build your own

this is mine

What is the Federal Marriage Amendment?

Write to your representative

Sign the Million for Marriage Petition

"I never cease to be amazed that anyone would actively oppose the marriage of any two people who want to make a legal commitment to love, honor and support each other"
-Kim Gandy, President, National Organization for Women

"Washington has permitted interracial marriage since 1868, even though most states at the time barred it. It was nearly a hundred years before the United States Supreme Court, based on fundamental principles of equality, declared those laws unconstitutional. But in the meantime, Washington was free to decide this question locally, based on the views of its own citizens, rather than succumbing either to peer pressure from other states or direct orders from the federal government.

The marriage amendment flies in the face of this ideal. It shifts power to the federal government at the expense of local control. Historically, our nation has benefited from the independence of its states, allowing regional and local solutions to problems instead of insisting on one-size-fits-all approaches. In a nation that is increasingly diverse, this preference for local variation is crucial."

-Julie Shapiro and Kellye Testy, The Seattle Times

Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.”


Eliot, The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock

i will bring water.

This was waiting in my inbox from Robert this morning:

"Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if he or she were going to be
dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you
can muster, and do so with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be
the same again."

-Og Mandino

It's not just me:

Fantasy suite in D minor
Those who studied "Structural Elements of Reality TV" in college already know that there's a crucial juncture in the life of every reality show. It's that moment when the conflict between a show's characters either shifts into high gear, reflecting larger human themes and universal archetypes, or it gets predictable and repetitive and you switch to a "Seinfeld" rerun.

- Heather Havrilesky, "I Love to Watch"
Salon.com

-----Original Message-----
From: McPartland
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 10:27 AM
To: Soto, Vanessa B
Subject: Saving Angel


I expected a post from you to your blog about this. What can people do to protest the cancellation of Angel? I've gone to the WB website, but there's really no place to protest, only an Angel chat. Any ideas?


----Original Message-----
From: Soto, Vanessa B
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 9:02 AM
To: 'McPartland@aol.com'
Subject: RE: Saving Angel


Here's the petition

I'll post it to my blog, too

the pain will cleanse you ??

joss says:
(Sat Feb 14 22:31:16 2004)

Some of you may have heard the hilarious news. I thought this would be a good time to weigh in. to answer some obvious questions: No, we had no idea this was coming. Yes, we will finish out the season. No, I don't think the WB is doing the right thing. Yes, I'm grateful they did it early enough for my people to find other jobs.

Yes, my heart is breaking.

When Buffy ended, I was tapped out and ready to send it off. When Firefly got the axe, I went into a state of denial so huge it may very well cause a movie. But Angel... we really were starting to feel like we were on top, hitting our stride -- and then we strode right into the Pit of Snakes 'n' Lava. I'm so into these characters, these actors, the situations we're building... you wanna know how I feel? Watch the first act of "The Body."

As far as TV movies or whatever, I'm not thinking that far ahead. I actually hope my actors and writers are all too busy. We always planned this season finale to be a great capper to the season and the show in general. (And a great platform for a new season, of course.) We'll proceed ahead as planned.

I've never made mainstream TV very well. I like surprises, and TV isn't about surprises, unless the surprise is who gets voted off of something. I've been lucky to sneak this strange, strange show over the airwaves for as long as I have. I don't FEEL lucky, but I understand that I am.

Thanks all for your support, your community, and your perfectly sane devotion. It's meant a lot. I regret nothing (except the string of grisly murders in the 80's -- what was THAT all about?) Remember the words of the poet:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn."

See you soon.



-j.

New Buffy shirts from Slayage.com

i think they're so cool that i'm making myself nauseous

In Loving Memory - Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Slayage.com honours our favourite show, 'Buffy,' with this range of items.













and more!

