An email from amazon.com to me:

...you might like to know that Dispossessed: Life in Our World's Urban Slums will be released in paperback soon.

Woo hoo!

Some random things from the news:

Sean Paul talks with Jim DeRogatis of the Sun-Times about his progressive attitudes towards women:

Just the other day, I was in Chicago seeing a lady walking to work, and she had a baby on her arm and work stuff in the other hand. You do not see many men doing that. So if I tell a woman, 'Shake that thing / I find you sexy to me,' I hope that's inspiring her to feel, 'Yeah, I work hard all the time, and I've gotta take care of the kids, but someone sees that I'm hot,' and that makes her feel good about herself."

Suzanne C. Ryan of the Boston Globe chats with Mike Wallace:

Q. President George W. Bush has declined to be interviewed by you. What would you ask him if you had the chance?

A. What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military ... The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have ... Why do you think they nominated you? ... Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?

And a man in Miami Beach has lynched Santa Claus (it's worth looking at the pictures):

"It's just wrong, I mean who would want their children to see this, and it reminds adults of lynching," neighbor Estelle Farnsworth said. "It's just nasty, there is no spirit of Christmas in this."

The Santa also has his hands and legs bound by some type of wire.

"Now the kids are sad with that, you know, because they say it's not fair with Santa," neighbor Tanira Giacian said. "Santa should be around bringing their gifts, looking for the gifts, and not hanging on a tree. They're just kind of scared of that."

I'm working on a story for class about how the pension system for the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority-responsible for the el and buses) is underfunded. This is every bit as exciting as it sounds.

Anyway, while digging through Google, I came across this gem about Carole Brown, Chairman of the CTA. This comes from the time when she was profiled by Crain's Chicago Business as one of the "40 Under 40." Brown had only recently been appointed as Chair.

It took her only a few weeks on the job to recognize the CTA's importance to area residents. "A lot of us just know it is there, but we don't think about how many people rely on it or the impact it has on people's lives," she says.

I mean, who knew that people rely on mass transit? Presumably candidates to chair a gigantic mass transit system might have given the matter a thought or two.

I bought a painting today. Isn't that weird?

I stood in the store a few weeks ago pondering buying a pair of sneakers, shoes that I knew I wanted, could afford, and were on sale for a good price. I am not an impulsive shopper.

So if I dithered around about spending $45 on sneakers, classic Adidas Sambas, I'm kind of amazed that I bought this painting (which cost more than the sneakers, less than a month's rent. I wouldn't be so cagey but it was quite affordable and I think the artist is great and I want him to sell a ton of work and get paid big-time and somehow I feel like actually putting the price here on the internet would set a weird cyberspace price celing into motion so why not be safe?)

There was an arts and crafts show at Hull House today. They threw open their doors to artists and craftspeople this weekend to set up tables and show their work.

It was all fine, nothing I really cared for but only one dreadful table with plastic doll faces sewn onto mammoth crochet-dresses. I went because I was hanging out with my friend Barry and his boyfriend, Mitch, who heard about the show and had somehow imagined that he was going to discover a little-old-lady knitter who made amazing gray hats. My fantasy life has never included discovering amazing homemade hats but it takes all kinds.

So I looked around and then, tucked into a hallway, were these paintings. I almost hate giving the link here because seeing the paintings on the internet isn't quite the same. Of course it isn't, otherwise we'd all just dial into the Louvre or whatever. I looked at them and then we walked down the corridor to see the other folks stuck in the weird, side space, and then back to Harry's stuff. And looked and looked. He had a little booklet with color copies of other recent work and I connected with this work. There was one smaller painting I liked very much. Isn't that cool? I really thought about that one but I kept returning to this one. Actually, mine is slightly different; same guys but the writing is different. Tiny, penciled words that surround the figures. I really wish it came across better online. I wish that looking at that image on your computer screen could make you feel the way that I feel when I look at the painting. I was going to type the words that surround the figures but that isn't likely to make things any better so you are going to have to take my word or just come over and look at it.

