katy perry booted off of sesame street

sesame street did a video with katy perry and elmo but the song was they taken off of the show because of katy perry's cleavage. you would think that before they taped the video, they would have thought that her clothes would be a problem. i understand it's a kids show but, don't make the video and then be like, sorry we aren't gonna air it now.

chicago read out 2010!

today was the beginning of banned books week and i went to a read out in chicago to kick off the week. it was great! author's chris crutcher and lauren myracle were there. here are the pictures i took during the readout.

this is chris crutcher.

the robot guy from the ala's think for yourself compaign (look at the front of the podium).

the ala president, roberta stevens

two sisters reading the book and tango makes three by justin richardson and peter parnell

lauren myracle before she read from her book. sorry it's not in focus.

me with lauren myracle after she signed my book.

bunny

there is a comic called bunny by huw davies that i totally love. and over the years he has made many comments on different literature and i thought i would share the comics with everyone.

http://bunny-comic.com/50.html
http://bunny-comic.com/76.html
http://bunny-comic.com/104.html
http://bunny-comic.com/127.html
http://bunny-comic.com/132.html
http://bunny-comic.com/136.html (this comic doesn't have anything to do with writing; but those of you who have been following this blog know my love for muse and so i had to share the muse comic on here)
http://bunny-comic.com/173.html
http://bunny-comic.com/178.html
http://bunny-comic.com/183.html
http://bunny-comic.com/188.html
http://bunny-comic.com/267.html
http://bunny-comic.com/312.html (another muse bunny comic)
http://bunny-comic.com/318.html
http://bunny-comic.com/389.html
http://bunny-comic.com/418.html
http://bunny-comic.com/447.html
http://bunny-comic.com/466.html
http://bunny-comic.com/485.html

banned books week!

john milton is really just a dirty old man

dr jennifer batt, an english lecturer at the university of oxford, was somewhat surprised when she came across a filthy, innuendo-laden rhyme "by milton" while reading a forgotten, early 18th-century poetic anthology; the oxford and cambridge miscellany. it cannot be proved for sure if the poem is by milton but the poem is introduced in the volume as An Extempore Upon a Faggot, by Milton.

the rather smutty ditty reads: "Have you not in a Chimney seen / A Faggot which is moist and green / How coyly it receives the Heat / And at both ends do's weep and sweat? / So fares it with a tender Maid / When first upon her Back she's laid / But like dry Wood th' experienced Dame / Cracks and rejoices in the Flame."

the coarse, and frankly misogynistic verse likens a young woman to a faggot, a bunch of damp sticks, which, when cast upon the fire, produces moisture "at both ends", like (according to the poem) a weeping virgin when sexually aroused. by contrast, the more sexually experienced woman is more like dry wood, which becomes joyfully enflamed when put on the fire.

it is all rather a long way from the lofty, christian sentiments of milton's great epic, Paradise Lost.

schwarzenegger is hamlet!

holy crap i found this and cracked up! the govenator is the hamlenator. hehe.

stockton school board bans book from school curriculum

for those who think that books aren't banned any more, here's a real life school banning in today's age.

stockton school board (stockton, MO) voted unanimously to uphold it's decision in april to ban the novel, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by sherman alexie; from the school curriculum. board member rod tucker said his main concern was the book's language, that it had too much profanity to be of value. he rejected the argument that most kids are familiar with such language and use it regularly.

"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" is about a young resident of an Indian reservation who decides to attend a white high school. there are descriptions of masturbation, sexual language and foul jokes, along with themes encompassing racism, alcoholism and violence. there are also descriptions of how the protagonist, junior, tries to realize his dreams while surviving both life on the reservation and at a new school.

my thought is, whatever parent thinks his child, whether its a boy or a girl, doesn't talk about these kinds of things with theirs friends, they are delusional. sorry parents but it's true. you may not want your kids to read these kinds of books, but i guarantee, they are talking about it with their friends.

