the onion, amid a SXSW 2004 review
The Onion A.V. Club |
Feature | March 24, 2004: "March 17, 11:26 p.m.
Excellent New York City comedian Eugene Mirman is no stranger to opening for rock bands, but his current stint touring with Modest Mouse can't have prepared him for the challenge of telling jokes on stage at SXSW. It's hard enough to warm up drunken rock fans without the benefit of music; doing so when said drunken rock fans are loudly networking and catching up on old times qualifies Mirman for some sort of combat medal. Note to the guy yelling 'David Cross!' at Eugene Mirman: David Cross would hate you."
from the onion's What is Funny? series
The Onion A.V. Club |
Say Something Funny | March 24, 2004: "I am always uncomfortable when men I do not know comment on physical attributes of women both of us do not know. For example, just the other day, I was in an elevator with two strangers. One woman. One man. The woman arrived at her destination. Doors open. Doors shut, leaving me and the gentleman. He turns to me and says, 'Did you see those tits? Looks like she shoved a roll of paper towels up there.' I was tempted to play along with it and say, 'More like a yoga mat.' Or maybe add to the paper-towel reference with, 'Man I would like to dry off with her boobs. The Brawny guy wishes he had a chest like that, I bet.' And then we would both high-five until he got off the elevator and went to work at whatever mutual-fund company he worked for. I assume that a guy like that is looking for a bonding moment between two men, so maybe it will lead to us exchanging business cards. Or maybe that's the way the NRA started. I don't know. Instead, I just looked at my shoes and mumbled to myself so he could hear, 'Girls are pretty awesome.' He glanced at me. No, he just plain stared at me. Then I said, 'You should see my mother's boobs.' This confused him, and he got to his floor and exited the elevator. I thought about high-fiving myself, but instead just mumbled, 'Did you see that ass?' Then I high-fived myself."
giant cool tv search
This is definitely the TV I want. Now where can I find it stateside?
Currys Sale - LG 20" Designer TV CE20J3BX :: Pricelook :: UK shops directory
turns out Boston's not that far from Silicon Valley after all...
that was my giant conclusion in commenting on Julie Leung's blog. Why can't technology have a social value? No, I must rephrase b/c I believe technology's chief value is social. Why can't technology's social value be recognized and applauded? In my world, the highest form of praise is recognition by academia. Now that this conference at Harvard Law is wholly ignoring all things social, I'm so dissed. Worse dissed than when that K School rejected
me (I know what you're thinking, maybe it's b/c I saw things like worse dissed. And it was Policy, not Law).
No wonder this country can't get girls to go into technology. The general premise of the the field is so BORING, that only a mind-numbed boy could find interest in the field. OK, that was cheap and shallow. Did I mention I'm dissed? Anyway, here's what Julie said that was right on point for the social value of blogs:
Seedlings & Sprouts: Saving my sanity: "I think I'd be insane without the Internet at this stage of life. Some days, especially if the children are ill, the only people I see face-to-face are other Leungs: three little ones and Ted. I don't know how I would survive without the social and emotional support I receive through my on-line community.
Email has become invaluable to me. The ability to communicate with friends far away sustained me through our difficult move and transition to island life. I don't use the phone much. Real-time conversation is complicated by my three little children. But the convenience of email fits well into these busy years. My friends and I can read and write to each other at whatever hour we choose, typing in moments caught here and there, between doing dishes and burping babies. Email is easier than picking up the phone, or getting dressed and out the door. Even though many of my friends are distant, we can write and keep connected. I probably spend at least an hour a day working on email.
I'm also learning to make new friends on-line. This year I've joined a few yahoo groups and I've started to get to know some other moms through these dialogues. Two local support groups for homeschoolers have been especially helpful.
Blogging has introduced me to many people. I started only months ago but already I feel I have friends - even though we've never met face-to-face. It's been fun to explore new social circles. Ted and I were able to make it to one Seattle Webloggers Meetup and I am looking forward to meeting more bloggers in flesh and blood. I find that blogging provides daily support but personal email is, at this point for me, more intense and effective; perhaps explained by the length of time I've invested in my email friends as compared to blogging."
New Way for Teenagers to See if They Bounce
Anna Bahney for the NYT gets two bonus points in the publishing of this article: 1) for finally recognizing what's been a crazy, fantastic urban sport for a few years now, and 2) for actually writing the word
balletically. How'd her editor let that get by? Maybe he thought it was more of this hip urban stuff he doesn't get anyway.
Seriously though, this makes me love youth. I hope Aidan's cool enough to do this. The other day we were walking on the UNM campus and a skate board flew by. I saw the lust in his eyes. At three, he already mastered his scooter. He'll need the board soon. The next step will be the realization that his body can go where the board can't.
New Way for Teenagers to See if They Bounce: "Leaping onto the steps' metal handrails, Ben scampered upward, grasped the ledge of the walkway above him with a hop and shinnied up the wall.
Parkour is a potent temptation for suburban teenagers: it's cheap and a little risky, and it requires an occasional brush with authority. Just as a passer-by stopped to ask what the boys were doing, a park ranger interrupted.
'Whatever you call it,' she said, 'you can't practice it here.'
With neither retort nor apology, the clans picked up their jackets and moved on, undeterred, hurdling waist-high cement blockades on their way to the next destination."
brains are cool
Today's NYT has a great article on Dr. Gerald Edelman, a neuroscientiest and Nobel Laureate. His views on the nature of science funding alone are ground breaking, but wait until you read about what he sees as the true nature of brain organization. I love it for its non-linear focus. I've often thought if most cultures of the world are not linear thinkers, surely the brain and/or body doesn't behave by the linear logic western medicine assumes.
The Brain? It's a Jungle in There: "But Dr. Edelman sees the Darwinian idea and its biological working out as essential aspects of his theory and necessarily difficult. The brain will always have more going on than seems necessary, more randomness and variation than any humanly designed system. There is enormous redundancy (which Dr. Edelman refers to as "degeneracy") in the brain's functioning, giving it remarkable resilience and evolutionary possibilities. No brain event happens the same way twice. Even memory is always a variant, he says — a re-creation, never a repetition.
