discussed the headscarf in anthropology today...man, i cannot escape this topic. it just follows me everywhere, from course to course, all the way over the atlantic, reminding me that former colonial powers are racist in real time, and making me wish i had kept up with french a bit more. all the discussion of immigrants and their kids is making me think about expat life.
a couple of weeks ago my boss said something interesting to me when i was asking him about coming back next summer to do more refugee research (this time with fieldwork!). he said, it takes about nine months to a year to understand south africa. that is, to be able to "get" the news/radio, to move through the city without a hitch or a second thought, to know where the good parking is, to know what days the market gets new shipments, to know where to take a classy business associate to dinner, to figure out the SABC tv schedules, to be able to understand people through thick accents. i think it took me about the same time to 'get' new york, at which point i was so in love with brooklyn thanks to that canvassing job i knew exactly where to go.
sorry, i digress.
anyway, he was joking about the one french postgrad in our office who says she is just now beginning to understand things, and yet has to leave at the end of the term. i can sympathize. and most of our postgrads have sublet apartments in melville, which is a pretty familiar welcoming area at this point (not so much late at night). overall a good place for young folks to live. i guess it would be like living in williamsburg in brooklyn, but with more crime. and a lot of guys guarding cars parked in the street (but they do that everywhere here).
i suppose my boss has the mind of a long term expatriate (a loopy, slightly jet-lagged expatriate that day). every american adult i've met here seems to have this kind of mindset. or, they have come to consider this home and have expatriate mindsets about other parts of the country/region, like my anthro lecturer who has a pretty serious connection to zimbabwe since he has been going there since 1982. he has two homes, i guess. or at least one and a half. maybe more, he is a really well-traveled guy.
i think it would be wonderful to have two homes or one and a half homes in different places, and by that i mean cultural 'homes', not just the fact of owning two apartments on two continents. sometimes life in the US makes me want to throw myself off my little brooklyn porch and down onto the renovation in progress below. this is mostly a function of us politics. simply having a place to go where people know you and you know people and things are Very Different, politically and otherwise, could be a relief. south africa is a good option, croatia is a good option, and perhaps i'll get to come across more options in the future. i should follow my lecturer's example: travel far and travel wide.
i mean, zuma may be a callous, politically manipulative, corrupt arms-dealing rapist, but i could never get as angry about him as i do about some plain old non-rapist american knuckleheads. because home #1 is really home, i guess. or maybe i haven't lived here long enough...
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
carfax lessons
first of all, carfax the club, not the used car sales thingie. and no, it's not a strip club, they just wanted something attention grabbing on their site, i guess.
1. food from the food cart outside carfax is delicious, increasingly tasty in proportion to how late it is. eat it.
2. oh man, look at those hipsters in there! so many hipsters in carfax. avoid the german ones though, especially if they are there to see a half-literate pair of german rappers.
3. don't start a fight, and if you do, don't for the love of god shove the security guy trying to break it up, because he will drag you outside, knock your ass to the ground, step on your head, kick your ribs, and taser you several times. and then your blood will be all over the pavement. and don't be the good samaritan trying to intervene in the excessive guard-patron exchange cause the guard will punch you so hard in the face that you will fly backwards and hit the ground. and don't be belligerant when you drive away, because the same guard will try to taser your car.
4. if you call the cops during a fight like the one described above they won't show up, even if they were at the food cart just a little while earlier. in fact, the dispatcher probably won't know what the hell you're trying to ask her for.
5. this man is totally serious about what he does.
friday was one of those nights when you come home and it's light out and the birds are singing...but don't worry, the only part of those lessons that apply to me/my friends were #1 and #2. i did try to call the cops unsuccessfully though.
the serious part of the program is winding down soon, since classes end in a week and a half. that will be followed by a two week break of nothing, a few exams, and a few more weeks of nothing for the people who are sticking around. i guess i'll have more time for forced migration research, which is good since i need it...jeez, if i didn't have that to do i can't imagine how bored i would be.
1. food from the food cart outside carfax is delicious, increasingly tasty in proportion to how late it is. eat it.
