Category: uncategorized

Texas’ same-sex sodomy law is currently being scrutinized by the Supreme Court (Lawrence v. Texas). Let’s hope they do the right thing and strike it down. Links: Post article and oral argument excerpts. Andrew Sullivan recommends Dahlia Lithwick’s account in Slate. And here’s a bit from today’s Times editorial:

The Supreme Court now has a chance to right that wrong. Two Texas men are challenging their convictions for engaging in consensual sexual relations in a private home. They argue that Texas’s sodomy law deprives them of the right of intimate association other Americans enjoy. And they make a compelling case that the law renders gays second-class citizens. The fact that sodomy is illegal, they note, has been invoked to deny gay people jobs, deny them the protection of hate crime laws and bar them from visiting rights with their own children.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist seemed to defend the Texas law yesterday when he said, “Almost all laws are based on disapproval of some people or conduct.” That may be. But among the court’s most important decisions of the past half-century have been those that ban discrimination. Sodomy laws, which deprive homosexuals of the right to privacy that other Americans take for granted, violate this nation’s Constitution and its spirit. The court should strike down the Texas law and extend to gay Americans full equality under the law.

An aside: I really want to see the Supreme Court in action. One of these days I’ll visit the Court to watch a proceeding.

Okay, I’m going home. Tonight I’m watching Dawson’s Creek (yes, much like that Titanic string quartet, I’m sticking with this sinking ship to the bitter end, so hush), The West Wing (finally, a new episode), and the premiere of Fox’s Wanda at Large, which I’ve read some good things about. I like her, that Wanda Sykes. She cracks me up.

Yesterday I wrote about some modular furniture I’m planning to get. If you really want to take it to the next level, Michael Graves is designing prefabricated rooms, also to be available at Target.com. Starting price: $10,000. Wow. Does that qualify for a housing loan? (Link found at Ampersand.)

Ha, this is great. Last weekend in Oakland, a screening of porn videos, with live music accompaniment, as reported by the Chron: “Give to me, molto agitato.”

Now this I can understand: the Sesame Street Homeland Security Advisory System. If we ever reach Level Elmo… God have mercy on us all. Ha. (Image found at The People’s Republic of Seabrook.)

Speaking of war, there’s an interesting article in today’s Post on wartime language. Who at the Pentagon came up with this usage of “embedded,” anyway:

Journalists are now “embedded” with the troops, which suggests an almost sexual level of media-military involvement. Although the media operate under many of the same restrictions as before, “embedding” conveys closeness and cooperation. In any event, it’s really no different from the olden days, when reporters were merely “assigned” to travel with troops.

I decided to end the lease on the digital piano I’ve been renting for about a year now. It’s just that the quality time I spend playing it has been dwindling to nothing, such that it became nothing more than a pretty table with a monthly fee. The movers came early this morning to take it away, and though I was a bit sad to see it go, I’m excited at the interior-design prospects.

Now that I have all that free space, I’m in the market for storage solutions. I have more clothes than I would ever really need in any given season, and they need to go somewhere. (A donation bin is one place, and yes, it’s on my to-do list.) My dilemma in furniture buying has always been how to transport the items, since I don’t have a car. After learning my lesson lugging a few pieces home last year, including an especially heavy bathroom shelf unit–which reminds me of that Seinfeld episode with Elaine’s armoire–I’m now resigned to the less-hassle, easier-on-the-back-and-shoulders option: having things delivered.

I undertook a quick web jaunt through the usual suspects (from Crate & Barrel, and Levenger–which has a cool, sliding-top desk I like–on down to Linens N Things), and then remembered that good ol’ Target is online as well. For now I have my eye on the QBits modular furniture (though I think I’ll eventually purchase them at BestBuy.com, which has free shipping). I’m totally diggin’ it. I’ve seen similar, but more expensive pieces at Hold Everything, where the quality is better, so there’s a trade-off either way.

