Part 1: Something that had never happened to me before.
A couple weeks ago, I was walking with one of my male friends from choir, who was giving me a ride home. We walked into Washington Park, where his car was parked, at the Henry Johnson Boulevard entrance. Suddenly we hear yelling from somewhere behind us, “Hey, faggots! Whatcha doing?” And this went on for 10 or 12 seconds as we kept walking towards the car. It was most peculiar for two heterosexual men to experience.
Part 2: Something that has happened to me, or a variation of the same, quite often before.
Last week, I got off the bus at Madison and West Lawrence, as did this older white man at about 6pm, which was dusk. He went one block north, I went one block north. He started walking west, I did the same. He was walking fast enough that I couldn’t just pass him – not with my knee – but not so fast that I couldn’t easily just let him get ahead. He kept looking over his left shoulder every 20 or 30 feet at me. I peeled off to the right to go to the library, and he practically had to do a 360 to find me. This did not seem to relieve him overly much, since I was just returning some items in the night slot, but I turned right to head home, and he appeared relieved. Call me paranoid, but this IS something this apparently intimidating black male has experienced before.
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I was having lunch yesterday with someone who asked me what I thought of the President. I said something like, “He’s dreadful.” She said, “But he’s a Christian!” If you get into that kind of conversation, get the Sojourners Voting Guide. She’s getting a copy today.
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Fred Hembeck gives me props – mostly – as he answers my questions about one Tom Clay, the Binghamton-born DJ who created that bizarre WWTNNIL/AM&J cut I described recently. There’s a bit of Rashomon in the piece, some crime, a little punishment. The story has it all, including a couple goofs which may get corrected.
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Tosy did a post about the shortest and longest tracks in his music collection. I thought it was sort of funny/silly question, until I realized that my answers (Simpsons and Dylan, at least) were EXACTLY THE SAME. Then it just hurt my head.
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Eddie describes music he sent me and analyzes music I sent him.
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Check out the webpage in the first comment to this post of mine. Talk about warm and fuzzy.
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Our long national nightmare is nearly over. Senator John Kerry has apologized for his joke/misstatement/expression of his true feelings suggesting that our armed forces were stupid for being in Iraq. Now if the Administration would only apologize for sending them there in the first place, we’d be all set.
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Here’s an excellent animation on YouTube, explaining Instant Runoff (IRV) basics in a clear and friendly style. I’m really fond of IRV.
Also on YouTube, Michael J Fox on “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, interesting because he explains how sometimes he’s “herky-jerky” and sometimes he hits a plateau.
Finally, an oldie. The video quality is dreadful, and the audio is out of sync. Nonetheless, itÂs still damn good. Jesse Jackson reads “Green Eggs and Ham. Worth listening to, at least, because it’s Green.
