sundries

[rm]

Between some extra Patty time yesterday (I have never been so grateful for a Starbucks), choosing to sleep in today and and the time change, I feel pretty good. It seems like a nice day here, but sadly I have to do some work for work, finish this screenplay, and then if I can really get some Internet that functions beyond my LJ client, do some work that I left behind in NYC.

Happy Halloween! It's weird to be somewhere that almost completely ignores it. Tomorrow is a religious holiday here, however, and the offices are closed (although I have stuff to do).

Children are playing in the common space again. I forgot to mention that in town a few days ago, I saw some playing a game like tag, where one would break away from a safe group, run to the church, shove their hand in the holy water outside of it, cross themselves, and then try to run back to the safe group because the chaser caught them.

I would also like to say, lest you think I've left Torchwood and Captain Jack behind me, that large groups of children chanting numbers (which seems to be a feature of many games here) in languages I don't know is causing me surprisingly inordinate amounts of emotional upheaval (And, oh god, this song. I've not listened to it in ages, but I woke up craving Puccini but this was the best my laptop could come up with -- I did not plan for music out here).

I have just discovered that a very long post I wrote at my most depressed here didn't go through. Now I am trying to decide if I should post it for the record, or not share, since I don't feel so terrible anymore. It's an interesting post, but it's also full of hubris and neuroses. Am also debating if I want to talk about why the screenplay exercise was so confronting for me, but am pretty sure it's over the dignity line.

Despite the presence of gluten-free croissants and my ability to say celiac in German, it is very hard to manage my health here. I did get glutened yesterday (although I noticed right away so had only take one small bite of the strawberry parfait with the biscuit in the bottom) and the waiter just sort of shrugged. It's being treated like I don't matter that's often hardest about being here. Maybe that sounds spoiled, and maybe it is, but my health thing is real and mistakes happen, but pretend you give a shit.

Anyway, aside from that, this remains the country without vegetables. I like meat and cheese as much as anyone (probably more), but my body and tastebuds are getting a little fed up. The provencale potato chips are go though.

Last night there were bats chasing each other around outside my bedroom window. NOT EVEN JOKING. Bats are good, but need to stay away from my fucking windows.

Last night the time changed here and in the UK, so Patty and I are still an hour apart, but not in the US, so right now you all are only five hours behind us, and not six.

Dogboy & Justine is up to 58 backers for a pledged total of $2,2825, which is a very exciting 47%. I have to do a phone interview with a journalist about it today.

I've read a little bit about the Colbert/Stewart rally (I was on a boat on the Zurich lake at the time), but I was wondering if anyone could offer insight -- it is being covered as an oddity, as a critical political event, or as a legitimate but not very important event in a loud election season? I'm wondering if I'm missing a Moment.

"Tolerance" (I hate that word) in public vs. private schools. Unfortunately, it looks at private religious schools vs. public schools, leaving out the world I came from and one form which I suspect you'd get some very interesting and intense results.

Student slang and the policing of social boundaries.

Noose found at Equality California office. When the worker who found it called it into the cops, the office allegedly said, "sometimes you have to live with being a victim."

The anti-gay AGA in Michigan who was harassing a college student, may lose his job.

Comments

[meirion.livejournal.com]

It amazes me how religious Switzerland seems to be; I never noticed when I was there (on the other hand I was mainly dealing with asshats who didn't realise that my German comprehension extended to understanding insults in Schwyzerdütsch, so whatever). I'd only expect the kind of religiosity you describe in Sicily, Corsica or Sardinia!

Re the rally, a Facebook friend of mine was at it, and I expect it might just be A Moment.

In UK news, I think the Labour party just imploded with the former Equalities Minister insulting half the population of Scotland, and any other redheads, by describing the Chief Secretary to the Treasury as a "ginger rodent".

[rm.livejournal.com]

OMG UK NEWS! That's amazing. And I know that the ginger thing is loaded there in a way USians don't get.