By the way, while I was waiting for the piano movers, I watched TV and, skipping all the war news, happened upon a home-improvement show called HandyMa’am. Ha, I thought I knew all the do-it-yourself shows (New Yankee Workshop, anyone?), but apparently not. I can’t say that the HandyMa’am herself, Beverly DeJulio, is as hip or exciting as the other hosts out there (think a safety-goggle-wearing, power-drill-wielding Carol Brady), but she and her daughters did renovate an entire kitchen. Groovy.

The referrals from web searches for Adrien Brody’s speech keep pouring in to Rebel Prince. Not just from Google.com, mind you. I’m also getting hits from foreign websurfers using Google Canada, Japan, Korea, Poland, Netherlands, and Switzerland. At best, in the list of search results, Rebel Prince ranks second only to an old article link in the Guardian, which gets me thinking, “Hey, I can take on a major British news-media conglomerate, right?” Well, sooner or later, perhaps even as I type, the Google robot will wake up and do another sweep, during which my site will be bumped down a few pages in favor of more likely websites.

All the searches for Mr. Brody’s fine words brought on a surge of post-Oscar web traffic, the likes of which my little site hasn’t seen before. What does that look like? Here’s a chart, counting visits from 4 March (the date I started using Site Meter), leading up to the day after the Oscars. Okay, I’m probably pushing up the search relevance the more I talk about it, so I’ll stop here. For now.

Off-the-rack remarks. A leftover fashion observation from Sunday: as much as I appreciate Daniel Day-Lewis’ flair for the extraordinary, his slightly shimmering gray tuxedo just looked out of place amidst the sea of black jackets.

Oh, and I forgot to write about this earlier: last weekend’s most egregious fashion faux pas was not committed at the Oscars, but at the Pentagon press briefing on Saturday by Deputy Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Victoria Clarke. What is this? (Feel free to make up your own “shock and awe”-variant remarks. I’ll start: more like, shock and awful? Thanks, I’ll be here all week.) Girlfriend, you’re representing the American military, in wartime no less… a little restraint, please? Let’s just say we’d never see Madeleine Albright or Condi Rice in something like that.

Congratulations to Susan Thomas and Tina Perantonakis, the winners in our first ever Oscar contest! Read their acceptance speeches here. A few of the more interesting moments from last night’s ceremony:

• Adrien Brody‘s speech. Good for him. The Pianist was awesome. Speaking of him, I was going through my website referral logs, and since last night a whole flurry of people have come to my site from Google searches for his speech. Check it out. As of this writing, the string of search terms “adrien brody oscar speech” (and slight variations) will give you Rebel Prince, no lower than fifth on the list of search results. I’m sort of delighted and bewildered. Maybe Google happened to run a search crawl right after I posted about the Oscars, but still, I’m beating out sites like Hollywood.com. Heh. Anyway, if you’re really looking for his speech, find it at the official Awards site. (The extended Halle Berry kiss was a bit much, though.)
• Barbra Streisand‘s reaction at presenting the Original Song award to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” from 8 Mile. Herself a winner in this category back in the day, she looked more than surprised. Film-score great John Williams, seated on the aisle, making way for Luis Resto to get through and accept the award, was rather symbolic.
• Peter O’Toole, a class act all around (who originally said “no thanks, I’m not done working yet” to the Honorary Award), gave a great, gracious speech.
• Michael Moore can say whatever he likes—I won’t argue his politics either way—but just because cameras are rolling and the world is watching, the Academy Awards isn’t the time and place for protest. It’s like if someone held a party in my honor, and then I got up and ranted about our government. It’s just inappropriate for the occasion. He could have at least related the themes of his winning documentary Bowling for Columbine to his message.
• Could Sean Connery at least have gone the whole nine yards and worn a kilt to go with his frilly shirt? And Gael Garcia Bernal needed a tie. Matthew McConaughey‘s boutonniere of red, white, and blue flowerbuds: very classy.
• What did we think of Steve Martin? I’m usually a fan, but I thought his material last night was a bit hokey.
• Yay for Pedro Almodóvar. Talk to Her is one of the most fascinating and strange and original movies I’ve seen.

What are your high and low moments from this year’s Oscars?