Let them eat cake? Swiss cheese!

Strange art for strange times: sculpture depicting babies...
left a baby Charles Manson and right (crawling) a baby Michael Jackson.

No, this isn't a post about cheese all of you foodies out there. If I were to write about cheese it would be an earthy, creamy Roquefort. Last night we made the First Friday art opening and it was a slow, predictable evening. I made the effort (art openings are work for me) in hopes of seeing some good work, running into friends and maybe even meeting a few new people. I haven't been around for the past six months I mad managed to stoke a glimmer of hope for the evening.

We ran into a little of all of the above but finally wound up at a local restaurant with a lovely swiss photographer we've known for many years. She chose to move BACK to the states after working in Berlin for 5 years is now regretting her decision. (She attended graduate school here in the 80's. ) Many things have changed in this country over the past 5 years and they don't seem to be getting better. This feeling was amplified by the fact that she was just in Switzerland where her friends our age have the same kind of jobs we have, make two or three times what we make salary wise and live and eat at about 1/2 the cost of what we spend. Of couse if they have a car they pay a premium for that. No, I've never been to Switzerland but I've befriended many, many Swiss over the past ten years... each so very different, so talented, so articulate. They seem to be born of a place that is what America once aspired to be... Democratic, Neutral, Pluralistic, Diverse, Middleclass. What has happened here? How have we let this happen?

One of things really bugging my friend, I realized, is that an old friend of hers moved back here from S.F. Her friend never finished her university degree and didn't have much job experience. She finally found a job an art director at Capital One. She makes 60K a year doing direct mailing for them. Mr. DD is the senior writer for a magazine he has written at for 13 years and he makes a little more than half that and gets only two weeks of vacation a year. We all know what teachers and nurses make. Its a national f*^ck#$g tragedy, to quote NOLA's Ray Nagin.

One of our favorite new toys is a key chain called "Mayor in da Pocket." It has six buttons, each of which features a memorable Nagin post Katrina sound bite. Its hilarious. I must confess I was hoping he would win the mayoral election to extend the comic relevance of our new toy. (I really didn't think Mitch could do much better anyway....)

After four months in Paris, listening to my Swiss friend's rant and hanging out in the home of a friend who is a card carrying (and newsletter recipient) member of the green party I have made a conscious decision to a) opt out on all credit card mailings I get in the future. I am sick of it.... the waste... the risk.... the clutter in my mail box... and b) join the Green Party.

I've always believed in the Green Party but never made the effort to be a paying member. I may not vote green in National Elections (I would vote for a martian to avoid putting another Republican in Office) but I will give the Greens anything I can afford to give them and vote for them on the local and state level whenever I get the chance. Go Green!