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Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Halloween Get Down!

Looking for some great music for Halloween? (I personally need a good soundtrack while putting on my costume).
Check out the latest from the ever-awesome DJ Rocque Ranaldi: a It's The Great Funkin' Charlie Brown!. For those of you, like me, who were sad when Indie went off the air (mostly because I've long loved listening to Rocque on the radio), you can still hear him and other programming on the Web at indiesf.com. And you can download the podcasts.

cross-linked from Artist Overdose.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Saturday, October 25, 2008

well, hello

As several people have questioned me about my blogging absence, before supplying the requisite, "you must be really busy," I decided to drop in and say, yes, I have been very busy.
But busy isn't really new. I think I have actually been sort of mentally overwhelmed; it's a great time in history to be a political junkie, except to extend the metaphor, I think I may have Odd somewhere down the line and not even noticed. My brain isn't really processing information very well anymore. The last few days I've been thinking that politics, as much as I care about it, may have overtaken the country in an unhealthy way. Ever the pop-psychologist, I've been trying to understand, this week, exactly what is really at stake for people. I don't mean the obvious: our civil rights, economy, foreign policy. I think I understand, to the extent that anyone paying a fairly high level of attention can, the issues. And certainly, my views on them are pretty solid, have been for a while. But what's really at stake for people at this point? I think of all of us, right now, as heavily invested in an outcome that we've endowed with meaning far beyond what we can really articulate. As if the political season, the candidates, the vernacular, the arguments, are all surrogates for something else.
I keep thinking, musing, on my own reaction to Obama's speech in 2004 at the Democratic Convention, the way I felt something when he spoke that I hadn't felt, as an adult, ever. And how Kerry's campaign left me cold. I voted for him, sure, and endorsed him, but I didn't feel it. Is it really just the generational divide at work, the need for my generation, and the two following me, to engage in a post-Vietnam discourse? Or am I just a sucker for a pretty speech (or, perhaps, both?).
But the other speech that held me was Teresa Heinz Kerry's. When she spoke about marching against Apartheid, while watching the US march for civil rights. How her country lost their battle, but knowing America had won its was enough for her in some way. I suppose it could all come down to some sort of combination of genetic disposition and upbringing. I was raised to believe in the good fight, and this election season has fed that feeling.
All I really know, though, is that the waiting has become unbearable. In just over a week, it will happen, one way or the other, and everything that happens until then feels, to me, like pointless prologue. I've voted. I'm ready. And yet, at the same time, am I?
There's lots of certainty in some quarters about the outcome, but I've been down that road before and am actually incapable of summoning that certainty anymore. I don't know what will happen, not in my mind or my gut. I'm not placing any bets. I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm just waiting.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

ODing on politics

In the vernacular of political junkiesm, I think I'm hitting my limit. I've been writing SFR's political endorsements for five days. In between I: argued with a Republican friend, early voted and saw W (which I thought was not a good movie). I don't really know why the endorsements seem to be taking me so long. Unlike the primaries, I'm not particularly torn over any of the races. Reviewing and reporting on the amendments and the bonds was a bit time-consuming. I think it may just be 24/7 news cycle-induced brain deadedness. Also, having some kind of terrible virus situation with microsoft word. Anyway...it's almost over.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Yay Zane


Zane Fischer, SFR's web editor, columnist and art critic, is profiled today by The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, in its How I Got That Storyseries. AAN is profiling first-place winners from its annual contest. Zane won first place for column writing in our circulation category (under 50,000). SFR won a total of seven awards in the competition, including awards in arts criticism for Emiliano Garcia Sarnoff, editorial layout for Larry Kohr, honorable mention for our now-defunct Bill Richardson blog, and several awards for Angela Moore in cover design and illustration.

cross-posted from Artistic Overdose.