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Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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2:21 am
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| Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
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3:06 pm - how lucky am i to have a boyfriend that's queerer than me?!
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| Thursday, May 17th, 2007
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2:43 pm
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MAD LIBERATION:
Reforming the Mental Health System!
Presenter: David W. Oaks
►When: Wednesday, May 23, 2007◄
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
►Where: Roosevelt University◄
2nd Floor Congress Lounge
430 S. Michigan Ave.
What is the Mad Movement?
What is Mad Pride?
Why is empowerment crucial for real recovery?
David was born and raised in Chicago, became a
psychiatric survivor activist in Massachusetts, and
now lives in Oregon where he directs MindFreedom
International (MFI). This is David's 31st year working
as a human rights activist.
MFI is an independent nonprofit coalition defending
human rights and promoting humane alternatives in the
mental health system.
Sponsors: Social Justice Studies Program and Economics Department at Roosevelt University, Pomegranate Health Collective, Mad Tea Party, Museum for Universal Self Expression (MUSE), MindFreedom Chicagoland.
www.mindfreedom.org
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| Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
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3:48 pm
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I don't know whether it's the accent or the bombastic revolutionary anthems, but, even though I'm not physically attracted to him at all, every time I hear Billy Bragg sing I just want to fuck him.
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| Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
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8:40 pm - happy mayday, and a merry beltane to all
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I think the only thing that's really changed between 1886 and now is they've come up with a lot more sophisticated, diverse, and totalitarian ways of controlling us and destroying our world. Marx's main shortcoming (aside from his followers) is that he never could have predicted satellite TV, etc.
Speaking of that "save me from your followers" thing, I was thinking - imagine if in like 200 years Marx's followers have made him the prophet of a new religion.
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| Thursday, April 26th, 2007
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4:28 pm - anarchist theory conference THIS WEEKEND!!
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This weekend is Finding Our Roots: An Anarchist Conference on Theory and Action.
NOTE: The location is the Quinlan Life Sciences Building on the Loyola campus, exact address **1050 W. Sheridan** (not 6525 N. Sheridan as announced).
Of course, you want to come to MY workshops! They are:
Rockin' with Kropotkin, Saturday 3:00
Emma Goldman in our Time, Saturday 4:00
The Haymarket Affair, Sunday 11:00
It's going to be totally awesome so I hope everyone comes. Oh, and free food on Saturday courtesy of Loyola Food Not Bombs! (And supposedly potluck-style food on Sunday too.)
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| Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
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1:30 pm - hear me on the radio today!
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Once again, I'll be pimping one of my activist gigs on local college radio.
WZRD 88.3, sometime after 4:30 this afternoon. For those not in ZRD's rather diminutive signal range, you can also get the streaming broadcast online at http://www.wzrdchicago.com/.
I'll be talking about the upcoming Finding Our Roots anarchist theory conference, which you should check out: http://www.myspace.com/findingourroots
Also in conjunction with this, stay tuned for the opportunity to see me playing Emma Goldman in a soapbox street theater type experience.
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| Saturday, March 17th, 2007
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10:56 pm - anarchy
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| Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
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1:23 pm
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Here is your horoscope for Thursday, February 22:
When you learn to serve your higher purpose, your outward success will manifest itself. And achievement under those kinds of circumstances is the best and most lasting kind. Keep reaching for your inner truth.
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| Wednesday, January 10th, 2007
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3:29 pm
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Whew, it is definitely a good thing that I will not be breeding.
I've been taking care of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) starr_poet's dog Dinah while she tries to get out of Florida. Even being a Puppy Mama is way more work and responsibility than I'm used to.
But I think it's also good for me in that I am forced to go outside and walk around in the daylight every day, sometimes several times. That is even more unusual for me than working.
Which I'm also doing a little bit, kinda.
Actually I'm working on a few things. Problem is, none of them are of the income-generating variety (at least not yet, if ever). Which is OK for now but not preferable long-term or sustainable longer-term.
