The best laid plans...

In the latest definition of "old," instead of going downtown last night to see Partyline (ex-Bratmobile, ex-Hott Beat), M. and I stayed home and watched a movie about Bobby Darin.

I put a picture of my hero up on my profile to inspire me, but it's not working...

08/20: Jenn's Going Away Party @ Lovejoy's

Jenn, longtime general manager of Lovejoy's, is moving to Skagway, Alaska with her husband. Her friends and family at Lovejoy's threw her a fabulous party with some of her favorite musicians and bands: Halo Rings Her Head, Heather Bishop, Charlie, and Honky.





Above: Halo Rings Her Head. Giving the Migas a run for their money when it comes to stoner rock. Below: Charlie rocked the house with his crowd-pleasing standards and wowed us all with the recently penned "Remember the Sabbath" (as in Black Sabbath) especially for Jenn.





Above: Heather Bishop. Lovejoy's needs to get her to play a regular gig. Below: The venerable Honky in all their Honkiness.



Jenn and Jeff Pinkus salute each other (with unidentified Honky fan):

The Maturation of Smoosh

by Joseph Riipi

Sitting alone at the Smoosh show at the Knitting Factory this past week, I watched and listened to people talk about the preteen headliners.

"They're how old?"

"I think they're from Seattle. They were on NPR or something."

"Sisters."

"You didn't see them? They were the two girls sitting in the front row during the first band's set."

"How old?"

"Keyboards and drums."

"The drummer from Death Cab for Cutie is like their coach or something."

"No, they're supposed to be good. Seriously. Someone said they opened for Modest Mouse."

full story from Three Imaginary Girls website

Enoteca Vespaio

Drop whatever you are doing right now (if it's between 7am and 9pm, that is), scoot on down to South Congress and check yourself into the new cafe next door to Vespaio, "Enoteca Vespaio." It is a casual deli and eat-in cafe, serving panini sandwiches, salads, appetizers, antipasti, pizza, and pasta. Open early, it also sports pastries made on the premises and rich coffee for a classic European breakfast. The first day we had Suppli, an appetizer dish of rissoto balls stuffed with fontina, and today we had a kick-ass salad with roasted red peppers, olives, salami, cheese, tiny little tomatoes...and a pressed panini with prosciutto and truffled egg. Holy crap. I want to go there everyday! And the prices are reasonable, too. Did I mention they have a full bar and an extensive wine collection? Enoteca means "wine library." Maybe the Hungry Marxist will review it soon!

The Electrifying Eight ! (Issue No. 2)

My current favorite comic strip, written by 12-year old Zoe (M.'s niece).

Issue No. 2


Here's Issue No. 1

Crawford Hubub

If you don't already have these, here is a fascinating blog from the scene at Crawford - including posts by Cindy Sheehan.

crawfordupdate.blogspot.com

If you're interested in going to Crawford, check this: gointocrawford.blogspot.com

Upcoming Crawford events I have heard about:

--Peace walk & women-based events Thursday night, Aug. 18
--Noon interfaith vigil (with solidarity vigils around the country) & CodePink slumber party Friday, Aug. 19
--Rallies and various events Saturday, Aug. 20 while Lance Armstrong is at Bush's ranch.
--Rumors of celebs coming in the next week from Oprah to Martin Sheen (President Bartlett!!!).

Sounds like quite the party.

The Test

A completely unanticipated situation has come up for me that will test my level of professionalism against my level of disgust that I have for the spawn of the anti-abortion movement that is the crisis pregnancy center. These are the places that take advantage of young, poor pregnant women and girls with no family support and try to talk them out of having an abortion by telling them it's a sin, all women who have them regret it (they even created a "syndrome" for this affliction), and that it probably causes cancer and who knows what else. "Pregnant? Scared? Alone?" You know the billboards. They masquerade as "clinics" but they are often run by christian ministries and don't really offer health services.

I often try to forget that I live in Texas, but I had a rude reminder yesterday when I got the list of folks who had signed up and paid to participate in a workshop I am giving. It has always been your run of the mill organizations who are trying to do good for all sorts of people. I mean, some programs are poorly run and aren't effecting change very well, but at least I never had any argument with what they were intending to do. So anyway a few people from these centers are coming to my workshop. Having cut my professional teeth in the nicely blue state of Washington, I never imagined this. Should be a growth experience for me.