I didn't mention the part about him being from Tennessee. I had the feeling that he was the only artist there who isn't from Chicago. He said that he hoped to learn more about the Chicago art scene by participating in this show.

"I have a crush on your paintings," I said.

Somehow, they made me feel like Tennessee. They made me feel like the very best parts of living in Nashville, the music and the cars that would drive crazy because the drivers knew me and wanted to honk and wave and offer me a ride. Even though I love Chicago and it feels like home it doesn't feel like that.

They weren't expensive paintings but they were more than I had. He told me to make an offer. And I stood there, wondering how I would feel if I left without it. The show runs tomorrow as well, the smart thing would be to go home and sleep on it then, if I still wanted it, I could go back tomorrow and make an offer.

But Barry has a car, I don't, and we're supposed to get 2-4" of snow tonight and the more I thought about it, the more I worried that it might slip away, that I might not get to act on this crush.

After I wrote a check (do I normally carry around a checkbook? No, I do not) we put the painting in Barry's car and went back to their apartment to eat nachos and watch dumb home decorating shows and play with their dogs. And all the time there I tried to engineer some buyer's remorse, wanting to check in with myself and see how I felt. Was that a weird rush, where I just bought something expensive in the heat of the moment without really thinking about it and now I would feel stupid, having this big painting as a reminder of that dumb afternoon?

No.

I was happy when we got back in the car and I could look at it again. And I moved some prints around in my living room, to give the painting a good spot. Now when I come home, walk through the kitchen, and into the living room BAM there they are, those two guys dancing.

Just because something starts out as a crush doesn't mean it won't blossom into love.

In Toronto for the week. Alex has spent the last 3 Canadian Thanksgivings (early October) in Chicago so I'm spending one in Toronto.
They spend a lot of money here on public service advertisements. In the subway there are beautifully art-directed signs encouraging me to visit an elderly person, discouraging me from spanking a child, and challenging me to find an alternative to pesticides for my lawn.
I may have blogged about this topic before but whatever. You know how Americans often advertise gasoline prices not by saying "Gas," but with the word "Unleaded"? Even though you couldn't find any leaded gas if you wanted some. Well, in Toronto they do a similar thing with milk; they refer to the fact that it is homogonized even though, as long as I've been alive, all milk is homogonized.
The thing is, they abbreviate it when they are advertising the price. So convenience stores boast, "$2 Homo!"
We saw the new Harry Potter movie last night with Alex's cousin. There is a Burger King as one of the movie theater's concessions. The B.K. serves a Canadian snack favorite, Poutine, which is french fries covered in beef gravy and sprinkled with cheese curds. I didn't have any Poutine but Alex and his cousin seemed to enjoy theirs.

In studying journalism I've learned this: to write about a trend, you need three examples and an expert to talk about it. Thusfar I only have two examples and no expert but this is a blog and not real journalism anyway.

Here's my observation: Words that begin with "Metro-" and end in "-al" are bad news. After "Metrosexual" I have now come across "Metrospiritual."

A definition:

Metrospirituality is the mainstreaming of Taoist, Buddhist, and Hindu values, among others, into an easily digestible, buyable form.

I'm hoping, based on the passage below, that the writer is ultimately snickering at Metrospirituality rather than embracing it.

One of the first things to catch the eye is a waist-high white Buddha-like sculpture. Not knowing quite what it was, I asked a sales associate, who didn’t immediately know the answer, but was extremely pleasant about it. We consulted a book on Buddhas, and when that didn’t help, asked another associate, who proclaimed it Ganesh, the elephant god, being held by his mother. Whether or not this is ultimately right, does it matter? It’s Indian, it’s expensive, and a lot of people have believed in it for a very long time, probably with very good reason.

When I start up my internet at home, it defaults to the Netscape homepage. This is different from my own homepage (which I DO know how to re-set, thanks) and it's covered with all sorts of headlines, including the one about Sulu. So I totally missed the more interesting Sheryl Swoopes coming out story.

