Like a suitcase packed with everything but the kitchen sink, my blog is a place to talk movies, books, current events, pop culture, travel, modern love, and includes flash fiction. A list of categories can be found to the right.
Don't forget to stand on corners with suitcases in your hands (homage to Lou Reed and his song "Sweet Jane"). You never know what's around that corner, but it will surely be an adventure.
Photo of Catalina Vargas courtesy of Catalina Vargas
Catalina forwarded this email that her father wrote after our recent elections. She said her dad usually does not send emails like this, but was so moved by our elections, that he wrote it. He sent it to all three of his children, all adults in their late 20s or early 30s.
I had the pleasure of meeting her dad a couple of times while I was teaching in Bogota, Colombia. I remember one conversation we had about judges in Colombia. I remember him telling me it was hard to have justice when the judges get killed all the time for trying to rule in a just way. I never forgot that.
Anyway, her dad attended Harvard University during the turbulent civil rights era. Please read below for his heartfelt reaction to our elections and what he experienced as a young man in our country during the civil rights movement.
Hello Kids:
Last night you were witnesses of a very historic change: a black man was elected president of the USA. I did have the opportunity to live in Harvard through the difficult times of segregation, racism and all the problems that the Civil Rights Movements brought out to the public in the 60s and 70s.
I was a tutor in an all black "Upward Bound Program" in Darien, Conn, in 1967, for 150 black kids with high-school problems for being underachievers. For me, it was a summer of reflection and deep worry when I saw the profound hatred between the races. The young negroes simply reacted violently to violent laws and treatment, there was not a chance to try for peaceful talk as most meetings with students ended in bad words, violent remarks and plain threats. To be in the middle of all that was my introduction to the racial problems of the USA, something that I did not fully understand, but I sensed that it was wrong.
Fortunately I was a foreigner, a "martian", and this provided me with a shield that made me invisible to most of them and did not have any trouble with the black majority living and working day by day and night by night there.
Well, yesterday I witnessed the "end of an era". Only that will be enough to ensure a legacy for Mr. Obama. And although I am a non-political animal I am glad that I lived to see it. That is democracy at its best. Anybody should have the chance to run its country if he/she is a law abiding citizen, and that happens only in the USA. In addition to the cheers and the speeches of last night, I saw a huge technological show on TV where results and opinions were shown live and direct. As your mom said: "if you present all the numbers for everybody to see–demographics and political – then you have transparent elections"
I hope you learnt from this election. Regardless of the future, Obama is a model of politician for everybody. Respect and fairness for your contenders are the weapons of real democracy. When do we expect to see something similar in Colombia? No one knows, but certainly I will never see it. I sincerely hope that you do.
Photo of Taj Mahal Hotel taken by Rubaljain (Flickr)
I watched excitedly as I heard Deepok Chopra explain the attacks on Mumbai on CNN International. Then CNN abruptly cut Chopra off. It was an overt display of censorship. Chopra was merely speaking the truth.
Last I heard, we live in a democracy. I thought that freedom of the press and speech were cornerstones of our democracy. It is what differentiates us from living under a totalitarian regime. Mumbai Street, Pan-African News Wire (Flickr)
Our press is controlled more and more by the dictates of the advertisers. The Chopra interview aired on Wednesday night, November 26th was proof enough for me. I can just picture the CNN executives wringing their hands as calls from advertisers began pouring into the studio during the interview. I imagine executives ordered some producer to yell in the journalist's ear piece, "Cut Chopra off now!" Mumbai Carnage, Pan-African News Wire (Flickr)
It is up to us, the viewers, to demand the truth. Until we do, the advertisers will keep controlling what the press are brave enough to report. I seriously wonder if these executives ever took a journalism class. A class that perhaps discussed the evils of censorship. I bet they all have degrees in marketing. This is wrong on so many different levels.
I encourage all of you to send an email to CNN comments and ask why they cut this interview off. Photo of Deepok Chopra taken by Yodel Anecdotal (Flickr)
Here is a transcript of the CNN interview with Deepok Chopra.
Chopra: What we have seen in Mumbai has been brewing for a long time, and the war on terrorism and the attack on Iraq compounded the situation. What we call "collateral damage" and going after the wrong people actually turns moderates into extremists, and that inflammation then gets organized and appears as this disaster in Bombay. Now the worst thing that could happen is there's a backlash on the Muslims from the fundamental Hindus in India, which then will perpetuate the problem. Inflammation will create more inflammation.
CNN: Let me jump in on that because you're presuming something very important, which is that it's Muslims who have carried out these attacks and, in some cases, with Washington in their sights.
Chopra: Ultimately the message is always toward Washington because it's also the perception that Washington, in their way, directly or indirectly funds both sides of the war on terror. They fund our side, then our petrol dollars going to Saudi Arabia through Pakistan and ultimately these terrorist groups, which are very organized. You know Jonathan, it takes a lot of money to do this. It takes a lot of organization to do this. Where's the money coming from, you know? The money is coming from the vested interests. I'm not talking about conspiracy theories, but what happens is, our policies, our foreign policies, actually perpetuate this problem. Because, you know, 25% of the world's population is Muslim and they're the fastest growing segment of the population of the world. The more we alienate the Muslim population, the more the moderates are likely to become extremists.
CNN: I hope you're - you've -
This is where the interview is cut off. No segue like, "we have to stop for a commercial break." Nothing. The journalist does say, "Indian physician and philosopher, Deepok Chopra."
Photo taken by David D. Muir "The Big Money" (Flickr)
All I've got to say is what I have said before, and I am quoting Lefebvre: "We live in a bureaucratic society of controlled consumption." However, in this instance it would seem that the controlled consumption got way out of control in a way Lefebvre could not have ever imagined.
We only have to look around us to see what he meant. He had the foresight to see what has been happening in the 80s, 90s, and up to now.
