I Miss You

Happy birthday my sweet quail.

The Horror

Aleah drove up from North Hampton to visit me but was visibly disturbed my the new Christmas sweater my mom bought for me...

Smell You Later

I am flying home tonight for X-mas on a red eye...I will arrive in Boston at approximately 6am tomorrow morning, EST, which will feel like 3am for my body--fun. I hate red eyes so much and every time I get off the plane in Boston or NYC I vow never to take another one again. But I am cheap and they are usually the most affordable price so months later I find myself thinking "it won't be that bad, I'll sleep the next day." So here we go again.

It has been snowing a lot back East and my family keeps telling me to pack my warm clothes. Wha? They don't seem to understand that I wear the same clothes all year round: jeans, tshirt, hoodie and various jackets, depending on the season. Last year it was 50 degrees at Christmas time and I found myself thinking that with the whole global warming thing I could handle moving back. So I went ahead and applied to a bunch of grad schools on the East Coast.

This trip will be a sort of mini-challenge, can I handle the snow for 9 days? If so, maybe I could handle the snow for five months? That seems like a big leap so I'm just taking baby steps and for today doing my best by bringing my motorcycle boots.

O Pioneertown!

This past weekend I went down to LA and then drove out to the desert to visit Pioneertown and Joshua Tree. Both places are magical, but for completely different reasons.

Pioneertown was founded by some Hollywood actors in the 40's to be a permanent set for Westerns. No one ever lived there, it was just a replica of a town in the 1880's but now there are houses all around it and some of the buildings, like the post office, are functional.

Joshua Tree was totally gorgeous and I was lucky enough to be there at sunset. I hiked to the top of Ryan Mountain which had amazing views. There landscape is totally Dr. Seuss, there are giant free standing polished looking rock formations, many bright cacti and crazy trees with spiky tops. I love the desert.

I Don't Approve

Cloned cats that glow?!

Thursday, December 13, 2007 2:35 PM by Alan Boyle

South Korean scientists say they have cloned cats whose genes have been altered so that they glow in the dark - taking advantage of a technological twist that could someday be used to make more dramatic genetic changes in all sorts of creatures.

A research team at Gyeongsang National University, headed by Kong Il-Keun, produced several kitty clones in January and February, the government-managed Korea.net news service reported Wednesday. This week the scientists showed off the cats, which now weigh about 7 pounds (3 to 3.5 kilograms) and glow a dull red under ultraviolet light.

"The ability to manipulate the fluorescent protein and use this to clone cats opens new horizons for artificially creating animals with human illnesses linked to genetic causes," the Ministry of Science and Technology said in Wednesday's report.

The procedure for cloning a cat has been around for six years, and Kong himself first performed that particular feat back in 2004. What's noteworthy about the newly reported twist - other than that glow-in-the-dark kitties are really cool - is that scientists fiddled with the donor cat's genetic code, then passed those changes on to the clones.

Here's what the researchers say they did: They took skin cells from Turkish Angora female cats and used a virus to insert the genetic instructions for making red fluorescent protein. Then they put the gene-altered nuclei into eggs for cloning. The cloned embryos were implanted back into the donor cats, which effectively became the surrogate mothers for their own clones.

Four kittens were born by Caesarian section, but one of them died during the procedure, according to the Korea Times. The fact that the kittens' skin cells glowed under ultraviolet light served as evidence that they were really gene-altered clones.

Full article here CLONED CATS THAT GLOW?!

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

A group of vigilante women in a poor area of India calling themselves the 'pink gang' are making the news. These women are bad ass! For the full article click here.

They wear pink saris and go after corrupt officials and boorish men with sticks and axes.

The several hundred vigilante women of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state's Banda area proudly call themselves the "gulabi gang" (pink gang), striking fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and earning the grudging respect of officials.

Nobody comes to our help in these parts. The officials and the police are corrupt and anti-poor. So sometimes we have to take the law in our hands. At other times, we prefer to shame the wrongdoers," says Sampat Pal Devi, between teaching a "gang" member on how to use a lathi (traditional Indian stick) in self defence.

Sampat Pal Devi is a wiry woman, wife of an ice cream vendor, mother of five children, and a former government health worker who set up and leads the "pink gang". "Mind you," she says, "we are not a gang in the usual sense of the term. We are a gang for justice."

End Hunger While Studying for the GREs

There is a really crazy web site called FreeRice.com. I think they want you to believe that a grain of rice can feed a family of 10 for a month. But even if my vocab contributes very little, its an interesting mix of altruism and education. Albeit, of the colonial variety. Here is the deal:

FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com. FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you.

Big Shocking Surprise

Everyone already knew that Queen Latifah is a lesbo, right? When I lived in NYC, I heard tales of the wild parties she would throw on the roof of her Park Slope brownstone. Well I guess now its official, she has been dating her personal trainer (left) for the past four years. But it seems there's some dyke drama:

In an exclusive interview, MediaTakeOut.com spoke with Ty, an open lesbian who says that she and Latifah's girlfriend have been carrying on an illicit affair for months. Ty tells, "I met [Latifah's girlfriend] at the BET awards ... we exchanged numbers and a couple of weeks later it was on and popping ... since then we see each other every chance we can." According to Ty, who used to model for the fashion designer FUBU, Latifah's girlfriend may be ready to leave the Oscar-nominated actress. The model explains, "in the beginning, me and [Latifah's girlfriend] used to sneak around, but not anymore ... now we just do our thing and if [Queen Latifah] finds out about it - then oh well."

