Jeez Jon

Carrie Prejean Vs. The Word "Appropriate"

Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California USA, is on a tour publicizing her new book, Still Standing.  [No, I'm not linking to it. -ed.]  You may have heard that she was suing the Miss USA pageant for wrongful termination.  Prejean claims it was for her bone-headed statement regarding gay marriage while the Miss USA organization said she wasn't showing up for work.  So, when Miss Prejean met with the reps from the Miss USA people about settling her $1 million suit, they played their trump card:  her sex tape.  And because of her little one-woman show, she settled. 

Back to her tour.  After hitting up the Today Show and The View, she appeared on Larry King's show.  And she took umbrage to Larry King asking her questions about the sex tape.  So, she acted in as professional manner as she could... which means she was highly, highly unprofessional.  Take a gander:

I seriously doubt that the reason why Miss Ladyfingers (tm Joe.My.God) settled is considered "confidential". And to take her mic off just as a gay man called in to ask her a question is also total bullshit.  If you can't handle questions from Larry King, then you really, really have a problem.   

Prejean's book is supposedly about the 1st Amendment, and how she was "attacked for saying her beliefs."  Lemme explain something about the 1st Amendment: I have the right to my opinion, and you have the right to voice your opinion on my opinion.  That's how an open society works.  It's call free discourse.  Yes, you can say whatever you want, but you are also held accountable for what you say.  That's also part of being an adult.

Acting like a spoiled brat on national television is not "appropriate".  Being routinely curt and pissy with a host on a TV show that you are using to hawk your damn book is so not "appropriate".  Turning off your mic while you are on camera is also not "appropriate".  So, Miss Prejean, it's time to put the web camera down and pick up a dictionary.  'Cause your behavior -- not Larry King's -- is inappropriate. 

[Huge hat tip to Joe.My.God.]

Potpourri

And now, a blog post in bullet form 'cause frankly, there's not enough going on right now to justify a full post on one subject.  So, enjoy the melange:

• I've fallen into a good rhythm with work.  The show is progressing well, and some of the new peeps in the Story department are pretty great.  We all get along, and the company is treating us well. So, not much to report here.
• It goes without saying that I'm very disappointed with the vote in Maine about same-sex marriage.  This is going to be a very long battle.  I am somewhat heartened by the possible passage of a domestic partnership registry in the state of Washington.  Two steps back, one step forward.  
• Halloween was fun.  We actually had trick-or-treaters this year, which is a rarity since (1) we live on a very steep hill, (2) which isn't very well lit and (3) we live in an apartment building.  So, with some friends, we set up a table, put up some decorations, and handed out candy.  By doing this, we ended up meeting some new neighbors, and hung out with them that night.  We watched Scream and played Rock Band 'til about 2am.  Pretty fun.
• I've been on a bit of a Muse kick lately.  I'm currently hooked on their latest single, Undisclosed Desires.  Here's the video:

How're all you?

Of A Feather

I hope everyone is having a great Halloween.  In honor of one of my most favorite of holidays, please enjoy a scene of mayhem and brutality from one of my favorite scary movies, The Birds.

One of the great reasons why The Birds works so well is that Hitchcock offers no explanation as to why the birds attack.  Since we can't figure out why, that makes it all the more scary.  Here's one more scene, showing how doing something simply can make things all the more scary.  

Happy Halloween!

Taking Back The Word, Bitches

Funny Or Die does it again, with a new video.  Considering the show I'm working on right now, this is mega-appropriate [language NSFW]:

We Are Douchebags - watch more funny videos

So good... because it's just so true. 

Keep Your Hands Of My Cards

Back in 1991, PBS here in the U.S. played the BBC miniseries House of Cards.  For the uninitiated, House of Cards is a political satire about a highly duplicitous Member of Parliament who lies, cheats, blackmails and kills his way to success.  All the while, he's talking to the camera, taking us in his confidence.  He's just to the right of Margaret Thatcher and also highly, highly evil... and we root for him. Why?  'Cause he's charming and smart, and way smarter than the other people he's stepping on as he climbs the ladder.  And his name is Francis Urquhart.  I mean, his initials are F.U., for cry eye. Here's a taste of Francis sizing up the competition at the Conservative convention:

The thing is... he's right. Those guys are dopey and dull and here is F.U., witty, urbane, and right. Even though he's very, very wrong. Played to perfection by Ian Richardson, F.U. is Richard III and Iago, swathed in the charm of Oscar Wilde.  It's a brilliant character, and House of Cards (and its two sequels, To Play The King and The Final Cut) is fantastic television, and easily among the best miniseries ever done. 