Just look at the cars, clothes, and eyewear even. Remember in the 70s when we all wore Levis and they were a reasonable ten bucks? Some of us wore Lee jeans. Now a pair of designer jeans will set you back $100 or more. And if you are not wearing them you are not cool. Your car is especially important here in So Cal. Sad, but true. Folks are still driving SUVs. Why?
I was at Big Lots the other day looking for deals and the little cashier was wearing eyeglasses with giant letters of the designer on the side. I do not remember the designer. Madness I say. She earns minimum wage.
Anwyay, I could rant on and on, but I won't. Lucky you. I feel very sorry for the folks who bought houses and were not told the whole truth about their loans due to the greed of the realtor.
If you have not read Thorstein Veblen's book The Theory of the Leisure Class, I highly recommend you do. It was recommended reading in Kurt Vonnegut's Palm Sunday. I picked up a used copy of the Veblen book while living in London. Loved it. When I was studying at UCLA, it was required reading for one of my courses. It is a book that will make you laugh at our "conspicuous consumption." Veblen hits the nail on the head.
One last thing, everyone is talking about American greed, but lets not forget jealousy and envy. Being jealous of what someone else has makes you want it. Being envious also makes you want it. Both lead to bitterness and resentment. Don't go there. Instead go to Big Lots and leave happy you found a good deal.
Better yet, go live in the Amazon for 6 months like my friend Marcela did. Or go to Zambia for a year like Chas and June. Go volunteer somewhere and help those who need it most. I guarantee you will leave feeling better than if you spent a couple hundred on a pair of sunglasses you are bound to leave in a restaurant somewhere.
I am pasting 3 paragraphs from an essay written by Doug Kellner and Steve Best in their on line series Illuminations. They are very illuminating.:)
I discovered this website while on a teaching assignment in Bogota, Colombia. On my prep time, after finishing my lesson plans, I would research and print out these essays to read after school.
Kellner taught at University of Texas until a few years ago. He is now at UCLA. Kellner has a brilliant mind and is an expert on critical theory, the Frankfrut School and the Situationists which Guy Debord and Henri Levebvre were involved. They were part of the Dada and surrealist movement among other movements.
This essay fleshes out Debord's ideas presented in his book, The Society of theSpectacle. A very good book by the way. Kellner and Best discuss what is happpening in our society. If you read the whole article (I'll post the link), you will understand how we got to where we are now. We live in a society of the spectacle alongside a bureaucratic society of controlled consumption.
I hope you find this information illuminating.
http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell17.htm
The spectacular society spreads its narcotics mainly through the cultural mechanisms of leisure and consumption, services and entertainment, ruled by the dictates of advertising and a commercialized media culture. This structural shift to a society of the spectacle involves a commodification of previously non-colonized sectors of social life and the extension of bureaucratic control to the realms of leisure, desire, and everyday life. Parallel to the Frankfurt School conception of a "totally administered" or "one dimensional" society (Adorno and Horkheimer1972; Marcuse 1964), Debord states that "The spectacle is the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life" (#42). Here exploitation is raised to a psychological level; basic physical privation is augmented by "enriched privation" of pseudo-needs; alienation is generalized, made comfortable, and alienated consumption becomes "a duty supplementary to alienated production"(#42).
The shift to a "bureaucratic society of controlled consumption" (Lefebvre 1971 and 1991) organized around the production of spectacles can be seen as the exploitation of use value and needs as a means of advancing profit and gaining ideological control over individuals. Unlike early capitalism, where the structural exigencies lay in the forceful exploitation of labor and nature, and in defining the worker strictly as a producer, the society of the spectacle defines the worker as a consumer and attempts to constitute the worker's desires and needs, first creating then exploiting them. In this sense, Debord claims that use value was resurrected as a referent of production: "In the inverted reality of the spectacle, use value (which was implicitly contained in exchange value) must now be explicitly proclaimed precisely because its factual reality is eroded by the overdeveloped commodity economy and because counterfeit life requires a pseudo-justification" (#48). It is not that exchange value no longer dominates, but that use value is now deployed in an ideological way that exploits the needs of the new consumer self.
The spectacle not only expands the profits and power of the capitalist class, but also helps to resolve a legitimation crisis of capitalism. Rather then vent anger against exploitation and injustice, the working class is distracted and mollified by new cultural productions, social services, and wage increases. In consumer capitalism, the working classes abandon the union hall for the shopping mall and celebrate the system that fuels the desires that it ultimately cannot satisfy. But the advanced abstraction of the spectacle brings in its wake a new stage of deprivation. Marx spoke of the degradation of being into having, where creative praxis is reduced to the mere possession of an object, rather than its imaginative transformation, and where need for the other is reduced to greed of the self. Debord speaks of a further reduction, the transformation of having into appearing, where the material object gives way to its semiotic representation and draws "its immediate prestige and ultimate function" (#17) as image -- in which look, style, and possession function as signs of social prestige. The production of objects simpliciter gives way to "a growing multitude of image-objects" (#15) whose immediate reality is their symbolic function as image. Within this abstract system, it is the appearance of the commodity that is more decisive than its actual "use value" and the symbolic packaging of commodities -- be they cars or presidents -- generates an image industry and new commodity aesthetics (see Haug 1986).
Photo of Pacific Coast Highway taken by Spoon Monkey (Flickr)
I am reading a book by John Leonard called When the Kissing Had to Stop. Leonard wrote for the New York Times Book Review and other literary publications. My hero Kurt Vonnegut said Leonard was the smartest and most well read person he had ever met.
Any friend of Kurt Vonnegut's is a friend of mine. Sadly, Leonard died recently. I am reading him for the first time and so glad to have discovered him. He writes at rapid fire speed. While reading him, I feel like I have had 20 espressos. He is brilliant. And funny as hell. I highly recommend this book of essays.
Leonard keeps referring to the Joan Didion book, Play It As It Lays. I don't know about any of you, but I have had plenty of Joan Didion "Play It As It Lays" moments.
