Good morning!

An interesting look at the life of a woman through the eyes of an animator.

Meet The Animator Who Captured A Woman’s Entire Lifetime In A Four-Minute Short

Have you seen “Sidewalk” yet? It’s a four-minute animated short by Celia Bullwinkel. It tells a woman’s entire life just by following her as she walks down the street. Somehow it manages to encompass the excitement and heartache and unfairness of aging while female, like if “10 Hours Walking as a Woman In New York” was a cartoon, covered 100 years, and was set to a light, jazzy score. It is so elegant and sharp and real and clean, and I could keep going, but really, just watch it. I’ll wait:

The short has been making the festival rounds since April. Bullwinkel posted “Sidewalk” online on September 16; it’s been seen nearly 3 million times on her Vimeo and YouTube channels alone. To find out more about how this animated piece came to be, I gave Bullwinkel a call.

Where did the idea for “Sidewalk” come from?

It wasn’t a hard decision to know what medium I wanted to use, because I’m a professional animator here in New York. I do freelance for TV and independent film. I really wanted to make an independent film for myself. Having been here for 17 years, and being someone who doesn’t own a car, I have no choice but to do most of my errands by walking. I love walking the streets of New York City, but I spent most of my twenties here, and you accumulate a lot of catcalls and stories from friends about catcalls. And it really did bother me.

I remember talking to my mother on the phone about it, I was complaining to her, I was in my twenties, it had reached that critical mass. And she said, “enjoy it now, because when you get older, it goes away, and you might just miss it.” And you have to remember, this is a generation gap . My first impression was, absolutely not, that’s terrible. But I also kind of realized that when you grow up in a culture like this, you come to expect validation in negative ways. It becomes acceptable. And so I wanted to tell this like a parable. It’s a story about a woman who kind of buys into it. I know it’s not aspirational, as a lot of people who viewed the film wanted it to be. But I wanted it to be honest, I wanted to reach the people who, maybe they’re not conscious of it, but they kind of do rely on [catcalling] as a way of telling you that you’re okay. That yes, you are valuable. I thought about a lot of things. I did a lot of research on Nora Ephron.

Oh, she’s always a good choice. What works of Nora Ephron’s did you read?

She wrote that book, I Feel Bad About My Neck. I’m only 36. I started the film at 30. I wanted to get someone else’s opinion [about aging]. And I really liked what Ephron said about age in that book. She talked about how the neck was the part of the body that always gave away a woman’s age. And she thought about getting a facelift that would take care of the neck; celebrities do it all the time, most notably, Jane Fonda. But she found out what the procedure entails — you have to take your entire face and neck off and put it back on — and when she realized just how dangerous and invasive and horrifying the procedure was, she said, “I’m just going to wear a scarf or a turtleneck.”

I don’t think women are afraid of aging, but society tells us that we should stop. And I understand biologically that there are reasons men don’t catcall old ladies, but at the same time, I think, we’re such a visual culture and so much of what society tells us in terms of our value and worth, as soon as you reach a certain age, you get put on this pedestal and get knocked right off it. I had a conversation with the producer with the film Make Me Young: Youth Knows No Pain, an HBO documentary, and she was saying, once you reach your forties in Hollywood, you’re kind of no longer allowed to be in movies. There are always anomalies, but it’s hard to find films that talk about women past their, really, childbearing years. Past your forties, no one cares about what your life is like anymore. No one wants to know. I started to really think about how I could make a film that dealt with body acceptance, and how life is more than just how you look or how you feel about yourself being young. Who cares if you get older? Everyone ages at the same rate. We all do it, so why not celebrate it?

CREDIT: CELIA BULLWINKEL

I was really struck by how, as soon as this girl hits puberty, she feels cool for all of a millisecond and then immediately hides her body in a hoodie. What determined her reactions to the way her body changed?

