Any predictions on the emerging memes from tonight’s debate?
First debate: Big Bird must die!
Second debate: binders full of ladies
Third debate: ???
I’m thinking about watching this one on my computer just so I can get in on the Tumblr action. Maybe I should set up a fake Ahmedinejad account on Twitter, just to cover my bases.
This weekend, I hope to watch the latest installment of How’s Your News? and its coverage of the recent national political conventions. How’s Your News? sends reporters with developmental disabilities to interview politicians, celebrities, and other newsworthy figures. The results can be sweet or funny, but they also serve as microcosm of society’s reactions to disability. Some interviewees are clearly uncomfortable and can’t wait for the encounter to end, while others are much more engaging. How’s Your News receives significant support from Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, so the show’s tone is suitably irreverent and never mawkish.
The Election 2012 episode of How’s Your News? can be streamed or downloaded for $5. BoingBoing has more in-depth coverage.
Newsweek, a publication that hasn’t been relevant since the Clinton administration, is going digital-only next year. Its sad fate makes me a little wistful because the magazine did much to spark my interest in politics and policy. My mom was a subscriber and I remember looking forward to each new issue’s arrival on Tuesdays. I typically read it that same night at the dinner table, ignoring my parents’ admonitions. My favorite stop was the “Periscope” page, which featured editorial cartoons and newsworthy quotes from the previous week. Newsweek helped me dominate current events quizzes at school and added a political edge to my evolving nerdiness.
I stopped reading Newsweek when it began running endless cover stories about Jesus and Christianity. It still arrives in the mail, although I’m not sure why and I never read it. And I doubt I’ll give the digital edition much attention.
If you’ve ever thought to yourself “I really like The 19th Floor, but I wish there was a more book-ish version,” you’re in luck. Written in Slow Motion: Thoughts on Disability and Other Random Topics will be released in Spring 2013 by Think Piece Publishing, a new imprint founded by my good friend Adam Wahlberg. The book is a series of essays inspired by, and sometimes borrowing from, the posts on this blog. It focuses on my experiences as a person with a disability, but will touch on many of the topics familiar to my blog readers: technology, pop culture, geekery, and politics. I may even mention fishnets once or twice.
I have no idea if a market exists for this book. After all, I’m no Justin Bieber’s mom. But I’m really curious to see how this project turns out. I’ll blog in the coming months about the process of getting a book to market and the challenges encountered along the way. I don’t anticipate any changes to my regular blogging schedule, but I apologize in advance for posting the occasional YouTube video because I’m struggling to meet a deadline.
I look forward to seeing many of you at the release party next spring!
I’m charging my iPad as I write this so I can be sure to follow every manic-depressive tweet during tonight’s second presidential debate. I’m not sure what to expect from Obama or Romney, but I’m reasonably certain that Andrew Sullivan will declare one candidate or the other as finished and an embarrassment to all humanity. I’m also expecting much snark from assorted fake Big Bird accounts. And I thought about creating a drinking game where a shot must be downed every time Romney smirks or Obama says “uh”, but I’d be on the floor by the 45-minute mark.
Looper is one of those smart science fiction movies that supposedly don’t get made anymore, but somehow still do (see Moon). Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a looper, a hired gun whose sole job is to stand in a field at an appointed time and kill the poor schmucks who crossed the crime syndicates in the year 2074 and are sent back in time thirty years. And since the syndicates don’t like to leave any loose ends, loopers are sometimes required to kill their future selves. But when Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis) materializes in the field, things go wrong and he manages to get away. The younger Joe must track down his future self before his unhappy Mob boss kills him first.
This is a clever film noir wrapped in a gritty dystopian package. The future envisioned in Looper is almost as grim as that of Children of Men. But like that movie, Looper offers glimpses of life away from the crushing poverty of the crumbling cities. These pastoral scenes become some of the most harrowing in the movie. To say more would give away too much. Part of Looper‘s pleasures is watching the plot veer in unexpected directions.
Enjoy the weekend. And if you haven’t seen the first season of Homeland, you really should check it out. I’m halfway through it and it’s one of the most compelling TV shows I’ve encountered in a while. The writing is brilliant and Claire Danes is excellent as a troubled but gifted CIA analyst. All those Emmy awards are well-deserved.
Kudos to Netflix for agreeing to caption all of its streaming content by 2014. Perhaps this will prompt all of the major streaming video players to ensure that their content is accessible. And a big “fuck you” to the Ars Technica commenters who suggested that deaf customers can take their money elsewhere if they aren’t happy with Netflix’s accessibility. As if Hulu and Amazon are doing all they can to capture the lucrative deaf demographic. The whole point of laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act is to compel businesses, within reasonable limits, to make its goods and services accessible to the public when free market principles might otherwise dictate inaction. As a nation, we’ve decided that it’s important for people with disabilities to be included in all aspects of everyday life, including consumerism. But because of recalcitrant corporations and our unceasing hero worship of unbridled capitalism, people with disabilities are forced to constantly re-litigate the question of whether we deserve to be fully participating members of society.
Regular life interfered with blogging tonight. More tomorrow.
The Obama campaign is running this ad in several swing states highlighting Romney’s plans to gut Medicaid:
It would be nice if the ad featured some kids and adults with disabilities, but I get that most voters probably know or knew an elderly person living in a nursing home. The prospect of Grandma being thrown out on the street is more likely to provoke a reaction than the neighbor kid with cerebral palsy losing his attendant services. I’m just glad to see that the future of Medicaid is finally getting some attention as a campaign issue. Medicaid, more than any other major entitlement program, is vulnerable to devastating cuts if Republicans win the White House and Congress.