If You Love Something Set It Free

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Personsality Disordered

I'm really excited that Tracey Ullman has added Rachel Maddow to her cast of people to impersonate on her show State Of The Union. Man, sometimes I do miss having TV.

Double the Hotness On One Stage

GirlSchool and Motorhead together in 1981.

Half The Sky : Your New Required Reading

The global statistics on the abuse of girls are numbing. It appears that more girls have been killed in the last 50 years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century. More girls are killed in this routine "gendercide" in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century.
-Half The Sky

There is a reason Half The Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity has been on the best seller list for a while now. Authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are the first married couple to ever win a Pulitzer Prize together (for their coverage of the Tienanmen Square Protests), and boy do they pull out all their skills for this one. Nicholas Kristof is a multi prize winning NY Times journalist known for being both the moral compass and "Indiana Jones of our generation of journalists" according to wikipedia. Sheryl WuDunn, the first Asian American to win a Pulitzer, is an investment advisor, with a focus on philanthropy. She's worked as a journalist and editor for the NY Times as well as a private wealth investor and specialist in alternative energy.

You can tell this powercouple researched the best way to write this book almost as much as they researched the actual material it contains - Half the Sky combines personal tales of both oppression and opportunity with statistics, facts, and truth about what methods of aid help women and which just don't work. By peppering the book with stories of women they met on their travels and stayed in touch with, the reader can actually connect with the lives of women in China, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Cameroon, and many more places. The stories are actually interesting too, I spent a lot of time crying while listening to the audio version at work (yea, I've just come to except that), because of women whose stories are so far beyond the threshold of pain and suffering that I could imagine. Yet, the book manages to never leave you at that point, but consistently shows what specific tactics work to turn these stories around and help the women in leading themselves out of abuse and poverty.

Chapters include topics such as sex slavery and prostitution, the power in speaking up, rape, shame and honor, maternal mortality, Islam and misogyny, education, genital cutting, micro credit, and aid programs that actually work. I enjoyed the unpredictability of Kristof and WuDunn's approach to each of these topics- they weren't always what you thought they would be. For instance, they explain the ways Islam itself isn't as misogynist as you might think and while constantly promoting education they acknowledge that sometimes introducing television to small villages can do wonders for encouraging women to understand their basic human rights. I learned a lot about issues like sex slavery, and how often times our emancipated western views lead us to think of it more as prostitution, when such a small amount of 3rd world prostitutes were allowed to make the decision for themselves. Also simple things, like the US Congress asking in 2000 for all countries to report their statistics on prostitution, helped extensively in getting some of the worst countries to crack down, therefore decreasing underage prostitution and AIDS.

One of the interesting approaches they took to the topic was looking at women's emancipation in an economic sense. For instance in China where women a few generations ago bound their feet and were at times named Daughter 1 or Bring A Younger Brother 2. China decided to integrate women into factory work and now women outnumber men in many sections of the workforce and 5 of the 6 richest self made women in the world are Chinese. While they still have far to go with work conditions, the country's economy has grown incredibly and women are now seen as valuable assets, and less frequently drowned in the river to make room for a son. There is also vast proof that by providing women in developing countries with micro loans, you are actually helping the whole community. When you empower women you raise economic productivity as well as health, nutrition, and education, and you decrease infant and maternal mortality as well as terrorism. WuDunn's economic prowess is enlightening and truthful in these segments. She explains that when a village or a country works to support its women, their economy almost always grows. However, she is bluntly honest in acknowledging that better off countries who lend aid may have to take a hit themselves. Yet, this is one of my favorite elements of the book. I get weary of those who constantly validate their cause with saying that it will all work out for the better of everyone - sometimes its just the right decision and you won't be like Tom's Shoes and make a huge profit off the cause. But its still the right choice. They name Britain in the book for being the leader of the Abolitionist movement, as far as countries go. While they took the hit and lost money for decades on their decision to stop slave trafficking Africans , it was still the right decision.


Half The Sky combines tactics that we can do personally- both giving of our money and time as well as three things they would like to see the US Government do - making the emancipation of women and girls a priority.

1. Spend 10 billion over 5 years to educate girls, focusing on Africa but also prodding Asia and the Middle East. This would narrow the education gap by doing such simple things as building schools or just supplying uniforms or sanitary napkins to girls so they could stay in school. These programs would be measured carefully to find which showed the most progress and should be continued.

