Random Scribbling

Three cheers for three candidates in Milwaukee's 3rd District!

Chris W — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:36:25 GMT

Don't forget to say 'thanks' to your neighborhood politician! In the historic election for the open 3rd Alder district seat, we saw Nik Kovac's integrity in action when he built a coalition of hard working good people to win the seat. Two other candidates also created crucial milestones in Milwaukee LGBT politics. In Sura Faraj, we had a courageous queer community member who stood up early on in what was an unknown election climate to define the issues, suggest solutions, and act as heart, soul, and conscience. In Patrick Flaherty's solid primary and general election showings, our district and city nearly achieved an historic first, an openly gay Alderman whose years of service to the community could have made him an effective political broker. They came to our doors through ice and snow during a brutal, lingering winter and patiently listened to our concerns. When we asked hard questions, they had good answers. Each of them took time out of their lives, left their livelihoods, and plunged into the whirlwind exposure of being a public figure. They all sacrificed pieces of their private lives, put themselves on the line and let us scrutinize them. Three cheers for the three candidates from the 3rd district who made history and have raised the bar for future candidates, campaigns and elections! I look forward to seeing Nik, Sura and Patrick all working together to build community and improve our neighborhood.

Hey Hey Hey Snowflake

Chris W — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:11:38 GMT

wow. i haven't blogged here since last year (technically). thought i'd check in, as i need a break from the head-spinning, headache inducing workday i have before me. what's up? lots of snow shoveling. e-mails from californians asking if this wayward californian survived the (insert random inches number here) of snow. for the record, it was probably about 10" over two days, or 12" if you factor in the crap that hit the ground and melted instantly. M*kitty reminds me that a Native northern culture has dozens of words, not just one, for snow. and this weekend proved that. the first round of shoveling was the 6" light power variety. i powered through both houses and sidewalks without issue. the second round of shoveling, though, it was lucky that our neighbor was out to lend a hand and she fantastically shoveled what i've called "god's own slushy" type snow. this was about 4" of the most densely packed watery crap that passes for snow i've seen in the four years i've lived here in MKE. i'm also trying to keep on top of QZAP stuff. still no progress filing away the piles of zines on the QZAP desk (oh, there's a desk under that pile of zines in the corner?!?!), instead working on far more fun things like a survey where i (on behalf of the collective) nominated 5 influential female zinesters. well, it's me. i can't stop at just 5, especially because someone forgot to switch of my verbose command at birth. it was a big chore, actually, to come up with the list. i spent probably around 6 hours or more in crafting my response, aiming to nominate women who i thought would represent diverse aspects of the zine community as a whole. there were a few weird requirements (like one that stated the zinester must have started her zine before age 22 ... WTF?!? like i know or care how old someone is!!! I *did* raise that as a concern in my reply, just as I had to stick up for those who identify as female, but may not have been biologically born that way. but that's me ... always causing trouble!! :) QZAP is also awaiting word on whether we've been assigned an Extern from the Grinnell College program for students who want "real world" experience over Grinnell's spring break at the end of March. For those who may not know, as I no longer wear it on my sleeve the way i once did, I went to college in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa back in the Dark Ages of the Reagan Era. While being at Grinnell changed the direction in my life to an overwhelmingly positive one, and I still have an amazing circle of friends from there, the luster wore off over the years as i got into scrapes with the College about classist issues. i was a scholarship kid, and one of only about half a dozen kids whose families were on welfare at the time (I was living with me mum and step-dad, mum was semi-retired due to health issues, my step-dad ... well, he just made stubbornly poor career and life choices...*ahem*). i was surrounded by trustafarian types, but also many middle class kids who were simply cool about it and not judgmental. the College, however, had some pretty fucked up attitudes about how alumni contributions should be sought and acknowledged, and that's where my falling out began. It exploded when I discovered they were hitting up my deceased mother for contributions, and a then elderly step-dad was super-confused as to why they were asking for money. in order to stop the insanity, i angrily cut all ties with the College and never looked back. These days, I'm less (much less) of an 'angry young man' and in my genial rise to middle age decided to give the jerks another go. I had been active in the past with the Career Development office, and since the Externship proposal was coming from them, I thought it would be high time to reconnect, at least on that level. I also had an interesting encounter with a newly minted Grinnell grad last summer during Critical Mass here in MKE, and she blew my mind with the fact that a party I'd been a very minor underling to put on had turned into an annual tradition (the dorm Mary B James Hall put on the "Mary Be James / James Be Mary" crossdressing ball). For the little college where the "Gay and Lesbian" Resource Center was forbidden to use "Gay and Lesbian" in the title (oh yeah, bisexuals didn't exist ... and if you were one, well, you weren't anyone... and the alphabet soup of queer allies was still on the distant horizon to come), they'd come a long way, baby. Yet another reason to let go of my shunning the College. We find out this week if, indeed, any of the hippy-dippy lefty liberal arts kidz gets to spend part of spring break in Zineland with us!! I'm also getting back into some of my art projects. The above pic is a still from some old 8mm home movies i had transfered to DV a few years ago. My sister L sent me some weird pix several weeks ago that turned out to be scans of slides that a cousin of my mom's took back in the early '60s (before i was born) - she seemed genuinely moved by that gesture, so i floated out the fact that somehow the goddess had blessed me with half a dozen of the three or four dozen home movies my family took in the '60s and '70s (my other sister stole them when she was kicked out of our house, and showed them to me around 1989 and i didn't have the guts to steal them back, so now they are lost to the ages as is my sister...). L had no idea these movies existed, despite the fact I'd put the ones with her in them on a videotape for her a couple of years ago. So I am now in the process of taking the six or so short films and making them watchable for her on DVD. I am planning on adding subtle soundtracks to them, as I find that without the whirring noise of the belts and gears of the projector, they become creepy and disembodied. Pic above is me, age 6. Still with baby teeth!! The dog is Joey, the snappy, high strung terrier mix who managed to live to about age 12 or 13, I think... My other art project is getting my ProTools and audio equipment set up to rip vinyl, cassettes, etc. One recent QZAP donation from Juha of a back issue of DPN had a flexi-disk in it, so I'll rip that, along with a single of my old friends' punk band Scooby Don't (with a rocking version of the song "Simon" from the Captain Kangaroo cartoon). My first attempt was to rip Scooby Don't, but I fucked up the EQ (ironic for a punk band ...) so i have to redo my work. d'oh! Then on to the audio cassette tour of the first Macintosh! I'll finally figure out what a mouse is used for heh heh. ok, hope this makes up for an utter lack of blogging on my part. march looks interesting, as i go to Denver for the Zine Fest, and am trying to get a place to stay for one or more weeks in SF so that I can attend to my tech client needs there. I have an offer to stay at a place in the Monterey Bay area, but i fear traveling up and back a few times would be awful. I did the CalTrain trek once, getting dumped off in Gilroy in the middle of nowhere as dusk settled and my ride nowhere in sight. But i simply wasn't patient, and she eventually arrived only a few minutes late. to sufferers of the winter blahs... hang in there, spring will be here soon!!! :)

