Woody's South

Checked out Woody's South last night (Woody opened Room 710 and ran it up until a few months ago), the first of the Red River scene to venture out of downtown and try more hospitable climes. It's on the south side of Ben White between S. 1st and S. Congress, in what used to be a mexican restaurant. He has a full menu and bands playing until midnight (last night was Blood Burning and Dum Dum and the Smarties), with plenty of tables and lots of parking. Interestingly, Jimmy Bradshaw was bartending. We ended up staying for over two hours - I think it's going to work.

We used to be friends...a long time ago...

I have been quietly raving about the show Veronica Mars for over a year now, and am often met with blank stares and the question, what is that show about? I try to explain: well, it's teen noir and class warfare. That seems to go over like the proverbial lead balloon. A couple of weekends ago, it was Veronica Mars weekend in Austin. The Alamo had a marathon /sneak peek/panel discussion featuring three leading actors from the show, which sold out in 7 minutes. Stubb's had an "As Heard on Veronica Mars" night with bands whose songs have been used on the show (the show's creator used to live and teach high school in Austin). The show is definitely striking a chord with a distinct subset of folks, who probably prefer to keep this little gem hidden away on the UPN network all to themselves.

It's been billed as the heir apparent of Buffy, and is seems to have gotten the blessing of Joss Whedon in that the man himself made a rare cameo appearance on the show (as a rental car sales clerk!), and Allyson Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter have both made recurring guest appearances. In this recent Alternet article, a jonesing Buffy fan compares the two shows.

If a Blog Falls in the Internet...

with nobody around to read it, does it make a sound?

...or something like that

Happy 33rd, Roe!

Last night, on the anniversary of Sarah Weddington's 1973 triumph, M. and I went to Monkeywrench to see The Abortion Diaries (Penny Lane) and Teen Mami (Laura Donnelly). I'm so glad I went to that instead of going to Dart Bowl, which was also on the table for about 5 seconds. It was especially cool to see the Teen Mami documentary, as it was a submission to Ladyfest Texas in 2004, but didn't get accepted due to the tyrannical reign of the film committee chair at the time.

Good job organizing, Horrendous Cacophony!

The Lilith Fund was there to talk about their program. They get 15-20 calls every day on their hotline. And they have so few funds to give out they can only give like $50 to each who needs it. They actually had to shut down recently due to the influx of Hurricane survivors who needed abortions - they ran out of money - but they're up and running again.

And on ABC news tonight, a story about how the pro-lifers are energized about the shift on the supreme court, and there are currently 5 states passing anti-abortion laws to purposely force the issue to go before the supreme court.

Plan B and the FDA

I attended a talk on Thursday at UT by Dr. Susan Wood, former director of the office of women's health at the FDA who resigned last August to protest the unprecedented delays in approving Plan B for over the counter sale.

Here are the highlights:

+ The FDA does not have the power to regulate practice of medicine or practice of pharmacy
+ Plan B was approved by the FDA in 1999 as a prescription drug. It passed all safety tests with flying colors.
+ Plan B is not a "new" product or "new" method of birth control, it's just the first time it's been packaged for this specific purpose. In the past, women just had to know exactly how many birth control pills to take and by when to approximate the same effect.
+Plan B works the same way as the IUD, birth control pill, and breastfeeding, which are not controversial (at least not as birth control).
+ The FDA commissioner, after dragging his feet for months though all his director-type people and their scientific advisory panel were for its approval, finally decided to issue Plan B "two-tiered status," meaning over the counter status for 17-year-old women and over, and prescription status for 16 and under (hello regulation of female sexuality). This seemed better than nothing though, so they waited for the approval. Months passed, but nothing happened. Senators Clinton and Murray (Washington state) pressured the FDA to reach a decision by Sept. 1 2005. The usual decision-makers at the FDA were not involved in the discussions, which apparently were taking place at much higher levels in the government (Dr. Wood stopped short of naming the Bush Administration directly). This had never happened before with any other drug. Normally, if all the FDA people are in agreement it doesn't even go to the commissioner's level.
+ The decision came, and it was pretty fucking sneaky: they wanted to open it for public comment and rulemaking because this dual status thing was going to be difficult to implement/too complex to enforce. So new federal regulations are ostensibly needed, which conveniently takes YEARS. Never mind that the nicotine patch has similar dual status and that was implemented just fine - the prescribers and pharmacists figured it out.
+ Take home message: the FDA was hijacked by political interests and can no longer call itself a science-based, independent organization.

+ Also of interest: these same hijackers are also opposed to a vaccine for cervical cancer - for HPV - because it goes against the abstinence message. Because of course, routinely vaccinating 12 year old girls for the human papilloma virus means that said girls will naturally increase their risky sexual behavior. Dr. Wood raised a scary point: what happens when we get an HIV vaccine? Will the same logic apply?

+ Oh - and there is a petition circulating right now to take RU-486 off the market (even though it is already very tightly restricted in the U.S.)

Dr. Wood is a kickass scientist who is now touring the country trying to tell as many people as possible what really happened, so that we may be as outraged as she is and...well, what to do about it? She didn't have a lot of suggestions, except to get the word out. So I did.

Here's some ideas on how to take action:
backupyourbirthcontrol.org

Commander in Chief not disappointing yet; Rollergirls kinda sucky

In entertainment news, the Austin Chronicle's TV critic has a column this week on the A&E reality show "Rollergirls." I have to say, I pretty much agree with her assessment. Particularly her take on the "regurgitation of tired male fantasies" and:

"The 'we can be tough and sexy' mantra is about as tired as a pair of fishnets after Mardi Gras. I was going to say that you would think in this day and age that a woman wouldn't have to care how sexy she is, but that's not true. Ask former Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. I don't remember anyone lobbing salvos at former FEMA Director Michael Brown's dowdiness when it was revealed how freakishly underqualified he was for his job."

