This American Life examines a Chinese life on the assembly line

EVERYONE NEEDS TO STOP WHAT THEY'RE DOING AND READ/LISTEN TO THIS RIGHT NOW.

what does it mean for something, everything to be “made in china?”

fascinating/horrifying revelations of the factories and working conditions in china that make all the shit you take for granted.

Shenzhen is a city without history. The people who live there will tell you that, because 31 years ago Shenzhen was a small town. It had little reed huts, little reed walkways between the huts. The men would fish in the late afternoon. I hear it was lovely. Today Shenzhen is a city of 14 million people. It is larger than New York City. Depending on how you count it, it's the third largest city in all of China. It is the place where almost all of your crap comes from.

And the most amazing thing is, almost no one in America knows its name. Isn't that remarkable that there's a city where almost all of our crap comes from, and no one knows its name? I mean, we think we do know where our crap comes from. We're not ignorant. We think our crap comes from China, right? Kind of a generalized way. China.

But it doesn't come from China. It comes from Shenzhen. It's a city. It's a place.

Shenzhen looks like Blade Runner threw up on itself. LEDs, neon, and 15-story-high video walls covered in ugly Chinese advertising. It's everything they promised us the future would be.

[...]31 years ago, when Deng Xiaoping carved this area off from the rest of China with a big red pen, he said, this will be the special economic zone. And he made a deal with the corporations. He said listen, use our people. Do whatever you want to our people. Just give us a modern China. And the corporations took that deal, and they squeezed and they squeezed. And what they got was the Shenzhen we find today.

i find it important to emphasize, that my absolute horror and disgust in reading this is less directed at the Chinese government and the Chinese leaders or even at the Chinese corporate heads who allow this condone this sick, sick operation (though, of course, they are fault here as well). what horrifies me and disgusts me most is actually the fact that American people are totally ok with/ ignorant of / willfully ignorant about it. we condone this kind of human rights abuse, because we want our crap to be cheaper, and we always want more of it.

think about how amazingly, completely backwards and effed up this is:

As a creature of the First World, I expect a factory making complex electronics will have the sound of machinery, but in a place where the cost of labor is effectively zero, anything that can be made by hand is made by hand. No matter how complex your electronics are, they are assembled by thousands and thousands of tiny little fingers working in concert. And in those vast spaces, the only sound is the sound of bodies in constant, unending motion.

modern technology has advanced to such a degree that we (Americans) assume most things  everything is made by machines, even the relatively simpler things that used to be made by hand, like sweaters, and books, even our food. most people probably think we live in the mechanized future, where handcrafted things are a luxury, a long-lost artifact of history and ancient cultures and the pioneers. so in an age of inconceivably advanced technology, where the machines get smaller and more complex and powerful year after year, you would expect these machines to also be borne from the labor and precision of machines. but, in fact, Mr. Disney tells us, they are assembled by hand, millions of precise hands, working repetitively in an unending mechanical whir. and, in fact, these millions of tiny hands are actually cheaper and more expendable than those big machines.

what makes that such a perverse and deplorable realization is compounded by the fact that those big expensive machines are what put people in America out of work. and here is where i get really angry: in America, where we have labor laws and unions and it's illegal to pay your workers nothing and have them work endless days, the big corporations figured it's actually cheaper and better for business to bring in those big machines. that's what happened in the coal industry, and the automobile industry, and many other industries: human labor got replaced with non-stop, wageless, liability-free machines. other corporations, who couldn't use machines (such as computer manufacturers, i guess), shipped the jobs overseas, to China and India, where they could get human hands to build their products and still get paid next to nothing.

and the really terrible thing is, that China's and India's wages keep dropping year after year, to "stay competitive" with one another in the international market for jobs. so you see, this is a compounding problem that grows worse year after year, with no foreseeable end, because the trend in dropping prices of tech products comes at the price of workers' wages and working conditions.

but, slave labor does not necessarily have to exist in order for these markets to exist. if American companies, such as Apple, commit to fair labor practices (as Apple just did, in joining the FLA), they set the standard for business practices around the world. if American companies demand ethical practices from their suppliers and partners, businesses and employers around the world will change to meet the demand. American companies and American consumers need to demand and expect better.

Occupy Wall Street newcomers

"...and then, there were Ben Kuebrich and Stephanie Lee."

ben and i made the local NBC NYC news*, for showing up last friday to check out the amazing happenings at the Occupy Wall Street movement. more on that soon!

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.


