my girlfriend is so cool

but if i tell her she will get mad
My girlfriend is hot
But if i tell her she will scrunch her face into an ugly face
My girlfriend is intelligent
if i tell her, she will agree with me!
I love her.

just say no

Listen to Nancy Reagan. She was so thin, she must be right.

Just say no when your friends tell you to get another drink, after you've had 2 and you're feeling just fine. Say no to relatives most of the time. Say no free trials and strangers who knock on your door. Say no to tourists who ask you for directions if you don't know the answer. Don't squint and look around and say, i'm sorry, i'm not sure, something you didn't ask about is over that way. Just say no. Saves everybody a bit of hassle.

learned today

There's a set of train tracks called the West Shore line. It's owned by CSX. It's how freight is moved across the Hudson - -it travels up the West Shore line almost to Albany and then crosses the river. It's a very busy freight line.

People have been calling for commuter rail on at least part of the West Shore line for decades. It could carry people through eastern Bergen and Rockland counties up and down the Hudson. Actually, it used to be used for that. Originally, passengers rode the West Shore line down the west side of the Hudson to a ferry that dropped them off at 42nd Street. That service was discontinued in 1959.

CSX has the rights to run freight on the line. CSX insists that passenger trains should be on separate tracks. No agency has any funding or inclination to build those separate tracks.

MTA won't do it because it involves New Jersey. MTA wants a commuter rail line across that would take passenger from Rockland - but not Bergen - into midtwon. They're looking at stupid ideas like putting commuter rail over the Tappan Zee bridge.

There's another set of tracks called the Northern Branch. It goes through the same area but further east, and it's only in Bergen County, not Rockland. There's some chance that passenger rail could run on the Northern Branch, because it doesn't involve New Jersey.

I guess the lesson for me is that i need to stop being one of these shortsighted snobs who ignores New Jersey. Or i need to get out of the "where should the train go" business.

Also, i probably need to use this space for something other than taking notes.

i just got invited...

... to witness a series of enormous municipal bonds get sold, probably at bear stearns. this will mean putting on a proper outfit and going to midtown, or maybe downtown. the man who invited me did so in the context of the boston marathon. He is an old man, and he first ran the boston marathon in 1967 when he was in law school. now, after running it so many times, he seeks out first timers. He enjoys their fresh perspective, he likes to answer their questions and reflect on how it used to be. and he has identified me as someone to live vicariously through on the trading floor - like a virgin, issuing debt for the very first time.

the best part of 40 so far

this morning my sexy girlfriend woke me up praising my "40 year-old" boobs.
Now that's living...

Happy Birthday to Jac!

you only turn 40 once, people.

famous people

there are people in new york city who act famous, even though they're not. They wear all one color. they seem irritated by normal inconveniences. they have entourages instead of friends. nyc attracts these people and cultivates them. walk around like a rock star. it's ok, it's new york, you won't get mobbed.

underlying assumption

the surprise underlying assumption to the thought experiment on overpopulation is this: The Enemy Always Has More Babies.

but i just don't feel like going into the whole why thing.

St. Patrick's Day

This is a cut-and-paste from an email from Jeff.

John Dunleavy, the head of the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade, said of the controversy surrounding the refusal to let gay groups march under their own banner:

"Allowing them in would take away from the whole spirit of the parade" adding, "If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow neo-Nazis into their parade? If African-Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?"..."People have rights," ... "If we let the [Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization] in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?"

Uhm. Yea. Here's the thing. Uhh. Okay...

Nazis -- imprisoned and killed Jews, with neo-Nazis carrying the anti- Semitic torch

KKK -- lynched, killed, and vehemently opposed blacks, with modern members continuing to support an environment encouraging white supremacy

Gays -- Other than a shot of Bushmills or a pint of green beer, gays as a whole have not killed anything Irish. They simply want to march in support of the parade, not against.

http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2006/03/paddys_parade_h.html

thought experiment

first, think about overpopulation for one second. assume it's a problem that there are too many people. then ask yourself these questions, and try to answer them, in order:

Why is it a problem that there are too many babies?

(answer)

So if there are going to be fewer babies, which ones do you want? Who should have fewer, who can keep having some?

(answer)

When is it good to grow?

(answer)


Look for the surprise Underlying Assumption next week!

Emote

This is a mission statement from the emotional one of this duo:
Never underestimate the power of love
Believe in yourself
Express everything-good, bad and ugly
Dream big
Give-just give
Breathe deep

participation

i know a few people who are right now doing exactly what they love to do. and they are doing it most of the time. here's to paying attention all day long, growing instead of shrinking.

trader joe's is opening in union square soon

and i am boring myself to tears even as i think about it.

"family" feud

idea for the game show network: survey 100 or 200 people in a specific demographic, say new york city residents between the ages of 21 and 35 who are queer and were found at a gay bar south of 23rd street on a given friday night. Ask them questions like "name a brand of sneaker" and "what's a good excuse for not attending a straight friend's wedding" and "name something you do in a bathroom."

