*The information
that follows is from PETA's website.*
The following product is made from animal:
"Alpha-Hydroxy Acids.
Any one of several acids used as an exfoliant and in anti-wrinkle
products. Lactic acid may be animal-derived (see Lactic Acid).
Alternatives: glycolic acid, citric acid, and salicylic acid are
plant- or fruit-derived.
Lactic Acid.
Found in blood and muscle tissue. Also in sour milk, beer, sauerkraut,
pickles, and other food products made by bacterial fermentation.
Used in skin fresheners, as a preservative, in the formation of
plasticizers, etc. Alternative: plant milk sugars, synthetics."
According to PETA, this is an animal-friendly company. "Those marked with a dot (·) meet the Corporate Standard of Compassion for Animals (CSCA). Those marked with an asterisk (*) manufacture strictly vegan products:
"*Advanage Wonder Cleaner, 16615 S. Halsted St., Harvey, IL 60426; 800-323-6444"
As you know, the
IPS is dedicated to bringing attention to charitable organizations
everywhere.
This Month's:
Sierra Club
P.O. Box 52968
Boulder, CO 80321-2968
This is yet another environmentally based organization, in fact, it is "America's Most Effective Environmental Organization." It protects trees and forests and things of that nature. Get it?! Nature?! Get it?! Ha! So join already! These laughs ain't for free you know.
*This article is from a PETA "Investigations & Rescue Fund" newsletter. IRF-8LU*
"And along with these and many other success stories, there is a photograph of an elephant named Sissy...
"Sissy was beaten by cruel 'trainers' at the El Paso Zoo. When videotaped evidence of the abuse became public, the community was outraged, and our campaign to release Sissy and place her in a sanctuary began.
"RIR made an impassioned plea to the city council, PETA members flooded the mayor's office with letters on Sissy's behalf, and RIR caseworker Jane Garrison appeared on the television news magazine Extra to show the world what Sissy had endured.
"Our work helped to convince El Paso officials to let Sissy move to a sanctuary. In addition, the zoo director was forced to resign, the zoo was charged by the USDA for Animal Welfare Act violations (settled out of court), and the abusive workers face cruelty charges.
"Today Sissy enjoys long walks through lush fields and cool swims in her favorite pond at the wonderful Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. She will spend the rest of her days at this safe haven, basking in the love and affection of her new elephant friends."
If you would like
to help prevent such cruelty, contact:
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
501 Front St.
Norfolk, VA 23510
757-622-PETA
http://www.peta-online.org
Information is taken
directly from the ICT website, which you should visit, if possible
(http://www.savetibet.org).
"Karma cup"
Sydney Morning Herald
18/04/00
"IT WASN'T until she was in her late 30s that Sherry Marshall met a Tibetan lama. She wasn't looking for a guru, or for a spiritual path. But the night she went to a Balmain dinner party and met His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa, one of the great teachers of the Tibetan lineage, the effect was electric...
"She admits, in retrospect, that it was odd that she'd never read anything about Tibetan Buddhism...
"Marshall is, after all, a psychotherapist, and had spent 15 years working with people with emotional wounds and families crying out for connection...
"You don't have to meet a lama or even be interested in Buddhism to appreciate the tremendous appeal of its philosophy, especially in the West.
"In a culture which so admires the man who pushes his way to the top, and in which materialism and neuroticism are so prevalent, the quiet credos of Tibetan Buddhism have been a clarion call to millions of Westerners...
"Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche's filmmaking debut, The Cup - (he is also a revered lama) - which follows the trials of a novice monk who is crazy about soccer, follows a recent flowering of Buddhist-inspired films, such as Seven Years in Tibet, [...] Little Buddha and Kundun...
"One of the delights of The Cup is the way audiences get a voyeuristic peep into the everyday lives of a group of young Tibetan monks. Tibetan Buddhists are renowned for their light-heartedness. Here in the West, it is this "everyday magic" as some people call it - the humorous way Buddhism can be entwined in everyday life - which is so appealing..."
The following episode of a t.v. show is worth taping:
That episode of
Felicity where Shawn is doing that third part of the documentary
with Ben and Felicity (originally aired April 19, 2000.) I swear,
it cracked me up. Oh my god I laughed.
Noel: Do you wanna go to the [Sadie Hawkins Dance]?
Julie: Okay, but you can't ask me. I have to ask you.
Noel: Okay.
Julie: You wanna go to the dance.
Noel: No, not really.
Actually, any episode where Shawn is working on the documentary
is pretty funny.
Last month's quote was from Chef South Park. First one to guess the source of this month's line wins a prize!
"Serves you right you gay-bashing homo."
