Help Support Fosco Lives!

Now Fosco has something to ask you, the dedicated Fosco Lives! reader: the next time you buy books from Amazon.com, would you consider doing so by clicking through the ad banner at the top right? If you do so, your beloved Count Fosco will automatically receive a small percentage from your purchase.

It's easy: just click on the ad to go to the normal Amazon homepage. Any books you buy during that visit will generate a percentage to help support Fosco Lives!.

It's completely anonymous--I won't find out who you are and I won't know what you order (so you can order porn if you like--as if I would judge you negatively for buying porn!).

If you are not an Amazon shopper, that's fine--don't worry about it; but I do know that many Fosco Lives! readers order from Amazon. So, the next time you were planning on buying a book from Amazon anyway, do it through this link and everyone will be much happier! Especially me.

Sorry, David Archuleta...

Today's "Music Monday" is all about blog memes. You've been warned.

The outrageously fashionable Jill of Stella's Roar has tagged yours truly with the "Top Five Albums" meme--you know, that thing where you get to choose only five CDs to last you the rest of your life... Eek. As Jill says, that is indeed a "dismal limitation." But nonetheless, it is a useful exercise in mental hygiene and willpower. I'm going to set one more limitation on myself for this list: these are my top five non-classical albums. Having to mix in classical music would just mess the whole thing up too much.

And so, in no particular order:

1. Explosions in the Sky: The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place. I was introduced to this Texas-based "post-rock" band by a friend I met during my Second Life phase. I don't play that game anymore (I am concentrating again on my first life), but this CD is still one of the best things ever. I saw them in concert in Santa Cruz last summer with Oz and it was an amazing experience.

I can accept (intellectually) that these guys aren't for all tastes. And maybe it's my experience with classical music that allows me to enjoy ten minute instrumental songs. But I just don't see how you can resist the chiming guitars and hell-for-leather drumming--this is seriously emotional music.

You can listen to my favorite track "Your Hand In Mine" below. When Oz and I saw them live, I actually got to hear "Your Hand In Mine" with Oz's hand in mine. I'll admit I cried a bit.



I could listen to this song everyday. And for a long time, I did.

2. Sufjan Stevens: Illinoise. My total music crush on Sufjan Stevens is no secret. This is the second disc in his (probably nonserious) attempt to write an album for each of the 50 states. While his Michigan album was really good, this disc is absolutely exceptional. The amazing thing about these songs is that they balance at the intersection of grand historical time (events in Illinois history like the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition) and completely personal detail (a trip to Decatur with his disliked step-mother). They are simultaneously personal and historical. And the instrumentation is brilliantly experimental.

Here is my favorite song from the album, "Casimir Pulaski Day," about the cancer death of teen girlfriend. This is a live performance--and isn't he quite handsome?



The most amazing lyric in this song:

Tuesday night at the Bible study
We lift our hands and pray over your body
But nothing ever happens

If I could write a line like this, I would retire. I probably wouldn't get any money for it, but I would still retire.

3. Jimmy Eat World: Bleed American/Self-titled. The original title of this disc was "Bleed American," released in July 2001. After 9/11, the title was changed to prevent misunderstandings. Fosco saw them tour with this album in Washington DC on September 8, 2001, so he still calls it "Bleed American."

I love most of the Jimmy Eat World oeuvre, but this is my favorite disc. There isn't a bad song on it (although some are better than others). The first five songs on the disc make an excellent five song set. "The Middle" was the well-known single from this album and, while it's a good song, it's not the best. I vacillate as to which song I like best: "A Praise Chorus" or "If You Don't, Don't." "A Praise Chorus" is a great anthem for a romantic in his late twenties. "If You Don't, Don't" is a much more ambivalent song, despite the driving beat.



I'm pretty fond of the grammatical hesitation in song's title, as well as the almost Raymond Carver-esque plea: "Would you mean this, please, if it happens?" And the slight break in his voice on "please" kills me every time. The song always reminds me of the many cool summer nights in Virginia that I spent driving around in my car, listening to this song and trying to make sense of a very confusing romantic relationship.

4. My Chemical Romance: The Black Parade. And now we've fallen deep into the emo abyss. I may be slightly embarrassed by it, but I can't live without this album.

