ChaiTeaLatte

A Day Out in Northampton, Part 1 (MD)

J and I and two others (residents) were sitting in Jake's in Northampton having brunch last Saturday. I have to say that I liked Northampton, and Jake's. There were lots of students sitting around the restaurant, many dressed in that 'upper-class urchin' way you often see on college campuses, especially the expensive ones. Scuffed and ruffled and tousled and torn, beautifully and expensively disordered. Out of the corner of my eye, through the window, I see this acid-yellow sign with black letters printed on it. A banner says, IMPEACH BUSH NOW! And right then, I noticed the Veteran's Day parade march in front of the mini anti-war protest taking place in front of a church across the street from Jake's. Nothing much happens. A handful of protestors, 'regulars' I imagine, stand silently as the parade passes and a respectable number of parade-watchers dot the side of the road, holding flags and waving.

"Hey, it's the vets!" I say, as we leave the restaurant and give a little wave. We've got some time before we all break up for the day and go our separate ways (I'm meeting someone and J and the others are going to an Amherst reunion football game) so we walk up and down the little main drag, looking at all of the shops. An impressive array of shops for women, as you might imagine. "I could do some serious shopping here" I say to J and imagine myself dressed like some of the students that I see. A small fortune to look like I don't care.

Later in the day, waiting for my friend to show up, I listen to a Veteran's Day speech on Elm Street, I think. The speaker introduces a Gold Star mother who happens to be in the audience. A short time ago, I wouldn't have even known what that was. The speaker goes on to talk about what his office is doing for veterans who are back from Iraq and Afghanistan. He is some sort of politician, I presume. It feels a little awkward, standing by myself in a strange town listening to a politician give a speech about returning veterans, but I stay until the end of the presentation.

When the crowd breaks up, I reach for my cell and try to get through to my friend. I stand on the sidewalk, watching the rest of the crowd march down the street in the opposite direction. I guess there is more to the Veteran's Day celebration, but I have to wait for my friend, so I stay where I am, and watch members of the crowd walk away, the flag that one of them carries getting smaller and smaller.

Searching for Billy Bragg on Youtube.....(MD)

J, the other 'author' of this blog, says I lost because of the election results (in his usual gentle way, of course, see post below), but I don't think so. I agree with Bill Whittle: "America is not only much, much stronger than you imagine; it's much stronger than you CAN imagine." Yes. I mean, the people of spoken, huh? What exactly they said is a little harder to parse.......okay, some of it's not so hard, but you know what I mean.

I was searching for Billy Bragg on Youtube and found this. It's someone's vacation video, scenes of Germany, with a 'soundtrack' of Billy Bragg covering that old Smiths song, Ask. Ask me ask me ask me....doesn't that take you back? I mean, don't you just want to sing along and jump around the room and dance to it? How weird to watch some total stranger on video wandering around Germany and feel like, somehow, it's your vacation video!

I once had someone ask me in the comments section to SepiaMutiny what on earth a 'righty' like me was doing listening to Worker's Playtime, but come on. It's music! That album takes me back to my school days, my late college days, to living in a garden apartment with my friend Larinda, right across from this old hippie-ish pub, I can't even remember the name, the place I went to after a Luka Bloom show, walking along the quiet campus streets on a hot summer evening, Luka along with my friends and me. Lilac. I distinctly remember the smell of lilac.....and that I had a little headache that night because I had pulled my hair back so tightly, scooped it onto the back of my neck. And my earrings hurt, too (dangly silver earrings from India). Funny the things you remember.

Oh, and I've been spending time on this new Bollywood blog, Ugly Ugly Bollywood Fugly. I love Bollywood. I love the running around fields in Switzerland music, I love the color, the vacant-eyed beauty of the actors and actresses, the complete and utter presentness of it. It's full on life-force dressed up in over the top fashions, yaar. Plus (and I'm being all tangential, but what the heck, no one is reading anyway, except: Hi Mom!) the Boston Ritz-Carlton was bought by an Indian group and will now be called the Taj Boston. There has to be a joke about Boston Brahmins in there somewhere.....

Anyway, I promise to post more and to mercilessly critique JLH. He could use it. Kidding, J! Okay, not kidding. You really could use it.....

Election day…Sorry M, I win (JLH)

I voted!  It was my first time at the polls, having finally become an official citizen of the commonwealth (MA) this year.

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Since I don’t drive, I felt no rush to convert my New York driver’s license when I moved here for residency, but then I noticed that 10 years had passed and my dreams of a 2 bedroom, west side condo in a doorman building overlooking central park were never going to happen.

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Although I find American politics and the corresponding media (not news) coverage entertaining, I doubt that my vote has much impact on me. I live a privileged existence with a nice salary, supportive family and friends, good health care coverage, and I’m too old and (my nephew is too young) to be sent to war.  Massachusetts  residents are extraordinarily liberal on social issues, so I feel like issues of homelessness, substance addition, etc. will be debated and considered whoever is in power.

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I enjoyed the experience of this election nonetheless. Problems with the local economy, housing prices, school reform, big dig and national issues (the war) have harmonized the voices of Massachusetts into a chorus singing for change; and the democratic victory was so massive that the feeling at the poles was one of a celebrating community rather than of a mob marching on the statehouse.

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The last election I actually cared about was in 1980. I was in 7th or 8th grade and revered Jimmy Carter as the only honest voice in Washington; a man demonized by gas guzzling, slogan slinging, blame mongers. Looking back at the narrow victory against Ford and his team’s brashly arrogant approach to politics and legislation, I realize this highly intelligent giant hearted man had no place in Washington.   Regan turned out to be an excellent president (Iran Contra … and his successors aside).

It was the beginning of the PC age and I had organized my geeky friends to set up our junior high computer lab (Radio shack TRS-80s) for outcome predictions based on exit polls. We planned to stay up into the night entering the numbers from the TV networks, but it was a short depressing evening.

VCR nostalgia (JLH)

I don’t usually buy into “slippery slope” paranoia [slippery slope from gay marriage to the end of the family, from selling wine in grocery stores to rampant alcoholism, from health insurance reform to socialized medicine…], but I’ve been sliding out of control into the consumer electronics market since I bought my Macbook Pro this summer.

I just spent so much money at Best Buy today that CitiBank was ringing me to question credit card fraud as I entered my apartment with my purchases- a 26” Samsung flat panel TV and Bose 321 surround sound/DVD system.  I now have widescreen and stereo under control of a universal remote. It’s not a shopping addiction since I literally felt sick while trying to decide which system to buy while being blasted by hip-hop and lectured about resolution and rebate plans by salesmen who could not comprehend my sense of woe - I hate change. Nor is it any need to compete with my Phat friends. 

Ironically, it was my frugality that overrode my thriftiness. 

I had been living with a boom box, analog television (coaxial cable input only) with mono-sound, and a VCR. My sister had bought me a DVD player, but it was a pain to hook up (required a RF converter), did not give me the same control over movie viewing as the VCR (fast forward is not the same), and didn’t allow recording.  I watched only 3 discs in 2 years.

I wanted to play music from my new computer through a stereo so I could expand my listening choices beyond commercial CDs, I figured I would upgrade the TV so it could play through the same system.  The TV picture is mediocre with analog input (including VCR), so I feel like I’m headed for digital cable and TIVO.