Architecture Wednesday: Saganaki House

When I first saw the name of this home — Saganaki House—I assumed it was somewhere in Asia, but no … it’s Paris, baby.

It’s an extension of a small … and I mean small … triangular home on three levels, but there were problems, not the least of which it was small and triangular and on three levels. It was a complex geometrical space, difficult to furnish and live in, and was quite dark and north facing.

A new first level was created using the geometry of the small plot of land and the second level was constructed “off-axis” which allowed for a new orientation to the west and the ability to remove two small roof terraces.

The new levels have a differentiated architectural façade — zinc cladding for the first, wooden cladding for the second—to express the “hierarchy” of the spaces created. By the same logic, the four staircases of this five level home have different geometries as one travels “from the basement to the attic” to the terrace.

The architect also used custom furniture to optimize storage space while highlighting the complex geometry of the plan. The use of white as a predominant color and wood for all the floors walls and ceilings links each level bringing “clarity to living spaces.”

It is small …. And it’s five levels … and it’s oddly shaped … but, sheesh, it’s Paris.

HomeDSGN

North Carolina Lawmakers Boost Funds From Disaster Relief Fund To Keep Trans People Out Of The Bathroom

North Carolina lawmakers are still digging in their heels over that anti-transgender, hate-filled Bathroom Bill, and it’s continuing to cost the state lots of money through lost events, threats from the NBAS to boycott the state, and large corporations deciding to expand elsewhere.

And so what do the lawmakers do? They opt to harm the state even more by taking roughly a half-million dollars from the state’s disaster relief fund and using it to defend their Hate Bill.

The Senate has approved a plan to give Governor McCrory's office $500,000 to defend the law in court, by transferring money from the disaster relief fund; the measure still must pass the House.

So, people of North Carolina, when the NBA decides to hold its 2017 All-Star game somewhere else because of the Hate Bill, blame your legislators and your governor.

When entertainers like Bruce Springsteen cancel shows in your state, blame your legislators and your governor.

And when a flood takes your house away, or a tornado blows your town off the map, or a wildfire destroys everything you own, and you seek money from the state to start over and are told that the money was used to keep transgender people out of the bathroom, blame your legislators and your governor.

Sorry about your home, but a transgender person was about to use a bathroom and Pat McCrory had to stop them.

Associated Press

When Will It Be Enough? #AltonSterling

Alton Sterling was standing outside the Trip S Food Mart selling CDs.

Someone placed a 911 call saying a black male in a red shirt had reportedly the caller with a gun.

The Baton Rouge Police Department sent uniformed officers to the scene. Those officers “made contact" with Sterling in the parking lot and an altercation ensued.

"Get on the ground, get on the ground."

The officers confront Alton Sterling; one officer tackles Sterling, throwing him on the hood of the car and onto the ground and then the second officer climbs on and helps hold him down.

One officer seems to shout:

"He's got a gun! Gun!"

And, while Alton Sterling is on the ground, being held down by a police officer, another officer pulls out his gun and holds it the back of Sterling’s head or neck.

More shouts; then two pops.

A video camera catches it all but then cuts away.

"Oh my God."

"They shot him?"

"They killed this boy."

Alton Sterling died at the scene died from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back.

The two officers have been placed on administration leave "per standard procedure."

An investigation was ongoing.

Isn’t it enough? Yet?

An Open Letter To Laura Ingraham

Dear Laura, 

I get that you’re a wingnut, bigot, hater, Fox News loon, but sometimes even you need to take a seat while the grown-ups talk.

I mean, what else are we supposed to glean from you after you say things like this:

“Oh we have a new transgender update for you as well. Oh no new transgender news for all of you who are bathroom-goers and public — you use public restrooms? I think a lot of people are going to be walking around with just Depends on from now on. They’re just not going to use the bathroom. Adult diapers, diapers for everybody. No one’s going to be going to the bathroom. You have little kids, there’s going to be no bathrooms. We’re just going to all wear Depends. Everyone will just be happy. Then you’ll be in your own bathroom. Everyone’s bathroom is just their own clothes, OK? So this is what we’re going to go to.”

Seriously, Laura, if the idea of a transgender person in the bathroom with you — and I doubt you could even tell who is trans and who isn’t — is so offensive that you’d rather stay home or where Depends then …

Stay home. And wear Depends.