2. Iodize salt - Supporting the micro nutrient initiative. Iodizing salt would prevent the loss of up to 10 IQ points in still developing fetuses. Female fetuses are especially effected by the lack of iodized salt. Apparently with this method of help you can get "more bang for the buck than almost any other form of aid."

3. A 12 year 1.6 billion dollar initiative to eradicate obstetric fistulas. This issue that both conservatives and liberals could get behind would lay the groundwork for a maternal health overhaul.

Those might seem like expensive projects but consider this : The World Health Organization estimates that 536,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth each year. Yet, as Americans the amount we spend on maternal health is less than one twentieth of one percent of what we spend on our military. We spend so much on foreign aid, why not spend it on programs that would actually work. Or better yet, follow all these programs and see which ones work the best and where to put more money. Kristof and WuDunn make the point that this is no more a "women's issue" than slavery was a Black issue or the Holocaust was a Jewish issue. These are humanitarian issues. Providing aid isn't the answer itself but it is the oil in the machine that will turn these issues around. Carolyn See who reviewed Half The Sky for The Washington Post said that it was probably the most important book she'll ever review. I think it probably is for me too, and I really strongly recommend reading it, I promise it won't feel like homework.


Here are some really adorable photos of the Chikumbuso Project girls in Ng' ombe, Zambia. The uniforms they are wearing are from my hometown, my awesome middle school gym teacher sent the uniforms we used to wear for basketball or soccer to Chikumbuso.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence



Ten Other Things Martin Luther King Said: by Ill Doctrine
These quotes are ones you don't hear very often but very much show the MLK who was the real mover and shaker.



The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you are interested in learning more about MLK or other leaders in the civil rights, black power, or modern freedom struggle I really recommend going into Itunes and looking up The Modern Freedom Struggle under Itunes U. Itunes U is a really wonderful new section where you can watch or listen to entire college classes at different Universities, talk about democratizing education! The Modern Freedom Struggle is a class taught at Stanford University by Clayborne Carson. You can learn about Bayard Rustin who was primed to be the MLK of the movement but was shoved out for being gay. Actual women of the Black Panther movement, such as Erica Huggins and Elaine Brown, come in to talk to the class about their experience and what they're still doing. There's even a good half hour on Tupac Shakur. Today I'm going to listen to the hour on Martin Luther King, which I've been saving up for his day.

This Is For My Ladies

Marianne Faithfull - Broken English



Sneaker Pimps- Six Underground


The Pretenders - Back On The Chain Gang



Christina Aquilara featuring Lil Kim - Can't Hold Us Down


Cocknbullkid- I'm Not Sorry



Xscape- Just Kickin It
I believe one of these gals is on Real Housewives of Atlanta these days.



Beth Orton- She Calls Your Name

Fair Haired and Funny

As Anna Farris said in her NY Times interview, these days most comedies have a girl playing the 'straight man' to the funny guy. In other words playing the boring, stable, wet blanket that props up the dudes jokes. I guess this is why I find myself rooting over and over again for any actress that manages to steal a little bit of the comedic spotlight in any of the recent Judd Apatow and Co. type movies. However, it also seems that you have to have leading lady looks to even get in playing the best friend of the leading lady. This has created a handful of blonde bombshells who are primed for world comedic domination if only Hollywood would consider them bankable and let them get a fair amount of the good lines in the movie. I wonder sometimes if the world is okay with people like Tina Fey being so revered because she downplays her looks - like would the Apatow crowd totally loose their shit if someone like Elizabeth Banks started drawing in more money than their underdogs like Jason Segal? It would be like their worst high school nightmares all over again. Anyhow, there are a lot of different ways to look at this stuff. For instance, whats up with Rashida Jones - with her roles in Parks and Rec, The Office, and I Love You Man, she must have a load of funny stuff under that 'straight man' act. Someone give her more funny stuff. And I thought Amanda Seyfried was amazingly funny in Mean Girls, so why is she making shitty romantic dramas these days?

So here are a few of my favorites who are managing to get their toes in the door with their babeness and then really deliver on the comedy.

