At 67, Hochschild has noticed the way these treatments have gone from being “a luxury to a tentative necessity; it’s a redefinition of needs.” And she wonders aloud about what all this means. “Are we subtracting intimacy from other areas of life, in order to get it in this controlled and titrated, professionalized way?” asks Hochschild. “Is there a subtraction, as well as an addition? That would be the question I would ask. Are the women who go to salons just not getting it anywhere, in which case, they’re getting it here? I think we all need a kind of a connection, we need to be touched. But that we’re getting touched for money, in a medicalized, spiritualized way, seems to me something as a culture we could be thinking about. I don’t want to go the route of moralizing this; I think it’s good to be touched, to relax, to be stress free. But it does seem like a symptom that something’s amiss that people actually pay for this.”

[Emily Nussbaum - A Stranger’s Touch. New York Magazine.]

Gronlandic Edit (.mov)
Music by of Montreal
Video by David Barnes and Nico Danger
Polyvinyl Records

»

A more serious reflection on being a middle-schooler & the awesomeness of my kid sis. I read this to my sister in front of a small collection of family members the night before her Bat Mitzvah. Gets a little corny at the end, but I’m entitled.

Dearest A.,

Congratulations on your Bat Mitzvah. Though I hold much ambivalence towards organized religion (and this coming-of-age ceremony in particular), I am so proud of you and so happy to return home to share this day with you. You have thus far maneuvered through puberty with a grace I find remarkable, especially in light of my own memories of that time, and I am confident that you will continue to mature with the same elegance. You are an intelligent, beautiful and loving young woman, not to mention much cooler than a 12 year old has any right to be.

But as much as I, along with the rest of your family and friends, want to celebrate you, the Amazing A. Relkin Rojer, princess of November 3rd, I’d like to pause first, amidst the festivities, and meditate a bit on this notion of “coming-of-age.” First, lets examine the ritual you are just about to complete, and call it out on what it is.
»

My little sister, showing me her friends on myspace:

This boy, he has a crush on me. But Becca, its so bad. His favorite band is Linkin Park.

She pauses, then scrolls down…

and Abba.

photo by Ambrel

Tim, Christina & co are up to some craziness back in Cambridge. On April 25-27, they will attempt to open the hellmouth:

This is the ongoing record of an effort to assemble every famous internet meme or celebrity to come to Harvard in the spring of 2008 to attend a conference.

Presumably, they’re going to talk about fame online.

:::ROFLCon:::

So far the guest list includes xkcd, dinosaur comics, the oneredpaperclip guy, and others. They get goatse and I’m buying a plane ticket.

To get you psyched:



Internet People
Animation by Dan Meth
Music by Dan Meth & Micah Frank
From MethMinute39, CC-BY-NC-SA

Suggested Reading: The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos

Someone called DodenSpiegel published music videos for most of the songs on BJM‘s new album, My Bloody Underground (full album dl). Pretty bizarre stuff, enjoy.

Just Like Kicking Jesus

Who Fucking Pissed in My Well

The rest.

[via Anton's myspace]

Congressman Kucinich, I believe you’re the only person on this stage who had a chance to vote on the Patriot Act right after 9/11, who voted against it, right away.

That’s because I read it.

I’ve yet to decide who to support for the primary, and political blogging is a slippery slope. But fuck it.

Hearing Kucinich say that in the debate felt incredible. Maybe he’s unelectable, another classic victim of a self-fulfilling big media lie. But thats not gonna stop me from giving mad props to the candidate who doesn’t compromise on things that should be uncompromisable, like the Constitution. The candidate who is sensible and passionate and calls the game out on what it is. Who doesn’t base his policy on what’s gonna get him elected, but instead gets out there on national television/youtube to honestly articulate how broken everything is, and how we could start to fix it. Who recognizes not just how bad the US government is for its citizens, but for the entire world.

Who is almost single-handedly trying to impeach Dick Cheney.

There’s a campaign “to get 100,000 people to commit to donate $100 each to Dennis Kucinich on December 15, 2007, for a total one-day contribution of $10 million.” Even if you don’t think Kucinich would make a good president, $100 is worth it just so that he can keep speaking out at these debates. Worth it just to say suck it to big media.

Now, at the moment I don’t have $100 to spare. Maybe I will by December 15. But I do have a blog, and I think some people read it. So perhaps I can encourage you to throw some cash behind the candidate who is small but mighty. And peaceful! Or maybe 10 of us broke-ass students can get together and pledge $10/each.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programing of drug-induced animation and things that you haven’t already seen on reddit.

Were I in school this semester, this would have pretty much summed up my weekend:

Though I didn’t think I had room in my life for yet another robot comic, WE THE ROBOTS is really awesome. I suggest starting at the beginning.

Mario Savio: Sproul Hall Steps, December 2, 1964.