weapons of massdistraction

Well heck. There may be more “no school” days ahead for my son, and not because of the weather. Or Presidents’ Day on Monday. Later this month St. Paul public school teachers will decide whether to go on strike. for the first time in more than six decades. I received the heads up in an email from the district. Letting me know that if a strike occurs our summer plans may be impacted, if the school year needs to be extended. But I just got our summer plans sorted! Figures. Oh and speaking of summer plans, I kinda envy the kids who will be having Adventures in Cardboard.

Five good things:

• I enjoy a good palindrome. Like TACO CAT. But Paris-based graphic designer Yann Pineill takes it to a whole new level. Their “palindromic short film, Symmetry, is impressive because it succeeds in presenting a mirrored narrative that progresses organically whether watched from the beginning, from the middle, or reversed from the end.” Yup. Pretty neat.
• Many years ago I was lucky enough to visit Morocco. But I didn’t see any badass all-female motorbike gangs when I was there! Thankfully there is photographer Hassan Hajjaj and his “Kesh Angels” series. So good. This winter has gotten me down but I was inspired by him, and his subjects. So I decided to host a “Middle East meets Midwest mezze brunch” soon.
• Like many others I recently posted about that little from the gender neutral 1981 LEGO Ad. Well, someone found her and now she Is All Grown Up, and She’s Got Something to Say. She reinforces the message that children haven’t changed. We have. In the that way our culture has allowed gender segmented marketing to creep into the toy market. Sickening.
• When I was a kid I remember all generations of the family gathering around to enjoy the Carol Burnett show. I got a little teary-eyed when I read An open letter to Carol Burnett. What a lovely response from the grand dame herself!
• Old news, but I’m just seeing it now and it cracked me up: Guy Dresses Up as Facebook Users and Sends them Friend Requests. Silliness.

The winter Olympics - the most expensive Games in history - are in full swing and I am fully conflicted about it. The host country routinely violates human rights. Right now the IOC is acting on abuses directly related to workers who built Olympic venues and infrastructure. And of course Russia adopted that dreadful yet vague discriminatory anti-gay law. But the athletes involved in the games trained for years not knowing what countries they’d end up competing in, if they made it into the games. So I’m allowing myself to watch bits and pieces. Like this video, made by an athlete: Luge Olympian Matt Mortensen Takes GoPro On His Run And It’s Awesome (and terrifying). But I’m keeping my coverage balanced. As a die-hard Kids In The Hall fan, I could hardly contain myself when I heard that Buddy Cole is covering Sochi for The Colbert Report.