Friday, September 30, 2005

Hi again!
I spent the last few weeks working on a film up in Syracuse, NY with a great group of people from hollywood-land! I left with a bag full of goodies including some duvatyn, a #1 clip, a host of LA friends, bruises, great memories and a hella-lot more $100 bills than I've ever had in my entire life. So y'all should congratulate me on landing a paying gig with the hollywood folk. It totally kicked-ass!!! woot!

Skrew NYC, I'm going to LA!!!
posted by meg @ 10:18 PM

Thursday, September 29, 2005

O'Hara!
You still coming to town this weekend? I think I worked out your phone number from this and this, so I'll try to call you tomorrow to get in touch. Plans: let's make 'em!
posted by weiss @ 11:44 PM

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Update on the Jonah Flores fire here.
posted by weiss @ 3:11 PM

Monday, September 26, 2005

hell has frozen over...
joel fath bought a cell phone. emm..any good ideas out there as how to pass on my number without putting it on the web. i know histand has it. i'm with verizon.
posted by joel @ 12:36 PM

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Jonah Flores
There was a fire across the alley from my house about 3 a.m. last night and a child died. His name is Jonah Flores.

We had to deal with reporters a lot today because various folks who were staying at our house were awake at the time and helped out.

They had gotten home from Operation Ceasefire, and were hanging out on the back porch. Though the Post article doesn't explain it very well, after seeing the fire they ran into the building and pounded on doors to wake folks up and get them out. The fire alarm in the building did not go off.

Two of our neighbors came over this evening with a cake. I explained that the folks who had run into the building had returned to Lancaster, but accepted the cake on their behalf. Our neighbors expressed gratitude and a real sense that their lives had been saved, especially because the building fire alarm system failed.

The fire evidently started because the family had lost electricity on Tuesday and was using candles. Jonah died from smoke inhalation and severe burns.
posted by weiss @ 11:08 PM

well said a.t.
sometimes it just needs to come out.
posted by joel @ 3:19 PM

whoa!
what's up with the woods!
sleater-kinney's music video for "the woods" takes place in the woods. as does alisa's video (or is that a park?) and also, 3 out of the top four music videos on apple's quicktime page interpo, thievery corporation, and sleater-kinney. crazy-go-nuts!!
posted by kate @ 8:27 AM

holy fuck!
mojito?

posted by joel @ 9:06 AM

back home in g-town
i returned from my trip to the south where tim i. shenk and myself traveled to the bayous of louisiana to learn about hurricane damage and what needs to happen next. i'll be posting a longer report soon.
posted by joel @ 10:34 AM

DPRK WINS AGAIN!

posted by sasha @ 8:27 PM

Talk Like A Pirate Day is tomorrow!
Here's some pirate speak so study up!

posted by meg @ 2:00 PM

So after spending basically the past six years of my life in boots or sandals I've decided that I'm going to take the money my grandparents gave me for my birthday and buy some shoes. Probably Vans. Shoe shopping. I'm going shoe shopping. I don't even know where you go to buy shoes anymore.

Also, congrats to Sarah for being, like, almost the only person on the list who's not doing it for (1) the children or (b) sufferers of Ataxia-Tetroplagia.
posted by weiss @ 12:15 PM

Sarah Thompson in Glamour magazine


For all you BCHS grads out there, you might be interested to know That Sarah Thomspon made the Glamour magazine's list of top ten college women.

Whatever your feelings about Glamour, it's nice to see Sarah getting some recognition for all her organising and work against the war.
posted by Unknown @ 11:19 AM

Bad pissed-off rap
by Meg

Fucking Crappity McCrapsters
Fuck you iPod

(rap break. hip-hopping drum beat)
shitty-stinking iPod. DiePod.
you've got me hooked like opium, Steve-o
i'd rather be a crack addict than a mac addict
throwing money at you like it's my Job, Mr. Jobs
fucking dime-bag iTunes, crap tunes
I want to love you but I can't, got to recant
digital sycophant
Somebody buy me a new iPod

My hard drive is dead.
posted by meg @ 4:33 PM

Thursday News Roundup

Bad:

• Exceptions in new EPA rules would allow testing pesticides on children


• Bush Cronies to Mop Up Katrina

Good:

• St. Laurent will soon be a wireless zone


• Bush is still the class dunce (diapers?)


