It's hard out here for a pimp.

[raybear]

This morning I went running for the first time in....2 months? It's cooled off enough that I'm not scared. It was tough, I was going pretty slow and didn't go as far as usual, but my pace picked up near the end when the freshly downloaded "Whoop That Trick" came on the ipod. I didn't want the entire soundtrack for "Hustle & Flow", just the original songs off his demo. Maybe I'll wear my free H&F t-shirt today.

So, you know last fall how everyone got really into politics and world change and got really excited then devastated by the election and everyone promised to make changes and wrote dramatic and impassioned essays? Including me? And then after a few weeks, it went back to complacent business as usual? Including me? Yeah, I wrote my couple letters to the whitehouse that got no response and that was about it. I mean, sometimes you gotta focus on the microcosm, I understand.

Then in March I started reading more, doing research for my novel which has a soldier character. And slowly I've gotten more and more quietly obsessed with all things Iraq war and the fcked-up actions of this presidential administration (I can't even say "Bush" because it's so much bigger than that). I send e-mails to the whitehouse, to Senator Obama, I sign up for newsletters and send 10 bucks to a democratic candidate in Ohio who ran last week. But I don't talk about it out loud too much, though lately it's been spilling out more -- I'll rant to DYA in the car or I'll get into it with broqued in a bar. I don't really write about it here. For some reason, feeding my political side has become this highly personal act, like a spiritual life. Which sort of makes sense, because I feel part of my current need to be overwhelmingly informed is out of duty to my grandkids. What's that about?

It's not that I assume my friends don't care, or aren't interested, or aren't following things on their own, it's just not talked about, maybe because we just all assume we hold the same opinions on issues. Or maybe because we're afraid of opening cans of worms and getting riled up in a social gathering. I don't really know, I just keep reading my Harper's and BBC news and listen to my dozen podcasts, including Air America and my other new favorite KCRW's Left, Right, and Center which features Arianna Huffington.

And that's the real reason I'm writing all this -- because this morning I'm not able to download my Rachel Maddow and Randi Rhodes. There's some sort of network connection error. I feel paralyzed. I feel desperate. How will I get through my day working in the library without them?!? I'm totally freaking out.

Comments

[mintwaster.livejournal.com]

I liked it better when you just wrote about lipgloss and coffee.

PS. I had a mini-meltdown because I couldn't download the Rachel Maddow show this morning too. So I listened to Friday's show again.

[sharkysmachine.livejournal.com]

I am sitting at my desk writing a quiet, sparse manuscript to please the Sarah. I am trying to use words like: elusive, delicate and stark.

I am a fraud.

[kaileo.livejournal.com]

This recent wave of interest in the tangled web of crap that's been cast and fed to America is the first time it's really felt (to me anyway) like the tide of public opinion is turning since Chimpy took office. It's like watching the Bushies slowly wake up with a massive hangover from the big Hooah party, going "Dude, uh, WTF?" (Gee, and it's only taken how many Casey Sheehans?)

Anyway, I find it pretty exciting to watch this all unravelling especially in the last few months. I also find that most of my friends do not currently share my interest in these issues. They generally fall into one of two camps:

1. ambivalent (nothing we do personally is going to matter anyway, so why bother?)
2. "um, okay dude" ( "that's just Kai, he does all that veteran and activist organization stuff too" -- see #1 above)

[hissyfit.livejournal.com]

ray, i would love to go to a sushi place or a coffee shop or a bar or just find a nice dumpster some place and go on and on with you about politics. politics are my life, and have been for the last couple of years. i help run an anarchist community center, i work at a battered womyn's shelter, and i try to spend as little money as possible. i don't talk much about it on livejournal because i talk about it in real life, but if you ever want someone to rant political with, you just let me know.

[wearemany.livejournal.com]

i for one would love to hear you rant over here for all of us once in a while. but mostly selfishly because i can't just go sit on a barstool and get it there. (ooh, that sounded kind of dirty. as all good political shop talk should.)