Big Apple Blog Festival #36

 

Welcome to the 36th Big Apple Blog Festival and to Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars!  Thanks, again, to A Guy in New York for creating this weekly roundup of the best posts from NYC blogs.

Only in New York City

The Gothamist posts a couple of great pictures of the Apple store cube building being erected on Fifth Avenue and  59th Street.

mimi in NY is still “musing on pissing off the religious right,” and she’s posted a picture of herself on her blog.  Click on it and follow the links, and you’ll find her latest photo album.  “Once I wanted to be the greatest,” says Mimi.  This “pissing off the religious right” thing is very popular in New York City.  What it means… well, I have no idea.  The very idea of God seems to enrage many folks in the Big Apple.  Usually, the means of pissing off is to try to scandalize the rubes with outrageous sexual behavior.  Trouble is, I grew up in small town Midwest and return frequently.  I can’t find any rubes who are scandalized.  My hometown of 5,000 sports a dirty movie store on the outskirts.  You can rent a gangbang film for a few bucks.  Still, I like Mimi.  If it will make her happy, I promise to be thoroughly scandalized.

Ace of Spades covers Rudi Giuliani’s testimony at the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.  This guy should fry. 

Want to find out what an Irishman wears under his kilts?  NYC Stories suggests a visit to the New York Tartan Day Parade.  Oops!  Too late.  It was Saturday. 

Jews can riot, too!  Read all about it at Alarming News.  Atlas Shrugs says it ain’t so. 

One day, far in the future, historians seeking to recreate life in the city will discover Iron rails and weights, the diary of the Long Island Railroad.  Sure, it’s great to know what the artists and philosophers were doing in ancient Egypt.  But, how many times did the slaves push a boulder up the side of the Great Pyramids?  What did every stone cost?  “Today was a break from the same-old routine.  For the first time in quite a while, I took the 6:57 to Flatbush Avenue after arriving on the shuttle from Medford.  It was an M-7 consist, but in my experience the cars toward the east end of the train don't get particularly crowded as they are inconveniently far from the subway when the train arrives at Flatbush.  Which is exactly what happened today.”  And, what did the average wage slave do?  “Gym: I should have done leg work yesterday but wasn't able to make it to the gym.  Now, I could have done it tonight, but decided to put it off to tomorrow.  That'll be nine days since I last did legs, which is longer than I prefer to wait (I try to do them every seven days), but the difference between eight and nine days shouldn't matter.”

Political Outrages!  Scandals!  Oh, My!

Atlas Shrugs also reminds us that April 9 is Iraqi Liberation Day.  Three years and counting since Saddam Hussein fled Baghdad.

Suitably Flip notes that “Joblessness Falls Again.”  He also reports that Rep. Cyntha McKinney’s craziness goes far beyond slapping security guards.  She’s a shill for the Scientologists.

Shakedown on Page Six!  New York Post gossip column wants $220G for protection money.  Or else… what?  useless!  worthless!  insipid! has the answer.

The Citizen-Journal calls on those lazy French kids to get their butts off the street, get a haircut and a day job.

Over at the Gotham Gazette, the Wonkster intimates that we can’t exactly trust Bronx politicians with the Yankee’s money.  Great picture of Rudi!

The People’s Cube’s Propaganda Department posts a picture of Cynthia McKinney’s “Race Card.”  Testimonials from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Ragged Thots has his own thoughts about McKinney’s apology.

Jane Galt, good libertarian economist that she is, parses the demographic decline of Europe with a cost benefit analysis of motherhood

Third Avenue thinks that conservatives are making far too much of the Islamification of Europe.  Did you know that Holland prospects for foreign immigrants with a DVD of topless bathers?  For subtle snarkiness, I think that Third Avenue is tops.

The Last Straight Man vs. the Gay Boys

Human Bacon isn’t mad about anything!  How can this be?  Gays must be suffering persecution somewhere.  He hasn’t posted since January 5th.  As a direct result, nobody has accused me of being a closeted homosexual for three months!

