sexist assholes
As I was leaving work today, two of the contractors who had been working on the gutters all day were sitting in the bed of their truck. One of them yelled as I walked by. Even with my headphones on and Propaghandi blaring I heard “hey sexy!”. I kept walking in the direction of the bus stop and they yelled “hey!” and then “HEY!!!” in that deep voice you might use to stop a little kid who’s about to run headfirst into traffic. It was pretty shitty. I was going to ask “who are you talking to?” but after that patriarchal yell I just yanked my headphones off and yelled back, asking what the problem was. They both jumped and pointed to one another like they were embarassed to be caught or something. It is so frustrating not only to not have a response, but to be put in the position of needing to have a response.
Understatement of the year
We haven’t heard back from our contact at Black Mesa. Am getting worried…which is silly because I only made one attempt so far…what will we do if, after all this planning, we can’t go? It is too early to call the west coast. Clearly the only thing to do right now is to do something else.
It rained all day last night and yesterday which almost made me cry with relief. I have such a different relationship with the weather now: rain as life force, not event spoiler or day wrecker. The garden is doing just fine. We have peppers, greens, and more peppers, and two tomatillo plants staking claim on every inch of space between the tomatoes and the mustard. Who knew they grew so big? Yesterday, out of necessity, Jacob and I found ourselves in one of those department stores with fluorescent lights and tile floors and rows of semi expired soups at discount prices. I don’t know if it was the sheer quantities of stuff or the hospital-white atmosphere, but somehow it felt like I was being irradiated. Even the plastic sand pails and picnicware looked radioactive. I think I prefer the garden and the mountains to big box stores.
RIP Antioch
So, Antioch closed today , and I’m not sure how to feel about it. Well it didn’t close “today”, it announced the formal decision to close its doors one year from now in July 2008. It’s one of those things, I guess, that strikes from time to time: a sense of loss of place, of a place you knew and loved, of a place that shaped you and someplace you loved as well. Pretty insignificant in the grand scheme, but very significant to you. I suddenly remember telling my friend Amy that I didn’t want to go to Antioch, that I wasn’t ready for college, and never would be. I’ve known for awhile that the college was failing, and even when I was a student we all knew it had seen its heyday in the 70’s, and declined from there. But still, in 1999 we had some amazing times I can’t even describe. My college career was short, and I don’t regret that, but I do feel sad that we (my friends and I) never got to be “the alumni who came back”, you know, the folks who come to visit only to find new people where they themselves once were. Coming around full circle, as it were. This all sort of feels like the Vogue closing, only marginally less emotionally intense. Because I’ve been away from Antioch so long, I suppose.
All right, enough. This post is inexcusably self-indulgent. I guess the larger point is that, whatever its faults, Antioch existed as a school of free thought and liberation in an educational atmosphere of stringency and hierarchy. Maybe later when this all makes more sense I’ll come up with these points more succinctly but for now this will have to do. It’s really cool that this school existed in the first place. May it re-open in 2012 (!!!) to a brighter future.
very simply, must see. old commercials!
http://www.80stvthemes.com/commercials/
all children of the 80s, even if you loathe consumerism like I (especially if you loathe consumerism), this link here is an interesting look into mass commercialism and “feminism” (check out the Barbie video). Oh…trickle-down economics.
!! is all there is to say.
http://www.retrojunk.com/ (a little more fun, and Thundercats, a little bit kitsch but hey)
Weird as they are, these spots provide an odd sense of comfort from time to time.