Because the only danger that exists from having a trans person use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify would be finding some hate-filled bigot staring at them while they try to pee.

Seriously, which is scarier? A trans female in a stall, behind a closed door, doing her business, or a trans woman, or a woman even suspected of being trans, being stared down and scrutinized by some fear-riddled moron with nothing better to do?

So, Dear Laura, stay home, and leave the world to the rest of us who don’t live in fear, and lurk in bathrooms.

Slip on your Depends and pee away.

And shut up. 

Bring Your Assault Weapon To The GOP Convention, But Not Your Super Soaker

The GOP … what are they thinking?

I kid; they don’t think. And that is clearly evident by the fact that at this year’s Republican National Convention protestors can come armed … just not with water pistols and Super Soakers.

Yup, the GOP said you can bring your guns and rifles and assault weapons to the protest but no water pistols … or soda cans … glass bottles … tennis balls … umbrellas with metal tips and “any projectile launcher” like BB guns, paintball guns and water guns.

“Hey there! You with the umbrella! Halt!”

And yet a loaded gun is fine. I guess it makes sense; I mean, do you really want someone with a water pistol taking aim at that Tabby Cat that sits atop the [t]Rump’s melon and shooting it off?

Still, guns are fine … loaded guns even … since Ohio is an open-carry state that has no ban on assault weapons, so long as they are legally obtained and don’t fire more than 31 cartridges without reloading. You know, it’s illegal to kill 31 people with your assault weapon unless you have stop before taking aim at the next 31 and reload your weapon.

Tim Selaty, director of operations at Citizens for Trump, who is an obvious moron, put it this way:

“You can take my string and you can take my duct tape, but you can’t take my gun — it’s open carry.”

That makes sense because remember when that lunatic walked into that theater in Colorado and killed all those people with string … or the guy who used duct tape to murder people in that church in Charleston?

That’s the GOP; that’s the NRA; that’s what we’ll get if people don’t Vote Blue.

Now, to be fair, since [t]Rump, for the time being until his campaign implodes and he becomes the Biggest Loser in November, is under Secret Service protection, guns of any kind will not be allowed inside the arena; the Secret Service calls that area a “protected site” where only law enforcement officers can carry guns — but even some gun zealots have fought that rule.

Seriously. But, remember, guns don’t kill people, the GOP in the back-pocket of the NRA and the NRA, kill people.

NY Daily News

Happy Fourth of July

The Funny Papers

Clay Bennett, Nick Anderson, Bill Day, Joe Heller, RJ Matson, Mike Smith, Nate Beeler, David Horsey, Ed Hall

It's Snarkurday!

Look, everyone knows that if you’re around Chris Brown, you’ll end up with his fist in your face, a chair in your face, or a pile of rocks thrown at your car when you visit him at anger management rehab. I mean, that’s why I turned down the job of Chris Brown’s Sock Folder.

But, apparently, Brown’s former manager/handler, Mike G, didn’t know that because he is now suing Brown for assaulting him.

You.Don’t.Say. Mike G was hired in 2012 to change Brown’s image from a girlfriend beating, chair throwing, rock hurling lunatic, and to get him out of debt and off drugs and says he performed his job admirably.

Really? Well, things ALLEGEDLY turned bad last month when, Mike G claims, Brown brutally attacked him and punched him in face and neck, and made him listen to a Taylor Swift song, all of which landed him in the emergency room.

The lawsuit claims Brown, rather than being sorry for being a dick, began mocking Mike G on social media and bragging to friends about the beating, even telling his roadies that if they got out of line he’d beat them just like he beat Mike G.

Look, I feel bad for Mike G, but, yeah, um when you’re hired to revamp the image of a man who beats girls and chairs and cars and has a drug issue, what exactly do you think might happen.

Again, that’s why I turned sown the Sock position.

I love to swear; I hear that only really smart people swear but I don’t give a f**k about that, I just love to drop every motherf**king, god**ned sh*tty curse word I can. Unless it’ll get me arrested … like it did to 50 Cent.

See, Fiddy was hosting an event in St. Kitts last week and ended up also performing his hit[?] song “P.I.M.P.” which contains some, um, bad words. Now, Fiddy was ALLEGEDLY warned ahead of time not to swear, because certain swear words are illegal in St Kitts.