What do I love about it? I love that the theatricality of it all--as if MCR decided to channel Freddy Mercury and Queen for both the vocals and guitar solos. I love the brazen defiance: "I'm not ashamed / I'm gonna show my scars." I love that each song (with one inexplicable exception) is focused so clearly on the theme of death and loss. And, for someone as depressive as Fosco, the concluding optimism is surprisingly powerful: "I am not afraid to go on living / I am not afraid to walk this world alone." Oh yeah, and I really love those black drum major uniforms--I want to belong to that marching band!

Here is the video for "Famous Last Words," my favorite song on the disc. I love the costumes and the makeup, but the video itself is a bit uninspired. Oh well.



5. The Pixies: Doolittle. This fifth slot gave me some trouble and I think if you ask me next week, I might be willing to swap in Radiohead, Springsteen, or Coldplay here. But the Pixies are indisputably deserving. They're also the band on this Top Five list that I've liked longest (since I stumbled across this album in 1990 or so).

The Pixies are one of the seminal alternative bands, and this is one of the most important alternative albums (which essentially means that the Pixies were huge in college rock before college rock became alternative). There is not one bad song on this album. Not one. And there are probably five clearly classic songs on this album. Five.

Did you know that the original working title for this album was "Whore"? Love it.

"Here Comes Your Man" may be their poppiest song, but it's still soooo good:



N.B., you can download this entire album to play on Rock Band and it's worth doing, even just to feel like you are a member of this band. In another life, I'm Black Francis.


That's it. That's the list. Thanks Jill, this was fun. You know whose musical taste I'm curious about right now? kungfuramone, consider yourself tagged.

UPDATE: KFR has already responded. And his list is just as enlightening as I'd hoped. Good work.

25 Things About Fosco (Sort Of)

February is the month that the NY Times discovered the "Twenty-Five Things About You" meme that whipped through Facebook during late January. You know, it's that thing where you are tagged by a friend/acquaintance/coworker to post 25 random things about yourself--your choice. Several of Fosco's blogopals, like Jill and Ted, have even relocated this task from Facebook to their blogs.

In one recent piece in the Times, they discuss the ways in which the list can be used (like everything else on Facebook) in the service of self-presentation. So, in the spirit of that Times piece, Fosco offers you his own 25 list today. Note: the Times's recommendations for each number are in brackets and italics. Fosco's actual answers follow the recommendations.

1. [Say that you hate things like this, and are doing it only to get the (oh, so many) friends clamoring for your list off your back.]
   I'm actually not a fan of this kind of thing, but people keep asking me. (Although, the very fact that I blog at all should suggest that I actually don't mind this kind of thing too much.)
   
2. [Describe “embarrassing” high school incident that makes you look cool.]
   I was the valedictorian of my high school, which was pretty embarrassing at the time because our school did not strongly value academics.
   
3. [Confess to crush on a) third-grade teacher b) obscure indie actor or actress c) your significant other, especially if he or she is on Facebook.]
   My third grade teacher was a giant lesbian, so I didn't have a crush on her. I do, however, have a (not exactly sexual) crush on Alan Tudyk.
   
4. [Identify real, but minor, flaw.]
   I noticed last week that, in profile, I have Lincoln's nose.
   
5. [Identify major flaw by suggesting how it may also be major virtue.]
   I have absolutely no control over my book-buying habit. It's a terribly expensive habit for someone with a grad student's income. However, it is very nice to own a large library--especially when much of it is useful for your work.
   
6. [Cite mean nickname you were given as a child.]
   As a tween, I was occasionally called "Spanky."
   
7. [Follow with offhand mention of receipt of high professional honor or athletic or artistic achievement.]
   After graduating from Harvard, I received a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship to study psychology.
   
8. [Describe meeting a celebrity and how it a) disillusioned or b) thrilled you or c) if it’s a really good celebrity just the name will do.]
   I've met Bruce Springsteen and it was a little thrilling.
   
9. [Mention small adversity, like long commute or annoying neighbor, and the unexpected, preferably funny, way you overcome it.]
   I would really love to own a pug dog, but almost all Santa Cruz leases don't allow dogs. So instead, I have bought a Pug-A-Day Calendar the last three years. And every day, I name the pug(s) of the day.
   
10. [Cite an actual random thing that comes to mind while writing this list.]
    John Cameron Mitchell saw my penis once.
    