Save Chairman Meow

This web site 'Save Chairman Meow' is sooo cute. His human companion (don't say owner), Wendy Chao, is a freaking genius. Vets are expensive and she clearly loves her cat so much. Who wants Chairman Meow buttons in their stocking this year? I do!

What the F***?

I don't know anyone who likes it like this:

It All Finally Makes Sense

Unhappy? Self-Critical? Maybe You’re Just a Perfectionist

By BENEDICT CAREY

Published: December 4, 2007

Just about any sports movie, airport paperback or motivational tape delivers a few boilerplate rules for success. Believe in yourself. Don’t take no for an answer. Never quit. Don’t accept second best.

Above all, be true to yourself.

It’s hard to argue with those maxims. They seem self-evident — if not written into the Constitution, then at least part of the cultural water supply that irrigates everything from halftime speeches to corporate lectures to SAT coaching classes.

Yet several recent studies stand as a warning against taking the platitudes of achievement too seriously. The new research focuses on a familiar type, perfectionists, who panic or blow a fuse when things don’t turn out just so. The findings not only confirm that such purists are often at risk for mental distress — as Freud, Alfred Adler and countless exasperated parents have long predicted — but also suggest that perfectionism is a valuable lens through which to understand a variety of seemingly unrelated mental difficulties, from depression to compulsive behavior to addiction.

Some researchers divide perfectionists into three types, based on answers to standardized questionnaires: Self-oriented strivers who struggle to live up to their high standards and appear to be at risk of self-critical depression; outwardly focused zealots who expect perfection from others, often ruining relationships; and those desperate to live up to an ideal they’re convinced others expect of them, a risk factor for suicidal thinking and eating disorders.

“It’s natural for people to want to be perfect in a few things, say in their job — being a good editor or surgeon depends on not making mistakes,” said Gordon L. Flett, a psychology professor at York University and an author of many of the studies. “It’s when it generalizes to other areas of life, home life, appearance, hobbies, that you begin to see real problems.”

Unlike people given psychiatric labels, however, perfectionists neither battle stigma nor consider themselves to be somehow dysfunctional. On the contrary, said Alice Provost, an employee assistance counselor at the University of California, Davis, who recently ran group therapy for staff members struggling with perfectionist impulses. “They’re very proud of it,” she said. “And the culture highly values and reinforces their attitudes.”

Consider a recent study by psychologists at Curtin University of Technology in Australia, who found that the level of “all or nothing” thinking predicted how well perfectionists navigated their lives. The researchers had 252 participants fill out questionnaires rating their level of agreement with 16 statements like “I think of myself as either in control or out of control” and “I either get on very well with people or not at all.”

The more strongly participants in the study thought in this either-or fashion, the more likely they were to display the kind of extreme perfectionism that can lead to mental health problems.

In short, these are people who not only swallow many of the maxims for success but take them as absolutes. At some level they know that it’s possible to succeed after falling short (build on your mistakes: another boilerplate rule). The trouble is that falling short still reeks of mediocrity; for them, to say otherwise is to spin the result.

Never accept second best. Always be true to yourself.

The burden of perfectionist expectations is all too familiar to anyone who has struggled to kick a bad habit. Break down just once — have one smoke, one single drink — and at best it’s a “slip.” At worst it’s a relapse, and more often it’s a fall off the wagon: failure. And if you’ve already fallen, well, may as well pour yourself two or three more.

This is why experts have long debated the wisdom of insisting on abstinence as necessary in treating substance abuse. Most rehab clinics are based on this principle: Either you’re clean or you’re not; there’s no safe level of use. This approach has unquestionably worked for millions of addicts, but if the studies of perfectionists are any guide it has undermined the efforts of many others.

Ms. Provost said those in her program at U.C. Davis often displayed symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder — another risk for perfectionists. They couldn’t bear a messy desk. They found it nearly impossible to leave a job half-done, to do the next day. Some put in ludicrously long hours redoing tasks, chasing an ideal only they could see.

As an experiment, Ms. Provost had members of the group slack off on purpose, against their every instinct. “This was mostly in the context of work,” she said, “and they seem like small things, because what some of them considered failure was what most people would consider no big deal.”

Leave work on time. Don’t arrive early. Take all the breaks allowed. Leave the desk a mess. Allow yourself a set number of tries to finish a job; then turn in what you have.

“And then ask: Did you get punished? Did the university continue to function? Are you happier?” Ms. Provost said. “They were surprised that yes, everything continued to function, and the things they were so worried about weren’t that crucial.”

The British have a saying that encourages people to show their skills while mocking the universal fear of failure: Do your worst.

If you can’t tolerate your worst, at least once in a while, how true to yourself can you be?

This Is What Democracy Looks Like

Has anyone else been feeling coo coo when reading the New York Times lately? The whole 'lying liars and the lies they tell' really sums it up, huh?

C.I.A. Destroyed Tapes of Interrogations

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 — The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about the C.I.A’s secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.

Poop on the Wall

From a distance my office building, a stately old converted Victorian, looks very nice. Approaching the steps you get your first inkling that things might be amiss. Depending on the day, weather, and who slept on the front stoop the night before, any manner of bedding, food, and miscellaneous personal items will be scattered throughout the front yard. Several tenants in the building claim that they have seen people defecating in the shrub next to the steps. I luckily have been spared seeing or smelling such a sight.

