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.
Thursday, December 15, 2005, 02:20 PM - Travels
For the second night in a row I was on my way back across the Bay Bridge, and by chance ended up again at Uno's toll booth (yesterday, #15). He had already offered to marry me the night before, which made for a much more pleasant bridge experience than usual. Last night he was all prepared with his phone number and he paid my toll himself. Such gallantry! Although I don't see a lot of future in our relationship, it's tragic to think about EZPass forestalling toll booth romance for a whole generation.
Side note: it made me so happy that when I looked for a toll plaza picture, the best one was from the Groove site....
;)
Tuesday, December 13, 2005, 05:49 PM
just asked for revisions for an article I submitted a while back, so it looks like I may be joining the ranks of real academics. A geeky little article on the use of GIS mapping in public health planning - it's actually nice to be able to revise it so I can add some things... using Google maps, etc. that are making that type of analysis even more accessible.Monday, December 12, 2005, 02:42 PM - Politics, Friends
I got this request for help from a friend in New Orleans - he's appealing for funds to rebuild a school there - and of course it's the simple local institutions that help create true community, and that must be revivied to ensure that New Orleans residents a home to return to.
;)
Here's their appeal:
The International School of Louisiana (ISL) opened six years ago and with a mission of providing children of all backgrounds a challenging language-immersion (Spanish and French) curriculum with a
focus on global citizenship. Many believed ISL was the best elementary school in New Orleans before Katrina, and its survival is, in a small way, crucial to the city's success.
As the first and only one of three Orleans Parish-based public schools to resume operation after the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, ISL has demonstrated the resilience to reinstate the quality learning environment our children enjoyed before the storms. The job will not be easy, but we have the tools to make it happen: talented, dedicated administrators and faculty, and families devoted to restoring ISL to its former vitality and promise.
Currently, ISL is operating in a small church building west of New Orleans, in Kenner, LA; but we plan to return to Orleans Parish. We are
working with the School Board to obtain a building, but we will need to pay for renovations ourselves.
What ISL needs is money: resources to ensure that the school can afford to make the changes that will be required to move into a larger school
building in the City of New Orleans. The families of ISL have set a goal of $100,000 by December 31st.
If you can help us put those resources together with a contribution of your own, it will go to very good use and will be greatly appreciated.
We're trying to get as many $100 donations as we can, and anything you could give would be a great help.
ISL is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization, and you may contribute securely online by visiting the ISL web page (where can also read more about the school): [/url] http://www.isl-edu.org .
For ongoing updates on Katrina-related issues:
Katrina Action
Thursday, December 8, 2005, 02:08 PM - Politics
Have you read Harold Pinter's Nobel Speech? Good carpet-calling for American militarism. And it's great that he incorporates the historical perspective - reminding us how even when all of the terrible things this country did in Central America were happening, nobody cared -
"Even while it was happening it
wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest."
But I really don't believe it's only that people are unaware; everyone on some level understands what we're doing in Iraq. We exist in a world with a serious lack of empathy. Once some people get all the facts, they change their views - but it's not like our quest for world domination is really under wraps, as much as it's dressed up in 'spreading democracy' - nor has it been many times in our national history. As one learns in public health practice, it takes more than knowledge to change behavior. We all benefit from the spoils, so there's little incentive to raise hell. To return to the beginning of Pinter's speech, things ARE simultaneously true and false - it's part of an internally conflicted reality that we may be both creating democratic change in Iraq while fundamentally destabilizing and damaging Iraqi society.
I think he's wrong here:
"The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it's very comfortable. This does not apply of course to the 40 million people living below the poverty line..."
Because it DOES apply to the poor in the U.S.- we've gotten rid of many of the horrible things that happen to people in most of the world (infant mortality, infectious disease) (which is real positive change) so even people who lack don't have SO much less that they're ready to take on the system. Look at the extreme poor in New Orleans - everyone somehow still had a TV, even if they didn't have a car in which to drive away.
I'm of course glad Pinter made his speech but I think it's the underlying ambiguity of our national project, not just the language used to describe it, that's the issue.
Then again, I'm not a writer...
Wednesday, December 7, 2005, 06:11 PM - Sex, Politics
I don't know many republicans. I've had a couple of contrarian science-guy libertarians in my black book, maybe. But I met this man the other week, and of course because I was in SF I had no reason to suspect. Now I've made out with him (more than once, post-disclosure) and I'm having to ponder the previously unimaginable question of what one would do if one actually LIKED making out with a Republican. Is it morally indefensible? Just plan foolish? Apparently I am determined to truly test the limits of my romantic idealism. I know Leslie comes from a happpy, mixed (sane/insane) marriage, though it's always seemed like an untenable arrangement to me. Let's not forget that the last person I dated had the most impeccable political credentials and yet was a selfish nightmare...so perhaps a paradoxical response is just what's called for? Saturday, December 3, 2005, 11:24 PM - Dancing
I swear last night on Mighty's dance floor I saw ironic, detached postmodernism crumble with the bootyshaking bliss of a few hundred multiracial SF club kids. Now we just need a few artists from this generation that can conjure up the same kind of love and soul. Wouldn't THAT be wonderful?;)
Wednesday, November 30, 2005, 07:14 PM - Politics
CLEMENCY DENIED: Well, not a surprise after the tone of debate this weekend, but still a disappointment and a lost opportunity. Idealistic me thought clemency could still be about mercy or redemption not 'the facts of the case' and political calculus. The courts decided the facts; this should have been a moral decision, not a pragmatic one - not that I should expect much morality from our governor...read his denial of clemency here.
And, um, where were the Jesse and Joan and all those other protestors two weeks ago, when it might have made a difference?
Update: Mark Leno has introduced a bill (AB 1121) The California Moratorium on Executions Act that would halt Tookie's execution while the new bipartisan Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice consdiers problems in CA's death penalty system. Please do all you can to support the bill. More info at: ACLU Northern California Death Penalty Project
Saturday I went to San Quentin for a protest of the upcoming (mid-December) execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips and now transformed into a peacemaking children's book author. Snoop showed up and spoke briefly about how meeting with Tookie had made him change the way he thought about his influence on young people - sadly I don't think they talked about feminism and his impact on young women, but even a little modulation of the gangster ethos from one of its most prolific hiphop practitioners could make some positive change...
Either way, we shouldn't be killing anyone in San Quentin. Check out the Save Tookie website and write to Arnold requesting clemency.
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