But I am totally burnt out on the freelance art journalism thing. The last two assignments I had, I never even did cause I just couldn't make myself. I haven't talked to those editors and I'm sure they've written me off. Though I wouldn't know cause I haven't checked my work email in weeks. Ugh. I'm just so done with it, which sucks cause it seemed like the only nominally remunerative thing I could handle. But my attempts to move into writing about something besides art pretty much failed. I don't even like contemporary art anymore. For a while my contempt for the art world was generating enough material to keep me marginally employed, but I'm even done trading on that. I was starting to offend people, and anyway the art world doesn't even interest me enough to ridicule it anymore. I dunno, maybe I'll still write about the demise of the Examiner someday. I feel like that story really needs to be told, and not by one of the victors. But right now the very thought of writing about art makes me vaguely ill. I'd much rather write about anarchy.
Not to mention, I seem to be really burnt out on the short-essay form. I am much more interested in writing books right now. And just imagine how much money there is in books about anarchy! Especially ones that aren't even written yet.
But so far this year things seem to be going a little better. I don't know if it's the exposure to daylight or the writing or the good lovin' or just the regular pattern of my neurochemistry, but these last few days I can actually feel the depression lifting. I never presume anything when this happens, but even a few days of optimism is nice.
Btw, I know there are some Dog People on my flist... comment if you feel like meeting the puppy. She will want to be your lifelong friend, especially if you have something to throw or something to eat.
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| Wednesday, December 27th, 2006
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7:02 pm - Quick!
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Name your favorite New Wave/early 80s cheesey love song.
Go!
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| Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
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2:43 am
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Here is your horoscope for Monday, November 27:
Don't get bogged down in old, outmoded ideas of what things 'have' to be like or what you 'should' do in a relationship. The stars say it's time to explore your options and take a chance even when it scares you. Be bold.
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| Monday, November 27th, 2006
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12:30 pm
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:) :) :) 8)
Here is your horoscope for Sunday, November 26:
Connect with people who want to change the world as much as you do. You'll thrive when you're surrounded by similar mental and emotional energy. Satisfying group interactions could lead to one-on-one connections too.
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| Wednesday, November 1st, 2006
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3:36 pm - bike kill!!!
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| Saturday, October 14th, 2006
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4:25 pm
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Today is my mother's first posthumous birthday. She would have been 62.
Here is your horoscope for Saturday, October 14:
A famous author once wrote that you can't go home again. What he left out was that you always manage to take a piece of home with you -- and into every new relationship. It's time to explore what you've been bringing.
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| Thursday, October 12th, 2006
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12:46 am - lava lamps!!!
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I am happily ensconced in the highly copascetic living room of my sweet new apartment on the western edge of the People's Republic of Logan Square. For that is what it is, my comrades. We will soon have the numbers and concentration to secede from the city. Onward!
Tomorrow, we might even have heat, hot water, and cooking gas! Third time's the charm, right? My plan is to take the folding chair and a mug of tea and sit out on the curb starting at 7:30 in the, yes, morning, and throw myself in front of the first People's Energy truck I see. "People's" my ass. Counterrevolutionary swine.
current mood:  high
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| Monday, September 18th, 2006
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10:47 pm - annoyed
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I'm in NYC. Just came from dinner with Dad, El and one of her roommates, and Joan and Marion, who were Mom's two best friends - the former now being better known as Dad's girlfriend.
Even when we knew Mom was dying, I don't think I ever thought I'd be saying the phrase "Dad's girlfriend." Especially not within months of her death. But Dad has a new life now. I've been here since Friday and he hasn't even slept at the apartment. So I'm rattling around in this place full of Mom's copious stuff by myself.
All through dinner they were practically groping each other at the table. I never saw him behave that way with my mother - probably because she wouldn't allow it. It wasn't even the gross-out factor of seeing my father behave like a lovestruck teenager that bothered me. Even the disrespect for the fact that my sister and I are still in mourning for our mother wasn't the worst part. No, what really fucking pisses me off is knowing that if I ever acted like that with someone I was seeing - especially if that person wasn't a straight male - I would have gotten shit for it. I even recall my mother reprimanding me for being demonstrative "in front of your father."
