Bauhaus Auf Halloween

Posted in GoTh on November 1st, 2005 by Дмитрий

It will go down as one of the coolest nights ever…

 

Bauhaus, my hubby, Halloween, San Francisco… The only things that could have made the evening better would have been:

 

  • Any seating at all in the whole friggin’ venue (some of us don’t dance, y’know)

  • Elimination of the stoners whose gross pot smoke gave me a wretched head and tummy ache which persisted until late today
  • Not having to travel thru some of SF’s worst ghetto to get to the venue

     

    Lots of fun souvenirs, and one week left til I finally get to return home to Charlotte. For a couple weeks at least.

     

    Pardon me, but when did stoners invade the gothiverse? Last year I saw Siouxsie and was slammed by all the pot smoke in the room, and the same thing happens this year at Bauhaus… Ick.

     

    My loathing of pot is stronger even than my loathing of alcohol. I can tolerate most legal vices: if you drink some alcohol or smoke some Camels around me I probably won’t flee, unless you’re getting annoyingly drunk or blowing cancer clouds in my face. But I’m likely to lose interest in someone entirely if I discover they use illegal drugs (regardless of my socially libertarian “no victim no crime” philosophy). By using drugs, my opinion of you has been lowered. By using drugs around me, you’ve threatened me by endangering my freedom. I get caught with you, I have a police record, regardless of how “unimportant” the charge is.

     

    Why is it that stoners think they have the moral high ground these days? It’s like you can call the cops if someone puffs a bit of tobacco in the wrong restaurant, but insult someone by suggesting that smoking pot is wrong and suddenly you are Hitler incarnate, hell-bent on outlawing all “herbs” and “medicines” ever discovered by man…

     

    Why is it that a culture which is quicker than lightening to outlaw pharmaceuticals (that have gone through years of expensive and scientific testing and government regulation) as soon as a single person “might possibly perhaps maybe” had some potentially related side-effect; in the same breath demands the ubiquitous use of a drug which has had no quality control and no legitimate scientific medicinal background, despite years of study both in the US and abroad? It’s along the same lines with how we demand organic apples which have not had their worms removed but ban preservatives whether they are bad for us or not.

     

    I hate stoners. They make me sick. They don’t grow and their brains erode with time. They stink and their hygine is questionable. If you smoke pot and I made the mistake of befriending you, please let me know so that I can fix that.

GoTh Stoners?

Posted in Assholery, GoTh on November 2nd, 2005 by Дмитрий

It will go down as one of the coolest nights ever… Bauhausmy hubby,HalloweenSan Francisco

The only things that could have made the evening better would have been:

  • Any seating at all in the whole friggin’ venue (some of us don’t dance, y’know)
  • Elimination of the stoners whose gross pot smoke gave me a wretched head and tummy ache which persisted until today
  • Not having to travel thru some of SF’s worst ghetto to get to the venue

Lots of fun souvenirs, and one week left til I finally get to return home to Charlotte. For a couple weeks at least.

<rant>

Pardon me, but when did stoners invade the gothiverse? Last year I saw Siouxsie and was slammed by all the pot smoke in the room, and the same thing happens this year at Bauhaus… Ick.

My loathing of pot is stronger even than my loathing of alcohol. I can tolerate most legal vices: if you drink some alcohol or smoke some Camels around me I probably won’t flee, unless you’re getting annoyingly drunk or blowing cancer clouds in my face. But I’m likely to lose interest in someone entirely if I discover they use illegal drugs (regardless of my socially libertarian “no victim no crime” philosophy). By using drugs, my opinion of you has been lowered. By using drugs around me, you’ve threatened me by endangering my freedom. I get caught with you, I have a police record, regardless of how “unimportant” the charge is.

Why is it that stoners think they have the moral high ground these days? It’s like you can call the cops if someone puffs a bit of tobacco in the wrong restaurant, but insult someone by suggesting that smoking pot is wrong and suddenly you are Hitler incarnate, hell-bent on outlawing all “herbs” and “medicines” ever discovered by man…

Why is it that a culture which is quicker than lightening to outlaw pharmaceuticals (that have gone through years of expensive and scientific testing and governmeent regulation) as soon as a single person “might possibly perhaps maybe” had some potentially related side-effect; in the same breath demands the ubiquitous use of a drug which has had no quality control and no legitimate scientific medicinal background, despite years of study both in the US and abroad? It’s along the same lines with how we demand organic apples which have not had their worms removed but ban preservatives whether they are bad for us or not.

