Kilt #2: Mocker

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The only problem I’ve had so far with owning a kilt is that I only owned one kilt. As much as I like wearing the kilt for general day-to-day use, wearing the same garment every day can get a little questionable, no matter how cool the garment is. Plus, laundry days pretty much necessitate going back to pants while the kilt is in the wash.

Luckily, this is a problem easily solved — I put in an order for a second kilt a couple weeks ago, and got the call yesterday that it was in! I hopped the bus out to the UK warehouse this morning, and walked out the proud owner of my second Utilikilt.

Original UtilikiltMocker Utilikilt

Where my first was an Original UK, this one’s a Mocker. The main differences are that the Original has a single back pocket and the Mocker has two, and where the Original has external cargo-style pockets, the Mocker has internal side pockets (more like “normal” pants pockets). They’re incredibly deep, too — as the saleguy told me, the aim is to “keep your junk below your junk.”

I’d wanted the Mocker style for a bit now, as I’ve been planning to go see a couple friends get married next month up in Anchorage, and while they were quite adamant that I should come to the wedding kilted, I figured the cleaner lines of the Mocker would present a more “formal” look. Of course, now the wedding has been delayed, but my vacation is still set — and it was a convenient excuse to finally get the new kilt. ;)

So, that’s two down, who knows how many to go? Ideally, I’d like to have at least one more of each of the Original and Mocker (so I can be sure to have at least one of each style clean at any given point for any particular occasion). I’m idly considering picking up one of the Survival kilts for those few instances where I go tramping about in the woods (a rare, but not entirely unheard of event) or just needs lots of places to put stuff, and someday when I’ve got a paycheck to just blow I’d love to pick up one of the leather kilts. That’s far in the future, however…

iTunes: “Sour Times (Live)” by Portishead from the album Roseland NYC (1998, 5:21).

Ebert’s obsession with Brittany Murphy

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Mike pointed to Ebert’s review of “Little Black Book” today, pointing out an entertaining anecdote about actress Brittany Murphy.

As for Brittany Murphy, for me it goes back to the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards, held the day before the Oscars in a big tent on the beach at Santa Monica. Murphy was assigned to present one of the awards. Her task was to read the names of the five nominees, open an envelope and reveal the name of the winner. This she turned into an opportunity for screwball improvisational comedy, by pretending she could not follow this sequence, not even after the audience shouted instructions and the stage manager came out to whisper in her ear not once but twice. There were those in the audience who were dumbfounded by her stupidity. I was dumbfounded by her brilliance. I had a front-row seat, and was convinced her timing was too good, her double-takes too perfect, her pauses too wicked, to even possibly be authentic. She was taking a routine task and turning it into the opportunity to steal a scene and leave everybody in the tent chattering about her performance. You can’t screw up that entertainingly by accident. You have to know exactly what you’re doing.

After reading it, I was a little curious as to whether any video footage of the event might be floating around the ‘net, and started Googling for ‘brittany murphy independent spirit awards’. As it turns out, this is at least the third time Ebert has mentioned Brittany’s pseudo-stumble.

From his April 4, 2003 review of “Spun”:

Murphy made quite an impact at the Independent Spirit Awards by being unable to master the concept of reading the five nominees before opening the envelope, despite two helpful visits from the stage manager and lots of suggestions from the audience, but with Murphy, you always kind of wonder if she doesn’t know exactly what she’s doing.

And from his August 15, 2003 review of “Updown Girls”:

The theory is that Brittany Murphy is trying to channel Marilyn Monroe, but as I watched “Uptown Girls,” another name came to mind: Lucille Ball. Murphy has a kind of divine ineptitude that moves beyond Marilyn’s helplessness into Lucy’s dizzy lovability. She is like a magnet for whoops! moments.

I remember her as a presenter at the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards, where her assignment was to read the names of five nominees, open an envelope and read the winner. This she was unable to do, despite two visits by a stage manager who whispered helpful suggestions into her ear. She kept trying to read every nominee as the winner, and when she finally arrived triumphantly at the real winner, she inspired no confidence that she had it right.

Some thought she was completely clueless, or worse. I studied her timing and speculated that she knew exactly what she was doing, and that while it took no skill at all to get it right, it took a certain genius to get it so perfectly wrong. She succeeded in capturing the attention of every person in that distracted and chattering crowd, and I recalled “Lucy” shows where everyone in a restaurant would suddenly be looking at her.

Something tells me she made an impression on Ebert. ;)

I’d still like to see a video clip of this at some point, though I had no luck digging one up. I’m also a bit more curious about Brittany, who I’d never (to my memory) actually heard of before now.

iTunes: “Nighttrain” by Public Enemy from the album Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Black (1991, 3:27).

Bizarre homophobic Fox News attack on Disney

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Disney Dream Desk

Earlier this week, Disney announced the “Disney Dream Desk”, a \$900 PC for kids. Honestly, it’s not that newsworthy of a deal: the computer is kind of ugly, and one of the selling points is that it comes pre-configured with oodles of site-blocking software to keep kids from looking at porn (and, as a side effect, a good number of in-depth informative resources on the ‘net, as Boing Boing points out in the link above).