In case you haven't read the book, in short, Joan is driving the freeways of the L.A area aimlessly to escape her mundane reality. I usually drive Pacific Coast highway down to Laguna Beach or up PCH through Malibu. A much nicer drive than the freeways. Cool ocean breeze and spectacular views. I roll down all the windows, listen to music real loud and dream.
Here is a link to an article in The Nation where Toni Morrison, et al, share their thoughts and feelings about John Leonard. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081208/john_leonard
I saw Choke yesterday down in the OC. Wow!!! I just loved this film. It is adapted from the Chuck Palahnuik book, the writer of the Fight Club.
Anyway, he takes you on a wild ride of sexual addiction and trying to figure out what is normal. The stripper turns out the most philosophical of all lines when she talks of Jesus and the New Testament. I just loved this scene.
Without spoling it, when the main character, Victor, is on the plane near the end what he says is so true. It is up to us to search in ourselves and decide what is normal.... not the self help books, and other societal norms. Existential in nature is the theme.
Now I am not saying you should go out and kill someone, because that might be what you feel like doing to your boss from time to time.:) I am ust saying you decide on how you want to live and then live it.
Lastly, Angelica Huston is perfect in this film. She plays Victor's mom.
Sexy mayor of Tijuana from Showtime program, "Weeds" lets Nancy know who's boss (uploaded on Flickr by Luckypup)
I went out for margaritas and tacos yesterday with my friend Kristie, a fabulous videographer and writer of surf and sand stories for Foam magazine.
Anyway, she asked me about the sexy lawyer I wrote about in a previous post (August 27th) about the film Vicky Christina Barcelona. She asked why I didn't go to Mexico with him after we shared that absolute life changing night in that swanky hotel off the square in the town of Puebla in the summer of 1990.
In an effort to explain my decision making process, let me first describe what Saul looked like and his manner. The mayor of Tijuana that Nancy is sleeping with in the Showtime program, Weeds, is my Saul. One exception, Saul had wavy hair. The way Saul moved and his way in general is exactly like that mayor. Of course Saul was no drug dealer. I think?
We were both 31 at the time we met. I wanted to finish my degree at UCLA. He was already established in his career. Saul told me I could go to school at any one of the excellent universities in Mexico City or Vera Cruz. He owned houses in both cities.
It would have been too difficult for me to try to write research papers on Karl Marx, who I was studying at the time, in Spanish. No way Jose. That was one reason.
Plus to be perfectly honest, I think he was a possible player. He was just too good looking and on fire not to be one.
We did discuss that when I finished school a possible move to Mexico. However, in that two years so many things of course changed. I moved to Tucson after I graduated from UCLA for a couple of years.
The last time I called Saul was to tell him I was leaving Arizona and moving back to Los Angeles. A woman in a very sexy voice answered the phone, "Bueno." I hung up quickly and never called again. Photo of Rafael Nadal posted on Flickr by a1y53 210
So end of story. Every decision we make in life changes are destiny. I do believe I am where I am supposed to be. Or maybe I am supposed to be in Mallorca right now, with Rafael Nadal, in a villa with an ocean view, infinity pool, drinking mojitos, naked.
Photo by Alin Boeana (Flickr, downloaded by Baliwww.com) The Dani people are a people from the central highlands of Western New Guinea, the Indonesian province of Papua.
I saw Fierce People with Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland on cable the other night. I caught the film at about the midway point. I just loved this film. The last two lines of the film were so good, in my humble opinion, I quickly wrote it down:
"We are the sum of all the people we have met. The tribe changes you and you change the tribe."
So true, so true. Especially true to those of my friends who have lived in foreign lands. Living in a different land than your own is usually a life changing experience.
I am not saying that you can't have a "tribe change" if the farthest move you make is to Bakersfield, I am just saying living in a different country than your own is always so enlightening and a great learning experience to say the least.
If you live and die in the city where you were born this quote can still apply. Every single day our interchanges with people change the way we look at life and the world. We have an impact on every person we have an interchange. Even a glance or a smile can change the day someone is having.
The tribe changes you and you change the tribe.
I hope you get my meaning and love the two lines as much as I did. I most certainly do not mean that if you visit a faraway land that you impose our customs and way of life. Only that our presence and how we interact changes us and those we encounter. Guernsey's South Coast, Posted by There and Back (Flickr)
I just finished the book by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows titled, TheGuernsey Literary and Potato Peel PieSociety. I loved this book!!! It is fiction, but written in letter form. I swear I felt like these people were real while reading it.
It takes place in London and on the Channel Island off the UK called Guernsey. Guernsey was occupied by the Germans during the war. The letters date about a year after the war ends. I guarantee you will fall in love with all of the characters. Really.
I heard about it on NPR and then saw that it is #3 on the L.A. Times bestseller list. It made me miss the art of letter writing. A good book to read on a plane, the beach, the tub, anywhere.
Hotel on Square in Puebla, Mexico, Photo taken by vkc (Flickr)
I saw the new Woody Allen film yesterday, Vicky Christina Barcelona. I just loved it. It is funny as hell. And man does that Javier Bardem look mighty fine. Much better than he did with that horrible haircut in No Country for Old Men.
This film made me think of the summer of 1990 I spent in Mexico when I had a wild fling with a sexy lawyer. The college friend I was traveling with met a poet and left with him for a weekend in San Miguel de Allende.
Long story short, after she took off, I met a sexy lawyer in an Armani suit in Mexico City. He helped me with directions for a bus ride to Puebla. We ended up traveling to Puebla together in his fancy black car, spent a most romantic afternoon in a cafe on the square, drinking wine, watching the afternoon rain shower, listening to the church bells echoing through the square, and ended up in a swanky hotel for the night and better part of the morning. A very good memory.
I thought that was the end of the story. A sort of a "what happens in Mexico, stays in Mexico." But this man insisted on coming up to see me. While picking him up at the airport, we had a moment of uncomfortable silence in the terminal.
