Bailey Alexander

Adrienne Rich on making people disappear...

Adrienne Rich passed away last month, what a precise mind, it resonates, more than ever. Her words vital what with all kinds of people disappearing; blacks, muslims, hispanics across the borders. So much strife and racism and divisive behavior, even less solidarity on some continents than before.

Since moving to Prague I've met more often with Russians, Czechs and Ukrainian expats, the further East I move the more real their political realities appear to surface in the West, as they always did but now each of us, too many of us, as vulnerable as the other.

Adrienne Rich; 1929-2012. Poet, essayist, feminist.

There’s a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill
and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows
near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted
who disappeared into those shadows.

I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don’t be fooled this isn’t a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here,

our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,
its own ways of making people disappear.

I won’t tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods
meeting the unmarked strip of light—
ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise:
I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.

And I won’t tell you where it is, so why do I tell you
anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these
to have you listen at all, it’s necessary
to talk about trees.

 

Sean Stone on Alex Jones

I luv these muckrakers; they make life interesting and I've nothing but time for their curiosity and imagination. More importantly they bring critical issues out into the air, to better breathe and be discussed. MSM is simply the gatekeeper. If you wish to subsist in static mode, fine but I find life's realities to be fluid.  

Truth is but one ideal to embrace here in Bohemian...and Sean Stone is certainly a chip off the old Block that is Oliver Stone.

 

RMONEY. As Dawn Powell said; Satire is people as they are...

Romney photo via Andycheninprogress. I quote Dawn Powell's quote as oft as possible, in fact she hangs on my living room wall.

Even Gore Vidal marveled ather level of humour, so evolved, so tender but brutally honest. His remarkable essay forced her novel back into print through sheer literary will; "for decades Dawn Powell was always just on the verge of ceasing to be a cult and becoming a major religion."

Stephen Miller's, "Conversation, A History of a Declining Art": Politeness is kinda key.

Re-visiting a clever book with a lovely cover called "Conversation." Almost feels dated even as the subject remains timeless.

Miller elaborates on his subject by focusing on the finest like Cicero, Montaigne, Mary Wortley Montagu and Virginia Woolf, exploring their world of British Coffeehouses and clubs and how this era came to an end. 

He begins by making a point how conversation is in bad shape in contemporary America, how anger undermines conversation. Plutarch quotes Sappho: "When anger takes over your heart, guard your babbling tongue."

"This is the age of the screed, the rant, the tirade, the jeremiad, the daitribe, the venom-fueled, white-hot harangue!"

Greg Proops; Smartest man in the world podcast, ctd.

My day is always a bit better when the Greg Proops app announces a new proopcast, this one's called Magnets.

Greg Proops references are gettin' wider, raunchier and wittier  than ever...that voice ringing and slinging just about every item skidding from the 60's into yesterday.

Rick Falkvinge's the rare player that's managed to legislate his passion and concerns for privacy and copyright law into Parliament, one country at a time.

On Rick Falkvinge's site you can read all about information policy and civil liberties in Europe and elsewhere in the world, if only we could channel Rick's ideas through the megaphone Alex holds across the pond, far more people would understand and appreciate those issues that directly impact their online lives. 

And like Alex, on this side of the pond, Rick is a force gathering momentum along with millions of fellow enthusiasts in search of all the latest data re SOPA, ACTA and PIPA. 

Speaking of...at first, the German government was a bit amused by Pirate Bay, now they're taking them seriously.

How the Dutch deal with an economic crisis.

Recent conversation with Dutch friend at Chez Bay. 

Me: "So how's the economic crisis hitting Holland, I hear people are more grateful for their jobs these days, working longer than the traditional 9-5 five day work week. Historically pretty wealthy, work available for all, now, perhaps, not so much?"

He: "Well, one example, it used to be, when we were sick we would just call in and not come to work, now we go into work, they see we are sick, then send us home."

The UK and the US

Still a strong bond and so many movies to support said fact. Re-visited a personal fave last night called 84, Charing Cross Road.

Ann Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins are perfectly cast. The movie is nostalgic, dear and I'd forgotten all the lovely poems.  

Including this one by W. B. Yeats:

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

Glenn Greenwald on the cycles of journalism.

