Masculinity and Its Discontents
It Has to do with Hillary but I can't think of a good headline right now. Sorry, okay?
To follow up on Martha’s post, and revisit the who’s-got-it-tougher-Hil-or-Barack? issue that Gloria Steinem brought up in her “Women Are Never Front-Runners Times Op-ed back in January, I thought I’d give a brief update from the...2 things: 1) I'm over at Glenn's place, and 2) frat boys can be funny sometimes
I have a post up at Glenn’s blog today. If any of you loyal readers feel in the mood to defend me in the comments section, go to it, but take a word of advice: Don’t get sucked into responding to the deluge of criticisms and arguments. Stick to a simple...“Gender identity disorder ” or “Transgender”?
I plan to give this NPR story – about two radically different approaches to treating children who perceive themselves to be the opposite gender of their biological one – another listen before I write at any length on it, but I thought I’d pass it on...Blue Collar Tennis and the ties that bind
[This is an email that my friend Jeremy once wrote to Jason Sokol and me. We all grew up together in Springfield, Mass. –Dan]To: My Brothers in Competitive Arms From: Jeremy Competition really is one very strong tie that binds us, isn’t it? And tennis does...Why do I let it bother me . . . ?
. . . , why does it surprise me that a company that makes alcoholic beverages that taste like Mountain Dew, aimed at 13-year-old girls – beverages designed specifically to get you fucked up without having to taste even a hint of icky alcohol – should try...Crushing Men, or Not that there's anything wrong with that
The other night, former and probably future NBA coach, smart guy and endearing grump Jeff Van Gundy, now a color commentator for ESPN, blurted out, I HAVE A MAN CRUSH on CHRIS PAUL on national sports television. (Paul is a brilliant, precise, genius of a point guard,...OT: Even for Fox, this is pretty astounding
What she’s referring to is this, btw, fyi, but definitely not lol.Beating myself up while waiting to fail (catchy header, huh?)
While spenidng much of this week waiting for the slew of rejections that I feel are bound to come for my book proposal for "Peep Show" (based in large part on this here which many of you have read ) – two down, eight to go – I’ve pondered...A Daphne is a Daphne is a Daphne
Slightly ameliorating my recent self-pity/loathing is the receipt in the mail of my contributor copies of an anthology I wrote a story for. Fucking Daphne is, well, I’ll let the promotional copy do the talking: When Daphne Gottlieb first found herself the...“Pillow Talk: The Roaming Interview with the Authors of Fucking Daphne.”
Part or the promotion for the anthology "Fucking Daphne" (see previous post) involves each contributor asking a question of the rest of us, after which we will each publish the answers to said question on our respective blogs. While this post may be somewhat...What we all want, (pt. 1,000,000)
Last Thursday the Times ran an article by Andy Newman entitled “What Women Want (Maybe),” (horrible header for an interesting piece) that addressed a study that “showed people video clips of naked men and women in various sexual and nonsexual...Matt Lauer and Luke Russert gab about Tim Russert's death
I was thinking of writing something unpatriotic about Tim Russert, who was a talented broadcaster but also, I believe, a destructive force in American journalism and politics, but then I saw this video of his son, Luke, being interviewed by Matt Lauer, and I figured...Parenthood is guilt
I hope someday to write a long essay titled something like "The Extraordinary Douchebaggery of Joseph Epstein," in which I explore, at great length, well… the extraordinary douchebaggery of professional essayist and curmudgeon Joseph Epstein, who...Even though it seems like I was wrong, I don't think I was wrong
It’s viscerally unpleasant for me, as someone who had a lot of scorn for lefties who, in the run-up to war in Iraq, insisted it was all about oil and empire, to read stories like this: BAGHDAD – Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of...Are people as boring as they seem to be
I was walking behind this woman this morning on my way to work, and something about her — the nondescript way she dressed, the way she did her hair, and in particular the way she walked (a formless, loose-limbed kind of walk, with no sway or strut or swagger or...Geico Caveman, what happened???
I have to admit that as much as I’m (or I was) a big fan of the Geico Caveman’s early work, I never watched an episode of the TV series that spun from those ads. Lately, though, Geico has been airing some new ads that, to me anyway, lack all of the charm,...The Handwriting on the Little Blue Text Booklet, Year 2
MAID stalwarts will recall that about a year ago I spent a couple of weeks scoring the first-year writing placement essays of incoming freshpeople at UMass. It is an often tedious but not altogether uninteresting process. Last year I noted that, from handwriting...Mom, the Flickr Set (with link working now)
Readers, click here to meet or remember Sheila Bergerin photos and video. Perhaps my last post for this year, so good stuff to you all for New Year's Eve (sorry, shameless plug there) and in 2009.Western Male Heterosexual Tropes in “Flight of the Conchords”: Same Old Same Old, or Post-post-Ironic Critique
(I thought I’d try to write an academic-sounding header just for fun – how’d I do? Did I use “tropes” even vaguely correctly?)About a year ago, Dan wrote a post about The Flight of The Conchords, as he deftly put it: “a Tenacious...Well how 'bout that, Oliver Clark actually HAD heard of Fannie and Freddie
Oliver Clark has responded to McCain on his Facebook page:"Well Senator, I actually did. I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent person. I have a bachelor degree in Political Science from Tennessee State, so I try to keep myself up to date with current...Digression from Conchords to Fame in General, Pt. 1
(OT: From now on, I won’t be writing OT (off topic), please just take it as a given that while masculinity and its discontents will remain our jumping off point, this blog will now be everything and its everythings as Dan and I see fit.) The other day I was at a...Eff U Taco Bell / “Sir” Charles?
