Kucinich has no fear

Strip away all the faux controversy over whether CNN planted the stupid "diamonds or pearls" question to make Hillary look good or because they are just as sexist as the rest of the world: who really made sense in the Democratic candidates debate in Las Vegas? Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. He's moving up in the polls of Democratic voters, although the party bosses would love to exclude him from the debates.
Is it because he grew up working class and often homeless as the oldest of seven children? Is it because he knows what it is like to take a principled stand in spite of the political cost, as he did when he was mayer of Cleveland and stood up to the banks (who later were found guilty of criminal conspiracy)? Is it because he's short, has big ears, and is a vegan, and doesn't care that people have been making fun of him throughout his political career? He voted against the war, against the Patriot Act, and if you look at his record, he votes consistently with his values. He introduced the resolution to impeach Cheney. If only the other candidates had his guts. Check it out:

Professor Zero and The Unapologetic Mexican beat me to the post!

Jacques Brel, "Les bonbons"

Professor Zero posted a courtship song in French, and it reminded me of one of my favorites songs by Jacques Brel, "Les bonbons." I have heard this song dozens of times on one of my favorite old records, but now, with the magic of YouTube, I can see how Jacques Brel inhabited his characters physically when he performed. There are several versions, and each one is unique: some are more pathetic, some more restrained. This one has English subtitles, so you can appreciate the pathetic character of the suiter who courts someone who takes advantage of him to meet her real boyfriend.
Apparently all of the existing footage of Brel's performances and interviews has also been collected on a DVD for the delight of Brel fanatics.
I like this version of "Les bonbons"

Paroles et musique : Jacques Brel
(c) 1964 Éditions Pouchenel, Bruxelles

1 J'vous ai apporté des bonbons
Parc' que les fleurs c'est périssable
Puis les bonbons c'est tell'ment bon
Bien qu'les fleurs soient plus présentables
Surtout quand elles sont en boutons
J'vous ai apporté des bonbons.

2 J'espèr' qu'on pourra se prom'ner
Qu' Madam' votr' mère ne dira rien
On ira voir passer les trains
À huit heur's je vous ramèn'rai
Quel beau dimanch' pour la saison
J'vous ai apporté des bonbons.

3 Si vous saviez c'que je suis fier
De vous voir pendue à mon bras
Les gens me regard'nt de travers
Y'en a mêm' qui rient derrièr' moi
Le monde est plein de polissons
J'vous ai apporté des bonbons.

4 Oh ! Oui ! Germaine est moins bien qu'vous
Oh ! Oui ! Germaine elle est moins belle
C'est vrai qu'Germaine a des ch'veux roux
C'est vrai qu'Germaine elle est cruelle
Ça vous avez mille fois raisons
J'vous ai apporté des bonbons.

5 Et nous voilà sur la grand' place
Sur le kiosqu' on joue Mozart
Mais dites-moi qu' c'est par hasard
Qu'il y'a là votre ami Léon
Si vous voulez qu'je cède la place
J'avais apporté des bonbons.

Mais bonjour Mad'moisell' Germaine
J'vous ai apporté des bonbons
Parc' que les fleurs c'est périssable
Puis les bonbons c'est tell'ment bon
Bien qu'les fleurs soient plus présentables

The word of the day is

sarcomere.

"¿Por qué no te callas?"

So, all over Spain and Latin America, in the press and on the Internets, people are saying "¿Por qué no te callas?" (although Google keeps asking me if I mean "porque no te callas?" but really, I don't!). When I showed the clip to my daughter, she laughed in recognition: the king's gesture, his tone, and the expression are just SO SPANISH! There are now dozens, maybe hundreds of versions of the same few clips posted in YouTube with comments that range from the virulently anti-monarchical to the grotesquely racist versions of Chavez-is-the devil, with a lot of very impassioned arguments in between. And of course there are now lots of parodies, remixes, ringtones, and arguing about whether King Juan Carlos (or Juancar) should be praised for telling Hugo Chavez to shut up, whether or not he was rude, or who is the most fascist, Aznar or the King who was chosen by Franco, ad infinitum.
Every so often, someone actually says something sensible, but this is one of those viral moments when an image of an event becomes the pretext for other kinds of speech acts that really are more about venting spleen than reasoned political discourse. And, of course, they are occasions for relajo of the kind that circulated after Zidane's infamous head butt incident in the World Cup final against Italy.

Fall Sunday

A dear friend met us for lunch in the Birchwood Cafe, one of my favorite Minneapolis places. The coffee is excellent, the food is "good real food" and the folks who work there are both laid-back and efficient, a great combination. I had the French toast made with brioche, and topped with a sauce made with pears andwalnuts cooked with butter and sugar until they had become a kind of caramel delight. No maple syrup necessary, and the brioche is the perfect texture to sponge up the egg/milk without getting soggy. The dollop of whipped cream was real. It was like the most delicious bread pudding, but as light as air. We also shared the scrambled eggs with potatoes, toast and fruit. When we finished, we were satisfied but not overstuffed.

Today is the perfect fall day--warm enough to walk around without a jacket but cool enough to allow you to enjoy a sweater and a scarf. The leaves are only half off the trees, so you can still admire the colors and crunch them underfoot, in keeping with the late onset of winter in the last few years.

On the way home we stopped at the Produce Exchange. The free salsa class was just winding up as we stocked up on pears, clementines, pomegranates, oranges, and bananas.
In the car, my girl and I talked about the high school choices. We will got to two open house events next week, and she'll make a decision. I have my preference, but both are good places, well recommended by friends whoses kids have gone there, so we're lucky.

We'll each do our homework, then take a walk. Who knows when the weather will turn?

Dennis Kucinich introduces the resolution to impeach Cheney

Listen to the man. He speaks the truth in the halls of power.

There was a lot of complicated voting with the result being that the resolution was not tabled but referred back to committee. This means it is not dead, but will be up to John Conyers to move on it or let it languish.

"Pulsación No. 1"

Damian Rosenthal and Celine Ruiz dance. Filmed in Paris and Buenos Aires. Music by Astor Piazzolla

Relief!

This morning the orthopedist gave me an injection of cortisone in my right shoulder joint to alleviate the inflammation of the bursa. It relieved the pain almost immediately, although I still have limited range of motion. She has also authorized physical therapy twice a week. It will probably take several months to recover, but right now, I am so grateful that the pain that was taking over my waking and sleeping hours is gone.
So here is a Thank You song, from Sly and the Family Stone, my hometown faves.

Impeachment before the House! HRes 333

The press consistently treats Dennis Kucinich as a fool, talking about UFOs, how his ears stick out, mocking his height and appearance. But Kucinich represents the political aspirations of many Americans, and he is about to do what democratic Congressional leadership has been too cowardly (or too bought off) to do: introduce a House Resolution for Impeachment of Dick Cheney. The charges are serious: Cheney lied to manipulate this nation nto war, and continues to do the same in an attempt to provoke a war with Iran. There is overwhelming evidence that he has betrayed his oath to uphold the law and the Constitution. The bill is H Res 333, and because it is a priviliged resolution, it must be considered within two days. Even if Pelosi and co. try to table it, the issue of impeachment will be on aired for the first time. Professor Zero points us to After Downing Street for a detailed listing of the actual charges, and a list of more that could be brought. More impeachment news, including a consideration of arguments for and against impeachment, can be found at Impeach for Peach, one of many, mnay grassroots organizations that has been working tirelessly to make our representatives take action on our behalf.

