Friday, March 28, 2008

My Poor College


i am so sad. I don't know the details. I've been avoiding the details. but the gist is that the feckless board of directors have choked poor antioch, founded in 1852, to death so that they can make it a feckless trade school with plastic satellite campuses someplace other than sweet Yellow Springs, Ohio, and these satellites are also doomed. sad sad sad. its been a terrible year of watching its lurching death rattles, but also a time to party, reconnect, and honor its cool-ass power. the remarkable gathering of extraordinary, extraordinary beautiful (I mean jaw-dropping fantastically lovely visionary people) is on the ropes, perhaps down for the count. every antiochian i know has revolutionized a small or large part of their world. add it to the death toll of the Bush years. a college too idealistic, too community dedicated, too turbulent, and too committed to the wild righteous notions of the nineteen year-old to live. i am indebted to my parents for letting me be nineteen there, so i could be wild and righteous without boundaries, get knocked off my feet (or at least severely curtailed) by the real world, and to be inspired to try try try to make my little bit of justice thereafter. if I told you all the amazing things that have been done by my friends since we left there, just in my small little circle of friends there, its just amazing. I am so proud to be part of it and so pissed about its incompetent stewardship. What I was promised when i signed on was to get an education to be an effective activist. That is exactly what i received, with all its triumphs and frustrations. from the people who brought you (in part) co-ed dorms, They Might Be Giants, highlights of the civil rights movement, Stephen Jay Gould, sexual consent, The Gits, cooperative education, Coretta Scott King, Mia Zapata, Mark Strand, div dance, Steve Sady, Anastasia Goodstein, Rod Serling, Sylvia Law, and many other amazing change-makers and change-making ideas (so many more).... aaaaaahhhhggggghhh! last one out, please get the lights.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Waiting for my celeb sighting


Well i haven't met her or seen her around yet. But she's in town and works at a dog walking place and walked a friend of a friends dog! That's CLOSE. REAL CLOSE. And she has a snarky blog.



Sleater Kinney - The End of You
Sleater Kinney - You're No Rock and Roll Fun




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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

White Eagle Saloon

I found a great place tonight. If you are ever in Portland (and aren't staying with me) this great little hotel has rooms for $30 a night and it looks like its been there a hundred years. Like an old west saloon with the rooms on the second floor and it actually seems kind of fancy, in an old west sort of way. The interior is a lot of carved wood and old signage and mosaic tile. And its right on the max line! I wish I was visiting so i could stay there. its in this odd little industrial corner across the river from downtown. Seriously. Unless you are staying with me that is.

The Misfits- Where Eagles Dare

Eagle*Seagull - Your Beauty is a Knife I Turn on My Throat

Monday, March 24, 2008

Back from the Rockies

i had the best time in Denver! And we got to go to this cute as pie little mountain town called Minturn. Complete with really tasty quail! And liquor appreciation. And nice people! And we got to go snow tubing with a three year old who was super into it and rode on my lap a bit. i got to be a special adult guest star who was called upon for all manner of task and companionship. Certain tasks i considered to be expert-level (for the parents) but at the end of the weekend, the three year old herself declared that I was not an amateur. she actually said exactly that. smart girl, but i still fooled her.

In other news, and far more unfortunate, i learned this morning at the dentist's office that I will be going through a first world nation right of passage. The Crown. The picture is from the brochure they gave me entitled "why do i need a crown?" My tooth doesn't look like that, by the way. Its all covered in composite white filler stuff that a crank dentist burdened me with in 1998. BOO! At least the dentist seems okay this time. He has a nice office with magazines in the waiting room that aren't out of date and a view of my neighborhood from his high rise office. So much better than the last place blue cross sent me with the soviet era equipment and peeling carpet.


Thursday, March 20, 2008

you'll have to use your imagination

i'm having a hard time with the images tonight. I'm going to Denver to visit friends tomorrow. I haven't packed. The rabbit just came back from the bedroom and said, "but the backpack is empty." Indeed it is. but I thought i should at least explain myself, where i've gone (to a cabin in the rockies) what I'll be doing (playing with a three year old and maybe snow tubing) and so forth. we had our sold-the-damn-house celebratory dinner tonight at Clyde Common and i dare saw it was flawless. My work day wasn't but I got a really great, hard fought result in court this afternoon and I feel like I'm starting to hit my stride.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

in case you missed it

I watched this speech on the same youtube clip you see here. And I guess for me it was like preaching to the choir, but from the media storm of the last few days I'll admit there is something out there I really don't understand. Why is CNN covering this like Obama's reverend burned a cross in front of a temple? or hung an noose from a tree in Jena? I don't understand the fear of black churches reflected in the media coverage. i don't understand the bombastic reaction to a sermon. i don't understand why its being played over and over like evidence of some horrible gotcha. Obama's speech tries, with integrity and love, to place the sermon in a context that might have been lost on whoever is lapping up the media hand-wringing, though i think to hear Obama's message, you have to have an open heart and an open mind.