2. oh man, look at those hipsters in there! so many hipsters in carfax. avoid the german ones though, especially if they are there to see a half-literate pair of german rappers.
3. don't start a fight, and if you do, don't for the love of god shove the security guy trying to break it up, because he will drag you outside, knock your ass to the ground, step on your head, kick your ribs, and taser you several times. and then your blood will be all over the pavement. and don't be the good samaritan trying to intervene in the excessive guard-patron exchange cause the guard will punch you so hard in the face that you will fly backwards and hit the ground. and don't be belligerant when you drive away, because the same guard will try to taser your car.
4. if you call the cops during a fight like the one described above they won't show up, even if they were at the food cart just a little while earlier. in fact, the dispatcher probably won't know what the hell you're trying to ask her for.
5. this man is totally serious about what he does.
friday was one of those nights when you come home and it's light out and the birds are singing...but don't worry, the only part of those lessons that apply to me/my friends were #1 and #2. i did try to call the cops unsuccessfully though.
the serious part of the program is winding down soon, since classes end in a week and a half. that will be followed by a two week break of nothing, a few exams, and a few more weeks of nothing for the people who are sticking around. i guess i'll have more time for forced migration research, which is good since i need it...jeez, if i didn't have that to do i can't imagine how bored i would be.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
buy this car to drive to work, drive to work to pay for this car*
i thought that i'd come here and immerse myself in south africa, but with all the turmoil currently going on in the US -- the election, the wall street collapse, a $700 billion bailout, potential new HHS regulations (deadline for comment is today midnight!!), a downtown in the nyc real estate market -- i've been reading and thinking and talking about home a lot. by 'thinking' of course i mean panicking. but anyway!
there's a bit of turmoil here too, though. mbeki got deposed for corruption and motlanthe will probably replace him. then elections next year, where people are saying that zuma will probably replace motlanthe. south africa's about to elect a man who thinks that you can prevent contracting HIV after unprotected sex with a HIV+ partner by taking a shower...woops, i mean after unprotected rape with an HIV+ lesbian, in zuma's case.
there's good stuff too though -- yesterday for heritage day i went to a friend of a friend's house for a braai and ate a lot of things i would never buy or eat at home (steak) and drank a lot of g&t's. it was a nice afternoon. tonight i might go see dj krush at carfax as part of arts alive, a thing that has been going on all month. a japanese hipster with a beard? i'm there. and then lockdown this weekend and then next weekend pride on the fourth and then after that maybe a trip back up to kruger park. the only way to prevent tunnel vision of boredom here is to have something lined up each weekend, a thing to look forward to, and that keeps you from just sleeping away your time off. or going nuts. johannesburg is such a car city...i am nearly itching with anticipation to come home and get back to taking trains.
*you dirty hipster, you know what song this is from!
there's a bit of turmoil here too, though. mbeki got deposed for corruption and motlanthe will probably replace him. then elections next year, where people are saying that zuma will probably replace motlanthe. south africa's about to elect a man who thinks that you can prevent contracting HIV after unprotected sex with a HIV+ partner by taking a shower...woops, i mean after unprotected rape with an HIV+ lesbian, in zuma's case.
there's good stuff too though -- yesterday for heritage day i went to a friend of a friend's house for a braai and ate a lot of things i would never buy or eat at home (steak) and drank a lot of g&t's. it was a nice afternoon. tonight i might go see dj krush at carfax as part of arts alive, a thing that has been going on all month. a japanese hipster with a beard? i'm there. and then lockdown this weekend and then next weekend pride on the fourth and then after that maybe a trip back up to kruger park. the only way to prevent tunnel vision of boredom here is to have something lined up each weekend, a thing to look forward to, and that keeps you from just sleeping away your time off. or going nuts. johannesburg is such a car city...i am nearly itching with anticipation to come home and get back to taking trains.
*you dirty hipster, you know what song this is from!
Monday, September 22, 2008
logistics time.
