RandomCha

I haven’t written in a few days. It’s not as if nothing has been going on. I’ve just been …

This is an article about the health study I worked on from November of 2002 to April 2003: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0401080276jan08,1,2117565.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed

Some pretty sobering statistics in there. Mostly I worked in West Town, Humboldt Park and Norwood Park, going door to door interviewing randomly chosen households. It wasn’t a bad job really, a bit like being a detective. Still glad I’m deskbound at the new job though. Wandering around outside when it’s 20 degrees ain’t superfun.

This morning on NPR there was an interview with Richard Perle and David Frum, two former speechwriters of Bush and Reagan, who have written a lovely book called “The War on Evil: Strategies for Winning the War on Terrorism.” In their opinion, the US has not done nearly enough to fight terrorism. They say we have to get even tougher, and they propose:

–the US should leave the United Nations unless it passes a charter that would give the US even more autonomy to fight terrorism as it sees fit,

–ID cards should be issued to EVERY American,

–the US should have the right to rescend the citizenship of ANY American who has ties to or has supported a terrorist organization.

I’m agnostic, but God help us from fascists like this!

When it is 2 below outside, it is not pleasant to ride on an unheated bus AND an unheated train in order to get to work in the morning.

This weekend I got a wild hare and went on priceline; a few moments later, I realized that I had just bought a round-trip ticket to NYC. I leave on the 15th and fly back on the 20th. How about that? Through a quirk of the calendar, January has THREE paychecks instead of the usual two. The ticket was reasonably cheap (albeit one containing layovers), and that weekend is the MLK Jr. holiday weekend anyhow. It’s a good excuse to see some friends in NYC. I know at least 6 people there! If anyone out there would like to meet up for coffee or whatnot, let me know.

I’ll be staying with Nick on 53rd near Times Square. In addition to the mingling, I hope to do some plugging for the book at a few strategically-chosen bookstores (Community Bookstore in Brooklyn … perhaps a few others if I can get some more suggestions; I just read online that See Hear in the Village is closing! Shame!)

The night before I leave, that’s the 14th, is the David Bowie concert here in Chicago. Wow, I’m looking forward to it! I’ve never seen him live, and wouldn’t be seeing him now if it wasn’t for Andy. I’m trying to go without any preconceptions so I can just take it all in and enjoy it. I really haven’t been to any huge area shows like that before.

Today is Andy’s first day of work at the Newberry Library. Naturally I think it’ll be a bit stressful for him, new job and all that, but I know it’ll go well. I think we’ll have pasta and some wine for dinner, which means squeezing in a trip to the grocery store after the gym after work. High wire.

“Adult Swim” was exceptionally bizarre last night. I got very sleepy so I only watched until 10.30.

Thanks to everyone for letting me know that you’re still out there & reading. Sometimes it can be disheartening, throwing words out into the void only to hear your echo coming right back at you.

Now back to your regularly-scheduled program.

Is anyone out there reading this? Or is everyone too preoccupied?

This was filched from someone’s LJ but it looks interesting …

Answer these questions, or just leave comments about either the journal I keep, or just simply about me. PLEASE POST ANONYMOUSLY, unless that is you purposely want to blow your cover.

// Tell me something (the kind of thing you would only say anonymously).

// Ask me a question & I’ll be kind enough to answer it.

// Write what you really think of me / how I can change for the better.

I woke up early this morning so on the way to work I went to Dunkin’ Donuts on State and sat there for awhile with coffee and donuts, reading the new Hitchock biography. Right now he’s working on “Shadow of a Doubt” with Thornton Wilder. I need to see that again. Andy is a complusive listmaker, and yesterday he compiled a list of every film he’s seen in 2003, whether on TV, DVD or at the movies. And it was well over 100. Since he started keeping track in 2001 (we started dating in 2000), he’s seen over 400. Which I guess means that, yes, we do watch a LOT of movies.

One day I want to get back into making films. I’m waiting for the right moment. Until then I will keep writing, which is cheap, fast, and easy to share. Mel Brooks once said that Goya could draw a masterpiece for 10 cents, but it takes $1 million to make a movie.

Tonight is the NYE party with Andy’s old Barnes & Noble friends. I’m strangely looking forward to it. I have no hesitation to get a little sauced tonight. Andy has no idea who will actually be there, so there’s a bit of mystery in the air.

My old college friend Dylan will be in Chicago this weekend, visiting from NYC. So we’ll pal around on Saturday and visit some of the old haunts. He wants to see what Wicker Park is like these days; he live d there in 1999 before moving to NYC. I told him on the phone last night, “Well it’s really different but it’s the same.” I think he’ll get a little sentimental over Chicago, being back for the weekend, but he won’t think about moving. People who move to NYC almost never move away. Wallace Shawn once said that NYC is the perfect prision because it’s a prison where the prisoners never try to escape. They talk about leaving sometimes but they never seem to actually do it.

Supposedly there is a rumor that today will be a half day here at work but the Big Boss hasn’t made any announcements yet to that effect. We’ve been told that FedEx won’t be coming today because they’re closed. Which means we can’t ship out any orders until Friday anyway. But I think the Big Boss just sees this as an annoyance rather than as an opportunity to take it easy. I dunno; I just want a nap when I get home so I won’t peter out shortly after midnight this evening.

There’s a pretty interesting interview with a cranky Gore Vidal at http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17442

Last night it was about 9.30 and I was ready to go to bed, but we noticed that “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” was on IFC and so I didn’t go to bed.

It’s a mesmerizing, feel-bad-in-a-good-way kind of movie. The stuff in it is so outrageous that it’s hard to believe it wasn’t just made up. But all the documents are presnted right there in the film, all a matter of public record. It’s a basic indightment of Kissinger’s foreign policy wrangling during the late 60’s and 70’s, showing how he was mixed up in everything from delaying the Vietnam peace accords for 7 years (costing hundreds of thousands of lives which could have been saved) to encouraging the Indonesian genocide in East Timor, the Cambodian genocide of the Khymer Rouge, and the murderous coup of democratically-elected President Allende of Chile on September 11, 1973. Even if upon seeing the film, one doubts how many facts are being left out (it’s about 85 minutes long), it makes a case for a full-blown investigation at the very least. Many of the documents presented in the film were declassified during the Clinton administration. You can bet your ass that Bush & Co. will do no such thing as long as the White House is theirs.

Seeing the film reminded me of something Tom Lehrer said” “Satire died the day that Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize.” If so, then the dead corpse of satire was raped the day that George W. appointed Kissinger to head the September 11th World Trade Center Terrorist investigation. For those of you who don’t know, Kissinger later resigned from this appointment, citing “possible conflicts of interest.” Doesn’t that sound just the teensiest bit fishy?

Between that and “Bowling for Columbine,” 2002 was a kick-ass year for political documentaries. I think in our day and age, some good old-fashioned muckracking films like these are sorely needed. We need them to keep on coming. I’ve heard that Robert Greenwald’s recent doc on the Iraq War, “Uncovered,” is pretty damning.