R.I.P.

We saw this one coming.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/magazines-newspapers/e3ieb36f849687dcd179eca9bc2b3ff923a

Things Are Growing More Dire By The Day, My Dear

Everyone knows that our once revered 8.5 x 11" bible of a magazine isn't much too look at or care about anymore. The website is "meh" (read: it makes me want to roll my eyes so hard I appear to have suffered an epilepsy) as well. And since that website was the homepage on my laptop, I knew I had to take the Oregon Trail to brighter, smarter, and just plan better pastures. You know, so my horses could eat better hay and I could churn tastier butter (mmmm, buttteerrrr).

So I went to a certain website that happens to rhyme with Lezebel. Okay, it's obvious. Jezebel. For the longest time (forever), I loved Jez because the writers were intelligent and well-referenced and the commenters were some feisty, empowered feminists who could talk freely about anything from pussy to politics, from condoms to computers, from fucking to foreign diplomacy...you get it.

And so it is a sad day in the world when even Jezbel begins to unfold. It perhaps started a long time ago, or maybe more recently - who knows. What I do know is that we have to act fast and act now because in a very short time there isn't going to be anything left for us. We're going to have to make it ourselves.

So let's get to it guys. The power is yours!

Ya'll like that Captain Planet reference?

E

I Was There!

*Please excuse my shitty pictures. The big fancy pretty camera you see about is NOT digital, its my 35mm SLR. Everything else was taken with my Nikon Coolpix and the dawn lighting was effing with my flash. Plus my hands were cold so taking the actual pictures was sort of lethal.






The population of DC is roughly 600,000. The DC metro area (consisting of southern Maryland and Northern Virginia) is home to about 5.3 million people. Imagine DC filled with ALL of these people, plus tourists from all up and down the eastern seaboard, the midwest, the west coast, the southern states- all in one area, all at one time. Pretty fucking crazy, right? I don't care what numbers The Washington Post or CNN or MSNBC posted in terms of crowd attendance. To truly understand the intense MOBS of people that showed up, you just had to be there. And I was!

The night before the big day, I went to Silver Spring, MD (right outside of DC) and spent the night with my cousin and her friend. We got up at 300am, and left around 4 to head into DC. By the time we got downtown, the trains were PACKED, people were everywhere; American flags and red/white/blue hats, poms, blankets, face paint, ALL OVER THE PLACE. It was like Halloween except everybody matched. While we were riding the train, these women in the back of the car kept yelling "OBAMAAAAAAAAA!" every single time the doors opened. At 4 in the morning. They were quite the patriotic bunch.

I wore my track leggings underneath my jeans, 2 pairs of socks (with these feet warmer a la the camping aisle at Wal-Mart), 3 long sleeve shirts, a heavy GAP sweater, the thickest hoodie I own + one of my (lighter, I left my North Face in NY. Genius, I know.) winter coats. I wore 2 pairs of gloves (with hand warmer things, that worked but turned my hands AND gloves black), a scarf, a headband around my lower face area and ear muffs. Was I warm, you ask? Um, FUCK no. It was the coldest I think it's ever been in the history of Washington D.C. (founded 1790). I expected it to be really cold during the early morning hours, before the sun came up but even after it rose, the temperature just kept dropping. My feet were so cold I couldn't move them/feel them. My entire body shook pretty much the entire day (I was outside from 430am-300pm) and my joints hurt so badly, and got so stiff from lack of movement. It was pretty hardcore. Army Ranger type shit.