Glenn Greenwald's chat with David Talbot on fora.tv explains away the transformation of American media. We've sure come a long way baby since 

Continue reading "Glenn Greenwald on the cycles of journalism. " »

And here I thought I couldn't stand synthesizer euro-pop. But it lends so beautifully to this flic, each scene ethereal, gorgeous and melodic, front to finish.  

Perhaps three simple concepts make this movie sublime; music, chemistry and the soothing aspect of time while driving. 

Unlike Europeans, who tend to chat with their kids over dinner, American parents get some of their best information on the road.  

Driving often provides an idyllic setting for candid conversation, the confined area creating a concentrated space for language to flow, on the road, at a peaceful pace. Quality over quantity.

"Allow it." As uttered in the funny new sci-fi flick "Attack The Block"

Once upon a time we could be shocked. And we were when Roseanne Barr arrived on the media scene. I remember her debut on Carson in '85. Johnny knew funny and she was; not fussed with pretty and pretentious, forget feminine wiles, bring on the class warfare cuz Roseanne Barr's a 2nd amendment, straight shooting kind of gal. 

In '86, David Letterman, by '87 she was crowned funniest female.   Punchlines weren't so much delivered as admitted, point black, hard boiled.  No veneer necessary, her package delivered w/out wrapping or ribbon.  She was kinda like an updated version of W. C. Fields. 

Hard to know, even harder to know who's wagging what but since I was a kid I've always been curious. That's why I left The American Dream. Yes, I'd been blessed, worked my ass off, I got to experience The American Dream, but then left, I'm that curious. 

Since moving across the pond and shuffling around in some international circles, I can say with confidence, I've now got a better idea. And, more importantly, all those stereotypes regarding the Italian, English, French, Israeli and Arab, well, they've all been put to test and failed, most beautifully.  

GV's essays are brilliant mini intellectual breakdowns, particularly fine when focusing on a fellow writer and their collected work. Vidal efficiently digests it whole, like a snake, and regurgitates it back in finer form, far more elegant in its reincarnation. In this, he's very much alone.  

One of my favorite essays is the one devoted to Dawn Powell, arguably America's premier writer of satire; forever. No wonder she'll never cease being a cult and become a religion. We're not fond of the truth, we're not much for mirrors, it's a rather cruel culture, solidarity is not necessarily our strength.  

Dawn was all about strength. Of mind, of spirit, a genius. Hemingway knew it, Diane Trilling knew it, everyone who was anyone in the literary world knew it, but refused to give her fame because she refused to live by their rules. She could not write about women in a romantic way, nor the war. And the rare moment she did write of war, it was without romance. 

So few subjects like Lenny Bruce; only one quite like Kenneth Tynan to cover such a subject, Tynan's earthy, bawdy, style, w/out bitterness, blissfully politically incorrect.

"Constant, abrasive irritation produces the pearl: it is a disease of the oyster. Similarly-according to Gustave Flaubert-the artist is a disease of society. By the same token, Lenny Bruce is a disease of America. The very existence of comedy like his is evidence of unease in the body politic.

I listened to Harry Belafonte on Democracy Now the other day and was struck, always, by the clarity of his language, how concise his words. Like Paul Robeson and Lena Horne; there was an edge to their language; they were deeply aware of the struggle; their mission; their lack of civil rights. 

I love tracking vernacular trends; words mean the world and they indicate far more than just semantics. Per esempio, past trends like 'with that said, 'at the end of the day' tend to grow gradually; planted by a P.R. hack possibly, flung back and forth across the Atlantic perhaps, then suddenly! they're everywhere; the board room, in plain view along op ed pages, hidden within leaked diplomatic cables.  

Today's latest phrase; 'set the table' 'sounds' a wee like another way to talk around the lack of progress in all things important; bills, legislation, debate, a peace process.

Personally, and I'm quite certain George Carlin would approve, setting the table is something I quite literally, love to do.    

NYT mines its data to identify words its readers find abstruse.... which highlights, in a fashion, how utterly alive and fluid our English language is and what's popular at any given time.

