NonNudeTeens.com, and Other Things You Didn't Know About Christopher J. Scott, If You Ever Knew Him At All

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'bleached' screening

here's a note from nick corrao, the director of a short film i was in called 'bleached.' come to the screening if you can make it.
x.
a

Hello Friends,

I hope all is well. Just wanted to let you know that my short film
"Bleached" will be playing in Manhattan on Wednesday, March 14. It is
screening in the New Filmmakers series at Anthology Film Archives. I
am very excited about this screening, and I really hope you can make
it out. I will be having drinks afterwards at a yet to be decided bar
near the theater, so please come and celebrate with me!

All the best,
Nick (director)

Here are the screening details:
Wednesday, March 14th. 6pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 2nd Ave (corner of E. 2nd St)
New York, NY 10003
$5 - The hour long program includes two other short films. I am in
the "Mocs, Docs & More" selection of this film series, so it should be
interesting!
http://www.newfilmmakers.com/

things across the pond

I was listening to a John Humphrys BBC interview with Tony Blair this morning. It reminded me of how pathetic most (but not all) American journalism is. Humphrys spoke unapologetically to Blair as an equal, grilling him on the Iraq war. Despite clear passion on both sides of the debate, neither side spoke over the other, as interviewers and interviewees are so wont to do here in the states. The questions asked were sharp, direct, and without sugar coating, forcing Blair into a position of legitimate defense, a defense he delivered quite effectively. Because the right questions were asked, I heard for the first time an argument for the war that was actually worth considering. I still might not agree with it but at least there was intelligent enough conversation and debate to make me think.
Hmm…. I wonder when that will happen at home?

While on the topic of a British journalist, I thought I would put up those pictures I took from Londontown.
Here's the link for your viewing pleasure: http://flickr.com/photos/alexisstember/sets/72157594550257305/

london

so i spent the past few amazing days in london, enjoying unusually warm weather and a abandonment of all cell phones, computers, and other seemingly necessary means of communication. i went with my friend chris, who had never been to england, and we tore through town getting into every nook and cranny we could find.
i brought along my favorite new camera and shot loads of pictures which i downloaded onto my home computer last night but didn't have time to load online. if i have the chance in the coming week, i will post some snaps of the things we saw: parliment, westminster abbey, greenwich (no cutty sark sadly, but we went to greenwich mean time), richmond, brick lane, lots of pubs- including ten bells, where jack the ripper's victims frequented, and more more more.
this should explain the new default photo of me in front of buckingham palace.
or not.

american museum of natural history winter gala

So Tuesday night, I was lucky enough to go to the American Museum of Natural History Winter Dance, thanks to Moby who invited a group of friends to sit at his table near a huge suspended canoe (a Haida, I believe). The tables, the hall, the canoe, were all pretty impressive, or so I thought until after dinner, when we walked into the main hall to dance and drink under the 94-foot blue whale that originally captivated me as a child (I was particularly fascinated by the straight, orderly grooves on the underbelly of the fiberglass replica. Those were the kinds of things I noticed as a seven-year-old. I was always a bit of an odd one.)
9 years later, I find myself marveling the elephant seal, which is quite possibly the most ugly, and thereby (somehow) most beautiful item in the room. I loved it.



Of course, people weren't really there to ogle nifty elephant seal exhibits; people were there to be exhibits. The social glitterati abounded, and predictably, I didn't know who any of them were. It was only the multiple camera flashes that gave peoples identities away. It wasn't until I got caught in a light storm at one point that I realized I was dancing with jewelry designer/socialite Zani Gugelman, for example, who, by the way, looked amazing in a long white dress. (I should be a fashion writer, no? Long white dress? I've always been praised for my elaborate descriptions.)



So that goes to show my level of social sophistication.
The equation goes something like this:
Cameras+Pretty Girl=Someone I Should Know the Name of, or at least pretend to.
Should you find yourself in this position, I now recommend that you tip your hat in feigned familiarity ("Ages, darling! How on earth are you? I didn't know you'd returned from St. Moritz already. You look fantastic!"), smile, and make nice.

Viola!
You've just graduated from Alexis Stember's Finishing School.
Congratulations!
Now go out and be Fabulous!

(i didn't bring my camera so i've scoured the net, and mo's camera, for pictures. above is all i got.)

online love poetry slam

so over at crystal's office, they started a bitter haiku competition in honor of this lovely day. that inspired more poetry. now it's your turn. post your v-day related poem, picture, youtube clip of your last interpretive dance performance, below...

