The internet is generally, as Dave Chapelle called it, intolerable. But every once in a while, I come across something marvelous, which the internet has made possible. Photographer Stéfan le Dû spent a year photographing his action figures in entertaining tableaux. There is a smattering of I…( Read more )
When I was in high school, a cute boy who got stabbed didn’t have the option to photograph himself swaggering and smiling on painkillers (I assume) in the hospital and get 15 minutes of fame. You can check out Nate Scimio’s Instagram here. I’m sure there will come a time when…( Read more )
by Amelia G : March 12th, 2010
Sometimes it makes me sad that our society has become more receptive to a kind obituary than to giving props to the living. Then again, I think people who are hostile to the grieving deserve a special place in Hell and I do think it is extremely important to honor the dead when they pass.
I found it surreal how many of my friends recently posted that Corey Haim was their first celebrity crush. He wasn’t my type, but his work obviously touched a lot of people. Yet the main feedback he got, while he was alive, was pretty negative. Somehow the way Corey Haim’s accomplishments peaked early made it acceptable for people to mock him when he was down. TMZ never runs an article about how someone who couldn’t hold down a job as a fry cook looked like death warmed over when they went to the supermarket the other day. But, if someone has a few accomplishments under their belt, then rumors of their marriage failing, details of their special sexual needs, and unflattering photos of them double-parked outside the Pinkberry for a yogurt during their time of the month are all fair game.
I am not a public figure, but maybe I wanted to be . . . before the internet came along and gossip media wildly outpaced more traditional entertainment journalism. I sure as heck have no desire to be a public figure now. I know absolutely nothing about Brad Pitt’s creative process, yet it is a challenge to avoid finding out when he is rumored to . . .
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Like Dave Chappelle says, intolerable. (Except that my job is mostly pretty cool, aside from feeling responsible for so many people.)
I wish there was a battery of tests for IQ and reading comprehension, which people had to pass before they were given access to the internet. I would not ignore someone who was talking to me at a party, unless I felt really hostile towards them for some reason and was trying to be rude. Alas, too many people on the internet are not worth engaging at all, even when they are speaking directly to me. It just does not come naturally to me to dismiss people, even anonymous trolls, as too insignificant to reply to. And I always think people will see reason, if given the opportunity. LOL. But I’m learning. I hope.
by Amelia G : September 27th, 2009
Blasphemy Day is a new internet-spawned holiday like Talk Like a Pirate Day or CAPS LOCK DAY. I’m not surprised that more people added typing like a pirate to their holiday calendars than typing in all capital letters, but I would have thought more people would have gotten into Blasphemy Day.
Blasphemy Day is set for September 30, as a tip of the hat to the riots caused when a Danish newspaper ran a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to the anonymously-run Blasphemy Day web site, “International Blasphemy Day is not just a day. It is a movement to dismantle the wall which exists between religion and criticism . . . The objective of International Blasphemy Day is to open up all religious beliefs to the same level of free inquiry, discussion and criticism to which all other areas of academic interest are subjected.” Noble aspiration, although I’m not sure a mean-spirited cartoon really advances human knowledge. Slaying sacred cows can be humorous (Heck, even the existence of the idiomatic expression sacred cow is pretty funny), but I have yet to hear anyone explain what the joke was in the Danish Muhammad cartoon, except maybe that it would piss people off.
I used to feel like each person’s individual relationship with their deity or deities or lack thereof was . . .
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