Superbowl 42!

That's right people, I am watching the Superbowl at the local sports bar. As Will says, "I love that the Superbowl is so important that it gets Roman Numerals!" Sigh. Hang tight, this should be a wild ride.

pre-game: some stupid "interview" with tom brady. i was hoping they would ask him what it was like to have two super modles knocked up at the same time. let the commercials begin! (disclaimer: i can't spell)

ok, so for the commercials, i will be taking a poll, 1-5 stars, 5 being the best. let the commercials commence!

obama commercial--smart to put it right before the game, but not a particularly moving one. i'm giving it a 2/5.

6:30pm yay! pats got some sort of good thing. people are really excited.

6:34pm: there has been a request that i call eli manning "baby manning"

6:36pm: godfather themed commercial...lots of screaming. it's an audi commercial. 3/5 stars.
some bud light commercial--people are talking! 4/5--people love it.

6:39: "i love football" --mdrum

6:40: incomplete! woo hoo! go pats!

6:42: pats intercepted a touchdown or something.

6:44: the pats did something good, and then they started touching each other. gay sex or an indication to fight? you be the judge. and...the giants scored a field goal. 3-0!

6:45: miss elliot, others in a diet pepsi commercial. used the SNL schtick about the two dudes who went clubs and listened to the "what is love? baby don't hurt me...don't hurt me no more..." earned solid 3.5/5 stars

6:48 something good for the pats. and then a shitty bud light commercial. sexism! 4! it indicated that boys like football and girls don't. our table, which has two men at it, indicates the opposite.

6:49: some scary fascist sock commercial. not attempt at humor; mdrum has indicacted it has to be punished for lack of it. -1/5 stars.

6:52: heidels is distracting mdrum from the game with the talk of boys.

6:54: something else happened that was good. a first down?

6:55: there is some speculation about tom brady's ankle! subject of tabloid gossip for the past two weeks. also, some giants coach is squatting like he might poop.

6:58: pass interfereance! food arrived!

6:59: screaming animals. similar to that scene in amalie where all those people have orgasims at the same time. lame itunes/doritos/some sort of singer commercial. borrrring. some insurance commercial. snore. this commercial break sucked.

7:02: WANTED THE MOVIE--it's 5/5 stars. COULDN"T be more excited if i tried.

7:06: um..tide commercial is 3/5

7:12: foul! chili in the lap!

7:13: soild 4/5 for a budwieser commercial involving clydesdayle training and dalmation. ROCKY THEME SONG

7:18: bitch slapping by the pats!! also, some weird wolverine commercial for toyota. lame.

7:22: i tell my sister, whom i am video chatting with, that there are 16 teevee screens in this room. 16.

7:26: belecheck is wearing a new sweatshirt.

7:27: nothing is worse than a men's room on superbowl sunday at a sportsbar. trust me.

7:28: we got sacked! heh. hot. some commercial about pushing a rock up the hill--to advertise a "new hybrid" for GMC that gets 21 MPG. way to go GM! we give it a -1. some weird indian geeks get ladies commercial for...what? we give it nothing.

7:31: i think we're on our 8 or 9 pitcher of shipyard export.

7:33: omg, halftime is coming up!! everything i have been waiting for...

7:34: heidi has rated one of the waitress' haircut a 2. she doesn't think it's appropriate for long haircuts. SO. there you go.

7:35: fumble! or something. sacked qb! loose ball! ever notice the refs look like they're doing american sign language?

7:37: my gf is a crazy cat lady. um, also, there is an official website.

7:38 next chronicals of narnia movie commercial. PLANTERS commercial: good song choice, take away message: if you're ugly and rub planters nuts all over your body, men will fall all over you. go get some nuts ladies!

7:40: ANOTHER break. seriously, i don't think the football people play for more than 30 seconds before commercials come into it. now, i am not a football fan, but come on.

7:40: JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE!!!! shilling some pepsi crap. we gave it a 4/5 stars. also, some doritos commercial with a big mouse. people around us laughed. but seriously, wtf is up with pepsi? why do many commercials.

7:44: mdrum is saying that she thinks the pats offensive line is trying to throw the game because they were paid off by guliani, aka Capt Terror.

