SATURDAY PHOTO
(see sidebar for others)

Down to the Factory
Photographer – Robert Doisneau

“I’ve never examined why I make photos. In truth it’s a hopeless struggle against the idea that one will die. It’s something I’m more prepared for, because one shouldn’t think that every action is temporary and momentary. I try obstinately to stop this time that is passing.” Robert Doisneau.

Robert Doisneau was born in 1912 and grew up in the ‘banlieue’, the urban fringe around Paris. This area was a kind of wasteland, the ‘zone’, home to tramps, gypsies, rag pickers and other marginal characters. It was also a great area in which children could explore and play, a wilderness to fire the imagination. In contrast, his family home was stiflingly polite and respectable, and he hated it. He entered a craft school at 13 that gave him limited art training. His uncle, a Mayor, gave him his first commission at 17, taking pictures for the council bulletin. He borrowed a camera to work with, but when he handed in the pictures, asked for – and was given – exactly the price of a new Rolleiflex camera. It was on this type of camera, a twin lens reflex taking 12 2 1/4 ” square pictures on a roll of 120 film, that Doisneau was to take own pictures almost exclusively for over 20 years. Doisneau worked for Renault as an industrial photographer until he was fired at age 27. He was called into the French army that same year and worked for the “Resistance” until the end of the war. In 1949, he signed with Vogue and worked there for three years until he was 40. After that, he was a freelance photographer until he died in 1994 in Paris at age 82. He was a shy and humble man who lived simply and took photos mostly of common people in the streets. Click here to see more of his work. He is one of the most famous French photographers.

Deep Thought: “I think the most beautiful sunset I ever saw was on page 4 and 5 of The Book of Sunsets.”
Today I am grateful for: Jumping
Guess the Movie: “These things are good: ice cream and cake, a ride on a harley, seeing monkeys in the trees, the rain on my tongue, and the sun shining on my face. These things are a drag: dust in my hair, holes in my shoes, no money in my pocket, and the sun, shining on my face.” Answer: Mask, 1985. Winner: TheExWifeIAlwaysKnewIdBe.
Open Letter to Howard Dean from Tom Hayden
by Katrina vanden Heuvel
April 26, 2005
Dear Chairman Dean,
Thank you kindly for your call and your expressed willingness to discuss the Democratic Party’s position on the Iraq War. There is growing frustration at the grass roots towards the party leadership’s silent collaboration with the Bush Administration’s policies. Personally, I cannot remember a time in thirty years when I have been more despairing over the party’s moral default. Let me take this opportunity to explain. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: Oops, forgot to sign out last night.

FRIDAY FIVE

Appetizer – Which keys do you have on your key chain?
My car key [‘98 Chevy Prizm] (I keep a second one in my purse in case I lock my keys in the car), a front door key to the security door that I never keep locked like I should when I’m home (keep a second one hidden by the back door for the same reason or in case there’s a disaster and I have to call my neighbor to open the house because I can’t get home – like an earthquake while I’m at work), 2 office keys (one of which opens most of the doors in my department and the other opens the others – this because as a computer fixer person I have to be able to get in anywhere), a key to the deadbolt on the inner front door and the door from the kitchen to the garage, and a key to the back door. Plus a green Bimart member tag that gets me into the store free, and a little purple whistle/flashlight combination. That was good. I had to go check and make sure about a few of them, now I’m sure what they are.
Soup – What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
Well, starting on day one? The most spontaneous thing with the most long-lasting consequences was getting pregnant with my two children.
Salad – Who is the best cook in your family?
Nobody in my living blood family was Born to Cook. My mother was a pretty good cook, having to feed a farm family consisting of her, me, and her hardworking husband and father. Cholesterol city back then though – lots of meat and potatoes and baked stuff. But also fresh vegetables and fruit. She eventually got adult onset diabetes from her sugar addiction.
Main Course – If you were to write a “how-to” book, what would the title be?
How to Survive in This World as An Expert on Nothing.
Dessert – Name a recent fad you’ve tried.
Myntz – In fact, I’m chewing on one now. In case you don’t know they are Dentist Recommended Sugar-Free Breath Mints without Aspartame and Low Carb, with Green Tea extract and Siberian Ginseng. What a life – decaf coffee, diet coke, and Myntz. And by the way, take this test to find out your life expectancy. I found out if I would eat even more fruits and vegetables and exercise even more I could live to be 100.

