What is Community? The after-school special

Working at the gallery has lead me into the heart of "community", a word that I've always associated with surbanite moms getting together for Tupperware parties or the Friday Lenten fish fry at the church. But after only volunteering there 2 or 3 times, I'm seeing that what I am doing has nothing to do with "making sure nobody steals the art". In the 6 hours I have spent in the gallery, I have gotten 2 visitors. In both cases, the art itself was not the focus of their visit. They would politely stop in front of each sketch and oil painting; from the outside looking very involved and deep in thought over the colors and strokes, but inside I knew they had alternative reasons for come in. I know this because I have done it hundreds of time. (Going into American Eagle or Tower Records, perusing, trying to convey my intense interest in the subjects to the employees, in order to, wordlessly, show them my perfect match to their company, then timidly asking if they need summer help.) So these 2 people did the same, and I gave them their space to enjoy and recollect their thoughts. Then they both hesitantly approached me where I sit reading my Vogue article about the new biography on Denys Finch Hatton, the real life man behind Robert Redford's character in 'Out of Africa'. (1900's European settlers in Africa is slowing becoming my flavor of the week, replacing my love of Andy Warhol as I exhausted his life last month).

One man in his mid 60's started talked to me about how he used to paint back in the day in high school and college, but has redirected his passion to the jazz guitar. He wanted to know if we would be interested in having his jazz band play at opens or events. I excitedly emailed the owner, proud of doing my part to make this from-the-ground-up volunteer-run gallery into a thriving cultural haven.

Last night a woman came in, did the art-love walkabout and approached me about putting out some flyers for a local performing arts center. I told her visitors would probably be very interested in seeing their performances and she left a stack. I thought, with a hint of frustration for the woman's effort that we don't get much foot traffic around here to fill their auditorium. But then I stepped back, thinking about the man from last week. The point of this place isn't simply to look at art. It is using the art as a segway to bringing the artful talent of people together. This place is truly being built by people's passion. Nobody is getting paid, but the desire to see this place grow is enough to keep them coming back. The first day I was there, Kathy, a dedicated volunteer, told me that they hoped that opening this gallery would bring life back into a struggling, rough neighborhood. That they felt that this could be accomplished through art. When I heard it, I gave her a warm smile, thinking that there is nothing more refreshing than an idealist. But I regret ever looking down on her naïvety. She was right. People are coming out to help build this place into a place to visit, to live.

To see how this gallery, and adjoining cafe, is making a small footprint to start:

http://www.freetimes.com/story/4992

http://www.freetimes.com/dining_lead/1449

Like father, not like daughter

I love that my dad pushes my opinions on the music industry. We have continued a long stream of conversations about CDs, MP3, file sharing. The generation gap is very clear. I have come to a few conclusions based on my intense study of our 2 small voices in a sea of how many millions of Americans involved in the music industry, translating it into the proverbial generation gap between my 21-year-old self and his 53-year-old self. (This is my disclaimer that I may be making sweeping generalizations, but I think it points out some interesting differences)

My family goes through the MP3 player shuffle every few years. I got my first MP3 player at 15, holding an astounding 30 songs! After I advanced to one that held 65 songs (even more amazing, hold one whole playlist!) my dad got the small, less capacity one. For the next 6 years, after including my sister into the tradeshow, we have exchanged 6 different iPods and off brand players. My dad and I were discussing the iPod shuffle vs the new mega huge capacity new iPod video. I told him I wanted to trash my old 6 GB mini for the video; he wanted to get the shuffle. I didn’t understand why he would waste his money on something that only holds 100 songs; he didn’t understand why I would splurge on something so big and bulky. He preferred to look for something more compact, something he can stick in his little key pocket in his running shorts or in his breast pocket for the morning commute to work. I dream of the possibility of having every song in my library with me at all times. Could it be the extent of advancement during our times? Is dad used to the old walkman innovation when people realized they could carry their music around with them. And am I just still loving the novelty of the MP3 format, being able to squish all my music onto a CD or device (This is, in fact, what I picture when I make an MP3 format CD, that all my songs are squished shoulder to shoulder scrambling to keep up with my changing the song ever 30 seconds). We stand on our respective sides of the gap.

Today dad sent me yet another WSJ article where the music industry whines on about people stealing music and iTunes not saving the world one song at a time like they wanted (Look, I realize my husband is the shit, but you have got to give the guy a break sometimes, he is not superhuman. Or is he….) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117444575607043728-email.html? Dads comment on the article:

Music business downward spiral continues!

