goddesscafe

Friday, August 24, 2001 :::

I'm still not able to find the bit that you mean, I thought this was fun though: on the first page of this website they have a bit that's meant to be upbeat and positive, rah rah, etc. that currently says:

SIMONE H in Queens says, "I belive this site is very useful. I wan informed about elections in my area. However, I do not like the fact that anyone can access my personal infromation by entering my birthdate. S.Hall Queens, NY"

Obviously, they've got some kind of automated thing to take quotes from the guestbook and automatically put them on the homepage.

::: posted by the boot at 12:23 PM

sorry, hit the voter link twice and it works. Forgot it did that when I first saw it on another site. It shows Alexander M. Galt of St. Mark's Place, born 10/29/74, as a registered Democrat.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 11:58 AM

You mean I'm not? I'm confused, I went to the site you linked, I typed my info in, but I didn't see that my party registration is listed anywhere... Allura, where are you getting your info? Around the time of the NY primary I registered as a Democrat to so I could vote for Bradley. When Bradley got shot down, I decided to pull for Nader and that's when I switched my party affiliation. But if your information is correct than it must not have worked - which is fine, I suppose, since I'd like to vote in the Democratic City Election Primary anyway. But this is beside the point, I'm disturbed that people have access to this stuff. Or maybe I shouldn't be since we used the Green Party voter registration list at the time of the election; but, hell, don't I have any privacy?

All right, so yesterday morning Lloyd and I are standing on Lafeyette Street near the Public Theater. I says to Lloyd, "Lloyd, whatever happened to F. Murray Abraham, the Alan Rickman of the 1980's?" 30 minutes later, who should stroll by? The devil himself, F. Murray Abraham wearing a tropical shirt. What are the odds? We tried to summon some other celebrities but it didn't work. Shortly afterwards it began to rain, and shortly after that we were given the theater tickets that we had stood in line for 23 hours to get: an outdoor production of "The Seagull" by Anton Chekov, in a new adaptation by Tom Stoppard, directed by Mike Nichols and starring in no particular order: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Marcia Gay Harden (who played Lee Krasner in Pollock), Natalie Portman, Stephen Spinella, Larry Pine, Debra Monk, and John Goodman (Danov).

The line itself was probably the more unique bit: when do you ever have an excuse to remain still in a particular spot in the city for an entire day? We were lined along the sidewalk, camped out with pillows, sleeping bags, etc. Some people had tents. It went down the street, around the corner, and then around another corner: 200 people trying to sleep on the pavement. Around 1 am, a well-dressed black man walked by and said, "I've never seen so many mutha-fuckin' white homeless people in my life." Another guy asked, "So what are you protesting?" I was ashamed to admit that we weren't. But, the line was fun and though my back is sore, it's no sorer than it was.

The play was absolutely great, though we all agreed that Natalie Portman stank up the fourth act, (she played Nina, if you know the play).

And, Allura, does this mean that politicians will start courting the 'Brooklyn vote?'

::: posted by the boot at 11:21 AM

But Alex, I thought you were registered to vote as a Green!?

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 8:59 AM

Thursday, August 23, 2001 :::

First there were cows in NYC, then pigs in Seattle, now there are sharks in San Jose.

Alex, I had no idea you were so trendy! Almost 1 out of every 100 Americans live in Brooklyn. As for chocolissa's question, the answer is "Very." After all, I moved here because you and Trish and Kevin were already here, there was no other city that had more than one friend in it. It helped that SF was hip and I already mostly wanted to be here, but the presence of friends (and, er, the funding of a rich crazy guy) tipped the balance against my aversion to bad traffic, high cost of living, and this suck-ass weather. At any rate, if another city happens to start housing a high concentration of friends, I'd happily relocate, esp. if I could drag some others with me. ;)

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 11:15 AM

a few hours after i posted the story of candace's search for a collins-esque living space, i got this message from her- "GUESS WHAT? I BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!"
when i get the scoopage from her tonight, i'll ask if there's room for all of us :)

a question for anyone to ponder and respond to:
how important is it to you that you live in a place where you know people, where you have an established support system? i'm curious to know how all of you feel about this, if it's more important than the place itself, or what...

::: posted by elissarita at 7:19 AM

Wednesday, August 22, 2001 :::

i'm way into elissa's concept of a dormitory for grownups. the Yankee Doctrine of Middle-class Aspiration teaches us that our individual living spaces should inflate and swell as we age and advance in our careers; upgrade from a shared bathroom to a studio to a two-bedroom to a stately estate.

i'd just as soon have a cozy little soundproofed room of my own and a bunch of common space shared with others. (but then, i enjoy conversation as background noise, and not everyone can deal with that.)

it's incredible the minutiae you can find: this guy (a former read hall resident) posted years and years of his diary entries.

(from the epinions review of read linked above: True, Read is located immediately across from IU's reknowned music school, and true, many of those students are kind of weird and antisocial...)

::: posted by kevin seal at 5:21 PM

Tuesday, August 21, 2001 :::

at the presidio y on an exercise bike that has web access. no joke. touch-screen keyboard. had to try this. ~sweat~ *pant*

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 3:42 PM

license plate frame, seen in Santa Cruz: "My other ride is a rabbit pearl." Watched an old Sex and the City episode last night, where the hip redhead Miranda makes everyone buy a rabbit pearl. One girl can't handle it, and they're forced to do a "vibrator intervention" because she won't leave her house. Le lapin, le lapin! as a waitress once said to Zarbet in France, wiggling her fingers above her head and hopping, trying to convey what kind of meat they were serving.

