Happy independence day!

This post will be lacking in pictures. I don't even know where my camera is exactly, but it's been a while and I feel like so much has happened I have to write something... this despite the fact that I'm house-sitting for Dom and his keyboard is completely inadequate over and above its wireless convenience.

Seriously, by way of introduction I should say that I have moved back to Ithaca. It's been about a month now and honestly I've never been happier or more busy. Whereas in Syracuse I spend hours and hours on a machine like this typing my life away, since I've been back I haven't spent an hour sitting at a computer. It's so beautiful here and I've been working so much, it hardly leaves time for sleeping, let alone killing time. What a horrible expression, "killing time." I shouldn't say it, let alone do it. Anyway, I'm working for Gimme! again, at the farmer's market on the weekends and Lansing on Thursday and Friday mornings, then Bellwether Cider on Thursday and Friday afternoons. I love the work, I love how tired I get and how calloused my hands have become. I bitch about it, the work is hard and dirty (especially farmer's market), but honestly there's something about getting through a thirteen hour day, messing about until the wee hours and then doing it all again the next day... somehow it makes every hour count, and I'm struggling to fit it all in. I'm broke as hell of course, but I hardly have time to spend the money anyway, so really it's not as big a problem as I would make it out to be.

Further in that vein, I'm moving in with Phoebe and Kate and eventually Jeff in the Fall street house, which used to house the likes of Amy, Colleen, Aniela and Jon. It's a neat house, and I'm SO excited about getting to live with such wonderful people and close friends, as well as Samson! I'm hoping Samson and Smokey get along okay, Smokey's really responded well to my family and to the move in general, he's become something of a socialite it seems. There's no telling what he'll make of Samson, but honestly Samson is such a great dog for animals with dysfunctional personalities, he's so patient and gentle. I'm really super excited about the whole thing.

I also got my hair cut rather dramatically. It was round about the two year mark and honestly my hair was becoming something of an inconvenience, so my IFM boss Meghan cut off a ten inch braid and I sent it off to Locks of Love. All hail Meghan, it turned out great and wonderfully comfortable and simple, and I feel like this is by far my most successful sheering yet. I don't have any pictures uploaded, but hopefully most of you have seen me or will see me soon. I miss all you missing ones terribly.

I can't take this keyboard anymore, so I'll end it there. I had the day off today, and again tomorrow, so I'm going to stay awake and watch Farscape until I nod off. I hope all is well with everyone!

This is old, but I just found it and it made me giggle (from the DailyKos):

He wrote it himself. Think of that. He wrote it. Himself.

Okay, I know this is silly, but today in BoingBoing they're sharing a 16th century golden ear/toothpick:


How lovely. Yet I want to remind everyone of my perpetual battle against Qtips as ear cleaning tools. Doctors agree, you should never stick anything smaller than your elbow in your ear. You can risk busting your eardrum and the bleached cotton on Qtips (nevermind the hard metal of something like this) can irritate your ear canal and lead to excess ear wax and infections. Don't do it.

I'm headed off this afternoon to witness my Brother's graduation from undergrad at Stony Brook. As much as I hate going anywhere near the wrong island, it will be lovely to see my larger family and mark this wonderful occasion. Especially since I never went to mine, I'm hoping this will be all the fresher. Yay Moose!

I was reminded it would have been Malcolm X's 83rd birthday today, and (of course) TheRoot.com has a good article about the civil rights leader's legacy:

Happy Birthday, Malcolm
by Melissa Harris-Lacewell | TheRoot.com

I particularly agree with Harris-Lacewell's eloquent sentiment: "His life is a reminder that greatness is not found in arrogant self-righteousness or intellectual hubris, but in the willingness to be open to our own limitations."

My friend Amy Pennington is a photographer and artist who's got a new beautiful website! She's moving to Syracuse in July to start at the SU art school, I'm really excited!

A Stone-Faced Lie on the Mall
By Ibram Rogers | TheRoot.com

I heard about this on NPR originally (I'm hoping that Michel Martin picks this up on Tell Me More), but this morning in the Root.com there was an opinion article about it that I really agree with (although I have reservations about calling King a "militant", I think that label contradicts King's pacifist message unless you want to parse it away from its connotations of violence). The general story is that the US Commission of Fine Arts is asking the sculptor Lei Yixin designing the Washington monument of Rev. King to make the civil rights leader look less confrontational and more smiling and idealistic. More of a dreamer and (in my opinion) less of the much feared "angry black man" which is getting so much press lately with the Rev. Wright bullpoopy. As far as I can tell, this is more of the same kind of false and disingenuous ameliorating that seeks to deny and cover up the very real impact and continuation of institutionalized racism in this country. Overall I think that plays into the hands of an over-arching public narrative that wants to delegitimate the righteous anger of anyone suffering under institutionalized structures of exclusion based on race, religion, class, sex, gender, sexual orientation and disability. I hope someone can stop this, I'm going to look around for the email addresses of the commission or a petition somewhere, I'll pass it along once I find something.

Update: Neal Conan covered this on Blog of the Nation, including a good interview with Ibraim Rogers.

This is exactly what I've been talking about in terms of the islamophobia in this country and in Europe. In my opinion, this woman was clearly railroaded. I hope we're better than this.

Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School
From The New York Times
By Andrea Elliott
Published: April 28, 2008

I've been waiting for this since I heard about it on BoingBoing, Sundance has posted the Isabella Rossellini bug porn, and yes, it's wonderful.


Don't watch them all at once, savor.

And a nice piece from Michelle Obama:

A good victory speech always improves my circulation:

Oh, how I love him....

However much I want to hear the words "President Obama", I have to admit he messed up. I agree with Mr. Willis:

Did Obama Betray Wright First?
By Andre C. Willis | TheRoot.com

Fun Primary synopsis from Slate V

Yay!! It's Willie Nelson's 75th Birthday!!!

Nice NPR Bio piece and interview

Happy Birthday Mr. Nelson! I heart your everything.

Yeah, I know, like it's my job right?

I think this should've been called the "Confession Forum"

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4



Part 5



via DailyKos

For a beautifully organized sliver of white American intellectual history (and a lot of smoking), click through to the Harry Ransom Center:

The Mike Wallace Interview[s].
"Whether you agree or disagree with what you will hear,
we feel that none will deny the right of these views to be broadcast."

Aldous Huxley, Reinhold Niebuhr, Philip Wylie, Gloria Swanson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Salvador Dali ... oh my!

Via BoingBoing (I think)

My latest cartoon crush: