Just a few reminders that the good is coming to outweigh the bad, at least on this issue

1. Gay marriage supporters outnumber foes at rallies.

2. CNN Poll is First To Show Majority Support for Gay Marriage

3. Today in Sex: American Bar Association Says "I Do" to Gay Marriage

And as an aside to our good friends at President Obama's White House...way to drag your feet on an issue when you could've (and should've) been on the cutting edge...

Well.

Now this presents me with a poser. A certain misogynistic conservative (whose name I'm deliberately not mentioning because being talked about is clearly what they want) has proclaimed their disapproval of recent comments made by Jennifer Aniston.

The good-looking star told reporters:

"Women are realizing it more and more knowing that they don't have to settle with a man just to have that child. Times have changed and that is also what is amazing is that we do have so many options these days, as opposed to our parents' days when you can't have children because you have waited too long."

Said MC has dubbed the curvy Aniston a poor role-model for young girls, as well as "destructive to our society."

Here then is my dilemma. Even acknowledging the fact that someone in Jennifer Aniston's position would presumably be willing and able, as a single mother, to offer this hypothetical child what most moms could not.

As I think any of you who've been reading my blogs for a few years (and god bless you, BTW) know, I don't think single parenthood is such a good idea. The reason? I'm the son of a single parent. I know too well many of the things that can go wrong.

Yet...I just can't take the side of the misogynistic conservative...

Once again, a few words on a good cause:

I've talked already some recently about my friend Corey and Sacred Fools, so I'll let him take this for a minute. Corey?

Sacred Fools, my theater home of more than eleven years, is now conducting our summer fundraising campaign! The goal is $20,000 by the end of this month. Donors of $50 and over get free tickets and other perks - see the link below! Although we have had some sellout successes lately, we cannot survive on ticket sales alone; the expenses are just too high. Please donate (it's tax deductible!) and help us continue to make award-winning, fun theater!

Thanks, Corey.

I'll just add one wild promise to the above. Now, I haven't checked this with Cor or any other resident Fool, but I feel confident in making this assertion: Your contribution to Sacred Fools is guaranteed not to be spent on response ads to TV stars to run in USA Today.

I'd be proud if this were my daughter*

Taylor Momsen:

On the pictures of her crotch being all over the internet: "I don't take [any of the stories about me] to heart; I just look at it this way: My fucking tampon's on the goddamn Internet."

On wearing a friendship bracelet from her vibrator: "It doesn't talk back to me, so it's really not a best friend ... I'm not a whore for masturbating, so fuck you if you want to call me one. I think women should equally be allowed to pleasure themselves as much as men. I think that if that has any more controversy than a man talking about pleasuring himself, then there's something wrong with the world."

On the most famous fetus in the world Justin Bieber: "I don't know who Justin Bieber is. I only know his name because it keeps being brought up to me. I listen to Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, so I have no idea who he is. That's not a dis; I just don't know."

*And I'm at least 50% serious about that.

Publishers perish

Hey, remember the Men at Work/Colin Hay/"Down Under" plagiarism suit? It's happening again. The publishers of the iconic Beach Boys song "California Girls" are making noises about suing Katy Perry for her hit of the summer, "California Gurls."

The publishers, pls note. As this entry makes clear, the Beach Boys themselves (and in specific the co-writer of their song) are just fine with it.

This is what happens when people think anybody who didn't write a song can possibly own it.

For Cal

How it makes me quiver
Originally uploaded by sgs_1019

Earphones

Open question to those of you with MP3 players: Any recommendations for better earphones than those that came with my 4th generation iPod, which have already gone bad?

We're looking for great-sounding, quality earphones (or "buds" as I understand the kids are calling it these days) at not too great a price. So?

Is it possible for somebody to become...

... a parody of themselves, when there was already something pretty funny (not funny ha ha, funny strange) about her?

Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle's understanding of the political press appears to have even conservative outlets scratching their heads.

The Tea Party favorite made another peculiar remark during an interview with Fox News on Monday evening, explaining that she wanted "to have the press be our friend," and "ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported."

Fox News's Carl Cameron told Angle that she sounded "naïve" before resorting to somewhat nervous laughter.

"Garrulous!?" Hey, I resent that!

Via Sinematik.

Inter Views

I want to build up a little more interest around here, for me if no one else. So I think I'll throw the "interview" net out again...


("What others reproach you for, cultivate; it is yourself." - Jean Cocteau)

Here's looking at the rules, sweetheart:

Do YOU want to be interviewed?

Interview rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the
questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview
someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Is it possible Mel Gibson is really just an underground poet?

I mean, not to be the last person on the dogpile or anything, but check out this collection of text messages:

"Your goddamn mailbox is full! Hear you are at Sherman Oaks.

"Safe is best!

"I'm drowning in self doubt and depression. And pure rage.

"I'm just not digging it. Every minute like an agonized eternity. F*ck."

This means something, and I think it's artful.

Oh no, wait. Not artful. Awful. Yeah, that's it.

And a big howdy to whoever found this...