Deep Thought: “Just as bees will swarm about to protect their nest, so will I “swarm about” to protect my nest of chocolate eggs.”
Today I am grateful for: Irony
Guess the Movie: “No, you submit, do you hear? You be strong, you survive… You stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you.” Answer: Last of the Mohicans, 1992. Winner: hereathome.
Lesson of Abu Ghraib? Whatever
by Elizabeth Sullivan
The current Pentagon white wash seeking to recast prisoner abuse into a simple case of way ward soldiers should come as no surprise.
A year after America’s terrorism war suffered a huge setback, with the revelation of Abu Ghraib abuses via pictures showing Iraqi prisoners naked, hooded, handcuffed, leashed, forced to pose in sexual positions and threatened by unmuzzled dogs, the military has rendered its comprehensive verdicts:
No one is guilty except for a relative handful of the most low-level soldiers and reservists. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 9:36 pm
+ = Yard really starting to shape up.
- = Daughter’s father died of throat cancer on this day in 2002.

WEDNESDAY MOVIE

The Interpreter

Out to the cineplex for a change to see a major Hollywood film, as opposed to the documentaries and foreign films I usually am watching at home on DVD. I was looking forward to this one because thrillers are my favorite genre, and Kidman and Penn are two actors I enjoy (well, Kidman reluctantly – just a bit too much ice queen). Her role is African-born U.N. interpreter Silvia Broome, who inadvertently overhears a death threat against an African head of state scheduled to address the United Nation’s General Assembly. Sean Penn is Tobin Keller, the federal agent charged with protecting the interpreter, who nonetheless suspects she may not be telling the whole truth. Catherine Keener, master of droll humor, plays a secondary role. And Sydney Pollack directed (and plays a bit part). So I wasn’t disappointed. This isn’t one of those Academy Awards major message films, but it’s fast-paced, well-acted, and the cinematography is ace. What I didn’t think of till I got there was that it would remind me of my years-ago stint in the English Typing Unit at the United Nations in my 20’s. I worked the night shift and sat in a huge bank of typewriters for 8 hours at a time typing reports from the General Assembly sessions but I still recall the little plaza in front so clearly and the shining hallways and the foreign languages being spoken, though the traffic was less at that hour. I think I’ve heard that this is the first time a film had scenes shot inside the UN building. The plot is kind of standard actually but it has enough twists and turns to keep your close attention. Interesting combination – Kidman and Penn. She towers over him but he can hold his own. Both are clearly actors who are serious and improving with age. Enjoy.

Deep Thought: “If I had the time to sit down and write a thank-you note to everyone who sent me a nice, expensive present, what a wonderful would that would be!”
Today I am grateful for: Irises
Guess the Movie: “ I woke up this morning, kept thinking about Billy and I was thinking about him waking up in his room with his little clouds all around that I painted and I thought I should have painted clouds downtown because then he would think that he was waking up at home. I came here to take my son home. And I realized he already is home.” Answer: Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979. Winner: thenarrator.
World Terror Attacks Tripled in 2004 by U.S. Count
by Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON — The U.S. count of major world terrorist attacks more than tripled in 2004, a rise that may revive debate on whether the Bush administration is winning the war on terrorism, congressional aides said on Tuesday. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day Thursday: 9:20 pm
+ = Catching up on yardwork.
- = Hands look like a dirt farmer.

MONDAY BOOK

Illuminations
Arthur Rimbaud
(translated by Louise Varese)

It’s just a funky day – raining still so I can’t fix my yard to please the neighbors, ran an unpleased kitty to the vet for his yearly shots plus the monthly Advantages doses for all my cats ($98), spent two hours having Emile the Exterminator in my house crawling around shining flashlights under my kitchen appliances and setting mousetraps there and in the garage and down in the crawlspace to the tune of $125 so now I can ponder mice death for the next 2 weeks till he returns to gather the traps (and guess what, mice execution is now done with strips of sticky white stuff so the mouse sticks to it and starves to death), and tomorrow when the sun finally comes out is when I’ll have to be back at work not enjoying it. So for some reason Rimbaud came to mind – don’t ask me what the connection was.

