2004-02-19-9:58 a.m.
Thursday February 19

Hello from New York City!
I was hanging out at home, checking my emal as always, and I got a message from Kathleen Hanna about housesitting. I jumped at the chance, and, two days ago I got on a train and here I am! It's pretty awesome.

The house is a restored 200 year-old groundfloor. It's great, nicce kitchen. Beautiful animals. I sleep with the cat in the music studio.

So I met Adam from Beastie Boys, Adam H, and he is incredibly sweet. He and Kathleen have a great relationship after all this time. I also met JD from Le Tigre, and she offered to take me around. I think I will call her later.

I'm pretty shy about everything, but JD was so genuine, perhaps I'll have her over for food or maybe I'll ask her where she likes to go. I dunno.

I guess they are coming over in awhile to do some work up here. Maybe I will stay, maybe I won't. I have a lot of options.

A block away is the New Gallery, or New Museum or something. There is a John Waters exhibit I have to see.

I'm also pretty close to the WTC site. The dog is barking...just a sec.

So, I will post pics as I get them. This is good, really good!

2003-12-26-4:24 p.m.
font face="Annifont" size="6"> Friday December 26

I want to make something clear about what I said about Scrooge.I received a comment that reminded me that Scrooge was a bastard and probably not a capitalist.

I thought I said that already. That Scrooge was a bastard. If I didn't, sorry, I forgot to mention that. It wasn't an article, just a some thoughts. Yeah, Scrooge is a bastard.

But lets think about it for a minute. Was Dickens motivation for writing Scrooge to show what happens to bastards is that they go to hell? I think he was preaching about the plight of the poor, and that some people are greedy and should feel nothing but shame on Christmas. As I said before, they were trying to popularize Christmas at the time. And who, might I ask, were the people who eschewed Christmas?

Puritans.

These were the people whose job was shame. In their bible, it says they must feed the poor. Fine.

Most people wanted to celebrate a secular Christmas. They were trying to get rid of people who celebrated #1: too secular a christmas, and, #2: too religious a christmas. Why he picked on merchants was for his own political reasons. Perhaps, as I said, the stereotype of Jewish merchants who were shown as greedy and miserly with hooked noses. And that sucks.

Anyway, Scrooge was a bastard, sure. He also had a damned hard life. He had a right to be left alone, just as a poor person who doesn't want to mingle and mix does. The only difference? Scrooge had money and someone else wanted some of it.

2003-12-24-12:05 p.m.
Christmas Eve, 2003

Merry Christmas, Human Light, Darwin Day, Newton's birthday, and Joyeux Noel to you all. I am taking a little break from my turkey today. Apparently I am supposed to prepare a turkey today and not tomorrow. Fine. It's all good.

We got written up in PC MAg yesterday. We got many hits, which is great. But then someone complained about us on their message board. He said something like "What about Hitler? Would he have been considered a crackpot? This is not funny."

Well, usually I would call the rule on that guy, the one that said he automatically lost the argument. But then I thought, well, maybe they didn't think of Hitler as a crackpot! Perhaps if there had been the internet, his ideas would have been discredited as crackpot? I think that yes, some of our people are mentally ill, but that doesn't make them disfunctional...just as Hitler wasn't. That means we need to make people see this stuff for what it is, the workings of mentally ill and uncritical minds. It's up to the reader to assess for himself whether he wants to feel sorry for the writer of the crackpot sites. So throw Hitler in an encounter group and give him meds. Unfortunately, Hitler already had six million Jews killed. It's too late. It's not too late for ... Gene Ray now, is it?

Wink

(That`s my way of saying that I`m not claiming we could have stopped Hitler! Nor can we stop people from using their free speech, even if it is crackpot speech!

2003-12-15-2:04 a.m.
A few thoughts about A Christmas Carol

I've been thinking about the story of Scrooge today. In fact, it's on television right now. My thoughts aren't quite coherent, but I thought I'd list them.

