9/28/01

Sweet Satisfaction.

Notification that Jeffy quit his job today,his exit from cubicle hell:

Two more weeks and I can breathe the fresh air of freedom.
Please don’t put those stupid balloons on my desk, and no parties or “office” potlucks. Thanks
.”

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And for myself, I am excited…finally I am going to learn how to knit in November. Something I’ve been pissing and moaning about for far too long.

I was fairly disappointed when the city canceled last Sunday’s scheduled:
Knit Out!
in Union Square (for security reasons, I don’t know, for fear of all those needles?). I was seriously looking forward to it. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. Soon, before the year is out I’ll have an afghan for you.

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Keep thinking about

Life as a pie chart.

Keep thinking the slices are getting smaller and smaller.

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New from 1000 Ridiculous Tragedies:
Icelandic Disappointment.

9/27/01

Blog Twinning Spreads Like Wildfire

I thoroughly agree on a conceptual level with these twinning sessions:

Dangerous Monkey & Moira

Little Dog & Dangerous Candy

and it is a little strange that Catherine’s Pita was probably standing a dirt clod away from us at the Old 97’s in Seattle just a few short weeks ago, and has the photos to prove it.

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all systems check, routines as usual

fresh hell….mine.

9/26/01

WHAT THE FUCK:

Operation Enduring Freedom.

GO FUCK ME.

“Seriously, I’m trying to balance my perspective to be a little more informed.”

I like the political analysis that Paul is contemplating over there at disastro. Either side of extreme just evades the issues.

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These two articles were passed on to myself by a rather well informed co-worker who has been saying the same thing. Why are American’s sticking their head in the sand? Why don’t we know thy enemy,so to say:
The Muslim world–both our ever-shifting “friends” in the Middle East and our foes–know a lot more about us than we know about them.
by a journalist who lived in Baghdad, Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war.

9/25/01

(Is this being shown in Kansas?)

I have taken a vow against watching any television news for my own sanity,and I almost feel like throwing in the towel all together (not a bad idea really).

Last night though I found a really interesting program on PBS regarding Darwin’s theories– seen both historically and through a contemporary lens. Really interesting stuff, and guess what, it’s an 8 part series called evolution (with 6 parts to go).
I know, even my own boyfriend thinks I’m a nerd. It’s okay.

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Just a quick PSA to anyone living here in NYC- it’s voting day.
With the approaching nightmare,the mind bogglingnightmare of what Pataki is trying to push through Albany right now, please at least give your opinion a shot.

I reminded my co-worker Brent today that he hadn’t thought things could get any worse back in January.

Hey Moira, I’m linkable
…I think.

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Taking Falwello task….

“It’s bad enough that we liberals, queers and even Boy Scouts have been subjected to the Reverend’s absurdities during peacetime, but now that the man has admitted (only under pressure) that the nation which allows him the very liberties to speak his mind was attacked by terrorists and not a taunted and vengeful God, I suggest we re-examine his agenda and consider him a menace.”

9/23/01

My Goal Is to Uplift People As Much as I Can……

In memory of John Coltrane.

John Coltrane would have been 75 years old today if he were still alive.

In memory of a man who at one time convinced my sister and I to walk all over San Francisco one August in search of the Saint John Coltrane African Orthdox Church.

WKCR(89.9FM)here in NYC always runs a fantastic and exhaustive
Coltrane Birthday Broadcast marathon each 9/23 in celebration.

(note-yesterday I was having some trouble with their Real Audio link due perhaps to the relocation of their broadcasting transmittal facilities…please bear with or check out this Blue Train recording)

9/22/01

The first day of autumn….

Delicious autumn!
My very soul is wedded to it,
and if I were a bird
I would fly about the earth
seeking the successive autumns.

– George Eliot

On a neighborhood walk I went to see the newly relocated Bellwether gallery,which has been a welcome space ever since they first came to Greenpoint…and now Williamsburg.

9/21/01

Operation Infinite Jest

God damn it!

I knew someone at Howling Fantods would beat me to the punch on the David Foster Wallace irony of all ironies.

I think this calls for a round of Toblerone for all, while Linda McCartney sings in the background.

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“All this flag-waving makes me very uneasy”

….Calvin, I couldn’t agree with you more.

Hmmm,I see being set into place that wide variety of restrictions that Calvin mentions,clamping in on our civil rights. But guess what,for convenience sake it appears the powers that be are willing to look the other way on some issues. How nice.

9/19/01

For some reason the sights I see around me do not take me here.

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Or here:

Robert Frank, Swiss, unobtrusive, nice, with that little camera that he raises and snaps with one hand he sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world.

– Jack Kerouac

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Patriot – Diane Arbus

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Nostalgia is undoubtedly more comforting to the mind than reality.

9/18/01

Yesterday, if you proceeded through your routine, in your own little tunnel vision world, things seemed to be back to- as they would say normal.

On my way down to the subway after work though, I stopped by the Lexington Armory. The building is covered with an unbearable amount of postings,signs and letters amassing the information of missing people taped to the outside of the building. It was terrifically sad.

I didn’t witness any of that horrible name branding that the news media is trying to pin on this whole thing:
(AMERICA ARISING! AMERICA AT WAR!)
just a horrific reality check that really things are very far from, as anyone would want, to being normal.

9.17.01

After watching the news for too long,and seeing various internet thought lines cropping up….I am-

Hoping for a little more compassion and dignity out of people… a little less cheap sentimentality and vicious fanaticism.

 

9/12/01

Today is extremely somber to say the least. The mayor has urged all of us,who do not have to go into Manhattan to stay home.

