Gender Stuff

Sorry this blog has been so bereft of pictures recently. I will try to do better. I had a great weekend, the highlight of which was Saturday night's "Thunderdome" party that Kate and I hosted. We had two tables of gaming fun - including poker (which I lost miserably at), Taboo, Apples to Apples, and Celebrity. Pat, George and I were a Celebrity dream team as we befuddled the ladies with characters like Christopher Lambert, Lucy Lawless, Joe Walsh, and Tron. We'll have to do that again soon.

Sunday was fun too because the band (sans our hardworking, lawyer lead singer) got together and finished a new song. We should have a gig scheduled soon and we're looking forward to playing our music for everybody.

Oh, and I wanted to share this great article I read in the Post this morning about a study of male and female bargaining behavior when getting a new job. It seems that women do bargain less, which leads to lower pay - but that there is actually a good reason for this. In the end, it's an unconscious response to very real double standards. Give it a read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/29/AR2007072900827.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Socially Conscious Shopping

Some friends and I were discussing travel offsets last night. I have never "offset" my travel before but I intend to start. A couple ways you can do this:
1. Pai tells me that Expedia allows you to add offsets to your trip while you book it - cool.
2. At www.terrapass.com you can calculate how many you'll need for your trip and buy offsets. You can also purchase offset gift packages for friends.
3. If you'd like to buy renewable energy for your home or business, check out www.green-e.org
4. Or, to find other really cool renewable energy gifts (such as a solar sholder bag that'll recharge your ipod or cell phone!), check out www.rewarestore.com.

For more great tips using carbon offsets, visit: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/how-to-green-your-carbon-offsets.php

The Democratic YouTube Debate

So, I just watched the YouTube Democratic candidate debates (http://www.youtube.com/debates). This is the first Dem debate I’ve watched this year. I’ve been avoiding them because I just feel that we’re so far out from the actual election that we aren’t going to hear honest answers that can be converted into policy. We’re far enough away right now that any of these people would have time to modify or transform their stances on any given issue if they feel it will give them a better shot at the candidacy or the white house. It’s disgusting, but true – I have avoided learning about these proposals because there are simply too many trial balloons in the talking points.

However, I really liked the idea of the YouTube debate so I strapped in and finally began my process of selecting a candidate. Here are some of my thoughts:

In general, I was a bit disappointed that the candidates did what they always do – they take each question and restate it as a question that they already have a canned answer for. You could tell who had no chance of winning because they were the only people making bold statements. Still, most of the answers felt flat and uninspiring – which is to be expected when you’re digesting trial balloons.

I was also very disappointed by the slap-dash treatment of environmental concerns – given the importance of this issue today, there should have been a much more coverage to better illustrate the differing viewpoints of the candidates.

My kudos to Anderson Cooper. He kept it rolling with no self-aggrandizement and, in a few situations, hammered at the candidates to force them out of vagary and into a clear statement of policy. Nice job AC!

Gravel – Wow, this guy’s a nutball. I assume he’s trying to look like the firey outsider, but the way he went after Obama made him look more like a junk yard dog. Also, his tax solution to climate change is insane and won’t work. Still, they gave this guy NO airtime and I don’t know why they bothered to have him on. Of course, he used half of his time complaining that he didn’t get more time. Lame ass.

Biden – I like Biden’s no-nonsense way of speaking. I loved his response to Darfur – “Why Darfur? Because we can!” Kick ass. His Iraq policy sounds like the only honest one to me, but it still creates a Yugoslavia-esque state that would be unstable at best.

Kucinich - Kicinich is just hard to take seriously. I mean come on, is DK really going to come into office and pass reparations for slavery? Whether you like the idea or not, it’s a dumb thing to stump on in my opinion. With each answer he tried to sound really inspiring but he was just trying too hard – he ended up looking silly in my opinion.

Clinton – Boy did she use her front runner status well. Hillary knew she had the room to act like a statesman and she did. I thought her answer to the “are you feminine enough?’ question was one of the best answers of the night. I have always felt that HC was a bit disingenuous – more politician than statesman. I think she did a good job of chipping away at that stumbling block in this debate. Her energy answer, while a bit safe, was on the right track.

Dodd – Beyond an above-average response to the race/Katrina question, Dodd showed himself to be a Washington insider looking for a better job. Having voted for the Defense of Marriage act, I thought his answer to the gay marriage questions was hypocritical.

