Monday, August 28, 2006, 11:33 PM - Travels, Friends, Food
I was at a party in Boston Saturday night with 3 (!) other illustrious alums of the Ellsworth Field finishing school (Black Rock Little League). Three of the 4 of us have been social workers, we're all single (Tommy is gay), not a kid among us (although Erin wants one soon) - we're all urban and doing interesting things (Jessica works at New American Paintings and is starting to become a gallerist - Tommy has a brand-new philosophy professor gig, has done lots of radical media organizing, and wrote a dissertation on Foucault and friendship - Erin is a social worker in SF). Left to right we were a Raider, a Buccaneer, and a Yellow Jacket (Tommy?). Jessica still remembers us starting to be friends on third base. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who got out of Bridgeport alive - and apparently not the only one who got out with a serious social justice focus, either (interesting how devout parental catholicism plays out in the iconoclasts of this generation, no?). Additional highlights of the weekend included truly luscious bluefish - portuguese style with mussels and chorizo and greens and so delicious. Can't get this in LA:
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...
Tuesday, August 15, 2006, 06:42 PM - Technology
Look- it's my first-ever podcasted babblings! I wish I had time to listen to it...I seem to remember going off on some rant about women being inherently more worthy candidates than men... Gender and the Social Web - panel presentation from NetSquared conference in San Jose in May.Sunday, August 13, 2006, 06:18 PM - Dancing, Los Angeles
Friday night I went to see a band called Very Be Careful - they were described to me as a postmodern rock/ Latin fusiony mix of things (I was hoping for a local Cafe Tacuba -who are always close to the top of my 'favorite bands ever' list). VBC is in fact totally straight-up cumbia (or vallenato, to be more precise) not in the least de/re-constructed - and also super super fun. The crowd was almost all english-speaking 2nd+ generation Mexican hipsters from East LA (as were the folks who invited us)- at least until the bicycle pirates showed up (don't ask). The floor was too crowded for real cumbia, but that's eminently forgivable when the whole crowd is dancing and happily watching the band get plastered as their set progresses. The show was in this old school Mexican bar downtown (all red and mirrors and Xmas lights and a wondrously-lit stage) and it was one of the first nights I've had since I've been here that couldn't have taken place anywhere but Los Angeles...good restaurants and hipster bars and parties are great, but with my multi-coastal life it's a treat to find something that is thoroughly rooted in my new place. We almost went to see Diplo/ CSS instead, and I'm so glad we ended up where we did.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....
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?)
Monday, August 7, 2006, 12:28 AM - Dancing, Friends
A little postcard arrived in the mail while I was in SF to point me towards L and L's wedding website. If I had any doubts about them being the most adorable couple ever, they were forever banished by the dance previews, the tandem banana seat, and orange flowers. I feel ridiculously honored that they've asked me to say a bit at the ceremony - everyone should have a weditorial from a quirky single girl, right? I've been reading up on court decisions but staying away from Neruda and Rumi. I must think through what to say before election madness descends and I lose all capacity for interesting phraseology...they certainly deserve something special.
;)
Friday, August 4, 2006, 10:41 PM - Art
;)
I had to sneak in to half an hour of the SFMOMA (only US appearance) of the current MB show. I would have rather seen it at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa...which is REALLY an art space designed to "encourage a nonlinear experience." (probably I just want to go back to that restaurant where Leslie and I had the best dinner of our whole Japan trip...) I liked the unobtrusive traces of the site-specific work he created in SF. I understood a little more of why I like his work (aside from the pure visuals of it), it was hard not to be hit over the head with how he plays with constraint and creativity. You can follow along at home with the cell phone audio tour at 408.794.2844 - enter any number 20-29 then # to get some banal/ entertaining/ enlightening snippets. The giant shrimpy ambergris manifestation was better in real life...
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?
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.Back Next