*the only reason we found out was because we met a guy on the way home who stopped us to chat and said "hey! you're the ones from the 6 o'clock news!" 

the executioner's song

as you'd know if you've been visiting the blog lately, i've been reading Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song. it's a great read, albeit disturbing. it is such a visceral book, leaves me with a knot in my stomach most of the time and i've even called ben crying on the phone after reading chapters of it.

the book is a strange accompaniment to the recent execution of Troy Davis by the state of Georgia. while reading Mailer's book, you get to know Gary Gilmore and his victims, and you really get to hate him and all of his meanness and violence, and you cringe at all his dirty-mouthed arrogance and disrespect for life. but, you know that he's going to be executed. you have that expectation going into it: that the whole thing ends in justice. that SOB got what he deserved. and though you feel sick about it and kind of hate yourself for having these feelings, you just can't reconcile that with the fact that Gilmore was a vile individual, and a danger to everyone around him. so in this case, where the facts of Gilmore's crime are all laid out by Mailer for your omniscient reading experience, you feel satisfied knowing that justice was inevitable, and perhaps more importantly, deserved.

not so when history is being made by the minute. when i found out the Supreme Court denied Troy Davis clemency, despite the recanting of witnesses in his case, and the pleas of thousands of people, and went ahead and executed him anyway, just a few moments ago, i felt a really sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. just this crushing overwhelming sadness. hearing about how he refused his last meal, because he didn't think it was going to be his last, i dunno, for some reason, that thought really got to me. like, my mother always calls me to make sure i've eaten my dinner, every night she always makes sure i'm staying fed, and i always do the same thing to ben now. and Troy Davis, he had hope until the last minute in justice or mercy or pity or something, and then he goes to his death in a cold concrete prison, hungry. that thought, of a man going suddenly to his death, without all his worldly ends taken care of, made me really, really sad. we were all watching and hopeful of little minutes that would build into hours, into days, of delay and finally a stay of execution or a commuted sentence. and then, suddenly, they just went and executed him anyway. one minute he was alive, with family and with a past and with mortal fear coursing through him, the will to keep up a legal battle that has lasted years, and hunger pangs in his stomach and then the next minute, he's gone.

i'm scared. i'm scared of a justice system that will execute people without even a moment's pause. i'm scared of a justice system that is so dysfunctional that sometimes witnesses are talked into giving incriminating testimonies, that sometimes allows potential murderers to play the system and pin their evil deeds on others. i'm scared of a justice system that satisfies itself with murdering potentially innocent citizens instead of seeking out the truth. and i'm scared to live in a world in which such a tragic farce is permitted to exist.

in moments like these, i really hope there is some Plan to all of this chaos, this madness and despair. i hope there is justice at the end of all of it, even when it doesn't seem that way. whatever higher powers that be, please have mercy on us all.

‎"The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Moment

i've been watching the aftermath of the news of Osama bin Laden's death unfold on the internet, feeling really disjointed and weird. i feel like this should be one of those momentous moments that ppl remember, like when 9/11 was happening – i remember being in my sophomore AP Psychology class and remember my teacher saying to us while we watched things unfolding on the tv "you're going to tell your kids one day that you remember exactly where you were, who you were with, and how you felt the day those towers fell." and i knew then he was totally right. i remember going to AP English after that, and seeing everyone completely devastated, collapsed on their desks, sobbing and clutching onto their friends. one boy in particular caught my eye, my friend David, who sat underneath the tv, ashen-faced but silent, and unemotional. it was his birthday. his father was murdered when he was younger. somehow that last point is relevant because it made me think he was experiencing this in a way none of us could understand. i wanted to experience his Moment, the way he was feeling things. i wanted to know what strength or understanding or strange disjointedness he was experiencing that made it possible for him not to cry. i remember thinking that it takes a strange kind of strength or self-knowing not to cry just because everyone else felt obliged to cry together. i wonder now if he could foresee the aftermath of this very public grieving, the impending, unavoidable result of such a moment. already, not even before the end of the day, i'd heard classmates, even friends, wish aloud for Osama to die. not long after, and we were propelled into a war that has lasted almost half my life.

and now this. i just got back from visiting my grandparents, opened up my laptop and went to facebook, and saw my friend's post:

when i read that, i was excited, because i read "got" as "captured and took into custody," not "have his dead body in possession." i checked twitter next.

perhaps there is something to be said about the places in which we experience these Moments. when 9/11 happened i was surrounded by people, just as perplexed and distraught as i was. there was comfort and also escalation to that. there was a sense of acceptability, of belonging, to a shared sense of sorrow. you couldn't buy an american flag for weeks. everyone's tree had a yellow ribbon on it. neighborhoods never felt more united. and isn't that weird? i felt weird about it, how strange a Moment could make your world, and never knowing when it would return to normal again. that is how 9/11 and the days after felt. or maybe it was high school (although, one could argue That Moment lingers still, even nearly ten years after it happened).

this time around, i am alone, in my room i lease from an old lady i barely know, where i just moved about a month ago to start a job i didn't feel particularly strongly about but took out of desperation because my unemployment was running out and i got laid off from my school district last year. there was no one around me when i heard the news, i watched it happening from my laptop screen, one page refresh after another, a stream of posts on twitter, facebook and tumblr. i'm not sure if my physical alienation can take full credit for my sense of detachment in this Moment, but perhaps it plays a part in the experience.