11. [“Admit” that you always identified with weird ancillary character on popular TV show in 7th grade, as if you didn’t know that everyone in retrospect agrees that was the best character.]
    It doesn't quite fit, but in seventh grade I thought I was Alex P. Keaton of "Family Ties."
    
12. [Expose something genuine and poignant about yourself, such as untimely death of close relative or rare genetic condition.] I have a genetic non-Parkinsonian tremor, which will probably slowly get worse over the rest of my life. Most of the time, people just think I'm very nervous.
    
13. [Express heartfelt thanks to friends or family for helping you through #12, or just for being there, or whatever.]
    My boyfriend Oz has been extremely understanding and supportive about my tremor (and it's potential for future degeneration).
    
14. [Conclude sentimental portion of list by citing the scene in movie X that always makes you cry. Could also be a lyric, or a memory, so long as it involves crying.]
    I always cry during the prom scene in Buffy Season 3.
    
15. [Something about drugs.]
    I think cocaine is much more interesting and useful than marijuana. I'm not really into drugs, but if I were, it would be coke all the way.
    
16. [Tell a story of how you stood up to authority. Dwelling on descriptive details can help it not seem like you are making yourself out to be a hero even though you are.]
    When I was an announcer for a classical music station, I once chose to play a piece that contained the full text of Allen Ginsberg's Howl as the libretto, insisting that the station's obscenity policy could not apply to art. I was wrong. All of the announcers had to take obscenity training because of me. They weren't thrilled.
    
17. [Recount a dramatic moment, like having your heart broken or getting arrested, but withhold details, forcing readers to ask for them in your "comments" section. In case you didn’t know, comments equate to status on Facebook even more than number of friends.]
    I once failed a field sobriety test when I was completely sober.
    
18. [Make one up.]
    I've appeared on "Card Sharks."
    
19. [Say “one of these is completely made up.”]
    One of these is completely made up.
    
20. [If you have kids, a) cite weird names you wanted for them and how your more rational, if less creative, spouse rescued them from a lifetime of torture,]
    I don't have kids, nor do I want kids. But if I accidentally ended up with three kids, I would probably name them Foucault (boy), Derrida (girl), and Dickens (either). Luckily, Oz wouldn't let these names happen (because he hates creative names).
    
21. [and/or b) relate story that appears to expose your inept parenting while in fact highlighting their precocious brilliance. If you don’t have kids, relate a cute anecdote from your early life to show everyone that you’re still a kid at heart.]
    When I was six, I was in an art class at the local nature center. I made a model that I called the "Hall of Justice." The teacher was so impressed with my precocity until the mother of one of my friends/rivals explained to her that the "Hall of Justice" was the headquarters of the Super Friends.
    
22. [If you have a pet, you have one item only through which to convey its superlative nature. If you don’t have a pet, talk about how much you yearn for an obscure breed of cat/dog/reptile or, alternatively, how much you hate animals and the people who love them.]
    Oz and I have a cat named Isis who loves to play "fetch" with her catnip-stuffed fish (named "Tina Tuna").
    
23. [Something about parents.]
    My mother is a distant relative of Abraham Lincoln. My father is a distant relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
    
24. [Name skill that you are proud of by recounting unexpected way you acquired it.]
    I learned to smoke a pipe while I was (briefly, in college) a member of a shadowy conservative organization. College was a very confusing and awkward time for me.
    
25. [Close with the unusual: a) recount a genuinely traumatic event you witnessed or b) name an exotic location that is your favorite place on earth or c) cite a dubious world record that you performed.]
    I love Reykjavik, Iceland and have been there twice. It's one of my favorite cities in the world.
    

"Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious."

As Fosco has mentioned previously, Fosco Lives! gets a lot of traffic from the "playboy pubic shave"-loving perverts in Korea. But yesterday, he saw something in his Korea traffic he's never seen before:

That would be the "word" which follows the IP address. This is the place that, in Fosco's other traffic reports, the name of the Internet Service Provider (e.g., "comcast") appears. Apparently, that "word" is the name of an ISP.

Fosco's curiosity was piqued, so he had to do a Google search. Here's the result:

This isn't very illuminating. However, my favorite part is the "did you mean" recommendation here.

Any Fosco Lives! reader who can explain this "word" to Fosco (or who can pronounce it) will win a Fosco Lives! prize!