I saw your ex-wife
She asked if I knew your "move."
You're right, she IS fun!
(-amC)

I'm only with you
To get to your hot brother
He makes more money.
(-jolina)

Be my Valentine
Oh, that's right, you are a bitch
Shoot yourself instead
(-tom winner)

Friends with benefits?
Sure. You die and I'll collect
The life insurance.
(-chris)

Could you stop talking
About yourself for one sec
So I can dump you?
(-jolina)

Oh why, I ask, do
I want things I cant afford?
Like having you killed.
(-alexis)

He lies to her, and her to he,
He lies back down, and so does she.
(-megan)

after getting on one knee
and charming her with poetry;
after pouring her champagne
and offering her the perfect ring;
after laying bare his soul-
relinquishing complete control-
he kissed gently her mouth and thigh,
and she gave him her kind reply:
"gosh," she said.; he sat in wait.
"maybe first, a second date?"
(-alexis)

Saint valentines day
Is cold and brown from ice sleet
Seems fitting, somehow
(-moby)

And then he asked, "Why?"
And I said, "Because you gave
me Russell Stover."
(rosita)

Poetry.....bite me.
(jake)

happy valentines day!!!

http://www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/?mid=19213097

happy monday!

this morning, while waiting for my daily latte (soy. "like 900 calories," as sarah silverman pointed out), i noticed a sandwich for sale: peanut butter, banana, and honey on health bread.
the irony wasn't lost on me.

on the way from the coffee shop to work, i stopped to photograph another neighborhood gem: a fried chicken/bakery/health food restaurant, if, by restaurant, the definition is satisfied by the presence of tables and chairs.


in other news, the dixie chicks, whose music i am not particularly familiar with but whose infamous statements i am, happily swept the grammys, most notably for 'not ready to make nice'; barak obama, as i earlier mentioned, is running for president; and the weather here in new york is, if only temporarily, tropical compared to the last few weeks (or has it been days that felt like weeks?) of bitter cold we've been experiencing.
happy monday!

Where the Streets Had No Name, Now the Place To Be

On the edge of a neighborhood that was once farmland; where wealthy merchants built their homes; where Irish men escaped the potato famine; where Germans created Kleindeutschland; where Eastern European Jews sold pickles from pushcarts; and where Chinese letters now cover the red and blue awnings of noodle shops and bakeries, there is yet another sign of change: the small restaurant Les Enfants Terribles, which sits on the corner of Ludlow and Canal Streets on the Lower East Side of New York.

The restaurant, painted in shades of chocolate, latte, and taupe, gives the impression of a romantic past while simultaneously signaling a different future. Families in sweatshirts, workmans' jackets, and sensible shoes wander the pavement outside while people inside wear expensive jeans tucked into high-heeled boots. Long cylindrical lamps hang from the ceiling, casting a warm orange glow on the faces of twenty-somethings who drink Syrah with their tangine.

"Bill Gates and George Soros are trying to change the world," says a blond-haired, blue-eyed man in his late twenties who one can imagine was head of his high school's football team. His date, a quiet blonde, sips a Bloody Mary across from him. "Gates is trying to fix sick people. Soros is trying to make marijuana legal- which," he snickers, "is awesome- but Soros is trying to save the world by helping people find a cure for sickness. Gates is just trying to save the world. But trying to save sick people is a waste of time."

An elderly man passes the window and momentarily peaks in.

Les Enfants is not new- its doors opened in 2003- but it was one of the first places to indicate a wave of change in a neighborhood once considered no-mans-land. As the area north of Delancey Street rapidly gentrified, the area south of it remained somewhat forgotten, although 2003 also saw the opening of 88 Orchard, a café that sells prosciutto and mozzarella sandwiches across from Guss' Pickles, a neighborhood relic that has supplied the Lower East Side with full and half-sour pickles since 1920.

Seward Park Housing, a group of dwellings built for and by trade unions in the late 1950's, stands a few blocks from Les Enfants Terribles. It, too, has seen changes. "People who originally bought apartments here weren't allowed to sell them for more than they paid," Matt Zimmerman, a man in his early thirties who recently purchased a one-bedroom apartment in the complex, told me over his salmon burger.

"People couldn't make money from it so no one ever sold, but now they're getting older and dying off and people like me are coming in.... I can't wait until it's all like this," he added, glancing over at the spiky haired, crushed velvet wearing hipsters sitting next to him. With a new 60,000-square-foot, 150-room hotel planned for Canal Street at Orchard, and another planned for Grand Street this year, his hope may be nearer reality than he knows.

obama mama

Full Text of Senator Barack Obama's Announcement for President

(see the man announce it himself at http://www.barackobama.com. oh, if only he wasn't married....)