(For some reason, the blog admin. won't let me embed youtube videos today, so please follow the link to the ad of which I speak, below. Thanks.)As a proud representative of those of us who earn a chunk of our income from tips, I'd like to stand up and, as...More Hip, More Cool, More Conchords, More Fame (third in a series, really)
(Part one) (Part two) So anyway, at this same picnic, you remember, the one by the river with the famous person at it, one of the hosts, I’ll call her WAF, was sitting across from me at our picnic table full of yummy stuff, when, out of the blue, and with...I don't always love Olbermann . . .
. . . but I think he hits it pretty well on this one.Maybe I need to rethink. Maybe the American public deserves some credit, as the hate-mongering by McPalin just seems to be backfiring on them left and right except for the lunatic fringe at their Mussolini-esque...The Cool Poll / More Bon Mots from our Leaders of the Near Future
Dear Readers, Please respond to this little poll. List your top five coolest (famous) people as a comment below. If you’d like to identify your gender, for the purpose of general interest in whom men and women think of as cool men and women, please do. But do...John, Barack, Shwayze, Rakim, Paul, and lil ole me
I've been listening to the new rock-rap act Shwayze. The music is catchy as all get out but it just dawned on me the way that it's equal parts ingriguingly and annoyingly just so very LA (Malibu, to be more precise.)Several times on the album, most notably on...Dogs, Scum, and Me
First, an advertisemtent for myself. I will be reading from my book Bo’s Arts and showing a powerpoint presentation detailing the rise of the Bo’s Arts Movement and illustrating my burgeoning talent as a powerpointalist, at the Rendezvous this coming...Nonbelievers in the House say “Hell, Yeah”!
Okay, this is a little late, but hi, I'm back, and I'm still glowing about the fact that Barack gave a shout-out to atheists in the hizzouse on inauguration day. For those of you who missed it, he said, "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and...More Hipsteria
Q: How many hipsters does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: You don’t know?***Reader "Sheila" (aka my mom) writes:" . . . don’t or didn’t know the difference between hipster and hip so looked it up [at...EXTRA! EXTRA!: 23-year-old Takes Bong Hit!
Wouldn't it be a amazing if Michael Phelps, instead of apologizing for smoking weed, defended himself? For those of you who've somehow missed it, there's a whole lot of hubbub about a photo that got out last weekof Phelps taking a hit off a bong. (There...(vacation mini-post) hipster and gender: the
Reader David led me to this interesting piece at jezebel.com, which led me to this also somewhat interesting if a tad hostile and somewhat dated piece at blacktable.com. Please note that I adore "Eternal Sunshine" and have this picture here because Kate...I'm a sucker for Obamaswag
Okay so I'm a groupie. First MoveOn emailed offering stickers of this image. You could get one for free, or a whole lot more for giving them some money. Heck, it's for a good cause, so . . . I got 50 stickers (want one?). Then, a few days later, after...Various and Sundry from the Campaign Trail
All this Joe-the-Plumber-slash-Obama’s-a-Socialist crap is making me want to move to Europe – I did marry into EU citizenship, after all, tee hee – where the word socialist isn’t akin to Stalinist or Satanist. Videos of Palin and McCain at...For those of you who don't know who Alex Rodrigues is (Forget that. If you don't know, you probably don't read this blog, let alone live on this planet, and if you don't know and do read this blog you're saavy enough to go do your HW if you're...
The Invisible Woman! in Positions of Power and Ownership (an actual Masculnity-related post!) as Exemplified at the Rendezvous
This kind of thing happens all the time to us at the Rendezvous, but last night’s example was especially telling and infuriating. I was talking to a fellow at the bar, a first-time customer, who asked if I own the place. I explained that I did, with three...What's the Big Deal about the San Diego Mayor's (year old) Change of Heart?, Joe Lieberman Redeemed! (and other juicy bits)
This year old clip (from 9/19/07) of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders reversing his anti-gay-marriage stance has going viral since Prop. 8 passed. Many of my friends were muchly and mushily moved by it. Anja was like, “Eh.” And while I wasn’t quite that...joe the plumber, barack the cool cucumber, bachman the moron
Here's Barack’s entire, original “Joe” the “Plumber” conversation. Just for the complete background. Joe seemed pretty charmed at the time – it must kill the Foxnews-ers to watch such a gracious, smart, Ivy Educated,...Could someone explain to me how this could possibly NOT be racist?
That's the thing that baffles me about the brouhaha about the above NY Post cartoon: How couldit not be construed as anything but a representation of the president as a chimp, gunned down by two white cops to boot. I mean, people are actually debating the issue....Why Women's Beach Volleyball Totally Rools!
