All the songs I like most by Johnny Cash were written by someone else
Man, I really need to be more productive with my days in terms of research. I keep getting up with the idea that I'll get reading done, but then I end up wasting time online or doing other things, and then it's evening and I want to do other things, so nothing gets done. Tomorrow I'm going to try to go sit home most of the day and do the reading already. And I'll stay out on the patio so that I don't get too distracted. Hopefully.
Yesterday evening though, at least my distraction was beneficial. I went over to the house of the people I met at the Realy Really Free Market to help them make food for their film festival as promised. I really liked how their house was set up, and the whole community they had there. They live in that part of DC that's mostly populated by the working poor families and various activisty-type youth. I wish it took me less than an hour and a half to get up there, because there are lots of things happening there that would be great to get involved in (today there's a vegan prom/benefit for the SHAC 7 going on, and almost every time I hear of a protest or rally set up, its starting place is in that neighborhood). By the way, off-topic, but those of you who live in the area should really check out the DC Indymedia website. It's a really useful hub of information on local progressive activism, and works as a social calendar with little blurbs on upcoming actions. (Ooooh, actually, just checked and there's something going on this Sunday that I really need to attend. Masha, if you're reading this, I'd just like to say that I guess this means that we'll have to end our hanging out at 7 pm, but I'll be able to follow you home 'cause the gathering place for the action is the Van Ness metro.)
Anyway, the house the people live in is called the "Aqueeriam" and they've designated it a safe-space for all queer people and people of color, etc. There are about 9 to 10 people permanently living in the house at any given time, and anyone seeking refuge or needing a place to stay is also invited to crash in their downstairs living room (which is rather huge). The people who live ther are students and post-college kids working at various non-profits and such, and several of them are street medics. They also sometimes hold rock shows in that same living room, usually when bands that are passing through the DC area stay there. Wednesday they had a punk rock show in addition to their film showings. When you walk in, they have a "free table," where various things are set out that anyone's allowed to take. I ended up getting a black lacy nightgown/dress thing that struck me as appropriately gothy, so hurrah for that. I really like this idea, and think I definitely need one of those in the next place I live (no-one really visits our place at Rutgers so it's kind of pointless there). I also really loved all the various decorative/broken antiques they have scattered around the place, especially a gorgeous old typewriter and a really pretty 30s-style breadbox. It gave their house the look of an old attic, which is something I'm quite into. They also had a bicycle room, which is a necessity more than anything else, but I just loved the look of like, 15 bicycles all lined up on a bike rack, and 15 bicycle helmets hanging neatly on another rack on the wall.
The menu for the night included (vegan) chili, rice, and a salad, and I also made fried rice with leftover ingredients from the rest. They showed two movies: Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen, and the new documentary Jesus Camp. I saw most of the first movie, but sadly had to live not an hour into the second one due to DC's lovely metro system shutting down at 12. I swear, DC is not just my home town because my parents live here, but because it functions as a kind of stodgy parent itself, restricting me with what amounts to a midnight curfew. I felt like some kind of warped Cinderella, needing to run out of the house in time to make my midnight deadline, or else get stranded. (And now you know why all these people prefer to bike places.) I actually left at a little before 11 rather than at 12, due both to the time it takes me to get home, and the fact that the neighborhood gets more dangerous at night. I'm still very optimistic about such things, though. Wasn't bad at all though--lots of light, and bright clear streets.
The first movie was pretty good, though very much not an upper. As I said to someone, it was kind of like a Bollywood drama, except that you replace all the dancing and singing with graphic scenes of violent rape and beatings. It was a biography of Phoolan Devi, a real woman who was married off as a child and abused by her husband, and eventually ran off and joined up with a group of bandits, becoming the leader of her own gang after her lover was killed and coming to be something of a folk-hero among low-caste Indians of the region in the tradition of Robin Hood. She eventually surrendered to the government in 1983, but was pardoned later when a government favorable to lower castes came into power in her region, and went on to become a politican.