I am proud that my congressional representative Keith Ellison is a co-signer of the Kucinich H Res 333, along with a group of principled House Representatives. You can call you representative to urge that our leaders be held accountable to the law.
And Wolf Blitzer is a tool.

Street market in Amsterdam

I have a lot of pictures from the last several months that I haven't labeled or organized. Here are a few from my summer trip to Amsterdam--the street market had a combination of food, clothes, and oddities. I had never seen cabbages this pointy before, and I was highly tempted to get that blue wig in the middle.

50! Fifty!

Happy birthday to me! This year I am 50 years old, like Sputnik,West Side Story, and the European Union.
A birthday wish come true: I will travel to Ireland for the first time in January.

EPIC 2015: future possible?

I went to the Twin Cities Media Alliance public forum today at the Minneapolis Central Library (what a wonderful building!). Matt  showed us a film, EPIC 2015, that he made with Robin Sloan about what could happen to the media. He had a lot of extremely smart things to say on the first panel.

Keith Ellison in action!

My congressional representative is Keith Ellison. Here is a clip of his questioning of the US Attorney in the Jena 6 Congressional hearings.

More thoughts on newmedia

I had the pleasure of attending a talk by journalist Jeremy Iggers yesterday. He has written about food, and has a PhD in philosophy. His columns about ethics and his active role in founding the Media Alliance give him a great perspective on the changes occuring in the Twin Cities media scene. The topic was, generally speaking, the future of newspapers. He pointed to the importance of newspapers is shaping an informed citizenry, and discussed the changes taking place now as the result of two forces: the culmination of decades of corporate consolidation in the dismantling of the news corps of many major newspapers in the chase after market demographics and profits, and the challenges posed by emerging digital technologies. As younger people turn to alternative sources for information and news, the corporate papers attempt to win their readership by dumbing down their news sections, but their strategies are neither successful with a younger generation, which can get better infotainment online, nor conducive to retaining their older readers who are disgusted with the abandonment of local and international political coverage.
Hence the anxiety about the future of the newspaper, and of serious journalism in general. On the other hand, both professionals and a growing number of "citizen journalists" are trying out new models of news gathering (blogs that aggregate and comment on news, for example), news production (operations like Alternet and the much-heralded MinnPost which will debut next week), news delivery (multi-media magazines, various kinds of interactivity, etc. After listening to his talk and to the questions and comments from the crowds, I came away with three thoughts: there will be some merit in finding new business models that attempt to make online/print versions of public television and pubic radio (like MPR or NPR) with greater editorial freedom and the ability to follow subjects in depth without the slavery to ad sales, although we have seen an ongoing corporatization of both of those enterprises as well); the more interesting experiment to me is the site that acts as a portal to the web presences of a variety of small specialized papers (Twin Cities Daily Planet with its 40+ community papers serving smaller interest groups or neighborhoods) because, while it aggregates and prioritizes, it is more of a portal for reader than a hierarchical virtual newsroom; we still haven't explored the full potential of blogs as a venue for public intellectuals to engage with the public, although we are seeing many experiments.

One area of profound unease over these changes has to do with the issue of expertise: whose standards will distinguish "real journalism" from amateur ranting? how to judge accuracy? how to build relations of trust between readers and writers in the absence of the culture of the craft or guild?

Another source of unease seems to be the illusion that at some time in the past, because there were fewer TV channels, there was more of a shared group experience, in which we all saw ourselves reflected as a community (I'm paraphrasing what Iggers said, using my own take informed by Benedict Anderson's ideas about nationalism and "imagined community" but this is not what he or the audience articulated explicitly). I think that this idea of a shared community was an effect, not something that really existed for a majority, and that what we are witnessing is rather the crisis of the intellectual class, whose expertise, whether in academia or in journalism, is being displaced in favor of other forms of judgment. This is why I like the title of Cristobal Cobo's book "Planeta Web 2.0: inteligencia colectiva of medias fast food?" The new media can be both forms of collective intelligence, populated by specialists and intellectuals as well as others, and can also be incredibly banal, sleazy, silly, fun forms of infotainment. And sometimes they can be both. What excites me about some fo these new media endeavors is that new voices are gaining audiences, audiences are becoming collaborators, and the mainstream media, which has demonstrably failed in its duties to provide civic engagement as well as a vehicle for ad sales, is having to respond.

A tiny bit of wisdom, after all these years.

I had my wisdom teeth taken out when I was about 22-23. I only had the two in my lower jaw, so I was lucky that it wasn't more painful. In the past month or so, I've had terrible toothache and jaw pain on my left side. It felt as if a tooth was cutting through the gum on the inner part of my jaw, below the place where the wisdom tooth would have been. Was it possible to have another wisdom tooth? Why could I feel this hard bony or toothy protrusion, cutting through the gum when I touched it with my fingernail? My dentist said it was possible that a tooth fragment from the original wisdom tooth removal had worked its way to the surface over the past few decades. I am about to go to an appointment to see if there is anything else wrong, but yesterday, it hurt so much that I clawed at the little bony bump, and it came out!!! It was exactly like a grain of sand. Tooth? bone? whatever. It still hurts, but not as much.

So, here I am at almost 50, and this little bit of the past has worked its way to the surface and broken free. I'd like to think of this as a sign. Of something or other.

This is Halloween!

What Halloween would be complete without The Monster Mash? Chris Rule reposted his original recut, "Scary Mary." I love it!

Here's "This is Halloween" from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, a family favorite.


Seriously, I saw Dracula Has Risen From the Grave when it came out in 1968 and I was 10, and spent the next year absolutely sure that he lived in my closet. Only if I slept with the sheet over my head would I be safe.

The Daily Mole, beta

If the Daily Planet is a fabulous aggregator of local new publications (neighborhood, ethnic group, labor, women, all the folks whose interests are not taken seriously by the mainstream media in this town, which is to say most of us), another new Twin Cities media venture is The Daily Mole, put on/out by Steve Perry (former editor of City Pages), Cecily Marcus, and Co. It's a very fancy Wordpress site, with a home page that bills itself as "Twin Cities", and four other categories on separate pages: pop media, talk, multimedia lounge, and listings. I've already posted some comments there as I get a feel for the content. The site is still in beta, and their really interested in responding to their readers' input.

We'll see how it shapes up as a site that can do a lot of what City Pages and VitaMN do on their sites, but better. Their banner says, "A thinky/talky approach to the news!" and "your new virtual watercooler." What I'm not sure of yet is if they will have the kind of in-depth articles that Perry used to write/edit for City Pages, that went into more of the background of local or national/international stories than the Strib did. I think that is the territory that the new MinnPost, scheduled to rollo out on Nov. 8, is staking out with its long list of eminent journalist collaborators. Since this is a daily, it may not be geared to the long read the way a weekly is, but it will bring us multiple feeds that link politics and the arts better than MNSpeak is doing currently. I'm afraid my experience of MNSpeak is of that it has devolved into a bully pulpit for a small, vocal and obnoxious set of commenters who scream at each other and insult folks who aren't members of their club. Attempts to engage their grew tiresome quickly. Maybe the Daily Mole will create a space for smarter conversations. We'll see how they handle the inevitable moment when they have to moderate comments or intervene in flame wars.