A lot of that stems from me. I never was a flaunty person, even during the years when girls really do like to exert their presence publicly. I kind of related to the girl of not being ready to grow up, trying to suppress it through baggy clothes. I would be surprised if anyone didn’t go through that phase, so it’s very relatable. And then she kind of realizes she’s attracting men, and she’s not really aware of what she has. That lack of self-awareness, a lot of teens have it, and that’s great, because it means you have your mind on a lot of other things. But to her it’s like, “What is going on? I just put a dress on today.” It’s like the responses to catcalls; just because a girl puts on a dress and nice shoes doesn’t mean she’s trying to attract men and she wants to have sex. Maybe it makes her feel happy, maybe she wants to be feminine. At least publicly, people think it’s an indication, when it’s really just a self-gratifying act.

As she gets older, she never really seems to stay in love with her appearance for very long.

When she becomes self-aware of what her body possesses publicly or culturally, she becomes so aware that she loses faith in what she is. She didn’t like [the attention] when she was young, and then she missed it. That’s where it ties in with my mother’s conversation. She didn’t like it, but she wonders where it went.

Can you talk a bit about animation? It seems to free you up in a lot of ways here.

I love cartooning animation. I love to use it, to exaggerate, I can show someone’s entire life in four minutes. One of the great things about animation is you can compress time, and it feels great. It doesn’t even, people don’t even notice that you just saw someone’s whole life go by. And of course, the breasts popping out and the butt popping out, going from pregnant to exhausted motherhood to overweight, it’s all something you can exaggerate. And the boobs sagging at the end, which is one of my favorites. People laugh at that scene, though some people really get upset by that. I think it hits a nerve: they connect to the woman at this point, and they don’t want to see what’s coming down the road.

CREDIT: CELIA BULLWINKEL/SIDEWALK

So you knew you wanted to tell an entire life. How did you decide what scenes to include? What moments are the most important to keep in this bare bones story of her growing up?

I called each stage a transition, and I wrote it down on paper, and I had almost thirty. I had to bring it down. I think, at this point, I’m down to under twenty. But I came up with a lot. And I had to make very important decisions about what the story was going to be about. A lot of people wanted to know about what happened to her husband and her son. I did have them more incorporated in the story, but then I realized, the story wasn’t about her relationship with her body anymore. What made it important was the message but in order to bring it down to the short format, I had to really stay the course to what the underlying message is. Male viewers, particularly, felt like they were slighted, when they felt the male characters weren’t portrayed enough, and some felt for the characters.

Sorry, I just have to say, the whole idea that men would complain about not being portrayed enough in your independent, four-minute animated short, that is just so laughable to me. Do they have any sense of what it feels like to be a girl watching full-length feature films?

So of all the things I learned from making “Sidewalk,” well, number one is, how well a film does in the festival circuit cannot serve as a prediction of how well it will play out online. It did okay in festivals, it won a couple of awards. It wasn’t a huge festival hit, but it became a huge hit on the internet. And once it’s up there, it doesn’t belong to you anymore. That’s the second thing that I learned. You can’t take it back and explain to people how it’s supposed to work. It is going to go through the prism of the individual, they’re going to see it how it pertains to their lives. The third thing I learned is that, some people will never understand the film. One of the major issues I noticed were men who only relate to characters of their own gender do not relate to “Sidewalk” at all. But that’s okay. Some of them even comment and say, “I don’t identify with any of this, and where are the men?” And I think that’s wonderful, because they just added themselves. The most rewarding thing about “Sidewalk” is, people actually opened a discussion about it. And men said it reminded them of what their wives were growing through, which I think is great. Some men would say, my mother never went through this, therefore this film is wrong. Which is interesting, because he’s seeing it through his perspective of his mother.

CREDIT: CELIA BULLWINKEL/SIDEWALK

Which stage did you struggle with the most? What was the hardest transition to depict?

The ending was definitely the hardest. Because I wanted to tell people how I felt about body acceptance and age, but I had over a dozen endings. And it ranged from positive and negative to hilarious to abstract, and finally when I came upon the ending, I knew I had a film. I knew I had it together. The second hardest was letting go of the husband and son. I kind of wrote them into the story, and I had to take them out, because for the format, and the length of the film, there wasn’t enough time to talk about anyone else.

You worked on “Sidewalk” for so many years. Did anything about how this girl evolved surprise you?

