url's for more detailed view:
Obama
McCain

Well, so much more to say from the campaign front. In the meantime, here's a tidbit from a relatively short article on Salon...the author moonlighted as a rent-a-cop during the RNC (not of the riot-gear sort).

Article can be found here: Confessions of an RNC Security Guard, I think the close is the most interesting part...

5 a.m.
...All the hotels in the area are dark. Thousands of Republicans stir in their beds, dreaming thousands of dreams about Sarah Palin. But Charles Hunter, an environmentalist delegate from New Hampshire and a veteran of Republican conventions going back to the 1980 coronation of Ronald Reagan at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena, can't sleep at all.

"This is my last convention," he tells me, lighting a cigarette.

"Why?"

"I'm a real McCain guy. I served. But I liked the old McCain -- when he was a true hero, before he signed on with the yahoos. I actually believe in 'country first.'"

"Not a fan of Palin?"

"If I were McCain I'd probably bring her onto my ticket, too. That's exactly the problem. I guess I tricked myself into thinking that McCain, even after he watered himself down for the election, could somehow restore sanity. The Democrats tried to paint him as a twin of Bush. Not true. But Palin ... she does remind me of Bush. McCain has made a devil's pact and sealed this party's fate."

Even though he's old, he smokes his cigarette like a young man, with earnest haste, before he flicks it off into the dark.

"That's it," he said, "we're through. Even if we win, we've lost."

