"First of all I would like to apologize for the behavior of this driver. This was totally inappropriate and uncalled for."The bad taste of the incident isn't entirely out of my mouth, but at least I've been happy so far with the email response. I'll keep you posted on this incident I have been overly obsessing about, as things develop. I know it's often more fun to bash than thank, but don't want to forget positive mentions of folks/organizations when warranted.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
ABQ Ride Update
Some of you might remember my experience/email to ABQ Ride complaining about some repellant anti-gay slurs led by a bus driver. Well, ABQ Ride has responded, and we've even had a back and forth with the bus folks seeking further details. A representative from ABQ Ride even went so far as to say
Hot Steamy Writing Nerds, Get Your Hot Steamy Nerds Write Here!
If you've ever dreamed of being a Hollywood screenwriter, but would rather live vicariously through gossipy micro-bios of now-famous writers like Allan Loeb, check out the LA Times new "Scriptland" weekly feature. This week they look at former compulsive gambler and now hot property Loeb and washed-up has-been Joe Esterhaz.
I realize that for 99% of the population outside the City of Angels this LA Times feature has no attraction whatsoever, and that's what I like best about it. Writers are, by and large, notoriously un-notorious and therefore don't warrant weekly columns in newspapers on their craft. Outside of the New York Times Review of Books and a few other creaky sources, newspaper print media has almost no coverage of books whatsoever.
So to have a major newspaper acknowledge that enough interest exists in LA to have such a column not only gives credence to the idea that every single resident of Los Angeles County has a movie script they are working on in their spare time, it also glamorizing a profession that 99.9% of the national population thinks is unglamorous.
And I'm in the .1% who thinks it is, and derives considerable lurid pleasure reading about famous screenwriters the same way far higher percentages of the population are fascinated with Jennifer Aniston, runway models and football players.
This LA Times weekly column is a NY Post Page Six for screenwriter wannabes. A check-out stand tabloid for scribbling nerds. I love it.
P.S.: Yes, this makes another post that has nothing to do with the 2006 Election. I admire but do not understand how some people can stick to the Election Cycle daily for such long periods of time. I especially admire but do not understand how polticians can practice their craft and crafty dealings unceasingly for months and months and months. I need constant breaks, and I'm just reading the newspapers and watching ads that escape my remote control switching prowess. One does not have to have Attention Deficit Disorder to seek frequent sanctuary from the Election Wars, and I wonder what sort of physical/mental constitution is required to withstand the uber-pervasive onslaught of our now pretty much continuous campaigns. I'll get back to some vacuous election blogging in a day or so. Right now I'm contemplating this tree outside my house and dreaming of being the next Joe Esterhaz.
I realize that for 99% of the population outside the City of Angels this LA Times feature has no attraction whatsoever, and that's what I like best about it. Writers are, by and large, notoriously un-notorious and therefore don't warrant weekly columns in newspapers on their craft. Outside of the New York Times Review of Books and a few other creaky sources, newspaper print media has almost no coverage of books whatsoever.
So to have a major newspaper acknowledge that enough interest exists in LA to have such a column not only gives credence to the idea that every single resident of Los Angeles County has a movie script they are working on in their spare time, it also glamorizing a profession that 99.9% of the national population thinks is unglamorous.
And I'm in the .1% who thinks it is, and derives considerable lurid pleasure reading about famous screenwriters the same way far higher percentages of the population are fascinated with Jennifer Aniston, runway models and football players.
This LA Times weekly column is a NY Post Page Six for screenwriter wannabes. A check-out stand tabloid for scribbling nerds. I love it.
P.S.: Yes, this makes another post that has nothing to do with the 2006 Election. I admire but do not understand how some people can stick to the Election Cycle daily for such long periods of time. I especially admire but do not understand how polticians can practice their craft and crafty dealings unceasingly for months and months and months. I need constant breaks, and I'm just reading the newspapers and watching ads that escape my remote control switching prowess. One does not have to have Attention Deficit Disorder to seek frequent sanctuary from the Election Wars, and I wonder what sort of physical/mental constitution is required to withstand the uber-pervasive onslaught of our now pretty much continuous campaigns. I'll get back to some vacuous election blogging in a day or so. Right now I'm contemplating this tree outside my house and dreaming of being the next Joe Esterhaz.
