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January 31, 2003
Announcement
Next Thursday there will be a public forum led by Daniel Maguire and Gloria Feldt on the religious and civil right to abortion from 7-8:30 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church (600 East 50th Street, between Martin and Evans, back in my old stomping grounds.) Daniel Maguire is a professor of ethics in the Theology Department at Marquette University and is the author of Sacred Choices: The Right to Abortion and Contraception in Ten World Religions. Dr. Maguire is also the President of the Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics. Gloria Feldt is the President of Planned Parenthood of America and, as was emphasized in the mail I got about this event, a native Texan!
I’m probably the only person who thinks that’s really funny.
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January 30, 2003
We Was Listening to Rock and Roll Records
This is my new favorite song. Thank you, and good night.
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Teenarama
The weird dilemma in keeping a public journal is obvious, and discussed to death elsewhere, but it’s really hitting me where it counts lately. Of course you can’t treat it as a real journal, because only a lunatic would put something so honest and unguarded up for the general populace to read. And yet, if you don’t write anything real, or about things that matter, at least to you, well then it’s boring and pointless, no? So lately, a problem.
Everyone seems to be falling apart around me. I’ve known two people who’ve died only a month apart. Other people are collapsing in less obvious, but not necessarily less public, ways and it’s damn painful to watch.
Everyone is breaking everyone else’s heart in a million tiny ways, as though they haven’t learned anything since they were sixteen, and it kills me to watch.
I know that’s what people do; I think that I just expected it to stop somewhere around age 25, and now that it hasn’t I’m not sure what to do, except observe and flail, buy beers and offer condolences and that doesn’t seem to be quite enough.
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January 27, 2003
Let There Be Rock
The other day at Sacred Cup Coffee House I heard tell of a new radio station that’s supposed to start up soon in the wake of KAOS, somewhere around 107 on your FM dial. I also heard some amazing, brutal hardcore from the likes of Guyana Punch Line, jumped around to the amazing, melodic (in a good way!) hardcore of Storm the Tower, and cowered from the fog machine pooting away during Sbitch’s defiant, metal-influenced set. It was an excellent way to spend a miserably cold Saturday afternoon.
I hate writing about music. I always sound like such a wanker critic. That said, I’ve got some more to say.
I went to the most annoying fucking show in Austin last night. It was at Le Privilege (which you would think should have tipped me off, but apparently I’m a slow learner and/or a glutton for punishment.)
I went because a band from Japan was playing. I met one of the guys in the band during an afternoon show at Emo’s during SXSW last year, and he was very friendly, entertaining and seemed pretty knowledgeable about punk rock and what makes a good band/show vs. what does not. His band is called Peelander Z (again, another tip-off, but I tend to cut bands from other lands with dumb names more slack than I do others).
While waiting for Peelander Z, I had to sit through a whole lot of boring, pretentious bullshit. I didn’t think they were ever going to get to play. When they finally did, I realized at once, “Oh shit, this is a gimmick band. Look at those wacky costumes.” They were each dressed in a theme color, one red, one blue, one yellow. They reminded me of Bomberman, and that’s good, but then proceeded to play a set of standard, uninspired punk rock, and that’s bad. They handed out noisemakers, pots and pans, cowbells and hunks of plastic for everyone in the audience to bang on, and that’s good. They didn’t play one song that wasn’t formulaic, and that’s bad.
At least they had energy, which is more than I can say for the first band, and words, which more than I can say for the second.
And now I’m sick. Damn you, Le Priv, damn you and your germs and your crappy Sunday night line-up.
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January 22, 2003
God Damn Job
I’m so annoyed.
For the last week and a half, I’ve gotten a telephone call everyday from the temp agency that’s supposed to be finding me work. They’ve had a job lined up for the next day each time. Then that same day around 5:30, they call back and say it’s been postponed.
This morning the phone rang, and they were offering me a job for today. I accepted and said I would be there in an hour (no small task, considering I was sitting unwashed and in my undies, drinking tea in front of the computer). The guy on the line, one of my “assignment managers” then proceeds to question my ability to get there on time, and with a condescending tone in his voice implores me to get there at said time. I thought nothing of it right then, since I am late all the time and these aren’t unusual words for me to hear. Then I realized that even though I’ve been “working” with this agency since before Christmas, this is the first actual job I’ve gone on. I’ve never even had a chance to be late, and already they’re bitching.
So when I get to the place, the woman I’m supposed to meet is bewildered. “They already sent me a girl,” she says. So I call in. They needed one girl for two days; it was misinterpreted as two girls for one day. So I gathered together my lunch, my carefully selected cds and my time sheets and took my professionally clad ass home.
