Podcaster Mugged

This is no joke. My ears are burning from the headlock the guy put me in. My ankle is sore from the other guy who kicked me from behind. It was completely surreal. 3 guys who I thought were just out on the town, on there way to a club or something. I was almost clear of them, and the thought hadn’t crossed my mind – Im stupid.

Don’t worry… I may look skinny and fragile.. but when push comes to shove.. Im in great shape and I’m an ex martial arts instructor… which sort of came in handy tonight. So there not a horrible ending to this one, but its all true:

First off Lisbon can be a safe city. I’m not going to become one of those conservative “cities are evil” type people. But at night there are lots of people with money going clubbing, and lots of desperate and angry people preying upon them. So I had no business trying to PODCAST a soundseeing tour through the old neighborhood with my iriver in my chest pocket and my headset mic clearly on my ear. Sure enough, I had actually walked by them earlier, a group of three guys circled back as I walked, one grabbed for head and tried to kick me, both moves caught me by surprise but I caught early and threw him back. Unfortunately at the same time, his friend kicks me in my other leg and I immediately rush to get them all on one side of me to prevent more hits from behind.

I headn’t realized at that moment they had caught my recorder which had popped out of my pocket in the struggle. In my hand was still my camera and in my pockets my money. As a sort of reflex, I prepared myself for the next rush of punches and whatever, I think I half noticed some regular people standing around doing nothing. Thats how the world is, countries are destroyed, and people stand by. People are hurt, and no one does anything — but I knew all about that.

Ow my ankle is throbbing… thats annoying.. anyway to finish the story.. they suddenly decided to run.. and I realized they had my iriver.. and I love podcasting and I wasn’t willing to let this go. I could tell they hadn’t planned this, they way one guy in the group didn’t act at all, almost surprised his friends decided to attack someone. I knew the way they would run, towards the metro, but it was far away, and I knew I could find help on the way, so I tailed them, about one block behind them.

they ducked behind some parked cars, and I spotted a group of street sweepers having a cigarette, the police were too far down the street to go there now. I didn’t want to lose these guys, so I approached the streetworkers and said “gentlemen, I was just mugged, I know the police are down the street, but the muggers are just down the street… if we approach them, I think they will panic and dump what they stole.” Some of the guys tried to look away like I was a begger. Hell I felt like a begger, but this was a call to action. And two of the old men felt that sense of “community acvitism” they followed just behind me as I walked closer to the muggers. The guys noticed me, and started running the other way… I shouted into the night air “Here I am…. I want my shit back.. !” Might sound stupid, but its all that came to mind. And wouldnt you know it, while rushing off, one of them slid my mp3 recorder onto the sidewalk. It was a little scratched up, but in tact. My headset was broken in half, but thats ok.. its worth 5 euros.

The city workers seemed satisfied. Told me to be careful and go home. My ankle is throbbing, I feel less in love with my old city, but mostly — Im disappointed in myself for not using the common sense I’m usually so proud of. (ie- – dont wander around at night recording a podcast like the world is my oyster)

I’m not a guest here

These hotel people can’t handle me. I sneak into there lobby and when they ask who I am… if they even ask.. I say I’m waiting for someone.. and I’m a journalist and there’s going to be an interview. After that they never ask with who, which is good because I run out of bullshit.

Greetings from Lisbon, Portugal sports fans. Where Wi-Fi is more privatized then…. umm… something private. I’m paying a pretty penny for this quality time, and while I write lots of new podcasts are being sucked into my beautiful powerbook.

I’m such an outsider here now. I realized that this morning when I woke up with the roosters crowing (yes we have roosters in lisbon where I live) and went to the bus station that no longer exist. I walked right up to the dark and abandoned building, as if in denial, I tried to open the door anyway. Who knows, maybe there was just 1 bus left waiting for me. – Apparently not. Missed my bus, and hereby forced to wait two more hours to see my moma and papa, who have hidden themselves away in a tiny corner of the Algarve, right on the border with spain.

