After going to see Jello Biafra speak last night, I may be OD’ed on information about the US government that will piss me off, but once I’m ready I might have to go watch The Real War on Terror produced by the UK channel Channel Four.
As for Jello Biafra’s show, I really enjoyed it. He is quite funny and sarcastic and we share a lot of the same political beliefs. That said, I didn’t get a whole lot of new information from the experience. I did like some of his poetry, though. He opened with
Shut Up, Be Happy, and later did another piece I really enjoyed,
Die for Oil, Sucker. The show was really ideal, I think, for someone just waking up to the chaos that is the real world today and wanting to be motivated to do something about it.
The show itself lasted far longer than I had expected. It started at a little after 7:00 PM, and at 9:30 he did Die for Oil, Sucker and I figured that was the end but as it turned out, it was time for a 20 minute break instead during which I caught up a bit on my In Over Your Head podcasts. I had forgotten to resubscribe after migrating operating systems to linux and back to XP and there were several I had missed. By the way, if you haven’t listened yet and enjoy hip hop, you need to give this show a try. There’s always great music, sometimes an interesting interview, and I really like what he has to say about doing what you love. In many ways, his point of view and what he talks about reminds me very much of what I talked about (and perhaps need to live a bit more) back in the yurt years but from a totally different angle. While I was a new parent and recent dropout from mainstream american society living in the country because I couldn’t both drop out and be true to my beliefs, he seems to be able to live in the city, do what he loves, and be true to himself. Me, I’m still working on that trying to balance between living the city life which I love, and selling my soul to the corporate world. I like the balance I’ve struck now, though – and it helps to be able to be myself at work which was much less the case in blue-state America.
Anyway, after the 20 minute break he spoke for almost another two hours! This man has stamina, drive, and inspiration. I was quite impressed. But my plans for the evening were somewhat shot. I had figured on a two hour show, get out at 9:00, and go grab something to eat before heading home (I hadn’t had time for dinner earlier). No luck there, though. So I ended up wandering around Toronto at midnight trying to find somewhere I wanted to eat. Sure, there were sub shops and pita shops open but I wanted something spicy. I finally ended up in Chinatown where there were several restaurants not only open but with lots of people (and surprisingly, not the drunken night-club goers but sober 20-30somethings). I ended up at Pho 88 where I had some lemongrass tofu and rice before hopping on the streetcar to head home.
I had always wanted to go on the TTC late at night to see just who was out there at that hour. I have to say, though, it was disappointing overall. The majority of people (at least on the subway and Spadina streetcar) were people going to/from/between nightclubs and were loud, drunk, and obnoxious. I had somehow romanticized the idea in my head, expecting more like the people in After Hours, I think.
Finally, I stumbled into the house at about 1:30 and found Sage passed out in the papasan chair and so I went to bed. What seemed like days later (but this morning she told me it was at 2:00 AM – about 15 minutes after I went to sleep), she came in to tell me that she was so deeply asleep she didn’t know I’d arrived and had just tried calling me to see why I was still out.
So now I have been awake for nearly two hours after getting only five hours of sleep. I remember when I was back in university I could stay out late, go out drinking, and wake up early and feel fine. Now I find that if I do the same thing, even without drinking, I still wake up with something like a hangover.
In a rut
Last night I came across this article, and though it is not confirmed and may not be entirely true, I find myself angry and depressed over the fact that it is all so believable. Ten years ago the account of what the current US administration is doing could have been published as dystopian science fiction. I can’t say as I’ve felt this way about the state of the world since the early 1980’s.
Of course by that standard, I’m probably reading the dystopian novel that the current history is based upon. And that could have something to do with my current malaise as well. After all, I came across the above article after falling asleep on the couch reading that book. There was something rather chilling about reading a book, falling asleep and waking up to news that sounds like it is from the book I was reading that was more disturbing than just coming across the article on its own.
So now this morning will be spent trying to improve my day – and it shouldn’t be too hard. I’ve got a few fun plans. And I think I’m going to have to take a break from the liberal blogs again. I was enjoying them a lot recently with all of the fairly encouraging news coming out regarding the (potential) fall of the Republicans. But I forgot that every once in a while they sneak something in that really pisses me off or freaks me right out. That was one of them.