Once again, browsing a news aggregate site, I happen upon a list of “hot” stories, sorted by… What? Color? Flavor?
As always, nice to see we have our priorities straight. And since I am such a huge fan of ketchup, I can’t hate on Heinz for making those not-at-all wasteful disposable packets even more convenient!
Saturday, February 6th 8:00pm!
Come see some of LA’s best up and coming talent perform at the world famous Comedy Store on Sunset! The show is put together by the marvelous comedienne Cathy Lewis, and features a lot of amazing female (and male, less amazingly) comedic talent!
The show is upstairs in the Belly Room–Walk to the right side of the Comedy Store patio and enter through the back.
The Comedy Store: 8433 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90069 - $10 Cover 21+
The Ve on the YouTube: youtube.com/vemagni
My latest post on Billy Corgan’s blog about holistic livin’:
Everything From Here To There » Blog Archive » Life Labyrinthitis.
Talks about the causes and effects of vertigo, of both physical and psychological origin.
(Posted a week late, but written during that badass rainstorm last week.)
‘Whites only’ basketball league announced | ajc.com.
“only players that are natural-born United State citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league.”
” According to the Chronicle, Lewis said he wants to emphasize “fundamental basketball” instead of ’street ball’ played by ‘people of color.’
‘There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,’ Lewis told the paper. ‘I don’t hate anyone of color.’ “
Umm… Are you out of your f!@*&ing mind? Like… Wow… Really? Really? I know maybe it doesn’t seem fair to you white dudes that you’re not the richest, most powerful people in the world and the best at sports, but seriously?
20 bucks says they get Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh to do (non)color commentary.
I am so happy to be back in LA, I can hardly stand it! Though I’ve only been here one week, I barely remember trudging through the snow and ice in Berlin, desperately trying to get to the grocery store before 8:00 because it’s Saturday and if I don’t shop now, I’ll starve until Monday…
Well, today’s Sunday. It’s a gorgeous day outside, and not only do I think I’ll go to the grocery store, but I think I’ll get a steak–because amazingly enough, finding a decent steak at the store–on a Sunday–that won’t cost half the month’s rent is not difficult! In fact, most things here aren’t!
Maybe it sounds a bit pathetic, but I just want to use my energy for creating, for accomplishing and relating, and not for doing simple everyday things like feeding myself.
On that note, I bought my allergy-havin’ ass a box of Rice Chex. It was $2, and delicious. I look forward to waking up to more Rice Chex tomorrow!
Ok, I’m very happy about the food situation, but there is more. Last night I spent several hours at the Comedy Store on Sunset watching a group of really fantastic comediennes tear up the stage (ok, yeah, a few good male comics as well. They were great, actually.). There were 3 rooms booked solid with comedians all night, and though the crowds liked it, they obviously didn’t give a second thought to how lucky we are to live in a city so rich with comedic talent. Comedy is so important to me, and I think to the world, that it’s a bit hilarious that these people don’t see how lucky they are! But they showed up, which of course is the most important part.
Some videos from one of my last performances at the Kookaburra Club in Berlin. I do believe this was on my birthday, December 15th–English Comedy Night hosted by Wodonga’s own Kim Eustice.
More videos on my youtube channel at youtube.com/vemagni!
DC Court Rejects Bid for a Gay Marriage Referendum – NYTimes.com.
Nice to see that some judges aren’t afraid to point out the obvious:
“D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith N. Macaluso ruled Thursday in favor of the city. She said the board’s action was justified because the initiative would in effect authorize discrimination.”
Only 5 days left in Berlin, and I’m taking inventory. Partially because I’ve been incapacitated for the past week, but also because I am once again starting my life over… Sort of. More like returning to the scene of many old crimes, but as a different person.
Living in Berlin has been rough. Moving here was rough, what happened as soon as I got here (miserably failed attempt at a relationship) was rough, finding a place to live was rough, living there was rough, deciding to leave Berlin was rough… And of course, Berliners are rough. The great irony of being immersed in the English comedy scene of a rough German city is not lost on me. And it’s not rough in the “big cities are rough” kind of way. I’ve lived in many bigger and badder cities, and as far as city life goes, Berlin is pretty mild. But there’s something especially defeating about being a stranger in a strange land while trying to cope with the ordinary roughness of life. My kudos to those of you out there doing it.