Dykes on Mykes

Chris W — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 06:07:42 GMT

An awesome experience on the show tonight. It had started raining, and while some people find rain annoying, i often see it as a sign of good things to come, and tonight was no exception. I headed down early, turns out I was right behind the hosts as i entered the building where the station is housed. Got to meet the other guests, who were super cool and I was lucky to be on with such interesting women. We all did a pre-show chat just outside the studio and it turns out we were all people with previous radio experience. Always a good sign! It was interesting to be in the studio all at once and sitting quietly as each guest had their turn. i was last, but introduced with the woman from Lickety Split zine, so there was a little bit of overlap, very cool as I'd been trying to find Lickety Split at Expozine but failed to do so (and I figured out why, as they were tabling in an area I didn't explore carefully). The questions were great, and I only choked on one (Joomla! is the answer to the question "what is the open source content manager you use?") and in "radio time" we covered a lot of ground in a short period of time, yet there were many basic things I didn't get to touch upon. I did, however, feel that the interview perfectly segued into tomorrow night's discussion. Speaking of that discussion, it sounds like it will be a blast, and I also was invited to what i think is <<cinq à sept>> or in crude english, a happy hour type event prior to the queer zine talk. so i'm going there, as there is promise of good food and an awesome DJ. Plus, i had such a great time meeting the hosts of the show, i'd love to have more time to chat with them some more. Best thing ... i wasn't nervous for the most part! I'd been more concerned that I wouldn't be speaking English well, since i've had to sort of radically alter my speaking patterns since arriving here. However, the preshow chat got me warmed up enough so I didn't have any problems. After the show, met up with Dean, a Milwaukee friend of Milo's and mine and QZAP'S French translator who now lives here in MTL. Had awesome veggie chili at his house, met his housemate Patricia and one of the dogs they were caring for (they are a home for wayward/transiant dogs who need a temporary home) and then Dean and I went off to a bar on Ste. Catherine where the hottest of MTLs bike messengers hang out ... but alas, they must have better things to do on Monday night. There were a couple of punk hotties who might have been queer, but very hard to tell in a cosmopolitan Cité. So tomorrow is my last full day here, should be very exciting and eventful! Probably won't blog until after I return to the States, though, since I leave out late morning on Wednesday for the trip back. It sounds like I'll return here at a future point, as another CKUT radio show wants to have me on as a guest ... plus, despite all my language anxieties, this is a fun, trés cool Cité!

fermé lundi

Chris W — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 22:48:29 GMT

My adventures during the day today in Montréal all dictated by a single fact. Last night, in preparation for the other segment of my reason for coming here, that is to do research on my Canadian heritage (part Canadian eh!) at the National Archives, since attempting to find anything on line related to the Scottish or Irish immigrants to Canada pre-Confederation is doable if they relatively simple to find (my Irish ancestry gave themselves up pretty easily ... my ancestor was a schoolmaster in a town in the Eastern Townships of Quebec). I'd booked my hotel partly due to its location. I'm literally a minute away from the Grande Bibliothèque! In doing some last minute checking Sunday night, I came to the nasty realization that i'd actually never checked the days and hours it is open. D'oh! The scant English section of the Archives' website gave me precious little to go on, other than it appeared they were open every other day of the week except Monday. Thinking I'd be clever, I searched around on the web and found a page that indicated there were other libraries in Montréal that might have at least some of the same basic resources I needed. Swell! The City of Montréal library isn't too far away. I get down there, and was half flush with excitement, and half sensing impending doom. Why did the place look dark and the main doors shut? Sure enough, the doors were locked and a rather worn looking sign indicated to me that this library wasn't a library anymore. I understood all but the two key words in the sign, yet things started coming into focus ... there had been a consolidation of the major libraries and archives in Montréal (gee, wouldn't "Grande" given me any clue?!?!?). So, back I went from whence I came, with a little detour down Rue Amherst, which appears to be Mtl's ghetto for mid 20th Century furnishings ... par example "Sputnik" was the name of one such boutique! Rue Amherst is also the location of Révolution Montreal, the dyke run bicycle repair shop and hair cut shop. Cool bikes in the window, but I didn't go in. For Canadians, the next part may sound entirely stupid and gross. I had coffee and donuts at Tim Hortons. For non-Canadians, Tim Hortons is a national chain of donut shops not too dissimilar to Dunkin Donuts and that ilk. This was the "gay" Tim Hortons, however, if the rainbow triangles in the window weren't enough of a clue! Back at the Grande Bibliothèque, I got the sinking feeling that despite being a library, this wasn't going to be a great place to be speaking da English eh. I muddled through an on-line database that is only accessible from inside the building (I can see links to it on the web, but can't access to search it). Well, being in the building only got me one step closer. I could get to the search page, but then an error page entirely in French popped up no matter what I searched on. My rue-de-mentary knowledge suggested it might have been a connection error. Who knows?!?! I'm loathe to ask for help, and this time was no exception. I did manage to get the damn computer to print out the call number of a book I need to consult. Couldn't find it in the stacks, despite tomes in the same area of the Dewey Decimal system being on the shelf. So I went to the information desk, and of course, picked the two out of three people whose eyes glazed over at the thought of trying to answer me in English. But we did, however, get down to universals that confirmed my suspicion ... the lovely long set of stairs behind them led me to where the book, and all the other records I needed were located. And it was open every other day of the week ... except Monday! From there, I attempted to find what I believed to be the National Archives, as it was that address that inspired me to book my hotel room, and not the much closer Grande Biblio. A walk down Rue Ontario suggested that the National Archives was actually a pizza joint or possibly a parking lot. I decided to keep heading West because I knew the Contemporary Art Museum was off in that direction. Got there, but finding the entrance in such an ... artsy ... building was impossible. Finally found a door, went in and was greeted warmly by the doorman. Wandered in and it seemed unlikely to be the entrance to a museum. No, it was some swanky-ass restaurant (resto) instead! I figured this was a safe place to whip out my laptop and check Google Earth to see where on the planet I was and since the museum was closed (as I sat down to fire up the laptop, i saw a gate across the way to the museum ... i have a great picture of the only thing I could see, which was a sign saying "you are now leaving the american sector" ... how true...). I thought down the list of museum-esque options and thought "planetarium!" I like planets and space! So back to the Métro, and hop two trains to get over there. I exit in this place called the Bonneventure, and it certainly *wasn't* a bon adventure. A desolate, empty, cavernous underground place across from the train station. I finally found the sortie, and was out on the street. I was much closer to the river, so it was much colder and windier (I'd managed not to get rained on, since it had rained in the morning before i started out), so since i didn't see anything resembling a planetarium, i went back inside. Sat down to look at Google Earth, nothing looked like a planetarium, and no wireless access so i couldn't search. While attempting my way back to the Métro, thinking I'd head to the far northern end of the Mile End area, I walked past a map of the neighbourhood, and found the Planetarium. If you've been following my adventures ... you guessed it! Earlier when I'd exited the building, I'd only been two blocks from it before giving up. I thought "what the fuck" and went off to find it. As soon as i saw it, i'd remembered I'd seen it from the bus on the way into town from the airport. Gosh, it seemed awfully dark and with no cars anywhere around it like i'd seen that day. Oh yes, it was fermé! Back on the Métro, I thought I'd go off in search of Cafe Toutski, that I'd read about in the Queereaction event description (it happened a few weeks ago). It also gave me a chance to go way to the eastern edge past the northern end of the gay village and work my way back to the hotel so i could freshen up before the radio show tonight. Found the cafe with ease, very friendly staff who did not hesitate to speak English, and I got a "long" espresso. Sat down to jot notes to myself in order to write this lovely missive, and thought "Gee, if I'm in a cafe, I might as well order food!" Finally got up the courage to ask for a menu, and the dude said "Oh! Ordinarily yes, but on Mondays we close at 4pm" Guess what time it was? Twenty minutes to 4pm, so the kitchen was closed by then. D'oh! I can't say I'm the best at managing anxiety, and espresso didn't help much because now I was sort of shaking. I became obsessed with the notion of where I could eat with a minimum of fuss about communicating across the language barrier (yesterday when i ordered a soda with my meal, it never came and I have no idea why because despite speaking English when I ordered, she ran by me saying something in French that had the word "Pepsi" in it ... perhaps it was to say i wasn't getting one? who knows!!). I kept getting more and more agitated as I headed West. But then, at the corner of Rue Ste. Hubert just two blocks north of where my hotel is, I came across a decent looking corner grocery store. they had all sorts of decent produce, and veggie/soy stuff. I thought if I'm going to have to make an effort, might as well stock up on food so I don't have to feel this bad again about not finding food right away. The transaction went off without a hitch, I was able to even count my pennies, and I actually understood what the clerk said to me at the end of the sale. w00t!! So I'm at the hotel now, resting up before I leave in less than an hour for the Dykes on Mykes interview. It's going to be weird, as I have barely spoken all day, and even then about half in French and half in stilted English (or with a tip of the hat to Marianne Faithfull, "broken english" ?!?!). Since the dude at Cafe Toutski wished me that my day would get better (i let him know my tale of <<fermé lundi>>), and I answered him that it definitely *would* be better ... it's time to get ready! So despite a bizarre day, I'm happy and excited. I'll write about the interview in an upcoming blog. Stay tuned!!