The building houses the National Lawyers Guild and the Tenants Union, so naturally we let homeless people camp overnight. Being a human rights activist, I am naturally in agreement with this practice. However, being afflicted with OCD means that I am deeply grossed out and disturbed by the debris as the stuff gets pretty funky. We had to take measures when people started blocking the door and shooting up on the steps during office hours. Now there is a sign that says we reserve the right to remove things left overnight which caused the homeless people to retaliate with a note calling us "Buppy Guild Attorneys". I don't know what buppy means.

Usually the gross is confined to the outside of the building, but not always and not today. Today someone smeared poop on the wall of the upstairs bathroom. This is the bathroom that everyone on the top floor uses, myself included. The building manager Ted has been in meetings since I discovered the situation and that's probably a good thing, because I want to freak out on someone and it would probably be him. This is too much, even for social justice, even for non-profits, even for the sake of access to public bathrooms. Basta.

Stop With The Cuteness

My intern Erica has taken to emailing me pictures of animals doing cute things (hence, the lion video). I don't usually go in for cute overload but this shit is bananas...

Sai Mai, a 26-month-old female tiger, plays with baby pigs at a zoo in Thailand's Chonburi province, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Bangkok, on May 7, 2004?. The Royal Bengali tigress was born in captivity and breast-fed by a female pig for four months after her birth.

Smoke Your Marajuanic-ah

My good friend from high school, Eleza, wrote a piece about the meaning of Hanukka and the great party her parents throw for the Generation J web site. I am a very honored gentile to be mentioned in the article. I love the Hanukka Party and I am sad Hanukka is early this year because I am going to miss it!

One of my favorite memories of the Hanukka party is the year Eleza asked me to bring my brother's Adam Sandler CD so that we could play the Hanukka song. So I brought it (the Catholics deliver) and in the middle of the party, while some very religious guests from Israel were having what appeared to be a spiritually important conversation, Eleza put on the CD and started dancing and singing along really loud in the middle of the room. The Jews from the Holy Land looked perplexed at this American show of enthusiasm but as we would say in Boston, it was wicked awesome.

So Much Love

This makes me very, very happy. I want a big hug and kiss from a giant kitty. I love interspecies love!



> The woman in the video found this lion injured in the forest, ready to die. She took the lion home and nursed him back to health. When the lion was better she made arrangements with a zoo to take the lion and give it a new and happy home. The video was taken when the woman went to visit the lion after some time to see how he was doing.

F U Bigots

Michael Savage sues Muslim group campaigning for ad boycott

Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

(12-03) 17:14 PST SAN FRANCISCO - Conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage sued an Islamic rights group today for rebroadcasting on its Web site several excerpts from his show in which he called the Quran a "book of hate" and said Muslims "need deportation."

Savage, in a suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, said the Council on American-Islamic Relations had violated copyright law by using the excepts in a campaign to persuade advertisers to stop sponsoring his show.

In the excerpts, Savage calls the Quran a "hateful little book," says Muslims "breed bombers" and asserts that the religion of Islam seeks to "convert or kill" nonbelievers.

The council, in rebroadcasting the excerpts, urges visitors to its Web site to complain to Savage's advertisers.

Savage, whose syndicated show is based in San Francisco, says in the suit that the excerpts are "stolen material" that were taken out of context. He said his comments were directed toward Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other "violent terrorists who mask their personal evil with a false religious aura."

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called the lawsuit frivolous and said the Web site was entitled to use the segments because Savage is a public figure.

"He (Savage) has the right to spew hate, but he doesn't have the right to be subsidized by the American consumer," Hooper said.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/04/BAB7TNIQ3.DTL

Save the Oaks!

Yesterday, the Bay Area Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild had a press conference at the Berkeley Tree Sit. We got some good media coverage and my scowling little face was actually on Fox News last night (who's that angry lesbian in the background?).

The tree sitters are bad ass and the university is just plain wrong about this situation. They want to demolish the grove and put in a new workout gym. Aside from the obvious reasons, this being an ecologically precious area, a world war 2 memorial, and an active earthquake fault, it's also a Native American burial ground. I am glad that we are fighting for the trees and I hope UC loses big on this one. Here is our press release:

NLG Condemns Berkeley Police, University Actions Against Protesters
November 29, 2007

Unlawful Arrests, Reckless Tactics Used Against Peaceful Tree-Sitters and Supporters

Berkeley

The tree-sit will celebrate its one year campaign anniversary on December 2, and the NLGSF will host a press conference at 11:30 a.m. on that day at the Memorial Grove. Speakers will include Attorneys Dennis Cunningham, Hunter Pyle, Tony Serra, and Carol Strickman.

I Carried A Watermelon

Last night I went to see Dirty Dancing at the Castro Theater. It was the first time I had ever seen the movie on the big screen and let me tell you, it was awesome.

You know how some childhood movies just don't stand the test of time? You watch them years later and think: 'How the hell did I sit through this 5 million times from the ages 11-13?' (Beaches, anyone?) But Dirty Dancing is not like that. Dirty Dancing remains brilliant into the 21st Century.

The fact that throughout the movie, hairstyles, clothes and music hop bizarrely between the early 60s and late 80s does nothing to detract from the pleasure. Tremendous feats of cinema greatness are performed as Patrick Swayze manages to be sexy with a mullet and macho while ballroom dancing. Geeky teen-age angst never looked so hot (at least not until My So-Called Life) as with Jennifer Grey's dance routines.

