random

a few days ago I tried a new route home from work, I turned on this random st which lead to a dead end where if you drive on the last houses drive way you end up at a path that takes you close to my moms house. I was all excited about my find, I tried to explain to my mom where this random st was, I drew her a map but she was unsure. The next day on my way home from work I decided to take the same route and this time look at the name of the street so I could tell my mom. Well the name of the street is random st.!!!! I kid you not, I will have to take a pic with my digital camera when I get it and post it up here.

club district fun times or rapid racism
steph and I went out for pizza the other day and she told me about a discussion that has been happening on the essu listserve. This black guy when to Fluid night club on a Euro night and was refused entry by the bouncer, who happen to be black aswell. The bouncer told him that the owners didn't want any black people that night. In the discussion on the essu listserve another bouncer also black said that he agreed with this policy, basically he said that on hip hop nights the clubs have more problems of sexual aggression and violence, and on the euro nights they wanted to prevent those attitudes. Anyone who has spent time in the club district knows that sexual aggression in the clubs is not specific to any race. Sexism seems to breed in this enviroments and euro nights can be just as matcho as the hip hop nights. Secondly violence and fighting also seems to breed in this area. Alcoholism and masculinity are a bad combo. In a discussion on pot vs alcohol in terms of the harm to the person and society, I agrued that I could go down to the club district any night of the week and I woudl be sure to find at least one fight that resulted from alcohol and masculinity combination. The point being here that this again is not exculisive to one race.
This story remind me a time when this friend of a roommate was a bouncer at Money night club. One evening he was almost fired for allowing entry to a male with a turbin. This bouncer told me about how they are supposed to deal with this situation. When someone they don't want to enter gets to the front, they say we are only doing guest list now. If that person is on the guest list the bouncer is instructed to flip through the list and say that he can't find the name. So back to the story about Fluid, the bouncer was doing his job, he needs the job and can't afford to get fired but he does have a small amount of resistance when he tells the refused guy the reason for his refusal and doesn't allow this racism to be silenced.
So the question is what do we do with this information. We could start a letter writing campaign to the club managers. We could see about setting up tables in and outside the clubs talking about the sexism and racism. But here is another question is this our fight? We alread avoid this area . . . this is not our scene at all, are we informed enought to take this on. For example Marike who has been part of the hardcore punk community for 13 years is part of a feminist collective to fight sexism, racism and homophobia in the scene. They put on shows, have flyers at shows, and have just started the have workshops at shows. She can do this because this is her scene. I could not walk in as someone who has only dabbled into the scene and start making a fuss about equity. I would not have the information or the respect needed to make a change.
The blantent segregation, racism, classism, sexism and homophobia that is interwinded in the club district is a problem, a huge problem, they main problem as I see it now is those who are offended by it back away and therefore don't feel that it is there place to take it on. Those who stay don't seem to be speaking up. So do we as outsiders go in a make the changes?

irony
The last two books I read were One for the money by Janet Evanovich and The Blue Place by Nicola Griffith. The first is about a women bounty hunter and the second about a women ex-cop who is doing PI work (and happens to be a lesbian!!). Both of these women are tough, they talk about being prepared for anything, always being on your gaurd, not living in fear but ready for protect yourself . . .anyways the irony is while I'm readying these books I get lost in them. I have been known to walk down the street and read at the same time. I get so drawn in that I'm not at all aware of my surroundings. Yesterday at work it had started to rain so I moved into the shed to stay dry. I was standing there reading the book and eating an apple, unaware that someone had walked onto the deck, it was 20 mins before closing and it was raining so I hadn't expected anyone. So when this women came up to me to see if the pool was open I screamed and then started to laugh. I don't scare easily but her sneaking up on my startaled the shit out of me. Maybe I should start taking these womens advice.


. . .I'm off to work now, i will finish this later. . .