So, you can imagine my horror last week when I found out that the man tapped to do the American version of this wonderful show was Benjamin Button auteur David Fincher.  Now, as you know, I hated Benjamin Button with a pretty intense passion.  The last thing I want to have happen is Fincher to get "artsy" with this and "put his fingerprints all over it." His work tends to be bloated, sluggish, and rather self-important. I hated Alien 3, thought Panic Room was okay, Fight Club is WAY overrated (IKEA is the root of all evil? Don't think so.), and... okay, fine, Se7en is a good movie, you got me there. The only projects on David Fincher's resume I do like are his videos for Madonna (especially Vogue).  House of Cards is ripe for a remake, especially considering the state of politics here in the US, but David Fincher?  Seriously?  Sigh.  I'm not thrilled about this... at all.

The Swing Of Things

I've been back at work for the past week and a half now on season 2 of Is She Really Going Out With Him?  Funny how things coincide:  I started up work and what else starts up in earnest?  Auditions.  True, auditions did perk up the week before I started back on the show, but it's just funny how life goes from full stop to full go.  The job is great and I've been doing well on the auditions.  I always tend to do well when I'm busy.  I do believe I'm built for handling several things at once, on being on a deadline, on having to get things done. I always tend to do poorly when I have time to second guess myself, to let things sit and fester.  Maybe that's why I enjoy improvisation; the whole point of it is to access one's creativity without editing oneself.  If I have to deliver on something -- an audition in an hour, a rough cut to the network -- I just sit down and do it.  I don't have time to indulge my evil invisible Parrot, I just need to get it done. 

Even though I'm pretty tired as I'm writing this (the hour-plus commute time will do that to you), I am feeling well.  I'm back in the swing of thing.  Time off is good, time off is needed, time off is a must.  But time on, however, is fantastic. 

Anniversary, With Some Perspective

One year ago today in a courthouse in Van Nuys, California, Tom and I got married.  It's a great day, and I'm in a great mood, as you can imagine. (Well, I'm definitely in a better mood than earlier this week.)  The plans for the day are pretty mellow:  catching a movie, some dinner, and then maybe some Rock Band with friends.  We both want a mellow, relaxed day of just hanging out and spending time with each other. 

This anniversary coincides with our Nobel Peace Prize winning President making a speech tonight at the Human Rights Campaign dinner.  Now, much as been said about whether or not Obama will deliver more on gay rights issues. On one level, he does need to be more forthright.  Yes, he should step up and push Congress to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."  He should speak out about marriage equality in Maine, which would help the movement out a lot.  And he does need to be out on front on repealing DOMA.

But, let's think about what has actually happened thus far.  He said he's going to sign the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, which would be the first major piece of legislature protecting LGBT rights that Congress has put through.  The Employee Non-Discrimination Act is making its way through Congress.  He's appointed over 100 out gays and lesbians to administration positions.  Also, his speech to the HRC tonight is great in symbolic terms.  Would President McCain be speaking to the HRC?  Probably not.  And you know Romney, Palin, Pawlenty and Huckabee definitely would not.  Obama might not be the savior the gay community may have hoped for.  But he's an ally.  WE are our own saviors, and it's our responsibility to keep the pressure up on Obama, and for us to realize it's not all going to happen at once.

Grrr...

I was on hold for not one, but 2, TWO commercials today. And I didn't get either one of them. This is the only time when the phrase "double release" is a bad thing. I will be plying my pain with hot wings, alcohol and pie tonight.  I'll be fine tomorrow, but right now?  Grr...

Agnostically Yours

This past weekend, my uncle Al treated Tom and I went to the AAIC 09  in Burbank, CA.  For the uninitiated, AAIC is the yearly conference for the  Atheist Alliance International organization.  My uncle has been a die-hard atheist since he was a kid, and since he retired from being a mechanical engineer many moons ago, he spends his time now going to different Atheist conventions and meetings around the world.  Since Tom and I had a good time at the conference last year on the Queen Mary, we decided to give it a go this year.

Let me tell you what actually happens at an atheist conference.  It's not a bunch of sour old men sitting around complaining.  It's a three day event with talks and lectures on science to comedy to the ongoing fight by the Religious Right to take evolution out of schools. Tom and I went on Saturday, which had some great lectures by astronomer Carolyn Porco, biology professor and author Jerry Coyne, and philosopher Daniel Dennett.  While Porco's and Coyne's lectures stayed on the science end of things, Dennett's talk was more on deconstructing religion. The headliner was Richard Dawkins, the closest thing modern atheism has to a rock star. 

His last book, The God Delusion, has sold over 1.5 million copies.  At the conference, he did a reading from his new book The Greatest Show On Earth, using the beauty and multitude of life on Earth as a defense of Evolution.  To show you how popular he is, Dawkins did a book signing after his talk.  This was the line:

It went around the corner as well:

Richard Dawkins is so famous and influential that the guys at South Park even put him into two episodes.  (Voice not actually Richard Dawkins, natch.)

