Thursday, March 24, 2011

Some Stuff, open thread

  • Firstly, Sam Keenan, the artist responsible for the adorable little forked baby up there, is currently participating in Song A Day 2011.  Song A Day is a loose sort of event where musicians commit to writing and recording one song per day for one month.  Sort of like Nanowrimo, or Nablopomo, but with music.  It's pretty rad what people can manage to do in one day (my husband has done it in the past, too; check out his MySpace page for a bunch of his past Song A Days, most from 2008).  Check it out!  The player is at the bottom of the website.  Also, check out the song Super Penguin to hear a guest appearance by Sam's son.
  • Amanda Marcotte has an interesting take on the recent study that reports that most American Catholics disagree with the Catholic Church on a number of contentious issues.  I largely agree with her, but am a little shruggy on the following:
Not that I’m letting Catholics off the hook.  If you disagree with the church, you really should leave as a moral matter.  Money and esteem given to the church allows them perpetuate their evil on the world.  That money and power goes towards depriving women of choices, oppressing gays, spreading HIV by limiting access to condoms, and whatever else they do that you disapprove of.  
It's definitely true that cutting off your support for the Church will lessen the money and power that the Church uses for regressive and bigoted things.  On the other hand, I think there's a lot to be said for Catholics who are actively engaging their churches and leadership for more progressive policies.  Abandoning the institution is one solution, sure; but so is changing it from within.  After all, feminism certainly has its share of bad history, but we aren't abandoning it left and right because the movement's goals and ideals have shifted considerably, and people within the movement are actively trying to be more inclusive, among other things.

  • I also accidentally deleted my old Tumblr that I never updated.  How does one accidentally delete a Tumblr account, you ask?  Well, I had one called Choreographix, with a sub account called Minneapix, where I intended to post old photos I have taken around Minneapolis through the years, mostly concert pictures, because that was my "thing" for a while.  I thought I was deleting that one, but wound up deleting Choreographix.  So I just made a new one, with my name as the title instead, where I post pictures.. of concerts, buildings, protest rallies, me, whatever.  You can find it here.  I just remembered that photography is fun. Yay!  
  • Also, new and interesting ways to upgrade your ramen noodles!  Like this "Ramepherd's Pie," which I need to make immediately:















  • Oh!  And this is a riot.  So, this guy went to India for a while, and... well, he says this:
I went away for India for 6 months last autumn. Whilst I was away one of my best mates was living in my flat looking after it for me. When I got back from the airport last week there was a note on my coffee table to press play on the Playstation and this video came on the TV.. Pretty awesome, though I did feel slightly violated by what happens at about 1m30 and that might be a bit NSFW


Hilarious.

So... what's new?