I Like to Watch

I was too exhausted from Saturday evening's festivities and, um, other things to attend the Pride Parade yesterday, and I no longer live 10 minutes away from Coney Island so I didn't go to the rainy Mermaid Parade this year either. So I feel like I've had far less than my usual quota of visual fabulousness this month; can someone point me to websites featuring pictures taken at these events? Thanks.

You Wouldn't Like Them When They're Angry

Okay, I admit to a rather imperfect understanding of the machinations of empire, but if you're trying to become one isn't it usually a good idea to have the army and the secret service(s) on your side? And here's the Bush administration pissing off (and pissing on) the rank-and-file military and pressuring the CIA. Is it taking small comfort to conclude that their ham-handed ineptitude will be the downfall of their Machiavallian schemes? Update: Now, I'm no conspiracy theorist, but isn't it interesting that the Army Times has now pulled the editorial to which I and many other bloggers have linked? Fortunately, lots of sites have reproed it in the interim. Further Update: According to Atrios, it's back up. Your guess is as good as mine as to who's playing silly buggers here.

I So Rock

Got this entry in on the third try tonight, as Blogger is suddenly, fittingly strange and lost my first two entries. Why do I so rock? Well, I almost never do, as anyone who knows me can attest, but Skybird Radio is currently webcasting a Firesign tribute live via a Shoutcast MP3 feed and I'm listening via RealAudio to Dave Ossman's How Time Flys - whilst in a sort of tribute having pulled my two copies of the album, including the autographed white-label test pressing that Dave gave me in October of '83 as an apartment-warming gift. So tonight, I'm pretending that I So Rock. Blogger has been disagreeing... Update: I've just been informed that How Time Flys is now available from Laugh.com along with a number of other long-out-of-print Firesign works.

A Revolution by Those Already in Power

For your reading edification, Paul Krugman's latest column, Toward One-Party Rule, via Google's news section so you don't have to give the NY Times your personal financial info or create a fake bio and e-mail address just to read it. (Please consider bypassing the NYT's overly-intrusive registration process more often via alterna-links, fellow bloggers! As long as you know an article's title, you can Google it Boolean-style and 99% of the time find another source that's run it.)

Kate

Damn.

Me and My Big Mouth

Well, it had to happen. Based on listening to Wil Wheaton's audio blog posts, and on the fact that - to put it mildly- I'm a bit of a talker, I'm seriously thinking of adding an audblog feature. What do you think? I know I've said I don't really want to spend any money blogging, but $3/month for 12 2-minute audio posts doesn't seem like all that much.

Around the Square Garden

Just got back from a lovely evening out following the Madison Square Garden comic convention (formally the "NY International Sci-Fi & Fantasy Creators Convention"). While Robin stayed home and worked, I went in early to Pearl to buy him some ink, then to the con where I saw and hugged and kissed lots of friends, sat a spell with Peter David (link at sidebar) and Bob Almond and Rod Ramos, got a couple sketches from new Legion penciller Chris Batista and inker (and Penciljack contributor) Chip Wallace, met Jawaplumber (Josh Hill) from the comics boards and Wayne from the Comicart list and fellow blogger Augie DeBlieck (link at sidebar), and actually had George Pérez say "Hi, Elayne!" as I was talking to Tom Smith who was sitting next to him (I've known George for awhile but I guess I'm still surprised that he knows me). Robin was able to make it up around 5:15 or so, and we had a terrific sushi dinner with Tim and Molly Townsend, Scott St. Pierre (who bought me a lovely rose!) and fiancée Karen, Ron Garney and girlfriend Erin, Heidi MacDonald and Charlie Boatner. Took a few pictures which I'm sending to Heidi, and Ron did an amazing sketch for Scott's sketchbook which had us all slack-jawed. Exhausting day (I arrived at the con at around 12:30 and had hit a wall by 3, from which I didn't recover until about 8 or so) but, as always, worth it. We won't be going back tomorrow - I'll be home, um, reflecting, and Robin's got a tight deadline, so thanks again to Spencer Beck for comping us for the day, and we promise we'll do a table next year!

A Harry Situation

No, I haven't bought the new Rowling book yet, although I slavishly adore the Harry Potter series. I suppose I'll get around to reading The Order of the Phoenix eventually, but the one I really want to own is the UK edition of the paperback, so I guess I'll be waiting till '04 for that. I like the UK cover art better (thanks to Lis Riba, link at sidebar, for this referral) and I have trouble holding and carrying hardcovers. Besides, I have the UK paperback editions of the first three, as I was in England when Bryan Hitch first talked me into reading them, so the following day I went out and bought a set for myself and one for Robin's mum (and, on our next trip over, for Alan Davis' family) - and there's something very, very special about first having read the books whilst in Potter country (and in the original non-Americanized English!). I still don't have The Goblet of Fire in paperback either (I did purchase and =ouch= read that hardcover, after which I gave it to my brother), but at least it's now on my Amazon UK wishlist.

[Also via Lis, the American Traveler International Apology t-shirt made me smile about as much as Betty Bowers' "Fermez" pun did. Maybe I should buy it to wear the next time I purchase Potter books in England...]

The "L" Word

With all the polite euphemisms and obfuscations and equivocations and excuses floating about, it's refreshing to read (via Cyndy Roy, link at sidebar) an actual mainstream newspaper headline that comes out and says, Bush Is A Liar. Of course, the paper being in Florida, this probably means the President's brother and his paramour will be out to get the guy now.

Another Social Note

Robin and I will be at the Madison Square Garden convention tomorrow and possibly Sunday. (The con actually starts today but I'm not venturing outside in this weather except to the subway to get back home.) We will not have a table, but y'all know what we look like even without the Comicart mailing list badges we'll be wearing, and I'm pretty sure you can leave messages for us (if you're doing so, cell phone numbers would be particularly helpful) with Steve Wacker at the DC table. Oh, and we're planning on going here afterwards, of course. [And speaking of the Comicart mailing list, I'm really enjoying my daily chats with Mike Fogg and Mike Rice and Steve Coulson (the other tri-state-based Brit on the list) and Lambert ("the big Chinese guy") and whoever else shows up. I'm only saying this, of course, because Mike F whined that I never mention him on my blog. It takes so little to make sad and lonely people happy.]

