Oy

A series on an American woman who chose to wear a Saudi style veil, apparantly so she could write a 4-part series complaining about the experience, and particularly complaining that women who veil should be discriminated against more.

*sigh* If she'd bothered to, you know, try asking someone who covers, Muslim or not, we could have told her a little about it, and far less of it would come as a surprise. (Such as: most people in a grocery are not going to even look at what you're wearing. They're there to get their cornflakes, baking soda, and tomato soup and couldn't possibly care less.) Heck, half of her complaints had to do with not knowing anybody (or asking anybody) who actually wears a covering on a regular basis. And most of the rest seemed to be that nobody actually hassled her, though some people *did* whisper about her at her gym.

Yeesh.

*sigh...*

Last night at the Japanese cultural center was wonderful. My husband and I went to hear a lecture on the Selene/Kaguya project to study the moon. We got to see some of the first high definition digital images from that project - 3-D images of the moon's surface, and a totally breathtaking Earth rise over the moon.

While we were there, I took the opportunity to visit the current exhibit of Japanese pottery, which is truly beautiful. The forms and the glaze work were all just gorgeous, and I was glad I'd gotten a couple minutes to enjoy them. I also got to meet a couple of people and had an interesting discussion as we all drifted out into the evening, where folks broke up and headed wherever they were going.

My husband and I, along with one of his coworkers, headed for a nearby Korean restaurant that also carried some Japanese specialties, and proceeded to continue the discussion over agedashi and sushi. (And yes, I admit that mine was vegetarian. Call me a wuss, but I really do love inari and umemaki.) And finished off with a lovely Korean ginger and cinnamon drink "to aid digestion" our waitress assured us, before we headed off toward the Metro station.

Less than a block from the station, the fly in our ointment appeared, in the form of some young idiots in a red sports car who turned into the lane we were crossing (still missing us by a fair margin) who decided to shout a Jew-hating threat at us before speeding off. As you might imagine, this was upsetting. All I can pray is that perhaps one of the people in the car will be so embarrassed this morning that it will cause him to consider how he ended up like this and begin to turn around. Sadly, I don't count on it, and can only be thankful that I was spared the violence visited on a friend of mine last year, who had first insults hurled at him from a car, before someone decided to get out of the car and escalate.

And the struggle goes on.

Learning music as an adult

Picking out "Skip to My Lou" gets ever smoother as I struggle to learn "Polly Wolly Doodle," returning to the easier song every time the going gets too rough. Even harder is practicing the strumming part - in large part because I'm still nervous about singing if there's any chance that another person might hear me (and where, exactly, can I go in my small apartment where noone can? I can hear the folks next door change their minds.) But to practice strumming the chords to the music, I need a melody line - traditionally provided by singing along. I've seriously considered buying a children's sing-along tape, just to have the melody line for the songs I'll be learning. Or maybe finding a way to get my computer to play the melody line so I don't have to sing where someone could possibly hear me. I've already tried to record me playing the melody, but recording music onto the computer is harder than you might think.

*sigh* Somehow, I've managed to convince my inner critic that banjo playing is okay. I'm allowed to produce music and it's not that bad and getting better every day. But the minute I open my mouth to sing, the internal chorus provides way too much dissonance. Maybe if I get that children's tape, I can sing and play along and that will be enough to silence the criticism from inside.