What really makes this movie a timeless classic is the dialog. Say "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" or "I carried a watermelon" to anyone between the ages of 20 and 35 and they will immediately know what you are talking about. I give most of the credit to the fact that Dirty Dancing was written and produced by women. Baby's sexual brazenness is totally ahead of its time and the back alley abortion sub-plot really sends a clear feminist message.

I Did It!

I blogged every single day in November. Even when I was in a different time zone from my hotel room in DC , even on the weekends when I don't like to be online, even on Thanksgiving, and even the day after when I was hung over.

NaBloPoMo, I rocked you!

Now, I hope I win a prize. Thanks to all my readers (all eight of you), it was nice to know there were a few people out there. I actually enjoyed this exercise, it taught me that less can be more, if I write less each day than I can write more often in the month. I'm going to keep blogging regularly, but probably not every single day, it was hard to come up with shit some days and I had to resort to YouTube videos a few times which I hope you enjoyed.

xo

PS Special thanks to Dana Malan for tuning me into NaBloPoMo and starting a cross continental online game of scrabble with me.

Human Rights in NOLA

December 10th is Human Rights Day. Come to New Orleans December 10th and join the Stop the Demolition Coalition as we mount a campaign to stop the demolition of public housing...

The demolition of all four major public housing developments has been set for mid-December. We are calling on our national allies to join with the residents of New Orleans and all those who believe in the human right to housing to resist demolition.

I Pledge: "I believe in the fundamental human right to housing, and I will not be a witness to the denial of this right to the peoples of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. I therefore pledge myself to resist the denial of this right by all civil and humanitarian means available, including civil disobedience. I pledge to stand ready to take action against this imminent threat and to put myself on the line, either directly in New Orleans or in strategic locales throughout the US, in support of the demands and leadership of the peoples of New Orleans and their organizations in the struggle for housing and human rights." We ask that all those interested in coming to New Orleans to contact us before making the journey. We need to ensure that everyone coming is registered, properly orientated and trained in order to partake in this act of resistance in the manner determined by the local leaders and residents. If you are already in New Orleans, please sign the pledge so we know how to contact you, to let you know about local updates and meetings. Please contact us via email at action@peopleshurricane.org, with the word "registration" in the subject line. Please include the following information: Name: Affinity Group/Organization (if applicable): Phone: Email: Have you ever received any training in civil disobedience? What skills/resources are you able to bring to New Orleans? Remember - the primary role of people coming to New Orleans to join in this fight is to be ALLIES, and not to be part of major decision making. All making this pledge must be advised of the following: Given the limited timeframe and resources of the various organizations spearheading this fight - *Legal counsel and aid. All effort is and will be made to provide adequate legal support, but the reality is that it is limited at present. *Lodging and food. Again, given the uncertain timeline and limited resources, housing venues are presently limited, but all effort will be made to support all those making this bold pledge. Housing is almost entirely limited to tenting space, so please bring all appropriate camping gear for tenting in cold weather. Please make as many of your own arrangements and bring as many of your own supplies as possible. For more information, please contact Stop the Demolition Coalition at action@peopleshurricane.org, or call us at 504.458.3494. Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win!

If you are coming to New Orleans: Please think about forming an affinity group before you get here. Different roles in an affinity group can be: * point person to coordinate with local leadership * legal support person/people for members of your group * medics * photo/videographer (for documentation of events and indymedia coverage in your own area) *police liasion *arrestees etc, etc. if your group has some of its own logistical needs taken care of, this will help local organizers coordinate on a broader level. For example, if each affinity group has a legal support person, they can coordinate with the local legal team to make sure everyone's legal needs are taken care of.

We really need as many people here as possible, but if you are unable to join us in New Orleans, here are some ways you can help: *financial donations (email us at action@peopleshurricane.org for info on where to send donations) *organize a solidarity demonstration at your local HUD (Housing and Urban Development) office for the week of December 10. This will be an ongoing campaign. If you are not able to come for the week of the 10th but would like to receive updates on the campaign, send back the pledge and let us know your availability.

I'll Bite Your Bum

Or my cat will. Last night, my kitty Finn, attacked the unsuspecting arse of my housemate Ethan. It was amazingly hilarious and I am so glad I caught it on film. At least one member of the family is making good on my oft heard threats to bite people's bums. (Look at the picture, you can tell Ethan likes it!)

Sagittari, I Love You

Today is another special day! It's the 30th birthday of my very best friend from college, Aleah. Aleah and I have known each other since we were 18, which means 12 freaking years--holy crap, we are old now. When I first met Aleah I didn't like her because she was dating my roommate who I didn't get along with. Luckily for me, after the first semester at Antioch they broke up and we became friends.

Our friendship was sealed when we spent a poverty stricken semester living in Washington DC together, interning at feminist organizations, subsisting on minimum wage, and (being underage) clinic escorting for fun. I moved to SF to be closer to Aleah but she thwarted this effort by moving to my home state of Massachusetts six months later to attend nursing school (the ironing was bitter).

Despite all the distance, and a few major issues (what happens to the relationship of two sugar addicts when one goes sugar-free?), we have remained close friends. Even though her Sagittarian nature makes her a commitment-phobe, in the past five years Aleah has acquired: a dog, car, girlfriend, masters degree, and a house in the suburbs. Way to live the American Lesbo Dream. She is a true trail blazer and as of today, she has bravely ventured into the dirty 30s, showing us how it's done with style, grace and a sassy hair cut. I love ya Smush.

