Local TV fame

When I was in Augusta last weekend, my mom dug out a tape from the 80s where she’d recorded some things of familial significance. I hadn’t watched it in years, but when I saw it, I knew immediately that this stuff would have to go on YouTube.

First up is my 30 seconds of fame on local television in 1986 (or it might have been 1987; I can’t remember for sure). My parents knew the guy who owned this piano shop and he asked us to be in a commercial. I remember we did several takes. I also remember complaining to my mom that I was too old to say “Mommy” and “Daddy,” and she explained to me that actors and actresses often play characters who are younger. That satisfied me.

Next is an Augusta local news segment from the mid 80s. My parents are in the B-roll of Maxwell’s for a few seconds toward the very end, around the 1:04 mark. It’s funny for a number of obvious reasons (80s hair, 80s attire, etc.) but also because it shows just how little local news has changed in the past 20 years.

Finally, my dad’s winning chicken recipe. Wait, let me explain: In the 80s, “Midday on 12″ was a program that came on at noon on Channel 12 in Augusta. They had a segment called “Lookin’ at Cookin’” where viewers could submit recipes, and a winner was chosen each month. My dad’s honey-baked chicken recipe was the winner one month in 1984. He won a set of really cheap pots that we ended up giving away to someone.

Aside: I love these two ladies’ Southern accents!

I also want to give a plug for Affordable Video Solutions on W. Peachtree. Originally we were going to digitize the video at home, because Rusty has one of those converter boxes to connect the VCR to his computer. But our VCR tried to eat the tape. So we took it to AVS and they fixed the tape (it wasn’t actually damaged; they just had to wind it back into the housing) and converted it to DVD. They were very friendly and fast, and the price for the conversion was $29.95. I definitely recommend them if you need anything like that.

ETA: Ha, the chicken recipe video is already the top hit on Google for "midday on 12" augusta.

Bag of quotes

I have another long-ass post in progress, but in the meantime I am amused by my header quotes database and, since this is my blog, I’m going to post ALL OF THEM here now. I’m highly amused; perhaps you will be, as well. And if not, that’s okay too, because I AM AMUSED!

4 “I am a responsible, adult woman, and I’ll not be shamed for it.” Ren

5 Making the baby Jesus cry since 2002.

6 “It’s like seven minutes in heaven, only it’s five hours in hell.” Brent

7 “Now all I need is a room with a pole in it.” Remy Ma

8 A blog from the gynocentric angle.

9 “Have I changed? Or have I just awoken to who I always was?” Ryann Rain

11 Sharpening my Fuck You stick since 2002.

12 Nice girls don’t.

13 “Bloggers are just like everybody else except that we admit what we do.” Figleaf

14 “I feel like you guys are the kinky authority figures.” Joseph

15 “Trust the Danes. They are a wise and comfortable people.” Jenny

16 “I live my life like I’m reading my own biography.” Of Montreal

17 “It is one of the great superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.” Voltaire

18 “The older I get, the more I realize most of what I grew up with was bullshit.” Rusty

19 Using my communist tools to silence the truth since 2002.

20 “Use of expletives to get a point across only serves to make women in general look uneducated and hysterical.” Dumbass commenter

21 “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” William Gibson

22 “In spite of it all, you’re still here, you’re a survivor. And if you’re anything like I think you are, you survive in spite of yourself.” N.P.

23 Just another malicious feminist.

24 Filled to bursting with obvious indecency.

25 A natural, zesty enterprise.

26 It takes talent, and biting.

27 “I feel like I’m in a Talking Heads song or something.” Joseph

28 “You’re running a blog, not a democracy.” Rusty

29 “You fucked the suburbs out of me.” Of Montreal

30 “I am extraordinary, if you’d ever get to know me”. Liz Phair

31 “Listen here young lady, all that matters is what makes you happy.” Liz Phair

32 “I think we’re a bit past absurd.” Jenny

33 “Hell hath no fury like a blogger scorned.” Dacia

34 “Just what I need, another charming gay man in my life.” Jenny

36 “Not every short-haired feminist you meet at Pride is a lesbian.” Shelby

37 “I hate how lunch with us always ends with action items.” Ryan

38 “A ‘nuculer’ threat is one from a Middle Eastern country.” Brent

39 “Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.” H.G. Wells

40 “When they tell you you’re going to hell, you’re probably on the right track.” David

