RED ADMIRABLE

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Mon, 31 May 2010 20:40:10 -0500

Megan, Bigger & Smaller

Mon, 31 May 2010 20:33:53 -0500

There was a time in the late 1990s when, for people with a certain mind—or heart—about things, fighting the injustices of globalization was frantically important. I was fifteen when the protests against the WTO in Seattle were met with disproportionate violence and more-proportionate media attention; I’m sure there were fifteen year olds who participated valiantly in the protests, but I was at home in New Jersey.

It wasn’t until the next summer that I met the first person who radicalized me or who, at least, made me want to be radical. Megan Wolf was my counselor at the New Jersey Governor’s School. She’d gone to the same school years before, then graduated from Wesleyan and moved to Manhattan. At some point, her name became Mee-gan. This probably happened at Wesleyan. Megan was very hairy, steampunk before we invented it, a grimy flapper. Megan’s boyfriend came down to our campus at Monmouth University for a puppet-making workshop; they were involved with the Bread & Puppet Theater. Megan’s boyfriend was seven feet tall, had matted pigtails, and appeared in a flowing pink dress. I remember writing a poem in early July about being one of two women at Governor’s School who didn’t shave her armpits. It’s missing, but chances are it was profound.

Megan’s role in almost getting me kicked out of Governor’s School is less clear—in my memory, it was entirely my idea to protest a talk given by the anti-choice gubernatorial candidate Brett Schundler, but had I packed my own massive copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves to bring to Governor’s School? That was the book that provided all the statistics and coat hanger iconography we used on our signs.

When Megan wasn’t acting as a glorified camp counselor, she led walking tours of East Village Starbucks. This, I thought, was brilliant. Treating the corporate monolith like the freak it is, exposing its grotesque footprint, making the hacks inside uneasy, and, for good measure, publicly cementing ones own role as a defier. The late 1990s were, in addition to being a time when multinational corporations seemed like a greater threat to people in Phnom Pehn than in New Orleans, a time when people still felt something for St. Mark’s Place. So Megan started her tours at the Starbucks on Astor Place, at the store which faced St. Marks across Third Avenue. And Megan’s way seemed like the correct way to fight.

This is my first weekend living in the city again, and when I went to St. Mark’s Bookshop this afternoon, I saw that Megan’s flagship Starbucks is now something called the New York Film Academy Cafe. It is open to the public, has free wireless, and if its managers squelch unionizing efforts, I assume the young Film Academy students will have a Dean to whom they can turn.

I took weary note of this victory. Every Starbucks has lost its sheen, and today’s most urgent enemies are harder to fight—leading a walking tour of all the BP stations in my parents’ suburb wouldn’t shame any hacks. Most of those hacks know they use too much gas, supplied by a corporation that puts profits over pelicans and people, and they aren’t sure what to do about it. When I knew Megan, I thought I understood the ways to fight: puppets, coat hangers, cross-dressing and shaming hacks. Was I bigger then? Was the world actually smaller?

I love your geometry.

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:31:22 -0500

I love your geometry.

Last night, I went to see that new Pixar movie. You?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:27:58 -0500

Last night, I went to see that new Pixar movie. You?

Gang of Very Serious 6th Grade Cartoonists At the Public Library Table Next to Mine:

Mon, 18 May 2009 14:45:28 -0500

“You’re telling me her character, but you’re not telling me what she looks like. I can’t draw her character.”

Pause, to allow time for drawing, pencil clutched in hand, tongue sticking a tiny bit out of mouth,

“There. Her lips. I didn’t draw her smiling cause you said she’s never smiling at you.”

Just when you think things can't get WORSE

Fri, 01 May 2009 11:39:21 -0500

The boy from high school who you lost your virginity to (in a stranger's COMPUTER ROOM. On a COT.) facebook messages you and says:

Matt: was up, do you remember me?

1:25amMatt changed his profile picture.

1:54amCaroline: of course I remember you, Emmert. how are you?

1:54amMatt: hahaha. im good how are you?

1:54amCaroline: oh, doing alright. I hear you're engaged?

