A Tale of Two Sarahs: Haskins on Palin…

Toronto Transit Commission unveiled a new “Next Train Arrival” signage system today on our subways. TTC Chair Adam Giambrone finds the new signage extremely helpful in ascertaining whether the train is in the station:

Adam, dude, turn around.

(Photo courtesy blogTO)

Education is the civil rights issue of this century!

Thus spake John McCain in his rambling, folksy acceptance speech at the climax of the Republican National Convention last night. Silly me, thinking civil rights was the civil rights issue of this century. I guess now that everyone’s equal except those disgusting, god-affronting queers, we can move on to other pressing issues. Like education.

“The Mavrick”

Continue reading ‘“Education is the Civil Rights Issue of This Century!”’

We’ve all wondered what the hell people were thinking when they chose Green Day’s “Time of Your Life” for their wedding or graduation songs — oblivious to the incredibly obvious lyrical sarcasm — so one can only ask what the fuck the Republicans were thinking when they appropriated Heart’s “Barracuda” as Sarah Palin’s theme song tonight:

Barracuda
(Heart)

So this ain’t the end - I saw you again today 
Had to turn my heart away 
You smiled like the Sun - kisses for everyone 
and tales - it never fails! 

You lying so low in the weeds 
Bet you gonna ambush me 
You’d have me down on my knees 
Wouldn’t you, Barracuda? 

Back over Time when we were all trying for free 
Met up with porpoise and me 
No right no wrong you’re selling a Song - a name 
whisper game 

If the real thing don’t do the trick 
You better make up something quick 
You gonna burn it out to the wick 
aren’t you, Barracuda? 

“Sell me sell you” the porpoise said 
Dive down deep to save my head 
You… I think you got the blues too. 

All that night and all the next 
Swam without looking back 
Made for the western pools -silly fools! 

There’s nothing like making a poorly-researched choice and then regretting it after research is undertaken, huh, John McCain Sarah Palin? Of course, the sad, pathetic part of it? Is the rubes’ll buy it and they’ll fucking get away with it. Paging Ann and Nancy Wilson!

Oh, hey, no need to page the Wilsons!

Ann and Nancy Wilson are pissed at the Republican Party and have fired off a cease and desist letter to the McCain/Palin campaign.

Specifically, the Heart women are upset that the GOP has used their classic “Barracuda” as a theme song for Sarah Palin. TMZ obtained a statement from Heart’s rep, who says “The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission.”

The statement goes on: “We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored.”

We’re told Ann was watching TV today and heard the song at the convention when Palin was touted.

Addendum: Oopsie. Here’s what “Barracuda” is really about. Sorry about that, Sarah:

Ann Wilson revealed in interviews that the song was about Heart’s anger towards Mushroom Records attempted publicity stunt involving sisters Ann and Nancy and a made up lesbian affair. The song particularly focuses on Ann’s rage towards a fan who came up to her after a concert asking how her “lover” was. She initially thought he was talking about her then boyfriend, band member Michael Fisher. After he revealed he was talking about her sister Nancy Wilson, Ann became angry and went back to her hotel room to write the song.

Addendum The Second: Ann Wilson Not Amused

Sarah Palin’s views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song ‘Barracuda’ no longer be used to promote her image. The song ‘Barracuda’ was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The ‘barracuda’ represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there’s irony in Republican strategists’ choice to make use of it there.

Republican National Convention, 10 PM, 3 September 2008: Sarah Palin

HBO2, 10 PM, 3 September 2008: Idiocracy

Computer geeks the world over downloaded Google’s new web browser Chrome on Tuesday and… it’s fast, it’s simple and it’s clean. And it seems fairly compatible with most of the stuff I use. You can find out more about the story behind Chrome at the Google Youtube Channel. The video’s very informative and — Continue reading ‘Green on Thursday #71: Chrome on Thursday’

This is not the end of summer.

Hanlan’s Point Postcard (1 September 2008)

Against the Grains

Thereminists for Obama

I’m middle-named after my Dad and my Mom’s Dad.

I wasn’t always close to my Dad. He traveled a lot when I was growing up and when I finished the growing up process and became a long-haired, anti-establishment type, we almost came to blows.

He kicked me out of the house when I was 19 and, in retrospect, I kind of asked for it. He had no idea I was a big ‘mo. I had no idea I was a big ‘mo, for that matter, but this isn’t about me. It’s about my Dad, who turns 80 today.

Eighty!

Here’s what he looked like when he was the age that I am today:

BD & DM

I was raised in what we now call a lower middle-class family. We ate mac ‘n’ cheese a lot. And pork ‘n’ beans from really big cans. My brother and I called it ‘N’ Food.

My Dad actually came from a rather well-to-do family but he was proud and very self-directed and wanted everything he achieved to be, well, his own achievement. He worked as a coffee salesman when I was a wee lad and then, later, as a petroleum salesman, working his way slowly up the corporate ladder until he was making natural gas deals with very large Japanese corporations.

When he retired, I spoke at his party. The room was filled with people who respected my father as highly as is possible. I said “my biggest nightmare was once that I would be in any way like my father. Now I’m happy to tell you all that I’m so much like him, it scares me.”

By that time I’d come out to him. He asked, I told, we cried. Both of us, in a restaurant in downtown Toronto frequented by the Toronto power elite. A future Prime Minister was in the room as I drained my large martini and said “yes”. Oh, before I said “yes” I said “you always told me to be true to myself.” My Dad has a lot of those sayings. I remember them all.

My father was the first atheist I ever knew. My parents both forced me to go to church every Sunday until I was 16, around the time that his father died of cancer. Dad lost his faith then, saying “no loving god could put any person through so much agony and any family through so much horror.” I remember that most of all.

I’m closer now with my Dad than I’ve ever been. This despite the fact that he hates my politics and practically every form of culture I like. And it drove him crazy when I appeared on national television at a gay rights protest, too, until I reminded him about that whole “be true to yourself” thing. And he said “why did you listen to me, dammit?” And we both smiled.

My Dad propped me up and pointed me in the right direction so many times, in so many ways, navigating situations in which he was totally unfamiliar but for which his core values somehow fit.

I love my Dad more today than ever and on this, his 80th birthday, I’d like to toast one the the finest men I’ve ever known, who taught me about honesty and hard work and commitment and values and right and wrong.

My Dad won’t ever be a grandfather, but he can go to sleep at night knowing that if we are reincarnated through our work and our influence, the most important parts of him have been passed along to future generations. All sons should be as lucky as me.

Happy birthday, Dad.

South of Hanlan’s Point (31 August 2008)

So the last two days of August in Toronto were the sort of summer days we used to have in this city — hot, sunny, gorgeous. Three words, by the way, which also could describe the latest crop of beachgoers at Hanlan’s Point. There’s been a resurgence of interest in Hanlan’s over the past couple of years and it’s gratifying that each new crop is more social and groovier and considerably flirtier than the previous.

Today marked the first official Beach Ball at Hanlan’s, with DJs and booze and eats, though we opted for some icy Hoegaardens at home as things were cranking up instead. Also, $35 per head? Um, no. The air show was on, too, with all manner of aircraft tearing across the sky throughout the afternoon.

A good really good weekend, y’all. Completely effective in flushing away the massive, crippling amounts of high-intensity stoopid to which I’ve been subjected lately — more on that later, rest assured.

Your Host and Champ Send Greetings from the Beach at Hanlan’s Point
31 August 2008