NYCweboy

Damn You, Chace Crawford! Damn You To... Ah, The Heck With It

Sorry for the general silence... work has been both too much, and not all that bad... so I'm, like happy, sort of. Sort of not... and trying to write about politics has left me... mostly tired.

So to distract myself, I went and saw a very dumb, very bad film.

I blame Chace Crawford.

Chace, of course, is the teen idol of the moment, thanks to his absurdly good looks and his "poor little rich boy" act on Gossip Girl. And resistance - mine anyway - is futile. So as soon as I realized he was in The Haunting of Molly Hartley, I knew I'd probably drop everything to see it.

And really isn't Halloween the right night to see a quasi-scare flick crossed with a teen high school melodrama? It's like fright night, cubed.

Actually, The Haunting of Molly Hartley isn't terrible, and it's even, for these days of gory terror porn, surprising subtle and muted in its scare quotient... but it's a thin, weakly written affair, livened mostly by Crawford's, er, star power, such as it is. Perhaps, even in these teen-driven days (my record of not seeing High School Musicals remains intact), there's a need for more.

...and Friday Night Fright

 

jinb

Friday Evening Frame Shop

 

jinbaltimore

Morning Morsels: Pretty Mess, All Over My Dress

A few nibbles as I nibble:

• So the brain surgeon who didn't travel from France at the not request of his son, to treat the not-stroke that Kim Jong Il did non have, seems to have not helped... or Kim Jong Il is not in the hospital after things, you know, didn't take a turn for the worse.
• There's a reason the $150,000 dress mess won't die, and it's not misplaced feminism: it's that the reports of dramatic infighting with in the deteriorating McCain camp - and in the GOP generally - appear to be all too true, and the attempt to tag Nicolle Wallace with the bill have brought a lot of it out into the open.
• So the good news is that the financial crisis is over: The Dow soared about 900 points. And maybe more when the Fed cuts interest rates today. All because, apparently, home sales were finally better last month than people expected... If, by better, you mean that most people are buying foreclosed homes at fire sale prices. With consumer confidence down the drain, forecasts for the worst Christmas in years, and enormous numbers of layoffs looming, I'm just sayin'... don't get your hopes up yet.
• I think I may have to change RedStar's nickname to Rusty. :) My co-conspirator/past boss/future boss is getting back up to speed at a renewed Redstar Perspective, and despite her doubts, she's doing just fine. Please go and read her. A lot.
• With Halloween coming up, more people are noticing the obvious: costumes for girls and women are all naughty nurses and French Maids. Good thing I mentioned that, like, a year ago.
• In The Hollywood Minute: If you, like I, was planning to, eventually, watch The Ex List, oh well - it was cancelled this week. And congratulations to Kath and Kim for being the show everyone thinks will be next (I watched the pilot, and honestly, it's not perfect... but it had its moments).

What's A Nice Lady Like You Doing In A Campaign Like This?

A quick memo to a lot of people who envision themselves bravely crossing a line:

You aren't.

Yes, we know it's sad and a little bewildering... we know you are not the sort of person to find yourself in a place like this... we know you have been voting as a Democrat since 1964, or 1932... or last week, and this is just all so sudden... but enough already.

You are not a brave warrior, or a fearsome cat. Your party did not leave you. When some 90% of Democrats have decided they can vote for the Democratic nominee for President, you are the one with the problem. You have decided to vote Republican. That's fine. It's your vote, and it's your choice.

Just don't keep telling us how wonderfully sad and concerned you are. We appreciate your concerns, honest we do... but when you can say "I've thought it over and as a Democrat, I must vote for john McCain" you have kind of given away your credibility as an analyst of what ails the Democratic Party. Whatever it is that you've discovered... it usually goes with being a Republican. There's nothing wrong with that. Be it. Own it. For God's sake, commit to something. If you're sad about becoming a Republican... well, yes. It is kind of sad, isn't it? And need we underline it by saying that those who have chosen the other route - the Kathleen Parkers and Peggy Noonans, Chuck Hagels and Dick Lugars and Colin Powells - are not sad. They are angry with their party, and they are relieved to know that there's another choice.

