Stop War On Iran! Protest August 2nd

I'm helping Ken (my producer friend from CBS News) by coordinating interviews for Saturday's protest. I thought it might be a better idea to contact the leaders of the movement rather than just the people on the ground, so I reached out to the Stop War on Iran contact e-mail. Today I finalized interview schedules with Sara Flounders and Ardeshir Omani, the two co-founders of the national movement. Apparently, this protest will be taking place in 90 cities across the nation this Saturday.

The only problem is, I'm trying to come up with an oppositional interview source - someone who DOESN'T oppose war on Iran, lol. To keep it fair and balanced, y'know?

Maybe I should call the NY Young Republicans.

Update: Ken just found out that CBS's rented an entire hotel for the Convention! So we can stay there - he says, "Slumber party with Katie Couric!" Haha. Awesome!

Bore Dumb

Today is probably the longest day of my life thus far. Details to follow.


Also I suspect kate n sam might be awol from this blog until they settle into their new digs in Williamsburg this weekend. Sad for readers, happiness for this new neighbor!

Not so cuil

So there's this new search engine that's allegedly gonna bring Google to it's knees, and it's called Cuil (pronounced "cool"), an ancient Irish word for knowledge. The internetz has been frothing at the mouth over this new tool and I can't help but feel that everybody's being set up for a huge disappointment.

Damn thing doesn't work.

Anyone else have this experience?

I mean what kind of search engine returns the result,

Sorry, an error occurred.

Please try your search again. If the problem persists, please be assured that our team is working quickly to resolve the issue.

Lame. Don't sell your GOOG or BIDU just yet.

RNC Update!

Markety Mark might not be able to go seeing as how he's a frosh RA at FCLC this year - Kait has informed me that there's no chance they'll let him get out of all the orientation and training he needs to do. That sucks.

HowEVA - my friend Ken is a producer for CBS News and we've been coordinating interviews for a story on the Stop War On Iran! protest march on August 2nd. (We've actually got interviews with the lead organizers of the event / movement, kind of cool.) Anyway, I happened to tell Ken I was hoping to go to the RNC to protest, and he immediately jumped on board. So hopefully, I'll still be able to go. Ken's an easy going sort of guy and I think it's awesome that he's using his power in the media to promote meaningful causes rather than the sensationalist bullshit you mainly see these days.

Holla!

Brief Introduction

As narcissists, we'd feel most comfortable that you read about our minds and lives knowing exactly what we look like, what we stand for, and what our priorities are. What follows may shock you. Viewer discretion is advised.

SAMUEL HUBLER

Age: 20
Occupation: Musician / Victoria's Lowly Intern
Sexual Orientation: Unknown
Status: In a Human Relationship
Biggest Dream in Life: Cut open Victoria's skin and crawl inside
Favorite TV Show: Laguna Beach, none of that Hills crap!
Genre of Music Most Favored: spoken word floetry
Last Book Read: Are You There God, It's Me Margaret
Favorite Animal: Dogs... if there's peanut butter around.


KAITLYN LENNON

Age: 22
Occupation: Den Mother
Sexual Orientation: Heterobestial
Status: In a Human Relationship
Biggest Dream in Life: Cut open Victoria's skin and crawl inside
Favorite TV Show: CHiPS!, CSI Miami, Yo Momma!
Genre of Music Most Favored: emo-punk-ska-girl power music
Last Book Read:
Favorite Animal: the DEAD kind


VICTORIA HOFFMAN

Age: 23
Occupation: Business Analyst for Major Corporate Law Firm
Sexual Orientation: GAY
Status: endlessly single
Biggest Dream in Life: Cut open Victoria's skin and crawl inside
Favorite TV Show: The L Word
Genre of Music Most Favored: The Distractions and all imitators
Last Book Read: Buffett, a biography of Warren Buffett
Favorite Animal: fried

Blog Changes!

Since I'm usually too bored / busy to update this thing (as evidenced by the month long gaps between posts), I've added two of my best friends as authors, Kaitlyn and Sam. Since each of the three of us are usually hanging out with at least one of the others, we're kind of like the show "Three's Company". So don't think I've lost it when you read posts riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, or when "I" start recommending music so hetero that you'd think I've suffered gender disorientation. Nope, it's just Kate or Sam! Hopefully this collaborative effort yields positive results in the vein of both readership and content. If not, I'll kick them off and keep on keepin' on all by myself. Much like the song, and the rest of my life.

Book club flyer - tentative

brooklyn book club forming. we're looking for young professionals or creative types to get together once a week, weeknights around 7pm. local cafes and coffee shops. reading list flexible and open for discussion and suggestion. ideally, we'd focus on shorter works like novellas, essays, articles, and short stories. from contemporary political or economic events (excerpts from foreign affairs, the economist, political journals, etc.) to articles on modern and current artistic movements. the focus would be on current affairs and work and art being produced today, preferably by those in or close to our generation.

E-mail for more info

I tried posting this on CL but only a few weirdos replied. I guess not many people search for "Book Club" on the internetz. I think I'm gonna print some flyers and post around the Bedford area.

