you are mine, and you know it
SIGN THIS PETITION! Even if you’re not from Chicago, sign the petition!
The city is facing MASSIVE budget cuts, especially towards arts, music, and cultural programs (of course), which besides being enjoyable to attend are beneficial to the city itself. Chicago needs all the help it can get and shutting down many f the programs that make the city exciting during its best seasons (Summer and Fall) is certainly NOT going to help matter.
Final Fantasy (aka Owen Pallet) covering Bloc Party’s “This Modern Love”
I have just returned from meeting Emma Thompson. While I would love to dwell on the experience – how friendly she is, how compassionate and how incredibly driven she is, there is a more important issue I need to address.
I took Emma the petition I had drawn up about Roman Polanski, with the 410 signatures and everyone’s comments. Any comments that I was aware of that didn’t show up on the petition, I took as a separate document. I also took the wording of the petition she had signed, and information about another petition (to be found here) which has over 3,000 signatures supporting Polanski’s arrest.
Emma did not have much time between meetings, but she gave me all of the time that she had. I asked her why she had signed the petition, and she explained about how well she knows Polanski, how terrible his life has been, and how forgiving the survivor of the rape all those years ago now is. She said she thought the intentions of the judge were unclear, as were the intentions of those who arrested him recently. She told me that a lot of her friends had rung her up asking her to sign the petition, so there had been a certain amount of pressure. She said that she had already been thinking a lot about the petition, as others had expressed their dismay at her signing it.
I handed her our petition and the comments. She read them both through thoroughly, and came back to me. She said, while she supported Polanski as a friend, a crime is a crime. I don’t know whether she had realised the extent of Polanski’s crime, but she is now fully aware. She will remove her name from the petition – in fact, she said she would call today and sort it out. Even though, she stressed, Polanski has had some truly terrible experiences in his lifetime, experiences that we couldn’t even imagine and which should not be taken out of the equation, she agreed that she could not put her name to a petition asking for his release.
Assuming that she will be true to her word, her name will be removed in the very near future. Hopefully the press will pick up on it.
She left me with this, to pass on to everyone who has signed the petition/raised awareness of this issue: “Know that I will remove my name because of you, and all of the good work that you have been doing. I have read your petition. I have heard you. And I will listen.”
I hope that this will encourage others to do the same, as I really do believe that many of those who have signed the Polanski petition did so not knowing what it was that they were signing.
GPOYW - “Inheriting your boss’s fedora” edition.
Etymotic E-20 earplugs, $30. Recommended to those who like to go to gigs, but don’t want the buzzing in their ears afterwards.
There’s a full review on CannedGeek.
(photo via folkinz)
all i wanna do is NOM NOM NOM NOM
(LIMB TEAR) AAAAAAAGHHHH!!!!!
and i take your moneyyyyyFor Chelle. :DD
oh… my god. HEARTS.
Facing Identity Conflicts, Black Students Fall Behind : NPR
My entire childhood –not just education – was based around this concept. I was lucky because my mother was a teacher and so the value of an education was not just an idea or a mantra but a definite way of life. Education was not just something that happened to other people but an all-encompassing facet of everything I did.
The idea of what is “authentically Black” is one that many young Black children begin to face at an early age. The first time my “authentic Blackness” was questioned was during the second grade. I transferred from a private, Catholic school where every kid was treated the same, to a public elementary school where, despite the best efforts of the faculty, pre-conceived ideas of race were already infiltrating our young minds.
I had to make a conscious decision towards the end of the year to put on the “academic” identity, even if it meant distancing myself from the then-emerging “young, Black” identity. What most upset me was the fact that I had to make a choice, and that by focusing on my education, I was somehow choosing not to be Black. By caring about school, I was trying to “act white.” Because I wanted to learn, I was trying to be someone else, someone not Black.
I think that’s why I’ve always struggled with, and been fascinated by, the idea of an authentic self. There are identities and lifestyles that I can’t fully immerse myself in because of the constrictions that come from racial stereotypes, prejudices, and my own limitations of the self. Going through life is a test of decision. I base my actions on observations because I don’t feel entirely comfortable in my own agency and I don’t think I ever will. I can’t pull on or take off an identity easily (and my choices are ultimately limited) and so, choosing to care about education was something that I took on completely, regardless of what others would think. It was a conscious decision and one that I had to accept the consequences for.
In the article, writer Nancy Solomon wrote about one student, “So, when a youngster like Keith walks into class late with his pants sagging, sits in the back and doesn’t participate — he is basically striking a pose.” It’s a conscious decision to not care. There are only two options. Our selfhood is limited.
(via britticisms)
(via semisetadrift)