Business idea: A record shop that only carries OLD stuff. The big stores are not going to carry that and people might actually want to buy classic stuff to have it in hard copy. :-)

love you....dad

My response:

You may be onto something. Maybe they need to shift marketing of CDs to the older generations (no offense) because they are more used to buying a physical CD then download it or get it on iTunes. I bet if they did a poll of the age of most iTunes customers, it would be my generation because we are more adapt to listen to our music on the computer, where you have grown up listening on records, tapes, CDs.

I also think they are just getting scared because there are no instant results. Its going to take time for a whole industry to change medias. its still only been, what, not even 10 years since file sharing because common? They need to chill out and just keep working at selling online for young people and keep up CDs of older artists for older generations.

We should probably just take over the music industry, ok? Ok cool ill get Steve jobs on the phone.

Problem solved. We may still be looking over the edge of oppoiste sides of the gap, but we seem to be building a bridge (Hopefully not like that hideous thing they just built over the Grand Canyon. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/03/21/grand.canyon.skywalk.ap/index.html $75 to look at what it would be like to fall to your death from a national landmark. No thanks!)

Mrs. Steve Jobs

Today Apple released yet another new product to use exciting little catchphrases like "innovative" "industry-leader" "thinking inside the box" (actually I thought up that last one, kind of catchy....get me Steve on the phone). It’s called the Apple TV (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=4A256D28&nclm=AppleTV). It lets you watch videos you have downloaded (preferably from iTunes of course) on your TV. Great idea for all of us illegal downloaders (That just doesn't strike the gasp of America that it used to. I miss the old days when that was considered so rebellious and I'm-going-to-court-and-fighting-my-cause). But at $300 a pop, I could buy 60 movies from the 4 for $20 bin at Blockbuster. Plus, if they want people to buy from iTunes, who is going to pay for a show then pay for the device to show it on TV when the show was on TV in the first place? It’s full circle! My god he's even a genius when his products don't make sense! I love this man.

How are people this desperate to watch Desperate Housewives in the middle of their busy days that they need to pay more for it to go on their iPod so they can watch it while they are jetsetting to Seattle for a meeting with Starbucks or waiting in the minivan for their kids to get out of school, and then pay more for when they do realize they have an hour to watch it on TV later?? It’s called a tape recorder and its free when you buy a $40 kitchen TV from Costso! My dad still tapes the Office for me on VHS and mails me the tape so I can watch it later.

I am not bashing Jobs. If he can get people to pay up for instant gratification, cash in on it! I just feel that my business knowledge is insync with his plan to take over the world; I'm on to him and his clever ads with cute MAC boys and white earpods. You cannot reel me in you conniving mogul, Jobs! Marry me?

Disclaimer: I am listening to podcasts everyday on my iPod at work, am thinking about upgrading to the Pod video, have convinced my sister to get a Mac for college next year, am pricing out getting an iBook myself, and the iPhone commercials give me butterflies.

Confessions and a new boyfriend

Blockbuster online, whom I feel like I am in a relationship with, has found this inconspicuous way of revealing the guilty acts of Friday night relaxers. Everyone has those few nights each month where they stay in and enjoy some alone time with their favorite actor, a package of Pepperidge Farm snacks, and a bottle of wine. I covet these nights in which I can, without shame or explanation needed, watch those movies that you will deny your interest in with the fervor of Judas. You know what movies I’m talking about. The new Eddie Murphy fat suit movie, Jackass 2, John Tucker Must Die. I know with confidence that Zoey will not tell my dirty little secret that I watched She’s the Man to anyone except her little pink pompom toys or the monster under the couch that she continuously meows at. There are some movies that are so horrible that you won’t even rent them from the store in fear of the weighing judgment that will rain down on you from the Blockbuster employee as you attempt to avoid eye contact while renting Raise your Voice. Then someone introduces you to BB online, and its love at first sight. All the movie you could want and you don’t even have to leave the house in your oversized Myrtle Beach crew neck sweatshirt.

