Friday, January 27, 2006, 03:28 PM - Politics, Technology
I am tossing around in my head the different methods and technologies we can use to support nontraditional collaboration for social change. Much of my recent extracurricular interest has been in how to make new technology work for this process (dotOrganize and its goal of threading together the best of the new technologies in an accessible package for social change organizations, Net Squared, etc.). Today I was on a conference call with some powerful women, participating in the formation of a new collaborative. I enjoyed the atmosphere of openness to new ideas, although some people were holding firm to their usual strategies. I think the project may be an opportunity to build a technological framework (or at least an opening)(damn, now I'm getting all feminist/essentialist) within which to encourage new kinds of collaboration - sharing resources without diminishing individual agendas. That has to be some of the benefit of working on women's issues, right? I'm certainly ready to abandon the territoriality and turf wars that come with old school organizing. And I think that the ever-burgeoning number of women online allows us to operate outside of the limited-resource, constituent-hoarding model that's developed already in the online org world. I'd definitely like to use my list development expertise to start a chain of engaged women, participating in whatever way they find most appealing. The process of the call was relatively unstructured, but we emerged with some ideas for how outcomes could drive the next steps of determining how to work together.... exciting and I hope fruitful work. Like looking over a hill and seeing a (limitless?) ocean of possibilities.Thursday, January 26, 2006, 02:41 PM - Books
Is one of my favorite novels. And I have to admit that I'm feeling like I was so ahead of the curve....one of my two favorite undergraduate products was "Why Tristram Shandy is a Postmodern Novel". Who wants to go see the new flick with me? Thursday, January 26, 2006, 02:17 PM - Dancing
Fayard Nicholas died a couple of days ago - he and his brother were some of the greatest tap dancers, especially in their dancing together. Within the swing scene, there's been some resurgence and interest in the last few years in tap - really one of the great american art innovations, and sadly underappreciated by most. There's a too sweet clip of the young brothers here. Tuesday, January 24, 2006, 05:41 PM - Friends, Books
My dear friend Eric Martin is reading Thursday, February 2nd at The Lab - he kicks things kick off at 7:00. He'll be reading from his book-in-progress Little Miss Zapata (or whatever he ends up calling it). I've heard him read from this one before, and it's delectable stuff. You may remember him from such wonderful novels as Luck (recently out in paperback) and Winners (for when you want to get your Foreign Cinema dot-com nostalgia on). He tells me: "I don't know what I'll read from yet but you might
get a glimpse at the lost tribes hiding out in 400-year old sewers, a teenage girl in drag chased through Mexico City's rock n' roll market, or a Texas cowboy fighting a peyote lord of the north."
Other folks reading include Juvenal Acosta (who just finished a book about the last Mexican vampire), Stephen Beachy (who broke the J.T. Leroy story), Marianna Cherry (whose name is never far from the word "erotica") and Charlie Girl Anders.
Monday, January 23, 2006, 06:13 PM - Politics, Friends
If you can stand it, take a look at the MSF list of some of the horrendous things going on in the world that are being ignored:list of the 10 most underreported humanitarian crises.. My friend Jane Coyne has been working with MSF for the last year or so, doing post-tsunami relief in Sri Lanka and working with malnourished children in a couple of places in Africa. I have huge respect for her work, and for this organization - they seem a little less strangled by bureaucracy than many aid groups, and their quick response to crises like the Pakistan/ Kashmir earthquake is impressive. Monday, January 23, 2006, 03:10 PM - Travels, Technology, Art
Despite my best efforts to begin transforming into a Silverlake post-urban LA denizen, the most interesting event I attended this weekend was a small Saturday night SF-proud SRL performance in the parking lot at the end of the row of Chinatown galleries. There's something about the immolation of a vomiting dragon/dinosaur head backed by the roar of an airhorn hovercraft that's just sublime. Makes me think that maybe I'll fit right in in LA, after all. Picture is taken from our latecomers' perch in the garage across the street- perhaps a lifetime of parking structure art spectation awaits me in the Southland?
Wednesday, January 18, 2006, 04:57 PM - Food
It's been a good week for home cooking. Sadly the moussaka portrait I took last night with my new birthday toy was too dark, but you'll have to trust me that it was delicious. I was the lucky first dinner guest at my little league-era friend Augi's new apartment downtown, and she and Nick went old country with a wonderful Greek dinner (and lecture on 20th-century Hellenic history for dessert). Monday night I was treated to Phoebe Weaver's red blood cell-restoring oxtail stew, which I very much appreciated. I'm a lucky lucky girl.Tuesday, January 17, 2006, 03:20 PM - Politics, Books
Larry Bogad (friend of Andrew Boyd's who I met last summer) wants to tell you why 38,000 fed-up Amsterdammers did, when given the option in 1970. He's reading from his new book Electoral Guerilla Theatre: Radical Ridicule and Social Movements on Wednesday evening at Modern Times (1/18) and Monday 1/30 at Black Oak in Berkeley, both at 7:30 PM. I'm going to go on Wednesday, but I'll probably be late. More on the book:
Across the globe, in liberal democracies where the right to vote is framed as both civil right and civic duty, disillusioned creative activists run for public office on sarcastic, ironic and outrageous platforms. With little intention of winning in the usual sense, they use drag, camp, and stand-up comedy to undermine the legitimacy of their opponents, and call into question the fairness of the electoral system itself. Bogad looks at satirical campaigns around the world, including the GNOMES, who won 5 seats on the Amsterdam City Council, much to their own surprise. then the real pranks began...
Buy the book here. And in case you were thinking that I'm an out-of-touch idealist, Thursday night it looks like I'm going to a book party for this: Making Meaning: How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences. Don't ever try and tell me I'm not multifaceted. Good thing one of my academic friends recently sent me a hypergeek journal article on the futility of the search for individual fulfillment through consumption, so I'll be ready.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006, 02:17 PM - Politics, Friends
My friend Josh -with whom I worked with last summer on Leave My Child Alone- just got featured in a NYT story on Pentagon monitoring of campus anti-war activism.. Nice to know I'm helping shape the next generation of activists... also Jen Low from Code Pink is part of the fun - aren't they cute?
Tuesday, January 17, 2006, 12:30 PM - Politics
So please explain to me how the hyper-right faction of the Supreme Court (soon sadly to grow by one) sleeps at night when they ignore the central tenets of conservatism? Isn't the whole point of their legal theory to LIMIT the role of the feds in state affairs, regulation, etc. and to interpret legislation narrowly? Although I don't agree with that philosophy, I can understand it (I'm not completely immune to the charms of some libertarianist ideas). Thomas, Scalia, and Roberts dissented in the Oregon case, arguing that federal controlled substance law would allow for prosecution of MDs prescribing meds for assisted suicide. Apparently federal power is acceptable to regulate things that serve their agenda, but not things that don't? I guess after the 2004 election expecting methodological consistency from them is silly - but their determination to advance the conservative agenda certainly is stable. Thomas is the one I really don't get, since he dissented in the medical marijuana case, arguing (correctly, I think) that the interstate commerce clause didn't apply, and the feds had no standing - while the majority argued that the feds could prosecute medicinal pot users because of the commercial implications. Then again, I'm not perfectly consistent in my judicial philosphy, either- but I'm a shameless pragmatist in most things. Back Next
