Animal rights activists threaten those they disagree with

I am an animal lover, and I've never really worn fur, except some really old things of my cousin's that he ordered off some antique collectibles site, and that was for about two minutes. But I eat meat and I wear leather, so who am I to dictate to others how to conduct themselves? When I read an article like this - in which Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir decides to take the tufts of fox fur off his costume in order to appease activists who wanted to intimidate him into obeying them - I start to feel that animal rights activists have become the thugs in this scenario. They threaten with violence those who disagree with them or who do not follow their rules. I part company with PETA and its ilk at this point. Live according to your own self-righteous rules, but DON'T try to forcibly impose them on others. Other human beings are not required to follow your regulations, however benign or altruistic they may be.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Last night while waiting for the split peas to mushify themselves into soup we started watching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. I'd seen the film version of Edward Albee's play several years ago at my apartment in Portland (back when I lived on the same block as Holocene!), but my new flatmate, who is a history teacher, pumped me up with a discussion of all of its historical, political, psychological themes and references (George and Martha Washington, the Cold War, fear of communism, Freudian elements, the war between the sexes, etc.) which had largely gone over my head before. Movies, like poems, you sometimes have to go over twice before you glean their meaning - the first time they just kind of wash over you. After seeing it for the second time last night I can definitely add it to my list of favorite movies.

I first read some of Albee's play back in college while going through my hardcore Virginia Woolf / Bloomsbury phase. (When I finally make it to England, I'll definitely be making pilgrimmages to Woolf /Stephen sites such as the River Ouse, Gordon Square in Bloomsbury, Hogarth House, Charleston, etc.) Imagine my disappointment when I discovered it actually has absolutely nothing to do with Woolf! In fact the title seems to be meaningless, although I was thinking about it and came up with a theory - Woolf was childless her entire life and often felt she wasn't a fully successful woman because she'd never created a life. Since the movie is filled with references to babies and children (who are never seen, only talked about), it seems the choice of title may be a sly reference to Martha and George's predicament, with the weird theme of their imaginary "son" who dominates much of the dialogue in the second and third acts without ever actually solidfying into a flesh-and-blood being.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is filmed in gorgeous, high-contrast black and white that bathes everything in a silvery, gelatin-plate luminescence. The cinematographer (Haskell Wexler) uses an extreme wide-angle lens in many of the close-up shots that adds a grotesque, funhouse-mirror effect that accentuates the dramatic tension of the action. It's a brilliant, drunken trainwreck of a movie. Fun for the whole family! My flatmate says, "This was Albee's attempt to lift the veil on American family life and show the ugly truth beneath it." Interesting, because that's the same premise of some of my other favorite films as well, such as Blue Velvet and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Strange bedfellows?

I love the way Liz Taylor plays Martha, but Sandy Dennis as Honey aggravates me. I want to take her weak little wrists and just break them. Interesting how when someone takes vulnerability to an extreme, it brings out your sadistic impulses - you want to hurt them, because they seem to be calling for that response from you. I tend to admire strength in women and vulnerability in men. Although sometimes the opposite in both cases, as well.

I think I want to write a play in a similar style about the Castro District, where I was job-hunting yesterday. About its evolution / transformation over the years from working class neighborhood (named after one of the Spanish missionaries, lots of Irish immigrants) to gay ghetto beginning in the 60s, and finally into its current sad state of utterly gentrified yuppiegaiety.

I'd still work there, though.

Five Happinesses are better than one!

Riding home from the waterfront yesterday (after a long walk and a visit to the farmer's market), I passed the Five Happiness Mandarin Restaurant. Asian restaurant names rule.

Also, according to two new shows I just watched on Discovery, sasquatch probably does exist, and the Loch Ness Monster probably doesn't. You have to take each paranormal phenomenon on a case-by-case basis, just like with conspiracy theories.

Golden Oreos

Isn't it curious that Oreos have chosen this moment - with Obama in the White House - to go golden?

2010: Year of the Tiger!

So it is, according to the Chinese zodiac. Naturally, this sounds promising for me, even though my Chinese zodiac sign is the dragon. Specifically a FIRE dragon, since I was born between Jan. 31 1976 and Feb. 17 1977.

