This week Allie and I drove up to Wimington, DE — home to many credit card companies and corporate headquarters, due to something special about Delaware's tax law. Who knew I would be back to Delaware so soon? The Coca-Cola Corporation decided this was an appropriate place to hold a share"owners" meeting (that's shareholders to all you non-corporatespeak types). Given Coke's human rights and environmental abuses in Colombia and India, we decided this was an appropriate place to protest! It's actually the second year for our visit to Coke, and the deck was fully stacked with proxies ready to lambast Coke's eternal dodge of responsibility for their bottling plants "happening" to employ paramilitary thugs to kill union leaders. The CEO even saw fit to address these abuses in his opening remarks, hoping to weasel out of it with a report from a notoriously ineffective monitoring agency, CalSafety. CalSafety didn't find any wrongdoing, much as they hadn't during an inspection of the infamous El Monte, CA sweatshop where workers were forced to work at gunpoint behind barbed wire. Fancy that!
Outside the hotel, a small but stalwart group of us picketed and chanted such things as, "Diet, Cherry, or Vanilla! Coca-Cola is a Killah!" again. The nice thing about Coke as a target is that it really gives rise to activist creativity. I'd give my left nostril to never hear "Hey hey, ho ho! Something bad has got to go!" One of our students gave a wonderful treatise on why CalSafety is wholly inadequate. The meeting went an hour over, and nothing other than our agenda got in edgewise. Remember kids, just say no to Coke (and Minute Maid, Odwalla, and Dasani).
Thursday, April 21, 2005
London to MD
Upon my re-entry to the States, I collapsed and slept. Then I had a weekend with The Elly and Her Family, as her Grandma was visiting. I got to meet said Grandma, go out to dinner at a lovely Vietnamese restaurant somewhere in Maryland, and watch Elly's little sister Kate perform an amazing high school production of "Sound of Music." Whose high school play has a *pit orchestra*? And a GOOD one, at that? Kate was Maria, and all the singing was wonderfully professional. She was a real trooper, especially since she'd had mono for most of the rehearsal time and was still recovering at the point we caught her on stage. Maria is a very enthusiastic role, with insane quantities of singing. Fun was had by all, and now I've had "The Lonely Goatherd" stuck in my head for about a week.
We then attempted to see Elly's sister Sara's soccer game, but it was not to be - occassionally time management skills are lacking.
We then attempted to see Elly's sister Sara's soccer game, but it was not to be - occassionally time management skills are lacking.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
My 24-hour London Tourist Extravaganza
Today was the one day that I wasn't filming, so I tried to cram in all the London exploration I could handle. I didn't get very far, but it was lovely what I managed.
I dragged myself out of bed to meet up with Amanda at 9:45 am, and ran into Masha on my way out of the tube. Brilliant! We went to the First Out cafe - a very cute queer cafe that was, in fact, the first of its kind. We wandered about SoHo and got lunch at an all-veggie restaurant. Amanda and I proceeded to the metro and due to schedules, I was on my own until 4:30. During that time I managed to go *back* to the Tower of London, and take one of the guided-tour thingies. I jumped on a bus over to the Dungeon, but didn’t have enough time before I reconvened with Masha/Amanda for dinner. Thus concludes the super-typical portion of my touristing.
Dinner was an amazing Turkish restaurant, where Masha and I surveyed our options for going out. Not much on a Wednesday, I’m afraid. Amanda, Maria, Masha and I all headed to the queer film festival to hang out at the packed cafe for a bit. There was lovely eye candy, but Masha and I set out to wander around by the Thames. We ended up coming across the London Eye, The Tate Modern, the Old Globe, London Bridge — all closed, but it made for nice views. We continued on to a bar but they wouldn’t let Masha in - “gentlemen only”. Masha encouraged me to go back and so I walked her to the metro and headed back for a bit but the tube closes early and I have an early morning tomorrow — and the dance floor was totally empty. I uneventfully stood at a bar, drank a ginger ale, and left early.