8:04: OMG HALFTIME w/Tom Petty. did i mention the bet between will and rose? they've bet on songs that petty will play. we will see who wins!
GIANT arrow that went into the heart. not unlike...well, you can guess.
1.--american girl. 7 pts for rose, who has bet will on the songs tom petty would play.
"he doesn't look that bad!" wierd beard and moustache.
2.--won't back down. a classic! 7 points for will. tied game between the married couple.
3.--free falling! will wins another 7 points. 14-7, will. alarming number of lighters being waved in the crowd. is it
wise to allow these drunken superbowl people flames? i just discovered that our table is the only one singing here.
loudly. and badly. there are fireworks at the game! ezra is slightly embarrassed. oh shit, it might be learning to fly
next.
4.--running down the dream!
5.--shitballs, that might be it. and....it is. bummer.

OK Y'ALL. i can't take the football anymore. i'm outtie.

The Truth.

Thanks to my hot old roomie.

In case you thought sexism was dead

Women prisoners can actually be charged with having sex (which is a...crime...when in jail) if they're raped by a gaurd. As long as the guard says the sex was consensual, it's fine!

Take action.

It's bigger than Hip Hop Hip Hop Hip Hop

And, in case you're wondering why I repeat myself, I am quoting Dead Prez. Revolutionary but gansta, vegan, potheads. What else could you want in an iPod download? For real.

Yesterday, hip hop finally got some respect. The Smithsonian--essentially THE American history museum--opened up a section detialing the history of hip hop. The director of the museum said, "'American music is the soundtrack to American history," Mr. Glass said. "Hip-hop has been a part of American music for more than 30 years.'"

So all this is good, but suspiciously missing from the press conference and lacking in referece are women in hip hop. It's no secret that hip hop has been a mostly male dominated culture, but women have certainly played a huge, if unrecognized, role. Where would eighth grades dances have been without a little Salt n Pepa? Or Queen Latifah? Where would college have been withouth Eryka Badu or Jill Scott? Or Jean Grae? Granted, hip hop has a long history of completely objectifying and degrating women, but that has mostly been by men looking to make a buck by selling shitty rhymes and bland beats.

Basically, men still get all the credit. In 2006.

Dispatches from Wisco

As a true Southerner, I cling proudly to my upbringing (for better or worse)--the debutante culture, the unnaturally thin women with always smiling faces, the preppy clothing, the belief that rebel flags and rifles count as decoration, the unbending gender roles, the wonderful accents, the history, the flavorful food, the proud people, the gracious hostessing ablities. I would add what every Yankee/non Southerner thinks of the South: racism, but the truth is that racism is all over the place. The most pronounced "ism" in the South is the gender roles (obviously I acknowledge those are everywhere too, but are just promoted more in the South).

That said, I've chosen to live my life since college in cold climates with people who can be, at best, described as loud and obnoxious with terribly nasal accents (which, try as I might, I can't seem to nail my impersonation), and at worst, gruff, mean and uncaring Yankees. I think it has something to do with the shitty weather that so often lingers...for months...over New England. But, clearly, I somehow identify with these people, or I wouldn't stay here so long.

Suffice it to say, I judge. Despite all my fighting against it in college, I kind of like sterotypes in that weird i-can-explain-everything kind of way. In some fucked up kind of way, I enjoy being able to stereotype people or entire regions in a few words. I realized this (more formally) when I was visitng my family for Thanksgiving. Every family member somehow fulfilled my stereotype of them--which got me thinking that either I have boiled their identies down to simple (like, Granny is a crazy racist lady (who thinks that "those mexIcans are the cause of all the violence. but they work hard!) who is tight with a nickle even though she has millions or faux-uncle Marshall is so paranoid about catching SARS that he doesn't shake people's hands or hug (this is true--he doesn't drink, but he'll carry around a glass of wine in his right hand at parties so he doens't shake anyone's hand. no joke.) or that he's always looking for the cheapest thing every (also true. if he sees you bought a sweater, he'll tell you he just saw a sweater "just like it" for $9.98 at Sam's Club. I'm sorry, NO ONE can find cashmere for $9.98)) descriptions and therefore I look for them to be like that OR that they are they really like that? I think the answer is both.

