feminist blogs

by Amanda Marcotte

A lot of people have asked for a blog post chronicling my impressions of Brooklyn, after having lived in Austin from August 1995-December 2009.  Now that we’ve logged in 3 whole months here---and because the dreariness of the weather is compelling me to do something happy---I thought this would be a good time to tackle that request.  So, for your pleasure, broken down haphazardly, some thoughts.  Feedback is most welcome.

What do you miss about Austin? Figured I’d get this out of the way, since people ask it a lot.  Besides beloved friends?  The weather is the most obvious answer to this question right at this moment, even though my Austin peeps have made it clear to me that they’ve had a pretty bad (for them) winter.  I’ve been reassured by many New Yorkers that this is the worst winter in a long time, so I suppose that a trial by fire---snow, in this case---is a good way to assure ourselves that we can make it.  And now that there’s hope for spring on the horizon, I can say we did.  I also miss the Alamo Drafthouse. New York has everything you can imagine, except the Alamo Drafthouse.  Because of this hole in the city’s infrastructure, Marc and I have seen exactly one movie in a theater since we’ve been here, when we used to go the movies at least 3 or 4 times a month in Austin, usually more.

Now that this is out of the way, here’s some observations, broken down by category.

Politics and government. So far, an overall improvement. Seeing someone who makes Rick Perry look sane and moderate take 18.6% in the Republican primary only reinforces this sense.  New York politics are as fucked up as they get, but it’s really nice knowing that your Senator is unlikely to compare members of minority groups to people who fuck animals on the Senate floor. 

New York City is a wonder, of course.  It’s really amazing how well the infrastructure works, if you’re an outsider looking in.  Sure, the subway system has fucked me a few times, but I rarely get that tense, freaked out feeling that you get in a bumper to bumper traffic jam, when you realize you have no control over what happens.  Here, there are options.  And even though it takes awhile to get places, that’s not something I usually mind as long as I’m not driving.  The green belt in Austin is pretty cool, but it doesn’t hold a candle to living near Prospect Park---I can’t wait until it warms up.  The museums aren’t something you just do on a early date or when your parents come to town, but something you can get a group of friends together to go see.  The library is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, I think. 

Living in a pedestrian city. When there are a lot of people out and about, walking around, it makes you feel a lot more connected to your larger community.  This weather has made it harder than I think it usually is to walk everywhere; I’m looking forward to spring, when I think the radius of “places we walk to” will expand rapidly.  Often, taking the subway doesn’t shave significant time off a journey within some parts of Brooklyn, but you still take it to be warm.  I look forward to not having to do that.  I still am amazed at how people will hold their ground on a sidewalk, especially since I live in stroller derby Brooklyn, and often feel like perhaps the ginormous strollers should cede the right of way.  I now get what people complain about.  But on the whole, I’ve always been a fan of walking.  It feels good, and I don’t understand why so many people resist it.

The fact that being a pedestrian city also means that anything you can imagine is delivered has also been a wonderful thing.

Food. However great I thought it would be, double or triple that.  I thought I would miss Tex-Mex, but I really don’t, because there’s so many great options here.  I’m having to relearn how to eat more moderately, dammit.  It seems that 100% of New Yorkers are food geeks, as well.  It’s just a culinary wonderland.  Whatever you think it is, it’s better.

Fashion. For both Marc and myself, this has been a lot of fun.  Austin is enforced casual culture, which means no jackets, no ties, no dresses, and skirts have to be dressed down with flat shoes and/or very casual shirts.  In New York, you can wear whatever the hell you want at all times, and a lot of people take advantage by looking good and dressing up.  I’m a huge fan of vintage shopping, but I was always sad because some of the best vintage clothes are, of course, dresses.  But even in a heavy year for love, the number of weddings I was going to hit was minimal, so I couldn’t justify spending even the low amounts of money or giving up the storage space to cute dresses.  Here, you can just go ahead and wear that dress, if you want.  It’s been a blast for me.  I’ve even stocked up with a few summery vintage dresses to remind myself that it is coming, oh yes, it’s coming.

Not to put down winter.  Winter weather almost demands you dress up more, so it’s been a great way to acclimate.  I’ve learned the art of wearing stockings (something I basically never did in the past), wearing cute socks (same), layering, wearing cute winter hats and scarves, and wearing knee-high boots all the time instead of just as a novelty.  I’m a jacket fiend, so I’m looking forward to a spring and fall of wearing a lot of my cute stuff that I already have.

People. Great in Austin and New York, of course.  Both places are places where people feel pretty comfortable skipping small talk rapidly and talking about what the fuck ever, so that was an easy transition.  People hold their ground here, but they’re not necessarily rude, and they look out for each other, I’ve found.  (If you drop something, there’s a 95% chance someone is walking behind you and will pick it up for you.) You’re expected to keep up and not get in the way, but I appreciate those values.  Austin is a great city, but not very diverse racially or ethnically; obviously, this is not true of New York.  Everyone gets along, and it’s very heartening.  People do not bullshit you here.  This was also true in many cases in Austin---waiters didn’t try to be your friend, sales clerks appreciate the value of not wasting time.  So not much change there. 

