everywhere you go

you always take the weather with you. Yes, I have that Crowded House song stuck in my head. Here's a link to it:


Ahem. Dowtown is gray and gloomy and kind of cold. It's like the calm before the storm, though, what with Indian Market getting ready to go. Ran into my good pal Rick at the Five and Dime and we talked about how much we couldn't wait to get out of downtown for the weekend. That seems to be the trend among people I have talked to today, and out there in the blogosophere as well.
Wish I didn't have so many plans this weekend, though, as my boss just lent me the second season of Dead Like Me on DVD and curling up on my couch and watching it sounds awful fine. But, duty, or something, calls. Tonight I am going up north to see Ruben Martinez perform at La Charulo Restaurant. Ruben and his wife Angela are these fantastic interesting people and he will be performing poetry and spoken word. I did an interview with Ruben that you can read here.
Then, Jonanna, Dan, Darius and I will come back to SF and change to go to a birthday party for which we are supposed to dress "fancy." Dressing "fancy" is on a list I have along with "going to the dentist" but I am going to do my very best to look a little less like I just fell out of some 13-year-old skateboarder's closet. Tomorrow night I may go to Albuquerque for another party (I'm so intrastate these days), although I may also just collapse somewhere. This kind of weather is very conducive to staying inside and being cozy.
I may have to ignore the news for the weekend. It's all so freaking depressing right now. The din over Cindy Sheehan has been so deafening I've shirked from adding to it, and will continue to um, shirk, right now (instead I'm going to run home and see if there is anything in my closet that can pretend to be "fancy") but I did think this column by Normon Solomon about how the right is gearing up to discredit Sheehan was interesting.
Here are five other articles I read today that I would recommend:

I love the Salon article about Nike's new campaign to feature women with real and not twig like bodies. (Warning, you have to watch an ad to read the whole article in case you're not familiar with salon). Normally I could care less about advertising campaigns, or body image issues, or women's issues or (Jesus, quite the litany) but I agreed with the author that there's something inspiring and moving about how nuttily raw and funny and in-your-face this campaign is. And, you know what, I agree with the sentiments behind it. Maybe I am a feminist after all. Who knew?
My friend Dave Rolland, who is editor of San Diego City Beat wrote this fiesty piece about the paper's third-year anniversary and what they are striving to do and the strides they've made and their challenges. They are in a market competing against this behometh "alt weekly" that's very conservative and even though City Beat has huge challenges (you try starting a newspaper in this economic/media climate) they are fighting the good fight and I applaud them.
This article from New West about how the Southwest Firefighters calendar is too racy is hilarious and well-written (Emily Esterston used to be the editor at NM Business Weekly and she's quite good). I don't know if you'll like this article as much as I did, but, well, those firefighters are hot (wow, most childish pun ever)
It's too easy to forget about what's going on in Darfur, but this article by David Morse was a bleak reminder of why we shouldn't, can't, forget.
This speech by Richard Rodriguez is freaking awesome. A, it's Richard Rodriguez and he's amazing, but also what he's saying, and the questions he's asking. Are demographics destiny? Who are our neighbors? And what is coming next?
For me, it's a drive down Agua Fria to look for something to wear tonight. I will have to battle through the streets closed for Indian Market. I will get stuck behind slow drivers from Texas and tourists from California and Japan will walk in front of my car without looking. I will drive down Paseo, past The Gerald Peters Gallery and lope over onto Agua Fria, by the Santuario and past Alto Street where I used to live. Agua Fria keeps going and going until I am in the village. There used to be, right past, the Agua Fria Church, a house where they were selling a horse. There was a sign that said "horse for sale" and the horse would always be standing right next to it. That cracked me up beyond anything. Sometimes people ride horses down Agua Fria, which I love, and sometimes kids ride their ATVs down it and it makes me irate thinking of small children on motorized vehicles. When I turn onto my road I always look left to see if there are horses out in the field. That field will be gone someday. Someday soon. I think Jeff Branch bought it for affordable housing. I'll miss those horses.