*What if this is some kind of anti-semitism thing, where Scrooge represents the racist view of the Jewish merchant/miser with the hooked nose? That's how Scrooge is always pictured. He gets really annoyed by people always telling him "Merry Christmas," and always admonishing him for not "keeping Christmas" in some kind of religious way. That's what the 3 spirits do, especially the Spirit of Christmas Present.

*Belle, his girlfriend from the past, dumps him, not the other way 'round. And in a rather cruel way, because of politics. She doesn't like his worshipping a golden idol. (Another Christian thing, not anti-Jew, but anti-"pagan.") The spirit of Christmas Past asks him why he doesn't run after her. It sounds like she didn't really mean to dump him, then, she was only testing him. She knows he's proud. She threw her ring at him like in a cheap grocery-store romance. Well, that's what Dickens called the story.

*The story admonishes people for not wanting to be social. Doesn't Scrooge have the right to be alone? It hints that Scrooge doesn't r eally want to be alone. That's what people always assume, that nobody in his right mind ever wants to be alone. I think some people are perfectly happy being alone. I remember hearing a quite form the story that the true measure of a man was made by counting his friends. I know some people who have plenty of "friends," a great number, who are not all that great. People gravitate towards mean people sometimes, because they are controlling and good dressers, and have money. In fact, in the end of the story, Scrooge runs around making friends by throwing money and gifts at them. They were pretty happy with him then. Would Scrooge be such a loved man in the end if he weren't rich?

*Scrooge's redemption comes through fear of hellfire and the fear of being hated after death. This is a christian value, this fear. It's not a value of mine.

*Tiny Tim is an innocent, yes, but as a character in the book, he exists to shame us. He is also sort of a Linus in the story, having long conversations with ministers and raising theological thoughts. He is like a little Jesus. We should all be ashamed of our happiness. Yet Dickens wrote this book during a definitive time in the history of Christmas. The time in England when people were getting sick and tired of Puritans who were trying to take over and outlaw the making of merry at Christmas. Business fathers are documented as having meetings about changing the tradition of christmas to popularize it again as a small, Cratchetlike family observance, to get the youth off the streets. Ruffians were observing the old pagan ways of demanding loot, food and liquor from the rich, and making a lot of racket and roughhousing in the streets. But the family observances were good for business. Joining the pagan merriment with christianity was. The funny thing is, Scrooge would have been part of these meetings if he had lived. Unless he were Jewish or atheist. And that would make him bad.

I'm not saying Scrooge was a great guy, but he gets bad-mouthed a lot. Anyone confronted by a look into what people say about them behind their backs have good chances of hearing stuff that surprises them. People suck. Why doesn't Scrooge get a chance to justify his actions during the looks into his past? Was the Spirit of Christmas Past being a little Chopralike when she encourages him to cry for his inner child? Is this book, a popular section in weekly magazines, just popular psychobabble? Was Scrooge justified in not donating money to charity? Did he have a right to refuse without being sent to hell for it? Did giving those men so much money on christmas buy his way into heaven?

This is a fascinating and great story; extremely effective. But I wonder if there's a better way of telling it, without falling into Christian dogma and irrational values. What of the value of privacy and individuality? Tolerance? There is certainly great value in looking objectively at one's past actions and the effects they have. But what of looking at the benefits of one's actions as well, a la It's A Wonderful Life? (I guess I kind of answered that one.) I shall look into this further.

2003-12-14-11:57 p.m.
Sunday 14 Decembre

Some dumb email I got recently

I am just laughing my rear end off at your lack of knowledge and so hysterical misuse of religious doctrine to promote your self serving financial plot. It will never work and are you the least bit curious as to why, if so just pick up your Koran or any religious doctrine, fools, there will be about 30 messiahs, haven't you read any material of this. You are right only about the things that you quote from the religious doctrines, everything else is just funny, really. Try actually reading the entire bible, and maybe you could see how ludicrous your ideas are, even to point of blasphemy, be careful, you could be treading on very unstable ground. Best of luck to you in your futile pursuit. Yahweh.

