lazy crocs

A lovely ride on the F train this morning was tainted when I looked down and saw these women wearing these fucking shoes. They're Croc ballerina flats. I did not know Croc had created these monstrosities...

Like, supa lazy.

News Flash: Iraq has gay people!

Well, actually, they're all getting killed. And no one cares.

Really though, that was the first thought I had when I saw this article on the New York Times. I didn't think there weren't gays in Iraq; I don't think I had ever entertained the concept. Actually, I don't think I've ever used homosexuality and Iraq in the same sentence. Oil and water, peanut butter and dill pickles.

It's remarkable that there are Iraqi gays going out to bars, gathering in cafes, walking in the streets with makeup on, wearing their hair long...whatever their methods of expression, it's touching to see these men and women slowly coming out of the woodwork.

But the Iraqi response has been devastating. Possibly 25 total boys and men have been murdered in the past two months alone, on suspicion of homosexuality. The police have only acknowledged six. And no arrests have been made.

Information provided by police and the officials remains as inconsistent as ever. According to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Shiite head honcho, gays should be "'punished, in fact, killed.' He added, 'The people should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.'" But another official claims that clerics are, in no way, encouraging anti-gay attacks. Which, once again, reflects the biggest obstacle in the Middle East: they don't want to let us in.

Regardless of official policy, the news I found absolutely horrifying is that the murderers are not just members of Shiite/Sunni death squads, they're often family members. So I guess the thought process goes something like this: my son shames the family by being gay, let's murder him and then never claim his body; let us forget his existence completely.

It's unbelievable and painful to realize this kind of blind, blatant hatred still exists. That, in some cultures, murder is a method of resolution for a community. The last line, a quotation from a young gay Iraqi, broke my heart--

“I don’t care about the militias anymore, because they’re going to kill me anyway — today, tomorrow or the day after...I hate my community and my relatives. If they had their way, the result would be one gunshot.”

To all those men and women, it looks like Iraq is changing, if very slowly. I hope, with all my heart, you can hold on long enough for that day. Respect.

So much respect.

Obamarama

Damn. Obama just doesn't take a break, does he?

At last, at last.

Ahaha, the Beatrice Inn has been shut down and Paul Sevigny--brother of mini-Satan herself, Chloe--owes the City $23,000. I was at Beatrice just a few weeks ago and, my God, I guess recession hit them pretty hard...All the trashy bitches were getting in. Maybe they waited 15 minutes, but they got in. So much for the hipster joint's trademark quasi-exclusivity.

I particularly enjoy the last line. "...[I]t's a tragedy for the entire City of New York, which relies heavily on the Beatrice to each night safely stow away some 125 of its most fucking annoying citizens, so the rest of us don't have to deal with them." Funnily enough, all 125 of them are snorting lines of despair while reading Gawker, right now.

But let's face it. Ain' nobody wants that bitch on these streets.



footnote:
...I'm not sure why I despise Chloe so much. I liked her in American Psycho...Oh. Right. That's the only decent movie she's made and she's spent the rest of her career being a pretty obnoxious faux hipster twat who posed for Uniqlo.

drunk post

I was thinking, I am a student. By occupation, as much I like to ignore it, I am a student. And students, especially college students, form a well-educated, strong constituency. We are smart, we can vote, we arre at the point in our lives when we learn to think for ourselves (don't tell me you didn't se e Dead Poets' Society). We influence national trends, we influence the high schoolers nationwide coming after us.

Here is NYU, this gigantic institution that rides entirely on our backs. Wihtout us, NYU wouldn't exist. But with financial aid, film insurance, admission, housing, work-study, classes, even laundry (goddamned Fordham gets free laundry), NYU is a university that doesn't look out for its fucking students. And all we do is complain to eachother, never to the people that can do something. So many people leave NYU discontented and bitter towards their shitty experience with the school. Why are we so apathetic?

And i may be silly drunk right now, as witnessed bythe deteriorating typing, but this isn't fair. Students used to band together and now, it's what? To each his own?

This is, like, just wrong.

Much of what I know of Asher Roth comes from the private sector. But as his career expands, I now face the predicament of having to come to terms with Asher Roth, the New White Rapper. For some time now, I've been frequently updated on the happenings of his burgeoning career, but most of it floated under the radar of my giving a shit, because to me, he was just some middle class, suburban white kid from Westchester, PA. Who was trying to make a name for himself in hip-hop. Um...yeah. At least Eminem came from Detroit's ghetto.