The exciting bits were catching up with Amanda after seven years, hearing about her regular travels to Greece to learn Greek and bar-tend in a town on Lesbos (also called Mytilene). Yowza! And Masha is here doing research for her book, courtesy of Cornell (where she’s a professor) — and until recently, not finding decent food here. Amanda set her right about places to eat, though.
OK, just ran out of commentary - I’m off to bed now. Here’s pictures of the
trip!
I dragged myself out of bed to meet up with Amanda at 9:45 am, and ran into Masha on my way out of the tube. Brilliant! We went to the First Out cafe - a very cute queer cafe that was, in fact, the first of its kind. We wandered about SoHo and got lunch at an all-veggie restaurant. Amanda and I proceeded to the metro and due to schedules, I was on my own until 4:30. During that time I managed to go *back* to the Tower of London, and take one of the guided-tour thingies. I jumped on a bus over to the Dungeon, but didn’t have enough time before I reconvened with Masha/Amanda for dinner. Thus concludes the super-typical portion of my touristing.
Dinner was an amazing Turkish restaurant, where Masha and I surveyed our options for going out. Not much on a Wednesday, I’m afraid. Amanda, Maria, Masha and I all headed to the queer film festival to hang out at the packed cafe for a bit. There was lovely eye candy, but Masha and I set out to wander around by the Thames. We ended up coming across the London Eye, The Tate Modern, the Old Globe, London Bridge — all closed, but it made for nice views. We continued on to a bar but they wouldn’t let Masha in - “gentlemen only”. Masha encouraged me to go back and so I walked her to the metro and headed back for a bit but the tube closes early and I have an early morning tomorrow — and the dance floor was totally empty. I uneventfully stood at a bar, drank a ginger ale, and left early.
The exciting bits were catching up with Amanda after seven years, hearing about her regular travels to Greece to learn Greek and bar-tend in a town on Lesbos (also called Mytilene). Yowza! And Masha is here doing research for her book, courtesy of Cornell (where she’s a professor) — and until recently, not finding decent food here. Amanda set her right about places to eat, though.
OK, just ran out of commentary - I’m off to bed now. Here’s pictures of the
trip!
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Off to Oxford
Today was the big testing day - we were off by noon, which was merciful becuase I couldn’t drag myself out of bed this morning. We started it off with the good ol’ MMPI-2 - a 597-question series of true-false questions to sort out my personality. Am I depressed? Do I hallucinate? Am I paraniod? I seriously doubt it. We’ll know for sure by Thursday. Then onto short and long-term memory tests, verbal, visual, numerical, and otherwise; pattern-matching, finger-tapping-speed, emotion and age differentiation, grip-strength, analogies, gestalt-picture-interpretation, line-angle discernment, spatial 3-d object rotation, peg-board completion, and top it all off with a functional MRI. It all took about four hours longer than it was supposed to because of a bit of red tape, but I still get a day off tomorrow to go tourist-ing, whihc is good because for a moment I thought that was lost. The BBC folks are all really nice, as was the test administrator. The doctor I was supposed to meet had his flight canceled, so I see him Thursday for the results. My head feels a bit funny - I can feel the MRI while it’s happening, and I’m not sure if that’s a standard phenomenon. I have no idea about the tests, I don’t think the memory ones went so well (ah, well. Gettin’ old...) and the only response I got was the guy testing me asked if I’d ever been diagnosed with dyslexia. Well, no, but I’ve suspected I was mildly dyslexic for years. I reversed letters quite a bit on one of the tests, which prompted his commentary.
