(no subject)

So I hopped over a couple of borders to attend the carnival in Venice. I took about a million photos, and I'll post them over the next few days. The first batch is the Farewell to Meat itself in all its glory: the pageantry, the colors, the masks! A lot of these are from the San Marco Square, which is the golden heart of the carnival, an amazing spectacle that I was afraid would be this super-touristy super-commodified space, and of course there were tons of tourists, but it also somehow transcended that--there were there were all these people in insane outlandish costumes, like living moving statues, but walking around, and also people in just masks and these inbetween costumes, and lots of punks and hippies and old ladies in masks and fully-costumed ladies in wheelchairs, and nuns, both costumed and real. And it was super-sunny and some lovely live music was playing, and people were throwing confetti everywhere, and all in all it was total effervescence. It was actually the one place that seemed totally noncommodified. No one was trying to sell anything, people were just gawking and taking pictures and spontaneously waltzing, and lots of thrilled kids!












( so much more )

bonus: my lovely companions, olamina and her Captain:

yes, he really said that

State Sen. Dave Schultheis restated his opposition to a bill requiring HIV tests for pregnant women by claiming that infected babies would cause families to “see the negative consequences of that promiscuity.”

The Colorado Springs Republican with a penchant for foot-in-mouth moments tells The Rocky Mountain News in a follow-up story to Wednesday’s Senate floor controversy:

“What I’m hoping is that, yes, that person may have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby and when they grow up, but the mother will begin to feel guilt as a result of that,” he said. “The family will see the negative consequences of that promiscuity and it may make a number of people over the coming years begin to realize that there are negative consequences and maybe they should adjust their behavior.”

Black Swan Green

David Mitchell really likes his intertextuality! I am three quarters of the way through "Black Swan Green" and ( spoilers )