it's educational

Spin Magazine, otherwise generally mediocre (they gave Blueberry Boat a fucking C(?)), has an extensive interview with the Pixies which isn't half bad. I'm one of the people who never got to see the pixies live, but on whom they had a tremendous influence. Doolittle's bizarre, biblical brilliance warped my fragile little mind in the summer between 8th and 9th grade and continues to amaze me every time i listen to it despite the fact that i have every note on the album pretty much memorized. And i don't care what you say, as great as surfer rosa is, it just doesn't have the same effect on me. Except when Kim does the whole "this is a song about a superhero named tony. It's called Tony's theme" thing. That gives me goosebumps. Like "chickenbutt" goosebumps. Well, almost. I'm psyched for when they hit NY.



This article from the chronicle of higher education is deeply frightening.

Washington -- Following a recommendation of the commission that investigated

the 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has

decided to give the Federal Bureau of Investigation direct access to its

databases for tracking foreign visitors, including students and scholars.



The decision, announced quietly on Tuesday in a revision to the department's

privacy policy, means that bureau agents will no longer have to ask the

department for information from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information

System, known as Sevis, and the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status

Indication Technology System, known as U.S. Visit. Sevis is a database that

the department uses to track foreign students. U.S. Visit contains biometric

data that are used to identify visitors at the border.



A spokeswoman for the department said that the change would help the FBI to

investigate criminals and terrorists. She said built-in safeguards,

including periodic audits of the system, would ensure that any information

gleaned from the databases would be used strictly to enforce laws. Students

and scholars who thought that their personal information was being misused

could write to the department's security officer, she said.

Besides confirming the fascist impulses behind the construction of the homeland, this highlights the neexd for collective organizations of graduate student employees to organize at both the university and federal level to fight for the rights of immigrant workers, students, and scholars and for a new and better vision of an academy and workplace in which someone's last name or country of origin does not become fodder for federal racial profiling in the policing of the homeland security state.



Yesterday's regional geso-lover blogger encuentro was fun. Good to see folks. apologies for killing the conversation with the whole pregnant 11 year old thing. Being in New Haven after three and a half months of not being in new haven was odd and i spent a great deal of energy trying to avoid the central campus so as to not draw attention to myself. But it was good to see Josh, Phoebe, Alyssa, Honorable Benjamin Goldman Healey, Marissa, Helena, Rebecca, lots of UOC people i don't know (rock!), Geso, and Schnabels. (And i'm glad tiburon's alive, well, and getting fat.) It was worth missing the last train out of New Haven to see Thomas, Kevin, and Lauren, and once again many thanks to Lauren and Julie for letting me crash on their futon and eat their rice.



Songs of the day:

Le Tigre - "My, my metrocard"

Pixies - "Tony's Theme"

Mission of Burma - "This is Not a Photograph"

Sleater-Kinney - "one beat"