Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The revolution will be supervised.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You cannot shame the shameless.

The willow is too close to the house.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Battle won, war still ongoing.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / KULCHA! / Monday Morning Open Thread: LIKE A QUEEN!

Monday Morning Open Thread: LIKE A QUEEN!

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Sometimes the internet doesn’t suck. Per the Washington Post

Parker Curry, age 2, was not being cooperative.

Standing in front of the new painting of former first lady Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery, Parker ignored her mother’s pleas to turn around for a photo.

“All I wanted was just one pic,” Parker’s mother, Jessica Curry, said Sunday. “She was just so fixated on the portrait and wouldn’t turn away from it.”

Curry, a lifelong District resident, was so fixated on her daughter being fixated on the portrait that she didn’t see a man to the side taking a cellphone photo of the moment — Parker in utter awe, her mouth agape.

The next morning, Curry said, her phone “blew up.”

The man to the side — ­37-year-old Ben Hines of Alexandria — posted the photo on Facebook. It went really, really viral. And suddenly, little Parker went from being a little difficult to being more than a little famous.

The photo, taken Thursday, has been shared, liked, tweeted, retweeted and Instagrammed thousands of times around the world. Obama reacted with not one but three heart-eye emoji…

Parker, in her less than 36 months alive, has become a big admirer of the former first lady. She especially enjoyed seeing Obama dance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” After seeing the portrait, Parker thinks Obama is a “queen.”

(Curry is not certain her daughter knows that Michelle’s husband is former president Barack Obama or that he even ­exists.)…

Buzzfeed has a quote from the artist, Amy Sherald:

… When I look at this picture I think back to my first field trip in elementary school to a museum. I had only seen paintings in encyclopedias up to that point in my life. There was a show up of work by painter @thebobartlett whose work still inspires me to this day. There was a painting of a black man standing in front of a house. I don’t remember a lot about my childhood, but I do have a few emotional memories etched into my mind forever and seeing that painting of a man that looked like he could be my father stopped me dead in my tracks… I knew I wanted to be an artist already, but seeing that painting made me realize that I could. What dreams may come?… #representationmatters

I don’t know if Parker will actually remember the moment in this photo, but I can attest that some of my very earliest memories are of specific museum exhibits (an Egyptian lion-headed sculpture at the Metropolitan, a tiny perfect Peruvian silver llama at the Heyes) — and, of course, she’s got this picture to remind her now.

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  1. 1.

    David Evans

    Wonderful. That’s the first time I’ve seen those portraits at a decent size. I see the point of them now.

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    From the first moment I saw tweet about it, I was in my feelings.The little girl in Afro-puffs staring at Forever FLOTUS ???.
    Then, I read the BuzzFeed article ???

  7. 7.

    Immanentize

    I cannot stop thinking about this image and the fact that Trump has/will never inspire anyone. Hell, George W’s painting of his bathtub toes will inspire more people than any portrait of Trump.

    This photo is really going to send the mad King over the edge.

  14. 14.

    Aimai

    I love the photo but he should not have posted it without permission from the mother. I’ve taken pictures of cute kids but I always ask permission first. and you just don’t put someone else’s kid’s picture on the internet without asking.

  15. 15.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    *chuckle*

    As I understand it, Twitter has trended a nickname for the Best Picture winner – “Grinding Nemo”. The phrase has been picked up by both left and right.

  20. 20.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: I’m going to give it another try, we’re supposed to get another “offshore flow” tomorrow; so that should clear out any lingering clouds. It was shot in one of the neighborhoods in the hills just north of downtown Glendale, so it’s easy to get to any time.

  23. 23.

    Bumper

    The photo of Parker makes me feel the feels. Both the ladies in the picture are inspiring.

  26. 26.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @rikyrah:
    @Bumper: Ahhh, thanks. It was a shoot that I’ve done before(both with the group and alone), so I had to figure out what to do different. I had a couple of shots at the church we were meeting at that I wanted to try and thought I’d try shooting with the grad ND filter to see if I could bring out the stars without washing out the city lights.

