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By Rebecca, April 2, 2012 12:30 pm

Originally posted at In Our Words, crossposted with permission.

It’s that time of year: When the weather in Chicago fluctuates madly–80 degrees one day and 40 degrees the next. Shorts and tank tops are quickly pulled out from that box under the bed and worn to the beach, only to be put away when it snows twenty-four hours later. It’s also the time when most people decide to pull their bike out of storage or the garage or that street sign where it has been locked since October. (For those of you who have been biking all winter, I salute you. This piece still may have some tips for you, though.)

A few weeks ago, I rode my bike for the first time this year. I’m one of those obnoxious bikers who always wears a helmet, and bothers her friends to do the same, uses hand-signals while turning, and doesn’t blow through stop signs without first slowing way down to check for traffic and pedestrians. I’ve also been doored (when a driver opens their door into the bike lane, hitting a biker), flipped off my bike, skidded out when an asshole in a sedan turned without signaling, and generally been knocked about. Yet I still hop on my bike regularly, for transportation and exercise, and feel safe doing so. Let’s talk about what’s keeping me safe: three rules that apply to everyone, anywhere, and a fourth that’s slightly more Chicago-specific. Continue reading 'A Guide to Bike Safety in Chicago (and everywhere else)'»

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By Rebecca, March 30, 2012 12:43 am

This post was originally featured on In Our Words, and is reposted with permission.

I love This American Life (TAL). I love it as an NPR fan, I love it as a Chicagoan, I love it as a storyteller and strong believer in the power of the spoken word. That’s my bias, and I don’t apologize for it. But it means I’ve been following the TAL retraction of their Mike Daisey piece with particular attentiveness. Briefly, TAL did a show consisting of an excerpt of Mike Daisey’s one-man show, “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.” In it, Daisey discussed his trip to China, interviews with workers, and how utterly horrible the conditions were for Chinese workers. It was an extremely emotional and blunt piece about the unseen price of American electronics.

Oh, and a lot of it wasn’t true.

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By Rebecca, November 29, 2011 1:52 pm

Not the kind of race I mean

I was recently having a conversation with a number of artistic peers, discussing the impact of our personal and community histories on our art and artistic process. I don’t remember who the question was raised by, but the group consisted of a mix of racial/ethnic/gender/sexual identities, making for good conversation.

In general we all agreed that our various personal and community histories – of religion, race, ethnicity, language, geography, class, sexuality, gender, and so on and on and on and on – played a factor in how we approached creating art. While it was a great conversation, and fodder for more discussion, I’m less interested in that than in something which happened after.

During the conversation, I said, “It’s been interesting going from presenting as part of a strong, privileged group – white, heterosexual, male – to an oppressed group: queer, trans, female.  I try to both be conscious of and artistically honor that oppression while being aware of the privilege I still do posses.”

Then, while giving someone a ride home – who identifies as black, female, lesbian – she turned to me and said, “Your comment really surprised me, since I don’t think of you as white.”

What?

Continue reading 'Race identity'»

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By Rebecca, July 11, 2011 12:57 pm

Someone contacted me recently, saying he was gathering responses from journalists who discuss sex and gender issues. I don’t know that I’d classify myself in that category, but I was happy to answer his questions and thought I’d share my responses:

– First, simply put, what advice do you have for students interested in writing about sex or social issues that fall within the sex, sexual health or gender realms?

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By Rebecca, May 31, 2011 7:19 pm

Back from the doctor. Going back on lexapro, 20mg/day. If and when I go off again, I will not go cold turkey. Lesson learned.

He’s also dropping me from 6mg/day to 4 of estradiol. His thought is that my estrogen (~4,500, literally an order of magnitude higher than it should be) coupled with my testosterone (a reasonably low 12) means that A) I can afford to drop estrogen more without impacting my testosterone levels, body hair, mood, etc, and B) dropping estrogen might actually help with my anxiety and depression.

This isn’t new info, but he also gave me a temporary perscrption of klonopin, a much stronger anti-anxiety medication. The idea is that I’ll use that to keep me sane for the next week or two, until the reduced estradiol and increased lexapro kicked in.

Fingers crossed, cuz what I’m experiencing right now fucking sucks.

Continue reading 'Meds update'»

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By Rebecca, May 27, 2011 4:02 pm

That’s right, I’m wading back into Israel. Not satisfied with my recent post about Israel, Obama’s speech, and the 1967 borders/lines/whatever, an article I saw in my Google News feed caught my eye. The Sacramento Bee disappointingly reprinted a total fluff piece entitled “New York LGBT Center Taking Sides of Anti Semites.” The subtitle is “Michael Lucas Organizes Boycott,” and the piece is by none other than one Michael Lucas. Way to be classy. I’m not linking to the piece, since it’s total propaganda, but it did make me really curious about the organization being referenced, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. And, more broadly, is Israel supporting a state of apartheid?