It's poetry time baby--pronounced a la Conan O'Brien, babeh. So sit back and enjoy some solid vibes. *Sound of fingers snapping*
"Heroes Drink Zima"
Super bubble to
cover the stench of cheap perfume.
And cigarette breath
Light auburn to cover the gray
Her nails a home
to dull pink
Her hands, a land of gold-plated rings and things
A silver heart lays helplessly against her suntanned
chest.
Alcohol raids her
veins
A Wonder Bra raids her blouse
And with the heel of her boot
All nice and stabbed in my hands
With music on her arm
All jingle jangle and ringing in my ear
She shakes her tight jeans
And loose skin
Right out the cute little door
And in the late
hours of the night
When overplayed songs have finished dancing
And time is empty
Maybe her highness drinks one for me
--Sally
Legend (legend being the kids in Coach Wade's Euro Hst classes) has it that Catherine the Great had a contraption made so that she could sleep with a horse. As it was being lowered upon her, the machine broke and the horse crushed her.
The following article
is from Mysteries of the Unexplained. Pleasantville, New
York: The Reader's Digest Associated, Incorporated, 1982. I know
that the citation is all incorrect, but I don't have the publishing
information so I'm sorry for any plagiarism that this might be.
You can sue me. I'll give you my tv or something 'cause that's
all I have.
Now then, imagine some ominous mystery music in the background.
As usual, believe or don't folks.
"A former actress Mrs. Olga Worth Stephens, age 75, of Dallas, TX, was sitting in a parked car in October 1964 when witnesses saw her burst into flames. She was fatally burned before anyone could come to her rescue. Firemen said that the auto mobile was not damaged and contained nothing that could have started the fire"
"I Walk Alone," Oleander, February Son. Those of you who are reading this online should know by now my obsession with Oleander, namely Thomas Flowers. If not, then go to my website and read about it. Those of you reading this in print should know about it anyway because either you are obsessed too, or I told you about him. Anyway, this is an Empowerment Song and it makes me wanna take over Hollywood. Thomas Flowers, what a pretty little name. How perfect is he? I spend all day listening to crap on the radio just to hear this or "Why I'm Here," which is also an Empowerment Song. Anyway, I love Oleander!
Visit Blocking the Wall Online: http://www.geocities.com/btwonline
HEAT (1995) **1/2
Directed by Michael Mann
Starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and everyone else in the entire
world.
SCENE: Shadow
walks into video store
SHADOW: All right! Robert De Niro and Al Pacino exchanging dialogue!
Bout time! This is gonna kick ass!
Two hours later, Shadow's TV room
SHADOW: What the fuck is going on?
Michael Mann has this extreme close-up fetish that I do not understand, nor would I want to. This is very effective during tediously engaging films like The Insider, but in a supposedly taut action-drama-crime-suspense flick like Heat, it just gets really confusing. In what I believe is the film's climax, there is this huge shoot-out which would be really good if the audio didn't suddenly jack up to 80 decibels and it was shot in semi-cohesive, non-XCU style. I mean, I NEVER figured out who was shooting whom!!
There are about 5 bajillion characters in this movie, all played by well known performers who apparently heard the names "Pacino" and "De Niro" and jumped on board because they needed to flesh out the other 4.8 bajillion. No one cared to read the script. We have everyone from Natalie Portman to Jon Voight to Henry Rollins in this thing.
SCENE: Shadow's
TV Room, five minutes into the movie. Extreme close-ups of Al
Pacino have just finished getting bizzy with extreme close-ups
of Diane Venora
SHADOW: I guess that was semi-exciting.
So anyway, Pacino is a cop. But he's not quite as cool as Serpico.
De Niro is a criminal. But he's not nearly as cool as Jimmy the
Gent. And getting in the way are those 4.8 bajillion other characters,
and Christ almighty Val-fucking-Kilmer is in this. I sat through
Val blinking for nearly an hour of this movie and for what?!?
SCENE: Shadow's TV room, an hour into the movie
SHADOW (staring at her watch): When do Pacino and De Niro talk
to each other!!?!
You think car chases are gonna happen, and they don't. You think you're gonna see Ashley Judd or Diane Verona naked, and you don't. You think Val Kilmer's gonna die, and dammit, he doesn't! And all this time, Michael Mann is laughing at you. Yes, you. On top of that, the entire score sounds like the beginning of some song by a middle-of-the-road 80's cover band.
Then, finally, thank merciful heaven, Pacino and De Niro talk to each other. But combine Mann's close-up fetish with the fact that this is a pan-and-scan home video version, and they might as well be in different rooms. They have coffee together. Big fucking deal. I waited twenty years to see THIS?! Michael Mann, you nonetheless talented and ingenious bastard, you owe us some footage that proves De Niro and Pacino were really together.
