goddesscafe

Thursday, July 05, 2001 :::

the Censors of Cincinnati strike again. the esquire, the one semi-legit art house cinema left in town, sliced a sex scene out of center of the world, which was already unrated.

so, even though the theater was only letting in folks 18 and older, the theater owner felt compelled to edit the film himself... without the permission of the film's distributor, much less the director, wayne wang.

and, this week, the esquire's owner has publicly attacked the reporter who broke the story, and has banned him from the theater. bannings all around! makes me nostalgic for old porkopolis -- if something's amiss, ban it! if someone makes a comment you don't like, ban him!

damn, i used to really like the esquire, too. well, the good news is that citybeat is actually doing some decent reporting. and kathy wilson's new column, your negro tour guide, is sometimes interesting.

::: posted by kevin seal at 10:49 AM

Freshly posted on podgehodge dot commune: seven (7) pictures of Brooklyn's fabulous Mermaid Parade at Coney Island. These are in full color and presented in an easy slide-show type format. Here is your hyperlink.

::: posted by the boot at 8:22 AM

Wednesday, July 04, 2001 :::

I'm not sure where this rates on the eccentricity gauge, but for the past three years I have celebrated the Fourth of July by writing my reflections on being an American citizen and sending them to the A. Smith family of Omaha, Nebraska. Each year I encouraged the Smiths to respond, last year I even tossed in a S.A.S.E., but they never did. So this year, I say 'Fuck You,' to the A. Smith family of Omaha, Nebraska. A. Smith family, if you read this, you stink!

First, I'm sick and tired of this idea that patriotism is the property of Charlton Heston and the people who admire him. I've occasionally been made to feel like a heel for being a leftist who isn't afraid to love my country. I've had my bad moments, sure, for example in Italy every once in awhile I claimed to be Canadian because I was SO tired of explaining that yes, while I am American, I do understand that the death penalty is immoral, I know that the Gulf War was about oil, I know all about the Atlantic Charter and US hypocrisy after World War 2, and that there actually is a diversity of opinion in the US, and so on. Today, I feel staunchly that the USA is a great country that really does have a hell of a lot to offer to the world community. We may be a brat, even a prig, and I constantly fear for Democracy, but when you look at what we stand for (ignoring for a moment the day to day practices of our government - which at times feels pretty distant from the will of the people), almost all of it is good.

In a Democracy, the government is an embodiment of the people. Unfortunately, the process is perverse and always has been since the beginning. But collectively we have allowed this to happen. To make Democracy true will require lots of jingoistic patriotism and it upsets me that we have become cynical and defeatist.

Second, a few months ago my friend Manou Phuoun (Franco-Cambodian) became an American citizen and it reminded me that this is a desirable thing to be. She'd been living here for fourteen years and she could have continued without any difficulty, but it was something that she wanted to do. There's a guy who just arrived from the Congo who has set up shop down the street selling defective underwear, and it made me excited that he could do that. Ali works at the corner store, he came here from Jordan just a year ago and he's saving up money to open his own corner store. He misses his nieces, but sends them pictures and money every week. Here in Brooklyn I'm surrounded by immigrants (including my Franco-Iranian roommate), it's a cliché, but they came here for economic or political reasons and have been able to make good. America is an excellent country for being able to absorb people from all over the world and to transform them and to be transformed by them.

Culturally, America is far more exciting today than it was 26 years ago when I was born. Green Bay has gone from being a loaf of white bread preserved with ignorance and overt racism, to a place that has really cool ethnic festivals that everyone goes to. When I was a kid we used to drive over to Appleton, WI to have real Chinese food. Today there are actual Chinese people around who have opened their own businesses. (You still have to drive to Appleton for Indian food, though... patience). About 6 years ago, Mexican immigrants began arriving in the area to work in the canning factories - today the traditional Pulaski Polka Days (which had always been Polish) features Mexican polka and even Mexican-Polish collaborations. (I'm NOT being sarcastic when I suggest that it's about fucking time that Mexican and Polish polka were united).