Elizabeth Banks - I've loved her since that ditzy camp counselor she played in Wet Hot American Summer. Her and Paul Rudd really secured their roles as the hot hilarious couple of our generation's romantic comedies in that movie. I've gone to see movies like Slither in the theater cause I have such faith in her. She was amazing in the 40 Year Old Virgin -really rounding off the movie at a steady R rating. Banks has played everything from Laura Bush( W) to a slacker making a porno with her roomate (Zack and Miri). She occasionally plays totally normal not funny characters but she's also the only girl who seems to really fit in with the Apatow crowd. I wish they'd give her more good roles. Writing roles for actresses like Katherine Heigl and and Mila Kunis only proves how intimidated Apatow Inc. is of an actually funny gal like Elizabeth Banks.
Unfortunately, its really hard to find good clips from her online. Most of them are labeled "Elizabeth Banks in sexy panties!". This is a funny take on the Sarah Silverman fucking Matt Damon video. It actually makes more sense though, cause boning Seth Rogen will probably get you a lot further these days.

"I'm F***ing Seth Rogen" by Elizabeth Banks - watch more funny videos

Anna Faris - Anna Faris is bypassing the Apatow machine and doing it on her own. She might in fact be the most successful of these blond babes because of that. She lists Goldie Hawn as her favorite actress and it really shows, she's like our generation's screwed up postmodern Goldie Hawn. She built up a good base with 4 Scary Movies and smaller roles in amazing stuff like The Hot Chick (oh yea and Brokeback Mountain and Lost In Translation). Then after really proving herself with an epic Britney's back! type performance in Just Friends she's now leading lady material in both big hollywood(The House Bunny) and art house movies(Smiley Face). When Greg Araki picks you to star in his only female fronted movie ever, well its like you've been chosen by the gods.







Rachel McAdams -Rachel McAdams plays the hot boring girl a lot, but when she does comedy its really great. I really wish she'd go back to doing some awesome stuff like Mean Girls or her small parts in The Hot Chick. Actually those two movies are really great in that they have more than one funny great actress in them. The Hot Chick is one of my not so secret favorites cause its got Anna Farris and Rachel McAdams as best friends, and then Rob Schneider comes in and switches bodies with Rachel McAdams. Seeing her play a hot chick whose body has been possessed by a loser criminal dude is kind of amazing. Like obviously he would try to cash in on her looks by doing some really shitty strip routines for money.





But really Mean Girls still really stands up there as one of the funniest teen girl movies ever. More proof that if you let Tina Fey continue world domination, with Amy Poehler as the all powerful Godmother, and then you let the female characters actually have substance and sass you can make a really good movie.

The Onion Goes Next Level, Once Again

The Onion has a really funny new video thats based off of the law (i think its only in some states) that requires you to watch an ultra-sound of your fetus before getting an abortion. This law is another ridiculous measure that treats women as if they were children who are unaware of their actions. Anyhow, this Onion video does a great job spoofing that and pretending there is a new law that makes a woman actually prepare a nursery and name the baby before getting the abortion.


New Law Requires Women To Name Baby, Paint Nursery Before Getting Abortion

Is Deborah No Longer With Us?

Ya know what, when you work at real music stores no one throws you a spontaneous funeral so you won't go all Lady Bic on yourself. But well, thanks god for the land of Empire Records where everyone's hair and skirts are always getting shorter! Sinead O'Rebellion! At least in fantasy 1995 tv land things are cool. And while we're at it, lets fess up.... AJ might be going to art school(but he's sooo annoying) and while Rory Cochrane(Lucas) may be the best actor of all time,,,, well we all know we'd really end up picking Mark(Ethan Embry) to makeout with cause who can resist a sk8ter boi? I spent years trying to narrow those three down.

Sound, Performance, Video

Karen Finlay- Enter Entrepreneur




Forough Farrokhzad - The House Is Black
The most influential female Iranian poet made this film about leprosy in 1962.



Kristen Oppenheim - hey joe where ya goin wid dat pun in yer hand




Pauline Oliveros - Duet With Dog
One of the central figures of experimental electronic music does a duet with a dog friend.



Marina Rosenfield - Sheer Frost Orchestra
Originally done in 1994 - 17 girls play 17 guitars with nail polish bottles