Tighter

Predatory mortgage lender Countrywide has done its math and figured out 122,000 of its victims customers can no longer borrow against their home equity lines of credit. Why? Because the customers have no home equity anymore. It’s gone, evaporated, as prices continue to fall and these borrowers now owe more than their home is worth. This is bad, right?

Not necessarily. It means that people who borrowed too much in the first place must now scale back their consumption. As all three of you who read this shambling mess of a blog know, yours truly is constantly advocating just that kind of thing.

This amounts to a slight tightening of credit. Will the Fed’s interest rates help?

Jeezus, people, why the hell would they? Interest rate cuts mean banks can now secure funds at a slightly lower cost. Will your credit card rates go down? Will your boss now give you a raise? Will commodity prices drop? Will that new car suddenly be more affordable?

Everyone who answered yes to even one of the above questions: go out and take a walk around the block. The exercise will do you good, and the night air will help clear the cobwebs from your thinking. This is not for you. I’ll say it again (and not just because it’s a line from one of my Pearl Jam favorites): This is not for you.

This is for the very large institutions for whom fractions of a cent mean millions. This is for very wealthy people, big spenders who are already financially very sound. Slate has a nifty piece on just this question called How Will the Interest Rate Cut Affect Me? Quote: “Consumers aren’t exactly the main focus for emergency rate cuts, which are designed to stimulate the economy and encourage large businesses to spend more.”

Don’t spend, or if you must, spend skeptically and wisely. Conserve your strength! When things get tighter–and as this awful decade hauls its bloodied carcass to its end, I’m betting things will go on getting tighter–your strength is yourself. Yourself, and those close to you.

Harmony

I was mousing through Advertising Week shaking my head at the sheer volume of narcissistic shit they publish when I found a solid little piece well grounded in reality. The author starts out with the strong assertion that tough times mean it’s more important than ever for advertisers to be honest. His argument, which explores subprime lending, pharmaceuticals and ’sustainability’, is basically: especially in hard times, deceptive advertising benefits neither consumer nor producer. His must be a lonely voice in an industry whose sole function is to lure people into believing things they may feel or know not to be true in order to take their money.

(Also, it turns out my stuffy sense of moral superiority is shared by other Mac users.  Who’d've guessed…?)

Choke

After telling you to take on so much debt you’ll gag, American Express is starting to choke on defaults. Hard to swallow…you’ve urged consumers to spend beyond what’s reasonable, and now that very policy has dragged AmEx down last quarter. Poetic, really. At least they promise to cut their damn marketing expenses…less crap in our mailboxes…? We can only hope.

Wrapped

“Working for a rise, better my station
Take my baby to sophistication
Shes seen the ads, she thinks its nice
Better work hard – I seen the price…” ~~ The Clash, Magnificent Seven

We live in a city of expectations.

Our society is a city, and our role in it, as well as our opinion of ourselves, is  defined by the expectations we’ve built for ourselves and each other. Few of these are healthy for the city, as a vital and theoretically sustainable, and ourselves, as individual organisms. But the social contracts we accept, implicitly (“the size and cost of my house will indicate my status”) and explicitly (think of anything you’ve signed for a credit card company, cable provider, etc., etc.) allow us the freedom to move about within the city, to size up the people we meet, to give us the means to evaluate our own place in a group or gathering.

Within this city stand cathedrals, solidly built, comforting, their doors always open.

We’re welcome to enter at any time. These are cathedrals of desire. They enshrine objects and experiences which, as part of the social contracts, we want. These edifices are built so strongly because so many people believe in them and the things they securely cradle–proudly display–offer with open legs. The cathedrals comfort us because by the act of entering and viewing, discussing, worshiping, we’re participating in rituals of want which affirm our normalcy in our peers’ eyes. These cathedrals have priests, but the truth is, they’re not wholly necessary; the priests’ job is made vastly easier by our very citizenship in the city of expectations.

“I know I was born, I know that I’ll die
The in between is mine.” ~~ Pearl Jam, I am Mine

Miss

Mostly for financial reasons, I don’t have a TV right now, or internet service to my apartment. So whatever do I do at night? I go out.

Last night I walked to the co-op to buy some food. It’s a mile and a half each way. On the way back, I met some people who were spraypainting their sofa. They had put it out on the sidewalk a couple of weeks ago to be removed. It’s not been removed. They’ve started spraypainting on it. The funny part: city anti-graffiti crews (or someone) paints over the spraypaint. But still the sofa sits there. So they invited me to join in, and I spraypainted the sofa. Then I stopped at the coffee shop to do interweb stuffs. At the coffee shop I was invited to join a game of Sets. By the time I got home it was late enough to read in bed for a bit before falling asleep.

Don’t miss the TV a bit.

Fight!

“Now, Americans feel a loss of autonomy, in their own lives and in the nation. Their politics are driven by the powerlessness they feel to control their financial well-being, their safety, their environment, their health and the country’s borders.”

Quoth the New York Times. This is a bleak age, with the world split between a consumption-maddened, insatiable few, and a desperate many. All are sick, physically, morally, spiritually.

FIGHT! You have to fight this situation by disengaging from the powerful forces that want to control your opinions, your actions, your body, your money. Kick! Punch! Forcefully and aggressively wrest control away from these large organizations. Refuse to allow them hegemony over your body and your spirit! Define your OWN terms, your own happiness, your own goals. Push, grab,  bite, slash–struggle for the peace of mind only you can earn. Believe in yourself to give yourself the power to reject what’s being pushed on you.

You can do it!