When Disney president Robert Iger went on Fox News to do a brief promotional spot for the Dream Desk (news or commercial…who can tell?), he was suddenly blindsided by host Stuart Varney’s homophobic attack on the (not Disney-sponsored) “Gay Days” at Disney World.

IGER: It’s easy to set up, easy to use, compact, it doesn’t take much room, and most importantly it has what’s called ContentWatch built in.

VARNEY: Well, you know, I — exactly. I mean, in June you have “Gay Days” at your theme parks. You got any ‘Gay Days’ on the Mickey computer?

IGER: Well, this has built into it all kinds of protective devices that protects the kid, or the child from internet sites that a parent wouldn’t deem appropriate. Also, the fact —

VARNEY: Well, you don’t protect the kids from “Gay Days” at the theme parks, do you? Why do you have to protect them in the computer?

IGER: No, we don’t sponsor — we don’t sponsor “Gay Days.” You know, we are a company that lets anyone who is willing to pay through our gates.

Kudos to Iger for handling the sudden, unexpected (and entirely unreasonable and unprofessional) line of questioning as best as he could, that’s for sure.

Varney should, at minimum, be censured by Fox for derailing a promotional fluff piece with his bigoted hysteria. This was an absolutely ridiculous injection of far-right-wing hatred into a situation where it was far, far out of place, and really shouldn’t be tolerated, even by “fair and balanced” Fox News.

(via Boing Boing)

iTunes: “Heaven Says Move (Heavenly Bliss)” by DJ H. Geek from the album Heaven Says Move (1999, 5:46).

It’s not all bad, really!

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Last month, I mentioned that I’d been in contact with a magazine reporter who was working on a story about weblogs and some of the potential pitfalls that can come about when recording your life online for the world to see. As I mentioned at the time, while I at first wasn’t terribly concerned about the tone of the article, as our conversation progressed, I started to worry that it was going to end up all gloom-and-doom.

It appears that Anil has also been contacted by a reporter working on a similar story (possibly the same reporter, or another reporter also working on the story for the same publication, though I can’t be absolutely sure about that), and he ended up having some of the same reservations that I did. In his response to the reporter who contacted him, he expressed a desire shared by myself and, I’m sure, many others in the weblogging world: rather than focusing solely on the things that go wrong, that the media also look at the things that go right, and just why we all keep our weblogs going even in the face of the potential downsides.

One thing I would suggest is considering a, well, more uplifting angle. There have been an awful lot of “blogs can cost you your job!” or “make money fast with blogs!” stories, and very few that cover the positive reasons people have weblogs.

For a lot of your audience, this is their first impression of what weblogs can be, and frankly, if they were all about dire consequences, there wouldn’t be millions of people publishing weblogs every day.

Most of the people in my social circle have met their spouses/significant others, gotten apartments, gotten jobs, made friends, or (in my case) all of the above because of their weblogs. All that plus they get to participate in a new medium instead of just passively consuming media.

From what I know of [name of publication], the audience is one that appreciates a good positive human story, and it’s also much more likely that you’ll get some good cooperation or participation from people in the weblog realm who can help strengthen your story.

I’ve just sent a link to Anil’s post to the reporter I’ve been talking with, in case we are dealing with separate people. With any luck, should this article eventually appear, there will be a bit more to it than mere horror stories.

Condolences

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Over the course of the past few days, Jessica Wilkinson, a regular member at the Vogue, went missing. Yesterday, her family officially filed a missing persons report with the police, and word started spreading around the various Seattle communities.

Last night, the police contacted her family to let them know that she had passed away in her apartment. Nothing else is known at this point.

I didn’t know her, though from the pictures I’ve seen as people have posted notices both looking for her and reacting to news of her death, I do believe that I know who she was, having seen her at the Vogue on quite a few occasions.

My deepest sympathies and condolences to those who knew her and shared her friendship. From what I’ve been reading, many people just lost a well-loved friend.

Tigger cleared of all charges

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In a recent trial in Florida, a Disney employee was found not guilty of fondling a 13 year old girl while posing in a Tigger costume for photographs. My favorite part of the article was a series of photos in which the defense attorney tried on a Tigger costume in order to demonstrate how difficult it can be to know exactly where one’s hands are placed while suited up. The photos are priceless…

Book him, Dan-o

“Book him, Dan-o.”

Tigger being arrested

“This creep’s been pouncing on people all over the Hundred Acre Wood again.”

Check everywhere

“Hey! Is the full-body cavity search really necessary, guys?”

I'm innocent!

Tigger pleaded innocent, claiming that pouncing is “what Tiggers do best!”

The Tigger macarena

After being let go with a warning, the courtroom quickly cleared as Tigger celebrated by performing the Macarena.

iTunes: “Macarena (Mezcla Guerrillera)” by Los Del Rio from the album Macarena Non Stop (1996, 5:36).

