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AussieAri's weblog
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last modified Dec 22, 2001 at 22:31
"You see, these people, they have 'accidents' and then they tend to form families out of them." -Cheryl, her professional counselor opinion on the development of families.
You lot know about Japanese Game Shows and their like right?
maybe it's the Australian in me but i love a culture that has people willing to do utterly pointless and ridiculous masochistic things on the tele every night.
aaaahhhh *cracks a beer to watch some more*
I was wondering about Leprosy the other day (because, you know, i wonder about things like this all the time) and did some research. It is a communicable disease but no one's sure HOW it is communicated. It can greatly damage a person's health (or quality of life at least) but does not kill and can be treated at any stage. Better odds than syphilis i tell you what!
While i was looking up leprosy i came across this atrocious skin disease. Can you even imagine?
Yes...imagine that the disease is also in rabbits and this instantly explains the old Jackalope myths!
Back to lepers for a moment- It looks like the last of the leper colonies in the US is gone.
But wait! What about Albino colonies (you see how my brain works?)! There is (or was) apparently one in New Jersey!
When i was young my parents gave me a scroll map of the world for my room. My father had a plywood backed map the world (not as nice and much older) that hung in his study with all the places he had visited. Being a very well traveled tyke i set to doing the same to mine. Now i have no idea where that scroll map is but when i saw this web version of just that i went crazy. And no, i haven't completed marking it.
I also started logging the books i've read that are not ancient not great using goodreads.com. Unlike other book web thingies they do not charge!
So the external hard drive got fixed. It still doesn't mean that the files i had transferred from the last crash are in any way now usable. >:(
But this is boring...let me tell you about how i said 'neo nazi fuck head' to the face of the first skin head i've met in person without knowing it.
Last Tuesday was the Reverend Horton Heat convert in ABQ. Kate, Chris and i headed down all dressed up rockabilly style. We grabbed a seat upstairs on the balcony and had a few drinks while Nashville Pussy played. At one point during their set i moved a small table that was between us and a guy back a bit so i could sit on the railing. He proceeded to knock the table in Kate's direction and talk a bunch of drunk dumb things to her 'don't fuck with me, i was here first.' I did not hear or see any of this though, being in front and because of the noise. Kate got really upset and told me about this as drunk guy was going for a beer. I offered to stand between her and drunk guy so she would feel better about sitting there. drunk guy comes back and pushes his chair back into me as he sits down and says some more of the same 'i was here first' crap to me. I could have choked him out very easily from behind. I really could have. but as Kate said 'we're girls and we think about the consequences. if we had been guys we'd have just decked him.' Thinking about the consequences though- i wouldn't have felt much better if i had choked him out and dumb drunk ass wouldn't have learned his lesson because he is- a dumb drunk ass. I decide to get security so that i don't choke him out. Security talks to him, and the conclusion is you either both leave or you both stay. I made it clear to this 18 year old skinny security t-shirt wearing boy that he was allowing a man to harass a woman and treat us badly. Skinny 18 year old security had nothing to say for himself. Kate then got really upset in the bathroom and we left for the pit. She felt leaving the balcony was 'letting' the dumb drunk ass win. I just couldn't care at this point and was thinking of the decent sized hole of a pit filled with people who would appreciate being smashed into and otherwise assaulted. And so we proceeded to be the smallest people in the pit who owned the pit.
At first we were just hanging out at the front edge of the pit checking out the band. A tall guy bumped into me and i let my weight push him back into the pit. I guess he thought i was falling backwards and so he wrapped his arms around my waist. I grabbed his arms at the wrist, spun out of this towards him, putting him in a double wrist lock. As i was doing this, he looked at me and said 'Are you ok?', 'I'm fine!' i said and let go of his wrists. After that Kate and i got into it- I was bodily throwing men back into the pit and trying out some take downs. I think it was at this point that none of them wanted to touch me so i started doing jumping jacks in the middle of the pit. One of the nicest guys in the pit was a shaved headed orange goateed guy with a southern flag handkerchief in his pocket. Having done a decade + in Texas, i really didn't think that much of this.
