goddesscafe

Friday, May 03, 2002 :::

Congratulations Alura!! You rock...we all expect to be invited to Cannes when you get your award.

CONGRATULATIONS!! You Bay Area people are I'm sure aware of this, but Clear Channel may soon run newspaper distribution. Wow, that has to be stopped.

::: posted by kevin seal at 3:28 PM

To Bay Area Video Coalition's MediaLink, an intensive video training program, the Major Life Thing I've been stressing about since I turned in the app a month ago. It's FREE to CA residents! (the comparable program at SF State costs $13.5k) Apparently there were so many good video applicants (it was one of 4 tracks of 10 students each, the others involve web stuff) that they're gonna have 2 classes. Now, the major problems begin. It starts May 20, and somehow I gotta work something out with my incredibly strict and inflexible employer to allow me to adjust my work schedule so that I can take classes daily from 3-9pm for 4 months.

My heart is pounding. I'm so thrilled. I hope work is understanding about me needing to add a new job skill and start moving my life in a new direction for the long term.

::: posted by alura allumeuse at 12:26 PM

So I started reading this story and had already decided to blog it, when I got to the end and found out that the guy suing Nike (for being deceptive in their PR statements that they weren't using sweatshops) is none other than Ft.Mason's former exec. director (profile on him and the case), the one who occasionally walks in here with his itty-bitty pooch Romeo. (I sometimes find the thing at my feet, it's very quiet and ratlike)

This morning I was listening to the radio (damn, the Sarah show is only half as funny without Vinnie) and they were broadcasting from Chevy's Mexican restaurant and doing tequila shots in honor of Cinco de Mayo. They showed off their new drink trick, invented in their studio yesterday by Olympic badboy Jonny Moseley – the Flaming Scott Capurro* (a gay comic who's been on the show a lot recently). You light a high-octane shot on fire, pull down your pants, stick it to your ass (creates a vacuum, I guess) and shake it. I can see frat boys doing this...except calling it something more macho.

As for egg creams, cola doesn't really taste the same (although chocolate Faygo sounds compelling). Me and Neal used to drink half milk/half diet rite whenever mom made spaghetti...unsure how we got trained into that correlation.

::: posted by alura allumeuse at 9:43 AM

Thursday, May 02, 2002 :::

elissa shared a desk with the Queen of Hearts? how did we not know this already?

i think that our company will just have an extended lunch break for National Masturbation Day... two-point-five hours, with everyone just wandering off in different directions, returning refreshed and invigorated for the afternoon's assaults.

rodrigo: what's the story on PETA and this cheese campaign? i haven't heard anything about the commercials or the criticism.

laura: cheap and easy egg cream stand-in: 1 part cola of your choice, 4 parts milk (preferably 1%). works like a charm. was my cocktail of choice as a youngin'. even better if you can replace the cola with Faygo Chocolate Creme soda, which i can't seem to find anywhere these days.

::: posted by kevin seal at 4:42 PM

I was reading that Bitch article on BART this morning! PETA is considered a joke by both the mainstream AND animal-rights activists.

This page will NOT become a booty-blog. Although maybe that's an argument to create a new one. Of course, it seems everyone I know is in some sort of long-term monogamous thang, which does not lead to Sex and the City tales. It would be one damn boring blog. As for Sean, he was fine. I was going to move in with him and Yoko in NYC. Another typical escapist fantasy for Alura. ;)

This made me so happy yesterday (not the outcome, but the mere existence of the article and photo-art): The Weekly World News (a mighty fine journalism establishment) has reported that a mini-mermaid was discovered in a sardine can. Last fall they found one in a tuna sandwich, and reported on cruel Asians consuming them as delicacies. I have that issue too. Anyway, so a Dane found one (blonde and buxom, according to the lovely photographs of her in a sardine can and in a bowl with his goldfish) and named her Hildy, but his cat ate her. Freakin' felines. And you wonder why I hate cats. They're destroying my sistren!

::: posted by alura allumeuse at 12:36 PM

Interesting that the PETA people (who I normally like) are being critical of the cheese campaign and saying that since the cows are not really " happy" as the ad campaign of happy cows make happy cheese is false advertising. What, is there no more animal testing to fight against? There is also a good opinion piece in BITCH magazine about PETA's use of skinny naked women only for their anti-fur campaign.
How happy are the cows (and they should be treated well-though humanly wouldn't apply-unless we want to give them 401Ks)?

Interesting also are the questions being raised about the insurance companies that profited from slavery and the reparations that people are fighting to get. How far back should we go to contest the ills of yesterday? Should we not focus on the present more and look towards the future? Yet, if we do not understand our past, how can we not repeat ourselves? We will also have to prove past. Will legislation, especially tort law now dictate history?
Even if people were paid for the injustices against their forefathers, how much. If you put in the dollars back then they will get nothing. If you add 100 years of interest, the company will go bankrupt. Even if you said the CEO’s do not make the exorbitant amount they do, who will untimely pay? The insurance company will eventually pass on the cost if they have to stay in business. While today black who have insurance be paying them selves in a large loop that eventually equates to a reduced insurance fee?

::: posted by Rodrigo Diaz at 11:39 AM

Ohh, Miss Alura! I've been such a bad blogger these past few months. See what unemployment does to you? Makes you damn LAZY.

But since you brought up one of my favorite topics, National Masturbation Month, I must write. (And I now I also understand why I've been spending so much time with myself these last two days.) Anyway, all should know: National Masturbation Day is May 7th, and if you work for any sort of good, progressive company, they've probably given you the morning off so that you can celebrate getting off.

