quickies for today

I had a couple things I wanted to hit and I’m going to try to do all of them rapid fire…. here goes:

high school

I’m going to my 10-year high school reunion this weekend. I’m not sure what to expect. I’m looking forward to seeing people but the entire thing seems a little surreal. My plan is to watch Grosse Pointe Blank before I go. Hopefully I won’t have to kill anyone while at the shindig.

HELLO! Kitty

Joel had posted about the Hello Kitty ummm… massage product and thought it was some type of bootleg. Well, as it turns out, unlike the Hello Kitty Gat, it is an official Hello Kitty product. Thanks to Destroy All Monsters for the info about it. You can buy your own Hello Kitty “Back Massager” on eBay.

follow up thoughts on the rights and responsibilities of free speech

Thanks for all the feedback on that posting. Joel had asked if I thought the same was true for the visual arts and yes I do think it is. And I realize that it’s a slippery slope that we’re on. But it’s socially irresponsible for people to deny the pervasive conscious and unconscious effects of any form of media, especially on group behavior. I’m not advocating censorship (in fact, one of my favorite quotes is from the great supreme court Justice Black “Censorship is a sign of a society’s insecurity”). But for a photo editor at Vanity Fair, People, or Entertainment Weekly to suggest that they don’t influence our perceptions of beauty for example is ridiculous. The problem is, that once you admit this you become a party to it and most people don’t want to accept the implications of that responsibility. It’s easy to do anything when you don’t think you’re affecting anyone else.

Pledge of Allegiance

ummm… I’m going to save that one for another day. I just don’t have the time or patience right now to tackle that.