SCENE: Shadow's TV Room. Shadow has stopped the video to watch her copy of The Godfather Part II.
This movie tries to examine how inter-personal relationships don't work in the cops-and-robbers life. Who cares? Less talky, more car chasy.
Before I leave, I want to point out that characters mention the word HEAT often and with great emphasis. It makes me laugh. Shadow Omega
I know he's not a stuff, but right now I'm greatly obsessed with Paul Newman. The one of you who frequents my site and the two of you who frequent the Blocking the Wall site already know this, but to the rest of you, it's a surprise. So here's my deal, I saw an advertisement for Where the Money Is and was like, "Whoa! Paul Newman! Cool!" Then, before government the next day, some people were talking about how Robert Redford used to be all dreamy but was now just saggy and this dude that wasn't bad was like, "Yeah, but some guys are still studs even though they're old, like Paul Newman." I spoke up and agreed. Then I thought they said something about Kevin Spacey, but they didn't, so I did. Whathow, the next morning, Diane Sawyer's interviewing Paul Newman and I'll be dolgang if he don't look good, even at 75, which is still 5 years away from being old you know. And then they showed this old clip of this audition tape with him and James Dean and good lord that was a good day! Anyway, so I dig Paul Newman. I bought his salad dressing, marinara sauce, and got my dad to buy his steak sauce. It's all quite tasty and proceeds go to charity. Super good and super kind.
No advice this month because I think BPM died and/or dropped off the face of the earth and/or just hates me and won't answer my emails.
Dude: Thomas Flowers, singer in Oleander. For all but two of you who have bothered to frequent my site, and of course Sally, you may not know about my obsession with him or where it began. Basically, I went to Edgefest, they played, he was good, he said some things, he's a nice guy with good arms. I like him.
Chick: Tori Amos. I've been working
on my music review site and I listened to her music and wrote
about her music and so she's on my mind and she's cool and I wish
I looked like her and I wish I could play piano like her and sing
like her and write songs like her and have red hair like her.
Then I'd be cool.
Whoriscopes:
Taurus (4/20-5/20) - Don't sink
too far into
your own misfortunes this month; Grandma might fall into the lobster
tank at the supermarket.
Famous Bulls - Trent Reznor (5/17/65), Jerry Seinfeld (4/29/54),
James Brown (5/3/33), Audrey Hepburn (5/4/29), Malcom X (5/19/25),
Ella Fitzgerald (4/25/18), & Charlotte Bronte (4/21/1816)
Gemini (5/21-6/20) - If that mean old town gets too rough, take your child and ski away to WalMart. We're goin' to WalMart son.
Cancer (6/21-7/22) - A rather weird Libra with piles of ear fungus falls madly in love with you.
Leo (7/23-8/22) - Chloe and her high heel boots ain't get nothin' on you; so burn the futon mattress and have a blast Miss Amanda Bad.
Virgo (8/23-9/22) - When you get sick of living under that huge Doc Marten they sometimes have at concerts, keep n mind that at least you're getting to touch it.
Libra (9/23-10/22) - Pad-locking the cage doesn't mean the sort of snake you imprison cannot slither out.
Scorpio (1023-11/21) - That kinky Capricorn who's into microwaveable sex comes on in a life threatening manner, but keep hoping he'll rot out the same way he rotted in.
Sagittarius (11/22-12/21) - The world is a gigantical beach ball bouncing from sweaty palm to sweaty palm at an Everclear concert, this I know, but the view from the stage is so amusing, hop on and play your song.
Capricorn (12/22-1/19) - Somebody's fate turns twenty this month; buy it a cup.
Aquarius (1/20-2/18) - Don't wear the lies you buy; some of them aren't refundable once the tags fall off.
Pisces (2/19-3/20) - A happy little bottle of truth paints a rainbow on the sole of your foot.
Aries (3/21-4/19) - Past the orgy and the porn film they're making in the park, you'll find the hippie's mistress weeping photogenic tears.
email:
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Remember to nominate stuff for any article at any time. Song stuck in your head that deserves the Song of the Month title? Send it in. Avid about a worthy cause? Tell us about it. Your suggestions may not appear immediately because I write these so far in advance, but I promise I'll use it sooner or later. This is your newsletter so let me know what you wanna see in it and I shall do my best to please you. So it is written; so shall it be.
Hey, remember the Pectin Polls? What about that quiz we had? Would you like some more fun stuff like that? If you've forgotten what I'm talking about, or you're fairly new so you just don't know, then check out the archived stuff on the site. I wanna bring them back if you guys want them back because an interactive newsletter is fun, no?
And by the way, congratulations to the IPS members in the Graduating Class of 2000!
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