Bon Voyage - Montréal

Chris W — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 04:45:48 GMT

Bon jour hello from Montréal! I had a super smooth trip here, utterly no problems other than minor seat mixups. But leave it to me to travel 1000 miles and then freak out two blocks from where i'm supposed to be going ... stupidly, i'd forgotten to do one last address check, or rather, since I often use commonalities to remember names a Français, I thought i was looking for *my* Rue ... Ste. Christophe, but instead should have been looking for my *brother's* Rue Ste. Dominique! D'oh! Poor Milo got a minorly frantic e-mail from me as I was trying to wrap my head around French, English, and the fact that my bloody cell phone doesn't work here except on the mondo expense "roaming" setting (after consulting Sprint's website, I'm now also scared that I'm being charged for every KB of text messages I send from here too ... and considering Milo gets 3 texts for every 1 I send him... yikes!). So, yes, I DID finally arrive at what appeared to be a church and there were masses of bicycles out front, and the usual hippie/punk skew of loiterers outside. After walking through an afterthought of a maze that was the entrance, it opened up onto perhaps the church basement, cafeteria or theater and instantly the heat of 300+ people crammed into this tiny room came over me like wave. Plus the usual garlic-y sage-y tobacco-y smell of the hippie/punk skew was rather evident as well. The space was soooo small that one couldn't move through the crowd at one's own pace. It literally took me two hours, sometime transversing the same row three times just to actually get a look at everything. And I picked up some *amazing* queer zines for the collection, mostly queer teen health zines that were written by a local nurse here in Montréal. Also picked up a vaguely Gay Shame affiliated essay zine by a gay black male who does NOT support "gay marriage" and laid out the arguments and logic that I've heard in conversations I've had with other allies to the queer African American community ... namely, that white gay male pukes (this means YOU, HRC!) co-opted and misappropriated so much from the Civil Rights Movement that the author posits this is part of why a high percentage of straight African Americans are against so called "gay marriage." He went on to really lay it on the line ... what the fuck good does "marriage benefits" do where there is no economic equality? Benefits that don't exist can't get magically transferred to a queer spouse!!! I am going to review it for one of my up coming QZines articles, it's a voice that I want more people to hear. I'm lost here in Montréal between worlds and languages. I really don't think people suspect I'm ... an American (aaaaargh!!! the horror!!!) but yet sometimes i feel i have horns coming out of my head the way people look at me. I'm always slow to adjust to eye contact when I'm in a new culture and this time I'm low-level freaked out by people noticing me as I observe them in an attempt to adjust myself to fitting in. I'm also mostly at a loss over language. If you know me personally, you know the story of how I got to this point ... my older brother, fluent in French, taught me at age 4 or 5 the fundamentals of French pronunciation. So when I speak piss poor French, it actually sounds like I'm just being a jerk about not knowing the language. I have utterly no vocabulary to follow up from my simple communication. I only had one moment of true panic, when I went to buy my three-day (trois jour!) Métro pass, but she and i did a lot of universals and the light bulb clicked over both of our heads! I'm loving how cosmopolitan it is here! I haven't felt this comfortable with a mixture of cultures since SF, and I've heard Japanese and Spanish and probably a few other languages as well (had to laugh when I heard a total white boy speaking Japanese to this Japanese guy at the ExpoZine event ... I rarely hear white folks even attempt to speak Japanese!!) and it made me smile. I'm also constantly having to wipe the drool from the corners of my mouth. Hotties aren't the half of it. A lot of people here are super sexy. I thought maybe this guy was going to try to pick me up at Esperanza tonight, but he simply smiled a lot and it was weird because i was hangin' there for about two hours and as soon as I left, so did he. I guess he didn't realize how utterly easy it is to take me home heh heh. So Sunday I have a day of no plans. I'll probably do more walking around, as I probably got a kilometer or two under my belt today, walking around from 8pm to about 10pm in the neighborhoods near the ExpoZine event (they weren't that thrilling, but I needed just to get out and wrap my head around this amazing city). That's it for my first doozy of a half day here in Montréal ... I'll try to post more over the next few days. The Tuesday night event is shaping up to be really, really big ... i guess there will be DJs after we panelists talk, and I've even been offered a slot to spin ... I hope that works out, as when i was hanging out up there at Esperanza tonight, i think i can hit them with a little of the ol' skool Rebel Grrrl style that M and I perfected in our tenure at (f)ArtBar. Bon Soir!

