How rannnnnnndom!

Totally random thoughts ...

“She's the perfect Bush-era heroine, because she's all style and no content.”
-Feminist author Naomi Wolf on Paris Hilton in Vanity Fair

Park Ave CDs has finally moved to its new location, and it's, well, really dusty. But I'm sure it's going to be great. There's lots of room -- so much so that I actually felt a bit claustrophobic when I walked in on Saturday. It was opening day, and I would have never known if it were not for Jamie. He and Rob just bought a great place in Winter Park about five blocks away. He heard it was open and wanted to go.

When I made my purchases (new CDs from Fiona Apple, Wolf Parade and Metric), I asked the very nice woman at the register when they opened. She looked at her watch. "Just about an hour ago." Wow! I felt kind of special, and not just because the sometimes too cool for school employees smiled at me -- perhaps I'm too paranoid, but sometimes, they don't even make eye contact, and it makes me feel like such a poser -- but because I told her how excited I was and that the shop was going to be great. She seemed truly thankful I said so, and that just about made my morning.

Here's a link to what looks like a really cool documentary called I Was a Teenage Feminist: http://trixiefilms.com/teenfem/index.htm.

I saw Henry Rollins' spoken word show at House of Blues last week. It's the third time I've seen him, and I must say, I would have traded the sex jokes for more politics. Overall, Hank, or "The Scary Neck" as a friend of mine called him in college, was great -- funny, honest and like a camel in that he didn't have one sip of water during the 2-and-a-half hour set. But he usually talks about politics more, which I love because he, like my beloved Jon Stewart, just gets it.

He talked about Kanye West's nervous outburst during the televised fundraiser -- you know, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Henry said he doesn't believe that's true. It's more that Dubya doesn't even have the poor people on his radar screen. I think Henry's on to something here. Bush just doesn't even comprehend the depths of poverty in this nation, and it must be somewhat of a genetic blindness, as evidenced by Barbara Bush's comments about the state of the evacuees in the Astrodome. Apparently, they're all fine because they're underprivileged anyway, so these accommodations are fine. No one is claiming the New Orleans projects to be anything but hell; but come one! People are living in cots in rows on the floor of one ginormous room where the lights never go out, the babies never stop crying, and there's no way to escape the sadness of the situation.

I heard on the radio that a lot of the people impacted by Hurricane Katrina are getting loans to get back on their feet. That's l-o-a-n-s, a check to cash that has to be paid back, maybe even with interest. And yet we're going to rebuild Iraq like we've rebuilt Kuwait and countless other countries, and no one is asking any of them to pay us back. Is that fair?

Jamie told me that there were protesters with signs about damnation and abomination at the recent Pride Parade in downtown Orlando. These idiotic protesters actually brought their children with them, and encouraged them to use their megaphones to warn all those in attendance that they were going to Hell. These kids are not even 10 years old, and their parents are teaching them to hate and fear. It's disgusting. I'm going to renew my HRC membership right now! And you should, too! http://Human Rights Committee