So helpful for today's gay teens to know that it definitely gets better.
If you're gay or lesbian or bi or trans, and you've ever read about a kid like Billy Lucas and thought, "Fuck, I wish I could've told him that it gets better," this is your chance. We can't help Billy, but there are lots of other Billys out there—other despairing LGBT kids who are being bullied and harassed, kids who don't think they have a future—and we can help them.
Shot with a hidden-cam, this inspirational video shows a member of the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir closing her Chase account and educating employees about the bank's funding of Mountaintop Removal.
April 22nd is Earth Day but Old Coot Jack English has high hopes his new holiday sweeps the nation in a flash flood of plastic bags and edible rocks. Break.com Clip of the Day. {via}Read more...
Onedreamrush, a series of 42 films by 42 directors lasting 42 seconds and inspired by dreams. Commissioned by vodka brand 42 Below, the program plays like an art house version of BMW Films with a list of participating directors that runs the gamut from avant-garde to art house to advertising.
(42 comes from the 42nd parallel where New Zealand is located. The spring water from the ground is said to be very pure and tasty and is used in the making of their vodka.)
Among them are Kenneth Anger, Jonas Mekas, David Lynch, Larry Clark, Harmony Korine, Lou Ye, Gaspar Noe, Asia Argento, Tadanobu Asano, James Franco, Leos Carax, Mike Figgis, Abel Ferrara, Cat Power, Ryan McGinley, Taika Watiti, Floria Sigismondi and Universal Everything's Matt Pyke.
Onedreamrush debuted in May at the Cannes Film Festival and in China at the National Film Museum in Beijing and is viewable online via the microsite 42x42.com.
Each director was given a budget of $10,000 to produce a film, the option to shoot in China through production partner the Beijing Film Studio and complete creative freedom to interpret the "how we dream" brief. Each director would also retain the rights to their film.
For his film Astarte, Michele Civetta cut together footage from the 1920s of a black magic mass with images of a modern ritualistic occult ceremony as "a traditional invocation of a goddess in terms of a magical dream."
For S/HE, Asia Argento created an abstract micro-documentary about a group of Brazilian transsexuals that hang out at the grocery store down the street from her house in suburban Rome.
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A little odd to see Bobby in long straight hair singing about Santa but with this bordello-type spin on it, it's not bad. It's from his first ever Christmas album, Christmas In The Heart.
All of the artist's U.S. royalities from sales of these recordings will be donated to Feeding America, guaranteeing that more than four million meals will be provided to more than 1.4 million people in need this year's holiday season.
Like a crazed mix of Krishnas, von Trapps and musical merry pranksters Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes are blazing a path through the music world.
They got so much buzz midyear that I became leery of them so I avoided them. That buzz usually translates to a softer rock like the band Phoenix, The Decemberists or the Shins. All devoid of innovation and soul.
Their first album came out in July 2009 and is fun and exhilarating. It's full of rich melodies and upbeat lyrics. I'm excited about them the way I got excited about Arcade Fire and Fever Ray. (They didn't quite propel me to *Yeasayer-excited, but hardly anyone else can do that.)
Lead singer Alex Ebert was flat-out born to be a front man. Tall, dark, and lanky, his expressive eyes smile while he holds court for an appreciative audience with ants in their pants -- my, oh my. Alex and muse Jade Castrinos sing to each other as she joyfully shares the spotlight beside him, holding her own as she warmly blends the vocals.
"...and on the other side you have stupid people, crazy people, dangerous people, stupid dangerous crazy people, people who think you're Hitler, and the Senate Finance Committee. I know that's a tough choice."
If you can't watch the video for whatever reason, go to the link below and read the song lyrics. So whaddayathink? Are we better off NOT getting vaccinations? All signs point to "Yes".
**EDITED TO CHANGED** This is actually quoted by her bassist, Tony Shanahan. Sorry for the wrong attribution. Thank you.
From Patti on Michael's passing:
"I loved him, and truly was a fan. I bought all the records and danced in my room to them. We we're the same age so I felt like we were growing up together.
When the fame came.... I was proud of him. He broke barriers and changed the music world.
When it was announced early this year that he was going to perform again and do 50 shows I was excited and rooted for him. I wanted to see him back on top doing what he did best.
Michael Pollan is one of the nations leading writers and thinkers in this country on the issue of food. He is author of several books about food, including The Botany of Desire, The Omnivores Dilemma and his latest, In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto. In light of what he calls the processed food industry co-option of sustainability and its vast spending on marketing, Pollan advises to be wary of any food that's advertised. 94% of it is spent advertising processed foods.
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Supporters of the work of Timothy Leary attended a reception February 8, 2009, in San Francisco. The goal was (and still is as far as I know) to find patrons and a place to build a Timothy Leary museum to house about 400 boxes of archives and to digitize the material. John Perry Barlow, Joi Ito, and others attended.
I've never seen anything like this done on television before. I was watching David Letterman last night and saw that Mary Hicks was going to be on the show and Dave explained that she was comedian Bill Hicks' mother and then went on to explain about Bill Hicks' last appearance on the Late Show in 1993.
For whatever reason, Dave thought Bill Hicks' routine was a little too rare to air so he censored his act, in fact, stopping it from appearing on the show that night. (They tape several hours earlier in the evening.) Bill Hicks' passed away less than a year later of pancreatic cancer.
Fast forward 15 years or so with Letterman feeling he had done Bill Hicks a huge disservice, invited Bill's mother to come on the show and he finally air that comedy bit of Bill's last night.
The way it stands, I've got to admire that David Letterman publicly admitted his wrong move and tried to smooth it over as best he could. Lettermen sure was one arrogant s.o.b. back then. I don't think there's anything nefarious about his gesture and maybe more people can appreciate Bill Hicks' talent.
House-ridden Shilo often sneaks down to her mother's mausoleum to gripe and sing about her angsty misfortune, while Giles secretly guts people in his free time. But when Shilo wanders out into the city she gets entangled with the likes of GeneCo's president Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), who had more than a passing interest in her long-dead mother. His three power-hungry kids (Paris Hilton, Skinny Puppy's Ogre, and Bill Moseley) bicker over who will inherit GeneCo and all the while the city looks forward to the corporation's upcoming opera.
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America. I confess that I cried most of the way through Barack Obama's presidential acceptance speech tonight. They will speak about this powerful, passionate speech for some time to come and the US will once again be proud of it's President.
* Easy Bake Coven, my previous website, ran from 2002 - 2009. It was time for a change so it will now be a mostly music-related website. All of our old EBC posts are stored there and here as well.
