For That Special Someone in Your Life . . .

Thank you, Tai.

Now available for purchase on-line.

Mike Huckabee and Jon Stewart Talk about Gays in the U.S.

Wow. Okay. I teared up a little bit. A sincere, genuine exchange between two intelligent people. No screaming, no histrionics.

My favorite quote from Jon:
"Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality. And the protections that we have for religion? We protect religion -- and talk about a lifestyle choice -- that is absolutely a choice. Gay people don't choose to be gay."

Life Update (Vlog)

V-Log, Vlog . . . I prefer vlog.

Little life update, sparing you lots of reading.

The Hazards of YouTube

So my haircutting video has elicited a peculiar following amongst Samson-swooning strangers who have sent me various opinions about my ruthless hair shortening.

None, however, surpasses the following email I received. Whether joke or not, it definitely makes me second guess having personal vids up for public consumption and commentary.

I was left completely flummoxed.


jockhair1
...

SIR...YOU HAVE GREAT HAIR!!
...
SIR...YOU HAVE GREAT HAIR!!
Sir,

I am a big nerd that ADORES guys that are studs with the ladies and have great hair like yours...it is a shame that u felt compelled to cut your cooooool hair...


I am willing to buy u Bed Head Shapoo (Vitamins) and CatwalkOatmeal & honey Conditioner (Soy & wheat protein), and some good gel....along with money to get ur hair cut and styled by a hot ass chick!!

All I ask in return, is that u take me to the barbershop and make me get a dumb and dumber dork haircut and while ur inspecting it....dot my left eye and make it a nice shade of purple!!


I would be HONORED to clean ur shoes while ur in the barberchiar while I will keep my hair greasy so u can hock a loggy in it and comb it into my dork hair..


PLEASE VISIT MYSPACE URL: laodecia_generation


Be sure to read my profile, my "Loyalty Contract" under a blog entitled "how this nerd rol(e)s and plays" -- also check out the dork haircut I want unde PIC entitled "The Dork Thing"...you can also check out my PIC entitled "Jocks with great hair"

I WOULD BE HONORED TO BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP A STUD LIKE YOU...SIR!!

Please respond!!


~Dork

(Chris)

Why Can't I Find Love Like This??

Sometimes it feels like all of life's problems can be solved with just the right amount of fat and sodium. Sigh.



Of course, my fear--as is also my fear in people love--is that I will order Taco Town's latest jewel of heavenly inspiration, and I will end up having an experience like this: http://keepyourreceipt.blogspot.com/2008/12/tastes-like-disappointment.html

MILK

MILK on the other hand, was really great. You will probably read many wonderful reviews of it, so I will only say a few things. Sean Penn was truly transformative and masterful. Gus Vant Sant did a great job of being honest about the time, while still keeping the gay community relatable.

One thing that did strike me, that this film really brought out, is that the struggle for gay rights is about life. Literally. Wherever you may have stood on prop 8, I think most of you, my friends, are compassionate people, and it is horrible to think how many gay people have lost their lives not only to hate crimes, but to suicide.

Too many people are filled with self-loathing, confusion, fear of rejection or damnation because of their sexual orientation. They see no better option than to leave this world. This is not just a thing of the 1970's, I have known of people in my own generation, students and alumni of BYU, who have ended their lives because of their own strife over their sexual orientation.

In my own struggle to advance gay equality, a very real part of that is to be acknowledged as a very real human being, equal to you in every way, a contributive member of society, who in no way deserves to be treated as less than you.

This struggle to be acknowledged as human is critical and benefits not just those who choose to lead a life out of the closet, but even those who chose to remain in your religious enclaves, because no matter how much you may pat them on the head, "tolerate" them, or encourage them to pray the gay away, until they see themselves as real human beings, worthy of everything you have, they cannot love and accept themselves, and thus accept the love God also offers freely. And I believe accepting that love is critical to any religion's doctrine of redemption and peace. And perhaps then when they accept that, they may even be happy in your circles.

I was glad to have seen this movie, and hope to see it again, perhaps in the historic Castro Theater.