But as I was filling up my query today with more movies for my new boyfriend (we’ll call him Sam) to mail to me, I discovered that Sam was telling my secrets. American’s secrets. There, right under the new releases; Top 100 online rentals. I click. There are the typical Oscar winners at the top as everyone attempts to gobble up what the Academy says is the best. But as I scroll I see the first of the unknowing victims. Position #8: Click. #13 Fun with Dick and Jane #18 the longest yard #24 RV. There they were, let lose over the blackmail powers of the Internet; America’s guilty pleasures (which, apparently, includes fantasies of Adam Sandler, Jim Carey, and Robin Williams). I have been betrayed by the one I love. But, as all relationships go, there is the grace period. Luck for Sam, we have only been seeing each other for a few weeks and have yet to get serious. I let It slide as a brink in judgment on the part of BB management. Or maybe Sam just wants me to see that I am not alone; there are others with the same mindless interest in bad movies as me. And, with that, I add Just Friends to my query.

Batshit crazy

I would like to preface this post with a post from my favorite fug girls (from that link Go Fug Yourself, which if you have not already visited, this will show you how ingenious these girls are) http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/go_fug_yourself/2006/04/mission_infugga.html Its from last year, but I get so desperately bored at work sometimes that I go into the archives and see what celebs they were bashing a year ago.

With that intro, I would like to touch on craziness. Insanity. I had an epiphany last night. I got home from work, elated that my blockbuster online movie had yet to let me down, being oh so attentive of my need for a new movie each night, waiting patiently for me in my mialbox. Tonight was an independent film called "Secretary" with Maggie Gyllenhaal (whom I adore after seeing Mona Lisa(s) Smile(s) - no idea which one it is- the female version of Dead Poet's Society, aside from her sometimes lack of bra-wearing and being totally unable to spell her last name without looking on imdb). I was excited because I had just seen her in Stranger than Fiction and rediscovered my adoration of her normality and spunk.

This movie fell, I did not realize, into the “crazy person” genre. This, about a girl that enjoys cutting herself and, after she gets out of the loony bin, falls in love with the lawyer she works for because he spanks her and realizes her love of “roughness” (we’ll leave it at that), along with a movie I had seen recently of a retrospect on the woman who shot Andy Warhol who happens to be a crazy feminist who believes she has a tracking device in her no-no and ends up in the loony bin.

After watching both of these movies, I started to question my own sanity. If Valerie (Andy Warhol attempted-murderess) was walk around NYC and hanging out in the Factory for years before being committed, and Lee (S&M secretary) could be any number of receptionists in law offices across the US, how do I know I’m not crazy? Nobody knows what I do in my apartment. Suddenly, the little obsessions I get from fashion magazines, to pasta for dinner every night, from Andy Warhol, to searching for new music, from facebook, to the ever-growing collage on my wall all seemed like these uncontrollable, unexplainable actions in my head. I was driving myself mad. Then I realized that these were obviously very well done movies if they actually convinced their audience that they themselves are insane, relating to the main characters, getting inside their head. After breathing a sigh of relief for not having to call my parents from the psych ward of the Cleveland Clinic, I was in awe over these directors talent. I don’t know whether to love them or hate them.

I Bleed Green

Green is the new pink this March. Amongst other things, Green grass when the snow finally melted for that always-exciting-and-frustrating mid-winter meltdown before we are hit with the inevitable April snowstorm (God love the Midwest weather), green beer as I finally escape to the sweet atmosphere of the bars at 6am for an East Lansing St Patrick's Day (A city that will forever be green), and green in the papers as Hollywood makes the environment fashionable.

I have heard the monologues given by my pure-intentioned hippie boyfriend (dear God even I'm accessorizing with my green beloved) about how our consumption is going to lead to the complete breakdown of the circle of life, about the money saving and energy saving natural resources that are will NOT run out by 2050, about the ill-intentioned corporations. So this stuff has been shuffling around my brain for a few years, but I woke up one morning and realized that it was everywhere. I wasn't just hearing from him anymore, I was hearing it from the NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/business/businessspecial2/07jobs.html?ref=businessspecial2), from Silicon Valley (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/technology/14valley.html?hp), from Al Gore (http://www.aninconvenienttruth.co.uk/).

