This is a video by Emily Easterly

...a musician whose first and second records I reviewed for Ink 19. She emailed me this afternoon to ask if she could send me her newest (from which this song was taken) for review, to which I of course said yes.

And she sent along the link to this video, the first of hers I recall seeing.

Dig the flash of color near the beginning. Easterly is emphatically a redhead, and one with great presence at that.

Ohmigosh

What we have here is a lesson in the importance of reading the small print. I was doing one of my random image searches when I found a page from cheriefoto.com, the picture blog of a professional photographer (I like this wedding picture, for some reason).

Scrolling down, I saw a lovely collage photo of an adorable, delicate-looking young woman in a green dress. I sort of glanced at the text around it; noted that her name was Rosanna. But I was going to post the picture here with some sort of a line about "I don't know anything about who this woman is, but she's wearing green, so...y'know." Or maybe a riff on the old Toto song.

Then I scrolled back and looked at the surrounding text again. Rosanna was

a young woman who was terminally ill…She had always wanted to be a model but never had the opportunity

This was one of those things set up by a kids organization.

Just look at her.

If I were god, I'd have sex with Sarah Silverman

What's weird is that my father, reliable information suggests, is an alternative medicine guru

You Are An INFJ

The Protector You live your life with integrity, originality, vision, and creativity. Independent and stubborn, you rarely stray from your vision - no matter what it is. You are an excellent listener, with almost infinite patience. You have complex, deep feelings, and you take great care to express them. In love, you truly see relationships as an opportunity to connect and grow. You enjoy relationships as long as they are improving and changing. You can't stand stagnation. At work, you stay motivated and happy... as long as you are working toward a dream you support. You would make a great photographer, alternative medicine guru, or teacher. How you see yourself: Hardworking, ethical, and helpful When other people don't get you, they see you as: Manipulative, weak, and unstable

What's Your Personality Type?

I am Split Enz!

You Belong in Australia

Ace! Sunny, upbeat, and cute You make the perfect surf bum Now stop hogging the vegemite!

What English Speaking Country Are You?

Finding Nemo

Australia’s Next Top Model

I think that's fair

You are Agnostic

You're not sure if God exists, and you don't care. For you, there's no true way to figure out the divine. You rather focus on what you can control - your own life. And you tend to resent when others "sell" religion to you.

What's Your Religious Philosophy?

Everything was looking spot on till they said my ideal career was business

You Are Likely a First Born

At your darkest moments, you feel guilty. At work and school, you do best when you're researching. When you love someone, you tend to agree with them often. In friendship, you are considerate and compromising. Your ideal careers are: business, research, counseling, promotion, and speaking. You will leave your mark on the world with discoveries, new information, and teaching people to dream.

The Birth Order Predictor

I am a first (and only) born...

The needle and the damage done

Wouldn't you just know I'd be the one Pet Shop Boys have used soundbytes of?

If I were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Dmitri Shostakovich! I am a shy, nervous, unassuming, fidgety, and stuttery little person who began composing the same year I started music lessons of any sort. I wrote the first of my fifteen symphonies at age 18, and my second opera, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District," when I was only 26. Unfortunately, Stalin hated the opera, and put me on the Enemy Of The People List for life. I nevertheless kept composing the works I wanted to write in private; some of my vocal cycles and 15 string quartets mock the Soviet System in notes. And I somehow was NOT killed in the process! And Harry Potter(c) stole my glasses and broke them! Who would you be? Dead Russian Composer Personality Test

In violent times, you shouldn't have to sell your soul

There's a Chance You Could Be Violent

Overall, you're a pretty chill person - and you have a good handle on your emotions. Sometimes your anger gets the best of you, and end up regretting how you act. Try to curb your temper more often. It only has to get out of control once to do some damage.

Could You Be Violent?

Once you start down the dark path...

You Are 40% Good

You try to do the right thing, but only when it works out in your favor anyway. You're not exactly evil or without ethics, but you could be going down a pretty dark path. You probably have good intentions. You've just gotten comfortable with acting the way you do. Knowing the difference between good and bad is half the battle. Acting like a good person is the hard part. You are also probably: A bit jaded and cynical about life's rules Right now you are on track to being: A petty criminal To be a better person: Help a friend in need, without being asked

How Good Are You?

Thasright, goddamnit

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct. It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

If I'm lucky, maybe Jennifer Love Hewitt...

...will whisper to me,

You Are a Ghost

Mysterious, independent, and often unseen - you always do things your own way. You are introverted, shy, and even a little secretive. People are dying to know you better, but you're a difficult person to know. A lot of your contributions to the world are left invisible and unfelt. Your greatest power: Blending in really well Your greatest weakness: Being too passive You play well with: Witches

What Kind of Monster Are You?

faces.

