# 02 Jul 2004, 09:47AM: Everybody's Working, Till The Weekend:
Jade and her friend Ari witnessed me at the SF Comedy Club on Wednesday night. I did pretty well but didn't win any prizes. At least some people got the "I am Indian, but I'm not just here for JavaOne" joke.
Last night Mr. and Mrs. Minutillo came to Leonard's for dinner and entertainment. Leonard and Steve found that the opening of "Stairway to Heaven" resembles a portion of Zelda game music ("Do you wish to continue?"), and Leonard used a small grill much like Andrew Northrup's.
Also, while accompanying the Minutillos on the Muni trolley, I picked up a lost cell phone that I gave back to its owner today. It would have been sort of fun to do the sitcom detective thing, where you call people off the speed-dial to track down the owner and/or make dates and announcements to shock and baffle the owner and her friends. But instead I just met up with her in front of the Old Navy this morning for the handoff. No flowers.
No play this weekend. What, a weekend to myself?
# 02 Jul 2004, 09:53AM: After the Weekend I Won't Be As Bitter:
Six dollars.
# 02 Jul 2004, 10:16AM: Also Includes "Really quick, is God on America's side?":
Sharpton, with whom I often disagree: "...George Bush has so let down what conservative -- I remember when conservatives were respectable."
In the same debate, Kerry: "...is this president a legitimate Republican or conservative? Because there's nothing conservative about driving deficits up as far as the eye can see.
There's nothing conservative about trampling on the line of division between church and state in America.
There is nothing conservative about letting your attorney general trample on civil liberties and civil rights, and be twice cited by his own inspector general for doing so...."
# 02 Jul 2004, 10:21AM: Wow, Sense!:
Seems to me that Santa Clara county is doing the right thing vis-a-vis Cary Verse's re-registration. If your neighbors chase you from their community everywhere you try to live, re-registering (including your motel's renumbering of its rooms) can slip through the cracks.
# 06 Jul 2004, 07:56PM:
My grandmother has died. She was 85 years old and died of old age, basically, and was in pain for some time before her death. I did not know her very well (she spoke only Kannada, which I have never spoken well), but she was my father's mother and my last surviving grandparent, and now I feel a little less moored in the world.
My grandmother stayed with my family just after we had moved to California, to an ugly box house in the grungier suburbs of north Stockton. I remember that the day we arrived, my parents left with my sister to register her for school. I didn't know where they were going or when they would be back, and I broke into tears and my grandmother hugged and comforted me in her lap. She smoothed my hair and said reassuring things in her language, and helped me not feel so bad.
That was a tough time for my family - close quarters, a harsh landlord, a new state, worse schools, and of course having to take care of my grandmother. Almost all my memories from that year are bad. But I remember that Ajji was patient and kind. She helped cure my pain, and now her pain has ended, and for that I am grateful.
# 07 Jul 2004, 10:27AM: Roots and Canberries:
I add fake ground beef to pasta or mixed-veggie dishes for the burst of protein. "You're wasting meat by adding it randomly as filler."
# 07 Jul 2004, 10:42AM GMT+5:30: Did You Mean: C.S. Lewis or Philip Pullman?:
I've read James Morrow's Only Begotten Daughter and Bible Stories For Adults and now I'm reading Towing Jehovah. Like, say, Stephenson, he loves naming things, "Father Thomas Ockham" for one. Lots of great analogies: "A choral gurgling filled the air, as if the museum were honeycombed with defective storm drains." As for Towing Jehovah (which Leonard insists on singing to the tune "Waltzing Matilda") specifically, the World War II re-enactment subplot bores me, but I still like the main plot so far. On the whole, I like Morrow, and taught a very interesting short story he wrote in my sci-fi class. His Christian and ethical fantasy amuses me, even if it's uneven. The similarly themed stories in Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others are consistently good. I want to read more by both.
# 07 Jul 2004, 10:49AM: "I'm tired of being Bob Dole's straight man.":
Clinton gave the inaugural Dole Lecture at the University of Kansas six weeks back. Lots of jokes (Clinton and Dole: vaudeville waiting to happen) and also many thoughtful passages.
Now, here's my take on where we are. I don't ask you to agree with me, but if you don't, ask yourself what you think. When our country was founded, the founding fathers said they pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor to an eternal mission. What was it? To form a more perfect union. Now, there are two or three ideas that are important there. I'll just mention two of them. One is the idea of union. The only reason you unite is because you need somebody else, right? The only purpose for having a union is that you can do more with somebody else than you can do all by yourself or with just your crowd. The second and equally important thing, which accounts for a lot of the fights I've had in my political life is our framers were essentially both deeply religious and deeply influenced by the scientific revolution, and the rationalism of the 18th century. They did not say form a perfect union. They said form a more perfect union. What does that mean? That means we will never be perfect, because there will always be problems as long as humans occupy the earth and because nobody is smart enough to have the whole truth. Now, you may not agree with that. You may believe some people do have the whole truth and therefore they have a right to impose that truth on everybody else. But that's not what the framers believed. They didn't say we're going to form a perfect union. They said our kids will be able to have a union more perfect than ours, and our grandchildren more perfect again and their grandchildren more perfect again and we will never achieve perfection. And so we set up this government that had both enough power to do what people needed to do to have a union and enough protection from power to guarantee that the government could never become the primary force in our lives, that people could pursue their private lives, their personal lives, build their families, say what was on their mind, worship God as they please or if they didn't please. That's the way it was set up.
