Ain't Gonna Play Sun City

(Sun City, Arizona. Image via)

Clever how I did that with the title, right?* But it's true, Rage Against the Machine's "Boycott Arizona" campaign is a lot like Steven Van Zandt's 1985 "Sun City" thing: not just a little grand-standy and self-serving. But there's another similarity; see if you can catch it:

So far, artists to sign on for the boycott include major acts like Cypress Hill, Kanye West, Chris Rock, Connor Oberst, Rage Against the Machine, Serj Tankian, Nine Inch Nails, Rise Against, Maroon 5, Massive Attack, Sonic Youth, Anti-Flag, Ozomatli, Tenacious D and many others.

Here are some other lists these same artists could all appear on: Musicians Unlikely To Perform In Arizona In The First Place (Massive Attack?), and Musicians Unlikely To Lose Out On Much By Going Straight To San Diego From Albuquerque.

So just like the Sun City thing, yes, they mean well and blah, blah, blah, but just as with South Africa, it isn't exactly an impressive, praiseworthy sacrifice to avoid an out-of-the-way, secondary market.

So anyway, sorry Arizona, no Los Faggots or Jesus Chainsaw Massacre for you.

*Also hilarious because Sun City, also known as the "spirals of death," is a retirement community.

Real Food: Crab & Pineapple

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Jan Brewer: 65-Year-Old Woman Trapped In A 30-Year-Old's Hairdo

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, after meeting with Obama Administration officials regarding the border and immigration, talks about the meeting at the capitol Monday, June 28, 2010, in Phoenix. Federal officials have told the governor that 524 of the 1,200 National Guard troops headed to the U.S. Mexican border will be deployed in the state. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

We laughed and laughed when Goddess Carly Fiorina was caught on a live mike making fun of Barbara Boxer's hair, but has she looked around at her GOP peers lately? Jan's coiffure is so... well, just so YOUNG. How does she do it? Only her hairdresser knows for sure, in addition to anybody among the, you know, sighted. It's like she went back in time to the early 80s and stole Diane Sawyer's hair! Give it back, Jan! You're upsetting the space-time continuum! Dangerous!

Also: who agrees that the role of Jan Brewer in a Lifetime Network biopic is Amy Sedaris' for the taking?

UPDATE – Pony Pal™ Samael7 convincingly illustrates the point above.

Condi To Get Special Piano Prize

PSP flashback to 07-27-06, Reuters Photo.

Any news is good news on the Condi front. I must say, I'm surprised she's avoided the spotlight to the extent she has since leaving Washington. So anyway, since I can't find anything else to post about at the moment, here's your Condi piano news:

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who started college with a goal of becoming a concert pianist, will return to to the Coachella Valley in February to receive the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition's Lifetime Achievement Award.

She'll be presented the award at the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition's Black and White Gala on Feb. 20, 2011, at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort in Rancho Mirage.

Is that enough warning for you? You have only eight months to prepare! Save the date!

Photoblogging: Foggy Bottom Hot Dog

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Random Nancy Panel

Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy didn't change much over the decades once he hit his stride; strips from the 1950s look exactly like ones from the 1970s. He didn't include topical references very often, but something about hippies struck a nerve, and he did a lot of gags about them in the late 60s. Note, however, that February, 1968 is kinda early for a mainstream newspaper kid's strip to mention the shaggy counterculture. Basically, Nancy will do anything to avoid bathing.

UPDATE: On a formalist note, please appreciate, again, the Mondrian-like perfection of Bushmiller's composition. What, for instance, is the window, a detail totally inconsequential to the gag, doing there? It's there for balance. Without it, the panel would be lopsided towards the lower left. Sublime.

Happy Friday!

Arizona Audioblogging: Meat Puppets East Coast Tour Highlights, 1984

Here's another "authorized" bootleg of the Meat Puppets, and this is a special one. Curt Kirkwood made this tape for me of his favorite moments of their first ever East Coast tour in Fall, 1984. Later he told me that all the original tapes were gone, so I may be the only person who has these recordings.

Sound quality varies greatly from section to section, and do not adjust your set, because the first 18 minutes of part 2 are left channel only. The music is similar to the live shows I've already posted, but it's heavy on the covers: "Dominique" by the Singing Nun (!) rears its head again, and there are no less than three Elvis songs. There's also a Grateful Dead tune (ugh) and one of the versions of "Hot Pink" morphs unexpectedly into "Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles. Curt also shows a preference for some of the funnier and more chaotic moments, at one point declaring, "My name is Carol Burnett."

I have no idea where these shows were performed, but Boston is mentioned at one point.

It's just over 90 minutes, and the 130mb files are zipped up and ready for download here.

Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging: Grayscale

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I just loved this bus. It was a very simple design in only two shades of gray, so it really suited my taste for minimalism. The paint job was also totally matte, so it diffused shadows beautifully but was totally non-reflective. Good stuff!

Prescott, Arizona Politics Get More Surreal

PSP Prescott correspondent "J" sent the above picture. J explains (?):

One of the council members was out today so they put a scarecrow in her council chair, nothing like professionalism and class.

It's nice to see that the straw councilwoman was provided with an armed police escort to protect her from any possible outrage prompted by her controversial views.

And on the right, wearing a foul Hawaiian shirt*, is everybody's favorite mural-hating bigot, Steve Blair. Blair, you'll recall, was fired from his radio host job. Now, however, the same station who fired him, perhaps aware the story had faded a mere two weeks later, has rehired him, making one wonder why they bothered to fire him in the first place.

*Some people, especially East Coasters, will find this surprising, but there's a long tradition in Arizona of politicians dressing casually on the job. When I was growing up in Tucson, I remember our longtime mayor, Lew Murphy (I attended his daughter's shotgun wedding!), almost always wore a  Guayabera shirt in public. In fact, thanks to the magic of the youtubes, you can see him wearing one here.

Fashion Victim: When Is An Ascot Not An Ascot?

A lot of hairdressers and non-hairdressers alike are talking about the hilarious video screenshotted (is that even a word?) above, where this total queen tries to convince us that 1. hairdresserdom (words invented especially for this post so far: two) is a sin and 2. he's not one. Well, haw, he isn't convincing anybody. But! That's not what I want to discuss. This is what I want to discuss:

• "Nice Ascot" – Andrew Sullivan
• "Ascot Advocate" – Joemygod
• "Ascot-Wearing" – Gawker
• "Wearing An Ascot" – The Awl
• "Wearing An Ascot" – Huffington Thing
• "Wearing a Gold Ascot" – The Gospel According to Hate
• "Does This Gold-Flecked Ascot Make Me Look Ex-Gay? – Towleroad

Mary, please! I'm so disappointed in you!

Let's get back to the question posed in the title of this post: when is an ascot not an ascot? Well, it's a trick question, because it's not an ascot. Dearies, that is a scarf, a very, very gay scarf, and it's tied in what is called a "European Loop."

This is an ascot:

I'm glad I could clear that up for you.

Grover Norquist Snubs Sarah Palin, Michael Steele

Debbie Doan, left, posses for a photo for her husband Gary Doan, not pictured, with a cutout of Sarah Palin in the vendor area of the Republican Party of Texas convention in Dallas, Friday, June 11, 2010. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Keeping track of who is with whom in the GOP is a lot like watching Survivor or Big Brother: at first it's hard to tell the contestants apart, but eventually their alliances become so obvious that watching it play out gets boring.

And nowhere else are these alliances made more obvious than in Politico's "Arena," the most insidery part of their already painfully insidery site. One of their most recent questions is one that has been asked many times lately: just who, if not Fox News*, is leading the Republican Party anyway?

Anti-tax bear Grover Norquist's answer is amusing first because of the sad sacks he lists as leaders in their respective positions: John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Chris Christie, Rick Perry, Mitch Daniels (?!), Marco Rubio, Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina (yes!), Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty... even Mitt Romney! Of course, by listing so many people, Grover makes it more obvious that there's no leader.

Conspicuously absent: the party's actual, ostensible leader (Michael Steele. Remember him?) and the Mama Grizzly from Alaska. Ouch!

To be fair to Norquist, though, he's probably too distracted these days, playing with his new hairdresser buddies.

*IMG's Steve Steckler offers this howler:

This is nonsense. Most Republicans don't watch Fox News, even if Fox's viewers tend to be somewhat more Republican than Democratic.

Most Republicans don't watch Fox News? Is he being intentionally hilarious?

Fashion Victim: WaPo Makes Bad Men's Style Joke

The Washington Post rarely writes about or features fashion for men. I think the last time was well over a year ago. So today I was almost excited that they had a slide show of "stylish menswear" for Summer. How novel! But OMG, it's so, so, SO BAD you will absolutely not believe it.

Basically, the whole thing is cribbed from male style bloggers, apparently the worst ones on the planet (certainly not The Sartorialist!). The whole thing is a paltry six items: two (!) bow ties, pleated (!!!) shorts from J. Crew, a striped boater shirt, an aggressively ordinary swimsuit, and... ugh... Sperry Topsider sneakers (pictured above). Seriously. I'm surprised they didn't go ahead and throw in a Tommy Hilfiger polo shirt. One of the contributors recommends espadrilles for men, which is totally illegal. I'm tempted to think that these bloggers are simply playing a mean trick on the Post.