John McWhorter in "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue The Untold History of English" explains why splitting infinitives and that ending a sentence with a proposition is just fine. The well intentioned language police are less than informed at how flawed the fundamentals are...language, lexicons, vernacular and dialects move and evolve. 

The fact that Picasso understood the basics only enhanced his desire to run as far and fast as possible from the technically correct, if only to create and make people think differently.  Or maybe he just wanted to replace the muse.

I quizzed mio marito to replace the funk at the French beating New Zealand this morning.  He understands Latin and speaks seveal languages so I knew it'd be hard to catch him...when I said, "peripatetic ', he replied, 'hmmm, that's uh, sorta you..."  so I'm an aimless pontificator am I?

Well, good thing I've got a blog then...

Un mauvais quart d'heure  translates into that painful space of time when a lover must tell the other, 'cest fini'. 

Or, maybe it's the time spent with your mother discussing your progress in the first semester away from home, at university, where time was misspent socializing with your sorority sisters rather than attend two lectures in a row...but then you suddenly find yourself with child, like I did, so my 15 minutes were greeted with shock and compassion rather than consternation.  After all, prior to hormones and sexual curiosity kickin' in I was so precocious and such a pleaser.

Now I can smile in hindsight as my level of curiosity insisted those tracks were just waiting to be jumped. The trouble began long before 'suddenly, last summer', but I rebounded quickly as I used to everything so quickly even as I try and find a more methodical approach at 45.

I imagine many are experiencing their own mauvais quart d'heure.  It may arrive in the form of a pink slip, or one must release the seal of their Dear John letter.  For the French, it's that annoying stretch of time your dinner guests insist upon; just after arriving and finally deciding to sit down to dinner.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/15/features

The Guardian's  M. Marcel Berlins is sad Rwanda is ditching the French language.  The natural trend of language in a globalized world; dialects disappearing, morphing, simmering into one melting pot; a multi-version language we refer to as English, in all its variations.

So many juxtapositions; globalization erases diversity even as nations collide awkwardly.  The media tries to spin excitement even as Obama pushes down anxiety, fear.

My in-laws down South watch the English version of Al Jazeera for their main news, they may read German, French and Italian journals, but their tv media is now distilled through the Al Jazeera. Not sure how much the Israeli son in law enjoys a sit down after dinner, but they're indisputably the only network that is truly everywhere, even Pakistan, Palestine and Iran, imagine! 

When the network launched we were sad they stole our favorite correspondent Rageh Omaar, boh!, they stole much of the best of the BBC actually, because they could afford the cost. Just imagine how much more fantastic the Beeb could be with that kinda dosh. 

We don't buy cable in Malta, as mio marito doens't 'do' teevee, cept w/me. Here in Paris we've discussed getting English Al Jazeera, but then I whinge at having to purchase 200 additional channels; that would prove too distracting for me, a teevee baby.  Best I keep my English channels limited to cyclical, short news reflecting off of BBC, CNN over morning coffee and late night oldies on the Turner Movie Channel.

I watched my first full day of American teevee on the squawk box the other day and it made my queasy, feeling all clock work orangish, I know not why, the content, maybe, the meltdown, ensemble, probably .

The political chatter is less than.  Not since I domiciled in the states have I engaged in the discordant task of hearing Limbaugh, but he's reared his fat head again, apparently, still in the game, chatting with Palin, exploiting that old 'fear the black mob mentality' via titillating talk of 'natural systemic institutional racism', if only to refresh and cast once again, that old bait.

Curious how offensive it will be to some, effective yet, for others. As I gaze amiably across the pond I have a hard time believing the polls, I'll believe it when I see it with Obama.  I'm still sticking by my theory that Palin reflects a large majority of Americans with her evangelicalism, vindictive and litigious behavior; for heaven's sake, further proof the latest debate is now between Christians and extreme Christianists.  I read often about  'mainstream' Evangelicals creating new groups everywhere; at University, in the media, developing their own neighborhoods in San Fran, gay clubs, school boards and grass roots politics, etc...

I shudder with hope there's not another fresh hell on the imminent horizon. 

"Drive" is one melodic cruise.

And here I thought I couldn't stand synthesizer euro-pop. But it lends so beautifully to this flic, each scene ethereal, gorgeous and melodic, front to finish.  