Springfield, IL | February 10, 2007

Let me begin by saying thanks to all you who've traveled, from far and wide, to brave the cold today.

We all made this journey for a reason. It's humbling, but in my heart I know you didn't come here just for me, you came here because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope. In the face of a politics that's shut you out, that's told you to settle, that's divided us for too long, you believe we can be one people, reaching for what's possible, building that more perfect union.

That's the journey we're on today. But let me tell you how I came to be here. As most of you know, I am not a native of this great state. I moved to Illinois over two decades ago. I was a young man then, just a year out of college; I knew no one in Chicago, was without money or family connections. But a group of churches had offered me a job as a community organizer for $13,000 a year. And I accepted the job, sight unseen, motivated then by a single, simple, powerful idea - that I might play a small part in building a better America.

My work took me to some of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods. I joined with pastors and lay-people to deal with communities that had been ravaged by plant closings. I saw that the problems people faced weren't simply local in nature - that the decision to close a steel mill was made by distant executives; that the lack of textbooks and computers in schools could be traced to the skewed priorities of politicians a thousand miles away; and that when a child turns to violence, there's a hole in his heart no government could ever fill.

It was in these neighborhoods that I received the best education I ever had, and where I learned the true meaning of my Christian faith.

After three years of this work, I went to law school, because I wanted to understand how the law should work for those in need. I became a civil rights lawyer, and taught constitutional law, and after a time, I came to understand that our cherished rights of liberty and equality depend on the active participation of an awakened electorate. It was with these ideas in mind that I arrived in this capital city as a state Senator.

It was here, in Springfield, where I saw all that is America converge - farmers and teachers, businessmen and laborers, all of them with a story to tell, all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard. I made lasting friendships here - friends that I see in the audience today.

It was here we learned to disagree without being disagreeable - that it's possible to compromise so long as you know those principles that can never be compromised; and that so long as we're willing to listen to each other, we can assume the best in people instead of the worst.

That's why we were able to reform a death penalty system that was broken. That's why we were able to give health insurance to children in need. That's why we made the tax system more fair and just for working families, and that's why we passed ethics reforms that the cynics said could never, ever be passed.

It was here, in Springfield, where North, South, East and West come together that I was reminded of the essential decency of the American people - where I came to believe that through this decency, we can build a more hopeful America.

And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States.

I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness - a certain audacity - to this announcement. I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.

The genius of our founders is that they designed a system of government that can be changed. And we should take heart, because we've changed this country before. In the face of tyranny, a band of patriots brought an Empire to its knees. In the face of secession, we unified a nation and set the captives free. In the face of Depression, we put people back to work and lifted millions out of poverty. We welcomed immigrants to our shores, we opened railroads to the west, we landed a man on the moon, and we heard a King's call to let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done. Today we are called once more - and it is time for our generation to answer that call.

For that is our unyielding faith - that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.

That's what Abraham Lincoln understood. He had his doubts. He had his defeats. He had his setbacks. But through his will and his words, he moved a nation and helped free a people. It is because of the millions who rallied to his cause that we are no longer divided, North and South, slave and free. It is because men and women of every race, from every walk of life, continued to march for freedom long after Lincoln was laid to rest, that today we have the chance to face the challenges of this millennium together, as one people - as Americans.

All of us know what those challenges are today - a war with no end, a dependence on oil that threatens our future, schools where too many children aren't learning, and families struggling paycheck to paycheck despite working as hard as they can. We know the challenges. We've heard them. We've talked about them for years.

What's stopped us from meeting these challenges is not the absence of sound policies and sensible plans. What's stopped us is the failure of leadership, the smallness of our politics - the ease with which we're distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our preference for scoring cheap political points instead of rolling up our sleeves and building a working consensus to tackle big problems.

For the last six years we've been told that our mounting debts don't matter, we've been told that the anxiety Americans feel about rising health care costs and stagnant wages are an illusion, we've been told that climate change is a hoax, and that tough talk and an ill-conceived war can replace diplomacy, and strategy, and foresight. And when all else fails, when Katrina happens, or the death toll in Iraq mounts, we've been told that our crises are somebody else's fault. We're distracted from our real failures, and told to blame the other party, or gay people, or immigrants.

And as people have looked away in disillusionment and frustration, we know what's filled the void. The cynics, and the lobbyists, and the special interests who've turned our government into a game only they can afford to play. They write the checks and you get stuck with the bills, they get the access while you get to write a letter, they think they own this government, but we're here today to take it back. The time for that politics is over. It's time to turn the page.

