Happy Easter Everybody

RIP

Science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who co-wrote the epic film "2001: A Space Odyssey" and raised the idea of communications satellites in the 1940s, died Wednesday at age 90, an associate confirmed.

Clarke died early Wednesday at a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since the 1950s, said Scott Chase, the secretary of the nonprofit Arthur C. Clarke Foundation.

"He had been taken to hospital in what we had hoped was one of the slings and arrows of being 90, but in this case it was his final visit," Chase said.

Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick shared an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay for "2001."

The film grew out of Clarke's 1951 short story, "The Sentinel," about an alien artifact left on the moon.

CNN

Harper's Bizarre

I haven't done one of these in awhile. Used to when I would post these, I'd say a little something about any issues that Harper was having in her life at the time. Thankfully, there's really nothing to say right now. Things are fairly mellow for her lately-she even got her bike back (more on that in the comments on the post below.) She's still dealing with some of the same old issues, but things seem to be in somewhat of a holding pattern for now.

Translation: Things aren't great, but they ain't too bad either. At the very least, I don't have that worried, gnawing feeling in my stomach right this minute, so that's good enough for me.

The reason I haven't done one of these H.B. posts in several months is because she hasn't been pilfering through my CDs much. Well, she still does occasionally, but when she does, she seems to hone in on something embarrassing (you don't need to know that I have a CD that features the theme song to St. Elmo's Fire in my possession. And you don't need to know that my kid likes to listen to it. Yet here I am telling you about it. I fail.) Besides all that, she's got her own music to root through now, so I guess the allure of mommy's music is no match for the musical juggernaut that is Hannah Montana.

Except for this. She's been playing this one like crazy lately. I have to say, it's a joy to watch her when she listens to it: she bounces around like a ball, shakes her bootay and screams "SO WHAT!" at the top of her lungs. It makes me so proud, I can't even tell you.

Yes, Bruce, They Are Pricks

Harper is on Spring Break this week, and wouldn't you know it, it's rained every day except today. Fortunately it's extremely nice outside this afternoon-sunny, 75 degrees-perfect weather for her to go ride her bike. So a few hours ago, I granted her request to go out and she immediately comes back in and asks "Where's my bike?". I get up and go look and it's nowhere to be seen:some scum sucking, bilge biting rat-bastard stole it.

Who does this? It's an old, crappy bike, the seat cushion is totally gone, it's like sitting on a hemorrhoid generator. Hell, I hope whoever stole it DOES get a scorching case of 'roids, if not worse. Actually, I hope they get polyps and they become so constipated that sitting on the bike would be pure torture, in which case, I hope they have to ride it forever.

Sonofabitch.

Believe it or not, I'm not as enraged as I was when it first happened (if I was, I wouldn't be able to type, the whole post would look like this :"UGCDLHVFOUYR!!). Once my neck cooled off-my neck gets all hot when I get mad-this thing popped into my head. See, I can never get mad enough that I don't remember stupid shit I've seen on tv over the years. It's technically not the same thing, but it's related. If I wanted to be all specific, I'd have to post a review of the Bicycle Thief or something. It's just been so long ago that I saw that and I'm still KIND OF pissed, so I don't think this would be the best time to pontificate about a classic Italian film. As it is, I'm having a hard time following the Fairly Oddparents, which is on tv right now. I think Timmy's in the hospital or something, I dunno.

At least no one stole his bike.

I'd Feel Sorry for Her if I Liked Her

I looked at this photo of Patricia Heaton of 'Everybody Loves Raymond' fame for a solid 2 minutes, wondering why it gave me the creeps. After a close-up examination, the answer came to me like a shot. Can you figure out what's wrong with this woman picture?

The Crazy 88's Can Kiss My Patootie

Last night, due to some Ghostworld talk(haven't seen it? Do it. Now. Go, go, go!), I had a hankering to see a clip from the movie. In particular, the opening sequence where Enid (the delightful Thora Birch) is watching the 1965 Bollywood film Gumnaam. This clip is technically from Gumnaam and Thora Birch is nowhere to be seen in it, so there's really no need for me to mention Ghostworld, other than to use it as an excuse to get as many people to watch it as possible.

