Shaken, not Stirred

Life is crazy. I mean - all the time, but it seems extra-special crazy these days. Haven't had time to post here. Don't like it.

There's just a lot going on. A good friend of mine said that this January is now, officially, the Worst Month in All of Recorded History. He's coming from a particular vantage point, having lost his father suddenly at the beginning of the month, and his dog (more expectedly, but still) at the end of it. And today is his birthday. Ooof.

But there's definitely something in the air. The politics I won't even go into too much right now (though I'll touch on them) but you know about that anyway.

Some of it is good: I'm working on that project at NYU Law School, and have a bit to do on a short film as well; we've been out to see a bunch of shows and events, including another great Simone Forti happening that hopefully I can post about soon; Cory, Penelope (the big ol' mixer that Cory got me for Christmas. Yes, her name is Penelope.) and I have been baking up a storm. Ok. Yes - this does sometimes take the form of Utility Muffin Research Kitchen-type experimentation, but so far everything has been edible, and some of it has been downright delicious.

On the other hand, some of it just sucks: the aforementioned deaths; other death and illness that has directly affected close friends; the death of J.D. Salinger today;



Howard Zinn's death yesterday. Are you kidding me? Zinn was a personal hero of mine and a huge influence. That Nurses' Strike he went to after his final lecture? I was there with him (and at the lecture too. And FYI - it wasn't exactly a Nurses' Strike - it was actually more of a walkout to protest the closing of the Nursing School)



So let me wrap up with that promised tidbit of political commentary, and I'll start with the bit of Zinn that the obit quotes from his last article in The Nation:

"I’ve been searching hard for a highlight,” he wrote, adding that he wasn’t disappointed because he never expected a lot from President Obama.

"I think people are dazzled by Obama’s rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president — which means, in our time, a dangerous president — unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.”

And here we hit a subject very near to my heart: the notion that change (the kind you can believe in, you know?) doesn't happen without social movement. Actual people engaging in actual action. And while it's nice that the President got in some swings last night, the real work has to be done by the people. Always.



More to come... Sometime, when I can breathe...