We've made some progress already. I was proud to help lead the fight in Congress that led to the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate.

But Washington has a long way to go. And it won't be easy. That's why we'll have to set priorities. We'll have to make hard choices. And although government will play a crucial role in bringing about the changes we need, more money and programs alone will not get us where we need to go. Each of us, in our own lives, will have to accept responsibility - for instilling an ethic of achievement in our children, for adapting to a more competitive economy, for strengthening our communities, and sharing some measure of sacrifice. So let us begin. Let us begin this hard work together. Let us transform this nation.

Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age. Let's set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed. Let's recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability. Let's make college more affordable, and let's invest in scientific research, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.

And as our economy changes, let's be the generation that ensures our nation's workers are sharing in our prosperity. Let's protect the hard-earned benefits their companies have promised. Let's make it possible for hardworking Americans to save for retirement. And let's allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this country's middle-class again.

Let's be the generation that ends poverty in America. Every single person willing to work should be able to get job training that leads to a job, and earn a living wage that can pay the bills, and afford child care so their kids have a safe place to go when they work. Let's do this.

Let's be the generation that finally tackles our health care crisis. We can control costs by focusing on prevention, by providing better treatment to the chronically ill, and using technology to cut the bureaucracy. Let's be the generation that says right here, right now, that we will have universal health care in America by the end of the next president's first term.

Let's be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil. We can harness homegrown, alternative fuels like ethanol and spur the production of more fuel-efficient cars. We can set up a system for capping greenhouse gases. We can turn this crisis of global warming into a moment of opportunity for innovation, and job creation, and an incentive for businesses that will serve as a model for the world. Let's be the generation that makes future generations proud of what we did here.

Most of all, let's be the generation that never forgets what happened on that September day and confront the terrorists with everything we've got. Politics doesn't have to divide us on this anymore - we can work together to keep our country safe. I've worked with Republican Senator Dick Lugar to pass a law that will secure and destroy some of the world's deadliest, unguarded weapons. We can work together to track terrorists down with a stronger military, we can tighten the net around their finances, and we can improve our intelligence capabilities. But let us also understand that ultimate victory against our enemies will come only by rebuilding our alliances and exporting those ideals that bring hope and opportunity to millions around the globe.

But all of this cannot come to pass until we bring an end to this war in Iraq. Most of you know I opposed this war from the start. I thought it was a tragic mistake. Today we grieve for the families who have lost loved ones, the hearts that have been broken, and the young lives that could have been. America, it's time to start bringing our troops home. It's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else's civil war. That's why I have a plan that will bring our combat troops home by March of 2008. Letting the Iraqis know that we will not be there forever is our last, best hope to pressure the Sunni and Shia to come to the table and find peace.

Finally, there is one other thing that is not too late to get right about this war - and that is the homecoming of the men and women - our veterans - who have sacrificed the most. Let us honor their valor by providing the care they need and rebuilding the military they love. Let us be the generation that begins this work.

I know there are those who don't believe we can do all these things. I understand the skepticism. After all, every four years, candidates from both parties make similar promises, and I expect this year will be no different. All of us running for president will travel around the country offering ten-point plans and making grand speeches; all of us will trumpet those qualities we believe make us uniquely qualified to lead the country. But too many times, after the election is over, and the confetti is swept away, all those promises fade from memory, and the lobbyists and the special interests move in, and people turn away, disappointed as before, left to struggle on their own.

That is why this campaign can't only be about me. It must be about us - it must be about what we can do together. This campaign must be the occasion, the vehicle, of your hopes, and your dreams. It will take your time, your energy, and your advice - to push us forward when we're doing right, and to let us know when we're not. This campaign has to be about reclaiming the meaning of citizenship, restoring our sense of common purpose, and realizing that few obstacles can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.

By ourselves, this change will not happen. Divided, we are bound to fail.

But the life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible.

He tells us that there is power in words.

He tells us that there is power in conviction.

That beneath all the differences of race and region, faith and station, we are one people.

He tells us that there is power in hope.

As Lincoln organized the forces arrayed against slavery, he was heard to say: "Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought to battle through."

That is our purpose here today.

That's why I'm in this race.

Not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation.

I want to win that next battle - for justice and opportunity.

I want to win that next battle - for better schools, and better jobs, and health care for all.

I want us to take up the unfinished business of perfecting our union, and building a better America.

And if you will join me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching before us; if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe past and future generations, then I'm ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with you. Together, starting today, let us finish the work that needs to be done, and usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth.

i would love to be matt right now...

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

to anyone who ever plans to fall in love.

this is one of the best things i've ever read in the nyt.