Not to Speak Ill of the Dead

Mark Evanier (link at sidebar) is one of the most graceful eulogizers I've ever read. Here's what he wrote about Thurmond. It's so much better and more succinct than anything I could have thought to say, considering some of the pithy remarks that came out of my mouth this morning during the Today Show's inexplicably ass-kissing "close-up" look at the life of this creepy bigot.

Spelled Sideways It's "Banzai"

Via Salam Pax (link at sidebar) comes news of possibly the first female Iraqi blogger, Zainab. You can read her initial post here on Real Women Online.

Blogging About

Ah, there's the scroll bar! It doesn't seem to work right but at least it's visible now. Where was I? Oh yes, recommended entries from the blogroll:

Anne Zook on fashionable aliens.

Emma on affirmative action opponents who seem more interested in lawsuits than education.

Wil Wheaton on XM, On*Star and his Evil Twin.

Madeleine Begun Kane continues her valuable weekly service of links to Humor I Wish I Wrote, and asks for reader participation in future picks.

MaryBeth Williams on Bush fils' potential Perfect Storm.

Christine Cupaiuolo of Ms. Musings on Iranian blogs and an interview with graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi. Speaking of which, it's cool to see people who don't usually notice comics blogging about them.

Salam Pax on his current life in Baghdad, "The most insane city."

For those who believe two wrongs make a right, particularly if the second wrong is "clever satire" perpetuated against a blowhard of the right, Atrios has redesigned Eschaton for the day into the Savage Weiner Blog. Me, I'm still trying to figure out if this is real. Cowboy Kahlil is on the Savaging bandwagon too, as is Neal Pollack of course.

Too many bloggers to list on the Memory Hole video that shows GWB carrying on as normal in a Florida classroom for at least five minutes after being told the US was under terrorist attack. I think I hold a minority opinion here - I really can't fault Bush for perhaps not fully understanding what was going on, and not wanting to panic children. Those seeking smoking guns might be better served to concentrate on the administration's lack of action to prevent the 9-11 attacks, even with ample warning, than on the weirdness of the President's reaction to them.

Lots of bloggers also linking to Paul Krugman's latest NYT article (naturally I link to the don't-have-to-register-at-NYT's-website version).

The Lost Day

As many of you know, I've made myself a promise to blog at least once every day in 2003. I came on here yesterday morning to do a bit of sidebar maintenance, but due to workload wasn't ready to actually post anything until about 2 PM, at which time I found my entire system down due to Blogger upgrading. Alas, the upgrade wasn't complete by midnight, so Pen-Elayne on the Web will have no June 25, 2003 entry. I did post on Blogsisters yesterday (which I noted has BloggerPro), to let folks know what was happening (and good thing, too, as it resulted in one of my old INSIDE JOKE buddies e-mailing me to say hi) but mostly so I could say I've still blogged every day this year. :) The new Blogger edit thingie is... well, it's blue and pretty. I don't see the window for updating and republishing archives any more (a bit of a concern as Blogger has had archive repub problems in the past - oh well, at least I could finally change the listings from "mm/dd/yyyy - mm/dd/yyyy" to read "Month 200X"), there's no side scroll bar in the upper window, I can't open my blog in a new window like I used to, and "bold" has become "strong" and "italics" has become "em" ("ah, it's short for Emily," said Professor Marvel), but at least it's up again. And it's really quick!

A Little Piece of History

So I hear he was here last night, but I was home watching this. Like Neil Gaiman (link up top at the sidebar), who was in the docu and talks a little about it on his blog today, I missed hearing any female interviewees (Jen Contino did ask about that and was told that "A few key publisher/creators were contacted -- it really came down to availability and timing during the production process"), or for that matter anything in the documentary regarding women and comics. When you touch on Wonder Woman's appeal; on servicemen reading them in WWII while male writers and artists went off to war (and one would assume some women took their place as with other professions); on the direct market being a sort of inside club (the only other thing they might have done better was fuller disclosure identifying Kevin Smith as a comic store owner while he was talking about comic stores); on the sexist excesses of the badgirl craze; on the diversification of characters insofar as appealing to gays and other societally marginalized groups - when you talk about all that and don't even mention female readers or creators or journalists, office workers, retailers, etc., the omission does seem glaring. But then, it would to me, wouldn't it? But other than excluding half the population (which used to be half the comics reading population but is now probably no more than a tenth, at least when you're talking about superheroes as opposed to other genres) it was a fairly comprehensive look at the history of superhero comics in this country, and Robin and I enjoyed it a lot. He was happily identifying the pencillers and inkers on most of the artwork flashed on the screen, and suddenly this was shown. The only piece of Davis-pencilled art as far as we were able to determine (although the show ended strongly with visuals by other current artists like John Cassaday, Bryan Hitch and Alex Ross). And probably the loveliest bit of inking Rob's ever done. I squealed like a little girl. Who reads and writes comics, but not so's you'd notice. ;)

Magnets Attract Drawing Talent?

If Allan Snyder's Medtronic Mag Pro actually does work, and goes into mass production or becomes the next It thing, it could either mean my husband's out of a job or I can finally help him. Dang. You know, if everyone could draw well, it'd be no fun putting artists on pedestals any more. In the meantime, I think this whole transcranial magnetic stimulator stuff would make for at least a half dozen terrific comic book plots. (Via Dwight Meredith, link at sidebar)

Spaced Cowboy

Digby is back, and his Counterfeit Warhol is the best analysis of TV-image-versus-reality (specifically vis a via the current administration) that I've read since Adam Felber's Creature Feature Future.