# 07 Jul 2004, 11:06AM: Tasteless Sudan Joke Inside!:
Sepoy shows his students the truth about colonial administration - with a role-playing game! "Several came up to me afterwards and said that British rule in India came alive as the behemoth bureaucracy I had been describing all semester (SO MANY TAXES!, she said)."
The game-aversion of years dating a gamer is beginning to fade. Just the other night, during a Nathaniel/Shweta work party, I played and enjoyed Apples To Apples and Once Upon A Time (which I keep calling "Once Upon a Story"). During one round, I added a bit of color by referring to an "Upstairs/Downstairs" dichotomy inherent in all hierarchies, which of course let someone else interrupt my turn by playing the "Stairs" card. Also, after one horrifying plot development in which the women on an island killed off all the men, I nicknamed the genocidal females "the Gyneweed."
# 12 Jul 2004, 06:10PM: Party, etc.:
Happy birthday to Leonard. He had a great party with acres of food. I really need to face up to the fact that Leonard enjoys homemaking more than I ever will. My parents predicted that I would need a husband who would cook and clean for me - maybe that is how I will have to spin it if Leonard and I get engaged.
# 13 Jul 2004, 12:51PM: Bliss:
An okay Dinosaur Comics reminds me that Bill Nye has a "consider the following" shtick. I spent many pleasant hours in front of Bill Nye the Science Guy.
One year of high school I had gym sixth period. The last month of the year was the swimming unit. I'd barely swim through the tests, shower, ride the bus home through a heat I didn't mind, and flop in front of the TV with some corporate sugar soda and watch Animaniacs, Wishbone, and Bill Nye the Science Guy. For some reason I remember having a towel on my head; maybe I showered at home. My mom was in India so she couldn't shoo me from the tube. After a few hours my dad would come home from his job at Caltrans and I would make him coffee. ("Making coffee": use the microwave to heat up a cup of milk, then stir in instant coffee. Only after high school did I realize that most people make coffee very differently.)
I remember those afternoon hours as perfect contentment, possibly the happiest hours I ever had in that house.
Maybe that is why I compulsively watch Good Eats; Alton Brown himself is sick of the comparisons with Bill Nye, but it's a reasonable comparison.
# 13 Jul 2004, 02:02PM: The Chart Does Not Lie:
Make A Cost-Per-Wear Chart and embarrass yourself into wardrobe reasonableness!
# 13 Jul 2004, 05:44PM: You Already Read Achewood:
For future reference, here is a list of my favorite Achewood strips. Caution: some require context.
# 15 Jul 2004, 11:25AM: Caution: Dark Fantasy, Rambling, No Closure:
Jon Carroll, like me, is thinking about Ralph Nader.
I overheard David Talbot's phone call with Nader in the office a few days ago. As I see it, the cycle of marginalization and radicalization has gotten to Nader, just as it gets to kids who become martyrs to any cause. Rebels don't conform when you punish them, they rebel harder, especially if they don't have any stake in the stability of their world.
I made a dark joke to my cubicle neighbor: Nader as a suicide bomber, strapping dynamite to his chest and wading through the Democratic National Convention.
Later I watched The Daily Show at Leonard's. Jon Stewart interviewed Michael Isikoff of Newsweek. Unlike, say, "serious political reporter" Cokie Roberts, Jon Stewart debunked the stupid "terrorism in Madrid changed the outcome of the Spanish elections" claim. (Polls of the Spanish, both before and after the attacks, favored the challenger. The incumbent just made it worse by trying to blame it on the Basque separatists.) And I asked aloud, "Why is Jon Stewart the only responsible journalist?" He is a FAKE NEWSMAN! I have to count on a comedian to hold up the standards of journalism because most of the press is on a fawning break? Aaron Swartz continues my train of thought.
And I wished so hard that Abu Ghraib and the September 11th attacks were a dream. I would wake up and it would be November 7, 2000. Even though that would mean Leonard would be a dream too.
Instead last night I dreamt that we had a second Civil War, and some group of fighters ambushed my train. They shot me and I tried to shoot back, and I died crying, "I want to live!"
