Tilda Swinton.

Is it possible that she's the next evolution of humanity?

p.s. that may just be my favorite picture ever

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Bitch Is The New Black

Tina Fey is totally a new feminist icon

Bitches get things done!
Word!

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A Rose Grows In India

a really good article in the New York Times about Rose Venkatesan, India’s first trans-gender TV host

A complex procedure even for experienced hands, the process of tying a sari is particularly hard for Rose, who was raised as a boy, and used to be known as Ramesh Venkatesan. Her mother never taught her the skill and refuses to see her wear one. Even so, the outcome was flawless.

When it is broadcast on Vijay television to an audience of up to 64 million people in the southern state of Tamil Nadu later this month, “Ippadikku Rose” (“Yours, Rose”) is expected to cause a sensation, introducing India’s first transgender celebrity to television. [Ed Note: who are America's transgender celebrities? I don't think Amanda Lepore counts]

The show’s director, Anthony Thirunelveli, said the half-hour talk show had been conceived as a program suitable for family viewing but would discuss issues of sex and sexuality, confronting “hush, hush, under the carpet subjects.” The first nine episodes will tackle, among other things, divorce, sex and relationships among the mostly young employees in India’s call centers, and sexual harassment.

The main attraction will be Rose herself, who now goes by only one name. A poised, 28-year-old, American-educated former Web site designer with a master’s degree in biomedical engineering, she started wearing women’s clothes full time four years ago and is still waiting for acceptance from her family and society at large.

If nothing else, the show will start to propel downtrodden groups of transsexuals, or hijras, into the mainstream.

“Transgenders in India are seen as immoral and evil,” Rose said, calmly leafing through the script of her first show — an interview with a prostitute about her recently published autobiography. “I will break that image by being articulate, intelligent and a bit like the girl next door.”

“This is a radical development,” she added. “There have been transsexuals in Indian movies, but always as the object of ridicule or as villains. This is the first time in the history of Indian television that a transgender person has been featured as a television anchor.”

His anxieties are understandable in a country where the boundaries of sexual tolerance are shifting daily, with much uncertainty and unpredictability. Fashion TV was briefly banned for showing too much flesh; a film star’s career was threatened after comments that appeared to condone premarital sex; and fringe political groups like nothing better than to stir noisy (and often spurious) paroxysms of moral outrage.

The channel was not searching for controversy, but executives were so impressed by Rose’s screen presence and determination to fight prejudice that they agreed instantly to give her a show despite her lack of experience.

“People here will not openly let transsexuals into their homes,” Rose said, disclosing that she had deliberately isolated herself from college friends and neighbors to avoid rejection

Rose said attitudes were no less hostile in parts of the United States, where she had spent three years studying at Louisiana Tech University. “There, people were aggressively homophobic,” she said. “America is very hypocritical when it comes to its stand on sexual minorities. Historically, India was very progressive about this until the British came and imposed a Victorian sense of morality, which still remains.”
[Ed. Note: Goddamn christian morality]
Rose said she had no desire to shock, but just hoped that she would be watched.

“As a person, I am very open, but this is a big television channel which goes out to millions of people,” she said. “We don’t want any bad reaction.”

Here's a clip of Ippadikku Rose” (“Yours, Rose”)


reading that article reminded me of something similar in Begum Nawazish Ali, a transgendered talk show host in Pakistan who is breaking down barriers of her own and is (or was in 2006) a huge star and almost a feminist icon

The talk show host making waves in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (and apparently Kashmir) is purportedly a stylish, middle-aged, socialite widow of an army colonel. Her monologues are often laced with sexual innuendo, she flirts openly with her guests, and sometimes embarrasses them with probing questions about their private lives. Her guests include some of Pakistan's most well-known personalities: the urban elite, film and television stars and even some top politicians. Most are nevertheless thrilled to be invited to appear on a program millions are watching.

Viewers are obviously fascinated too. Dinner party conversations here in Karachi are often peppered with anecdotes about her risqué banter and sly digs at Pakistani politics. Women call the television station to inquire about the tailoring of her sequined blouses and where to buy her glamorous saris.

The thing is, Begum Nawazish Ali is actually a man. Ali Saleem, the 28-year-old man who dons lipstick, mascara and a wig to Begum Nawazish Ali, has managed to break many taboos in conservative Pakistan through the character.

When I nonchalantly mentioned that the host was in drag to the Kashmiri journalist, his eyes almost popped out of his head. That was almost a bigger surprise for me. I thought that fact was obvious to everyone and was part of the show's success. Certainly no Pakistani woman on television could get away with the kind of double entendres she gets away with.

To the actor Saleem, there is little doubt about why audiences are tuning in – they’re all waiting to see what the well-coiffed, manicured character will say next.

Female guests often find themselves comparing wardrobes and jewelry with her, while male guests have had to bear the brunt of a suggestive proposition from her. "Some people compare her to Dame Edna's character on British television," said Saleem, "but Begum Nawazish Ali is much too sophisticated to ever be that crude."

So popular is the show that advertising rates during its weekend prime time slot are triple that of other shows in similar slots. Saleem is now one of the highest paid television hosts in the country and is constantly receiving offers from rival channels to bring the show to them.

During an arduous three-hour hair and make-up session before the recording of a show, Saleem was philosophical about the reasons why the show has clicked with audiences.

"I think Begum Nawazish Ali inspires women in particular because she is a strong, glamorous, opinionated woman who is unafraid of saying what she thinks and of flirting with men if she feels like it," explained Saleem. "Men, on the other hand, find her intriguing because she transcends all kinds of restrictions and plays with their imagination."

So far, despite the thin line Saleem treads between the outrageous and the socially acceptable – overt sexuality of any kind is frowned upon in conservative Pakistan – his celebrity guests have also been good sports.

Surprisingly even Pakistan's firebrand religious leaders have never attacked the show. "We couldn't convince [the head of the main religious parties alliance] Qazi Hussain Ahmed to come on the show," said Saleem, "but he was very good-natured about it. He praised the Begum and said he would rather just watch the show on television."

Even a septuagenarian belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist political party, claimed that he did not know what he was getting into after appearing on the show.

