Get OFF!

Do you have anxiety problems?
Do you suffer from panic attacks?
Do you find yourself increasingly frustrated with consumerism?
Do you agree that most people would prefer to live their lives than have bombs dropped on them?

You do?
So does Keith Morris!!

We got to see OFF! in Chapel Hill a few weeks ago and it was just what the doctor ordered. Aggressive (in a good way), political (in a good way), and pissed off (in the BEST way). Plus, they totally fucking rocked. If you get the chance, I highly recommend seeing them live and buying their album.

Apparently now they're in trouble for stealing some restaurant oil to power their bio-diesel tour van. Someone get Ron Kuby on the horn!!

If I'm Sitting, I'm Knitting

Greetings from Rock & Roll Martian Land! We have been busy settling into our new home world and it's going well. Well, OK, I've been pretty damn stressed out but it's all good. The new space is wonderful and we're getting rid of those neutral-paint-helps-sell-a-home walls with some COLOR. So far, so good!

These days, my relaxation comes in the form of sock knitting. I've been working on a pair for Vee and have a few gifts planned for Mother's Day and my dad's 60th birthday in May. With a crazy April ahead of me, I don't think I can finish 2 pairs of socks in the next 5-6 weeks but I'll give it the old college try. Luckily for me, punctual gift-giving has never been a Thomas family strength so expectations are low!

After checking this book out from the library, I picked up my own copy last week:

Knit Socks!
Betsy Lee McCarthy

There are definitely enough good designs in here to justify owning a copy. The "Classy Slip-Ups" I'm making for Vee are coming along well. They're so stretchy and cozy -- I want my own pair! I'm planning to make the same pattern for my dad (in camo colors, of course) and a lacy chevron-style striped pair for my mom. I FRIGGIN' LOVE KNITTING SOCKS!

Alive With Litter!

Vee and I, along with friends, have been collecting pictures of tobacco-related litter this year for our Tumblr site: ALIVE WITH LITTER.

The AWL Leaderboard shows NEWPORT and MARLBORO are well ahead of the pack, so to speak. There have been 20 Newport sitings and 12 for Marlboro. No other brands come close so far.

What's the litterbug's choice in your town? Take a picture of any randomly discarded tobacco packaging and send it to me! Would love to see the trends.

In Other News

Buying a house.
Moving.
Knitting socks.
Working off the holiday gut.
Using paperbackswap.com a LOT (thanks, Alysha!).
Re-watching Battlestar Galactica.
Making cheese.
Taking pictures of tobacco-related litter.
Reading Harper's.
Going out to see bands.
Having minor eye surgery.
Cleaning up cat barf.
Feeling really happy.

On The Cusp

The world is changing. This country is changing. I'm not a Middle-East scholar or a labor union scholar, but I can feel a change in the air. I'm sure most people can (if they are able to pry themselves away from the Charlie Sheen coverage). I don't know what it means. I don't have the answers. I don't even have any unique personal insights. I think it is fascinating and wonderful that oppressed people are finding courage to stand up to their oppressors. Democracy won't come easily and won't come without significant bloodshed in places like Libya.

I don't know what our role is, as a country. For so many years we have let the dictators of the Middle East do as they please - keeping women illiterate, watching their countrymen live in poverty while they live in palaces - all so we can have access to their oil. It goes without saying that our dependency on this oil won't end overnight. Oil company executives are probably not too keen on earning less profits, no matter who is killed or oppressed along the way. Corporate interests have our own government in a choke-hold. I don't have faith that any major policy changes will take place as long as corporations have the upper hand.

Where will the change come from in the United States? Do the people have any power? Just yesterday, the Wisconsin State Senate, on a procedural technicality, passed the budget bill that strips unions of collective bargaining rights. As we all know, this tactic seems to be part of a longer-term right-wing plan to strip unions of their members, and thus of money, to lessen their political impact. Both political parties claim to look out for the "people." For "the working family." There seems to be no indication that the right actually believes this, and many on the left are cowards. The people are left to fend for themselves.

I believe in public education. I believe in the right of people to organize. I believe in the right of workers to be free from danger in the workplace. I believe in the right of women to make choices about their bodies. I believe that consenting adults should be free to love each other and make a life together. I believe in better roads, better bridges, better libraries, better health care. I believe it is possible to make these things happen in America without "bankrupting our future." I believe it is time to stop fighting unnecessary wars overseas and start doing nation-building in our own country.

None of this is groundbreaking. None of this is even worth reading. I've just been thinking about it a lot and can't decide if I'm extremely optimistic or hopeless. I don't doubt that things will get worse before they get better, but I also don't doubt that we're on the cusp of something extraordinary. We live in an amazing country. Let's challenge ourselves to live up to it.

Fully Aware of My Own Shortcomings

Nice to hear a moderate voice like David Brooks say this:

So this is where civility comes from — from a sense of personal modesty and from the ensuing gratitude for the political process. Civility is the natural state for people who know how limited their own individual powers are and know, too, that they need the conversation. They are useless without the conversation.

The problem is that over the past 40 years or so we have gone from a culture that reminds people of their own limitations to a culture that encourages people to think highly of themselves. The nation’s founders had a modest but realistic opinion of themselves and of the voters. They erected all sorts of institutional and social restraints to protect Americans from themselves. They admired George Washington because of the way he kept himself in check.

But over the past few decades, people have lost a sense of their own sinfulness. Children are raised amid a chorus of applause. Politics has become less about institutional restraint and more about giving voters whatever they want at that second. Joe DiMaggio didn’t ostentatiously admire his own home runs, but now athletes routinely celebrate themselves as part of the self-branding process.

So, of course, you get narcissists who believe they or members of their party possess direct access to the truth. Of course you get people who prefer monologue to dialogue. Of course you get people who detest politics because it frustrates their ability to get 100 percent of what they want. Of course you get people who gravitate toward the like-minded and loathe their political opponents. They feel no need for balance and correction.

Beneath all the other things that have contributed to polarization and the loss of civility, the most important is this: The roots of modesty have been carved away.

In a famous passage, Reinhold Niebuhr put it best: “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. ... Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.”

I don't possess the self-promotion gene. I don't need people to acknowledge me, agree with me, or build me up. I recognize the difference (I hope) between being humble and being confident. This is probably why I feel so out of place in the ME ME ME!! generation.

Says the chick with the blog.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Rock & Roll Martian!

Any resolutions out there in Martian-land? Personally, I'm hoping to spend more time this year re-focusing on a few old crafts and starting some new ones. There might could be a new Tumblr site on the horizon as I take my new camera to the streets (thanks, Vee!).

2010 was a bit of a doozy and I'm hoping for a comparatively toned-down 2011. But... I think I say that every year. Here's hoping that all my friends and loved ones have a happy, healthy year and continue to stay in touch! Odds are good I'll be gracing your mailbox at some point. Your ACTUAL mailbox - that thing out in front of your house. You are worth $0.44. Since I didn't see the Year of the Rabbit stamps up yet, this will have to suffice:



Side note: Did you know that from now on, all regular first-class stamps that are issued will be "Forever" stamps?

Side note to USPS.COM: Take that goddamn scary-ass clown off your homepage! JESUS!