...in an 80s kind of mood...

I found this cool website the other day, which includes an extensive list of 80s music compilations on cd...last night I downloaded "Sidewalk Talk" by Jellybean, an oft neglected (when it comes to being featured on 80s collections) dance song featuring Madonna.




It's funny...I didn't much care for the 80s when I was actually living through them, but now I occasionally find days or nights when I want to play my old records or listen to Internet radio stations where I'll hear songs I've long forgotten about...

 

This past Saturday I went to NYC with my niece and her best friend and we had a blast!! The time passed way too quickly and, already, I want to go back. We focused on 5th Avenue and Times Square (where we have a very scary incident with a possibly coked-up Cookie Monster), but there is so much more to cover.

Next time I'm hoping to spend more than a day...and I'll be using the above books; they are just great for trying to figure out where to eat (Morton's is definitely out of my price range!), shop (Tiffany's is strictly window only for me) or even stay overnight or for a few days (I once stayed at this wonderful hotel called The Doral Inn, way back in 1996 when I could afford it.)

Haven't we seen this before?

I absolutely love Chuck, but I feel like I have already seen the current storyline done in the exact same fashion on another beloved spy show you may have heard of called Alias. During season two of Alias, the writers brought in Lena Olin to play Sydney's ambiguously shady mom who was a double agent. Now in its fourth season, Chuck is doing the same thing with the title character's mom, played by Linda Hamilton.

Both shows feature Olin and Hamilton playing mothers who may or may not  be fighting on the good side and who may or may not love their children. The ping-ponging back and forth (the "is she or isn't she?" motif) is eerily similar and frankly sort of starting to get on my nerves as far Chuck goes.

Hamilton, whose acting I've always enjoyed and who set the bar for female action heroes in the awesome Terminator 2, is doing a phenomenal job (a scene with her character's daughter Ellie in last night's episode was especially moving) but I felt almost exhausted when the most recent episode closed.

In an otherwise stellar episode (with a hysterically funny performance by Timothy Dalton) Mama Bartowski had gone back and forth so many times I got dizzy. Just finish up this part of the storyline, please!:)

 
"Don't Worry Be Happy" is what I like to listen to when things seem low. I used to hate this song, but now I find so much peace in it!!:)

For anyone who is concerned with gay rights issues at the most basic level, forgetting gay marriage for the moment and just hoping (at this point in time, at least) for things that aren't anti-gay, there's an interesting article off of the Advocate website.

I thought several times last night and this morning about removing  yesterday's post because I usually like to stay light-hearted and on topic with music, books and film, but I didn't remove it...this is just too close to my heart right now....I can't apologize for what I feel, only for if I offend anyone who feels differently...because you are just as entitled to your opinion as I am to mine.

Sincerely,
just a girl blogging

The night before Election Day and all through The House...

 
In the film V For Vendetta there is a scene (informally called "Valerie's Letter" if you search for it on YouTube) with an eerily realistic and plausible scenario of what could happen to gays and lesbians in the not too distant feature (see here) if the haters have their way. The first time I saw this in the theater I cried so hard my friend asked me what was wrong, but I couldn't tell her...

At the risk of sounding extreme (because I'm hopeful for our society someday soon advocating a lot more zen in our fevered and frenzied political climate) I fear for the future for gays and lesbians. With blindly hating anti-gay groups like Focus on the Family and our own Democratic president back-pedaling on gay rights (the very issues he promised to help with during his campaign he's either neglected or turned 180 on) I worry that things are only going to get more grim.

More and more people seem to be speaking out against gays and lesbians and those who defend (whether straight or not) the rights of gays and lesbians continue to be portrayed as "promoting homosexuality"...as if homosexuality is a disease of uncontrollable sexual activity and not just a small part of who someone is...as if being gay or lesbian isn't about so much more than sex...like wanting to find that special person and to fall in love and grow old with her and do plenty of other things besides sex.

Whenever I feel like crying (when my parents go on about how sick being gay is or the world itself is one huge hateful place) I go to "my quiet place." It's an  "inside my mind" place where my views won't disturb anyone else because I keep them to myself (except here)...it's a place where I'm lucky enough to have someone who loves me back and in the general scheme of things no one cares whether we're straight or gay, human or alien...it's a place free of hate and open to possibilities for a real life free of being scared and alone...it's my place, my cone of silence, my fantasy land.

I guess I'm back in soapbox mode because it's the day before Election Day and it's looking more and more like the Republicans are going to sweep through it all and take over Congress...which to me means yikes!!!!

If Republicans take over health care, social security and social issues will take a huge turn for the worse...with the horrifying possibility (if some political figures and leaders of anti-gay groups have their way) that in some states homosexuality will be made a crime. A crime!!! Think I'm exaggerating or kidding? This is just one of many stories of what some far right conservatives would like to see happen.

The thought of that happening makes me so sad and sick I feel like I'm going to throw up...it makes me overwhelmingly sad and if that happens I hope there are good people around to fight the good fight!!!I don't want to live in a country where love can get you thrown in jail. Obama (whom I voted for and generally like otherwise) certainly hasn't shown that he would fight any legislation like that and also...how would the law handle people who loved with their hearts and souls, but not their bodies???

Would you have to be "caught in the act" to get arrested? Or could something as private as emotions get you in trouble? What would happen to gay and lesbian fiction ? (this may sound melodramatic but novels like the above Annie on My Mind have the power to reach gay and lesbian youth who have nowhere else to turn) Will the day come that our minds can be read? When hate crimes rise more than ever and go unpunished? I am so sad and afraid inside..and I would love to ask the haters: don't you think if gays and lesbians (facing all the hate and possible violence that life can sometimes throw their way) could they would change?

Of course, being forced (sometimes through "ex gay treatments" as horrific as electric shock therapy) to do something you can't when all you really wanted in the first place was the right to love someone else...that sounds like the real crime to me.