...by Googling the title of my first--and to date, only--produced play and my last name from Beverly Hills this afternoon.

If that's you, Tara Reid, dammit, I said no!

A few words about the widget at right...

No, I'm not taking commercial space (yet). This production was originally done at the Sacred Fools theater company in Los Angeles, where my pal Corey is a member. He sez...

...we've made our Kickstarter fundraising goal - but that goal was just for the cost of renting a truck and driving the set/props across the country. We still need more to help with the rest of the show's expenses, though, so please either donate below, or come to the L.A. performances that begin this weekend... ticket sales entirely go towards the Fringe performances!

Corey is one of my most generous and supportive friends, and he deserves a good turn. But even if he wasn't and he didn't, Sacred Fools has won about four dozen awards (and been nominated for 100 more). They have a long list of strongly positive reviews; they're worthy of your support.

(They're also the company that hosted the first reading of my play The Girl in the Boat), but I see no reason for you to hold that against them...)

We know.

Movie panels in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con 2010 came to a close with Marvel assembling the entire lead cast of The Avengers together on the stage with director Joss Whedon, including the official announcement of Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk.

Finally, director Joss Whedon was announced and said “I had a dream all my life and it was not this good.” He joked that he was going to blow it.

I'm so happy...

Trailer, we have trailer, captain!

Teaser Trailer For SAW 3D (aka movie 7)
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

It's times like this I'm proud to be a geek from California

Unbeknownst to the dastardly fanatics of the Westboro Baptist Church, the good folks of San Diego's Comic-Con were prepared for their arrival with their own special brand of superhuman counter protesting chanting "WHAT DO WE WANT" "GAY SEX" "WHEN DO WE WANT IT" "NOW!" while brandishing ironic (and some sincere) signs. Simply stated: The eclectic assembly of nerdom's finest stood and delivered.

it's...new Saw movie poster time.

Oh, I don't feel good about this--but it'll probably work to attract a new audience, which I assume is what the producers want, It's that time of year again, kiddies. Funny how time flies, in'it?



BTW, said producers are now telling the mainstream media that Saw VII (we real fans refuse to call it Saw 3D) will indeed be the last of the series. The USA Today item also has a couple of points which raise my ire:

The film was re-edited and submitted six times to the Motion Picture Association of America to bring it from an NC-17 to an R rating.

"I'm surprised we got it," says producer Mark Burg. "It's more violent than any of them. But it's in 3-D, it answers all the questions, it comes full circle. We have the goods on this one."

He couldn't say the same thing about the franchise's sixth installment, which earned $28 million last year, roughly half the take of its most recent predecessors.

While also earning the best reviews since the original; making it on to at least a few "best of the year" lists, and not all at horror-movie sites. I know, I've been coming back to that theme since Saw VI opened last year.

It's because I think VI director Kevin Greutert made a film he can genuinely be proud of, and I hate to see it getting the blame for the downturn in the series' earnings.

...family groups accused the franchise of giving rise to "torture porn" films that relish punishing their victims, especially women.

Sigh...okay, the "torture porn" thing. I refer you, again, to this article:

...the Saw movies actually contain less torture than most horror movies, in that most of the excruciating pain is self-inflicted by the characters. John "Jigsaw" Kramer (Tobin Bell), the bogeyman of the series, places his victims in death traps that are usually fast-acting and can only be stopped by an act of self-mutilation or the murder of another person. These are definitely nasty things to do to someone, but they're quick and are done out of a deranged kind of philanthropy—Jigsaw believes those who survive will be stronger people for it—as opposed to the prolonged interrogations we usually associate with torture today.

As for the victims being especially, women, it should be noted that the first Saw is one of the only horror movies in which not a single woman is killed. And the rest of the films are remarkably fair-minded about which sex is to be tested.

For every woman thrown into a pit of dirty hypodermic needles (which she survives, BTW) or getting her arms stuck in a box booby-trapped with razors (she doesn't), there's a man who has to climb inside a working furnace or gets his head blown off by a gun attached to the peephole in a door.

(All those examples, BTW, come from Saw II...should you want to rent it)

But at least, the article does give franchise star Tobin Bell the last word:

"It's a free country," says Bell, who plays Jigsaw. "If people don't want to look at certain things, they shouldn't go. The people who don't go to films were more upset than the horror fans."

Exactly. I know for a fact that hearing or reading a description of a Saw film (or even looking at the posters) is a lot more upsetting than actually going to one.

The way I know that is that my idea of the films, gleaned from that, upset me a lot more before I'd actually seen them. When I did, I became a fan (you may have noticed).

Those fans, Tobin says, are the only ones who matter. "You can say what you want about it, but Saw fans have loved and supported it every year. We must have been doing something right."

And that's why he is our man...

Lying fink strikes again

Reading the doings of Andrew Breitbart always makes me feel the need for a shower.

Case in point.

Snicker, snicker

Brought to you via the Zaius Nation.

I may have to rethink this whole "Buddhism-influenced" thing

Sign outside Yoga studio today: "Om is Where the Heart Is."