Post Minneapolis

Safe and warm away from the freezing temperatures of Minneapolis. It's astonishing how quickly you become used to it being absolutely freezing. The other day it was -24°C, plus wind-chill bringing it down even further. And that wasn't too bad a day. In fact, the week I was in Minneapolis, it only got above freezing once or twice. The thing is though, I've been much, much colder in Dunedin. Everyone in this country insulates and heats their houses. It's just what's done. So you essentially go from heated house, to heated car to heated store. Much better then the all piercing cold of Dunedin. Also, for the first time, I discovered the joy of radically different types of snow. From big, fluffy fairytale crystals, to small spindly spikes, and snow so dry and fine it looked like sand.

Pictures!

I loved the Art Deco that was all over Minneapolis.

Just found this interesting.

Yes. It was cold.

This is a Ban Lum Khao Bronze Age pot. Why it's in a museum/art gallery in Minneapolis, I'll never know.

The line for the caucus

Finally, the Mall of America. The world's biggest mall. It's so large, it has its own theme park. Yes, it is pretty damn big.

The Caucus

Okay, this is a bit late, but I unfortunately came down with a rather nasty sore throat, which has made me lean towards avoiding work rather than writing. But last Tuesday (which was super) I attended a local caucus to watch the democratic process in action.

The process was divided into two sections. Firstly, the casting of your preferred presidential candidate for your party (in this case Democrats), and secondly a caucus which is designed to choose people to represent local issues at a higher level. It was meant to start at 6.30, presidential stuff over by 7, and caucus complete at 8.30.

Rocking up at 6.30, the line was already out the doors of the local school where it was being held, and rapidly expanding around the block. We're talking well below freezing temperatures. So many hipsters! Wearing skinny jeans and tight jackets, huddled together against the cold. Surreal moment of the night? When the cops arrived to herd some hobos out of the basement. I have no idea why there were hobos in the basement, but I hope they had somewhere to go.

The number of people who showed up defied expectations. This was for a relatively small precinct, and well over 1,000 people showed to cast their choice for presidential nominee. And it was entirely Obama dominated. What's really funny isn't that they didn't require any proof of ID, just a letter or bill addressed to you, or the word of a neighbour. Begging for fraud, but the entire thing was out of control.

One of my friends was working the line, selling the people on a senatorial candidate Jack Nelson Pallmeyer. He seems to be a good guy, but I felt sorry for the folks who couldn't escape her as they were stuck in the queue, waiting to cast their ballot.

It wasn't till 8.15 that all the voting was done, and the line no longer stretched across any available space. What was meant to take 30 minutes took 105. An amazing turnout out by all considerations.

Then, we got into caucusing. The whole process bewildered me. It was the worst sort of meeting bureaucracy. Agendas, resolutions, shows of hands, and people gradually losing interest and drifting away. What was meant to happen was delegates were meant to be chosen to advance local issues at the next level up of government, of which a few would go to the senatorial body and push for certain candidates who best represent the grassroots feelings. It's a good idea, but over an hour later, we still hadn't sorted out who would do it. Let alone the passing of resolutions showing that were floating about to push for impeachment or anything else. I left at 9.30, thoroughly sick of the whole business and how it was run.

While it's good to see democracy in action, especially at a local level, it was utterly disheartening to see so many people drift away as the caucus dragged on and on. If one is to really try and get people involved, that sort of thing would have to be streamlined remarkably.

Nonetheless, the huge turnouts leave me with hope for the future of democracy in America. If the youth vote feels like its voice is heard, if Obama is elected, then they will remain interested in Politics for the rest of their lives.

TB/AC

Super Tuesday!

Tonight, for the first time in my life, I'll be attending a caucus to help decide the fate of a nation. Well, not personally deciding, and I'm not enrolled for Minneapolis, but I digress.

See, the American political system is a vast and arcane thing, with complexity possibly on the level of, oh I don't know, discovering a unified field theory.

Before the election even happens, each party must choose a candidate. These candidates campaign against each other prior to the real election, and registered party members get to decide who they want to represent them. However, it's more complicated. Each state is given a certain number of delegates, and a candidate needs the majority of delegates nationally to gain the nomination. The Republican party has a "winner take all" system, where whoever gets the highest percentage of votes gets all the delegates. The Democrats have a proportional system, where the percentage of votes equals the percentage of delegates. And 24 of the states do this deciding today, on Super Tuesday. Which means by the end of today, we'll probably have a Republican candidate. But maybe not a Democrat. The race is so close between Clinton and Obama, that even once everything's been tallied, it could still be very, very close. At which point we'd have to wait for the remaining states, or one of the other, lesser candidates to commit his delegates to one of them.