Things I like about London
Last night as I was eating lunch/dinner (not quite adjusted to the time difference yet!) I pulled up a copy of the Independent’s Media commentary. How lovely to be reading a paper that has a media commentary section, but what they have to say about US politics is hilarious! So much Bush-and-Blair bashing, it really made me smile. The very nice young lady who was sort of bored working at the restaurant came over to ask me where I’m from - it was a good thing I didn’t lie and say I was from Canada, because she was. She was apologetic about describing her dad as “very anti-American,” and asked why people hated the US so much (rhetorically). I think it surprised her to hear me chime in. “There’s a lot not to like!” She mentioned that people were very nice, but she was talking about Seattle. [West COAST! (Whut! - or, Wot! as the case may be) - but I digress]. I made the classic distinction between the people and the government, and she maintained that the people were better there than here. I think that depends on who you meet, but who am I? She referred me to places to hang out - “where the weirdos are - that’s my neighborhood.” So far, I find people here to be very nice! Although I definitely get some funny looks.
Another exciting thing about London is that it houses my old roomie and pal Amanda, who I get to see for the first time since, well, basically 1998. She’s going to be a bit of a tour guide which I appreciate! I’m still sort of a sucker for those cheesy tourist things. Apparently another dear friend, Masha, is in town and we haven’t seen eachother for ages as well.
Another exciting thing about London is that it houses my old roomie and pal Amanda, who I get to see for the first time since, well, basically 1998. She’s going to be a bit of a tour guide which I appreciate! I’m still sort of a sucker for those cheesy tourist things. Apparently another dear friend, Masha, is in town and we haven’t seen eachother for ages as well.
Monday, April 11, 2005
London calling
Last night I got on a plane at 10pm, and landed in London this morning at 10am. Hey, it’s only a 6 hour time difference, but who’s counting? I made it through the 1-1/2 hour queue at the airport without the dreaded “SSSS” security screening marker and thought I was OK...until the clerk comes after me on my way to drop off my bag tot he x-ray machine. “Wait Mr. Toth! I forgot to put something on your boarding slip!” Blast. Random screening my ass. I don’t know whose list I’m on, but it’s somebody’s, I can tell you that. The screener was nice about it though, he could tell by the way I sat down and put my right foot up that I’d been through this once or twice.
On the plane I got to watch Vera Drake, which I’d been meaning to see. International flights always have better accomodations, even in the crammed economy sections. I couldn’t eat anything and slept my way through after some unremarkable TGIFriday’s fries for dinner (bleah) and landed to have the BBC waiting for me with camera already on. I walk out, look for my sign, and see a camera - oh, that’s for me! Of course everyone’s wondering who I am, and we film me coming out of the doors like, 5 times - geez I was tired. I tried my best to appear fresh after a red-eye and was repsonding to questions about my gender early in the morning for all of Heathrow to hear. Max Toth, International Tranny. I get a good feeling from the director I was working with this morning, but we’ll see. They then film me getting into the cab, film me walking to it twice, interview me in the cab. Cabs in London are cute, I’ll try to include a picture at some point. Then to the hotel, film me getting out, same interview questions times five, my responses getting more cogent and refined as I wake up a bit, up to the room, film me in the room unpacking (which I don’t normally do - I sort of live out of the suitcase) and an extended interview. Lunch is room service, the film crew is off (they’re very nice) and I’m on my own.
On my own! So I’ve no idea how to use the phones or to find internet access, which in a way is a blessing. There’s a small map and I know a good street to walk to. I know I’m centrally located, but that doesn’t mean much to me yet. I get up the oomph to walk down to the street, and it’s pretty cute - there are shops and cafes and internet access places everywhere. I find a tube stop, get a map, figure out where the Tower of London is and to familiarize myself, decide to venture forth. I found it - the tube is really like the NY subway but cleaner, and I guess all subways have pretty similar principles. I wander around, taking pictures like a dorky tourist, decide that the remaining hour isn’t worth the 14.50 (US$27 something - yowza!) and that I’ll come back, and walk a bit around London Bridge. It’s nice to know I can get my way around.
