Hallows Election Eve

I am not going to dwell on things or think bad thoughts... Nor will i resign to cynicism or be pessimistic. I am, however, going to take tomorrow in stride. Is it any wonder that the eve of the election is so close to Halloween? I think there's some dramatic nature effects that are aligned to make it look like the world is secretly conspiring against you... that maybe things are not going to work themselves out and that we get the president (or despot) we secretly deserve. There's a time where meaning wears masks and tries to trick you into voting against your interests, where such obvious rhetoric flies in the face of things that you know is concocted by spin doctors (who are no better writers at copy than j-school freshmen)... tricksters, how we fall for them time and time again. Will there be more lies and deceit as we draw close on the 11th hour or will things work out themselves? Are systems always corrupt and full of decay or are they self-correcting? I can't say for certain, but I do know that I will be drinking tomorrow night (either happily or unhappily) at the Showbox.

Whoops... Why didn't you wake me?

Oh gosh -- I can't believe how much i've fallen off the blogwagon. A few days went by, then weeks, then months. I've had a few milestones, a few scares, and a few small victories (did the STP in one day)... But uhhh, there's been this nagging sense that I've let this go to pot.

I've had a few moments this election season where I've really wanted to comment, post videos, live-blog the debates, but so many more qualified and interesting people have already done that. Then there's the whole economic meltdown (which I commented on earlier -- hmm, told you so?), but that's just depressed me way too much. Then there's a whole slew of no on Prop 8 stuff out there that I can't even begin to address. So, I guess I'll just ruminate on the changing of the fall leaves... Ahhh, lovely.

That was then, this is now...

Reasons to get out of bed in the morning #95049: This site which asks people to recreate childhood photo's. Sometimes pictures say a 1000 words, but sometimes they say a complete novel when side by side of a photo from the future.

Hedonism, Humility

I have been in a nasty meme these past few days... I've been seeing articles about the pending food shortage, an economic collapse and an environmental threat looming larger and larger every day. I get inertia and depression from thinking about what the next 20 years will bring (or even the next 5. On a smaller scale, my adjustable mortgage goes nova and I'm madly trying to refi)... I have an ugly feeling. I find it hard to get out of bed, let alone through a day without thinking this is all hanging by a few threads. I hear stories about the shit that goes on down in the Congo and wonder how thin resources have to be before people lose it completely. What keeps people working together? What tears them apart? Why are we not able to go 180 from something simples as driving to work as opposed to taking the bus? People are buying green - but the problem is not the green part, but the buying. We as a species are truly out to lunch. Marxists said that religion was an opiate, but i beg to differ -- the fact that we think our world will be corrected in fits and starts of buying green products has been a religion unto itself (See ECB's article in the Stranger). It gives people a big sense of accomplishment with only an actual nano-effort of true responsibility. So what do we do? We should list our sins (like religion) and go about correcting them. With that - I will give you my trespasses:
1) I take long showers. I know this is a cardinal sin. What's worse is that I often shower at the gym and then at home (essentially taking 2 showers a day).
2) I take cabs over public transit. This is basically having a car for however many minutes, I realize and shoots down my 'urban-walkability' image.
3) I am irregular in my recycling - meaning, I try to recycle everything, but I'm never fully sure what I should be putting in (and I often do not clean out the containers)
4) I sometimes use cleaners that are not good for the environment (but then again, I seldom clean so there you go).
5) I buy a lotta crap, made in foreign countries with low environmental standards.
6) I turn the heat on -- often when I do not need it.

No Future

Will the last developer who loses their sh** over the Pike Pine Belmont mess and now it has to turn into a parking lot because you didn't have the forsight to deal with an angry mob that your building designs offend and always will offend because you just snuffed out independent nightlife as we know it on Capitol Hill thus letting in the throngs of straight barbarians who now deface your land-use signs and puke outside your condos and generally do not bode well for the future of Seattle as we crash into economic and ecological oblivion - please turn out the freakin lights!?!?

Oh yeah, and be sure to tell post-apocolyptic Belltown that curfew was at sundown and they should not overtax the generators lest the gasoline pirates see and they decide to pillage from Bainbridge...

Fools for April

So - sun came out, I refrilled my prescription for contact lenses and spring is in the air... April Fools. Not really. False starts. I feel a stagnancy still... Unfinished business. No time for jokes, no time for pedestrian sensibilities in high traffic areas, no time for fun and games... I am busy, yet I am running in place. Instead, I focus on my new look for spring.

The Unheard Music

So, grandpa decided to go see his favorite olde timey punk band, X - perhaps the greatest American band ever (*with the exception of Johnny Cash and the whole Carter clan)... When I told friends I was going, I got "Who?".... Sigh, People!! X were the band formed in Los Angles in the late 70's with the whole advent of socal punk... they combined punk with a dash of country soul, and quite alot of poetic imagery and American Gothic to boot. They were the soundtrack of my teen years, ironically enough, country purists in the sense of the word (forming side projects the knitters)... Soooo, in any case, they rocked. I was worried that this would be billed a reunion tour (Billy Zoom joining them), and thus it'd be a badly attended affair... Full of a few die-hards like me and my friend Cheryl, but it wasn't... The place was sold out, with a huge diverse crowd (from Punk dad's to rockabilly Betty's to kids)... And the band was tight and awesome... Probably b/c they were sober and had more focus than ever. They played like they had never left off from playing at the Whiskey in 1980, Exene and John Doe's June Carter/Johnny Cash delivery over punk power chords coming from Billy Zoom (looking like Jerry Lee Lewis) and DJ's driving drum beat still sounded incredibly fresh... And finally, the spirit of protest was still inherent in their songs... After over 20 years, the lyrics for "New World" still rings true of the situation today in Amerika:
"....honest to goodness the bars werent open this morning they must have been voting for a new president of something do you have a quarter?" i said yes because i did honest to goodness the tears have been falling all over the countrys face it was better before before they voted for whats his name this is suppose to be the new world"