Tuesday, November 30, 2004

New looks
I've updated my profile with a more recent photo. Y'all should check it out.

Earlier this month



Today



Must be the haircut I got from Craig.
posted by celestial @ 5:16 PM

You need a bit of (ooh) shock treatment!
So, the other night Alburn, Sean and I sat around watching my favorite horrible movie ... Shock Treatment, the sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I recently bought it on VHS. Let me just tell you, the song "Bitchin' in the Kitchen" is the new "Damn It, Janet."

It's a commentary on U.S. American television. It's really strange because it's like a commentary on reality TV, but in 1981 ... when there wasn't any reality TV.
posted by D-Bo @ 11:19 AM

Monday, November 29, 2004

Quote of the day

After a discussion about somewhat unsavory methods of completing final work for the semester that we are both employing, Alisa exclaimed:

"I'm going to hell! But I'm going to pass Humanities first."

posted by celestial @ 1:43 PM

Friday, November 26, 2004

Nonviolent Resistance courtesy of America
So it turns out that the big demonstrations in the Ukraine and all the civil disobedience stuff has been the result of months of careful preparation and campaigning funded by the U.S. government and the Democrats and the Republicans. The same folks who organised, trained and supported the overthrow of Slobadan Milosevic. According to an article in today's Guardian:

"But while the gains of the orange-bedecked "chestnut revolution" are Ukraine's, the campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes.

The article goes on to give a brief history of the four nonviolent resistance movements that have been effectively waged by groups organised, trained and funded by the US state department, USAid, The Democratic party's National Democratic Institute and the Republican party's International Republican Institute.

So does this mean for nonviolent resistance as a strategy and as a theory when some of the most succesful high profile examples have been funded by the biggest empire on the planet? There are a couple of ways to look at it. From one point of view you could see this as the result of a growing legitimization of nonviolent resistance as ane effective tactic. Or does U.S. involvement represent a corruption of the ideals of nonviolence and overshadow any potential positives?

I don't think I've figured this one out myself, but two historical examples come to mind, for better of worse. The first is the co-option of Christianity by the Roman empire. When it got tired of fighting the spread of this resistance cult it simply took it over and turned it into another hierarchical domination system. Can nonviolence be co-opted in a similiar way? Perhaps this scenario really only has parallels with nonviolence if you take the principled approach and see nonviolence as a way of life rather than just a tactic.

The other parallel comes out of a view of nonviolence as a tactic. During the time of the European empires colonized people learned the tactics used against them by colonial powers (i.e. military organisation, western education, etc.) and used them against the powers. Some of our most potent symbols of nonviolent resistance came out of this anti-imperial movement, but also many screwed up military dictatorships. Now that the empire itself is teaching nonviolence will we see a second wave as these tactics are turned against the empire itself or will nonviolence become seen as a tool of empire flunkies?
posted by Unknown @ 4:43 AM

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Random thought while I was at the switchboard
Wouldn't it be embarrassing if I accidentally said, "Good morning, Goshen College. How may I erect your call?"

I chuckled to myself and then continued staring into space.
posted by D-Bo @ 1:36 PM

...so I come home from Wind Ensemble last night..
and low and behold we have a kitty!!
We'd keep it, but well.. my roommate doesn't want it around. (I think 7 votes yes beat her one vote no..) Anyway.. he's really sweet.. ate a bunch of turkey, slept, played with yarn.. got his claws trimmed..
he's either going to Ohio to test out a family, or to the Goshen Animal clinic..

but hooray for kitties!!!
posted by Erini CS @ 9:36 AM

Monday, November 22, 2004

I am not now, nor have I ever been, Joe Hartman!
Not that I would mind being him, but in the past month at least a dozen people have confused us two.

Despite not being in "A Plague of Angels," EVERYBODY is complementing me on my performance!

Consider the following:

-Somebody asked me why I was credited as Joe Hartman in the program.
-An acquaintance thought that I was on stage until intermission. ("But he looks and talks exactly like you.")
-Complete STRANGERS complement me.