500

This post marks the five hundredth here at Fosco Lives! It feels like just two months ago, Fosco was celebrating his 300th post. Oh wait. Wow, Fosco's been on a hell of a blogging jag recently.

Just as Fosco did for his three hundredth post, he would like to call attention to some notable five hundreds:

• The Fortune 500 is an annual listing of the top 500 US companies. Will they be able to find five hundred this year?
  
• 500 is apparently a card game similar to Euchre. That's all Fosco know about it, except that Todd is probably good at it because he's a wicked skilled Euchre player.
  
• The year 500 BCE is one possible date for the Battle of Mons Badonicus, which sounds filthy but isn't.
  
• Pat Sajak's wardrobe is provided by Botany 500.
  
• The Indianapolis 500 now allows lady drivers.
  
• Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) will turn five hundred next month! Happy Birthday, Mr. Senator.
  
  

Thanks again for your continued support, Fosconians.

Fosco Lives! News

Some titbits of news that relate to this blog...

First, Fosco wants to announce the winners of his Grammar Challenge. In a recent post on split verbs, Fosco intentionally buried six split verbs in the post. Two regular readers attempted some portion of the extra credit: The BeeMaster and Fosco's boyfriend Ozias "Oz" Midwinter. The BeeMaster sent his guesses via email; Oz posted his in the Comments. Oz got all six correct:

• "to slightly spoil"
  
• "would otherwise be played"
  
• "to subtly draw"
  
• "to strictly adhere"
  
• "to adequately express"
  
• "will happily split"

The BeeMaster correctly identified four of these, but also did the "Extra Extra Credit" assignment: to find a split verb in another Fosco Lives! post. He identified this one: "Unfortunately, workers are removing the stickers as we speak. However, maybe this will spur the city government to permanently change the street name. Wouldn't that be cool?"

What do The BeeMaster and Oz win? Well, for one thing, they get their pictures displayed as "Grammar Superstars" (over there, on the right). I'm not sure what else they win. Well, Oz wins a kiss. I guess The BeeMaster can have one too, but I don't think he'll take me up on it...

Second, Fosco is pleased to report that last week Fosco Lives! received its first two visitors from China. On the same day, the site received a visit from an IP address in Beijing and one from Shanghai. This is very pleasing to Fosco; usually, he gets most of his Asian traffic from South Korea (apparently, the search "playboy shave pubic" is popular in Korea--and that search inevitably leads here. Sorry, you pervy Koreans... I don't think Fosco Lives! is quite what you're looking for.).

Hey, I bet I could make it so that Fosco Lives! never gets another visit from China:

Tibet. Human rights. Tiananmen Square Massacre.

There, that should be enough to get Fosco Lives! blocked. Wait, why would I do that?

Third, you may have missed the news (as it was buried in a post on torture, and not even Fosco's boyfriend reads his posts on torture) that Fosco Lives! will be cutting down on politics for a bit. Which is not to say that I won't run the occasional funny picture... But for a bit, Fosco doesn't feel like getting too earnest about politics.

Fourth, Fosco has some exciting new features planned for the blog. You saw "Saturday Story Hour" yesterday. Stay tuned this week for several new weekday features.

And, as always, thanks for reading.

Pictures of 2008: Society Wedding

Fosco recently realized that, by only blogging for three months last year, he never got to share tons of pictures with you from the rest of the year. So, for the next week or so, Fosco will offer a series of brief posts with some of his favorite pictures from his adventures in 2008. Check out the whole series here.

Last June, Fosco and Oz flew to Washington DC for the wedding of Fosco's college roommate Derek Ho to the lovely and talented Maria Glover (read the New York Times wedding announcement here). This was the nicest wedding Fosco has ever seen (black tie for the guests!) and it was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with most of his college roommates (except this no-show).

The reception was at the exquisite National Museum of Women in the Arts. Here are two photos from the reception:


Swanky!

The best part of the wedding (besides Derek and Maria's beautiful love, of course) was before the ceremony when Fosco and Oz were sitting in the pew at the church and Fosco turned around to find that Supreme Court Justice David Souter (one of the good Justices, btw) had been seated immediately behind him. For most of the rest of the ceremony, Fosco and his former roommate Dr. Steve scammed to get good candid pix of Souter without being too overt about it. Sadly, Fosco's best attempt is really too blurry; however, it's also the best he's got. And so he includes it here.