Oh, my God!  Modern Fabulosity and I agree on something.  This is the end of the world as we know it.  We both agree… Katie Couric is not the answer.  We just don’t agree on the question.  “Whatever charms Couric had -- bubbly personality, wide smile, optimistic charm -- have long been excised by her rampaging ego and unfortunate plastic surgery,” sayeth Mr. Fabulous.  Shouting Thomas (which is me) has a rather different take on the Couric problem:  CBS news has no credibility, and a PC hire won’t help.  Does this mean, Mr. Fabulous, that I’m not a homophobe? 

Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars covers “The Dark Side of Cars.”  And, back home in Chicago, believe it or not, life is getting swishy. 

Question for the gay boys.  Why do you pride yourself on using scorching sarcasm and bitter putdowns when you discuss straights, yet consider it “bigotry” when straights use the same tactics with gays?  Just asking.  Keep this question in mind as you read “Uninspired Friday” at Cut the Shit.  This guy has a serious problem with President Bush.

Sex and More Sex

Women check each other out.  Usually, so they can throw daggers at one another.  opinionistas checks out her competitor and draws an unflattering conclusion:  “Her boobs are fake. It’s all push-up bra. And possible nose job.”  Check out “Checking Out.”

Dr. Ruth will be hosting Sex in the City Day at the 92 Street Y.  Also on board is Ester of My Urban Kvetch.  Can one kvetch and have sex at the same time?  (Only, I think, if you’re Jewish.  Correct me if I’m wrong.)

Michael Blowhard of 2Blowhards explores the world of pop sex.  Check out the link to the anal sex workshop.  Evidently, you need to attend a workshop to figure it out.  Nobody is getting my virgin behind.  (For further info, listen to “Last Straight Man in NYC.”)

Play Ball!

The Futility Infielder covers opening day 2006!  Sees Cubs as only the eleventh best team in the majors.  Hell, the Chicago Tribune picked the Cubs dead last.

Yankee fans are so impatient.  Try being a Cubs’ fan, sissies!  Four games into the season and Yanksfan vs. Soxfan is already firing off ultimatums.

Etc., Etc., Etc.

Gotham Gal reviews “Based on a Totally True Story,” at the West 55th Street Playhouse.

Grid skipper reviews a new downtown Japanese restaurant, Chanto.

Best post title of the week:  “If George Clooney Ran the World,” from BuzzMachine. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Big Apple Blog Festival is listed on the ÜberCarnival page and in Carnival News.

To nominate your favorite blog post about NYC, or if you have a NYC blog and want to see something in the next BABF ... or you have a NYC-related blog and would like to host an upcoming BABF ... send us a short write up and a permalink to aguyinnewyork [at] gmail.com ... or use the Carnival Submit Form ... see you next week ...

You are free to repost the Big Apple Blog Festival so long as you leave this URL attached: BigAppleBlogFestival.com.

Technorati Tags: big apple, big apple blog festival, New York, NYC, New York City, Manhattan

Comments

[Peter]

Thanks for the mention of my blog!

[Buddha]

Ugh. I have abandoned my blog without even meaning to do so. Life has generally gotten in the way; which is a good thing because my business is doing really well.

But, you know I still love you, you big queen.

[ModFab]

Nope, still a homophobe.

[Shouting Thomas]

Translation: "Homophobe" = anybody who displeases Mr. Fabulous.

[Bill Lalor]

No citizen journal? what gives?

[Nick]

Re: your question "for the gay boys": admittedly, sarcasm and putdowns aren't anybody's best tool to accomplish anything, so I'm not offering this as a grand-scale defense of communicating this way. However, if you really want an answer to your question, I think the profoundly un-level playing field makes a big difference here. In a political, legal, cultural, and institutional context of oppression and bigotry, heteronormative culture—not every straight person, obviously, not even by a long shot, but an innumerable lot of them, certainly, and the culture at large, without question—has got the rights, the money, the acceptance, the track record of discrimination and violence, the divide-and-conquer election tactics, the stand-back-and-tsk posture durning a lethal epidemic, and the pleasure of having all of its own paradigms and desires treated constantly as "the norm." Under conditions like this, barbed rhetoric and bitter sarcasm register really differently if you're being kicked (again) while you're down (perpetually) vs. if you're kicking.