Recently, he was part of XXL's Freshmen 10, the blossoming new artists hitting the hip-hop scene. A grassroots movement, led by his friends, formed to push his single, "I Love College", to the top of the iTunes chart. I think he made it as far as #3, fell down to #10 and has been steadily climbing up again.

The single now stands at #6 and now, New York Magazine, my personal Bible, published this article, "Asher Roth Disgusts, Impresses in Equal Measure". My God. I'm imagining scores of New York elite teenagers gathering around the Mandarin Oriental pool, chanting 'I love college!' The horror.

And with this single, Asher has successfully established his outfits for the next few months, that really obnoxious "COLLEGE" shirt. What irritates me the most about him isn't that he's white, which seems to be the main focal point for the media. It isn't his background and it isn't the stupid chorus of that really stupid song. What bothers me most is that I have heard his other material and, perhaps surprisingly, it's good.

I might even go so far as to say it's really good. "I Love College" samples John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change", which I immediately considered an affront to hip-hop. Then I heard a track that also sampled that song, but the lyrics were complex, inspiring and related to the original song. I just don't feel like this is a guy who's embarking on a career that's meant for him; this is a guy who is being sold to insipid college students, being marketed for what his label would like him to be. I think Asher has much more potential than I'd like to give him credit for, and more importantly, than he gives himself credit for.

But it still stands that his first single is called "I Love College" and come fucking on...Have some balls, Roth.

Seriously, Americans need to chill.

The battle between the rich and the poor, the ruling and the ruled: the Showdown in... Connecticut!!
...oh.







I just found this article on New York Times, about the A.I.G. executives...

The Connecticut Working Families' Party is planning a bus tour of executives' homes. This behavior is just appalling. Wilton, CT is at the center of the A.I.G. bonus controversy and now that I think about it, this is so what angry white people would do. It's absurd. People are taking time out of their day to go sit at executives' homes to wait for them to come home and then yell at them. And let's not forget, we still don't know who even got the bonuses.

The guy running the bus tour said that his goal is to "...give folks in Bridgeport and Hartford and other parts of Connecticut who are struggling and losing their homes and their jobs and their health insurance an opportunity to see what kinds of lifestyle billions of dollars in credit-default swaps can buy." Are. You. Serious. So, c'mon guys, let's all go wallow in self pity and lament all the things we don't have, this will be fun. The sanity of New England upper crust is clearly crumbling.

Look, these executives, I agree, should not receive those bonuses. But on the flip side, imagine if that were your job. If you had watched your company disintegrate like that, um, you'd probably not want to stay there. You probably would have needed some convincing. If you were to stick to your principles, that would mean changing your life completely, because there remain few financial powerhouses for you to work at. And, one night, while imagining your children having to give up what they have, you decide to screw your principles. Because what's $6 million out of $170 billion?

Give them a fucking break. They are stupid, middle-aged men who are consumed by luxury and/or greed. But they are still men with families, men with basic human flaws. They are not infallible, none of us are. In a different world, the CT Working Families could have been the ones on top. Let the government take care of it.

You are wasting your fucking time touring their homes and bemoaning what you do not have; this gets nothing done. Looking at Mrs. Executive's Chanel collection does not mean you win it because you weren't lucky enough to marry money. Pointing out CEO #1's pool means nothing except you are a pretty bitter person.

Please, people, keep in mind that everyone is suffering. Consider doing something more proactive with your time. Bake cookies for your children. Instead of hosting a bus tour of gated suburban communities, I mean, Angelina Jolie gets paid $20 million a movie, why don't we get tours of her obscenely large mansion(s)? Instead of making death threats to a few men who have very little to do with your life, call the PTA to bitch out the teacher that keeps giving your kid B-'s. Go back to your old ways and go back to being nervous white people who don't talk to one another.

Besides, when rich people get scared of angry poor/screwed over people, they hire security. And that security costs even more money, being paid for by the corporations, which are being sustained by taxpayers' money. Poor/screwed people being actively angry just wastes everybody's time. Stop acting like children, forgive these insensitive men and go on with your fucking day.

Deal with the problems you have. Stop whining.