I think it’s fabulous that issues are becoming trendy. It's the one follower-fueled trend that could be positive, not leading girls into non-carb-sugar-calories-fat-food diets or convincing men to wear pink. Isn't the best way to get people to become more aware of waste and environmental alternatives in their life that to put in the mouth of their fave celeb, or making exaggerated movie commentaries about the meltdown of our ozone (Midwest weather...hmm...). It works for every other stylish lifestyle that people follow when told by Tyra Banks that it is fierce. The AIDS epidemic has been going on for countless years, yet, before Bono and the Gap took hold of the issue, it was helped by a niche group of passionate people. But I'm not going to rip on red Razr phones or Bradgelina when, because of their exploitation of the issue, there are more people aware and helping the cause. More is always better, regardless of by how much. So whoever decided that they would blow up environmental issues over the brainwaves of the public (It was probably Steve Jobs in some twisted path, because he can infiltrate the American lifestyle in a way that I would give my business degree to understand.) is a genius. Because, if small, it may be working. Corporations eager to cash in on this marketing persona are actually working on changing processes to eliminate more pollution, develop 100% natural clothing lines (http://www.americanapparelorganics.com/), rock 'n rollers are reeling in the music elite crowds to recycle(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/fashion/15reverb.html), and party planners creating the au natural wedding (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/fashion/11green.html?ex=1174017600&en=00750a103573dfaf&ei=5070) I am full of useful links today. So I tip my hat to the Hollywood trend-setter that saw the real beauty in their power.


*I do also realize that it could be that the NYTimes is just very into the green thing and, being that it is my main source of news (asside from the occational Wall Street Jouranl article my dad sends me about what amazing thing Steve Jobs is doing in order to fuel my obsession with him), I am simply not expanding beyond their range of worldly coverage. I will attempt to get my hands on some different sources to expand my media library

Spring Break?

Today, The ann st conquitadors jumped on a plane to add a little more chaos to Acapulco. Today Doc began his 20 hour drive for a bar crawl of the Colorado Rockies (again). Today I woke up in my Apartment in Cleveland. It's going to be a long week.....

To help or not to help, that is the question

I got a fortune cookie once that said "You will be involved in many humanitarian projects." Now I am no superstitious gypsy, believing that my future can appear within a little deep fried knot I got with my fried rice at a dingy Chinese restaurant called Chopsticks, but I think it was a little inspiration I needed. I have always contemplated running off to an underdeveloped country and getting down and dirty, really helping, seeing a difference. No more of this ivory tower crap. I'm not the only one with this little flame of passion waiting to explode inside me (wow that was kind of more grotesque than I was looking for.) I have plenty of friends that are waiting for the right time to give up on the glamour of their idealized jobs and join Teach for America or the Peace Corp. My sister is currently struggling to decide whether to major in Special Ed when she goes off to college next year, advancing her love of helping autistic children.

I hear plenty of people saying they are going to help, shifting their goals from individual success to success through others. But why are my friends still running off to grad school so they can jump to the tops of their industries and make a 6 digit salary right out of the gate? Why is my sister looking at law school? Why am I sitting in a cubicle? Money. Our parents don't want to see us moving back into our old bedrooms, working for less than we can get by on our own. A valid concern. A catch-22. It's not that our parents don't want to see us help a child learn to read or build a home for a family; it’s that they want us to have a home as well. Apparently, my group of friends are not the only ones with this conundrum.

http://www.collegejournal.com/careerpaths/findcareerpath/20060703-shellenbarger.html

I love seeing positive trends within my generation, instead of the constant nagging of the shallow exterior of today’s young adults that we hear from our older counterparts in the media (which is ironic considering the superficial frame of the media right now, but I'm sure they blame that on us too).

So where is the balance? I do admit that I find my parents pulling me back down to earth when I tell them I'm quitting my job to do something more rewarding, to feel like I'm making a difference, instead of formatting excel spreadsheets and pulling endless numbers from databases. But they continually remind me that I need the money before I can run off to South America to work in a cocoa bean field. Untill then, I have to find fulfillment on a smaller, after-work, scale. Volunteer. So I found a local art center that needs volunteers to work in its gallery during shows. Not only does this get my foot in the door in the art world, something that I have more passion for than queries, but also have something that I am doing where my work is needed, where people love what they are doing. Get involved.

Playing in the Attic

I was going back through old files on my computer because I save EVERYTHING (even that birthday card for Mom I made in Printshop back when people still made cards with Printshop). I adore reading essay I wrote in high school, and angry letter I would write to people and never send, or song lyrics that I wanted to save, emails people had sent me that I keep to put a smile on my face, and late night AIM conversations with cute boys or girlfriends. I love reading all that. So tonight I feel upon three things I would like to share. My London experience, a college application essay, and a 12th grade creative writing assignment.

