toastykitten

• Fashionista posts an entire issue of Sassy. The one with Mayim Bialik on the cover, in case you're wondering.
• Daily Show interview with Josh Rushing.

• Phallus forest in Thailand.
• A blog about Chinese science fiction, fantasy and mainstream fiction.
• Freakonomics interview with Karen Abbott about some pretty savvy businesswomen.

Still tired.

Colbert's black friend speaks up.

I cornered a "Daily Show" writer, doing my best to get the inside track on a possible actor/writer gig. We broached the subject of black correspondents. He told me that they "tried a black guy once, but it didn't work out."

I remember that black guy, too. And you know why it didn't work out? Probably because they didn't let him write his own damn jokes. He had the ironic deadpan thing down, but the stuff he said totally did not work for him.

As many as 14 people were injured this afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco deliberately running them down before being arrested by police, who believe the same driver struck and killed a man earlier today in Fremont. No one knows why he did it.

I didn't hear anything about this during the day. But that's because I was in my work bubble and didn't even take my legally mandated 15 minute breaks.

I've been leaving my Gmail open, which is sometimes good in times of boredom, and bad when I'm really trying to work and a friend's got some good gossip or is freaking out over something.

This weekend Mark's going down to LA, which will leave me free to take over the TiVo. (Only the really exciting thing is, I get his PARKING SPOT! Usually, it's pretty easy grabbing a spot in front of his place, but if I get there later at night, I am reduced to tears and parallel parking. The way I do it isn't pretty.)

It's kind of funny - I've finally come to the realization that movies and television are to him what books are to me. Totally necessary to our own survival. Mostly it's about how we like to experience stories - I get too distracted by people with bad accents, I note every grammar error, and well, I didn't grow up in LA.

In the past month, we watched:

Little Miss Sunshine - Funniest movie of the year. It's so damn cute. It's really well-written, and it's about normal, everyday people working to achieve their dreams, and just not fitting in with the world that is already there. And the last half hour had me rolling.

Fun With Dick and Jane - This was a rental, from the only friends of ours who do not do Netflix. Mark and I keep meaning to get around to it, but then we never do and we just rent from the local video store. One thing I've never figured out about that store - why do they keep a tip jar? And why do people put money in it?

30 Days - The New Age episode: I liked the guy, who seemed be to kind of set in his ways, but open to listening to other people. I hated his girlfriend, Misty, whose 180 degree change of opinion after going on and on about how tarot cards are black magic, happened really fast and made me not take her seriously at all. I liked how they did a lot of different types of New Age stuff, not all of which was hokey. And it helped him relax, so that was cool.

The Abortion episode. A pro-choice feminist goes to live with some pro-life people. This was an excellent episode, in which no one learned anything new, except maybe the pastor's wife, who learned that pro-choice people don't "sell abortions". I wish this one was actually longer. The pro-choice person they picked was very clear and smart - and didn't become intimidated or fumble around for words the way the atheist did. It was sort of weird that we didn't see more conversations between her and the pastor, though. She (damn, I keep blanking out on the names) seemed much more into getting to know the women and the kids living at the home, which, is probably something I would do, too.

Next episode: Morgan Spurlock goes to jail for 30 days. He's gone on record as saying that it's really changed his perspective on prison, so I'm betting it'll be a good finale.

Bourdain in Beirut - actually I didn't see this episode, because the Travel Channel changed the name and we didn't see the commercial for it until after it aired. Twice. I'm so angry I missed this episode - from what I've heard, it's a really good episode - not so much about the politics, but about what the consequences of those violent actions do to people who are just trying to live.

Feasting on Asphalt - Alton Brown gets on his motorcycle with a crew of guys and rides across the country, sampling all the best road food. I normally don't watch Good Eats, so I've decided I'm with my sister. Alton Brown talks too much. Yes, that is his job, but still. Anyway, so far it seems like Alton is a very meat-and-potatoes type of guy, and that he's not actually all that adventurous about trying food that's sort of out there. You know Anthony Bourdain would have been happily chowing down on the brain burger and declaring it the best thing ever.

The Daily Show - I'm only noting this one to say, they hired non-white people! Whoa! I love me some Daily Show, but stewards of diversity they are not. Larry and Aasif seem okay, but I think we'll probably need some more episodes before they totally grow on the audience. I think part of the problem is the writing - it feels like they are doing white guy comedy, and not stuff they would actually have written themselves. We'll see.

I am very, very hungry.

Here's the interview with George Takei, who, apparently, has been with his partner for eighteen years. Damn, that's a long time.

I mean, everytime she said that—she wouldn’t say it to me, but I would hear her talking to other people about “that little Jap boy.” It stung. But I just swallowed it. And you grow up like that, feeling ashamed of who you are, and having to swallow pain like that. And then when you get this realization that you have a different focus in life, you know, that other boys are interesting to you—I remember certain boys, you know, who when they would hunker down their pants would go up and I would see their ankles, and that was exciting. At that time, that was exciting, but then you start realizing, that’s not “normal.” And so you start kind of hiding that as well. So [there’s] that duality—of feeling ashamed because you’re Japanese-American, and feeling like you’re different because of your [homosexuality]. And then [as you grow older], with reading, and talking to other people, your understanding of the situation starts to grow. And you think, “It’s wrong, this [shame] is not right.”

On an unrelated note, does anyone have the Daily Show where they visit UC Davis to interview Darrell Yamamoto and George Takei reads some titles of porn? That segment had me rolling for days.

Tu 9/13: Kurt Vonnegut on The Daily Show

Just so you know.