Survey says?
Puma!
Out of town that day!
Have sex!

Get a drag queen/king to be Richard Dawson. Get groups of queers - "families" - to compete. gays v dykes. chelsea boys v east village boys. butches v femmes.

the prizes could be vacations in south beach, spa treatments, and olivia cruises.

you could even get sociology/anthropology students to do the surveying, so it would be a legitimate study of culture or somesuch.



then sit back and watch the marathon on a saturday afternoon...

Conference Calls from THE DEAD

Not to be a post hound...
BUT
I had to share something that happened today on my first big LA/NY/FL conference call.
I was moderating and no, I was not up last night at 4AM due to a stress dream in which I was naked moderating this call!
Well, here's what happened. The NY editor wanted to switch to speaker phone so she could enjoy "hands free" conversation and play with the AVID (A really sweet editing system for those not in my industry-think flying machine, or picture a trucker in an 18 wheeler cockpit).
She asked me how to activate the speaker phone and being new to the office I F**ked up and told her instead how to put people on hold. As soon as she pressed the hold button, all of us on the conference call enjoyed a lovely soundtrack provided by The Grateful Dead. I had to get my PA to run into the edit room and have the editor take off the hold button (something I discovered while screaming at the editor in the conference mileu, afterall we were on hold.

I made a joke about how the online will be a sinch, just look at our expertise with a bloody conference call! My PA get's back to me and the Dead go away for one second then they are back-like magic! By now the editor is on the conferece call and swearing that she did no put us on hold again. I calmly told her to please hang up her first line, so that we can hear ourselves think! Some people were sad they wanted the DEAD to stay as a soundtrack, but she hung the line up-eventually, and the music stopped. Some people cheered when it was over, one person asked if The Grateful Dead was dead or would it come back again. I announced as moderator the DEAD have left the building, we have killed the Grateful Dead.

What was the track you ask???
I will get by-
I will survive

Why I live in NYC

Walking to the 2nd Ave Subway always affirms living in new york for me. I have such a great commute to the garment district every morning. It's the best when I see my friend Lori E. Seid walking her dog, or Philip Glass out getting the paper. Last night I had another affirmation. Dining alone in the city is a great experience. I love listening to other people's dinner conversations! Aside from people watching this ranks next for me.
There was a birthday party celebrating next to my table, a bunch of vegans and vegan friendlies eating cupcakes from Babycakes and praising the infamous "shot of icing" for a buck over vegan thali at Madras on 2nd Ave. Anyway, these people got into a passionate disscusion regarding the HBO promos that show highlights from HBO series like the Sopranos and Six Feet Under. One person at the table confessed getting emotional everytime he saw the promos, another said she had a real sense of accomplishment that she had narratively witnessed all of these moments and also got weepy during the promos!

One person took the HBO theme and lead a discussion on HBO's BIG LOVE series- how conservatives are afraid polygamous relationships becoming fashionablecan bolster public opinion of gay marriage.

I liked these people, we were like-minded, I wanted to ask them for a cupcake.

hey jac

i'm thinking of no longer making entries to this blog. i have nothing to say - no new ideas, no insights. thoughts? - a

dialogue

jac: you are so much like the cheat.

me: mnnamnnamnaamna. me!

jac: let's talk about the armory art show.

me: ok. what was your favorite piece?

jac: i liked the elizabeth taylors and the hershey syrup can. i think i liked them because i think elizabeth taylor was portrayed by a man.

me: i liked the flourescent light sign that said silence.

jac: and i liked the big furry ball!

me: you liked all the big furry balls. if there was something furry or round or both, you liked it.

jac: i would like to take all my friends to the armory art show. it is recommended as the number one stress reducer after touring nursing homes.

me: i liked the nursing home with betty even though it was kind of crappy. there was something on the activities calendar called "fun with betty." Betty said, "that's me!". also, the guy who cuts the lawn brings his son in once a week and they play a concert for the residents.

jac: that would make a nice short documentary subject.

culattoni pride

As if I don't have enough to worry about, the Daytime Emmys, my Nana's transition into a nursing home, the ramifications of the new tab energy drink, etc...
Today I read in Reuters:
The granddaughter of Italy's wartime dictator Benito Mussolini has defended being a fascist by saying it was better than being a "faggot".
Alessandra Mussolini's televised derogatory remarks came less than a month after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi welcomed her far-right political party into his coalition before a general election in April.

Mussolini, proud of her ancestral ties to "Il Duce", had been criticised by a drag queen-turned-politician about being a fascist on Italian TV talk show Porta a Porta.

"I'm proud of it," she snapped in comments due to be aired later on Thursday.

Vladimir Luxuria, who hopes to be Europe's first "transgender" MP and is running with the Communist Refoundation party, then asked if Mussolini wanted to lock up homosexuals.

