Friday Night Flims

Hiroshima, Mon Amour concerns the experiences of a French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) who performs the role of a nurse in a film being shot in post-war Hiroshima. There she meets a Japanese man (Eiji Okada) and they become lovers. Using flashbacks intercut into the present day love story - the couple's meetings in hotel rooms, restaurants, etc. - the woman tells of her experiences during the Second World War in France, where she was involved with a young German soldier during the German occupation, and the consequences when the war came to an end. -Wikipedia

Directed by Alain Resnais



Bryan Ferry- Hiroshima [mp3]

Sphere: Related Content

True Love Lives

awwww and I'd bet it lives on lollipops and crisps, too.


(the two loves are centered and on the right; the little sister was to be a witness)

It's a short but undeniably sweet story so I'll just yoink a lot of it (from The Daily Mail)

Police in Hanover, northern Germany, identified the pair only as Mika and Anna-Lena, who have different parents but now share a home in the city's suburbs after his father and her mother moved in together.

The story began on New Year's Eve when the family were watching a documentary about Africa and its wildlife.

'From this, the children began to make plans for the future,' said police spokesman Holger Jureczko.

The two youngsters were 'very much in love and decided to get married in Africa where it is warm, taking with them as a witness Anna-Lena's little sister Anna-Bell'.

As the first dawn of 2009 broke, the trio packed three suitcases with all the essentials for the journey, including sunglasses, swimming trunks, a lilo [air mattress], summer clothes and sandwiches made from chicken paste and processed cheese.

While their parents slept, they crept out of the house wrapped up against the freezing weather and walked two-thirds of a mile up the road to a tram stop from where they caught the service to the central station.

Waiting for a train to the airport 30 miles away, they attracted the attention of the guard, who contacted police.

Two officers managed to convince the young lovers that they would struggle to get to Africa without money or a plane ticket. 'They were very put out that they couldn't carry on their journey,' added Mr Jureczko.

'But they calmed down when they were promised a hot drink and some breakfast.'

As a further consolation, the children were given a tour of police headquarters where they were 'especially taken with the detention cells'.

Their relieved parents picked them up from the station, said Mr Jureczko, adding: 'They can still put their plan into action at a later date.'

awwww...my ovaries are aching

Sphere: Related Content

The Heterosexual Agenda

I'm sure this Loudon parent is an absolute gem

A children's book about two male penguins that hatch and parent a chick was pulled from library shelves in Loudoun County elementary schools this month after a parent complained that it promoted a gay agenda.

The book is based "on a true story . . . of what happens in the animal kingdom," said David Weintraub, director of Equality Loudoun, a gay rights organization. "It's about the joy of being part of a family. These penguins love each other. They take care of each other."

The book, "And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, draws on the real-life story of Roy and Silo, two chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York. It also appears to make a point about tolerance of alternative families.

The publisher, Simon & Schuster, offers discussion questions about the book on a Web site. One says: "Tango has two fathers instead of the traditional mother and father. Do you have a nontraditional family, or do you know someone who does?"

As the book says, Roy and Silo were "a little bit different" than the boy and girl penguins who noticed each other and became couples. "Wherever Roy went, Silo went too." After they tried to hatch an egg-shaped rock together, a zookeeper gave them a fertilized egg to nurture. Experts say male chinstraps typically share incubation duties with females.

The 2005 book, written with simple words and colorful pictures and dedicated "to penguin lovers everywhere," topped the American Library Association's list of banned or challenged books in 2006. Parents challenged the book in Shiloh, Ill., and Charlotte. Administrators in Charlotte initially yanked the book but later restored it, according to news reports.

In Loudoun, the book was challenged at Sugarland Elementary School several months ago, officials said, by a parent they declined to name.

Following school system policy, the principal convened an advisory committee of principals, librarians, teachers and parents to review the book. The group deemed it acceptable, and the principal concurred. The parent appealed. Another committee of administrators, librarians and parents reviewed the book. That committee, too, recommended that it remain in the collection.

Hatrick made the final call. Wayde B. Byard, a schools spokesman, said Friday that Hatrick made a "split decision." Although "Tango" was pulled from the shelves, it will remain in the librarian's collection. At 16 elementary schools, the book is now part of the professional collection, where it is stored with instructional texts and can be checked out only by parents or teachers.

"If you are putting something behind a desk, you are saying something is wrong with it," said Judith Krug, director of the office for intellectual freedom at the American Library Association. "It's a degree of censorship, because they are making access to information extremely difficult."

George said that the book helps teach a lesson that she wants her children to know: There are all types of families.

"We happen to be a mom and dad and a boy and a girl," she said. "But sometimes you have a grandmother and a mother, sometimes you have just a dad, sometimes you have two moms or two dads. The important thing is that it's a family of love."

Some parents and activists want to challenge Hatrick's decision and put the book back on shelves, but school system officials say there is no process to do that.

John Stevens, a school board member from Potomac, criticized those policies.

Stevens wrote that parents should determine what is appropriate for their children. "The school should not be an instrument of censorship for parents who want veto power over the judgment of other parents," he wrote.

What’s so bad about peace love and understanding? I'm sure Roy and Silo are better parents than whoever gets this worked up about penguins. And really don’t these kinds of hyper nutty parents realize their pushing a heteronormative agenda? Of course they don’t- every book should be about two parent families, one husband and one wife and for all of us who don’t think that’s ideal or who weren’t raised that way, we’ll our opinions can always be vetoed.

Plus it’s not like “And Tango Makes Three” was like any of these other books not likely to be in your local school library




and my absolute favorite


In real life Roy and Silo are now broken up...another tragic broken home

Sphere: Related Content

Eww, A-Rod!

Alex Rodriguez just always seems so awkward and here he goes again pimping out his daughters
In an ESPN article dismissing steroid claims A-Rod let slip

"Andy [Petitte] is one of the greatest human beings I've ever met," Rodriguez said. "I have two daughters -- well, I have one and one on the way. If I had a daughter, I would want 'em to marry Andy Pettitte. The age difference might be a little awkward, but in today's day and age anything is possible."

For the record Andy Petitte is 35
Alex Rodriguez's daughter (because no "if" he has one) Natasha Alexander is just over 3.
Ew.
Ew.
Ew.

Alex- no more talking for you

Sphere: Related Content

evoL in a Backward World

This film tells the story of a couple who spot each other across a crowded street and fall in love. Although everyone else in the world around them moves backwards, the couple moves forward as they find each other.

