I'm Sticking Up For Everything

Last night the old man and I watched The Cove, a suspenseful and thrilling documentary centered around a group of activists' fight to end dolphin capturing and killing in Taijii, Japan. The group's bravery and their devotion to these animals is quite extraordinary. They risk their lives to install hidden cameras (one underwater) and microphones into a cove used as a killing floor, if you will, for slaughtering dolphins. I am afraid to swim in water past my neck and the only time I was in the ocean at night, while night kayaking to see bioluminescent lichen, I almost had a heart attack. So I am deeply impressed by the freedivers who braved the night waters.

Throughout the film several points were made about how intelligent dolphins are, but the one that was most profound was the fact that dolphins understand sign language... but they don't even have hands. I never really thought about that one before, what an impractical yet sophisticated ability it is for a dolphin to be able to communicate with people in this way. It's devastating to watch something get speared to death, to see the cove turn red with blood (ew, which one of the fishermen has to dive in to make sure they got all the dolphins), to watch dolphins flapping ferociously in the water, screaming until they die.

The fact of the matter is that nothing or no one should be rounded up and killed. After the movie was over, I felt a little conflicted. What about cows? It's not okay for cows to be rounded up, shipped half across the country, standing in their own feces for weeks, and being forced to eat something their four stomachs have trouble digesting. If we all watched The Cove version of the cattle industry, watched a huge five hundred pound animal crawling to the kill floor on weak, unused legs bent in the opposite direction, would we allow this to continue to happen in our own country? It's weird to go to another country and point out their shames when we have so many of our own. In the early 1700's and until about 1850, whaling was one of the prominent industries in America. Let us not forget that New Bedford, Massachusetts was known as "The City That Lit The World." Do you think we stopped whaling because we felt bad for whales? No! The demand for their oil plummeted after the invention of oil wells.

The question of activism remains: why anything? Why dolphins? Why healthcare? I thought I'd be doing some good by not eating meat, but shit. I knit with wool. I wear leather. My pants and my warm winter coat were made by someone who didn't earn a livable wage. My list of sins goes on. I want to try; I go to health care rallies and stuff like that, but feel like while I'm standing up for one thing, something else is coming apart. Do you think The Cove is going to change the fishing industry? Some people say there was so much media in Taijii that the dolphin hunting has stopped. I wonder for how long. Paul Watson made an interesting point in the film: you can be active or inactive. But how do you know if you've done any good?

Fantasy Feature No. 83

Your new bangs are going to be folkish hipster bangs. Everyone will want bangs when they see you. You will not run into a wall, trying to get your bangs out of your eyes, like that young girl did at the show last night. She also couldn't walk a straight line because her bangs were in her way. You've seen the pictures and your forehead is, well, let's just say you got brains, okay? They'll be like Swedish bangs. Young Marianne Faithful. Think Bangles. You're going to be like that woman who hung out with Flea while hanging out with Chet Baker.

Why Wasn't I Invited to Take Off My Pants

Apparently on January 10, 2010, 3,000 New Yorkers participated in the 9th annual No Pants Subway Ride. How come I didn't know about this? I have a great pair of violet Steven Alan bloomers that would've worked well for this. Anyway, a group called Improv Everywhere led the de-pantsing. They do all kinds of funny activities around the city, such as a musical in a Queens grocery store. They also performed a gig at a Knicks game, where one friend pretended to get lost and eventually hundreds of people were helping him find his seat. The No Pants Subway Ride video is pretty cute; I really recommend checking it out. The various undies are pretty funny. Some people just know how to live, know what I mean? So, what say you? Would you take off your pants on the subway?

It's All About the Fish

I was thinking about "The Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir" by Richard Hugo earlier today and came across this interesting video. I love the pack of 100's in his pocket and I love that someone is smoking in class. I wonder what happened to the students in that class.

He doesn't read the poem until about four minutes in. The sound of his voice is so odd to me because it doesn't have any mean tones at all. I know recordings are different that hearing someone more than once, etc., but I was really struck by the way he didn't sound like he was the one who had written that poem. What is best is the floating fish superimposed next to the couple at the beach.

My Rally in Your Union

This week I walked in what is known as Outside for the first time since I came down with the flu last week. I made my debut upon The World at a noon-time emergency healthcare rally. Some other guy was coughing and sneezing behind me and I have to admit that I was coughing on the back of my own sign. There were speakers. They spoke into a microphone so we could actually hear them this time. One of them was a doctor. I have hope?

