Ultramundane.com -- It's Just Not Natural.

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United States, California, San Francisco, The Mission, English, Spanish, Casey, Male, 31-35.

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Friday, October 25, 2002

My Cold, Dead Heart Will Go On.

My friends who do ThrushTV (check out that nifty new Flash Website, eh?) are also in their second set of performances for Night of the Living Drag Queens at Spanganga this Friday and Saturday at 10:30 (so you can make it after the Giants win the World Series on Saturday) and on Halloween at 8:30. Admission is ten bucks.

The Boyfriend and I went last weekend, and it's a chaotic, crazy, entertaining little production—like a high school play on Viagra and speed—that I believe has absolutely no references to baseball in it. (But I guarantee nothing.) Mostly it has references to lipstick, zombies, drug abuse, bunnies, and Our Lady of Perpetual Sedation, Celine Dion. The Spanganga lighting system is a little flaky, and hopefully the narrator will be able to read his lines this week, but it also has hot boys, insane drag queens, a cast of crazies (Bunny!) and a closing musical number worth waiting for. What more could you possibly need, anyway?

04:35 PM PST (link)

And Culture Jelly, Too.

I've been thinking lately about culture jamming, both in appreciation of it and about trying it out myself. I mean, I took college classes in performance art. Oddness knows I have some strange thoughts and generally appreciate the odd and irreverent viewpoints in the world anyway (one of the things I love most about Weblogs.) And, it must be said, living with a Sister, I've been able to meet quite a few of our city's premier troublemakers.

But like too many things in my life I tend to have great ideas but not-so-great follow-through on them. I also know that I have a deep desire to avoid conflict. I'd love to use the Telemarketer Script on some unsuspecting caller. (Link via The Roommate.) But will I chicken out at the crucial moment, afraid that a random person on the phone will get angry at me? Why is that bad? Isn't that sometimes the point? So I don't think I'm quite there yet.

Mostly I'm trying to wake up first. I'm not an activist—I tried that in college and burned out fast—but I do have my opinions. It's been way to easy for me to get wrapped up in being a good corporate drone and sleep through weeks or months at a time. So first I'm trying on a few new ideas.

Tomorrow I think I'll join The Boyfriend at the Rally Against War in Iraq. I thought it might be exciting to go as a pro-war Activist, but I'd just have to be more obviously satirical. Maybe I could show up in a three-piece suit and a sign saying "Corporate Oil Needs This War." Oooh, I could do that in a pig mask! That could be cool! Now I just need the mask. And the suit.

Perhaps I should just focus on being awake in time for the rally. Small steps....

04:09 PM PST (link)

Thursday, October 24, 2002

Remember Her Name.

Dear News and Media Writers,

It's sad enough that a young person was killed for something that, in the grand scheme of things, was inconsequential to her murderers' lives. Would it be such a blow to Journalistic Integrity to refer to her by her chosen name and gendered pronoun? If it matters that much to you, fine, you're right; legally and medically she was still male, we get it. But aren't we more than just bureaucracy and medical records?

Please, call her Gwen. I'm pretty sure she would have preferred that.

(Link from Sherilyn; she said it better than I did anyway. She usually does.)

A press conference followed by a candlelight vigil for Gwen Araujo will take place in front of The LBGT Center (1800 Market Street) in San Francisco, Friday, October 25 at 6:00PM. (Info via Caitlin.)

11:26 PM PST (link)

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Liquid Panic.

He wants you to take a box Kleenex and cut it with a knife.
Use a stack of tissues for each hand;
Killing germs could save his life.
—"Howard Hughes", Rasputina

One of the birthday presents I asked for was a Brita Water Filter. Well, I got one, but didn't realize that it's just a charcoal filter. It's primarily supposed to make the water taste better and remove some metals; it does little to remove biological contaminants. In fact, if they're not changed, regular charcoal filters may encourage more bacteria growth. And here I was just concerned with those unsanitary water bottles and the spout on the water cooler when I had all this other stuff to worry about! (Links via Shel and my mother.) On the other hand, what's wrong with bacteria? Why not develop a little 'natural' immunity rather than breeding super-resistant germs? I mean, I ride MUNI...what could be less sanitary than that?

I don't know. I think I can reconcile the two views without wearing Kleenex on my crotch and autoclaving my utensils. But I might have been going that direction anyway.

Screw it. I'll just drink wine instead.

11:08 PM PST (link)

Tuesday, October 22, 2002

Innuendo, Rumor and Whimsy.

I have a huge backblog of entries that I'm working on from as far back as the weekend before last, but I have far too much work to do today to write them. (I really don't feel like working either, but that's not unusual.) Here's a few quick items that needed a place to live.

• While brushing the crumbs off of my crotch, I realized how excited I was about the non-fat cinnamon roll. Wait, that came out wrong.

• Miss R. should definitely see this version of The Elements. (Via Brad.) Someday I hope to commit this song to memory.

• Do you have a book in you? [Checks major orifices] Don't think so. I hope I'd notice that.

• You know the expression, "Card-carrying member of the ACLU?" For some reason it never occurred to me that there would be an actual card involved until one arrived in the mail. Now the expression just makes me snicker.

• It's the karmic tobacco balance: one of my new reads quits while another one starts. (Well, cigarette number two doesn't exactly constitute a habit, but I still don't recommend making it one.)

04:08 PM PST (link)

Fuck The Diet!

"The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom."
—H. L. Mencken

Cake is definitely not on the "diet." But you know, you only go around once a year; so there. Thanks Mom, for the cake and for, like, going through labor and stuff. (Happy Birthday too to blog-daddy Jonno.)

02:34 AM PST (link)