She’s a passive character. And I think that’s perfectly fine. I think we identify with passive characters, people who take what they’re given in life. She’s not a type A. I’m kind of a person who is really low key and mellow, and I wanted her to have the same demeanor. But she also doesn’t come off as someone who feels like she really got what she wanted in life, and part of it has to do with the mindset that she created for herself. And I wanted to show that, even if it takes you until the end of your life to change your outlook, change your mindset, about who you are, it’s never too late. You can learn to love yourself at any age in your life.

CREDIT: CELIA BULLWINKEL/SIDEWALK

Between the reception you’ve said you’re receiving for “Sidewalk” andthe huge response to that “10 Hours Walking as a Woman in New York City” video, it feels like we’re having this moment of heightened awareness and, sometimes, outrage about the way women are treated in public spaces. What do you think it is about that specific issue, within the broader realm of gender relations and sexism in general, that gets people so fired up?

First of all, I love the fact that it’s becoming a discussion. I feel like it’s all kind of coming about in the last few months. But I do believe that there’s something about a woman being in public, somehow it is culturally acceptable still, [that when] woman goes outside, she becomes open for public scrutiny. Whether you’re working at an office and your coworker decides to tell you how he would evaluate you on a scale of 1-10 of how you dress or look — that hasn’t happened to me, but my dental hygienist told me a story like that. It made me realize; it’s not about going outside, but going outside is where it happens the most. And what’s funny, the people who catcall are usually the men who are the most economically underserved. As one of my old roommates used to say, they’re always the people who are the most screwed over by the man. It’s a source of power. It’s a way of taking back something that they feel like they don’t have. And I’ve never had a man who made more money than me catcall me.

But the actual stats on street harassment tell a very different story: it happens across all lines of race, class, socioeconomic status. It’s not something that is limited to a “less empowered” group of people.

I do believe that men in high economic levels can catcall. But the ones that I’ve dealt with on a personal basis are people I feel are looking for an opportunity to (a) amuse their friends or (b) assert some kind of dominance. And the people who need to assert their dominance in such a kind of lowbrow way, I find, are people who really don’t feel like they have that much control over their lives… If they don’t feel like they have any power, why not feel better by exerting power over someone else?

Can you tell me more about the conversation you had with your mother? It sounds like it had this huge influence on you.

My mother is kind of a fierce creature in her own right, and she owned quite a bit of feminist literature. I found it in the basement when I was a teen. And that’s where you could say “Sidewalk” even began. In the first chapter of one of the books, this was 20 years ago, they’d done a poll and asked women, if you could be any age, what age would you be? And most said between 18 and 21. And one woman said, “I’d rather be 50, because I’m more free. People won’t look at me as a sexual object anymore, people will take me at face value, as a person.” And I thought that was kind of amazing. What’s amazing is that our sexuality is so tied in with who we are as people, that we feel like we lose ourselves. Especially women who know that they’re beautiful, they know they hit the genetic lottery, I think that when their beauty becomes such a large part of their identity, I think aging is very tough for them. It’s like a part of them dies. But my mother, I think she was trying to be supportive. She was almost trying to say, “hey, maybe instead of hating it, you should like it, because you know that it’s finite, it will go away.” But the fact that she would even suggest enjoying such negative attention from strangers, no less, from people who obviously don’t know you from anything other than how they perceive you that one particular day on the street, I thought that was so surprising.

What I find really shocking and disturbing is how quickly people start telling you that you’re “lucky” to look younger than you are. Like if you’re in your twenties, and you get carded at a bar, the idea is that you should “take it as a compliment” that someone thinks you look 19 years old. As if looking 25 is so horrible, you should be grateful people think you look like a teenager.

If people think that is old, they’re going to have a really hard time with life. You’re going to be older than 25 for most of your life. [I overheard] somebody saying once, “I’m turning 27, I’m so old,” and I know that they’re just doing it because it’s funny and they want sympathy and free drinks. But to me, calling yourself “old” before you hit 30, it’s not cute. It’s not endearing. You’re basically promoting the fear that you’ll lose your value. You’re like a car, as soon as you roll off the lot, you start depreciating in value.

