Me and B saw Baby Mama this weekend, which inspired me to troll for Tina Fey clips on SNL. This is the best, and appropriate for mother's day.
So Baby Mama was really funny - Amy Poehler was brilliant, Steve Martin stole the whole movie as a ponytail-sporting hippie guru/entrepreneur. It was a semi-spoof on the upper class working woman impulse to have a kid at any cost (in this case, $100,000 for a surrogate, which Tina Fey's character, a VP at a Whole Foods-like organic food company, didn't blink an eye at). All the obvs feminist issues came up - her doctor regarded her with skepticism ("I don't like your uterus!") because of her advanced age (37), her singledom, her lack of fertility, her lack of a man, etc etc etc etc. Then Amy Poehler comes along as the hip-hop loving "white trash" young STefani type (it was set in Philly so I kept imagining the screenwriter totally modeled her after Amanda Blank). Amy is her surrogate, which sets off all sorts of class issues for both of them, the central conceit of it all, and honestly, I think if it hadn't had such an amazing cast, who understand the importance of pulling off the subtlety of the humor, it might have been super offensive. But coming into it knowing it's a feminist film, it worked. Also it was fucking hilarious.
I also hope I am never in the situation where I am 37 and single and desperately want a baby. Not because there's anything wrong with single adoption, but having grown up with a single mom, I know how hard that shit is, even when you're rich like Fey's character (um, we weren't). I'm not tryna do that shit dolo, no fuckin way. And I want my kids to have a dad. A cool dad. With a job. And an arsenal of witty bon mots.
I do not want kids for a long, long, long time! I AM TOO DEEP IN THE CLUBS!
I mean, considering there is a flyer. Sheesh.
Something MAGICAL is about to happen.
First: Sarah came back from Beirut to get her computer fixed. She had files of work on the hard drive she needed and to access it there, they said, it would take maybe two months.... maybe three. So she traveled to NY, to the Apple store. Then she flew back to Beirut and there was chaos. If Abuela was still alive I would say, "Let's pray for her." Abuela is dead, I am not religious, and still I do it. For everyone. But S.C. espesh.
Second: I shall take it down many notches. Mariah is on the cover of VIBE. Haven't read it yet, though you know how I love Mariah, best singer ever. She married Nick Cannon for fake-real. You know when you are dating someone your friends are like... WHAaaaa....whyyy...you are far too good and you're like fuck you, this is what I'm doing, you don't know him, he is amazing? Yeah, well, that is that I feel like.. from the friend side...like NICK CANNON? COULDNT YOU JUST HAVE HAD SOME AFFAIR WITH JADAKISS INSTEAD? Only, I think he is
The whole point is, this is one of the best writers I will ever know, and B. MARIAHS ALBUM IS ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD. It's no emancipation, I think, but ask me in awhile.
THIRD: there is no third.
LOVE,
JS
If you have never listened to Faded Radio, http://eastvillageradio.com/modules.php?name=evrshow&showid=68">this last one on Friday was our best banter ever. If you don't like music, we start talking at 55:. But you should listen to all of it cause there are some good songs. That Sizzla shit is jamming.
Alexandra Fuller, the woman who wrote the wonderfully accurate portrayal of Wyoming's landscape and its energy industry and its meth problems in the New Yorker a year ago, has now written a book based on the essay, and she is profiled in the Times today.
Wyoming, my home state in case you didn't know, where I spent the first 19 years of my life, really is a red zone, a hot spot in the oil war. It's appropriate that the dark father Dick Cheney is from there, and I grew up looking at nuclear weapons replicas in the middle of our city, proud statues like the Esther Hobart Morris "equality state" tribute in front of the capital, and now they're destroying its landscape with insatiable drilling and mining. Wyoming is supposed to be left alone. It's a place no one is supposed to come to, and barely anyone is meant to leave. And as much as I hated it growing up, it's a travesty to see it change, and to see its citizens, hard working and spirited and proud, be preyed upon.
Quickly, because I have no time, but must comment: the acquittal of three NYPD who emptied 50 bullets into Sean Bell, an unarmed black man, on the eve of his wedding, is a national tragedy. A travesty, too. I was in Europe when the verdict came back -- it was on the front page of a major European newspaper, and all the people I spoke to knew about it and Amadou Diallo, too - and expected rioting in NY... and it wouldn't have been an inappropriate response.
Here is a good piece in the voice about the verdict and its potential judicial legacy.
Related: The Murder Book 2008, an ongoing log of murders in New York by a former Newsday reporter, in a city where the crime rate is steadily rising. Each month he calculates the stats of each murder. By and large the victims are young black and Latino males.
Thank you for coming back to me. I know you... I know where you stand... I know what you represent and what you are worth. I stick my card into the machine, and you come back with the actual numbers, not a double speak that actually translates to "you are poor [especially in this country]." We are on an even plane.
I have been to an unnamed European country and another EU country that, retardedly or smartly, does not euse euros, and now I am back, and it feels awesome and melacholy at once. For the beauty, mostly. I never thought I would see the Alps in my lifetime... never dreamed them... but there they were, by accident and so wholly beyond me.
We have a new roommate who programs computers and does capoeria. We decided on him 3 hours after I deboarded an 18 hour plane journey. He is awesome and that is not even the JET LAG talking.
I'll be more specific about my European Vacation (no Wally World) in two months when the article is published. More very soon.
We can't stop listening to this in the office. Definitely the highlight of SXSW was seeing Lykke Li play her kazoo / triangle / peace sign necklace and Saul Williams and David Banner at our space in quick succession.
B.O.B. and TJ Chapman from TJ's DJs were there and after her set was over, they bumrushed her. I am hoping for a B.O.B. / Lykke Li trance-pop collabo forthwith.
"For you I keep my legs apart / Forget about my tainted heart" is the realest lyric of any song maybe ever?
More this weekend. These days have been crazy!
I bet Brandy is super freaked out by her brother's whatever-whatever. But sure would like to hear an album about it. Word to Will C.