I took him to my apartment in downtown Long Beach, across the street from the ocean. I opened up a bottle of champagne on my balcony, we clinked our glasses saying "salud" simultaneously. We looked out at the ocean silently. Before I had a chance to take a second sip of champagne, this man turned to face me and said, "marry me."
I told him a night in Puebla wasn't really enough to marry someone. He disagreed vehemently. He said our passion was principal. His exact words, "la cama es principal, Maria, es principal."
I said no of course to this proposal. I had to finish college. We did enjoy a week of unbridled passion together. If any of you watch the program Weeds on Showtime, this man is very much like the mayor of Tijuana Mary Louise Parker's character is sleeping with on the show.
During the next four years, this man wrote me the most romantic love letters (which I have saved), sent expensive gifts on my birthday, and called from time to time to invite me to meet him in some exotic location.
Anyway, go see this film. And if you think it strange that Javier Bardem's character approaches the two beautiful American tourists in a restaurant after an art opening and asks them both to take a small plane to a different town for the weekend, think again. Stranger things have been known to happen.
Even if you never had some wild fling (which I bet most of you have), this film takes you to the heart of Barcelona, love, lust, and passion. Made me want to get on a plane.
One last thing, when I left the movie theater, I took my car to a self serve car wash. I was so caught up in thinking about that night in Puebla, I drove off without rinsing the soap off my car. I was halfway home before I even noticed.
Addendum: I wrote an addendum to this post after many asked why I did not take Saul up on his marriage proposal. It explains in more detail why I said no, no, no. The addendum can be found on my Sept. 11th post, Addendum to Vicky and Sexy Lawyer.
I am reading a most excellent book right now by Samantha Power. This Harvard educated radical was in the news recently when she called Hillary Clinton a monster. Power was on Obama's foreign policy staff, but was forced to resign over this. She would be great as a foreign policy adviser. Photo of United Nations Assembly taken by Robert wkfrd (Flickr)
The book is called Chasing the Flame. It is the life story of Sergio Vieira de Mello. What an extraordinary life this man led in his career with the UN. He was killed in august of 2003 when the UN offices were bombed in Iraq. I remember the news reports showing a pretty blonde woman frantically standing outside the rubble with her cell phone in hand crying. She was talking to him I am sure. Turns out she was his lover. Vieira De Mello was trapped under the rubble and died some four hours later when rescue teams were unable to reach him.
Viera De Mello man was being groomed to be the new secretary general when Kofi Anan stepped down. And a most excellent SG he would have been. A great loss to our world. Anyway, a fascinating read. It reads like a thriller. Photo of United Nations flag taken by Linda Jia (Flickr)
Thanks for the responses. Yes my days at The Rex were something. The maitre'd was a hard core Trotskyist and surfer dude. If you weren't a commie or at least surfed, you got lousy dinner shifts. I told him he was a sell out for working in such a bourgeois establishment waiting on the bourgeoisie. I did have the best shifts...Tuesday through Friday. Probably because of that first wine tasting. I won the owner's respect.
The conversations in the back house with the maitre'd were always enlightening and passionate.
One last thing about those wine tastings, it was usually between 6-8 wines we tasted each week from various wine sales people. However, one Thursday we had a very expensive wine seller from Europe come in with his wines. We tasted 21 wines that Thursday. I did not spit out my wine and was sent home due to my drunken state. Whoops.
Another great thing about our tastings, once the bottles were open, we often times got to take the wine home. Those were the days.
Anyway, my friend, Ian Ashton-Reader, in London, from "old money" sent me this link from the Waiter Rant blog. It is called Seduction and funny as hell. By the way, Ian is one classy dude who never has to prove himself to wait staff by acting demeaning or demanding.
One last thing, if you want to impress folks with your wine knowledge, check out 21Oceanfront's wine list. This is a good way to learn about wine. Check out the menu at White House dinners to see what wine they are drinking is another good way. I amnot sure of the website for 21 Oceanfront, but am sure you can type in 21 Oceanfront, Newport Beach in google and find it. Also wine magazines will help.
Here is the link to Seduction. Enjoy. http://WaiterRant.net/?p=212
Photo of 21 Oceanfront, Newport Beach, CA taken by Eating Orange (Flickr)
I read a review about a new book called Waiter Rant by Steve Dublanica. It just cracked me up. He hits the nail on the head. Dublanica has a blog and it became so popular that he got a book deal. I'll paste the links below.
As most of you know, I worked as a waitress for many years, but my time at the five star dining establishment The Rex in Newport Beach came to mind while reading his blogs. We all new when our customers were from new money (recently acquired wealth), old money (royalty or born with silver spoons in mouth), or were wannabes.
The new money customers fifty percent of the time had chips on their shoulders and had to prove how "important" they were to us. For example, if they did not have a jacket, and we offered a jacket, they'd make a scene as if our dress policy didn't apply to them anymore now that they had money.
Old money knew to wear a jacket. And if old money had just disembarked from their yachts, they would not question our policy and just put the damn jacket on that we had in our coat closet for customers... and very nice Armani jackets they were.
Anyway, at The Rex, we did not spit in the food. However, if a customer spent too long at a table on a busy Saturday night, our matre'd would pass gas (fart) at their table while asking if they needed anything else.
One thing about wait staff at fine dining establishments, they take their work seriously and know their stuff. So when dining out, listen to their recommendation on specials and the wine.
Speaking of wine, at The Rex, where I worked for three years while living a life of glamorous debauchery, had a very professional wine tasting every Thursday. When I first came on board I was considered the peasant of the wait staff because my previous job had been at the Rusty Pelican whose wine list had a white zinfandel on it. A major faux paus.
During our first pretentious blind wine tasting, I filled out my wine rating sheet. The owner called on me to report what I had written. I read my ratings outloud to a room so silent you could hear a cork drop on the carpet. When he took the brown paper bag off the wine bottles, I had rated all the most expensive wines with the highest marks. The English girl, our wine steward, and our maitre'd made many errors on what was what. Moreover, they rated inferior wines with high marks. The staff quit calling me the peasant after that.