I hate stoners. They make me sick. They don’t grow and their brains erode with time. They stink and their hygine is questionable. If you smoke pot and I made the mistake of continuing to have anything to do with you, please let me know so that I can correct that.

</rant>

Some Additional Bits for My Drugs Rant:

Posted in Assholery, Health on November 2nd, 2005 by Дмитрий

90% of anyone who says they need pot to help “their condition” are just big hypochondriacs, or mean “addiction” when they say “condition”.

I’d like to find any qualified, objective source that could tell me that the smoke inhalation is better for you than any reduced effects of any “condition” precipitated by using the drug. If there really was a legitimate medicinal use for the *active ingredient* (which I admit there is), drug companies would have spotted the hole in the market and produced quality-controlled extracts available by legitimate prescription (which they have).

The problem is that since medicinal marijuana became en vogue in the 90s, anyone bagging the stuff or the morons that use it are immediatly branded as incompassionate (not that I necessarily mind this brand). If you tag a pothead and tell them to stop smoking around you, *every single one* seems to invariably have some “condition” which justifies their drug use and dehumanizes those who object to it.

I’d like to recommend this really useful medicine called crack - it really helps their worst condition: being alive/annoying me. There’s also a similar medicine called H which has similar benefits.

The Day Draws Near

Posted in Travel on November 4th, 2005 by Дмитрий

San Francisco has treated me well. I’ve managed to spend a month away from home, away from boy, without car and in the middle of the urban jungle I once called home.

 

Strangely, it still feels like home. But I’m ready to spend some much-needed catch-up time with the boy and the Gaggle, and experience some of that chilly East Coast weather for the first time ever.

 

I managed to actually meet more new first-hand friends during my month-long tenure here than the entire 3 years I spent here as a resident, including Dave, Victor and Mistress Mousey, all of whom conveniently have journals to which I can link.

 

I ate well, despite long days and occasional repetitive bouts of fast-foodism. All in all, a fruitful trip, and I look forward to returning after a couple weeks reacquainting myself with normalcy. Thanks to everyone who helped me through it all…

One Month in SF Down

Posted in San Francisco on November 5th, 2005 by Дмитрий

Preparations for departure are nearly complete. The gadgets are all charging and preparing for their long day of heavy usage tomorrow.

Last night I finally got to meet Michelle, now recovering from a 12-day cruise which combined seasickness and morning sickness… Poor thing. Everyone’s having babies these days. My Mom even alluded to the idea of David and me adopting when we were enveloped in babydom with my niece last Sunday. Whilst the significant part of that was my Mom’s evolution in being capable of attributing couplehood to David and me - I hate to break her heart, but I don’t like kids. I didn’t even like kids when I was a kid. The tiny new (immobile, non-vocal) ones are OK, as long as I don’t have to be reminded of their (frequent) vomit or brown-nappies.

Interesting that in the past 2 weeks I’ve managed to meet two net-friends in person (the previous being Mr Panda who showed me around Chinatown), where during three years of residence I barely managed one, with whom I’ve since already lost touch (and URL, for that matter).

Back in Atlanta

Posted in Travel on November 6th, 2005 by Дмитрий

…For my agonizing 3-hour layover. Damn this airport is huge… It’s also rather spooky looking out the aeroplane window and seeing like 18 bajillion planes approaching from the air with no end in sight…

 

On the lo-o-o-ong trip from SFO to ATL, I managed to devour a sizeable chunk of A Confederacy of Dunces. Before I deplaned, I was engrossed in one of Ignatius’s Paradise Wiener binges, and thus had to have a big ol’ frankfurter immediately upon stepping into the terminal. I believe, however, that Paradise’s wieners were most likely tastier than what I managed to choke down tonight.

ATL2

Posted in Travel on November 6th, 2005 by Дмитрий

Back in Atlanta for my agonizing 3-hour layover. Damn this airport is huge… It’s also rather spooky looking out the aeroplane window and seeing like 18 bajillion planes approaching from the air with no end in sight…

On the lo-o-o-ong trip from SFO to ATL, I managed to devour a sizeable chunk of A Confederacy of Dunces. Before I deplaned, I was engrossed in one of Ignatius’s Paradise Wiener binges, and thus had to have a big ol’ frankfurter immediately upon stepping into the terminal. I believe, however, that Paradise’s wieners were most likely tastier than what I managed to choke down tonight.

