Meet the 'California Gays'.

As far as I can tell, Katy Perry’s ‘California Gurls’ is the jam of the summer.

I want to be clear that I’m not saying it captures the cultural zeitgeist of 2010 or anything — it’s just the song that America has collectively decided to bore into our collective skulls for the moment. And why not? It has Snoop Dog and manages to steal from both the Beach Boys and Big Star in one sugary swoop. The fact that the video features a naked Perry surrounded by orgasming streams of cotton candy might have something to do with its popularity as well.

The real sign that the song’s a huge hit is the number of parody videos that have sprung up. There’s one for Wisconsin, one for Jersey, Milwaukee gets in on the act and there’s even a parody for California. The most popular parody, (at least based on the number of times it keeps showing up in my Facebook feed) however is Ryan James’ “California Gays.”

Instead of doing something useful with my day, I chatted up GOOD’s information architect, John Durkin about the video, what it says about the gays and what this video means for the future of humanity: continue »

Miles of Bravo's "Work of Art: The Search for the Next Great Artist"

When I first heard about Bravo’s latest reality offering, Work of Art: The Search for the Next Great Artist, in which a bunch of hipster artistes compete against each other for big big prizes, I died a little inside. The fact Sarah Jessica Parker was producing didn’t help much.

However, I gave the show a shot because a.) I am attracted to damaged artsy people and b.) I like to think of myself as damaged and artsy as well. In other words, I’m a hipster and I’m glad I did, because last night, the show offered up the most fascinating and interesting episode of reality TV I’ve ever seen. continue »

This week’s bizarre scene of U.S. and Russian spies being traded on a tarmac in Austria is just the latest in a string of surrealistic images that have marked a year in which we’ve seen the Gulf transformed into a rainbow-hued oil slick, political candidates alluding to taking back the government forcibly with arms and an economy on life support, with those in charge of its welfare arguing whether or not to pull the plug.

While politicos, media pundits and economists debate the number of angels standing on a pin, most Americans are wondering about the fundamentals of our democracy and our capitalist society.

In short, we’re in the midst of a great national freak out, a collective anxiety attack that threatens to shake our collective faith in the ability of this country to confront and solve the problems it’s facing.

What we need to do is to take a deep breath. We’re not in the midst of collapse; we’re in the midst of reinvention. continue »

Barack Obama on Tuesday.

There’s a giant glob of oil in my Kool-Aid.

Like many of the young voters who helped catapult Barack Obama to the White House, I have a growing sense that the President (my President) is hopelessly out of touch, no matter how many twitters, Facebook posts and email newsletters he sends my way.  Minutes after the President’s first Oval Office address, like clockwork, I got my pep talk email from Mitch Stewart, Director of Organizing for America, subject line:  ”Japhy, will you stand with the President?”

Mitch and I are great friends, even if the relationship is a bit one-sided. Mitch emails me every time the President has a major policy address or is about to pass some major legislation and he reminds me of how awesome Barack Obama is (“The President presented a vision of a future where we as a nation are not held hostage by our dependence on fossil fuels”) and then Mitch asks me if I’ll sign a petition saying, ‘Yes, I think Barack Obama is awesome.’ If I do sign the petition, I’m asked nicely if I’d like to donate to the DNC, which I never do because I’m poor and hate political parties.

But I like Barack Obama. Or, at least I used to. continue »

Tea Party Approved: Steve Poizner

With its status as entertainment capital of the world, California has had a good run of making its elections as entertaining as say, a CW teen drama or maybe a late-night FX comedy.

Most everywhere else, voting is a series of bond measures and series of unimportant offices vied for by diligent public sector employees and the occasional local businessperson.

California however,  knows how to put on a show. Porn stars, actors, politicians who operate under the delusion that they are Bruce Wayne (Sorry, Gavin!) and a cast of every crank this side of Fresno enliven our political debate.

Demon sheep and anti-immigrant rhetoric fill the airwaves and thanks to a government-crippling ballot initiative system, we get to weigh in on everything from marijuana legalization and gay marriage to which energy conglomerate gets to rape us first.

But even the most vote-happy of us can get bored at times (especially when you know that no matter who wins, the state is going nowhere fast), which is why as I headed to the polls today, I decided to vote as if I were a Tea Partier. And let me tell you, it felt great. continue »