an occasional feature

June

Saw Michael Parenti and David Barsamian speak this morning on the encroaching awfulness that is corporate oligopolization of everything. A few quotes:

"It's always a good thing to struggle against bad things"
-Parenti

"If Jonathan Swift were alive today he'd be on Highway 101 holding a sign saying will satirize for food"
-Barsamian

6/28/97

I'm safely among the librarians. I've spent a good portion of my day hassling the various vendors in the exhibit hall for their lame user interfaces as well as their lack of minority/women represented in their databases. One CD-ROM encyclopedia of world leaders [cultural, social & political] let me test drive their beta version that, upon searching, was revealed to have only 82 women, out of 500 entries -- and only 2 hispanics, 2 asians and 2 native americans [the word tokenism does come to mind]. Also got to check out the Encyclopedia of American Political Parties that contains my article on William Jennings Bryant as well as Jack's article on Richard Nixon.

6/26/97

As of this evening at 7 pm, I'm on my way to drive to San Francisco to go to the American Library Association conference/convention. This page may or may not be updated in my absence, depending how much time I spend in the Internet Room there.

Also, for the curious, here's a picture of Malcolm. Send email if you don't know who he is or what he's doing here.

6/23/97

I bought a truck! I decided that with the money the City of Seattle pays me, that it was silly for me to be spending hours and hours a week on the bus. Coincidentally, my pal Allan is moving to Guatemala for two years to join the Peace Corps, and needed to get rid of his li'l Chevy pickup. My life is like that. I am giving away my previous car to my pal Ken who has more patience and sticktoitiveness than I do. I like being a woman with a truck.

6/22/97

This will be brief since I have a bruise on the end of my middle finger... Hattie's Hat softball team -- for whom I now play second base -- just won their first game of the season! For my part, I got on base [once], didn't strike out [though I did step outside the batter's box] and tagged someone out on second. Woo hoo! I spent the rest of the day at the Fremont Fair helping kids make hats. All in all, a great weekend.

6/17/97

As I type this, ten belly dancers have just shimmied past my front door... And to make matters weirder, this site just got written up in the Seattle Weekly under the Best Personal Web Page category. Sure, I nominated myself. Here's what they had to say:

6/14/97

Went to a CD Release Party for some cable access TV show's CD. Free food, free entry [if you were Anne and I and not only found a place to park near the OK Hotel when there was a game on, but got in under the admission entry wire, unlike Jack]. We saw 4 Hr. Ramona, Happy Stars, CXQ5 -- whose lyrics "I'm CXQ5 and I'm barely alive..." have an odd lasting quality -- and others I found more forgettable. Highlight of the evening had to be dancin' guy, usually a fixture at these events who showed up late but made up for lost time by taking off nearly all his clothes and strutting around in his boxer briefs. Woo woo! I tossed a quarter at him. Dave Nothing from Happy Stars says he is single but I don't believe him.

6/12/97

Took a tour of the Redhook Brewery in Fremont which was much more fun than I remember it being. The tour guide was a wiseass and offered us such factoids as "You know who crushes the hops? Batman!" My favorite piece of info on this tour was from Mike the brewmaster who was discussing microbrews in other parts of the US. "Well, you've got some good beers in Colorado, but once you cross the rockies... What's over there ... Europe?"

My friend Tim is headed back to Australia via New York. Thanks to everyone who made his trip a hubub of socially frenzied beer-drinking activity.

6/9/97

Rent is Theft IX was a smashing success with over 40 in attendance if you count library school stragglers. I have been busy this week showing my friend Tim around Seattle. He's in from Australia for a few days and except for some minor semantic confusion, we get on quite well. We went to Nordstrom's and The Bon to look for bras for his pal down under and found, much to our chagrin, that it is impossible to find an unpadded bra in a 32B. This country is insane.

6/4/97

I saw Fishbone walking down the street in Ballard today. One of the non-Angelo members of Fishbone said hi to me.

After all that excitement, it was time for a trip to the As You Like It Metaphysical Library which I loved at first sight. Books piled everywhere, loosely organized into categories, 13 week lending periods and every book on UFOs or bigfoot that I had ever wanted to read since I was a kid. Comfy couches and no weird fusty library attitude. It costs $20 a year to join and is in the old Odd Fellows Temple in capitol hill.

6/2/97

I was on the phone at 11:30 last night and some guys came onto my porch [I think the gate was open] and took all the recycling from my Cans and Bottles bin and left. I predict Summer is going to be pesky like this.

6/1/97

I am finally feeling back in Seattle. I went to Trillian Green's CD release party on Friday after I got back and it was a nice segue from Humboldt to here. Hippies on the one hand and free beer on the other. The new CD sounds excellent, especially since I spent 12 hours in the days before driving back from CA listening to whatever the radio could scan in -- usually classic something.

My trip was something else. I got to hang out with hard core stoners, sleep out under the stars and swim naked in an Oregon lake. I think I'll build a sleeping loft on the roof of the Odd Fellows Hall.