Best Play of the Week!

Best Tweets of the Weekend!

RicDragon Ric Dragon

Why DOES my beard smell like coconut? RT @GoodMenProject Apparently the Old Spice Man needs to be slapped: http://bit.ly/bxre4G

 

feministhulk FEMINIST HULK

LONG WEEK OF SMASH LEAD TO WEEKEND OF LAUNDRY. POST-LAUNDRY, HULK UNWIND, WRITE SONGS ON GUITAR. WHAT RHYME WITH CIXOUS

 

DRUNKHULK DRUNK HULK

DRUNK HULK APPRECIATE POWDER DONUT MORE! IF IT NO MADE DRUNK HULK LOOK LIKE CHARLIE SHEEN IN RESTAURANT BATHROOM!

 

GoodMenProject The Good Men Project

Want to know the best way for a father to de-stress? Grab a broom: http://bit.ly/a9bywJ

 

neilhimself Neil Gaiman

RT @amandapalmer: it is indeed time to start the new book. @neilhimself is taking the plunge and Testing Pens. http://twitpic.com/34w1kv

 

washingtonpost The Washington Post

Want smarter kids? Make them study something—ONE thing—for a long time. washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content…

 

msmagazine Ms. Magazine

10 Ways to #Girls' Healthy Sexuality http://ow.ly/35cQI

 

HuffingtonPost Huffington Post

Stephen Colbert & Elvis Costello Sing A Lovely Duet (VIDEO) http://huff.to/aO32NJ

 

msmagazine Ms. Magazine

#Women declare war on #gender violence http://ow.ly/35M5C | via @ipsnews

 

msmagazine Ms. Magazine

#Women declare war on #gender violence http://ow.ly/35M5C | via @ipsnews

 

TheJackB TheJackB

Read this and try NOT to laugh. http://bit.ly/9VDYck"

 

SassyDarthVader Darth Vader

The Oakland Raiders are my favorite NFL team, for obvious reasons. But they play like fried dogshit. Love the outfits though!

 

GregTatum Greg Tatum

It's sad how bad the Cowboys are right now. Sad, but funny.

 

yonitdm Yonit de Metz

How smartphone users see each other, Android vs. BlackBerry vs. iPhone [COMIC] http://is.gd/gNnbI

How to Be a Stay-At-Home-Dad: Step 1

Some of my fellow daddy bloggers out there probably already know a bit about what it takes to be a Stay-at-home-dad (SAHD), but I've also heard from others like DaddyFiles that they just don't know how we manage it.  Joking about beer and hot wives aside, there are some important steps men need to take if they are considering being a SAHD.  The first one is the most important.

First, you have to realize that American concepts of what it is to "be a man" are social conventions.  Masculinity is not an objective concept: it has evolved and changed across history and today varies from country to country, state to state.  The "traditional gender roles" are societal constructions which an individual either buys into or does not.  I've seen any number of websites out there trying to tell us "what it means to be a man in today's world."  Though some are purely misogynist, others list things like "integrity," "honesty," "hard work," "humility," and any other number of virtues that are, when you really think about it, neither masculine nor feminine, but simply human.  When you choose to be a SAHD, you must embrace the concept of a deeper humanity which is more important and more basic than the socially constructed concepts of masculinity which have been laid on your shoulders because of the simple fact of living in this place at this time.  If you do not accept that gender roles are only social constructs and you still decide to be a SAHD, then you will not be living a life of integrity.  Your actions will not match your beliefs and you will suffer all the mental disorders that result from living in such a state of cognitive dissonance.  Only after you redefine your own role according to what you believe is the right thing for you as a human to do for your family in your given situation can you transcend the gender roles which have been imposed upon us all from without.  You can re-define your own masculinity accordingly.  I like to tell people who get on my case, "you be a man in your way, and I'll be a man in my way."

Choosing to be a SAHD is difficult because it challenges the accepted traditional gender stereotypes we have been conditioned to believe are somehow normative.  Many men and women will find their concepts of what it means to be male or female challenged by your decision.  I think this is a good thing.  The world will be a much better place when we all stop trying to impose our way of doing things on others for whom our way simply doesn't work.

Drawing from My Recent Past #1

I drew this after reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince while at our family reunion in July of 2005.  I imagined Harry as a teenager about to enter his 18th year, and he is tired of being everyone's whipping boy.  