That's Souter in the foreground, being charmed by the Mother-of-the-Groom. On the right is the gorgeous Dr. Gloria, wife of Dr. Steve. Do you now see how Fosco got this shot? He was pretending to be taking a picture of Steve and Gloria. Pathetic, I know. A college rooming group with more cojones would have just asked Souter if he would be willing to pose with all of them; but then again, Fosco and his college roommates were always a bunch of eunuchs.

Fosco's Alternate Blog Title

As mentioned in a recent comment, Fosco's friend The Queen BeeMistress prefers to parse the URL of this blog (www.foscolives.com) as "Fosc Olives." (For clarity, it is important to note that Fosc is not an actual cultivar or brand of olives and consequently, Fosco has incurred no unintended legal liability.) Well, the Queen and her BeeMaster apparently had a little time on their hands and they worked up this lovely gift:

This is great fun, of course, and much appreciated; however, there are a few thoughts that occur to Fosco when he looks at this label:

• just to be perfectly clear, there is nothing "Extra Virgin" about Fosco. Dude, Fosco is like a male Lindsay Lohan! Or like a male David Duchovny! On the other hand, Fosco can be accurately described as "Crushed."
  
• is there really such a thing as flavored olive oil? Apparently. Maybe Fosco should shop somewhere nicer than Save Mart. Or, more accurately, maybe Fosco should shop.
  
• why is the sexy olive so much larger than the mandarin orange? Clearly, she is not normal olive-size, but gargantuan. And why does she have a pimiento? They don't put pimientos in olive oil, right?
  
• and then there's the whole question of "sexy" food in the first place. Why is it a good idea to portray food not just as an object of sexual desire, but as a subject who can recognize and encourage that desire? I'm thinking here also of the sexy green M&M who creeps me out (even beyond the fact that Fosco tends to prefer male candies).
  
  Fosco has always questioned whether food advertisers should anthropomorphize their products because, when you think about it, it raises some uncomfortable issues of cannibalism. And then to go one step farther by making food products communicate sexual desire for us? Maybe Fosco is a bit squeamish, but he doesn't really want to attribute thoughts, feelings, and desires to his food. Food isn't really food anymore when it communicates. What's next? A hamburger that tells you the names of its children? A soda that cries over the death of its pet? A Hot Pocket that tells you he "likes it rough"? Eek.

See, BeeMaster and Mistress, this is why no one gives presents to Fosco anymore.

What are you doing New Year's, New Year's Eve?

The Year was Old that day. That patient Year had lived through the reproaches and misuses of its slanderers, and faithfully performed its work. Spring, summer, autumn, winter. It had laboured through the destined round, and now laid down its weary head to die. Shut out from hope, high impulse, active happiness, itself, but messenger of many joys to others, it made appeal in its decline to have its toiling days and patient hours remembered, and to die in peace.
Charles Dickens, "The Chimes"

The recent reader of Fosco Lives! can be forgiven for thinking that Fosco is leading a jetset life (and we all know that kind of life is gonna kill you). However, the answer to Ella's question that titles this post is unfortunately not that exciting.

For Fosco at his current age, New Year's Eve is a lot like Halloween: it seems like it ought to be a lot of fun, but no exciting plans ever materialize. Just as Fosco never gets invited to crazy Halloween costume parties, he also never gets invited to any jazz and champagne galas in luxury penthouse suites. In fact, most of Fosco's recent NYE's have been disappointing or completely pathetic. Even when Fosco seems to be enjoying a First Night, bad things end up happening.

Case in point: last year when Fosco was visiting Snow Town, he went to a lovely party at the lair of the BeeMaster and BeeMistress. There was much jollity and not a small amount of Rock Band. How could that go wrong? Well, it turns out that several of Fosco's (now former) friends decided to make a complete fool out of him in front of most of the rest of the partygoers (which Fosco did not realize until he was told several days later). Fosco doesn't forgive that kind of thing (file under: people I no longer talk to), which means he's glad to be staying in the Bay Area this New Year's Eve. However, there is still the problem of plans for the last night of 2008.