Using such ideas, Dr. Edelman and his colleagues have been creating primitive Darwinian neural universes: robots that "learn" to avoid objects and pick up others, not because of a preset program of rules, but because of how various "neuronal groups and paths" are strengthened by experience — mirroring, perhaps, the way an infant might gradually learn to grasp objects or distinguish among them.
Of course, it's a long way between this and even simple consciousness, but in Dr. Edelman's view, similar principles are at work. What, for example, does it take to recognize an object? Stimulations spurred by the color red and others by the shape sphere must be coordinated before a red ball is recognized. But such coordination doesn't require a manager. These first stimulations may trigger other stimulations that associate the earlier ones with one another; in turn, these groups of neurons become elements in ever more intricate mappings. Patterns evolve and interact in a dizzying dynamic. The brain is not a logically structured organ; these processes of connection resemble the processes of metaphor more than those of logic. Eventually, consciousness is a consequence of these neural mappings....
"These theories are part of what Dr. Edelman hopes will become "sciences of recognition," studying how biological processes recognize other biological processes. It is an enterprise, he argues, that spurs amazement, because if it succeeds, it will show that out of accident and diversity, something as miraculous as human consciousness can be born. But this vision can also spur discomfort, because it implies that there is no supervising soul or self — nobody is standing behind the curtain. This, for Dr. Edelman, is Darwin's final burden."
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Things get worse with Coke
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Things get worse with Coke: "First, Coca-Cola's new brand of 'pure' bottled water, Dasani, was revealed earlier this month to be tap water taken from the mains. Then it emerged that what the firm described as its 'highly sophisticated purification process', based on Nasa spacecraft technology, was in fact reverse osmosis used in many modest domestic water purification units.
Yesterday, just when executives in charge of a �7m marketing push for the product must have felt it could get no worse, it did precisely that.
The entire UK supply of Dasani was pulled off the shelves because it has been contaminated with bromate, a cancer-causing chemical..."
Yahoo! News - Fructose Sweetener Linked to Obesity Rise
Yahoo! News - Fructose Sweetener Linked to Obesity Rise: "The debate over high-fructose sweeteners centers on how the body processes sugar. Unlike glucose, a major component in table sugar, fructose doesn't trigger responses in hormones that regulate energy use and appetite. That means fructose is more likely to be converted into fat, the researchers said.
The sweeteners are also cheaper to produce and use in food manufacturing than cane and beet sugars, the study noted."
(this last line's misleading, it's only cheaper b/c the gov. subsidizes corn production)
house invaders
Turns out burglars weren't the only invaders our little house saw last week. The ants and spiders came, too!
A few times a year in Houston, something about the weather or seasons clicks and bugs suddenly are everywhere you look inside your home. We've been through this enough times, and have discussed this with enough neighbors, to know time alone--not pesticides--will alleviate this situation.
But bugs and burglars have their good sides, too. The ants encourage us all to put the dishes right into the dishwasher, or else that dish will be swarmed in an hour as the little ants signal their buddies to crawl up to the counter for the big feast. I keep the floors swept of baby crumbs so that Ellie doesn't go probing a black ball, only to have it explode in tiny ants onto her skin. Btw, we've discovered a circle of duck tape wrapped around your hand, sticky-side-out is the best way to clean a swarm. The burglars urged me into a strange variant of the spring cleaning bug. I found myself spending my forty-five minutes of Ellie's nap-time scouring the fridge yesterday. It's so beautiful!
During our drive home from El Paso, I went over things I was worried were stolen. I realized I'd made a list of the objects in my home I should keep, and everything else I should get rid of. But will I? When we arrived, I was a little disappointed to see certain objects still here: the nordic track, John's scooter, my dishes. Our friend, Neal, told us about his new favorite program, which forces people to get rid of half or three quarters of the stuff cluttering their lives. I guess I'd hoped the burglary would be kind of like that for us. Since it wasn't, and since I've recognized all this, I'm on a mission to reduce crap. I want simplicity!
are all girls catty some of the time?
Or, are some girls just catty all the time?
Getting into social situations with catty girls may just be my freudian old brain issue, because it sure seems like it keeps coming up as a big conflict in my life. Then, I'm left with that everyone but me is crazy corollary: that it's not me, it's them. And it does seem that every woman (save a few priceless encounters) can't resist jockeying for position in conversation, or shooting darts veiled by wit at dinner parties. It makes me feel so tired.
This is clearly the negative side to anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's research conclusion that women's social actions are a remnant of primitive life, where a woman's social standing determined her children's survival in the group. We're all trying to hard because our primitive brain's demand it. We must get lovely quick doses of brain drugs in reward for social triumphs, just as men's brains reward them for displays of brawn.
But men have progressed as a gender (for the most part) beyond walking around beating each other up. They seem to be able to exist in social environments with no clear alpha. Why can't we women put away the medula oblongata, ourselves? Maybe these men have successful taught their brains that monetary acquisition rather than physical victory determines their children's success? We don't exactly "teach" our old brain things. A newly expressed behavior (in this case, a trend toward social interaction among otherwise physically overbearing men) must make surviving so advantageous that the genes that set the conditions for that behavior are spread so much more that they infiltrate the population. On one hand, this seems unlikely because wealth is not an indicator of big families these days, rather the inverse. But on the other, I'm considering wealth on modern American terms. Wealth in global terms, over the course of the last four or so centuries certainly has a lower bar. If you can count employable in any labor field as wealth, and overbearing brawn makes one unemployable (not to mention unmarriable), I can actually see those genes losing out. So maybe men have evolved!
In Hrdy's research, she points to the social structure of chimp groups, such as the one inhabited by Jane Goodall's famous "F" family. Flo was able to dominate the other women with social prowess, and achieved an amazing triumph of dynasty by cleverly positioning her daughter, Fifi, as her successor. Therefore, first Flo's children, and then Fifi's were fed most and groomed most by the other chimps, and watched after when the mom was acquiring food. Food, love, and protection here are the determiners for a baby chimp's thriving. (Two of Flo's sons also endured brief reigns as male alpha, but out of brute might. She probably also spread her genetically social-developed code here, because the extra love and care made her sons big and healthy enough to dominate--socially and sexually.)