• Yesterday I bought scrubs, tomorrow a stethoscope and Monday I'll be in the hospital!

Interesting:

• The Ten Stupidest Utopias! (required reading for all who took Johnny D's class)

posted by sasha @ 12:27 PM 0 comments

The Press takes the micky out of Bush
Or maybe they're finally allowing him to do it to himself. In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the photo from Yahoo news of Bush writing a note to Condy Rice during his appearance at the U.N. yesterday:



Bagnews has an excellent piece with this and other ridiculous photos from Bush at the UN meeting.
posted by Unknown @ 6:15 AM

posted by meg @ 10:04 PM

Crazy Anabaptist Sect of the Week
The Batenburgers were the succesors to the Melchiorites who took over Münster from 1532 to 1535.

They believed that all who did not join with them had to be killed. But there was a catch. If you joined the sect after 1535 you could only be a servant to the Anabaptist elite in the afterlife. Sort of a trumped up late fee.

While waiting for Christ's second coming they plundered churches, massacred cows and had lots of wives to pass the time. If that wasn't enough, membership was secret and so Batenburgers passed themselves off as law-abiding Lutherans and Catholics as necessary. Initiation was painful and supposed to inoculate you against torture.

If you've ever heard that the phrase "Anabaptist" was the 16th century buzzword equivalant of "communist" or "terrorist" these folks take credit for it. It also helps explain what Menno Simons was reacting against.
posted by Unknown @ 2:08 PM

life in a tent named "tao"...
last night i had a killer mirgraine. headaches with wine and cheese just don't mix but you know...

so around the early morning hours i awoke with an even more splitting pain only to see lightning and thunder bearing down on my little tent in the woods. shit i thought: i need to get my rain fly. thankfully i had already covered my guitars and other such important items with plastic earlier in the evening. i secured the rain protection and in the moments after laying my head down the storm broke and whoosh, my migraine left. wow i thought. that's the strongest drug i've ever dropped: lightning storm.

...phone call...

well well, so just talked with mcc. i'm going to mississippi with tim ivan shenk to see what stories/pics we can gather in the mess human civilization has created for itself. adventure of the week! hell yeah. did i say i love freelance work? oh, but i love goshen and the scene, especially now that i am out of the hell that is "higher" education.

i want to publicly thank mr. robin sexy wenger for bringing the bamboo to goshen. wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.

ps. does anyone have a used cell phone they would like to donate to the revolution in goshen?
posted by joel @ 9:25 AM

posted by meg @ 5:24 PM

does this mean i'm a wenger?
i chose "falling in love again". any takers? great band by the way. yup, i'm looking for a lover. there. i said it. so mote it be.
posted by joel @ 3:00 PM

From here to maternity
Well, it's nice to be missed...

Also: for those out there who are fans of my mom (anybody who's met her, basically), the dame turns 51 on Wednesday. Feel free to send birthday greetings! (Email me for her address.) We took her rapid-jumping yesterday and all had a hell of a time.

And: We learned how to breastfeed in class on Friday! I can't wait till the obstetrics & paediatrics rotation. Tomorrow: blood pressure & old people! Rocking.
posted by sasha @ 12:27 AM 0 comments

Went riding up to the Honda dealership in Wheaton to get new chromed screws for my battery cover. The ones I had were starting to rust and I was afraid at some point they'd slip and I wouldn't be able to get the battery out. I think I also need a bigger-headed screwdriver.

