There's a fifteen-foot-high sign on market street showing a shirtless youth with the caption, "Chaise Mooty -- A&F's New Face." As I walk by I only come up to Chaise's chest, and I keep wanting to recaption it "A&F's New Nipple."
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(5)
03:16:31 PM,
Monday 23 May 2005
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Speaking of awesome music, go listen to "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" by Sleater-Kinney. It is like being baptized with rock.
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07:49:18 PM,
Friday 20 May 2005
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Listening to David Bowie makes me so happy.
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(7)
02:29:24 PM,
Friday 20 May 2005
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Julia asks:
1. What have you been reading lately, and is it any good?
I feel like I haven't been reading anything lately. Mostly I have been reading the links on my sidebar and a few internet messageboards. A lot of my free reading time has taken up by "oh shit I'd better read this econ stuff before the final" reading and I haven't been reading so much as I used to anyway.
In my philosophy group we just read Frederick Ahl's translation of Seneca's Medea which was really gripping. I got a thrill from reading Medea's monologue invoking demons that I hadn't felt from poetry in quite a while. Non-induced reading: I've been slowly working my way through The Wealth and Poverty of Nations which a coworker lent to me. I don't think I'll finish that one until after the aforementioned final, though. I also read an Agatha Christie novel last week whose title I've completely forgotten. Hopefully I'll forget the plot as well before I try to reread it.
2. When and how did you start getting interested in feminism and related topics (It's easy to say that you always were because you're female, but presumably there was something that sparked an interest)?
I don't actually have one of those "aha" moments like they recount in Ms, although I did get a subscription to Ms when I was twelve or so, and that was about when I started identifying myself consciously as a feminist. There wasn't a whole lot to rebel against in that regard at home -- my parents are both feminist in a low-key way -- but there certainly was a lot in the world.
I never stopped defining myself as a feminist, but since landing in a pink collar job I've started thinking about it a lot more. (I find it a good antidote in some ways to my lack of self-confidence, although I don't think that lack primarily results from internalized oppression or anything like that.)
3. Where's the farthest you've ever been from home?
Geographically, Palma de Mallorca. Culturally, Guadalajara. Talk about radicalizing experiences -- having grown up in a California suburb I'd never experienced continual street harassment before then.
4. Who are the hottest male and female celebrities?
Beck and Carrie Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney. (Not just because she's the gayest, but partly, yeah.) They are both way hotter onstage than in photos.
5. How many frilled lizards do you have, exactly?
Eleven plastic lizards (the Frill and his ten idiot cousins) and one portrait of the Frill that was painted by my friend Joanna. It's over between me and him though. As I told Damian last night, I am more into mammals these days, and his constant braggadocio/insecurity over the size of his frill was really grating after a while.
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(3)
08:04:45 PM,
Wednesday 18 May 2005
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A post on American Media from Iraqi blogger Baghdad Burning, who's been watching American news on a Saudi-sponsored channel:
I’ve been enchanted with the shows these last few weeks. The thing that strikes me most is the fact that the news is so… clean. It’s like hospital food. It’s all organized and disinfected._
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03:51:05 PM, Wednesday 18 May 2005
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In a discussion of "sexual power" over at Alas, Samantha writes:
I have a friend who sometimes tries the “you women have all the pussy power” argument. We’ll be in a boisterous row (his preferred method of conversation) and he’ll pull this out to anything I have to say about men having more power than women._
I’ve learned when it comes up to stand, grab my crotch and loudly reply, “I hereby order thee, by the power of my pussy, to agree with the point I just made! The all-powerful pussy demands it!” Then I declare myself the winner of the debate because, you know *points to crotch*, and if he tries to keep going I interrupt him and say, “Hey, the pussy has spoken, Hetero Man. Obey its power.
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01:30:29 PM, Tuesday 17 May 2005
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Jeff Rowland articulates exactly why I've been avoiding What The %&*#$*@ Do We Know. I'm already dumb enough when it comes to quantum physics -- I don't need to stuff my brain full of stinking hippie lies.
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(3)
11:43:46 AM,
Tuesday 17 May 2005
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How did I manage to get heartburn from carrots?
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(1)
07:35:46 PM,
Monday 16 May 2005
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This morning, via Jeff Rowland of Wigu, I found out about Vera Brosgol's work. She does an entertaining comic called Return to Sender which has mysterious mail and monsters and characters who are charmingly whimsical like the ones in Scary Go Round. Her art is also excellent -- I'm a sucker for drawings with a sure line. She also posts (as "mishmow") at The Pants Press Sketchblog along with several other artists.
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(3)
02:00:24 PM,
Monday 16 May 2005
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I have Weezer's "El Scorcho" stuck in my head, which would be annoying if I didn't have yesterday's earworm to compare it to. Dormez this, Frère Jacques.
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11:23:21 AM,
Monday 16 May 2005
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It is amazing how good a toy instrument will sound if you tape a tiny microphone on it: Dames and I went to a Toychestra show last night and they were totally rad, again. This time I even recognized some of their toys from my childhood and from my high school babysitting job in a church nursery. Plus they were playing the same see 'n say that Abby and Melissa and I decoupaged the heck out of a few years ago. It is an odd feeling to realize that the toys I once knew intimately were never mine alone. It is a wonderful feeling to realize that all the repetitive noises that fascinated me as a child can make beautiful music when they're piled on top of each other.