Happy Birthday Frome

Today is the 31st birthday of my dear friend and housemate Ethan--yay! I love Ethan and am so glad that he was born and I get to live with him. Want to know the top 5 things I love about Ethan? Ok, I'll tell you (warning: this includes secrets that I only learned once he moved in):

1. Breakfast is Important: He likes to start each day with a cup of black tea and oatmeal, just like me (minus the tea). He boils the water for 2 minutes because he claims that an Irishman told him oxidized water is the key to delicious tea.
2. He is a cat whisperer: He acts like everyone intuitively understands cats and their needs, but he's wrong. Even crazy cat lovers like myself are often baffled by the furry beasts. Ethan has a special gift, he understands the meowsers.
3. He wears bathrobes: They are flannel and freaking cute.
4. He is Brave: He calls the downstairs neighbors to ask them to be quiet when I am feeling too scared or angry to do it. Even if he doesn't think they're being too loud and it's just me being crazy.
5. Good listener: When I am sad or needing to process (like everyday) he is there for me. He invites me to lay my head on his manly bosom, spill my woes and soon I feel much better.


If you are in the area come over to celebrate the life and times of Ethan Frome tonight!

Joseph Cornell: Who Are Ye?

My friend Melinda sent me the following email after reading my post on Joseph Cornell which I found so fascinating I have to share it with you all:

...just caught myself up on your goings on. JOSEPH CORNELL IS MY FAVORITE!!! yay! i've been reading a biography of him for the last several months. it's real dense + real sad so it's slow going. some fun facts about him:

--never had penetrative sex. maybe oral sex once.

--spent most of his life living with his domineering mother + his brother robert, who had cerebral palsy at a time when people didn't really know how to handle such conditions. he was robert's primary caretaker.

--hated selling his work

--intensely voyeuristic bordering on creepy

--he also made short films!! they sound really amazing + i'd love to see them.

the art institute in chicago has a big collection of his stuff. a lot of pieces from his aviary period, which was right before the night sky stuff. i thought it was interesting to read about how the guy who donated that stuff to the art institute had to creep around + collect the boxes from dealers behind cornell's back. joey didn't want anybody to have too much.

Wow, what a weird-o, how intriguing. I must learn more...I'll keep you posted, dear readers but in the mean time, here are some basic stats:

Born: 24-Dec-1903
Birthplace: Nyack, NY
Died: 29-Dec-1972
Location of death: Queens, NY
Cause of death: unspecified

Gender: Male
Religion: Christian Science
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Sculptor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Exponent of Assemblage

See It

Jimmy and I went to the SF MOMA today which I usually think of as the poor relation to the NY MOMA, but I really enjoyed myself. One of the my favorite exhibits was Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination. He was a self-taught collage artist and film maker who transformed the use of boxes. I really enjoyed the surrealist element as well as his exploration of astronomy and dreams. I think Tucker would have loved the exhibit as well.

Legal Workers Unite!

When I saw Julia Roberts on the cover of Vanity Fair this month I felt very annoyed. She belongs to a class of actors who I adored in my childhood, but who began to annoy the crap out of me in my later years (Tom Hanks, Winona Ryder, and Ethan Hawke all are a part of this club). I decided to watch Erin Brockovich, the movie she won an Oscar for to decide once and for all if I think Julia Roberts is a good actor or not.

Well, I watched it last night, and I have to say, besides being a really moving and compelling story (PG&E is so sick and evil) it's a bad ass anthem for legal workers (non-attorney people who work in the legal profession) and Julia Roberts does a really good job in it. I can't even deny it or try to carry on hating her the same way anymore. That movie rocked and she did too. Also, the real Erin Brockovich should join the National Lawyers Guild.

Is Britney Spears the New Michael Jackson?

As a treat at the end of the day, after 3pm, I allow myself to look at celebrity blogs. I try to tell myself its a mindless distraction but sometimes I dream about hanging out with celebrities (I wish I was kidding) and often find myself ruminating about their lives and problems.

Take Britney Spears for example, she is tacky and terrible right? However, she is also a tragic figure to me, just like Michael Jackson. There are many similarities between them:

1. Neither one had a normal childhood, both were performing from an early age
2. Both became rich very young
3. Both were sexualized and objectified in their teen years
4. Both have destroyed their former image:Michael as a black man, with the plastic surgery and skin pigmentation altering. Britney as a good girl, with the tacky tattoos, vajayjay flashing, and shaved head.
5. They are both exhibitionists: MJ went through a crazy crotch grabbing phase (is it over?) and Britney is constantly revealing herself in public
6. They are both scary, bad parents:Michael Jackson allegedly had children with his former wife and dental hygenist but I really don't think he is the biological father of those little toe-heads. He makes his children wear crazy masks and wraps their heads in scarves. Then there are all the sexual abuse allegations...Britney has a substance abuse issue and has had her children taken away from her.
7. Neither seem to have a grasp on consequences or cause and effect.
8. Both are unstable, I think this is obvious.