And speaking of Mom's stuff, tomorrow Marion is coming over to help me go through it. At dinner she got all teared up about how they used to go shopping together, and how the last time they did right before Mom went into the hospital she bought four Hermes scarves. As those who live in the real world might not know, an Hermes scarf costs about $300. She has a drawer full of them. And the closet full of identical Blahnik pumps (also several hundred bucks a pair), and the dozens of designer/vintage handbags, and the dozen fur coats, and etc. I was trying to explain to Marion how I felt Mom's consumption to have been a sickness, but she didn't get it (being a shopoholic in the same way, though she never could afford it on Mom's scale). Finally I said, "It's just difficult for me to look at this drawer full of identical scarves that she never wore, and know that I could pay my rent for ten years on what they're worth." The table fell silent for at least 30 seconds.
I keep thinking about the time during my first year living on my own after college, when ursuscelticus and I were scraping together change to buy mac n' cheese for dinner and didn't know where our rent was going to come from, when I came to Mom crying because I was really scared about money. And she consoled me all about how she had struggled too just starting out (yeah right - to her financial hardship meant having to rent a summer house in a less desirable neighborhood of the Hamptons). And then I'm sure she went and bought a scarf for the amount of the rent I couldn't make, and saw no contradiction in it at all. FUCK HER.
Dad is going to sell this apartment next year and move in with Joan. I was considering how I feel about that, whether it will feel like a loss to me, and while it probably will on some level, it's also true that this place hasn't been home to me since I moved out at 18. Mom made sure of that by gutting my room the second I was gone.
I was thinking about all this just now, and hearing my father's voice telling me how I was being unfair to Mom. And I wanted to say to him, "Did it ever occur to you that maybe it was she who treated me unfairly?" And then I thought, no wonder I've dated so many people who've treated me like crap - and if they didn't, then I did it to them. I even think about how shitty Mom was to Dad a lot of the time. I guess I just learned that love equals making sure your "loved" one knows how inadequate they are.
I don't want to feel that there's nothing for me here amongst the biofam, nothing keeping me tied to New York. But all I could think about from the second Dad and Joan got out of the taxi at her house, was how much I wish I could be with my real family right now.
current mood:  lonely
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| Thursday, September 14th, 2006
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3:35 am - telling me you're not nostalgic
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Besides the biofam, there's one person in my life I've known longer than duniabest, whom I met in fourth grade, and that's her husband. His father worked with mine and brought him for playdates when we were 4 and 5.
It's one of the more amazing stories of my life, actually. I'd introduced them at an anti-nuke demo in high school; she developed an instant crush on him while he forgot about her. A decade or so later they met again through the NYC ska scene, and had been dating like a month before they realized the connection. Now they live in LA with their two-year-old. I stood up at their wedding and said I was there to take credit, which I really don't think was an undue exaggeration.
The funniest part is, I had a HUGE crush on this guy for a goodly chunk of high school. Never let anyone tell you that karma does not exist.
But that's not actually the point I wanted to make, which is that said fellow decided to launch a yahoogroup to reunite alums of the citywide lefty activist youth group we were part of in high school.
This is the most inspired idea I've heard in a long time, and I am inordinately psyched about it. These folks were my "real family" in high school, just like my real family is now, and every bit as crucial (if not moreso) to my emotional survival, even though I've long since lost touch with almost all of them. At their height our meetings could have like 60 people at them! We'd hang out after and it was our Friday night fun. I can't wait to reconnect and find out what they've been doing with their adulthoods. I think they will find me all in all relatively unchanged since adolescence - I wonder if the same is true of them (but just seeing how most of my long-term friends have changed and become grown-ups, I doubt it).
I never bothered going to any of my high school reunions, as the vast majority of my friends went to other schools, or were at least a year ahead of or behind me. But a reunion of this crowd, I would do everything in my power to attend.
What would be especially awesome is if we could get some new activist stuff going! Maybe it would even bring back the romance of protest for me. OK, so I've never completely lost it, but in my whole lifetime in and out of activism it's never been as pure and exhilirating and life-changing as it was in those first few years. But I guess that's why revolution is the province of youth or however the proverb goes.
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| Thursday, September 7th, 2006
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2:36 am
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I think it's time we re-embraced the term "sex maniac."
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12:13 am
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Here is your horoscope for Wednesday, September 6:
There are many different ways to be in love. Some people love a cause. Others love their jobs. One thing's for sure: the more you love, the easier it is. Expand your definitions and your ways of loving.
current mood:  sad
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