Update: Santa Monic Pier, Free Concert Series!

Thanks Steve for the tip! Check out the Twilight Dance Series at the Santa Monica Pier, featuring free music through August:

Twilight Dance Series

Updated Event Calendar

Hey all, This hasn't been updated much, but check out the "LA Happenings" column to the right for some killer upcoming events in the LA Area.

LACMA offers FREE jazz performances every Friday Night:
LACMA Friday Night Jazz


Also, the Levitt Pavilion in Pasadena is offering FREE musical performances June through August:
Levitt Pavilion Pasadena

The Getty events are also FREE!
Getty Summer Sessions 2008

Pictured: El Guincho and Zizek Urban Beats Club, performing July 26

Juju Information

And You Could Die!

I was surfing the web doing some coffee research when I stumbled upon the Caffeine Awareness website, which wants to warn us all about how caffeine is ruining our health and our lives.

To which I must say: I have given up almost every other addiction I enjoy. Give me a damn break.

But I thought someone else might get a laugh from seeing this . . .

Cheers.

Wurtz Pictures

Since Jason is too lazy to post pictures, I will do it for him...



Click picture for link to the albums.

A Political Comic That Actually Made Me Laugh

I feel like politics can be so depressing or tense these days. This comic actually made me laugh, which is a good change of pace. You should check it out too!


Enjoy!

Teaching in "the Trenches"

I came across an excerpt of the new book Relentless Pursuit: A Year in the Trenches with Teach for America in the most recent issue of U.S. News and World Report. The clip featured two profiles of young men who are teaching at Locke High School in Los Angeles. If I have my facts correctly, Locke is one of the feeder schools for Horace Mann, where our very own Nittle-Face teaches English.

The article and some bonus bits can be found here. Cheers to Nittle and to everyone else who is out there teaching our children.

[Nittle's Note: Horace Mann feeds into Crenshaw and Washington, both high schools currently under close watch by the state, like Locke. While Mann is in the Hyde Park/Inglewood vicinity, Locke High is in Watts. Peace. Haven't read the article yet, but can't wait! Thanks for posting, Mandy.]

Check out Nadra's post on Racialicious...

BANANAS, OREOS AND COCONUTS: WOULD YOU IDENTIFY AS WHITE ON THE INSIDE?

by Nadra Kareem

L.A. Happenings

Lots of great things coming up in the near future. Keep up to date with the new feature: "L.A. Happenings," located on the sidebar. If you know of other events, please post them, so we can keep it fresh.

Notable Additions:

April 25-26: Coachella, now featuring PRINCE!
April 26: Sly and the Family Stone. Holy Crap. The Original funk.
May 7: Former President Jimmy Carter at Vromans
May 29 & May 31: REM and the Cure at the Bowl, respectively
June 10: Billy Bragg! a very rare west coast appearance
June 12: Badu + Roots
June 20: Fela Kuti's son, Seun Kuti performance for free with his father's band
August 24-25: Radiohead

An Open Letter to White Feminists

This article has been making the rounds on several feminist blogs that I read. I have no idea how I feel about it, so I thought I would post here and see if anyone else had a reaction besides me.

It does make a laundry list of the ways the white feminist movement is failing other parts of the feminist movement. Even though I am white, as a genderqueer feminist I could already make my own list of the ways the current feminist movement is failing me. and other genderqueer feminists.

Overall, I'm not sure how productive the discussion that Jessica Hoffman has tried to start here will be. But it is at least worth a read.

Cheers.

Saying the "R" Word

Today I saw a journalist from a major news outlet almost admit that the United States economy is in a recession. I have been driven insane by the fact that despite every indication that our economy is in a downward spiral, folks from NPR to the Tucson Weekly to the LA Times have been reluctant to admit what is going on. For months and months I've heard and read, "These things would seem to indicate a recession," or, "with all of these results, you'd think the American economy was in a recession" or even, "the last time this happened, the American economy was in a recession".

I understand that it can be hard to publicly admit failure, but give me a freakin' break. As the folks in AA say, admitting you have a problem is the first step. Our country is in financial crisis. Not saying it out loud doesn't make it go away. The sooner we can talk about the disaster, the sooner we can work on fixing it.

It's not like we're fooling anyone. The rest of the world is aware of our financial troubles. And we're not fooling most of the general public either, seeing as they are the ones who are having their homes foreclosed on and who can't get a job.

I don't know if our next president will help any of this, but one would hope so.

Enough bitching. Off to think of less depressing things.

Vegan Ethiopian food

So a couple members of the shire hit Little Ethiopia this evening.

The food was wonderful. We were brought a special pitcher and bowl to wash our hands at the table. And the table!