Unclear on the Concept

Outside of our office is a sign that reads "No Solicitations." Unfortunately, a few of our employees are salespeople themselves, and feel some sort of obsessive need to ignore the sign when other salespeople come to call, particularly when the receptionist isn't around to point to the sign. I just finished listening to one of them (the office Jesus freak, which I don't think is coincidental) proceed to have a pleasant 5-minute conversation with a solicitor after I reminded her about the sign, even to the point of taking his business card and PR material. Now, I'm not anal about corporate rules, but that sign exists for some very good reasons (among them as a preventative against folks coming in to case the joint in prep to rob its employees, something that's actually happened to us). Now you know the type of person to blame when people don't seem to understand the concept of "no means no."

"Gouging Myself on Food"

I couldn't make the MoCCA Fest today, as my uncle (or, as I call him, "Meinoncle") Phil was being honored by the Van Cortlandt Jewish Center for his many years of service there. Our local Councilman and Assemblyman were there to give him plaques and proclamations. My mom and dad and brother and sister-in-law and all the Friedman cousins and nieces and nephews were in attendance too. I took lots of pictures which I'm sending to my cousin Marc as incentive for him to finally update his darn website and maybe start one for the VCJC. I reacted about how you'd expect when everyone stood for both "God Bless America" and "Hatikva" (i.e., stood but didn't sing, a bit stunned at having to suddenly deal with dual forced patriotism) as played by one Lenny Cherry and his Casio-type organ with all the slightly off-beat boom-chik-a's accompanying the usual Catskills-era songs. Somewhere in there a speech-maker uttered the malapropism used for this entry's header; considering the relationship Jews seem to have with food, I thought it too good to pass up (much like most of the alter kakers felt about the food at this affair, ba dum bump, thank-you-I'll-be-here-all-week-tip-your-waitress). The aforementioned cousin Marc delivered a wonderful speech about how much his Dad meant to him and his brothers and the local Jewish community, and let me copy my favorite line: We know our Dad gave up a lot, but his priorities follow from his values, principles and beliefs - family comes first. And so it did. Watching Marc's brothers and their children (seven-going-on-eight between them, including my godson Jon) I had to deal with a tiny twinge of barrenness-reminder, but that was after two Bloody Marys and besides, it wasn't about me. In all, the afternoon was by turns discomfiting, heartbreaking, funny, moving, and very, very Jewish. Much like Meinoncle - in all the good ways, of course.

Durant le Deluge, Moi

It's raining.

Again.

It's rained a lot this month.

Seems like every day someone somewhere says "I can't remember the last time weather was so weird around here."

I know we're saying that about a lot of things, but you know, climate affects everyone.

Still, I guess it's a perfect day to curl up with a good book. And/or a loved one.

And watch a fun baseball game that's not rained out.

Casting a Fatshadow

Happy 50th birthday to fat-and-fabulous blogger Tish Parmeley (link at sidebar) - and belated congrats on her first op-ed gig!

Are You Sure It's Not Yiddish?

Way back on September 27 (see archives), I asked about this "fa shizzle" expression I saw on a subway poster, and Jenny Gonzalez partially answered it back on December 12. Since then, I assume most people now recognize putting all these extra "z"s in words as "Snoop Dogg speak." Via Brooke Biggs (link at sidebar), enter The Shizzolator, where you can translate portions of your website into Snoop-speak.

The above paragraph Shizzolates as:

Are Yo' ass Sure It's Not Yiddish?

Way back on September 27 (see archives), I asked 'bout this "fa shizzle" expression I seen on a subway poster, 'n Jenny Gonzalez partially answered that shiznit back on December 12. Since then, I assume most muthas now recognize putting izzall these extra "z"s in words as "Snoop Dogg speak." " Via Brooke Biggs (link at sidebar), enter The Shizzolator, where yo' ass can shizzolate yo' URL into Snoop-speak."

I now consider mah ass duly Shizzolated.

iO Silver! Away!

So we got a notice from our cable company informing us that some of our channels would be changing around and in order to get at least one of them we'd need digital boxes, which for some reason we hadn't had till now. And the cable guy came today, switched all our boxes, switched our coverage from somewhat expensive to moderately expensive, and gave Robin a rundown of the whole thing. From what I understand we haven't quite hit triple-digits in monthly payments yet, but I know we gotta be paying more than they do in the 'burbs. And still no BBC America! But at least we can now receive the Food Network as well as the Oxygen channel, and I'm thinking, truly, what more do any of us need besides food and oxygen?

Speaking of low-kultcha time-wasters, also worth checking out is the Fanatical Apathy Summer Movie Guide, courtesy of Adam Felber (link at sidebar). And if you like to waste your time a little more substantively, Dave Johnson (link at sidebar) reminds us about the online progressive radio station I.E. America. I haven't listened to it yet but I was kinda surprised to see only white faces displayed on their top banner...

Update: Well alas, no Food Network after all, but the buttons are fun to play with. Even so, I watched this on public TV this evening. Good prep for tonight's Firesign chat, after all...

Her Story

Via the divine Betsy Devine (link at sidebar), this nice short-form history from Halley Suitt of blogging and anecdotage and women in the workplace and all that good stuff. Recommended reading.

Marking the Calendar

A very happy birthday to two dear friends, Pat Prentice and Alan Davis, as well as a happy anniversary to Alan & Heather. (Pat might read this, I'll be mentioning it when I e-mail her birthday card, but as far as I know Alan's not online yet so this shout-out is mostly for the folks who want to post birthday greetings on his message board.)

Din, 'Bin!

I have the coolest husband. He knows how ill I've been feeling, so this evening he made dinner. He's far braver than I am with recipes, too - he just approximates quantities and slathers/sprinkles it all on. I can hardly wait!

"What do you do when you are in a car with someone who asks you about the best place to hide a hand grenade?"

Salam Pax (link at sidebar) asks this while relating another harrowing story about life-as-usual in Iraq "after" our invasion. Gripping stuff, as always. And scroll down to his entry from yesterday, featuring the garish, tarted-up, sore thumb red-white+blue NY Times building in Baghdad, or as Robin calls it "The Whore of Babylon."

