Spineless cacti

phaserburn: My taste in music ranges from “you need to listen to this” to “I know, please don’t...

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:00:20 -0700

phaserburn:

My taste in music ranges from “you need to listen to this” to “I know, please don’t judge me.”

Photo

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:20 -0700

Bloodthirsty 'factual' Discovery, NatGeo, History Channel, Animal Planet TV shows demonise wildlife

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:57:00 -0700

Bloodthirsty 'factual' Discovery, NatGeo, History Channel, Animal Planet TV shows demonise wildlife:

climateadaptation:

Journalist Adam Welz blows the lid off of how major US TV networks are depicting killing animals for profit. Wolves, grizzly bears, lynx cats, and other animals are being trapped, shot with AK-47s, and painted as dangerous threats on national networks NatGeo, Discovery, and other “reality TV” shows. Click through for more.

There is a storm brewing.

"Frank Capra said “Film is a disease”. He went on, but that’s enough for now. I caught the disease..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:46:29 -0700

“

Frank Capra said “Film is a disease”.

He went on, but that’s enough for now. I caught the disease early on. I used to feel it. And they used to take me to the movies all the time. I used to feel it whenever we walked up to the ticket booth with my mother, my father, my brother. You’d go through the doors, on the thick carpet, to - past the popcorn stand that had that wonderful smell - then to the ticket taker, and then sometimes they’d get - these doors would open in the back and there were little windows in it in some of the old theaters and I could see something magical happening up there on the screen, something special. And as we entered, for me I think now, it was like entering a sacred space, a kind of a sanctuary where the living world around me seemed to be recreated and played out.

What was it about cinema? What was so special about it? I mean I think I’ve discovered some of those - some of my own answers to that question a little bit at a time over the years.

First of all, there’s light. Light is at the beginning of cinema, of course. It’s fundamental - because it’s created with light, and it’s still best seen projected in dark rooms where it’s the only source of light. But light is also at the beginning of everything. Most creation myths start with darkness, and then the real beginning comes with light - which means the creation of forms. Which leads to distinguishing one thing from another, and ourselves from the rest of the world. Recognizing patterns, similarities, differences, naming things - interpreting the world. Metaphors - seeing one thing in light of something else. Becoming enlightened. So light is at the core of who we are and how we understand ourselves.

”

- Martin Scorsese, “Persistence of Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema”

(2013 National Endowment for the Humanities’ Jefferson Lecture, live at the Kennedy Center)

odditiesoflife: The Cancun Underwater Museum This truly unique...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:00:29 -0700

odditiesoflife:

The Cancun Underwater Museum

This truly unique “musuem” is one of the largest man-made underwater attractions on Earth and is located in Quintana Roo, Mexico. The Cancun Underwater Museum has over 400 life-size sculptures designed by English artist Jason deCaires Taylor. The installation is designed to become an artificial reef. The sculptures are all made from ph neutral clay in order to promote the growth of coral reefs and marine life.

fuckyeablackart: American Dream by Addonis Parker

Sun, 19 May 2013 15:00:31 -0700

fuckyeablackart:

American Dream by Addonis Parker

"I’ve faced worse things in my life than prison"

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:00:23 -0700

“I’ve faced worse things in my life than prison”

- CeCe McDonald

321 days since CeCe accepted a plea deal for 41-months of imprisonment for self defense against a violent group of bigots who attacked her with racial and transphobic slurs and smashed a glass on her face.

(via socialistexan)

It’s been over a year since CeCe accepted the plea bargin of second degree manslaughter for defending herself from racist and transphobic/homophobic attackers.

(via socialistexan)

How ‘Slut Shaming’ Has Been Written Into School Dress Codes Across The Country

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:00:26 -0700

How ‘Slut Shaming’ Has Been Written Into School Dress Codes Across The Country:

commie-femme:

Last month, a New Jersey middle school banned girls from wearing strapless dresses to prom. Administrators claimed that the dresses were “distracting” — though they refused to specify exactly how or why. Parents reacted strongly to the rule; some supported the dress code while others deemed it “slut-shaming.” On Friday, the school compromised by allowing girls to wear single-strap or see-through-strap dresses.

