@#8 concurred! and i would add "long live our love," "the dum dum ditty," and, ehr, more or less everything else they ever recorded.

mary weiss' unexpected solo album from last year was alright, too.

for one, am i reading that listing wrong, because it would appear as though christie's actually sold the dies in 2003; that is, it's not exactly "currently up for sale."

it's still a lovely thing; though my appreciation is more for roman glasswork than gaming, about which i know nothing.

and now i will shut up. promise.

well, on the racism scale, it's got nothing on that thai toothpaste ad, but still.

i would say that, in a situation where there can be said to exist a significant system of advantage or disadvantage based on race (as there is in the north america, japan, and, indeed, most places), for members of a "dominant" or "favored" race to impersonate members of a marginalized race is almost always inappropriate, yes. this is why white chicks, while maybe dreadful, wouldn't be what i'd call racist in any particular way.

and there are, of course, instances where a racial drag is employed for the purpose of promoting dialog or criticism--i mean, my undergraduate painting thesis was about blackface; my intentions were anything but racist, but, three years down the road, i'm not entirely sure the effect wasn't. but as a general rule of thumb? blackface probably a thing to avoid in 99.9% of situations.

also, the particular way that blackface seems to be used in japan, as a means of being "edgy" or "subversive," skeeves me out in a massive way.

that said, i don't think opinion is really all that unified on racial impersonation; i mean, people got all out of joint when fred armisen impersonated barack obama but not when he impersonated mahmoud ahmadinajad (verily, in the parlance, "i LOLed"), so who's to say? on top of that, there are still a fair number of feminist critics who find male drag queens deeply and intractably offensive (like, in terms of misogyny, not fashion sense or musical preference), and not all that many people agree with them on that point, so maybe opinion will shift?

anyway, i don't mean to come down to hardly or dogmatically, but i do think it's a worthwhile conversation.

and just to throw some more things in:

Wikipedia section on blackface in Japan and the work of Iona Rozeal Brown, an african-american painter who deals primarily with ganguro subculture. about whom, actually, it appears xeni posted ages ago.

ehr. is usage of the word "spook" to mean "agent" or similar actually more common than its use as a racial slur?

i'm sorry. i know it's a japanese video and context is everything. or something. but i'm just not down for blackface. like, ever.

clarification appreciated, but, uh, i'm still not buying any of this.

we have, among other things, an eleven-year-old janet jackson video that demonstrates the aesthetic of both the "original" photo shoot and the subsequent video pretty completely. are she or mark romanek (the director) calling foul?

a video director had an idea for a shoot; someone involved in the production contacted a stylist for a fashion spread about finding some accessories. the original stylist wasn't hired because the project had a stylist already. like, maybe add homeboy to the christmas card list, but beyond that i don't see that professional courtesy requires much more.

when my mom was around, she used to set up an advent calendar for me and my brother made from a little hardware organizer done up with christmas fabric and punch labeler numbers on each drawer.

whether or not it's really practical as an organizational scheme, this still appeals to me greatly.

that's plenty funny in JPEG. kind or (horrifically) irresponsible in practice. at least, you know, if it proves effective.

now now. it only stand to reason that, in the pen', martha would have developed a healthy respect for the well-made bedsheet.

i'm torn between my knee-jerk, "hetero-goddamn-sexuals" response and some crack about a long tail.

i think it's time to put the internet away, for the evening.

i would sign up for the registry, but i'm ineligible. someone might catch The Gay.

heterosexuals are so weird.

@#2, entrance fees are hardly unheard-of for art/design competitions, and $20 is definitely at the low end of the spectrum. my favorite competitions are the ones that charge a fee to be included, once your application has been accepted.

what i really want to know is, to whom should i direct my proposal for the Reagan Living Memorial Vegetable Garden? it's lost some of its impact now that he's, you know, actually dead, but i still think the idea of a cabbage patch on the washington mall has some currency.

@1 I'm having a bit of a hard time appreciating the video, given how thoroughly repellent the song is.

boo! that's cold, ellsworth PD. real cold.

not that i expected better of maine. all cavorting with new brunswick, like that.

i can't speak to the situation in needham, mass., but it seems quite often that the very "uppity parents" who would get up in arms over ronald mcdonald on a report card are the very same uppity citizens who vote down things like proposed property tax hikes to benefit underfunded school districts. i'm not sure which behavior i find more crass.

"lucious"? "ancient"?

and by, "like the bravia ad," you surely mean, "like the 1997 piece by canadian artist lucy pullen."

does anybody know what that typeface is, at the top? it's terribly attractive.

it is an attractive car. and i don't like cars.

but the nazi thing is troubling. #3, "an old tattoo" can be covered or removed: choosing to maintain the SS insignia on one's hand is a pretty sure sign of deep-seated douche-baggery.

art? oh dear, i've missed something. drat this astigmatism! drat it!

paulr, dudefriend. did you read the page you linked to? because at the bottom, it, in fact, says that the fish in this particular video has been confirmed as real.

spoilsport.

good lord, the person responsible for interior decorating at that place ought to be shot.

that bravia ad with all the bouncing superballs set to that josé gonzález song was also a direct ripoff of an older piece by canadian artist lucy pullen.

it rankles me more when fine art pieces get misappropriated like this, but i guess i'd feel differently if i were an illustrator.

pssh. it's about time toronto got put in its place. i might be able to eke out some righteous indignation if this were happening to a genuinely cash-strapped canadian city, but toronto? honky please.

and yes. in principle it's asinine and terrible. it just couldn't happen to a nicer municipality.

chaser indeed!
jesus!

a variation, but at the florida state fair (in addition to alligator wrestling and the "dancing chickens"--chickens placed on a piece of electrified metal grating; you'd pop in a quarter to complete the circuit, "hilarity" ensued) we had armadillo races. somewhat different, as it involved a number of kids choosing an armadillo each and crawling on all fours behind it, blowing on their tails to make them run faster, but fun. i won one year.

so yeah. pig racing? not all that weird, really.

"well, you can do both."

classic.

the shoes aren't //that// hideous.
alright so a little, kind of, but still.

sigh. tits and time-lapse, mammaries and monkeys. wll, crtnly cn't sy y gys dn't knw wht y lk nd stck wth t.