Here she is on Al-Jazeera's "Everywoman" (starting at 5:40)

(and here are a lot more clips if you're interested)

isn't it sort of ironic that in countries that a lot of people look at as so oppressive especially sexual, there are shows with positive transgendered role models while in America you can look far and wide for any recurring and thoughtful portrayal. Could you imagine a show, a talk show where a transgender host, in a non camp manner talks frankly about issues and has guests of power onto her show and it becoming a phenomenon?
(But if you can imagine that and there is such a show in America please let me know- I'd love to be watching it)

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Vanity Fair’s Hollywood Issue: The Annie Leibovitz Covers

Because I really adore Annie Leibovitz and like pretty pictures
here are her covers from Vanity Fair’s annual Hollywood Issues


(The left third of each image is what was visible on the cover before unfolding.)

MARCH 2008: “FRESH FACES” Emily Blunt, Amy Adams, Jessica Biel, Anne Hathaway, Alice Braga, Ellen Page, Zoë Saldana, Elizabeth Banks, Ginnifer Goodwin, and America Ferrera.


MARCH 2007: "MEN IN BLACK" Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Chris Rock, and Jack Black.



MARCH 2006: (the scandalous) "FORD'S FOUNDATION" Scarlett Johansson, Tom Ford, Keira Knightley, and Scarlett's…


MARCH 2005: "NOT SO DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES" Uma Thurman, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Claire Danes, Scarlett Johansson, Rosario Dawson, Ziyi Zhang, Kerry Washington, Kate Bosworth, and Sienna Miller.


APRIL 2004: "SEND IN THE GOWNS" Julianne Moore, Jennifer Connelly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, Salma Hayek, Jennifer Aniston, Kirsten Dunst, Diane Lane, Lucy Liu, Hilary Swank, Alison Lohman, Scarlett Johansson, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.


APRIL 2003: "ALPHA LIST" Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Jude Law, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Ewan McGregor, and Matt Damon.


APRIL 2002: "RHAPSODY IN BLUE" Kirsten Dunst, Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Connelly, Rachel Weisz, Brittany Murphy, Selma Blair, Rosario Dawson, Christina Applegate, and Naomi Watts. (surprisingly meh)


APRIL 2001: "MASTER CLASS" Nicole Kidman, Catherine Deneuve, Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Vanessa Redgrave, Chloë Sevigny, Sophia Loren, and Penélope Cruz.
(i really like, the color in this one-just gives off elegance)



APRIL 2000: "SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS" Penélope Cruz, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Marley Shelton, Chris Klein, Selma Blair, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Sarah Wynter.
(this group really didn’t explode into the stratosphere)


APRIL 1999: "NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK" Adrien Brody, Thandie Newton, Monica Potter, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Stiles, Leelee Sobieski, Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Polley, Norman Reedus, Anna Friel, Omar Epps, Kate Hudson, Vinessa Shaw, and Barry Pepper.



APRIL 1998: "THE HOT NEXT WAVE" Joaquin Phoenix, Vince Vaughn, Natalie Portman, Djimon Hounsou, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire, Claire Forlani, Gretchen Mol, Christina Ricci, Ed Furlong, and Rufus Sewell.


APRIL 1997: "THE NEXT WAVE" Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Claire Danes, Renée Zellweger, Minnie Driver, Alison Elliott, Jada Pinkett, Jennifer Lopez, Charlize Theron, and Fairuza Balk.


APRIL 1996: "BOYS' TOWN" Tim Roth, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Rapaport, Stephen Dorff, Johnathon Schaech, David Arquette, Will Smith, and Skeet Ulrich.


APRIL 1995: "HOLLYWOOD HIGHEST—THE CLASS OF 2000" Jennifer Jason Leigh, Uma Thurman, Nicole Kidman, Patricia Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julianne Moore, Angela Bassett, and Sandra Bullock.
(Uma is perpetually gorgeous; those outfits not so much)


It does seem from these that glamour and sophistication is not compatible with smiling. And also looking back, the mid 90s were not nearly as cool as they seemed at the time; it's kinda tragic.

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Hillary is a Radical Revolutionary Sista

Well maybe I shouldn’t go that far but she was down with the Black Panther Party in her own white middle class Ivy League way

Diana Christensen: Hi. I'm Diana Christensen, a racist lackey of the imperialist ruling circles.
Laureen Hobbs: I'm Laureen Hobbs, a badass commie nigger.
Diana Christensen: Sounds like the basis of a firm friendship.

While at Yale during the New Haven Black Panther Trials

Future US Senator and first lady Hillary Rodham volunteered to monitor the trial for violations of civil rights, for the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Bobby Seales trial drew protests, not because the protestors approved of murder, but they felt that the Panthers were being treated unfairly by the authorities and that Seales, who was not personally involved in the killing, should not have been tried. There were demonstrations at Yale, but they were peaceful, did not "shut down" the university. Hillary was not an attorney at that time (which is what some of the versions of this email seem to suggest), but a student at Yale and, according to Roger Morris, author of PARTNERS IN POWER, helped organize shifts of students to monitor the courtroom.

John Elvin of Insight magazine looked into the Hillary-Panthers eRumor as well as how it was handled by some urban legends sites and wrote his findings in an article that appeared in July of 2000. He quotes former sixties radical David Horowitz as saying that both Hillary Rodham and Bill Lann Lee organized demonstrations at Yale against the Panther trial. Elvin also says, "Insight reviewed biographies of Hillary Clinton by Milton, Brock and Roger Morris for this story and lengthy selections from such other biographies as Barbara Olson’s Hell to Pay. Together, relying on primary and other firsthand sources, they unquestionably back Horowitz’s contention that Hillary was a campus leader during the Panther protests

I only wish this was the real story about her involvement

Campus radicals supported the Panthers. They organized mass protests in support of the so-called "New Haven Nine." Hillary was right in the thick of it.

By the time she entered Yale Law School in 1969, Hillary was already a radical celebrity on campus. Life magazine had featured Hillary in a piece titled, "The Class of '69," which showcased three student activists whom Life's editors deemed the best and brightest of the year. A line Hillary used in her Wellesley College commencement speech appeared under her photo: "Protest is an attempt to forge an identity."

At Yale, Hillary helped edit the Yale Review of Law and Social Action – a left-wing journal which promoted cop-killing and featured cartoons of pig-faced police.

A series of hard-Left mentors introduced Hillary to the brass-knuckle realities of revolutionary activism. As a Wellesley undergraduate, she met and interviewed radical organizer Saul Alinsky, whose Machiavellian tactics she admired. Hillary's senior thesis supported Alinsky's call for class warfare.