Of course, some shit is even more complicated than that. Two states (New Hampshire and somewhere else, I don't remember) decided that they wanted to hold their primaries earlier on in the year, to make them seem cool and important. Democratic Party said "No, you can't do that, or else everyone will do it, and it'll just get fucking crazy". The states said "Tough titties" and so the Democratic Party isn't accepting those delegates as being valid.

On top of that, some of the states aren't required to give their delegates to who the citizens vote for. In a couple of places, even if the majority fell with, say, Romney, the state could actually give all the delegates to another candidate, say Huckabee. Kind of a holdover from when they didn't trust the citizens to make intelligent decisions.

And this is only to decide who's going to be that candidate, not even the actual President. That's a whole 'nother level of stuff I don't understand. I'll try to figure it out before voting.

Of course, the whole process of delegates is slightly weird. There's a lot of gerrymandering going on, with large, low population rural states often wielding power on a level with their more populous cousins. Whether this is fair or not is entirely up for debate.

I'll try and write something up after the actual event. Here's hoping it's not a complete cluster-fuck.

More from San Francisco

San Francisco is a wonderful city. I've kinda fallen in love with it. I only wish it wasn't so damned expensive! It would cost a bloody fortune if I actually wanted to live there.

The Dept of Psychology at UC Berkeley. I just find the juxtaposition of mythology and hard science rather interesting.

More of the same building. What is with America and neo-classical architecture?

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SFMOMA, which is a magnificent gallery. They had this exhibit there by Olafur Eliasson, who does work with light and optics in astonishing ways.

Street Hotdogs! Man, these things are good!

SF, as taken from Twin Peaks, the highest point (I think) in the city.

It's a squirrel! I don't know why, but I think squirrels are entirely cool, and I was always bummed that they were one rodent NZ never got.

I managed to get to the Golden Gate bridge when the light was absolutely amazing, so here are some photos from that.

Peace out everyone,

T

San Francisco!

Well folks, I'm now in San Francisco. It's a really nice city so far, and wonderfully mild in the dead of winter. I've  been charmed to point where it's now in competition for where I might end up.

Onwards with the pictures! Though the day was grey and shit, so it's pretty hard to see in some of them.

I rather like the quote in the first one.

I wish I lived in the Empress of China

Billy and Jimmy Lee will pummel you into relaxation! And I'm guessing not all of you will understand why this is funny.

This building isn't actually that tall, it's a pyramid. Which fools your brain into thinking it stretches upwards much more than it does.

Oooh, scientologists! February 10th. They'll get what's coming to them.

Golden Gate bridge, way out in the mists!

Ditto!

Alcatraz!

Delicious sourdough crabs! Now you can enjoy getting crabs!

Not actually a strip club. A real club, just called Bimbo's 365.

Crazy ass cubist water sculpture.

This place was amazing. It was full of boutique food places. Two chocolatessens, a cheese maker, wine stores, local meats, a caviar café, a mushroom place. And it just kept going. I could have spent a fortune here.

The cheese place. So tempting!

The only food I bought? Quite good, but not amazing chocolate.

Finally, well, just read the sign.

TB/AC

www.arthurcurrylives.com

Shiny!

Normally, I'm not a fan of cars. I don't specifically dislike them, but they don't really do it for me. But my uncle invited me to go with him to a car show in Portland, so I figured it'd be at least interesting. And while he was there to look for a new car, I was just there for the shiny. Unfortunately, some of these are concept cars, so will never see the light of day.

Childhood obesity edition!

Newport! Home of my childhood! Photos!

That's the beach. It's pretty!

And yes, that's ice forming on the beach. It was really cold.

Porn and Jesus. And I just love the idea of of a 24 hour porn store. So, if at 3am you desperately need something, it's right there!

CORNDOGS! They're kinda like Kiwi hotdogs, but they're dipped in cornbread batter before being deep fried. They're damned good, but so deadly.

Candy corn is a mainstay of halloween candy. No one really knows what it is, and it's not really edible, but it's a classic. Weird little things, they'll probably outlast Armageddon.

This candy bag is pure childhood sugar high material. There's a jawbreaker, saltwater taffy and pixie sticks. There's enough sugar in this one bag to transform someone into the Flash for a limited time.

And this is what's inside a pixie stick. They're paper tubes filled with sugary sherbet-y stuff that's a toxic colour. It's like speed for 5 year olds.

Any wonder I was a pudgy child?

TB/AC

www.arthurcurrylives.blogspot.com