Smile! You’ll be dead someday!

More from the Curandera’s shop in Alamo. Cute, idnee? Happy Halloween. Pathetically, I have no party plans, and did not even make a minor attempt at getting a costume. Sad, sad, sad. Oh, and to get my grad students in the mood for the evening, I’m giving them an exam from 4:30 - 7:00 :)

Dear Death: Thanks for helping me ace the forklift exam. You’re awesome!

 This photo is in a display window for a curandera’s shop in Alamo, TX. I guess it’s a grateful-customer endorsement.

Curanderos are folk healers who, from my limited knowledge, practice a heady mix of Mexican folk spirituality (some claim kinship with Native American/Aztec/Mayan/etc. traditions), folk physical healing, Catholicism, astrology, voodoo, general paganism and general spiritualism. Sort of a “kitchen sink” type of thing, although I’m sure there’s more to it than just an “anything goes” mindset. I think outsiders are the only people who are surprised that this kind of thing is so prominent in an area where most people would also call themselves faithful Catholics.

If you click for the full image, you can see this man’s poignant (but to me somewhat disturbing) text, next to his Strong-Bad-esque drawing of Death. Translated (ignoring spelling errors), it reads:

From today onward
your most faithful believer
I give thanks
for hearing me
Most Holy Death. 

 Mr. Irrigation Canal, direct light is not your friend.

Friday night, I saw the UTPA Dance Ensemble Fall Concert. Three pieces.

The first was just phenomenally awesome. The soundtrack was composed of old, misogynistic radio and TV ads, a Bing Crosby piece (maybe?), and something jazzy and awesome that sounded like Django Rinehart on guitar. The dancers (all female), using spinning stools as props and dressed in identical polka-dot short dresses, created a highly kinetic melange of war-era pinup poses, glamor-girl smiles, burlesque moves and what I thought were more abstracted references to female gender roles. As the piece progressed, there were increasingly visible indications of the shallowness of the facades, such as the dancers lifting and posing each other like dolls or mannequins. Oh, and there was lots and lots of sultry cigarette smoking, with some serious coughing at the end. Also they sometimes flew around, airplane style, on their stools :)

The second piece was set to the Titanic theme, and involved some fairly predictable and derivative–but sweet and romantic–choreography. There seems to be a gender-change operation in there somewhere, as well as a lesbian love affair, but I suspect (given the nature of the rest of the piece) that these are not what the choreographer was going for.

The third piece (the one of resistance, you know) was my friend Melinda Blomquist’s MFA choreography work. I saw it in an earlier form last Spring, and now it’s even more awesome. Traditional hymns with a lot of vocals, an a capella Lila Downs piece, and some other touching music with gorgeous allegorical dance involving women with a white sash. The white sash begins around their waists, and they all struggle (sometimes violently) to get it off. Lots of repeated themes: jerky struggling-type motions, progressions of one hand up the other arm (sort of reminiscent of David Byrne in his “Once in a Lifetime” period),  women lifting each other up and falling back down, and too many more to remember or mention. One by one, the dancers remove the sash, and the tone of the dancing shifts from tortured to jubilant. The themes of trials, mutual support, faith, and overcoming are powerful. I get all verklemt just thinking about it. Continue reading →

That’s right, baby. Mikhail Freakin’ Gorbachev
here at UTPA last night. In the ridiculously long line to get in, two sort of ditzy students (well, they were) were behind us, and I ascertained that they were only there because their prof had required it. I asked if they even knew who Gorbachev was, and they both said no. I then explained (a bit hyperkinetically, to two students who really weren’t interested) why Gorbachev is one of the most important figures in the world. One of the girls then replied, “Then why is he here?”

Good question. But whatever the answer, he spoke for over an hour to a packed, standing-room-only audience in our largest auditorium. He recalled his agrarian and political beginnings, his rise to power within the CCCP, his brief tenure as president, and his activities since. He (indirectly) criticized Mr. Bush, applauded George W’s dad and Ronald Reagan, quoted JFK, and generally polarized the audience. Most of us were just a bit enthralled. Some got up and left early.

Interesting points: he suggested that it’s futile to fight globalization, so we need to make it work for the underprivileged nations. He said the U.S. has to stop trying to be a cold-war-style superpower in a post-cold-war era. He said the sometime perception that the U.S. has a divine mandate to establish a military/economic empire is misguided and must change. He said India, China, and the EU are the big gorillas to watch for a while. He also volleyed questions from the audience in an extremely smooth manner.

I didn’t agree with everything he said, but I did–surprisingly–with most of it.  Gee whiz; how often does one get to see Gorbachev in person?

In other news, Alex is now gone. This is extremely sad. Very very sad. I am not a happy camper. My teeny apartment, sometimes a bit cramped when she’s there among all my junk, is a depressingly empty place, right now. It was a good week.

