Democracy Now! | Arundhati Roy on India, Iraq, U.S. Empire and Dissent

I hope that every progressive person has heard of Arundhati Roy, but whether you have or haven't, this is a great interview with her from Democracy Now back in May. She's informative and inspirational. She's honest, thoughtful, realistic and eloquent. I loved her after reading The God of Small Things, but I loved her more after hearing her speak on political issues like Globalization and Empire. Listening to this interview is a good use of an hour.

Jimmy Fallon & Parker Posey Pepsi Commercial

So, this isn't new, but I don't watch much live tv, so I'm going to pretend like it is. I've been dabbling in YouTube for awhile, but I've recently been on a kick. So have a lot of people I guess because I found a link to this on Pop Candy. Not that I wanna be hocking Pepsi (I don't drink soda), but it's pretty funny, and I do enjoy funny and creative commercials. There are also a lot of re-makes on YouTube, some are chuckle-worthy, while some are downright disturbing.

Splitsville for Sleater-Kinney

sleater-kinney
Originally uploaded by divinehamer.

I'm feeling suprisingly heavy-hearted after hearing that Sleater-Kinney is breaking up. It's making me feel...old. Like it's time to grow up, have kids and do something respectable.

Stabbies and honorary Stabbies

hanging in the shade
Originally uploaded by yellerbelly.

Another Live Oak down. This year I didn't take many pictures as it was so freakin' HOT. Stifling, sweltering heat is how I will remember Live Oak '06. I had brain melt, so I left a lot of the picture taking up to others. And I felt sorta disappointed by the music this year, but I did discover a cool new band, the Bills, hailing from Victoria, Canada.

But mostly I just enjoyed seeing all the folks that I don't get to see enough of.

Check It: Nellie McKay

nellie smiles
Originally uploaded by eatsdirt.

My favorite favorite security blanket these days is Nellie McKay. She makes me so happy. I love her.

The ubiquitous tag line is "a cross between Eminem and Doris Day". I don't know about that, but she does spit some rap and also has a very pure voice in the 1st Alto/2nd Soprano range. Although, admirably, she doesn't believe in such restrictions--especially interesting since she writes her own stuff and ostensibly could write songs for herself in her range, but whatever. I find her vocal reaching and stretching endearing. Her first album, Get Away From Me is pretty eclectic, but a bit more 1950's/ 60's pop vocals than the new one which seems a bit more...modern, and rock/ pop like. She hasn't lost her political bent though. Someone commented on how there weren't as many funny, sarcastic quips on the new one, and she said that she thought she'd become less funny. So there. But I still like it, but maybe not quite as much as the first...yet.

If you even sort of like her, buy her album when it comes out this summer. She was dropped by her label last winter right before her album was supposed to come out (because they're jerks) and I heard she's going to be releasing it herself this summer. The best website for news is NellieMcKay.org

one paragraph at a time

OK, so I haven't written anything in a million years, but I've been trying to think of something worthy to write about after such a long hiatus (really there are a lot of things) and this seemed like a great one. Check out Maya Stein's fabulous poetry on her blog one paragraph at a time and sign up to receive her gift of a poem in your inbox once a week. She is awesome!

My Dog Equivalent

OK, so I don't know about this, but I took the What kind of dog are you test that Emdot linked to on her site, and it turns out that I'm a King Charles Spaniel AKA English Toy. It's certainly not what I'd look like if I got to pick.

Although I shouldn't be so superficial, all I can think about is all that hair. Alck! But they are said to be "bright and interested little dog, affectionate and willing to please." I guess that's not so bad...

Letter to Barbara Boxer

Dear Senator Boxer,

I am writing to you today because I need to feel that there is someone at the federal level that actually cares if justice is carried out in this country and in the electoral process at hand. Yes, I am disappointed that the candidate I supported didn't win. And yes, I am upset that as a minority in this country I am reviled and discriminated against. But more than that, I am profoundly wounded by the fact that my one vote, and the votes of my friends and allies, may not be counted in many states in this country.

There is a cherished belief that if the people of this nation can envision a better world and a better country, they can come together and help create it by electing honorable people who serve as their voice at the global table. When votes are thrown away as ‘spoiled’ or intended votes are tampered with, voices are repressed, and it dashes those dreams.

Voter turnout has been steadily declining, which many believe to be in favor of the Republican party. But it is not in the favor of democracy, and it is not in the favor of a just, fair and hopeful society.

I am writing, not just to air my grievances and conspiracy theories, I am writing to urge you to be a voice of the disenfranchised. I feel that your state has been disenfranchised and will continue to be until there is major election reform. We have no right touting our progressive and superior Democracy in the United States when it is in fact no such thing. The Electoral College aside, the fact is the votes of the people are Not Being Counted.