At Yale, Hillary found a new Svengali in the form of left-wing law professor Thomas Emerson, known around campus as "Tommy the Commie." Emerson recruited Hillary and other students to help monitor the trial of the New Haven Nine for civil rights violations. Hillary took charge of the operation, scheduling the students in shifts, so that student monitors would always be present in the courtroom. She befriended and worked closely with Panther lawyer Charles Garry.

Some believe that the enormous pressure exerted by the Left helped ensure light sentences for the New Haven Nine. Whether or not this is true, the punishments were mild.

"Only one of the killers was still in prison in 1977," reports John McCaslin in the Washington Times. "The gunman, Warren Kimbro, got a Harvard scholarship and became an assistant dean at Eastern Connecticut State College. Ericka Huggins, who boiled the water for Mr. Rackley's torture, got elected to a California school board."

Hillary's defenders argue that she played no "significant" role in the New Haven Nine's defense. This is semantic hairsplitting. Obviously, Hillary was less "significant" than Charles Garry or "Tommy the Commie" Emerson. But Hillary served as a trusted lieutenant to these movers and shakers. Moreover, she had a national profile as a campus activist. Hillary was no rank-and-file student protester, as her apologists claim.

Indeed, Hillary's work for the Panthers won her a summer internship at the Berkeley office of attorney Robert Treuhaft in 1972. A hardline Stalinist, Treuhaft had quit the Communist Party in 1958 only because it was losing members and no longer provided a good platform for his activism. "Treuhaft is a man who dedicated his entire legal career to advancing the agenda of the Soviet Communist Party and the KGB," notes historian Stephen Schwartz.

The defense of the New Haven Nine marked Hillary's initiation into the sinister underworld of the hard-core, revolutionary Left. To my knowledge, Hillary has never publicly renounced nor apologized for her role in that movement.

Nor should she. While she was agitating for The Revolution... well, we all know where I'm going with this

Some other articles
The NY Sun
Free Republic

The things I learn during Wikipedia binges

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Clash in the Clan

or "The Irish Civil War"
And at this time I would like to point out again that JFK was horribly overrated- he may have been inspirational or whatever but he didn't actually get anything done while he was addicted to pain killers and extramarital affairs
while Dorothy Mantooth, I mean Bobby Kennedy was a saint (Santo Subito!)

From an L.A. Times Op/Ed
“Kennedys for Clinton”
By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kerry Kennedy

This is a wonderful year for Democrats. Our party is blessed with the most impressive array of primary candidates in modern history. All would make superb presidents.

By now you may have read or heard that our cousin, Caroline Kennedy, and our uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, have come out in favor of Sen. Barack Obama. We, however, are supporting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton because we believe that she is the strongest candidate for our party and our country.

While talk of unity and compromise are inspiring to a nation wary of divisiveness, America stands at a historic crossroads where real issues divide our political landscapes. Democrats believe that America should not be torturing people, eavesdropping on our citizens or imprisoning them without habeas corpus or other constitutional rights. We should not be an imperial power. We need healthcare for all and a clean, safe environment.

The loftiest poetry will not solve these issues. We need a president willing to engage in a fistfight to safeguard and restore our national virtues.

We have worked with Hillary Clinton for 15 years (and in Kathleen's case, 25 years) and witnessed the power and depth of her convictions firsthand. We've seen her formidable work ethic, courage in the face of adversity and her dignity and clear head in crisis. We've also seen her two-fisted willingness to enter the brawl when America's principles are challenged. Her measured rhetoric, political savvy and pragmatism shield the heart of our nation's most determined and most democratic warrior.

She has been an uncompromising and loyal ally for each of us in our battles to protect the environment and to promote human rights around the world and juvenile justice in America. Hillary is a problem-solver, listening to people and then achieving solutions by changing attitudes.

Her transformational leadership was on display when she ran for the Senate seat in New York that had been held by our father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. She faced rabid, heavily funded attacks from the far right and the challenge of prevailing in traditionally Republican upstate New York. Traveling with her, we watched admiringly as she persuasively articulated an inspiring and unifying vision rooted in American values and history. Then, through patience, hard work, leadership and political acumen, she transformed many of those rock-solid conservative counties into solid Democratic strongholds.

We look forward to working beside her in the general election as she uses those same talents to change once rigid opinions and political affiliations across the nation.

Like our father, Hillary has devoted her life to embracing and including those on the bottom rung of society's ladder -- giving voice to the alienated and disenfranchised and working to alleviate poverty and injustice, while urging that we cannot advance ourselves as a nation by leaving our poorer brothers and sisters behind.

She's been an equally effective champion for human rights and for women's rights, a worldwide cause that will profit enormously by her elevation to the presidency. She has worked for peace in Northern Ireland and fought to bridge religious, racial and ethnic divides from Bosnia to the Middle East to South Africa. She has shown a rare understanding that American values can only be exported by moral leadership, by a strong home economy and by a detailed understanding of the history and cultural backdrops of the nations we engage.

She understands, as our current administration does not, the uses of power. The world, she says, is hungry for U.S. leadership but will not accept our bullying. She knows the difference and will reestablish America's lost prestige and moral authority.

Hillary Clinton's political career has been centered in comforting the afflicted, afflicting the comfortable and reminding Americans what it means to be American. As a young lawyer, she focused on children's issues and legal aid. As first lady of Arkansas, she brought healthcare to rural areas and helped reform the state's lagging education system.

As first lady, she courageously took on healthcare reform. When a massive propaganda campaign by Big Pharma and the radical right derailed her efforts, she didn't give up. She helped create the nationally acclaimed Children's Health Insurance Program. That kind of persistence in pursuit of our highest ideals is the brand of leadership America now requires. Inspirational leadership comes in many forms.

Seldom has history confronted America with such daunting challenges: a catastrophic foreign policy that has cost us our international leadership and aggravated the threat of terror; a misbegotten war that is squandering precious American lives and treasure; a healthcare system that leaves millions of Americans without coverage; irresponsible corporate power that is corroding our democracy and outsourcing our jobs, aggravating global warming and other environmental crises and reducing our economy to shambles.

We need a leader who is battle-tested, resilient and sure-footed on the shifting landscapes of domestic and foreign policy. Hillary Clinton will move our country forward while promoting its noblest ideals.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an environmental advocate and Kerry Kennedy is a human rights activist.