Richardson – Whenever he spoke he went right to no-nonsense statements of exactly what he would do. No trial balloons here – he cut right to the promises. I was particularly inspired by his decisive comments on international leadership.I don’t think his “all out now” approach to Iraq is practical and I strongly disagree with his stance on gun control.

Obama – I was disappointed to see Obama dodge the reparations question. He said “We do need reparations for our public schools!” What a cheap shot. Everyone will clap for the schools and it was an easy out. I really liked the question about how will Obama address being “black enough” and while he had a great answer, it didn’t address the actual question. I loved his answer about meeting with foreign leaders. In all, Obama spoke well and I like his policies as they stand, but I was disappointed that he didn’t answer questions more directly. I think he’s playing it safe right now (which is probably a smart move).

Edwards – Edwards really played the role of the outsider more than I expected. While it may just have been rhetoric, I liked his rhetoric on challenging big business for control of this country. I like his strong stance on universal healthcare and thought that he made excellent (and accurate) comments on energy solutions.

Best question of the night – question 10 – Why is it okay to use religion as a basis to deny marriage rights to gays. This question was just REALLY well phrased and really skewered Edwards good. He looked like an ass. When Obama took up the question he talked about his civil union proposal providing equal benefits. As he spoke the words “separate but equal” drifted through my mind. Not good.

So, after this debate I am still not sure who I will vote for, but I can put them in order of how much I like them and their policies and vibe right now:

1. Barak Obama
2. John Edwards
3. Hillary Clinton
4. Joe Biden

These could change, dramatically even, once I put more time and effort into learning their policies. I guess I’m sucked in now. Let’s hope whoever we pick can whoop their Republican opponent something fierce.

apathy and frustration

So, I've been pretty mood so far this week. None of the moods have been good either. I've been vacillating between apathetic, frustrated, and down-right angry. I don't really get it. I have a busy week, but nothing to difficult - just lots of stuff. I don't have real reason to be angry, but it's just how I feel when I get up. So strange. What's even weirder is that Kate feels the same way. This is really disturbing because she is usually really good at pulling herself out of a funk.

My negativity is not due to a bad weekend. Kate and I went to New York where we partied with our friends and saw our families (it had been a while since I'd closed down a bar). I took the opportunity to help my recently-retired mother purchase and set up computer equipment for her new home office. I think she's going to love working for herself. As a congratulatory gift, Caryn and I got her a really nice pen - a symbol of her new career as a freelance writer.

On Sunday I spoke to mom's church about environmental issues. I even handed out an action plan to give attendees a bunch of great ways to mitigate their environmental impact. If you'd like a copy, email me or leave a note here. The added element of stress there was that Kate's parents came. I wanted to make a good impression there - especially because Kate just told them that we're moving in together (something that Kate's mother wasn't thrilled about). After that we all went to lunch. It went pretty well - Kate's dad and Heinz share a love of German food.

Tonight is Collider practice which I'm looking forward to because music is my favorite past time right now. At the same time, I'm a bit frustrated with my band mates. I'm putting a lot of effort into things like writing new music, scheduling band practices, burning demo cds, and booking gigs. Whenever I ask for help though I don't get much response. I guess I have more interest in doing that kind of stuff than they do, and that's fair enough. I don't mind doing most of the work if I have most of the interest, but it would be nice to see at least some enthusiasm from them since they clearly want to be in the band. I mean, where will the gigs come from if we don't put any effort into getting them?

I've decided that they don't take any initiative because they'll just assume I'll do it for them. To this end, I've decided to put no work into the band (save coming to practice) for the next month or so. I'll see what happens. What do you think? Is this the right way to go? Am I being an ass? How would you approach the situation I'm in - if you wanted to put effort into the band but didn't want to feel like you were banging your head against the wall? I could use some feedback on this one.

Writing a song

Collider is finishing up the writing of two more songs right now. One or two more and we'll have what I would consider a full set.

I've read plenty of web pages and even a book on how to write songs. I've never really been able to apply the step-wise approaches I've read. I don't think you can write out a process that a musician can then easily apply. This is especialy true for anyone writing with a band. In Collider there are various schools of thought as to how we should write. Pat & Bryan would like to see us just get together and jam until something comes out. Tom and I like to write on our own and then present something for the band to fiddle with. We would all like to have the vocals and guitar lines created at the same time so they don't feel slapped together, but none of us know exactly how to DO that. None of these ideas are mutually exclusive and I think we are making great progress.