Hrdy herself observed Maquaques, and compared her research to the general primate field of knowledge to extrapolate that social ambition must be tied to nurturing instincts in females. Can I then further extrapolate that I'm sensing so very much cattiness in my life right now because I'm over sensitive to it as an uber-nurturing mama? Or even that my mostly parent-filled social group is a snakeden of positioning efforts? Now that I consider it all, even the women I have seen this in who aren't moms are in the baby-bug phase, which would be one's body building up the hormones and nurturing desires necessary for a baby's survival. They too must be biologically driven to be catty.
it's funny to hear your mom be funny
here she is going off on the all too chipper discussion over at drweil.com re. menopause:
Pastor Ellen's blog: Yes, I Am...A Liberal Evangelical: "...My clothes, mattress, and car upholstery are all salt-stained from the massive streams of sweat that have poured from my body since the hot flashes and night sweats kicked in.
My husband installed a remote control for the fan so he doesn't have to get up 30 times a day to turn it off and on depending on the hormonal whims of my endocrine system.
Estrogen, yes? Estrogen, no? Oh my gosh, if a man had to endure this, we'd have all the drugs the pharmaceutical industry could throw at us (albeit some really bad TV commercials to tout them)!
And what about that monthly visit from my grandmother? I endured that little inconvenience for 35 years along with all the other girls, believing that the best thing about it was that it got me out of P.E. class now and again.
But now that my little friend isn't visiting so often, I am curiously sad. Yes, she was a messy guest...just like my teenagers. But I missed them when they left, too!
Yeah, yeah, I know Dr. W says we'll feel much better about the whole thing if we exercise, eat well, get plenty of rest, and supplement with B12 & soy....but every now and again it's good therapy to just tell it like it is!
We have wrinkles and our breasts aren't perky. We look in the mirror and see not only our mothers, but our grandmothers! We value our bran and prunes on a roadtrip more than our bikinis and sunglasses..."
listening to the congressional testimonies
It occurred to me this morning--not for the first time--that Madeline Albright should be president. Now that Arnold's reopened that old citizenship box, I really think she should do it. If Kerry is looking for a good, strong VP, she's his gal, and it could position her well for a presidential bid, whether or not they win. Plus, I really want a she-dem nomination before a she-republican so if anyone can pull the mom vote for the sake of feminine unity, it's the dems. I actually heard a republican friend say he hoped Condie Rice would run at least as a VP in upcoming years, and it put the fear of God into me.
Of course, none of this is the point of the testimonies. Just what is the point continues to elude me. I'm left to assume it's to create a diverse set of soundbites to chose from for the upcoming season of political ads. Dr. Rice's absense alone prohibits it from being a clear evaluation of the contributing factors for 9/11 it proclaims. Madeline speaking so close to Powell refreshed my memory on just how terrible it was when the Bush White House appointed an entire administration out of the military. Between the two testimonies, the clearest difference I could hear was the "General" dropping by Colin compared to Albright's diverse cast of supporters. I really want to read her book, btw. I've always considered her a hero of sorts since she was a woman who raised children (for at least some years as a single mom) while beginning her career, and still achieved such esteemed positions.
Colin Powell distinguished himself from the rest of the Bush White House in a significant way this morning. His analogies for the clear dichotomy of white hats vs. black hats in that simplistic world order pulled from Greek mythology instead of the usual namestays from the Judeo-Christian religions. For example, where a true Bush insider would have stayed on the anti-Christian ideological talking points, Colin used the Greek god Hydra to introduce terrorism in his monologue. He always has been the shining star in that cabinet. *gag me!*
we're home!
Our first break-in occurred while we were in El Paso for Thanksgiving. The ironic thing at the time was that we hadn't even intended to leave town. But I miscarried our sweet Grace, and just wanted to be away from work and life that at about 7 p.m. on the Tuesday before T-day, 2002, I told John I wanted to go and he proceeded to load the car within an hour and we left. Today's long drive from El Paso to Houston, knowing we would be returning to a broken-into house, was reminiscent of that trip two and a half years ago. I remembered that then I threw up the whole way. I've been pregnant enough times on that drive though that all the throw-up along I-10 memories kind of congeal.
The funny thing is we never felt all the feelings people say you feel about a break-in. We never felt violated. I remember a weaker moment in which I hoped the thieves tripped over a cord that everyone trips over here. But other than that, we just thought it was a crappy, but random thing. I've always wondered if we experienced it that way because we were too busy grieving Grace to think of our things, but now I know we just aren't programmed that way. This time, too, no sense of violation. I'm annoyed, because I have a feeling I know who it was--some neighbors whose house seems to have turned into a prostitution ring all of a sudden. I'm pretty worried our insurance will drop us now that we've been broken into twice. But tonight, walking into the house, it still felt like my home, just a little banged up.
We felt the first break-in freed us from a dependence upon things. Already anti-materialistic in theory, we were mandated into the ideology when our most precious materials were taken. The promise ring my bio-dad gave my mom when they were sixteen, the promise ring John gave me when we were eighteen. My class ring, and the little turquoise necklace my mom gave me that she herself bought on the Santa Fe plaza as a teenager. Those will never be replaced. But aside from that, we happily replaced our stuff with the insurance money. We found out we had the right kind of home insurance just by luck. There are two kinds, replacement value and full cost replacement. You want the latter.
Tonight, I put my babies to bed, and lit a sage stick and went through a purifying run of the house more elaborately than I even knew how to do. But it was just enough ceremony to give me my feeling of a safe and secure home. I asked God to clean my house. Of course, in the morning, I have to really clean my house! Those jerks stepped on my prettiest, softest white sheets with muddy shoes! I think they're ruined. At least they left the duvet, the last guys took it!
farewell, sweet vacation
Tonight is the last of the blissful vacation, including the end of ignorance of the condition of my broken-into home back in Houston and the end of the lovely carseat interment for my children. Tomorrow night we'll be in Houston, dealing with reality. Just as bloggers have the blogosphere and the RW, vacationers have to deal with the RW, too.
