i'll be in wichita mountains national refuge and medicine park, oklahoma over christmas weekend.

"The thing is that nothing about this is new. Private citizens being arbitrarily singled out for intrusive searches and rough treatment by authority figures because of their appearance, their "attitude," or just a momentary need for an endorphin rush by a small-minded bureaucrat? Welcome to the lives of people of color, the phenomenon of Driving While Black, the lives of women, of transpeople, of disabled people (oh hai, Canada!)."

read the rest here

• I got a great job offer in Houston, TX
• I start December 13
• I am packing up my belongings starting today
• I leave the day after Thanksgiving
• I hope to arrive in Houston on December 1
• I will officially be retiring from the B.A.D. Girls effective this Friday, November 19
• I will officially be joining the Houston Roller Derby some time in December
• I am simultaneously excited and nostalgic

Cue: emotional roller coaster

SOMOSone is an artsy-fartsy talented friend of mine.  He's a big music buff and Oakland educator.  He recently produced this mixtape that I've been listening to all weekend.  It's all over the map, which is why I love it and it's very him.   I knew when the key phrase from "Large" came on that it was gonna be one of those tracks that made me cry.  It didn't.  But, the lyrics spin all kinds of hope in my heart.  The mixtape is one big track and "Large" comes on about 46:42.

http://www.mixcrate.com/mix/17414/STAY-ORIGINAL-PRODUCTIONS-SOMOSone:-MIXTAPES-THEdoubleEP

I am at an excavation over an old San Francisco glass house. The metaphor is not lost on me.

My contractor found an intact, vintage sky blue Golden West Soda Works bottle this morning. I continue to find whole tiles, pieces of a marble floor, bricks from walls, and other fragmented ceramics in a pocket of the site.

"Let's do the fork in the garbage disposal!"

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When teen pop star Miley Cyrus appeared on David Letterman's late-night TV talk show, band leader Paul Schaeffer asked her if she lip-syncs to pre-recorded music during her performances. Miley replied that no, she never fakes it. For evidence, she said, anyone could go watch a Youtube clip from one of her concerts. Sometimes she sounds terrible, which proves that she's risking the imperfection of actually singing live. I urge you to follow Miley's lead in your own sphere, Aries. In the coming week, you really do need to be as raw as the law allows. Be your authentic self, please -- with no Auto-Tune-like enhancements.

People become faces, the
Books had no illustrations,
I couldn't see myself in the
Looking glass.
—Jorge Luis Borges

Like blindness, losing each other was gradual
The petals of the white lilacs
Fell softly, vanished
And you held me at arms length
Like newsprint.
The streetlights wore haloes
Of martyrs.

There was a blankness
In the center of making love.
I no longer
Believed our bodies could
Solve equations of loss. We disengaged
To argue over coffee.

Every remark led
To a stupid argument the way
Failing sight makes a man
Stumble over thresholds.
If we had learned Braille,
The language of feeling,
Would anything be different?

Borges says black and red
Are the first colors to be dismissed,
Colors of drama, passion,
Deadly games of challenge.
The blind live
In a luminous greenish mist,
A sort of confusion and grief,
Like this, like this.

I can't believe I am a part of this.  I can't believe this has finally happened.  When we got our asses handed to us on a silver platter back in February, we didn't think we'd come this far this year.

In other news, despite being power-ranked above the number one seeds in the North Central and South Central WFTDA Regions, if we don't place #3 or higher in the Western Regional Tournament in a month, we will not be going to the WFTDA Championships (formerly known as "Nationals" until we went global) in Chicago.  WFTDA rankings don't work the same way that DNN power rankings do.  It's still fodder for hella bragging rights. 

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By Derby News Network, Last updated Wed Sep 1 2010 2:31pm

"Looking down the line, new #6 Rat City swaps with new #7 Rose City and Bay Area leaps from #14 to #8 on the power of their surprisingly strong showing at Hometown Throwdown, dropping everybody from new #9 Charm to new #14 Madison down one slot in their wake."

http://derbynewsnetwork.com/power_rankings/2010/09