To Canada with Love, eh!

Chris W — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:20:13 GMT

it's crazy, I tell you! my forthcoming trip to Montreal just knocked up several notches (BAM!). In addition to the interview on Dykes on Mykes, it appears there's going to be another public event where I get to talk about QZAP, queer zines, etc. And get this ... unbeknownst to me, the Montreal expoZine event happens the day I arrive. I sort of wish I'd known before i booked the tix, because I probably would have taken the 6am flight out of here (oh, who am i kidding? like i'd wake up that early... heh heh) so I would have more time and possibly table. So keep fingers crossed that my flights are on time and I get to Montreal on schedule. I fortuitously booked a hotel room about a block from the major transportation hub in downtown, so zing-boom-bip from airport-hotel-zine event can happen in rapid succession. plus, in the middle of it all, i have the latest QZines article due today (actually, just e-mailed off ... ) and a CD review by week's end for Nerve House. Oh yeah, isn't there that HOLIDAY this week, too? Complete with food and hosting out of town guests?!?! My sister told me a few months ago that our family motto is: there's time for sleep when you're dead. this week proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt!!!!

i perpetuate democracy and all i got was this lousy sticker!

Chris W — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 20:37:21 GMT

hey there, just got back from my polling place and it was hopping! somewhat chaotic scene, with lines criss-crossing everywhere and no one person actually directing traffic. an awful lot of people doing same-day registration, that in and of itself is awesome! so i kept one of my usual traditions, of adding a write-in. but this time, it was a real live person, not "Shakespeare for Library Board" like i normally would ... no, i wrote in the name of the sheriff candidate i voted for but who lost in the primary. i can't, and won't, support the dorkwad who'll be reelected anyway. And I also gave a nod to my Green leanings by voting for the Green candidate for Senate (our Senator, Herb Kohl, will easily be reelected by a huge margin anyway, so why not?!?!). it was also nice to finally be able to say NO to the stupid Marriage Amendment travesty and also to this ridiculous "should we bring back the death penalty" question (just a question, mind you, not an actual amendment, law, or anything binding). This state has been, at least as far as the death penalty is concerned, enlightened since the mid 19th Century (for the record, my stance on the death penalty is pretty much in line with the EU stance ... that is, no death penalty, period). what do i see for the future from this election? Dems in the House, for sure. I truly wish they'd get the Senate, but they just didn't have their shit together to reach for the lofty goal, even with Repubs and Fundis hanging themselves every day through scandal after scandal and body count after body count. Even though I think the Dems will take the House, I predict they will simply squander their political capital and really end up doing nothing. Nancy Pelosi bothers the hell out of me, even though I probably voted her into office when I lived in CA. Will she make a good Speaker? Probably not. I fear she'll be "Hilary'd" and rendered ineffectual by shrill Repub dissent and sniping. i'm also hopeful and frankly will jump up and down with glee when Senator Frothy Mixture of Lube and Shit gets shown the door, and i'm sure there are other candidates for whom I will be equally happy they are on their way out of office. So that's it ... get out and vote, and let others know your experience at the polls!

Trippy

Chris W — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 05:01:53 GMT

looks as though i finally resolved one of my long-standing ohrwurms**... apparently Grace Slick did some music for Sesame Street during my childhood! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_celebrity_guest_stars_on_Sesame_Street she performed what was dubbed "Jazzy Spies" - dig around, there are You Tube vids out there! When you listen to it, it's the rapid counting style she does in the last count, with strange inflection on "nine ... ten" supercoolio. **ohrwurm - an easy term to translate from German "ear worm" or the song/music that gets stuck in your head, in my case sometimes for years before reidentifying it!

It's about fuckin' time!

Chris W — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:25:41 GMT

http://www.nohr4437.org/ Fresh on the heels of spontanious marches around the country in support of immigrant rights comes news of a "general strike" to be timed for May 1st - which traditionally has been a day to celebrate the rights of workers. The link above will take you to other links to find information about how protests will be made throughout the country and how to participate. "It's about fuckin' time" is my crude way of saying "right on!!" to the fact that here we are, so many terrible years into the current administration, and this is the first time there will be an organized strike action on a national level in this country. I want to express a "thank you / gracias" to the folks who've been organizing the marches and protests up to now and I hope May 1 will be an even bigger success and will capture and garner more support in the fight for freedom for all in this country, especially those who seek to join our country and be a part of the wave which can recapture the good things we know are true about living here in the States. I, too, am descended from people who sought to either escape fascism in their home country or who came here for the chance to make their own way in the world without having to be subservient to outdated "traditions" such as following in a father's footsteps. Go get your strike on!! Happy May Day!!

MMMMM. Fried brains!

Chris W — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 21:40:00 GMT

am taking a break from browbeating M's computer to start working again! i finally decided to pull out the "radiator" heatsink and discovered that there's a possible heat build up here. Hmmm, the tell-tale imprints on the bottom of the heat sink ... or being able to see the tops of the processor chips? Take your pick, it's all good. Computer has been sitting in a 'hot spot' for a while. Ok, so that's the *next* level diagnostic. Make computer cooler. Check.