I had really nice flying dreams last night for the first time in a long time. I consider this a good omen for the new chapter of my life I've embarked on now that I've moved out of Oakland and into a beautiful Edwardian flat in Central Richmond (between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park). In the dream I felt that the ground level was dangerous and I wanted to soar carefree above it. I was doing quite well last night. Interesting how within the dream it's a matter of confidence and focus: if I lose focus or start thinking too much about what I'm doing, I start to lose altitude and sink toward ground.

Yes, I can see the Freudian aspect of this. But it can't be simply phallic, can it? Women have flying dreams too. I've always associated it more with healing, serenity, a healthy state of mind, positivity and kinetic energy. A good note to start a new year on.

Grizzlies vs. wolves! Killer whales vs. great white sharks!

I ignored the Golden Globes last night to flip between the Discovery Channel, which was airing a new 2-hour episode of its Planet Earth series (which is really the best, most beautifully filmed nature series I've ever seen), and channel 9 (public broadcasting) which had a new episode of Nature called Clash: Grizzly Bear and Wolf Encounters. The interactions of these two top predators of Yellowstone certainly make for fascinating viewing. Sometimes the wolves keep the carcass, sometimes the bear (when it's big enough, or hungry enough) takes it away from them, and the wolves simply wait patiently until the bear is finished. As for the Planet Earth footage, have you seen the images of the so-called "chandelier ballroom" of Lechuguilla Cave? (A secret cave whose exact location is not available to the public, and which the Planet Earth crew had to negotiate for two years to get to film.) Fucking incredible. There are lifeforms there that live by eating the rock itself. Scientists say that cave, which was completely sealed off from the rest of the planet for millions of years, and contains some of the purest water on earth (completely free of pollutants), is similar to what might be found in subterranean caverns on the moon.

Then this morning I caught a National Geographic episode called The Whale That Ate Jaws, documenting the first-ever eyewitness account of a killer whale attacking and killing a great white shark not far outside of San Francisco Bay in 1997. It was a really fascinating program! Orcas are so smart (as one might expect, being basically giant dolphins) they know how to turn the shark upside down to place it into what's known as "tonic immobility," meaning that it goes into a trance, its brain floods with serotonin and it's basically helpless at that point. Even more amazing, once one great white is killed, it releases a chemical into the water that alerts all the other great whites in the area and they all flee en masse hundreds of miles away to escape further predation. Absolutely astounding.

This raised a fascinating question for me, though, which wasn't addressed in the segment. If scientists can re-create the shark's death chemical and use it to make sharks flee with lightning speed even in the middle of a feeding frenzy, as was demonstrated in the show, couldn't that chemical be sold to human swimmers and used as a fail-proof shark repellant in waters inhabited by great whites? Surely someone else must have thought of that by now...

Johnny Be Good!

Yesterday flipping through TV channels I noticed that the men's free skate was on NBC, airing live from Spokane - the competition that decides who goes to the Olympics in Vancouver next month! I immediately called my mother, who before I could say anything said, "I was hoping you'd call so I could tell you Johnny Weir is about to skate!" I said, "I know, that's why I called you!"

Johnny looked nervous and his performance was subdued compared to the more flamboyant things he's done in the past - it looked like he was playing it safe, and doing as many spins and jumps as he could to rack up points to make up for ones he'd previously lost. His costume was typically sparkly and fey, with tufts of white fox-fur lining the shoulders and along the arms. I understand he designs them himself. I love the unapologetic way he embraces the effeminacy of male figure skating rather than trying to butch it up. As he said in an interview,

I wear pink. I have no problem where my sport is as far as our fan base. Figure skating is theatrical, artistic; it’s elegant, it’s extremely athletic. There’s a very specific audience for that. I can say I don’t watch football games, so I don’t understand why a football fan would come to watch figure skating.

You go, boy! I'll even forgive you your Lady GaGa obsession. (I'm Just Not That Into Her.) And I'm definitely looking forward to watching what transpires on the ice in Vancouver in February. Chin up! You're a star, AND a champion.

I got the Weir quote above from this nice article from today's New York Times.

ALSO, Johnny's new program Be Good Johnny Weir premieres TONIGHT on the Sundance Channel at 10:30pm! Read more here.

Incidentally, my Mom's favorite sports to watch are figure skating and bull riding. How funny is that?