My Family...

is unhappy that I didn't come home for Thanksgiving. My aunt, Eileen, just got back from Iraq which is clearly a big deal and I would have loved to see her, but it just wasn't happening this year. For one thing, my x-mas ticket back to Boston already cost me $600. My mom and dad probably would have paid for most, if not all, of my ticket to come back for t-day but I hate flying, and I already flew once this month. Plus, I need this weekend to work on my grad school applications (a reason my brother found most dissatisfying).

I have always hated Thanksgiving: the football, the awkward meal time, the whitewashing of genocide, I honestly never enjoyed it. Which is why I have rarely been present for one with the fam since I left home when I was 18. Instead, today, I am having a Vegan Feast Against Imperialism with my chosen San Francisco (gay) family. Sometimes I think about moving back to the East Coast, it would make the holidays so much easier, but then I would have to live on the East Coast. And it's cold there. And I hate the cold. I feel conflicted.

What I'm Grateful For

That I live in a city where I can pre-order a vegan, gluten and sugar-free, raw, pumpkin pie a few days before Thanksgiving and then stroll down to pick it up on my lunch break (while also getting a tasty raw, sugar-free, vegan milkshake). Where is this paradise for neurotic hippy people with food issues? Well the city is San Francisco, duh, and the restaurant is Cafe Gratitude, where all the items on the menu have names like "I am Radiant" and "I am Chipper". When I went there last week with my intern, I announced I was going to the bathroom by telling her "I am Peeing". She didn't think it was that funny but I did. Sadly, like many other veggie restaurants, the place is run by people who are in a cult, but I am down with their ethos and abundantly grateful that they make such tasty treats for me to eat.

The New York Times recently featured Gratitude, Millennium and some of my other favorite veggie places: http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/travel/18Choice.html?ref=travel

Naughty Kitty

My cat Finn doesn't talk much and when he does it's usually a low guttural sounding plaintive meow. One sure way to get him to speak up is to open a can of wet cat food (this video is not of Finn):

The Time of My Life

I don't usually say this about straight people and weddings, but these people are freaking geniuses. Note: the dude is equally if not more into it!

Amor Cubano

Last night was the world premiere of Amor Cubano: In a bottle, a tube and a small packet. The one woman show, starring Maceo Cabrera Estevez, is a testament to the healing powers of love and it's ability to transform the world and shake up the U.S. government. The amazing band, Krudas Cubensi, performed afterwards. The night was a great success and I am so happy for Maceo.

It's Over

The worst of my crazy busy work period is basically over. I just got back from the day long board retreat and now all I have to do is get through the Holiday party and I have a few months of breathing room before our annual dinner. Thank the baby Jeebus.

My Ponytail

Is seriously long (for me). Also it looks like my hair is turning red (as well as gray) in my old age. Weird, I think it got light in Mexico and has just kept going.

I have to work tonight and all day tomorrow and that makes me very sad. Oh, there is a benefit for the Femme Coloring Book at the Lex tonight. They are going to auction off a tarot card reading with yours truly, how lesbionic.

Brooklyn, My Habitat

The place where I happen at.

-Mos Def

That was Tucker's email signature when I first met her. My sweet friend, how I miss her. Last night I dreamed that someone rang my bell and when I went to answer the door, through the window I saw it was her. I couldn't believe it! She was animated and looking dapper and excited to see me, laughing, laughing because she had cheated death. Done the impossible and after almost two years in the ground, resurrected herself and was looking none the worse for the wear. I started crying because I was so happy to see her and then I opened the door and she jumped up and down with excitement and when I went to hug her it all faded.

Sick, and Amazing

I like to joke that people (namely, my family) on the East Coast think that people (specifically, me) in California are crazy and sometimes the folks of San Francisco play right into their judgemental hands--like the pre-Burning man hoolahoop raves that spontaneous pop up in Dolores Park on summer weekends.

The local response to the oil spill is another such example:

A group of guerrilla volunteers is cleaning oil from San Francisco's beaches using an unorthodox, albeit totally organic, method: human hair and mushrooms. Using mats made of hair, they are absorbing the droplets of oil that have washed ashore since a cargo ship rammed the base of a Bay Bridge tower last week, spilling 58,000 gallons of fuel.

The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/14/MNPQTBLE4.DTL

Of course, I support their efforts completely and if my OCD didn't make those mats seem like the most disgusting things in the world, I would hop in a white hazmat suit, go clean some oil and try to save a few birds.

So Sad

The mother of hip hop artist, Kanye West, Donda West, passed away on Saturday night, the cause appears to be complications from a plastic surgery operation--breast reduction and a tummy tuck. I don't agree that the death of a celebrity or someone in their family is more tragic than anyone else, but for this strong, intelligent woman to die from an elective surgery is just so wrong to me. In cases of fire or accidents, I think plastic surgery is great, but the way it's utilized in society today disturbs me and I think its a gruesome tool of the patriarchy. Also, the song he wrote for her, Hey Mama, on the Late Registration album is one of the sweetest.

Heron's Head

Today I went to Heron's Head Park and saw lots of birds. It was really pretty and reminded me of going to Castle Island in Boston with my mom. From the park you have views of the East Bay, the PG&E plant and some gigantic ships (please don't have any more accidents in the Bay!). I got there in a car but it's bikeable and probably walkable from the Mission, I recommend it as an urban adventure. This is the deal with the park:

Heron's Head Park (formerly known as Pier 98) is a 24-acre restored wetland, that is owned and operated by the Port of San Francisco and situated at the base of the Hunters Point Power Plant. Heron's Head is a unique environment in that it is built on landfill, but is now a thriving marsh that is maintained primarily by youth and community volunteers. More than 1,200 student volunteers serve as primary caretakers of the park each year. They help to plant native plant species, weed non-natives, and clean and maintain the wild areas of the park. Heron's Head Park supports over 78 species of birds annually, and is an important rest stop for migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway.