And, of course, I left Green Bay and I've been imbibing a hell of a lot of culture since then. I know what Kvas is.

I haven't said anything new, I think most people can acknowledge the good that is here - and it's pretty self-evident. There is what is working, and then there is also the rhetoric (none of which is fully true in this moment and never has been): the US has the best rhetoric in the world and I'll be happier when it rings completely true.

I went to Independence hall in Philadelphia a couple months back and I cried while standing in the room where the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution had been signed - and yes I have read plenty of Howard Zinn and I know how elitist and self-interested those guys were. But think how difficult it would be for a rich, establimentarian, BRITISH colonist man to come to the conclusion that the only available course was to break off from England, to start a new country and then to put your signature on this ridiculously treasonous piece of paper... well, it was incredibly bold. Franklin's statement that they would all hang together was funny because it probably felt true at the time. I can't imagine today's analogues to those men (Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Donald Trump, Leona Helmsley, Michael Jordan, etc.) behaving so boldly - even if they stood to gain quite a lot. John Hancock's big-assed signature wasn't pure ego, it was pure bravado.

It's good to be American, but it's a burden. Obviously a lot in this country is screwed-up and just plain wrong - and this being our country more purely than in any other country, it's our entirely our responsibility to try to hold ourselves and our government to our rhetoric. Every time we read something in the newspaper that our government is doing something that we disagree with, we are complicit whether we like it or not.

So, happy Fourth of July, I'm off to the fireworks (sponsored by Macy's Department Store).

::: posted by the boot at 3:08 PM

Tuesday, July 03, 2001 :::

Mr. Boot: Cincinnati is run by its Chamber of Commerce. It's a "weak mayor" city, so the Chamber basically calls the shots. Local businesses are represented on that board, but more than anything else, the group exists to ensure that big corporations set up shop (and factories) in town. If full-scale rioting had broken out, there's a decent chance that GE or another of their ilk would have used it as an excuse to leave town for sunnier southern climes. So, as the decision was "lose factories" versus "lose several nights' worth of retail revenue," they chose the latter, and granted the police permission to shut the city down. That's my understanding of it.

oh, feminist cafe, all-encompassing progressive cafe, whatever. I wasn't thinking specifics, but neither would work there. There's the coffeeshop that all the young queers go to be seen, and the liberals go to be angsty and avoid the smoky fratboy/redneck bar scene, but it's not activist-oriented.

Links, we need links. Nothing interesting has come my way in a while. Phoo.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 2:49 PM

Alura: you're right, it's definitely not easy to do what Linda and others are doing and I definitely lack the persistence and tenacity to do it myself. But, it's absolutely essential to building an interesting place that people where people stick around. The big problem with Green Bay is that all the people who grow up there with the sort of politics and values that we share leave at the earliest opportunity for more comfortable places like the Bay Area, Brooklyn, Chicago and especially Minneapolis. It takes martyrs, this is why Linda is a hero to me.

You're also right that a progressive feminist café (is this what the Goddesscafe would be?) would do poorly in Broad Ripple. But I think that if you were to design a place that wasn't so niche-y, that served a broader community (this is what Linda's done) and provided something that was missing, that it'd go over pretty well. Part of the problem that I see with the Left is that it's really, really fractured... I'm sure there would be community benefit to be had from a progressive feminist café, but I think that any business that managed to unify all this fractured energy would have a greater impact. In this particular moment in history, we need that much more than we need progressive feminist cafés, as nice as they are.

Kevin: I'm so curious, how did the Cincinnatti city fathers square their fascist coup with the local business establishment? I think that all four of your interpretations are correct (less so the fourth). There's NO QUESTION that cars create alienation from your immediate environment. There are studies that prove it. Check out: Asphalt Nation by Jane Holtz Kay.

::: posted by the boot at 2:02 PM

While in Ohio, I had a long talk with Kurt about living under martial law, i.e. the curfew that Cincinnati Police imposed during the riots.

It turns out that, since people weren't allowed off of their property -- not even onto the sidewalks -- between the hours of 7pm and 7am, they all turned around, walked to the back perimeters of their lots, and got to know their surrounding neighbors. They cut through each others' yards to go the back way to the convenient store, and figured out backyard shortcuts to get to the video store, the grocery store, the pizza place where Kurt works, etc.