Afterwards I cruised down the always creepy George Washington Parkway to drop by school. Records office was closed, so no luck on picking up the handout I needed, but I did meet this girl dragging a Segway across the faculty parking lot. I had to ask, and she said that the battery had died. I told her she could just go into the law school, but she didn't seem to want to lug it up the stairs. Not sure why, it didn't look that large. I felt sorry for someone with a dead Segway. I mean, someone tinkering with a dead Honda CBX can be cool, especially if it's rusted out with a ridiculously high odometer. But Segways just look stupid to begin with, so someone dragging around a dead one is like a lost puppy out in the rain. On Christmas.

I remembered that there was an outlet on the patio, so I walked her over and showed her. She could plug in without needing to drag the thing up on the patio, which pleased her a lot as lifting it was something she seemed desperate to avoid. She couldn't tell if the outlet was good (it looked pretty shabby) because the Segway didn't have a "charging" light (bad, bad engineering) so I plugged in my laptop adapter which does have a light. Yep, it worked.

At that point she must have decided that all my helpfulness was just an attempt to get her number, so she started making a cell phone call without saying anything more than "thanks so much." I was hurt. The very idea that I would consider someone with a Segway is still a bitter taste in my throat.

In conclusion: Segway = dumb. Get a scooter.
posted by weiss @ 4:54 PM

China 2.0
In honour of these brave kids, Lando, Beachy & I present a podcast on finding the edges in the Middle Kingdom:

• Intro
• English Corner
• Food
• Dorm Life
• The Waiban

We did it in a hurry, so the sound and content quality are pretty low. Enjoy!
posted by sasha @ 12:27 AM 0 comments

Kanye Remixed

George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People [mp3]

As somebody in the comments said: "them niggas were QUICK!"

and

"That song pretty much did the damn thing."
posted by sasha @ 11:27 PM

help, gadget heads
Dearest electronic community, please help me to spend the little money I haven't given to my new school, wisely! I need a portable recording device that has medium to high quality sound so that I can record my lessons, practice sessions, and audible bodily functions. I imagine that it will be a mini-disc recorder, but I am open to other things. Any suggestions on brands or models?

posted by julia @ 4:28 PM

Shopping?

The Schrock Store has new items!
posted by meg @ 2:49 AM

Well Katie, I will be glad to hang out with you while you're here, but unless you can promise me that Dar will sing her version of "Highway Patrolman" I'm afraid I'm still going to have to be scared off by the high ticket price. Best of show to you, though.

Okay, now I have to go back to re-reading this article for Race, Racism, and the Law. I intend to raise my hand and ridicule it tomorrow, so I'd better be pretty well acquainted.
posted by weiss @ 11:32 PM

Wednesday's Wild White House Press Briefing
Scott McClellan still has the worst job in the world.
posted by sasha @ 11:27 PM 0 comments

Welcome Arthur Kaufman
Who are you?

posted by meg @ 2:30 PM

katie!
I'll go if I can! we can be the only two people singing along to the openers!
posted by meg @ 11:04 AM

yeah for caravel...
thanks sean for getting a website together for us to keep tabs on you. i'll add your tab to my growing collection which i store underneath a large sycamore tree down by the mill race. i'm such a squirrel in more ways than one. which reminds me, yesterday i saw the most gorgeous tail on our resident red squirrel at 8th and plymouth. big, warm and cuddly. damn i thought, maybe one day i can have a tail to cuddle with...

this weekend i'm headed to the historic peace church conference as the photographer/writer. god i love freelance work.

the first wine and cheese was a smashing success last evening. kudos to canada for continuing the tradition. i danced with no less than ONE robin sexy wenger, drank no more than 3 cups of wine and ate at least half my body weight in sage cheese. stop in tuesday evenings beginning at party time. or just send your spirit our way and we'll think of you.
posted by joel @ 8:48 AM

dagnabbit
well dern me to horse pieces, i'm gonna be in trexlertown oct. 1 fer the biggest track bike swap meet this side of here. iffin i can find a way to get there that is... darn...
...lehigh valley velodrome is north of philly
ima gonna score me the hottiest hottster bike-cycle ever. yesssss.
posted by kate @ 9:45 PM

Hmm... Katie, normally I'm pretty stoked for concerts, but the problem here is that they're opening for that babysitter-song-lady. So it would cost a lot and they'd just be the opener. Alternatively, if you want to catch the Decemberists or New Model Army, both of them are playing on the 2nd at the 930 and the Black Cat respectively. New Model Army is pretty cool mid-eighties punk from Britain, if you care.

