Music & Equality

Last week was sprinkled with all sorts of my favorite things.
Among them, was a healthy dose of music, that was prevalent throughout.

On Tuesday, October 28th, The Cure's long-awaited album, "4:13 Dream" came out. Brynn and I hopped over to Best Buy when she got out of school that day and EACH got a copy of the fantastic-ness, so we didn't have to "share." ;)

I also got my paws on a superb AFI rarities which I find myself playing QUITE often. My kids especially love track #12 "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)." Though that would NEVER be an issue in our house (ha ha).

On Saturday night, we took the kiddos down to the Hollywood Palladium, a venue that has significant importance in our lives, as it was the location of Steve and my VERY FIRST DATE, back in February of 1989, when we saw The Sugarcubes and The Primitives play. Bjork was the lead singer of The Sugarcubes at that time and screamed/sang so passionately, that she literally lost her voice half-way through the set. She was incredible; as was that night - and without the Palladium as a part of our memories, who knows HOW or IF we ever would have become the little family unit that we are today.

The incredibly inspiring and compelling band, Rise Against, was the headliner on Saturday and WOW, what a show it was! Especially given the significance of this week being election week and their passion for making a difference in political circles (as you can see from the video I shot below). It was a moving performance and we thoroughly enjoyed the night and getting to experience it all together.
**I somehow didn't catch a shot of Brynn while we were there - but she was, of course, rockin' out too**

Sunday, we took the boys with us to a rally for NO on PROP 8, where we stood for EQUALITY for ALL and tried to spread the message so that enough people take a stand tomorrow on Election Day and make sure that we protect basic human rights for EVERYONE! It was an interesting afternoon. While we did get many "honks" of support throughout the day, it was incredible to see vehement opposition and the anger and hatred from the "yes" side as they drove by yelling obscenities, flashing a particular finger more times than I can count, and assuring us all that we were headed straight for Hell.

I guess when you have that much bigotry and fear inside, you only see things one way and unfortunately, it is such a pathetic and ignorant way indeed. I truly do not understand how a civilized person in the year 2008 could not want everyone to be treated the same. It was not long ago that interracial couples were not allowed to be married and today, we look back in disgust and horror that a group of citizens could be treated with such disregard and inequality; yet the principle seems so hard to grasp for so many today.

Over these last few months, Steve and I have become increasingly aware that we live in an ultra-conservative area of California and that bigotry abounds around us. We are just hopeful that tomorrow, the REST of the state counterbalances the overwhelming side that we are exposed to in our neighborhood. Here's a photo of our yard (**we had to be overzealous to balance this suburb out a bit - ha)

I can't believe that tomorrow is finally Election Day!
Here's to hoping that a little change is in the making.

Over & Out,
j-boo