— Underworld by Don DeLillio isn’t just good. It’s scary-good. I can’t even describe my response to this guy’s prose. It’s beyond good. It’s not pretentious, or lofty – On the contrary. It is weighty with emotion, with heart. His writing is beyond good.
— This is one of the most amusing photos I’ve seen in a long while. She just looks … completely insane. Like .. what? Uhm … you are a LUNATIC.
— An entire article devoted to why the murder trial of Robert Blake is NOT the trial of the century. How boring – to have it be your job to analyze this. It seems self-evident. It also seems disgusting. A woman is dead, for God’s sake.
— Slowly making my way through Eminem’s latest. Haven’t listened to the whole thing yet – but I just want to give him a huge kiss for sampling my favorite Heart song: “Crazy On You”. Brilliant.
— I am very excited to see the movie Kinsey, for multiple reasons. One is that I have always been a big Liam Neeson fan. The guy’s a great actor – and advance word about his role in this is that it is some of his best work yet. I am also excited to see it because I hope the film is a hit, and I would like to contribute to its being a hit. Why do I feel invested in its success? Because – it is my hope that every ticket bought for this film will make some “moral-values” type lose sleep. They’re all up in arms about this movie, predictably, informing all of us how bad Kinsey was, lecturing all of us about how he contributed to the downfall of our society. Or whatever it is they’re saying. I love it when those “moral values” idiots get their panties in a wad. But I mostly love it when I get to contribute to their discomfort. The movie is probably GREAT if they’re whining so loudly about it. And even if it SUCKS, I’m going to rave about how awesome it is. Just to piss them off.
— The writing for this book review is laugh-out-loud funny. I can’t excerpt it, because of my blushing-flower persona, but I’m tellin’ ya. I guffawed over here reading the line about Karl Marx. Heh heh heh
— Back to Eminem now. “Mockingbird” is a really touching song. “Just Lose It” is hilarious. One of those call-to-dance songs – like “Without Me” was. A bar could be DEAD, and someone would put on “Without Me”, and suddenly everyone’s bopping around in their seats. I’m remembering a certain dead evening at The Ocean Mist, in particular. A freezing wintry night on the beach. People drinking quietly, talking, etc. We put on “Without Me”, and all hell broke loose. As I recall, a disco ball even began to spin about randomly. In a dingy fisherman’s bar of all places. But it seemed appropriate. Old fuddy-duddies would dance to “Without Me” – they would not be able to help themselves – and “Just Lose It” is the “Without Me” of this new album.
Update: I just realized that this entire post would probably seem like one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse to the “moral values” crowd. A harbinger of doom and universal destruction. Didn’t realize it until I saw it all put together.
It was quite unconscious, I assure you. Seems rather amusing, actually. Eminem? Kinsey? A review of a book teaching orgasm-technique? That Sheila is such a HUSSY! What is this world coming to????? I can hear the galloping hooves now …
You should read Judith Riesman’s book, “Kinsey, Sex and Fraud,” and James H. Jones biography of Kinsey before lionizing the degenerate. The sexual abuse of children that Kinsey either participated in or oversaw under the guise of “research” was inhumane and criminal. It’s not beyond the pale to compare Kinsey’s experimentation in the name of science with Josef Mengele’s. It’s unfortunate that an artist of the stature of Liam Neeson has associated himself with this project.
Um, I was going to go all fan-girly on Liam Neeson (I even saw “SATISFACTION,” for God’s sake, because, LIAM! NEESON!, people! Big, tall, strapping Irishman? Yes, please.)
But then I read the above comment and now I’m all, “Ew.” Bummer.
Anna Nicole Smith – Comedic genius…
I’m still laughing!
Ah…Marx…
I’m sure anyone who has read this blog in anything but a cursory manner will gather that I’m not a big fan of Marx. So, to my infinite enjoyment, Sheila pointed out a book review in Slate that makes appropriate…
Papayas are not Erotic and Kate Spade Won’t Bring You Happiness
I bookmarked this How to be a Happy Woman post a while ago (which I found through Sheila) and forgot to blog about. Reading this post at Sheila’s this morning made me remember the happy woman thing, if for no…
Thank you VERY much for that link to the book review! The syllogism to prove that one is a great thinker and the image of performing cunnilingus while listening to Mahler’s Second Symphony made me laugh out loud.
