Hi, y’all.

Michael Pollan's newest book urges Americans to reclaim cooking for health and sustainability.

Tonight’s video selection is a little spicy — what do old people think about gay sex? The answer may surprise you. Or at least make you laugh and smile!

I just started reading Michael Pollan’s Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation on Kindle. Even though I’m a kitchen devotee already, it’s inspiring stuff. There’s a chapter devoted to each of the “elements” of cooking — fire (cooking), water (cooking in pots), air (baking) and earth (fementation). Check out this long interview with the author on Democracy Now! if you missed it the first time around.

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GetEqual TX activists block traffic at 11th and Congress, in front of the Texas Capitol, in support of SB237.

More on GetEqual TX and SB237 Now: Capitol Sit-In Liveblog and 5 Arrested for Workplace Equality

Members of GetEqual TX are blocking a major roadway in downtown Austin at 11th and Congress, directly in front of the Texas Capitol. They continue to demand passage of the “Fair Employment Act,” which would make it illegal for Texas employers to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. With only a couple weeks remaining in the legislative session, time is of the essence.

Update: Apologies for those who tried to follow this earlier, we had a coding error so that it did not pull my tweets correctly. Here is an updated version of the post!

Update #2: One of those arrested, Carey Dunn, posted an open letter on MyFDL earlier today.

Hi, y’all.

A mint plant shades a tiny volunteer tomato plant.

Last night a friend dropped by to plan some upcoming activism and talk about gardening. He showed me how I can cut ‘suckers’ off my tomato plants and turn them into more tomato plants. All the tomatoes already growing in our garden are volunteers — sprouted from dropped seeds or compost. I love the almost overwhelming bounty of gardens — the more you get into it, the more food you make.

What do you think of this child abuse advertisement which appears differently depending on your height? Gawker reports:

Using a technology known as lenticular printing, Grey Group designed an ad that contains a “secret message” that is only visible from the POV of children (~4’4″).

To adults, the billboard will contain the simple, yet powerful message, “Sometimes child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.”

However, children will instead see the far more useful instruction, “If somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you,” along with the foundation’s phone number.

Tonight’s musical selection is “Robin” from Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party, which wins for the best band name I’ve heard in a while.

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5 Arrested for Workplace Equality

Five were arrested at the Texas Capitol on May Day morning last week as GetEqual TX staged a sit-in at four Texas State Senators offices. Activists hope to pressure legislators to schedule SB237, the “Fair Employment Act,” for a vote. If passed, it would make it illegal for employers in the state to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Activists for any group that wants to lobby the legislature are under added pressure because the state’s bicameral house of government meets for only 140 days out of every two years, and only a few weeks of the 2013 session remain. These sit-ins come after an escalating series of direct actions.

Tiffani Bishop, the Central Texas Lead for GetEqual TX told me:

We’ve literally exhausted all other options. We’ve marched, lobbied, petitioned, visited their offices personally, and called their offices every single day for the last 2 months. At this point, nonviolent civil disobedience is our only option.

While nationally, media attention and lobbyist efforts seem focused on the issue of marriage, in a majority of states the ability to find and keep employment for LGBTQ workers is threatened on a daily basis. According to statistics provided by GetEqual TX:

- An estimated 431,000 members of the Texas workforce identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
- 26% of transgender Texans report being fired solely based on their gender identity.
- 12% of lesbian and gay Texans report being fired because of their sexual orientation.
- 37% of gay and lesbian Texans report being harassed at work due to their sexual orientation .

The day began early as over a dozen activists gathered in a parking garage near the Texas Capitol at 8am and were immediately spotted by a bicycle-mounted Texas State Trooper. By noon, the five activists had been arrested and the rest dispersed.

SB237 remains unscheduled, with Senator Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury publicly opposed to the bill; other members of the Committee on Economic Development refused to comment for this story. GetEqual TX members met Monday and plan to continue direct actions.

Delving deeper into what happened between that morning gathering and the protesters release that night on personal recognizance bonds shows how the best plans of activists go awry during chaotic protests, and yet also the impact of direct action.

Inside the Capitol

A line-up of GetEqual TX activists near the Texas Capitol before protests began.

Original plans had been for ten activists to risk arrest inside the State Capitol. But one of the most effective nonlethal weapons police can use against activists is intimidation, whether subtle or overt.