Jennifer Jason Leigh has a beatific face.




Betsy Russell's face is dignified and pretty.

Who could be blue?

This is Brigitte Bardot in a bikini. Do I really need an excuse?

Stop the press-who is that?

(Answer: Kate Winslet in John Turturro's Romance & Cigarettes.)



I think every single virtuous thought I have ever had just turned strictly to sin.

It's a miracle

I can enjoy a movie which is light on story but has well-filled-in characters, or sometimes (though this is more rare for me) vice-versa. David Nicholls' screenplay for Starter For 10 is miraculous. It has neither of those things.

It's well-acted by an attractive cast, but I have rarely disliked more characters in one film. It's like spending an evening stuck in a room with people who aren't as delightful and clever as they think they are.

The one exception was the politically-conscious love interest of the lead character.
Actress Rebecca Hall, whose face is new to me (she's the brunette above), manages to hint at wisdom beyond her character's years, but the story forces her into a stale romantic role.

One of the things I really want to believe the romantic relationships in my stories do is give audiences some reasons why the people in them love each other.

Starter For 10 is the story of an English "working class University student with something to prove," and is as predictable at that implies. There was scarcely a moment, a beat, a second that I didn't see coming.

Well, I tell a lie-there was one, but it only had the effect of confirming for me what a complete and utter prat the nominal lead character was.

How to give an OMD fan a fright

Okay, follow me on this. In 1980 OMD, one of the truly great electronic pop groups, released a single called "Enola Gay." Named after the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, it was their first international hit, often cited for its melodicism.



Five years later they made a video for their song, "So In Love," the first single from their album Crush (top 40 US). The video took as influence for its visuals and slight storyline the Mexican "Day of the Dead" festival, which is traditionally celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of November.



Today, Paul Warfield Tibbits Jr., the man who flew the Enola Gay (and had named the plane after his mother), died.

On the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Cue Twilight Zone music...

Cheerleader tries to save the dolphins

Hayden Panettiere attempted to play real-life hero, teaming with the Save Japan Dolphins coalition in trying to disrupt the annual slaughter of dolphins by Japanese fisherman, who kill an estimated 23,000 of the sea creatures each year.

Despite international outcry, dolphin hunting is still considered culturally acceptable in parts of Japan, where many locals believe the mammals should be treated like fish.

The 18-year-old Heroes star recently joined activists from the U.S. and Australia in paddling out on surfboards to try and reach a pod of dolphins before it was driven into a nearby cove and massacred.

But before the well-intentioned surfers could reach the cetaceans, they were intercepted by a fishing boat intent on blocking their path.

There's more if you can take it.

...and I like this

The artist's name is Aaron Kraten; you can see more of his recently-posted work in his MySpace blog. From which I also glean that he's married, 33, and lives in costa mesa, CA, other than that I know absolutely nothing about him. I think I could learn to love his work, though.

I may not know much about art, but I know what I like

Life force dying

Every week, I fall more in love with Life. And an ancillary reason why I do is that it lets me say things like that with a straight face. But seriously: It's getting to a point where I'm almost hoping, on some perverse level, that they'll do a bad episode.

Just so my sigh won't be quite as deep when the series is, as seems fatalistically inevitable, cancelled. I'm even thinking about doing one or two of the things that I routinely mock people for doing when their supply of whatever show they're addicted to is cut off.

Writing letters, etc...like maybe to NBC to suggest they actually try, oh I don't know, promoting it? You who are reading this, apart from my blog, have you seen anything about the series? Why hasn't Damian Lewis or Sarah Shahi been on Late Night With Conan O'Brien or the Jay Leno show?

If those shows have any reason to exist, it's to whore for NBC series. So where's the service?

(Ironic, bitter aside: Link in Lewis's name leads to an AP article in which he says

“...the antidote to [the experience of American network TV] is to go and make an independent film for six or seven weeks, where you have a growing, artistic experience that nobody sees.”

Methinks you spoke too soon, Damian.)

A better night of the week or timeslot might be good, too. If it were my job, I'd have it swap nights with Law & Order SVU, which doesn't need protection and would do fine in place of Life. Or I'd at least move Life up an hour on Wednesdays.

Of course, there's probably good and sufficient reason why this isn't my job (although, given that L&O and game shows are NBC's only hits...). But you can't blame a guy for trying. Because every week, I go to check the television ratings and find:

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
Phenomenon (NBC), Kid Nation (CBS), Life (NBC)

Also at 10 p.m. was ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money (#2: 5.8/10), which held 76 percent of its Private Practice lead-in, and a series-low for NBC’s dying Life.

Granted, NBC did order more scripts, but...

