by Nicole Lavelle for her show at Stumptown Coffee in Portland.
-
-
OF ALL THE MAMMALIA YET KNOWN, it seems the most extraordinary in its conformation; exhibiting the perfect resemblance of the beak of a duck, engrafted on the head of a quadruped. So accurate is the similitude, that at first view, it naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means: the very epidermis, proportion, serratures, manner of opening, and other particulars of the beak of a shoveller, or the broad-billed species of duck, presenting themselves to the view; nor is it without the most minute and rigid examination, that we can persuade ourselves of its being the real beak or snout of a quadruped.
— From George Shaw and Frederick Nodder, The Naturalist’s Miscellany, 1789–1813. Incorporated into State Changes: Fire, ice, and a stuffed platypus walk into a picture, by Boru O’Brien O’Connell with Justin Lieberman. Check out all of the interesting work in the most recent edition of Triple Canopy, “Black Box.”
-
Some may say no good can come from talking to killers and dwelling on past horror, but I say these people have sacrificed a lot to tell the truth. In daring to confess, they have done good, perhaps the only good thing left.
—
Thet Sambath, Director/Producer of POV - Enemies of the People | PBS, a documentary exploring the motivations behind the Killing Fields of Cambodia (Winner of the 2010 Sundance World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize). Sambath lost his family in the conflict.
Enemies of the People screens July 12 as part of PBS’s POV season.
-
megan rosalarian gedris: Dressed to Kill →
Whenever I complain about how females are portrayed in mainstream superhero comics, inevitably half a dozen people pop up to tell me this:
“Men are idealized in comics, too.”
Yes. Yes they are. I am aware of this. While I think the idealism is harmful, that isn’t actually what I have a problem…
-
This American Life #406, "True Urban Legends" →
I was a little offended to hear “Rats in the Toilet” kick off This American Life’s True Urban Legends Edition. Of course there are rats in the toilet. People can be so sheltered.
-
Maine: 32nd Time’s a Charm
Marriage equality is 0-31 at the ballot box, but Maine is going back anyway. Personally, I can’t imagine another Prop 8 in California. That campaign tore me inside out, AND then we lost. I’ll bet the folks in Maine know how I feel. They all just signed up for round two anyway.
I don’t disagree with any of the Very Good Reasons for not going back to the ballot box in California. But for today it is hard not to wonder how our community might weigh those reasons had we not enjoyed the 2008 summer of love.
Remember 2008? Remember how we won this great victory in the courts, how proud we were of our brilliant legal gladiators Mintor and Stewart, our mailboxes filled with envelopes asking us to save the date and donate to the campaign, needing to buy a new tie because we were going to yet another wedding and didn’t want to take more pictures wear the same thing? (That last one might have just been me.)
Maine didn’t have that. Maine had the promise of marriage equality — a law passed by a legislature and signed by a governor — put on hold pending the outcome of a vote of the people. That election turned out just like every other time we ask a voting public what they think about us being married. Have I mentioned how we always lose these things?
Like all those folks in Maine, Christie and I are Still Not Married. That brief window of time was just a little too small for us to think about getting married given the rather complicated — and sometimes sad — goings on in our extended families and our lives. After 9 years together, why all the rush to settle for less than ideal? Better to put our energy towards a time of not settling. I know now that this decision was due in no small part to how sure I was that we would win. You know what happens next. We didn’t win. Again. Like how we never win. So far.
Way to go Maine. I don’t know that I have a campaign in me so soon, so you are my heroes for jumping back in the fight. Maybe the 32’nd time’s a charm.
-
San Francisco from Christina Seely’s “Lux” project, which documents the artificial glow of major cities. Check out Christina’s new project Markers of Time on Kickstarter.
-
If you see something…
MENACING
*objectively menacing; not something “scary” in a narrow, sad little world:
HOT