A Private Matter with No Place in the Public Sphere

Posted in Uncategorized on November 8th, 2005 by Дмитрий

I finally had the opportunity to catch up on my sleepy last night, only to first be awoken by my phone (unrecognized number, no message) after a couple hours of sleep, and then by severe aches and nausea a couple hours later. Never did quite recover. I’ve managed to make it in to work, but I would not even have attempted to be here if it didn’t make the difference between having a job in the new year and not having one…

 

On my way to work, on NPR, there was an interview with a French legislator who was “a member of President Jacques Chirac’s right wing conservative party” (emphasis mine). The gentleman was asked about his opinions on the current riots and their impact on French attitudes toward religion, immigration, etc. The intriguing part was when he remarked that he did not care what various religious organizations had to say about the matter, instead saying that “This is a secular state” and that “religion is a private matter that has no place in enforcing the law or addressing the violence”.

 

I didn’t record it, so my quotes may not be entirely precise. But it doesn’t change the fact that I really wish we had “right-wing conservatives” in the US that thought this way about religion…

Ich Bin Krank

Posted in About Me on November 8th, 2005 by Дмитрий

Dear ambiguous illness I contracted in the past 24 hours,

 

Please go away. I don’t have time to deal with you right now. Feel free to come back when I’ve been holding down a solid corporate job for a couple years and have large quantities of sick time from which to draw.

 

K, Thx.

Holidays!

Posted in Holidays on November 14th, 2005 by Дмитрий

For all of you fellow heathen Holiday lovers out there, please send me your address so that I can send you a Xmas card. Even if I already had your address, please send it to me again at mark at monstrouslyoffensive dot com.

Don’t worry about ever receiving anything else or being sent porn or anything - I never use postal mail for anything but this annual tradition, and thus am quite likely to lose your address before the next holiday season arrives.

Richard Florida is a Pompous Ass

Posted in Rants, Urbanism on November 15th, 2005 by Дмитрий

You know what American cities need? More subsidies for rich liberal young whites, that’s what.

Or, at least, that’s what Richard Florida thinks…

Note (31 March 2008): My latest, most comprehensive, and (in my opinion) best essay on this topic can be found here:

The Early Bird vs the Night Owl

Urban Mythology and its Fundies

Sure, he has an agenda - to promote wealthy white metrosexuals like himself, city history and urban texture (and old people, and service workers, and brown people, etc) be damned. I guess my agenda is to promote the idea of the built environment as a living organism, in need of its own rights and respect…

The latest silver-bullet fix-all in urban planning has snuck up on us as quietly and unassumingly as each which preceded it. It’s understandable that our fragile psyches require these fix-alls to properly inform our motivation for a better life. For most of us, the lack of any possibility for quick and simple permanent solutions in life would cause us to throw up our hands and give up too easily. Being assured that the real, final solution is only a simple, obvious bit of common sense somehow assures us that there is no reason to despair.

Read more »

Creative Class Flogging

Posted in Urbanism on November 16th, 2005 by Дмитрий

Since I’ve been on a Richard Florida hatin’ expedition lately, I thought I’d post some nice gems I’ve found…

 

  • The Best One (Mirrored Here)

  • Short and Sweet

     

    And this quote was priceless: “Having met Florida, I’d be the first to agree he is an assiduously self-promoting septic tank, out to make a buck from his theory through a globetrotting dog and pony show that gets local pollies overhyped. But hey, isn’t that what capitalism and the free market of ideas is all about?”

Leave A Comment »

Back in Atlanta

Posted in Travel on November 18th, 2005 by Дмитрий

These layovers in Atlanta are brutal - at 2-3 hours each, I’ve spent more time here than at any of my destinations the past couple months.

 

I land in SF around 1pm local time. Probably working Sunday-Wednesday, then taking the choochoo to Fresno for Thanksgiving weekend with the family. Back to the City on the 27th until the 10th, when I go back to Fresno again for the maternal Xmas party. Back in the City on the 11th for one last week of work and back in the air on the 17th to make my way home for Xmas with the boy.

 

Last year: tiny apartment, warm weather, tiny fake tree. This year: big apartment, icy weather, big fresh smelly yummy tree.