1. so i am coming home on saturday october 25, the day after finals end, to get back to brooklyn (oh brooklyn how i've missed you) and get to work as a compliance officer at InternationalLawFirm (fingers crossed) to earn back all the money i spent on this trip :)
2. the people at my work are great! they are great. and they are also doing really interesting work. i am really going to try to come back in the summer of 2009 to do some more stuff with them, either my own project or assist with one of their research initatives. but next time i am not going to live in an expensive/fenced-in dorm single, which i think will help with the intense cabin fever and feeling of being trapped that we all have been getting lately.
3. excited for lockdown festival and also pride on october 4th, that should be fun. i saw kwani experience play on friday in brixton and they are playing again at lockdown. it should be even better with a bigger audience.
4. any souvenir requests, email them sometime soon. i am going to stop at the rosebank african market before i leave, and maybe the market in newtown too.
2. the people at my work are great! they are great. and they are also doing really interesting work. i am really going to try to come back in the summer of 2009 to do some more stuff with them, either my own project or assist with one of their research initatives. but next time i am not going to live in an expensive/fenced-in dorm single, which i think will help with the intense cabin fever and feeling of being trapped that we all have been getting lately.
3. excited for lockdown festival and also pride on october 4th, that should be fun. i saw kwani experience play on friday in brixton and they are playing again at lockdown. it should be even better with a bigger audience.
4. any souvenir requests, email them sometime soon. i am going to stop at the rosebank african market before i leave, and maybe the market in newtown too.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
i just had to add this
"at the forefront of cutting through bullshit": domestic issues
READ ALL OF IT, please.
READ ALL OF IT, please.
therapy?
we had a very interesting conversation this morning in the class on psychosocial issues, which is largely being taught via black thought (aime cesaire, steve biko, achille mbembe, and franz fanon) and also some paulo friere and some augusto boal. a woman of color and fellow exchange student spoke up and argued forcefully yet diplomatically that we were spending too much time discussing white guilt and white feelings in response to the text. i think she was right. if you get a class on these writers together and there are white students who have no exposure to any of it before, that is what is gonna happen. but that doesn't mean we couldn't have resisted the urge to let it devour half a class meeting, i think. now that we are conscious of this we can stop it, and get back to the text, and let multiple voices speak.
it is not everyday you hear your teacher admit she priveleged the contribution of a white student because it mirrored her own experience and transformation from a classic white liberal (which biko does away with) to a white progressive who is conscious of power/privelege. it is not everyday you hear a fellow student perfectly apply paulo friere's notion of dialogue to what is happening right there in the room in real time. i guess being in the course as an ignorant white person is a little like going to therapy: paying big dollars to learn really obvious things about yourself and the way you think thanks to someone else's infinitely more useful perspective on you. although in this case the therapists are books.
some of these obvious things: when white liberals "reach out to help" people of color it is patronizing help, it is not true generosity. when we white people want to help we should address white racism among our own. after all our peers originated and continue to employ it. things like, no person of color has an obligation to teach you step by step what the problem is, or an obligation to correct the discourse actively and intervene every time something comes up that they disagree with. or that it's not the end of the world when you get hostility for parroting the same old White Liberal Bingo Card arguments over and over about non-racialism; folks are hostile because they're tired of hearing it. they're laughing because they're tired of hearing it. that power--and minority/majority position--is something more insiduous and subtle and pervasive than having the legal right to do something or the legal right to opt out.
this is basically a course everyone should have to take in college. we should all read these writers; at the very least know their basic arguments. we should all have to watch the power dyanmics form in an integrated group, and note who is speaking and who is silent. everyone should do this, even though it is awkward at times and confusing at other times.
i am looking forward to see where the next few classes take us and whether the discussions can be productive and not two ships passing the dark as they have been at times.
meanwhile, on the home front: if mcpain and failin' get elected and america takes a turn for the handmaid's tale, starting with police brutality, I CALLED IT, YOU GUYS. i kid you not, i am researching south african law schools and the funding options therein.
