Nonogirl Radio

Story of the Weeping Camel

Last night I saw a beautiful documentary about life in Mongolia's Gobi region. The story focuses on a nomadic family and the birth of a camel who is getting no love from its mother.

It's a beautiful film that illustrates another way of life.

Team Dresch

  originally uploaded by conform.

Friday, I caught up with my friend who travelled through South East Asia for five months. After transporting me to the temples of Cambodia over dinner we were both transported back to the mid-90s at Slim's when Team Dresch took the stage.

They played all their greats from Personal Best and Captain My Captain including rock anthems and melodic ballads. A pit of under-five-foot-tall women pogo-ed in front of the stage with a topless fanatic baring her breasts right before the encore!

Encouraging fans to meet up with them at the Lexington, the band then stage dove into the audience and crowd surfed with trust in their adoring fans.

You Give Me Fever

On day four of my flu, I finally decided to look in Dr. John's recommended Healthy Healing book by Linda Page. I learned many things that I wish I knew earlier:

• A fever is a way for your body to get rid of toxins, so it's better to let your body heat up
• You do want to get to a point where you ARE sweating
• Shower twice a day because as your body releases toxins (usually out your skin), you don't want it reabsorbed into your body by leaving it on your skin.
• Stick to a liquid diet while you're feverish to maximize the clensing process (juices, water, broths, herbal tea)
• Sip on lemon juice with maple syrup and a pinch of cinnamon in the morning and grapefruit juice during the evening (not sure why. maybe so you don't have sugar in the evening)
• Take lots of vitamin A at the onset (10k IU every 6 hours)

Cap'n Jazz

Cap'n Jazz is one of my all time favorite bands. My friend in New York turned me on to them in 1995. I found the We are Scientists 7" and the Shmap'n Shmazz CD. Then when I was shopping at Epicenter (r.i.p.), I found the OOH DO I LOVE YOU compilation (thank god the crusty who saw me pick it up encouraged me to buy it becuase he was on it), which was full of good stuff and turned me on to a bunch of bands.

Cap'n Jazz was melodic and danceable and chaotic and just plain freaks.

This band is the seed to other indie rock bands, outlined in this sort of indie-rock tree, but it's really the Kinsella's that make it for me.

This hour-long music special on the Kinsella brothers just aired on Chicago Public Radio.

Skateboarding

Several months ago, I heard about skaters in West Oakland who used concrete to built up a space under a freeway. Caltrans couldn't bring it down because it would risk the integrity of the freeway structure.

I heard a more updated story on the space, Border Town, by Craig Miller on the California Report (scroll down to the Friday show). Great sounds, great scenes, great story.

Street Fight

I've been sick for the past three days and I've taken in a lot of tv. But today, I was ready to be vertical (meaning sitting on my couch rather than lying in bed) and started to get caught up on viewing films from my Iron Weed subscription.

My roommate said he watched all of them in one night and raved about Street Fight, a documentary about the 2002 mayoral race in Newark, NJ. It's about the political machine that every city seems to have. It's about race and power and class. And it's a must-see.

"The Host is Toast"

Sadly, Nguyen Qui Duc, radio host and producer, is moving back to Vietnam.

But his send off sounds great: a gallery showing of his work in a gallery at 77 Geary, a roast, and support from Asian American organizations.

It took a while for me to get to know him. But in the short time I have, his advice was important:

• Get emotion and opinions from your interviewees; you can fill in the detail more succinctly
• Ask your interviewee questions about the OTHER people you'll be interviewing
• Set boundaries and agree with your interviewee about what you'll talk to them about

He was also an advocate for more coverage of Asian American stories and as this Chronicle article shows, a proponent of more people of color on the air.

It sounds like the right move for him in many ways: for his family, for his personal life, for his professional interests. And thanks to the internet, I'm sure I'll still be able to seek advice from him. But who will emcee our community events? And more importantly, who will boost our fundraisers efforts with generous contributions at the bar?!

I-Hotel Re-birthday

Pati Poblete writes a nice column on the new I-Hotel, Emil DeGuzman, and Rudy Daga, tenants in the original I-Hotel.

The piece ends as a send of as Pati heads off to Hawaii!

Riot Women(?)

I double blinked when I saw the listing: Team Dresch at Slim's. I don't know if they were doing other projects or in indie retirement or what, but I haven't thought of Team Dresh in a long, long time.

I love Jody's voice (in Hazel as well) and love Personal Best! And given the nostalgia swept up by Sleater-Kinney's final tour (with this great write up in the Village Voice), I've got to go. Yes, I've got a 9-5 job now, but there's still some rock'n'roll in me, yet!

Strategy

I've been voted union steward at my job site. I think it'll be interesting to get involved in politics through my job and to organize from where I'm at. So far, we've made phone calls down to Stockton to protest the poor protection provided to DPW workers who discarded the cattle that died during the heat wave and next week, we're turning out supporters at City Hall for Chris Daly.

At our first site meeting, our union rep explained what happened in last year's special elections. All of Schwarzenegger's proposals failed, but defeating these proposals cost a LOT of money and drained coffers for THIS round of elections. Sneaky rich people!