Note to self: St Kitts is off the Bucket List.

Well, Fiddy ignored that whole “no swearing” thing since during his brief time onstage he repeatedly used the word “mother**ker” and so island police were waiting for him after the show to take him to Curse Word Jail, or something, where he was booked for using profanity in public.

Fiddy paid his fine — funny how he has the money for that but not for that lawsuit he lost — and returned home. His people released a statement saying that the concert was a success, and adding that the next time 50 Cent goes to St. Kitts, he’ll “leave the motherfuckers in the United States.”

Better yet, keep Fiddy at home and let the motherfuckers run rampant on St Kitts.

You know, 2013 was really Gwyneth Paltrow’s year; she was dubbed the World’s Most Beautiful Woman at the same time she was awarded the Most Hated Celebrity honor and topped the list at Star magazine of the 20 Most Hated Celebrities … beating out Lohan and Hilton and a slew of Kardastrophe’s, Taylor Swift, Kristen Stewart … Chris Brown.

And now, three years after those back-to-back hate awards, Paltrow is talking about them:

“First of all, I was like, ‘I’m the most hated celebrity? More than, like, Chris Brown?’ What did I do?”

And then, before waiting for the answer — which is “Look at yourself, you pompous self-entitled gasbag” — Paltrow proved why she’s so loathed:

“All I can do is be my authentic self. But I think there are things about me that make people draw conclusions. For example, there is the perception that I grew up very wealthy and that I was given, you know…that I was sort of raised with a silver spoon in my mouth, which inspires a lot of resentment.”

Um, you did grow up wealthy but that isn’t why people hate you; people hate you because you think the reason people hate you is because you grew up wealthy.

I’m still surprised she didn’t spin it that she’s the Very Very Best At Being Hated.

Nobody does it better.

Well, it looks like Chris Brown is getting sued again!

This week Suge Knight filed a lawsuit against Brown and nightclub 1OAK over Chris Brown’s disastrous 2014 pre-MTV VMAs party at the club.

The messiness started when someone tried to shoot Chris Brown but ended up shooting Suge Knight seven times instead and now, two years later, Suge is ALLEGEDLY still feeling the pain of those seven gunshots, including a blood clot. Oddly enough, though, there is some question over whether the blood clot is a result of the shooting at Brown’s party or any one of the other multitudes of times that Suge has been shot … like in 2005 when he was shot at a Kanye West bash.

The lawsuit also claims that the shooting is the reason why Suge fled the scene after hitting a man with his car during the filming of Straight Outta Compton; they want y’all to believe that Suge was so shook up from the shooting five years earlier and fled because he was “afraid for his life.” That man he ran over died and Suge is in jail awaiting trial.

So, I’m guessing the suit against Brown is because he needs coins for his jail card to buy smokes and porn?

One would think Suge would have learned to stay home.

Dance Moms star Abby Lee Miller is dancing the Don’t Send Me To Jail jig as fast as she can.

See, she plead guilty to bankruptcy fraud and failing to report bringing thousands of Australian dollars into the United States and was indicted on twenty counts of bankruptcy fraud, concealment of bankruptcy assets, and false bankruptcy declarations when it was learned she attempted to hide $775,000 in earnings from Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition and other projects.

The indictment also included the discovery of emails sent from Abby to her accountant with the subject line:

“LETS MAKE MONEY AND KEEP ME OUT OF JAIL”

The emails instructed her accountant to “not raise any red flags” and “DON’T PUT CASH IN THE BANK!!!”

Miller faces up to two-and-a-half years in prison. Funny, though, I always thought she’d get brought down for that Donald Trump Spray Tan she rocks and the Tammy Faye Bakker Make-up treatments.

Taylor Swift thinks she’s going to marry Tom Hiddleston — and I, for one, am sickened because I thought Tom had better taste than dating a Blow-Up-Kewpie Doll with no discernible talent other than being a perpetually prepubescent teenaged poetess—because, she says, “He’s the one.”

But, um, Swifty, wasn’t Calvin Harris “the one” about a half –minute ago before he Katie Holmes’d his way out of the Hello Kitty Cat Carrier you kept him in and fled at the first mention of marriage?

Take a break, TayTay, focus on you … then go away.

Well, well, well, Lisa Marie Presley has filed for divorce from her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood, after ten years of marriage citing, wait for it, “irreconcilable differences.”