It's very religious here, especially in small towns (I am in one). Interestingly, I've had many people go out of there way to explain that their brand of religious is not like in the US, and that I shouldn't feel threatened by it. And on one hand, that's very kind, and on the other hand, that's kinda gross, because trepidation I may feel sucks, but it's a survival mechanism (at home, because I'm gay, and here because I am nominally Jewish).

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

And squirrels. She also insulted squirrels. Nowt wrong with being a ginger rodent ;)

[meirion.livejournal.com]

A point I have been making in the Twittersphere.

The red squirrel is actually protected, but reminding people that the squirrel is the cousin of the rat is not sensible. Particularly as we have unrepealed (as far as I know) wartime legislation suggesting it's just fine to shoot any "tree rats" (AKA squirrels) you spot and pop them in the pot or a pie

I spent years of my childhood hand-feeding Sammy the squirrel his daily ration of nuts whilst he sat in my lap.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

The headline says "private schools," but the article says "religious schools." (And you want to put the L in "public.")

[rm.livejournal.com]

In many regions of the country, the only private schools are religious schools, which is, I suspect what's going on there (also, more New Yorkers will read it if they think it is about our brand of private school).

Thanks for the catch.

[deusabscondidum.livejournal.com]

Some people are covering the rally seriously, but since it is run by comedians and is supposed to be for moderates, it is not considered political by some people. Especially Colbert's "March to Keep Fear Alive."

Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly both said the idea is funny, but that people shouldn't make it out to be the political thing they are making it; they pointed out that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are comedy shows that satire politics and news. They say that while they think it is a good thing to get people out and interested in politics, they worry about it being made into a comedy event, which means people would come out for entertainment rather than to speak their minds.

I haven't watched much else in interviews or on the news. Articles I've found dispute the size of the rally, and compare it to Glenn Beck's rally. These articles also pin it as conservatives against democrats, but ignore the idea that these were supposed to be non-partisan events. There are other rallies that are definitely partisan, while these two were attempting to be more moderate. There is a definite liberal or conservative slant, depending on which side put it on, and I won't say that Glenn Beck's side was at all successful at being remotely neutral, but both rallies were an attempt.

Father Guido Sarducci gave a benediction there, apparently. That amuses me.

[hughcasey.livejournal.com]

RE: The Rally... I think people are still trying to figure out what it was. For the most part, it looked like a fun, entertaining event on the Mall. But Stewart's keynote speech at the end was honestly, truly inspiring... it was one of the finest speeches I've heard in a long time...

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/stewart-live-hard-times-end-times-12012680

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

My husband and I went. I think it was a very diverse crowd of mostly liberal moderates. There were 8 buses of people who came from Pittsburgh (that was the group we came with) and probably countless others who drove. The transit system was way overloaded. We had to push onto a Metro to get there. We ran into a friend at the dinner stop on the way back and she said she tried to get behind the stage and the crowd stretched for five blocks out. We could not get through the crowd on 7th Ave to meet friends on the other side. Afterward, we stood for about half an hour on the steps of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and I could see crowds stretching from there across the mall and on the steps of the museum across the mall. Personally, I can't see how you could see it as not political. I think it was an important moment but I could be wrong. I've never seen so many people gathered on the mall and I have been to at least one previous march. My friend said the same thing.

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

I'm referring to the Rally for Sanity/Keep Fear Alive event here. I guess I should have had more coffee before I wrote that.

[sahiya.livejournal.com]

The waiter just sort of shrugged. It's being treated like I don't matter that's often hardest about being here.

This is a Thing with waiters, at least in Germany. Admittedly, I've never been to Switzerland, but in Germany I would have to get up and pretend I was going to leave in order to get them to bring me my check (which they then did with alacrity). I've spoken to people who seemed to consider the typical American approach to customer service to be "superficial" - i.e. if your waiter doesn't care that s/he almost poisoned you with gluten, why should s/he be required to pretend s/he does?