I got off the train at Metro Center and discovered that the city had essentially blocked off every single road in the city to everyone except select buses and law enforcement/military vehicles. They set up gates at the entrances to the National Mall and along the Parade route (followin the ceremony), and at 430, people had already decided to forgo the N.M. madness and get ggood seats for the parade, which wasn't scheduled to begin until at least 230pm (Um, crazy?). I made a quick stop at Au Bon Pair, stood in (the wrong) line for about 30 minutes helped my Mom find her bank card (she lost it temporarily), and was mis-directed three times by DC cops (incompetent much?). We finally made it to the 3rd St tunnel @ Indiana Ave where a couple thousand people had conviened to wait for the tunnel (and thus, entrance to the Mall, or so we thought) to open at 730. The cold was bitter, but people were literally singing in the street, taking pictures, sleeping on the curb, and just having as best a time as possible at 6am in 12 degree (plus wind chill) weather. Even the Canadians were there to support! Time was seriously CREEPING, and more and more people kept showing up, to the point where I couldn't see down the block anymore, all I could see were flags and the heads of people. Some irritating lady cop got on a megaphone every 30minutes and announced that the opening of the tunnel would be pushed back. I halfway expected the crown to start rioting, which would have made for some pretty interesting videos, assuming I made it out, but we only erupted into sporatic chants: "OPEN THE GATE! OPEN THE GATE!" ect. A guy got up on a barrier and started telling jokes to the crowd (an aspiring comedians heaven) and by 9am, they STILL hadn't let us through. A lot of people started to leave and look for other entrances, especially when we found out that they weren't going to allow us to cross the street into the mall because they were bringing Obama and Biden and other super important people in to the Capitol. But we stood our ground and eventually made it through the gate at around 11. It was sucky that they wouldn't let us onto the PACKED Mall (they shut it down due to the mass volumes of people) but I was across the street, near the Dept. of Labor and had a pretty decent view considering, and could hear the performers/speakers, though we got a bit of a delay due to echo. Before the ceremony started, a motorcade came through and my sister (who is four inches taller than me) says that Michelle looked and waved at her! She also swears Joe Biden was in one of the cars. The vibe of DC and everyone that was there yesterday was so amazing; everyone was happy and celebrating, the street vendors were selling everything from tshirts and buttons to "official" Inagural programs and, yes, HOT SAUCE.



They had scarves, hats, shrink-wrapped newspapers from Nov. 4th and Jan. 20th, posters, calenders with Malia and Sasha's faces splashed across it, flashing rings, bobble head figures of the entire First Family, caricature drawings of Obama- it was like one giant Obama merchandise store. After the ceremony, I got lost for a little bit (this is when I found Mr. Obama hot sauce) and everywhere I went, it was like a huge block party. Vendors had their cars parked along the streets with all the doors open, windows down and music BLARING; add the noise of the crowd, plus music from inside the stores and you begin to understand the hearing aid I will inevitably require in 4 years, just in time for his re-election. Ha.

What I'm looking forward to most is telling my kids that when a Black man became prez, not only did I vote for him but I was in attendance at the shit show that was his Inauguration. Holla!






I totally screwed up the alignment of the pictures and I don't feel like doing it all over again, so bear with me!

P.S.- Erika, I didn't see ANY blatant racists! I even listened in on a ton of conversations and nobody had anything bad to say! I was thoroughly disappointed. Although there was this one Black kid (really obnoxious, but funny) who was counting down the minutes to 12pm (when the current President loses his title, regardless of the status of the President-elect's oath) and kept announcing how many minutes he had left. This old white guy standing behind him looked kind of irritated when the Black kid starting talking about how shitty good 'ol W. is. Then he said, "Well, he was still our President. We can at least be nice to him in his last minutes". LOL. Then the Black guy said: "Yeah you're right. We can't let him go out like those Iraqis did" (Shoe reference). That was about as close to anti-Obama as it got. Sort of surreal. Maybe we should take a trip through rural South Carolina or Wyoming and see what they think.

Hey All,

I'm leaving VA tomorrow afternoon (finally) to head back up to NYC (after the Inauguration! Wish me luck!) and I start class on Wednesday, so I may not be back online until Thursday. Sarah- I decieded to keep the Book a few days longer so that I can throw in some prints from the Inaguration. Digital pictures are cool but prints are better, I think, so I should have it in the mail by Wednesday. Definitely look out for that because the U.S. postal system is shaky. I'm guessing everyone will be starting school again this week so, good luck! I'm going to take 10,000 pictures tomorrow and hopefully my camera won't get jacked. Look for me on TV! Ha, like I'll be anywhere near the cameras. It's all in the experience, people.

The Worst Song in the World

After much deliberation and intensive research, I have officially decided that Summer Girls is the WORST song in the world. Besides the inane and ridiculous lyrics name dropping everything from Abercrombie & Fitch to William Shakespeare the beat is pretty damn awful. But the video tops it all. For some reason this song just sounds like Long Island to me. Oh and LFO stands for Lyte Funky Ones. LOVE. 

But there stands a small chance that there could be an even worse song out there. What do you guys think? Obviously anything by Fannypack is fair game. 

Let's kick this shit.

Be the change you want to see in the world... right?