books challenged and banned in 08-09

i was at the offical banned books week website and they had a list of the books reported as banned or challenged in 2008-2009 across the country. there's just under 500 in the last year. here's the list, it's a pdf file. in the paragraph before you get to the books, it talks about banned and challenged books and there was a great point made that i wanted to point out to everyone:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, in Texas v. Johnson, said, “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”

i don't mind if someone doesn't like a book and think it's offensive. that means the book made you think. you don't have to like the book, hell i don't have to like that book. but the minute you start saying that no one should read it and we should take it out of the library or out of a school corriculum, is when it's not right. and to me, that's what banned books week is about. the freedom to choose what i can read. it's my freedom, not anyone else's to dictate. and i'm going to celebrate that freedom.

banned books week 2010

this year banned books week is from september 25 - october 2.

for those of you who don't know what banned books week is: from the american library association:
Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States. Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them. The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings or restrictions.

this year chicago is kicking off banned books week with a readout in bughouse square (washington square park) on september 25th from 12pm-2pm. authors chris clutcher, lauren myracle, carolyn mackler and others will read from their work and share their experiences as targets of censors. after the readings there will be book signings from the authors in attendence. bughouse square is located on 901 N Clark St, Chicago, IL.

literary jewels

jeremy may is an artist that creates rings and other jewelery out of the pages of literary works. here are some pictures of his work. you can go to his website here.

 

heart of darkness graphic novel

selfmadehero has published heart of darkness as a graphic novel. the cover art alone looks awesome. i can only imagine what the art looks like inside.

poetry postcard 13

seeing how it's september now, i assume this is the last postcard with poetry on it i will be getting. it was very cool to get the postcards and i loved reading everyone's poetry. this last poem is called: trees.

we have seen the trees roots like long legs
stretched out above ground ocopus like,
we remember the times as children at night
outside our windows the trees did a hula dance
then a wild frug, winding down swaying
waltz like. trees do these dances at night
sometimes by moonlight, but after we sleep,
after we cleep they uproot themselves
cautiously, disturning the eath so little,
moles are blamed for any piles of dirt,
they dance away on their root tips
embracing limbs with other trees,
they know their dances well, and
they choose their partners carefully.
the chestnut on the corner loves a maple,
she is big leaf maple and rebuff him.
sometimes at night a slight rumbly noise
may awaken you, it's the trees running home,
occasionally they stop in place and retend
it's where they grew, they are so nonchalant,
oh yes, there were nights they liked to frighten you,
wave their limbs and look like monsters,
you thought it was the wind that made them so,
but really they're great actors, fortunately
during the day they stay in their places, espically
in summer on bright days when their shade is needed.

poetry postcard 12

the latest poem does not have a title.

in a heavenly field trimmed
and rimmed in gold,
st bartholomeu slunes(?) in
a reddish light -- his halo
burning through the muscle
and corpuscle(?). bartholomeu's
tendons stretch along his
arm and the sinew holds
each finger around his
shin, clutched in his
own fist. helt aloft in glassy(?),

quoteables

here's the latest installment of quotes. hope they inspire.

-"i wasn't looking but somehow you found me." - carly simon
-"love is real it is not just in poetry and stories." - bright eyes
-"then you lay me down in an unmade bed and you show me things that aren't easily said." - black crowes
-"you strain your face to bear that smile your teeth clenched all the while." - craig's brother
-"i will learn to say goodbye to yesterday." - vanessa carlton
-"and when you lie down to sleep i'll protect you from the demons of the night." - stone temple pilots
-"did you ever notice the people who are most adamantly against abortions are people so ugly you wouldn't want to touch them in the first place?" - george carlin
-"nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time." - theodore roosevelt
-"before i can live with other folks i've got to live with myself. the one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience." - atticus
-"how to fight loneliness, smile all the time." - wilco
-"fight for your opinoins but do not believe that they contain the whole truth, or the only truth." - charles a dana
-"getting fired is nature's way of telling you that you had the wrong job in the first place." - hal lancaster
-"the things you own end up owning you." - fight club by chuck palahniuk
-"they say abortion will send you straight to a fiery hell. that is if the fanatics don't beat satan to the kill." - jewl
-"we're a mess. but it's a great mess, a glorious mess." - thom york