  27. 27.

    Mustang Bobby

    For those following my “emerging playwright” meme (been doing it for 41 years…), opening night of “All Together Now” Friday night at the Willow Theatre in Boca Raton went great. We had a good house and the actors seemed to respond to the audience well. They have three more performances next weekend (Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday matinee), and then on to the next one. Thanks for the shout-outs last week… it means a lot.

  30. 30.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Aimai: I understand that, and tend to agree; however it’s not always possible for a couple of reasons: I may shoot hundreds of frames when I shoot and won’t know that it’s “the right shot” until hours later when I get home and process my photos and sometimes there don’t seem to be parents around. There are laws about shooting for “commercial purposes” and they do place restrictions upon photographers and consent is part of that(as well as paying specific entities such as the city).

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: What’s unfortunate? There was a time when I didn’t think I’d see 40. I feel very fortunate to have lasted this long.

  35. 35.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Trying to finish my “Darkest Hour” iTunes rental, as I fell asleep last night.

    It seems that my reaction last night was correct – this is boring as shit, and I usually love things like this.

  36. 36.

    Mustang Bobby

    This is just an observation without any research behind it, but I think it points up another of the differences between film and theatre when a movie wins Best Picture without winning any acting or writing awards to back it up.

    I can’t imagine that happening at the Tonys. It probably has, but I can’t imagine it nonetheless.

  37. 37.

    NorthLeft12

    @Baud:

    I hope you’re old.

    Baud

    That’s our Baud, always looking on the bright side.
    Reminds me of The Who…….”Hope I die before I get old.” — My Generation

  38. 38.

    Immanentize

    Well I just deposited my son, the Immp, on a bus for a school-sponsored college tour. Pretty much I-95 corridor liberal arts schools and John Hopkins, which is the only one of the 10 schools they will visit in four days that he is even slightly interested in. But he will get to see big, small, rural, urban, suburban places which ought to help in the search process….

    If it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium Washington D.C.

  43. 43.

    NorthLeft12

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I was thinking the same thing that Aimai was when I first found out that the photo of the little girl was not taken by her parents. I agree with her about not posting the photo on the internet without some kind of consent.
    I know more than a few parents that would be very upset by this, although I fully understand some of the logistical issues that you pointed out in your later comment which I just read, thanks.

  47. 47.

    James E Powell

    @Mustang Bobby:

    Two observations also without any research behind them: voters maybe split their ballot – give this one best picture, go actor on this one – and we don’t know how close the voting was.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize:

    But he will get to see big, small, rural, urban, suburban places which ought to help in the search process….

    So he’s getting an education just looking for a place to get an education. Nice.

  49. 49.

    rikyrah

    @Immanentize:
    Don’t discount the tour. It was a tour that made me think of applying to the school where I finally did go. I had lived my entire life in an Urban setting. The thought that I would go to college in the middle of nowhere wasn’t even a consideration until I visited it on a tour.

  52. 52.

    Gin & Tonic

    @NorthLeft12: I think apps like Instagram have radically changed the concepts of “public space” and “consent” without society having had a chance to digest or come to any consensus. Billin is right, that commercial use of a person’s likeness would require a model consent, but that was in a different photographic era, when the act of taking the picture was obvious, and distribution of an image required a print medium. Very quickly we got to an age where everyone has a camera in their pocket, and everyone has the ability to distribute an image to millions of people. Luckily in that timespan my children became adults, but if some random person took a picture of my child and distributed it to millions of people without my knowledge or consent, I’d be taking legal action.

  53. 53.

    satby

    @NorthLeft12: when I took photography in school, we were always told to get a model release of anyone recognizable even in public places. But think of how this shot probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day if that had happened, because most people would probably say no. And photography is the visual history of our times.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    TULSA, Oklahoma – Momentum is quickly building for teachers across Green Country to skip school and make a trip to Oklahoma City in the coming weeks.
    They’re demanding higher pay from the state legislature.
    There are a lot of ideas about how to get state lawmakers’ attention: a “strike,” a “walkout,” a “protest,” or “suspension of schools.” But teachers and school leaders say the message is the same: they want teachers to see a raise.

