Internet, I am back from the UK. It may not surprise the more well-traveled (or British) among you that I was almost completely unable to find free wireless there--or free anything really. My Liverpudlian hotel charged extra for breakfast, for using the phone, for internet (£9 a day! It was £10 for four days in Edinburgh!), and (I believe, though had no occasion to explore) for TV. Thank the Horse Lords (Tamora Pierce reference!) for free wifi at Liverpool Hope University, enabling me to live tweet the #divaconference and also sign a lease for an apartment in Los Angeles! When I did find brief spates of free wifi (thank you, pub in Edinburgh, National Theatre, strange pasta/coffee shop near Victoria Station, and random corner in Soho that featured iBahn!), I tried rather unsuccessfully to use them for contacting the boyfriend.
I will share highlights of the trip at some later date, but right now I need to try to get my body back onto US time. 6 PM here is 11 PM there, which is 23:00, which means basically that I have no idea when I am.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
It's a rich man's world
OK, I should totally be asleep but the Times is making me angry. Seriously, in two days we have articles about how downtown Detroit is a great place for young [mostly white] people to move into "cheap" real estate (at $900/month) and then about how NY judges are leaving the bench to become law firm partners because their six-figure salaries are just too low to support their summer homes in the Hamptons?
Let me inject just a little bit of perspective here. According to the Census Bureau, the median income in the United States in 2005, the year in which trial judges' median salary was $116,100, was $24,325. Since we're talking about New York, let's get some region-specific numbers. For the Northeast, median income was higher than the national median—$25,447. That means that trial judges, whose stagnant pay is "the single most important problem for our courts" according to the very fancy retired law professor quoted in the article, made more than four times the highest regional median salary at the end of their incredibly stagnant decade.
Now, I'm not saying judges shouldn't get paid. Maybe they should even be paid four times the national median salary; I don't claim to know what the pay level of a judge should be or even how that should be set. What I am saying is that an article in the nation's preeminent newspaper (and don't pretend any other paper has even a fair shot at unseating the Times any time soon) that is bemoaning the poor economic health of a profession that makes four times the average salary in the richest part of the country is an article that clearly demonstrates how completely out of touch with the vast majority of people our national news media is. Or are; it depends on whether you think of media as monolithic or actually varied and multiple.
By the way, if you make $25,998 per year (the 2009 Midwest median salary, most recent data I could find) and spend $10,800 of that on rent for your "cheap" apartment in downtown Detroit, that leaves you $15,198 for food, clothing, utilities, and anything else you might want, like attending fancy rooftop parties covered by New York Times reporters and going to the trendy bars and restaurants they describe in their ensuing articles. Assuming you don't have anyone else you might need to use that money to help, like an unemployed relative or partner—Detroit proper had a 20% unemployment rate in May of this year.
It is too late and I am too tired for this post to come to any coherent conclusion. Just think about the fact that like me, you, if you are reading this, are more than likely far wealthier than the average US citizen in assets you can access (i.e. your own or your parents' or a generous relative's), and that we have a responsibility to recognize that vast economic privilege and do more about it than feel smug or guilty.
Let me inject just a little bit of perspective here. According to the Census Bureau, the median income in the United States in 2005, the year in which trial judges' median salary was $116,100, was $24,325. Since we're talking about New York, let's get some region-specific numbers. For the Northeast, median income was higher than the national median—$25,447. That means that trial judges, whose stagnant pay is "the single most important problem for our courts" according to the very fancy retired law professor quoted in the article, made more than four times the highest regional median salary at the end of their incredibly stagnant decade.
Now, I'm not saying judges shouldn't get paid. Maybe they should even be paid four times the national median salary; I don't claim to know what the pay level of a judge should be or even how that should be set. What I am saying is that an article in the nation's preeminent newspaper (and don't pretend any other paper has even a fair shot at unseating the Times any time soon) that is bemoaning the poor economic health of a profession that makes four times the average salary in the richest part of the country is an article that clearly demonstrates how completely out of touch with the vast majority of people our national news media is. Or are; it depends on whether you think of media as monolithic or actually varied and multiple.
