things i don't hate about living in san diego

1. local beer culture, esp. the double india pale ales
2. early 20th c. pedestrian bridges
3. stealing limes from these trees

for the birds

veggie t-day menu

• tofu/yogurt artichoke dip
• rosemary olive bread
• cranberry butter
• lemon pugliese loaf
  
• ten mile winery "broken road" blend
• sweet potato soup
• kale and ricotta salata salad
  
• maple grilled tempeh
  
• shredded brussels sprouts and apples
• quinoa and green beans
• pumpkin pie
  

party like you're a girl from kentucky with a funny name

a righteous wind at our backs

yes, we did!

please, please, please let me get what i want

ghosts of summers past

the bechdel rule (from 'dykes to watch out for')

THE RULE
1.movies (and tv shows) must have at least two female characters
2. who talk to each other
3. about something other than men

npr cites this little comic (from 1985) to explain why women should watch 30 rock ("women talk to each other about what's funny") but not sex and the city.

i apparently took a big poo in my pants this morning

in the hottest case of mistaken identity since a democrat founded the internet...
a high-powered businessman cum BYU football fanatic* confuses a radical, arugula-eating graduate student for his conservative brother. hilarity ensues!

From: reaganbush88
Date: August 29, 2008 9:02:34 AM PDT
To: kparks
Subject: Palin

I think this was a brilliant pick:
1. She is a woman. This will pull droves of females to the ticket. It also undermines the democrats claim to be the party of change.
2. She is pro-life and conservative. This appeases all of the ultra-conservative right wing nut jobs (like us - especially T.).
3. She is pro-gun and is said to carry heat with her.
4. She is a hockey player
5. She has five kids, the last of which has down syndrome (which she knew about far before birth).
6. She is young and attractive.
7. She is a proven reformer.
8. She is not from Washington (I love how Barack talks about change and selects the ultimate Washington insider as his running mate)
9. She is the first female ever to run on a Republican ticket.
10. She will win

The Democrats took a big poo in their pants this morning when they turned on the TV. I love being a Republican.
N.

*i have taken minimal measures to protect our privacy.

reality being too thorny

i cut up this 5-cent rimbaud book of poetry to make a collage painting:

entre copa y copa

my dear, sweet professor

from the man who coined "safe, legal, and rare" during his tenure as a clinton advisor...
comes this little gem in today's paper
skim the article, then pretend to be a young female reporter for the washington post
and direct your attention to popkin's final quotation

DIY: ironic* film fest

*colloquial/modern usage; "perverse appropriateness"

::all films are available from your nearest netflix shipping facility::

feauturing 8 documentaries and 2 docudramas
showcasing 2 foreign films!!!

FEAR
-september 11 (2002)
11'09''01: onze minutes, neuf secondes, un cadre (france)

i first saw this film in a cineopolis in mexico and left the theater wondering whether it been suppressed or simply ignored in the united states (perhaps because of the indignant/insensitive japanese contribution?). sean penn directs one of the 11 short films.

-united 93 (2006)
-world trade center (2006)

FREEDOM
-gunner palace (2004)
-occupation dreamland (2005)
-in the shadow of the palms (australia 2005)
-baghdad ER (2006)
-operation filmmaker (2007)
-operation homecoming: writing the wartime experience (2007)

FORENSICS
-uncovered: the whole truth about the iraq war (2003)

i screened this film at a now-defunct independent coffeeshop called ashton's in decatur, georgia. it spurred a year of war protests and a lifetime of political activism for me.

-iraq for sale: the war profiteers (2006)
-no end in sight (2007)

i sat alone in a nearly empty theater in la jolla, california to see this film. i gave it a standing ovation. for sensibility's sake.

as long as we're alive, feminism isn't dead

BILINGUAL SENSE OF HUMOR
new apartment is a piece, but my window graffiti sent the plumber into stitches