On the subject of music, here's a question for Mike and Jesse: you guys ever listen to Xiu Xiu? I think you'd like them. They headlined a show at the Warehouse that Celeste and I went to last Wednesday. We went to see Nedelle who was opening. (The difference between this and the Girlyman show was that I was kind of interested in Xiu Xiu and the cover was only $8.)

And more on music: isn't it really interesting what people play in their cars if you listen to it all afternoon? I mean, I expect go-go and bad rap, but then all of a sudden someone is playing Frank Sinatra or "Zombie." And the other day I heard someone playing a track from Blue Lines. Wild.

Also, got called on today in Race, Racism, and the Law. Butler likes to nail people in that class, mostly by getting them to commit the positions they feel like they should hold (eg. race tells you nothing about people's character) and then pointing out that such a position doesn't correspond with reality (eg. the next assigned reading, which details how people from different races allocate their time in different ways). I was proud of how I held up, probably because I have a clear sense of what race and racism mean, something most folks in the class seem to lack. Not to toot my own horn, or anything.

But getting called on did give me a headache. I hardly ever get headaches.
posted by weiss @ 9:32 PM

Kayne West departs from his script
Mesmerising footage of Kayne West ignoring the teleprompter during an NBC fundraiser for Katrina victims and saying what a lot of African Americans must be thinking and feeling:

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/002346.html

Bonus: Watching Mike Myers squirm beside him.
posted by Unknown @ 1:26 PM

Chinatown bus
Regarding NY <-> DC bus choices, the Chinatown is almost always tops. It's convenient, cheap, as has cool-ethnic association.

Yesterday it got a new title.

MOST ADVENTUREFUL!!!!

I don't want to disrespect you with a narrative filled with excessive detail. So I'll sum it up in haiku

China bus is full
Irate Washingtonians
Dumb guy holds the door

His girl calls the cops
"If I don't go, no one goes"
He fights the driver

7 cops arrive
A blocked in car blares his horn
Owner enters scene

"no place to sleep here"
"we have jobs in the morning"
Quiet, I observe

The owner relents
Caravan on the H line
10:30 bus will come

2 hours on the street
East broadway in chinatown
Home by 4 a.m.
posted by meg @ 6:32 PM

on a different note...

Landor eats United Nations.
Just wanted to beat Bolton to it.

For those of you not following the UN reform agenda, which is suppose to culminate at the General Assembly summit in two weeks, Bolton has essentially run amuck (it's not clear if there's approval from the White House, but there's not any disapproval, so...). He is arguing that the UN delete the phrase "Millennium Development Goals" from the draft resolution, which all heads of state will have to vote on at the summit. They want to substitute "agreed upon international development goals", which essentially lessens the specificity and the subsequent requirements for developed countries to contribute 0.7% of their Gross National Income as international aid (known as Official Development Assistance, ODA). Everyone knows the US won't meet this even if they sign and despite the fact that the Bush administration has signed these specific goals before, it makes even less sense to renege now. What it does do, is allow a bunch of asshole countries to essentially tear the document to shreads by gutting any other stringent requirements on human rights, combating terrorism, etc. To sum up, the US/Bolton strategy is just incredibly counterproductive and highly effective at pissing people off.
posted by Landon @ 9:57 AM

Iraq or Louisiana?
Saddest game ever: guess the dateline for each of the following headlines and quotes.

 "We created a power vacuum and they filled it [...] Now it's a fight"

 "We're going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control."

 Gunmen abducted three contractors after they left the air base.

 The contractors came under fire from a group of armed thugs and police officers shot back, killing at least five of them.

 "We're going to have to go house-to-house in this city. We're going to have to check every single place to find people."

 Most of those arrested were found during house-to-house searches of the quarter overlooking the port.