it is not everyday you hear your teacher admit she priveleged the contribution of a white student because it mirrored her own experience and transformation from a classic white liberal (which biko does away with) to a white progressive who is conscious of power/privelege. it is not everyday you hear a fellow student perfectly apply paulo friere's notion of dialogue to what is happening right there in the room in real time. i guess being in the course as an ignorant white person is a little like going to therapy: paying big dollars to learn really obvious things about yourself and the way you think thanks to someone else's infinitely more useful perspective on you. although in this case the therapists are books.
some of these obvious things: when white liberals "reach out to help" people of color it is patronizing help, it is not true generosity. when we white people want to help we should address white racism among our own. after all our peers originated and continue to employ it. things like, no person of color has an obligation to teach you step by step what the problem is, or an obligation to correct the discourse actively and intervene every time something comes up that they disagree with. or that it's not the end of the world when you get hostility for parroting the same old White Liberal Bingo Card arguments over and over about non-racialism; folks are hostile because they're tired of hearing it. they're laughing because they're tired of hearing it. that power--and minority/majority position--is something more insiduous and subtle and pervasive than having the legal right to do something or the legal right to opt out.
this is basically a course everyone should have to take in college. we should all read these writers; at the very least know their basic arguments. we should all have to watch the power dyanmics form in an integrated group, and note who is speaking and who is silent. everyone should do this, even though it is awkward at times and confusing at other times.
i am looking forward to see where the next few classes take us and whether the discussions can be productive and not two ships passing the dark as they have been at times.
meanwhile, on the home front: if mcpain and failin' get elected and america takes a turn for the handmaid's tale, starting with police brutality, I CALLED IT, YOU GUYS. i kid you not, i am researching south african law schools and the funding options therein.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
ramblin'
i am missing this conference held by the national lawyer's guild at brooklyn law:
"from the Black Panther Party to the 2008 RNC: COINTELPRO – then and now"
oh man. they got guys who helped sue the FBI and NYPD and former black panthers, oh man! definitely when i go away i start getting five emails a day about great things downtown/in brooklyn that i am missing. i bet that conference would be interesting. i bet i could network with people from brooklyn law there, ah well.
spent the day in class, watching the first center for indian studies on the african continent get inaugurated (yay wits!), then at the botanical gardens, then at a health food store (black beans!), and now at home. lost another free water bottle. dragging around achy muscles from yesterday's resistance thing, and reading paulo freire for an elective. not enjoying the 80 degree fahrenheit weather with the lack of a breeze. i really don't like warm places too much. i like the african winter down here though. that was nice, with layers of clothes. spring rain is coming in october!
also: as of yesterday, watching wall street collapse even more, from many many miles away. know how that feels? terrifying. surreal. kind of like the boom 90s is yelling "i told you so!" from the grave. we're done, guys. merrill lynch...lehman...bear stearns...AIG...goldman posting a 51% drop...foreclosures in the hamptons...how is this going to affect normal people?
"from the Black Panther Party to the 2008 RNC: COINTELPRO – then and now"
oh man. they got guys who helped sue the FBI and NYPD and former black panthers, oh man! definitely when i go away i start getting five emails a day about great things downtown/in brooklyn that i am missing. i bet that conference would be interesting. i bet i could network with people from brooklyn law there, ah well.
spent the day in class, watching the first center for indian studies on the african continent get inaugurated (yay wits!), then at the botanical gardens, then at a health food store (black beans!), and now at home. lost another free water bottle. dragging around achy muscles from yesterday's resistance thing, and reading paulo freire for an elective. not enjoying the 80 degree fahrenheit weather with the lack of a breeze. i really don't like warm places too much. i like the african winter down here though. that was nice, with layers of clothes. spring rain is coming in october!
also: as of yesterday, watching wall street collapse even more, from many many miles away. know how that feels? terrifying. surreal. kind of like the boom 90s is yelling "i told you so!" from the grave. we're done, guys. merrill lynch...lehman...bear stearns...AIG...goldman posting a 51% drop...foreclosures in the hamptons...how is this going to affect normal people?
Monday, September 15, 2008
i can't escape it!
the other night we went dancing in melville out of sheer restlessness. once again the best dancing/best music was to be found at candi bar. as we were just leaving i learned that no matter how far i run i cannot escape election bullshit. some white boy from cobble hill, brooklyn (small world!) who my friend was talking with at old folks bar ratz turned out to be conservative later in the night, which led to a bit of a yelling match in the street. what i can i say...i was a little sauced, and he was a little conservative, not a good mix.
he kept asking me why not mccain, to which i sputtered about twenty reasons, some issues and some not issues. he latched onto the "mccain can't use the internet" reason by replying "do you know how many CEOs can't use the internet?" yes but how many are likely to be the leader of the free world, einstein. in addition to how you just pulled that CEO comment out of your nether regions, man. i guess this kid is down with mccain's voting record of warmongering, and making rape victims pay for their own rape kits (yes, he and palin share this), and all those rich folks tax breaks...somehow i think a grad student renting in cobble hill wouldn't make enough hundreds of thousands to benefit from that tax plan, but maybe he just really wants to support all the millionaires at lehman brothers who lost their jobs over this weekend. how nice of him!
anyways, enough election stuff. i can't escape it.
ok, i do not know if this drink exists at home, but if you can find this you should order it. we were having $2 shooters called "supermen" which consist of a layer of aftershock (cinnamon liquor), a layer of blue curacao, a layer of cape velvet (south african cream liquor), and a touch of 140 proof stohr rum. they were delicious. i would like to eat a slice of cake flavored like this drink, if that is even possible. there are lots of tasty things with cape velvet and amarula, which i've yet to see easily available anywhere but here.
this week i've got to change my airline ticket, write a paper for anthropology (discursive analysis of something, we should get the assignment today), sell my used books, fax recommender forms to the US, interview someone for work...it's nice to have things to do.
he kept asking me why not mccain, to which i sputtered about twenty reasons, some issues and some not issues. he latched onto the "mccain can't use the internet" reason by replying "do you know how many CEOs can't use the internet?" yes but how many are likely to be the leader of the free world, einstein. in addition to how you just pulled that CEO comment out of your nether regions, man. i guess this kid is down with mccain's voting record of warmongering, and making rape victims pay for their own rape kits (yes, he and palin share this), and all those rich folks tax breaks...somehow i think a grad student renting in cobble hill wouldn't make enough hundreds of thousands to benefit from that tax plan, but maybe he just really wants to support all the millionaires at lehman brothers who lost their jobs over this weekend. how nice of him!
anyways, enough election stuff. i can't escape it.
ok, i do not know if this drink exists at home, but if you can find this you should order it. we were having $2 shooters called "supermen" which consist of a layer of aftershock (cinnamon liquor), a layer of blue curacao, a layer of cape velvet (south african cream liquor), and a touch of 140 proof stohr rum. they were delicious. i would like to eat a slice of cake flavored like this drink, if that is even possible. there are lots of tasty things with cape velvet and amarula, which i've yet to see easily available anywhere but here.
this week i've got to change my airline ticket, write a paper for anthropology (discursive analysis of something, we should get the assignment today), sell my used books, fax recommender forms to the US, interview someone for work...it's nice to have things to do.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
racing pigeons?
earlier this week we got to see achille mbembe speak about his work and his book on the postcolony. in our class. i must admit not only is he brilliant, but his west african/frenchman accent is wonderful. he described being monolingual as "[cultural] incarceration", which is probably true, which means i need to work harder on the jailbreak.
this movie looks EXCELLENT. the tagline is "most people respect the badge. everybody respects the gun." YES. not only does it have pacino, de niro, and john leguizamo (sp? who knows), it also has the actress who played the detective's ex-wife in american gangster, another all time favorite movie. imdb shows no release date for south africa, boo...but eventually i will see this, even if it is off of itunes sometime in late november.
if i think about the US election for more than 2 minutes my head will explode. so i've been distracting myself with top gear, discovering new bars (such as the jolly roger, where we ate free pizza), running, working on the township research (slow going), taking naps, and watching pirated movies i've already seen. class itself does not take up much time, i have to admit.