We *heart* Frida

Fridamania hits Minneapolis! I went to the opening night party on Friday. As someone put it, too many people! It was like waiting for space mountain. LOL. I lurked by the box office and spied on all the fabulous people in their fabulous clothes as they waited in a a super-long line that snaked around the lobby. Once inside, we waited in line for drinks, for food, and to get into the space where the show was mounted. But it was a fun, happy vibe, with great decorations, good food, and busy bartenders. The show itself is incredible. I have seen posters, photos, or digitized images of almost all the paintings in the show, and some of them in other shows, but to see them all together and to see how SMALL so many of them are changes one's whole relationship to the art. She was a good draughtswoman, with a complex use of color, and the recurring vegetal motif in so many of her painting are fascinating. I plan to return more than once. There are a lot of Frida related activities in town. KFAI's show Encuentros did two programs of music Frida would have listened to. You can stream the shows: in addition to the music, the commentary is very smart. Here's the playlist form the first show: popular dance music of the twenties. I sure do love my KFAI-Radio without Boundaries!

A film series has been programmed in conjunction with the show, called Cinemateca. The Highpoint Center for Printmaking has a show of Mexican contemporary printmakers that I don't want to miss.They are having a workshop on Saturday afternoon that I think my daughter would really enjoy.

Warning: Don't read this if you don't want to hear me whine

My rotator cuff tendonitis coupled with my fibromyalgia has meant that this semester my normal levels of chronic pain have shot way up. It's bad when I just wake up--I spend about half an hour stretching gently in bed, and that helps, but the pain in my shoulder is acute, and doesn't respond to that. After five o'clock at night, I'm in agony. It's hard to be completely present to my child, continue working, or enjoy time with friends when you're in pain. Some things it hurts too much to do: tuck in my shirt in back, put deodorant on my left armpit, write on the blackboard, raise my right arm above shoulder height, carry things with my right hand or arm, put on and take off my clothes, doing dishes, carrying in groceries, carrying laundry downstairs, putting it in and out of the washer and dryer, getting dressed, wiping a counter. I'm turning fifty, not eighty, but my body feels old and crippled.
I'm going to ask the guys to clean my house as my birthday present. Isn't that pathetic?

I have been seeing a physical therapist, and that has helped a little, but the screwed-up thing about constant pain is that it wears down your body and then it wears down your spirit. I'm starting to get to that well-known point where I am having difficulty coping on a daily level. The shoulder pain has meant that the usual exercise that I do to manage the fibromyalgia pain is out, and the fibromyalgia means that I am hyper-sensitive to the shoulder inflammation and slow to heal. I hate the fact that it is preventing me from keeping my house clean (vacuuming is probably the worst for fibro), and it even hurts to write on the blackboard in class. About once a day, I manage to move my arm is such a way that the shoulder joint pinches the muscles and tendons so hard, I want to cry.

The shoulder pain has become so bad this week that there are times when I can hardly bear it. Icing, pain relievers, the exercises my therapist has recommended, all are a small help, but the need to work so many hours in the last several weeks has me feeling as if I'm sliding back rather than making progress. I'm starting to lose brain function from lack of sleep: I blank out on words, my memory is shot, I react sluggishly. Most distressing is that this kind of pain and fatigue can also kick me into a mental space that I've worked hard to leave: cranky, paranoid, snappish. That's scary.

Then there's the fact that the shoulder pain interferes more with sleep, which causes the fibromyalgia to flare up, so that now I have returned to the state where I feel as if someones has been beating me with a stick--everything hurts, all over, but my hands, arms, shoulders, neck, face and upper back are either aching all the time, or feel as if they are laced with barbed wire.

Ironically enough, I'm actually very happy these days. That's the paradox of the physiology of pain-induced depression; I love what I'm doing at work, my family is wonderful, I wake up thankful for my good fortune. But the pain acts as a curtain that I have to push aside, separating me from myself. I'm familiar with this cycle. If something doesn't happen soon to improve the pain situation, I risk falling into the hole of exhaustion and the effects on mood that this brings.

I don't have many people I can talk to about this because frankly, who wants to hear about it? I suffer from the hyper-competent single mother complex as well: if I don't do it, nobody will. That's not actually true, but it's hard to let go of that mind-set.

Coping strategies for the day: hot bath, walk around the neighborhood to buy birthday presents, gentle stretches, ice shoulder, eat healthy food, breathe, leave work until tomorrow. Long term: see my doctor again, try to get back to twice a week with PT, mental health therapist, massage. All those things take time from work. So I will need to talk with my department chair to document my situation, not something I look forward to doing.

Good news: I got a paper accepted to a conference in Ireland! Bad news: I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to write it.
/pity party>

Citizen journalism on YouTube

I just learned that YouTube is more than talking cats and DTWS recaps. OK, I knew it was more, but I had't really looked carefully.
Here is a great use of YouTube for highlighting citizen journalism: CitizenTube is the vlog of Steve Grove, YouTube's editor for politics. He lives in SF, but he went to college at Carleton, the school where Paul Wellstone used to teach Political Science. I'm missing his talk today because I'll be at work, but I can catch up on his vlog.

We miss you, Paul

My senator, Paul Wellstone, was speaking for me when he addressed the Senate about the war in Iraq. I saw him speak in person only once, at a party before he ran for Senate. So many people are mourning him, his wife, his daughter, and his co-workers who were on the plane. We mourn them as people, and I mourn what we lost as a country when he died only eleven days before the election.

Some favorite places

CoolHunting.com posts videos as well as posts about the intersection of art, design, and whatever. Here are two that give you a little tour of Minneapolis.
Enjoy!

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center.

An architectural tour of Minneapolis.

Twin Cities Media Alliance and the future of newspapers

With the implosion of the two city newspapers and the weekly City Pages, all victims of corporate takeovers that included mass firings and layoffs of experienced journalists, the print news outlets in the Twin Cities have gone down the tubes. Sure, I still pick up copies in the cafes, out of habit, but there's nothing there any more. It's sad and frustrating because I have always loved reading newspapers. I don't subscribe at home any more because I hate adding even more to my recycling, but I would still buy a paper or pick up someone's discard every day.

But the changes in the works in the Twin Cities media world right now are very exciting. Journalists had already been exploring the possibilities of new kinds of news delivery through online formats for the last few years, and now several new groups are moving to reconfigure our media landscape. There will be a forum on Nov. 3 that I plan to attend called "life after newspapers", organized by the Twin Cities Media Alliance and sponsored by the Minneapolis Public Libraries.

One venture that has been around for a little while, that I like very much, is The Twin Cities Daily Planet, which bills itself as "local news for global citizens." It is a site that aggregates stories from the smaller papers and hosts blogs and community announcements. It has a strong component of citizen journalism, and links to a few sites with discussion forums in their Planet Cafe. Here is a list of their media partners. You can get your news in Spanish, Hmong, and Somali on this site as well. It's a project of the New Media Alliance.

The Twin Cities Media Alliance brings together media professionals and engaged citizens to improve the quality, accountability and diversity of the local media.

We envision a participatory democracy in which citizens from all segments of society and especially those who have been traditionally denied access are able to use the media as a tool to share information, hold the powerful accountable, build community, and work together for the common good.

