Misc. Monday

1. My favorite sunny day songs:
   "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" -- Bobby Bare & Skeeter Davis
   "Sunny Day" -- St. Thomas


2. It was so cold this weekend that I could feel the air biting deep in my lungs. I felt somewhat immobilized by it, but this morning I woke up resolved not to let it keep me inside. I took Toby on a run and was amazed by how good it felt to move fast through the cold air and breathe it in with purpose.


3. Although the news continues to be disheartening on many levels, I found myself very excited this morning to hear Maxine Waters on Democracy Now speaking at an anti-war rally emphatically shouting these words to a cheering crowd:
   

   My name is Maxine Waters, and I’m not afraid of George W. Bush. My name is Maxine Waters, and I’m not intimidated by Dick Cheney. My name is Maxine Waters, and I I helped to get rid of Rumsfeld. My name is Maxine Waters, and Condi Rice is nothing but another neocon, and she doesn't represent me!



4. Currently reading: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. I'll elaborate more when I finish, but so far it's an amazing story.
   
   
   
   
   

State of the Union BLAH!

I begrudgingly half-listened to the State of the Union address last night, but I wished I hadn't been working so I could have played the State of the Union Address Drinking Game 2007! Nevertheless, in all seriousness, after every single statement Bush made I recall feeling very strange and either rolling my eyes or saying "are you serious?" or "as if!" -- Not that I expected anything, but there's always that hope that something crazy will happen. I feel like I'm living a dystopian nightmare that I can't wake up from. The most notable omission, I think, was New Orleans and Gulf Coast recovery... from b.rox.com:

I’m not really surprised. It’s kind of like getting kicked in the teeth in slow motion. You see the boot coming toward your face, you know it’s going to hurt, and there’s nothing you can do. You’re already lying on the barroom floor, beaten to a bloody pulp, so one more kick in the teeth doesn’t even really matter. It doesn’t even hurt anymore. It’s more disappointing than anything else.

You know you have Wells-Library burn-out when...

• Your eyes are bloodshot
• Your mouth tastes like rotting books
• Your eyelids feel like plastic when you blink
• You live on gingermen and tea and coffee from the Cybercafe
• Your gums are so puffy in one spot they hurt whenever you move your mouth

Girls Gone Wild in Bloomington

"Girls Gone Wild" is going to be at Jake's in Bloomington this Friday.

I first heard about this on Sunday night, but since then I've been inundated by postcard sized flyers featured gape-mouthed girls in tiny tank tops all over campus.

A little background: there was a very illuminating article in the LA Times about Joe Francis, the creator of "Girls Gone Wild" videos, over the summer. The article exposes him as being a very aggressive sexual assaulter who preys on vulnerable (mostly young) women. Here's the link:

Joe Francis: 'Baby, give me a kiss'

Additionally, he has since been charged for not documenting the ages of the girls in his videos. He is on probation, but apparently that doesn't stop him from producing new videos.

It has been suggested that folks go out and hand out information on consent and sexual assault at the taping. It has also been suggested to dressas a "girl-gone-wild" and infiltrate the crowd to get people talking about what a sleaze he is. Both sound like good angles.

Anyway, just a head's up...

Pride Fest

One of my favorite Bloomington events is coming up-- Pride Fest!

If you haven't picked up tickets yet, grab 'em up, it's Jan. 25-27.

My favorite memories from last year:

1. Really eye-opening films about issues and subcultures I didn't know about before--The Aggressives, about a group of lesbians of color often self identified as "aggressive butches" and their competitions (kind of like drag king balls, but with lots of differences) and their lives in New York...//100% Woman, about Michelle Dumaresq, a male-to-female downhill mountain biker and her experience with discrimination from other women in the sport. Very, very compelling questions about physique and biology as they relate to gender. // And all the other amazing short films!

2. The chocolate man and the Pride dance party! Let's hope he'll be back this year, accompanied by some other-gendered (where my ladies at?!) near-nudes dipped in chocolate and thrusting.

3. Discovering El Norteno on a break between movies--my dining life hasn't been the same since! Damn good mole.

Films that I'm looking forward to this year:

Pretty Ladies: A Super8explosion! / Catherine Crouch /Comedy, 30m
A mythical tale of desire and want tinged with the humor of Flannery O’Connor. A gorgeous and striking use of Super 8 film.

Before Nine / Hana Abdul / Experimental, 26m
This film tells the story of two families whose lives are marked by transitions, loss, and violence. Through the use of a non-linear structure, repetition, and overlaps, Before Nine brings together three stories - two young girls’ attempt to cope with the psychological trauma of racialized homophobia; a mother’s search for a job, and a grandmother’s attempt to overcome the loss of her home and business.