But anyway, this is why people here look at me like I'm a crazy person when I wear Comme des Garçons.

CNN Catches Up With 2007

(Screenshot from CNN)

Pssst! Hey, CNN? Everybody who wants to do this already knows how.

Hey, Texans, The Republican Party Wants To Outlaw Your Sex Life, And That Means You Too, Non-Hairdressers

(Getty Images)

A lot of hairdressers and interior decorators and sensitive young male drama majors have been writing about the new Texas GOP platform, which seeks to re-criminalize sodomy (example here). They write:

“We oppose the legalization of sodomy. We demand that Congress exercise its authority granted by the U.S. constitution to withhold jurisdiction from the federal courts from cases involving sodomy,” the GOP platform reads. Meaning that even though the U.S. Supreme Court overturned sodomy laws last decade (ironically in a case that stemmed from Texas), Texas Republicans would like the state to have the power to criminalize LGBT folks for having sex.

Well, OK, true, yes, they want to outlaw oral and anal sex. But here's the thing: last I heard (I may be wrong about this?), straight people also engage in these activities! The platform doesn't specifically say "no sodomy for gay people, but everybody else have at it."

So even all you married couples in Texas (opposite marriage, of course!): do you like to, you know, have dinner under the bridge? Do you wish to admit the weapons inspector without unsealing the silo? The GOP wants you to stop that. Stop it right now! Don't make me slap that [poultry-related euphemism] out of your mouth!

Update: Prescott, Arizona Bigot Punished More

(Prescott News)

Pony Pal™ J in Prescott alerts us to this article in the Prescott News which reveals that not only did noteworthy bigot Steve Blair lose his radio show over the ridiculous mural flap, but he has now been forced to sell his bread distribution business which has been in his family for nearly a half-century. Harsh! He is, however, still on the city council. The article is fascinating, though, because it demonstrates that in a small town like Prescott, scandals like this have a way of snowballing in unexpected ways. A must read!

Don't Tread On 'Em

This post is really just an excuse to post some amusing anagrams of "Don't Tread On Me," the teabaggers' favorite phrase. There are so many! Like this one:

Excuses aside, it was interesting to read E.J. Dionne's column about the Tea Party crowd and the "new" right in this morning's Washington Post. Like so many, Dionne points out that the "new" loony conservatism is different from yesterday's loony conservatism, the Christian fundamentalist kind, and more like day-before-yesterday's loony conservatism, the John Birch kind.

But here's the rub: Dionne is overlooking certain truths about the "new" conservatism. Instead of explaining, I'll just display it in a Venn diagram:

And there's a more worrisome matter of course, which E.J. only hints at in his column:

A group called Tea Party Patriots (many Tea Party groups include the word "patriot" in their names) [...]

Ah, yes, the Patriot Movement™! Otherwise known as the militia kooks. Let's add them to the diagram:



Now, of course, a lot of people (like me!) will point out that these groups really don't play all that well together, they embarrass each other, etc., and the Tea Party movement is destined to dissolve as a result. In the meantime, though, whoa, scary.

Anyway, ha ha, here's another anagram:

Happy Monday!

Oh, Hey, Look At That

OK, ha, so I've been fooling around with a new custom look for PSP by playing with Blogger's new template designer thingee. Finally, this evening, I thought, eh, what the hell and clicked the "apply" button. So there you go. It actually ended up looking totally different from the preview, and better, so that was a pleasant surprise.

The main advantage of this design is BIGGER PICTURES (see the post below and compare!), so please consider this a mitigating factor before you rip the blog's new wardrobe to shreds.

Real Food: Peapod Delivery Vehicle

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UPDATE – Now with bigger picture!

Art Collection: Production Cels From Marv Newland's Black Hula, 1988

Click each for bigger. The two images below are cropped.

Marv Newland is best known, of course, for his 1969 minimalist animated masterpiece Bambi Meets Godzilla. Lesser known, but revered in animation circles, are his later films, beautiful and idiosyncratic masterpieces such as Sing Beast Sing and the remarkable Anijam.

I got to know Marv when I worked for the Festival of Animation in the early 1990s. He spoke as a special guest at several of our screenings, and I visited his animation studio, International Rocketship in Vancouver. I always found him to be somewhat quiet, but he could really be hilarious. He was also an obsessive sketch artist, never without a sketchbook and pen, and his never-ending stream of drawings were an amazing and fun thing to behold.

I ended up with a small but awesome collection of cels from Marv's films, some given to me by the artist, and some by my F of A boss. I've got one from Anijam, a very, very naughty one from Pink Komkommer, and the three shown here from Black Hula.

