reprezent

did you know it was a leap year?

LEAP ;)

i know about a lady here in texas who had to leave her house because when her boyfriend went on a month-long bender and was threatening her life, the cops came by and said he had as much right to be there as she did (even though she has owned the house for over twenty years and he was obviously drunker than dudley moore); that she was in danger wasnt of legal consequence.

we all get galvanized by what means something to us. i dont really care what revolutionizes you, fine if its snow peas, as long as it causes you to be awake.

neo con... who knew?!

here's an email i got from my dad this morning:

Through the miracle of computers, the following e-mail appears to have been written for me alone. I suspect a couple of other people also received it.

Jenn, you will see that Ron reports here on activity in your back yard.
Maybe you heard about it.

Subject: Message from Ron

February 26, 2008


What thrilling rallies we've just had in Texas. First there were the Students for Ron Paul at the University of Texas in Austin. The media said 4,000 came. Our people think there were more like 7,000. In any event, it was a very enthusiastic gathering of our revolutionaries, as even the media
admitted.

You will not be surprised to know that the young people there cheered the pure message of liberty: no preemptive wars, no Federal Reserve, no income tax, no police state, no drug war. Just American liberty and the Constitution, in the tradition of the framers.

But the rally in Kileen, though much smaller, may have been just as significant. Kileen is near Fort Hood, and among the 300 people who attended were many active-duty soldiers (though not in uniform) and their families. Whether it was the young man going back to Iraq for his fourth tour, or the sister of a soldier just killed there, they all wanted change in our foreign policy. Most heartbreaking was the young mother who asked for a signed copy of the Constitution for her son, "who will never know his dad." He too was just killed in Iraq.

How can we ask one young American to die for a neocon empire? The soldiers and their families agree with us, which is why our campaign gets more financial support from active-duty and retired military than all the rest combined. They want to defend America, not be part of some globalist scheme to take away our country's independence. And by the way ,at both rallies, nobody was for the monstrous Trans-Texas Corridor or the North American
Union.

Coming up soon are the Texas and Ohio primaries, with others like Pennsylvania not long afterwards. We are contesting every one, and we will be heard at the Republican national convention in Minneapolis and beyond. A substantial minority of Americans in all parties, not to speak of Independents, agree with you and me. Until November and beyond, I want to work to turn that minority into a majority, with your help.
https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate/

Sincerely,
Ron


you know what i love? i love it that we have some serious choices, and that some very good people are standing up to lead. man, i like that! ;)

triage

|trēˈä zh; ˈtrēˌä zh | noun
1 the action of sorting according to quality.



2 (in medical use) the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties.



verb [ trans. ]
assign degrees of urgency to (wounded or ill patients).

ORIGIN early 18th cent.: from French, from trier ‘separate out.’ The medical sense dates from the 1930s, from the military system of assessing the wounded on the battlefield.



i was thinking of it in the verb sense, really, thats regarding the next record. very m*a*s*h. less korea. but it more or less applies to everything im doing at the moment.



someone sent me a link to watch anne lamott speaking about life and writing. if you feel like putting your feet up for about an hour and listening to her quirky self talk, its for sure worth it:

anne lamott speaks

how to survive

have your cake and eat it too

how to get dressed

wear a short skirt and a long jacket

the deepest secret nobody knows

"here is the root of the root
and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky
of a tree called life
which grows higher than the soul can hope
or mind can hide
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart:



i carry your heart.



i carry it in my heart."

ee cummings

eclipse

"there's something in the way she moves
or looks my way
or calls my name
that seems to leave this troubled world behind"
james taylor

(i think he was singing about the moon)

the book of love

miso soup

cookin with james

valentine

immer noch so:



"ich weiss jetzt
was kein engel weiss."

a horse named paula revere

my mother demonstrated through meals, daily hands-on, staying in it, reinventing the wheel of actual, tangible existence with healing arts from very high modalities, east and west. from a very young age, we all had treatments by brilliant practitioners of anthroposophical and traditional homeopathy, acupuncture, macrobiotics-- we got nourished with the idea that we are very active in our own survival and in maintaining health. bedtime was early and there were stories and songs and prayers. mealtimes were regular. school was daily during the week and reading, music, biking, playing were the weekends. even in hard times life got sustained. she was there, demonstrating.