The movie was very heavy both with the scenes of violence carried out on Phoolan, and the violence she inflicted on others in revenge once she got her own gang. While it was sympathetic to Phoolan, and held her as its hero, it did not try to smooth over any of her more problematic actions, such as brutally killing her first husband and carrying out a slaughter of 24 random men who were of the same caste as those who had abused her. However, I was very put off when I checked IMDB information on this film, and read multiple people talking about how "repulsive" her actions were, and yet not even mentioning all the horrible events that happened to her. One of the reviews had the headline "powerful and repugnant" and I thought, "why yes, it was." But the review focused only on Phoolan. The reviewer insightfully noted that some of Phoolan's actions "[were] -- and I think it [were] meant to be -- sickening." Yes, yes they were. (Which is why I don't get all the other people exclaiming in dismay that the movie unfairly portrayed her as some kind of saint.) Somehow, though, it seems all the extremely uncomfortable scenes of Phoolan's abuse did not figure into what this reviewer found "repugnant." I really don't know what to make of that. It is true that Phoolan's banditry, even though she gave much of what she stole to poor women and children, was not exactly wholly admirable, but I thought the movie was very good at showing how all avenues of a different life were closed to her. She was raped and beaten by her husband, attacked by higher-caste men and exiled from her village. When she returned because she had nowhere else to go, she was imprisoned and raped and flogged again by the police. The police then gave her up to her former higher-caste abusers after they paid her bail money. Even her father didn't want to take her back, saying that the men as good as bought her. After her father agreed to let her stay for a while, the men hired a gang to kidnap her, and she was repeatedly beaten and raped yet again. No-one else wanted to give her shelter because she was a woman "without honor" and in "disgrace." The most striking thing is that this all happened in the late 70s-early 80s, which is a bit of a wake-up call.
The second movie looked to be really interesting, though it felt a bit like cheap-shot propaganda at times: Look at the craaaazy Christians! Still, it's not like they made anything up, and they did frame the footage of the camp with a radio show commenting on the whole Evangelical phenomena that was also run by (more moderate) Christians. It was very well-made though, and I definitely want to catch it in full sometime.
On another subject: I want to try and start dumpster-diving. Unfortunately, I am not really sure of good places to go, and most websites I've seen on it say it's best to have someone else to go with. Still, I am much tempted by the idea. I'm mostly intersted in diving for food, specifically fruit and vegetables. I want to keep on buying vegan products to provide support for them, but I don't have as much incentive to buy veggies. I usually can't afford the organic stuff anyway, so I might as well dive for 'em. Especially since I often can't use up the whole vegetable before it goes bad, and I think I'll feel better if I end up wasting already-dumpstered produce. And while I'm giving links: anyone else who might want to find out about dumpster diving could try any of these sites--
http://www.freegan.info/
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/1/29/215523/088
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumpster_diving
http://www.allthingsfrugal.com/dumpster.htm
Yesterday evening though, at least my distraction was beneficial. I went over to the house of the people I met at the Realy Really Free Market to help them make food for their film festival as promised. I really liked how their house was set up, and the whole community they had there. They live in that part of DC that's mostly populated by the working poor families and various activisty-type youth. I wish it took me less than an hour and a half to get up there, because there are lots of things happening there that would be great to get involved in (today there's a vegan prom/benefit for the SHAC 7 going on, and almost every time I hear of a protest or rally set up, its starting place is in that neighborhood). By the way, off-topic, but those of you who live in the area should really check out the DC Indymedia website. It's a really useful hub of information on local progressive activism, and works as a social calendar with little blurbs on upcoming actions. (Ooooh, actually, just checked and there's something going on this Sunday that I really need to attend. Masha, if you're reading this, I'd just like to say that I guess this means that we'll have to end our hanging out at 7 pm, but I'll be able to follow you home 'cause the gathering place for the action is the Van Ness metro.)
Anyway, the house the people live in is called the "Aqueeriam" and they've designated it a safe-space for all queer people and people of color, etc. There are about 9 to 10 people permanently living in the house at any given time, and anyone seeking refuge or needing a place to stay is also invited to crash in their downstairs living room (which is rather huge). The people who live ther are students and post-college kids working at various non-profits and such, and several of them are street medics. They also sometimes hold rock shows in that same living room, usually when bands that are passing through the DC area stay there. Wednesday they had a punk rock show in addition to their film showings. When you walk in, they have a "free table," where various things are set out that anyone's allowed to take. I ended up getting a black lacy nightgown/dress thing that struck me as appropriately gothy, so hurrah for that. I really like this idea, and think I definitely need one of those in the next place I live (no-one really visits our place at Rutgers so it's kind of pointless there). I also really loved all the various decorative/broken antiques they have scattered around the place, especially a gorgeous old typewriter and a really pretty 30s-style breadbox. It gave their house the look of an old attic, which is something I'm quite into. They also had a bicycle room, which is a necessity more than anything else, but I just loved the look of like, 15 bicycles all lined up on a bike rack, and 15 bicycle helmets hanging neatly on another rack on the wall.