Jim Bows Out

Oh well, I never could get that "Capozzola for Senator '04" banner on the sidebar legible enough anyway. See Jim C's blog (link at sidebar) for the details.

Profiles in Cowardice

When is racial profiling not really racial profiling? When the most egregious example of its excesses in the last couple years is the one to receive a specific exemption. You know, "investigations involving national security and border integrity." Kinda like saying during WWII that internment camps will be closed except for all those Japanese-Americans. Look, racial profiling is either successful (which it isn't) or wrong wherever and whenever and for whatever reason it's used. "Terrorism" and "national security" are just the in-vogue buzzwords for "Arab-looking" (whatever that means anyway - what, hirsute with mustaches and names with "Al-" in them?) and "border integrity" is just "those darn Mexicans" in disguise. It's as bad as NYPD Commissioner Kelly insisting that warrants for no-knock NYPD raids are issued in neighborhoods in which crime statistics are the highest, which just happen to be predominantly minority areas. "We go where the work is." Uh-huh, cops pissing in tenants' iced tea pitchers must be real hard work. (Thanks to Jeralyn Merritt, link at sidebar, for alerts on both these abuse-of-police-power stories.)

When Diversity Is Outlawed...

Via Neil Gaiman and Jim Hudnall and Avedon Carol and Lis Riba (links at sidebar), I think everyone should be reminded by this kind of nonsense how important it is not to let a few rich people run our media to enrich themselves even further, rather than to serve the public good. As has been extensively covered in blogs like TalkLeft and Ruminate This, tomorrow the Senate Commerce Committee will vote on legislation to rescind the June 2 FCC vote to expand cross-ownership (i.e., further monopolization by a few rich corporations) of media sources, despite 98% of the comments they received being in opposition. (For those wondering, according to Lisa English, "A typographical error in an e-mail generated by Free Media indicated [the vote] was the 18th. That is incorrect. The vote takes place on the 19th.) Quotes one of the media giants, owned by our city's mayor, "The legislation has a good chance of passing the Senate, though it's unlikely to pass the House of Representatives because of opposition from House Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, Republican of Louisiana, said former Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley." If you want to know how you can help our elected representatives do the right thing, go here.

Thank You For Hearing Them

Short entry again today; my head is all blogged up in both senses of the word, as I've been to the mountaintop through the blogroll but have also acquired a lovely code id by dose, making it hard to think straight. From future PA Senator Jim Capozzola (link at sidebar) comes the news that AT&T shareholders actually voted, at something like 97%, in favor of retaining language in the company's Equal Opportunity Statement that forbids discrimination or harrassment on the basis of sexual orientation. Some folks wanted to eliminate the language on the basis that "The sexual interest and activities of our employees are a private matter, not a corporate concern, Unless these interests and activities violate the law, they should remain private." Can we be more "don't ask, don't tell" about this? I mean geez, religion and marital status and age (all mentioned in the Statement) are private matters too, but nobody's whining about eliminating those words from corporate policy.

Anyway, AT&T seems to be a fairly cool company (as monoliths go) with a good anti-censorship history, but their currently-running "Talk Is Good" campaign still creeps me out. Says the news release, "Young & Rubicam... designed it to focus on what consumers find most important to talk about in their lives. Each ad is based on extensive, qualitative and quantitative research to reflect real local market data surrounding consumers' issues, concerns, thoughts and feelings present within communities today." Well, what that translates to in the one which "features music from contemporary artists who sing, 'Thank you for Hearing me'" is a number of hot-button words or phrases flashed on the screen followed by question marks, like "School Prayer?" "Global Warming?" So see, what gets to me is that these very real issues are literally reduced to meaningless, context-free sound-bytes without even hinting at the actual opinions they may represent. Maybe I'm frustrated because the first time I saw the ad I thought it was going to be brave and substantive and actually say something about The Issues. But it just lists them as, y'know, Stuff We Talk About. (And who are we thanking for hearing us on these issues anyway, since our government is certainly not listening?) And not all the important issues, naturally; you won't see "Corporate Power?" or "Media Monopoly?" in any of these, I assure you. So it's become one of those trivialize-and-marginalize-citizenship ads I just mute and look away as soon as it comes on. I don't envy Robin sometimes, I can be a real pip. Particularly when my temperature's over 100°. *sniffle*

Elation to Frustration

I hate getting blindsided. My first reaction is always panic, then lingering anger, and finally just exhaustion. I'm like a microcosm of how thinking people react to whatever the latest move is by the Bush administration to bring us closer to danger or economic collapse. Today I found out a coworker's mother just died, my boss' mother-in-law is hospitalized, and the 3-month job that Robin was promised (which would have taken us through the summer with no worries about rent, etc.) has been pulled out from under him. So much for the energy I was getting back in my June 9 entry. Not only that, but I can no longer get on to half the websites I frequent, including the two comics message boards to which I post most often. It's not shaping up to be the best of days so far...

Dem's Eats

Feeling a bit under the weather (well, the last 3-4 days, actually) and I'm still a bit too dizzy see the keyboard that well, so this one will be short. Just a public service announcement for the locals - tomorrow starting at 5:00 PM, the Times Square Business Improvement District is sponsoring Taste of Times Square, an outdoor festival where attendees can "sample the fares of 51 [area] restaurants." The festival will be held on West 46th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues. With any luck it'll still be going on whenever my boss finally lets me out of the office... Then, on the workweeks of June 23-27 and June 30-July 4, NYC & Company is sponsoring "Restaurant Week 2003". Click on the website for a list of which participating "restaurants are offering three-course lunches for $20.03 and three-course dinners for $30.03. (Beverages, gratuities, and tax additional.)" It being NYC, those prices are doubtless per-person, but considering some pretty pricey places are offering them it seems like a nice opportunity. You can even make reservations online.

