Wildly Interesting Books

  • Adam's Task by Vicki Hearne
  • Anything by Colin Cotterill
  • Auguries of Innocence by Patti Smith
  • Big Box Swindle by Stacy Mitchell
  • Darwin: A Life in Poems by Ruth Padel
  • Gehry Draws
  • Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker
  • Out of Our Heads by Ava Noe
  • Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design, Mannerisms, Quirks and Conceits
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson
  • The God of Small Things by Arundahti Roy
  • The Long Fall by Walter Mosely
  • The Martin Beck Series by Maj Sjowall and Per Waloo
  • The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
  • The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank
  • Vermeeer in Bosnia by Lawrence Weschler

Monday, December 31, 2007

What a Dictator!!!


Chavez to Pardon Coup-Related Crimes
1 hour ago from AP
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez said Monday he will grant amnesty to people convicted of a failed 2002 coup that briefly drove him from power.
Chavez said the amnesty decree he intends to sign will also pardon others accused in suspected attempts to overthrow the government or assassinate him. It was not immediately clear how many accused opponents would be affected by the amnesty.
"It's a matter of turning the page," Chavez said in a telephone call to state television on New Year's Eve. "We would like a country that moves toward peace."

Happy New Year or Whatever


Throw away the totally ridiculous new year's resolutions


Here is David Maybury's prescription for life.


I eat foods that I like. I try to favor whole foods, and fresh fruits and vegetables.
I drink as much spring water as I can.
I rest as much as I can.
I have as much fun as I can.
I listen to music that I love as much as I can.
I spend some time alone everyday.
I spend time with wise friends. These are friends who are mindful and kind.
I spend time with my family.


This is from one of David's health updates:

I just have to stay with the truth of the moment. There are going to be ups, and there will be downs. I might be a melanoma miracle, or the cancer might catch up with me. I have been here before, and I know that all this speculation and crystal ball gazing is a waste of energy and time. I want to rededicate myself to my real purpose, which is sharing my experience as it unfolds, sharing with love and compassion. Right now, for whatever reason, my choice is starkly presented to me. Either I face the depression and anxiety of a terminal illness which all the medical people tell me is real and will get me, or else I believe in the miracle of healing, and share that miracle with my friends and family. In the space where I exist now, where time is art, and where multiple realities coexist at every moment. I simply need to rest in the winter sun streaming through the window, close my eyes, and go wherever the music takes me. The choice is then clear, without meaning, without judgement, without outcome.


When the Power of Love Overcomes the Love of Power, the World will know Peace. - Jimi Hendrix

Love,

-David

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Crazy Horse

Little Indians, Big Oil


BBC Newsnight has been able to get rare footage of a new Cofan Indian ritual deep in the heart of the Amazonian rainforest.
Known as "The Filing of the Law Suit," these natives of Ecuador's jungle, decked in feathers and war paint and heavily armed with lawyers, are seen presenting their official complaint seeking $12bn from Chevron Inc - the international oil giant

Greg Palast reports
And don't forget to click the link under the picture of the Indians to see Greg's typical Investigative Noir film,
or watch the film on Democracy Now on a better screen and including an interview with Greg and Rafael Correa.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Fearless Jones

Walter Mosley


"Hampton had a sharp laugh, like the chatter of a dozen angry wrens." ---Walter Mosley writing in Fear Itself.


I find myself compelled to re-read all of Walter Mosley's books. It's that time of year when a gal wants nothing new but the old favorites. There's a new Fearless Jones novel out--Fear of the Dark. Paris Minton is back, of course and has somehow gotten himself involved in another big mess. This one, like the others, starts with a knock on the door to his used bookshop. Paris makes the mistake of answering the door, and there stands Fearless Jones. Paris and Fearless are the perfect counterbalances to each other. Paris is an intellectual, timid and forever attempting to be logical. Often his intellectual skills are crucial to figuring out the twists and turns in the endless and horrifiy adventures that take him and Fearless into the disturbing and violent places of L.A. in the fifties. Fearless is, well, fearless. He intuits people and exerts his homegrown moral system in situations that seem to defy order and integrity. But if you make a wrong move, he'll beat you to a pulp in a hearbeat. Fearless and Paris take care of one another and once in a while they both take care of other people who wander in and out of the bizarre and shady situations that build in complexity throughout the series. Paris and Fearless are two Black men in L.A. in the fifties and this determines to some degree who they are, and to a larger degree the framework within which they have to work things out. The first in the series is Fearless Jones, followed by Fear Itself, and the latest --Fear of the Dark.

Labels Added


Oh goodie, I can just hear people saying, "Now I can see all the labels for Jeanne's posts right under the blog archive section.

Why, all I have to do is click on any of them to retrieve some of those old chestnuts, like 'guido and suitcase full of money'".

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Isn't It That Time of the Year for the Cholslaw Family Newsletter?


Buster Points out Insitution he is so recently from.

Laugh it up with Buster and Bootstrap and the whole gang.


Bootstrap so philosophical in defiance of all reason. Sits quietly and grows moustache.