Real Pretty

It was a real pretty today in Oregon. I drove out to FCI Sheridan ( a federal prison), down through the pinot country, through Newberg and McMinnville, surrounded by hills covered in vineyards, beautiful clouds, blossoming hazelnut trees, and daffodils everywhere. In the ditches, the fields, yards, just everywhere. Then i was in prison.


Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You

karl blau - Spring Morning

Thanks to photographer Rolf Hicker for the use of his flower picture.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Live from Medford


I am in the Rogue Regency Inn in Medford tonight, having just flown in for a hearing in the morning for an illegal re-entry case. I am a bit nervous about tomorrow because it is not my home court, but I'm prepared and the case is a good one. Illegal re-entry cases are very sad, for the most part. Typically the people who get prosecuted are hard working Mexicans who are here to do construction or agricultural things, maybe got on the wrong side of the law when they were younger, and are getting sent to prison and deported, seperated from their families here, triple whammy.

Medford is not the very most charming town on the earth but it does have a few great things going for it. The people are fantastically nice and the classic rock radio is second to none. Better even than what I remember from Dallas when I was a kid and a radio maven. No clear channel here. Where else do they do a Pink Floyd, Frampton, Lucinda Williams, Grand Funk Railroad back to back? I am in the hotel lobby using the internet right now where the radio is piping and as I'm writing this they played a Joni Mitchell song I've never heard and something else by Elvis Costello that you never hear.Sometime when I'm down here and have a bit more time I'd also like to do some hiking. They have a cool mesa sort of thing called Table Rock that is supposed to be phenomenal. But alas, on this trip I'm all work, back on the plane in the afternoon. I'm looking forward to being woken up early, in one of my very favorite ways, with a knock on the door by a person bearing eggs and bacon. YAY.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Bye house!

Yesterday was the closing on my house in Columbus. It turned 100 years old this year and was a terrific place to live and a money pit and totally sweet and a good education. And, as of 9am this morning, I don't owe a nickel to anyone, anywhere. What an odd feeling. So I guess portland is stuck with me now.

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Guided by Voices - The Official Ironmen Rally Song

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - House Fire



Thursday, March 13, 2008

gogol voodoo donut bordello

one of my dearest friends is in town for a second, way too short a second, and she called me tonight with an extra ticket to Gogol Bordello. Do you know what I'm talking about? I did not know but it sounded fun and it was. Though it did not smell very nice. Them hippies love that gypsy core. my ears are still ringing right this second with the reverb of accordions, violins, and electric guitar. i don't know the last time i was at a sold out rock show. (yeah i'm so indie like that) maybe when i saw X in cleveland. i love that vibe when its sold out and everyone is pumped to be there. Afterwards we went to Voodoo Donut for a late night treat. The magic is in the hole.


X - Johnny Hit and Run Pauline
Gogol Bordello - Last Wish of the Bride

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Xamach Dos

We got back from mexico late last night. pleased to report that we avoided the crowds and bullcrap for the most part. Got a rental car at the Cancun airport and made our way south south, down the coast on dirt roads toXamach Dos, a tiny little set up of hammocks and cabanas on the water. Its on an old coconut plantation in the Sian Kaan Biosphere and sleeps about six, solar powered and way off the beaten path near Punta Allen. That's where Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard used to hide his boat, when he wasn't busy marauding and so forth. Now its an itty bitty mostly mayan broken down fishing village with a heavy business in sport fishing and not much else. And I had all these fine plans to do some fishing myself but instead I layed in a hammock and read Raymond Carver and did not do one strenuous thing for a week except build sandcastles with Rebecca and walk on the beach. aaahhhhh.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Ski Bowl!

What lucky girls we are. We drove up to Mt. Hood today and got our ski on. It was a clear, sunny day and the mountain was so gorgeous and close. We skied until the sun went down (badly, on the green trails) and i think we are getting better. i want to go back!

Neutral Milk Hotel - Snow Song Pt. 1

Sufjan Stevens - Majesty, Snowbird