Sunday Morning Odds & Ends

Looking at the ideas behind the new Facebook design. I'm quite a fan of the Twitterlization of Facebook and see why they did it. You don't want Facebook to fall behind and become Myspace or... Friendster already do you?

What is your neighborhood's Walk Score? Enter your address and find out. Mine, Bushwick, got 89 out of 100. (h/t Freakonomics Blog)

Barack Obama made a dumb joke about the Special Olympics on Jay Leno. Gov. Schwarzenegger defends him.

Defending Provigil: "And is modafinil the next cocaine? Probably not. It just doesn't have the powerful reinforcing and rewarding effects. Not only that, it's usually taken as a pill, and so highs resulting from it are more unlikely."

Californians in 2010 will likely have a pro-gay marriage initiative to vote on. The ballot initiative process could lead to some on-again, off-again marriages.

Rupert Murdoch purchases The Brooklyn Paper.

Rent Will Perform At Calif. High School, A Web 2.0 Victory

RENT, the Pulitzer Prize winning musical, will perform at Corona del Mar High School beginning April 23rd. The production follows an attempt by Principal Fal Asrani to cancel the musical because of "homosexual" content. Last week, she replaced RENT with You're A Good Man Charlie Brown as the school's spring musical.

Web 2.0 Powered Victory

The performance is a victory for the students and their drama teacher, Ronald Martin, who stood against the administration's decision. A victory won by their persistence and new media, specifically blogs and Facebook.

On Feb. 13th Queerty ran a story about an e-mail they had received from a reader. It was written by an anonymous student, who detailed the circumstances of RENT's cancellation. Two days later the story had spread to sites from The Huffington Post to the New York Time's Arts Blog.

While the story was went viral, the students organized. They created a Facebook group, Save Rent,which now has 441 members, and began (along with parents) to contact media.

"The immediacy the internet provides was key in this victory," Cindy Fulton, of Berkeley, a Corona del Mar High School alumnus, said today. "In the past we might have been writing letters to newspaper editors. You send it in, it gets reviewed, it gets published... maybe a week later." She says that the Internet made the difference, "In this case the internet allowed us to get right in there and work to change situation. We were able to be involved in it rather than react to it."

By the time the story was reported in The New York Times, Asrani was feeling the pressure. Martin, the drama teacher, resubmitted the script to her for written approval. She approved on Thursday.

James Ramsey, Co-Administrator of the Save Rent Facebook group, sent a message to the group, "We could not have achieved this without the support from all of you. It is amazing that we were able to do this in such a short amount of time, and everyone helped."

Principal Vs. Teacher

The LA Times Reports:

What transpired in the original meeting between Martin and Asrani is a matter of dispute between the two.

Martin said that Asrani questioned the portrayal of homosexuality and prostitution in the play -- although he said there is no prostitution in the toned-down school edition of the production -- and requested a copy of the script. He told Asrani that he did not have a script at the time and that there would not be enough time for her to review it and to obtain clearance from the licensing company. Asrani then opted to cancel the show, Martin said.

Asrani claimed she just wanted to read it.

As I first reported, there has been an atmosphere of hate in the school, ignored and even occasionally enabled by Asrani.

Many students don't believe Principal Asrani and expect there is more to the story that she isn't telling. "Even with the victory of getting RENT approved, the next battle is bringing justice to the comments exchanged in the meeting," one student told me today. Several other students and parents suggested Asrani's troubles may not be over.

Looking Forward

Regardless of what happens to Asrani, the students have won a big victory and many are looking forward to how RENT can benefit their school.

"I am ecstatic that we will be able to perform the show," says Ryan Willison, member of the school's Human Relation Council. His group is planning to integrate RENT into their club's campaign, Stand Up, Speak Out, Act Now, which emphasizes the student's voice. He continues, "Now that RENT has gotten so much attention, we want to use that publicity in a positive light and advocate for acceptance of the gay community at CdM. We are thankful that we don't have to fight for our rights in a media struggle anymore, and that we can advocate in a more positive, constructive way. Regardless of whether Mr. Martin or Mrs. Asrani is telling the truth, or some combination of the two, we are all excited to move forward."