Lisa Marie wants full custody of their 7-year-old twin girls and monitored visitation for Michael. She’s not asking for any spousal support or child support, which is kind of a ‘duh’ since being Elvis Presley’s sole heir is the kind of thing that keeps your bank account tight for life.

This is Lisa’s fourth time in the Divorce Sweepstakes, though maybe two of those don’t really count because she was insane at the time of the weddings.

She was married to the father of her two older children, musician Danny Keough, for six years, but in 1994 she WTF Married Michael Jackson for two years or so, then slipped off his ring to put one on given to her by Nicolas Cage. Then she married Lockwood.

Like I said, two of those marriages shouldn’t count.

So, while Kim and Kanye battle Swifty over the line in his rap that he made TayTay famous, and wants to f**k her, one person is feeling very snubbed.

Paris Hilton has crawled out of the muck to remind us all that there would be no Kardastrophes if there was no Paris … Let me bask in that world for a moment … Okay … back.

See, an Instagram user … Instagrammer? … put up a snapshot that Paris is reposting all over the net from Kanye’s “Famous” video that shows Paris in bed with Kimye under the tagline:

“I made his bitch famous.”

As if we need another reason to loathe Paris and inch her up a couple of notches closer to Paltrow’s Hate Throne.

And, again with Chris Brown …

Lawsuits and lawsuits and now, his tour manager Nancy Ghosh quit after he ALLEGEDLY cornered her on his tour bus and unleashed a “threatening, drug-fueled tirade.”

That’s our Chris Brown! But Ghosh isn’t the only one to depart.

Apparently TMZ got their greasy little paws on a series of texts between Chris Brown and his now-former publicist Nicole Perna, who quit over Brown’s clothing line, Black Pyramid.

Nicole sent Chris this text:

“Loooove all the black pyramid pieces … awesome collection!”

Brown responded with:

“I don’t want you texting me compliments with no results.”

He then called her a “do-nothing bitch” for failing to get Black Pyramid featured in magazines like Vogue and GQ, but Nicole, who may have been annoyed at being called a bitch — some women are like that, and rightfully so — snapped back that Anna Wintour and other fashion editors don’t want anything to do with him.

Chris spit back that he doesn’t “give a fuck” whether she works for him or not and so Nicole went for “Not.”

And this was all going on at the time Chris was ALLEGEDLY assaulting Mike G because there’s a text from Brown to G that reads:

“Send this bitch her termination.”

But she was already gone, and Chris Brown will soon be left alone with no one to beat on except chairs and car windows.

Good News Friday: US District Judge Kills Mississippi's Hate Bill

So, last Spring, Mississippi legislators and its governor voted for, and signed into law, one of those Religious Freedom Bills, AKA It’s Okay To Hate The Gays Because God Hates Fags … It Says So In The Bible bills.

The bill would allow private business owners, such as caterers, bridal shops, bakeries, dress shops and other state officials, such as public school counselors, to refuse marriage-related services to LGBT Mississippians.

But wait! Seconds before the law became law, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves literally killed it in a ruling that compared the bill directly to the state’s segregationist past, and saying the legislature was trying to write discrimination into law:

"Religious freedom was one of the building blocks of this great nation, and after the nation was torn apart, the guarantee of equal protection under law was used to stitch it back together. But HB 1523 does not honor that tradition of religious freedom, nor does it respect the equal dignity of all of Mississippi’s citizens."

Naturally, opponents of the law are rejoicing this weekend, while supporters cried out that the bill had nothing to do with discrimination, but was passed to protect their religious freedoms; freedoms which have never been threatened, mind you.

In Mississippi, and everywhere in this country, you can believe whatever you choose — I, for one, believe the universe is run by my cat Tuxedo — but you cannot, cannot, use your faith to deny goods and services to people.

But HB 1523 singled out three "sincerely held" religious beliefs as worthy of protection:

that marriage is between one man and one woman;

that people should not have sex outside such marriages;

that a person’s gender is set at birth.

In addition, the law protects from litigation anyone who speaks out against gay marriage or transgender individuals because of these beliefs.  So, yeah, that whole “it’s not at all about discrimination” line is just a lie; it’s about using religion to tell people what to do.

Religion is not a weapon.