It's My Cat in a Box

Why does my cat, Finn, love cardboard boxes so much? They have become his new favorite place to sleep and this past week there was a box in my room, the kitchen and the TV room until I said enough and threw two of the fur covered disintegrating things away. He seems to miss them. But I miss the days when he used to sleep on my bed.

I guess it's normal for cats to like to squeeze themselves into tight places. As you can see in these pictures, Finn is a big boy and is essentially crushing the shit out of the box he is sitting in. He lost interest in it after it eventually became a three sided dug out. But what does the box remind him of in the wild? A little nest or lair or hole?

Choose

Which do you think is scarier: bears or sharks?

I say sharks but my friend Travis thinks bears, but I think he is wrong and after seeing the Grizzly Man movie I have to say that I know of no human who ever made "friends" with any sharks. Sharks are clearly so much scarier.

Just Give Me a Degree Already

I am reapplying to grad school and the process has me in a near paralyzed state of panic. For those not familiar with my record, this is my 3rd time applying to grad schools, and hopefully it will be the charm. The first time I applied to one school, the MFA film program at SFSU, and got it but declined to go. The second time, last year, I applied to 14 MFA in creative writing programs and got rejected from ALL of them. Ouch. It hurt, it stung, it burn and most of all, it crushed my ego. But if I really want to be a writer, I have to suck it up. So sucking I am, but the whole thing freaking stinks.

First off, I am working on refining my 40 page writing sample while at the same time trying to stay on top of the letters of rec, transcripts, GRE, personal statement and scholarship applications. Oh, and did I mention my demanding non-profit job that makes me work many nights and weekends during the fall? Yeah, don't forget about that. It all feels like too much and part of me just wants to give up and say fuck you to Cornell (its cold as hell up there anyway!) and all the other big name schools and just apply to SFSU again. That way I can keep my nice gay life here in S.F. and still get to go to grad school. But my therapist is encouraging me to hang in there, so I am trying.

1600 Pennsylvania Ave

When I went to Washington D.C. I visited the White House because I had some feelings I wanted to share with George Bush. However, I also wanted to stop by the 24 hour Anti-Nuke vigil that has been going on since 1981. I freaking love those people, their dedication is amazing.

No Music, No Cry

Two of my favorite artists, Mos Def and M.I.A., are playing sold out shows in S.F. tonight and I have to go to a board meeting (insert sad face emoticon here). I never go to concerts anymore because I am old and the headliners never come on before midnight and that's too freaking late for a school night. I did go to the Dead Prez show last month that was a benefit for the SF8 Case but there were five opening acts, no one even talked about the case, we left after three songs because we were so tired and got sexually harassed on the way out. Total crap.

Also, all the shows are so expensive. In the 90s I saw Sleater Kinney and Ani DiFranco play for $8 (different shows). Now every band I would ever want to see charges at least $30/ticket. WTF? Inflation hasn't gone up that much. But if I was going to go to a show, I would really love to see M.I.A. because I'm sure she would be amazingly creative with her stage performance.

A Plague Upon Ye Pilgrims

Wild turkeys have taken over my hometown of Brookline, MA and it has finally made the news: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15604152. A few years ago, a group of them were crossing the street behind my elementary school when I was trying to drive down the road. It was quite a sight and pretty bewildering to behold a bunch of wild animals in such a densely populated area, but I support them. They were here first and deserve to be able to travel freely in their native land. Turkeys Fight Back Against Yuppie Gentrification!

NaNoWriMo

In addition to NaBloPoMo, November is also NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). You can sign up to participate on their web site www.nanowrimo.org/ and the goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

I am not going to participate this year because my personal goal for November is to finish my 40 page writing sample for my grad school applications but I really love that there are so many fun online writer community things happening right now.

Check Out

I have to check out of the hotel now but my flight doesn't leave until 8:30pm. The convention is over and I survived--hurray. This is a boring post but it's hard to be witty everyday, especially when sleep deprived.

Napping, Like Sisterhood, Is Powerful

Day 3 of the official convention is over and I made it through thanks to an amazingly restorative nap. Last night Travis and I watched The Office and a few episodes of the Maria Bamford show which I highly recommend, especially this episode:

http://www.superdeluxe.com/sd/contentDetail.do?id=D81F2344BF5AC7BB68D130210807DBA3A0BFC7D25D763B82

So I didn't get to sleep until around 1:30am and given the bad jet lag I have been having it was a miracle I could fall asleep even then (I was aided by tranquilizers and alcohol) and I had to get up at 8am because I was organizing the Dismantling Racism training which I am happy to say went really well. But instead of listening to the attorneys continue to fight about Israel and Palestine I decided to take a nap and slept for several hours which was heavenly and allowed me to continue functioning to this late hour in the evening. Hurray, I love naps, even though they are hard for me to take because it takes a long time for me to fall asleep and sometimes I wake up really groggy.

The honorees of tonights banquet dinner were the past women presidents of the Guild which are some bad ass women. I'm glad that my important nap allowed me to enjoy such a nice night of feminist revelry.