I found French poetry early and fell hard, even went back to college in midlife to major in French so I could read it better. And of course Rimbaud is quintessential for the writing itself but even more because it reflected his extraordinary life. Born in 1854 in a small French town to a middle class military family, when he was 6 his father deserted them and never returned. After this they lived in poverty but his mother managed to get him into formal schooling by age 8. He was soon seen to be gifted and by age 16 published his first poem. Eventually he began to win prizes at school. He began to run away from home during the Franco-Prussian war years, living a life of rebellion, and became influenced by the famous poet Paul Verlaine, joining him in Paris. These two poets moved to England when Rimbaud was 18 and lived together. It was during this period that he began to write Illuminations. During the following year Rimbaud wrote the rest of his poetry, ended his literary career, and never wrote poetry again, having been snubbed artistically. Over the next six years he wandered around Europe, spending time in the Dutch army, joining a circus, working as a farm laborer. Finally, he left for Africa in 1880 at age 26, became ill with syphilis, and took up gun-running. In the end, he died of cancer in Marseilles at age 37. Today, he is arguably the most famous French poet who ever lived. And here is one of my favorites:

When the world is reduced to a single dark wood for our four eyes’ astonishment, – a beach for two faithful children, – a musical house for our pure sympathy, – I shall find you.

Should there be here below but a single old man, handsome and calm in the midst of “incredible luxury”, I shall be at your feet.
Should I have realized all your memories, – should I be the one who can bind you hand and foot, – I shall strangle you.

When we are very strong, – who draws back ? very gay, – who cares for ridicule ? When we are very bad, – what would they do with us.
Deck yourself, dance, laugh, – I could never throw Love out of the window.

Deep Thought: “If they ever have a haunted house for dogs, I think a good display would be a bathtub full of soapy water.”
Today I am grateful for: Being able to afford Emile the Exterminator
Guess the Movie: “What is so great about discovery? It is a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores. What you call discovery, I call the rape of the natural world.” Answer: Jurassic Park, 1993. Winner: Eliminate_the_Impossible.
Marines From Iraq Sound Off About Want of Armor and Men
by Michael Moss
On May 29, 2004, a station wagon that Iraqi insurgents had packed with C-4 explosives blew up on a highway in Ramadi, killing four American marines who died for lack of a few inches of steel. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: Oops forgot to sign out last night.

WEDNESDAY MOVIE(S)

End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones

and

DIG!

It’s late and I don’t have much time to blog before I hit the rack, but I did want to say that I’ve become a stone fan of music documentaries lately, ever since I watched Metallica Some Kind of Monster. I wish I had time to really research a bit but I don’t so here’s my totally intuitive impression of both these films. I watched the Ramones movie first. In 2002 they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (well minus Joey, the 6’6” lead and only vocalist ever of the band) who died the year before of lymphoma at age 49. If I got it straight, none of the band was really a Ramone. They all just changed their last names to Ramone after the band got going. The original group is all gone now except for drummer Tommy. DeeDee died of a heroin overdose in 2002 and Johnny of prostate cancer last year. They only ever really played about three chords, but they played them LOUD. They loved loud. I was at the tail end of my rock and roll years when the Ramones erupted onto the music scene as one of the most influential punk rock bands ever and somehow I never connected. But all these years later, I was mesmerized at this squabbling, black leather jacketed, go for the jugular gang of music hoodlums. They never made it big in America somehow at the time, but today they are revered. Try them with the sound up. It’s the only way.