    If this happens (and I think it’s a little premature to consider it a done deal) everyone will have to rewrite their takes on teachers= coal miners :)
    Seriously though Oklahoma teachers are underpaid and they have so starved public schools in favor of tax breaks that some of the schools went to 4 day weeks.

  55. 55.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @James E Powell: The Oscars use an instant runoff voting system. It’s entirely possible that the winners were everyone’s second and third choices.

    For a look at how that tends to shake out, I recommend the voting statistics for the Hugo Awards, which are published every year after the ceremony.

  56. 56.

    Baud

    @Kay: It’s somewhat interesting that all this is happening just as the Supreme Court is about to gut public sector unions.

  57. 57.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Most states cut school funding after the crash and it never rebounded.

    Most states cut school funding after the recession hit, and it took years for states to restore their funding to pre-recession levels. In 2015, the latest year for which comprehensive spending data are available from the U.S. Census Bureau, 29 states were still providing less total school funding per student than they were in 2008.

    Here’s what I notice. We spend an awful lot of time worrying about the prospects of coal miners and steelworkers, and there are FAR more teachers. I can’t help but think their wages have been ignored because something like 75% of them are women. Why isn’t Donald Trump worried about the plight of the middle class teachers in states that voted for him?

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @Kay: Donald Trump correctly surmises that people who voted for him care first and foremost about who Donald Trump hurts, not who he helps.

  59. 59.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: I think a fair segment of the population still thinks of coal mining and steelworking as man jobs that are supposed to support a family, and teaching as something temporary that young women do while waiting for their MRS degree.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Right. Agreed. Add that teachers often have student loans and you end up with a situation where they can choose a car OR housing but not both :)

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: I’ve had my ugly mug published several times (3 different issues of a caving mag, one book, a guidebook, and a newspaper article). Nobody has ever asked for a release. In fact, I was never even identified (except for the guidebook, and someday I’m gonna get the responsible party for that) in any of the photos even tho I was perfectly recognizable.

    They might be good for avoiding ridiculous lawsuits, but they aren’t necessary for public space photographs @Gin & Tonic: is right that we have entered a whole new era with the internet and things need to be updated.

  67. 67.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay: Same goes for retail workers. There has never been any romanticizing of working in retail. AFAICT lefty gadflies rarely, perhaps never, agitate for the need to do something about the vanishing mall–or view it in contexts other than as shopper rather than as precariat worker.

  68. 68.

    r€nato

    I look forward to Melania’s FLOTUS portrait inspiring two year olds with the idea that they can grow up to marry disgusting, unfuckable old men for their money.

  69. 69.

    MomSense

    @Kay: @FlipYrWhig:

    We are obsessed with the archetypal manly man manufacturing jobs. We cannot get the guy with lunch pail, hard hat, and work boots out of our heads when we think of work in this country. It’s stifling and sexist and it drives me nuts. What about caregivers for the elderly and pre-school age? What about teachers, kitchen workers, and waitstaff? I used to say it during the campaign from hell, but people will drive past a dozen strip malls and the same number of restaurants only to forget all about the workers in those places when they get to the campaign rally and shout about manufacturing jobs.

    How about just paying people enough that they can support themselves, their families and communities no matter where they work?