Don't mind us - we were just hungry

And here is the group

From Vegan Ethiopi...

We are a little bit blury, but what can you do? Click the link for bigger versions, plus a couple of more pictures.

I'll Have the Wool-Free Stripper in Pleather, with a Side of Vegan Chimichangas, Please

Want a guilt-free lap dance? Visit Casa Diablo Gentlemen’s Club in Portland. Not only does the club serve vegan chimichangas, the strippers there wear pleather, not leather. Feminist vegans, dubbed "feminazis" by the club's owner, are none too happy about the vegan club, which the New York Times chronicles in an article called "The Carrot Some Vegans Deplore."

Is it okay to peddle human flesh, while discouraging the peddling of animal flesh? The Times tries to answer this question as it explores the sexual politics of the meat-free movement. It also refers to the Peta protest we at Wordwax recently discussed in which a pregnant woman knelt on all fours in a cage to protest the cramped living conditions of humble pigs. Read the article in full here.

Oppressive Fashion Device Not Just For Women Any More . . .

In the transgender community, binding is often a big concern for those identifying as FTM (female to male). Whether the breasts in question are large or small, altering or hiding their appearance in order to look traditionally male-chested is not only a fine art, but it is also a giant pain in the ass. Many FTM folks are always keeping one ear to the ground to hear about new methods and materials available to help make binding more manageable.

Someone we know here in Tucson passed along a website via e-mail for Romantasy Exquisite Corsetry, suggesting they might offer some new options in the world of binding. After a brief (and horror/hilarity-filled) review of the offerings from Romantasy, it is quite obvious they this proprietor has something else in mind entirely.

Up until recently, wearing corsets has been a body-deforming, health-harming tradition relegated to those of or an identifying as the female gender. But Romantasy Exquisite Corsetry is looking to change all of that by suggesting men should wear corsets as well! While this is different from binding in many, many ways that I feel should be immediately obvious to most people, the two differences I'd like to point out are:
1) Binding is not meant to alter the shape of your body long term, but is just for hiding or adjusting the shape of your body for the short term and
2) corsets don't really hide breasts or help give a more traditionally masculine appearance, which is typically the whole point of binding.
The failure to understand these points sort of shows that I think Romantasy misunderstands the FTM community.

Regardless, I am actually most horrified that people are still trying to alter the shapes of their bodies with corsets, which have been shown to cause (among other things) internal organ damage. I understand corsets when it comes to fetish stuff or SM play, but Romantasy seems serious about making it part of an everyday lifestyle (for folks of any gender). Creepy!

Amazed...

Nadra and I caught an AMAZING show this evening at UCLA's Royce Hall: Angelique Kidjo with opener Dengue Fever.


Dengue Fever, hailing from Los Angeles, offered up an eclectic mix of surf-garage rock, crossed with Cambodian pop and Ethiopian grooves. Fronted by hypnotic Chhom Nimol from Cambodia, with her Khmer vocals, the band brewed up intoxicating flavors, leaving the audience both mesmerized and heads-a-bobbin'. Recommended: Venus on Earth.


Angelique Kidjo, native of Benin, West Africa, via Paris and New York, is the definition of a Performer (with a capital "P"). With fire in her vocal delivery, electricity in her dance moves, an infectious spirit, and a killer pan-African backing band, Kidjo leaped into the audience's hearts with her first steps on stage. By the end of the evening, the entire crowd was dancing on their feet, with about 150 people up on stage, grooving with Kidjo and the band, remaking the austere university concert hall ambience with color, jubilance and passion. Check out her albums, Black Ivory Soul and her new star-studded affair, Djin Djin.

Best concert in recent memory!

Listening to Youssou N'Dour: Guide (Wommat)

I Don't Care Who Great Leaders Sleep With In Their Spare Time

I was saddened to hear the news today at Governor Eliot Spitzer had to resign from office because he was found out to be breaking the law by engaging in transactions with prostitutes.

I myself began to admire Mr. Spitzer when he took on some of the biggest names on Wall Street on behalf of Joe and Jane Q. Public during his tenure as NY State Attorney General. Mega Huge Investment Firms and Insurance Companies that no one else would dare to mess with were brought to their knees in court by this man. While he was far from perfect, I think he dedicated a lot of his time and energy to fighting the good fight and winning battles that no one thought could be won.

What a bummer to see such an inspiring politician's career brought to a premature end because of this kind of thing. I do firmly believe that who or what a political leader decides to sleep with in their time off should not be held against them. I don't think, however, that they should be allowed to break laws. Because Mr. Spitzer couldn't get his kicks for free, all of New York state loses out.

