hold on to the center

   “I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.  A year ago, six months ago, I thought I was an artist. I no longer think about it,  I am. Everything that was literature has fallen from me. There are no more books to be written, thank God.    This then? This is not a book. This is libel, slander, defamation of character. This is not a book, in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of Art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty… what you will. I am going to sing for you, a little off key perhaps, but I will sing. I will sing while you croak, I will dance over your dirty corpse…    To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.” – Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

Henry Miller is my favorite novelist.  This is not because of his subject matter, storylines, or blunt language.  Simply put, his prose like passages interspersed with slice of life vignettes are exuberant and forcefully expressed.  His vivid flow of metaphor and limitless descriptive vocabulary make for the most joyfully Bohemian reading that any social contrarian could wish for. His first novel, Tropic of Cancer, was published in France in 1934 but banned in the US. It later shocked the American public when it was finally available in 1961.  27 years later!

My favorite work of his is The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy.  The first book, Sexus, contains a detailed description of a music teacher of unusual prowess who “sent them (students) reeling into the streets” with post instructional enthusiasm. Even though I finished his entire bibliography many years ago, I return to it often for pure enjoyment.  Now I’m off to find a used copy of The Air Conditioned Nightmare.  If you would like to join me and Henry, we might sneak in a game of naked ping pong.

Must see!  The Bathroom Monologue Part I. Watch Part II

For the uninitiated, this is satire.

More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas

Total Time: 60 mins w/ video

This is an incredibly blunt interview.  We need more people like this guy.

My friend Darryl sent me this video, and as he says, you don’t need to be aware of the show to understand the context.   I have not watched The Wire because I don’t own a TV or follow shows otherwise.  It almost made me think that somehow something worthwhile had crawled out of the muck.  These clips are from Bill Moyer’s Journal.

The show is written by a former crime reporter named David Simon who was frustrated that he couldn’t illuminate inner city issues with regular factual reporting.  His answer was to write a fictional serious that would be able to express the truth in a more powerful way.

The gist is that since the U.S. doesn’t really make things anymore, and uneducated inner city inhabitants don’t have a role in a market society, they are poorly served by their government.  The main reason is that there is no financial or political benefit to changing laws or policies that would greatly improve these lost parts of our society.

Part I      28 mins

Part II    26 mins 

You can get a lot by just watching part I or even the first 15 minutes of it if you time or interest is short. 

Is there a serious national figure in politics or academia who thinks the War on Drugs is anything but a disasterous failure?

After reading The Game by Neil Strauss awhile ago, I didn’t anticipate reading another book by him.  He’s been the ghost writer for several rock star confessionals and tales of porn life.  I confess the guilty pleasure of reading about Motley Crue’s wild days for about 45 minutes in a bookstore several years ago.  I saw a post title that sucked me in recently, it was How to Be Jason Bourne: Multiple Passports, Swiss Banking, and Crossing Borders . If you are male, this is almost a no brain-er.  I did not anticipate where this would lead me or how it would help me re-evaluate priorities.

Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life is the story of Strauss’ attempts to be prepared for any kind of disaster or breakdown of society that would require him protect himself and his loved ones.  An admirable pursuit.  He starts out with fear driven survival training, complicated money strategies, and burying survival supplies off the coast of California.  After getting some intense urban survival training, his view gradually shifts and asks himself whether it would be more satisfying to be able to rush toward a disaster to help his fellow man.   This is not a book review, I won’t spoil the positive ending.

Many of his personal revelations are of a similar flavor.  It made me ask myself the question, “If there was an emergency of any kind, would I really know what to do?”  A couple months ago I watched my niece for the better part of a Saturday afternoon.  If she had trouble breathing, I realized that I didn’t really know how to help her.  I live in the city, but if I was with my family and we were some distance from an EMT, would I know how to treat an injury, or worse yet, apply CPR to one of the older members of my family? I had to admit that I would not.  Leader of Men and Protector of Friends and Family?  FAIL

This past Sunday, I took Adult, Child & Infant CPR and First Aid at the Seattle Red Cross and learned lots of valuable information and techniques.  I admit that spending an entire Sunday inside on a beautiful day is not thrilling.  At times the training is boring and necessarily repetitive.  It was invaluable.  Taught by a volunteer retiree that knew his subject, I learned how to take action if someone needed help. I also felt the satisfaction of eating my personal skill vegetables and being a better person for it.

Those of you who already have the skill, I applaud you and want to keep you around me as much as possible.

Here is a short sermon from the smug and recently converted.   You have been warned.

What is the basic commitment to each other in modern society?  When there is an accident around you, do you become anxious or hesitate to help?  Would you like to know what to do and be of service to your fellow man?  I would put it to you that almost everyone of us has a situation where people trust us to help them.  Let’s put aside whether these are loved ones or strangers.  Imagine situations when you are around loved ones.  Is there always someone in the room that knows how to provide emergency care? Should that be you?  You can’t wait for “someone” and you certainly can’t wait for the harmful event to happen.  It will be too late.  Theoretical knowledge is not good enough.  You have to know when and how to act, and act quickly.