So let’s see Barack got the endorsement of the screw up drunk of the family who only got elected because he was the brother of a president and another popular leader and then just kinda hung around because there’s some special magic with the Kennedy name (oh and left a woman to day) and his drunk of a son Patrick and of JFK’s daughter who is famous for being, well JFK’s daughter and of writing children’s books

While Hillary was endorsed by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend who was able to run in and right an difficult gubernatorial race in Maryland being elected Lt. Governor and giving the Democrats another Governorship and who is now " chair of the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland, and also serves on the boards of directors of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Points of Light Foundation, Center for American Progress, and National Catholic Reporter. She is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and the Inter-American Dialogue, as well as adjunct Professor at Georgetown University's School of Public Policy and Visiting Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard"
Kerry Kennedy who is an amazing and inspiring social activist and has received "high honors from President Lech Walesa of Poland for aiding the Solidarity movement. She has received awards from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for leadership in abolishing the death penalty, and the American Jewish Congress of the Metropolitan Region, the Emerald Isle Immigration Society, and the Institute for the Italian American experience three I’s award for outstanding efforts and achievements for human rights. She was named Woman of the Year 2001 by Save the Children, received the Crossing Boarders Award from the Feminist press in 2003, Humanitarian of the Year Award from the South Asian Media Awards Foundation, and the Prima Donna Award from Montalcino Vineyards and was awarded the Gold Mercury Award for Humanitarian Action 2006 for her efforts in defending human rights activists" and of course Bobby Kennedy Jr who is a nationally renowned respected environmental leader who if not for a weak and damaged voice due to Spasmodic dysphonia I would have supported for President to continue the work his father started.

Once again a battle of style versus substance, flash vs function, something that starts with one letter vs something else that starts with the same letter but means the opposite if not mutually exclusively. and all that jazz.

To be honest I really don't care at all about "The Kennedy Mystique"- the good ones died like at least 15 years before I was born, my image of JFK is back and to the left- and all the rest have been druggies or rapists or cocky socialites who fly their plans in weather they're not experienced enough to- it's just not my generation (though this is an amazing photo), but I guess some old people do still care about "Camelot"...but even Guinevere cheated on her husband the King with his chief knight. Idealism always cracks and falls away when it is let out into the cold open winds of the world.

I'm just left to wonder who Joe P. Kennedy Jr's kids would've endorsed; he was the best of them all, so I'm going to guess...John Edwards (because I'll for him until the bitterest of ends)

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Disney Dream Portraits are a Dream

The utterly amazing Annie Leibovitz has come out with a few new portraits for Disney's Year of a Million Wishes campaign and they're just...magical. See for yourself
(from Just Jared)

Whoopi as The Genie


Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony as Jasmine and Aladdin


Jessica Biel as Pocahontas


Gisele as Wendy, Mikhail Baryshnikov as Peter Pan and

Tina Fey as Tinkerbell (!)


and here are the original three from about this time last year
Beyonce as Alice, Lyle Lovett as (himself?) as the March Hare and Oliver Platt as the Mad Hatter


Becks as Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty


and Scarlett Johannsen as Cinderella


I think my favorites are "Tina"kerbell (and the whole Peter Pan one), Prince Becks and of course Cinderella. I mean what girl doesn't want to be a princess?

Ah, I <3 whimsy...and pretty pictures.

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Your Stuck in My Head Song of the Day

For some reason I’ve had PJ Harvey’s Silence stuck in my head all day, I don’t know maybe I just really want some, silence that is.
Anyway it’s such a beautiful song* that when I head back to my mom’s place I ‘ll try to pick out and play on the piano to go along with my awesome singing that I’ve been doing, trying to reach those high notes (and needless to say** failing miserably)

All those places where I recall
The memories that gripped me
And pinned me down

I go to these places
Intending to think
And think of nothing but anticipate

Somehow expect you'll find me there
That by some miracle, you'd be aware

I'd risen this morning determined to break
Spare my longing, not to think
I freed myself from my family
I freed myself from work
I freed myself, I freed myself and remained alone

And in my thinking
I'd steal you away
Though you never wanted me
Anyway

Silence

I so want to be her “when I grow up.”
Anyway here is Polly Jean performing it on “Later…With Jools Holland” (p.s. why isn’t there a show like this in The States?]

[download] buy it on iTunes



*And I use that third verse as my go to away message
**ever notice that whenever someone uses this phrase they always feel the need to say something?

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The Amazing Elizabeth Edwards

I wasn't going to focus really on politics or the Election at all today (besides to mention in passing how proud I am of the University of Iowa for keeping their dorms closed on Caucus night to enable their students to spend more time with their families, something that they'll cherish forever, that Ambassador Wilson is a wise man, and some people aren't acknowledging their flip-flops) but Slate had a profile of one of my favorite people, such a strong brave and amazing woman, Elizabeth Edwards. Here are some illuminating passages ( and in its entirety at Slate)

the Edwards place is 28,000 square feet if you include the squash court, with ceilings as high as in some actual cathedrals, and a fireplace in which one could roast a spitted ox. Honestly, if Elizabeth wanted to sit by an indoor waterfall or watch ballgames in her very own stadium out back, who could begrudge her? But this trophy home is at odds not only with her husband's campaign message, but with the way she herself comes across. I would have said it wasn't possible to love both Henry James and a house that could be a Marriot

"I wish my makeup looked like that," she says in greeting, having blown off putting hers on so we'd have more time to talk. In a plum pantsuit and stocking feet, with just a speck of green glitter under one eye from whatever do-it-yourself project she's been up to, she draws one leg up on the couch beside her, and chin on palm on knee, settles in to talk about the recurrence of her cancer—which she feels her husband's rivals are trying to use against him—and her 30 years of marriage to a man "who turned whatever harebrained idea I had into action." Though no more harebrained—or hairbrained, for that matter—than Hillary Clinton, she usually underplays her political savvy, casting herself as the dreamer and her husband as the doer: "That's what makes us a good pair; he gets bored, honestly, just thinking about a problem, and that's why he was so frustrated in the Senate.

he bemoans the fact that the long hallway that connects the main house to the rec complex adds a couple thousand square-footage to the total. The whole point of the campaign, she says, is that John wants everyone to get a fair shot at their dream house—via affordable college, available health care, and decent-paying jobs. Mind you, Republican presidential aspirant "Mitt Romney has tons more money and people don't complain." Nevertheless, "I'm not going to argue I don't have a nice house," she says, but then does: "You've been in our house; you don't say it's exceedingly grand, you say it's exceedingly comfortable. This is not a mansion in the clouds, it's a house where you can come and bring the dogs." Why can't others see it as she does, she wonders, "More as a love story than a macho, muscle-flexing" exercise in look-at-my-big-ol'-house? "I found the land before I had cancer, I drew the house up, and he let me build it."

