Moby Dick, BP and the Sea

About Moby Dick and the BP Oil Spill - from the New York Times:

When the leak is finally stanched and the cleanup begins to fade from the news, one wonders whether Melville won’t be there again in his long whiskers and topcoat, offering up his gloomy wisdom.

One of the great underlying themes of “Moby-Dick,” Mr. Delbanco observed, “is that people ashore don’t want to know about the ugly things that go on at sea.”

“We want our comforts but we don’t want to know too much about where they come from or what makes them possible.” He added: “The oil spill in the gulf is a horror, but how many Americans are ready to pay more for oil or for making the public investment required to develop alternative energy? I suspect it’s a question that Melville would be asking of us now."

A Sneak Preview at Glenn Beck's Novel

Well, The Overton Window is certainly moving to the top of the "We Read It So You Don't Have To" Series list at the Fishtank.
The tease provided by Media Matters is all the bait needed.

Noah and Molly find themselves in bed together early in the book after a harrowing experience at a Founders' Keepers rally. They agree to sleep in bed together because Molly is too scared to sleep at home, but Molly insists that nothing sexual will take place. Noah agrees, on the condition that she "not do anything sexy." She presses her cold feet against his legs, and Noah responds:

"Suit yourself, lady. I'm telling you right now, you made the rules, but you're playing with fire here. I've got some rules, too, and rule number one is, don't tease the panther."

The book is due out Tuesday, June 15.

BONUS video ad:

Abstraction

Last year, Barack Obama selected Ed Ruscha's "I Think I'll" to hang in the living quarters of the White House. Looking at this painting again, the words now look like they're floating in a bloody ocean or maybe it's one of the circles of hell.

This is a photo of Barack Obama flying in Marine One along the gulf coast of Louisiana last week.

President, first lady catch performance of 'Thurgood' at Kennedy Center

By Associated Press

June 11, 2010 | 5:08 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and the first lady are watching a sold-out play about a former Supreme Court justice at the Kennedy Center.

The president and Michelle Obama were seen in the president's box at the Kennedy Center, where they are taking in a performance of "Thurgood," a play about Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Marshall was the first black justice on the court. He is being played by actor Laurence Fishburne in the one-man show.

As a reminder, Obama's Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan clerked for Thurgood Marshall. Just last week, CBS News found legal memos from her time as Justice Thurgood Marshall’s law clerk that show her sympathetic to abortion and desegregation, and having sympathies towards alternative marriages.

Iceland Passes Gay Marriage Law

From Reuters:

"Iceland, the only country in the world to have an openly gay head of state, passed a law on Friday allowing same-sex partners to get married in a vote which met with no political resistance...The Althingi parliament voted 49 to zero to change the wording of marriage legislation to include matrimony between "man and man, woman and woman," in addition to unions between men and women."

The decision was unanimous.

New York Times Editorial Calls Marriage "A Basic Civil Right"

In the NYT today:

"The testimony made abundantly clear that excluding same-sex couples from marriage exacts a grievous toll on gay people and their families. Domestic partnerships are a woefully inadequate substitute."

Martha Graham's Political Dance Project

From The Washington Post, a look back at the political statements in dance from the 1920s and 30s.

"Few choreographers today put politics onstage. In this post-postmodern era, the field has shied away from the provocations of the AIDS works of the 1980s and early 1990s, which was perhaps the last time dance wrapped itself around an issue."

Wendy Perron in Dance magazine asks, "Any way you slice it, the source of Graham’s theatrical fury is a source for contemplation…and for wondering, Where is that energy today? What female choreographer will bring us that kind of vehemence?"