Back near the hotel, I get an adaptor for the power outlet and find a vegetarian restaurant that has a lovely fake chicken satay sandwich. I’d had a pretty hard time staying awake in the tube so I took a nap, and here I am writing. That’s probably way more detail than you needed, but jet lag will do this to a person. I’m off to Oxford for fMRIs tomorrow, and I need to figure out where to get my nosering out beforehand. I’m sure there are piercing shops here? I’m not used to bbeing in places where wireless access is limited and mostly paid - and stuff here ain’t cheap! But so far it’s a good time. Stay posted!
On the plane I got to watch Vera Drake, which I’d been meaning to see. International flights always have better accomodations, even in the crammed economy sections. I couldn’t eat anything and slept my way through after some unremarkable TGIFriday’s fries for dinner (bleah) and landed to have the BBC waiting for me with camera already on. I walk out, look for my sign, and see a camera - oh, that’s for me! Of course everyone’s wondering who I am, and we film me coming out of the doors like, 5 times - geez I was tired. I tried my best to appear fresh after a red-eye and was repsonding to questions about my gender early in the morning for all of Heathrow to hear. Max Toth, International Tranny. I get a good feeling from the director I was working with this morning, but we’ll see. They then film me getting into the cab, film me walking to it twice, interview me in the cab. Cabs in London are cute, I’ll try to include a picture at some point. Then to the hotel, film me getting out, same interview questions times five, my responses getting more cogent and refined as I wake up a bit, up to the room, film me in the room unpacking (which I don’t normally do - I sort of live out of the suitcase) and an extended interview. Lunch is room service, the film crew is off (they’re very nice) and I’m on my own.
On my own! So I’ve no idea how to use the phones or to find internet access, which in a way is a blessing. There’s a small map and I know a good street to walk to. I know I’m centrally located, but that doesn’t mean much to me yet. I get up the oomph to walk down to the street, and it’s pretty cute - there are shops and cafes and internet access places everywhere. I find a tube stop, get a map, figure out where the Tower of London is and to familiarize myself, decide to venture forth. I found it - the tube is really like the NY subway but cleaner, and I guess all subways have pretty similar principles. I wander around, taking pictures like a dorky tourist, decide that the remaining hour isn’t worth the 14.50 (US$27 something - yowza!) and that I’ll come back, and walk a bit around London Bridge. It’s nice to know I can get my way around.
Back near the hotel, I get an adaptor for the power outlet and find a vegetarian restaurant that has a lovely fake chicken satay sandwich. I’d had a pretty hard time staying awake in the tube so I took a nap, and here I am writing. That’s probably way more detail than you needed, but jet lag will do this to a person. I’m off to Oxford for fMRIs tomorrow, and I need to figure out where to get my nosering out beforehand. I’m sure there are piercing shops here? I’m not used to bbeing in places where wireless access is limited and mostly paid - and stuff here ain’t cheap! But so far it’s a good time. Stay posted!
Flowers are pretty and other earth-shattering revelations
Before heading out to the UK, I spent the weekend with Elly. In between work, laundry, and assorted other chores, we made it to the famous DC Annual Cherry Blossom Festival. It was a completely perfect day - sunny, not too windy, blossoms at their peak, and we biked there so as to enjoy the sun and avoid the Metro traffic. It was definitely crowded, but it was a lovely relaxed setting - everyone with some sort of photographic device, all asking someone else to take their picture. So many toddlers! Anyhow, here’s an album of pictures for you to see.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Philly Phish Phace
While I was in The City of Brotherly Love, I stayed with my pal Molly and this was a dignified moment of fish-face-making forever enshrined in pixels.
tofu hoagies, yurts in delaware, tar heels
Since last I wrote, I went on a campus tour of Philadelphia with my co-worker. I was going to "photo blog" pictures of that trip, so it may be forthcoming. Man, I'm somewhat seriously bummed that Philadelphia isn't a strategic location for national USAS...it's so much more vegan friendly than DC! Ya-Ping of SEAC let me in on the wonder that is three-dollar tofu hoagies at a convenience store/deli. My dear pal Molly took me, Alicia, and Dan Berger out for late-night vegan dim sum at (I kid you not) "Kingdom of Vegetarians". Who knew?
