Saturday, January 14, 2006, 07:54 PM - Sex, Politics
It drives me batty that the most important image of women from either the Roberts or Alito hearings is Alito's wife crying. Is welling up the best way for me to influence the future of the Supreme Court?? When he's confirmed, and if he does help overturn Roe, I will certainly be crying my eyes out, given that I'd have to spend a huge chunk of my life dealing with state-level battles over the legality of abortion. If only my tears were so sympathy-provoking, and I could get them such good coverage. Just imagine what would have happened to his chances for confirmation had HE been the one crying. And maddeningly there's at least a chance that if I were being cross-examined in front of the world, I WOULD cry. Yet I think mine (and many women's) capacity to mix emotional and intellectual intensity is one of our strengths. I'm so curious as to whether her emotional display was deliberate - really a master stroke if it was. In personal relationships I can never quite be sure of how much my manifestation of gender is authentic and how much is strategic or performative in response to social norms (or for that matter how much I should enjoy and accept my undeniable response to the masculine- or be suspicious of it). Yesterday I went with the enjoyment option, and I can't say that I'm sad about it. I'll let you know when I quit my job to drive my daughter to swim practice, but don't hold your breath just yet.Thursday, January 12, 2006, 05:35 PM
So based on a friend's offhand comment the other night I traipsed down to the Laurel Heights UCSF blood drive vampire van yesterday, all ready to emerge feeling fulfilled and better than when I went in. Perhaps I was inspired by the draculeque vampires in Mike Kelley's work, or maybe I just wanted to do something unselfish after a few days of birthday self-indulgence (Korean spa, fancy dinner, etc. etc.). Not all went exactly as planned. Perhaps giving blood the day after one finishes menstruating is not the smartest idea.
Surprisingly, I seem to harbor a small remnant of victorian ladyness -I'm sure everyone thought I was drunk, since after giving up my precious hemoglobin I was listing from bench to wall to elevator (when do I ever take the elevator?) in a sad attempt to get back to my desk. I pretty much fainted, I think, I just managed to be lying down already when it happened. I was so weak I couldn't even fight off the nurse's intent to drape me with a paper lei. (January is Hawaiian-themed blood month! Sadly no poi as a restorative treat.) I'm sure you can imagine how unappealing the idea of wearing fake luau schwag is to my delicate aesthetic sense. Where were the smelling salts when I needed them???
But you should give blood. Instead of me.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006, 12:36 PM - Friends
Angela and Erik had their baby yesterday (Monday) morning!!! 6:42 AM - she's 8 lbs. 4 oz., 20 inches, has lots of straight black baby hair, is long and lean and the softest thing in the world. No name as of yet - so if you've got strong feelings (some of us are still hoping for La'Beija) get to lobbying. Mom and baby are both doing fine - after a quick and very intense labor, BG made a dramatic entrance (taking after Ang already) and of course they barely made it to the hospital in time (not like Angela would be EARLY for birth, or anything...). They will probably be heading home tonight (Tuesday), maybe tomorrow. The best birthday present I could hope for, even if she was one day early. We are one step closer to Capricorn world domination. 
Saturday, January 7, 2006, 03:30 AM - Politics, Food
So today I had a lunch meeting with Megan (the brain behind The MMOB and my favorite co-conspirator on Leave My Child Alone), and she brought along Joan Blades! It was great to meet her- she's just the combination of grounded strategist and slightly ethereal presence you'd expect from someone who's changed organizing forever- through technology. She's starting a new, very large-scale project centered on women's issues...I hope I'll have the opportunity to contribute to it. (And in addition, I got to snack on those onigiri from the Japanese deli that take me right back to department store basement food heaven in Tokyo). Really an unexpectedly superlative lunchtime, all things considered.Wednesday, January 4, 2006, 06:41 PM - Politics, Technology
We'll all have to get our assfucking fix from the new Wonker (?) David Lat, erstwhile faux-babe blogger of Underneath Our Robes....