I've never been so insulted in my whole entire life

Take the What High School Stereotype Are You? quiz.

It's a question of Faith

Halloween treats

First, a little something to set the mood...



Now, the 10 best "horror" (as you'll see, I cheated-which is a horrible thing to do) movies I've ever seen:

(in no particular order)

Evil Dead. I know a lot of folks are fonder of the follow-up flicks, but I've always found this one to be finer. If only for the incredibly OTT acting.

Halloween.


"And kids, always remember: When in doubt, blame the druids. Good night, and god bless."

Shaun of the Dead. Brilliant daddy cool. Hot Fuzz has some good lines (the swan's escaped), but this is superior.

Rosemary's Baby. Hey, this movie broke up Frank Sinatra's marriage. How much more disturbing can you get?



Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 version). I've seen the first three versions of this oft-refilmed tale, and they all have something going for them, even if it's only one or two sexy bodies (1993 version).

But Philip Kaufman's had the best script (by W.D. Richter), and was the only one to really mess with my head...


Young Frankenstein

Mel Brooks' comic mind at its best.

Jaws. This is one of those movies that any time it's on, I have to stop and watch. Even one or two of the worst sequels ever made couldn't tarnish it.

But have you ever wondered what it would look like as re-enacted by bunnies and trimmed to 30 seconds? Of course you have. Now, through the wonders of technology, you can know!

BTW, one day I hope to go scuba diving with the Jaws John Williams theme in my aqua-walkman...

Oh, and this movie did change Hollywood and not necessarily for the better. That's horrible, too.

Aliens. On the other hand, this is one of the best sequels ever made, actually better (IMO) than the one that preceded it. A great screenplay by James Cameron.

The Shining. Those horrible twins. Blood cascading out of an elevator. And

Psycho. If not for the fatal flaw of that deadly dull "This is why Norman did everything" scene at the end, this movie would be perfect. As it is, it's pretty good, with some great lines and a greater performance by Tony Perkins.

The sequels fall somewhere in-between Aliens and Jaws 3-D. If you can get past the fact that it never should have been made, Psycho II is perfectly enjoyable.



As director, Perkins made a good stab at it (ho ho, hee hee, ha ha) with III, but was tripped up by studio interference.

The less said about the made-for-cable IV, the better.

Emmy Rossum sortof kindof inaway standing in front of my favorite color

Ok, I grant it's a reach. I just thought she looked sexy. And that is kind of a greenish tint she's standing in front of, don't you think? Oh, and I'm sorry to say I've made no progress in my campaign to actually see Rossum act in anything...

classically-structured pop songs with new-fangled instruments

My Mann James sent me a Soft Cell Best-Of CD off my Amazon.com wish list a couple of years ago. Although, he assured me, normally it would be against his principles to further the spread of Soft Cell in any way.

I felt like such a failure as an "eighties man" without at least one of their CDs in my collection. But I had also always felt as though I should like Soft Cell more than I did...and then I did a complete 180. I fucking love the album.

One of the reasons is because Marc Almond actually sang. And rarely more brilliantly than in this song.



There is a man in my soul, and he's not buried all that terribly deep, that sometimes wants to act exactly like Almond does in this video.

Somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good

Really, I'm just having an awesome week.

• Viva Laughlin gets cancelled.


• I trade a few emails with an insanely sexy woman.


• I get to watch people falling all over themselves dissembling that their reaction to Dumbledore being gay isn't homophobic at all.


• Giants squeeze past dolphins in London.


• I even found common ground with someone from Knoxville, Tennessee, which I think would have pleased Molly Ivins.


• I found out I'm quoted on the web site of a prominent songwriter and producer.


• Mana pays me the compliment of including this blog on a list of her faves.


• I find another YouTube video seemingly made just for me.


• And a picture of Jennifer Connelly in a leopardskin top.


• The "breasts/for brains" thing.


• And a show I like is doing well enough in the ratings to get picked up.

Now, what more could I ask for? You may well wonder.

Well, how 'bout this?

Britney Spears is pissing off the Catholics.

Kinky photos of a half-naked Britney Spears perched on a priest's lap and leaning seductively against a church confessional sparked outrage among Catholic leaders.

"This is all the puzzle pieces coming together. This girl is crashing," said Bill Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League. "She's not even allowed to bring up her own kids because she's not responsible enough. Now we see she can't even entertain."

Ah, Bill Donohue and the Catholic League.

Bill? Britney Spears is entertaining. I'm sure you're not comfortable with that, given the way in which she's entertaining often involves exploiting her own breasts and other sex parts with legs akimbo...but she's entertaining!

Sure, she's a big blow-up sex doll, and she may not be that talented (or smart, or a witty conversationalist)...but damn, she's entertaining!

