Censorship Comes Between Me & My Calvins

I am not a prude. I am not a prude. I am not a prude. I am not a prude. I am not a prude. I am not a prude. I am not a prude. I am not a prude. I am not a prude.

That said, this CK Jeans ad gives me the heebeejeebees. Not because it's overly sexy. Perhaps because it's trying to be sexy and it doesn't give me that vibe. All that skin and pffft for me. Oh, let's not forget the oil and water with which the models were sprayed.

As in the Eva Mendes affair, this commercial has been banned in the U.S. We have been undone by cleavage and nipples again! (We should just remove nipples at birth since they're so offensive!)

In spite of all the nipplage, I don't quite think this ad works in the way Eva's does. Maybe because she's an actress, she knows how to draw on something from the inside, instead of just posing. Anyway, you can decide for yourself by taking a look-see at the uncensored version over at wwd.com.

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Censorship Comes Between Me & My Calvins

The Murder of Oscar Grant

Imagine you're laying on the ground, face down, unarmed and posing no threat. Imagine a police officer pulls his gun on you, even though you're not doing a thing, and you've been cooperating for the past 30 minutes. Imagine you've got a 4-year-old daughter waiting at home for you. Imagine the cop shoots and kills you without provocation. That's what happened to 22-year-old Oscar Grant on New Year's Eve in Oakland, California. That's what I call murder. And if it had happened in the reverse, that's what the district attorney would be calling it too.

So, here we are, almost two weeks later, and the murderous officer hasn't been arrested, charged or even questioned. He quit the force and won't say a peep. Did I mention that the murder was captured live from several video sources? What does it take, Oakland?

Color of Change is demanding that California Attorney General Jerry Brown take over the case and arrest Grant's killer, and is also asking that the US Department of Justice launch an independent investigation into the conduct of the local authorities. You can join them in this fight for justice.

Unfortunately, Oakland has been running a fire sale on the lives of Black men for almost 20 years. Oscar Grant is the third man murdered by BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police in the past 17 years. In each case, BART and county authorities have failed to hold the officers accountable.¹

In the previous cases, BART's internal investigations concluded that the officers felt threatened by the victims and were justified in pulling the trigger. Apparently, being Black and male is a threat.

• In 1992, 19-year-old Jerrold Hall was shot in the back by a BART officer as he tried to leave the parking lot of a station. The officer was responding to reports of an armed robbery and said he suspected that Hall and a friend were involved. The officer tried to detain the two, Hall ran and then the officer shot him in the back and killed him. Hall was unarmed, but the officer said he thought Hall was on his way to get a gun and return for a showdown.²


• In 2001, a mentally ill man named Bruce Seward was the next victim of the rogue force. Seward, 42, was naked and had been sleeping on a bench outside the BART station when an officer approached him. Seward did grab the officer's nightstick at one point, but there were several options for subduing him. Instead, the officer shot and killed him.³

A little girl is growing up without her father now because of the actions of another man who was supposed to uphold the law. What is she supposed to do with the D.A.'s ineptitude? What's Oscar's family supposed to do? What would you do?

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1. "BART cop shooting: we've been here before," Daily Kos, 1-08-09


2. "Lethal force," San Francisco Bay Guardian, 12-12-92


3. "BART police condemned by slain man's family," San Francisco Chronicle, 7-18-01

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The Murder of Oscar Grant

Achtung! Self-Promotion! Shotgun Theater Festival!

So, here's the skinny: I'm going to be participating in Shotgun Theatre Festival: Theatre Under the Gun as a director.

The Gene Frankel Theatre (located at 24 Bond Street) will be presenting and hosting the festival, which will run January 8th-10th and January 15th-18th. The goal of the festival is to create spontaneous theater in a compressed period of time while allowing an audience to witness the theatrical process in its entirety; from auditions and casting through the staging of twenty eight original works. The festival will provide a vivid and unique glance into the world of theatrical and artistic production, while providing a platform for playwrights, actors, and directors to exercise their craft in an exciting and creative environment.

Tonight's show and the show on the 15th are "audition nights," in which actors will perform monologues and short solo performances (including dances, songs, and stand-up). The director and playwright teams will also be picked live in front of the audience on those two evenings, and the casts will be determined.

The "performance nights" take place January 9th, 10th, 16th, and 17th, and each evening will see seven short original works be performed (all inspired literally or metaphorically by a shotgun). The works will each have been written in the time between the previous audition night and that's evening's performance. Each performance night will also feature a guest music artist performing in between the plays. They include singer/songwriter Neely Bridges (1/9), and musicians Rueben Butchart (1/10), Michael David Bryson (1/16), and Don Peavy (1/17).

At the conclusion of each performance night, two plays — chosen by the audience — to move onto the final day of the festival, January 18th, and one of the eight audience favorites will be awarded the festival winner by a panel of esteemed guest judges. After the festival, the winning play will be further developed into a full length production, to which The Gene Frankel Theater will donate its theatre space to. Musician Dan Costello will be the guest music artist on 1/18.

The Shotgun Theatre Festival is being presented by Gail Thacker/The Gene Frankel Theatre, Janus Surratt, Diamondo Stratakos, and the City Actors Theatre Company.

Performance times are at 8pm, except for the final night of the festival which begins at 7pm. Tickets are $10 for each night (tickets for the final night are $20), and festival passes may be purchased for $25 (one weekend) or $60 (all festival pass). Tickets can be purchased at The Gene Frankel Theatre, at 24 Bond Street (just off of Lafayette).

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Achtung! Self-Promotion! Shotgun Theater Festival!