Another Riverwest Shooting
A Jimmy John’s driver got robbed, shot and killed as he attempted to make a delivery in the neighborhood of Humboldt and Burleigh, in Milwaukee’s Riverwest. Not far from my home, my friends. Very frightening.
This took place about 3 blocks away from the Art Bar, where owner Don Krause was shot in the chest by a 14 year old kid. Thankfully, he lived, but the problems remain: somehow, idiots having no regard for human life are obtaining guns and wreaking havok on innocent people.
Sounds like the war in Iraq.
How can a nation whose history is steeped in warfare have any hope of raising children that shun violence?
The problem is compounded by those who think purchasing a gun solves the problem.
This gun violence must stop.
Highway Exit Employment Office
A general question to any who may have some experience in this matter:
Regarding those guys (haven’t seen a woman… yet) who hold up “job needed” posters at highway exits…
Does it work? Does anyone actually hire them? If so, for what purpose?
Every time I see one of those men, I wonder about these things.
On Racism, Part One
My mother told me that when I was born, the nurse brought me back into the room (this was Communist-era Russia, where they whisked off the baby immediately after delivery for some ridiculous reason) and said, “Now you know why they call them ‘black ass’,” before handing me to my mom. Evidently the nurse never saw the other side of me, because she would have likely fainted, as my cock is the blackest part of me (other than my dark, twisted personality, or course).
My mom never told me until relatively recently and it made me realize that I was the recipient of racism at birth.
It’s like a scar, you know? A fucking stain on the face of humanity.
Sufjan Stevens
Last night, we went to see Sufjan Stevens at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. Interesting show in a lovely theater. Acoustics and sound reinforcement were excellent. The show itself was quite visual. He had something like 20 musicians on stage, all dressed up in butterfly costumes with wings. I’m still trying to figure out how to feel about the show. Part of my feelings have to do less with the music and more with my fellow audience.
I was irked by the lack of courtesy of the patrons. Many flash bulbs were going off in my vicinity, and it was not even remotely pleasant in a dark theater. As if taking a flash picture from the back of the theater has any hopes of illuminating the distant performers! Some people turned off their flash bulbs but kept their camera LCD screens on, which was even more distracting. The idiot sitting next to me was drinking bad wine (the mere smell was putting me to sleep), and was text messaging someone on his giant cellphone (equipped with full keyboard and sizable LCD). Why the fuck would you go to a concert if you’re going to spend even part of the time text messaging? At one point, after several flash bulbs annoyed me to all hell, I leaned over to him and said, “Sorry to bother you, but that’s bothering me.” He apologized and put it away. At least he wasn’t a prick about it. And for the rest of the show, no one took any flash pictures, at least no one around me.
People are so caught up in their fricking gadgets that they have no sense of courtesy. Or maybe people are just stupid assholes.
On a similar note, Wired News has a great article on the drawbacks of cell phone use.
Bootz & Burma – Round Three
When I visited Future Green today, I found out Bootz had slept for 1.5 hours at some point the previous evening, and he was looking better rested. Again, there were many people present, some of whom had known him his whole life, and it was a festive event. As usual, we took great pains to make sure he was not only paying attention to the task at hand, but not getting bored or tired.
The video below is of me balancing a Tibetan singing bowl on Bootz’s head, and what transpired thereafter:
And, in case anyone is interested in watching other videos of this event, I’ve got a playlist set up at YouTube.