Now some folks might say, "He was cheating on his wife! You're a rabid feminist--how could this not upset you?" To which I say: you assume he was cheating on his wife. He and his wife may have come to any number of agreements on their sexual relationship, including an agreement to be polyamorous and/or to engage in anonymous sex with multiple partners. Much like being trained to look at gender as binary, we're also trained to think that every couple only wants to sexually be a couple with each other. But I've got news for you folks: polyamory is alive and well, along with many other kinds of non-traditional sexual relationships.

Sex often ruins politics only because people have an interest in enforcing what they see is "normal" on other folks. And you can probably guess how I feel about that.

Stuff White People Like

Full List of Stuff White People Like

Including "Bottles of Water," "Toyota Prius," "Public Radio," and "Marathons"

Do You Ever Get the Feeling . . .

. . . that you're voting for a brand instead of a candidate?

With two folks running for the Democratic party nomination who have such similar stances on so many key ideas, we're often distracted from issues and forced to look at image.

I blame a chunk of this problem on the way our media has decided to handle this race. Instead of thorough examination on where Hillary and Obama differ on issues, we're forced to deal with sound bites and slogans, like:

"Stand for change!"

"Help make history!"

None of this is new--snappy slogans and a candidate's "image" have been shallow key parts of elections for many decades. But for some reason this election has made me so tired of these tactics. Perhaps because I feel like both Democratic candidates have so many interesting ideas that they could be talking about, but most of the time we actually hear their voices in the media, they're putting each other down or giving simple, one-sentence answers to policy questions.

I also believe we have the dreaded two-party system to blame for this mess. If there were several *viable* candidates from multiple parties, we'd actually have to listen to what the difference between all of their policies is, rather than just vote for the one with the coolest website. Or so I think anyway.

I am almost done beating this dead horse, but thought I'd post anyway . . .

thoughts on a Marathon

Okay, so after three LA Marathons ('06, '07, '08), I figure it'd be fun to actually write down some of my thoughts post-race, for posterity's sake...

- Best iPod moment of the race: "Where Were You?" by the Mekons - The first mile of the new LA Marathon course is all uphill, everyone walks, going through the narrow Cahuenga pass. But then, when you hit the top, everyone starts screaming down the hill towards Los Angeles, the Hollywood Bowl on your right. The Mekons song starts out slow, and builds for the first minute. As I hit the hill, the song picked up, the drums kicked in, and I started running down the hill, the wind in my face.

The LA Marathon is lined with community folks, giving you everything you can think of, cheering you on, hitting you with gardening hoses...

- Best thing in my mouth during the race: 2 sticks of Red Vine licorice near Little Tokyo, so GOOD! A nice lady gave them to me.

- Worst thing I put in my mouth during the race: Pretzels near the Fashion District, made me want to vomit, I promptly throw the rest of the handful on the ground to be trampled by the runners behind me.

- Best running performance stuff of the race: Power Bar Gel, Double Latte flavor (with 2x the caffeine! This was my coffee for the morning mid-race).

- Probably not a good thing: Natalia, one of my fellow SRLA running coaches, gave me a handful of 600mg Ibuprofen pills for the race, to prevent swelling and leg/knee/ankle/shin splint pain from holding me back during the race. Ummm, yeah, I took 3 or 4, I think. Didn't feel a thing! (The next morning, I felt a sharp pain in the top of my right foot. I now think those painkillers might have been masking a stress fracture).

- I got scolded for this: Texting my family and friends on my cell phone around mile 17. My fellow running coach and running idol, Goetz, chastised me for using an iPod in the first place (not running a "natural" race), but the cell phone seemed to be a bigger no-no...

- Best moment of the race? Seeing my roommate, Daniel, around mile 24.5! He ran out on the street, grabbed my hand and started punching the air, running with me for about a half mile. "DOIN' AWESOME, MAN!!! KEEP IT UP!!!" Something like that, by that point in the race, it was all a haze.

- Memorable sights of the race: 44 people in the race dressed up like Slash (from G&R). There was also a woman that looked like Scary Spice in a red bikini. Two kids, one boy, one girl, about 4 feet tall that beat me.

- Highlights? Beautiful weather, all of the students and teachers from my school finished, no one got hurt, all proudly received medals and SRLA Marathon Finisher sweatshirts; Horace Mann teachers and students came out to support at mile 13; Nadra, Jason, Mina and Dino at the finish line!

- Is this my last marathon? Not sure. I've got people pressuring me to do this in June: San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon (Maybe you should too?)

PETA Ads, Part 2

One of the reasons I love bitch magazine is because I have never found another periodical that echoes my thoughts so often and even more articulately than I ever could have hoped.