Directed by Chris Vincze. Starring: Rick Warden & Lucy Barker
Platinum Remi Award winnder, WorldFest film festival, Texas
First Place Winner, StudentFilmmakers Summer Shorts 2006
Shortlisted: Kodak Short Film Showcase 2006

And it gets my award for being totally adorable



love, love, love…

Sphere: Related Content

A True Love

This is such a lovely and "awww" story for any day really but especially on this Holiday to Love. I've italicized things i loved
from the BBC

Couple counts 80 Valentine's days
Britain's longest living married couple, celebrating their 80th Valentine's Day, say a kiss every night is the secret of keeping love alive.

Frank and Anita Milford met in 1926 and married two years later. They live together in a care home in Plymouth.

Frank, who was 100 at the end of January, said: "We don't go in for big Valentine's Day gestures, being in love is something you do every day.

"At our age that's all you need, just us together, no big fuss," he said.

Anita, who is 98, says they still have little disagreements on a daily basis.

She said: "Not big rows, just the odd cross word. As far as I'm concerned, it's healthy."

The couple have two children, Marie and Frank, who are now in their 70s, and are grandparents and great grandparents several times over.
Married at Torpoint in Cornwall, they lived in a three-bedroomed bungalow in Plymouth for over 70 years before they decided to move into their care home in 2005.

One of their secrets for a long and happy marriage is to "share a little kiss" every night before bed.

Anita said: "It's our golden rule."

Frank said: "To win over your sweetheart you need a dose of old-fashioned chivalry and don't let your standards slip.

"We do everything together even after nearly 80 years."

Anita added: "Couples these days don't last long because they often don't take enough time for each other.

"There just isn't enough respect, love is about give and take.

"Our advice to young couples would be to make time for a little romance every day."

On 26 May, the couple will have equalled the record for the longest British marriage, held by Percy and Florence Arrowsmith, from Hereford, who were married for 80 years.

Stories like that really are so beautiful and give me hope that perhaps there is someone out there for each of us. It's a wonderful thought...a love like that...
Btw those pictures are Anita and Frank then and now

Sphere: Related Content

ABC's of Love

A Valentines Day love song.

(Via Best Week Ever )
(from the New York Times)

Sphere: Related Content

Eros and Psyche

EROS--the Greek god of love; son of Aphrodite. His Roman cognate is CUPID.
APHRODITE--the Greek goddess of love. Her Roman cognate is VENUS.
PSYCHE--a mortal princess whose beauty aroused the jealous wrath of Aphrodite, but who was chosen by Eros to be his bride.
Despite evident differences in the two stories, the popular fairytale "Beauty and the Beast" is actually a late folk version of a Greek myth, the story of Eros and Psyche.

Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was jealous and angry because a mortal princess named Psyche had become so famous for her beauty that mere mortals were beginning to say that she was even more lovely than Aphrodite herself.

Aphrodite sent her son Eros, the god of love, to shoot Psyche with one of his arrows, to make her fall in love with the most hideous monster he could find. But the girl's exquisite beauty so enchanted him that he could not bring himself to carry out his mother's command.

Meanwhile, the oracle of Apollo at Delphi had warned Psyche's father that she would never be the bride of an ordinary man, but rather would marry a being who flies through the night like a winged serpent, one whose power was so great that even Zeus, the king of the gods, could not withstand it. The king was told to take his daughter to the mountaintop and leave her there, and the wind would transport her to the abode of her husband.

The next morning, Psyche, her father and mother, and her two sisters made their way sadly to the top of the mountain. Tearfully they bade each other farewell, and then her family returned to the palace, leaving the frightened girl alone on the mountaintop.

As soon as she was quite alone, Psyche felt herself lifted by a gentle breeze, which carried her far away to a beautiful palace built of marble and richly decorated with gold, silver, and precious gems. When she went inside, she found that an elaborate wedding feast had been prepared, but she saw no guests. Invisible servants began to wait on her, and in soft voices they assured her that she was mistress of the palace, and that everything in it was hers.

That night her new husband came to her, but the palace was so completely dark that she could not see him. Still, he was kind and gentle, and his words were loving and sweet. She soon fell in love with him. He promised that he would give her anything she wanted, but warned her that she must never try to see his face. If ever she should look upon his face, they would have to part, and she would then live in loneliness and misery.

For many months Psyche was content to live with the husband she had come to love so dearly, but she never stopped missing her sisters. She began to plead with him to bring them to visit her. He warned her that

they would cause trouble, but in the end he could not refuse his bride's request.

The next day, when Psyche's sisters went to the mountaintop, as they did every day, to weep over their lost sister, the wind lifted them and carried them to Psyche's new home. When they were set down before the gorgeous palace, the sisters felt amazed at such wealth. They were even more astonished when their lost sister ran out of the palace to greet them. She explained that the palace belonged to her new husband--and now, of course, to her as well.

Psyche's sisters could not help feeling jealous of Psyche's good fortune. They began to pry and probe, and to ask questions about her husband. Although she did not want to admit that she had never seen her husband's face, Psyche became confused and flustered under their relentless interrogation. In response to one question, she described him as having golden hair, as bright as the sun, but an hour later, she mentioned that his hair was as dark as night. These and other contradictory answers aroused her sisters' suspicion. They pounced on her errors, crying out, "Why, you have never even seen him, have you?"

When she finally admitted the truth, her sisters reminded her of Apollo's prophecy. It didn't take long for them to persuade the confused girl that her husband must be a terrible monster who would kill her as soon as he tired of her. They concocted a plan. Handing her an oil lamp and a dagger, they told her to wait until he was asleep, and then to light the lamp and steal a look at him. If he was, as they assumed, a terrible monster, then she would have to take the dagger and kill him.

That night, Psyche took the dagger from beneath her pillow and approached her sleeping husband. She lit the lamp and gazed for the first time on her husband's face, the face of the god of love! Instead of obeying his mother's command and making Psyche fall in love with a hideous monster, Eros had secretly taken her for his own bride. When she beheld the glory of Eros, Psyche was so startled that she allowed a drop of hot oil to land on his shoulder.

Awakened by the drop of oil on his shoulder, the god said sadly, "Where there is no trust there can be no love." Then he arose and left the palace.

Aphrodite soon learned that Eros had disobeyed her. She sought out his abandoned bride, determined to make her suffer. As soon as she found her, Aphrodite dumped a great pile of tiny seeds on the ground in front of the unhappy girl and ordered her to separate them--and to finish the job by sundown!

Looking at the enormous pile of seeds, Psyche knew that the task was impossible. It would take a hundred years to sort and separate so many seeds. But a large colony of ants, beguiled by the girl's beauty, decided to help her. Scurrying back and forth, they soon had the seeds sorted into separate piles. When Aphrodite returned and saw that the task had been completed, she became enraged and promised Psyche that her next task would be even harder.