After the show as we walked across a parking lot he and some of his friends caught up to us. One of his friends started telling bad jokes:
'When you were a kid did you use to blow bubbles?'
'Yeah.'
'Bubbles says hi.'
There's a sound from off in the corner of the parking lot.
'Oh, i thought that was some skinheads'
'Huh? Neo nazi fuckheads?'
'Uh, *shrug* yeah, skinheads.'
His friend tells another joke and we leave off and head for the car.
Kate then tells me that mr. nice shaved head guy had a swastika tattooed (yeah, not the Hindu peace sign variety either) on his forearm and she was trying the whole concert to slam into him really hard.
Opse.
And that is the story of how i said 'neo nazi fuckhead' to the face of the first neo nazi skinhead i've ever met.
Both my external hard drive and my desktop computer are not working. This produces many of these --> :(
Once information is retrieved by one of the nice dwarfs/hobbits that inhabit my fav computer service store in town it will produce more of the usual --> ;o)
Someone just told me about The Lust Lady. It's a unionized, worker owner, co-op, peep show with it's original location in San Fran and then one in Seattle.
I realize i need to do some travel soon but have no idea how it should fall out.
Boston- Georgia! Haven't seen her since we were kiddies in Oz. Must see her while she's still state side.
Chicago- A far too long put off trip. So many people to see here. Also this knife show. And, duh, BJJ.
L.A.- Peggy and Susan's wedding. Oh yeah- BTW- they're finally getting married because it's finally legal and binding to out of state residents. Really is best if combined with a trip to San Fran.
Niagara Falls- Dad's been trying to sell the house for the past two years. Someone might just buy it. When they do, i need to haul the family goods down here.
Other points in between: Ann Arbor- Denae and Rory, Wisconsin- Kay needs a ride back to Santa Fe, Indiana- Grandma and training with Marcello.
And of course Austin/Dallas. Because i miss all those people so much.
Siesta Revolution baby!
It’s been two years and I still feel like i just haven’t had enough time. Time? Not to heal wounds or any of that stuff they tell you about massive trauma and pain going away eventually. No, time to synthesize all the learning from the events. Time to fully embrace all the changes that it that brought to myself and my life. Really, wisdom comes with time and is gained from experience. Since I had to do so many things at the age of 23 that people usually do when they’re over 50, there’s a lot of time that I didn’t get to reflect on and so much growth that happened that now I feel like I’m playing catch up in a lot of ways.
Tesla monster (the american ocelot shorthair) has become a much less hyper and much more affectionate cat. She still plays fetch, seems to hallucinate frequently, and will run around the house with plenty of pep but she doesn’t bounce of the walls like she use to. A while ago I was lying in bed on my back and she came over to me and for the first time ever noticed the tattoo on my hip as something different from the rest of my skin. She tentatively sniffs it and then ever so gently paws it. Adorable!
She also flopped over from a head up, body lying out to one side position to a completely flat on her side position like some happy ungraceful dog the other day. Describing it doesn’t do the sight of a cat being so un-cat like justice.
I’ve been watching a lot of youtube.com music videos lately, mostly as karaoke reference. But I have stumbled upon a few gems:
Why was everyone in such a shock and twitter back when Madonna kissed Britney? Does no one remember her ‘Girlie Show’ tour back in 93? I mean damn. ‘What turns you on?’ um, yes.
The Gossip- Listen Up. Check out legendary Drag King Murry Hill, former runner for NYC mayor, in the video.
Poison did a cover of Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake. Here's a fan video to it. Sort of porn for stuffed animals sort of thing though.
Corinne Bailey Rae did Sexy Back as well as a version of ‘steady as she goes’.