The Part of Baseball That Makes Me Cringe

Only Fox Sports (whose opening logo isn't a sports montage at all but an armed services tribute) would have the chutzpah to string together Flag Day (and by the way, this followed by this is not a coincidence) and the celebration of Roger Clemens' 300th career win and 4000th career strikeout (which I still thought was cool however orchestrated; I mean, the li'l kids wid da baggies, how could you not mandatorily wuv it?) under the headline "And the Rocket's Red Glare." Oh, and throw in Father's Day for good measure, because they won't be on the air tomorrow with their Game of the Week.

Less cringeworthy but still worthy of a mention is the ongoing televised elimination rounds of the NCAA (Men's) College World Series. I put "Men's" in quotations not only because it actually is delineated on the NCAA's website but because they already had the Women's one (for softball), not that you'd be able to find it on TV (see my entry of May 27).

Put Down the Pecker, Ma'Am; Walk Away from the Pecker...

Just a brief note to check out Fireblog, the official blog of The Firesign Theatre - I'd blogroll it but it's so seldom updated that when there's something new there it's an actual event. And this time's no different - Phil Austin, pretty much the only one of the 4or5 to post to the blog, has finally finished his Ed Woodpecker, Private Eye story. (Awhile ago David Ossman promised he would be starting a George Tirebiter blog soon but I don't recall hearing hide nor hair about that one since.) Also a reminder, most every Thursday night between 9 PM and 11 PM Eastern time (usually round about 9:30) I and a whole mess of others can be found at Firesign Chat, the only online chatroom I still frequent these days (I used to host it back when it was still on IRC and I was still doing FAlaFal).

Freaky Friday

I'm not sure if triskaidekaphobia (and yes, I'm in one of those office buildings too) is affecting our office server or the blogosphere in general, but I'm having trouble connecting to at least five folks (and counting) on my blogroll: Mark Evanier, Ampersand, Lis Riba, Tim Dunlop and Mary Beth Williams. The last case is possibly because of an announced blog shutdown, but it's enough to make me wonder if something's in the air (besides, at least in NY, all this water vapor that human beings were just not designed to breathe in!). (Update: According to Dwight and Jim C and probably others, Mary Beth's blog hasn't been taken down, it's just experiencing server problems.)

I did want to mention, however, that Christine Cupaiulo of Ms. Musings (link at sidebar) has finally convinced the magazine to add a for-really comment section to the blog, far preferable to the "click and be taken to one enormous thread on the Ms. message boards designated for the blog no matter what the daily topic" setup they had previously. To me there's nothing like instant and direct feedback without having to jump through hoops, particularly when the comment host is working correctly! And I think comment sections can help facilitate communication and maybe work through misunderstandings and hurt feelings, which is why I again hope JG (Mac Diva, link at sidebar) considers adding one to her blog what with the situation in which she currently finds herself. Of course, there's no guarantee that the comments one gets will always be favorable or agree with your blog entry, but that's what makes it more like "real" conversation to me. I don't often agree with people in the "offline" world either, but as long as we're talking with each other directly I consider that a positive, and I often learn stuff despite myself.

One of the things I'm learning today is that I really need to go through my blogroll more often if I want meaningless-but-not-to-me ego boosting. Much thanks to Jerry Bowles and Jim Capozzola (links at sidebar) for their kind plugs these last few days.

Shout-Out to Shot

Fifteen years ago today I married this guy, with whom I'm happily still friendly and in touch even after our divorce and subsequent remarriages. (If you don't believe me, just check out the comments section from a couple days ago. Yes, it's possible for exes to still be friends!) Hi Steve!

A Bitchy Bitchy Blonde Hairdo

I look around at all the Hillary-bashing and Martha-bashing and a lot of questions come to mind. The first is, of course, who's doing the bashing and why? The second is, who isn't doing the bashing and why not? And the last is, have or haven't we been down this "bash the bitchy blonde" road before - and how did it differ from what we're seeing now?

Okay, Hillary Clinton first. Now, I'm not saying you can't do a legitimate critique of the faults in her new book. I'm just seeing way too many (unsurprisingly, usually right-wing) pundits not really talking about the book at all but about why she wrote it or what it really means or simply spouting off their personal feelings against her. (I'm not the only one seeing this.) Or doing comedy bits that aren't funny as much as they're just plain mean and spiteful. And she's the bitch?

Now, things are and should be slightly different with Martha Stewart. She's not out selling a book, and I'm pretty sure she's not supporting the recent TV movie biopic; she's actually been indicted for a crime. So people are bitching not only about her personality and management style but about her illegal activities. So I consider her much fairer game than the junior Senator from NY.

Sure, Stewart's indictment is a political story to an extent, inasmuch as white male friends-of-Bush CEOs have been getting away with a lot worse. But I don't think the big deal is that Stewart and Clinton are female and equivalent guys aren't picked on, as some feminists might have it. I tend to be sensitive towards double standards, and I don't think this is one. Senator Clinton's husband (the "randy boy" to her "frigid female") is still on the hate-radar of too many conservatives looking for weapons of mass distraction. And asshole male CEOs who regularly parade before the public eye are subject to just as much scrutiny and ridicule as Martha, whether it be Ted Turner or Donald Trump or George Steinbrenner. I think it's mostly the schadenfreude factor. Martha Stewart and Senator Clinton are not only powerful women in the public eye, but they're celebrities - yes, in part because they hold positions usually reserved for men, but nonetheless not qualitatively different from any other celebs. Everything runs together in our infotainment-rich society, there's no line of dignity or irreproachability that seemed to exist in the past. Nowadays a celeb is a celeb is a celeb, whether they're best known originally for being public figures in politics or business or movies or reality shows. And we build them up in order to tear them down. Nothing new there, so nothing really to see, folks, move along.

Except you may just wish to observe, as I said above, who in power is doing the bashing and what their reasons for said bashing might be.

[Full disclosure: I have no use for Stewart personally, but I've more or less admired Senator Clinton for about a decade and will probably buy her book when it comes out in paperback.]

Bright Lights, Big City

So I noticed new traffic lights and Walk/Don't Walk signs going up at the intersections around where we live and where I work. And I said to Robin, "Isn't this a strange expenditure of money, considering the fiscal crisis we're in?" And he said, "No, not really, they're doing it for some very good reasons." And he was right, of course; here's the DOT's take on it.