Our community newswire and syndication service, the Twin Cities Daily Planet www.tcdailyplanet.net, features the best work of the neighborhood and community press and local independent journalists, and provides a public forum for engaged citizens. Our goal is to produce citizen journalism with professional standards, and to become a national model for other communities.

Does this happen to you?

If you haven't seen this one on YouTube, you'll have seen it on CuteOverload.

This is more or less accurate. My cat does not understand the concept of the weekend, so there is no sleeping in. And my cat's voice is much whinier and more demanding. The claw poke to the face usually happens on my nose, not my ear. My feet are also a target. There is some sitting next to/on my head with purring. He never feigns sleeping, he always jumps down off the bed and looks at me accusingly.

Annie, the Queen

Annie Lennox had the audience in the palm of her hand from the moment she walked on stage at the State Theater. She began her first set, mostly her solo work, with "No more I love yous" and then did a group of songs from Eurythmics days, but arranged for the piano and her voice. The long string of 80s hits were not neglected, but she ended the show with her Sing project to raise awareness about HIV/AIDs and its devastation in South Africa. She's the queen of performance--with a well-staged show: lights, bits from her amazing videos, her dancing and amazingly powerful and flexible voice. Even from far away, her eyes are incredibly expressive. I lost count of the standing ovations. She seemed sincerely moved by the love and energy the audience was giving to her.
Here are some of her amazing videos from over the years, before they hit it big;

Love is a Stranger

Song for a vampire

"Waiting in Vain"from Medusa

"The Gift"

Bummeration

PEOPLE! There is a whole site where folks post pictures of what is inside their fridge! It's called Fridgewatcher.com, and you can "watch" fridges! from other countries! I need to be amused right now, because I just watched a month of work go down the drain.

I'm too tired and bummed out to take a picture of the inside of my fridge tonight. I went to the airport to pick up a guest I'm hosting for work, only to get a message that she has to spend the night in Dallas due to flight delays (I swear, I had this feeling). Wah! I spent the last four weeks getting funding, arranging a meeting with fifteen! people for project planning, and she won't get here in time.

Well, excuuuse ME!

Sometimes when I was a child, my mother would say to me, "That's an explanation, not an excuse." It took me a long time to understand that she was trying to help me understand the difference between making a sincere apology and defensively arguing that I was justified in say, hitting my brother because he hit me first.

This hilarious article in the New York Times illustrates how often public figures go through the motions of apologizing but end up compounding the original offense.

The New Standards at the Dakota

I saw these guys again last night, for the third time. They don't play around here often-they've had some gigs in New York recently--and last time I tried to get a ticket at the door, they were sold out. So I made sure to call ahead, and had a great view from the balcony of The Dakota (my dinner was splenderific!). They are working on some new material. They didn't mention a new CD, but I assume one is in the works. It'd be great if they recorded their show--I think they are best live, when they feed off each other's energy.
They did a little fashion spread for The Rake Magazine a little while back.

Things that make me want to take out my red pen

For that anal-retentive writer or teacher in your life, here are some hilarious blogs:

The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks "making fun of bad punctuation since 2005."

Literally, a weblog
An English language grammar blog tracking abuse of the word "literally."

Apostropher Abuse. Because its everywhere! and an apostrophe can't defend it's self!

lowercase L. This one was new to me, but now that I've seen the photos, I will be looking out for those signs that say PlEASE.

Do you know any other snarky language sites?

Anthropology field work on YouTube

Anthropologist vlogger asks folks gathered at a YouTube meet-up "Would you say that YouTube is a community?" The answers are varied and thoughtful. Some of the comments are as well.

The project is part of the work at this site. Exciting stuff!

National Coming Out Week

This semester I came out to my students as a member of a Rainbow Family: I'm a straight woman who co-parents with two men who are married to each other (legally! at least in Spain). I didn't think about it for a long time; it came up naturally when a student said she wanted to study the differences between gay marriage arguments in the US and in Spain. There was no particular reaction, at least not a public one. I've been reading some coming out stories, and tomorrow I'll attend the National Coming Out Day luncheon at the Convention Center. I'll get to sit with co-workers who have become friends through the work I've been doing as an ally on the Transgender commission and as a networkers for GLBT faculty and students. Next week, I'm bringing someone to campus who has been working to incorporate sexualities into university curricula in a number of countries. I hope the visit make possible some new connections, projects, relationships among folks with common interests.

I've been feeling like one of those Tinker Toys, the round part with the holes where you stick the spokes.

John Fogarty still singing against war

Credence Clearwater Revival is the soundtrack of my younger life. John Fogarty has a new record out, but this song is from a few years ago. Still singing anti-war songs.

Here is Credence on the Ed Sullivan show singing "Fortunate Son".


Some folks were born,
Made to wave the flag,
Ooh, the red white and blue.
And when the band plays "Hail to the Chief",
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, y'all.

It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no senator's son, son.
It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no fortunate one, no.

Some folks were born,
Silver spoon in hand,
Lord don't they help themselves, y'all.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale.

AAUP report on New Orleans Universities after Katrina

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), an organization that exists to protect academic freedom, has sent out the following message about its report on how Administrations of institutions of higher learning took advantage of the crisis caused by Hurricane Katrina to restructure and fire tenured faculty, without cause or due process:

A few months ago, the AAUP reported to its members on the results of the largest investigation we have undertaken in half a century. We were faced with fundamental violations of academic freedom and tenure not just at one school but across an entire region. Under the cover of unsubstantiated declarations of various versions of financial exigency, university administrators at five institutions engaged in a “nearly universal departure from (or in some cases complete abandonment of) personnel and other policies.” It has been called the storm after the storm, or the perfect academic storm. I am referring to the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina on universities in the New Orleans area.

Many tenured faculty were fired with scant notice, no meaningful due process, no stated reasons, and no appeal save to the very administrators who released them. Faculty were not consulted about these actions or given an opportunity to suggest alternatives. Some found out they had already been taken off payroll and health care. Departments and programs were closed without appropriate review. While a number of institutions had suffered serious damage from the hurricane, we found no justification for this wholesale abandonment of due process and shared governance. Indeed, as the report eloquently declares, this is exactly the kind of challenge that requires wide consultation and full participation by the faculty before drastic actions are taken.

We believe all members of the higher education community need to know the story of how the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina was unnecessarily compounded by administrative fiat. That is why we are sending this e-mail.

The report is a warning to all of us about how not to handle a crisis, a warning as well about the dangers we face if our shared governance guarantees are not strengthened. Four administrations were censured at our annual meeting in June because of their post-Katrina actions. Negotiations continue in order to gain justice for New Orleans faculty and restore due process to the region.

The full report is available online.

Cary Nelson
AAUP President

Across the Universe

Julie Taymor is fearless. People seem to either love this movie or hate it. Count us in the first camp.

ETA: This Beatles' "Internet Album" is a great site for Beatles' stories!

Georgia O'Keeffe:Circling Around Abstraction

My brain is overheated from the intense activity of this week. I hope to persuade my girl to accompany me to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to see the Georgia O'Keeffe: Circling Around Abstraction show that just opened. If you go here, you can click on a link to an audio slide show on the left.

"Information is shock resistance: arm yourself"

Alfonso Cuaron and Naomi Klein's film, illustrating the thesis of Klein's new book, The Shock Doctrine. It is necessary viewing.