This is no isolated incident in the United States. Across the country, young girls are being told what not to wear because it might be a “distraction” for boys, or because adults decide it makes them look “inappropriate.” At its core, every incident has a common thread: Putting the onus on young women to prevent from being ogled or objectified, instead of teaching those responsible to learn to respect a woman’s body. Here are five other recent examples:

1. A middle school in California banned tight pants. At the beginning of last month, a middle school in Northern California began telling girls to avoid wearing pants that are “too tight” because it “distracts the boys.” At a mandatory assembly for just the female students, the middle school girls were told that they’re no longer allowed to wear leggings or yoga pants. “We didn’t think it was fair how we have all these restrictions on our clothing while boys didn’t have to sit through [the assembly] at all,” one student told local press. Some parents also complained, leading the school’s assistant principal to record a voicemail explaining the new policy. “The guiding principle in all dress codes is that the manner in which students dress does not become a distraction in the learning environment,” the message said.

2. A high school principal in Minnesota emailed parents to ask them to cover up their daughters. A principal in Minnetonka, MN recently wrote an email telling parents to stop letting their daughters wear leggings or yoga pants to school. He says the tight-fitting pants are fine with longer shirts but, when worn with a shorter top, a girl’s “backside” can be “too closely defined.” The big risk of having a defined backside, he thinks, is that it can “be highly distracting for other students.”

3. Two girls in Ohio were turned away from their prom for being “improperly dressed.” Laneisha Williams and Nyasia Mitchell were barred from prom this spring for wearing dresses that administrators considered “too revealing.” The girls say that they didn’t believe they were violating a dress code that said dresses couldn’t be too short or show too much cleavage. But one administrator told local news that the high school girls were only allowed to wear dresses that had “no curvature of their breasts showing.”

4. A kindergarten student in Georgia was forced to change her “short” skirt because it was a “distraction to other students.” It’s hard to imagine that a kindergartener’s outfit could be “a distraction to other students,” but a mother in Georgia told locals news there that her daughter had been outfitted in someone else’s pants — without parental permission — after the principal deemed the skirt the young girl was wearing too short.” The girl had apparently wore the skirt, and accompanying leggings, just one week before without incident.

5. Forty high school girls were sent home from a winter dance in California after “degrading” clothing inspections “bordering on sexual harassment.” A school board member’s daughter was among the 40 girls turned away from Capistrano Valley High’s February dance for wearing dresses that either exposed their midriffs or were cut too low. Before the dance, girls were apparently required to flap their arms up and down and turn around for male administrators’ inspection. The school issues image guidelines for appropriate dress on its website — though the images were nearly all of women, and the only male image depicted proper attire. One girl alleges that the principal told her, “Not all dresses look good on certain body shapes.” A grandmother of one of the girls who was turned away from the dance also said that a teacher remarked about her granddaughter, “What mother would allow her daughter to wear a dress like that?” Apparently the school did receive some praise, though, from the parents of two male students.

When most Americans think about “rape culture,” they may think about the Steubenville boys’ defense arguing that an unconscious girl consented to her sexual assault because she “didn’t say no,” the school administrators who choose to protect their star athletes over those boys’ rape victims, or the bullying that led multiple victims of sexual assault to take their own lives. While those incidences of victim-blaming are certainly symptoms of a deeply-rooted rape culture in this country, they’re not the only examples of this dynamic at play. Rape culture is also evident in the attitudes that lead school administrators to treat young girls’ bodies as inherently “distracting” to the boys who simply can’t control themselves. That approach to gender roles simply encourages our youth to assume that sexual crimes must have something to do with women’s “suggestive” clothes or behavior, rather than teaching them that every individual is responsible for respecting others’ bodily autonomy.

auntada: Black theater pioneers Bob Cole (l) and J. Rosamond...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:00:22 -0700

auntada:

Black theater pioneers Bob Cole (l) and J. Rosamond Johnson (r), ca. 1890(?). The two men were part of a trio that included Rosamond’s brother James Weldon Johnson. Together they wrote over 200 songs and performed for audiences in the United States and Europe. The trio steered audiences away from the degrading “coon songs” that were popular during the mid 1880s to early 1900s by offering music that was sophisticated, refined and free of stereotypes. In 1900, Rosamond composed music for one of James Weldon’s poems. The piece was entitled Lift Every Voice and Sing.

Photographer, date unknown.

"Date yourself. Take yourself out to eat. Don’t share your popcorn at the movies with anyone. Stroll..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:00:11 -0700

“Date yourself. Take yourself out to eat. Don’t share your popcorn at the movies with anyone. Stroll around an art museum alone. Fall in love with canvases. Fall in love with yourself.”

- (via thefashionitgirl)

"Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:00:28 -0700

“Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.”

- Claude Monet (via the-daily-atkins)