Americana- It's what's for dinner

One day I was bitching about my job to a co-worker. I was sick of New York and I wanted to be anywhere but "this miserable little island." She said "Big apple Circus is looking for people, you should go out on tour with them." So that's what I did. The Big Apple Circus is a team of very talented performers, and has a long and storied tradition of excellence. This is not one of those stories. The show that year was a Western theme. There was a huge tee-pee in front of the band platform, where the performers entered, and a puppeteer did a back lit shadow show for the audience between two of the ring acts. One of my duties was to hold an incredibly bright light on a stick behind the puppeteer, so the shadows would fall on the tent for the audience to see. At the conclusion of the puppet show, a slumped over man in a cowboy hat rides a buffalo out of the tee-pee. Sounds easy enough, right? Let me back up a bit. The man on the buffalo was the great performer Taso Stavrakis, whom is famous for among other things, having portrayed more zombies on film than any other actor ever, and for turning down the role of Jason Voorhees. (Derek Mears would later say yes to the role, but that's a story for another day.) So back to the tee-pee. Inside are the French puppeteers, me trying to hold the light perfectly still, and behind me are Taso and the buffalo. Now I love animals, dont't get me wrong, but this buffalo and I did not get along at all. I don't know if she just didn't like me or liked me too much, but the relationship was not a healthy one. Every show, Taso would bring the animal behind me for the entrance, and every day the buffalo would berate me with her nose and or horns. Now to be fair, her horns were capped with steel balls, so they weren't sharp, but the thing weighed like 2200 pounds, so anything she did had quite a lot of force behind it. Remember too that I'm holding the backlight, so any movement I or the lamp make translate to the puppets, and look to the audience like an earthquake is happening inside the Tee-pee. So while the backstage crew thought that the molestation of my rear-end that was a result of this love/hate relationship was hysterical, the result was that now I was taking heat from the performers who did not seem to sympathize with my dilemma. You would think that clowns would have a sense of humor. They do not. This went on for what seemed like two forevers. Finally, in one of the cities the tour performed in, my friends and I had some down time, and were driving around looking at the sights, when I noticed a sign for a diner that served alligator burgers. Naturally we stopped there for lunch. Now I have had alligator before, so I was eager to see what other exotic fare this eclectic restaurant had to offer. Ostrich, eh. Bear, been there. Rattlesnake, no thank you. Bison burgers. Wait, did you say bison burgers? I would actually love a bison burger, thank you. And one to go too please. So yes, you are justified in your fears, later that day I plopped myself down next to my shaggy rapist's pen and very deliberately ate a delicious meal of one of her extended family. I think that somewhere behind those dark brown eyes of hers, she knew what was going on, because I never had any more trouble with that particular buffalo.

What do you mean happy holidays?

Around 217 B.C. the Romans needed to cheer themselves up a bit, so they introduced a celebration to honor the god Cronus, and called it Saturnalia. They wore different clothes, they allowed gambling, they even exchanged gifts. But the thing they did which I find most interesting was that the slaves and masters would switch roles. The ruling class would serve the serfs, so to speak. A couple of hundred years go by, Jesus is born, and the celebration of the Roman god is absorbed into the catholic church.
Now most people would agree that the celebration of Christmas is far too commercialized, but the gift giving is clearly an enduring theme, so what else does Christmas mean. If the holiday cards are any indication, peace and love are supposed to be the central ideas. Ideas sorely lacking in society these days. Peace? When in the history of human existence has there been peace?
There is a famous story about the Christmas truce of 1914. Already dug into trenches in France, the Allies and the Germans, took a break from the war to sing songs and kick a soccer ball around. But the peace was local, and did not last long. But it helps to illustrate a point.
If you can find the humanness in someone, if you can find a commonality, it becomes less likely that you will try to kill them. A lesson which is essentially lost in America today. Just try to imagine what peace would really look like, or feeling love for a terrorist. We can't do it, because we do not try to put ourselves in the mind of our adversaries.
Reversing roles like the Romans did, shows you what life is like for other people. Understanding better who we are by experiencing whom we are not. Even in A Christmas Carol, Scrooge has to see life from a different perspective in order to understand himself. And he did not like what he saw, but he endeavored to change. So during the holiday season, we should try to examine how we would even go about achieving peace. I suspect it has to do with reducing the number of people who hate each other, by reflecting on how we and our actions appear to them.
Peace and love are very easy concepts, which are very difficult to practice. Especially in Bethlehem.

