the world according to edie

http://theballot.org/2008/edie

I know it may appear as though I've abandoned the blog but I am on the lam that's all and here's this:

The campaigns for and against Proposition 8 raised over $60 million with campaign contributions from over 64,000 people in all fifty states and more than twenty foreign countries, setting a new record nationally for a social policy initiative and trumping every other race in the country in spending except the presidential contest.

SO THERE.

Making history.

blaaaaahh

When Obama gets elected ...

"When Obama gets elected ... " she said.
"When Obama gets elected?" he asked.
"Yeah! When Obama gets elected. Just say it. Just start saying it all the time."
"Word."

Collective unconscious, unite.

Rare as Sarah Palin in Washington

Rare as the first bite of cheeseburger after competing in a triathlon. Rare as Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" on iTunes' song shuffle on your bike ride to work. Rare as Sarah Palin in Washington. You just don't come across a play as good as mugwumpin's super:anti:reluctant often. "Using mugwumpin's unique kaleidescope approach to storytelling, they take notions of the American hero and turn them inside out, looking for what underpins our impulses to save or be saved!"

For the ensemble to perform this very play in Egypt for the Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatr, my goodest friend CWW, co-director of mugwumpin, has (literally) put his nose on the grindstone more times than I can count to direct the ensemble's fund raising efforts. Support local theater if it's good—and in this case, it is!

Iceland, as told by my Mama

Politically and Economically

Iceland, the country, came into being in the 9th century. About year 871 the Vikings (Danes) landed there, brought their Irish slaves—maybe just Irish wives—and went about establishing a structure from which to run their society. It's not clear where they got their models, but the Parliament they established—Thingvellier—was quite sophisticated: representatives from 63 districts met once a year, debated and settled issues, and then took turns shouting out the laws. One after another, some 600 laws. The idea was that if you know the law, you will conform.

There was no native population in Iceland, so nobody was displaced in the settlement process.

It took a while to establish a legal structure. At first, the only punishment was expulsion; later they punished transgressions by death: men were beheaded and women drowned – not much attention was paid to distinguishing smaller and bigger crimes – you either conformed or not.

Today, Pingvellier is the longest standing Parliament in Europe. Maybe in the world. The Vikings were writers and poets (to wit – Icelandic sagas). The Settlement Museum in Reykjavik has, therefore, a multitude of documents to draw on -- but the exact date of settlement is uncertain. Therefore, the Museums' sign reads 871 +/- 2. 

Iceland feels unthreatened by their 2 neighbors – Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. In fact, they feel unthreatened altogether. It may be the only country in the world to have no standing army, navy, or air force. Just Coast Guard.   Sort of like Yiddish, which has no vocabulary for guns, ammunition, military strategy, or any kind of warfare.

Iceland is not a member of the EU and does not aspire to be. They see their economic future as tied to fishing, a priority the EU does not share. They are very protective about their territorial waters and do not wish to share those. Within their boundaries, it's their country and further input is redundant. Recently, they started commercial whaling in those waters.

They do not allow any non-Icelandic airline to serve their market. No Lufthansa, British Air, SAS, or United at the international airport in Keflavik. Just Iceland Air, Iceland Express, Icelandic, etc… Not sure if all of these are government owned, but they are certainly not foreign.

The top components of their economy, in descending order: 

1. Fishing -- mostly bacalao cod, a delicacy of the Mediterranean and South America. These cod-drying racks dot the landscape:
   
   

2. Energy – hydroelectric (Iceland has the 4^th largest resources of water in the world, after Canada, Norway, and Turkey) and geothermal. Get this: every house in Iceland is heated FOR FREE using geothermal energy. Even snow on the streets is melted from below so Icelanders don't have to shovel. Greenhouses throughout the island grow every imaginable crop, for free. As Helena puts it. "they can grow bananas if they wish". If they could only figure out how to export that energy! and
3. Tourism.

 

The Icelandic Krona fell 40% in the last 6 months, much thanks to all the sub-prime papers they purchased with all the optimism of the rich – and now they are rich no more. Our guide in Reykjavik said that they have 2 choices to cure this economic malaise (1) To join the EU, or (2) To find oil.

They are looking for oil.
 

Socially and Culturally: 

As to "further input redundant", Iceland in fact may have it right. There is 1 murder every 2 years in Iceland. We saw the house of the Prime Minister – no security whatsoever. Literacy rate is 100%. They apparently read more books per capita than any other nation in the world. Most of them are Lutheran but do not conform to the tight dictums of the Lutheran church; for example, they permit gay church marriages as well as civil ones. They have meticulously maintained their language in which they publish and to which they translate much of worlds' literature. They have a Nobel Prize winner in literature, Halldór Laxness, 1955. The presentation speech starts with "Iceland is the cradle of narrative art..." http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1955/press.html,  Helena and I visited several bookstores in Reykjavik; impressive. Ones section for foreign languages; the rest in Icelandic. This, for a nation of some 316,000.    