"Better to be a fascist than a faggot," Mussolini said, using the highly offensive Italian word "frocio", according to Porta a Porta's press office.

It was not the first time one of Berlusconi's allies publicly insulted homosexuals. Mirko Tremaglia, an outspoken right-wing minister for Italians living abroad, said in 2004 that Europe was ruled by "culattoni".

The word derives from the Italian colloquial for bottom (culo) and refers to sodomists.

Disappointing, after Torino's Opening Ceremony for the Winter Olympics showed her aunt and Italian icon Sophia Loren carrying the Olympic flag with Susan Sarandon.
Grazie, Italia!

Vermont Fill In The Blank Company

Vermont Teddy Bear Company.
Vermont Furniture Company.
Surround something with trees and hippies and suddenly it's more expensive, stronger and somehow virtuous.

What about the Vermont Killer Robot Company? Where's the virtue now, hippies?

were they puffins?

on the train along the hudson yesterday, i noticed some small ducks bobbing in the river among the chunks of ice. they looked so cozy, like fresh dumplings made entirely out of down with heads and feet sticking out. little down duck dumplings. warm and delicious. oddly, i was reminded of the calve's liver in beth's freezer.

meanwhile in hell...

I spent 10 hours in Trenton, NJ yesterday. I listened to hours of testimony about funding for stem cell research. Parapalegics scooted around in wheelchairs and spoke to the budget committee through their stephen hawking computers. "I BELIEVE EVERY EMBRYO DESERVES A CHANCE TO LIVE." "YEARS AGO PEE PULL WERE GIVEN LOW BOT UH MEES." Fricken pro life disabled people.

The real fight was about whether to build the new biomedical research facilities in Camden or Newark. The respective mayors / state senators from both those towns chaired the budget committee and sat at the head of the table. The mayors are known to be corrupt, self-serving mayors-for-life. The few white republicans whispered that stem cell research was just pork for the cities. Fricken anti-urban white men.

So it was gimpy and the catholic crew vs the pimpenest mayors in america vs snivly type a bitches. There were toupees. There were suits from sears. It was hell.

oscar shock and awe

Many people I spoke with today expressed to me how upset they were that BROKEBACK didn't get the best picture oscar.
Wait, let me put my surprise face on. The best part about an otherwise boring ceremony, was the homoerotic cowboy montage shown at the top of the show after John Stewart's hurting monologue.
This was an oscar ceremony of clip packages, to the point of exhaustion. What was up with that?
John Stewart was best on his toes, "Maybe it's alittle easier out there for a pimp after HUSTLE & FLOW got the oscar for best original score"
WAKE ME WHEN THE EMMYS ARE OVER.

winter

We'd like to give a "shout out" to everyone baked and hibernating.

The Ten Commandments

I sat in a church yesterday listening to people complain about traffic but looking at the ten commandments on the wall behind the altar. They were written in king james english, but here's my translation:

1. prioritize god because he's immortal. don't let anything else, like anything temporary, consume your life.
2. perpetuate the idea of god and knowledge of god without using lots of pictures
3. when you talk about god, mean what you say. don't be flippant.
4. stop working one day per week
5. respect history and hang onto land
6. don't kill
7. don't betray the trust of your lover
8. don't steal
9. don't say someone did something when he didn't
10. don't want things that belong to other people; don't try to "keep up with the joneses"

collaboration

I'm meditating on collaboration because it is so challenging, you learn about yourself and you must remain open in order for it to continue. I'm thinking about the different collaborations in my personal and professional life. How does one remain open- it's sounds so general? I think respect is key- for yourself and the other person, it's a good place to start. Communication is hard sometimes to be "open" about. I tend to think as I speak, this can sometimes frustrate my collaborators!! I guess it's because I am a communicator and I like to hear other people ideas, and how they think. It is important to listen in collaboration, even if you do not like what you are hearing, listen...it is challenging isn't it?

Do you play well with others? Do you even want to play? It's ok either way, but at some point you will find yourself in some kind of collaboration...you're reading this and contemplating it right now-aren't you?
PARTICIPATE

generation

i recently learned that sociologists and others use decimal places, not just integers, to describe people's ethnicity. Example: your parents were born in another country and they moved to the US as adults. They are first generation immigrants. You were born in the US, so you are the second generation.

But if you were born overseas and moved here when you were, say, 3 years old, then you are 1.5 generation... according to some. The cutoff point depends on the context.

Also, it seems someone can be a first generation immigrant but a second generation scholar. Take for example someone who was born overseas but moved to the US when she was 10 years old. She then goes to college and write scholarly articles about anthropology or urban planning or what have you. She is a first generation immigrant, but she is writing as a member of the second generation.

I really like this idea that your perspective is not tied to the facts of your birth ... everything is mutable, everything is relevant ... i like this idea ALOT and i'd forgotten it because i learned about it while drunk on champagne, lying on a futon with three or four members of the x.xx generations. I write it here to preserve it for myself.