When I suggest that we mostly wonder why he'd do that in the middle of a presidential campaign, knowing he'd be criticized for living in the wrong half of the Two Americas he talks about, she asks, "Wouldn't that have been worse, really?"—to refrain from doing so just for the sake of appearances? Worse as in more hypocritical? Yes.

friends insist that their 102-acre spread is actually 100 percent Elizabeth, whose husband doesn't any more mind where they live than he does where they buy their clothes (Ross: Dress for Less) or household goods (Target) or celebrate their wedding anniversary (Wendy's). No, the house was all her, trying to provide every conceivable amenity for her kids now, in case she isn't around to shop for them later. It was her, putting their money into what they both value most: not cars and jewelry, but home and family. And by her own account, it was her compensating for the succession of modest homes she grew up in as a Navy brat: "From years of living in military housing, I like a big room," she says, and recalls how some of the bedrooms she had as a kid were so dinky you couldn't even fit the bed in and still close the door all the way. "My dream was to turn in circles if you wanted to." So if there are contradictions on display, she says, they are her own and not her husband's. Which is her position always, as arguably the most protective spouse on the presidential block, a woman who, particularly since the death of their 16-year-old son, Wade, in 1996, instinctively tries to get between her husband and incoming fire: "Blame me, don't blame John," she says, even if in this we never seem to follow her advice.

the match was not immediately recognized as one between equals; she was a phenomenon from the first day, and he was shyer, more soft-spoken. He was small-town, she'd lived all over the world; he was straight out of college, she was four years older; he was completely practical, she loved theory; and he read thrillers, while she read everything but. As their daughter Cate, who is in her second year at Harvard Law, puts it, "She had been out with all these superintellectual grad-school guys who were rather cynical, and he was so hopeful it seemed naive to her at first. But he ended up making her happier." There is no question that today, she really is, as her '04 traveling aide Ryan Montoya puts it, "In my eyes, just like a mother in everything she does. She and my mom have a lot in common. Once, my pants ripped and she said, 'Get me a needle and I'll fix it.'

But her toughness and mommy-lion ferocity are less widely recognized. Though she and her husband do have some open philosophical disagreements—over gay marriage, for instance, which she's all for—and spar regularly over his habit of taking off for a run just as dinner is served, her feelings for him have never seemed the least bit conflicted. On the contrary, she is on his side with a vengeance, and by all accounts harder on staff than the candidate himself is, never over her own status as a principal, but over how her husband is presented and represented. Though I haven't asked, their law-school friend Glenn Bergenfield volunteers that, "She makes some very hard judgments on the people side. It's very hard for me to imagine John firing anybody from the campaign. He's a fighter pilot, but not hard on people, and I can't imagine him ever saying, 'You're not doing a good job,' whereas Elizabeth can. She's the mother of America, but also expects that when people say they're going to do something, they do it."

She also shows annoyance at some of the reaction to the recurrence of her cancer. Her husband's supporters have always seen her as proof of his depth and substance, and detractors as his literal better half. But since her cancer came back last March, her health and their partnership have become even more central to the question of what an Edwards White House would look like. Sure, "We're all going to die," as she told Katie Couric on 60 Minutes. But as anybody who's had cancer—and I belong to that not-very-exclusive club—can attest, reminders of mortality can send even some lifelong friends diving under the furniture. A blogger on the Web site Jezebel laid out the concern bluntly: "Say Edwards wins, and Elizabeth dies two years in. I cannot imagine the strain of mourning your spouse, caring for your children and being president of the U.S."

This is the kind of talk that really pisses off the candidate's wife, who was in any case weary of her status as Saint Elizabeth: "I've got enough reconnaissance to know where some of this is coming from, and it's not all from people who are concerned." Though no such links have been proven—and of course, they almost never are—she suggests that her husband's rivals have been push-polling on her health in Iowa, and that voters often tell her they've been warned by supporters of other campaigns that because of her, her husband isn't in the race to stay.

To which she has a few blunt objects to toss in response: "One, he's already been through the worst, and the loss of a spouse is not as devastating as the loss of a child. Nobody else—John McCain, I guess—has been tested the way John has, and all of our greatest presidents have had staggering causes for grief. Lincoln, Kennedy, Jefferson, our great presidents, almost always had personal tests." Besides which, "There's no reason to believe—John just heard about a new treatment, and bless his heart, is calling doctors to find out about it—but my protocol is working now!" And if that changed, she knows from watching him after Wade died that his reaction would be to try to "turn the turmoil into something positive." That's what led him into politics in the first place.

Even after finding a lump the size of an egg in her breast in 2004, Elizabeth decided not to tell her husband right away. It was 12 days before the presidential election, and one of her worries was that he would insist on attending to her at the expense of the campaign. Another was that if anybody found out why the vice presidential nominee was distracted, he'd be accused of trying to capitalize on the situation. That particular concern—that the reaction of the press to a woman with breast cancer would be to suspect her mate of milking the situation—doubtless says even more about us than it does about them
After Wade died, she'd promised herself he would never have to hear bad news again. Not if there was any way she could spare him.

This year, on their 30th anniversary, they renewed their wedding vows in a private ceremony out back. What their union most suggests about the kind of president her husband would make, she says, pulling her hair off her face, is that "with John, you say the good things and the bad things; that's the interaction in our family and home, so you could expect a high degree of candor" from him in the White House.

And I believe Elizabeth when she says the main effect of her cancer recurrence on her husband is that it's made him more himself—more driven and impatient, because the country and the planet don't have all the time in the world, either: "This isn't anger, it's urgency about where we start as a country, and clarity about where the problems lie.”

She is so strong and inspiring and amazing. I love her so much... I hope I can be like her when I'm older....

SO even if you’re somehow on the fence about John, Vote Elizabeth! (America's Mother)
[Here's a follow up]
(and here is Seamus Heaney' "The Cure at Troy" that I think the author was referencing)

Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

The innocent in gaols
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
Stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.

