I'm Not Voting

Yeah right. But I do have to say, this was one election I was really close to boycotting. I can't help but feel that I have been personally messed with throughout this whole process. I have had this strange and nagging feeling that I had been set up: The stage has been cast with characters for the best show on earth: The U.S. Election. The whole world sits riveted, in front of the television while the U.S. has it's cataclysmic show-down. The whole world watches as the U.S. answers the Million Dollar Question (or should I say 700 billion?): Can the U.S. look past Race, in it's, cough cough, U.S. Presidential Race for the cough, cough, White House? Can life get any more ironic than this?
And let me tell you, I've been "good" really "good"--managing to keep my mouth shut during mundane discussions that usually begin with, "Do you really think the U.S. will elect a Black man?" Luckily, no one at my job thinks me interesting enough to ask, so I've been good. Really good, and have rarely pointed out the absurdity of the situation.
Then I started getting a bit paranoid. All the official overseas voting advice pretty much goes like this: You should have received and posted your ballot by October 6th. Except, you know that I didn't receive my ballot right? Gosh, I have always voted since I turned 18 and I kept on walking around with this persistent feeling that sheesh, wouldn't it be ironic that, whether through apathy, laziness, pissed-off-ness or bureaucratic inefficiency, that THIS would be the ONE election I miss?
Finally I pulled myself together yesterday and downloaded the necessary paperwork to fill out, sign and mail to my local Elections Office. The folks who run The Overseas Vote Foundation rock! This compliment is conditional: My ballot better be COUNTED. I'm so jaded since that infamous debacle. You know what I mean: Florida if you're not following.
Anyway, would you believe that after I mailed my ballot and came home yesterday, the ballot I was awaiting via post had arrived? The official advice is to fill in both and send them: Only one will be counted. So hopefully, between these two ballots, one of my votes will be used. I don't believe that I have doubt that my vote will be counted. That's not cool. I have this vision that as soon as some one sees its coming from Europe they'll automatically discount it. But I'll be so happy to give this feeling up to paranoia rather than to reality.
I just finished reading Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese . I've been really into graphic novels lately, a passion that was set off by Persepolis. I fell in love with this genre due to its ability to convey pretty solid aspects of various cultures and history that I've previously been ignorant to. In Persepolis, for example, I learned of Persia's rich culture and the origins of the Islamic Revolution. In Aya by Marguerite Abouet (another great graphic novel, this one illustrated by Clement Oubrerie) I learned how the Ivory Coast was once considered the Paris of Africa and how similar my youth in Trinidad was to many of the characters' depicted. In American Born Chinese the author successfully tied in the traditional story of the Monkey King with modernity. Particularly riveting was when Wong Lai Tsao reveals to the Monkey King, "The form you have taken is not truly your own. Return to your true form and you shall be freed."

Bureau 39
The Phantom Editor of Foolish Ventures Productions, in collaboration with Bandit Queen Press is working really hard at pulling Bureau 39 together! We've got submissions from Suheir Hammad, Tony Medina, Willie Perdomo, Karen Good, Debbie Cowell, Arthur Flowers, Purple Zoe...and many, many more.
Culture Night is taking hold of the city, so I'll check some stuff out tomorrow before venturing to see Shine tomorrow night.

For Caribbean Girls Who Have Lost Their Accents
Sit tight! I know that there are many of you waiting to hear about my trip to Trinidad! Stay tuned for my next installment--it soon come!

Oh! And one more thing: I've got company here on Mars! Apparently Lisa Bonet has made her television comeback on the series Life On Mars... Read Lisa Bonet Gets a New Life on Mars...

farvel,
the lab