They May Be Comin' To Your Town

Chris W — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 08:46:14 GMT

Ah! The pitter patter of rain outside ... and the pitter patter (well, more like giggles and laughter) of travellers in our house. Tonight, M + Drea and I went to see some of our friends who came through town for the Tranny Roadshow ( http://www.trannyroadshow.org ) and I can say, hands down, I dug every single performer. Those who know me know this is the best endorsement i can give. I once worked for an experimental theater company, and was a performance monologuist myself. The performers each had short sets, and it was too bad that the show here in MKE had to start at 10pm due to the fact there was something else scheduled there in the early evening. Despite this, the house was pretty much full, with only an empty seat here or there. We'd actually met up with the performers beforehand for a quick bite to eat, and to snag our lovely friend, Seeley Quest, so that we could hang out and catch up. It was nice to see them all before the show, as everyone was down-to-earth and also seemed in good shape despite all the miles they'd traveled so far. I couldn't help stealing glances down to the other end of the table to the hottie who was seated directly opposite me (the distance was well over 10' so i'm sure i was never 'busted') ... low and behold, no surprise that i should fall for the rock star of the group! :) It was great to have that bit of time before the show to hang with Seeley. I've been seeing more of hir lately, which is a good thing because Seeley is one of the many friends in California I miss seeing. Last time we met up was randomly at the SF Zine Fest, and M had seen hir recently on one of his voyages Westward. The performances were all succinct, and infused with things deeply personal, yet never without a balance of humor or hints of optimism. The musical pieces were fantastic! The violinist, who is also an operatic singer, did a great job with a piece by Bach, although I felt bad that the final note or two just didn't really come off well (silence instead of sound ... i can't accurately describe what happened). I was personally glad to hear part of Dylan's performance which took the serious subject of suicide and gave it a twist with genuine humor, dare I say "laugh out loud funny" - having lost a step-brother to suicide, and as one who talks openly about issues surrounding suicide, it did my spirit good to be able to recontextualize levels of dealing with suicide. AJ (my rock star crush) ended the show with a toned-down electro-accoustic set, due to the fact that there were noise concerns. This didn't stop him from a good 'rock out with your sock out' session, and his last song "Shame" had an amazing middle-eight part and was fascinatingly complex. I found myself either humming along or trying to guess the progression of the chords. That, to me, is a sign that it's good music and very interesting. He also has this rather yummy punk rock star personality which shines through. I heard it said that AJ is the one who cracks up everyone else on the Tour and it was easy to see why with his colorful personality. So if the Roadshow is coming to your town (this year the tour is west of the Mississippi), by all means get off yer fuckin' ass and go see it, damn it!! All the performers are amazing, and it is heartening to see such dedication and talent. Hats off to Kelly Shortandqueer and Jamez, who are the planners/organizers. How the hell they put this all together, go on the tour, and still stay (relatively) sane is beyond me!

wicked awesome!

Chris W — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 18:09:26 GMT

the Boston Zine Fair was great! the first day was a lot more busy than the second day, sort of lending credence to the theory that zine fairs/fests/gatherings should only have one day of tabling rather than two. it was great to see old friends again (like Greg on Saturday, who is a Riverwester by way of the East Coast; and Reb, who I hadn't seen in person for about 12 years or so, of Fanorama) and also to meet new people and check out the scene in and around the Boston area. M and I quite accidentally (or as we used to say in high school "accidentally on purpose" heh heh) found our way to Papercut Zine Library on the Friday prior to the Zine Fair. It's an inspiration to see that in a space no bigger than a standard office that a comfy little zine lending library and infoshop could exist. we've wanted a space like that for QZAP, but in some ways with it being digital and on the Web, most of our energy is devoted to getting more (and more and MORE!!) resources online. i hadn't been to Boston in 14 years. i was there in 1992 or so for the wedding of two Grinnell friends who lived in Ipswich/Salem at the time. On that occasion, I took the T into town and went to Harvard Square (where all I remembered from the trip was ... oh dear, should I admit this ... Urban Outfitters) and I also went somewhere else in the city that I still can't put my finger on exactly where I went. The return to UO this time was with the knowledge from M's sister (who lives in South Boston and has for many years) that the basement is the best place for bargains. Sure enough, perhaps one of the most coincidental finds happened here ... on St. Patrick's Day, I find for pretty much 1/2 off a pair of "leprachaun" green Van slip-on shoes!!! Yippeee!! Anyone who knows me knows that for whatever reason, I'm slowed down considerably by the task of putting on and tying my shoes. I've wanted shoes that could easily go on and off, without being sandals. Now I have them!! And lastly, the photo shows a cup from what was a cool adventure ... a drive-thru donut shop!!!! Maybe they are common in certain parts of the country, but never any of the myriad of places I've lived over the years. They were damn fine donuts, too, and the coffee was actually quite decent! My last impression from the trip is that i felt slightly squeeg-a-rific about the traditional place of Boston in the history of the US. I have usually lived in more "modern" American cities, built up mostly from the mid-to-late 19th century onward. But in Boston, bits of 17th - 19th century stuff pops up here and there ... yet I felt almost zero interest in any of it. Despite how craptacular the state of affairs and society is at the moment, I guess I'm always looking *forward* (a large feat for an historian!) and was more curious to see how Boston will change now that they've torn out their old ugly elevated freeway (I saw how it changed SF for the better to have decked freeways gone and sunshine and greenspace in their place...). I'm also starting to think about producing an "archive series" of my old zine. Over the years, a single issue of my zine here and there has been picked up by various archives or are included in collections, but never a complete set. I often get bogged down in technical details, as I tend to want to "fix" or "patch up" various things which originally went wrong with a particular issue (famous debacle once of issuing "thanks" using the wrong name of the guys in a band, etc.). I guess "warts and all" make for better charm! So I may take the original masters out of their files and scan them at high-res to get workable masters for reprint (that way stuff i glued down a hundred years ago doesn't come flying off or rip apart!). I have also toyed with the idea of incorporating all the issues into an Anthology, since eons ago in the stone age of the internet i carved an anthology website into digital granite, and I've always liked what I wrote retrospectively about each issue. I also wobble back and forth about the legendary Issue #7, which was never completed, but was started at least. I have a tendency now not to write so much about my personal life, or my family, which was something I freely did back then. I've found in the interim that reexamining my family life has no real value, and that the family I've built in my adult life is the healthy, vibrant, and supportive family that was only a gleem of shimmering hope on my bleak sub-adult horizon. So that's sort of the Boston scene report! There's going to be more to come out of this trip ... stay tuned! M and I were interviewed by a cool writer named Jill for an upcoming issue of Maximum Rock and Roll about QZAP. We also made any number of amazing connections to zinesters, activists, and artists, and look forward to seeing their future work as well.

