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Lisa's Cynical Affirmation Of The Day - July 31

Sometimes problems disappear if they are thoroughly ignored long enough.

(Actually, it's from a few days ago... today's seemed a little too, er... cynical.) :)

Some problems - like not posting - just won't disappear.  I need to eat dinner, and then writing will resume, in earnest.

Lisa's Cynical Affirmation Of The Day - July 30

Today I reserve the right to be cranky as hell because I have to go back to work this morning after a weekend that was, as usual, too short. I will bitterly complain about how in Europe they get better vacations and don't work as long hours.  I will do this with conviction and as if I don't say and feel the exact same thing every damn Sunday night... and Monday morning.

The Improper Bostonian

I was hoping to post this morning, but raced off to a picnic/barbecue instead.  Which let's me bring up a new fashion item: the Proper Bathing Suit.

Being, well, me... one of the things I relished after college was the opportunity to go to the beach and wear scanty swimwear.  Yes, like many twinkie boys, I wanted to wear barely there Speedo-type swimsuits.  This is largely because when you are 22 and skinny with a dancer's body, you can wear anything.  Which, of course, I proceeded to do. The collection of Daisy Dukes, and International Male scanties I still have from that period still harbor a place of fondness in the back of my intimates drawer.  Nothing, and I mean nothing, from that period is wearable these days.

Still, as I got older, and replaced pure skinniness with a bit of muscle, I started wearing the slightly more decent version of the bikini (and by the way, I never wore a thong. That's jut nasty) - otherwise known as the man's square cut. I figure, if it was good enough for a man in 1947, it's good enough now.

Yet while those small pieces of lycra are fine for the all male (or gay and lesbian together) beach, they are not fine for mixed company, when children, relatives and the like are present.  J in Baltimore was very firm with me when I joined his family on vacation (he comes from a large brood, so they're used to company; me, not so much) - he said, "you must bring a proper bathing suit."

Despite his fears, I did know exactly what he meant.  The "proper bathing suit" is a pair of shorts, probably these days board shorts, which stop just above the knee, and fit loosely in the seat. They say "although I am shirtless, I am doing nothing overt to attract anyone to look at my crotch or ass."  Although, well, that's what everyone does, anyway (which is why most gay men do not wear a proper bathing suit when amongst our own).  That, really, is part of the joy of the beach.

So today, dressed in my Proper Bathing Suit, I joined my friends at the Lake and had a lovely time.  It was first real sunbathing of summer, and I had, really, missed it. It just makes me long for a day at the gay beach with an improper bathing suit to really work on those tan lines.

No, It's Not

I was all set to go to bed - that'll teach me to do a "just a quick check" online before retiring - when I saw this piece of stunning nonsense from Lisa Schiffren at The Corner on National Review. Schiffren, a former speechwriter for Dan Quayle, notes the savvy use Hillary Clinton's campaign has made of the controversy swirling around Robin Givhan's absurd "cleavage" column, and then asserts:

As for the column itself, my own view is that, considering the efforts all candidates go to in creating their image, discussing what they wear and whether they display cleavage at work, or ever, in their quest to make the nation comfortable with the idea of them holding ultimate power is legit. (Even if one does not wish to be the journalist in charge of noticing such things.)

Well, no, it's not; one of the stupidest things about Givhan's "body of work" is just how puerile her "fashion insight" has proven to be.  From taking a pair of boots on Condoleeza Rice and finding a tough dominatrix in them, to giving a cold Dick Cheney a hard time for wearing a parka at a formal dedication in the snow, Givhan has shown over and over that if there's something deep to be found in what politicians wear, she's bound and determined not to find it. No, her assessments are indeed, the definition of "skin deep" - obvious, catty assertions that show little real flair or wit, just a command of fashion terms and a sneery, put down attitude for Washington's famously dowdy approach to style. (Which is why most real fashion people live elsewhere).

