[the rules] 7 unacceptable types of person (plus 3)

The premise behind ABC's cancelled reality TV series Welcome to the Neighborhood was that three straight-laced families would pick from seven families which were in some way undesirable; the winning 'bad' family's prize was a fancy home with the three gatekeeper families as neighbors. The three families already living on the cul-de-sac apparently consisted of an insular one, a Republican one, and a Christian one. But I was more interested to read about the contestants; given the standard reality-TV "one of each" casting strategy, what did ABC's producers decide were the seven best types of "outsider" family to put on television? (I'm relying on about.com for descriptions, since ABC isn't promoting the show anymore.)

1. The Crenshaws: a religious African American family.
2. The Eckhardts: a family who blend their Native American and Caucasian
   heritages with Pagan spirituality.
3. The Gonzalezes: a loud, boisterous Hispanic family.
4. The Lees: an Asian family that runs a sushi restaurant.
5. The Morgans: a Caucasian family that looks picture-perfect, except 
   Mrs. Morgan has a little secret.
6. The Sheets: defying all stereotypes, this Caucasian family are
   covered in tattoos and are staunch Republicans.
7. The Wrights: a Caucasian homosexual couple who've adopted an African
   American boy.

It took a tremendous amount of willpower not to put scare quotes around half of the words there, but okay. Elsewhere on the web I read that Mrs. Morgan's "little secret" (see?) is that she's a stripper. So, three non-white families that are presented as being racially stereotypical in some salient way, three families with some kind of counter-cultural stigma, and the gay couple, whose objectionability, I think, is sort of in its own cultural category these days.

My morbid fascination with this premise extends to how, exactly, the competition was going to work. Were they just going to put everyone in situations where they had to mingle and see what happens? Or were the contestant families going to have to prove their worth with cartoonish feats of mainstream acceptability-- you know, a barbecue competition, a Tom Clancy trivia contest, ordeal by water, things like that.

The kicker, though: I've been talking about this as a counterfactual, but it all actually happened before the protests started and ABC pulled the show. So the winners, whoever they were, got the house; they just didn't get on television. I somehow find that much MORE disturbing than the prospect of it airing, or of the competition never happening at all.

[finder] Why are people search for love when they could try my tree !?

Three weeks ago, Swedish singer Jens Lekman requested on his blog that fans who were feeling sad go out, graffiti something, and send him a picture of it. And they did! The page is incredibly cute even when Jens isn't commissioning vandalism; you can keep reading and see stories about running into a naked actor from an Aki Kaurismaki film, spreading bogus rumors that he was going to be performing with Snoop Dogg, accidentally plagiarizing the guy from the Silver Jews, getting gay-baited in Mississippi, etc.

(Free songs: "Black Cab", "You Are The Light" and "Pocketful Of Money". The latter two involve graffiti and plagiarism, respectively.)