This was over twenty years ago, but man do I remember those days. Most of the customers were nice, but the owner a nut job. Why are all owners nut jobs?
We had the rich and famous in all the time. My favorite famous person I waited on was Neil Diamond. I just love that guy. He was so humble and kind. We all fell in love with him.
The Rex is no more and now called 21Oceanfront. It was only 21 tables when I worked there, but they bought the space next door and it is huge now. The staff was the same for the 3 years I was there. No one left because the money was good and hours short. We became like family. We were right below the Doryman's Inn by the pier. We had the best wine list in Orange County and won several restaurant awards. Good times.
Here is the link for anyone, but especially for those who have ever waited tables in their lives.
Poster on building in Paris, Photo by Francois Lafite (Flickr)
I watched Ingrid Betancourt interviewed on Larry King Live from her hotel in Paris. She was held captive by the FARC for nearly 7 years in the jungles of Colombia. The interview was heartbreaking.
Larry King was actually very respectful to her. He did ask the question I am sure some producer forced him to about whether she was sexually abused, but I could tell he did not want to ask it. Of course she would not answer that question and said, "some things that happened in the jungle will stay in the jungle." Larry quickly said, "yes of course" and moved on. I think he was ashamed for asking it. And it goes without asking that she was of course abused.
Anyway, the vacant stare on her face I saw in so many parents of my students and friends when they talked about such horrors. It was chilling then, and it was chilling to see it again in the face of Ingrid Betancourt.
My point in bringing this up is that she said in her interview that one thing that was so unbelievable to her was how human beings could be so cruel to other human beings. The look on her face when she said this spoke volumes about the human condition.
She has plans to help the others still held in captivity (700 or so) obtain their freedom. And my point here is that she endured countless humiliations, a loss of her dignity, her freedom of movement, and on and on. Yet she plans to do something positive from her experience.
I do believe she is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and is depressed. You could see it in her face...and I heard some French rags are saying that she has admitted to this. It will be a long road to recovery for her... yet she is already making moves to make a difference in this world.
So our little problems and worries mean fuck all in comparison. So when stuck in traffic, worried about the bills and your 401k, think about Ingrid and how fragile life is and how everything can change in a second. Guess I am saying we should all be thankful for what we've got. Peace on Earth Mary
Immortal Technique, UCLA, May 2008, all photo by Angi Brzycki
A revolutionary who has started an underground movement, Immortal Technique is not your usual rapper. Tech tackles political issues rather than rapping about guns and ‘hos. Cause of Death, Tech’s searing indictment of 9/11 and political corruption became an instant hit on college radio stations. Lyrics such as the following outrage the political right and fascinate his left-leaning audience:
“I don’t think Bush did it ‘cause he isn’t that smart He’s just a stupid puppet taking orders on his cell phone From the same people that sabotaged Senator Wellstone" (Cause of Death, Immortal Technique, Revolutionary Volume 2) Tech hopes his music will inspire young people, particularly college students, to learn more about the world so they can make a positive impact. In January, Tech performed for free at the Bronx Museum to raise money to buy coats for the homeless. After his performance in a room packed with fans and activists, Tech gave a captivating speech. “Revolution to a college kid who puts a poster of Che Guevara or Bob Marley on his wall is something very different for a person who lives in West Africa or Central America.
“Because revolution has consequences. In the most glorious attempts to fight corruption, innocent people will be killed and innocent women will be raped. But people are willing to suffer through that chaos, pain, and suffering because their government has become so non-compliant and disrespectful to their civil liberties.” Tech encourages his listeners to see through the propaganda and fight for truth and justice rather than what is popular. Before anyone champions a cause, he says, “they should understand the history of it.
“Why wouldn’t they want to know the history of their nation? Why wouldn’t they want to understand their nation’s history and relate what happened then to what is happening right now, because history repeats itself.” Tech, whose real name is Felipe Coronel, was born in Peru in 1979. His family, tired of political instability and civil unrest in Peru, moved to Harlem when Tech was two. The family struggled financially while Tech’s father, now a physics teacher, attended university. Tech spent his teen years rhyming, writing graffiti and getting into fights.
Tech managed to finish high school and was accepted at Pennsylvania State University. Leaving Harlem for Pennsylvania was a difficult transition. Tech says there was a lot of racism on the campus and in the community. Physical violence is how Tech chose to address his rage. “I was no choir boy who just punched some kid in the face,” he admits.
During his second year of studies, Tech was facing multiple charges for aggravated assault in the tri-state area. He was convicted and sentenced to 1 to 2 years at a prison in Pennsylvania.
Shortly before his release date, prison guards caught him confiscating contraband. He was caught with an extra prison shirt. Consequently, Tech spent his last two months in solitary confinement.
While serving time, Tech read extensively, mostly history, philosophy, and the classics. One book in particular, Marx’s “Philosophy of Poverty,” impacted his social development. He wrote a song with the same title that addresses class struggle and the roots of poverty.
Tech was 20 when he was released from prison in 1999. He returned to Harlem, worked in construction, and held various office jobs. On his time off, Tech wrote lyrics to songs. Soon he was entering hip hop battles held in the local clubs. Battling is one way to establish yourself in the hip hop community. It was not long before Tech was winning the battles and gaining fans with his politically-inspired raps.
Today, Tech’s MySpace page has more than five million hits and 200,000 friends on his list, which grows daily. Many want to know what books Tech has read, a strong indication that he is challenging his audience to read about the issues he addresses in his lyrics. The comments posted praise his revolutionary politics and songs as well as his vision and voice. There are even marriage proposals. Some comments question Tech’s radical politics and beliefs. Tech’s lyrics are a vituperation against the people he deems corrupt, and that includes nearly everyone in the Bush administration. He takes on sensitive topics such as the plight of the Palestinians.
