I am alive. It's just reading LJ has started to make me angry. I'm angry at the lack of actual face to face, over the phone or even personal email communication. Hell, IM works too. I want to be a person again and have personal communication. So, in the spirit of personal communication I'm inviting you all over for a party. Or if you don't mind adult content, and pictures of my ass you can find me on twitter.

Work has been crazy. I can't remember the last time I read my FL here so if something interesting is going on please call or email me directly. I'm half tempted to just delete my LJ, but I might want it again in the future so I won't. I most likely won't be using LJ much. I just have too much work and things happening in real life. I've been twittering, but I don't really have the time or patience for any more than 140 characters these days.

Yesterday I got a call from the temp agency saying that my paycheck had been sent back to them. I went over to pick it up and someone in my building had wrote return to sender on the envelope. So far, 2 out of 3 neighbors that I've met here have been horrible people, so this only made me more upset. I wrote a sign to post up above the building mailboxes that said, "Dear neighbors, common courtesy is putting my paycheck back in here or leaving it under my door instead of sending it back." Well, this morning someone wrote a little apology note and stuck it up there with my angry note. They may be stupid but at least they're polite enough to apologize. Now if only I could figure out who built the huge burningmanbullshit wind chimes in my garden. I can't pull my weeds without hitting my head on these 8 foot tall wind chimes. They just might get a nasty note too.

Instead of bugging drkaos every time I see a cool looking bird, I thought maybe I would share with the whole interwebs of bird lovers and people who might be more inclined than I am to google these things.

Name that bird, please! I was sitting at a gas station in West Oakland and I saw two crows chasing off a huge bird that may have been some sort of falcon. It was twice the size of the crows. It had a pale cream colored underside, and the top was a light brown color. The wing and tail feather tips were black. It was a really pretty bird, what is it??

And I hear the raven on the roof again!!

This is so cool!! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/ a show on PBS about Native American history as told by Native people themselves using Native languages and actors. So far I've seen the Cherokee episode and I see that I have the Geronimo episode on DVR. I hope they show the first two episodes again because I'd really like to see them.

I haven't read LJ in about a month or so, and you might have noticed that I've only been posting youtube videos with little or no commentary. Sorry folks, unless I'm connected to you some other way I have no clue what is going on in your life right now. I've been so busy with work and with living the good life that I don't realistically have time for online only friends. I'm spending slightly more time on twitter, and the various ning sites that some of you are also on. BUT mostly I'm spending time on email and on the phone. There are a number of you that live close to me, have my phone number and email. If something is up please make a real human connection instead of making a general public announcement. I want to be involved in my friends' lives and I want to hear from you all more often and go out for drinks or tea or whatever. Let's tell our funny stories and random thoughts when we're face to face. I don't know how much time and energy I'll be spending on LJ while I'm so busy with everything else. This week though, I'm totally booked. I'm heading out of town, so don't try calling until Monday.

...and I guess they're marketing to the trans community in Argentina?

From The Mark of Cain

SPARRING WITH BEATNIK GHOSTS - ROUND II
Wednesday, April 22nd at 7 PM - FREE

The first time this event was held at Li Po’s Lounge, the place was packed. Now, Round II will be held amongst the original Subterraneans at The Beat Museum!

Featuring:
Jazz Poet CHARLES CURTIS BLACKWELL
Performance Artist STEVE ARNTSON
San Francisco Poets JENNIFER BARONE
CRAIG EASLEY
ANA ELSNER
GAIL MITCHELL
Mission Poet ALFONSO TEXIDOR
The Poetic Sounds of LUNATION with CLARA HSU and BILL MERCER
Music by BLACK EARTH & THE LAUGHING CHILDE
Produced/Hosted by BOB BOOKER AND DANIEL YARYAN

Link to Flyer:
http://www.thebeatmuseum.org/events.htm

Yesterday I received a copy of Coilhouse magazine in the mail. If someone reading this sent it to me, thank you very much! I have no clue where it came from or why. I haven't ordered any magazines since I've moved here, and it's addressed to my personal name rather than my legal name, business name or anything like that. And I suspect it was ordered from ebay.

This came from an email going around and it's so true!!! being Polish is awesome.


Ah, to be Polish!

Uncanny how many of these are true for us. But I think we're the last generation for whom they will be true; I guess the kids are becoming more "Americanized". But those Polish weddings, polkas and highballs
were fun!!

If you come from Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland, Rochester, Detroit or Milwaukee there is a large church called "Saint Stanislaus," or "Saint Hedwig," within one block of your childhood home (that is, unless you're
one of those suburban exiles, in which case the church is within one block of your babcia's house!)

You wear red on St. Patrick's Day.

Your knowledge of the Polish language is limited to 'naughty' words ie:., dupa, gowno, kurwa, etc, names for food ie: pierogi, kapusta, etc, and drinking toasts ie: na zdrowie , sto lat, etc.

You call your grandma "babcia" or "busia" and your grandpa "dziadzia."

You know how to dance the polka, but you only do it at weddings after kicking back a few generous shots of vodka.

When frustrated, you slap your forehead, shake your head, and say "O Jezu Marija!" (ouch!)

You have one grandma that wears a babushka and galoshes every single day of the year and another grandma that wears a lot of jewelry and too much make-up.