My relatives always ask us why we don't just move back to New Mexico since we love it so very much. And we do love it, I think it's among the four or five amazing places in the world that truly renew one's spirit by virtue of physical beauty and unknown forces of nature--including Nepal, Cinque Terra in Italy, and the Paraquay. They always say that John could work at Los Alamos National Labs, and we say but he works for NASA! They don't get it. In New Mexico, NASA is a far away institution that may or may not matter, but still pales in comparison to living in New Mexico. They don't think of work in terms of peaceful vs. military funding, but rather as enough work to pay the bills and buy a little beer. For us, work is the biggest expression of one's ideals outside family.
We tell ourselves that this state is so amazing, we would only think about being there if we lived there. We wouldn't care about saving the world anymore. I find this to be true with our most recent dealings with
Greater World. It's far better for us to use New Mexico medicinally, treating our burn-out and homesickness, and continue our lives' endeavor. It's a strange brand of martyrdom, but it works for our little family.
my little contribution to BloggerCon II
The organizers of BloggerCon II
published the schedule for day one of the conference and then
invited commentary on the blank spaces. You know about my stump, so I had to contribute to the discussion. Now that I think about it, they neglected blogging in the classroom, too. Anyway, here's my part:
I've felt the parameters of this conference really neglect two critical uses of blogs: social commentary and social outlet. Together these two areas represent a general lack of attention to the social sciences that I tend to be sensitive to as an anthropologist.
Perhaps a desire to make blogs matter in the RW is behind our lack of recognition as bloggers of social commentary. But what is a blog if not a mirror of the world right now alongside a little witty commentary and personal affectation? Social critique is a little highbrow for the term, but is the most apt term I've found for blogs since reading an anthropology text from the early 90s titled Ethnography as Social Critique. It discusses the value of a society mirroring itself and attempting to apply the reflective lense to enough of a degree that we might learn something about who we are and where we're heading.
Maybe because the planners are lucky enough to be presented with plenty of RW social outlets every day, they don't realize the amazing lifeline blogs represent to those of us that don't get the opportunity every day to interact with others in the RW. This is personal because I'm a work-at-home mom, for others (stay-at-home moms, other work-at-homers for various causes, medical shut-ins--mental or physical) the isolation is just as painful, and blogging is just as helpful. Women represent the majority of bloggers, and mom-blogs are clearly a contributing cause. Ignoring this valuable social function of blogs is a clear disservice.
happy bloggerversary to me!
I was so happy to be blogging about my anniversary this morning that I forgot all about the other special event of today! A year ago, right here in Taos, I started my blog! I moved over here to Blogger in September, so there's a bit of a split in time. And I swore that I would finish transfering over the archive before this day came, but time does what it will.
I can't say how grateful I am for this little social development called blogging. One friend shared with me recently how blogging changed her life. She said she never would have had the courage to leave her abuser husband if it weren't for blogging and she probably would have been so desperate and alone that she would have committed suicide. I'm fortunate to not be facing such dire living conditions, but I will say that the isolation of being a modern work-at-home mom makes Feminest Mistique look like a nursery rhyme. If I watch one more soap opera or talk show to fill that desperate void, I think I'll scream!
Aside from rescuing my sanity, blogging has done wonders for my writing. I think it clears the pipes. Like drano, only not all toxic. Like a coat hanger. Since beginning my blog(s), my writing in every genre has prolifferated. I feel so fluid with my thought-to-keyboard connection.
I have to go before I can fully appreciate this day, but know how happy I am for today!
Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
Happy day, indeed. This morning the bright, fresh sunlight shed in the windows and solar panels that are the south-facing wall of our Earthship and woke the whole family up to greet the dawn. Those beautiful rays were so welcome that I wasn't even groggy from that early hour, which I haven't seen since we stayed in the Harris Earthship!
John leaned over Ellie and kissed me on the cheek and said happy anniversary. What a dear. On this day, nine years ago, we had our first date. We were both Freshmen in college. Like this year, UTEP had a great basketball team and I shared my post-season tickets with him. Afterward, we went to Hudson's on Mesa in El Paso and talked for hours. I remember not being able to stop smiling as I looked across the table.
So today, we begin our tenth year! I can't wait! We've had nine fantastic, adventure-filled years. These years have seen the highest joys and the lowest sorrows of my life. My two beautiful children Aidan and Ella and my sweet Grace who I miscarried come first to my mind. Day before yesterday we got a call informing us that our house had been broken into back at home. I didn't even care about the stuff, I was just upset that it was disturbing my
extraordinary time here. We had someone board it up, and we're carrying on with this celebration of our years together.
Last night Greg came over for dinner, what a treat! My cousin is a doctoral student in Physics at UT Austin and he's here for spring break. For just the evening, we all felt like we never left New Mexico and we were just enjoying the family and companionship that is normal life here.
Today, we're off to Santa Fe to visit one of the kids' three sets of grandparents, my bio dad and step-mom. They're planning to babysit so John and I can go out tonight. I bought the sexiest shirt yesterday here in Taos, and am looking forward to wearing it!
Wherever you are tonight, lift your green beer for our tenth year! Happy St. Patty's Day!
live from Taos!
We made it. Last night we topped the long windy highway through Embudo canyon just as the sun was singing the finale of a haleluia chorus in the sky. It was more beautiful than anything I've ever seen in my life. Snow was falling from whispy clouds that gathered around Taos Mountain, and Wheeler Peak behind it. As the sun hit the clouds, they looked on fire with little sparks falling toward the mountains. For many of the native cultures that live around this area, the Gods live on the mountain peaks, and last night as I watched the sky dance in life around me, I was certain they were right.
John and I could feel a pull as we got closer. Fourteen hours never felt so long. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE driving in the car. Sometimes we joke to people who scoff at traveling with kids that we would take the carseats in the house at the end of the trips because we miss their magic. Our kids have a perfect "carseat" relationship. As long as they're out of arm's reach (for too rough play, hitting, or pulling), they share wonderfully, entertain eachother endlessly.
We've also noticed that raising chidren here is so much easier. They're so content to play. And without the noises of the city to fill their ears, within an hour of our arrival, they're always so much quieter, too.