Perhaps three simple concepts make this movie sublime; music, chemistry and the soothing aspect of time while driving. 

Unlike Europeans, who tend to chat with their kids over dinner, American parents get some of their best information on the road.  

Driving often provides an idyllic setting for candid conversation, the confined area creating a concentrated space for language to flow, on the road, at a peaceful pace. Quality over quantity.

Two words and one movie explain away the London Riots.

"Allow it." As uttered in the funny new sci-fi flick "Attack The Block"

The Raw Goddess Ms. Roseanne Barr on The Alex Jones Show.

Once upon a time we could be shocked. And we were when Roseanne Barr arrived on the media scene. I remember her debut on Carson in '85. Johnny knew funny and she was; not fussed with pretty and pretentious, forget feminine wiles, bring on the class warfare cuz Roseanne Barr's a 2nd amendment, straight shooting kind of gal. 

In '86, David Letterman, by '87 she was crowned funniest female.   Punchlines weren't so much delivered as admitted, point black, hard boiled.  No veneer necessary, her package delivered w/out wrapping or ribbon.  She was kinda like an updated version of W. C. Fields. 

Who's zooming Whom in the currency wars...

Hard to know, even harder to know who's wagging what but since I was a kid I've always been curious. That's why I left The American Dream. Yes, I'd been blessed, worked my ass off, I got to experience The American Dream, but then left, I'm that curious. 

Since moving across the pond and shuffling around in some international circles, I can say with confidence, I've now got a better idea. And, more importantly, all those stereotypes regarding the Italian, English, French, Israeli and Arab, well, they've all been put to test and failed, most beautifully.  

Gore Vidal was softly shocked by Dawn Powell

GV's essays are brilliant mini intellectual breakdowns, particularly fine when focusing on a fellow writer and their collected work. Vidal efficiently digests it whole, like a snake, and regurgitates it back in finer form, far more elegant in its reincarnation. In this, he's very much alone.  

One of my favorite essays is the one devoted to Dawn Powell, arguably America's premier writer of satire; forever. No wonder she'll never cease being a cult and become a religion. We're not fond of the truth, we're not much for mirrors, it's a rather cruel culture, solidarity is not necessarily our strength.  

Dawn was all about strength. Of mind, of spirit, a genius. Hemingway knew it, Diane Trilling knew it, everyone who was anyone in the literary world knew it, but refused to give her fame because she refused to live by their rules. She could not write about women in a romantic way, nor the war. And the rare moment she did write of war, it was without romance. 

Kenneth Tynan on "night-club Cassandra" Lenny Bruce

So few subjects like Lenny Bruce; only one quite like Kenneth Tynan to cover such a subject, Tynan's earthy, bawdy, style, w/out bitterness, blissfully politically incorrect.

"Constant, abrasive irritation produces the pearl: it is a disease of the oyster. Similarly-according to Gustave Flaubert-the artist is a disease of society. By the same token, Lenny Bruce is a disease of America. The very existence of comedy like his is evidence of unease in the body politic.

Cornel West, Harry Belefonte; a changing of the guard...

I listened to Harry Belafonte on Democracy Now the other day and was struck, always, by the clarity of his language, how concise his words. Like Paul Robeson and Lena Horne; there was an edge to their language; they were deeply aware of the struggle; their mission; their lack of civil rights. 

The latest phrase; Let's "Set the Table"

I love tracking vernacular trends; words mean the world and they indicate far more than just semantics. Per esempio, past trends like 'with that said, 'at the end of the day' tend to grow gradually; planted by a P.R. hack possibly, flung back and forth across the Atlantic perhaps, then suddenly! they're everywhere; the board room, in plain view along op ed pages, hidden within leaked diplomatic cables.  

Today's latest phrase; 'set the table' 'sounds' a wee like another way to talk around the lack of progress in all things important; bills, legislation, debate, a peace process.

Personally, and I'm quite certain George Carlin would approve, setting the table is something I quite literally, love to do.    

NYT makes me wonder about words, language...

NYT mines its data to identify words its readers find abstruse.... which highlights, in a fashion, how utterly alive and fluid our English language is and what's popular at any given time.