I am listening to their album, Sassy Pony, and it is really good, but of course not nearly as good as their live show. Probably it also helps that the ladies of Toychestra have these huge grins on their faces when they play. Hooray for fun music!
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(1)
11:37:47 AM,
Friday 13 May 2005
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My brother and I went to Grocery Outlet last night and oh my jesus. Everything is cheap and they have bizarre discontinued flavors of everything from spaghetti sauce to gatorade. ("Melon"-flavored gatorade? Which melon, bitches? WHICH MELON?!?) Plus they have coolers for less that $1/ea. Man, that is better than what I usually pay for malt liquor, and it tastes better too! The '80s are back! Seagrams, whut!
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(7)
02:32:17 PM,
Thursday 12 May 2005
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Dave and my boyfriend sat me down the other night and made me watch a few episodes from the new Battlestar Galactica series. So far it is as good as the one episode of Firefly I've watched, which means it is damn good. Acting, writing, and direction are firing on all cylinders, and the new season should be starting before too long. Unfortunately the show airs at 10 pm on Fridays -- I'll just have to postpone my social life a few hours to watch it.
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(10)
01:02:55 PM,
Monday 9 May 2005
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Overused words in books reviews:
luminous (e.g. "luminous prose")
lyrical
radiant (the new "luminous")
Care to add to this list?
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(7)
09:38:48 PM,
Sunday 8 May 2005
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me: i want him dead
me: and i am not the only one
me: this is the guy who made the "why do broads go crazy at a certain age?" comment
Sumana: oh NO
me: he hasn't gone there since but omfg
Sumana: oh no he di'int
me: hahaha
Sumana: he is why the SCUM woman had a point
Sumana: Solanas
me: dude
me: i would <3 leaving a copy of the scum manifesto on his desk with a post-it reading "you are the reason this exists"
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(2)
05:19:42 PM,
Thursday 5 May 2005
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Writing this here mainly to ensure I write it down at all: What I want in a Master's program:
-good theoretical and applied background in economic analysis;
-the opportunity to get a general grounding before specializing/to help me figure out how to specialize;
-the opportunity to specialize in at least one of my areas of interest (development economics, women and the economy, ecology and the economy), although I may not go into that at all;
-chance to work closely with faculty;
-career guidance and the opportunity to make contacts;
-cross-pollination with a sociology department;
-location: SF Bay Area (unlikely, but whatever).
Comments and advice from current and former grad students would be awesome right about now.
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(6)
02:59:29 PM,
Thursday 5 May 2005
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If you aren't familiar with Banksy's work go check it out right now. (If you are familiar with his work, you'll already be off at his homepage, so never mind me.)
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(2)
02:39:39 PM,
Thursday 5 May 2005
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Reading a review in Salon of Freakonomics, I came across a tidbit which should be comforting to us Johnnies: "Test scores are affected by whether parents have lots of books, not by whether they read them to their children."
And if anyone's read the book in question, let me know what you think. I'll probably be queuing for it at the library when I finish Wealth and Poverty of Nations.
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(2)
12:52:59 PM,
Tuesday 3 May 2005
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The soundtrack to "Once More With Feeling" is so damn good. Thanks, Lizzie!
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(1)
03:01:39 PM,
Monday 2 May 2005
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Yesterday Damian and I went to visit his friend Sarajane, who is working and meditating as a summer apprentice at Green Gulch Farm up in Marin County. She is a lovely person and it is a beautiful place. On the doors into the dining hall there are signs that read "RACCOON ALERT! Please close door behind you."
Edited to add: I was looking over the lecture schedule for the Sunday morning program at Green Gulch and noticed that June 26th's lecture will be given by someone named Luminous Owl.
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(2)
11:05:54 AM,
Monday 2 May 2005
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Via Mark Morford and my brother: The Scariest Music Video of All Time. You really, really have to watch this.
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(4)
04:28:39 PM,
Friday 29 April 2005
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I am in Oakland. Hooray!
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(4)
03:01:01 PM,
Thursday 28 April 2005
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I'm in Baltimore -- hooray!
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(9)
01:03:01 PM,
Friday 22 April 2005
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When I'm not peeking through my fingers at the horrible forecast for Croquet, I'm bumming around on the internets. Here is a thought-provoking post about how genocide and related atrocites are remembered -- or, rather, not remembered. From Body and Soul, where everything is well-written. (I feel like "thought-provoking" and "well-written" are too pallid to describe just how well Jeanne writes, but they're all I can come up with. Also, I had to build one of those model missions in the fourth grade too. I did Mission San Jose.)
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(5)
05:22:38 PM,
Wednesday 20 April 2005
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My boyfriend is awesome.