And, somebody even said, "Hi, Joe's brother," as I passed her on the sidewalk tonight. (?)

posted by D-Bo @ 9:41 PM

Reasons it could be worse:

• I backed up notes two weeks ago, so not all my notes are lost.
• I've been underlining in the books so I can pretty quickly reconstruct the past two weeks.
• Dell will give me a new one soon, soon like Tuesday.
• There's a house computer in the dining room where I can check my email.
• I don't have to drag another ten pounds around, or worry about getting mugged and losing it.
• I can trump anyone else at the law school complaining about how rough her week has been.

posted by weiss @ 11:42 AM

Friday, November 19, 2004

China, You So Craazy! The Three Gorges Dam Project
I've decided to use the above title as a working title for my term paper for Environmental History.




posted by celestial @ 2:21 PM

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Last night Tim2 called Priscilla the landlord. He was supposed to work out a deal with her about reducing rent until the house is brought up to code. It didn't work because he's too nice. When I asked him what he had agreed to he said, "You're going to crucify me." He had agreed to:

1. A grace period until Thanksgiving.
2. A $500 monthly maximum for any deductions.
3. That we would pay full December rent and be reimbursed at the end of the month.

I tried not to yell too much. I wasn't angry at Tim2. I was angry at Priscilla. So I called her back and told her that we'd talked it over and that the prior agreement wasn't good enough. I agreed to the Thanksgiving grace period, but told her that there would be no limit on deductions. If she wants us to be paying $1300 a month she needs to guarantee that the house is worth $1300 a month. If her contractors meet their deadlines that should be the case by Thanksgiving.

Of course they won't meet their deadlines. They never have in the past. Also, I expect that they in fact will do damage to the house, reducing its value even further. Once they cut off the gas I'm moving in with Duane and Ellen. Ellen said I could.

I also have no faith that if we pay full rent that we will ever see a reimbursement. I worked it out with Priscilla that if the house gets fixed then we will pay for that increase in value, but we will not loan her money on the hope that the contractors will, in a sudden change of heart, stop jerking off and actually start fixing the place up.

For whatever reason she didn't try to haggle with me. Perhaps it's because I didn't ask her what we should do, I told her what we were going to do in a tone of voice bearing an uncanny resemblance to unheated leftover pizza. Perhaps it's because she's scared of me because I know more landlord-tenant law than she does. Perhaps her statements about how this was going to be a real financial hardship for her were intended as bargaining and I didn't realize because I was thinking about how to slip in the comment, "Yes, I realize this will be a financial hardship for you, especially after that two-week vacation to Orlando earlier this month."

Also, last night I had a dream where I met The Decemberists. Colin had gained a lot of weight and was starting to go bald.
posted by weiss @ 3:08 PM

I have a crush on Dilbert. He's a hottie bumbalottie
So, I've actually been able to keep a desk job for more than two days, in fact, I'm somewhere around a week and a half at this job. AND I passed up an opportunity to become a pirate with Teresa Geary (the coolest pirate of them all) because apparently I've burned almost every bridge in DC. However, what makes this job bearable compared to all the other jobs that I've quit is that

(1) I get to work for a character like Ms. Darinse Davis (pictured)
(2) I can flake out of work to do some grip/gaffing/or AC work and it is excusable
(3) I might get to go to Ghana this december as part of a 4 person documentary team with this company

I can't believe I've made it for almost one week straight in an office (last week was broken up with a gripping job)

I feel like I should start reading Dilbert or something.

NOT TO WORRY! I still plan to move to new york in the spring. I just can't stand the cold and there's not as much filming going on up there during the winter and this job pays better than anything I've had yet.

posted by meg @ 8:34 AM

i love you too!
today at work, after things had slowed down, my boss, Hien, turned to me and said, "I love you kate."
"why," i asked.
"I tell myself this so i don't kill you"
...that's nice of her... later she invited me to her house for thanksgiving if i didn't have any other plans, she's very proud of her new kitchen.
posted by kate @ 8:34 PM

highlight of the day
Came up on these expat New Yorkers on my way to church this morning (yes, I go there and tell myself it's mostly to support my mom but deep down inside I know I like it too). Gave them a thumbs up from the bike and dude was all "Awaie!" so I pulled out the old Nikon and he yells "prends-ça d'en arrière crisse" and I got this picture. Other highlights were the drawn-out brunch with Rebecca & Misha, picking up some bricks from the construction site down the street (bookshelf!), insulating some more (new record--Nov 15 and still not heating), watching over-the-top French tv and figuring out how to do these little puppies.