As for Bust, I read the single-girl issue and found it depressing...other than one article by a college prof, it goes along with the mainstream Bridget-Jones mentality about being miserable without a partner, needing to "grow up" and settle down, and needing to have babies while young. One woman, in her marriage-rant, blames feminism for giving us unrealistic expectations, like that we should have love before marriage. Oh, the horror! Give me happy love and adventure. :p

As for communal living, yes, Emily, Kristin, Eve and I had a plan for a square building with a courtyard in the middle. On the lower level on each side would be a bookstore, coffeeshop, dance club and something else that we all ran, and the 2nd level would be where we lived. They'd be in the smoking/cats wing, of course. Until we find the right property, can we all meet for dinner regularly?

Bjork is in my eyes this morning...Rolling Stone (which I was reading while waiting in line at the Bay Bridge) gave her 4 stars for the yet-unreleased Vespertine, and NYTimes discusses fans making remixes of it on the web. Just think, for only $84 each, we'll get to see her in Oakland. Errr...

Google is now indexing blogs, which explains why ours came up when I did a curiousity-search on Tunesmith Worldwide last week.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 12:45 PM

alura - i'm glad you bought Bust. it's not quite as smart as Bitch, but the spinster quiz made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt.

on co-housing - maybe it's regressive, but dorm-living is my *dream*. a post-college step up from that is my ideal block, which would include a car-free cul-de-sac where all of my friends would live in houses with porches and front lawns. there would be sharing of the expensive but necessary things (like vacuums and slip-and-slides), unscheduled stop-bys, time spent cooking and eating together...

the rest of the block would have good used book and music shops, a goddesscafe (where else would we have deep discussions over espresso-brownies?), a dance club whose DJ spins The Gold Experience, both indulgent and healthy food places, a place to buy your safer sex supplies and your toys, nearby transit, an independent video store, a park with swings, an old theater... ok, ok, i'm getting a little excessive! really i'd settle for front porches and 24 hour food/drugstore availability. as long as my friends lived nearby and there was a great sense of community, i�d be pleased.

the last time i was in DC, i went home shopping with my friend candace, who wants to start a communal living house there but doesn't have the cash to buy a big enough place in the city. we visited a co-housing sort-of apartment complex that was just being finished. it was pretty amazing - we stopped someone in the courtyard (of course there was a courtyard!) to get info about it and this guy spent a half hour talking with us about the space, which was built using eco-friendly materials, offered a library, optional group meals, and all sorts of other collins-y type activities.

two downsides though - a several year waiting list of applicants, and later on candace found on their web site that most residents were couples and new families - i guess not too many young, single people are debt-free or stable enough to be buying their own places yet. or maybe we just can't decide in which city our ideal block/house/commune should exist. but geography and weather and sushi matter less when good friends are next door ;)

::: posted by elissarita at 10:38 AM

Monday, August 20, 2001 :::

Reading Are Wives Obsolete? from the Sunday Chron, about a recent book on the history of wives. Included was this personals ad, from an Ozark-area paper over 100 yrs ago. The romance of it just brings tears to mah eyes, it does.
Wife Wanted: Any gal what got a bed, calico dress, coffeepot and skillet, knows how to cut our britches, can make a hunting shift, and knows how to take care of children can have my services til death parts both of us.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 5:24 PM

chuckles: harry shearer has a page on broadcast news, with shots of sam donaldson and diane sawyer being trained how to ad-lib and pretend to like each other. plus, prime audio clips of dan rather being the freak that he is. amusing if you have a moment.

egads, the tangled drama of the polyglot... well, it will all make for great material for your memoirs.

NYC would be fun for a season, but watch your aggression toward animals if you're there -- you could get ticketed for hissing at cats, yelling at dogs, or shooing away doity boids.

::: posted by kevin seal at 2:21 PM

here elissarita, you'll like this...Romi just directed me to this pic from a party her friends had last summer. Who that girl is or why she was picking me up, I have no idea. But that weekend was FULL of drama! At that party, a girl that our male roommate was trying to hit on all night ended up randomly kissing ME, while I was pressed up against the, er, casual-sex date that I'd brought, as she was on her way upstairs to fuck her secondary lover, while her primary waited downstairs and talked with our roommate. The next morning, running on no sleep, I get into a fight with my best friend/lover (not to be confused with crazy L.A. boy, who was also around at that time), hang up on him, and go meet a certain boy who I had barely seen in a year (ahem). After a long day with his friends that included a really bad musical, we end up back at his place with vodka, nekkid on the couch, while pissed-off lover calls my cell phone and then his place (after I turn my phone off and call him telling him to stop...damn that *69) repeatedly, fucked up on acid and calling me all kinds of names, thereby totally ruining the groove. Anyway, enough of the memories. Can I just reiterate how happy I am that my life is comparatively boring right now? ;)

Have decided, after watching a few Sex and the City episodes, that I simply MUST spend at least a season in NYC.