ILLEGAL PATRIOTISM in the sanctuary city
annual non-sanctioned/non-coordinated/non-taxpayer-funded fireworks, as seen from the par-summit of our own mount olympus

with and without you

with:
-cream of asparagus soup
lemon creme fraiche & chives
-baby red mustard greens salad
french breakfast radishes, pecorino romano, cherry tomatoes, toasted almonds & roasted garlic- tarragon vinaigrette
-hand cut fresh egg pappardelle
genovese basil pesto, zante currants, toasted pine nuts & grana padano
-chupacabra
white tequila, homemade cucumber syrup, fresh lime and ginger

without:

in case you needed another reason

brussels sprouts pizza dressed with pepper and balsamic vinegar

sin la dictatura, la alegria va a llegar

some inspiration from chile's 1988 plebiscito

my very own death wish

this is a first. working past midnight on a saturday.

destroyer with planes overhead

sexy

every generation needs its own war, he used to say

it took me forty pages to remember how we once were (civil property)

conventional definitions of politics - that it is a public-sphere activity, carried out in recognizably "political" institutions; that it is about control of the state... are rejected as too narrow. some have countered that there is politics in everything, that to study politics is "to analyze relations of dominance" in all settings, including the family.

-jane jaquette (1995)

"I remember her talking to the therapist and saying something to the effect of, like, you know, 'I'd be OK if Jonah just was gay, I just don't want ... him to be transgender.' And the therapist just laughed, she said, 'You know, 15 years ago, I had people on this couch saying, 'I don't mind him being a little effeminate, as long as he's not gay,'" Joel says.

-this npr story

...in which one psychologist argues that children cannot "be" transgender* until age 10 or 11. ha. so is that the age of consent for gender, for eternal salvation? puh-leeze. no one chooses their gender; it is chosen for them in at least two ways (social and biological). but why do we yearn for one constant gender, one from a set of just two? because there is nothing we want more than an identity, an accurate sense of self?

*we could (but should we?) define the term transgender as a preference for gender-sex disjoint

every disaster is an opportunity

let all the housewives and their facile homemaking magazines rejoice! i have managed to turn a sloppy stew of leftovers into an orgasmic feast! last week's "spicy bolivian cabbage and potatoes" are tonight's cheesy potato tacos. note the masterful integration of local, organic radishes and cabbage from our CSA.

i am more serious than your mom and the pope

who let these animals into my kingdom?

it's been two weeks and i still can't get over this harmless interaction. from now on i'm waiting at a different shuttle stop where something about the lighting prevents such cretins* (a.k.a. friendly grad students in other departments) from lurking (i.e. talking).

her: blah blah blah, so what do you do outside of school?
me: [blank stare, forced laughter]

would-have-been-acceptable answers:

1. i go to shows, actually i am in a band; yeah we play high school band instruments and stuff
   
2. i "party" with my friends
3. i fancy myself some sort of hobbyist (in my kitchen, in outdoor adventures)
4. i write pithy social criticism for an obscure publication
5. i fight for all the good "-isms" and against all the bad "-isms"
6. i own my own business, solving your middle class hangups from my trusty dodge caravan
   

cold-hard-truth answers:

1. i drink alone and eat overpriced frozen organic food
2. i read embarrassing classic novels and financial self-help books
3. i do everything you do on the internet, except more frequently
4. i grocery shop for "fun"
5. sometimes little birds stop flying and look me in the eye
6. i sit in cafes and pay diligent attention to other people's** conversations: an architect and an interior designer discussing the textbook they are co-authoring, old ladies praising some style of brassiere in front of "uncle joe", one art history grad student mentoring another who is writing her dissertation prospectus (dialogue below)
   

mentor: oh. are you post-feminist?
mentee, (definitively and immediately): yes.
mentor: i understand. it's a generational thing.
me (in my head): is it?!
mentee: i just don't want to write about gender and that kind of stuff.
me (in my head): so this is what feminism has been reduced to!

*apparently south alabama defines a cretin as "one whose physical and mental development has been retarded or arrested due to thyroid deficiency"
**i neglected to mention the streetside table where a gay couple sat down across from...you guessed it - a woman studying to be a sex therapist. and yes, she did switch chairs to be closer to them.

fill in the blank

this place is a mistake! we were meant to live on farms; we were intended for the city. i used to swim through universes between the microscopic hours of five and nine. even the ghosts won't stay. here.

fixing one's sights
upon tree tops
is windowboxing

there are those who need glass to look at themselves, there are those who need the chalice to look inside themselves, and there are those of us who need _________ to look beyond ourselves

but must this sacred geometry be rational/irrational? irrational is the most imprecise word we have.

spring break 2008