It’s difficult to tell whether information leaks and some questionable choices in “security culture” — the term activists use for how to communicate and plan sensitive information about their direct actions — or just extreme alertness on the part of the troopers, who have the whole capitol complex wired with cameras resulted in the sudden appearance of troopers from the moment the group gathered. Multiple patrol cars were also spotted around the parking garage.

Isaac Brown and JoeAnthony Rodriguez (Veteran in Uniform) speak with Ben Stratmann while Chaplain Robert Hall records.

Though the bicycle trooper ostensibly came by to warn us that smoking was not allowed on the rooftop parking area, he had also radioed our location back to his superiors and the message was clear — they were aware. As GetEqual TX protesters stood in front of the Capitol giving statements about their actions, another bicycle trooper was watching from the background — she’s visible in the video at the top of this post. She introduced herself as “Cathy” and said her job was to ensure “everyone had their voice heard.”

Whatever advance intelligence they possessed, troopers made little attempt to prevent protests from beginning. Two groups occupied the offices of Senator Birdwell and Senator Bob Deuell, R-Greenville. When Deuell’s staff refused to negotiate with protesters, loud chanting began with almost a dozen activists crowded into the office. Next door, in Birdwell’s office, staff seemed to disarm the activists with politeness.

Birdwell’s Chief of Staff Ben Stratmann told me:

I know there were SB 237 protests and arrests next door to our office and in some other Senate offices, but we didn’t have any protesters in Senator Birdwell’s office. I had an opportunity to speak at length with some extremely polite gentlemen about their support of the bill.

These are the same polite conversations that activists have been having for months. Sometimes too polite — a staff member told GetEqual TX’s Iana Di Bona that Birdwell opposed SB 237 because it would make it harder for employers to fire a gay person that didn’t do their job.

In email, Stratmann denied that this statement represented Birdwell’s views:

Hi, y’all.

Scandal succeeds by tapping into social media conversations ... and deep-seated political fears.

Two interesting articles about the TV show Scandal caught my attention today. Sheila Parks has posted a number of interesting analysis of episodes of the show, which has recently gotten increased attention and been renewed for a third season.

The AVClub talked today about how the show encapsulates America’s political nightmares:

Scandal got where it is by ramping up its storytelling to the point where nearly every episode contains what would be a full season’s worth of twists on other shows. Furthermore, Rhimes made the very smart decision to treat the first 13 episodes as a separate season of their own, then treat the so-called back nine as another arc. This decision brings with it some freedoms that cable dramas’ shorter episode orders boast over network dramas. But the series also taps into something indefinable in the political zeitgeist: As The West Wing defined the long twilight of the Clinton years, Scandal is the George W. Bush/Barack Obama TV show we didn’t know we needed. At its best, it plays like a slightly sci-fi dramatization of Glenn Greenwald’s blog, with soap elements added, as well as a hefty dose of romantic tragedy. In Scandal, there are only two things that hold true: No American institution—not governmental or corporate—has your best interests at heart, and human relationships are a kind of beautiful addiction, irresistible in the moment but spiraling outward to infect all they touch.

The first season of the show barely garnered good enough ratings to make it to renewal, but in the second season Scandal has become one of ABC’s top shows. It’s done this by creating powerful conversations on Twitter, according to policymic:

Scandal (@ScandalABC), one of ABC’s top rated dramas, which airs on Thursday evenings (10pm EST and 10 p.m. PST) is a great example of a show that has capitalized on the Twitter opportunity. On September 27, 2012, during the premiere of the show’s second season, ABC launched Scandal’s live-tweet campaign, offering its fans engaging, real-time conversation, updates and information. Scandal fans, also known as “Gladiators,” have been taking to Twitter ever since to interact with the entire cast and each other. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Scandal fans produce 2,200 tweets per minute when each episode first airs. Even the show’s lead writer, Shonda Rhimes (@shondarhimes), her writing team (@scandalwriters), and the show’s make-up team (@scandalmakeup) are joining in on the online conversation.