By the way, if you make $25,998 per year (the 2009 Midwest median salary, most recent data I could find) and spend $10,800 of that on rent for your "cheap" apartment in downtown Detroit, that leaves you $15,198 for food, clothing, utilities, and anything else you might want, like attending fancy rooftop parties covered by New York Times reporters and going to the trendy bars and restaurants they describe in their ensuing articles. Assuming you don't have anyone else you might need to use that money to help, like an unemployed relative or partner—Detroit proper had a 20% unemployment rate in May of this year.
It is too late and I am too tired for this post to come to any coherent conclusion. Just think about the fact that like me, you, if you are reading this, are more than likely far wealthier than the average US citizen in assets you can access (i.e. your own or your parents' or a generous relative's), and that we have a responsibility to recognize that vast economic privilege and do more about it than feel smug or guilty.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Queen of the Britons
Friends, I am writing to you from Edinburgh, Scotland, where it is 7:20 AM, I have been awake for about two and a half hours, and my hotel room, which is actually a dorm at the University of Edinburgh, comes with an electric kettle instead of some lousy coffee pot.
This is very exciting.
I arrived yesterday from New York via Dublin, which took a number of hours I frankly can't calculate because of time zones and extreme exhaustion. The Aer Lingus plane from JFK was full of adorable Irish children who became rapidly less adorable as cabin pressure changed and bedtimes were missed. The second, much smaller Aer Lingus Regional plane from Dublin to Edinburgh did not have room for my carry-on suitcase, which was gate-checked and recovered quite efficiently and painlessly, despite the level of worry it would have generated in me had I been awake enough to successfully express concern.
All in all, the travel was simple, if exhausting, and after a car to a train to a car to a plane to a plane to a bus to a 1.3-mile walk (also known as a 2.1-kilometre walk), I finally arrived at Edinburgh First Pollock Halls, nestled snugly against Holyrood Park, which is closed today (Saturday) and Monday, but not Sunday, so I will have time to hike up to King Arthur's Seat.
My plan for the next three days is to visit two pubs and a restaurant noted for their whisky selections, two restaurants known for their vegetarian food (one of these overlaps--the restaurant with the whisky also serves vegetarian haggis!), a castle, two musea, a tea shop, two parks and a garden, a 4-mile walkway that leads to the port of Leith, and various other food establishments recommended by a quickly-downloaded pdf of the Lonely Planet guide to the British Isles.
I have already scratched off the list a visit to Holyroodhouse Palace, because it is closed to the public during the royal family's residence (Hello, still-active monarchy! You are very weird to me!). I also scratched off the list all my post-arrival plans for yesterday evening, as I fell asleep before 8 PM, locally known as 20:00.
I do not intend to exhaustively document my travel here, as I intend rather for the travel to exhaust me, but I wanted to indicate my arrival in Scotland and will probably want to indicate my arrival in Liverpool on Tuesday and in London on Friday. Stay tuned for highlights of the trip and the conference that engendered it (Diva conference! Woohoo!), but if you want to know all about it, we'll have to talk in person.
This is very exciting.
I arrived yesterday from New York via Dublin, which took a number of hours I frankly can't calculate because of time zones and extreme exhaustion. The Aer Lingus plane from JFK was full of adorable Irish children who became rapidly less adorable as cabin pressure changed and bedtimes were missed. The second, much smaller Aer Lingus Regional plane from Dublin to Edinburgh did not have room for my carry-on suitcase, which was gate-checked and recovered quite efficiently and painlessly, despite the level of worry it would have generated in me had I been awake enough to successfully express concern.
All in all, the travel was simple, if exhausting, and after a car to a train to a car to a plane to a plane to a bus to a 1.3-mile walk (also known as a 2.1-kilometre walk), I finally arrived at Edinburgh First Pollock Halls, nestled snugly against Holyrood Park, which is closed today (Saturday) and Monday, but not Sunday, so I will have time to hike up to King Arthur's Seat.
My plan for the next three days is to visit two pubs and a restaurant noted for their whisky selections, two restaurants known for their vegetarian food (one of these overlaps--the restaurant with the whisky also serves vegetarian haggis!), a castle, two musea, a tea shop, two parks and a garden, a 4-mile walkway that leads to the port of Leith, and various other food establishments recommended by a quickly-downloaded pdf of the Lonely Planet guide to the British Isles.
