IGIVETHATSHITTHEFINGER

Jan
25

I know, I know.

It is the year 2013, and the notions of artistic integrity and “selling out” are just things that oldsters say to remind the kids how hilariously out-of-touch they are. But I am still genuinely surprised to see that Jello Biafra and Ian Mackaye are playing Coachella this year. I’m not going to be all hilariously self-righteous while signing checks from MTV (good people to work with, for real) but I really do wonder what made Ian Mackaye — a guy who is famous specifically for eschewing corporate money and requiring that tickets for his shows be extremely affordable — decide to play a monster corporate festival with sponsorships everywhere and $300 tickets.

Like, specifically, what led to that decision? Jello, I can kinda guess — it’s possible that dude may be more or less broke still at 55 years old and really need the money. Ian Mackaye’s net worth is estimated to be $25 million, meanwhile — and while those “celebrity net worth” websites probably overestimate their numbers dramatically, even if they’ve got it wrong by a factor of 25, it’d be hard to say that he just really needs the cash. What a weird way to check out of 30 years as a standard bearer for a certain kind of punk rock ethic.

Jan
21

Weirdly, if you search for Planned Parenthood on Facebook from Austin, and click on the first link, all the page gives you is a list of nearby churches.

ETA: Also, it gives you the address and phone number at the top, but no more information. I’m guessing that this is meant to be a list of similar organizations — I’m using that fancy new Facebook search that the just rolled out — but it’s all churches and none of them provide women’s health or abortion services.

I’m not sure how Facebook indexes its pages, but that little box with the X next to it at the top that says “pregnancy & childbirth services” seems to indicate that all of these churches are tagged with that, which is weird. I know that St. David’s, at least, is a very progressive church, but I don’t think they have doctors on call.

Anyone have an idea what’s going on?

Jan
20

Hating everything right now.

Jan
18

Guy Talk: Why A Straight Man Like Me Cares About Transgender Rights

Here’s why I take transgender issues personally…

Because I or someone I love might get cancer at some point, and a trans person who is capable of discovering the cure is otherwise occupied defending their right to exist.

I live in a world that needs leadership, and a smart, tireless trans person who should maybe be President is busy arguing that they deserve basic human respect.

I want to drive a fucking flying car someday, and the trans person who might invent it is stuck responding to Guardian editorials that treat them like they’re subhuman.

I wrote a thing for The Frisky that went up today about why transgender rights are a personal issue for people who may not think of them that way. It is, of course, an argument that extends well beyond trans people — it extrapolates out to why the fight for equality for every oppressed group affects everyone who is not part of those groups. But watching as trans people who really should not have to waste their time arguing that they are really and should not have their existence gleefully insulted in a major international newspaper threw it into sharp relief for me as a trans issue.

A few quick notes:

It’s really weird to make an argument against compassion, which is really what I wanted to do here. Because treating all of this as a case for compassion really, I think, leads people with privilege to think too highly of themselves. Like, “Look how I awesome I am, I care about people who have fewer privileges than I do just because my heart is so big!” (That’s not a blanket declamation of “allies,” or whatever — but I think it’s an easy jump from “I’m compassionate” to “I’m a good person” to “I’m above reproach because of how good I am”.)
Anyway, new bullet because that one got long and tangential — compassion is a fine thing, and a fine part of why everyone should care about everyone else. But it’s not the only reason, and it’s important that we remember that. Other people’s struggles are our struggles because we all exist in the same world and we benefit from being around people who are in a position to be great.
Maybe it is dumb that I feel the need to say this, but I will say it anyway, because I’ve seen enough presumption-of-bad-faith condemnation of things I’ve written that I’d like to make it clear that I was aware of it: This is obviously not an argument that the only trans people who are worth speaking out for are the ones who are, like, the Einsteins and James Browns and Kurt Cobains, in terms of talent and intelligence. My point is that trans people are people, and as such have every bit as much to offer as anyone else, if they’re not too busy dealing with stupid fucking bigotry all the time.
That’s it. For once, my “quick notes” are relatively quick.