interesting things crop up, though. the other night we saw an eighteen wheeler drive by the bar, filled with little cubbyholes that contained racing pigeons. i have no idea.
this movie looks EXCELLENT. the tagline is "most people respect the badge. everybody respects the gun." YES. not only does it have pacino, de niro, and john leguizamo (sp? who knows), it also has the actress who played the detective's ex-wife in american gangster, another all time favorite movie. imdb shows no release date for south africa, boo...but eventually i will see this, even if it is off of itunes sometime in late november.
if i think about the US election for more than 2 minutes my head will explode. so i've been distracting myself with top gear, discovering new bars (such as the jolly roger, where we ate free pizza), running, working on the township research (slow going), taking naps, and watching pirated movies i've already seen. class itself does not take up much time, i have to admit.
interesting things crop up, though. the other night we saw an eighteen wheeler drive by the bar, filled with little cubbyholes that contained racing pigeons. i have no idea.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
a really busy weekend
saturday:
we all went to the apartheid museum, which was EXCELLENT. i must go back to digest everything more slowly. definitely not a day to forget the camera on, but it happened anyhow.
and then for class/for paper writing we took a look at the steve biko traveling exhibit, which was pretty unimpressive on the whole, but it was a small traveling thing, to be fair.
then a quick sandwich at the museum cafe, then 2 taxis (mini buses, not radio taxis) to maponya mall, where we bought some food for a braai we had been invited to through a friend at wits / looked on as people ate from the various maponya fast food places. the pick n pay in maponya, in fact all of maponya, is glorious. not only is there a pick n pay hyper with massive produce displays, there is also a liquor store on the side, from which we bought a case of heineken and started the walk into residential soweto to the braai.
the streets are kind of arbitrarily branched, and there aren't really names or numbers, so you go by landmarks, as our host told us, which is how she got lost going to this place once before. people cruised by and said hello to us in languages we don't know, and yelled welcome to soweto!, because no matter where you go in the world, i think, lower income communities are places where you will find hospitality. nobody yelling welcome to sandton! or welcome to houghton! or welcome to befordview!
some residents probably build their own houses and fences. i saw a bunch in varying stages of completion. i respect this, especially because i would have no idea where to begin with it. my maternal family built a house cement block by cement block while renting a place next door. i suppose when it was done they just picked a house number and tacked it up and there you go, 16 na komardi exists, time to move all of twenty feet down the road. that has to be a good feeling, to live in a place you built with your own hands. it must be just as good to give your kids a house you built yourself.
women don't really drink beer here, we were reminded when the braai chef of the night started joking with us when he saw us crackin em open. the food was good -- boerewors and rolls, chicken, beer, peanuts, roasted marshmallows. i can't remember the last time i had something from a backyard grill, so that was pretty nice.
later we walked out to get another taxi back to wits, and people were still out after dark, saying hello, washing cars and drinking and dancing and kids in the street playing. this was more normal than ghost town braamfontein. and more likeable. i was thinking about a friend at home who got busted & fined by the nypd for drinking a beer on his own stoop, while watching everyone out having a good time. somehow i think the open container ordinance is the last thing the nypd should be worried about when there was a grow house in our building last year, but, you know, maybe they keep the fine...?
after i got back to wits, i left half an hour later to see a band called the indian ocean for free at the blues room in sandton. sandton and soweto in one day...i prefer the latter. the band was good, though, good enough that i bought one of their cds. we went to melville to get pizza real late and they forgot/didn't hear our order, so that took a little while. it was decent...easy to find peppadew peppers and feta here, which makes pizza good even if there's rib meat involved (hmm). now if only this country could figure out proper crust and stop putting so much sugar in their tomato sauce!
more on the steve biko thing, and how that is playing out in class, another time. i've got some work to do, for once.
Friday, September 5, 2008
a little election coverage
"Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement? It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it."