And move forward they will, newly formed activists.

Bobby Jindal's Satan Slaying Response

Tonight Gov. Bobby Jindal, of Louisiana, delivered the Republican response to Barack Obama's Speech to the Joint Session of Congress. His performance is being likened to Kenneth from 30 Rock by most of the bloggers that I read. In fact, you can even join a Facebook group to get Jack McBrayer (Kenneth!) to play Bobby Jindal on SNL.

Jindal is one of my favorite Republicans. He's a Rhodes Scholar, so he's gotta be bright... right? Jindal believes in intelligent design, he calls it "the best sceience." He wants your kids to learn it in school.

Jindal is an exorcist.

I felt some type of physical force distracting me. It was as if something was pushing down on my chest, making it very hard for me to breathe. . . Though I could find no cause for my chest pains, I was very scared of what was happening to me and Susan. I began to think that the demon would only attack me if I tried to pray or fight back; thus, I resigned myself to leaving it alone in an attempt to find peace for myself.

So, he's not bright, but he has literally taken on the devil... Will he try and take on Obama in 2012?

Odds & Ends

Last night was my first out on the town of Bloomington and I had a really good time. After we staged eight pages (two songs!) from Vote! in just over three hours, I went to a 21st birthday party and then hit a few frat bars with some new friends. We paid a late night visit to Uncle Elizabeth's, the town gay bar, which was totally empty except for a few scary guys with goatees playing pool.

The picture to the right is me drinking a $2 Peach Long Island Ice Tea. It's rather large and very tasty.

-- Entertainment Tonight ran a preview of Quentin Tarantino's new film Inglorious Bastards and it looks fantastic. The Dirty Dozen meets Kill Bill. See the video here. I can't wait.

-- A new Gallup poll shows that Iranians and Alabamians have the same level of religiosity. Frightening. Vermont, my second home, is the least religious state in America. No doubt I'm retiring to Burlington.

-- One of the craziest things that I've read in a while - "Anthony R. Stancl, is charged with setting up fake profiles on Facebook, the popular social networking site, to dupe 31 male classmates, some as young as 15, into sending him nude photographs of themselves over the last several months." Even MORE: "But, the authorities said, Mr. Stancl did not stop there. In addition, they said, he threatened to release the photos to the victims’ friends or even all of Eisenhower’s 850 students if the youths who had sent them to him did not agree to perform sexual acts he demanded. The tactic was successful, officials said. Mr. Stancl is accused of using it to sexually assault seven boys." How much longer before Facebook requires proof of indentity to sign up? I wouldn't be against it, as it would eliminate some of the weird spam request I receive.

-- We've got a stimulus package and it's got technology's fingerprints all over it.

-- Asshole-loser Norm Coleman has found himself seven new votes. When is this loser going away?

2012 Watch

The 2012 Republican Presidential Primary is going to bring me great joy. There is nothing I like to see more than a party desperately trying to justify their own existence. Although the January 2012 Iowa Caucuses are a few years away, I'll keep track of the contenders here. A few to start with:

Sarah Palin


Palin is all over the place with ads for her new PAC. This one, which i grabbed from the Drudge Report, has been running nonstop. She also came out against Obama's Stimulus Package on her Facebook Page - which has 497,683 supporters. I consider her the one to beat in '12.

Mitt Romney

I have a soft spot in my heart for Romney. He's super handsome and willing to say or do anything, absolutely anything, to get elected. Plus, as a Mormon, he is extra divorced from reality. Romney is attacking Obama with the best of them (From Time Mag): “I think President Obama is off to a rocky start. The theme ‘Yes, we can’ seems to have been replaced with ‘Well, maybe we can’t.'" He only has 56,353 supporters on Facebook.

David Petraeus

General Petraeus is the one to watch. He's brilliant and in control of a large part of the military. Plus, it looks like he's leaking misleading documents to the media to make Obama look bad. It's unknown if he's running, or just trying to get what he wants out of Obama - either way it's interesting. (He only has 3,985 fans on Facebook.)