I love my dead gay show

here's a toast to the dark side. heh.

my horoscope

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You will wake up one morning and realize
you're more free than you've been in a long time. Nagging ghosts will have
lost their power to bug you. Stale traditions will have faded. You will have
made your last payment on an old karmic debt. Through an act of grace you
don't fully understand, mind-forged manacles will have vanished. So what
should you do next? I suggest you celebrate. Throw a "Get Out of Jail"
party for yourself. Then run wild for a couple of days. When you're good
and ready to harness your adorable new independence, ask yourself, "In
what area of my life is it most important that I start fresh?"

fuck, can anyone believe that anyone cares about this Ken-Barbie breakup thing?

Dear Lord: So far today, I'm doing all right. I have not gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or self-indulgent. I have not whined, complained, cursed, or eaten any chocolate. I have charged nothing on my credit card.

But I will be getting out of bed in a minute, and I think I will really need your help then.


***
To this prefab affirmation, I may need to add, "And I have not read any BTVS Willow/Giles facfic."

The Introvert's Lexicon

Last night I dreamt that I was walking around a snowy college town with my parents. Every once in a while, perspective would switch to that of another person, a woman, who was also walking accompanied by a man and another woman. I was trying to take my parents to a nice restaurant for lunch, but the snow was very thick, and the village was on a steep slope, and the streets were paved with neckties. There were skiers skimming down the flanks of the mountain, and from the perspective of the other group of three in my dream, I stood on the stage where they were awarding the medals to the winners. Back in my own body, my parents and I were still climbing the winding main street with some difficulty, when I looked into a gallery and saw my ex, JR, with his father inside. They saw me, and J's dad put his arm protectively around his son, as they turned away from me together. I walked towards him to say hello, nervous to think I might be rebuffed, but glad of the opportunity to mend fences. We ended up walking together, JR telling me about the microclimate that caused the unusual cold weather in the town. Our walk led us back to the awards stage, where I switched back to the perspective of the woman in the other group. They went into a welcoming, dark, Gothic-looking wood and glass bar. I was interviewing a beautiful quadroon girl in a long red woolen dress with an apron when her father burst in angrily. Instead of leaving her to her fate, I chose to run off with my notebook, in which I had made notes regarding her story- the loss of her virginity. Her father chased me through the icy streets of the town as I struggled to tear out the damning pages and dispose of them.

"The contents of the collective unconscious are represented in consciousness in the form of pronounced preferences and definite ways of looking at things. These subjective tendencies and views are generally regarded by the individual as being determined by the object -- incorrectly, since they have their source in the unconscious structure of the psyche and are merely released by the effect of the object. They are stronger than the object's influence, their psychic value is higher, so that they superimpose themselves on all impressions. Thus, just as it seems incomprehensible to the introvert that the object should always be the decisive factor, it remains an enigma to the extravert how a subjective standpoint can be superior to the objective situation. He inevitably comes to the conclusion that the introvert is either a conceited egoist or crack-brained bigot. Today he would be suspected of harbouring an unconscious power-complex. The introvert certainly lays himself open to these suspicions, for his positive, highly generalizing manner of expression, which appears to rule out every other opinion from the start, lends countenance to all the extravert's prejudices. Moreover, the inflexibility of his subjective judgment, setting itself above all objective data, is sufficient in itself to create the impression of marked egocentricity. Faced with this prejudice the introvert is usually at a loss for the right argument, for he is quite unaware of the unconscious but generally quite valid assumptions on which his subjective judgment and his subjective perceptions are based. In the fashion of the times he looks outside for an answer, instead of seeking it behind his own consciousness."
Jung, "General Description of the Types."

Last night I dreamt I was a production assistant on The Ring. The movie was being filmed in a haunted subway station and surroundings here in NYC. The only way to get to the shoot was on a creepy haunted bleached-out old white subway train, and the whole cast and crew were staying in leaky, paint-peely tunnels on cots and bunk beds. No one wanted to share a bunk with Evil Dunnowhatkindabeastie Samara, who lurked threateningly around the set trailing long wet hair and leaving puddles everywhere. Also, no one wanted to watch the dailies of the movie, because everyone was scared that someone from Props had left the Evil Videotape lying around. Gore Verbinski was very depressed about the situation and would not get out of bed, so I tried to cheer him up with some coffee.

Why do we exist?