I heart My Neighborhood

I'm back in the 78704 after a two-year absence, and I admit at first I was skeptical. The past three years has seen exponential gentrification as well as a DIY neighborhood party mutate into a humongous people-crawl (i.e., First Thursday). I liked the street-cred that came from living in East Austin, and it was a pretty self-sufficient little area. But, goddamn, living off of S. Congress has some serious perks. This morning we biked up the street to the new Farm to Market grocery, a little mom and pop independent grocery that sells locally-grown organic produce, and got a few items we needed for the day. Then we toodled down to Jo's for some coffee, where I must say they know how to consistently pour a good shot unlike many cafes around town who either under-or over-extract. We literally live around the corner from these places and it is unbelieveably pleasant to be able to walk or bike to everything (groceries, restaurants/cafes, Continental Club, pet supply store, shopping, post office, thrift store, etc.).

Austin doesn't have many self-sufficient urban neighborhoods - upon moving here from Seattle I was dismayed at the prospect of driving everywhere. I'm happy to have found an affordable spot in 78704, though I admit I'm benefitting from the gentrification (Gah!). But it's happening as we speak in East Austin as well, so pick your poison. It's getting harder and harder to think of reasons to travel north of downtown...maybe to go to Room Service and to feed my embarassing addiction to Crate and Barrel, but that's about it.

How Do We Forgive Our Fathers

by Dick Lourie

How do we forgive our Fathers?
Maybe in a dream
Do we forgive our Fathers for leaving us too often or forever
when we were little?

Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage
or making us nervous
because there never seemed to be any rage there at all.

Do we forgive our Fathers for marrying or not marrying our Mothers?
For Divorcing or not divorcing our Mothers?

And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness?
Shall we forgive them for pushing or leaning
for shutting doors
for speaking through walls
or never speaking
or never being silent?

Do we forgive our Fathers in our age or in theirs
or their deaths
saying it to them or not saying it?

If we forgive our Fathers what is left?

This poem is read during the last scene in the movie Smoke Signals, written by Sherman Alexie. It was originally published in a longer version titled "Forgiving Our Fathers" in a book of poems titled Ghost Radio published by Hanging Loose Press in 1998.

The Briefs, 7/31/05

On an unassuming Sunday night at Emo's, the underage punk kids were out in full mohawk-force, in part thanks to the street-punk bands Street Dogs (Boston) and Complete Control who opened for The Briefs (Seattle). Those two bands were a little Green Day-ish, not that there's anything wrong with that, and got the kids all riled up and wanting to stand up to The Man. The Briefs came out and brought us back to reality with songs about legendary bartenders ("Sylvia"), the happiness of having new shoes ("New Shoes"), and the paltry excuse for a musician that is Bob Seeger ("Silver Bullet"). I rode home with last year's "Sex Objects" record tucked in my bike bag.

The marriage ideal - patriarchy's biggest snow job

Finally someone who shares my wonderment at the obsession over marriage, an institution based on an unequal distribution of power:

(copied shamefully from the I Blame the Patriarchy Blog) - I hope she'll forgive the transgression...

"Take the whole gay marriage dealio. Why the heck is Queerville so eager to invite the state into its relationships? I ask because hetero marriage--a condition for which the spinster aunt can have but little sympathy--is nothing to write home about; historically it has provided the infrastructure for applied misogyny, it continues to be disproportionately advantageous to the male partner, and its tendency is to morph into the Nuclear Family, the primary unit of modern serfdom. Is discrimination and bigotry asinine? Of course. It’s not that I think homos shouldn’t get married; it’s that I think nobody should get married. Of patriarchy’s many cornerstones, marriage is the cornerstoniest. So, c’mon, let’s abolish the whole thing! Who’s with me?"

Le Tigre, 7/28/05

The Le Tigre show was hot. I mean, literally hot. The sold-out crowd pressed up against each other and waited patiently through two opening bands and it took powers of meditation and momentary out-of-body experiences to get through it. I'll have a review up on Girlstown Productions shortly.