Hope you all had splendiferous Sundays. Thanks for checking in, Jesse and John, and take care of yourselves.
posted by sasha @ 1:27 AM

Good news for today: according on all the circuits that have dealt with the question, sexual harassment is a "sex offense" under the federal rape shield law. This is good for me in mock trial because it means that the defense can't bring up that the plaintiff slept with the alleged harasser six years ago at a conference in Vegas.

Bad news for today: Basically, everything else.
posted by weiss @ 2:54 PM

all I have to say is...
Hooray for Lance!!

and hoorah for the Eisenstats' Hour After
posted by Erini CS @ 3:14 PM

What the U.S. wants ... it gets!
After election day, it seems pretty obvious we want some more!

Michael Moore is planning Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2.

(Everybody should also browse through the photo gallery at www.SorryEverybody.com.)
posted by D-Bo @ 3:10 PM

cosas...
first. today is my half birthday, 23 years, 182 days and 12 hours.

second. check out www.nuvo.net - "solidarity" - big ol' article by joel - 3200 words.

third. i love you, derek bontrager. nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more.
posted by joel @ 8:21 AM 0 comments

So finally we have heat in our house! It is provided by electric space heaters, purchased by my wonderful housemate Jeff, costs to be deducted from next month's rent. As will be an increase in our electric cost. Also, something will soon go wrong and our entire house will burn to the ground.

Am staying up late preparing cross for mock trial:

• Mr. Snow, is it true that as recently as February 2000 you carried on an extra-marital affair with a coworker named Sally Labelle? Please just answer yes or no.
• Is it true that one night in February 2000 you had dinner at a Sheraton motel with Ms. Labelle and later went upstairs with her?
• Is it true that your wife found out about this event and confronted you with it when you arrived home?
• What did you say to your wife when she confronted you?

Actually what really happens is as soon as I get the word "affair" out of my mouth defendant's counsel jumps up and says "Objection your honor! Question is irrelevant and highly prejudicial to the witness." And I try to say "Your honor, this line of questioning goes to the character for truthfulness of the witness!" And the judge says, "Sustained!" and I lose.
posted by weiss @ 11:52 PM

wee. big gigantic sidewalks make me happy
they re-opened the road on the north side of the white house this morning. super cool because now my commute to work doesn't involve dodging the cops on the south side. i had almost forgotten what the white house looked like that close up. i almost felt like writing a letter to mr. b*sh, "dear mr. b*sh, thanks for re-opening the sidewalk in front of you house, your house is so close now, i almost feel like i could throw a rock at it."

how is it that aliens have hovercraft but no clothes? could we too evolve to nudity?

bedtime
posted by kate @ 11:06 PM

the quest: abolish [c]apitalization
so, for a while now, i think it started while i was in hong kong, i've refrained from using capitals (majuscules) in my writing. as i contemplate my rationalizations for my actions, i've come up with the following reasons i use lowercase (minuscules).

- encourages divisions
- alienates persons without degrees, higher education
- asseses human value to degrees, knowledge, personal accomplishments
- confusing rules as to when capitalization is used
- lowercase text flows, allowing the eye to maintain a single line, not jumping

as the word, obviously, finds it root in the etymology of the term "capital" (see below), this is yet another reason why i distrust and would rather not use this form of writing. written chinese contains, in my limited knowledge, no more important words than others.

according to the wiki, "[t]he full rules of capitalization for [e]nglish are complicated and have changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. [i]t is an important [ism supporting] function of [e]nglish style guides to describe the complete current rules."

---- begin wiki definition ----
wiki: capitalism


[t]he lexical roots of the word capital reveal roots in the trade and ownership of animals. [t]he [l]atin root of the word capital is capitalis, from the proto-[i]ndo-[e]uropean kaput, which means "head", this being how wealth was measured. [t]he more heads of cattle, the better. [t]he terms chattel (meaning goods, animals, or slaves) and even cattle itself also derive from this same origin.