Here's bitch's blog piece on the PETA demonstration Nadra brought up last week, which includes a "Vote for Which PETA Ad You Hate the Most" poll.

Just thought I'd share . . .

Jehovah's Witnesses and Your Local Laundromat

I have been living life without a washer and dryer at my free disposal for about six months now, which means I have had the distinct pleasure of taking my laundry to laundromats. While our fabulous new apartment has laundry facilities right near our door, while we lived in Lancaster I drove to many different laundromats all round town.
For some reason, in my rush to get to the laundromat and do a bunch of laundry, I would forget to bring a book to read while I was waiting for our clothes to wash or dry. I would quickly become bored out of my mind and would read whatever was on the counters.
What I usually discovered was the Jehovah's Witnesses Watch Tower and Awake! magazines. The more surprising part of this story is that I actually read them! Why? Because I was stuck at the laundromat!
While I was not converted to being a Jehovah's Witness myself, I have to say that I would rate this an extremely effective tactic for spreading the word of the gospel of your choice. There are few places more boring than a laundromat, and religious zealots everywhere should take note of this fact and start dropping off material at the Suds 'N Duds nearest to them.
Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Those delightful 'Once' folks...

A truly wonderful moment in the popular imagination, and for Oscars history was watching these two win it for best original song:

Pitchfork Interview with Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová

Another amazing Oscar performance of long ago (skip to 2:55 for Elliott, unless you want to watch Trisha and Celine too):

Oscar Performances

The odd menage-a-trois of music

This short article says it all:

David Bowie provides backing vocals on two tracks for Scarlett Johansson's album of Tom Waits covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head.

He wrote on his web site: "The songs are great, really good Tom Waits stuff, and Scarlett's performances are mystical and cool." Bowie also insists his contribution to the CD is not as big as the hype.

"I've seen the press on the album and I suppose the record company wanted to spin my involvement a little more than it warrants. All I really contribute are these ooh's and aah's on a couple of tracks."

David Bowie, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Waits?

Suing For Our Civil Rights "Not Fair" According to G.W. Bush

As his days of official fear-mongering are winding down, President G.W. Bush has been trying to scare the shit out of the American public once again by throwing a fit about the House not approving the Senate's version of the Protect America Act.

Don't worry--the act, which expired on February 16th, doesn't actually protect you from anything. It deals largely with the process that government folks must go through to request a wire tap for a phone line. The Protect America act makes it a much easier and expedient process, requiring less hard evidence for a tap to be approved.

What is even more problematic is that the Senate's new version of the bill provides immunity to the phone companies who are letting the government trample all over our right to privacy. There are currently 40 lawsuits pending against various phone companies for allowing these wiretaps to happen after 9/11. Our president doesn't think Americans should get to hold these phone companies accountable at all, saying recently: “They’re getting sued for billions of dollars, and it’s not fair . . .If you’ve done something that you think is perfectly legal and all of a sudden you’re facing billions of dollars of lawsuits, it’s going to be hard to provide — with credibility — assurances that we can go forward."

The problem with this statement is that the phone companies should have known that it was NOT perfectly legal to allow these wire taps to happen. Sadly, only one phone company in the entire country told the government to bugger off when they came knocking at the door, and that was AZ's local Qwest Communications.

I am so sick of being told how scared we should be because our civil rights are NOT being violated (for once). I also get the impression from listening to G.W. that he is simply angry that he is not getting his way, despite all of his allusions to the terrorists that are hiding under our beds, waiting to kill us and our freedom.

You can read the NY Times articles that I lifted these quotes from here. I apologize that this is not such a well-written entry. It all just makes me so damn mad.

Pregnant Women Are Porkers

There was a time when only models and actresses went nude for PETA. Now it looks like the animal rights group is using barely clad pregnant women to make its point. TMZ.com reports that an expectant mother, sporting only underwear, squatted on all fours in a cage in London to protest the cramped conditions into which humble pigs are forced.

I get the point, but, by using a pregnant woman, isn't PETA suggesting that pregnant women ARE pigs?

My new favourite blog (besides this one)

garfield minus garfield


Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and methamphetamine addiction in a quiet American suburb.

Dumb As Posts

American teens are ignorant. At least, that’s the argument found in a New York Times article printed today. According to the article, fewer than half of American teens who participated in a phone survey knew the period when the Civil War was fought or when Columbus sailed to the New World.

So, what’s to blame? George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, according to Common Core, the group that commissioned the study. NCLB has resulted in too much teaching centered on standardized testing and not enough teaching centered on liberal arts, the group says.