When in your film do you think this girl is at her happiest? She never seems to stay happy and confident for very long.

I’m really giving myself away: she’s happiest when she establishes herself in the career. And a lot of people were upset about this, but as soon as she feels good about herself and things are going great career-wise, she meets someone and gets pregnant. And she can’t live for herself anymore; she has to live for someone else. I don’t show that she still has a job, but more or less –- and I know this isn’t true, but it’s based on my own phobias -– once you become a mother, you lose upward mobility in your career, because people know you can’t commit yourself and make it your number one priority.

And she’s also happiest in the beginning. She knows she’s going to grow up but it’s still an abstract concept. She sees the sign for “big girl clothes” and she thinks being a big girl is going to be great, it’s going to be so fun. She doesn’t realize how hard it is to grow up as a woman. So part of it is naivete, and midway through life, she kind of gets the hang of it, but as soon as she gets the hang of it, things change and she’s knocked off kilter.

CREDIT: CELIA BULLWINKEL/SIDEWALK

Is there a feeling you want people to take from “Sidewalk”? If someone watching the short were pregnant with a girl right now, should that person feel optimistic about the life ahead of that baby?

I think they should be happy for having a girl, because being a woman is really fun. I’m biased. But I think there’s just a lot of traps and nonsense that women have to get through in order to live a happy life. There’s one quote that really kept me going throughout making the film, by Francoise Sagan: “There is a certain age when a woman must be beautiful to be loved, and then there comes a time when she must be loved to be beautiful.”

To me, I find that body acceptance is important. Learning to love how your body is always changing, it’s an organic thing, it’s allowed to grow and expand and shrink and do amazing things like produce lives. And I really think that people who try to fight that, whose bodies are not in the realm of their control, I think [struggle]. I hope this film will help them realize that this is what your body is meant to do, and it’s okay. Everyone ages. We all do it, and why not do it together? But then there’s also a very social angle, which is, the anti-aging industry is growing rapidly, and I really wanted to make this film to have a more honest view of what aging really is. It does kind of scare up a lot of people’s fears of being less interesting, less important, forgotten, but that’s the point.

What would a version of “Sidewalk” about a boy look like?

I think someone really should make a boy version of “Sidewalk.” I can’t make that film. I feel like, “Sidewalk” is so personal, I don’t think it would be authentic if I were to make a boy version. I think that he would probably feel like he could take control of the world more than the woman feels like she can grab the world by the balls. But I think men have their own unique issues. I think women and men are on the same page when it comes to the anxiety with being perceived by the opposite sex. I think women are more visually scrutinized than men, socially, which is why women deal with it much more than men do. But even men are starting to wear cosmetics. Even men get procedures to make themselves look better. Men get manicures now. The only way forward, I think it’s awful, but it’s becoming an equal playing field of cosmetology and overpriced jeans that make your butt small. I think it would be wonderful to see what kind of social pressures a man feels.

“Sidewalk” took four years to make and was a fully self-funded film. I really believe that if you have something you want to say, whether or not you can get grant money, whether or not you have the time, because I found the time, I made time for “Sidewalk,” you should do it.

*****

Readers: I have mixed feelings about this. I want to ruminate on it before I say more. Feel free to give me your two though if you’re up for it.

Blog me.

Happy Saturday!

Linda: Really?  You really think if I was PrP too I would post the exact same thing on both sites? LOL.  No, but apparently great minds do think alike. :)

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good morning!

!!!

Janet: Better grab your helmut and protective gear, girlfriend, because you’re probably spot on. :)

Owen, Lorri: Yep, I had the same problem. I was on the phone working on getting it resolved. This was a new one to me. It was temporary and shouldn’t happen again (fingers crossed)

Donna: Ouch. You might want to grab your helmut too. The next two years should be very interesting and “exciting” (That’s a nod to you Rachel Maddow)

Readers: Who knows…sometimes things have to get really bad before they can get really good. So…what might seem like a bad thing could end up being a good thing. That’s it for me. Enough said.  It’s a new day – What’s on your mind? Surprise me with something. :)

Blog me. 