If it comes to it, perhaps all ballots should be hand counted if that's what it takes to achieve a correct and fair outcome. There was, of course, a time before Diebold machines, punch-cards and the like. I'm not really suggesting this, but I am suggesting that our appetite for nice, neat outcomes and immediate results is fatally overshadowing our commitment to democracy.

As a player in Washington, you may have an insight into the machinations of the Republican Party and their ongoing shenanigans to remain in power, as evinced by their actions in Florida in 2000. I hope that there is something that can be done to curb the current trend or the corporations will indeed control our government, and we will be a democracy in name only.

Thank you for your time and your diligent work on our behalf.

Sorry World

sorry world wall
Originally uploaded by yellerbelly.

Check out the Sorry Everybody web site. There are soooo many pictures. It's unbelievable.. I really love how quickly people can mobilize through the internet. I really thought that would be an advantage for the dems this time out. I guess the republicans figured out how to turn on the computer. I guess that's how they can plot abortion hospital bombings and white collar investment scams. OK, yes, I'm bitter!

I find that some people are surprised that I haven't moved out of my mourning phase. Forget it. I'm going to be grouching about it for at least the next four years. If I move to another country, I'll still be grouching about it. Maybe that's not the best energy to be putting out there. The pundits have been saying that Demos need to be more Positive. Apparently we have to stop spewing anti-Republican rhetoric and only talk about sun-shiney things.

Well, remember how Kerry decided to take the high road in the Democratic Convention and then the Republicans skewered him at their convention. No, this is just a big set-up to get us off the offensive and then they will really stick it to us.

Oh yeah, I'm officially a big time conspiracy theorist. I have no doubt that the most nefarious deeds are taking place behind closed doors and there is a good chance that the last election was rigged. There I said it.

A Superior Sunset

A Superior Sunset
Originally uploaded by CaptPiper.

OK, so I've gotten into Flickr, and I like the community aspect of it. Today I was looking at the sun pictures and happened across a woman's photos that were really beautiful, and she had a link to her blog yadda yadda. Anyway, she has an election day post talking about her election day anxiety. "It felt like a Twilight Zone Christmas because instead of wondering what St. Nicolas brought, you wonder whether it was Santa or Satan who visited your house last night." I can totally sympathize. And then, oh, wasn't she relieved when she learned that Santa had been there! Wow, I had no idea. I should be soooo thankful!

But really, all my warm fuzzy flickr feelings disappeared, and I thought "Wolf in Sheeps clothing!" Who is this imposter. This Judas posing as an Artiste. But then, her pictures were good...so, grumble grumble...

US Purple Cartogram

US Purple Cartogram
Originally uploaded by yellerbelly.

I was so depressed about all the maps that came out after the election, but they were flawed in a few ways, they didn't account for population (which a cartogram does) and even if a state or county was won by bush by a point, it was fire truck red. I like this one the best. But there are lots that put a smile on my face. Check out Robert J. Vanderbei's original site, and the plethora of fun cartograms by the folks at the University of Michigan.

Prepare for Life in a Police State

OK.

Faced with my future life in a police state, I've decided to take up blogging as therapy (cuz once a week with my paid one isn't going to cut it.) We'll see how long this lasts. emdot told me that I needed to write everyday, and since I got that directive, I haven't put pen to paper or finger to keyboard once.

So, here goes....

I've spent the last two days in the fetal position. When I look at all that red, all I see is intolerance. I see people who are willing to hand over their money, and their freedom to a war-mongering imperialist in exchange for the hope that he will ensure that gay people will not be given governmental benefits granted to married people, and the hope that abortion will be outlawed.

The thing is, the good people of this country, left without health insurance, left with an increasingly illiterate electorate, left with longer working hours for less pay...they can not stop gay people from getting married. That is part of the separation of church and state. Marriage is not up to the government. Marriage is up to the individuals envolved, it is up to the church that they belong to, and the minister, friend, or stranger that marries them. Yes, they may keep them from having custody of their children or stop them from seeing their partner in the hospital if a tragedy should befall them. But they will not be able to irradicate homosexuality or commitment. That is their aim and it will NEVER happen.

And abortion...it's always been around. If they want to keep qualified doctors from performing abortions, they can leave it up to amateur quacks. They can gloat smugly when they read about young girls dying in back alleys. Oh wait, they won't read about that. The media will be solely owned and operated by a covert arm of the government. Alright, I'll stop before I get to 'conspiracy theorist'... I'll save that for another day.

So when I look at the Red Sea, it makes me sad. They are depriving only themselves from a better life. And I'm also sad that, we as a country, are separated that way--blue and red. Only 54% of 'super-liberal' California voted for Kerry. And my home county of San Luis Obispo, CA would have elected Bush. The electoral college is another way of pitting the Heartland against us crazy liberals. I'm so fucking sorry for wanting EVERYONE to be educated and have health care and to be free from persecution for speaking their mind. I want simple things... What is wrong with everyone?