Yes, we know: Sarah Palin has been mistreated, by Republicans and Democrats alike. She has not been taken seriously, and now that whole clothes flap just subjects her to sexism of the worst sort. Okay, well kind of... but kind of not, when one asks, mildly, if perhaps $150,000 is excessive, however well one might need to look. You are welcome to cast Palin as a feminist icon... but feminism isn't just being any woman who comes down the pike (where would you be, if McCain had picked Kay Bailey Hutchinson... and where were you when people were pointing out that Hutchinson, an eminently qualified woman, felt undersppreciated and disrespected at the selection of a younger, less qualified woman?). You may get to be "feminist" when you claim to be... but that still means that feminism stands for something, something beyond just being a woman in a prminent position.

And furthermore, you cannot just explain away major differences with one sentence dismissals. "I disagree with Sara Palin on social issues" suggests that you have arguments over who to invite to dinner; "I differ with her aniti-choice stance on a woman's right to consult with her doctor about having an abortion" is an altogether different, larger, and far more crucial issue. And, it seems to us, the kind of issue that would keep you from voting for the, um, anti-choice, Roe overturning, judge selecting pair in this process.

Look, when Zell Miller said his principles forced him to turn Republican, say terrible things about Max Cleland, and generally give away his credibility... that did not ennoble him. It has done nothing for Joe Lieberman to wander around, sonorously declaring that it pains him to be so at odds with his own party. There are two different political parties. There are actual political differences. You are not going to get to pretend that they do not exist. Nor, if you repeat foolish suggestions like "Obama will raise taxes on people like Joe the Plumber" do you get to claim some specuial insight into the political system the rest of us do not share. You are just repeating talking points. And, one might add, intentionally incorrect ones, at that.

No, it does not make one "racist" to vote for someone other than Barack Obama; but it does not make you maverick, or especially insightful to support John McCain, as a Democrat. Not at this late date. Not after the lackluster campaign, the poorly articulated positions... positions that, under any close examination tend to fall apart. The best case for John McCain is a negative, rejectionist, appeal against nearly every concept - from women's basic rights to fairness and economic justice to peaceful diplomatic engagement with others in the world - that Democrats support and believe in. There are alternatives to both candidates; you have not chosen them. There are ways to criticize that which Obama needs to do better without rejecting him outright; you have not made that choice. This is no longer about Hillary Clinton - Mrs. Clinton has, comfortably and enthusiastically, made the case for Barack Obama for months. Those of us who supported her then, and support Obama now, are not "drinking the KoolAid"... we are simply Democrats, and Barack Obama is our candidate, too.

But mostly, this is not about you. This is about all of us. Just as it always has been. And when you know that, feel free to come back. We'll still be here.

7 Things

Red tagged me (but didn't, as the rules state, let me know), and I don't have a lot else, so here goes:

Six random things (which I am making 7, in honor of Miley Cyrus):

1. I am really liking my life just now; I need some more time to write, but the writing I am doing makes me happy, my work is going well, and I am feeling in better health than I have in a long while. So what if I'm broke and the world is ending? :)
2. Nothing stays the same: I've been on an emotional rollercoaster as a few previously close friendships have changed or ended... yet, the changes feel organic, and so far, like the right moves in the right direction... at least for me.
3. I don't go to the movies like I used to. I find this puzzling. Especially because I still call myself a total movie lover.
4. On a related note, I feel as though I should have a personal assistant who takes the time to watch my DVDs, so I don't have to.
5. As Halloween approaches, I really wish I owned a nice, new pair of women's shoes. Just 'cause. Really high ones.
6. I'm thinking - but only just thinking - about taking up my plans to read really historic things that I glossed over in college, like The Federalist Papers and Emerson and Thoreau. It's that, or learn a foreign language, I think.
7. This is harder than I thought it would be; I feel like all the random stuff about me is stuff I already blog about.

Now for 8 places to live:

1. New York City. My home for 13 years, good and bad (and very bad, at that)... but always vibrant, always alive, always... at least interesting. But too expensive, and a little lonely.
2. Long Beach, California. LA within easy reach, but more laid back.
3. Frankfort, Kentucky. Red like Lousiville, and so did I... but the state capitol is even more beautiful, and not wholly disconnected from the rest of the world.
4. Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Me and J and a house by the sea. It's still in the plan.
5. Rockport, Massachusetts. The North Shore, in a cottage, the village market nearby. My dream of a writer's life.
6. Thomaston, Maine. Or, on Maine's coast. I'm not fussy. Not this way, anyway.
7. Greenwich, CT. A girl can dream. More realistically, probably someplace like Niantic.
8. Chester, Vermont. I think that's the place. In my totally alternative life, living in North Country, out in the woods, seeing the stars... I could do it. Seriously.