With the roads and sidewalks made illegal to them as pedestrians, they had to stay on the grass and gravel and parking lots, and hence got to know these people that they'd lived alongside for years but had never spoken to.

Among the many possible ways to interpret this:
1) Struggles against a police state unite the unarmed populace in their opposition to the blah blah blah...
2) Cars and roads are inherently divisive.
3) Nothing can keep people away from Blockbuster Video. Not even the threat of tear gas.
4) When the police jackboot slams down on your skull, it gives you a chance to better appreciate the sidewalk for all of its resplendent beauty -- the little grass that pops up between the cracks, the tenacious earthworm, the delicate cigarette-pack wrapper that the ants have converted into a patio. Gaze up into the reflective helmet-screen above you, spit out the blood lining your fractured gums, and say, "Thank you, sir, for enlightening me." Such is the Buddha nature.

::: posted by kevin seal at 1:07 PM

My brother used to be aggressively on the side of "change your community, don't run away," but is now re-evaluating that after a few years of frustration trying to get anything done for the youth/punk community in Indianapolis. (I'm not up on what all his efforts have entailed, other than trying to open up multi-use community spaces) Although he's never lived elsewhere, he finds he's more comfortable hanging out in cities where there are more like-minded people, and perhaps more chances for effecting change, in terms of sheer numbers. At one point he was going to Chicago all the time in order to meet up with anti-racist Baha'i activists. I do think trying to change your backwater community (or simply connecting up the progressives that may be hiding out) is a good idea, and some people are suited for it. Others may just be frustrated with a lifetime of fighting a gigantic tide. I mean, it's good that Linda got a progressive cafe going -- Indiana has no feminist bookstores any more (there were two when I started college) and not too many independent stores of any kind (my fave clothing store, Artzy Phartzy, closed this spring)...is there a market there for anything similar, or would it fail like everything else? If I opened up the Goddess Cafe in Broad Ripple, would it survive among the frat-boy bars and desire for Starbucks and general community apathy? And Kevin, can't you report on the Starbuckification of Bloomington, having seen it recently? I've heard it's a very chain/corporate Kirkwood these days. And that there's hardly any cafeterias at all, that meal points are mostly spent at fast-food joints in the dorms. And something's going on in the student population when the IDS goes from reporting stories about the Student Coalition's activism while we were there, to riots over Bobby Knight this year.

As a side note, I finally saw Miss Trish last night. She will likely not be blogging much anymore, having found a job that doesn't have her online all day, and only a crappy modem connection at home for her work-from-home boyfriend.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 12:39 PM

Two people from the same community (a small post-industrial city in the midwest lacking in basic excitement): one got the hell out at the first available opportunity and never really returned. He currently leads a relatively self-centered life in the big city. The second started a café that has become the center for multi-generational progressive getting-togethers, realized that there was a need for a magazine to help make sense of how the community was changing, so she started one. It has since become an important part of the public discussion on the future urban development of the city. To me there's no question of who's more virtuous and civic-minded, Linda wins hands down. To my own credit, I did put out a fire on the Coney Island boardwalk this weekend.

::: posted by the boot at 7:03 AM

Monday, July 02, 2001 :::

just when you thought american pop culture couldn't sink any deeper into narcissistic, ironic self-referentiality:
the Def Leppard made-for-TV biopic

public art find of the weekend:
karl haendel's van propaganda, displayed in issue 6 of mcsweeney's quarterly concern.
setup is as follows -- karl scrawls disconcerting messages on large pieces of cardboard, attaches said boards to the sides of his van, and drives to appropriate public places, primarily in and around brooklyn.

(aside from mr. karl, the hardbound issue 6 is highly recommended. it comes with a 44-song soundtrack by they might be giants and instructions to play each song on repeat as you read the correspondingly-numbered essay.)

and a parting question, particularly to the boot and NT:
better to surround oneself with likeminded cosmopolitan folk, cushioned by the echoes of your choirmates?
-or-
better to be a voice of reason, tolerance, and progressive thinking in a suburban wasteland or backwater hamlet that is starved for such voices?