my feelings on This Moment, as i'm experiencing it thru my lens of the internet, are that it feels totally alienating and weird and definitely sickening.

like, i'm really disturbed to see how many people are coming out en masse to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden. and what's more, to do it with such camaraderie. reports were saying people in NY were honking their cars, screaming jubilantly, people in LA were going to the bars to have drinks with one another, chants of "USA" reverberating down every street. what?? the very public performances of celebration (who can be the most excited, the most patriotic) coupled with the unquestioning acceptance of such are making me feel very uneasy. everyone delighting so publicly in the USA successfully exacting revenge on ONE individual is really, really weird. i can understand a feeling of relief or closure, feeling like we can finally end the war and bring all our troops home, but screaming and hugging random "fellow Americans" in the street and feeling like America is super awesome? i just don't feel like this is one of our prouder moments. in fact, it makes me really sad, because what we are celebrating is not Justice, but Vengeance. it is the eruptive self-acknowledgment of a society and culture of violence, one that does not end with this death, but continues onward from it. Obama has already said that the "work" in the middle east will continue, and Homeland Security is already predicting "retaliation" attacks from the aftermath. it reminds me of the end of the movie Memento, in which *SPOILER ALERT* Lenny crumples up and burns the polaroid of the murder he committed, in order to perpetuate a narrative that gives him a sense of purpose but ultimately necessitates further murders.

what i would like from This Moment is some reflection. i would like public officials and leaders and the media and celebrities and my friends and everyone to rethink our narratives. if our world would find it just as easy and acceptable to celebrate peace, as we do revenge, we would have an entirely different world.

i feel like i've had several of these Moments in my life already. 9/11, The Day Obama was Elected President, and now The Day Osama bin Laden Was Killed. i'm still waiting on The Day The War Was Declared Over.

oh and also, because of This Moment, this happened...?

[source]

and this:

text reads: "PARTY IN THE USA! let's be honest... it's what we were all thinking." oh? i guess i never got the memo...

[shakes head]

geez, NPR, calm the eff down!

you're going to make us think the world is a dark, unfortunate and violent place.

déjà vu: a comparative analysis of James Cameron's Avatar

i watched Avatar with my fam last night. i enjoyed it, really, and maybe one of the most enjoyable facts was how my dad and i became really absorbed in the narrative, [spoiler alert:] cheering on the Na'vi, boo'ing the imperialists/capitalists/US foreign policy surrogates.

for those of you who haven't seen it yet, i would recommend seeing it soon, but mostly because i think the theatre surround sound and giant image add a lot to the experience. if you can, see it at a 3D iMax (which we did not, [my mom and i get motion-sick] but the whole time i wondered what it would be like [probly the closest to tripping on acid i will ever get]).

those of you who can't afford to see it in 3D iMax (esp those of you in CA, where those tickets can cost close to $20!), let me save you some of the suspense: my brother called it cliché, "it had the same gist as The Last Samurai and Dances with Wolves." (mm, not true? i believe in The Last Samurai the "natives," that is, the samurai, actually lose. and i haven't seen Dances, but at least it didn't distort or adulterate a historically significant theme [colonialism vs. "native" culture] with fantastical allegory, at least Dances was explicitly and unequivocally talking about Native Americans... right?)

despite its predictable story arch, Avatar does throw in some delightfully sharp jabs at recent foreign policy, mainly, US adminsitrations' predilection for forgoing diplomacy and resorting to force – quotes such as "fight terror with terror" and "shock and awe" were pulled right from Rumsfeld's mouth, generating huge snickers from me and my dad. (i wonder, too, about how uncomfortable the film might make staunch republicans, Bush fans, FoxNews junkies, Glenn Beck nutsacks, and jingoes, once they get past the colorful images and realize that the film is asking them to cheer against what they believe in. has Glenn Beck seen Avatar and/or done a review yet?)

Avatar, just like Lord of the Rings before it, uses the winsome conceit of fantasy to send us a much-needed message about how our modern lives are ruining the beauty of the world around us (indeed, the world without us). Avatar allows us to sink just deep enough into its fantasy to absorb its message, but i wonder if the message gets left behind as soon as we leave the world of Pandora and step out of the darkened movie theatre. as a kid watching the LOTR films, i eagerly took up where Peter Jackson left off, i wanted to be a hobbit and live in a Shire-like community, and i felt that meant we needed to protect our (Middle) Earth better. i started an environmental club at my high school, i got my family to recycle more and waste less. small actions probably, but illustrative. in contrast, leaving the theatre after Avatar made me feel exhilarated, but more in a "wow, what a really awesome movie" kind of way (residual spectacle). later, i felt bitter and angry as my thoughts turned to the surge in Afghanistan (no thoughts about the beauty of earth and nature).

