Kay Hanley

Houndstooth Radio DJ extraordinaire Angie C and I get together several times a week while our kids are at school and sit at my kitchen table with our laptops.  We work, drink tea, gossip and generally goof off.  This week as she broadcasted her show live from my kitchen, I decided that she needed a theme song for her show.  As far as I was concerned, the more ridiculous the better.  I think at first, Angie was hoping for something a bit cooler but eventually she agreed that a theme song from her Muthuh’s POV with lyrics about scratch tickets, Mahblehead and Auntie Junie was an excellent idea.

So here is Angie’s theme song, directed and edited by Zoe Mabel.  Enjoy!

Then to dump sugar on the awesome cake, one of Angie’s + my top Twitter crushes, Shane Nickerson decided to do his own version.  ZOMG!!!!

 Overall, this week was chock full off silliness but the big news for me was the discovery that if you do a Google image search for “liberal assholes” you get this: 

 The photo was taken by Zoe Mabel and originally appeared in my 2008 blog titled “Chardonnay Swilling Liberal Elitists.” Obviously, Conroy and I are giddy.  This image appears TWICE before you even get to one of Sean Penn.  SUCK IT Sean Penn!

xok 

The adorable Trent from Pink Is The New Blog texted me earlier to ask for a picture of me with the I Voted sticker on for his voter photo series.  I’m so glad that he did because I definitely wouldn’t have thought to document this moment on my own. 

When I emailed him the picture, which was of me and Zoe Mabel, I had to mention what this election means to both of us. 

My parents brought me and my sisters to the voting booth.  My Dad always worked for local candidates in Boston and my Mom was a pro-life activist (no, that’s not a mistake) so my formative years were spent completely immersed in the true blood sport of Boston  politics.  I have followed American politics with love, disgust, excitement, anger and most of all (hopefully) respect my whole life.

In turn, USA Mike and I have always brought OUR kids to the polls.  I don’t think Zoe Mabel has ever missed an election in her 9 young years.  This year was especially meaningful, though.  She decided that Barack Obama was her guy last year (no surprise there) and followed the primary season indepently all the way up to the DNC.  We watched the convention every single night and she (along with conroy) cried when Obama delivered his speech.  I am not even kidding.  

Obama’s name on the ballot would have been enough to get her stoked about the election but then she got wind of something else:  Proposition 8.  A ballot initiative asking for an amendment to the Constitution of the state of California that would ban gay marriage.

Being from Massachusetts, we know several gay couples that are married, most notably our friends Brian and Charlie Moore-Ward, whom Z has known her whole life.  Many of our dearest friends here in Los Angeles are gay and nobody, including our children has ever thought anything of it.  

 So when Zoe got wind of Prop 8 she was quite literally shocked and saddened that anybody would want to inflict such insult and/or pain on so many of the people that are important in our lives.  Honestly, I do not have the stomach to even try to explain why such a point of view would exist in this world, so I don’t except to say that any idiot can get a stupid initiative onto a California ballot and maybe it was a horrible mistake.  No matter, I will tell you this:  An activist has been born.

 Alright.  Conroy’s here and we all know what that means.  The polls are beginning to close all over the United States Of America.  Godspeed, Mr. Obama.

It appears that many of us find Barack Obama just delightful!  In fact,  earlier this evening Conroy & I poured ourselves the finest California Chard that Long’s Drug had to offer, gathered around the old teedle vee and just enjoyed the heck out of everything Presid..oops! Senator Obama had to say as he gave his parting oration at the Democratic National Convention.   If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that I was watching God himself, but we liberal elitists know that such occult beliefs are absurd distractions, meant to soothe and sedate a lesser form of humanity than ours.  But just for fun, let’s characterize his appearance as God-esque!  He was simply marvelous.  That is all I am trying to express.

That Mr. Obama really knows how to get the audience going and gosh darn it, we would really like to see a man of such bold charisma and clear intellectual superiority be the President.  He reminds me of the commanding Chalupa Gordito, conductor of the Machu Picchu Philharmonic (where we had the most amusing holiday a few years back on the advice of our dear friends, Howard Zinn and Al Franken) or some rockstar - like The Bono!  

Our only hope is that those inconsiderate Republicans don’t come after Mr. Obama and besmirch his upstanding character, because that would be terribly disappointing to us and could also ruin his chances to do something really terrific with our fine country, The United States Of America!  

 pass the fucking grey poupon, mr. cheney.  now.

* photo credit: zoe mabel

xok 

Conroy called me this afternoon.  Like most of my non - face to face interaction with close personal friends, Conroy and I keep our daily chit chat as efficient as possible. We text (i.e. omg!!! andre 3000 at studio city trader joes! wearing suspenders and a straw hat!!!!!).  If I get a call from him during the day, which I hardly ever do, it usually has to do with CNN alerts (that go straight to his phone because he is a dork and i mean that as a compliment), usually of a wonky, political nature.  American politics is pretty much my favorite topic of conversation no matter how arcane, so I always pick up.  When I answered the phone today I was expecting an outraged kerfuffle about the dissenting opinions on the Supreme Court decision regarding Gitmo.  Or something like that.  Right now, I wish that I had been right.

conroy:  ”i just got a cnn alert.  i think tim russert is dead.  he collapsed at nbc’s washington bureau” 

me: “what???!!!”

conroy: “…………”

me: “…………”

Frankly,  I was surprised by how hard it was for me to hear this news.  The first thing I thought about was Mr. Russert’s sign off on Meet The Press last weekend when he gave a proud shout out to his son Luke to congratulate the boy on his graduation from Boston College.  In true Russert style, the moment was brief, to the point and with no self aggrandizement.   I then began to think about the amazing interviews that he was on the receiving end of as he promoted the book that he wrote about his dad, Big Russ, who has now outlived him.  I have no idea where the feeling came from, but I started crying.

What a terrible loss.  On so many levels.  Tim Russert was one of the best that American journalism had to offer.  His interviews with political figures could always be counted on for unparalleled substance and depth.  His unabashed adoration and respect for his family gave him a humanity that engendered trust from his audience and admiration from his peers.  Like most grown ups, he approached our rapidly changing society and world with common sense so rarely reflected in today’s political coverage.  His journalistic ethos transcended the mindless chest thumping that has turned most political debate into shrill, partisan ghettos.  

My only hope is that the loss of Tim Russert will be instructive.  I hope that American journalists will take this opportunity to look at how they have failed us in recent history.  It is now time to reinvigorate the standards that our journalists were once known for and to uphold the uncompromising character that seemed so effortless in the hands of a guy who passionately loved to find truth in an arena that hates to reveal it.

-xok