It was a whirlwind tour, some ridiculous number of campuses in a weekend, but really great - I miss Molly a bunch and it was a real treat to get a whole weekend. While I was in town, we went to an event honoring the re-release of Toni Cade Bambara's The Black Woman: An Anthology, where friends of hers shared readings and reflections on the work and her life at the Scribe Video Center, which was amazing. My pal Alicia who works at CISPES in New York came down to talk with folks, and we got to hang out as well...good times!
I returned late on a Saturday, dropped off the car, woke up in DC and picked up another rental with Elly to go off on our four-day vacation. First we spent time with her family on Easter after packing, and engaged in such silliness as chocolate bunny decapitation. We then set off to a yurt on a state park in Delaware. It was quite fun, if a little cold. It was raining like crazy on the first day, so we drove down the length of the state to Rehoboth Beach. Just like us to stumble upon a big gay beach in Delaware, without even meaning to! Other festivities included kayaking on the lake next to our yurt, a five hour hike, and playing card games in random places. Oh, and we went to see "Miss Congeniality 2". I admit it, it was my selection.
After a lovely bit of time there, we headed back and I panicked about having been without internet and cell access for days. Well, the cell's a bit of a stretch, but really we were busy vacationing most of the time. Elly long-sufferingly-y guided my panicky person to a cafe where I begun to catch up on email. The next morning I was on a plane to Durham, where I now write this post instead of sleeping, as I should be doing. The NCAA championship games are happening, and the only reason I know this is that UNC, where a huge effort to support dining workers' organizing is underway, is a finalist. Baby blue "go tar heels" paraphernalia as far as the eye can see. Have I mentioned that since understanding the relationship between college sports and collegiate apparel licensing, I've started vaguely following this basketball season? Who knew that organizing would lead me there? But I'm pretty darn fond of the Durham-Chapel Hill area, so it's a great place to spent the Student Labor Week of Action, fer sure.
OK, I sleep now.
It was a whirlwind tour, some ridiculous number of campuses in a weekend, but really great - I miss Molly a bunch and it was a real treat to get a whole weekend. While I was in town, we went to an event honoring the re-release of Toni Cade Bambara's The Black Woman: An Anthology, where friends of hers shared readings and reflections on the work and her life at the Scribe Video Center, which was amazing. My pal Alicia who works at CISPES in New York came down to talk with folks, and we got to hang out as well...good times!
I returned late on a Saturday, dropped off the car, woke up in DC and picked up another rental with Elly to go off on our four-day vacation. First we spent time with her family on Easter after packing, and engaged in such silliness as chocolate bunny decapitation. We then set off to a yurt on a state park in Delaware. It was quite fun, if a little cold. It was raining like crazy on the first day, so we drove down the length of the state to Rehoboth Beach. Just like us to stumble upon a big gay beach in Delaware, without even meaning to! Other festivities included kayaking on the lake next to our yurt, a five hour hike, and playing card games in random places. Oh, and we went to see "Miss Congeniality 2". I admit it, it was my selection.
After a lovely bit of time there, we headed back and I panicked about having been without internet and cell access for days. Well, the cell's a bit of a stretch, but really we were busy vacationing most of the time. Elly long-sufferingly-y guided my panicky person to a cafe where I begun to catch up on email. The next morning I was on a plane to Durham, where I now write this post instead of sleeping, as I should be doing. The NCAA championship games are happening, and the only reason I know this is that UNC, where a huge effort to support dining workers' organizing is underway, is a finalist. Baby blue "go tar heels" paraphernalia as far as the eye can see. Have I mentioned that since understanding the relationship between college sports and collegiate apparel licensing, I've started vaguely following this basketball season? Who knew that organizing would lead me there? But I'm pretty darn fond of the Durham-Chapel Hill area, so it's a great place to spent the Student Labor Week of Action, fer sure.
OK, I sleep now.
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