hot pants college II

"No, seriously, at some point, Mr. AMC said something like, “Just how far will these people go to land the account, next on The Pitch?” and I’m pretty sure my soul briefly left my body."

"Making music for a living isn’t easy. Many things about it are tough as hell: The touring and its requisite absences; the self-absorption; the occasional financial insecurity; the mood swings one attributes to the “artistic personality.” This life, however, is what I was made for. This calling is the only one I’ve ever known. I’m not curing cancer or solving the global hunger crisis. I’m making music. But there is a certain hazy nobility in that vocation. Somewhere, an 11-year-old kid may be putting on an album of mine and discovering that the universe isn’t a meaningless jumble of coincidences, that there is purpose to be found in these three-minute constructions of music and lyrics. Some small but elegant meaning."

"So just out of curiosity, are you picturing Gwyneth as a single mother getting home after a 12-hour shift at the local factory or dealing with asshole customers all day? Do you see her letting out an exasperated sigh as she realizes that her day isn’t done because she still has to cook dinner, go over homework with the kids, do the dishes, start the laundry and clean the house? Are you picturing her falling onto the couch in total exhaustion, too tired to even make it to the bedroom?"

"Sleeping in your childhood bedroom and having your parents take care of you is always a nice fantasy when you’re in your 20s, but at some point, that fantasy has to end, and you have to get back to the process of playing at being a grown-up. Not everything will fit, and maybe someday you go back to the life you once led. But you have to try. You have to give it that shot. This episode so richly evokes that feeling—one that I’ve had so, so many times—that it would have had to have been a lot sloppier to fail. Fortunately, it’s just about perfect."

"Nobody – and I mean nobody in this entire vast universe – has the final word on what you create. Nobody can pass a writ, write a law, emboss a seal, that says “This painting, this poem, this photo, sucks and, furthermore, so does this person.” There are no acting police, watercolor Gestapo, or board certification processes for your creative spirit."

"Under Bush, the federal government spent almost nothing ($25 million) this year on stem cell research, a policy that’s entirely informed by the bizarre belief in a God who has a white beard, lives in heaven, and hates the idea of stem cell research. The reality is this: There are over 100 million Americans (most of them Christian) whose lives would be improved or saved by therapies and treatments that could be developed through stem cell research. The federal government, however, holds the opinion that God should not be deprived of worship from the souls that are supposedly housed in the miniscule cells of five-day-old embryos. Realizing this is just plain stupid (or country, an archaic synonym for stupid that should be revived in our post-2004 election world), California’s citizens—its urban citizens—passed Proposition 71, which would allocate for research nearly $300 million a year over the next 10 years. This figure, $300 million, is three times larger even than what John Kerry proposed, and promises to bring the benefits of this new science to all Americans before the close of this decade. Clearly the federal government is no longer the enforcer of reason, the cities are, we urbanites are."

"We officially no longer give a shit when family farms fail. Fewer family farms equal fewer rural voters. We will, however, continue to support small faggy organic farms, as we are willing to pay more for free-range chicken and beef from non-cannibal cows."

"It’s very disheartening when we have to see animals die this way,” she said. “I hope it’s a teaching moment for people because we really owe it to wildlife to do the right thing if we’re going to live near them."

"Heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual: Jesus could have been any of these. There can be no certainty which. The homosexual option simply seems the most likely. The intimate relationship with the beloved disciple points in that direction. It would be so interpreted in any person today. Although there is no rabbinic tradition of celibacy, Jesus could well have chosen to refrain from sexual activity, whether he was gay or not. Many Christians will wish to assume it, but I see no theological need to. The physical expression of faithful love is godly. To suggest otherwise is to buy into a kind of puritanism that has long tainted the churches."

"how much you like Girls entirely depends on how much tolerance you have for the deep well of humor that can be found in grating and pathetic behavior, and how much you enjoy recognizing that in yourself (the answer for me is a whole bunch). But I do think they say something interesting about male and female anti-heroes, and why we have a bunch of the former and almost none of the latter."