1) I decided to post all my emails from the summer of '05 when I studied abroad in London. Enjoy http://jennyslondonlog.blogspot.com/

2) When I applied to U of M (the second time around) I was very determined to get in. I don't understand this now. Looking back, MSU was a perfect fit like a couture red carpet dress, but probably a lot easier to breathe in. Anyway, I wanted to wow them with my progressive ideas and outside-the-box philosophies on the US. So I attacked this question with something that was very near and dear to me. Illegal downloading, which in 2004, was in the midst of randomly prosecuting teens that were furiously downloading Dave Matthews and Jay-Z. We all know in the back of our mind we were afraid the RIAA was going to knock on our dorm door, hand cuff us to our futon, take our computer and throw it out the window. It was the first thing I found myself passionate about. Here we have it.

Discuss an issue of local, national, or international concern. Why is this issue important to you? How would you resolve it? What impact would its resolution have on others?

Internet piracy is an issue whose importance is many times overlooked by people. There are issues, such as terrorism and discrimination, which are clearly more important to the safety of the country. I am not one to downgrade the significance and anxiety of these issues. But to many Americans, no matter their age, ethnicity, or income, music makes just as much of an impact on their life as terrorism or discrimination, but in a positive way. In the past 5 years, the government has found that people all over the world are downloading music and movies free off the internet from peer-to-peer file sharing products. Popular artists saw this as a threat to sales of their CDs, while independent bands saw this as an opportunity to expand their fan base.

How would I resolve this conflict? I wouldn’t. I believe people should be able to download music free. Free peer-to-peer file sharing programs such as Kazaa and LimeWire give independent bands a gateway to the public. I learned about one band in particular, Dispatch, who owes much of their success to these programs. Their popularity did not reach the radio air waves, yet they still had sold out concerts in cities they had never been to before. How? Fans would learn about them through word of mouth, then explore their website, and download their songs from the internet. There have also been polls and surveys taken that show that most people that use peer-to-peer file sharing still buy many CDs. They download songs from the internet of artists they hear about and, if they like what they hear, they will go out and buy the CD. Consumers understand the economics of it. They understand that artist receive a percentage of the profit from album sales. They will buy the CD of artists they want to support. I can attest to doing the same myself.

I think if the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the US government stepped back and allowed peer-to-peer file sharing to control the music industry, they would see a new wave of musical popularity. My theory is as follows. Artists’ concerns over illegal downloading have developed from their concern over their profits. I don’t believe that artists should think about the money, but the success of allowing people that may not be wealthy enough to purchase CDs to listen to their music. If artists saw this, music would not be a job or career, but a passion. This would increase the quality of music to songs that artists write and play from their hearts. Their focus would not be on profits but on having an impact on listeners. The government, RIAA, and other supporters of a ban on peer-to-peer file sharing only see the industrial problems of the programs, but they are looking superficially at the issue, instead of the potential for a shift in the goal of music.

Unfortunately, UofM was too busy accepting 8% Indian teens and Jewish German students to "increase students experiences" to take on my theory. I like to think I was just too advanced for them. And too white.

3) This is the best thing I have ever written. Not the most sophisticated or deep or flowing, but the best. We had to write an exaggerated profile about someone we know. I chose the most exaggerated person I know, one I didn't really need to stretch the truth on. My sister, Andrea.
Caricature of My Sister
If you were a fly on the wall of our house during dinner, you would most likely become very confused, thinking you have flown into a classic Jim Carey movie. It starts out relatively civil. My mom calls us down to dinner. I tear myself away from the computer and walk downstairs. My dad and I wait patiently for my sister to come down, and wait, and wait, and wait. She always has to make an entrance. She waits until her presences will be seen by everyone, irritated or not.

Suddenly we hear the toilet flush and a blood-curling scream. Andrea comes hurdling down the stairs and into the kitchen, soaked and disheveled. Looking like a dog after an unwilling bath she exclaims, “Had I been drinking out of the toilet, I would have been killed!” I, personally, can’t contain myself when she does her impromptu performances and I have tears streaming down my face. After a few minutes, my mom forces a straight face and tells her to march right upstairs and change. Ann responds with an “Allllrighty then!” and walks back up, snickering over her successful little recital. Somehow, my parents lecturing over her crazy behavior never faze her.