Dude, we could read this book to the right! I have no idea what it's about, but from the cover and title, what gay WOULDN'T wanna buy this book?!!?

Update - RNC Protest 2008!

Craigslist is probably the best thing to have ever been invented. I put up an ad asking for a ride to Minneapolis at the end of August / early September in order to protest at the Republican National Convention. After only a few hours, I was contacted by a fly chica from NYC, an artist who's moving with her boyfriend to Minneapolis that exact weekend! She'll pay for the car / van if we agree to drive it home (what a sacrifice - not!)! Holla! That's so o o o bangin yo. Not to mention the fact that she and her dude share the same political leanings and will likely yield stimulating conversation for much of the trip (here's hoping!).

We also were offered FREE housing by a sweet couple in the Minneapolis metro area. So right now, we're looking at an almost completely comped jaunt to get out the word. No war, no warming! If anyone wants to come with, let me know! This chance won't come around for another four years, and by then we'll probably be 10,000x more corporate with like, families or something. Our aged bodies won't be able to absorb the impact of rubber bullets. Or our immune systems won't be able to fight the futuristic nano weapons cops of 2012 will wield against dissenters.

http://protestrnc2008.org/

This can be me! Everyone knows that all Republicans are secretly gay.

fear diminished if not fully allayed!

In my second post I cited my biggest fear as being that the L Word won't be replaced with another gay show when the final season (6th) airs next year. However, it was recently announced that there's a spin-off in the works! Holla! No details are being disclosed except that it'll be about one of the current characters.

I'm hoping slash casting spells in order that the new show be all about Shane who just happened to have moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn! Just like those drunken Real Worlders! I'd take anywhere in NY, or some place close by. (I can't really see her in Connecticut, though - maybe Jersey?)

killing time

I'm utterly bored at work and am thus inspired to update this thing. Given the public nature of a blog, I guess this doesn't really count as "journaling" - everything is obviously filtered to prevent enmity and well, probably job termination. Not as cathartic as I thought it'd be.

In recent news, I'm planning to attend some exciting upcoming events:

July 27 - MGMT concert at McCarren Park Pool! Holla! It's for my bestie Ani's birthday (which is actually July 29th if anyone wants to like mail her a present or call her or something)- well, MGMT was playing for their own, suspicious personal reasons, but we choose to think that it's 'cause Ani's so fly.

August 2 - Stop War on Iran! No War, No Warming protest at Times Square in NYC. A friend is a producer for CBS News and will be interviewing some attendees so people should let me know if they want to share their story. This is a really important message that needs to be sent across America - dozens of protests will be taking place across the nation on this day.

September 1 - Protesting the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis! This year's election is probably going to be a Democratic landslide, but those pesky conservatives need to know just how nasty this country's citizens find their policies, both foreign and domestic. The main issues, at least for me, are, in no particular order: same sex marriage (since men have stolen the word "gay") and other homosexual civil rights, war on Iraq and Iran as well as pseudo wars on drugs and terrorism, energy policy, emissions standards and sustainable development, economic regulation, and invigorated investment into development of nanotechnologies, especially in the biotechnology / health care realm. Um yeah. Lots of problems but these odious bigots have no interest in the cessation of American bloodshed, poverty, and ignorance. The decline in unipolarity means that Americans can't stand idly by any more. Action must be taken, and while protesting isn't necessarily gonna change anything, I've always wanted to taste a rubber bullet. Plus, I recently watched "Hair". (God, I love Milos Forman.) I'm hoping my friend Mark will go with me, but either way I think I'll be able to find some company given that Brooklyn is such a bastion of liberalism.

I guess the first event doesn't really jibe with the second two. I'm not one of those insane bomb-making anarchists, I just want to feel connected to people who share my political viewpoints, at least in a physical way and not through internet forums at 3 am. Yelling and waving signs is a start.

Life's been so busy lately. I joined a basketball league for young professionals, and we've lost every single game. But I get to wear stripey knee socks and white high top converse, so that's all that matters.

I also started volunteering through NY Cares for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. It's pretty fun because you get to be vocally immortalized for the benefit of disabled people everywhere. Some day, when I'm dead and gone (which is of course a figure of speech because I plan to never die) there will still be people listening to me reading "The Age of Innocence" while weeping copiously from the dramatic effect my voice lends the plot line and dialogue.

Um. Also I'm studying to take the GMAT. It's kind of a tricksy test! Who thought you'd ever need to use the formula to find the area of a cylinder ever again? I mean, I still don't see how this will help me, in any way, within the business world, but oh well. I'm sure it will somehow - right?

I wanna start learning French again. I find that I can read it OK - parsing it out takes a while but I can muddle through it - but not speak it at all. There are a bunch of conversation exchanges listed on Craigslist so I think I'll check that out.

Jose and I are starting a book club. Holla.

Lastly, The Dark Knight was amazing. Heath Ledger's performance was utterly jawdropping aka intensely creepy. GO SEE THIS MOVIE YALL.