Monthly Archive for April, 2007

Goddamned Republicans

Published on April 29, 2007 in Politics, ResidentHipster and USA. 0 Comments

The Washington Post has an article up right now about how the US has been turning down Katrina international aid donations.

Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.

In addition, valuable supplies and services — such as cellphone systems, medicine and cruise ships — were delayed or declined because the government could not handle them. In some cases, supplies were wasted.

Americans can be such assholes. Seriously. How often have you heard people babble on and on about how we’re just so generous with our grinchly aid donations but when no one ever offers to help us? It’s utter bullshit, obviously. We were offered manpower and equipment from all over the place in the direct aftermath of the disaster and in the time since then and we’re refused it or let it go to waste.

What possible reason could we have for doing this? All I can think is that all those poor people losing their homes and loved ones must be profitable for someone. I mean, if you can’t rebuild because your poor, well now all that land can be taken for a song, right? If we actually accepted help, someone somewhere would have to get, well, help.

Obviously there’s an element of pride here too. Americans have spent the last 60 years puffing ourselves up about how we’re just so generous. And it would be hard to pretend that we actually take care of our own if we accept anyone else’s help. You can’t really get all pouty about how everyone hates America if you admit that every single one of our allies, including France!!!! is donating money, supplies, and workers to you in your time of need.

Arg.

Hairy cut

Published on April 28, 2007 in BayArea, DailyGrind, Den Haag, France, PostsWithPictures, ResidentHipster and Travel. 1 Comment

Cola's new haircut I went and got my hairs cut Thursday. I’ve been needing a hair cut for months and months. My last cut was pack in August and it was getting out of control. I was hesitant to try anywhere that I didn’t know because I’ve gotten such terrible hair cuts in the past.

Don’t let all this 80s nostalgia fool you – it was a terrible time for people with naturally curly hair. I’d go into the detail about the sheer horror of my past bad haircuts and the ever-present refrain of “Oh, you should just burn your hair! That’ll fix your problems!” but I’ve ranted about these things millions of times and I’m sure it gets dull for other people after a while.

Suffice to say that every single time I try someplace new, I have flash backs to the 20ish long, long years wherein I endured less than stellar hair styles. So I have to really talk myself into going to get a cut at all. Even just a trim sets me on edge.

But this time around I decided that I was just going to go in somewhere and let the hairstylist do whatever they wanted. I’ve been wearing the same hair style for about five years now and I figured that I should maybe try something new. And anyway, it’s only hair! It’ll grow back, right? I’ve been wearing it pretty short so it won’t even take that much time to grow out enough to cut it in my old hair style again! Right?!

I didn’t have any recommendations as to where to go get my hairs cut. Most of the people I’ve met in The Netherlands are 1) Boys and 2) in possession of straight hair. So I decided to just go to one of the more painfully hip places in the area, figuring that a younger hair stylist is probably slightly more likely to be able to cut curly hair than an older one since hip, curly haircuts have only just become a thing that people think is possible.

I ended up going to Hype salon on Prinsestraat. I was lucky enough to be able to get my haircut right then as a walk-in. It was pretty neo-80s in there. Sue, the woman who cut my hair, had one of those asymmetrical shaved on one side, chin length on the other haircuts that the kids these days are sporting. She told me about going to SF with her boyfriend who is the head chef at Puck, the posh California cuisine restaurant and wine bar across the street. I always wondered what it was that tourists did in SF, and now I know they mostly try to eat as good food as possible. Which is exactly what I’d recommend any tourist do while in SF so that’s good to know.

When I got home, ‘les had two comments for me.
1) Wow, that’s really…round!
2) Well, that’s really not a San Francisco hair cut. It’s very European, but not French, which is good.

These are much better comments than what happened when I got my hair cut in Paris. When I got back from that, the hair stylist dude had given me this weird puff in the front of my head and ‘les just burst out laughing when I walked in the door. The cut itself ended up being very cute, but the big middle-aged woman puff up front was indeed awful.

Anyway, I’m not sure how I feel about this hair cut. I think it’ll take about a week before my hair really calms down. We’ll see. I think I’ll have to see how I look in my cloche before I decide.

Here kissy, kissy

Published on April 18, 2007 in DailyGrind, Den Haag, Netherlands, ResidentHipster and Xena the Dog. 0 Comments

So pretty much every time I walk Xena, some dude makes kissy noises at us. In theory they’re calling the dog, I guess? I mean, obviously in practice they’re being assholes and basically using the fact that I have a dog with me to be really obnoxious.

It’s always the same kind of kissy noise – sort of a cartoony, high pitched, sucking in of one’s cheeks. It’s always specifically pointed at the dog. The dude making the noise normally just does it as I pass him on the street, and normally he just does it once unless Xena smells something interesting near him and happens to move closer. Young, old, rich, poor, European Dutch or not, it’s always the same. It’s weird and it’s only ever men who do this. I’ve had lots of women (or, actually, men with kids in tow) try to pet my dog but never has a single woman made kissy noises at me. Thinking about it, they don’t try to call the dog in any way. Normally they just bend over to pet the dog if she walks close by.

Today as I was walking down my street, two dudes behind me kept making kissy noises at me for like, over the length of a city block. I swear to god, I nearly turned around to scream at them. Maybe I should have. Who makes kissy noises like that for so long? Jesus.

Really, it’s incredibly annoying. I mean, even if they aren’t making kissy noises at me via the dog and are actually just trying to get Xena’s attention, who does that? It’s one thing to reach down to pet her if she comes over and sniffs your legs, but these dudes don’t have the dog’s attention at all. Why are you trying to get my dog to come over? I mean, she’s really cute but she’s not your goddamned dog! Hands off! Get your own adorable pup, you know?

I don’t think I’ve ever walked Xena further than around the block by myself in the US. I wonder if this happens to women there too. I wonder if annoying dudes in the US make the same kissy noise.

“I feel like protesting, the weather’s so nice!” – ‘les

Published on April 14, 2007 in DailyGrind, Den Haag, Netherlands and ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

Goddamn, it is beautiful today! The sun’s out and it’s cute summer dress weather!

We’re about to head over to a KonCon student’s apartment to BBQ some tofu hot-dogs and drink rose. It’ll be good times.

Last night felt like the first night of summer. All the outdoor seating that had been taken in for the winter was on the side walks again and the tables were full of people hanging out with friends, drinking beer and just enjoying the fact that you could go without a jacket at midnight.

We celebrated by having getting ice cream and going to a performance art show. Said performance art involved several different pieces, one of which was two women signing early music while another woman wore a gold bikini and did some very impressive pole dancing.

The Dutch know how to live.