11.15.2008

yuck


i have not yet seen it happen, but now we are all subject to search when riding the metro.

flexyourrights.org, of unknown authority, has put together a list of how to refuse to be searched. the only one i may employ is leaving and coming in another entrance or another stop.

10.25.2008

Hurray for voting



The poll workers said that 11,000 Alexandria City residents have already voted absentee. The city only has about 130,000 residents, and about 90,000 registered voters. I think November 4 is going to be over the top.

10.02.2008

one for old snaggle-tooth

do you like this poem? i read it every few years, and am not sure. but i keep re-reading it.

(Charles Bukowski, from Love is a Dog from Hell)

one for old snaggle-tooth
I know a womanwho keeps buying puzzles
chinese puzzles
blocks
wires
pieces that finally fit
into some order. she works it out mathematically
she solves all her puzzles
lives down by the sea
puts sugar out for the ants
and believes
ultimatelyin a better world.
her hair is white
she seldom combs it
her teeth are snaggled
and she wears loose shapeles
scoveralls over a body most
women would wish they had.
for many years she irritated me
with what I consider her
eccentricities -like soaking eggshells in water
(to feed the plants so that they'd get calcium).
but finally when I think of her
lifeand compare it to other lives
more dazzling, original
and beautiful
I realize that she has hurt fewer
people than anybody I know
(and by hurt I simply mean hurt).
she has had some terrible times, times when maybe I should have
helped her more
for she is the mother of my only child
and we were once great lovers,
but she has come through
like I said
she has hurt fewer people than
anybody I know, and if you look at it like that,
well, she has created a better world.
she has won.
Frances, this poem is foryou.

8.08.2008

i need new music but have no leads. please help.
the problem is that i normally go for folk music from the 60's and 70's, or severely depressing indie rock. but for the last two weeks, all i've wanted to hear is outkast, and i only know/like three of their songs. and generally, the people who i rely on for music recommendations aren't go-to people for anything outkast-esque. and why should they be? what's wrong with me, anyway?


in the spirit of fair exchange, i offer you the only music video that will ever contain this in its subtitles:"...the curious yodeling scat singing of the group's flautist..." (thanks, dad!)

7.20.2008

5.18.2008

I'd pretend that I was a billboard..I fell in love with a beautiful highway

i just discovered how ultimately perfect the song (Nothing But) Flowers (Talking Heads) is.


it reminds me of this part of slaughterhouse five:
Billy looked at the clock on the gas stove. He had an hour to kill before the saucer came. He went into the living room, swinging the bottle like a dinner bell, turned on the television. He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this :American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn't in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed.



4.01.2008

I'm done with you, Consumerist.com

Consumerist.com made the outrageous, false, and inflammatory claim that irregardless is a real word. Dictionary.com also says this:
"Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so."

BOOOOooo, Consumerist.com

3.30.2008

Seeing Things

I've seen some good things in the last few days. One was the Eels, who were great live. I was surprised that they were just two guys.

The second was a Smart car, which someone must have brought over here themselves. I think it's only in Europe right now. It was pretty tiny. And cool.
I almost busted up some cars in the downtown rush hour getting a picture to send to P, who is a tree hugger.







3.28.2008

Garrison Keillor, Advice Columnist?


Sep 22, 1998 salon.com

Dear Mr. Blue,
I find I have no desire whatsoever to write, either creatively or otherwise. This makes it hard to meet girls in odd clothing or even to be invited out to events where people say unusual things. How does one break the news without offense to intellectual friends that he has not the slightest impulse to assemble words in long, long strings?
Mr. Black


Mr. Black, you are doing the right thing by refusing the call of literature, but why make a big announcement about it? Look authorly and tell those unusual girls that you're at work on a memoir about your troubled youth in the Sufi commune in Santa Fe and it is much too dark and grievous to discuss at a party, and let it go at that. People will respect your privacy and they will also accord you the blatant adulation that is the reward of every writer. To create a fiction about being a writer is an artistic act, and it is the surest way to meet a thrilling woman whose odd clothing suddenly falls from her tanned and sinuous shoulder as she puts her soft cheek against yours and whispers, "You are so beautiful and I am a fool for you. Meet me on the terrace, under the long, long strings of ivy, and tell me unusual things."

1.28.2008

healthcare system in rwanda

i wonder what my friend m.s. thinks about this:

1.26.2008

real information

i've been frustrated in following the '08 presidential campaign news because of the overall lack of information offered up by each candidate and the non-issues on which the media seems to focus.
this website is a really good tool for matching you up to the candidate who agrees with you the most on the issues you care about.
first, you give weight to different issues to designate which ones you care about, and to what extent. then, you are given positions on each issue to which you mark how much you agree or disagree.
the output is a % ranking of how much each candidate represents your positions. the ranking is based on those candidates' voting records and positions they have publicly taken on each issue.

enjoy!

1.16.2008

And you know what else?

Sorry for the spasm of posts, but this form is the new bullshitting, right?
What do you think about the money fable about the Mexican fisherman? It bothers me. On the other hand, there's a more realistic depiction of Benny the Boatman, and it doesn't sound that cool.
Which one is the sucker? How does one achieve non-suckerdom?

good live music


So first, I think we can all agree that nothing beats great live music. Based on that, I highly recommend seeing Mirah. (sample) P & I went to see her last night, and it was the best show I've been to since Simon & Garfunkel reunited (Major Life Milestone, that concert was).

I guess I don't mean to build her up too much because unmet expectations can ruin an otherwise enjoyable time (Clinic!), but even P was a fanatic by the end.


I'll come right out and say: She was playing with a band that consisted of a mandolin, accordion, and cello, and her songs were some sort of concept piece on different insects. Oh, and she's an indie lesbian folk singer. And she has almost no charisma on stage. And despite all of this, she is still somehow not to be missed.

Umm, bad idea...

I guess what I'm trying to say is: please don't vote for this man.

1.12.2008

new things

with the new year, so many things are new for me:
  • new school
  • new job (technically, i'll be doing the same job, just being paid by someone else. and by someone else, i mean you. )
  • new phone, which is like The Most Fun New Toy i've had since barbie had relevance. i am aware that it's no iPhone, but it's so light years ahead of what i had that it makes me swoon.

ok, so i guess that's only three things. i also want a new bike, or really any bike. so maybe my list will grow.

i endured much stress and angst since september '04 to get to these new things-- not the phone, but the school & work-- and am so relieved to finally have conquered the prereqs for my good life. i know, it's not that simple, but still: ahhhhh....

1.07.2008

There is hope for the youth of today!

I love it!

reminds me of my favorite poem by Shell Silverstein (when I was 8...I remember it as being much better)

SICK
"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteeen chicken pox
And there's one more—that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut, my eyes are blue—
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke—
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb,
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is—what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is...Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"

1.05.2008

ask your doctor if kickbacks are right for you













According to this new study, drug companies spend (per year):

$31.5 billion on research
$57.5 billion on marketing
(in addition to consumer ads, that's an average of $61,000 per physician on marketing).

If reading studies is not your thing, consumerist.com gives a good digest here.