Questions Couples Should Ask (Or Wish They Had) Before Marrying

Relationship experts report that too many couples fail to ask each other critical questions before marrying. Here are a few key ones that couples should consider asking:

1) Have we discussed whether or not to have children, and if the answer is yes, who is going to be the primary care giver?

2) Do we have a clear idea of each other’s financial obligations and goals, and do our ideas about spending and saving mesh?

3) Have we discussed our expectations for how the household will be maintained, and are we in agreement on who will manage the chores?

4) Have we fully disclosed our health histories, both physical and mental?

5) Is my partner affectionate to the degree that I expect?

6) Can we comfortably and openly discuss our sexual needs, preferences and fears?

7) Will there be a television in the bedroom?

8) Do we truly listen to each other and fairly consider one another’s ideas and complaints?

9) Have we reached a clear understanding of each other’s spiritual beliefs and needs, and have we discussed when and how our children will be exposed to religious/moral education?

10) Do we like and respect each other’s friends?

11) Do we value and respect each other’s parents, and is either of us concerned about whether the parents will interfere with the relationship?

12) What does my family do that annoys you?

13) Are there some things that you and I are NOT prepared to give up in the marriage?

14) If one of us were to be offered a career opportunity in a location far from the other’s family, are we prepared to move?

15) Does each of us feel fully confident in the other’s commitment to the marriage and believe that the bond can survive whatever challenges we may face?

weighing in

Weighing In
by Alexis Stember

As the tents of New York's Bryant Park buzz this week with talk of the Council of Fashion Designers of America's new health initiative, which addresses "the overwhelming concern about whether some models are unhealthily thin" and makes suggestions on how to encourage a healthier aesthetic in the industry, many like myself wonder if this campaign to "raise awareness" carries any real weight: if it won't just disappear like so many fashions before it.

The health initiative, which boils down to six "recommendations," lacks the bite of the requirements currently being implemented in Milan and Madrid, where models must now meet the World Health Organization's lowest healthy body mass index of 18 (which equates to 125 pounds for a 5'9" woman) to be allowed to work on the runways. This discrepancy between recommendation and requirement is what has recently sparked contentious debate.

"The way they [the CFDA] are presenting their guidelines really shows they are not acknowledging the seriousness of the problem of eating disorders at all," Eric van Furth, president of the international Academy for Eating Disorders told the New York Times. Furth's point is further supported by the fact that, in the same breath they used to voice their commitment to health, the CFDA also said, "…we cannot fully assume responsibility for an issue that is as complex as eating disorders…" thereby abdicating themselves of any real accountability in the matter.

Models are far from the only ones starving themselves. According to the Renfrew Center Foundation, an organization involved in furthering research and treatment for eating disorders, eating disorders rank as the third most chronic illness afflicting adolescent girls, while Liz Berzins, in the 1997 APA co-sponsored Dying to be Thin Congressional Briefing, reported that young girls have indicated in surveys that they're more afraid of becoming fat than they are of cancer, of nuclear war, or of losing their parents. Where are girls this young learning these fears?

A group of Harvard Medical School researchers in 1999 studied a population of Fijian women who hadn't previously been exposed to Western media or beauty ideals. After altering the women's environment and studying the changes that took place as a result, the group summarized their findings in the headline of a May 17, 1999 News Release from the Harvard Medical School Office of Public Affairs: "Sharp Rise in Eating Disorders in Fiji Follows Arrival of TV: After Three Years of Western Programming, Five Times as Many Teenage Girls Report Vomiting to Control Weight."

"I don't think it's so much the fashion industry as it is the crossover from fashion to entertainment," Emily, a twenty-four year old clinical trial researcher attending an art exhibit called Dangerous Beauty, which investigated the relationship between beauty, violence, and unattainable ideals, said in response to the question of whether the fashion world was to blame for our cultures rampant obsession with weight. Emily added that people are more influenced by women on the red carpet than by women in the pages of magazines. What, then, were those women on the red carpet, women like 5'1", 88 pound Nicole Richie, influenced by, I asked. Fashion? "Yeah," she said.

Nearly everyone, and certainly every woman, in the public eye is under the constant pressure to be thin. Scrutiny cuts across vocational boundaries, with recent highly publicized examples being singer Britany Spears, pregnant actress Tori Spelling, and TV talk show host and model Tyra Banks, all of whom have been attacked for weight gain. The pinch to live up to an ever-shrinking ideal of beauty is being felt universally, thanks to a trickle down effect originating from the runways of our past.

