Thursday, June 14, 2007

The Krishna's had a point...

mean people suck
mean people are filled with their own shit, I think it actually backs up and makes their complexions go sour

Mean people are mean because they are hiding some insecurity issues.

Pathetic small minded mean people- you suck, try to remember who you wanted to be.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Amy Winehouse

new favorite thing: Amy Winehouse singing, "They try to make me go to rehab, I say no no no."

http://www.amywinehouse.co.uk/

Sunday, May 20, 2007

placebo effect

There's a new Radio Lab available. It tells the story of how the placebo effect works, from shamans to depression to parkinsons disease. Apparently, 25% of the time, the placebo effect works on parkinsons - - it stops their hands from shaking. Someone mapped which part of the brain is "expecting" pain relief from the placebo effect and found it deep in the middle of the brain, making opiates. We make our own morphine when we think we need to.
Lots of other brilliant stuff on the show too.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

The Immortal Eddie Boros 1934-2007


Eddie Boros was an artist in the East Village. He created the tower sculpture in the community garden on Avenue B and 6th street. Once, he stole a truck from an army base and made it drive over a cliff, into the ocean, just for fun. He then called the army base, told him he found a truck, and they gave him the week off-he was cool. He often wore pearls. He painted Jac's living room wall red. He died on Friday at the age of 74.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

My organic friend




This past weekend I travelled to High Springs, Florida to see my good friend who is an organic farmer.



It was so good to just relax and pick herbs and vegetables from his garden, cook, play with his animals and hang out. Even though my friend has restaurant clients he delivers to, I am trying to get him involved with a community supported agriculture program, or even a farmer's market. At one point, I became this marketing freak when I saw the quality of his crops, I wanted him to feed as many people as possible, and make money!! Farming is a solitary act in his case, so he is not accustomed to marketing his crops beyond his few clients. I spent much of my visit as a pushy New Yorker, trying to get my friend to expand his business.

Later, my friend told me his crops do not go to waste, that he will call up local community groups and give them what he doesn't sell. That made me happy, so I relaxed.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

My family's response to the Larry Kramer letter: Why do Staights Hate Gays?


Here I am putting the question to the dominant societal norm- straight culture:
Straight People Why Do You Hate Gays?

God Bless him, my cousin actually spoke to me today on the phone about the Larry Kramer "open letter" to straight people, which I had sent to him to speak to me about, whenever he could talk about it. He chose today to discuss it with me. He actually had to have me hold the line for a minute, while he closed the door to his office, he was at work. My cousin expressed that he had wanted to respond to me but he wanted to do so in a conversation, not in an E-mail which he felt could be taken the wrong way. As he spoke in a low voice, I started to get the sense of how he felt about the topic- shame.
His main point came right out of the gate: Straights hate gays because they feel homosexuality is rooted in sex not love. Sad, but when I pushed him further he said that he could not imagine being with a man or being in love with another man. He explained further that straight people see gays as people who like sex a certain way, much like someone straight would have a preference for a certain position like: "Doggie Style" or masturbation, and there aren't any parades for this.
He was not kidding, this is what he said. So, I said that I could understand given this perspective how two lesbians celebrating a mass together in church, or cooking dinner for one another in their home would not be hot therefore it just doesn't exist in his male fantasy, but 2 lesbians in bed together- that's the only space for lesbians to exist. I had no idea my cousin had seen me so flately.
Oddly, I'm not angry with my cousin, I told him to imagine a world in his mind where to be gay was the norm, and then to take the feelings he has for his wife and place them in this context, that this love was not the love that you are "supposed to feel"
-a side note I referenced Ancient Greece and homosexuality as the more pure form of love expression that humans can experience.
I told him to try to think about this when he could, maybe then he might start to understand or at least see gay and lesbian love equal to straight love.
It was good to discuss this with him, perhaps we'll keep talking.