Onward through the fog

I return! How are things with you, my English-speaking buddies?

I hope you all had a good summer, or at least a tolerable one. Mine was quite nice - four hours of language class and five hours of language homework every day, interspersed with calligraphy and tai chi. So really it was heaven, for some people. Okay, for me.

I'm trying to catch up on the summer news, but all this ~debt ceiling~ and ~ratings downgrade~ business just looks like so much posturing and political hooey. I wish the dudes who want to kill what's left of the American welfare state would just shoot it already, cut Social Security and Medicare now and be mobbed for their evils. They won't, tho.

London's news is at least real. Russell Brand, of all people, comes close to articulating a portion of my thoughts on the Jobless Generation:

"These young people have no sense of community because they haven’t been given one. They have no stake in society because Cameron’s mentor Margaret Thatcher told us there’s no such thing.

If we don’t want our young people to tear apart our communities then don’t let people in power tear apart the values that hold our communities together."

But his proposed solution is for everyone to suddenly become Gandhi, so fuck him.

I anticipate, with drier detachment than I deserve, many more youth riots to come. Obama's taught us that our votes don't matter; that in the end all our hopey-changey political ambitions only enriched the banks, lost more jobs, and cut our parents' Medicare. What other outlet do we have?

Wow, that went downhill fast. Tell me something that happened in the last two months? I'm sure I'm missing much.

This week I had a different fun occasion every evening.

Monday was a university-sponsored dinner lecture, political history: specifically the motivating fears behind the New Deal, with bonus parallels to Obama healthcare sort of buttoned along the sides. 'Twas the only event that came with a price tag, and that snagged me a free drink. I chatted with this nice old guy afterwards about European history, and then got into this animated discussion with the lady on the other side of me at the bar about urban planning and ways to forge forward. She kept saying really intelligent skewering things that forced me to reconstruct my thoughts. It was great.

Tuesday was the steampunk meetup at which I met several friendly ladies, an enthusiastic photographer, and one creep with a camera who I wish I'd stood up to and told him to stop flashing that damn thing at me. Next time I will. Because there will be a next time, as this group does fun stuff and one creep with a camera won't stop me from doing with them!

Wednesday was the media career fair. I ended up having a couple informative conversations with film crit people, hearing interesting employment pitches from a couple internet startups, getting into an argument with an indie writer, and laying out an artsy business plan with a musician/artist who didn't have anything better to do. And then I left my umbrella there, because I'm a genius that way.

And today was a college sales fair, with vintage clothing and accessories on one side and the products of an in-house jewelry class on the other. I chatted up the jewelry teacher and got on her mailing list for future classes, which are open to the public! Might never have found it if I hadn't gone back in a futile hunt for my umbrella.

Likewise I might not have heard about the Rare Books seminar downtown! Not that it was really all that informative, but it turned me on to this amazing bookstore-cafe that was hosting the thing. I picked up Chekhov, some translated poetry by this guy named Ted Hughes who I feel I ought to know more about, the second collection of Get Your War On, fuckyeah, AND a book of dance photography by Lois Greenfield! I am going to draw so damn much, you guys.

How much did this haul run me? $25. Yeah. I said it was a good bookstore.

In the checkout line I got a text what said we were getting an awesome new housemate come summer.

And I'm off to Northampton tomorrow for another weekend of dressing up and rocking out. I really need to take a jillion pictures of Smith this time. I wonder if that one art gallery is open on weekends!


So yeah. I do this thing with my life. At some point I just have to summarize what my actual DAY is like, ahaha. Twelve different directions at once.