Maine Event

Yesterday, voters in Maine voted to strip marriage rights from gays and lesbians, which had been granted by the passage of a law in May. Maine's version of California's woeful Proposition 8, which rejected gay marriage in last year's general election, was backed by the usual suspects, including the National Organization for Marriage, of the infamous "Gathering Storm" ad. Pretty pathetic.

It's time to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The notion that this crucial civil rights issue should be left to the voters of each state to decide is ludicrous. What would have happened if we had allowed each state to decide when to grant civil rights to blacks? If there had been no Civil Rights Act?

Maybe someone can explain to me - slowly and using small words, because I'm a bit dim - how this is different? DOMA, and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" with it, enshrined prejudice in law. It's time to move on and grant to LGBT people the equality they are owed under our Constitution. If some people in the country don't like it, tough. Change is hard, but this change is inevitable, so we might as well get used to it, and get on with it.

Allowing gays and lesbians to marry under civil law will strengthen families, not weaken them. It will help children, not harm them. It will have no impact on religious freedom in the U.S. whatsoever. To oppose these civil rights is to be an opponent of civil rights, period. It is shameful, it is irrational, it is wrong.

The Rock

30 Rock came back for a fourth season on Thursday, getting lower ratings than the previous season's opener. It was not the greatest episode of the show, but a solid, good one and, besides, they have set the bar impossibly high. British sitcoms get 12 shows a season, like the shows on HBO and Showtime. How Tina Fey and company manage to keep their brilliantly wacky, razor-sharp and caustic show as funny as it is, week after week, is something of a miracle. What do Americans want from their TV shows? People complain that the characters on Rock aren't "likable." That's a criticism? How did Seinfeld last so long then? Or All in the Family? Or any reality TV show?

I think maybe Rock is just too inside-show-business for a mainstream audience, and way, way too smart. I do not watch every comedy show on TV - though I've started watching a couple of promising new shows this season, Community and Modern Family - but I would sure like to see a funnier sitcom than 30 Rock. I doubt one exists right now. It ain't Parks and Recreation, though that show is picking up some steam in its second season. It ain't The Office, which peaked three or four season ago, in my opinion.

From what I understand, the best drama on TV, Mad Men, also doesn't get great ratings. This season has been Sopranos good. Is there a better show on TV?

On Nostalgia, or things to do in Alameda with friends you don't see often enough

My old friend, Clint Marsh, tells me that my posts tend to go on too long. So, for his sake, as he's one of maybe three people who ever read this blog, I'll keep it short.

This past Saturday was a celebration of nostalgia, both nostalgic for me on several levels and about nostalgia in odd ways. A combination of a couple of Ancient Greek words, nostalgia literally means "aching to return home," and was originally coined to describe a kind of homesickness. I can only say that these days, ye gods, I ache.

In the morning, I wandered up Park Street, which was closed off once again for the annual classic car show. I am not really a car person any more, admittedly more for political reasons than because I don't actually love awesome cars, a huge variety of which were on display on Saturday.

The above was one of my favorites, almost certainly out of nostalgia for my childhood Hot Wheels. No matter how you feel about a particular hobby that you don't engage in yourself - such as, say, one that celebrates huge, resource-hogging machines that have contributed mightily to the destruction of the environment, our sense of interconnectedness, community and place, not to mention the public health over the last century - it is wonderful to see so much geeky enthusiasm and joy on display. Besides, some of these cars are really fucking cool.

After the car show and requisite breakfast burrito from Viva Mexico,  Thomas Carlson came over. I've known him since high school, when I was dating his older sister, still a dear friend I barely ever get to see, so hanging out with Tom always has a faint corona of nostalgia, and a longing for home. We went to the Alameda Theatre to see the re-released Toy Story 1 & 2 double-feature in 3D. These movies, still among the very best Pixar has put out, have nostalgia as their subject. That got me thinking that I would like to see a database of movie subject matter - I mean, there are a lot of movies that make you feel nostalgic, TS1&2 among them, but how many are about nostalgia, for example?

The 3D aspect was fairly subtle, but enhancing, and we agreed that TS2 is still one of the all-time greatest movie sequels, one of those rarest of sequels that manage to top the original, like The Godfather, Part 2 or Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn.

We got back home and found that Clint had just arrived, in time for the evening's nostalgia to begin.

There was, of course, the usual Ottumwa gossip and chitchat, then delivery from Dragon Rouge, the great Vietnamese Bistro on Encinal between Park and Oak. Clint figured out that this Dragon Rouge was not this Dragon Rouge, then the three of us went across town to the Lucky JuJu.

It was my first time there, but I don't know what Alameda attraction can top, for good times or nostalgia with a capital P, the Pacific Pinball Museum at the Lucky JuJu arcade. Just go: Go! - and in the flash and tumult, the spinning bells and bright lights, surrender, as a boat against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Defending Copyright or Corporate Censorship? You say tomato...

Yesterday, as the inevitable fallout from David Letterman's who-gives-a-shit "sex scandal" began to drift down from on high like magical cable-news-ratings-booster pixie dust, this word from the New York Times, letting us know about CBS scrambling to scrub the Web of Dave's on-air mea culpa from Thursday night's show. Never mind that there are plenty of "Late Show" clips online, whether on YouTube, CBS's official TV.com or everywhere else, somehow only these specific clips are causing copyright concerns.

Does CBS have the legal authority to take down these clips? Sure, though no one could fully explain to you why they would bother - logically, that is. But this is obviously a case of a mega-corporation using copyright law (specifically the DMCA) to censor clips they don't want the public to have a chance to view, which makes it a perfect example of the deep flaws in our current system of "intellectual property."

Vegemite, Delicious Vegemite

Saw on Boing Boing today a mention of a ludicrously restrictive Terms of Use agreement over at the Kraft Corporation site for their product, Vegemite, apparently a delicious Australian spread that I have heard mixed reviews of, let's say, from people who have actually eaten it, which I have not. Evidently, you are not allowed to link to the site "in any way whatsover."

And you can check it out on their site by following this link.

The Mastick House

Passed by here on the weekly bike ride. The sign in the yard caught my attention. If you click through on the picture, you'll see a bigger size and you'll be able to read it, hopefully. As if the school board recall effort and lawsuit over the gay anti-bullying curriculum wasn't proof enough, this picture further demonstrates that there are idiots everywhere.

In case anyone is wondering, the answer to the question posed by the sign is Hawaii. The question refers to Barack Obama's birth certificate.

Sunday Morning

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Sunday Morning' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.