I don't, of course, agree with this - food allergies of any kind are nothing to mess around with, and a waiter should damn well know that. I also think that most people, when they come into a store, really just want someone to smile and ask if they need any help, rather than be left to wander bewildered through the aisles. But though this feels personal, I don't think it is. Crap customer service was always just sort of part of my cultural experience in German-speaking regions. There are exceptions, of course, but it's consistent enough that the woman who was acting as cultural liaison for my study abroad group sat us down before our trip to Munich and warned us about how bad it would be.

[lookingaround17.livejournal.com]

The thing with celiac reminds me of how it used to be with vegetarianism, that people not interested or informed (including some serving staff) figure it's sort of a pissy choice thing on the part of the diner, and that eh, if it's sort of okay, that's good enough, like they pick the big chunks of meat out of the sauce. In my view, though, it's sort of like the things we avoid as vegetarians/people with celiac or other allergies/etc. is dog poop: even a little is not acceptable, period. Even if the rest of the crowd finds nothing wrong with a little or lot here or there, we do, and want none of it at all, and firmly say so at the start to avoid that very thing--

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I am not only a vegetarian, but i have a pork allergy. I get really fucking sick for days with pork contamination, so I'm that asshole that questions waiters minutely. "Is there any lard in this? Did it touch bacon or bacon bits?"

I collect safe cuisines like celiacs collect gluten free food sources for pretty much the same reason. it's extra important when traveling as that whole two days in the bathroom thing puts a real cramp on trips.

I am not celiac, but I do have a lot of sympathy for my homies with celiac as it's a lot of the same sort of hassle getting safe food, I think. I live in an area where I don't have to think about it a lot unless I'm traveling or eating somewhere new, but when I go back east, it's still a big issue finding kosher and halal food sources as at least that way I know no one's cross contaminated me with pork. (It's not like I can properly digest other meat, but it's nowhere near as dire.)

[featherofeeling.livejournal.com]

Ugh, yes, I think it's still like that with vegetarianism and certain religious food observances in parts of Spain and France. I have a vegetarian friend who studied abroad in Spain and whose host mother would make her meals almost every day. My friend would occasionally find out that the soup had been made with meat stock or would accidentally bite into something with meat in in, and her host mother would just smile mysteriously and shrug about it. And my boyfriend doesn't eat pork because he's Muslim, and one of his colleagues in France (where we live now) told him that a dish that he (the colleague) was already eating was pork-free, despite the fact that when he (my boyfriend) bit into it, it clearly had lots of pork in it. That time, too, there was that smile and shrug and absolutely no apology. It's exactly like what you said, like it's not a big deal because it's not what they're used to. Even though it's a serious ethical choice, it's like people are waiting for the vegetarian/religious diner to realize that they haven't been struck by lightning, or that the dish is delicious, so it's totally ok to eat. It makes me angry.

So I can see how that attitude, if extended to people with allergies, could cause serious health hazards as well as inducing high levels of anger and frustration!

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Re. Tolerance - I'm growing to hate that word as well. And the fact that private schools are less tolerant than public - this is my surprised face. Really. I'm incredibly surprised.

Re. Noose - I actually called the SAPD to protest and they were pretty surprised to hear about it. Their reaction was one of people caught flat-footed and both the initial person I spoke to and the watch commander said they'd look into it. Whatever that's worth.

Re. Anti-gay AGA - The 'may' in 'may lose his job' hurts my brain.

Finally, I very much wanted to attend the Jon Stewart Rally, but wound up DVRing it instead. For me, it will go down in history as one of the great moments in American history. Jon Stewart proved himself the greatest statesmen of our age when he brought together 150,000 (minimum) people of all races, creeds and orientations and got them to unite and BE Americans for a few hours. His quote, "These are hard times, not end times" may just be my new motto.

