Variety reports that as the efforts to challenge Proposition 8 are set to begin next month in San Francisco, a media coalition of the major networks, Hearst Corp. and Dow Jones & Co is asking for the permission to broadcast the court proceedings. TruTV (formerly Court TV) would broadcast everything, from start to finish, daily.

Defenders of the anti-gay marriage proposition are objecting, complaining that witnesses would face harassment and “the potential for intimidation.” Oh, you mean like the kind of harassment and intimidation they’re sowing against gays and lesbians? Are these people for real?

In a letter sent to (Judge) Walker on Monday, their attorney, Charles Cooper, referred to the aftermath of the 2008 election, a time marked by protest rallies, marches and, in some cases, boycotts of those who contributed to the Yes on 8 campaign, including one website that identified donors and their addresses with a Google map overlay.

Indeed, some potential witnesses have indicated that they will not be willing to testify at all if the trial is broadcast or webcast beyond the courthouse,” Cooper wrote.

—snip—

Attorney Thomas Burke, representing the media coalition, said that they anticipated there would be some opposition to the effort, but he noted that because the trial will be public, witnesses will be identified whether cameras are present or not.

Burker further added: “Moreover, given the historic nature of the case, interest among the public in the details of the proceedings are significant.”

Count me as real interested, how about you? These busybody religious people took it upon themselves to try to RESTRICT THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF OTHER AMERICAN CITIZENS. They sponsored Prop 8, they paid for it and they are actively trying to amend the constitution of the state of California! Do it in the the light of day, folks, if you are so sure God is on your side. Do it in the daylight if you have the courage of your convictions. Own your deeds if you’re so proud of yourselves—and shouldn’t gays and lesbians (and intelligent people in general) have the right to know who these preposterous people are so they can boycott their businesses? If not, why not?

A matter this important deserves a PUBLIC hearing. Let’s hope we get one. This whole matter is a waste of brain cells and tax payer money. It’s an embarrassment to California.

Also, this. There are totems around us. All around us.

Dear God, this makes me feel like I drank too much cough syrup.

(Via Swen’s Weblog)

 
Sad news from Australia: Rowland S. Howard, the guitarist for post-punk legends, The Birthday Party, died of liver cancer on December 30th, 2009. Since the Birthday Party’s break-up in 1983 over his “creative differences” with Nick Cave, Howard’s distinctive, angular, “broken glass” style of guitar-playing has featured in groups such as These Immortal Souls, Crime and the City Solution, Nikki Sudden and the Jacobites and in collaboration with Lydia Lunch on their astonishing goth-tinged cover version of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood’s classic, Some Velvet Morning.

Howard told the Australian edition of Rolling Stone that he had liver cancer and was on the waiting list for a donor. “If you’re trying to write about the human condition there is only so many things you can choose from. Being told that you’ve only got a couple of years to live without a transplant is a pretty frightening experience and certainly changes the way you feel about your life, [it] makes things so much closer.” Howard was 50.

Below: The Boys Next Door (the original name of The Birthday Party) with a young Rowland S. Howard and Nick Cave, perform their cult hit Shivers:
 

 
(via Unique Daily)

 
Best quote from the video: “Next, when you enter a nursing home, do not stand there with your group in a large cluster of clowns. Clowns can look rather intimidating if you see a lot of them in one place.”
 
(via HYST)

 
Yes, what you’re reading is correct: Gizmo Skirt for $2,100. Why the fuck not?  I guess a special “thanks” is in order to designer Brian Lichtenberg for this?
 
(via Today and Tomorrow )

Here’s an interesting clock made from a recycled magnetic tape by etsy seller pixelthis. The seller says, “This clock was made from an old Scotch reel magnetic tape that was headed for the trash heap. It is Approximatley 7 “in diameter and comes complete with a new quartz drive and runs on 1 AA battery, included.”

The price for this clock is $28.00.
 
(via Nerdcore )

 
I first saw Leos Carax’s Pola X back when it first came out in ‘99 and barring one truly amazing scene it has pretty much slipped my mind. That is until I was reminded of it while watching the wonderful Scott Walker doc “30 Century Man” the other day. In the fury of hype over its “un-simulated” sex scene, something that seemed to be sort of in vogue at the time, I had completely forgotten about Walker’s heavy-duty score, which in watching it again makes the film. Don’t get me wrong, I love the depiction of the tortured artiste giving up his considerable wealth and comfort to pursue a dark, forbidden muse (a love affair with his estranged half-sister) but these 3 minutes of film are some of the most striking, vertigo-inducing I’ve seen. Yes, it’s ludicrous to have a factory-dwelling cult playing huge industrial noise symphonies on expensive gear conducted by a charismatic leader in an X-rated French soap opera, but I like it. Alot.

 
The Selvedge Yard has a humorous photo essay titled The Bird, The Finger, The Legend. See more images of famous folks flipping the bird here.