Space, Focus 
Wednesday, August 23, 2006, 11:55 AM - Sex, Friends, Food, Los Angeles
The combination of 14-hour days and some (necessary and wrenching and resolving) emotional turmoil has left little time for writing lately, and I fear that it will only get harder to have the space and focus to be coherent as election madness descends. An old high school friend found his way here - so I got to see his new baby's pictures and find out another friend is on his THIRD baby; a reminder that it's worth it to maintain this. I wish I had more time to chronicle all my new favorite Los Angelesness - thai massage minutes away (it DID leave me in a state of indulgent!), squash blossoms at Grace, cinnamony (greek style?) al pastor at Midnight Tacos, the fact that there's a fig tree (with green but growing fruit) in my backyard (I guess a reminder that I'm not paying attention - at least in an arborial sense - as much as I think), outdoor yoga, sea salt caramels from the local cheese store, and how happy it makes me to swim in the ocean...


My next personals ad 
Thursday, August 10, 2006, 02:27 PM - Sex, Technology
OK, this is from a proposal that was submitted to me today for an IVR (interactive voice response) project I'm scoping out, but I really think I should post it on Nerve with "Wanted:" in front of it and see what I get:
Flexible, future-proof architect[ure], facilitating standardized integration, real-time modification, easy access to additional capacity, and support for advanced speech plug-ins.
Maybe a certain blond Silver Lake designer's card should read "future-proof architect"? I am such a geek.
...
OMG, it gets better - there's also
"No excuses" support, "best in class satisfaction", and "disaster recovery capability".
Maybe I should put out RFPs instead of going to parties....


Bridgeport Ho! (what do you think - is that a better name for my blog than Fierce Piece?) 
Thursday, August 10, 2006, 01:20 PM - Sex, Politics
This Connecticut girl wanted to post about the Lamont victory last night, but I was too exhausted - now I'm glad I waited until this morning, since the outlook is much rosier since the establishment Dems are lining up behind his campaign. I'm profoundly relieved that they're forced to acknowledge the power of an antiwar candidate/ message. (Now we need Bill to get Joe to drop out - most importantly so that he doesn't screw up the Dem challengers' chances in the 3 CT house races that are up for grabs.) I hope candidates learn what they should from the Lamont victory - that a strong progressive stance on a key issue will be essential to winning this fall. (interesting article from the Greenberg camp on how issue motivation and candidate selection should play into messaging decisions). The Dems need to acknowledge that the anti-war left is the best source for energized volunteers and leadership now - they're our answer to the religiously-motivated right. 78% of CT dem primary voters were anti-war (Times exit poll) - what pushed primary turnout to unprecedented levels, and what we need to tap into this fall. Lamont's task will be to make sure that enough of the CT electorate sees Iraq as the primary issue to put himself over the top (and it's our job with Project Red-Handed to make sure that incumbent Republicans are seen as bought and paid for by corporate interests). MoveOn members made about 80K calls into CT for the primary, helping put Lamont ahead.
(and yes, the post title IS what the snobby boys from Greenwich used to call me in high school - but that didn't stop me from contributing to Lamont's campaign - it shouldn't stop you either.)
(Gossipy update: Leslie tells me Becca Lieberman got married today - very small ceremony (Sunday 8/13). Can you imagine the things that got said on THAT receiving line?)

spreadsheets are so sexy 
Thursday, August 3, 2006, 03:00 PM - Sex
When the editor of "Horny? Los Angeles: A Sexy, Steamy, Downright Sleazy Handbook to the City" says:

PS: The fact you work for MoveOn, so freaking hot....

I suppose he should know what he's talking about, right? Should I be leveraging my incredibly geeky (though admittedly fairly amazing) job to pick up chicks? If I play my cards right, will I end up with spreadsheet groupies? More importantly, can I take the fact that everyone wants to talk endlessly about my job as a sign that we'll win in November?

