Encroachment

My Humphrey e-mail account died today. So for anyone who had that account, stop using it.

It's getting to the point where changing an e-mail account is a bigger nuiscance than physically changing an address. Kassie poses a good question though:

How did the world function without the internet?

In 1993 (just ten years ago), most people didn't have e-mail, Yahoo! was a midly effective search engine, and using the internet for common purposes like directions or movie times seemed a bit absurd.

Tabling fun

Q: What has four legs and me sitting behind it this weekend?

A: A table for a pro choice organization.

I spent all day Saturday in lovely Somerset, WI tabling for NARAL at the Warped Tour and then all Sunday tabling for PCR at Pride. I'm pretty table-d out, I would say.

Warped was fun, I got to catch about 10 minutes of The Suicide Machines and I think I saw a bit of The Ataris. There were also some snippets of random punk acts. And of course the modern punk wardrobe is always of interest. Of less interest, the 15-year-old girl who was trying to hang on me. Mmmmm...illegal...

There were more than a few people at the show with mohawks. I realized what a lifestyle commitment it entails. You need a job (as many of the mohawks belongs to adults) where that's cool. You have to spend a significant time in the morning preparing your hair. And you spend a sizeable amount of your disposable income on mohawk maintenance products. But hey, these guys are really into punk music.

Awesome...and less awesome

UPDATE: Apparently not all of us escaped the storm unscathed. Sorry Scot. At least it was insured.

Some tornado warning. This is the sky when the sirens were blaring. Sure, it rained like hell four hours later, but I was really hoping for some downed trees. I suppose it's just as well, since I don't have any capri pants.

There's a tornado warning right now. Sirens are going off. I'm going outside. I love weather.

Ramble ramble

Some random thoughts I'd been jotting on scraps throughout the conference:

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Tuesday, 8:52 p.m.
The conference opens tomorrow, and the office (a 15' x 15' room with a window overlooking the pool (which mocks us) is a complete disaster. I don't think I've ever been in a place so densely filled with paper. <sarcasm>It's a good thing you can't recycle in D.C.</sarcasm>

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Thursday, 9:30 a.m.
I realized I have no conception of what has been going on in the world for about four days now. Working from 7:30 in the morning until 1:00 at night does that. I finally saw a paper this morning, and was reassured that nothing has changed. Israel and Hamas are still killing each other, the media has found another bullshit disease that will affect a diminutive percentage of the populace (monkeypox?) to scare us with, and the only weapons of mass destruction that have been found were dropped by the United States. Solid.

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Friday, 11:54 p.m.
Why am I drinking so much? I'm getting about 3 hours of sleep and going to be drunk every night. Oh well, I'm off to the bar.

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Saturday, 3:52 p.m.
Def Poetry Jam is an awesome show. It just closed on Broadway, and I heard they're going to Europe. Apparently there wasn't enough financial support for it, despite its recent Tony Award. It's funny and political and personal and energetic. From sex to race to censorship to 9-11 to love to loneliness to gender, it's really smart. I don't usually dig on spoken word type stuff, but this is fantastic. Go to Europe to see it.

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Saturday, 5:22 p.m.
The last session of the conference is a panel with three cartoonists, Jen Sorenson who does Slowpoke, Matt Wuerker, an editorial cartoonist and illustrator, and Lalo Alcaraz who does La Cucaracha and editorial cartoons. I got to hang out with Jen and Lalo the night before (see above entry) but hadn't seen their stuff. I particularly enjoy Lalo's humor, and Matt has some masterful illustrations. Tell your newspapers to get their shit.

I'll sleep when I'm dead

Converging with involved, progressive activists of all ages from all across the country was invigorating. Meeting Ali was incredible, hanging out with Chappelle was one of the most memorable nights of my life, and the entire ACLU conference was tremendous. I'm full of ideas and stories from the conference, and will dump those out slowly over the next few days, but for now I want to blog about the most inspiring person I met:

Ginelle Weber was a 15-year-old high school student in Oregon in 2000 (she's now 18 and just graduated). She was kicked off her high school volleyball team for refusing to take a mandatory drug test.