I can't really say "tag" to anyone... but I guess it would be The boy from Indy, J in Baltimore... and Tom Watson, if I had my pick.

Ox Ox, Notes on a Gossip Girl Episode Gone By

Ever since that Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode in which Margaret Colin was locked into psychological warfare with co-pyscologist husband, Brent Spinner - though it was daughter Camille, who eventually wielded the fatal battery acid - it's been hard to remember Colin as once-beloved interim Margo from As the World Turns.  And stealing Jenny Humphrey's designs isn't helping.

Meanwhile, during the first break, Maybe-she's-born-with-it Maybelline brilliantly markets it's XXL Mascara line by having some GG-like narrator whispering "XXL" in "XO XO" fashion.  Excellent echo.

* spoiler alert  *

But Chuck's "Don't tell me you brought me all the way to Brooklyn for this," wins in the end.

Ox, ox (and definitely not born with it),

 

jinb

Shame And Ridicule

... that was my answer to the question "What will become of George Bush and his former Presidency when he leaves office?" Anybdy else want to venture an opinion?

I'm Getting the Band Back Together!

Actually, I'm reviving The Redstar Perspective!  Please note the new URL.

- Redstar

You Cry And Moan And Say It Will All Work Out, But Honey Child, I've Got My Doubts

Sorry... didn't mean to take several days off... but life called and politics didn't.

In any case, I'd like to share a little of the offline reading I was doing: Alexander Cockburn on the left-wing case against Obama in The Nation. I think he nails some of the lingering doubts of principled lefties (even if I don't entirely agree):

Every politician, good or bad, is an ambitious opportunist. But beneath this topsoil, the ones who make a constructive dent on history have some bedrock of consistency, of fidelity to some central idea. In Obama's case, this "idea" is the ultimate distillation of identity politics: the idea of his blackness. Those who claim that if he were white he would be cantoring effortlessly into the White House do not understand that without his most salient physical characteristic Obama would be seen as a second-tier Senator with unimpressive credentils. As a ;olitical organizer of his own advancement, Obama is a wonder. But I have yet to identify a single uplifting intention to which he has remained constant if it has presented the slightest risk to his advancement. Summoning all the optimism at my disposal, I suppose we could say that he has not yet had occasion to offend two important constituencies and adjust his relatively decent stances on immigration and labor-law reform. Public funding of his campaign? A commitment made becomes a commitmene betrayed, just as on warrantless eavesdropping. His campaign treasury is now a vast hogswallow that, if it had been amassed by a Republican, would be the topic of thunderous liberal complaint.

In substantive terms, Obama's run has been the negation of almost every decent progressive principle, a negation achieved with scarcely a bleat of protest from the progressives seeking to hold him to account. The Michael Moores stay silent. Abroad, Obama stands for imperial renaissance. He has groveled before the Israel lobby and pandered to the sourest reflexes of the Cold War era. At home he has crooked theknee to bankers and Wall Street, to the oil companies, the coal companies, tne nuclear lobby, the big agricultural combines. He has been fearless in offending progressives, constant in appeasing the powerful.

I disagree with much of this, but Cockburn's criticisms at least connect with some problematic aspects of Obama's campaign (the money thing, as I mentioned , strikes me as concerning, too). But I think Cockburn's wrongest about the idea that identity politics, as a black man, is what's animating Obama. The animating idea, I suspect, is the Community Organizing principles he learned in school and applied in his initial work in Chicago: bring everyone to the table, hash out ideas, and find consensus. It is, really, the model of Clintonian moderation, which is why the "extremist" tags that conservatives keep trying to label him with don't stick. But yes, I think one has to accept, in a likely Obama presidency, that compromise will be the word of the day, to many people's chagrin (my chagrin, of course, will be on gay issues. yours may differ). I'd feel better of I felt Obama were more vical, and more committed to a particular point of view on issues of the day; but he's smart and he listens and he distills ideas well. And that Iultimately, is what makes me comfortable.