The 1990's, with the rise of 5'6", 105 pound Kate Moss, sparked a wave of concern over a look (called 'heroin chic') that suggested, and many felt glamorized, eating disorders and drug abuse. At a time when curvaceous supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington dominated, Moss emerged as an anomaly. Over the past fifteen years, however, the exception has become the rule, with Moss's meager figure today looking nothing more than ordinary, if not slightly large.

The CDFA may not want to recognize the power of its influence when, as Al Gore would say, it's inconvenient, but it's an undeniable truth that what the industry creates, promotes, and sells shapes what our society subscribes to, along with our W, Vogue, and Elle. If the CFDA is truly serious about making changes in the industry and the world, they need to put their money, and not just a scant list of recommendations, where their mouth is.

As long as designers, editors, and agents continue to seek and hire models that are unhealthily thin, women everywhere will continue to starve. Models, our societal epitome of desirability, will starve because they need work, actresses will starve so they can fit in the designer dresses that make them look like models, which will bring attention and thus work, and the rest of us will starve, or at least be tempted to, to look like the actresses who want to look like the models because, when it comes to beauty, we know the ugly, Darwinian truth.

awesome!

i work with someone named Will Power.

that's all.

look everybody- curtains!

my moo (aka mom) leaves tomorrow.

it's been so nice having her.
and not just because she hung some stellar curtains.
you saw the before. now here is the after.
added bonus: the extra messy bed.

an inspired word from crystal

you know her well by now.

some beautiful words from a beautiful soul, mz. crystal ponzio.

___________________________________

Does anyone else find it strange that for all of the individualism that runs through the veins of modern American society and for all of the isolationism that runs through the sewers of American politics, that one of our most beloved holidays requires us to find a partner? It's really the dichotomy that pisses me off, not the fact that there will be no dinner for two and no diamond chatchke. Anyway, the purpose of this note is not to self loathe…I do have an abundance of love in my life. Thanks, in part, to you lovely people.

I grew up in El Paso. I learned to enjoy the taste and texture of dust and the noiselessness of the desert. It was nothing, if not experimental. If you expected life to take on a color other than brown, you had to get creative. I think it's the most beautiful place on earth now, of course, but always dreamt of greener pastures…whatever those were. It didn't take long to realize that even though this languid and listless place seemed only to exist for the truly uninspired, that it was a country club compared to the shanty life that was only a stone's throw away. For all of the discontent that it bred to grow up in El Paso, to be in a place with a nearly non-existent economy, no beach and no trees, a weekend drive to the mall would always remind you that you were in paradise. We grew up in a place where 'a hundred years' ago was always within eyeshot.

My parents did a good job of making sure that the people across the border in Juarez were not foreigners to us. We knew several by name. We visited them in their shacks. We looked them in the eyes. They were our friends. So when their daughters, granddaughters and sisters began to disappear, we felt terrorized on both sides of the border. Over 400 women have been brutally, brutally slain in the desert of Northern Mexico, and nearly a hundred (maybe more) remain missing since the early 1990's. Although the murders seemed to have peaked back when I was in high school, girls continue to disappear, and many of their perpetrators continue to reap the benefit of impunity in the form of indifference on the part of the Mexican government and blatant denial on the part of law enforcement. It donned on me that although this harvesting of women, which has never taken center stage in the human rights forum, has decreased over the years, serious damage has been done. The girls across the border learned that their government doesn't care about poor people and that the people meant to protect them were actually protecting their assailants. Sadly, the genocidal atrocities against the women of Juarez are so pervasive that a new term was needed to get the message across. Femicide. Juarez is the capital. The violence must stop and furthermore, measures need to be taken to repair an already ramshackled community from the trauma of the last decade and a half.

Since 1998, Valentine's Day has taken on a more meaningful role…VDay. Finally, a day has been set aside to recognize that women are among the most oppressed people group on Earth, and have been throughout history. This global movement seeks to bring violence against women to the forefront, and I seek to bear these horrible events, in some small way, as my burden. I also had the chance, last year, to work with some very enterprising people in Chicago who bankrolled a company called Vosges Chocolate. The company seeks to "change the world with chocolate" and serves up a very avant garde approach to the chocolate truffle. Among other outrageous truffle collections is The Aztec Collection, a portion of whose proceeds go towards VDay and ending the violence against the women of Juarez. For the fashion forward, my friend Lia, of Malia Designs works with microenterprises in developing countries and distributes original handbags in an effort to raise awareness on human trafficking and issues surrounding violence against women. More needs to be done, on my part, to open the lines of communication on this issue, but for now, we can all help alleviate the events a world away, one chocolate and clutch purse at a time. So, for those of you who must participate in the piñata of all capitalistic piñatas, known as Valentine's Day, do it with a conscience. Remember the voiceless women and girls who have been abandoned by those who do have a voice.