Even their lambs, cattle, and horses roam free. Tagged and numbered at birth, and are then allowed to roam for pastures wherever they wish. They scale incomparably steep mountains, perch themselves on dizzying edges, sheep happily grow their wooly coats, and generally seem very contented with their Icelandic homeland.

Note about wool – EVERYBODY knits in Iceland. Men, women, walking sitting… they all knit. It's cool to knit. 

Health care, and education are free.

Immigration to Iceland it not easy. After a decade-long residence the applicant must prove fluency in the language and, if admitted to citizenship, must change his first and last name to an Icelandic one.  

Last name is especially interesting: a patrimonial structure for both men and women. For example, Herdis, the daughter of Petur, is always Petursdottir (dóttir = daughter) even after she marries. Petur, son of Palmi, is Petur Palmason. So in a family of 4 comprising Mom, Dad, daughter, and son, everybody has a different last name!  But these last names do repeat themselves a lot, and Icelanders are ALWAYS referred to by their first name, so PHONE BOOKS ARE ORGANIZED BY FIRST NAME and then BY PROFESSION, with last name only as a third-level sort. 

Everybody's lineage is carefully recorded and available on line to at least 7 generations back; many back to the 9^th century, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~islwgw/ or http://www.halfdan.is/aett/ which allows inquiries, but only in Icelandic. Have a look.

Reykjavik, the capital, is home to 2/5 of all Icelanders. It has no tall buildings (our guide says "we don't seem to be running out of space"), and views are all around. There are many public spaces: parks, lakes, benches, and many monuments of artists and writers. No military heroes, of course. No "unknown soldier."  However, on one of the main squares in the city is a whimsical monument of an Unknown Bureaucrat.
 

Main "square" in the city:



And here, amidst another amazing sunset, our last one in Reykjavik, Helena sang our farewell:

Galileo's head was on this block

When I spotted this Civic I couldn't help but wonder when, exactly, things started to change for the owner of this vehicle. Based on the crooked rainbow sticker and the matching, equally crooked blue and white sticker (second from the left), I suspect we're dealing with "the quiet rebel at the back of class" type. Someone a little reckless and full of pride, who grew up doing the black nail polish thing but at some point started to notice she/he was happier directing energy into more positive places (like learning how to harmonize and sing along with the Girls). Now its all about the 75 dangling stars hanging from the rear view and the five, count 'em five (only four shown) IG stickers on the rear bumper. Thank you, personalized license plates. I may be seeing the light.

remembering andrea, barry, chantal, and more

All the newly designated eastern seaboard storm names sound familiar. Hurricane Gustav? Didn't that one just happen? Hanna? I swear Hurricane Hanna was last year. I can't help but wonder if placing "Hurricane" before a name makes the enormous, swirling throb of water, cloud, and sea guts rather homely, like my Dad's old leather rocker.

In the confines of my safe and dry Oakland, CA apartment I like to imagine a large depository of possible names churning in a vat somewhere, a long, metal spout at the bottom spitting out one single name as the National Weather Service runs the query. Jam must be blocking the way for new hurricane names to get through. A peanut butter sandwich eaten by one of the technicians has fallen into the spout. What can we do? Everyone seems to be going along with it, but I swear Hurricane Gustav was the last one.

Just to be sure, I have run my own query.  Here's 2007's storms. Humph, so far it seems my theory is full of holes. Ah well.

• Subtropical Storm Andrea
• Tropical Storm Barry
• Tropical Storm Chantal
• Hurricane Dean
• Tropical Storm Erin
• Hurricane Felix
• Tropical Storm Gabrielle
• Hurricane Humberto
• Tropical Storm Ingrid 
• Tropical Depression Ten
• Tropical Storm Jerry 
• Hurricane Karen*
• Hurricane Lorenzo
• Tropical Storm Melissa
• Tropical Depression Fifteen
• Hurricane Noel
• Tropical Storm Olga

*Karen was redesignated as a hurricane in the post-season re-analysis. <-- FAVORITE PART

thanks rob

I prefer to believe in, rather than not believe in. There's no difference really, but believing in makes me happy and seems to be my way.

That was my disclaimer (read: alibi) for posting a horoscope of mine that Rob Brezsny, famed astrologer from freewillastrology.com recently sent me via listserv. I prefer more individual astrology, just about me and my b'niss, that doesn't lump me in with all the other Jan/Feb birthdays, but this does pretty good.

In this version of me, I've booted a demon to the curb, dissolved some karmic debt, and eliminated an "outdated psychosexual imprint." (Please ignore this last part. Thx!)

Here's this week.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Thanks for the entertainment you've provided so far in 2008, Aquarius. Since last January, you have sent a nagging demon packing and corrected a kink in your integrity. You've paid off a load of karmic debt left over from the old days and have even begun to dissolve an outdated psychosexual imprint. Before I announce your reward for all this good work, though, I'd like you to make more progress on tempering your obsessive side. See what you can do to convert it from a part-time liability into a full-time asset.

I'm pondering my obsessions. There are so many, it's hard to choose.

is that michael douglas next to him?