Last week, as beach volleyball took center stage at the Olympics as we see it on American TV – in large part because two American women are the world’s best at the sport – controversy erupted over the fact that women in the game wear bikinis while...Black Dynamite/ On Unexplained Departures
Jamie asked me a while back to write a post explaining why I'm not writing posts anymore (this is Dan, by the way, former man-in-arms of Jamie). I didn't do it until now for the simple reason that I'm a bit ashamed a) to have quit blogging, and b) to have...(The) Race (for the Prize)
One more week. One more week. I mentioned this in my last post, but here, above, is the speech by the AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka. I post it today because I think that racisim – overt, unspoken, latent, even unconscious – is now the only thing that could...Barack, his Woman, and his Chopper
This is long overdue – something I noticed back at the inaugural balls. More than once, I saw the newly-inaugurated one lean in for a smooch, and each time Michelle managed to duck him, offering a chaste cheek instead. Try googling "Barack and Michelle...EXTRA EXTRA: Republicans Now Support Unwed Teen Motherhood! (right?)
So, the Republican party is officially in favor of mothers of infants going right back to their careersafter giving birth(and travelling all over the world as part of said career) and is gung-ho for unwed teen mothers (of a certain hue and stripe). Here’s a clip...Thankful for Pitbulls Who Love Kittens and Tough Little Hoggies
11/3/08 – Like Xmas Eve?
Friday I was bartending. I had the MSNBC on. He was about 55, rail thin, plaid shirt and moustache, worn in the trucker style. Said to me, "I just don't think we're ready for a Black Muslim president." I asked him if he really believed that Obama was...Give me back that Filet-O-Fish, Give me that fish
I really dig this ad. Absurdity seems to be the hottest trend in TV commercials these days (Would Ernie Kovacs be thrilled or incensed?) and most of said ads annoy me, but somehow this one I like. Dood just sittin’ there on his weight bench, in front of his...A RANT from the Gloves OFF Dept.: Please forward this photo (and the text too if you want) to everyone in America
Okay so I just gave money – $100 I really don’t have – to a political candidate, for the first time ever after watching last week’s Republican Convention. I don’t even like my candidate that much any more, since he’s started talking...Wow!
Wow.(Again, photo byCallie Shell)Pailin Flailin'
[Dear readers,My wife Anja and I got in a big car accident this weekend and I broke my collarbone (the only major injury to come out of an accident in which had a blow-out and flew off the highway, then rolled a couple of times – we were very lucky.), so...Dan Reeder spelunks in the male psyche
I was exposed to Dan Reeder, a California blues/singer-songwriter type, through the Showtime show Weeds, which used his "Work Song" in a Season 1 episode. The song consists entirely of Reeder, harmonizing with himself, singing "I got all the fucking...eMpTV city, dude
We live in a world in which young women compete, on television, to be Paris Hilton's best friend. I watched five minutes. A young woman sat in a hot tub with Paris. In voiceover, the contestant's voice: "I really want her to know that I'm not here to...Hard Times and Crafty Peeps
Hello Dear Readers,Just wanted to drop you a line. I'm not around so much these next weeks. I'm in Albany with my mom, who's getting ready to leave this world. If you know her from my writing, you know that we have an etremely close, intense, mostly...YES WE DID
Hey, gang,I'm finally recovering from election night celebration and am ready to start celebrating some more. Please add a comment or something celebratory about this "historic" election. Add a link!I wish that more positive words were being used than...On the fence on offensiveness
Lately I’ve been thinking about what’s offensive to whom and why. Not only is offensiveness subjective, but I’ve found that it’s often in great flux – that is, what people find objectionable depends on the situation (a la ethics) and can...Nader Voters? / End of Our Own Evil Empire? / The Bradley Effect? – and much, much more!
There is one constituency that I don’t know how to reach: people like my old, dear friend Brooklyn Mike, who’s been posting here lately, who would never vote for McCain but just can’t support a bankrupt system by voting for a Democrat either. Without...Sheila Barbara Strongin Berger, 12/1/35-12/9/08, R.I.P.
Mom and grand-dog Bo in summer, circa 2002, on the front stoop of our house, 471 State Street, Albany, NY. One brief note, strictly as a bereaved son. Sheila Berger understood me, my aesthetic, my hopes as a writer, an artist, a person -what I could be and make and do...Warm Fuzzies
This photo just makes my day. If I believed in God I’d say she blessed America. As Anja put it, "And she came in the front door." Amen to that.*** The other day an older man from our neighborhood (a new neighborhood, kind of – we moved just...I am going to turn on some good music and choose to be happy
In the past week I've received several variations on this email, below, from "Kathlneen Galloway," "Ernest Graham," "Manuel Tipton," "Kermit Veles," and "Perry Sandoval." Above and below the text you are about to...Barney Frank Mans Up Against Bill O'Reilly
What’s interesting/invigorating to me about this clip is differences in what I expected to be radical differences in perception of it. I (and a vast majority of others I’ve found when googling) see Barney Frank more than holding his own, taking Bill O to...E-Edition
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