My next big idea is to start by laying out a song structure FIRST and then composing riffs and guitar lines to fill it. Could be interesting. We'll see.

Big News

So, I've got some big news. Kate and I have decided to move in together! It's strange that this doesn't seem like a bigger step to me. In the past, doing something like this would have been scary. But when it comes to Kate I just don't have a shred of doubt in me so instead of trepidation, it's just pure excitement at the thought of having her around. Rockin.

I had a great weekend. Friday night Kate and I saw Knocked Up - great movie. Then on Saturday I played golf with Sam - we both played really well. Saturday night, Kate and I met up with Mona, Sam and Sam's new guy, Marcello, at 1223 - a posh nightclub on CT ave. They were showing the Live Earth concert on their big screen so at 9pm the place was full of enviros. I guess the place decided to lift their dress code for the event. Later on they switched to the DJ and the five of us danced until about midnight. At that point, the music had just gotten too loud and we left. When we did there were people lined up down the block to get into this place. As I said to Bryan - the women were dressed like they are in Entourage. It was nuts. Not a place we would typically go, but it was fun. To the right is a picture of me standing in one of the club's purple lights as I reenact the final scene from the movie The Highlander. Sunday Kate and I hiked the Billy Goat trail in Great Falls National Park. It was beautiful out, but it was also 97 degrees. It was pretty brutal, but we both enjoyed it anyway.

So, random dream scene from this morning: I entered a large gray room. It was the dimensions of a basketball court and about 50 feet to the ceiling. There were no windows - just a big gray box with one set of swinging double doors. There were a mixture of barber chairs, hospital beds, and exercise machines spaced out around the room - in no aparant order or structure. Some people were there to get their hair cut. Others were being tested for diseases. Still others seemed to be doing physical therapy for injuries recieved in Iraq. In my dream before this one I had been Boba Fett, attacking a Star Destroyer so I wasn't really sure which activity I had come to this room for. I decided that it was probably a haircut and sat down in an empty seat. Josh strolled in for a haircut - he always got his hair cut here. Now he had long, black lanky hair down past his shoulders. It had patches of red from a bad highlight job and patches of gray because he was getting old. I made fun of him and flirted with his stylist. Who was going to cut my hair? I looked and saw a woman in an apron smile at me and gesture that she would be there in a minute. It was Catherine Zambito (a girl I knew in high school). She had just finised cutting the hair of Alanna Gino (a girl I used to work with). Alanna's hair was cropped really shot - she looked cute with it that way. Why was she here though - why were any of us in this room? I woke up.

The wrong way to build support

So, this weekend I joined Pat and Tom to go to an outdoor concert put on by a community organization in Mount Pleasant. The concert was to protest (and raise awareness of) a current ban on live music in Mt. Pleasant establishments. There is a concern among some residents that live music clubs will turn Mt. Pleasant into another Adams Morgan and result in dance clubs, noise, increased crime, etc. I went to this outdoor event feeling fully in support of the concept of lifting this ban - thinking that people were entirely overreacting by banning music outright. While I still support that, the event left a decidedly bad taste in my mouth.

The first act (the only one I saw) was a hip hop duo performing with mics and turntables. They were relatively talented, but the lead singer managed to turn me off to the point that I ceased thinking about the issue he was supposedly there to promote. In between each song he harassed the crowd about not dancing or even bobbing their heads - about standing too far away or not rushing to buy their CDs or T-shirts. Even worse, he gave equal time to bemoaning the horror of gentrification and blaming the ills of the neighborhood on anyone who hadn't been born in the same hospital he had.

In fact, I kept a running tally of the groups this man identified as being "against" music in DC. This included all Republicans, white folks, anyone who didn't work in the service industry, people not actually born and raised in the District, and anyone who had moved to Mt. Pleasant in the past three years. The audience was probably 10% black, 40% Latino, and 50% white and, based on the hand survey he took, only a few listenners worked in the service industry. Based on his definitions, most of the people there to support the cause should be against it. This man vacillated between berating the people there to listen to him and hassling them about not dancing and acting more interested in his performance. His special message to the "undercover police officers of color that I know are here" made him seem especially out of kilter with the supposed spirit of the event.

This guy might know something about hip hop, but he doesn't know the first thing about building a coalition. Step one is to define "your side" as broadly as possible so people will feel that your plight is their plight. I left before the end of their act - never having heard about how I can help or even signing a petition. Pity.