Pot

So I moved into quite the low end apartment complex yesterday, and unpacked today. Imagine my surprise when I discovered/remembered that my personal downsizing last year had included all my pots, pans and dishes! Hmm. I was hungry, too. I retained my flatware and glasses…but I have dark suspicions that I did something altruistic with my kitchen knives.

Goodwill provided me with dishes. They’re these translucent blue plastic things with teeny bubbles in ‘em. Durable! The kids should love them…I splurged and got 4 plates, 4 bowls and a serving bowl. $9.91 later, I was still without cooking implements. The Goodwill person told me pots and pans always sell out during the day: a probem for me now, since my new temporary job takes me very far away from town.

So I went with a stopgap: I bought the cheapest pot I could find at K-Mart, so I can boil oatmeal at least, as well as make hot water to consume some of this years-old camping food I seem to have kept. That will hold me til this weekend when I can try hitting up some of ABQ’s restaurant supply shops to get a larger pot, and a pan, for hopefuly a better price than what’s in retail stores. We shall see!

Also: drugs meant to lower your cholesterol look like killing you instead. Is that a problem? Merck didn’t think it would be; that’s why they’ve waited two years to release the study results that clearly say so.

Confused

I like Annapurna. The food tastes good and you get a very reasonable amount for the price. Free wifi’s another bonus. It’s a good place to eat if you’re in the mood for something a bit off the beaten path and don’t want to spend a lot of money.

But what is it with the patrons there? I have yet to go in (at any time of the day) and not be in line behind people who probably shouldn’t be permitted to drive, vote or raise children–because the mechanics of a menu seem to utterly baffle them. The people approach the counter, menu in hand. Despite the management having plenty of large, sturdy menus available, and plenty of space to peruse them before standing in line, I’ve never wound up behind someone who a) knows what they want AND b) has decided to order it. It takes a frickin’ eternity…and it’s not that complicated, people–!

Today I hit the trifecta, one I hadn’t imagined existed until now. After serious dithering and 2-3 minutes of questioning the cashier (FAIL a and b above), a woman ordered a Ginger Carrot Muffin. Great, pay, now go away so I can order…because I know exactly what I want and am about to express it………..NO DICE!

Let me pause here to ask you, reader: if you saw on the menu, or were told by an employee, about a food choice called “Ginger Carrot Muffin,” would you believe that food choice contained

1) Ginger, and
2) Carrot?

I would.

My little daughters would, too.

But not this patron. Nooo-ooo. While I’m ordering–and all I wanted was a cup of chai and a bowl of couscous–drama interrupted.

“I can’t eat vegetables! I can’t eat this!”

This modern world of ours is perhaps colder than it should be; less friendly; a bit harder to navigate. Nevertheless, how someone can survive into what looked like her fifth decade without being able to comprehend the meaning of the words “Ginger Carrot Muffin” really escapes me. Setting aside the mysterious (to me) question of how someone can’t eat vegetables (?!), is it too goddamn much to ask that after many a minute whiled away in trying to understand the menu and then quizzing the cashier about it, you would at least believe that Ginger means ginger and Carrot means contains carrot and the whole thing is kind of muffin-shaped? And if your special diet must be veggie-less, can you keep that in mind when ordering…VEGGIES?

I like the food at Annapurna and recommend it. The staff are friendly–if, completely understandably, under a bit of strain at times. But for god’s sake, if you have no idea how to use a restaurant, can you please just stay the hell home…?

Vote (?)

Out of curiosity: if the gubmint really wanted people to turn out and vote, why not hold elections over a weekend? Instead of on a workday? And why not create some kind of (non-monetary) incentive to vote, like for example, you can’t get your driver’s license, or renew it, unless you’ve voted?

Probably these are stupid or naive thoughts. Someone tell me why…?

Happy

I am SO happy right now. I’m sitting in the Greenside Cafe in Cedar Crest, which is a short, fast drive outside Albuquerque. I had a piece of bread and a banana this morning, and then later on, a cup of coffee, then just breath mints ’till now (5 pm). So I’m hungry. I’m eating a bowl of chipotle corn chowder, and it’s hot and delicious. The soup is rich and creamy–not bland like corn chowder can get–and the corn comes through with heart and a hint of butter. The chipotle warms your mouth and then your stomach, but never overwhelms the base.

Greenside is big and roomy inside, with a fresh look and feel and plenty of space to move around. The menu includes burgers and steaks, as well as things like fresh trout. Their macs and cheese is even made with homemade macaroni and real cheddar…Actual food; I’d feed it to the girls, and that’s saying something. My salad featured dark lettuces with a minimum of iceberg and a tart, sweet mango vinaigrette.

. . .

OK, now I’ve had my main course. Really good. Grilled chicken with artichoke and blue cheese dressing, very nice–but this place gets the little things right. The veggies that came with it were nicely steamed, colorful and crisp, and the mashed potatoes had a creamy texture rather than being simply heavy. The potatoes were seasoned nicely out of the kitchen, needing no salt or pepper.

Dessert: cheesecake. Wait! I know what you’re saying! “Ridin, after that cheesecake in Memphis, you’re ruined for cheesecake.” Well, not entirely. I asked which of the dessert choices were house made–turns out all are made on the premises, or by the staff, or else brought in fresh over the hills from Albuquerque. This cheesecake is fluffy and with a very, very good crust, faintly nutty, cinnamon-y, melt in your mouth.

I’m here thanks to the kindness of a friend, but if I were paying, my total would be an estimated $20. That’s a fair price for a healthful, abundant, well-crafted meal. They do breakfast and lunches, too, and offer local beers as well as domestic and them foreign wines.

So, stop not eating at Greenside!

P.S. Free wireless internet. ‘Nuff said.