none of us liked the seaweed except my sister, who was always able to be helpful to my mother as though she understood. not me. i found the whole thing embarrassing and uncomfortable; i wanted to ride my bike. but years later, we are all converts and versed in the ways to heal, survive, express life gigantically. macro meaning big, bio meaning life. what i am sure felt to her like pointless effort at times became a rule of thumb for all five of the people who sat daily at her table, and the least likely converts are now the strongest supporters.





my mother chafed under norms: she wasnt a prom queen, although she was certainly pretty enough to have been. she wasnt into football, homecoming, traditional expectations, the hari kari choices that got presented to her in 60s texas. kinda like that nanci griffith song:

"texas back in '69 was drive in movies and dashboard lights"

nonetheless, she did choose although it chafed, and she chose her conscience and spiritual point of view. she looked out for us three kids, and she applied her revolution in her daily activities with us. i remember her girlfriends at the time which was the mid-seventies went to feminist meetings to air new ideas about men and being women, but she felt looked down on for being married and having children. it was a very unpopular thing to do, and she felt completely invisible in a world of hippies and pot and let the sunshine in.

all the people who crowded through our front door were an amazing assortment of world refugees and guys in suits and draft-dodgers and musicians and poets: my alcoholic nyc playwright uncle john whom i adored because he always showed up with a poem with my name in it; my aunt who was married at 18 in the back garden pregnant and so beautiful it was silly; romanians and germans and russians and my grandmother. my mother welcomed them in, sat them down, fed them, kept things in check, kept the music rambunctious, somehow made the world seem safe even when it obviously wasnt, not even in our home.



it isnt possible to overlook her work. she has so systemically affected so many people by her labor, and influenced so many by example but also noisy discourse and stubbornness and by being affronted. it was revolution on a cellular level, and we all ate at that table. an abd-phd candidate and a master's in social work as well as a lifelong movement artist, she was everybody's mother and there are still family who are mad at her for one failing or another, because she mattered to everyone crucially.

its actually how most women effect change in a culture that has rewritten the sounds of things to mean what they are not. you have to be a damned clever horse to know the cart dont get led without you.

in los angeles we had a series that presented the greek play lysistrata in all kinds of venues as an anti-war effort back in 2003 when bush took us without permission into the gulf again; the associated press forgot to mention those performances to its european readersership. wim wenders made a movie about the climate of america that year because his film with sam shephard got shelved. so did we.



(artwork by stephanie clifton)

there's a line in bread and roses that goes, "the rising of the women means the rising of the race". it's a good line.

wagging the dog

my dad is the sort of person who has spent his life on the frontline of huge change, and not just his vote, but his life. he grew up in an agnostic household of accomplished and hugely intelligent people but went on to test out the experience of many different ideas and practices, not just religious but educational, artistic, philosophic, social and political. his mother was jewish; one year, he took us to temple where he made friends with people he didnt share views with so much as humanity. he met my mom on protest lines in fort worth where you had to be white still to drink your soda sitting down. he marched in washington; we marched with him when we were bigger. he helped to start a school that he wanted us to go to which was not only against his parents ideology but gets criticized even now for viewpoints that are, btw, simultaneously recognized as a worldwide yardstick for modern education.





he was never afraid, still isnt, to be unpopular in his opinion or his perspective, and it still makes me uncomfortable at times when he will allow no opportunity to pass without speaking up, without voicing a challenge, esp if it is socially understood that in this case, you dont do that--those are the moments he will speak first. i completely admire him for it.

he has put his entire life on the line for challenging, for instance, the incremental dissolving of constitutional rights in america that for the most part have gone either unnoticed or unchecked as part of the hoopla surrounding the 9/11 let's-steal-the-oil-before-they-realize-it's-not about-homeland-security twin towers horror show. there really is law going into effect in a few months that is going to require everyone to supply fingerprints for i.d. we really are about to vote on electronic machines that have no way to be fact-checked. that's not just the movies- we are the movie. in fact, there's a really great movie barry levinson made about that not long ago, you should see it:

Man of the Year clip


the timing is serious. never been more so. and i wish i could support my dad's guy just out of respect for my dad. if it comes down to it, my dad isn't even going to vote if they ask him to lay down fingerprints to do it next november, IF that gets voted into law. he wont do it on principal. it's a violation of constitutional law, no matter what gigantic idiocy allows it to become an amendment. and his guy is all about constitutional law, really seriously about it.



what are you for?

reasons to end war

"Love, I am so different
Love, I am so different than before...