Women in Love / Karen Everett / Documentary, 59m
While examining the human ability to redefine ourselves and reshape what we think "love" means, filmmaker Karen Everett masterfully weaves images of lesbians making their way through present-day sex clubs and attending masturbation seminars. Drawing on her own experience and that of her circle of lesbian, bisexual and polyamorous friends and lovers, Everett blends her own personal trials with intimate, raw and emotional moments of sexual pleasure and heart-wrenching loneliness.

Screaming Queens: Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria / Victor Silverman & Susan Stryker /Documentary, 67m
Screaming Queens introduces viewers to a diverse cast of former prostitutes, drag entertainers, police officers, ministers, and neighborhood activists, all of whom played a part in the events leading up to the Compton’s Cafeteria riot. The program goes on to show the connection between transgender activism and the larger social upheavals affecting the United States in the 1960s: the civil rights and sexual liberation movements, the youth counterculture, urban renewal, and antipoverty programs.

Rock Bottom: Gay Men & Meth / Jay Corcoran / Documentary, 61m
Rock Bottom follows the journeys of seven gay men struggling with meth addiction and recovery against a backdrop of an emerging second wave of HIV infection. A chilling portrait of a community in crisis.

For full schedule, see their website.

In other news, I'm on the radio tonight subbing for 'Women's Space' from 9pm-11pm-- listen at 98.1 or 91.3 or at wfhb.org

WTF?!

ANDERSON, S.C. (AP) - Police say a security guard at the Anderson County Library fired his gun at a car after the driver triggered a security alarm.

Police say security guard James Turner asked the woman to stop after the alarm went off as she left around 5 o’clock Saturday afternoon.

A police report states Turner chased the woman as she ran to her car and he said the bumper brushed his knee as she pulled away.

Police say the guard then fired into the driver’s door. Authorities say the woman kept going and they don’t know if she was hurt.

Library director Carl Stone says he’s asked Cherokee Security Systems not to send Turner back to the library. Stone says no one should be hurt over a missing library book.

Print shop free to educational organization

Damn, wish I had it in me to start that printing collective I dream about all the time... This is a deal that can't be beat--from briarpress--

I have been contacted by someone who wishes to find a home for her late father’s print shop. The shop would be donated preferably to a school, museum, religious institution, or organization that would use and preserve the shop. The organization would be responsible for the cost of removing the equipment which is in a basement. (Click “More details” before responding to this ad.)

Replies can not be considered without the following information. Please include: 1. Name and location of the institution or organization; 2. A short description and details about the organization that desires to be considered for this donation. What printing activities are offered or performed; 3. Your experience in moving this kind of equipment and/or how you intend to remove the equipment from the property. (The owner is concerned about how the equipment will be removed without damaging it.)

Appropriate inquiries will be passed on to the current owner. Inquiries for removal of partial contents are not being considered at this time.

See full listing for presses and fontfaces.

I've become a member of Project Hamad, and I'd like to invite you to drop by Projecthamad.org to meet Adel.

I haven't been feeling very well for the past several days, I seem to have the flu that everyone else has. I keep popping sinus pills from the medicine cabinet at work, but it doesn't seem to help. Nevertheless, it's given me the chance to consume a lot of media... My favorites:

Movie: The Execution of Wanda Jean (2002)... A really heartbreaking documentary that HBO made of Wanda Jean's last pleas for sentence commutation and her eventual execution in the state of Oklahoma in 2001. She was the first black woman to be executed since the 1950's and the reinstatement of the death penalty. The documentary was interesting because I had never heard of this case before, but I found the approach to be somewhat problematic and strange in parts. Wanda Jean Allen was given the death penalty for murdering her lover, Gloria Leathers, whom she met while serving time in prison for another murder. There seemed to be a lot of domestic abuse in the history of their relationship, which the film did a really poor job at addressing, probably because there really hasn't been much of a discourse on abuse in same-sex relationships in this country in any kind of substantial way. Additionally, the film seemed to champion the efforts of Wanda Jean's all-white legal team rather than Wanda Jean's tenacity and dedication as well as her family's support. One of her lawyers was particularly patronizing and almost creepy towards Wanda and her family. The footage of Wanda Jean's family seemed to suggest a lot of dysfunction and/or lack of communication. I wonder how this would have been different had they given a member of the family a camera to interview each other with, rather than having strangers all up in their business while their sister/daughter's life was on the line. In any case, the documentary is valuable simply for preserving this strange and sad case in history.

Short Story: "Majesty" by Miranda July in McSweeney's #21. Elements that make up a great story: sex dreams; young royalty; All I need is a miracle, all I need is you; dogs named potato; and sex dreams involving young royalty.