As someone who moved practically every year of my life until I was 22, I fully, wholeheartedly, unabashedly hate moving. Hate isn’t even close to being an adequate description. But if we want progress, we do what we have to do to move forward, and for me that meant leaving LA for the past 2.5 years and getting something else from the world. It was never about finding the right place, or believing that LA was bad, or that Europe was better. I loved LA, but was incredibly unhappy. Sometimes comfort is a slow death.
So this should be interesting… Moving back after everything I’ve experienced and having the chance to look some old demons in the face. Hopefully when they look back at me, they see a very different person.
So I finally finished Five Weeks in a Balloon, and I didn’t end up liking it any more as it went on. I don’t really know why, but the story just didn’t appeal to me. But the literal narrative aside, the book is a sad reminder of the predominant European condescension towards Africa and anyone of color back in the 1800’s (Five Weeks was published in 1863).
I believe I already mentioned that the book starts exactly the same as all of his other exploration stories (versus his survival stories, which start with a catastrophic event whisking a group of intrepid men somewhere or other). Since this is an earlier work, and I’ve already read many of Verne’s later works, I think the unabashed racism comes as a bit of a shock compared to the more tolerant, albeit ignorant, tones of the later stories.
Some quotes:
Nonchalance towards slavery, listing slaves among other “luxuriant items” traded by Arabs in Africa: “They trade in gums, ivory, fine muslin and slaves. Their caravans traverse these equatorial regions… in search of those articles of luxury and enjoyment which the wealthy merchants covet.”
On the finer things in Africa: “Why is it that such savage countries get all these fine things?”
A foreboding of the consequences of overconsumption: “The races of the future may repair hither… Just note the progress of events: .. Asia was the first nurse of the world… For about four thousand years she travailed, she grew pregnant, she produced, and then, when stones began to cover the soil… her children abandoned her exhausted and barren bosom. You next see them precipitating themselves upon young and vigorous Europe, which has nourished them for the last two thousand years. But already her fertility is beginning to die out; …Thus we are already seeing the millions rushing to the luxuriant bosom of America… In its turn, that new continent will grow old; its virgin forests will fall before the axe of industry, and its soil will become weak through having too fully produced what had been demanded of it…. Then, Africa will be there to offer to new races the treasures that for centuries have been accumulating in her breast.”
Although this hasn’t happened, because Verne, like all the other shortsighted white men back in the day, didn’t give the African people any credit towards utilizing their own native resources, and didn’t even foresee them as having the intellectual capacity to develop technology and trade to destroy their homeland on their own, or to suffer remotely the consequences of globalized capitalism, corruption and pollution.
I guess that on top of the story of three white dudes in a balloon over Africa not appealing to me, I was constantly pulled out of the story by moronic, ignorant remarks about the “black savages” and the superiority of Europeans.
“These tribes are considered man-eaters… It has also been asserted that these natives had tails, like mere quadrupeds; but it was soon discovered that these appendages belonged to the skins of animals that they wore for clothing… But one thing that has been proven true is the ferocity of these tribes, who are really fond of human flesh…”
“…If I have to be eaten, in a moment of famine, I want it to be for your [his companions'] benefit…; but the idea of feeding those black fellows–gracious! I’d die of shame!”
There’s a lot more, but you get the idea. Also, I didn’t enjoy reading about how much fun it was for the sportsman in the group to kill elephants, and how much he wanted to just kill everything he saw for sport. Yes, Europeans were so very civilized.
Then there’s the fun reading the translation of Verne’s French. As previously mentioned, Verne’s translator often used the verb “ejaculate” to indicate an interjection in the dialogue. It happened a lot in this book, along with some other choices of words that are comical after 100+ years of language evolution. Some funny quotes:
“The Victoria resumed her flight, driven along by a spanking breeze.”
“Be quiet on that score, my dear Dick. With a little medicine, I shall work my way through the affair!”
“Ah!” ejaculated Kennedy, “the horrible brute! I can hold back no longer.”
“Oh!” ejaculated the astonished friends.
So I didn’t like this one, but the later books really are a world apart in their tone. And though Verne was probably playing up the characteristics of the arrogant British rather than expressing any agenda of his own (he was generally more about capturing realism in his stories), it is just a sad reminder of why the slave trade was so ubiquitously accepted at the time. But I don’t recommend reading this book unless you’re fascinated by the science of balloon travel. Around the World in Eighty Days is a much better adventure story.
My latest post on Everything from here to there:
Everything From Here To There » Blog Archive » Remembered Worlds.
Talks about my wacky theory on how we create the worlds in sci-fi and fantasy stories. Remember folks, it’s just a theory. 