i guess the significant difference between these two comparable films is this: while LOTR grounded its story in something fantastical, it still seemed plausible (warriors who looked like nothing stranger than medieval crusaders, trees who could walk and talk – this doesn't seem so strange if you accept the idea that the natural world is teeming with life and hidden beauty, which i do). Avatar, to use a phrase from the main character, was too "dream-like" to be real. and that's the problem, it is real. wars against native peoples and cultures happen all the time, thru brutal, irreverent force and extermination, and ppl don't see it or don't care. what good does it do for these things to be brought to the surface but to be forgotten in spectacle?

finally, a word about representation: i found it difficult to enjoy the movie for the first half an hour or so, because i was deeply disturbed by the way the "natives" were depicted. long braids, tall alien-like bodies and cat-like features, broken english, scarce clothing, hissing and animal-like agility... it was a biting reminder that our society often thinks of ethnic as "strange" or curious (disturbingly, something about the Na'vis faces, in addition to looking cat-like, suggested that the actors playing them were ethnic, which was what prickled me most ["native" = ethnic, colonialists = "white"] because it suggests that ethnic peoples are somehow wild or alien). for more on what i mean, see this article on what it means to wear "ethnic" fashion.
(update! this article from a really great website on representation, picks Avatar apart quite aptly. again, spoiler alert!)

and, for those still wanting to see the movie but without the means to do it, this video sums it up nicely as well:


-stephan!e

edit! found this great image that sums it up pretty nicely:

bold [sic] hate - ha ha

shield yr eyes!

(or keep em peeled! this shit changes real-time, bitches. so you can witness my minute-by-minute struggles with this jackass mother fucker. and warn me of broken links cuz this shit is wired to hit the fan...)

i have been up since 7 am working on this stupid piece of shit for my grad class, the last two hours spent trying to figure out how to format the fucking tables in the rubric section so it's not all bold.

fucking google docs.

nothing like a webquest to make you hate google, the internet, and life.

also: no food, no company, no time. low sleep, dirty hair, and my muscles wanna go for a ruuuuuuunn nn n n na nun.

there was so much else i could have done but instead this. and more.

still one unit plan, one lesson plan, and a fieldwork journal to write.

and i'm wondering about the state of nature and (hu)man. if the birds, cows, monkeys, and fleas all want to kill us, and the pigs now too, i think it's proof my hero was right:

"Your planet's immune system is trying to get rid of you."

fly high, fly straight. into the sun?
-stef

a short and recent biography

i learned last night, right after we put a wrap on the class i've been teaching for the past semester, that i've been awarded the Miller Award for the Western College Program.

as the email notice describes it:

"You have been selected by your peers as the winner of the Miller Award.

Stephanie, your award is given to the student who most embodies the spirit of Western College. Congrats to you! As part of the WCP tradition that goes along with the Miller Award you will have your name embroidered onto the graduation gown worn by Ms. Miller. The Western College Alumnae Association expects that you wear "the regalia" to both the main campus commencement, as well as to the Western commencement. As such, please plan to attend the campus-wide graduation on Saturday, as well as joining us in Kumler Chapel. It will make for a long day, but you are now firmly enshrined as part of Western's rich history."

what an absolute honor! i was so breathlessly thrilled when i first read the email, i had to re-read it twice, just to make sure it was intended for me and not some other stephanie. but, the sender made sure to send it to all three of my email addresses, so i guess he knew what he was doing, too.

as part of the award, i had to submit a story about "me and my long, long life" (the dean's words). here's what i ended up writing:

In her time here at Western, Stephanie has immersed herself in community life, tutoring in both the Windate Writing Center and the Tappan Computer Lab, serving on Community Life Council (CLC) for her first and second years, and serving on the Traditions and Transitions committee for the preservation of Western College traditions. Stephanie has also extended her community involvement beyond Miami. She has volunteered at the Community Arts Center and with the Earned Income Tax Credit program in Butler County. As a Campus Progress Advisory Board member, Stephanie has helped to organize campaigns and training workshops for student activists all around the nation.

Among Western's many traditions, Stephanie holds the tradition of social justice most dear. As one of the organizers of the group Students for Staff, Stephanie has been continuing the work of Western alums who started the Fair Labor Coalition in 2003. She has spent the majority of her undergraduate years working alongside fellow students to campaign for a living wage at Miami University. And, when word about Western's possible termination leaked to the Western community, Stephanie was at the forefront of the movement to "Keep Western Whole." She demanded a meeting with the administration, and, along with a group of Western students, cancelled their Spring Break plans to stay in Oxford and meet with Provost Herbst and defend the Western Program. They would also raise opposition to the administration in University Senate, where they demanded greater transparency and student involvement.

Her experiences in both Students for Staff and the Keep Western Whole campaigns greatly influenced her to write her senior project on the importance of democracy and community in fostering empowering education. As part of her project, she designed and taught a Western seminar called "Education for Social Change," in which students developed community-based projects that would hopefully transform their educational experiences, as well as those of the people around them. She also built a book press so the class could hand-bind copies of a book they wrote together.