Australia

Baz Luhrmann may soon join Mel Gibson on my list of blacklisted directors.

I just saw Australia, and I sorely miss the three hours of my life that I will never get back.

This movie was seriously unbelievable. It was like a Disney-made-for-TV movie hopped up on HD. The script went through every possible ridiculous cliche. You would think that the stellar acting abilities of Nicole Kidman and High Jackman would still somehow save it, but instead they took the cliches further, portraying parodies of their own characters.

One problem with packing a film with every possible cliche, is that you then have to include every possible story arc. Which Australia did. Hence the butt-numbing three hour long film reel.

The film is at times saved by the juicy colors and panoramic landscapes. Then again, at other times, the awkward compositions and cartoony effects just serve to remind you that you're watching a really bad movie.

I was so disappointed. I was genuinely excited about Australia. I should have remembered how over-the-top all of Lurhmann's films are. Romeo and Juliet is the only film of his that I have genuinely liked so far, and I think that is because, well, freakin' Shakespeare wrote it. And Claire Danes is brilliant. But, Strictly Ballroom . . . was nice enough, but forgettable. Again cliche. And then Moulin Rouge . . . I am sorry, but over-the-top is not in it with that one. I want to like it, and darn Baz, it does haunt me and even touch me, but it's garishness never ceases to repel me.

My advice, save yourself the ten bucks and the three hours. Don't believe me? Check out the reviews of Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and Entertainment Weekly. They all say the same thing.

Mapple!!!

Just when you have lost hope, The Simpsons offers something beautiful and genius to renew one's love of the show. This goes out to all of you Mac users out there.

By the way, I can post because I own a Mac. And I am an ethnic minority.

*Thanks for this Dave of GH. ;)

Mapple - The Simpsons
by aarplane

Rachel Getting Married

On Saturday, Travis (one of my dearest friends) and I decided to catch up over Mexican food and watch Rachel Getting Married.

Great movie, if you haven't seen it. Anne Hathaway does a knock-out job of playing a complicated, slightly unloveable recovering addict. The movie, as a whole, does a really great job of capturing the complexity and tension that riddles so many family gatherings.

The previews were also amazing. I am a dork, I hate missing previews, but, seriously, every preview in this movie was for a film I now really want to see.

In particular, Arnuad Desplechin's A Christmas Tale.




And the incredibly visually stunning Waltz with Bashir.




**Also, Gavin Newsom (current SF mayor, perhaps future CA governor) was in line with us to buy movie tickets. My giddy celebrity spot for the weekend.

***Sorry I have seriously fallen behind on blogging. When your life gets super busy (and thus bloggable) you never have time to blog! I am leaving out a lot of fun stuff, but lets just start over from here on out.

Dial House

Well, just as I have found a new amazing mentor to sink my teeth into (Cameron Maddux, Director of Account Planning at the Academy), he has found greener pastures at an amazing creative think-tank called Dial House in the SOMA of SF. A kind of rock-n-roll, buck-the-system consortium of deep thinkers that work on figuring out ways to define, strategize, communicate, and otherwise better existing brands, it is a great fit for Cameron. Sigh.

So being the awesome educator that he is, Cameron hosted a little after-hours soiree last Friday night at Dial House to kind of talk to Academy of Art planning people about where we can go from here and just to kind of say, "I am still here for you guys." Like I said, great educator; total sweetheart.

It was at Dial House that I met the much buzzed about Charlie Kouns (former Director of Planning at the Academy (AAU)). I was delighted to find Charlie to be a warm, imaginative Southerner with a love of stories and young people. I am looking forward to get to know him better.

In fact, Charlie and I got to talking about this project he is working on called Imagine Learning, designed to make education relevant to kids and what they need in today's world. I am so excited about it. This will be where my volunteer efforts will now be directed (ha! You didn't think I forgot about my vow of reformation, did you?). For those of you who don't know I have a pretty extensive background in child psych. and education.

I was also pleased to meet other young planners at Dial House. The conversations were interesting and humorous, and it was obvious that most of the people there had a good breadth of experiences and thinking. I may have found home. Hurray!