People who actually care what the rules say always seem silly and irrelevant to powerful bullies. It makes us mad when you call us silly. "That's why I'm starting an antiwar militia."
# 19 Jul 2004, 07:59AM: Must Be Not Allergic To Gluten:
I'm looking for a backup stage manager to train for "I Look Like An Egg, But I Identify As A Cookie", the show I'm stage-managing. Heather is extending the run and I may not be available for every show. If you like tech/scut backstage work, contact me.
# 19 Jul 2004, 10:02AM: Reassurance:
Sometimes I think it's useless to write boring letters to soldiers I've never met; ginmar reassures me.
Update: one of them wrote me back!
# 19 Jul 2004, 11:07AM: Full Faith and Credit Cards:
I got to see Steve and Alice this weekend. Man, their ceremony will be three and a half hours (including the reception) and I am going to cry the whole time.
Related: a coworker's planning on getting married in Las Vegas. Given that "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," do other states recognize Vegas weddings?
# 19 Jul 2004, 12:30PM: A Friendly Request:
People of the world! If you are not resourceful, or if you plan on being a nuisance in some other way, please do not interact with me today. As Alice said in a slightly different context, in response to "Do you need a hug?": "No, I need a shotgun."
OK, I am better, partially because I am wearing a toothpastefordinner shirt ("if I had a dollar for every time I had sixty cents, I would be Canada", black on gold).
# 20 Jul 2004, 08:51AM: Tigers and Lions:
My neighbor and coworker Susan McCarthy has a new book out on how animals learn. Many funny examples.
As The Religious Policeman illustrates in his Saudi weblog, the Saudi royal family needs some reform. My suggestion: switch the House of Saud with the House of Windsor! The British royal family basically has nothing to do and tends to send its members to good schools and so on; they'd love to have a project. Could they really do a worse job than the House of Saud? And then the Saudi royals could romp around Britain doing no harm and scandalizing the tabloids. There is no way this plan could possibly fail!
# 20 Jul 2004, 05:34PM: Fast Food Alien Nation:
My parents lived in India for decades before emigrating to the US. We ate dinner at home (where I never ate enough for my mother's liking) almost every night, and the only friends who had us over for dinner were also Indian. As my sister and I grew older and ate outside the house more often, we realized that my parents ate almost nothing but Indian food. My sister, while at UC San Diego, took us out to a lovely Thai restaurant and expressed her frustration that my mother wouldn't try anything new, even though the Thai dishes we ordered really resembled Indian food.
When we visited our parents, we ate Indian food alongside them. When they visited us, my mother brought a supply of her own food, and cooked, and we went to Indian restaurants. Once, when my sister worked in development for the YMCA, she invited them to a fundraising dinner. Most vegetarians would have the pasta dish, but my mother couldn't eat that, so my sister arranged for a special dish of plain grilled vegetables. But someone else took it, and my mother went hungry.
They couldn't stand American food, and wouldn't try it. Except for franchise food. Even with their bad teeth and cautious palates, I guess they could stand the consistent softness of bland McDonald's hotcakes and Taco Bell bean-and-cheese burritos and vegetarian Subway sandwiches. And they are comforting and seductive in their own way.
When we lived in Stockton, we lived near a strip mall with a laundromat. Before we got a washer and dryer, we used to go there to wash the clothes every three weeks or so, and my mom would give my sister and me money to get Taco Bell dinners a few storefronts away. Oh, the freedom of walking to the Fancy Restaurant and ordering my food myself with money in my own hand!
The other strip mall near our house had a Subway we used, and a Carl's Jr where I had secret meetings with my first real boyfriend.
Then I realized what I'd been putting into my body - sodium, fat, and junk calories practically devoid of taste and nutrition - and stopped. I have these tender memories of fast-food franchises, which I could bloom like yeast in water by going into any one of thousands across the land, but now that I know how awful they are I can't ever go there again.
Last week, before the show, I sent a volunteer to get me takeout from the yummy but expensive Cortez downstairs. The volunteer learned that they won't do takeout (er, we're renting a room from the hotel, so it's basically room service, which you DO, argh). She left and returned with a toasted Quizno's sub of mushrooms and tomatoes and such a yummy tasty crust. So tasty! I ate it disgracefully. I'll have to find a locally owned independent deli that replicates that sandwich. It was chain food, but at least I was eating. That should please my mom.
# 21 Jul 2004, 10:52AM: Buy Me Some Pesto and Camembert:
Tonight I go to a baseball game, courtesy of a Salon vendor. I think I last went to a baseball game when I was seven. (Was I the only girl on that T-ball team? I recall so.) I quizzed my coworkers on what to expect, what to wear, what to bring: "tell me of your earth past-time." Maybe I will catch something! A cold, probably.
