So in recent years i seem to have developed this habit, sometimes purposeful, sometimes not, of reading books in appropriate locations... The Name of the Rose in front of the pope's palace in Avignon, the hunchback of notre dame in said belltower, the chapter on the wreck of the medusa of the history of the world in 10.5 chapters in the louvre, AHBWOSG in berkeley, etc. Today I added another, on my way to pick up counting crows tickets from this guy in emeryville (the guys from SF but we were meeting halfway) i was reading some James Baldwin short stories on the emeryville bus...

I must say with all the hoopla about Trent Lott and all the self-congratulation in the blogosphere about how so few conservatives are still pro-segregation, we may have forgotten the fact that, even in the liberal fantasy world of the bay area we're still pretty much segregated. Even for someone like me, with a black younger brother, who went to a black church every other month, who rode the city busses accross town all the time in highschool, it still feels like visiting a foreign country to take a bus to emeryville. Not like visiting china or something, but like say England. Everythings a little different, people talk a little different, I constantly stick out like a sore thumb, etc. People are friendly, and I'm friendly, but in the way you're friendly to a foreigner... Its sad to think it, but segregation is still pretty alive and well in america, and if its like this here, i can't imagine what its like in mississippi.