All of which is fine, really. I have cramps and a pimple and I don’t want to be around people anyway. I just need some loot, yo, and a hair cut.
So annoying…
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Why not take olive me?
Today I bought some kalamata olives at Phoenicia bakery. They were the most delicious thing I’ve eaten in ten years, salty and juicy and cold. My mouth is watering just thinking about them, and I don’t think I’m going to stop until I’ve eaten them all.
Earlier I saw a delightful film with a delicious boy and now I’m home and exuberant and cozy and all I want to do is pad around the house in my bare feet and pajamas and play video games until I get sleepy.
This has been a very good day. When it’s sunny, it makes me happy.
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January 20, 2003
I went to the screening of Two Towns of Jasper today. As I was leaving, the guy walking out ahead of me turned around and asked what I thought of the film. This is a difficult question. I’m not good at talking to strangers or speaking extemporaneously. Not knowing quite what to say, I mumbled that I thought it was interesting, well done, difficult to watch, that is to say, nothing terribly insightful. I had the whole car ride home to think about it, and I have a more whole answer now.
It shocks me to my core that I can live in a time and place where murders like James Byrd’s can occur. I am a staunch opponent of the death penalty, believing that an eye for an eye never equals justice, violence can only beget violence, arguments that are all familiar. Watching this film really made me question that belief for a moment. It’s a very interesting case, a historic precedent wherein white men, klansmen, were given the death penalty for killing a black man.
I don’t believe in the death penalty, I don’t believe that it metes out justice. At the same time, sitting in that chapel watching that film alongside one of James Byrd’s sons, I was so angry and so disgusted that I could almost feel that it would be justified in this case, that if any people ever deserved to be put to death at the hands of the state, it was these three racists.
I am amazed at the calm most of the family maintained, not asking for vengeance or responding with anger, but simply sadness. Some of the members of his family spoke out after the trials against the death penalty, and that must take great strength of character. It’s impressive to me that so many people who have lost loved ones to violence speak out against the death penalty.
I know these should not be my thoughts on a day meant for reconciliation and reflection, on a day set aside to honor a man who spent his life working for peace and justice. Still, one can’t help but wonder how it is that a man like King could end up assassinated for spending his life preaching for non-violence. And I can’t help but wonder and be saddened that perhaps we haven’t come so very far since then at all.
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January 19, 2003
Dr. Martin Luther King, jr.
“Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a synthesis that combines the truth of both. It means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated.”
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
Happy Martin Luther King Day, everyone.
If you’re in Austin, Huston-Tillotson College is prescreening a documentary on Monday entitled Two Towns of Jasper. It’s an interesting premise. Two separate film crews, one black and one white, went to Jasper after the James Byrd murder and interviewed members of the community of their own race. It’s going to be shown on KLRU on January 22, and the prescreening is on MLK Day at 2:00 in the King-Seabrook Chapel.
***
Other interesting films showing this week are The Story of Qiu Ju, which is a story about contemporary peasant life in China. It’s part of the Austin Film Series, which means it’s free, and it’s showing Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the Alamo Draft House North.
On Wednesday night at the Alamo Downtown, there will be a midnight showing, also free, of The Real Bruce Lee. It’s a documentary about his life, shown with a full-length feature called the Ultimate Lee, featuring Dragon Lee.
As of this sunny Sunday afternoon, full of Turkish coffee and pep, with Art Blakey jazzing it up in the other room, I’m planning on attending all of these events. If the weather gets yucky, so may my mood, and I might duck out. I’m pretty non-committal these days, as can be seen in my infrequent updates.
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January 13, 2003
Rehumanize Yourself
Today as I was leaving the HEB, I overheard two security cops talking. One was older, grandfatherly looking. The other, younger, harder, with very straight, white teeth. As I walk past, Grandfather cop says, “I believe everyone deserves an education, and a second chance.” Pearly-tooth cop angrily replies, “Well, I’m sorry to say it, but that sounds downright liberal to me.” It made him so angry, spit flecks flew when he said his t’s.
Crazy liberal ideas. Next thing you know, folks’ll be wanting homes to live in, stuff to eat. Or decent health care. Pshaw.
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January 06, 2003
I’d Rather Be Sleeping
The mountain cedar is pollenating, and I haven’t been able to breathe or get a decent night’s sleep in weeks. I realize this is not an interesting topic, but it is one that is pervasive in my thoughts and one that’s been keeping me from being more fascinating here. Or maybe that’s just an excuse.
This last week has been spent happily deflating from the long, too long holiday season, drinking too much coffee, watching brilliant kung fu movies and driving around with Jacob in lovely, sunny afternoons. All if it would have been a dream if only I hadn’t been sneezing, wheezing and scratching the whole time. As it was, it was pretty good.
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