I think official Washington, which knows perfectly well that its safe dressing is dull, secretly relishes, in that high school way, seeing Givhan tease the powerful for their fashion faux pas; but really, what's keeping people from calling Givhan out would be the admission that the emperor, indeed has no clothes - that the discussion what candidates wear is pointless and illuminates nothing (especially in Givhan's case, where it mostly reveals she's a catty bitch).  What goes into political "image creation" has less to do with dress and more to do with comportment and demeanor.  And we have a gazillion armchair psychologists for that.  Personally, I stand in stunned admiration of what Givhan has managed to pull off: crap writing and a Pulitzer. Makes me wish I'd thought of it first.

And Everything You Hold Just Falls Apart Like Shattered Glass

I've refrained from saying anything about the Scott Thomas Beauchamp mess, because I think things are still very much in flux, and there's a little too much posturing all the way around.  Still, the weekend seem likes a good moment for a breath-catcher and sum up of things thus far.

Beauchamp turns out to be the diarist behind a previously anonymous series of diary entries in The New Republic, which purported to give an inside look at the Army's work from a soldier's perspective.  Beauchamp's reporting - particularly of disturbing incidents of cruelty in a Mess Hall incident, desecration of a gravesite and misuse of Bradley fighting vehicles - has been called into question by knowledgeable "milbloggers" (current and former soldiers who blog), and for a while it seemed that no one could even verify that he actually existed, or was actually a soldier.

The other problem for TNR is that its history on hiring and promoting the work of fabulists is not good.  The magazine's notorious case of Stephen Glass, who fabricated whole articles and then faked evidence to resist fact checking, was, along witgh Jayson Blair, a disturbing moment for journalists, especially on the left.

If I Just Breathe

All I know is, spending the day mostly chilling by the tube was very... calming.  I know there's so much to do - and so much to say - but on this, the first day off in 8, chilling (in sticky heat) was the first order, and, apparently, a long one.

Still, I can get a post out of it! A few notes on the films I slogged through:

The Godfather Part II - AMC is, inexplicably, pairing up repeats of Mad Men with a daylong run of the three Godfather flicks.  I've actually never watched Godfather Part 2 all the way through, and today was no exception, though I saw enough to realize that this fascination with the mob is old as the hills, and less illuminating, in some ways, than I think critics - especially the ones who cut their teeth on seventies realism - like to suggest.  Which is to say, I think Coppola's mastery of mise-en-scene is amazing, but the story he's telling is from a tremendous distance, and its iciness isn't doing him any favors. Though looking at the breadth of actors - Pacino, DeNiro and Keaton in particular - turning in surprisingly restrained performances... perhaps he's onto something.  While I found myself ticking off any number of echoes that show up in the Sopranos, I also think David Chase infused the Sopranos with a passion onscreen that Coppola only hints at.  More recent films, really, are the ones that have infused gangsterism with sheer sexiness, for both good and ill effects. But I suspect the deeper truth is that sense of sexiness is what mobsters see in themselves.

Barcelona - I probably have not mentioned yet my love of Whit Stillman, but he may be the filmmaker I most deeply admire for having a vision and seeing it through.  Barcelona is part of a triptych of films (Metropolitan, one of my all time faves, and Last Days of Disco, also brilliant, fill out the trio) that trace a related group of characters through youth to adulthood.  Taylor Nichols and Chris Eigeman play cousins living and working in the title city, dealing with expatriate feelings and falling in love with Spanish women. Stillman's film are marked by his Upper East Side preppy roots - Eigeman, particularly (who was in all 3 films), embodies the mix of snobbery and down-to-Earth realism that marks Stillman's work. I'd also forgotten turns by Thomas Gibson and character actor Jack Gilpin . And, happily, like the others, Barcelona holds up amazingly well, like a classy old novel.

EdTV - I happen to think this Ron Howard film is an underappreciated gem - Matthew McConaughey is both gorgeous and restrained as the lead character, a slacker dude who winds up on a 24 hour reality show of his own life.  Howard makes some surprisingly effective points about what the intrusion of cameras into our lives says not just about the participants, but about the audience. And as the lonely TV exec who makes Ed a star, only to become disillusioned with the monster she's created, Ellen DeGeneres probably has the role that made the best use of her acting skills and her subtle way with humor.  See it if you ever get a chance.

