Trevor just brought home the Blixa Bargeld (of Einstürzende Neubauten and Bad Seed fame -- longtime fan here of both bands) and Italian composer Teho Teardo collaboration, Still Smiling.

Dark and tender, with lyrics that cut at the core, delivered in Blixa's signature incredible, all over the map vocal style (including some of the only spoken word I can really handle) set over a string quartet and dirgy industrials, I think it may be virtually flawless.

And I'll admit, I initially balked at the price. Why do I do this to myself? This is definitely one to own on vinyl as well.

Title track:

It may be premature, but...

WOOT NEW MEXICO!!!!!!

New Mexico's Largest County to Begin Issuing Same Sex Marriage Licenses

New Mexico has the distinction of being the only state in the union that neither prohibits or allows gay marriage by law.

[Judge] Molot found nothing in current state law that bans same-sex marriages in the state. Instead, Malot cited the state's equal protection and anti-discrimination laws as an indication to the contrary, that New Mexico law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Of course, the poop-lining of this story is that the NM regressives are coming out full force.

I'm only sad for them that being on the wrong side of history will be their legacy.

Another installment of My Friends Are Awesome.

Come to find out yesterday that Chris Lane, multi-talented illustrator of the cover of Trevor's first book as well as the entirety of Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection and Harry Houdini: The Legend of the World's Greatest Escape Artist, and super good friend and all-around piece of wonderfulness in my life, is now a San Francisco Chronicle Bar Star, 2013!

And then: amazing author and magnificent human being Renee Swindle read to a packed house at my favorite bookstore, Diesel, A Bookstore, for the publication of her second book, Shake Down the Stars.

Yes, it was a good day. So proud!

I no longer feel like a lone voice, screaming in the darkness.

When You Work at a Nonprofit

There's no point in placing any one gif in this blog post -- they are ALL relevant. *cries*

Witnesses to History, 50 Years Later

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963

I'm in yer Facebooks, meta-ing yer feed.

STRING!

Sure, disrupt the dealers, but it does no good if you fail to wean the addicts (or, in fact, instead encourage them).

Benedict Cumberbatch Goes to War: Celebrity and Diplomacy

Great assessment.

Cumberbatch may be dreamy, clever goodness, but he's also an army of payroll for a carefully projected persona with a skyrocketing career made possible in part by the same folks he faults. Meh, why can't we all do like Damon?

The failure Cumberbatch perceives isn’t one of supply but demand. The star should have raged at his fans directly, not at his photographers. What if instead of chastising the paparazzi, he had written “Go look at Egypt.”

Benedict Cumberbatch might have reflected on his own experience as one of the most photographed individuals in the world. He has become an image himself. Photographs circulate endlessly of him at work and at play, in public and in private. Does his overexposure mean those who have seen his image know him or understand him?

Consider again his handwritten plea over the weekend: “Go photograph Egypt and show the world something important.” If he had spared the paparazzi his scorn and skewered his fans with the imperative to go look at Egypt, what would they see? What are we to make of the images so perilously obtained by photojournalists embedded in these protests?

Stephen Colbert is forever, but in a crisis I'd settle for a Matt Damon booth.

The Colbert Report
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Bonus: Jimmy Fallon *hearts*

The supposed story.

Victories!

Yes!

Minnesota and Rhode Island Hold First Same Sex Marriages

Gay marriages are now legal in over a quarter of the United States!  With new challenges to hateful legislation in Virginia, we're coming for Dixie too. The barriers are coming down, and fast.