Jan
16

The Only Black Guy at the Indie Rock Show

earlhofert:

Martin Douglas did an excellent personal narrative on the intersection of race and music that I think a lot of people should read. A+ work, Martin.

I just read this, and then here it is on Tumblr like that! This really is a great read, and it’s got that Sean Padilla-quoting title to boot.

(via jessicasuarez)

Source earlhofert

Reblogged from earlhofert

Jan
15

How the Dallas Cowboys Lost the Home-Field Advantage

[F]or a family of four to get season tickets to Dallas Cowboys home games, in decent but not spectacular seats in the upper levels over the sidelines, tickets and PSL costs would add up to $5,347.60 a year. For 27 years. Plus parking, which costs $75 a game if purchased from the Cowboys organization. Add the occasional soft pretzel and Miller Lite and you’re easily looking at more than $6,000 to take your family to each season’s eight home games. Over the 30-year life of the PSL commitment, that’s $180,000, over $52,000 more than the average Arlington home price.

I’m really proud of this Texas Observer story on the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium. The Observer doesn’t really cover sports, as a rule, but I’ve long maintained that sports stories tell us a lot about our broader culture just by virtue of the fact that so many people from so many diverse backgrounds care very deeply about them.

The challenge here was to write a story that worked on a football level — that someone who cares a lot about the Dallas Cowboys can read and learn about the potential consequences for homefield advantage for the team in the new stadium — and that hit on the Observer’s mission of illuminating the struggles of the underdog. I think that a person can extrapolate from the short-sighted greed of Jerry Jones a lot about the larger issues of greed, and choosing a quick cash grab over a legacy, that happens throughout American culture. Hopefully, I did a decent job of telling that story.

(Also, I strongly recommend the documentary America’s Parking Lot, which is about the people priced out of the new stadium. The movie’s director, Jonny Mars, was a great resource for this story. On VOD now or premiering February 1st on ESPN Classic!)

Jan
14

It’s Cool If I Encourage This Emotional Affair, Right?

thatbadadvice:

Miss Information, Nerve.com, January 13, 2012:

I know I want to continue chatting to him, but I worry that it’s wrong on several levels: 1. He has a girlfriend, and I’m pretty sure she’d be upset by our correspondence. 2. I’m not in a relationship and I could easily develop feelings for him. 3. I’m not sure it’s entirely possible to have a friendship with someone who you’ve expressed sexual desire towards, who’s expressed the same towards you. All that said, I really enjoy talking to him and he says the same about me. If we make the effort to keep things more platonic what’s the harm? - Flirty Friend

Dear Flirty Friend,

Congratulations on finding such a stand-up guy! You’re right to want to continue chatting with an attached man who is keeping you secret from his girlfriend, under the guise of a “platonic” relationship that revolves around you telling each other your deepest, darkest secrets and reminiscing about that time you had sex and speculating about the sex you maybe could be having.

Strong friendships are built on a web of secrecy and lies wherein both parties are constantly pretending to be tortured, star-cross’d lovers perpetually wronged by a woman who has no idea what they’re up to and probably wouldn’t like it if she did. By all means, keep in touch with your friend—his current girlfriend will appreciate it all the more when, eventually, she finds out his heart is big enough for two.

Andrea Grimes has started a new Tumblr in which she provides the people who write letters to advice columns with the terrible advice/explicit permission to do the thing that they’re obviously planning to do anyway, and I really hope that she keeps updating it forever.

Reblogged from thatbadadvice

Jan
13

Watching as everybody on Twitter made fun of Jodie Foster’s Golden Globes speech while every woman in the audience was moved to tears by it makes me think that there is probably a whole fucking world about being a woman in Hollywood, privacy, and people’s expectations that people who aren’t a part of it will know nothing about.