Construing the problem as simple tit-for-tat, apart from the enormous and ubiquitous contexts, would seem really artificial and spurious, wouldn't it? Just my 2¢.

[Shouting Thomas]

Nick,

Mr. Modern Fabulosity went out to the dinner and theater in New York City, by my count, about 12 times in the last week.

That's the sort of oppression most folks would love to experience.

As for the rest of your recitation of PC cant, it is bullshit. Let me emphasize that it is pure self-serving bullshit.

[Nick]

Really? I thought it was a fairly even-handed statement of fact, without a whole lot of vitriol attached. One group can get married, the other not. One grou's very existence is a political issue, the other not. Individuals in both groups are harmed, fired, and murdered all the time for any number of reasons, but in the straight/gay comparison, only gay people are liable to have this happen because of who they are.

You asked a question, I gave you an answer. This is what it feels like from the other side. Whether you really, sincerely wanted to hear an honestly intended answer to your question is pretty debatable, I would say. (I wonder if there is anything I could say that wouldn't sound to you like "PC cant." I also wonder how any of this could possibly be self-serving, seeing as I was pretty certain I was walking into an attack.)

And btw: Mr. ModFab works in theater and saw at least most, if not all of those plays for free. Don't rush to judge so quickly.

[Shouting Thomas]

OK, since I've lived and worked in San Francisco and New York City for 35 years, I'll give you the succinct, obvious answer.

A life of picking up men in gay bars is going to, ultimately, expose one to the risk of assault and murder, particularly when S&M, handcuffing, serious drug use and nooses are involved. Goes with the turf.

This is not the fault of straight men. It is gay men who threaten one another with violence.

[Nick]

Then, in the spirit of your initial question, I'll let you know how it feels to read a comment like that. When every statistic on the book says that almost NO gay people die for the reasons you're implying, when I would assume it's common knowledge (and statistically verified) that hate crimes are overwhelmingly committed by straight homophobes who hate gay people... I don't know, and I don't know any gay person who DOES know, how to react to a willful denial of facts.

The fact that hate crimes occur does not mean that I, or any gay person I know, thinks that all straight people are homophobes. That a small minority of gay people are into S&M, etc., does not explain to me why people who simply don't know many gay people think that this is the norm --- just like, despite all the statistics and media images of straight men who beat or rape women, I don't assume that these men are paragons of all "straight men." Why are you making this willful stereotype of "gay culture" stand in for all gay people? Why not respond to people you actually know and statistics that actually exist, or why not confess that you might not know what you're talking about, instead of phantasms that scare you or piss you off?

What can you say in the face of the fact that, statistically and empirically, it simply isn't true that violence against gays and lesbians arrives from the sources you're citing, almost ever?

[Shouting Thomas]

You're lying, that's what I say.

The statistics I've read suggest that less than 5 murders per year can be attributed to straight on gay violence in the U.S.

Gay men have been known to torture and murder straight men, although the numbers are also very small.

You've been through the mill of PC indoctrination in a U.S. college.

You brain is full of manufactured nonsense.

[Shouting Thomas]

For the sake of my readers who might be following this debate, I visited the FBI site for hate crime statistics for 2000: For that year, the FBI records 1,299 hate crimes based on sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious affiliation, etc.

The 1,299 incidents cited take in everything from murder, to assault to crimes against property. The FBI recognized only 19 murders in the entire year that could be classified as hate crimes.

Obviously, only a fraction of these hate crimes involved sexual orientation.

There is no epidemic of violence against gays. These incidents of bias related crimes are lamentable and tragic, but they in no way indicate a wave of violence against gays by straights.

And, now I’m putting this debate to rest. My weblog is not intended to be a place for this sort of debate.

[Mark Vane]

Hi, Added a new value add to my blog this weekend - a news widget from www.widgetmate.com. I always wanted to show latest news for my keywords in my sidebar. It was very easy with this widget. Just a small copy paste and it was done. Great indeed.

[Juno888]

What can you say in the face of the fact that, statistically and empirically, it simply isn't true that violence against gays and lesbians arrives from the sources you're citing, almost ever?