Speaking of music-y things, Kate brought up a band name we came up with for her imaginary band over a year ago before I left Santa Fe. The name is so good that until the band plays at least one gig I feel like can’t even speak it. We’ll just call it DB&TR. It’s a rockabilly band. This time she was talking seriously about it and said we should get together to play some stuff, mostly for us to have a project together and for fun. My mind started racing. We could sing that silly country song i wrote about Odysseus from Penelope's POV. We could do old songs that are public domain now. We could do it in DRAG. We could do boy band covers! Hell, we could do Electric Six’s Gay Bar song with a Mickey you’re so fine backbeat! Weee! Needless to say, I have been amusing myself with such thoughts.
So Tait Fletcher is back in town and now has his own gym, Undisputed Fitness. They do more MMA geared work so I don’t feel like it’s for me just yet. He said he had some women there that were training for Elite XC so I plan to stop in for a class or two and see what they do.
BTW: Alberto Crane has an upcoming fight in NM again! Aug 2nd. There will also be two people from the BJJ academy fighting including Quinn Mulhern. I’m going to try to go. I may have been in a live fight, and i may watch hours of footage for fun, but I’ve never been to one!
I’ve been seeing the Tibetan infinite mind symbol everywhere recently. Earrings, bumper stickers, tag graffiti on a half demolished wall...
With gentrification comes coffee. Always. The Station will be a new coffee house amidst all the hubbub of re-doing the railyard.
There’s a new Art Space/Collective in town called The Humble. It fills the place Half Rack and then Meow Wolf did for smaller to mid sized acts. Let’s hope it stays around a little bit longer than either of those did.
I finally figured out what this Garbo's cafe that's been advertising without an address and simply 'i hate to dine alone', a phone number, and 'reservations' listed. It's the cafe inside Rainbow Visions, the gay retirement home. 'Ahhhh' we say with little surprise and total understanding.
Here's something new and odd and novel in that way that Santa Fe will use whatever it has at hand as a performance/gathering space. Be it tiny basement storage space (the Matadore) or Sushi restaurant (Osaka's). The Silver 502 Lounge is an event (with bar, i know you need to know) every Thursday with DJs playing house music in a retro silver 1950's domed train car. Curiosity has me. I will be checking it out.
Mongol the movie. Oh yes. There must be drunken orgies and blood or I will be very disappointed in Hollywood yet again. How ever do they think they can improve on John Wayne as Genghis Kahn if they don't??
We missed Amma in ABQ because the schedule listed online was incorrect. Cheryl regrets not staying overnight till the next morning but honestly I don’t because I desperately needed that sleep. Yep, I’ve been sleeping even poorer than usual lately probably because of all the work I’m doing for my summer classes. I do enjoy them though, I’m doing and learning some great things. Expect pretty pictures of my bobbles and fixtures soon.
It seems like we were not the only ones who did not get to see Amma though. Two other friends from Santa Fe were driving and driving up and down I25 for ages trying to find the otherwise obvious hotel. Another friend was waiting and waiting through the night to get hugged and fell asleep in the lobby at about 2am. They made her leave. Falling asleep = you must leave, it’s one of their rules. Not to put her worth on one thing at all but if being hugged by her is like getting hugged by the mother you never had as they say it is, I am not missing much with not getting hugged as my mother was an amazing mum.
I helped Natalie pack her stuff into her and her sister’s car before they made the haul to SLC. I miss her and the circumstances around her leaving are a painful story. Not like I’ve got answers but I think the implications upset me as well as her leaving. Nothing like change to make a human doubt things.
So another friend who has left Santa Fe. Another person that made my day to day more interesting, who i could be myself around, who showed me something outside my experience and self, who i could trust. It feels like a simple fact of reality at this point. My friends my age will all leave Santa Fe someday. I’ve visited all those friends though in their new environs and I’ve truly enjoyed those visits every time. I know I’ll see her again, just not here.
I finally went for a hike and found what could only be described as a huge cicada emergence ground. Hundreds of cicada shells! I’ve never seen anything like it before. I’m going to combine them with some small rusted old cans I also found on that hike into an art piece. It should be a good counter to the ‘ides of a false spring’ piece I did. Same sort of thing but life not death.
