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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Blog Love Open Thread

Blog Love Open Thread

by Sarah, Proud and Tall|  October 7, 201111:12 am| 23 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing

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Lord Edwin Weeks - Elephants at the Palace of Jodhpore

I’m not sure why, but I’m in the mood to spread some blog love this morning. Perhaps it’s because I have been reading other people’s blogs to distract me from the arduous work of writing my own. I’m three martinis down, I have a story marinating in my brain – it should be prime writing time, but whenever I stare at that blank page on the computer screen, I give up in disgust and then search around for something else to read.

Anyway, my old friend Lance Mannion is in the middle of a series of posts about his visit to Occupy Wall Street and the dangerous revolutionaries poets and ironworkers and clergy he met there.

My favorite of the signs I saw yesterday wasn’t a protest, it was a joyful boast: Proud Union Mama.

My least favorite said: Even God Hates Wall Street.

Unlikely.

God, if He, She, or It exists, not having the time, He, She, or It doesn’t take sides like that. Besides, God hating anyone’s particular enemies? That’s how they think.

But we know how Jesus felt about the moneychangers, and storing up treasure on earth, and rich people and needles’ eyes, and the poor and the downtrodden. We know what he said to the rich young man who wanted to know what he had to do to be saved and he’d say the same to any young hedge fund manager who asked that question today. We know the kind of company he preferred to keep. All the apostles except Matthew, the tax collector, and the other guy, the politician, were working men. If Jesus came today and said to them, Follow me, he’d be talking to Union men and women.

I am a great fan of Anita Dalton at I Read Odd Books. This is, in part, due to my admiration of her mettle in managing to get through books I would never even pick up, books that would have had me heading outside with a bottle of lighter fluid to dispatch the hated tome from this earth with fire and vengeance. She’s also charming and funny, whether skewering the deserving:

Availability: Published by Melville Press in 2009, I highly advise that you not buy a copy, but rather shoplift a copy. If you get caught and arrested, take your mugshot, superimpose it over a picture of your ass, and mail it to Lin. He will then fashion all of the be-assed mug shots into some sort of self-aggrandizing but ultimately morally and socially empty project and thus the circle will be unbroken.

or providing a very lengthy but fascinating analysis of mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik’s anti-muslim screed 2083: A European Declaration of Independence.

Over at Juanita Jean’s The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc., Ms Juanita Jean (widowed), via her amanuensis Susan DuQuesnay Bankston, dispenses a fine mix of well crafted disdain and one liners that can make vodka come out your nose. Ladies, I salute you.

And then there’s that goofy looking son of a motherless goat Phil Gramm, who could not buy a date at the chicken ranch with a chicken under each arm and a $20 bill taped to his forehead.

Finally, our own AsiangrrlMN is in love, and it’s quite adorable.

Maybe it’s time to go and stare at cake recipes for a while. Then it will be time for lunch and a nap.

Anything to avoid the horror of actually writing something myself.

Levenson-like Pretentious Art Douche stuff: Edwin Lord Weeks (1849-1903) – Elephants at the Palace of Jodhpore via Art Renewal Centre.

ETA: While I’m scattering links, I might as well get in a plug for the paper folding works of Dinh Truong Giang. Simply stunning.

Dinh Truong Giang

EATA: Crikey. Fullscreen if you please.

Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.

H/t: THE

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Next Post: Republicans find their voice: turns out, it’s whiny »

Reader Interactions

23Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    October 7, 2011 at 11:23 am

    Okay that gorilla is awesome. It almost made me forget my pooh-poohing of the whole baking thing. Almost. We’ve been round about that before.

  2. 2.

    Paul in KY

    October 7, 2011 at 11:34 am

    Good for AsiangrrlMN (and the primate dude).

  3. 3.

    Sarah Proud and Tall

    October 7, 2011 at 11:36 am

    @Yutsano:

    We’ve been round about that before.

    Ah yes, the Great Puff Pastry Kerfuffule of March 2011.

  4. 4.

    Bruuuuce

    October 7, 2011 at 11:45 am

    Jim Wright at Stonekettle Station is almost always right on the mark. His analysis (especially on military matters, after his many (20?) years in the Navy) is expert and his writing holds nothing back:

    Communities made up of selfish people are selfish communities. They’re often easy to spot, the gates give them away.

    Churches made up of selfish hateful bigots are selfish hateful bigoted churches. That’s not an opinion, that’s a goddamned fact.

    Ron Paul’s libertarian wet dream fails at the most fundamental level.

    I’ve said it before and I’ll keep right on saying it, the purpose of government is to protect the weak from the ruthless, otherwise what damned good is it?

    Plus, he makes spectacular wooden objects (from pens to plaques) that make me wish I had space for a workshop. (Not possible, living in a city apartment. My hands itch, thinking about a basement of my own.)

  5. 5.

    chopper

    October 7, 2011 at 11:46 am

    strangely, the worst sign i saw when i went to zuccotti park was a union one. it said ‘there’s no “I” in “unions”, just “us”‘.

    wish i would have gone on the 4th, could have caught a free sidewalk concert by jeff magnum.

  6. 6.

    schrodinger's cat

    October 7, 2011 at 11:47 am

    A little bit off topic, but Bobo has gone and done something that DougJ was worried about, written a catch-phrase laded column about Steve Jobs.

