•Drink fresh brewed, unsweetened, uncarbonated iced tea (oh, have I forgot to mention that all the iced tea here comes in cans or bottles, is presweetened until it equals or surpasses soda in sugariness and then filled with bubbles…well it is and I hate it) and also GET ME THE LARGEST CARAMEL MACCHIATO I CAN AT STARBUCKS. I ♥ Starbucks. I miss Starbucks.
♥And most important of all, in one week I get to see all the most important people in my life all together in one country, in one city, under one roof.
A very kind cre8buzzer called Elizabethross has gone out of her way to publicize my Proudly Proclaiming project on her own Livejournal as well as within a Livejournal feminist community. Many thanks to you Elizabeth. Soulchanger who I’m assuming found me from that community) decided to join those of us blogging for feminism on April 3rd and I believe she is SecretRebel who also requested that I explain my use of the ankh in the button for Proudly Proclaiming.
Elizabeth sent me a link with some extra graphics to use and upon following it I realized that apparently some people think that I’m uneducated in regards to feminism, or that I confused the ankh with the Venus symbol, or that I just flat out chose something faulty to represent my cause. I created a Livejournal account so that I could explain my reasoning to this group but only members of the group can post there and since this computer insists on only loading Livejournal in Dutch, I’m not sure how to become a member. Thusly, I am responding via blog and asking Elizabeth to please put the link to my explanation in the thread. When CB gets home from work I will also request that he helps me make some alternate buttons for people who are uncomfortable or unhappy using what I have right now.
Dear Livejournal Feminist Community,
Hello there. I’m the owner of the blog in question. I do actually know the difference between the ankh and the symbol for Venus. I also know that some believe that the ankh has nothing to do with feminism. My boyfriend also thinks it looks too much like a cross. I guess by trying to publicize something like this I opened myself for criticism, but it’s important that I respond in this thread so that you do not think that an uneducated or misguided person is behind this thing.
There is no significance to April 3rd…it was a month from the day I posted so I figured it gave everyone some time to think on what they wanted to post. It’s also the day I get back to my home in Belgium after visiting family in the US and I didn’t want to be obligated to post while visiting my parents.
As for the ankh, I was looking for a symbol that people would recognize. I looked up “ankh” on google. I read that it is the Egyptian hieroglyphic for life and also that it was used as a symbol for Isis, the Egyptian goddess worshipped as the archetypal wife and mother. I felt that these findings made an ankh appropriate for symbolizing feminism and women in general (and no, I’m not inferring that wives and mothers are all women are good for – I am neither, but I still have plenty to offer the female community and the same goes for anyone else). So I did do some research before I chose what I thought was a recognizable, appropriate symbol for a request to show pride in being a woman. If I was wrong in this, I apologize, but I did not make an uneducated or purposefully offensive choice.
I see someone posted the Venus symbol here, and if my choice in symbol is preventing people from participating, or offending people, I will gladly work on using other imagery to make alternate advertising options. If there are any other simple images (I’m not so good with computer image alteration) you would recommend, by all means, e-mail me at KorieAtLilacspecsDotCom.
So there you go. As someone stated in the thread, “would hate to see people pass on the idea simply because of graphics choices.” So as I said before, I’ll set about creating some alternate graphics. I will be honest in saying that it does make me sad that so many people responded first with “why is she using that symbol?” rather than “ooh, what a good idea, I’ll have to think about what to write.” But I guess there are a lot of people that approach things that way and that’s okay too. Following someone blindly isn’t always the best decision either.
Oh and if anyone wants to help me with making some nifty buttons with non-ankh imagery, it would be greatly appreciated.
First up is Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe”. I’m sure most of you know the song, if not from Dylan himself than from any of the numerous covers done by Cash and Carter, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Nancy Sinatra, the Turtles, as well as several other popular singers and bands. In summary, it is basically a song in which the singer is telling the listener that he can’t be the person who she wants him to be; he is unable or unwilling to put into the relationship all that she expects out of it, and therefore he’s advising her to leave. It’s almost, but not quite, a ballad of unrequited love, and in a way, that makes it even more tragic. The singer never says he doesn’t love the person he is singing to, he never says he doesn’t care for her, he is simply telling her that he is not the person she wants, despite the fact that she thinks that she does. I’ve been in the position of that woman, the listener, only I never had to be told that the man I had wasn’t the man I needed. I knew it pretty early on, and while I had a hard time coming to terms with it, this song always struck such a chord within me while we were together; I could relate to it so completely from the opposite perspective.
