriden by DRM, right?” (Prentice’s answer to this last one, “The market will take care of it,” is absolutely priceless.)” [This link includes the MP3 to Search Engine, in case you’re not already listening to the podcast.]
Canadian DMCA will criminalize emailing your kids’ class photos to their grandparents: “Did you email your grandmother a photo of your kids’ kindergarten photos? Call her up and tell her that you won’t be able to do it again with the grade one pics next year unless she calls up her MP and puts him on notice that he’d better oppose the CDMCA or lose her vote. Did your brother back up his DVDs to his laptop when he went away to university? Call him now and let him know that he’ll be a criminal next year unless he calls and writes to his MP and lets her know what he thinks of Bill C-61.”
Jon Stewart has, for many years, had a great spin on gay marriage: playing off The Right’s fears that gay marriage will ruin marriage for straights; will be the decline of society and morality; will lead to pedophilia and beastiality… His humour in this clip is great. And be sure to catch his opinion on Jewish lesbians marrying.
“I don’t have a problem with them having children because they’re gay. But I am concerned for the welfare of any child with two Jewish mothers.”
Meanwhile, in Canada, there’s a storm brewing, and it’s going to get ugly. I urge all Canadians who read this to contact their MPs regarding changes to the Canadian DMCA, Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s no-consultation copyright law.
Canadian DMCA is worse than the American one: The Canadian DMCA allows every single exception to copyright to be eliminated by adding DRM: whatever the law allows you to do, a corporation can take away, just by using DRM to prevent you from doing it. Breaking DRM is illegal, unless you fit into a tiny, narrow, useless exception for security research. It used to be that Parliament got to write copyright law. Now, it’s Hollywood companies, who get to overrule Parliamentary law with whatever “business rules” they put in their DRM.
Comic book explains the fight over the Canadian DMCA: Canadian copyfightin’ law prof Michael Geist sez, “Gordon Duggan of Appropriation Art has created a remarkable comic book [PDF – 2.8 MB] chronicling the recent battle over Canadian copyright reform. The book includes over 100 links to websites, articles, and other resources as every quote or reference is hyperlinked. It concludes with references to groups actively involved in copyright issues and suggestions for how to get active. This left me absolutely speechless.”
How Canada’s DMCA will criminalize everyday Canadians: I’ve been hearing from Boing Boing readers who’ve written to the government to protest the bill, and the government line is “We’re not taking away rights, we’re giving them to the public! We’re making it legal to rip CDs and make other personal copies!” (Indeed, Prentice sent a letter to the Toronto Star that says just this). This isn’t mere disingenuousness: it’s a flat-out lie. Yes, the bill will legalize ripping your CDs, so long as there’s no DRM on them, and so long as the EULA doesn’t forbid it. The Canadian DMCA says to rightsholders, “There are no exceptions to copyright law, except the ones you permit. If you want to prohibit a use that Parliament has protected, go right ahead! Just add some DRM or stick it in the EULA, and whatever you say will become the law of the land.”
Please write/call/email your MP NOW! If the bill passes, our copyright laws will go from decent to worse-than-America’s, with the goal being to strip Canadians of rights will empowering Hollywood. Let’s do something about it. Now.
[Much thanks to BoingBoing, from whom I blatantly copied for this post.]
Hearing “The Electric Slide” loudly wafting up from the schoolyard across the street, I looked out the window to see all the classes, with their teachers, dancing out in the yard. Some were doing the electric slide, others the macarena, still other classes doing dances in slight formation/lines, while plenty of kids were just running all over dancing in congo lines. It was pretty great to watch at 10:15 on a weekday morning.
Seeing Sex and the City with my good friend S. Better still, having pre-SatC cocktails, and sipping some more during the film. It was surprisingly funny and, despite the negative reviews, we both enjoyed it. I also quite enjoyed the fashionistas dressing to the nines, for a matinée screening: cocktail dresses, strapless mini dresses, gay guys in SatC pink (as if that’s its own shade now), and the “Carrie wore it in one episode so it must be okay” men’s shirt with a belt and flip-flops. As funny as the movie was, and as sophisticated as the NY audience thought we were, it should be noted that the biggest, longest, and heartiest laugh came midway through the film at a poo joke. We might as well have been watching an Adam Sandler movie.