John McWhorter in "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue The Untold History of English" explains why splitting infinitives and that ending a sentence with a proposition is just fine. The well intentioned language police are less than informed at how flawed the fundamentals are...language, lexicons, vernacular and dialects move and evolve. 

The fact that Picasso understood the basics only enhanced his desire to run as far and fast as possible from the technically correct, if only to create and make people think differently.  Or maybe he just wanted to replace the muse.

I quizzed mio marito to replace the funk at the French beating New Zealand this morning.  He understands Latin and speaks seveal languages so I knew it'd be hard to catch him...when I said, "peripatetic ', he replied, 'hmmm, that's uh, sorta you..."  so I'm an aimless pontificator am I?

Well, good thing I've got a blog then...

Un mauvais quart d’heure

Un mauvais quart d'heure  translates into that painful space of time when a lover must tell the other, 'cest fini'. 

Or, maybe it's the time spent with your mother discussing your progress in the first semester away from home, at university, where time was misspent socializing with your sorority sisters rather than attend two lectures in a row...but then you suddenly find yourself with child, like I did, so my 15 minutes were greeted with shock and compassion rather than consternation.  After all, prior to hormones and sexual curiosity kickin' in I was so precocious and such a pleaser.

Now I can smile in hindsight as my level of curiosity insisted those tracks were just waiting to be jumped. The trouble began long before 'suddenly, last summer', but I rebounded quickly as I used to everything so quickly even as I try and find a more methodical approach at 45.

I imagine many are experiencing their own mauvais quart d'heure.  It may arrive in the form of a pink slip, or one must release the seal of their Dear John letter.  For the French, it's that annoying stretch of time your dinner guests insist upon; just after arriving and finally deciding to sit down to dinner.

Language trends, Media attends, Limbaugh offends, again.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/15/features

The Guardian's  M. Marcel Berlins is sad Rwanda is ditching the French language.  The natural trend of language in a globalized world; dialects disappearing, morphing, simmering into one melting pot; a multi-version language we refer to as English, in all its variations.

So many juxtapositions; globalization erases diversity even as nations collide awkwardly.  The media tries to spin excitement even as Obama pushes down anxiety, fear.

My in-laws down South watch the English version of Al Jazeera for their main news, they may read German, French and Italian journals, but their tv media is now distilled through the Al Jazeera. Not sure how much the Israeli son in law enjoys a sit down after dinner, but they're indisputably the only network that is truly everywhere, even Pakistan, Palestine and Iran, imagine! 

When the network launched we were sad they stole our favorite correspondent Rageh Omaar, boh!, they stole much of the best of the BBC actually, because they could afford the cost. Just imagine how much more fantastic the Beeb could be with that kinda dosh. 

We don't buy cable in Malta, as mio marito doens't 'do' teevee, cept w/me. Here in Paris we've discussed getting English Al Jazeera, but then I whinge at having to purchase 200 additional channels; that would prove too distracting for me, a teevee baby.  Best I keep my English channels limited to cyclical, short news reflecting off of BBC, CNN over morning coffee and late night oldies on the Turner Movie Channel.

I watched my first full day of American teevee on the squawk box the other day and it made my queasy, feeling all clock work orangish, I know not why, the content, maybe, the meltdown, ensemble, probably .

The political chatter is less than.  Not since I domiciled in the states have I engaged in the discordant task of hearing Limbaugh, but he's reared his fat head again, apparently, still in the game, chatting with Palin, exploiting that old 'fear the black mob mentality' via titillating talk of 'natural systemic institutional racism', if only to refresh and cast once again, that old bait.

Curious how offensive it will be to some, effective yet, for others. As I gaze amiably across the pond I have a hard time believing the polls, I'll believe it when I see it with Obama.  I'm still sticking by my theory that Palin reflects a large majority of Americans with her evangelicalism, vindictive and litigious behavior; for heaven's sake, further proof the latest debate is now between Christians and extreme Christianists.  I read often about  'mainstream' Evangelicals creating new groups everywhere; at University, in the media, developing their own neighborhoods in San Fran, gay clubs, school boards and grass roots politics, etc...

I shudder with hope there's not another fresh hell on the imminent horizon.