Monday, September 25, 2006
The Old Man And The Seeing Bands Play Live Blues
I just turned 45 and for all of that four and one-half decades of living I've bristled whenever hearing someone say something along the lines of "I must be getting old". I've bristled for many reasons:
Tonight this band I've always liked is playing downtown and I'm not going. They're the Red Elvises and they combine a perfect combination of kitschy rockabilly, lounge, horns and Soviet-style accents. They play homage to styles of music in a way that only truly deliberately bad performers can.
And tonight, Monday, they're at Rally's (for God knows what reason) and instead of going to see them, I am instead listening to all of their records on Rhapsody while writing this blog entry.
That makes me a hopeless nerd on so, so many levels. And an increasingly old one at that. To be honest, the sedentary, don't go out on School night Scot has been dominant for years now. It's gotten so bad in recent times that even during my far-as-the-eye-can-see Summer Vacations I rarely go out to the Launchpad, etc. to see a show with them there youngsters.
Part of it is the volume of the tunes (I've never been one for really loud), but I switched to old fogy ear plugs some years back and solved that problem. I could also blame factors such as standing on my feet for such long periods (I never get to the Launchpad, e.g., in time to sit on the sofa), but I spend equal time or more standing up at work all the time. It's not even the late hour of the music...I admit I stay up way too late far too often.
The salient fact of the matter is that I've turned into this Mt. Everest of Home-Bodies. Between sitting home online and going out, online wins. Between reading with one or more frosty glasses of adult beverage and hitting a bar, I'm plopped down at home with the book. Between the Guild and Netflix, I'm almost always picking Netflix. In short, I"m pathetic.
Of course, I realize that I have not been alone all these years in bristling at those who say "I must be getting old", and that you, dear reader, may not have made it this far down the blogpost for the simple aforementioned fact that "getting old" comments are boring.
But, if you have made it this far, perhaps it is because you too know what I'm talking about. I mean, you are reading a blog right now. You might even be reading it at home instead of doing something far, far more interesting. Maybe you too, are "getting old, or something". Maybe you too didn't go to the Brave Combo concert this past weekend supposedly because "you've seen them enough already" or missed Oliver Mtukudzi and all of Globalquerque on the pretense that "the tickets were too expensive".
Well, we're in this together, fellow boring old person. We are both members of the club of people who still want to go see all these shows, but can't make the movement to go. It's as if we are aging shortstops who used to be able to cover the ball up the middle and now just watch it roll on by into centerfield.
So I'm here on a Monday night listening to "Grooving to the Moscow Beat" by the Red Elvises and wondering if I should turn it up full blast, put on some ear plugs, stand up for a few hours, order a Pabst Blue Ribbon from the refrigerator and blow some cigarette smoke through the house. I could even charge myself $10 to make it more real. Nah, that wouldn't work. I'd just be some loser drinking lousy beer alone (my wife would have fled to the barn immediately) in my sweatpants in front of a laptop.
Plus, my clothes and couch would get all smoky.
Guess I better just admit defeat, join AARP, sell all my rockabilly ties on Ebay and develop a strong attraction to KNME pledge shows on the Grateful Dead and Moody Blues.
Man, that's reaching rock bottom. Absolute rock bottom. Give me those car keys...we're going to the Red Elvises...oh wait, I've got a meeting before school tomorrow. Better stay at home and get some sleep. Yeah, that makes more sense.
- I've always believed that "you're only as old as you feel" chesnut.
- When someone tells you "I must be getting old" they are just about to swing into some really boring explanation of why they didn't do something interesting and instead just sat around the house watching TV.
- When someone tells you "I must be getting old", you as the respondent are left with nothing to say because if you say "yeah, you are getting old" you're being unkind, and if you say "no, you're not getting old" that just leads to more explanation by the "getting old" person of why they chose to sit and watch TV all night instead of doing something interesting.
Tonight this band I've always liked is playing downtown and I'm not going. They're the Red Elvises and they combine a perfect combination of kitschy rockabilly, lounge, horns and Soviet-style accents. They play homage to styles of music in a way that only truly deliberately bad performers can.