The State of the Union didn't exactly ramp anything up. Obama and others keep talking about how we have to go after Wall Street. (Obama is actually pretty soft on this, if you want to know. A tax on bankers who fucked our system and "earned" even more millions? They aren't fooling anyone). Now corporations can spend however much they want on elections. (How much is that exactly? They pay a great deal as is. They pay so much to fight healthcare that they could've funded healthcare already. Does this mean I'm going to be denied even more coverage so they can buy off the legislative branch?) Wall Street and corporations. We act like they're these huge, mysterious, monstrous, free-reigning beings and I guess they are since we always hear about them as such. (I actually live on Main Street--go figure). Don't we know that these giant monsters are the way they are because we refuse to regulate them? We have a deregulated market and that is why an elite few are running away with my savings and my dad's hard earned retirement money.

Here's where I'm confused. Republicans time and time again say that we can't have universal healthcare and other certain programs because they cost too much (although no one seems to talk about how much it costs to fight it) and our government is getting too big. They constantly talk about "the government" as though it were also one of those huge, monstrous, big thingies. Well, if everything is pretty much a big thingie, then who's going down first? Oh, right. The government. It's not that big. It's consists of the people you and I voted for, sitting somewhere with their thumb up their butts or not, getting bought out or not.

My wish, starting now, is for Republicans to tell the truth. They're Christians! They can do it! They are not worried about our government getting too big. They already know it can't because it is becoming more and more hollowed out. Last night, on national television, one of our Supreme Court Justices, someone sworn in for a lifetime to uphold the Constitution and nothing but, shook his head and pouted when Obama openly disagreed with the Citizens United decision. In his own mind, Justice Alito may or may not have embarrassed himself last night, but he sure did let us know our government--our oh-so-scary big bag government--starting with our highest court, with the exception of very few, is comprised of me-first, stop- progress, can't-think-of-anything-except-morals-they-can't-uphold, liars, hypocrites, and bought-out war mongers with, thank you Alito, even less integrity.

I Do What My Fever Tells Me

Did you know that Freud used to paint all of his family members? How crazy is that? Maybe all psychoanalysts should paint all their patients? I only found this out while searching for artists who portray their mothers--a reaction I had to Aline Smithson's latest work. She painted a series of portraits of her mother in profile, wearing different costumes. The paintings are kind of campy, but I still kind of like them, especially the one of the mother dressed in equestrian clothing, holding the reins of a horse in a nearby painting. Pretty cute.

I think it's great that someone is depicting older women. Actually, my only compliment for that silly thing, Nine, was that two older women were featured in the film, holding just as much importance and weight as the other actresses. (Quite a sultry role for Judie Dench, eh?) I'll discuss one other film here, although it doesn't involve an older woman, but a strong women nonetheless. (These roles being less frequent these days). While sick in bed I watched Francois Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player and although the character Lena is a young woman, I was amazed by what a strong (literally) role she has. Just after one man says all women should use nice language and be fragile all their lives, Lena carries her passed out lover Charlie into a basement to hide him from the police. This act also comes after she is forced to laugh with Charlie and the two cronies (after Charlie's brother) over the statement: once you've been with one woman, you've been with them all. We know Lena can laugh loudly at that, being at how frank she is with her lover, Charlie/Edward, saying if you don't want to be with me, just tell me. I love that.

With a group of friends last week I watched another episode in the so-interesting series The Secret Life of a Masterpiece, this one about Whistler's portrait of his mother. I wanted to spit every time an American woman said how nostalgic the painting made her feel. Really? They found the painting so comforting! They think she's the ultimate grandmother! I'm being for real! In the constant celebration of Puritanism and misguided morals, people around me continue to elect Republicans who will do more harm than good for the sake of morals. Will we ever shake off our Puritanism? One of the talking heads described Whistler's mother as the ultimate "old biddy," a detestable term, but kind of the right one in this case. She's dressed in black, she's unhappy, her husband left her with hardship. Whistler very purposefully went against lush Victorian norms, going so far as to call the painting "Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother."

Fever 103 My Nothing Fantasy Feature

Goddamn the goddamn flu. You watched a movie about how shitty the food industry is. You didn't know Oprah was sued by the cattle industry for saying she didn't want to eat a burger during the Mad Cow scare. It cost her one million dollars to fight them. What does anyone's sick voice sound like. You wanted to call someone but it hurt to talk. You wanted to know if you're whiny or pouty. Your eyes are big and puffy. You hurt so badly. The old man brings you water. He cooked you matzah ball soup. You sweat through your hair. Your pajamas stuck to the floor. You have now made it through four of six Lone Wolf and Cub samurai movies. Today you may watch Baby Cart in the Land of Demons. Slight suspicion--you watched them in the wrong order. Maybe there will be ghosts of the slain in it. You want to go to Japan. You want to not be sick.