It was hard to learn to queue up with the efficiency of a New Yorker, but I’m getting there.  I’m amazed and trying to learn the patience people have with long lines; the efficient, no bullshit thing does help them move fast.

Entertainment. Excellent, as expected.  The main things to do in Austin are eat, hang out and imbibe, and see shows.  This is true in Brooklyn, too.  I think people expected us to have more trouble making the transition, but it’s basically the same, except more expensive. Jukeboxes here hold their own with many of the best in Austin.  If you want to do something out of the norm, you have a lot of options.  I expect to learn more about this in the future; I keep hearing about how New York really comes out of hibernation in the spring.

Things I need to learn more about. Cocktails.  They like them here, and I’m a babe in the woods on that front.  Where the good record shopping is---I’ve been too busy to really explore that, and I’m still having fun exploring the Brooklyn Flea Market.  The growing seasons, for when good produce starts to really come back to the farmer’s market.  And where on earth you can see a movie that doesn’t suck like most movie theaters do.  And whether or not you’re supposed to make friends with your neighbors, since people seem kind of mixed on that front.  How to wear shoes when you’re not wearing boots every single day.

Most annoying thing, besides snow. You have to stand by my living room windows to make a fucking phone call with AT&T. They really need to fix that.

by Pam Spaulding

This idea was generated after I posted in my Twitter update ”Why do piles of laundry appear to clone themselves?”

What’s your least favorite household chore, and if you have a spouse/roommate/partner, how do you divide the chores?

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Actually, laundry isn’t my least favorite chore. We live in a one-story house, so it’s only a matter of crossing our living room over to the washer and dryer located in the hall. This is a godsend, given my fibromyalgia.

We have one of those rolling carts with the canvas bags attached that has three sections. We use divide it up as lights/darks/delicates. We also have plastic laundry baskets to carry when I’m feeling ok. So overall, laundry can be done while we’re doing other things. FOLDING LAUNDRY and putting it away sux if you have a mountain to do.

I guess my least favorite chore is DUSTING.  Dammit, why does it seem like after you dust it’s only a couple of days later it’s piling up again!? It’s not like we don’t change our filters enough.

Tools of the trade for me are a Swiffer duster (to get first pass of dust), then the Pledge and cloth come out. Taking stuff off, dusting them and then doing the surfaces has to be the most tedious BS imaginable.

Next least favorite is VACUUMING, and I leave that one (and garbage/recycling detail) to Kate. When we had our late great Lab mix Bailey, we had to do this every other day with the nuclear Dyson or there would be tumbleweeds everywhere. She shed like mad. When Bailey passed on, we had only Chloe the Bichon (doesn’t shed), and then adopted Casey the pit bull. Casey’s hair is as short as the Ridgebacks I’ve owned, but she doesn’t seem to shed much, and barely has any hair on her belly. That means Kate now gets a break. We can go a week or more without vacuuming, and even then, no tumbleweeds and it can be done with a Swiffer Vac.

After that, the other chores go fall lower on the list.

* Mopping: Argh; maybe I spoke too soon. This bites; we switch out on this one.
* Doing bills isn’t an issue because most are on auto-draft or I do through bank bill pay.
* Dishwasher detail: don’t mind this since I’m thankful to have one. I lived in places for almost my entire existence without one.
* Cleaning the bathroom: Kate does it.
* Grocery shopping: not really a bother; we have a Kroger less than 2 miles from the house and a Super Target’s about 4 miles away. We usually shop together.
* Ironing: we never bother with it.
* Dog walking: Either both of us do it or I do it; both are easy enough for one person to walk. We also have a small fenced backyard.
* Feeding the dogs/day camp: I usually do the morning shift, feeding and taking them to The Pet Resort at the Triangle since Kate is a zombie in the AM; she picks them up takes them home and feeds them dinner. They don’t go every day (it’s pricey, but Casey and Chloe need the exercise and socialization), but we do the AM/PM feeding split regardless.

More below the fold.

The only chore we now outsource, and this was a hard decision, is YARK WORK. I just can’t do it anymore, and we used to do all kinds of projects along with the maintenance. I did the hedges (manual shears), Kate would mow (electric), and we’d both weed the beds, but during the growing season, it required us to be out there every weekend. The fibro was the last straw for me.

Anyway, between the cost of outsourcing that and the dog day care, the budget keeps us home, but as with everything, you have to make choice$. I’m a homebody anyway (despite the blog travel; no wonder it wears on me).

So...how do you handle chores?

by Pam Spaulding

I made my case to readers why I should get to sail, but alas, I’m coming up short… With only one day left to vote, and it looks like there was a lot of movement for Mike Lux in the last couple of days; looks like he'll be packing his bags soon...