And tonight, Monday, they're at Rally's (for God knows what reason) and instead of going to see them, I am instead listening to all of their records on Rhapsody while writing this blog entry.
That makes me a hopeless nerd on so, so many levels. And an increasingly old one at that. To be honest, the sedentary, don't go out on School night Scot has been dominant for years now. It's gotten so bad in recent times that even during my far-as-the-eye-can-see Summer Vacations I rarely go out to the Launchpad, etc. to see a show with them there youngsters.
Part of it is the volume of the tunes (I've never been one for really loud), but I switched to old fogy ear plugs some years back and solved that problem. I could also blame factors such as standing on my feet for such long periods (I never get to the Launchpad, e.g., in time to sit on the sofa), but I spend equal time or more standing up at work all the time. It's not even the late hour of the music...I admit I stay up way too late far too often.
The salient fact of the matter is that I've turned into this Mt. Everest of Home-Bodies. Between sitting home online and going out, online wins. Between reading with one or more frosty glasses of adult beverage and hitting a bar, I'm plopped down at home with the book. Between the Guild and Netflix, I'm almost always picking Netflix. In short, I"m pathetic.
Of course, I realize that I have not been alone all these years in bristling at those who say "I must be getting old", and that you, dear reader, may not have made it this far down the blogpost for the simple aforementioned fact that "getting old" comments are boring.
But, if you have made it this far, perhaps it is because you too know what I'm talking about. I mean, you are reading a blog right now. You might even be reading it at home instead of doing something far, far more interesting. Maybe you too, are "getting old, or something". Maybe you too didn't go to the Brave Combo concert this past weekend supposedly because "you've seen them enough already" or missed Oliver Mtukudzi and all of Globalquerque on the pretense that "the tickets were too expensive".
Well, we're in this together, fellow boring old person. We are both members of the club of people who still want to go see all these shows, but can't make the movement to go. It's as if we are aging shortstops who used to be able to cover the ball up the middle and now just watch it roll on by into centerfield.
So I'm here on a Monday night listening to "Grooving to the Moscow Beat" by the Red Elvises and wondering if I should turn it up full blast, put on some ear plugs, stand up for a few hours, order a Pabst Blue Ribbon from the refrigerator and blow some cigarette smoke through the house. I could even charge myself $10 to make it more real. Nah, that wouldn't work. I'd just be some loser drinking lousy beer alone (my wife would have fled to the barn immediately) in my sweatpants in front of a laptop.
Plus, my clothes and couch would get all smoky.
Guess I better just admit defeat, join AARP, sell all my rockabilly ties on Ebay and develop a strong attraction to KNME pledge shows on the Grateful Dead and Moody Blues.
Man, that's reaching rock bottom. Absolute rock bottom. Give me those car keys...we're going to the Red Elvises...oh wait, I've got a meeting before school tomorrow. Better stay at home and get some sleep. Yeah, that makes more sense.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Assorted Land News in a Land of Lazy Voters (and Non-Voters)
No need for a recap of Wednesday night's Baca/Lyons "forum". Johnny Mango has a good write-up of the festivities, and a good follow-up on Baca's alleged inability to work with his 'ol BLM stomping grounds. My only additions to Mr. Mango's work would be snarky and have to do with Pat Lyons' Eastern New Mexico (i.e., Texan) accent and the fact that Lyons said as a rancher he'd been "managing the land all my life" roughly 500 times. I'd go on to mention that 500 is also roughly the number of times Jim Baca talked about his "first administration" of the Land Office way back in the pre-Internet, IBM XT/Kaypro mid-80s.
But I won't.
I have a bunch of notes filled with "managing the land all my life" and "my first administration" if anyone wants them. Basically my take on the Land race is that it's down ballot enough that turnout generated by Wilson/Madrid race in the central part of the state will help Baca, while the rest of the state will most likely have lower turnout due to the dearth of any good races. I don't know how many folks in Farmington, for instance, will vote given that the Auditor and Land races are the only competitive State/National ones going. I know the Land race gets more important the more rural you get, but it's sure not a Governor or U.S. Senate kind of pull to the polls even in the Sticks.