By the end of dinner she has effectively made me fall out of my chair… twice, made my dad cry of laughter, and had my mom laughing like Phyllis Diller. It’s always a fun night when a Telemarketer calls. My dad always hands the phone to Ann when they request to speak to the homeowner. Tonight it must be a carpet cleaning companies because I can hear her in the family room terrorizing the poor person on the other end of the receiver, “Can you get out blood? Can you get out GOAT blood? How about HUMAN blood?” Then she does her little victory dance around the table when they hang up on her. For petrifying the Telemarketer, my mom tells her do the dishes. To that Andrea says, “Your request is not unlike that of your lower intestines, stinky and loaded with danger.” After one more stab at getting out of the dishes, we all glare at her and she exits stage left sputtering like Daffy Duck, “Well then, this is nice room of DEATH.” I don’t know anyone else that can fit a line from “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” so casually into her conversations.

You can tell by now that my 13 year old sister, Andrea, is going to be then next big thing to hit Hollywood. Her role model is Jim Carey. She has perfected every line from “Dumb and Dumber”, “Ace Ventura”, and “The Mask”. Every crazy, seemingly non-feasible, facial expression of his comes second nature to her. And if she doesn’t make it to the glitz and glamour of the movies, her second string dream is to be a regular on the primetime comedy skit show “Saturday Night Live”. She has a knack for entertaining people. Sometime she doesn’t even realize she is doing it. For example, one morning I went to wake her up because her alarm had been going off for ten minutes and there was no sign of significant life coming from her room. I walk upstairs and see her standing in front of her dresser staring blankly at her alarm as it blares on. I stumble in, laughing hysterically, and ask what in the world she is doing. The only response I get is, “It just blinked at me.”

She isn’t much of a morning person. She doesn’t fully function until she comes home from school at 3 o’clock and you can’t expect much to come out of her mouth anytime before noon. So she spends the rest of the day catching up and you can’t shut her up until 7 o’clock the next morning. She even talks in her sleep! She talks to anyone who will listen and do anything for an audience. She once had a spirited debate with a mannequin in the women’s department of “Marshall Fields” over fabric softener. She successfully gained the applause of half of the department. Yes, she is still my annoying little sister, but she’s always good for a few laughs.

Minority Report

I may be going to my first political rally next week for Barak Obama. I could turn this post into a political rant, but seeing as its only 8:30 in the morning and I'm sleep deprived without caffeine in me yet, I'll limit my questioning mind when it comes to the checks and balances of the US. Plus, I used to date an overwhelming Conservative pre-law guy that made politics seem exhausting and attacking with the extent that he talked about it, which has turned me off to the majority of politics aside from the 4 year Pres election (I don't feel that you can criticize the government unless you attempted to change it. So I do it so I can complaint for 4 more years).

I would just like to state my excitement over the 2008 election. Being fresh Democratic meat (having only voted in one other pres election), I am still new and excited about my party. And I must say that the Democratic party being the first to successful promote TWO minority (if you include women as the minority in DC) candidates is something to shine on about. Finally. Years after equal rights for blacks and women, bra-burning, sit-ins, segregation, Remember the Titans, we finally realize that other people actually have some decent ideas for the new direction of America (which is fairly obvious it needs).

I am excited for this election, not simply for this point, but because I am at a political maturity to see the vitality and challenge of the primaries. It's easy for Democrats to bash the Republican views and vice versa, but this is your people against each other. They can't bank on winning votes from their overall views, because they are pretty much the same. You have to look deeper. So maybe this election's Democratic primary is extra heated because of the two progressive candidates and Democrats new spotlight in Congress, or I'm just getting more educated in the ways of Washington. But I LOVE the fact that we have two minorities going head to head. It shows a new front for politics and, hopefully, America's future. Obama is slightly ahead in my book, and the book of most Democrats, due to his end-war campaign and complete anti-war mentality from the start. Hillary has that damn scar of a relationship with her husband, supported the war initially (although she has said it needs to end now), and conservative liberalism, which isn't the way to attack change.

But this also creates some very interesting aspects of minority popularity. I find it interesting that Obama seems to have a leg up on Clinton. Could this mean that the US is ready for a black president before they are ready for some estrogen in the White House? I realize that most of the news-making is from the candidates themselves, but when you take a step back and picture the election in 11th grade history books in 20 years, that is what will be said. Although, in a year, the whole face of the election could change.