Milton Friedman's doctrine of economic shock treatment, that Klein calls "the secret history of the free market," is to take advantage of disasters to push through an economic agenda. He said, "Only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces change." The use of systematic violence to enhance or achieve a state of collective shock is not a aberration, but a requirement for the shock doctrine.
Via Professor Zero.

Why I love my job, part two.

Portability. I can take my work on the road. Today is one of those days when I sit down and crank out all those boring letters so I can get them off my list of things to do: recommendations, reports, requests, meeting minutes, student evaluations. Only a few more left to do, but I need a break. Once again, I must sing the praises of the Midtown Global Market! At the Produce Exchange, I was able to buy perfectly ripe red Bartlett pears, not those rock-hard, sad pears I get everywhere else, even at my co-op. Then I went downstairs to the Hennepin County Service center where I got my drivers license renewed without waiting in line. In fact, they called my number so fast, I barely had time to fill out the form. The kind woman took my picture and then said we should take a better one, so my next picture will not be wacky-looking. Then I had a Cuban sandwich from Manny's Tortas. I always think I'm going to try something new, and I always end up getting the same thing because it is so GOOOOOD. And they have Wi-Fi, so I can keep on working while I watch the rain fall outside, and eavesdrop on lunchtime conversations while I chip away at the list of things-to-do. Hey, maybe I'll even have time to read something something today, what a thought!

I've been to the Global Market more lately because my physical therapy center is right across the street. I've been going once a week for this shoulder problem. Last year it was the left shoulder (rotator cuff impingement they called it. Ouch is what I called it). Now it is the right, the writing arm. The pain when I make the wrong move is so intense I want to cry--effectively, a tendon is being pinched between the bones of my shoulder joint. Imagine slamming your hand in the door, but on the inside. Progress is slow, but real. I'm still feeling intense pain when I move my arm the wrong way, but I've recovered a lot of range of motion, and I can see that it will get better. Patience is not one of the qualities for which I am best known, so living with this limitation has been an exercise in acquiring more patience. Ryan, my therapist, is a wonderworker. I am in awe of his ability to do exactly what is needed to help me heal. This is the first time a physical therapist has given me such relief. I think it is because in this office, they specialize in sports therapy, and the therapists themselves seem to be atheletes. My hope is that my shoulder will heal completely so I'll be able to dance without fear again.

October already?

Check out the cool photos of family and friends over at our neighbors' blog! Pets and animal pals are heavily featured.

Annie Lennox's new CD

I got a ticket for Annie Lennox on Oct 18. I won't say how much I paid to get one of the best seats in the house, but let's just call it my birthday present to myself. She has always been one of my favorite artists, from the poppy days of Eurythmics to her solo albums. As much as her voice, I love her visual creativity, her use of costumes, wigs, make-up, story-telling, characters. The new album is called Songs of Mass Destruction.
Here's the video for her new single "It's a dark road"

Whose success are we measuring?

No Child Left Behind is up for approval. I hate it that my daughter's school, which has improved performance for every category of student except one is being punished by the NCLB rules; the entire school is being labeled a failure because a group of special needs students is struggling, even though the rest of the student body is actually performing at a level higher than might be expected given the socioeconomic backgrounds of most of the students. That is a testament to how hard the students work and how good the staff at the school actually is.

I had an interesting moment in my class yesterday. As we were reviewing some basic ways to do research in the library, a student said that she wished there had been a class about this earlier in her major. Another student remarked that there are classes on how to use the library, offered by the library. I said that I wished we had the faculty to offer such a course, but that I agreed that elements of such instruction should be incorporated into all of our courses. On the other hand, I said, in their fourth year at the University, I also expected students to have made their way to the library already.
As my department engages in the very healthy exercise of reevaluating its undergraduate and graduate curriculum, we will talk about this issue, but I think it's interesting to read this blog post by John Lombardi about the idea of "Academic Entitlement" at Reality Check in Inside Higher Ed about how we collectively understand success: is the onus on students to do what they need to do to succeed? or on the institution?

"Graduation rate, for example, is seen as a measure of institutional effectiveness and anticipates that the institution will guarantee student learning at a level acceptable for graduation and successful entry into the world of work. In this formulation, the students’ responsibilities lie in attendance, but their academic success becomes the responsibility of the institution. When graduation rates are low or students fail to meet some testable standard, we assume that the institution failed, not that the student failed. Indeed, if the student fails, the remedy is to punish the institution and its teachers.

The academic success entitlement that students enjoy reflects a broader belief that institutions need to guarantee results not opportunity. This is a notion borrowed from the manufacturing world where we demand guarantees that the products we buy be free of defects and that all products of a certain type perform their functions in the same predictable and standardized way. This model, while effective for mass produced items constructed out of standard malleable materials where the producer controls the conditions of production, has little to do with high quality education. In a high quality educational context, as we who live here know, the academic enterprise requires the direct and responsible participation of student and teacher. Neither can fail, for if the student is lazy, poorly prepared, or just doesn’t care, the academic result will be poor no matter how expert the teacher. Similarly, if the teacher is incompetent, lazy, or unprepared, the academic result will also be poor no matter how responsible the student. When we place all the responsibility for academic success or failure on the institution and its teachers, exempting the student s, we create an engine capable of predictable mediocre performance."

If I give an assignment to my students that requires them to go to the reference room of the library and report back on items they reviewed there, but they don't actually go, whose responsibility is it when they don't get a good grade on the assignment? That sounds like a sarcastic question, but when the University is doing strategic planning around the goal of improving its graduation rates, but not giving serious thought to who is learning, what they are learning, or how they are learning, then the tail is wagging the dog.

Harvest Moon

Cassandra Wilson sings Neil Young's "Harvest Moon." Wait for it.
Dedicated to Nancy and Mark, with all my love.

Serendipity and brokering connections

I sent in a proposal for a conference that will take place in Cork City, Ireland, and I am hopeful that it will be accepted. Many of the participants are people I've met or want to meet, and I have never been to Ireland! I only found out about the conference because I happened to see a flyer next to the elevator in a building I don't usually go to, but where I had gone to attend a workshop. Serendipity! one of the organizers has written a book on a topic on which I have written as well, and we would like to meet each other, so I have some hopes that this will work out.

I also received word today that a project I helped someone else put together has been funded, and we will be able to go ahead with some really exciting plans. The idea was not mine, and I did not write the proposal, but I had a lot of ideas, and institutional connections or suggestions for connections to the person who was situated to do that work. I like the combination of effort in which I get to blather on excitedly about things that interest me, and someone else figures out the budget and does the dirty work of writing the proposal.

Another local networking project is coming together in almost the same way: I was walking into my building and a woman struck up a conversation. We realized we had a lot of ideas in common, and now, half a year later, we convened a meeting in which we are creating a partnership between my unit and a public school that we hope will connect volunteers to the school in meaningful ways. It is true that perseverance has helped in all of these efforts, but it seems to me that there is also some kind of sheer cosmic luck and alignment of the planets going on right now.

DWTS premieres tonight

and I will be watching! Since my shoulder injuries have prevented me from dancing for the last several months, I have to get my fix by watching other folks go through ballroom bootcamp. Last season's winner Apolo Anton Ohno was so delightful to watch as he got better and better. His partner Julianne Hough is paired up with Brazilian racecar driver Helio Castroneves, who seems equally charming. Hough's dance partner Mark Balas, with whom she won the Youth title at Blackpool (Dancesport's gold medal) will also be working on the show, as will her brother Derej. We'll see some incredible pro dancing! Here, for nostalgia's sake is a clip from last season's show, where Tony Dovolani and Elena Grinenko (seasoned champions) do a demo with Julianne and Derek (the rising stars). Hot cha cha!