We're staying in the Dobson House, a veritable Historic Landmark among the local sustainable crowd, as it was the first Earthship Mike Reynolds built in Taos. It has that peaceful serentiy that the Harris House did (the Hut down in the rock querry did not). I guess because it was so early in the designs, which have evolved since, there is no catchwater and I miss that. It made a nice safe place for the kids to play while I sat inside and wrote away on the laptop.
I'm writing from inside the Toas Bagle shop, the one with the amazingly painted walls. Quotes and mythical images decorate the walls. I want to paint my living room this way. Above the counter, in huge words, hangs the center of it all: One cannot step twice into the same river.
Indeed.
linkstock!
Gwen always says linkelodion, and that's cool, but I don't want to steal without asking. Anyway, at long last we found lodging for Taos. So many of the people we talked to were so helpful that I wanted to do a link montage of the effort.
First of all, the reason it was so hard is that our standby--the Earthship rentals owned by
Solar Survival--was booked through April. If you want to stay there, talk to Rebecca for reservations and please tell her Annie Feighery recommended it so maybe we could get a discount ourselves. There are three other Earthships we came across for rent: the Harris Earthship at Greater World (505-770-7790), the Dobson House, and the Sun Catcher (505-758-8745).
Having given up on finding an earthship, I delved into other options. One of the funnest I found was
a luxury treehouse located on the banks of the Rio Grande, just at the bottom of the Mesa you ascend to arrive in the beautiful Taos highland valley.
The Goetz family keeps up an historic (built in 1830) ranch-style home in Ranchos de Taos. They also have a small guesthouse that is fully wheelchair accessible.
Juddith Pepper keeps what sounds like a charming little Adobe casita in town. It's very affordable, and Juddith promisses to get photos taken soon so people who are site-dependent like me can see it before renting.
Taos artist
Ann Cole rents out a beautiful house just outside of town.
Spirit of the Hawk is a pretty, small A-Frame in Valdez, our favorite village in the valley.
Finally, had we desired a bed and breakfast instead of a rental home, I'm sure we would have stayed here. It's a B&B dedicated to renewing writers. In fact, you can apply for a fellowship where your stay for a month is covered, and they bring a local publisher to meet with you. I'm going to try to visit the place this time so I know if I want to stay there sometime in the future. My mom has visions of us doing a mother/daughter writers' weekend or week there sometime.
Our criteria for a good place to stay is dependent on kitchen, view, price, and friendliness toward children.
I can't leave out my new Writers' Group buddy...
Gwen invited me to her writers' group last month and I eagerly accepted. I've linked to
Gwen's blog forever. Actually, it should be diary, as Gwen and I mutually decided last night that women tend to diary or journal while men need to call it something cooler. Gwen's site has been up for nine years and no one considers her one of the big 25 or whatever original bloggers. Hence, the whole entity of blogging emerged from a genre women not only invented nearly four hundred years ago (Anne Bradstreet, Mary White Rowlandson), but already had down perfectly well, and yet men felt just wasn't gruff enough so they had to call it something cool.
Anyway, another member of our group has a website and her distinct style certainly fits my mood tonight. Bloggers, meet
Sister Beverly! She's an x-rated stand-up commedienne, and she's available for engagement world-wide, so call her up!
Belle de Jour's book deal
Jeez. Does everyone but me really have a book deal?!
Belle de Jour, aka, Diary of a London Callgirl: "Yes, there is a book deal. To have something worthwhile for the publisher I may write a bit less here. Not a hiatus - rather an attempt to manage writing time between the important chores of depilation and maintaining the dimensions of my bottom."
TwiddlyBits' Sex Blog
I'm in the mood to blog sex. That's right, this is your NC-17 warning. Eat your heart out Michael Powell.
What happened to
Dr. Menlo? Where are the pretty pictures when I want them!
Our girl, Twiddly, is reviewing an e-novel out of the erotica-slash-history genre. Hmmm.
TwiddlyBits' Sex Blog: "The book is about Therese von Falberg, Mother Superior of the Sisters of Montebello, of the Order of St. Mary Magdalene. Set 'somewhere in central Europe' in the 1940s, a crisis arises when the Imperial Army comes to the castle of Montebello and wants 'girls' for their Officers Club. Therese is given a choice - either the Army conscripts women from the village, or she & some of the other nuns can 'volunteer' to be the officers' concubines.
Wow, talk about breaking some taboos, eh?
I found the story to be engaging, the characters well-rounded and the dialogue to be more or less believeable. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was honest humor in these pages as well as sex scenes that are just the right touch of spice that I enjoy. It was fascinating to view these experiences from the eyes of Therese and the other nuns.
I especially enjoyed the character of Captain Prince Franz Mefist, the Adjutant of the Army brigade that occupies the castle. It is he who gives Therese the ultimatum and he who supervises the nuns' training as the officers' 'girls'. He is aristocratic with an air of privilege that brooks no compromise, yet is kind and sympathetic to their plight, even as he gives them no room to refuse.
As the nuns enter their new profession, they learn several things - there are many wonderful scenes involving their 'enlightenment', but I won't spoil the fun by divulging everything here."
this is interesting
The World Star Gazette is a new newspaper, that just reports news from blogs. Hmmm. Kind of like Technorati, but with columns.
so, did you vote today?
Let's start with a history lesson. On September 11, 2001 I woke up before Aidan, then an 8-month-old baby, which was rare. If I got up, I'd wake him up, so I decided to hit the remote and watch the morning show from bed for a few minutes before the day's crazy schedule began. I turned on the TV to see Matt Lauer discussing the smoke plume coming out of one of the World Trade Center building. I watched live as a plane flew into the other, and then as the two buildings crashed to the ground. I remember the phrase that kept pounding into my mind as I watched: people are dying right now. I'm watching hundreds, if not thousands of people die.
Right now.