This song and the clip itself make me want to bounce off the walls like a wild woman. It's just so peppy and cool and campy that I can't take it, and for a lazy hag me, that's saying something.

By the by, if you've seen Kill Bill, this might seem a little familiar. I'm just speculating, but I'm thinking that Quentin Tarantino has seen Gumnaam at some point. Again, I'm just running this up the flagpole, but this scene brings to mind the fight sequence in KB between the Bride and the Crazy 88's. And once again, this is just my theory. Of course, I wouldn't say it if I wasn't right, but I have to put a disclaimer in there, regardless. Ahem.

Bill Withers-'Ain't No Sunshine'

Just because.

Enough Already

I really, really, REALLY don't like to get into politics or other similarly touchy topics on this blog, but this is driving me nuts and I have to say something.

There seems to be a proliferation of stories and opinions concerning the current democratic presidential race that say things like this:

""They're running to the rock star, to the momentum, to the excitement...And I am worried that if Hillary doesn't get elected, I am never going to see a woman president in my lifetime. I do think her chances are slipping away, and it [ticks] me off."

I'll say it right off: I'm a feminist. I was raised to believe that just because I'm female, it didn't necessarily make me weaker or less valuable a person than a man. I read stuff like Ms. Magazine while in my teens and it helped to form the-arguably-strong woman I am today. The thing is, while I read all of the feminist literature I could get my hands on, due to the common sense that was also instilled in me by my parents, I never had the notion that I deserved something just BECAUSE I was a woman.

My issue with comments like the above, is that in almost every article I've read like that, they never make a mention of Clinton's stand on any issues. Not her voting record, nothing except her gender, and they all have the tone of "we want a president with a vagina, it doesn't matter WHO it belongs to".

At first I thought that opinion was held mainly by the old-school 2nd Wave feminists, the ones who fought so hard for abortion rights and equality in the workplace that, along the way, some of them became slightly blind to reality. It comes down to a matter of age and experience in some ways. Or so I thought until Tina Fey's "Bitch is the new black" rant on Saturday Night Live last week:

“Women have come so far as feminists that they don’t feel obligated to vote for a candidate just because she’s a woman. Women today feel perfectly free to vote for whoever Oprah tells them to.”

Completely ignoring the asinine Oprah dig, I'm a little baffled that the first comment could possibly be used as an insult. I thought for sure she was being sarcastic-it's Tina Fey for god's sake, she makes a living doing comedy. But the consensus seems to be that she was for real, and if she is, she dropped quite bit in my esteem. No one with any sense should feel obligated to vote for someone JUST BECAUSE they're a woman, or JUST BECAUSE they're black, or white or for any other ultimately shallow reason. How many people voted George W. Bush into office because he was the one they'd "rather have a beer with"?

Am I going to vote for Hillary Clinton? No. Is it because she's a woman? No. Do I want a woman president someday? Absolutely, if she's qualified. Do I think there are people out there that won't vote for her because she is? Of course I do, and those people are idiots, but equally idiotic are the ones who'd vote FOR her based only on that reason. I don't truly believe that Tina Fey or any of the others are voting for her based on the gender issue alone, but when they focus on that and ignore everything else they lose credibility and so does their candidate, and really, anyone else who would vote for her based on politics does as well.

I guess my point with all of this is that, this is the highest office a person in this country can hold. As we've learned this last go-round, they can make some life changing decisions for the rest of us, whether we like it or not. So for our own sakes, we have GOT to ignore the outer trappings of the candidates and focus on what they stand for, or we could very possibly be in some deep doo-doo in the next 4 years. So if you want to vote for Hillary Clinton, fine, that's your call. But if you do, make sure you do it for the right reasons. 'K?