Ocelopotamus

News, culture, and politics. Not necessarily in that order.

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Entries from August 31st, 2007

Senator Larry Craig vs. Avenue Q, and Butch Otter Goes Shopping

August 31st, 2007 · 4 Comments · Comedy, Culture, Journalism, Media, Performance, Politics, Theater, Video

Proving that the Republican Party truly is just one big puppet show:   … I can’t find it now, but I swear that at some point in the 24 hours after the Craig story broke, there was a headline referring to him as “Toilet Sex Senator.” And of course my first thought was that The […]

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Roundup: Dinosaur Corsage Edition

August 31st, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Dinosaur Corsage Edition · Activism, Advertising, Comics, Culture, Doctor Who, Energy, Film, Foreign Policy, Health, Healthcare Crisis, History, Human Rights, Law, LGBT, Media, Nature, News, Peace, Pets, Politics, Roundup, Science, TV

Scary stuff: There’s a lot of buzz and speculation that starting just after Labor Day, the Bush administration is going to be rolling out a major PR campaign to pave the way for war with Iran. See here and here for starters. Grand Moff Texan at DKos says the Bushies will be using the same […]

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Review: Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin

August 28th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Books, Culture, Fiction, Film, HIV/AIDS, LGBT, Lit, Reviews, TV

I just finished reading Armistead Maupin’s newest book, Michael Tolliver Lives — well, inhaling it really, because reading Michael Tolliver Lives is less like reading a novel than it is like opening a richly detailed letter from an old friend you inexplicably lost touch with about 15 years ago, and suddenly here he is giving […]

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Daily Kos Diary: Gonzales Doesn’t Recall Resigning

August 27th, 2007 · Comments Off on Daily Kos Diary: Gonzales Doesn’t Recall Resigning · Blogs, Comedy, Culture, News, Politics

Perfect. Just go read it. When you rip off this joke later you can always claim you didn’t recall reading it on Daily Kos first. ****** UPDATE: On a more serious note — on the front page of Daily Kos, Trapper John spells out what needs to not happen next: The Gonzales Justice Department was […]

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Video: Fox’s War Drums, Colbert’s Water Fight, and Stewart on Bush’s Magical History Tour

August 26th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Comedy, Culture, Foreign Policy, History, Journalism, Media, News, Peace, Pets, Politics, TV, Video

A few video clips from the past week: First up, here’s a scary video compiled by documentarian Robert Greenwald showing how Fox “News” is beating the drum for war with Iran … watch them repeatedly engaging in the same kind of propaganda and scaremongering they used during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in […]

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Saturday 8/25: Grigsby Award Ceremony for David Kodeski and Edward Thomas-Herrera

August 24th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Chicago, Culture, Fringe, Neo-Futurists, News, Performance, The Partly Dave Show, Theater

If you’re here in Chicago and looking for something fun to do tomorrow evening, I’ll be participating in an award ceremony and “gentle roast” (in the words of Live Bait Theater) for those stalwarts of the Chicago solo performance scene — and my fellow Pansy Kings — David Kodeski and Edward Thomas-Herrera. The ceremony is […]

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Clip and Trailer for Todd Haynes’ New Dylan Movie, I’m Not There

August 24th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Culture, Film, Music, Video

For those looking forward to Todd Haynes’ new film about Bob Dylan I’m Not There, in which Dylan is played by six different and very diverse actors, here’s a leaked clip from the movie with Cate Blanchett as Dylan and David Cross as Allen Ginsberg. If the whole movie is this much fun we’re in […]

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Roundup: Fantasy History Edition

August 23rd, 2007 · 1 Comment · Apple, Blogs, Books, Business, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Energy, Food, Foreign Policy, Health, History, LGBT, Macintosh, Media, Nature, News, Peace, Pets, Politics, Racism, Roundup, Science, Tech, TV

Bush has suddenly decided that the Iraq occupation is kinda like Vietnam after all, but of course he’s careful to draw the wrong conclusions from the comparison. The article quotes American University historian Allan Lichtman as saying that Bush’s spin on the situation “is not revisionist history. It is fantasy history.” On a related note, […]

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Jerome a Paris on the Politics of the Market Crash

August 22nd, 2007 · 1 Comment · Activism, Blogs, Fair Trade, Infrastructure, Media, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid, Trade

I’ve been meaning to point out this excellent diary Jerome a Paris posted on Daily Kos last Friday, entitled “Politics of the Market Crash.” Jerome is one of my favorite posters at DKos (and at the European Tribune), and when he’s on, he’s really on. So even though I’m nearly a week late mentioning this, […]

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Uganda Burning: Anti-Gay Bigots Rally to Keep Hatred Alive

August 21st, 2007 · 2 Comments · Culture, Human Rights, Journalism, LGBT, Media, News, Politics, Religion

Anti-gay bigots in Uganda rallied today in support of the country’s draconic anti-gay laws (which punish “sodomy” with life imprisonment), carrying signs saying charming things like “Arrest all homos.” They also howled for the firing of a reporter who dared to write an objective story about the experiences of gay people in Uganda, calling her […]

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Review: Crowded House in Chicago, August 19, 2007, with Liam Finn

August 20th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Culture, Music, New Wave, Online Communities, Reviews, Video

Crowded Freaking House, man. Crowded Freaking House. Last night’s show here in Chicago was everything I wanted it to be, with a few very pleasant surprises along the way. In fact, the only downside to the evening was that it had to take place at the odious and uncomfortable House of Blurgggh (complete with worse […]

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The Oingo Boingo Video Vault: Gong Show, Flaming Bathtub, and an Urgh! Outtake

August 18th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Culture, Film, Music, New Wave, TV, Video

Via Gadget Girl, let us now thrill to this 1976 appearance by Oingo Boingo on The Gong Show, from the early part of their career when they were still called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. With bonus Bill Bixby!   (As the notes on the YouTube page point out, you might think that’s […]

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Mr. Blue and Kiwi: Exclusive New Photos!

August 17th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Cats, Kiwi, Mr. Blue, Pets, Photos

Haven’t posted any cat pictures in a while, so… First up, here’s Mr. Blue — who wants you to know that he prefers the way you look upside-down. It does so many good things for you. Really, you should just start walking around on the ceiling and save him the trouble of correcting your appearance. […]

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Olbermann on O’Reilly, Colbert on Huckabee, and Stewart on Kristol

August 17th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Comedy, Culture, Foreign Policy, Journalism, Media, Politics, TV, Video

Keith Olbermann explains why Bill O’Reilly is no less than two of the three worst people in the world. (Hint: It includes defaming someone as being anti-semitic … who was actually attacking anti-semitism!)   I Stomach Huckabee: Colbert on the Iowa straw poll. Oh, and watch for the moment when the Governor threatens to break […]

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