So Tired

I have been having bad jet lag and for the past two nights haven't been able to fall asleep before 3am. WTF? I need 8 hours or I am cranky and my roommate Travis found me crying in my room this afternoon because I didn't want to go down to the plenary. My friend Anne asked me to speak in favor of an amendment to the NLG constitution she had introduced. So once again, I had to get up and speak in front of over a hundred people. They told me I did a good job but I don't enjoy such things. I wish I was back home with my cat or in New York with my friends.

NaBloPoMo

I have decided to participate in NaBloPoMo a challenge and a website where if you post on your blog every day in the month of November than you can win a prize. I am going to try to do this in hopes that it will get me back in the groove of blog posting and just so I am writing something fun everyday. To learn more go to: http://nablopomo.ning.com/

I am in Washington D.C. for work which is fun for me because I lived here for a semester 10 years ago (holy f, I am old). Today I walked around with my friend Travis and went to the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and the White House. I had my picture taken at each of these places and at the White House I had my picture taken while giving the finger (both fingers actually) and then I posed giving the thumbs up sign in front of the 24 hour peace vigil. I love those freaking people.

When I lived here I called the Washington Monument 'the blinking phallus' because it has two holes on each side that red light shines out of in the night time. It looks really sinister, these scary red eyes, and today Travis articulated that the Washington Monument looks like a giant Klansman, which I think is true. So clearly it is a perfect symbol for racist government but I think it's pretty awful to have sight a symbol staring out at the city of D.C. which is predominately black.

If We Divide, They Conquer

A historic event happened at City College in San Francisco over the weekend of October 13-14, Transforming Justice, the “first-ever gathering of activists, advocates, former prisoners, and community members from across the country working to stop the cycles of poverty, criminalization, and imprisonment in transgender and gender non-conforming communities”. The conference came at the perfect time for the NLGSF to debut our Know Your Rights for the Transgender Community fact sheets in the areas of criminal, immigration, housing and employment law which were developed by the 2007 Thomas Steel intern, Becky Straus, this past summer.
The first day of the conference, attended by approximately 200 people, focused on the causes of the criminalization epidemic faced by transgender people. During the powerful morning session, first hand accounts of transgender people’s experience with incarceration were voiced. Many told of being rejected by their families, having to drop out of school and turning to street work after being unable to procure any legitimate kind of employment.

It is not surprising to learn that access to education and employment are two of the biggest factors contributing to transgender people getting caught up in our inhumane legal system. However, the stories shared were particularly poignant in light of the recent firestorm that was set off within the LGBT community in September, when a revised version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was presented to the House by Rep. Barney Frank. An earlier version of ENDA, a bill that would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, was introduced as H.R. 2015 in April. The revised version that Frank has put forth no longer includes language regarding protections for transgendered or gender non-conforming people.

ENDA has taken many incarnations over the years, originally introduced in 1974, the “Gay Rights Bill” would have added “sexual orientation” to the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act. In 1996, the first bill using the title ENDA lost in the Senate by just one vote. However, H.R. 2015 is historic because of it’s protections for transgender people which none of the previous bills have included. This language represented a huge victory for transgender activists and allies, in particular the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which has been working since 1999 to build community consensus for a trans-inclusive bill.
I was saddened and dismayed to hear that Barney Frank, who has represented my home state of Massachusetts since 1981, was behind this divisive move. As one of the first out gay Congressmen, Frank has faced his fair share of discrimination (in 1995 House Majority Leader Dick Armey famously referred to him as “Barney Fag” in a press interview), and he should know better. It feels like a betrayal for him to use his position and political power to undermine nearly a decade’s worth of both grassroots and national activist work. The new bill not only denies protections to transgender people, but will also fail to protect lesbian, gay and bisexual people who are gender non-conforming (such as “effeminate” men and “butch” women).

Wresting power and protections for the oppressed has never been an easy task and lessons of how easy it is to divide and destroy movements abound on the Left. Congressman Frank believes that we should move forward with the non-inclusive bill because “you protect people when you can” and that those who don’t “take reality into account…make it impossible to govern.” Although he knows that Bush will veto any bill that comes before him dealing with rights for the LGBT community, to him the important thing is a symbolic win for the Democrats under Nancy Pelosi’s congress. He also made it clear that he resents any charges of betrayal. However, his actions caused an outpouring of anger and frustration from the LGBT community and more than 280 organizations, including the NLG Queer Committee, have signed onto a statement opposing the non-inclusive bill. The public reaffirming of support for transgender rights is one of the only upsides of this unfortunate situation.
At the Transforming Justice conference, no one had any illusions that spending two days talking and brainstorming together would immediately bring about of the end of a monolith like the prison industrial complex. But the goal of abolition, like the dream of equality, is not something that will be achieved in a weekend or through the passage of a law, it is a process of individual and societal transformation. Wisely, the importance of creating connections was emphasized over and over throughout the conference by organizers, and I think that is how change occurs: by ending isolation and reaffirming the value of community.

It is not clear what will happen with ENDA. I personally hope that the amended bill will be withdrawn and if the inclusive bill fails, then we all go down together. The late, great, lesbian poet, Audre Lorde, warned that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. So if the passage of ENDA in Congress is to be a symbolic victory then let it stand for the fact that the queer community will no longer sell out the most vulnerable amongst our ranks to gain access to a bigger piece of the American pie, because the apples are rotten anyway.