action figures sold separately

bridgetown, puddletown, stumptown, thorn city.

Whichever name you like to give it, this place is pretty amazing. There’s so many incredible things going on here, and so many of them we didn’t know about when we first moved here. Recently, we’ve had a couple times when pals from far away moved to Portland, and I wanted to give them an orientation to some of the stuff I couldn’t have learned about just from looking around, or from the official visitors guides. So here’s what I put together for them:

• The Portland Bike There! Map from Metro.
• The Trip Tools, Ticket Sales Outlets, Explore Portland, and Riders Guide brochures from Tri-met
• “Your Guide to Multnomah County Library“
• The Museum Attractions and Membership brochures from OMSI.
• Zipcar brochure.
• My seven favorite mapclicks neighborhood maps.
• The You Can Own and Supporting Business Guide brochures from Peoples Food Coop.
• The SE Portland Walking Map from the Office of Transportation’s Getting Around Portland section.
• The current season’s brochure from Portland Center Stage.
• The (no longer available?) 7-page Fix-It Fair Resource Guide from the Office of Sustainable Development.
• An Advantis Credit Union Membership Kit.
• The Office of Transportation’s Portland By Bicycle map and Neighborhood Bikeway maps for Northeast and Southeast.
• The Map & Guide to Powell’s City of Books
• Brochures for the Portland Classical Chinese Garden and the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, along with a 4-garden promotional that also includes the Japanese, Oregon, and International Rose Test gardens.
• The ReDirect Guide
• A copy of the Portland Gay & Lesbian Community Yellow Pages.
• …and finally a page of links to all kinds of cool, interesting things on my del.icio.us “Welcome to PDX” page.

what would be in your “welcome to portland” packet?

just finished working on the website for my pal Sarah, the amazing artist and printmaker whose shows have wowed us at local galleries and who we are so honored to know.

new04

Originally uploaded by fogboy.

Welcome our baby boy, Solomon Leigh Rosenblatt. Born thursday night the 22nd at about 7:30 pm. lots more photos on our flickr page, and more news to come.

My friend has an exercise called “conflict fantasies” in which she has an imaginary conflict with someone. It can be with someone you know, an imaginary person, or a real person you don’t know personally. My mom does this, too, she calls them “fantasy conversations” which broadens things a bit- they don’t have to be all about conflict, they can just be an imaginary conversation with someone.

Sometimes they just come up out of the blue. Usually they are about something in your life that inspires an emotional reaction and it is a way of working the conflict out in your head. Also they are inspired by real conversations you have with people about something or a real conflict and you want to continue the conflict or resolve it in some way- usually by coming up with the perfect argument, the perfect statement.

I do this a lot with my patients- I’ll review my day’s work and come up with all kinds of things I could have, should have, or wish I would have said.

Yesterday and the day before I did something called ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support). Two twelve-hour days where we learned about taking care of trauma patients. We hung out with all of these surgeons (who were wearing really nice SUITS which was weird) and practiced putting in chest tubes and central lines on these weird plastic dummies with these blood reservoirs so they bled. Turns out that two years ago these procedures were all practiced on anesthetized animals (pigs, goats, or dogs) who were then euthanized afterwards. THE HORROR!!!!!!

Anyways thankfully I didn’t have to deal with that- it was fun, exhausting, wacky, nerve-inducing and provoked a fair amount of existential anxiety. Spending the majority of my waking hours for two days straight contemplating the ways in which human bodies can be mangled and destroyed was unsettling.

I’ve got my card now, I am certified by the American College of Surgeons in Advanced Trauma Life Support. I’m ready to go to Enterprise, Oregon (population around 1600) and work in a 33 bed hospital staffed by three family practice doctors. Since its the only hospital in the county and there’s tons of agriculture, ranching etc. you end up seeing a fair amount of trauma- usually human vs cow or tractor.
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from a posting at the hipmama news pages, the story of a canadian mom who was targetted and harassed for trying to breastfeed her kid on a plane. the link there is busted, but the columnist did an interesting follow-up.

if you are in the Bay Area, check it out! tiffany will be exhibiting with other artists at the Backroom Gallery at Adobe Books, 3166 16th street, (between Valencia and Guerrero). the show is open until the end of May and there’s a reception on March 28, 7-11pm. update: tiffany’s poem is also now up.