Apparantly I am an evil capitalist sitting at my desk, counting the money I made from my website, and laughing maniacally. I am headed straight to hell, (I obviously know this) and if only I were to read the entire bible, as this writer, who masquerades as God itself (isn't that a really serious sin?) has.

I have not, in fact, read the entire bible, but I will bet you dollars to doughnuts, that I have read at least a thousand more pages than this "Yahweh" gentleman/woman. And I don't have to bet that I understand what I have read, and he understands only, perhaps, John 3:16. If that. If he did understand, he would either run, screaming, from this immoral religion, or he himself is completely im-or-amoral.

I don't think he was writing in response to this website, but if he did, and he sees this, I invite him to click on the holy icon on this page and take the tests. I am over 95% on all of them.

Oh, and btw, as for blasphemy, Yahweh sucks donkey dongs.

Merry Christmas.

2003-11-28-10:44 a.m.
Friday, 28 Novembre

So, I's a married lady now.

I will find an actual picture soon and post it. I had a normal, uneventful marriage ceremony in a courtroom, with lots of his family there to watch us. Aunt Susanne was my witness. I did get choked up. When she asked me if I would take this man, I said, "Oui. Yes. I do."

I had this really great hairdo done the day before, and I wish I hadn't washed my hair. It was so exactly Louise Brooks (nobody had ever done it for me before) that I freaked out. Franc got this lovely 50's 'do. He said he had never had his hair actually styled before. He had a great experience. The stylist was a true artist, and Huguette had him come to the apartment. Boy, is she ever connected!

After the wedding, we went to a diner for breakfast, and we went home to nap. Then we were taken to Uncle Bob's for a "fondue dinner."

Were we ever wrong! When we got there, it was all decorated like a real wedding reception, with streamers and all kinds of lovely things to eat. Lots of wine! And of course a wedding cake!

There were maybe 35 people there,; perhaps more. I met François' father's brother, Uncle Yves, and his son, Philippe. Even Grandma was there. There was a table covered in gifts. Everyone drank and got happy. Franc's old philosophy professor came, both to the wedding and to the reception. We cut the cake, danced, did a few silly things, and there were a couple of traditional Quebecois songs that of course I didn't know. Franc's godmother was there. She apparently had been drunk all weekend - poor Huguette. She apparently gets all Lovey-Dovey when she drinks, which was entirely true. She loves me so much! LOL!

I was a bit embarrassed when Uncle Yves made Franc and I sit on Phillipe until his face turned red. He was such a skinny kid.

Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, the songs. Franc's godmother played the spoons, which is some traditional thing here, I guess. And grandma, 90 year-old grandma, sand some song in which the refrain, in english, is "God Damned Son of a Bitch." She knew all of the verses.

There were special toasting glasses for us, which we used, a bit. We managed to drink a little champagne.

After we opened a few gifts, and several envelopes full of $ (we didn't announce anything), they shuffled us out. They were urgent. We didn't know why, until we got outside.

There was a white stretch limo out there, straight out of an 80's John Hughes movie! It had neon and champagne, and little fake stars and such. It took us to a place called "Le Chablis."

It was nice, at first. There was a bed, and a nice giant tv. But of course what did I see but a big spiral staircase! Upstairs was a wonderland of luxury! There was a big enclosure where there was a giant shower with heated tiles, and several showerheads. Also, a huge jacuzzi with lights...and a mirror on the ceiling, of course!

In another room up there was another tv, a couch, and a fireplace. Also a little bar and a nice balcony. There were buttons everywhere. We immediately jumped in the jacuzzi, of course.

I did not hesitate to take pictures all over the room, which I will upload as soon as I get the pics back.

We needed a couple of days afterwards to recouperate! We haven't gone shopping yet of course. No cards either. Franc wants to sleep too much. Maybe he's waiting for snow, I dunno. We have to freakin' walk to the mall!

Yesterday I made a lovely chicken and pumpkin bisque to welcome in christmas season, and sort of celebrate American Thanksgiving. I have been playing christmas carols for a week now, and Franc doesn't mind. Thank goodness. I wonder how he will feel about the decorations!