Black Hula is a peculiar cartoon, indeed, probably Newland's most abstract. Marv told me he made it mainly because he fell in love with the ancient recording on the soundtrack. The cognitive dissonance between the song and the visuals is daunting, but the film's message is timeless:

Random Nancy Panel

Photoblogging: Mail-LOL

Giacometti's Walking Man II  strides toward an encounter with a justifiably alarmed Maillol.

Real Food: Experiment In Terrible Photography Continues

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Grover Norquist Comes Out, Joins Hairdresser Group

Cute tubby bear Grover finally could resist no longer and joined up with GOProud, the Republican hairdresser group loved by absolutely nobody (until now).

That's basically it; just an excuse to post that picture again, really.

This Is Arizona: The Horror Of Kokopelli, Continued

Photos by A.C. Huestis. Click for bigger!

These two photos are from Benson, Arizona.

Wardrobe Suggestion For Aaron Schock's Next Garden Party Appearance

UPDATE – Aaron Schock has twatted:

Never thought a pic of me w/ my shirt on would go viral. Learned my lesson and burned the belt.

OK, but what about the violet gingham shirt?

Metablogging: Should I Redesign PSP?

(Screenshot via)

What do you think? This blog has had basically the same design, a hacked version of Blogger's pink girly theme, for over five years with only minor variations. Should I change it? Blogger just introduced some highly-customizable new templates. What does everybody think? Time for a change?

PSP Receives Sausage Message From Beyond!

OK, so this is really weird. True story! Last night I was doing laundry, and at about 7:20, I remembered that there were a few things I needed to get at Target. Realizing they close at 8 on Sunday, I hustled over. I only needed a few things: soap, coffee and cream, you know, things I really required for Monday morning. Anyway, it was getting close to closing, and I was making my way through the food section, when for some reason, my eyes locked on the Jimmy Dean sausage in the refrigerated case. Mmm, Jimmy Dean, I thought, almost instantly falling into a reverie about those porktastic hockey pucks I enjoyed in my youth. I literally had not thought about this food product in decades. I considered throwing a tube into my basket, but then snapped out of it and decided otherwise.

Imagine the funny feelings I had this morning when I visited the Washington Post and found out that Jimmy Dean himself had just died! Clicking through to the article, I felt even funnier when I noticed that he had been pronounced dead at 7:54 PM, more or less the exact time I had become momentarily entranced by his flagship product!

What does it all mean? Ha, nothing. Still, though: pork moves in mysterious ways.

Arizona Audioblogging: Meat Puppets Live At Clancy's, 09-09-84

Click for bigger. I think Clancy's is misspelled?

Oh, hey, sorry, I did say I would post the rest of these, didn't I?

OK, so this show was recorded in Phoenix not by me, but by my friend Steve (I was back at school in San Diego). The recording is a little bass-heavy, but otherwise very good quality. Of interest to Meat Puppets fans are an early, hypnotic version of "Up on the Sun" and primitive versions of other songs from the album of the same name, a cover of the Beatles' "Polythene Pam," a surprising cover of "Dominique," and an unbelievably noisy instrumental "Hot Pink" which dissolves into complete chaos.

It's 68 minutes, and the zipped mp3 files can be downloaded here.

UPDATE: Aaron Schock Gay Outfit Roundup

• Joe.my.god: "Rep Schock would like to remind you that he is totally straight."
• Mike Signorile wonders if  that's how they dress in Peoria and recommends a coordinated bag.
• Americablog: "I mean, seriously, look at him."

I can also say that, based on this site's stats, this picture is now burning up the Facebooks.

UPDATE – I didn't mention this before because I thought it was too obvious, but nobody else has risen to the occasion, so I'll go ahead and point out gingham's strong association with Judy Garland/Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

This Is Arizona: Martian Landscape

Photos by A.C. Huestis. Click for bigger.

More from Andrew's excursion to Cochise County, also known as "almost New Mexico."

Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging Triple Header

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Every time I think the Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging project is played out, new and exciting variations keep thrilling me and keeping it going. I loved the weird thing shown above, and it said "you're in good hands" above, but the photo is better and stranger without it. Below, I liked this one because the word "Black" is written in white, not unlike the cognitive dissonances often seen in Jasper Johns' work:

And finally, another Bridget Riley-like design:

Where Do I Start?

(Photo via Gawker)

Oh, jeez, right. You've seen the picture above by now, haven't you? It's Aaron Schock, Republican congressman from Illinois, at a party dolled up in an outfit unanimously declared by the internets as totally, totally, unbelievably, unequivocally hairdresserish. 

