Sunday, September 14, 2008

it is time

After very little reflection, I've come to a conclusion:

I'm going to remove this blog.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

regarding palin

This, from Eve Ensler, pretty much says it all. Please read:

Drill, Drill, Drill

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in His name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

if you ever wondered...

...there is a God indeed.

Good riddance.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

another reason to ditch my car

I got up bright and early today (after my morning phone call from the OSW) and set about my Saturday errands: haircut, lunch with Mrs. Steve, grocery, then home. Upon my return home, I discovered that the gate to our common garage wasn't functioning, leaving us all to park illegally on the street. All of the available LEGAL spaces were taken up by some annoying idiot in my building who was having a party celebrating some sort of athletic contest today. College football, I believe. Some school with red and white colors. I know this because our common spaces are festooned with the most vulgar balloons and cheap streamers in these colors. There are also all kinds of folks walking around in red and black clothing, drinking out of plastic cups and spouting nonsense about how THEIR team is the best and "heh heh heh..I'm really going to enjoy taking your money when the game's over" and other such krap. Call me a snob, but I just can't stand the culture that surrounds college and professional football. Gross. And they're taking up all of my parking spaces.

Since our good-for-nothing management company refuses to address the malfunctioning garage until TUESDAY (due to the holiday), I decided to avoid a possible ticket-and-towing scenario and park my car at the OSW's house. He's out of town, and I was planning a "car free" weekend anyway. So I drove over there, parked, watered his plants, and strolled back home.

My mood shifted when I called the OSW to let him know that I was parking at his house. He's up in PTown, and basically he let me know that I had made a mark on the town, and that the mark remains. He told me that he felt like he was home, and that he misses me. I look very much forward to the time when we're not giving each other reports on the phone, across that great distance.

I walked back home, listening to extraordinary music and once again giving thanks to whatever, for everything. I even scaled down my hatred of the idiots in my building, but just a little bit.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

what the...?

This is a new favorite thing.



I think I know what I'll do for Halloween...go to a cemetery and re-enact "Steel Magnolias!"

Friday, August 15, 2008

shall we all meet in the autumn?



Here it is, only mid-August, and the leaves are already changing. It's very subtle, but there is a dustiness to the maple trees that border my home, and I know enough to know that it won't be too long before the fireworks begin. I'm curious about the effect of this drought on this year's autumnal palette.

It is strange to me that for the first time, I do not mourn the passing of the summer. It always brought anxiety to me when I was in school (all that early rising and schoolwork), and now that I work in the same environment, I'm surprised that those feelings have not been resurrected. I had the best summer of my life, a summer that a small part of me wishes had never ended.

But I have many great things looming on the horizon. I've got some pretty great travel plans in the works for the fall and winter. I've gone back to work and have found great satisfaction and inspiration there. And I'm excited about some other stuff that I frankly don't wish to explain in detail - but trust me: it's all good.

In other, more banal news:

* I'm not working today, and will try to have a "no driving" day.
* Two appliances at my home have had a meltdown, but I'm handy enough to fix them (or just do the American thing and throw them out and purchase new ones)
* Since I came home last week, I've dined FOUR times with the OSW
* My tenant left my home in impeccable condition (which I'm inclined to maintain)
* I'm still coughing up the mold and mildew of Grey Gardens (at least, I hope that's the source of this ridiculous, persistent cough). Cue scene from "Camille..."
* On tap for the weekend: dinner with friends tonight, work, a party, work, and the first Family Roundup since we all got back to Atlanta from points north. At my sister's new home.

Life in America is hard, y'all...

Friday, August 08, 2008

what i did in provincetown this summah



You know what? When I told everyone that I planned to spend six weeks in Provincetown this summer, they all asked the same question: What are you going to do for six weeks in Provincetown if you're not working?

To that end, ladies and gentlemen, here is my very, VERY long list of Things I Did in Provincetown this Summah:


Saw Varla Jean Merman’s new show, Victory Lap Dance and was amazed by it
Saw The Wau Wau Sisters and befriended them
Saw Dina Martina’s show and must see it again to process it all (dialysis humor and “useless at-risk kids”)
Saw Miss Richfield’s show and hated it
Saw Two Boys in Bed on a Cold Winter’s Night and didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would
Laughed ‘til it hurt at Showgirls talent show
Gave several impromptu performances of my own on the street and in various parlours
Read five books: Land’s End by Michael Cunningham, Absolute Brightness by James Lecesne, When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and Tennessee Williams in Provincetown by David Kaplan
Swam in the ocean every day when it was fair
Got an amazing tan
Went whale watching and saw over fifty humpback whales
Spoke with God a couple of times
Did three art crawls in the East End art galleries and chatted with some artists
Dined at the Lobster Pot – several times
Was told by the ladies at the Pot that I was “one of them” (commence tears)
Looked at some real estate
Went to a family reunion in Orleans
Had lunch with Mom, Dad, Sister and Aunts when they visited
Watched the Fourth of July Parade
Watched the Fourth of July fireworks over the marina
Got a Townie Pass to the Boatslip
Threw up behind the A House
Almost got arrested for “open container”
Wished that I’d been arrested so I could say that I spent the night in the PTown Clink
Ate at just about every restaurant in town
Went back to Orleans for dinner with my aunt and uncle
Rode my bike on or walked on just about every little street in this town
Saw a couple of people on Segways and thought the looked retarded
Took the pontoon ferry over to Long Point for an exquisite afternoon on the beach
Hosted a host of friends at Grey Gardens
Saw a movie (the new Batman film) on a “Rainy Day Matinee”
Caught Cape Croup and had a mild nervous breakdown because of it
Made a dozen or so new friends
Spent all of my money
Drank my weight in Rose Kennedys, Long Island Iced Teas (w/ raspberry vodka), and Smirnoff Lime Rickys
Declared this summer the “Summer of the Hot Ginger”
Was temporarily a part of a roving band of loonies on bikes called the “Gay Marauders”
Witnessed the birth of a beautiful relationship
Developed the wonderful habit of reading the New York Times print edition every day
Lost my phone service and put a curse on T-Mobile
Shopped regularly at the Far Land Provisions – the best little grocery store in the world
Gained a few pounds and lost a few pounds
Climbed Pilgrim Monument
Embraced the marvelous power of gratitude
Danced
Laughed
Exhaled
Came up with a plan

Oh…and I kinda fell in love.

Not a bad summah.