Monthly Archives: March 2004

Melt peanutbutter for instant joy.

By now you may have heard that my curtural outing for this Friday has been cancelled. Which is probably best, mentally I wasn’t prepared to watch women use bananas in unorthodox ways.

Announcement time: I am a KazaaLite user! YES! I share music from my personal computer! I share with anyone, anywhere in the world with a decent connection. While record companies might like to call it stealing, I believe record companies are the original thieves, who are finally being rendered useless, after years of stealing money from artists. I say this on the heels of a recent decision in an Australian court, allowing authorities to search the offices of Sharman corporation.. better known as Kazaa. While I don’t use kazaa because it’s full of spyware, I respect their right to do what they do… connecting people, allowing them to share with each other. I think this decision is horrible, and I hope it’s succesfully apealed. A similar case has been going on in the Netherlands, but similar recent cases have ruled in favor of file sharing, and I have faith in my country of residence – they’ll tell the record companies to blow it out their ass!

The Reagan miniseries finally ended today… I have no further need for a television. I grew to love that dam show. I enjoyed the Olie North scandal and Reagan telling his own staff he didn’t remember them! Oh.. and it was disturbingly interesting to watch his staff start killing themselves one-by-one as Iran-Contra unraveled. Maybe now I’ll finally have time to properly book a Thalys (Train) to Paris! Oui.. je vais ? P?ris!

Today’s Music: Death Cab for Cutie – The Photo Album

1 thru 20 in Arabic!

No feed back from Canadians from my last entry… I guess they’re shy. That’s fine. We still love our Canadian friends on this blog. Matter of fact, one just emailed me. We’re going to see a very typical Amsterdam show this Friday. (nudge nudge-wink wink) I’ve never been to the “low-class theater” (we’ll call it) the entire 17 months I’ve lived here. So this will be a very cultural experience.

Yesterday I witnessed, via radio, one of the most shocking scandals in quite some time. I listened to Haitian President Aristide on the phone with members of the US congress, calling from the CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. Why? According to him – HE WAS KIDNAPPED! By who, you ask? The US MARINES. The man was distraught. He had said he wouldn’t resign in the face of armed rebels wanting to kill him. But yesterday morning he was taken in the middle of the night, escorted by personel from the American embassy, not allowed to speak to anyone, and flown to locations unknown, only to land more than 8 hours later in the CAR. Why am I up in arms? Because good president or not, he was democractically elected! And the people seeking to remove him were military trained in other countries; notorious murderers and leaders in the drug trade. These people have the support of Washington! This once again makes me ashamed of what is allegedly “my government.” Then again… I was already ashamed.

Slightly brighter news is that I’ve started watching this miniseries that caused an uproar in the states earlier this year, “The Reagans.” This show is hilarious! I laugh and then I cry. I laugh because this man actually controlled the future of the world in his hands for 8 years! I cry because this man controlled the future of the world in his hands for 8 years. I cry more. Especially anytime he talks about nuclear weapons like they’re a gift from the gods. But man do I love when he says “Don’t cry mommy” or when he himself is all lost and forgetting things. Its insane to see how superstitious, naive, and just completely out to lunch both he and Nancy were. Talk about the emperor having no clothes…

Today’s Music: Thrice – Artist in the Ambulance (a bit loud)

Law n Order SVU Makes Sunday Night

I’m both super-curious and super thankful for the Canadians that visit this here blog. I know so many Canadians, and Canada has always played a unique role in my past, that i really can’t guess who it is, but I’m glad all the same. Recently a friend doing her PHD here in Amsterdam said to me she was going to do her work at McGill University in Montreal. I didn’t realize you could do things like that while PHD-ing. That serves as reason #35, why I want to be a PHD student. Where would I go if it were my three months? Not sure.. maybe Toronto, Seattle, or hey NYC! That would be funny… and also quite possible.

I phoned up a friend earlier this evening, she just finished her degree here – pyschology. I chose to call rather than SMS considering the occasion, but i got only voicemail, so I left the usual “me” style gibberish. I immediately got an SMS response…. from somewhere in KENYA! The message read something like thanks! Im in Kenya and Ive seen horrible things. Tomorrow I go to Ethiopia I was blown away. I forgot that GSM technology is available all over Europe and Africa… and I believe Asia. Only the “America”continents work on the, whats it called system, CDMA. So I can text my friend in East Africa all I like! I bet my good buddy Jorge would have something to say about that.. he taught me most of what I know about life and mobile phone technology.

So President Aristide of Haiti has left the building. Rebels and friends rejoice. But there’s really nothing to rejoice about. People were starving and suffering. So along come the Rebels to kill and torture those who they say were starving them. Now they will take over and after a bit more murder and suffering, they’ll make peace. How could that possibly last? You have an entire nation that has always known violence and desperation… what good has/will democracy brought them?

I’ve watched the Hurricane on DVD about a dozen times in the last month… I can’t get enough. “I served my time in a house of justice and yet there is no justuce for me.” Denzel… the man is my king.

Today’s Music: Zebda – Utopie D’occase (French Hip-Hop)