At this point, it looks like Fosco and Oz will be spending the evening... playing Rock Band 2. For one thing, there is the vexed matter of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" to deal with (N.B., it is impossible to play). Plus, both Fosco and Oz have purchased some rockin' clothes for their avatars that have not yet been worn. So there will probably be some costume changes and definitely some hair-dyeing. And, come to think of it, there is a Jimmy Eat World song that we still haven't played. And we'll probably pet our kitty, Isis, some of the time. Maybe we'll get takeout from Chipotle.

This all will be fun, of course. And Fosco is very excited to spend his first NYE with Oz. But at the same time, there is part of Fosco that would like to do something unusual to celebrate the beginning of 2009. Like go for a zeppelin ride! Or dance naked at a bowling alley! Or smoke meth and go swimming in SF Bay!

My Doppelgangers

Fosco saw this on KFR. Point: you type in your first and last names and it tells you how many people share your name.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 316 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Fosco (well, actually, the real human being behind the Fosco avatar) is a little surprised, as he's always thought his name is pretty common. At least it seems common. Did you know that this is fewer than the number of people in the US who have the surname "Crotch"? Seriously (337 vs. 316).

Also, did you know that there are 47 people in the US named "John Jesus"? And there are two people named "Linda Taco"? Yes!

Actually, if you want to talk about uniqueness, there is exactly one person in the US with the same name as Fosco's boyfriend Oz. Congrats, Oz!

New York Serenade

By the time you read this, Fosco and Oz will be in New York City (weather permitting... sigh). You may remember that, in his post on Oz's birthday, Fosco alluded to a "more elaborate" celebration to come. Well, this is it: a pre-Christmas weekend in NYC. Plans include sightseeing, art, and lots and lots of good food.

But do not fear, dear readers: Fosco has a number of dispatches ready to auto-post over the weekend.

Check back early next week for lots of pictures.

Your Day Without Gay Fosco

Although he earlier poo-pooed the idea, Fosco is calling in gay to Fosco Lives! tomorrow. In fact, Fosco is swearing off the entire web for the day. Alas, he would love to avoid email as well, but he has a responsibility to his students...

Why the change of heart? Fosco read this excellent post, which included some convincing options for people (like Fosco) who can't skip work tomorrow but who want to make an impact nonetheless. The idea here is to efface one's presence economically:

Here are 5 ways you can make an impact tomorrow:
1. Volunteer your time and services after work
2. Do not buy anything
3. Do not watch TV or use your cell phone
4. Do not go online (yup, don’t even visit this site tomorrow)… Online advertising is everywhere and a simple page load could cause money to be spent.
5. Do not buy lunch (and don’t go out today to get what you need for lunch tomorrow), find something you already have and pack your lunch.

Fosco is going to try all of these (with an exception for his work-related email). In other words, Fosco is going to become as invisible as possible for the day. And he sure as hell won't be shopping at Urban Outfitters (but I guess that kinda goes without saying).

So what are you to do without new content on Fosco Lives! for a whole day? Well, without Fosco here to hector you about Prop H8, how will you keep up to date? Never fear: here's some Prop H8-related reading to do in your free time on Wednesday:

• The must-read article of the week is Newsweek's cover story on the relationship between religion and gay marriage. Guess what: religious fundamentalists may be misreading the bible (no! yes!). How so?
  

  The argument goes something like this statement, which the Rev. Richard A. Hunter, a United Methodist minister, gave to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in June: "The Bible and Jesus define marriage as between one man and one woman. The church cannot condone or bless same-sex marriages because this stands in opposition to Scripture and our tradition."
  
  To which there are two obvious responses: First, while the Bible and Jesus say many important things about love and family, neither explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman. And second, as the examples above illustrate, no sensible modern person wants marriage—theirs or anyone else's —to look in its particulars anything like what the Bible describes.

  In fact, Lisa Miller (the author) concludes that
  

  Scripture gives us no good reason why gays and lesbians should not be (civilly and religiously) married—and a number of excellent reasons why they should.

  Good, good stuff.
  
  
• A great article in the NYTimes about the new gay activism (a very heartening piece, actually). Apparently, gay youth are taking Prop H8 as a wakeup call to abandon the timid rhetoric of traditional gay rights organizations in favor of a more confrontational approach. This seems like a reasonable conclusion. The appeasement/assimilation strategy of groups like the Human Rights Campaign has clearly reached its limit. It turns out that people aren't just going to give full civil rights to gays as long as we act harmless enough. We are going to get our full civil rights when we demand them and when we do so with enough power and strength to make people listen.
  