[t]he lexical connections between animal trade and economics can also be seen in the names of many currencies and words about money: fee (faihu), rupee (rupya), buck (a deerskin), pecuniary (pecu), stock (livestock), and peso (pecu or pashu) all derive from animal-trade origins.

[o]ften thought of as the "father of capitalist thinking," [a]dam [s]mith himself ne ver used the term. [h]e described his own preferred economic system as "the system of natural liberty."

[t]hough popular with [m]arxists, the word "capitalism" was in fact not used by [k]arl [m]arx, who only spoke about capital, to refer to the social relationship between owners (capitalists) and workers (proletarians); although it is not completely clear who used the word in its current, systemic context first, it was coined and introduced into the economic discourse by [w]erner [s]ombart in his 1906 classic, [m]odern [c]apitalism.
---- end wiki definition ----

recognizing that english has changed and continues to change, who then will join my campaign? (1)

notes:
1. in the spirit of mutual aid, i will personally feed and clothe derek bontrager as his job and identity, with the loss of capitalization (not punctuation mind you!), will be severly, but not completely diminished. derek, you are welcome at my home.
posted by joel @ 1:44 PM

props to sasha for f*cking over our blog :)
and to Adam Derstine(sp?) and his house for a fun game night - even though y'all don't play the name game right

heh heh, here's
A Quick Fix:

(the dude's dorm we stayed at at NYU had this as his desktop and it made me chuckle)

Lando, artistically i was very impressed by the video, the play between animation and real life was hella-fun; but then i saw they did the same shit on an earlier video and i was slightly less impressed. also, i'm always very frightened by the amount of hatred emimem can seem to produce - no matter who or what it's directed at -- uber-scary.

p.s. if any of y'all bloggers would like to add quizzes, mess with the side bar, template, etc. give us a holla and we'll set you up as an admin. gracias
posted by kate @ 8:16 AM

"Killing him ain't going to bring my daddy back."
WHEREAS The Houston Police Department runs a royally f*cked up forensics lab out of Harris County, so much so that an investigation recently found 280 "lost" cartons of evidence from over 8,000 cases and dating back 25 years; and

WHEREAS There are still 4 people from Harris County scheduled to be executed between now and Dec 1st; and

WHEREAS The Governor of Texas Rick Perry has rejected pleas from Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt, state senators Rodney Ellis and John Whitmire (chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee), Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Mark Price, former Governor Mark White, the editorial pages of the Austin American-Statesman, the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, the bishop of the Houston Catholic diocese Rev. Joseph Fiorenza, and even the parents of victims for a halt to executions of inmates convicted in Harris County until the scope of problems at the police crime lab can be determined; and

WHEREAS Tasara's MVSer friend Shanti has been corresponding for the last seven years with Demarco McCullum, a death row inmate from Harris County who is scheduled to be executed Nov 9; THEREFORE

WE, THE OWNERS AND OPERATORS OF THE SHOUP HOUSE BLOG, CALL FOR THE IMMEDIATE POSTPONEMENT OF DEMARCO MCCULLUM'S EXECUTION AND A MORATORIUM ON ALL OTHER EXECUTIONS IN THE STATE OF TEXAS WHILE A SPECIAL BLUE RIBBON COMMISSION STUDIES THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN TEXAS.

Please sign here,
here,
here, and
here.

Thank you for your time.
posted by sasha @ 1:03 AM

talk to gaffer meg!
yep, that's right, technical lighting director, that's me! for a sodexho shoot. poo. but I didn't know before I took the job. but hey, who else is going to figure out how many 750 pars we can plug into a hospital with only 5 circuits. ooh, it's me! now, if only I could get that gaffing job in boston that pays $350 a day. fuck you experience. but man, extreme make over: home edition totally rocks my world.
posted by meg @ 10:42 PM

Eminem's Mosh
Kate, what did you think of Eminem's Mosh video? Pretty unbelievable and really fucking cool! Also, the Guerrilla New Network, who produced the music video, are really the best journalists I've come across. They've got a book out that I just bought, "True Lies," which is a lousy title that reminds me of a bad Schwartzinegger movie. But the content is fascinating. Just stop by Barnes and Nobles and read 20 pages and see if it grabs your attention.

posted by Landon @ 10:15 PM

Jungle Jazz
I remember Jazz Combos and Jazz Band events of years past being mellow evenings or Sunday afternoons when I went to see my friends play, with some good solos and nice sounds.