Speaking of New York luminaries, Matt Caldecutt at The Week magazine has asked for my help in "compiling a comprehensive list of bloggers in the [New York] tri-state area whom we can invite to the bloggers conference which The Week magazine is planning to hold in August." I think I know which of the folks on my blogroll qualifies for this list (I've counted Tom, Peter, Lesley, MadKane, Maru, Adam, August, Sarah and Mikhaela), but I know said blogroll comprises such a teeny tiny portion of what's out there that I could really use your help here, folks. Please use the comments section and/or e-mail me with your lists of tri-state bloggers whom you think would like to attend this, including their names ("if they wish to provide them"), e-mail addresses and blog URLs. I hope to get back to Matt by week's end with this. Thanks in advance!

Marking the Spot

One of the disadvantages to trading off blogrolling one day and comics boards another and just-plain-workload the next (today was a mixture of the last two) is that sometimes I miss some great stuff, and by the time I tell people about it they're all like "oh yeah, I knew about that, where have you been?" Been working, okay? :) Anyway, have I praised Mark Evanier enough yet? He's started two terrific services on his blog (link at sidebar), one called the Comic Website of the Day (for standup comics) and the other the Comic Artist Website of the Day. He also led me to this very cogent what-if meeting scenario between Dennis Miller circa 1988 and the Dennis Miller of today (a great example of how you may be the most erudite observer around but you're never going to be as funny when you mock people with no political or societal power as when you mock the people who have that power). Besides all that, Mark just writes damn well. Update on 6/11: And I didn't say that in the hopes of reciprocation, but he went ahead and made my day anyway (and with the kind of day I'm having, his returned compliment mattered a lot)...

It Never Rains But...

Looks like June's shaping up to be a busy month for us both. My boss is in for most of the next three weeks, prior to going away for eight weeks, so time feels a bit compressed for me at the office right now. And Rob's got some more work coming down the pike; soon to grace his drawing board will be pages from books by this company and this one and this one as well. I've been pretty good about exercising daily, either on the bike for 10 (usually in the dark, which Rob seems to find ninja-like for some reason) or walking 20+ NYC blocks on the evenings when Rob meets me in the city. And I'm getting psyched to do the comics filing (see yesterday's entry) and update the WDC and ISW lists by month's end (so now would be a good time to e-mail me updates and changes and links and so forth), and possibly even upload some more old Pen-Elayne reviews to the site. Come July I should have enough energy and free time to attempt to jump-start my comics storytelling, now that I'm "4 for 4" in published comics writing-albeit-not-for-pay (okay, actually 3½ for 3½ as this one was co-written).

But for now, getting through the rest of the month is enough for me. That and awards shows - Mark Evanier (link at sidebar) has, as ever, a pretty good review of last night's Tonys, although I'm surprised he didn't consider that the suddenly non-working microphones during the recitation of "I Write America" from Def Poetry Jam might have been a bit more than coincidence. And the latest CBG (#1544) arrived today, with a picture of Robin in it (see my entry on May 3 where I talk about playing photographer for Tony Isabella's "Farewell Tour '03" when it whooshed through NYC). Having a "famous" and working husband is a very cool thing indeed.

Playing Catch-Up Not Cutting the Mustard

It's a fairly busy month for me, and something's got to give. I can't keep up with my workload and my message board posting and my reading and my blogroll, so I've taken to alternating days doing one or the other (except for the first, where of course I'm not given a choice if I want to keep my job). Today I'm just about caught up with my DC comp box reading, bringing my unread comics down to only one manageable box (a box seems to hold about 100 comics standing upright). To "celebrate" I moved all the unfiled comp box stuff from, oh, the past 4 years or so out of Robin's studio (which was getting very cramped and dusty) and into the foyer to sort One Of These Days. That means, of course, I've missed Glen Rangwala's latest article (someone get me that man's bio, he's becoming one of my personal heroes!) and Salam Pax's debut in the Guardian and Bill Moyers' speech at the Take Back America conference and a whole bunch of other good stuff y'all are probably right on top of. On the other hand, I've been alert enough off-line to notice actual spring in New York (yes, we had an Actual Spring Day on Friday, low humidity and everything!) so I guess it all evens out.

The Big Build-Up

It's a well-known adage that anticipating an event is often more viscerally satisfying than the event itself, particularly if the payoff is uncertain. That's why some TV networks are already touting their new fall shows - the lamer they sound, the harder they're pushed. That's why theaters tease for movies that won't even be out for another year and a half (see my June 5 entry) - the theory probably goes that, the more buzz they can generate for a longer period of time, the likelier their films are to stick in the public's consciousness. Even in comics, many casual readers aren't aware that new books are by and large hyped and pre-ordered 2-3 months before their dates of publication, making it tricky for retailers to anticipate order numbers for non-returnable titles and trickier to respond to those folks who drop into the shop "looking for that book I heard about on the news today" and who don't quite get that "it won't be here for another 60-90 days." (Oh, speaking of which, in this month's Previews, the solicitation for CrossGen's title The First needs a slight correction - Rob Hunter won't be inking the interiors of issue #34, that'd be Rob Riggs. :) ) And if you look at any of the comics news boards, some of the real high-profile stuff gets written up even further in advance. Given many fans' propensity to pass negative judgment at the first whiff of news regarding any given book, this gives many a chance to bitch twice or even thrice about the same story - once when it's first announced, then when it's solicited/hyped, and finally when it actually appears on the stands. Now that's entertainment!

So anyway, Clemens didn't get Win Number 300 (nor Strikeout Number 4000) today, and Funny Cide didn't do better than show in the Belmont so there went his owners' and jockey's dreams of Triple Crown glory. But that didn't stop the networks that showed the game and the race from doing their best "this is destiny, and if it doesn't happen the terrorists have won!" intonations beforehand. Because they figure we wanted to see it, it kept us glued (actually it kept me busy, dinner was prepared and the checkbook balanced and so forth), and they had to hedge their bets - chances were just as good viewers would be disappointed rather than elated, so the story had to be more about the wanting than the actual having. The latter is never a guarantee; the former almost always is.

