Dream Team

Maybe just this year my team will really be the dream team. Thats what "they" are saying...I hope so. Looking forward to the fall weather and watching some football.


Kyle DeVan

Nnamdi Asomugha

Let Chaz Dance!

My parents had a fair number of books that I used to look at and go through. One book that was in our family's book collection was a biography of Christine Jorgensen. Jorgensen was one of the first people to combine hormone therapy with surgery to reassign gender. For me this book seemed like the most natural topic and was totally a normal part of my childhood and upbringing. Exposure to this womans story was one of the reasons I grew up with a huge interest in human rights and tolerance and alternative ways of looking at the world. When I was a kid I thought I would marry Michael jackson and be friends with Chastity Bono. It seemed that seeing children on tv meant that they would be in my life in some manner. Funny perspective of children, ya know? I was very sad to hear that some extremists reacted so crazy to the casting of Bono on Dancing With The Stars. It just seems this typical kind of acting out of outrage is so backward. I still love seeing Chaz Bono on tv and have remained fascinated by his life over the years. I am pretty excited with this seasons line up for the dance show. I think a lot of the cast is going to be a lot of fun. I used to watch the Ricki Lake talk show (and of course the classic movie Hairspray...I once saw Divine perform in Toronto EPIC!). So Ricki Lake, Carson Kressly, Hope Solo (like most soccer fans I fell in love with her this summer) David Arquette and Chynna Philips are the dancers I'll be especially rooting for, but most of all Chaz Bono. I just think this whole exposure of him on the popular show is so healing and healthy for a bitter world.


These pictures really spark memories for me. I just loved the Jorgensen book and remember being about 8 years old and really being into looking at these photos. Last week I was channel surfing and fell upon a cool new reality series called Sex Change Hospital. Wow, what a great program....I landed up doing a marathon. The hospital is in "the sex change capital of the U.S." in Trinidad Colarado and the stories of the people transitioning are really well covered and wonderful.

Poker Face

Wow! I thought this was great. It's Faith No More covering a Lady Gaga song. I used to have a poster of Faith No More a big poster...with them in their boxer shorts. I love rock and music band posters and film posters. I used to have tons of them. This makes me feel like I might head out to a music store and get a big poster....what should I get I wonder? My Chemical Romance? U2? Yeah Yeah Yeahs? (I have a small Absolut advert of Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs in the kitchen right now...a big poster of her would be so cool)

Otis

I don't care how many times this gets played on the radio...I just don't get sick of it. So good vibes...unh unh...

A Return To Gaudy Gaudi

Spanish civil war image.

Jigsaw puzzle of an anarchist, Mikail Bslunin.

Usually I try to respond to all comments left on my blog. Sometimes I miss the odd one. The blog system has a little reminder if you miss a comment...and I found an older comment left here that I missed. Sometimes people find a blog by googling a topic and they may leave a comment days, weeks or months after the post has gone into archives. I had a notification that I missed a comment and landed up finding the following comment from an older post about Gaudi...

A comment by Anonymous said "Even though there may only be coincedental association between gaudy and gaudi, it has to be the one of the most interesting associations ever. I mean if you look at a piece of architecture or art today, and you consider it gaudy, just imagine what people considered Gaudi's work at the time. Both gaudy and gaudi stick out like sore thumbs, pardon the cliche'.

I always wondered if he was affected by the coincendental association and maybe it had an influence on him. Who knows, he could have built the most gaudy of buildings just to play off of the association. Maybe he wanted to own the word. Sort of like a redneck buying more 4-wheelers just because they can. I have redneck friends, this is real.

He could have pushed the limits of design, color, shape and engineering just to show how guady he could get."

