DAMage Report - The Right to Read

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-e-bertin/banned-books-week-still-n_b_302248.html

It is National Banned Books Week. No, I don't want you to go out and find a book that you would like to have pulled from the library shelves and tossed into the bonfire. There are enough people out there doing that already. In fact it looks like the trend is increasing, not decreasing. How damn scary is THAT? Now, in South Dakota, Utah and Arkansas they couldn't give a flying Huck Finn what you read. The remaining states are a different matter as the map shown in the link below indicates. The Northeast seem particularly protesty against "inappropriate" reading materials. http://bannedbooksweek.org/Mapofbookcensorship.html

Get this - there were more than 400 book challenges (requests for books to be banned) in 2007, 513 reported in 2008 and an on-going count in 2009, according to the American Library Association.

The most frequently challenged book on the ALA's list for the last three years was And Tango Makes Three, a children's book that tells the true story of two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who found an abandoned egg, hatched it, and nurtured the chick.

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn still ranks as one of the most commonly challenged books.

“Some people assume, book bannings happened in the ‘50s and ‘60s and they did,” Sandy Stuart-Bayer said. “But there are still book bannings going on today. ‘Twilight’ was banned, 'Harry Potter' was banned. This isn’t a new thing and unfortunatley, it doesn’t seem to be going away either.”

A list of Banned books including some recent surprising ones include:

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – banned 1984
American Heritage Dictionary -banned 1978 and 1987
Banned From Public Radio: Humor, Commentary and Smart Remarks Your Government DOESN'T Want You To Hear - 1991

The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To Read -1995
Catch 22 - thru 1979
Catcher in the Rye - perpetual banned
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment, Beauty's Release - banned 1992.
Daddy's Roommate - A favorite of censors
Decamerone - perpetual banned
Fahrenheit 451 - banned 1998
Forever - by Judy Blume - ban date not given but COME ON! Judy Blume?!?
Freedom and Order – banned by the U.S. Information Agency
Grapes of Wrath - perpetual banned

Literature in Society - dates not given but can you imagine?
Lord of the Flies - perpetual banned
Search for Truth in History - This video tape has already been banned in three countries.
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble - perpetual banned
The Valachi Papers - banned 1968

Some of these are ridiculous. However, the most ridiculous thing is that we have book bannings and burnings in 2009. Let me clarify something - we're not talking about protesting that erotica isn't on the shelves of middle school libraries.

A little common sense does come into play here. But protesting a children's book about gay penguins that adopt an egg AND is based on a real story, is the worst kind of censorship. It is demanding that personal agendas and tastes be imposed on everyone else - whether they like it or not.

DAMage Report - research links for today's topic

it's all about the banning and burning of books today

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-e-bertin/banned-books-week-still-n_b_302248.html

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/read-out.html

http://www.lsjournal.com/100/story/37448.html

list of popular banned books:

http://www.banned-books.com/bblista-i.html

http://therumpus.net/2009/09/banned-books-week/

A brief synopis of the 10 days of madness

Today marks the end to the climb to the top of the workload peak. Not that there isn't plenty left to do at work, but I hopefully will get more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night now and actually have a bit of free time once more. The last ten days has been a dervish whirl of activities as i ran around like a crazy woman. Here's a brief synopsis of what I did.

1. Number of bands and arts events photographed - 37

2. Number of hours worked - 140 (est. - i'm too bloody tired to actually run the numbers)

3. Number of times I tripped in public (only counting the times people actually SAW me trip) - 3

4. Number of out of town guests entertained - 2

5. Number of celebrities I met - 12 (i think... counting only those that are medium to high profile that i actually chatted with)

6. Number of concerts I MC'd - 1

7. Number of people I talked to - ermmmm.... hundreds

8. Number of people I kissed and hugged - uhhhh... hundreds? (So sue me - I hug everyone I talk to)

9. Number of alcoholic beverages consumed - 9

10. Number of sinful carb rich meals consumed - 12 (hey, i lost 3 pounds running around so I have noooo complaints! :P)

11. Number of trips to the gym - 1 (wincing)

12. Number of times someone flirted with me - 6 (well, 7 if you count the woman who spanked my butt as I walked past her)

13. Number of "boys" who asked for my phone number - 2

14. Number of "boys" who got my phone number - 1 (Only because once he accepted that I REALLY wasn't interested - my hysterical laughter clued him in - we became friends.)

