and i sink so deep in you. ... you gonna save me or not?

.



The AWESOME vs. NOT-AWESOME Newsreel/Media List for the month of January.

i'm in the market for a more succinct title, but w/e.

AWESOME:

1.

Kyle Andrews:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kyle-Andrews/8045210158/

To be descriptive, all I can say is that he is the Postal Service for Optimistic-er adults. Meets Margot and the Nuclear So-and-Sos. Meets... meets me, bouncing around in my car screaming at the top of my lungs with the windows down, even though its snowing.
And, no, you shouldn't close your eyes while driving, even if its to yell "Whoooo!!!" in a shrill, high-pitchedrobot voice.

2.

Melissa Joy Manning:

http://www.melissajoymanning.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT

Fair-wages, ethical business practices, green resources, conflict-free stones... what more could anyone ask for in wearable art (read: blinnngggg). Oh yeah, she makes one-of-a-kind rings that are simple, classic and drool worthy.

3.

Eco Font. Pray-tell, wtf is eco-font?

ECO FONT.

Yeah. I willa dmit, at first i was all: "Give. Me. A. Break." Because how the hell do you make a FONT eco? Well, schooled me, cause actually the concept is fairly brilliant. And hey, any step in the direction of green is a step in the right direction. Plusssss I'll save some cash on ink. Soooo.... win-win.


In-between awesome and not-awesome:

1.



a.little.disturbing.

I'm always kind of torn when folks use scare-tactics to educate, especially when it comes to sex-education. We're already raised with enough guilt/shame/fear associated with sex, nobody needs more. However, we *should* be scared. Maybe a little more scared to throw our bodies around like they're indestructible. And maybe, sometimes, a little more fear makes us a little more cautious.

Like when you get pulled over. And then you drive 30mph for two weeks straight.

That brings me to #2:

2. Its allll over the news: Abstinence pledges are pretty ineffectual.

The not-so-awesome is that this is not-such-a-bigger deal. The awesome part is that, yeah, no shit abstinence pledges don't work very well. Thanks for the telegram from the future, Smarter-Version-of-Us.

(my fave news headline for this article was actually from the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "'Abstinence-Only' is a Total Crock."



NOT AWESOME:

1. Rick Warren. Why did you have to be such a blight on such a glorious day.

When he started speaking about kindness towards all, I wanted to hurl. But here's a more serious explanation of why we shouldn't kid around when it comes to who we keep company with.

Mikko Alanne's When Diagreement Becomes Murder.

Although, Obama is doing pretty well in his first week in term of "queer" (aka CIVIL) rights:

BACK-TO-AWESOME:

5.

The Agenda

New and improved, I say. Esp. the repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", and:

"The President will support common sense approaches including age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception, combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception, and distributing contraceptives through our public health system. The President also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. President Obama has also been willing to confront the stigma -- too often tied to homophobia -- that continues to surround HIV/AIDS."

as well as:

"President Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity."

Wooooo trans-rights! woooo. wooooo.


Eh, I'm sure I have more things on my brain that are on the NOT AWESOME list, but I'm sure they're a) mostly conceptual and b) will come back to me sooner or later. Soooooo...



To finish this out, I will say that if I ever start a band (anyone who knows me and has actually heard me sing have no illusions that unless I wake up tomorrow as the Bobby Fisher of guitar, there is no chance of this ever actually occurring), the band I start will have an album called:

4 Ways to Chop Onions Without Tears.

(thank you Google How-To of the Day. informative and enlightening, as always.)