All in all, turnout would appear to be helping Baca, especially with lazy voters who'll just vote straight ticket because they don't want the embarrassment of picking between judges they have absolutely no idea about. Lyons' incumbency is also hurt by the fact that to the more unobservant voter Baca is seen as another incumbent, having, as mentioned, held the office back in the IBM XT/Kaypro days.
In sum, between non-voters and lazy voters it would appear Baca's race to lose, imho. Nothing that happened at Wednesday's "forum" did anything to change that, and given the public demeanor of the two candidates it's unlikely any Earth-shattering news, spin or allegation is gonna come along in the next 45 days.
Of course we live in a political time where by "Earth-shattering" we mean things like Patsy Madrid having non-NM saguaro cacti in an anti-Wilson TV ad. For a few of us things like Otero Mesa and alternative energy (or the Occupation of Iraq for that matter) are more important, but when a race goes into political hyperspace like Madrid/Wilson the real issues begin to succumb to the cacti. Maybe that's to be expected in a land of lazy voters..it's much easier to think/laugh about improperly placed cacti than about the complex issue of authorizing protections over State lands where the improperly placed cacti might thrive (if saguaros did, in fact, thrive in New Mexico).
But I won't.
I have a bunch of notes filled with "managing the land all my life" and "my first administration" if anyone wants them. Basically my take on the Land race is that it's down ballot enough that turnout generated by Wilson/Madrid race in the central part of the state will help Baca, while the rest of the state will most likely have lower turnout due to the dearth of any good races. I don't know how many folks in Farmington, for instance, will vote given that the Auditor and Land races are the only competitive State/National ones going. I know the Land race gets more important the more rural you get, but it's sure not a Governor or U.S. Senate kind of pull to the polls even in the Sticks.
All in all, turnout would appear to be helping Baca, especially with lazy voters who'll just vote straight ticket because they don't want the embarrassment of picking between judges they have absolutely no idea about. Lyons' incumbency is also hurt by the fact that to the more unobservant voter Baca is seen as another incumbent, having, as mentioned, held the office back in the IBM XT/Kaypro days.
In sum, between non-voters and lazy voters it would appear Baca's race to lose, imho. Nothing that happened at Wednesday's "forum" did anything to change that, and given the public demeanor of the two candidates it's unlikely any Earth-shattering news, spin or allegation is gonna come along in the next 45 days.
Of course we live in a political time where by "Earth-shattering" we mean things like Patsy Madrid having non-NM saguaro cacti in an anti-Wilson TV ad. For a few of us things like Otero Mesa and alternative energy (or the Occupation of Iraq for that matter) are more important, but when a race goes into political hyperspace like Madrid/Wilson the real issues begin to succumb to the cacti. Maybe that's to be expected in a land of lazy voters..it's much easier to think/laugh about improperly placed cacti than about the complex issue of authorizing protections over State lands where the improperly placed cacti might thrive (if saguaros did, in fact, thrive in New Mexico).
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Unchained Medley Featuring Lyons and Baca, Together For the Memories
Good morning:
Still no response from folks at ABQ Ride regarding this email from me complaining about a hideous bus ride I had a while back That rumbling sound you hear throughout ABQ is my teeth grinding derisively in the general direction of Greg Payne.
Went to the Lyons/Baca "forum" last night, and boy am I sleepy. I'll have more to say about it later, but I'll tell ya now it wasn't the most captivating of events. The main reason was that it was a League of Women Voters "forum", not a debate. That means no rebuttals. A "forum" without rebuttals is like a party without alcohol. In other parlance, last night's event was a soiree, not a shindig. I don't need tons of yelling, clapping and screaming at such an event, but I do need some rebuttals and follow-up on points. Otherwise it's like we're all just drinking herbal tea and eating cucumber sandwiches.
Sometimes it's hard not to come away from a JoeMonahan.com post thinking that the real campaign JoeMonahan is covering is JoeMonahan's campaign to be universally perceived as important. Today he's gloating about being a New Mexico Business Weekly "Power Broker". Not exactly up there with winning a Nobel or Pulitzer, but I'm sure JoeMonahan is working behind the scenes to get one of those, too, for JoeMonahan.