After Miami, Stephanie will be moving to Los Angeles, CA to teach special education as a Teach for America corps member. She hopes to get involved with more labor organizing or community-building projects in LA (she hopes to unionize the teachers in her school system - after her time in TFA) and plans on going to graduate school for cultural studies or public policy. She plans on devoting the rest of her life to educating revolutionary leaders and teachers who will transform the world of education, and dreams of eventually taking office as Secretary of Education and making democratic education the norm in schools all over the nation, and then coming back to Oxford to reinstate the Western College Program as she knew and loved it.

Of all the time she's spent at Miami, and of all the people she's met and things she's done, she's going to miss the moments spent with Western the most. This has really been her second family and second home for the last four years, and she wonders how she ever got by without this beautiful community. Thank you so much for giving her the opportunity to be so incredibly happy.

-- that last part made me tear up a little bit.

bidding you a fond adieu,
stephanie

hostage situation

help! stephanie has been taken hostage by her project!

(this is my best attempt at a "hostage situation" photograph. that's tuesday's copy of the student paper! and that's my little cave-dwelling-as-of-late, the Tappan computer lab!)

even though i finished writing it on monday, i keep forcing myself to make more edits, to write more sections, to continue stressing. i'm still trapped in the dark cave-like confines of the Tappan computer lab (my near-permanent residence since my computer crashed last week).

i hope to be freed soon. tomorrow, i work more on the concluding chapters, (there are some chapter titles i'm playing with), and then i am meeting up with an elusive english dept. faculty member to make a book press! (i am way excited!)

send ransom money and kittens to my comment box!
-stephanie

only at Miami and only in Oxford, Ohio...

the students at Miami have been hit by a "crime wave" in the past year. we get electronic announcements regarding the latest in the spree of thefts, break-in's, (armed) robberies, drunken malfeasances. they are "designed to notify members of the University community about a reported crime that may represent an ongoing threat to public safety."

these are, of course, very serious. Miami takes its image and its terrorism very seriously. nevertheless, i couldn't help laughing out loud when i read the following Campus Crime Alert (they've stopped numbering them as they used to, but i think this makes #20+):

WHITE FEMALES!
WEARING BLACK LEGGINGS!!
(= MIAMI GIRLS!!!)

this has the potential for satire written all over it. too bad it's a couple days late, i'd say the administration finally grew a sense of humor and got us with a good Fools' Day prank.

hm... based on that description, they've pretty much implicated at least half of the female student population (happy to say i get excluded from the line-up on two counts: not being white and not wearing leggings since the '80s or since '80s night disappeared from the weekly Balcony lineup).

i suppose if this should be any suggestion of an "ongoing threat to public safety," we best lock and bolt our windows and doors immediately, b/c our sad campus is sadly overflowing with a preponderance of these dangerous criminals. lock 'em up! not b/c they steal laptops or break into ppl's dorm rooms, but just b/c they perpetrate great harm on the human species for their very existence.

it's gonna be a dangerous Spring!
-stephanie

dear Hillary and Obama (if you're listening): i live in Ohio, and i'm voting for Nader.

=UGLY! (boo hiss!)

"When again we can hold a fair election on real issues, let's vote, and not till then."

~ W.E.B. DuBois

i love that quote. after spending the majority of my Spring semester reading about democratic philosophy and theorizing about the meaning of democracy in modern America, looking for hope that the youth of America are becoming more engaged in their communities and are participating in political activity, i feel obligated to watch the democratic debates, even though i LOATHE them.

nevermind that most of it rapidly, inevitably devolves into immature bickering and quibbling, or that they NEVER answer the questions, or that they're always using the same empty rhetoric over and over ("Change" vs. "Experience" - as if they're completely separate and we can only have one!) ...

most of all, i hate the spectacle that politics has become. i gave this debate an honest shot. i took half an hour out of my already really packed day to watch the debate in the hopes i'd find something redeeming in either one of the candidates. because we're voting here in Ohio in less than a week, this undecided independent young adult minority woman (an important demographic, i believe?) needs to decide how to get her vote on!

i've been following the debates and the campaigns, with ever-growing disdain and distaste and disinterest and complete lack of faith in our political system. it was tolerable back when John Edwards was still in it. he was sensible, well-spoken, and miraculously managed to diffuse the awkward tension and animosity between Barack and Hillary. but let's face it, the media machine never even gave him a chance, it's always been Obama vs. Clinton from the beginning. and now look at the mess we're in! it doesn't matter who gets the nomination at this point, they're not going to pick each other as running mates (which leaves... Kucinich? if only...) and all this nonsense mud-slinging is doing nothing to get anyone excited about voting for either of their sorry asses!