  The other great thing about this article are the tantalizing hints of protests to come:
  

  But many activists seem unwilling to wait for a legal solution and have planned a series of events to keep the issue in the public eye, including a nationwide candlelight vigil later this month, a Million Gay March in Washington next spring and continued protests at county clerks’ offices throughout California.

  Fosco is so down for the Million Gay March.
  
  
• Think domestic partnership is an acceptable substitute for gay marriage? Here's a heartrending story by a gay man who is caring for his partner's developmentally disabled brother (luckily, there are also some heartwarming parts). Thanks, Todd for calling my attention to this piece.
  
  
• Did you ever notice how Mike Huckabee is a likable, penis-having (reputedly) Sarah Palin? He's just as crazy as she is, but he's actually appealing (and can string together complete sentences). He also seems to think that the gay civil rights struggle is not comparable to Black civil rights because Black people faced the threat of violence during their rights struggle (read the transcript). Sure, Huck... tell it to this guy:
  
  On this Day Without Gays, take a moment to think about those gays who are not with us anymore.

New Look

Inspired Christian Dior or perhaps by Josiah McElheny's blown-glass homage to Dior, "From an Historical Anecdote About Fashion" (2000) [see below], Fosco Lives! has a New Look. Hopefully, you will find the new Fosco Lives! to be a little sleeker, a little more chic, and a little less "template-y." And there are still some tweaks to come.

The new header is an engraving of the character Count Fosco from Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White. This engraving is from an 1861 American edition of the novel (published by Harper & Bros.) held by the NY Pubic Public Library (thanks to Google's Library Project). The illustrator was John Lennon McLenan.


This is also a good time for Fosco to thank you for your devoted reading. If it weren't for you, Fosco would be lonely.

Onward!

In which Democracy breaks down!

It has now been almost ten days (and six "business" days) since Fosco sent an email to his Democratic US senators, asking them to kick the traitorous Joe Lieberman to the curb.

Despite Fosco's letter, the Senate Democratic Caucus has chosen to forgive Lieberman, leaving the matter of his anti-Obama criticism for him to settle with his Maker (from appearances, that would be Jim Henson's Creature Shop).

Even so, Fosco has yet to receive any kind of response or acknowledgment from his Senatrices Feinstein (pictured below as a scary monster) and Boxer (pictured above with filing system for constituent mail). Now Fosco understands why a personal letter might be too much to ask from either office; but a brief form email? When Fosco lived in other states, his every letter or email to his US Senators was promptly replied to. Now I know that California is bigger than any other state, but it has been ten days.

You see, it's not that Fosco really wants to hear either Senatrix's slippery excuses for letting "Melty Joe" stick around. It's just that, as Fosco's wise African-American grandfather used to say, "when your senator stops responding to your letters, that's when you have to start questioning your existence." Wise words, Grampa Red, wise words.

So what is Fosco to do if his elected representatives won't pay attention to him? Well, his only choice is to print unflattering pictures of them both once a week until he receives a response. And trust me, Senator Boxer, you don't want that.

300

Fosco Lives! has now been around (intermittently!) for almost 2.5 years. This post is Fosco's 300th-an important (although arbitrary) milestone.

In honor of post #300, Fosco has collected some other notable 300s.

1. Of course, there is that movie (much beloved by Fosco's boyfriend Oz). As Fosco recalls, the film is shot entirely without the color green (Fosco's favorite color, incidentally) and contains a strangely queer backrub between a hairy midget and a alopeciac drag queen:
   
   
   
2. And then there's the Chrysler 300, which gets a whopping 26 mpg. Wow, Fosco just can't understand how a company that makes such a great car could be headed for bankruptcy.
   
   
3. Look at this little cutie!
   
   It's the Visotec Expert 300 by Bundes Druckerei. It scans and verifies travel documents. Sweet.
   
   
4. Fosco loves this one: the MCV-300 Concrete Vibrator. I wish it were as dirty as it sounds, but it's not.
   
   
5. And if you're interested in the most possible fun associated with the number 300, you cannot go wrong at the Joliet Moose Family Center #300 in lovely charming actually-existing Joliet, Illinois.
   
   
6. Oh, and you know who is about to turn 300? Walnuts!
   
   
   Ah, but who can blame him for loving naps?