"Sow the Seeds" -relief for flooded farms

A few weeks ago we had a monster rain storm--17-19 inches in one day fell in the hill country to the south of the Twin Cities. They're calling it "a hundred year flood". Ironically, we had been in drought conditions for most of the summer. Floods is SE Minnesota and SW Wisconsin destroyed bridges, roads, dams, parts of towns and flooded many farms. People lost their homes, their businesses and saw their communities ripped apart. A few people lost their lives. The region has seen its economy crippled. In the aftermath, the state finally called a special session to vote for some flood relief, but even before that, the local co-op community stepped up with relief efforts for the farmers who are major suppliers of organic and sustainable farm products to our markets: produce, cheese, poultry. The name of the campaign is "Sow the Seeds." The stories some of the farmers have to tell are devastating.In collaboration with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), my co-op, the Wedge, has made it easy to contribute. I donated money when I paid for my groceries. Here's a video that shows the aftermath of the event for farmers and the food chain. Attina Diffley, who farms the Gardens of Eagen and blogs about farming and the politics of food, knows most of the people affected, and keeps us informed.

Cats therapy

Antidotes for the negativity to which I gave too much power in my life during the last two weeks: fun with Mr. Kitty. Here he is, helping with toilet repair a few months ago. I sent his photo to Cats in Sinks, but neglected to see if they ran it. Actually, that's not really accurate--I clicked the button "Show me another cat in a sink!" dozens of times, but his photo didn't come up. But it was soothing to see so many cats in so many sinks.

Strike over. We all lost.

After an all-day negotiation session, representatives of the union are going back to their members with the same offer the University made before. But because the strikers can no longer afford to lose their wages and their health benefits (if they don't work during the next two-week pay period), they are not holding out. I completely understand, but I hate hate hate the University's self-serving BS about how they are really giving them such a great deal
The Star Tribune article says this:

The two-year contract offer contains a 2.25 percent cost of living increase for clerical and technical workers, a 2.5 percent cost of living increase for health care workers, plus annual step raises for experience and a $300 lump sum in each year. Workers who don't receive step increases will get an additional $300 in each year. This offer will go to members without recommendation from the negotiating committee.

"We are forced back to work because we can no longer sustain the loss of salary and a looming end to our health care coverage. A typical striker earns $34,000 a years and qualifies for food stamps if supporting a family of four. We remain shocked by the administrations absolute disregard for people's lives," said Denise Osterholm, President of UMD Local 3.

About 1,000 of the 3,100 workers -- represented by AFSCME -- have been on strike since Sept. 5 over pay.

The university's position was that when combined with step raises for experience, most workers represented by AFSCME would receive raises of at least 8.5 percent for the contract’s two years

.

Tornado warnings

Apparently, the pickets have been called off and the strikers are going to a meeting at noon to learn what happened at the negotiating table yesterday afternoon. I hope the news is good, but I'm not too optimistic. Unless all the calls people have been making to the Regents meant that they put some pressure on our arrogant "leaders" who seem to have been carrying out a personal vendetta against those who dare to cross them, not just the AFSCME workers.

In looking for updates on the strike, I have come across the blog of a colleague in the sciences called The Periodic Table. Reading back through older posts, I find his analysis life at the BigU in this Cold State to be right on the mark.

Last night we spent about half an hour in the basement with our neighbors, our various cats and a small dog. The cats were in their Pet Taxis because they were mildly freaked out by the apocalyptic thunder and the sirens. The storm moved to the north and south of the Twin Cities and didn't do much in our neighborhood, but it was fairly spectacular. There are storm warnings for this morning again.

Sad but committed

I'm sitting at a cafe, grading papers and watching it rain hard outside. I just ran into a graduate student with whom I shared the flight to Montreal where we both attended the Latin American Studies Association conference.She has a background as an activist, and is a scholar and a teacher. She is also one of the students who is on hunger strike. I didn't realize this until halfway through our conversation in which I was railing about how angry the University administration was making me. Her expression was so sad, but she is very resolute. I know another of the hunger strikers, a faculty colleague whose fierce and vibrant spirit has always been the driver for her teaching and scholarship. I hadn't planned to come to campus today, but I will be attending the teach-in by one of my colleagues who will talk about hunger strikes, Gandhi, and the history of this kind of action.

I'm afraid that many Minnesotans regard the hunger strike as "foolish" and unseemly, because it violates the Minnesota norm of not calling attention to yourself because to do so is even more wrong than any wrong you could possible be trying to protest.

Another colleague came up to embrace me. He is someone who has contributed immensely to the University in prestigious scholarship, multi-million dollar grants that have supported literally hundreds of graduate students from all over the world, and who holds the highest honors the University can bestow. He told me that he is so angry and sad about this strike that he no longer wants to work here, he hates what the University is doing. He has a long history as an activist-scholar, but I'm afraid that his response is indicative of the disgust and shame that many of us feel to be working for the University of Minnesota right now.

Yesterday I was on the picket line with Mary, one of the many wonderful child care workers how cared for my daughter with so much love and dedication.When I think of how her work is undervalued in comparison with the athletic directors and coaches who walked away with multi-million dollar bailouts, it hurts and it makes me mad.

No, I had no illusions about the corporate nature of the Big U. But I have a lot of love and respect for many of the people who work here, who genuinely give of themselves to help others learn and reach their life goals, who take pride in what they do and do it well, and it hurts to see the naked contempt with which the administration is now treating us, and the ignorance and indifference of so many of the people around us.

Need new swear words

Two loser dudes, outgoing football and basketball coaches at the U of MN, received a total of $4 million in buyouts when they were fired this year! Because they're dudes and even loser dudes gotta get PAID! And hey, the athletic department will have to borrow money from Central (ie: WE are paying for it, not football tickets). But the U says it can't afford to raise the pay of its lowest-paid workers about $1 a day, you know those people who change our kids' diapers? take care of animals in the vet school? answer students' questions and correct the spelling of the University president?
Here are some librarian support workers talking about the work they do.


The librarians are rather even-temprered, but I'm riled up. Chackin' blits. Gratt!

Students to begin hunger strike in solidarity with U of MN workers

U of MN President Bob Bruininks is not hurting for money. Here's a sidebar from a U of MN Daily story about his compensation package:

Bruininks' Salary:
In March, Bruininks received a 5 percent pay raise, bumping him to $384, 221 for academic year 2006-07. The Board of Regents voted unanimously in December to extend Bruininks contract through 2011. The deal included a 10 percent pay raise for 2007-08, to $423,000 and a 7.5 percent raise for 2008-09, to $455,000. Bruininks contract indicates that the Board of Regents will determine salary increases for subsequent years at a future meeting. Even with the raises, Bruininks will still make less money than more than half of his fellow Big Ten presidents.

"I've never made my compensation an issue and I'm not going to," Bruininks said. "I feel I'm fairly compensated." He said he agreed with the Board's logic that the University of "Minnesota should not develop a reputation for having the lowest compensation level for its chief executive." The contract also provides University housing at Eastcliff and a deferred compensation package totaling $150,000 in 2007-08 and increasing by $25,000 in each subsequent year. After the 2003 budget cuts, Bruininks eliminated 14 administrators' car allowances, including his own.