-obama speaking at INVESCO
response:
"No, actually John McCain doesn't care. He doesn't care that millions of Americans don't have health insurance, or if he does, he cares more about party ideology that the government shouldn't be in the business of making sure people have health care. He cares more about the hollow platform of "individual responsibility" than he does about individuals, more about the political benefits of being pro-life than the moral implications of denying women agency over their own bodies. John McCain and Sarah Palin get it. They know. They just don't give a shit."
-m. leblanc, the bitch JD of bitch phD which you can see here.
i'm not even going to start on RNC & DNC law enforcement presence, and all that restriction of freedom of speech, and freedom of movement, and freedom of assembly, and freedom of association. time to get that law degree pronto. all i can say is, if i saw a bunch of decked out jackbooted riot cops pepper spraying a girl in the face for handing them a daisy, i'd go from progressive to radical in about two seconds. wouldn't you?
-obama speaking at INVESCO
response:
"No, actually John McCain doesn't care. He doesn't care that millions of Americans don't have health insurance, or if he does, he cares more about party ideology that the government shouldn't be in the business of making sure people have health care. He cares more about the hollow platform of "individual responsibility" than he does about individuals, more about the political benefits of being pro-life than the moral implications of denying women agency over their own bodies. John McCain and Sarah Palin get it. They know. They just don't give a shit."
-m. leblanc, the bitch JD of bitch phD which you can see here.
i'm not even going to start on RNC & DNC law enforcement presence, and all that restriction of freedom of speech, and freedom of movement, and freedom of assembly, and freedom of association. time to get that law degree pronto. all i can say is, if i saw a bunch of decked out jackbooted riot cops pepper spraying a girl in the face for handing them a daisy, i'd go from progressive to radical in about two seconds. wouldn't you?
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
refrigerator game
it is a fine, amusing kind of calculus that keeps my food from spoiling:
if i want ice, i have to take out the eggs and vegetables and crank the coldness setting, and then remember to take the milk out at the last minute, or all of it will freeze and the eggs/vegetables will go to waste and the milk will be a solid block, useless for tea or cereal or coffee. once the ice is frozen, that comes out and everything goes back in and the setting goes down. the bread goes at the top since everything at the top freezes, which means i have to remember to buy small amounts of vegetables at a time because i can only keep them on the lowest shelf. i once accidentally froze apricot jam and half a bottle of vinaigrette while trying to make ice. i wonder, does frozen and thawed yeast still rise? i bought it for rolls a while ago and it's been frozen and thawed over and over by now.
but if i turn the coldness setting below four to keep things from freezing, the fridge thinks i am sending it on vacation and turns itself off so everything gets warm and gross, and i have to ask the guy downstairs to throw the circuit breaker to turn it back on again. the best is when in the morning while i am not home the circuit goes out, and i come home to a big pool of water from the melted freezer on the floor, a bunch of warm, squishy chicken sitting in there, and a tub of spoiled yogurt in the fridge. learned my lesson, now i only buy small things of yogurt if at all.
so eating is strategic depending on what setting the fridge is on and how often it has been breaking lately, and what i need for dinner or breakfast the next day. no wonder i am beginning to enjoy more things in cans...this isn't even a regular size fridge. it is a mini one and yet it is so fickle! and the top part is so much colder than the bottom bit, even though they're only about a foot apart. like it has a mind of its own.
if i want ice, i have to take out the eggs and vegetables and crank the coldness setting, and then remember to take the milk out at the last minute, or all of it will freeze and the eggs/vegetables will go to waste and the milk will be a solid block, useless for tea or cereal or coffee. once the ice is frozen, that comes out and everything goes back in and the setting goes down. the bread goes at the top since everything at the top freezes, which means i have to remember to buy small amounts of vegetables at a time because i can only keep them on the lowest shelf. i once accidentally froze apricot jam and half a bottle of vinaigrette while trying to make ice. i wonder, does frozen and thawed yeast still rise? i bought it for rolls a while ago and it's been frozen and thawed over and over by now.