Essay: "After the Flood" by Scott Russell Sanders in Staying Put: Making Home in a Restless World. I was visiting my grandparents in Eddyville, Kentucky for Christmas and my dad took me and Riley down to see the Eddyville Penitentiary. It looks like a castle. It's old and hulking, tons of steel and stone, and has a sense of permanence that is eerie. It's right on Lake Barkley and is surrounded by houses. My dad told us that this was the new Eddyville--what was the rest of Eddyville is at the bottom of Lake Barkley. This phenomenon of damming and flooding of entire sections of towns that are below a certain sea level or somehow unimportant, worthy of flooding, is one of those things that seems to have been so rampant that it doesn't get much attention. Eddyville's neighbor, Kuttawa, is also partially under Lake Barkley... My mom tells me stories of before there was a Monroe Reservoir here in Monroe County... It's difficult to imagine. This essay by Scott Russell Sanders is an eloquent discussion of what it means to him and his search for his roots that his childhood memories are essentially underwater.

Radio Program: NPR's Hidden Kitchens. I started actively podcasting more than just Democracy Now and This American Life, trying to explore a little bit. In listening to last week's rerun of Living on Earth, I discovered a discussion of this NPR program by the Kitchen Sisters. Basically, they opened up a hotline to listeners all over the country and asked them to call in to report their "hidden kitchen" stories--meaning, places where food is made that is either illegitimate, off-the-radar, has cultural significance, or forms the glue of a community. Obviously, this encompasses a great many things, and the stories that they've compiled are fascinating. My favorites were their segments on the George Foreman grill as a sort of "hidden kitchen" for people experiencing homelessness or living in single rooms without kitchen facilities--where they would plug in this appliance and make anything from grilled cheese to hamburgers. They even had George Foreman on and he talked about his history of hunger. When I heard the synopsis of this show, I thought 'they've got to have some prison-cooking on here,' and sure enough--they did a segment on Robert Wilkerson (Angola Three) making pralines in his solitary cell!

Music: Lila Downs La Cantina -- Amazing voice, amazing songs, gets me out of bed.

In other news, it's 1 o'clock in the morning and the only thing going on at the UGL circulation desk is the security guard softly singing along to "Maneater" by Hall and Oates--Huh??

We Can't Fill 'Em, So We'll Import 'Em!

(forgive me if this is old news, but I just heard about it!)--
In all his other moves, Mitch Daniels has seemed a huge fan of outsourcing---now (or, last fall), he made a proposal for INsourcing--prisoners, that is, from California's overcrowded facilities! Totally batty, and seems like none of the CA prisoners are volunteering for it--

Here's a few links:

Prison Space To Rent

California Prisoners Likely to Stay Put

Reading stories like these that are so outdated (this was fresh October-December) makes me feel like I slept through last semester. I'm trying not to let that happen this semester.

Prophets and UFO's

Wild story I just discovered in the Reporter Times...

'False prophet phenomenon': Filmmakers explore UFO summoner's claims

Apparently a man calling himself Prophet Yahweh was in Mooresville, IN a couple weeks ago attempting to summon UFO's. There's a video as well as an explanation of his beliefs at the Reporter Times article, linked above.

This is Patrick Cooke from bibleufo.com on Prophet Yahweh:

He [Prophet Yahweh] wants to gather black Israelites, take them to the desert and wait for the return of Yahweh, whom he says is a superhuman black man.

They will take Yahweh and his followers to the Middle East and take leadership.

So, the filmmakers convinced him to come to Indiana from Las Vegas, but why Mooresville, IN?! Seems very random and kind of strange that a black nationalist cult leader would end up in the heart of klan country.

And, this biblical-ufo cult stuff is new to me--so, just so we're clear about how the UFO's tie in with Yahweh's beliefs, this is from Wikipedia:

Prophet Yahweh espouses a similar belief system of previous contactees and founders of UFO religions, stating that Yahweh and his angels are extraterrestrial beings and that UFOs are their manifestations. Furthermore, he claims that Yahweh in particular is an extremely powerful being residing on a distant planet who controls many if not all of the mechanisms of the universe and creation, he is thus the central figure in the Universe and is the real identity of the figure worshipped by the Abrahamic religions.

A family friend was found dead this weekend of drug related causes... She was 22. I keep having memories of playing in her backyard when we were in grade school, running up and down her stairs, jumping on her bed, general rowdiness. I haven't talked to her in years, but I found her page on MySpace. It was so staggering to see her picture slideshow along with a Decemberists song and a long line of comments from friends telling her they would miss her, some were hysterical, some almost nonchalant. Interesting how the internet has changed the way we can interact with dead friends and share our grief. This was the second drug related death of someone young I've known in the month of December.

Hmmm, something smells fishy in Westlake, Louisiana...

Washington family disputes suicide findings

News of this kind, though a very micro event, is always startling:

Lock the Library! Rowdy Students Are Taking Over

I don't understand why increasingly it is the policy of institutions to close their doors rather than attempt to address the larger problems that are causing the nuisance and/or look the other way. With such a dearth of public spaces in the the typical city plan, libraries are integral as a gathering space, especially for kids.