Month: March 2003

Posted on

Potlucks for Peace? Meh.

The Seattle Times front page headline says, “US Commanders willing to pay ‘very high price’ to take Baghdad”. Of course, none of their sons and daughters lives are on the line – not only had the diplomacy been a failure, the war plan seems to be heading in that direction, too.My friend Jillian’s in town for a couple of days with her friend Carrie from New York. I met three people who are moving to NYC in a few weeks. When I asked them why, they said “Seattle has a populace that’s hard to get excited. There’s so much apathy and complacency.” While he’s right about the first part, I strongly disagree with the rest. We had WTO, and although most of the protestors were imported, it set the stage for a mostly-peaceful protest environment.

A local writer, Clark Humphrey, opines: “Around here we don’t have to escalate Bush-bashing protests into disruptive confrontations, because we’d rather try to send a more positive message out to the world.”

He might be right, but it seems that having “potlucks for peace” is too passive a stance to take with a world at war.

Posted on

Head of State

I saw “Head of State”, and loved it. Of course, I got to pay a matinee price (thank you, student ID). While it’s goofy, it has some strong underlying themes, particularly the idealistic underdog win. Of course, in the movie, Chris Rock’s character wins the election, with Bernie Mac as his VP.

Posted on

The Hours

Tonight I saw “The Hours” with my friend Camille. The movie ties together the stories of three people affected by Virginia Woolf’s “Miss Dallaway”: the author (1910?), a housewife (1951 Los Angeles) and a party host (2001 NYC). A memorable line, as Woolf speaks to her husband about the trap the suburbs are: “If I must choose between Death and Richmond, I choose Death.” I can’t help but wonder that someone feels that way about Schaumburg, IL, or San Jose, CA, right now. While it wasn’t a spectacular movie, I was caught up in its underlying theme: what it means to exist, and what it means to live. It brought back to my mind one of Woolf’s books, “To the Lighthouse”, and the difference between matter (the superficial) and form (the spiritual), and that brought back to life what it means to me to be living, and why schooling and the diversity of opinion and perspective is so important to me right now.They’re doing house-to-house searches for weapons now in Iraq. I wonder how Gore would have handled this? Of course, we probably wouldn’t be at war right now, except with Al-Qaeda.

Posted on

Ready for the Green MBA

All of my materials for entrance into New College’s Green MBA program have been submitted. Maybe Berkeley, eventually – but the New College effort seems so much better right now. I’m a bit disillusioned with the profession of journalism – could I really ever be able to speak the truth to large audiences, or would I become “embedded”? This is going to get worse before it gets better – I feel like escaping, but where on earth would I go?

Posted on

Anytime you have the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, you’re not long for the White House.”

A British fighter plane is down, several American soldiers have been captured, and Turkish troops appear to be moving in to the Kurdish section of Iraq. This isn’t going to be clean like the Bush administration hoped.The Oscars tonight have had a very limited response to war, except for a brief and passionate speech by an actor from the film “Y Tu Mama Tambien”, and Michael Moore’s acceptance speech kicker, which drew applause and boos from the audience for his criticism of Dubya: “Anytime you have the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, you’re not long for the White House”.

Posted on

The jealous boyfriend

This cleanse, the war, and the weather are affecting me in sluggish ways. I went out for pizza and karaoke last night with my brother and his wife. The atmosphere of the bar was really depressing, and offered me new insight to whether this is the best use of my time.Tonight I met a gentleman, and when I use that word, I don’t mean that at all. I would characterize him as extreme-low-self-esteem-and-jealous-boyfriend-man. At a birthday party tonight, I talked to a woman tonight, for the sake of conversation, without realizing I was under the watchful eye of her jealous boyfriend, who let me know rather directly that she was off-limits. He was almost mob-like in his delivery – and waited to tell me later on in the evening because he wasn’t sure if I was gay or not. He asked me if I was, and I honestly thought he was gay – and when I said no, he let me know that she was with him. I still had a great time with everyone else, but the experience reminded me that there are men out there like that, and that there are women who probably don’t know another alternative.

Posted on

Shock and awe

“Shock and Awe” is in effect. CNN is showing images of massive bombardment of Baghdad. Three cities and the peninsula that contains the oil are under coalition (US) control. Turkey is sending soldiers to the Kurdish section of Northern Iraq. The US is warning them not to – did US military advisors really believe this wouldn’t happen? This feels like a domino effect for a worldwide event – the queasy feeling grows. I feel like wanting to hibernate, putting my possessions in storage and traveling. The only thing that keeps me from doing this is the knowledge of having a BA in a month-and-a-half. That, and I’m receiving a lot of freelance work (three new clients this month!).

Posted on

Invasion

We’ve invaded. Northwest Cable News Network (NWCN) has a lot of Pacific Northwest residents calling in to express their opinions – most are from rural areas, and very much for the war. 60% of America believes that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 911, despite the fact that’s been disproven. The network did interview protesters, who offered lucid arguments against the war, reminding the public that they were for the troops, and as such, wanted to bring them home. Queasy feeling in stomach begins. Laura was at an action, got arrested, was released within an hour, and then went back to protest. Seattle had massive protests for a city its size, as well as Portland.

Posted on

Deadline for war

Bush gave the deadline tomorrow for war. Kofi Annan is asking UN personnel to leave – I believe that means the inspectors, too. My fingers are crossed for a major housecleaning in 2004. The only good news I heard was in this morning’s Chronicle, where Nancy Pelosi has asked for Democrats to return to their liberal roots, because “the strategy of moving to the right has failed for the party miserably”. Clinton was criticized for implementing this strategy for the 1996 election. Howard Dean addressed his message to “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party”.

Posted on

Willard

I saw “Willard”, starring Crispin Glover. Creepy, unsettling, and worth every penny.

Diana found a new place to live starting April 15th. It’s at the Opera Plaza building – almost like a mini city inside. I couldn’t live in that sort of dwelling – it’s too hotel-like, and I reserve that living for the occasional trip to Vegas.