History says, don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracle
And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.

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Sunday Morning Stand(ing) Up

The utterly fabulous and wonderful Margaret Cho

The Notorious C.H.O.


from "I'm The One That I Want"

2005's Assassin


and probably my favorite bit of her's


And I went through this whole thing, you know. I was like: Am I gay? Am I straight? And I realized I'm just slutty.Where's my parade?!

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Candy & Daddy

A Mid Day Movie starring an inspiration of mine and one of my heroes, the beautiful miss Candy Darling, in what has been described as " a riotous satire of Park Avenue life."

It is Candy & Daddy, a 1972 film by Anton Perich "Taylor Mead plays a pervert and increasingly drunk father of gorgeous blonde minx Candy Darling, who, with her boyfriend (Craig Vandenburg), has just thrown a wild party and totally destroyed their Central Park West apartment that is filled with large Marilyn and flower paintings by Warhol. Within this tranquil domestic setting, Daddy attempts to seduce his daughter and her boyfriend"

sounds like a blast



Happy Thursday.

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Things To Do This Week: Weekend Edition*

*oh how I wish Thursday still felt like the start of the weekend

• Thursday:
• Mike Stinson at The Echo
• Samuel Jackson In-Person "The actor discusses two of his recent films — Resurrecting the Champ and Black Snake Moan at the Aero @ 7:30
• Multimedia European duo Michaela Grill and Giuseppe Ielasi attempt “to link improvised electronic music and abstract live visuals to the highest degree possible,” resulting in an interactive, improvisational video/concert at the Echo Park Film Center
• The Nightwatchman at The Hotel Café
• Charlie Hunter Trio at Vault 350
• Confessions of a Christmas Banshee at the Lankershim Arts Center
• The Crucible at the Matrix Theatre
• Evelyn Glennie at Royce Hall (wow I did not know she was deaf. That makes her even more amazing)
• Fools at West Valley Playhouse
• Girls Night: The Musical at the Coronet Theatre
• Iceland at the Bootleg Theater
• La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
• Light Sensitive at the Pico Playhouse
• Naomi Klein at Temple Emanuel
• SF
• Staircase at Theatre Rhinoceros
• Bondage "A tale by David Henry Hwang and directed by Ryan Yip, set in a Los Angeles S&M parlor." at Exit Theatre on Taylor
• Everything Has Been Arranged at the Intersection for the Arts
• Brian Regan at Nob Hill Masonic Center
• Crowd You’re In With at Magic Theatre
• Neccessity of Hank at the Exit Theatre
• Friday
• Jon Brion (and Nels Cline) at the Largo
  
• Montana Walk Sale and Bake Sale "Support the Aero by contributing to the theater’s first annual benefit bake sale, featuring a free screening of The Simpsons Movie plus an exhibit of Simpsons art in the Every Picture Tells a Story bookstore gallery nearby. Drop off any goodies at the Aero by 4:30 p.m.
  
• KRS-One at the Rhythm Lounge
  
• Andrew Bird (!)(!)(!)at the Orpheum with Handsome Family
  
• Anything at the Lillian Theatre
  
• Crispin Hellion Glover’s” It is Fine! Everything is Fine “The curiously “off” actor presents his second feature as director/producer — part two of his directorial debut It trilogy, the psychosexual story of a wheelchair-bound ladies’ man. Also included: an in-depth post-screening discussion with Glover and a pre-screening live presentation of his Big Slide Show, featuring a dramatic narration accompanying illustrations from Glover’s books" at the Egyptian
  
• Enrique Iglesias at the Nokia Theatre
  
• Grand Delusion at Lost Studio
  
• The Opening of Misty Beethoven at the New Beverly at Midnight
  
• Twist (Pop-rock musical based on Oliver Twist, book and lyrics by Gila Sand, music by Paul Leschen) at the Avery Schreiber Theater
• SF
• Tori Amos at the Paramount Theatre (!)()!()(!)(!) [Oakland]
  
• It Could Have Been a Wonderful Life at the SF Playhouse
• Saturday
• Juliette & the Licks at the Roxy
  
• 1940s Christmas at Club Sweet Lorraine's at KSLG Playhouse Theater Players
  
• The Dig: Death, Genesis, and the Double Helix at the Pacific Resident Theatre
  
• Holiday Appeal for Class War Prisoners "The Partisan Defense Committee and Labor Black League for Social Defense present this event to help free Mumia Abu-Jamal. Music by Exposition of Audible Mainframe" at Immanuel Presbyterian Church @ 2:00
  
• Schoolhouse Rock Live! at Greenway Court Theater
  
• "Christian Bale Marathon at the Aero "Actor Christian Bale appears in person for a program of his work. First, Bale’s a wounded Civil War vet in James Mangold’s remake of 3:10 to Yuma . Then, he’s one of six Bob Dylans in Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There . Then, he reinvents the caped crusader in Batman Begins. And, last, Bale brings yuppie to a new kind of trickle-down disturbing with the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. Also included: Discussion with Bale, all-evening buffet and special Christian Bale memorabilia.
• SF
  
• Prefuse 73, School of Seven Bells, Blank Blue at Slim's
  
• Andrew Bird at the Warfield
  
• The Apartment at the Castro Theatre
  
• Ingmar Bergman: Light and Shadow at the Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley)
• Sunday
• A Christmas Carol at Celebration Theatre
• David Gray at the Wiltern Lounge
  

as always there is a ton of things that I didn't mention here that are happening so...go wandering and discover.

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Mean People Still Suck

and there are way too many transphobic assholes in the world.

"Calpernia and Andrea read some of the worst comments people have left on perezhilton.com and abc.com in response to "Transamerican Love Story", their new Logo transsexual dating show coming out in February"

I do really love those two though. (originally found on Good As You)

And from somewhere across a Pond-I can't tell by the accents if they're Australians or British, maybe New Zealand, comes these wankers

(from Queerty)

I'll never understand people who go out of their way to hate. Maybe it's just because I'm lazy but, I find it quite easy to just love everyone. Except for assholes.