As for DIG!, it’s even a bit more gritty than the Ramones’ story as a rockumentary but I had kind of heard of one of the bands in it – The Dandy Warhols – because they’re out of Portland, kind of a pop psychedelic bunch led by frontman Courtney Taylor. But this is about two bands – the other being the Brian Jonestown Massacre with the gifted, borderline-out-there-too-far lead singer Anton Newcombe. It’s about the love/hate relationship between Taylor and Newcombe and all the insanity that follows their interactions over a period of eight years. One band is able to stay in the relative mainstream and survive financially and the other is unable to befriend success. Watch and find out which is which and how it all turns out. So now that I have to listen to my grandchildren tell me to turn off the music I like to listen to in the car so they can listen to hip hop and rap, I’ve finally found some kinds of music none of us likes – and I love it.

Deep Thought: “The king threw back his head and laughed. He enjoyed a good laugh, and so did his wife, the queen. When she saw the king laughing she let out a big laugh too. In fact, she laughed so hard she broke her throne. This made them both laugh harder. Then they got serious when they remembered they had the plague. “The plague,” said the king, but the way he said it made them both burst out laughing again.”
Today I am grateful for: Inroads
Guess the Movie: “You don’t know much about tracking, do you?” “Hey, I’m a sloth. I see a tree, eat a leaf. That’s my tracking.” Answer: Ice Age, 2002. Winner: soobee72.
Senate Panel Postpones Vote on U.N. Nominee
by Douglas Jehl
WASHINGTON — A surprise last-minute defection by an Ohio Republican forced the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to postpone a vote that had been scheduled for Tuesday on the nomination of John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:55 pm
+ = I can see clearly now, the rain is gone.
- = But the ground is still squishy.

MONDAY BOOK

Crimes Against Nature
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

For 20 years, this member of the Kennedy clan has made it his fight to save American rivers and last year he published this book attacking the environmental policies of the Bush administration. The paperback will be out in July and I for one plan to read it. For now (still ploughing through the book about jazz I reviewed last week – it’s a big one), I will just share an excerpt from the book that appeared in May’s Vanity Fair:

President Bush has opened our national lands and sacred places to the lowest bidder and launched a jihad against the American environment and public health to enrich his corporate sponsors. He has mired us in a costly, humiliating war that has killed more than 1,520 American soldiers and maimed 11,300. He has made America the target of Islamic hatred, caused thousands of new terrorists to be recruited to al-Qaeda, isolated us in the world, and drained our treasury of the funds necessary to rebuild Afghanistan and to finance our own vital homeland-security needs. He has shattered our traditional alliances and failed to protect vulnerable terrorist targets at home–chemical plants, nuclear facilities, air-cargo carriers, and ports. He has disgraced our nation and empowered tyrants with the unpunished excesses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. …baffled Democrats were hard-pressed to believe that their fellow Americans would give a man like this a second term.

I believe…that Democrats lost the presidential contest not because of a philosophical chasm between red and blue states but due to an information deficit caused by a breakdown in our national media. Traditional broadcast networks have abandoned their former obligation to advance democracy and promote the public interest by informing the public about both sides of issues relevant to those goals. To attract viewers and advertising revenues, they entertain rather than inform. This threat to the flow of information, vital to democracy’s survival, has been compounded in recent years by the growing power of right-wing media that twist the news and deliberately deceive the public to advance their radical agenda.

What Kennedy proposes is a revival of the Fairness Doctrine “so that the airwaves once again belong to the public.” Here is a brief history of what the Fairness Doctrine is. Essentially, it was a policy of the US FCC enacted in 1949 to ensure that issues discussed on a broadcast station be balanced and fair. In the 1980’s under Reagan the doctrine was dissoved. I don’t know about you but I’m getting fed up with the endless sensationalism cluttering up my airwaves interspersed with brief segments of rightwing political coverage. Something’s gotta give and soon. How many Kennedys is it going to take to bring this to a head?