but if i turn the coldness setting below four to keep things from freezing, the fridge thinks i am sending it on vacation and turns itself off so everything gets warm and gross, and i have to ask the guy downstairs to throw the circuit breaker to turn it back on again. the best is when in the morning while i am not home the circuit goes out, and i come home to a big pool of water from the melted freezer on the floor, a bunch of warm, squishy chicken sitting in there, and a tub of spoiled yogurt in the fridge. learned my lesson, now i only buy small things of yogurt if at all.
so eating is strategic depending on what setting the fridge is on and how often it has been breaking lately, and what i need for dinner or breakfast the next day. no wonder i am beginning to enjoy more things in cans...this isn't even a regular size fridge. it is a mini one and yet it is so fickle! and the top part is so much colder than the bottom bit, even though they're only about a foot apart. like it has a mind of its own.
music, weather, food, law school
first off, music:
the past couple days have been cold (weirdly) so i've been listening to laura veirs' most recent thing, amon tobin, god is an astronaut (sounds like mogwai, like everything else metal i have), and yo la tengo. yo la tengo is probably the best music for fall. of all time. it helps that they have more records than i am old, so i can just loop them endlessly and get hours of tunes.
we've been having these 20km/hr and worse windstorms, and for the whole weekend i heard yo la tengo over the sound of flying plastic trashcans flying into the railing, slamming windows/doors, and rattly tree branches hitting more railings. when we ran there was this headwind up the one side of the track that would make my eyes water.
other things: eating huge quantities of naartjies, a 5kg bag for a buck fifty US. so good. working on colloquium and rationale ideas and a preliminary book list. thinking about law school applications, dreading paying folks a fortune to copy paper from the lsds files/mail things on my behalf.
one thing about south africa: lawyers are into public service work here, more so the progressive ones, but luckily a progressive place like wits is also a very competitive law program (which, i hear, lets you take the NY bar without conversion). the work going on around refugees, land claims, HIV/AIDS and access to healthcare, as well as combating law enforcement corruption is a good reminder that not all lawyers are doing BigFirm securities/corporate contract type jobs. actually, to be fair, i volunteered with people doing that work and it didn't stop them from getting involved in human rights. you'd just have less time for it.
certainly public interest is complicated and difficult, especially in south africa because the transition turned everything legally upside down (rightly so) starting at the top with the constitution. since one of my 12 week classes is taught by cathi albertyn, who helped negotiate over the south african constitution/is a human rights lawyer, public interest law has been on my mind. lucky i picked ny...there are a lot of good human rights and public interest law programs within the reach of public transit.
the past couple days have been cold (weirdly) so i've been listening to laura veirs' most recent thing, amon tobin, god is an astronaut (sounds like mogwai, like everything else metal i have), and yo la tengo. yo la tengo is probably the best music for fall. of all time. it helps that they have more records than i am old, so i can just loop them endlessly and get hours of tunes.
we've been having these 20km/hr and worse windstorms, and for the whole weekend i heard yo la tengo over the sound of flying plastic trashcans flying into the railing, slamming windows/doors, and rattly tree branches hitting more railings. when we ran there was this headwind up the one side of the track that would make my eyes water.
other things: eating huge quantities of naartjies, a 5kg bag for a buck fifty US. so good. working on colloquium and rationale ideas and a preliminary book list. thinking about law school applications, dreading paying folks a fortune to copy paper from the lsds files/mail things on my behalf.
one thing about south africa: lawyers are into public service work here, more so the progressive ones, but luckily a progressive place like wits is also a very competitive law program (which, i hear, lets you take the NY bar without conversion). the work going on around refugees, land claims, HIV/AIDS and access to healthcare, as well as combating law enforcement corruption is a good reminder that not all lawyers are doing BigFirm securities/corporate contract type jobs. actually, to be fair, i volunteered with people doing that work and it didn't stop them from getting involved in human rights. you'd just have less time for it.
certainly public interest is complicated and difficult, especially in south africa because the transition turned everything legally upside down (rightly so) starting at the top with the constitution. since one of my 12 week classes is taught by cathi albertyn, who helped negotiate over the south african constitution/is a human rights lawyer, public interest law has been on my mind. lucky i picked ny...there are a lot of good human rights and public interest law programs within the reach of public transit.
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