Those musicians, I'm sure, would be having much more fun if they were here now, playing with Lavender Jazz. They were really on tonight in "It's a Jungle Out There," from Glenn Miller's "Pennsylvania 6-5000" to "Tu Sonrisa," a merengue from Elvis Crespo. Their encore, "Sing, Sing, Sing" was almost flawless. Their big band sound was incredible.

The only thing I would have changed is the name. Lavender Jazz are less lavender and more red. Bright Red. Crimson. Scarlet Jazz.

Although their matching lavender ties and hankerchiefs, and an additional lavender vest for Sonny and a ribbon in the hair of Amanda Enz, sole woman performer, were quite dapper. (If I were Amanda, I would have worn the suit.)


posted by celestial @ 9:57 PM

holy bo-jeebus

posted by kate @ 6:34 PM

Michael Moore: suicidal?
I made the comment to quite a few people that I was worried about Michael Moore because, for the longest time he did not post anything on his Web site since writing:

"Early word has it that it is very tight in Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and Iowa! Michigan ? don't let me down! If you haven't voted, stop reading this and get down to the polls. Keep calling and e-mailing your address book.

"This is it. The homestretch. Let's do it!"

I had actually been commenting to people, "I hope he hasn't slit his wrists." So today, so I go to his Web site where he has a great message to his fans, titled, "17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists." You should check it out.


posted by D-Bo @ 3:26 PM

I have to respectfully disagree with how the folks from "A Force More Powerful" are representing history. I don't have time to go through all of the examples, but they're ignoring quite a bit. Resistance to apartheid involved a good deal of guerilla warfare. The Chilean opposition engaged in street rioting. The Danish resistance sabotaged production and called in British and U.S. air strikes. But to me what's really interesting here is not developing a definition of nonviolence and then going through history to find out what fits that defintion and what doesn't. The interesting question is why so many people choose to misrepresent historical struggles by concealing the violent elements. Nelson Mandela was put in jail for blowing things up. Everyone who does even a minimal amount of research into the history knows this. Why, then, is there such a massive effort on the part of so many left-liberals to misrepresent the struggle against apartheid as wholly nonviolent? That's just one example. Perhaps another interesting question is: why resistance movements with varying levels of violent activity have never been able to achieve the sorts of gains that seem to me to be so desirable. To stay with the South African example, the difference between wealth of black South Africans and white South Africans is actually greater now than at the end of apartheid. So now that you've slogged through theory, amuse yourself by reading Galloway v. General Motors Service Parts Operations. The funny part begins with the paragraph starting with "We find greater merit in..." Judge Posner, you so crazy!

posted by weiss @ 11:40 AM

Nonviolent Social Change
Teresa,

Sorry, I didn't see your question till Meg mentioned it below. I'd recommend this page for a whole list of countries where nonviolent movements have won major victories:

http://www.pbs.org/weta/forcemorepowerful/stories.html

This is the page for the PBS documentary "A Force More Powerful" which tells the stories of these different movements. Along with India and the Civil Rights movement it describes movements in Denmark, Chile, South Africa, Poland, Burma, Czechoslovakia, Philipines, The Ruhr, El Salvador and Argentina.