this is exactly why youth, across the board, in surveys and polls on civic engagement, continually abstain from political activity. BECAUSE IT'S UGLY! why would we want to participate in a system that continually reeks of corruption, greed, equivocation, and disregard for real issues in the name of competition? i hate having to watch adults - full-blown grown-ups dressed up in power suits fer cryin' out loud! - whining and picking on each other to try to win sympathy from a (let's face it) apathetic crowd. these are our supposed leaders in D.C. and i can't even trust them to sit there and have a civilized, well-reasoned discussion for half an hour?! and you want me to vote for them??!!! i can't even believe i made the foolish mistake of turning on the TV to watch this garbage when i didn't even eat dinner today because i had so much work to do, i was worried leaving my room to grab a sandwich would be too much precious time lost. clearly i don't have any sense of propriety!

not that the idea of political theatre should be news to my generation. no, on the contrary, we should be pros at spotting it now. i'll admit i'm exceedingly suspicious of Obama because of all the media hype he's getting. it's almost trendy to be in support of his campaign. now, i can remember maybe 2 years ago or more hearing about the young junior senator from Chicago who was a great orator, and being kinda excited. but after that the spark faded. and when Hillary brought up his inclination to vote "present" on bills, rather than taking a side, that really turned me off. i want stances, not easy passes. and i'm still wary of his predilection to play it safe, taking neutral positions and employing flavorless rhetoric in an effort to offend as little as possible. the tendency to play the middle road reminds me of the mass media industry's practice of producing homogenized, low-quality, formulaic media fare in the interest of accumulating mass audiences, at the expense of accuracy, progress, and authentic representation. you can spin it as "unification," but it looks more to me like ball-less neutrality, and we all know you can't be neutral on a moving train...

at some point in the debate, Hillary and Barack were bickering and talking over the moderators trying to interject their various points of contention (what else is new? yawn yawn, right?) the camera cut to some slick-looking NBC guy, while Hillary was still talking, as he tried to cut to a commercial break (which would be incidentally filled with campaign commercials), saying "TELEVISION DOESN'T STOP!" indeed, it's apparent now, this spectacle does not stop, not for anyone. even if we want it to. we've got to jump off!

so screw it, i've had it. clearly politics are theatre and this theatre is vaudeville. worse, it's bad television!

i've always said a vote for Nader is a wasted vote. so maybe i'll just vote for (*gasp!*) Huckabee. because there is no way in hell our next Chief is going to be called "President Huckabee" (sorry, Mike!)

feeling disenfranchised,
stephan!e

liveblogging the Oscars

Best Actress winner Marion Cotillard, looking radiant - her speech was definitely the highlight of the evening, in my honest opinion.

screw Carpetbagger. this snarky chick and her snippy friend Brandon had our own little (unplanned) blog-fest for the 80th Academy Awards!

while i sat in my room with the telly on, a cup of peppermint tea in hand and my senior project books spread around me, Brandon and i chatted back and forth about the Oscars, facial hair, and it was a love fest!

so here are the Oscars, as experienced thru our unabashedly snarky commentary:

me: hi, are u watching the oscars?

10:15 PM Brandon: yeah

me: i LOVE marion cotillard

her speech nearly made me cry

she is so gorgeous

Brandon: yeah, seriously. I think i would have been funny if any one of those ladies had won

*would have been happy

i can't think

me: ha

10:16 PM yeah, agreed, but i really wanted her to win the most

well, and julie christie too, but more cuz she's old

Brandon: yeah...I dont know why she was so surprised. She was who i was expecting haha

julie christie was incredible though in that movie

me: yeah she was

Brandon: she definitely deserved it as well

10:17 PM and I really liked Cate's reaction

me: yeah i love her!

Brandon: she looked so incredibly happy for Marillon it was ridiculous

me: i loved how she was so thrilled for Marion

yeah, haha

Brandon: i dont know what is up with my typing tonight

me: mine was like that this morning

i was hitting all the wrong buttons

and saying words i didn't mean

ok wtf

10:18 PM it seems like Jon Stewart is trying too hard to be funny

OMG is Glen Hansard going to sing??!!

10:19 PM YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!

Brandon: holy fuck that was a huge orchestra for that one little intro part lol

10:20 PM me: yeah, haha

i think it's the orchestra that plays the exit music too tho

oh, and Glen is sans beard

i hope they win the Oscar

i feel like they deserve it more than the other acts so far, which have been kinda shitty to be honest

10:21 PM i love how Glen is playing his beat up guitar too

10:22 PM aw, they were cute

10:23 PM Brandon: jack nicholson, however, is not lol

he kind of seems like the ultimate creeper to me

me: yeah, i think that's kinda a persona he's cultivated over the years

10:24 PM wow, some of these older movies look AWFUL

Brandon: thats what makes them so good lol

me: aw, it's the Dragonheart theme!

Brandon: i love bad old movies

me: i LOVE that movie

i really want to watch it now

10:26 PM ok, wtf, Oliver! was a best picture?

and Rocky?

that seems wrong

Brandon: i FUCKING love amadeus!

i had no idea that was a best picture

10:27 PM that makes me so happy

10:28 PM me: i love that movie too

it's so creepy

7 minutes

10:36 PM me: that was weird how they zoomed in on Nicole, rather than the guy who was actually getting the award

wow, the camerawork here is ridiculous

it's EVERYWHERE

Brandon: yeah...this is what one of my friends wrote in his live-journaling of the event:
10:32 -- What the fuck is that diamond necklace-ish thing hanging off of Nicole Kidman? I'm sure it's worth a bazillion dollars, but it's only favoring one of her titties and it looks so weird.

