So web 2.0 it makes babies cry.

A friend and I were discussing the other day via email how we really need to start updating our personal blogs on a more frequent basis, so that’s what I’m gonna do.  That same friend sent me a link today to a painter by the name of Justine Lai.  She does some pretty cool stuff with some pretty “stuffed shirt” political types.   As a result, I’ve decided I’m going to start making posts of the cool artsy stuff I tend to check out, and created a new section for it.   From her site bio:

In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents. A power lies in rendering these patriarchal figures the possible object of shame, ridicule and desire, but it is a power that is constantly negotiated.

I approach the spectacle of sex and politics with a certain playfulness. It would be easy to let the images slide into territory that’s strictly pornographic—the lurid and hardcore, the predictably “controversial.” One could also imagine a series preoccupied with wearing its “Fuck the Man” symbolism on its sleeve. But I wish to move beyond these things and make something playful and tender and maybe a little ambiguous, but exuberantly so. This, I feel, is the most humanizing act I can do

An example of her interesting works

Make sure you check out her page, I assume she has showings out in the San Fransisco area.

Her first interview, with the ABC News anchor Charles Gibson, was too hard. The second, with Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel, was too soft. The third, however, did not turn out to be just right for Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

On the CBS Evening News on Thursday, Katie Couric asked Ms. Palin, Senator John McCain?s running mate, what she meant when she cited Alaska?s proximity to Russia as foreign affairs experience. Ms. Palin could have anticipated the question ? the topic of their interview, pegged to her visit to the United Nations, was foreign affairs. Yet Ms. Palin?s answer was surprisingly wobbly: her words tumbled out fast and choppily, like an outboard motor loosened from the stern.

And when you are done watching that one, there is always this one.

Check out the nice summary that Andrew Sullivan posted which, pretty much sums up how silly these ads/media and hype are getting over this presidential election. Frum on Palin.

Mike King posted a nice article this week as well, on 10 Ways to Simplify and Eliminate Waste in Your Life. I’ve been flipping back and forth from it today and it makes quite a bit of sense.