Links - July 13, 2011

What does phoenix wright down do?

Radiolab presents: Symmetry

"This striking Radiolab video made by Everynone was inspired by Radiolab's Desperately Seeking Symmetry episode. Filmmakers Will Hoffman, Daniel Mercadante, and Julius Metoyer III play with our yearning for balance, and reveal how beautiful imperfect matches can be."

SMBC: In the Future, Everything is Games

"WOOH! Headshot!"

The Great Wall of Vagina

"One is able to stare without shame but in wonder and amazement at this exposé of human variety. For the first time for many women they will be able to see their own genitals in relation to other women's. In doing so they may dispel many misconceptions they may have been carrying about what women look like 'down there'. The sculpture is serene and intricate and it works on many levels."

Check out the interviews with the artist, too. I admire the way he answered when asked about his own sexual preferences. I agree with him 100%. 

Consciously Parenting: Phoenix Rising from the Ashes

"The first time I ever heard about the Phoenix rising from the ashes was in reading the Harry Potter series. I was captivated by the idea that out of something that seemed horrible and final was the potential for a rebirth and renewal. I realized that some of the experiences in my life that have seemed the darkest have given me the opportunity to rise up anew and embrace life in a deeper way. Death by fire isn't pleasant, but it has a way of distilling everything down to its elements in a way nothing else could."

Dear Sugar: The Obliterated Place

"You have the power to withstand this sorrow. We all do, though we all claim not to. We say, “I couldn’t go on,” instead of saying we hope we won’t have to. That’s what you’re saying in your letter to me, Living Dead Dad. You’ve made it so fucking long without your sweet boy and now you can’t take it anymore. But you can. You must."

this week's oft-repeated song

You know the one. The song you just play over and over? This is mine, this week.

Nobody seems to know the official lyrics, so the lyrics below are just my best guess/compromise based on other people's varied interpretations.

Use your intuition

It's all you've got

Keys are rare

And there's a dozen locks

Standing in your way

So goes the gold age

Of your tired life

Digging for a way

You cast a spell

Carve a path from all the things they sell

But they don't let go

Just thought you should know

Keys are rare

I know what I know

Would not fill a thimble

So let your mind go (let my mind go)

Straight down the runway

Does one want to

Get more used to

The mall and misery? (the mall and the misery)

The debt mounts

It costs to be alive

Oh she lies half burning

From the biting cold

If only to learn

What you've never been told

There's a real world

And somewhere a good girl

Lives and breathes

Part of her up in the callow mind

Ideas stolen in the morning tide

There's a dark time

This is your dark rhyme

Feel your heart

I know what I know

Would not fill a thimble

So let your mind go (let my mind go)

Straight down the runway

Does one want to

Get more used to

The mall and misery? (the mall and the misery)

The dead mouths

It costs to be alive

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The lyrics seem sad, written out like that.

I don't take the song as a sad song, though. When I listen to it, I feel excited and hopeful for the future. 

I've had my ear to the earth for the past few years, just listening. It was simply my time to be quiet, to stop production and just "go to the mountain" so to speak.

So much of what I heard was frightening. I have sometimes been very sick with that fear. And other times, sicker still.

Then something started to change. I heard something else, underneath all that raucous, selfish tantruming. A different sort of sound entirely.

I feel like--maybe, just maybe-- we're approaching the crescendo of some kind of quiet, worldwide metamorphosis. There is an increasing refusal to be content with shallow explanations for everything. More and more people are catching a glimpse of the strands that intertwine all over the place, forming webs of cause and effect more complex than any of our outdated religious or behavioral systems could account for (and I mean nothing mystical here, not in the slightest). Not everybody is feeling it. But some are... and I believe that this mild, patient, haunted minority is right now shaping the future of humanity into something more beautiful than it otherwise would have been.

The collective mind of our planet's most observant beings has decided to fight. Not with bombs and swords, but with the expression of our new values, through our art, our words, our deeds. Through these avenues, we will lead the way. And we will steer this ship with such a light hand, the partygoers deep within its hull will hardly notice the change of direction. It has already begun.

Or maybe it's just my own private transition I am witnessing, and nothing so big as all that.

Either way, that's ok. I'm ready now.

a question to the world

Is Treasure Planet possibly the most tragically underrated Disney film ever?

(I think so.)

This fanvid got added to my "stuff I like" list today, but I'm also going to highlight it here. <3



The part where Jim's dad treats him like shit and then abandons the family always gets me (1:30-2:10 above). That probably hits a lot of people close to home, hmm? Especially in my generation. I was 20 the first time I saw this movie and I was still trying very hard to be the sort of person who's tough to crack but--oh!--I had to wipe my face with my sleeves.

This movie is frequently described as a "story about a boy becoming a man." It's not, though. To call it that is to erase the experiences of all the millions of women and girls who would identify with Jim, who feel all of these things in just the same way. Don't do that to us... it is killing us to be forever relegated to passive roles.

So...

I think Treasure Planet is a story about being born a human and learning to live in a broken world. It's about getting slapped around by the slings and arrows of harsh reality before you've even got your bearings, and somehow figuring out a way to pull through it all, 'til one day you find in yourself a font of strength and sensitivity you never knew you were capable of producing.

---

As a side note, I thought it was really interesting to see that Ariel/Jim is a major shipping theme on the internets.

Poor Ariel never really got the chance to discover what Jim did, did she? I mean, she got her boyfriend to stab a bitch through the belly with the tip of a broken boat in the name of love a hot summer crush... but that's not remotely on the same level as the autonomy, transcendence, and connection that Jim found.

I think they both come from very similar emotional background, though...