Yeah, he's just a comedian and not an orator, but what he did was incredibly subtle in it's simplicity. When was the last time you heard of 150,000+ people getting together with no animosity, no stepped on toes and no PROBLEMS coming to bear between them? As far as I know (and if someone knows differently, I'll be sad), there were no fights, not even angrily raised voices among those who attended. It was 100% positive and how often can you say that when that many people are in a crowd? Seriously.

However, as part of his keynote speech he pointed out that we do it every day. He showed traffic flowing into the tunnels in New York, where people let each other go and behave in a civilized fashion every day and where those who ride the berm and cut in front are the shunned exception, not the rule.

What can I say? It moved me, :). And this is my only Jon Stewart icon, but since it's from one of his greatest TV moments, I think it's appropriate, ;).

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

I was there and as far as my experience was, everyone was nice to each other even when riding the extremely crowded metro. People did squeeze on, but we all knew we were trying to get to the same place. I have to agree with you about Jon Stewart.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

So jealous! And I'm glad that my impression from TV was accurate, :). A friend of ours got to go, but he hasn't blogged about it yet...

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I remember a lot of people doing things like voluntarily taking up garbage bags to clear out any remaining litter (of which there was very little) and taking people's empty water bottles and fliers and stuff to throw them away.

Just... people being really positive and good to each other. It was like the end of Ghostbusters 2 in there.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

The moment at the beginning where Jon Stewart asked the crowd not to litter and to leave it cleaner than they'd left it was made of class.

[snufflesdbear.livejournal.com]

I was stuck at work, and my DVR is broken. Any chance you'd be willing to make a copy of your DVD? You can email me at my LJ or at tamy at squidge dot org

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

His keynote speech may very well be the best speech I've heard in my lifetime.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

It's close, though I think a few of Obama's are also in the running for it, :).

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I'd have to hear side by side with Obama's famous convention speech and the one where he talked to us like we were grownups about race. It's why the qualifiers, but it's top three if not the best, that's for sure.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

This, :).

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Re: The Stewart/Colbert rally. Some news sources refuseed to cover it. Those that do are treating it as a political event. Some are viewing it as a call to moderates to speak up; others are attacking it on partizen political grounds. It's being treated much as any other political rally on the mall, honestly.

Re: "Tolerance" in schools. I went to an integrating historically boys's prep school. I know we've talked about some of the fucked up gender and racial currents at my school, which I'm guessing was a lot more like yours, than say, Catholic schools or akibas, which were the other common sorts of private schools where I was.

LGBT wise, the lesbianism was completely underground, but going on quietly. fopr the boys, it was pretty much a kink factory. They were big on sexual power games. This is why I knew what golden showers were before I had a word for them. At my school, it was better for a boy to be bi or straight, but being exclusively homosexual only kept you out of the top clique, which also barred people for not being WASP old money. You'd still be socially acceptable, just generally and it wasn't a big deal to be out as gay or bi. One of the most liked guys in my grade was known for quips about being bi. (He was the only exception to the WASP rule, as his parents were famous European neuro surgeons and his grandparents owned a chateau. either that or the french blood trumped the Italian. It's hard to tell, but he was the only Italian or Sicilian boy liked by the top clique. It5 likely also helped that most of the high school wanted to be and/or fuck him. *ahem*). There was harassment of the guys who were exclusively bottoms, which felt more like gender stereotype based harassment to me, watching it, than something specifically anti-gay, especially given that the exclusive tops didn't have to deal with that.

I suspect my school was more like British boy's public schools, as it was all boys nearly 200 years, and a lot of the hazing patterns and traditions were 100+ year old homo social hierarchy building/reinforcing things. I'm guessing that all that time as a homo-social environment made homosexuality more acceptable as they'd been using sexual dominance as a part of that pattern for so long. It's lot harder to gay bash with authority, if everyone knows you take blow jobs from guys as a sort of tribute for your popularity.

I wonder what Margaret Meade would have made of us.