we built this city on rock n roll
blogging from "GOP R Us"
first and foremost i'd like to start out with a rant about my fellow j-school students: click here for our class blog (how cute). while this might not give you the best idea of what is just so special about my class, this rant by one of them on how racism is not the number one issue facing the African American community will. you may remember him from the much beloved daily cal (does anyone know what year he graduated?). what a fucking prick. and when i say that, i mean the majority of my j-school class. what a bunch of elitist, insensitive, smarmy, ego-centric, passive-aggressive, tongue-in-cheek, self promoting WHITE LIBERALS. why don't you put down your fucking new york times and GET A CLUE. more to come on my class later.

anyways. this weekend was filled with some interesting stuff: 8 arrested for getting naked in front of madison square garden in protest of Bush's AIDS policies in South Africa. 4 arrested for rappelling down the Plaza Hotel to hang an anti-Bush banner. 264 arrested for blocking traffic during Critical Mass. haven't heard about any arrests today, but i'm sure there were many at the United for Peace and Justice rally.

thursday minnie, margot, steve, and i went to a cool bar in williamsburg called alligator lounge, where they serve a free personal sized pizza (!!!) with each drink. that night also happened to be karaoke night. lots of white people singing cheesy 80s (and 90s) music and faux rocking out -- "living on a prayer," "like a virgin," "we built this city," "say it aint so," some radiohead, "with or without you," etc. this one large white guy did a spot-on rendition of shaggy's "angel," much to the shock of all of us, esp. our resident jamaican expert, minnie.

friday after class I went to a taping of Washington Week at NYU, which was pretty cool. it reminded me of when lin and i went to see a taping of Crossfire in DC last summer. click here for a webcast. after that, i checked out an immigrant solidarity speak out thing at st. mark's church, but it hadn't really started yet, and i had to book it to 36th street to go to a briefing on rights for independent journalists held by the ny civil liberties union. that was not that helpful because i wasn't planning to go to the UFPJ rally or get arrested. BUT there was free pizza, including a cheese and broccoli one, be still my heart. that night, i went to a bar around the corner called 1020 (as in 1020 Amsterdam) with some people from my program who are cool. yes, lisa is making friends, against her will of course.




saturday margot, minnie, and i (aka CFDub) crafted some fine lookin tees and posters and went on down to the march for women's lives. we stood in the hot sun for about 4 hours and marched across the brooklyn bridge. will post pics up here when bot uploads them. apa women represent! whoo hoo. it was a very white march, very second wave. oh well.

have to run and write a pitch for a rnc-related story. more updates later.

journalism: masters degree in stalking?
some interesting things found today in our lecture on better internet surfing:
Cooking With Google: you enter what you have in your kitchen, and it will give you recipes you can use with your ingredients
Your Friends and Neighbors: Find out who they are donating to and how much
Missingmoney.com: find out if the govt. owes you or your family any money that you don't know about
nycbloggers.com: who is blogging near you (sorted by subway stop!), or at least who admits to it
kittay??

on another note, the story i wrote last week for our first reporting assignment was used as the class example yesterday! whoo-hoo. it was on how young people in chinatown feel about terrorism (they are blase). neat-o.

pics from my last night in s.f. --

twelve dollars
i think it's because we don't have any groceries to eat in, but for whatever reason, i think i've only eaten in once since i got here. this week we double dated with bethany and the (in)famous jerry at this indian place called pongal, which i've been to a few times before, and people are always saying how their indian friends say it's the best indian food in the city. steve doesn't even like indian food (he had a bad experience), and he mentioned how he wanted to go back there last week, so that says something. i've been slowly moving up in complexity in terms of the dosai i order there, and this time around i tried the onion rava masala (onions, potatoes, cilantro in a crepe) and it was very good. they all kind of taste the same, but they're all great.
afterwards we all went to this bar that our bosses at asianavenue had taken us to oh so many years ago called bar 89. if you click on the link, you'll see it's listed in the website "world's best bars," but it's known less for its drinks and ambiance than its bathrooms. anyways, it is quite sex and the city, and yes, i ordered a tartini (cranberry vodka martini) in my best sarah jessica voice (see season 2 or 3, it's in an episode where she goes to a bar with stanford), and yes, it was $12, but it was delicious (although not strong enough for me), and as i always say, why not be so new york when you're in new york?
last night we hit up this sushi place called yama, which is supposed to have the best sushi in the city, and i remembered it to be quite good last time i went. the sushi was only ok this time. afterwards we stumbled onto a bar called dove bar on macdougal and west 3rd, and it's a really cool chill little bar with deep red walls and kind of victorian-ish living room decor, a cross between alice in wonderland and the victorian punch bar. i liked that place a lot -- instead of bar nuts, they give you these spicy cheese breadsticks served in a teacup and saucer. cute. there are also a lot of seats around the tables, good for groups.

live from new york....

DOH!

itz just j a i (11:01:26 PM): if only margot and you had hooked up as well..then it woulda been a real party

xSgtMeatx (11:03:01 PM): ah well you had your chance