41 “Never let last night dictate your today.” Brent

42 “RSS can make the Internet your bitch.” Terri Lynn

45 “You don’t have to be defensive if you see imaginary bugs in the middle of the night.” Rusty

46 “Sex lies at the root of life, and we can never learn reverence for life until we learn reverence for sex.” Havelock Ellis

47 “You can’t control the length of your life, but you can control the width and depth.” Anonymous

48 “If having a hysterectomy would keep you from murdering another human being, I’d gladly pay for you to have it done.” Crazy commenter

49 “I just fucking love that it’s when I stop trying to be coy and whorish that I come across as such.” Jenny

50 Exercise, Atlanta, and anal sex: three things I’m glad I didn’t write off.

51 “Just fuck me in the ass with a football bat already.” BL

52 “You might not always see the ripples you create, but it’s important to know that they are there.” Niki

53 “I fear South Carolina more than I fear Hamas, and I’m not kidding even a little bit.” Tony

54 “I would love to be an ethical version of Karl Rove.” Jenny

55 “I love that I almost have a Masters degree and it has led me to chauffeuring balloons around.” Niki

56 “I hate raisins. I don’t even understand them.” Rusty

57 “Get a goddamn sense of humor, for fucking crying out loud.” Dooce

59 “I own the fact that I am human and have had human experiences.” Sherry

60 “Trying to stop things that cause us pleasure, and cause nobody any pain, is just to take too much joy out of life.” Sage

61 “Someone give me a penis so that I don’t sound like a Feminazi.” Sassywho

63 “Everything is a work in progress. Otherwise, it’s just old news.” Justin Kownacki

64 “Misogyny deserves no shield to hide behind.” Deep Feminist

65 “I am sex, I am my body, and my sex, my mind and my body have never been separate.” Kochanie

66 “Stop trying to act like you’re relevant.” NRB

67 “We don’t always know what we think we know, and in fact, often we don’t know shit.” Kim

68 “Intimacy lives in the heart and head, not the crotch.” Renegade Evolution

69 On the move and eroding the moral fabric of this country since 2002.

71 Pulling numbers out of my opinion hole since 2002.

72 “The most important thing is to be whatever you are without shame.” Rod Steiger

75 “We don’t have to trip over our liberalism here.” Octogalore

76 “One reader’s crap is another reader’s lifeline.” J. Brotherlove

77 “No web page is ever going to really be able to capture your humanity.” Rachel Kramer Bussel

78 Murdering innocent children in order to obtain sexual gratification since 2002.

79 Why not? It gives us something to do!

80 “I still stand for something, even on my knees.” Ren

81 “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” T.S. Eliot

82 “That tattoo on my arm? It’s Sanskrit for ‘Tee hee, I love dick.’” Kim

83 “I’m not your bitch, don’t hang your shit on me.” Madonna

84 “We need to be able to feel good about certain achievements without falling on our swords every five seconds.” Octogalore

85 “Why do these people have to be so friggin’ predictable?” Queer Dewd

86 “You’d rather sit in your safe little hole and sneer, proud of how smart you sound.” Dave M.

87 “We’ve got two lives, one we’re given and the other one we make.” Mary Chapin Carpenter

88 “A little risk in the name of desire and self-satisfaction is quite different from developing false consciousness.” AWB

90 Not a Political Ass Virgin.

91 Professional blog warrior ready for action.

92 Goddess of social media cool / Free speech Nazi

93 “Most liberals are cowards who aren’t interested in real debate.” Shelby’s troll

94 I’m trouble.

95 “Accountability. It’s a bitch.” Jenny

96 “My vagina does not contain a magic wellspring of political solidarity, thank you.” Dora

97 “I’m such a fucking lady.” Remy Ma

98 “Physics makes us all its bitches.” Of Montreal

99 “If God gave us the imagination then it would be rude not to use it.” Rootietoot

100 “Being able to separate [sex and intimacy] is most likely associated with some deep scar in your unconscious psyche.” Crazy commenter

101 “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” Eleanor Roosevelt

102 “If the answer isn’t violence, neither is your silence.” PWEI

103 “The peaches more than make up for the Baptists.” Rootietoot

104 “No person is your friend who demands your silence.” Alice Walker

105 “So you can make me come, that doesn’t make you Jesus.” Tori Amos

106 If I can’t pole dance, it’s not my revolution.

107 “One man’s bukakke is another woman’s shibari.” j. brotherlove

108 “A little cleavage goes a long way. A lot of cleavage goes pretty much anywhere.” Jenny