if you live in Austin, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, Cambridge, MA, Brookline, MA, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Oakland you have got to go see Eric Drooker’s new slideshow. (See “Appearances”) It’s to promote the release of his incredible new graphic novel, Blood Song. Eric’s insightful/inciteful work has fueled activists and artists alike for decades. He was here in Portland the other night. So good to catch up with an old pal and so good to be wowed and inspired and engaged by such a deeply committed and wise artist whose simple unpretentious nature and broad talent infect all those around him. We left feeling keenly aware of the long and bitter strains of so many power-over-hungry fools, and filled with a rooted sense, a sense of hopeful resistance. Thank you, and Go Eric!

for my sweetie amanda, actually being a doctor in real life means that she went in to work at 6 in the morning saturday, got exactly 5 minutes sleep that night, and got off work sunday afternoon only to have to go back in this morning, monday for another call, where she gets out at around 11 or midnight. yow. she brings back these amazing stories of babies and big people in crisis or who are just going through interesting hard stuff and of all the healing work and social advocacy she’s doing for them. plus, she gets to work with some of the coolest folks i’ve ever had the honor and pleasure of knowing. yo pdxfp, you rock!

for my little cousin jamie, on the other hand (um, ok he’s a good foot taller than me and fairly buff, but still he is my little cousin), being a doctor on tv (he plays the new dr. boone on nbc’s third watch) means we got to laugh heartily, as he, on national television, calls out orders during an emergency while stradling a patient on a moving gurney. but actually, also, of course, we get to be very impressed with his obvious acumen. his best work, say lots of us in the family, is on the stage, but catch his great performances on the box anyway! (you might also catch him on the odd soap opera or beer commercial.) go jamie!!

chris has got these stories about smooching going. so people, here’s action figure’s very own smoochy story section: i’ll tell the story of my very first real kiss, and it involves a certain 9th grader named Natalie and the swooning sounds of Journey’s Lights. But first, let’s ask A, what was your first real kiss like?

the dogs have been freaking out, yelling at these kows for kids statues here in the best city on earth.

as we blog along, having just moeved here, we will elucidate on just how that is. one quick one is that it has the very best ymca i’ve ever been to. it’s got bball courts, raquetball, a bike trainer which has a pc connected to it, so you can browse the web while working out (and listen to your own cd’s, etc), it’s got a great pool, a track, and jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. wow. i’m loving it.

another great thing about our experience so far is the awesome group of folks that are amanda’s co-interns. [note that as of friday afternoon, this page is still showing last year’s first year folks. check again soon, if it’s still that way]

Understanding Prison Health Care: Fostering Competence and Compassion in Treating Prisoners

– organized by Melissa Minor, MD (funded by the Arts and Humanities Medical Scholars Program at Stanford School of Medicine)

This educational web site uses narratives and artistic works to foster competence, compassion and activism in medically treating prisoner patients, a patient population that has traditionally been overlooked in medical education and marginalized in clinical practice. It is meant to inform, educate and challenge personal biases toward caring for prisoner patients. Without an understanding of prison health care issues, it is difficult to provide competent and compassionate care to prisoners, or any other culturally disenfranchised population.

Each page is devoted to a particular topic on prison health care. On each page is a collection of artwork done by prison artists or community activist artists (with links to the source when available). Additionally, at the bottom of each page you can hear the opinions of various experts in prison health care and prison rights (including physicians, advocates, community educators, lawyers and prisoners themselves).

Excerpts from the “Advocacy” and “Needed Changes” sections:

“Health care workers have a responsibility to advocate for the health and well being of their patients. Advocacy may take many forms, including educating a patient about diseases and disease prevention, speaking up for a patient when they may be unable to do so and lessening barriers to accessing health care. The role of advocacy is even more essential and influential when advocating for the health care rights of prisoners. As prisoners are in a relatively powerless position during incarceration, they often do not have the liberty of voicing their opinions for fear of retribution. They also near lack any ability to mobilize change in the prison system. Consequently, health advocacy is often in the hands of the health care professionals who treat prisoner patients.”

