I'm America, really. A vegan animal rights activist agnostic Jew who cuts his own hair. Really, when it comes right down to it, at the heart of it, aren't we all?
"In relation to [animals], all people are Nazis; for them it is an eternal Treblinka."
-- Isaac Bashevis Singer, whose family members were murdered in the Holocaust
"I wonder why progress looks so much like destruction."
-- John Steinbeck, in the nonfiction Travels with Charley
"Life is a terminal disease."
-- My high school economics teacher, for some bizarre, unremembered reason
(The following music video was produced & performed by John Feldmann of Goldfinger:)
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I am a poet. I hate muggers. I'm just a regular everyday normal guy . There are only two key things that I want in life; one is to matter. I started growing my first beard--full beard/mustache--in June '06, and I might not shave until I look like this guy . I threw a party (themed "Like a Rolling Stone") after passing a kidney stone at the tender age of 27, playing lots of vintage Rolling Stones during it. I am Senior Communications Coordinator with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. I choose veganism for health reasons: namely, the health of the chickens, pigs, shrimps, et al. (I do what I do not because I love animals but because I respect them and their natural right to be free from institutionalized torture and misery .) I consider myself a weird cross between hippy and punk. I am a fairly basic guitar player (and even more rudimentary harmonica player), singer/songwriter. I believe that the only difference between a cult and a respected, established religion is time. Just about every Sunday I get together with people to cook up donated foods and then serve it to mostly homeless people downtown, with Food Not Bombs Norfolk . I should weigh more than I do. I'm socially retarded and have difficulty getting to really know new people, and that really, really sucks. In fact, I'd totally be an escapist alcoholic if only I didn't like not tasting alcohol so much. I still use an "ancient" cell phone (from 2001). I hate being asked "How are you?" because I generally have to lie in my answer, and I don't like to lie. Watching people--especially friends--succumb to their enslavement to tobacco inhalation makes me sad. "Kool-Aid" also makes me sad, and it'll get me some day.
I am a "dog person" currently filling the role of a "cat person," having adopted two stray girls officially in 12/05. I soon thereafter realized that I may have them through my mid-to-late 40s, and that's a little weird, and more than a little freaky. I was a guinea pig guardian (not "owner"!) for more than 6 years until one and then both of my boys were gone, but never to be forgotten. For about a year and a half I had a vagabond hamster in my life, who was found wandering around a parking lot. (And he's "Mr. September" in the '08 PETA "Rescued!" calendar!) But he's broken on through to the other side, now, and I've most recently adopted a little white mouse who needed a home after his previous 'owner' just decided that she didn't want him anymore. And let's not forget the Chia pet--an elephant--that I bought at a thrift store some time back but which never sprouted, despite my strict adherence to the instructions. Now Ellie remains as my dead, exoskeletal Chia pet on my kitchen window sill.Never before has something so gory been so beautiful. Click here, scroll down, click to view the video.