Deep Thought: “Laugh, clown, laugh. This is what I tell myself whenever I dress up like Bozo.”
Today I am grateful for: Indexes
Guess the Movie: “I took a shower washing every body part with actual soap; including all my major crevices; including in between my toes and in my belly button which I never did before but sort of enjoyed. I washed my hair with adult formula shampoo and used cream rinse for that just-washed shine. I can’t seem to find my toothbrush, so I’ll pick one up when I go out today. Other than that, I’m in good shape.” Answer: Home Alone, 1992. Winner: soobee72.
FCC to TV: Tell the Truth
by John Nichols
Most television viewers don’t know it, but a huge portion of what they watch on the local news programs aired by their favorite stations is not actually “news.” Rather, local television stations around the country have in recent years been taking “video news releases” from the federal government and major corporations – particularly the big pharmaceutical companies – and airing them as if they were news reports.
Video news releases (VNRs) are so common these days that they actually dominate some newscasts, blurring the lines between advertising and news more blatantly than product placements in movies do the lines between advertising and entertainment. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:34 pm
+ = Finally finally the sun came out and I actually got a little yardwork done.
- = Will I ever lose 10 pounds?!

PEOPLE WHO KNOCK ME OUT

Shoen Uemura

Once upon a time in faraway Kyoto in the spring of 1875, a little girl was born who would one day be given Japan’s highest award for cultural achievement. Her father having died soon after her birth, she grew up with her mother and aunts in a famous little tea-shop where the patrons came to learn the refined art of Japanese tea. Her earliest drawings were so astonishing she was considered a child prodigy and encouraged by her mother she won a painting competition that enabled her to become the first female to enter the Kyoto Prefectural Painting School at age 12. In those times, Japanese women were not expected to be anything but wives and mother or servers of men’s wishes. She had a strong interest in “Bijinga” drawings (images portraying the beauty of women) over her lifetime and developed them into works of art rather than sketches. At age 15 she made a dazzling entrance into the art world by winning a first prize at the Third National Exposition for the Promotion of Industry and her painting was bought by a British Duke. She went on to study with various painting masters and in 1903 when she was 28 she began to work as an independent artist. Besides breaking ground as a woman in the Japanese art world of her time, she also was accused of having an affair with one of her teachers, who was probably the father of her son, though she never revealed his name. In spite of breaking one of Japan’s most stringent taboos – bearing a child out of wedlock – her art was too great to be denied by the scandal. She became the first woman member of the Japan Imperial Fine Arts Academy in 1941 at the age of 66 and in 1948 was the first woman to receive the Order of Cultural Merit at age 73. Within a year she died in her cottage in the mountains with her brush in her hand, leaving behind a son Shoko and grandson Atsushi, who also became artists, and a great legacy of painting. It is said because of the war years approaching she did not have the international career she might have had. Without access to the large North American market, no Japanese artist can make an international career even to this day. But in her own country she is famous and beloved for fighting for the rights of women and for her achievements as a great artist. Her name is Shoen Uemura. (See more of her beautiful work here.)

Deep Thought: “If you ever catch on fire, try to avoid seeing yourself in the mirror, because I bet that’s what really throws you into a panic.”
Today I am grateful for: Ideas
Guess the Movie: “The Way of the Samurai is found in death. Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead.” Answer: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, 1999. Winner: Eliminate_the_Impossible.
Sweet Victory: Maryland Stands Up To Wal-Mart
by Katrina vanden Heuvel
With the federal government content to let Wal-Mart run amok, it has been left up to the states to protect workers from the retail behemoth’s excesses. This past Saturday, April 9, Maryland showed America’s largest corporation who’s boss.
Maryland’s House of Delegates voted 82 to 48 to approve a bill that would require all businesses in the state with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits for workers (or, alternatively, donate the funds to the state’s Medicaid program). Wal-Mart, with its 15,000 employees, is the only such company that does not already spend 8 percent on health care for employees–and thus, the direct target of the bill. Spearheaded by Maryland for Health Care, the legislation was supported by a coalition of over 1,000 organizations representing Maryland’s health, business, and community interests. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 9:36 pm
+ = Love my Netflix.
- = Last Life in the Universe pissed me off.