Since that day, I've had the same thought going through my head non-stop. Hundreds and thousands of people are dying. Right now. Last month saw the death toll for innocent men, women, and children in Iraq pass the ten thousand mark. That doesn't include soldiers who died defending that country, it's just bystanders. Similarly, bystanders killed by the predominantly American military forces in Afghanistan are more difficult to compute because of the country's nebulous government and terrain, but the number is easily twice that. So I think it's a safe estimate to say that the innocent bystanders killed in these two military actions now number over thirty thousand people. That's a ten to one ratio for the number of people killed in America on September 11. And whether or not it's merited, most Americans believe we're in Iraq as a response to that horrific day. When will it be enough for our government's leaders? If we were practicing an eye for an eye, that standard long ago passed. If we're enforcing some measure of justice, why don't we open our judicial system or at least the World Court's to examine the process? If there is yet another measure for defeat we're working toward, an exit-strategy, if you will, in military terms, then what is it?
Back in June of 2002, Howard Dean stepped forward as the first person to say I want to beat George Bush in the 2004 election, and as president, my first act will be to clean up this mess of a war with effectively the entire Middle East. Howard Dean was the first political candidate to oppose the administration's increasingly clear plan to attack Iraq. So, in short, I began supporting Howard Dean because I knew he wasn't in it to tow the line for the Bush administration agenda, an agenda I felt then, and continue to feel, indiscriminately kills people purely for financial gain.
I have no interest in John Kerry because before Howard Dean made having a spine popular again in D.C., Kerry was a Bush yes man. He voted for the military actions against both Afghanistand and Iraq. One interesting little occurrence might change my position. This past weekend, New Mexico's beloved Bill Richardson emerged as a possible VP candidate for Kerry. Like Dean, Bill was never a Bush yes man. In fact, as Clinton's Secretary of Energy, Bill knows the politics of the Middle East intimately, and still found staying out of war in our national security and energy interests. Because he's a Latino, I feel secure that he's a competent, critical thinker. One doesn't often grow up a minority by never questioning the dominant paradigm. As Kerry's VP, Bill could position himself as a strong frontrunner for eventual presidency. He would be an amazing president. And so I might just find myself supporting an administration for nine long years again, for the sake of the VP.
None of this, of course, motivated me to go to the polls today. I smirked this morning as I listened to the radio and realized this was even election Tuesday. The last time there was a presidential primary, I voted for a Republican! I voted for John McCain because I thought he was a better candidate for the already sinched Gore to go up against. I wonder how many voters voted this way for Kerry this time around.
Christopher Lydon Interviews... :
Christopher Lydon Interviews... :: "To celebrate Emerson's 200th birthday, I am gathering observations for a long public radio conversation on The American Plato and the 'God for Bloggers,' who Harold Bloom says is 'closer to us than ever.' Cornel West was high on my list, and Monday afternoon we stretched out in his office at Princeton. Emerson was the American Socrates, the American Hamlet and the American Isaiah, said West warming up. And a modern reading of Emerson keeps alive those prophetic, Shakespearean and Socratic dimensions in American life. "
martha, martha, martha
Liz of Mom & Pop Culture has a witty reaction to Martha's verdict. I have to say that I also found it a little too convenient that the one person to go down for corporate misdeeds is the world's most famous Working Woman and a notable contributor to the Democratic Party. Let's face it, for a religious-right Republican, she's pretty much the anti-christ.
MOM & Pop Culture: "The verdict is in, we've all heard it. Martha is being punished for her lies.
But I can't help but think that in this sexist, patriarchal society that Martha is being railroaded. Doesn't it seem like she is being punished for being a bitch, and for being an 'uppity woman'?..."
"...I'd like to see Martha bounce back from all of this. Suddenly, as the underdog, I like her. I will continue buying her products in Kmart and frankly if Kmart severs their ties with Martha Stewart, I would have little use for them. Besides Martha's products, their stuff is shitty. I will not buy Martha's magazine though, because I never had much use for that."
the library
(a segment from
my SprogBlog)
The Montrose Library program really fell apart, so now I'm in search of a new branch. Today was my first time to go to the Heights' Tuesday storytime, and I got swarmed by a few moms who seemed desperate for conversation. As one in particular talked to me, I thought to myself that this is how wide my eyes would be and how protruding my words would fall out if I didn't have blogs. Thank God for this little social outlet.
I've been discussing that the organizers of BloggerCon II didn't have any place in their conference for mom-blogs. It seems that, after being removed from functioning society in the real world, moms are being removed from it in the blogging world as well. How have we as a culture come to segregate childraising from other roles in our world so completely?
Even at the library, I've noticed an overwhelming majority of moms (and nannies) who are foreign. I can only guess that their cultural upbringing taught them to trust public institutional offerings, especially for rearing children, while our own has taught us that public programming is for poor people. But children were never meant to be raised in isolation, and the otherwise suburb-induced, garage-style of child raising that makes blogs so valuable for moms everywhere, must also be affecting our children.
Houston Public Library - what's new
Houston Public Library - what's new: "March 26-28 - 26th Annual Bargain Book Sale by the Friend of the Houston Public Library"
forget the hurricane kit, in Houston you need a toxic plant explosion kit
Click2Houston.com - News - Chemical Fire Burns At Pasadena Warehouse:
"Families are advised to have the following items in a shelter-in-place kit.
Two rolls of duct tape
Cloth and paper towels
Plastic sheets or trash bags
Flashlight and extra batteries
Battery-powered radio
Two gallons of water
Nonperishable foods
If your eyes, nose or throat become irritated, protect your breathing by covering your mouth with a damp cloth, take frequent shallow breaths and stay calm."
she-blogs
Back in the early days of blogging, it seemed the epicenter of the blogosphere was in the Silicon Valley. But, maybe because the dot-com'ers used the economic downturn as an excuse to go back to grad school, but probably because blogging perfectly captures the inter-disciplinary surge among the hoity-toitiest of academia, the epicenter is firmly located in Boston. And so it came to be that Harvard Law took to blogging like white on rice, white rice, that is, and
hosted a conference by and for bloggers (as opposed to vendors) last October to discuss everything blog-worthy. This April, they're hosting the sequel:
BloggerCon II.
Lisa Williams was kind enough to mention here in my comments that she'd save me a spot in the Women's Forum, I couldn't resist immediately accepting. Up until then, I thought the event was to be an exclusive thing to just the hoities, but I guess they mean for anyone who can to attend.