1:55amMatt: I am, still a whirlwind, but nothing will ever amount to the first time. you were the best.

1:56amCaroline: oh my god.

1:56amMatt: hahah, sorry to be so graphic

1:56amCaroline: right. I certainly HOPE that is not true.

1:56amMatt: what i loved the most was our honesty.

1:56amCaroline: oh, right, for sure. that was the best.

1:57amMatt: i think my fav part was in school that next week. neither you or me gave a shit. so where are you these days

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. That’s the...

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:55:00 -0500

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.

That’s the best line that’s gere, unless you somehow like mammals. I think it’s a really, really good line.

Michael Eric Dyson Just Loves The Sound Of His Own Dialogue

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:47:10 -0500

PS. Guess who we met last night: Professor Michael Eric Dyson — if you don’t know the name you would recognize his talking head from When The Levees Broke. It was pretty cool! He even gave Daddy his card and wants to have an e-mail “dialogue” with him. The perks of celebrity! Actually, he seems like a person who wants to dialogue with EVERYONE. Anyway, it was neat. Love, Mommy

geoduck!

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:37:05 -0500

geoduck!

Photo

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:34:42 -0500

A plus, Emma.

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:56:58 -0600

A plus, Emma.

My mother sends links from America Online. She doesn’t...

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:43:00 -0600

My mother sends links from America Online. She doesn’t know how to change a subject line, so they all come labeled like Chinese spam. Yesterday:

Check out 10 Reasons To Stop Drinking Coffee - AOL Health

Yeah, I checked that out. It included the above image, to accompany Reason 3:

“people who drink too much coffee could start seeing ghosts or hearing strange voices! Students in the study who drank more than seven cups of instant coffee each day were three times more likely to hallucinate than people who drank one cup.”

I wrote back to my mother, and replied all. Because both my sister and father might have been worried, too:

“I can promise you that I will quit consuming caffeine while I am pregnant. Additionally, I can promise you that coffee was not to blame for any hallucinations I may have ever experienced. So, rest easy?”

An hour later, Hannah replied:

“I refuse to read this article.”

So that’s us! We are the best daughters, and I am not even fooling.

Got it. They weren’t having sex, they were having A French...

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:47:00 -0600

Got it. They weren’t having sex, they were having A French Fry!

"To end their zombiehood the banks need more capital."

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:12:13 -0600

“To end their zombiehood the banks need more capital.”

- A silver lining! The economy is so bad, Paul Krugman got to use the word “zombie” four times in his column from February 22nd! Things could be worse. (Things could not be worse).

nevver: Signs and Meaning in Cinema #16 That’s right.

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:55:17 -0600

nevver:

Signs and Meaning in Cinema #16

That’s right.

me: "out East"

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:37:12 -0600

me: "out East"
Caroline: almost 90% of my gchats are about going to the hamptons
me: that is where we are going. yes. most people are just telling their assistants to tell their eighth generation iphones to tell my assistant (little do they know I assist myself), things like this:
[Ariel]: my friend Stephanie, who, apparently, goes to miami just for the weekend because it's raining in NY, planned this weekend
[me]: well well. stephanie sounds like a keeper.
Caroline: I found a 10th generation iphone in the walgreens parking lot last night
me: total smack phone
Caroline: I think I would like Stephanie. I think I would go to Miami with her, when it was raining in NY.
me: yeah she seems chill right?
Caroline: REALLY CHILL. her pockets are full of chill pills.

The brief is due on Monday. So that’s not in too long.

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:04:20 -0600

The brief is due on Monday. So that’s not in too long.

In the throes of desperate economic times, New Orleans remembers...

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:19:45 -0600

In the throes of desperate economic times, New Orleans remembers to celebrate.

Just do it, OKAY.

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:18:26 -0600

Just do it, OKAY.

Matthew: I have a hangnail right now that is significantly interfering with my quality of life. Just so you know.

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:17:17 -0600

Matthew: I have a hangnail right now that is significantly interfering with my quality of life. Just so you know.
me: then I have a facebook account that's a lot like a hangnail