I say all this because this weekend I ventured into the COLD COLD midwest--specifically, Wisconsin. My lord, it was so fucking cold. People, to my releief exactly filled my stereotypes of midwesterners--super nice, really blond, lots of cheese and beer.

I think I probably had more to say about this when i started the post. Oh well.

Domestic Splendor?

A recent NYT ed-op, got me thinking about, shockingly, my life. For most of my life (or, at least, for my semi-cognisant, quasi-adult life), I have always assumed that I would work hard, pave my own way, be super-independent. Every once in a while, I get into these moods where I decide I would like to have a "companion"--which a friend of mine mocks. My idea of a "companion" is
someone I can listen to NPR with, read the Sunday NYT, do work around without feeling super guilty...generally act like I'm in a relationship without actually being in a relationship. I have many of these platonic type friends, but I usually want something sexual too--something where I respect the person in and out of bed (a rarity in my world of insanely high standards).

But I digress.

Judith Warner, the writer of the article focusing on Friedan's "Feminine Mystique" caught my attention when she wrote,

"... five years ago, as I settled, for the first time, into a life where I worked minimal hours, spent maximal time with my children and was almost entirely dependent on my husband's salary and health benefits, ancient history became a current affair. I lived surrounded by women whose lives were much like mine, and the sentences that swirled around me on the playground stirred memories of thoughts and phrases I'd read long before. The voices coalesced into a chorus of discontent that haunted me until one evening, after my daughters had gone to sleep, I went through a pile of boxes and dug up my old copy of Ms. Friedan's book. This time, as it had for many of the homemakers who read it when it was published in 1963, "The Feminine Mystique" felt horribly familiar. Looking back convinced me that we needed to start working toward a different future."

Warner continues and discusses how times haven't actually changed for women, especailly in the private sphere of the home and child-rearing; that there's been "no meaningful national policies to make satisfying work and satisfying family life anything but mutually exclusive for most men and women."

So here is the thing: sometimes, secretly, I find myself fantisizing about being supported by someone while overseeing the domestic sphere--throwing parties, organizining charity benefits...and really that is it, to be honest. I can't imagine attempting to manage children (or, really, having them...ugh), doctors appointments, rearing them the way Cookie brought us up (I have to say, she did a slammin job--seriously, we're all pretty normal, smart, ambitious children...nothing too weird and fucked up with any of us) with lessons, practices, enrichment, etc. and making dinner every night. I don't want to check out of the public sphere because I'm not into what I do, or that I am lazy, or that I don't have serious ambition, but rather that it seems "easier" or more fun (and certainly "safer") than what I'm currently doing with my life. I then, after having these feelings, immediately feel serious guilt--both my women's studies theory oriented and my career development sections of my brain scream at me that I'm nuts. It's all so confusing--I want the security (though, given that some really high percentage of relationships end and over 50% of marriages end in divorce, security certainly isn't a guarentee) of being able to do the "fun" stuff in my life, explore more about me (I wince as I write thing--I am uber irritated at people who make decisions based on only what they want in life and not the impacts their decisions will have on others). Not sure where I am going with this other than to voice it. Maybe this blog thing is just a secret (or not so secret?) confessional for my usually unexplored self? Mostly, I just need to get things off my chest.

Ok, speaking of which, WHAT THE FUCK. Ok, I'm down with people getting more sexual knowledge, and it looks like she dishes on the reg on laist.com, but honestly, could she further divide the queers from the "straights"? Since sexuality changes throughout one's life even playing into stupid straight/gay/queer/bi/whatever labels is irritating. Ugh. Get over it.

Oh, and my friend has this on her blog, and I think it's interesting. Give it a click or two.

Happy Monday.

All hail the oil and gas industry

in the midst of oil shortages because we drive giant gas guzzlers, out of control global warming, and an administration that is full of industry hacks, both exxon and chevron posted some of the highest profits on records. as they say the need more tax breaks when people are starving in the richest country in the world.


Fuckers.

also, another fallen hero.

and...another.

to top it off, the supreme court is now fucked for...the rest of my life. or maybe i should just say, my ability to control my body. or have rights.

but, the good news, is you can still buy really cool shit at fratercrombie and bitch.