In a seemingly Herculean lift of support, Mike Lux from Open Left has superseded the strong lead that Joe Jervis nearly locked down earlier on in Round Two.

First place - Mike Lux (45%)
Second place - Joe Jervis (26%)
Third place - Karl Frisch (12%)
Fourth place - Pam Spaulding (11%)
Fifth place - Digby (6%)

It is starting to get cold outside. A vacation in sunny Mexico is certainly looking pretty good right about now for these bloggers eager to be named Air America's favorite progressive blogger and win the free seven-day trip. 

With over 4000 votes so far and 24 hours left in the cruise competition, will there be yet another surprise before it is all said and done?  You tell us. Vote now for your favorite progressive blogger.

by Pam Spaulding

Ah, it’s Halloween. Surely you have a favorite scary film list rattling around in your brains (mmmm...brains)...here are some sites to help you jog your memory.

I’ll share a few…

• The Exorcist (1973). I didn’t get to see this film at release (I was 10), so I saw it on video and it met all my expectations regarding nightmares. The scene where the beast rises in a shadow in Regan’s room freaks me out.
  
• Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Day of the Dead (2008). Zombies rule. I saw the original on the big screen for the first time at one of the old revival houses in NYC in the 80s; that it was shot in black and white made it very effective. Dawn and Day are unmercifully doom, gloom and gore, a perfect fit. The Day remake’s ending creeped into my nightmares for days.
  
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974): OK, this low-budget Tobe Hooper film felt so authentically deranged, and the acting borders on laughable to terrifying (jesus, the sounds and affect of Leatherman and those family members make are so gross and horrible) that my brother and I kept repeating their lines after watching it. I think I’ve see this one at least 5 times. I didn’t bother with any of the remakes.
  

• Jaws (1975): I was 12 when I went to see this (what was my mom thinking?), and between Spielberg’s direction, the John Williams score and Verna Field’s editing, you really believed the shark was real (the infamous malfunctioning shark “Bruce” forced Spielberg to creatively work around it). Best creep/scare scenes: Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss goes underwater to explore a sunken boat and a head pops out of it; Quint (Robert Shaw), talking about the sharks feeding on the crew of the USS Indianapolis when it sank; Brody (Roy Scheider) tossing chum overboard to draw the shark in an “Bruce” leaps out of the water suddenly. Everyone in the theater with me screamed when that happened; the brilliance is that your heart is racing then you immediately switch to laughing out lou when Brody tells Quint ”You’re going to need a bigger boat.”

by Pam Spaulding

ROTFLOL. In the you can’t make this sh*t up category, Pink Visual owner Allison Vivas received a congratulatory fax from Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions for Winning the Future (ASWF). What was unusual about this was that Pink Visual’s business—honored for stimulating the economy—is a porno DVD superstore. Think Progress obtained a copy of the knee-slapping missive.

Newt would like to arrange a private dinner with you at the historic Capitol Hill Club on the evening of October 7, 2009 in Washington. You’ll dine privately with Newt at this exclusive venue and he’ll take the occasion to present you with your well deserved award and have your photo taken together.

This tremendous honor is a testament to your success in building your business and recognition of the risks you take to create jobs and stimulate the economy. As an award winner, you’ll be on the ground floor as Newt and his Council begin the work to turn this country around. … Newt is looking forward to hearing your ideas on getting the economy moving again and getting your feedback on his plans over dinner.

Heh heh heh. The crown prince of adultery will certainly be listening carefully. Oh wait—maybe not—when ASWF was alerted of the line of business Pink Visuals was in it retracted the award saying it inadvertently sent it to Vivas. She (and anyone with a synapse firing) called BS on that front.

Allison was disappointed to receive a call this morning from an ASWF representative stating that the fax had been sent to her ‘inadvertently,’” Boyer told AVN.com. “We’re not entirely clear on how one ‘inadvertently’ sends a fax to the right person at the correct fax number, so our sense is that this is damage control on the part of a group that is having second thoughts about either recognizing the excellent work of a porn company entrepreneur in light of their own conservative political and social orientation, or having second thoughts about their promotional methodology and communication protocols.”

Surf over and read more at TP, including Newt’s commitment in 1995 to restrict access to pornography.

by Pam Spaulding

 

I’m really queasy about what they are going to do to it. Here’s the trailer for the 2009 film; what do you think?

The main cast of the new film. It will be good to see Debbie Allen again.

• Naturi Naughton as Denise
• Collins Pennie as Malik
• Kay Panabaker as Jenny
• Asher Brook as Marco
• Kherington Payne as Alice
• Walter Perez as Victor
• Anna Maria Perez de Taglé as Joy
• Paul Iacono as Neil
• Kristy Flores as Rosie
• Paul McGill as Kevin
• Debbie Allen as Principal Angela Simms
• Charles S. Dutton as Alvin Dowd
• Kelsey Grammer as Joel Cranston
• Megan Mullally as Fran Rowan
• Bebe Neuwirth as Lynn Kraft
• Jazz Tank Junior as Jason