torture, tino sehgal, AC, new jobs, korean saunas, i'm almost an aunt!

this article: a must read. you hear people bitching and moaning about trying terrorists in NYC and everybody saying "no" but nobody really understands that because we tortured these people, we can't use any of that evidence to convict them anywhere (even the military tribunals). so the prosecutors have to go out and find all new evidence, from all new places but other countries aren't going to help us convict these folks if they think we're being shady about the process. once you tell everyone they're being tried like any other american criminal, other countries start offering evidence because they trust the system we use on our own citizens will have a modicum of fairness. basically, trying them in american courts isn't the best decision, it's the only decision unless we want to throw the constitution out the window and be one of those countries (communist) that doesn't give a shit about individual rights. meanwhile, the DOJ is having to defend some crazy ass bush-era secrecy claims and they're losing in the courts on habeus hearings and requests for information on surveillance and torture. and then, THEN, you find out that bush doesn't even have any fucking paperwork AT ALL on like half the people at guantanamo. he and his people literally just decided they didn't want to deal and that someone would clean it up after they left. WTF. anyway, next time you hear people going on and on about trying the terrorists in US courts or how crazy it was that we read so and so his miranda rights (which, someone should send rush limbaugh the memo, is something the bush folks did with every terror suspect they've EVER arrested but NOW it's an issue because the black guy did it), i'd send them to the new yorker.

 

saw the tino sehgal exhibit at the guggenheim this weekend. awesome. you walk into the ground floor to see two people, intertwined in long kisses. they shift their bodies in slow motion, writhe on the floor, turn over each other while their lips are locked together. we were immediately approached by a small boy of 7 or 8 who asked, "can you tell me what progress means to you?" "sure!" i replied. i said it meant forward momentum, change, etc. he beckoned me to follow him and we started strolling up the spiral. a college-aged guy approached us and the boy said to him, "she thinks progress means change" and the guy took over from there and we discussed the civil rights movement, walking me up another level. we were intercepted by a bearded man who told me how he used to hide little notes all over his neighborhood and loved to think of people finding them. i said that reminded me of "to kill a mockingbird" and the gifts that boo radley would leave for scout and jem. almost at the top, a woman came and asked why we'd come to the museum that day and suggested that conversation was a lost art form. after all that, i couldn't disagree.

 

i'd written about how i've had all these special experiences at other restaurants and then some so-so experiences at locanda verde where i feel a bit like a farm animal being shooed into and out of a pen for counting. the chef/owner commented on that post and asked me to call him. the internet is insane. we've played a bit of phone tag but he's asked me to come in and bring friends which is really unbelievably nice and totally unnecessary. i'd contemplate murdering someone for the fava bean crostini that was on his summer menu which is to say, i like the food there a lot. i never said i wasn't going to come in again, just that i'd noticed i was going there a lot less (monthly instead of weekly) and wrote why. honestly, i'd be satisfied if his staff were asked to be a bit nicer to everyone that walked in the door whether they'd been there 20 times or twice (superstar host aside). and maybe get a damn mailing list so i wouldn't be the next to last person to know about the truffle diners/all you can eat pasta deals and then have to scramble for a resy. or even a twitter account would do! i've worked in restaurants my whole life. i get that a lot of FOH people are actors and can't be bothered to give a shit about anyone but themselves but his restaurant is a busy one so maybe he's got some leverage in the request department. also, he's intimidating. an artist that you don't want to bother, who you sense really IS in it just to because he loves to cook, not because he wants to deal with people like me, which makes it all the more mortifying that he read the post and called in the first place.

 

i heart xkcd

 

every one of my friends knows i'm trying to get out of this law stuff, that i'm over having to tell people i'm an attorney and look like i feel bad about it. i've been sent job openings for grantwriters, bank examiners and policy analysts. i think this means i need to narrow my focus to, i don't know, something. and then send a mass e-mail about it. i'm taking a journalism class with colin at NYU but it's no way to make a living. our professor, a successful/employed person was like, "i'm still depressed ALL THE TIME because so many of my pitches get rejected." great!

 

i got on a train with that crazy conductor again! i was listening to music so at first i didn't notice his scraggly jolly little voice with carribean accent. but then what i thought was the, "please watch your bags and be mindful of those around you" announcements went on a bit too long and on that icy morning he was talking about how we shouldn't throw salt down because it was more fun to skate instead and then that he was just kidding because ice on the sidewalk is dangerous and how we should all be very careful when we exited the subway and to stay warm and not break our necks out there, and on and on and on.

saw dee dee bridgewater in a billie holiday tribute program for the american songbook series at jazz at lincoln center last week. that woman is like that crazy old aunt whom you love, but are totally embarrassed by in public. she talked about sex and gyrated against the bass while her bass player blushed (hell, i was almost blushing at a certain point and i am NOT easily plussed), spoke in a faux little innocent girl voice and covered some really random songs. she sang "god bless the child" and "them there eyes" which are two of my favorites so i was satisfied. she chatted so much that she didn't have time for an encore (union house, lights out at exactly 10pm). anyway, she's nuts, but totally awesome. 

 

went to that korean bath house in palisades NJ again, KING spa. i really love the communal feeling of the place. whole families going in to spend the day in some hot tubs, steam rooms, sloughing some skin off each other, eating some kimchi chigae and then sweating their balls off together, as a family. i braved the 200 degree room this time. 3 minutes in there and all my clothes were drenched. panting was audible from all sides of the small furnace we were sitting in. burlap sacks required on entry, along with an hourglass timer because too long in there and YOU WILL DIE. seriously.

 

kate's water broke but she's not in labor which means she can't leave the hospital and is on an antibiotic IV drip. they'll induce labor on the 5th if she doesn't go into labor on her own first. so i guess i'll be flying home soon but she's so early that baby isabella will be spending a few weeks in the NICU and i'll have to back to chicago in april if i want to do some itty bitty baby holding. (i do!)

 

packing for vancouver tonight. vancouverites, so says the internet, aren't so worried about fashion as they are with comfort so i'm happily packing hunter boots, some sweaters and a trench. no heels for me! everyone wants those damn red mittens that i think are sold out everywhere so i'm going to have to charm some people into procuring them for me. i.e. selling my body for knitware. kidding! (not really.)