 

I love Xmas. I especially love it for the exact reasons Xians hate it: I love the decorations, the lights, the parties, the presents, Santa and the trees. I love the commercialism. I love seeing the decorations sprouting up in malls and shops as soon as the Halloween stuff is taken down. I always hear stupidheads talk about how Xmas “starts too early” and is over-commercialized. But I think that’s the point. We need to take the Christ out of Xmas and make it ours - something we can celebrate for rational and logical reasons: celebrate our friends and family and food and wealth and the technology that lets us walk around naked in a brightly lit home in the middle of a dark Arctic night. I love Xmas for what it symbolizes here and now, and that’s why I celebrate it.

 

I fantasize of a future where a long, cold winter comes early and makes us break out the wreaths and lights and ribbons and bells and leave them up all through the New Year. I fantasize of an Xmas which is 100% commercial, with no religious imagery or sermons about sacrifice, selflessness or ancient bastard babies.

 

May you have a Holly Jolly, long, cold, commercial Xmas. May your nights be warm and bright and all your Xmases crucifix-free.

Leave A Comment »

Shall We Meet for Dinner?

Posted in Food on November 19th, 2005 by Дмитрий

I was chatting with the hubby about the fact that I seem only capable of socializing when there is the promise of food (or at least coffee)…

 

Is that bad? At the very least it shields me from having to associate with tweakers, dieters and militant vegans :)

Leave A Comment »

Dinner and Better Conversation Than Most

Posted in Friends on November 21st, 2005 by Дмитрий

Wolf (though he’ll always be Sister Betty Does, LNM to me) took me out to dinner to Kuleto’s. Wonderful and very filling food.

 

He’s a very smart person and I like being intellectually challenged by someone in casual conversation. He also lets me blabber my mouth off and has enough of his own interesting stuff to say that I actually do some listening, too (something I’m admittedly not as good at as I should be).

 

And he too seems to have gained better perspective on San Francisco over the years. It so much does not feel like almost 5 years ago when we first started corresponding on my old message board…

Leave A Comment »

All is Full of Love

Posted in Family on November 23rd, 2005 by Дмитрий

The holidays are here. The weather is what I consider “good” (eg, COLD!).

 

Everything’s getting so pretty everywhere. I just sent out my holiday cards and realized how many wonderful friends and family I have all over the country and the world.

 

For someone whose life is so full of love, I don’t take enough time to enjoy that love. I love this time of year. I love this time in my life.

Leave A Comment »

We Interrupt this Holiday Mushiness…

Posted in Uncategorized on November 29th, 2005 by Дмитрий

…For a couple quickie rants:

 

I don’t like museums. I think old things need not be preserved just because they’re old. Old things which continue to serve a sustained, productive purpose and function will preserve themselves. You can exchange “people” for “things” in the above statement and my sentiment will remain the same. This is probably one reason why the concept of retirement doesn’t really appeal to me all that much. It’s also why I don’t see any reason why museums have any intrinsic value. And not just because they display old things, but because they play to that idea that art should have intrinsic value. I think art is something that should be consumed and collected by individuals, not just put on display for some nebulous “community”, and it certainly should not be subsidized.

 

Also, whilst dining with Wolf last week, he mentioned that one thing which he did not miss about San Francisco was the transient nature of peoples’ affection here. He used two specific phrases that stuck with me: “People come here to be themselves, which leaves little room in the equation for others”, and that being is San Francisco is like being a “kid in a candy store”, to the extent that people here, no matter how close you feel you are, are always watching the door for someone more interesting to walk in. Both ideas seem to speak volumes about the fact that I lived here for 3 years and never made a single new friend aside from those I met through David, whereas within the first few months of arriving in Charlotte, I was able to find a nice few people that I’ve already befriended, and can see myself building some strong, long-term contacts with.

 

We now return to our regularly scheduled holiday pleasantness…

Leave A Comment »

Somewhere…

Posted in Charlotte, Family on November 30th, 2005 by Дмитрий

…In an apartment outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, the most wonderful boy in the world is all alone, and has not been having the best of times lately. In a hotel room in San Francisco, California, there is someone who loves him more than anything in the world, and whose only goal is to make him know how wonderful and beautiful and loved he is. I only wish I could demonstrate it in person right now.

I miss you, baby. I’m sorry I can’t be there for you now. But I’ll be home soon, and I’ll never leave you for this long again…

Leave A Comment »