I received this letter/press release today:

Students start hunger strike for Justice: Call on Bruininks to provide a fair settlement

PRESS CONFERENCE: Patio in front of Morrill Hall, north end of the East Bank Mall, University of Minnesota, NOON on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2007.

At least 10 University of Minnesota students will begin an indefinite hunger strike on Monday in support of a fair settlement of the clerical, technical and healthcare workers’ strike entering its third week. In solidarity with this student-led effort, a faculty member, a staff member, and a striking worker will join them in their action. After exhausting all possibilities of communicating their
message to President Bruininks and his administration, the group of students has organized the action as a HUNGER STRIKE FOR JUSTICE.Isaac Kamola, a hunger striker and a graduate student in political science, said, “we are frustrated by the inaccessibility of Bruininks’ administration. They have closed off all avenues of discussion, they flood our email with propaganda, and they are too afraid to debate in a public forum, because their position is so unreasonable.”

Undergraduate hunger striker, Sofia Shank, said, “Bruininks doesn’t seem to care about principles of democracy, justice, or equity. We have chosen to embark on a hunger strike that will raise people’s awareness of his lack of accountability to the public.”

The Hunger Strike for Justice aims to highlight the growing problem of wage inequality on campus, in which the University is unwilling to pay the relative pittance it would take to keep its lowest paid workers abreast of inflation, an issue at the heart of the current labor conflict. A survey conducted by the AFSCME union in 2005 found that 25% of union members working at the U had difficulties affording to feed their families. “We want justice for our community, and that
means nobody in our university should go hungry,” explained Kyle Johnson, an undergraduate in fine arts. “Our hunger strike is meant to highlight a crisis that needs a resolution now: hundreds and hundreds of workers are going home to their families without a paycheck every day this strike drags on,” he concluded.

Students have vowed to refrain from all solid foods, and will subsist on only juices, water and salt. Aerospace engineering graduate student, Amit Singh, states, “The hunger strike will be difficult, but we feel that our actions reflect the urgency of the situation. The AFSCME workers have been on strike for twelve days now. The university community has overwhelmingly come out in support of our essential workers. But the administration continues to ignore requests for a fair and livable contract.” For many letters from groups of students and faculty supporting the union’s position, see http://www.uworkers.org.

Weather permitting, the students plan to maintain a public presence on the Northrop Mall. Students and their supporters will continue to go about their daily routine as much as possible, coming together to support each other and contributing to a debate on campus during
their off time. The group encourages all members of the University and surrounding community to join them at the hunger strike site. Like University instructors, the hunger strikers will hold daily “office hours,” between 9:30am - 6 pm. During this time, they hope to engage fellow students in education about the issues of the AFSCME strike and answer any questions about the action.

In the evenings, the Hunger Strike for Justice will relocate to University Baptist Church, 1219 University Ave. SE, which also serves as the union’s strike headquarters.

Students are committing to continue their hunger strike in solidarity with the AFSCME campus locals until the Administration meets the union’s demands for a fair contract.

Day 10 of the strike: video updates

A letter from a former co-worker of U president Bob Bruininks calls him out. Tom Elko, environmental blogger and U of MN co-worker, is keeping us updated about the strike at The Sky Blue Waters Report. I really appreciate his work of keeping us informed because there seems to be a virtual news blackout by the Strib and even the MN Daily.

Marv Davidov, what a mensch!
Our legislators who passed a funding package with the intent that some of it be used to support raises for the lowest paid workers are NOT HAPPY about the U's refusal to go back to the bargaining table. Hear them say it themselves:

They couldn't be more clear!
Students, former students, and workers explain what the strike means to them:

Los Aterciopelados

My new favorite music is the 20 greatest hits of Los Aterciopelados, a band from Colombia. You can listen to a lot of their music on their website. Here are a few videos:

Estuche

Cancion protesta

Why I love my job

Here are some of the topics that students will be researching this semester for their Senior Projects. I am teaching two sections of the class, with thirty students in all.
Franco's death and the moment of political transition in Spain; why was it possible to avoid violence?
Spanish cinema and the changing roles of women (2);
the impact of Arabic on Castillian Spanish;
the politics of Mayan language and culture in Guatemala;
the impact of NAFTA on Mexican immigration to the US;
the life and work of Uruguayan poet and musician Darno (Eduardo Darnauchans);
the role of the Catholic Church in Spain today, and the idea of "secular catholicism";
"Spanglish";
why gay marriage could be legalized in Spain but not in the US (2);
phonetic and sociolinguistic issues around coastal Mexican Spanish and Dominican Spanish (2);
The politics of adoption in Guatemala;
sustainable rural development in Bolivia and the politics of interacting with indigenous communities;
racial relations between latinos and african-americans, and identity politics for black latinos;
ideas about translation;
catalan nationalism
the politics of health care and HIV/AID epidemiology in Latin America (2);
the role of Spanish language proficiency in identity politics among Latinos in the US (2)
issues surrounding bilingual education of native-speakers of Spanish in Minneapolis schools;
the "disappeared" during the Argentine dirty war, and the problems of teaching about that period for Argentines who did not live through it (2);
The Virgen de Guadalupe as symbol of Mexican identity;
changing gender roles in the Latino community, and whether there is a women's version of "machismo"

These are the topics as the students have expressed them to me so far, and of course they are way too broad still, but they represent very personal experiences and curiosity on their part. Almost all the students have studied or lived abroad, and some have a personal investment in their projects due to their family heritage or marriages and children. My role will be to both crack the whip so they finish, and support and encourage them to enjoy the process. Best of all, I get to learn a lot from them. I've told them that, while I am not an expert on all these topics, I am an expert in helping people do research and write. I will leave aside the issue of my own lack of activity in that area. I guess I may be the illustration of the adage "Those that can't, teach" in this case, but I no longer am ashamed of that fact.

Barack Obama cancels event in solidarity with U of MN workers!

Add him to the Elizabeth Edwards, who spoke at a workers rally, and Al Franken, who did the same.

Here is the letter he sent:
Dear President Bruininks,

I write today to strongly encourage you to support your frontline health care, technical, and clerical workers who are represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. I am moving a campaign event I had scheduled at U of M for this Saturday off of University grounds in solidarity with the strikers.

The workers’ requests are simple and reasonable. Their real pay has dropped over the last few years as the cost of living has increased.

Workers who dedicate themselves to the University of Minnesota and provide essential support to its core educational mission deserve a wage that allows them to raise a family and plan for retirement.

I strongly encourage you to take the steps necessary to end this strike and make the University of Minnesota a place that respects all of its workers. I will continue to monitor this situation, and I look forward to your favorable reply.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama

I turn 50 this year!

So do a couple of my friends. I'm thinking of lots of ways to mark my first half century: I want to have a wonderful meal at Lenny Russo's restaurant Heartland. I want to do something really memorable--but I haven't decided what it should be yet.
On the radio today, I heard this story about Satellite Sister Liz Dolan turning fifty. Her sisters made a list of 50 things she really loves.
I think I'll start making my own list.