Nice job for Nick to snag him, although I bet his life as a prosecutor had become a little, um, complicated?
Tuesday, January 3, 2006, 05:57 PM - Politics
So it seems like I'm taking the leap into the world of GCI where I'll be working on MoveOn's 2006 efforts as well as developing progressive voter outreach strategies and a West Coast client base. I'm not sure that I'll be able to give up on the other fun projects I've been working on this fall, though, so it seems like it will be another round of balancing acts....Plus I'm still having meetings with people about my ideas for engaging social workers and other nonprofit sector staffers in civic engagement strategies. And my word, I live in San Francisco, shouldn't I be developing some technological solution that will save the world?? I am loathe to close off any possibilities, but could probably do with a bit more focus in the short term...more soon.Tuesday, January 3, 2006, 05:49 PM - Sex, Friends
Today I found out someone I know just got a positive HIV test result; a frighteningly horrible way for him to start his new year. I never know whether to be more angry, sad, or astonished when this happens...I get angry that all my nagging to be careful didn't work, I am sad that so many of my friends have to have sex in a world where this is still such a risk, and astonished that we haven't made more progress (personally, socially, culturally). Did I mention the viciously angry reaction to people who deny their own reality or are too cavalier to protect their partners?? I'm frustrated at the way our efforts seem too often to leave the responsibility to NOT infect other people out of the discussion. All our work in HIV prevention, while I know to have had significant impact, is meaningless when it fails at the individual level, and all my social network disease theory and epidemiology wasn't enough for him. And for all that medicine offers growing hope to (first-world) people living with HIV, it can't touch the pain my friend is going through today.Friday, December 30, 2005, 07:14 PM - Travels, Art
;)
I had a blast at this show in Chelsea. LA artist who searches out really strange extracurricular activity photos from yearbooks, recreates them and extrapolates short videos and installations. There are maybe 35 of them running in seemingly random sequence in the gallery, beautifully sideshow-esque and cacophonic. He and many 1970s high school students is/were apparently fascinated by vampires, but my favorite piece was the operatic performance by the chick in the bedazzled 'Fresno' overalls, on the porch of a weirdly modernist representation of a farmhouse. Great fun....
;)
Thursday, December 29, 2005, 02:19 PM - Books
I really have to hand it to someone who gets me to read (and sometimes delight in) 980 pages and 400 footnotes and refuses to provide more than tiny little hints of narrative closure. (Well, OK, I guess Orin was effectively closed out). There's some similarity between my reactions to this book and to Confederacy of Dunces - strangely more side-splittingly funny in retrospect than during the experience of reading....the hilarity of the premises is sometimes drowned out by the form. I loved the dead Incandenza patriarch and the mind-numbing drug detail and enjoyed how Wallace anticipates the (valid) criticisms of his novel by developing the critical debate about said dead patriarch's entertainments. I am such a sucker for hypercomplex novels, how could I not enjoy it? Thursday, December 29, 2005, 01:59 PM - Travels, Friends
I am freshly back from the east coast, and while I did have some ridiculously wholesome holiday times with dear Dad, there's nothing like NYC during a transit strike to make you realize the true beauty of human nature. (In truth I was comfortably watching MNF with George when the strike was called, but trust me.)
Favorite parts of my trip:
Watching Andrew in his triangular Italian army jacket pick up a hot blonde on the F train by discussing her ability to suck Ruper Murdoch's cock.
Suprising Gaby at a Hanukah party (thanks Nick!).
Brunch at Prune with Claire and Heather.
Spending Friday night at a black tie event thrown by artsy Brooklyn artists scraping to afford NYC, and Saturday night at a White Trash Xmas party thrown by a bunch of Wharton private equity rich kids. And the bare-chested bartender at the gay hedge fund party, did I mention him?
Watching my hardass friend Rachel transform into a cooing blissful mom when she holds brand-new Ulisse.
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