The most recent example that comes to mind is the overthrow of Slobadan Milosevic in Yugoslavia. In the States we were given the impression that it was spontaneous, but it was actually the result of extensive training and planning. The United States Institute of Peace has an extensive article:

http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr72.html

There was also an extensive nonviolent movement in Kosovo that was largely ignored by the international community who instead supported the armed guerrilla movement. See The Nonviolent Movement in Kosovo and Yugoslavia from Mother Jones magazine for more on that.
posted by Unknown @ 7:28 AM

party like it's....................my birthday!!!
'cause it is.
hey ya'lls. consider this your invitation to help me celebrate my birthday by filling up damn green with lots of lovely warm fuzzy drunk people. also consider this your invitation to bring lots of warmfuzzylove-inducing beverages. and food. and music. my mom's sending me a cake via tim showalter's parents' van, so that's covered.

this is the part where i break it down for ya:
who: me
what: the big 2-3
when: evening-nightish friday, november 5th
where: damn green, upstairs
why: the love

hope to see you there!
love,
sara

posted by Sara @ 7:32 PM

oh man, what the hell is going on here?
i don't think i've ever really been hit on before. not in college, not in high school, and not in DC since i've been here. However, in the last week lots of things have changed, following late late night bike races with a courier dude in the in the rain and a heavy night of halloween eve drinking at the sojo house i've become kind of sick (you know that little bug where your tummy and throat hurts, you cough pathetically, and your head feels funny) and have hence embarked on a steady diet of post halloween candies, french fries, greasy-nasty pizza, alcohol, and a refusal to shower. i have consequently gained a few pounds, a greasy head, and a steady stream of attention from my male counterparts. At recent parties i've found myself drawn into party-long conversations with older men where i drunkenly bull-shit out of my ass. such as at the MVS party on saturday and the election night party at Dirty's house where i actually left the party with the guy's number in my pocket (Paul Selby 240-535-0946). At a party in NYC last night I decided a great way to avoid unwelcome advances was to simply pull the "oh, I'm not really into guys" line, at which point the scary New Yorker guy offers me drugs, which i promptly decline and excuse myself from the conversation. A similar thing happened today as I was was not-paying to ride on the metro, as i'm following a guy through the metro-thingy i here him start to chuckle so i mutter a quick "thank-you." On our way up the escalator he acknowledges that we "all gotta do it sometimes" (not pay to ride metro) and seeing this as an opportunity to be bad-ass i reply "i do it all the time" (this is very much NOT true, MEG does it all the time, i'm usually on my bike, but i'm used to us being clumped together, so it's true enough) any way, the dude starts speaking some sort of south-east, inner-city jargon, which, although i'm not drunk, I attempt to bull-shit my way through but eventually have to admit i have no idea what the hell he is talking about. I end up telling him I have a girlfriend which is totally cool with him 'cause apparently his baby's momma does too, at which point he too asks me if i do drugs and if i would like some "x" and i'm free to stop by his place over there on the other side those apartments. ahhhhhhhhh! what the hell is going on here fellas?!??! i don't understand. If a girl is clearly not interested why would they want to but drugs from you? and worse yet, why is the only cell phone number i acquired AND wanted, the one from the biker guy who said he could get me a courier job, not work? grah. poop stain.

anyway, pretty much i just thought it was funny how after i told people i had a girlfriend they offered me drugs.
posted by kate @ 4:54 PM

What the fuck is happening at shoup??
Holy shit. Ok, So I've been gone, I think, only a week. I was working in Maryland on this short film that was done completely in Mandarin and I learned how to say "long live chairman mao" in mandarin, It sounds something like, mao ju shi wan shway! anyway, lots of excitement and really cool chinese actors and I got to be the third electric!! and we ate lots of candy bars and chinese food! and then I come back to DC and start a "real job" but then it really sucked, so I quit before randomly driving up to NYC with some kids from delaware and maryland and kate to go to a wrap party and then we come back on the china town bus way early in the morning. so now I'm sitting at my apartment, soaking wet and jobless. I'm also cut and bruised and covered in poison ivy and spider bites from running maxi brutes, 5k HMIs, mighty moles, and other various lights through the woods in maryland to create a 1950s chinese village.

Teresa. I'm very disappointed that no one responded to your question about nonviolent social change. Then again. I can't think of an example. But it could be because I haven't slept in six or seven days.

I had more to say, but I'll spare you all. I can't figure out if I'm in a depressed state because of the election or because I got off of a movie shoot. either way. I'm curled up (still soaking) on the couch with my cat, a blanket, and my computer. I've eaten too many pickles.
posted by meg @ 2:56 PM

Three things I got the "Jerry Springer Show" crowd to chant at me:
1. "Go back to Oprah! Go back to Oprah!"