But he thrives on the questions. “I have been challenged everyday by the people around me,” he says. “I don’t surround myself with yes men. I surround myself with people who are eager to see this message grow, and see everything I do come to fruition in a way that will be more effective in addressing the problems we have.
“So I don’t have a fear of having everything I do scrutinized, as long as it is done respectfully.” Engaging in these discussions will only help him grow, he says.
Tech’s MySpace blogs are well-written essays revealing his philosophical and historical grasp on everything from globalization and racism to third world poverty.
Rapping is only a small part of Tech’s life. On June 24th, Tech announced on his MySpace blog his plans to work with the non-profit human rights organization, Omeid International. As part of the first stage of Project Green Light, a partnership effort with Omeid International to build an orphanage and clinic in Afghanistan, Tech has donated $10,000. In addition to this generous donation, Tech plans to hold fundraising concerts across the nation. The orphanage will house 20 children and the clinic will service the impoverished community in Kabul. There will be a K-5 school where the children will be educated in small group settings by certified teachers from the U.S. and Afghanistan. Future plans include therapists to help the children who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Tech plans to travel to Afghanistan to see how The Amin Institute (the name of the orphanage and clinic), is making progress. Tech writes, “the money I made off this music will give them a place to live and a chance to learn… and rebuild their own nation instead of paying some U.S. corporation trillions of tax dollars to do so after we destroyed it.”
Tech continues to speak at juvenile detention centers and participates in gang workshops which he says helps keep him connected to the streets. In Palestine, Tech helped fund children’s hospitals. When plans were announced to build on the land used by the South Central Farm, a garden that helped feed the poor in this inner-city area of Los Angeles, Tech flew out from New York with his own money. He gave a free performance and participated on the panel speaking out to try to save the farm.
Tech’s blog on police brutality had so many hits it nearly brought down his page. He wrote about the not guilty verdict reached in April against New York police officers involved in the shooting death of Sean Bell outside a New York nightclub. Bell, who was to be married the next day, was shot 50 times while leaving his bachelor’s party.
On his blog, Tech invited people to share their experiences with police brutality. Hundreds responded. Tech plans to submit the responses which he is calling The Police State Chronicles to organizations who promote policy change regarding the use of excessive force by police officers. Hundreds of Tech’s songs, live performance videos and interviews can be found on YouTube. A charismatic speaker with a velvety voice, Tech’s passion for exposing political corruption and failed foreign policy shine through in these interviews. His Afro-Peruvian and indigenous roots endow him with sultry good looks and flawless skin any woman would envy. Tech’s electrifying live performance videos streaming on YouTube show crowds on their feet pumping their fists and singing along. Here is a video found on YouTube of Tech's song Cause of Death made by Bradley Smith who lives in London.
Music videos made of Tech’s song Peruvian Cocaine which addresses corruption in the war on drugs has been viewed more than 100,000 times on YouTube. It opens with a voice clip from the film Scarface. The short clip is an interview between an American journalist and government official in a South American country. The official says that the United States is the major purchaser of their national product, which is cocaine.
Tech tells a disturbing tale in this song of corruption and exploitation beginning in Peru and ending up on the streets of America. The song ends with a voice clip featuring Wesley Snipes from the film New Jack City. The Snipes clip clearly states how far-reaching and corrupt the war on drugs has become. Snipes points out that there are no Uzis made or poppy fields growing in Harlem.
Music videos of the song Cause of Death garner the most hits. In this song he points out how news of the bombs planted on the George Washington Bridge on 9/11 by four non-Arabs was buried by the press. This is a question asked frequently on his MySpace page. His friends want to know more about this seemingly forgotten incident.
Tom Fenton, a former foreign correspondent for CBS News writes in his book, Bad News that four Israelis driving a white van were arrested in the incident and then released. Initial reports indicate that when the white van was stopped, bomb sniffing dogs smelled explosives. Fenton believes the story was buried to save embarrassment for the Bush administration. The media feared covering the story, he says, “because it doesn’t take much to be accused of anti-Semitism in any negative reporting on Israel.” Although Tech was offered contracts by major record labels, he has chosen to stay independent. The labels wanted him to tone down his politics. Independent label, Viper Records, is where he found a home and is now president.
Revolutionary Volume I was released in 2001 followed by Revolutionary Volume II in 2004. His much anticipated third album, The Third World was released June 24th. Fans will find a new soul-like beat and lyrics that will inspire, infuriate, and bring a message of change. Tour dates are listed on his MySpace page. His album is available in stores and on his Viper Records website. Tech ended our interview with something his father told him long ago. “My father said, ‘99.9% of people hate what they do for a living. Find something you love to do, Felipe. Because if you are one of those people who loves what they do, consider yourself blessed.’ And I definitely do sister. Everyday.” -30-
I just finished reading a book called Bad News by Tom Fenton. I heard him interviewed on Jon Stewart's The DailyShow. Fenton was a foreign correspndent for CBS News. His book is about how we have become brainwashed, how the news is supposed to be a public service, but has become nothing more than 22 minutes of fluff and sound bites to sell commercial ads.
Fenton also says we have to fight back. It is a great book and easy to read. Check it out. It is at the library. I loved it so much I did buy a copy from a gift certificate I got for Christmas.
I read something interesting in the book about Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America. Long ago, Cronkite was told by fellow journalists that he should run for president. He responded with, "they think they would want me for president until they found out if I was president I would take all guns out of Americans hands." I would have voted for him.
Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter at Academy Awards, 2008, photo taken by Alan Light (Flickr)
I was pleased with the winners at the Academy Awards. I wanted Hal Holbrook to win, but Javier Bardum nailed the character, Anton Chigurgh. I noticed that Hal Holbrook and his wife, Dixie Carter were sitting about five or six rows back in the audience. However, they were moved up to the front row a little later and were sitting next to Daniel Day Lewis and his wife. That was cool. Holbrook deserves our respect and a front row seat. I wonder if Daniel Day Lewis arranged that.