10:37 PM me: oh no, are they going to play the music on him?

haha

Brandon: i dont think they play the music for the special people awards

me: it does look a little chintzy

i hope not

but they might as well since they're not focusing the camera on him

it seems like no one there is listening

10:38 PM Brandon: haha! they should showed this old guy who was sleeping lol

me: haha

10:40 PM this is horrible, i'm not getting anything done b/c the tv is on

Brandon: me neither...I decided to instead try to catch up on some of my photo uploading lol

10:41 PM me: ooo that at least sounds like a useful way to spend the time

10:43 PM wow, i haven't seen any of these foreign lang films!

Brandon: I really wish there was an easily accesible way to see the foreign language films and short animated features

me: agreed!

shorts are esp hard to find

10:45 PM Brandon: I know i hate that

I would love to be able to see them but i have no idea where to find them

10:46 PM me: i love how they take the time to make the song performances so elaborate

Brandon: yeah...these are ridiculous productions

10:47 PM me: Once's wasn't

Brandon: not at all lol

it was just the two of them and their little instruments

and everything else...HUGE production values!

me: + a wall of guitars, but they weren't dancing

10:48 PM they coulda added some pyrotechnics at least

i mean come on!

10:49 PM i like how John Travolta just waltzed in

because u're a song and dance man, John!!

"Falling Slowly" ftw!!!

10:50 PM Brandon: if august rush wins i won't be AS upset as if enchanted wins

yay!!

me: YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!

Brandon: she's so effing young

me: oh they're so cute!

how old is she?

Brandon: i think it's more disturbing than cute lol

10:51 PM she's 19 now i think...and they 'fell in love' when she was like 13 or something

and he's like in his early 40's now i think

me: whoa, weird

10:52 PM and i like how she didn't even get to speak

HA, 'male menopause'

you mean a hot flash, Steve?

10:53 PM Brandon: i love steve [spielberg] lol

me: i like chatting while we watch the oscars, it makes it more fun

Brandon: it's ALMOST like watching them together lol

10:54 PM me: hah

Brandon: which i guess we just should have done in the first place!

but i didnt know you were going to watch them

10:55 PM me: yeah, we probly should have watched them together

u're still welcome over, if u'd like

tho i thought u were doing homework

Brandon: oh gosh no!

i never do homework anymore lol

i will probably try to get something done after the show though

10:56 PM me: yeah, in like another hour?

or are they already almost over?

Brandon: im not sure

me: i have no idea what's been announced

i haven't even really been paying attn

did they do the shorts?

10:57 PM Brandon: yeah

me: aw, that's so cute that they're letting her say something

Brandon: yeah, her microphone got cut off i guess

too bad it has to be done so awkwardly lol

10:58 PM me: yeah, seriously

but she was well-spoken

HAHAHA

that was the BEST anecdote EVER

"let's have them kiss"/"but they're both guys!"/ "but this is Hollywood!"

10:59 PM Brandon: yeah, they're cute

11:00 PM me: they didn't do the lead actors yet right?

i think that's one of the last ones

Brandon: they did supporting, and lead female

me: maybe before the Best Pic

yeah they did all the actress oscars

who won supporting again?

11:01 PM Brandon: i cant remember right now lol

me: i can't either...

Javier Bardem!

he won one...

Brandon: oh, and tilda swinton

me: oh, right
[commercial break...]

6 minutes

11:07 PM Brandon: i love eli stone!

11:08 PM victor garber makes me so happy, and he sings in the show and it's delightful

and the lead actor is rather dapper

me: really?

i was just going to say how awful that show looked, haha

Brandon: i also love amy adams

I just really like shows that have a fantastical edge to them

like pushing daisies

11:09 PM me: yeah, she's cute

ooo i hope the guy from Radiohead wins [the best original score]

Brandon: im really surprised i haven't really heard much about the kite runner

me: oh, nevermind... [Radiohead guy not nominated]

yeah, me too

11:10 PM Brandon: it didnt seem to get any kind of attention at all when the book was so huge

me: ok, so i think James McAvoy is totally hot

11:11 PM Brandon: he is very easy on the eyes

i think he generally looks better without the scruff though

me: and the voice ain't bad to listen to

agreed!

Brandon: he doesnt really grow good facial hair

it's too patchy

me: it should either be a fuller beard or none at all!

haha

i wonder why he went with the facial hair

Brandon: yeah...you would think SOMEone would let him know it needs to go

11:12 PM me: ha, yeah

Tom Hanks hasn't been in a good movie in a while...