Lastly, some of us root for New Mexico sports teams, some of us root for Pat Lyons or Jim Baca. Me, I've been rooting all year for Burque to officially get to 10 inches of precipitation for the year. With the .31 of rain at the Sunport last night we're almost there at 9.84 inches. As many of you know, the Sunport has been on the low side of this year's relative deluge and it's been a struggle to get up to 10 full inches. Sorta like being a Cubs fan or something. But we can make it! Just one more decent rain will put us over the top! As a fan who's followed this year's rain since way back before the record Summer o' '06 monsoon I know there's been times of doubt...times when it just seemed like a dream. Remember back to late May? We were totally out of it...but by getting back to the fundamentals of atmospheric moisture, convection and some solid hurricane remnants we've now got a chance. A good chance. Go, team, go! Block that La Nina! Fight, team, fight!
Still no response from folks at ABQ Ride regarding this email from me complaining about a hideous bus ride I had a while back That rumbling sound you hear throughout ABQ is my teeth grinding derisively in the general direction of Greg Payne.
Went to the Lyons/Baca "forum" last night, and boy am I sleepy. I'll have more to say about it later, but I'll tell ya now it wasn't the most captivating of events. The main reason was that it was a League of Women Voters "forum", not a debate. That means no rebuttals. A "forum" without rebuttals is like a party without alcohol. In other parlance, last night's event was a soiree, not a shindig. I don't need tons of yelling, clapping and screaming at such an event, but I do need some rebuttals and follow-up on points. Otherwise it's like we're all just drinking herbal tea and eating cucumber sandwiches.
Sometimes it's hard not to come away from a JoeMonahan.com post thinking that the real campaign JoeMonahan is covering is JoeMonahan's campaign to be universally perceived as important. Today he's gloating about being a New Mexico Business Weekly "Power Broker". Not exactly up there with winning a Nobel or Pulitzer, but I'm sure JoeMonahan is working behind the scenes to get one of those, too, for JoeMonahan.
Lastly, some of us root for New Mexico sports teams, some of us root for Pat Lyons or Jim Baca. Me, I've been rooting all year for Burque to officially get to 10 inches of precipitation for the year. With the .31 of rain at the Sunport last night we're almost there at 9.84 inches. As many of you know, the Sunport has been on the low side of this year's relative deluge and it's been a struggle to get up to 10 full inches. Sorta like being a Cubs fan or something. But we can make it! Just one more decent rain will put us over the top! As a fan who's followed this year's rain since way back before the record Summer o' '06 monsoon I know there's been times of doubt...times when it just seemed like a dream. Remember back to late May? We were totally out of it...but by getting back to the fundamentals of atmospheric moisture, convection and some solid hurricane remnants we've now got a chance. A good chance. Go, team, go! Block that La Nina! Fight, team, fight!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Too Busy For a Witty Title: LyonsBacaMadridWilsonAPSJumble
There's just too much going on these days. Between all the debates, the 73 trillion blogs to read and my own deeply honed laziness I'm just not getting to everything I want. Take tonight's Lyons/Baca land Commissioner debate at the Unitarian Church on Carlisle. I want to go, heck I want to live blog it (last time I was there I found plenty of wifi network opportunities, but no unsecured ones [any tips/passwords for me on this?]).
Lastly, a big tip of the Patrick Lyons gigantic white faux cowboy hat to those who voted to pass the APS bond issue yesterday. Amid all the talk about how awful APS is, it's good to have evidence that support exists to the tune of $350 million or so. It was interesting to read in this morning's Journal that a group of Westsiders want to break away from APS, new bond money or no, but I have no problem with the Westside seceding from Albuquerque altogether. We can start with the school district, then blow up the Paseo, Montano and Alameda bridges. We'll be sure to use environmentally friendly explosives to protect the river and its surroundings.
Better leave the Rio Bravo bridge down south, as I live just on the west side of it. Then again, it's been a while since the South Valley screamed to secede from APS.
Picture Deleted due to threatened lawsuit (it feels so good to feel important!)