This is long but worth the read. Clear, concise, un-sensational...in as much as political falling/failing upwards isn't so sensational these days...a local Wasilla (AK) woman's view of Palin the politician [all the personal information about the author has been removed]:

~~~~
Dear friends,

( More... )

LGBTQ Office of Culture & Community at Columbia College Chicago presents
GENDER FUSIONS 4
Busting Up the Binaries!
An annual queer spectacle in 3 acts.
April 25 & 26, 2008
Co-sponsors: Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, Office of Multicultural Affairs, English Department, Common Ground & Amigas Latinas.

Join us for the new & improved, extended remix of the 4th annual Gender Fusions—where the heat & steam, the pressure & resistance of forging gender/queer community combusts into new geographies and constellations. We invite you to reflect & revel in the uproar of busting up the binaries of race, class, gender, sexuality, nation.

1.
Friday, April 25, 6–8:30p | FREE!
gaylesbiantransfagdykequeer: naming desire and identity in media
Film Screening and dialogue with filmmakers sam feder & jules rosskam
Film Clips include: Boy I Am, F.Scott Fitzgerald Slept Here & Transparent
@ Columbia College Chicago Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash, 8th Floor

2.
Saturday, April 26, 3:30–5:30p | FREE!
Forging New Queer Geographies: Busting Up the Binaries!
Speakers and community dialogue, including Marga Gomez, Matthew Hollis & Ryka Aoki de La Cruz. Moderated by Sam Park.
@ Columbia College Chicago Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash, 8th Floor

3.
Saturday, April 26, Doors open 7:30p; 8p Showtime! | $5 for students & senior citizens, $10 general
Gender Fusions 4 Performance Spectacle!
* Drag * Burlesque * Poetry * Song* Dance * Theater * Gay snax * After-party *
Featuring sassy & outragious headliners Marga Gomez, Matthew Hollis, Ryka Aoki de La Cruz. With stellar Chicagoland performers Teatro Luna, Jyl Fehrenkamp, Avery R. Young, Nikki Patin, Misty DeBerry, Johnny T., Sharon St. James, plus a bevy of queerlicious Columbia College student talent!
@ Columbia College Chicago Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash, 1st Floor

TIX
To reserve & purchase tickets call the Columbia Box Office at 312-344-6126. Tickets available at the door. Cash only. Bring your student & senior citizen IDs for discount. Comp tickets are available for Columbia College students. First come first serve. Call the LGBTQ Office at 312-344-8594 to reserve comp tickets or for more info.

For the spectacle, we invite you to pull out your wig, your superhero cape, your leather chaps, your grandfather's bowtie, your sister's prom dress or anything fabulous to add your spin to the mix. Bust up your own binary! Who knows, you might just win a prize....

* Proceeds benefit post-production of the film "still black", a portrait of black trans men directed by kortney ryan ziegler and produced by awilda rodriguez lara. *

Get infused!

Sigh. Shit like this keeps me up at night.

On a related note: Heard this guy Dan Koeppel on Fresh Air today (2-18-08 episode)...one window into the effed up "behind-the-scenes" of the food industry over time. His book is Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World. During the interview he references the expansive--and lasting/lingering--political, cultural, etc., etc. upheaval the banana industry wrought in Latin America.

Check out the episode.

Boggles the mind...the interwoven, interdependant, societal, geopolitical, it-was-all-in-motion-before-I-got-here-yet-but-wtf!?!, built-in complicitness. Argh! Gotta love modern (first-world, privileged, consumer...etc., etc.) livin'!!

Current Mood: nauseated

Hope this isn't TMI or anything... The vet's now coming to the house a little bit later, around 7pm, in case anyone wants to have Lucy in their hearts and minds....

Off to pick up that cheese burger!

Today is Lucy's last day. The vet will be arriving at our place sometime around 4pm, so Bee has taken the day off to spend some final QT with the Luz. They're both a wreck. Despite all of the pain meds, Lucy's clearly in constant pain and can barely stand/walk. She's in one unforeseen crises after the next, unless she's still and in her bed (and even then there's issues). Bee is understandably an emotional wreck and I'm a little bit worried about her. While we've anticipated having to put Lucy to sleep for several months at this point, it's been trying to figure out when it'd be the "right" moment, when it would seem that she'd reach whatever unknown, seemingly arbitrary, bottomed out, point-of-no-return. That "point" never arrived as a big ah-ha moment...but it's been pretty clear for a little while that now is the time, before she takes a greater turn for the worse. (Which is hard to imagine.) So now the timing is definitive and scheduled...which is it's own strangeness. There has been mourning leading up to today, but Lucy is still here...it's happening and limbo-like all at once. A tough part was that we didn't know if the vet could come today or Monday until yesterday evening...such a strange thing to schedule and anticipate.

A friend at work recommended a good end-of-life pet book, which has been a help to Bee at least. It helps me to know this is for the best, the best things we can do for Lucy, but it's been really hard for Bee, who's not so great at endings anyway. Lucy has been in her life for over 12 years...(we think she spent 2 or 3 years as a stray as a pup). So Lucy has had a good long, happy run in this world. Lots of adventures and crazy high-jinx over the years, lots of friends and lots of time in the woods and a lots of years in Austin...which is good for anyone.

Sigh. So finite though. Dang.

Current Mood: sad

Firebelly Holiday Art Market

11am–5pm - Saturday, December 15th

2701 W Thomas, 2nd Floor, Chicago

Come to the FB Holiday Art Market from 11-5 on Saturday, December 15th and see what the Firebelly family makes in its free time: original + affordable art, prints, posters, journals, cards, t-shirts, plush toys, clothing, accessories, food + more.....including a whole wall devoted to 50 pieces of art under $50!

HANDMADE ONE OF A KIND GOODS FROM:
Firebelly Design / Art School Girl / Good Night TV / Delicious Design League / Qylaar / Katie Hates Couture / Rick Valicenti / Nako Design / Will Miller + Nick Santore / Valicenti Vittles / Jeanie Kirk's Cooking / Sun Young Park / Ilsa Flanagan / Its A Tie / The Bungaloo / Spike Press / Anne Benjamin / Esther Ramirez / Brian Kelly (dj)

* 50% of all sales will be donated to the 2007 Firebelly Design Grantee, The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance.

Current Mood: busy

The Bush admin./US policy suddenly comes into focus....

So...who's down to read the book together...? Really.