1) it is always best to not assume
2) but everyone has prejudices
I finally sat down and planned out a layout for my shop in the garage. Cheryl gave the wonderful suggestion of putting the forges in the courtyard so I didn’t have to worry about ventilation or anyone from the street messing with my things. Weeee! It looks so nice and should function wonderfully once I get everything set up and constructed.
That which must be constructed:
Vice/anvil bench and post
Gas expeller forge
Charcoal forge
Work bench
Router table
Maybe a smaller jeweler like work bench with a catch tray
Guy will graciously be sending me a hand drawn blueprint of a killer charcoal forge he once built.
There is also much that must be bolted down but that’s boring so never mind.
Idear: instead of filling handles with only two ton epoxy what about some sort of uber shock absorbing substance layer and then epoxy? Yes I’ve thought about a highly shock absorbent handle not being good on fixtures/sword integrity/and potentially accuracy but depending on the type of shock absorber and the handle construction/thickness well it could be a huge improvement on plain only metal pipe filled with epoxy. Come on, that stuffs just urrgly and cheap.
It’s 2008 (we still can’t tell the real difference between the 90’s and now), I’m 25 (I’ve finally got some career/home/love direction and foundation), and I’m still standing around naked for money.
So it ain’t all bad!
What I mean is, this is something I’d always been told broke ass college kids did- art modeling; not 25 year olds with credentials. It’s a totally false notion though. The people that model are often artists themselves and are often over 30.
It’s not anywhere near a full time job (which would be mind numbingly boring if it was), I get paid well, I don’t dislike the work, it doesn’t stroke my ego, other people enjoy my ‘work’, and it amuses me how much I get paid to do something so easy for me.
But god do I miss going to jiu jitsu at Joao’s. Every single time I go here I’m reminded of that. Every time the instructor steps off the mat mid lesson, doesn’t watch everyone doing the techniques, or can’t say which way to do a technique is better or why it doesn’t matter, when students simply decide they’re done practicing a move and begin to sit around and converse... What’s the difference then between the schools? Obviously the people, the person, and above all in jiu jitsu- the details.
Tiny’s may be one of my favorite restaurant bars in Santa Fe. Not only does the place have a hilarious history, art work by Gib Singleton on the walls (which i must one day buy), funky kitsch collections, and THE best karaoke song collection I’ve ever seen but it’s got good and large servings of New Mexican food and is in general inexplicably old school NM.
The first time I went to Tiny’s was before they renovated and I though it was the second worst dump in town after The Green Onion. I stayed about 5 minutes. But since they replaced the carpet and did some redecorating (and cleaning) I love it.
Here’s a look at some of the songs they’ve got in their list that I intend to sing:
The Streets- fit but don’t you know it
Supergrass- alright
Fountains of Wayne- Stacy’s mom
Cake- short skirt long jacket
Morrisey- The more you ignore me
Justin Timberlake- sexy back
Pink- let’s get this party started
My heart belongs to daddy
Here are some videos of last weekend's Pride On The Plaza. You can see the local drag etc. troupe, the Gender Offenders being led by Wenda Watch, the returned drag queen in town who's dedicating herself to reviving a gay scene around here (THANK GOD). In this one you can juuuust see me in the left corner for a second. I was riding my motorcycle with the Dykes on Bikes (c) (of course). Unlike previous years when the Dykes on Bikes (c) would traditionally lead the parade and anyone with a sort of two or three wheeled motorized contraption would come along with us a group names something like 'the Scooteristras' lead on their dozen scooter and then the bikes followed. Which makes sense i suppose if you don't want to be moved down... Anyway, it was grand fun. Cheryl was also in the parade skating with the local roller derby team, The Santa Fe Disco Brawlers. She's also in the video a little later in a red with white strip-ed shirt. Fabulous~! And i didn't even get sunburnt! And i only saw two people i disastrously tried dating at the dance later that evening!
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