Here is an article on magical negroes. Some people may be complaining- they made us have black characters in movies, and now they want them to have actual character traits beyond one or two? Oh the horror! The problem about diversity in films is that it has to not just be for the sake of putting in a black, you have to give him a life, a family, a community. No man is an island. There are no randomly black kids flown in from Mars apparently, as they are the only black people in the movie. Yes, it would take work, research and thought to craft minority characterizations that are as fleshed out and compelling as the whites' characterizations, but I think the top writers in Hollywood are able to think on that deeper level, even if they don't want to.

Another race based site is bigbadchinesemama.com. I like this site because it comes at the problem head on. It doesn't dance around it with fancy phrases, it says "I'm not your little flower toy, so fuck off!"

Yay, killing the hooker (by Lea Hernandez) is going to be free all summer!

I just got Life of the Party, and really enjoyed it. It's full of those anecdotes that sound great in books, but you know that if it really happened to you, it wouldn't be very funny. For example, in one story Mary gets really messed up, and ends up wearing someone else's panties (among other interesting experiences). I especially like the art. It's half way between cartoonish and realistic with a bit of cubism thrown in for fun.

If this article is to be believed, the various Archie titles sell 800,000 to 900,000 per month. Comics fans say kids don't read comics, but I guess Archie isn't on their radar. Good simple stories that are sold everywhere seem to sell. I wonder if we can gain a lesson from this.

This is belated, but if you really want to support our troops, you need to do it by not trashing our country. Don't let Ashcroft expand the Patriot Act, don't let people talk big about programs and not fund them, and above all, don't let an election go by without your educated vote. Don't tell me you don't have time, you certainly have the time to be watching American Idol or whatever reality TV show is on- getting your news from someone besides Fox News or actually, just TV in general, doesn't take that long.

TV tends to flatten out the issues. Huge moral questions that are full of complexity are reduced to simple melodrama. While that gives them great ratings, it's not so good for people who actually need information to make decisions. There might be the occasional smart TV show, but you shouldn't rely on the TV for your information. Also, it's best to check more than one source. I'm not saying read ten newspapers a day, but if one day you listen to NPR, one day you watch Fox news, one day you read the local newspaper, one day you read the BBC's website, you get a more rounded picture of the world away from any liberal or conservative bias there may be.

And pick up a book people.You can still get more depth into the issue, because they have the whole length of the book to get into all the complexity and ambiguity. Pop in a book on tape during the commute to work. Education doesn't stop with what they make you read in school, you should be trying to learn something everyday.

Don't worry about your cool level or worry about stereotypes of book smart people without 'common sense'- if you had common sense in the first place, it's not going to disappear because you picked up a book, and if you didn't, at least book smarts will give you some advantage.

Today was a good day. I managed to fit in a little power walk around the pond. In other news, Fanta is rapidly gaining on its goal, and here's a funny quote from Newsweek's perspectives section. "Spitting on the ground is dangerous to your health, and spit contains infectious diseases. But with one small bag in your hands, your health will always be invincible" printed on white spit bags handed out in China.

I wonder if spitting in public will become a new national taboo in China. If that happens, maybe a hundred years from now, the idea of spitting on the street would be as unthinkable as the idea of sleeping with your grandma is to Americans.

I just watched a very good documentary on gay adoption on PBS. It didn't gloss over the problems-the desire of some of the children for mothers, the lack of child friendly places in say, the Castro, and adopting cross racially. On that specific issue, I am amazed at the maturity of the film on this. It acknowledged that yes, love isn't going to erase hundreds of years of prejudice, but still has a hopeful tone that maybe things can be worked out.

The smaller ambiguities and troubles were also well presented. I never have thought of the trouble that a guy who has grown up lip synching to Judy Garland would have raising a jock, or the worries they might have if he took to women's shoes, but both issues were raised without being smarmy. I don't watch much TV, so I am surprised when I find something that embraces complexity.

Most Americans live in a simple world it seems. Either this is right or it isn't. We have a two party system which tends to divide us right down the middle, and the dominant philosophies nowadays don't leave much room for ambiguity. So TV also carries that attitude.

It's either the whiny liberal Democrats with their special pork barrel programs or the greedy Republicans that are about to put us all out of doors after they cause world war three. Moderates don't get much airplay. I guess ratings aren't as high for moderates, and the media is a business, but that's pretty crazy.