Also this week, the episode of Commander in Chief ended with the president (Geena Davis) confiding to her mother that she got a huge rush off the fact that she was the most powerful person in the world (this was after narrowly averting a war with North Korea while rescuing stranded sailors in a submarine). I appreciated that the writers of the show portrayed a woman unapologetically appreciating the rush of presidential power rather than being all demure and "relational" about it. On this show, sometimes she doesn't see her kids for two days even though they're in the same house, and yeah she feels bad but no worse than a dude president would. So far the writers are showing her being a president, not a "woman president." Let's hope it stays that way. Apparently the ratings are falling, so who knows - she may soon be seen in the white house kitchen baking cookies.

Report from the streets

Bumpersticker seen on a car in San Marcos today:

"Fueled By Iraqi Blood"

(complete with "blood" font)

What does that even mean?

But I Don't Feel Socially Conditioned!

Here's an interesting look at the smooth-talking flawed logic of an anti-feminist pundit having a lunch interview with a Salon.com writer. My fave quote:

Interviewer: Isn't that [that more women stay home with kids than men is due to our biological preference for it] social conditioning?

Anti-feminist Pundit: I did it, and I don't feel socially conditioned.

And even more progress...

Africa's first elected female head of state takes office

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is now the president of Liberia.

Together with the rise of civil rights legislation around the globe (Britain, Canada, South Africa, etc.) allowing anyone to marry anyone they want, I continue to cling to the hope that the U.S. will emerge from the neo-Dark Ages in my lifetime.

Chile elects first woman president

The New York Times writes:

"Michelle Bachelet, a Socialist, a doctor and a former political prisoner and exile, on Sunday became the first woman to be elected president of Chile, decisively defeating Sebastián Piñera, a conservative billionaire businessman."

The Times also points out that this is the first time a woman has been elected without some sort of connection to a politician husband who helped get her there:

"Ms. Bachelet, a single mother who has juggled her career and the demands of raising three children ever since she entered government service little more than a decade ago, is the first woman in the region to win an election without an assist from the coattails of a more famous spouse.

Though doubts had been expressed about whether Chilean men would be willing to vote for a woman, Ms. Bachelet's margin of victory exceeded that of her predecessor and mentor, Ricardo Lagos, six years ago. He won narrowly, with 51.2 percent of the vote, and by an overall difference much smaller than the half million votes that separated Ms. Bachelet and Mr. Piñera."

Interestingly, it appears that the wealthier the population, the more likely the men were to vote for the dude candidate...and among the less wealthy, the more likely men were to vote for Bachelet.

A public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood sociologist

A little counter-evidence to the oft-cited romantic ideal of child-rearing:

Bundles Of . . . Misery
Parenting Got You Down? You're Not Alone, Says Study

By Elizabeth Agnvall
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, January 3, 2006

Published last month in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, the study of 13,000 U.S. adults found that parents, from those with young children to empty nesters, reported being more miserable than non-parents. The researchers analyzed data from a national survey of families and households that asked respondents how many times in the past week, for example, they felt sad, distracted or depressed.

So: After all the sleepless nights and drowsy mornings, the cycles of feeding and throwing up, the American Girl doll accessories bought on credit, the toothpick models of the solar system and the algebra tutors . . . we would have been happier without it all?

In a word, says study author Robin Simon, an associate professor of sociology at Florida State University, yes.

Full article (link should be good for 60 days)

Chickens!

These are our neighbor's chickens, who occasionally scratch and peck their way over to our yard. I find their clucking and cooing rather comforting, and I also enjoy the rooster gently crowing at daybreak. I like having a little dose of the bucolic life inserted into my city existence.

Modern anxiety

Those five seconds after you or the clerk has swiped your debit card and you're waiting for the transaction approval. Every time, I anxiously wonder if I've been victimized by an idenitity thief who's emptied out my bank account.

Letterman shuts down O'Reilly

Did anyone see David Letterman give Bill O'Reilly a complete dressing down last night? In a rare departure from late-night schlock-talk, Dave went hardball on Bill, calling bullshit on his ravings. Among my favorite lines:

[Arguing about Cindy Sheehan, O'Reilly saying various sensationalistic things about her, like that she called Iraqi insurgents "freedom fighters" and Letterman trying to defend her. Letterman wraps up the segment thusly:]

Letterman: "I'm not smart enough to debate you point by point, but I have a feeling that 60 percent of what you say is crap."

Paul Shaffer: "60 percent?"

It was brilliant!

Click here for a link to the interview clip.

2005 check up

Here's what I wrote on Dec. 31st 2004, outlining my goals for 2005. Let's see how I did:

In 2005 I will:
-Pass my comps [check]
-Defend my dissertation proposal [check]
-Learn to write a decent record review [uhhh, sort of]
-Learn three chords on the guitar [nope]
-Get a facial [check]
-Go to the Capitol Hill Block Party (Sea.) [nope]
-Help Marshall around the house more [uhhh, sort of]
-Make home-made gifts even if they're crappy [check. decoupage coasters for anna 'n dave, embroidered apron for marshall]
-Go hiking/camping in Texas [nope]
-Appreciate my new bed every day [does staying in bed til 11am count?]
-Make labels for all my burned CDs [nope]
-Drink more water [nope]
-Call my mom more [check]

I think I get about a C+ unless I give more weight to the first two.

Good thing #594 coming to an end

The G/M Steakhouse on Lamar. A nifty greasy spoon where you could get a full breakfast for like $2.50. Went under after 25 years due to Sixth and Lamar becoming swank-central and leaving no room for this little gem.