Dear Anonymous, your comment is exactly why this topic is so interesting. Your curiousity about the association between the name Gaudi and the word gaudy is inspiring. Your comment is so packed with good questions and good associations. You even bring in the notion of "class" by mentioning a class stereotype of "redneck". I believe that class is relevant to the associations between the adjective gaudy and the noun Gaudi. Actually, it isn't really a coincidence that "Gaudi" and "gaudy" get associated. The architects family was from Auvergne in France a couple centuries earlier. The word and the name are related in French where the etymology of "gaudy" gives us a lot of clues regarding the adjective and nouns connections The name Gaudi may be related to the huge family name base of Gaudin which is Germanic and associated with "to govern" and/or "goth" and also found to be "godwine". Shakespeares use of the word gaudy was not particularly negative. Gaudy is an adjective for celebration type metaphors. (which may be from its "godwine" connection, eventually family "Goodwin" or Godwin" etc)

I think that the idea that there is an "urban myth" and convolution of usage surrounding the adjective and the noun is not that surprising but rather the question for me has always been when did the word gaudy become a negative slur. Since the word "gaudy" used to be for a celebration, probably rich British status...perhaps the word used negatively began when revolt began against classes? Anarchists in the 19th century used to have ideologies that attacked science, the church and art. Art began to seen and thought of as being paid for by rich patrons representing decadent lifestyles. Joseph Conrad based his novel The Secret Agent on exploring the psychology of terrorists and their rationale for attacking human innovations that the ruling classes had hijacked for propaganda. Science and art were seen as valuable targets for anarchists. Mocking art and science was like mocking the status quo of the powerful elite. Perhaps this time period of European uprising of socialists and anarchists was the time period when the adjective gaudy became associated with the architect Gaudi?

"But then came the Spanish Civil War when anarchists burned and smashed everything they could, including Gaudi’s working models and plans. Several Bocabella family tombs were also desecrated though fortunately not that of the architect himself. Francesc Quintana took over after the war and, despite a campaign to prohibit any further work due to the lack of Gaudi’s plans, construction continued though the area still remains a building site." from here

I Enjoy Twitter

I am enjoying Twitter very much because I love the soundbites of some of the folks I follow. Ebert tweeted about Doris Day who is dropping an album now. Zowie. I follow Pink, Kanye, 50 Cent, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Neil Gamain and several newspaper book sites. Its been giving me odd bits of news and updates that are easy to access while i'm waiting in line on my phone.

6 Corners (Of Hell)

Oh my god, I love this picture. Jack White is collaborating with Insane Clown Posse. Will wonders never. You can hear a song at Pitchfork. Very funny promo below.


6 Corners: "The area's name is from the intersection of three streets—Irving Park Road, Cicero Avenue and Milwaukee Avenue . Its history as an urban center began in the 1840s, eventually becoming the largest commercial center in Chicago outside of the Loop . There is evidence that Native Americans used a ridge along Milwaukee Avenue as a campsite,[3] which would have been higher than the generally swampy surrounding land."

Since getting back from our road trip I've been driving around chicago for basically the first time. We only had the car for a week before we left and I didn't do much city driving especially with the blizzard. It's been pretty cool to get to know the city by driving although I make a lot of mistakes. I have to give myself at least an extra half hour travelling time for any appointments because i get mixed up all the time. There are a couple of corners in Chicago that just break me. They are intersections in Wicker Park and Bucktown with three streets that cross. oh and there is one in our old neighbourhood. And to be honest these "corners" messed me up even when I was walking. ha ha I had an aha moment on the El train the other day...very confused looking at the map for train stops. All of a sudden I realized that I was not getting that the maps were "sideways" and north was to the right of these guides. Duh! Yesterday I stalled out right in the middle of the intersection, light turned red, on the six corners of Milwaukee, Cicero and Irving Park. I heard some really fresh language from other drivers. A lot of honking too.

You know Elvis himself would have to be walking naked down the street before I would ever use a horn in a car. I just kept my cool and held my arms in the air hoping I wouldn't get hit by a car or a bullet. Took a deep breath and re-started the car. I was very proud of myself that when i got lost and turned around, while sweating in the heat I didn't pull over and cry from getting lost. I'm getting the hang of it out there I'd like to delude myself into believing. Happy driving!