::: posted by kevin seal at 2:49 PM

When will you people realize we need to get a commune in Paris? New mandatory 35-hr workweeks with no reduction in pay and no apparent harm to their economy! Whoo-hoo!

Yeah, so they've only got the unswimmable Seine, but we could easily vacation (with our 8 wks off per year) in the salty Meditearranean. For me, it's not the salt and the sand, it's the warmth of the water, mixed with this sensation of something really massive gently pushing you. Very erotic/sensual, and can't be duplicated in, say, Kevin's bathtub, which is where I landed last night, sweaty and sunburned after my long drive back from Santa Barbara. Which, thanks for asking, was fabulous. My lovely Saturday evening consisted of hanging out down the street from Eve's house, talking to Celia and listening to Radiohead LIVE, who were playing an outdoor theater in their neighborhood, then going back and eating pizza and ice cream and playing cards and talking sex with 5 dykes.

teehee. Glad I missed this one. From Eve, via IM just now: "aphrodite caught a lizard yesterday and decided to play with it in my bedroom. she ripped the tail off (which if you were curious will continue to squiggle around for about 5 minutes after being detached from the body). then, she lost it. i now have a dead or dying or angry lizard somewhere in my bedroom and I CANT FIND IT. i'm so disgusted with the cat." And people wonder why I'm an unabashed pet-hater. ;)

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 10:39 AM

Kevin: this book also makes some interesting connections between the SI movement and 70's British punk rock - Gang of Four, Sex Pistols, etc. It's upsetting to see that it's out of print, but it might be available in you library. I used to mow the lawn for a young radical Sociologist who'd give me lemonade and lecture on the Marxist roots of the Dead Kennedy's and the Gang of Four - he was testing out a course he wanted to teach based partially on that Greil Marcus book.

Elissarita: why is salt important? Is it the extra buoyancy? Is it because tears and sweat are salty (especially sweat) and thus the ocean is just a little bit closer to being something the body makes? Or, is it - in your case - just familiarity? Or, is it the horse shoe crabs?

::: posted by the boot at 9:46 AM

chicago, san fran, new york - all are nearly surrounded by water. is this part of the attraction, the connection? bloomington had griffy and all, but aside from a few skinny-dipping romps ...well, ok, those were fun too.

but anyway, water matters to me, the salty kind in particular. today i played in the PACIFIC! yes, the pacific! a huge exhale - i am so happy to be back where i belong! (sorta belong - i'm in LA for a few days before heading up to SF on tues., where i get to kiss on many of *you*!)

spent four hours of today's afternoon and evening falling into waves, kicking waves, running from them, and floating in and out of the foamy stuff with three hyper little cousins (and a handful of surfers, who mostly floated on their boards, waiting for a "good wave". but aren't they all good? i thought so.) spent a few mondays ago at jones beach (on long island) with alura and kelvmore, diving under waves (smaller, more manageable ones), giggling, convincing alura to put her head under the water, and sharing deeply personal memories while warming on the sand. and a few weeks ago, spent the minutes just after sunset sharing a kiss with a sexy boy, our pants rolled up to our knees, our four feet wet with the swirling atlantic.

maybe it's the smell, the salt, the grindy sandy feeling - i don't know, but i am *so* happy when submerged, especially with special friends surrounding.

::: posted by elissarita at 1:12 AM

Sunday, July 01, 2001 :::

wanted to remind everyone how cool andy gill and gang of four were. interesting connections that this Go4 fan draws with the situationist international movement, too. speaking of SI, here's guy debord's seminal SI work, the society of the spectacle.

on the drive home from florida, jonathan and i had a good long chat about politics and music, and i think we're going to convert colonel knowledge into a true propaganda machine. pop music has been mired too long in navel-gazing, hackneyed expressions of romantic love and disillusionment. details, song sketches, and manifesti to follow...

::: posted by kevin seal at 12:06 AM