More me talking about me

Just wanted to mention, while I'm procrastinating on the U of C's waitlist essay, that the show at the Charleston last weekend was SO damn fun. And for those who couldn't make it, there's a clip on YouTube.

Bonus entry: Rebecca Traister writes about trying to quit smoking. I know this makes me a jerk, but I'm still not done hating on Rebecca Traister. She seems to have, like, a decent vocabulary & some skill at stringing sentences together in a logical way & all that, but some of her broader conclusions about modern culture are just...sigh...delightfully idiotic? My problematic fixation on Salon Life rages on...I will now threaten you all with the promise of a future "Best of Traister" post...

A Little About Me

Blogs are tough, folks. I always forget when I think I have something worth saying (which just doesn't happen on a daily basis) and then carve out the time to try to say it and confront the white window on blogger that it's just strangely harder than email. So this space will probably be punctuated with lots of unexplained absences while I try to collect my thoughts & the willpower. Anybody who shares my noncommittal attitude is welcome to step in, btw, if there's any interest (Tom, Vanessa, you're just the first to spring to mind).

In the meantime, Ben tagged me & it made my day. I hope I don't add a new dimension of lameness when I say this totally makes me miss slumber parties. Also, it's kinda fun to trace back the web of odd musings. So, off the top of my head, here are 6 odd things about me:

1.) I go into obsessive advice column reading fugues. I think the format is just particularly satisfying to me, especially when the letter writer is definitely wrong & the columnist does a good job of setting them straight. Also, it's like eating pistachios -- if the last column I read was bad (ie reinforces outdated etiquette), I'll read another to get the taste out of my mouth; if it was good, all the more reason to consume another.

2.) I sing along to my music when driving. But usually it's not in the typical pretend-I'm-a-rockstar way. My dream is to be an effective back-up singer and I'm always drawn to the harmonies. It's almost not even casual. I'm practicing "Lost Blues" for my future Will Oldham cover band (a dream that should probably never be realized). Sometimes I'll stop the music to work out tough parts on my own.

3.) My first kiss was on the day I graduated from college. I had opportunities before that, mind you, but never went for it.

4.) I cry when I get pulled over. It doesn't help.

5.) I am a terrible tourist, in the sense that when I go to foreign places, I get lethargic & usually just want to find a spot to hide out & read.

6.) When I was little, I had a lot of stuffed animals and I would fall asleep playing with them. One of my earliest memories is of deciding that all my stuffed animal friends were going to be in a singing contest. I think I even knew in advance who the winner was going to be (not L.T., even though he was my favorite, but the other elephant who was L.T.'s girlfriend). But they all had to sing. One at a time. A lot of them. I was so glad when it was over.

Bonus fact about me: I'm playing with some folks from the Old Town School of Folk Music (including my dad) on March 11 at the Charleston. 9:30-midnight, on a Sunday night. I know.

And now I tag Erin & Dan.

Happy Valentine's Day

My favorite Valentine's Day story.

This is good too.

Also Terrifying: Russia

This was some time ago, but I underestimated how long it takes me to pull together a damn blog post. Michael Specter spoke on Fresh Air & wrote an article for the New Yorker about the state of journalism in Russia (specifically, the fact that the Kremlin can kinda just order journalists murdered pretty much whenever.) Michael Spector: the heat on the streets.

Update on Iraqi Refugees

Regarding the NPR story I mentioned yesterday, CNN reports that Rice has approved talks with Damascus about Iraqi refugees and that the State Department has set up a task force to examine the issue. It's no secret that Iraqi citizens are being uprooted across the country -- death threats & forced emigration are common themes in reports on this war. Here's hoping for some meaningful developments on the humanitarian front...

On the radio, radio

I haven't worked myself up to Posting Thoughtfully yet, but a few things I've at least thought about posting are worth mentioning now:

Paul Rusesabagina, whose story was the basis for Hotel Rwanda, warns (on Worldview) that the situation in Rwanda today is not good. Note my limited vocabulary and beware that I might be hazy on the details -- I listened to this in the car & don't have a firm command on the events in Rwanda. Rusesabagina is concerned that when the genocide trials stop being handled by the ICC and move back to Rwanda, there will barely be the pretense of fairness. He also has no faith in Rwandan president Paul Kagame, who was portrayed as a folk hero in Gourevitch's book on the genocide. In fact, he accuses Kagame of inciting war with the Congo by killing Rwandan refugees there (again, see disclaimer -- I know nothing about this). (Side note: Rusesabagina does NOT seem to be a Gourevitch fan). While I'm not surprised that the tensions between Hutus & Tutsis are not being neatly sorted out, this interview still startled me a little. I've read enough to know that it's not unusual for multiple stories & accusations to cluster around a horrible event like this, but it wasn't until I heard Rusesabagina call out Kagame that I saw how easily I framed this story into good guys and bad guys. In ways that I can't articulate, I think that instinct really muddles things.

Anyway, it's worth a listen. Also...I might be growing increasingly fond of Jerome McDonald. I'm starting to love the fact that he just can't properly pronounce anything foreign, so strong is his nasal Midwestern accent, and yet he soldiers on, unfazed.

Also, Catrin Einhorn has an enraging, heartbreaking story about an Iraqi woman who was forced to move to Syria with her daughter after her husband was murdered (in front of her) for giving information to American troops. Her sister & brother-in-law live in the Chicago suburbs and are desperately trying to get the US to allow her legal entry into the country. I know this is a Chicago Public Radio heavy post & I definitely know that the station has made a lot of dick moves lately, so I don't mean to be a cheerleader when I point out that Catrin Einhorn is one reason to subscribe/reconsider not subscribing. Radio reporting seems like a highly specific field, and public radio reporting seems to be really tightly controlled (there's a very recognizable form & pacing to the whole endeavor). Catrin's stories, to me at least, seem to have a rare personal touch. She seems to know her craft and get deeply invested in the stories she tells. And this most recent one is just a hell of a godawful story.

Raise a Glass to Fewer Hangovers

I was able to install flash on my computer at work, so I don't have to wait until I go home to check out all those YouTube forwards anymore. In honor of this and other nascent lifestyle-realignment-type resolutions (No more YouTube at home! No more than 4 beers in a night! No more than 4 Freecell games in a row! Etc, etc, etc), I thought I'd both kill and revive the old website. We'll see how I do in the follow-through department. For now, I hope there's more to come.