Peace, baby. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

 Speaking of  ”tax on women…”

Sarah Silverman says it best - This is hilarious! You go girl.

Sarah Silverman Fronts a Drastic New Campaign for Wage Equality

She’s not going to stop at anything to make sure she gets equal pay. Which means that this video includes a prosthetic penis, just FYI.

Sarah Silverman helps launch the Equal Payback Project this morning with a video proving she’ll stop at nothing to make sure she’s paid the same as a man — and yes, that means gender reassignment. She’s picking herself out a nice “European” penis that goes nicely with her favorite boots, and then waving the floppy prosthetic peen around a bit, because what else is there to do with it? (Don’t worry though, this is just satire; Sarah still has all her ladyparts.)

“Every year the average woman loses around $11,000 to the wage gap,” Sarah explains in the video. “Over the course of her working life, that’s almost $500,000. That’s a $500,000 vagina tax.” So the Equal Payback Project is looking to crowdfund that amount — times every woman across the United States. That’s a fundraising total of $29,811,746,430,000, which the Project explains is ” a ludicrous goal, to be sure, but one highlighting the real* numbers.”

If the campaign reaches its multi-trillion dollar goal, every American woman (or “vagina owner,” if you’d prefer that on the “payable to” line) will be sent a check canceling out their vagina tax. Otherwise, the donations will be given to the National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit focused on educating the public about the wage gap and advocating for equal pay. “The wage gap is stubborn, it’s persistent, and it’s outrageous,” the National Women’s Law Center’s co-president said. “We’re thrilled that Sarah Silverman is bringing her prodigious talents and brand of irreverent humor to bear on a very serious issue for women and their families. We hope she opens hearts and minds – and a few pocketbooks – to provide the resources to close the wage gap once and for all.”

Read more about the campaign at EqualPaybackProject.com.

*It’s a figure calculated by multiplying the nearly 69 million working women by the $435,049 a typical woman loses to the wage gap over the course of her career (assuming she works full-time, year-round for 40 years).

*****

Readers: The wage gap is no joke, but perhaps presented this way, people will listen and take it more seriously.

Hey, Mike, TM: Like everyone else, I too am looking forward to what you’re going to report.

Penny: Sorry you had trouble posting – that is the way it is sometimes. Thanks for your concern and for sticking around anyway, but no blog management problems at all.

Phillip: Ahh…you must be a Newbie – welcome! It seems that you haven’t been reading here long enough to know that I personally don’t censor or limit how many people can comment. As far as people “getting in,” it is the luck of the draw. No one gets priority over anyone else – that wouldn’t be fair now would it? As you can see Zen Lill had the same issue posting as you and Louis.

So no, it’s no unique way to increase my blog numbers. It is enough work blogging every day. I certainly don’t have time to be selective on who gets in and who doesn’t. You can thank those that oppose for any issue happening here.

Thanks for being here! I appreciate all of the readers who comment here in spite of how frustrating it may be sometime!

HaPPY SUNday EveryONE!

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

The Koch brothers have used their money to control local elections to state level in many states to take control of the states election process and its economic system. Controlling a state’s election process allows them to decide who gets elected on every level of the state and in federal elections.

They gets to rig the states voting system by: gerrymandering, deciding who can vote, when they can vote, what and how many voting booths are in a particular polling place, and the software that counts the vote. That software can manipulate the count without a trace of its crime because there is no paper record of how you voted.

From Think Progress:

Is Your State Rigged?

Much has been written on the Koch brothers’ immense wealth and influential network of shadow groups, think tanks, and political action committees dedicated to drastically altering our economic and political system at the national level —or, as we call it, “Kochonomics.”

But it is at the state and local level that the Koch brothers’ impact has become the most effective—and harmful.

The less Americans know about the effects of these state and local efforts, the more the Koch brothers can accomplish. The Center for American Progress Action Fund needs your help today to investigate and inform the public about the Koch brothers’ extended efforts to rig the system for their benefit.

