Rage against the dying of the light

This sign in an Uptown apartment window makes me vaguely grateful to have Comcast. Mostly, though, I identify with the powerless feeling created by evil communications companies. When the only thing you can do is hang a homemade sign, you know you cannot do much.

There's a new sheriff in Uptown

This morning I headed over to Truman College for early voting and found myself in a surprisingly long line. My appreciation for my fellow citizens' desire to have their voices heard somewhat mellowed my irritation for being in a long line that didn't appear to be moving.

Unfortunately, because I was unwilling to give up my spot I wasn't able to take a picture of the most fantastic Halloween costume EVER.

This guy, wearing a homemade sheriff's hat (paper star on the front) and an old west style handlebar mustache, had created cardboard horses - complete with manes, reigns, saddles and tails - for either side of his wheelchair. On the back was a cardboard cell that had "Uptown Jail" written at the top and a sad looking felon peering through the markered bars.

It was the perfect combination of costume and outsider art, perhaps even better than the guy with the undertaker's suit, umbrella and gloves who used to sell Spare Change outside of Christina's ice cream shop in Inman Square.

Election Night

I'm ridiculously and unexpectedly excited to go the Obama event (known here as Obamapalooza) on Tuesday night in Grant Park. Optimistically, I feel like it could be one of those seminal moments when you become part of history. Also, work is springing for a suite at a hotel nearby so that there's a place to warm up, snack, watch CNN, and poop.

Be Like Others

If you get the chance, definitely check out a new documentary, Be Like Others, that's currently on the festival circuit and will hopefully/most likely be shown on PBS.

The film chronicles the stories of several male to female transsexuals in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country that permits sex change operations but punishes homosexuality with death. As a Muslim cleric explains it, being born into the wrong body and having an operation to fix this predicament is not explicitly prohibited in the Koran, therefore it's allowed. Homosexuality, on the other hand, is condemned and is therefore anti-religious and unlawful.

While some of the transsexuals who appear in the film are probably correctly "diagnosed," it's clear - though presented subtly - that many who undergo this emotionally and physically painful operation are actually gay men who feel that their existence is impossible without the surgery.

With lingering shots on disconsolate and resigned faces of the men, their families and partners who are sucked into this drama, the film does a beautiful job of showing the dilemmas rather than just telling us about them.