109 “The gap between what we assume people do sexually and what they actually do is enormous.” Alfred Kinsey

110 “I can’t change the world / But I can change the world in me.” U2

111 “I wanna be cool, tall, vulnerable and luscious” Liz Phair

112 “Yes I know what you think of me, you never shut up” Tori Amos

113 May trigger.

114 Not conducive to freedom.

115 Humorless feminist babykiller.

116 “It’s nice to be liked, but it’s better by far to get paid.” Liz Phair

Coversation with my grandmother

Gran: “Did you hear who McCain picked for Vice President… he picked that Canadian woman…”

Me: “You mean Alaskan?”

Gran: “What did I say?”

Me: “You said Canadian. She’s from Alaska.”

Gran: “Oh yes. That’s right. She’s supposed to be some kind of governor…”

All are welcome

Spotted in Decatur last weekend:

Church sign in Decatur

In case you were wondering about that “heteronormativity” word

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this before, but I just stumbled upon it again tonight and I feel compelled to post it.

The Heterosexual Questionnaire

A few choice outtakes:

What do you think caused your heterosexuality?

When and how did you first decide you were a heterosexual?

Could it be that your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?

A disproportionate majority of child molesters are heterosexual men. Do you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual male teachers, pediatricians, priests, or scoutmasters?

Shouldn’t you ask your far-out straight cohorts, like skinheads and born-agains, to keep quiet? Wouldn’t that improve your image?

Text message of the day

Or really, of the month.

Since he’ll be driving the truck I need him to be the body double for the bomber. And wear the mullet wig lol

From Miss Debris Blanche.

Repost from my Tumblr, thus scoring me another point on the checklist!

I usually hate Gawker but this is hilarious and so true:

Quiz: Are You An Online Jackass?

I IMed Rusty the URL and told him I marked it for him in del.icio.us. I’m surprised that wasn’t on the list!

LOLself

Via Ren, I see there’s a new meme in town!

It’s Jack’s brainchild (although one could argue Kim’s been doing it for months).

I’m on a mission. People have to do this. There is no escape. LolBaby. For realsies. The meme is you find an embarrassing baby picture of you, and you caption it! On Icanhascheezburger.com.

So here’s mine:

Now you go!

Update: Okay so I forgot that in lolspeak, “Iz” often translates as “I’s” - as in, “I’s in your [blank], [blank]ing your [blank].” But in my photo, I meant it as “is.” “Is not cheeseburger.” Get it? ‘Cause I’m eating a washcloth? I thought it was obvious… but just in case, there you go. Never mind. I updated it.

Walgreen’s vibrator

Walgreen's vibrator

…and it’s on clearance!

(Texted to me from Miss Debris Blanche.)

Meme infiltration

A collection of photos documenting internet meme-age slowly infiltrating meatspace:*

I PWN U

Food 2.0

Meme shirt

Fail Boat: Set sail for fail

* I can’t read that term without thinking of porn.

Happy Easter, if that’s your thing

A coworker sent me this a few weeks ago. Since then, it’s been all over the internet, including on I Can Has Cheezburger. Some things become passé once they’ve acquired internet meme status, but I still find the “peepshow” hilarious.

Peepshow

We saw this sign in downtown Decatur yesterday:

Who?

(The other side of the sign was correct.)

And of course, no holiday would be complete without a little cheer from someecards.com.

Heh… so true

Jenny sent me this card from someecards.com:

Her note with it said, “This would be funnier if it wasn’t so damn true!”

Let this be a note of very strong advice to everyone else I know on Facebook! I don’t want to be a damn vampire, werewolf, pirate, or ninja; I don’t want to create virtual bumper stickers; I don’t want to rate my friends’ hotness; I don’t want to find out what color rose I am; I don’t want to cultivate an online vegetable garden… etc., etc., ad nauseum.

Wrong parking!!!

As we were leaving this morning, we saw this note on the door to the parking garage. Rusty is sending it to passiveaggressivenotes.com.

Wrong parking!!!

Holiday cheer

I’ve caught the holiday spirit… have you?

Happy holidays, everyone!

[All cards via someecards.com.]

LOL

I just saw this in a MySpace bulletin, and for some reason it made me giggle a lot - probably moreso than it really warrants, since it appears to be one of those things teenagers pass around for each other’s amusement (I deleted the “15 years of bad luck if you don’t repost” part).