Commissioner Patrick Lyons has a hat you could drill for oil & gas with
As I mentioned yesterday, I'm not a big believer in the power of debates to swing elections, but I'm guessing a Lyons/Baca shindig should be good for plenty of laughs, while also dealing with environmental issues that I often find more dear to me than issues dealing with people these days. Plus, I need a Madrid/Wilson break. I'm guessing Madrid and Wilson would probably like a Madrid/Wilson break at this point.Commissioner Patrick Lyons has a hat you could drill for oil & gas with
Lastly, a big tip of the Patrick Lyons gigantic white faux cowboy hat to those who voted to pass the APS bond issue yesterday. Amid all the talk about how awful APS is, it's good to have evidence that support exists to the tune of $350 million or so. It was interesting to read in this morning's Journal that a group of Westsiders want to break away from APS, new bond money or no, but I have no problem with the Westside seceding from Albuquerque altogether. We can start with the school district, then blow up the Paseo, Montano and Alameda bridges. We'll be sure to use environmentally friendly explosives to protect the river and its surroundings.
Better leave the Rio Bravo bridge down south, as I live just on the west side of it. Then again, it's been a while since the South Valley screamed to secede from APS.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Join the Madrid/Wilson Debate Frenzy Frenzy!
When it comes to Wilson/Madrid right now the fervor is over determining who won the Congregation Albert debate, followed somewhat closely by statements throughout the blogomediasphere about what the important issues in the race are. Even a fleeting glance of local blogs illustrates that there is definitely no shortage of bloggers willing to tell us what to think on both of these points.
Which gets me to smoking pot.
Statistics are somewhat hazy, perhaps due to reluctance for respondents to be honest in this area, but roughly 50 percent of Americans between the age of 20-50 have smoked marijuana at least once, at least as of 2002. Regardless of whether that figure is a bit high or low, pretty much everybody concedes that. Now by having written those last two sentences, you, the well-trained critical thinker might be saying to yourself:
Which is why I don't think debates, even TV debates, matter much. The actual attendance at these debates is small, and the ability for those who attempt to convince us critical thinking readers who won is also small. Even typical TV debate viewership (which really isn't that big despite how important we try to make it) consists almost exclusively of already convinced voters looking for reassurance their candidate is best. Then they go try to tell some other folks who didn't see that their candidate won.
All of which is ineffective for two reasons: 1. that critical thinking thing mentioned above; 2. the head-scratchingly irritating fact that tons of adults don't give a rat's ass about the Wilson/Madrid race, the debates, or what certain political-junkie bloggers think who won what or whether a candidate smoking pot is important.
Regarding the second point above: yes, one wonders if the "tons of adults" who don't care about politics might be the same large group that has smoked pot, but I haven't seen any data on a direct cause/effect relationship.
Thinking that debates don't matter much is not a popular blog/media position these days, days in which reader/viewership is heightened by: 1. zealous candidate backers looking for validation; 2. guilty possible voters who slept in Sunday instead of going to the debate.
To those who consider pooh-poohing debates as unimportant to be politico-apostasy, let's see how much the polling/voting numbers change because of these debates. Let's see how many undecideds decide to vote for the candidate judged the "winner", somehow, in this haphazard string of upcoming Madrid/Wilson debates. I submit that studying those figures will eventually show that this blogomediasphere debate frenzy will prove to be no more important than the TV hype about the latest version of "Survivor", regardless of who is chosen to have "won" the debates, smoked pot or much else.
Which gets me to smoking pot.
Statistics are somewhat hazy, perhaps due to reluctance for respondents to be honest in this area, but roughly 50 percent of Americans between the age of 20-50 have smoked marijuana at least once, at least as of 2002. Regardless of whether that figure is a bit high or low, pretty much everybody concedes that. Now by having written those last two sentences, you, the well-trained critical thinker might be saying to yourself:
- "Scot is for Patsy because he's softening Madrid's own admission that she smoked pot back in the day by saying that what Patsy did is the same thing roughly half of American adults have done."
- "Scot has smoked pot, and may still be smoking pot. In fact, he might be stoned right now and is assuaging his own guilt by coming up with some numbers saying he is far from alone."
- "I wish I could find some decent pot, it's been forever since I got really baked."
Which is why I don't think debates, even TV debates, matter much. The actual attendance at these debates is small, and the ability for those who attempt to convince us critical thinking readers who won is also small. Even typical TV debate viewership (which really isn't that big despite how important we try to make it) consists almost exclusively of already convinced voters looking for reassurance their candidate is best. Then they go try to tell some other folks who didn't see that their candidate won.