And we (well, most of us who don't spend any real money on this) move on. Because it's only entertainment, it's not going to affect our lives overmuch. We just go on to the next anticipation (will Harvey show up in drag tomorrow? and who will he be wearing?).

Seems like it's only in real life that the idea of whipping up the viewers into an anticipatory frenzy isn't necessarily such a good one.

Diversions

Am I the only one who wonders if the Belmont Stakes and the Tonys are always on the same weekend? Or is it just that I'm the only one who'll probably catch glimpses of both? Although truth to tell, I'll only tune in for the actual horse race, not the hour-long build-up. The only thing that I feel justifies a build-up where nothing actually happens except anticipation is - nope, not even New Year's Eve. I'm a child of the '60s, I'll still watch rocket launches. (Although they're hardly ever shown any more; I really had to go out of my way to catch any coverage of the April 26 launch of the Soyuz craft to the International Space Station. I guess it hardly merited America's notice since It Didn't Happen Here, even though crew member Ed Lu is Hawai'ian.) And I know it doesn't make sense, why sit through an hour of fairly still pictures of a rocket and a control room just to see the payoff of the launch, and not sit through an hour of fluff about horsies and drunken spectators leading up to a three-minute race? I'm so speciest, caring more about stretching the boundaries of human endeavor than of equine glory! Honestly, sometimes I disgust myself.

And speaking of diversions, my Actual Social Life continues, at least for tonight. After Robin drops off the rest of the Justice League Adventures #24 pages (or, as I like to call them, "thank goodness the check came early so he could buy his new monitor!") up at DC Comics, we're heading here - hey, it's tradition - and then to the premiere party for Broad Appeal, the Friends of Lulu/New York-produced anthology book which had its origins at least a half dozen years ago. I remember 'cause I was the one who thought up the name - intended as a pun, of course, on "comics stories which will appeal to broads." I've always liked the word "broad" (and I'm not alone); to me it conjures up brassiness and take-no-bullshit outspokenness and... what is the female equivalent of "ballsiness"? "Ovariness" doesn't sound right. Anyway, I don't think I've ever been a chick or a bird or had dangerous curves or anything, but damned if I'm not a broad. So even though I hardly did any work on this antho as it dragged from editor to editor through the years (Dave Roman's the one who actually finally got it together), I feel a special affinity towards the title, as well as towards many contributors. And Robin and I have a story in it that we did together a long time ago, which is sort of my tribute to Marie Severin and Ramona Fradon and all the Women Who Came Before, and which he drew, colored and lettered entirely on computer. (The version in the book is in b&w but he printed out colored versions to hang on MoCCA's walls for the party.) Considering how old the story is and the strides Rob's computer art has made in the ensuing years (while my fiction writing has, alas, kind of stagnated due to my day-job workload and other extenuating excuses circumstances), I think "Sheagle Rising" holds up pretty well.

Finger on the Pulse

The way I figure it, G-d punished me today. It's a Jew thing, I think, the weird lingering guilt that if I do something explicitly not-very-Jewish God'll get me for it. Well, I was sitting at my desk today eating my turkey burger with Swiss, and the local Lubavitchers decided to come on by and say hi. I'd met them in the elevator during Purim, they gave me a hamentaschen and asked me what floor I worked on and could they come visit every holiday. So I got some schmura matzoh from them at Passover, and tonight is the start of Shavuos, which of course I'd totally blanked on because (and please, don't tell Mom) I don't really keep track of that stuff. I have a Jewish calendar on my desk at home but I consult it about as often as I consult my Outlook calendar, which is why I never send any of you birthday cards any more, but I digress. So it was all a little unexpected, what with my boss in (and yes, he quizzed me afterwards about the encounter) and me not remembering the holiday and sitting there mixing milchik with fleischik and something was bound to happen. And about 4:30 I zetzed my right index finger, catching it in a file cabinet drawer I was slamming shut. Oy, vey iz mir, the pain! I can just about stand typing with it again, a few hours later. So on some weird, obscure, wacky-religious kind of way, I'm thinking "G-d's punishment."

Robin's Site o' Silliness, by the way, is this lovely trailer for a cute-looking Pixar movie called Incredibles, coming in November of '04. I think it's adorable, although you know, with this poor index finger being the way it is I just can't bring myself to laugh that hard at the slapstick, either in the trailer or on the very nice Bob Hope bio (actually a sort of movie retrospective) that ran on PBS tonight. Even though I'm told it's always funny when it happens to someone else...

Why Jonni Can't, Revisited

Oh, what's wrong with those teachers complaining about the proposal to dismantle Head Start anyway? It's not like the kids will have nowhere to turn without that very successful program. They can always flip on the TV and watch Reading Rainbow-- oh, wait...

A Brain, A Heart, Da Noive

There's been a lot of chat, on blogs and elsewhere in print, about the contempt many "ordinary people" seem to have for intellectuals, and vice versa. I readily admit to being a part of the latter crew; I find the idea that many well-spoken writers have about "middle America" being a bunch of unrefined, racist/sexist/homophobic/name-your-prejudice couch-potato buffoons who don't know their asses from crop circles to be about as appalling and provincial as people who support terrorists like Eric Rudolph based on their contempt for stereotypes of city-dwellers or Ivory Tower inhabitants. I always wind up shaking my head and wondering why nobody seems to learn the lessons of history insofar as recognizing "divide and conquer" - i.e., that the powers that be subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, encourage this kind of bigotry and stereotyping so that the victims of their bad policies don't notice the real culprits behind their communities' problems and band together in protest against them. Assuming the worst of your fellow Americans is an easy and convenient way to avoid actually communicating with them and =gasp!= finding out how much you might actually have in common.

