just a couple of things…

b/c i’m nutters over here.

1st…i only remember going to the drive-in movies a few times in my life. by the time i was 7, the one in my town had closed, but my dad drove my friends (read:cousins) and i to the one over an hour away for my 8th birthday. i think they were showing ET…it’s all kind of hazy for me. but i remember that feeling. people yelling at the screen, the few times i did go. blankets and popcorn and everyone being involved in this one thing. well, that’s what Grindhouse felt like. i Loved Grindhouse. gore. zombies. brilliant car chases. dialogue. strong women. classic. and it had everyone there, in the moment, participating, screaming at the screen, alive & engaged. it was brilliance! awesome!! and honestly, i can’t believe but i can believe the drivel that beat it out (i’m not talking necessarily about Blades of Glory b/c that movie is comedy, open to close). but yeah, Grindhouse is on a whole other level.

secondly, i have volunteered for Planned Parenthood for a long time, and while the numbers of manageable (ie: herpes, chlamydia, etc) STD rates have risen dramatically over the years, i’ve always said that AIDS is neither the epidemic nor the pandemic that the global media would have us believe. it affects two groups of people that Republicans historically hate the most – the poor and the black, and therefore there is a lot of overdramatics and outright lying that goes into the representation of the data to get funding for awareness. it’s my belief. if it weren’t true, all of us would know three or more people living with advanced AIDS or dying from advanced AIDS. my uncle had been living with AIDS for 12 years now. his partner just died of it last year. so, when i read this today, i was glad to see that someone had taken the time to put some numbers behind it. it’s a good read.

and finally, music is my lover, my best friend, my everything. i don’t know what i would do if i didn’t have my music, my iPod, my oink, my rapidshare, my Prince, my Coltrane, my Thelonious. i’m so grateful to these people who have given me their passion and their heartache and their love and their focus and their dedication and their art and their hearts. i sometimes speak in other people’s lyrics, i rarely take my iPod out, either of my computer or my ears, and my life would be different without it. i wasn’t allowed to listen to music growing up, and i feel that i’m constantly making up for those lost years, those silent years…
music is my lover, my best friend, my everything!

i hope that your monday is fantastic. i’m so happy to be a part of this amazing project!

Angie, 30, Los Angeles