The majority of the people we met at the convention were nice, pleasant, and great to talk to. One of the guys who ate at our table for dinner -- let's call him Steve -- told us how he was a conservative Christian touring musician for the first 30 years of his life, hell-bent on converting his friends.  On a bus-and-truck musical theater tour, Steve roomed with an atheist.  Seeing this as a challenge, he decided to bring his friend "over to the light", and prove that atheism is wrong by reading one of his roommate's atheism books.  Steve read the book from cover to cover, and he couldn't prove it wrong.  In the span of a few weeks, he went from Bible-thumper to atheist.  Others told stories of how they just started questioning their own religious beliefs and after a while, they abandoned them all together. 

You might be asking yourself now "Jon, are you an atheist?"  Well, I've been agnostic since high school.  Coming to terms and accepting my sexuality as well put me squarely at odds with the Catholic Church (in which I was raised) and a lot of other organized religions. Even as a kid, I could never square the circle on God being wrathful or angry.  It didn't make any sense to me that He needed to be praised every five minutes.  If He's a higher being, is he so neurotic that he has to have constant compliments?  Does he need to be told he doesn't look fat in his robe?  I don't think so.  I also don't believe that going to a church is the only way to be a good person. Lots of people hide behind religion to put forth ugly and hateful rhetoric and actions.  Being ethical and being religious aren't one and the same. 

Yes, I know that there are plenty of people who are religious and are indeed good, loving people.  Quite a few of them are in my life, and I do feel that my life is enriched by their presence.  But conversely, I don't feel that I have to do what they do in order to be ethical and kind.  You don't need religion to guide you generally in life. At least I don't.

While there is a lot of atheism that I do find attractive, I don't want to necessarily rule out that there's something more to this life as well.  I guess I want to keep my options open.  I do know that I want to keep reading and keep exploring.

And I finally want to give a thank you to my uncle Al.  Tom and I had a great time with him during his visit (which included such non-atheist activities like going to a taping of Craig Ferguson's show and seeing Capitalism: A Love Story).  Thanks, Al!

Oh, and one final note.  A convention is a convention, which means that among the normal people are always a few crazies.  Notice this guy's... blouse:

Seriously, dude, I know you don't believe in a supreme being, but leopard print?  Really?

Stuff Happens

As gay couples go, Tom and I are rather atypical.  Since we both have the day job/real career paradigm going, housekeeping is a lesser priority.  Oh, we clean the place and try to decorate as nicely as possible, don't get me wrong.  It's just that when both you and your spouse are working 55 hour weeks, the last thing you wanna do on a weekend is go through the bedroom closet to sort out which clothes you want to keep and what you to donate.  As a result, our house has a habit of getting cluttered.  Not dirty, but messy.  When I've tried to tackle this on solo, I would inevitably hit the point where I just kick a box over and yell "Why do we have all this crap?" 

So, with both of us having some time off together, Tom and I have been on a tear going through the apartment and getting rid of stuff.  And the experience has been quite lovely. We've been putting stuff in storage, donating stuff to Out of the Closet, shipping out 50 pounds (!) of old VHS tapes to be recycled, and just also throwing stuff out.  When you are home all day surrounded by your stuff, after a while you start to see what stuff you need and what stuff you don't.  After reorganizing the office, I found out we don't need to buy a pen for the next four years.  Seriously, if you need a pen, come see me.  We're flush with 'em.  Three staplers? Not necessary.

There is something quite wonderful about getting rid of stuff.  I do subscribe to "the cluttered house, cluttered mind" aphorism.  When things are put away, I find I am less distracted, less ADD.  I am definitely more focused when I'm not tripping over things, that's for sure.  Back when Tom and I were making the movie, we had a TV/VCR combo in our office to watch dubs of the raw footage. We finally donated that a little while ago.  I still have our old VCR in our living room.  Sentimental reasons?  Maybe.

I do find the older I get, the less and less importance I put on stuff.  There are certain items that I have held onto for sentimental reasons, of course, but I tend to me way more practical about things now.  If the choice is between a greeting card I received from someone in 1997 that has some sentimental value or someting I'll actually use in the next few weeks, then sorry, the greeting card is getting recycled.  When we first moved into our current apartment  nine years ago, we had quite a bit of toys on display. Peppered throughout the place were Tom's Godzilla toys and my Buffy the Vampire Slayer figures. We also had various Star Wars and X-Men toys in select places as well.  But as the years passed, the less and less we wanted these toys out.  And eventually, the bulk of the toys got donated and the rest are tucked away in some storage box, to be given to someone at some point.  Or to maybe be displayed?  Maybe?  Who knows.  All I know is that for the first time in ages, the level of stuff in my life is at a manageable level and it makes me breathe a hell of a lot easier.