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(2)
12:21:18 PM,
Wednesday 20 April 2005
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Friday night I watched Eternal Sunshine for the second time with Leonard and Sumana. Elijah Wood plays a supporting character in this movie, and at one point he recites another character's words in an attempt to sound sincere that just comes out sing-song. Leonard commented in a spot-on impression, "Nothing ever dampens your spirits, does it, Sam?"
Sumana had to pause the movie, we were laughing so hard. Best dismissal of his performance in LOTR ever.
P.S.: I think my problems with Being John Malkovich (sort of blah on the second viewing) and Adaptation (funny, but meh, plus I hate watching Nicolas Cage) might be problems with Spike Jonze rather than problems with Charlie Kauffman. I'll have to see Human Nature and find out.
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07:44:01 PM,
Monday 18 April 2005
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At the library this afternoon I ran across a copy of Get Away From Me by Nellie McKay. I've picked it up and put it back on the rack pretty much every time I've been to Amoeba lately -- torn between my memories of the good reviews it got in Bitch and Bust and my memories of the equally good reviews those same magazines gave Northern State, who suck.
Anyway, Get Away From Me is better than the clips on McKay's website suggest. It is stylistically schizophrenic and full of energy and even when she raps it is pretty much non-embarassing, which is more than I can say for Northern State. (Who suck.)
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06:23:44 PM,
Monday 18 April 2005
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What I've seen today:
A sticker on a lamppost reading, "Machismo Is Retardo."
An unkempt man standing near the shopping baskets at the drugstore, his back to me as I waited to be rung up. He was moaning and occasionally muttering "Aw, shit" and "Oh my God" and seemed to be reading something. As I exited the store I saw what he was reading. It was the drugstore's sales circular.
An elderly couple petting a clump of wild fennel.
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(2)
05:09:33 PM,
Monday 18 April 2005
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WIGU!!!!
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(2)
01:35:19 PM,
Monday 18 April 2005
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Y'all who haven't yet need to read this comment by eexlebots because it is hella funny.
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(4)
06:52:16 PM,
Friday 15 April 2005
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Since I'm only blogging about music these days:
A friend emailed me asking my opinion of Guero, and this is more or less what I wrote:
I like it a lot, but it ain't no Mutations. It didn't take any time to grow on me -- I liked it in a not-his-best-but-still-Beck way immediately, listened to it like three times a day after I got it, and now I'm down to once a week or so. (I got it after it was leaked on the internets, but the released version only differs by a few songs at the end of the album.)
I dunno, I wasn't wild about Sea Change either, so maybe he's just getting too mature for me. I like the production on Guero a lot more than Sea Change, but it does feel a little, um, easy to listen to. The one definite criticism that I agree with (not mine, some reviewer who trashed it) is that the lyrics are not his usual quality -- too literal. Like, he said in this New York Times profile that "Que Onda Guero" is about how his neighborhood in Los Angeles is full of Central American immigrants, many of whom were in the right-wing juntas and CIA-trained death squads back in the day, but there's only one line that even gets close to suggesting that and the rest of it is Mexican slang he found on the internet.
Which is not to say that I don't get that damn mariachi car horn sample stuck in my head every day.
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(12)
06:31:57 PM,
Thursday 14 April 2005
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On the street I overheard just this suggestive snippet from a conversation: A woman yelling, "You slept with my sister! And..."
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(3)
06:05:44 PM,
Wednesday 13 April 2005
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Been listening to The Boy's Doin' It by Hugh Masekela and I finally understand what Talking Heads were going for during their Afropop period. The cd I have is a Verve reissue with a few extra tracks tacked on to the end -- it starts out all polyrhythmic and mellows into funk and then r&b. It is some good times.
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12:06:40 PM,
Monday 11 April 2005
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Taxes taxes taxes. I am surprised that I haven't gotten around to doing them until now. Procrastination hoy!
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(8)
11:01:50 PM,
Thursday 7 April 2005
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Because I am behind the times, I just bought Modest Mouse's new album (released last year) and Stephen Malkmus's solo album (from back in the day. Like, 2001). Also America by John Fahey, because I heard one of his songs on Moss's blogswap and was all exciteded by it. That one's from hella way back in the day and it is unequivocally awesome.
Now, take it from me, Good News for People Who Love Bad News ain't the Mouse you've come to know and love. It's still recognizable, but just barely -- a few weeks ago I heard one of its songs for the first time and thought to myself, "This must be one of those new bands what aren't ashamed to love the Cure. Ain't that sweet."
So the other night Damian and I are listening to Good News and he says to me, what is this, and I tell him, and he's all, "Isaac is just trying to sound like eight million other people, let's change the cd." And I'm like, "Yeah, on the last song he sounded like Robert Smith and on this one he sounds like Stephen Malkmus." Which is what we listened to next.
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(11)
01:53:44 PM,
Monday 4 April 2005
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As has been shown, Satanism and moustaches are synonymous, you can’t have one without the other.
Ayn Rand was a philosophical genius. But she was no oil painting. Many ugly women often display traces of hair on their upper lip. Look closely at her picture. Is that a layer of down on her lip? It is!
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(1)
03:19:50 AM,
Sunday 3 April 2005
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site & script courtesy of Moss