Queer Invisibility in Plain Sight

Chris W — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 18:45:09 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4715822.stm WTF?!?! Pansy Division has been performing this song (Cowboys Are Secretly, Frequently Fond of Each Other) for ages, and suddenly it's being "taken out of the closet" by Willie Nelson. Please don't construe this commentary as a negative diatribe against Willie, on the contrary! A pot-smoking red haired rebel like him has my respect as a personality and an artist. But for news media soooo hung up on endless, relentless commentary on this horrid movie whose name I am not going to mention, it strikes me as sheer stupidity to ignore the fact that there has been true queer art and queer musicians out there long before two hottie dumbasses in sheepskin and cowboy hats are portrayed as "groundbreaking" or whatever lame adjectives are being used to describe it. [Insert loud "argh" sound here - end diatribe]

a cure for VD

Chris W — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 18:22:33 GMT

http://meish.org/vd/ stumbled across the site above courtesy of a columnist in the Guardian newspaper from Manchester, UK. very cool sentiments, all are useful in some way. might have trouble with it from time to time, i got it to work once this a.m., but now appears to be barfing up SQL errors or some such... the originating article itself is quite amusing as well, hope the long link copies over correctly! http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/02/14/tinkly_snookumbear_wuvs_her_ginormous_huggy_waffle_for_always_and_ever_xxx.html#more

Gay or European?

Chris W — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 08:09:22 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/09/ken.barbie.reut/index.html OMG!!! Ken® is back! I guess the gay thing hasn't really work out for him, so he's trying to work his way back to Barbie® after a bender in Europe. But Barbie® knows better now and won't fall for it again this decade! You'd have thought she'd have picked up the Barbie® Clue Phone after seeing Ken® in that truly gay 1970's outfit (he and Fred from Scooby Doo should date)! And what about those carefree years as Earring Magic Ken®? My god, why didn't she wake up and smell the coffee until it was waaaay too late! And what's up with that '90s get up? Parker Lewis style is one thing, but this is more "If '60s were '90s" type thang. Hello, acid flashbacks! So welcome back to the game, Ken®. We really did miss your fabulous self, and so did my Kung-Fu Grip GI Joe® (he'll ask, but don't tell!!) *smooch*

Checking in? Checking out?

Chris W — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 18:18:32 GMT

hi there, i haven't checked in via blog in ages. seems a lot of people are so pissed off with the Tribe shakedown that i didn't want to get sucked down into the muddy waters (i'll take my muddy water in a mug with some cream, thank you very much...). i've known a few people who've left Tribe completely, and I think most are like me, not happy with things, but not *un*happy enough to completely leave. (my only gripe is this bug, which predates the switcheroo, that if i browse someone's photo album and happen to click to enlarge a particular photo, and then click back to the main view and try to click "Next" or any of the numbered pages, it simply reloads the pic i chose to look at in large view. d'oh!!!) been having lots of fun with power tools! the pic above is the completion of a months-long dream of finally converting a superfluous doorway into a functional shelving unit for all this media in our living room. the pic also shows the new color of the Office, which is this gorgeous chameleon gray that sometimes is 'warm' and other times is 'cool' - the rest of the Office project will be completed sometime later this month, as we have to wait on getting our retro countertop material (aka the Boomerang Formica®) to be properly cut by professionals (and not mere amateurs like myself!). probably concurrant to that remodel will be the redux of my bedroom. in making the move here, i sacrificed the biggest bedroom i ever had for perhaps the smallest (or at least the least functional bedroom ...) and ever since i was a child, my bedroom has been a fort, home base, place of sanity and solitude for me. i'm not really needing much in the way of refuge from the world these days (well, my *personal* world ... we'll ignore that *other world* and its dysfunction for the moment [i've put myself on pretty much a limited diet of "news" this week...]). I stumbled across the solution to the problem of my bedroom in a free association a few weeks ago, by simply thinking outside the box! instead of using things the way they were vaguely intended, i decided to use what passes as my closet as where the head of my bed should go (it's not really a closet, more of an archway at one end of the room, 5' wide opening rather than a door...). I've got huge issues with noise in my room, as my window is next to a sidewalk for the multi-unit house next door, where i'm guessing the major tenancy requirement is the ability to stand outside all hours of the night talking loudly). i'm hoping that my rearrange will abate some of that problem, and in the process make my room more functional and comfortable. also, it will be nice to move my bed down to the end of the room where i won't be sleeping next to plumbing for the upstairs bathroom! ack! that's it from my end of the world ... i've got one more shelf to fasten, and then on to other projects! laters!!! --c

welcome to my world

Chris W — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 04:24:55 GMT

i was only officially down and out one day with this cold, so i count myself lucky to bounce back. ah, what rest, medicine, and good food can do! i've eaten well throughout and it's a huge difference to other times in my life i've been sick. i usually never have nightmares, but did one of the first nights i was sick. strange, almost a jump in linear time ... one of those "i'm back in [fill in random place in your past]" kinda things. yikes! i'm also glad to have had a lovely holiday season. i generally don't dig holidays (oh, the family drama(s) i've gone through at "holidays" ...) but more and more i'm beginning to find them enjoyable. it was a work hard, play hard (tee hee hee) sort of couple of weeks. and it was great! here's to finding peace in 06! --c

Take That? More like Fuck That!

Chris W — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 01:26:16 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4502834.stm ah yes, UK libel laws once again make homosexual issues into hilarity! today's news, coming on the heels of the introduction of same sex civil unions in the UK, seems pretty silly. Robbie Williams, former boy band Take That member and now a successful solo artist, wins a libel case against publishers who were about to name him as a "secret homosexual." Ok... "secret homosexual" eh? whatevah! reading from the article above, appearently snogging someone in a toilet, or having an illicit same sex shag or two makes you homosexual. it is interesting to note that there is never really a denial about the sex, but that Robbie isn't a "homosexual" - which, technically, could be very true. He probably is bisexual, or just a "straight but not narrow" bloke who doesn't let the whole of his sexual identity be defined by a couple of sexual acts. big fucking deal if he gets it on with another guy (or two, according to the article...)! he's always been sort of cheeky and cagey about the whole sexuality thing, and frankly, that's a good thing. who cares what turns him on, or what he does in private. Like naming him as a "homosexual" will somehow shake the very foundations of civilisation, or dramatically alter his singing voice. i find it really sad that valuable court time was taken up by so stupid an issue. "the media" is so terribly fixated on crap that means utterly nothing to anyone, whilst they let big, big stories go unchallenged (how about Tony B's illicit 'relationship' with his bitch W?!?!). give it a rest. I really hope this doesn't put Robbie off being flirty and sexually ambiguous. While I'm not a fan, and couldn't tell you the name of any of his tunes to save my life, I do recognize that he has an incredible sense of humour and flirts with anything, really. Maybe they should report on whether Elton John or George Michael are "secret homosexuals" ... heh heh