Scandal’s creative hashtagging style is proving to be effective as well. According to the same Hollywood reporter article, Scandal represents an average of five of the ten trending topics on Twitter feeds on Thursday evenings. Scandal’s social team releases theme-based hashtagsregarding specific upcoming episodes and/or story plots. The #WhoShotFitz campaign was launched during season two and instantly spread throughout twitter feeds, inspiring different theories, predictions and ideas around the assassination attempt of President Fitzgerald Grant, Tony Goldwyn’s character. When the show finally revealed the identity of the assassin, the network launched the #FreeHuck campaign immediately after to keep the online buzz going. Scandal has a created a natural rhythm of back and forth between new plots and storylines and fan feedback.

I confess I haven’t watched the show yet — but the buzz is making me reconsider. How about you? What TV shows are you watching?

Tonight’s musical selection is “Laser Beans” by Total Unicorn.

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It’s Cartoon Friday again!

Tonight’s selection is I Met the Walrus. This is Oscar-nominated short film, much like last week’s selection, animates a real life conversation. In this case, a 5-minute reduction of a 30-minute interview between Jerry Levitan, then 14 years old, and musician John Lennon in 1969. According to the Wikipedia entry, Walrus is a highly recognized work of art:

The film has won many awards including a 2009 Daytime Emmy in the New Approaches, Daytime Entertainment category, Best Animated Short awards for the American Film Institute and the Middle East International Film Festival. … It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows. It was selected to be one of 25 YouTube videos to be part of the first Guggenheim Museum/YouTube Play “A Biennial of Creative Video.”

Kristen Schaal performs Bob's Burgers' Louise and also voices Mabel Pines on the humorous & hearfelt cartoon Gravity Falls.

Bonus: I want to talk a moment about Bob’s Burgers, because it is the best cartoon airing on television today. I haven’t linked to it here before because it is currently airing on a major network — part of FOX’s Sunday animation bloc. At the same time, because it airs with the disappointing modern incarnation of The Simpsons and the often bigoted Family Guy (whose “ironic” racism is usually just racist), I worry that some people have overlooked this brilliantly funny show now in its third and strongest season.

It features H Jon Benjamin and other members of the Home Movies team, previously discussed here at Cartoon Friday, including creator Loren Bouchard. Another key member of the development team, Jim Dauterive, is best known for his work on King of the Hill, a show with some similarities.

Bob’s Burgers is about the Belcher family, who run the titular burger joint in a coastal city. The restaurant brings in barely enough to keep their family afloat, so in addition to being a full time job for Bob (voiced by Benjamin) and his wife Linda (John Roberts, who you may have seen work with Margaret Cho), the three Belcher children are often called into service. The kids are voiced by three more talented comedians, Kristen Schaal, Eugene Mirman, and Dan Mintz. With a cast of almost exclusively experienced stand-up comics and frequent guest stars from that field, it’s not surprising that the show is consistently laugh out loud funny.

What separates it most from other animated family sitcoms is not the talented cast but the way it treats the family. Unlike the darkly comic domestic violence common elsewhere, the Belcher family overflows with genuine love for each other. The comedy comes from their encounters with an outside world that often misunderstands them or would defeat them, except that their close connection and support always leaves them victorious. It might even seem saccharine, if it weren’t genuinely hilarious.

“Mother Daughter Laser Razor,” one of the best episodes of the recent season, is streaming free on Hulu for another three days. But, in three days you’ll be able to watch “Boyz 4 Now” free and I believe it’s one of Bob’s Burgers best episodes ever.

Hi, y’all.

It’s gotten chilly again today in Austin — dropping to the 40s tonight with a strong wind all day that made it feel much colder than it is. I put my pajama pants on when I got up and didn’t leave the house all day.

It’s not Cartoon Friday, but I love Pogo. “Pogo,” in this case, is the alter ego of Nick Bertke, an electronic musician who remixes cartoons and other media into catchy, danceable hits like his famous, haunting “Alice,” which the AVClub wrote about recently in glowing terms:

Yet for all of the ways that “Alice” panders to the Internet’s seasoned nostalgia receptors, Bertke’s track eschews the cheap rush of familiarity of a Girl Talk banger or a quick-and-dirty YouTube parody. There’s an expression of longing in the best Pogo tracks, Don Draper’s “delicate-but-potent” brand of nostalgia that poignantly, yet futilely, tries to fill the void of something lost: time, youth, innocence.

Here his remix draws from the seemingly infinite repository of Spongebob Squarepants episodes, turning childish fluff into something that makes my feet tap and puts a smile on my face.

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This is our latest MyFDL open thread. You can chat about anything in the comments below if you are logged in.