bored with livejournal, be back after i'm bored with facebook (or after i find my camera cord).

indigo's birthday party is done, and so is our unpacking and arranging for the most part. there are a few boxes of misc things in the basement; if we don't come looking for the items they contain before september, they will be gotten rid of!

chris and i made indigo's birthday cake. I have never baked before and it turned out really well. vegan cupcakes take over the world gave us a really good peanut butter cream frosting recipe that i would have easily paid $5 to taste in a vegan restaurant. i feel more excited about eating good food at home and less interested in visiting "x" vegan restaurant in other cities. although, chris and i will have to dine at millennium eventually. i don't think I'll ever be so ambitious about cooking to make food as delicious as they do. there are too many other things to become skilled at.

i may post pictures of the party/apartment soon, although i know my camera cord is in one of the said misc boxes of the basement. also, there might be a ghost living here? i've been alone for the past few hours and have heard a door slam three times. i look around, and all doors i've closed are closed and all open remain so.

i can see a catalpa tree breaching the horizon of houses across the street from where i sit. it looks distant and unlikely and i like it. i'll have to photograph and share it soon. in the mean time, ( here are google-found pictures for reference: )

raccoon(s) are back!

*random photo

this is lake denoon, a place i've gone to since i was her age. we went there early on the 4th without indigo. chris went tubing for the first time ever and was into it.

two weekends ago chris and i went camping at high cliff state park for one night. two more nights were spent up north in the cabin my dad inherited. there we saw several birch groves:



we also went canoeing for two of the three days. i really enjoyed that. we took the canoe that lives up north, put it on my roof rack and went to  Gov. Thompson State Park where Woods Lake is. we paddled, let the current take us for a while, are relaxed. it was really good. i looked on CL for canoes when we got back; i don't think i'll get one this year but it would be nice to have an excuse to explore local waters.

except the kawasaki's don't look as good to me. i do like some of bonneville models a lot, but triumph seems too expensive. harleys are also too expensive. and then suzuki! i like a lot of the 70s and early 80s models...simiilar price range to the hondas as well.

1984 Suzuki GS550

1972 SUZUKI T500 Titan

overall, i think i favor the hondas a little more. it will probably be a few years before i could actually buy one, but we'll see. it depends on the kind of job i can get after getting my arboriculture degree.

matt, if i ever do get one, do you think you could help me learn how to take care of it?

1972 HONDA CB450

1980 HONDA CB650 Custom

1974 HONDA CB750

there were so many ( beautiful things on this trip. )

The Abominable Charles Christopher

(excerpt panels ↓)


i feel pretty hateful towards internet communication currently. i wish people didn't depend on it so much to arrange social hang-outs. i don't have a myspace. don't have a facebook, though i am considering using it. i've been going to board meetings for the broader vocabulary cooperative, and am beginning to realize how fb is dominating the networking world now. but the people i consider genuine friends aren't so because of reflecting comments on our respective blogs.

chris and i just got back from washington (the state). i feel a loss for words to describe how amazing it was. i have hundreds of pictures to post soon. maybe i'll go ahead and start a flickr account to accomadate them. or, maybe i'll have them all put to slides and invite everyone over for tea and a lengthy viewing. can you even develop slides now?

"Since late last week there have been two armed robberies in the Brewers Hill area involving 3 black males with shotguns, or items intended to be perceived as shotguns. 

Description: Three black males in their 16-20's wearing baggy pants that were falling off their behinds, puffy jackets black with fur hood and 1-2" Afros. No distinguishing marks or gold teeth. 

Weapon: Three shotguns that seemed much smaller than they should be -- wooden stock with metal black barrel."

Does this sound a bit racist?

The second paragraph is what got me...mentioning "gold teeth" specifically...I can't think why you would need to mention anything past "no distinguishing marks". I think one of the reasons a lot of us like Riverwest because it's one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Milwaukee (in terms of straight numbers, anyway). But that obviously doesn't mean that the racist tendencies that permeate the rest of mke don't exist in our little square mile home. I was in NYC recently and whenever I'm there, particularly when I'm riding the subway (have time to think) I don't feel any underlying tension between races like there is here. I feel like I can exhale - don't have to think about being intentionally kind to people different than me or guilty if I don't give a shit and don't want to be nice to anybody. If someone's an asshole to me in NY, it's just because they're an asshole and not because I'm white. Hooray!

If you grew up in this city, I don't think you can help being at least a little "secret racist". I remember visiting my parents' place about four years ago and seeing some latino dudes walking around and thinking "what? latinos live here now?"  That thought alone probably qualifies me as a secret racist (ps as I'm writing this, the term "secret racist" is starting to sound really funny, but anyway...). We get used to things being a certain way and then feel confused, or threatened even, when they change. NPR recently did a story about a small, southern town that is now almost half latino in population. One woman admitted that she was frustrated with how the town she grew up in was now becoming unrecognizable. For example, when she goes to the doctor's office, it's no longer staffed by a secretary who knows her family and the doctor that has taken care of them for years...instead there's a bilingual secretary who demands proof of insurance every time and makes her feel like an "alien" in her hometown. Part of me says big-fucking-deal, get over it lady and part of me empathizes with her; it's difficult see such dramatic changes in a place that has remained the same for so long. This also makes me think of Derrick Jenson's argument against the importance of being "multiculturally aware." Scholars, and more specifically ethicists, count global studies as a fundamental lesson. It will probably come up in an undergrad's curriculum in one form or another, and in most secondary schools. But if a small community is functioning just fine, has a good relationship with the world around it, etc why does it have to be versed in the customs of people they have never known? Do communities need to be culturally diverse in order to have wisdom?