All of which is ineffective for two reasons: 1. that critical thinking thing mentioned above; 2. the head-scratchingly irritating fact that tons of adults don't give a rat's ass about the Wilson/Madrid race, the debates, or what certain political-junkie bloggers think who won what or whether a candidate smoking pot is important.
Regarding the second point above: yes, one wonders if the "tons of adults" who don't care about politics might be the same large group that has smoked pot, but I haven't seen any data on a direct cause/effect relationship.
Thinking that debates don't matter much is not a popular blog/media position these days, days in which reader/viewership is heightened by: 1. zealous candidate backers looking for validation; 2. guilty possible voters who slept in Sunday instead of going to the debate.
To those who consider pooh-poohing debates as unimportant to be politico-apostasy, let's see how much the polling/voting numbers change because of these debates. Let's see how many undecideds decide to vote for the candidate judged the "winner", somehow, in this haphazard string of upcoming Madrid/Wilson debates. I submit that studying those figures will eventually show that this blogomediasphere debate frenzy will prove to be no more important than the TV hype about the latest version of "Survivor", regardless of who is chosen to have "won" the debates, smoked pot or much else.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Bumming On The Bus: An Email to ABQ Ride
I don't feel entirely comfortable foisting my little personal windmill tilts at Burque Babble readers, but below is a copy of an email I just sent to ABQ Ride officials Greg Payne and Mary Alice Ayze about an incident I endured on the bus a while back. Needless to say, I strove hard to reduce the stratosphericallly high level of Rant typical to my posts here, and tried to be real nice about an incident that pissed the absolute bejeezus out of me. As Samuel L. Jackson's character says in "Pulp Fiction", "but I'm trying Ringo. I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd."
I don't know if I'm shepherd material below, but I do want to get the word out about my little experience, and encourage feedback through all channels on experiences others might have had on ABQ public transit.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ms. Ayze/Mr. Payne:
I've been putting off emailing you about an incident that occurred on the Route 53 bus one afternoon about a month ago, but it's still bothering me and has made me very hesitant to ride the bus since. I also hesitate because I value public transportation, yet don't want to be identified as the "whistleblower" who will someday ride that same Route 53 bus again.
It was a midweek afternoon and I took the Isleta bus (the 3:35 as I recall) from Alvarado. Nothing much happened until some riders mid-route got on the bus, obviously regulars who the bus driver knew well. As we went down Isleta, the regular riders started making oblique joke references which other riders found very funny. Something about "swirl". Riders throughout the bus then started making other references, comments which I finally figured out were anti-gay in nature. "Fudgepacker" was a common one, uttered in particular by a woman rider accompanied by her young child.
That was depressing enough, but it got worse when the bus driver got involved. He started speaking into the microphone, addressing his regular rider "friends" with things like "Do you like swirl, (name I forgot)?" and "Are you a fudgepacker, (again, I don't recall the name)?" All this while he rambled the bus down the heavily under construction Isleta Blvd., and with several children of various ages forced to listen over the bus "public address" system.
Of course, much of the bus thought this was all very, very funny, and I did not feel comfortable addressing the driver on the matter as I got off the bus. To tell the truth, the incident was sickening. I don't know what was worse, the use of the "public" microphone for gay slurs or the fact kids were listening to this garbage. No, I think was upsets me most is that my tax dollars are paying for bus drivers who use "public" microphones to make such "jokes".
It's been a month now, and I haven't ridden the bus since. I was contemplating, again, taking ABQ Ride tomorrow morning, but don't know if I want to risk another disgusting, beyond unprofessional display. Over the years I have periodically ridden the bus in Albuquerque, and I've seen good and bad bus drivers doing ultra-professional and unprofessional things. Never, however, have I had to sit through shenanigans like those performed by this Route 53 bus driver. I think I WILL give ABQ Ride another shot tomorrow morning, but not without first sending this email correspondence to you.
Thanks for taking the time to read this message, and for your consideration of how to properly address what I think is an important, and disturbing, matter. I am very interested in hearing a response; I trust ABQ Ride is just as concerned as I am about incidents like this. I also trust that the matter will be dealt with in a way that protects not only me, but ALL RIDERS of Albuquerque city buses who report matters of this sort.
Thanks again for your time.
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