They Knew

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Today’s must-read: They Knew…

Despite the whitewash, we now know that the Bush administration was warned before the war that its Iraq claims were weak.

If desperation is ugly, then Washington, D.C. today is downright hideous.

As the 9/11 Commission recently reported, there was “no credible evidence” of a collaborative relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. Similarly, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. With U.S. casualties mounting in an election year, the White House is grasping at straws to avoid being held accountable for its dishonesty.

The whitewash already has started: In July, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee released a controversial report blaming the CIA for the mess. The panel conveniently refuses to evaluate what the White House did with the information it was given or how the White House set up its own special team of Pentagon political appointees (called the Office of Special Plans) to circumvent well-established intelligence channels. And Vice President Dick Cheney continues to say without a shred of proof that there is “overwhelming evidence” justifying the administration’s pre-war charges.

But as author Flannery O’Conner noted, “Truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” That means no matter how much defensive spin spews from the White House, the Bush administration cannot escape the documented fact that it was clearly warned before the war that its rationale for invading Iraq was weak.

Top administration officials repeatedly ignored warnings that their assertions about Iraq’s supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and connections to al Qaeda were overstated. In some cases, they were told their claims were wholly without merit, yet they went ahead and made them anyway. Even the Senate report admits that the White House “misrepresented” classified intelligence by eliminating references to contradictory assertions.

In short, they knew they were misleading America.

And they did not care.

The full article has many bits of information that have been known for a long time — at least to those of us who have been paying any amount of attention — but the authors do a wonderful job of summarizing it all in one neat package, extensively linked with source articles.

How anybody can continue to put any stock in the Bush administration is just mind boggling to me.

(via MeFi)

iTunes: “Stare and Stare” by MC 900 Ft Jesus from the album One Step Ahead of the Spider (1994, 6:59).

Missouri 0 — Seattle 1

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Gay Marriage in WA

Handily showing up Missouri’s ban on gay marriage, King County Superior Court Judge William Downing ruled this morning that banning gay marriage would violate the state constitution, clearing the way for gay marriage in Washington once the ruling is reviewed by the state Supreme Court.

Gay couples can marry in Washington state, a judge ruled Wednesday, saying that banning such marriages violates the state constitution.

“The denial to the plaintiffs of the right to marry constitutes a denial of substantive due process,” King County Superior Court Judge William L. Downing said in his ruling.

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Downing rejected arguments that a ban on same-sex marriage would protect children from harm that may be caused by being raised in a nontraditional family.

“Although many may hold strong opinions on the subject, the fact is that there are no scientifically valid studies tending to establish a negative impact on the adjustment of children raised by an intact same-sex couple as compared with those raised by an intact opposite-sex couple,” he wrote.

The judge concluded: “The exclusion of same-sex partners from civil marriage … is not rationally related to any legitimate or compelling state interest and is certainly not narrowly tailored toward such an interest.”

The ruling still needs to be reviewed by the state Supreme Court, but as they’ve ruled in favor of gay couples in two prior cases, the outlook is quite optimistic.

Hooray for Judge Downing, hooray for Washington — and hooray for all the prospective newlyweds-to-be!

(via DeAnna and the Seattle LiveJournal Community)

iTunes: “Tiptoe Through the Inferno” by MC 900 Ft Jesus from the album One Step Ahead of the Spider (1994, 4:50).

Photo Op? Or attempted murder?

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Pratridiot Watch takes Bush to task for using the recent security alerts as a photo op for Laura and the twins.

The day after Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge announced with great urgency an fanfare that they had specific information on terror targets in New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC, the Bush campaign is using the targets for photo ops with Laura and the Twins.

First Lady Laura Bush and her twin daughters paid a surprise visit to the Citigroup Center yesterday, joining Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Pataki to cheer on employees who ignored the terror threat and reported for work. The lunchtime crowd erupted in applause when Mrs. Bush and her daughters, Jenna and Barbara, stopped to chat over coffee at a table of Citigroup employees in the atrium.

“I wanted to thank people for coming to work and I’m really glad to be with them today,” the first lady said to a roar of approval from the crowd.

So the Bush administration took information that al Queda looked at these buildings three years ago, issued an urgent alert that the Citigroup building is a target of terrorists, then sent Bush’s wife and daughters in for a campaign photo op to rally the troops.

Actually, I think that’s entirely the wrong way to look at it. It wasn’t a photo op — Bush was actually just hoping the terrorists would attack, killing his wife and children in the process, so he could play upon the sympathies of the nation’s people to re-elect him next November.

Big honkin’ disclaimer: No, of course I’m not serious. I just have an occasionally very black sense of humor, and this popped into my head. I don’t wish Laura, the twins, or anyone else any harm — I don’t even wish George Bush any physical harm, merely the ego blow of losing the upcoming election, and maybe a few solid kicks to the shin for being a complete and total putz.

I do very strongly agree that using this alert as a photo op is rather disgusting.

(via Len)

iTunes: “Complacency” by Noxious Emotion from the album This Hallowed Ground (1995, 4:11).