 18-Year-Old Steals Bus; Drives Strangers to Safety.

 19-Year-Old Dives Off Bridge; Drags Strangers to Safety.

 A high-ranking Army official who publicly criticized the Pentagon's decision to award Halliburton Co. a no-bid contract has been demoted.

 The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities.
posted by sasha @ 2:27 PM

Worst news ever - Updated

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist Dies

Rehnquist left Supreme Court with conservative legacy

Bush given rare opportunity to name chief justice

Bush Nominates Roberts as Chief Justice

posted by sasha @ 2:27 AM

Okay, I do want to say this for Katrina: high gas prices clear the road for the important vehicles, to wit, motorcycles and bicycles. I hope gas prices stay at $3 a gallon or higher forever. As do some cool French people.
posted by weiss @ 12:24 PM

Bush takes strong stand against starving, abandoned poor people
Landon, I couldn't find the transcript of the Bush speech you mentioned, but the Guardian this morning was had the following quote:

Mr Bush made no distinction between those looters and the criminals stealing electronic goods.

"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting, or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving," Mr Bush told ABC television. "If people need water and food, we're going to do everything we can to get them water and food. But it's very important for the citizens to take personal responsibility and assume kind of a civic sense of responsibility."

That's right ladies and gentleman, If there's a grocery store with food going to waste on the shelves, let it rot. Better to starve than to defy Mr. Bush's call to civic responsibility. Then again, Bush never has been too strong on gray areas.

Fortunately, starving, isolated people aren't too likely to listen to Bush or even have access to a telivision. But the media are certainly paying attention to them. And if their coverage so far is any indication, looting could become an inflammatory issue quite soon. Check out this photo collage:



Snopes.com has an in depth discussion of the controversy. As Weiss points out, we shouldn't be surprised by blatant bias against poor. But it is incidents like this that make the underlying racism and hypocrisy a bit more visible. Check out Looters: Hunting for the only food there is over at blogcritics for a more in-depth discussion.

Seems like this could be the first stirrings of controversy to come. As pockets of survivors isolated by flood waters continue to scavenge for food wherever they can find it, will the media continue to condemn them as looters and vandals from their helicopters above?

P.S. Check out the letters to the editor about Katrina in today's Guardian.
posted by Unknown @ 3:44 AM

Hurray house meeting! Things are getting a move on.

Also, why are so many people at school acting so shocked that the government either didn't do more to prevent the New Orleans disaster or isn't doing more to take care of the folks suffering as a result? After all, the people suffering are poor and mostly black. And destroyed cities are great for the government. It's a perfect excuse to funnel working families' tax dollars into no-bid rebuilding contracts.

Also, Katie wins my prize for the funniest blog post of the week, or maybe even the past few weeks.
posted by weiss @ 10:37 PM

Good BBC article on the war
Iraq: Another Vietnam for US?


Tim, I haven't been watching the news here, especially any dumb Fux News. Supposedly, and I didn't see this either, Bush gave one of his worst speeches last night, which was awful enough to warrant an entire NYT editorial this morning criticising how bad it was.
posted by Landon @ 11:49 AM

Bush cut funding for hurrican prevention
The Guardian this morning reported that Cuts in spending to raise levees blamed on cost of war in Iraq. Apparently Bush only allocated a sixth of the money requested for levee repair, diverting the rest to Homeland Security and anti-terrorism. The story goes on to point out that the aforementioned department apparently had no organised evacuation plan for New Orleans even though dealing with Natural Disasters falls under their job description. You'd think having a solid multi-use plan for terrorism or otherwise would be a foundational thing. But you'd be wrong. Is this angle being covered in the U.S? I'd really be interested to see how Fox News is spinning it. It's hard to pass the blame on to Clinton for this one.

Also interesting to note that the evacuation plan that was used assumed that everyone had access to a private car. Hard to blame the poor folks for looting stuff after they'd been completely abandoned by the authorities.
posted by Unknown @ 2:40 AM