I watched the SAG Awards last night. For my friends in foreign lands, that is the Screen Actors Guild Awards (the actors unions). It was great how they had many actors discuss the importance of unions. Karl Marx of course also discussed the importance of unions. Old Karl didn't want folks to be exploited in the work place and wanted their rights protected. Imagine that?
Anyway, I really wanted Hal Holbrook to win for his performance in into the wild. but Javier Bardem was also great in No Countryfor Old Men. Javi won. I was pleased to see that Ruby Dee won for american gangster. The scene they showed last night is the scene that was worthy of that award. Great film. Hal Holbrook and Emile Hirsh, posted on Flickr by Nicolas Frederic
Lastly, I loved that Daniel Day Lewis won. He was great in the film There Will BeBlood. The last scene in the bowling alley I am sure got the religious folks wound up. I, of course, loved what Daniel Day Lewis made the preacher say. I could have lived without what Dan Day Lewis did in that scene.
Dan Day Lewis dedicated his award to Heath Ledger. I loved what he said about Ledger. I have got to tell you that news of Heath's death last week made me so very sad. Such a great young actor.
I love him for accepting the role in brokeback mountain. Such an important movie. Daniel Day Lewis commented on the scene at the end in the mobile home in front of the closet. I also thought that was one of the most powerful scenes you could see from an actor. I am sure most of you thought the same.. That scene gave me the shivers.
Day Lewis commented on Ledger's performance in Monster's Ball as well. Ledger was Billy Bob Thornton's son. He was the one who had a hooker come to his hotel room. That scene with the hooker was just so powerful. And I am not talking about the actual sex.
Another movie worthy of look is called Candy. I rented it after saw Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. It is a great film and an amazing performance.
I read in some obits that he is being compared to James Dean. Also read that his parents named him after Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. His sister was named after Catherine. I loved that book.
So let me share my fantasy of Rafa. I am a journalist and am trying to get the first interview after the match. I sneak into his locker room waiting for him to emerge from the shower. I am sitting next to his towel on a bench. When he walks out all wet and glisteny, I stand up and say, "is this what you are looking for?" I snap the towel open and hold it next to my side in a bullfighter like stance. I smile and say, "ole."
Dear Ms. Lessing, Congratulations on a much deserved Nobel Prize. I would like to share what your book, The Golden Notebook, means to me.
I will begin with London. I am from the United States, however, I moved to London with my New Zealander boyfriend in 1987. We met while living in the greater Los Angeles area, Newport Beach to be exact.
Before we moved to London, I worked as a waitress at an elite restaurant, wore the latest fashions, drank expensive wines, drove a trendy car. However, even through my debauchery and shallow life, I continued to read literature.
While living in London, I read and loved The Guardian newspaper. The Guardian was so very different from the major newspapers in my country. I was also reading Dosteovsky, Gunter Grass, Isak Dineson, Vonnegut, et al. I would think about these books after I read them. One day, while wondering through Covent Garden, I stopped in the General Store and bought a little journal. I began to write little notes about the books in this journal. You see Ms. Lessing, I was pretending I was a literature major at university.
I worked at a cafe on High Holburn called, My Old Dutch, near the West End. At the cafe, I met the most amazing women I have ever encountered in my life to this day. One from Italy, one from Sardinia, and one had an English father and Spanish mother.
Agostina from Sardinia had just returned from a six month journey through South America. Carmen from Italy had many lovers a dozen years younger banging on her door at all hours of the night begging to be let in. The brilliant English/Spanish girl, Glamorous Janice, was working on her law degree and sleeping with a black man who read the tabloid called The Sun...or was it The Standard. It was the tabloid with the half naked woman on page three. Anyway...
All of these women were so strong and adventurous. We spent nearly every afternoon together when our lunch shift ended at 2pm until 6pm when we had to return for the dinner shift.
We walked to Convent Garden/Neal's Yard to have lunch at Food for Thought, a cheap, but good vegetarian cafe.. We shared stories, discussed the cultural differences between our countries, and of course discussed our men.
These women had such amazing stories and lives. So well-traveled. They opened up a whole new world to me. I felt that my life thus far in the culturally vacuous wasteland of Los Angeles was meaningless.
Carmen had coincidentally moved to New Zealand with a boyfriend she met in London who was filthy rich, but tight with his money. She lasted less than a year in Wellington before running back to London. She shared with me countless horror stories of her time there.
My boyfriend also came from a wealthy family and was tight with his money. Carmen kept telling me how New Zealand was like stepping back in time in terms of how they viewed a woman's role. Carmen was a devout feminist and could not tolerate this sort of view.
As a matter of fact, when I began having trouble with my boyfriend, Carmen kept warning me not to go to New Zealand with him. We were planning to move to his home in New Zealand sometime in the fall.
I spent a four hour lunch with Carmen on the day I was to purchase the one way tickets to New Zealand. We consumed two bottles of Pinot Grigio while I listened to Carmen's list of reasons not to go to New Zealand.
At the end of this marathon lunch, I told Carmen that if I did not go, I may wonder the rest of my life if I made the right decision. I told her London may be why we were having problems since my boyfriend and I got along so well in California. Carmen and I walked... more like stumbled and staggered across the street to the travel agent's where I purchased non-refundable one way tickets to New Zealand.
We left London on yet another bone chilling cold and rainy November morning. I was happy to leave the weather behind, but so sad to leave my new friends who had become like sisters to me.
While in New Zealand I was feeling very much like I wanted more from my life than being a wife, country club memberships, tennis with the other wives, etc. I told my boyfriend that I wanted to go back to university. I was 29 at the time. He said I was too old.
To make a long story short, shortly after my boyfriend crushed my dream of a university education, I was home one afternoon escaping my mundane reality with the Gabriel Garcia Marquez book, One Hundred Years of Solitude. This book lifted me out of my house and flew me across oceans to the far away and exotic country of Colombia into the lives of the characters in the story.