And…for the truly indulgent….I've included several links below, meant to refine your palette, increase your purse collection, grow your brains and (hopefully) your hearts. I looooove you all. Happy Valentine's Day. I accept any and all gifts (in the form of champagne)…but please hold the marriage proposals…I can't handle any marriage proposals at the moment. love love love love love love love. There. I said it!

www.amnestyusa.org/women/juarez

www.vday.org

www.casa-amiga.org

www.mujeresdejuarez.org

www.maliadesigns.com

www.vosgeschocolate.com

Cosecha de Mujeres is exhaustive coverage of the situation in Juarez, written by the world's foremost journalist on the subject. A sobering read…and I think it's available in English now.

http://www.ebookmall.com/ebooks-authors/diana-washington-valdez-ebooks.htm

nyt summary of ipcc report

February 2, 2007

Climate Panel Issues Urgent Warning

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL and ANDREW C. REVKIN

PARIS, Feb. 2 —The world is already committed to centuries of warming, shifting weather patterns and rising seas from the atmospheric buildup of gases that trap heat, but the warming can be substantially blunted by prompt action, an international network of climate experts said today.

The report released here represented the fourth assessment since 1990 by the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations, of the causes and consequences of climate change. But for the first time the group asserted with near certainty — more than 90 percent confidence — that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases from human activities were the main drivers of warming since 1950.

In its last report, in 2001, the panel, consisting of hundreds of scientists and reviewers, put the confidence level at between 66 and 90 percent. Both reports are online at www.ipcc.ch.

If carbon dioxide concentrations reach twice their pre-industrial levels, the report said, the climate will likely warm some 3.5 to 8 degrees. But there would be more than a one in 10 chance of much greater warming, a situation many earth scientists say poses an unacceptable risk.

Many energy and environment experts see such a doubling as a foregone conclusion sometime after midcentury unless there is a prompt and sustained shift away from the 20th-century pattern of unfettered burning of coal and oil, the main sources of carbon dioxide, and an aggressive quest for expanded and improved nonpolluting energy options.

Even an increased level of warming that falls in the middle of the group's range of projections would likely cause significant stress to ecosystems and alter longstanding climate patterns that shape water supplies and agricultural production, according to many climate experts and biologists.

While the new report projected a modest rise in seas by 2100 — between 7 and 23 inches — it also concluded that seas would continue to rise, and crowded coasts retreat, for at least 1,000 years to come. By comparison, seas rose about 6 to 9 inches in the 20th century.

John P. Holdren, an energy and climate expert at Harvard University, said that the "report powerfully underscores the need for a massive effort to slow the pace of global climatic disruption before intolerable consequences become inevitable."

"Since 2001 there has been a torrent of new scientific evidence on the magnitude, human origins and growing impacts of the climatic changes that are underway," said Mr. Holdren, who is the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "In overwhelming proportions, this evidence has been in the direction of showing faster change, more danger and greater confidence about the dominant role of fossil fuel burning and tropical deforestation in causing the changes that are being observed."

The conclusions came after a three-year review of hundreds of studies of clues illuminating past climate shifts, observations of retreating ice, warming and rising seas, and other shifts around the planet, and a greatly expanded suite of supercomputer simulations used to test how earth will respond to a building blanket of gases that hold heat in the atmosphere.

The section released today was a 20-page summary for policymakers, which was approved early this morning by teams of officials from more than 100 countries after three days and nights of wrangling over wording with the lead authors, all of whom are scientists.

It described far-flung ramifications for both humans and nature.

"It is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent," said the summary.

Generally, the scientists said, more precipitation will fall at higher latitudes, which are likely also to see lengthened growing seasons, while semi-arid, subtropical regions already chronically beset by drought could see a further 20-percent drop in rainfall under the midrange scenario for increases in the greenhouse gases.

The summary added a new chemical consequence of the buildup of carbon dioxide to the list of mainly climatic and biological impacts foreseen in its previous reports: a drop in the pH of seawater as oceans absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide, which forms carbonic acid when partly dissolved. Marine biologists have said that could imperil some kinds of corals and plankton.

The report essentially caps a half-century-long effort to discern whether humans, through the buildup of carbon dioxide and other gases released mainly by burning fuels and forests, could influence the earth's climate system in potentially momentous ways.

The group operates under the aegis of the United Nations and was chartered in 1988 — a year of record heat, burning forests, and the first big headlines about global warming — to provide regular reviews of climate science to governments to inform policy choices.