Yeah, I would totally set them up on a date if I were the trans-dimensional matchmaker of the Kingdom Hearts universe. ^_^

As for Prince Eric? Oh, I don't know. Charlotte La Bouff?

every you and every me

via CrimethInc

---

update - Sept 5, 2011:
There's a neat post along these lines up at No, Seriously, What About Teh Menz today.

(Beware the comment section on older posts on that blog, btw. Despite the high quality and measured tone of most of the main articles, the site frequently attracts commenters of the worst variety. It looks like moderation is improving though, thankfully.)

elliott smith again

Digging through an old youtube playlist tonight, from an obsolete account of mine. This is Elliott Smith, live* in Olympia, WA in 1999. Wish I could have gone to see him once! Will have to settle for the Figure 8 wall memorial.


 *(lolsob)

hetalia on america's relationship with food

As soon as I watched this bit a couple nights ago, I knew I'd have to transcribe it. This is from the English dub of Hetalia: Axis Powers, currently available for streaming on Netflix. I was unable to find any high quality clips of this scene on Youtube. Too bad!

UPDATE: I found one!

Hetalia Episode 17:

America's Cleaning of the Storage, Part I

BRITAIN: Hey, fatass. You've been gorging yourself so much lately, I'm worried that you're going to kill yourself.

AMERICA: *chomping on a cheeseburger* Dude, don't be silly! I'm way too into myself to ever do something stupid like that.

BRITAIN: *sighs* No, that's not really what I'm saying. You know--with heart disease or by choking.

AMERICA: What?! I'm fine. Don't worry, 'kay?

Text: THAT NIGHT...

AMERICA: *stepping onto the scale with trepidation* I work out like a frickin' champion... so I shouldn't gain that much, right?

Text: But he's dressed lightly.

AMERICA: *sees the number on the scale* OWOUUUU!!! *in a panic* Sure, I ate a lot of genetically-modified hormone-rich beef, but I totally drank diet soda to balance it out!

Text: French Method of Weight Loss

AMERICA: *fretting, pacing around* I guess I should get an Ab Roller or a Gazelle machine or pick up a nice drug habit or get a doctor to prescribe me one. Maybe France can help me out. Hey, France!

FRANCE: Hmm?

AMERICA: How do you stay so sexy thin while eating whatever you want like a PIG?!

FRANCE: *smiling sweetly while standing in a field with birds and flowers* Well, that's because I don't sit around on my butt like you.

Text: After that, France told America something bad from an educational point of view, so we're cutting that scene out.

CHIBI FRANCE: (says something unintelligible; maybe "That's not going to work out"?)

Text: Chinese Method of Weight Loss

AMERICA: China! Is it your crushing poverty that keeps you nice and thin?

CHINA: *grinning* That's right! Hard to get fat in a famine! *winks* You can also try our traditional tea. Makes your colon slippery!

AMERICA: *takes a sip, screws up face* Mmmm... this stuff tastes like ink.

Text: Japanese Method of Weight Loss?

AMERICA: Wait! I should ask my good friend Japan! He kind of looks like a girl from behind. Yo! Tell me your ancient Japanese secret diet!

JAPAN: *softly* Well... I eat like human being instead of use food to cover feeling of emptiness...

CHIBI AMERICA: *shocked* Hey! That was cruel!

AMERICA: *chowing down on a bowl of rice* Ahhh. Using these cute little sticks makes it harder to pig out. Hahaha.

Text: After that, America diligently worked out using a strange machine he created and followed the Japanese method of weight loss.

JAPAN: *thinking to himself, watching America pig out on Japanese food* Maybe if I feed him some bad sushi, he'll go away...

john green on religion and nihilism

"How are we going to balance our urge to be more than nihilists with our need to blunt the sharp edges of consciousness?"

Well asked, sir. :-)

I've been working very hard on my answer for the past several years.

...it's not going so hot.


------

PS, July 1:

Or maybe it's going fine

and it just hurts a lot...

keeping track of projects

Making lists, charts, and plans is a skill that comes easily to me*. Following through, on the other hand.... bwahaha.

Anyhow. I moved my keep-track-of-what-I'm-doing project off of this blog. For the past few months I've been using Penzu and Evernote to keep track of this and a few other endeavors. On an average day I don't have much (if any) time to sit down in one spot and type up anything coherent enough for public consumption, but I do have time to enter a quick note via my iPod and finish it later or clip in a relevant screenshot from my laptop. These services are working out nicely for me, so I'm going to keep doing more of the same.


----

*i.e. I find the process viscerally thrilling.

quotes of the month - november 2010

Nihil tam absurde dici potest, quod non dicatur ab aliquo pilosophorum. (Nothing so absurd can be said, that some philosopher has not said it.) -Cicero

"It's very hard to keep your spirits up. You've got to keep selling yourself a bill of goods, and some people are better at lying to themselves than others. If you face reality too much, it kills you." -Woody Allen


Oh, jeez. That does sound rather bleak.

I could scrounge around real quick for a funny quote to round it off and reassure you that I've not spent this month peeing myself while trembling in the corner with all the curtains drawn, vaguely plotting--between lines of coke--the means with which to bring about my early demise.

But, honestly, I can't be arsed right now.

Here is a baby lemur or something.



Note 7/2011 - I can't believe how many people get brought to my blog through this photo. Hi, all you lemur lovers.

predecessors of the modern hipster: a photographic journey - part 1

Fig. 1: Note the artfully disheveled hair; the meticulously arranged scarf and (optional) floppy hat, both donned in spite of temperate weather; the teeming basket of community laundry, indicating the repudiation of restrictive gender roles.

Fig. 2: 'nuff said.