Phil:
I am searching and searching and searching for where in my post I “lionized” Kinsey. Hmmm. Can’t seem to find evidence of it.
I’m going to see Kinsey 4 times. Just for you.
Bryan – I know, totally. HAHAHA
Hilarious.
I think Phil has a point. If it were just about sexy vs. non-sexy, the sexually liberated vs. the sexually repressed, I’d agree with you. Be a hussy all you want. Power to the hussies.
But child rape isn’t sexy. It looks like he was a child rapist on par with the vilest Catholic priests. It’s sad that in order to gain our sexual freedom someone as sick as Kinsey has to be the point man.
Now you may disagree that those books are an accurate characterization of him. But that’s not what you did in your post.
So I guess I need to see it 5 times now. One time for you as well, Steve.
Listen, folks, I haven’t seen the movie yet. I do not “lionize” a damn thing.
And just know this about me, if you haven’t figured it out yet:
Even just the TERM “moral values” is a huge red flag in my mind. I can’t stand the term, and how it has been hijacked, and what it has come to mean because of that hijacking.
If you don’t like it, don’t read the blog. I’m serious.
I dunno…I tend to be kind of a “moral values” type, at least for myself, and the only thing in your post that suggested Horsemen of the Apocalypse to me is the return of Anna Nicole.
Kinsey’s work creeped me out, but I don’t think the movie about him should be banned or anything. It’s my choice not to go to it.
Anna Nicole Smith is, indeed, a sign of the approaching apocalypse.
I have values. I have morals. But it’s the moral-values (with the little trademark sign I don’t know how to do) that I don’t like.
It means something different. It’s a way to frame a political debate. It’s exclusionary. And it excludes me, and many of the people I love.
So I’m not on board with the Trademark version of “moral values”.
It took me a while to find it, but I did write a rant on moral scolds a while back. I had to close comments because of the general rudeness of all of them. Interesting and sad: it was the people who obviously felt that they were somehow my moral superior who were completely lacking in any manners or civility.
Anyway. Enough of this nonsense. Let’s get back to the good stuff.
Eminem and Anna Nicole. And Robert Blake.
Brava Sheila!
Well, Alex, you know me! And you know how “sexy” I find “child rape” …
Uhm – WHAT?
Logically, I’d hope everyone has “moral values”. If you have values that you don’t think are moral, you’ve got to be really twisted.
Of course, you’re right, Sheila, like many phrases usurped on the right and the left, you can’t use plain language any more without someone inferring something other than what you meant.
Sheila-
I didn’t say that you had lionized Kinsey, and I didn’t intend for you to take the comment as a personal criticism. What I said is that you should read the two works I mentioned before doing so. Jones’ book is the most exhaustive biography of Kinsey yet written and was nominated for a National Book Award.
Riesman’s work is a thorough examination of Kinsey’s sampling and testing methodology, amonf other aspects of his work. I plan to go see the movie myself. Everything I have seen and read about the movie leads me to believe, however, that the film whitewashes the extent to which Kinsey’s “science” was rooted in his need to produce a rationale for his own perverse nature. Continuing to utilize the “research” created by the sexual abuse of children is no different in kind than using the testing done in the death camps as the basis for scientific conclusions.
I understand that in the wake of the election, the term “moral values” has become ubiquitous. However, that term appears nowhere in either my post or Steve’s. It seems to me that your reaction to our posts is more in keeping with the “moral scolds” you dislike than anything he or I said. That’s disappointing to me, because I do enjoy reading your blog, and I like learning your enthusiasms and I appreciate your sensiblity. I apologize if you thought anything I said was a criticism of you.
Best-
Phil Melton
Phil –
Well, then I wasn’t addressing my “moral scold” rant at you then, was I?