I’ve lots of topics to discuss, economics, politics, human relations, metro ettiquette…. it all rushes through my head as I get around town. One thing for sure, Amsterdam is in no way a big city, compared to this place. Never in Amsterdam am I completely inundated and engulfed by a mass of people walking in the opposite direction. Here.. it happens constantly. Oh bicycle, I miss thee already.

No photos yet. Podcast is in the pipe if Id find the time to put it together. And hooray for Lance, a true bicycle hero. Rumor has it, he’s going to run for gov. of texas! How cool would that be, a governer of texas who speaks french and owns a passport. BREAKTHROUGH.

Great Comments July 05

For your reading pleasure, I present a collection of great comments from this week on the communique:

Egypt BombingsOn my questionable opinion about the London bombings and public outry:

Not to be unorigional but I totally agree. I am saddened by the anger. I think if we recognized that we are complicit in the development of these tragedies we would be a lot closer so changing, and preventing further bombings. we live in a culture of terror and the longer we pretend that these acts can ONLY be perpetrated by insane people whose motivations cannot possibly be understood the worse things will get.

– Asia Kennan, the Deconstructionist

On me saying the Rove firing wouldn’t matter:

Dude, Rove being fired would be FUCKING HUGE.. Yeah, the pres and him are going to chity chat but whatever, that’s not what this is about at all. You’re completely missing the point.

It’s image and leverage, Bush is the born again, more moral than that Clinton evil…if his #1 guy goes down for a crime regarding leaking national security info the ramifications are huge. Any wind left in congressional republican sails would be gone, the administrative approval ratings would sink lower and congressional elections are coming up in 2006

– D-rock, King of the District.

On critical thinking:
btw, never stop questioning what motivates humanity to do the things we do….. it’s the first step to a higher understanding of ourselves and maybe gaining a higher level of ‘being’ in the bigger picture of existance in the Universe.
– Donna, from zephyr illusions

On Anne Coulter as a sexual fantasy:

I wanna know what DRock was doing at anncoulter.com….
shit, I just gave her lousy site another hit. She reminds me of a horse. A very mean, psycho horse.

– Ms Thingk, internet icon.

Shit, I just noticed this. Since its in the middle east I guess it wont make the front page.

Holiday ’05

2 weeks. 15 days actually. Technically that’s 50% of the amount of vacation I’m allowed as a Europeeuhn. Yet being a migrant worker in Holland, I tend to fall through the cracks for alot things I’m “supposed” to have. The point being; 15 days is the longest vacation I have had since… hmm.. maybe since last summer. My destination: Portugal of course.. and more importantly- the awaiting arms of moma and papa.

here mindcaster... eat ice creamWhile in Portugal, I will of course visit my wise and all-powerful friends JP and BadHareDay whom I’ve known since our days teaching English to the rich and famous. I mention this because I spoke with BHD online last night, and he expressed great frustration with my post about the big london bombings a few weeks ago. He said, to paraphrase as best as I can, that if I claim to be a pacifist then I should condemn the london bombings just as I condemn the invasion of Iraq. He reminded me of the non-violent philosophies of Ghandi and MartinLutherKing, which as a pacifist I should be familiar with.

I’m excited to see him, my longtime friend, when I arrive in Lisbon, and I know this discussion will continue. Hell, he’ll probably point out how I misunderstood his disagreement with what I write in this post. But in my own defence I must say the following:
Part of my aim, as a blogger, is to write something from my own unique point of view. Which of course might be shared by others, but is meant to be an original thought. There are plenty of bloggers out there condemning the bombings in london and describing how terrible it is, I have no desire to be YET another.

But I do desire to present a different way of talking about world events such as these. To do more than just say — thats terrible — but to examine what are the causes and factors that influence these events. And I do this not only because I feel there’s a lack of this kind of critical thinking in media, but because it just comes naturally — it is how I, as a simple and often ignorant human being, look at the world.

Back to my vacation, it’s maté time, oh and this man and this feminina are off on vacation as well.