go in CHEAP & come out clean.

I wish I had something incredibly witty to update this with.  I do not.  Work has admittedly taken up much of my time.  Oh, and movies.  Don't see "Public Enemies"...rent it later.  Just some good advice.

Because Zach Galifinakis + Jason Schwartzman = Me Jealous I Don't Have HBO.

...That I didn't have!  Duh.

NBC -- 

Carson_emmy_993x47

This Picture:

Dear California,

GO FUCK YOURSELF.  TWICE.

Kisses,

Alicia

---

Maybe I should attempt to be more eloquent.  As you may or may not know, minutes ago California decided that discrimination based on who someone goes home to at the end of the night is okay.  Oh, except for those 18,000 of you that already did get married, I guess you're okay, since, you know...our bad.

I couldn't be more infuriated right now if I tried.

I think that people are so blinded by religion and by being in a majority.  There is a separation of church & state--I know--shocking!--considering that our ol' boy GWBush sort of forgot this & fucked up what little progress the Clinton administration made.

Let me make myself clear--because I don't think the hysterical religious are understanding this quite clearly--NO ONE IS ASKING YOUR PRECIOUS LITTLE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS TO PERFORM THESE MARRIAGES.  SHIT, they're not even asking you to RECOGNIZE THEM (so you can stay in your tiny bubbles of ignorance)...all they are asking for are for the same rights as EVERY OTHER citizen in this country.  The right to visit their loved ones in the hospital, inheritence, health care, etc... that all you wingnuts consider "sacred"--your religious marriage DOES NOT provide these things...so why do you care?!  This is purely on a state level yet people are trying to turn it into a moral issue.  Besides the fact that I think it is absolutely nutters for anyone to consider LOVE immoral, it is NOT a moral issue.  I know and love FAR TOO MANY people in this country that deserve more than this.  All they want is the ability to love freely and share the benefits and rights given to citizens of this country who are married.

HOW can this country allow people like Spencer and Heidi from The Hills, like people on that awful old Fox (which in and of itself is hilarious) reality TV show "Married By America", like those who get married just to stay in this COUNTRY--how are all of them ALLOWED when these people who actually love each other, cannot. I don't call this upholding the sacred sacrament of marriage.  These shows, these hodge-podged marriages make a mockery out of marriage--NOT two women or two men who love each other!

And how do your political and social ideologies allow you in good conscious to let 18,000 people get married but not anyone else that wants to?  It's heartless and unfair.  EARTH TO AMERICA -- HAVE YOU SEEN A FAIR GRANDFATHER CLAUSE BEFORE?  There's no such thing as "Separate but Equal"--and this is even worse.

To say I am upset is an understatement--this is a total disregard for a group that is a minority in this country when those of us in the majority have a CIVIC DUTY to ensure that those not in that majority are taken care for and governed the same way & equally.

I am ashamed of California & the people of that state--and ANY state--that find it their right to take away the rights of others.  SHAME ON YOU.

...Is this next hour of Twitter maitenence.  In an effort to try and make the hour without losing my mind, I am going to take my lunch break now (I mean, this totally wasn't...planned...in advance...or anything...)

See also hilarious quip of the day (feel free to RT @alicialutes if you think this shit is funny.  It is my dream to become a trending topic on twitter.  What?  Cue music narrating embarrassment and internet shame):

I want to have a live music/noodle cook-off. I will call it the "Rock Ramen-Off."

And his snarky rhetorialness towards idiot pageant girls is perfection:

I realize as an heir apparent to the millenials generation--as as my bosses at work ever-so-gently (sarcasm) drilled into my head at a meeting in February--the youth are starting to change.  (thank you, MGMT).

[Warning: this is all about to get a bit cliche and over-the-top.  Apologies for how uncool I seem in this moment.  But, I mean...come ON these were some CRAZY BITCHES & I love me some crazy; you know this.]

I'm always a little bit behind on the underground phenomena nowadays.  Cult classics seem to elude me until a few minutes before they become the "next big thing."  Such is the case with my current obsessions: The Ladies Beale.

From the documentary Grey Gardens, we are introduced to the incredibly complex and poetically tragic world of these two fallen socialites-turned-recluses.  Their fall is heartbreaking, yet their rebirth as the cult queens of fashion and hip-references that is currently surrounding them is incredible.  (You know Little Edie is, in a way, getting the life she always wished she had.)  I can't help but wonder whether or not there is some mental illness brewing here (I feel as though there has to be?) in order for such a crossover to occur, or if the poshest of the posh were really just this delusional that a fall from grace just transformed itself into this weird, quirky-madness?  The world may never know.  It's probably more magnetic and romatic this way, let's be honest.

These were two women so incredibly dependent on one another--so torturously attached--that your heart aches for them and the lives they once lived.  The chances Little Edie had when she was a beautiful young woman, the helplessness her mother was bred into having, then crafted and used to manipulate those around her.  She constant subtle jabs they both take at each other.  And how you watch this--and, in retrospect--really pull for Little Edie to get out of the hell that is falling down around them, even though you know (in the end) she never really does.

Little Edie also suffers from Alopecia; a condition that many would just throw off as something so "superficial" but women--especially in her time--are so purported by their beauty and their hair, that to lose it is almost to lose everything.  To see it unfold in the HBO version of their lives (also titled Grey Gardens) is painstaking a process--Little Edie's own disintegration mirrors what happens to the house in later days.  (Alopecia is something I know a lot about given a family member of mine's struggle with it, and I could only imagine how she handles it, too, as a woman.)  It is a heartbreaking external realization of all the stress Little Edie keeps inside.

This is not to say that she is totally not at fault in the situation, or that her mother is terribly evil; they are both products of their time and surroundings.  Even if the fact that they were Jackie O's cousins was taken out of the picture, they are still fantastical and over-the-top enough that it's an incredibly engaging story.  I am so utterly fascinated by the whole thing.  Their style, their actions, how these women--so used to the most opulent and extravagant aspects of life--can just become so comfortable in the house that is falling apart as much as their respective sanities.

I just purchased both the documentary & pre-ordered the HBO DVD; I highly suggest anyone interested in the stories of people to watch it.  I, as a writer, have always been extremely interested in the art of the character sketch--especially in the unfolding of the most quirky, unusual & unexpected characters--and that is exactly what this is.  Its unintentional poetic and visual eloquence is unparalleled.  And you, too, will fall in love with the ladies Beale.

It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present, you know?  Very difficult.