Prum's Haircut circa 2004

Thursday, December 20, 2007


Just in case you missed the Reverend Billy's New Years Message from last January. Get it on his blog below
Or go to my website to see it in larger print.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeeal5f/suckerbeaglenews/id10.html

Emily Scudder's Back with Audio This Time



The link will take you directly to Emily's two poems. Click the sound button and you can hear her read. Worth it!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

There's a Whole World Out There


And there's a whole world inside. this is a painting, crudely executed in oils, that's part of the world inside. This is from a time when David struggled with the world inside. Sometimes he drew into himself to cope with the disease. I had to go inside to try and paint it. I wish my painting skills were better. But I continue to work.

Monday, December 17, 2007

A Love Story


Fionna Lafferty has a story in "The Meeting House", an online journal.



Sunday, December 16, 2007

Totally Cool Picture of Guido...and the Suitcase Full of Money



Here's Guido, just as you pictured him, curtesy of borev.net.
and see the suitcase and all the money?
check out what borev.net has to say.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Man Named Guido with Suitcase Full of Money


Honestly! And I though my novel was bad!!

So this guy, Guido Alfonso Something Italian Wilson, a Miami business man with dual American-Venezuelan citizenship is caught coming off a plane chartered by some Argentinian officials with a suitcase full of 800,000 US dollars. So the money is seized by customs in Argentina and Guido is picked up in Miami with four buddies (Venezuelan business men) and the four buddies are charged with being undeclared agents of a foreign power. The four are supposed to have put poor old Guido up to trying to deliver the money from the Venezualan government (this was in August) to a candidate for president of Argentina. Somehow we are supposed to know that this is what the money was for. Guess which candidate that was supposed to be! Maybe this was supposed to drive a wedge between Venezuela and Argentina. That's one of the speculations.

But guess what? Hell hath no fury like an Argentinian woman president. If this is a ploy by the US government to antagonize Argentina from Venezulea--it's had the opposite effect.

Day by day the story seems to get smaller and smaller in the press. Oh won't this be fun to run down?

Questions are being asked. Like why would the Venezuelan government bother to send Guido and his suitcase when a plane full of Venezulean diplomats, with diplomatic immunity, flew from Caracas to Buenos Aires a few days later?

What I would like to know is why Venezuela would bother to spend five cents on Cristina Fernandez's campaign when she was already a shoo-in.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Time to Drink some Illegal Whiskey


And time to talk about movies since I just upped my Netflix subcription to 5 at a time. Five. Who's gonna watch all these? Really it's part of my neurotic stockpiling disorder. This also explains why I have 45 cans of Trader Joe's beef chili in my pantry.

Last night, after eight hours on the road from Worcester to home.( see how I looked afterwards above) I took stock of myself and discovered that the cupboard was bare. So I watched "The Year of the Dog". What happened? I thought I was following along quite nicely, but things began to happen. And happen. Maybe this was someone's unedited entry in NaNoWriMos ScriptFrenzy that takes place in July. Okay, so Laura Dern did a great job with her "Mommy" character. But I had bad dreams about the rest of the movie.


Tonight I watched "Amazing Grace" and totally enjoyed it except for the fact that I know most of it sort of didn't happen exactly that way. It's a good movie for our times. Well, for people who already know how crazy we are now. It had some of those elements of being able to tell a story about then, that's also about now. Like Shaw did in Saint Joan. The Albert Finney character was fabulous. I think it's growing on me.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Por Ahora


Where's my upside down exclamation point on the keyboard? How about if I used a lower case "i". So..iHola! Not bad.Well,whatta week it was in Venezuela. One great thing is the emergence of "Radio Venezuela En Vivo. We were able to hear 24 hour a day live broadcasting from some pretty awesome people there. and not just cool and groovy journalists like Mike Fox and others, but many interviews with Venezuelans who are making the revolution in their neighborhoods. Lots of us are hoping they can bring it back now the that the referendum is over. Like totally over. Por Ahora,(for now) as Chavez said. His concession speech late Sunday night was a class act. Lots of talk about what went wrong and what's next. It certainly was a defeat, but not a concisive victory for the opposition by any means. The political landscape will be changing in Venezuela as the opposition tries to figure out who they are and where they're going. A more moderate leadership is predicted for the opposition, but the crazy fire-setting, molotov cocktail-throwing students are still a wild card. For the bolivarian revolution, people (including Chavez) are saying it happened too fast and didn't come from the base.(there was also a brutal scare campaign put on by the opposition) The 1999 constitution was created by the Constituent Assembly, and many thought that should have happened with the reforms. But Chavez and the huge majority that are still with him (in spite of the fact that many were afraid to vote for the reforms and abstained) intend to deepen the socialist revolution and the take stock of how to work to do that.
More recently, Chavez has pointed out that many of these reforms can be worked on by the people, and presented again, perhaps in a different form.
But...everything is always interesting.
Get great info from http://www.venezualanalysis.com/ and keep your spirits up and keep on getting great information and keep laughing with http://www.borev.net/