She commanded Psyche to collect some wool from a herd of fierce man-eating sheep who lived in a thicket of thornbushes near the river. Psyche knew it was certain death to approach the sheep, but as she drew near to the bushes where they lived, a voice told her to wait until evening, when the sheep would leave the thicket. Then she could collect the wool that had stuck to the thorns. Psyche did this, and once again Aphrodite was angry that Psyche had successfully completed a task that was meant to be impossible.

Aphrodite continued to set impossible tasks for Psyche, but somehow the girl kept managing to complete them. What neither Psyche nor Aphrodite realized was that Eros was still watching over Psyche, sending her help when she needed it.

Zeus was well aware of these events. Finally he decided that enough was enough. He decreed that Eros had proved his love for Psyche, and Psyche had proved her devotion, patience, and obedience. He said that since Eros had chosen as his bride a mortal, who could not reside with him on Mt. Olympus, there was only one course of action. Zeus would have to grant her immortality. Once Psyche had drunk the ambrosial nectar of the gods from the cup of immortality she ceased to be mortal. Aphrodite no longer felt jealous of her, for she had only resented the girl because she felt that mortals had no right to rival the gods. At last she bestowed her blessing on the union between her son and the beautiful princess who had become one of the immortals.

Ode To Psyche by John Keats.

O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
Even into thine own soft-conched ear:
Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see
The winged Psyche with awaken'd eyes?
I wander'd in a forest thoughtlessly,
And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,
Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side
In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof
Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
A brooklet, scarce espied:

Mid hush'd, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,
Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian,
They lay calm-breathing, on the bedded grass;
Their arms embraced, and their pinions too;
Their lips touch'd not, but had not bade adieu,
As if disjoined by soft-handed slumber,
And ready still past kisses to outnumber
At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love:
The winged boy I knew;
But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove?
His Psyche true!

O latest born and loveliest vision far
Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!
Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-region'd star,
Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
Nor altar heap'd with flowers;
Nor virgin-choir to make delicious moan
Upon the midnight hours;
No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
From chain-swung censer teeming;
No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.

O brightest! though too late for antique vows,
Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,
When holy were the haunted forest boughs,
Holy the air, the water, and the fire;
Yet even in these days so far retir'd
From happy pieties, thy lucent fans,
Fluttering among the faint Olympians,
I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspir'd.
So let me be thy choir, and make a moan
Upon the midnight hours;
Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet
From swinged censer teeming;
Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.

Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane
In some untrodden region of my mind,
Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain,
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:
Far, far around shall those dark-cluster'd trees
Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep;
And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees,
The moss-lain Dryads shall be lull'd to sleep;
And in the midst of this wide quietness
A rosy sanctuary will I dress
With the wreath'd trellis of a working brain,
With buds, and bells, and stars without a name,
With all the gardener Fancy e'er could feign,
Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same:
And there shall be for thee all soft delight
That shadowy thought can win,
A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,
To let the warm Love in!

Sphere: Related Content

My One and Only (Political) Love

Because true love never dies or says goodbye

John Edwards' bold ideas have shaped the debate in this election. Whether it’s creating universal health care or halting global warming, ending poverty or ending the war in Iraq and restoring America’s moral leadership around the world, John has led with the boldest and most comprehensive plans for overcoming the challenges we face today.

John is the one candidate willing to speak the truth about what’s going on in Washington: big corporations and special interests have taken over our government and taken the power away from the American people. And he knows there’s only one way to get it back: to stand up, take them on, and beat them.

John is ready for this fight – because fighting special interests on behalf of regular, hard-working Americans is what he’s been doing his entire life.

John is a self-made man who was born in Seneca, South Carolina and raised in Robbins, North Carolina, a small town in the Piedmont. Growing up, John learned the values of hard work and perseverance from his father, Wallace, who worked in the textile mills for 36 years, and from his mother, Bobbie, who ran a shop and worked at the post office. Working alongside his father at the mill, John developed his strong belief that all Americans deserve an equal opportunity to succeed and be heard.

A proud product of public schools, John was the first person in his family to attend college. He worked his way through North Carolina State University where he graduated with high honors in 1974, and then earned a law degree with honors in 1977 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

For the next 20 years, John dedicated his life to representing families and children just like the families he grew up with in Robbins, who were being victimized by powerful interests.

Throughout his career, John found himself on one side of the courtroom with an army of corporate lawyers on the other. Every time, they thought they could win. But they were wrong. Because John beat them, again and again, on behalf of hard-working families facing the darkest moments of their lives. Through his career, he helped families overcome tremendous challenges, and earned a national reputation as a forceful and tireless champion for regular, hard-working people.

In 1998, John took that commitment into politics, to give a voice to the kind of people he represented throughout his career. Without taking a dime from lobbyists or political actions committees (he never has), John ran for the Senate and won an upset victory, unseating an incumbent Republican who was a part of the corrupt Jesse Helms political machine.

In the Senate, Senator Edwards continued to be a champion for regular, hard-working families, taking on critical issues like quality health care, better schools, protecting civil liberties, preserving the environment, saving Social Security and Medicare, and getting big money out of politics.

As a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Edwards worked tirelessly for a strong national defense and to strengthen the security of our homeland. He authored key pieces of legislation on cyber, bio, and port security.

Senator Edwards brought his positive message of change and fighting for regular families to the 2004 presidential primaries. During the primary season he spoke about the Two Americas that exist in our country today: one for people at the top who have everything they need and one for everybody else who struggle to get by. This powerful message resonated with voters all across America.

After the Democratic primaries, Senator John Kerry picked Senator Edwards to serve as his running mate in the 2004 general election, and Senator Edwards crisscrossed the country and campaigned tirelessly on Senator Kerry's behalf.

Today, he is running for president on behalf of the people he grew up with: good, hard-working Americans who want nothing more than to leave a better life for their children – just like their parents did for them.

He is the former Director of the Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Senator Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, whom he met when both were law students at Chapel Hill, were married in 1977. They have had four children, including: their eldest daughter, Catharine, who is attending law school; nine-year-old Emma Claire; and a seven-year-old son, Jack. Their first child, Wade, died in 1996.

sigh. Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are `It might have been.'

Sphere: Related Content

Love Really Is Strange

Atom Films has a collection of short films that they categorized as “Twisted Love Stories”
Their description is unique and sums up what this is all about quite well so there will be no attempt to improve on it, plus copy/paste is a lot easier than creativity

I may not know what love is, but I'm pretty sure you don't express it by giving someone a teddy bear. When a guy gives his girlfriend a teddy bear for Valentine's Day, that's a warning sign on par with finding frozen body parts in his fridge, or a Jack Johnson mix on his iPod.

Romantic partners prone to cutesy gifts are masking a deep hurt -- a pain so dark and insidious that it's only a matter of time before it drags you down with it. So get out while you can! And may God help you if you're ever given a stuffed animal wearing sunglasses.