Let's cut to the chase: the internets are correct.

Also! Aaron Schock is a dick.

Consciences cleared,  let's rip this fey, trendy outfit to shreds.

First of all, the shirt. I've gone from zero to really sick of gingham, this year's compulsory pattern, in about four months this year.  This shirt is particularly annoying because the gingham pattern to supersized to novelty proportions. Note, too, the construction: it appears to be fitted, likely with seams in the back. That and the lack of a pocket make it a good choice for Schock to showcase his impressive pecs and abs, something he frequently does, and hey, if you've got it, flaunt it, right? It's simply pure Twinkie™ logic, as is the one-button-unbuttoned-too-many strategy. I mean, honestly, did he think he was at JR's?

And, for goodness' sake, it's violet. Not only is this blatantly gay, but also this-season trendy for menswear. I browsed at Sak's recently, and what I mostly took away from the experience was WHY ARE THEY ALL TRYING SO HARD TO MAKE ME WEAR VIOLET? I was irritated.

And you know what else is hyper trendy right now? 80s revival cloth belts. These are illegal in my world, in part because they are cheap and ugly, but also because they honestly are too gay for me, a blogger who uses the pseudonym Princess Sparkle Pony. The preciousness of Schock's color scheme here, with the bright turquoise popping so stridently with the similarly-keyed violet, is again just so goddamn Twinkie™ that it practically screams OMG THE NEW SCISSOR SISTERS ALBUM JUST CAME OUT AND SO DID I!

Finally, the trousers. As I commented on Gawker, we used to call those "hustler white jeans." Enough said!

So, in conclusion, yes, Aaron Schock's outfit is truly, madly, deeply gay. And trendy. But mainly gay, gay, gay, gay, gay. Granted, this could mean one of two things: Schock is gay, or he has a nelly stylist who dresses him. Evidence strongly suggests the former is correct.

And this makes him even more of a dick.

First Shot Fired In California Hairdo Electoral Battle

FILE - In this Thursday, June 3, 2010 file photo, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., speaks at a construction site near the Caldecott Tunnel in Orinda, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Oh! It is so on! Carly Fiorina, who I am predicting to be Sparklefave 2010 and maybe even 2011, had barely, barely even been an official primary winner for, like, five minutes, and already she's making fun of Barbara Boxer for something very important: her hair. These are fighting words:

The video shows Fiorina checking her Blackberry and engaging in small talk with the producers and others off-camera. Finding out fellow California Republican Meg Whitman had decided to visit Sean Hannity tonight, Fiorina repeated several times that she found the decision “bizarre,” because “you know how he is… Sean Hannity is not an easy interview, you know?” She didn’t specify what specifically about a Republican candidate going on Hannity would result in a difficult interview, but dropped the subject for a while to readjust her mic, and then starting up a new topic: her opponent and, more specifically, “God, what is that hair?” Continuing to mock her, she adds, that it’s “sooo yesterday.”

OMG, there is no fury like a hairdo scorned! I'm going to side with Babs on this one. As you can see in the recent photo above, Boxer's hair isn't all that noteworthy; it's fine, if uninspired. Frankly, if I were Carly (OMG, I just had to pinch myself out of a reverie!), I wouldn't go throwing stones at other people's coiffures. She's in for a world of hurt.

Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging: Another Eagle

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Quickie: The Darndest Things

I just saw the cutest thing: a child, no more than three-years-old, walking through our East Building lobby, pointed up and said, "Mobile!"

I don't know why that made me so happy. I guess I just love that a toddler effortlessly knows a totally made-up term coined by Marcel Duchamp.

How much do you want to bet his first word was Dada?

This Is Arizona: No Parking

Photos by A.C. Huestis. Click for bigger!

More from Cochise County, Arizona, home of also, to be fair, the beautiful Chiricahua Mountains and interesting Fort Huachuca.

Hilarious Oil Spill Gag Cartoon

You! Yeah, You, Whoever You Are. You With The Bad Haircut. Do I Look Like Somebody Who Wants To Hear About A Brown Bailout?

Seriously, I am so sick of seeing the ad shown above all over all the blogs 'n' such. I so don't want to know about your brown bailout or whatever, because ew, right? Gross. I mean really.

Also, why, why, why would I choose to watch or listen to anybody with such peculiarly bad hair?! What is up with that guy's hair? Is he a comedian they hired or something? No, that hair is bad and I shan't listen to it. Never! Take that hairdo from my sight! If thine hairdo offend me, CUT IT OFF.

Whew. I just had to get that off my chest.

We will now resume making fun of Arizona. And hilarious oil spill gag cartoons.