U of MN strike continues

Since our stupid city newspaper doesn't seem interested in covering the University of Minnesota's clerical and hospital workers' strike for a raise that merely keeps up with the cost of inflation, one has to look elsewhere for information. This opinion piece by Professor Ann Markuson is absolutely right on, and points to the gender dimension of the higher raises going to the predominantly male senior administrators and faculty while the mostly female clerical workers get the shaft. The MN Daily has an editorial supporting the workers (and they cite Jose Marti! right on!). At least 152 classes were held off campus in the first week; this story cites some of my wonderful colleagues and their principled response to the rather thuggish rhetoric of the administration. Pickets are visible and get visible (and audible) support from those of us who are contractually obligated to stay on the job according to state law. The University is refusing to return to the bargaining table, and has attracted the ire of state legislators who fought last year to increase the amount in the state budget allocated to the University, precisely in order to provide more money for the lowest paid workers.
My favorite solidarity letter comes from the Anthro department.

In a letter addressed to the regents and University President Robert Bruininks, state Representatives Tom Rukavina and Mary Murphy, chairs of two key Minnesota House Higher Education Finance Committees, wrote in part, "We are deeply disappointed that thousands of university employees have been forced onto the picket lines due to the unwillingness of the university administration to provide adequate contact settlements for its clerical, technical and health care workers.

"For the first time in many years, the Minnesota Legislature provided the university with a generous 3.25 percent salary supplement. We expected those funds to be used to benefit all university employees. We can't understand how you can justify your minuscule offer of 2.25 percent on the salary schedule for your hardworking, dedicated employees."

Two days of teach-ins, rallies and marches--a lot of learning is going on at the U, but unfortunately what a lot of folks are learning is just how ugly a university can really get. All the rhetoric about excellence, valuing its workers, bla bla blabbity bla, but when it comes down to it, the University president's raise last year (17%) was about $38,000, more than the average yearly gross salary of a clerical worker, bringing his pay to an obscene $450,000 a year.

The courage to bike again

When I first arrived in the Twin Cities in 1988, I did not have a driver's license. In fact, I did not know how to drive a car (although I had passed the obligatory Driver's Ed course in high school), nor had I any experience driving while living in San Francisco or Berkeley. I lived in Minneapolis for two years before deciding to learn to drive, get a license and buy a car. For one thing, I could finally afford both a car and car insurance. For another, the winters in Minneapolis are sufficiently brutal so that riding a bike can be a miserable, horrible experience for months at a time. But finally, the reason that I decided to get a car was because sharing the road with cars and trucks in Minneapolis was terrifying in a way that I had never experienced when biking in the Bay Area. I feared for my life on a daily basis, and that was beginning to wear me down.

Later, of course, the car was extremely useful for transporting a small child to and from child care as well as for commuting to work or doing grocery shopping. Although a bus runs from my neighborhood to my work, it didn't take me close enough to the child care center to make it practical to use it in the winter.

Recently, Minneaplis police got in some practice for next year's Republican Convention by corraling, beating, and arresting participants in a peaceful Critical Mass event, one which had never had a history of violence in the Twin Cities.
In the ensuing coverage and discussion of whether or not the bikers "provoked" the police or whether the police were just being police when they maced, clubbed and hauled off citizens for the terrible crimes of riding their bikes and getting a little lippy with the cops when told to leave the streets although they had commmitted no crime, very few people talked about the reason why Critical Mass exists: because people are routinely killed and injured by traffic that treats bikers as if they had no right to ride on the street. Local wingnut columnist KKKatherine KKKersten railed about bikers, anarchy and the end of civilization, in the Strib, but for better information about what really happened, I checked out this great site on biking in the Twin Cities. It's starting to make me want to get back on the bike. If only my shoulders were not currently giving me pain, I'd do it, but I have to wait until the physical therapy helps relieve the rotator cuff impingement BS I'm currently dealing with.

In New York, artists have been putting up "ghost bikes" at sites where riders have been killed by cars or trucks. We need to put one up for Adam Finley, a man killed when struck by a school bus while riding his bike near Lake Calhoun.

Strike by AFSCME employees at the University of Minnesota

AFSCME employees at the University are on strike for a living wage. I completely support the strike; while faculty and administrators (especially those at the highest levels) have had raises over the past four years, clerical and medical workers have actually lost money due to the fact that costs of health care benefits have eaten up the miserly wage raises they have had, not to mention inflation. They are not paid enough for the work they do, and it is obscene that the University has the money to build a new football stadium, but not to give a very modest increase to its lowest-paid workers, despite the fact that the legislature targeted money in its last allocation for that purpose.

STRIKE INFORMATION FLYER (prepared by faculty to support union workers)

Who is AFSCME?

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Locals 3260, 3800, 3801 and 3937 represent 3,500 clerical, technical and health care workers at the University of MN.

These are the workers who sustain students and faculty by:
• Scheduling Classes
• Enrolling Students
• Booking Classrooms and Medical Appointments
• Stocking Library Shelves
• Heating and Cooling our Classrooms
• Keeping our Computers Running
• And more…

Why would they Strike?

The University Administration has proposed:
• 2.25% wage increase (clerical and technical workers) = $850.00/yr for the average striker who makes $34,000 annually
• 2.5% wage increase (heath care workers) = 1,050/yr for the average striker who makes $34,000 annually
• This proposal does not keep pace with projected inflation rates of 3.5%

Why did I hear they were offered over 4%?

• The University Administration reports that “94% of AFSCME employees would receive 8.5% or more in increases over the next 2 years (4.25% or more in each year of the contract)” (Carrier, 8/20/07).
• AFSCME workers object that their contract agreements provide for wage increases to have two components: 1) “across-the-board” increases reflect cost-of-living; 2) “step” increases recognize longevity. The top step represents the true value of the job. It already takes many AFSCME workers 20+ years to reach that step. In the meantime, they are underpaid in relation to the real value of the job.
• The Administration’s figure combines these two components. AFSCME claims that rolling the step increase into the “across-the-board” is an attack on step increases and leads to the continued devaluation of their pay scales and standard of living. Additionally, not all AFSCME workers receive a “step” increase.
• Earlier this year, Governor Tim Pawlenty agreed to give state workers a 3.25% raise in addition to step increases.

Can the U afford to pay more?

• It costs 1.1 million for each 1% increase to AFSCME out of a University budget of 1.5 billion
• State Rep. Lyndon Carlson, who chairs the House Finance Committee, told the City Pages that the state Legislature raised the University’s budget by 150 million over the next two years “to address an increase of 3.25%.” Lyndon added, “I interpreted that as a salary enhancement above the step increases” (8-29-2007).

Last day of the fair

Tomorrow is Labor Day, and our last chance to get to the State Fair. As usual, the photos posted on My Pronto Pup are the very next-best thing to being there in person. No rides for me, but they are half price on the last day. I'm sure it will be just jammed, but that's part of the experience.

The kids have their fair food wish list, and I have mine (compiled after suitable research, of course! a long discussion about fair foods includes a taste test of fried cheese curds, to determine the best booth, with a discussion about whether salt and grease are the marks of quality, or the squeakiness of the bite). I want to try the Gizmo sandwich, the Fried Green Tomatoes and Corn Fritters, and sweet potato pie. I will probably taste a cheese curd, a mini-donut, and finish off someone's shake. I think I'll skip the koolaid pickles.

A few San Francisco souvenirs

On the sidewalk by Dolores Park.

Frida on Valencia St.

Browsing at the Ferry building market.


a garden gate at Filoli.