Don't worry, the fish are quite safe.

I dragged out of bed at 5 am to go fishing on Hood River with Paul. We got started a little later than that because we stopped to buy me some wader boots. I knew about waders (big waterproof overalls) but I didn't know there's a special kind of foot gear that goes with them. Its a canvas boot with a felt bottom. Turns out that is super helpful when you are standing on wet rocks in a river. . So we got out there with sand shrimp (which are gross) and tuna balls and fished and fished and fished but caught nuthin. In fishing lingo, I am told this is called being skunked. We were skunked. But that's okay because it was a beautiful day, a gorgeous river, and I got to do something new by standing in a river in waders trying to catch a salmon. I felt like a real tough ass oregonian. And I did see a gigantic steelhead trout swim right past me. It was at least 2 feet long. I screamed.

behind the wall

All this time as a federal defender, but today was my first time in a federal prison. i've been to many a jail, state penitentiary, and the federal detention center, but today was the first time i was in the fed prison. in the biz of justice and lack thereof, i notice the architecture a lot. is it built to heal? or variously control, intimidate, demoralize, etc. Foucault wrote a book touching on these things called Discipline and Punish and it described a particular variety of prison design called the panopticon. i'm always interested in the industrial psychology of how to control a large number of people, perfected over the years from the Tower of London to the victorian models, to Gitmo, etc. Dark stuff. i see the panopticon a lot, even at county jails. The basic idea is a prison in the round, with all the cells facing towards a control tower in the center. The critical element is the two-way mirror shielding the control tower which allows the guards to see out, but prevents the prisoners from seeing whether they are being observed. The social control concept is that the prisoner does not know when he is being watched or not, which leads to a constant state of vigilance and paranoia about being watched, without being sure what is happening. the idea is that it will promote compliance at a greater efficiency. Countering this effort is the human will to be free and to push back against this sort of oppression. So even in under the tightest security, with the greatest degree of scrutiny, people still find a way to defy authority and jack with the system. My main encounter with this involves prisoner litigation. The last refuge of self defense is the inmate's knowledge of the prison rules. The procedures, the disciplinary standards, the limited rights afforded to confined people. The smart inmates become experts on the intricacies of prison regulations, become important within the prison for their knowledge, and they litigate the deprivation of their due process rights as ad hoc class action representatives for the grievances of their fellow inmates. There has to be an outlet and that is it. This is a bit of what i'm doing these days and i'm glad i went into the prison, met the staff, and saw the buildings, talked to people in person, felt the pressure. it wasn't bad at all as far as prisons go. Some people super duper need to be there. But it's still a prison and given its power, somebody has to keep and eye on it.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See a Darkness

Yo La Tengo - I Heard you Looking

Kate or Cindy?

Isn't that the eternal question? Since i was a wee lass, I have pondered it. The light sexy fun of Kate Pierson or the dark sexy fun of Cindy Wilson? After seeing them live tonight, I am no closer to an answer. That Kate was so groovy and dancy and that Cindy was so cool and rockin out. The show was totally sold out and the B-52's completely worked it. i was persuaded to pony up for the pricey ticket after reading Carrie Brownstein's blog about the new album being good and the band being great. And at the show I did indeed have my Sleater Kinney moment. 2/3rds of the band were there, though weirdly located away from the crush of the sold out masses down in the smoking lounge watching on closed circuit. they don't seem to be smokers, so i think it was a crowd refuge thing. I said hi in my spastic way, said I read the thing she wrote about the band. she said "I hope it works out for you" in the please-go-away voice and I beat it. My ego can take it. Okay. And the crowd was indeed weird. It was a bunch that would have been perfectly at home at a Dave Matthews show. I guess with the planning ahead months in advance and the entry fee, the grown-ups ran the table. i think i expected it to be gayer, but then just because the B-52s are a gay band for me doesn't mean they are for anybody else. just as silly as showing up at a Clay Aiken show expecting queercore. But boy was it fun to be in a huge room full of people singing My Own Private Idaho and Roam. The Cosmic Thing record came out when i was at the end of high school and I wore that disc plum out. So now they've released a new one and i've heard that its good for the getting. Fred Schneider barking, “Tell your skirt to take a hike,” and Cindy Wilson singing, “I’m your day-time waitress at the Taco Tiki Hut/I’m your day-time waitress, here’s your stupid 7-Up.” I mean really, can't i have a nice record to drive around with the windows down and reminisce about 1992 gas prices?

Sunday Night Soul

The Watts 103rd St. Rythym Band - 65 Bars and a Taste of Soul

Otis Redding - Pain in my Heart

Alternate Universe(ity)

What if Antioch was a well funded liberal arts college instead of a decrepit and mismanaged heap of bricks? The rabbit and I took the bus down to Reed College last night. We have a friend on faculty who invited us to come over for the Renn Fayre. It has nothing to do with renaissance fair, instead its an annual three day party they have to commemorate the end of the term complete with fireworks, music, all sorts of strange installations set up on the commons and general mayhem. It gets kicked off when the seniors hand in their final papers and then burn the notes in a big fire in the middle of campus. Tonight Girl Talk is going to be playing to close the whole thing out. We wandered around the heavily decorated campus and I was amazed by how opulent the place was and how much money the school plowed into this party. At one point they threw hundreds and hundreds of glow sticks to the kids, free food was everywhere, and the vibe was very cool. What if, indeed.

From the archives

about a bazillion years ago, I made a hour long documentary about women in music and politics called Radical Act. It showed just a very few places, but did get into the big les and gay film fest in LA called outfest in 1996. i got to fly out for it and it was at the Director's Guild of America and i felt very glamorous and this was long before I actually glamorous, back in my awkward school days. I found a few little traces of Radical Act's existence on the web, including in a compilation that Miranda July used to put together called Break My Chain Letter which was a video zine. ANYHOW, a friend dusted off her old copy of the movie recently and encouraged me to put it on DVD and get it out there as a little time capsule of what was going on in 94-95. So I submitted it to the Siren Nation film festival here in town and I hope it gets in.

Swearing at Justices

The rabbit and I went down to the campus of Willamette University to get sworn in as lawyers this afternoon. All the supreme court justices were there and screaming babies and free cheese at the reception. Hooray!