So, something kinda cool happened. I got accepted to a program called Digital Directions at the Bay Area Video Coalition. I also told my manager that I'm stepping down. That means no more 50 hour weeks for me and no more crazy schedules. I'm very excited. This also means a lot less money. But whatever. It's bad to get caught up with such nonsense.

I've also been continuing to work on my soccer project. The women's pro league has just been cancelled. They announced this days before the world cup is starting. I think that sucks, but I think that it's kind of a ploy to get corporate sponsors to step up and support them. It's really disappointing and I feel badly for the players.

This past weekend I thought I was going camping on the Russian River. So I packed all my little camping necessities and bunches of squirrel food cuz I didn't have a stove or anything. Turns out out I was going GAY camping. I should have known being that it was Guerneville and all, the North Bay gay resort.

The 'camp ground' was a relatively small, consisting of nicely manicured lawns with a picnic table per every few camp sites. The sites were about 10X10. And instead of redwoods there were fruit trees scattered about. I made sure not to pitch my tent on the plum guts lying about and at night I heard the sound of apples plunking to the ground. Also there were no fire pits in sight although I read that there was a group bonfire night which I didn't attend. My friends who were camped out further down the way were kept up all night by the techno dance party churning out the gay faves.

Aside from the shock of my sissy surroundings, I was glad that the bathroom was nearby, there were hot showers available, I was forced to make friends with my nelly neighbors (complete with rainbow flag and leather body harness hanging off a tent, and all the queers one could ever hope for. I'm just never around enough gay people in San Francisco.

There was no seclusion to be found and my friends got caught with their pants down in what they thought was a secluded nook. But I'm sure they weren't the only ones trying to cop a feel as there was travel lube packaging on the asphalt pathway.

On day two we got kayaks and made our way down stream. My partner purchased an inflatable kayak which supposedly is great for rapids, but apparently is not so fabulous on placid shallow lakes. So, we trundled along leagues behind our gang. The slightest wind sent us spinning in circles and the river offered us to aid in reaching our destination. There were people paddling upstream as fast as we were paddling down, or as fast as P. rowed. I was little help. I was more of a hood ornament. Best part of the trip. The scenery was gorgeous, and well worth having to listen to P. complain. :)

I have a tendency to speak before thinking. It's a huge fault. Anecdote to follow:

The other day I went to see Erin McKeown, who I think is fabulous. During the show I became more and more convinced that I wanted to discuss her career trajectory. So, after the show I went to her and I asked her why she wasn't playing bigger venues. (She's been playing small clubs for years, and I think she's destined for bigger things.) She said that I should talk to her manager who was sitting nearby. Well, then I asked her a final question. Did she have a problem courting the gay media. (I didn't ask if she was gay. I figured that question would answer itself.) About the media she said that she didn't have a problem with them, but they rejected her because she refused to talk about her personal life. At this point I had mentally written her off as one of those closet cases unworthy of my promotional efforts. But as I was leaving, and against my better judgement, I went up to her manager and had words. Because why make one enemy when I could make two. I told her manager basically the same thing. She got so upset she started to speak heatedly about how I didn't understand how hard it was, how hard they worked, etc. So, I started to feel badly and back-peddled... I did understand yadda yadda. But maybe I didn't understand.

Basically, I think Erin should hitch herself to a little gay star and milk it for all it's worth. Hey, if she's happy doing what she's doing then I can't fault her for that, but there are two issues here. The age old to-come-out-or-not-to-come-out morality question and then the how to get famous question. I discussed the latter with a straight musician friend of mine. She was all for it. In fact she had patronized the Lexington trying to recruit an audience. She butched herself up for the event, but she said that they could see through her and that they knew she wasn't gay. It was a bust.

I know this is a cynical view to take, but it's practical. Lesbians are hella loyal, and one would be lucky to have them on your side. Erin's crowd was a bunch of staid middle-age bores who didn't dance to anything. Why would anyone chose that kind of demographic. Now the Gossip show a few days later... but we'll get to that later. So, I left feeling horrible. I was really trying to do something good, but I just made everyone feel badly. My friend said that maybe it was a good thing and maybe Erin will re-consider her pro-closet stance. I don't know. whatever. I'm an evil person. Right now I'm listening to a stream of Erin on Morning Becomes Eclectic. She's so cool. Not my type though. ;)

Last night my friend E and I saw Liz Phair at the Fillmore. I wasn't expecting much because her stage fright etc. is well documented, but she's one of the few people that I've never seen, so I had to go. E totally called her outfit. She was wearing a short skirt, knee-high come fuck me heel-boots. I'm totally stuck in the early 90's, so I said, uh, jeans and sneakers?