SCORPIO-THE WHORE(10/23-11/21)
Loves being in long relationships. Likes to give a good fight for what they want. Extremely outgoing. Loves to help people in times of need. Best kisser. Good personality. Stubborn. A caring person. ONE OF A KIND. Gorgeous Smile. Not one to mess with. The best sexual partners in the zodiac. Are the most attractive people on earth!

I think what did it for me was “THE WHORE” in all caps. “Best kisser” was a winner, too.

Search strings

Following the example of Tony (who’s been doing this for years) and Rusty, I decided to look up and post some search strings for my site. Unfortunately, mine are boring and surprisingly topical compared to theirs. But here are a few:

  • sex in progress
  • olde tyme wife spanking videos
  • “[semi trucks]” “powered by wordpress” “leave a comment” -”no comments”
  • “best to be stuck in handcuffs with”
  • +spring4th +”atlanta” +”party” +”halloween” -children +adult
  • amazing “ass to mouth” blog
  • amber zip bag
  • area where i can get porno cd in greensboro
  • atlanta sex roof
  • craigslist oboe cabart
  • do men get jealous when women watch porn
  • example bad redaction
  • fascination with ass to mouth
  • how to hold down dust in your appartment
  • itinerary of conference with classy words
  • myspace all fun until poke eye with dick
  • squirt distance

Brilliant

First Duane sent me this cartoon, and then I saw it at Feministe. I’ve been meaning to post it, because it kicks ass.

Heh.

All for the nookie

Reader “Jim” doesn’t like that I have password-protected posts. Heavens!

What intrigues me is that after you’ve openly discussed having sex at a swinger’s club, what aspects of one’s life might warrant a password protected post. After some thought, I’ve concluded the two go hand in hand. If I wanted to share a private thought with friends, I’d send an email. Heck, I might even pick up a phone. But if I were an exhibitionist, I’d do the blog-equivalent of “I’ve got a secret.”

You got a sweet theory, boy!

I emailed him:

I was going to respond to your rather nebulous post about me on your blog, but since you don’t have comments, I can’t. There’s a lesson in there about glass houses and stones, I think. If I cared enough to bother playing such a game, that is.

Sorry if you don’t like the password protected thing, but oh well, it’s my blog. It’s amusing to me that you think going to a sex club is OMG TEH MOST PRIVATE PERSONAL THING EVAR!!!!1!1! - as if real people’s real lives aren’t actually much more complicated than that. Perhaps for your next trick, you could post your full medical records?

Anyway, kisses, and thanks for being a fan. In the interest of transparency, I’ll be sure to blog this email, as well.

This is now completely recursive.

Teachable moment, heh

Transcript of a story told to me over IM… (Posted all in a row like this, it looks kind of like poetry, with all the line breaks. And that makes it even funnier.)

so my roomie was showing me stuff around the apartment
and he was like, “this is where my videos are
feel free to watch any whenever you want”
and then he gets this slightly sheepish look on his face
and he’s like, “um, there might be some porn in there.”
and i say, “i don’t care.”
and he rushes on, “it’s all softcore stuff, like playboy. i mean, there’s nothing hardcore.”
to which i reply, “well, that’s a shame.”
and he looks at me like i have two heads or something
and i’m like, “i really don’t care.”
and he starts stuttering apologies/justification
and i’m like, “really, I DON’T CARE.”
and he stops and he’s like, “so, what. women watch porn?”
and i’m about to fall down b/c i’m trying so hard not to laugh
b/c he’s SO sincere
and i’m like, “look.”
“one of my friends has been taking pictures to be naked on the internet…”
“and another sent me an email this morning asking what i thought about searching for a fuckbuddy on craigslist”
i REALLY DON’T CARE that you have porn.
“unless it’s tony comstock. then i care.”
…which he didn’t understand, but that’s probably just as well. :)
anyway
that made MY day.
first time he’s lived with a girl. :)

Heh.

[Cross-posted at Pro-Porn Activism]

That’s the Beltline, under there

There’s kind of a lot of kudzu behind our apartment building:

Field of kudzu outside our window

Ah, Georgia. Even in the middle of the city, the kudzu will not be thwarted.

Lolcat of the day

I just had to post this.

Via Tech.Chick.Blog.

Maw! I’m trouble!