Brandon: that is true

11:13 PM me: was that real-time? [army officers announcing Oscar nom's and winner from Baghdad]

11:14 PM or did they record that in advance u think?

Brandon: i have no idea...i wasn't really paying attention

i feel like real-time would be risky

but otherwise it would hurt the secrecy thing i would think

me: that's what i'd think

11:15 PM hm, i really want to see this doc short now

Freeheld (note to self to look up later)

11:16 PM hm, lots of war movies

do u think Sicko will win?

11:17 PM Brandon: i have no idea...it's the only one i've heard of, but there's kind of a general anti-michael moore thing, so who knows

me: yeah

wait which one is this?

i don't even fell like they announced it earlier, haha

Brandon: haha

11:18 PM yeah i dont know

that was weird...like four people messaged me all at the same time and i have no idea who these people are

me: haha, weird

oh, i think this was the one about Abu Ghraib?

11:19 PM i'm glad u're so popular, haa

oh Elton John, i love him [original song montage]

Brandon: i guess...i dont talk to people i dont know generally speaking though

me: did he win for "Circle of Life"?

that would be fantastic

5 minutes

11:24 PM me: i really want to see Michael Clayton

Brandon: i effing love ratatouille

11:25 PM and i REALLY wanted to see savages

me: and the Savages

Brandon: i'm sad i never knew when it was out

and what the hell is diablo [cody] wearing? lol

me: she looks fun tho

Brandon: well, she was an exotic dancer lol

11:26 PM me: haha, yeah

Brandon: im sure she's VERY fun

wink wink lol

me: let's try to find The Savages somewhere

it looks good

11:27 PM Brandon: I was looking forward to seeing it for a while because i pay VERY close attention to anything laura linney is in, and I never really saw it being released anywhere

me: it seems like it got a really limited release

Brandon: it's not even so much that I'm a huge laura linney fan for her, but she's just always in really really good movies

me: i LOVE laura linney

she's so cute

Brandon: she is really cute

me: yeah, she is

Brandon: i love her face

11:28 PM me: and phil seymour hoffman is great in everything he does too

i like her dimples

she just looks really expressive
[commercial break]

oh god, this new oprah show looks HORRIBLE

11:29 PM lots of exasperated yelling...

Brandon: i didnt realize it was its own show...i just assumed it was something she was doing on her own talk show

i love jack lemmon

me: aw, i LOVE Jack Lemmon

Brandon: haha

11:30 PM me: aw...

ooo [Helen Mirren]'s elegant

Brandon: indeed she is

11:31 PM me: Forest Whitaker is great too

Brandon: she's always seems so poised and distinguished

11:32 PM me: now there's a moustache that should win an oscar [on Daniel Day Lewis's full moustache in There Will Be Blood]

Brandon: MMMHHHMMMM

11:33 PM despite all the horrible reviews, i still really want to see sweeny todd

i just feel like it would be a lot of fun

me: but i hope he doesn't win (daniel day lewis)

i really want to see in the Valley of Elah

i dunno, johnny depp in a musical makes me cringe

ooo, Viggo is delicious looking

11:34 PM Brandon: oooo the little girl with him is adorable!

me: oh, he [Daniel Day Lewis] just looks so smug!

Brandon: i feel like this is pretty much an exact repeat of the SAG awards...it's all the same people winning

11:35 PM at least for the big awards

me: boo

Brandon: oh my god! another random message! what the hell is going on

me: wow, that was an elaborate metaphor

Brandon: indeed it was haha

he's got moxy!

me: yeah, seriously, Brandon, why so popular?

11:36 PM Brandon: i just want to know who these people are!

and how they all have my screenname and why they're all trying to talk to me now

me: weird...

DDLewis shoulda kept his moustache

11:37 PM Brandon: it's pretty old skool

me: he could bring it back

Brandon: he indeed could

5 minutes

11:43 PM me: ooo who do you think for director? [Coens win]

Brandon: i think that was a given

me: oh, i was gonna guess them

really?

Brandon: oh totally

me: i was kinda thinking PT Anderson had a shot

oh they [the Coens] are so boring to listen to tho

Brandon: this movie has won at all the award shows

me: u'd think they'd be more interesting as ppl

11:44 PM Brandon: im sure they'll probably win best picture too

me: yeah, i guess u're right

11:46 PM welp, you called it

Brandon: i guess i should see it lol

although, crash is a movie i probably could have missed

me: it's good

yeah, NOT a fan of Crash

Brandon: me neither

i HATE how much attention it got

11:47 PM me: me too!

who's this guy?

Brandon: i think if it didnt get as much attention i might have liked it a little better, but I think it was way over sold

he's the other producer of the movie

and i LOVE that frances mcdormand married one of the coen's

me: oh yeah, Crash was so totally over-rated

Brandon: i think it's cute

me: really?!

that is cute

i love her too

Brandon: they got married after Fargo

11:48 PM me: which one?

i hope not the smallish one

he just seems jerky

what's up with the Kenny G denouement music?