I hate clauses. 
Wednesday, August 2, 2006, 02:31 PM - Sex
Perhaps it's karmic punishment for my tendency towards overly florid sentence structure; my relationships come with too many clauses. I'm really tired of having the conversation that goes "you are the most amazingly fabulous creature ever!!!" followed by a tragic conjunction. Yesterday it was me who added "but it doesn't really matter how fabulous I am if you're not sure how separated you want to be from your wife." With the Republican it was him: "but you don't fit some abstract idea of what my partner is supposed to be like (oh, and did I mention I just don't think you're that hot?)." There have been some hysterical ones: "But you're just not geeky enough. Could you dress up in a Battlestar Galactica outfit?" and my new favorite "but you live in Chicago, why even bother?" I think I'm capable of being part of a relationship that can be contained in simple sentence structure. I hope I'm getting closer to figuring out what to do to make that happen. I definitely have to start being as picky about whether people are really available/ feasible as I am about how smart they are and how much I like them.

Mission Expat  
Saturday, July 8, 2006, 12:18 PM - Sex, Friends
At Dengue Fever at Tangier on Thursday I could almost pretend I was back at the MakeOut - a big red room, a Dieselhed alum onstage, lots of friends and fellow Mission refugees in the audience...at least one I had no idea was down here (Jeff Palmer). I still can't confirm the rumored arrival of Case Hudson but I hope to spot him soon. I was terribly happy to have a small coterie of new LA friends to lounge around with...
This photo (thanks Betty!) is
a) surprisingly nostalgia-producing (I miss the feta)
b) slightly inaccurate - I'm a greek Mission export now I guess
c) wicked clever.



Karaoke Catfight Narrowly Averted 
Wednesday, June 21, 2006, 06:31 PM - Sex
I seriously considered starting a melee at my dear friend Jennette's karaoke birthday party last weekend... I am slightly wistful that I didn't take advantage of the low lighting, orange walls, sake bottles that could have gone flying, microphone cords that were just begging to be wrapped around someone's neck, and utter ridiculousness of the situation. You'll be relieved to know that one well-placed dirty look did the trick, but I was secretly disappointed. It's been ages since I've been in the middle of a good scene. NEXT time I get invited to a private karaoke studio I will have been practicing a couple of pointed 'keep your hands off my man*' songs. It could be a flawed plan, since much as I'd like to pretend that my life is Bollywood-esque, I'd probably lose any objectively-judged idol-style competition.
* do let me know if you can think of songs that might be particularly appropriate in a 'keep your hands off my man, who's actually married to someone else, so obviously not exactly mine' sort of context. (did I mention the ridiculousness of the situation??) At least life is interesting.

New Orleans' Newest Tourists 
Wednesday, June 21, 2006, 06:09 PM - Travels, Sex, Friends, Art

I talked with my former colleague Sybil yesterday - she runs the New Orleans sister site of the HIV prevention project I used to manage in SF (community-level HIV prevention for high-risk adolescents). They've been doing street intercept interviews with teenagers at nightclubs in Central City (where those 5 kids were killed over the weekend) - Sybil's had to suspend her project (again) until everything calms down. She told me that while some things haven't changed (there are still a lot of 15 year old girls in the supposedly 21-and-over clubs), most of the 'neighborhood' adolescents are driving in from Houston for the weekend to party. As far as I can tell, this implies that New Orleans is becoming a city of richer, whiter residents, and is now a short-hop tourist destination for its former underclass...which is a truly freaky demographic shift. Perhaps the national guard will start stopping carloads of black kids at the city limits?
And for something almost completely unrelated, my old friend Justin is very talented, if you didn't know. Check out Greetings From New Orleans - pre-Katrina, even more important now that found objects from New Orleans are likely mostly lost.



Best Recent Pickup Line 
Thursday, June 15, 2006, 05:12 PM - Sex
Yesterday, at the Santa Monica farmer's market (where I stopped on the way home from the airport).
"Hey. Nice braces."

When one inappropriate door closes...another opens. 
Thursday, May 25, 2006, 05:36 PM - Sex
Last night I had my first date in LA. Pink wine at Stella, farmer's market tomato pizza, and some tasty kisses. Before you get too exicted about all that, I'll clue you in to the fact that he's so newly separated his wife's voice is probably still on the answering machine. Which doesn't negate the thoroughly enjoyable evening...and which came in handy today when the Republican dropped the "I'm just not that into it" bomb. I've been trying to convince my friends it was coming, but they're such sweet people they didn't believe me. Oh well... I wish my instincts were wrong more often.


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