Government officials are involved in shaping the summary of each report, but the scientist-authors, who are unpaid, have the final say over the thousands of pages in four underlying technical reports that will be completed and published later this year.

Big questions remain about the speed and extent of some impending changes, both because of uncertainty about future population and pollution trends and the complex interrelationships of the greenhouse emissions, clouds, dusty kinds of pollution, the oceans and earth's veneer of life, which both emits and soaks up carbon dioxide and other such gases.

But a broad array of scientists, including authors of the report and independent experts, said the latest analysis was the most sobering view yet of a century in thousands of years of relatively stable climate conditions will suddenly be replaced by a new normal of continual change.

Should greenhouse gases continue to build in the atmosphere at even a moderate pace, temperatures by the end of the century could match those last seen 125,000 years ago, in the previous warm spell between ice ages, the report said.

At that time, the panel said, sea levels were 12 to 20 feet higher than they are now due to the melting of great amounts of ice now stored, but eroding,on Greenland and in parts of Antarctica.

The panel said there was no solid scientific understanding of how rapidly the vast stores of ice in polar regions will begin to erode, so their estimates on new sea levels were based mainly on how much the warmed oceans will expand, and not on contributions from melting of ice on land.

Other scientists have recently reported evidence that the glaciers and ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic could flow seaward far more quickly than estimated in the past and have proposed risks to coasts could be much more imminent. But the I.P.C.C. is proscribed by its charter from entering into speculation and so could not include such possible instabilities in its assessment.

Michel Jarraud, the secretary general of the United Nations World Meteorological Organization, said the lack of clarity should offer no one comfort. "The speed with which melting ice sheets are raising sea levels is uncertain, but the report makes clear that sea levels will rise inexorably over the coming centuries," he said. "It is a question of when and how much, and not if," he said, adding: "While the conclusions are disturbing, decision makers are now armed with the latest facts and will be better able to respond to these realities."

Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, which oversees the I.P.C.C. along with the meteorological group, said society now had plenty of information on which to act.

"The implications of global warming over the coming decades for our industrial economy, water supplies, agriculture, biological diversity and even geopolitics are massive," he said. "This new report should spur policymakers to get off the fence and put strong and effective policies in place to tackle greenhouse gas emissions."

The warming and other climate shifts will be highly variable around the world, with the Arctic particularly seeing much higher temperatures, said Susan Solomon, the co-leader of the team writing the summary and the section of the I.P.C.C. report on basic science. She is an atmospheric scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The kinds of vulnerabilities are very much dependent on where you are, Dr. Solomon said in a telephone interview. "If you're living in parts of tropics and they're getting drier and you're a farmer there are some very acute issues associated with even small changes in rainfall — changes we're already seeing are significant," she said. "If you are an Inuit and you're seeing your sea ice retreating already that's affecting your lifestyle and culture."

The 20-page summary is a sketch of the findings that are most germane to the public and world leaders.

The full I.P.C.C. report, thousands of pages of technical background, will be released in four sections through the year — the first on basic science, then sections on impacts and options for limiting emissions and limiting inevitable harms, and finally a synthesis of all of the findings near year's end.

In a news conference in Paris, Dr. Solomon declined to provide her own views on how society should respond to the momentous changes projected in the study.

"I honestly believe that it would be a much better service for me to keep my personal opinions separate than what I can actually offer the world as a scientist," she said. "My stepson, who is 29, has an utterly different view of risks than I do. People are going to have to make their own judgments."

Elisabeth Rosenthal reported from Paris, and Andrew C. Revkin from New York.

a couple random chew toys

So while out the other night, I noticed a free magazine being offered at the far end of the bar. Attracted at first by the sheer blondness of the cover, I was drawn in further by the inexplicable unattractiveness of the girl who, if you just glanced at her, had all the typical characteristics of a 'hot' girl but who, on further inspection, looked a bit more like a Mr. Potatohead who got her pieces on wrong.

Then I scanned further down the page to read the text in the attention grabbing banner someone in an office probably spent an hour arguing with top brass over. "No, this is great, see? It's bite-sized! It's summarized! It says everything we are and ever will be! Fashion, Gossip, Nightlife, Sex, Games, Film, Comedy, and-"
Skiing?
Really?

In other news, congratulations to Ms. Nicole Dean, who named and helped develop the sexy Estella bag in the Fall '07 Elliott Luca Collection, which was just featured on the cover of WWD. Yea, Nicole!



ps- i'm not much of an absentee blogger, am i.
no, that wasn't a question.