Also great, seeing your friend drunk by 1:30 in the afternoon. (Seriously, I love you. Thanks for going with me.)
The sun, the blue skies, and reading up on the roof.
A great Shabbos last weekend, and another amazing Shabbos rolling in in a few hours.
Drink: throw blueberries, fresh mint, lime wedges, and simple syrup into a pitcher. Mottle. Add ice cubes, tonic, and vodka. Stir. Enjoy. No, really, enjoy. Let’s call it… Benjamin’s Sprimmer Cocktail.
Has anyone else seen the television commercial for YES (an Israeli satellite station), wherein dozens of chareidi guys dance down the street to YMCA? I saw it on tv the other day, and thought it was great. Surprise, surprise, the chareidis aren’t impressed. (I especially enjoy the English sung with heavy Yiddish accents, and the line “it’s against the Torah!” being used as a selling point.)
And, I know I’m late with this review, but The Ten was sooo bad. And yet, I kept watching until the end. I’m not sure what was worse: seeing Winona Ryder sexing a ventriloquist dummy, the never ending anal rape scenes, or Paul Rudd’s introductions (and “singing!”). Or maybe it was the constant stream of B- and C-rate actors, reminding me of their potential and talents that weren’t be met in this movie. So, so bad.
The biggest, hugest, greatest, huggiest, most amazingest congratulations to Gwen Haworth, aka artflick, on the success of her film, “She’s A Boy I Knew.” I had the privilege of watching an early edit of the documentary and it blew me away. Now, the audiences at the Vancouver International Film Festival have seen it (in sold out screenings!) and named it People’s Choice Award for Most Popular Canadian Film. But that’s not all! Gwen also walked away with the Women in Film & Television Vancouver Artistic Merit Award.
If her film comes to a city (or film festival) near you, I highly recommend seeing it.
Again, huge congratulations to Gwen. (And remember: I will be your bekilted date to Canne or Sundance, so long as we don’t have to get there by scooter.)
Whilst procrastinating on the writing of a paper, I started catching up on my blog reading. And, much to my amusement, I found a chain of events starting with John Amaechi’s public coming out.
A few days later, Tim Hardaway gave a radio interview, during which he was asked how he’d deal with having a gay teammate. He replied,
“First of all, I wouldn’t want him on my team. And second of all, if he was on my team, I would, you know, really distance myself from him because, uh, I don’t think that’s right. And you know I don’t think he should be in the locker room while we’re in the locker room. I wouldn’t even be a part of that.””You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known.”
“I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.”
Wow. There was all sorts of buzz around that, he was reprimanded by the NBA, etc.
But the best response was courtesy of last week’s Jimmy Kimmel show.
After losing an endorsement, being scratched from events, and basically getting his ass chewed out by gay and lesbian groups he admitted that he shouldn’t have used the word “hate,” that his remarks were “very bad.”
That has all the sincerity of a Mel Gibson apology.
Well, on the Jimmy Kimmel show this week, Star Trek’s George Takei (Mr. Sulu), a gay man and a human being, responds with a hysterical and bold promise…
It’s almost time for 2007’s Limmud NY! A long weekend of learning, singing, shmoozing, catching up with friends, yogaing (but, not for me), and learning some more. The workshops look great, the presenters are eclectic and diverse, and I’m exited for all of the different choices.
I’m not familiar with the venue – Friar Tuck’s – but I was okay with it until I watched a certain sitcom last night that stole scenes/stories from Dirty Dancing [watch clip on youtube]. Which made me want to go to Kellerman’s, in the Catskills, which made me think of Kutsher’s. And, well, Friar Tuck’s just doesn’t sound like it will have the same Baby-in-the-corner possibilities. So, and this is a warning to one_in_progress, I might need to listen to the Dirty Dancing soundtrack in the car on Friday morning. Maybe.
According to the staff at Limmud NY, we’re the only two coming from Montreal. But is anyone else reading this going too??
It’s almost time for 2007’s 
Tradescantia Zebrina .:. The Wandering Jew 