I had all the french doors and windows open in our country house outside Wellington on this warm fall day.
I put a pot of potatoes on to boil for dinner in between chapters. I did not notice or smell that the water had burned down. The potatoes were on the verge of burning when my boyfriend came home. The cross breeze from the open windows and doors kept the smell from reaching me in the living room. He picked up the pot and threw it across the kitchen. He then stomped into the living room and yelled that he was tired of my reading books all the time.
I quickly ran out of the living room for the bedroom and locked the door. My hands were shaking while I called the wife of one of our friends. I asked her to come and get me. He continued banging on the bedroom door and berating me with his verbal insults.
I left New Zealand shortly after that, returned to the greater Los Angeles area, and enrolled in a community college. I had the summer to kill before classes began in the fall. I found a job as a waitress in a cheap diner, shopped at thrift stores, and rode a bicycle for transportation.
I ran across your book, The Golden Notebook, in a bookstore that summer. It was the most perfect book for me to read at this turning point in my life. I could not put it down. I read it every waking moment when I wasn't working until I finished it. Such powerful women characters and stories. I can't tell you how much I loved this book. It had the most profound impact on me.
There were moments, mostly in the evening when I was alone, that I questioned whether I had made a mistake by leaving my boyfriend. After reading your book, I knew I made the right decision. Your book helped me realize that there was more to life than country clubs and tolerating your husband's mistresses.
I graduated from UCLA with a degree in history in 1993. I have worked primarily as an educator in Arizona and California. Internationally, I have taught in Bogota, Colombia and Gumi, S. Korea.
There were many times while I was in Colombia that I thought of my little Sardinian friend Agostina who traveled on her own through South America for six months. Meeting Agostina and listening to her stories on rainy afternoons in London helped give me the courage to move to Colombia.
I have also dabbled in documentary filmmaking and made a film on human rights abuses in Colombia. It made some festival circuits, was nominated for an award, and is still shown nationwide at colleges through Amnesty International groups on campuses.
I want to thank you for writing The Golden Notebook. Your book gave me the strength to forge on through some difficult times and countless obstacles while I was at university.
On an end note, it will be twenty years in November that I left London. I am still in contact with Agostina and Janice. We lost track of Carmen a few years after she returned to Milan. The last time I saw Carmen was in Milan in 1989. She had an Italian boyfriend who was at least a dozen years younger.
Agostina has traveled every continent as a translator on cruise ships. She speaks five languages. Agostina is now building a small hotel on Sardinia. She lives with her boyfriend in London. Janice is a lawyer/solicitor. She works in what we call the DA's office here in the USA. Janice worked in sex crimes for a few years, but the child pornography got to her. She asked and was granted a transfer to homicide. She lives with her boyfriend, also a lawyer/solicitor in her office.
I have heard through the grapevine that my ex-boyfriend owns loads of commercial real estate, boats, jet skis, married a nurse/aerobic instructor, had two kids, and a very public affair with an Argentinian ex-beauty queen which ultimately caused his wife to ask for a divorce. She got a huge house out of the deal.
Again, congratulations on your much deserved Nobel Prize. I still have the copy of The Golden Notebook I bought 20 years ago on my shelf and plan to pull it down tonight to read again.
Respectfully, Mary Cuevas Los Angeles, California USA
Lincoln Memorial (Posted by Stuck in Customs, Flickr)
Mark Twain (Posted by Kleopatrjones, Flickr)
These quotes were posted on a friend's myspace page and I just love them. I'm with abe and twain.
One last thing, I recently read that animals do not know of their own mortality. We are the only animal that does. Never thought about that before. Explains a lot don't you think?
"The scientist who yields anything to theology, however slight, is yielding to ignorance and false pretenses, and as certainly as if he granted that a horse-hair put into a bottle of water will turn into a snake. - H.L. Mencken
"Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion –- several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven." - Mark Twain
"I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don't have as many people who believe it." - George Carlin
"When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion." - Abraham Lincoln
All photos of Kurt Vonnegut (Posted by Lorac, Flickr)
Words cannot express my sorrow. As vonnegut wrote or said, "artists are like the canary in the coal mine. The canary keels over if there is a gas leak warning the miners to get out." Sort of an alarm system for the miners. We just lost a great alarm system, humanist, humorist, and very good man. Like he said in his novel, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, "Goddamnit! You'vegot to be kind." Lets remember that and him always. His books changed my life. He was my greatest teacher. I look at the world and life differently because of his books. If you like my emails, and some of you have told me you do, you can thank Mr. Vonnegut. I stole his short sentence and short paragraph style from him. If you want to become kinder and gentler or view the world differently, and if you never read him, I highly recommend you do.
In his autobiography of sorts Palm Sunday, he gives a list of must read books. I read that book while living in London and started power housing through that list. A couple of years later, I was back in college after a ten year leave. He inspired me to finish my college education. Kurt Vonnegut's drawing of an a**hole in Breakfastof the Champions (Posted by Andisheh on Flickr)
I still use an asterisk in front of names or after names of memos or notes I write to folks I don't like. Got that from his book Breakfast of Champions, he draws an asshole in that book that looks like an asterisk.
I miss him so. I left work early. I could not stop the water works. I compulsively read everything I could find on him on line. The best obit I read was the first I read in the L.A. Times by Elaine Woo. We just lost such a powerful and wonderful voice for our time. No one can replace him.
If you have not read him and are interested, here are some of my favorites: Slapstick Breakfast of Champions Galapagos God Bless You Mr. Rosewater Jailbird Bluebeard Palm Sunday Slaughterhouse Five Welcome to the Monkey House Timequake Mother Night
I really wanted to meet him one day. I did send a birthday email this past year to In These Times. I told him in that email that I used his asterisk. I thanked him for everything.
Photo of Kurt Vonnegut running on beach on left, with wife, Jill Krementz, on right
Photo of Catalina Vargas courtesy of Catalina Vargas 