The good thing is that she played lots of old songs, so I wasn't disappointed at all. The not-so-fabulous thing is that a lot of the spare productions from Exile in Guyville were muddied up by full band arrangements which made her garage-style vocals seem very out of place and accentuated her off-key-ness. But if you like, go here to see a video of her on Morning Becomes Eclectic Scroll down and you'll see her.

I've been trying for an eternity to get a group together to play a board game with me, Settlers of Catan. And the more my attempts are thwarted, the more I become psycho-obssessed about playing the game. Last night I thought the groundwork was laid and I was sure that we were going to play. But then plans were made to meet at a bar (wrong off the bat) and then we moved on to a new bar--a smokey one at that where I copped an attitude with the bartender about the proliferation of smokers. We're in California fer chrissake, I don't have to put up with this! So I sat sullenly against the wall with my game under one arm, sipping water with my nose in my Myers-Briggs personality book.

read this column in which Kevin Smith disses Reese Witherspoon. Very Funny.

A friend of mine recommended a few books to me, and I haven't decided if she's trustworthy for that sort of thing yet. She doesn't like Sarah Vowell, didn't like Adaptation, liked the Hours...Jesus, I don't think that we have a thing in common, and yet, I'm forging ahead with one of her recommendations, Michael Cunningham's A Home at the End of the World. I identified with this one sentence, so I wanted to share.

"Adam alternated between listening to me and staring at the people sitting at other tables, with the unabashed directness of one who believes his own unimportance renders him invisible."

For an unrepentant starer, I find this to be an interesting and somewhat profound description of my favorite pastime.

Tonight I was settling in to a night of web browsing, when I came across a listing stating that one of my favorite singers was performing across town tonight--starting half an hour before. So, I started panicking. Should I get dress and race across town and then be disappointed because her set is over (this happened to me once before with the same artist a couple of months ago) or should I stay in my cozy pajamas?

I called the club, and the person who answered said that Tami had just finished her second song and if I came right now I could catch most of her set. I was skeptical, but got in the car, drove down the street, decided to take a cab so as not to have to deal with parking, parked, changed my mind, got back in the car, drove to the club, searched for parking for 5-10 minutes, and finally got to the club.

Of course she was done playing. This is no cliff hanger. I knew it would be so in my heart of hearts, but I was holding on to my shred of hope. I decided to ferret out the singer and give her a berating for not playing longer. She was fabulous and sweet (the only work for it) I told her how disappointed I was that I missed her and she apologized, asking if I was the one that called. She then asked if I'd like her to play a song for me. I envisioned Tami on stage dedicating a song to me. I would get starry-eyed and bask in the over-flow of her spotlight. Then she asked if it was weird if she played for me in the bathroom. "No, not at all." yeah, totally weird, but romantic in it's own down and dirty way.

Well, we didn't end up in the bathroom. It was an office of sorts turned into the greenroom for the night. I requested a song from her first album, Light in August, which she played on an unplugged electric guitar, practically whispering the lyrics at times so as not to disturb the band on stage. "They won't hear you," I told her, which seemed to free her up a bit.

Something about the proximity of our bodies, the unorthodox nature of my impromptu concert, and my insistence upon making inane conversation made me feel like we were doing something illicit.

I stayed for the next act, a brilliant woman playing under the moniker Bonfire Madigan. This was one of those nights that made me feel distinctly shitty about what I am doing or not doing with my life. I didn't even go to the peace rally today because I had to sleep all day. Life is hard for vampires.

I think that stories of vampires must have been started about people working graveyard shifts.

Every day after I'm finished working I try to rush home before the gold off the sun washes over the Bay. There is a short window of time in which I can settle in for a good night's sleep and pretend that it is still night. If I don't make it, I feel sick and dirty--flopping into bed all grimy. Who stays up all night and sleeps away the day? Losers. Certainly not the early bird catching the worm. Nope.

That's how I felt this morning as I stumbled into bed at 9 am, light washing my room in a sickening mauve collected from my sheer curtains.

It's not just sleeping through daylight hours that evokes images of vampires for me. I think that night workers are emotionally unstable. There is a lot of night time going on at my work. Two girls got fired for threatening eatch other. One wanted to shank the other one in the parking lot with her box cutter. One guy accused another of being some secret agent.He got all crazy eyed--the way only people with electric blue eyes can get--and said that he wouldn't want him following him home late at night.

Maybe it's a lack of melatonin--a supplement that I am taking by the way. There was a study that showed that women who worked weird swing hours were more prone to certain types of cancers. But then, there's a study for everything. I'm sure it messes you up though. I believe in staying in tune to your body's natural rhythms. I don't like to stay up too late or get up too early.

Maybe it's the hours or maybe it's all that hip hop we listen to at night. Eminem makes people want to kill.