While we're on the topic of twisted love, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite twisted love stories here on AtomFilms. Enjoy...

Little Farm directed by Calvin Reeder

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

Measuring Up directed by Jesse Scaturo
It's perfectly natural to be curious about how you measure up against every man your wife has ever been with, right?

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

Our Very First Sex Tape directed by Amy Talkington
Intent on spicing up their relationship, a couple decides to film their very own sex tape in a seedy hotel. As the camera rolls, the erotic sparks flame a seemingly vicious battle between the two lovers. Of course, like any battle, it ain't over until it's over. Catch Alex Michel, the original star of ABC's hit reality series, The Bachelor, in his film debut

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

I Heart Billy directed by Michael Mohan
A teenage girl confesses on-camera about her true love, Billy. Her relationship isn't quite like the other kids' in school, to put it mildly. You'll almost believe their love is pure...

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

Scrapple directed by Jay & Mark Duplass
How many points is the word f-i-g-h-t? If you love someone — we mean really love someone — do not play word games with them. It'll just turn into a big (and mean) mind game. And then you'll fight. At least, that's what happens with this couple

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

The One O’Clock directed by Kelsey Kleiman
Bob and Susan have marital problems. He's an unemployed loser; and she, well… she desperately needs some bedroom lovin'. Will their one o'clock therapy session be the cure for what ails them?

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

(a personal note- teddy bears if given with care and creativity are always a great gift)

Sphere: Related Content

What is Love? A MixTape Answer

In case you didn’t realize it there are a mountain range worth of songs that mention love so I’ve rethought my valentine’s day playlist plan.

So here’s Part 1 which answers the immortal question What is Love?

• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- Is This Love?[download]
• Cake –Is This Love? (live) [download]
• PJ Harvey- This Is Love [download]
• Jill Scott- It’s Love [download]
• Pat Benatar- Love is a Battlefield [download]
• Amy Winehouse- Love is a Losing Game [download]
• Cast of Grease- Love Is A Many Splendored Thing [download]
• The Rapture-Love Is All [download]
• U2- Love Is Blindness [download]
• Brett Anderson- Love Is Dead [download]
• Starsailor- Love Is Here [download]
• The Magnetic Fields- Love Is Like A Bottle of Gin [download]
• Martha Reeves- Love is Like A Heatwave [download]
• The Magnetic Fields- Love is Like Jazz [download]
• Liz Phair- Love Is Nothing [download]
• The Distillers- Love is Paranoid [download]
• The Allman Brothers Band- Revival (Love Is Everything)[download]
• Kaiser Chiefs- Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning) [download]
  
• Rilo Kiley - You Are What You Love (live) [download]
  

It's a sleight of hand, a white soul band
The heart attacks I'm convinced I have
Every morning upon waking.
To you I'm a symbol or a monument
Your rite of passage to fulfillment
But I'm not yours for the taking

But you are what you love
And not what loves you back
So I guess that's why you keep calling me back

I'm fraudulent, a thief at best
A coward who paints a bullshit canvas
Things that will never happen to me
But at arms length, it's Tim who said
I'm good at it, I've mastered it
Avoiding, avoiding everything

But you are what you love, Tim
And not what loves you back
And I'm in love with illusions
So saw me in half
I'm in love with tricks
So pull another
rabbit out your hat

Sphere: Related Content

This Price Was Right

Gary Coleman of strange money lending commercials,eternal d-list fame and I’m sure something before that got married to Shannon Price, a woman who is described as “twice his height and half his age”


Yes it is true.
They were married in August in Nevada but they’ve kept it under wraps

"Nobody was around but the minister, preacher, the videographers, the photographer, the helicopter pilot and us," Coleman, 40, said on Tuesday's broadcast of the program.

Coleman met Price on the set of the 2006 comedy "Church Ball." Price said it was she who proposed to Coleman, but that he surprised her on her birthday by whisking her to a mountaintop in the Valley of Fire State Park to exchange vows.

She said they kept their wedding secret because she wanted to keep being seen as her own person.

"I just want my own identity as well because I don't want to be known as Gary Coleman's wife," she said.

Coleman played down their age differences, saying "I don't have issues with age, I have issues with intelligence ... She's more intelligent than I am and that's what matters to me."

Price, who is 5-foot-7, and Coleman, who is 4-foot-8, also played down their height gap.

"That doesn't really matter to me," she said. "He was 10 feet tall to me because he was sweet and I really liked his personality."

Awww
But apparently everything is not perfect in elf and munchkin land
From Gawker

She makes her money selling things on eBay, including Coleman memorabilia. They got married after a helicopter ride through the Grand Canyon and "Inside Edition" did a whole big story. Sweet, right? Except they don't talk for days at a time, probably because Coleman is throwing things and his wife is having to call the police

Price and Coleman tell INSIDE EDITION the honeymoon stage of their marriage has waned with Price describing the relationship as “off and on.” “We may go a week and not speak to each other, but that’s because you’re thinking and mulling things over,” says Coleman.

Price explains, saying, “Yeah, I’ve locked myself in a room and stayed there because I’m like, ‘You know what? I don’t even want to fight over this, its ridiculous.” Price admits on several occasions the fights have gone beyond yelling. “He lets his anger conquer him sometimes, I don’t like the violence, I really don’t…He throws things around, and sometimes he throws it in my direction…He’s got to damage something before his anger stops.”

Coleman explains to INSIDE EDITION why he threw a printer on the morning of his interview with the television show. “I threw the printer because my agent wanted to send me a fax, and it wouldn’t fax, and she (Price) was upset at me over something that I had done. And I just took that printer and said, ‘You know what, you just need to die.’”

According to Price, she has had to call the police on several occasions. “He actually got a disorderly conduct ticket one time because we had gotten into an argument, just a minor argument in Provo. The guy gave him a ticket and he freaked out and he was on six months probation…He had to go take an anger-management class

I’m confused though- when he said saving himself did he mean he was waiting for the right person to get married to or was Gary actually a 40 year old virgin? Because that would be the worst of indignity for a former child star

Oh Gary. Don’t blow this she seems to actually love you and if it really took you this long to find someone love the one you’re with and try yoga because..love is patient love is kind and you're not that much of a prize. And this is just a fantasy

Plus having someone to come home to has to be better than doing this

There’ve been stranger couples…probably. Just goes to show that there’s someone for everyone and true love is blind…and perhaps [understanding of your] standing on a few phonebooks

Sphere: Related Content

More Exciting Than My Valentine's Day Plans

Good luck, honey!
26 Year old girl wants to date 300 guys (in one day- it's okay she's not a slut, she's trying to set records)

Talk about making the most of your Valentine's Day. Francesca Salcido, a 26-year-old student at San Jose State, plans to do a 24-hour dating marathon on SpeedDate.com. The online video dating service sets users up on as many three-minute first dates as they can stomach, slamming another nail in the coffin of the good old-fashioned in-person blind date. But, like, is anyone going to miss it?