I already found a problem, though, with the agenda-setting process. The organizers laid out the application of blogs in our lives as the focus. So far so good. And then, they appointed the equivalent of a listing of college departments as the categories for the applications of blogs to fall into. These included technology, law, politics, and so on. I can understand a mindset so entrenched in academia that it seems the world falls into these schools, in fact, as a rejected applicant to Harvard Law's policy program myself, maybe I'm just jealous of their mindset! But what really disappointed me, is that they left out my department! Where's the social sciences? No anthropology? No sociology? Que pues, man!
Blogging is nothing if not a mirror. A tool for reflecting the popular culture's musings and responses. An ever shifting opinion poll, live and interactive. The microscope into the heart of any given cultural group. Sounds like the social sciences to me.
My personal application for blogging was also neglected. Blogging is also as a lifeline back to the world of the living for those who have been removed, the interacting adults that say sentences longer and more complex than my three-year-old's queries about where Mr. Wind lives. I read recently that the sling was arguably the most significant development in technology for the human race because it allowed women to tie on a baby, thus freeing their hands for food acquisition. The sling put women in the workforce! Suddenly the food supply was substantial enough to support the advancement of the race over their inter-species competitors. This, timed well with the perfection of the spear, was the missing link our species needed to get out of Africa and populate the world. Today, the computer, and especially blogging, is the sling for the modern woman. It allows me to join the workforce again, while still watching over my children. It enables me to survive the otherwise utter isolation our culture leaves women at this part of their lives by offering a little conversation here, a witty observation there. Without it, I would have long since been carried to the nut house! I still might have to be, don't get me wrong, but at least I'll take my laptop with me when I go.
This is really an issue unique to women, and I think it's the biggest reason there are more women bloggers online than men, as well as the biggest reason women bloggers are so under-recognized amongst the bloggeratti (whose ranks have never been shared with a mom-blog that I know of). Considering Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's research which persuasively argues that the desire for social interaction is intricately linked to the nurturing emotional surge of motherhood since a mother's progeny's survival was dependent upon social positioning in our species' early days, as well as considering my own body and emotions, I think it's nothing short of torture to take women out of functioning society at the very time their brain's need it most. The isolation and removal from society that comprise reality for the middle-class American woman living in this first decade of the twenty-first century is finally alleviated--just a little, but enough--by blogs.
Women and men alike somehow lost track of the goals of the struggle for equality. Equality doesn't necessitate homogeneity. In so far that blogs reflect the reality of our lives, a woman's blog is not going to reflect the same world as a man's. Some women have already complained that the conference has a woman's forum, saying it belittles women. I think they're afraid of looking under-recognized by needing the special attention. They want to play on the same court as the boys. But I don't think it's even the same game! Rather than struggling for the same of everything, the push for equality among the genders should focus on celebrating all things "she" every bit as much as all things "he."
Da Vinci Code Your Life
Da Vinci Code Your Life / Can the blasphemous bestseller help you see the mystical world anew, or is it just another doorstop?: "...But here's the divine gist: You don't have to stop with the book. The great thing about 'The Da Vinci Code' is that it could very well do for the mass public what no other chunk of dense scholarly research, no subversive New Age movement, no horrific blood-drenched movie depicting the gruesome and sadomasochistic bludgeoning of a popular Jewish mystic could do: that is, offer the general public wide-open access to vital, unsettling questions of faith, of power, of Mystery with a capital M. It's true.
Could the wild popularity of this little book mean we're more ready to hear more potent, revealing truths, to uncover the more divine meanings behind all those seemingly commonplace things we take for granted, to question those stagnant histories and false gods that have been so viciously forced upon us?
Could it maybe indicate that we really are more ready than we've ever been to go beyond the church's meager misogynistic homophobic revisionist teachings, to start seeing the deeply mystical and hilariously twisted interconnectedness of the world? You think?
I, for one, didn't want to read Brown's book. I am not much of a fan of quickie best-seller page-turners with minimal character development and nonexistent literary nuance and sledgehammer plot devices. But that's just the lit snob in me.
I read it anyway. And I had a blast. And I realized, there is a lesson here. And it does not have to be about massive conspiracy theory. You do not have to agree with every conclusion in the book and start running around trying to uncover links to secret societies while sinister forces move about the Louvre. You do not even need to begin with the rather insidious and soul-delimiting dangers of organized religion.
You can focus this kind of perspective, this awareness, on just about anything in your life. Food. Cars. Sex. Politics. Guns. You trust your instincts and pick at a thread of curiosity and you pull, read up and educate yourself, and pretty soon you're reading 'Fast Food Nation' or 'High and Mighty' or 'Stupid White Men' and realizing not only how you've been duped but also how refreshing it is to see through the masks and the bogus marketing and the hidden histories.
It does not have to be complicated. You simply begin to notice. You begin to see the signs, understand the symbols, the divine winks, realize that there are enormous hidden worlds of belief and interconnected history just under the manufactured and carefully orchestrated surface of things, mysteries that have long gone unnoticed or underappreciated or ignored but that are ready and eager for you to discover them anew..."
this one's for my Chicago in-laws
Discovery Channel :: Did a Comet Trigger The Great Chicago Fire?: "Perhaps it was not Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern that sparked the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed the downtown area and claimed 300 lives.
New research lends credence to an alternative explanation: The fire, along with less-publicized and even more deadly blazes the same night in upstate Wisconsin and Michigan, was the result of a comet fragment crashing into Earth's atmosphere."
(go nader)
For the record, this is not my official reply in the Mr. Locke debate. But it is related.
With a heavy heart today I took
Dean for America off my blogroll. I almost deleted the line, and then stopped just short of total disenfranchisement. If you look to the right of this entry, you'll notice that I put a
Vote Nader link in instead. As I flashed over to Nader's page to double check the link, I was pleased to see the press release that announced the
Associated Press poll results show Nader holding 6%! Go Nader!