And I have no idea what made you think I might be a “temperate” person. I don’t mean to be rude, but I am a hothead, and the family-values moral-values crew piss me off and offend me on a personal level. I will attack them any time I can. I will attack them gleefully. Fuck THEM is my attitude.
They make me want to have a big gay marriage on the lawn of City Hall, with drag queens as my bridal party.
But again – I never addressed the post to you, personally. It was my own “intemperate” rant at the folks bitching and moaning about the downfall of “morals” in our society.
I don’t know much about Kinsey and I am interested to learn more … but if you read your comment again – well, I just read it again and it still sounds like you are warning me against “lionization” that I am already doing. Whatever, you’re entitled to your opinion and you obviously know more about the guy than I do.
I have no opinion about Kinsey. I love Liam Neeson, I love Condon (the director) and I’m excited to see the film.
My rant within the comments had to do with the hijacking of two lovely words: “morals” and “values”. And now what they have come to mean exclude many people I hold dear – some of the nicest people on the face of the planet – dear friends:
— my many gay friends
— my gay friends who are married and cannot have their marriage recognized
— one of my best friends who is trangendered and been married to the same woman for 25 years – yet it’s not “legal”.
You know what? FUCK THAT. And FUCK THOSE who want to keep those people from being married.
So you come to the wrong blog if you’re looking for temperance, Phil. You’re just picking up on this now?
And damn straight I will “scold” the “moral scolds” right back in their faces. I can’t stand their sanctimonious ranting. If the shoe fits, Phil, wear it – if it don’t fit then don’t wear it.
And lastly, I am still angry about Steve’s line:
“Child rape isn’t sexy.”
No shit, sherlock, and the fact that you would feel the need to inform me of that pisses me off. You have no idea who I am if you feel the need to remind me of this. Why would you ever fucking think that I thought it WAS sexy?
This isn’t about “sexy” and what is or not “sexy”. If you look at what I actually wrote, I didn’t say: Whoo-hoo, I am excited to go see this really SEXY MOVIE about Kinsey! I did not say that. You’re hearing shit I did not say – the knee-jerk reaction from those goldurn words “moral values”.
That’s what happens when regular old language is hijacked. That’s what pisses me off, and that’s what I’m responding to here.
I received some counterpropaganda at the newspaper complete with a videotape and “fact sheet” on how Kinsey exploited small kids, infants even, for his research. Even if it’s true, I’m leery of having any kind of moral outrage at science at this point in history. As if it would kind of put me on the bad team…
About whitewashing Kinsey’s research:
Sometimes that stuff bugs me and sometimes it does not. It depends. For example: I love Nixon. I could not care less if half of it didn’t happen. I just love the MOVIE as a MOVIE.
But sometimes it really bugs me.
In the case of A Beautiful Mind, for example. They left out his homosexuality – which seemed quite cowardly – and they also left out the fact that his wife was from El Salvador, I believe – they changed her, miraculously, into Jennifer Connelly – and what else bummed me out … Oh, they made it seem like a great love affair could cure schizophrenia. When the reality was (and please realize I am not an expert – it’s just that I read the book … that’s where I get the information from) … They were separated for many many years. He lived his life as a schizophrenic homeless man with a penchant for young men (not children or teenagers, but certainly way younger than himself). Finally – Alicia decided that she would step up to the plate, and she let her crazy husband stay in her house as a boarder. This was how he got his life back on track. He started hanging out at Princeton again, etc. etc. because of the safe haven she provided him. She cooked for him, kept him clothed, made sure he got home at night … This was not a husband-wife love-story – she became his caretaker. So the big “Love has saved my life” Nobel prize speech (which never happened) kind of pissed me off.
Not totally pissed me off – but a bit.
Because, in reality, I found the REAL story to be wayyyyy more interesting than Ron Howard’s cleaned-up version.
Hey Red… I’m a little behind on this thread, but I only just now saw a trailer and read some “buzz” about the Kinsey movie.
I really want to see it because it looks to be a really good movie and I do think Condon is pretty brilliant.
But it also does look like Kinsey was a very bad man, about which we will apparently not hear in his movie.