15. Number of men who asked for my phone number - 3

16. Number of men who got my phone number - 0 :P

17. Number of photos taken - 1067

18. Number of times I looked like a drowned rat due to the rain - 4

19. Number of times I said or did something totally stoopid in public - ahhh, who keeps track

20. Number of times I danced my ass off - 1 (Kicked off the shoes and danced under the moon to Zydeco with my girlfriends - that totally rocked)

The entire experience - priceless. :D

I haven't disappeared - just working my tushie off

On the final stretch of this manic work schedule. On-site doing photoshoots so there won't be an Arts Day spot on the DAMage report until Sept. 30th.

Hanging with the Avett Brothers tonight - I really, really hope they cut off their long ZZ Top beards. Underneath all that hair are some cute guys. :D

Everyone keep your fingers crossed I don't do a backflip off the concert stages this time. Heh. No really. Cross those fingers!

Dance with the Angels Patrick....

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-swayzeappreciation15-2009sep15,0,7448371.story

My favorite movie of his will always be Roadhouse.

DAmage Research - Razing the Dead

**UPDATE** No show this week. Johnny has to hobble back to the knee Doc. Actually this works out great for me since i'm whimpering my own self to the dentist this morning with an abcessed tooth. Can you say fucking OW? I don't have time for annoying medical emergency crap. I have deadlines dammit!

Frida Kahlo despute

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/09/frida.html

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-kahlo6-2009sep06,0,6241110,full.story

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/21/art-forgery-frida-kahlo-fake

photos from the archive of work: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/09/frida-kahlo-archive.html#more

Not Endangered? Well hell, let's fix that!

Good article from Rob. http://jetl.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/gray-wolves-rebound-hunters-rejoice/

Honestly, I have no problem with hunting... for FOOD.

Shooting animals for sport - yeah, I have all kinds of problems with that.

Especially wolves.

I have never understood why mankind has had such a hard-on for wolves. The maniacal glee some take in destroying a species and stomping on the balance of nature totally baffles me.

There is enough evidence available to prove the intelligence of wolves and the fact that they will leave you the fuck alone if you don't wipe out their food source. What is so damn hard about respecting the right of a species to live?

I posted this somewhere previously but it warrents reposting along with this topic.

It hurts my heart every time i watch it. And shows that mankind has learned nothing... not a damn thing since lumbering out of the neanderthal caves.

We'll return to our regularly scheduled program...

no radio show today kiddies - the "Award Winning" DAMage Report and LAtalkRadio studios are moving to bigger and better digs today. I'm assuming if the bloody fires in LA don't get in the way.

Arts Day returns next week. Muwahhhhh!

The infamous escalator incident

Long time friends are familiar with my little... errmmm... incidents. I'm just the teeny, tiniest bit of a clutz at times and things just sorta happen. To me. Last October there was a particularly embarrassing one. I've actually done very good this year - only one almost fall on my ass in public scene when i slipped on a shrimp last June. I did the slippery banana peel dance but totally saved it by some fast tap dancing action. The applause was gratifying.

So I got a call last week to do an annual shoot of a big event. I thought after the escalater incident that they wouldn't be calling me back. Gawd, you gotta love short term memories. Or maybe they're calling me back BECAUSE i flashed a thousand people and still got the job done. :P

My first thought upon receiving the call was "I am soooooooo NOT wearing a long skirt this time."

This is why.... (reposted)

October 2008 - Last night I had another photoshoot - a three hour event in a location with two floors, packed with hundreds and hundreds (and freaking hundreds) of people. It's always a grueling shoot, trying to get the necessary photos for the client in a finite amount of time... and it's always HOT - racing around with my photo-assistant scrambling behind me. To help with the heat factor I decided to dress in a gauzy floor-length gypsy skirt and camisole to help keep me cool.

Toward the end of the evening I let my assistant go since I was nearly done and the poor darling was exhausted from chasing me all over the place. I got on the escalator to ride it down to the first floor to catch a few more photos of the bands down there and... the back of my skirt got sucked into the escalator step. It yanked the back of my skirt down past my ass, baring my butt to everyone. Why oh why did i wear a thong last night instead of good girl panties? >_<

I ripped the skirt free and hauled the elastic waist back up over my ass, juggling my camera and camera bag and yelling very unlady-like words. Something akin to M**ther-F**king-Sh*t-Son of a B*tch! Yeah... those were the words as I recall. Nicely professional.

The lady on the escalator behind me was laughing and said "If I'd had my cellphone camera out I could have made a fortune with that shot!"

Bitch.

Ruined a perfectly good skirt too. ~sulking~

Note to self: do not wear long skirts on photoshoots.

And burn my thongs.