Poetry jam, Indecision 2004 party @ Spill, Raine & Jake, and assorted political bits

[skreidle]

Drove up to LoDo (Lower Downtown Denver) around 2000, found my destination, drove around a bit to find an open meter, and fed it $1.50--enough to cover it until 2130, half an hour before parking became free. In my wandering to find a) an ATM, and b) change, I noted that Spill wasn't too populated yet, then stumbled across the Common Grounds coffeehouse, where a poetry jam was going on. I bought a Harvest Chai to a) warm up and b) get change for the meter, then sat through the rest of the jam (until 2100 or 2130, I think--and met one of the guys, who told me about an upcoming slam on Sunday.) I then headed back to Spill--on the way, finding an Onion box! and picking up three copies--where I tried a new beer (Shilley's? Something like that) and hung out the rest of the night, watching the results roll in--sad, VA stayed red--until it became repetitive nothing, piddly crap about the local elections and predictions and blah blah. I also saw quite a bit of the Six-String Samurai, only without sound, so I'll have to watch it for real sometime--it looks really cool. (Speaking of looking really cool--the ambient lighting in the bar, behind the stretched ceiling-level canvases, the wall behind the bar, and the photographs inset in all of the tables, were all color-shifting simultaneously--very nifty effect.)

Sometime late in the evening I was standing near a group of people, and the cute girl of the bunch, Raine, introduced herself to me, and we chatted about politics and motorcycles (she has a 2004 cruiser, forget what), and with her boyfriend (I think) Jake, politics and geekery. (Raine has an interesting political philosophy regarding this election: She's in favor of women's/gay/abortion rights, but voted for Bush--figuring that if Bush wins, he'll get abortion illegalized, hordes of 20-25-year-olds will commit suicide, and there'll be open revolution. I figured something along parallel lines--if Bush is reelected, he'll just keep fucking up worse and worse, and the Dems will win by landslide in four years. (I also pointed out that if Bush wins, there'll probably further reduction in gun control, and the revolution will be well-armed!)) We hung out until they kicked everyone out around 02, and I headed back to the hotel.

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covielle: As long as there are kittens in this country, something can be done.

Via notjaffo: A few misconceptions about the significance of this election.

Via pendragon: Same-sex marriage bans winning on state ballots. CNN predicted all but Oregon to pass the amendments, and so far as I'm aware, it has passed in Ohio, Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Michigan. Fuckers. Oregon, by contrast and as predicted, was reasonable, decent, and human, and voted it down. Scratch that, every goddamn state passed it--the above, plus Oregon, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, and Mississippi.

(Hehehe.. the Conversatron's surprisingly amusing open-thread take on the election. :D)

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Pleased to note that the electoral callouts are currently 254/252 Bush/Kerry instead of the earlier 269/whatever CNN was predicting.. Ohio takes all, yo.

Comments

For what it's worth...

[blistex.livejournal.com]

(which is not much) I voted no, Dan voted no, all of my co-workers voted no.

I actually later, as I realized with HORROR that not only was that shit going to pass but by a HUGE, REVOLTING MARGIN, was glad Dan had voted because you know what? Bush was gonna fucking win Georgia anyway, and it looks like civil rights needed every vote they could get yesterday, which still wasn't enough.

We're hoping the amendment may get thrown out and brought to the ballot again a year from now due to the shady way it was placed on the ballot.

[neuroscidude.livejournal.com]

The voting for Bush to push a revolution doesn't work, dude. This election has shown that majority of America doesn't care about how bad Bush is fucking up. Integrity is not a big an issue as gun ownership an gay marriage.