For those of us who are unemployed, or as some of you like to say, "freelancing", we have all day to diddle. So start practicing now for the big day, and contact your HR person to find out if your company has a masturbation celebration holiday policy, or if you've just got to do it in the employee bathroom.

For those of you in the Bay Area, check out these events at Good Vibes. Carol Queen is great - we used to share a desk and I learned a ton from just overhearing her phone conversations.

And I apologize for not fufilling my responsibilty as goddesscafe welcome wagon. (Though I see that Kevin has filled in and done a fine job.) So, a belated and warm welcome to Erica, Laurent, and Brad!

In other news, I love how Alura's dreams are so very reality based! (see pic, left) One should always call one's friends after getting new (or old) booty, and now Alura can tell us how Sean Lennon is in bed. Perhaps if there were a rule in effect that we all posted upon getting new booty, blog participation level would skyrocket ;)

sexlissa, why haven't you blogged about the fact that your former employer is celebrating National Masturbation Month? (and no, that would not be the same company which also employed Mr. Seal) And boys, if you're curious, here's how much kleenex you go through with your onanistic habits. (a loose connection, but since we're talking about white fluids, I just came across a link to carbonated milk, which is funny, because as I've been suffering cravings for egg creams recently (milk, seltzer, chocolate syrup), I've actually been wondering why parents don't add a little fizz to milk to get reticent kids to drink it)

Anyway, so after college (summer '98) I worked at this newspaper at this summer arts community in NY. As a personal project, I interviewed the president of NOW, which was published a year later in off our backs. She was there to debate this right-wing theologian, and I also covered it for the paper, although I only have that story in hard copy in a closet in Indy. Today I get an e-mail from the guy she debated, saying he had found my interview and was disappointed in my dismissive treatment of him, and goes on in a long e-mail about his virtues as a respectful debater (he wasn't) and how he didn't use the language I attributed to him (he did) and all this other stuff. Yet the article he read mentions him in two paragraphs, in the introduction to the interview. It's not about him at all, except as background sketch as to why she was there. So I think it's weird to be getting this long e-mail 4 yrs later. I wish I could read my news article about him to see what really went on, so I could write him back and remind him, with quotes and examples, what a tool he was at the time.

Wednesday, May 01, 2002 :::

Happy May Day, y'all: Bring your lunch outdoors and celebrate with working families and immigrants in a spirited rally recognizing the history of workers and the need to support their fight for human rights regardless of immigration status...

WHERE: Federal Bldg - Oakland Downtown on Clay Street between 12th and 14th

::: posted by kevin seal at 11:45 AM

Trying to weave a French blog: SNL did a parody of French attitudes towards America and Jewish people. Naomi wrote about Le Pen and the Mid East (and the anti-globalization movement). (and, tying together both SNL and anti-globalization is Conspiracy Theory Rock!) Anyway, despite the right-wing ascendancy, the French are apparently enjoying a wave of libertinism with swing clubs.* Maybe those would have made the lead character in The Piano Teacher happier. I won tickets to it for this weekend (through this), but upon reading today's review, I'm a little squicked and wondering if I should just see Amelie instead. Despite one guy calling it a "fine promotional film for France's xenophobic extreme Right."

Monday, April 29, 2002 :::

So Hell Ay was not what I'd hoped. Although hanging out with a young hotshot lawyer with a gambling problem at a $300 meal was novel. And of course there was the requisite random musician encounter – everywhere I go, I must be tortured by them. This one was the husband of the lawyer's coworker. I knew it was only a matter of time before I heard the phrase "Pro Tools," and indeed, through my Long Island Iced Tea haze and separate conversation, verily I did hear those words from the corner of the table, leading me to smack the table triumphantly. Maybe I should consider more of my life as "collecting material," as my writer friend says. He's 70 pages into writing a book about the guy – lived on the streets of NYC by himself at age 10, raced through college in 2 yrs, can write screenplays that people want to shop around but won't let them, and pays off law school by gambling. I myself found him excessive (a problem of genius?), and refused to tag along when a bunch of them went to Vegas, in an attempt to replicate their friend's $40k win of the weekend before. Of course, maybe next trip I'll work myself into a Fear and Loathing mood and go.

My fave quotes of the day...my darling roommate, in response to me blind-copying a personal e-mail to a male comrade, who expressed to both of us that I was being indiscreet..."What kind of delusional world is he living in where girlfriends don't tell each other every little detail about everything?!?! As if!" And in response to me asking Erica and the philosophy major (same friend who drove me to L.A.) to essentially dumb down their e-mail conversation about Nietzsche (side note on him: Jennifer had this as her e-mail sig recently, which I LOVE: "Of all that is written, I love only what is written in one's own blood.") so that I could understand what the hell they were talking about, and asking if they were talking esoterica or human behavior, she wrote: "huh, huh, esoterica contains the word erica, huh, huh." :)

On to random-ness...for the false document lovers, an Amazon reviewer who screws with people (check out his lists, too). My bro is now managing editor of this zine his friend runs...they're trying to get it to be distributed in chain bookstores by this summer. A new soap mold, perhaps? And Sergio, a Flash site to remind you of that Amsterdam fast food place we filmed – Mannekin-Pis! History and funny sound effects and everything.

::: posted by alura allumeuse at 4:38 PM

new listing at the patent office: a machine that lets you kick your own arse.

::: posted by kevin seal at 7:34 AM