Happy Buy Nothing Day

Chris W — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 16:56:48 GMT

normally, i wouldn't be proscriptive ... that is, *telling* someone what to do. but today is a great day to cut loose just once and say "BUY NOTHING TODAY" - why succumb to groupthink, why support the crapitalist system, why raise your blood pressure and empty your wallet. By all means, be deliberate in your consumption today. I'm not advocating staying away from your locally owned businesses run neighbors and friends you know, trust and support. I'm highly suggesting staying away from the mall, the on-line retailers, the catalogs, or whathaveyou. On a day where every grubby business wants you to go out and spend, spend, spend, why not use this as a challenge to see how much you can do for free, or through barter and exchange. Here are a couple of resources for nifty ideas (downloadable posters to put up at the big scary retailers whose names I refuse to mention...). Know also this isn't an American thing. Our friends in other countries around the world also are going through the same thing (although without the Thanksgiving holiday to help turn up the shopping hype to 11...), and its a great opportunity to create solidarity with folks around the world. http://www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/ - Adbusters http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/downloads.html - UK resources, with links to many countries around the world Enjoy the day for yourself, your lovers and friends and family without spending a dime!

Plane crash!

Chris W — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 05:20:20 GMT

written off-line for posting later. Plane crash! In the neighborhood (props to the Sugarcubes, albeit Motorcrash)! As i was walking up to ArtBar, the ever-shining light above the door of the school suddenly blinked off. I thought it was odd, that the passing headlight hadn't been bright enough to fool it into thinking it was daylight again. Weird weather? It was awfully breezy and it had just rained. Then, I noticed a woman coming out of a house, her lights were on but I thought she was talking to me "Did the lights go out?" but from across the street, why should she ask me? It's Wisconsin. They're weird like that. I get up to the corner, and ArtBar is *dark* - as if it were closed. On a Saturday night? Not bloody likely! The power *had* gone off, as the woman had queried. When I met up with my friends, who were easy to find since the owners and staff of ArtBar don't get phased by anything and were already lighting the place with candles; much like our Rebel Grrrl Blackout night! Moments of the conversation drifted back to the power outage at hand. A friend and neighborhood activist Kevin got calls from family and friends. A plane had crashed near his brother's house, the pilot still alive. The plane had hit power lines, so parts of the neighborhood were without power. My mind wandered to what the cacophony was like at our house, with three UPS backups chirping that the power had gone out. I stayed for two Boddingtons, and lots of conversation. Many friends were there to bid a mutual friend 'congrats' on her last day at work before she takes up a new job after a few months off to travel. The power came back on after not too long, and by the time I made my last trip to the bathroom before walking home, there it was on one of the TVs. I felt weird watching ... it was Fox after all, and it certainly wasn't the Simpsons or Family Guy (about the only reasons to watch any Fox show...). For me, it was the power of seeing the simple neighborhood communication as validation versus some distant media entity, not even in my neighborhood but hovering above it, making lots of noise and adding to the already windy conditions. I'm home now to find only two of the three UPS units were chirping. Mine, for some reason, wasn't. I had left on the computer and monitor, I'm sure it went down quickly. Woo hoo! Impromptu Shabbot, as I'd just purchased a box of 72 earlier this week. Within five minutes I had the place nicely lit, and able to grab the laptop (which i'd accidentally left open, so only 64% battery power ... d'oh!). Took a break to set up "Battery Powered Symphony" whereby i connected my Casio Rapman keyboard to my minidisc recorder via a Boss Sampler. the connection through the sampler was noisy, so i just played around with the Rapman, playing annoying figures over the cheesy preprogrammed beats. One can also spin a little turntable to get 'scratches' but the samples are quite lame. Hey, but it all worked when there was nothing to power them but batteries!! :) Just as I was fiddling with something on the Rapman, the power came back on, so about four hours out when all was said and done. Now to reconnect to the world, find out what's going on, and maybe eventually post this ... right now my DSL is AWOL, even though i can connect wirelessly from the laptop to the router, which is up, running and linked. Straaaaange!! (now, back to posting real-time ... connected!) So the attached pic shows something of a miracle! It appears that the plane didn't actually crash, but indeed conditions were such that the pilot was able to walk away. Wow! Only in Riverwest, maaaaaan...

mission control, we have coffee!

Chris W — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 18:28:49 GMT

after a week of muddling through various and sundry methods of coffee making, the new coffee maker just arrived this morning. ah, the fact that i got a saturday delivery and didn't pay some premium price. w00t! the only disappointing thing so far is the "permanent" filter basket i ordered didn't come ... they stuck the wrong one in the box. d'oh. luckily they give you a 'starter pack' of regular paper filters, otherwise i'd be a very unhappy camper. so why the swanky coffee maker? well, i've played the dumpster dive/thrift store coffee maker game for many years now, safe to say i've never bought one new, and this is no exception. All the swank, and roughly 1/3rd of the cost of brand new for this refurbished model. it has a lot of great features which are essential ... it can grind the beans and brew the coffee all on a timer, and then shut itself off. i think that's how the last one died, as it didn't shut off automatically and it was always reassuring to see that glowing red light on all day ... but probably wasn't healthy for the mechanism. i'm brewing test pot number one as i type. the grind portion of the process is hilarious, it sounds sort of like an air raid siren going off. brewing is between 5 - 10 minutes and it beeps three times when its done, although you can take it out and pour (or "sneak" as the manufacturer says) a cup during the brew cycle. if you've read this far, you may think i'm such a dork, but good coffee is essential! and since i spent a month being a coffee barrista once ages and ages ago (at Amir's on State in A2 ...), I know there are people out there waaaay more serious than I when it comes to coffee. Ok, time to go enjoy my first cup! w00t!!!