“I love Valentine’s Day and what better way to celebrate than to be dating all day,” Salcido said in a news release. “And who knows? Maybe I’ll find that special someone so next year I can celebrate in a more traditional way.”

The site's co-founder thinks Salcido can rack up as many as 300 dates in one 24-hour period (her current record is 100). But hold on, 300 dates x three minutes is only 15 hours -- what's she going to be doing for the other nine hours? Eating? Sleeping? Please, what kind of record attempt is this? According to Guinness online, there is not yet a world record for number of dates in a one-day period. So someone's definitely going to break it with all that extra time....

One the other hand, maybe she's budgeting some rest time in there to make sure her 300 dates are actually quality dates. Which is probably smart.

Could you imagine if, out of that 300 she actually found "her one"? That really would be one great story- though if he was like guy 183 and she felt that instantenous spark would she still go on to reach her goal or actually try to get to know him. Love or glory? Such a decision...
and I seriously doubt that falls into this category but this attempt and the efficency of "dating" 300 guys in one day remined me of the most recent ONN news broadcast

Online Dating Helping Pathetic Women Get Their Hopes Crushed More Efficiently
(and it also reminded me of my favorite reality gay couple Rob & Big and their quest to set, I think it was a total of 23 world records in one day and how, not easy but strange and specific and obscure some of these records can be)

Sphere: Related Content

LGBT Primetime Milestone Moments

I must admit I’m later than…something really late, but I’ve just gotten into friends. And by getting into I mean if it’s on I won’t immediately turn it off. I used to think it was so shallow and dumb and white but now I don’t care as much. With that background established and after seeing a few episodes with Ross’ ex I’ve just started to wonder if Friends was like the same show to regularly feature a same sex couple, and not only that but same sex parents? Especially in such a huge show. Which was so so popular with people of my generation, that would be such an influential step and something that I should laud Friends for and maybe give the show more respect than I did.
I’m not old enough, or bored enough to care about like the “thirtysomething” shows from the eighties so I legitimately don’t know but watching it maybe last night made me actually wonder
[According to AfterEllen.com the episode “The One With the Lesbian Wedding” in 1996 was a milestone episode so I’m guessing the whole same sex parenting thing must have been really radical.]

But that got me thinking, kind of, about other queer milestones in prime time and I found this article from CampKC to be invaluable (to the fleshing out of this post.) I tried to find relevant clips to jazz things up

In 1981, ABC’s popular Dynasty introduced Steven Carrington, the first openly bisexual regular character in a dramatic series. The network’s daytime soap opera All My Children featured its first gay storyline in 1983, when erstwhile heterosexual Devon McFadden declared her love for her lesbian psychiatrist. Five years later, ABC presented the first recurring out lesbian character in prime time (?) nurse Marilyn McGrath on the short-lived medical drama Heartbeat.

During these decades, television increasingly addressed issues of concern to the LGBT community. The 1985 made-for-TV movie An Early Frost offered one of the first portrayals of people with AIDS. MTV’s The Real World also dealt with AIDS, featuring HIV-positive Pedro Zamora during its 1994 season.
That same year saw the first televised gay male wedding, on the CBS series Northern Exposure, set in a small Alaska town founded by a lesbian couple. The first same-sex wedding between two women - with activist Candace Gingrich serving as the minister - came on Friends in 1996. NBC’s TV movie Serving in Silence (1995) related the story of Lt. Margarethe Cammermeyer, who was ousted from the military after acknowledging that she was a lesbian. But not until 2006 did The L Word introduce Moira/Max, the first female-to-male character to transition on the small screen,followed later that year by Zarf/Zoe’s male-to-female transition on All My Children.


Over the years, expressions of same-sex affection between women were more accepted than those between men. In November 1989, the sitcom thirtysomething lost more than $1 million in ad revenue when it showed two men in bed together, even though a preceding kiss was axed. In February 1991, C.J. Lamb and Abby Perkins, two attorneys on NBC’s L.A. Law, shared the first lesbian kiss on network TV. In 1994, over the objections of network executives, Roseanne kissed a lesbian character played by Mariel Hemingway, and the following year on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the character Jadzia Dax kissed a woman who was the re-embodiment of her dead husband. A January 1997 episode of Relativity showed a passionate, close-up lesbian lip-lock (featuring Lisa Edelstein-Cutty from House), and two years later, TV lawyer Ally McBeal shared a prolonged smooch with a female office rival. Fox’s Melrose Place deleted a planned prime-time gay male kiss due to boycott threats in 1994, leaving Jack and Ethan on WB Network’s Dawson’s Creek to break that barrier in 2000 (in Spanish)
.

The late 1990s saw the first shows with prominent LGBT lead characters. On April 30, 1997 - after months of innuendo - Ellen DeGeneres had the most famous small-screen coming-out, in a star-studded episode of her ABC sitcom Ellen that attracted some 35 million viewers. But not long thereafter, her same-sex kiss on the show prompted a parental advisory warning, and the program’s ratings dropped as it began to focus more on gay issues. NBC’s Will and Grace also broke new ground, though some viewers were disappointed that the gay male lead never had an ongoing romantic relationship.

Cable television offered the most daring series featuring primarily queer casts, beginning with Showtime’s Queer as Folk in 2000 and The L Word in 2004. In a reflection of growing LGBT economic clout, Canada’s PrideVision (later renamed OutTV) became the world’s first channel offering full-time programming for a queer audience in 1991. The U.S. cable channels Here! TV, Q Television Network, and MTV/Viacom’s Logo followed suit, producing original programs such as Noah’s Arc - described by The Economist as a takeoff on Sex and the City from an African-American gay male perspective - and the supernatural gay drama Dante’s Cove.

and in an awkward segue to something else that is kind of related I guess, but you know how when on Law and Order Serena asked if she was being fired because she was a lesbian and it was like the first mention of it and seemed to come out of nowhere? (if you don't watch it here- it is like one of my fave moments

I remember thinking at the time that that was just so bizarre, and even Kathy Griffin in like her stand up mentioned how she was going through old tapes looking for clues, well a few days ago on TNT they showed the L&O episode "Gov Love" which is based on the Jim McGreevy thing where in order for Jack to get the murderer he attempts to invalidate gay marriages in the state. Watching that episode now Serena is really just pissed the whole time and offended and refuses to help Jack go along with branding people second class citizens, which you could've attributed to her just being a liberal or someone with a conscience but now, knowing that she's a lesbian you can tell that it was an attempt to show that it was a very personal issue for her. Oh Serena, I really wish I had enjoyed her as much when she was still on the show as I do now in retrospect.