Emergency made me ask myself these questions.  Even if a logical appeal makes sense, it might not inspire one to act.  Think of one person who depends on you in some way and imagine how you would feel if you couldn’t care for them when they need you most.  For me, this was immediate. Is there someone you would give up a sunny day for?   I thought so.  I would appreciate any comments or anything you might want to add to this post.

So who is up for lunch and Bloodborne Pathogens?

In the winter of 1932-1933 Stalin’s Soviet government carried out a regionally motivated mass killing that seems to have surpassed the more well known Holocaust in scope and cruelty. It happened 10 years before the Nazi’s concentration camp ovens and was widely reported in the western press, unlike the Jewish Holocaust which was known regionally and in political circles but did not appear widely in the world press.

With a sinister narration and chilling first hand accounts, The Soviet Story begins with the Ukrainian starvation plot carried out on the people by their own government. This was brought to light in the relatively recent accounts of Soviet mass killings The Black Book of Communism weighing in at 912 pages. For the faint of heart and short of time, this documentary carries the point effectively in under 90 minutes.

Millions of tons of grain and all food stuffs were removed from the entire region. Its inhabitants were prevented from pursuing food or leaving the region by law. The Soviet authorities blocked passages out of the region and shot those who tried to leave. Over the course of that year, 7 million people died as a result. Most from slow, agonizing starvation or execution.

Most popular history of this period is focused on the Hitler’s Third Reich and includes the Soviet aspect in relation to it or World War II in general.  The Soviet Story tells a part of the story in a way that seems fresh and noteworthy. This video also focuses on the commonalities of Marxist theory as realized by Lenin and especially Stalin and his followers. I was surprised at how directly the principles of class warfare with extermination of those at the bottom and the top of the class pyramid were communicated and carried out. I’ve read Marx widely and was aware of his general references to those who must “perish in the revolution”, but the approach of Lenin and ambitious scale of Stalin actions are shocking.

Another interesting aspect illuminated is the similarities between Soviet and Nazi beliefs. The different philosophys about who should be killed and why gets great detail. The Soviets drew the lines by class, the Nazi’s by race or other ethnic discrimination.

I won’t try to summarize the content, but these observations come from only the first 1/3 of the video.  The overall scope is how Stalinism effected WWII and shaped the Soviet Union for the the Cold War.

It also contains an excellent telling of the USSR’s involvement in the first part of WWII allied strongly with Germany and determined to divide Europe between them.  I would recommend this documentary strongly to anyone who enjoys the popular WWI films like those on the history channel. 

I saw this video over the net last year and was fascinated by the parts I could understand. The interviews with non-English speakers were not subtitled. I wrote the makers of the film who explained that they had received similar concerns from all over Europe and were working to localize. Could I help with a donation? Absolutely. The DVD was released recently and I am grateful for my copy.

Why don’t I come up with this stuff? Allow me to hip you to Sock Tube Presents. My favorite is their version of There Will Be Blood, but it contains spoilers and I would not want to ruin a superb film for anyone.  So…

Sponsors? We don't need no stinking sponsors.

What is news to you and how do you get yours?  What context (local, national, or global) is most important to you? What is a healthy amount of time to spend in order to be an informed part of our democratic society?

Are you approaching this in a constructive way?

These are questions I’ve asked myself over and over since taking to heart my responsibility as an adult voting for a representative government in a free country.  After 10 years of viewing and listening to Democracy Now! It is my own solution to all points raised above and I recommend it highly. 

Amy Goodman, and co-host Juan Gonzalez are what most would describe as a Progressives.  Their views match my own in many ways.  This viewpoint comes across in the general editorial process of choosing the topics but rarely (can’t think of an example) expresses opinion on the program.  She has the refreshing quality of actually working to draw out the experience or expertise of the interviewee rather than interspersing self aggrandizing commentary. 

Use the web, catch a broadcast, or download and watch it in HD while fixing dinner like I do!  Podcasts are available as well.

Journalism is a natural antagonist to government, which deceives and often resists change.  Why?  Because the decisions are made by politicians and their sponsors who almost uniformly are driven by keeping  power and seeking more .   Of course journalists are left of center. That is where they belong because the progress of time is the progress of change.  Nothing can deter it.

It alarms me everyday how poisoned commercial news and reporting has been during my lifetime.  Practically none of it provides a practical or detailed frame to topics at hand.  They use very few first hand accounts of events and even less expert opinions unless they are “media savvy” and already on board with the establishment game-plan.  Tools of influence have always been leveraged by those in power, but I fear the rise of commercial influence on what we take as fact is enhanced as profits head skyward and our electorate becomes less informed and more distracted.

Here’s a shout-out to some of my favorite go-for-broke journalists covering the Middle East and elsewhere who seem to embody the ethic every day of their lives.  Robert Fisk, Seymour Hersh, Greg Palast, and the new generation Jeremy Scahill and Nir Rosen.  They bring the story no matter what it does to them, how ugly it is, or what ideology it implicates.

You haven’t heard or read these guys?  Start listening to Amy and you soon will.