  7. 7.

    THE

    October 7, 2011 at 11:57 am

    Cool nature video by stop motion photographer Dustin Farrell.
    Full screen recommended. Turn up the volume.

  8. 8.

    Susan

    October 7, 2011 at 12:01 pm

    Thank you for your very sweet and kind link to juanitajean.com If I knew what amanuensis means, I might be even more grateful. Drop by for a haircut any time you’d like!

  9. 9.

    artem1s

    October 7, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    poets and ironworkers and clergy he met there.

    hmmm, been wondering if OWS might be the tipping point for the more progressive clergy to get back into the protest, social activism biz.

  10. 10.

    THE

    October 7, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    @THE:
    Not stop motion. Time lapse photographer.

  11. 11.

    Sarah Proud and Tall

    October 7, 2011 at 12:28 pm

    @Susan:

    Thank you for your very sweet and kind link to juanitajean.com If I knew what amanuensis means, I might be even more grateful. Drop by for a haircut any time you’d like!

    A pleasure, dear. Send my love to Ms (Mrs?) Juanita. If you see Rick Perry, give him a kick in the balls for me.

  12. 12.

    Dee Loralei

    October 7, 2011 at 12:31 pm

    Flagrantedelectico looks like a good blog to drool over.And I’ve bookmarked it. Juanita Jean is a hoot I’ve loved her for a while now. Same with Lance Mannion. And AsianGrrl in love is adorable. And I’m so happy for her.And the Primate guy.

    And I’ll second Bruuuuce on Stonekettle Station, I discovered him a few months ago.

    My newest must reads are TheBlogess.com and socialassassin, and beeryblog.Oh and PassTheDoucheysontherighthandside.

    Sarah, are you on twitter, because I so want to follow you!
    I’ve just recently started, so if anyone wants to follow me @deeloralei, I’ll reciprocate!

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    October 7, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    I once lent out my copy of How To Shit In The Woods (which I picked up at Horton Plaza in San Diego, in a store selling all manner of odd things) and never got it back. Sigh. I miss that book.

    I do hope you get around to writing down some more of those entertaining recollections, Ms Sarah. We haven’t had too many of them lately. And the taste we got in the last thread only whets the appetite for more.

  14. 14.

    Cris (without an H)

    October 7, 2011 at 12:43 pm

    Thanks for linking to Lance Mannion. He goes on and off my blogroll; he’s a real pleasure to read, but occasionally he gets too navel gazy.

    And overuses his single-sentence paragraph conceit.

    For emphasis.

    Which is cool when you don’t overuse it.

    Anyway, what a great writer to have covering #OWS. He’s like a Taoist correspondent — he has a point of view, he doesn’t try to be objective, but he still sort of floats above it all, like a visitor from the ancient past or far future.

  15. 15.

    karen marie

    October 7, 2011 at 12:48 pm

    @THE: It’s a shame the buffering on Vimeo is so much suck.

  16. 16.

    Sarah Proud and Tall

    October 7, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    I do hope you get around to writing down some more of those entertaining recollections, Ms Sarah. We haven’t had too many of them lately. And the taste we got in the last thread only whets the appetite for more.

    Thankyou dear, you’re very kind. I appear to be back in the mood for story telling. Hold on to your hats.

  17. 17.

    Dougerhead

    October 7, 2011 at 12:58 pm

    Lance Mannion is the single greatest name in the history of blogging. I wish I’d thought of it.

    That choice of name makes me proud to be an American.

  18. 18.

    THE

    October 7, 2011 at 1:00 pm

    @karen marie: If I have problems I usually pause it until it loads a bit, and then press play.

  19. 19.

    Anita Dalton

    October 7, 2011 at 1:30 pm

    Oh my gosh, thank you Sarah. It’s humbling to know others find some value in my little weird book blog. I also increasingly think I should subtitle my site “I Read ‘Em So You Don’t Have To.”

    I’ll definitely have to check out Juanita Jean’s blog because I hope she will also have some really good Kay Bailey Hutchison stories.

    Amir Khalid, I just added How to Shit in the Woods to my wishlist. I feel that book and Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine! will be necessary manuals for navigating the New Economy.

  20. 20.

    grumpy realist

    October 7, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    I clicked through to Anita’s review of Lin’s dreck.

    Unbelievable. I still can’t believe that stuff got published. Bad. Really Bad. Mind-splittingly, stomach-churning, nauseatingly bad. It’s as if Hemingway was translated by lobotomized monkeys into Chinese and then back into English via cut-rate discount automatic translation programs.

    No WONDER publishing companies are failing….

  21. 21.

    Felinious Wench

    October 7, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    Look at you, giving love to Juanita Jean!

    I love in Fort Bend Country, and she’s a must-read by my fellow liberals. Keeps us all sane.

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    October 7, 2011 at 3:28 pm

    @Anita Dalton:
    I hope you find the book. It’s quite a slim volume, but it’s full of serious and practical advice on, well, you know. There’s even a buyer’s guide to containers for, um, that.

  23. 23.

    Amir Khalid

    October 7, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    @Amir Khalid:
    I should have checked: it’s actually easily found on amazon.com.

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