Sphere: Related Content

Color Me Surprised (Clothed in Sequins & Glitter)

When I saw the tease: “Skater proposes to partner on ice” I immediately thought that some figure skater proposed to, ahem, his “partner”- I mean it is figure skating and all- it seemed like an open enough venue to do something like that.

But then I actually clicked on the story, and I actually remembered there is pairs figure skating, that I saw it was John Baldwin Jr who proposed to his pairs partner Rena Inoue

I just thought this was an urban legend but there are really straight male figure skaters?

Inoue and Baldwin have plenty to celebrate, too. As they took their bows, Baldwin dropped to his knees and asked his longtime girlfriend to marry him. Stunned, she could only stare at him at first.


"I didn't know. He didn't tell me and I don't think he told anybody," Inoue said. "At first I was just so shocked. I didn't know what was going on here."


Said Baldwin, "I told her she's the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, how much respect I have for her and that everything I've accomplished in my career and on the ice is because of her."

As the crowd cheered, Baldwin asked again. With tears rolling down her face, Inoue said yes.

Awwwwwww. But while doing a minimal amount of research I discovered that I was asking the wrong question- there are really gay male figure skaters? Because at least openly, gay male figure skaters are in the minority. From Outsports:

Unofficial insider estimates range [claim that] from 25% to nearly 50% [of male figure skaters are gay]. But unbelievably, in 2006, [Rudy] Galindo remains the only top-level skater to have come out while Olympic-eligible.

What hasn't changed is that many of the officials, judges, and skating federations, especially in the U.S., make it clear that they prefer male skaters to look "masculine" and will be harsher on effeminate-looking skaters when it comes to giving marks or desirable competitive assignments

Trying not to be deemed gay in skating requires behavior ranging from the overt, such as dating women, to details so subtle that they affect the very way the skater moves his limbs while putting himself out there to be judged.
There are some moves, such as laybacks and spirals, that are more frequently done by women and considered effeminate on men. Obviously, skaters like to include their strongest moves in their programs, but a male skater who is strong in these moves knows that to perform them is to risk prejudice.

That is so screwed up it’s sick. Who would’ve thought that in the gayest sport ever you could still be discriminated against for actually being gay.

But why would everyone just assume? From Salon.com

Former gold medalist Brian Boitano, addressing this phenomenon, explains it with three words: "Sequins and glitter."

None of the skaters in this year's [2002] Olympics -- for all the sequins, all the glitter, all the stereotypically gay mannerisms and speech patterns -- is publicly gay. In fact, only one international-level figure skater has ever openly declared himself a gay man -- Rudy Galindo, the 1996 U.S. champion, who came out in USA Today reporter Christine Brennan's book "Inside Edge" weeks before winning his title.

And Galindo says that almost every figure skater he's ever met is straight.

I never thought about it but is Brian Boitano gay? Not that it matters but I want to know (and no one seems to be sure)

It is a real shame though- if a boy, gay or not, wants to spin around in tights he should be allowed to, and be allowed to spin freely and openly no matter who he "practices his routine with" after hours.

(an admission- even though he’s really annoying and prissy a lot of the time I really think Johnny Wier is cute…in that Rufus way. They sort of like similar, don’t they?)

Sphere: Related Content

I Always Enjoy A Good Romantic Comedy

who knew Patrick Bateman was so sensitive?

True Love can drive a man crazy

and here's another comedy with a romantic twist, though I guess it's not actually funny, y'know for those involved:

British twins who had been separated at birth learned they were related only after they had become husband and wife, a senior British lawmaker said

"They were never told that they were twins," he said during the Dec. 10 debate on a law covering human fertility and embryology. They had been adopted by separate families and "met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation."

No further details about the couple have emerged, and it is not known when the marriage took place or how long they were together before they discovered the truth.

Hilarious! I mean couldn't you just see Jake and Maggie starring?

And as I'm sure you've heard Ann Coulter recently split from her democratic boyfriend. Yes yes I know what you're thinking- someone would actually date her? It shocked me too; I always figured she was the actual inspiration for Teeth. Oh and she's a horrible bitch. That is all

(sorry that I'm so slow with these but I've had them for a while and forgot about them and am now trying to tidy up my life)

Sphere: Related Content

Morning Magical Movie Moment

One of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies, it's "the phone scene" from It's a Wonderful Life
and the tension is so deep as is the longing between them..ah it's so wonderful and sweet and feels like falling in love

and apparently "this was Jimmy Stewart's first film and first romantic scene on-screen since he came back from the war, and he was afraid he would be, um, out of practice, but the kiss was so passionate that the censors had to edit it. All Jimmy needed was one take to nail it."
so I think it's one of the "censored scenes" from the wonderful "makes me cry" Cinema Paradiso.
damn;these allergies are making my mascara run, again. always seems to act up when i'm watching those films...

Sphere: Related Content

A Song I Wish I Could've Written

and one of the best songs ever by one of the foremost musical geniuses of our time. As by Stevie Wonder off his classic double album that you need to own "Songs in the Key of Life." I absolutely love this song an even though it's like 7 minutes long I can't help but listen to it every time. It just draws you in until you're clapping your hands, stomping your feet and singing along. This would've been your stuck in my head today but I couldn't find a video (shockingly) and I have weird rules but it has been in my head all day and this song just blows me away. I guess I wish I was as much of a genius as it would take to write this, or maybe I wish I ever felt that much in love with anyone. With Herbie Hancock on keyboard and "handclaps."

As
Stevie Wonder
As around the sun the earth knows she's revolving
And the rosebuds know to bloom in early May
Just as hate knows love's the cure
You can rest your mind assure
That I'll be loving you always

As now can't reveal the mistery of tomorrow
But in passing will grow older every day
Just as all is born is new
Do you know what I say is true
That I'll be loving you always

Until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky
ALWAYS
Until the ocean covers every mountain high
ALWAYS
Until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea
ALWAYS
Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream

Did you know that true love asks for nothing
Her acceptance is the way we pay
Did you know that life has given love a guarantee
To last through forever and another day

Just as time knew to move on since the beginning
And the seasons know exactly when to change
Just as kindness knows no shame
Know through all your joy and pain
That I'll be loving you always

As today I know I'm living but tomorrow
Could make me the past but that I mustn't fear
For I'll know deep in my mind
The love of me I've left behind
Cause I'll be loving you always