I have already scratched off the list a visit to Holyroodhouse Palace, because it is closed to the public during the royal family's residence (Hello, still-active monarchy! You are very weird to me!). I also scratched off the list all my post-arrival plans for yesterday evening, as I fell asleep before 8 PM, locally known as 20:00.
I do not intend to exhaustively document my travel here, as I intend rather for the travel to exhaust me, but I wanted to indicate my arrival in Scotland and will probably want to indicate my arrival in Liverpool on Tuesday and in London on Friday. Stay tuned for highlights of the trip and the conference that engendered it (Diva conference! Woohoo!), but if you want to know all about it, we'll have to talk in person.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Summercamp
I'm off to camp in the woods of western Mass. for the next ten days. The boyfriend is coming tomorrow to join me, so yay! This'll be my first ever summercamp without Mom, so boo. We'll have a couple of memorials for her, which I'm sure will be beautiful, and we'll scatter her ashes on the lake, and we'll all grieve together, and something will have ended that hasn't yet.
As usual, I cannot wait to be there; nothing else is really as usual.
As usual, I cannot wait to be there; nothing else is really as usual.
Monday, June 13, 2011
My Pal's Name is Dorothy Dorothy (...Dorothy)
I have a new friend who is a tricorder! Her name is Dorothy, and she is shiny and exciting. I have taken the first step in my journey toward personalized Dorothy-themed ringtones for everyone, and I have assigned The Mysterious X a ringtone from this important piece of American musical history: Dorothy Wiggin's classic composition for her sister act, The Shaggs, "My Pal Foot Foot" (...Foot).
I post this now as a request from all of y'all for more Dorothys (Dorothies? Dorothese?) to honor with ringtones on Dorothy the Tricorder. Feel free also to contribute specific ringtones by which you think these Dorothys would best be immortalized. Obviously the top two entrants are Dorothy Gale and Dorothy Zbornak, but I still haven't decided what 5-second audio clips I want to use for them!
Alternatively, I could probably just give everyone I know a different Judy Garland or Bea Arthur ringtone. The question is: who gets to be "Be A Clown," and who is relegated to "Good Night, But Not Goodbye?"
I post this now as a request from all of y'all for more Dorothys (Dorothies? Dorothese?) to honor with ringtones on Dorothy the Tricorder. Feel free also to contribute specific ringtones by which you think these Dorothys would best be immortalized. Obviously the top two entrants are Dorothy Gale and Dorothy Zbornak, but I still haven't decided what 5-second audio clips I want to use for them!
Alternatively, I could probably just give everyone I know a different Judy Garland or Bea Arthur ringtone. The question is: who gets to be "Be A Clown," and who is relegated to "Good Night, But Not Goodbye?"
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Birthiversary
Today is my birthday. In accordance with the tradition in this culture of celebrating such events with gifts, I have received an amazing thing from The Mysterious X. It is an attachment for the tricorder I intend to purchase on Sunday. This attachment turns the tricorder into A MINIATURE PINBALL MACHINE!
Please observe this date in future years as the day upon which my productive capacity vanished entirely, replaced by an insatiable desire to make the virtual ball bounce around the screen.
Also, today I officially advance to candidacy, with all the paperwork out of the way at last. Huzzah!
Please observe this date in future years as the day upon which my productive capacity vanished entirely, replaced by an insatiable desire to make the virtual ball bounce around the screen.
Also, today I officially advance to candidacy, with all the paperwork out of the way at last. Huzzah!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Centering
Fact: when you are running around like crazy trying to do too many things in not enough time, there is one guaranteed cure for stupid stress.
Forget massage, deep breathing, yoga, drinking, running, smoking, whatever you do to de-stress.
All that you need, or rather, all that I need, is Tracy Chapman.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get lost in her voice for a while.
Forget massage, deep breathing, yoga, drinking, running, smoking, whatever you do to de-stress.
All that you need, or rather, all that I need, is Tracy Chapman.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get lost in her voice for a while.
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