timing is everything

Chris W — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 16:33:10 GMT

so i'm not really a morning person, and this morning it's been one hilarity after another. coffee is usually the first mission of the morning. since i already had to be cheerful on the phone, the need for coffee was rather great. damn, out of coffee filters! no worries, i'll just use a paper towel. sit down to get started in on e-mail. hmmm, no brewing sounds or gurgling water. did i forget to switch it on? nope. looks like the coffee pot no longer works. no warning whatsoever. that's ok, it was a pseudo-dumpster dive anyway. so i reverted to the realm of percolated coffee. in the neo-primative 20th century, percolated coffee reigned supreme in the days before such technological breakthrus as Mr. Coffee. It means boiling the water in a pot which has a metal basket (heh heh, i said "basket") through which there is a hollow tube so that as the water boils, it "percolates" up through the tube and then saturates the basket with the grounds. since i ground the coffee for the maker, it was probably too fine for this enterprise, but somehow it didn't turn out all that bad afterall (of course, i put a ton of powdered milk in it ... that helped, i'm sure...) of course, now it looks like coffee maker number FOUR for us. M and I have gone through coffee makers like nobodies business! we once broke two glass carafes in the span of a couple of weeks ... hence two of above mentioned coffee makers. our latest one has a thermal carafe, which works very well for us. now ... on to researching possible replacements. i'm posting a pic of the silly suggestion. i think i want something which has some functionality to it, but they are usually pricey. d'oh. ok ... all of this written on a cup of craptacular coffee, so that's my excuse for lame-o writing.... :)

hell is chicago

Chris W — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 01:19:12 GMT

just got back from a whirlwind trip to take my car back to the place i had it repaired. oh irony of ironies, i went to this place because i was sick of the place here in MKE where i once took the car back three times to get it properly fixed. this time around the repair was simple enough. a $1.54 part. oh yeah, then there's the $190 of labor. i can't specifically prove it was related to what they worked on the last time i brought it in, but how funny that this wire should fail the DAY AFTER i picked up the car, when they were repairing something that this wire is connected to. i didn't want to hang around and argue about it, so i just paid for it and will probably not go back to them. ugh. riding on the EL was miserable, too. apparently, most Chicagoans prefer to fart on their way to and fro, as every damn train i rode in smelled like someone's bathroom. disgusting! i had flashbacks to the rant that my freaky-ass pseudo hippy art teacher in junior high went on when someone farted in his class "If MY DOG did that, I'd rub his nose in it" was the best line out of that whole rant. i also misread signs, etc., on my trip back so it took me probably an hour longer. they have the most stupid way of announcing that the train you're on isn't going to the destination that most trains on the line go to... "This is a Blue line train. To transfer to the Blue line, exit at Racine ..." and by this time the doors had already closed. Flashback (again with the flashbacks!) to the time in Paris when I got on the wrong R?R (sp?) train and ended up not going to DeGaulle Aeroport, but instead found myself standing on a platform in the middle of nowhere with NO buildings in sight, no buses, cars or taxis ... but i digress ... getting the hell out of chicago was the best thing. i was given the task by Taskmistress M to pick up some pot holders at the kitchen outlet store at the (duh) outlet mall. I went quite mad shopping there, getting silicon ice cube trays (in the shape of stars and penguins), a silicon hot pad that is pink with a cocktail glass, a shoe, and the words "Domestic Diva" on it, a swanky-ass pizza cutter (whose handle could double as an amazing butt plug ... see pic with this post) ... oh yeah, and i DID buy pot holders! they have spicy red peppers on them. tr?s appropriate for us! and lastly, a walk over to the Black and Decker outlet where i picked up a huge clamp (not for nipples! but to repair a chair seat which needs to be reglued) and some sandpaper for my B&D Mouse sander. glad to be home again! :)

Phair and Balanced

Chris W — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 05:51:50 GMT

Just got back from seeing Liz Phair in concert. WOWza! I've been a fan since the days I first heard the lyric "Your kisses are as wicked as an M-16 and you fuck like a volcano, and you're everything to me" and at this show, she did not disappoint. I have never seen a performer look so comfortable and complete behind a guitar as I have with her, and she also passed a rather critical test with me ... that is, she sounds as good (or better) live as she does on her records. Since I have some training in audio engineering and sound recording, I know what trickery and manipulation can be added by a producer to get a "sound" (go back and listen to Madonna's first string of hits with her voice sped up, you'll know what i mean ...). It's funny that i've heard nothing but criticism of her new album, yet I didn't feel let down when I heard the stuff in concert (knowing that i'd be going to see her live, i haven't heard the new one yet). She dipped into classics such as "Polyester Bride," "Supernova," and "Fuck and Run" among others. Sadly, "Hot White Cum" (aka "HWC") wasn't featured. Her on-stage persona is relaxed and personal, with a gleem in her eye and lovely facial expression. Her band are a bunch of fuckin' hotties. In order, I'd do her bassist, keyboardist, and there's a toss-up (or would it be toss-off?) between the guitarist and the drummer. They were all yummers!! While I know it's exciting to do things like asked to sing the national anthem at a World Series baseball game, their reprise of it left me ... not enthused. In fact, I and none of the people I was with (four others) didn't clap at the end of it. If you're a Liz Phair fan, and haven't seen her on this tour yet, I'd say GO! She plays my hometown and one of my favorite venues tomorrow night (Mpls' First Avenue) and other dates can be found at lizphair.com, i believe...

meshuggenah

Chris W — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 04:31:17 GMT

why isn't there any good Jewish soul food in SF? or why if it is out there haven't i found it? E(sf) has been sick now for two going on three days and Milo suggested a good dose of matzoh ball soup. well, as much as i would love to have hung out with all the Jews in Berkeley at Saul's, it was a bit to far for a City dweller to schlep all the way over there. so on to google, and came up with only two leading contenders. the first was some place near Union Square. oy vey! i *hate* going down by Union Square unless absolutely necessary, and when someone sick is in tow, i have even less desire to go. that left Miller's East Coast West Deli up on Polk. the reviews and comments didn't seem too bad. but they didn't really even give an accurate picture. the atmosphere was spot on ... a hottie (presumably Jewish) dude was our waiter, the muzak played all these oldies ... The Turtles "Happy Together," The Monkees' "Daydream Believer" and more, and the lox was fresh and tasty, the onion rings were just the way i like them (E(sf) had ordered them). But overall, the food fell flat, and honestly it could have been goy food for all it was. no flair, no flavor, and pedestrian. the matzoh ball soup (which was a chicken noodle soup ... no veggie option for me) could have easily been a ball of paper mache ... it was utterly bland, and perhaps had i been able to have the soup, the salt/flavor would have made up for it ... but i doubt it. i got the "nova plate" which was a huge portion, probably a quarter ounce of lox, but the add-ons were awful. pale red tomatoes, iceberg lettuce. ugh. the capers were positively nuclear! they were two or three times larger than the ones we normally have, and sadly, they tripped my gag alarm at the pickled/salty taste, which i hate. they were nice, though, and switched out the cole slaw/potato salad option for one of the best bowls of mash potatoes i think i've ever had in my life! the meal was rich, and they didn't have any decaf brewed up for an after-dinner treat, so we cut out and hit the crepe place on the corner, got my decaf (which was really, really tasty and settled my stomach nicely) and then drove back home. lest you think all my kwetching meant i had a bad time ... i didn't. E(sf) is good company, even when he's feeling like hell. and i felt a little of the spirit of Milo while i was there, and it was also nice to reconnect with a little bit of Jewish soul, even if it was rubber....