When I was in high school I was concerned with why girls didn't like me (turns out you have to talk to them), what to wear, the t.v. schedule, and all the trivial crap that accompanies many at such an age. Ginelle and her parents (with the help of the Oregon chapter of the ACLU) sued her school district. I am astounded that a 15-year-old would have the courage and conviction to take on the government. In talking to her, she said she was ostracized by her peers and the townspeople.

Ginelle (and thousands like her) cares so passionately about this country and its founding principles that even at 15 she sacrificed tremendously to demonstrate the absurdity and corruption of government policy. Such a powerful statement and is inspiring and humbling. I certainly wouldn't have stood up for all of us just because it was the right thing to do when I was 15.

We need more people like her, and the conference was full of them. They're young and they're smart and they're coming. Watch out Ashcroft.

Note: Evil-Off 2003 will resume when I get back to Minneapolis

Dave Chapelle is funny as hell

Definately one of the coolest days ever. And I began by oversleeping.

I was the "wrangler" for Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer on 24, myriad other film roles). We had lunch, and I ran him to and fro, in between listening to Justice Ginsburg speak. Then the really cool part happened. Waiting for Muhammad Ali to head onstage to receive his award from the ACLU, he performed some magic tricks and we chatted for about five minutes. With Muhammad Ali.

Then, after finishing up a few things after the dinner (and wrestling Haysbert away from possesive teenagers who apparently don't understand the difference between playing the President and being the President), I got a drink and waited for Paula Poundstone to arrive. Finally after some catastrophic delays, she and her ten-year-old daughter were settled in. So at 1:00 I figured I'd best head home.

That's when Dave Chappelle showed up. Wandering the streets of Washington with the funniest man out there right now, talking everything from DC history to drug policy to whether race is a construct or a reality was sweet. And he's wicked smart, throwing right back at this woman who was trying to push her black seperatist agenda on him by citing DuBois.

The only downside is that I failed to use what was probably the best pickup line I'll ever have available ('hey, I've got Paula Poundstone's room key and she won't be here for hours') or get someone to join me for dinner. Just as well though, as differentiating the high school students from those with whom I'd be interested in sharing a meal would have proven difficult.

I fear I may not be long for Minneapolis.

Evil-Off 2003: Round 1 Preview

As promised, Evil-Off 2003 begins today. Here's a look at our first round contestants:Kim Jong Ill and Rupert Murdoch. Will the wily Austrailian media mogul topple the possibly unstable Korean dictator? Stay tuned...

But what if it floods?

People here dress better. This article in the City Pages article suggested as much, but I still think capri pants on men make about as much fashion sense as a kick in the junk. Of course I dress only marginally better than a blind monkey on acid, so what do I know?

"That is what they say"

From Don Delillo's End Zone (1972):

A nation is never more ridiculous than in its patriotic manifestations.

Evil-Off 2003

I've been trying to discern who is the most evil person in the world. While this may ultimately be unknowable, I've devised a World Cup style contest to settle this. Here are the entrants from the four regions:

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East Asia/Oceana

Kim Jong Ill (President, N. Korea)

vs.

Rupert Murdoch (President, The News Corporation)

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Europe/Middle East

Saddam Hussein (former President, Iraq)

vs.

Slobodan Milosevic (former President, Yugoslavia)

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N. America/S. America

Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (former President, Chile)

vs.

Richard B. Cheney (Vice President, United States)

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Africa

Laurent Gbagbo (President, Ivory Coast)

vs.

Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir (President, Sudan)

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Things to consider:

• Both past evildoings as well as the potential for future evildoing will be considered
  
  
• Acts of greed are more evil than acts of self-preservation
  
  
• The potential for failing to do good, and instead choosing evil will be considered
  
  
• Finally, if this were a real battle, what methods of evil would each combatant use?

I'll have regional matchup details forthcoming, followed by results

Packing list

Three pair shoes
One pair sandals
Eight pair socks (four dress)
Five pair dress pants
One pair jeans
Two dress shirts
One long sleeve shirt
Four short-sleeve shirts
Eight t-shirts
Five pair boxers
One laptop
One digital camera
One SLR camera
One mp3 CD player
Two books (End Zone and Make Believe Town)
One roll film

Shrimp knife
7" chef's knife

Swimsuit
Fleece

Two pair shorts
One baseball cap