(p.s., i hadn't planned on "over posting" today but..I felt compelled by those videos)

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Best Band Ever*

*according to me, at this moment, subject to change

So, this wasn't my best weekend/holiday, in fact it was quite dark and painful and scary but yesterday, I'm not sure if I put her on or if it was an example of iTunes Providence but Lauryn Hill started playing and it kinda helped getting further through the joys of depression. And so since it is so rare that inspiration and a deadline meet, and I haven't done a "new" one of these in weeks, and her career fits this perfectly for me (not a long or incredibly prolific one so I'm not intimidated but with something there) Lauryn Hill is the Best Band Ever.*

The first time I heard of Lauryn Hill I , like a lot of other people had no idea who she was) or would become)- she was just the girl featured rather prominently in Sister Act 2 who could sing the roof off. (and when your mom is a musician and a minister and your older brother is a musical queen, you get repeatedly exposed to such things.) Judging from the outfits this had to have been like 1994 and so she was a few years away from her great success but it was obvious that there was something there- from her rooftop "freestyle" in the cipher

to her piano playing duet of His Eye is on The Sparrow

(it was obviously big in Japan)
to her commanding stage performance at a regional choir competition

(i'm not sure exactly of the plot but I feel it was something like inner city "urban" school in danger of being closed needs to win a choir competition in order to stay open but Lauryn Hill, the best singer and savior isn't allowed to participate, maybe because her musician father left her mom?)
You could definitely see her going someplace big, especially considering she was only like 18 at the time.
Someplace big was found when The Fugees dropped The Score, which I remember being essential. I remember she bought such a melodic element to the group, but her raps were also, if not the best in the group, at least better than Pras'. And her rhyme in Ready or Not is still one of my favorites

play my enemies like a game of chess, where I rest,
No stress
If you don't smoke sess, lest.
I must confess, my destiny's manifest
In some Goretex and sweats I make treks like I'm homeless
Rap orgies with Porgy and Bess,
Capture your bounty like Elliot Ness, YES
Bless you if you represent the Fu
But I'll hex you with some witch's brew if you're Doo Doo
Voo Doo,
I can do what you do, easy, BELIEVE ME
Frontin' niggas give me hee-bee-gee-bees
So while you're imitating Al Capone
I'll be Nina Simone
And defecating on your microphone

.


but of course the song that was everywhere, absolutely everywhere that probably will pay for Roberta Flack's great great great grand kids' college was Killing Me Softly (I remember when I listened to Howard Stern-i was 13, some slack please- but he said something like ti sounded like Roberta Flack singing on the subway while she was being accosted; racist as that is it stuck with me)

Then they broke up for whatever reasons, egos maybe. Pras wanting to shine. Don't know but for some reason I didn't pay real attention when The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill came out. I think maybe partly it was because I recognized the title from a book that one of my professorial types wanted me to read, or that I wasn't feeling the singles (when I was 14 or 15 I wasn't thinking too much about children, spirituality or relationships and dissolution, at least not in a real way) and I was in a different musical phase (see: 2pac) so I was rather indifferent to it. Plus Ghetto Superstar was huge and I (kinda wanted to be Mya) could see a huge star in Pras Michel and thought at the time (and today) that Bulworth was criminally overlooked. But as I grew up and experienced life and got past the singles that I wasn't that fond of (Doo Wop, Lost Ones) I realized that I absolutely adored her when she sang and that what she was saying was so passionate and uplifting, beautiful and tragic but all so universal and real, which is the feeling that all good art gives off. Like in Everything is Everything
Everything is everything
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change, it comes eventually

I wrote these words for everyone
Who struggles in their youth
Who won't accept deception
Instead of what is truth
It seems we lose the game,
Before we even start to play
Who made these rules? We're so confused
Easily led astray
Let me tell ya that
Everything is everything
Everything is everything
After winter, must come spring
Everything is everything

Now, everything is everything
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change, it comes eventually

Sometimes it seems
We'll touch that dream
But things come slow or not at all
And the ones on top, won't make it stop
So convinced that they might fall
Let's love ourselves then we can't fail
To make a better situation
Tomorrow, our seeds will grow
All we need is dedication


and Ex-Factor makes me cry every time I hear it- I don't think I was in love with anyone at this point, but the hurt in her voice you can't help but feel. This may be my favorite song of hers

No matter how I think we grow
You always seem to let me know
It ain't workin'
It ain't workin'
And when I try to walk away
You'd hurt yourself to make me stay
This is crazy
This is crazy
Care for me, care for me
You said you care for me
There for me, there for me
Said you'd be there for me
Cry for me, cry for me
You said you'd die for me
Give to me, give to me
Why won't you live for me

(and looking at that video I realize that subconsciously I've been going for her look-who knew?)
And then her work on soundtracks around this time was just amazing, like Sweetest Thing, such a great song about relationships and all bitter sweetness that goes into them

and her Can't Take My Eyes of Off You which was one of the best thing about Conspiracy Theory (and that I did not realize was a Frankie Vali)
And then she too went away and all anyone heard were rumours that she was going crazy (Chappelle style) or that she was racist and would rather have her kids starve than have white people buy her album
She came back like in 2002 and all anyone could talk about was how much she had changed and how different her music was and how she was done, not realizing that artists have to grow and evolve and change, which is what she is and is what she did According to Wikipedia

For two or three years I was away from all social interaction. It was a very introspective time because I had to confront my fears and master every demonic thought about inferiority, about insecurity or the fear of being black, young and gifted in this western culture. It took a considerable amount of courage, faith and risk to gain the confidence to be myself. I had to deal with folks who weren’t happy about that. I was a young woman with an evolved mind who was not afraid of her beauty or her sexuality. For some people that's uncomfortable. They didn't understand how female and strong work together. Or young and wise. Or Black and divine.

During this time, Hill abandoned celebrity and stopped doing interviews. She stopped watching television and listening to music and explored other methods of expressing herself, including creating and writing an extensive amount of music, poetry, screenplays, clothing designs, etc.