Supporters are hoping that Reeve’s decision is appealed to the fifth circuit, but Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has not said whether he’ll take that on.

But let’s end with a cheer for Judge Reeves, for this ruling was the second time this week he ruled against HB 1523. In a separate decision last Monday, he struck down the part of the law that allowed clerks to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and now this latest ruling invalidates every single bit of the Hate Bill by arguing that it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment which prohibit government from favoring one religion over another and one group of citizens over another.

It’s that simple. Maybe now Mississippi will get it?

Mississippi Today

I Didn't Say It ...

Matthew Breen, editor-in-chief of The Advocate, accepting his Trailblazer Honor and speaking on Orlando: 

“I’ve got something to say to those who would do us harm; to those rightwing politicians and religious fanatics [The Advocate] too often covers: You cannot relentlessly discriminate against us and dehumanize us and then stand back and act shocked when someone takes your ideas into his black rotted heart and slaughters us in those places where we gather for community. We are not interested in your prayers unless they are followed up with action. And we do not accept that living in this country means lining up for a massive game of Russian roulette. There is no justification on earth for giving madmen access to mass murder machines. So listen up you Mitch McConnell’s, Pat McCrery’s, Wayne, LaPierre’s, Family Research Council, and all you bigots who methodically work to keep us down and keep the madmen armed, ‘You have f**ked with the wrong group of people.’ In case you have not been paying attention these last fifty years, this community is strong, resilient, very effective and mightily pissed off. We will not permit your insane brand of fundamentalism and we’re coming for your assault rifles, too.”

Words have meaning; words have consequences.

Sticks and stones; words hurt sometimes worse than sticks and stones.

They hurt like bullets.

[photo]

Bob the Drag Queen, on [t]Rump]s popularity:

"Trump is racist, and the reason why he's popular right now is because he lets a lot of people act racist without saying the word racist. He's a racist, and his supporters are racist, and they get to be racist without saying they're racist. I said racist, right? … RA-CIST. … Racist. … Racist."

No matter how he spins it, Donald The Rump is a racist.

We don’t need more hate in this country.

[photo]

Pope Francis, on the Church and The Gays:

“I think that the Church not only should apologize … to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologize to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by (being forced to) work. It must apologize for having blessed so many weapons. The Church teaches that homosexual tendencies are not sinful but homosexual acts are, and that homosexuals should try to be chaste. The question is: if a person who has that condition, who has good will, and who looks for God, who are we to judge?”

Oh, Pope Frankie got all kinds of Gay Praise for that first sentence, but read on: “homosexual tendencies” aren’t bad, but “homosexual acts” are; he wants us to be gay but not act gay, not love, not marry, not raise children.

He can go screw himself.

[photo]

Harvey Fierstein, accepting his Trailblazer Honor and speaking on Orlando: 

“These last two weeks have been very hard for all of us, especially for gay people who, as soon as we heard the news, we knew, we knew who took out that gun and shot; we knew it wasn’t something to do with Islam, we knew it was Hate, but hate turned inward, hate so strong, hate that destroyed so completely that his soul was gone … completely gone. And all he could was cry out; and then, instead of knowing there was someone he could cry out to, to say, ‘Help me! Help me be myself! Tell me I’m all right,’ he took a gun to prove he was a man and destroyed hundreds of lives. It wasn’t just those forty-nine people … it was all of their friends’, all of their families’ lives destroyed because someone told him he could not be him. We live our lives and they are short, little, silly lives, they really are, they go so fast, and history’s being made in every moment. Open your eyes; you are part of history, every moment. You either participate, or you don’t that’s your choice, but you’re part of history. All you need to do is show up. And don’t lie. I’ve seen people go to gay marches because they were angry; I’ve seen people go to gay marches because they were proud; I’ve seen people go to gay marches to get laid. It doesn’t matter. Show up.  Show up. Now you are surrounded with love, now you are surrounded with acceptance. So take advantage of it Put your arms around each other, tell each other, ‘I have your back no matter what.’ Show up. Show up for life. Make history.”

As that other Harvey, Harvey Milk, said, so many many years ago: we all need to come out, and come out to everyone, all the time, every day.

The more we are out, the stronger we are, and the less afraid people will be of us, and of themselves, so that maybe, maybe, we’ll have less people murdered because they’re gay by a murderer who was to ashamed to be gay.

[photo]