It's a tricky thing. No, diversity does not yield wisdom. However, if you are regulary exposed to people much different than you, learning about where they have come from can bring about an epiphany or at least grounds for communication. So there's no fine line to be drawn, no over-arching statement to be made. Except for that one I just mentioned. Thanks for making it this far.

you know you're curious.

milwaukee makes international news.

it goes on a little long, but still...

"the rescue"




fairytale fantasy:
we've all turned into clever birds of super-strength and dapper hats.
i'd like to see our legs move like
trombones
in silken slacks.

we march along without content, feet gripped to the rescued's back.
no chance of rest,
a big snafu,
or enemies to combat.

we've made it through the interlude and the outro is a snatch.
a few tips of our hats,
a few dips in our slacks,
and release the rescued from our grasp.

so, i know this isn't anything terribly new, but damn. i visit the american apparel website once every couple months and end up not ordering anything because i feel gross looking at most of the models; the sex appeal is so blatant it often crosses the line into repulsion for me. it's almost porn - the kind where the models never emit a positive atmosphere that can be found when sex work is a positive or empowering action for a woman. their expressions always say, "i'm just old enough to be doing this, i don't really understand the position i'm putting myself in, but everyone keeps telling me i look good and hey! free waredrobe!" there's an intentional awkwardness that is probably meant to make the target demographic feel more connected to the product, but instead i just feel like the models are being taken advantage of. in that sense, maybe this is all an argument over aesthetic preferences. still, i don't really understand how this part of the company is overlooked especially when they try to do positive things as far as their materials are concerned.

p.s. and the clothes are expensive, sometimes comparable to similar organic clothing from different retailers.
p.p.s. admittedly, i did buy an AA hoodie from an ebay discount seller last year...





and! and! and! some women who begin to take surface-level steps towards spending their money in better ways are still made to think they have to conform to super revealing, typically tight, low neck-type clothes. the style isn't intrinsically wrong, but companies who make moves to produce ethical goods should approach it in a more holistic way. fair-trade doesn't cancel out sexism.

a handful of you probably have seen this on tom fosse's journal, but in case you haven't, and you didn't already know,




please read about the riots in Athens. it is fucking insane.

tom has a lot of useful links in these two entries.

out of curiosity's sake...and for a little advice...

What was everyone's santa experience as a child?
Were your parents honest with you or did they hold up the traditional, there actually is a man sneaking into our house once a year story?

Do you have any feelings about it one way or another (maintaining the fantasy v. not)?

Wal-mart worker dies in sales rush

Have any of you seen Synecdoche NY? I don't think it would be a strech to say that this film has helped mold my perspective of all things not me (makes sense, i'm sure). In brief, it's written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, principally starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman. umm....it's brilliant? I imagine that it's everything Kaufman has hastily written in an old journal come to fruition. Thirteen-million stories told in one film, and not in a Crash-like, they-all-connect-in-the-end way. I saw it for the second time tonight and it just sticks to me. Nearly every scene has enough depth to stand alone and that's the point. Hoffman is a theatre director making his greatest piece in a giant stadium, I suppose. He creates a city of miniature plays being performed concurrently...(quote) "I know how to do it now. There are nearly thirteen million people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They're all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due."

There are actually about 6 billion people in the world.
That's only the surface.

I'm not sure if people like this movie. The only "review" I looked at was on Rotten Tomatoes; it got a 64%.

I've been feeling a little robotic lately. Today I had a late Thanksgiving with my family. Chris came, too. When we got back home, I met a friend from Alverno to see Synechdoche and ended up seeing an old boss from a few years ago. We worked at the theatre together; she had played an older-sister to me through much of it. Then I came back home. Chris was watching Indigo and she was asleep by the time I got there. I told Chris that I had gone through "a menagerie of contexts" today...wasn't sure where I was or what to play now. Life can move so quickly.

I want to recommend that everyone see this film, but I'm not sure if it will affect anyone like it has me. I don't mean that in a selfish, no one else could know how I feel sort of way. I just really don't know. But maybe you should see it anyway.


love, e.

(paraphrased) "The UN's medium estimate for the human population in 2050 is 9 billion. This translates to a need for 1.24 acres/person to sustain food production. There is about half this much arable land available."

Whenever I read damning information about the future, I feel energized. The last couple days I've been feeling really lethargic. I've been staying on my bed as though it was an island separating me from the real world. I think it's mostly hormonal - a new birth control method that's telling my body that I should feel depressed. And then this morning I read once more that our planet -our existence- is doomed in some concrete terms. And I feel excited about it. I feel as arrogant and cocky as any good American should. This is a little perverted, but it's almost a challenge. Bring it on! We can survive this! We are strong, we can fight, and we will win.
....

But we won't be proud because the cost of our victory will be devastation. The world will be reduced to the bare minimal. Life will be a fraction of its former glory so great, that in some places even the cockroaches may complain. We might not want to survive once we've reached the other side and seen what we've done. But I guess that's not what I'm thinking about. I'm thinking that "we" includes the earth and the animals around us, and I still think that we can win back the forests, the rivers, and the sea. I'm thinking about the struggle and the progress we can make and I am motivated, or rather I am the word that encompasses motivation with the heat of the alpha female burning inside it.

adrian veidt does not look like a god.
but the one shot of the comedian looks good, except he's way too skinny.
the last bit of dr. manhatten's 'accident' almost looks frame for frame like the comic if i remember right.
dr. manhatten looks fucking sweet. so does archie. and i like rorschach's voice.

i don't know. it's never really the point for a film adaptation to exactly mirror the original material so we'll see.
silk spectre looks like a raver. bleh