What It Is

I was suspected of being a potential bank robber the other day.

I was in the bank waiting on a very long line when the bank manager walked up to me and said:
Would you please take off your sunglasses and your hood?

I was wearing sunglasses and a hood because it was
a. sunny
b. cold
although I also like to wear sunglasses in the rain. And snow.

This is what I looked like:

I was not excited to do so but I complied with his request, perplexed, until he said:
There have been a lot of bank robberies. Nearby.

And I felt a welling up inside me, of pain as my weak eyes blinked in the fluorescent light, and of outrage on account of the assault on my Cultural Privilege, one of the most glaring features of which is the presumption of innocence. Because I am a white, middle class, heterosexual female with acceptable gender expression.

A typically passive feminine power, this power of presumed innocence, perhaps, but powerful nonetheless. I have long been fascinated by the power of helplessness, the power that panicky, unreasonable or psychotic people have over everyone around them. I believe a lot of the cultural power invested in femininity is the same: the power of being unpowerful, of being the last suspect. I have gotten away with a lot because of this sex-class-and-race-based privilege. And I kind of enjoy being reminded that that’s what I’m enjoying- Cultural Privilege, not just the fruits of my sparkling, warm personality, when people are nice or make allowances for me for no reason.

So I very quickly got over my (unexpressed) outrage; after all, the man was just doing his job. Although baseball caps seem to be the disguise of choice for the modern-day bank robber.

But what about getaway cars? I am not a bank robber, and I don’t ever intend to become one, but if I ever have to have a getaway car, I hope it looks like this:

This is what the Loved One said to me on the evening of Nov. 5.

What, you never heard of the Prez?

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Listening to you tonight at the RNC, I was struck by something you said.

Referring to the Republican position on reproductive choice, you intoned (and I do paraphrase), “We believe that the sanctity of life begins at conception.”

Yes, Mr. Huckabee, ain’t it the truth. Begins at conception, ends at birth. After that, you’re on your own. And that unkind philosophy is surely the reason why your party is against everything that parents really need to prosper in this country: child health insurance, adequate day care for working mothers, equal pay for equal work, universal health care, civil rights, education, reproductive rights, immigration reform, prison reform, the environment, renewable energy, social security and in fact everything except war, torture, small government, no taxes and no accountability for the rich and powerful?

Just sayin’.

xxx

TuraLura

PS You might want to stop calling for change like that. It just reminds everyone that y’all have been in power for f*ckin’ ever.

You probably weren’t paying real close attention to the music that was performed at the DNC on Tuesday, but the tremendous, just-on-the-verge-of-blowing-up-huge Alejandro Escovedo played “People (We Only Gonna Live So Long)” from his new album Real Animal, a great documentary story-telling epic about the old days of the late 70s in New York. Alejandro is so cool he has roots in Texas, New York and San Francisco, and he’s been on stage with Bruce Springsteen recently. That’s pretty big stuff for an artist who was well-known and respected in Texas, but barely known at all anywhere else. And now he’s played at the DNC!

Another thing that makes his newest album particularly delicious for me is that it was produced by the legendary Tony Visconti, producer of T. Rex and David Bowie, among many, many others…including, ahem, me. I had the ridiculous good fortune to work with Tony a time or two during my low-level rock star period (though sadly, none of those recordings was ever released), and it was a whole education just to have dinner with him. He had these beautiful photos of him and Bowie hanging out back in the day that he had decided to hang in his bathroom. So cool. And that he was married to May Pang at the time made it even more fabulous.

Anyway, check out Alejandro’s website: http://www.alejandroescovedo.com.

PS His previous albums A Man Under the Influence and Bourbonitis Blues should be required listening for everyone. Yeah, everyone.