Smells like bullshit Okay, this is just too damn funny. Where to begin…?

I don’t really know what BlogNetNews is or why I’m supposed to care. Anyone can build an aggregator, but the blogosphere relies on community buy-in, and apparently some of my fellow Georgia bloggers think BNN is something worth noticing, or at least something not worth laughing at? I don’t know. I remember hearing about it a few months ago at Grayson’s, then I forgot; then Sara blogged about it yesterday.

– Okay. I feel the need to interject something here, given the profound lack of basic reading and listening ability many people demonstrated during the fallout of the Creative Loafing hunk-of-shit blogosphere article. People who apparently couldn’t see beyond their own shit got all hung up on, “These folks are just JEALOUS that they weren’t INCLUDED!!1!11!OMGhighschool”. This isn’t about me being jealous of not being listed on freakin’ BlogNetNews, ffs. This is just some funny shit… Ren, got an extra “Typical” file? I need to replenish my stock.

(Interjection over.)

So anyway, after I saw Sara’s post yesterday, I overheard Rusty talking about other bloggers (who I don’t read as often) who had written about this apparent Top 10 list. I decided to check out the BlogNetNews site. There was a link to email them your feed if it wasn’t listed. So I sent a two-line email with my blog URL and my feed URL, with the subject line “For BlogNetNews Georgia.”

Here is the email I received in response:

Amber,

I am sure you’ve heard this before: You are trouble. BNN/Georgia is a humble politics and public affairs blog aggregator. Your content isn’t very local or public affairsy. However, I love the blog and your obviously broad blogging involvement. Take a look at www.blognetnews.com/cotillion . I built it for a friend who is a member. I am wondering whether you might have an idea for a group that you belong to. Thoughts?

Best,
Dave Mastio

BlogNetNews.com
We Serve Blogging

Remember to visit our advertisers

Bwahahahaha… what the fuck.

We will come back to the “you’re trouble” remark. Let’s just stick, for now, with the “your content isn’t very local” part. I sent him some examples…

Search my 5+ years of archives (I haven’t been at that URL for long) if you’re so inclined… on the old blog I had a category for “Atlanta”; on the new blog I have an “Atlanta” tag. I publicize local events of interest very frequently. Everything tagged “Atlanta” at my new URL: http://www.beingamberrhea.com/tag/Atlanta

I organized PodCamp Atlanta. I’m the co-founder of the Georgia Podcast Network. Pretty darn local. I give presentations on the value of hyperlocal content. I attend meetings of the Atlanta Press Club (I’m a member), Social Media Club Atlanta, Georgia for Democracy, Georgians for Choice… the list goes on… to help figure out how to best leverage social media at the local level.

But okay. My content isn’t local or “public affairsy.”

Dave replies again…

Let me be a little more clear. The intent of the blognetnews state sites is to cover state and local news and politics. Reading your posts, I didn’t see you covering what I think fits in to waht I am trying to do on those sites. We are building other aggregators — city focused ones where all topics will be in and national ones that will take narrower slices of the blogosphere. You’d fit in both those places.

The last part of my note was a suggestion that you come up with an idea for a national aggregator where you’d fit.

I replied with a short note…

I understood the last part of your note, but I’m not interested in being part of a national aggregator. My main concern/interest is hyperlocal content, which is why Rusty and I started the Georgia Podcast Network. We feel new media has the most potential for influence at the local level.

I also asked him to clarify what he meant by saying that I’m “trouble.” His reply:

Visits to sex clubs are hardly the stuff of a mainstream site.

Now, this is the REALLY hilarious part. I mean, aside from it being just good old-fashioned sex negativity and compartmentalization of sexuality, it’s also just another boring rehashing of - guess what! - the double standard! Oh, yay! I just never get tired of that.

This is highly (grimly) amusing to me, because Rusty’s blog is listed on BlogNetNews. He recently wrote about our visit to the sex club, too. But, as Jenny said in an email, “You’re a woman. You may choose between your sexuality and your intelligence. You may not have both.”

Lest we forget!

Many other questions spring to mind, too, such as: what makes him think I’m trying to produce a “mainstream site” - whatever that even means?

Btw, Dave is fine w/ my blogging these emails because, as he stated, BNN is “big on free speech.” Just not wrt sex clubs, I guess.

I will reserve further commentary because really, these emails speak for themselves. I wouldn’t want to kick a puppy. (Commenters, however, should feel free.)