But first, some comic joy from Basic Instructions, a web comic that consistently makes me chuckle:

 [click for the full comic]

Note: this is not a commentary on my feelings for my wife, which are still quite positive, thank you. Now, on to…

How to be one kind of super-cool 21st-century cyclist

1. You’re going to ride a fixed-gear bike. You just are. Shut up.
2. Buy that $1,500 frame you’ve had your eye on. No, not the titanium frame. Not the aluminum frame. The steel frame. Steel is real, with its reality varying in direct proportion to its cost.
3. Drop a few hundred on track-approved cogs, hubs, pedals, bars, and wheels. But build it all up yourself (or pretend you did). It would be a violation of the cycling ethos to pay someone else to do it.
4. Avoid brakes. They add weight and ruin the graceful minimalism of your bicycle. Also, a demonstrated fear of death is the antithesis of cool.
5. Avoid derailleurs. You don’t need them. You may think you do, but you don’t. No questions.
6. No bike racks. See previous item.
7. Get a really good bike messenger bag (about $200). Better yet, make one out of $75 worth of materials you find at the fabric store, so you can keep in the do-it-yourself mindset. Better make it a huge bag; after all, you don’t have a bike rack. TIP: Make sure to wear your cool cycling clothes to the store, so nobody thinks you’re a sissy craft-type person. But don’t bike there; what would you carry your fabric home in…. a backpack? It’s important to think ahead.
8. Now that your bike is super-light, buy a Brooks saddle ($60 - $600) and add a couple of pounds. Get a pre-broken-in one for a few extra clams. Also get the leather protectant and a seat cover. And don’t ride in the rain. It will ruin your saddle.
9. No padded bike shorts. Sure, a Brooks will very possibly not make you impotent, but that’s not your concern. Bike culture is more important than your sex life, your wife’s sex life, or your potential progeny.
10. You’re going to need a new wardrobe. It will include a lot of hipster, punk-esque clothing that looks old but is expensive. Think like a BMXer: shop where the people who ride your kind of bike shop. After a while, you’ll recognize your in-crowd even if they are nowhere near their bikes (not that you’ll ever see them more than a few feet away from their bikes, but, you know, hypothetically).
11. Toss out your helmet, lights, reflectors, and pantleg clips. If you absolutely must commute on the thing of beauty you have created, you’ll just have to quit your current job and get one that allows you to wear those capri pants that all the cool fixie riders wear.
12. Fixed-gear bikes are very low-maintenance. You will come to appreciate the lack of extra parts as you clean and polish your fixie three times a week, in fear that another cool fixie rider might see the grimy state of your steed. Especially mortifying is if they recognize the bike from its photo on fixedgeargallery.com and note how the mighty have fallen.
13. Now, get out there and disobey some traffic laws and the dictates of your better judgment!

Continue reading →

What have I been doing instead of working? The list is long, ending with reading the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was signed by 144 nations and pointedly NOT signed by 4. The U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. What? We didn’t sign something that says “rights of indigenous peoples?!?”
Continue reading →

Redline fixie on campus

So, cool bike on campus, eh? I just happened to be out with my new camera, shooting all kinds of terrible pictures, when I saw it. First fixed-gear bike I’ve seen here. Kinda neat. I especially like the strapless MTB clips (I’ve seen those for sale, and they looked interesting) and the clearly homemade aluminum-from-Home-Depot rack (I should have taken close-ups of the welds; they look neat).

So, I went to a couple of Rio Grande Valley Icehole games this week. Interesting experience. I don’t think I’ll be joining up, after all. [warning: rationalization and excuses ahead]. It wasn’t just the deafeningly loud music blasting for the entire 60-minute game. It wasn’t just the hecklers in the crowd (after all, they didn’t heckle *me*). It wasn’t the increased pushing and shoving on the ice (I can get used to that, and shove back). It wasn’t the run-down arena with dripping ceilings and mounds and pits on the ice (actually, the arena is pretty endearing and cool in that way).

Continue reading →

ironic… like rain the day after your wedding.

I’m leaving now. I’m ambivalent about it, because there are pluses and minuses to being here in Ontario. In fact, here are some of them:

+ First, I enjoy living with my wife much more than living 2,000 miles away
- I do not enjoy being isolated from the university, people, and other resources that help me do my job. It feels like trying to run a business in Pittsburgh from a tent in the Sierras.
+ It’s only 3 months in the summer
- Then there’s winter… Continue reading →

We had a combined lesson for Priesthood/Relief Society today. The teacher made some very specific claims about the meaning of selected verses in the second chapter of Joel (but not the troublesome verses in between). I agree with some of his assertions, and the rest are not totally beyond the realm of possibility. However, the most obvious interpretations of those verses, in my mind, do not involve the “closet” that the Bride comes out of as a symbol of the Whitmer farm, nor the “pillars of smoke” referring to the Twin Trade Towers. Continue reading →

1. T-shirt on Jax, who is in the GDGJ theatre crew (indicating how cool she is):

haikus are easy
but sometimes they don’t make sense
refrigerator

2. Alexa (not my wife), ad-libbing marital discord in GDGJ:

“You look like Indian food in a diaper!”

3. Anonymous Friend, re: a bicycle (indicating just how very much he needs a girlfriend):

“I’m really very happy with the way it’s turning out. I was staring at it for hours tonight. “