My Howard Dean posters are little more than placemats on my desk now. I think I'll save them and put them up in my someday home office. I still have my "I Voted in Election 2000" button, I should have that framed and hang it next to these posters. It can be the wall of
Should Have Beens. The nice thing about supporting Nader is the comforting knowledge that you're in it for the long haul. Despite the majority of his
stated platform goals, his real objective is to establish a viable party alternative to democrats and republicans. For Nader, viable is defined as receiving federal election monies. Maybe in thirty or so years, he'll win his battle, or someone else will in his name. It can be the Nader Party. And it will garner at least a fifth, if not a good third of the national vote, forever killing the terrible dichotomy of two-party politics here in the US. Now that Nader's polling at 6%, 20% doesn't look so impossible.
watch animal planet this monday!
The Seattle Times: Arts & Entertainment: Jane Goodall revisits chimps in 'Return to Gombe': "Though she spends most of her time traveling and lecturing on peace and environmental conservation, she returns to Tanzania and her chimp reserve in Gombe periodically. The surprises from her latest visit are chronicled in the Animal Planet special 'Jane Goodall's Return to Gombe,' at 8 p.m. Monday."
Bloggers, meet Pastor Ellen
In my corner of the world, not many people know about blogging. I'm a poster child of sorts because I end up explaining it and showing it off everywhere I go. I'm so excited about this new movement, a new medium through which our little voices get a tiny bit bigger. So many forces make them smaller: corporations, lobby-based politics, garage lifestyles. Blogging helps that, just a little. Clearly, others agree. Blogger alone has well over a million accounts, and it's only one of hundreds of blog tools online. I've heard Iran has over ten thousand blogs, and I imagine that, since China has more people online than the US has period, there must be at least a million bloggers in China. I love to think of the personal empowerment and social change blogging is bringing about in our world.
This little populist force is also serving our very personal need for community. I've heard some people compare blogging to a message in a bottle. That analogy doesn't fit for me at all. When I think of a message in a bottle, my mind brings up
Castaway, which denotes desperation and hopelessness. That's not blogging. People are out there, hungry for your words. Blogging is far closer to throwing seeds in the wind. You don't know just where your words are going, but there's a good chance that they'll sprout wherever they land. And those sprouted seeds will be edifying fellowship for someone. If you're really lucky, that someone will comment you and your words will bring you edifying fellowship, as well.
I'm proud to say that, through this blog and my
SprogBlog, I've played a significant inspiring force toward the creation of five blogs. First, was
Lisa W., who was eager to talk about her new adventures in motherhood and share in the blogosphere's fellowship because her husband's military position keeps her far from friends and family. Next was Luca, who, despite his very technical position as an engineer in the space industry, is quite eloquent, and needed an outlet for his life experiences. Then came my wonderful husband,
John, who was tired of not being able to find any blogs dedicated to space so decided to start his own. Of course, anyone who frequents John's blog by now knows how infrequently he finds time to post. It seems a career dedicated to space doesn't leave much room for anything else dedicated to space! I think I actually put more space articles up on my blog than he does on his! Two weeks ago, my good friend
Neal restarted his blog, abandoned since 1995! Mr. Locke's Classroom is host to
one half of a heated debate regarding
politics and
disillusionment, and the judges are Neal's (Mr. Locke's) high school students (who, btw, can
now blog for extra credit).
This brings me to number five, my proudest and most intimate bloggie. For over a year, I've encouraged this person to get off her duff and start blogging. She's a great writer, but all her creative energies go to the extemporaneous speaking she does every week for her job. She needs to write more. Finally, yesterday, she did. Bloggers, meet my mom:
Pastor Ellen!
Denby on Passion
I felt the Passion review in last week's New Yorker was about the best I've seen, and I was thrilled to see they put it online. My favorite point is that many generations and cultures have done their best to portray Jesus, via frescos, sculptures, drama, and now cinema. The portrayals end up reflecting more about the portrayers than the portrayee. Our culture chose to portray him through our chief values of violence and media. How fitting.
The New Yorker: The Critics: The Current Cinema
NPR : Study Doubts Benefits of Anti-Bacterial Soap
NPR : Study Doubts Benefits of Anti-Bacterial Soap: "A new study finds that antibacterial products such as soaps and cleansers do not prevent disease. Medical researchers comparing households using the products with those using regular soaps found that the incidence of disease was the same for both groups. "
MSNBC - A language by women, for women
MSNBC - A language by women, for women: "...Only men learned to read and write Chinese, and bound feet and social strictures confined women to their husband's homes after marriage. So somehow -- scholars are unsure how, or exactly when -- the women of this fertile valley in the southwestern corner of Hunan province developed their own way to communicate. It was a delicate, graceful script handed down from grandmother to granddaughter, from elderly aunt to adolescent niece, from girlfriend to girlfriend -- and never, ever shared with the men and boys.
So was born nushu, or women's script, a single-sex writing system that Chinese scholars believe is the only one of its kind..."
Mars: A Water World? Evidence Mounts, But Scientists Remain Tight-Lipped
Mars: A Water World? Evidence Mounts, But Scientists Remain Tight-Lipped: "Evidence that suggests Mars was once a water-rich world is mounting as scientists scrutinize data from the Mars Exploration rover, Opportunity, busily at work in a small crater at Meridiani Planum. That information may well be leading to a biological bombshell of a finding that the red planet has been, and could well be now, an extraterrestrial home for life.
There is a palpable buzz here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California that something wonderful is about to happen in the exploration of Mars."
watch NASA tomorrow
Tomorrow (Tuesday, March 2) at 2 p.m. EST, NASA is
holding a press conference to announce ambiguously cool
findings from the Mars rovers. You can watch it
here on NASA Select, but I'm sure CNN and the boys will be carrying it as well.
chicks vs. women
Cheers go out today to Lisa of Cadence90, first for the bravado with which she owned her use of the term chicks, clearly explaining her motivation rather than blaming a linguistically shallow culture, and second for her depth of character, as she was willing to redress her word choices in light of another woman's concerns.
cadence90: "...My use of the word Chick and the pajama party trope are deliberately provocative. I think the 'girl power' movement -- which in essence says that girls can be girly and be taken seriously anyway -- has some real currency. I love the fact that Martha Stewart gets paid billions for 'womens' work' that previously wasn't worth two cents.
But you know what, it might just be stupid!..."