SATURDAY PHOTO

Chicago
Harry Callahan

c. 1950. Gelatin silver print
7 5/8 x 9 9/16″

Born in Detroit in 1912, Harry Callahan grew up in the suburb of Royal Oak, where he graduated from the public schools. His parents were farmers who moved to Detroit in order to find work in the auto industry. Callahan attended Michigan State College in East Lansing for three semesters and studied engineering. He left school in 1933 and obtained a job as a shipping clerk with Chrysler Parts Corporation. The same year, Callahan met his future wife, Eleanor Knapp. He considered this one of the two great events of his life; the other being the purchase of his first camera in l938. Two years later he joined the Detroit Photo Guild and a year later attended a workshop there given by Ansel Adams that caused him to trade in his enlarger for an 8×10 view camera. The year after that he spent a week in New York where he met Alfred Steiglitz, one of several photographers who dominated the American scene around that time. This school of photography was formal, precise, pure and contemplative. Callahan extended this influence with his austere and yet playful work over the next 50 years. Look at the photo above of the shore of Lake Michigan and notice the white of the snow, the black of the trees, and the gray in between, how there is just a bare distinction between the water and the sky. The trees are grouped in pairs and make a tapestry with their branches. Eight years after buying that first camera, Callahan was hired to teach photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago. He taught there for the next 15 years, then taught at the Rhode Island School of Design until 1977, when he retired at age 65. Besides landscapes, city streets, and pedestrians, his other favorite subject was his wife, Eleanor. He began a series of portraits of her and their daughter in 1952, when he was 40. Here is a retrospective of his work at the George Eastman House in New York. He lived to receive many awards, including the National Medal of Arts from President Clinton in 1996, when he was 84, finally reaching the end of a fulfilled life at 87 in 1999.

Deep Thought: “There’s always been a good explanation for everything. When that owl attacked Grandma and started biting her head, at first it didn’t make any sense. Why would an owl attack Grandma? But then we found out later: a mouse was living in her hairdo.”
Today I am grateful for: Hugeness
Guess the Movie: “There’s more to life than a little money, ya know. Don’tcha know that? And here ya are. And it’s a beautiful day. Well. I just don’t understand it.” Answer: Fargo, 1996. Winner: la_chatte_gitane.
Climate Change Wreaking Havoc With Seasons
by Matthew Beard
Climate change is playing havoc with the timing of the seasons and could drastically alter the landscape, according to one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind.
Frogs have begun spawning in Britain as early as October, oaks are coming into leaf three weeks earlier than they were 50 years ago and there were an unprecedented 4,000 sightings of bumblebees by the end of January this year.
Scientists, who also noted that people were mowing their lawns earlier, have concluded that spring now arrives ahead of schedule. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:59 pm
+ = Got to attend a 21-year Recovery birthday today.
- = Read a post just now on a forum that an attack on Iran is scheduled for June 5.

Friday Five

Appetizer
What was your first “real” job?
Not counting summer jobs during school years, my first real job after I dropped out of UC Berkeley in my senior year was secretarial in a little factory that made aircraft parts. (see Chapter 6 of my autobiography) It was so nervewracking it gave me claustrophobia for months afterwards. Literally, I could not stay in a confined space for lengths of time. Even had to get up during movies and go out in the lobby and come back. I was one tense little girl back then.
Soup
Where would you go if you wanted to spark your creativity?
Any time I have for creativity at this point goes toward finishing my life story and for that I have to be home with no interruptions. For each chapter, I scrapbook first and that takes me some time to collect all the photos and letters and other bits of evidence in chronological order. Plus I’ve started paying more attention to descriptions of what was going on in the world at the time. Once the scrapbook is done, I start writing. So every chapter seems to take me several months at least. Hope I get done before I croak.
Salad
Complete this sentence: I am embarrassed when…
I wear one navy blue and one black sock together and don’t realize it till it’s too late and I’m out in the world. I’ve lost the ability to discern between these two colors except in certain kinds of light. So I sew a little bit of green thread into the navy ones and red thread into the black ones. Same with slacks and shirts.
Main Course
What values did your parents instill in you?
That racism and homophobia and the death penalty and hunting animals for sport and sexism were all the work of fear and arrogance and greed and were to be opposed.
Dessert
Name 3 fads from your teenage years.
Wearing your boyfriend’s class ring taped so it would fit. Pleated plaid skirts. Saddle shoes. (See Chapter 4 of story)