...Love, can I be loved
Love, could I ever really be loved
Love, if you ever find me I wonder
Will you try me I'm so different than before
Love, the kind that I've dreamed of
Well let's stop right here inside of me love
Love, if you ever find me I wonder
Will you try me I'm so different than before
Love, I am so different than before"
by rosey, "love"





"turn to gray, bluer shade,
when the sun comes
peaceful time,
cease your mind-"
by shelby lynne, "dreamsome"

twenty-one, wonderful world

"Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me too
What a wonderful world this would be

Don't know much about geography
Don't know much trigonometry
Don't know much about algebra
Don't know what a slide rule is for.

But I do know that one and one is two,
And if this one could be with you,
What a wonderful world this would be"
by sam cooke




"life's like this,
you fall and you crawl
and you break and you take
what you get and you turn it into
honesty
promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it"
by avril, "complicated"







"Latatatatatatahuwaah (history)
Oehwoewoe (biology)
Latatatatatatahuwaah (science book)
Oehwoewoe (French I took) "



photography by juliet.



star-jasmine girl.



let the good times roll ;)

nuts and bolts

so this morning it looks like clinton has taken a lead in polls in the primaries. and that's interesting.

i know a lot of really great minds who have told me they are not voting this year. which doesnt surprise. the atmosphere in this country is so disgustingly apathetic and also witch-hunt-y-- its hardly a climate to feel inspired or vocal in. i hear that the college crowd is feeling it for obama, but havent yet heard why. he seems as good a mouthpiece as any i guess, and certainly the videographers have made good use of cutting and pasting an important agenda on him with name faces to advocate for whatever position he apparently espouses. it would be fun to vote for him, kinda like american idol, but with politics.

i looked at youtubes campaign videos that google hosted- ron paul, clinton, obama mainly. just to see if anything was happening in their discourses. hmm. maybe. maybe not. but i can say this: if youre not going to do something about the catastrophic lack of vision and the hopelessly cynical manipulations of the media god we all pray to, then get up off your fat ass and participate in the voting. if youre not going to start a new party, or create a platform of some kind to counter the whole 1984 thing that is going on, make a damn choice about what is already on the table and vote. its not enough to just forgo or cave in to the big nothing.

did you ever read the never ending story by michael ende? or see the movie? well, do. thats what im talking about. it IS a big nothing, all the wizard of oz mechaninations. so? SO? wtf? its the same thing the world over, in every category of interest. theres a bigass nothing going on and you have no business leaning back into the idea that your voice isnt heard or significant or just plain your responsibility to use. cut back on the soma.

i esp hear from like my parents generation that they arent going to vote. are you kidding? who the fuck else actually remembers when there were actual people actually saying real shit? that inspired people? what am i supposed to tell my daughter? dont be ridiculous. i dont really think that hillary has any more moral ground to stand on than the new poster boy for hollywood or ron paul for that matter. im hugely uncomfortable that ron paul for instance feels free to wax loudly on the whole issue of abortion and right to life of a fetus/baby while maintaining his cool on all the other topics he says hes just strictly a constitutional man on. thats gross. aside from the fact that i completely disagree with what hes saying about it. yup, i do. not only is it ridiculous to have a federal position on the issue, its ridiculous to have his opinion on it. thats my opinion. never mind that the entire "topic" completely infantilizes women, its hilarious to imagine this man getting noisy about that-- like, where's his platform instead on a federal or state law requiring men to wear a fucking condom or be legally responsible for the children they bring in? for as many abortions that take place in the world, that's how many men youd have to police with their condoms, the same number exactly, equal ratio. right, there's some shit to think about.

how bout the fact that if you look up the candidates positions on the various laws that have been put before them to vote on since they have been in a position to do so, and hillary's idea of getting out the war in iraq is to bring the troops home by 2020 or some nonsense? did you know obama agrees with her?

i make no bones about the fact that there are precious little things to respect about the folks who are currently standing up to be voted on, but i will make my choice. in the first state i have ever lived in which has voted republican in these election things since i was born i think, maybe before, im going to have to vote what makes the best sense to me. even if its only to see as best a change as i can imagine since i havent started any new party or decided to run myself. its grotesque to imagine i have any choice-- we will all have to live the consequences, together, either way.

xtra noyse

more from the scoot by raf. finally getting to my mail and came across a very funny bad review. ;) funny. so, if youre in the mood, come over here and enjoy my spanking by a reviewer over at 1340Mag.com; i promised to include the bad.   cant imagine why people think im doing folk. must be cause im a girl or something, and not covered in tats. whatever.  thunder this am. just to shake things up.