Recently, the Center for American Progress Action Fund released the report, “Kochonomics: Rigging the System at the Local Level,” which revealed the Koch brothers’ successful campaigns to take their anti-government, low-regulation lobbying efforts from city to city. These campaigns are a part of a $400 million scheme to transform policies in school boards and town halls to oppose funds that support teachers and students, pay for police officers, maintain roads and bridges, and protect the environment. Yesterday, we released another report, “Kochonomics in Wisconsin and North Carolina,” which gives an in-depth view into the Kochs brothers’ efforts in two of their self-declared model states.

Help us continue to inform Americans across the country by contributing $5, $10, or $25 dollars to the Center for American Progress Action Fund to fund our investigative efforts. Your contribution will help provide citizens with the knowledge they need to fight back against the spread of Kochonomics.

We cannot sit idly by as our states and cities are being re-structured to benefit a wealthy few.

The Koch brothers are spending $400 million – We are asking you for $25. Please go to our website today and contribute what you can to keep our work going.

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Your friends at the Center for American Progress Action Fund

P.S. Please be sure to share our reports and encourage your friends to contribute!

*****

From MSNBC and The Rachel Maddow Show:

The bad news is unfortunately, it was just released that SCOTUS OK’d strict North Carolina voting law for the upcoming midterms. The awesome news is, SCOTUS has blocked Wisconsin’s voter ID law, and a federal court found a new Texas voter ID law unconstitutional.  Woo Hoo! – that is something to celebrate.

And speaking of Wisconsin, here’s a bit of laughter to start you off on your weekend. The topic isn’t funny but the comedian is. Comedian Lewis Black blasted voting restrictions in Wisconsin in an ad posted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Thursday.

Restrict voting rights? Not on comedian Lewis Black’s watch

♣♣♣♣♣

Readers: It’s enough that we need to be concerned about whether we can exercise our right to vote when there are those that oppose doing whatever it takes to prevent voters from voting. (That’s a nod to you Paula) Don’t miss your opportunity to vote.

Thoughts? What’s on your mind? Blog me. 

Social Butterfly: My pleasure. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is much we can do yet. Warren will most likely not run, unlike Bernie Sanders who is thinking with his ego instead of for his country. If he runs against the Dem candidate as a Independent, he will surely take away some Dem votes and we would have a strong chance at losing to the repubs. Sound familiar? Ugh. I can’t believe I am even having this conversation. :) Really, I don’t want to think about that right now; I am too entrenched in the November political race to think about 2016.

I am so narrowly focused that I am barely reading anything outside of the November midterms. So, I want to thank you for being my eyes on the outside, :) and bringing up Malala Yousafzai, winning the 2014 Nobel Peace prize! I couldn’t be more happier and proud, and she couldn’t be more deserving.  She is most definitely a Wonderful Girl Of The World.

♥ Congratulations Malala! ♥

Malala Yousafzai at the United Nations last year. Ms. Yousafzai, 17, is the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. CreditTodd Heisler/The New York Times

Peace out.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good morning!

Lisa, and your daughter Debbie, Vivian,  all the women who wanted to be Mo’ne Davis growing up, and all the little girls, who because of Mo’ne, can now have an inspiration…a role model, to follow, I just couldn’t help but give Mo’ne Davis another day.

Here’s the write from The Bleacher Report:

Female Little League World Series Star Mo’ne Davis Proud to Pave the Way

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — On the eve of Philadelphia’s Taney Dragons’ opening game at the 2014 Little League World Series, 13-year-old Mo’ne Davis sat in a quiet wooden dugout on one of the back fields following her team’s latest practice.

It’s amazing Taney is even here to begin with, in its first World Series in only its second year of existence since chartering in 2012.

We talk about the constant onslaught from the media. “For people that want to take pictures and stuff,” Davis, a South Philly native, explains, “I always say ‘no’ most of the time ’cause I get tired of it … ’cause I’m probably just tired at the end of the day.”

At the end of this day, she’s just finished long-tossing and taking ground balls for nearly two hours. Cameras are getting packed up into vans. Elbows have stopped leaning on the yellow padding lining the fences.

Most kids her age might struggle with the exposure, but Davis sees the positives.

“I was on Sports Science earlier,” she snaps back. “It was pretty cool.”