All is not well in the land of communications. Thanks to this long-overdrawn recession, so many respectable publications have folded, laid off talented employees, or just have full-on collapsed in general (you know who you are).
A lot of people would say that this is, hands down, a time to get discouraged. However, I have so much more courage in 2009 than in '08 than I could have ever foreseen. I now believe that this year is my year.
And it's yours, too. How do you insure that shit goes smoothly? Of course, you can't. It is inevitable. You just have to grab everything you can by the balls and hope everything works out all right. As Benjamin Franklin said, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Most would say our distance is an issue. Gawd, Brooklyn Prom Queen LITERALLY covers the whole country (which is badass, no? I'm proud, for one). If we want to get something, like a publication, up and running, we've got to meet, share ideas-- but can't we do that anyway? It's not like if we work, we'll be doing it alone. At all. If we want to get this going, let's do it. I think that no matter how far away we are from each other, we can still make a difference together. We could have video meetings on Skype! (I think I figured out what we did wrong, anyway!)

2009 will be a year where I no longer want the word "eventually" in my vocabulary. Let's it make happen.

"Life is a question of disillusionment. You are meant to become cynical. But I cannot accept this destiny! I still believe we can change the world."
--Marjane Satrapi
I do. And I hope you do, too.

P.S. Alex, are you writing in the journal right now? I'm so anxious to see!

I thought Ann Coulter hated...everybody?

I saw the Ann Coulter clip from The View. I really, really dislike Ann Coulter. She's so unecessary. And seriously, they need some sort of system on The View. BUZZ and wait until given permission to speak. Or raise your hand. Or SOMETHING. Basic kindergarten principals, ya know?

The Boondocks is the greatest show EVER.


"All I know, is they better not stop this war in Iraq. Or I might have to start STRIPPING."

Throwback: Meredith Brooks "Bitch"

This song is way fun in every way. I miss it. I hear it and just want to shout to it with the windows down with my ladies, just like Crossroads!

OMFG CROSSROADS

I want to watch this now.

Spectacular! Amazing! Brilliant!

George Michael - Too Funky
by zocomoro

I need to see some art

"A painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things."
-Cy Twombly

Chinese artist Liu Jianhua created this cityscape of Shanghai using poker chips and dice. See it at a solo exhibition in San Gimignano, Italy. Neatorama suggests a bold metaphor about a city's growth and economic development to risk taking, gambling and chance, which not surprisingly, makes perfect sense. Read more about Liu Jianhua here.






Liz Hickok created an amazing model of San Francisco's Bay Bridge using JELLO! How awesome is that? (I wonder if she ate the model afterward?) Check out the bridge and another cityscape of San Fransisco below. See more of the Bay Area in Jello, and more art at her website.



This one is fucking brilliant! Made entirely of eggs, feast your eyes on an RMB $50 bill (Chinese currency) that doubles as a cityscape! No info on the artist, but check out more art involving biscuits, plastic bottles, colored tiles and other unusual mediums at Neatorama. The world needs more art like this!

We're Here To Help You

To help facilitate the awesomeness that will be us Skype-ing very very soon, I thought we could go ahead and share all of our info now, to get it over with. The important and private stuff can be shared through email, obvi, and as soon as I finish writing this post I'm going to send around a group email for that.

But basically, I'll start. I went through Sarah's instructions with my Skype and it really is that simple. We all need to add each other as contacts and then we can group chat as simply as that. Yay!

My Skype, um, username (I guess?) is miss_america_erika. I just did it because it rhymes and I'm all about rhyming in'09
As you know, my email is emp62790@yahoo.com
And we all have each other's address.
I'll send an email around for anything else, and our phone numbers, so that shit can remain private.

So just tell everyone what your Skype user name is! And we can kick this shit off! Por serio, if my 2009 goes as awesome as this, I'm going to have a good fucking year. If we do this really fast, we can all Skype tomorrow, at V's well suggested 9 pm. Sarah, Tulsa is two hours behind CA right? Or are you guys EST? I'm bad with time zones, ie never bothered to learn them until I started jet setting across the country, so all I know is it'll be 9 pm for Alex and I, 6 pm for V, and 7 for Sarah? I think?

E

Skype It!

Talking through blog posts and e-mails takes too long.

When are we Skypin' it? If we're not gonna do it soon, we totes need to IM. For example, every Sunday after Secret Diary of a Call Girl for discussion of what happened. Chats could be useful for many things in our lives. Y/y?