# 21 Jul 2004, 03:47PM: Happy Greek Face, Frowny Greek Face:
Over the last few years, I've increased my theatre-going quite a bit. I was always in community and school productions up through the freshman year of high school, and now that I have disposable income again I'm back into live theater. I saw:
- Urinetown, which I really liked, at ACT in SF. Funny lyrics, when I could hear them, and a spot-on, hilarious ending.
- Much Ado About Nothing at the Berkeley Rep. I'd never seen this one before, if you'll believe that. Shakespeare knew what he was doing, and this Beatrice and Benedick sizzled.
- Both plays in the Continental Divide set at Berkeley Rep. The conservative one, "Mothers Against," I liked better than the liberal one, "Daughters of the Revolution," but both were good. Oddly enough, people who saw both plays could "vote" for one of the two fictional candidates, and I found myself voting Republican.
- Lobby Hero at Aurora in Berkeley. Great! What else do you expect from Kenneth Lonergan, who wrote You Can Count On Me?
- Mike Daisey, "21 Dog Years". Fun, if very different from the book (which I perhaps enjoyed more).
Surprise, surprise, I only go and spend money to see shows I'm likely to enjoy.
Tomorrow night I'm going to see Wasting Your Breath, the Mike Daisey memoir workshop performance. Only five bucks. Wow, something I might have been able to see while in college, except I was busy dating the wrong guy, swinging my moods, and generally being a dope.
# 23 Jul 2004, 02:51PM: My Name is Say and I'm Here to -- Wait, No:
Joe and I saw Mike Daisey's show Wasting Your Breath last night. I loved it. I also got to hang out with Mike and Jean-Michele Gregory for an hour after the show. Fun! We swapped tales of stage-management disaster, and it tickled me that he'd read my article about outsourcing.I also got to meet Johnny Steele, a quite funny and intelligent comedian (thanks for the hookup, Joe!). We talked a tiny bit about how to do non-autobiographical one-person shows. How do you frame a solo performance that is not "I was such a dope in college" nor just 90 minutes of jokes? In Continental Divide, characters mention that, in politics, people judge you on your worst mistake. I'm not ready to share my deepest regrets with an audience. What else do I have to share? I love the power of being onstage, but I don't burn with a message to share. Perhaps anecdotes.
I may go to the Gilroy Garlic Festival this weekend. Bah that Caltrain, which has a station in Gilroy, doesn't run trains there on the weekend.
# 23 Jul 2004, 06:30PM: Taken Out To A Ball Game:
The San Francisco Giants lost to the San Diego Padres, 7-1. However, SBC Park ("Some Big Company", as an acquaintance quipped) has many amenities and my fellow game-watchers refrained from excessive rowdiness. A pleasant experience that I would undergo again.
# 26 Jul 2004, 06:44PM: Will Johnny Control?:
Didn't get to see Johnny Steele because his show sold out. Went to the Marsh instead and saw a showcase. Some pretty good stuff, one or two "you are embarrassing please leave please" comics, and then the superlative Will Franken. He was meta. He was spot-on. He was amazing, fantastic, hilarious, paralyzed me with laughter, the best comic I have seen in a year if not ever. Just wow.
Zack and I saw Control Room and really enjoyed it. Of course, when you make a documentary interviewing articulate reporters and spokespeople, you'll get lots of great quotes. Lieutenant Rushing, the military spokesman, really strikes the viewer with his combination of thoughtful curiosity and dedication to his mission. Provocative, counterintuitive, and insightful statements and questions fill the movie; I actually sat on the edge of my seat for much of the film.
Other movies I really want to see: Flavors, Garden State, Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle.
I can't recommend the Gilroy Garlic Festival; too many booths selling things, not enough crafts, activities, exhibitions, and rides. Maybe I'd prefer a county fair. Certainly I'd prefer the train to driving. Also: remember sunscreen, hats, and bottled water when traveling to the heartland in summer!
# 29 Jul 2004, 11:26AM: Sci-Follywood:
A Fox News article on politics in sci-fi blockbuster movies quotes me, a sci-fi enthusiast. I get two sentences, probably the least interesting paragraph I said in that interview. More interesting points I made:
Both conservatives and liberals used to care about government barging in on people's privacy and freedom ("civil liberties"). Washington Republicans do not care about this any more (yet another way they are not really conservatives) and have forfeited this issue to liberals.
People care about a lot of political issues that never make it into Hollywood blockbusters because Hollywood blockbusters exist to make money, not to channel or poll political views. That is what polls are for. Polls would get very different responses if you charged $10 to answer a poll, or only polled people who think Will Smith is cute.
Many, if not most sci-fi and fantasy stories feature a team of protagonists who defeat the villain. Alliances are the answer, a lesson the Bush administration would do well to learn.
# 30 Jul 2004, 06:39PM: I Miss Retail Stories:
Conspiracy or alien books, this person wants. Perhaps he would like some pseudohistory, or perhaps he is just open-minded.
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