Miss Congeniality - By this point, I knew I was just pushing my luck, but it's fun to go back to those moments when Sandra Bullock seemed the heiress to the light comedy heroine mantle after years of patient waiting.  If she hasn't exactly turned out the way we expected (I loved her in Infamous, doing more and better with the Harper Lee part than Catherine Keener in the dismal Capote), I think we haven't seen all she can do just yet. That, along with the sly enjoyment Michael Caine brings to his work, and the eye candy qualities of Benjamin Bratt (his discomfort with leading man status is palpable) continue to make this film great fun. But I didn't bother tostay til my favorite line, when Miss Hawaii says backstage "You're a Don Ho."

Lisa's Cynical Affirmation Of The Day

(My friend Lisa recently added me to her daily e-mail list to receive the "cynical daily affirmation," her take on the warm, uplifting sentiment that gets shared, like those motivational posters of icebergs that say we can succeed if only we try, and have a produced a market for people who say "why try, when failure is more fun?"  I asked Lisa's permission to share her thoughts with you, which she agreed to last night.  Who knows how long this will last, but for now, I'm here to inaugurate a new feature at the WeBoy, which, knowing my dear readers as I do, I think you will appreciate as I do.)

Since I have had some difficulty managing my own life, today I will focus all my energy on persuading people that their lives would be so much better if they would just follow my advice.  This way I can practice on problems far less complex than my own.

Ay, Mami, Por Que Es El Mentiroso Todavia A Cargo De La Ley?

via Ezra:

The Feelin Good Comes Easy Now... But Not For Long

One little noticed development on the collegiate health front may have big ramifications as we head into the fall.  The Wall Street Journal reported today that due to a glitch in Medicaid funding calculations, colleges have lost their pipeline of low cost contraceptives from the pharmaceutical companies.

As the WSJ points out, the effects are already being felt - although many college health service departments, aware of the coming price increase,  ordered overstock that is only now starting to run out - and some students are opting for generics, or low cost options, or choosing to go through their parents health insurance even though it will eliminate their ability to do it rather anonymously.

There's a lot tied up in this, so let's try to break it down a bit:

Crunch Time

As I write this, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down almost 310 points to finish the day down over 2%. I had planned to rewrite a post from a few days ago about the subprime loan crisis, but I worried that I would be writing it into the teeth of stocks bouncing back towards new highs (and as I said, I am no accurate Cassandra, in the big scheme of things).  That's not the case now, and suddenly, what I wanted to say seems just as relevant as it did a week or so ago.

I was trying, in the post that got eaten while my pooter went buggy, to sum up the Bear Stearns crisis in subprime loans.  As I'd mentioned a while back, when RedStar and I were trading posts on the meaning of the collapse of the subprime loan market (loans to bad/weak credit risks, usually at high rates), she in terms of the human cost to new home buyers; me in terms of the overall story of speculation in the housing market.  At the time, I said that there was more to come.

Well come it did, as Bear Stearns revealed last month that two hedge funds built on investments in subprime loans were defaulting on billions of dollars in financing from other banks.  On the heels of that, as banking and financial institutions issued their quarterly reports, a number of them had to acknowledge continued weakness in loan portfolios and hedge funds built on loan speculation.

Then on Tuesday, Countrywide Financial issued guidance that it saw continued problems in the home loan market. Why is that a big deal? Well, because Countrywide is the number one home lender in the country. And today, the continued questions about subprime exposure drove big hits in the financial markets.  On top of that, existing home sales continue to look weak - which, of course has everything to do with problems buyers will have securing loans.

And, on top of that, big business deals built on easy money are starting to look bad - Chrysler announced yesterday that it's plan to be sold to Cerberus Capital, using "private financing", was falling apart meaning banks would have to finance much of the deal in a more painful way.

All of this money crunch, of course, makes me a total pessimist: I think the uncertainties of home loans and the credit markets is worse than some people want to face. While the worst excesses of the subprime craziness were unsustainable, the ripple effects of people unable to purchase homes or acquire loans - or to have to jump through new hoops to get loans - are serious. And while the CNBC Fast Money guys were minimizing the downside yesterday... and everyone on the business shows is calling it "correction" today... I think there's more downside here than that.  But hey, what do I know? It's not like I can get a mortgage.