fractions speak louder than words

As the occupy movement readies itself for what looks to be a long cold winter, support and opposition seem to be taking form in strange and confounding ways. I know that the people who live and work in the Wall Street area, even those who support the action, are rapidly tiring of all the drum beating and saber rattling. And even without a well defined message coming from the movement, the rest of the country seems to be queueing up to either allign with or disassociate themselves from the protestors. And the media doesn't know what to do with a news story that lasts for more than a couple of cycles with very few updates on which to report. But the first step in any recovery program is admitting that there is a problem. The problem however, resides not in lower Manhattan, but in Washington. The President's approval rating is somewhere around fifty percent, which given the state of the state of the economy, is not surprising. Congress, on the other hand, is not so highly regarded, with approval at only about 10%. People seem to be displeased with the White House, but far more displeased with the House of Representatives. These are all people who work for us. They were all elected to serve the people of the United States, and the people who elected them are largely dis-satisfied with the job they are doing. Or not doing. With the global economy faltering, and public confidence dwindling even further, the Congress of the United States last week could find nothing more appropriate to do with it's inherent power, than call to a vote a re-affirmation of the motto IN GOD WE TRUST. With an array of important issues facing this nation, some of them dire and immediate, this is how Congress chooses to spend it's time. As irresponsibly as the financial sector has acted, the political system is doing far more damage. The message out of Washington seems to be; Trust in God, because we aren't to be trusted.

I'll have what she's having

My great-grandmother was born a full blood indian. Back in those days there was a lot of inter-tribal warfare. Raiding parties would regularly take women and children captives back to their tribe. To help combat these practices and sort out who belonged to whom, my ancestors took to tattooing the children. An indelible proof of lineage that would last a lifetime. My great-grandmother's tribal tattoo was a bird and three diamonds. She was not proud of it at all. In her later life she wore long button sleeves and gloves to hide it from view. At that time only prostitutes and sailors had tattoos, and she didn't want to be identified as either. So very few people ever saw the tattoo. Which is sad, becase if I was going to pick an image to be put onto my body, it would be that one. The tattoo my great-grandmother had. My tribal symbol, my family crest, my heritage. But hardly anybody ever saw it, and nobody seems very sure of what it looks like.

first in the nation

Today I responded to a comment on a friends facebook page. Somebody was all bent out of shape, saying basically that the Midwest was different from the rest of the country, and should secede from the Union, or something. And since this person felt misrepresented in Washington, they felt that at the very least their little area should be able to make new laws just for them. I thought that this was a perfect time to quote one of my favorite laws, the 14th amendment. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within it's jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. It's so beautuful. It talks about States making fucked up laws, it talks about police power, it even covers immigration. A brilliantly conceived bit of legislation. And conservatives seem to hate it. This person did anyway, they said that nobody pays attention to the fourteenth amendment anyway, but at least they had God, and that at least they could still go pray. To which I replied that God is great. They took down all of their posts. I win.

sexy zombie santa

I went to the drug store this morning to get some last minute items. My girlfriend had previously purchased a bunch of candy that looked like it was made in Russia during the Stalin era, so I had to get some of the good stuff that they make in Pennsylvania. And more fake blood. I have long worked as a special effects designer for theatre and film, and let me be clear, you can never have enough fake blood. Now granted, 9:00 A.M. on Halloween day is close to the outside of the availability window for giant bags of candy and stage blood. If you wait till the last possible minute to do something, you can't really complain too much about dwindling supplies. Well the aisle where Halloween lives was easily identifiable, just look for stacks of hollow plastic pumpkins. But in the aisle where the vampire teeth should be, stood mechanized snowmen, and inflatable Santas. Giant blue plastic tubs full of Halloween sat out on the floor being hastily replaced by Christmas fare. Ornaments, lights, tinsel and Santa hats. Instead of the Halloween stuff I need. For Halloween. Tonight. Shouldn't you at least wait 'till the event is over before you start the new one? Are we planning to entirely forego Thanksgiving this year? It must be the snow. It makes people crazy.

fear itself costume

Going through the news this morning, there was a story about a lesbian couple from California. They have a four year old son who wants to dress-up as a princess for Haloween. The comment section below the piece was full of people spewing vitriol and hate. Hatred toward the boys choice of costume, hatred toward the parents, hatered toward their lifestyle. It was disturbing. In America you are allowed to be whomever you want to be. Liberty and the pursuit of happiness are guaranteed rights here. It is sad that because of so much ignorance and hate, someone has to explain to a four year old that people are going to hate him and make fun of him for being what he wants to be. In America, where freedom and liberty are our most sacred principles, people should remember that these are not just words on an aging piece of vellum. Defending freedom isn't only waging wars against our enemies in Mesopotamia, it is also about defending the right of someone whom you've never met, to marry whomever they want. And to raise children if they want. And here in America, little boys and girls are allowed to grow up to be whatever they want. Be the best princess you can be, kid. I'm cheering for you.