You have at least one uncle named "Stan," or "Stas."

Your relatives have strong devotion to saints, the Blessed Virgin, the Pope, the Democratic Party, the U.S. Steelworkers, etc.

Your grandma has a shrine complete with votive candles and a picture of "Our Lady of Czestochowa" or "Infant of Prague."

Your parents have at least one crucifix or religious picture mounted on a wall in their house with palms tucked behind it.

You get your food blessed at Easter and your house blessed at Christmas time.

Your family has a wigilia meal on Christmas Eve at which you share oplatki and kiss everyone.

You always prefer rye bread to white or wheat. Your dad has forced you to eat horseradish, claiming that it will "put hair on your chest", even If you're a female!

You know the words to "Sto Lat" and sing it at all birthday parties.

You can out drink all of your friends.

You have waited in line at a church or bakery to buy pierogi or paczki.

Words like kiszka, kielbasa, and kolaczki actually mean something to you.

You actually know who Kosciuszko and Pulaski are, and why they're important.

You have at least one relative who plays the Accordion.

You're completely overdressed for every occasion.

Your idea of "healthy" is boiled pierogi then fried in butter w/onions, light beer, and filtered cigarettes.

You have at least one bar in your house - usually in the basement.

Your family always has an excuse to hold a "poprawinie" - e.g., when someone dies, or when someone gets married.

You've never been to Poland , but you have mysterious relatives there to whom you send gifts and money every Christmas.

You collect "prayer cards" from funerals.

You often visit cemeteries ( light votive candles for dead relatives and generally spend an unhealthy amount of time obsessing about death.

People often have trouble pronouncing your last name.

You think having a "highball" is high society. Ah, to be Polish!

Had a migraine and all sorts of ick today so I didn't go to work. I slept all day. I feel totally guilty. I keep thinking there's more of something I can do to prevent this, but I'm not sure what. I get to go to work tomorrow instead, which means no staying out late at the clubs tonight.

More movies that I need to write reviews for
Number Seventeen (1937 Hitchcock)
Chan is Missing
Sanshiro Sugata (1942 Kurosawa)

Work is killing me, seriously this time. And the worst part of it is that It's just a matter of me sitting here and babysitting the various video programs as they render and convert files, and I can't wander too far because I have to make sure nothing goes wrong.

More than fifty Bay Area Native American rights activists converged on the historic East Oakland property at 9:30 p.m. to ensure the shutdown of popular Burning Man group Visionary Village's "Go Native!" party. The fired-up Hopis, Kiowas and other tribal members spent more than four hours lecturing the handful of white, college-class Burners about cultural sensitivity until some of them simply broke down crying.

Which includes some priceless gems like, But for every apology, the group often inserted a foot into its mouth. Some Burners said they'd been trained by shamans to build altars, others sang racist childhood songs, or noted the lack of Native Americans at Burning Man (which occurs on an Indian reservation). Others asked for Indian help with their Burning Man projects, prompting a Hopi woman to go off.

"I'm trying to articulate my feelings as best I can without completely losing it," she said. "What we do is not an artistic expression. And you don't have artistic license to take little pieces here and there and do what you want with it. That's something you people don't understand, probably never will understand.

"Name your little villages whatever you want, but don't ever associate it with Native Americans. Call it the Crystal Ranch or something. Call it the Mars Ranch. If you want to be spiritual — go be a Druid or something."

Ha! trained by "shamans" to build altars. And yes as a matter of fact there is a distinct lack of POC at Burningman. These are the same people that move into less wealthy and often POC neighborhoods and then bitch about the awful effects of gentrification, as if unpacking their boxes makes them integrated into these communities. When I was at BM the star of the camp I was in was a white South African woman because she was so exotic. They really hated me because I didn't buy into all their rich "hippie" nonsense and I almost puked when they were all gathered around her as she talked about her exotic adventures as a white woman in South Africa. And then they wonder why POC aren't interested in going to Burningman!? The real hippies fought for civil rights.

I'm not allowed to go grocery shopping when I have the flu and am hungry. I've had a hell of a week, been sick in bed most of the week. I haven't been able to eat much, but now that I'm starving I have a bunch of odds and ends that I have no energy to prepare. My eating habits have been awful for the past two months mostly because my appetite is totally gone and I've been forgetting to eat. I've completely gotten out of the habit of cooking. It's no wonder I've been so sick and stressed. I decided to pick up some easy things at the grocery store to hopefully jump start my cooking at home. Things like veggie burgers and hummus that can be combined with the veggies and things I have at home. Except I'm in no condition to think, so I ended up with a bag full of candles and hummus and hot dog buns and cookies and not much else. So I guess I'm having hummus and spinach on hot dog buns tonight. No light bulbs either so I don't have light over the stove anyway.

And I'm cat sitting Jason's gorgeous cat. The first thing she did was climb into the ceiling beams. I've been able to coax her down and she's been eating and using the cat box, but I really wish she'd cuddle with me instead of watching me sleep from the ceiling.

http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno/
Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno 2 is up with sea creatures!

This song is exceptionally cheesy, but about half of it was filmed at the Armory and features various friendly local pornstars and sex writer Violet Blue. The man dancing around in robes before stripping down to a thong is the perpetually dorky millionaire Peter Ackworth of kink dot com standing on top of the Armory of course.