I’m chilling in Richmond, VA at the Mars Bar with me pal Carlton. We just had some of this stuff which is kind of psuedo-Absinthe. It really doesn’t have wormwood cause that’s been banned in the good ol’ can’t-have-too-much-fun USA since 1915. Instead it has something called Southern Wormwood, a less bitter “cousin” of the original trippy shit. They call it Absinthe Refined, which is marketing speak for “the look, the color and maybe the taste but not the real shit” absinthe. Still, the idea of the Absinthe meme being injected into a Virginia bar with wifi, billiards and 80’s music is pretty satisfying right now.

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You are looking at Little Nicky, a cloned kitten. Yes, this cute little bugger has the same genetic makeup of another cute little bugger that looks the same but is long gone. For a mere $50,000, Genetic Savings & Clone (for serious), will xerox your little furball into a new life. GS&C is already working on perfecting dogs, which is a bit more of a challenge apparently. Where there is a market, there is science! Or should that be the other way around?

PayPal is sucking my left one right now. I’ve been back and forth between them and my credit card company trying to dispute a stupid $15 “cash advance” fee for a payment I made to my roommate. Apparently, if you send money and choose “quasi-cash”, PayPal tags it as a cash advance and most credit cards hit you up for a fee for that. Lame on many fronts, but primarily because NO CASH EVER TRADED HANDS. PayPal blames the credit card companies, my credit card company blames PayPal. Who winds up paying? Me in money and time holding on the fucking phone forever. So don’t ever choose quasi-cash, you’ll get dinged and you won’t even know it unless you take a close look at your statement. I also had my credit card company turn off my ability to do cash advances. If I wanted to use my credit card as an ATM card, I would have just used my ATM card.

I’m in so sweet love with this Morcheeba track right now, Love Sweet Love. I have a button on my mixer that lets me sample a sound and play it back. I caught that really sweet funked out riff perfectly and put it on repeat. For like 20 minutes.

It’s been just over a year since the runoff mayorial election last year in which Matt Gonzalez almost pulled one off against the machine. I can still recall vividly, the Dems scared at the prospect of losing a major city election to a Green, calling on Bill Clinton AND Al Gore to swoop in and stump for Gavin Newsom. Newsom did win, though mostly due to early absentee voters as Matt rocked the city at the polls on election day. The Progressive Voter Project was born as an answer to the absentee problem.

Two books have been published centering around the Gonzalez campaign. The Political Edge, from City Lights Press, is a collection of essays covering different points of view from volunteers of the campaign, local journalists and long-time activists. I’m interviewed by David Rosen for his piece, “130 Parties in 30 Days:” The Matt Gonzalez Mayoral Campaign & the Restructuring of the Culture Industry. He explores the idea that the culture of the campaign is what brought people together. Matt’s cultural identity is something that resonated with many of us thus driving his unprecedented support manifested in the form of spontaneious house parties, raffles, poetry readings, art auctions, rock shows, and yoga benefits to name a few.

The other book is called Go, Matt, Go edited by Nicole Walter. It’s also a collection of essays, blurbs, poetry, manifestos and interviews from many more volunteers of the campaign. Self published and editorially raw, it’s a good window into feeling of those short couple of months. I have a short essay that describes my experiences and emotions of the campaign. Both books are well worth picking up.