2. "You are gay! You are gay!"

3. "You are a democrat! You are a democrat!"

I'm glad I made a good impression.

P.S. I'd be happy to watch Life Aquatic with you, mennonot.
posted by D-Bo @ 4:20 PM

Wes Anderson and Bill Murray together at Last!
I just watched the trailer for Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, a new comedy with Bill Murray and directed by Wes Anderson. Bill is a Jacque Cousteau gone bananas backed by a team including William Dafoe (!) and Owen Wilson (the hottie across from Ben Stiller in Zoolander and Starsky & Hutch).

Not only does it look fabulous and Hilarious, but its coming out when I'm back in Goshen! So if anyone else who love Bill wants to go watch it with me, let me know.
posted by Unknown @ 2:25 PM

You have the right to...


Vote! And call 1-866-OURVOTE if somebody tries to keep you from doing it. Respect.
posted by sasha @ 2:40 PM

Academic racism
I've been thinking a lot the past couple of days about an observation I've heard quoted, though I forget who originally said it, that the reason that there are so few articles by people of color in magazines like The Nation is that white editors have a rigid sense of what good writing is, meaning writing that they think sounds white, and reject authors who write in different voices.

Struggling to be aware of that in my own editing, I'm trying to figure out how to recognize and value different voices in news writing as well as more editorial pieces. The Record perspective pages, in the semesters that I've worked on it, have done a good job of not editing for voice, but only for AP Style. (As in, we change numbers to numerals and okay to OK).

This week, Latino Student Union wants to compile an article about Dia de los Muertos, a Mexican cultural holiday (celebrated elsewhere as well but primarily Mexican). How do I let the voices of those students come through, but still print an article in a feature article format? Or are my ideas about feature article formats discriminatory? What I'm hoping to do is find a writer who can weave together the smaller articles in a way that preserves that writing as quotes in authentic voices.

After I was already thinking about this, this morning in Environmental History Jan Bender Shetler pointed out that academic writers in the global south often don't get published in journals on their topics because they write with different voices, and because the academic networks are in northern countries. It's unjust, she said, that African historians from Africa are excluded from academic circles of African history because greater efforts aren't made to bring scholars to conferences in the north and be publish them as they want to be published, in their own voices.
posted by celestial @ 9:50 AM

election night: live it up at peace house
tomorrow evening, during the election, i will be posting updates from us here at the peace house while we watch the proceedings. the thoughts and insights will be undoubtedly, ahem, adroit.
posted by joel @ 11:27 PM

Election Eve and Amish Veterans
Scariest photo of the week:



This photo accompanied a story in the Guardian on "Broken-glass Republicans". Haven't they ever heard of Kristallnacht?

Football for changing the world

The good news is that if Fifteen consecutive correct predictions are worth anything, than Kerry has the election wrapped up, thanks to the Green Bay Packers

All American Kerry

Someone on Kerry's image management team has been working overtime: throws a football, Reads the bible and Drinks beer
posted by Unknown @ 2:54 PM 0 comments

Halloween in London
So it turns out Halloween in London is a little more sinister than elsewhere. Apparently, around here, kids really take the trick part and (according to my sources) they might throw a rock through your window even if you do give them candy.

I didn't think much of it until I watched a bunch of kids rip off a couple boxes of candy from an Indian corner grocery as I walked home. As they tore off running down the street, the owner came out of the store and threw a cocounut at them.
posted by Unknown @ 4:54 AM

oui, un tigre dans mon fucking lit
Tigre MF™ is always firm in his convictions, rock-hard firm. And I love that you can always know where he stands, 'cause it's usually in your bed with his pants off. Indeed, as a former roommate I can attest that his onanistic capabilities are reknowned from here to there to that other place, from where people come from miles around to witness his thunderous and patented "get out the vote" technique in action. That's why Tigre MF™ is my choice for Nov 2^nd. True story: he was once so successful that I wrote in "Jesse Miller" for County Clerk. Twice!


Also, Happy Hallowe'en! Kids and candy: still made for each other.
posted by sasha @ 1:10 AM