(no subject)
Dear Reader, do you watch Portlandia? If you do, you will probably laugh at me when I say that I spent Black Friday in Portland, and subsequently got sucked in an episode of Portlandia.
It all started over a month ago, during one of Cynthia Alexander's first gigs. I got to know a barkada of three women who are huge fans of Cynthia Alexander. And although I wouldn't say they were old, they were in high school during the EDSA revolution (one of them studied in Pisay!), and graduated in UP in the early 90s. They are activists.
"A" remembers being in Pisay during the Edsa revolution, and remembers the militant spirit of Pisay back then. Today she is a gender rights advocate and campaigned stongly for the approval of Referendum 74 (i.e. marriage equality) in Washington state. Her husband "B" is part of an environmental group in Portland. "C" helped found the Greenpeace chapter in the Philippines, and met her husband there. They currently live in a sustainable log cabin that was furnished with re-purposed wood. They grow there on fruits and vegetables.
C invited me decided to go a post-thanksgiving dinner at A's house in Portland. I happened to drag my brother along with me. It turned out to be quite an interesting dinner. They served free-range Cornish game hens and sustainably-caught Chili crab. Because B was a tolerant vegetarian (he doesn't judge meat-eaters), he didn't mind his wife eating meat, but served tofurkey as well as roasted squash. They invited "D", an urban planning student focusing on the effects of Climate change in our cities an how we could help solve that. There were heated discussions about politics and activism and culture, and not surprisingly, Silvain and I were not a big part of the conversations. We admitted we were going to the outlet malls to do some tax-free shopping, and they said they were celebrating no-shopping day in response to the consumerist holiday known as "Black Friday".
Overall, it was fun. They are really nice people, and I got to see the world I would've entered if I stuck with Stand UP. Sad to say, besides supporting Referndum 74 and immigration reforms, I am quite apolitical.
It all started over a month ago, during one of Cynthia Alexander's first gigs. I got to know a barkada of three women who are huge fans of Cynthia Alexander. And although I wouldn't say they were old, they were in high school during the EDSA revolution (one of them studied in Pisay!), and graduated in UP in the early 90s. They are activists.
"A" remembers being in Pisay during the Edsa revolution, and remembers the militant spirit of Pisay back then. Today she is a gender rights advocate and campaigned stongly for the approval of Referendum 74 (i.e. marriage equality) in Washington state. Her husband "B" is part of an environmental group in Portland. "C" helped found the Greenpeace chapter in the Philippines, and met her husband there. They currently live in a sustainable log cabin that was furnished with re-purposed wood. They grow there on fruits and vegetables.
C invited me decided to go a post-thanksgiving dinner at A's house in Portland. I happened to drag my brother along with me. It turned out to be quite an interesting dinner. They served free-range Cornish game hens and sustainably-caught Chili crab. Because B was a tolerant vegetarian (he doesn't judge meat-eaters), he didn't mind his wife eating meat, but served tofurkey as well as roasted squash. They invited "D", an urban planning student focusing on the effects of Climate change in our cities an how we could help solve that. There were heated discussions about politics and activism and culture, and not surprisingly, Silvain and I were not a big part of the conversations. We admitted we were going to the outlet malls to do some tax-free shopping, and they said they were celebrating no-shopping day in response to the consumerist holiday known as "Black Friday".
Overall, it was fun. They are really nice people, and I got to see the world I would've entered if I stuck with Stand UP. Sad to say, besides supporting Referndum 74 and immigration reforms, I am quite apolitical.