I ask if they came to Williamsport to talk with her. “I didn’t know I was going to be on. I was playing Ping-Pong and Zion [Spearman, her teammate, sitting in the dugout with us] spotted it. It said: ‘Sports Science with Mo’Ne Davis’ … even though they spelled my name wrong” (the ‘N’ is not capitalized).

Visiting the international stage of Little League baseball and walking past every other team that has made it this far, you’d think it was required that all the players wear their new gear every step of the way. Each regional team is a like a mini marching band in a different bright color. Instead of hearing music and seeing instruments, you hear plastic cleats on concrete and see two aluminum bats in each bag.

But let’s be real: Everybody looks the same.

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Yet something about Mo’ne Davis stands out.

As much as the world wants to know her all of a sudden, wants to figure her out and tell her who she is, wants to remind her of all that she means—she knows herself better.

Even if Davis changes the Little League World Series forever, it doesn’t stand a chance at changing her.

And it’s so much more than her gender, her appearance and her clothing, which included a worn-in red Chase Utley Phillies shirt and Kevin Durant basketball shorts.

In talking to her, you find that she’s both magnetic and intimidating. But the beginning of her young baseball career was a bit less smooth.

“I started playing when I was seven,” Davis explains. “I knew a couple people on the team because of my cousin, but I didn’t talk to most of the teammates ’cause I didn’t know them.”

In Little League, kids ages four to six play in the T-ball division, so Davis missed the chance to hit a static baseball. She was also seven, without close friends, on an all-boys team.

Charles Krupa/Associated Press

So forget inquiring about the first game she must’ve realized she was as good as, if not better than, most of the boys. How about hitting a moving fastball?

“I don’t remember [a first game] actually,” she admits, eyes widening, smirk forming. “But I remember my first baseball practice was with a pitching machine.

“I struck out, like, every time except for my last at-bat. I hit it off the end of the bat … it was foul and it rolled fair. It was my very first hit. It didn’t really sting. It was one of those off the very end. That’s how it was.”

How it is now: Davis grips a ball and blows her competition away. In the regional championship, she threw a complete-game shutout to help clinch her team the final spot in the field of 16. She struck out six, walked three and allowed just three hits.

She’s the celebrity of the Little League complex. She’s the center of the sports world this week.

But Davis isn’t the first girl to come this far—she’s actually the 18th—and she isn’t the only one competing in Williamsport in 2014. She’s rooming with Canada’s Emma March.

Charles Krupa/Associated Press/Associated Press

They don’t sit up late at night discussing their role in reconstructing gender lines in America. Do they share a little advice for each other?

That’s different: “Kind of. Sometimes.”

But for anyone who’s ever played baseball, you know it’s really about the game, the quirkiness and, of course, the competition.

“She tells me about how her teammates act, and I tell her how crazy we are,” Davis says. “But I don’t tell her too much, like, too much about baseball, how our team plays … I don’t really do that.”

Though Davis appears to be one of the most dominant players in Little League—and perhaps will prove to be one of the most impressive females to ever play—it wasn’t like that every step of the way.

“Well, my very first year I wasn’t the best, but I kind of got better. The next year, that’s when I was really starting to get better.”

Once that learning curve took hold, there had to have been only a few select gut reactions from an opposing team: awe or anger. And don’t forget assumption.

“Teams actually thought I was a boy. They didn’t know I was girl till, like, almost a year later. It was just weird.”

And of course, once her gender was known, there must be something else giving her a competitive advantage.

“Some teams thought I was cheating because my hair was long. They said I had more power when I was pitching, so I had to, like, hold it up in a ponytail.”

Charles Krupa/Associated Press

“It was a lot of rumors going around. They tried to get me not to play,” Davis says, now cracking a smile and a shrug. “But we just kept playing.”

She’s also quick to give credit where it’s due. She remembers a longtime South Philly umpire—and ally—and how he routinely came to her and her team’s side, having called many of their games.

“We knew the umpire—Mike … I don’t know his last name—he knew us very well. He’d say, ‘No, they’re not cheating. She’s a girl … she’s just as good as every one of the guys on your team.’”