(For the record, I do think this discussion and disagreement is newsworthy, I just think it’s really poor reporting to reprint a biased self-written press release supporting a specific position. So I’m not opposed to the Sacramento Bee reporting something,  just on how they chose to report.)

Continue reading 'Israeli Aparthied?'»

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By Rebecca, May 23, 2011 1:53 pm

Picking on Israel went really well for the aggressors...

Following my last post, I’ve been trying to do some research to figure out why Obama’s urging to use the 1967 Israel borders as a starting point was a bad thing, and why it pissed off Israel (and a bunch of other folks). Here’s what I’ve been able to figure out.

In 1967, Israel was attacked (again…) by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in the Six Day War, so called because that’s how long it took for Israel to kick everyone else’s ass and over double its territory. That’s right: Israel was invaded and ended up with more land than it started with. Specifically, Israel ended up with the Sinai Peninsula (since returned to Egypt), the Gaza Strip (which Israel has already pretty much withdrawn from), the West Bank (which Israel has also basically said they’re wiling to part with, even though Jewish settlers keep making new settlements), East Jerusalem (which Israel is most emphatically not willing to part with and no one seriously expects them to), and the Golan Heights (which is, as far as I can tell, the biggest point of contention concerning the 1967 borders). For more info, check out Wikipedia’s page on Israeli-occupied territory.

But even the use of the word “borders” is making some people upset. Someone on Twitter sent me this link, which talks about how the map to the right describes armistice lines following the 1967 Six Day War, not mutually agreed upon borders of a cohesive, internationally recognized and legit state. And, apparently, the pre-1967 borders/lines/whatever were really just the result of the cessation of hostilities in 1948, when soldiers (mostly) stopped shooting at each other for the next two decades. (Noticing a pattern here?)

As far as I can find, the outrage over Obama’s comments, from right wing US politicians as well as Israel, is pretty much manufactured. This has been the US’s official position for the last 20+ years, and shouldn’t have surprised anyone. But is it a good position? That, not surprisingly, is much more difficult to determine.

Continue reading 'How Obama pissed off Israel – the 1967 “borders”'»

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By Rebecca, May 22, 2011 10:56 pm

Can someone explain to me why using the 1967 Israeli borders as a starting point is a bad thing?

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By Rebecca, May 10, 2011 10:17 am

This past Saturday, one of my roommates (Annie) and I participated in Chicago’s Journey to the End of the Night, a street game -slash- race -slash- tag -slash- scavenger hunt.

It was awesome.

About eight miles of walking, running, jogging, and HIDING!

The premise is that you – as a ‘runner’ – are trying to get from the starting point to the end point, stopping at checkpoints along the way to get a piece of paper stamped to prove you’ve been there. As a runner, you have a blue ribbon on your arm. Chasers, wearing red ribbons, are scattered throughout the playing area, and if you’re caught by a chaser you have to give them your blue ribbon (as a trophy of sorts) and put on a red ribbon. Then you become a chaser, too.

The event covered all of the north-east side of Chicago, and Annie came up with a map of our route. We went at least eight miles total, and you weren’t allowed to use cars, taxis, or bikes. You could use public transit, but ran the risk of chasers catching you; being on transit was safe (as were train stations) but waiting for the bus was a risky proposition.

We made it to three of the six check-point, and were caught between #3 and #4, right around where the map says “N Broadway.” (For those of you familiar with Chicago, we were caught right outside the Dominicks on Broadway just south of Granville.)

After being caught, we wandered around trying to catch more folks. Annie and Eric (the guy who caught Annie and who we teamed up with as chasers) each caught a few people but I, alas, did not.

Nevertheless, and in spite of the exhaustion and pain on Sunday and Monday, it was totally worth it. TONS of fun, and highly recommended to similarly ridiculous folks.

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By Rebecca, May 3, 2011 3:03 pm

Being self employed is tough, and something I still don’t totally have the hang of. Figured I’d share some more links I found useful:

From Lifehacker, some office yoga:

From Life on Michigan Avenue, 29 Ways to Stay Creative. I’m a fan of “Carry a notebook everywhere,” “Don’t give up,” and “Allow yourself to make mistakes.”

And another Lifehacker link, Top Ten Ways to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing. I need to do so much more of number four…