People need to understand that the Lauryn Hill they were exposed to in the beginning was all that was allowed in that arena at that time. There was much more strength, spirit and passion, desire, curiosity, ambition and opinion that was not allowed in a small space designed for consumer mass appeal and dictated by very limited standards. I had to step away when I realized that for the sake of the machine, I was being way too compromised. I felt uncomfortable about having to smile in someone’s face when I really didn’t like them or even know them well enough to like them.I had to fight for an identity that doesn’t fit in one of their boxes. I’m a whole woman. And when I can’t be whole, I have a problem. By the end I was like, I’ve got to get out of here.

and though the songs were more spiritual, lyrical and less formed and radio ready, and so "less accessible" as I've said before there is very little truer than a singer and their guitar, especially one who comes with such vulnerability. In many of these songs you can see her crafting and putting together the song, which is a powerful thing (and something that has been praised about Bob Dylan's I'm Not There) In other words I really loved it
here's I find it Hard To Say (Rebel)

and the vulnerability and emotion in I Gotta Find Peace of Mind

The Mystery of Iniquity , that was memorably sampled by Kanye in All Falls Down

and for her MTV Unplugged performance, it is such a spiritual, deep and emotional one that the lyrics carry a lot of weight and are like those lyrics you actually wanna study because you understand them and how they relater to you but there's something more inside, and I said all that to say "so since I can't post them all you should go here to study them"
After that there were rumours and teases of a Fugees reunion and not much more solo material (besides Lose Myself from Surf's Up- which seemed to me like Happy Feet on Surfboards, I guess her kids love it)

but I still have faith and she's really grown in importance to me over the past year and so I 'm looking forward to whatever she decides to put out

And so since she's inspired many many legions of Youtube covers, she's still only 32 and she spoke truth to power at the Vatican, Lauryn Hill is the Best Band Ever*

buy the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and/or MTV Unplugged 2.o

A Few MP3s:
The Fugees- Killing Me Softly [download]
The Fugees- Ready or Not [download]
Refugee Camp All Stars- Sweetest Thing [download]

Ex-Factor [download]
Everything is Everything [download]
Nothing Even Matters (feat. D'Angelo) [download]
To Zion [download]
When It Hurts So Bad [download]
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill [download]

I Get Out [download]
Oh Jerusalem [download]
I Just Want You Around [download]
I Find It Hard to Say (Rebel) [download]
The Mystery of Iniquity [download]

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You [download]
Franki Vali and the Four Seasons- Can't Take My Eyes Off of You [download]

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PJ Harvey-The Piano

I really did! miss you that is. now i am horribly exhausted, but not from missing you of course.

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Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?

This video by Miranda July (who is the first survey respondent and the owner of the coolest name ever) really made me think, more so than I like to do on a Friday. I was trying to rack my mind to see if I was the favorite person of anybody. I know for my friends I'm one of their favorites ( or at least I hope), but to be the favorite, the one person who means more to someone and you enjoy more than any other, I know I'm not even close. And though that would be a tremendous honor if I was any one's favorite knowing me that title would freak me out and make me insecure that I need to live up to such high esteem. I would think I'm the favorite person of at least my cats, but then I realized they love whoever finds and holds them. Sluts.

But then as I was thinking about it more I realized that I don't have a favorite person. I have a ton of people I love and who mean the world to me, like a few people from AmeriCorps, Theresa and Hubby but there is no favorite among them. It is such a hard question and in a way if I was able to answer it I think that would be like disrespecting everyone that I didn't pick. Or maybe I would feel the need to pick out their flaws as to why they couldn't be my favorite, which wouldn't be fair at all.

Even if you're in a relationship I don't think that person would necessarily become your favorite, or at least that's how it's been with me in the past. A lot of the times I would rank a friend higher in the grand scale. And if you have a kid, what happens once you have the second? (I've heard) You're not supposed to play favorites.

I don't know, but I'm sure I'll think about the question a lot in the coming days but do you have a favorite person or think you are the favorite person of someone, oh ye mythical reader? I would love to hear about it in the comments. It seems like it would be a wonderful thing to know.

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Your Simply Amazing Stuck in My Head Song of the Day

I've had this song in or in parts close to my head for quite a few days. It's Patti Smith's version of Them's Gloria. It has nothing really to do with Coming Out day except for maybe that Patti Smith's ex husband Robert Mapplethorpe didn't come out until some time in their relationship (or maybe that the female singer is lusting after a Gloria). But it dosen't matter really and has nothing to do with the song; Patti Smith is such an amazing women like a Punk Poet goddess or at least sacred elder with an amazing style. Which you can recognize in her reimagining of Gloria, a cover that is in my opinion so much better than the original. It is such an amazing song to rock out to and sing at the top of your lungs and has one of the best opening lines ever

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine
meltin' in a pot of thieves
wild card up my sleeve
thick heart of stone
my sins my own
they belong to me, me

people say "beware!"
but I don't care
the words are just
rules and regulations to me, me

I-I walk in a room, you know I look so proud
I'm movin' in this here atmosphere, well, anything's allowed
and I go to this here party and I just get bored
until I look out the window, see a sweet young thing
humpin' on the parking meter, leanin' on the parking meter
oh, she looks so good, oh, she looks so fine
and I got this crazy feeling and then I'm gonna ah-ah make her mine
ooh I'll put my spell on her

here she comes
walkin' down the street
here she comes
comin' through my door
here she comes
crawlin' up my stair
here she comes
waltzin' through the hall
in a pretty red dress
and oh, she looks so good, oh, she looks so fine
and I got this crazy feeling that I'm gonna ah-ah make her mine

and then I hear this knockin' on my door
hear this knockin' on my door
and I look up into the big tower clock
and say, "oh my God here's midnight!"
and my baby is walkin' through the door
leanin' on my couch she whispers to me and I take the big plunge
and oh, she was so good and oh, she was so fine
and I'm gonna tell the world that I just ah-ah made her mine

and I said darling, tell me your name, she told me her name
she whispered to me, she told me her name
and her name is, and her name is, and her name is, and her name is G-L-O-R-I-A
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria

I was at the stadium
There were twenty thousand girls called their names out to me
Marie and Ruth but to tell you the truth
I didn't hear them I didn't see
I let my eyes rise to the big tower clock
and I heard those bells chimin' in my heart
going ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong.
ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong
counting the time, then you came to my room
and you whispered to me and we took the big plunge
and oh. you were so good, oh, you were so fine
and I gotta tell the world that I make her mine make her mine
make her mine make her mine make her mine make her mine

G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria,
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria

and the tower bells chime, "ding dong" they chime
they're singing, "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine."

Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A.

So here's Your Simply Amazing Stuck in My Head Song of the Day- Patti Smith's Gloria (performance from SNL)
Patti Smith-Gloria (mp3) buy Horses
Them-Gloria (mp3)

Okay hopefully it can go away now.

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