Back in the saddle

Oh I try and I try to keep up with this blog. I feel a sense of responsibility to this project because I have no real responsibility to it. By choice I share all the useless but awesome stories I hear and see. So I'M BACK (again and again). I was watching Jon Stewart last night. After a sorrowful moment in memorium of all the material Bush has given Jon over the years and the realization that this show will have to actually start working for satire once Bush retires, Arianna Huffington was the guest. She is the creator and editor of the Huffington Post. The website pulls links from all news sources and blogs into this tidy site, like a "best of" of the day's headlines and features. After there is caffiene running through my veins in the morning, I log onto the site to get my fill of headlines instead of having to click from CNN to NY Times to the Tribune to Jezebel. So there is my plug. The editors and bloggers on the site just published a book about blogging. Arianna and her sexy Greek accent made blogging seem like the most passionate hobby a person can have. "Blogging is not about perfectionism. Blogging is about intimacy, transparency, and sharing your thoughts the way you share them with a friend." My first thought: I want one! Thought #2: Oh yea....I have one! That line reminded me why I have this blog. Primarily so I can pass on all the pop culture nuances to my friends without wasting their anytime minutes, and also with the slight hope in the back of my heart that I can turn a career out of my mining for absured realizations about this cultural haven we live in.

So to begin again I have one word. Obama. It is amazing to really understand and feel what it means to be proud to be an American. It is a term I used to be too young to understand, followed by too ashamed to feel. But being meer miles away from Grant Park the night Obama was declared our 44th president, being able to hear the eruption of cheers from my window, seeing people smile when they talk about a politican, scrolling through my friends' facebook statuses reminding people to vote, to change. Finally it feels like there is a person to symbolize our country that actually encompasses the values and ideas that Americans want projected onto the world. Change is good.

Next, a topic I would be stupid not to write about. On Tuesday I heard Annie Leibovitz speak at the Chicago Public Library downtown about her new book Annie Leibovitz at Work. Photography is an art that can steal my attention for hours. It's almost meditative for me to follow the clean focused lines, calming to see the monocrom black and white, reassuring that the world can still appear so beautiful. To me, the quality of Annie's photos that sets her appart from other photographers is the surrealism that glitters through the realistic nature of her photos. When I met Annie at the book signing after her talk, I told her that her photos make Hollywood still look glamorous. The lighting, the sharp quality, the glow. Her Vanity Fair portraits makes me believe that somewhere there are ladies and gentlemen that still walk around in diamond incrusted gowns and drap themselves in family jewels. That there are still sassy and sophisticated pin up girls in martini bars somewhere. That rock stars are still invincible. That fairy tales can come true. At the same time, her photos of average Americans show natural beauty in their eyes, their wrinkles, their shape, their stature, their clothes, their story.

Every one of her photos have a story that adds another layer to the photo and the subject. She talked about countless backstories to her photos, about different subjects and genres. She is not a good public speaker. She would try to start talking about a photo then relieve herself back into the pages of the book, reading passages about the photos. I found that very comforting, knowing that she was not at easy in front of the crowd. I think people that thrive being on stage, in the spotlight, eyes burning into them to be very unnatural, very forced. Words that you type out and write down, think about, plan, compare, can be easier to trust than split seconds words that come out of your mouth, that you can't delete. It is a more thoughtful and confident form of communicating your voice. Actually, Annie as a photographer has an even better form of communicating her voice through her art. Visual art can evoke emotions within the viewer that go beyond words, written or spoken. On some level I am jealous that I'm not talented enough to bring forth those emotions in my audience. Yet.

Ladies No Longer in Waiting

Try as I might, I cannot avoid the inevitable topic that, every 4 years, becomes the dictator of the media, water cooler conversations, magazine covers, and pillow talk all across the USA! USA! USA! Presidential election season is upon us again. But you can take comfort in the fact that I will try to keep this as objective as an election conversation can be. I’m not here to force my un-groomed and less-than-educated political views upon you; I’ll leave that to the professionals. I couldn’t help but write about the topic because how can I possibly analyze the state of our 9/8/08 culture and ignore the baby-kissing presidential beast that has taken over our culture right now? So I’m going to take a lighter, more superficial, approach to the race. Someone has to. Sometimes we need a distraction from the exhausting debates over baby’s mama’s drama, sexism, patriotism, and the population of Alaska. So I am here to discuss the ladies.

When Michelle Obama burst onto the political field a few months ago, she was an outspoken, successful, frank woman first. She was Barak’s wife second. I knew about her Harvard degree and career progression before I knew that she was the mother of two (beautiful and microphone-loving) daughters. Some people that still believe in the sanctity of politicians were dumbfounded by her forthrightness in discussing Barak’s trail of dirty socks (How can he allow her to reveal such behavior! A presidential nominee would NEVER divulge such character flaws!). But the rest of us could relate to the playful banter with our significant others. I’m no worshipper of the house of Doc when talking about him. I’ll joke with my friends about his scruffy nomad beard for the sake of relatability. The outspoken woman is sexy. The outspoken woman is not a woman to be dismissed as a simple pillow-fluffer at the end of the day. The outspoken woman is the backbone and down to earth character that a politician needs to keep things real and fist-tap for support.