  72. 72.

    cosima

    That little girl is adorable to the 10th power! I think one of the amazing things about the time that we live in (amazing in a good way) is the universal empowerment of women in developed countries. Yes, we still have the patriarchy and misogyny and women are hugely under-represented in every significant field, etc. etc. However, the idea that women can, and should, feel empowered to go big professionally is so amazing. I am not very old, but when I was in school I was taking home ec, stenography & typing classes, and those were skills taught because it was expected that women would need them professionally. I don’t remember anything about home ec or stenography, but the typing came in handy. Neither of my girls took any of those classes, and neither of them were expected to need those skills (they’ve both taught themselves to type pretty well). Our oldest has gone farther, at 27, than I ever did, has no children, no plans to have children, and has dreams for herself. Little C wants to be an architect, and she is laser-focused on meeting goals for herself. When I look at that adorable little girl with the puffy bunches, gazing in wonder at Michelle Obama, I have hopes & dreams for her too — even though she is not my daughter, she is ‘mine’ in spirit, and I want a better world for her.

    And little ones can absolutely have strong feelings about political figures — Little C was 3 during the 2008 election, and we went door to door for Obama, her in a little radio flyer wagon or a pram. She was quite aware that I had strong (negative) feelings about McCain’s VP choice, and once told me, when she did not get her way, that when she grew up she was going to name her daughter Sarah Palin.

  73. 73.

    satby

    @cosima:

    when she did not get her way, that when she grew up she was going to name her daughter Sarah Palin.

    That’s really funny. Smart kid, though I’m sure it didn’t work. But I bet you had to hide the laughter.

  74. 74.

    cosima

    @satby: I probably didn’t bother hiding my laughter, rather told her something like ‘I’ll remind you of that when you’re pregnant!’ I suppose it was worth a shot… tbh, that’s the sort of rebellion that she employed when she was little, no throwing tantrums for her, it was always about demands &/or negotiation… Now that she’s officially a teen I expect that it will become exponentially more diabolical.

  75. 75.

    Heidi Mom

    @cosima: I graduated in 1969 from a small high school in rural/small-town central PA. There were 69 people in my graduating class, maybe 10 or 12 people in the academic section, and I was the only girl. There had been several others, but they dropped out of that section after learning in tenth grade that they’d have to dissect things in biology. There was apparently a state law requiring every high school to teach two foreign languages, with one and a correspondence course paid for by the school being an acceptable alternative. Needless to say, my little high school taught only one (French), and so I requested and got a correspondence course in Spanish; I was the only student up until that time to request a second foreign language course. I also took courses called “academic typing,” which came in handy, and “academic shorthand,” which didn’t except for knowing the shorthand version of “with.” You might think that my high school was attitudinally backward, but that’s not the case. I think they were doing the best they could with what they had, and they were genuinely proud of their academic students and wanted as many students as possible to go to college. And those of us who did, succeeded. The problem was with the societal attitudes that led those tenth-grade girls to decide that if going to college required dissecting a frog, it wasn’t worth it.

  77. 77.

    cosima

    @Heidi Mom: My dad’s side is from rural PA (I call it Pennsyltucky), and none of my dad’s generation had academic aspirations. Very few of their children (my cousins) had academic aspirations. It was good for me, in that way, that my parents divorced when I was young, and I lived with my mother, not in PA. However, my mother did not push university, that was a thing that I had to come to on my own, not directly after high school. Someone like me, in the advanced classes (and ‘gifted’ classes) should have had an entire cheerleading squad behind them encouraging them to go on to university — but I was a girl. And I think it was just assumed that I would go along okay, somehow, even if okay was marrying someone to take care of me. Now I know better, have known better for a long time. It’s amazing to me, I guess, to see that for my daughters they are being encouraged. There is a cheerleading squad encouraging the bright ones, and even the not-so-bright (our oldest had to be dragged, kicking & screaming, to the finish line, but she was supported at school, our youngest is a greyhound, and they really do a good job of fostering that at her school).

    I know that racially we are so far from where we should be that it is very frustrating, heart-breaking, enraging, all along the spectrum of despair. And it feels like we’ve regressed in that department. But when I look at the gains that women have made, and as the mother of two girls (no boys) that’s important to me, I am somewhat hopeful. And that photo of that beautiful little girl gazing at the portrait of the amazing Michelle Obama makes my heart happy. That portrait says ‘progress’ to me. Not enough progress! But progress. And it’s forever.

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