“Numerous changes in prison policy, programs and procedures are necessary if health care in prisons is to improve. Many of these changes must occur within the prison institution to strengthen prisoner access to health care (urgent care, preventive care, chronic care, specialty care) and health education materials. Other institutional changes must address the issues of assuring patient confidentiality, facilitating prisoners in taking partnership in their health care decisions and providing continuity of follow-up care, especially when an outside physicians is consulted.”

above artwork by Eric Drooker

still not posting anything significant here at the moment. i’m too overwhelmed with the struggle to free Trevor and the others. Do folks believe that humanitarian relief workers and international peace observers and those expressing solidarity with oppressed peoples deserve to be imprisoned without charges for weeks, and be abused, and possibly die in prison? No? Then please, please take this urgent action now. See the site, read the background, and call the embassy and your elected officials to protest and demand their release.

See more at indymedia and here on our page: Trevor and a host of other activists carried out a kick-ass action in support of those under seige in Bethlehem.

an Amandablog (a monsterblog)

Before I start here I have to rave a bit about last night’s Musical Buffy. It was completely amazing. Buffy and Spike’s sexual tension makes me feel kind of like I think I felt about Luke and Leia (before we found out they were related) after “Star Wars” when I was four and then later the yumminess of Leia and Han. But with this wonderful delicious dark twist- like Luke and Han combined with Christopher Huckleberry Frumkes, my sweet bad boy high school first love.

But yes, no more internalized suit tyranny! I channeled all of my nervous energy around interviewing into what I was going to wear. I spent three hours at the mall on a SATURDAY (like taking too much of the worst most awful drug) and went back to the shoe store twice trying (and failing) to find the perfect shoes! It seemed so incredibly important- like I wasn’t going to match my top residency if I wore the wrong colored shoes with my blue suit. Eli passed the rolling sticky dog-hair collector thing all over my suit like some twisted curandera herbal sweeping cure as I stood on Potrero in San Francisco in the morning light at 8:00 AM. Nice folks walked by on their way to their work day wearing sensible things such as overalls. I had perspired as much as most people would on the day of an interview that helps shape where they will be spending the busiest three years of their life. My semi-fabulous (and expensive) bold red color block silk shirt bled and ran into the white borders between the blocks making my underarm a bleary smudge. I was so angry and upset- the clothes that they make are supposed to be worn by a wealthy person with a perfect body who doesn’t even sweat? YARG. I’ve talked to a few folks about this since- I think its the feeling my mom gets when she shoe shops and nothing fits her beautiful wide feet or how another friend felt (before the breast reduction) when she went bra shopping and was tired of stuffing her boobs into dowdy Teflon or tried on dresses that fit up top but ballooned out over her slim hips and legs. Its when a certain kind of sexism is very tangible- you literally don’t fit into something that billions of dollars of advertising tell you that you should or else you’re not attractive, not beautiful, not okay. My friend has this tattooed on her inner wrist so that she can see it all the time- UNLEARN.

So, I show up to my interview and my sweet and charming co-interviewee is looking fabulous in a nice skirt and comfy snuggly sweater and a hint of glitter eye shadow. The residents are wearing jeans, some with piercing and visible tatts. And I was reminded- “OH YEAH! This is the WHOLE POINT of why I’m going into Family Practice- its a place in medicine where I can BE MYSELF!” So, today I rode my swift and sleek surly cross check over to the mall and handed the nice lady my smeary underarm shirt and said “no thanks”- I don’t want to own a shirt that melts when I perspire. I was greatly inspired by Kate Kirtz who is AMAZING- she has made some rad films including one about underground abortion provision pre- Roe v. Wade called Jane: An Abortion Service. She wrote a gorgeous piece on Get Crafty about thrift shopping and how we can wear clothes for the revolution- AS the revolution and how dressing and relating to clothes as a woman can be a delicious and wonderful mix of feelings and intentions (kinda like Spike and Buffy). I aspire to approach clothing the way that she does. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I end up at the Mall.

today’s my b-day. and leonard peltier’s also. cleaning house, making calls, dealing with old emails and voicemails, doing laundry, missing my sweetie who’s at the hospital, her last night of call in this rotation.

neither my dad nor i could sleep much last night, so we wrote emails back and forth to connect and help make sense of it all. then i got a note from my sister this morning about her 7 year old’s response to events in NY:

I don’t have much to add except to give you Martha’s words of wisdom on the way to school this morning. “Maybe these people thought they were changing the world or they just wanted to be famous, except its not the right way to do it and they aren’t even here to know they are famous, so it doesn’t make any sense does it?” No my sweet, it makes no sense at all.

and to add to yesterday’s list, global exchange has a keen perspective on the rampant scapegoating that is all over the corporate news.