But that was then. Months on the campaign trail. Months of criticism over her “anti-American” style. Months of worried campaign managers hoping to avoid another Hillary, pulling Bill’s puppet strings from inside the White House. Who was really in control here? We don’t want a submissive president. So now, watching her speech at the DNC, I see her subsiding into her Jackie O dresses and supportive smiles. Talks of her daughters, family, and her husband. The candid banter of “Barak – He’s just like us!” gone. So where did she go?

I will be honest in saying that I know less about Cindy McCain, partly because my interest leans towards the Obama’s and partly because the woman is so severe looking I have trouble getting past the tight librarian bun and paycheck. She looks so tightly wound and pursed-lipped that I had trouble see her lack of personality as a threat to the White House. But seeing her at the RNC the night of McCain speech, with her hair down, a small smile on her face, even I saw some semblance of pride in how her life brought her to that moment. But that moment of awareness was gone as soon as it came, blinded by talks of her $300,000 getup and private plane. But where did the librarian bun go?

And now there is Sarah Palin. I can’t seem to stop reading about her background and family. I am drawn to her story and I cannot figure out why. My question for her fresh face is where did she come from?

The trend here is the entrance of the woman into the political playing field. Three women are under the torturous microscope of the media and America (mostly because of the media). Hillary, the trailblazer, was the first sign that it is time Washington gave some attention to the political woman. The importance of the first lady has become almost comparable to the importance of the president himself. Hillary showed that the first lady cannot be overlooked, because she may someday be the one you are voting for. It is a new frontier for women in politics and there must be an appealing image to wrangle in the votes, because lets not forget that this is still a political race and it’s all about the votes. Men have had hundreds of years to evolve their persona into what they know Americans can look up to and are comfortable with and are generally willing to let lose on the world as the face of our nation. Navy blue suit, red tie, good orator, uses words like “change” and “hope”, wears an American flag pin. Now the women are at the beginning of their evolution into what America will trust. Michelle came out of the gate a little too strong, Cindy came out with her bun a little too tight. Both are working towards a middle ground. Because who knows which one of them could be next.

So now the transformation from hockey mom to vice presidential nominee for Sarah Palin will begin. What middle ground will she have to conform to? Only time and debates and Karl Roves growling monologues will tell.

I've got a crush on Obama

Political tendencies aside, there's some girl that vowed her undying love to Barack as only a Gen Y new yorker hottie can - a homemade youtube music video of course!

But that's not the best part. This 3 year old yelling "CRUSH ON OBAMA!" is.

Minority Report

I may be going to my first political rally next week for Barak Obama. I could turn this post into a political rant, but seeing as its only 8:30 in the morning and I'm sleep deprived without caffeine in me yet, I'll limit my questioning mind when it comes to the checks and balances of the US. Plus, I used to date an overwhelming Conservative pre-law guy that made politics seem exhausting and attacking with the extent that he talked about it, which has turned me off to the majority of politics aside from the 4 year Pres election (I don't feel that you can criticize the government unless you attempted to change it. So I do it so I can complaint for 4 more years).

I would just like to state my excitement over the 2008 election. Being fresh Democratic meat (having only voted in one other pres election), I am still new and excited about my party. And I must say that the Democratic party being the first to successful promote TWO minority (if you include women as the minority in DC) candidates is something to shine on about. Finally. Years after equal rights for blacks and women, bra-burning, sit-ins, segregation, Remember the Titans, we finally realize that other people actually have some decent ideas for the new direction of America (which is fairly obvious it needs).

I am excited for this election, not simply for this point, but because I am at a political maturity to see the vitality and challenge of the primaries. It's easy for Democrats to bash the Republican views and vice versa, but this is your people against each other. They can't bank on winning votes from their overall views, because they are pretty much the same. You have to look deeper. So maybe this election's Democratic primary is extra heated because of the two progressive candidates and Democrats new spotlight in Congress, or I'm just getting more educated in the ways of Washington. But I LOVE the fact that we have two minorities going head to head. It shows a new front for politics and, hopefully, America's future. Obama is slightly ahead in my book, and the book of most Democrats, due to his end-war campaign and complete anti-war mentality from the start. Hillary has that damn scar of a relationship with her husband, supported the war initially (although she has said it needs to end now), and conservative liberalism, which isn't the way to attack change.

But this also creates some very interesting aspects of minority popularity. I find it interesting that Obama seems to have a leg up on Clinton. Could this mean that the US is ready for a black president before they are ready for some estrogen in the White House? I realize that most of the news-making is from the candidates themselves, but when you take a step back and picture the election in 11th grade history books in 20 years, that is what will be said. Although, in a year, the whole face of the election could change.