Until the day is night and night becomes the day
ALWAYS
Until the trees and sea just up and fly away
ALWAYS
Until the day that 8x8x8 is 4
ALWAYS
Until the day that is the day that are no more
Did you know you're loved by somebody?
Until the day the earth starts turning right to left
ALWAYS
Until the earth just for the sun denies itself
I'll loving you forever
Until dear Mother Nature says her work is through
ALWAYS
Until the day that you are me and I am you
AL~~~~~WA~~~~~~~~~AA~~~~~~~~~AA~~~
Until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky
~~~~~~~~~~AA~~~~~~~~~AA~~~~~~~~~AA~~~
Until the ocean covers every mountain high
~~~AA~~~~~~~~~AA~~~~~~~~~YS

We all know sometimes life's hates and troubles
Can make you wish you were born in another time and space
But you can bet your life times that and twice its double
That God knew exactly where he wanted you to be placed
So make sure when you say you're in it but not of it
You're not helping to make this earth a place sometimes called Hell
Change your words into truths and then change that truth into love
And maybe our children's grandchildren
And their great-great grandchildren will tell

I'll be loving you
Until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky
Loving you
Until the ocean covers every mountain high
Loving you
Until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea
Loving you
Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream
Be loving you
Until the day is night and night becomes the day
Loving you
Until the trees and seas up, up and fly away
Loving you
Until the day that 8x8x8x8 is 4
Loving you
Until the day that is the day that are no more
Loving you
Until the day the earth starts turning right to left
Be loving you
Until the earth just for the sun denies itself
Loving you
Until dear Mother Nature says her work is through
Loving you
Until the day that you are me and I am you
Now ain't that loving you
Until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky
Ain't that loving you
Until the ocean covers every mountain high
And I've got to say always
Until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea
AL~~~~~~~~~WA~~~~~~~~~~~~AYS
Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream
Um AL~~~~~~~~~WA~~~~~~~~~~~~AYS
Until the day is night and night becomes the day
AL~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~WA~~~~~~~~~AYS
Until the trees and sea just up and fly away
AL~~~~~WA~~~~~~~~~~AA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Until the day that 8x8x8 is 4
~~~~~~~~AA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~AA~~~~~~~~~~~~AA
Until the day that is the day that are no more
AA~~~~~~~~~~~~AA~~~~AA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~AYS
Until the day the earth starts turning right to left
AL~~~~~~~~WA~~~~~~A~~~~~~~~~~~~AA
Until the earth just for the sun denies itself
~~~~~~AA~~~~~~~~AA~~~~~~AA~~~~~~AYS
Until dear Mother Nature says her work is through
AL~~~~WAYS
Until the day that you are me and I am you

Until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky
Until the ocean covers every mountain high
Until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea
Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream
Until the day is night and night becomes the day
Until the trees and sea just up and fly away
Until the day that 8x8x8 is 4
Until the day that is the day that are no more
Until the day the earth starts turning right to left
Until the earth just for the sun denies itself
Until dear Mother Nature says her work is through
Until the day that you are me and I am you

Stevie Wonder- As [download] buy it on iTunes!


[one in an occasional series]

Sphere: Related Content

The Joys of Lesbian Lit

Two final poems of Adrienne Rich


From Twenty-One Love Poems
I

Wherever in this city, screens flicker
with pornography, with science-fiction vampires,
victimized hirelings bending to the lash,
we also have to walk . . . if simply as we walk
through the rainsoaked garbage, the tabloid cruelties
of our own neighborhoods.
We need to grasp our lives inseperable
from those rancid dreams, that blurt of metal, those disgraces,
and the red begonia perilously flashing
from a tenement sill six stories high,
or the long-legged young girls playing ball
in the junior highschool playground.
No one has imagined us. We want to live like trees,
sycamores blazing through the sulfuric air,
dappled with scars, still exuberantly budding,
our animal passion rooted in the city.

II

I wake up in your bed. I know I have been dreaming.
Much earlier, the alarm broke us from each other,
you've been at your desk for hours. I know what I dreamed:
our friend the poet comes into my room
where I've been writing for days,
drafts, carbons, poems are scattered everywhere,
and I want to show her one poem
which is the poem of my life. But I hesitate,
and wake. You've kissed my hair
to wake me. I dreamed you were a poem,
I say, a poem I wanted to show someone . . .
and I laugh and fall dreaming again
of the desire to show you to everyone I love,
to move openly together
in the pull of gravity, which is not simple,
which carried the feathered grass a long way down the upbreathing air.


III

Since we're not young, weeks have to do time
for years of missing each other. Yet only this odd warp
in time tells me we're not young.
Did I ever walk the morning streets at twenty,
my limbs streaming with a purer joy?
did I lean from any window over the city
listening for the future
as I listened here with nerves tuned for your ring?
And you, you move toward me with the same tempo.
Your eyes are everlasting, the green spark
of the blue-eyed grass of early summer,
the green-blue wild cress washed by the spring.
At twenty, yes: we thought we'd live forever.
At forty-five, I want to know even our limits.
I touch you knowing we weren't born tomorrow,
and somehow, each of us will help the other live,
and somewhere, each of us must help the other die.

Snapshots of a Daughter in Law
1

You, once a belle in Shreveport,
with henna-colored hair, skin like a peachbud,
still have your dresses copied from that time,
and play a Chopin prelude
called by Cortot: "Delicious recollections
float like perfume through the memory."

Your mind now, moldering like wedding-cake,
heavy with useless experience, rich
with suspicion, rumor, fantasy,
crumbling to pieces under the knife-edge
of mere fact. In the prime of your life.

Nervy, glowering, your daughter
wipes the teaspoons, grows another way.

2

Banging the coffee-pot into the sink
she hears the angels chiding, and looks out
past the raked gardens to the sloppy sky.
Only a week since They said: Have no patience.

The next time it was: Be insatiable.
Then: Save yourself; others you cannot save.
Sometimes she's let the tapstream scald her arm,
a match burn to her thumbnail,

or held her hand above the kettle's snout
right in the woolly steam. They are probably angels,
since nothing hurts her anymore, except
each morning's grit blowing into her eyes.

3

A thinking woman sleeps with monsters.
The beak that grips her, she becomes. And Nature,
that sprung-lidded, still commodious
steamer-trunk of tempora and mores
gets stuffed with it all: the mildewed orange-flowers,
the female pills, the terrible breasts
of Boadicea beneath flat foxes' heads and orchids.
Two handsome women, gripped in argument,
each proud, acute, subtle, I hear scream
across the cut glass and majolica
like Furies cornered from their prey:
The argument ad feminam, all the old knives
that have rusted in my back, I drive in yours,
ma semblable, ma soeur!

4

Knowing themselves too well in one another:
their gifts no pure fruition, but a thorn,
the prick filed sharp against a hint of scorn...
Reading while waiting
for the iron to heat,
writing, My Life had stood--a Loaded Gun--
in that Amherst pantry while the jellies boil and scum,
or, more often,
iron-eyed and beaked and purposed as a bird,
dusting everything on the whatnot every day of life.