Deep Thought: “I don’t think God put me on this planet to judge others. I think he put me on this planet to gather specimens and take them back to my home planet.”
Today I am grateful for: Hot water
Guess the Movie: “I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel.” Answer: Elf, 2003. Winner: TheExWifeIAlwaysKnewIdBe.
Detainees? What Detainees?
by William Fisher
NEW YORK — The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military’s most senior leaders, want Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to approve new guidelines that will formalize the George W. Bush administration’s policy of imprisoning so-called enemy combatants without the protections of the Geneva Conventions and enable the Pentagon to legally hold ”ghost detainees”, a human rights group is charging. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 9:03 pm
+ = thenarrator’s back!
- = Soggy soggy weather.

MONDAY BOOK

Myself Among Others
A Life in Music
by George Wein

After many a sidetrack, I’ve finally returned to the midst of this book by the man who was behind the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and music festivals all over the world. There was a period in my life when I listened to jazz quite a bit, but though my son’s father is a jazz musician I’ve never dived in headfirst and become an expert. So it’s fascinating to read the life story of someone who did, who met, played music, and worked with all the greats. George Wein was born in 1925 to a Jewish family in the Irish Boston suburbs. By his early teens he’d become a professional pianist who led his own bands in the Boston area and accompanied visiting jazz musicians. When he was 25, he opened his own club in Boston and formed the Storyville music label. That was just the beginning. Before he was 30, he organized the first Newport Jazz Festival, and he was off and running. As a fascinating sidenote, he met his African-American wife Joyce when he was a student at Boston University and she at Simmons College and for 50 year they have fostered harmonious interracial relations in the music industry, recently creating the George and Joyce Wein Endowment in African American Studies at B.U. I’m reading now at the point in his life where he’s been invited to create the first Midwest Jazz Festival at the French Lick Springs Hotel in Indiana in 1958 (when he was 33). Here are some wonderful postcards from that hotel in its early days. The Sheraton Corporation was making a desperate attempt to resuscitate the resort and came up with the bright idea of a jazz festival. You might know French Lick as the home of Larry Bird who played high school ball there, but when this was going down he was still only two years old. Here’s a little excerpt:

Roy Eldridge’s comment when he first heard about my plan to mount a jazz festival in French Lick was: “You mean you’re really going to do a festival in Cotton Curtain Country?” Even though it was in Indiana, French Lick was near the Kentucky border. Its culture was highly southern, and Jim Crow was still an official policy in the South. The musicians were wary of this fact: Art Farmer and Dave Bailey of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet expressed some doubts about using the hotel swimming pool. They lost all hesitation, however, when Dizzy Gillespie, arm in arm with Jimmy McPartland, dove right in–thereby integrating French Lick’s untested waters.

Needless to say, the event was a success and continues today with an annual bash. George Wein has gone on to produce more festivals, play with more musicians, serve on executive boards at important music centers, perform as a pianist, and write this book which was recognized by the Jazz Journalists Association as 2004′s best book about jazz. He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2005 at 80 years old. If you want to learn more about jazz, this is a great jumping off point.

Deep Thought: “A lot of times when you first start out on a project you think, This is never going to be finished. But then it is, and you think, Wow, it wasn’t even worth it.”
Today I am grateful for: Home
Guess the Movie: “You remember how it really was? You and me and booze – a threesome. You and I were a couple of drunks on the sea of booze, and the boat sank. I got hold of something that kept me from going under, and I’m not going to let go of it. Not for you. Not for anyone. If you want to grab on, grab on. But there’s just room for you and me – no threesome.” Answer: Days of Wine and Roses, 1962. Winner: eneventure.
Iraqis Protest on Anniversary of Saddam’s Fall
by Mussab al-Khairalla
BAGHDAD – Tens of thousands of followers of a rebel Shi’ite cleric marched in Baghdad on Saturday to denounce the U.S. presence in Iraq and demand a speedy trial of Saddam Hussein on the second anniversary of his overthrow. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 9:00 pm
+ = Lots of nice rain for the earth.
- = Have to replace rear struts in car.