Davis wasn’t just playing against guys; she was playing against older ones. ”We actually played a year up so it was more different. It made us better. We came this far, so…”

And in talking to her, it’s that “we” that’s so central to this 13-year-old.

So how’s all this attention on the collective “we”? She explains: “We kind of take turns with people being interviewed. Some [teammates] don’t want to do it, but they still kind of do it.”

By “do it,” she doesn’t mean solely talking to reporters. “Not just the interviews, but most stuff … being together for so long. It’s been really annoying. ‘Cause teams just break up [sometimes]. But we’re still together on the field.

“It seems like we don’t fight at all.”

Except—I remind her—for that one fly ball. The one toward the end of their practice, misplayed out in center field, giving way to a chorus of strained voices that it should have been caught—especially with Game 1 the next day.

“Yeah…that fly ball,” she says with a sharp look.

CHRIS GARDNER/Associated Press

I ask Davis if she’d ever consider opting to play with girls in spite of the, at times, suffocating attention.

“No. I already play basketball and soccer with girls for school. I don’t think I’m ever going to go to softball. I hate softball. I even tried it in sixth grade, so I can say, I hate softball.”

Basketball, however, is what she really loves.

So we started talking about another female making history among the men: the San Antonio Spurs’ Becky Hammon, the first full-time female assistant coach in the NBA.

Says Davis of Hammon’s story and success: ”That’s cool,” in a matter-of-fact manner. A subtle reminder that “matter of fact” is perhaps how we should look at these stories. “They might win another championship … I’m rooting for the Warriors.”

I ask her if we’ll see a female head coach in the NBA in the next 10 years. “Maybe. Hopefully. Yeah, I could see that … maybe even the next five years.”

We discuss how Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he’d draft former Baylor star Brittney Griner if she were the best available. Media members like ESPNW’s Kate Fagan had shot it down with narrow headlines like, “No woman, not even Griner, could play in NBA.”

Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

Says Davis of that idea: “I think in a couple years, that will change. Hopefully because of this. Hopefully it changes.

“If it doesn’t, I will change it for myself.”

So when all’s said and done—in spite of the endless focus on her and Taney, and on the female-among-the-boys storylines—does she still embrace the power of what she’s capable of doing on this stage?

“I guess it’s my pride to pave the way. Hopefully we [Davis and March] will pave the way for more girls to come.”

Before she begins paving the way in Game 1 on Friday, one last thing Mo’ne just wouldn’t want you to screw up—after you make that “N” lowercase, include the apostrophe, and appreciate her athleticism rather than the fact she’s in a boys league. Beyonce’s “Run the World (Girls),” as has become a myth of sorts, is not her go-to.

“No,” she says. ”That’s actually not my walkout music.”

“My walkout song is ‘Girl on Fire’ by Alicia Keys. His [Zion's] mom says I look like Beyonce. But I really don’t, so I don’t know where that came from.

“It’s just that song.”

Want proof that Davis is on fire? She can’t go more than 10 yards without being stopped—more apt: stopping for—anyone and everyone. Their jaws slack, their eyes are big, their hands are out, they’re tearing furiously through scorebook pages to find that one space for that one signature from that one girl.

People don’t just want to see her; they want to be around her. You get that sense from the types of people who approach her: young kids, big kids, adults, boys, girls, black, white, American, Japanese, Caribbean.

Charles Krupa/Associated Press

She is going to make a statement and have an impact in whatever she pursues. If it’s not through Little League, she’ll be a trailblazer in an older, larger baseball league. If not baseball, it’ll be basketball. And if not sports, it’ll be with her personality, her brain and her voice.

But first thing’s first: those sports. Where does Mo’ne Davis see herself in five to six years? In 10 years?

She thinks for a moment: “Probably be the point guard for UConn wearing No. 11, starting point guard.

“Then hopefully I’ll be in the WNBA.”

 UPDATE: Mo’ne Davis’ amazing story kept growing on Friday afternoon, as she pitched a complete game shutout to help defeat a team from Tennessee 4-0. Her team next plays Sunday, Aug. 17, against the winner of Friday night’s Texas vs. Rhode Island matchup.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"