5

Dulce ridens, dulce loquens,
she shaves her legs until they gleam
like petrified mammoth-tusk.

6

When to her lute Corinna sings
neither words nor music are her own;
only the long hair dipping
over her cheek, only the song
of silk against her knees
and these
adjusted in reflections of an eye.

Poised, trembling and unsatisfied, before
an unlocked door, that cage of cages,
tell us, you bird, you tragical machine--
is this fertillisante douleur? Pinned down
by love, for you the only natural action,
are you edged more keen
to prise the secrets of the vault? has Nature shown
her household books to you, daughter-in-law,
that her sons never saw?

7

"To have in this uncertain world some stay
which cannot be undermined, is
of the utmost consequence."
Thus wrote
a woman, partly brave and partly good,
who fought with what she partly understood.
Few men about her would or could do more,
hence she was labeled harpy, shrew and whore.

8

"You all die at fifteen," said Diderot,
and turn part legend, part convention.
Still, eyes inaccurately dream
behind closed windows blankening with steam.
Deliciously, all that we might have been,
all that we were--fire, tears,
wit, taste, martyred ambition--
stirs like the memory of refused adultery
the drained and flagging bosom of our middle years.

9

Not that it is done well, but
that it is done at all? Yes, think
of the odds! or shrug them off forever.
This luxury of the precocious child,
Time's precious chronic invalid,--
would we, darlings, resign it if we could?
Our blight has been our sinecure:
mere talent was enough for us--
glitter in fragments and rough drafts.

Sigh no more, ladies.
Time is male
and in his cups drinks to the fair.
Bemused by gallantry, we hear
our mediocrities over-praised,
indolence read as abnegation,
slattern thought styled intuition,
every lapse forgiven, our crime
only to cast too bold a shadow
or smash the mold straight off.
For that, solitary confinement,
tear gas, attrition shelling.
Few applicants for that honor.

10

Well,
she's long about her coming, who must be
more merciless to herself than history.
Her mind full to the wind, I see her plunge
breasted and glancing through the currents,
taking the light upon her
at least as beautiful as any boy
or helicopter,
poised, still coming,
her fine blades making the air wince

but her cargo
no promise then:
delivered
palpable
ours.

Sphere: Related Content

Happy Face Stories

I'm not really sure why but my last couple of posts have been kinda cranky and bitchy and so in an attempt to change from being a Grumpy Greta to a Gracious (Grace) Glenda here are a few sports realted stories I read today that made me happy and gave me a Happy Face


First, that Kevin Everett, the Buffalo Bills player who was parlyzed earlier this season, is now walking on his own, which is so remarkable it seems almost miraculous and is definitely good news especially because he seems like a really great guy-

"He doesn't have a full natural stride but, yeah, he's walking," a person close to the family told The Associated Press on Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of Everett's status.The person said Everett has been walking under his own power since his release from Memorial Hermann/TIRR three weeks ago and is now an outpatient there. The person added Everett is picked up at his Houston-area home by car to attend daily rehab sessions and is able to walk to and from the facility.

[snip]

Upon his release from Memorial Hermann, Everett said in a statement he was inspired after meeting many people that sustained similar injuries.

"Their courage and determination inspired me to fight every day for recovery of my ability to walk," Everett said. "While this news is a significant milestone for me, I still have a long journey to full recovery."

Everett's recovery has been the NFL's most inspirational story this season. And his presence has not been forgotten among Bills fans, with many wearing his jersey or T-shirts with his No. 85 on the back to home games.

The Bills' third-round draft pick in 2005, Everett is soft-spoken and reserved and regarded highly by teammates and friends.

"He's just every guy's teammate," Moorman had said after Everett was hurt. "He's got such a great character, and it's obvious. He's not a man of many words, but he doesn't need to speak by words."

Everett had been active in his hometown of Port Arthur, Texas. Last summer, he hosted a football camp in which he charged no admission, handed out T-shirts and made sure every youngster had a ride to and from camp.

"He'd give you his last," said Kenny Harrison, who coached Everett in high school. "His biggest deal was making sure every kid that wanted to be a part the camp was able to be a part of it, no exception."

and secondly I read a column about Candace Parker and it made me happy because she's not only really pretty but she seems like a sincere, normal and good person and that makes me happy because she's Shelden William's fiancee and I always want the best for my Dukies.-

First of all, who names their dog Fendi? That's so Reese Witherspoon and "Legally Blonde." Except that Candace Parker's Fendi is a St. Bernard mix, not some accessory pooch that fits in your makeup kit.
"She's high maintenance, so she's a designer purse," says Parker, the All-America forward for No. 1-ranked Tennessee. "She's, like, my heart. She sleeps with me every night."
OMG. Her other dog, a pug, is named Nino. "From 'New Jack City,'" Parker says.

Parker grew up in a Chicago suburb and adored MJ and the Bulls. And yet one of her most-prized possessions on her bedroom wall was a framed, poster-size photo of her and … Ron Harper?

"I respect Jordan -- he is the king -- but I would walk past Jordan to get Ron Harper's picture," Parker says of Harper, who played with MJ and is now an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons. "I don't know why I was the biggest Ron Harper fan. I just was" [Ed. note- Ron Harper was one of my favorites too; especially when he came to the Lakers]

Parker is also an All-America procrastinator. Her motto: Why do just one load of dirty laundry when you can wait another week and do three?
And Parker is a closet Disneyophile. Her older brother Marcus will die for this, but he says Parker knows all the words to the songs in, "The Little Mermaid." So sing along to her favorite lyrics from "Part of Your World," in which Ariel belts out, "Wouldn't you think I'm the girl … The girl who has everything?"

It's hard not to like Parker. She is smart (second-team Academic All-America), borderline goofball and, so, well, 21. When she met Ray Allen for the first time at this summer's ESPYS, she called him "Jesus" -- as in Jesus Shuttlesworth, Allen's character in "He Got Game." And in her Knoxville apartment is a photo of Parker and her fiancé, Atlanta Hawks forward Shelden Williams. According to friend and UT media relations intern Courtney Tysinger, the photo is a knockoff of the "Love and Basketball" promo poster. [Ed. Note: Shelden also has that picture as his AIM buddy icon]

Parker has a soft spot for Cold Stone, her family, her coaches and teammates, her vintage TV shows, her hoops, her pooches, her Shelden and her cooking (specialties: fried chicken … salmon … rice, sugar and butter).

"I like the fact that no matter how much people know her or how much she gets recognized, she's still the sweet, well-rounded person I knew when she got here,

Awww. She sounds perfect and I'm even happier for those crazy kids. Shelden just has to make sure that their kid comes to Duke. Whichever sex, that kid is going to be an epic basketball player

Sphere: Related Content