The menu for the night included (vegan) chili, rice, and a salad, and I also made fried rice with leftover ingredients from the rest. They showed two movies: Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen, and the new documentary Jesus Camp. I saw most of the first movie, but sadly had to live not an hour into the second one due to DC's lovely metro system shutting down at 12. I swear, DC is not just my home town because my parents live here, but because it functions as a kind of stodgy parent itself, restricting me with what amounts to a midnight curfew. I felt like some kind of warped Cinderella, needing to run out of the house in time to make my midnight deadline, or else get stranded. (And now you know why all these people prefer to bike places.) I actually left at a little before 11 rather than at 12, due both to the time it takes me to get home, and the fact that the neighborhood gets more dangerous at night. I'm still very optimistic about such things, though. Wasn't bad at all though--lots of light, and bright clear streets.
The first movie was pretty good, though very much not an upper. As I said to someone, it was kind of like a Bollywood drama, except that you replace all the dancing and singing with graphic scenes of violent rape and beatings. It was a biography of Phoolan Devi, a real woman who was married off as a child and abused by her husband, and eventually ran off and joined up with a group of bandits, becoming the leader of her own gang after her lover was killed and coming to be something of a folk-hero among low-caste Indians of the region in the tradition of Robin Hood. She eventually surrendered to the government in 1983, but was pardoned later when a government favorable to lower castes came into power in her region, and went on to become a politican.
The movie was very heavy both with the scenes of violence carried out on Phoolan, and the violence she inflicted on others in revenge once she got her own gang. While it was sympathetic to Phoolan, and held her as its hero, it did not try to smooth over any of her more problematic actions, such as brutally killing her first husband and carrying out a slaughter of 24 random men who were of the same caste as those who had abused her. However, I was very put off when I checked IMDB information on this film, and read multiple people talking about how "repulsive" her actions were, and yet not even mentioning all the horrible events that happened to her. One of the reviews had the headline "powerful and repugnant" and I thought, "why yes, it was." But the review focused only on Phoolan. The reviewer insightfully noted that some of Phoolan's actions "[were] -- and I think it [were] meant to be -- sickening." Yes, yes they were. (Which is why I don't get all the other people exclaiming in dismay that the movie unfairly portrayed her as some kind of saint.) Somehow, though, it seems all the extremely uncomfortable scenes of Phoolan's abuse did not figure into what this reviewer found "repugnant." I really don't know what to make of that. It is true that Phoolan's banditry, even though she gave much of what she stole to poor women and children, was not exactly wholly admirable, but I thought the movie was very good at showing how all avenues of a different life were closed to her. She was raped and beaten by her husband, attacked by higher-caste men and exiled from her village. When she returned because she had nowhere else to go, she was imprisoned and raped and flogged again by the police. The police then gave her up to her former higher-caste abusers after they paid her bail money. Even her father didn't want to take her back, saying that the men as good as bought her. After her father agreed to let her stay for a while, the men hired a gang to kidnap her, and she was repeatedly beaten and raped yet again. No-one else wanted to give her shelter because she was a woman "without honor" and in "disgrace." The most striking thing is that this all happened in the late 70s-early 80s, which is a bit of a wake-up call.
The second movie looked to be really interesting, though it felt a bit like cheap-shot propaganda at times: Look at the craaaazy Christians! Still, it's not like they made anything up, and they did frame the footage of the camp with a radio show commenting on the whole Evangelical phenomena that was also run by (more moderate) Christians. It was very well-made though, and I definitely want to catch it in full sometime.
On another subject: I want to try and start dumpster-diving. Unfortunately, I am not really sure of good places to go, and most websites I've seen on it say it's best to have someone else to go with. Still, I am much tempted by the idea. I'm mostly intersted in diving for food, specifically fruit and vegetables. I want to keep on buying vegan products to provide support for them, but I don't have as much incentive to buy veggies. I usually can't afford the organic stuff anyway, so I might as well dive for 'em. Especially since I often can't use up the whole vegetable before it goes bad, and I think I'll feel better if I end up wasting already-dumpstered produce. And while I'm giving links: anyone else who might want to find out about dumpster diving could try any of these sites--
http://www.freegan.info/
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/1/29/215523/088
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumpster_diving
http://www.allthingsfrugal.com/dumpster.htm