I'm always a little too pleased with myself when I actually put in a background of some sort.  I prefer to just draw the character standing there looking grim and doing nothing without any setting or context whatsoever.  Having never seen the "dark mark" in the movies at this point, I used my eraser to quickly and simply draw something like what was described in the book.  My Hogwarts is pretty simple too.  Like I said, I don't draw backgrounds very often and have no experience whatsoever drawing architecture or ornamentation.

Drawing from My Distant Past #6

Here we have another dude I just thought up off the top of my head sometime in 1992 I think.  As you can see, I have introduced both ink and color to the mix, but still found it nearly impossible to draw a human face (nostrils?  Who needs 'em?).

After making a valiant attempt to draw one hand, I gave up on the other and put some kind of propulsion blast there instead.  After spending way too much time drawing all those little bumps under his right arm, I must have been really tired out, because I used the same propulsion blast trick on the entire lower body.  It must have been past my bedtime.

Memory Inventory: My First Role of Film

I asked and received a 35mm camera for my birthday in 1991.  I thought it was the best thing ever!  I immediately took a picture of our dog, Taffy, and forgot about the camera until the last day of school.  I was in eighth grade.  I have kept the book with the pictures from that first role of film ever since.  The pictures are terrible; nearly all of them are back-lit, but they continue to represent my middle-school years to me as I grow older.

My mother used the camera in May of that year to take pictures of the "May Crowning" ceremony.  I went to a Catholic K - 8 school in Woodbridge, VA.  Every May, there was a ceremony during which a couple eight graders placed a crown of flowers on a statue of Mary (the mother of Jesus for those of you who aren't sure who I'm talking about).  Janet and I had been voted May Queen and King by our classmates.  There was no campaign - one morning the teacher just told everyone they were to vote.  The impression I got was that we were to vote for whoever we thought was the most goody-two-shoes.  I had never been voted anything before at all, and didn't know what my classmates thought of me (I figured they just thought I was a nerd).  Apparently, they thought I was a good kid (and a nerd).  Honestly, I was touched and surprised. 

After that, I made sure to bring the camera and its remaining pictures to the last day of school.  I took a few pictures of friends, the "cool" nun (there should always be one cool nun to remind you that not all nuns are hateful women whose faces break into a thousand angry pieces every time they attempt to smile), and then I handed it over to my mother again for the graduation ceremony.

Most of the pics from the ceremony are too far away to tell what's going on.  If you squint, you can see me and Jen standing to the side of the entire class to sing our duet during the class song ("Wind Beneath My Wings" - she sang alto, I sang soprano.  Don't worry, withing four months my voice had changed and I was belting church songs in my current baritone).  But at the reception afterward, we managed to get a a picture of me and Mrs. Baily, the choir teacher and my voice coach.

Towards the end of seventh grade, Mrs. Baily, after what could only have been a frustrating attempt to teach our class to sing "What a Wonderful World," talked to me after the class and had me sing a few lines all by myself.  The next thing I knew, I was practicing for a solo.  After that, I took voice lessons from her for the next year or so.  She taught me how to sing properly and how to sing in front of people.  That year's worth of lessons, during which she guided me from a seventh grader who sang soprano to a high school freshman with a decent baritone has remained with me to this day.  I've probably picked up a few bad habits since then.  I haven't had a voice lesson since she moved away shortly after I started high school.  Coffee and beer and city pollution have certainly diminished my vocal capacity in recent years.  But I still love to sing.  I thought I did a pretty good job at my grandmother's funeral last year.  I have Mrs. Baily to thank for that.  I have no idea where she is now.  I'm certain she went on to draw out the giftedness of other young people.  How could she not?  It was part of who she was.

It's like some kind of nightmare!

I just found the following words on the care label of a sweater I had to wash and IT IS MY SWEATER:  "reshape and lay flat to dry"!?!  How have I been living like this for all these years.  Who gave me this sweater?  Surely, I would never have purchased a sweater with these most hateful of care instructions!  What kind of a person would ever give a super-thick, knit turtleneck sweater that you have to lay out on towels for two to three days to a guy like me?  Someone diabolical, that's who!  Ooooh!  If only I could remember who gave this to me, I would definitely dedicate a few more paragraphs in this blog to shame them for their folly!  As it stands, I'll have to settle for taking this sweater to Goodwill... in two or three days after it dries.