Which brings me to the companion song to “It Ain’t Me Babe,” “Diamonds and Rust” by Joan Baez (and no, it’s not the official companion song, but I think you can agree that they interweave fairly well). In case you aren’t schooled in the Bob Dylan generation of musicians (the early 1960′s scene) I’ll make it simple for you, Baez and Dylan had a relationship together for a couple years in the ’60′s and it fizzled, leaving some bad blood for several years before they buried the hatchet in the mid ’70′s. One of the songs Baez wrote about Dylan around that time was “Diamonds and Rust.” Now, “It Ain’t Me Babe” was not written about any particular relationship of Dylan’s to my knowledge, but if you listen to it and then to Baez’s recollection of her time with Dylan, I find that they compliment each other perfectly and it was this song that helped me to resolve the anxious feelings I had after my relationship with the aforementioned guy ended. It helped me to understand that yes, I cared for this guy very much and yes, we had some great times together, but when it really came down to it, we were happier elsewhere, with other people, and that that was okay. Not every break up has to be painful and angry. Sometimes things can just end in a friendly way, leaving all parties a bit wiser and better off than they were before.
So, here you go, the audiovisual section of this Music Monday…
Bob Dylan with “It Ain’t Me Babe”
Go ‘way from my window,
Leave at your own chosen speed.
I’m not the one you want, babe,
I’m not the one you need.
You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Never weak but always strong,
To protect you an’ defend you
Whether you are right or wrong,
Someone to open each and every door,
But it ain’t me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe,
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.
Go lightly from the ledge, babe,
Go lightly on the ground.
I’m not the one you want, babe,
I will only let you down.
You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Who will promise never to part,
Someone to close his eyes for you,
Someone to close his heart,
Someone who will die for you an’ more,
But it ain’t me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe,
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.
Go melt back into the night, babe,
Everything inside is made of stone.
There’s nothing in here moving
An’ anyway I’m not alone.
You say you’re looking for someone
Who’ll pick you up each time you fall,
To gather flowers constantly
An’ to come each time you call,
A lover for your life an’ nothing more,
But it ain’t me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe,
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.
And “Diamonds and Rust” by Joan Baez
Well I’ll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that’s not unusual
It’s just that the moon is full
And you happened to call
And here I sit
Hand on the telephone
Hearing a voice I’d known
A couple of light years ago
Heading straight for a fall
As I remember your eyes
Were bluer than robin’s eggs
My poetry was lousy you said
Where are you calling from?
A booth in the midwest
Ten years ago
I bought you some cufflinks
You brought me something
We both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust
Well you burst on the scene
Already a legend
The unwashed phenomenon
The original vagabond
You strayed into my arms
And there you stayed
Temporarily lost at sea
The Madonna was yours for free
Yes the girl on the half-shell
Would keep you unharmed
Now I see you standing
With brown leaves falling around
And snow in your hair
Now you’re smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
Our breath comes out white clouds
Mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there
Now you’re telling me
You’re not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
Because I need some of that vagueness now
It’s all come back too clearly
Yes I loved you dearly
And if you’re offering me diamonds and rust
I’ve already paid
Yesterday CB and I went on a pleasent daytrip to a little town in the Netherlands called Vlissingen. Vlissingen is located in an estuary of the Schelde river and is actually an island with the Schelde on one side and the North Sea on the other. You can get to Vlissingen in several ways, but the shortest route from Gent is on a toll road through an underwater tunnel, so that’s the way we went.
We woke up early and went first to the town hall to get our samenslevingscontract, a piece of paper that basically gives us each the rights that spouses have, only without the actually act of marriage being involved. We’ll most likely be changing the status of my identity card from student to domestic partner in a few more months as well, that way I won’t have to keep renewing my student status every year. Anyway, after we accomplished this, the trip to Vlissingen was a nice way to celebrate my passing Level 3 as well as our new status as a couple.
We arrived around 11:30 and walked through the shopping streets in the city center before heading to the coast area. There’s not a ton of beach there, just a rocky coast line with several dykes and piers, but it’s still beautiful scenery and very enjoyable to walk along the cemented hillside just outside the low walls that mark the edges of the coastal part of town. In the evening we found a nice Greek restaurant (one of the only places still open…the town dies as soon as the clock strikes 5 in a very eery Cinderella type way, like *poof* and a bustling seaside hamlet becomes a ghost town, bam carriage to pumpkin) and had a delicious dinner with complimentary shots of ouzo before heading back home for the night.