Feelings of helplessness are overwhelming while watching the ongoing news coverage. I stepped out this morning to buy the local newspapers and to survey the vantage point that yesterday held a different skyline. You still can only see a large cloud of smoke billowing up from over the river.

Thank you so much to everyone who expressed concern and worry,it is very much appreciated. Especially to my little sister who persisted in trying to get an open phone line late into the night. Unfortunately the magnitude of this is all just being realized I fear.

9/11

(Editorial post-script from the future: a completely weird aspect of keeping this blog was on that day it was my only communication device. The phones were dead but my sisters on the West Coast could see my posts and knew I was okay)

I don’t need to state what a horrific day this has turned out to be.
I feel somehow stuck in a surreal state of disbelief.

What started as a “honey,come look at the TV, the World Trade Center is on fire” yell, turned minutes later to a horrifying reality of the other Tower exploding and catching on fire right on live TV.

We both ran out on the street to see what was going on. From our block was a perfect vantage point to see smoke billowing off the top of the two towers. It become fairly obvious at this point that the incident was not a random coincidence. My sidekick here talked me out of trying to go to work.

A friend called a bit later to see if we were okay during the moment the first tower collapsed. Completely unbelievable. I can’t even fathom. And then the second one went. Our neighbor had stepped inside to grab his camera when the second tower fell. And with all the subways shut down and phone service not functioning,and the chaos on the TV, it has located me somewhere between shock and complete disbelief.

4:30PM They are now releasing amateur video of people that were on the scene as this all occurred and this is where it becomes unbearable.

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I am in shock.

10:28

Both towers are gone now.

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Holy Shit!

9:00AM

It’s too early to tell what the hell is going on (jesus christ-suicide bombings?) but here is a photo seen from my block, of the smoke pouring out of the World Trade Towers across the water in Manhattan just a few seconds ago. The subways have been shut down for the time and the city has been declared into a state of emergency.

towers_b towers_h towers_l towers_o towers_q towers_s

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(I had started the day in typical fashion, posting trivial information)

 

Blips/Quips.

Mame?

“A girl with other goals can only stand the 9 to 5 routine for so long before it breaks her…..”

Unfortunately Scraps of Paper has witnessed the cold harsh reality we now have to consider our life.

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But on to more pleasant things…
Al Hoff has updated her ThriftSCORE site (the outgrowth of her long running ThriftSCORE zine) with some new scribblings. Check out what the queen of thrifting has to say about the curios in her Pittsburgh life.

“Al Hoff walked it, talked it. She has every K-tel record made”.

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I like this cheery photo-site podular.net from Melbourne. They’re just getting into spring down there.

While I am praying for the advent of sweater weather,Peta writes:

” it seems that spring just could be right around the corner. the weathers warming up, birds are chirping and leaves sprouting. i don’t know why i’ve found this winter to be so cold, it’s nothing compared to other places around the globe.”

9.10.01

EST/Local Stuff

Who Are You? See Me in the Anonymous Portrait Gallery!

1. I never thought I would find myself jumping on a political bandwagon,but
if you are feeling optimistic about a Post-Giuliani world (or okay,even just your own neighborhood)

Don’t forget to vote tomorrow

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And if you live in Brooklyn here is a good Primary shake down guide and just some good general NYC voter info too.

I am praying that they have fixed our Voting Booths since the Presidential election last fall.
A horrific experience not to be repeated,okay?

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We all have them….

2. Esa of the fine Brooklyn site Bergen Street has started a repository for good subway stories!
Come add yours- I’m trying to whittle mine down to a manageable nub. It makes my head hurt just to think about them all.

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4. For all us hold outs on the cell phone factor, I find the fact that Verizon will soon be charging 50 cents to use their non functioning pay phones, just magnificent!

Neo Rauch

 

9.8.01

I can’t help it, this stuff is still circulating in my brain:

When I got back from my time away someone at work had put this clipping (from one of the NY newspapers) on my desk, only because it was location related. I love how tragedy can be reduced to an irrelevant news blip found at the bottom of the lifestyles section -like“oh by the way“:

She Jumped, as Urged

This is a nation in a hurry,its roaring motorists notoriosly immpatient with any snag. That haste took a particularly dark turn when-in laid back Seattle,no less- a woman climbed onto a highway bridge above a ship canal. While police tried to talk her down,rush-hour drivers were less understanding,taunting her and urging her to jump. After three hours,she did just that. As she began recovering in a hospital,though, a shudder of remorse rippled through the city, and bouquets and cards poured in.

(By the way Moira spoke of this as it happened. I just find the trickle down effect strange and weird,seeing how news items piggy back and get reduced by each other as they travel across the country)

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And I started reading a really great and entertaining book while en route to Seattle, which unfortunately was a little too appropriate considering the subject matter:
Our Band Could Be Your Life  (by Michael Azerrad).
I only got a few chapters in before doing a hand off to a bunch of guys headed to Chicago for the Noc.Emissions showcase, but I am hoping to pick up where I left off next week. A not so earth shattering fact already garnered from said book: Henry Rollins is an only child. Hmmmm.
Mike Watt is fucking hilarious by the way. But you already knew that.
I can only imagine what they will do to regurgitate the past. I hope it isn’t as horrifying as the December 1992 issue of Vogue magazine.And seriously before getting too carried away with all this nostalgia nonsense, I just have to make one last comment regarding the fact that VH1 is running their “Grunge” special next Thursday.

Particularly funny:
Grunge-Where Are They Now File.

KP_dinner

If you are in Chicago tonight,
Kung Pao is playing at the
Double Door.