Maybe that's why downright nastiness between folks of different backgrounds (racial, geographic, educational, etc.) seems so pervasive. We've lost or misplaced the skill or the desire or the time to actually listen to each other, so assumptions about what the other person "really meant by that" and attempts to "score points" over your "opponent" take the place of actual thought-and-response. I remember, at the March 18 What Liberal Media panel, an audience member seriously querying, "Why does the liberal media always seem to express itself with profanity?" His question wasn't any kookier than those of any other attendee, some of whom went on major conspiracy-theory rants completely ignoring that they were supposed to be asking questions - but it alone was met with another audience member's "clever" retort, "Fuck you!" Nor did the panelists address his question. Was it really too much trouble to examine the guy's point and formulate a quick response along the lines of "I see what you're saying, and yes, all of us on every end of the political spectrum are probably guilty to one degree or another of using harsh language to make our points. Sometimes it's done deliberately to get attention or for shock value, or to incite others, or just because we're occasionally sloppy and lapse into crudity. But it's important to remember that you're often dealing with a sliding scale as to what language is found offensive - for instance, you may not like my use of 'damn' and I may not like your use of 'chick' - and that's why it's often a good idea to look beyond individual words to the point that the speaker or writer is trying to make."? The more we dismiss or ignore people when they actually try to communicate, the more estranged we become from our fellow human beings.

What prompted this musing as well was a fascinating article by Peter David (link at sidebar) in a recent CBG regarding responses he had seen to his friend Harlan Ellison's critique of a comic book in a previous issue. Peter read the response letters as anti-intellectual - "if he can't say something simplistically, he shouldn't say anything at all" - and excoriated "the utter disdain, segueing into outright hostility, toward the very act of thinking," as evidenced by bright folks being referred to derogatorily as "geeks" and the like, just to give one example. Now, as the girl who always had crushes on the brainy guys in school, I'm probably the wrong person to ask about anti-smart-kid hostility. As I recall, when I was taunted in high school it wasn't based on my smarts; the other kids had a wealth of differences to pick on, from my religion to my weight to my lack of social skills and grace and athletic ability, without ever coming close to my GPA. Kids are like that, they're cruel and they'll zero in on anything that stands out and I was a total sore thumb. I got over it.

But I remember the meanness. And, having read the critique and the letters, I think what the letter-writers were responding to was the perceived meanness of the critique rather than its erudition. In other words, I believe it was a case of not "if he can't say something simplistically, he shouldn't say anything at all," but "if he can't say something nice, he shouldn't say anything at all" - and not even so much "shouldn't say anything at all" but "why go so far out of one's way to be mean?" Now, I don't know Ellison other than as a friend-of-friends but, despite his reputation, he's always been very polite whenever I've seen him. And I don't think he intended his critique to be nasty at all, but probably clever and insightful. But I can see where others might find it mean, and for a lot of people meanness still sends up a red flag.

Which is actually encouraging to me personally. Whenever we protest against perceived bullying, whether it's against intellectuals or against small-town middle Americans or against powerful governments with radical agendas, it speaks to something valuable within us. It says that we shouldn't only reason with our heads, but also with our hearts as well. That we should consider how our words might be perceived by others, and strive to minimize the "mean factor" (provided we don't actually mean to be mean, if you get my meaning) in the interest of clearer communication and general courtesy. It reminds us that the people on the other side of whatever artificial divide we erect are every bit as interesting and special and three-dimensional as we are, and if we want to be done right by others we need to do right by them.

Now, if only I would practice what I preached more often. :) But they say that recognizing the problem is the first step towards doing something about it...

I Want My Meow-TV

Via Lesley (link at sidebar), Bast bless her, comes this article about Oxygen's new show which debuted last Friday. Now, we don't get the Oxygen network (nor the Food Network nor BBC America nor the House & Garden Network nor about 25 other channels I'd really like) on our cable system, but this is Just So Cool and Just So Wrong on so many different levels I'm speechless. And amused. I mean, "The first episode features a cat that eats with chopsticks and a cat surfing in the ocean." I can't even get my cats to like catnip bubbles. I'm guessing the chopstick-using kitty belongs to Neil Gaiman, but I could be wrong.

Why Can't Jonni Learn?

Good analyses by Emma on the current state of education, and by Bob Harris on the current state of negative information (propaganda, misleading reportage, etc.) courtesy of our mainstream press. And my local paper reports on a high school debate tournament, in which one team "lost the coin toss. The team had to argue the reasons why the United States should be subjected to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The court, an independent international tribunal, holds individuals responsible for crimes committed during war time. President George Bush wants them tried by U.S. military tribunals. All three students said they were more comfortable arguing against the U.S. joining the treaty. Arguing for it, they said, was more of a challenge." Emphasis mine, of course. Perhaps if these same students read blogs like Body and Soul or even that same local paper more often (instead of presumably turning to TV and the abovementioned negative info) they might have felt differently; the editorial in that same week's edition reads, "Those who remembered our newest war dead this Memorial Day might reflect as well on why they died. Was the road to war paved with lies?" Neither did the editorial shy away from detailing some of the Iraqi deaths we caused; and it ended by asking, "Will the world trust America the next time our leaders say our military must act to forestall aggression and preserve peace? Should it? Should you?" I love my local paper. :) Now, the local students, I'm not too sure about them...

Mellow Alert

White Rabbits! Home again, home again - after a car from Lansdale to Philly; lots more walking but some more drifting off to sleep during what was probably a good panel (another Marvel presentation, this one about Epic), and sorries to Andrew M if I looked a bit out of it; a lovely pub lunch (I mean, it just isn't a convention without at least one pub meal, is it?); a shuttle bus to 30th Street; SEPTA to Trenton; NJ Transit to Penn; the subway to our stop; and a car service so we didn't have to walk the hill. Yeah, you could say I'm tired. Apologies to anyone at the con looking for us when we just weren't there a lot; I think with cons like these, if I'm going to socialize more, I either have to stay at a hotel in the area and make plans beforehand or sit at some kind of table, and I did neither. But the convention wasn't really the reason we went down there this weekend anyway. Leah, thanks again for your hospitality and blog debut!