Cat on a cool tin roof
No, seriously, this was someone’s house…for really real
Houses through the rigging
Entry to the Arsenaal Pirate-themed Exhibit
More entrance (I want to start having kids just so I can have an excuse to see the rest of it)
Gouda, the one and only Dutch cheese…really, that’s the only cheese you can find in the Netherlands
Old fashioned candy store
Sugary pieces of love…mmmmm
A view of the North Sea
Us
During the trip we managed to find an adorable little ceramic gnome in an antique shop who became the star of several of the photos taken by CB. CB has been itching to document our travels via gnome, but could never find a gnome that he felt was quite right. Well, now that we did find one, look out world; CB began campaining for me to have a Gnome-themed travel blog page, to which I answered, “It’s your server too, you want a gnome blog? Go make one, you have my blessing.”
And that, dear following, is where you come in. CB has created his “Gnomeward Bound” blog (I promised I’d help too), whereupon you can view our travels through the eye of….oh, that’s right…we need a name for the gnome. So we’re leaving it up to you, lovely readers, to suggest names for the traveling gnome. Leave them here in the comments section. Feel free to leave more than one name and CB and I will choose a winner that will be anounced this Wednesday. Oh, and as added incentive, the winner gets a bar of Cote d’Or sent to their home directly from Gent (or Pittsburgh, since that will be waaaay cheaper if the winner is in the U.S. or Canada). Now go take a look at Gnomeward Bound!
I’m pretty sure I have mentioned this before, but in case you’re a new reader, I’ll say it again. I was raised Jewish (if you ask me my religion I tend to say I’m an atheistic Buddhist, sorry, can’t say I believe in a god, but I do believe very strongly in many of the ethics taught by Judaism and I do consider myself Jewish in the sense of culture and possibly even ethnicity but that’s a whole separate discussion). Until very recently I followed most holiday requirements, out of respect for my parents more than anything else. This pretty much meant fasting on Yom Kippur and not eating leavened bread products on Passover.
If you don’t know anything about Passover, you can read up on it here, but I’ll give you a brief synopsis: Passover is the celebration of the Hebrew’s exodus from Egypt. If you’ve ever seen The Ten Commandments, The Prince of Egypt, or anything where Moses sends ten plagues down upon Egypt because Pharaoh was being a turd, that’s basically what Passover commemorates. You may notice that Passover tends to fall very close to Easter. This is because The Last Supper was a Passover Seder, so the two holidays are indirectly related. When the Hebrews were finally released by Pharaoh, they were in such a hurry to flee that they did not wait for their bread to rise and the resulting product was unleavened bread that we call matzo. Imagine a very large Saltine only flatter and with no salt. Yeah, I know, what a taste sensation, right? Point is, part of the whole commemoration process is cleaning your house of leavened food products and only eating unleavened bread (this includes most grains although I’ve heard different things about corn meal, potatoes, matzo and matzo meal). Cake, cookies, bread, muffins, noodles…pretty much anything that involves yeast and/or rising dough is forbidden. Which brings us to the next bit of history, which hits a tad closer to home.
My younger brother, Scooter, was born on April 4th; I’d say about 80% of his birthdays have fallen on Passover. Passover birthdays mean no birthday cake. There are some “Passover Cakes” that can be made using matzo meal or potato flour but they fall short of what most kids typically crave in a birthday cake…you know, like taste. Every year while we were growing up, Scooter would always check the calendar, hoping that it would be a birthday friendly year, but more often than not he ended up cakeless on his birthday.
Last November, for my cousin’s third birthday, we had something very common. I don’t particularly like it, but it’s been pretty popular for several years. We had ice cream cake. You know, that block of ice cream and fudgy stuff covered in frosting? I personally don’t like the combination of frosting and ice cream, thus I never requested an ice cream cake nor do I recall ever really having one at my house. That night, however, I noticed my brother taking a sizeable piece of the ice cream cake. And suddenly, it dawned on me…
“Hey, Scoot.”
“Yeah?”
“I didn’t know you liked ice cream cake.”
“So I do, so what?”
“Heh, there’s no actual cake in an ice cream cake, right?”
“No, it’s pretty much ice cream and frosting. What’s your point?”
“Dude…you can totally eat ice cream during Passover…”
Scooter paused mid-bite and I could see 23 birthdays flash behind his eyes (about 15 of which were cakeless). He opened his mouth, hesitated, hopped to his feet, and then,
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