The funny thing about Common Core is that it’s made up of Lefties and Righties, alike, so it’s difficult to argue that, once again, liberals are vilifying the President and his policies.

Check out the article in its entirety here.

Assassination

I thought of this when I read Nadra's recent post on her blog about the movie Crash. (Just for the record, in case you've never met me, I freakin' hate that movie.)

I have heard some rumblings that there is a significant percentage of Obama supporters who think there is a high possibility he will be assassinated if he is elected to office. And when I say high possibility, I mean I've heard some folks say, "I'm supportive, and I am voting for him, but I don't think he'll make it out of the first year alive."

I have to say that I was initially pretty shocked when I heard someone say this for the first time. My initial thought was, "I would like to think that America is too old for that." But then I set aside the rose-colored glasses that I enjoy wearing on most days and thought about it for a minute. I haven't done any recent research, but I am sure that hate crimes are alive and well, regardless of what minority you might belong to these days. While I would like to say I haven't heard a racist comment recently, in reality I hear them on a daily basis, whether it is overt (a derogatory term yelled by an idiot on the street at some poor bystander) or covert (i.e. Fox News coverage of immigration issues). Sadly, America is not close to being hate free.

This reminds me of viewing the movie Crash because when I saw the movie, I thought (and clearly still think) it was a reprehensible piece of garbage. I lived in Los Angeles for 5.5 years and the majority of the people I interacted with on a daily basis seemed normal and could at least restrain any latent prejudices they might have had so that they behaved rationally in public. But I know in my heart that all of the hate issues that are touched on in Crash (and even more that are not) exist in LA and in all of the US. I know horrible people do horrible things to innocent folks for abhorrent and ignorant reasons.

Thus, I would like to say that there is no extra threat of assassination posed to Obama, should he become President of the United States, just because of his race. But part of me also feels like to say so would be to turn my back on the issues of racism (and other isms) that we are still dealing with every day in this country.

Anyone else got some sentiments on this?

My whirliest girl-friend

Hey y'all,

Nadra's been blowing it up the last few days on her new blog as well. Check it:

Nadra's Blog

Listen 'Till You're Thin, Ladies!

While I was driving from Los Angeles to Tucson this weekend, I was listening to an independent radio station broadcasting from somewhere out in Palm Springs. The DJ came on and announced that the next track he'd be playing was off of a new CD called SkinnySongs. One of his friends is part of the production team of this new disc, he confessed, which has recently been featured on Oprah's and Martha Stewart's day time television shows. He didn't mention much about the project beyond that, but I was already alarmed and suspicious. The title of the song I heard is called "Blowin' You Off at 8". Here are some sample lyrics:

Today, I have to say, was the best day of my life
I hate to admit it -- but it sure felt nice
you pulled up a chair after checking me out
but when I looked at you, you were shocked to find out…

that this lady you’d been sizing up from behind
yeah, this lady, you’d been undressing with your mind
with this lady you were wanting to score
but she's the same girl you dumped six months before!

you dumped me at 16 now I’m blowin’ you off at 8
You told me I was fat -- now honey don’t I look great?
I’ve dropped four dress sizes down, now you're coming around
if you didn’t want me then, then you don’t deserve me now!


I was pretty disgusted at this song and the project as a whole, but I guess I am not that surprised. And of course this disc is clearly being marketed towards women (although I suppose it might also be profitable to do a SkinnySongs 2: Real Men Aren't Fat or something like that).

I have more things to say about this, but I am about to lose my internet connection. Just check out the website and try not to vomit while you're gazing upon it.

Nader enters the fray...

Ralph Nader is running again for President in '08:

Vote Nader Website

LA Marathon - Sunday 3/2

Get ready for the LA Marathon next weekend!

If you're interested in coming downtown to support the crew from Horace Mann Middle School, we would love to have you out there cheering us on. I'm shooting for finishing the race around 12:15-12:30. After the race, our school will gather at the Marriott downtown: 333 S. Figueroa Blvd. Los Angeles 90017.

If you're going, I recommend taking the metro, as parking downtown will be tricky and expensive:
LA Marathon Metro Information

I will have my cell phone on me during and after the race, if you need to contact me, or to find me. The Marriott would be a good call.

For more info on the event, check out:
LA Marathon Official Website
Students Run LA Website

Peace, y'all. And thanks for the support!

a.

A rose by any other name...

All of you should know by now, but!

"Stacie" is now "Mina" - Change your phones, your emails, and your hearts.

Explanations to come later.

-Mina

In the beginning...

"For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done for ever." - Henry David Thoreau

This is the first post of the Official Shire Blog. Stay tuned for more soon...

Peace, y'all.

a.

(listening to Curtis Mayfield)