These new FCC guidelines are a bit worrying to me, because I don't want to live in a country where all news is filtered through one company, instead of the two or three now.

Bookslut has a new issue out, with reviews of Krazy Kat and my hero of the day AR Ammons.

Good Fanta news- they are two thirds to their goal of $80,000! Come on folks, there are plenty of comics where that came from!

Today, I made a discovery. I didn't know that the UT medical center had its own candy. It tastes like orange and cream, and is really good.

It's time for the June issue of Sequential Tart! I always would like to hear more from Jill Thompson, so this month's interview is pretty welcome.

Beautiful drawings, but I have never seen her comic work. Maybe I will someday.

This is a very interesting website on strippers viewed in a feminist light. I don't know what I think about strippers. I've only seen one once, stepping out of a private party in the dorms, and what surprised me most about her was her size. In my mental image of strippers, I pictured girls that were all at least five feet four inches, but this girl was five feet tall. While this is probably a silly thing to be shocked at for more worldly people, I was certainly surprised.

I at least know I couldn't be a stripper. It seems like you'd have to at least not fall off of the stage, and well, that's not my forte. I have a saying- I can do anything just as long as it doesn't have to be done quickly or well. Well, you certainly can't have a niche of 'falling off the stage' fetishes, so I don't think I'd last long.

My wallpaper is an Altoids commerical. I wonder if this means I suck. Then again, I like the idea of gothiness. I wouldn't like to actually be a goth, because then I'd have to fit into a dying subculture, but I like the lack of the bright and sunny ideal. I can be bright and sunny on occasion, but don't expect enthusiastic smiles from me when everything's just ok.

Today I bought Life of the Party, and worried about ankle injury. I was going to get Berlin as well, but I was short on cash, so decided to get what would be hardest to get if Fantagraphics went out of buisness, although I really wish I could have gotten Dori Stories, too. Through the anthology Twisted Sisters, I really got to know some female cartoonists work that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to see. While men write very compelling stories, I'm always interested in what the girls are doing, a tendancy that probably dates back to my old Archie obsession. Archie was ok, and Jughead was funny, but my favorites were always Betty and Veronica, best friends forever, and worst enemies for a lifetime. I also in those prepubscent days loved how Betty and Veronica were drawn- it was sexy before I knew what sexy was, and those fashions didn't hurt at all.

Maybe I should buy comics in themes. Like this month is Fantagraphics month- I want Berlin and Life of the Party. Maybe next month will be black comics month. Maybe I'll get Sugar Kat or Days Like This. While it's all well and good to not care about the racial composition of comic books, I want to start supporting a world where blackness is more positive, and it certainly can't be done with me sitting on my duff saying this and that, but never doing anything. Although I'm more of a sayer than a doer, since people are such harsh judges, even if they haven't done anything

Today I walked for an entire hour. It seemed like the entire neighborhood was out, fishing or just sitting in the sun. I just walked past the teen boys talking about fort construction, their fishing poles forgotten, and the little kids who were displaying their fishing prowess to their father. I was nearly ran over by a young mom, pushing a three wheeled baby buggy in front of her, while her children asked her about clouds. Summer�s always the easiest time to walk- people are out in the sun, flowers are blooming, it is freaking hot� but when winter comes, most people prefer the treadmills inside, which is a bit of a problem for the terminally clumsy and un-athletic who fear going to the gym. Yes, they exist, everyone. I know, I�m one of them. To me, nothing is more frightening than going someplace where they don�t appreciate a little healthy variation. It�s like being in the 50s, and being a black commie at the same time. (and yes, the analogy doesn�t match up perfectly.)

A bit of a followup about Fantagraphics, with actual pictures of the president and vice president, who look nothing like I thought they did. (see this for details.)

Much better. The link is to (supposedly) Jame Joyce's dirty love letters, so there is explicit content.

A sad quote from a BBC article - 'All opinion polls show most Americans are unconcerned about the failure so far to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq'. I am feeling substantial loss of faith in humanity today. I wish there was some way I could reafrim my faith in humanity. I don't mean in that sappy 'inspirational' way, I mean in a way that actually means something. It's all well and good to regurgitate cliches, but quite another to get to the real heart of the matter.