The new record and video are kindof irresistible, in a slightly guilty pleasure sort of way. But even if they weren't...

Peculiar thing. Bill Donohue is one of those jackasses who if you've pissed him off-you can be fairly certain you've done something right.

I could list any number of reasons why. But my current favorites are his equating of Catholics in America with blacks in Apartheid South Africa, and telling 15-year-old boys that if they're molested it's their own damn fault.

As far as I'm concerned, Britney's standing a lot taller and prouder (pert chest thrust out...sorry) as a result of this.

Something has gone terribly wrong in the grand scheme of things

"Samantha Who?"--a funny, well-written new sitcom which I actually like-has been picked up for a full season and is doing better and better in the ratings. This isn't how things are supposed to be at all.

The ratings for shows I like are supposed to be so bad that I'm in constant danger of "losing" them. I just don't know how to handle this turn of events.

Pride

This blog is currently the number-one choice if you do a search for

come for the breasts stay for the brains

on German Google.

Have I mentioned that I'm a sucker for leopardskin?

My god. The perfect YouTube video.

Here are some things you know about this blog and blogger by now, and some you don't.

• I like the rock musicals of the ’70s and ’80s: Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Xanadu, Little Shop Of Horrors...
• I like Susan Sarandon.
• I am "experimental" in my attitudes (if not actual experience-well at least not for years) towards sexuality.
• I like posting pictures of lovely, hot girls.
• But whenever possible I like there to be more to it than that. Especially when:
• Sometimes these girls are dangerously, almost illegally young.
• I've been trying to think of things to post for Halloween, but so far all I found was that photo for the "If this doesn't raise the dead..." joke.
• I also like posting videos by amateur singers, and homemade videos of girls moving to a beat and miming the words to a song.
• Dang, I'm funny.
• Green is my favorite color.
• I like The Powerpuff Girls.

Put all those things together, and what do you have?

A song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, sung in the movie by Susan Sarandon, here mimed in funny style by three lovely 17-year-old girls in green, with a picture of The Powerpuff Girls in the back.

Well, some of the time they're in green...as you watch, notice that they seem to keep switching tops. And try not to think about what might have gone on between "takes," you pervs.

Baseball the way it was meant to be played

I'm getting bouquets from left and right today

Maybe it's because my phone number is (apparently) very close to that of a local bridal shop. But first Jim Vallance; now in Skepticum, my sometime commenter Mana listed Dictionopolis In Digitopolis as one of her Ten Best Blogs To Notice.

I appreciate the mention!

So you want to see "The Rainbow Connection" played in a sort of a stop-start rendition and sung by a lovely student singer/pianist

I know you'll find this hard to believe, but...we here at Dictionopolis In Digitopolis have anticipated your every need.



I dig the beautifully goofy smile at the end.

And the song, of course, is a classic. Someday we'll find it...

Get me, I'm quoted on Jim Vallance's web site

Vallance is a Canadian songwriter and record producer who has collaborated with artists such as Aerosmith, Heart, 38 Special, Alice Cooper, Bryan Adams, Glass Tiger and Jimmy Barnes. On his web site, he's "compiling a list of all the albums, CDs and singles I'd contributed to between 1977 and the present day."

On the page for 38 Special's Anthology, he used a review I wrote about six years ago, in its entirety, for the comments section.

Here's "Teacher Teacher."

A window to the orient, In a picture frame, I know you are a lady, Nobody knows your name

I like to think Molly would've found this funny if she'd known me

I just posted an Amazon review of the final book upon which Molly Ivins worked prior to her death, Bill Of Wrongs, written with Lou Dubose. As I write this blog post, there is only one other review of the book posted to the Amazon page, and it's at least as positive as mine.

The author of the other review is from...is from...(I can't say it!)...

Emma Watson has a pretty ear

God bless the intelligence and common "horse sense" of the noble masses

An article in the Chicago Tribune argues that since J.K. Rowling never wrote Dumbledore's sexuality into any of the Harry Potter books, she cannot now say that he was gay. Which is wrong, of course.

Many of the more than 150 comments posted on the article so far see that. There are exceptions, but (when they're not doing the "I'm not a homophobe, but..." bit) they do the neat trick of defusing their own points.

One (from Birmingham, AL ) uses the screenname "GayRights EQUALSRacism." Another writes,

She cannot make something up after the boks (sic) have been writen.

Nu, I supose she cnt, cn she?

Do you have any idea how cool this headline would be if only they weren't talking about the NFL?

Giants Squeeze Past Dolphins in London


Like some sort of a grand surrealist opera.

Random Flickr Blogging: 2571

This picture so clearly wants to be some sort of political metaphor, that I'm just not going to give it the satisfaction.