Why do I feel left behind?

I will have the requisite "celebratory Obama post" later. Right now, I'm not feeling too celebratory.

I don't want to kill completely the Obama buzz (which I am still feeling as well); we should rejoice at this triumph (and I am). But we also need to spend some time grieving for an almost equally important failure: the (apparent) passage of California's constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Sadly, I fear the message of November 4 turned out to be "Change We Can Believe In (Unless You're Gay)."

There are so many people I want to blame right now. The vicious and fraudulent Mormon "Church." That repulsive Catholic cult, the Knights of Columbus. The fucking Central Valley with its troglodytic farmers. Blacks and Latinos who do not recognize discrimination against members of another minority group. The idiots who wrote the California Constitution so as to allow A SIMPLE MAJORITY VOTE to amend it.

Let's take a moment to consider that last one. The California state constitution is going to be amended because approximately 5 million people voted "Yes" on Prop 8. The population of the State of California is over 36 million people. By my (admittedly fifth-grade) calculations, this means that less than ONE SEVENTH of the population of this state was able to amend the state constitution.

ONE SEVENTH.

Think about that for a minute. Doesn't 1/7 of the population seem a wee bit too small to be amending a state constitution? Doesn't this seem like broken government?

When I think of all the work that volunteers like Ted Gideonse put into the fight against Prop 8 and when I think of people like me and my friends cutting into our bare-bones grad student budget in order to give small (but meaningful--at least to us) amounts to the fight and when I think about the brave Mormons (and yes, there were a few) who were willing to stand up to their "Church" to fight discrimination...
I'm proud, sure; but I'm also discouraged and demoralized.

I'm an adopted Californian. And today, for the first time since I moved here, I am ashamed of my state. I suddenly feel uncomfortable in California--the same discomfort that I felt when I lived in Indiana and Virginia. The sense that most of the people surrounding me hate me. Not in Santa Cruz, of course (although the margin in Santa Cruz County wasn't as big as it should have been), but in the clear geographical majority of my state. I know it could be worse and that I could be stuck in Utah or Alabama or some other moron colony, but it used to feel good to live in California. And I miss that feeling already.

Want to know a secret? My boyfriend and I almost got married last week. We knew it would have been a little early in our relationship (especially in terms of breaking the news to our family and friends); yet, we were worried that we wouldn't be able to do so in a year or so when we are actually completely prepared for it. But we decided to rely on the polling (which was wrong, but not by a ton) and our belief in the general benevolence of Californians. We were wrong.

I think the gay rights movement is in a bad place right now. If an Obama landslide and record youth turnout couldn't defeat a gay marriage ban in one of the most liberal states in the US, we have to start reconsidering our position in American society. I think we have to start asking questions about our assimilation to standard American domestic values (like marriage and children) and whether we are in my lifetime going to be allowed full civil rights. Maybe we need to try something else.

Electing Obama was huge step forward for America; so why do I feel left behind?

Self-Knowledge Can Be Troubling

But am I too boringly perfect? Apparently not.

Pubic Hair: Are You Risking Your Health?

This has been a great week for visitors to Fosco Lives! Here's today's standout:

There are two things you need to notice to enjoy this graphic:

1. The visitor is from the National Institutes of Health, the "Nation's Medical Research Agency."
   
2. The visitor arrived at Fosco Lives! after googling the phrase "is pubic hair making a comeback[?]"

Fosco didn't realize that this question was of such vital importance to our nation's health. Although, purely as a matter of aesthetics, Fosco certainly hopes the answer is "yes." Fosco, like John Mackey, likes it "animal style."

From the Annals of Self-Comparison

What did Fosco do today? Blogged a little, read a bit, watered the flowers on on his balcony...

What did Fosco's college roommate David Lat do today? Well, for one thing, he ended up in a New York Times article...

Although, perhaps Fosco prefers his quiet semi-hermetic existence to pissing off powerful law firms.

Every silver lining's got...

a Touch of Gray.

We're trying something new this weekend at Fosco Lives!: color scheme tweaking. Fosco is a fan of the ol' black background, but it has started to look a bit like the standard Blogger template that it is.

But drastic change is not the place to start--especially since Fosco prefers content to style... So here is the first tweak: a gray blue red background. Let's see how that works.

[N.B.: the Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics site in the link above is hosted at UCSC. Go figure.]