Ocelopotamus

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

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Entries from October 29th, 2007

Roundup: Where All the Corn Cobs Are Edition

October 29th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Where All the Corn Cobs Are Edition · Advertising, Books, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Death Penalty, Fantasy, Fiction, Film, Food, Health, Healthcare Crisis, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, Internet, Labor, Law, LGBT, Music, Nature, New Wave, News, Organic Food, Pets, Politics, Roundup, Science, Tech

In order to keep these roundups fresh as a spring daisy, I usually discard any links I’ve been keeping around that are more than a week old. But since this is OcPot’s first roundup in more than six weeks, I’m extending the freshness window slightly to include a few things that were just too good […]

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Coming in November: The History of Chicago Punk on Film

October 26th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Chicago, Culture, Film, History, Illinois, Music, New Wave, Peoria, Video

My friend and colleague Chris Tillman and her husband Joe Losurdo, working under the name Regressive Films, have collaborated on a new documentary about the history of punk rock in Chicago. Titled You Weren’t There — A History Of Chicago Punk 1977-1984, the film will have its world premiere on Saturday, November 24 at the […]

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No Backsies

October 24th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Books, Culture, Education, Fantasy, Fiction, Film, Human Rights, LGBT, Lit, Media, Politics, Science Fiction

I haven’t weighed in on the whole gay Dumbledore thing, partly because everyone is already talking about it, and I usually view OcPot as a place to post about things that deserve more attention than they seem to be getting. But Minnesota Malcolm brought it up in the comments to this post last night, and […]

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Of Dykes, Blankets, and Blockheads

October 23rd, 2007 · 2 Comments · Books, Comics, Culture, Fiction, Journal, LGBT, Lit

Via Roz, which Dyke to Watch Out for am I? Which Dyke to Watch Out For Are You?created with QuizFarm.com You scored as Mo You are Mo, a guilt-ridden, kindhearted liberal who doesn’t relax enough. You are ordered to buy a pint of non-organic, dairy ice cream and watch Comedy Central for a week. PBS […]

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The War on Halloween, Anderson Cooper, and Keith Olbermann’s O’Reilly Defense Initiative

October 22nd, 2007 · 8 Comments · Climate Change, Comedy, Culture, Journalism, Media, Politics, Video

Here’s a little video roundup to keep you entertained while I try to scrape together the time to post something more substantial. First off, Mr. Colbert points out the enormous black-and-orange elephant in the living room … the War on Halloween! That’s not going to be very popular in the candy corn belt.  He really […]

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On My Reading List: Naomi Klein’s New Book, The Shock Doctrine

October 16th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Activism, Books, Climate Change, Culture, Film, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Infrastructure, Journalism, News, Politics, TV, Video

Daily Kos has a review up of Naomi Klein’s new book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Harper’s ran an excerpt from The Shock Doctrine in the October issue which was, as the DKos review says, riveting, and immediately put the book on my must-read list. I’m planning to pick up a copy […]

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The Bowie Video Vault: Live “‘Heroes,'” “My Death,” and “Fashion”

October 16th, 2007 · Comments Off on The Bowie Video Vault: Live “‘Heroes,'” “My Death,” and “Fashion” · Culture, Music, New Wave, Video

This is a gorgeous live version of Bowie’s “‘Heroes’” that gets better as it goes. A really nice contemporary-sounding take on the song (so good I don’t even miss the synth, which is saying something), and a very graceful performance of it by Mr. Jones. The YouTube page doesn’t say where it’s taken from — […]

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On The Christians and The Gays, and Keeping the Flock Together

October 15th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Activism, Blogs, Culture, Journal, LGBT, Music, Politics, Religion, Spirituality

So there was a new study written up this past week, supplying evidence that young people in America are rejecting Christianity because they see it as “hypocritical, judgmental, and anti-gay.” The vast majority of non-Christians — 91% — said Christianity had an anti-gay image, followed by 87% who said it was judgmental and 85% who […]

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The Golden Compass: Official Trailer and Featurette on Daemons

October 12th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Books, Culture, Fantasy, Fiction, Film, Lit, Music, News, Science Fiction, TV, Ursula K. Le Guin, Video

The official/final trailer for The Golden Compass is out, and the more I see of this film the better it looks. I am somewhere between guardedly optimistic and completely geeked out.   Also, here’s a nice little featurette called “Defining Daemons,” which looks at the animal companion-spirits that accompany the characters on their journeys.   […]

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Standard Bearers from the Past

October 12th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Books, Culture, History, Human Rights, Lit, Meta, News, Politics, Science Fiction, Torture

So yeah, I haven’t really tended to be one of those fancy-schmancy bloggers who manage to blog about things on the same actual day they happen. My schedule tends to keep me careening along in panic for several days at a go, and then I manage to steal a few hours to spit out a […]

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Breakthrough

October 7th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Journal, Meta

I just found my alarm clock! Who knows what I’ll discover next? My toothbrush? Checkbook? Antique riding crop? Maybe even some time to blog …

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Update on the Movery

October 2nd, 2007 · 7 Comments · Cats, Chicago, Culture, Internet, Journal, Kiwi, Meta, Mr. Blue, Pets

OcPot is still on hiatus for at least a couple-few more days. But yesterday, down in the comments to the hiatus post, Miss Rubbery Nun asked how I was doing and I thought I’d repost my answer here for anyone else wondering how the move went: Survived. Just barely. No thanks to AT&T, who, in […]

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