We are playing two shows this weekend, so I’m going to be all messed up by Monday. If it shows in the writing then I do apologize.
Until then, here’s a video of me singing one of my favourite cover tunes:
Enjoy! Or don’t. Or… I dunno, something else.
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A brand new series came to my attention a little while back called Black Folk Don’t, which confronts and discusses (but doesn’t necessarily debunk) stereotypes about the African American community. I had been meaning to throw one of them on here as a Movie Friday for a couple of weeks, but the latest version was just so squarely on the nose that I had to share it.
Some of my own thoughts below the fold.
I remember a party at a neighbour’s house where we were discussing dating and ‘red flags’. The hostess, a headstrong and independent young woman who really had her shit together remarked that what she liked was a ‘manly man’ (by which I assume she meant a guy who closely adheres to societal gender norms). I replied that, while she was entitled to her preference, I thought that she might be precluding a lot of decent guys simply because they didn’t meet her standards for ‘macho’. Her reply was “I guess. I just really hate feminists, you know?”
Puzzled, I responded that were that the case, she hated me. The other guy in the room (who would later go on to become her boyfriend) responded in kind. I dare say that I imagine that, had she looked up the definition, she probably would have identified herself as some kind of feminist, just “not one of those feminists”.
Which kind? The kind made of straw:
Well I decided to go nonsensical instead of topical this week.
The following joke is predicated on the audience understanding that Ted Turner is an environmental philanthropist and created the Captain Planet cartoon:
This joke is predicated on the audience not being terrified to death by Don Cheadle in blueface:
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On Sunday morning I had another opportunity to participate in a Google+ hangout with some of my fellow FTBorg:
We talked about, among other things, why these ‘social justice’ issues – feminism, anti-racism, gender and sex equality, etc. – are so prevalent on the Freethought Blogs network. The video is below the fold:
A lot of the discussion about racism is nuanced and requires not so much a list of “dos and don’ts” but a general approach that requires consciousness raising about issues that may fall outside your personal experience. There will never be a specific pattern of behaviours that makes someone a ‘non-racist’ or is foolproof in making sure that you will never offend anybody. Anyone searching for something resembling that is on a Quixotic snark hunt.
Then again, there are some things that are pretty clear cut:
The comedian, W. Kamau Bell, is a recent discovery for me but I’m loving his approach to examining racial issues through insightful critique and pedagogy rather than the tried and true (but, in my opinion, played out) method of comparing the way that whites and blacks drive and dance. He has a new show on FX called “Totally Biased”, produced by another legend of comedy, Chris Rock. It’s set to debut in August, so keep an eye out for that.
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Last week I sat down with Daniel Fincke from the FTBlog Camels with Hammers to chat about race and race-related subject matters. We were trying out the Google+ hangout environment that we used for last week’s FTB + Skepchick group conversation. I imagine that I’ll be finding more ways to use this tool and be releasing more videos.
We got cut off by a dropped connection, so there’s two parts:
We talked about a number of fun topics, including
It was a fun and productive conversation, and I enjoyed myself a great deal! Hope you enjoy it too.
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*I feel it necessary to apologize for the inconsistent posting recently. Up until now I have prided myself on keeping a regular schedule; however, some recent (positive) changes in my day-to-day schedule have made blogging consistently a bit more difficult. I am trying to make adjustments, but those will take some time.
…is that I get invited to participate in stuff like this:
For those of you who somehow managed to miss it on the other FTBlogs, yesterday a group of us, along with Rebecca Watson of Skepchick, convened online to host the first (and, judging by the response from the other folks, not the last) Google+ hangout forum. We were discussing, among other things, sexual harassment at skepty/athie conferences like The Amazing Meeting, and specifically the piss-poor way in which DJ Grothe of JREF was handling the issue.
It practically goes without saying that I enjoyed the shit out of myself.
I said it jokingly, but I was serious in my self-appraisal as someone who was more or less a dispassionate third-party observer. I don’t really have a dog in this fight – I wasn’t ever planning on going to TAM, and it had nothing to do with any kind of sexual harassment policy. It just doesn’t really interest me a great deal – the stuff that I care about doesn’t really fall under TAM’s umbrella, and unless the JREF decides to suddenly adopt a radically different mission in life, I don’t see that changing. This isn’t a criticism – TAM should keep doing what has apparently been a very successful event – it just means that I don’t really care either way if TAM succeeds. I’ve therefore intentionally stayed out of the discussion, because I don’t really have that much to contribute besides saying “I agree with Stephanie Zvan” until my vocal chords are hoarse.
That being said, I did have two main points that I wished to contribute to the discussion around this issue: [Read more…]
Hey Cromrades, my #SSAweek Blogathon contribution day is rapidly approaching. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve pledged to learn, record, and post songs that you request, for a minimum donation of $10. Here’s a recap of the requests I’ve received thus far:
A total of 8 donors and $180! I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me. There’s still lots of time for you to pledge and submit your request. I’d love to get past the $500 mark. Remember if JT Eberhard and I combine for a total of more than $1000, we’ll face off in an epic song battle to the tune of “Under Pressure” by Queen. If we outraise him, I’ll make him sing the RikRok part to Shaggy’s timeless “It Wasn’t Me”. Trust me – you’ll enjoy my Shaggy impression.
To try and pry your wallets open just a little bit more, here’s a video I shot last night that exposes me as the Buffy fanboy I am: [Read more…]
Public Enemy was the very first rap group I ever heard (aside from Hammer, but even at age 6 I wasn’t particularly a fan). My own internal conversation about race was between me, my father, a nearly-monochromatic mountain town, and Messers D, Flav, and Griff. In light of the theme of ‘othering’ and black Americans’ experiences with the ‘justice’ system, I felt this song was appropriate (language obviously NSFW):
Lyrics below the fold [Read more…]