A big news period here what with the ChiWhiSox winning the world series, the withdrawing of Harriet Miers, the pending indictments in the CIA leak case and Mr. Sulu, George Takai, is gay.

Notes the coming out story:

You come to realize, “This is who I am. And by gum, I’m not going to let it be a constraint!”

I guess that going public at age 68 means that you end up saying things like "by gum."

As a side note, apparently it wasn't a total secret. Takai is a long-time member of a L.A. branch of the gay running club Front Runners. I take it then that there isn't all that much overlap between Star Trek enthusiasts and runners???

Alex and I were chatting recently about the musical CATS. He's never seen it and I saw it because, well, it was the 80's and it seemed important for my family to do that at the time.
Anyway, for all of our chatter and giggling about the show we never asked the most obvious question; Why isn't there a similar musical about dogs?

Perhaps you might want to create such a musical yourself and begin your own musical theater empire. Too late! Been done! And, after what is described as a successful year-long run in Los Angeles, a second company of BARK! THE MUSICAL opened (or as the press release prefers "unleashed") in Chicago last night.

From the online description:

BARK! the rave new musical about man’s truest friend, as told and sung from the doggie point of view in a city Animal Shelter.

Howlingly funny, fast-paced and invariably poignant, BARK! is THE new American musical. With bone-clutching performances by a pedigree six member cast and original music by the songwriting team of Francis & Dillard, BARK! will have you yipping and yapping for more.

Exquisitely and outrageously directed and choreographed by the legendary Kay Cole—the original Maggie in A Chorus Line—BARK! has left the critics drooling.

Maybe it's just me but there is a definite "English as a second language" vibe to that description. "Exquisitely and outrageously directed" ???

If you got any enjoyment at all out of WAITING FOR GUFFMAN then really, you must check out the pictures of the cast (like CATS it's all actors dressed as animals) but, most especially, you must click on the audio samples from the original cast recording. The aforementioned Francis & Dillard have done some truly amazing work with the songs: "Sock-a-holic" ," FOOOOOOD", "Three Bitches" and "Whizzin' on Stuff".

The White Sox are going to the World Series!
I don't care much about baseball but it's exciting when a local team is in a big-ass championship. It was fun with the Bulls and since neither they nor the Bears are going to do anything any time soon, the White Sox is what I have to work with. Cool. My boss and several of my co-workers are diehard Sox supporters so they'll all be in good moods for a while.

Enough baseball, on to love. I hung out with my friend Katie yesterday. She was feeling low because she had gone to a wedding where the couple had written their own vows. As Katie described them, "they were full of that 'a dove shot out of my heart' type stuff." She was low because she realized that if she and her fella were to write their own vows, hers would have to begin, "Our love is like a fat kid with a bucket over his head trying to make his way through a hedge maze."

I'm happy that when I repeated all of this to Alex he 1)Laughed as hard as I did and 2)Agreed with me, that far from being a depressing analogy, it is an apt and kind of romantic one.

Also I really like Katie's intention to play "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MGs as her processional.

I am a little bit obsessed with the story of the alligator-swallowing python in Florida. Here's a great pic.
The 13-foot python tried to swallow the 6-foot alligator. From the AP report:
Although the gator may have been injured before the battle began -- wounds were found on it that apparently were not caused by python bites -- Mazzotti thinks it was alive when the battle began. And it may have clawed at the python's stomach as the snake tried to digest it, leading to the snake's demise.

The python was found with the gator's hindquarters protruding from its midsection. Its stomach still surrounded the alligator's head, shoulders and forelimbs. The remains were discovered and photographed Sept. 26 by Michael Barron, a helicopter pilot and wildlife researcher.

Pythons in the Everglades have been a problem for a while now. This story discusses several battles between pythons and alligators, witnessed by various tourists.

Rhonda update:
"What's up with all those old people dying on that boat in New York? It's so sad!"

(pause)

"If you can't swim you shouldn't be on a boat anyway!"