Kraynick's Bike Shop

This is the ultimate Grandpa's basement of a bike shop--packed from head to toe with old beautiful bike parts. Combined with Free Ride this shop makes Pittsburgh a bike fanatic's mecca. It is down on Penn Ave. near the ultra-dank Spak Brothers Pizza. Pittsburgh is cutty more folks need to visit.

Shame on California, Shame on Us

I remember when Prop. 8 passed I was in the Murray Ave. Grill with a bunch of Pittsburgh folks. No one seemed to pay much attention to the events in California because we were all freaking out that Obama was taking office. There was some hope, something better was coming. On November 4, 2008 paired with the good news, I had a sickening realization: we have learned very little despite the rhetoric of progress, our innocence, as Blake understood all too well, will be our end. Many friends and colleagues believe very deeply in cultural politics, and I think that they have there place, but I cannot help but see them as part of the problem. There is no question that politics has been de-politicized by republicans and democrats. Two parties inhabit out cultural imaginations limiting the political field making politics all too similar to religion. It seems as if the ease of identifying 'politically'--knowing your party, three or four catchphrases like small government or equality, and most importantly what you're against-- leaves out issues of policy, people, legislation, and purpose.

For our generation it is far too easy to mindlessly inhabit a position in the field of cultural politics or to excuse oneself completely by claiming to be a 'radical'. Politics are not easy and that is no accident--that is political. People say that the government doesn't work: that is total bullshit. The government does work but like any other institution it operates in concrete ways in budgets, policy decisions, and through active agents. Althusser and Foucault were just plain wrong about what we do about ISA's (I will stop there, if you want to talk to me about it I will buy you coffee or a beer). For the last 25 years there has been a largely right wing movement to insure the obscurity of the concrete movements of government by playing with cultural signification. During this time period the left, largely inhabiting the universities, played into this de-politicization of the political. Ironically this was achieved by turning to what we thought was politics. By theorizing justice, understanding subjects, deconstructing ideologies, and turning away from literature we thought we were getting somewhere. Meanwhile Clinton fucked the American worker, education lost more and more funding, Republicans and cooperate lobbyists insured markets were de-regulated, we continued to talk about the family, about values, etc. The 'trickle-down' effect of the lefts cultural turn only bolstered the right-wing's main message: government doesn't work.

But it does: yesterday California courts upheld the decision to ban same-sex marriage. I fear that this will just be gobbled up in a simple cultural manner where those of us who consider ourselves socially progressive get angry at conservatives, Christians, etc. This is a legitimate threat we should all fear. Hatred and ignorance will always exist in people but if they get a good education, live long enough, and free enough they will figure it out. These freedoms need protection. When we make hatred and ignorance policy and law we take a deep dive backwards into barbarism, we insure another century of blindness. In a free society laws are for protecting people not excluding them. We shouldn't be cynical seeing this as evidence of the government not working, instead we should be outraged at the way the government is being used.

I resent and deny the current political formations that put the left on the defensive--we have values, communities, and families too and we don't need to prove that. What we need to talk about is the concrete policies of the the centrists and right wingers. We need to make the values inherent in their policies and choices intelligible to everyone--there are things that are plain wrong to everyone. We need to talk about the continued exploitation of workers and the lower classes, we need to talk about funding cuts to education and the public sector, we need to expose the systematic ignorance that has been institutionalize, and the down right evil that has been carried out in the recent past, we need to organize beyond casual and comfortable cultural lines and start thinking and understanding our own government.

Please write to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Barack Obama and let them know how disappointed you are.

Reading Flaubert

Flaubert's Sentimental Education was the first great novel I ever read. Today I decided to pick it back up--it is glorious. If someone was only going to read one novel this summer Sentimental Education would be my pick. The cleanliness of the prose and the power of description are nearly unmatched but better than that it provides a view into one of the most important moments in recent history: France in the middle of the 19th century.

A Poem for Lauren

even when there is pause in the chase

the good is not up for capture.

while we slumber nothing stays still

and that is relief; the heart of all humor.

True fools feign forever with measure.

Habits, well intentioned but heartless,

grind the mind, concealing hope--

best to be a false fool with careful dance:

there are todays in which hope is held

in a strangers voice, each moment is leading,

and the harness which holds us promises

some give when lines are too taut

What I have been up to.

Gavin and I hit up the East Liberty farmer's market on Saturday morning. It is a quaint little layout in an indoor structure with tons of cool goodies. Next week I want Gavin to drink some raw milk!

I have been focusing a ton on preparing good healthy meals for myself. I love cooking because it allows for a little period of hectic creativity everyday and it is cheap too. It is a little tough to adjust to cooking for one person but once you do your options can really open up.

I have also been taking a joy in wearing sneakers after many months of rough Pittsburgh weather. I recently read Thoreau's essay on walking and it made me want to take more walks. My mother is an avid walker and Lauren is a true master of the epic summer walk. When I first met Lauren she would walk everywhere from Queen Anne which is pretty gnarly. When I visit her in Chapel Hill we take the most glorious of walks. Walks bring about the best conversations even if you are walking alone.

A day off

Today I mostly rode my bike. I am still trying to find employment and am reading many books at once. My Hegel reading group will start next week which should prove to be interesting. I am also increasingly jealous of friends who are back in Seattle enjoying the great weather and each other's company. I did get hip to a rad label today. My good friend Gavin has a bunch of the stuff they put out. Worth checking them out--Mississippi Records.

2 Poems By R.P. Warren

Tell Me a Story (1)

Long ago, in Kentucky, I, a boy, stood
By a dirt road, in first dark, and heard
The great geese hoot northward.

I could not see them, there being no moon
And the stars sparse.  I heard them.

I did not know what was happening in my heart.

It was the season before the elderberry blooms,
Therefore they were going north.

The sound was passing northward.

Tell Me a Story (2)

In this century, and moment, of mania,
Tell me a story.

Make it a story of great distances, and starlight.

The name of the story will be Time,
But you must not pronounce its name.

Tell me a story of deep delight.